Once upon a time, there was a girl named Rowena. Rowena was told from the time she was very little that she was destined to become a queen, which meant that she was a princess. She was also told that somewhere out there was a prince who she would fall in love with and marry. Now when most people think of a princess, they think of a beautiful maiden from magical stories [LS1] who lives in a castle and wears fancy clothes and has lots of servants. But Rowena was not that kind of a princess. She lived in a cottage, wore clean but simple clothes, and she helped her family on the farm. And Rowena always thought that her prince was a tall, handsome man who would ride a tall steed and carry her away to live with him in his castle.
Of course, Rowena always wondered why she was not one of the princesses in those fairy tales. One day, she asked her father why, if they were royalty, they did not live in a castle like the kings and queens in the fairy tales she read?
“Every young girl is a princess, my daughter,” her father smiled.
“Every girl?” Rowena asked.
“Yes, every girl. Every girl has the potential to become a queen.”
Rowena was confused. How was it possible for every girl to be a princess? If every girl was a princess, then every woman was a queen. How could that be? Surely there was not room enough for everyone to be kings and queens.
Her father could notice her confusion, “My daughter, someday you will understand how you become a queen.”
Rowena remembered this, but was always curious about what her father told her. When would she understand? How would she find out? Would someone tell her? Was it written in a book somewhere? And what about her prince?
There was a sorcerer named Leroy who knew exactly what it meant to be a prince or a princess, or potentially a king or queen. He was once a prince, but he only desired the glory and title [LS2] of king. He wanted to rule over other people, and tell them what to do. But this was not good. Those who believed that kings and queens should have unlimited power cast him away. In his sorrow, he decided to take up sorcery. His goal was to convince every man, woman, and child that they had no potential at being a king or queen, and he did not want anyone to take any joy in their current existence. Leroy wanted these monarchs [LS3] to find misery in their existence, and to desire to be better than others. He did not want anyone to have the happiness that he had been denied because of his own selfishness.
Rowena grew up to be a beautiful and comely [LS4] young woman. She read many books and had learned a great many things in her life and she was considered very intelligent. She was still trying to understand how she could be a princess as well as everyone else. One day, Rowena met a young man named John, who was quiet but kind. When John saw her, he was amazed by her beauty, and when he spoke to her, her intelligence astounded him. He had never known any other young woman like her. And like Rowena, he had been taught about his potential to be a king. Like Rowena, he had not been able to find out how that was possible.
John wanted to know Rowena better, but Rowena did not know if she wanted to know John better. He did not look like the prince from the fairy tales she had read as a child. Those were the only princes she knew about. After she thought about it, she decided that John could be her friend. John was not against this, since he was shy.
Leroy saw this, and was not happy. You see, the key to becoming a king or queen was true love. And for every man and woman who found true love and become kings and queens in their own right, Leroy lost more of his power. The only way he could stay powerful was if true love was never found and people could just be miserable. And he knew that John and Rowena could potentially be each other’s true love, and consequently become king and queen of their own kingdom. Leroy had to devise a plan for this to not happen.
As Rowena become better acquainted with John, the more she enjoyed being with him. He was always kind to her, and listened to her talk. He let her speak as much as she wished, after all, he enjoyed the things she said and the way she said them. Rowena also noticed that the more time she spent with John, the less shy he was. This was the beginning of a true friendship, and perhaps even love. John was becoming more and more in love with Rowena as they spent more time together. Rowena was not sure because she did not know what love was supposed to feel like. In her books, it always seemed as though the characters experienced love at first sight. She had not loved John at first sight; did this mean that she did not love him?
One day, she decided to go read in her favorite field by her house. She was done with her chores for the time being, so her mother would not be upset with her if she had some leisure time[LS5] . After Rowena found her favorite spot in the field and began reading her book, she heard the hooves of the horse steadily beating upon the ground, not far from where she was. She looked up and she saw a fine, noble [LS6] steed in the field. It was not a wild horse, for it had a young man sitting upon it. A very handsome young man dressed in very fine clothing. Clothing finer than any of the other young men in her village—in fact, his clothing looked similar to that of the princes in her favorite books.
“He must not be from around here,” she thought, intrigued with the mysterious stranger, who had just stopped his horse not too far from her. This only added to the appeal of this fine young man. She imagined he was a prince, coming to take her away so they could live happily ever after. But she knew that this could not be so, for she knew that princes like that were only in fiction. However, she thought of him as a prince from this point on, for she did not think he would stay long nor would she ever see him again.
Rowena thought this “prince” was only surveying the field, admiring its beauty, and would soon be leaving, which would most likely mean that Rowena would never see him again. She went back to her book, pretending that his presence was a routine occurrence in her small world, but she looked up again when she heard footsteps coming towards her. The “prince” wanted to speak to her!
Rowena automatically stood up to greet him. “He is probably asking for directions somewhere,” she kept telling herself.
The “prince” smiled charmingly at her and introduced himself.
“I am Prince Iago, I have come here to seek out my princess. And I believe you are the princess I have been seeking,” said he.
His princess was in shock. Her father had told her that princes were something of make-believe, merely a figment of some author’s imagination, and now she was standing in front of a prince, who at first sight wanted her to be his princess!
Iago looked at her questioningly, “Is something wrong?”
Rowena looked up, “It is only that I have always been told that you were only found in fairy tales, that you were not real.”
Prince Iago laughed, “Authors do not make things like that up. Who do you think they based their stories on?”
This made sense to Rowena. How could authors make such things up? They had to have received inspiration from somewhere. Was this the prince all these fairy tales spoke of?
“If you are that prince, then why are you not with any of the princesses these stories had?”
Now Iago was not truly a prince. In fact, his name was not Iago. He was truly the sorcerer Leroy, who wanted to destroy true love and happiness. Since he knew that Rowena was in danger of truly loving John, he had to find a way to keep it from happening. And since Rowena’s weakness was her love for fiction, especially of the fairy tale sort, he knew that he could bring her down with that weakness.
Leroy, or as Rowena knew him, Iago, answered her question:
“Those authors had their own ideas about who I should marry, so they wrote about how I could fall in love with these women. But I could never fall in love with them, not the way I am falling in love with you.”
There was no way Rowena could describe the way she was feeling right now. Not being able to believe that there was a prince, even the prince that fairy tales talked about, who wanted to whisk her away to his own royal abode and become his princess, and one day his queen. She accepted his proposal, not quite thinking about John. This was Leroy’s intent—to have her forget about John. Soon, Leroy, in the guise of Iago, would cause her to be miserable for all time.
It was soon proclaimed throughout the village that Rowena would marry Prince Iago. The villagers were elated that their own Rowena would become a princess. And oh, what a magnificent princess indeed!
John wanted to be happy for Rowena, but he was deeply heartbroken. He truly loved her, and he had begun to think that she also loved him.
“Obviously I am not good enough for her like that elegant prince!” he thought. He was miserable indeed, for now he did not think he could ever find someone else. Half of Leroy’s plan had been accomplished. Leroy had removed all happiness from one man, now he needed to inflict misery upon the woman. Or had he?
Rowena and Iago’s wedding was to happen quickly, so Iago could get back to his kingdom as quickly as possible. But truly, Leroy did not want to give Rowena enough time to rethink her decision to marry him.
Iago would always tell Rowena about the life they would live. She would have servants to wait on her night and day, at her leisure; she would have the most beautiful clothing; eat the best food; and would rule over a large kingdom at some point in time. Her subjects, which would be many, would obey her every command, and if any did not, she could punish them in any way she pleased.
Rowena had always been pure in heart, and she always believed that everyone should be treated with kindness and mercy. She had also been taught that those who exercised dominion over others were often cruel and selfish[LS7] . But her Iago was so handsome and so good to her that she could not believe he could be so unkind to other people. She put her fears to rest and continued to progress with the plans for her nuptials.
Sadly, that was not the last time she would doubt Iago. When they met, he would tell her how beautiful and kind she was and it seemed that the sweet words would never stop flowing from his lips. But every now and then, he would say something that was not so kind. First he would tell her that she was being too kind, and then would censure her timidity, saying, “You are going to have servants soon, you should not be afraid to tell people what to do!”
It appeared that Leroy was beginning to forget his plans. It seemed that he picked someone who was just too good and too kind; and he could not bear it. No human being could be so kind to him and to others! He had to work harder to bring her down, but while criticizing her, he would also flatter her to an extreme.
The more he criticized Rowena, the more she started wondering if marrying a prince would be what it was made out to be. But not long after the words of disparagement[LS8] , he would utter words of the highest praise, commenting on her angelic beauty and her ethereal behavior[LS9] . Rowena took very well to this kind of praise, and would stop doubting, at least until he censured her again. He also lavished her with the most wonderful attentions—beautiful jewelry, clothes, anything she wanted. Even the most costly copies of books, even though he wanted her to pay more attention to him than to books.
It did not take much longer until Rowena began to be unhappy. She appreciated all that the prince did for her, but she was not very happy, though she could not understand why. Iago loved her, why else would he give her such things of luxury? And why would he want to take her back to his own kingdom if he did not love her? Perhaps he did love her, but she was beginning to become more and more unsure of her love for him.
She also began to realize that she missed John. While John was not a prince in the sense of royalty, he was always kind to her and seemed incapable of uttering words of insult to anyone. She remembered how happy she was whenever she spent time with him.
Rowena decided to go see her dear friend, for she had not seen him since she had agreed to marry Prince Iago.
When John saw Rowena coming to see him, he was happy and saddened. It seemed that Leroy’s plan had not worked entirely, for there was still some happiness left in him. He permitted her entrance into his house, not a palace by any means, but a neat, well-kept house nonetheless.
When Rowena saw John, she realized she was happier than she had been since she became engaged. As they visited, she heard nothing but kind words from his lips, and they were sincere; insincerity was something John was not capable of. And what was more, he let Rowena talk as much as she needed, and listened to her.
Rowena did not want to leave. Actually, she never wanted to leave John. Now she was beginning to know what love truly was, for she was experiencing it with John.
As she was about to leave, she knew that she had to tell him.
“John,” she said. “it is wrong for me to marry Prince Iago.” She could not believe she was saying this.
John blinked in confusion. How could this be?
“John, I…I do not care to become a princess. I think I would be much happier living humbly than living unhappily in a palace. You are ever so much kinder to me than Iago is.”
She went on to tell him how Iago criticized her, while still giving her many fine gifts and praising her beauty to seemingly no end.
After dealing with the initial shock of her words, John smiled. Rowena loved him! No longer did they care about finding an elusive prince or princess, whatever that meant. They could be happy together, not caring about servants or lavish clothing. If they could only have each other, then they would be happy. Rowena made plans to break off her betrothal to the prince, though it would be difficult because her engagement was so public. She did not want to hurt him.
Leroy already knew that Rowena had just decided to not marry him, and that his plan to cause eternal heartache upon John had failed. What had he done wrong?
Rowena timidly approached who she thought was her prince. She was scared because she knew that he would be hurt by what she had to say. What she did not know, was what her “prince” had in store for her now.
As she began to speak, she could feel her tongue swelling in her mouth, thus preventing her voice from coming forth.
“What is it my love?” Iago said almost mockingly. Rowena could not speak, no matter how hard she tried.
“I know what you are trying to do, Rowena,” said Iago, Leroy now becoming more and more apparent. “But I cannot let you do it. You made a promise to me, and you are not going to break it.”
Rowena still could not get a word out of her mouth.
“You are NOT going to thwart my plans!” said Leroy. “John already thwarted my plan for him, I am not going let you thwart my plan for you!”
“How does he know about John?” thought Rowena. “They have never met.”
“Oh, how do I know John?” said Leroy. “I’ll tell you how.” He said this all while maintaining hold of Rowena’s way of speech. “I am not Prince Iago. I am Leroy, the sorcerer. A sorcerer who loathes happiness and joys in others’ misery. I am not happy and do not wish others to be happy!”
Rowena felt pity for him.
“Oh do not have pity on me you pathetic child! I am happy in my misery, if that is difficult for you to believe. In fact, I enjoy making others miserable!”
Rowena was in so much pain that she could not move a bone in her body.
“Where is your precious John now?” Leroy mocked.
Oh how Rowena really wanted John to come save her from this wicked man! But how could he save her when he was just a man? There was no way. Oh, if only they could die together so they would never be apart again!
“Oh, John will never come now. He does not love you near enough to come save you,” laughed Leroy.
Leroy was very wrong indeed. While Rowena was suffering great pains, John was beginning to fear that Rowena was in danger, and had begun to regret not going with her when she was breaking off her engagement to the prince. He knew that princes were powerful and could order even death, but little did he know who he would be dealing with.
Miraculously, John found Rowena on the brink of death. He saw Leroy, laughing at her pain, but as soon as he saw John, he was horrified.
“No! You cannot thwart my plans again!”
Although John was normally a shy man, he was now a bold man.
“I love her. Let her go!”
“What?”
“Let her go! She is my true love! If she dies, I die too.”
Leroy’s hold upon Rowena was already loosening, and now she could speak, though weakly.
“He is my true love. Please do not separate me from him. If I should die, he dies too.”
Leroy’s powers were getting weaker and weaker, as soon as his hold upon Rowena had weakened completely; John caught Rowena in his arms, for she was so weak. As they embraced, Leroy was losing more and more power.
Leroy’s powers got weaker as more people found true love, and by the time John and Rowena had fallen in love, he had lost his sorcerer powers and could no longer inflict misery upon others.
John and Rowena married and lived happily in their quiet home. They had come to realize that royalty was not about the honors and the fancy clothes, it was how they felt about each other and how they treated each other. Rowena felt like she was a queen with John, and John felt like a king whenever he was with Rowena. Their “kingdom” would be their own children, who were actually their princes and princesses.
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