There was once a young man, a young prince rather, who lost everything he ever thought he could hold dear in the span of a fortnight...
Long ago, in a kingdom not unlike this one, the lady Venus grew more jealous of the Sun by the day. Helios shone too brightly, drew too much attention, and was too well loved by the other gods. How could she compete? And so, out of jealousy and spite, she cursed him and his descendants. Their love would only ever end in pain, and Helios' line would only know heartbreak, until the sun and moon became one.
The first king of the kingdom of Helio knew of the curse, but thought himself above it, and was taken quite by surprise when his wife died in childbirth. The loneliness consumed him, and he died not a month later.
So it was that every man or woman who thought themselves above the curse suffered, losing first their love and then themselves to the heartbreak.
After centuries of this trend the elders of Helio made a decision, there would be no more marriages for love, only arranged marriages. It was best, they concluded, to protect their people and their line.
Centuries more passed in this way, and while the arranged marriages continued, the curse became first legend, then lore, and then it was all but forgotten. Just a story tucked into a dusty book that hadn't been opened in several years. And so, it should have been no surprise to anyone, not even Venus herself who had long since grown bored of this game, when the prince Shinjiro fell in love with and married a young peasant girl named Cayleen.
It seemed, for a time, that they had overcome the curse, outrun it as it were.
Cayleen gave birth first to a son whom they named Takayoshi. A beautiful white-haired boy, with a serious countenance, and all-seeing eyes. And then two years later to a daughter named Atsuko with long flowing dark hair like her mother's, and the kindest smile they had ever seen.
But curses, while they may be delayed a while, they do not simply go away, they must be broken. And the only way to break this one was for the sun and the moon to become one, which they were not, and likely would never be. For how could the sun and the moon become a single being? It was not possible.
Takayoshi was four years, six months, and three weeks, exactly, when his mother first fell ill. She struggled with her sickness for months. King Shinjiro brought all manner of healer, and doctor, and witch to their door to help her, but nothing worked. And on the day after Takayoshi's fifth name day, Cayleen finally succumbed to her illness.
Shinjiro was distraught. He fell into a deep depression. His brother, and children did everything in their power to cheer him up. Despite their efforts, not a fortnight later, the king took his own life.
It was then that Takayoshi decided he would never suffer nor subject another to suffer the fate which had befallen his mother and father. He would never fall in love.
The young prince turned to books for his answer, and after some guiding from the librarian he found a spell, a curse rather in his mind, which would draw his lines of fate to another, someone of his choosing. He would choose an impossible love then, one that would never exist. This was better than heartbreak, he reasoned.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Atsuko whispered, her face drawn in the candlelight as she shifted in her seat, making the chair beneath her creak. "Uncle will be upset."
"Uncle need never know," Takayoshi's bare feet padded softly on the stone floor as he pulled the dagger from its place amongst Father's things. The array was drawn in chalk, purple, from Atsuko's art kit.
"This is dark magic, Shishi. There'll be a price."
Takayoshi merely nodded. He understood this. He was willing to pay the price, whatever it was, for surely it would be less than the pain that would come later should he know the soaring sweep of love as Father and Mother had known it. He pressed the blade to the delicate skin of his inner arm, drawing in a breath to steady himself.
"What will you ask for?" Atsuko's fingers tapped at her toes where she'd crossed her feet up over her knees in a position that surely would make them lose circulation. "You'll want them to be pretty."
Takayoshi rolled his eyes. That is not the point of this, he didn't say.
He hissed as the blade drew the first line of crimson. Blood magic was forbidden in Helio. Considered dark, and twisted, even for all the times when the people of Lunette had proven it otherwise. Still, that would not stop Takayoshi.
The drips echoed in the silence of Father's room where Takayoshi had rolled the rug back so it would be easier to hide the evidence later. The chalk glowed faintly, pale moonlight chasing away the shadows left over by the single lit candle.
Atsuko gasped, her little legs falling to dangle over the edge of her chair as her eyes grew wide.
"What do you desire?" A voice echoed from the array, soft enough that had the room not been quiet he may have missed it.
"An impossible love," Takayoshi said, his mouth suddenly dry as he licked his lips. "He will have hair long enough to trail stardust in his wake, the color of the midnight sky. Eyes the shade of the first rays of the moon over the horizon. Freckles will dance across his nose, which will wrinkle when he laughs. And what a laugh it will be, high and bright and full of life. He will be clever beyond reason, much smarter than one so silly should ever be. His smile will rival the sun." Takayoshi took a breath, squeezed his eyes closed, and then he sealed the deal. The most impossible thing that a person, even one of magic, could be. "And his fury will be that of a dragon. It will come in a rush like the river, on talons, and scales, and the flight of the wind."
"A dragon." Takayoshi heard his sister squeak in horror.
"Is that all?" The voice questioned, and if Takayoshi did not know any better, he would say it sounded amused.
"It is."
"What do you give in trade?"
"Color," Takayoshi said. He had thought long and hard about this, and he knew that color was something he could sacrifice. He had no love of art as Atsuko had, his love was in music, and he could do that without knowing color. "I would give my ability to see color for this impossible love."
All there was for a suffocating moment was the sound of Atsuko trying to stifle her worried mumbling behind her hands, and the soft drip drip drip of the blood still trailing down Takayoshi's wrist.
Then, "the deal is struck. You will not know color until you find your impossible love." The array began to dim. "I wish you the best of luck, young prince," it added almost as an afterthought.
"Thank you." Takayoshi bowed his head, his eyes closed tight. He did not open them again until the white light of the array had stopped burning through the lids of his eyes, and when he did, the room was a wash of blacks, and whites, and greys.
"Did it work?" Atsuko hissed, whether she hoped the answer would be yes or no, he was not sure.
"It did." Takayoshi nodded. "Help me clean this up before Uncle sees."
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