Callous Sisters

They were called the Odd Sisters by some, the Weird Sisters by others, some called them instead the Sisters Three. Their actual names – they could not recall whether they had been given them by others, or whether they had chosen the names for themselves; all that really mattered was that they had borne the names for so long that they were an integral part of who they were – were Ruby, Lucinda and Martha, but few were ever so unfortunate as to come to know them well enough to know that. To most, they remained simply 'the sisters', who made their way through history leaving ruin in their wake.

They lived in a house which could be anywhere in the world they wished it to be; if there was someone with whom they were having long-running dealings then they would simply wish their house to be in the general vicinity so that they could come and go as they pleased until their business was concluded. Currently it was secluded in the woods not too far from Prince Adam's castle, where it had stayed ever since their attempts to thwart the breaking of his curse had failed and their dear Circe had parted ways with them for good; they didn't dare move, you see, because what if she came back and couldn't find them?

The house seemed, from the outside, to be a humble cottage, such as might be dwelt in by a trio of old spinsters with no family and no reason to interact with the wider world around them.

Inside, it was as luxurious as a palace, with more rooms than the sisters knew what to do with, save for the fact that they had acquired a great many possessions over the course of their long lives which all had to be put somewhere. Nevertheless, in spite of this hoarding, there was enough space that they could afford to leave poor Circe's room empty, just in case she should change her mind and come back to them, and still have room left over for the other children, the ones who came and went, each lasting a few years until they had served out their usefulness, or became tiresome, or – in the rarest of cases – grew powerful enough that they could be sent away, to make their own path in the world, before they became dangerous to the sisters. Whatever their final fate, the house was always full of children. It had always been so, since Circe went away, but somehow, no matter how many children they stole or claimed or bargained for, none of them could ever be Circe. Yet they kept trying.

It was for one such child that the witch Ruby stalked the halls of her grand house in search of, her black dress trailing behind her, swirling occasionally as she turned rapidly to peer into empty rooms.

"Maria!" she cried. "Maria, where is that girl?"

She looked into one of the nurseries, but found no Maria there. Cora was there, the newest baby in the house, given to them by her parents in exchange for saving the life of the son they had preferred; now Cora was screaming and bawling in the arms of Adelaide, whom they had had since she was a babe, about ten…no, it was eleven years ago now. Adelaide held Cora in her arms, rocking her gently from side to side, cooing at her, pulling her face this way and that like she was some sort of monkey.

"Adelaide!" Ruby snapped. "What are you doing? I thought I told you to mop the kitchen floor."

Adelaide gasped, her brown eyes wide with fear as she looked up at Ruby standing in the doorway. "Yes, Mother Ruby, but Cora was crying and I thought-"

"Babies cry all the time, what of it?" Ruby demanded. Except Circe, of course. Circe had never cried. Circe had always been as good as gold. The thought of her wayward-sister daughter made her sad, and that sadness deepened the scowl on her face and heightened the scorn in her voice. "Put her back in the crib. She'll soon stop once she sees that she gets no attention from it. Put her down, girl, put her down!"

"Yes, Mother Ruby," Adelaide murmured reluctantly, as she lowered the infant Cora back into the crib. She glanced at Ruby. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disobey, I only thought-"

"Shhh," Ruby whispered, as she bore down upon the frightened child. She was a pretty little thing, with soft brown hair in a pretty ponytail. Where had they gotten her? It was so hard to remember sometimes. There had been so many children. She was…they had been given her by a Westphalian baron in payment for lifting a curse that a rival witch had placed on his family, yes, that was it. Ruby smiled indulgently. "Don't fuss, child, and don't shirk either. When you make a mistake you must take responsibility for it, and punishment if need be. But, in this case, I will be merciful. Run along now, and too your work. And don't let it happen again or I shan't be so merciful next time."

"Yes, Mother Ruby," Adelaide said.

"And have you seen your sister Maria?"

"No, Mother Ruby."

Ruby scowled. "Off you go then."

Adelaide nodded, and bolted from the room. She disappeared, but Ruby heard her run into something outside.

"I'm sorry, sister, I didn't-aagh!"

"Watch where you're going in future!" Esme snapped.

"Esme!" Ruby yelled.

Esme slunk into the doorway. Along with Maria she was one of the oldest girls in the house, seventeen; seventeen and magical too. She was not one of those they would dispose of as she grew up, no, not her. She was magical, and strongly magical, she was one of those they would send away, confident that they had raised a fine young witch.

Esme leaned against the doorway. "What is it, mother?"

"Have you seen your sister?"

Esme smirked. "The one who just left the room? Is your memory failing you, mother Ruby?"

Ruby scowled at her. Esme was a good girl, the best they had had in the house since Circe went away, but sometimes she let that tongue of hers run away with her. Ruby scowled, and Esme yelped in pain and started to clutch at her arm as it was wracked with pins and needles.

"Ah! I'm sorry, Mother Ruby, I didn't mean to insult you! It was just a joke, really, ah! I'm sorry, I really am, now please stop it."

Ruby waved one hand nonchalantly, and the pain stopped. Esme gasped, rubbing her had up and down the green sleeve of her dress.

"You know that I don't want to hurt you, child," Ruby said. "So don't make me do it."

Esme shook her head. "I try not to. I won't do it again. I'll do better in future."

"It was your sister Maria whom I meant, have you seen her?"

Esme's green eyes flashed angrily. "I think I saw her in the trophy room."

Ruby pursed her lips together. She glared down at Esme. "Have you no work to do?"

Esme's face turned almost as red as her hair. "Mother Lucinda set me some potions to brew."

"Then return to it then!" Ruby snapped, before pushing past Esme and stalking off in the direction of the trophy room.

The sisters three had many possessions, but the dearest of all of them were those that they had taken from those who had been so bold and foolish as to deny the odd sisters their due. From all of those they took, well, they took their lives in most cases because they had reputations to maintain, after all, but they also took something else from them; something precious to them, in token of the victory, to remind them of all of those who had sought to defy them and their fates.

All of these most precious gifts were held in a special room, a private room, a room in which Maria had no business and yet there she was, standing in the middle of the room surrounded by the treasures of her mothers: lockets, mirrors, rings, old gowns, necklaces. One of Ruby's favourites was a pearl necklace that had once belonged to a Spanish queen who had bargained with the sisters to enhance her beauty; beauty she had received, fantastic beauty, but afterwards she had balked at paying the price she had agreed with the three witches.

So they had strangled her with her own pearls, and afterwards they had taken the necklace for themselves as a token of the triumph.

And now those pearls were in Maria's hands, as she looked down upon them.

"What are you doing in here?" Ruby demanded.

Maria jumped. She was a lovely girl, golden haired and blue eyed just like their Circe; she had been with them for seventeen years, given to them as a baby by the Emperor in exchange for sparing his other daughters from the illness that had threatened them all (they had left him a changeling in exchange, because they were not wholly without compassion). She looked just like their Circe, and for a while she had been their favourite, but she had grown up to be spoilt and wilful and disobedient. And soon she would be too old for her childish transgressions to be any more ignored.

Ruby stalked into the room. "I asked you a question, dear. What are you doing in here?"

"I-I was only looking, Mother Ruby. I just…I just wanted to look at them."

"Just wanted to look?" Ruby repeated. "And what did you want to look at?"

Maria glanced around the room. "I suppose…I was just…all these things, they came from somewhere, didn't they? You didn't make them all, you were given them by other people."

"We were," Ruby allowed, with a nod of her head.

"So the world, and the people who live in it, that must mean they can't be all bad, doesn't it?" Maria asked. "How can a world that makes so many wonderful things be bad? And why do we have to hide from that world in here?"

"And how would you know anything about the world?" Ruby asked. "All your life you have lived here, all your life we have raised you, fed you, cared for you, taught you. But now, oh, ungrateful child, you want to leave all that behind."

"No!" Mariad exclaimed. "Mother Ruby, you know I'm not ungrateful."

"You want to turn you back upon us all!"

"It's not like that!"

Ruby swooned theatrically, and groaned melodramatically for added effect. "We will be abandoned-"

"No, you won't," Maria said. "I-I'm sorry, Mother Ruby. I didn't mean it like that. I just…I don't see how the world can so cruel that we have to live so completely apart from it."

"That is because you do not know the world," Ruby said. "It is a dark place, full of wickedness, where a girl like you would be devoured. That is why you must stay here, under our protection and our guidance, until we tell you that you are ready." She smiled fondly. "Now get out of here girl, and dream no more of things you do not understand. Trust your mothers, and leave all things to us."

Maria nodded. "I will, Mother Ruby. I'm sorry."

"Off you go," Ruby said, ushering Maria out of the room. "Go and help Esme with her potions."

"Yes, Mother Ruby."

As Maria walked away the sisters' cat, Pflanze, slunk into view. He was a black cat with a white belly and mismatched eyes, one green and one black. He yawned, and scratched the carpet as he stretched out in front of Ruby.

Lucinda and Martha are waiting for you in the study. They have some news to share.

Ruby hastened to the study, to the most private sanctum of the sisters were the children were kept out by strong and ancient spells. It was not the most comfortable room in the house, since they hadn't redecorated it since the twelfth century and it very definitely showed, but since they used it more for private conversations than for comfortable relaxation that didn't matter too much. The room was dark, with a large cauldron permanently bubbling away in the centre of it: their scrying cauldron, their window on the world; they had possessed a magic mirror that accomplished the same thing but they had foolishly allowed Circe to give it away. At the time they had thought it a fine jest to give the cursed Prince Adam a way to look out upon the world he could no longer be a part of, but now the curse was broken and he still had their mirror, the thief! If they had not had this cauldron as well they would have been blinded.

Lucinda and Martha were already in the study, standing around the cauldron, giggling to one another as they looked into it.

Ruby slammed the door behind her. "What news, my sisters? What do you wish to tell me?"

"Wonderful news, sister!" Lucinda cried.

"Most excellent news!" Martha agreed.

"At long last, a princess of Armorique has given birth to a girl!" Lucinda announced.

Ruby's eyebrows rose. That was excellent news, or could be at least. "Their father is in the direct royal line."

"He is, the crown prince himself!" Martha shrieked.

Ruby smiled as she walked towards the cauldron. "Then the bargain is at long last fulfilled."

"Twice over!" Lucinda cried. "Come, sister, come and see."

Ruby leaned over the cauldron – Lucinda and Martha did likewise – to see that they had already scryed the young princesses of Armorique in the surface of the water. In the cauldron's surface, the three sisters could see a beautiful young woman, all dressed in white, cradling a squalling infant in her arms.

"Oh, don't cry, Annabelle," the young woman whispered, rocking the baby from side to side. "Mother's here. I've got you."

The woman seemed ignorant of the fact that babies only cried for attention, or at least she seemed to determined to reward such bad behaviour as she cooed over the fussing babe until, at last, the baby grew tired enough to stop crying on her own.

"There, there," the woman whispered to her daughter. "There's no need to be upset. We're here, and you're safe, and nothing is ever going to happen to you."

The three sisters sniggered as the woman on whom they spied was joined by a man, holding another baby.

"Twins?" Ruby asked.

"Yes!" Martha said jubilantly. "Twin girls for us to take."

"If you keep this up," the man said. "Isabelle is going to get jealous of her sister."

The woman looked briefly saddened by this. "I just wish I knew why Annabelle seems so much more sensitive than Isabelle. She cries so much more often."

"It's just how some children are, I think," the man said. "I'm not sure that it means anything. The doctors say there's nothing wrong with her."

"I know, I just…" the woman looked from one child to the other. "I didn't think that I could love anyone more than I love you, but now…"

The man, still holding the other children cradled in one arm, put his other arm around the woman's waist and drew her close. "I didn't believe that I could love anyone as much as you, but now…my heart has been divided into three, one third for each of the women in my life."

The woman smiled brightly up at him, before he bent down to kiss her.

"Bleurgh!" Lucinda groaned in disgust. "Stop, stop, show us something else!"

"Twin girls," Martha said. "They must honour the bargain that this prince's ancestor made with us. The terms were quite clear, the obligation passes on until it is fulfilled."

"Of course," Lucinda said. "And if they think to deny us, we shall teach them the same lesson we have taught all those who have sought to cheat and swindle us."

"If they give up the girls without a fuss they met yet live to have more children," Martha said. "Otherwise…"

They both looked at Ruby with eager anticipation in their eyes. "What say you, sister?" asked Lucinda.

"Should we not got straightway to Armorique?" asked Martha.

Ruby pursed her exceedingly small mouth. "I am not so certain," she said. "We still must make a final reckoning with Prince Adam and the Beauty, who have long mocked us with their happiness.

Lucinda and Martha shrieked in pain at the mere mention of the name of Prince Adam and the reminder of is wife and marital bliss.

"Slighted our Circe, our sister-daughter!" Lucinda yelled.

"Drove her away from us!" Martha wailed.

"He was supposed to submit to his curse and despair!" Lucinda shouted.

"That wretched Beauty ruined everything!" Martha spat. "Enchanted him with her loveliness, fell in love with him, broke the curse, ruined everything!"

"Every day that they live together in bliss is a day that they spit upon us," Ruby declared. "We are nothing if we do not punish them for all the wrongs that they have done to us, and revenge every last transgression tenfold upon them."

"But sister," Lucinda whined. "Circe, before she left for…for good this time." She stopped to blow her nose. "She said we were not to interfere with Adam and his Beauty any longer. If we offend her…she might never return."

"Our sister-daughter," Martha sobbed.

Ruby rolled her excessively large eyes. "Circe seems unlikely to return in any case. But, if she does, if she can forgive us all else, then surely she will forgive us this as well. After all, she will have to understand that we had only her best interests at heart. But we cannot go to Armorique until we have settled our accounts here in the Franche-Comte at long last." It would be good to have two more children in the house; two more babies to be there when Maria and Esme were gone; but they had a reputation to uphold, and Prince Adam's defiance dragged that reputation further through the mud with every passing day.

Ruby waved one hand over the scrying cauldron, dismissing the scene of the prince and princess of Armorique in their parental bliss. "Show us Prince Adam and his wife."


"I'm so glad to hear that you've come to this decision," Queen Maria Theresa said as she smiled genially. She and her sisters stood in the antechamber, just before the great doors leading out of the castle. Outside, her servants were loading the last of their belongings onto the coaches which would carry the royal party away from here.

Not too far away, standing just beyond the doors, stood two people that Belle had not been introduced too over the course of the visit here. Not that that was too surprising – there were a lot of people who though that they were too good to be introduced to Belle – but these two didn't have the look of grand aristocrats or haughty nobles. One of them was a man, dressed in the slightly ragged-looking white coat of a fusilier captain, with a top hat perched incongruously on his head, overshadowing his eyes and parts of his face. What Belle could see of his face was covered by an unkempt beard, while most of the other officers that the Queen and the Archduchesses had brought with them were either clean-shaven or possessed well-groomed moustaches.

The other figure was a woman, swathed in a common cloak of dark brown wool, with the hood up so that her face was hidden, although Belle could see a touch of red hair peaking out from underneath the hood.

They were not the kind of people that Belle would have expected to see standing so close to the royal party, to say the least.

"Yes, indeed, you are to be congratulated," Theresa said. "For making not only the wise choice, but also the right choice as loyal subjects of His Imperial Majesty."

"I hope that our good service will not be forgotten," Adam replied.

Theresa chuckled. "Of course not, Prince Adam," she stepped closer towards him, and her voice dropped. "But it isn't courteous to say such things out loud."

She snapped her fan open, and fanned herself with it although it was hardly warm. "And now we must take our leave of you. Farewell and good fortune, Prince Adam; correspondence to Vienna will find me once your mission is completed." Theresa's eyes found Belle for a moment, and the two of them looked at one another. Belle half-expected Maria Theresa to say something to her, but she did not. Of course she didn't. What would a queen, a regent, the daughter of so many Caesars, have to say to the likes of her?

As Maria Theresa turned away without a word, Maria Carolina walked up to Adam. At least she didn't push Belle away this time, but she still ignored her presence as she reached up and put her hands on Adam's shoulders, pressing herself against him. "I'm going to miss you so much, Adam. Are you going to miss me?"

Adam shuffled uncomfortably. "Your presence in my life has made such an impression on me that I don't see how I could fail to notice your absence."

Belle was able to restrain herself from laughter, even as she was quite impressed by the way in which Adam was able to put her down. Judging by the irritated way in which she snapped her fan and glared at him, Maria Theresa had noticed the tacit insult.

Judging by the gleeful smile on her face, Carolina had not. "Really? I'm so glad to hear it! I knew you felt that way, I knew it! I'm going to make sure Theresa brings me to Armorique for this congress-"

"If it takes place," Theresa said sharply.

Carolina ignored her. "Because although I'm sure it will be incredibly boring, you'll get the chance to see so much more me. Isn't that wonderful? What am I saying, of course it is." She stepped back. "Now, give me a goodbye kiss."

"Caroline!" Theresa snapped.

Caroline huffed. "I suppose it will have to wait. Until then, Adam."

She, too, turned away, leaving only Maria Sophia standing in the doorway, staring at Adam with an appraising eye.

"I have to say, Prince Adam, that you were a little disappointing," she said.

"I am glad to say that you were exactly as I expected, Archduchess."

"I think you must have been much more impressive as a monster."

Adam's jaw tightened. "To some maybe, but for myself I am exceedingly glad to find myself a man." He bowed. "I wish your majesty and your graces a pleasant journey home."

"Pleasant? Unlikely, the best we can hope for is that it shall be swift," Theresa declared. She looked back at them. "Oh, one more thing. I have decided to send these two with you to Armorique; although they are humble fellows they possess my trust, and as such they will act as the guarantors of the Empire's interests there."

Adam inhaled through his nose. "You doubt my loyalty, your majesty?"

"I doubt men I know far better than you, Prince Adam, don't take it personally," Theresa said. "This is Captain Avenant, although he is a soldier in my father's army I believe that he originally comes from this part of the world, isn't that right, Avenant."

Avenant bowed his head. "Indeed, your majesty, I was born in the very village yonder." His voice was gruff, but not completely devoid of the local accent. "Although I have never met his highness or the madame," he looked up at them both, fixing Belle with an intent gaze of his blue green eyes. "I believe that you were both acquainted with my brother, Gaston."

Belle's eyes widened. She found herself taking an involuntary step backwards, and tightening her grip on Adam's arm as she did so. No, it couldn't be. He had a brother? She couldn't imagine the man she'd known as being capable of sharing anything, not even a mother and father, with anybody else. A brother? Gaston's brother, here? With them? Surely this wasn't happening.

Adam bared his teeth, unfortunately it wasn't as intimidating as it had been when he had fangs. "Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this? This man-"

"Is not his brother, whoever that might be," Theresa declared mercilessly. "If his presences makes your back itch, well then, perhaps that will focus your attention on not doing anything contrary to our interests."

"What is that you expect I'm going to do?" Adam demanded. "What have I done to make you believe this is necessary?"

"As I told you," Theresa said, in leaden tones that made clear her dislike for being questioned. "There is nothing personal that has warranted my distrust. I simply do not trust too widely. In any case, in addition to Captain Avenant, this is Amelie, one of my huntresses."

Amelie threw back her hood, revealing red hair cut short around the shoulders, and mismatched eyes of blue and green set in a fair but freckled face. She smiled, but in the present circumstances Belle could not help but see it as a mocking smile.

Avenant did not smile. And he kept on staring at her.

"Obviously, humble as they are, they will not undertake any diplomacy," Theresa said. "But they have eyes and ears, and they will know if you…do anything that you shouldn't. Goodbye, Prince Adam. And good luck." She turned away, and walked to her carriage with her sisters.

Leaving Adam and Belle alone with the brother of their enemy.


Lucinda cackled triumphantly. "This is perfect! We can go to Armorique, take the children and have our revenge all at the same time!"

Ruby smirked. "Indeed. It is fortunate that we shall be able to kill two birds with one stone. Adam and Belle shall pay the price for their defiance of our will, and the prince of Armorique will give up his daughters to us and fulfil the ancient bargain that his ancestor made. It will all come together perfectly."

"What if Circe tries to interfere?" Martha asked.

"She is our daughter not our master," Ruby said. "Much though we love her, we cannot allow her to dictate to us what we may or may not do, and to whom we may or may not do it, not when we are so much older than she, and wiser in the ways of this wicked world. It is high time Circe learned that mother knows best. Sisters, shall we go to Armorique?"

"Yes! We shall!"

Vengeance would be there's, and Adelaide would soon have two more little sisters, two more precious children in the house, for a little while at least.

After all, the agreement had been made many centuries ago. How could the prince and princess possibly refuse?


Author's Note: If any of the stuff with the Three Sisters is confusing to people who haven't read The Beast Within and you urgently want it explained, let me know and I'll put it in a note next chapter. If you're happy to wait and let it be revealed more gradually in the story then I will do that instead.

The only thing I'll say now is that the thing with all the children is my own invention; I very early on decided that the sisters were going to want to steal Cinderella's babies because it was a conflict where I was confident that the witches would feel very in the right but absolutely no one reading the story would agree with them. However, I didn't at first know why they wanted children, until I decided that they are trying to replace in some way the daughter who ran away from them. It's not something that exists in Serena Valentino's books but as a reason for the conflict of the story I think it works.

Apparently, at one stage Disney was going to do a direct-to-DVD sequel to Beauty and the Beast in which Gaston's brother Avenant sought revenge. A lot of that plot got used in the Little Mermaid sequel instead, but that's where the idea and the name of the character came from.