For Her. (Karma x Lucette)

For Her.

It was beyond frustrating.

Klaude had always known that someday there would be someone that he could call his "soulmate", and that person would be the most brilliant, intriguing, indescribably beautiful creature ever to walk the face of the earth. It would only be fitting, yes? He himself was all those things and more.

His imagination painted a vivid portrait of who she was to be. A gorgeous princess of a distant land that would steal his heart, perhaps.

He would know as soon as he could see his compass. He would know as soon as he could follow it to his destiny.

It was to appear the very moment he turned ten years old, and he couldn't have been more impatient about it if he had tried. On his tenth birthday, Klaude had been simply bouncing off the walls of the palace with anticipation. His mother had smiled and laughed and regaled him with how she had also been overjoyed about receiving her compass. Despite how preoccupied he was, he listened to the story closely. He always enjoyed hearing it.

Klaude had seen the compass on his mother's wrist often and had actually used it to find his father on several different occasions.

...Or rather, to know where his father was so that he could evade him and hide from the lessons he was sure to be assigned if he was found.

His mother would tell him about soulmates, and about how you would feel complete from the very moment that you looked into their eyes. He would hang on every word that she said and muse about his soulmate.

His own compass, on his right wrist, was a red and gold inked rose-like one. Far more beautiful than all the rest, he was quite pleased that it suited him. Though the arrow itself remained grey until he found his beloved, all the rest was in bright, almost shining, colors. He went about for the next weeks and boasted to anyone and everyone that would listen about how his soulmate was sure to be the fairest in the land.

He waited for quite some time, convinced that he would find his soulmate and fall in love at first sight. He didn't want to push fortune by searching. His love would be brought to him, it was fate! So, he waited.

...And then he kept waiting.

...And then he waited still.

Why was nothing happening?

Surely, one of the striking royals that had captured his consideration at the royal balls could be the one? But his questions endured unanswered as the years went by.

On his sixteenth birthday, Klaude had about had it up to here with looking for his soulmate. Where could she be? He had searched far and wide, greeting the fairest maidens that Brugantia had to offer personally and entertaining them.

Still, the compass needle stayed ashen.

"Don't fret, dear... When the time is right, you'll find her."

When the time is right? Why wasn't this the right time? He wanted to spend his entire life with his soulmate and to be the air she breathed. He wanted to be in love, and to be loved.

But... who said he couldn't be? Who said you could only be in love with your soulmate?

As far as he was concerned, nobody. So, when the women of Brugantia that caught his eye came to his door, he disregarded the compass, and gave up on the old children's stories his mother had told him. What a fool he was, to believe all if it so readily. What did it matter where a compass would point him when it couldn't make up its mind?

These women were perfectly lovely, attractive, and delightful all on their own. No need to heed some old wives' tale when he could elect his own means, right?

So, that's exactly what he did. Sometimes he thought that it would be a mistake, but he always managed to argue the point to himself that he might never find his soulmate at all. Perhaps his compass was... broken? Besides, he wasn't the only one to disregard his compass. The women who sought him out couldn't care less in which direction their own arrows pointed.

In any case – wrong or right – it was better than being alone, or so Klaude mused.

Waking up with company dulled the ache. It eased the pain of the dark line on his wrist that seemed to burn into his skin with each passing day, week, month, and year without even one sign of his beloved soulmate.

...but what did it matter?

(Everything, to him. Though he would never admit it now.)

He wasn't alone, and he was... content. Maybe not happy, but still happier than he ever would have been if he had continued to search fruitlessly for a soulmate that might not even exist. For all of the stories his mother had told him about finding his soulmate, there were still stories told of people that would spend their entire lives looking and would come up empty-handed. Klaude didn't want to be one of those people.

He didn't want to spend his whole life looking for something he wouldn't find, even if he had a compass to guide him.

Some people would think further into the symbolism of the compasses and would call it the hand of destiny, and others would say that an arrow on your wrist was irrelevant when it came to love. Klaude never thought the day would come where he would start to doubt fate.

He never should have.

He should have believed all the stories. His mother was right. Playing with his chances had cost him dearly. Heartbreaks and curses were far worse a punishment than the loneliness was. Now, he was deprived of even his family as he abandoned his own kingdom.

It was ruined now, wasn't it? If he found his soulmate, she would never want him like this. A cursed runaway beast who had betrayed their bond. ...Perhaps the witch was right, and he really was more beast than man, and certainly, no beauty could be found beyond his face.

What has he done?

If only he had listened...

Klaude would make this right. He had to.

There had to be a way he could turn the clock back and restart, right? There had to be a way that this curse could be undone. His love would never accept him like this. Even if he did find her now, he could never show her his face! He could never fall in love with her, or else he would only hurt her.

...but there was only one other way. The Tenebrarum bearer was dead, thank the Gods, but her daughter lived on. Klaude had heard the stories; the whispers on the street had not escaped him, but how would he even begin to ask for her help? She didn't even have her powers yet. He couldn't just... wait that long, could he?

There was no other choice. Surely, Klaude was charming enough that even the Witch Queen's daughter could not resist his charms. He would undo this curse and find his love if it were the last thing he would ever do. He may have failed her once, twice, a hundred times, but that was in the past now. He would change.

For her. He would do it for her.