Mondo Pastello | girlxgirl | Completed♕

Chapter XIII ♥ Apologies

Above is an example of the imperial staircase at the entrance ♥

♕♥ ♕♥ ♕

"So, when you said home..?" Sarina asked curiously as they rode in the midnight car. Bartholomew nodded, taking off his hoodie and sweatpants in the car to reveal rather formal trousers and a button up shirt. Cornelius did the same. Sarina felt self-conscious, since she was wearing nothing but a leotard. Luckily Cornelius grabbed her things before they left.

"The palace, obviously," Bartholomew said with an eye roll, tossing her bag over to her. "Might want to pull some clothes on over," Sarina nodded, grabbing her track pants and T-shirt and pulled them over her leotard along with sneakers. Looking down at her clothes, she felt incredibly anxious. This wasn't just casual, this was extensively casual.

She stared out the window as they rode, and later she spotted it immediately. It was undeniably beautiful and made her nervous. The walls surrounding the castle stood so high with fences on top of it. The Royal Guards stood all around the wall, and more near the gate. The palace itself was a golden cream colour and the roof was black, the designs around the building making it all the more elegant. The gardens that she could see through the gate was already to die for and clearly well kept. Her heart began to speed up. She wasn't dressed correctly even in the slightest for this. What if she ran into the Majesties like that? She grew even more anxious.

The gates opened automatically when they approached and the gardens revealed themselves. There were so many exotic flower species that she felt like she walked straight into a nature reserve.

"Alright, so, the plan," Cornelius began, looking towards Bartholomew, who just groaned.

"We can wing it," now Sarina felt even more like she was going to be thrown into the pit of a beast. The car stopped after taking the circle driveway, right in front of the stairs leading to the biggest doors she has ever seen in her life. She had never felt so intimidated in her life. The car doors was opened from outside, revealing Royal Guards. The twins got out on their side and Sarina followed in example on her side. The Royal Guard was the most unemotional and unresponsive person she had ever seen, offering to take her bag with only gestures. She shook her head and jogged around the car to get to the twins. They nodded at her and indicated for her to follow.

They lead her up the cream marble steps towards the front doors which automatically opened when they were nearing by the Royal Guards. The twins did not acknowledge them, but Sarina felt as if she had to at least nod her head in thanks to them as she passed. Her immediate reaction to the entrance of the palace was to screech like a baby squirrel. Already just the entrance was bigger than her apartment and had five large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and carpet that look like they deserve to be in a museum behind a glass wall, surrounded by fifty guards.

Then again, as her eyes roamed around she saw that next to each chivalrous knight statue stood a Royal Guard, unmoving. Was there no privacy in a place like this?

"This way," Cornelius called, leading Sarina up the imperial staircase, a type of stair that divides off midway to two different parts of the palace. The stairs were made of marble with maroon carpet running down the middle with gold lining. If she didn't know any better, it might as well have been real gold.

They headed towards to the eastern side of the palace on the third floor, more to the far end. Each hallway had at least one priceless statue or centrepiece which they warned her about not touching. She kept her hands close to her chest and made sure her bag was unmoving. The last thing she wanted was to break anything. Eventually they came to a long corridor that was ore silent but held more guards.