In a land long ago, a kingdom far away and a time never known to exists, lived His Royal highness Prince Acheron, who with dashing good looks a rouge charm was known to make the ladies swoon. He wasn't selfish as one might think but rather had Spartan needs. His kingdom was ruled like the modern day Camelot. People were never hungry and beggars were treated with kindness. Streets would be filled with vendors selling their wares, buyers bargaining prices and children begging for small treats! However the prince walked these corridors of his kingdom not full of pride for his flourishing country but with the sadness of his lonesome palace. The prince was painfully aware that he shared his pride and glory with no princess at his side, and wished to rectify that immediately! Calling his council and servants, he advised them of a ball!
"The Ball will be held on the 1st of December at the stroke of Midnight" the prince said.
"Who will we invite, your highness?" a small stoutly man with a balding head replied.
The Prince thought to invite every eligibly Lady and thought better of it, instead, "we will ask every women of marrying age in the kingdom to attend, and not one woman no matter of rank will be turned away!"
And so the invitations went out to every household in the land, advising everyone from the lady of the house to the servant were invited as guests. Nobody was told what the ball would be held for.
The night of the ball everyone was accounted for that received the invitation. Nobility mixed with commoners was seen everywhere and for once there was no matter of station to deprive people of becoming friends and confidants. The prince looked over every women in the room, some were tall, some were short, some were round while others were thin, and there were a slight few that looked to be absolutely perfect, but unfortunately, there were none that captured his attention and held it. The night wore on and the prince continued his search for a princess, every woman that was introduced to him from high to low never held his attention for too long, the women either talked too much or were to shy to say anything, and when they began to speak, the prince would find himself praying they would stop.
"The ribbon was the hardest to find, and my shoes were design to look like peac-"
"Please excuse me my lady" the prince interrupted of one Tall Chatty Duchess Yoko.
Without a backward glance or an excuse to the duchess, the prince bounded out of his own ball to the rooftops of his palace. Even with all the people in attendance, Prince Acheron could still feel the loneliness in the marrow of his bones. It wasn't just a princess he wanted but a woman to love and who would love him back, and not because of his palace or title or how many ribbons and bows he could buy, but love him simply for him, and who he was as a person and not a prince.
"Oh sorry, I didn't think anyone else would be up here."
The prince glanced back at the voice to notice a very beautiful woman standing there ready to turn around and leave.
"Wait, I was only trying to get away from the crowd below, your more than welcomed to join me" replied the prince, eager to know who she was and why he's never seen her before.
'Thank you" she replied in a voice that was soft yet loud enough to hear.
She walked to the bench the prince was sitting on and sat down with a sigh. While she sat Prince Acheron couldn't help but notice what the moon did with her hair, it looked pale and soft and he felt the need to run his fingers through it to see if it was real.
"Why are you up here all alone" she asked.
Startled, the prince stumbled over his reply, what should he say? Should he tell her that the women downstairs scared him and that now with her here he feels only peace? Instead he said, "I wanted to escape the dancing."
"Oh" her mouth made the shape of the word and he wanted to groan, stupid, stupid, stupid! She must love to dance and he would be an excellent dance partner, growing up he only had the best dancers as his teachers. Why did I say that!?
"I hate dancing myself; I always step on the men's toes."
Yes!
She said the last with a smile on her face and then asked, "I hope I'm not the one who made you run away?"
"Trust me," he said with a small smile now playing on his own lips, "I would never run away from you."
"My name is Madeline, and you are sir…?"
The prince was shocked for a moment, because he remembered meeting her but was pulled away by certain tall duchess, how could he have forgotten her face? And she didn't even remember him? How wonderful, she's talking to him, sitting next to him and smiling at him and she didn't even know he was a prince! He couldn't wait to explain to her that he is the Royal Prince Acheron and hosted the ball tonight to find a bride, and that upon this once lonely rooftop he had finally found her.
"My name sweet Madeline, is Acheron."
After months of courting Madeline, Prince Acheron had finally asked her to be his wife, she agreed of course with a smile and tears for her true love. How could this happen, they both thought? At first they were alone and searching for love and found it in each other, a prince marrying a blacksmith's daughter! Many people of the kingdom accepted the news and even thought it romantic that even their prince had found true love in a commoner. However nobles thought differently, including the one Duchess Yoko. The duchess thought it was scandalous to marry so far below their station, and set out to destroy the future princess.
For months nothing could damage the happiness of the young couple, they laughed and smiled with everyone who came to wish them good tidings for the future. The wedding was planned and the coronation for Madeline to become the royal princess was set for after. The palace came alive under Madeline's soft and happy nature and the prince brought even more luxury to the people of his kingdom, by inviting every man, women and child to attend and celebrate no matter your station. The summer months were brought with it hot days and cool nights, the ocean surrounding the kingdom seemed to dance along the cliffs as if the sea itself wished to celebrate with the royal couple.
When the day came to finally unite Prince Acheron and Madeline, the people rejoiced, all except the Duchess Yoko. She wanted to be the future princess and believed it was her right more so than a blacksmith's daughter! Duchess Yoko had been practicing her dark magic in order for the prince to magically fall in love with her and had failed miserably each try. While the Duchess began a new spell, she could here the bells signaling the end of the wedding and now the beginning of the coronation. Disgust filled the Duchess face as she realized she was too late!
"No" screamed the Duchess, running into her mother's room, she asked, "mother, what do I do now, the prince has now done the unforgivable?!"
Duchess Yoko's mother has dabbled in dark magic far longer than her daughter, and with a wrinkled crone like hand covered her daughter's cold pale one and replied, "I will take care of everything."
The Duchess Yoko did not believe an old crone like her mother would be able to do anything, and with no more money thanks to her gambling father, no more luxuries thanks to selling everything they had for her to attend the ball in style, and no more prince whom she believed to be in love with. With everything gone, Duchess Yoko looked below at the jagged cliffs, the ocean looked to be climbing the mountain to reach her and take her sorrows away, with a smile, her grace the Duchess Yoko decided to meet the ocean half way, knowing the ocean will give her what she wanted, peace and comfort.
As the celebration drove on into the wee hours of the morning, the dark cloaked figure made its way up the palace's steep steps. As Prince Acheron and his new wife Princess Madeline made their grand exit with smile and eyes only for each other, the cloaked figure through back her hood. The royal couple gasped at the old lady with sightless eyes and the gnarled hand that came out of the robe to point a long thin wrinkled finger at the new princess.
In a Raspy aged voice that barley carried to anyone other than the royal couple, the crowd grew silent to hear what she spoke, "On your 27th birthday, the same age of my daughter's death, you will also smile your last smile, you will step your last step and you will breathe your last breath!" slowly her hand moved to point at the prince with the same eerie silence in the hall, the old woman continued, "you my prince will continue to live without your beloved, like me without my daughter, however you will shed 100 tears everyday for your princess and as you weep, the heavens will too, drowning your kingdom in the sea and taking its life like it has my daughter's, as it will, so mote it be!" With a jagged breath the crone dropped her hand and lightning pierced the once clear night sky, and the women fell to ground looking up with now lifeless eyes.
As time went by, for months afterwards the prince and princess tried to move on and tried to forget the old woman's ramblings as that of a crazy woman mourning the lost of her daughter. The kingdom and the royal couple moved on with the supposed curse in the back of their minds. The Prince and his Princess brought prosperity and peace, no wars were fought with neighboring islands and no true disasters ever seemed to plague the royals or their subjects. However the closer it drew to Princess Madeline's 27th birthday, it seemed everyone had forgotten the wretched cursed words of the old crone except for the prince himself, and took drastic measures to assure himself nothing would happen to his beloved wife. He sent for Wizards and witches, warlocks and magical beings of all kinds to lift the dread that surrounded his heart, until one Warlock announced the reason he felt such dread was because in the deepest part of his heart, he knew the curse would be fulfilled and that no potion or spell or chanted saying would stop the inevitable.
"The curse was sealed with the old woman's life, and for that price the curse is unbreakable." The Warlock said.
With one year left until her 27th birthday the Princess Madeline and her Prince welcomed a baby girl, they named her Hope. When her Royal Highness Princess hope was presented to the kingdom, celebration was heard throughout the land. In secret the prince had the warlock who he trusted above all others put a spell on Princess Hope, to protect her against any evil that would come to harm her or his descendants from that point on. As the warlock said his spell above the young Princess, she looked at her parents with a smile upon her angelic face, and when the moon shined through the window, the prince could see the child's hair was that of her mother's, it also resembled spun gold and as he turned to his wife and touched her hair in awe, he sent a silent prayer that the spell would work.
One year and 2 months later.
The royal couple decided not to celebrate Princess Madeline's birthday in hope that it would dispel the curse. However on the morning of December 9th, Princess Madeline woke to a dark and rainy day, quiet so she wouldn't wake her husband, she left their room and traveled to her daughter's. As she walked in and gazed upon her daughter, she smiled, one that made Princess Hope smile, and it was a smile from mother to daughter, one that reassured, and one that said no matter how dark it is outside, my smile will always bring the sun to you. But what the small Princess Hope didn't know was that in her mother's chest, Princess Madeline felt a pain, one that was so small she ignored and continued to look at her daughter.
"I'll be right back sweetie." Princess Madeline said and as she took one step away, her smile died and she collapsed to the floor struggling to breathe, she felt as if she was drowning in water, she couldn't get any air in her desperate lungs.
The prince woke to find his wife gone and ran to find her. Upon entering the nursery, he saw his wife lying upon the floor gasping for breath. Prince Acheron could here his daughter crying from her crib as if she knew something was wrong with her mother.
With tears in his eyes, the prince begged his wife, "Please don't leave me."
With her last breath, the princess replied, "trust me, I would never leave you." So similar to what he said to her the night they first met upon the rooftop of their palace. With silent tears that fell from the prince's eyes, he held his now silent and lifeless wife; she was his beautiful princess, the mother to his beautiful daughter. Prince Acheron stood to gather his wailing daughter, to comfort her, it was as if Princess Hope new of the injustice that befell her mother and wanted to scream at high heaven for taking her mother so soon from her.
As the prince stood and held his daughter to his heart, he began to cry…one…two…three tears fell from his eyes…one…two…three raindrops spattered the nursery window.
The curse was running its course, from that day on the prince would shed hundred tears each day for his long lost wife and as he would cry, the heavens would open up and rain down upon the now silent kingdom. Princess Hope began to grow into a beautiful woman, but it went unnoticed. The warlock who predicted the curse would come to pass and who blessed the small princess stayed near the royal family until his own blessing would be fulfilled. Prince Acheron never remarried and never left the palace again, his life centered on Princess Hope and made sure she never wanted for anything, he only denied her access to the outside of their palace and its grounds. Never allowed to go beyond the gate of her home, Princess Hope was not aware of the turmoil happing in her very own kingdom.
The prince seemed to weaken before everyone's eyes. Physician after physician did not have a reason as to why it seemed the Prince was dying, but the warlock knew. He knew nothing can repair a broken heart, and nothing can bring the Prince peace except for death itself. However like the curse predicted, the land day after day began to flood from the water's of the sea. Wells overflowed, farms destroyed, and homes were lost.
"You're Highness?"
Prince Acheron looked to the short round bald man from his council that just spoke to him, "yes?" the prince replied.
"Are you aware of the people at the gates begging to be let in, away from the rising flood?"
The prince snorted at this question, of course he was aware, but what could he do, the flood will eventually rise to cover the palace as well, all will be lost. Nothing can be done. His people's lives and his own will go to the sea like the old women predicted.
"Let them in if it will give them comfort, there is nothing else I can do."
The round man went to leave and then paused, with a worried look he asked, "Where is the Princess Hope your Highness?"
The prince gave the round man a glare, "leave me", Prince Acheron was not about to tell anyone that his daughter left on a small boat with an aged warlock that would be her guardian from now on. Not wishing anymore harm or evil to come at her because of her lineage, he decided to keep her past and whereabouts a secret.
The prince remembered this morning when the warlock announced he had secured a boat behind the palace. Prince Acheron held his young daughter, knowing he couldn't go with her, and knowing he would never see her again, that the curse would only fallow him if he did. The Prince walked with his daughter behind the warlock to the boat, at 9 years old, the Princess Hope had begun to show she carried the same beauty as her mother, the Princess Madeline. She slept unaware of the sadness in her father's eyes or of the 100 tears that have already fallen from them today. As the Prince began to push the boat away, the warlock grabbed his hand and stared into the Prince's eyes. When the warlock spoke, it was as if 100 people were whispering the same thing all at once, "the land will never know the lost of true love ever again, it ends with you." With those parting words the warlock began to row away from the prince. Other people had tried to escape the rising flood with a boat only to see the boat wash ashore with nobody in it any longer. The warlock had calmed Prince Acheron's fears when he advised that their boat would be safe from any accidents or magic doings thanks to his own charms and spells.
With the screaming coming from outside of his throne room, the prince came back to the present with a jolt. Water began to seep into the room slowly from underneath the throne room doors, gilded white marble with iron wrought hinges and golden handles seemed so foreboding to anyone who stood before them, but the water continued to seep in, it would not be deterred. With the water rising in the room, the screaming outside seemed to become lighter and distant and then soon altogether stopped. Now an eerie silence filled the room besides the water that now stood at the prince's waist as he sat on his throne gazing at the cold empty chair next to him. The water was cold, but it didn't bring a chill to the Prince, he was surprisingly warm. The water soon ran over his head and with a last breath the prince went under, he glanced to his left and saw sitting in her chair, his beloved wife Princess Madeline, she reached for his hand and he met her half way. Holding her hand he closed his eyes. He saw her the night he met her, the day they were married, the day she told him he would be a father, the night they welcomed their daughter to this world. And that was when the prince knew, he had beaten the curse, that Princess Hope will continue to live a long and happy life, and that he had been saved, in every way a person can be saved by his beautiful wife, who he knew he would now join, and that was the last thought of His Royal Highness Prince Acheron.
The warlock was right, the land would never suffer from the lost of true love again, because the land would never be seen again. The kingdom continues to rest at the bottom of the sea holding captive the once proud and commanding palace and its surrounding opulent buildings. While the prince and his princess lived on in the memories of their daughter, Princess Hope grew up to find her own true love and live a long and happy life.
Though Princess Hope would never revisit the place where her parents died, she would hear of the story over and over from her old guardian, the warlock. He would tell the tale to her children and would begin, "once upon a time, the kingdom Atlantis was very powerful and ruled by a kind and gentle prince…"