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“...I simply do not see the point of constructing an egg out of chocolate,” Amber shook her head as they walked through the rose garden, “eggs are not made of chocolate, it is completely misleading and redundant.”
“Please! It’s a really big tradition in Dunwiddie!” Sofia clasped her hands.
“No, no,” Amber walked forward and pushed her sister aside, “Daddy put me in charge of the Bloomtide festivals this year. Do you have any idea how big of a deal this is for me?”
“But the egg represents new life!”
“Sorry, Sofia,” Amber rolled her eyes and opened her fan, “but I have already decided. We will be having a buffet of enchanted marshmallows this year - I’m even going to have a special marshmallow with my face on it. Just in case anyone forgets who the genius behind them is.”
“...Enchanted marshmallows?” Sofia asked, picking up the bough of a rose bush to make her path, “ where would you even get enchanted marshmallows? ” Her older sister stopped walking and snapped her fan shut.
“That’s just the problem,” she sighed, “chef Andre has already made the marshmallows for me, but I need Cedric to enchant them, and he’s being terribly balky. Oh, Sofia! You get along well with him, don’t you? He likes you? Will you pretty please convince him to help me?” Amber took Sofia’s hand.
“Hang on,” Sofia retracted her hand, “you just refused me when I asked to have eggs at the festival - why would I help you? ”
“Because you’re a really nice person and the best sister in the world…?” Amber bit her lip hopefully.
“Forget it, Amber,” Sofia turned around and left the rose garden, ignoring her sister’s cries for her to stay. She might be ‘nice’, but she wasn’t a complete pushover.
***
Later that day, princess Sofia sat on her windowsill, devising a plan for revenge in the back of her Royal Prep notebook. See, Amber had been right about one thing; Sofia was favoured by Cedric over the other children in the castle. And now, she could use that to her advantage.
With the plan fully drawn, Sofia pulled back her pencil and smiled. Scheming felt really, really good.
Sofia tried her best to be silent on her way up to Cedric’s tower. However, halfway up the stairs, she heard the horrid sound of sharp-toed heels clicking against cobblestone with impatience. “If you don’t come out I’ll… I’ll tell daddy that you turned my peacock into a toad! Then he’ll have you in the pillory by sundown! You’ll see!”
There wasn’t any response.
“Oh, fine,” Amber snapped, running down the stairs past Sofia. Her mascara streaked down her face - had she been crying, “you’re a horrible sorcerer anyway. I’ll find someone else to enchant the marshmallows.”
The shire absurdity of the reason Amber’s plight would have been funny, if she hadn’t been so clearly upset. Sofia frowned. This festival must mean a lot to her. The princess shook her head - Amber had been rude, and dismissive, and she needed to learn a lesson. Sofia knocked on Cedric’s door. There was no response, obviously.
“Mr Ceedric?” she said.
“Princess Sofia,” Cedric opened the door a couple of inches. His voice was laced with paranoia, and his eyes had dark circles, “...Princess Amber didn’t send you, did she?”
“No - and, are you okay? ”
“ I would be perfectly fine if that she-devil let me get some sleep ,” he muttered, “I mean, of course, everything is fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Good,” Sofia said, “I need your help to teach Amber a lesson!”
“Is that so?”
After being let into the workshop, Sofia relayed the whole story to Cedric, who seemed sympathetic to her frustration.
“I can’t see why she’s so desperate to enchant those marshmallows,” Cedric grimaced, “three days. Every hour. Knocking on my door. Why won’t she stop?”
Curiosity glinted within Sofia, “Mr Ceedric, why didn’t you do the enchantments?”
“...no reason.”
“There has to be a reason. Did Amber do something to you, too?”
“Yes,” Cedric shrugged, “but that’s not it. I can’t very well hold grudges against my employers… or at least, I shouldn’t .”
“Then why-”
“I’m allergic to marshmallows. Oh, Sofia. The children at Hexley hall used to tease me for it every Bloomtide… they were so cruel.” Cedric shuddered, turning his gaze to the ground. The sorcerer looked like he was nearing tears. Wormwood flew down from the rafters, landing on his shoulder.
“Oh. Anyway,” Sofia said, deciding they did not have time to unpack the trauma of bullying at Hexley Hall, “I wanted to turn Amber’s marshmallows into slime - or something worse. To show her that she can’t push me around anymore, and to ruin the festival!”
Cedric blinked, his eyes suddenly wide, “this sort of thing isn’t very like you, Sofia. Are you sure…”
"Look's like your taking in my master's footsteps..." Sofia heard Wormwood snicker, unknown to Cedric, "only, you're ten times more competent than he is."
“I am sure,” Sofia said, ignoring the raven, "when everyone bites into what they think is a marshmallow, and tastes foul slime... they'll realise just how horrible Amber actually is."
“I can’t go near them myself, but I’ll give you a spell - hold on.”
***
Sofia crept down to the kitchens with a small glass vial containing cloudy blue liquid clutched in her left hand. One drop of this would ruin a whole batch of marshmallows, apparently. However, outside the door, she stooped.
Sofia held her ear against the keyhole - someone was crying. She pushed the door open and peered inside; Amber was on the floor with colourful splotches staining her hair and dress, surrounded by scattered marshmallows of an assortment of sizes. She held a paintbrush in one hand, and her shoulders heaved from sobbing.
“Amber?”
“Sofia! Did you convince Cedric to help me?”
“...not exactly,” Sofia felt blood rush to her face, and she quickly hid the bottle behind her back.
“Oh, I am doomed!” Amber threw the brush behind her dramatically.
“What exactly are you doing in here?”
“Well, I needed a way to make the marshmallows special - that’s why I wanted to enchant them. And if I couldn’t do that, I thought that painting them would also work, but all the paint does is make the marshmallows go sticky and dissolve!”
“Cedric’s allergic to marshmallows, so he can’t do the enchantments,” Sofia explained. All of a sudden, she felt very guilty. Cedric had been right, this wasn’t like her. “But wait - I think I have another idea for how we could make the marshmallows special! One that will make us both happy.”
“You do?” Amber sniffed.
“I think,” Sofia slipped the potion onto a nearby shelf, behind a bag of flour, “that we could make the traditional chocolate eggs from Dunwiddie, but put marshmallows inside them.”
“That does sound fun,” Amber admitted, “but not very… magical. Sofia, it really needs to be magical if we want to impress the Tri-Kingdom area!”
“Exactly!” Sofia clapped her hands, “Mr Ceedric will be able to enchant the chocolate egg for us, just not the marshmallows inside. He might even be able to do an egg with your face on it - like you wanted.”
“...that does sound nice,” Amber picked herself up, laughing a little, “and we'll be able to invite the villagers up to join us, if they love these eggs so much. It will do wonders for our public reputation - father will like that. Also, Sofia…”
“Yes, Amber?”
“I think that the eggs should have both of our faces on them.”