Chapter Text
In the wreckage of the once lavish ballroom, future events were given their foundation. With the fall of an old name, a bitter vengeance and a cruel justice were inacted.
Cipher lay crumpled, curled in agony. Despite the pain and the tears forced from his eyes, the snarl never left his face. The curse had already taken hold over him and his teeth became fangs, sharp and vicious. His eyes were cat-like and the shade of molten gold and they, like everything else burned. They did not turn to look at anything around him, focused on his tormentor, though they wavered and watered as he winced and fought the pain.
There was nothing else to look at anyway.
All around him the world was on fire, encompassed as he was by a wall of flames and the familiar cold tile beneath his cheek. It too burned, so cold that it felt as harsh as everything else, providing no relief to the tormented soul. The enchanter, the only thing between him and freedom from this torture was easier to look at, glare at and seeth at. He wanted to tear him apart. He was there and Bill was in pain.
And he couldn't do anything about it. A part of him wished for death. Either of them would do.
He spoke then, the enchanter, his voice devoid of warmth, “Hear me Cipher, I will grant you one kindness-”
“Kindness my a-agh!” the pain increased until he was panting once more from where the towering figure watched him almost pityingly. Bill bit his tongue then, but his glare made it clear what he was holding back.
“ A kindness ." the man repeated bitterly as if he thought reaffirming the statement was that important. "You will have a good thousand years to find someone who can see through your… repulsiveness… in order to return to your former self.”
He would have scoffed if his throat wasn't as horse and raw as it was from his screaming. If that was the point of this then why had this man gone to all this trouble? “That’s it? A thousand years is an insult! I could do it in half that time!” If he’d thought bravado would save him, help him save face, he’d been wrong.
“Oh? Well, my dear prince, I do believe you forget yourself. A matter of months might be an easy feat for someone normal... But for you?” he chuckled humorously, “No, I do not think you have a hope in the world, that is why I grant you this kindness. It’s easy to fall prey to a pretty face, but who could ever learn to love a monster with nothing to hide behind?”
The magic released Cipher then, and he fought to stand, but collapsed back to the ground in defeat, disgraced and utterly hopeless. The last shred of hope fled from him, then. All that was left was the all-consuming, bitter anger he felt towards the being who did this to him.
The enchanter, apparently, hadn’t finished speaking. “Absolutely revolting . You should have been kinder, Cipher . I wouldn’t have found you otherwise. It was such a shame your reputation preceded you. Oh, and don’t go looking for this vessel… he really had no other part to play in this. A means to an end, and he will remember none of this. Nor you. No one will remember you .”
Turning his back on the destruction rendered to the once peaceful forest, castle, and grounds, the enchanter took his leave, nothing in his wake but the flower he'd cursed the heir with. Cipher would search for him, but it was as if the man had disappeared off the face of the earth… or he had never existed at all.
But Bill knew it was real, just by glancing down at his grotesque form. He was no longer the charismatic prince, but a reflection of his inner cruelty without a shred of humanity left clinging to him. Cipher had become the monster the enchanter saw within his blackened heart.
And no one would be fool enough to think otherwise because that was exactly what he was.
He simply had no mask to hide it anymore.
Faintly he thought he could hear the sound of rolling thunder before his eyes drifted closed and nightmares plagued him.