Chapter 20:
"Sixteen of our associates are dead," rumbled John Hersey. The chocolate bar had just come back from a sudden trip to Muscle Kingdom. "Their homes all caught fire," he explained. "All in one day." Kim Kil Wan goggled at him. How was that possible?! "Murder, obviously," the chocolate bar sighed. "Somebody took out part of our support base. The scheme is in jeopardy. Some of our allies in the Candy Kingdom are wavering, and the peeps in Engagement Ring Kingdom want out." The only solid backing they still had was down on the Suncoast. They still had people in the Suncoast with lots of money, but the scheme depended on the Crown not seeing massive block purchases of bonds.
For Kim Kil Wan there was a more immediate concern than the failure of his scheme. Somebody was willing to kill his friends–very wealthy people–en masse. They were instilling terror in his associates, and he halfway wondered where it might stop. It was the sort of thing Finn would do–just kill random people because he felt wronged. He'd been contemplating the future confrontation with that old bastard. He'd contemplated bringing down the older man's putative government and turning the various princesses against Finn. That would have seen Finn imprisoned or exiled, giving Kim a chance to finally have vengeance on him. Now, the confrontation was coming faster than Kim wanted and with a force he wasn't sure he could manage just now.
His allies weren't going to hold together. He had to face the fact that they weren't warriors. They were used to hiring bad men–like Finn–to handle their problems. The pushback they were getting was enormous. Sixteen dead in a day. When word of that got around, the whole scheme would collapse. It was better to cut his losses, scuttle the operation, and look for a new way to hurt his once and former uncle. "Cancel the operation," Kim rumbled. "You sure," asked Mr. Hersey? "I need to figure some things out," Kim replied. "There's too much at stake to rush ahead when we have enemies of this caliber." The chocolate bar swore that he would get things done. Spinning on his heel, the fixer headed out to get back on the train. He had people to see.
South and east of Chocago, Kim's hated enemy was spending time with his sister of all people. They were laying on their backs opposite each other in the tall grass beside the railroad tracks, their faces close together, soaking in the sun. Nearby, the Royal Train chuffed and puffed in the cool air on a passing siding, waiting its turn for the mainline. "Finn," murmured Junior. She was going to ask one of those crazy, out-of-the-blue questions that it seemed all women asked. It was as easy as breathing for them, but it often left him at a loss for an answer. "Yeah, JJ," Finn replied. Taking a deep breath, the pretty blonde asked, "what do you see when you look at me?" "My brother's favorite kid," Finn replied, "mostly..." Wearing a pensive frown on her pretty face, the shapechanger asked, "and?" "My girlfriend," the big man announced.
There was a momentary pause, and he knew he'd surprised her. "You're wondering if I see the monster, JJ," he rumbled. "Ever considered that maybe you spend too much time looking for it?" Her mouth came open, and she stared at him. Sitting up, she turned to look at him. Finn sat up too. Glancing down at the ground, his strange new girlfriend asked, "why don't you see it?" "Maybe I see the monster's prisoner," the big man rumbled, as he reached out and tugged her face up to look at him. "Maybe I see the funny kid my bro doted on when we were young dudes with the world on a string," he said. "Something happened to her... something ugly... It was right under our noses, but it never took her away. Not really." Motion out the corner of his eye alerted him that their momentary break was over. Climbing to his feet, the King announced, "c'mon, Jake. Time we were making tracks." They had people to see.
The massive freight train that had been stuck on the tracks was finally moving again, bound north and west towards Cocoa city. That let the Royal Train get off the siding and get on its way again. The pair spent the time working. Finn was very serious about the whole secretary thing, and Jake Junior found herself making and fielding phone calls, while the King worked at his computer and the train chugged along through the countryside. From time to time, she would take a break and wander out to the platform at the rear to send a few messages of her own and look at the countryside.
As the train erased the miles, a change overtook the land. Rolling through hills and through mountain passes, the character of the land shifted from the raucous colors of fall through to a vast, grey nothing. The change was jarring, almost as though they'd crossed an invisible line. Finn noticed the effects on his companion the minute she came back inside. She'd been in the south, in Jungle Kingdom, when the Dipped struck. She'd never seen this. Nobody who saw this was unmoved, and he thought he would have to talk to JJ about it.
The train juddered to a halt in the ruins of what had once been a vibrant city. The vibe of the place was awful. They'd passed hundreds of miles of that awful grey nothing–a vast emptiness dotted with the shells of destroyed towns–places she'd actually visited in the not-so-distant past when she was working for Cherry. Packing away his computer, Finn rose to go out, and after tearing herself away from the window, Jake Junior joined him at the door. "Are you ok," Finn asked? She'd been quiet almost since the train crossed into the blight. "Fine," she lied. Truth was, this awful place called to the monster in her. Her evil grandparent–her real one–had come from a place like this–an awful desolation.
The big man turned and hefted the little bag that carried his computer-toy. His worthless bodyguard hefted the rest of the baggage. Junior wasn't entirely sure that he was even very good for that. It was part and parcel of the turmoil she felt right now. She was the true bodyguard. While people focused on the muscle-bound lump, they ignored the skinny girl in the mini-skirt. She'd done just what she set out to do in the Duchy of Nuts. She'd protected him from the many, many people who wanted him dead.
Falling into his arms had been a happy accident. She'd sworn off men after her disastrous marriage to Billy. Reasoning that she was too close to the edge of madness to make it work, she'd isolated herself. During her years of exile, she'd lived on the edge of society, doing piece-work for gangsters and warlords south and east of Jungle Kingdom. She did just enough to earn a little food, and she stayed to herself in the wastelands, with the evil thing inside her clawing at her sanity.
And that led to the thing that was worrying at her. What had started as a hope of saving her endangered, immortal soul was now something else. This thing had caught feelings, and she knew that was dangerous for them because a woman in love did stupid things. More to the point, she still faced the wall of prejudice from the rest of the fam. She was now truly the outsider. It wasn't her felonious ways now. It wasn't that JJ was a thief and a con-artist. Jacob Rainicorn Junior was a murderess, and everybody in the family knew it. If anything, the monstrous thing inside her just made that worse. You could forgive somebody who made mistakes, but what did you do with someone who couldn't help doing every evil thing in the book? Nobody was going to be really happy about this development.
That was the hell of her situation, because she was desperate to have this. She was desperate to stay in Finn's company–willing to take a bullet for him–because he had become her tenuous link to sanity and normalcy. As his bodyguard, she had a reason to be here. If she was keeping him safe, the others might not push back so much. At the same time, bodyguards didn't sleep with the mark. It got in the way of bodyguarding. He needed somebody who wasn't a schlub, and he needed a bodyguard who wasn't too busy daydreaming about getting dicked. And right now, she was on the edge of failing that primary task.
Almost as if he sensed the turmoil, Finn's right hand caught hers, twining their fingers together. His strong fingers stroked the back of her hand, bringing calm the way they always did–the way Billy's hands always calmed her. One thing at a time, she told herself. Let's get him through this place and back on the train.
"Why are we here," she asked? "Keeping the peace, Jake," Finn said. He always said that. It was a strange way of looking at things. He typically told her to take a good look around her. "This is what they did," she murmured. That part of her that was sane was sickened by what was around them. Even the wastelands north of Bonnie's kingdom had life in them. This... was utter devastation. "Sarah's working on a fix," Finn said, "but it's not going to be easy." Bonnie and Nadia had their sciency explanation about breaking life down into its constituent matter or some such. Finn's mind was more basic. The Dipped had destroyed the nutrients in the dirt–all the things that made it possible for life to grow here. It was all gone. Life couldn't grow back because it had nothing to grow on.
"W-what're the people doing," Junior murmured? "They're suffering, Jake," Finn replied. He was feeding them. He was doing all he could to sustain the Elbownians. Their city was shattered. The Dipped had rotted wooden beams and destroyed walls, collapsing houses that had stood for centuries, going on back to the time before the bombs. Elbowien was a ruin of jumbled stone. Junior stopped right there in the middle of the ruined train-station, her keen mind racing ahead. "This is fertile ground for a rebellion," she murmured. "Just so," Finn agreed, as he started walking again.
There was a Banana-Guard truck and a small party of soldiers outside the station waiting to take them to one of the few remaining structures in the town. The building was old, but it had been constructed with iron beams supporting the walls, floor, and roof. It had taken a good bit of work to get it habitable. The place bustled with people. There were visitors from other lands and Elbownians bustling about. Junior's hackles went up. This was the sort of place you could easily get jammed up.
Her keen nose sifted the air, as they walked through a grand atrium. Her otherworldly sight scanned for threats under the coats of the people they passed. With a small group of soldiers around them, most folk gave them a wide berth. The climbed a heavy, wrought-iron staircase, going up six floors to the top level. The walls they walked past were scarred with nails jutting out and the place was choked with bits of what looked to have once been plaster. "What was this place," She asked? "It was once the finest hotel in the city," Finn replied. "With wood paneling on all the walls, and thick carpets on the floors." He'd stayed here once. Azonia and Siobhan had been conceived in a room here. Jake's breath caught, and she stared down at the bare stone beneath their feet.
Their guide led them to what had once been the Royal Suite. With the palace in ruins, it was now the seat of the Elbownian government. The guards at the door drew the ramshackle door wide, admitting the King to the presence of their masters. Leaving his own guards outside, Finn walked in with Jake Junior at his side, with the Elbownians sealing the door behind them.
Their hosts were dressed in faded versions of royal attire, and even to Junior's eyes, they looked shabby. She was better dressed than they were, and she had been a wanted felon with a death-sentence hanging over her head for murder and treason. It brought home the danger of what Finn was doing. These were people with every reason to throw in with somebody–anybody–who offered to take them out of their current, ugly circumstances. There were half a hundred ways they could try to murder her uncle in this very room. Her mind went to the bodyguards–left outside. And that was when it hit her. Who had he chosen to come with him into this space?
Calmly, she slipped her hand from his, widening the space between them. As they passed down the length of that hall, she gently sifted the air, giving no indication at all that she was doing so. Born without eyes, she'd been granted her grandparent's otherworldly senses, and she used those now, scanning the walls around them for signs of traps. She'd kept Cherry out of an ugly ambush that way once, long ago.
Their hosts gave no notice of anything she did. Their eyes were fixed on the mark. She was the innocuous fuck-toy–the latest of his many conquests. Her mind was racing ahead, and she really couldn't help a glance at him. He wasn't like her father at all. He was nothing like the immature fool that her brothers and sisters thought he was, and she marveled at the depths of his plan. He was a powerful man, and nobody thought twice when a powerful man showed up with a fuck-toy on his arm. Nobody thought the fuck-toy could maybe teleport her fist into their chest or carve them into hamburger. She was his hole-card. The younger woman drew the chair for Finn the King, settling herself at his right side, loose and ready for whatever might come.
Back in the Candy Kingdom, Jay returned from a long run in the tree-lined avenues of a local park to find a stranger perched on his window. "Who're you," he asked? Raggedy Princess gave him a smile. "I came to see the man out of time," she burbled. "I'm Annabelle." Jay goggled at her. Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong about this creature. She had the look of a pillow-person, but the feel of her...
Sauntering over, the creature shimmered in the light. At the same time, he felt the same strange, vertigo feeling that he got from his mother and sister. Was she a pillow-person? Was she from his homeworld? By the time she'd stopped before him, the creature had taken on a shape that stunned him. At the same time, the feel of her was off. "You're Jay," she murmured, as she reached out to touch his face. "I am," he replied, as he ducked away from her. His eyes fell on her shadow, and a chill shot through him because the shadow didn't match what his eyes saw in any way.
Stepping around him, leaving a faint whiff of something, the lovely creature announced, "I wanted to see Finn's mystery son. He never really talked of you." "He thought I was a dream," Jay retorted. "Who are you? What do you want here? Really?" "A shadow," she said in a soft, almost sinister voice." "A shadow of a time before the fire..." Turning, she sniffed him insistently and whispered, "I can smell the fire and the raging hate on you." "Get out," Jay growled. "Get out now." Shrinking back into her previous form, Raggedy Princess giggled, "I'll see you around, Jay..." And she went out his door. She was gone when the half-breed stuck his head out the door.
In the south, Fionna stood in the shadows of an ancient building doing exactly what Star had told her not to do. She was a princess now. She was a valuable thing again. It was like rediscovering the ugly reality she faced when she was down in the Thief King's dungeon, awaiting the ugly auction where she was going to get pimped out to fill the Bad Penny's coffers. Princess Fionna had a target on her back just because she was alive, and that ratcheted up the danger of going in on the world's evils. If that wasn't enough, she had two kids who needed her at home. At the same time, Fionna was her father's daughter. Sitting idly by while evil peeps schemed their schemes wasn't in her nature.
As she watched, a boat came up on the shore from a freighter parked off the coast. The freighter was like hundreds of tramps plying the inner sea between the various kingdoms on its borders. Shallow of draft, wide in the beam for stability, and made of wooden planking over a steel frame, she'd been cheap to buy for her original owners and cheap to maintain for the men who sailed her now. More importantly, that shallow draft and flat bottom made her an excellent smuggling ship for illegally made guns.
As the Bad Bunny watched from the shadows–and recorded video on her phone–a group of sinister figures rolled up on a half-dozen wagons. The men from the boat came up the shore, carrying a heavy wooden chest. Fionna didn't even need the clinking of coins to know what it contained. As she watched, the men from the wagons went down to meet the men from the boat. The casket got opened, and she imagined those eyes getting big. Swiftly, the price was agreed, and the wagons began to roll out onto the beach. One by one, crates got unloaded.
"Who's there," announced a voice? Reaching for the Curse, Fionna blipped herself away, arriving in the jungle a thousand feet from the old building at a spot she'd picked out for the purpose. She startled an old dude who was gathering fruit. Giving him a smile and buying a couple of specimens off him, the Bad Bunny pocketed her phone and slipped away. Back on the beach, the guard frowned as he came out on the shattered terrace where he'd spotted the glint of light. He'd thought somebody was spying on them, but there was nobody here. Shaking off his worry, the gangster turned and went back on his patrol. They'd be done and out of here soon.
Back in the Elbow Kingdom, Finn's meeting with the kingdom's ruling council was just wrapping up. The King of Ooo had gotten a lot of sobering news, suggesting that the human enclave in the west wasn't his only looming disaster. Much as he was doing his best to feed and house the peeps here in Elbow Kingdom, things were still pretty tough. He stood to see a lot of people die over the winter months. He needed to act and soon. Promising to find the resources to send more aid, the King got on his way.
Jake Junior fell in at his back, as they crossed that room. It was the hardest few feet the shapechanger had ever walked in her life. Her mind was racing. Even more than when she'd run with Cherry, there were things she wanted to say–things she had to tell him. Of course, she hadn't been hard in love with Cherry. Finn was calm as anything, though, and that helped her stay calm, when she seethed. The danger was real. She'd seen it in their eyes, and she had to tell him about it.
It had been late when they reached the town, and it was later still when they reached the rough little suite they had been given. Her sight wanted to call the furnishings shabby. This wasn't what she imagined when she thought of how the King of the World traveled. With Finn's words fresh in her mind, though, Junior saw new reasons to fear for his safety in that room. This was abject, bottom-of-the-barrel poverty. They were literally giving Finn one of the few real beds they actually had, and part of her wondered if somebody was maybe sleeping in the dirt. That happened sometimes in the boondocks outside the civilized kingdoms. This was the kind of situation where people did you dirty because they just had no choice.
The pair went up into the room just the same though, and the King's bodyguards brought him the catch of the day from the river–the one thing the Dipped had been unable to burn. The pair got kicked out shortly thereafter because Junior wanted some time alone with her boyfriend. There were things she had to tell him.
Of course, the first thing she had to do was her job. As Finn lay out the little gadgets that Sarah, Nadia, and Bonnie had made to help him keep tabs on the far flung reaches of his empire, the shapechanger gave the room a thorough searching, her keen senses picking out traces of even the rough soap the maid had washed with that morning before starting work. Only when she'd done that did she return to the table. Scooping a portion of food onto Finn's plate, the thin woman said, "it's safe. Eat."
She was settling into her current circumstances quite well, which was to say she was becoming as pushy and demanding as any of the others were when it came to what she saw as hers. With a sigh, the big man put work aside for the moment in favor of eating dinner. The shapechanger opened with, "your plan worked. They didn't think I was there for anything... useful." The big man flushed to his hair. It was confirmation of what she'd been thinking earlier. "Lady Dorika's not sure what to make of you and your ideas," said Junior. "I don't think she's had direct contact with Gumwad, but I think she's had feelers."
She had a string of such pronouncements to make. Othman was a snake who had it in for Finn. Bylandt was worried about where his next meal was coming from. Hayden clearly thought Finn was holding out on them, and Reichenau was ready to go to war. As the big man listened, Junior laid out all she'd seen and all her thoughts on the motivations of the men and women on the other side of the table. It was everything he expected of Cherry, but Junior had been Cherry's lieutenant.
Over dinner, the big man peppered her with questions, and, at first, the younger woman was a little puzzled. He'd been at the same meeting! Then it hit her. This was the same thing Cherry used to do. She'd said it was all a matter of perspective. When your mind was focused on A, you sometimes didn't see B and almost always missed C. But a second set of eyes might see something completely different.
"I told her you weren't to be trifled with," Junior muttered. Finn frowned. It took a moment. Then his face went red hot. "Yeah," he sighed. "We both learned valuable lessons from that." So valuable that Cherry was his bitch. She'd given him three babies. A corner of Junior's mind dared to ask, how many will you give him? She shivered at the thought, terrified of where that had come from. They were out of rubbers at the moment. Finn hadn't brought piles of the things because he hadn't really been planning on a lot of fucking. "Thanks for keeping your eyes open," Finn murmured. "Better than that fucking banana, huh," she asked? The big man howled laughter.
With dinner done, the big man handed off the remnants and dishes to his food-taster, with orders to go distribute the scraps to somebody so it didn't go to waste. In the now, it was time to go to bed. They had a couple more appointments here tomorrow, and then they were going to be back on the train, bound for the bandit-kingdoms. On her side, Junior's mind kept going back to her earlier guess and the shocking confirmation she'd gotten. Finn had absolutely intended for people to think she was his fuck-toy. Question was, how far did his intentions carry? She knew she shouldn't ask. At the same time, they were in a relationship.
Finn was in the middle of turning down the sheets, his mind on the things he needed to get done tomorrow. Out of the blue, Junior asked, "I... did you... intend for us..." He'd expected the question earlier and been pleased to not have to answer it. He wasn't that kind of man. Far from it. Of course, a straight answer always came with the risk of anger. Women got touchy about their looks and about the idea that maybe you had good intentions instead of wanting to fuck them raw and knob them with a bastard before running off.
"You're not really my type," Finn chuckled. "Billy like's it furry..." Junior blushed to her hair and burst out laughing. Reaching out, the big man stroked her cheek. "In a time not long ago, you were my brother's daughter, Jake," he said, "but the world is driven by the choices we all make. You... chose for us to be something different. Just like with Bronwyn, I have to accept that what we were to each other is the past and move on with what we have right now." She understood what he was saying. He would never have moved on her or tried to do anything more than an uncle should do to his niece if she hadn't asked for things to be different between them. He didn't find her ugly or awful, but he respected her boundaries.
It was one more sign of the kind of man he was and a reminder of what she'd cost her family by helping to drive the wedge between them and Finn. She'd thought it earlier. Finn and Simone were good to her. Finn and Simone treated her as a person, even when she was an awful sinner. They still treated her that way. Hell, Billy still treated her like the mother of his kids instead of the monster that she was. It was a lot to think about, and she found her mind spiraling away–churning on all the implications of where she was right now.
Fortunately, Finn was there with her to halt the spiral. It was time to sleep. The big man led her to the bed and motioned for her to get in. Taking a deep breath–this wasn't just a crazy moment of passion–the shapechanger slipped into her former-uncle's bed. The King slipped under the sheets and lay himself down beside her, kissing Junior on the cheek for good measure. It was the way a man treated his lover, and it made her feel all melty inside. With a soft sigh, the shapechanger snuggled in against her boyfriend, spoon-fashion and went to sleep.
Elsewhere in the town, one of the very people the pair had met with stood in the middle of the shattered ruin that had once been the Royal Palace of Elbownia with a phone to his ear, having a hushed conversation about treason. "Where is that assassin of yours," demanded Lord Reiner Othman? "What's bloody gone wrong now," growled Lady Nicia? "The target's here," Lord Othman answered. "He's here this very moment." "You have three hundred men," Nicia retorted. "Arrange something." The Elbownian cussed her. Clovis had tried to 'arrange something' and failed. He was on the run now. "You have him right there in your capitol," growled Lady Nicia. "You have power there. You have men and resources available to you. "He's traveling with that creature that killed Clovis's assassin," Othman retorted. "She doesn't leave his side. I believe he's even sleeping with her."
Things were moving much faster than they were able to manage. They didn't have their army in place. They didn't have the weapons they'd purchased. And Finn was wandering about stirring things up and digging into things they didn't want him fooling with. "Where's Hafgrim," Othman rumbled? "He's arranging delivery of the goods from Jungle Kingdom," Nicia replied. His cowardice was revolting, and she called him on it "Look, if you can't find the stones to take action, stay out of sight," she said. "I only need to know where he's to stop next. That will let my assassin get ahead of his train." "He's headed for the Bandit Lands," Othman replied. "He's leaving here tomorrow after a short inspection of the food warehouses. He's on the train all night and in the Bandit Lands the following day." "Perfect," rumbled the lady. "I'll make sure he doesn't leave again."
Finn rose from his usual three hours of sleep the following morning to find that, for once, the girl was missing. The big man waited around a bit in the darkness, imagining that JJ had maybe gone down to the toilet. He was used to girls doing that. Simone and E would slip out of bed once apiece during the night to run to the bathroom, doing their best–and usually failing–to avoid waking the other two sleepers. After minutes of waiting for her to return, the King finally got out of bed. They had to leave soon anyway. There was little point in waiting around for some snuggling that they didn't have time for.
Arriving in the tiny parlor outside their bedroom, he found JJ curled up in a ball on one of the chairs. The big man was well aware of what would drive his strange lover to sleep alone on a chair. Night-terrors. It sometimes seemed like that was an integral part of his world. Emeraude had them. After the attack on Bonnie's palace, Nadia had them. Marceline was worst of the bunch. Having had to raise herself in the ugliness after the bombs fell, the former Vampire Queen had been prone to screaming nightmares.
Settling on his knees at her side, Finn shook Junior, while he called her name at the same time. The shapechanger came awake with a start, and all but recoiled from him. "Breathe," he advised. When she continued to stare at him in terror, he offered, "you're awake." Just as expected, she actually pinched herself, yelping in pain at the feeling. Maja had done that when Death was tormenting her. Settling on his haunches, the big man murmured, "tell me about the dream..." JJ shook her head. Reaching out, the big man took her face in his big, right hand. "I want to hear it," he whispered.
His voice was hypnotic, and JJ found herself crying as it all came spilling out. She told him of how nice it had felt last night. She'd gone to sleep in his arms, feeling alive and wanted. And then, last night, the dream had come. "I had an awful dream," she sobbed. "I dreamed that I stabbed you with my tail while we were spooning..." Calmly, the King said, "it was a dream. You go ahead and wash first. Take your time." He was giving her the hot water. His eyes said it. Girls needed the time to clean themselves. A shiver went through her at the harsh juxtaposition of what he was against what she was. The monster and her boyfriend. Taking her by the hand, Finn got her on her feet and led her to the tiny bathroom, leaving her inside to wash.
She was a little better when she got out, and Finn went for his turn, suffering the icy chill of the water–even reusing the water she'd left rather than waste precious fuel that the Elbownians needed. Returning to the bedroom, he found her in the process of dressing, and he quickly joined her. As she finished buttoning up her blouse, the big man came up behind her. Sliding his arms around her, the King held her tight against his body–making it a certainty that she would kill him if she stabbed him. Pressing his lips against her ear, the big man whispered, "you're afraid. Your fears are talking to you, warning you away from happiness."
The feel of that sent shivers through her body. Her mind screamed that she didn't deserve this. With all the ugly things she'd done, she felt like she didn't deserve to have this strong, beautiful man touching her. "You're having trouble feeling loved," he said. "You feel like you're a monster because people have been treating you that way all your life. I know that life because I've lived it." His breath stirred the pale, creamy fur on the side of her face, as he whispered, "we're going to fix you."
She'd spent a lifetime on the angst of being part alien monster. She'd never thought of what it had been like to be the Last Human, and she found her breath catching, as the big man let her go. Taking her hand, he turned for the door. The bags were already downstairs, waiting on them in the car. JJ didn't want to go. She wanted to go back to bed. She wanted to jump him and fuck him. Her panties were almost dripping now. Tonight, she thought. They'd be in the Bandit Kingdoms tomorrow night. She was going to fuck his eyeballs out.
As the sun climbed the sky and the King's train chugged its way south and west, bound for the Bandit Lands, in the Candy Kingdom, Strudel Princess came walking into the Consort's office. The proud princess had been summoned there by a note that came with her breakfast. She'd mostly been on the edge of the chaos these last couple of weeks, though she hadn't been able to resist egging Roselinen on to blow things up. It was selfish. She knew it was selfish. More to the point, she hardly expected this to end with her preferred outcome–her and Finn alone. There were too many obstacles, her sisters included, for that to ever be a thing, and Roselinen hardly seemed as though she'd just roll over and accept being pushed out. Still, it had been quite fun seeing Simone taken down a few notches. At least it was until the moment she walked in that door.
Seeing Simone there, seated behind her desk the same way she'd seemingly always been, Strudel swallowed hard. Roselinen was seated off to one side in the place Betty typically sat. "I'm getting punished, aren't I," the little breakfast person burbled? Roselinen nodded. She was indeed. "I'll be punished too, Strudel," said the pretty pillow-person. "We both disturbed the peace of the family. You instigated it, and I stupidly followed you down the slipper-burrow. For that, there's a penalty. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Candy Town to work at the soup-kitchen there, taking care of refugees for the next three weeks. Seven o'clock sharp. Be there." The 'or-else' remained unsaid, but Strudel knew Simone. Swallowing hard, she nodded.
As a chagrined Strudel Princess went down the hall, Bronwyn slipped in. She had been doing her duty–putting in work–the last couple of weeks and doing her best to stay out of Roselinen's way, hoping against hope that things would get worked out. Now, seeing the Ice Queen and her rival seated behind the desk together, it finally looked like maybe they had. The half-bear strode forward and stood before Simone's desk.
Glancing up from the decree she'd been working on, the Ice Queen announced, "Finn's yearly vacation is coming up in a week's time. He missed the last one. You're to get on the train and meet him in the Bandit Kingdoms. Make sure he takes time off." Bronwyn blinked in startlement for a moment. And then, what the fuck was she hesitating for? Swearing to get it done, the curvy half-bear spun on her heel and got out of there. That business was done. There was plenty more in the offing. Roselinen settled into that chair to listen and learn.
After getting a dose of Odessa's ruthlessness, Kim taps out. Wonder what he'll do next? Money can buy a lot of trouble. Roselinen and Simone come to an accommodation and begin to work together to heal the family, and Finn and Fionna start to ferret out the depths of the nobles' conspiracy. Looks like some more troublemakers are going to get theirs, real-soon-now.