❈ | 025 | Voice

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Private to Arthur]

Stop yelling at the people teaching me. I asked them to.

[Private to Rumpelstiltskin]

[She's been torn over saying anything to him, because he kind of went to bat for her, but she thinks he did it all wrong.]

I'm not a baby, you know.

Comments

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

What are children my age like in your world?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

Oh, they come in many shapes and sizes and temperaments, much like they do in most worlds, I'd imagine. And some led hard lives, but many did not. Some had pleasant, unremarkable childhoods. Some were orphans. Some had to contend with cruel step parents, witches, lost parents, powerful curses... But it was different, once:

When I was much younger, long before many people I know alive now were born, there were wars to be fought. The Ogre Wars. When over the years the tide would not turn, when times were their most desperate and miserable, the soldiers made it all the worse when they began to forcibly take children from the poorer villages to serve on the front lines.

[He speaks in a very slow, controlled tone, choosing his words carefully so as not to give too much away, but to still make the message clear]

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Well boys her age should be pages and squires, they would fight - the Kingslayer was noteworthy at thirteen, for going to battle. But.]

Didn't their parents do anything?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

Oh, they tried. The soldiers had a weapon, a being of powerful, dark magic, that they used to keep the villagers at bay. This was power that could have been used to end the war, even, but they chose instead to use it to kidnap children into service.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[A pause, because she can't digest how foolish that is.]

But - that's stupid. Why didn't they just end it? [She lived through a war, she can't imagine why one side wouldn't just win if they could.]

[Private]

[worsetodie]

Because they didn't want that. They wanted the children.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

But wars cost money. And the ruin places.

[Private]

[worsetodie]

With the Dark One under their control, I assure you cost was not an issue.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Why?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

I do not know personally what funded their efforts, but later experience has taught me that creating gold was something that was not beyond the Dark One's power.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

But there's no point. Who's stupid enough to keep a war going for no reason?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

Warmongers, I'd imagine. As it was, the wars did end, in perhaps the only way that they could have ended without both sides being wholly obliterated.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

How? [She grew up with Old Nan's stories; even now, she can get caught up.]

[Private] - Sorry for the delay -- crazy week!

[worsetodie]

A desperate villager freed the Dark One from the control of the soldiers. Not long afterward, the Dark One strode onto the fields of battle, with his power ended the fighting, and led the children home to their families.

[Private] - no problem!

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

He let the trolls live?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

They were not his concern.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

He should have. They were monsters. What if they started a war again?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

Always a possibility, were it not for their fear of the Dark One.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Did he stay and protect the kingdom, then?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

He did stay in that world, because it was his home, and fear of him was enough to keep the beasts at bay -- to a degree. There was not another war with them again. His task was merely to end the war, and that he had done. With no one to hold him under their control, he was free to pursue his own ends, as such beings are wont to do.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

And what were his ends?

[Private]

[worsetodie]

The sort of ends one might expect someone called the Dark One to pursue -- often difficult to distinguish between the benign and the belligerent, perhaps. The Dark One was not one to hunt down in the hopes of capturing again, but his magic was still wanted, and unlike certain others he was also the most willing to sell. People would continue to encounter him, sometimes offering favors in exchange for other favors in return. Spells and other acts beyond normal means, but always for a price, some of them difficult to pay.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Did he give you magic? [She's certain he has something to do with the Dark One, given the story, and how he used to look - and the certainty that things always come for a price.]

[Private]

[worsetodie]

[He's a little astonished by the question, but he finds he can answer that question honestly without sacrificing much at all.] Some of it. The rest I taught myself.

[Private]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Can you teach others? [Three guesses where she's going with this.