Week 1

I wake up from one of the best sleeps I have ever had. My bed feels like I am sleeping on top of a cloud that is floating in the world’s calmest river. I would have stayed asleep if it weren’t for the rude knocking at the door.

“Ugh, shut them up,” Pierce says. He shifts his body to face the other way and puts a pillow on top of his head to block out the sound. I give a slight chuckle and then quickly get reminded of the annoying knocking at the door.

I drag myself out of my giant bed and shuffle over to the door in slow, uneven steps. I open the door and greeted by the same woman with white hair that measured Pierce and I yesterday. Her hair is in the same style as it was yesterday but today it is not as today as it was. The dark purple circles under her eyes indicate that she didn’t get much sleep last night. From the looks of her, she may not have gone to sleep at all.

“Good morning you two. It is time to get up and see if these suite fit well or if we need to make any changes.” The mixture of coffee and morning breath confirms that she stayed up all night.

I step back to let the woman with white hair walk into the room. She walks over to the mirror where she measured us yesterday and asked a servant, who walked in with her, to open the window and let some light in. The servant grabs the curtain and opens it up to tell the light shine through and Pierce groans in response. He turns again in his bed to face away from the light, while the woman with the white hair claps as loud as she can to get Pierce out of bed.

Eventually, the woman with the white hair is successful is getting Pierce out of bed and in front of the mirror next to me. We try on the suites that we made for us and they fit us perfectly. Not a single thing was off and because of that I am impressed with this woman. She stayed up all night to make us these suites, she must have been tired. On top of that, she didn’t get a single measurement wrong. The suites look great on both Pierce and I. We are going to be the most handsome men at the funeral ball tonight.

After the lady with the white hair is satisfied with the way the suites fit on us, she leaves. Quickly after she leaves, some male servants walk into the room without knocking and goes to the bathroom and pour buckets of water into a tub. They tell Pierce and I to get undressed and we do, trying hard not to look at each other while the other one is naked. After the bath the servants drew for us, Pierce and I came out of the bathroom at separate times where we are met with more servants. They combed and put gel in our hair and sprayed some sort of scented liquid on our colars. By the time the servants are done getting us ready for the ball, the celebration is about to begin.

The guards lead Pierce and I out into the hallway where we are met with the girl in their gowns. June has a light pink dress that has a heartshap top with frills going down to her feet. Her white slipped give her a height that is closer to Pierce’s. Her hair is half up, half down and in nice waves. I look over to Pierce who has his jaw dropped to the ground. He slowly walks over to June whose face is now the same shade as a tomato. He holds out his hand for her to take and he kisses the top of it. They whisper something to each other that I can’t quite hear after spinning her around and then start walking where the guards are leading us.

“They are oddly the cutest couple ever and also the grossest couple,” Cheleste says. She walks up behind me with her ginger hair tied up in a intricate twisted bun. Her eyes have golden glitter around them that match her yellow gown. There are leaves embroidered sporadically on the top and get more crowded down the lower parts of the dress. She looks like she is a princess that belongs in this castle.

I offer my arm to Cheleste and she wraps hers around mine linking us together. The guards lead us down the spiral staircase and down the green hallway. Servants fill the hallway with food, dishes, and decorations. Like a bee hive, they all seem to be working for the queen to be happy.

The guards lead us to tall wooden doors that have carving of many people in a garden with magical creatures. There is a pond with many different women around there and there are trees where the men are gathering food and letting the animals eat the grass in the field.

The two guards that are already in the front of the door nod at the guards that have escorted us to them. They open the door and lead us into a gigantic room. Immediately we are met with steps that lead us deeper into the room. I look up to the high ceiling where there are thousands of pictures painted into one mural. It looks like it is the story of Darkness and Light and there triplet children. In the painting, the triplets are colored lights because no one has ever seen the triplets before. That is why I don’t believe in them. How can I believe in something that I have never sene before?

There is a big chandelier right above the stair case that is gold with so many different candles on it. The chandelier reflects the candles which makes different sparks of light bounce everywhere in the room. The walls are white with different carvings of nature flowers and trees at the top where arches meet. Under every arch there is another chandelier but these ones are smaller than the one above the staircase.

The floor looks to be marble with the kingdom’s symbol, a dragon with a fire heart, painted beautifully in the middle. The reflection form the chedeliers make the floor looks like it is glowing.

My friends and I are guided down the staircase where we meet June’s father at the end. He leads us to the side of the room where we are told to stay here until The Magnificents have arrived.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Around me, there are men in mostly black or blue suits but there are occasional reds and greens along the walls as well. The women where dresses of all colors. A lot of are wearing green which is the kingdom’s colors but a lot of them are also wearing colors that go well with their skin and hair color.

Pierce and June are holding hands while talking to June’s father. The other two guards that stuck with us are glaring at Cheleste and I as if we personally set out to ruin their night. I’m sure they want to be somewhere else other than guarding us, which is their job, at a funeral ball, which is for their late king and prince.

After a few minutes of standing and taking to one another, there are trumpets that blast a melody for five to seven seconds. After the trumpets are done with their melody, a short man with a black mustache and long curly hair clears his throat.

“Make way, for the Royal Queen is about to arrive!” he yells as loud as he can. He steps to the side where the doors we walked through earlier open with Queen Amelia walking out from it. Every person in the room bows to our queen as she heads down the stairs.

“I am so happy you made it here,” she yells to all of us, “I am honored to have every single one of you in this room. I know my Engeldeo and Asher would have loved to see how much their kingdom adored them. This is not a ball to mourn so if you want to give your condolences, there is the door,” she points to the door she came out of. “This is a ball to celebrate the special men that we were lucky enough to have in our lives. Please, jooin me to celebrate their life and love they have spread. I would love to hear any stories about them if you have them. Enjoy this funeral ball.”

As soon as Queen Amelia ends her greeting, the crowd applauses and the orchestra that I didn’t notice that is in the corner of the room, plays some melodies. People start to pair up and head to the dance floor. There are still some people trickling in on the stair case but there is one group of people that catches my eye. My captures. The very people who are the reason I am even stuck here in this castle that has, in my opinion, too much green everywhere.

The three people that put me in jail a day ago, are heading down the stairs and to me. The two men are dressed in black suits. The one with white hair has a white rose pinned on the left of his chest and the one with the dark bun has a red rose. Both of them are behind Orien, who catches my eye more than anyone in this room.

Her dark green dress has a low cut v neck where I am sure every man in the room is staring at. The thin straps that are thinner my fingers hold up the dress in a perfect way. The floral lace is busy at the top of her dress and spreads out until it stops in the middle of her skirt. The layers skirt makes her look like she is floating. And she happens to be floating over to me.

“Hello, you four. How are you all doing today?” Orien asks. The two men that are always with her are right behind her but then get swept away by some older women. Orien chuckles a little when the two men are dragged away then she turns her attention back on us.

“This is amazing,” Cheleste says, “Thank you so much for letting us come here. It is an honer.”

Orien’s smile glides up her face. “Of course, you are citizens of Chopver, you have the right to be here as much as any other citizen who has been invited.” Orien then turns to me, her smile getting wider, “Xavier, would you be so kind to join me on the dance floor?”

Pierce hollars behind me and I turn to give him a look that tells him to shut up. The look on my face indicates that he doesn’t care what I can do to him, he is still going to tease me about this later. I roll my eyes to him and turn back to Orien, matching her smile, even though I am sure I don’t feel the same happy she does. In fact, I am not feeling happy about this at all. Why did she have to pick me? Why am I so special? She could have chosen any man in this room and yet she chose me. Maybe she feels like I am more suspicious than my friends and is going to threaten me with something.

“Sure,” I reply. I hold out my hand for her to take and then we head out into the middle of the dance floor joining the others. She wraps both of her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. I slowly and hesitantly put both of my hands on her waist as we do a slow sway. She looks deep into my eyes and I look away, trying to avoid any awkwardness I can.

Finally, Orien looks down and gives a little chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” I ask.

“You aren’t very good at this, are you?”

“What? Dancing? I thought I was doing okay.”

“No, dancing with a girl. You haven’t made eye contact with me once. And your dancing is subpar at most.”

“Excuse me, my dancing is definitely better than whatever this is.” I bring my eyes up and down her body. I was trying to talk about her dancing but as my eyes make their way back up, I notice all the curves on her body.

When my eyes come back to meet hers, her smile is wide with bright white teeth shining. I feel her body shake as she lets out a laugh and then quickly composes herself.

She stands on her toes to bring her mouth close to my ear and whispers, “Oh, trust me darling, I am better than you will ever be.”

The song ends immediately after that and Orien walks away before I even get a chance to react to what she said to me. She quickly walks back to the two men she is always with, so I walk back towards my group.