It doesn't look like it—

But there's a sudden stir over by the north balcony, and a girl steps into the room between billowing curtains.

Long dark skirts swirl about her feet, sewn with a scattering of tiny diamonds that gleam like stars. On the interstellar silk, a subtle iridescence draws the eye to chase shifting colours across that dark expanse - is it blue, black, green, red, purple? In the time it takes to identify one colour, another takes its place. Then, above the stars, her shining white bodice is decorated with irregularly shaped black pearls in a pattern that mirrors the starry skirt, dense at the waist and sparse along the shoulders. More pearls glimmer from her hair, dark against the dark strands.

That balcony overlooks thirty feet of sheer cliff. She can't have come in that way, unless it was by magic. But here she is nonetheless, and it's clear that no one else has seen her before either. Someone steps up to ask her name, but she offers only an enigmatic smile.

...

Okay, he's intrigued.

He could go immediately attempt to talk to her, but he suspects that making a beeline for the pretty girl that just showed up would insult some of the other pretty girls present. Instead, he pretends not to have noticed her entrance. He'll figure out a way to learn what her deal is organically, without anyone freaking out and going, 'Oh no the prince is being seduced by a stranger, everybody panic!' Until then, he can just subtly keep an eye on her and see what she does.

She dances. With remarkable elegance and grace. And never says a word to anyone, but somehow manages to charm them anyway.

That's interesting.

Is she just being casually charming at everyone, or is she aiming her silent charm at specific individuals, with some kind of strategy?

(Like what he's doing.)

Kind of hard to tell. There's no immediately obvious pattern, and since she never talks she has fewer opportunities to engage in the kind of social maneuvering he's been up to. Maybe she's just getting to know people. Or figuring out who she wants to dance with.

Hmm.

He is willing to be patient to see if he can see a non-obvious pattern. Clearly something weird is going on here. She's probably figured out that he's the prince, and if she hasn't she probably will soon enough, is she not going to attempt to fling herself at him? Not even a little?

There is absolutely no flinging going on here! She is having one-sided conversations in which she listens charmingly to people, dancing with most of the men who ask her, and...

...she just glanced over, met his eyes, and raised her eyebrows slightly. So maybe noticing him watching her is also a thing she's been doing.

He resists the urge to snort with laughter. Oh, damn, maybe the prince is about to be seduced by the silent stranger. He already likes her.

Smiling slightly, he tilts his head slightly forward. Well, you're the one who showed up at the party without an invitation, you think I wouldn't notice?

She gives him an acknowledging sort of smirk, and then someone else comes up to ask her to dance and she turns her attention to them.

Well, clearly now he has to go talk to her. He drifts towards a set of terribly curious people that are bound to ask him to go investigate the ball's most mysterious guest. Predictably, they prompt him to go investigate. That combined with his own patience gives him all of the cover that he thinks he'll need to prevent any kind of social drama. ... Well. Any kind of accidental social drama. He may or may not cause some on purpose, at some point.

"May I have this dance?"

She smiles and nods.

He leads her gently by the hand to the dance floor.

"So," he says, casually, "did you happen to recently meet a mysterious old woman?"

She declines to answer. Unless you count that smile.

He absolutely counts that smile.

"And I suppose offering to get you paper and a pen wouldn't be following the spirit of the whole affair."

"Can't blame a man for trying. So you can't speak at the ball, at least. Are there other tasks you need to complete?"

This time the smile says 'don't worry about it, I have everything under control'.

Damn that's an attractive smile.

"Yes ma'am," he agrees, smiling back.

She grins the grin of someone who very much approves of that reaction.

He's totally getting seduced by the mysterious stranger. Or, well. He likes the mysterious stranger immediately and intensely and not in an entirely platonic fashion.

"Well then," he says, "is there anything I can help you with?"

Smirk; eyebrow-raise.

And now it's his turn for a smirk.

"Happy to be of service."

She laughs.

"So once this ball is over, are you planning to disappear?"

She manages a slight, wry shrug between steps.

"Hm," he says, studying her. "Should I go on a princely quest to find you after the ball's concluded, to see about your disappearing status and have a more straightforward conversation?"

Slight smile; agreeable nod.

"Then I look forward to speaking with you properly in the future." He points his pretty smile at her.

She grins back.

"Do I get any hints?" he wonders, lightly.

Oh look it's the enigmatic smile again.

"Will you confirm correct guesses?"

Nod.

"Let's go through what I've noticed, just so we're on the same page." And so he can show off for his crush. "You're intelligent, and observant enough to notice me keeping an eye on you. You've charmed everyone you've come in contact with, even without the ability to speak. You were in the sort of situation where you consulted a mysterious old woman, which I don't get the impression you'd do casually. If you were looking to marry up, frankly I don't think you'd need the dress. You seem smart enough to manage it on your own if you wanted to." Also pretty enough, but he doesn't mention that. "So it's some other problem you're having. Lacking information, I don't know what that might be." He hums thoughtfully, leading her through the next few steps and then a twirl.

"I could make a number of observations about you, but we are dealing with a mysterious old woman situation, so first I'm afraid I must check the validity of my observations. You very well might end up looking nothing like yourself, with magic dancing skills. So, first—do you look like yourself? Are your skills unaugmented?"

A nod at the first question, a half-shrug at the second.

"Okay. So, some magical assistance probably involved, I should not start making assumptions about you based on your dance skills. I could make observations about how you look, but I do think you look a bit—idealized. You obviously were lovely to start with, but I think there's something playing it up. It's probably throwing everything else a little bit off, and inconveniently making any observations I could make about you kind of not great for actually figuring anything out! On the bright side, this way I can recognize you after my princely quest to find you."

Approving (and amused) smile.

He smiles back. "Notably, no one else recognizes you either. So you're either from very far away, very sheltered, or you're a commoner." He absolutely does not give a damn about which it is, and displays this pretty clearly. "All of which are approximately equally likely, because mysterious old woman involvement. You could have come from quite a long way away, and it wouldn't have been all that much trouble at all. Are you from close by?"

Nod.

"So I don't have that far to go to reach you. In this city?"

Nod.