Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One

To many people, Catarina Vanderburg WAS Hidden Springs. She'd been the monarch of the mountain municipality for as long as anyone cared or remembered.
When she became queen, she was a mere slip of a girl, the only child of King Rudolph and Queen Eloise Vanderburg - the former a respected scientist, the latter a great patron of the arts and learning. She lost both of them at an early age, one behind the other.
When she took the throne, no one knew she'd be there for sixty years. Or that under her leadership, Hidden Springs would grow from a backwards mountain village into a noted tourist getaway for celebrities and the rich.
To be sure, Queen Catarina had been a capable administrator who expected nothing short of perfection from her staff and her legislature. If she hadn't exactly been a beloved ruler, she was very much respected in Hidden Springs and the surrounding communities. The royal family's popularity was based upon mutual respect and admiration, and upon the Vanderburgs' good name.
However, over the years, events happening within the family began to erode at this popularity. First among them was Francisca's disappearance and the palace's subsequent reaction. Next was the new crown prince, Sebastian, and his playboy lifestyle. Finally came the behavior of the twins, which exploded and exposed the royal family's antics to a new generation of watchers.



Queen Catarina and her daughter, Princess Anastasia, hadn't seen or spoken to each other in almost a year. Anastasia had been known for giving the silent treatment to people she was upset with, but the year-long freeze with her mother had been the longest she'd given anyone.
Anastasia was a stunningly beautiful woman -- and she knew it. The princess of Hidden Springs, who had turned down a multi-year modeling contract, was looking as elegant as ever, wearing a stunning cocktail dress in her favorite color, white. Her jade-green eyes sparkled under expertly applied makeup and her jet-black hair was done in a stylish curly updo. She waited patiently for her mother in the formal dining room of the palace, where she'd spent so much time growing up. If she was nervous about seeing her mother for the first time in a year, she wasn't showing it.



"Well -- if it isn't my dahling Anastasia," began the queen, inspecting her daughter as she approached. The long-term monarch, her dirty-blond hair now fully silver, was sporting a new roller-set coif. "It's been a long time."
"Hello, mother." Anastasia brushed her dress and stood up straight.
"Marriage seems to have agreed with you, Anastasia," Queen Catarina grudgingly admitted while looking her over. "You've turned into quite the proper lady. I assume some things I've been teaching you over the years have finally begun to stick."



With Alexandra looking on, Queen Catarina reached for Anastasia and gave her a hug.
"When are you going to give me some grandchildren? And where is that husband of yours? I asked the two of you to meet me with them."
"He's teaching an art class over at Alpine."
"Ah, a cultured sort, isn't he?"



A few moments later, Queen Catarina also gave a hug to her other daughter, Alexandra. Over the past year Alexandra, unlike her sister, maintained relations with her mother, but they were strained, mostly over her sexuality. Ever since Alexandra publicly admitted to being bisexual, and numerous photographs were published in the tabloids of the princess with various women, Queen Catarina was conflicted over her own feelings about the matter. A bill was on her desk right now banning same-sex marriages in Hidden Springs. But she couldn't bring herself to sign it...



Now Queen Catarina was facing her daughters as women for the first time, these two women she birthed and raised -- and yes, they were indeed women now, with husbands and careers and lives. Different women though they were, they had arrived at the same place in their lives, the same place at this moment, facing their mother.
"I called the two of you here because I need to make an announcement. This announcement is sure to change both of your lives. You see, I'm an old woman, and my time here is nearing an end. I have cancer. I've been fighting it for awhile now. The treatments I've undergone at the hospital are not working. I've been a trooper as long as I could, given my subjects the appearance of strength. But I'm frail and weak. Just getting up in the morning has become quite a chore."
Just then Alexandra piped in. Barely able to contain herself, she asked, "Have you -- have you -- tried the water? From the spring? It's said to have mystical powers."



Queen Catarina let out a deep sigh. "Oh, Alexandra. You know, your sister went in search of that spring -- she never returned."
Anastasia replied, "You mean Francisca."
"She was sneaking out of the palace at night. I kept telling her it was nothing more than a fairy tale. Then after your father died and you set out on that mad quest to revive him --"
Alexandra was surprised. Her slate-gray eyes narrowing, she asked her mother, "What quest?"
"Alexandra Maria-Louisa. Do not feign ignorance with me! Do not think I've been living under a rock all this time! I know you disappeared at night looking for that spring. I know you spent hours in the basement with all those machines you have down there. Your father went behind my back and bought all that equipment -- even took the two of you to Comic Con one year. You don't think I know about your mad scientist baloney?"
"Mother --"
"Alexandra."
"I'm a full fledged astronaut now. Soon I'll be the first royal in space. Surely I could obtain spring water to help cure your illness."
"Alexandra, my illness has advanced past the point where a cure would help. It's a matter of time, love."