A/N: All right, some confusion, I know I know I know.

Here. This should help.

The snowstone gems may or may not have later significance. Most likely they will, but I'm not sure. It's also possible that they end up as Nee's snowstone gems she gives to Mel on her first ball. But that may not happen, either.

Relationships:

Alaraec's mother is the sister to the King. She adopted into the Renselaeus family when she married Alaraec's dad. Elestra's family and Ermliana's family are distant cousins, so after the two kids met, it became somewhat profitable to become friends. Because Elestra and Ermliana did sometime get around to Alaraec's mother for tea, the back-then Princess of Renselaeus welcomed the two families into her social graces. Jhussav is Russav's (Danric's cousin, friend, Mel's "flirt," yeah, him) dad. Arthal, Flauvic's mom, is a few years younger than him. Galdran is younger than her. Derec the third, who Ermliana's betrothed to (remember him?) is Derec's (Mel's flirt) grandpa. Ermliana is not his wife. Ermliana's older brother, Lestran, is Nee's grandfather.

Another character who may come into the story is Debegri. He's Elestra's age or so. I hoped this cleared things up for all you out there. Thinking it out helped me.

Reviewers:

Wake-Robin: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I'm hoping you'll update Forgetting the Past soon... hint, hint, wink, wink

Rubic-cube: I'm glad you like it. I hope what I stated above helped you. Sorry the information about the snowstone gems is rather vague.

FelSong: The race was fun to write. BTW, I just read Pirate Princess and love it! It's marvelous. Anyway, I hope above answered your questions as well.

aussiegirl of sunshine: Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Moonsong: Original? Thank you! I'm so glad you think it is, 'cause it's nice to do something new. That's an awesome compliment.

And on with ch. 3:

Strange pasts and precocious children

On my twelfth Name Day, I met Arthal Merindar.

She was three, and had lovely red-gold hair, and cold blue eyes.

And she was quite precocious.

"You're short," she told me as soon as she met me. "That hair doesn't do anything to help it."

I had taken to piling my waist-length brown hair on top of my head, carefully securing it with hairpins, ribbons, and gems. It did add a few inches, and it looked nice. But when Arthal said that, it made me feel even shorter.

I raised myself up as tall as I could, and said, "I'm quite aware I'm short, your grace, and I wear my hair this way because I like it." I glared down at her. She was about as tall as my waist, which was rather pathetic for me. She was only three, burn it!

Alaraec snorted behind me. Nowadays he was always laughing at me, but nowadays I wasn't exactly graceful. Mother said I would grow out of it, for I had had a natural grace in childhood.

I had liked to dance, and run, then. But if I had any grace, it had hidden itself away for six months and would probably remain hidden for a good long while.

Maybe when I stopped growing so fast, I supposed. Three years ago I had been Arthal's height. Even now, the gown I had had for my last Name Day was several inches too short. I disliked it immensely (the growing, not the gown. Actually, I had loved that gown, but it was now too small.).

Arthal had given me a glare that was slightly chilling, but I ignored it. "She'll be a terror when she's old enough to participate in Court," I muttered to Alaraec as she left my name day party. His eyes narrowed in amusement, but he tried very hard not to laugh.

Also on my twelfth Name Day, I received a pleasant surprise. Or, more to the point, Ermliana received a pleasant surprise. Alaraec, Ermliana, and I were sitting in my suite having some coffee (mine and Alaraec's loaded with honey, chocolate, and sugar, Ermliana's just plain, which made me shudder every time she took a drink), when Ermliana's brother, Lestran, nineteen years old and about to be married to Liselia Khialem, rushed in and picked up Ermliana, swinging her around.

Ermliana burst into giggles, for she was nearly too big to be doing that (except for the fact that Lestran was built like a bear), and said, "Why so happy?"

Lestran plopped down and poured himself some coffee as I asked, a little too late, "Would you like ?"

"Thank you, Elestra," he told me, openly grinning. "Such a wonderful hostess. Always on your toes and fast on the uptake." I laughed. He never really mastered the Court mask and always showed his true emotions. He turned to Ermliana. "Derec Toarnevdar the third, baron of Orbanith, eloped with Mashi Chamadis to his barony. Consider your engagement over."

Ermliana gaped at him. "Why?"

Lestran grinned. "He and Mashi have been twoing for some time, and because Derec has donated half his fortune to help train the army, he is now Count of Orbanith. So he decided it was time for him and Mashi to get married secretly, and go off to Orbanith."

I burst into laughter, as did Alaraec.

Ermliana collapsed onto the cushions, and began to laugh as well. "I'm free!" she cried, waving her arms about. "Free, free, free, free!"

Even my emotionless maid, Sarina, laughed at her antics.

Ermliana seemed much happier after that. Three months later, when the Orbaniths came back to Court and Mashi announced she was two months pregnant, Ermliana was the first to congratulate her.

Mashi's child was a boy, named Derec the fourth (that was surprising), and he would inherit Orbanith. My brother questioned me about it after he round out.

"Lessie, why is everyone 'cept you who's getting their lands a boy?"

I thought about this. "It's because I'm the oldest, and all the other oldest are boys."

He frowned at me. "Galdran's not."

I sighed. "Galdran's special. He's going to be king. Arthal is the oldest, though, and she'll be inheriting the Merindar lands and title."

He still frowned. "I don't get it. Being a king is specialler than being a Merindar."

"It's more special, Jhussav, not specialler. And the Merindars are different. They don't count."

He seemed satisfied with this. "Oh," he said, a little contentedly. "That's good. They're mean."

I laughed.

In truth, King Lourden, Galdran's father, wasn't that bad. He was smart and fair, and didn't raise taxes on the middle and lower classes. His wife, Queen Marscopa, was a little frivolous at times, but he took the money from taxes on the nobles and his own treasury. He was a pretty thrifty King, too, so that helped some.

Alaraec's parents, the Prince and Princess of Renselaeus, had retreated back to their supposedly fabulous castle in the principality, while Alaraec remained in Athanarel as the delegate of Renselaeus and Shevraeth.

When Ermliana and I asked Alaraec about the King, his answer was a little vague. "He's better than every other Renselaeus we've ever had," he said. "He's really a decent King. But his past...is odd."

"What's it like?" Ermliana and I demanded in unison.

"It's just...odd. Confusing."

"That doesn't help much," I said.

"It's all I can give you," he said helplessly.

"Why?" Ermliana said.

"I'm not allowed to say anything else," he replied, and glared at the ceiling.

Ermliana and I resolved to do some searching in the library.

I was playing my harp during third-white, the week after the strange conversation with Alaraec, when Ermliana burst in, fully dressed and hair gemmed and braided. "Let's go to the library!" she cried.

"Ermliana, I'm not—"

"Dressed, yes, yes I know." She ran to my wardrobe and pulled out a blue gown, and some undergarments. She grabbed some hair gems and helped me dress quickly, and then put up my hair haphazardly, and then grabbed my hand. We rushed out of my suite quickly, just as Sarina walked through the servant's door.

"Bye, Sarina," I yelled as we left.

"Why are you in such a tearing hurry?" I demanded as she pulled me down the hallway. I managed to rip my hand out of her grasp and tried to put my hair into some sort of order.

"Because," Ermliana said breathlessly, "That's a big library. And today's an all-day Court session. If we work all day, maybe we can find out something about the King."

Realization dawned on me. "Ermliana, you're brilliant!"

"I try to be," she responded loftily as we ran into the library.

I figured, since it seemed that Alaraec could not tell us and so desperately seemed like he wanted to, that maybe everyone who was involved in Court was under some sort of spell, maybe set on by the King. I told Ermliana so, and she said it sounded reasonable. We started to look, her in the Council of Mages section, mine in the memoir archive.

Four cups of coffee and two candle-changes later, during second-gold, Ermliana cried, "Come look at this!"

It was a recent list of mages wanted by the Council of Mages because they hadn't been approved. I scanned it quickly, and then dropped the paper.

"Did that say what I thought it said?" I asked Ermliana. I rubbed my eyes as she picked up the paper and handed it to me.

At the bottom of the page, there was one name we recognized: Marscopa Likshen Merindar, Queen of Remalna.

Post A/N: I'll leave you here because I'm still working out her story, which Ermliana and Elestra will find in another book. It's a full passage of the book, which is why it's taking forever.

Please, I'd like to see your thoughts and suggestions on this. I'd also like to see ideas for a new title, hint, hint, wink, wink , pretty pretty please?