Disclaimer: I don`t own anything, except the plot and some OC`s that may appear in the story
Chapter 16: The fae, the princess and the prince …or Second Interlude
***At Castle Beast, The Queen`s solar***
Mal was certainly not having a good day.
Hell, she had not had a good day in many weeks after Ben`s proclamation.
She was rubbing her temples reading parchments that informed her of the situation around the eighteen regions of Auradon. They were giving her a headache and she would need an aspirin to feel better.
The fae had created a small network of intelligence to observe the ruling families and other important people. It may have sounded wrong for Queen Belle at first, but after an elaborated explanation, the Queen Mother accepted to form it and now they both were constantly reading informs.
For at least five weeks she had been observing the other kingdoms and everything seemed to be in order, but something that she had learned from her mother was not be too confident in your allies` loyalty if you can`t watch them closely.
Of course Former King Beast and Ben were not aware of this.
If Adam knew about that they would be accused of treason, especially her.
Even if they buried the hatchet after Ben`s coronation, she knew that Adam was still slighlty wary of her and if he had a choice Mal would not be Ben`s future queen.
Yes, Ben had already proposed to her.
Only his parents, Evie and Chad were aware of that. The last two only knew about their engagement because they were the witnesses to the signing of the marriage contract.
(Yes, Adam had made them sign a prenuptial agreement and a marriage contract)
Their engagement would be announced officially after their graduation, which was in six months and they would be married in a year time. Mal would have been happier had it not been out of necessity. After the proclamation about the villains and the reform of the Magic Regulations, people needed something to be happy or distracted, as Belle had put it.
Belle and Mal were planning the wedding and after discussing around three hundred types of napkins and cloths, they started to read the informs.
Out of eighteen rulers of Auradon, only three seemed completely loyal to the central power of the country. The others were playing at being loyal and others could be accused of treason.
Auroria, Charmington and the Towering Heights were those regions were the rulers were loyal to Ben. Three rulers that were to be trusted.
"Phillip, Florian and Captain Phoebus are the only ones that are not to be too closely observed" Mal said to Belle "The other ones seem to be hiding something"
The Queen Mother gave her a little smile and sighed "Everyone hides something"
"I thought that everyone in Auradon was sincere" the fae said raising an eyebrow.
"Not everything is all light here" The brown haired woman said "All of us were heroes in our stories…" The Queen Mother stopped on her words and said with a smile "Politics change everything…"
The purple haired girl looked at the woman in front of her and noticed that she was pondering onto something. The Queen had the look her own mother had when she sensed that someone was threatening her position as leader of the Isle of the Lost.
It unnerved her. So she decided to focus in the report she was reading about Enchanchia.
If she remembered well, Enchanchia was in the region of Aphelotia and the ruler was Queen Amber Winslow, her children were studying at Auradon Elementary and were friends with Dizzy, and they were a kingdom that kept to themselves like Camelot, DunBroch, Arendelle or Northern Wei.
Queen Amber had never set a foot on Auradon Central like Emperor Li Wei. Still she kept a close relationship with the former and also kept correspondence with King Arthur, Queen Elsa and Queen Merida; rulers that would avoid coming to the capital if they could avoid it.
"Why didn`t Queen Amber come to Ben`s coronation or the Councils?" Mal asked to Belle after reading the little information they could gather about Amber.
"Oh…" Belle blinked and said "She`s the Queen of Enchanchia, is she not? I think she was truly young… I think she was fourteen when she was crowned and due to that she didn`t know how to overcome the death of her family and rule the country on her own, she always sends an ambassador anyway"
"Twenty years without coming to the capital seems odd though"
"Hmm" The Queen said and changed the topic "Did the reports say something about Andalasia or Kuzco?"
"I think not" Mal gave a look to her reports "Why?"
"Queen Nancy was not too keen on her kingdom becoming part of Auradon" Belle said "She has tried to convince her husband of leaving Auradon many times…though she hasn`t succeeded"
Mal raised an eyebrow to the Queen`s words but didn`t say anything and then asked: "And Kuzco?"
"Well…he is not the most reliable person to work with" Belle said with discomfort "He is a little uncooperative when it comes to make deals"
"In his story he seemed to be a self-centered person and snobby" Mal commented.
"He changed, he now more caring and most of his people see him as a good ruler" Belle said "But also he seems not to care about the rest of Auradon"
"And if he could, he would leave them to rot" Mal thought, and for what she had seen of him on the Council meetings she could tell that she was right.
"Do Queen Elsa and her sister have children?" Mal asked after reading about Arendelle and how they were starting to build more ships and were trading wood with Corona and Camelot. Also they seemed to be having problems with Agrabah for some gold mines between their borders.
"Yes, if I am not wrong Elsa has a daughter and Anna has a son" Belle tried to remember "Princess Emma and Klaus Kristoffson*"
"Just Klaus? No title?" The fae asked wondering why the Ice Queen`s nephew didn`t have a royal title when his mother was a princess.
"Yes, when Princess Anna married, she and her husband decided that their children wouldn`t have royal titles until they were twenty-five if they wanted…Now that I think about it, it`s strange"
"Hmmm" The purple-haired girl read the parchment again and commented "Neither of them have come to Auradon Central"
"Actually, Klaus used to study here when he was younger…I think he was two or three years above Ben" The Queen Mother seemed to remember something "He used to play with Ben and other princes here, Klaus was good friends with Christian Charming and Julio Thatch… then his aunt called him back to Arendelle"
"Why?"
"Around that time The Border Lands, The Lone Keep and Arendelle were invaded by an army from the Southern Isles, one of Hans` brothers, and after the attack I think that his family wanted him home"
"So that may be the reason they are building more ships; they might be fearing an attack" The fae thought but said "I didn`t know that"
"Of course you wouldn`t" Belle said "The news didn`t reach most people…it happened so fast and it was so far away that we didn`t know about it until the last months of the invasion…"
"Did the internet fell or what?" Mal asked half mockingly.
Belle looked confused at first but said: "They are too far away, they sent messages but we didn`t think that it was so serious…" Then she asked "Have you talked recently to the son of Hans?"
"I think not, why?"
"It may be good to know how he sees Arendelle, after all he has been spending his time with Elsa`s family…and after his "incident" he may be needing help to control his newly discovered powers" The brunette woman made a pause and added "It would be good for you to start talking to the people, being a Lady of the court and the future Queen of Auradon"
Mal nodded and said rather uncomfortably "I will try to talk to him…though we have never been friends…and I`m not good with people"
"Great, we should pay more attention to the new villain children"
"In other words, she wants me to spy them?" Mal thought but kind of understood her words, they didn`t know the sixteen "new" residents well even if they had been in Auradon for five months or so, and thus she asked: "Anyone in specific?"
"Maybe you should talk to Anthony Tremaine and Harriet Hook, they seem to be awfully close to Chad and that Thatch girl…and maybe to Henry Plantagenet and the children of Hades, these seem to be keeping to themselves a little too much"
Mal nodded and decided that she would have to look more on Auradon History and would have to watch some people more closely, even if Belle hadn`t asked about Ratcliffe she would keep an eye on him too, anyway that kid was becoming a little close to Ben.
And then the former queen said with a smile "And by the way… are doing well at the court, Ben is so proud of you"
Mal smiled and gave the former Queen a bow before retiring, then the fae walked toward the library since she would need some information before talking to Hal.
***Honeymoon Cottage, Auroria***
Audrey was home because her parents wanted to have a meeting with her even if it was during the week and she would have to catch up with her homework later.
She sighed while looking through her tiaras, necklaces and bracelets on her vanity, most of them were gifted to her by her grandmother the Queen Leah.
"Fit for a Queen" Her grandma always said when giving them to her.
Except she would never be queen. Well she would inherit Auroria after her parents die and her title would be Queen of Auroria, but she would never be a real one.
When King Adam and Belle united the kingdoms in one, the royal families kept their titles but little power. The former kings and queens in paper had power equal to a Lord or Lady, but in truth their titles were just nominal and only went to Councils to vote and to keep the image that came out of their stories.
And so Queen Leah wanted a real crown for one her grandchildren.
Audrey had always been told that she was beautiful, sweet and kind, all of the qualities that were of a queen, even if she came of as snobbish and self-absorbed at times. Philippa was as beautiful as her older sister but she was too mean and narcissistic.
And so Audrey was the one who caught Ben`s eyes when they were thirteen and when Ben asked her to be his girlfriend she couldn`t say no.
She truly couldn`t say no, it would have been letting down her grandmother and she actually had some feelings for Ben.
"Now you have to secure your place by his side" Her grandmother said to her when Audrey went to visit her.
"I don't love him" Audrey had told her.
"You will come to that" Leah dismissed her words "You will make him love you and you will make yourself love him"
After two years of relationship she could have said she came to truly love Ben and was starting to be seen as the future Queen of Auradon. But Mal came and Audrey saw how Ben started to feel attracted to the fairy, then something came onto her, she couldn't let the child of her parents` enemy take away one of the things she held dear from her and so she acted like a bitch to them.
Now she felt somewhat guilty because her jealousy didn`t came from her feelings for her then boyfriend but because the VK`s were getting attention and because she was losing her place to Mal.
When Ben broke up with her and she started dating Chad, her grandmother had been furious with her but didn`t say much and transferred her fury to Mal during Family Day. Of course both her and her grandmother apologized to the VK`s after the coronation and seemed to return things to normal.
But for her and her family things changed, after the coronation her grandmother mostly ignored her and centered her attention on Philippa, who of course relished on the attention that she had craved for when they were younger.
She was hurt at first but centered her attention on Chad, whom she announced as her boyfriend after Ben publicly broke up with her, but then she broke up with the blonde prince and then they had rekindled their relationship last semester but it came to an end when Christian health worsened and Chad had to start his education as heir of Cinderellaburg.
Unlike most of the people, she knew about Christian frail health and how his family tried to hide it, excusing their older son from enrolling Auradon Prep when he was expected to do so (after middle school) saying that as their heir he should be permanently on their kingdom.
If only she would have so much luck.
Since Ben broke up with her she came to realize how much her position as his girlfriend shielded her from criticism at Auradon Central. Most of her classmates hated her and so did most of the court, only she had been to blind to see that when she was dreaming of becoming queen.
Now it was her job to change that, she was working hard on that trying to be nicer to people and helping out at charities. Also she became friends with Mal, the girl who crushed all her dreams.
"Audrey" Her mother, Aurora, said sitting beside her.
"Mom" She said looking up to her.
"Come to your father`s solar…we want to tell you something"
They walked there and the princess saw her father reading some papers and ignoring them for a moment, then he said: "It`s time to make your title official"
"What?" Audrey asked confused.
"You will be named Crown Princess of Auroria" Her mother said to her smiling.
She just said "Oh"
As a young girl she had been aware of her being her parents` heir and Phillip had taught her about ruling and things that an heir would know, but after her tenth birthday her grandmother had taken her under her wing and had been trained to be a consort queen while people started to see Philippa as the heir and so her younger sister dropped hints at that every time she could.
And now her sister would not be happy, and so Audrey asked: "What of Philippa? She has been waiting for the day she would be named Crown Princess of Auroria"
"She will have to overcome that" Her father waved off her question "You were always first in line for the throne of Auroria"
"Even when you were Ben`s girlfriend we considered you our heir" Aurora told her "We never wanted you to be Queen of Auradon"
"Then why you started to teach Philippa how to rule?" She asked her parents.
"Leah insisted on you marrying the future king of Auradon so we had to be prepared for the possibility of losing our heiress" Phillip explained "Even if we tried to make you change your mind about that, your grandmother would have done everything to stop us"
"But Ben broke up with me"
"Yes"
"And so now I have my sister`s place"
"No, you have your rightful place back if you ever thought that you lost it" Her mother said smiling "You will be better than us, you have grown up"
"Things happen the way they should be" Her father said.
And so she realized that things happened the way they should be, it wasn`t causality that both of her past relationships with princes failed, she had her rightful place back and would be great at it.
But now her worry was
"Also we should start talking about your future husband" Her father said "After all you will be graduating soon"
"Yes, the law says that you should be married before your nineteenth birthday" Her mother said happily "Maybe a ball would be the perfect occasion to meet someone"
Audrey just smiled at her parents and said:" That would be perfect"
She would let her parents manage that, now she had other thing to worry about… how to deal with her younger sister`s wrath. Maybe she would talk her parents into betrothing her sister to some prince or sending her off to be ward somewhere.
***The Library, Charming Castle***
Christian was signing his last decree as Crown Prince of Cinderellaburg.
His baby brother Chad would officially hold the title after he died, until then Chad would only have some duties that wouldn`t be suspicious for the people.
And Anthony Tremaine was made second in line for the throne and was made a Lord, they had returned the lands his grandfather had owned. The prince knew that people would not take it kindly at first but they would come to love Anthony for the good person he was becoming.
The former Crown Prince was about to have a reunion with his friends. He had not seen them in about five years.
Klaus Kristoffson of Arendelle, Lady Gwendolyn Locksley-Fitzwater, Prince Malcolm of DunBroch, Princess Yin-Mei of Northern Wei and Prince Julio Thatch-Nedakh of Atlantis, they all had been friends when they were younger but they had grown apart after the attack from the Southern Isles to Arendelle.
He smiled at seeing their last picture together during a tourney match.
He was sure that his brother would have good friends like the ones he had.
At first he had been worried about Chad, he had thought that his brother wouldn`t have friends apart from Ben and Audrey, and he knew that they were just his friends because they were royal and about the same age. Now he at least had Anthony and Harriet, even if Chad had not admitted at first that they were his friends. They were good to him.
"Your Highness" The butler called him out of his musings "Your guests have arrived"
"Tell them to come here" Christian said "And tell Ms. Landsown to bring the tea and biscuits here by five"
His friends arrived and they all greeted him with enthusiasm, the son of Cinderella said sheepishly: "Sorry for not going down to receive you"
"That not a problem" Gwen waved off his apology while hugging him "We know that is harder for you now"
"It's a way to say it" He said looking down, these days it was difficult for him to walk without help and he felt tired all the time, he knew that it would not be long before all ended. Then he smiled to his friends and told them "I didn`t invite you to be sad and make you hear my complaints…would you care for a few rounds of poker?"
They all agreed to that and after five rounds, Julio commented: "I heard that your cousin Anthony is fairly close to my little sister Kira"
Christian raised an eyebrow to that "Yes, he talks fairly well of her" Of course he knew that there was some lingering interest since they had been working on somewhat about the Atlantean resources or something like that.
"Someone is jealous that his sister has somebody to love and he not?" Klaus teased his friend.
"Ha ha" The atlantean prince laughes humorlessly and said "You don`t have anyone either Kristoffson"
"Touche" The other young man said faking hurt and then they all laughed.
"No one here has a couple" Yin-Mei said.
"Talk for yourselves" Malcolm responded "I have a fiancée"
They looked at the ginger in awe but Gwen was the one to ask: "Who is the unlucky girl?"
"Princess Anxelin of Corona" He said "I meet her last year at Auradon Prep`s Family Day, we started hanging out and our parents arranged the engagement two months ago, they just haven`t announced it yet" Then he looked at Christian "That was after your brother played her"
"One: Isn`t she seventeen? two: Tangletown, not Corona, three: Queen Merida agreed to an arranged marriage?" Gwen said surprised.
"She will be eighteen next week, then we will announce it" Malcolm shrugged "And Franz is planning on changing the name to Corona when he is king, he doesn`t like the name given to his kingdom by King Adam" He took a pause and answered the last question "My mother agreed because we actually got to know each other before the engagement and I didn`t win my fiancée by a tournament… and I think that it would be good for DunBroch to have an alliance with the Fitzherberts"
"Alliance?" Yin-Mei asked blinking "For what?"
"My dear, alliances are made for whatever the future holds for us" The DunBroch prince said "And how the things are right now…everything could happen"
"What do you mean?" Julio asked.
"For starters, the line of succession is changing in a few regions…for example; our dear Chris is transferring his title to his dear baby brother and Princess Audrey may be named Crown Princess of Auroria very soon as she is not being considered Ben`s future consort…and we all know that her sister won`t be happy for that" The ginger explained "In other places like Charmington the line of succession is not clear and there are some people interested on competing for that kingdom…"
"Seth was adopted by Snow White and Florian to avoid that" Christopher intervened.
"Aye" Gwen said "But there is the rumor that Snow White is pregnant"
"Again? Surely this time she will carry the baby to term" Christopher thought. Over the last twenty or so years, Snow White had been pregnant three times and all of them she had lost the baby, that was the reason they adopted baby Seth and everyone considered the boy their heir apparent, also both Snow White and her husband loved the boy dearly.
Then Malcolm continued "For all we know Kuzco has secluded himself in his palace after Ben`s proclamation about bringing Villains to Auradon, or how he put it "Redeemed Villains" and relatives to Villains"
"We all know that Kuzco is kind of paranoid since he became a llama by accident" Yin-Mei commented.
"Yes, but he may think that is his chance to become the emperor he was before the unification, he may be hoping for a revolt against the decree" Julio said "There`s people who is seeing this as the chance of leaving Auradon"
"Like Atlantis?" Gwen asked half teasingly.
The atlantean prince looked at her as if analyzing the daughter of Robin Hood and then said: "Maybe"
Yin-Mei gasped and said worriedly: "That`s treason!".
Klaus rolled his eyes and said: "Beast is no longer the king, we are not going to be executed or exiled at the Winter Keep for talking about that"
"We could be!" The princess said "You well know what happened to some people who talked so freely the first years of Auradon"
"Ben is different" Malcolm said to her.
Christopher coughed a little to catch their attention and said: "Maybe we could avoid talking about politics? I want to have tea"
"Yes, it`s about time" Gwen said with a smile while looking at her watch, it was a quarter to five.
They feel silent for a while, but it wasn`t at all uncomfortable for them since they were just enjoying the fact that they had reunited after a long time.
Well this is an extra-long chapter that explains a few things around Auradon. Next chapter we will see what the VK`s are doing at the Isle and how CJ is faring right now, about Uma I`m not so sure since I don`t like her much but if you give me ideas about what she could be doing I will gladly read them.
About what are Chad and Anthony doing, it may something to do with Atlantis as you may have seen though it would not be clear for a time. As for Christopher friends, it's not the last we see about them but they won't be regulars as they are not too important for the story though they may give you some insight to what other regions of Auradon may be thinking about Ben and the realm in general.
On the other hand, I will be editing the earlier chapters of this story and the next chapter will be up in two weeks.
As always thanks for following, favorite and reviewing this story, it means a lot to me :`)
If you like give a look to my other stories, you may like them *wink*
PS: PM or review if you have a suggestion or just want to give your opinion about the story, I like to known if you liked it.