Serafina: Becoming a Princess

Chapter Twenty

The day arrived for Princess Celina to return for good to Regnum. Sera was awoken early to get dressed and greet her future sister-in-law. She had an intimate breakfast with her family before the foreign princess was to arrive.

They all made sure that they were in the great hall around noon to welcome Zander's bride. Zander and Jovan appeared calm as sea cucumbers but Regina was spending their remaining few minutes rechecking everyone's outfits and telling them how to behave.

After what seemed like hours the doors finally opened to reveal the familiar Demarian carriages pulling up to the castle. In the first carriage were six ladies who began to unload the luggage of the other two carriages. The second carriage appeared to only have luggage in it. Then the third door opened up as the Demarian princess gracefully stepped out of the carriage and began walking towards them.

She stopped before them and curtsied.

"Thank you for this warm welcome Your Majesties. I hope that I can live up to the standards of your family and am looking forward to my duties as Prince Zander's wife."

Zander stepped forward and kissed Celina's hand. He then guided her to the rest of the family.

"Thank you Princess for accepting my proposal. I am sure you will fit in and get along well with your new family. It's my hope that you are comfortable and happy here in Regnum."

Celina gave a polite smile.

"I'm sure that I will be very happy. I've never lived in a place as lovely as this. The smell of the ocean here is so much different than it is in Demarcus. Such a calming aroma."

"Well I can assure you that there are many more things to love in this country, especially right here in Nautica. We will be going into the capitol in a couple of days and then onto our tour where you can see all that Regnum has to offer." Zander promised.

"That sounds lovely." Celina commented as she approached the rest of the family. "King Jovan and Queen Regina thank you both for accepting me into your family."

She gave each the king and queen a small hug and then she faced Sera.

"Princess Serafina, I do hope that we can become friends." She proceeded to give Sera a small hug as well.

Ever feeling like the awkward person Sera tried to hug back and make Celina feel welcomed.

"Thank you for joining out family." She had wished that she had said something more intimate to welcome her new sister-in-law but it was all she could get out of her mouth.

Zander proceeded to escort Celina to her rooms, ones more elegant than the ones from her previous stay. With plans set into motion to meet for dinner, Sera went back to her own wing to attend lessons with Kalem.

As boring as they were, Sera was grateful for the normal lessons compared to the crash courses of etiquette that she fell victim too in the previous weeks. Learning about history and mathematics were a welcome change of pace.

It felt as though lessons went rather quickly that day and dinner was fast approaching. She prayed to Belinha that it wasn't going to be awkward. She waited for her brother to come and pick her up the way he always had when there were family dinners but he never showed. As the time went on she asked Leena what she should do.

"Oh, honestly Serafina. Your brother's getting married. He can't always be there to escort you to dinner. You'll just have to settle for myself to take you down." Leena responded.

It made Sera feel like a child and silly for thinking that she should have expected for her brother to be coming to pick her up. She rationed that it was going to be the new normal for her and that she would have to become accustomed to it.

Due to the misunderstanding on Sera's part she was slightly late to dinner and when she explained how silly she felt Zander began to laugh at her but then quickly stopped when he saw her face falter a bit.

"I'm sorry Sera. I should have sent word. I do genuinely feel bad but I can't believe that you were ready to miss out on dinner if I didn't come and get you. You can be such a child sometimes."

Sera's face flushed a bit realizing how much she relied on her older brother.

"I think that I've been spoiled too much."

"I'd say so." Jovan gave a small chuckle. He then turned towards Celina. "These are regular occurrences when Sera is involved. Just last week she got lost on her way to Regina's wing for a tea party or some such thing."

Celina gave a polite chuckle behind her hand and then turned to Sera.

"I'm sure I will get lost many times as well."

Sera gave her a small smile.

"I will do my best to make sure you don't become too lost."

"I appreciate that." Celina said.

Celina remained fairly quiet for the rest of the dinner. Sera imagined it would take time for Celina to adjust to the dynamics of her new family. Her father and Regina had done most of the talking about the tour and making arrangements for the wedding. Without Dea around everyone was much more relaxed and it appeared that no one was ready for her to return in a month for the wedding.