Author note: Would like to thank Lisifa, KnightofFaerun and Wilhelmina Vandom for reviewing and would also like to thank Knight for betaing this fic.

This chapter is a bit of a slow one, but I hope you all like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H.

Chapter 12: Lessons In Magic and Royality

Susan, Will and Huggles appeared in Susan's study, where Raythor was waiting. He looked relieved to see the, or had been until he noticed Huggles. "What in the world is that?" he asked pointing at Huggles who growled at Raythor in return.

"Don't worry it's just Wilhelmina's familiar, Raythor. Now if you would be so kind as to go order lunch for us while I have a talk with Wilhelmina." Susan instructed as she helped Will into a chair since she was still drained from her sudden use of magic.

Raythor nodded his head in compliance, giving the princess a sympathetic glance as he left. When a mother said she wanted to 'talk' with their child, is usually meant a lecture was in store for them.

After Raythor was gone Susan looked at Huggles and commanded, "Change back." The Weremouse started to growl at her for commanding it to do something, but Susan's glare made it cower and revert back to its original form.

As Huggles jumped on to his mistress' lap, Will clutched him tightly. She was feeling a little scared because of her mother's changing mood. Her mother was now in front of her and was looking a little more upset then she had been a moment ago.

"Well…I don't know whether to be happy you're alright or angry you pulled that little stunt. Why did you go on your own, and more importantly how did you even find out about the attack to begin with?" Susan demanded.

Will shook a little in fear but managed to force herself to speak. "I-I saw it happening when I was looking into a pound. I thought that if I could still telatransport I was sure I was still strong, so I…" Will started saying but slowly, her voices became distant as looked downward and shut her eyes tight.

'Please just hit me and get it over with.' Will begged in her mind, years of painfully ingrained thinking coming into play once again. Unknown to Will though, she was telepathically broadcasting these thoughts loud and clear, her powers still activating on their own.

Susan's blood ran cold hearing these thoughts and nearly making woman burst into tears. 'Wilhelmina thinks I would hit her just because I'm a little upset with her right now? I hope there is cave in at the mines and those two are caught in it!' the Queen thought in anger, as she knew they were the reason why her daughter thought that being physically harmed was an acceptable thing to do to a child.

Susan took a few deep breaths to calm herself, knowing she did not have the luxury of have an emotional breakdown. Not when Wilhelmina needed her. Once Susan was sure she was fully in control of her emotions again she said, "I have decided on your punishment, Wilhelmina." This made Will slowly look up, bracing herself for what was to come.

What will saw was her mother pointing her finger at her and firing a small beam of light at Will's chest. Will was very frightened, just now realizing her mother could do much worse things than simply hit her, she could use magic on her!

Will waited for the pain to come but was surprised that something else happened. The light entered her body and it felt like something inside her being…restrained? 'What's…happening?' Will thought as the light died down.

"The first part of your punishment is done," Will heard her mother say, making Will look up at her in confusion. 'How was that part of my punishment? Nothing happened.' Will thought as Susan smiled at her daughter's confusion.

"I have taken away your scrying and telatransporting abilities. Once I know your going to be more careful with them I'll give them back." Susan explained with a gentle smile on her face before adding, "The second part of your punishment is…I think being stuck with me for the rest of the week should suffice. You come with me, while I do EVERY thing on my schedule, no matter what it is. You'll be bored out of your mind by the end the first day."

Will looked at her mother in shock. That was her punishment? She looses some of her powers and gets to spend time with her mother? Sure Will was bit sad at the idea of losing her ability to telatransport, but she had no idea what scrying was so that was no big loss. Plus she wanted to spend time with Susan, so how was that a punishment? Even if it was going to be watching her mother work, that did not seem so bad.

"What…what is the third part?" Will asked, knowing there had to be more. There was no way she could be getting off this easy.

Susan smiled sadly as she heard this. She was expecting this but it still hurt to think Wilhelmina did not think anything that did not involve pain, was not to be considered a punishment. "There is no third part Wilhelmina. I don't know every thing those two did to you, but what they did was not a form of punishment, it was torture! I won't ever, ever do something like that to you," Susan assured her daughter as she knelt down in front of the young redhead and pulled her into a hug.

Will flinched a bit at the sudden action, since a part of her was still anticipating bodily harm, but eventually returned the hug. After a few minutes Susan broke the hug and grabbed a second chair, so to sit down and have a different kind of talk with her daughter.

"Now I'm sure you have questions about your REAL powers and your familiar…Huggles. Go ahead and ask, I'll answer as best I can" Susan said, still looking like she did not agree with the name her daughter had chosen for the furry creature.

Will had to think for a moment; there was just so many things she wanted to ask she did not know where to begin. Eventually Will asked, "What is scrying exactly? Is it what I did at the pond?"

"Yes. Scrying is the ability to see images of something happening somewhere else. You do it by casting the spell on a reflective surface, like water." Susan explained but the explanation seemed to keep Will a bit confused for some reason.

"How can I do something like that when I never learned to do?" Will asked, trying to figure out how it was possible. Even when Will telatransported for the first time, she had the Heart guiding her, but this time Will had nothing like that to help her learn the scrying ability.

Susan could understand this confusion, since her daughter lacked much knowledge of magic so she elaborated. "If you were practicing book magic, also known as wizardry, that would be true. But you were born with magic, which is known as sorcery. Sorcery follows different rules and some times that type of magic acts on its own, like the scrying incident you just had. No one really knows why it happens, but it does."

Will took a moment to absorb this information before saying, "Okay I guess that makes sense…now what the heck is a familiar and why can't I name him Huggles!" Will then hugged the little creature closer to her and gave Susan the infamous puppy-dog face. It did not have an affect on the Queen, due to Will being older than most who used it but it did make the woman laugh at the attempt.

"A familiar is a special creature that watches over and protects magical beings, such as yourself. It's very rare a member of the Meridian Royal Family gains one though. But with the war and your lack of knowledge of how to use your power, I'm guessing Meridian called this little fellow to you." Susan said as she scratched the top of the dormouse's head.

Will was surprised Huggles was not growling or biting at her mother, but concluded it was because the small rodent knew not to press its luck with Susan. "Now the reason why I would prefer a more intimidating name is because…well so people would be more in intimidated. But if you want to name him Huggles I won't stop you, I just can't picture his transform state being called that." Susan added, making Will giggle. The redhead could see the name did not match the Weremouse form that Huggles could now change into.

"I could always name his monster form something else." Will suggested, grinning at her mother putting a false act of relief as the woman said, "Please do!" They both laughed at this until they heard the door open behind them.

They turned to see Raythor coming in with a tray of sandwiches. He froze as he saw Huggles scamper up onto Will's should and hiss at him. "How did that thing get back here and what happened to…oh no please tell me that's not…" Raythor yelled with a pleading expression on his face. He just starting to realize that muscular beast that had come back with the Queen and princess was also the little pest that nearly bit his finger off.

Susan grinned as she replied, "I'm afraid so Raythor. I hope you and Wilhelmina's familiar can learn to get along, because Huggles is here to stay I'm afraid." As Susan said this, Raythor started to go white and slowly left the room, acting almost like a zombie. The mother and daughter duo laughed at the sight. Susan had to gently pry the tray free of Raythor's hands with telekinesis though, since he seemed to have kept a firm grip on it in his state of shock and fear.

---

After the two finished their meal, Will's punishment began. She stayed with her mother all throughout the afternoon and like the older woman said, it was rather boring. The first thing they did was go to the throne room listening to problems that were happening around the kingdom.

In the throne room, Susan told Will to stand next to the throne and try to pay attention to the conversations. Susan also told Will to try and figure out her own solutions to any of the problems if she could, but not to suggest them. Will had been confused as to why her mother would ask her to do that but did as she was requested and tried to figure out solutions where she could.

It was not easy since Will did not understand some of what was said, but Susan told Will that was likely to happen since sometimes things have deeper politics involved. From what Will could figure out, her mother was trying to teach her something during all this, the lesson was a rather difficult one to learn apparently.

Near the end of that part of Susan's schedule, Will's legs were really starting to hurt from standing for three hours. When Will was finally allowed to move again, she flopped down on the ground and said, "Please tell me I can bring a chair next time!"

Susan gave her daughter a sympathetic smile ash she responded, "Don't worry Wilhelmina. Once we tell everyone you're my daughter you'll be able to sit in the other throne, but until then you're going to need to stand. It's considered improper for an adviser and/or bodyguards to sit during these sessions."

Will looked confused at this comment and asked, "I'm your adviser and bodyguard right now? Guess it works as a cover story for the moment, but if I'm your adviser how come I can't say anything…not that I would know what to suggest anyway."

Susan smiled as she ruffled her daughter's already unruly hair. "You're most defiantly not my bodyguard, Wilhelmina, nor my adviser, where you were standing was where a person who normally would be those things would stand. And don't worry about not understanding much just yet, that's why I wanted you with me in the first place, so to slowly get an understand of things by hearing about them over and over again. You'll figure it all out as you go along." Susan explained, making Will stare at her.

"I thought you said this was my punishment, not a lesson in politics." Will said flatly, which only caused Susan's smile to grow bigger. "It is, but when your punishment is over you'll only spend a part of the day doing this, but until then you do it ALL day," Susan responded and dragged Will back to her feet.

The next (and last) part of Susan's day was spent back in her study, looking over reports and documents. Will liked this part because she could finally sit! Sure her mother had given her several books on history, basic politics, basic manners, protocols and etiquette, and other such topics, but Will could live with that.

Susan explained it would help Will if she learned more about Meridian and the basic information on politics; she would be able to better understand the meetings in the throne room. The books on manners and such were just because both she and her mother knew Will would need them in the near future.

Near the end of the day when everything was slowing down, Susan said if Will had any questions she was free to ask. This got Will to finally ask something she had been meaning to ask since this morning. "Mom…about the last few books. I know I need to change a lot about myself but…how do I do that exactly?"

This took the woman by surprise. True Susan had been expecting her daughter to have question about things she would be learning, but the way Wilhelmina had said 'change herself' seemed like she was implying there was something wrong with who she was.

"What do you mean honey? I'm sure its feels like a lot is going to change but you make sound like you're not going to be you when it's all over." Susan said with concern in her tone. Susan had a feeling this was going to be a rather difficult conversation to sort out, given the worried and nervous expression on her daughter's face.

Will shifted uncomfortably in her seat, not sure of how to say what she wanted to say. After a few minutes of silence Will finally said, "Won't I be different though? It seems like I do everything wrong, so don't I need to change completely so I don't embarrass you?"

This made Susan even more worried. Susan had expected Wilhelmina's transition from ordinary girl to princess to be a little rough, but right now it seemed like her daughter was expecting herself to fail no matter what.

'Let's see, if I can find out a little more what's worrying her so much, then I can think of how to help her get over her doubts.' Susan mentally concluded, then went to work probing Will for information.

"Wilhelmina, why don't you tell me what you think you need to change, perhaps there is not as much to do as you think," Susan said gently, in hopes of assuring her daughter that her situation might not be as bad as Will seemed to believe. Unfortunately it did not seem to help much because Will's expression seemed to imply she did not believe her mother's words.

"I'm not so sure, mom. The books seems to agree with a lot of the stuff I was worried about; I'm as far from being a princess as I can be," Will said and looked down at her lap, not wanting to meet her mother's gaze.

Susan was now, really not liking where this conversation was going so far, but knew that it was best to get it over with now and help Wilhelmina settle her doubts. When Susan finally managed to get the redhead to explain what she was believed her were faults, some went over better then others.

When Wilhelmina said she worried about things, like being able to remember to speak properly, have proper posture and remember little things such as which fork to use at banquets, Susan understood her daughter's concerns. Those would be a bit tricky to learn since those would have been things her daughter would have learned at a young age, and would had become send nature to her long ago. But that was not the case, due her kidnapping and Susan had been expecting Wilhelmina to fear not being able to learn it all.

The next set of Wilhelmina's worries was what Susan did not like, though she understood why. Things like not being smart or not looking like a princess or even a girl. Those upset Susan a bit, because she knew her daughter was very smart and though her daughter's appearance was just fine. True a tomboy appearance was not an acceptable one when it came to the textbook example of a princess, but to Susan, the textbook could burn in the abyss for all she cared.

"Wilhelmina I want you to listen very carefully to have I have to say," Susan said in a firm yet gentle tone. Will looked at her mother with clearly nervous expression, since she did not know what her mother was going to say.

"First of all, if you ever insult your own intelligence again. You don't want to know what I'll do if you say something like that again, the same goes for your appearance. I don't care what any book or person says, your just fine as your are and don't need to change unless YOU want to." Susan stated firmly, catching the redhead off guard. Will had been expecting the opposite reaction, so this was a rather shocking surprise.

After giving her daughter a very brief moment to absorb the first part of the lecture, Susan continued. "Now as for those little details such proper behaviour and such, its best to just try your best to get the hang of it all, but at the same time don't rush yourself. Your going to uncomfortable with all this, that is to be expected given your circumstances and there is nothing we can do about but slowly get you up to speed. It going to take a lot work, but I'm sure you can do it. So please don't push yourself and take your time, you won't embarrass me if your not perfect. I'll be here to help you every step of the way so don't worry about it."

As Susan finished lecturing her daughter, Will was still trying to recover from what happened. No one ever told her she was wrong to put herself down, most people (mainly her 'parents') made sure she believed it. To have her real mother so forcefully tell her otherwise and literally shaken the foundation of ever thing Will had been taught to believe.

Will was snapped back to reality by her mother asking, "Now if you ever have any other doubts or concerns just let me know, alright Wilhelmina?" Will gave a rather slow nod that she understood, though Susan could tell there was going to take a few extra lectures in the future to fully get the message into her daughter's head, but the seeds of change had been planted so the Queen was satisfied for the moment.

Some of the message must have sunk in though because of what Will asked next, "Then…if it's alright with you mom…could you call me Will in private at the very least?"

The question had caught Susan off guard; did her daughter hate her real name? Of course Susan did consider the fact that her daughter had been called Will for years, so it was understandable that her daughter would prefer her 'old' name instead of her birth name. Plus it was common on both Earth and Meridian for people to use shorter versions of their names, so it was not like Wilhelmina's request was an unusual one.

"Alright Wilhel…Will. It's going to take me a while to get used to calling you that though." Susan said in a teasing tone, which made Will smile shyly in response. "Guess we even then. It's taking time to get used to being called your highness, princess, or even just Wilhelmina." Will commented, making Susan give her daughter a small smile, signalling she understood.

"That would understandably take a while Will. You have only just learned of your heritage so it is unlikely it will be a quick transition, nor an easy one at times but I'm sure you can do. Now is there any thing else Will? I don't want you thinking you can't talk to me about anything." Susan asked with a warm smile. Will seemed a bit more relaxed now, most likely because the redhead was now less afraid to say anything due to this little chat.

Will shook her head no, signalling she had no others. Susan knew that would only be temporary, but was glad her daughter had a little piece of mind for the moment. Susan then decided to go over their schedule for tomorrow. Susan shook her head and laughed; when she heard Will grown and started to bang her head on the desk when she heard there was four hours of worth of meetings the next day. The poor girl's legs were probably starting feel sore at the moment at just the thought of it all.

The only part of the schedule Susan left out was the biggest one of all. First thing tomorrow morning was Will's very first magic lesson, something the princess to be was going to find just as bad and exhausting as the meetings, if not worse.

---

In the Infinite City, Phobos was hearing Cedric's report of what happened and was far from pleased. The perfect chance to weaken his aunt's support by killing two members of the Olsen family, and that retched cousin of his ruins it! The fact that all those people would have provided more then enough life force for the ritual, made it even worse!

"Cedric, you are to take out another group ofLurdens and get another offering of life force. I don't care how you get it, just do it quickly! The day of awakening my sister's powers is fast approaching and I don't wish to lose valuable energy on giving her power!" Phobos ordered in a fury.

Cedric gave a quick bow out fear and said, "Of course, my lord. I will do so at once. With your permission, I could take Miranda and give her a group as well. With two groups we could be able to get something in time." This suggestion did not help improve Phobos' mood, but it at least did not make it worse, much to the snake lord's relief.

"Fine just get it done!" Phobos bellowed, making Cedric leave quickly to fetch Miranda and the Lurdens. Once Cedric was gone Phobos then let out frustrated growl as he said to himself "I swear being a complete thorn in my side runs in that branch of the family! First my uncle tries to be my best friend and annoyed me to no end until I got rid of him, then my aunt ruins my plans to seize my mother's powers, now their accursed offspring is getting in the way of even more than when she was a Guardian! I'll make both of them die a slow and painful death once I finally conquer Meridian!"

Phobos then went deeper into the Infinite City, with his special spring that he used to infuse him with the little life force he was able to gather from time to time. He needed to see if he could at least minimize his losses if Cedric and Miranda failed him in their task.

'They had better not or else the punishments will be most severe!'

---

The next day, Will was sleeping soundly in her bed, with Huggles resting on a second pillow next to her head. She was completely oblivious to the fact her mother was advancing on the redhead's slumbering form.

Will was cuddling the stuffed frog Caleb had won for her at Elyon's celebration and was mumbling his name in her sleep, which brought a sad smile to Susan's face. 'What a shame I have to wake her from such a nice dream,' Susan thought as she gently shook her daughter gently while saying, "Will, its time to get up."

This got small noise of protest, most likely because the dream Will was in was now fading away as she awoke. Will then slowly opened her eyes, and looked up at her mother. "Mom? What is it?" Will asked sleepily, as she sat up. Will had no idea of what time it was, but sun just barely starting to rise, so it could not time fore the meetings yet. Of that Will was certain of.

"Nothing to worry about Will, just a few lessons before we start our day sweat heart." Susan explained as she helped Will out of bed. Susan could Will was not a morning person, seemed to be a family trait since Susan hated mornings at Will's age as well. It took a couple of years of being Queen to get conditioned to getting up early.

Will was still only half awake as she slipped on a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Even being lead down the castle corridors did not seems to help Will get going, but Susan had a cure for that. One her daughter was going to despise.

A few minute later, they were in a large stone room deep inside the palace. The room was where Susan did most of her training to control her powers, so it was both conditioned to handle some of the punishment that Will's training would inflict and give the needed objects for Will to practice with.

There were a few simple targets for Will to shoot at and some random objects for Will to practice bringing to life and controlling. "What's all this for?" Will asked groggily, only show minor interest due to her drowsy state.

Will did not se the evil smirk on her mother face, as the woman got behind Will and said, "First lets get you awake before I explain anything." With those words Will was suddenly drenched from above as water poured down on her head.

"Aaaahhh!" Will screamed as the cold water hit, and was now fully awake. She glared at her mother, with an expression that clearly said 'was that really necessary?' But older woman shrugged it off, as she began to explain what they were going to do for the next few hours.

"Since your just starting to connected to your powers, lets keep it to simple target practice. Since you have seen Quintessence used before, and probably got at least a basic idea of how to summon it because of your battle with Cedric, it should not be too hard to replicate the effect…only this time just shoot a bolt of lighting, not cause an explosion." Susan.

Will, still slightly annoyed that she was soaking wet at moment, just glared her mother as she asked, "And you did not tell me this last night because?" Susan just shrugged off the threatening tone as she responded, "Because I did not want you worry about it and be even less awake then you are now."

With that Susan dried Will off with little combination of fire and air elements, then set Will to work on getting the hang of simple lighting blasts. It was a little hard; since Will never had ability even remotely close firing attacks before, so the results were random to say the least.

Some times Will only had a few sparks come out, while other times she fired a blast that had way to much power in it. Some time the target she was aiming at cam to life instead of blowing up, so Will was a little freaked out as seeing that happen. Even if she did see her mother do the same thing yesterday.

It took all three hours that Susan scheduled to help Will get the hang of firing simple lighting attacks, but Susan knew it was because Will's powers were still stabilizing from being sealed away for thirteen years. Once they managed to settle down after another one or two more sessions, Susan knew Will should be able to at least try to manipulate the lighting to form a defensive barrier, maybe even try to animate objects.

"That was a good first training session Will. Once you get used to using the Quintessence element, I'll teach you something I think you'll really enjoy, flying." Susan said, smiling as she watched her daughter eyes widen is shock.

"F-flying? Do I get my wings back?" Will asked in a stutter. She liked the idea of having an ability she was familiar with back. Will knew she still had telatransporting of course, but finding out she no longer had her strength made her depressed, so being able to fly again was comforting.

Susan had to smile had her daughter's enthusiasm as she explained further, "Well first you have to finish getting the hang of your elemental power, then I teach how to fly. It won't be involving wings though." The last part confused Will, as Susan had expected. But the confusion ended the seconds Susan started floating off the ground.

"Um…is that way harder then using my wings?" Will asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice, but Susan just said Will would have to wait to find out.

---

A week later, in the Infinite City, Phobos was just finishing the preparations to awakening Elyon's powers. Both Elyon and the remaining Guardians were present for the even and said princess was standing in the middle of circle of strange marking. Phobos had explained it was meant to draw trace amount of magic from Meridian, which would 'jump start' the dormant magic in Elyon's body.

"When your ready dear sister, we shall being." Phobos said and he stood ready to begin the ritual. Cedric and Miranda had managed to gather some random people and some livestock to gather energy from. Not as much as Phobos had hoped for, but enough to satisfy the power hungry prince.

"I'm ready brother." Elyon responded and braced herself for what ever was to come. She had been told it may or may not be painful; it was hard to say since Phobos said it was somewhat random on what happened, from what he head in the texts. All he could guarantee was that Elyon's powers would awaken and that the ritual would not cause any physical damage. But wither or not there would pain on the other hand, was unknown.

'It does not matter though. As long as I get the power needed to bring peace back to Meridian, I'll pay any price!' Elyon thought in her mind, as her brother started channelling his energy in the magic circle.

After a few seconds a pillar of bright blue light erupted out of the ground, engulfing Elyon. The surge of power that flowed through her body was so intense; her body felt liked it wanted to explode! It was not what one would call painful, but it did feel like something was building up in side her and it wanted out now!

The other girls felt a bit helpless as they watched Elyon go through the ritual. They could she was struggling with something, but could do nothing but watch. This was especially hard for Cornelia, since Elyon was her best friends after all. They went through so much together, but was unable to do anything to ease her friend's suffering at the moment.

After a few minutes pillar finally died and cause Elyon to collapse to her knees. The Guardians rushed over to their friend's side, hoping she was alright. Phobos moved in a more clam pace towards his sister, but to make sure know suspected him of not caring he wore a mask of false concern.

"Are you alight my dear?" Phobos asked in a worried tone. How he hate this new addition to his act, now having to lay the role of the kind older brother as well as the noble prince. But it was a necessary burden to achieve his goals, so he knew to swallow his pride until the right time. The rewards were more then worth a little suffering in the grand scheme of things, if his plans succeeded.

"I'm fine Phobos, just a little tired. I just hope it worked, because while it was not painful, it was far from pleasant and I have no desire to do that again," Elyon asked in a tired tone. She was leaning on Cornelia for a support, since she did not feel she could stand on her own at the moment.

"The exhaustion is to be expected sister. The process is know to cause fatigue because of the strain it causes and assure you it did work, I can sense the power already starting to awaken. Once you have had a day of rest, we can begin your training. You now have great power at your disposal, so we must help you gain control of it as soon as possible." Phobos instructed, getting a nod from his sister.

With that the Guardians helped Elyon back home while Phobos said he would go report the ritual had been a success to the other rebel leaders. Once they were out of sight, Phobos' expression changed to an evil grin. 'How I do love it when a plan comes together. Soon my dear aunt and cousin, I will over throw you both and take my rightful place as ruler of Meridian.' Phobos thought evilly as he walked back to the rebel camp.

---

Back in the royal palace, Will was finally free of her weeklong punishment. Her mother even gave Will back her telatransporting and scrying abilities. Not that she knew what do with her free time other then stick with her mother all day…except when her mother had meetings. Will only stuck around for as long as she had to, because Will had no intention of standing for hours on end.

Susan found her daughter's antics amusing, though did admire her daughter's eagerness to commit to her studies and magic training. Will was having trouble mastering the next part of using Quintessence though, which was animating objects.

Will could easily control her lighting attacks and was able to learn to use them to create crude barriers with them, but bringing and control inanimate objects was still out of her daughter's grasp. Actually it was more of a problem of controlling the objects, then actually brining them to life, but Susan had been expecting this because of her own experiences with the element.

But Will had enough the former to satisfy Susan into teaching Will how to fly, which Will had minimal difficulty. Even though it involved using a levitating method instead using wings, Will quickly got the hang of it at and impressive rate.

Right now though, Susan was getting Will to deal with one little thing they needed to take care of. Getting her some new clothes. Susan finally had the time to arrange for a tailor to come in and take some of Will's measurements and offer suggestions to Will.

Susan had the perfect idea for something that would suite the times when Will would need to look the part of her role, yet at the same time make her feel comfortable at the same time, sorceress robes.

That was why Susan opted for them over gowns and dresses herself, since they were not overly casual, yet were not too formal. This made them perfect for her tomboyish daughter. Of course Will was not enjoying the fitting session, since she seemed to hate being used as a pincushion.

"I escape Hay Lin, only to end up in the hands another want to be porcupine," Will grumbled under her breath, as tailor made adjustments to the robe. Susan had gotten her daughter's measurements long ago, so the basic part of the robe was finished but the tailor needed to still make final adjustments.

The tailor did not hear Will's comment, but Susan did and was a bit amused by it, even if she did not know what a porcupine was. Of course Susan was having some annoyances of her own as well. Huggles was very selective on who could touch his mistress, which consisted of only it's self and Susan at this point and time. This meant Susan had hold on to said dormouse and keep its transformation powers suppressed. If she did not, Huggles would tears the tailor limb from limb for being near his mistress with out his permission.

Susan had looked up information on familiars, since she only knew the basic information on them and discovered a few facts. Familiars all understood basic speech completely, but despite this they did no always show it.

Some familiars displayed it perfectly some even gained the ability to talk, while others (like Huggles) acted more like the animal they appeared to be. Usually ones who acted with perfect intelligence were the ones who had a master or mistress who was going to have little or no guidance, while familiars who acted more like animals had ones who would already have the necessary guidance, but possibly needed a little extra protection.

It was very clear Huggles was in the second category since only had four basic reactions towards others.

The first was comfort, which was reserved only for his mistress obviously.

The second was tolerance, which he showed only to Susan.

The third was hiss and/or bite, which was for the majority of people.

The last one was what Susan called Frenzy. This was when Huggles changed into his powerful humanoid form, and proceeds to thrash, maul or mutilate any who had not heeded its warnings to stay away from his mistress, or had harmed Will in someway.

So far the Lurdens from a week ago were the only ones who got to the last reaction, but the tailor was coming close to be the second one to victim of it. The small rodent was proving this; from how it was thrashing about in the energy bubble he was trapped in at the moment.

"Almost done young lady." The tailor said, as he put in a few more pins into the fabric. The robe he was working on, once done, would also act as template for the others he would make as well, so he was being a bit picky about the adjustments. This particular robe had the same color scheme as Will's dress, red with gold trimming.

After a few more minutes the fitting was finally done much to Will's relief. She practically dove for her jeans and pulled them back, hating how it seemed every time she had a fitting (all be it, this was her second in her life) they needed her in her underwear to do it!

As Will pulled her shirt over her head, she glared at her mother who was laughing at her at this point, because of Will antics. "I don't know what you find so funny…your highness, but what ever it is stop laughing at me!" Will stated, having to retrain herself from saying Mom in the tailor's presence.

The tailor shot Will a scolding look, for addressing the Queen is such a manner, but Susan gave the tailor a warning glance to make him stop. The man obeyed instantly, knowing not to risk the queen's wrath since she seemed to favour this girl. Unknown to him, the reason would be made clear very soon.

"Now that you have all the adjustments marked, can you have the robe ready in three days?" Susan asked, as she released Huggles from his prison and let it rush over to Will side. Once he climbed up to Will's should he started hissing at the tailor once again.

The tailor ignored Huggles' threatening gesture and answered his Queens question. "I should have it done in two, your highness." Nodding her head in acceptance, Susan dismissed the tailor and waited for her daughter's inevitable question.

"Why do you need my robe done in three days mom?" Will asked, showing she was as curious as Susan had expected. "Because in three days it will finally be time" Susan responded with a small smile on her face, but it quickly became said as Will's face quickly became pale.

"P-P-Please mom, not yet. I'm…I'm not ready for that yet." Will pleaded, looking very scared at what her mother was suggesting. Susan could understand her daughter's reluctance, but Susan knew they had put this off long enough.

"I'm sorry sweet heart, but its time. We have been lucky the rebellion has been so quite lately, but if we don't act soon Phobos will and that will only make things worse. It's time every one knows you're finally home and at my side once again." Susan said, as she pulled Will into a gentle embrace.

Will did not saying thing, know her mother was right but she still wished she had more time. Will was scared how her friends would react, how Caleb would react to the news. 'I guess in three days I'll find out,' Will thought as she returned her mother's hug and hoped for the best.

---

"Why should it be a big deal if the Queen is making a special announcement in three days?" Cornelia asked. The rebellion had called an emergency meeting concerning the event that Cornelia was asking about.

All the girls were wondering the same thing. From what little they knew of royalty, mainly from fantast novels and movies, making public announcements was part of the job. Of course, they did not know much about Susan, so they not realize the significance of her doing such things.

"My aunt is not like most Queens' in Meridian's long line of them. She prefers action over words and rarely makes grand speeches, preferring to keep thing short and simple when such things our required. The fact she is giving it has so much attention and holding a small all comers jousting tournament to attract people, is also a usual move on her part." Phobos explained.

"Let's not forget all the messengers she sent to even the farthest villages had said she was asking for a cease fire until the tournament was over. The Queen's wants the rebellion present she makes her announcement. She even went as far to swear on the Light of Meridian that unless they have just cause, the guards will not lay a finger on us. That means even Prince Phobos could safely walk among the people with out worrying about being attacked," Caleb added.

This shocked the girls, the Queen was pretty much saying the rebellion should be present to hear what she has to say? What the Queen planning? There was no way she could have much to gain from doing such a thing no matter what her news was.

"So what do we do then? Do we go to this tournament or stay away?" Elyon asked, being very curious at what her aunt had to say, but worried what possible trap there could be. She knew that in theory, her aunt oath of Meridian's power should prevent any trap from being sprung on the, but Elyon could not understand why her aunt wanted them present at the tournament.

After a moment of silence, so the leaders could contemplate an answer to give Elyon, Phobos spoke, "Unfortunately dear sister, we must go even if we did not want to. To not go when our aunt has virtually guaranteed our safety, it would only play into our aunt advantage. I would make the rebellion look like cowards, which would not help our cause."

Everyone had a grim look on their faces at that bit of news. Maybe that was the Queen's game; make them look like cowards for not showing up and possibly discredit them a bit so Elyon's open support of the rebel cause would be less effective. The only ones who did not think that were Phobos and his inner circle.

'My aunt is finally making her move, she must be going to announce my cousin's indentify. Why she has waited so long I don't know, but that has to be why she causing such a ruckus' the prince mentally growled as the rebels, the Guardians and his sisters talked amongst them selves.

"Well then we can at least use this to our advantage." Caleb sated, drawing every one's attention to him, wonder what he had planned. "I'm entering the tournament. If I public humiliate the queen's supporters in the jousts and boost our troop moral, while weakening the Queen's forces. Plus what ever this mystery prize the Queen is offering might worth something. Even a rebellion needs money to by food and weapons after all." Caleb explained, getting a nod of agreement from all those present.

"A good idea my friend, at least now we have something to gain by going besides saving face." Phobos commented; glad to know that now going to this little event would not be a complete waste of his time now.

The rest of the people present agreed to this and plan and set out to get every thing ready for three days from now. Unknown to anyone present, this was the start of a chain of events that would alter the whole course of the war in ways no one could have ever guessed.

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Any there you guys go, a bit boring compared to past chapter but I'll the next one has the anticipated moment of truth where every one finds out about Will true heritage. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon.