Talitha

She saw beauty in everything. That was why she was content with it all, probably. Because, though she was entranced often by the beauty of pretty jewelry and gold crowns and the beautiful dresses that the princesses in the stories always wore, it was the same beauty that she saw in the pretty stones she picked up by the river when she had a chance to, or in the gleam of sunlight on a hayloft late in the afternoon.

And that was why it was so easy for her to not be bitter when Nell was, over and over, chosen as the Princess in the stories, or to say kind things to each of the Players every day. And, though her face ached when she had to frown too much in one of her roles, and though she so often had to play the same roles, saying the same sorts of lines over and over without an opportunity to find new types of beauty in each story, she was happy. She smiled when she could in the stories, and her sarcasm was gentle, and everyone loved her.

Even the Storytellers, she thought, loved her, or they must, because she did what they asked her to always, and without fail. Honestly, she didn't understand why she wouldn't have. True, she would much rather have lived without their dominion, discovering her own new types of beauty every day, but if she couldn't, then she might just make the best of things. And, as for the Storytellers, she didn't see any reason why she wouldn't want to make them love her just as much as everyone else. And people tend to love other people when they make them happy. And people make other people happy by doing what it is they want to do. And so, with that logic, Talitha always obeyed the Storytellers without question, and didn't complain about their mistakes (except a bit, sadly, when they weren't listening and it would make the Story Players happy if she complained), or make herself too conspicuous. She was one of those people who becomes invisible by always doing their job perfectly, and, because she did it so well, she was sure that they must love her.

If Talitha had ever learned that she was completely dispensable to them, she would have been heartbroken. For, if they had to send her Ever After, they would have cast Ashley or Camelia or Anna in her roles without another thought, and, though they might have been irritated at their inadequacies, they would never have realized that lost Talitha had lacked all those faults. And that would have made Talitha very sad indeed.

And so, it was lucky that the Storytellers were destroyed long before she had an opportunity to learn anything like that. The rest of her existence was spent, even more content than she had been before, among people who saw her, and who loved her, if not as completely as she loved them, then enough.