#carabosse

Which isn't really an excuse for wishing death upon a baby, especially one who hadn't even so much as spit up on me. She didn't even cry, with all that hustle and bustle and noise and nerve going on. 

I would have cried. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry about the noise, and having to fly so far, and how there wasn't even a place for me when I did get there, and how all the other fairies from Yew to Apple kept raising their eyebrows and whispering over me, and how much I missed missed missed my Granny, who was never coming back because she was literally dust now.

One minute, she'd been spinning at her spinning wheel, she'd pricked her finger, said “oh”---and the next she was gone. No rhyme or reason to it. She just finally got so Old that even Magic couldn't keep the candle of her life lit anymore.

She went the way of all fairies. There one moment, and in a blink of an eye, gone. Nothing but dust in the wind. Drifting out open window, out over the tops of the trees. Over the hills and far far away.

Leaving me the new Elder Tree Fairy--and  all alone. 

But I couldn't cry,  I couldn't. Because I was the Elder Fairy now, and I was supposed to give a Gift to the newborn baby princess.

The princess who was cooing so sweetly in her little bassinet. All golden and warm and loved.

I don't think I ever felt real Hate until that moment. Looking down at a baby, knowing she was alive and loved and so happy, while my Granny was dead and gone I was so miserable. 

So. I cursed her.

I didn't really mean it mean it, of course. I didn't want her to actually die. I just said it in the heat of a moment. I only meant it a little. 

But of course, Meaning anything in any amount when you're a Fairy still counts.

That's Magic.

I avoided being thrown into a dungeon or worse purely due to my age, and the quick thinking of the Yew fairy, who managed to twist my ill-wish into something less lethal, though certainly more complicated.

Needless to say, the party was ruined.

The Princess and I were both whisked away. She went to some safe location far away from spinning wheels--though after the king’s decree that was really anywhere within a five mile radius of the kingdom-- and I was taken to someplace far away from her.

From then on I was kept under close watch by all the Fairies of the Circle, to ensure that nothing like this ever happened again. The  Alder Fairy was to take over my duties until it was determined I could actually handle them. 

They were all very sorry about Granny of course, and understood I was overwhelmed when I'd done what I did, but they couldn't have the Thirteenth Fairy of the Sacred Circle going around accidentally cursing the heirs of the royal families. 

They needn't have worried. After I came to myself and realized the full magnitude of what I'd almost done, I made a vow to myself to never use my Magic ever ever ever again. 

And I managed to keep that vow too. For sixteen years afterwards I managed to keep it. Not an easy thing to do when surrounded by other fairies and while technically being part of the magical counsel dedicated to watching over the kingdoms.

But I did it. I kept my head down,and rolled up my sleeves. I did whatever I could to help people of the town I'd been paroled to without the use of Magic. 

Cooking, mending, midwifing, herb craft. Anything and everything in daily life that didn't involve aiding third sons on impossible quests or giving deserving merchants' daughters fabulous gowns. I even got to where I would shod horse shoes, despite the sting of the iron.

I was determined to keep to my vow. Determined to show I was Good.

And I tried not to flinch too much whenever the story of the poor princess who was cursed by The Wicked Fairy came up.

I didn't have friends, I kept to myself outside of my works of penance. Better that way, safer. I couldn't hurt anyone if I didn't get close enough to care enough to Mean anything. 

I was lonely yes.

But I was also almost happy.

As happy as I had any right to be.

And then, wherever she was hidden away, the princess somehow got her hands--or rather finger--on a spinning wheel.

I felt it in my bones the moment the Curse took.

I ended up hunched over right  in the high street, and was sick all over my shoes. 

Even as far away as I was, I could feel the rush of my ill-wish as it stung, caught hold, and began to tangle itself all about the Princess and everyone near her. 

And me.

Oh I didn't fall asleep for the next one hundred years.

But I did start to dream.

It took a few years, time enough for me to think that, despite the fact the kingdom was now trying to find it's footing under a regency council, perhaps all would go as the Yew fairy had said, and I could again sink back into my day to day life knowing all would be well.

But one night, the night that marked 20 years since the day of the Worst Thing I Ever Did, I dreamed of her. 

I started out wandering about the courtyard. It was strewn with bodies, like there'd been a huge battle, only none of them were bleeding out, just softly breathing, softer than the hum of a dragonfly.  Then I was wandering into a hallway, past more sleepers, up a set of stairs hidden behind a rather terrible tapestry, and around and around the curves of a lofty tower. 

And there, at the very top, sitting on a bed, looking out the window, long golden hair waving in a wind that stirred nothing else, was Princess Rosamund.

“Oh!” She cried, starting up from her seat and gazing at me with eyes as blue as a robin's egg.  “You-you're awake!”

“Er--” I began, utterly baffled at the proper thing to say to someone who's life you've basically ruined. Perhaps “Please please please forgive me I know I don't deserve it--”

But I didn't have the chance to get as far as the first ‘Please’ before suddenly her arms were around me and my arms were full of her.

I thought for a moment she was attempting to strangle me, and had truthfully very little intention of stopping her, I felt she was rather owed the attempt. But this presumption of attempted revenge was shattered by her next words:

“Oh I am so so glad not to be alone anymore! Its been horrid being the only one awake. I mean, I know I'm asleep out there but I didn't think I'd be alone in the dream and--oh it's good to have someone to talk to!  Did the Yew fairy send you to me? I've been praying and praying to have someone here with me. What's your name?”

I blinked. Stared at the beaming woman who still had her arms wrapped up around my neck in an embrace, as if I were a trusted friend, as if I were a savior there to sweep her away from her loneliness and isolation.

And not the very cause of it all. 

She looked at me as if I were Good. 

I blinked again. Swallowed. 

“My name…” I started, stopped. She would not know my name from her past. Fairies names are tightly guarded, even among themselves. Her father’s court only knew me as The Elder Fairy. The stories as The Wicked Fairy. 

To know a fairy's name was to have power over them.

Well, if anyone was owed that, it was Princess Rosamund.

“My name is Carabosse”, I said, telling her one of my deepest truths.

And then, looking at her looking at me, those robin egg eyes so bright and hopeful and happy, happy to see me-- I told her one of my greatest lies.

“And…yes, the Yew Fairy sent me to you, to keep you company in these long years, until your True Love comes to wake you”

Profile

Twisted from: Carabosse from Sleeping Beauty (ballet version)

Gender: Female

Age: Unknown

Height: 5'1"

Hair Color: Black with Magenta Red Stripes

Eye Color: Cherry Red

Race: Nocturnal Fae

Homeland: Briar Valley, Land of Dawning

Nickname(s): Bella, Lady of the Night

Unique Magic: Sleep Like Death

When the conditions are met, it will place the target in a deep slumber that can only be broken by the set conditions.

Oh my, so many happy people Such a sweet face, please accept my gift [set conditions here] Fall into a Sleep Like Death

Status: Unknown, most likely deceased