Day Twelve : Armistice - The Sisters & Prince Charming

Armistice

Definition

: temporary stopping of open acts of warfare by agreement between the opponents : truce

Armistice descends from Latin sistere, meaning "to come to a stand" or "to cause to stand
or stop," combined with arma, meaning "weapons."

Once upon a time there was a real dirtbag of a prince. Blessed with looks beyond compare but the
depths of his soul were comparable to to those of a shallow, muddy puddle. Possibly one that a dog
had pissed in. 

His parents, the King and Queen, had wisely disinherited him from the line of succession from an
early age. Not even the dissenters in the kingdom, usually always eagerly searching for a new
figurehead/puppet/lizard tail for their cause, didn’t want him and actively avoided him on the street
lest they make eye contact and he sought to enquire about joining said clause and the business
expenses granted to each member. 

The King and Queen paid him a generous monthly stipend, tried to stick him on a large country estate
(although he would keep sneaking off to the nearest town and racking up mountains of debt in the
various taverns and gambling parlors)  and desperately tried to limit the damage he caused. 

“He can’t even play the guitar”, the KIng was once heard to remark sadly. “At least if he had any
musical talent, we could set him up as a rock star - at least bad behaviour is expected from them and
the ladies would have some sort of warning.”

Ah yes, the ladies. The Prince’s biggest vice. By age 16 he had seduced and entranced most of the
eligible (and ineligible) ladies in the kingdom. By age 19 he had conquered (and broken) most of the
hearts of the kingdoms either side. By age 20, angry parents were repeatedly banging on the King
and Queen’s front door. The lawsuits for emotional damage were spiraling out of control and they’d
had to spend a big part of the budget installing safety nets along the cliffs and various popular bridges
that young ladies, in a fit of despair, continued throwing themselves off of. 

Everytime the Prince heard about the latest girl trying (and luckily failing) to throw herself to her doom
over the love of him, he just laughed. 

Like I said, this Prince was a royal scumbag.

Events eventually came to a head when, after breaking the heart of nearly every female in the
kingdom (and the neighbouring ones), the woman came together and demanded the Prince’s head.

Naturally, as his parents, the King and Queen refused and offered a variety of other options (a tighter
spending limit, armed guards to curtail his movements, prison). The representative of the women
listened to this carefully and said she would return to the others to discuss these options. 

On her way out of the palace, she happened to glance up and see the Prince staring at her from a
nearby window. He caught her looking and smirked. The woman’s lips tightened. 

The next time she returned to the palace she brought a mob with her. Nearly every female in the
country was there, armed to the teeth with cast iron frying pans, rolling pins, brooms and scrubbing
boards.

They barged into the castle, shouldering their way past the guards (because how are you supposed to
stop your own mother/sister/aunt/grandmother when they have that expression on their face, even
when you are a proud guard of the palace) and swarmed up the stairs into the Prince’s bedroom
(plenty of them knew where that was). They caught him trying to escape through the secret passage
(idiot - most of them knew about that too) and dragged him by his hair, his clothes, his fingernails,
kicking and screaming back down the stairs, out of the palace, through the two (making extra sure to
drag him through every pile of dog, horse, cow, chicken shit they could find) and eventually reached
the border of the kingdom and chucked him over it. When he staggered to his feet the women in his
kingdom looked at him with stony eyes, their crossed arms forming a barrier he could not break.

Then, as one, they all grinned nastily. 

He turned his head and looked over his shoulder. The women of the neighbouring country were
waiting for him. They were also armed.

Repeat previous actions for a kingdom or two.

Eventually, bruised, battered and slightly bloodied the Prince ended up in a country where he had
never been. 

And this is where ours starts.

Once upon a time two perfectly lovely twin daughters were born to the King and Queen, both fair of
figure and fair of nature they were shining stars amongst the aristocracy, their parents pride and joy.
The only flaw they both had, was that they were slightly competitive with each other, as all siblings are. 

By age three both could read and write.

By age six they were discussing philosophy and the best techniques to rule a nation with their
teachers.

By age ten they were responsible for the national budget and the royal treasury. 

By thirteen they took command of the armies.

By seventeen they had each conquered a neighboring country, just to see who could do it faster (they
returned the countries to their rightful owners, after discussing the various vulnerabilities their countries
had which had allowed them to conquer their kingdoms in the first place).

Everything one could do, the other had to prove they could do it better. But they were fair in their
competitions and always did their best not to involve others (except in the instance of the conquering
of the neighbouring countries but they had asked permission first. Most believed the kings of those
countries had thought they were joking and had played along to indulge a childish fantasy. Imagine
their surprise when a week later the young woman they had laughed at was sitting on their own throne
in front of them).

Yes, the future was set for a magnificent reign. But, as the bards say, love changes everything. 

Our scumbag of a Prince happened to land in the sister’s kingdom. 

Now, our shitty Prince might not have had any money or identification when he landed in the
princesses realm, but he did have enough of a royal upbringing and enough low cunning and no
morals enough to be able to bribe, cheat and blackmail his way into the palace for an audience with
the Royal family and wove them a tale of such heartbreak and blatant untruths about how he had
been forcibly evicted from his kingdom by the unfair cruelty of his subjects and how he had fled to this
country to throw himself upon the mercy of the sisters. 

By the end of his tale of lies and deceptions, both princesses had tears in their eyes for the
unfortunate Prince, had promised him heaven and earth to help him recover his throne and had
clearly, irrevocably, fallen in love with him.

Happily settled into this new palace, the Prince seduced the elder sister (by five minutes first). He
waited until he was certain she was completely besotted with him, then seduced the younger (by five
minutes) sister. The catfight that ensued when one sister walked in on the other with the Prince in bed
was legendary. Swords, axes, pistols and a small standing army were involved. 

The Prince sat back and watched it all with a grin on his face. He had serious issues. 

The sisters ran themselves ragged trying to compete with each other over who the Prince loved more.
At one point, their anxious parents had to intervene when the soldiers fled to them in tears, saying that
both the princesses had ordered the army to attack the other and chaos had ensued as some tried to
follow one princess, others had followed the other and the rest had had to try and break up the
multiple fights that had arisen before someone seriously got hurt.

At this point, the Queen intervened. At one point, she had been one of fourteen sisters. Due to
infighting six of the fourteen had perished amongst themselves. Four had fallen to due other
machinations and jealousy.

One had died due to a man. A man like the Prince. And because of this, the Queen had seen through
him the moment he arrived. However, she had thought her daughters could handle him but clearly she
had been wrong - after all, they were still teenage girls however gifted they may be.

The Queen did not want this to happen to her daughters. The sisters listened, with mutinous
expressions on their faces, but clearly didn’t think their mother’s past had anything to do with their
present. 

“Fine.” The Queen said coldly. “I will give you a week. Find evidence that this pathetic excuse of a
man is worth the time you are wasting on him. If you do not, I will cut off his head by the end of next
week.”

Despite their protests the Queen was firm. She even sent out a Royal Decree proclaiming the
execution of the Prince for crimes against the Crown and State.

“And I want proper evidence.” she said. “Not just hearsay.”

The deadline was too short! The sisters cried.

“Not if he’s as wonderful as you say he is.” the Queen said calmly. “So you’d better act fast or his
head will be mine.”

Never underestimate what a mother will do to protect her children.

The date was set, the executioner booked and so the sisters bent all their skill and intelligence to the
task, united again in this at last.

The answers they received were not good.

He had racked up debts in all the gambling places, inns and merchants in town.

He’d picked fights. He’d stolen - even thought the sisters would have bought him anything he desired.

But he’s a troubled soul, the sisters said to each other. After his cruel ejection from his country and
then his years spent wandering in the wilderness, of course he had a few issues. We just won’t let him
near the treasury.

The sisters worked hard to convince themselves that the man they loved was a good one. Like many,
many, many women had done before them.

Then the reports from his home country came back and the reason why he had been evicted from
their country. Also, that he’s only left a month ago, not five years as he’d claimed. He’d been at their
own court for over three weeks.

Still, the sisters said, they could be lying to cover up their heinous act. 

At the very end of the report, there was a single line written in a feminine hand. 

“Ask your female staff how many of them have slept with him. Or, to get a clearer answer, ask the men."”

The sisters were not stupid, not by far, but they were young and in love for the first time and blinded by
it. But now the blindfold was beginning to slip. 

They started by asking the younger maids, but when it became evident that they were clearly skirting
the truth, hiding blushing faces and dashing off at the sight of them, it became evident they were hiding
something. 

So they asked the guards. Eventually, after much humming and harring and embarrassed looks, the
senior sergeant, who had served the sisters since they were babes in arms and was very much looking
forward to the coming execution said;

“All of them.”

The sisters blinked, confused.

“I’m sorry miladies but it’s the truth. He’s had his way with nearly every female in the palace.”

They looked at the sergeant. They too had known him from the moment their eyes could see. They
knew that he would not lie to them.

They thanked the guards for their time and went to their room.  

“Sister.” One said. “We nearly caused civil war by throwing our army against itself. We ordered men
who had sworn to protect and defend those brothers in arms who served with them to attack one
another.”

“SIster.” the other said, “We agreed to go to war for him, so he could sit on the throne of his own
country. War that would have beggared and endangered our people.”

“Sister.” the first said. “He laughed when you walked into the room when he was with me. He thought it
amusing.”

“Sister.” said the second. “Never once has he said he loved me.”

“Never once has he valued what we gave him.”

“Never once has he valued what we sacrificed for him.”

“Sister. I am angry.”

They went to see their mother, the Queen. 

Mother, he is a scoundrel and a black hearted man. They said. He is not worth saving.

“Then his head it shall be.” the Queen said firmly. 

“No mother.”

“That is too good for him.”

A massively tall tower was built on the edge of the plain that bordered the country. It was an endless
flight of stairs with a kitchen, bedroom/living room and bathroom at the top. It was well appointed and
had hundreds of improving books on economics, philosophy, cooking and needlework lining the wall. It
would be sung in winter and cool in summer.The view looked out over the seemingly endless grass
plains. 

Once the Prince walked through the door, it was bricked shut behind him. Food would be delivered
once a week to the kitchen window via a pulley system. The pulley system was dismantled afterwards,
so it could not be used as an escape method. 

The Prince was sentenced to a 100 years of isolation. If, in this time, he improved as a human being,
he could be released. If not, he would stay in there for another 100 years until his next interview. 

Despite all this, he never did learn to play the guitar.