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Everyone knows that mysterious old ladies are kind of a big deal.
Yes, anyone who is female (or wraps up in sufficiently mysterious shawls) and old enough could pretend to be a mysterious old lady, but the actual category of the creatures is a different matter, and one can often tell (though it's better to be on the safe side, when identifying them).
Mysterious old ladies can, in a certain sense, do magic - or help you do magic. Sure, if you decide to take the first milking of your new cow and leave it out in a bowl in the backyard with a garland of roses floating on the surface and then drink it all first thing in the morning without stopping to put on your shoes or comb your hair, nothing will happen. But if you do it because a mysterious old lady told you to, and it was a real mysterious old lady, and you followed all of her instructions? Then you will find that you will get whatever result she advertised.
But if you step into your slippers first or tug a knot out of your ponytail or drink the milk early or late or use daisies for the garland, you will get something else.
It's very important to be exact and careful about these things.
Compared to what happens if you disobey a real mysterious old lady, being occasionally made a fool of by some pretender to the title because your eyesight is going or you were too sleepy to note her lack of a proper mysterious aura is nothing.
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spell_eternity
spell_eternity
Yeah, she doesn't have anything to say to him right now. She could maybe come up with something - "Why did you eat all those maidens", "Well, this room is a mess now", "Don't even think about trying to consummate our marriage", "So, these are called thumbs, they're useful", but. No. Just no.
spell_eternity
There's a bed in this room, for some idiotic reason. It has sheets. She pulls a clean sheet off of it and mops remnants of lye and milk and sweat and flecks of blood off herself.
And then she heads for the door.
And then she heads for the door.
mydarkness
The other prince is sitting on the floor of the hall, looking nervous and upset.
He brightens when he sees her.
"You're alive! Oh good."
spell_eternity
"Yes. I mean, I might be crying too if my mother had screwed up magicking me into existence and then someone had to put me through an elaborate and painful series of steps to fix me."
spell_eternity
"Be my guest." She slumps against the wall. "Meanwhile can I get water, somewhere?"
mydarkness
"Um. Yes. I'll find a servant," says the prince.
He fetches a maid and leaves her in the hall with the instruction, "Please get the princess anything she asks for," and then goes into the room.
He fetches a maid and leaves her in the hall with the instruction, "Please get the princess anything she asks for," and then goes into the room.
spell_eternity
Oh right. She's a princess.
...cool.
She gets some water, and some bread and butter for breakfast, and then she wants an actual bath and a fresh dress with no blood or milk on it, and then she comes back to see what's up.
mydarkness
Taphinieu is sitting among the blood and milk and lye and lizardskins and discarded shifts, hugging his brother, who is curled up half in his lap with a blanket tucked around him.
"Hello, Princess," he says when she comes back. "...Um. What's your name?"
"Hello, Princess," he says when she comes back. "...Um. What's your name?"
mydarkness
"It's, um, it's good to meet you, I guess," says Taphinieu. "Welcome to the family. ...um, speaking of which, there's some things I think I should tell you if you're going to be around and married to my brother and all."
mydarkness
He is quiet for a moment, thinking of what to say.
Eventually he settles on: "...it's not good to upset the king."
Eventually he settles on: "...it's not good to upset the king."
spell_eternity
"He did routinely kidnap people expecting them to get killed. Do you mean apart from that?"
spell_eternity
"What else is wrong with him, and have you tried going outside and being conspicuously dismayed?"
mydarkness
"Yes," he says. "When I was a child. And the mysterious old woman said, 'If you try to be kind and responsible even when it's difficult, and remember that just because you're being punished doesn't mean you've done something wrong, things will sort themselves out eventually.' I don't think she usually gives advice like that."
spell_eternity
"Yeah, that's weird. You didn't have to eat any non-food or combine inanimate objects in unconventional ways. Are you sure she was a real mysterious old woman and not just a well-intentioned elderly lady?"
mydarkness
"I thought sometimes she might've been just the ordinary kind of old woman. But she looked very mysterious when I met her. And I think it turned out to be very good advice even if it wasn't magic."
spell_eternity
"I mean, that's good, then, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee that things will sort themselves out."