Chapter 7: There's a Will, There's a Way

Victoria watched with wide eyes and an open mouth as the pretty red-haired girl effortlessly picked Raven up and flew her out of the garden. As the two girls flew out of sight, a sparkling item fell down, seemingly from out of Raven's dress.

Victoria watched as the green boy raced forward, catching the item carefully, while the other two continued to watch the direction Raven and the flying girl had gone, wincing every time the large clock chimed.

Finally the clock stopped ringing and they walked over to their friend, who was kneeling on the ground, staring silently at the item in his hands. Placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, the tall man leaned down.

"Are you okay, man?"

"Will I ever see her again, Vic?" the kneeling man asked, looking up at his friend.

Sighing heavily, Victor replied, "I don't know."

"Maybe… princes really aren't supposed to fall in love with servant girls."

Without another word, the three boys began walking back to the palace, taking a different route than they had used to come in, and leaving Victoria to watch their retreat. Her jaw hung even lower than it had before as she absorbed this new information.

The green boy was the prince! Raven had made a prince fall in love with her! Scowling in jealousy, Victoria turned around and retraced her steps through the garden's maze. She had to tell her mother of this revelation.

-

"You disobeyed me! The ball was in an uproar over that little scene you caused!" King Marcus waved his arms, face turning red. The three boys in front of him hung their heads.

"Robin! You are the leader of my guard! You have a knighthood to your name! You, of all people, should know better than to allow some… party crashing commoner to get away when I specifically ordered for her to be taken captive until the end of the ball!" King Marcus scolded, pointing a stubby finger at the shame faced boy in front of him.

"And you, Victor!" Marcus yelled, rounding on his advisor. "You are my personal advisor! Does that position mean nothing to you? As your monarch, you are legally bound into telling me the things I want to know if it is within your power. The answers to my questions were indeed within you power to answer, but you deliberately disobeyed my orders!"

Victor clenched his teeth, stopping himself from saying something he might regret.

"And you Garfield," the old king's voice had dropped to a dangerously calm tone. "You permitted a peasant entrance into the palace, allowed countless noble persons to be under the influence that the girl was rich, even though you knew the truth, hid with her in the garden, and helped her escape! What were you thinking!"

"I wasn't thinking," Gar replied, looking down at an item in his hands. "I was following my heart."

"Following your heart?" King Marcus repeated incredulously, voice raising. "FOLLOWING YOUR HEART? You were doing everything in your power to go against my wishes, is what you were doing!"

"Maybe what you want isn't the right thing!" Gar exclaimed, standing up suddenly. Marcus looked at his son in surprise. In his full seventeen years of life, Gar had never spoken back to his father that sharply.

"What did you say?"

"I said, what you want isn't the right thing," Gar repeated icily. "You say you want me to marry for the good of the kingdom, but what good is it to the kingdom if their future king is miserable?"

"You're upset now," King Marcus replied calmly. "But you'll learn to live with it. Very few people of our status marry for love. Your mother and I-"

"Met each other on the day of your wedding," Gar finished, scowling. "And in the end you learned to love each other. But that's not going to happen for me!"

"Gar, stop it!" Marcus ordered sternly. "You may think I'm being cold and unfeeling, but I only have your best interests at heart."

"I somehow doubt that," Gar replied stubbornly, folding his arms. His father sighed.

"Listen to me. I haven't been completely honest with you," King Marcus admitted. That caught Gar's attention, and the old man continued. "I thought I was in love before I met your mother." Gar frowned, and waited for his father to continue.

"She was… a servant girl in the palace. I met her one day while she was cleaning windows, and I was infatuated with her immediately. I thought she was the most beautiful creature to walk the planet, and I told her so.

"She told me she felt the same, and I proposed. My parents were none too pleased when I told them of our engagement, and they told me that they refused to allow the future king of Tamborinia to marry a commoner. So I did the same thing you did, Garfield. I told them that I would abdicate my throne."

He paused for a moment, remembering the events so long ago, and Gar waited for him to continue.

"When I told the servant girl that I was going to abdicate for her, she broke off the engagement and ran away. I realized then that she had never truly loved me, she had only cared for my station and wealth," King Marcus recalled, voice wavering slightly. Clearing his throat, he stood up straight and looked his son in the eye. "I just… don't want you to go through the same pain I went through, my son. You've been my life since I first saw you in your cradle."

Silently, Gar pulled his father into a hug. They stood there for a few minutes, unheeding of Victor and Robin still sitting silently in the room. Garfield pulled away, keeping his hands on his father's shoulders.

"I… understand now, that you're only looking out for me," Gar admitted. "But the truth is, I know that's not going to happen. Raven never knew that I'm a prince."

"What!" everyone in the room looked over at Victor in surprise, as the tall man jumped up from his seat. "You never told her?"

"No," Gar shook his head. "I was going to, but right before I could you guys burst in!"

"Oh… oops," Victor mumbled bashfully.

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Robin spoke up. "If she never knew, then surely you'll have no objections to Gar marrying her now!"

Gar looked at his father hopefully, but the king sighed, and shook his head. "I wish it were so, but it is not that simple. It does not change the fact that she is a commoner. If she were part of a wealthy family-"

"Wait!" Gar exclaimed. "I just remembered something!"

The others looked at him questioningly, and he continued. By the time he had finished relating what he had suddenly remembered, there were smiles on every face in the room.

-

"Get up. Now!"

Raven hissed in pain as she received a sharp kick to her side. Rolling over on her bed of straw, she rubbed her eyes and looked up to see her stepfamily glaring down at her. She sat up and looked at them, keeping her face as neutral as possible.

"Have I been sleeping too long?" she asked innocently. Melinda glowered.

"You went against my orders and went to the ball," Melinda said. "And then you further embarrassed us by fooling around with the prince!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Raven replied truthfully. Were they delusional? She hadn't been with anyone but Gar all night!

"Of course you do!" Victoria snapped. "I saw you with him! And then you flew off with some red-haired witch!"

"Starfire is no witch," Raven replied coolly, standing up. She knew there was no point in pretending to be ignorant of what they were saying. She had been caught red-handed. "And I assure you I wasn't anywhere near the prince all night."

"Right," Tavia sneered. "Because, you know, walking around with him in the palace garden is completely the opposite of being near him."

"What are you talking about?" Raven groaned, rubbing her temples. "I was with Gar the whole time."

"Gar. How sweet," Melinda jeered. "Imagine that, a servant girl growing close enough to the crown prince to refer to him with little nick names."

"Crown prince?" Raven repeated, mouth going dry.

"Stop being stupid," Victoria scorned. "You obviously knew he was the prince all along."

Melinda smiled maliciously when Raven didn't reply.

"You really didn't know, did you?" she asked mockingly. Raven remained silent, fixing her gaze on the stone floor.

"Well then," Melinda said after a short pause. "No harm done."

Raven, Victoria and Tavia all looked at Melinda in disbelieving shock.

"I believe you have learned you lesson," she sneered at Raven. Raven was beginning to grow suspicious, and with reason. "And so, I will be generous and shorten your grounding to eight months."

Victoria and Tavia smiled, satisfied that their mother hadn't gone soft, and waited for her to finish punishing Raven.

"During the next eight months, you will not leave this house. Not even to go into the front or back yard. If you need anything from the city, one of us shall escort you. You will have nothing for breakfast or lunch until the end of the eight months, and your dinners will consist of bread and water. You will have new chores, added to the ones you already have. If you break any of these rules, even remotely, you will be beaten. Three strikes the first time, and then doubled each time after that."

Finished imparting Raven's punishment, Melinda smirked triumphantly, and she and her daughters went upstairs, locking the kitchen door from the outside.

Walking over to the door, Raven pulled on it a few times, groaning as she realized that it wasn't going to budge. Slowly she slid to the ground, leaning against the door.

As she sat there, her thoughts couldn't have been further from her punishment, or even the fact that she was locked in the kitchen with no way out until they opened the door. No, her thoughts were on Gar.

Garfield; the crown prince of Tamborinia. She had danced with the prince. She had fallen in love with royalty.

Raven laughed bitterly. Sure, now she was willing to admit it. Now that she knew she would never see him again, she was willing to admit that she was completely head over heels for the dumb boy.

The same pain that had coursed through her the previous night returned, and she winced. Reaching into her apron pocket, she pulled out her glass slipper from the night before. At first she was slightly surprised that it hadn't cracked under her weight as she slept, but then she fondly remembered her friend Starfire, who had told her about Tamaranean glass.

She could have almost sworn that she saw Starfire's face in the glass as she placed the slipper back in her pocket.

-

"Ah, sister. You have returned," an overly confident young woman walked over to her red-haired sister with outstretched arms. Starfire inclined her head and watched cautiously as her sister, Blackfire, walked over with a strange glint in her dark eyes.

"You know as well as I do that I did not come back, I was called back," Starfire replied, obediently returning the embrace. Stiffly, Blackfire pulled away and smirked.

"You know why you were called then?" she asked, folding her arms. A low muttering rumbled through the large courtroom, but Starfire forced herself to keep her eyes fixed on her elder sibling.

"I think I may know," Starfire replied carefully. "But I would like to hear it from you."

"Yes, I'm sure you would," Blackfire responded. "But as your ruler, and older sister, I command you to tell us why you were called to court."

Starfire's jaw tightened. Ever since Blackfire had been named the ruler of the Fairies, the power had gone to her head. Not to mention, the unspoken, one-sided feud Blackfire had started while they had been awaiting the decision of which of the two girls would rule after their parents so many years ago.

Despite everything, Starfire loved her sister, so she stiffly replied, "Dear sister, I have broken one of our most ancient laws. I must now be punished."

"Hmm," Blackfire hummed, smiling triumphantly. She knew she had the upper hand. "And which law would this be?"

"I…" Starfire paused, looking around the room. Everyone was listening intently, wondering what their usually law abiding princess had done. Moistening her lips, Starfire spoke. "I have fallen in love with a mortal man."

She winced as several cries echoed around the room. Some were disgusted, others disappointed, and a very few were understanding.

Blackfire held up a hand, and silence fell on the crowd. "I believe you know the punishment for such an appalling crime?"

Starfire nodded. "I shall be banished from all Fairy cities."

"And?" Blackfire prompted, smiling maliciously.

Trembling, Starfire gazed at the ground. A pin dropping could have been heard in the courtroom as everyone waited for the shamefaced girl to answer. Fighting back tears, Starfire lifted her head and looked at her sister defiantly.

"I will loose my powers. I must become a human."

-

"Why didn't you think of this earlier!" Victor asked, frantically flipping through files.

"I dunno," Gar replied, shrugging. "I guess it just didn't seem important when she told me so I didn't remember for a while."

"I'm back," Robin announced, walking into the dimly lit room the two boys were sitting in. "And I brought him."

Gar and Victor looked up to see a gangly middle-aged man walk into the room behind Robin. A large scroll was clutched in his thin fingers.

"You're the guy we need?" Gar asked, eyeing the scroll impatiently. Bending down in a flourishing bow, the man nodded.

"I am Monsieur Xavier Avocat, one of the Kingdom's best lawyer, if I do say so myself," the man replied without a hint of a French accent.

"And you're sure you can help us?" Victor asked, looking at the man skeptically.

"Most definitely," the man replied. "I have with me a list of all the official documents signed by wealthy citizens of Tamborinia within the past twenty years."

"Are you sure they're all there?" Garfield asked uncertainly.

"Positive," the man grinned, placing his scroll on the round table in the center of the room.

For the next ten minutes, everyone surrounded the table, scouring the paper diligently. Finally, Victor cried out, pressing one of his large fingers to the paper.

"I found him!"

His announcement was followed by loud cheer from Robin and Gar. While the three boys celebrated by dancing around happily (although Robin decided to just watch that part), Xavier read over the document.

Bending over, M. Avocat studied the name and the information next to it. Abruptly he called the small celebration to a halt, and the three boys looked at him as he explained what the scroll said.

"It is recorded here that the man you were looking for did indeed make and sign what you wanted him to have, but there's more," M. Avocat informed them. "We do not have the official document in our archives. A few years ago he took it out to make last changes, but it was never returned."

Gar looked at the man in shock. This couldn't be true!

"If we somehow managed to find it, would it still be a legally binding record?" Victor asked, reading the statement on the scroll.

"It would," Xavier nodded. "As long as there is a signature on it."

"Well that's just great," Gar groaned. "We won't be getting it back anytime soon. The man's DEAD!"

"But it should still be in his house," Robin said slowly, a thoughtful expression on his face. "And I know how we can get it."

-

Pain seared through Raven's face as she fell to her knees. She could feel a bruise beginning to form on her cheekbone.

"Next time, when we ask for our tea, make sure you bring it quicker," Victoria ordered sternly. Looking up, Raven stared back at Victoria coldly. Silently, she stood up and left the parlor. Once the door had closed firmly behind her, she gingerly lifted her hand to her face.

According to her stepfamily, she had disobeyed their orders twice already. Just as Melinda had decreed, she had received three strikes the first time (she had opened a window to shake the dusk out of a rag, and they had eagerly taken it as an attempt to run away), and six the second time. Next time it would be twelve, and Raven had no doubt that she would 'rebel' again by the end of the day, no matter how much she tried to blend into the shadows.

Scowling with a mixture of rage and sorrow, Raven walked down the hall. She still had laundry to wash, floors to scrub, chimneys to sweep, silverware to polish…

"Psst! Raven!"

Raven spun around in surprise. Had that grandfather clock whispered to her? Taking a step closer, Raven saw a small fold of light purple material poke out from behind the clock, followed by a familiar young woman.

"Starfire!" Raven exclaimed, quietly so the slave drivers in the other room wouldn't hear. Smiling widely, the fairy pulled Raven into a bone-crushing hug. "What are you doing here?"

"I have come to ask something of you," Starfire replied back in an excited whisper. "May we go someplace where we need not whisper?"

Nodding, Raven led Starfire down the main flight of stairs and pulled her into the small broom closet in the landing. Pushing aside an old mop, Raven offered Starfire a seat on a rusty bucket. Starfire sat down gracefully, and looked up at Raven with a serious expression on her face.

"We have much to talk about," she started solemnly.

"I know," Raven nodded. "Melinda already told me that Gar's the prince."

"Yes, but that is not all," Starfire replied. "He has convinced his father to let him marry you! Is this not wonderful?"

"What?" Raven asked in surprise. "But… no. I'm a servant, and he's royalty. There's no way his father would let him-"

"But he has!" Starfire insisted. "They know that your father was very wealthy, which means you were born into a noble family. It is perfectly acceptable."

"True, but my father died. All his money went to Melinda, which left me poor, since Melinda will never consider me one of the heirs of her fortune," Raven replied bitterly.

"Ah, but that may not be so," Starfire replied, smiling knowingly. Raven raised an eyebrow, and the green-eyed girl continued. "Trigon was the last person to have his will. He had made last changes before he died, and it was never given back to the lawyers' archives!"

"Meaning, I may have a small fortune to my name, but no one knows it except my dead father and Melinda," Raven concluded, letting a small smile cross her face. "And then I would be completely eligible to marry Gar."

Starfire nodded happily, and Raven shocked them both by pulling her into an excited hug. Quickly pulling away, Raven looked at Starfire, determination flashing in her purple eyes.

"So, what's the plan?"

This chapter kind of makes it seem like I'm straying, doesn't it? It all seems very random, eh? Oh, ye of little faith. Just trust me. I have plans...

Well, I hope you likedthis chapter.

Tammy Tamborine