Belle quirked her lips, a strange relief coming over her. The Dark One did not trust her yet, but he seemed content with her company for now. He did not dismiss her, and the longer she spent in his presence, the more settled she felt to be there with him. His appearance was beastly but his behavior was not...though his manners could certainly use some polish, Belle thought to herself.

She shifted the book in her lap and he yawned as he settled back, leaning against the trunk of the awakening tree. Belle's eyes widened as she scented the air and looked up to see the buds were opening, blossoming with unnatural speed to perfume the breeze.

She came to understand then, that her country's lands were renewing with the Dark One as the centerpoint. It was directly from him that the new growth was stemming, his energy gave life to the land. She saw his eyes drooping, and wondered at his strength. He had killed herds of ogres spanning across hundreds of miles in a great flash of light. Now the energy for new life was draining from him, spreading across the country to overtake his wrath of yesterday.

She thought of the sleep she'd had the night before, the exhaustion that had come over her just from the upheaval of an evening.

It was easy, far too easy, to overlook the Dark One's feelings. Being as powerful as he was and with an appearance beyond human, even Belle herself was guilty of dismissing how jarring this all must be for him. Beneath the wit he shared with her and the attention he'd enjoyed from the ladies, Belle knew the Dark One was furious and with such good reason.

She truly feared the hell he would unleash should her father release the dagger yet like everyone who had laid eyes on him, she had let awe blind her to his pain.

Legend though he was, surely even the Dark One had felt fear. Being pulled from home to a strange place and forced into the compulsion of another would terrify Belle - the more she thought on it, the total powerlessness, the more it dug at her conscience. To have no choice - no choice at all in where you wanted to be or what you wanted to do...as a royal, Belle obeyed certain dictates understood with her station - the demands on her time, the things she was expected to wear, the things she was meant to say - yet her thoughts had always been her own.

The Dark One didn't even have the freedom of his mind any longer, and Belle's heart clenched for him.

He didn't deserve what had happened, yet she could not free him from the prison her father had condemned him.

Given free reign, the Dark One would end them all. A hundred horrors awaited them - she well knew what he had done to the ogre hoard. He had burned them, turned them to stone, crumbled them to dust, felled them where they stood. He may well do much worse to his captors when given the chance.

The demon had said as much and to the bottom of her heart, Belle believed his word.

And yet the princess of Avonlea felt pangs of sympathy for the devil.

It was an impossible conflict.

Before she could think better of it, Belle reached forward and took his hand - she had made quick habit of this, touching him. Strange enough, it was the women of Avonlea that reached for him but he had yet to have so much as a handshake from a man. Truly, the men feared him while the women had proven themselves fearless.

The Dark One perked up a bit from his half-nap once she touched him, his large eyes cast down to the contrast of their skins. Since their first touch on introduction the night before, the differences between them was something of an intrigue. Her hand, so young and pale, her bare fingers resting over his. Against her skin, his own seemed that much darker, his scales and claws more...grotesque.

He frowned lightly and pulled his hand from her.

"Are you well?" She asked him.

He cocked his head at the question. "Hmm?"

"The ogres yesterday. The land today. Even with so much power, you must be exhausted."

"I'm not your concern, princess."

She ignored his slight dismissal. "Can you stop to rest?"

"Your king was quite clear enough in his command. Dark One, I command thee to restore the lands of Avonlea." Here, he had taken on the true voice of her father, unsettling Belle with the trick.

She furrowed her brow. Her father was putting too much on him. She didn't know the ways of magic but she could see the Dark One was tiring, and as she had determined to befriend him as best she could, she now sought after his welfare.

"Look around you. The courtyard is green and blooming. The sky is blue for the first time in years. You have already done so much."

"Yes, and it's only a drop in the very deep bucket your king intends for this country." He gave a deep sigh. Such a human gesture. "Take heart, I may well wither on the vine at this rate, but that would be another victory for your father - he would be remembered as the king who killed the Dark One, all by working me to death."

"I would not have that for you."

"No?" He raised a brow to her, this young woman who would offer friendship in place of freedom. "What would you have in store for me, if you held the dagger?"

"Me? I don't...I wouldn't hold you."

"Liar!" He hissed, his form suddenly teeming with energy. His eyes burned at her as he sprang forward, closer to her, his claws splayed in the new grass that had already grown thick and green between them. "Were you in your father's position, you would have done the same."

It took everything Belle had not to retreat from him, to shuffle away in fear from this flare in his temper. Her eyes went wide and she took in a quick breath but the woman remained still before him. The Dark One was a force unlike any she'd ever known; he who had the form of a demon, the wit of a scholar and the temper of a fury. Still, he was far too human for her to dismiss from her concern.

Beast, not monster.

Belle licked her lips and spoke, "In that you are right. If I had the dagger, I would have commanded you to kill the ogres if you refused after I begged for the lives of my people...but I am not my father. I would have let you go."

The Dark One regarded her, his face still far too close, yet his expression had lost its anger. After a moment he eased back, though he did not lean back against the tree. He only went back to sitting before her, his legs crossed, his bare taloned feet tucked out of sight with his hands resting on his knees.

"Even after what you see around you?" He gestured to the courtyard, the children who were playing together near the gate. "I killed all the ogres, then filled your kitchen to bursting. The blood sky is gone. As we speak my powers are raising your country. All that's left is for your fled people to return and birth the new generation to populate this empty kingdom."

"Yes. You have done more for us than any army or any god, for that matter." In this, no one could disagree. "Even if you had only killed the ogres and then gone away, what's left of Avonlea would have still starved this winter with no one to tend the land to harvest. I know you hate him but my father is doing what he can for all of us."

"You mistake me." He shook his head. "I don't hate your father for this. I understand him perfectly. I have known desperation before and I live with a measure of it every day. Were I in your father's position I would do the same. Admit it, we all would. No, I don't hate your king for my enslavement, I hate him for the humiliations he forces upon me."

"I will speak with him on your behalf." Belle assured him.

"He won't listen to you."

"He may not, but I must try."

"I thank you for that. It has been some time since I have known a defender." The Dark One relaxed a measure, and Belle did as well. She knew he had only expressed a small bite of his rage but she so hoped to cool his temper with her friendship - had she not felt his humanity, there would be no hope of this, but she had felt something from him in the few times they had spoken. She felt it again now. The feeling had no name. It was more a sense she gained from him, a sense that for all his rage and humiliation, this creature, this man, would be best served by having a friend.

Even now, the Dark One shifted his weight before her and leaned in to ask a question. "So. Other than reading of my legends," his eyes dropped down to the book still clutched in her lap before rising to meet her gaze again, "What do you do with yourself all day, princess?"

"There has been little time for hobbies. The ogres' advance had grown too close to the castle these last few months, my father sent me with a group of clerics and knights to the frozen kingdom. I was just speaking with Anna, the princess of Arendelle, when your magic brought me home."

"Mmm. And you enjoyed your time there?"

"Elsa and Anna were true friends and Arendelle is a wonderful place. With Avonlea having grown so miserable, I'd forgotten what is was like to live in a place where the people were joyful. Still, I could feel no true joy there. Not when I waited every day for the news of my father's death and the final fall of my country. The sky in Arendelle was clear, but I felt that I'd taken a piece of the blood sky there with me. It hovered over me, constantly, until I found myself home and learned of what you'd done." Belle swiped at her cheek, brushing away an escaped tear. "You have my thanks all over again."

The Dark One said nothing to that. He wanted her to continue.

"Last night was the first happiness I'd felt in years. It is a strange thing to feel happiness that mingles with dread. I have no doubt of the wrath you will rain down on us if you are given but an inch to try."

"Ah, it seems you do understand me."

"Perhaps I do. But it is you who does not understand me."

"You're the king's precious little princess, sent off to safety while the common folk of Avonlea were eaten alive. And now here you are, brought back and sold to a knight clever enough to see a way to rise. Do you know him yet, your intended? Your father gave no thought to trading you on one hand for my dagger to be placed in the other."

"No, I have not met him yet. I do not even know his name."

"You will soon enough. You will meet him this evening at the feast."

"Another feast?"

"Oh, yes. Your father has demanded a feast every night from here to eternity. Soon your country will grow fat and rich, your every fortune bought by his command. And tonight will be a feast most special, for you will meet him, your knight Gaston."

"Gaston?" Belle thought on the name, trying to match it to a familiar face. "I don't know the man."

"Of course not. Nor does he know you, but he is a man who knows an opportunity. Ask him why he named you as his price, though with your mind I am sure you already know the answer."

"My crown."

"Yes. Such as it is." The Dark One allowed, and Belle weight a slight, sudden weight upon her. Expecting a spider, she raised her hands to her head and instead found a daisy chain there. She brought the woven flowers down from her hair and smiled at his trick.

"This is not the crown Gaston would wed me for."

"No, though I dare say that crown suits you better than any other. You resemble a wood nymph when you wear flowers in your hair, and I would know. It's most becoming."

"I thank you."

"No thanks are needed for true words. But you have no crown, little princess, not since all the metal in the kingdom was taken to make weapons. Your crown was melted in a blacksmith fire and mixed in with the seized iron that became the swords and shields wielded by so many of your fallen knights." The Dark One's eyes began to glow a faint white, unsettling Belle as she watched him seek out the crown she'd surrendered years ago to the war effort. "Say the word and I will call your crown back from those bloodied fields, reforge it to its former glory."

"I care nothing for that crown. Leave it where it is."

With a blink, his eyes were returned to their true color and once more focused on her. "You are sure of this?"

"Yes. Dark One, if you do have such a power, I would ask that you instead find those fallen knights and bring them home."

"What?"

"The knights who died, the common people. So many of them were denied the chance to bury their loved ones. I would ask that you recall the...the bodies left to rot in the ogres' wake." Belle explained.

While her father chose to force their country's future, Belle pleaded to resolve the past.

"I cannot do that. So many of them were eaten, while others have been left for so long that they have returned to the earth. There is nothing left to bury."

"Oh. I had hoped..."

"I can do one thing for you." He cut in to say. "The names of the dead. Knights. The foreign soldiers. The common folk. The women and children. I can etch their names to stone. A great stone monument to their sacrifice which will never dull with the passing of the years. The names of all the dead. Including your Kala's husband."

Belle was not surprised that the Dark One knew of her maid, or that he knew of poor Kala's hope of seeing her husband again. They would meet once more, but not on this side of life.

"So he is dead, then."

His eyes took on that unnerving glow once more, "Yes. He distracted the ogres so she could escape, but he did too good a job at it. He drew the attention of too many of them and paid with his life. Her name was the last word he spoke. Do you want me to tell her this?"

"No. No, I will tell her."

"She may be comforted by learning such news from a friend rather than from me. When you wake tomorrow, it will be to the sight of your monument."

"Thank you, Dark One...a monument of dead names." Belle looked down, unsure of what to say. How could she impart to him what that would meant to her people, the closure to move on with their lives?

"Did you know that I often tended to the wounded that were brought here?" She asked him. "Knights and common folk alike."

"No occupation for a royal."

"During your time here I think you'll find Avonlea to be quite different than the other kingdoms you've visited." Belle told him fiercely. "I am no coddled princess, thinking only of handsome heroes."

"How I wish that were true." He said with some strange regret. The Dark One could see what Belle never could - the multitudes of themselves that spanned across worlds and time. "In another life you would hold me to the impossible heights of those heroes in the books you so love, and you would find me wanting again and again, making love a misery for us both."

Belle looked at him in confusion. "I cannot understand you."

"I know I speak in riddles." He sighed, and raised his hands to her. She could see faint scars on his palms, one circle within another to resemble crude eyes. "I cannot see all, but what I can see - it's just pieces that never make up a whole. Of all my powers, the Sight is the most vexing. But perhaps you are different from that most insufferable version of yourself. You must be, as you've already distinguished yourself to me in a number of other ways."

She wasn't sure what she could say to the Dark One; as he said he spoke in riddles about the strange things he could see with his magic. All his wit and ramblings only stirred more questions in her. "May I ask questions of your magic?"

"You've treated me with more openness than one such as I could ever expect. It's quite refreshing. Yes, you may ask."

"You are...not what I imagined the Dark One to be. Are you the worst the realm has to offer?" In this, Belle was afraid to know the answer. The Dark One was meant to be the blackest of all evils, yet if he truly was that ferocious monster of legend, why would he be entertaining her company now?

Come into my parlor.

"No. Far from it. There are others worse than I, but mankind is the most dangerous beast of them all."

"More dangerous than the ogres?"

"The ogres are nothing! Brainless and breeding, they are barely more than a great herd of oxen stomping through in a search for new grazing fields." He dismissed.

"After what I've seen, it is difficult to imagine anything worse than the ogres. I have not met these dangerous people, then."

"Pray that you never do, child."

"And you, you've met many of these people?"

"With all that I do, and all that I've done, yes, I've met cruel people who would shame the demons of Hades. I've met people with hearts of pure gold. I've met criminals who were good men and men you would never suspect of being capable of the darkest depravities, enough to make even me blush! But most of all, I've met desperate people, and desperation can drive even the best of men to do the worst of things. I should know." He looked up from his grave words, catching himself. He had no love for royalty, but she had managed to endear herself to him. "I am sorry, this is no talk for the ears of a princess."

Belle reached for his hand again and squeezed his fingers.

"Dark One, I am not so sheltered as you would imagine, or the other princesses you have met in all your travels. I have seen the ruins of our villages, the fields of dead and dying soldiers. It may have been a desperate thing for Gaston to steal your dagger, and a desperate act for my father to use you to banish the threat, but desperation has driven us to bring you here. I am sorry. Dark One or not, no one deserves to be used in such a way. But while you are here, I would not have your stay be an unpleasant one." Belle tightened her grasp on him. She was not afraid to touch him, he had proven himself amenable to kind caresses from women the night before.

There were tales of dragons tamed by the kindness of maidens, perhaps the Dark One was not so different.

"You were right, you know. I do think you're interesting, you're a character come to life for me."

He gave a strange smile, just a quick flash of fangs. "I've been called worse."

Belle smiled, encouraged by his levity. "So what should a princess speak of with the Dark One? You don't seem the sort to bore me with talk of the weather."

He glanced over her shoulder to see a manservant watching them from a doorway, likely a spy for the court or those damn clerics who he knew were watching them even now. He didn't care what was said about him, but he wouldn't see her gossiped about. If any gossip should reach the ears of the king, the fat fool might forbid her from speaking to him again and he wouldn't have that. Somewhere during this courtyard visit, he had decided he would keep her. In his experience, women of courage and wit were few and far between.

No man will take her from me. She is mine already.

"Perhaps we should not speak anymore today, lest anyone assume us unseemly." He stood to leave, thinking to check in with Sanka. To be seen in company with the maid would cause the girl no consequence, not when the king had ordered her to serve him at the feast. Besides that, he wanted to know if she'd tested his enchantment yet.

Belle stood as well and pulled at his sleeve. "Please, Dark One, do not go. I've found like speaking with you."

"Why?"

"You are unlike anyone I know."

He retook his place before her in the grass. "That I am. If you so wish to speak with me, it seems I cannot deny you."

"And here I thought only the one who wields the dagger can control you." She smiled, teasing him again.

"That much is true." He relented to her, shrugging, "Seems I've gained a weakness for naive princesses. Let us hope that your curiosity does not lead you to danger, little cat."

"If it did, I do not believe that the danger would stem from you."

The Dark One narrowed his eyes at her, a sudden gravity to his words. "As I said, you are naive."


As in most things, the Dark One was correct - from the far side of the courtyard, in the relative seclusion where they could speak amongst themselves, the clerics were watching. Where the ladies, knights and children enjoyed the flourishing land, the bright buttery sunlight shining from a blue sky, and gave their thanks to the mysterious stranger, the clerics scowled and fretted.

"To have such an abomination pollute our castle - our kingdom - this is insanity. So it killed the ogres, what will that matter when the Dark One infects our people with discord?" The elder asked.

A younger cleric, one with a habit of questioning absolutely everything to the annoyance of his betters, just had to ask, "It has such a power?"

Another of their number spoke to answer their young brother. "I've heard the scouts from the south have lit the signal fires - the ogres there are dead. The northern scouts reported the same. They're still waiting for the report from the west, but that so many ogres died just outside the castle should be proof enough of the reach of its power. The Dark One could stir malice in us all, forcing us to turn on each other. When it is done, there will be no kingdom, just a land of savages."

"But why would he do this?"

"Who can fathom the mind of a demon?" Another cleric scoffed. He was as as well-versed in the legends of the mage as their princess. "The Dark One may well have birthed those damned ogres and killed them for his own enjoyment."

The eldest of their group sneered behind his beard as he watched the supposed maiden and demon sit close in together under the blooming apple tree. Unclean thoughts filled his mind as he saw the mage conjure a small golden harp, which he handed over to his companion. Even from their place in the arbor, they could hear as Belle began strumming a simple tune, and drawing in closer to her, the Dark One swayed to the song.

This was the picture of harmless friendship, had the Dark One only been but a man.

To any eyes the princess and mage were simply enjoying each other's company. To the clerics gathered to watch, this was a horrific seduction. Evil invited into the bed of innocence, a seamless corruption of the crown.

"See how it cleaves to the princess, and our king allows this! I love our king, but he has invited this evil into our midst and uses his child as bait to sate the creature's appetite for innocence."

The youngest one resisted his elder's claim. "It cannot be as you say! She has made no mention of-"

"The Dark One may well have the power to force her to forget. I do not believe for one moment that the king's grip on the dagger can chain that monster's depraved urges."

Another of the brothers wrung his hands in worry. "How can we hope to rid the land of The Dark One? We cannot oppose our king for the dagger and we certainly cannot control the beast ourselves." The idea of seizing the dagger and reigning over the demon was daunting, even as just an idea. It was impossible. The king would never surrender the blade and even if they were to take it, any one of them could just as easily become corrupted by the influence of dark magic. They were only men, lest their elder forget.

"The people! We must make the people know true the cost of defeating the ogres."

Their leader snorted in disgust. "The people...how low our people have fallen. You saw the ladies fawning over the Dark One in the court, all of them touching its claws in thanks, gifting flowers, daring to kiss it! Mewling whores, the lot of them. There were men who weren't far behind, ready to bow down to that...thing." He shuddered. "No, brothers. The gods weep, for our people love the Dark One."

"Then what can be done, Elder?"

"We must take the princess - she should be hidden away in our temple to the west, the fae wards there will shroud her, his evil cannot find her there."

A brother known for his quiet nature could not contain himself at hearing the elder's words. "You've gone mad, to abduct the princess is treason!"

The elder shook his head. "A small price to preserve her, staunch the damage her association with the creature has caused. She may already have whored herself by feasting on his seed, or worse, she may carry his heir."

The younger cleric paled at the vulgar accusation. "It cannot be-"

The man shook his head, gave a stroke to his dark robe. "Do not let your mind be clouded by your affection for the girl. She is no longer a child and has already been seen in the company of the Dark One before. He may favor her during the day and corrupt her at night. He may well have done so with all those fawning ladies who touched him at the feast. So like a lion the demon is, building a pride of dark brides to amuse him while he remains in the castle. But look there, the other women shy away while the demon favors our princess as the prize."

Indeed, with the elder's guiding narrative, the younger clerics began to fully realize the doom that had infected the crown of Avonlea.

Who was to say that it was not the dagger ruling their king from the first moment he'd touched his bare skin to the cursed hilt?

The Dark One may yet be extending his charms over all the ladies who'd approached him during the feast for pure carnal delight or for some other, infinitely horrific purpose the likes of which they all shuddered to imagine.

And their princess, a young woman they had all watched grow from a girl, she who had been a bright spot in so many lives during times of misery.

She, who was most beloved by all the clerics - some more deeply than others.

"Gods. What can we do?" The youngest begged.

"Only as we have always done, we must advise and guide the crown. Only now we must strive to guard it. To do that, we must operate in the shadows."

The quiet brother scowled at his elder's reasoning. "Like it. Like the Dark One."

"Stay your tongue! What we do we do for the good of all, you are only too young and blind to see it."

Admonished, he dropped his eyes in respect. "Forgive me. Forgive me, please. You can trust I will do what needs to be done."

"Good. Steel your heart, for I fear many unfortunate things will come to pass before light can make its triumph over the dark."