Sioanna the Radiant
Once upon a time there lived a girl with skin as beautiful and dark as the night sky. Her name was Sioanna. She lived happily with her family in their lush palace amid the desert and sand. She was a princess, her father, the Emperor of so much land and wealth doted on his daughter.
She had power and everything else she could possibly desire. Her people saw only her radiant beauty and her bright blue eyes. All but one, a sorceress, who saw through that facade to the greediness and that iridescent disdain Sioanna pressed upon others. She knew it must stop; that she must find a way to put an end to the princess's gluttony that was spreading over the dry land, and would consume the whole of the kingdom before the girl was Empress.
One day Princess Sioanna was walking the walls of her home, thinking of the great ball to be held in her honor. She couldn't wait to try on all those jewels and silks her parents had given her. She couldn't wait to shove her wealth in those lowly courtiers' faces and see their nervous stammering and humiliated blushes. It was what she lived for; the superiority.
She was smiling to herself and didn't notice how the wind picked up and dust and sand began sifting into the air until the sky was thick with it. Sioanna finally realized how the air had changed when it began filling her lungs. She coughed and covered her eyes which ached. The wind burned her lovely skin and scraped her arms and neck raw.
The Princess began stumbling
around, trying to find the wall, with one hand outstretched
A
sudden shout rang to her ears.
"Princess!" she turned to the
sound, crying at the sting in her eyes.
"Princess, where have you been?" as the dust suddenly fell to the ground she saw a guard calling her. He escorted her back to the palace, making sure she was brought to the infirmary where she was repeatedly asked if she was alright.
She didn't thank him.
Her parents fretted, they put lotions on her chapped neck and arms. They coddled her and brought her more fine gowns and exotic animals.
Sioanna didn't thank them.
*
The Sorceress raged, seeing Sioanna think nothing of the sandstorm or her parent's attention. She learnt nothing. The Sorceress thought up another way to teach the Princess, this time harsher and more taxing on her strength. If she did this, the Sorceress knew, she wouldn't be able to do anything for a long time. If this didn't work….
*
Sioanna spun across the ballroom
floor, outshining any other. Her steps light and quick. Her dress a
magnificent white that glowed against her radiant skin.
She felt
suddenly, claustrophobic and the heat of the room was too much, and
the constant crowds grew tiresome. She turned a smug smile to the
room at large and swept out into the gardens, her gown billowing out
behind her.
Sioanna spun and danced through the rows of colorful
flowers who, in her mind, bowed their petalled heads in shame at her
radiance.
A sharp sparkle caught her eye and she stopped dancing. A blooming, glittering flower grew at her feet, its petals a clear crystal. Surely, the Princess thought, anything this beautiful was meant for me, as beautiful as we are.
Sioanna bent, her hand curling around the exquisite flower, thinking to pluck it. Pain. Razor hot knives slashed the Princess's palm and fingers; her blood poured over the flower, turning it a deep shade of ruby red. Like a rose.
Numbness rushed through her body and she collapsed to the ground. Unable to move or even cry out as screams and footsteps drifted to her, echoing as though through a long hallway.
She couldn't even let her tears of pain and helplessness escape.
"Sioanna, darling, pet, talk to us!"
"My Princess, gods, what's wrong?"
"My Princess, you must open your eyes"
"-Sioanna-"
"-Princess-"
"-Sioanna-"
"-Princess."
She tried to open her mouth, to tell the babble of voices to stop. But not a muscle so much as twitched. A dull silence descended, shocked gasps.
"This girl, this Princess, is not worthy of your concern. Her own actions have wrought this upon herself. She will….sleep, if you will, until one of her own, someone truly worthy, kisses her lips to bring about her awakening." The voice was female, cold. It sent shivers rolling through Sioanna's bones. The feeling of finality.
Someone came into view and Sioanna
saw them as if through her eyelids; slightly hazy and blurred.
Long dark hair spilled over slender shoulders, a ghost-pale mask
where a face should have been.
"Hear me well, Princess
Sioanna. You are foolish. If you wish to prove otherwise you will
learn from this. Learn well. Sleep."
Darkness.
*
A hard slab of stone was-had
been-Sioanna's bed for one hundred years. An uncomfortable
pastime; lying on something so cold for an insurmountable amount of
time but it wasn't as if she had a choice.
Sioanna had had
such a long time to think, think about her parents, her lovely jewels
and precious gowns.
This thinking had gotten her nowhere though and the only highlights in her dismal life were when the men of worth would come to visit her and kiss her into wakefulness.
Each time the hope that this one would be 'the one' would flare, but alas, it was never so. They would stop, wait, huff, mutter a few choice words then leave. Always the same…and this one would be no different.
He wore armor, a knight, uncombed, unshaven. He stank of horse and other things. And when he bent his head to hers, pressing his dry lips against her own Sioanna prayed, even through her desperation, that this one would walk out alone.
It came to pass; she was once again by herself, waiting. Staring at the rock ceiling through her lids.
She was alone, again. Years passed. No one visited, not a one. She could feel her mind slipping away, into the darkness.
*
Warmth fused Sioanna's lips. A strangely kind feeling. Slowly, she rose from the darkness and felt her eyelids flutter.
A gasp, "Easy now, you've been asleep for a long time." The voice was so pleasant and welcoming. That voice must belong to someone equally so.
She finally got her eyes to open, a smile ready, full of expectation. Her lids lifted.
And she screamed.
A twisted, hideous fade loomed over
Sioanna. He recoiled at the sound and a hand came up to cover half of
his mangled face.
She peered closer, sitting up fast. Scars
twisted down his cheeks and his skin was pulled tight over one eye.
It was truly horrendous. She had never seen anything of the like.
"You-you must come with me…" he wouldn't look at her, instead making his way over to a white horse and lifted her upon it when she reluctantly came closer. She knew of no other way to get to freedom.
Soon she was being carried across the sand. For days, all she saw was blue sky and yellow desert. When she grew thirsty the monst--Prince Nasheen, gave her water. When she grew hungry or sore or tired her went out of his way to make her comfortable and give her anything he could to ease her discomfort.
The Prince told her of his palace and gardens and rare animals and she thought that if she didn't come up with a better plane she might as well go with him and refresh herself.
And despite all his kindness and generosity she grew no warmer towards him but he seemed not to notice.
Eventually they came upon a magnificent pearly white palace, Sioanna gasped upon seeing it, thinking it the most beautiful thing ever made; totally in contrast to its Prince.
She was helped off the steed and led into the halls, up to a luscious room where she could sleep and bathe.
She lay down, heard the door close and was grateful that she didn't have to look at his face for at least a while.
*
This went on for weeks; Sioanna would wake up, go down to break her fast with the prince then hide away in a room until dinner. She talked as little as possible, wishing 'the one' had been a handsome, charming prince and not this monster.
She got silks and gowns and jewels. She grieved for her family and her dances. Again, this went on for a long time until Prince Nasheen came to her after their morning meal together.
He got on his knees and asked for her hand in marriage.
She was disgusted.
"Why would I marry a gargoyle
like you?" she cried.
"Who do you think you are to ask me,
Sioanna the Radiant, a question such as that?"
"No" she mocked, "I will not marry you." She smirked and left him kneeling there, heartbroken.
Sioanna felt free as she walked the white halls, rain slewing from the sky.
"Why hello there." Purred a
masculine voice.
She turned and found a devilishly handsome man
smiling at her, he was a guard perhaps?
Within moments her lips were against his and this was what she had been waiting for. Perfection.
As lightning crashed the paired jumped apart, and saw Nasheen was standing a few meters away, tears running down his ugly face. Without speaking he walked out to a balcony, into the rain. He went to the railing and looked down.
Sioanna followed. They stood like that for an age in silence but for the rain pattering down around them. Until Prince Nasheen finally stood straight, hands smoothing the railing. He turned and Sioanna gasped.
He was beautiful. Absolute perfection. She went a step forward but for every step she took he too stepped back, to the railing, up onto the railing.
She stopped, fearing he would go over the edge, that beauty lost.
"You are a fool, Sioanna the
Radiant."
Rain fell harshly against her beautiful face.
"No" she moaned.
"You are a selfish fool who has not learnt inner beauty and my life is the price….as well as something else." He waved a hand and thunder exploded.
Sioanna blinked and was compelled to look down, into a rain puddle. She screamed. She was hideous as Nasheen had been moments ago. She looked back up at him, anger and hatred sparking at the man who had stolen her radiance.
"You are as ugly as you are on the inside. Hollow. Nobody will want you, ever love you." He whispered.
Sioanna looked back at the other man pleadingly but he just laughed, shook his head and disappeared.
Feeling terrible rage well inside her Sioanna raised her foot, lowered it slowly and Nasheen mimicked the movement, though his foot came to empty air. He fell back, down to earth so far away. And all she could hear was his taunting laughter, growing dimmer and dimmer.
Long minutes later found the once radiant princess curled up on the balcony, wet, cold and sobbing.
Cold lips against her cheek, a female voice whispered in her ear.
"Oh, how I wished you had learnt. Oh, poor thing. Not wanted."
A sigh.
"You should have listened, Sioanna the Radiant,
Sioanna the fool!
Now you will have eternity, here, by yourself.
Oh, poor thing. Stay here and rot!"
Laughter followed the silence for decades.
THE END