AN~ Well, that was faster than I expected. Probably faster than you expected, too. I think the change of scenery really got my brain going, because I've been doing a lot of writing recently.

Sabrina walked back into the highest room in the castle and, taking a deep breath, told the Trickster Queen, "The discussion is finished. What exactly are the terms of our... arrangement?"

Relda walked in behind her ward and said, "You won't be married for some time, obviously. You haven't even had your official coming-out. You'll be engaged for at least three years before a marriage is even begun to be planned. But you'll be spending most of your time together up until then. He may even participate in some of your studies."

Sabrina nodded and said, "I meant for the countries."

"Ah," Relda said, "A similar program, a sort of exchange, will be started up between our respective citizens, and we will learn from each other in preparation for this threat."

Sabrina nodded again, thinking, More like they'll learn from us. She had a difficult time believing that the Tricksters could save them, but she trusted her grandmother. If she thought it would work, she would attempt it. No matter what it cost her.

"We hope to have you come to our country in a month or so," Titania told Sabrina. "Once the announcements have been made. You'll be formally introduced to my son, and he'll take you on a tour of the country, if I have to drag him every step of it."

"Is he... particularly lazy, then?" Sabrina asked, fighting to keep her face from falling. She knew one of this woman's sons was tolerable, taking after his mother. Why couldn't he have been the one she was engaged to?

"Oh, yes," Titania nodded. "He'll make an absolutely horrible ruler. But the people there are so stubborn, and one of the things they're adamant about is that the crown always goes to the eldest of the previous king. That's why I'm glad he'll be married off. This way we can have him out of the country, and his brother and I can run the kingdom without his interference, without worrying about him making a mess of anyplace else."

This boy was so horrible that his own mother didn't want him around! What had she gotten herself into? But at least Titania was being open. That was a nice change from Sneak's guessing games. They were considered good practice, and sometimes Sabrina was nearly driven insane trying to decipher what to believe.

"You don't think he'll make a mess of here?" Sabrina asked doubtfully. If he was that awful...

Titania looked Sabrina up and down before saying, "Miss Grimm, I have every confidence you can handle anything life throws at you. This includes my impossible son."

"And just where are you going?"

Sabrina, halfway out the lowest window of the north tower, froze. She'd been caught sneaking. This was extremely embarrassing, and depending on who it was, she could be in for a large amount of trouble. She turned slowly, and saw Daphne standing there, hands on her hips. She relaxed. Daphne wouldn't tell.

"I'm leaving," Sabrina said shortly. "I have to go see-"

Daphne glared. "I've been waiting ages for you to get out of that meeting. You promised you'd tell me what it was about. And I am not waiting even longer for you to go run off to spy on Bradley again! You're going to tell me what happened! Now!"

Sabrina sighed, and did, giving her sister the report the way she'd been trained: an emotionless repeat of the facts, not letting her thoughts get in the way of what she'd seen and heard except to make speculations. Like a good Sneak.

When she was finished, Daphne said, "Oh."

"Yeah," Sabrina agreed. There wasn't much else to say.

"And here I was keeping you from Bradley, and you're not going to be able to see him ever again, and... I'm sorry, Sabrina!"

Sabrina sighed again. She'd forgotten that with Daphne, there was always something else to say. "It's fine," she said, "Can I go now?"

Daphne nodded, saying, "Oh, this is awful! I'm so... poor Sabrina." She paused, and as Sabrina slipped out the window, she heard her sister say, "Still, it may not be too bad. I heard the Trickster King is handsome."

Sabrina rolled her eyes, falling to the ground with a quiet 'whump' and running to the city. The capital of Sneak wasn't much of a city, with its permanent population of under two thousand, but it was her home, and she loved it. It was full of nooks and crannies, built halfway into the walls of the cliffs around Sneak, on a seaport. It was dark and dangerous for a newcomer, its alleyways twisting and turning off and back on to the few major thoroughfares, the tall buildings sometimes stacked on top of each other, with a house built onto someone else's roof. Some doors were disguised as sewer grates, some were hidden inside mazes, and some were walls that wouldn't open unless you knew the secret. The architects of Sneak had designed the place to be a puzzle, and none of the brightly colored buildings matched or made sense at all. Sabrina knew her way into most of the homes, and had found the secret rooms of more than a few.

She had the way to Bradley's house memorized: take a left outside the palace gate, climb the ladder onto the roof of the fourth house down, jump three roofs, go back down two stories and take a shortcut through the cave, pass the butcher then hang a right immediately, swing the rope to the next house down, follow that alley 'til you reached a dead end, and you were on his back porch, the last in the row.

She reached the door and knocked on it tentatively. She and Bradley rarely spoke to each other, they were still in the process of a Sneak flirtation: they spied on each other and caught themselves doing it, and left presents and puzzles sometimes, maybe a coded message, only speaking in school, when you were too busy learning to bother making things difficult for yourself, and talked straight with everyone. So this speaking thing was new.

"Hi," Bradley said, answering the door. He seemed surprised, but he'd answered the door, which meant he knew it was her.

"Hi," Sabrina returned, staring at him. She wouldn't be able to see him again, she wanted to take full advantage of it while it lasted.

"Do you want to... come in?" Bradley suggested.

Oh, yes, she really and truly would love to come in and stare at him, to run away to Bradley's house and never go back to the palace, to prove she was a good Sneak by never being found, but she couldn't, because a good Sneak also knew to put the mission first, and her mission was to save her kingdom, no matter what it cost her. So she shook her head.

"Oh," Bradley said, "Okay."

They were silent for a good while, staring at each other, before Bradley asked, "What brings you out here?"

"My Grandmother's arranged a marriage for me," Sabrina blurted, then cursed herself. That was no way to start. She took a deep breath, studying the house behind him- there was the outline of another door, one she hadn't noticed before- then said, "The kingdom... there's going to be a war. And my regent has made an alliance with Trickster, to keep Sneak safe. But she sealed it with a marriage. Between me and the Trickster King."

She looked at Bradley, and found him staring at her. She recognized the expression on his face: it was the one she put on when she was struggling to hide her disappointment. "Oh," he said again. That was what she liked about him. Well, one of the things. He knew when words wouldn't make anything better.

"So... I guess I came to say goodbye," Sabrina said, not bothering to mask her own emotions. "And... well, I'm sorry, I guess."

Bradley nodded, then did something so impulsive, Sabrina couldn't decide whether it made him more a Sneak or less one: he kissed her.

Sabrina almost pulled back, but she wanted this too much, so she leaned in to him, wrapping her arms around him as his went around her, feeling his warmth and strength and wanting to cry because this was just so wonderful, and she wanted to see where it went from here, but she wouldn't be able to, shouldn't even be doing this now, she was promised to someone else, but she couldn't stop herself, Bradley was just... everything she wanted, and this was a kiss that said there could be something more, but also one that said goodbye, sad and beautiful and fiercely angry at the injustice of it all.

When they finally broke apart, Bradley said, "I want more of that. So much. So... I'm going to... I've got to-"

"Leave," Sabrina finished for him. "Yeah. Before..."

"Before it goes too far," Bradley agreed.

He backed up, through the secret door, and Sabrina was too emotional to watch him open it, she was already off and running, running the tears away with her speed, down the alley, then the next and the next and the next, until she was so completely and totally turned around that it didn't matter that she knew every inch of the city, she'd have to wander for hours before she found the palace, running until she lost herself.

Sabrina had found her way to the docks and was sitting on the furthest of the slimy, barnacle-covered pilings past the jetties, staring out into the ocean, when her sister found her.

"How'd it go?" Daphne asked, siting on a closer piling, one that was more intact, though just as slimy, as her sister's.

"He kissed me," Sabrina said, pulling her dress up further, over her knees. She didn't particularly care what seawater would do to the fabric, because the mossy wet algae had already ruined the skirt to the point of no return, but she didn't want to have to get home slogging and dripping in a heavy wet skirt.

Daphne gasped, then composed herself, obviously trying to sound like a proper Sneak, and said, "I thought you went to tell him goodbye."

"I did," Sabrina said, "It was a goodbye kiss."

"I'm sorry, Sabrina," Daphne offered. "It's not fair, you having to do this."

Sabrina shrugged, expressionless. "I chose it," she reminded her sister. "And what's one person's lost happiness, when it saves a whole country?"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Daphne asked, tentatively.

Normally, Sabrina would have stayed silent. Sneaks didn't talk about their feelings much, most of them. It was information that could be used against you. Almost as bad as crying, which she'd thankfully been able to keep from doing. The sight of their queen weeping in the streets would not have been good for her country.

But today... today was different, and, her hands closing into fists, she said, "I just... I want him so much, Daphne! He's everything I could ask for in... anything! A partner, a friend, a sweetheart... He's brave, he's talented, he's quiet like I am, but he understands me, he's... gosh, but he's funny, and that's something I'm not, he's smart... And I... can't have him. And it hurts."

"I don't know how to make it better," Daphne said, and the sorrow in her voice made Sabrina hurt worse. "Do you want me to help you make the best of it, or commiserate with you, or...?"

"Just... don't talk about it," Sabrina said. "Not tonight."

"All right," Daphne agreed.

They sat there in silence for a time, a rare thing around Daphne, and, surprisingly, Sabrina felt better. Not happy, exactly, but like she could do what she had to, and she could live with it, eventually. Hopeful, maybe. So she stood, balancing on the slippery, disintegrating wood, and turned to her sister, who was crouched precariously on her way back to the shore.

Daphne moved out of her way so quickly Sabrina was sure she'd been waiting for that signal since she got there in the first place, and the two hopped back to the jetty at the edge of the cliffs and headed for home, a relatively short journey, as the castle butted up against the area of the docks they were in.

When they reached the castle, it was almost sunset, and well past dinnertime, so Sabrina headed straight for the kitchens, while her sister ran off to do an Unknown Activity (something Sabrina would almost have been willing to follow her, if it wasn't for her growling stomach). She hoped the kitchens were serving something mild this evening. Someone had decided that it was good for the Sneaks to eat foods from all over the world, no matter how horrible they seemed, so that they would be well acquainted with them if they had to visit their homelands. Sabrina wasn't particularly fond of most of them. It was the one part of Sneak training her sister was better at than she was.

Her grandmother was in the kitchens when she got there. She handed Sabrina a plate of haggis and gravy-soaked potatoes (at least one edible item), then tutted over her clothes.

Sabrina was too busy stuffing potatoes into her mouth to respond to her grandmother until she said, "Well, I suppose it's a good thing you'll be needing an entirely new wardrobe."

Sabrina had no problem with clothing. It was useful: it contained pockets, and protected her from the weather. But she hated getting new clothes, because that meant fittings. Fittings meant hours standing with her arms straight out while someone wrapped a string around different parts of her body, which would be wearing far less than usual, and none of that useful. "Why?" She complained around a mouthful of food.

"You've grown again, dear, your old gowns don't fit right," Relda explained, "And most of them are stained, anyway. We'll have to get you plenty of new clothes for when you tour Trickster next month. You want to make the right impression."

Sabrina sincerely hoped that 'the right impression' didn't mean that she would need to wear the fashions of that country. She was fond of fashions in Sneak. They were designed for efficiency, taking everything in the world of clothing (women's, in particular), and giving it a useful purpose. They were fond of hoopskirts because they kept the dress away from the legs of a woman who needed to run or climb, and one had been designed which allowed it to be collapsed to fit in tight spaces or be raised like Venetian blinds for climbing, and skirts without hoops rarely came without slits in the sides and sashes to tie them high, out of the way. Petticoats were a rare addition, though, unless it was cold.

Blouses had tight sleeves, for the most part, because billowing sleeves got in the way, though sometimes a puffed short sleeve could hide a clever pocket, and were never too form-fitting, though they did wear corsets. These corsets, though, were armor. They were worn loose, and shaped with hinged and well-oiled metal that allowed for freedom of movement but still protected one from being stabbed in the torso. Pockets were hidden in all sorts of out of the way places that one would never expect, and seamstresses, tailors, and clothing designers were highly respected members of society, always coming up with new clever ideas for secrets in clothing.

Girls could, if they liked, wear trousers, but it was looked down upon, because being able to function at full capacity in a skirt was a skill, and one the women of Sneak were proud of, even if the clothes they wore made it easier than usual to wear gowns.

"When does my fitting start?" Sabrina asked warily.

"Tomorrow," Relda informed her. "Seven in the morning. The blue room. I recommend you get a good night's sleep, your arms will be tired by the time this is finished."

"Will you be there?" Sabrina asked.

Relda shook her head and said, "I've got to see Titania off."

"How did she get here?" Sabrina asked. "When is she leaving? Where is she staying?"

Relda shook her head with a smile and said, "Now, Sabrina, what kind of Sneaks would we be if I told you that?"

Sabrina raised her eyebrows at her regent, then grinned. She was right. She'd just have to find out for herself.

She never got the chance to find out, though, because she fell asleep while bathing and changing out of her dirty gown, and by the time she woke up the next morning, she was already almost late for her dreaded fitting, so she pulled on a serviceable old dress (she'd just have to take it off again in five minutes anyway) and took the secret passage to the blue room through her water closet.

The seamstress didn't react at all to Sabrina appearing out from the column in the corner of the room, nodding at a stepstool in the center and saying, "Get in place."

Sabrina sighed and stripped off her gown, then went to stand on the stool. She left her arms down, though. She was leaving them down as long as possible.

The seamstress hated fittings as much as Sabrina did. She also hated mornings, and wouldn't begin really talking until after ten o' clock. Why she'd agreed to meet at seven, Sabrina had no idea. This made the fitting even less enjoyable, because the seamstress just grunted through most of it, and Sabrina had to guess what she wanted.

By the time the measuring was finished, though, she'd started to open up, and had pulled out a book on fashions in Trickster, as well as her packet of fabric samples, and she'd gotten to the part she enjoyed: designing the dresses.

Sabrina was no good at this part. She liked touching the cloth, but she didn't know what was best for what, or which color looked best on her, or what shape her neckline should be in relation to her sleeves. She just let the chatter wash over her, and allowed her clothes to be designed for her. As she'd suspected, clothes in Trickster were far less practical than her home, but the seamstress assured her she could make something that would fit in and still be serviceable, and she only needed a few outfits that would fit in with Trickster, anyway, because the people would be expecting her to wear clothes from her home, because they'd want something interesting to look at, so she could have plenty of good clothes.

Sabrina nodded, letting the sea of words wash over her, and didn't take in much of anything. Clothes were a mystery she would never solve.

AN~ We'll meet Puck next chapter, I promise. It just made more sense to have all this stuff first. Plus this way I can do whatever I want with him, and it gives me time to figure out what the capital of Trickster looks like. I mean, it's a kingdom of lazy people. How much splendor can they have?

Some review replies:

oh em gee: Are you also oah ehm gee? I continued. I make no promises for the next update, though.

Please and Please again: Why did you give me the same review twice, exactly?

Lc literature critic/India: Do you have an account? You seem like you might have an account. Anyway, thank you very much! ^.^