A/N- I decided to add another chapter, although I still haven't worked out all of the kinks yet. Wait…. an evil plot bunny is forming inside my head…. this will be interesting….

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters you recognize.

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He felt guilty, but he knew he probably shouldn't. He had just saved Daine from the worst possible mistake she could ever make! But he felt guilty. Nothing could stop that.

Flashback

She pranced off like a maiden in love. He only had a few seconds. He practically jumped on the clerk. He shoved his hands around his neck. The Peacock fell into a deep trance.

"You will not want Daine anymore, since only the chasing part is fun. You will leave Corus, and find a job else ware."

He immediately felt bad, as he had just put a spell on the young man. He had no time to worry however, and followed Daine out of the stables.

End Flashback

He knew Daine didn't want the Peacock, and he had only helped things along. But that didn't stop the guilt from coming.

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"And then he muttered something about how, 'love is blind to all hours!'" This brought woops of laughter from the queen and the Lioness. Daine smiled.

"Mithros, I needed that laugh," Alanna commented as she sank back into the cushy armchair.

"But anyways, why did he leave court? I would have wanted to hear more quotes!" Thayet added.

Daine opened her mouth to answer, only to shut it, and open it again.

"That is an excellent question. Maybe he needed more females to prey on."

"Most likely," Alanna muttered, quickly falling asleep. A yawn from Thayet also suggested she to was falling asleep. But Daine was wide awake. Why had the Peacock left court?

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Every drunken man at the inn would have sworn a livid peacock had just entered the inn and started to smash and break anything he could find. Most men then bowed out to more drinks. When one started to see peacocks entering inns, they knew they'd had too much alcohol.

"I'll kill him!" the-peacock? -yelled. "I'll take him and throw him over-," he would have finished, but the barkeeper had quite literally thrown him out of the inn.

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He landed in a soft pile of snow. At least he wouldn't break something and ruin his absolutely wonderful, gorgeous looks. ("What a shame," the barkeeper muttered.)

That man! What was his name- Nutmeg, Numiere, Noming, Numair- yes that was it! He was a foul creature, doing what he'd done. He had witched the perfectly innocent Perin!

The Peacock had figured this out only quite recently. He had been riding his mare off to a distant city when the spell had worn off. He had his goal in site! He knew he could have half of the woman in the Lower City, but this one…was special.

He had to get revenge. And the best way to get revenge was to hurt the ones closest to them.

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Remember, the day of the fateful ball was only the second day of Midwinter, which meant more balls. ("Oh joy," Alanna had said.)

The last and eighth day of Midwinter was to be the grandest. ("Great," the Lioness muttered.) Daine was caught up in servants rushing about, wondering if the violet gown of the queen would clash with the blue outfit the king wore. The smells and sights were fantastic, with only the finest decorations being shown. ("All just a waste of money. We could use the money for more useful things!" Alanna had again commented. At this, Thayet had ordered Alanna not to complain for the rest of the day, and if she did, poor Alanna would suffer the wrath of having to dance to every slow song.)

Instead of an emerald dress, Daine was dressed in a sapphire blue dress. Unlike the last dress, this one had sleeves. It was low-cut. So low-cut that Daine had sent the dress back to Kuri Taylor and asked for more material to be used, and when the dress returned it was much more satisfactory.

Daine expected this ball to be much more-relaxing than the last.

She was wrong.

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A/N- I was planning on making this the last chapter, but I don't feel like typing a lot right now so…. you'll have to wait. This is mainly a filer chapter, but please, tell me if you like it, a.k.a. REVIEW! In the REVIEW! please tell me if you think Numair's decision to put a spell on the Peacock was a good decision, or a bad one.