SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

This is sort of an alternate ending of The High Lord's Daughter. In my opinion there is a lot wrong with how that story was written (what happens doesn't bother me as much as how we readers were hustled quickly through it) and this is my mind's attempt to come to terms with what happens in my own way. I can't rewrite the whole story but I can do this much for myself and anyone who is feeling the same way. This is probably a bit more "telling" than it is "showing" but I leave it to other FanFic writers to fill in the bits of story that are clearly missing from The High Lord's Daughter.

Daemon stood on shaky legs and stared at the image of his late wife and Queen in the sanctuary where his daughter had just received her birthright Jewels. He had known what he would find in this room, his daughter had told him. He had managed to enter with some semblance of control, but seeing Jaenelle again made his chest throb with pain as acute as when he had first found her laying dead in their room all those years ago. It was all he could do to keep from throwing himself at her like a lost child finding his mother again.

"Prince," she said to him, a tender smile on her beautiful face.

"Jaenelle," he breathed and yet it was Witch who was standing before him with her delicately hoofed feet and dangerously sharp claws.

"It is time, Prince." Witch's expression changed to one of gentle seriousness.

"Your will is my life," Daemon responded with a desperate eagerness that brought Witch's smile back but this time a hint of knowing amusement reached her eyes.

"Did you think that the dream was over, Prince?"

"You are my heart, my Queen, my everything! Surreal and I . . ."

Rich melodious laugher interrupted him but was the warmly teasing look on her face that had stopped the torrent of apologies and excuses that had been about to flow out of his mouth and made him bristle at the realization that he had been about to toss Surreal aside without hesitation.

"You always were a stubborn snarly male. I knew that it would take time for you to understand but now you are ready."

"Ready?"

"The Dream goes on, Daemon. The Dream was always much larger than Jaenelle."

Witch let this idea hang in the air between them for a few moments and Daemon's mind wrestled with itself as it tried to accept what it should have realized long ago.

"When the Blood yearned for their dreams to become flesh, they dreamed a Court, Daemon. A Court worthy of the Queen who was Witch, and together the triangle would save them all."

Daemon shook his head. "It was you who used your power to cleanse Terreille."

"But it is you and Lucivar who will guide the Blood back to the ways of Protocol and honor."

Daemon's heart flared again with pain at the recognition that this visit did not mean that his love was returning to him. He asked in a strangled voice, "Why can't you stay with me?"

A kind but sad smile appeared on Witch's face.

"The essence of Witch belongs in the Darkness, Prince, but you have belonged to me since the day you were born. You, your father, your brother, all of you were created to serve me and protect the Self in whom I resided."

"Jaenelle," Daemon breathed again this time beginning to see the difference between the two from a new perspective.

"She is a whisper in the Darkness, Daemon."

"She was the love of my life," he replied, tears starting to fall.

"There are other men who have lost both their Queen and lover at the same time, but none who loved both as strongly as you, as strongly as the Black."

Daemon finally lost his control and began to sob quietly.

"You mourned for a year and then you obeyed the command of your wife and Queen. Our wish for you to find love and happiness again."

"I satisfied my body's needs," Daemon all but snarled, his eyes flaring with hot anger. "I didn't love any of them, even with Surreal . . ."

"ENOUGH!" Witch snarled back and Daemon fell into shocked silence. "It is time for you to heal, Daemon, to let yourself see Witch in every woman, even the ones who have forgotten me. Because only then will you realize that I never left you. Only then will you let the Self that was Jaenelle go and find me where I always have been!"

Daemon's eyes widened at the sudden realization, "I have been a fool, haven't I?"

Witch laughed again gently. "You needed to grieve the loss of your female, Daemon, and then carefully test the waters, relearning what it is to be male to prepare yourself to begin again."

"Surreal," Daemon murmured.

"Denying your love for her is like saying you wouldn't have loved me in any other form."

"But Jaenelle was different."

Witch laughed yet again and then fixed him with those piercingly blue eyes, "Only by opening your heart to Surreal will you know what part was me and what was the Self that is gone."

When Daemon managed to pull his eyes away from hers, the form before him had become Surreal's. Unexpectedly his heart leapt in a way it had not since his wife had left this world and a spark of sexual desire flared inside him. Had he really needed to spend all of these years with his heart in pieces, in order to be emotionally ready to surrender to Witch again? But he knew the question was foolish. His Queen was Witch herself and surrender to her was absolute. His grief could not have been allowed to get in the way of that so he had needed to purge it completely.

"Tell me what you want of me," Daemon said finally.

"I have given you and Surreal the child of your dreams. She will ease your grief at the lost of Jaenelle, but I have given your daughter the Twilight's Dawn as a reminder of your duty to me."

Daemon swallowed hard, feeling guilty for having not seen all this before.

"You hear me at the level of the Black, don't you, Prince?"

Daemon remembered the beautiful song that he had begun to hear when he descended to the Black. He had assumed that he was imagining it out of grief since his mind had automatically associated it with Jaenelle.

"Yes, I hear you."

Witch smiled broadly.

"It is time for you to continue the Dream, Daemon, become the man who will lead the Blood where the dreamers have wished so hard to go. And to do that, you need to take up your service to the female again, to love and cherish and protect."

Tears started to fall down Daemon's face again but this time out of love rather than sadness.

"Your will is my life."

Author's Note: Since I wrote this I have become disappointed in it. I was going to go back and edit it and try to refine it but it's not really what I wanted to write. I wish I were a good enough writer to tell the story that I want to tell which is Daemon slowly falling in love with Witch again in the form of Surreal. It would, of course, be a different love than what he had felt for his Queen and the woman who had been such a perfect match for him, but it would be no less true because Witch manifests in various forms. I would cut out Jaenelle's spirit visit all together and I'm not sure how I feel about Daemon and Surreal's daughter being so similar to Jaenelle. It kind of creeps me out and I'm not sure if it would help them or actually make them dwell more on the past. Maybe one day I will write it but for now this is all have to offer.

Anyway thank you for reading!