“On June 14, 25 years ago, something magical happened.
“On that date, a princess was born. Now, while most other princesses were born in huge castles with hundreds of people waiting for them to come into the world, this one was different. She was a little...ahead of schedule. She was born in the house of one of her mother's many loyal subjects. You can imagine the looks on those folks’ faces when the queen came knocking on her door, saying she was having a baby! Well, the princess was born just fine, and the owners of the house were well rewarded, you can be sure of that. Anyways, after that, the princess’s life proceeded as normal. Well, with a few minor exceptions.
“For example, she was named Grimhilde (grim-il'-deh), a name the queen completely made up. Everyone told her that giving a baby a new name was bad luck, but she wouldn’t listen. Princess Grimhilde grew up to be a beautiful little girl, if not a little vain. In fact, it was often said her best friend was the mirror. That kind of turned out to be true, but that will come later. Grimhilde was a very healthy girl, always eating fruits and vegetables, especially apples. She loved apples. But...there was something else to Grimhilde, something darker, more evil.
“She began to take an interest in magic and witchcraft, and this bothered her parents very much. They tried to take away all of her spell books and potions, but it wasn’t enough. She knew too much; she could just make up her own magic. Eventually, it got too out of hand, and the king and queen had to send her away. By this time she was a teenager, and they thought sending her to a nunnery would do her good, but she escaped.
“In time, her parents died, and Grimhilde took their throne. Many young men sought her hand, in hopes that love would thaw her heart, but it only seemed to make it worse, with all of those men constantly attacking her. Soon, she became truly evil–”
“No. No, she did not.” Grimhilde slammed the book shut. She’d been reading through all these history books, trying to find one, just one, that was nice to her. That portrayed her as good, not evil. She wasn’t evil. At least, she didn’t think she was. Not compared to other people. She hadn’t told lies to hundreds of thousands of people about their ruler. She hadn’t torn down someone because of her differences. Yes, she was a little vain, but that wasn’t her fault. She was prideful because she had nobody to compare herself to in this lonely castle. And she was told she was beautiful everyday. In fact...
Grimhilde walked over to Mirror. She looked into him, pondering her reflection. She may be twenty-something (she relied on the newspapers to tell her age, but they make it up, and they all used different numbers, so she assumed she was in her twenties somewhere), but she looked about twice her age. She could’ve fixed that with some spell of potion if she wanted, but it takes so much energy to change a person's appearance. Still, she looked beautiful. The fairest of them all, in fact. Mirror told her that all the time.
Grimhilde cleared her throat and loudly and clearly asked, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?”
Mirror replied, “You are, my Queen.”
Grimhilde had created Mirror after several newspapers and magazines had rather rudely stated that her best friend was the mirror. She intended it as a publicity stunt to get people to like her a little more (this was when she still cared what they thought), but the kingdom took it rather harshly, saying that it wasn't enough to see that she was too pretty for everyone else; she needed someone to personally tell her she was.
Technically, this was Mirror II. The original Mirror was stupidly placed in her bedroom in front of a window so that someone looking in from the street in front of her castle could see Mirror. Or throw something at him. So, for example, if one were to have thrown, say, a flaming torch with enough force, he or she could have smashed the glass and caught his wooden frame on fire. On this particular night, the queen might have been tired and have started undressing in front of Mirror, taking off her coat immediately after talking with him and then beginning to walk towards her bed, still undressing on the way there, leaving a trail of clothes on the way to her bed. In such an instance, should the wooden frame catch fire, the trail of clothing would quickly catch as well, thus leading the flames straight to the queen's bed. It was one of the closest attempts to success on Grimhilde’s life yet.
In any case, Mirror was her best friend for a variety of reasons, the least of which being that he told her she’s beautiful, which isn't even wholly correct. He told the truth, and only the truth. Magic cannot be used to create lies. Meaning, she truly was the fairest of them all. Besides being unable to lie, he was quite sophisticated. He often “painted”– or, rather, he created a canvas in the space inside his frame and added color to it. He could engage in conversation, and Grimhilde could choose from many different dialects and accents. For example, her favorite was a southeastern British voice. It almost made her feel like she had multiple friends.
“You know, Mirror,” she said now, “I really think today’s the day.”
Mirror laughed lightly. “You think today is the day every year, my Queen.”
“Yes, but those are all last years today,” Grimhilde responded dreamily. “I mean today as in today.”
“Oh, is that so? You think that on this particular day, everyone is going to walk up to you and say,” Mirror switched to an aristocratic German voice, “‘Why, your Highness, do you not look lovely today? Happy birthday, my Queen!’?”
“Well, not everyone,” Grimhilde responded a little dejectedly, for that was exactly what she’d been thinking. “I just want one person to at least look me in the face and not run in fear. And I think I’m going to get that today.”
“And what happens whe– I meant, if you do not?”
The queen looked up at her reflection. “What?”
“I said, ‘what happens if you do not?’”
“No what were you going to say?” Silence. “Mirror, what were you going to say? Because it sounded like you were going ‘when.’ As in ‘when I don’t have someone look at me?’ Is that what you meant to say?” Silence. “Mirror, answer me!”
A sigh rattled Mirror’s glass. “Yes. That is what I was going to say. Let us be honest with ourselves, my Queen. You have been doing this for nigh on ten years now, though you claim you do not care what the people think of you. And instead of getting results, it seems that people avoid you more each year, as they discover you do this every year on the same date. They likely do not even realize that that date happens to be your date of birth. Take it from someone who cannot tell a lie. You should just give up.”
Grimhilde’s face sunk. “Maybe you’re right.” Then she grew determined. “No. You’re wrong, Mirror. I know that somewhere out there in that great big world there is someone who can spare a little of their time and public opinion to acknowledge their queen. And I plan to find that person if it is the last thing I do.” And with that, she strode out of the castle for the first time in a year.
