The Secret of the Seven Princesses

Sanctum Chapter 2

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.