77. Dear, Diary
Avoiding the temptation the flee the castle and save her own skin, Rosella pressed onward through the castle and soon
found herself inside a rather “warm” feeling study. The room was messy, strewn with books astray from their shelves,
and papers widely scattered, but the plush chair, solid looking desk, and fire burning in the hearth gave the room a
strange and surprisingly cozy feeling. The relaxation came pleasantly to Rosella, feeling the anxiety slowly ebbing from
her muscles after her ordeal with Lolotte’s mother and talk of “the wedding.”
Thumbing through a few of the miscellaneous books and random sheets of paper proved uninteresting for the most
part. Uninteresting that is until she found an open book on top of the desk and spotted her name on the page. With her
attention in full, Rosella pulled out the comfortable chair from the desk, and had a seat to read through the book that
contained her name.
“Princess Rosella denied my feelings, and while she quickly left Tamir to return to her family, she left me to the remains
of my wicked mother, and in effect, killed my soul,” read the words on the page. Rosella’s eyes widened at the tone of
the writing. What had she stumbled upon? Flipping through the pages, she quickly realized that the format of the book
was very similar to that of a diary. And it soon became apparent that the diary belonged to none other than Edgar!
While in her heart, she knew it was wrong to be reading the diary; the curious princess could not pull her blue eyes from
the pages. Edgar had been such a mystery to her until now. When she had first met him, he was a green hunched over
monster under the cruel roof of Lolotte. But by the time Rosella had restored peace to Tamir during her first quest,
Edgar had been transformed back into the handsome young man he was. His proposal in marriage to the young and
surprised princess came too sudden. Rosella needed to return to Daventry with the magic fruit to heal her dying father,
and so she hastily declined and had Genesta return her home before it was too late. She never thought for a second
about the consequences of her actions. She never thought that Lolotte had lived through their first conflict and that she
would use her evil powers to heal and claw her way back into power over Tamir, dragging poor Edgar back into the
darkness and transforming him back into the hunched green monster that he was!
None of these thoughts crossed the naïve princess’s mind until she read page after page of Edgar’s diary that revealed
the bitterness in his heart over Rosella’s trivial carelessness with his feelings. She never realized the error of her ways
and the seeds of jealousy that were planted within Edgar’s darkening heart.
“I imagine Princess Rosella dancing in the green fields of Daventry, her hair a fine spun gold blowing in the wind, and a
gown so soft I could never touch, happy with her royal family healthy, happy, and at peace. But she forgot that she
never would have returned to save her father had it not been for my help. She never once tried to return, instead
slapping away my hand in marriage like a bothersome fly. And left me to wither in the poison that Lolotte covered the
land in her return to power. Someday I will have Princess Rosella as my wife, and she will be like a possession. She will
regret the day she treated love so trivial. I will bring that careless girl to her knees.”
The rest of the entries trailed off into horrifying words of punishment and years of misery the princess could expect at
the married hand of a bitter Edgar and his wicked mother, Lolotte. Shutting the book, Rosella unconsciously hugged
herself with a slight tremble of fear. Perhaps reading the diary had not been such a good idea. All the things she had
wondered about Edgar were painted all too clearly in his written words day after day. The bitterness was saturated and
a terrifying truth. Rosella glanced over her shoulder afraid Edgar was there reaching with a green clawed hand, but it
was just her overactive imagination. How could things have turned out this way? Was all this resentment really her
fault? Did he really feel this way? And could she do anything about it? The questions, the hopes, the regrets were a
tangle in her mind. Every passing minute in this castle seemed to drive the young princess further into madness.
Pushing away from the desk in part fear, and part revulsion, Rosella looked to another eastern door, leading further into
the castle. With any luck she would be able to rescue Genesta and her fairies without meeting the dangers that she had
read about in Edgar’s horrid diary. With a gulp, Rosella fled the room.
Further in the castle