Disenchanted

The golden earrings that had shone brightly against my red hair, the delicately woven crown that once sat atop my head, the heavy necklaces, the thick robes, the shining jewels. . . They were all nothing but an illusion. A faded memory of happier times when I could still look up at the sky and dream. It had been so easy to get lost in them and ignore everything else that was just wrong in my life. As I stared at these rich gifts and presents I had earned with nothing other than my status, I realized that they were only chains--shackles that I didn't want anymore. I had never wanted to look too closely at the things that were wrong in my life. Those tiny, little things--like the whispers of attendants, the oddity of my hair color that no one else seemed to have, the fact that I was never allowed to leave the grounds--I should have seen them for what they were. I shouldn't have pushed them aside the way I had. Maybe if I hadn't, I wouldn't be staring at my unadorned reflection that I had seen so often in the gilded mirrors and seeing all the features I had once deemed normal in a different light. In the light they were meant to be seen in. In the light that everyone else saw them in, because I had to let go of the girl I had been. I had no other choice.



Four Days Earlier

"Please come out of the tree and put this dress on, Princess," one of the many attendants gathered at the base of the tree called up to me. I barely paid attention. "The courier for his Imperial Highness will be here any minute!"
I smiled into the leaves above me, reaching my hand up to play the sunlight through my fingers. The courier. Like I cared. Why wasn't the prince coming himself? He had been writing me letters every since our engagement was announced when I turned three and yet he wasn't coming to get me himself. If I didn't look like a blushing princess when I received his replacement, then that was that. It wasn't going to matter in the end.
"Princess!" another one said, furious.
I rolled over on the branch, laying my head on my folded hands and looking down at them. My red hair fell over my shoulder and obstructed my view, so I moved it out of the way. "I hear you, but I'm not coming down," I said with a smile. A great idea popped into my head. "You can have the dress, Phelia!"
The blonde servant narrowed her eyes on me in distress, the dark-green dress glinting in the dappled sunlight. "Princess, please. We only have three hours to get you bathed, get your hair dried, your makeup set, and into this dress before he comes."
I turned back over, waving at her to go away. "That's two hours I can use to enjoy the wonders of this tree."
A heard the crunching of leaves in a familiar cadence as Jenea came to stand beside Phelia. "Princess," she scolded, and I could just picture her narrow face and pointed brows pinching in suppressed anger. She was the eldest of my attendants, but definitely not old. With how strict she was I was surprised her dark braid didn't have grey streaking through it already. "Come down."
I sighed. If I disobeyed her, I would get an earful. I would probably get an earful anyway, since I had sort of run away from the house this morning. There really was no need to make it worse, so I rolled off the branch, making Phelia gasp in horror and worry. Easily, I landed on my feet in a low crouch, standing and smiling brightly at them. "There, I'm down."
Jenea let out an exasperated breath, obviously irritated. She spun on her heel, her dress swishing against the grass. "We don't have much time. It seems he's arriving early."
My heart thumped against my chest, nervousness coming in to settle easily in the pit of my stomach. "He is?"
"Yes." Her voice was curt and Phelia struggled with the giant dress in her arms as she ran to keep up with us, but Jenea didn't slow for anyone. "We must get you ready. You leave tonight, after all."
"You don't have to remind me," I frowned as I stepped into the one-floor mansion I had lived in for the past seven-- uh, eighteen years.
Eighteen years. . . and now I was leaving. I guess I should be lonelier, angrier, but I just wasn't feeling any of that. There was nothing holding me down here. Nothing but the comfort of the familiar, but even that was changing as my things were packed into wooden crates, ready to be shipped to my new "home". The next house. My fiance's house. a fiance that wasn't even coming to fetch me himself.
Guess I couldn't blame him. We had never seen each other -- never spoken in person. there had only been the letters sent every two weeks. The letters I had kept in hopes that I would one day be swept away by the prince who wrote me such tender words. Of course, I had never been allowed off of the grounds, so it wasn't surprising that we had never really had the opportunity to meet. I was excited to see the outside world after only hearing the snatches of conversation I'd pulled while listening to the women talk and whisper in the hallways. Of course, that hadn't been the only things I'd heard.
I wasn't sure how old I was when I had heard the truth about what all my caretakers had thought about me. The rumors that were floating around in the cities so far away had finally reached my ears when I was barely old enough to understand them. Comments that had made it obvious that the red of my hair was unnatural, the lavender of my eyes unheard of. There was also the whispering creeping around about why I was kept isolated here away from everyone. I had never asked-- I had never wanted to-- and they hadn't let anything slip besides vague accusations that never made sense. It might have explained why I knew all my attendants names, but they never knew mine. It was always "princess", "princess", never "Raven".
I looked around at the rooms and halls that had catered me since I could remember and felt a twinge of regret. If only I could have called this "home" just once. . The wooden floors creaked with familiarity and age, the walls sang with memories, just as the warmth seeped through from a well-used space. I had a lot of good memories in these rooms, even if I had no family to share them with. Being here had been enough for me for the longest time. And now I was leaving it all behind.
I heaved a big breath, and stretched out my arms to let Jenea undress me. She never liked it when I did it myself, telling me that a princess should not stoop so low. So I let her untoggle, unbutton, and pull off the dress as I tried not to grimace at the overheated bathwater. I was going to have to get into that tub. It was going to burn, I just knew it.
"Princess," Jenea scolded, dropping my dirty dress into a heap by the corner with two fingers. "You've ruined another dress. This is getting old."
"Well," I started, "you'll be coming with me to watch me ruin more dresses."
She wrinkled her nose. "Get into the bath."
Hesitantly, I stepped into the scalding water, letting my legs get used to it first before I sank into the heat. It hurt, but my body got used to it quickly, adapting almost automatically to the change in temperature. I had always thought that was an oddity about me, too. I had noticed that nearly all of the girls around here had to wait a while until their skin got used to whatever they were touching, whether it was cold or not, but I was different. Though the temperature may bother me at first, it took only mere seconds to be immune to the affect.
"Raven," a soothing, tiny voice said and I smiled, not even having to look up to know who it was.
I pulled my hands out of the water and cupped them to create a place for her to land. "Marlen," I sighed in delight. "I was wondering where you were all day."
The hand-sized lady that landed in my palms was nothing short of amazing. She was like my second mother--well, my first, considering I didn't know who my real mother was. With pinkish hair, aqua-green eyes and a heart-shaped face, she was kind and listened to every complaint and dream I had without berating or belittling them. that didn't stop her from speaking her mind, though. I appreciated that, of course, but sometimes she could be a little harsh for a miniature human lookalike. Even though she looked human in her overflowing robes, I knew that Marlen was a spirit. What kind, she had never told me, but it didn't matter to me. She was my best friend, my only family and I didn't mind anything else.
She smiled at me. "I went on ahead to see the man who's coming to fetch you for his Highness."
I barely cared, but I asked anyway, "What was he like?"
She sighed dreamily. "He was a handsome one. A little older than you, I think. Black hair, blue eyes. He seems. . . " She trailed off.
"What?" I asked, bringing her closer to eye her skeptically. "He seems what?"
She winced. "A little strict."
I sighed, lowering my hands a bit and leaning back against the tub. "Figures." It was just my luck. I was surrounded by those who didn't understand me. Well, Marlen was an exception. Everyone else was always telling me what to do, how to dress, what to say, how to act. . It was my lot in life to be led around by the nose by people who didn't care what my feelings were.
Marlen patted the top of my thumb with her tiny hand. "It will be alright. Don't worry."
I gave her a grin. "Make the best of the situation, right?"
"That's right," she said, grinning back. "Things could be worse."
A bucket of water was dumped over my head and Marlen took off from my hands, floating away to stay out of the shower. "Are you talking to that floating ball again?" Jenea reprimanded. "What have I told you about that? Your hair already makes you stand out without you talking to lights."
"She not a light or a floating ball," I argued, offended as she rubbed flowery smelling shampoo into my hair and creating suds. "She's a spirit, and she has a name; It's Marlen."
Jenea scoffed. "It's a light, nothing more, nothing less. It's bad enough that it follows you around like some enchanted thing. You're just making the other attendants whisper about you."
"They whisper anyway," I shot back, crossing my arms. "It doesn't even matter. They can say what they want. I'm going to keep talking to Marlen."
Another bucket of water came over my head, effectively silencing me and letting me know just how irritated Jenea was. She always seemed irritated, though, so that was nothing new. I let her finish washing my hair, by I scrubbed my body myself. That had been a no-no zone after I'd turn ten. When I was done with that, I stood and grabbed a cloth to dry my body as Jenea gathered up my hair in another, squeezing out the excess water and rubbing the strands vigorously to dry them even a fraction.
After the bath, I was handed a robe and sat on a pillow on the floor as Jenea and Philea fussed with, combed, dried, tied up and decorated my hair the way they saw fit. When that was done, I was helped into that green dress. The gold embroidery of flowers and leaves was thin but shone prettily against the tight satin.
"There," Jenea said with finality, stepping away from me. "Finished. Just wait here until he arrives. He should be nearing shortly." She shuffled Philea out of my room and gave me serious eyes. "Do not leave this room. Don't mess yourself up. You're going to meet his Imperial Highness and you need to look like the princess you are and not the barbarian you show the rest of us."
I smirked at her with delight. "Worried that I can't play my part?"
I thought I saw a hint of a smile, but it was quashed so quickly it could have been my imagination. "Very."
The door clicked shut behind her and I turned to stare at myself in the full-length mirror. I didn't care for the woman staring back. This wasn't really me, but in a way it was. I was so used to seeing her in the mirror that I had hardly ever paid attention. Now that I did, I thought I was looking at a stranger. My normally wavy hair that I let do what it would was piled on my head in intricate swirls and loops before cascading down my back in a long fiery wave that contrasted to the green satin of the dress. Ornaments that had dangling things were holding up the twists on each side, but the crown of delicate and intricately woven gold was the center piece of the assortment. It was large and curved down, disappearing into my hair. There were no jewels on it, so it was my favorite, but it was still gaudy. The earrings that had been chosen were small hoops that held large, green gems that connected to long ropes of golden tassels that rested past my shoulders. Shockingly, they weren't heavy at all, and definitely pretty, probably chosen to match my dress.
I smoothed a hand down the sleek material, wondering how a fabric could be so stiff and carry such movement at the same time. It hugged to my shoulders tightly, pulled down to leave the tops bare and give the false impression that it was falling off. The sleeves were heavy and draped just past my knuckles, falling to the floor in a lush of material, the gold and black embroidery covering practically every inch of the trumpet-like sleeve. The bodice was tight and pushed my breasts together, making me seem like I had more of a chest than I actually did (not that I minded since there wasn't much there compared to some of the maids anyway), connecting at a deep V where the material met a large and wide, black and embroidered corset that cut straight under my breasts. The corset continued past my waist and slightly past my hips, where it finally let the material flow out freely around my legs. It just seemed like a giant robe to me that had been fancied up with the gold embroidery, blocky black outlining and corset, but this was the style Jenea had said his Highness had liked. It just looked foreign to me. Foreign and hard to climb trees in. At least the corset was nothing new. If it had been, I probably wouldn't be able to breathe. The shoes were flat too, not those weird high contraptions I had seen and read about in books.
But my face. . . . My face looked completely different. They had done something to my eyes, added some black, smudgy stuff that made them look bigger. It was kind of pretty to look at, but it was a little too different to get used to. They had put a dark, shiny, red paint on my lips too, making them look plump and sparkly. A severely dark, plum-colored shadow was around my eyes, but there were glittering flecks of gold catching the sunlight of the afternoon all the way up to my brows. The effect made the lavender of my eyes stand out with such intensity that I was slightly frightened. Had I always looked this way? I don't remember ever looking into the mirror and seeing such a beauty. The magic of actually caring about your appearance was astounding.
"What's wrong, Raven?" Marlen asked me quietly, floating into the reflection of the mirror.
I turned worried eyes on her. "It's really time, isn't it? I'm really going to meet him tonight?"
"Well, yes," Marlen confirmed, a little confused. "The courier will take you to his Highness's mansion tonight." She paused, leaning towards me. "Aren't you excited? You've been waiting for this for fifteen years."
Fifteen years. . . Had it been so long? I remembered when Philea and Jenea had read me his letters when I had been too young to read myself. I had used to sit on this very floor and listened intently to every word and struggled to tell them what to write in response. When I had finally turned old enough to read and write on my own, I had waited on his letters like a lifeline, hoping eagerly for the day when one would be delivered. I had hung on his every word, searching and waiting for the one where he would tell me that he was coming to take me away from here. For the one that told me that we could finally be together -- or at least that he missed me. The poetry had been sweet, the letters friendly and bordering romantic, but not one of them had ever said that he longed for me. Not one had told me that he cared. When I had finally been told that our wedding would be on my eighteenth birthday, the letter had been formal and addressed to Jenea. Of course, he had stopped writing long before that particular letter had come and that had been nearly two years ago.
"I don't even know his name, Marlen," I said distantly. "I know it's expected, I know that I've been told that I will marry him ever since I could remember, but now that the time has finally come, I'm not sure if I want to." I looked at her with slight fear. "What if he's abusive? What if the reason he stopped writing me was because he really doesn't want this either?"
Marlen landed on my shoulder, rubbing her cheek against mine in her form of a hug. "Don't worry, Raven. It will be all right. His letters have always been so kind. No man with a cold heart could write such warm words."
I smiled, cuddling into her tiny body as my eyes drifted to the long, narrow box that held the hundreds of letters I had treasured so dearly. "Yeah," I agreed. "You're right." She had to be right, because I had nothing else to look forward to.



The hours passed quickly and I could hear the scampering of feet in the hallway outside my room as all the attendants rushed to finish the last of the packing of my things or tidy up the rooms. In a few hours, I would be at the mansion, in the company of my fiance, celebrating my birthday a day early and our official engagement. It was a frightening thought, but I was more intimidated by meeting his dog than the actual Imperial Prince. Marlen had said he was strict, after all. I didn't do well with strict.
Which was exactly why I was in my tree. Again.
"Princess, please," Missly called, as distressed as the other four girls gathered at the base of the tree. "Come down already. It's been an hour. He's going to be here any minute and you're ruining your dress!"
"No thank you," I said easily, my eyes closed as I enjoyed the setting sun as I leaned back against the trunk. With my hair the way it was, it would be difficult to lie down. The corset wasn't helping either. "If his Highness wants to marry me so badly, he can come meet me himself."
"His Imperial Highness is a very busy man." The deep voice that had answered me jerked me upright and sprang my eyes open. Normally, I would have caught my balance, but the long corset made me stiff and I tumbled out of the tree with a shriek of surprise, plummeting towards the ground nearly eleven feet below.
Arms came around me. Strong, sturdy and completely unfeminine arms. They took the impact of my weight gracefully and without much effort, and I pulled my sleeves off of the top of the head of my rescuer, ready to thank them, but shock caught the words in my throat as I came face-to-face with a man.
My mouth parted in surprise. I had never seen a man before. I had never met anyone of the opposite sex in my eighteen years of existence at all. Not a single male had ever been allowed past our gates and I was fascinated with this specific one.
Marlen had been right, he was handsome. With deep blue, narrow eyes that had more lashes than I had clothes nearly hidden under the fall of his straight, black hair that curved around his round head and reached the tips of his shoulders, he would make any girl take a second look, I was sure. His cheeks were high, his nose small, straight and pointed, and his mouth was thinner on top than on bottom, his brows just as thin and rising in an arch above those eyes that were watching me with intent amusement.
"I had thought to pick up a princess," he started with a smile. I could feel his voice rumbling in his chest--a flat, hard chest that was nothing like mine. "And here I find an uncultured brat has eaten her."
My mouth dropped open a second time, this time in outrage. I struggled in his arms, but he didn't put me down. "Let me go!" I ordered. "I am not to be held in such a manner!"
"I was merely rescuing you, princess," he said easily.
I pushed at his chest, my face red. "If I hadn't been wearing these frilly clothes, I could have rescued myself."
"Highly doubtful," he mused with a roll of his eyes. Finally, he set me down and I huffed away, crossing my arms and ignoring the irritating jingling of the pins in my hair. "You can't even greet a guest properly. How can you be trusted with your own safety?"
I was fuming, rounding on him and spitting fire. "You are not a guest! You are merely a means to an end used by a cowardly prince who couldn't even take the time to come get his future wife!"
His brows rose in surprise, disappearing into his hair. "Well, then. . You can just tell that to his Highness when you see him tonight." He grabbed my wrist, his fingers like a shackle as he dragging me back towards into my house. I fought, but his strength made it effortless to pull me forward. "Come. We're leaving."
"Leaving?" I asked in a panic. "But I--"
He stopped, turning as we entered my room from the porch entrance. "What? You've had time to say your goodbyes."
"Goodbyes?" I asked, confused. What had I to say goodbye to? "There's nothing here to say goodbye to."
"Then what is it?"
I pulled on my wrist and he let go. Walking to the corner of my room, I grabbed the long box that had the prince's letters in them and clutched it to my chest. After taking one last, long look at my tree in the back, I turned and faced the courier defiantly. "We can go now." Without waiting for him, I strode past him and out the door.
"What's in the box?" he asked as he walked beside me down the hall.
I would never see that room again. The thought made me ache, but it was a shallow feeling. "My dreams and treasures." Marlen laughed behind me in a tinkling, wind chime-like sound, making me blush. She thought it was childish, but it didn't make it any less true and she knew I was serious, so I let it go. Instead, I asked the man, "What's your name?"
"Aya," he said shortly. "My name is Aya."
"I'm Raven," I told him a little stiffly. If he was going to be snooty, then so was I. "And I like to be called Raven, not 'princess', if you don't mind."
"Raven, then," he tried with a smile that I didn't like too much.
We came out into the main hall of the house and all of my attendants were lined up, bowing at the waist in what would have been thought as a sign of respect if it had been anyone else. However, considering it was me they were bowing to, it was more or less eagerness at my departure. I couldn't say I blamed them. I wanted to get out of here just as badly as they wanted me to go. The only person not lined up as the others were was Jenea. She waited by the front door, bowing slightly as we came in.
"Princess," she started, her face as stern as ever. "I will be coming with you."
My eyes brightened and I smiled. "Really? That's wonderful." Aside from Marlen, it would be nice to have a "friend" around.
Jenea came forward as if to take the box, but I held it closer to me. She noticed and frowned, leaning in to say into my ear, "Princess, this is his Highness's personal courier. He'll be watching your every move. Please behave like the princess you are, take what he says in stride and give me your letter box so that he deems you fit for his Highness."
Her words were like a bucket of cold water in my face and I did my best not to flush or flinch -- or fight her -- as she took the box from me. "Keep it on your person," I told her formally and Jenea gave me surprised eyes. I thought I saw pride in them as she nodded and bowed her head, but she had never been proud of me before, so why would she be now?
Keeping my head high, I stepped out of the house, but paused, turning back to smile at everyone. "Thank you for taking care of me for so long, everyone," I told them, making their heads come up in surprise. "I really had a lot of fun." I bowed to them, earning a few gasps, but I was grateful to them for all they had done. Even the things they hadn't done had helped me become who I was. I loved who I was, and because of that, I was grateful. It was the only reason I would miss this house and these women.