Work Text:
Tell, Muse, how it was that these events came to pass. Tell of the night the king Uther, finding his marriage bed barren, sought the aid of the devil’s magick, that it might get him an heir. Tell how he did summon his sorcerer and trace circles upon the floor, and all manner of sigil, and did chant in the ancient tongue, and did summon a fiend from the pit, that he might lay the devil’s unholy blessing upon the king and queen’s union.
The fiend’s eyes did gleam in the light of the fire, and he spake unto King and Sorcerer: What is it that you wish, O King, of my lord and master?
And the king did reply: A son, to succeed me when I have passed on from this world.
And the fiend said: This can be done, O King; but not without a price.
The king did demand to know of the nature of the price, and the fiend spake unto him: My lord and master is the bringer of light and also the bringer of darkness.
And the king raged at the fiend’s riddles, and the king’s men put the tips of their swords to his neck; but the fiend only laughed and said: There can be but one fair price. One life for one life. So it is, and so be it.
Very well, spake the king, and seized the arm of one of his men, and put a knife to his throat. But the fiend inclined his head and said: The price comes due when the agreement is complete. Trouble yourself no more of it, now.
And the king agreed, and signed his name to the pact, and said: How, now, do I proceed? And the fiend gave a wicked smile and said: Lay with your wife tonight, and you will get a son. Or need you help with that, as well? And the king raged and said: Begone, fiend, to the pit whence you came.
And the fiend’s eyes did gleam, and he said: I am bound to the earth these nine month, until the fruit of this labour is delivered. And the king raged again, and commanded the fiend away from his sight.
But the fiend did not depart the plane of this earth, for he was bound to it these nine month. So it was that he did live among men, and, as the way of the fiend is the way of sin, he did play at dice, and covet his neighbour, and drink of intoxicating liquors, and lie with mortal women, the daughters of Eve.
And so it was that on the night the pact was satisfied, as the birth-pangs came upon the lady Ygraine, the fiend lay beside a woman and got a son, though he did not know it, for the devil’s magick was upon the air that night.
And so it was: the prince cried out with his first breath, and the queen cried out with her last, and the king cried out with his rage. And the devil’s contract was complete, and the fiend Balinor was unbound from earth, and returned to the pit below.