"What's 'The Crystal Book?'" Alethia wondered aloud. She opened the book and saw her mother and her father.
Wait, what? She thought. Is this a collage of my family or something? To her horror, the pictures started moving.
"Aggh!" She dropped the book on the floor.
Alethia looked at the book once more. She realized that she could see her mother and father speaking. And, what was better: She could hear them!
She heard the guards march to the door and crawled into a nook to hide. One guard asked if they should check it, but another cut him off, saying, "No, it's fine. Only the Queen knows the password, and we can't go in anyway. We can pass all the rooms only the Queen can access." There were a few muffled "yes, sirs" and the guards tromped away.
Still hidden in the nook in case they came back, Alethia looked at the Crystal Book again.
She saw a guard enter the room and suggest timidly: "Your Majesty, could your daughter be the intruder? The sounds the Honored Sir hears sound like a younger person: scuffling and, for the most part, quiet. A man would be louder."
Weird how he could deduct that from scuffling.
The Queen scoffed. "No way. Don't be sexist! Men aren't necessarily louder than girls. Plus, my portal skills are on point! I sent the girl to Flowerland. Besides, I think she'd like Flowerland anyway." However, she was worried, Alethia could tell, just by looking at her face.
Also, your portal skills are off point, Mom, Alethia thought, a smile spreading across her face.
"Anyways..." Alethia's father prompted.
"Yes, right." The Queen regained her composure. "So. The plan is, I will take my daughter's soul, consume it using my awesome magical skills, and then I'll soon be pregnant with a little, nice, baby girl! But I just have to do it on the full moon. Ingenious, isn't it?"
What if you get me again? Alethia asked herself. (Somehow she was not affected by this revelation.)
"What if you get Alethia again?" her dad asked.
"Oh, don't worry," the Queen said, waving her hand dismissively. "The human body has many components. There's the heart, the blood, spirit, and the brain. Nobody except that girl can get that idiot brain of hers. I only need to get the soul. And plus, I'll get a bit of my old daughter's personality in my new girl. Hopefully the small part in Alethia's soul that's good."
What if part of my personality is a slug and you get a slug? Alethia wondered.
"What if part of her personality is a slug and you get a slug?" The King asked.
Alethia was starting to think that he was hearing her questions.
"You're such a worrier," the Queen remarked, and Alethia jumped. She felt as if the Queen were talking about her. Thankfully, it was just the Crystal Book. "Of course I won't get a slug." She wrinkled her nose. "I'll get a nice little girl. There is absolutely no way I can get—"
Alethia watched as the troop of guards entered the room noisily.
"Your Majesty, we have not found the intruder," the captain reported.
The Queen's face hardened. "You are sure you have searched every room?"
"W-well, we didn't search the Three Caves and the rooms only you can enter—"
The Queen nodded. "Very well. I will search the other rooms." She turned to the guards. "You are dismissed."
The guards trooped out of the room to wherever they went when they were dismissed.
YOU ARE READING
The Princess and the Queen
FantasiA story of a young girl named Alethia, trapped in a frightening predicament: her mother wants to kill her, because she's not good enough. Not only that, her mom happens to be extremely magical and has many relics that are very mystical. She happens...
