As the morning light flittered into Queen Aliya’s bed chamber, she rolled over and stretched across her Jacuzzi sized bed like a cat waking up from a nap. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she sat up and flung her mountain of green satin, silk, cotton, cashmere and fleece blankets out of her way. After climbing out of bed Aliya walked to her magic mirror.

            “Yo,” Aliya yawned getting the mirror’s attention, “who’s the prettiest today?” After having the mirror for so long, Queen Aliya felt the need for formalities had long passed.

            “Today?” the mirror asks bemusedly. “Their hair is as dark as night. Their eyes as soft as a doe’s. And they look as innocent as snow.”

            Aliya narrowed her eyes, her suspicion growing. The mirror had never elaborated on specific features that made her beautiful. And she didn’t look innocent, she looked fierce. The mirror couldn’t be talking about her which was unacceptable. Her glare intensified as the mirrored continued.

            “They come from a different land to visit. So for today and how ever long they stay, they are the prettiest. Their name? Luhan.”

            Queen Aliya seethed. No one was prettier than her. In all her time as queen no one had dared to be as visually stunning as her. And now some nobody from a different kingdom was going to take the power that came with beauty away from her?

Queen Aliya wouldn’t allow it.                                                    

            She shot one last murderous look at the magic mirror before sharply turning on her heels and storming out of the room. She yelled at her assistants to quickly give her a rundown of what she was supposed to do and who she was supposed to meet that day. Her day was full of routine duties to her kingdom which she quickly dismissed and told her assistants to cancel. The only thing she had on her mind was meeting this mysterious person and finding out how to remove them from her sight. Unfortunately she was scheduled to wait until that evening when there would be a grand dinner welcoming a group of influential people across the sea.

            Frustrated, Aliya threw her itinerary to the ground. She couldn’t wait until this evening to meet this Luhan person, especially when the dinner was the perfect time to strike! She would need to meet him before hand to learn about him. And to learn his weaknesses she would need him to let his guard down. And to do that she couldn’t meet him as a queen. She would need a disguise.

            “Bring me an outline of our guest’s plans for today,” Aliya barked at one of her maid servants. The small girl started at the harsh tone and scurried off to find what her queen had requested. Aliya waited in the hall outside her room with her hands on her hips, pacing back and forth. There was little time to eliminate the threat and she grew antsy with each passing second.

            As soon as her maid servant reappeared, Aliya snatched the plans from her hands and disappeared into her bed chambers. She needed to be alone to formulate her plan.

            Queen Aliya ran her eyes down the page, looking for the moment they group would be taking a tour of the palace. It was customary that all visitors explore Aliya’s home as it reminded them who was in charge during their stay. Once she found what she was looking for she began doing quick calculations in her head. She had two hours before they would begin their tour in the west wing of the building and another three hours after the tour to get ready for the welcoming dinner.

            She crumpled the paper and looked toward her magic mirror as she began to formulate a plan of action. She thought of as many ideas as she could but they all required more time. She grew still once she realized what she had to do. As much as she didn’t want to, there was only one way she was going to success today.

            Aliya walked over to her mirror and waved her hand in front of it. A door appeared in the wall and she quickly slid inside. She followed the stairs down into her secret room where she kept all of her magic things.

            Aliya didn’t like to use her magic in front of other people. It started out as a hobby anyway and she has since grown worried that she will be cast aside by those who fear magic should they find out. But she had to use it today. There was no other way she was going to get what she wanted as soon as she wanted.

            Sitting on a table in the middle of the wall opposite her was a large book containing every spell and potion she knew how to use. She quickly made her way over to it and flipped to the page she knew contained information about changing her appearance. She passed over the potions without a second glance. They would work better but they also took too long to make. She needed a spell that would change for appearance and hopefully her voice so she could mingle among her guests without them realizing she was the queen when they meet her later.

            After a minute of skimming she found the spell she was looking for. It was simple, easy to cast and easy to remove. And it did everything she wanted. She grinned as she quickly committed it to memory. Then she flipped to the section on poisons.

            Even though she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do to this Luhan person, she knew a poison would be the best way to go. Since she wanted to strike at the welcome dinner where there would be people all around she also knew she needed something subtle. And the three hours she had between learning about Luhan and poisoning him would best be used making the poison, not searching for one.

            She passed over lots that sounded interesting but where too noticeable. Like one that made the drinker’s insides feel like they were on fire. Or one that caused the illusion of being eaten by bugs which would cause the drinker to scratch themselves to death. She was sad to pass over a personal favorite, one that made the drinker believe they were drowning and the only way to get back to the surface for air was to submerge themselves in water. But it would cause too much of a stir if Luhan suddenly went running to the fountain and then refused to come up.

            So she kept looking. There were plenty that caused the poisoned person to simply keel over and die. It would be quick and no one would notice until it was too late. But then it would be way too obvious he was murdered. An investigation would be called for and if she didn’t comply it could start a war. Assuming Luhan was an important person. No, she would need something much more subtle. And after a few minutes of searching she found the perfect solution. It was quick, painless, easy to make and no one would think he’d died for a while. Queen Aliya smirked.