Secret Places and Hidden Things

Chapter Fourteen

"Once, long ago, there was a beautiful enchantress."

They were up in Wynne's tower and Elliot was telling stories. It was late in the evening, and Jack was sitting in a recliner so plush he couldn't tell where his body ended and the chair began. Wynne was sitting on her couch, knitting, and next to her, Daerk was gazing into the fire vacantly. Michael was on the rug with the fox.

"I think I know where this is going," Wynne said, picking at a knot in her yarn.

"Don't spoil it for me," Jack said, "I haven't heard anything about an enchantress."

"A beautiful enchantress," Elliot corrected. "She was a princess, heir to a land so vast there were four different languages spoken within its borders. She wanted for nothing—anything she might ask for, she'd receive. When she was young, she had little imagination, and asked her parents for dresses and sweets, games and toys. They were happy to spoil her, calling the greatest artists in the land to make her whatever she might name.

"As she got older, though, her desires changed. The things she wanted couldn't be bought anymore. Having played with lovely toys all her life, she yearned to create such things herself. Her parents hired the most renowned painters, sculptors, and musicians to tutor her, but no matter what she did, she never improved.

"At first her tutors feared to criticize her, and would lavish praise on whatever she made, but this didn't last long. Her own instincts for beauty were well trained, and she knew her work was no good. With her encouragement, the tutors began trying to correct her work. They tried the standard methods they had learned themselves. Then they tried the methods they reserved for their most stubborn and stupid pupils (though they would never have revealed this to the princess). She mastered technique after technique, and became highly proficient at mimicry, but all her efforts to create something new failed. Her first tutors were executed for incompetence and the next greatest artists were brought in. When they failed, they were also executed.

"As the years passed, the princess grew despondent. Not only had her own abilities failed to manifest, but the great art she had come to love had all but disappeared from her country. When she was fifteen, her parents died suddenly, and she inherited the kingdom. Her subjects called her The Red Queen because of her reign of bloody terror.

"As she grew older, in a sudden transformation, she became incredibly beautiful. Some said it was her sad and troubled past written on her face like an ageless wisdom. Others said, in low voices late at night, that she had done some dark and terrible deed to get what she finally wanted.

"Whatever the case, her beauty weighed on her more than anything else had. It was a mockery of everything she desired most. She could purchase all the beauty in the world, she could ask for whatever she pleased, even her face and hair and skin were beautiful, but she could not create it herself.

"She began to lash out at her mirrors, breaking them and cutting herself with the shards. These cuts healed quickly, and each time she hurt herself she became even more beautiful. As time wore on, and her anger, self-hatred, and violence increased, her subjects male and female alike fell under the spell. They would fall at her feet and weep with joy at the sight of her.

"Her despair became so deep, she considered ending her life." He trailed off and looked out the window, lost in thought.

"What happened to her?" Jack asked.

"She found a ray of hope," Elliot said. "In all my travels, the most amazing thing I've seen was a great star in the eastern skies. It doesn't appear everywhere, but those who know of it call it the 'star of untamed potential.' It's one of those old myths that dates way back into the forgotten parts of history. Some say their local gods made it as part of a creation story. Others say it's a spirit, or a distant land set in the heavens. The thing that linked all the myths together was the star's ability to inspire creation. Story goes, the queen heard this myth and set out to find it, abandoning her wealth and her kingdom. I don't know what happened to her after that."

"I think I do," Wynne said.

They all turned to look at her.

"She's sitting right in front of you!" Wynne said dramatically, waving her hands in the air.

Elliot laughed.

"You don't think I'm beautiful?" Wynne asked.

"Of course," Elliot said, "But you are very creative Wynne."

"Yes, I am, but that's because I captured the star out of the southern sky and set it on a ring on my hand."

She held up her hand for them to see. She had a thin gold band with a great glittering opal set into the top.

"Could I see the ring?" Daerk asked.

She slid it off and handed it to him. When he touched it, it sparked, and he dropped it on the floor.

"I don't think it likes me," Daerk said.

Michael bent to pick it up. Suddenly, everything went dark. Jack couldn't tell where he was or how much time was passing. All he could see was a great endless void. It passed as soon as it came. Michael had his hands up next to him, looking at the ring on the carpet. When the fox went to sniff at it, he nudged it away with his foot.

"You weren't kidding, were you?" Elliot said to Wynne.

"Only half," she said, plucking the ring off the carpet. "I'm not a princess, but this ring is definitely a star."

"So, it's real!" Jack said.

"Yes and no," Wynne said. "All of these stories have truth and lies in them. I spent a long time looking for this ring after I heard about it. It's a whole set of stories itself, but I'm not the storytelling type."

"Is that how you ended up here?" Elliot asked.

"I suppose," she said. "I think anyone who wanders long enough will end up here."

"That seems to be true, from what I've seen."

Jack looked at the ring on Wynne's hand. "So that's a star..."

"That's what they say. I wasn't the one who put it in the ring. Someone else found it after it fell."

"And you're not the princess in the story?" Jack asked.

"No, that wasn't my history, as far as I know."

Jack sighed. "I feel bad for her, now. She'll never find what she's looking for."

"It's just a story," Elliot said.