The Merrywood Three were three best friends who dwelled in the Merrywood Forest during the reign of the Valors. The trio was comprised of Prince Castor Valor, Lyric Merrywood, and Jacks. Jacks was also known as the Archer.
Plot[]
The Ballad of Never After[]
While staying at Chaos' kingdom, Chaos gives Evangeline a book in hopes that it would help her find the missing Valory Arch stones. In the book, The Rise and Fall of the Valors: Beloved First Royal Family of the Magnificent North, Evangeline comes across a picture of three young men standing near a tree with a bullseye board tacked to it. One young man looked friendly, one looked highborn, and one looked exactly like Jacks. Jacks' clothes were different, an older style, but his handsome face was unmistakable. The caption said: The Merrywood Three.
The word Merrywood flickers to Bitterwood suddenly. In another book Evangeline reads, there is a reference to the Merrywood trio. The book describes the members of the Merrywood Three as scoundrels. They were Prince Castor Valor, Lyric Merrywood, and a nameless archer who she suspects could be the same Archer from the story, The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox.
Appearance[]
The young man beside Jacks looks the friendliest with brown skin, the warmest smile Evangeline ever seen, and an arrow in one hand, which instantly makes Evangeline think he must be the Archer. But then she remembers that the stories in the Magnificent North are all cursed. She isn't sure if the curse applies to pictures, but she decides to keep an open mind.
The other young man is taller than the friendly one, about the same height as Jacks. The tilt of his chin makes her think he thought himself slightly superior, and a part of Evangeline can understand why. This young man is almost painfully handsome. The kind of handsome that makes her wonder if he was entirely human.
Normally, that is how she thinks of Jacks, but in this rendering, Jacks looks human, not immortal. Evangeline has never considered the idea that Jacks had been human before, but if he was part of the Merrywood Three, then clearly he'd been human once. And being human looked good on him, or maybe it was just that he looked so happy.
In the picture, Jacks is tossing an ordinary red apple and laughing in a way that lights up his entire face. He never looks this happy now, and Evangeline can't help but wonder what had changed.
History[]
Aurora Valor, Castor's twin sister, was secretly in love with Jacks. She put the Archer’s curse on him because her sister, Vesper, could see the future, and the future revealed Jacks would fall in love with a fox. Jacks broke free of the Archer's curse, but when he kissed his fox, she died.
Lyric was Lord Merrywood's only son. He was in love with Aurora, but was too good-hearted to realize what a mistake it was to love her. He was so desperately in love with her, that he dismissed the dangerous fact that she was engaged to Vengeance Slaughterwood. Lyric said the engagement didn't matter because it wasn't a love match: Aurora and Vengeance had been betrothed since Aurora's birth. Vengeance's father, Bane, had been Wolfric Valor's greatest friend and ally. So, when Wolfric became king, he pledged that one of his daughters would marry Bane's eldest son. That daughter ended up being Aurora.
Aurora wanted to have both Vengeance and Lyric to get Jacks' attention. Aurora broke off the wedding to marry Lyric Merrywood, but her father refused. Aurora told her father that she would go through with the marriage to Vengeance. But on the morning of the wedding, she ran away. That was when Vengeance learned of her affair with Lyric Merrywood. Castor tried to warn Lyric of the attack at Merrywood Manor. When Jacks arrived, everyone was dead except for Castor. (Vengeance walked out alive before Jacks got there.) Castor was stabbed in the back, and Jacks brought him to his mother, Honora, who was the greatest healer in all the North. Castor died. Honora resurrected him, but he became a monster devouring human blood. He became the vampire, Chaos. Chaos ended up killing the rest of the Merrywood family, except for Lala, Lyric's sister.