A Halloween Tale kdoc27 Current Location: . Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: The Ramones, Alan Parsons, Collective Soul
It is the year 1771 To be a lord, to have lands and people dependent upon you and your family for their well being and financial stability.
To have fine old 'respectable' and 'Honored' family name.
Surly such wealth, and prestige would bring joy and ease, and pride to any man. Normally that would be just the case...
If, you are the sixth baron of Del Rossi, you might find that you have an equal amount of fear and unease to deal with as well.
You see This baron was living under a curse...
In the small, but usually peaceful county of Rossi, the so called peasants (for very few of them could actually be called poor) the earth is good and the harvest plentiful. The livestock is healthy and strong and produce fine offspring, a single birth of colt or calf being a rare thing.
The children are bright, cheerful, and generally just as healthy as the livestock.
Except for the male children of the baron...
The first-born, and if he's lucky only son of the baron seems as normal and robust as any other child at first.
It is when the child gets to the stage at which they should be able to tell one color from another that the difference becomes clear to the once hopeful parents.
They soon become aware that the child is seeing in only black and white...
Music is only a different type of 'noise' to them.
The sound of a cart passing on the street is no different from the playing of a piano or lute, or any other instrument...
The wise parent does not dwell on what is lacking, and if this is done skillfully enough, the child manages quite well for a long time.
The whole county is aware of the curse, and it is rarely spoken of.
Time will do the rest...
As long as the boy marries a girl he is in love with( and it must be a love match, no matter the 'station' of the girl), before he turns seventeen all remains well.
Well... normal, for them,anyway...
Their courtship runs a different course from most.
When these lads fall in love with a girl, the color of her hair is the first true color they are able to see.
When that love is returned, and she kisses him for the first time, he is suddenly able to see all colors, just like anyone else.
It's a good thing the family fortunes have done well, and they remain prosperous, it makes the locals, and a few visiting hopefuls more willing to give their daughters to a 'cursed ' family.
The fact that love can happen with any girl, from drudge to duchess, and is the only real requirement allows these boys a wider variety of choice than most.
The constant parade of girls usually insures that they escape the most terrible parts of the curse...
You see if the boy reaches the age of seventeen without choosing a wife, the only color they begin to be able to see ... Is red...
After that the rage comes...
In this rage they have been known to rip their hair out, tear off their clothes, and just generally destroy anything within reach; furniture, wall-hangings, dishes, anything.
There is special room in the castle; the first baron had part of a wine-cellar converted just for this purpose, to hold the unwise one who waits too long...
It begins at about noon on the day after their seventeenth birthday and lasts until midnight.
At every full moon that finds them still unwed it returns...
And during each occurrence they age ten years...
The girls are not nearly so happy as their parents, for these 'lucky' girls will never be divorced...
Though possibly widowed...
The last part of the curse either keeps their husbands honest, or ends them.
Black and white be all ye see
Pale s all left unto me
None shall sing
None shall dance
Music strike thin ear aslant
Seek a bride both low and high
Lest ten and seven years do fly
If ye yet remain unwed
color ye'll have
Tho' none but red
Red of blood
Red of rage
Rage and age
Decade for day
Be she dark
Or be she fair
First hope
The color of her hair
At loves first kiss
See all as new
Be ye true
Seek not her heart to rend
Or sunset next
Ye meet yer end
Luna
Vesta
Hechate
As I will
So mote it be
The beautiful tapestry hangs in a poorly lit, and not often visited L-shaped corner on the first floor of the family library.
It was commissioned by the first baroness of Del Rossi.
The baroness, Olivia Maria, hoped that at some time in the future one of them would have the courage to break it.
Unfortunately, she did not live to see the finished work.
She could've warned them...
The baron, Claudio Ivar, took it to a priest; to see if there was some way to break or at least lessen the effect of it.
The priest, being a wise and well traveled man had come into contact with a great many curses before. and saw at once...
Good catholic that he was, he knew the church would never sanction it.
He explained to the baron.
Good catholic that he was determined to become, he agreed with the priest, and gave a 'corrected' version of it to the seamstress who'd been commissioned to make the tapestry.
Claudio, too concerned with appearances, never realized he was dooming his family to a seemingly unbreakable curse.
Angelo Olav, the cause of the trouble; died by his own hand about three months after his marriage.
This shame couldn't be covered up..
Too many people found out.
His priest couldn't help him this time.
No suicide may be buried in holy ground, this could not be sanctioned either...
Some of the things Claudio said to the priest... I'll not repeat!
The final (at least for a while) that he told him, was that he would bury his son in 'The Old Way', and that he'd better not (if he valued his health) interfere!
Claudio held a 'wake' for the boy.
This drunken party lasted for days.
On the third day of it, a small sailing ship; loaded with all of the things that Angelo loved to eat, drink or wear, and his best armor, favorite swords and shields.
Angelo himself was laid out in a richly appointed room inside the ship.
This ship was then towed out where the waves would catch it and take out to sea, and set ablaze.
The baron seemed to loose his mind for a time...
The heir was dead.
His beloved Olivia was gravely ill.
His new daughter-in-law was with child, but, as she was also in mourning, her health was in danger.
He thought of the girl his son had trifled with.
He thought of the tale her mother had told his wife when she delivered a copy of the curse to her.
Eventually, he thought of Michael...
His youngest.
Michael, the poet, the artist, the mathematician.
Michael.
Who loved ...
Other boys...
Tags: marco/dylan. marco forever
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