Disclaimer: Sadly, Skip Beat! does not belong to me. If it did, I'd hire a whole slew of drawing assistants and slave-drive them into releasing Skip Beat! bi-weekly again.
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The Cursed Prince
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Chapter 1
The Seeress
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It was a glorious day in the magical world. The heir of the kingdom had just been born, and everybody was celebrating the birth of the fairy prince. Mermaids sang of the golden locks and green eyes that he'd inherited from his mother the fairy queen, while the elves whispered that he possessed the handsome features of his father the fairy king.
When a grumpy seeress, (who'd just broken up with her boyfriend) heard the latter at a leprechaun bar, she snorted. "For the love of… he's a newborn baby. How can he 'possess handsome features'? Cute, maybe, but I've seen my fair share of newborns and they were all as wrinkly as dragon skin for the first few weeks."
The seeress realized she had spoken a tad bit loudly when everyone in the pub simultaneously turned to glare at her. She shrank behind her tankard. "Okay, okay!" She waved aside an indignant puff of smoke blown her way by the salamander sitting next to her. "I'm sorry, no offense meant to your cousins."
The scruffy leprechaun behind the bar yanked the tankard out from her hands.
"'Less yeh've nethin' good teh say on a day yeh should be celebratin', ye'd better scram from this joint, Madam Seeress. Yeh'll not be wehlcome here no more."
Kicked out of what used to be her favorite bar, the seeress scowled up at the sun, which had decided to celebrate along with the rest of the kingdom.
Crossing her arms, she muttered, "If I knew weather sorcery I'd make the weather as stormy as I feel right now." Then again, the royal weather sorcerers probably spelled the weather to be as good as it currently was.
"An ominous prophecy would be the topper to a bad day like this." She muttered.
The seeress began to shuffle down back to her house, which she knew would be dark and depressing to match how she felt right then.
"Seeress!"
The seeress twitched. Maybe I heard wrong…
"Seeress!"
So she hadn't heard wrong. I don't recognize the voice… maybe I can just ignore it.
"Seeress Saena!"
Slowly, Saena rounded upon whatever unfortunate creature had dared call her title three times when she was in a particularly bad mood. May there be a really nasty future in store for whoever demands my service right now…
A male pixie saluted her. "Seeress Saena, you have a royal summons!"
It really was not her day.
…
After being handed off from pixie to fairy to elf to fairy again, Saena finally found herself at the edge of a long and grand hall. "Announcing Seeress Saena to their majesties Kuu and Juliella Hizuri!"
Saena forced herself to glide forward towards the two thrones. Once she had moved close enough, she saw that between the two thrones, there was a crib.
Stopping at a suitable distance, she went down on one knee.
"This humble seeress gives her greetings to your majesties."
Slowly, a grin spread across the fairy king's face.
"C'mon Saena, can't you give a more enthused greeting to an old friend?"
Likewise, a sly smile was on the queen's face. "Especially on an auspicious day like this."
Saena looked up with a fixed smile on her face. "Your majesties, this lowly seeress has no idea what your honors are speaking of."
But she actually did. Discovered to possess powerful Foresight at the age of 3, Saena had been sent to Court to hone her powers there. The prince, Kuu, had been a year older, so they'd become fast friends. At the age of 7, she'd met Juliella, a noble fairy two years younger than she, and they'd also become friends. The three of them had gotten in and out of trouble in their younger years, so they'd been close for over a decade. Then Saena had chosen to leave court at the age of 16 to pursue the further control of her powers of Foresight at the University. Now at the age of 25, though they'd barely seen each other for the better part of a decade, she and the current regents had once been almost inseparable while they'd grown up… and so like it or not, they knew her…
Kuu raised his eyebrows. "Ah. Must have broken up with a boyfriend again." Saena's eye twitched. "I guess Seers don't like to foresee their own futures? Or is it that they can't? I can't remember right now…" He pretended to think.
Choosing to ignore the King, Saena turned her too-wide-to-be-real smile upon the queen. "If I'm not overstepping my bounds to ask, shouldn't your majesty still be resting in bed?"
At this, Juliella gave a snort that still managed to sound delicate. "Pah. Hardly. Now that the rascal is out of my body, I'm finally fit to fly again." Despite her words, she looked fondly at the crib.
Emitting a rather fearsome aura, Saena turned her faux smiling face towards Kuu. "Did his majesty forcibly bring her majesty out despite her post-labor condition?"
Kuu raised his hands in protest. "Saena, you know I wouldn't do that… You know how much I treasure Julie – "
Julie crossly interrupted, "I came out of my own will, Sae. Now drop the formalities already. It's getting old."
Saena's cheeks were starting to quiver from the effort of smiling. "This lowly seeress can only follow that command if she is given the privilege of being in the private presence of your majesties." Hurry and send the servants out of the hall, you royal fools! You know what a disaster it would be if I try to See with all these people to overhear…
Catching Saena's drift, Kuu dismissed the servants.
As soon as the last servant had filed out, Saena dropped the smile and the polite façade. Massaging her cheeks, she groused, "Took your sweet time, didn't you. Imagine the horror if my face froze that way."
Julie giggled. "Better than freezing in a frown."
At the mention of that, Saena really did frown. "You should really be resting, Julie."
Julie slipped off from her throne and reached into the crib. Softly, she murmured, "Well, I don't think I'll die for another few years, not when my son was just born. I can't leave him yet."
The seeress rolled her eyes at her friend. "How many times do I have to tell you it's a bad habit to verbalize negative things that you don't know? Especially time of death. Haven't you heard of the phrase, 'self-fulfilling prophecy'?"
Julie pouted. "Then why don't you just Look into my future and find out how long I'll live?"
Saena pursed her lips and said sternly, "I've already told you that I won't Look into my friends' lifelines. That's just asking for a bad omen." She shot a superior look towards Kuu. "And that goes for my romantic life as well." Looking back at Julie and seeing her downcast face, Saena's face softened. "So please, watch what you say."
Julie reluctantly answered, "Alright Sae, I'll try."
Though unconvinced (Julie had been saying that she'd try since she'd first met and been scolded by Saena), Saena stepped closer to the crib. "So you want me to See the future for the new prince, right? Just in general?"
Peering into the crib, Saena was surprised to see that the elves' whispers had been true. The prince was the most handsome newborn she had ever seen. But there was an odd dark aura shrouding him. This worried her. Ever since she was young, Saena had been able to sense strong auras from certain people; later, with experience, she'd realized that the strong auras belonged to people who had a particularly dark fate awaiting them.
Not wanting to preemptively worry the parents, Saena instead commented on what she thought was a safer topic; the newborn's lack of wrinkles. "No wrinkles, eh? Weird." The kid was beautiful too. Too beautiful. Suddenly, a dreadful thought occurred to Saena. "…Did you by any chance have anybody bless this kid?"
Kuu cleared his throat. "With Julie's and my blood running through his veins, do you think he needs any blessings?"
That was Kuu at his most stubborn. Saena crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? So you didn't call any sorcerers or sorceresses to his birthing?"
Kuu reddened. Juliella finally laughed and said, "Only seven sorcerers, dear."
Saena clenched her teeth, to keep her jaw from falling open. Only seven? Only seven? Only seven? How is that ONLY? Three is considered the maximum, but seven?
Unaware of Saena's thoughts, Julie went on, "They blessed him with kind nature, charisma, health, physical talent, integrity, intellect, and wisdom, right out of the womb." She smiled mischievously. "They're also the reason why I'm relatively energetic right now."
With each gift Julie listed, Saena's heart sank lower and lower. Filled with dread, she asked, "Have you named him yet?"
Eagerly bounding from his throne with the most childish expression on his face, Kuu answered, "We wanted to wait for the naming until you came! You're the most powerful Seer, Saena!"
Saena thoughts were running a mile a minute. If he hasn't been named yet, there's still hope. "Well, names can make all the difference to the future, so let's take a look at his current future, shall we?"
She placed a hand on the crown of the newborn prince's head.
And what she Saw was not pretty.
Oh, all-powerful-immortal-fairy-angels protect me. Saena looked down at the prince and amended to herself, And him.
The prince's green eyes popped open and he stared at Saena's golden eyes in wonder. If she hadn't seen the horrifying future she just had, Saena would have felt her heart melt a little; his eyes were so charming. But this prince was effectively blessed to a curse. Exhaling, Saena slowly took her hand off the prince's head. Her mouth pressed into a grim line.
"You're going to have to think of a really good name for this little guy, because by the time he's 15, he's going to be a very unstable individual. He won't even grow proper wings."
Julie gasped and Kuu protested, "Why?"
Saena retorted, "That's what I should be asking you, Kuu." For Saena, having Seen a bad omen was the most fantastically horrific end to a spectacularly flaming-dragon-dung-y day. Especially since that future belonged to the child of her only friends. "Why in the seven stages of Heaven and Hell did you invite so many sorcerers to the birthing?" Before Kuu could defend his decision, she plowed on, "Don't you know that all the good qualities that your son is now guaranteed to grow up with, have to come from some other qualities that he was meant to have? And of all the qualities the numbskull sorcerers choose, why the most draining ones?"
Julie stated numbly, "I don't understand."
Saena fought the urge to tear her raven locks from their roots. "Look, everybody is born with… they call it something like Karma in the human world… and this karma is divided into certain capacities, like…" She searched for a suitable comparison. It was a long shot, but… "Do you know role playing games in the human world? Like character stats."
Kuu and Julie were staring at her, lost. Of course they didn't know…! Biting back a groan of frustration, Saena groped for an example. "For example, a baby is born and he has a full… 10 out of 10 for natural kindness, but his physical attributes are a 4 out of 10. A 'blessing' of good physical attributes does not unconditionally raise the stat of 4 to a 10 while still maintaining the full stats of his natural kindness. There is a cost that will lower his natural kindness not just to an equal trade of 4, but even lower to a 2, or a 1, even. The harder the exchange, the larger the cost of performing it."
Both Julie's and Kuu seemed to have gotten the gist of what Saena was attempting to explain, as their eyes were wide with terror. Julie scooped her baby out of the crib, clutching him protectively.
Seeing the looks on her friends' faces, Saena decided for the umpteenth time that she really hated her gift. Why did she always have to be the harbinger of doom? Well, might as well play the bad guy to the end. "In your son's case, the 'gifts' have probably drained his capacity to deal with the stress of growing up as a prince."
"…So all his blessings added up to be a curse." Kuu's voice broke.
"Which is why he may very well end up as…" Saena swallowed the painful lump that came up that came up her throat at her friends' heartbroken expressions, "…a nervous wreck and wreak havoc to all those around him."
Kuu whispered, "To all those around him? As in, the kingdom?"
Saena nodded mechanically. She hesitated, before added quietly, "And I didn't see a future past his mid-teens."
Even Kuu and Julie, unversed in Seer-lore as they were, knew what that meant; the prince would die in his mid teens.
Julie wailed, "But he was blessed with health!" Holding the prince to her chest, she pleaded with Saena as if she was the one controlling the prince's fate, "He can't die! Not before - "
Heart squeezing, Saena reminded Julie, "Being healthy doesn't necessarily mean you live long."
The silence in the throne room was deafening.
"Is there anything we can do? To prevent his…death?" Kuu looked into the eyes of his childhood friend, desperate.
Saena schooled her expression. She had been in the business of foresight for almost a decade; she knew better than to feed them white lies for their peace of mind, but she knew even better than to tell them the unadulterated truth. Heaven forgive me for what I am about to do, but I treasure my friends more than I do their day-old child.
"You have to send him to the human world."
…
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AN: Though I have fallen into a different fandom, this does not mean that I will abandon The Bodyguard. (my Bleach fanfic)
This story idea was just tickling my brain for so many months…!
And forgive my taking extreme liberty with Saena's personality. It shall be explained in later chapters. I just wanted Saena to be a 3-dimensional character, though I'll be the first to admit that I love to hate Sho and Saena. :P