The Lie of the King

I do not remember the beginning, perhaps because, in fact, there was none.

All I remember was blackness, a deep, dark blackness that was as numbing as it was endless. And then I remember light, blinding and painful, yet so blessed and warm.

They called us the Weird Sisters, as if we were strange simply because they were mortal and we were not. There was I, the eldest, First Sister. Then there was the middle, cruel and beautiful Second Sister. Finally there was the youngest, disapproving and harsh Third Sister. Respectively the Future, the Present and the Past we were, yet as helpless to change it as insects. Witches, they said; agents of the devil, they would accuse. I brushed back a bit of my smooth, black hair, a fleeting smile crossing my dark face. Oh but how I wished we were servants of only he.

"Eldest Sister!" Came the interminable, drawn out whine of Second Sister, "Eldest Sister! You haven't said a word the entire time! This is why everyone misunderstands you. You never participate!"

"Don't bother First Sister, Second Sister." Third Sister, immediately snapped at the lolling body of Second Sister, "She's just got back from hunting and she's surely exhausted without your hounding."

Second Sister's abundant chest heaved in an exaggerated manner as she sighed from where she lay on her back, arms and head hanging off of the sede.  "Not as much as she's surely exhausted from your nagging, Little Sister." She replied in a bored tone.

Third Sister sucked in a breath, her fair face dyed as drastically red as her hair as she readied to return fire, but I interrupted. "Hush now, Sisters," I murmured from where I sat gazing into the mirror, "come and see the fruits of our labor."

Second Sister sprang up from the sede and hurried over to see, jostling for space as Third Sister tried to look around her and see as well. Together we three gazed at the scene in the mirror, where a fine hall with many flashily clothed men and provocative women could be viewed, all sitting around a great table as they feasted.

"Look at them eat!" crowed Second Sister humorously, "Oh, look! Look!"

Third Sister sniffed in distaste, "How primitive. It's as if they're animals."

I gazed upon the filthy creatures which we had been tasked to lead astray, as I rested at my dresser. How long had it been since we'd started this endless task? How long would it yet be? How many had we led astray and how many more were there yet to go before we'd finally done? I returned my unfocused eyes to the humanity before me, it was my gift to see the future, yet even my boundless eyes could not see.

"Oh look at all of the colors, Sisters!" crooned Second Sister.

"Vulgar," sniffed Third Sister, even as her piercing green eyes stared at the scene.

"Oh how I wish we were there!" Second Sister whined loudly in my ear, "Listen to the music! How dandy and fine it is!"

"Garish," snipped Third Sister with finality, before turning back to the dolls she'd been sowing.

Second Sister rolled her eyes, "You've simply no taste Little Sister, you can't appreciate the finer things yet at your age." Before Third Sister could respond, Second Sister gave a squeal of excitement, bouncing against the back of my chair, "Oh look! There's that handsome one! Oh, I so like him! I've decided that I'll hunt him next, surely he'd be well-pleased with such a handsome man's soul!"

"Simply because you think he has a pretty face, doesn't mean he'll like him at all." Third Sister replied drily.

I looked down on the blonde head of the young man Second Sister was so thrilled by, as she continued, "Such dark thoughts he has! Oh my! What a delightfully vengeful creature, so courteous and handsome whilst he plots such things!"

"I still think we should take that one in that village next." Third Sister huffed, "I haven't seen one as dark as him since Nero."

Second Sister tore her eyes from my mirror for a moment to look at Third Sister with disgust, "Oh no, not him! He's perfectly horrid looking and he lives in that dreadful little village where there's nothing but brown, brown, brown and they've no parties or music at all!"

"Sisters," I interjected smoothly.

Third Sister gasped, "I'm so sorry, First Sister."

"Sorry, Eldest Sister." Second Sister sulked.

For a blessed while we looked on in silence, disturbed only by Second Sister's occasional squeals and Third Sister's biting remarks. Such a lively and colorful gathering it was. Yet no matter what bright colors they put up or what fine things the covered with, this humanity could not hide the darkness that lay at it's very soul. Even here in this scene beneath all of the laughter and merriment the tension and fear of those brightly colored humans was so pungent it sickened me even where I sat.

They feared the one we hunted, yet there they sat at a party in honor of him. Humans were such... strange creatures.

Then trumpets sounded in the scene, and all of the shining heads we looked down upon turned to the great entrance of the grand hall. And then in entered our quarry, resplendent in his many fine robes, the shining crown which we'd promised him perched regally atop his head.

There was a general clamor of applause and cheers as he stepped into the room. He tried to march like a soldier, yet I saw his lie. I saw it in his slinking steps and in his darting eyes. A brave hero was he no longer, now he was a murderer, a fugitive, running from discovery as a rat from a hound. He continued his disguised slinking forward into the room towards the table, his handsome face beset with a jovial smile, and lying cheer slipping past his pale lips.

"He's afraid!" Remarked Third Sister incredulously, as our quarry approached the beautiful woman near the head of the table, "A beautiful wife, a golden crown, and a room full of cowering nobility, yet he's quivering like a leaf!"

"Perhaps then..." Second Sister grinned, as the blue glow of magic snaked around her hazel fingertips, "we should give him something to truly fear?"

I closed my eyes breathing a breath of defeat, "Do as you please."

As soon as the words passed my lips a bit of Second Sister's blue magic hissed by my ear, hitting my mirror. I looked back at her, and she shrugged, grinning in a gruesome manner, "I knew you'd say yes."

I turned back to the mirror to see what terror she'd sent to wreak havoc on our quarry. He was still moving forward, having exchanged a low, brief word with the evil wife who'd made our hunt possible.

So much greed... it never ceased to amaze me how much greed one small human could host.

A cry, more like the screech of a wounded animal tore through my musings and I gazed back into the mirror, curious despite myself. There stood our quarry, arm raised defensively as he stared at his chair at the head of the table with eyes of crazed fear. The entirety of the hall had stopped, turning to look to their king as he cowered before his empty chair, his mouth moving in a manner that spoke of feverish babbling.

A small, pompous looking man approached him reaching out to calm him, but the king threw out his arm, eyes wild as he shouted at the smaller man. The man shrunk before him, and the king turned back to his chair, continuing to rant at it fanatically.

"What does he see?" Third Sister asked in a heavily disapproving tone.

Second Sister snickered with delight, "What he fears." She replied airily, "Condemnation, evidence of his sins."

"The ones he's murdered?"

"The one he betrayed." The gleeful satisfaction in Second Sister's smug voice elicited a scoff from Third Sister.

The one that Second Sister had found so handsome put down his fork and spoke, and the gathered fodder nodded amongst themselves at his words, their relief palpable even here. However the woman I knew spoke, smiling graciously, and gesturing them back down as she turned to her raving husband.

I saw her lie as well, the lie of gentle graciousness that hid the roiling anger and corrosive contempt felt for her husband. She feared he would destroy her work, she feared the raving coward would kill them both with his madness. Yet I had seen it was her own madness that would destroy her before the end.

The king replied to her, his hands cutting through the air savagely as he stood there, she replied, her indignation written on her face. Another lie... her rising fear was the truth.

Second Sister heaved a sigh and the blue magic slid out from my mirror snaking back to her extended fingertips before disappearing. "There now our little king is finally being honest." See glanced at me, her lips curving sadistically, "Are you pleased now First Sister?"

I gazed as the king turned and stormed from the room, no longer marching, but fleeing the truth that he could no longer pretend he didn't realize. I rose and began walking toward the opening between worlds; the scene disappeared from my mirror as I left. I glanced over Third Sister's doll, a dark haired man in red robes with a golden crown upon his head.

There was no longer any need to watch, our quarry had been caught.

"Come, we're going to the village." I murmured, for there were surely many more to be caught.