Author's note: FFVIII is obviously not mine. The story is very, very, very slightly inspired by "Sleeping Beauty", but only for the curse. Everything else is mine. Written for WiBi.
April, 28th, 2023: so I decided to return to this story. I am sorry for this long hiatus, I truly hope the new chapter is good enough to make up for it. With every new chapter I will also edit the previous ones, so with chapter 4 you can find a slightly edited - and hopefully improved - version of the prologue.
Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading.
THE WINTER ROSE
Prologue
Once upon a time, there was a little baby girl.
Her parents, King Fury Caraway and his Queen Julia, had a hard time having her. They tried and tried for years to have a child, but nothing seemed to work. One day, the King decided to ask for help from every magician and sorceress in his Kingdom: and many answered his plea.
Eight months later, a little girl cried for the first time in the royal palace's halls. The King was so happy to finally have a child that he decided to throw a lavish celebratory ball in her honor. His wife chose to name her Rinoa, like her own late mother, and people started to move to his new castle. He had started building it when he and Julia got married; and now it was summer in Centra, and the King wanted to celebrate his daughter's birth with the sun and the light and the warmth, because she was all those things to him.
Many invites were sent out, then. The King wanted every magician and sorceress who helped his wife during their time of distress, and Sorceress Edea was his honored guest. He was sure she was the one who finally found a solution, but he still wanted to celebrate everyone's help, like stating that his daughter's birth happened thanks to everyone's efforts. Their journey toward Centra started as happy as it could be for new parents, and they reached their new castle, near the sea and a flower field, with joyous smiles and content souls.
The night of the party, a fragrant, tepid mid-sommer night, thousands of candles were littered in the garden, the scent of flowers mixed with the scent of the ocean, carried on a light, pleasing breeze, and the baby was sleeping peacefully in her crib. The parents were receiving congratulations from many friends and royal families, and everything looked perfectly fine. The magicians and sorceresses decided to bestow that baby, so wanted and desired and loved, with every gift they could give, and they approached the crib one by one, giving beauty, wisdom, happiness, playfulness, and many other qualities to the little baby, who continued to sleep without knowing what was happening around her.
Edea approached the crib to bestow her own gift - she had thought of giving magic, not very much, just enough to help the baby keep her childhood forever - but just as she leaned on the crib to whisper her enchantment, the sky began to glow a dark unnatural hue, and an icy wind started chilling the guests. The baby slept, seemingly unaware of that sudden change, which seemed strange to Edea, but she didn't have the time to ponder on her intuition, because almost immediately she heard the sound of wings moving, and when she turned Sorceress Ultimecia, the Mistress of Time and Space, had landed in the castle's garden. Everyone fell silent, and the parents seemed horrified.
Ultimecia folded her wings and looked around with an almost cruel smile. "I see you're celebrating here," she started.
The King swallowed hard and then tried to answer. "Yes, we are, my Lady Sorceress."
"You know," said the Sorceress, walking slowly towards the King, and Queen Julia fought against the natural instinct to run to her daughter and keep her safe. She didn't want to anger this Sorceress more than they had evidently already done: that smile, those eyes, that aura of cruelty surrounding the woman, everything about Ultimecia spoke of anger and viciousness. "I thought you would invite me, too. I am one of the most powerful Sorceresses in your kingdom, maybe of the entire world. But I didn't receive anything and this is strange, because I am sure I did my best to help your wife conceive this cute little baby."
She was talking with a nauseating sweetness, dripping with venom.
"I'm sure this is some kind of mistake," said the King, trying not to tremble and recoil in horror under those vicious yellow eyes. "We wanted to thank everyone, and I'm sure your invitation must have got lost somewhere. Please, accept my apologies. I would be honored if you would be my guest."
Ultimecia seemed to think about it, but then she simply shook her head in a way that could almost be interpreted as cheerful. "No, I don't think I will, my King," she growled, spitting those last two words. "I think I'll bestow a gift on this cute little baby, so she'll always remember me."
"Please don't," begged the King, eyes wide and stomach falling, as his wife widened her eyes too, gripping her throat and touching her lips with trembling fingers. It couldn't be. Not her baby! Not her precious Rinoa! "It's not her fault," continued the King, because he knew very well the kind of gift Ultimecia used to bestow on children. "Please, she is only a few months old. You can't possibly punish her for our faults. Please, punish me instead."
"Oh, but I am punishing you," said Ultimecia, and her smile grew wider with cruelty and amusement. "Let me think. I want this gift to be special."
She approached the baby's crib and Queen Julia shot forward to keep her daughter safe, but Ultimecia simply raised her arm and stopped her cold on her feet. The Queen tried to move her legs, but they seemed glued to the ground; she could only watch her husband suffer the same fate when he tried to get to his daughter too. Everyone else didn't move; they didn't want to make the Sorceress even more vindictive.
Ultimecia looked at the baby, who was still sleeping peacefully. She raised her arms and started channeling a green sickening energy in her hands, as the baby's parents watched, powerless, and then released it through her elongated talons on the crib. The baby moved, but didn't wake up.
"I am the Mistress of Time and Space," said the Sorceress, and the green energy started moving like a vortex above the baby's crib. Dividing into several darts of cruelty, it crept slowly through the baby's skin with every word the Sorceress spat. "I command your Time to be mine. You will find your true love and marry him before your eighteenth birthday, if you want to live. Until then, you will live in an eternal winter and will not be able to leave this castle. I command your Space to be so limited you will feel suffocated. At the end of your time, you'll be mine."
She moved her hands and then snapped her fingers, and the air grew so cold it started snowing, and by the time she started talking again, it seemed summer had never touched that castle. Snow everywhere, dead trees, dead flowers. The candles were still glowering, but that light seemed sick, almost dying; the King closed his eyes, because he had wanted a summer celebration for his precious, adored little daughter who was like sun and light and warmth, and now she was cursed to live in eternal cold and grey light and snow. And it was his fault.
Ultimecia looked at the baby until every single dart of her curse's energy entered the girl's skin. Then she turned, pleased with herself, and snapped her fingers to free the King and Queen. "Congratulations, Your Majesties," she said.
And then, with that sick joke as her last words, she spread her wings and flew away.
Queen Julia ran to hug her daughter, crying. The King turned to Edea, looking at her with desperate eyes that asked for her help, when words failed him. Edea sighed and approached the crib, touching lightly the baby's cheek.
"You baby is infused with magic, now," she said. "I wanted to bestow her my magic as a gift, and now I want to do it more than ever. She will need my magic to battle the sick one Ultimecia has infused with her curse and her hate. Please, allow me to do it."
The Queen nodded, and Edea moved her hand on the baby, in a precise and ancient pattern. "I am the Mistress of Nature and Healing. You will be able to cure," she chanted. "You will be able to command elements and discover their beauty. You will be able to see what's right, and refuse what's evil and cruel."
Edea lowered her hand. "I can't do anything about the curse," she said at last, "but I can do something to make her life here a little more bearable." She turned and opened her arms, almost as if she wanted to embrace the entire garden. She chanted again under her breath, and every tree that died under Ultimecia's sickening magic blossomed again. Evergreens shot out of the ground around the castle's perimeter, and then Edea dedicated all her energy to create a bush of blue roses. "This will be your time, child," she said, exhausted, her energy completely spent. "Guard those roses as you guard your life and love."
There was a long silence, and everyone started leaving the party with a heavy heart. Edea, the parents, and the baby were the only ones left when the King asked in a voice that didn't seem his own at all, "Can't you really do anything about the curse, Lady Edea?"
Edea shook her head, and another long silence followed her words. But at last, she raised her head, her eyes wide with stupor and excitement clear in her voice when she spoke.
"I can't do anything about the curse," she said, touching the King's arm. "But I think I have an idea for the marriage that will break it."