Prism

Theories of Love

Prince Eric kept his promise. Every other week, as regular as clockwork, he'd come by the tower and plead with her to let down her hair and let him up. When she didn't, he'd return to his attempts to climb the tower. He never made it farther than halfway up, but that didn't stop him from trying. As hers was the only window not hidden under layers of illusion, he didn't have another way into the tower, so he just kept climbing.

After a month and a half of this, Rapunzel was ready to scream. She would have thought that she would be flattered by the attention, but it was actually creeping her out. There was no way to get rid of him! Nothing she'd tried – sending him to rescue other princesses, ignoring him, yelling at him to go away – had worked. She'd even dumped a bucket of water on his head two weeks ago, and he'd still reappeared today. He was like a rash that simply refused to heal.

She told all that to her best friend Arianna via mirror-message, who laughed. Rapunzel sighed. "How do you stand it?" She threw up her hands as she glared at the silvery mirror hanging on the wall. "How many princes, knights, and common adventurers are there in this kingdom, anyway? This is the fourth time Prince 'You're clearly under a vile spell' has come by – I swear I'm going to throw the bloody bucket at him next time."

Arianna giggled and twined a lock of blond hair around her finger. "Come on, aren't any of them cute? I mean, at least a few of mine are passable."

Rapunzel regarded her friend in the mirror with envy. Dressed in a brilliant crimson gown, which set off her emerald eyes to perfection, she was the image of a perfect princess, at least in appearance. Her temperament, though, matched her current gown. After she had scared away yet another suitor, her parents had sent her to the dragons in the hopes that a few months as a dragon's servant would straighten her out.

It was another traditional way to marry off an unwanted princess, but it had backfired in Arianna's case. She'd quickly made friends with Rapunzel, along with all the other princesses with access to the magic mirror system, but she'd continued to terrify every knight that came calling.

Rapunzel sighed. "How do you do it?" she repeated. "Don't you ever get sick of them?"

Arianna shrugged. "I mean, I haven't found anyone who I want to marry, but..." She shrugged again. "I bet I will someday. And, until then, Corthakan can have fun scaring them." A conspiratorial grin spread across her face, and she leaned closer to her mirror. "Did I tell you what he did to the last one?" When Rapunzel shook her head, Arianna's grin broadened. "Well, this one managed to find his way through the maze, but he was pretty banged up by the time he got out – he apparently lost his torch in the first chasm, and didn't bring extras, so he was running into all the walls. I swear, we could hear him coming for miles!" She tipped her head to one side. "So he comes stumbling out of the maze, doing his best to look powerful, and starts to shout his challenge. Then..." She laughed. "Corthakan stuck out his tongue and licked him from behind!"

Rapunzel burst out laughing. Corthakan, Arianna's dragon, was young by draconic standards, being only four hundred or so. He enjoyed all sorts of pranks – Rapunzel could easily imagine him coming up with something like this. "So what happened?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh, the knight jumped about a foot," Arianna laughed. "Then he screamed, tried to grab his sword while yelling something about an infernal monster, and fell flat on his butt. Corthakan licked him again, and he scrambled up and ran." She wrinkled her nose. "He seemed like a bit of a prig, judging by the way he was politely cursing in the tunnels; I'm glad I didn't have to talk to him." Her expression grew dreamy. "There's another one, though... he's sweet. I hope he comes back."