Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne!
All right, this one is a fic I did on the fly, just because I thought... "Hey, what would happen if this happened?"
Enjoy!
A Curse To Be Broken
They called him the Cursed King.
It was because within a year of marrying, he would always lose his wife in an accident, to an assassination, to sickness, to a miscarriage, or she would vanish, without a trace. Murmurs went through the countries allied or not to his that he cut out the girls' hearts and ate them, since the casket was always closed during the funerals. Nowadays most women went running and screaming from the castle, calling him a cold-hearted demon.
But only parts of that were truth.
Because Van Salazar de Fanel was not a demon that most thought him to be. He was the dark and mysterious king of Fanelia who was tired of losing everything by letting himself fall in love every time, only for it to end in tragedy. Not one woman was strong enough to stand his companionship and the contract he made with her on their wedding night.
Counting up since his coronation, he'd had twenty-nine wives, the shortest only lasting a day after the wedding night, the longest just a day shy of their wedding anniversary. He'd been king for twelve years and looked like he was well past thirty because of his dark and pale countenance. It was the cause of too much strain and grief. He hadn't slept well since his first queen's death, because of the nightmares caused from the sight of her still body. That was why he never had the casket open, because he couldn't bear to look at any of his dead brides again.
His council had started to joke that he would be an old man before he could keep a queen on the throne. But his people seemed content and didn't believe that the tragedies had anything to do with their strong and valiant king.
But as his council planned to bring another girl in to be his thirtieth wife, he stated, "After this, no more."
"But…your majesty! You must keep trying!"
Van stood and slammed his palms on the table, yelling, "None of you have to deal with having to lose another chance at love! After twelve years of constant death and marriages, not one of my wives has ever given me the gift of loving me back! If you give me another woman that only marries me for my title and looks, then she'll die as well, too weak to stand up to my 'curse'!"
"Of course, your highness. We'll be especially picky about our next choice. If she disappoints you like the others, we will kill her before your 'curse' does. Perhaps…we might be able to choose better if we knew what you wanted in a wife and queen."
Van considered, then murmured, "A strong woman who will stand up for herself, a woman full of light and life…" He lowered his head and whispered, "A woman who smells of sunshine yet tastes like snow…"
"My lord? Is there a woman like that?"
Dark brown eyes narrowed. "There had better be, or else I'll never marry again."
I dunno if anyone will like it, but please, if you do...
Review!