Trials

The Princess without a kingdom travelled everyday from Birzebbugia to Mellieha, carrying a sack full of questions. In valleys of olives gleaming, in love with ivory towers, and in hills veiled by Faun's mystery, she would ask everyone and no one: "where is my kingdom?"

Travelling the length and breadth of the Island exhausted her. She only half-saw the markets, and barely heard the bus' sigh. But it was not this that made her so sad. Why couldn't anyone tell her where her kingdom was?

She would ask the olive trees in the square. Silence. She would ask the citrus trees in the woods. Silence. She would ask the sparrow in the garrigue. Silence. Sorrow of sorrows, who would bestow her with the shield of the Minotaur!

One day despair overtook the Princess, she was tired of the heat and the pointlessness. So she took on everything she knew. She went to all the churches and swore like a beast, spliiting in two crucifixes on the back of her neck. She would go to the beaches and make herself be sick in the clear blue waters. Once, in Marsa, she made a son beat his mother telling him she was turning him in for a black daughter. She went mad!

As the summer began to disappear she began to lose her will to antagonize. It had brought her nothing: she was still without a kingdom. The clouds gathered and aged, the dew shed its skin and blossomed into rain. Hope was so distant.

One day she was descending down from Mellieha when she saw the full-moon glowing in the midday. She looked at the diamond eye in awe, and could not take her eyes off the moon as she walked.

Upon reaching tranquil Xemxija she saw a Satyr descend from the flustered moon. He came down with wings of sapphire and sat himself down on the promenade. She couldn't resist, she walked towards him with naked steps. Upon seeing her, he told her to sit down on the bench beside him.

                                                  "Princess so young
                                                I have seen your trials
                                                      And your rage
                                            They are the keys to heaven
                                                  And heaven will now
                                                          Bestow you
                                                  With your kingdom."

He told her her kingdom will be born to her in nine months time. He told her, she must make peace with all those she has antagonized before the kingdom is born.

If rage is one of the keys to happiness, why must she apologize for them, she asked. "Your kingdom will not be able to live here. Birzebbugia and Mellieha would destitute him. So you must take it away, far away, otherwise the kingdom would perish and become your ashen tears. And how could you leave if all you leave behind is hatred?"

To face the music we must first sing.