“Wake up, Mistress, it’s a new day!” the old maid said as she shook the young girl’s shoulder.
“Raphiya, I told you not to -” the girl paused and yawned deeply. “- to not call me ‘Mistress’. And furthermore, I wish to sleep the day away. Do not bother me.”
The old woman gave her sweet smile once again, “It’s only fitting for a young princess to be addressed properly! Now, come, get up, you wouldn’t want to waste your birthday in bed, would you young Mistress?”
The girl flushed the covers back over her head once more, ignoring the maid’s plea. “That is exactly why I would prefer to stay in bed, Raphiya. Stop meddling and leave me be. You know I dread this day.”
Those words sent the old woman into a trance. She remembered; she remembered everything. She had served the young Mistress for an eternity, it seemed. She knew the in and outs of her past and present. The maid’s thoughts flooded into her head as if a dam had just broken in the recesses of her mind. ‘The young Mistress had every right to be difficult – especially on this day of all days. After all, what kind of person would be okay after their only family left had exiled them away from –‘
“Raphiya!” the girl’s voice pierced her thoughts from under the covers. “I ordered you to leave. Do you wish to disobey a princess?”
The old woman jumped at the thought of retribution. “No Mistress! Of course not!” Raphiya flung her arms to her heart and rushed out of the hut in a panic as fast as her stubby legs could carry her weight.
“That’s better.” The girl sighed as she drifted back into her dreams. At least there she would be safe.
“Safe? Safe from what?” a voice said. The girl turned around quickly as if to greet the suitor. “You think you can run from your past? Your future? You knew this day would come. The young princess’ eighteenth birthday – the reckoning. It is time for you to join your sisters.” The voice rang true with conviction, for she also knew this truth. The day had drawn closer and closer.
“No!” she protested vehemently, “I will never be like them! I will never fall to the corruption of the Gods!” At this point the girl began to panic, gasping for air and turning her body back and forth in search for the voice; ‘to destroy it’, she thought. ‘To raze the Herald of Prophecy.’ However, her plan fruitfully provided futility, for the Herald rang out once again.
“Do not deny fate, young one.” The voice slowly trailed on. “You will rise to power, you will eliminate those close to you, and you will dominate the kingdom passed down to you.”
“No! No! Never!” the girl’s face stretched in torment. She began to scratch violently away at the darkness, as if to claw out the Herald’s vocal cords with her bare hands. Her fingernail caught on something thin and taught – ‘Paper?’ she thought. ‘A wall of darkness? How is this possib-’ she ceased thinking and started acting. She tore away at the loose darkness, peeling it down like a wallpaper of stars. Light shone through the rips so brilliantly like the morning sun. She peered through the rift in the darkness and gazed beyond the infernal darkness.
The Princess of Frost saw what she dreaded and feared the most – her destiny. From behind the rift, she could see herself like a mirror. There she stood in all her beauty, Jinx, the Princess of Frost. She saw her reflection twist into something horrid – she stood in the same position, however, she stood over the corpses of those she loved. Covered in blood, she wore a wicked smile that covered her entire face, ear to ear. She was laughing – no – she was hysterically gasping for air, for she found the situation so incredulously hilarious and there was no attempt to hide her pleasure nor was there control over her hysteria.
She lifted her blood-stained satin-gloved hands slowly around her petite, curved body while the ground began to tremble beneath her. The blood of the innocent soaked into the ground, and it began to fade into white – snow. It became a blizzard at the young princess’ feet, for she had dominion over all things frozen.
The girl behind the hole was trembling aggressively, but she forced herself to watch further to know the chronicle. Violently, icicles the size of skyscrapers tore out of the fresh snow and individually pierced each of the corpses littered around the mad princess. She erected a gorgeous ice-clad throne for her royalty to be seated; dazzling sapphires and stained glass added to its majesty. She sat down, still channeling her spells while the grotesque scene progressed like a leisurely avalanche. The lifeless bodies mounted on the tall icicles began to leak crimson streaks all the way down to the bases. Taller than the heavens, the Princess of Frost sat atop her throne with her monument to her glorious power. A thick fog began to set around it all; the throne, the icicles, the blood, the bodies, the princess.
She sat in the fog, one leg over another, silhouetted in black. Nothing about her was even remotely visible, not even her stunning handmade lavender dress her mother had crafted her.
Except that smile. It was unwavering, unrelenting. The princess had realized her true power, her true potential. She was no longer the Princess of Frost, but the Queen of Lunacy.
After seeing the traumatic unfolding of the prophecy before her, the young princess stumbled backwards from the hole in the darkness where the light, and truth, shined in on the lonesome space. Her hands shook, they cupped her gentle face, her eyes were seared by the light – she was not allowed to gaze as long as she had. Tremulous, alone in the darkness, she wept.
“I do not wish to harm the innocent.” she cried. “Why hath the Gods chosen me – my family – to play this cruel jest upon? Is there any way to change my future?” She bowed her head down. “I chose to write my own destiny after being exiled to these desolate islands, but, yet again it seems as if the pen is no longer in my hands. The Gods toy with my existence, granting me this glorious gift of magic, and at the same time, I am expected to slaughter those I have cared for and shed not only their blood, but the blood of the guiltless?” she pulled at her hair. “These wretched powers... make me a monster!”
She grabbed at a single thread of her hair, a violet strand – her mark. The princess had beautiful jet-black hair that extended past her perfectly sculpted face, her small shoulders, and began to slow at her lower back. However, one single strand of her luscious locks beamed a bright purple – it was the mark placed on her by the Gods to separate her from other humans. Any mortal man or woman with some sort of mark was no longer classified as human, but a denizen of the netherworld. Humans were keen on this matter, and feared the powers bestowed by the Gods. Just like the young princess, netherworldly beings were either exiled to the islands or executed by trial.
However, there were two remaining marked beings that were not exiled or killed – the princesses of heart and life respectively. The Princess of Life was the middle sister, and Princess of Heart the eldest. The Princess of Heart, being the oldest of the trio was the first to fulfill her prophecy and become the Queen of Deception. Through her transformation her powers over mortal hearts grew to allow her to manipulate any mortal seamlessly. She disguised her mark and became the queen regent of her kingdom Bellocan. The Kingdom of Bellocan was inhabited by the Queen’s puppets; not a soul dared to challenge her inexhaustible rule. They all adored her – because they had to. They had no sentient control over their feelings or actions, the Queen was busy pulling the strings of her citizens and others, soon her own hands would be tied.
She inducted her younger sister, the Princess of Life, the middle child, into her prophecy. As instructed by the Gods. The princess gave struggle to her destiny as well as the Princess of Frost has, but it proved useless for the Princess of Life. The Queen of Deception did the unthinkable – she shattered the restrictions of her powers and manipulated her own sister to slay and conquer by the Queen’s hands. However, through this, the prophecy for the Princess of Life was tainted. Her transformation would be shifted and she would not grow to be the Queen she was meant to become.
Each princess has to fulminate on her own, and due to the ignorance and meddling of the Queen, the Princess of Life, Daisy, her prophecy was altered and she became the Queen of Misguidance instead of the Queen of Edict.
The Queen of Deception once again pushed to influence her youngest sister, the Princess of Frost. However, this time, the Gods had interfered. The Gods saw misuse of power and the unwinding of prophecy in the Queen. They exhausted some of her powers, restricting her once again from manipulating anything other than mortals. For if she had tried to move prophecy with her own hands once more, she would have had to deal with the wrath of the Gods and she would be struck down.
“They are not as strong as me,” she willed. “I’ll use my gifts to ensure the prophecy, you should be pleased about that – are you not?!” She flung her dress out of her way, walking down the long steeple hallways of her castle.
“You are not a God, Peach. Let the prophecy unroll itself and do not interfere again or there will be callous consequences.” said the castle walls, echoing back and forth through the pillars of majesty.
“I am stronger than a God! I will show you heathens true godly power. The day you gave me power was the day you will roil in your own blood. You have no clue to my plot, and to what I presume of. You cannot stop me – and you won’t. Because you of all know that I cannot be stopped. That is why you refuse to impede unreservedly. You call yourselves Gods? You are nothing but cowards!” the Queen raged, she was right after all. The Gods were afraid of their creation; perhaps they gave this one too much power?
The voices stopped. The Queen was alone again. If she commanded such, she could have broken the seal on her powers once more and willed the Princess of Frost to kill her servants, her friends, and much more. But she, the Queen of Deception, had a much larger plan. She wasn’t following prophecy anymore, but instead spilling the ink all over the story. She planned to rewrite prophecy – as the protagonist. She would be the prophet, not the Gods. She aimed for their throats now and she required the aid of her sisters to do so. The Seven Gods would die by her hands, one by one.
The young princess woke up finally with a shattering scream. Raphiya rushed in and held the princess in her arms. The princess held tight around the maid’s waist. Her eyes welled with tears as she extended her hands about the maid. A chill began to creep up her spine. Hoarfrost began to leak from the princess’ fingertips and into the maid’s fair skin. Her body slowly transformed into rime, the maid attempted to cry out in pain, but she held it in. She wept more feverishly now. The frost had spread far already, it covered her entire body. The princess slowly stood, and put her hand over Raphiya’s eyes, closing them with her gentle fingers. The frozen maid fell backwards at this action, and her body of frost shattered into pieces.