A/N: Sorry, school has been super busy, and I totally need to start going to tutoring for my pre-cal/college algebra and physics classes, because I am sucking it up in those classes. I had planned to update this chapter yesterday but since my parents went to Columbus, Ohio to drop off my sister at OSU, I had to stay at my aunt's and while I had my laptop while I was there the internet was weird over there and after spending thirteen hours at school (had after-school practice until 8:00) I was just extremely tired and wasn't up to it.
Now to thank the reviewers/favoriters/alerters: I got two people to thank, the ever lovable, the always here, the amazing, the great, Jhinra, for reviewing as she always does, and I must also thank CatRock, here's that update you wanted, if it explains anything, I don't quite know, but I hope you like it.
PLEASE READ THIS: I was thinking that I would do a Q&A sort of thing, you can ask me anything about the story, about the plot, the characters, the ideas, the inspiration, if there will be a sequel or a spin-off (which there might), any question you can possibly think of, and so long as it doesn't have any plot spoilers, I will answer it, and if it is a spoiler, then I will tell you and I will give you an idea of how it's a spoiler, if you want it anyway.
That is all.
RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!
The Black family of Fairchess was very different from the White family of Chessleman in many, many, numerous ways. They were violent, they were happy to be in war, their country prospered in war, it was more of a despotism than a monarchy, and those were just to name a few. Alice quickly found that even the creatures that they had brought with them, some willing and some not, to fight in the war were very different from the ones in Wonderland or even Chessleman; they were strange, frightful, menacing creatures, things such as: the dangerous gangerlou, the ferocious hyounslkd, the horrid jackaslamante, and so many others that could strike fear in the very core of any person. The jubileedee had, instead of traveling by lieu of Alice's dress pockets, taken to hiding away in her room, where he was considerably safer.
She was set on her nerves by them, the Prince Garithinias, in truth did not seem to be at all too bad a person, but he was constantly about the Black Knight, and so she was unsure if it was because the Black Knight was supposed to protect Garithinias, or if they were close friends, or just what exactly. She rarely ever even saw him without the Black Knight, the rare times that she did, she would try to speak with the shy, young man.
Such as at present, Garithinias was without his, normally, ever present guard, and the two were talking politics, although shy, he was very adamant about what he believed, and Alice greatly enjoyed talking to him, unlike Dack who would just take the most popular opinion into consideration. She noticed that Garithinias was very much unlike the rest of his family, where they could be cruel, strict, and rule with an iron fist, she could easily see that he was kind, rather relaxed, and would likely have a just rule; it was because of these traits, she believed, that the rest of his family seemed to ostracize him.
Alice could be a very blunt person, as would be demonstrated by the question she would ask the Black Prince, "Your family doesn't quite like you, do they?"
Garithinias's head turned to stare strangely at her with black eyes, "What are you talking about?" he finally asked in reply.
"Because you're very different from them, could that be why?"
"Excuse me Princess Alice, but I really think this is not the most appropriate of topics to be discussing; come now, let us talk of the diminishing population of the gangerkoul." he was desperate to change the subject, even if it was to the population concerns of the lesser known, much gentler, cousin of the gangerlouk.
Alice stared at him intensely, when something clicked in her head, and because she had little self-control over recently realized news, she blurted it aloud, "You're in love with your Black Knight!"
He clamped a strong hand over her mouth with a panicked look flooding his dark eyes, "Please, do not dare repeat that again, I beg of you." he pleaded in a rushed whisper.
Alice nodded her head, then stared at him curiously, "Why are you so worried? That sort of thing is very common; many of my ancestors had same-sex partners and adopted an heir."
Garithinias shook his head, "Not in Fairchess, that sort of thing is forbidden, we almost didn't help the rebels just because of that; besides, Nal'rium isn't even any sort of human."
Alice almost wondered who Nal'rium was, but quickly figured that out and focused on the second half of the information, "What do you mean?"
"No Black Knight has ever been a sort of human; they are all shape-shifters. It is to make sure they can protect the crown prince under any situation. Nal'rium hates my family though and refuses to swear his allegiance, not even to me."
He seemed a bit saddened when mentioning this, but Alice was instead confused, "But he is almost always somewhere close to you, I would assume that he, at the least, does not hate you."
"No, he might hate us, but he hates doing a bad job even more." Garithinias then walked off and was quickly joined by Nal'rium.
Alice walked off to the library to see if she might find something about the shapeshifters of Fairchess.
She quickly found little information about even Fairchess in general; she was only able to find all of one entry about shapeshifters in any of the library's books:
"The transformus modus, or shapeshifter, is a creature with the ability to alter their form to that of any creature, plant life, or inanimate object, it is also capable of using the natural abilities of whatever they have changed into. The true form of this creature is not known, nor does anyone know how long these creatures live for."
Two sentences, which was all she could find about shapeshifters. Alice sighed, letting her head smack against the open book; the passing librarian stared strangely at the young princess before continuing on his way.
She finally decided to leave the library, after another hour of futile searching. She instead took to wandering the extensive headquarters, still considering all that she had learned with Lawrence.
If her mother truly wanted her dead, then shouldn't she already be such? Her mother had had numerous opportunities to take care of her daughter, so why hadn't she? Was it what Lawrence said, the Queen wanted to love her daughter and the safest place for her was away from the castle; or was there an ulterior motive behind the Queen's plans that not even Lawrence knew of?
Alice finally looked about her; all that walking had led her back to her room, where Lawrence was smoking on her bed.
She was about to ask what he was doing there, but he beat her to the punch.
"Your mother ... wants to ... see you." he answered simply.
