Wickedness in the blood (Part 0 of Folie à deux)

"Will I have a new sister?" Daphne asked, as her mother brushed her hair.

"What do you mean by that?" Her mother's reflection frowned, and Daphne giggled, knowing Queen Ellendra was terrified of wrinkles. 

"I heard daddy and the soldier talking." When the Queen still didn't understand, Daphne huffed, swinging her short legs. "About the girl! The other princess coming today."

"Daphne!" Her mother hissed, circling around the chair to grab her daughter's shoulders. "Never say that again!"

"What?" Daphne whined, trying to squirm away, but the Queen held on tightly.

"There is no other princess, your father is the only King here, is that clear? You are the only princess."

"Yes! Now let go!" Daphne shoved her mother's hand off her shoulder. "I only said because of what daddy said."

Her mother pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing deeply. "Daphne, listen closely. That poor girl's parents are dead. Yes, Daphne, dead. Her mother, Alyanna Redcreek, and her human father, Keilan, were killed because they challenged your father."

"So?" Daphne sucked on a wiggly tooth, bored. She hated history, and this sounded like history. "You're saying Daddy is bad?"

"Oh, my God! No, you imbecile!" Her mother shouted, then glared at the waiting maids. "Out, all of you."

Daphne watched them go, used to the constant audience in this glass palace.

"Your father had to kill them because anytime there are other princesses or other Queens, we are in trouble. That girl is just living with us; she's a hostage. A warning, so the Fae folk don't try anything. Do you understand?" Her mother demanded through gritted teeth.

"So we're gonna kill her?" Daphne asked excitedly, twisting her blond curls.

"No, Daphne, we need her alive. Now, she is going to stay in this room, do you know why?"

"I'm not sharing my room!" Daphne cried indignantly, curling her little hands into fists. 

"Oh, my Gods! Girl, you test me!" Ellendra groaned, pacing in a tight circle. "This is a giant room, and you have plenty of space. Learn to goddamn share."

"What if she hurts me?" Daphne pouted, irritated. "Why can't we put her in the dungeon?"

"The guards will protect you." Ellendra tried to remain patient. "There will be a Fae uprising if they find out that we mistreated their precious wild princess."

"So she is a princess," Daphne said slowly, really confused.

"No! No more questions, she stays in this room, and you will be nice to her. She's all alone, Daphne." Ellendra resumed combing Daphne's soft hair. "Don't frown; you'll get lines."

Daphne mightily rolled her eyes. "Does she even speak Carellian?"

"Yes, Daphne, she's from this kingdom, she speaks Carellian." Ellendra resisted rolling her own eyes. Royal children could not grow up this ignorant, or they'd lose their heads. 

"Okay, okay. Nobody tells me anything!" Daphne crossed her small arms.

"Get used to it, you're a princess, not an heir to the throne," Ellendra muttered, pulling unintentionally on a knot in Daphne's hair.

"Ow! Mommy!"

"Oh, hush." Ellendra hummed, finishing combing Daphne's pretty hair. "She'll be here today, Daphne, and I want you to be really nice."

"Will Daddy be nice?" Daphne asked, her father's wickedness making itself known.

"Of course not, he just killed her parents, he needs to make sure she'll never rebel against him," Ellendra told her, as always, a little disturbed. Her daughter knew about the bruises up and down her mother's arms and still wanted to be just like daddy.

Ellendra wondered briefly what she'd be like older. Cruel? Or would she grow out of it? "All done, precious. Why don't you pick out some toys for her?"

"What's her name?" Daphne asked, jumping off the chair.

"Isel."

"What kind of name is that?" Daphne wrinkled her nose.

"Really?" Ellendra was beginning to think she should have spent more time with her daughter. "The Fae name their kids differently. They don't just borrow from myth as we do."

She then tried, for a couple of hours, to spend time with the daughter she'd passed off to nursemaids and serving girls.

It was hard. Daphne was temperamental, frustrating, clever, and more like her father. At least, Ellendra hoped that was her father's cruelness she was copying, not her mother's.

"Shall I read to you?" Ellendra offered, scanning the room for books. 

"No, go away." Daphne was busily creating lines with the toys. 

Ellendra bit her tongue. Daphne had been a disappointment to King Oberon, a girl instead of the heir he wanted. He'd made his displeasure clear to Ellendra, throwing her into a dungeon the next morning.

The next child disappeared in blood, and the child after that was born dead.

Daphne was a curse, according to Oberon, but he quickly moved on, betrothing his daughter for military alliances. If his legacy wouldn't be a son, it would be made while he lived.

And so the Fae paid with blood to ink the history books. 

It was also too late for Ellendra. Everyone knew she was unwanted by the king, and she turned cold and miserable. She ignored the tiny daughter who demanded her attention, the tiny one who'd cursed her.

And the result was playing noisily in front of her now.

It was almost a relief when the maid entered, telling them that the girl had arrived.

Daphne sprung up, "Finally!" She made to run but Ellendra seized the back of her dress.

"Walk, like a lady." She ordered, leading by example. The guards accompanied them, a terrifying gesture Oberon had undoubtedly come up with, to scare the Fae girl.

In the throne room stood every courtier, general, and nobleman, while the King sat on his throne. Ellendra quickly took her place beside him, pulling Daphne onto her lap.

And they joined the many pairs of eyes staring down at the girl in the middle of the room. 

A Fae man had come with her, Ellendra realized, and he glowered at them all, holding the hand of the-

Deformed. Ellendra swallowed heavily, staring at the creature. She looked normal otherwise, perfect little fingers clenched around the man's hand.

A normal height for her age, but her face was off. It wasn't symmetrical, and one eye was brown, while the other was bleak yellow. There was a dark shadow over part of her face and neck, the skin darker and not quite smooth.

"Are you sure this is the wild princess?" King Oberon chortled, "She looks more like a circus attraction!"

There was a loud guffaw of laughter and groans, and Ellendra realized sickly that Oberon wanted the room to wait for his signal.

His permission to mock the girl. 

Isel looked up at the Fae who'd accompanied her. The man's face had twisted with anger and his skin gained a green tinge, leaves sprouting from the carpet. 

"Watch what you say." He growled, and guards unsheathed their weapons.

"Now, now, put those away." Oberon waved a hand, "He knows his place."

The Fae man looked furious, but he knelt by Isel's side, murmuring something too quiet to hear up on the podium.

"Is she mute as well?" Oberon asked, prompting more laughter. "Unseen and unheard?"

"Oberon-" Ellendra tried, grasping his hand. He tugged it back roughly, rings scraping her palm.

Daphne looked up at her mom. "Why does she look like that?" 

Before Ellendra could answer, Oberon had heard it. 

"Even my little daughter can see something is wrong. That Fae and human blood should never mix." Oberon spat, and the Fae man finally got up, pulling his hand away from Isel. He was leaving, honouring the terms of their surrender.

He turned back once, eyes bright with hate and tears.

Isel watched him leave, standing all alone in the middle of their throne room. The jeering, heckling arena of nobles, pointing at her features. The room darkened as a cloud passed by it. 

But Isel didn't cry; she just stared at them. Ellendra remembered she came from a world where her features weren't cared about. Fae already looked so different that twisted human features didn't bother them.

The nobles started throwing things. Small things, but some of them hit the little girl, who still didn't move.

"Oberon, this is cruel!" Ellendra whispered to him, and Oberon stared at her nastily.

"You want features matching her's? No? Then shut up."

Daphne was unusually quiet, staring at her father. Then before Ellendra could stop her, Daphne pushed out of her arms and ran.

"Daphne?" Ellendra got up, but her daughter didn't stop.

"What the hell is she doing?" Oberon growled, but Ellendra shook her head, watching Daphne evade the guards.

No one dared to throw anything, not when it could hit the princess.

Daphne ran right up to Isel, who was unmoving and quiet.

Daphne stared at the strange girl. "I'm Princess Daphne of Carellia. We're going to live together. You're Isel, and do you want to be my only friend?"

The Fae girl nodded, looking back at Daphne.

Daphne took Isel's hand.

Ellendra's heart broke a little, and she had to work double-time to quash the pride in her face.

So her daughter wasn't a monster.

The room was still full of jostling, cruel courtiers, who were creating the threat they'd soon fear. Mocking a child for the crime of being born different. But finally, finally, Ellendra realized there was still a future here.

Oberon may have crushed his wife, but there was still some good, somewhere in his daughter.

And Ellendra hoped it lasted, that Daphne learned to navigate this world powerfully, as a woman.

Then sun lit up the throne room through every single window.