The street led to two different buildings in the centre of the property, both of which were connected to each other.
The building on the left was almost a cuboid and made of grey brickwork like the houses in the city. There were no windows to the front. The lowest floor was offset inwards and the higher floors stood on rectangular pillars, so that the entrance area was covered. Meia saw a large double gate made of sturdy wood between the pillars.
The building on the right was a castle straight out of a fairy tale. It was so beautiful that Meia forgot to breathe for a moment.
If you imagined a fairytale castle, then it probably consisted of many individual buildings and towers. This castle was not quite so extensive. Although it was taller than the building on the left, its footprint was relatively small. The brickwork was light in colour and almost white. The tiles on all the roofs and towers were a bright blue colour.
The castle was the palace of Aoka. It wasn't the first time Meia had seen this palace, but it was the first time she saw a palace in person. Jena had many palaces, but only a handful of such boastful castles. The building on the left was probably a vitarium. It wasn't the first time Meia had seen the Vitarium either. She recognised it from pictures of the palace. That it was a vitarium or what a vitarium even was had not been mentioned there. That didn't necessarily mean anything, since Meia knew the country's castles mainly from postcards.
The convoy drove up to a flight of steps to the main entrance, where all the carriages stopped.
Six palace guards were already waiting on the street and went straight to the carriage. Two more palace guards were standing guard at the main entrance.
The most noticeable difference between a palace guard and a city guard was the equipment. The equipment of the palace guards was of a much higher quality and focussed more on tradition than practicality. Palace guards had long cloaks and long swords. The two at the main entrance additionally carried lances. The breastplates of the palace guards bore the full national coat of arms. This difference was not due to cost. The most noticeable difference might have been the equipment, but the most important difference, apart from responsibility, was the employer. The employer of a city guard was the prefecture. The employer of this palace guard was the crown. After all, the land and the palace belonged to the crown.
The colours of the palace guards were platinum and grey. These were the colours of the prefecture of Aoka. The colours of all internal security authorities in Jena were always concessions to the next higher authority. For example, the colours of the palace guards in Kiras were therefore gold and beige, because those were the colours of the Kiras prefecture. The land here belonged to the crown, but it was still subject to the law of Aoka. If a crime was committed on the property, the city guard would investigate. This also meant that the guard commander was authorised by law to arrest the commander of the palace guard under given circumstances. Whether he would and could do so was a different matter.
"So, here we are. You can get off."
As the commander spoke, he began to make his way down himself. Meia picked up her bottle and followed his lead. The other two remained seated.
Meanwhile, Minister Schoppe came out of the carriage. After he had taken the footboard down, his back had become straighter and his height was not much reduced.
Franic's Monet was as tall as a room door, but Minister Schoppe was another head taller. Perhaps he was the tallest person there was. It was almost comical that he had fitted into the relatively small carriage. It made you wonder what else was inside - not that Meia didn't know it.
As soon as Minister Schoppe was on the ground floor, he closed the door immediately. The queen apparently didn't want to get out.
A man from the palace guard stood in front of the others and was taller than the others. He had a man's hairstyle with a ponytail and an eye patch.
The man was Markus Aster, the commander of the palace guard. Meia knew him from the newspaper. He was a war hero.
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"Minister Schoppe, I would like to welcome you in Aoka."
"Hello, Markus."
The minister wasted no time and headed straight for the stairs. Commander Aster followed him closely. The troops followed their commanders in turn. Meanwhile, the guard commander indicated Meia to follow them and then followed Meia. When Meia looked back again, the convoy departed. In passing, the minister talked to the commander.
"I have an appointment in the city later. Please have a carriage ready for me by 4.00 pm."
"You've only just arrived, haven't you?"
"Work calls and I have to answer the call."
"It was wrong to expect less from you. I'll make sure a carriage is ready."
"And Markus, I'm only going to the market. One guard is enough. I don't want to take too many of your men off your hands. I'm sure you're already busy enough with the ball."
"Yes, that's true, but ..."The commander walked faster and overtook the minister to the bottom of the stairs. "... what would be more important than YOUR safety?" he asked as a way to object.
Minster Schoppe leant down to the commander and put his hand on his shoulder. "One guard is enough." he said insistently, then patted him on the shoulder.
The commander reacted perplexed and remained standing at the top of the stairs, then his squad also stopped by him. The minister walked on alone.
Minister Schoppe must have meant well, but his size and manner made it seem as if he was trying to intimidate the commander.
At the same time, the guard commander said goodbye to Meia. "I wish you good luck. Come to the city guard if you need anything." her among other things.
"Thank you, sir commander."
"You don't need the courtesy. Call me Gefgen next time, will ya?"
The watch commander accepted a nod and then went to the commander. The two of them began a discussion. It didn't look like they were going to follow any further. Instead, the rest of the squad began to follow Meia. Minister Schoppe was already waiting at the main entrance. The gatekeepers struck the ground with their lances. The double doors began to swing open inwards.
The group entered the palace. Two more guards in the hallway had opened the door. High ceilings, wide corridors, huge doors - it was what you would expect from a palace. The tiles were so large that Meia was at no point the only one walking on one of them. There were ornaments everywhere. Everything was polished and high quality and was certainly even more expensive than you would think.
Meia didn't have much time to look around. The group walked straight through the palace. Minister Schoppe led the way and the rest followed behind. It reminded Meia of a family of ducks. The minister seemed to know his way around here. Although they mainly walked in one direction, Meia still got that impression from the way he led so confidently.
The group came outside without having taken a door. The corridor was open to the left and with columns. There was a planted courtyard with a colonnaded walkway around. Every real palace had at least one inner courtyard with a colonnaded walkway around it. That was no exaggeration. It was a popular building feature in Jena. The palace in Kiras also had one. Sometimes even simple houses had one. One example was Jean Monet's summer house in Wiestahl. It even had two large inner courtyards that were simultaneously roof terraces.
Meia hadn't seen either of the courtyards when she was there. As far as she could remember, she hadn't been to the top floors of the building at all because they were under construction. The courtyards explained why they had apparently built a house with such a large footprint that half the rooms had no windows. In reality, this was only the case on the lower floors. The higher floors had the inner courtyards and in the centre was the domed roof with the glowing tree. Nevertheless, a huge house had been built in which many rooms had no windows just so that there were two inner courtyards, even though you were surrounded by flowers anyway. The courtyards could have been moved to the ground floor, as it was here, but then the height of the building would have had to be reduced or the courtyards would have had to be considerably enlarged so that they weren't too shaded. As Meia had correctly surmised at the time, no compromises had been made with the summer house. It was still a very impressive building and the Monet family evidently had too much money.
At the end of the corridor was a large double door. When the minister arrived, two guards knocked on the floor with their lances, then pulled the door open inwards.
On the other side of the door were another two guards. The group arrived in a half-open courtyard. In this case, half-open meant that the floor of the upper storey extended a little beyond the ground floor and the ground floor extended a little further to the left and right. There were wooden structures on the side walls. It was a bit like stables, only there were carriages instead of horses. This courtyard and the path behind it were not paved. Between the extensions were trellises with hanging plants. There had also been a walkway with such a superstructure in the inner courtyard. This courtyard here was a little shady, but not as much as you might think. It was quite large and the castle was rather low on the sides.
Beyond the path, Meia saw a lake with willows. Willows were trees with drooping branches. Lead willows were majestic willows with grey blossoms and they were Jena's symbol tree. Real ones were rarely seen. More commonly, you saw them as a decorative element on furniture or walls. The leaves were roughly heart-shaped, or rather: shaped like the tip of a certain lance.
.../ End Part