![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Summary: SoRiKai retelling of Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.
Once a year, on the longest day, when the sun was highest in the sky, the Seeker of Darkness knew he could ask a single question of a mirrored pool in the forest. The oracle that lived in the water would answer him with perfect truthfulness.
Every summer solstice he traveled alone to the forest, through the golden trees, to the hidden oracle, to ask his single question. And every year, he asked the same: Dear oracle, powers lowest and high, who is the one who will cause me to die?
For all the power in the world, or in all the worlds under the sky, would be worthless in death.
When the oracle reveals that Riku is fated to kill the Seeker of Darkness, Riku fakes his death and escapes across the sea. But the oracle can still see him there, and the Seeker will not allow him to escape.
This fic was written for the SoRiKai discord's Fairy Tale event. I was writing to fill the prompts "Curse," "Exile," and "Royalty." The "curse" is a bit abstract, maybe, but I think it fits.
The story is a retelling of the Scottish fairy tale "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree." This tale is a variation on Snow White, and involves a lot of recognizable elements from the more well-known Snow White versions. My favorite part of this specific variation is that it actually has what's darn close to a canon poly happy-ever-after ending!
Because I wanted this to be a one-shot and fit all the elements of the tale in, it's written in a "fairy tale style" or as much as I could. So it's 3rd person omniscient, which isn't a perspective I'm used to writing! I hope it "sounds" like a fairy tale being told. Though maybe someday I'll write a more fleshed-out version that sticks to a closer character perspective.
If you want to read the original tale for comparison, here's a link to it!
Once it was, in the kingdom across the sea, that a sorcerer lived. This particular sorcerer styled himself a “Seeker of Darkness,” believing that the greatest truths of the world could be found in the hidden dark of people’s hearts. In reality, the thing he sought most ardently was power.
He’d already accumulated a great deal of it, enough that those with talents for magic were drawn to him in the hopes that they could learn even a fraction of what he knew. Then as now, those with power are frequently reluctant to share it, and the Seeker of Darkness was no exception. However, he discovered that he was able to gain more from taking the research done by his apprentices than he ever lost in their training.
The Seeker had a favorite apprentice, a young man named Riku. Many who saw them believed the apprentice to be the Seeker of Darkness’ son, for they were alike enough in appearance: long hair, silver as moonlight, and a more than slightly fae look to them. In truth they were of no blood relation, though neither discouraged the assumption.
The Seeker of Darkness recognized within Riku an uncommon talent for magic, for finding the edges between darkness and light, and he was eager to nurture Riku’s potential to better serve the Seeker’s own ambitions.
Over years he did so, teaching Riku just enough to ensure the apprentice hungered for more knowledge, but would never surpass his teacher.
Despite the years apprenticed to the Seeker, Riku remained a kind man. He could indeed see the edges between light and darkness, but neither chose to forsake the darkness nor surrender to it. He found value in balance, far more than he wanted to follow the Seeker of Darkness’ obsession.
Even so, he knew there was no one else with a hope of teaching him more, so he stayed without complaint.
There was one form of power that even the Seeker of Darkness admitted was beyond his own capacity for control: that of prophecy. The darkness of the heart could reveal many things, but not the future. Not yet. And until he’d tamed this secret for his own, he was beholden to that which could tell him what was to come.
Once a year, on the longest day, when the sun was highest in the sky, the Seeker knew he could ask a single question of a mirrored pool in the forest. The oracle that lived in the water would answer him with perfect truthfulness.
Every summer solstice he traveled alone to the forest, through the golden trees, to the hidden oracle, to ask his single question. And every year, he asked the same: Dear oracle, powers lowest and high, who is the one who will cause me to die?
For all the power in the world, or in all the worlds under the sky, would be worthless in death.
The first time, the oracle had told him the name of a man. Returning home, the Seeker discovered that man held the Seeker responsible for the destruction of his village, and had been concocting a plan of revenge. The Seeker had the man killed, and his heart cut out. Consuming it had been gratifying, revealing much about darkness and power.
The following year, and every year since, the oracle had given the same answer: Your power has moved you beyond fear of mortality. None have the ability to strike you down.
And the Seeker of Darkness knew he would live forever.
On the solstice, he traveled alone to the forest, and stepped through the rings of golden trees, until he came to the silver-mirrored pool. It reflected the perfect gold circle of the sun above. When the sun reached its zenith, the Seeker asked his question:
“Dear oracle, powers lowest and high, who is the one who will cause me to die?”
He awaited the oracle’s answer, already sure he would hear the same that he had heard for years upon years.
Instead: “Your favorite apprentice, Riku, will be the one to cause your death.”
The Seeker of Darkness dearly wished to know how his apprentice hoped to accomplish it, but the answer did not matter. He knew how to deal with those who threatened him.
When the Seeker returned from his journey to the oracle, the change in his mood was evident. He retreated to his bedchamber, sending Riku away when the apprentice came to look in on him.
When another apprentice, one who’d shown less promise than Riku, but could become a new candidate for favorite, came to him, he finally spoke.
“I have uncovered a plot,” he lied to his other apprentice. “A plot against my life. Riku, the apprentice I have treated nearly as my own son, conspires to kill me. Even now, he may be draining my strength away.”
“What can be done to save you?” the other apprentice asked.
“The only thing that will keep me safe will be to treat him as any other enemy. Take him to the woods and kill him. Cut out his heart and bring it to me. By eating it, I will surely regain that which he has stolen from me.”
The Seeker of Darkness had long bound his apprentices to him through promises of knowledge and fear of his power. As such, they did as he told them, and he never had cause to worry about their loyalty.
And they were loyal. But sometimes loyalty purchased with the coin of fear can be fragile.
The second apprentice remembered a time years before, when he was a child, his own village destroyed as collateral in the Seeker’s quest for power. He remembered other survivors, men and women he’d known all his short life, being put to death so that none could ever choose to seek revenge.
The second apprentice also knew of an ambassador visiting the country. Her name was Kairi, a princess from the kingdom across the sea. She was not a friend of the Seeker of Darkness. She had been willing to meet him, but the Seeker had turned her away when she attempted to. The second apprentice had met and spoken to her outside of the fortress, even knowing the Seeker wouldn’t have approved.
Her visit was drawing to a close, and she would be returning to her home. And if someone had to hide, to escape from someone who wanted him dead, across the sea was a good place to go.
With Kairi’s agreement, the second apprentice made his plans.
The Seeker of Darkness did not suspect anything when the second apprentice took Riku with him into the forest beyond the fortress. He believed the second apprentice would do as he had been told, and that soon Riku would no longer present any threat to him.
But in the closed-in forest, the second apprentice revealed what he’d been bid to do. “The princess Kairi is returning to her country across the sea. If you go now, the Seeker will not know you’ve been spared. I’ll bring him the heart of a goat and tell him it is yours.”
Riku could find no lie in the second apprentice’s words, and he knew he had to go. Life in exile was still a life.
Riku expected a princess to be a soft, spoiled thing. That she was referred to as ‘ambassador’ seemed to him like a vanity title, the kind of thing granted to make a decorative fifth-daughter feel important.
And it was true enough that Kairi was far removed from concerns of inheritance and succession. She had a comfortably long list of older siblings, siblings-in-law, nieces and nephews between her and any threat of the throne.
Becoming ambassador was a way for her to have an important role, yes, but it was certainly not vanity or indulgence that had granted her the title. It was genuine aptitude and knowledge that gave her the role.
And on their journey back across the sea to her home country, Riku learned of the world beyond what the Seeker of Darkness had told him. He learned of the Seeker’s conquest, far bloodier and more self-interested than he’d ever realized. These had not been small skirmishes, accidental collateral, or actions taken in self-defense. The Seeker had engaged in calculated, deliberate destruction of anything he felt could slow down his accumulation of power. The villages and towns he claimed to have ‘rescued’ his apprentices from were razed behind him, leaving slaughter in his wake.
That the Seeker had turned against Riku, had plotted to have him killed, to steal his heart… it would not have been a shock, had Riku already known the truth about him.
In contrast, he heard Kairi speak warmly of her lands, the vast coastal estate that was her piece of the kingdom. He heard of the land’s beauty, the joy she found in keeping it and its people safe, both day-to-day and the broader scope of her ambassadorial duties.
When she described her home, the castle itself, the libraries she’d filled it with, the gardens stretching across the grounds, the forests and the villages beyond… it filled him with a longing he could not quite name.
“You speak so fondly of your home, I can already see it in my mind. I almost feel as if it were my home as well,” he told her, watching the waves from the deck of her ship.
Gently, she brushed his fingers with her own. “It could be, if you wanted it.”
Kairi was a fifth-daughter, not required to ensure succession of her family, or to secure continuity for the throne. There were no foreign monarch’s sons or daughters of appropriate age that could buy alliance through her hand in marriage.
“I would love for it to be,” he answered.
They were married upon the return to Kairi’s home.
Her estate was all she had told Riku of and more. The sea, the gardens, the forest, the people who lived and worked there… all existed in a kind of peace that Riku hadn’t ever known in the Seeker’s fortress.
And the libraries contained books on every subject he could imagine, more knowledge than the Seeker had ever shared with Riku. He thrived.
For nearly a year they lived in peace. Kairi’s duties as ambassador took her away at times, but she always returned. Riku loved his wife more every time she came back, and she loved him just as fiercely.
Back across the sea, the Seeker’s quest for power continued unhindered.
When the summer solstice drew near, the Seeker of Darkness again traveled to the certain glade in the certain forest, to ask the oracle his question. He pushed through the rings of golden trees, until he reached the silver pool.
As before, all the power in the world, or in all the worlds under the sky, would be worthless in death, so his question remained the same.
As soon as the sun reached its zenith, and reflected perfectly in the silver mirror of the water, he asked, “Dear oracle, powers lowest and high, who is the one who will cause me to die?”
Having rid himself of Riku, the memory of consuming his heart still fresh, he expected a return to the answer he’d been given for years upon years: Your power has moved you beyond fear of mortality. None have the ability to strike you down.
Instead: “Your once-apprentice, Riku, will be the one to cause your death.”
“He will not,” the Seeker replied. “He has been dead nearly a year, and I ate his heart.”
“He is not dead, but married to a princess across the sea.”
The Seeker of Darkness did not allow his rage to blind him, but instead he made a plan. He set off across the sea, determined to take care of his once-apprentice himself.
His powers gave his ship unnatural speed, allowing it to make the crossing far faster than an ordinary ship.
Kairi had been pulled away as ambassador to another nation, which meant Riku was alone in the castle on the coast. From the highest window, he saw the approach of the ship, and he recognized it for what it was.
The Seeker of Darkness has come to kill me.
There was little capable of stopping the Seeker, but Riku locked himself in the library, determined not to let the Seeker in. That did not mean it would be enough to save him, but it was all he could do. If he fled, the Seeker would pursue him through the estate, and Riku would not risk the innocent people there.
Far too soon, he heard the call from the entrance hall, “Riku? I know you’re here.”
Riku didn’t answer.
But the Seeker drew closer, until he was just outside the library door.
“Riku,” he said, voice deceptively gentle. “My favorite apprentice. You can’t imagine how relieved I was to discover you hadn’t been killed after all. Won’t you come out here, so I can look at you?”
The Seeker of Darkness had all but been Riku’s father, and part of him longed to believe the words. But still, he did not answer.
“How did you do it?” the Seeker asked. “How did you survive the loss of your heart? Or was it ever really yours? I suppose it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you did.”
“I will not open the door,” said Riku.
“All I want is to look upon the apprentice I considered a son. Let me see you.”
“No.”
“If you will not open the door, perhaps your lovely wife has a key. Do you think I could find her before she’s set to return? Or should I wait for her here? Do you think she would realize it was me, if she saw a flash of silver hair, and a knife in the dark?”
Riku knew that the locked door was no true barrier, but he could not ignore a threat against his wife.
He unlocked the door, and opened it just a crack. In the space between breaths, the Seeker reached through the door with a long needle, and thrust it into the side of Riku’s neck.
Riku fell, and knew no more.
When Kairi returned, she found Riku on the floor of the library, as still as death. There was no pulse to be found, no breath fogged a mirror. And even so, she could not bear to bury him, for she could not believe he was truly dead. Instead she placed him in a bed in the highest room in the castle, where she could look upon him and speak to him.
But she grieved.
Knowing how deep her sorrow ran, her oldest friend, a man named Sora, came to stay with her. They had always loved each other, as dearly as two people could.
To soothe her loneliness, Sora asked to marry her, and she agreed.
It did not erase the pain in her heart at losing Riku, but it gave her the strength she needed to continue on.
She still visited Riku, in his death-like sleep in the highest bedroom of the house. He was as beautiful as he had ever been, despite the months that passed, but he never stirred with so much as a breath.
As the seasons crept onward, she began to venture out as ambassador again, though she was afraid of leaving Sora behind, afraid of coming back to find him the way she had found Riku. But she had to start making short journeys, to neighboring lands at least.
When she was on one of these trips, Sora explored the castle.
He’d known of every room, except for one. He’d never been in the highest room of the castle. Though his wife had not forbidden him from going to it, she did keep it locked. He had not missed that she went alone to the room, and came out of it both lighter and indescribably sadder.
So when she ventured away, he found an opportunity to explore it. The door was locked, but Sora had a key to every room, and as this one was not truly forbidden, he had a copy of its key, too.
When he entered, he saw the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his life. His silver hair fanned across the pillow, striking even against his pale skin.
Sora rushed to him and grasped the sleeping man’s shoulder, intending to wake him. His skin was cool, though not quite so cold as the grave, but he did not open his eyes.
Sora ran his fingers through the beautiful man’s hair. He frowned as his fingers found something strange along the side of the man’s neck. Something colder than the man’s skin, and hard.
Grasping it between his fingers, Sora pulled at the object.
As the needle slid from Riku’s neck, he took in a gasping breath.
When Kairi returned from her short journey, Sora was waiting for her. She gathered him close, holding him tight in her relief that he was safe.
When she drew back, her smile still held the sadness that it had held for nearly a year, since Riku had died.
“I wonder what would make you happy?” Sora asked, brushing his hand across her cheek.
“It is hard to feel joy when someone I love is gone. I love you dearly, but miss Riku and wish he were here.”
“I have a surprise for you,” Sora said, and led her by the hand to the library.
When Riku rose from the chair to greet her, Kairi cried out in joy and embraced him. As he swept her into his arms and kissed her, Sora looked on.
When the other two had parted, he smiled, but with a shade of sorrow to it, as Kairi’s smiles had been for nearly a year. “I am glad the two of you are together again.”
“The three of us,” said Kairi. “I won’t lose either of you.”
The sorrow vanished from Sora, and all three embraced.
As summer drew toward its solstice once again, the Seeker of Darkness again traveled to the oracle in the certain glade of the certain forest, in order to ask his question. The silver pool waited within the golden trees, as he walked toward the water.
All the power in the world, or in all the worlds under the sky, would be worthless in death. His question remained the same.
At its height, the sun reflected perfectly in the silver water, and he asked the oracle: “Dear oracle, powers lowest and high, who is the one who will cause me to die?”
The Seeker felt sure, having watched Riku collapse in death on the floor of Kairi’s castle, that he had nothing more to fear. Riku would be long buried and gone. So he expected the answer he’d been given for years upon years: Your power has moved you beyond fear of mortality. None have the ability to strike you down.
Instead, the oracle’s voice said: “Your once-apprentice, Riku, will be the one to cause your death.”
“He will not,” the Seeker replied. “He has been dead nearly a year. I created a deadly poison, and drove a poisoned needle into his flesh myself.”
“He is not dead, but married to a princess and another across the sea.”
Again, the Seeker of Darkness set off across the sea. Perhaps the poison had simply not been a strong enough dose, he reasoned. It was not a mistake he was willing to make again.
Now at this same time, Kairi had set off across the sea on her own. She left Riku and Sora behind, over their objections. She knew the Seeker would continue to hunt her beloved, and she intended to do all she could to stop him.
So it was that when the Seeker of Darkness’ ship again approached the coast, Kairi was gone.
Again Riku watched from the highest window, and knew the ship for what it was.
Turning to Sora beside him, he said, “The Seeker of Darkness has come to kill me.”
“He will not,” said Sora. “Come with me, and we will go to meet him.”
They met the Seeker in the entrance hall, after he’d stepped off his ship and let himself into the castle.
The Seeker’s eyes glanced over Sora, seeming to find him beneath his notice, and fixed his gaze on Riku. “This time you come to greet me, Riku, my apprentice who was almost a son to me. I believed you had tragically died a year ago. Imagine my surprise, and of course relief, to discover you are alive.”
“Come to change that?” said Riku. He remembered the last time he had seen the Seeker, through the crack in the door. He remembered the poisoned needle.
“I can’t come to share a drink with my favorite apprentice? It has been so long since I saw you.”
The Seeker held up a phial of liquid. Riku knew very well it must be poison, enough that there would be no coming back after a year of sleep.
The Seeker held it out in offering. “A drink for you, please.”
Sora cleared his throat. “In this country, the person offering the drink has to take a sip first. You want to do it right, don’t you?”
The Seeker’s lips twisted.
“If you drink first, I’m sure Riku will accept your offer,” Sora continued.
The Seeker tipped the phial toward his own lips, though the liquid inside did not reach his mouth.
Riku knew the Seeker would never drink his own poison, even if he pretended.
As the Seeker kept the phial tipped as if drinking, Sora stepped closer. In one smooth motion, he reached out and hit the bottom of the glass, forcing it higher, and the poison dripped into the Seeker’s mouth and down his throat.
The Seeker fell dead, killed by his own scheme to kill his apprentice. And by Riku’s husband, who would not see him die.
Sora pulled Riku close.
Kairi returned home, having turned her ship around as soon as she discovered the Seeker had set sail.
All three were overjoyed that the Seeker’s threat was ended, and all three lived happily the rest of their days.
