Alanna woke up the next morning without any priestesses awakening her. Feeling pleased with herself – perhaps she had finally caught up on sleep? – she opened her eyes, which, of late, had become a chore. And discovered the cause of the lack of priestesses. She was staring at the royal blue of Jonathan's canopy bed.

The sense of shock at what she had done was overpowered by the love she felt for the sleeping man next to her. The Prince. Her Prince.

Someone rapped sharply on the door. Alanna squealed and ducked under the covers as Jonathan stirred. "Come in," he called, his voice rough as he woke up. Alanna cursed in her mind. There was no way that she would escape the court rumors if there had been a witness to see her in Jon's bed. He smiled at her as he sat up, his bare chest flexing with muscles, and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Alanna could have died when the door opened and Roger appeared. He took in the scene quickly, giving her only a glancing smirk, before sympathetically asking his cousin "Bad time?" Jonathan shook his head.

"No, no, it's time we got up anyway." Blushing furiously, Alanna rose out of bed like Jon, thankful that she wore a shift. Jonathan kissed her cheek and handed her a fur trimmed robe, so that she could go to her apartments. She thanked him softly and fled.

It had only been half an hour before the Mother rushed into her rooms, stuffed full with gossip. "Alanna! Alanna! Are the rumors true? Are you really the prince's mistress?" She took in the sight of Alanna staring contentedly at her hearth, still wrapped in her lover's robes. It was answer enough.

"Well then there is much to do! Should you become queen – well, you would be a disgrace to the kingdom without proper training! And –"

"I'm not going to be queen, Mother Claudia," Alanna stated calmly, eerily different from her usual taking-offense-at-every-word self. "It would make no sense. Really, I would have thought you would have realized that."

The Mother stiffened, sensing another of Alanna's buried insults. But even the short-tempered mother knew better than to anger those with the favor of the crown. Alanna smiled, enjoying the shift of power.

Only moments after the Mother had left in despair did Roger arrive, not bothering to knock. Alanna glared at him as he strolled casually through the doorway. The snag in her day. The big snag. He grinned and joined her on the sofa facing the fire, spelling the door closed with tendrils of magic. "Now, love. We've much to discuss."

She scowled at him.

"Like, for example, this issue of marriage to my cousin. You shall marry him. It shall be quite a nice edition, I think, in the family. Our family, that is."

She rose from the couch and began to pace, horrified by what she was going to say. "No. I can't do it any longer. I can't go on a liar like this. I am going to have to tell someone."

Roger chuckled heartily. "Now that's the beauty of it, my sweet. Do you remember little Elizabeth? Your goddaughter?"

Alanna went cold. Her best friend at the convent, Lady Alicia de Courtez, had gotten pregnant from rape at fourteen. She had died a week after the childbirth, but not before naming Alanna sole guardian of her daughter. Elizabeth had been at Corus's finest boarding school, after the priestesses had deemed it unsuitable for Alanna to raise the child. Alanna had not noticed the lack of updates on her goddaughter from the teachers – she had been under too much stress.

Roger continued his narrative merrily. "Well, about a week ago her father decided to have custody of his daughter. He appeared at the school and demanded his daughter. When the professors refused, three of them and two girls were murdered. I expect you haven't heard because of the violence. 'Tis just not suitable for a young woman, don't you think?" He paused a moment, as if waiting for her eager agreement. "Now the father has his daughter being taken care of, but he is not particularly interested in her. It is the 30 nobles he receives each week, for keeping her. If he was offered enough money I'm sure he would be willing to give back the girl. But that will not happen until my cousin is dead. Are we clear?"

Alanna nodded only slightly, numb. Elizabeth was going to be a page. Elizabeth was going to have the life that Alanna had always wanted. Roger had taken that away from her. And in the hands of a rapist, Elizabeth would never be safe. Alanna's insides crumbled. She would have to sacrifice Jon to save her brother and goddaughter. There was no other way.

Roger grinned. "Now. I have some more plans for us." He patted the couch next to himself invitingly. "Come on, dear. Don't be sad. It will all be over soon enough, and then your little Elizabeth can run free again."

That afternoon, Jonathan visited Alanna between dueling practice and the supper he shared alone with his parents once each week. He carried with him a golden ring with a royal blue gemstone that was just small enough not to be horribly gaudy. When he left, the ring was on Alanna's fingers and she sobbed into her pillow. Even Faithful had sense enough to make himself scarce.

Roger's plot was well underway. Already a poison burned in a cauldron in his laboratory. A poison that would soon find itself to the king and queen. But he had a different plan for his cousin, the one who had beaten him as a boy at everything but magic. But magic would not be the way that the Duke would destroy his cousin. That would be…cowardly. Jonathan would be killed at the hands of his lover. Roger roared with mirth as he struck the steel blade again and again at the forge. The blade he wrought would be perfect. And it would grant him the power he had always craved.

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A rather uplifting way to end it off, don't you think???