Prologue
A leathery volume engraved with a faded coat-of-arms of lions and star-framed crosses lies on a patch of fresh grass scattered with petals. The volume opens on its own, revealing a large illustration akin to Medieval art of a blue-clad princess with a demure expression in a hilly meadow beside a castle.
A grandfatherly baritone voice with a British accent begins to read the book aloud. "Once upon a time, there was a lovely princess—"
A screech sounds, as if a needle is scratched across a record.
"Wait a minute!" a nasally tight and very American tenor voice snaps. "The audience has heard that story before! How about something they haven't heard of? Give them the other book! You know what, I'm gonna get it myself."
The brown volume closes, lifts, and quickly flies away from view.
A burgundy volume of fresher leather floats down in its place. It has a white-circled black cameo of a cat in a wide-brimmed, feathered hat upon its cover.
"Puss in Boots?" the first voice notes. "Why don't we read something new?"
The burgundy book floats away, and down comes a velvety green volume with gold inlay that makes an emerald heart-shaped necklace appear to be on the cover.
"But-but that's, you know, the girl book," the second voice stammers.
"This whole story started with 'don't judge a book by its cover,' you fool!" snapped the first voice. "It's time you broaden your scope of literature."
"Okay," the second voice resigns, "But it won't be my fault if no one likes it."
The green volume opens, revealing an illustration of the same style as the brown volume's. But this illustration is of a plump, winged woman in a sparkling red voluptuous dress and narrow scarlet cat-eye spectacles. She holds up a wand topped by a star, and is smiling in a saccharine way down at a valley dotted with houses and a large castle.
"Once upon a time," the first voice reads aloud again, "In the land of Far Far Away, there was a fairy godmother."
The page turns to a new illustration, where the Fairy Godmother places a hand on the shoulder of a knight with a puffed-out chest and a pompous grin. Her other hand points up to a tower, where a princess similar to the one in the brown volume stands on the tower's balcony.
But while the princess in the brown volume wore a blue gown and a sweet expression, this princess wears a pink dress and an expression of melodramatic horror.
"She used her strongest magic to give the people a happily-ever-after meant to last forever," the first voice continues, "One about the knight saving the princess from the dragon."
The page turns to show a dark forest of spearing pines and crooked maples where the Fairy Godmother blasts fleeing ogres with her wand while witches fly behind her, their faces and eyes downcast. The Fairy Godmother's dress has a hellish gleam to it, and her eyes are icy pinpricks above her red-framed bared teeth.
"But she wanted all magic under her control," the voice tightened, "And hated when any ugliness disrupted the beauty she sought to maintain."
The page turns to a picture of peasants with wide grins on a sunlit hill under a golden sky, cheering up to the Fairy Godmother, who tries to make her gloating look humble.
"When she controlled all magic, she rid the land of darkness," hope returned to the voice.
The page flips to a double page-illustration with a simple backdrop of parchment.
The Fairy Godmother stands between a couple, but a little to the right, her eyes tense above a forced smile.
A princess with blonde ringlets and a gold dress stands on one side. She plumps up her hair in front of a hand-held mirror, her lips pursed and eyelids lowered in a snobbish expression.
"And she believed that wealth and appearance were all that mattered for a happy ending," the voice lowered again.
On the other side, a prince with wavy brown hair turns away from the princess. He clutches and lifts a heart pendant that is as emerald as his eyes.
"But a kind young prince cared for none of those things, as he wished to marry the one his heart chose," strength rose into the voice. Then, the voice darkened again. "The Fairy Godmother forbid it."
The page turns to two pages with different illustrations.
In the first picture, the Fairy Godmother lurks in the deep gray-blue surroundings of a forest. She looks to the side as if fearing discovery, but a cold smile curves up the corners of her mouth. She holds out a slime-green bottle with a skull stopper to a muscular man in a long black cloak, whose hood casts his face into shadow.
He reaches out a leather-gloved hand, and his twisted body reveals a bow and quiver upon his back.
A figure stands beside a horse in a clearing in the background. While the darkness transforms the figure into a near-silhouette, the figure's outline has the prince's distinct wavy hair.
"When the prince sought true love against her wishes," the first voice lowers and sharpens, "She struck him down with a wicked spell."
The second picture shows the prince who had turned away from the princess. He lies upon a bed framed by blue curtains, his eyes closed in sleep as he holds a single white lily upon his diaphragm.
The window behind him reveals a shadowy, stormy sky, broken by a bolt of lightning and a rising wave.
"The Fairy Godmother's actions rid the land of light," sadness replaces anger in the first narrator's voice. "Though the people never knew evil, they never knew true good, either."
The page turns to an image of a witch with pale olive skin and dark, curly hair.
"For three hundred years, it remained so…until one would restore light and darkness. For when both exist, the stories will never end."
The page flips to an painting of rolling hills under a blue sky.
The image expands, and the book is forgotten.
The painted grass becomes a calm ocean of green strands.
The clouds in the painted sky gain depth and become mobile.
Below the hills, there is a small, rocky valley ringed by a thick forest of sharp trees. The valley grows closer, revealing a small series of crooked houses, a run-down manor, several caravans, and, dotted here and there, basic pine outhouses.
One outhouse comes into view, an outhouse with a curling heart carved into its door.
A tree stump stands beside the outhouse, and upon the stump sits a large frog with a bored expression on its face.
A title curls across the scene in large gold letters. This title is a single name; Ophelia.
—