A great evil was taking place in the Garden of Life. On a sacrificial altar, in the center of a great deal of sorcerer's sand were three objects. In front of them was the most evil man in the world: a man, no, a wizard, who would take the three objects and use them in the worst way possible. Darken Rahl. Behind him were two guards, the First Councilor of Hartland, the Seeker, the Mother Confessor, and the Wizard of the First Order. The Seeker, having been touched by the Mother Confessor's power, had just recited the Book of Counted Shadows. Now, Darken Rahl knew exactly what to do.

He walked forward and slipped the first object around his wrist, the second around his left ring finger, and placed the third on top of his head. A great white light emanated from these objects, radiated out from his body in an immence display of magical power and strength. Kahlan, Richard, and Zedd all fell to their knees. Zedd wept with the knowledge of what had been done, of what he had not been able to prevent. Richard wrapped Kahlan, who wept as well, in his arms. Together the three accepted their defeat and the fate of every living person who would now suffer.

Rahl was ecstatic. He had worked his entire life up to this moment, to when he would finally reach the goal his father had failed to. The evil man turned to Michael, who was directly behind him holding a jeweled mirror on a golden plate. Michael bowed onto one knee and held the plate up to his master. As Rahl lifted up the mirror and looked at his reflection, a terrible laugh rose up from his very soul.

"At last!" he screamed. He gazed at the jeweled crown upon his head, the black ring sparkling on his left hand, and the pink bracelet gracing his thin wrist. "At last, I win! At last, I have succeeded where thousands have failed! At long last, I have finally done it! I am the Prettiest Princess of them all!"


I got the idea for this story at my little cousin's birthday party today. We were sitting on the floor playing -- you guessed it -- Pretty Pretty Princess. If you've never heard of it before, you have a game peice of a certain color and as you go around the game board you'll land on spaces like "take a bracelet" or "take a necklace" or "take the crown" and the point is to wind up with all the jewelry plus the crown in your color. Then you take the jeweled mirror and look at yourself being the Pretty Pretty Princess. I had just finished reading Wizard's First Rule that morning, so for some reason Rahl popped into my head. There you go. :)