A/N: I don't own Homestuck. Also thanks to my Beta!editor, I am the antihero Calmasis.

It was a morning like most others on a day like most others in the city of Prospit. The sun rose as it always did at the time it usually did, rays of sunlight shooting up out of the horizon and lighting up the sky to wake those who rose at dawn. As the sun began to climb the sky, men began to trickle out of their various houses to fetch a pail of water, then return to ready themselves for the coming day.

A young woman had such a routine. When the sun became too bright for her to put if off any longer, she rose from her bed, dressed, and attempted to brush her long mess of unruly hair. The sun was turning a faint red when she left her small cottage to get water.

She returned as frazzled as usual and would happily have gone straight to bed, but she looked out the small window and saw daylight streaming in. Shrugging, she turned towards the front door and began to tidy up.

Feferi Peixes had always lived a life of poverty, an ordinary healer in the kingdom of Skaia's capital city of Prospit, barely scraping out a living since she became old enough to live on her own. She had been born to a rich family - as her friend had explained to her - but her father had been a treacherous general who attempted to assassinate a lord, so he and her mother had been banished from Skaia, but Feferi was to stay and grow up in Prospit. She was slightly tall for her age of seventeen, with long and curly black hair and coffee-brown skin. She wore a sleeveless magenta sundress, one her friend had found for her.

It had been nearly half an hour before a young woman entered Feferi's clinic. She was a young woman, thin with long black hair that stuck out at odd ends as well as pale, freckled cheeks. Her light green eyes had an excited spark, but today were tinged with worry.

"Feferi!" the woman greeted her, holding her arms out for a warm embrace as was customary on their meeting.

"Jade!" Feferi returned the embrace, eyes watering slightly at the large amount of dog hair that clung to Jade's clothing. Feferi had known the witch since she had been young, and Jade had fought off an older boy who had tried to steal from her. Jade had a large dog by the name of Becquerel, and it had been a relief for Feferi to see the older boy chased away by the white dog's barking. It would not be fair to say that Jade was a conventional witch, but nobody but Jade knew how her magic worked. Feferi had always known her to be kind and optimistic, though quirky and forgetful at times. "What's wrong?"

"It's Jake," Jade confessed. Jake was Jade's younger brother, a servant in the palace as the Prince's manservant. "He's been coughing constantly, but he keeps insisting things are... smashing."

"How long's he been coughing?" Feferi asked.

"About a week? I don't know what to do...!"

"Whale -" Feferi began, before catching herself. When she had been younger, her friend had dragged her into an odd sort of role-play game in which she spoke in fish puns, and her friend insisted on keeping with the game now. "Well, that's why you have me. Wait just a little moment!"

Feferi turned to the shelves in the back of the clinic, where she kept all of her medicinal herbs. The shelves were three wooden boards placed over each other and a foot in between, kept in place by boxes on the ends of each. Each box contained a colorful fish, given to her by her friend. Feferi walked over and reached into a small container on the bottom shelf, pulling out a couple of leaves about half the size of her palm. She brought them to her nose and gave them a sniff, nodding in satisfaction at the strong smell of mint.

Feferi returned to where Jade was standing and handed her the leaves.

"He should chew on them when he needs them," Feferi instructed. "It's supposed to soothe any sore throat and get rid of the cough, then he can go back to being at his best!"

"Thanks Feferi!" Jade replied. "I can always count on you."

"Happy to help." Feferi gave a reassuring nod and Jade turned towards the door just as a boy in a long purple cape appeared on the other side. He strode in, pushing past Jade.

"Oh, it's you," he said, glaring at Jade.

"I think I'll be going now." Jade cast a glare at the boy in return, then gathered up her long skirt and shuffled out of Feferi's clinic. Upon her leaving, the boy found a chair and sat in it, looking disgustedly at the house around him.

"Eridan, you have to stop doing that!" Feferi sighed in frustration. "Jade is a customer and you can't just glare at her every time she's here!"

"'Course I can," Eridan replied. "I can do wwhatevver I wwant."

"Eridan..." Feferi warned, but took a deep breath and forced a grin. "Nice to see you've come to visit me!"

"Do you notice anythin' different about me?" Eridan asked, standing and gesturing to himself.

"Is that a new scarf?" Feferi guessed.

"No! It's my sevventeenth birthday!" Eridan snapped indignantly. Eridan was royalty, as anyone could guess by his outfit and his arrogance. He was the Prince of Skaia, but one year younger than his brother, Dirk. Dirk was the rightful heir to the throne, a kind and righteous prince as any should strive to be. Eridan, however, had the attitude to make up for the both of them.

"Whale happy birthday, then! How are you going to celebrate?" Feferi asked excitedly, her pitch and volume increasing on the last word.

"A ball, apparently," Eridan spat, taking a seat once again. "Honestly, dad is an idiot. Wwhy the fuck wwould he evver think that me an Dirk havve the same interests, anywway? Dirk likes all that fancy dancin', not me. Wwhat the hell is Dirk's problem, anywway?"

"Eridan, don't talk like that. He's the prince and the future king!"

"So am I!" Eridan retorted. "And you knoww, you should be livvin' in the palace, too, instead a bein' holed up here in a little clinic."

Eridan had always been of the impression that Feferi should be royalty. Ever since the banishment of her parents, General Sassacre and Betty Crocker, Feferi's riches extended to the amount that she could earn for herself, and Eridan had spent an innumerable amount of time telling Feferi that her situation should not be the case and that she should be nobility. As part of it, he made her use fish puns whenever possible, in honor of her bloodline.

"Oh, please don't start with that again..." Feferi buried her face in her hand and shook her head.

"It's true, but anywway. That wwasn't the only reason I came."

"Oh! What else?" Feferi asked, pulling up a chair beside him.

"You go near Derse evvery mornin, right?" Eridan asked. Derse was a popular tavern in the city of Prospit. It tended to attract many odd sorts of people, from Gamzee, a bard, to Roxanne (a half-drunk soldier that spent most of her time rambling about how Betty Crocker had secretly been an evil tyrant).

"Yeah, why? Did you get attacked?"

"No, but I alwways see a man from the palace there. Name's Jack Noir."

Jack Noir was an official at the palace, a very pale man with shoulder-length greasy jet-black hair and a tall height, seeming to tower over others menacingly. Feferi had not heard much about him, but was not surprised that he spent his time there.

"So?" Feferi asked. "Why is that weird?"

"I just got a bad feelin'."