The Fae King

It began with a girl. Black-haired and sweet and gone too soon.

It is the way of mortals to die, of course. Most pass within a few decades, unless they can be tempted away to fairyland and persuaded to stay there. Even then, mortals live only as long as they can go without visits to friends or family that allow time and the weight of years to catch up to them.

But Death had come quickly for this girl in particular, her life passing in what was, to her Fae King love, the blink of an eye. He had waited to approach her, his soulmate, until she had grown out of childhood and could be met as a woman. Now she was dead, and he was left behind, to mourn and wait for her reincarnation.

Perhaps it begins later, with another girl, similar in face and form and personality to the first girl, who she had never known. But this girl already loved another.

The King found her on her wedding day, at the start of the feast that symbolized the beginning of their joint life together. The girl was the only one who did not freeze at the sight of him, tearing a mouthful of bread off the nearest loaf and washing it down with a gulp of wine from the cup she and her new husband would share. Her husband quickly followed her example as she declared that by the Fae King's own laws, older even than him, she was bound to another, and out of his reach.

Or perhaps it begins earlier, with a prophecy that describes the woman that the Fae King will one day, in exceptional detail. But it is in the nature of prophecies to be vague, and while the King's love is described, the prophecy fails to specify when the King will wed her, or how he might win her heart and hand, as well as her body.

The first time, the Fae King delayed too long, and lost the one who was meant to be his before she even knew his love was a possibility.

Then he acted too hastily, and while she might not have loved her husband, might have had reservations about the union, she did not hesitate to choose the man she knew over a powerful and mysterious stranger with unknown intentions.

Over the years, over centuries, the pattern repeated. The soul that was meant to be his other half would be born into a black-haired child with a familiar face, and the Fae King would wait for her to grow old enough for him to approach her. Each time, he would be refused. Sometimes her bonds to the mortal world, to family or friends or the familiar, were too strong for her to venture Underhill. Once or twice, she agreed to accompany him, but could not pass the trials to find the way. Sometimes, Death stole her like he had the first. Thrice, she ventured Underhill with him, but could not stay, and the passage of time Aboveground caught up with her.

It is the cost of Immortality, to watch mortals age and die. But unlike his Subjects, the Fae King had no steady presence to console him in the loss of those mortals he cared for. His parents had been killed in the war with another Fae Kingdom, leaving him as ruler younger than he should have been. His extended family were busy with their own realms, far away and out of easy distance, even for Fae.

So the King remained alone, hoping and watching and doomed to disappointment. Waiting for a day that he had begun to doubt would ever come.

Until one day, with nothing remarkable to distinguish it from any other day, a familiar girl burst into his life, challenging him as no one had dared in a very long time.

For the first time in longer than he cared to count, the Fae King ventured to hope.

I started this for the What the Myth Left Out Challenge, as a kind of “how legends and myths form” vaguely inspired by the Red Book from the Labyrinth movie, but didn’t finish it in time.

Feedback is appreciated, especially if you’re interested in what happened next.