Once upon a time there was a lake. Not just any lake, but the only shadowlake ever to exist. The water was pure black and reflected back at you the perfect mirror image of its surroundings. The only thing that would break this reflection was someone jumping into the lake.

This didn't happen often, because most people didn't look into the lake unless they had to. Although, after a while, many people did have to. For when someone looked into the lake, some would feel compelled to jump into it. This wouldn't be so bad on its own, but when someone did jump in, they would be killed almost instantly.

The reason could change depending on the person. Maybe the lake showed a solution to their problems, maybe it showed them that this was what they needed to do, or maybe it didn't have any reason and they were forced to jump immediately. The only common thread was that once they saw it, nothing would stop someone who believed they had to jump.

Eventually a man came with his wife and found the lake. He didn't have to jump, but his wife did. He chose to drink from the water and received a strange vision of a city around the lake and his son jumping in. He heard a voice that told him that if his son didn't jump, then everything would be ruined. The voice said that the spirits in the lake would guard his beautiful city for as long as his family stayed in power.

The man found followers over the years and built the city. They made large walls around both the city and the lake. The walls around the city were impossible to get in or out of, but the lake offered a way in. From that day forward, every time someone in the city turned eighteen, they were forced to look into the lake. Some would jump, some wouldn't.

After that day they would never have to see the lake again, but if they jumped, they would die. The man's family continued to be in power for generations. The family would always have at least seven children, to make sure that at least one of them could survive both looking into the lake and drinking its water every day of their lives.

Usually only three of the children would survive long enough to look into the lake. The others would usually be killed by drinking the water. Of the survivors at least one or two could survive looking into it. They would go on to rule the city afterwards and repeat the cycle.

One day an ugly girl went to the lake in the middle of the night. She was only fourteen, but had been bullied so much by the other children that she needed to escape. She was asked to look into the lake and find an answer, and she jumped into it, seeing herself as beautiful.

No one knew at first that she had died, but her mother was concerned that she hadn't come home the night before. She asked the leader of the time if he knew where she was. He told her that he had said to go to the lake the night before. The girls mother went to the lake, praying that her daughter hadn't jumped and was just sitting next to it. She opened the door and saw a fairy with two goddesses, one of them was swimming in the lake and covered in its strange black water.

The woman ran terrified back to the town. She was paniced because she had seen something in the water that was still alive. She found the leader and brought him back to the lake. By the time he returned with her the goddess who was next to the lake had left along with the fairy. The one in the water was nowhere in sight.

"Are you sure you actually saw that?" the man asked.

"Yes, it was in the water! It must have gone back down into it!"

"Ma'am, I think you need to calm down, you must have imagined, whatever it was."

Suddenly the thing in the lake shot out of the water screaming. It was roughly the size of a child, but seemed to be made completely out of light. The only part of her that wasn't were her eyes that were completely black. She stopped about ten feet in the air and spoke to them in a big booming voice.

"How dare you disturb my slumber peasants!"

The woman screamed again, while the man gasped before quickly regaining his composure.

"My dear goddess," he said, "We are from the village that has dedicated its entire existence to you and your lake."

"You interrupted my meeting this morning!" the goddess said.

"I promise ma'am, that was not intentional. This lovely woman was merely looking for her daughter who jumped here last night. She did not mean to interrupt you."

"I'm so, so sorry, miss!" the woman said, "I promise I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry! Please don't hurt me or my family!"

"Very well," the goddess boomed.

She floated down to stand in front of the lake. Only now did the two people realize that she was only a little girl with pretty blonde hair. Somehow, despite having just been in the lake there was no water on her. She was completely dry, and wearing a simple blue dress.

"Shut the door immediately," she said in a voice that much better matched her small body.

The woman ran over and shut the door before the man locked it.

"Now," the child said, "You two weren't supposed to disturb me. It's really annoying when you do that. You'll have to make up for this if you don't want serious trouble with me."

"Anything miss," the man said.

"Okay, let me think for a minute. Sir, you have chocolate imported in, don't you?"

"Wait, you do?" the woman said.

"Yes, I do. It's only for the royal family. The peasants can't handle having it," the man said.

"I want you to give me a quarter of all of your chocolate every month. I also want to be taken as one of your princesses. Now that I have been discovered, it won't do any good to stay hidden. I simply wish to be part of the royal family. I will have the freedom to go wherever I please whenever I please. I may ask for more later. We'll see how it goes."

"Yes, miss," the man said, "We would be honored miss."

"You're darn right you would," the child said, turning to the woman, "And as for you. I know you're just a peasant and have nothing to give me, so all I ask is that you look into the lake once, go home, and never speak of this again. Understood?"

"Yes, miss," the woman said.

She walked up to the edge of the lake and looked directly into it. The woman saw her daughter staring back. Her daughter called out to her saying that it was safe in the lake. Her daughter was finally safe and happy and she could be too if she would just jump. She saw her husband step next to their daughter. He told her the same. One by one, every friend and family member, dead or alive, stepped up the join them and tell her to come in.

The woman started to jump, before being pulled sharply away by an unseen force. She kept trying desperately to jump in, and the voices got louder. The lake tried harder and harder to pull her in. The people inside started to scream. The woman screamed louder.

The woman was slowly lowered to the ground and forced to her knees. The child walked up to her and put her hands on the woman's shoulders. They locked eyes for a brief moment, before the child put a finger on the woman's nose.

"Boop," the child said.

With that, the woman stopped hearing the voices, stopped trying to jump into the lake, fell completely silent, and began to sob uncontrollably.

"Go home now," the child said.

The woman nodded. The man unlocked the door and they all walked out. The woman went towards her own house while the man and the child walked towards the palace.

"We'd better stay out of sight for now," the man said, "It would be better for you to be properly introduced to the people once you've been made to look like an actual princess."

"No, we will walk out in broad daylight and if someone sees me, they will know exactly who and what I am."

"My dear princess-"

"HEY EVERYBODY! GUESS WHAT?! I'M A GODDESS AND THE NEW PRINCESS!"

There weren't many people out at the time, but the few there were turned their heads and murmured to each other.

"Okay, okay," the man said, "We'll do it your way, just stop saying that. They'll all think you're crazy."

"Deal."

"So, how long were you down there?"

"By your time, I think it was several years, by my time, it's been both generations and just a few minutes in real time."

"Do you have parents or something?"

"Not anymore, not for millennia."

"Is that why you want to be part of our family?"

"Don't flatter yourself, it just serves me better now to be a princess than it does to stay down in the lake, at least now that people will know that I was down there. You have no parental authority over me, and neither will anyone else in your household."

"Okay."

The two walked along in silence for a bit before reaching the palace. Once they entered the man called for a few servants.

"This young girl is to be your new princess. She will be formally presented to her people in a few hours. Send messengers out to the town and call them to the meeting hall. In the meantime, make the girl look presentable, like a proper princess."

The girl simply raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything.

"Um, listen to whatever she says," the man said.

"Yes, sir," one of the servants said.

They led the girl down a hallway while the man walked off to his throne room to meet the rest of the royal family.

Meanwhile the child absolutely tortured the servants trying to clean her up. When they tried to remove her clothes to bathe her, the girl's body would turn into light and almost blind the servants to look at her. When they tried to dress her in new clothes, she blatantly refused to let them touch her. Eventually she was talked into wearing a deep red dress with a gold trim.

The only time she didn't fight was when they brushed her hair and gave her a small gold crown that had belonged to a former princess. They walked out to the throne room to meet her new family.

There were the man and his wife with their two remaining sons. One was nineteen and just waiting for his turn to be king. He had blonde hair and brown eyes. He was tall and thin, but very muscular. The other son was only twelve and looked very different from his brother. He had black hair and bright blue eyes set against skin that was almost completely white. He was very short and weak, even for his age.

The man's wife had a slight tan and long blond hair. She had the same eyes as her youngest son, but the build of her older one. She wore a pure white dress that reached all the way to the floor.

Her husband stood next to her with his black hair and eyes. He was a big man, but not especially strong. He was much taller than anyone else in his family. He smiled at the girl.

"Boys, meet your new sister. I've decided to name her Angelica."

The older one smiled at her for a moment, while the younger nodded without showing any facial expression. The mother smiled down at her with a look of love. She had so badly wanted another daughter after losing her first.

"My name is Ariel," the girl said.

"Very well," the man said, "My sons' names are Castiel," he pointed to the younger boy, "And Vincent."

The family walked out of the palace and stepped into a small carriage. It was just big enough to fit all of them. They rode through the streets until they reached the town hall. They stepped inside and waited behind a curtain for everyone to arrive. Once the building was full, the man walked out onto the stage and spoke.

"My people," he said, "I am proud to announce that the royal family has gained a new member today. This morning when I was out at the lake, a young girl rose out of it. She was not only immune to its effects, but was completely dry when she came out of it. She humbly requested to join our family as a new princess, and I was more than happy to oblige. Come out, my Ariel."

The girl and her new family stepped out on the stage and received applause from everyone in the room. The girl smiled pleasantly. For this function, at least, she was going to be good. Right now she knew it would be better to seem like an actual goddess.

She elected to only make herself glow slightly, just so there would be no question as to what she was. The people stared on in awe of her. The girl thought that this would probably be much more fun than sitting at the bottom of the lake, at least if she could keep them happy.