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19: Princess and the Beast

"Rule #61: When you are the guest, it is imperative to treat your host with the utmost respect, following his every command. Even the stupid ones."

—Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide, Politics Edition
19

Princess and the Beast

Rexi's rant upset and unbalanced me more than I let show on the outside. I tried to match my expression to the woman in the corner: stoic and blank.
Neither one of us followed after Rexi, and when she didn't come back, Kato scooted into her spot and continued the story. "Like almost everyone, Blanc had worshipped and prayed to the Storymakers her whole life. Now she blamed them for how her story turned out. She lashed out, using the curse and her magic to take revenge." In the picture, Blanc no longer smiled or laughed. The white, which previously seemed bright and innocent, now looked stark and empty. She stalked toward the shadowy man hiding in the tree. The warlock appeared to beg and plead, but she drew him in and kissed him. Within moments, the warlock lay on the ground—drowned in the middle of the forest.
I had seen enough and turned away.
Clearing his throat softly, Kato brought my attention back to him. "But she wasn't done yet." Kato nudged me back to face the book. "Still unhappy, she decided to find the Storymakers and force them to rewrite her story. But to do that, she would need a lot more power and help. She found an ally in a powerful chimera, Bestiamimickos, who was also unhappy with his story. He loved a princess who would not love him back since he wasn't human royalty. So Blanc showed him how to use life magic to control beasts and named him king of them all. In return, he brought an army of chimeras to make war on the Storymakers and, together, to force them to revise their fates."
I'd already heard Bob's history of the first Beast King, and I liked that version, the lovey-dovey one, better. I watched what Kato and the book wanted to show me anyway. The images moved rapidly. Blanc, along with other witches and the chimeras, burned through villages—and Blanc no longer had to kill by kiss. Somehow, she was able to draw all the water out of a person, leaving them mummified.
"She began stealing magic, at first only taking from the wicked. But it twisted her soul. When she realized that the strongest power came from life magic, she started stealing life instead. Drunk on her new power, she decided that the only way to correct her story and bring back her prince was to erase everything and start again. She proclaimed herself the empress of all story and wiped away entire species, whole fairy tales."
I looked over at the real live Blanc again, behind her wall of flames. There was no evidence of the young girl who wanted to be good despite what her parents were. She had twisted into something else. Maybe the curse had tainted her. Maybe she had always been destined to be evil. I understood a little bit about loss and pain, about pushing and fighting against your destiny. But to take it out on everyday people... "What kind of villain does that?"
"All of them," Kato said, his tail hitting the cave wall.
Unbidden, the image of Beauty becoming the Beast came to mind. I shook my head. That was different. I didn't mean to screw up anybody's story. I was different.
Wasn't I?
"How did she end up here?" I turned to the book and watched the story unfold through the pictures and Kato's words.
"Supposedly, the Beast King finally caught a Storymaker and forced the Maker to transform him into a human." On the page, a group of chimeras stood next to an older man with odd clothes and a curled mustache. The man touched the one with golden horns, and the chimera became human. My guess was that he was the Beast King, but that would make the other man...
"That can't be a Storymaker." I leaned in closer to try and get a better look. "He doesn't look all-powerful. Just old."
Kato shrugged his haunches. "I find it hard to believe myself. But that is the story that has been passed down for centuries. After becoming human, Bestiamimickos returned to his princess and realized he had been tricked—no matter what form he took on the outside, the princess could never love someone who had caused such suffering to other stories."
Now the book showed a young girl. She looked plain, her clothes had few frills, but her brown hair was braided into a crown of green and gold.
"As a magical empress, Blanc had so much power, she became basically immortal. Nothing could kill her. But she still needed to be stopped. The princess demanded that the Beast King make amends for his crimes by betraying Blanc and sacrificing his power to imprison her."
The picture showed the supposed Storymaker writing in a book with a quill on the cover. Now-human Besti-Mc-whatever-his-name held Blanc down while the princess put gold bands around Blanc's neck and wrists.
"With those, the Storymaker, princess, and King of Beasts bound Blanc's powers, trapping the evil sorceress in magical flame."
I hadn't noticed the gold jewelry before, so I looked at the real Blanc again. Sure enough, a glint of gold barely peeked out from under her bell sleeves and high neckline.
"So then what happened? As far as happy endings go, I've seen better. Your king didn't get the girl, and Blanc didn't suddenly see the error of her ways and become a good white witch."
Kato tilted his head to the side, tapping his chin with his tail. "Well, I suppose the story isn't over yet. The Beast King vowed to someday deserve the princess's love. Until then, he exiled himself, but first, he ordered the chimeras to spend eternity watching over Blanc, keeping the flames burning in punishment for the sins they committed for the sorceress. The ritual of life magic to control beasts was passed down to each future generation to crown a new Beast King. That, of course, includes me. The sole purpose of my life has been to rule over the chimeras, watch the White One, and keep the flames. That is, until yesterday."
I waited for the book to show me what happened to the princess, but the picture jumped and filled with static. Finally the whole page turned dark, with only a white, half-eaten, poisoned apple in the center.
I shifted my body around to watch Kato, since the book had broken. "What changed?" I asked.
"You did, Dot."
I fell right off the edge of my seat.
Kato wiped a paw across his face, another humanlike gesture. "My best guess is that your wish affected the magic that kept her asleep. The fire is going out and nothing we're doing is working. She'll be free in a matter of weeks. Then Grimm save us all."
The weight of the air tripled and landed squarely on my shoulders. This was bigger than making vacuums fly screwy or trees wither and turn cannibalistic. Seeing Blanc's story unfold pulled away the final pieces of wool I'd used to cover my eyes. Denial was no longer an option. But I couldn't remember what had been going through my head when I'd wished the world away. Had I just been spouting off because my temper had gotten the best of me again? Or had I, somewhere deep in my subconscious, known the wish would work this way? Did it even matter? I was still responsible whether it was on purpose or not.
True, but one makes you a monster. The other one just makes you an idiot. Which one is it?
"What are you going to do?" I asked quietly and got up off the floor, dusting off my scorched and tattered dress.
Kato stretched and paced. I couldn't help but notice he was moving away from the other chimeras—and from Blanc. "Over the years, a sort of legend about Blanc's weakness has been passed down with the power. I never put any stock in it." He paused for effect. "Until now."
I rolled my eyes, taking a page from Rexi. "Overdramatic much? Just tell me what the legend said already."
Kato continued pacing, talking to himself now more than me. "I mean, it sounded like a bunch of fairy dust. Why would changing the color of the flames matter? But for generations, we've tried everything anyway—tried feeding the fire with gemstones and magic, crossbred until we had dozens of different colors and species of fireflowers, but we could never get flame like the one the legend described."
You know that feeling that you get in the pit in your stomach? The one that goes along with the warning bells ringing in your head that screams, Don't ask! You don't want to know. Yeah, I had that feeling.
"What color?"
Kato stopped pacing and used the full power of his ice-blue stare. He winced, as if saying it would hurt. But hurt him or me?
"Emerald. The legend says that only emerald flames can free us from our vows."
I said nothing, waiting for the ax to drop.
"Dot, you need to kill Blanc."