The Secret of the Seven Princesses

It always began around the same time, but never in quite the same way. Some nights, the tale would begin with a retrieved slipper and end with the crowning of a peasant boy as king. Other nights, it would start with a family curse and a quest to break it, which included a knight, a dragon, some elves, a bear, and perhaps a dwarf or two. On one occasion, they weaved a tale of lunar travel on a dilapidated log with woodland sprites and a drunken monkey named Momo.

On this particular night—mere days before the summer solstice—the nighttime story was triggered by a toothbrush duel. Eurielle had been quietly brushing her teeth next to Thaleia at the washbasin, minding her own business. Both girls spat and stretched to rinse off their toothbrushes at the exact same moment, resulting in a small, almost imperceptible collision of wood. There was a moment's pause between the two, in which they exchanged knowing glances and a smirk. By the time the rest of the room realized what had happened, the damage had been done and the play set into action.

Thaleia brandished her dripping sword at Eurielle. "You dare to face me after your last defeat, Monsieur Marmalade?"

"Do I really have to have that name again?" Eurielle whined, dropping her arm and stomping her foot.

"Very well, Monsieur Marmaduke," Thaleia corrected. "Did you think merely changing your name would stop me from recognizing your hideous, thieving face?"

And with that, the duel began.

Eralie watched the two girls spar, jumping on cushions and swirling around bed posts as they took turns striking and blocking blows. The rest of the sisters were perched on their beds, laughing uncontrollably and cheering on their respective champion. After a few minutes of intense swordplay, Callia began her customary narration of the imagined scene that her sisters were performing. Her clear voice demanded the attention of the other girls, who quieted their laughter enough to listen to the tale. Thaleia and Eurielle continued their toothbrush spar, albeit silently, in a mimed imitation of Callia's story.

"The sworn enemies circled one another, looks of pure hatred mirrored on each of their faces,"—Eurielle attempted to arrange her smiling face into a look of anger, but merely looked as though she had swallowed a spoonful of Valeria's cold medicine—"when Monsieur Marmaduke exclaimed—"

"You'll never take me alive, Captain Conrad!" Eurielle reacted to her cue, waving her "sword" in the air and nearly braining Raia, who scrambled to a safer place. "For I have captured your identical twin sister, and you never even guessed that I knew you had a twin! Mwah ha ha!"

Callia's eyes gleamed with this unexpected—though not unwelcome—development to her story, despite Cliodne's hiss of disapproval: "They can't be identical, that's impossible!"

Eralie snickered from the place where she sat at her vanity; she had complete faith that Callia would find some way to explain the situation when she copied it all down in her writing journal the next morning. This written record was the only reference to the princesses' nighttime tradition of storytelling with a twist, which began after the death of their mother. In the dark year following that unhappy event, Eralie began telling bedtime tales to the little ones to quiet their cries, allowing them to become increasingly involved in the stories by acting out the drama. After becoming bored with acting out classic fairy tales at bedtime—stories such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel—the princesses had long ago started fabricating tales of their own. These stories became increasingly more original, but were kept a complete secret among the sisters, spoken of only in the privacy of their chambers. Eralie knew that if her father were informed of their activities, he would likely forbid them to act in such an 'unbecoming manner' and might even force them to reside in different rooms. Just the thought of being separated from her sisters was enough to silence her, as the relationship between the seven had been very close since the death of their mother. Eralie was not willing to risk the division and possible estrangement, nor was she willing to relinquish a pastime that had brought such comfort and release to her sisters.

Buried in her thoughts, Eralie realized that the room had gotten completely silent, and that all of her sisters were staring at her expectantly. Evidently, she had missed her cue.

Acting quickly, Eralie let out an uncertain cry of distress. Upon seeing the approving looks of her sisters, she quickly raised her hand to her head and fell backwards on the bed in a mock faint.

Apparently satisfied, "Monsieur Marmaduke" and "Captain Conrad" continued their sparring around the room, until at last Monsieur Marmaduke was cornered with his back against the door, Captain Conrad's toothbrush sword an inch from his heaving chest. During their fight, Petra's brown-sheeted bed had been transformed into a pirate ship, complete with a satin "flag" tied to the bedpost. The three remaining princesses who had yet to enter the scene knelt on their knees, waving Eralie's light blue bed sheet between them to signify the waves breaking against the side of the ship.

Monsieur Marmaduke gave a small cackle, pointing his toothbrush sword at Captain Conrad. The Captain instantly went into sword fighting mode, using his own toothbrush sword to parry and spar with Marmaduke atop the pirate ship. The fierce fighting went on for a few moments before Monsieur Marmaduke's toothbrush was smacked out of his fingers and sent flying across the room. Taking advantage of the moment's surprise, Captain Conrad thrust his sword forward, holding the scoundrel at toothbrush point at the neck.

"Release my twin sister, Monsieur, or pay the consequences," Captain Conrad whispered threateningly.

"Which are…?" questioned Monsieur Marmaduke, a sly smile across his face.

At a loss for words, Captain Conrad vaguely searched for a consequence fit for the scurvy dog, but not something too inhumane. "I'll make you… um, you'll have to… er…"

Seeing Captain Conrad's lapse of imagination, Monsieur Marmaduke gave his signature guffaw before balancing on the railing of the ship. With a dashing bow, he cried, "or I shall be forced to walk the plank! But do not think I will make it easier for you, Conrad!" before leaping from the ship to the plank.

Which happened to be Petra's trunk at the foot of her bed. Big mistake. Suddenly, Monsieur Marmaduke was no longer a swashbuckling pirate, but Princess Eurielle of Kyoria, who had just made a stupid and dangerous error.

Petra shot up from where she knelt on the floor, her cold voice cutting through the tense silence that had fallen over the room: "No one touches my trunk."

Petra's trunk was off-limits to anyone who wished to remain on the princess's good side—including her sisters. Eurielle squealed incessant apologies, her words bleeding together into one continuous screech: "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry I'msorryI'msorry!" In her haste to get away from the 'death zone' and perhaps assuage Petra's inevitable tantrum, she toppled head over heels off the trunk, landing in a heap on the floor.

The distance was not nearly far enough for Petra's peace of mind; she took two very threatening steps towards her younger sister, who lost it completely. Using both hands and feet, Eurielle attempted to scoot even further away, but her foot caught on the elaborate throw rug that blanketed the bedroom floor. The rug went one way, Eurielle went the other, and both landed at least three feet away from where they'd originally started.

Eralie jumped from her place, joining Cliodne, Callia, and Raia in a concerned huddle around their baby sister. Eurielle picked herself gingerly up off the floor, waving away their worry.

"Everyone, look at this!"

Thaleia's excited voice drew the attention of her sisters. She and Petra were staring intently at the floor where the rug had once been. The hardwood was a brighter hue than the surrounding area, better preserved underneath the now-absent fabric. At first glance, Eralie could see nothing unusual about the particular group of boards that her sisters were studying so closely.

Petra pointed to one board in particular, running her finger along the side. "Do you see it?"

Only then did Eralie see what had caused such interest: a subtle but distinct difference was apparent in the pattern of a group of five or six planks placed side by side. There was a noticeable outline creating the shape of a square in the wood, where the planks of the square itself were separated by a slightly larger margin than the ones resting alongside one another.

As the princesses all stared at the newfound discovery, the strange floor started changing once again before their eyes. About midway on one of the side planks, a sort of wavering effect was taking place in the air over the boards. Eralie thought it looked like the heat waves she saw coming off the manor roof on very hot days, but when she stretched out her hand to touch it Cliodne stopped her.

"Can't you see it's magic! Don't touch it, you don't know what'll happen."

Eralie shrugged and continued watching. The wavering air started to take on a shape, becoming more solid, more defined. It took on a metallic sheen of gold and hardened into a large circular ring attached to the floorboards. Eralie wasn't sure, but before the ring and door finally stopped changing she was sure it had given off a slight glow. The ring itself was very ornate and, despite its recent appearance, looked quite old and rusty.

All of the princesses stared for a good long while. Finally, Raia emitted a nervous giggle before quickly looking around at her sisters. Eralie simply stared at her. Eurielle blinked a few times, then looked up and addressed everyone in general.

"Did you see that?" she squeaked, her voice tense with excitement.