Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful world called Radiant Garden. The very Heart of the World was enchanted, with light flowing out of it and nourishing the land. In olden days, this light formed streams and pools and rivers and lakes, and it was said that if you bathed in this light or drank of it, you would feel rejuvenated, and all your ailments would be healed.
Of course, the practicality of doing such a thing was never questioned, as these things never are, and it wasn’t like anyone nowadays could prove it. The final remaining light pool was on the castle grounds, and access to it was quite restricted to the royal family. It was their duty to protect it and guard it, for without the light, the world would die. All the other light streams and pools and rivers and lakes had dried up, though there were prophecies that someday, a visitor from a faraway land would restore the light. For this reason the people of Radiant Garden did not build on these empty hollows but commemorated them as holy places instead.
Other than that, the common folk didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t have access to the light, because the waters of Radiant Garden themselves were rather magical thanks to the light pool the royal family tended, and taking care of the waters was a good deal easier than maintaining the light pool. Canals of clear blue water flowed through the world and provided water to its inhabitants, and lovely fountains and waterfalls dotted the landscape. All that water made it very easy to grow things, and the kingdom was known for its breathtaking flowers and gardens. Everyone who drank the water was supposed to be healthy and fertile, and indeed the people of Radiant Garden were known for their long lives and large families.
Perhaps it was a surprise, then, that the king and queen of Radiant Garden had no children. There were rumors about a curse, a curse cast by the king’s jealous sister, but curses were such a rare thing nowadays that most people doubted they even existed. While blessings were in abundance, the sole records of curses were in crusty old tomes that only the fairies and philosophers really studied anymore.
Besides, after years and years of waiting, the day finally came when the queen announced to the kingdom that she was pregnant with her firstborn, and there was much rejoicing throughout the land. All talk of curses ceased, drowned out by speculation about whether or not the baby would be a little prince or a little princess, whether the child would take more after the king or the queen, and other such gossip that people like to indulge in about the lives of the famous and wealthy.
The king was quite beside himself with excitement over the queen’s pregnancy. Every evening, before bed, as the queen was brushing her hair and he was putting on his nightcap, he would ask her how many days were left till their child was born. This he did the night our story begins.
“Patience, my love,” the queen playfully teased, as she did every night. “A child is not grown in a single day.”
“But it is made in one.”
“That may be so, but our child needs time to grow. She will be here soon enough.”
The king sat on the bed and rested his hand on his cheek. “Who do you think she’ll look like?”
“Perhaps she will have hair like mine and eyes like yours, or maybe she will have your golden hair and my green eyes. Or maybe she will look nothing like either of us and will take after your sister instead.”
The king’s sister was a very beautiful woman indeed. She had striking yellow eyes and glossy silver hair that flowed down to her waist. The blood of fairies was said to run through the veins of the royal family, and the queen could believe it. The inhabitants of Radiant Garden were far from ordinary, and the royal family was the least ordinary of them all.
At the suggestion that their daughter might look like the king’s sister, the king frowned and waved his hand. “I don’t think she’ll look like Malia, no.”
The queen set her hairbrush down and sighed. “You still haven’t talked to her, have you?”
“Not since my father died.”
“Darling, you have no proof she was involved. I know she’s a mage, but no one has used curses in this kingdom for 500 years, and your sister has only ever used her magic for good. I think it would do you some good to make amends with her. She’s our daughter’s aunt, for goodness’ sake, and she might wish to be her godmother.”
“No. Absolutely not,” the king ground out. No matter what the queen said to him, she could not convince him that his father’s death was natural.
“If you say so,” she said, picking up her hairbrush once more. “I just hate for you to be estranged from your only living family.”
“I have you, and soon I’ll have our daughter too,” he pointed out. “You’re all the family I need.”
The king was right about their daughter coming along soon. She was born strong and healthy, and she had her mother’s red hair and her father’s violet eyes. She was a very warm and cheerful child, always giggling and making people smile. Her christening was to be held in the main chapel of the castle, and everyone who was someone was invited to attend.
First the guests came into the chapel and took their seats, then the priest went to the baptismal font, and at last the king, queen, and little princess arrived. The princess was carried by her nurse Aqua, a kind young woman with calm eyes and short blue hair tucked behind a kerchief, and she held the princess and rocked her as the king and queen greeted the guests.
Out of the corner of her eye, the queen spotted the king’s sister Malia. Her hair was done up in an elegant style that the queen had only seen in older books, and her clothing was downright ostentatious with its high-backed collar and flowing cape. She gave the striking impression of royalty and regality that the queen herself had never been quite able to manage, despite her own royal lineage from a different world. Still, she was quite pleased to see her husband’s sister here; she wondered if perhaps they had made amends after all.
As the guests filed by to greet the little princess and offer their congratulations, the king and queen had trouble keeping track of everyone. So it was little wonder that the king did not notice his sister, nor did the queen have a moment to tell him she had spotted her.
When the guests had all sat down again, it was time for the fairies’ blessing. At least two fairies always came to bless the christening of a child (only one just won’t do), and since this was the daughter of the king and queen, five were in attendance.
The first fairy stepped forth. She was the Fairy of the Wood, clad in a long green dress that reached to her feet. Her brown hair was covered by a veil, and her green eyes sparkled as she placed a white lily over the princess.
“My dear princess, this is my blessing. You shall be beautiful of countenance.”
With this, the priest sprinkled a little water from the baptismal font onto the princess to seal the blessing, and it was the next fairy’s turn. She was the Fairy of the Lake, and she wore a flowing blue dress with her silver hair tucked in a bun. A pointy hat was perched on her head, and round glasses rested on her nose. In her hand was a purple iris, and this she also placed over the princess.
“My dear princess, this is my blessing. You shall be very clever.”
The priest repeated the water-sprinkling process, and with that it was the third fairy’s turn. Her dress was as red as blood, and her hair was a brilliant vermillion that almost looked as if it was on fire, which was rather fitting, as she was the Fairy of Fire.
She reached into her cape and said, “My dear princess, this is my blessing. You shall have a big heart,” then left a red rose for the princess.
The next fairy was cloaked in yellow robes that shimmered like the sun, and her golden hair flowed to her feet. She was the Fairy of Light.
“My dear princess, this is my blessing. You shall be full of light, and take on the role of Guardian of Light like your ancestors before you.”
She placed a sunflower on the princess, and the priest blessed the child again. Just as the fifth fairy was about to give her blessing, however, a commotion from the back of the room interrupted everything.
“Not so fast!” Malia cried. She sprung to her feet, and the king’s face went pale when he saw her. “Don’t you think it’s rude to not invite your sister to her niece’s christening?”
A general gasp sounded throughout the audience at this revelation. Snubbing Princess Malia was something people just didn’t do. It was the very height of bad manners. Estranged or not, the king should’ve at least extended an invitation to her.
“You didn’t invite her?” the queen whispered as she clung to her husband, her heart hammering in her chest. If Malia hadn’t been invited, and she showed up anyway, this could go badly quickly.
“No need to be alarmed, Your Majesty,” Malia said, then sneered. “I simply have a gift of my own I would like to give the princess.”
“No need,” the king said through gritted teeth. “We’re quite alright, thank you.”
“Oh, no one refuses my gifts.”
“Guards!” the king cried. But Malia was quick. She held her hands out, and every single guard in the room froze. The guests cowered away from her, and a few even tried to make a run for the doors, but she slammed those shut with another wave of her hand.
“No one is leaving here till I am through. And relax, the guards will wake in due time. But if anyone dares try to interfere with my gift, I won’t show such compassion again.”
Everyone was frozen in place as she strode to the baptismal font. Reaching into her cape, she pulled out a small vial of something dark and foul-smelling. She poured it into the baptismal font, and a ghastly black smoke poured out of it and filled the room. The king and queen searched everywhere for their daughter and for Malia, but could find neither of them. Malia succeeded in snatching the child away from her nurse, and the poor princess cried and cried and cried.
“My gift to you,” came Malia’s icy voice, her words a series of daggers that overpowered the princess’s cries, “is not a blessing but a curse. You shall be without a heart. Or should I say, you shall be unable to feel the things that make a heart worth having. You shall be outwardly beautiful, but that beauty will mean nothing without a beautiful heart. You shall be clever, but without any of the wisdom a compassionate heart provides. You shall have a big hole where your “big” heart should be. And you shall be full of light, it is true, but that light will have no warmth to it, nor will you be able to feel the warmth of others.” Her eyes gleamed, and a cruel smile twisted her features. “In short, you will be unable to love.”
With that, the princess stopped crying. The king and queen were horrified by Malia’s awful curse, but what could they do? Every person in this room was held hostage, and Malia was hidden by smoke. If they had been able to see her, they would have seen her sprinkle the princess with cursed water and rest a ghastly rice lily on her. Now, rice lilies are not nice like most other lilies are. Rice lilies smell awful and have drooping brown blooms that constantly look as if they are about to drop off, and as such they have become associated with curses.
“There,” Malia said, then laughed so chillingly everyone felt the coldness of the curse. “Do come visit your Aunt Maleficent sometime.”
Malia, you see, had chosen a new name for herself. And indeed it was a fitting one, for what kind of person curses a baby? Certainly not a kind and caring aunt. With the curse done, the black smoke finally dissipated, and the little princess was magically back in her nurse's arms.
“She’s so cold! Like ice!” Aqua yelped. Her mother and father touched her chubby little arms, and sure enough, it felt like dipping your hand in a glass of ice water.
Thankfully, there was still one fairy left to go, so there was hope that Maleficent's awful curse would be alleviated somehow. This is why it was important to have more than one good fairy at a christening, in case something like this happens.
The fifth fairy, the Violet Fairy, was shaking quite badly, but she bravely stepped forth. She was a short, plump woman wearing a purple frock, her curly dark hair as exuberant as she was trying to remain composed.
“My dear princess, all hope is not lost,” she said as she reached into her frock and placed a little clump of forget-me-nots over the rice lily. “The curse will be broken and your warmth shall return should you cry.”
From a little vial around her neck, she poured a few drops of tears onto the princess, as the water from the baptismal font was still quite spoiled. These were no ordinary tears; they were the tears wiped away by the fairy herself when she came to a person’s aid. She carefully collected them into the vial so she might never forget them and used them to bless others in need. The priest seemed to think this sufficed well enough as holy water, and he blessed the princess again.
The king and queen wondered at such a strange remedy to the curse. How could their daughter cry if she had no heart? Wasn’t that a contradiction? But it was rude to question a fairy’s gift, and they’d already angered Maleficent quite thoroughly today, so it seemed bad form to offend a fairy on top of that.
But the questions, despite being unspoken, did not leave their minds. Even if they could get the princess to cry, how could they do so without hurting her? They were hardly about to make their poor daughter suffer so that she might shed tears. Already they loved her more deeply than they could bear, as any good parents do, and they couldn’t stand the thought of hurting her.
The part of the christening after Maleficent left was better, despite the curses, as they finally got to reveal their daughter’s name: Kairi.
Some said the princess was named for her mother’s love of the sea back on her home world; others said Kairi had a name that meant separation because she was separated from her own heart. The latter theory grew in popularity when word spread about the strange hole in the shape of a heart roughly where her physical heart should be. You could put your finger through it and reach out the other side, and it neither bothered the princess nor hurt her.
No doubt it was from Maleficent’s curse, but as little Kairi seemed alright despite the heart-shaped hole in her chest, being cold to the touch, and never crying like other babies do, her parents and nurse got used to it and hoped for the day the curse might break.