This is a strange one. It deserves something magical and a little disturbing.
The prompt is:
THE MARBLE PALACE
Prince Abel bowed deeply and swept his arm toward the palace.
“For you, my princess. So you are comfortable those many months when I go to sea.”
“It’s…it’s beautiful,” Princess Jasmine gushed. “It looks like it is made of a sugared confection.”
She rushed across the courtyard and touched her hand to the blue and white wall.
“It’s hard.”
“Oh, yes,” the prince said, smiling broadly. “It is marble stone strong enough to withstand the strongest storm, yet on a beautiful day like this one—a beauty to rival your own—you can walk the balconies and await my return.”
Princess Jasmine looked across the broad bay to the distant town. “We are so far from…well, from everything here.”
“True, but you will have a full complement of servants to attend to your every need. You will have no reason to go anywhere but the balcony, watching for my sails.”
Jasmine frowned, but tried not to offend by disparaging such a wonderful gift. “But, My Prince, surely you don’t expect me to watch for you to the exclusion of all else. I like music and dancing, and conversation.”
“We can talk and dance the night away when I return.”
“In how many months?”
The prince shrugged. “That depends on the whims of the wind.” He signaled to his guards,
who grabbed Jasmine under the arms. “Now, enter your forever home, My Princess.”
He locked the doors with a magic key and tucked it into his belt.
***
“So he never returned?” the tourist from Ohio asked.
The summer tour guide shook his head. “They say you can still see her walking the balconies and hear her crying if the wind is right.”
THE END