Help me!

CASSIOPEIA POV

"Please! Help me!" 

The pleading of the royal girl was pitiful. I used to think I was a very tough kind of girl, but, at that moment, I realized I just a marshmallow. 

"Get up, come on!"

"I don't want to go back!" the Princess was on her knees, her hands raised in a prayer display.

"Give me a good reason, then." I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and I knew I was frowning. How would I not? That Princess was asking something nonsensical!

"I don't want to get married! I want to… I want to live!" Now, her eyes were sparkling, full of expectations. How weird it is to see someone who, in my opinion, had everything, use the word 'live' as if she had an awful life. 

"Can't you tell that to your parents? I mean, you're a princess, right?"

Zohreh Mokri was the bright and beloved princess of Rigel Kingdom. Her parents and she were visiting Quasar, in order to make alliances during the great Olena's Festival. Now, the noble and beautiful golden-haired girl was begging a servant for help. Her bright Cobalt-colored spinel eyes were full of sorrow, and I couldn't just ignore that.

"You don't understand!" The princess said, looking down. "Our Kingdom is powerful, but now, only in name. Its wealth is coming to an end, and, for that, my father is looking for a marriage. For me, of course, his only daughter. A political marriage."

"I see…"I mumbled. I can't call myself a very knowledgeable person in those royal matters, but I understood what it was like to be sold and the king of Rigel was doing that to his child, shamelessly. "Now, explain better this plan of yours."

Zohreh sighed deeply with a smile on her lips and got up from the floor, not minding her dirty dress. 

"I just need you to do me a favor. I am to be of age in a few months. I won't be married until then. And the preparations for the wedding ceremony will take place a year after the announcement of the engagement. Now, the simple part: you just need to be in my place for a year." she explained it with a very clear and soft voice, as if she was just planning a picnic! 

"Wait… let me see if I got it: You want me to pretend to be you for a year? A whole year?" She had mentioned she wanted me to switch places with her, but for a year?

"Yes!" the Princess nodded vehemently.

"Ok, smarty-pants, now answer me: how will that happen? People will know I'm not you. Please, look at me!"

"First of all, we always wear a veil in front of our face in my land, which means people won't see you. And, of course, I know you and I are very, very much alike. Physically…", she gave me a condescending smile. "The rest, we just need to work out!"

I raised my eyebrows at the Princess and chuckled.

"You and I are alike? Ok, sure." The poor thing was blind!

"I swear to you!" she insisted. "You may not see it because I am all dolled up. But.. Please, we can make an experiment! Please! Just give me that chance! I promise you I'll come back after a year, and I will marry or do as my father ordered. But I need to live before I can fulfill my duties."

Having lived a whole life doing what I had to, and never what I wanted to, I knew more than anyone how the Princess might feel. Having the money to travel and not being able to do as she wanted to, must hurt more than having no means to achieve one's goal, like me.

"And why would I do that? I mean, if I get caught, I'm dead meat." And I was not joking. 

"Well, name a price! With gold, you can leave this place and have a better life! Help the ones you love!"

To rich people, it was so easy to use money in order to buy their dreams, while we, poor creatures, only thought about the coins to buy some bread and not starve to death. 

I had a dream, a very difficult one and, maybe, gold could help me. With gold, I could study and become a knight! The problem was, of course, the fact that I was a woman. Well, I could try it. If not, at least I wouldn't be stuck in mud for the rest of my existence. 

"Fine… Let's try it. If no one recognizes me, we'll have a deal!"

Zohreh jumped in excitement and opened her arms to hug me, but she stopped midway, after taking a better look at me. I couldn't blame her. I was filthy.

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I was biting my lips, nervously. How could I not? I was inside the litter, going to the Castle of Quasar, where the banquet was going to take place. The Princess told me it was no big thing, very simple. I'll just had to bow, be polite and that was it! I wouldn't even need to speak. If I had to, a 'thank you' or the sort would not kill me. And with the veil on my face, it would be more than easy to go unnoticed. Or so I hoped. 

Before I had to dress up, Zohreh made me take a shower, brushed my hair and made me wait for the maids. The servants could see the princess' face inside her chambers, and, as it seemed, nobody noticed that the young woman they were helping to get ready was not the princess, but someone even lower than them. Me.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I thought that nobody would say that was Cassiopeia, the stove girl, or the pig girl, or whatever low services had to be made. As an orphan with absolutely no one to look after me, I was to do all the services nobody wanted to do, including cleaning the latrines.

"Everything is ready, Your Royal Highness." One of the maids said and I didn't realize someone was talking to me, until the same servant got closer. "Shall we go?"

"Oh, oh, sure! Sorry… I was.. daydreaming." I was tripping over my own words. "Could you give me a minute, please?" I asked and the maids bowed and left the room. Then, the real princess came out of the blind in the room.

"My, my. You look astonishing!"

"Ha! Very funny. I look just like you." I bit my lips. "How's that possible?"

"I've heard, once, that people have a perfect looking pair in the world. You must be mine." We were both in front of the mirror and nobody could deny our similarity. We were just like twins. "Good luck!"

"We have arrived, Your Royal Highness!" A servant said outside the litter, bringing me back to reality. My chest was constricted, like I could not breath. I was sincerely regretting that decision. But then... that was too late to cry and run.

'I'll be free after a year and able to fulfill my dream!'. With that resolution, I finally left the litter to enter a new world.