Leana moved quietly around the mirror room, her eyes wide with wonder as they often were when she explored rooms of the castle. This was one that she hadn't come across before today, though, and she had to admit that she was awestruck. If there was a point to this room, she had no doubt missed it long ago, but what seemed like hundreds of mirrors were enough to fill her with a sense of childish delight. She paused beside one with a particularily magnificant wooden border, running her thin fingers over part of it before continuing on, a small smile across her lips.

As she paused beside another one, one that extended from the floor up to a foot or so above her head. She tilted her head to the side and took a step back, examining her appearance. Her hand went self-consciously to her hair, touching the stick-straight hair and smoothing it back a bit before opening a pin carefully and sliding the locks back into it. "Though might I say, you're just as beautiful with your hair out..." The thought entered her mind abruptly, and she couldn't help but smile and duck her head a little, as if the man himself was standing in the room. It had been an unexpected compliment, and she still didn't believe that she was beautiful in the slightest, but it was a nice memory to recall. I wonder what happened to him...

On that fairly depressing note, she took to smoothing out a few folds on her red dress, thinking to herself that she would need to buy a new dress for the upcoming masquerade. And a mask. Yes, that would no doubt be incredibly important to have for such a thing. She gave a soft chuckle at the thought of it before moving on to examine the rest of the mirrors, each one looking more grand than the last.

Like a spectator to a public hanging, Luciano found himself drawn to the fabled Mirror Room. Standing within the doorway of the chamber, the young man looked about him with the air of one who has just awoken only to find that they had walked in their sleep and didn't know how they had made it to their current location. A room full of mirrors... How utterly pointless and yet, intriguing. With all the grace of a cat, Luciano prowled into the room, long fingers entangling themselves in his sleek black curls as a bewildered smile touched his lips. He didn't know where to look first. There, a mirror inlaid with gems, but right beside it, another with a frame as plain as though it had been made for the home of a common peasant.

Pausing, the young Topaz nobleman gave a small laugh, warm and deep, at the sight of a dozen of Lucianos staring back defiantly at him, black eyes flashing with some dark secret. Delightful, the ambassador thought to himself as he glanced about the room, looking past everyone and yet missing nothing. Of course, there was really no need to actually glance about the room. One only had to look in a mirror to see what lady was talking to which lord and other such nonsense. And then that's when Luciano understand. The Mirror Room wasn't pointless. In fact, it was ingenious. No one was safe in such a chamber where one only had to glance into one of the many reflective surfaces and instantly locate a friend, a lover, an enemy. No one could hide. And people could look upon each other without being blatantly obvious. And of course, they could look upon themselves.

Thoroughly pleased with his mental breakthrough, Luciano turned gracefully upon his heel to continue in his stroll about the perimeter of the rather large room when he found himself instead preoccupied by the sight of a woman. She was pretty enough and of obvious Sapphire descent... and thoroughly as entranced with the unique and startling nature of the Mirror Room as he. "How now, my lady?" The young lord's voice rolled out in a soft purr from his lips, dripping from his tongue like melted chocolate. "Lord Luciano Fantini, ambassador of the Topaz Realm, at your service my lady," Luciano continued with an elegant, though shallow bow, his dark eyes fixated upon the young woman's face, a smile pulling the corner of his mouth upwards.

The way that Leana looked towards the man with her wide, dull green eyes, and glanced around her to be sure that he was speaking to her, made it fully obvious that she wasn't expecting to run into anyone in the mirror room. Especially not one as handsome as himself. Curses. Her cheeks flushed deeply when she looked back at him as he rose from his bow, a smile across his lips. Another ambassador? What was it with the ambassadors from the other regions being insanely handsome? She self-consciously touched a lock of her hair again, wishing that she was young enough to twirl a lock around one of her fingers and not look silly or flirtatious, before dropping her thin hands to her skirts and grasping them gently as she lowered into a polite, yet elegant curtsey, dipping her head as she had always been taught.

"Lady Leana of Glentrool." She was certainly growing a bit better at addressing members of the opposite sex, as she was able to introduce herself without stuttering. It was a matter, however, of surviving a conversation without making an utter fool of herself. She rose back up out of her curtsey, looking up at him for a few moments before her freckled cheeks began to flush again. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Ambassador." Almost as soon as she was finished speaking, she couldn't bear to keep her eyes on his handsome face anymore. She looked into one of the mirrors, taking in her flushed cheeks and rather shy and wary eyes, and captured her bottom lip in her top row of teeth. What was there to say now? Why had her mother never gone over conversational topics with her?

Hoping that the Lord Ambassador would continue to talk to her, she dipped her head demurely and pretended to be studying the feet of another floor-length mirror that she had come upon before he introduced himself to her. Almost without thinking, she stated something. "'Tis a lovely room." It took her a moment to realize that she had actually said something, and her mouth opened in a small 'oh' before she glanced back up at him with that same wary expression. "...Is it not?"

OOC: I’m sorry for the long wait. My muse has been… uncooperative ;).

IC: “Leana,” Luciano purred, testing the name out upon his tongue. “Incantato, my lady. Enchanted to meet you.” The young lord’s dark eyes glowed hotly upon Leana’s face, hungrily taking in her lovely features. As gracefully as a dancer, he stepped closer to her until their arms were almost touching, his eyes finally removing themselves from the young woman’s face and turning instead towards the mirror she had been studying. “It is indeed an extraordinary room, my lady,” Luciano replied in his Topazian accent, his voice warm and heavy.

Slowly, the nobleman allowed his long fingers to caress the gilded edge of the mirror, his arm brushing lightly against Leana’s. A secretive smile twitched the corner of his mouth upwards as he sent the young woman a sideways glance, his eyes as hot as coals. “Though I believe its beauty is more in what wanders through it… instead of what is upon the walls.”

Moving his fingers to brush lightly across his sleek black mustache, Luciano turned his head to gaze at Leana more fully, though that same half-smile remained upon his lips. “But more specifically… with the beautiful creature at my side at this moment.”

((Fair enough. >w< I have no excuse myself beyond the masquerade.))

The way he said her name was enough for her to stare at him for a few moments with wide eyes before looking quickly back to the full-length mirror she stood before. Her cheeks were as red as apples, no doubt, even a darker shade than her hair, but she had no clue how to reverse such a thing. Her hands bonded quickly together at her skinny waist, just to keep her from fidgetting restlessly and embarrassing herself. However, such a thing was useless, as the instant that he stepped so close to her she unlaced her finger and began to softly rub her hands together. What are you doing? What is it that - eep! To her credit, Leana didn't squeak audibly when he lifted his hand, in her opinion, abruptly to run his fingertips along the edge of the mirror.

She did, however, stiffen quite visibly when she felt his arm brush very lightly against hers, almost like a whisper.

Leana gulped silently, studying the Ambassador in the mirror, though wondering at the rush that shot through her. Why was this man acting in such a way? There was nothing lovely about her in the slightest, correct? His sudden words, however, proved otherwise.

"...with the beautiful creature at my side at this moment..." The phrase was filed away instantly in the back of her mind, much as the one from the Emerald Ambassador that she had called to her mind earlier before she had even ran into this man. She drew in a deep breath, finally looking back over at the man again. Finding it altogether difficult to watch his eyes at all and keep a decent composure, she instead focused somewhere on the area of his nose. Before she could even think about it, however, the naive redhead spoke softly. "Do you mean that, my Lord Ambassador?"

Almost as soon as she said that, she dropped her eyes back down to the ground and bit her bottom lip. "Forgive me, Lord Ambassador. I simply was not expecting such words from one such as yourself." She lifted her head, taking a few steps to the side to look into another mirror. She felt flustered standing so close beside him now. However, it was rather obvious that she was gazing at him through the glass, a light of girlish and innocent curiousity in her normally dull green eyes.