Chapter Text
Once upon a time, a young lord lived in a shining palace. Although his mind was strong and face was beautiful, his heart was cold and shriveled from his wicked ways. He cared for no one but himself. Instead of watching over his subjects’ wellbeing, he laughed at their misfortunes, and made them greater through his greed and neglect.
One day, a poor peasant woman of infirm condition was admitted to his court to petition for his help. She explained the mishaps and afflictions that had led to her sorry state, and begged him for only a single bag of grain to feed her hungry children. The wicked lord sneered at her request and dismissed her without a penny. She warned him that his own body might one day be twisted and imperfect, and his own children might one day be desperate, and begged him again to consider her need.
When he laughed and dismissed her again, she transformed into an enchantress, beautiful and terrible in her power. The lord fell to his knees and tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart.
As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on his bloodline, cursing any sons he would sire to be beasts as well, for posterity. He ripped at his fur with his claws, raging about how he would ever be able to have a wife, let alone sons, in this loathsome form.
Perhaps this touched her heart, for the enchantress then softened her curse with a gift: a bag of enchanted rose seeds. She explained that if he planted one of these seeds, the old rose bush in the nearby village would bloom with a single rose. Any woman who plucked the rose would be compelled to come to his palace, and would then be bound there, a companion for all of his days. His rose bride.
Or perhaps this was not another gift from the enchantress, but rather, another part of his curse. Perhaps it was a test, or a warning, for she did urge him to consider what might bring him true happiness. But if it was a warning, the beast lord did not heed it, for before a day had passed, he had planted the first rose seed. His corrupt heart throbbed in wicked glee when a beautiful young woman appeared at his palace, holding a single glowing red rose in her trembling hand. He took her, but was not satisfied. His greed only grew, and he demanded payment of a woman from the village whenever it suited his whim.
The villagers quickly learned never to ignore the enchanted rose bush when it was in bloom. If no woman plucked the rose, he would descend from his palace and attack the villagers in a ferocious rage, tearing them apart with his inhuman strength, and no one was ever able to stop him. They tried to destroy the rose bush as well, but its enchantment protected it from their axes and their fire. And so they lived in fear of their beastly lord and prayed their daughters and sisters would not one day be compelled to become one of his doomed rose brides.
The first rose bride bore the lord a beastly son, and he too took rose brides, as did his son, and the next. None of these poor women ever lasted long, wasting away in the misery of their palace prison. With each life it claimed, the once beautiful palace sunk deeper into darkness and decrepitude, laden with a palpable gloom that oppressed all those within its dreadful walls.
Such was the woeful home into which Adam was born, a strange and fearsome beast like his father and all the lords before him. Bitter and despairing at his lot in life, Adam became disgusted by his family’s lineage and legacy. When his father died, he burnt the bag of rose seeds, determined to never demand a rose bride and to live his life in miserable solitude. He dismissed all but two of the palace servants and locked himself away, never appearing to anyone outside his palace. As the years passed, the young people of the village grew to nearly forget there was ever a curse on their hidden lord, as the rose bush had never bloomed within their lifetimes.
Until the day when it bloomed again.