Author's note (skip if you want I'm too stuffy to care):

Sorry for the wait, I would have updated sooner but then I started to feel a bit under the weather while traveling. I had intended for this chapter to be longer but it is rather difficult to write when your sinuses are screaming at you because according to them it is just not natural for a human being to go from sea level to seven hundred feet up a mountain.

The pain… and also that thing where your ears pop? Continuously? Yeah… that's not fun either. Also the continuous altitude change makes me feel like my nose is stuffed up, even though it's not so… very difficult to write in my free time (too busy trying to sleep it off).

But I want to finish this story and I want to update (this whole thing started out as a personal challenge and I want to finish it dangit) so… here's a chapter that's about ten pages shorter than usual.

XXX

The one with discoveries

XXX

"So… all these scrolls are betrothal requests?" Ashlynn asked dumbstruck. There was like six heavy thick scrolls sitting in the middle of Cerise and Cedar's dorm room. They detailed propaganda about the family's accomplishments over the years, who hands were being offered, and why it would be beneficial to marry into their family.

When Raven had found out that people had already started offering her marriage requests she had been surprised, but that was nothing compared to her flabbergasted reaction to the large amount of requests and which families had sent them. Briar couldn't finish a proper string of latanic swear words she was so taken aback.

Broom Mistress Serpent had been all to glad to unburden herself of the heavy items, and all to amused at the flabbergasted looks she received (she nearly giggled the entire time).

Charlotte at the very least had tamped down on her humor long enough to help magically levitate everything to Cerise and Cedar's dorm before bidding everyone goodnight and making her way back to Faybelle's room.

"Those scrolls are betrothal requests from Royal families with very large kingdoms." Briar pointed out trying to control her own laughter, now that the shock had died down she found the situation amusing too.

She held up a small cluster of colorful bags in one hand and a collection of choker necklaces with little metal chess pieces and various card symbol pendants in the other.

"These little baggies are betrothal requests and token gift charms from the really old families, like the super ancient ones, and these pretty necklaces were all smuggled in from Wonderland save this one with the pretty heart pendant." She disentangled said choker from the others and held it up.

"Lizzie, Maddie, and Kitty sure didn't waste much time." Raven sighed into the warm blanket wrapped around her with a shy little smile. She was glad that she had decided to wear just a tunic and leggings today because it was very difficult to curl up comfortably in clothes designed for an Evil Queen.

From his spot beside the witch Daring stared at her in confusion. "Um… just what do the necklaces signify Hexactly?" He asked slowly hefting one of the scrolls towards himself and taking a cursory peek inside the first few inches. His eyes widened at the Royal sigil to the house of Merlin staring back at him.

"Wonderlandian royal families only choose the very best for their harems. By wearing one of these Raven will have publically announced which Wonderlandian harem she wishes to belong to." Briar grinned at the boy wickedly as he dropped the scroll with a yelp.

"Harem?" He gaped. "Lizzie wants her to be a- a concubine?"

"Royal wife to the Heart crown, and the tale of Wonderland actually." Raven hooked her blanket-enveloped hand around his and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"In Wonderland the kings, if the queen sees fit to even have a king, are merely figureheads, pretty faces whose sole purpose is to do things like taste food for poison, they're expendable I guess you could say. But it is the female and male harem wives who act as the queen's advisors and help bear an heir for the throne. They are also the only ones who can say no to the queen without being punished for it. It is a high honor in Wonderland to wear the clothing of a harem wife, and my current title technically makes me a queen which makes me eligible for the position; a royal title is usually the requirement for an outsider like me to even be considered becoming a harem wife."

"Well… as long as it's not an insult to your own status as a queen…" Daring seemed to relax slightly but still eyed the necklaces warily.

"It is a higher honor still to be asked to become the official bride to a whole fairytale." Briar gave the heart necklace to the witch who took it gently, studying the intricate designs carved into the metal of the pendant. "Or so says the engagement note addressed to the both of you that Lizzie had attached to the necklaces."

It was Daring this time who took the offered object, eyes widening further when another necklace was tossed to him.

"What?" The boy squeaked looking down at his very own identical necklace.

Raven plucked the note from Daring's slack fingertips and began to read.

"The characters to the sacred tale of Alice in Wonderland formerly request that should the tale of Snow White and that thing with Apple not work out that the Honorable Lady Queen Raven of the Rebels and Prince Daring Charming of that adorable charming kingdom to please consider being apart of the tale of Alice in wonderland. Since the heir to the Hearts throne was just going to use a scarecrow in place of a king of hearts anyway, we are suggesting that perhaps either Daring or Raven or the both of you (it never said that there had to be just one) to briefly take on the king of hearts role if the Rebel thing doesn't work out (which is just Lizzie and Kitty being pessimistic, don't worry Raven the Rebels are gaining numbers like really quickly despite the Headmaster's efforts) and to become the Royal wives to the main five characters of the Wonderlandian tale (well since this is a bit of a new position we suppose that for Daring's comfort he can be dubbed High Lord Charming or something like that, and Raven can be The Honorable Lady) and anyways we aren't going to push you guys into sharing your lands or anything like that, you can if you want but you'll have to sign a bunch of papers because consent for everything is really huge in Wonderland, but this is just a friendly offer that you two can take either until you guys get your feet back or you can stay our harem forever if that's what you decide. We really like you guys so please keep all of this in mind! (By the way it's really hard writing so formally in this language, even harder than in riddleish like the rock that breaks a camels toe only the object is in my brain and-)."

Raven stops reading in order to cough and give her voice a rest.

"I take it that they had Maddie write that." Cerise commented lightly from her spot on her bed. She cocked her head to the side. "How did she get so many words to fit on that tiny scrap of paper… unless you have super magnifying eyes that can read little print…?"

"Wonderland optical bending." Raven croaked. "Don't know how it works, I stopped asking after the first explanation."

"High Lord Charming and The Honorable Lady Raven of Wonderland…" Ashlynn whistled lowly rolling over on Cedar's bed so that she was staring up at the canopy. "I kind of like it. Sounds both dignified and pretty."

Raven gave a shell-shocked Daring a one armed hug. Carefully minding the boy's injuries. "Hey." She soothed. "Neither you or I have to decide on anything just yet ok? And I'll make sure that you don't have to go through anything alone when we are ready to tackle the future."

Daring softened considerably and returned Raven's one armed hug with a full one.

"Thank you." He whispered raw.

"What are these folders for?" Cedar jumped off of her bed to sit on the floor beside Briar.

"Incentives." Briar eyed the folders with slight distaste. "Unofficial financial and political bribery in the hopes to entice Raven into a speedy marriage instead of going through the lengthy courting that is customary with a union to a witch of Raven's caliber."

"Caliber?" Raven blinks blushing at the high praise. "But I have no monetary value. There's a rule written into the estate saying that the net worth of anything belonging to the estate cannot be sold off or married away! Once an Evil Queen reverts back to her birth name all assets go to the new Evil Queen and her daughter, the old Evil Queen has to either live off of her relative's kindness or go out and forge a new life!"

Briar held up a black folder with the Queen family's sigil embossed on the front in silver. "Remember when Broom Mistress Serpent gave us that assessment of your bridal net worth? Well apparently no destiny means that old rule to the Queen clan's inheritance has been dissolved. I took a peek, curiosity and all that, and… well you've got to see this to believe it."

Raven took the folder and hurriedly opened it.

She saw it but she still didn't believe it.

"That… is a lot of zeros." Daring observed in a higher pitched voice from behind Raven's shoulder, which was fortunate because right then Raven needed to be steadied or she probably would have bumped her head pretty severely on the floor when she slumped backwards.

Daring being from a small kingdom knew about bridal and groom net worth, he had been reminded continuously as a pre-teen by his tutors to appreciate the fact that he was to marry Apple White, the girl with the highest bridal net worth amongst the human kingdoms. He and his father had always made faces behind those tutor's backs because they were already a well off family and being told to only see dollar signs around his betrothed was not very Charming at all.

Until that moment Apple's net worth was the largest that Daring had ever seen, but Raven's net worth…

It really was a lot of zeros.

Raven stopped breathing as she read the specifics of her net worth. "Papa's given me an inheritance too?" she whispered disbelieving, flipping through the leafs of paper with shaking hands. Daring had to help her hold the paper still she was shaking so badly. "Publically? As in he had to sign his name on public record?"

"Why's that so hard to believe?" Cedar asked her as Daring had to move behind Raven and hold both of her arms still. "I thought that you and your dad were on good terms?"

"Mother caused a lot of shame for the Queen clan. For my and my father's family's protection the identity of my father was kept a secret. Any inheritance after the fairytale would have to be under the table. I could only be declared as his daughter after a new Evil Queen took my place. After I changed my name and hid my identity." Raven spoke in quick sentences her hands finally, finally steadying enough for her eyes to register the familiar scribbled signatures of not one but five people.

Tears sprang to Raven's eyes. "Papa… Grandmother?... Lady Sasha… everyone? They all- they all signed their names? All for… this can't be all for me…" She whispered disbelieving. Never in a million years would she had thought to see the day where her father's family felt safe enough to declare her, Raven Queen, daughter of the Evil Queen, as theirs. She had always assumed that she'd have to hide out for a long while after graduation and then change her name, dye her hair, wear a lot of bright colors…

Daring wasn't initially paying much attention to the sheaf of paper that Raven was mumbling over, he was too busy trying to soothe his nearly hysterical friend, gently stroking her hair and rocking her in his arms like he used to do with his baby sister when she was a child.

"You aren't going to follow your mother's footsteps. It's well and official now so it makes sense that if your father really loves you he would publically declare you his heir now." Briar stated the fact softly, she hadn't had the chance to look at the particular page that Raven was looking at but she knew from Apple that Raven's father had to be a noble of some kind. Which would explain all of the secrecy behind Raven's paternal heritage.

"Can I see?" Daring asked in a fatherly way one might speak to a small child.

Raven handed the folder to him, using her freed hands to wipe away the tear tracks.

A beat then; "Your father's the Good King?"

There were a series of stunned what's as the folder was quickly passed around the room.

"Now you see the need for the secrecy." Raven's voice was high and airy.

"Um…" Cedar looked at the paper, fidgeting unsurely. "Raven why do you have so many grandmothers?"

"My paternal grandmother keeps three lovers, two women one man." Raven admitted freely, it was of little concern to her as she kept clinging to Daring's arms and tried to ride out the shock of being proclaimed to the world that she was a daughter to a Good King.

"Oh." The wooden girl blinked innocently apparently appeased by Raven's explanation and not at all shocked by it. "So why's everyone so excited over Raven's father? Is this Good King a famous person?"

"You don't know who the Good King is?" Cerise looked at her roommate with wide eyes.

"Well… no…"

Ashlynn sighed. "Good Kings appear in many of the original fairytales, usually a Prince Charming can be considered a Good King after their first child is born. But the Good King that we're talking about is well… the Good King. The King family is the oldest known royal human family in existence, it is believed that they have been around since King Arthur's time and they have played roles in major historical events throughout history, they are also the second most powerful human royal family in the world, and it is believed that a Good King aided the original Grimm Brothers in creating the Book of Legends. A little like us fairytale characters when a new King is crowned, whether they be male or female, most people who aren't family or friends are to refer to them as the Good King so-and-so. For years a lot of people wondered if the line would die out because there appeared to be no living heirs born into this generation…"

She looks at Raven then, eyes seeming to pierce into the witch's very soul. "Now that she has been acknowledged as the long lost heir we are looking at the future Good King, The Good King Raven."

Everyone stared at the witch.

"Hi." Raven waved at them meekly.

XXX

Kitty blinked owlishly when she reappeared outside her own dorm. She had spent the last few hours contemplating how she had managed to get herself into this mess.

What had initially started out as a little check-up on the little Raven after the cat girl (and many terrified onlookers) had witnessed the fair-one go nearly nuclear, that had turned into actually finding a reasonable explanation for the princess's magical outburst (Jealousy. Kitty was so happy that she and darling Maddie did not have nearly as much drama in their relationship), which had turned into Kitty finding out a big secret.

Well was it really so much a secret now? Would Maddie get angry with her for snooping? For this instance… maybe not but if she ever found out that Kitty had been a curious little kitten about Raven's past for the past three months…

But relationships depended on telling your partner the truth about certain big things (such as snooping on your beloved's best friend and sister) and only keeping secrets about… the littler insignificant things (things like how it only half irritated Kitty that Maddie would steal her favorite spot around that time of month but just the half because Kitty was just happy that Maddie was there to take up that spot at all and it warmed her animal instincts to know that her mate wanted to curl up in a place that smelled like Kitty when she wasn't feeling well. Kitty never voiced about the half irritated part and always resigned herself to curl around her mate and keep her sore parts warm until the pain killers kicked in and the cramping stopped being such a nuisance). It was essential for survival to keep your mate apprised of important information back in the times when all there was to look forward to was more war, and it was still essential even now, during these times of peace.

Kitty had tried to be good but she just could not stop her ingrained nature and bad timing.

Guess she was just going to have to get reacquainted with her lonely little perch for a few nights until Maddie saw fit to forgive her.

Kitty walked into their room nervously, her stomach dropping when she caught sight of Maddie sitting at the tea table with Earl Grey.

Cheshire's were not known for beating around the bush, to hem and haw about in a worried tizzy, or sugar coating things when it came to subjects that they wanted to discuss or confess to (even if that subject would get them into trouble. Especially if the subject was sure to cause trouble) and Kitty true to her heritage was no different.

"I've been snooping in on the little Raven's past for the last three months." Kitty stood before her beloved, arms behind her back, letting the blunt statement quickly pass her lips before weak fear could gunk up the delivery.

"I know." Maddie added a cube of sugar to her tea.

"You already knew this?" Kitty breathed in disbelief. "For how long?"

"Six months ago you idly wonder out loud why Raven always smelled like a medicine cabinet. I knew that your curiosity would not let the issue go so I had asked Raven if she would be willing to take the protections off of certain items so that you could deduce the gist of our childhood on your own." Maddie calmly took a sip of tea as she surveyed her lover with a worried eye. "Because I love you and you were nearly fully apart of our tribe by then Raven consented to leaving hints and clues in places where hopefully the fair one would not stumble upon them."

Maddie placed her cup on the table and stood up. "But I am rather turned around and upside down about why you confessed three months snooping and not five or six. Beloved… are you feeling well?" Maddie peeled off her glove and caressed Kitty's forehead and cheek.

"You…" Kitty cleared her throat. "You were fine with me snooping?"

"Of course I was." Maddie huffed looking at Kitty lovingly. "I love you Kitty Cheshire, that includes your nature for pranks and sneaky squeaky spying!"

She then sobered a little, fidgeting the toe of her shoe on the floor. "Raven wasn't feeling up to a show and tell so she didn't mind you rifling through her past to take the answers you seek, and I… have troubles discussing the topic in length, so I could not tell you everything either."

Maddie looked down uncharacteristic darkness clouding her eyes. "She had been taken right before my very eyes you know, and I had been too tiny to stop the monster. Those months she was missing I…"

Kitty held the other, nuzzling her mate's hair and breathing reassuring purrs, giving Maddie strength to finish. "…I feared her dead. While her father allowed us of Wonderland shelter in one of his castles I had been so far gone without hope that I had built a tiny memorial in the room I was assigned to… Raven's room. When they found her alive I dared not believe it until I saw her with my own eyes, and even then it took me a second and fourth glance to truly believe my eyes." Maddie was unusually quiet as she spoke the haunting images of Raven all bandaged up and jumping frightfully at everything like an abandoned baby bird forever burned into her brain.

"That's why you protect her so?" Kitty asked, her voice waving away the images going through the other's mind like vapors of dissipating smoke. "Well I suppose that the answer to that is obvious…" She mumbled.

"Raven has always been kind. Far too loving in nature to ever become the Evil Queen." Maddie sighed. "Even after her ordeal she didn't become hardened and bitter, instead she became frightened, of everything fairytale. Denying the Book was not as shocking to me as it was to others, in fact I had been expecting it for years! The fair one's dreams of getting her perfect villain never stood a chance from the very beginning!" Maddie giggled forcefully pulling herself out of her dark mood at the memory of the all the scandalized looks and the faces filled with cautious hope.

Maddie turned in the other's arms gifting Kitty with a smile that was nearly Cheshire cat-like. "Raven may have difficulty understanding Wonderland workings at times but, ever the curious scholar, she's learning and she accepts you now as apart of the tribe. My beloved, my love, I accept you too, all of you, even and especially the parts that love to constantly be sneaky, and pull wonderously amusing pranks, and roll around in my laundry!" Maddie laughed.

"Really?" Kitty whispered. Not even her own mother was able to find someone that would accept her completely, Cheshire's who were proud enough not to conform to another's expectations rarely did and so many, like her mother, simply left when they got bored, kittens in hand if they were birthed.

But this was Maddie Hatter, the maddest Wonderlandian she had ever met! If there was anyone else more qualified to love a Cheshire… Kitty would not believe it. She'd deny that other nameless person and resolutely keep Maddie for herself.

"Should there be any doubt?" Maddie asked slyly.

"Mine!" And Kitty was kissing her.

"You know that was very sweet." A male voice commented from above.

"Indeed, very romantic." Agreed a female voice.

The two kissing girls stilled.

Kitty ripped her head upwards. "Privacy!"

"Oops, I think they heard us." The female hissed.

"You think?" Kitty roared, making Maddie giggle. "I don't care this time! If you two aren't gone in two seconds I'm going to have my way regardless of onlookers or not!"

"Eeek!"

"Leaving!"

Amongst the ensuing growls and giggles Earl Grey grabbed his mistress's hat, which had been flung across the room, and jumped in.

He didn't mind spending the night in the little nest that Raven had made for him in her closet, and Raven's chief familiar Nevermore was nice and warm to sleep next to whether she was in her bird form or tiny dragon form.

XXX

Apple lay dejectedly in Raven's bed, note from Briar crumpled in her clenched hand.

Raven hadn't come back to their dorm that night.

Her so-called best friend and who knows how many others had seen to that.

When the message had arrived via one of Ashlynn's humming birds Apple knew that something was up. Briar's penmanship had been lovely as per usual for a princess but the underlying irritation bled through her words and now swirled in Apple's mind like a bad dream.

Briar had very pointedly described how Apple publically handled the situation yesterday was considered extremely rude, could be mistaken for her abusing Raven, and Apple was very lucky that Raven knew her as well as she did because she could have just as easily gotten spooked and asked the guest witches to help her get their bond forcefully removed.

Briar had sounded very dry in her writing when she explained that Raven wanted to keep their bond even if it was under platonic pretenses.

Even without the other princess present the written words somehow managed to make Apple feel ten centimeters tall with no problem. She knew how to hit all the right buttons and Apple sure felt sufficiently ashamed.

Apple also knew with a growing sense of dread that until Briar managed to track her down and yell at her in person things were not over between the two.

Ultimately Briar was glad that she had finally gotten over herself long enough to realize what Raven had actually been saying and stopped humiliating Raven with her I-know-everything attitude (Apple guessed that Raven did have to inform a few concerned parties about last night, the princess couldn't help but wince at the knowledge that she had probably been the cause of a lot of trouble for the witch the past two days) but for Raven's sake Briar had convinced the witch to stay somewhere else for a while.

Apple knew what this situation meant; Briar had told Raven that even though Apple seemed fine with everything, the witch should still give her some space, and Raven, who loved Apple so much, would not question it as long as she thought that was what was best for Apple.

But Apple didn't want to be separated from Raven she wanted to kiss Raven.

…Ok so maybe Briar did have a valid reason to steer Raven away but that still did not mean that Apple approved of this trickery!

No one was in Briar and Ashlynn's dorm meaning that the two had hidden the witch somewhere else for the night so Apple couldn't defy Briar's intentions and collect Raven, and Maddie was very busy judging by the noises coming through her dorm room door (Apple had learned her lesson from last time and so she placed an ear to the door first before attempting to knock or barge in).

So now Apple could do nothing but lay on Raven's bed and sulk.

Well sulk and glare hatefully at some betrothal requests for Raven's hand she had found on the balcony. They had arrived sometime while Apple was attempting to find Raven or talk to Maddie, which had resulted in Apple's mood turning even stormier.

She and Raven really needed to up the security for their room. Tomorrow when she could Apple was going to find Raven and that will be the main topic of discussion.

Because as much as she hated it Briar did have a method to her madness, Apple had nothing but empty promises of finding a loophole and until she did the princess had no rights to demand that Raven be claimed as hers. So for now all that she could talk about with Raven would be purely platonic, mundane things that did not involve love and Apple must repress the urge to publically claim Raven as Apple's future wife and so all of those competitors for the witch's affections could just take their fancy scrolls and tokens and stuff it!

And yes she was aware that there was a very big chance that she wouldn't find anything. That she would have to leave Raven for her fairytale and resign herself to stay at Raven's side as only her friend, but that still did not mean that she wouldn't fight for this, Ashlynn had been willing to risk everything for love, and she had said that she had found a loophole for her tale!

Besides there was a chance that Raven's life was still in danger. If headmaster Grimm was right about fairytale characters disappearing if they do not play their roles…

She would find a way. No matter what she ended up being to Raven at the end of all of this she would fight for Raven to remain at her side.

This whole situation sucked. Why couldn't things be simpler? Maddie and Kitty didn't have the weight of impending disappearances and future happiness hanging in the balance!

Things still would have sucked less if Raven were there to cuddle with, the princess thought bitterly.

Apple did not find sleep for a very long while.

XXX

Daring woke up to the misty early morning light feeling unusually warm, with his sister's hair in his face, and a slumbering witch curled delicately around his arm and using his shoulder as a pillow. He supposed that he and Raven had dozed off and when Darling came looking for him she decided to stick around rather than try to wake him and smuggle him back to her dorm.

They were still in Cedar and Cerise's room, the three of them curled up on a plush rug on the floor like three small children who were tuckered out from playing so much.

Oddly enough he found himself rather comfortable despite the two bodies resting on either side of his own (although his sister was mostly draped on him than to the side of him). Somebody had put three large pillows on the ground but the one behind his head was the only cushion that was occupied, the two girls at his sides seemed to have found himself far better pillow material than the actual objects in question.

A knight, a prince, and a queen who would in time become a king.

The three of them together sounded like the makings of a royal court, a scene taken right out of a historical account of the kingdom leaders being so devoted to solving a problem or resting after a grueling battle that they fell into slumber together, granted Raven would have made it a witch's royal historical account, but despite the two humans it still counted.

Raven the Good King. Good King Raven. My, that had more of a ring to it than queen Raven did; Daring's mind reeled at the thought.

Good King Raven, daughter to the second most powerful human kingdom of ever after, perhaps soon to be the first since the witch was the only heir to both the Queen and King realms and thus the two were sure to be merged into one in time.

…Maybe Raven didn't need a fairytale after all.

It was a rebellious thought, but since he was thinking under the lines of a royal prince he supposed that he could be forgiven the transgression of not thinking like a student of the Royal faction.

He knew that Raven would not disappear if she did not forge a new story with Apple; he had every confidence that True Love would save the day… but there was more to it… Raven was a leader, already a future ruler in the making, a would-be king who was fearlessly leading her Rebel comrades to a different future. It almost seemed as though Raven was following some unwritten destiny… the destiny to somehow… free fairytale characters from their fixed roles? Perhaps?

Darling had said that Raven made it clear that everyone had a right to a choice, she did not believe that everyone had to be Rebel, or steer clear from fairytales completely. Some Rebels like Darling just wanted a different role.

So what did that make Raven? If she was the start of a new fairytale then that meant her story had already started didn't it? But… everything was just too complicated! All the fairytales had a moral, a predictable theme, and a series of clear-cut events that made up the tale. Raven's life was none of these things.

If Daring were to compare Raven's life story with another legend it would not be a fairytale… more like a series of chronicles, the chronicles of Raven Queen.

Considering that the entire school seemed to be involved maybe it would be more relevant to call it the chronicles of Ever After High…

He felt Raven stir so he feigned sleep, breaking from his musings.

He heard her yawn, gingerly extracting herself and tucking the siblings more securely in with the hand-knitted blanket that had been tossed over them before tip-toeing to the bathroom.

Soon came more sounds of waking life as the occupants of the two beds shifted and quietly grumbled at the brightening light coming through the window and balcony.

He found himself thinking the situation funny, as he drifted between waking and light sleep (he did not have to go to class that day), most boys would find waking up in a girl's dorm with five unrelated girls occupying the same room a fantasy come true (he was sure that for most his sister would not count)… but as it was he didn't see it in that light. No, he felt more like a platonic comrade, just another friend to blearily step over as coffee was brewed and altered morning routines commenced.

Mostly he was more concerned with mentally cheering that he did not have to go anywhere for a while. Was he failure as a hormonal teenaged boy? Yes. But he didn't much care because he was sure that he passed the test for platonic friendship and that was a far less lonely place to be then if he began acting like some creeper.

"Is he still sleeping?"

"Yeah. I think that the last few days really tuckered the guy out."

"Should we wake him?"

"Nah let him rest. We can leave some breakfast and a pot of coffee for him here."

"I'll swing by during lunch to take him back to my dorm and re-bandage him. He really should sleep off that beating those leprechauns gave him."

"I'll write him a note letting him know what we're up to and where he can find the milk and anything else that he might want in his coffee."

Daring smiled feeling better about himself then he had been for a while.

It was great to have friends that were willing to carry you when life seemed determined to beat you to the ground.

XXX

The castleteria was abuzz with most of the residence of the boy's dorm's chilling accounts of the girl's dorm ghost finding a new haunt… and a new, horrifying hobby.

Hunter rolled his eyes at Humphrey's account of the unknown boy who had been brutally turned into a eunuch.

"Are you sure that it was this fabled ghost and not some other logical explanation?" He sighed tiredly having already heard more than enough versions of this topic before breakfast. He had been on a date with Ashlynn at the time of the mentioned incident, and it had been Sparrow Hood who had tried to call him repeatedly while he was on said date (the boys in the makeshift camp had organized a roll call and those who were not present had people who had either attempted to track them down everywhere but the boy's dorms or were called over and over again until they picked up), not wanting to talk to Sparrow he turned his phone off for the night, and thus he didn't know what had been going on until he was walking over to get breakfast, where he had been suddenly mobbed by a crowed of terrified boys who had been convinced that he was one of the dorm ghost's victims.

"I mean if there really was a boy who was sliced off at the jewels wouldn't the professors have the dorms quarantined and a fancy announcement by the Headmaster on the topic? I mean I spent the night in my dorm and nothing happened to me." Hunter pointed out his patience wearing thin.

"Maybe it knows that your girlfriend raises fu-tsang dragons for fun." Edward grouched darkly into his curds and whey (it tasted delicious okay? And Tiffany refused to eat the stuff saying that it made her want to barf and he was not one to waste food so he ate the stuff that the lunch ladies gave her while she ate his usual assigned breakfast which ended up working out for everyone because he wasn't all that keen on protein smoothies, fried scorpions and yes, fried tarantulas! But Tiffany oddly enough was so… even-stevens).

The spider-boy had not been as lucky as Hunter in escaping for a quiet night in his dorm. No, his friends had to track him down and drag him off to go camping in the freaking woods.

Edward hated camping.

"Pico Paco has great respect for Miss Ella." Tiffany chimed in taking a bite off of a giant fried scorpion's claw.

"Would you stop calling it that cutesy name?" Humphrey begged. "You're making it sound even more creepy by calling it that."

"But Pico Paco was very cute when I first spied him." Tiffany smiled sweetly; only the seated Rebels and Edward could tell that she was really being intentionally wicked behind her sweet, innocent mask.

Humphrey shuddered, thinking quietly to himself that maybe there was a reason why the girls hadn't been nearly as terrorized by the ghost as the boys were… mostly because of the fact that a lot of the girls at the school (like Tiffany) were completely insane.

"You saw it?" Ashlynn asked looking intrigued. "What did it look like? What did you do?"

"Oh he was trying to reach my stash of coffee beans, but he was too short to reach so I poured some into a little bowl for him." The blonde blinked innocently.

"That explains who the coffee caper was." Cupid realized. "Remember a few months ago when Blondie did a special about the mysterious critter who kept breaking into coffee bags and stealing the contents?"

"Remember? How could I forget! Our dorm was the bugger's favorite place to burglarize!" Holly O'Hair huffed remembering sourly how she and her sister had to live off of the casleteria's instant decaf before class every morning for almost a month.

Raven hid her face behind a napkin; she had a sinking feeling that she at least knew the identity of the coffee caper. Although it seemed like a far stretch for a coffee golem to go from plant beans to… well… human beans…

She had decided to break away from her usual routine of sitting with the same people (once again) for breakfast when she noticed that a decent majority of said group was either not present (Maddie, Kitty, Daring), took off early with her lunch to go so that she could harvest some Morning Blooms for her personal herbal experiment (Cedar), making googley eyes at each other (Cerise and Briar), or off limits and sitting pointedly at a separate table and hidden from her BFFA's line of sight (Apple. Who seemed to be glaring at Briar's back for some odd reason… Raven waved when Briar looked up from Cerise long enough to spot her. That had made Apple's scowl deepen).

"What about you Hopper?" Hunter turned to the tiny green frog sitting on the table between Tiffany and Edward. "You spent the night in the dorms did you feel at all threatened?"

"No… but I'm… sorry that everyone else is…" Hopper fidgeted nervously with his little green front feet.

Tiffany patted Hopper's head and gave him one of her fried tarantulas on a stick, to which he gratefully munched on as much as a frog could.

Hopper, completely flustered at the misunderstanding was trapped in his frog form. He, like Hunter, had been fortunate enough to successfully avoid being dragged into the woods, and like Hunter he had been presumed to be yet another victim of the dreaded ghost.

He said nothing on the matter all morning, being unusually quick and to the point when he did speak. He felt guilty that he could not assuage the fears of his fellow dorm residence but he was willing to keep silent in order to protect his friends… even though Blondie was still hopping mad and Dexter was not handling his personal life (or lack thereof) very well.

Raven hummed in thought.

"What are you thinking Raven?" Humphrey asked sounding hopeful that the lone magic user of the table could perhaps provide some sort of solution or words of wisdom, after all witches were known to sometimes have dealings with the other side.

"There are no victim's turning up so without that hard evidence I'm not too sure that this horrible ghost is a ghost… or anything supernatural but… You know the professors have been working on making a sword polishing potion that could theoretically cut through curses and negative energies, I'm just wondering if the same could happen to a malevolent spirit…" The witch hummed some more taking out a worn notebook and jotting down some ideas.

"You think that this special potion could work?" Humphrey stood up looking excited.

"Whoa now!" She got up to stop him before he began shouting that she had a solution before she actually had a solution. "It still needs to be tested out on a multitude of different curses first before we get to the scary spirits phase. But there are some charms and spells that could be implemented much sooner if you feel so strongly about it-"

She found herself enveloped in a hug. "Gee thanks a bunch Raven! Say do you have some free time today to look that over?"

"Yes! Please be free today!" Edward begs dodging Holly's plastic fork and ignoring her complaints about him being rude. He did not want to spend one more night trying to sleep next to a whole bunch of snoring guys out in the middle of the woods with no indoor plumbing!

Raven thinks for a moment, she did have some free time for an hour or two after normal classes finished (hopefully, it was difficult knowing when the healers would let her go some days) the visiting witches had actually resulted in her schedule opening up considerably. The Headmaster seemed to be hard pressed to keep the school's guests entertained so that apparently meant that Raven had been excused from many of her classes to take on the Headmaster's job of giving tours of the school grounds, classes, and other activities.

Because Raven had been stuck with the job that the Headmaster was usually supposed to be doing the witch was starting to wonder if the man was somehow afraid of the students from the witch academy.

And Briar had said that Apple needed some space so stopping over to their dorm for a visit was out of the question…

Yes, Raven was free; she had nothing to do in that time frame so why not.

The witch told the boy this making him (and Edward) cheer.

This Raven guessed might be an efficient first step to getting over Apple; taking one day at a time, hanging out with friends, and keeping busy.

XXX

Tap.

More power.

Tap.

She needed more power!

Plink!

This was taking frustratingly longer than anticipated.

She needed a little extra… something to help things move along.

She needed a bit of outside power to add more oomph to her attempts at breaking the seals.

Something of power that was not her own and would also not be too obvious… a natural power…

A power derived from a life force.

The bone wand was out of the question. That power had been refined and tuned with care, all for the little spawn. It was the second most impressive thing that she had ever created, a thing made of their kin's bones and the sheer raw power from one of the once greatest Evil Queens in family history.

Was… not any longer. The old crow had it coming for being such a goody-two-shoes.

It would be a shame for the spawn to not receive the gift she had so lovingly created, it had been so very dangerous getting the raw materials for it too.

Evil Queens, especially former ones were not so easily swayed into giving up their earthly remains and life force.

And it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that this particular former Evil Queen to somehow find a way to mess things up from beyond the grave if her captured power was tampered with any more that it already was. Knowing the old bat she probably would have placed some form of underlying promise within herself in the hopes that her descendant would give into impatience and make that mistake.

But she would not become so impatient as to attempt that. She had after all learned the value of waiting. Forcefully.

The way that the old lady had left things in their last and (hopefully) final encounter made her worry… she had been a strong old one, didn't even beg for mercy or even stop standing until her life force had been extracted and her spirit left her body.

The words the old one had spoken haunted her, with a defiant smirk to match her words and her body bloodied with injuries… the old one still managed to smile! Armless, beaten, and dying, and yet she smiled as if the old one knew that she was going to fail! Even her dead body looked like it was mocking her!

But she had created the spawn! The spawn's very blood was intimately linked between the curse, the ancient power, and herself, the creator of the finest living weapon in history!

The mother of the most perfect being ever bred out of fairytale and legendary blood to rule the new world as her creator's champion.

The spawn was perfection. The only one that was allowed to touch the spawn in any loving manor would be her creator, for the spawn's creator had made the girl into what she was, and as her creator's greatest achievement that made the girl perfectly crafted for her creator to enjoy.

Just as soon as she could rip out the spawn's precious heart away from that abominable wench she will keep the spawn's heart where it belonged, with her creator.

But now every second counted. The spawn's power had been tainted. Despite her best efforts to prevent this, the power of True Love had been awakened and now she risked losing the spawn forever!

That wench's fault no doubt. Sweet little seed of that bitch Snow. Oh how she itched for them to feel her wrath.

But no. She would exorcise control. It was not her place to bring down her ire upon the family that had been her ancestral enemy.

That right belonged to the spawn.

Tap.

Tap.

Ping!

XXX

Apple bolted upright on her bed, book clutched in a death grip between her hands.

"What in the kingdom?" Apple exclaimed into the book titled: The Observations and Theories of Witch's Hearts and Other Magical Bonds of Love. Earl Grey peeked out of Raven's closet to see what the fuss was about, Nevermore just rolled her head (eye rolls were very difficult to do in bird form) and settled back down, choosing to ignore her mistress's crazy roommate.

She was only a few pages into the text it hadn't taken long before she had discovered something that had caused her violent out burst.

She leaned closer reread the text, then again, and again.

She eventually sat back, eyes wide and mouth agape.

This changed everything.