There All Along

Chapter 17: As Official Princess...

We arrived at the entrance of the double doors where I was not seen by the people, however, I could see them. I watched as a Abia announced me from a circular stage from the side lines. It didn't take long for her to finish and when she was, she introduced me proudly. I had never seen Abia smile so much in the seconds I stood there.

Harris pushed open the glass doors, allowing me to exit first as he followed behind me. Making my way down the white colored rug with grey markings, the same one from the practice ceremony, I walked slowly and gradually. The exact way Aron had told me to so I wouldn't get clumsy and fall. Something that I happened to do whenever I walked and various eyes watched me.

The auditorium was quiet. Every single eye that filled the room focused on my movements. I glanced around breifly, my dark brown orbs landing on the higher powers of the land that stood in rows and turned to watch me, each of them radiating different energies I couldn't place. Watching them look at me made me not want to turn around and see the amount of eyes that stacked in the rows behind me. So with my heart beating painfully in my ears, I inhaled deeply and focused on what was in front of me. My eyes darted around some of the people, few of high officials had their hands behind their back with stern faces that reeked authority while others had a more gentle approach with smiles on their faces. I literally had to force my nerves to remain calm, wave at them, while trying to smile genuinely.

Walking down the white carpet felt like it took years rather then seconds, and when I finally made it to the three lengthy, small steps, I exhaled a breath I didn't know I had been holding the entire time. Harris suddenly appeared in front me on the steps, extending his hand out to me. I smiled, my eyes gleaming in the natural light from the windows high above and took his hand graciously.

Harris then guided me with his hand at the small of my back to a podium where he stood behind it to give a quick acceptance slash unity speech as I stood to the right of it. I then suddenly glanced behind me momentarily, noticing strange seating and caught the eye of someone who was a mere ten feet away us, away from the crowd and sat on higher ground. The man sat in a large chair drenched in the color red with black markings engraved into the cushion behind him. I then caught the man's eyes, a dark silver gaze, studying me closely as I watched.

He raised his head at me, scratching the side of his white beard as if he knew something about me that I didn't. However, that man wasn't the only person there.

Next to him was another chair only this time it was covered in black with silver markings and a woman with jet black curly hair, bluntly cut at her shoulders in a stunning bob sat in it with her legs crossed and arms laying on the armrest. Her top foot pointed directly at me while her face remain, not stern or with authority, but emotionless. I glance over her a second longer, the woman's presence seeming familiar like I've meet her before but, as I did, the woman continued to look uninterested in the events around her which resulted in me dropping the idea.

My eye's kept moving as one last chair came into view, this one was empty and made in light blue that had dark blue markings on its back cushion.

This had my mind wondering. Was someone missing? Or failed to attend thinking I didn't deserve their presence? It was odd, in a way, because Harris, Kaden, and Aron had never mentioned anything about these people, or better yet, told me who they were or their arrival in the Palace. They seemed of great importance.

I momentarily showed confusion before I fixed my face and turned back to the crowd only for my heart to drop ten centimeters below it's normal position beneath my ribs. I stared, wide-eyed and starstruck, at the amount of people in the room. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them filled row, after row, after row to the very top. The people at the top nearly looking like ants to me!