Rescue of the Black Empire,

by J. W. Cassandra

The fairy tale Rescue of the Black Empire belongs to my fairy tale book entitled Bluebell Pixie's Tales. Within the book, there is a small coherent string of tales: I wrote three tales about the two kings and their empires, and here comes the third part.

In this tale, Bluebell Pixie returns anew to the cottage in the hilly countryside, and this time she even jumps into the well that stands in the courtyard, when the third tale descends from the mouth of the enchanting bag in the form of a cloud blacker than black, and the cloud is followed by the army of the Black King: witches, dragons, evil fairies, wizards. But no one should be scared: the little pixie is found at the end of the tale, and the story captivates both adults and children.

The subjects, princes, and inhabitants of all classes and ranks of the Black Empire suffer profoundly from the evil that pervades everything in the form of a black cloud. The White King's sons and daughters-in-law decide to help them. At the suggestion of the fairies who help the king, the princesses and princes set off in a carriage drawn by magic steeds to the Black Empire to announce that the hour of liberation has come.

The frauds with which they finally succeed in conquering and convincing the Black King are revealed in the tale. As well as what the magic mirror is good for.

Have a good reading time.

Bluebell Pixie was again walking along the dust-covered road winding through the undulating countryside, but this time she was trudging weary and thirsty, her bag was pulling on her shoulders, when at last she saw in the distance the cottage she had been to twice, and where the children were eagerly awaiting her coming, for she had promised to bring the third fairy tale to them. She thought that since good people lived there, a drink of water must go to the thirsty wanderer, and by the thought picked up strength, she ambled on.

When she reached the cottage, she saw an old granny sitting by the well, and around her ran an army of mischievous children, and a young woman spun the spinning-wheel by the well: she was spinning thread.

The old woman ordered the biggest child to draw cool water from the well, and the tickled wanderer was finally able to quench her tormenting thirst.

While she greedily swallowed the cool sips, the bag came to life on its own next to the well: it was fidgeting, and from it were heard a crash, a growl, a woosh, and then its mouth was loosened, and a cloud blacker than black slackened on it and covered heaven and earth.

The children hid around the old granny, scared, and the young woman also sought refuge next to her, and Bluebell Pixie dropped the chipped mug back on the curb in fright, then jumped up next to it in full swing and hid in the well, and miracle of miracles, she was able to hold on to its wall.

And the black cloud spread, and the frightening army of the Black King rolled out of it: witches, dragons, evil fairies, sorcerers were marching out from it one after the other; curses were hissing, spells were flying whizzing everywhere, crimson lightnings zigzagged, the unsuspecting army was under a fearful attack.

But then, suddenly, the whole tale, woosh, flew out of the mouth of the fairy tale and began, because the order of the tale did not allow the army of the wicked to continue to do mischief.

Once upon a time, on this side of the Seven Seas [1], there was the empire of the Black King, whose borders extended further than any other empire, only the empire of the White King beyond the Seven Seas could compete with it far and wide.

The battle that the Black King lost against the White King has long passed, but in vain his three sons married the three daughters of the White King, and in vain they all turned into good, because they could not master the darkness and evil that ruled the Black King's empire.

However, they saw well, since the three couples moved in three directions, and were frequent guests of each other, that the inhabitants of the empire, although evil is upon them, suffer deeply from this. And not only people suffered, no matter any order and rank of men they were, but also animals, plants, and even the clods of the earth that their feet trod.

They once gathered in the castle of the youngest prince and his wife, and they were just talking about this, they were just debating what they could do, when the palace was covered with incredible speed by a pitch-black cloud: it was dense, like hodge-podge, and sticky; dark like night: they could hardly see even each other. They all knew immediately that the Black King was spying on their meeting with his army of sorcerers and magicians, so the youngest princess, who had learned enough fairy language to call the good fairies of her father, the White King, uttered barely audible the summons of the good fairies in fairy language. And the miracle of miracles, the summons took flight, and sang louder and louder: it hummed, sang, resounded in its flight, although it was impossible to understand what it was singing. The White King's fairies understood it all the more! Immediately, they sounded the alarm and lined up in an army to help the youngest White Princess and her brothers, then in the blink of an eye, they turned up at the castle, leaving only three sentinels behind at the White King, as this was enough in case of any danger.

As the army of good fairies appeared at the castle, the night-black cloud sounded the retreat, because it was only marked out for spying, so it faded away with dazzling speed.

The sky cleared, the sun rose, the birds chirped happily, and the good fairies formed a protective circle, and their leader said:

"Forgive me, princes and princesses, but we have a piece of advice: one of us will remain here invisibly by your side, and if the cloud of the magicians were to return, he would know what to do. And never fear, a single braid will not hit to anyone, but not a single blade of grass will fall out, only the wicked will perish if you take good care. Go on a tour of the empire together, and announce to the people that liberation has come, that its time soon will come, and that they should be ready if they want to spare their lifes. In order, for your mission to be successful, I will involve you with the power of persuasiveness of the fairies, and this will help you."

Saying this, the fairy beckoned, and all but one of their companions disappeared in the blink of an eye. And the fairy left behind said:

"Do not hesitate, I will stay and take care of everything here, and even my power will accompany you. But do not start announcing the liberation at the king's palace, but walk through the borderlands first, then move further and further in from there, then your strength will increase and more and more people will support you!"

The three married and brother couples set off in a comfortable chariot, in front of which were harnessed three times six magic steeds, and the couples made their way to the borderland. Everywhere they went, they saw unfortunate people languishing in the yoke of evil, and everywhere from the border they announced their coming by blowing trombones, so the people gathered, and the princes and princesses faithfully told the message of the fairies: the hour of liberation is about to come, be ready!

The ridden mass of people had never more than half believed it, because they had been suffering for so many long years, but the power of the persuasiveness of the fairies permeated them, and thus more and more people began to trust, hope, and then believe with conviction what they heard. Thus, evil could no longer knock them off their feet so much, and the power of the Black King, which relied on the power of evil wizards, mages, witches, dragons and fairies, weakened more and more.

And the army of magic steeds flew with the chariot, the princes and princesses announced the encouraging message of the good fairies, and the Black King suddenly saw that he had been betrayed, namely by those who should have stood by him. He was erupted into rage, called his evil creatures together and asked them what to do. Their leader said:

"You are already too late, oh, Black King! Look at yourself!" And he held a magic mirror in front of him, which showed everything in the light of magic. And the empire of the Black King appeared in the magic mirror: beginning from the borderlands, more and more light spots spread as fast as the falcon's flight, and the dark spots dissolved as fast as the storm. People and animals sighed relieved, their hope was renewed, they were given new strength and waited for the hour of liberation to come. And his sons and daughters-in-law, on their chariots flown by magic steeds, moved to lands in his empire that they had not yet reached. Wherever the chariot passed, the sun was breaking through, the darkness dissipated, and the Black King's power weakened.

Then the magic mirror showed the palace itself: almost above the hall, the cloud of evil magic power in which they consulted thickened; all other rooms, towers, corridors, and stairs became lighter.

And then the Black King himself appeared in the magic mirror: until that very moment, everything was black on him: his shirt, pants, cloak, crown, and of course his hair and even he himself. Now, however, his skin began to shine, his eyes became kind, his hair shone brownish, his clothes were dotted with light spots one after the other, white dots appeared in a row on his cloak, and a pearly glow began to emanate from his crown more and more strongly, exactly the same, as he had seen on the crown of the White King years before at the peace negotiations.

The Black King's mouth also dropped open: he could not believe his eyes. Then, he began to rave with rage, and ordered the army of wizards: let they protect the Black Empire against the good fairies of the White King! And he threw the magic mirror against the wall, and it broke into thousands and thousands of tiny shards. The many tiny shards impregnated in the king's body, causing him an itching disease: so he kept scratching here and there and shouting his orders. But who takes a scratching king seriously?

"Assemble immediately, and move against the attackers!" He shouted, then, not breathing, ordered: "Call all your knowledge forth, and free me from the itching!"

"Either we are trying to defend the empire, oh, our king, or we are trying to free you from the consequence of your inconsiderate, violent action". Replied the leader of his army of sorcerers.

"I do not care, the empire, this itching is intolerable!" The king shouted. But the magic mirror shards covering his body transformed what he said, and it sounded like this:

"I do not mind if it itches, go immediately to defend my empire!"

"We will do our best, oh my king, but it is far from certain that we will succeed!" The chief wizard replied by the way, and then he beckoned, and the army of black clouds left the ruler flopped down on the mosaic floor, who could not relieve his itching, so he kept yelling as much as he could.

As the dragons, wizards, witches, and mages left the Black King's palace, the good fairy left behind shouted in fairy language, and the White King's fairies immediately waited in order of battle for the cloud.

It also rained down on them, wizard lightnings zigzagged poison green, angry-purple, envy-yellow, death-bringing black; a flame of dragon fires burst out of it, a shower of spells rained down on the good fairies, but the spells and lightnings fell one after the other, missing their target and lost their power on the shield of goodness, the dragon flame faded away, their hoarse shout died, the witches' parade spells turned on their opposite, and the Black King's army was also infected by goodness: the light spots appeared one after the other, more and more on the magicians, sorcerers, dragons, and witches, and then they completely turned, and with that the fight ended: the White King's good fairies won, and in the meantime all the oppressed subjects hoping for liberation also turned: the whole empire was enlightened, and goodness, hope and love moved into every heart.

Then the good fairies, together with the beaten and transformed army, with the Black King's sons and daughters-in-law, who had prepared all this with a brave heart, flew to the palace, and there in the council room they found a now enlightened Black King, who was still weltering and scratching on the mosaic floor of his palace, but now barely moaned.

The good fairies eased him from his torment with a single beckon, and their leader said to him:

"The moment has come, Black King, to repent of your transgressions and turn your power for good! You can now rule over a real empire with our approval if you are willing to repent of your sins, and you will change. But if you do not incline to this, your sons will take over the throne, dividing the rule according to your three seasons, and then the Brother Empire will be in the place of the Black Empire, and all the shards of the magic mirror will fall back on you, and your torments will become even more unbearable than they were before! What do you choose, king?"

The Black King was frightened: he remembered exactly how much evil he had ruled his empire with. There cannot be as many drops of water in the sea as many evil deeds weighing on him!

"Why did you not defeat the White King's fairies?" He asked his now-turned-good former chief wizard.

"That is, oh, king, because we are masters of evil spells, curses, and magical weapons, but evil is worthless against goodness, as darkness dissipates, as the sun rises and its light shines on the world; and above that, magic and spells are worthless against fairies, since they lack the power that all fairies have."

"But my evil fairies are mighty!"

"We were only, oh, king!" One of them sighed, "For goodness breaks the power of evil. This happened to us, as well. Believe me, you have no choice but what the good fairies offered."

The Black King could not believe his ears, and he was about to go on a rage, as he used to do all his life before. But then the good fairy beckoned, and the shards of the magic mirror fluttered. The Black King was frightened, but he suppressed his rage and said:

"I am not meant to rule, fairy, because I cannot rule myself either. Be it as you wish! But I do not want to suffer anymore, and I regret all the sins I have committed so far. I want to put on a penance suit and hide. Let my throne be divided by my three sons according to the three seasons – it will be the best..." And he wilted down his head sadly.

Then the leader of the good fairies smiled. This brightened up the pearlescent light, which now included the entire empire following the victory, and wrapped itself around the Black King. Then this unearthly radiance permeated him and turned him: the Black King turned into the Nacreous King [2], his skin shone, his eyes sparkled, his hair shone, hope and love moved into his heart, his mind became wise, his cloak radiated pearlescent light, his crown scattered a diamond fire everywhere.

So the former Black King sat on the throne of the Nacreous Empire, and from then on, he governed his country in peace, wisely and guided by love.

His first task was to create order, then he invited the White King and accepted him as his brother. They united their empire from here and beyond the Seven Seas this way, and from then on, they ruled it as brother empires. Then, when the end of their reign arrived, the White King was succeeded on his throne by his eldest son, and King Nacreous by his three sons, who alternated on the Nacreous throne every season, and these mighty countries remained brother empires beyond, and this will remain so forever, as long as only the good fairies guard their borders and the people living in them.

Bluebell Pixie finally regained consciousness from her trembling fear, and the children found themselves, no longer hiding with the old granny's skirt. The young woman helped Bluebell Pixie out to the well curb, and she jumped down and gathered the story, tied the mouth of the sparkling fairy tale bag, and, saying goodbye to his hosts, and throwing the bag over her shoulder, she continued her path. She will arrive soon, welcome her kindly!

This is the end, run away with that!

Written: 26-27 / 05. 2010, by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 21 / 11. 2025, by J. W. Cassandra

[1] In the Hungarian folklore and folk tales, we have the expression 'az Óperenciás-tengeren túl', I rendered it here with 'beyond the Seven Seas, in a faraway land' or 'in the Seven Seas'. The Hungarian name of the sea has its origin from German: it was originally 'ober Enns', meaning 'over the Enns (the tributary of the river Danube in Austria).

[2] In the original writing, I gave the name to this king in a literal translation, ' Pearl-light King', which refers to the light that emanates from the mother-of-pearl and from the transformed king.

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