The Girl of Many Worlds | (Story formerly known as "Multiworldcial")

Chapter 6

"Easy Jade, easy," a gentle female voice said. I let out a small groan and rolled onto my side. My head comfortably sank into a soft pillow. "Jade, are you all right, dear?" She knew my name, yet I couldn't put a name to her voice.

My eyes fluttered open. The person on my bedside confirmed my thoughts—she was a woman who I've never seen before; she peered down at me. In a frantic haze, my memories came flooding back into mind. Mercury and Arden randomly came into my life, I have no idea where my parents are, and Jason said goodbye before leaving with his parents.

My eyes snapped up to the woman and widened. "Who are you? W-where am I?" I sat upright and took in my surroundings as she answered, "I am Camilla, Princess Jade, and you're in Euphoria."

"U-what?" I asked. Her silver eyes glinted with humor as her slightly wrinkled face stretched across her smile.

"Euphoria, that's the name of this Kingdom."

Kingdom. Okay. So we were in some probably weird place in Europe that hasn't been heard of. Right?

"Where is this place on the world map?" I asked.

"It's very secluded," she said, "it's very far from all the other kingdoms. Amaroidal is the most powerful Kingdom here, which is located the farthest from us..."

As she spoke, I listened as my eyes wandered around the room. Long purple drapes covered my criss-crossed windows. The ground outside was a glowing blue and with these giant pellets plummeting to the ground as the same color—was that snow?

The ceiling above me was so high I wouldn't be able to touch it even if I stood on my bed and jumped. I was in a room that I could only equate to something that would be found in a mixture of the medieval through Victorian age except more... elegant. The rest of the walls were also dressed in purple drapes, the floor was covered in a complicated patterned carpet, and the room was filled with different furniture from chairs, to a desk, to love seats.

"... and King Arden has requested that you wear this and come meet him in the dining room as soon as you're able. I will dress you now, sweetie." I was no clearer to understanding where on Earth (literally) I was. She mentioned a lot of other places like Witherland and the Kingdom of Amoya, which was the safest in this realm but also the furthest and hardest to get to due to its direct connection to, and this is verbatim what she said, direct connection to "the place you know to be California." What the hell did that mean? How could Europe even connect to California?

I didn't press, though. I'd ask more about that later. I instead inquired, "So, Arden's here, too?"

"Of course," she said with a small smile. "I should think so. He's Euphoria's king."

"King?" My eyes must've grown the size of saucers. "But I thought he was just a regular kid. He didn't have any protection around him or anything. Even presidents have at least the secret service around them."

She guided me up from the bed and towards the full body mirror by the desk. "Arden is powerful. He needs no protection. Let's get you changed so that you can have dinner."

"You're gonna change me?" I asked, uncomfortable at the thought. I was perfectly able to dress myself.

"Yes, miss," she said. She began to undress me. I attempted to aid her but she softly brushed my hand aside. "I've got it, honey, don't bother yourself with this."

After a few moments, she replaced my blouse and jeans with a dark red dress. She pulled it over my head, helping me fit my arms through it. There was an intricate beige braid pattern with leaves accenting the outside of it. The braid pattern ran along the flowy sleeves, my hips, and through the middle slit down the front of the dress. The slit and the long, flowy sleeves, revealed the beige satin lining underneath, which lined the entire inside of the dress. It was honestly very simple but beautiful.

As I examined myself in the mirror with Camilla behind me looking over my appearance approvingly, something caught my eye. At first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, but the longer I stared at it, the realer it became. There were not one, but two... two suns in the sky behind Camilla's reflection. I spun around and stared at the window. Surely enough, two suns sat fiery and still, perched high above us. They lit up the world outside with a steady glow, rendering me speechless.

"Jade, are you all right?" Camilla inquired.

Words finally returned to me. "I'm not on Earth?" It was supposed to be a statement, but I was still flooded with disbelief.

"Oh, no, honey," she said. "We're in an entirely different realm."

"A different realm?" I whispered. I faced her. "Like... I'm not even in the same galaxy as Earth anymore?"

"You're not even in the same universe as Earth, sweetie."

Knuckles wrapped against my door. We turned and saw Arden standing on the threshold. "Welcome awake, Princess."

"You," I said, approaching him quickly. "I was with you and you told me to close my eyes and now I'm here and I'm no longer on Earth—"

"Take a breath," he commanded. "I will explain everything over supper. Come."

Camilla gave me an encouraging nod. I walked into the hallway. I looked around, examining the ceiling that was arched and stretched down the long corridor. There were electric lights that ran against the both sides of the lower edges of the arched roof.

"You have electricity?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes," he said simply.

"How?"

"We've studied humans for a long time. We made sure that we learned from them instead of making their same mistakes. Electricity is a valuable resource. But nuclear weapons, fossil fuels, we made sure to stay clear of those things."

I was in a castle in another world that actually had electricity. Electricity. My mind was truly boggled.

Paintings lined up against the walls, all showing a different person or scene. Arden slowed down as one painting in particular caught my eye. The woman in this painting had dark skin and strikingly similar golden eyes to Arden. I stepped closer to examine it more when Arden slowed to a stop and gave me his attention. "We're here." I fixed my focus on him; his gaze was cool. He opened the large brown doors which also arched as they got close to the ceiling. There was an intricate pattern carved into them from head to toe.

Inside, there was a table in the middle of the room, wide and long. Draped over it was a plain purple table cloth. Surrounding the table were multiple vases and statutes that ran along the wooden walls on individual platforms by the windows. The other side housed a grand piano right by another entrance where food was being carted in by servants.

"Sit." He pointed to a chair next to his. Once seated, his servants placed the food down in front of us. The delicious aroma smelled of pork and chicken. I examined the stew filled pot to discover that's exactly what it was—not some weird other worldly food that I was going to have to try out.

Once I had a meal of potatoes, string beans, and pork and chicken on my plate, the servants took their places at the table, pleasantly surprising me; they didn't all have to stand there and watch the two of us eat.

Arden dug into his plate first, followed shortly by everyone else. I watched for a moment before hesitantly taking a bite. Sweet flavor heaven. I don't know if it was because I haven't eaten in a while, but it felt like I've never tasted anything like it. The meat was great, the potatoes were perfect, and for vegetables, I never knew they could taste that good. All the flavors balanced each other beautifully.

"Is it good, Princess?" Arden said. "You seem quite content."

All eyes landed on me and I felt my cheeks heating. "Um... yeah. It's really good."

"Thank you, your Highness," a servant with glowing silver eyes and dark blue hair said. He looked slightly up in age, was fair in complexion, and had a really welcoming smile. I looked towards Arden. Arden didn't say anything, so why did he say Highness? I looked back to the servant but he'd already returned to eating.

"Jade, I know this is all really new to you. And you're very overwhelmed." That's an understatement. I locked eyes with Arden as he continued, "But you're going to be living here indefinitely, until we can defeat Mercury. That is what your father expects of me and I intend to honor this arrangement."