Beauty & Cruelty Read online

  She let out a breath, and stood again, squaring her shoulders. "But we don't simply want to make you have to adapt to us. We wish to adapt to you. How we do so will take time. But most of our tales were first written in a much older time, a time where society's values emphasized different things, and they surely feel irrelevant to many of you now. I want to tell you, we know you are out there and we want to be retold in ways that matter to you, who do not have stories written toward you." She turned her head slowly, smiled at Cruelty. "Right, Rue?"

  At no point had Talia told Cruelty that she'd need a turn to speak. Her task had been a presence of magic alone. Of course, Cruelty thought, Talia wouldn't tell her. If Cruelty had been given a chance to prepare it, she'd have denied it instead. Put on the spot like this, she more or less had to talk. She glared at Talia, then reached out, grabbed her hand again, aggressive.

  "What Talia says is true," she said, then cleared her throat, set her jaw. She felt stupid. "I'm an enchantress; the people who are sleeping around us are my doing—if you know this," she lifted her joined hands with Talia, "was Sleeping Beauty, then you know what that means, who I am. This is magic; fairies and enchanters have this kind of power, we use it and gain from it. We often set the terms of a story that the heroes and heroines would live, right? If I cursed Sleeping Beauty to sleep, and told her she'd sleep a hundred years or until the flax was removed from her fingertip, I drove the conditions of her story. When she says our world has rules, we are part of those rules. And many of us are among you right now. We could escape our world, and did. We have an ability that others like our friend the Beast do not: we can pass for human. And since most of us are used to power, we didn't wish to pass into unbelief like our world has been doing. We left and we walk among you and we pretend to be you and we do what we can to keep our power and live regardless. In fact, I'm sure some of us are watching the broadcast right now. Standing to your left, sitting with you, whatever. There are plenty of us. Trying to write our own stories in small, subversive ways, though most of us wouldn't put it in those words. I used to deny it myself. We're tales ourselves, not authors, but we do set the terms of the story. Stories are being rewritten. The world wants new stories, it wants new cautionary tales that speak to it, it wants new fairy tale romances and promises that relate to the times. And you know what?"

  She was shaking a little, clinging almost too tightly to Talia's hand. She could feel Talia looking at her, but didn't dare look away from that empty lens and make eye contact. The words were pouring from her mouth and if she stopped and thought about it, if she stopped and looked at her, she'd choke on them. "We're part of those promises, we're driving those new fairy tales. Maybe that's why we're the ones who could come out among you. You want to know what's driven me to wake up Sleeping Beauty, what convinced me to be kind to a young man who would later help us come here to talk to you? Living with you. Working shitty jobs serving shitty coffee and taking money from people who paid me shit. Where the scraping kindnesses were in moments between the daily grind. That has become part of who I am, what I do, and so of course it'll become part of the story I drive. So don't think you're separate from our stories. You're a part of them now, and I'm a part of yours. We're changing, and you'll change too. I'm not who I was any more." Her eyes were stinging from the bright lights; she blinked rapidly, felt wetness form. "I regret so many things. I'm bitter about so many things. I nicknamed myself Rue, stole the letters from Cruelty to give myself a name that would sound like yours, and I've become Rue. I'm Rue now," she said, and felt the tears spill. Embarrassing. Completely embarrassing. Anyone could be watching. "Stories change. Look, you who want your stories told and have the ability to believe. Watch. And listen, those of you like me who have been trying to survive in a modern world: Show them. Show your power. It's risky. I know that. But we're trying to make people understand. We're trying to make a home you can return to, and you're the ones who can help write that belief onto human life. Please, right now. Whatever your powers are, show them. Remove your glamours, cast your spells, stand up and acknowledge us. Please, show how real we are."

  There was nothing else to say, and no way to know if anyone out there had done anything. Rue stopped speaking, awkward and raw-feeling, her throat and chest aching. She wasn't sobbing, but the tears were leaking out in slow tracks, dripping down her cheeks, hot under the lights.

  "So," Talia said. "I guess that's it, and we'll be going. Don't forget—"

  But she didn't quite get a chance to finish.

  There was only one other person in the studio who was awake and could speak. Martin stepped up before the camera, sliding in next to the Beast. He gave an awkward grin and wave. "So, uh, yeah, hi," he said. "I'm not really with them or anything. I'm a normal person. I'm one of the ones who got kidnapped to their world and saw how things were there. I saw this all and, yeah, it's absolutely real. We tell stories about real things all the time, don't we? Maybe this isn't any different. I bet a lot of you are thinking, 'wow, poor asshole, though, showing up on public TV backing this, you aren't gonna be having an easy time after this', right? You're sure I'm going to get fired. Laughed at in the streets when people recognize me." He grabbed one of the Beast's many hands. "Doesn't matter. I'm not going to stay here. I'm going back with them. John, if you're watching this, hey, no hard feelings. Sometimes things don't work out. Screw you for how you told me, though. Mom, Dad, sorry. I'm leaving."

  He drew a breath while they stared at him. The Beast's eyes were wide, disbelieving, as Martin set his jaw, touched that cracked face, and said, "I've found my fairy tale romance."

  He leaned up and pressed his mouth against that distorted and jagged one, jutting with fangs and cut and bleeding. Leaned up and kissed him.

  Watching it, Rue thought that it wasn't an attempt to break the curse on TV or anything, not at all like their initial plan with the Enchantress. He just didn't care who was watching; he just wanted to kiss him. It was written in his posture, on his face. The determination there wasn't gritted against the horrifying nature of the kiss; it was gritted against the world, what people might say or think. As soon as their mouths touched, it melted away into a happiness, a relief that the Beast was accepting his kiss, a delight in being able to do so. The Beast had let him go, Rue thought. The Beast had done something terrifying for a greater good. Those last pieces of resistance had nothing to do with the Beast's looks, everything to do with control and power, and those were evened out now. Nothing stood in his way and the Beast accepted his love with a startled pleasure.

  And then the Beast distorted in his arms, slid two normal arms around him, closed dark eyes and kissed him back with a proper mouth.

  There was no better note to leave the broadcast on, Rue thought. This was how stories like this ended, wasn't it?

  She dropped the vine around their feet, and shifted the four of them through the gate home.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The few weeks after showed an undeniable amount of growth. The sun and moon had both come back, and the land was slowly filling out again. Many of their own had returned as well, either out of fear of repercussion when they had displayed their power as requested, or perhaps just to see what was going on. As things were, Talia had decided to keep humans coming and going still; the world was large, and had a large population, and even if they'd provided some kind of evidence, it wasn't like everyone out there actually believed. What people saw with their own eyes would be the most convincing. It was higher stakes now that she'd admitted on live TV that they were in fact kidnapping them, but that was a risk Talia was willing to take in the hopes of continued improvement.

  Talia and Rue spent a great deal of time in the Great Hall, both greeting returnees and talking with the humans who came through the gates, attempting to play damage control and establish the situation properly. It was night, and Odette was now able to resume her human form when the moon was out. She, Odile, and Sixth were all there, helping arrange places for humans to stay, and Von Rothba
rt walked in with the humans, glancing around with a casual air of superiority before sauntering over to them.

  "Nice work," he congratulated Talia. "I'm impressed, really. It's truly wonderful to be able to come back to a world with a fighting chance. I hadn't thought it would be possible."

  "Father!" Odile came running to his side, shocked. "I didn't think I'd see you again!"

  "Oh, there you are, Odile," he said, and patted her head. "Have you been a good girl?"

  Her face twisted, the sadness overwritten with some annoyance. "I… well…"

  Odette and Sixth looked at each other, and then excused themselves from the human crowd, following her over.

  "Odette as well," Von Rothbart said, overtly smug. "I heard the moon was absent a while; that must have been tough for you. Well, things can go back as they're meant to be now."

  "Not exactly," Odette said.

  Sixth, his wing still in a sling, gave Von Rothbart a tight smile. "I'm pleased to see you return, sir," he said. "There is something I wish to beg of you."

  "My goodness," he said. "One of my ladies' hands? Which of it will it be, then? It's Odette, of course, isn't it? Poor Odile isn't such a catch, I know."

  "I would like to ask for both their hands, sir," Sixth said.

  A beat, and then Von Rothbart threw back his head and laughed. "That I'll grant. And you know why I'll be so generous to you? Your foolishness. You've just condemned Odette. Her curse can only be broken by a vow from a man who will remain faithful to her. If you're planning so openly to marry both, she'll be trapped forever."

  "Even if I were," Odette said, "I would endure that. He's been through the same thing. And regardless…" She took Sixth's hand, and reached her other out for Odile.

  Odile let out a slow breath, giving her father another sad look, and then stepped over and took it.

  "He will not be faithless to me," Odette said.

  "My poor silly girl, the very nature of there being two of you—you know that despite being a reflection of you, my daughter is still another person, and will count against you."

  "We know she is her own person," Sixth said. "I will be faithful to them both. We have decided together, and so no person will be scorned."

  Rue turned away from the altercation, laughing under her breath at the confusion on Von Rothbart's face. "It's nice seeing those things start to get resolved."

  "Good for them," Talia agreed, and slid her hand into Rue's, twining their fingers together. "What were you saying before?"

  Rue exhaled, still a little nervous. "I think I'm going to spend some time back there," she said. "Back and forth, you know. Joint citizenship, I suppose? I'll be back enough to keep the gates in flux, of course." At Talia's expression, she made a face and added, "And to spend time with you. Obviously."

  Talia considered, pursing her lips, the reluctance slowly fading from her face. "I suppose so," she said. "I'll need to maintain things here, but there's nothing to keep me from visiting you sometimes when you're away. But what will you do over there?"

  "Mm," Rue said. "Live, I suppose. After I gave a big speech like that, I really need to keep in contact with human life, don't I?"

  "You'll have difficulty keeping a job after appearing on national TV as a magical fairy."

  Rue shrugged a shoulder, awkward. "I was thinking I'd try a new job anyway," she said. "I… don't know if I'll be able to, but I want to try writing. I've been passive about stories for a long time now, a reader. You saw my house before."

  "Books everywhere."

  "I want to try to… give back. Create. I wasn't wrong in what I said, that as characters we're the people who drive stories," Rue said. "And I've been thinking about what Martin said about fairy tales not being written for him and people like him. So I'd like to try my hand at a few. They'll probably be no good, but…" She ducked her head, laughed. "Maybe I'm taking a page out of your book, Princess. I want to try being active about what I do for once."

  Talia smiled. "That's important," she said. "I'm also—I've been starting to talk with the foreign Archetypes. Other folklore, other tales. Sure, our stories are told there too, and we could probably dominate there, but…" She shrugged. "It's important they receive their own recognition and belief. Let's promote each other alongside each other, offer more places for people to see themselves. Why not? It can only help everyone."

  "You're doing well," Rue said, "as a leader. More or less why I feel like I can leave you alone for a bit. I guess I trust you to be able to handle things in my absence."

  Talia laughed softly, leaned over, kissed her. Her lips were soft and warm, and the kiss was gentle, undemanding, a promise and an understanding. "All right," she said. "Go where you like. But don't stay away too long or I'll come after you."

  "You know something?" Rue muttered against her mouth.

  "Hm?"

  "You're actually scary."

  Talia leaned back, grinned at her. "I was hoping you'd notice that someday."

  "Consider you fully noticed," Rue said. She squeezed Talia's hand and got up. "I'll be back in a week or so."

  "All right, Rue. I'll see you then."

  "Yeah," Rue said. "I love you," she added, and then fled before Talia could answer her.

  She was still red-cheeked when she stepped through to her house in the real world. It was looking a bit better these days—after they'd returned, she'd shut the gate there. They had plenty of places to get back and forth besides this one, and she didn't really need to sacrifice everything after all. She could have her own space here to herself, a base to go out from to walk among people, a place to come back to and have peace to write in. She'd recast the spell to keep people's attention away from it; no point risking it after the situation with Rick, let alone after appearing on TV. And the spell had come more easily to her again, her energy flowing well. She still didn't know where that power bottleneck had been from, whether the world or herself, but both were changing. Maybe she didn't need to know which.

  She stepped back in, finding herself in peace and quiet, alone with her thoughts.

  Or mostly alone, anyway. Rue sat down on the bed with her laptop and nudged the Cat over. "You're taking up too much space, Tom."

  "You're taking up too much space," he retorted, grumpy, and resettled with a sigh.

  She powered up the laptop, fired Jane a quick email—Hey, how are things going with you? I'm still keeping an eye out, but lots of people are coming back, so maybe we'll find who did that to you soon.

  That finished, she opened a document and spent a little while just looking at the blank page. "All right," she muttered. She felt completely out of line, indecent, but that was all right. She was a character meant to drive a story, so it was fine. It was never meant to be so literal, but that's what they were doing these days, wasn't it? Becoming literal.

  She placed her fingers on the keys.

  Fin

  About the Author

  Meredith Katz started writing around the same time she started to walk (a 6 page 'book' called "The Baby Dragon"), and hasn't stopped since. After many years of writing slash and femslash fanfiction, she is only too excited to share her original fiction.

  She lives in beautiful BC, Canada with her gorgeous fiancée and handsome one-eyed cat.

  Tumblr: http://king-of-katz.tumblr.com