Title: Princes and Prices

Author: Lil Riter.

Summary: Amane, Crown Princess, is getting married. Problem is, she's cursed, and when her brother takes her place, everything goes to shambles. Setting out on a mission, she, along with a handful of men who like her brother in a not-so-platonic way, go search for him. The Fairy Realm is a scary place, actually.

Yay! It's my second chapter! Did I mention that I like this story? I had to edit this chapter a few times over, and I made a mistake last chapter and put "eighteen" instead of "seventeen." (sweat drop) Isis told Amane that something fatal would happen to her at seventeen. Yup!

I've decided that I'm using Vietnamese for the fairy language. Yes, I am Viet. Explains it, right? If you must know, my usuage of a language for Fairy language is derived from Ryuujistu's use of Chinese for Angel in Faust. That story's good! If you haven't read it, you should check it out!

Reviews!

Duo Yuy-Chang and Black Wolf: Updated! Thanks for reviewing!

CGflower: ! You reviewed! Wow! A lot of information you say? You don't have to read those "end notes" if you don't want. There all (mostly) useless crap I felt like letting people know (not like they'd care anyway.) A lot of those for me is ten. Honest. I even deleted some of those end notes before I posted the story. I don't even need them there. I'm like Ego Chan, stick in a few that you want people to know about. So they can know random information. And such. So don't read them if you don't want. All important stuff goes up here. n.n! And I'm a short chapter person. It takes me much longer to figure out how to write a long chapter than just splitting it.

Misura! You are so psychic. You were 100 percent right about the Seto and Jou and Mai part. That WILL come in… but not now. n.n! You'll have to wait a couple chapters.

Hee hee... all these italics mean things that happened in the past. n.n


Bright lights lit up the city's Common Ground beautifully at night. Glowing lights of all colors and shades danced through the semi translucent wings of the dwarf fairies flittering fifty feet in the air. The normal sized fairies stood out in the crowd, taller than humans, though there were fewer of them. The nobility sat on the dais, all god-parents to the crown princess. Duchesses and female monarchs of other countries and other female nobles cooed over the little baby. "She's so cute!" one would exclaim. "She's got the prettiest eyes!" another would say. Those who weren't there were gushing to the queen were congratulating her on a second child in her womb.

The slaves and servants mingled in another area of the Common Ground. They were wrapped in colorful sarongs, and one especially stood out.

The young girl looked older than her age, dressed in a layered laced gown in white. She was tanned, with long black hair and kohl-lined green eyes. No one would know she was a slave if she hadn't had the black satin collar around her neck, under which everyone knew was stigmatized the name "Amane." Her slightly pointed ears were the only things that gave away that she wasn't human, seeing as her wings were torn off when she was born into slavery. All that was left of her wings were two scars stretching from her shoulder blades to the small of her back. It was found that if you couldn't remove the root of the wings immediately after birth, the wings would still grow.

Like in her brother's case. Malik's wings were never fully torn off. He still had a bit of wing coming out from under his right shoulder blade, but it never fully developed. "Chị Isis,I have a bad feeling about today." (1) The fairy race was also prized as slaves because they grew into adolescents faster than they aged into adults, remaining "teenaged" for over twenty years. Malik was four human years old yet looked and acted seven. Isis herself had taken on many hardships, making her seem older and wiser than she ever should.

"I do too, Malik."


"And I christen thee, Isis Ishtar, as Awane, Keeper of our Princess." The priest made the sign of the gods over the fairy-girl. "Stand up, Keeper, and state me your name," the priest incited. This was the last step of the rite.

Somebody screamed as a string of lanterns broke, and the row of colorful lights swung down dangerously towards the crowd. Many fairies and mages were quick thinking enough to stop the decent of the lanterns further, stopping them with magic.

Thunder cackled, and from a whirlwind of shadows came an elegantly dressed man clad in red, violet, and black, wearing a white glove on his left hand and a bare right hand. He had tri-colored hair set in wild spikes—blond bangs, black hair and violet highlights. His eyes gleamed red. "Oh, am I interrupting something? I'm terribly sorry," the fairy said sarcastically, pitch black wings twitching angrily. "I just wanted to get something. What was it again? Oh yes, the daughter that was promised to me a year ago." The fairy flew up to the dais, walking over to the crib.

"You can't have her!" the queen screeched. "Amano, say he can't!"

The king was obviously scared out of his wits. He did what his wife begged anyway. "Yami! I beg you, do not take Amane from us!"

"You begged the same a year ago, and accepted my generous offer of three hundred and sixty-five extra days with her. What more could you ask?" Yami reached the cradle, about the reach into it. Suddenly, he was slapped. His cheek burned abnormally. The man touched it in a slight shock. It hurt more than it should.

"Leave my charge alone!" Isis yelled.

Yami laughed, deep throated. "Your charge? My dear child, you are only… well, a child!" He reached again for the princess, until she was snatched up by her life-slave.

"You can't have her!" Isis pronounced.

Yami growled. "Listen, you little brat. Amano here owes me. Do you understand that? He owes me his little girl. Now hand her over." Isis clutched the bundle tighter to her body. Yami lunged at her.

No human could see what happened, but the next thing they knew was that Yami drew back from the slave girl, yelping in pain. He looked at his marred palm. Glaring at the monarchs, he spat angrily, "I see you've got a nice tiên-slave now, eh? A white one. And not some pitiful candle-light either," he said, looking over the girl appreciatively, using the fairy word for 'fairy.' "Powerful enough to burn me with just her skin. Now that is power." Yami got even closer to the slave-girl, taking his gloved left hand to caress her cheek. "Girl," he whispered. "Why are you a slave to them?" Isis stood stock-still, unable to say anything. "If you come with me," he added huskily in Fairy, "I'll give you wings" (2)

Isis didn't know what to say. His promise was one she'd dreamed of since a child, but... "I… I don't know."

"Tell me," Yami breathed, hand trailing to the back of Isis' neck. "What is your name, em sáng?"(3,4)

Isis was afraid to answer. She didn't know what to answer. There was quiet and still for a moment; the crowd of humans had gone silent, the dwarf fairies had fled the moment thunder had cackled, and the other fairies were much too afraid of the Fairy of Darkness to try to do anything. Bothered by the silence surrounding her, Amane stirred in her blankets.

The baby started crying as soon as she woke up.

Isis stared in shock for a second at the bundle in her arms. In that second she felt something inside her connect to something inside that baby. They were bound, but the rite wasn't finished yet.

"My name," Isis stated calmly, coolly looking up at the elder, "Is Awane. I bind my life to the dear princess, to live and serve and protect her as long as she or I may live." Awane looked down at her charge. "I bind myself to thee, and with this ribbon, I protect thee from all harm I can." Isis cradled the baby in her right arm while untying the satin ribbon around her neck with the left. She gave it to the princess, who quieted down, playing with her newest acquisition.

Yami growled. "That was sweet, Em Isis, but if you please, I would like to take my princess now." The dark fairy laid his free hand on the princess, and jumped back yelping again. His palm was now steaming, marred flesh. "What is this… ?"

"I told you, I've bound myself to the princess, and I will protect her with all I have."

Yami snarled, backing off. "You can't keep her safe forever. I swear by my power over darkness, that I will come back to get her! Amane is mine, you hear me? Amano," Yami said, more calmly as he glided over to the king. "I will let you keep her for now. But I've already marked her as mine, and it will become more apparent as time goes on."

Amano shook in his place. His queen was just as scared, eyes widened in fright and both hands placed protectively on her womb. "Akita," Yami purred, running a gloved hand over the queen's terrified face. She let out a sob. "The child you carry will love Amane more than his own life. If he wishes to go in her place, let him."

The dark fairy raised himself into the air as thunder and lightning clapped again. "King Amano!" his voice boomed loudly for the entire Common to hear. "She has been marked! Unless someone is willing to take her place, she will not be here by the end of her seventeenth birthday." Yami grinned toothily and waved open a portal to the fairy realm. "I can wait until then, Your Majesty." With that, he was gone.

In the aftermath of the visit from the darkness, there were still terrified people milling around in a daze. The princess was taken inside the palace, held in Awane's arms. The royalties followed. "Amano, what did you do?" everyone asked. "Why does Fairy Atemu want your child so much?"

"Chị," Malik whispered to his sister, "Isn't there something you can do?"

Awane closed her eyes. "I've done all I could. I've poured all the magic I can into her. She'll be fine. I don't think anything fatal will happen to her."

Isis didn't want to take chances, and told Amane otherwise. (5)

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Notes (Hey! They're organized!):

1. Chị - "Older Sister" in Vietnamese.

2. This sentence in "Fairy" (aka Vietnamese) is "Anh cho em cánh." Random bit there.

3. Em – generally speaking, a younger person than the addresser. Unless of course, one is referring to oneself to an older person. Such as I would call Straws or CGflower "Em," but call myself "Em" to Bourei or Misura. I'd call the older girls Chị.

4. sáng – bright or light. Then em sáng means, in essentiality, "Bright One." I didn't want Yami to speak all in Common, for some odd reason. Sigh.

5. Yeah, once again, those are all the real events, not the events told by Amane to Bakura. Nope. You heard what Amane told Bakura. Right? Anyway, I'd also like to slip in that in.

Alright, so that chapter right there sucked ass, but hey. What can I do about it? If I try rewriting it again, I'll go nuts. Review!