Part 30: Princess Candiere

“The truth is that I am from a world called Madara. When I was born, my parents taught me about my place in a medieval town ruled and named after a magical girl who had the power to give life or death through a single touch. She was about nine-hundred years old before I left. Her name was Princess Fidaliath.”

“Why exactly is Princess Fidaliath important? Besides being this magical girl of course?” I asked Princess Candiere.

“She was the reason I am who I became now. When I started to grow up, I realized our society was not the best to live in. Princess Fidaliath had been manipulating her people for years to a life of enslavement. Because of her, my father broke down and became ill. No matter how much I tried to take care of him, it became clearer each day that he was close to death. I miss him dearly. Even my worn out mother felt heartbroken on that day and vowed to find some way to cure him. I decided after his death to murder Princess Fidaliath and take the throne for myself.”

I was astonished at what she just said. Even though I understood her motive, what she said was a lot worse than how I was treated. I began to sympathize with her knowing that realistically I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do what she did.

“So that means you had to find a way to break in… Did you kill Princess Fidaliath?”

“No. However, I did unearth a few secrets. Dare I say, rather disturbing ones…”

“What happened next?”

“It was nighttime and I had snuck out across the village with a steel knife in my pocket. I kept quiet enough to avoid and kill one unsuspecting guard. I put on their armor in private before marching for hours in a bit of pain towards the kingdom. Once I entered inside, I decided to create a distraction by planning out the escape of her prisoners.”

“Sounds dangerous…”

“In hindsight? Perhaps. I entered the fortress in the center leading me down a staircase into a contained prison room. Many men had been locked up who confessed to being wrongfully sentenced to death. Staring at me from the end of the room however was a handsome man who looked more different than them. Looking back on it now I started to piece together this as a Traveller encounter.”

“What did it do to you?”

Princess Candiere looked up at the ceiling while trying to recollect how it felt.

“The moment you stare at this monster’s real eyes, you are left in a frozen state. It is as if they leave you in this trance. I never understood why he was there, but something always told me he was the reason Madara was deliberately stuck in this curse within itself. The poverty, unclean conditions, and wars that broke out between villagers… It was chaotic.”

I started to see a connection. The frozen trance was exactly what happened in one of the stories about the murders at Dream Academy High. So this meant that The Traveller was definitely connected to the first murder with a witness who already made account of it.

The question was why did this thing just let her go?

“What did The Traveller do when it first met you?”

“It said it already knew who I was and decided to make an offer. He held this colorful lollipop in my face which also made everyone in their cells go quiet. He told me to lick it if I was starving, which I did without thinking. I was desperate.”

“I know how that feels,” I told her.

“When I licked it though, what I wore started to transform into what you see before you. I was in awe at how beautiful I looked and begged him to give my mother riches. Unfortunately, this is when everything fell apart. The Traveller pretended as if he couldn’t get out of the cell and begged me to use the keys near the entrance so I could free him.”

“You freed him didn’t you?”

“Under the naïve impression that he would return the favor by unlocking the other prisoners while I went to kill Princess Fidaliath. Little did I know that it would take me into the cell with it and…”

Princess Candiere’s hands were squirming with discomfort. Something about what happened there shook her soul.

“I was given a special necklace, one laced with an orange glowing crystal. I believe he told me to keep it safe, said farewell, and then… Kissed me. That’s how I ended up here.”

My eyes enlarged upon hearing this. I was shocked. So in other words, this Traveller can kiss people into other realities? I knew it wasn’t really her fault but to know that this was what happened to Princess Candiere... I would have never figured The Traveller had an affection for her. That didn’t mean it could just be redeemed so easily though. To add more to my thoughts on this discussion, it was clear that I now had evidence too. If I were to show everyone that the necklace and witness were both real, everyone in Animearth would realize that the curse could be stopped.

The only way to do that? Find out if my theory I planned last night was real.