Smoke and Mirrors (3)

Three

Daughter of the Sea

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"Why me?! I literally have nothing to do with your kingdom--er, his kingdom. Y'all's kingdom. Whatever," I whined.

She lowered the cover over the piano keys and stood. "Because you have more to do with it than your parents allowed you to believe." She stepped out from behind the bench and faced me. "Your mother left you that necklace for a reason, Tessa. As much as she tried to delay it, even she knew that fate cannot be stopped."

I shook my head, my face growing hot. "What are you even talking about? She had nothing to do with any of this!" Or so I tried to tell myself. But it kind of made sense. I mean, why else were random people trying to steal the necklace? It was literally just a necklace--the man at the antique place confirmed that. Were the people who tried to take it connected to this world somehow?

"She covered her tracks well, even from you it seems, but she had a lot more to do with the world than you think. See, your parents were the king and queen of the water kingdom, but your mother--"

"--Hold up now! They were what?! What did you--"

"--Well, your father still is the king, but your mother was queen, back before she was banished."

She said the words so casually, as if she were describing an old thing that had taken place in past history. Meanwhile, there I was, falling apart. Was she even telling the truth?! Was my dad really here?! How? Why would mom let me think he'd left us, then? Who did I believe--my own mother, or this. . . queen of music?

"Why was she banished? Why did she hide me?" I gasped. "Does this make me a princess?!"

"Yes, Little One. You are a princess. For your other question, you need to hear the whole prophecy."

"Prophecy." I shook my head and closed my eyes. "This whole thing seems ridiculous."

"I'm sure it does. Anyway, the prophecy was written by the second mirror queen. She wrote--well, I will not remember it all, but basically, the five-hundredth son of mirrors will be betrothed to the five-hundredth daughter of water. They will be very happy and in love, but at the height of their kingdom's success, a ruler of fire rises up that threatens everything. The king of mirrors is forced to choose between his wife and his kingdom, he chooses his wife, and the rest of the kingdom dies. But there are two outcomes to the prophecy, and the second one says he chooses his kingdom, his wife dies, and he becomes a horrid tyrant that destroys the kingdom himself."

"So. . . either way, this kingdom is doomed," I deadpanned, sighing. "That sounds promising." I shook my head. "Look, I can straighten this all out now. I'm not marrying him, and he's not marrying me. Both I and the kingdoms are saved, and neither of us have to worry about anything ever again."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way. You and he are already betrothed--since birth."

I stared at her in horror. "And no one thought to consult the all-mighty prophecy before pairing their baby up with a psychopath?!"

"Well, you see, these scrolls were only unearthed from the deepest tunnels of the Mirror Realm a few years after you were born. Before that, the mirror queen had apparently thought it was a good idea to hide them for safe-keeping."

"Wow. Isn't that just terrific." My tone held no excitement. At all.

"He'll come around, though. Don't worry. The prophecy clearly says you fall in love."

I sucked in a breath and backed myself up against the crystal wall, the color-changing lights flashing softly in the edges of my gaze. "There is no way we'd fall in love. Ever. Did you see that dude?! He's wacko! He literally tried to strangle me to death! On our first meeting!"

She grimaced. "Well, he's scared right now, and--"

"No! That is no excuse for murder! He didn't even know me! Why would I ever marry him?!" I shook my head. "Look, maybe we can all gather around and have a nice meeting. A calm, orderly meeting. Surely we can work out a better arrangement."

"It's not that simple," she said, her eyes trained on her hands, which were entwined in the layers of her note-speckled hanfu. "He will kill you. He's not--he's not in his right mind now."

I groaned. "Then how am I even expected to marry this psycho?!"

She wrung her hands. "I don't know, okay?! I control music, not emotions!"

"Then what's the whole purpose of bringing me here?"

"I don't know! I was just winging it. He stormed off the moment he found that you were here, and I followed! My only goal was to save your life! Honestly, I didn't even know you didn't know your whole life history. I kind of figured your mother would have filled you in on all of this!" She tossed her hands in the air. "I am not equipped for this kind of stuff!"

"Okay, just calm down--what's your name again? Or do I just call you 'Majesty'?" I rubbed my itchy, mosquito-bitten ankle against my other leg to relieve the irritation.

"Yīn Yuè. You can call me Yīn Yuè." She inhaled a breath and straightened her shoulders, which looked stiff. "I'm sorry. I've never been in this position before."

I snorted. "You and me both."

She pulled her hair over one shoulder and asked, "So, do you have any more questions?"

The truth was, I had so many questions that I didn't know what to ask first. My brain was a jumbled mess of emotions, information, and shock. "Um. . . tell me about my dad?"

She tilted her head. "I don't really know much about him personally, but he's a good king. He's been through a lot, so he's a little rough, but from everything I've heard, he has a good heart."

I sighed. It was pretty pitiful when you had to ask a complete stranger to tell you about your own father. I wish I could know for myself if he was any good.

"Okay, next question. Where am I going to stay if I can't go home?"

She paused in thought. "Well, you could stay here if you wanted, but let me tell you, your father has been searching for you and your mother for a very long time now. He would be thrilled to have you stay with him, I'm sure."

The choice was tough. Did I want to stay with Yīn Yuè, who I kinda-sorta trusted, or did I go live as a princess with my dad, who I had never met before.

This thought prompted another question. "Will I be in trouble for my mom taking me and running away?"

She shook her head adamantly. "No, no! Of course not! Everyone understands that you had no choice in the matter. You were a baby!"

I breathed a breath of relief. "Oh, good. If that's the case, I might try out living with my dad?" I looked at her questioningly. "If that's okay, of course." I wasn't sure how royalty worked with cases like that.

"Certainly! But--and no offense to the simpler people of Earth--not in those clothes."

I laughed. "That's fine, I need a change of clothes. These are my pajamas." I paused. "So then it's settled? Can you just, like, zap me there or whatever it is you do?"

"Yes. Just remember, if you don't obey his rules, he might get angry. Your father will be the only one able to protect you if Sterling comes knocking at the door."

I grimaced. Then another question popped up. "Wait, do I have magical powers like my dad? Does he even have powers?"

She giggled. "Oh, does he? He's one of the most powerful rulers in the world. Yes, Little One. He does. He controls water. And I don't know about you yet. You'll have to ask him to teach you, assuming you have power. Your poor mother was talentless."

"Mom was, er, talentless?"

"Yes. Many people are. It is not a horrible tragedy, it is simply a. . . setback, if you will."

"I see." I felt a small tinge of disappointment at the thought that I could be talentless.

"Okay, now come with me. I need to have you fixed up before I present you to your father!" She smiled.

I sighed and followed her out the silver doors.

No longer did the lone violin play that I'd heard earlier. But I did hear faint footsteps, and it was then that I realised she likely had maids and butlers and whatnot to work around her palace. I wondered how on Earth they reached the huge stalactites to clean the spiderwebs from them. . .

She walked me into a room. "Norvette!" she called.

A round-faced maid quickly walked into the room from around a corner before slowing down to a graceful walk. She grinned at me and then curtsied to the queen. "Your Majesty! It is good to see that you've returned."

"Thank you, Norvette. I have a favor to ask of you. Could you please see to it that Princess Tessa here is dressed in preparation to meet the king of water?"

Her eyes widened as she looked at me and her smile stretched. "Princess? Of Water?!"

"Yes, Norvette."

"Oh, lucky me!" Her eyes raked over me from head to toe. "To think that I should be among the first to see--" She cut herself off. "I am the first, yes?"

"Yes," the queen returned.

Norvette's eyes glimmered with joy, but I nervously fiddled with the satin hem of my ice-skating hippo pajama shirt. I felt completely awkward and out-of-place. But to be fair, it wasn't my fault that I was zapped out of my house.

"I'll fix her right up, Your Majesty! You can count on me!"

"Good. I will leave you to it, then. Call on me when you are finished," she said, and then left the room.

Norvette waved me over to the corner of the room where she had first appeared from. "Oh, you have no idea how much joy you bring me, Princess!" she exclaimed.

I grimaced, but I wasn't sure how to tell her I wasn't used to the title, so I kept my mouth shut as I followed her. "Thank you for helping me. I don't know a thing about elegant fashion or anything." I looked down at my blue, satin ice-skating hippo pajamas, which I'd ignorantly thrown on before I'd known I was going to be meeting royalty. And I was barefoot. I'd thought nothing of the outfit at the time, but compared to the queen's hanfu? I felt like a horrible slob now.

"Not at all! Truly, it's my pleasure." She swung open a door and revealed an entire closet of elegant hanfus and such, all organized by color, like a slow gradient that started at white and went through every color imaginable. "Let me see, you're meeting the king of Water?" she asked, turning to me and tapping her chin.

"Yes, ma'am. He's, uh, my father. Apparently." I nervously rolled my lips into my mouth.

She frowned. "I suppose you haven't met him before, poor thing. Not since that she-devil stole you off like that."

I turned a sharp gaze to her. "Do not speak of my mother that way. I loved her."

She ducked her head. "I beg your forgiveness, highness. I truly did not mean anything by the remark."

I inhaled a slow breath and hugged myself.

"Here!" she began brightly, "let's dress you in a dark blue. It will match your pale complexion perfectly, and the blue will symbolize water." She reached out and pulled a long, deep blue dress from it's hanger. It was layered completely in small, navy-blue beads with a navy lace overlay that hung from the waist down. Long sleeves with a short flutter-ruffle-thingamajig at the end of the sleeve completed the entire dress.

It was perfect--enough to greet a king in, but without any ridiculous flares or heavy hoop skirts or anything overly-extravagant.

When I was dressed, she lined my eyes with dark eyeliner, then added some blush to my cheeks and misted my hair with water before scrunching it to restore my frizzy curls.

"Done!" she pronounced proudly.

She gave me just enough time to glance in the mirror--yes, I looked stunning--before pulling me away to the queen's music room, where she was plucking on a weird, elongated, stringed instrument that sat on the floor, and the crystal disks. She glanced up and smiled. "Oh, you look lovely, Tessa. Beautiful job, Norvette."

She waved her hand at me and suddenly, before I could even reply, we were gone.