The White Mark

3. Arguments and Announcements

The school bus packed with young adults drove through the golden gates of The City of Glory followed by a number of similar engines. With each minute the distance between them and the most luxurious city in the empire grew rapidly. The string of vehicles soon shortened, eventually leaving one lone bus entering the motorway as the different schools all took different routes on the way home. Some roads home were much longer than others. The three hour journey to Orvilia, where Thea's school bus was heading, was actually one of the closest towns to The City of Glory. Many of the other schools would be driving for the majority of the night.

The sun was still shining brightly but significantly losing its power as the sunset approached. The bus was much quieter than when driving the opposite direction, as the students' excitement was replaced with fatigue resulting from an eventful day.

Thea swiped through her phone gallery. Inspecting all the pictures she had taken with her friends earlier that day. She paused her actions and her finger hovered over the screen, as she fixed her focus on one particular image of her and Chris. A small smile painted her face as she viewed her friend's frozen, beaming face, as he held one hand on her waist while the other clutched her own tightly. He stretched out their joined hands in a straight line to their side in an, over exaggerated and definitely to be critiqued by any professional dancer, frame. They stood, or rather danced, if you could even call it that, in the enormous ballroom, also referred to as the 'Gold Room',  inside The Arabella.

The room was truly massive, and as explained by their delighted tour guide, could hold even up to eight hundred people. That's not even counting the many gardens splayed around the palace. These were often used, in accompanying the ballroom, when events were larger than what it could hold. The room made the couple of friends look tiny. In comparison to the many tall windows that lined each side of room, the golden pillars and the sky high ceiling, they were almost like insects. Behind them, the large pair of wooden doors leading out into the garden area could be seen.

Thea remembered staring above and admiring the skillfully painted ceiling which resembled renaissance art, until her neck ached. The art appeared to display multiple stories which would surely take the tour guides weeks to explain. The heavy velvet curtains, tied back with golden string at each window, were a similar deep purple to the castle's tower tops. The floor was a strikingly white and grey marble with gold segments ever so often. The deep purple, white and gold all seemed to be recurrent colours in the entire palace. Or rather all of the palace that the students were allowed to view.

To the students disappointment, due to security and safety reasons most of the castle was closed off to the public. It was the permanent residence of most of the royal family, and although King Frederick resided elsewhere for the time of the visits, it was too high of a risk. For this reason the students only got to view the well kept courtyard containing even better kept soldiers, a few of the many gardens, the ballroom, the throne room and the servants and guest quarters.

Still observing the picture of her and Chris, Thea silently wished that they would never be broken apart. Although she was an only child due to her mother's fertility issues, Chris has grown to become almost an older brother to her. Her feelings for him were strictly platonic, yet she knew right there, staring at his smile and the way he often encouraged her own face to mirror this expression, that if he were to leave her life a deep scar would forever mark her heart.

Thea shook her head slightly to rid her head of the upsetting thoughts. She glanced hastily at her childhood friend out of the corner of her eye, only to find him snoring softly with his head leaned back against the chair, mouth agape. She huffed air out of her noise quietly with amusement. She ensured to snap a quick, sneaky picture of the young man before resuming her previous actions and flicking to another image.