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{25} The Lure

My Side: Day 25 of 31 Days

For Day 1, click on the photo above

The Enchanter slipped out the door without making a sound, and Jewel was left alone. Although, she not alone. In the corner of the room, ablaze with furry, stood her Advocate.

Jewel saw him and said, “You can put that sword away now.”

“Can I, Jewel? Or is there still a lie that lurks in this room?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, truly confused. She thought through the conversation carefully, but it only confirmed in her mind that everything the Enchanter said was good and pleasing to her ears.

“I don’t remember him saying anything that wasn’t true,” Jewel countered. “In fact, he was a perfect gentleman! You could learn something from him. Look at you, drawing weapons on a visitor.”

“He was no visitor, Jewel. He was an imposter, and you should never have given him an audience.”

Jewel was astounded. “Weren’t you listening to anything he said?” she cried. “Are you so suspicious that you could not hear the good and kind things he said to me?”

“That is his way, Jewel. When you are in his kingdom, he uses evil as his tool. You were tangled up in it before you were brought here, and you remember how tightly it bound you.

“But the people of this kingdom are best trapped by the good things. It is the good that keeps you from his presence and mars the face of the prince until soon, you are serving a prince of your own making. A beautiful lure can be far more effective than a brazen hook, Jewel, and I’m afraid you have fallen for it.”

The Lure

“No…no, that can’t be. He wants to make a truce with us! He did not come here to trap or fight me.”

“He has no need to fight with those he’s beaten.”

“Beaten? I am not beaten! I have won! Didn’t you hear? The Enchanter has seen something in me he never saw before. He has come to understand the prince because of me, because he knew me once, and he sees how beautiful I am now. He said it right in front of you. He called me a friend.”

“Jewel, do you really think that you could affect a change in the Enchanter with your beauty that the prince could not do with truth? Do you really think you could conquer something he has condemned?”

Jewel rolled her eyes and turned back to the mirror. “Apparently, I can, because he recognized how far I’ve come. I don’t think you appreciate the fact that I’m not the girl I once was. He said more kind things to me in five minutes than you’ve said the entire time you’ve known me.”

“The question is, are those things true?”

Jewel spun to face him. “Of course they were true! Look at me! I am beautiful now. I am like him.”

Her Advocate shook his head slowly. “He told the truth about one thing, Jewel. The prince will not recognize you when he comes home.”

She was hurt, and very much frightened, by her Advocate’s response to the Enchanter’s visit. In one instant, the Enchanter had validated her growth and allowed her to believe, for one second, that she had something to do with it. What was wrong with that?

After living for so long in debt to the prince and his adviser, she felt relieved to give a little back, to add some goodness of her own to the pile. Now, the prince’s own enemy had come and acknowledged that she—Jewel!—was the one who had brought about his change of heart. Wouldn’t the prince be amazed when he heard?

He would rejoice. She was sure of it.

Then the adviser would know what the Enchanter had already figured out: there were some things she could do very well on her own.

“You should be on my side,” Jewel said hotly when she thought about it.

“No, Jewel. You should be on his. I have not moved.”

Angry tears streamed down her cheeks. She could not see the difference.

“Come,” he said, directing her to a seat by the window where a large scroll blanketed an ornate table. “Let me show you.”

“Not now,” she said. “I am tired.”

That was only partly true. Many times in the past, she had stayed up studying the scrolls with her Advocate while the candles burned down into puddles on the table. She did not have the heart for it on that particular night when the Enchanter’s footsteps were still hot on the stones in the hall. She wanted some time to think, alone. An idea had begun to form in her mind. It would condense into thoughts that would lead to a plan that would take her somewhere she never intended to go.

{24} A Visitor

A Visitor: Day 24 of 31 Days.

For Day 1, click on the image above.

The Enchanter slipped in almost without notice. Jewel, the bride of the prince, the upholder of the standards of the kingdom, had made a fatal mistake: she had forgotten to close the gate.

In her righteous busyness, in the rush of skewed priorities, she had neglected to do the simple and inglorious things that needed doing in the kingdom. More important to her in the moment were the jobs that would be noticed when they were completed and rewarded with praise.

No one noticed a door slightly ajar. No one, that is, except the one who had been waiting for just such an opportunity.

“My, how beautiful you have become,” he said to Jewel when he found her standing vulnerable in her chamber.

She spun around. “What are you doing here? Get out!” she demanded.

In the corner, her Advocate’s face seized with pain. Only one man belonged in the bride’s chamber, and the Enchanter was not that man. She should never have even spoken to the intruder. Jewel should have screamed! She should have run to her Advocate and hidden, appalled by the intrusion of this uninvited guest, and her Advocate would have doled out an appropriate punishment, sure and swift.

But Jewel did not. So taken was she with her own beauty that she mistook it for strength and power, and she decided, in that moment, to protect and defend herself.

A visitor

“I underestimated you, Obscurity—but that is not your name anymore, is it?” the Enchanter asked with silken words that slipped around Jewel so seamlessly, she hardly knew what was happening.

“I am Jewel,” she said, raising her chin and looking down at him as best she could, though he was taller than she.

“How fitting,” he smiled, easy and relaxed. Jewel could not help notice how perfect he looked, and not at all terrifying like she remembered.

“I do not know another woman who could have adapted so easily to being the queen of her own kingdom.”

She was not the queen, and it was not her kingdom, but she did not correct him. Even though she stood ridged and wary, she was pleased by the words.

“You don’t need to worry,” he continued, sprawling himself across her couch and looking at her with a grin. “I’m not here to bring you back. I can see that you belong here, and I came to congratulate you. You’ve done well, Jewel. Very, very well.”

She was suspicious, but it was kind of him to notice. No one understood her prior life quite as well as the Enchanter, so no one would appreciate the transformation as much as he.

“In fact, I am astonished by how well you resemble the prince.”

Jewel’s ears pricked up. “Do you think so? Do you really?”

“It’s uncanny.” He let the words roll off his lips slowly, like honey.

“It’s nice of you to say. I’ve worked hard at it.” She didn’t mind taking the credit for the effort because it had been slow and agonizing and she deserved to be noticed for it.

“I can tell. It’s a good thing your people have you as such a fine example to look to. Your prince has been away for quite some time now, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, he has.” In some ways, it felt like the prince had just left. In other ways, it felt like an eternity.

“Are you planning anything special for him when he returns?”

“Well, you see, I don’t really know when he’ll be coming back.”

“Oh?” The Enchanter looked surprised. “I wonder how he could leave such a beautiful bride with no plans to return?”

“He’ll be back,” she said, but Jewel suddenly felt very foolish, like a child who doesn’t yet realize she’s been abandoned.

“I’m sure he will. I certainly would not leave you alone for long.” His smile was easy and charming.

Jewel stood awkwardly in the middle of the floor, listening to the Enchanter’s words and feeling very, very alone. “You should go,” she said hoarsely.

“Yes. But thank you, Jewel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the prince as clearly as when I look at you. Why, if I had seen what the prince saw in you, I would have taken you for a queen myself. Keep this up, and the prince won’t recognize you when he gets home!”

“You are very kind,” Jewel mumbled, but her mind was confused. The words seemed disingenuous, but she could not work out why.

“In fact, perhaps we can have of truce,” he continued. “It’s a bother to be at war all the time.” The Enchanter yawned a slow yawn. “Of course, I will give you all the credit. The prince will be so pleased to find that because of you, we are now friends.”

Just like that, her unexpected visitor left, quietly as he came. Jewel was left standing in her room, back to the mirror, alone.

In the mirror

{22} Like a Seal

Like a Seal: Day 22 of 31 Days

To read Day 1, click on the photo above

True to his word, the prince rode out of the gates of the kingdom early one morning. He was leaving on his father’s business, but that did not make it any easier for Jewel to watch. The cold morning mist wrapped around him like a cloud, and he was gone.

Before he left, he came to her to say good-bye. “Be busy about my work until I return,” he said. “It is not going to be easy, and you must be prepared for the fight. The Enchanter has not stopped pursuing you, even though you have enjoyed some time of peace. But he wants to sift you, Jewel.” The prince’s eyes were fierce with jealousy. “But you are mine. I will not let you fall.”

Song of Solomon 8:5

He embraced her in his arms, and she was overcome with the same sense of safety and security she felt the first time he found her and lifted her onto his horse.

“I am not slow to keep my promises to you, Jewel, even though it may seem like it. I will come back again. But when I am away, you must trust that I have provided for your every need—even the ones you don’t know you have.”

Jewel nodded into his chest, but she could not speak.

“I have surrounded you with every treasure in my kingdom, but remember, this is my greatest gift to you,” the prince continued, beckoning his adviser near. The adviser had been silent the whole time, but Jewel had noticed the joy on his face when the prince spoke words of love over her. “He is your Advocate, Jewel. You will lack nothing if you lean into him.”

Then he was gone.

For days afterward, Jewel felt numb. She wished she knew how long he would be away so she could count down the days, so she would know how long she had to survive without him.

But her Advocate came and sat near, and said to her, “The prince does not want you to settle for survival, Jewel. He wants you to live and thrive in his kingdom while he is away.” Then he opened the crackling scrolls and showed her the prince’s own words where he said that it was so.

Jewel poured over the scrolls. She hadn’t realized how much it sounded like him. She could almost hear his voice when she read it, and she felt his nearness to her, like her husband was standing right there in the room with her. Her Advocate smiled and explained, “To some, these words are like heavy stones. But you are his bride, and you can hear the truth. This is his love letter to you.”

The words were lovely indeed. The more she read, the more she knew and understood the prince of the kingdom, and the more she realized what he had done for her.

She noticed too that she was not completely free from the Enchanter’s grasp. Within her head and heart she found traces of his fingerprints, dirty, grease smudges where his hands used to be.

It crushed her, and she wept over the outworking of the lie she had once believed. Still, it was bearing bitter fruit in her life. But the Advocate drew his sword and with every word she read, he cut a dividing line between the living and the dead. With perfect skill, he sliced away the destroyed and decaying flesh and adorned the living with the riches of the prince’s kingdom so she was more beautiful than ever.

It was agonizing in the moment. Every day, there was work to do. Every day, death was found lurking in bride’s clothing, and every day, the Advocate sharpened his blade.

“Will it ever end?” Jewel cried when one day, she realized that a piece of the old flesh had grown back while she was cutting away something else. “How long will I struggle and fight? Why can’t I just be like him? Why do I fail?”

“Do you know why I am here?” her Advocate asked.

“To help me?” she answered, but she was suddenly unsure.

Like a Seal

“I am here as a promise. Just like the ring on your finger is a seal of the prince’s love, I am a seal—a promise—of his perfection. One day, you will be perfect like he is perfect. You can’t see that now, but I can. Jewel, I am the assurance of your freedom from the Enchanter. You will not always struggle. In fact, you have already won.”

“I do not feel like I have won.”

The Advocate’s fiery hair stood on end. “Then you do not understand my power, and you attribute to the Enchanter more power than he deserves. He is evil, that is true, and he has used deception to mark out a small territory where he does not belong. But there is no contest, Jewel. I have overcome.”

She ran to him, weary with the fight, and embraced him. How she longed to be free indeed.

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