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Kristen Anne Glover

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{25} The Lure

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

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

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.

 

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{18} Trust Me

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Trust Me: Day 18 of 31 Days.

Click on the picture above for Day 1.

“There’s just one little catch,” the prince said, and Jewel’s body went ridged with the words.

How could there be a catch? 

Ever since she met the prince, she had been waiting for a catch, but there wasn’t one.  Over and over again, he had told her that she could not earn what he was giving her, and she could not pay it back.

She realized, then, that she had believed it, and she had been tricked.

“What’s the catch?” she asked, a hoarseness catching in her throat.

“You have to trust me, Jewel.”  He said it softly, and with a serious kind of sadness, like he thought it would be a deal breaker.

“That’s it?” she cried, relief flooding over her.  “I have to trust you?”  She almost laughed because it was so simple.  Of course she trusted him.

“You have to trust that I have indeed given you everything you need for life in my kingdom.”

“I can’t imagine why I would doubt that!” Jewel laughed.  She was standing in a treasure box.  What else could she possibly need from him?

“You are my bride now, and that comes with a very high calling.”  His voice was still sad and serious.  The delight he always had in calling her his bride was gone.

“Why are you so serious?”  she asked.  His demeanor was unnerving.

“Because, Jewel, I won’t always be with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to go away on my father’s business—there is still so much to do—and you will have to stay here and continue the work I have for you, believing that I have equipped you to do it well.”

Jewel’s mind was a flood of questions, but she could not say any of them because her heart was drowning in a sudden, overwhelming grief.  “How can you leave me?” she murmured.  She had not been without him since the moment he found her by the side of the road, and she did not know how she could live without him now.

Trust Me

Trust Me

He smiled a small, sad smile, and she realized he grieved with her.  “My darling, that is why it is the catch.  You have to trust me.  You have to trust that I would not leave you unless the work I have to do is exceedingly important.  And you have to trust that if I go away from you for a time, I will come back again.  I will always come back to you, Jewel.”

Jewel nodded and brushed a tear away with the back of her hand.

“I will never abandon you—remember that?  I promised you that the day I took you as my bride.  I will never leave you.  I will never forsake you.  If I have to go away, it is only for a little while, and I will come back again.  But while I am away, you must come to this room and liberally take from it.  Use these gifts, Jewel.  Use the things I have left you to do the job I have for you.”

“I don’t understand,” Jewel sputtered.  “What job?”  She had longed for a job in the prince’s kingdom, but now, now that he was leaving, she did not feel adequate to do anything but sob.

“You have the most important job of all.”

Jewel’s eyes widened with fear.

“Trust me.”

She swallowed.

“It is such an important job, I have given it to every person in my kingdom: I want you to be like me.”

It didn’t sound very much like a job, and Jewel couldn’t help but feel she was missing something.

“You are my bride, Jewel.  That means everything you say and everything you do reflects back on me.  You are my representative, don’t you see?  It is your job to show the people who I am when I am not here to show them myself.  It is your job to serve and care for them, to love and instruct them, and to uphold all the rules of my kingdom as if I were doing it myself.”

Now she understood.  It was a very big job indeed.

“How can I do that?  I’ve only just come to know you myself!”

“You have to trust me.  I would not give you a job I have not equipped you to do.”

“But I don’t even know all the rules of your kingdom!  What if I mess it up?”

“Oh, you will mess it up.  Over and over again, you will mess it up.”

“Then what?”  Jewel felt panic rising inside.

“Then I will forgive you.” 

“But what if I need you?”

“Then I will come running.  Do you not think I would move heaven and earth to come to my bride if she called?”

“But…” she did not know what else to say, except that she was scared.

“But…?  But I have given you everything you need to grow into your role.  I have given you everything you need to thrive in my kingdom.  There is only one thing left.  Do you trust me, Jewel?”

“Yes.  No!  I don’t know.”  She put her head in her hands and cried, “Only, help me!”

“I will,” he said, cradling her in his arms.  “I have one more thing to show you, Jewel, and it is a good thing.  Think of all you have seen and all I have given you, and know this: I have saved the very best for last.”

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{17} Everything You Need

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Day 17 of 31 Days.  Click on the image above for Day 1.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Jewel laughed.  She felt a little dizzy standing in the vast cavern filled with the treasure that was to be her inheritance.

“You have the rest of your life to get used to it,” the prince said.  “What do you think you should do first?”

“I don’t know…,” she said thoughtfully, walking among the jewels and touching them as she passed.

As soon as her fingers brushed the stones, they began to glow, almost imperceptibly at first.  But then her hands lingered on a beautiful, flawless emerald.  From somewhere deep within the stone, it came alive with light.

“Oh!” Jewel gasped, withdrawing her hand quickly.  “What is happening?”

“Pick it up, and you will see.”

Cautiously, she cupped the stone in her hands and lifted it from the pile of gems.  It was as large as a cobblestone, but perfectly cut so every surface glittered with light.

When she held it in her hands, the emerald seemed to respond to her touch.  The same light she saw at first deepened, causing the gem to dance.  Flickering green fragments reflected off the walls and reached all the way up to the arched ceiling.  The longer she held it, the more beautiful it became.

Jewel looked at the prince.  “Is it alive?”  she asked.

He laughed.  “No, but you’ve just stumbled upon a very important truth about the treasure in my kingdom.  Not only is it vast and limitless, but it becomes more beautiful and more valuable the more it is used.”

She stared at him in disbelief.

“Test me,” he challenged, a grin sneaking into the corners of his lips.

Jewel chose an amethyst.  Rich, purple hues spread slowly out from the stone and enveloped her.  “You never cease to amaze me!” she cried.

“I hope not,” the prince answered, but his words were lost amid her wonder.

“Here, you try!”  Jewel handed the prince a ruby.

Everything You Need

Everything You Need

As soon as it touched his fingers, brilliant red light shot out from every facet of the stone.  It flamed with light, burning in his hands like an ember.  The walls of the cavern became the inside of a fiery volcano, and every other gem took on the light and smoldered with it.

“How did you do that?” Jewel gasped.  Her glowing gem looked pale in comparison to his.

“I am light,” he answered simply.

“What do you mean?” she asked, staring at the ruby aflame in his hands.

“There is no darkness in me–nothing evil, nothing hidden in shadows.  Just light.”

She thought of the Enchanter, who gained power from darkness and strength from shadows, and she moved a little closer to her prince.

“These riches shine brightest where there is no darkness,” he added.

Jewel looked at her own gem, softly glowing in her hands, and she felt suddenly self-conscious.  Just as soon as she felt the twinge of shame, the amethyst dimmed.

The prince did not look, but he said, “Do not give in to the shame of your poverty when you are standing in the very place that can make you rich.”

Jewel swallowed hard.

“Do you want to be rich, Jewel?”

She nodded, and he smiled.  “I know you do.  That’s why I brought you here.  I have given you everything you need to become rich like me.  Everything in my kingdom is yours to use for that end.  Everything!   But you have to use it.  Surround yourself with my treasure, Jewel.  Spend it, give it–wear it!  It will change you until people will not be able to see you without seeing me.” 

“It’s just that easy?” Jewel asked, hardly daring to believe that she could become like the prince simply by surrounding herself with the good things he had given her.

“It’s just that easy,” the prince said.  “Of course, there is one little catch…”

31 Days, Faith, From Enemy to Heir 1 Comment

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I believe you can find grace for the mother you are and help to become the mother you long to be—a mom who has the freedom to choose the better things and enjoy her kids right now.

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