Aurora

Part 2, Chapter 12

Welcome to Part Two of Aurora!

.

Arrabella.twelve

It's been three years since that day, and frankly, I barely remember any of it. It's all just a big blur.

“Arrabella!” I heard Slone yell and I immediately snapped to attention as I ran over to wherever she was calling me from.

See, today is her wedding day.

She chose me as her wedding planner. It was great.

Do note the sarcasm.

“I'm here Slone. What is it?” I asked her as I tried to catch my breath.

“Do I look okay? Does this dress make my belly too big? Are my wings too dark?” She asked me nervously and I smiled softly.

“You look beautiful, and so does your daughter.” I placed a hand on her growing baby bump. I looked up into Slone's eyes and saw that she was about to cry.

“Oh no, don't cry!” I exclaimed, pulling away quickly.

“I'm just s-so happy…” She blubbered as tears ran down her cheeks and a loud sob left her lips.

“Good thing that you don't need makeup.” I laughed softly and she hit my arm playfully.

“Do you think Xi'an will like how I look?” She asked me with wide, hopeful eyes.

“He'll faint from how gorgeous you are.” I smiled and she gasped, horrified.

“I don't want him to faint!” She shrieked and I stumbled over my words, trying to correct myself.

“I-I meant that he'll love how you look! Yeah!” I recovered and she relaxed, smiling.

She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a baby's cries.

“Oh my baby. It's alright Harp, mommy's here now.” Slone whispered as she lifted her one year old baby girl from her crib. “She hasn't been quiet all day. Good thing you and Acira gave me so much practice to deal with annoying babies.”

I brushed off her insult to look at my niece. “I'll make sure she's quiet. Alright?”

She looked at me with uncertainty before putting Harp into my arms. “It's time for me to go.”

“Don't worry too much.” I reassured her and she smiled softly before turning towards the door.

“Wish me luck?” She whispered and I smiled.

“You don’t need it.”

.

I watched Harp giggle happily as I made different kinds of flowers appear in my hands. I was strolling through the castle as I waited for Slone’s ceremony to finish. No one other than the couple and the officiator was allowed to be there. I didn’t exactly know what happened during the ceremony, seeing as it was forbidden to talk about. All I knew was that after it was over, the couple had tattoos all over their left arms that wrapped their ring finger.

I paused to lean against a stone archway, idly thinking about the whole set up of our castle.

The long main hallway that wrapped around the whole castle broke off into hundreds of sub-hallways that led you to the hundreds of different places inside the castle.

Accessible by the large main hallway on the sixth level were Aramis and Aegirine’s room, as well as the stairwell leading to the fifth level. On the fifth level was my sisters and mine, as well as any friends of ours, rooms, one of the twelve kitchens in the castle, the library, one of the infirmaries, and the largest of the two training rooms in the castle. The fourth level held six more kitchens, a couple of servant dormitories, and the smaller of the two training rooms.

The third level of the castle was a bit odd. While levels four, five, and six were the smallest levels, only being almost a thousand feet long and a quarter as much wide, level three was double their size. Level three divided into three sublevels: the Island, the Lake, and the Black.

The Island was a large room that I created for Chrys when her powers started to become unstable around a year ago. It floats above Lake Blackiron, suspended by a constant magic flow. She resides there now, allowed to leave whenever she pleased with no restraints.

The Lake was all the way on the right side of level three, slightly elevated from the rest of the level. It was a large basin that was filled with light water, surrounded by grass and trees. This is where Acira and I go to purify our magic to its purest form. It was crucial that we both stayed pure, because at times it was important to use our magic for purification and intense healing. It was also inaccessible to anyone but my sisters and I, as well as Acira’s two friends Mateus and Cecalla. It was from this artificial lake where the castle would get the water for the healing pools.

The Black was where Aegirine's old room was. When Acira was born, Aegirine's magic went out of control and started to crystalize everything around it. At the time, I didn't know what was happening, but I was almost killed. Now that whole area was engulfed in dark, eerie black crystals that would shock and kill anyone that came too close.

Now, level two was where the throne room and the last of the two infirmaries were.

Level one was the tallest of them all, with walls reaching nearly fifty feet into the air. Here, near the back, were located the rest of the kitchens. The Great Room, the Ballroom, the Conference Room, the Dining Hall, and the main entrance were also located here.

The Great Room was connected to the main entrance. Located there was a large statue of my father, and along the back wall were statues of my sisters and I. Every year, they were melted and remade to resemble us with more accuracy. In this room, there were golden arches, crystal lights that floated around, and windows everywhere to “illuminate the room”.

Whatever that was needed for. We could have used all the money that went into making this whole place so “extravagant” and used it on something more useful.

The Conference room was a large room that was obviously used for conferences. It hasn't been used since my grandmother, Queen Mint, stepped down from power. I'd imagine that the room was collecting pounds of dust by now.

The Dining Hall was used for just that. Dining. We hosted feasts there when my father thought necessary, but otherwise, we just ate our meals there in silence. The last time we used the Dining Hall for a feast was for when Acira was chosen to be Prince Ryga of Black Erathiah’s mate.

I still regret that she has this burden on her.

Now, the Ballroom was an enormous room. It had pristine wood floors that I myself remade two years ago. They were firm to the step but we're amazingly easy on the feet and knees. Considering our native dances involved hitting the balls of our feet onto the floor while completely barefoot, an easy floor was much appreciated.

Though, what tied everything together was how the castle was shaped. From an aerial view, if you looked down upon the castle, you would see that it was shaped in a consecutive zigzag formation.

Considering that this place was shaped as like, it was dubbed Strike Palace by our citizens. Though the place was heavily fortified, it still looked like it wasn't, allowing it to be called as such.

“Harp, I hope that for the majority of your life, you live in this castle with no restrictions like your mother had to.” I kissed her forehead and she cooed. “Are you excited for mommy's party that we're throwing her? You're going to have the prettiest dress on.”

She looked up at me with her large, blue-silver eyes and giggled her cute baby laugh. I laughed with her.

“Me too.”

.

I looked around at all the nobles as me that miles around the ballroom talking to each other as I smoothed down my pale green dress.

“Hey Arra!” Acira said as she walked up to me. “It took me forever to  talk these two into dressing nice. Especially to wrestle Calla into a dress.” I looked over at Calla, who had a miserable face on. I looked at her rich red dress that had white lace layered on top of it. I observed that it nearly touched the floor and smiled softly, knowing she wasn't accustomed to this type of wear. For the first time in a while, I got to see her beautifully opalescent wings that shined through their pinks, purples, blues, and greens in a wonderful display. Not only that, but the dress complimented her eyes, her hair, her skin tone, her wings, and her tail perfectly.

I then looked over at her friends Mateus and saw that he had a simple, but expensive, black and white formal tunic, pristine white pants, and black dress shoes on.

“Was this Mr. Taylama’s work?” I asked Acira and she nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course!” She giggled and I then took this time to look at her own attire. The front of her white, pure satin, dress stopped just above her knees while it grew longer in length on the sides before slightly trailing on the ground in the back. It has quite a few layers to it, causing it to flare out like any princess dress would, but it still seemed thin.

“Well you three look great. Go have fun before the dances start.” I shooed them off, shaking my head.

I idly spoke to many of the nobles here, running into many from House Sorra.

It was just Slone’s luck to have fallen in love with the head of House Sorra, who was also next in line to the throne of Jeoaria. Xi’an Sorra. An odd fellow with electric blue hair, the same colored eyes, and white and sky blue rasian wings.

I looked over at Slone, who had a large smile on her face as she talked to all of her friends and, now, family. Naomi was standing to the side, watching Slone's mother-in-law hold baby Harp in her arms.

It continued like this for several minutes before Slone walked to the center of the room, calling attention to herself.

“Good evening everyone! I'd like to thank all of you for coming to this party for such a special occasion, and I think that, because many of you have traveled so far, we should liven this place up a little,” she caught my eye from within the crowd and she smiled mischievously. “Let the dancing begin!”

As the music started up, I saw my fellow people kicking their shoes off in glee while the Jeoarian nobles looked on in confusion. I giggled as I threw my shoes to the side before joining the crowd forming in the middle of the ballroom.

Once everyone was ready, we all separated into three large circles, one inside of each other. My circle was a bit cramped but it was better that way. From where I was standing, I could see Acira with her two friends in the circle in front of me, giggling to themselves excitedly.

Once the music changed into a more upbeat song, we all readied ourselves. And just as the next beat came, we all clapped twice.

Almost immediately, I was pulled off by the nearest person, being spun three times before they stopped. We faced each other, our feet pounding the floor to the beat. I lifted my dress from the floor as I did a small hop in the air.

We crossed our wrists as my partner and I turned together, laughing freely. They lifted me up with their right arm, spinning around before I was set on the ground and given to my next partner.

The process repeated over and over until the song was done and we were all exhausted. The applause that greeted us was refreshing, and the smile plastered on my face was real.

“Now this is a party!” I heard Slone laugh, causing me to roll my eyes.

One of the younger nobles from Jeoaria approached me with a sparkle in his eyes. “That was amazing! Who would’ve known that Xerans were so wild!”

“We aren’t, exactly. My sisters and I changed all the royal dances to something so much more… fun. That was actually a common dance of our citizens.” I explained and he nodded enthusiastically.

“I should get me a Xeran woman just as our prince has.” He winked at me and I rolled my eyes. Of course.

“If that’s how you try to court a lady, then it’s no surprise at all that you’ve yet to acquire yourself a woman.” I glared at him as his facial expression turned sour. “Plus, I’m already taken. So I have absolutely no interest you.”

Taken, hah! As if! The only person you’ve courted is your own hand.

His face brightened as he smiled wickedly. “I could change that if you just gave me a chance.” He lightly rubbed my arm, causing my to retract in disgust.

“Scum.” I spit before whipping around and stomping away. Finding an empty spot near one of the walls, I went over and leaned against it.

I'm not even with Tessa. Why would I even say that?

I idly rubbed my lips, sighing. We kissed though. It wouldn't have happened if we didn't have feelings for each other. At least, I knew I still had them for her.

“What's wrong kiddo? You look like ate some horse shit.” Claire put her hand on my head and I cringed, looking up at her.

“Why horse s**t?” I asked and she shrugged.

“Cuz it stinks, why else?” She blinked and I just brushed it off because it wasn't going to make sense anyway.

“But um… yeah I'm fine.” I told her and she scoffed.

“As if.” She rubbed my hair around. “I know you. Something's wrong.”

“I'm fine Claire.” I rolled my eyes and she sighed.

“Alright, if you say so.”