Fairytale AU From the TC Server

Sleeping Beauty and the Fish

Lox's last thoughts as he looked down at the bead of blood forming on his fingertip were a slew of swear words directed at his parents for pissing off a faerie at his birth. From there, his vision clouded, his legs went numb, and he collapsed. 

It took only an hour to find him, sprawled across the hardwood floor of the attic, the tiny prick on his finger hardly visible. The prince was carefully carried to his room, and panicked letters were sent out across the land in hope of someone coming to wake him up. It spread like a wildfire for a year, and people came from all across the land to try to free the prince from his curse, but ti was no use. For ten years, twenty, thirty, nothing changed. It got to the point that the faerie returned to the aging parents to apologize. 

"I hadn't realized it would take so long for him to wake up," he had explained, violet eyes empty of true pity, "But perhaps next time, you'll invite me." 

Fifty years passed, and people began to forget. The king died, followed by his queen, and the castle staff began to waver and thin. By seventy years, the staff had been replaced with their children, children that carried no loyalty to the crown. By ninety years, the castle was abandoned, left to be taken back by the earth. 

The faerie still visited sometimes. It was quite lovely without the human bustle and noise. If he ignored the room with the sleeping prince, he practically had a seaside castle to himself. 

At one hundred years, a thief and a solider stumbled in, a storm at their backs and many miles to their feet. The faerie watched from behind the stairs as they laughed and embraced, gifting him their names in an innocent exchange of graduated. 

Seto had learned long ago never to give your name free of charge. 

He watched from afar, eyeing the two strangers (Jerome dressed well for a traveler, a soldier's uniform ruined by rain. Mitch dressed like a street urchin, with too many layers yet not enough fabric. Desperation dripped heavy from their every breath.)

"Gods, I swear, I almost got blown away!" Mitch's laugh echoed through empty halls. It had been so long since Seto had heard another voice in the castle... 

Eh, not his thing. 

While the two young men set up a fire in the main hall (an image Seto enjoyed, as it would have made the royals squirm) he slipped out to the sea, seeking to wreak havoc on the unwitting visitors. 

"So what even is this place?" Mitch asks. Laying on the rotting carpet by a small debris-fueled fire, he's feeling quite at home. Jerome shrugs. 

"Who knows? Some old castle, there's a lot of those. Pass me your knife, I just finished sharpening mine." 

Mitch hands it over, propping himself up on one arm. The firelight reflects off old stained glass windows and display armor, giving an eerie look to the place. An old torch on the wall gives him an idea. 

"Hey man, whatcha doin?" Jerome asks, tracking Mitch as he walks across the room. 

"Exploring!" The torch comes off without a hitch. "You coming?" 

"Naw, I'm good," Jerome says, waving Mitch's knife, "Got my hands full. Don't mess with the place too much, yeah?" 

"Me? Mess with an abandoned building? Neeeeeever," Mitch replies, a troubling smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Jerome sighs, watching Mitch light the torch and make his way upstairs. 

The roaring of the sea covers the horrible sloshing of the creature rising from the depths, and the cackling of a troublesome fae is drowned out by the winds.