March 21st, 17th year of the reign of King Edward
My search for the truth was disrupted by a ball. I hate balls since I have to be courteous to everyone, even the people I can't stand spending one second with! All the members of the court were in attendance and each one was trying to upstage the other by impressing my parents. My parents enjoyed all the flattery, but I am not deceived by them. Each one of them wants one of their sons to marry me. They may be able to fool my parents, but I am much smarter than anyone truly realizes. I will surprise them one of these days by showing off my intelligence or marrying a prince just to spite all of these egocentric nobles!
On a much happier note, I got to visit with Princess Helen and Princess Esmerelda, my greatest friends in the world. We discussed everything that was happening in our lives, but I could not bring myself to mention my mystery. As much as I adore their friendship, neither one of them really shares my thrill of the unknown. I trust them both with my darkest secrets and my life. We've told each other so many secrets that we could expose so many moments of improper behavior that people would be ashamed to call us princesses. Those secrets die with me and I cannot commit any of them to writing because that would incriminate all of us for life and what people don't know won't hurt them. I will say this in all of our fun, we never harmed anyone.
Helen told me that she will be married in August to Prince Joshua of Glen. I won't see Helen very often after her marriage since Glen is at least one month's journey from Vale. The three of us cried after we started to remember all of our favorite moments of our childhood. Our friendship will never be the same again.
The most amusing part of the night was when Esmerelda stumbled and ended up head first in an old well. I'm still not quite sure how she managed to do it. I don't feel guilty about laughing at her since she was laughing at herself. Unfortunately, the humor in the situation did not last because she lost her golden ball shaped earrings. She was quite upset since the earrings belonged to her mother who died when she was five after giving birth to her younger brother. We looked for the earrings, but there was nothing any of us could do since it was dark. I'm determined to make someone go look for them. No one uses that well anymore, so the earrings should not be that hard to find, I hope.
March 22nd, 17th year of the reign of King Edward
Esmerelda is going to remain at the castle for at least a month, or so I was told this morning. Helen has to leave to begin preparations for her wedding, but at least one friend remains behind. I'll have to tell her about my brother because I can't look for clues secretly, it would be rude to my guest. Esmerelda has been known to find interesting pieces of information in the past, so having her on my side could actually be useful. Of the two of them, it is much easier to convince Esmerelda to do things to which she might object.
March 24, 17th year of the reign of King Edward
I showed Esmerelda everything that I've found about my brother. I don't think she believed me at first, but came around after she saw the official family tree. She wanted to make my parents explain, but I already knew that was a wasted effort. She does agree that my brother is still alive because of the missing year of death. That family tree is magical and knows when people die. It amazes me when I remember those details that I don't think are important, but one day prove to be otherwise. The family tree was a gift from one of the magical influences in my family's past. I wish I knew more about these fairies because I've never seen one as far as I know. I've been taught that fairies are immortal. There must be someone who knows the truth and I'm not going to rest until I discover the truth!