It was the first of September, Prince Obsidian's 16th birthday, and he was unable to enjoy any of it.

First, his twin sister, Princess Amethyst, went missing, so he had to help find her. Then, he got caught in an explosion. So now, he's unconscious, bruised, scratched up, and infected with some magic that was working to turn him into a girl.

And after all that injury, Princess Amethyst was still missing.

Worse still, Princess Amethyst was determined to be the only cure for her brother's magical infection, because it was not just trying to turn him into a girl, it was specifically turning him into Amethyst's replacement.

The royal mages had come up with a stopgap measure, to buy time until Amethyst could be retrieved.

Encase the Prince inside a giant obsidian crystal, and send the only other person with a deep connection to the missing princess to get her back.

That is, Princess Amethyst's lady-in-waiting, Mint Schwartzwald. Unfortunately, as the second of only two people with a deep connection to the missing princess, she was involved in the first plan to retrieve Princess Amethyst. And so, subsequently injured in the same explosion that infected Obsidian with magic.

But, a more important consideration for this second plan, the plan to send someone to bring Amethyst back, instead magically pulling her back, was that Mint was another 16-year-old, and utterly untrained for the task at hand. So, the royal mages gave her as much help as they could:

A magical hooded robe, to protect her on her journey, a wand to create magically nutritious sweets, a magical credit card to buy anything else she needed, a magical staff of the deepest black wood, to create the path to wherever Princess Amethyst had gone, and lastly, Bianca, Princess Amethyst's cat, to find Princess Amethyst in the world that she had disappeared to.

And thus equipped, the poisoned Prince's girlfriend, went off to find her best friend, still injured, and travelling off to parts unknown, with only a rushed plan to guide her.

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Author's Note:

Hi, my readers! Lucky for you, if you're reading this, because this is totally different from what it started as!

If you're reading this after Chapter 2 launches and you didn't know this existed. Well, it didn't, until an hour after it originally posted.

The explanation? I forgot how bookmaking worked. As you have the "The Reluctant Princess: A Tale of Seven Sisters" Book. You know I figured it out!

Hope you're enjoying the story!