“Wait, do you mean that the crown prince wants to fucking marry one of us?!”

In a usual situation, the two older ones would reprimand Samir for their foul language (not appropriate at all for such a young lady!), but the bombastic news were so shocking none of them seemed to even notice.

“Are they going to take Alani away from us?” the youngest, Manny, held tight to the tip of her oldest sister's dress.

“No!” the rest of the sisters shouted.

But they all knew (if that whole story was to be believed, that is) that Alani was the most reasonable candidate. She was twenty, already reaching the too old to marriage age and she was by far the prettiest and most gracious of them all. Who would fit the princess role in that whole household if not her?

“First we have to understand the situation. Gabe, please,” the oldest nodded at the one that called upon them to share the information, the second daughter.

Gabe took a deep breath, going again to check again if the heavy door of the room she and Alani shared was properly locked before sitting down on the colorful tapestries that adorned the floor, in a circle as the five of them always did when talking about serious subjects.

“A prophecy. It seems that the Oracle on the castle tower fated that he is to marry one of our House, his life depending on it.”

“What of his life? Everybody knows the King feels more about his papers than any of his kids. Why would he allow his lineage to be tainted by merchants' daughters?” Lulu, the second youngest stated.

“Because of the Queen,” Gabe continued, hands tight together in her lap, “It seems she loves him enough to parade his cause to the council, and if they all agree, even the King can do nothing about it.”

Before they could even digest the information, Lulu quickly intervened again.

“Wait,” She adjusted her glasses, “ ‘If’ they agree? So it’s not official yet?”

“Not yet, but by the talks of it, it will be very soon. Here too, as soon as the girl leaves, Mather and Father will read the letter she brought with her and retire to their room to make a choice. We have to be quicker.”

“How did you even get to know all of this? Is your source to be trusted?” Samir, the forever restless they were, pressed.

The line of information reached much further than what any of them could verify, but the thread was strong enough for Gabe to acknowledge it. She had no way to spot the details, of course, she was but the second oldest girl of a modestly well-known traveling company, and time was but a couple of days of the news traveling person to person very fast, but she was sure she got the gists of it: In the Tower, the Oracle Spoke to the Prince, who in turn spoke with his mother, who then spoke to a whole council of people. Things got tangled after that. In this council, there was Great Duchess Alastair, who in turn was hosting her cousin Baron Phillips in her mansion for a couple of weeks because of his daughter Season (she was of age and was much happy to attend balls with such preeminent figures of the kingdom) and at dinner with the nerves heated and the occurrences still sudden the Lord, too, was spoken to. The Lord happened to have met that same humble merchant family in the news a week prior and had met them a great number of times before to buy his daughter beautiful and exotics fabrics for her numerous social events. In fact, there was another trip to that same stall settled on the next day, so why not give the family a heads-up? They seemed respectable enough. And so, the daughter came to choose some more of her likings (accompanied by her servants of course), and a letter was given to the Master and Mister, who dutifully stored it away for later, to properly tend the Noble intending to spend a great deal of gold with their products.

After that came the easiest part of the chain: Gabe was friends with the Young Lady’s maid, who happened to have “accidentally” overheard everything the night prior. Thank the Gods above and the Fairies under that she had the good head to keep the servants of the affluent clients close and thank the Devils below to tempt them to have the sharpest ears of them all.

“It is to be believed,” she raised her hand to stop more objections, “Time is not on our side, sisters. We have to decide what to do quickly.”

“I know… I… it just so unbelievable.” Samir’s voice halted, and they all quieted down for a moment.

Unbelievable, and yet, true. Tales of commoners that ended in the castle never ended well. One of them was fated to go to the Royal Castle, that nest of snakes, and much likely die after completing whatever the Prince intended to do with them.

“Maybe… Maybe it won’t be so bad right? The Nobles are bad but maybe the Prince will be nice since we are supposed to help him,” the little one tempted.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alani tried to smile at her, but her attempt only frighted Manny even more. What could they offer to someone who already had it all? And they all knew, all of the young poor girls, the heirs were always the worst, the cruelest to girls like them. They heard stories. They saw what sometimes lay on ditches.

“What does this prophecy entail? Perhaps we can do something useful out of it,” Alani voiced.

“I don’t know,” Gabe shook her head, “It got lost in the mouth to mouth. All that’s known is that he has to marry and it has to be of our family.”

“Damn it,” Samir whispered.

“I can’t think of anything that might help us get away from this,” Lulu said at last.

“Even Lulu can’t think…?” Manny whispered, eyes watering. For her to take this long to despair, Gabe thought, she was getting tougher and tougher by the year. At last one good thing seemed to come of that day.

“Won’t Mother stay on our side? We could… We could hide. Or marry before he tries to engage or-” Samir got up, frantically pacing around.

“Mother will be the first to jump at the opportunity,” Gabe whispered. Their Father would, without a doubt, be the eager second one. A chance to do such a great deal would never escape them, even if they had to sacrifice one of their children in the process. One down, but the rest would prosper at last. That was true especially with Alani’s youth going by, “We can’t escape sisters. Not from this. The powers this time is not just some blacksmith or another merchant trying to propose to our Alani, it’s the Crown Prince. And behind him, The Queen, She Who Bears The Blood of Fairies. Even if Mother and Father disagree, and even if we all marry this same night, heads will be cut and vows broken so that the Prince might live.”

Gabe looked upon them all, somber with the truth, and they awaited as they always did.

“...But, at least, if we manage to be clever enough, we can still choose who.”

Not a heartbeat of time passed.

“ I guess the choice is made then,” Alani composed herself, dignified and elegant as she always was.

The younger ones looked troubled but said nothing, all deep in their own thoughts.

“No,” Gabe pressed and continued before the oldest could rebuke her, “Our plan hasn’t changed, sister. For you to marry into royalty would just make things worst than a regular man. I won’t allow you to live a life of misery.”

It was a long hard process in which all of them cooperated on their own accord to convince the older one to be truthful with them about her dread to marry and they had spent the last couple of years waiting for someone to propose to Gabe so that she would marry first and leave with her sister under her wing. It would have been done already, really, if not for the fact that Alani was just too perfect and Gabe was… Not. But none of them were willing to allow their protector, their mother through all but name to suffer if they could help it. So they all worked together to drive away suitors and appease their parents until the opportunity appeared. Who would have thought that the opportunity would be none other than the Crown Prince?

“How could I allow you to live in misery in my steed, Gabriel?”

“I could go too. I’m old enough,” Samir chimed in, pain in their eyes.

“No,” the two chorused.

Samir was old enough, in fact, they were the perfect age of sixteen, and perhaps they could learn to tolerate the Prince, but they weren’t suited to the life of a Princess, and that much was clear to them all. They would suffer all the same. If it was based on age alone, even Lulu would fit (she would reach fifteen half a year later) but none of them, not even Lulu herself would allow her to wed this early. At eleven, only Manny was beyond the scope of possibility.

“From all of us, I think I would suffer the least. I welcome the idea, sisters. You know I was ready to vow for years now, such was our plan,” she tried to reason.

“I think she’s right Alani,” Lulu voiced her opinion before the older one could intervene, “Let’s be real, if there’s anyone from us who could survive the court that would be Gabe. Manny is too young. I am too… Well, I wouldn’t know where to even start this whole marriage thing. Samir is too fiery, too stubborn. You, Alani, are too passive. You would endure in silence and whiter away, like a pretty flower in a golden vase. But our Gabe is cunning. She always was. She can manage a Prince, don’t you think?”

Samir stomped in front of her, face filled with outrage.

“How could you advocate to our sister to go to the lion’s den on our behalf?” They raged.

“I am just using my head, Samir. She would have the highest chance of surviving. In fact, I think if anyone went instead, we would just lose one of us because we were too prideful to acknowledge the truth.” She didn’t freet, certainty dripping her every word.

“I could manage too! I could… I could adapt!”

But they couldn’t. They knew Samir couldn’t, not in the way they were now.

“Gabe,” Manny filled once again the silence that settled in, “Do you think you could do it? Sincerely?”

She reached out to hold her hand, staring deeply into her brown eyes.

“Yes.”

“And would you live and thrive and come back to us?”

“...Yes.”

“Would you perhaps even be able to be happy too?”

She tempted a smile.

“That is too far away for me to know. But I would try. I will try my damn hardest to make the best out of this, just like Mother and Father thought us to.”

“Language,” Samir said, tears in their eyes. Gabe laughed, and she realized she was crying too.

Alani hugged her, so tight, so tight it seemed like there was nothing else in the world. Soon she felt the other ones joining in as well, and for a moment, only the warm feeling of love filled Gabriel’s forever-active mind.