[i][The Blind Rouge][/i]

Kimi let her curiosity draw her to the drink table. There a man was already throwing back a portion of cognac. His mask was a hooded face. She quietly slid up beside him and poured herself a portion of a rich-brown liquid. She rarely had the opportunity to indulge in expensive alcohol. Her uncle usually kept the best for himself. She sniffed the stuff, the mask was between her nose and the drink but she could still smell the liquid. Bitter, sweet, with a hint of anise. 

Under her mask she frowned, perplexed by how she could taste the drink without removing her mask.

She was listening to the idle chatter that began to happen behind her. Suddenly, after one man introduced himself, there was an announcement, a terrible noise, [i]and then the wall started to scratch a threat into the wall all by itself.[/i]

Kimi was glad that the mask hid her expression of shock. She clutched the glass tightly as the whole event unfolded.

[i]This is a dangerous game. 
[/i]

When the stretching ceased, Kimi took a breath. She didn't try to drink from her glass, but did carry it with her as she approached the wall. 

She peered closely at the marks, touched them. The scratch must have somehow come from the other side of the wall, but how? What was next door? It must have been some sort of complex machine, a magicians illusion set up before they arrived. She knocked on the wall beside the scratches, then walked to the next wall and knocked upon that. She was trying to judge their thickness, and if the walls were perhaps built of two different materials or at two different times. If the 'scratching' wall was different somehow Kimi would assume that the wall was added, a built in trick-wall set up before the big event.

"I wonder how many strikes we get." Her voice seemed small, much like her person. Yet, it was clear enough for all the guests to hear.