Just like magic...

two

D A V I N A

“Aren’t you excited?” My mother questioned as the brush she held slowly made its way down my long, dark locks.
I was the last born, and with that came a lot of attention from my mother, at least. She wanted me to reach my fullest potential in her own way, but at times, it made me feel as if it meant I were to morph into her. She had been promised to my father, and while I never doubted their love, I knew it had taken hard work to find love where there was not at the beginning.

I never wished to be wed to someone I did not love, nor to be wed at all but while we didn’t follow all the traditions of royalty, being a devoted wife was one thing we stuck to.
Today was the day I would be meeting the many suitors, or should I say the ones that were left after my mother’s selection process. It had gone quite differently for my sisters because they had fallen in love with the right man who came knocking at our door and were fortunate enough to have him approved by both our father and mother. I never cared to be wed so I would have to learn to love whoever I chose or was led to choose by my mother.

Sometimes, I doubted that my sisters had the cliché love at first sight experience at all, more along the lines of them being consumed by the idea of love and soulmates. I bit my tongue instead of pointing out that perhaps their judgements were clouded, and it served best as they seemed to be well settled down. But from my own experience, all is not always as it seems and living on the same land, with me being quite observant perhaps they should have waited for the second sight instead.

I huffed as my mother tugged harshly at a tangled lock and felt as if she could read my smug thoughts, guilt ran through my veins at being amused with how my sisters may have poorly chosen their suitors.

Where were we before I drifted to my sisters’ choice in men?

It was not that I didn’t trust my mother’s ability to choose the wealthiest or most high regarded men within the lands for me to meet with, it was simply that I did not know what I sought after in a man. I knew I did not want to play second fiddle to him, standing in his shadows my entire life though nor have to pretend that I was happy for the town folk while being miserable behind closed doors.
My birthday was right around the corner and I feared the time stamp it set on my life, I feared my freedom being stripped away by a man that believed a wife to be the one that sat at home all day. I did not see anything wrong with that, I loved my home and being kept away but I also loved riding my horse in the woods, going into town in disguise and visiting the magical waters. If I were barred from those things the world would soon come to know it was all a facade and that the mirror down in the dungeons was right all along…

“More nervous than excited, Mother.” I finally answered with a short sigh and surprised myself at how honest I was.

“What is there to be nervous about, it’s the boys that need to be shaking in their boots in anticipation of meeting my beautiful Davina” She said rather confidently, and I offered a soft smile before I moved towards my bed where the beautiful dress was laid.

“I don’t want to be a princess stuck in a suffocating life just to appease society” I uttered more to myself, but my mother never let a whisper go by without being heard.
“You will be whatever princess you wish to be” She stated, and it was the thing I loved most about my family. My mother never forced us to fit the mold but when it came to traditions she could be overbearing, even if she bent them here and there.
“Yet I am being squeezed into this?” I raised the dress that was quite heavy and covered every inch of my body. We were known for showing our skin and wearing the latest fashionable pieces not known amongst royals yet I felt like I was being taken back to the olden times with the weight of the dress and the corset I was strapped into.