Psyche

Chapter 5

Sometime after her fifth birthday, Princess Psyche began to exhibit eccentric behavior. She ceased playing with her dolls and started playing with logic puzzles that had belonged to her older brother. Eugenia and Euphemia had teased her mercilessly about this, calling her a freak, but Nikolas was fascinated. When the little girl had finished all the child's puzzles, Nikolas gave her some puzzles meant for adolescents, and she solved those as well. She had a bit of trouble with ones for adults, but she pouted and cried when Nikolas tried to take them away.

"I will solve them." she insisted. "I will."

Nikolas had been taken aback by this, and he had discussed the matter with his tutor, who was a Greek of great learning and wisdom. The old man had been so impressed by the little girl, he let her sit in on Nikolas's lessons, and soon the child was contributing as though she was her brother's equal.

The King and Queen did not believe either the tutor or their son, believing their youngest daughter to be merely a clever mimic, adept at repeating words and actions she observed in her older siblings. So, Nikolas took it upon himself to cultivate his baby sister's abilities.

Nikolas's chief sanctuary in the palace was his observatory, which was located high atop the north spire of their palace. It was a small space, but it had a telescope, mechanical astrolabe, and all manner of vials and beakers filled with potions. Nikolas spent hours looking at the stars and experimenting, and Psyche often joined him as his little assistant, sometimes experimenting on her own.

So, one day, when Nikolas discovered his magnifying glass missing, he immediately assumed Psyche had taken it. She liked to examine flowers and insects in the garden, often tracking their movements. He went to the garden and searched for her there. Down near the bank of a lovely, natural brook that ran through the palace grounds, he came upon a scene that deeply disturbed him.

Psyche appeared to be wrestling the much larger, much more aggressive Eugenia, who was spitting on and smacking the little girl. Rather than crying, Psyche simply clutched at the object in her hand, not letting go to touch the blood that dripped from her tiny face.

"Snide little brat," spat Eugenia, "Give it back!"

"No..." shouted the little girl, "No! No! No!"

Nikolas had to squint, but he noticed the brass handle of his magnifying glass protruding from Psyche's small hands.

Nikolas folded his arms. "I think I can settle this," said Nikolas. "Why don't you give it to me, Psyche? After all, I'm its rightful owner."

Eugenia let her little sister go and glared at Nikolas. Nikolas knew well that since he was one of only three people in the kingdom that outranked Eugenia, that she automatically hated him. But she was no fool, and she rarely, if ever, defied Nikolas's wishes.

Sometimes, he thought, It's not so bad being the crown prince.

Psyche ran to her brother and held out the magnifying glass, which Nikolas took. Eugenia rolled her eyes as Nikolas polished both the handle and the glass with the silk sleeve of his robe, grateful that the rare and expensive device - built especially for him by Atlantis's finest craftsman - was undamaged in the melee. Afterward, he retrieved a cloth from his pocket and dabbed the blood from his sister's face. She appeared on the verge of tears, but she did not cry.

"Why did you want it?" asked Nikolas to Eugenia, who as far as he knew had no interest in science.

His eldest sister sneered and kicked some pebbles with her slippered foot. "I simply wished to get a closer look at those ants," said Eugenia pointing to a small line of the tiny insects.

Psyche glared at her. "She's a liar," said the little girl. "She said she would use the sun's rays to burn the ants. She was going to kill them."

"They are foul little creatures that bite. I should have the gardener eliminate all their mounds," snapped Eugenia.

"No!" shouted Psyche, "They do you no harm!"

Nikolas shook his head. Eugenia's sadism toward animals was her worst quality, and she had a long list of bad qualities.

"Ants are part of the natural world, and this section of the gardens is meant to be natural. They shall live unmolested here," replied Nikolas. "I so order it, as crown prince." When Nikolas gave a formal order, only his father could override it.

"Whatever you say, brother," replied Eugenia, tossing her head aside, "but when one bites you and leaves a vicious, red mark that you itch until you bleed, I shall laugh at your folly."

With that, Eugenia stopped off toward the palace. Nikolas turned to his youngest sister, who far from looking upset, looked furious. Nikolas was quite pleased - someone of Psyche's great beauty and peculiarly high intelligence might develop a sense of superiority. Psyche's compassion indicated that she might not grow into an arrogant and detached woman.

"I'm proud of you, Psyche," said Nikolas as he knelt next to his sister. "All the creatures of the natural world deserve our respect. Sometimes, circumstances force us to kill them, but it should never be done lightly."

Nikolas himself was a vegetarian, as were many of his subjects thanks in part to the many varieties of protein-rich vegetables and legumes grown on the island, but Nikolas knew that in many countries, humans needed to eat animals to survive. Eugenia and Euphemia, and the King and Queen, all ate meat. Psyche, however, usually declined meat just as her brother did.

"The birds and the frogs eat the ants sometimes," said Psyche, "but they must do so to live. Eugenia wished to kill them for sport. She could have shown me how to burn something that wasn't alive."

Nikolas brushed a red hair out of his sister's face, and he saw that she was breathless and flushed with anger.

"Calm down," he said. "It will only do you harm to remain angry at Eugenia. Besides, it isn't logical since she enjoys it when people are angry at her. Besides, you will meet many cruel people in your life, and you must learn to stand up to them without letting anger destroy what is good in you."

Psyche closed her eyes and she breathed in and out. Nikolas smiled. His tutor had shown them both this exercise as a means to calm their nerves before exams. Psyche had taken to the rhythmic breathing, and Nikolas often observed her using the technique when she was being tormented by her older sisters.

"While we are out here, would you like to look at the cocoons hanging from the milkweed over there? It won't be long before the butterflies emerge," he said.

Psyche nodded furiously and followed her brother to a patch of milkweed.