Chapter Text
He was tied to a bed, ecstasy running through his body, his wife bringing down the labrys his mother had hung above his bed when he turned sixteen and was deemed old enough to rule {even though both his parents had been perfectly sound of mind and body}. A Wiccan axe for a beautiful witch {he’d heard the rumours drifting over from the Isle of the Lost, about a thief and a whore and a troublemaker and a witch; that had been how he chose who to bring}. The axe was raised above his neck and he was about to die for this beautiful woman {his wife that he adored} when she slowed down, laying the axe near his head, on the pillow. Slowly {so slowly} she reached over to unlock the handcuffs keeping Ben tied to the bedpost, bracing herself for a fight {kill him like a man, not a helpless animal}.
Her husband, loving, beautiful, true, innocent, just lay on their marriage bed, gazing up in awe at the beautiful woman that was all his by law. The Queen of Auradon smiled.
“You love me, don’t you Ben?” The King of Auradon nodded frantically at his new Queen. She smiled, her smile betraying everything that was to come, “And you would do anything for me?”
The King didn’t even have to think about it, just agreed {who would deny this perfect specimen anything ?}
*
The High Queen of Auradon pulled down the magick barrier that separated the Isle of the Lost from Auradon on the live broadcast the next morning, King Ben the Just standing faithfully at her side, her three lovers stationed careful around the room, daggers pressed to the pulse point of anyone who seemed likely to try to fight back. She called upon every pantheon that had ever existed, casting a spell so strong that it would ensure that magick would never be used against its own for centuries.
Vita, Mortem, Amare, Bellum, Odite
In most iterations, Life didn’t join them. It was War, Death, Conquest, Pestilence. But Life and Death were powerful together, so very powerful, and Mal craved power like it was strawberries.
Alea Iacta Est
And so the Iron Court grew into more, lived in the Shining Palace {Ben’s blood was never spilt, and so Chad Charming never spat the words Blood Palace at High Queen Mal’s feet} as eternal lovers {Hero was still born, would be born in every cycle}.
Superare In Re Bona
Miranda was the only one to remember the other world, the what could have been, because Ben grew into the Beast that his father never was, truly feral and with, made of claws and sharp teeth {sometimes, when he ran his tongue across his teeth, he tasted blood}, a hybrid the likes of which the world had never seen, and so why would anyone consider the other possibility {the one where Mal brought the axe down, the one where evil reigned instead of Death}.
Flectere Si Nequeo Superos, Acheronta Movebo
*
Mal and Evie and Jay and Carlos and Ben grew old together over hundreds of millennia, ruled Auradon as a monarchy that the world would never be able to forget. They would go down in the history books, the blood of a human and a fey and a succubus and a djinn and a beast succeeding them, and layering the bloodline with the blood of a sorceress {the line of le Fay would grow to greater infamy than Morgana or Lilith could ever have expected, their namesake taking their heritage to even greater heights}.