SOPHIA AND THE CHALICE

 This fragment is from the Portuguese fairytale The Three Little Blue Stones (As tres pedrinhas azuis) as told in Parcast Tales. It's a slandered wife tale, taking place in the husband Prince Miguel's castle in his village kingdom. Again, the wife Elena is drugged so the evil in-laws can do their dastardly deeds to her (slit her newborn triplets' throats and make her look like the culprit) while she is unconscious; and I loved how it described the drugging from her POV.

The key character here is Princess Sophia, the sister-in-law. She is described upon being introduced in the story as "a young woman, skinny as a twig." My mental image of hers is a bit like an evil medieval or renaissance Yuzuriha Nekoi... Anyway, we cut straight to her making her move!

...as Princess Sophia arrived with a chalice of wine. She presented it to Elena.

"Drink this; it will make the birth go easier."

Elena gulped it down. It tasted sour on her lips. The pain faded away from her body; but... so did everything else. Elena's eyes rolled to the back of her head; her mind felt fuzzy. Then, everything went black.

Coming up; Elena awakens to a bloody horror.

Elena drifted back into consciousness. Her head pounded as she tried to piece together her final memories; ..., Sophia and the chalice, ... Her throat was impossibly dry! With a raspy voice, she called out: ...

Needless to say justice is served like in the end of every fairytale. Prince Miguel says in the Parcast adaptation:

"Find my ... sister. They're the true murderers. Lock them in a tower; I can't kill them myself!"

POST SCRIPTUM.

Having just read the original tale As tres pedrinhas azuis I found out that both the drugging and the sister-in-law character are absent in it. This change makes the Parcast adaptation more interesting than the source material, knowing me and my tastes...