Before I start this chapter, let me just say a few things:
Ali: Briar Rose is the original name the Grimm Bros. used for Sleeping Beauty.
Kirjava: I hope you're beginning to see how these three families will be tied together (I'm getting there, I'm getting there).
Everyone else: Thank you for all your reviews. It's comforting to know that there are people out there who are interested in the story, and I'm not just doing writing it because it amuses me [although it does : )]
Chapter 6Kingdom 1: "Hasty spells and lengthy waits"
Things had been rather tame since the last confrontation between the queen and her eldest daughter, tame but not quiet. All about the castle, people prepared for the upcoming ball that was to be hosted by King Charmant and Queen Snow. At the head of it all was her mother, directing and foreseeing, and sending things back to have them redone when they weren't completed to her satisfaction. Already, her seamstresses had sewn over a dozen resplendent gowns fit for a queen—or rather, any queen but Queen Ella.
And now it was Lillith's turn. She had begged off until the last moment, but with only a week to go, if the seamstress did not begin on her dress now, it would never be completed by the time of the ball. Not that Lillith minded, though; in fact, it was her secret hope that this would be the case.
Lillith was not ignorant. She knew she ate too much, she knew that she could stand to lose a few pounds, she knew that she was not living up to her mother's expectations. But knowing and being able to do something about it were two completely separate things. Her mother's criticisms were harsh, but in a way, her father could be worse. Not in the way he'd been last time, that was a complete accident and he had certainly not meant what he's said. No, it was when he was being the very opposite that it was worst. When she was upset, he was the one who'd come to her with some sweet, hoping to cheer her out of her misery, just as he had done the other day.
He meant well, and that was what was important. As opposed to her mother, whom Lillith doubted had any motivations but her own selfish ones in mind when she did the things that she did. Well, at least she wasn't in Vivienne's shoes.
Speaking of shoes, she glanced down at the murderous apparel on her feet. "Milda," she said, drawing the attention of the middle-aged seamstress busily applying a number of pins into the dress. Milda raised her eyebrows in response since her mouth was currently filled with several more unused pins. "There's no way I'm going to get through the whole ball in these things," she declared, indicating her shoes. "They pinch my toes, the heel is far too large, and not to mention the sole is so slippery, it feels like I'm walking on ice!"
Milda pulled the pins from her lips and set them aside. "Milady, I'm afraid you have no choice. Your mother will be inspecting you down to the most minute detail… and you know how she feels about footwear."
Lillith rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Yeah, I know… I think I've heard her mention something about glass slippers once or twice before." She paused and wiggled her toes, just to make sure they were still there. "But I'm going to look ridiculous. I can't even walk in these things!"
Milda sighed as she glanced up. She was in hearty agreement with Lillith's assessment, and virtually certain that the shoes would contribute to some horribly embarrassing happenstance for the girl. Finally, she came upon a solution.
"Alright. You can wear the shoes when your mother comes to check you over, but then change into something more sensible afterward. I'll just make sure the dress is long enough to keep your feet adequately covered during the ball."
Lillith smiled, her warm brown eyes instantly lighting up. "Thank you, Milda!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"No, no, no—more folds!" Queen Ella exclaimed, surveying her eldest daughter's gown, a deep hunter green that played well off her copper-colored hair. "They should be thick and generous; I don't want it to look as if we barely managed to gather enough material to just make the thing!"
Vivienne, who was currently wearing said dress, sighed, and then yelped as she felt a sharp prick in her thigh.
"My apologies, milady," the terrified young seamstress, Anne, hastily responded, fumbling to remove the offending device.
Vivienne looked down at the other woman, noting how wide her eyes were, and how much her hands trembled. She tried to give her a reassuring smile, but Anne was too busy looking downward, away from the queen's merciless gaze, to notice.
"Mother, it's fine," Vivienne protested, tired from the hours of posing and simply wanting it all to be over.
"Fine? We do not want fine, Vivienne! We want 'wonderful', 'magnificent', 'breathtaking'—anything but simply 'fine'," Ella declared in outrage. "We want to make an unforgettable appearance, and dazzle Prince Valor."
"I'm not there to dazzle anyone, least of all Prince Valor," Vivienne snapped, rolling over her potential future husband's name sarcastically. "I'm there to be myself, meet him, and see what kind of person he is. Then, and only then, will I decide whether or not I'm willing to pursue this whole topic of marriage."
Her mother grit her teeth in frustration, but finally managed to respond with restrained calmness, "Yes, dear, but don't forget that Prince Valor too must decide whether or not to 'pursue this topic of marriage', and thus you must make a good first impression."
"Mother," Vivienne said, exasperatedly, "It's not as if he's the only prince around, so why are you so hung up on this?"
"He is the only suitable one. He's of the right age, he comes from a good family—"
"But most importantly, he's the sole son and thus heir to a very large and prosperous kingdom," Vivienne completed for her. "Right?"
Her mother glared at her for a moment before responding. "And so what if he is?" she asked. "So what if that is the reason why I'm pursing this arrangement so heartily? It's not as if his wealth will do me any good; I'm doing this for your benefit."
Anne glanced up from her work momentarily to watch mother and daughter as they faced off. The tension in the room was palpable, and only getting thicker with each additional word spoken.
"For my benefit?" Vivienne repeated in disbelief. "You're doing this for my benefit? You don't care anything about me or my benefit—you just want the prestige of having your daughter marry into a wealthy and powerful family, so you can try to overcome that whole 'poor girl' complex."
Ella glared at her daughter, resenting the mentioning of her past in a heated moment such as this. "Whatever my heritage may be, at least I managed to make something of myself, and I don't think it's too much to expect the same of you."
"I am trying to make something of myself!" she retorted. "But you decided to interfere with all your schemes—"
"Oh please, Vivienne," and she would have rolled her eyes in response but she was too much the proper queen to react in such a manner, so instead she simply crossed her arms over her chest and adopted a condescending tone. "Magic? I would hardly call that 'making something of yourself.' What do you expect with your little parlor tricks? You're no sorceress, no fairy godmother; your powers will amount to nothing."
Vivienne stared at her mother in outrage. "My spells are not 'parlor tricks'! And I thought we had an agreement: you consider the apprenticeship, and I consider the marriage!"
"I've considered it, and I haven't changed my mind," Ella informed her.
"Fine! Then I've made my decision too! And I guess I won't be needing this dress," she answered, making a strange gesture in the air with her hand. And suddenly she was gone, an empty space where only the blink of an eye earlier she had stood, leaving the dress to fall delicately into a pool of green silk on the floor.
"Where did she go?" Ella asked, looking about the room. But all she found was one unoccupied dress and an extremely terrified young seamstress.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lillith wandered contentedly through her family's elegant gardens, her orange tabby, Chester, resting lazily in her arms. She had just been dismissed from her tailoring session for the rest of the day as she found, to her great relief, that the dress was almost complete, only the finer details that did not require her presence remaining.
She was quite surprised when she found her sister sitting silently on one of the ornate wooden benches that were sprinkled throughout the place, and in her underwear, no less.
"Um, Viv," Lillith spoke hesitantly, approaching her slowly.
"Hmm?" Vivienne replied without looking over, her arms folded protectively over her frame. She appeared to be half lost in some sort of reverie.
"What are you doing out here?" Lillith asked as she sat down next to her, letting Chester hop out of her embrace. "And why aren't you dressed?"
"I had a little… confrontation with mother during my fitting, and in the heat of the moment I performed a transportation spell," Vivienne replied, glancing down at the cat, who'd begun rubbing himself against her leg.
Lillith's eyebrows rose. A transportation spell was pretty powerful; she had no idea Vivienne had reached that level already. "And the garden…?"
"Oh, it was just the first thing that came to mind when I was doing the transportation, and it was close enough so—here I am." She shrugged as she looked toward her sister.
"How long ago was this?"
Vivienne's attention focused once again on Chester, her face coloring slightly. "An hour ago."
"An hour?!" Lillith exclaimed. "Why are you still here?"
Her sister's face reddened further. "Well, um, I kind of used up my magic, temporarily, on the transportation spell…" she trailed off.
"And you couldn't transfer yourself back," Lillith finished. Well, that certainly made sense since Vivienne was not a trained sorceress and should not have possessed the ability to use the spell effortlessly. Then despite herself, she began to laugh.
"It's not funny!" Vivienne declared indignantly.
"Yes… it… is," Lillith insisted, her laughter so overwhelming now that she just barely squeezed the words out. Her eyes began to tear and she gasped for breath. "And now you're stuck out here, in your underwear!"
Vivienne scowled in response, trying to remain poised, but soon she too began to laugh. It really was ridiculous, and now that she no longer had to wait out in the cold, she supposed there was no harm in admitting the humor of the situation. Chester, meanwhile, gazed at the two as if they'd gone crazy. Now affronted by the fact that neither seemed to be paying him any attention, he stalked off a short distance to a more comfortable grassy area, where he sat down and immediately began licking himself.
"How were you planning on getting back in?" Lillith finally asked after they had both regained their composure.
"Well, I figured I'd wait until it was dark, and then hopefully sneak in without anyone seeing me."
The younger princess frowned. "Sneak in during the night? Do you really have so little confidence in the sentries?"
Vivienne looked at her incredulously. "Have you actually ever stopped to watch those bumbling fools? If they were any less aware of what was going on around them, they'd be asleep!"
Lillith paused to consider this. "Well, maybe a half-naked princess wandering through the castle in the middle of the night would be enough to put them at attention," Lillith said, grinning wickedly. and Vivienne laughed along. Then, more soberly, Lillith continued, "I guess it's a good thing we don't actually need guards to protect us, or else we would be in trouble."
"Hmm," Vivienne agreed, "At least we have that going for us." Then she stood up, pulling her sister from her seat as well. "Now, get your butt in there and find me something to wear—I really wouldn't want to disturb naptime."
Lillith laughed, and before she turned to call Chester. The tabby momentarily glanced up and gave her a look that seemed to say, "Can't you see I've found something more interesting to do?" before he resumed his previous activity.
Till next time!