thepromisedchild

[thepromisedchild]

Dearest Ellie,

I regret to inform you that I have already been caught. Specifically by your tutor, Jassin, and Lady's Maid, Mabel. Jassin can't even see! But he did say he'd heard your voice every day for ten years and could tell the difference.

As for Mabel, what have you done to that poor girl? She sticks to me like glue and craves my approval. She's been a welcome friend during this time, but I truly think you should pay her at least a little bit of attention when you return. I worry that she will be lonely.

Listen to me! "Concerned about others" is not a phrase I would have ever used to describe myself, but things have been changing quickly as of late. I hope this letter finds you well, and with better luck than I've had.

Mabel has insisted on ordering all new gowns that "suit" me better. I trusted her judgment and was not disappointed. Not even when I was being raised by Rum did he ever bring me such fine garments to wear.

My favorite at the moment is a pink – of all colors — floral number with ribbons and lace. It sounds very overwhelming, but it's actually pretty subdued in a pretty way.

Anyway, I suppose by the time you read this, I will have met our parents. Or at least our mother. I'm hoping, that is. It seems neither of them ever have time, and I've been here for a week. I suppose if they knew I'd returned from captivity, they might pay me more mind. Is it always like this? Were you alone as a child, too?

All of my love,

Lena ♡

Lena sighed as she folded the watercolor floral stationary and slid it into a gold-embossed scarlet envelope. She heated up some wax, then pressed the silver seal of the princess into it – two rose petals falling from a singular rose. The petals were meant to represent both Lena and Elionwy. She wondered if Queen Marjorie avoided her daughter's official letters because it hurt to look at the seal?

Mabel and Jassin had arrived for her evening princess lesson, so she put the letter away in an ornate, carved box on her desk and locked it with a small key she kept hidden under her skirt.

#

[thepromisedchild]

At first, Lena wasn't confident in Elionwy's plot to trade places for a year.

[thepromisedchild]

Lena Pinethorn (Minette Cerise) was born a princess to an Italian kingdom some 19 years ago. Her mother, Queen Marjorie Cerise, made a deal with the notorious Rumpelstiltskin to save her own life, and months later he came to collect payment in the form of her first born child.

Marjorie gave birth to two twin girls, one with hair deepest brown like her own, and one – the firstborn – with hair like a golden sun. Like the gold she so desperately needed Rum to spin for her all that time ago. She named them Elionwy and Minette respectively, and came clean to her husband, King Aydin, about the bargain she had made. In attempt to thwart Rum, they tried to pass of a peasant baby as the first child.

He saw through this because he'd placed a spell on Marjorie while pregnant so that the firstborn would have golden hair. He took the child and vanished. For years, the search was on, but no one could find the missing princess or the elusive sylph that had stolen her away.

Far in the Welsh countryside, Rum raised Minette as his own, giving her a name he claimed to have taken from the sun goddess in a bargain. Lena.

She loved this man who she thought was her father. On her eighth birthday, an old hag located them and cursed her, for her "father" stealing her name. Losing one's name can destroy the mind.

Now when Lena touches salt water on a full moon, she becomes a creature of the deep. A siren.

This wasn't a problem until years later, when Rum sold her to the Chinese emperor as a performer to protect her from his enemies. This betrayal cut deep and every day for two years, Lena searched for a way to escape.

Pirates raiding the treasury at the palace on the coast was not the way out she expected, but she took the opportunity and stayed with the pirates for four years, learning and honing her abilities until she became a master herbalist.

One day while docked for repairs in Stacia, Italy, she injured herself looking for a rare herb. A girl in a hood helped her, but when she removed that hood, it revealed a very familiar, freckled face. Lena was staring at herself, the only difference being that this doppelganger had brown hair.

She introduced herself as Elionwy, princess of Stacia. For hours, they talked, and connected the dots. After a few days of lessons to each other, they swapped places.

In disguise with a wig, Lena now has to learn all she can about being a princess to maintain her cover. Jassin, the blind royal tutor, figures her out right away but agrees to help her learn. He is a brutal but effective teacher, and with the help of Mable, her handmaiden, they may just pull this off.

However, a visiting king and prince from another kingdom may sabotage everything the trio have worked for. Lena's recklessness might be her undoing.