The Palace

Aurora Pov

It is finally the day I've been anxiously waiting for. I turn over on my bambom mat, stretching my body to loosen the tightness I feel within my muscles. Ever since I made the decision, I have felt anxiety eating at me from the inside. All I do is think, and after thinking, I think about everything I thought, and it's a never-ending cycle. My whole life is about to change completely, and I do not have the capability to understand exactly how it's going to be.

After the death of my mother from an unknown illness that took over her body and left her bedridden for two years, it had been only my father and I. We managed with the little we could, selling trinkets at the town market. One day, my father had the idea to apply for a loan to start up a business as a jewelry seller. Initially, I had no hope for the loan because we are far from being noble. We are simply poor humans living in the kingdom. Yet everything took a surprising turn when he received a letter saying his loan had been approved. Certainly my imagination ran wild; I imagined myself in beautiful dresses talking to boys of noble birth after we eventually got rich from his business. I never could have imagined what happened next.

Father traveled for a month to the Northern Kingdom, where he was to buy all the jewelry. A month later, I was in front of our round house making bracelets when I saw a man crunched over walking slowly towards me. The closer he got, the more I realized that it was my father, barely able to walk as he leaped in pain. I ran to him when he dropped the bracelets on the floor. The sight was heartbreaking. My father's skin was covered with bruises and cuts, and a deep gash ran across his forehead as if hit by a knife. I put my left hand underneath his ribs to assist him, and he winced in pain. "What happened?" I asked as soon as I could open my mouth. He talked with a low voice laced with pain: "I was attacked. Rora. Rora, everything is gone."

My brain could not wrap around what he meant by "everything." It was only later, when I had treated and dressed his wounds, that I realized that he came with nothing but the clothes on his back. My heart felt stabbed at the realization that by "everything," he meant all the money from the loan with nothing to show for it.

A year later, after he had defaulted on the installment payments of the loan about four times, he was ordered to the palace, where he was sentenced to work in the palace fields for the rest of his life. My whole soul was wrecked for him as I thought about him spending the rest of his old age working for free till his death, so I did the only thing I could. I offered myself as a palace maiden as payment for his loan.

I stand up from my mat, which I am kneeling on now to say my daily prayers to the gods.

Goddess Dicha Please give me joy and happiness in the palace; help me relate in peace with everybody else. Give me the strength to push through anything. O god, I'm going to your son's palace.

This is the first time I've had this thought in this exact way. I am going to be serving in the palace of the son of Cre, the Creator. My mind is rambling; I can't concentrate on a single thought. Our kingdom, like most other kingdoms, is ruled by a demigod; our king, King Zao, is said to be the favorite son of the god Cre. I have never met a demigod. How would he look? All I've heard are stories of him and his temper. The King Zao, who struck down a palace maiden with magic because she spilled a little tea on his robes while serving him, I hope I wouldn't end up a character in one of these stories.

I put on my best dress, a plain yellow cotton wrap dress. Mina, my best friend, always tells me how amazing my skin looks in yellow. Slowly, I rub shea butter into strands of my coarse hair, combing it carefully. I do everything I have to slowly because I want more time in my space. This place holds memories of everything I hold dear, especially my mother. It was in this room that my mother braided my hair and told me tales about our gods, demigods, and fairies. I feel like leaving this place is like leaving the physical anchor I have to my mother. What if, after staying so long in the palace, all the memories I have of her become so distant that I can't feel her anymore?

"Rora," I heard my father call out to me.

I quickly tie my hair with a black ribbon, drop the comb in my bag with all the other things I'm taking to the palace, and hang it on my left shoulder.

My father is looking at me with so much guilt and pain that it makes me feel like crying. He doesn't have to say anything; I know everything he wants to say. He wants to say how much he is sorry and how all he wanted was to give me a better life. I know all of these already, so I give him a smile, making sure that it tells him that I am okay. I walk closer to him, embracing him until I feel his muscles relax under me. "Good bye, father," I say.

"Rora," he says so softly that I almost cannot hear him. "I love you." I embrace him tighter. "I love you too, father," I say. From above his shoulder, I spot my two best friends walking towards us.

"Do you think you could escape without saying goodbye to us?" Mina asks playfully as she pulls me into a hug.

"You? Not a chance," I reply as I hug back. I try not to think of our times together, but if I allow myself to, I don't think I can stop myself from crying. The plan was actually to leave without them; it seemed easier to leave without seeing them, but seeing them here, I'm grateful they surprised me. I pull out of her hug as I'm about to get emotional. I walked over to Hashi and pulled him into a hug. In his usual way, Hashi is silent as he hugs me back lightly. "Be safe" he says as I let him go. I nodded at him in acknowledgement.

I take a step back from all of them, examining them. They were all smiling, but it all seemed forced, almost like they were doing it for me. I am doing the same for them. "Good bye," I say to them. Father nods, but Hashi and Mina walk closer to me. "You think we will allow you to walk to the palace all by yourself?" Mina asks.

"The palace is so far from here, you two don't have to do that for me," I say, even if I really did want them to offer since they are already here.

"Nonsense," Hashi says as he takes the bag from me and hangs it on his shoulder.

We start walking. I don't look back at my father because I'm afraid he might be crying.

In her usual way, Mina won't stop talking. She is talking about anything possible, from what she thinks the palace will be like to what she thinks the king will look like. She gave specific details about the king's look, even if she, like most commoners, had never seen the king's face. Our island kingdom, like most other kingdoms, is ruled by a demigod. Ours is not any demigod's, but Cre, the god who is known as the creator. They say he created the humans and the fairies.

Finally, we are at the palace gate, and even Mina is speechless as we stand in awe of the gate. The gate towers over us, standing at about what I think is definitely up to 30 feet worth of gold. We can't see the top of the gate. It is elaborately designed with spiral shapes that curve into themselves, leaving spaces in between. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, how to open the gate, or if I can do that. A man is suddenly standing at the other side of the gate, almost like he came out of nowhere. He is wearing a deep red tunic that is strapped tight to his body by leather straps, and a sword is hanging from his dark waist belt. His balding hair is glistening against his dark skin; his face is devoid of any expression.

"How can I assist you?" He asks. I reach for my bag, taking it from Hashi, and I search through it, looking for the scroll that contains my contract as a palace maiden. I find it and hand it to him through the little space in the gate; he glances through it and proceeds to open up a smaller part of the gate, signaling for me to come in. I face my friends for the last time and wave them goodbye.

Words cannot truly capture the magnificence of the palace. Inside the gate, it looks like a mini city of its own. When I imagined the palace, I always pictured it as a grand building filled with breath-taking architecture and an impossible size. My imagination did no justice to the palace. The palace is not one building but several. A second guard dressed similarly to the first walks me around, taking me to what he called the workers' quarters. Finally, we arrive at a one-story building with a curved orange roof made of reflective tiles. Inside is filled with people moving all around, some holding trays they balance on their hands. They are mostly female and dressed in the same uniforms. The guard knocks on the brass door using the mental ring attached to it, and without a word he leaves me standing there.

A woman is sitting in the room; she's mesmerizing in her green robe with wide cylinder sleeves. She looked definitely elderly but also extremely sturdy. Her rich, buttery skin glowed even if her face has age lines, and her eyes are a deep leaf green.

"What is your name?" She asked as I handed her the contract.

"Aurora," I replied.

I watch as she reads through the contract; afterwards, she brings out a stamp, stamps it, and keeps it in a drawer. She looks up at me, and I watched her eyes move from my head to my toes. Gracefully, she stands, and there is nothing elderly about her posture; her back is completely erect, and her neck is poised like a swan. She walks over to some drawers, searching through them methodically. She hands me a pile of neatly folded clothes.

"That's your uniform. For a month, you will be a trainee; it's shorter than we usually do, but right now we are a little short on workers. I'll be training you personally." She spoke informatively.

I nod my head anxiously, and she shakes her head, mumbling something that sounds like "you have a lot to learn."