Once upon a time the daughter of a wealthy merchant was hiding in the balcony of her home, spending her leisure time by throwing small rocks at people passing down the street.
It was an amusing game until the moment that one of them hit a bad witch who happened to walk by. The witch, annoyed by the girl’s attitude, casted a spell upon her to fall in love with the Nameless King.
The King with No Name ruled that province and he was known for his arrogance and selfishness. Due to these specific elements of his narcissistic personality, nobody liked him. In fact, people avoided saying his own name, preferring instead to call him Nameless.
Time passed quickly and the little girl became a beautiful woman.
One day as she was walking along the local market, she met the Nameless King for the first time and instantly felt in love with him. From this moment, every day that passed by made her love for him grow even stronger, and so did her misery.
Therefore, she persuaded her father to visit the King with No Name and suggest him to marry her.
Her father, although he didn’t like the arrogant King, paid a formal visit to the palace and begged him to merry his daughter. However, the King mocked the wealthy merchant by laughing and sent him away.
The girl sent her father again to the palace in order to repeat the proposal, clarifying that if the King denied to merry her, she would probably swallow a poisonous substance.
Disregarding her threat, the King gave the merchant a bottle of poison to give her.
Once more the girl sent her father to the palace saying that if the King refused the marriage proposal, she would be hanged herself. As soon as the King heard this statement, he gave him a rope for her.
For one last time the girl sent her father to the palace stating that if the King rejected her, she would stab herself to death.
The merchant left with a knife engraved with King’s initials NK – Nameless King- to give his daughter.
The girl’s heart was broken. Unable dealing with rejection, she left home carrying the King’s “gifts” with her.
And there she was crying, when a fairy appeared out of nowhere. She gave her two lilies. When she smelled the first lily, she became an ugly, but very talented seamstress and when she smelled the second, she regained back her own shape.
The girl smelled the first lily and went to the palace to work as a dressmaker. Due to her perfect work, she was soon promoted to be one of King’s seamstress.
The King was thrilled with his new perfect clothes and enjoyed wearing a wide variety of them. The girl was also thrilled being so close to him.
At some point the King with No Name decided to merry a Lady from a neighboring kingdom. The wedding preparations started, and the girl was frustrated. Despite her pain she designed and made the royal wedding outfit for him.
As soon as the King wore his wedding costume, he was excited. For the first time he felt that someone had done something really perfect for him. Suddenly, he started to worry about losing his inspired seamstress and quite unpredictably he went to find her.
The girl heartbroken smelled the second lily, regained her shape- and started to pack her things. She had decided to leave the palace.
At this point the Nameless king entered the room and saw her. OMG! What a beautiful woman she was! He felt in love with her at first sight.
The girl pushed him away and locked the door. The King started to knock the door ordered her to open it. For a moment all his bad features disappeared. He wanted her so badly.
He begged her; he threatened her; he shouted to her, but the door remained locked.
In a final attempt, the King began to blackmail her. If she didn’t open the door, he would probably poison himself, or he would hang himself or he would stamp himself to death…
The girl was listening to him and after a while, she pushed under the locked door a bottle of poison, a rope, and a knife. She was carrying these “gifts” for so long and the time had come for letting them go. The King took them in his hands and spotted the knife.
And there he was, the King holding his own knife. He was looking at it and remained silent.
At this point my grandmother who used to tell me this story during my childhood ended it by saying that the girl finally opened the door, she felt into King’s arms and they lived happily ever after.
Personally, I never believed such an ending. I still don’t believe it. My point of view is that because of the total silence the girl was confused. She looked through the keyhole and saw the king standing still, staring at his knife without making any sound at all.
Whatever the causes of the torturous silence were, it seemed to her that it lasted for ever; hours, weeks, months, she couldn’t really say.
Meanwhile, as the girl couldn’t hear the slightest external sound, she was pressing her hands to her ears trying to stop the internal sound of her thoughts. Although there was only silence in the present time, she was struggling with the noise of the past. She remembered the small rocks, the rope, the knife, the outfits, the lilies, her love. Her love for him. What was happening? Why didn’t he say something?
She looked back at the keyhole and saw the same picture; the King, silent, looking at his knife. The only difference was that a cloudy veil was covering him. Due to that, she assumed that the witch’s spell on her was broken by turning against him.
Suddenly, she realized that the circle was closed. The spell was broken; her heart was broken; her world was broken, and a heavy silence covered anything. But it was the kind of silence that meant love.
Let it be, then. She accepted the silent reality of love that was surrounding her and without a word, she turned and made her way out of the palace, far away from witches with magic spells, sensitive fairies with lilies and Kings with gifts.
Honestly, leaving behind her dark past was difficult as she was still feeling strongly connected to the King, but she thought that if he was meant to be in her life, destiny would bring them together. Hopefully, there might be another opportunity for them.
Anyway, no matter how much suffering she went through, in the end, she let it go and lived happily ever after, with or without him; we can’t know for sure, and of course we live happily ever after, as long as we avoid throwing small rocks from our balcony because we don’t want to come across a bad witch who might curse us to fall in love with an arrogant and selfish King. It’s always a hurting experience.