The Ice Princess's Fair Illusion: Fairytale Verses, #2

This will be fun!

And it’s everything

You ever wanted to

Be able to do.

I don’t like talking

To people, Marian.

But we’re not.

That’s the beauty!

We just talk at this

Device and treat it

Like it is a person

And tada! It’s like

We talked to someone,

But we never did.

That’s exactly like

When there is someone

You’re talking to.

What if we say

Something wrong?

Then we’ll correct

Ourselves. You’re

Too used to speeches

That’ve been worked

Out in advance, Edel.

Trust me, Edel.

We can just talk to

Each other and forget

About the device.

Would that help?

Er.

It might?

You’re the one

Who loves spending

Time with people, Marian.

You’ll like this once you

Get started, I promise.

I’ll begin!

Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen.

Ha!

She was the brightest star in all the lands,

Kind and generous and compassionate

Beyond anything that the poets could

Ever hope to catch within their lines.

Oh, please.

The first time we truly interacted

You called me Thrushmane.

And your hair still looks

Like a thrush’s nest

Despite my best efforts to tame it.

It looks fine.

You can tame it for formal occasions.

You know that.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Huuuuuuuu…

I knew I’d regret reminding you.

You love me really.

As a thrush loves its voice, my sweet.

So. Let me tell this bit my way?

Ha! Not a chance.

You’d have me be some flawless

Ethereal being come down from heaven

To save the world from its cruel fate.

Well, I wouldn’t go that far.

…

Probably.

Okay! So!

Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen

And I don’t want any arguments about it again.

The queen was beautiful and kind.

She was also alone.

So very alone.

Ahem.

The queen’s name was Edel,

Which is about as royal as a name can be,

And rather aspirational of her parents

Who were only minor nobility in an

Insignificant country amid the mountains.

Edel was, as queens in stories often are,

Young and innocent of the world around her.

That’s princesses, Marian.

Sometimes queens. In any case,

Trouble did not come to Edel’s

Small home in the mountains,

Unless a dispute about farm borders

Or unfair payments counts as trouble.

She grew up wild and carefree,

The youngest of twelve siblings,

The one destined to live a spinster

In her ancestral home and look after

The sheep and the goats and

What wild gardens could be maintained.

This did not bother Edel, for she had known

From a young age that courtship and marriage

Were not what she wanted from life

The way that her siblings did.

Aromantic, we call it.

You know that, my sweet.

Aromantic and asexual, in fact.

Why do those words bother you so?

They don’t bother me!

I just… This isn’t the right place for them.

It’s my story and I’m telling it, now hush.

No, dear. If you’re going to tell it,

Tell it loud. Tell it proud.

That’s why I agreed to do this.

I want to hear no more

Of people like yourself

Who needed words they never learned

Because no one believed they were needed.

But I wanted to make

A dramatic reveal…

Marian.

Oh, fine!

This did not bother Edel

For she had known from a young age

That she was aromantic and asexual

Which were understood by her people

And not by ours and even though telling it now

Rather ruins the dramatic reveal later on,

She was too straightforward and literal-minded

To know what makes a good story and to let

Her partner — that’s me — do what she does best,

Which is to tell a story intriguingly and well.

You’re so adorable

When you’re grumpy.

Like a little kitten

Denied a saucer of milk

And well knowing it.

Are you suuuuuuuure this is how

You want to do this?

Sure as the sun,

Certain as the moon,

My sweet.

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

But you’d better let me do

A dramatic reveal at some point!

It is your idea, my sweet.

I simply aim to make sure it’s accurate

And that you do not use people’s identities

As little more than a ‘dramatic reveal’.

That won’t do anyone any good.

Why do you like them anyway?

I like stories.

Marian, did you enjoy not knowing

That your feelings were normal?

Did you enjoy people suggesting

That you were broken and

frigid, at best, and

Dead or inanimate at worst?

No!

Then why, my sweet?

Why play coy with other

People’s feelings that way

For a story?

Don’t they matter more than your

Sense of aesthetics?

…

If you put it like that…

But, Edel, not everyone

Wants to use words or labels.

I’m more than that.

And not everyone feels

Broken or abnormal or dead.

I didn’t.

At least not until

Papa decided that

I had to do what he wanted.

And labels make me feel worse.

I just want to be me

Without anyone telling me

What I am or am not.

I know that they matter to you

And that’s why I wanted

To use them later when it mattered

To the story and when I felt comfortable

Using them in a way I found comfortable.

If it’s mostly my story and I’m telling it,

I get to do that, Edel.

Why do your feelings matter

More than mine?

Because —

…

Huuuuuuu.

I suppose they don’t.

I’m sorry, Marian.

But. If we don’t use the words

Then how can others learn that

They exist? We have to use them.

But the context matters, Edel.

I love how confident and assertive

You are when it’s important,

But it matters whether you’re

Telling the story or I am.

It doesn’t look the same.

We don’t experience things

The same. And that’s okay.

Isn’t it?

Yes, my sweet. It is.

And besides

If we always use the words

And not offer descriptions

How are they going to help anyone

If they can’t even tell

What the words mean?

That… is a good point.

I hadn’t thought of that.

I’m sorry to interrupt you, dear.

Please. Continue.

So. Once upon a time

There was a young girl

Who would grow up into

A wonderful woman who doesn’t know

The first thing about the fine art

Of literature and storytelling —

Ahem.

— despite the fact that she’d grown up

In a household where storytelling

Was one of the main ways to get

Through the long, dark winters.

Oh, we did plenty of other things too.

Whyyyyyyy are you like this?

I owed you for

Your comments on my literary tastes?

Stop smiling so smugly!

But riling you up is so much fun, dear.

You puff up like a solstice pastry,

All delicious and sweet.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeww.

You’re horrible.

But you squish me anyway.

To my long-suffering and eternal regret.

You can be so wonderful.

Be like that all the time.

It makes a much nicer story.

It makes a much duller story.

I give up!

You win!

You tell the story.

Know-it-all.

Honestly, dear, you’ve hardly got started.

I’ll tell your half of the story later.

Go on. I’ll try not to interrupt.

Uh-huh.

I’m watching you, Edel.

Anyway. Edel lived with her family

Far away from any kind

Of modern civilisation.

It wasn’t that far.

You promised not to interrupt!

It’s hardly been a minute!

My apologies, dear,

But it really wasn’t that far.

Humph. Some days you’d hardly know it.

Edel lived away from modern civilisation

Not because her family was poor

Or anything like that

But because the mountains are

Treacherous and dangerous

And the pass into the valley

She called home was little-travelled.

Which is a shame because it’s

Really rather beautiful with this

Bridge that leads right over

A waterfall that clatters invitingly

Down the mountainside.

It’s not that big a waterfall either,

Which is why it’s so friendly and cute.

Marian, dear.

You’re drifting.

Oh.

Right.

But the waterfall is absolutely worth

Coming to see it, though. It’s lovely.

And there are flowers and plants and

Don’t you even start, Edel. Hush!

I wasn’t doing anything.

You were thinking it!

I’m waaaaaaatching yoooouuuuuu.

…

Ahem.

Edel knew a lot about flowers and plants

That grow in the mountains because she had to.

When civilisation doesn’t like coming to where

You are, you’re stuck without some of its more

Useful advances. Like medicine to complement

The skills already there.

Thank you, dear.

I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not…

I was not, but feel free to interpret it that way.

Ha! I shall give you the benefit of the doubt.

For now.

But yes. Edel had learned

A lot about plants and herbs

Because it was prudent and wise

To do so. So it’ll surprise no one

To know that modern civilisation

Decided that she had to be a witch.

Which she isn’t, just so you know.

Weeeeeeeell…

Not a story-witch! Not the ones who cast

Curses and ruin people’s lives!

Not an evil witch! Just a woman

Who happens to know a lot

About plants and how to use them!

Anyway! Edel was set to live

A happy, secluded life just the way

That she wanted to. She didn’t need

Or want more than her flocks and

The freedom to roam the woods

And a set of good friends around her.

Fate, however, had different plans

For young Edel, and I’m very glad it did.

When Edel turned seventeen —

Sixteen.

— sixteen, disaster struck.

Not for Edel’s family, as such,

But for Edel herself and her dreams.

The queen of a neighbouring country had died,

You see, while giving birth to a beautiful little baby

With lips as red as blood and hair as black as night

And skin as white as the untouched snow.

And the king needed a mother for his child.

And a wife for his bed.

Edel! I can’t hear you! Lalalalalalalalalala!

Ach, my sweet, it’s not even that explicit.

LALALALALALALALALA.

Now you’re just being silly.

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Shall I just continue the story then, dear?

No, it’s mine! Hisssssssssss.

It speaks!

It interrupts!

Heh heh.

Go on, dear.

The king definitely needed

A good mother for his only child,

But he also wanted and needed someone

Who would not cause a lot of political

Strife or cause trouble with the succession later.

He also wanted to have someone

Who reminded him a little of his dead wife

Except stronger and more likely to survive

Child-birth should another baby be born.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-Anyway!

They searched far and wide for a bride

Who fit the king’s criteria and, eventually,

They came even to Edel’s home,

Once tucked so safely in the mountains

Where no king could find them.

Edel’s family and friends did what they could

Because, though they wished the best for Edel,

Their idea of the best was different from that

Of the king’s men who had been sent out to

Find every eligible maiden in the nearby lands.

It goes without saying that

The king’s men’s idea of what

Was best for Edel was not, in fact,

What was best for her at all.

It wasn’t what I wanted, certainly,

But I would not quite go that far.

Hush. You’ll get a chance to

Interrupt me later. I promise.

The king’s men had heard of a lovely maiden

Who resembled the dead queen

And they would not leave until

They had found her.

Well, that was true enough.