Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was an old King, who had been trying desperately to have an heir for years, and when his Queen was finally graced with child, they threw an extravagant ball in celebration. The King invited every person of significance in the kingdom, even extending invitations to the wise old Witches of the Wilds who lived on the edge of the kingdom’s border.
Each Witch gave blessings to the young princess; beauty to rival the sun, grace to rival a swan, wisdom to rival an owl, voice to rival a nightingale, and gentleness to rival a halla.
Before the last Witch could offer her blessing, a loud crack and bright flash flared over the ballroom, and all the fires went dark and cold.
The Great Witch Flemeth, Mother of Vengeance, stood before the court, wreathed in veilfire, and all who attended looked on in horror.
The King had not sent Flemeth an invitation to the celebration, whether out of ignorance or malice did not matter, for she had been slighted all the same.
‘Let all who hear this know’, she called out to the trembling courtiers,’ that though the princess shall indeed grow in beauty and grace, splendor and refinement, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and enter a sleep like death.’
With another crack, a bright flash once again covered the room and she was gone as quickly as she came. The King and Queen wailed and bemoaned the fate that had fallen on their daughter. What were they to do against the Evil Flemeth’s wicked and powerful magic? No spell or prayer could break it.
‘Fear not’, said the last Witch, who had yet to grant her boon to beautiful but doomed princess, ‘for though I cannot break her spell, I may negate it.’ And so, she reached deep within herself, and drew forth powerful magic meant to bend the curse laid on the sweet babe.
‘On her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger and fall into Uthenera, yes, but should she find true love before then, a kiss bestowed will break the curse, waking her from eternal slumber.’ And so it was said, and so it was.
Fearing his daughter’s life, the King had every spinning wheel in the kingdom burned – putting a lot of spinsters out of business – and sent his daughter to live with the Witches on the edge of the kingdom until her sixteenth birthday, so as to keep her away from Flemeth’s gaze.
And so, she lived deep in the Wilds with the Witches, unknowing of her birthright, practicing their magic, and walking every night in the Fade.
In her nightly journey’s she came upon a young man being set upon by demons. Being of kind heart, she immediately began to help the man drive them off.
When they were gone and she was able to get a better look at the stranger whose life she’d saved, she was startled to find that he was actually a boy close in age to her.
‘What are you doing wander such a dangerous part of the Fade so unarmed?’ she asked him.
‘I was seeking to see more of the world,’ he replied.
‘Can you not do so in the Waking? Why must you rely on reflections in the realm of Dreams?”
‘Alas, my fair Lady, I am leashed by obligation to curb my roaming tendencies,’ he quipped, ‘And what are you doing here, so far out and alone? Perhaps you are more suspicious than I?’
‘I am afraid I am no Lady, my dear Sir, for I hold no claim to noble title. And as for suspicion, you would do well to remember I just saved your life,’ she sniffed in indignation.
‘Ah, forgive me my cautious nature and assumptions, for I have been spurned before, and the beauty of your visage makes fools of those who’d deem you a Lady in radiance,’ he grinned charmingly.
Flustered, for she had never truly interacted with anyone her own age before, and never such a flirtatious lad, she decided to press for more information, ‘Spurned? By who, what for? And what obligations would demand that you not wander in the least from your origin?’
‘I work in a court my dear, listening everyday to the complaints of the common folk and nobility alike, and bound by duty to obey,’ he sighed.
‘You are a servant?’ she guessed, for she knew little of the innerworkings of a court, only that which she could gleam from a dream, and he did not seem so terrible and pompous to be of the noble sort.
‘Indeed!’ he laughed with glee, ‘perhaps I am a scribe, or a page then?’
‘Wouldn’t you know?’
‘Indeed, I think not, for one can never be too sure of their place in the world, you have changed the view of mine.’
Despite herself, she was duly charmed by the odd lad she had met within a dream, who could not give a straight answer but could say five things within a single compliment.
‘You are strange, and amusing,’ she declared, ‘I would like to meet you again, are you amenable?’
His eyes sparkled with mirth as he spoke, ‘My Lady, it would be my delight to entertain you once again, when it makes you smile so. I have decided, I shall be the court jester then!’ And he laughed at a joke that only he would know, for a while.
And so, they met again, and again, charming and enchanting one another with dancing wordplay and dancing feet, circling in the Fade like a wolf and a halla – though which was which they couldn’t tell you – until the eve of the princess’s sixteenth birthday.
Her father had demanded her returned to the palace, for if she was to slumber an eternity after tonight, he at least wanted to have seen her laughing for a day.
The princess, now fully-grown and as beautiful, and graceful, and wise as had been promised, was astounded to learn of her true heritage. She spent the day tearfully reuniting with her parents, who hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her since she was a babe, and feasting on all the refinement and splendor that had been denied her for the sake of security.
At the end of the day, she grew entranced by an enchanting tune coming from a higher tower. She followed the notes, climbing higher and higher, to the tallest tower of the castle.
There, in the barren wake of the evening light, was a blackened and charred spinning wheel, saved from the pyres by blackest of magic.
With an impulse not her own, she reached out, and pricked her finger on the spindle, collapsing onto the floor and closing her eyes to the Fade.
She did not dream, held in stasis between waking and sleeping by unnatural magics, confined within a bubble of the Fade, impossible to penetrate. When the boy she had been dreaming with came to meet once more, he would not find her, no matter how hard or how long he searched.
The palace denizens would not find her till morning, when she was not in her bed, and they would weep, and they would curse the name of Flemeth to the high heavens, but they could not wake her.
She was laid on her bed in the room that would have been hers, had she grown in the palace like had been her birthright, with wreaths of roses and lilies laid all about her.
The King bemoaned that he had not searched for a better answer, had not allowed her to find love, that there might be a chance to break the curse, and wept for the loss of a daughter he had forsaken the chance to know.
A knock at the palace doors drew the King from his mourning.
Opening the door, he looked out to see a lone boy, dressed in drab finery.
‘Greetings, Milord,’ he bowed, ‘I hate to trouble you, but might you have seen a girl whose beauty rivals the sun, and with the voice of a nightingale? I have been looking for her, you see, as she has disappeared and will not answer my calls. As I cannot think of anything I have done to warrant such treatment, and it has gone on for longer than reasonable, I worry, Sire, that she has found trouble, as she is wont to do.’
The King couldn’t believe his ears, this was too good to be true!
‘This girl of yours,’ said the king, ‘would you say you love her?’
‘With all my heart,’ the boy stared at him solemnly, ‘If she would have me, I would wed her, Milord, or we could elope if that is what she desired.’
‘I believe I may know where she is, come.’ The King dared to let himself hope that this boy might be the one, the key to waking his daughter.
The boy followed him up the stairs and through the palace, till they reached the room where the princess slept undisturbed.
The boy gazed upon her, laid out upon the bed, surrounding by flowers, dressed in a gown, and with a tiara placed delicately on her head, and thought that her beauty here did not compare to that of her raw smile in the Fade.
‘She is a princess?’ he asked for clarification, for if that was true, a great many things had been needlessly complicated.
‘Indeed, my own daughter,’ the King revealed, ‘She has been cursed to sleep without wake. Does this change how you feel about her?’
‘Indeed not, but a great many things appear to have been misunderstood, for I am a prince,’ he laughed. The King looked at him with shock.
‘What for?’ the King asked, bewildered.
‘What for? For birth and prestige, my Lord. I am of highest pedigree, as my father would tell you. I knew that my father would never allow my marriage to a commoner, so I stole away with only my crown and fine silverware, thinking that we could sell it to buy a house in the countryside.’ He explained.
‘But why risk it, if she had not yet even agreed?’
‘You see, I had to try, Sir, because she is worth it,’ he declared. ‘How may I wake her?’
‘True love’s kiss.’
‘Well that should be no problem on my end, shall we see if she is amenable?’ The prince joked, strolling over to her sleeping form.
He caressed her face gently, and whispered in her ear, ‘Apologies, my Lady, may you forgive my transgressions when you wake, but I’m afraid I must return the favor,’ and kissed her.
The result was instantaneous, her eyes flying wide open and magic flaring in defense. The prince was thrown back, but unharmed, and the King gasped in shock and relief painted across his face.
As she came to, she looked upon the prince and gasped, ‘Servant boy?! Am I dreaming?’
‘Not anymore, my Lady,’ he rose, ‘and servant boy no longer, I’m afraid.’
‘You were fired?’
‘Indeed not, though I may be disowned. I was a servant to the people through the Crown, my Lady; I am of royal persuasion as well.’
‘A prince?’ she cried in shock, ‘And I a princess as well? What are the odds! And why are you here, in the palace anyway?’
‘You did not answer in your dreams, my Lady, and I grew worried. I endeavored to find you, and pursue your hand in marriage if you were willing. I had even readied to elope.’
‘Elope? Yes, a thousand times yes!’ she cried, this time in joy. She leapt off the bed and threw herself into his arms.
‘I do not believe eloping shall be necessary, as I would gladly allow the savior of my daughter to marry her, be she willing. We may even convince his father of the match,’ the King told them.
And they rejoiced, and were married swiftly; the Prince’s father eventually coming around with the promise of a strong alliance between the two kingdoms. Flemeth did not return to sour the lovebirds’ happy ending, for she knew when she had been well and truly thwarted, and her curse had indeed taken root.
And so, they lived happily, and ruled the kingdoms jointly in peace and prosperity.