Friday Story

The Princess with the Empty Treasure Chest

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Read part 2

“Dressed for my journey?” Rayna asked. “What journey? I have no plans…”

“That’s the best way to travel,” Inlakesh said as she put out the fire in the hearth and signaled Rayna to put the Pearls of Self-love back in the treasure chest.

Soon they were deeper into the woods, collecting mushrooms, leaves and nuts and filling the raft with wood for the fire.

“Where did you get the freshly baked bread for the breakfast?” Rayna asked, trying to be as tactful as possible under the circumstances.

“Magic, of course!” Inlakesh laughed as she pulled out some eggs from a hole in a tree. “It’s all around us!”

“Couldn’t you make some of that magic so we can have a nice dinner tonight?” Rayna asked as politely as she could. “It’s been ages since I eat anything but nuts, mushrooms and leaves.”

“You consider having magic on your side, and all you can think of is being invisible and getting your next meal. Can you not see beyond your nose?” Inlakesh admonished Rayna just as she collected a bunch of acorns, throwing away the ones with broken shells.

“These will make lovely dough,” she mumbled.

“It’s easy for you to say!” Rayna complained. “You can make bread appear out of nothing. But I have no such powers!”

Inlakesh broke into gales of laughter. She was laughing so hard that the acorns fell to the floor. Holding her side, she too fell to the floor, howling with laughter.

“Did I say something funny?” Rayna muttered between her teeth.

“Hilarious, I would say!” Inlakesh stated, letting a small bark escape as she got up and gathered the dispersed acorns.

“Here, take a look at my Magic Mirror, and you’ll see how funny you are,” she suddenly instructed; producing a silver round hand-held mirror from the large sack hung across her chest.

Rayna held the mirror in her hands hesitantly. She had not washed or brushed her hair yet. Did she want to see the terrible creature she had become once more?

“Yes!” was the definite answer, and she eagerly looked into the mirror.

But instead of seeing her own face, she saw Inlakesh as she softly cajoled a goat towards her.

Smoke suddenly seemed to come from the mirror, clouding the bent figure of Inlakesh as she talked to the goat, which nodded, as in agreement.

Instead of Inlakesh’ kind figure, Rayna saw a powerful sorceress dressed in a glowing gown, making milk and cheese appear on a table laid for a royal feast.

“What is happening?” Rayna asked, terror mounting in her voice.

Had she been making friends with a powerful witch? Had she offended her and now was she been cursed? Or was she seeing the true nature of Inlakesh: a dark sorceress?

“You are Clouding the Mirror of your Power,” whispered Inlakesh, now by Rayna’s side.

“I’m not doing anything,” Rayna protested. “It’s YOUR mirror. It’s YOUR magic!”

“No, Rayna,” Inlakesh revealed. “This mirror reveals your Internal Actions.”

“What on earth is that?” Rayna scuffed. “Actions can be seen. They are things we do to change our circumstances. There’s nothing internal about them.”

“Quite the contrary, my dear child,” Inlakesh replied as she caressed the goat, who was now following her everywhere.

“Every action that you do to respond or change your circumstances begins inside you, with an Internal Action.”

“I don’t understand,” Rayna admitted.

The goat moved towards Rayna and smelled her, then it bleated a mournful “maa-maa” and skipped back to Inlakesh, seating by her side under a tree.

“What did Maisie do just now?” Inlakesh asked.

“Who’s Maisie?” Rayna inquires, looking around.

“You are looking at her,” Inlakesh said smiling.

“The goat?” Rayna asked, and tried to remember. “Well, she smelled me.”

“No wonder you are still hiding in the forest after three years,” Inlakesh said disapprovingly, shaking her head.

“What do you think she did,” Rayna asked haughtily, “tell me her name?”

“Well, that could be true, but the simplest and most obvious action she did was evaluate if you were a potential threat to her or if it was safe to befriend you, as she has befriended me,” Inlakesh said, taking back the mirror and placing it in her sack bag.

Rayna felt like a fool.

And so I deserve to feel. Instead of learning from this Wise Woman who has great magic, I’m arguing with her. Has she not shown to be a friend?

She went on to scold herself as she sat under the opposite tree.

Here I’ve been alone for years, and now that an ally shows up, I’m pushing her away with my pride and ignorance. What would my parents say?

“Judging yourself won’t help,” Inlakesh said softly. “And it is quite unnecessary. Just understand. That’s infinitely more useful.”

“I understand that Internal Actions are what we are really doing beneath what we are doing,” Rayna humbly declared. “Is this correct?”

“Approximately,” Inlakesh retorted.

“Beneath, behind, before and even against what we seem to be doing at an external level; we have intentions, beliefs, emotions and other processes operating and driving these actions,” Inlakesh revealed.

“To understand what is going on under the visible action is essential to anyone,” she counseled. “But for a Queen it is imperative, for only then can she truly understand what is presented to her and see beneath appearances to grasp the truth.”

“And that mirror, your Magic Mirror, revealed what I was truly doing?” Rayna asked.

“Exactly,” Inlakesh asked. “Do you know what that was?”

“If I created the smoke, ~like you said~ then I was clouding your image,” Rayna deduced. “But you said that I was Clouding the Mirror of Power. What does that mean?”

“You have seen me doing things that you have considered impossible. Having considered them impossible, you have assumed that I am using an fantastic kind of magic to do them,” Inlakesh explained.

“Haven’t you?” Rayna asked.

“You are giving your power away,” Inlakesh declared.

“How?” Rayna wanted to know. But as she asked, something inside her was stirring.

“By assuming that I have a power you do not, that I posses a magic you do not posses, that I can do things you cannot do,” Inlakesh revealed.

 To read the rest of the Part 3, click here.

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