I understand what he’s trying to convey, but I also know that’s just the general personality for most of those still devoted to the Ancients. Elena is definitely quirky and different like the rest, but she’s also kind when she chooses to speak behind that mask of cool.
“Is she still here? I wouldn’t mind saying hi.”
Troy stops before my door on the second floor with another curious look. “I believe she left this morning.”
“Next time, then,” I shrug.
Hopefully in the next ten years.
I grab my key from my bag and turn to the Prince, “I’m going to spend the rest of the day up in the Palisades. Need to buy a few items for my trip. Do you want to join?”
Troy smiles and shakes his head, the gesture not quite meeting his eyes.
“I have meetings with my father all day,” he straightens his pale green and silver tunic around his chest, “and I’m pretty sure he already called those meetings while we were busy. I’ll try to stop by tonight before you take off.”
I turn the key in the lock and give him a nod. The Prince smiles and turns back down the hall to walk away, and it isn’t until the door shuts behind me that I realize he’s never actually been inside my room, nor do I think he’ll start tonight.
I shrug off the thought and smile at the small residence within Castle Bardot that I get to call my own.
A quaint reading room greets me first, the space cozy and hosting a fireplace nestled in the far wall to the right. Two plush, forest green chairs face the fire as rows of books line the other three walls, the greenstone surrounding the room covered with thick tree limbs that intertwine between the spines. It’s a small little entry that’s truly not meant for much more than reading, but it’s the perfect place to host visitors without inviting them into my personal room.
Through the reading room and under a sweeping arch is the main bedroom. I walk towards it, fingers skimming over the small oak that’s leaning on the right side of the arch with its limbs following along the curve up top. My personal room is larger and more spacious than the reading room, one that’s complete with a side bathing chamber to the left and a largebalcony just straight ahead. The small veranda faces the Bell Grove and is open to the outside breeze, the two tan curtains at each side moving with the wind as the delicate ends reach for the edge of my bed. The sheets and feather blanket of my bed are both an emerald green, the full ensemble completed with a few pillows of gold littered on top and perfectly emphasizing the two colors of our Court. There’s even an emblem of our Court of Knowledge painted in gold on the wall just above it, one that sparkles from morning to evening when the sun shines into the room.
I smile at my small home and walk to the tall armoire nestled against the right side of my bed. There’s a large mirror inside that has me scowling at my reflection, the mess of my clothes and the wayward strands of my hair nearly making me close the armoire in haste. The half up, half down style I perfected earlier is now destroyed, and my clothes are so wrinkled that I look like morning chaos. I’ll need to change before heading up the mountain, so I grab my brush first and set to the task for a second time today.
Where the Discerni women have perfected the fashion of wearing their lengthy hair tucked behind their ears in curls, my light brown hair does the opposite and dries straight in a medium cut, one that sits just above the curves of my breasts. I’ve tried with all my might to get it to curl down my back like the Discerni women do, but the best I’ve ever gotten are wayward waves that look extremely untidy. The lengthy style looks good on them and emphasizes the angular features of their face and their leaf-shaped ears, but my cheeks are too rounded to pull off the sharp look so I often settle with a half up, half down style instead.
The Discerni women of our Kingdom also prefer to keep their lips a soft pink or nude, but my lips are a natural red that stands out against my tanned skin and makes it impossible to tint. I have a handful of freckles that dust across the bridge of my nose that vastly contrasts the unblemished skin of the magical women, and when I smile, my eyes crinkle in mirth, giving way to lines that the other women hate to show. I hold no emotion back when it comes genuinely… a vastly different take on life than the majority of the stoic Discerni in our Kingdom.
And let’s not mention how much my wardrobe differs…
Most Discerni women in Knowledge choose to wear a simple satin dress that reaches the ground, aiming for a classic beauty that’s both practical and stunning no matter the time of the day. But I prefer to wear the tight riding pants and boots I’ve grown accustomed to in the past two years.
Sure I love a good dress, but I like to save those for the nights when the King and Queen hold court.
Almost everything about me is different from my mystical counterparts, and while I may have grown up around Discerni my whole life, even tried to mimic their beauty trends throughout the years, at the end of the day I still remain human, looks and all.
The staircase leading up to the Southern Palisades from Castle Bardot is located behind the Grand Entry, my absolute favorite room within the castle. It’s the first room that all guests see when they ascend the main steps of Castle Bardot, a place where every person is greeted by numerous vines and branches that twist along the vaulted walls with no end in sight. Each of those walls are littered with lanterns of bottled moonslight that sparkle in both the day and night, and the ceiling itself is completely absent until it reaches the bottom of the royal residence. The Grand Entry spans the height of three floors, with the room purposely created to be open and airy so that it can provide space for its most beautiful feature in the middle, the Great Oak.
To say that the Great Oak is massive is an understatement... it’smagicked.To ten times its normal size so that it spreads across the entire expanse of the middle of the castle. It’s trunk is roughly the size of fifteen horses in width and accompanied by unnaturally large roots, all of them dashing out of the floor in every which way and into the east and west wings. It’s limbs are thicker than the width of four grown men, the full of them creating a living blanket of arms that greet every guest and resident who walks under them. Hundreds, and I meanhundreds, of lanterns of bottled moonslight are placed perfectly within the lush green leaves of the tree, their sparkle enhancing the room at night just like the stars in the sky.
Over the last year I’ve had the urge to climb the Great Oak for reasons that continue to evade me. It would be a good challenge, I suppose.
Past the Great Oak and towards the back of the castle is another large room nestled along the full of the west wing: The Grand Receiving Room. It’s the room the King and Queen use to hold court, a room in which I’ve spent many nights in my life dancing and drinking with the residents of this castle. It’s a place of undeniable beauty filled with laughter, memories and breathtaking views, and though the room is unoccupied now, it’s one of the most beautifully decorated places I’ve ever seen when court is held.
Past the Grand Receiving Room is where the castle begins to give way into the mountain. The staircase that leads up to the Palisades is found in the cave at the backside of the castle, an area without much use except its sole purpose to shuffle people up and down the Greenstone. The actual stairs follow up the entire back wall of the cave until you reach the top of the peak, and even once you’ve reached the top you’ve still got to make your way through a long tunnel before finally stepping foot on one of the many city roads.
I approach that cave now, feeling as the air turns cool and damp and the darkness inside the mountain starts to take over. All the black would be daunting if not for the handful of lanterns to guide the way, and if I hadn’t been taking this route for the past ten years, I’d probably be too nervous to approach the stairs alone. Instead, I head straight for the large greenstone slab that protrudes from the back wall and jump on top, quickly positioning my feet just as the magic of the staircase starts to take me onward. The slab rises in a diagonal direction along the wall before it stops in front of anotherstair slab that’s waiting higher up. I hop off the first and land on the second, smiling as the second slab instantly sets off in the opposite direction to repeat the same process.
Left and right the stones carry me up the mountain to the next slab, each one higher than the one before it as the chill in the cave drops even lower. It’s a damn fine piece of summoned work that makes traveling up the Greenstone much quicker than the residents used in centuries past, but it’s still a path that requires a bit of time to make it up the full of the mountain, so I settle into the familiar pattern and let my thoughts roam back to Troy.
There’s nothing wrong with us being seen together, had he chosen to visit the Palisades with me today. Many of the residents in Castle Bardot already know of my time spent in his mother’s Ladies in Wait, and on the nights when the King and Queen hold court, I always make it a purpose to converse with the couple at least once. Being seen with the royal family isn’t out of place for me at all, especially as I’m considered a permanent resident of their capitol, but adding any level of sexual attraction to that mix is a problem. Troy is the Leading Lord of Woodlands Court and Emissary for the Kingdom, a Prince expected to make a strategic marriage for Disce in the years to come. He doesn’t need any exploits tarnishing that reputation or rumors circulating around the capitol of casual relations.
Surprisingly, I’ve never had any qualms with his need for discretion, and the knowledge that he’s never seen me as anything serious has never bothered me either. My intentions with Troy are purely my own...selfish. He’s gorgeous to look at, with his light blonde hair, blue eyes and confidently smug face, and he always has an air of confidence about him that seems to rub off on other people. It’s an attitude that makes him a great Emissary for Disce, not to mention his ability to easily engage in conversations. Women love him and men want to be friends with him. He fits the role of second son exceedingly well.
So when Troy approached me at the annual Winter Festival a little over a year and a half ago, I thought nothing of it outside a polite encounter. He offered me congratulations on my new position with the King and asked me questions about my time in Wait with his mother. Everything about him was so casual and sure, while I, unbeknownst to him, stood thoroughly shocked. I couldn’t understand whyhe, a Discerniand Prince, would take an interest in me, but his confident smile and engaging curiosity to my answers made our banter so easy that we fell into a conversation that didn’t die.
After that night, Troy made it a point to strike a conversation with me every time he visited Castle Bardot. He’d catch me on my walks in the rose garden or when I was leaving for a ride to Loughty. He always had a smile on his face and something new to discuss, truly one of the easiest men I’ve ever talked to. Our time in the castle didn’t line up all that much, as I was gone on sporadic travels for his father and he lived primarily in his own Court, but when we were in the capitol together, I always looked forward to running into him, loving the chance encounters that put us together.
