Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't make any money.
AN: I've always wanted to write a magic kingdom royalty AU but no real idea had ever struck me before. But then this one did and... I spent the whole of yesterday writing it and then all of this morning to spruce up and edit it. No idea how it actually turned out, but if I don't post it now I probably never will so... here you go.
*o0O0o*
*Royal Marriage Agreements and Cursed Princesses and Dragons Oh My!*
*o0O0o*
Princess Isabelle of Idris storms out of the throne room - her brothers don't notice, still too busy yelling at their parents - hands clenched around the hilt of her seraph blade, her blood singing her fury through her veins.
She will marry Prince Sebastian of Edom over his dead body, and she'd take care of it right now if not for the war that would ensue. They're not stable enough for a conflict with their neighbor to the south, - all of Idris knows they've been waiting for an excuse, - if she kills the heir to their throne her parents' kingdom will bleed no matter how capable the warriors of their armies.
But she will not marry a spoiled monster and she's heard enough whispers from her mother's spies to know that this is exactly what he is.
And yet as a princess she doesn't have the privilege of saying no, not when the engagement has already been announced, not so soon after Alec dissolved the arrangement between himself and the Lady Branwell despite how rich and connected the woman's family is, it would ruin them.
She needs a plan. A way out, something that will save her without casting insult to the people of Edom and so doom her kingdom.
She swiftly changes direction, away from the west tower and the royal chambers waiting there and towards the palace library.
Maybe the dusty tomes there will hold something that will save her.
*o0O0o*
The headache that's been building behind Isabelle's eyes for hours now is starting to feel like it's splitting her skull in two. She looks towards the window and grimaces at the first signs of dawn starting to paint the horizon golden.
She's been here for hours now, carefully studying everything that even touches on precedent of any kind.
There's five law tomes and three scrolls scattered across the desk and nothing so far in any of them that has come close to helping.
A signed agreement between highborn parents for the hands of their children is binding, breakable only in the event of both parties being willing to dissolve the agreement or a higher legal bond being formed. But there is no higher bond than the one arranged by kings and queens.
And even if she can convince her mother that this is a mistake there is no chance that Edom will agree to break the engagement with their prince. They've been encroaching on their borders for a generation now, starting skirmishes that barely stop short of declaring war.
Her options are to run, - though she doubts she'd get far, she has nowhere to go, - or to marry a prince rumored to be more demon than man.
Frustrated tears rise to Isabelle's eyes and she slams the tome in front of her closed with such ferocity a scroll she hasn't yet gotten to falls to the ground and unravels across the stone floor.
For a moments she stands, hands clenching and unclenching, her body otherwise frozen still. Then she drops to her knees to pick it back up, she will not give up after one sleepless night.
She's about halfway finished carefully rolling the scroll back up when a sentence catches her eye.
'…is the only marriage clause that hereby overrules even royal decree.'
Swiftly getting back on her feet Isabelle places the scroll on the table under the flickering light of the candles and skips up to the beginning of the paragraph.
'Any soul in the land that can save this daughter of royal blood from the curse cast upon her will gain her hand. This oath is binding and unending and is the only marriage clause that hereby overrules even royal decree.'
And suddenly Isabelle's mind is awash with memories of the fairy tale every child in these neighboring lands learns at their mother's breasts. Of the princess who lived centuries past when the five lands were still one and magic roamed more freely and flowed in the blood of the people more deeply. Of the spell that made the princess sleep and cursed a dragon to guard her for all eternity or until her waking. Of the droves and droves of knights and peasants and young lordlings that burned alive in their quest to gain the throne through the hand of the sleeping princess.
Until the kingdom grew so unstable it split into two and then many.
Since then the lands have been off and on at war, growing fewer as they were conquered. For the past century there have been five. But peace is not something that any of them have known, the promise of power that a united land brings still too strong of a lure.
She knows sometimes there are still those seeking the cursed princess in the hopes of the legitimacy her hand would bring.
None ever return. But…
Suddenly, for the first time she considers the princess as more than an old fairy tale or a quest for suicidal fools. What would it be like to wake up and be bound to the first man to save her? A man who knew nothing of her, cared nothing for her, for whom she was nothing but a prize… no, less than even that, a way to gain a prize.
She laughs, remembering that she doesn't have to imagine anything. That that is exactly what her own future holds now.
But if Isabelle woke her… if she woke her it would be about freedom, about gaining it for herself yes, but she could offer it too. They could save each other from marriages that neither of them wanted.
They would still have to marry each other of course but… but it wouldn't have to mean anything but what they agreed to.
And this could save Idris from war. Or at least it could mean allies against Edom if it still came to that.
The sleeping princess was the rightful successor to the throne of the Shadowlands. And that throne might long be dead and gone, but this princess could be the bridge that might form an alliance.
Alone Idris is nothing against Edom, but if they could convince Lord Santiago or the Garroways or the Fairy Queen to stand with them...
Isabelle needs to wake the princess.
*o0O0o*
"Are you insane?" Alec says, his voice almost a growl. Isabelle rolls her eyes and attaches her whip to her hip before grabbing a leather satchel to fill up with things from the kitchens later.
A second one for the scrolls.
"Not as of yet. But if mother makes me marry Sebastian Verlac that might change." Isabelle snarls back and avoids his beseeching eyes.
"We can find another way Izzy. I'll get dad to change her mind. Or me and Jace will figure something to get you off the hook. Going off against a dragon isn't the only option you have." Alec says, hands up as he walks backwards trying to stay in Isabelle's way.
"That will start a war, we both know the only reason mother did this is to stop Edom from invading. She didn't have much choice and now I don't." Isabelle says and swiftly moves around Alec to start rifling through her closet for something that will hold against the wear and tear of travel. At the back of her mind something somewhat hysterical wonders if there's anything that will hold against dragon fire.
"Then I'll marry Lydia and we'll let the war come." Alec says.
Isabelle stops in her tracks and swings around, cold to her bones. "No!"
"Izzy-"
"No, Alec! We barely managed to maneuver you out of that and even then only because Lydia helped. I won't let you throw your whole life away for me." She says, glaring at him.
"But you doing it is fine?" Alec says glaring back, an overprotective, terrified sheen to his eyes. Isabelle looks away.
"I know what I'm doing." Isabelle says, trying to sound far more convincing than she really feels. This is insane. And the chances of her surviving are pretty much slim to none if history is any indication. And yet it still feels like a brighter prospect than becoming a trophy for a family rumored to carry undiluted demon blood in their veins.
She'd rather take a quick death than a slow one.
"Then I'm coming with you." Her brother says.
"Alec-"
"I'm coming with you Izzy or I'm telling mother everything you just told me." Alec says, voice as sharp as their mother's at her most cutting.
"You're the next in line, you can't-"
"Our parents still have Max, honestly he'll probably make a better king anyway." Alec says.
"You know that's not true." Isabelle says. Alec will make an excellent ruler one day, far better than their kingdom actually deserves.
Alec just stares back as stubborn as her and she knows that there will be no changing his mind.
After a moment of hesitation Izzy nods and then before she knows what's happening has fallen into her brother's arms sobbing.
His arms squeeze around her in that familiar warm way that she's only ever known from Alec as he starts whispering comforting nothings into her hair until the tears finally run dry.
*o0O0o*
They sneak out of the castle in the middle of the night the very next evening. Her bag filled with every scroll on the legend she could get her hands on and Jace staying behind to draw away the guard's attention as long as he can. He'd been no more happy than Alec with her plan, but like she knew he would he agreed to cover for them as long as possible.
Hopefully they'll be halfway to their destination before mother knew to send the royal guard after her wayward children.
Their destination.
It's almost funny how simple it is to find the location of the sleeping princess. Everyone knows where Alicante's palace ruins rest. In the very center of the dead kingdom and so now on the edge of all five lands now laying in its long shadow.
Finding the princess isn't the problem. Getting past the centuries old dragon guarding her is the task no soul has survived. Yet.
"Do you even have a plan?" Alec finally asks almost a week later, riding beside her on one of the horses they stole from their own stables.
She still can't believe that after all the trouble they went through to look less like a prince and princess on the lam, they almost forgot to get rid of the royal coat of arms on the saddles.
She'd not actually been sure if it would have been more embarrassing to be caught by their mother or as a pair horse thieves by that point.
"No." Isabelle says, entirely calmly.
"Isabelle!" Alec says groaning and Izzy's lips twitch in a smirk.
"I'm going to ask the dragon some questions first, the plan will form depending on the answers." Isabelle says, her mind deciding to work on the problem of what questions to ask instead of the terror of being killed by an overgrown magic lizard.
"And the dragon's going to answer why exactly?" Alec says, patience obviously running thin.
Isabelle can't say she really blames him, honestly if this had been his hare-brained plan she'd probably have reacted even worse. Not that he'd ever get her to admit to that.
"Didn't you pay attention to the stories? The dragon is intelligent, and just as cursed as the princess. Waking her will free him, he wants someone to break the curse." Isabelle says, mind on the scrolls she's been going through every time they've stopped to rest the horses or sleep these past six days.
"Yes, because killing everyone who's ever tried definitely makes that clear." Alec says, sarcasm obvious.
"Maybe they didn't ask the right questions, maybe they never bothered to ask any questions at all. Or they just weren't the right kind of person to break their curse. I won't know until I've had a chance to ask myself." Isabelle says.
They spend the next five minutes in silence while Alec seems to mull over her words. Finally…
"That's a terrible plan Izzy. We're both going to die. I hope you know that." Alec says though his voice holds no more edges, he sounds more amused by their imminent demises than anything else.
"Probably." Isabelle agrees, her own lips twitching until they catch each others eyes and devolve into nervous giggling.
*o0O0o*
The castle of Alicante when they finally reach it is old, the stone gray with ashes and burn marks, but considering the centuries of disuse it's in surprisingly good condition. All the towers are standing tall and proud and it's easy to picture them how they used to be when the stones shone white and perfect.
It's harder to imagine the place filled with people instead of overgrown with so many weeds it looks more like something you'd find in the fairy territories.
And the wind is too cold with the whispers of ghosts.
Isabelle shivers despite herself and dismounts from the horse. On her left Alec does the same. Neither of them want to speak, they just share a silent look and leave their horses behind them in the treeline.
They're almost at the open palace gates when the dragon finds them. Swooping down in smooth circles, powerful wings carrying him over their heads until he's landing right in front of the only entrance into the inner city of the palace and cutting off their way inside.
He's black, but the scales shimmer a beautiful gold in the wane light coming through the clouds from above them. And as he lays down, - a powerful horned tail swinging around in a sinewy motion that strangely reminds her of her mother crossing her arms as she sits down on her throne, - two large gold eyes, slit like a cat's, land on their frozen forms.
He's so much larger than Isabelle let herself imagine, towering over them in a way that makes her feel like the mouse in this scenario.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. A pair of new idiots vying for a throne long since lost." The dragon's voice is low and smoky and so very bitter, that something twinges in Isabelle's chest at once. She looks over at her brother and sees a small flinch flicker over his face too. The dragon just stares at them, gaze as cold as the first winter frost. "Well then pretty boy, come and kill me! Get your princess and your riches."
Alec actually grimaces at that and Isabelle can't contain a snicker of amusement.
"That's not… I'm not here for me. I'm just here to have my sister's back." Alec says stumbling over his own words.
"Really now?" The dragon bends his head, actual interest sparking in his eyes. "Do tell."
Isabelle lifts her chin and takes a step closer, squaring her shoulders for either a fight or an argument. Dear Angel, she hopes this will be an argument.
"I am Princess Isabelle of the Lands of Idris and I'm here to wake the princess." She says, fingers itching to grasp the familiar leather of her whip, resisting only because she knows how useless that would truly be.
"And what are you after?" The dragon asks, voice low and threatening. Terror ignites like oil in her belly but she swallows it down and waits, feeling that something about the dragon's question will be important. "Power? Riches? Love? Why are you here to wake the princess?"
And Isabelle thinks. What were the previous questers after? They all died, so how did they fail this question? How many lied and said love? How many admitted to greed and perished? How many just ignored the question and charged at the guardian?
Many, she imagines. All of them.
And then she thinks about what the truth for herself is and-
"Freedom." Isabelle whispers, shaking but sure.
And then... there, she sees it in the dragon's gaze and recognizes it instantly, it's the same things that have been growing inside Isabelle since she saw the sentence that brought her here. Hunger and hope. She has the answer, she knows it, she knows it.
"But is it a selfish quest for freedom?" The dragon says back immediately, not yet giving an inch.
And Isabelle only barely bites back a denial. Lying will doom her too, it's instinct or maybe just common sense but she's sure that lying, even to herself, will be a mistake. A fatal one.
"Yes." She admits and doesn't let her suddenly frantic brother to step in front of her. "I don't want to marry a man I know is a monster, not even to protect my people. Finding a way out is selfish. Dying here for a minuscule chance at another way would be selfish. I should go back and do as our parents have arranged and ally Idris with Edom. It avoids war. One life for the many would be selfless. But it's my life."
She knows her mouth is open in a snarl and doesn't care.
"Is that everything?" The dragon's lips pull apart showing a pearly line of sharp teeth, but Isabelle recognizes the smile behind it, the respect even.
"Freedom in exchange for freedom. Mine and yours and hers. I think it's a fair deal." Isabelle says.
"Yes. If you survive." The dragon says and for the first time sounds sad.
"What?" Her brother snaps, finally managing to pull her back.
"Your sister has the right answer, but she still needs to prove her heart. There's been a few who answered similarly… none of them lived through the test." The dragon says, the centuries of age shining brittle in his eyes.
"What's the test?" Isabelle asks.
"Survive my fire, Princess of Idris." The dragon says. "Prove your heart true."
"No." Alec says grabbing at once for his bow and quiver, he's drawn and loosed the arrow before Isabelle has had time to blink. But the dragon's tail swishes through the air, batting it away from himself with barely an effort and then he's upon her brother in less than a heartbeat. A claw at his throat and an amused chuckle rumbling in his chest.
"Well, aren't you a quick one." Something almost fascinated and admiring blooms on the dragon's face. "We haven't even introduced ourselves yet."
"Prince Alexander." Her brother spits, breathing in a heavy gasp and yet still maintaining his famous glare. "Nice to meet you."
"Alexander." The dragon draws out, seeming to taste every syllable. "I'm Magnus Bane, it's a pleasure."
Is the dragon flirting with her brother? Isabelle feels her eyebrows raising in confusion as her hand finally does go for her whip, it might be useless but she'll protect her brother however she can.
It turns out she doesn't have to.
"Unfortunately a curse is a curse, she came here to wake Biscuit and so she either succeeds or dies." Magnus Bane says and steps back, taking his razor-sharp claw off Alec.
She doesn't really have much choice here.
"Okay." Isabelle says.
"Izzy, please-" Alec says, getting up and clearly intending to stop her. She falls back and out of his reach in a few quick steps that instead bring her closer to Magnus.
The dragon lowers his head and catches her eyes in his golden stare filled with age and magic so powerful she can barely comprehend it.
"I'm rooting for you kid." Magnus says, drawing in a breath and exhaling scorching flame. It swallows Isabelle like a moth in candlelight.
*o0O0o*
It burns so hot it whites out everything. She knows she's screaming but can't really hear herself, the roar of the dragon's fire too overpowering. It feels like an earthquake, like every cell in her body is igniting at once. It's more painful than anything else she's ever felt in her life.
When she was fourteen an assassin once managed to stab her through her shoulder before Alec killed him where he stood. After that there was a point in time where the healer who was supposed to help her instead got her addicted to one of his concoctions, the withdrawal from that was once the most painful thing Isabelle thought she would ever have to go through.
She was wrong. Nothing before comes even close to this.
She doesn't think even being enveloped by lava would feel like this, or at least that lava would do the job quicker.
For seconds, minutes, eternities Isabelle is swallowed by it and then… then she remembers why she can't let herself die here. She wanted freedom and she will grasp it even if she has to swim through hell for it. And more than that she rages at the injustice of the curse itself. What right did it have to imprison a girl just like her in eternal sleep? What right did it have to kill hundreds and hundreds of men over the centuries it lasted. What right did it have to shackle a dragon? What right does it have to kill her? It won't, it won't. She won't let it.
The scream of pain transforms into rage as she stares into death and screams herself hoarse with it. She's the storm. She's the fire and no one can choose her destiny but herself.
The world realigns. Her brother is white with terror on his knees. The dragon is smiling… smiling and transforming. Scales smoothing out into skin, the incredible size twisting and rippling to half its weight, then more until there's a man where a dragon used to stand. He looks no older than her brother.
His eyes however remain golden with slitted pupils that now hold more relief than she's ever seen in anyone else.
Alec stumbles to his feet to take a step in her direction but gets stopped by Magnus's hand on his shoulder.
"Don't. That fire isn't meant for you Alexander." Says the dragon that no longer looks like one, - and yet Isabelle somehow knows still is one, - his voice gentle.
She looks down at herself and stares at the blue flames still burning across her skin, no longer hurting her.
"She's inside." Magnus says and steps away from the entrance into the castle, pulling Alec aside with him.
Isabelle only blinks, feeling half asleep herself, and walks past them onto the grounds of Alicante.
She doesn't wander around as she thought she might have to when she entertained success on the road across Idris. Her steps carry her across the abandoned yard and then up the steps of the highest tower.
When she opens the doors she still doesn't quite know what she's expecting to see. But somehow it's not the sight of a girl her own age looking like she's letting herself sleep in a few extra minutes that morning.
Red hair the same shade as a sunrise spill across a pillow and over her eyes. There's a small, content smile painted across her lips.
Isabelle's heart stutters in her chest and she doesn't even know why but she steps over the threshold and into the sleeping princess's sanctuary, finally sitting down beside her a polite distance away.
Then she hesitates. Unsure of what exactly she's supposed to do now. The stories always mention a kiss, but where before when she was a girl in her father's lap that sounded almost romantic, now it just feels wrong. She wouldn't want a stranger to kiss her if she were in this girl's place.
Instead, she leans forward to push the wayward locks of hair away from the princess' eyes and the moment her still flaming hand touches the girl's cheek her eyes snap open and she springs up, slamming their foreheads suddenly and painfully together.
"Ow." Isabelle laughs, the haze that followed her into the room vanishing like so much smoke and taking the last of the dragon's flame with it.
"I'm sorry." The fiery headed girl says with a gasp before confusion clouds her face. "Who are you?"
"Isabelle." She says with a smile she can't seem to contain. "Hi."
"Oh, hi. I'm Clary." Clary says a blush starting to spread across her face. "Where's Magnus? The last thing I remember was him trying to stop Lilith from-"
"Outside, probably still hitting on my brother." Isabelle says, and doesn't that just make more sense now. He was cute actually, she thinks she approves.
"Sounds like him." Clary says immediately with a grin of her own.
They fall silent, still staring at each other like they can't quite decide how to act. Isabelle doesn't know if she remembers ever feeling this awkward before, a swarm of strange butterflies making her stomach their home.
Probably appropriate, for her first meeting with her fiancée.
Oh Angel, she might not have thought this through as much as she'd guessed. Why did Isabelle think that being forced to marry some other random person would be any different for Clary than being forced to marry her?
"You don't have to marry me." Isabelle says before running it over in her mind and closing her eyes a breath away from just groaning out loud.
"Thank you?" Clary says smiling in amused confusion.
"I mean." Isabelle says and sits back a bit, straightening her shoulders from a thousand of her mother's lessons and tries to pull up all the royal upbringing that seems to have abandoned her at the moment. "I would welcome your help in averting the war between Idris and Edom, but though the ruse of our engagement would aid in that goal greatly I give you my word as a royal daughter of Raziel that I will not force your hand in marriage."
"Alright," Clary says with a slow nod to herself. "I think you're going to have to elaborate here a bit."
Isabelle's shoulders drop in relief and she slowly starts filling Clary in on everything she can think of. Her heart hurting alongside her as she forces herself to reveal the parts that will prove to be most painful for Clary to hear.
*o0O0o*
The war does come, Edom not at all satisfied with their prince being rejected for a princess long out of her time.
But they survive it.
And three years later she's holding Clary's arm in one hand and a stele in the other, dressed in gold and with smiles painted across both their faces.
*o0O0o*
AN2: So... I kinda love my shapeshifting dragon!Magnus. How about you?
P.S. I didn't write it but you know that Izzy and Alec only had two horses with them right? Guess who ended up sharing the rides back to Idris?
P.P.S. Coming up with titles is evil and I hate it.