Prince Thadindor was driven nearly to distraction, pacing his room furiously. He hadn't had a good night's rest in a week, what with those odd noises coming from the walls--it was enough to make one think the castle had ghosts. He wasn't sure it wasn't just his imagination, though; no one else in the castle had trouble sleeping.

The annoying Bard had left just the day before, but not before proceeding to play a list of songs every day that drove home the fact that he had done something very wrong by pleasuring himself with that auburn-haired girl, the "Lady Rellana tir Lorea," and to make him think that she would be coming back any day now to get her revenge.

What is so wrong about what I did, hmm? I was just entertaining myself the way thousands of other men do every day, so what if she wasn't exactly willing?! The same thing happens every day in the whorehouses in the slums of the city, whorehouses I've even been to!

Then there was how Starlight had mysteriously reared almost a week ago, catching him by surprise and making him fall off. Then the horse had proceeded to step on him in the worst place possible--my crotch still hurts, dammit--and bolt. The castle servants had searched for him ever since, with no sign of him whatsoever.

And then, of course, there was how possessions of his kept mysteriously disappearing, and the guards swore that no thieves had gotten inside the castle at all, at least not without being caught and stripped of their loot.

Altogether, it was almost enough to make him believe that beautiful little bitch "Lady" Rellana had died and was coming back to haunt him. After all, it would have explained an awful lot of things that had been happening to him lately, better than just plain bad luck would have.

Scowling, he at last gave in and crawled into the bed, even though he knew he wouldn't get a good night's rest tonight either. Sure enough, as soon as he was about to fall asleep, the ghostly voices started again. Gritting his teeth, he did his best to sleep through it.

The Prince was getting quite tired of the endless persecution that had been going on for almost two weeks now. At last, as the low, ghostly voices woke him for the fifth time that night, he sat straight up in bed, threw the covers aside, and stood. "Dammit, I know you're there somewhere!" he yelled, obviously driven to the snapping point. "Stop trying to haunt me and get out here and say whatever you have to say to my face!"

Rella frowned, looking at the faeries and Bardic. "Do you think we should?" she mouthed silently.

Emerald shrugged. "Because I want him to know why we're doing this," Rella whispered quietly. "And I want to somehow get real revenge on him, make him feel what I felt, and make sure he'll never do it again."

"I'll go get a knife," Emerald said, grinning hugely. Rella gave her a Look.

Ruby shrugged. "Go for it," she told Rella.

"Wait," Emerald instructed. "Let me go first. I have an idea."

Reaching out with her magic, she lit the ever-present candle at the Prince's bedside, making it flare into sudden brightness. Reaching out with a hand, she pressed the switch that made a portion of the Prince's wall swing outward, allowing free access to his rooms; they had discovered that little addition to the tunnels quite by accident, as it happened, but now it was certainly coming in handy.

Emerald stepped out of the tunnels, and she saw the Prince's eyes widen; evidently he hadn't been expecting an actual faerie to step out of the tunnels. She tried not to grin.

"Hello, Princey," she said, voice sugary sweet, smile perfectly innocent. "I believe you have some things to pay for. For instance, a little more than two weeks ago, you raped someone. A very dear friend of mine, as a matter of fact; you could say she's like a sister to me. I'm feeling very much like gelding you right now."

"I think I know what she's planning," Ruby whispered, and stepped out after her. The Prince's eyes widened even farther at the sight of not one but two real faeries, not that he wasn't already sweating at the threat of becoming a eunuch.

"Hello, Your Royal Arrogance," Ruby greeted him quite calmly, with none of the sugar sweetness Emerald had shown, just calm and cool indifference, as if he wasn't really worth the time she was spending on him. "The girl you raped, the one with auburn hair, and green eyes? She was a friend of mine, too, and she's become like a daughter to me. If you even remember her; I don't know if you would or not, since she's not the first woman you've done this to."

Bardic stepped out next, leaving Rella the only one still in the passage. "You're that Bard!" the Prince blurted out, recognizing him immediately. Bardic simply raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed, I am. How good of you to notice," he said, voice the epitome of cold anger. "I agree with these two; you have some things to pay for. The girl you raped? She is like a sister to Emerald, a daughter to Ruby, and I love her. We don't quite appreciate what you did...Your Highness. We're not leaving until you pay for it."

Rella stepped out from the passage, moving in front of the others. The Prince simply stared at her, speechless. "Greetings, Prince. Remember me, or have you forgotten already?"

The Prince, gaping at them, sat down on his bed, staring with his mouth hanging open. "You should close your mouth, Prince," Emerald told him acidly. "You look quite ugly with it hanging open like that."

Ruby turned towards Rella. "Rella, it's up to you to decide how this bastard has to pay for what he did; you're the one that's been hurt the most by him. What will it be?"

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the Prince, who was still gaping open-mouthed at all of them. Apparently he had never been so much as firmly reprimanded for raping anyone before; then again, his other victims were probably a lot more sane than Rella. Ticking the Prince off normally was not a good idea.

"What I want," she said slowly, "is some way to make him go through everything I went through, to experience it all for himself--and then I want to make sure he'll never do it again."

"Like I said, just give me a knife," Emerald muttered under her breath.

Ruby was tilting her head to one side, regarding Rella thoughtfully. "Rella. You broadcasted your memories once before. Do you think you can do it again?"

"I--" Blinking, she stared at Ruby, realizing what she was planning. "But if I do that, you'll have to take down the shields on me! And then it'll affect me and Bardic too, and--and I might go into a coma again!"

"I'm pretty sure I can manage to put up shields that'll keep you from affecting anyone but the Prince, including yourself, and still let you broadcast your memories. It might be difficult, but I think I can do it. Are you willing to try?"

Rella took a deep breath, then nodded. Ruby nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating. Rella watched her construct the shield, interested; it seemed more like a thread connecting something inside her to the Prince than it did a shield, but she supposed that sort of made sense. After all, hopefully her power wouldn't leak outside the thread.

Ruby nodded, giving her permission to try. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and concentrated, concentrated on her all-too-vivid memories of the brutal rape the Prince had inflicted upon her. They came upon her far too quick; she gasped, stumbling backwards with the very intensity.

Bardic was behind her, and he put an arm around her shoulders, holding her, steadying her. It was all she needed; she managed to get the memories somewhat under control and concentrate on projecting them towards the Prince as well as she could.

She was rewarded as the Prince let out a cry, then proceeded to roll up into a ball on top of his bed, whimpering. Smiling, she let go of the memories, and Ruby quickly did something with the magic all around them. Then she stepped forward, placing one hand palm-down on the air in front of the Prince. "I, as a Faerie of the Light Court--"

Emerald stepped forward, doing the same. "And I, as another Faerie of the Light Court--"

Bardic, recognizing the familiar start of a geas, stepped forward as well. "And I, as human Bard--"

Ruby picked up where he left off. "--do bind this mortal man that never shall he touch a female in any way in which she does not wish, for all the rest of his life."

Emerald continued. "If he ever does, he shall find me behind him, waving a knife and threatening him with his life or his privates."

Rella tried not to laugh. Bardic finished the ritual: "And I, as Bard, stand witness to this geas."

Stepping back, the three all blinked and shook themselves. "Well, that's taken care of," Ruby said in a businesslike manner. "He'll go on reliving your rape until he's honestly, completely repented of what he did, and if he ever touches another unwilling woman again--well, you just heard what'll happen. I think we've taken care of that."

The campfire made some very interesting patterns if one stared at it long enough, Rella found. The way the flames were orange and red and yellow all mixed together, with some blue at the heart of the flame, and the way the heat made the air above the fire shimmer; it was really quite interesting if you just sat and looked at it for a while.

That was pretty much what she had been doing for the past several minutes, absently chewing on the dinner Ruby had caught for them.

"So what are you going to do now?" Bardic asked, interrupting her reverie.

Blinking, she looked up at him, then shrugged. "I don't know. That's what I've been trying to think about. I guess...I don't really know what I want to do with my life. I never really thought about it when I was at Rhianna's, and...I haven't had time to, lately."

"Hey, don't get too used to your new-found freedom," Emerald called from across the campsite, where she and Ruby had been having a seemingly urgent discussion. "After all, you need to get someone to train you in your magic, especially empathy, as soon as possible. We think we know someone who might train you, too, so you get to come back to the Faerie Lands with us."

Blinking, she put aside her plate, looking at the faeries. "Faerie Lands?"

Ruby, rising from her seat, nodded. "Indeed. It is the home of the faeries, and the one we think might train you resides there. She is an empath as well."

Remembering snippets of old tales she'd read, Rella raised an eyebrow at them. "Will I ever be able to get out again, once I go?"

"Of course you well," Emerald said, rising as well and dusting bread crumbs from her hands. "You're of faerie blood, so they'll welcome you, and they'll let you leave whenever you want."

"Bardic could even come, too, if he wants to," Ruby added. "Bards are as welcome in the Faerie Lands as they are anywhere else."

Bardic shrugged. "Why not? After all, a lot of Bards would kill for the chance to see the Faerie Lands. I'll come along, too."

"Great," Ruby said, taking Rella's plate and depositing it back into their packs. "We'll leave in the morning, then."