So, So Much Worse

[00]- Prologue

He was a Court favorite. Everyone always enjoyed his dances, and the occasional ethereal song. Many wondered about the face behind the ghostly white veil, but no matter how he writhed, twisted, and flipped, it never revealed his face. It was charmed to stay that way.

When he hit Frenzy, he'd throw himself into the music without abandon, seemingly paying no mind to how his ankle snapped, or how his shoulder dislocated only to be popped back in moments layer, or how his neck and back cracked warningly at seemingly impossible feats of flexibility. It was handsomely daunting.

But he never faltered, not once. He even walked out on his own, not so much as limping or flinching from his broken bones, after bowing deeply to King Oberon, Queen Titania, and the Court.

The bows and his costume were the only things that distinguished him as male, as otherwise he was quite effeminate in both dance and song. His outfit left his chest bare, only covering his arms with long sleeves, his neck with a sort of heavy, flat collar, and he had deep blue pants that went to the ankle along with decorative fabric slung low on his hips like a scarf or purposeless belt. He wore no shoes, and his head was covered with a gauzy white veil. His hair, which was so long as to brush his knees when he wasn't in motion, was braided lazily about halfway down; violet and magenta colored at the crown, it blended into blues and greens at about the same place the braid began. He had long bangs-but-not-bangs, there was no other way to describe them, that cut off just before the braid began, and so covered the left side of his forehead and swept along with most of his hair, fanning across his hidden face when he danced.

Beneath the veil was a beautiful visage that none other than his mother and himself had ever seen. Well, there had been the midwife, but his mother had slaughtered her after he was born, so no one would discover she had borne a child. Even as a newborn he had been handsome. Large pink eyes with exquisite lashes, finely chiseled features, royally pointed ears, accentuated by a delicate face and frame, complemented by his vibrant hair-- he truly was a sight to behold, especially with the long, regal horns leaning forwards from the top of his head and the multicolored butterfly wings sprouting from his shoulder blades. With his current partially-grown form, he would have every eye in the Court on him with a single glimpse of his face, male and female and other alike.

His perfection was marred, however, by what could only be called a disfigurement, though it wasn't hideous in the least. Covering the rightmost third of his face was a deep royal-blue-and-black-swirled birthmark that detracted from and enhanced his pale skin. It continued along the side of his neck, where it then diverged. One trail curled gracefully down his right arm, while the other continued down his back and side. It was by no means ugly; if anything, it made him more interesting, but it was a flaw. Like his wings and horns, however, it was Glamoured away by his mother so as not to attract more attention than he already did.

After all, if King Oberon ever found out that Queen Titania had had a child with another faerie, and a specifically-banned concubine at that, it would not go unpunished.