This was a prompt from rokudoumukuros on tumblr for a writing meme, originally posted on my own tumblr. This is definitely more than three sentences. The prompt was: before the beginning.
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"Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood."
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Mantles Borne
In the quiet moments of the night Austria could feel a desire, buried deep inside, to return to the past—to return to that time before the weight of the crown on his head, before the gold band that would bind him to another, before Europe had begun echoing faintly with the word Habsburg, the borrowed dynasty now forever tied to his legacy. The crown and mantle of an empire was a heavy burden to bear, after all, and as Austria grew, as he came to realise what it represented, he couldn't help but feel it dragging at his shoulders.
An empire must be strong, they whispered, both when he was in earshot and out of it, and it cannot be strengthened purely through military might. So they dressed him up and they gave him lines to memorise, ceremonies to ingrain within his person, traditions to adopt. He learned to dance, he learned the art of music, he learned to wage war in a different way (wouldn't Switzerland sneer), and he learned how to hold onto power through glittering, solid gold and the warm, wet crimson that stained it. More than that, he learned how to protect what he already had, how to safeguard the young, blue-eyed boy and the two brothers that resided under his roof.
And he did it through more than just marriages. He did it through blood, through war, through defeating his enemies and ensuring they noticed him, that they could not look away from his rising fortunes.
Now he was learning how to marry, learning the intricate ceremonies that would shortly bind him to one of Europe's other rising stars, the man with the warm smile and the laughing green eyes and the dark, dark shadow.
Bella gerant alii, came the words, floating from Maximilian's mouth with an air of smug certainty, tu felix Austria, nube. In the centuries that passed the phrase would come to embody all that he was, all that he had been. People would sneer and say he achieved everything through nothing more than strategic dynastic marriages, and Austria would say nothing against it, content to let his enemies think what they would.
But now, as Spain clasped his hand at the altar, his eyes filled with the future, Austria clasped his hand right back, feeling the weight of empire increase and decrease all at once as the cloak of power shifted to envelop them both.
No one noticed the blood staining the edges, the blood that represented the wars that had taken them to this point, the blood that had made them worthy of one another. No, all they remembered was the ring glittering on Austria's finger—the matching one on Spain's. All they remembered was the steely ja uttered in near silence, and the firm sí that had echoed it. One day, history wouldn't remember that either.
Until then, they'd make Europe scream.
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notes
- Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, was succeeded by Charles V as King in Germany and Archduke of Austria. Following Maximilian's death, Charles V would also eventually be voted in as Holy Roman Emperor, and would also become King of Spain. This is commonly where I choose to date the beginning of Austria and Spain's marriage.