In A World of My Own - Book One

34. Been Holding Back This Feeling

It's time, time that is to meet the Court for the first time.

The White Knight and I stop in front of two huge, glossy golden doors which are opened by two penguins with bowties. I widen my eyes at them with amazement, but I gasp now as I step into the huge white marble room. There. Are. So. Many. People! I glance around the room so that I don't have to make eye contact just yet and take in the massive paintings of grand and regale looking women, how they are all poised to show off their tattoos, their Bloodmarks.

These paintings are of the Alices; all my mothers and my grandmothers. They are all sitting in dark rooms, their bare backs facing me so I can't see their faces. They all have the same massive black cherry colored Bloodmark stretched over their sleek backs of the Jabberwocky, it does look just like my birthmark. Speaking of birthmarks, I notice how these women have birthmarks too, only theirs are on their backs still, around the Bloodmark. I'm guessing the woman with the birthmark on the tippy most top of her shoulder is my mother since my birthmark is only a few inches above hers on my neck.

So the first glimpse I get of my biological mother is of her naked back. But she looks nice. I mean from what I can see which is...not a lot.

Everything else in the room, besides the people in it, is all completely bright white, four huge bay windows are at the end of the room and blinding white sunlight streams into my eyes and makes me blink in a stunned daze. The floors, walls and very high ceiling as well as the super long white table are all made of marble. There are two massive crystal chandeliers dangling above the table at either ends, the candles in the holders, though aren't lit since there's so much sunlight, are different colors, gold, red, black, green and silver.

Seated at the long table are the Royals. 

They are all wearing huge golden crowns studded with gems and behind their chairs, seated on plush looking white couches, are young looking adults, boys and girls, wearing smaller silver crowns. They are staring at me as if I'm the newest display at the zoo. 

Beside the chairs at the table are dressed-up animals, each one of them are holding notepads of some sort. They are writing notes and the Royals are all chatting rapidly and excitedly, not even noticing me, but now that the White Knight softly clears his throat, everyone stops talking and writing and turns to stare.

Stare at me.

I gulp.

"Well, well," a man wearing floor-length black robes decorated with white spades stands up and bows his head at me, he's accent is very British, actually I'm under the impression that everyone around here is British-ish. "Our long last Alice returns to us," his face is covered partly by a bushy -though neatly trimmed- black beard and his dark hair has a single streak of silver through it. His eyes are a sharp and shrewd looking and even the way he talks is very self-assured, quick and confident. "I never doubted it, not even for a second, I was always the first one to say," he lightly pounds on the table with his fist. "We. Will. Find. Her. And now look. You're here!" He laughs.

I nervously smile back, feeling drastically under-dressed and under-prepared for a Royal meeting with Kings and Queens.

"My Alice, if I may," the White Knight leads me to the front of the table and now everyone stands up as he addresses them, starting with the man who just spoke. "This is King Darious of Spades. And this is King Akio of Spades." Akio looks me over nigh disapprovingly before he jots something down on the parchment in front of him.

"These are the Royal Clubs, Queen Miyu and King Aariz." The Queen has a lovely round face and her curves are soft which give her a perfectly hug-able appearance and really, her warm smile and the dimples in her plumb cheeks are enough to make anyone want to hug her. Beside her is the King of Clubs, he has dark gray hair streaked with silver and long though groomed bread that stops at his waist. His crown is situated around a grand, beautiful turban. They both bow their heads at me.