Once upon a time, there was a Princess who lived in a palace in a very solitary kingdom very far from the rest of the world. She was betrothed to another Princess in a land far, far away. And then a Bardling came into the life of the Princess, and the Bardling told the Princess tales both wonderful and terrible.

The Princess fell madly in love with the Bardling. And he stayed for three seasons: the fall, the winter, and the spring, and appeared to be courting her.

But as spring came, the Bardling grew nervous, and told the Princess that he must leave her then: he was being summoned to the far-away land of his birth. And he whispered her a deadly secret: he was not truly a Bardling, but in fact a Prince in disguise, and he had been created to be a perfect warrior by an evil magician. And he gave the Princess a token of his love, and she gave him a token of hers, and then he was whisked away to join the Evil Magician in the land far away.

The Princess was no poor enchantress herself( ... )