Filk #25 - Idarra's Revenge
The outline for the novel this filk is based on, tentatively called Crystal Heart, is 20+ pages. I really should finish writing the thing someday. All I have right now are fragments of chapters and the story arc. Once this filk challenge thing is over, I’ll start tackling the novels waiting in the wings.
And while I didn’t realize it at the time, when I drafted the story nearly 20 years ago, this song concerns the Rose Queen, married to the subject of Idarra’s wrath. I didn’t have her as the Rose Queen in the outline, but now I’m going to have to identify her in the novel because the character demands it. The character juxtapositions set down in that 20-year old outline mirror some major relationships occurring in an alternate universe extremely close to ours. From my perspective, skating on the edges between universes, it’s downright spooky how closely those relationships line up.
Not Idarra, though. She’s completely fictional. At least, I think she is. I mean, I wouldn’t know because, if she existed in this reality, she’d be the psycho ex-girlfriend of someone I’d know only peripherally.
Idarra’s Revenge
The prince was mine, he choose my bed, / With three older brothers in line for the crown!
The first one died with an arrow in his head, / The second one fell into the lake to drown!
The last brother then, on a rain swept night, / Leapt from the ramparts of the north-east wall,
Falling to the rocks from a dreadful height… / Then no brothers in line at all!
I should be queen! The throne should be mine!
All of my plans were going just fine!
SHE came along! SHE took my place!
SHE is the reason for my fall from grace!
By demons below, I swear so today,
The child they have shall be my prey!
Dragged from my room, locked in the tower, / For six long months imprisoned by command!
Pitiful fools! They know not my power, / And what I can fashion from out of these hands!
I spat on their guards when released at the gate, / Kept from the castle upon pain of death!
My prince would marry; a princess’s fate, / And I vowed revenge with my parting breath!
Chorus
Magic in fabrics, thin strands of light, / Weaving away in my old master’s shop,
Plotting by day and scheming at night / Distilling the wine of revenge drop by drop
The day of their wedding, my magic made real, / Waiting impatient, the birth of a child
Ten lonely long years, unable to heal, / The gift in its box, unused, undefiled
Chorus
Finally, the word: Let the kingdom rejoice / An heir to the throne would shortly be born!
The demon within me found she had a voice, / My gift to present on the baby’s first morn.
The talisman, brilliant, glittered in light / The magic, more subtle, hidden away
None would discern it, or know of the blight / It carried within luminescent display
Chorus
I smiled, I dance; I spoke with the King / I laughed at the love we had shared long before
Ah! The lies that I told, and the gift I did bring / He gladly accepted them both to restore
I bowed to his Queen and turned to flee / My plan unfolds, no need to stay
I’d give it a year, or two, maybe three / The ill-charming light would slow waste her away
Chorus
Sixteen years now, you’ve found me here / A thousand long miles on.
There is none of me for you to fear / My thirst for revenge is gone.
That child would have died, you know / If fathered by your King
You say she lives, if this be so / How marvelous a thing!
Chorus
…The child they have shall be my prey!
Who’s child, Captain? There’s no surprise…
She looks at you with your own eyes!