I didn't expect to update so soon but, here it is. Enjoy chapter 2!

"Raven…Earth to Raven," Briar snapped her fingers in Raven's face.

Before Raven could react to that, Lizzie reached across the table and grabbed Raven by her collar.

"Raven, you are to focus on the matter at hand or so help me it will be off with your head!" Lizzie spoke her threat through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, sorry," Raven sighed and then did her best to readjust herself after that.

"Ahem," Faybelle loudly cleared her throat, "Are you all done now?"

A consensus of 'done' went through the group and Faybelle was then able to continue.

"Anyway, as Raven has shared with us, it looks like the kingdom's financial system is doing very well. We're good in the skies, Briar, you've said that everything is fine with our neighbors across the sea. Lizzie, how is Wonderland fairing?" Faybelle turned to face Lizzie.

At this, Raven decided to tune out again. Here she was, at a council summit. She had never intended on doing anything remotely near 'ruling' let alone 'ruling' a large portion of land but, this was her reality.

While King Charming lay dying, he had become aware of many pieces of information.

To call these pieces of information 'bombspells' was inaccurate because many individuals throughout the land knew the truth but, had been reluctant to share that with the sickly king.

The truths that had been uncovered were: Daring's long-standing love affair with Cerise Hood, Dexter's deal with Eros to prove himself worthy enough to live on Olympus with Cupid and last but certainly not least, Darling revealed that instead of playing damsel, she had actually aided in several rescues of poor and helpless commoners and was going to be doing some saving of more commoners, damsels and princes in distress in the near future.

Once all of this came out, King Charming refused to pass the crown to any of his children and, the three decided that they wanted nothing to do with it anyhow. Dexter and Daring relocated as quickly as they could and, while Darling wasn't intent on leaving the land because she wanted to focus on garnering a career as a knight, she figured she might find acceptance as a female knight elsewhere and, she took her love, Rosabella with her.

Before her departure, Darling had met with Raven and Apple at the time and, after some discussion and the addition of a few more trusted women, a 'Ladies of The Round Table' type of ruling system had been put into place.

Faybelle was put in charge of the skies. She was to oversee all air-activity and to make sure that creatures and being with flight were treated with the same respect of non-winged beings.

She and Briar had buried the hatchet years ago when they hadn't pledged their destinies. Speaking of Briar, she was put on the council mainly because of Rosabella but, either way, Briar was barely around because she was traveling all about distant lands now that she was part of a DJ-ing duo that consisted of her and her long-time boyfriend, DJ N-Chant. This was the reason that Briar was put in charge of managing foreign affairs from alliances with distant lands to handling trade regulations. Sure, she was barely home for anything but these meetings with the rest of the 'round table' but, she still did her job very well in the midst of DJ-ing for a living.

Raven and Apple had been in charge of the overall ruling and management of the land that they called home…However, when the two split up, Apple ran to…to who knows where but, now Raven handled these responsibilities on her own. While she was managing rather well, she had been a lot better off when the work was split between Apple and herself.

Last but not least, there was Lizzie. She was the ruler of Wonderland and, because leaving out Wonderland was certainly not an option, she was present at these meetings to provide any aid that she could to all of the other 'departments' she could plus, should anything detrimental happen to a building or several of them, she could definitely help. She had nearly rebuilt Wonderland all on her lonesome.

"Meeting is adjourned," Faybelle announced and sprang up out of her seat.

Since Faybelle had been the leader of this meeting, it was going to be Briar's turn to lead the proceedings next time around. Everything was always kept very fair between the ladies.

"Lizzie, what're you…" Raven was thrust back to reality when Lizzie suddenly had a death grip around her wrist, the one with the dove tattoo.

"You are coming with me," Lizzie said nothing more and proceeded to drag Raven along with her.

Originally, Raven thought that Lizzie was going to drag her to her Wonderland. However, Lizzie ended up dragging Raven to Maddie's tea shop. Her tea shop in the Land of Ever After, not in Wonderland.

"Can someone please tell me why we're here?" Raven was sick of this whole day by now and wanted to get back to her castle and fall asleep for how ever many hours.

"I am no sorceress but, some types of tea do possess healing capabilities," Maddie started, "In this case, we're looking at a scar remedy."

"Scar remedy?" Instinctively, Raven looked down at her wrist to see her tattoo of a dove.

She let her eyes linger on it for a little longer than usual. Blinking, Raven pictured Apple's luscious lips offering a soft but sexy kiss to hers and…

"Did you see that? She's doing it again!" Lizzie was about ready to flip her crown.

"Now now, I've got this under control. Why don't you get back to the wondrous land of all that is mad?" Maddie knew just how to soothe Lizzie's nerves.

"Very well, give Alistair my best," Finally, something other than a scowl graced Lizzie's features.

Maddie giggled happily, "And give Kitty my best!"

"Tea is done!" Maddie chimed as she ran towards the screeching of her tea kettle.

"Isn't that a little loud for just a…" Raven stopped speaking when she saw the enormous tea kettle that Maddie somehow managed to drag into the room.

However, Raven was rendered speechless when she saw the even bigger tea cup that Maddie had Alistair push into the room.

"Don't worry, Raven. We'll be done soon," Maddie ran over to Raven and pulled her over to the giant tea cup.

"Maddie, even Lizzie wouldn't tell me why she ended up bringing me here through threats and…"

"Could you hold that thought, Raven?"

"Why…OW!"

The ebony haired princess screamed at the top of her lungs as Maddie dunked her wrist with the tattoo into the hot tea. Raven's tattoo felt like it was on fire, thus making the skin of her wrist feel the same way.

When Maddie jerked Raven's hand up out of the 'tea bath', Raven wasn't sure she could do much else but take in a sharp inhale.

"There we go," Maddie smiled at Raven's wrist that appeared blank now, "All we need to do now is wipe away the excess tea and…"

When the mad maiden's voice trailed off, nervousness enveloped Raven.

"And what?" Raven dared to ask.

"…and, that's not right," Maddie frowned at the fact that Raven's tattoo remained, even after being dunked the special tea, "Let's try again!"

"No, Maddie…DON'T"!

In fact, Maddie tried dipping Raven's wrist in the tea bath again and again. About an hour passed and the same results kept happening. Once the tea was cold, Maddie sighed in defeat and frowned at her best.

"I am so sorry, Raven," Maddie looked down at the ground.

Raven offered a forgiving smile, "It's okay. Really, Maddie. I…"

"For starters, you're still very much in love with Apple. Secondly, that's no ordinary tattoo you've got. It was done with a magic needle and, the magic of true love is making it impossible to remove."

"Maddie, what Apple and I had is over and…"

"Raven," Maddie continued interrupting Raven for her own good, "You two might be apart but, you cannot look at me and try to convince me that you don't still have feelings for her. Also, she's still got very strong feels for you or else the love that you two share would be no more. What I'm saying is, if she didn't feel something for you as well, I might have been able to remove your tattoo. Well, maybe…Okay, maybe not but, running away from your feelings will get you nowhere."

There is was: Raven had to face the very real feelings she still had for Apple. Fighting the tears swimming in her eyes was going to be impossible. Plus, now Raven felt especially guilty over the circumstances of her and Apple's split.

A/N: Aaaaaand, I'm choosing to leave you with a cliffhanger right here! Again, I didn't expect to update so soon but, this all hit me like a ton of bricks and, I had to write it down. Dunno when the next update will be but, I hope that this will hold you over until that time. Thanks again!