Manjari Thapa
There were once three beautiful princesses. The oldest one was named Arche, her name meant ‘beginning’ because she was the firstborn. She was a quick-witted, intelligent girl whom everyone in the kingdom loved. She was also the most beautiful girl in the entire empire. The second princess was also a beloved and beautiful figure who had no interest in the throne .Her name was Nalena, meaning twilight. Nalena spent most of her days in a library and she was never sociable. The third princess was not very admired by the people of the kingdom because of her arrogance and her obsession with the throne, this princess’ name was Vesper. While Vesper was a princess ,she was the daughter of the emper- or’s shameless brother who meddled with women rather than doing his duties as the duke which caused him to lose his life.
Ever since she was young, Vesper has always aspired to become the empress of the nation. But everyone knew Vesper couldn’t become the crown princess since the position of the crown princess was already crowned to someone far superior than her, her older sister Arche, the most beloved princess of all. Vesper loathed Arche for stealing what was supposed to be hers. Vesper believed what Arche had done Vesper could do just as well, yet she was shamed for not being able to master swords- manship as quickly and as elegantly as Arche even though Arche took swordsmanship classes after Vesper. She couldn’t even solve problems as fast as Arche. Everyone knew that Vesper couldn’t do what Arche could. Vesper stayed up countless nights to study so she could even be half as good as Arche and Nalena, the second princess and the most intellec- 57tual scholar in the empire but to no avail. Arche and Nalena’s bond was one to envy, they never fought about anything, and they were kind to everyone, even the maids in the palace who the high society labeled as ‘low-lives’. The maids adored the two princesses, and so did their parents. Many would label this family ‘the perfect royal family’ but Vesper would never be included because she has the blood of a shameful man and a commoner in her veins.
Vesper’s mother was executed for trying to kill the empress and seduce the emperor in an attempt to become the empress herself; she couldn’t even see Vesper debut into high society. Though Vesper’s debut wasn’t even grand compared to the first two princesses. The maids despised Vesper because of her attitude and they did everything to make sure Vesper wouldn’t harm the first two princesses. Vesper tried a lot to get Arche off the throne but all of her efforts proved to be futile, the maids always warned Arche and she was able to live because of the maids. The maids always wanted to report these incidents to the emperor but Arche always refused because she felt it would be too cruel to let her sister suffer such a fate. The maids admired her kindness but they decid- ed to make one more attempt and they could not stay silent about it.
On a warm summer day, Arche invited all of her friends to a tea party at the palace. The tea party was held in one of the 4 rose gardens made for the first and second princesses. The tea party was going smoothly and the atmosphere was filled with the joy and warmth of the two princesses.
The tea served had a sweet smell that filled the air with the smell of flow- ers. But an experienced maid noticed there was something wrong with the color of the tea that was in the princesses’ tea cups. No one knew where this weird tea color came from, it had no weird odor to it, the princess’ friends all told the princess that she should not drink something that could potentially be dangerous. The maids were all overlooking the tea party preparations but they didn’t see anything odd about the food, so why was only the first princess’ tea spoiled? Sorcery? It could have been black magic to poison the princess of course since so many people are jealous of the princess. However, no one has ever done anything this subtle. Only one person came to the minds of the maids,Vesper. What had she done though? The maids couldn’t figure out her trick in getting only the princess potentially poisoned.Were they looking into it too much? Nalena finally stood up, “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, only Arche’s tea was poisoned, no? So it couldn’t have been the tea that was poisoned, that possibility is ruled out since the tea making was strictly observed by the head maid herself.The only other option would be the teacup itself is poisoned, as for how the perpetrator knew what teacup she’d get.
It’s obvious who the suspect is.” Nalena spoke up. Camilia, the daughter of the first duke and the second most intellectual scholar in the kingdom, agreed with her, “Yes, I, too, believe that is the case, poisoning the teacup is not common nowadays, from my knowledge of the basic etiquette of tea parties in the royal palace I have narrowed down 2 sus- pects, the head maid, who oversaw everything or the third princess Ves- pee although I have no strong evidence that it is her. We cannot rule out the possibility.” Everyone was shocked by Camilla’s words.Vesper had done petty things that would not harm Arche’s life but rather her reputation, but to do something of this scale was pretty absurd. Arche was pale from what she had heard. Nalena spoke again, “Though I cannot disclose the reason for my suspicions towards Vesper, I can give you a strong rea- son and that is enough to prove that Vesper had planned this. This royal tea party tradition has been followed in our family for years and only the royal family members know about it. The tradition is about the tea cup placings, Vesper calculated when Arche would get the tea cup and she poisoned it.” Everyone gasped, the atmosphere was turning darker and darker. “We must report this in full detail to the Emperor,”everyone said.
After they reported this to the Emperor without missing any details and added all the things Vesper had done in the past in an attempt to re- move Arche from the throne, the emperor was furious and demanded that all the maids working for Vesper confess or face punishment. They all 60confessed and told the emperor that Vesper threatened them of their jobs and families if they went against her, she told them “When I become Empress, you all shall be rewarded handsomely for your contribution to the nation.’’ Vesper was called into the throne room, she tried to defend herself but it was all futile, the emperor said to her, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken in the daughter of the man and woman who had no moral values till their last breath, you, Vesper Whitlock, shall be exiled for the at- tempted murder of the beloved crown princess.” Vesper was devastated and she couldn’t say a single word. She remained silent as people cheered Arche, Nalena, and Camila’s bravery in exiling her. She didn’t speak a word until her last breath.
After Vesper was exiled, the kingdom regained peace and Arche was crowned the empress of the Holy Empire, by her father and mother who were very proud of her for her mercy, kindness, thoughtfulness, and brav- ery. Nalena and Camilia were also given the title of “The Holy Empress” as most gifted scholars and were given a brooch to always show that their bravery and their intelligence saved the princess who would bring their empire into the nation’s first golden age.
