PeaceMaker

There was silence in the room while she played and like when she had performed with her sisters, they all seemed drawn into her aura and her music. 

Her face laid in a calm expression. Not smiling, not frowning, not happy, not sad. There was nothing but something on her face, in her aura. She seemed to just flow. Like the sparkling clear blue water running steadily down streams on a bright spring day, she seemed to exist in a perfect symphony. 

It was such a calming feeling. It reminded Antonio of her. 'Jena was it?' Antonio thought to himself. He smirked. The sisters in the Crowly family were so heavily over-talented that it was overwhelming. 

He looked around for a second, surveilling his surroundings, and spotted a few sour faces. They seemed to appear on the faces of females. Some caught his gaze and shyly brushed their hair behind their ears. He turned away from them immediately, a stoic expression on his face. 

"You seem to be quite famous, Marquess Antonio," Justin whispered. He didn't want to interrupt the trance other people in the audience were pulled into by Jena's playing. 

Antonio didn't seem to flinch at that comment. "Quite famous?" he asked again.

"A lot of eyes have been watching you for a while now," Justin added. 

"Ah…" Antonio blushed, "it's quite normal."

"Bragging now I see," Justin raised his eyebrows.

"Huh?! No! " Antonio furiously waved his hands in front of him to signal no, "I meant it's normal for them to be looking at me in such a way."

Justin's head cocked to the side, "What do you mean?"

"I mean my family background," Antonio commented, giving a shy smile, "as one of the families that are close to the king, and being granted such a high title at such a young age, I'm a usual target for stares."

Antonio nodded towards Walter, "So is he." He nodded to Falls who was intrigued by Jena's performance. "Him too."

"Ahhh," Justin nodded, understanding the point of view that Antonio was coming from. 

"I'm kind of used to them and grew to ignore them since none of them really seem to want more than the last pair of staring eyes. They all really want one thing from me. Something I don't want to give," Antonio smiled sheepishly. "It's kind of sad sometimes how rarely I come across eyes that look at my soul rather than my name and title."

Justin sipped his tea. He avoided being caught by Antonio's gaze. He didn't want to show him the pity that had formed from the story he had told. 

Justin turned to Antonio for a moment and completely assessed him. He had never taken a good look at him before, now that he did, he was glad. 

Antonio was tall and finely built. He wasn't muscular like his escort knight, Ciergo, but he was nicely built with broad shoulders and a nice figure overall. His slightly curly hair, parted in the middle made a little heart with his curly hair as it fell down to his thick eyebrows. His hair had such a pretty shade and bounce to it that Justin almost reached over and ruffled it. 

He had an innocent face, with down-turned eyes and gentle pink lips. His jawline was sharp and smooth with not a stubble on it and his face seemed to have little rosey sections. One near the edge, under his eyes, and the other on his nose. It looked adorable against his light skin. 

Justin's eyes narrowed. Now that he looked closer, Antonio's face wasn't cheery in the slightest bit. It looked a bit tired… empty in a way. His downturned eyes were attentive but looked blank when he wasn't focused on them and they seemed to have a story behind his gaze every time Justina and him locked eyes.

With just the slightest bit of a downturn in his lips, Antonio would look like he was sadly smiling. It was less of a normal expression but a learned one. One that he had gotten used to making for a while, so long that it stayed stuck on his face as a default. 

The thing that brought the innocence into his face was his smile. They seemed to light up the mood on his face and the one his smile is directed towards. It was such a friendly grin that anyone could fall for it at just a glance. 

Justin didn't know how he hadn't noticed it before. Antonio wasn't so bad himself. With his innocent and handsome features and not to mention that smooth jawline, he looked stunning. 

"Is there ever a time where you see something different?" Justin asked as he stared at Antonio's face, waiting to make eye contact with him.

Antonio turned to him and immediately locked eyes with Justin. 

'There it is," Justin thought to himself. He wasn't wrong about the sadness and depth in Antonio's eyes. For a split second, right after they had locked eyes, Antonio's eyes looked blank. Ike they were looking through him for a moment before finally finding his eyes. 

Antonio blushed and looked away from Justin. 

'There they are... Sparkling,' Justin thought to himself.

"Um.. yea there was," Antonio nodded, "it's very rare though. It's mainly only when I look at my well-known friends and family. There was this very recent instance though…"

Justin cocked his head, growing very intrigued. "Which was…"

It was a very brief moment for Antonio but it seemed to last for much longer. It wasn't clear at first but it completely flipped his stomach. Then he got the chance to look at it for much longer and it felt so welcoming. There seemed to be not a cent of hostility in her gaze directed towards him. 

She was simply looking at him as he was to her. He couldn't count how many times his heart had fluttered. 

"It was today even," Antonio chuckled. He didn't dare to say more than that. Not in front of Justin.

Justin pouted, "You pull me in with the backstory and tell me there's someone who's different and then not tell who it is?"

Antonio let go of a quiet nervous chuckle. He looked around for a second, surprised at how many people were so fixed on Jena's performance. 

Justin was stuck on Antonio. Surprised he wasn't one of the people stuck on Jena's performance. It was interesting. How intriguing Antonio was and how he was able to stay present while Jena performed. 

It was hard for even him. A few seconds longer than he needed to stare and he would be pulled into the gentle rhythm and plucks of the strings. The same would happen for all the sisters. It was amazing how perfectly they were trained yet how stained each of them were. Including himself.

"I've been meaning to ask," Justin began.

Antonio turned to immediately. "Hm?"

"Do you not like my sister's performance?" Justin asked. 

"Nono!" Antonio waved his hands in a no motion. 

"Then why don't you seem.. Distant from her playing?" Justin asked. 

"Ah…" Antonio chuckled, "are you wondering why I'm not in a trance like the rest of them?"

"Hmm, yes," Justin replied, nodding his head.

"I don't know honestly," Antonio shrugged with a slight smile. "I'm not saying it's easy to look away because it definitely is not. It's just not as compelling as the rest in a way."

Justin looked over at Falls who was drawn into Jena's playing and then to Antonio. It was in this moment that his mind was made. He turned back to Jena and smiled. She looked beautiful up there. 

As the eldest of the house, she would constantly be overlooked as a marriage partner due to her age when she is, the most in fact ready for marriage. She had been training her entire life just to be a mother and that had become her lifelong dream. She could cook, she could do embroidery and knit clothes for her kids easily. 

The only thing holding her back was her age. It had a good grip on her. 

Jena dramatically played two of her strings at the same time and plucked them, letting the sound resonated through the room. She opens her mouth and begins to sing. If people weren't pulled in at first, at the sound of her voice, they were dragged in.

Like a nightingale singing her hear out to her unknown true love at night, her voice flowed into the room filling the ears of the people around her. It was so light and beautiful and sounded so sweet to the ears with the satisfying depth that she needed to have too. 

In just one second she had gone from "absolutely stunning" to irresistible. She would like to call it a nice switch in moods. 

There was not one soul in the room whose eyes weren't on her. It was like they were put on a spell with her sweet voice, being coaxed into a deep trance by looking at her. She had them stuck in her gaze, their eyes following her moves. Never had she felt so in control.

It felt amazing