This story is part of my collection, A Fairy Tale Christmas, which was originally written in 2007 for my family.
Dedicated to my uncle, Stan.
In a far away kingdom, there lived a king named Blackheart, who prided himself on being the wealthiest man alive. His palace vaults were filled with more gold and precious gemstones than any other collection on this Earth. The king was also very self-important, and loved himself more than even his wife or his son, the Prince. He was so entangled in his vanity that all he cared for were his riches and his reflection.
One Christmas, King Blackheart invited his neighboring kingdom’s royal court to enjoy his annual Christmas party. As the night carried on, and the party roared with cheer and Christmas joy, King Blackheart and his neighbor widowed king, Whiteleaf, struck up a contract that their children would marry to unite the kingdoms. Blackheart was pleased that Whiteleaf’s youngest child, the most beautiful princess in the land, would be married to his son, the handsome prince, as much as he like that the exchange would cost him no dowry for the bride as Whiteleaf proposed the arrangement based on their children’s fondness of each other.
As the two kings told their children of the arrangement, the prince and princess were very pleased and said that each other’s hand in marriage was the best Christmas present their father’s could bless them with. But before a toast to this arrangement could be made, there came a knock at the palace doors.
There was a wizard behind the door, cold from the Christmas snow outside, and late from the storm that brought it there that evening. After King Blackheart let him sit at the table, the wizard offered his gift to the king before he ate a single bite of food from the feast placed before him.
As Blackheart opened the gift, he chortled out his vanity and boasted: “I’m sure whatever it is, I already have three of them…”
“No,” said the wizard, “you have none of this. It is a magic mirror, the only one that exists. It does not reflect the face of the viewer. It reflects the answer to any question you ask it.”
“Oh but what is the point of looking at a mirror that does not show me my handsome face?” complained Blackheart.
“My gift is for your wealth of knowledge and wisdom, Sire,” answered the wizard.
“Who is the wealthiest man alive?” boasted Blackheart to the wizard, setting the mirror down as though discarding it. “I have no need of knowledge and wisdom when I have riches!”
A gasp came from Blackheart’s wife, as she looked at the mirror her husband set down. Her gasp was for the response in the mirror’s glass to the king’s question, which responded to any question regardless if the question posed was rhetorical or sarcastic.
“What is it my Queen?” Blackheart asked, as he turned to see his wife who had gasped, with her hand now cupped over her mouth in shock as the mirror answered this question also in the reflection.
In a fluidly moving picture, the king saw himself pose the question of who was the wealthiest man alive, and then again paused on the reflection of not Blackheart, but Whiteleaf, at which the queen had gasped.
“This thing doesn’t work, Wizard!” shouted Blackheart.
“It is never wrong, your majesty,” replied the wizard.
“Who is the richest man alive?!” Blackheart shouted to the mirror.
The mirror shone Whiteleaf’s reflection, again.
“You cannot be richer than me!” Blackheart said. “I am the richest man alive! I am the greatest king there ever was or will be! I am the most powerful!”
“I have far less gold than you,” said Whiteleaf, who was flushed with fear of Blackheart’s rage. “I do not understand why the mirror claims I am so wealthy.”
“Why do you claim Whiteleaf is richer than I?” shouted Blackheart to the mirror’s glass. It shone the reflection of Whiteleaf’s daughter. “I see!” shouted Blackheart, enraged with the mirror’s answer. “When your daughter marries my son, it will combine our riches, and it predicts that you will murder me for my gold and jewels!”
“No!” cried Whiteleaf who ran from the table to protect his daughter.
In his anger and rage, Blackheart threw the mirror to the ground at Whiteleaf’s daughter cursing the union of his son to her. As the glass of the mirror broke, it shattered and a piece flew and ricocheted into Blackheart’s chest in the organ he was so aptly named for.
The wizard frowned over Blackheart’s body, but smiled as he turned to Whiteleaf, and explained:
“The mirror spoke the truth. It showed the wealthiest man alive. Not rich with gold, but rich with love, for your kingdom, and for your daughter.”
Though King Blackheart’s funeral was arranged, and his wife and son mourned his death, the prince married Whiteleaf’s daughter and the next Christmas they distributed Blackheart’s fortune to all the people of both their kingdoms as a gift to remind them that the newly crowned King and Queen were richer than the gold and diamonds they gave away.