For @TrueForm’s prompt.

The fairy godmothers were duking it out in the break room. The princess’ christening was just days away, and they could not come down to the required seven gifts.

They had manged beauty, fairness, level-headedness in a crisis, dexterity, charisma, and an eye for beauty, but on the seventh gift, two of the oldest fairies were in disagreement.

“Give her the ability to see dishonesty,” Nichanni insisted, throwing a right hook with a surprisingly strong arm for such an elderly-looking woman. “Every Queen needs to know when she’s being lied to.”

“Give her Truth itself,” Lisalind insisted, ducking the right hook and kicking at Nichanni’s knees. “She does not need lies, which will poison her. Speaking only the truth will serve her well.”

“Every ruler and politician needs to lie sometimes,” Nichanni sneered. “What good will she be if she can’t tell the awful Duke of Arnual that his hairpiece is believable? Or tell the Queen of Ottino that she believes their peace treaty will last?”

“And perhaps what the country needs is a different kind of ruler! Would the Duke of Arnual continue to wear horrible hairpieces if anyone had ever told him they were, well, horrible? And surely the Queen of Ottino would respect truth better than soft lies?”

“And what could will it do her to be always honest if others are still lying to her? Ottino, again. They lie easier than some people breathe. Would a sweet thing that was always honest understand that sort of prevarication? You’re foolish, Lisalind, and you always have been, you old flower-petal.”

Fidennertophilio stepped in before things could get to the pulling of silver-grey hair. “Both of you. Give her a compass in her heart that points to the truth. She will always know how to speak it, and always see when others sway away from it. And the Duke of Arnual’s hairpiece is, indeed, an awful thing.”

And thus it was that the Princess was gifted with beauty, fairness, level-headedness, charisma, an eye for aesthetics, a compass for truth, and a true hatred of all hairpieces. War with Ottino was put off for another generation, and many men suddenly found their bald pates revealed.

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