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The princess stared at the wizard blankly before raising her eyebrows. “These things are always ‘true love shall break the curse’. Who in the worlds curses someone that only being hated would break the curse? It’s super easy to be hated you know.“ She crossed her arms and stared the wizard down.

“It can’t be that easy… A truly murderous hate? A hate so deep that nothing can make them like you?” The wizard question confused beyond belief. He was sure that the princess would struggle with that. After all she was fairly nice, and pretty, and animals seemed to like her at least….

The princess shook her head and sighed. “My father and the knight commander hates me because one was in love with the former queen and oh wait, she’s gone… The new queen hates me for being around. Really every human in the castle hates me for some reason or another.” She sighed plopping herself onto the bed. “A true love curse would take longer and be harder, after all… tower.” She waved her hand vaguely at the room they were in.

“No no. A true love curse wouldn’t work. It’d break immediately because… uh… anyways! How is it that neither would work? I was going to make you cry and beg me to undo it!” The wizards plans were ruined! All because the royal family hated their only princess and he himself was hopelessly in love with her. What could he do now? His whole plan was ridding on the curse.

The princess looked baffled again. “Why wouldn’t it work? No knight or prince is going to come to the tower, you’re the first person I’ve seen in a month.” She raised her eyebrows when the wizard made a nervous squeak at the question. “Wait… are you? Oh my gosh… you’re an idiot.”

The princess got off the bed and put her hands up. “Just kidnap me. It’ll be faster. Come on. Take me to your lair or whatever you have. Anything is better then here.” This was not the result the wizard had anticipated but he’ll take it.

I literally love this.

Honestly, that's kind of brilliant. Either they're too 'goody two-shoes' to ever break the curse, or they succumb to hate and break the curse, but start down the path to becoming a villain themselves.

Princess: Because that's what all the evil mages do.

Wizard: And have any of them ever succeeded?

Princess: Fair, but at least they trapped the princess for years if not decades. This will be broken by supper.

Wizard: You don't understand. You can't leave this room tower until someone with true hate for you climbs all the way to the top and opens the door. Someone with true love for you would gladly do so but why would someone with true hate want to free you?

Princess: Cause it would be worse for them if they didn't.

Wizard: What do you mean?

Princess: Do you know what a whipping girl is?

Wizard: A what?

Princess: Well like any human, I make mistakes. But since I'm a princess, my tutor's can't punish me. So they took one of the servant's daughters and whip her in front of me.

Wizard: That's awful.

Princess: Hey, I don't want anyone to be whipped but better her than me. Anyway, she definitely hates me and everyone knows it so my father will likely just make her free me then lock her up for hating the crown princess.

Wizard: Wow. I was just doing this for some prestige. You know, get my name in history. Honestly, I was gonna just undo the curse in like a month. But damn. You guys kinda suck. Why are you even in charge?

Princess: How would I know? I always skipped my history classes. I mean listening to an hour long lecture or five minutes of whipping is a pretty easy choice.

Wizard: Okay, you know what. I'm just gonna lock you in here. Like no true love, hate or whatever charm. I'll just do something like, only Paul the baker from the third village to the south can break the curse. Teach you some empathy. And then I'm just gonna stab your father.

Princess: What!

Wizard: I'm a bloody wizard. I can do what I want. And I wanna stab a king. See yah.

fucking brilliant, i love it

I was skeptical of the loose writing style at first but you owned it

Smashed it with the ending

"Fascinating, and have you noticed any sign of your curse, actually having worked yet?"

"It is a slow and cruel binding, one designed to inflict pain over time" the evil wizard sneered. "Perhaps you have noticed the sensation of your arteries boiling, the pressure behind your eyes growing-"

"Nope!"

"Ah- w-wait what? Well perhaps a persistent hunger gnawing at your intestines? The feeling of nails driven into your-" he jabbered on, listing a multitude of unpleasant bodily sensations, and yet none of them rang true for the princess.

She felt not even a shadow of the suffering promised. Eventually she just tuned him out to collect her thoughts. This doddering egocentric oaf must have thought himself a genius, but to her, he was nothing but a nuisance. In his own delusions he must have overlooked the most simple caveat: he had targeted the princess, designated an emotional condition to break the spell, but neglected to specify a direction for the hatred. A fatal flaw if ever there was one.

"Oh get a grip would you. You should consider having your tutoring refunded. If it is hate that is required I am in no short supply. And it is all for you." The princess seethed.

Were it not for her majesty Kolyana Crownsblood's sheer enmity towards the mage she would have found the reaction upon his face amusing.

"Do you have any idea how many have tried to curse me? And to think that you would believe that one simple shift in the spells parameters would be enough to stymie me. You couldn't even get that right could you? Now let me give you a real reason to curse."

The ending was (quite) smashing

There was some smashing in the end.

I need a second part.

oh no! there's only phil the baker in the third village to the south! she's doomed! doomed I say!

I love this story great work OP.

Hehehe, I love that this is something I'd do xD I entirely vibe with chu, wizarddddd

This wizard is very flexible actually. I quite like him.

"Oh, how convenient, CAUSE I TRULY FUCKING HATE YOU, ASSHOLE!"

I second that

"That's... how curses usually work" The princess said, baffled. "You evil guys do not understand how true love works, and thus always think these curses are unbreakable"

"Princess, you are so throughoutly sweet and kind that a curse that only breaks by pure love would break easily. You're not easy to hate. You're kind and sweet, you look beautiful and have a pleasant voice and mannerisms to match! You are simply the best princess! That's why, as no one will truly hate you, your curse won't ever be broken, and you will perish!" The evil wizard said, laughing maniacally.

Then the curse suddendly broke itself, baffling the wizard.

"What?" He whimpered.

"I hate myself because I'm so easy in the eyes, the minds and the hearts of everyone I will never have my desired enemies-to-lovers story. And I guess that self-hatred counts as a curse-breaker" The princess said.

"That... that... FU---"

Please part 2.

> It’d break immediately because… uh…

I think you gave it away too soon

That was a fun role reversal. Love it!

I third this, actually, I would read a novel.

At first she’d thought breaking the curse would be easy. She was already in a hate-relationship, after all. But as the weeks passed and the symptoms only got worse, she started looking at her partner with a new eye, saw how they were just going through the motions.

She hated him. She really did. Didn’t she? When had the spark gone out? When had true hatred turned to lackluster animosity? She wanted to try, to make it work somehow, but she knew she couldn’t, not with the curse hanging over her head like an executioner’s axe.

She had to break up. She had to break up and pray that she could find her one true hate in time, someone who hated her not because she was the princess, but because of who she was as a person, who knew her intimately and hated it all the same. And. That just wasn’t him. Not anymore.

The wizard Odiul paused, taking a moment to collect himself.

Far too easy for him, to forget how drastically different his frame of reference was from that of these short-lived creatures. Centuries had passed for him, enveloped by the vast mystic powers that permeated this universe, seeping so deeply into every fold of his existence – compressed thousands upon thousands of times until his very essence was little different than the hardest-packed stone. If, for just a moment, he were to allow that essence to unfold, it felt as if it would expand to fall upon the world, and drag it down to the deepest depths.

And so, though human, it was impossible for Odiul to experience this reality as did these frail dandelion seeds that drifted upon the wind, winking into and out of existence much as sparks flew from the flint. Their short lives filled with spikes of experience and emotion that they could never truly comprehend. Immersed entirely in their slight lives, they lived as waterfalls pouring over the edge of a high cliff, lacking the ability to truly observe any single moment.

“And what is it, Princess, that you perceive as love?” The wizard’s voice was solid, yet soft, a boulder rolling slowly down a distant grassy mountainside.

The Princess stared blankly, her azure eyes not seemingly focused on anything, wrinkles knitting her brow. Odiul considered, realizing that such a fundamental question asked at this moment must seem to the Princess to carry some unforeseen meaning. Again, just too easy to forget, how this moment must be completely beyond her experience; an oddity that, once come upon, was difficult to quickly comprehend.

“I do not ask to make sport of you,” he offered.

She hesitated a moment longer, gaining her composure. She turned a discerning gaze upon Odiul for the first time, seeming to finally overcome her initial disbelief. “True love, wizard, is a most powerful feeling – there is none stronger. It is sum total of the strength of our entire being, to so cherish another, that you would give anything for their smile, their warm embrace, their tender regard.”

Odiul grimaced. This was as he should have expected; it was the way of these creatures, to build pedestals upon which to place those things that they never fully understood.

“Have you ever felt that you truly loved someone, Princess?” The slight shift in her gaze told the wizard what he needed to know. “Surely, then, you have known someone that professed true love for someone else?”

She replied, anger contorting her face, the skin darkening in a slight red hue – angered, likely, at being so easily understood. “Of course I have. Do I not exist? Have I not a father and mother? Are there not many such lovers in this kingdom?”

“Yes, Princess, it is as you have said. Your kingdom, with its gentle hills and vast plains, has slightly over twenty thousand landed citizens. Many of them are married; many of them have felt what they believe to be true love; many of them have sired children. And, for some of them, it may indeed be the truest of love; for many more, it is likely the after echoes of passion that flamed brightly and faded quickly.”

Odiul continued, his unrelenting voice bearing down upon the Princess, “but also, there are over eight thousand serfs. And it has been thus for generations – the numbers have changed as the years have gone by, but ever has it been that your citizenry has been divided. Your royal lineage has been unbroken for a great many years. And so, allow me to explain in a way that you might understand. Yes, it is true, there has been the occasional discontent. Parents who have had to watch their children starve; lovers that have had the light stolen from their lives.”

Odiul went on, “the seeds of discontent sown as effectively in these people as crops have been in your farmlands. Discontent that has grown, and discontent that has withered and died on the vine. For, here you are, Princess to the realm, with your Lord Father and Lady Mother. An uninterrupted royal family held up by the ignorant masses, unaware of their own power. You say to me that love is the strongest feeling? I tell you now that it is not. Raw hatred is the strongest emotion, and yet, even those who are subject to the direst of circumstances rarely ever taste the water upon the furthest shore of that darkest of desires. Raw hatred inspires the masses to revolt; to kill without reason; to burn everything around it to ash.”

“How do you think it is, that your royal family, with its royal treasury, and its royal burdenless lifestyle, still exists to this day? It is because, despite the tyranny that your family has imposed, people are ever slow to fall into true hatred. As I said before, again and again, discontent simply dies on the vine, or simmers without heat. Rarely, it may become something more. Rarely, it may spur the listless into action. But true hatred…” Odiul trailed off. It was difficult to put into words, beyond her – or any – comprehension.

The Princess did not understand this juxtaposition – before her, the most evil and ancient of Wizards, and he was reflecting on issues of injustice and fairness. It made no sense to her. Why was this mystic force here, now, and why was he reflecting on matters of such little concern to him? She growled, “what game are you playing at here, Wizard?”

Odiul turned away from the Princess, looking back over his shoulder. “I have thus cursed you Princess. You, your family, and your legacy. From this point forward, you are cursed. You will ever find true love. You shall be healthy and successful. Your family wealth shall grow and your people will sweep over the land. Your armies will be bloodthirsty and your enemies will fall upon their swords. You shall conquer lands one and all. And you shall know no death from mortal cause.”

“And the world shall finally learn to hate. To hate you; to hate your family; to hate your legacy; to hate that you have ever, and will ever, have all that they cannot; to know the truest flames of the most powerful hatred imaginable. They will finally rise up against you and, in so doing, will tear this world asunder. And in those moments, those dazzlingly bright moments before this world is forever destroyed, their truest hate will break this curse. And I will be waiting for you in the end, to savor the exquisite delight of your final breaths.”

[removed]

The wizard found himself in the very uncomfortable position of actually defending her father, of all people. “Well, it’s not like it was that kind of assault, princess.”

Her eyes darkened slightly. He disappointed her somehow. “What must happen for it to be that level of assault?”

This was not the conversation he wanted to be having with his newly cursed, royal captive. “Look, princess—“

“Last week,” she ignored him and continued, “do you know what my uncle did?” She looked out over the forest that lined the road. “The young earl of Stonebreak shot my uncle’s stallion during a hunt. It was an accident, of course, but it happened never the less.” She sighed, her shoulders rising with the effort. “For such violence against one of his prized possessions, my uncle challenged him to duel. He beat the young earl to a bloody pulp.”

She gazed back at the wizard once again. “Which do you think is worth more? A horse or a soon-to-be queen?”

“That’s…those are completely different…”

“Let me ask you another, Sir Wizard.”

He really wished she wouldn’t.

“One of my father’s noblemen had his fine fur ruined by a bottle of wine. It doesn’t matter how, exactly. More that he raged and he screamed and he punched a servant in the face. His fellow noblemen applauded him. It was a good punch, after all, and a fine fur. Do you think they would’ve applauded my mother, had she punched the Duke?”

“It’s entirely different, my dear.”

“I suppose. After all, they all marveled and praised her poise, her calmness, the way she smiled at the man who committed such violence against her. Look at how elegant she is, they said. How womanly.”

That gaze darkened again, something sharp and cutting in the edges. “She can’t rage. She can’t scream. She can’t punch. She can’t be angry.” Her voice grew just as cutting. “I can’t be angry. The woman in the factory paid half her male peers can’t be angry. The abandoned mother with a new child on her hip can’t be angry. It’s unbecoming, this feminine rage.”

She drew to her feet, still shorter than him but somehow suddenly so much bigger. “You see, Sir Wizard, I already hate. I am filled with hate for this world that sees more worth in a stallion than a woman. More worth in a fur than a girl. Who tells us to be silent and smile and appreciative, who tells us our worth is in how politely we can withstand being taken and taken and taken. Our value is seen in what little we can say, not how much we can do. Hate? I am so full of it that it strangles me.”

He could see it now—a fire in her eyes, iron in the set of her jaw, a consuming rage hidden behind silks and ribbons and a lifetime of ruthlessly instilled manners.

He blinked in shock, in her open emotion, the way it made him want to look away. “But…but that’s just YOU hating. To break the curse, someone must hate you back.”

Her smile was cold. “A society that values me as less than a horse already hates me, Sir Wizard. I am not even fully human to them, just a prop expected to act a certain way and to be acted upon only in the manner most convenient.”

She brushed off the dusk from her dress and started to step back in the direction of the city, ready to walk her way home.

“Your curse was broken the moment it was made.”

[honestly didn’t even know there’s a character limit on here. I’m a little half high on medication so idk if this story says what I intend, but at least my brain is somewhat working so I consider that a win. My apologies for anyone who labors through this if it doesn’t make sense]

[removed]

True hate

“Only True hate?” The princess asked baffled

“Yes” the witch answered in her blasé monotone voice and turned to take her leave

“True hate alone and pure will lift your curse…” She began to say the curse anew as she walks slowly towards the exit.

“Wait!” The princess shouted making the witch halt with a loud thumb of her heels.

“Why hate?” The witch, if insulted by the sudden request, did not show it. She just stopped and let the princess continue.

“I mean isn’t it usually true love? In all of the stories and such.”

“Oh usually these stories make the children’s books darling. You know the cute little curses that can only be broken with true love or friendship or whatnot. With something positive and pure. Did you ever wonder why an evil witch or wizard would place such a curse?” The witches tone changed from malicious banality to a teacher’s passion.

“No… I… I never thought of it that way.” The princess always thought herself to be bright and smart. Her teachers all agreed, possibly influenced by the fact they could not really fail her in any of the classes, but still she did better than most. This time though her smooth 15 years old forehead was wrinkled with a grimace of concentration. If anything she was to learn more about her curse.

“Though I know that hate is easier than love. There are many who envy my position others who loath me for my blood. There are people who hate my family. Frankly I hate quite a few in my father’s court already.”

“Indeed. You have lot’s of hate around you. But is it true and alone? Or is it mixed with other things? Like envy, greed, ego? Is it directed at you or from you to another? Or is it directed to your family, position, blood? True hate darling is personal, it can not be motivated by anything else other than itself. And it often starts as… love.”

“As…”

“Yes indeed. Why would I curse you to practically become an immortal until a nice pretty prince passes by and gets all swoony with you? That is not an evil witch curse it is a good witch blessing. People just get them mixed up.”

The princess though about it for a bit.

“So who do you hate?”

“Many.”

“Then who do you hate the most?”

“My mother.”

“That’s harsh.” The princess said not realising her judgmental tone.

“Harsh?” the witch replied seating on the recliner. “Interesting word though I would suggest you work on your tone. You don’t want to anger an old witch darling. I am told it is what ends up getting you cursed.”

“I just don’t understand. If your curse is true then I should be free. Because I already hate you!”

“Oh do you? An old hag you never met before? Surely you are upset disappointed even. So many people failed you in order for this to happen. Your guards sleeping soundly out this door, your First Lady who is also about to fall asleep next to the lover she is not supposed to have. More than anyone your father who swore an oath to protect and love you and your mother but left for his wars three years ago. I bet if my heart failed me and I died right here you would feel sorry for me. This is not true hate.”

“And what is true hate then?”

“I thought I told you it is what comes after true love. When it’s power wares out and the world becomes duller for it. When you look beyond them and you see the monster that lays beneath. When you turn the mirror to yourself and find your own monster laying there in wait, powerful, patient, trust worthy and absolutely vile. When your good graces have gone for so long that you welcome the embrace of that monster and stand beside it as the world burns. That is true hate.” And with that the witch stood up again.

“So will I find true love?” She said with tears in her eyes.

“I am no oracle but the chances are good.”

“And I will loose it?”

“Most do.”

“And then I will be free of the curse?”

“And far more powerful for it.”

“Like you?”

“Yes”

The princess’s voice turned angry.

“Then I will come and find you! And… And…” Her fists grew so tight she felt her fingernail in her palm.

“Oh you will! You can not imagine how many things we will do together!” The witch said in a whisper before she disappeared.

Hey I hope this one is not too long. I went with a recruitment plan instead of a punishment of sorts. Hope you like it!