Looking for an editor! If you're interested, send me an email with anything you think I'd need to know-- casual interaction is good with me. Also, not sure if I'll be able to finish this series because I'm not sure where it's going. Feel free to leave any feedback. Cheers!
---
Sea cliffs towered above her. In the dark, she could barely make out the palace's high domes that shot into the night. Keara, still wet from her ocean swim, turned back towards the waves. For the past two weeks, Keara been cooped up in the castle for too long. She had to swim tonight, especially before the ball. Kai would there tonight, and it'd been five years.
Keara inhaled and relished the solitude. She'd been betrayed once by a man she thought was loyal, intelligent, witty, caring, humorous, eloquent, and thoughtful! He was even a prince! She scoffed sadly; unfortunately, now he was a king—or rather emperor as they called him in Andros. She understood the pains of service, but she knew he wouldn't consider it service. The man relished power.
Keara held her flippers in one hand as she moved easily over the rocks—her feet strongly calloused from past experiences. As she sat down, ocean winds whipped around her body. They stripped away her layers—a princess, a daughter, a woman. Here, she was just a soul searching for—well, she didn't know. Keara smiled at her small existential crisis, gazing up at the star-freckled night sky. She felt her eyes clear as she consumed the purity of the sky. The sentimental nothingness in which one could easily get lost. Her eyes drifted towards the large yellow moon. She knew that the moon always appeared bigger in her kingdom of Élamen. It had something to do with complicated arithmetic and calculations and other things that she must have learned in her youth.
Keara stood up and turned around. Her home—that palace—was carved from and into a mountainside. Keara picked up her flippers and started back to the castle base. When she arrived, she hid her flippers under the loose rock on her left and pulled out her hidden mask. Looking up at the wall, Keara tied the mask around her. It was time.
Unfortunately, her rope had given way while she descended the wall earlier that night. She knew she shouldn't have used the aged rope, but perhaps she wanted the danger of it.
She inhaled deeply. In all the six and twenty summers of her life, she'd only scaled this wall once without a rope. She had been twelve and had not known fear. Some would argue she still didn't know fear. She wasn't fool enough to believe that.
"Once done, can be done again," Keara reminded herself.
After shaking out her arms and legs, Keara placed her left foot in the small crook of the first rock. She tightened her calves and pushed upwards. Three fingers from her right hand clung onto a tiny protruding rock, and two fingers from her left wedged themselves into a groove.
She would climb this wall.
"Push Keara. Death will not win today," she reminded herself.
Keara took shallow breaths and willed her limbs to serve her: one leg pushed and one arm pulled.
Repeat.
Push.
Pull.
Feel.
Strength.
Freedom.
Light.
Light—Keara could see the light that flooded from beyond the wall.
Keara glanced down. Jagged rocks threatened from beneath, and she strengthened her grip on the mountain. She turned towards the ocean when suddenly a rush of tranquility and pleasure surged through her limbs, shooting out from her hands and feet. Although Keara continued to tighten her grip on the cliff, her body no longer contained her. She could see herself glued to the mountainside edge: a black speck turned and staring at the sea. Between the mountaintop facades, her home, that gargantuan palace ruled. Terraced levels of pointed stone towers protected the center domes while flying buttresses supported the castle base. Bridges extended across spaces to connect edifices. Lights poured out from sky-high windows, and busy shadows hustled by.
The sky, usually painted a cloudy night, sparkled with the stars' twinkle and the moon's light. Ocean waves tumbled forth and broke across rocks' backs. The sounds from gulls echoed from a far, and Keara wished to have this for an eternity, but duty called.
Her hands hauled her body from the smallest of notches as the stone's hard surface gnawed at her skin. Every fiber in her thighs and calves propelled her forward as she only saw one goal in mind. The top.
When her hand finally grasped the first corner, Keara looked up. She planted her other hand next to the first and pulled herself up. Keara tumbled over and landed flat-backed on the cold stone floor. She made it to the top of the wall.
Eight. Thousand. Feet.
Keara turned her head and saw the systems of bridges that connecting everything. How she missed swimming already. Tonight, her father had invited all of the nine kingdoms. Andros, where Kai ruled, would make its first formal appearance in decades. And of course Kuris would attend. Edward had told her months in advance.
Keara brushed her black hair away from her face and closed her eyes. She raised her arms, looking at the sweat droplets on her ebony skin. The cold seeped into her body, and Keara felt herself regaining focus. Suddenly, the bells rang. The ball would start in one hour!
Jumping up, Keara scanned the bridges and ran towards the far left one that rose to the left tower of the sixth terrace level. She sprinted across, thrust open a door, and descended the stairs to the third level. Rising voices shouting commands about chicken and napkin placement filled her ears. She was too late to use the shortcut through the pantry—they were already preparing dinner. Of course they were! She only had one hour left!
Keara turned around and rushed back to the fourth floor. That was the entrance to the ballroom balcony. Considering that the food was soon to be finished, most people would be in the main ballroom where the butlers served.
Keara turned the corner and quickly checked the long isle before stepping out from the tower and onto the balcony. The decorations paralyzed her. Damien, her younger twin brother, had outdone himself. Out of her three brothers, Damien had the impeccable sense of palace décor. The white curtains billowed in the soft wind and refurbished gold on pillars now glinted in the moonlight. The gold stems laced around the pillar in an upward spiral with stemmed veined olive leaves.
She knew she only had an hour, but she couldn't resist. She walked further down the hallway, until she stood at the top of the ballroom. Enclosed in darkness, Keara could see everything. Sparkling gowns and dazzling suits covered the ballroom floor. The high lights that sat on the ballroom ceiling shined with same strength of the room's excitement. The orchestra was playing Elanor, or rather Nor, her best friend's, favorite tune.
Keara knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't resist. She scanned the floor for a man dressed in evergreen and silver. Black hair. At least six-foot. There—no, that was black and white. Perhaps he hadn't arrived yet. But not tonight. Tonight was too important.
Her gaze washed over the main ballroom and moved to the center front, second level. Her father stood there on the ballroom balcony. She stood two levels above him. She spied Nor standing with a few other acquaintances in Keara's own balcony box. Likely Nor was waiting for her to return from her ocean rendezvous. Keara scanned the room once more and didn't spot Kai.
