Starborne

Chapter 8

I'd scarcely woven my way through the throng of people bustling around the palace gates before I caught a glimpse of familiar dark hair. 

“Groff!” I waved my arms to catch my friend’s attention, and with a final effort forced my face into an amiable mask. 

He grinned back at me, and began to make his way over. 

“Holly! Thank goodness I found you, Akara would have my head if you managed to get lost today.” He smirked at the idea that Akara would be able to overpower his strong physique, but still seemed relieved to have found me among the vast crowds surrounding the palace. 

“Is it always this crowded here?” I pushed past a group of women blocking the base of steps that Groff led me towards, and tried my best not to get separated from my guide. 

“I’ve never been here before, so I don’t really know, but I would assume most of these people are here for the ceremony tonight. Once we get into the palace it should be less crowded.” With that, Groff pushed through a pair of double doors into a cool, empty corridor. 

It seemed that none of the people outside had the clearance to enter the palace, and I welcomed the cool silence of the marble corridors. We hiked up a massive staircase to a higher floor; the steps were built just a bit too tall to accommodate my human height, and I was panting quite unattractively by the time Groff stopped outside of an ornate door.

We were surrounded on all sides by white marble and crisp, cool lines. There were floor to ceiling windows that looked out upon the shining colored glass of the city, and the sunlight refracting off the tall buildings took the rest of my shaky breath away. I had only a few moments to take in the radiance of the city before Groff’s impatient knock on the door was answered by Akara’s head poking out. 

“Groff, you found Holly! Thank goodness, we thought such a tiny human would have been lost forever in that crowd!” Akara stepped out of her room and teasingly pretended to pat me on the head as a reminder of our vast height discrepancy.

I good-naturedly placed my hands on my hips and put on a mock-angry face.

“Wow, I hear so much about this so-called ‘Cynabarrian hospitality' and this is how I am welcomed? You abandon me, mock me, and have yet to show me to my chambers, shame on you!” I was still laughing at my own imitation of an entitled Terran child when my friends’ postures changed, and their gazes focused on something behind me. 

I spun around to find none other than Stefin, dressed in what could only be described as a princely fashion, accompanied by one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She was tall but slender, lacking the typical Cynabarrian bulk and instead appearing willowy and ethereal. She towered above me, but her slim grace still somehow made me feel large and brutish with my Terran curves and muscled physique. 

Her skin was pale in contrast to the copper tan I had gotten used to seeing, but not in the flushed, pasty way that my complexion took on after being in the cockpit too long. She had the visage of a porcelain doll, with long straight black hair and dark green eyes that served as further contrast. Those eyes were trained on me, housing a disapproving and suspicious glare, and I quickly looked away from her intense stare. 

I suddenly registered the fact that they were arm-in-arm, which was considered a highly familiar gesture for Cynabarrians, and surmised that this beautiful woman was Stefin’s betrothed. I couldn’t stop my dumb, human heart from releasing a small pang of hurt at seeing him so at ease and happy with this goddess. It was irrational and stupid (which was quickly becoming my standard when it came to him), so I forced my face out of what must have been an expression of comical shock and into as amiable a smile as I could muster.