Fable

Chapter Five

The palace reflected the light from the sun and nearly blinded Ella. She shielded her eyes against the sun and took in the fairytale before her.

Circular and domed, with glass ceilings that shone like diamonds, the palace towered above the city like a beacon, with three towers extending high into the sky. It was bustling with people - nobles strolling through the gardens, servants tending to the plants and traveling to and from destinations unknown, and merchants with shipments dropping off the multitude of supplies that kept the palace running.

The gardens were lush and green and contrasted beautifully with the pale stone and the mountains beyond. How they managed to keep the plants alive despite the cold weather, Ella couldn't fathom. As they got closer, she realized that there was a massive variation in plant life, with fruit trees and tropical trees planted next to shrubs and succulents in a beautifully chaotic menagerie of flora.

As they walked through the garden, Elias picked some fruit off of one of the nearby trees, offering some of his bounty to Ella. They were small, like grapes, but bright orange in color.

"What are they?"

"Just try them, they're sweet," Ella's other emotions about being in an unfamiliar place were overridden as she took one of the mysterious fruits and popped one in her mouth. The flavor was explosive - somewhere near a pomegranate and mandarin combined - and when Elias offered her another one, she took it.

Slowly, the garden melts away and reveals the front gates of the palace itself. Instead of golden and gilded, these gates are carved from stone and bronze. They sat open, and Ella imagined that it wasn't very often that these particular doors were closed - if ever. The inside of the doors were carved with mountains and wolves, visible to those who passed through them.

The inside of the palace was just as bright as the garden's outside, and Ella found herself standing inside the big glass dome she had seen from a distance. Through the ceiling, she could see the sky above. The stone inside was the same as the stone throughout the rest of the city, although in here, it was sanded and polished into a high shine. Through another pair of massive, open doors, Ella could see what looked like a throne room, with more glass and stone and beautiful winter light, but Elias steered her to the left and down a long, wide hallway. There were dozens of doors and a couple of stairwells built into the walls. She glanced at each one, counting the ones that were closed and doing her best to fully take in the sights behind the ones that were open.

Most of them appeared to be rooms for meetings, with long tables and chairs. Some of them were actually occupied with people, while others were simply being prepared. Other rooms looked like storage closets, with decorations and linens, jewels, and anything else one could imagine.

At the end of the hall was another oversized pair of doors - these ones wood, stained dark, and beautifully shined - though, they were closed. There were two guards outside standing at attention. They both bowed deeply when Elias approached, and he waved them off nonchalantly.

"Give me a few moments to explain to her what happened, and then I'll come back and get you, okay?"

Before Ella could say that it was very much not okay for him to leave her alone, he was gone and the doors were shut behind him. One of the guards eyed her carefully and quickly looked away when she caught him.

Soon the doors opened again and Elias peeked out. "Okay, we're ready for you."

Ella followed Elias through the doors and found herself in a large council chamber. A large, dark wooden table devoured the middle of the room. It was surrounded by several menacing thrones, with several equally menacing people seated in them, all of whom were staring at her as she entered. The room was hung with tapestries depicting moments in history that Ella would never know, beautifully woven in pastels and spotlighted by the sun shining through the gilded windows on the left side of the room.