A World Apart

7. Touring Clovis

The next morning Elena woke with the first rays of dawn, her mind whirling once more with unanswered questions as she watched the room brighten with the rising sun outside the windows. She lay there transfixed by the rainbows cast on the canopy, refracted by the diamond window panes. Anxiously twirling the end of her braid she chewed her lip and contemplated all she had learned (and not learned) the past few days.

When she heard the telltale shuffling of steps on the staircase to her room she felt her stomach grumble as it sensed food was near.

Bree entered carrying a tray, Sarai's sour face trailing just behind her. A dress was draped over her arm.

"What's that?" Elena asked before she could stop herself.

Sarai scrunched up her face as though the words in her mouth tasted unpleasant, "Prince Ector bid us invite you to take him up on his offer to tour the castle this morning, and he has sent you this dress as he knows you do not have any."

Elena was already reaching for the tray of fruit and bread, half-listening to Sarai as she chewed. She already knew they had agreed to meet, but it was fun to tease Sarai. "This morning?" she confirmed.

"Yes milady," Sarai poorly concealed indifference was annoying but Elena was well-practiced in ignoring pettiness and bitchy attitudes from years of dealing with apartment neighbors and classmates in the Bronx.

Bree gave a small smile as Elena took a handful of the proffered grapes. She watched how Bree's eyes gravitated to her hair almost longingly and remembered it probably looked like a mess. Oh well, at least after her bath the other day it was clean.

"Bree," Elena ventured unassumingly, "Would you be able to braid my hair for me? I hate to ask but I've never been good at it by myself and I know it looks terrible."

The young girl's eyes brightened like this was suddenly the most exciting prospect of her day. "Of course milady, I'd be happy to."

Elena smiled, grabbing another hock of bread and giving a sardonic stare towards Sarai's contemptuous gaze, smiling at her mid-chew with a mouthful of warm bread while Bree immediately set to work.

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Ector strode down the halls with confidence, his pace deliberately slow to allow Elena to keep up. Servants passed them infrequently and the only other noise besides Ector's voice was the sound of their leather soles on the stone floor. He waxed on and on about the castle and its many attributes while she listened attentively. 

"This of course is not our primary residence, as it is much smaller."

"Yeah it's a real dump," Elena muttered under her breath, thinking of the roach-infested apartments she had spent her entire life in.

"Our main residence is the palace by the sea, the Emeris Palace in Coralis."

Coralis? Hadn't he mentioned that yesterday in the library? Elena's fingers were tracing a tapestry on the wall as she listened, "So that's...bigger?" she asked, trying to wrap her mind around the idea of growing up in one castle, much less splitting time between two.

He scoffed at her, arching his eyebrow, "Bigger? Oh, monstrously. This hunk of rubble is paltry in comparison. It is a solitary place, but my father prefers it and where he goes, we go. No, our palace to the South is ten times the size of this. You could get lost in there for days. My uncle rules there as a steward in my father's absence." His demeanor gave Elena the impression he did not appreciate his father's preference and would rather be down south with his uncle.