Evander, Ophelia and Alastair led her down a series of grand hallways and a double stairway. They came to the entrance of the estate and two large double doors opened for them. Outside a large brown and beautifully painted carriage with four brown horses waited at the bottom of the stairs.
"We'll be riding in that?" she asked her mouth parting in disbelief.
"Oh, yes," Alastair said and jumped onto the steps into the carriage. He held out a hand for Aurora to take and helped her into the carriage.
"Thank you," she muttered and sat across from Ophelia who was adjusting her puddles of pink skirts.
Alastair flopped down beside his sister and Evander came in closing the door behind him. He sat next to Aurora who scooted over to give him more room.
The carriage jerked as she heard a whip crack in the air outside and then it was rolling. She'd never been in a carriage and the only closest thing to riding in one was a wagon. Her aunt and uncle lived on a farm out in one of the towns and when they came to visit Aurora's parents they would always come in on a wagon.
The carriage bounced along and Aurora thought she could feel every cobblestone they rolled over. The carriage bounced and dipped and jerked and when the driver suddenly took a turn too sharply she fell into Evander.
He kept her from falling over but not from becoming embarrassed again. She looked up at him and mumbled a thanks.
It only took them ten minutes to arrive at the thoro, the holy building where holy sankts held Terium. The carriage came to a stop and they exited with her and Evander stepping out first.
Outside stood three tall circular towers. There were two in the front welcoming inside and the other was at the back of the building. If she were a bird and flew up above it the three towers would form a triangle.
She followed Evander, Ophelia and Alastair into the rectangular two story building sitting between the towers making up the rest of the thoro.
Inside was just as beautiful as everything she had seen so far at Evander's estate. Gold gilding was painted along all the wall and ceiling moldings, murals depicting past heroes and religious wanderers in their journeys. And she was finally going to hear some of their stories. She wanted to clap her hands together in excitement at the thought.
She followed them through the large area that was the entry and into a wide hallway that was so big it could've been another room entirely. But it was only a hall.
As they went further into the thoro the more people she saw. She saw a few people, both women and men in pristine white robes. They wore a large piece of fabric around their neck that draped down in a circle around the chest and also around their back, part of the circle of fabric even draping their shoulders. Their robes were much different than everyday clothing, but she had seen the holy sankts in the streets before and knew they were the ones who would read the holy scriptures during Terium.
They kept going and finally the long wide hall opened into an even larger room, the main area of the thoro. Stained glass windows in every shade of the rainbow played across the walls. Only three of the walls had the colored windows being at the end of the building.
Ophelia led them down a main isle between many long wood pews right up to a section that was separated from the others by a thick wood railing. It was painted in white and gold and in the sectioned off area were cushioned chairs instead of hard pews. It was were the rich and royal could sit. For the moment Aurora was able to sit amongst them. Tomorrow, not so likely but as Yelena had said she was going to enjoy what she could of it, pretending to be one of them, a princess. Although Evander wasn't a prince, he sure lived like one to Aurora.
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Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021
RomanceAurora Bailey has had a hard life, and the horizon is only looking harder. She's finally had enough of her abusive partner and decides to leave him, but finds she can't when he keeps pulling her back, sometimes even physically. After many attempts t...
