A/N: We get some more Yrene love, some Team Fuckbuddies (aka Manorian), and some more Sam. Will Aelin actually spill finally?

This chapter is looooonng. Again. But less long than the last.

I had planned to update this sooner, as the actual story is almost complete in my computer, but I've been waiting until I get motivation to actually complete it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Throne of Glass

A Disclosure

Yrene hadn't been able to finish her plans for that day's healing during the time she had in the morning, so she came back after she finished her work with the other healers for the day. Sam was in the room drinking a glass of water.

"You've been walking, haven't you?" She asked him.

"And?" He turned to face her, put off by her accusation.

"And you have several broken bones you shouldn't be walking on. I can get you a wheeled chair if you'd like," Yrene told him. "But I understand that you're stubborn. You're not the first stubborn patient I've had. Now back to bed."

He took the few painful steps back to the bed and lay down. He felt her magic begin its work on the broken bones, assessing for any further damage he'd caused to them. She then began the long process of replacing bandages on his remaining wounds.

There was a knock on the door. "Yrene?" The gruff voice asked.

"Come in," She replied, not giving Sam a chance to answer.

Sam blinked in recognition of the visitor. "You – you were with Celaena last night."

"Yes I was," he replied. "I'm Chaol Westfall, Yrene's husband and right hand to King Dorian II of Adarlan." The introduction was very formal for who he was talking to, Yrene could see how stiff her husband felt around his former lover's other former lover.

"You already know who and what I am," Sam replied, not in the mood to introduce himself.

"Is there something you need, Chaol?" Yrene asked him. "Other than to remind me I'm late to dinner once again."

"The Queen of Terrasen demands your presence," Chaol replied. "She wanted to know if you can take alcohol out of someone's system."

Yrene blinked. "None of them are big drinkers anymore."

"You'll have to see what her need is. She seems more anxious than normal about it," Chaol replied. "Probably due to her parents being present for whatever is happening. But she is also laughing quite a bit."

Another knock on the door broke the couple's conversation. Chaol got up to answer it. On the other side of the door Yrene was sure that Sam could see the formally dressed fae male, so she got up to see why Rowan was here. Yes, the portal made things convenient, but it was so unusual to see any of Terrasen's court in Rifthold that she was surprised.

Chaol turned to his wife. "It would be best if you go."

Yrene sighed and packed up. "We'll get back to this tomorrow, Sam. I have a pressing matter to deal with." She got up and walked with a purpose.

Normally Aelin would be laughing both at her friends and at the absurdity of the night's events. The celebration had started out normal enough: Rowan and Aelin welcomed everyone to the night's festivities from the balcony, they had shared a first dance with their people to commence the celebration, and then they'd walked through parts of the city in their formalwear to visit the local restaurants, inns, and bars that would be helping the citizens of Orynth celebrate.

The "incident" started some time before dinner was served. A cocktail hour was held in the great hall with citizens coming in to celebrate with the nobles, soldiers, guards, and royalty. That went as planned, with the citizens of Orynth behaving well and expressing gratitude towards their Queen.

No one was sure exactly when, but at some point Dorian had convinced Manon and her fellow witches to taste wine. They downed a lot of it, as apparently wine had no effect on ironteeth witches. Each came out stone-cold sober. So Aedion suggested that Dorian and Manon sample a new type of alcohol produced by a brewer in Terrasen: whiskey. Dorian drank a small amount, but Manon found she enjoyed the taste and assumed she couldn't get drunk, resulting in several downed glasses.

Now, before dinner, Rhoe and Evalin had caught a drunk Manon coaxing a drunk Dorian into a parlor just off the main hallway. And by coaxing they meant undressing him and giving him a hickey against a wall. Instead of directly confronting the Queen and King, they asked their daughter to control her friends. Aelin had no idea how to deal with a drunk witch, but she wasn't sure she wanted to learn, so she called the only backup she could get. Bronwen and Petrah weren't too far gone from their whiskey, but neither felt the situation warranted intervention. Witches had less decency that Aelin thought.

Aelin was pacing in the hallway outside the parlor, trying to decide if it was worth it to burst in. Frankly she didn't know if she wanted to know what they were doing in there. She hoped Dorian was alive. She was grateful to see Yrene and Chaol show up. She hoped Yrene could solve Manon's little alcohol problem and Chaol could talk some sense into Dorian.

She cautiously opened the door to peek in and then closed it again. "I can't – I just can't. I'll be at dinner. You two can take their spots. They won't be there any time soon."

"Is that a way to greet me, Aelin?" Yrene asked.

"Of course not," Aelin said, hugging her quickly before grabbing Rowan and walking off to the dining room.

Yrene was scared of what she would see, given Aelin's reaction, but was pleasantly surprised to find that anything too explicit was hidden behind the back of a couch. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen or done before, so she walked over to the pair. "It's dinner time, you two."

Manon was too caught up in his neck, and Dorian seemed to be equally caught up in whatever he was doing with his hands.

"Aelin requests your place at the table, or she'll write letters to both Glennis and Georgina," Chaol tried from the doorway. He saw Dorian flinch, but there was no real effort on either Manon or Dorian's part to get up.

Yrene moved closer to the couple, but that didn't seem to deter them.

"I thought you said you weren't going to sleep with her until you two had things figured out," Yrene said.

"Too late," Dorian replied.

"It's been too late for several months, healer," Manon replied, barely taking time to move her mouth from its spot on Dorian's neck.

"Let's just leave them," Yrene replied. "I could try curing Manon's drunken state, but I figure Aelin had an ulterior motive."

They followed the guards' directions to the dining room, where Aelin was waiting inside with her court including her parents and uncle.

"Nice to have you here," Aelin said, hugging both Chaol and Yrene. "I'm happy I could include two of the most vital people to our victory in this celebration."

"Does that mean you planned this?" Chaol asked her.

"I didn't offer them the alcohol," Aelin replied. "My parents would have disapproved. Lysandra planned it and Aedion carried it out. They complained that those two needed to, and I quote, 'fuck it out.' I then realized I could use this to have you here."

Chaol sighed.

"To be fair, I didn't realize this is what would happen. The Dorian I know can hold his alcohol better than this."

"He hasn't had a drop of alcohol in the last year," Chaol told her. "He's been too busy running Adarlan to celebrate."

Aelin looked surprised. "That would explain quite a bit."

After the disaster that was getting Manon drunk, the party went much more smoothly. Gavriel, Marion, Rhoe, and Evalin didn't want to reveal themselves publicly until a good statement could be produced from Aelin, so they watched from the balcony. Rhoe's eyes shined with delight as he watched his daughter command the room. Evalin smiled as she watched her daughter's shockingly good public manners.

On the floor and outside Aelin mingled with her people noble and common, Rowan by her side. She normally didn't like this part of her job, but she felt empowered both by the presence of her friends and her parents. She could focus on this tonight.

Tomorrow would be worse. She had to see Sam – see him and acknowledge how poorly she'd treated him in the past. See him and find a way to explain that she'd found her mate – and that said mate wasn't him. She didn't even know how to begin to introduce herself. She wished she could have someone with her – Rowan or Lysandra would be best – but she knew she had to do this. So she danced and talked around the doubt. She would figure out a plan later.

Sam woke up once again to knocking on his door. After the healing yesterday he felt less pain, but he couldn't move well with all the splints and bandages around him. He sat up and looked towards the door.

Yrene entered to change his bandages and perform more healing. She was followed by a handsome young man he vaguely recognized.

"This is King Dorian Havilliard II," Yrene said. "He wanted to welcome you this morning."

"Why are you really here?" Sam asked him.

Dorian laughed. "I may have done something to royally piss off and embarrass Ae-" he paused and looked at Yrene, who shook her head. "Celaena last night. So I thought I would check on your mood before she visited."

Sam knew something was up with Celaena, and he'd known that from the start, but this was a new level of adding questions. "Tell me the truth. Someone tell me the truth about what happened while I was dead."

Dorian's eyes went wide and then narrowed. "She'll be here to tell you today. Know before you see her that she's far more scared about this than she will let on. She's prepared for your anger, but that doesn't mean she deserves it." The temperature dropped in the room. "I trust you understand that?"

Sam just nodded, stunned into silence.

Another surprise visitor flitted into his room not 30 minutes later.

"Weren't your breasts a lot larger?" He asked Lysandra.

"Oh, these?" She looked down. "That's my little secret. I just wanted to see if you were all right. If that question was any indication, I'd say you're fine. Don't tell her I came to see you, she'll be angry, but I needed to make sure you were ready to see her. Can't leave a girl in a bind."

Sam watched as Lysandra turned around and left the room silently. Something was very, very, wrong if Lysandra was looking out for Celaena. If he could move more he'd get out as fast as he could.

The hawk from the day before also came to visit, silently watching as Yrene worked on him before flying away. But no Celaena.

"I need to go for the day," Yrene said. "I have other patients to see. No standing for a few more days, but you can sit up now."

Somehow he felt compelled to obey her. He watched as she got up and left the room, leaving him to his own thoughts.

Aelin sat on the floor of her closet and started. What should she wear? Not a gown befitting of a Queen. Not right now. That would be too different. It would send the wrong message – a very wrong message. Her assassin's suit, which she kept folded in a back corner, also wasn't right. She couldn't have him think she was there to kill him. And how to do her hair – she couldn't hide her ears anymore, but she wanted to try.

"Need help?" Lysandra asked, sneaking up behind her.

Aelin looked up. "I'm fine."

"No you aren't," Lysandra replied. "Here." She rifled through Aelin's wardrobe and pulled out some of her least fine pants and a plain tunic.

Aelin stared at the garments.

"And braid your hair. I don't think it will look good down given whatever Rowan did to it last night," Lysandra told her friend.

"We were too tired to do anything last night," Aelin said.

"Then why does your hair look like a bird's nest?"

"I didn't bother to take it out of the updo before going to bed last night," Aelin replied.

Lysandra sighed. "Well you better do something soon. Sam is suspicious."

"Like you showing up to support me helped with that. Last he knew we hated each other."

"Well, Dorian said he's getting rather agitated with not knowing, and Yrene's concerned he'll hurt himself further trying to figure out what's happening. You can't wait until tomorrow, and Rowan doesn't want you to wait any longer today given that you're going out of your mind," Lysandra told her. "Even your parents are agreeing with Rowan. It's that obvious you need to get this over with."

"You're not going to get me drunk like you did to Manon last night?"

"No, but I may use my snow leopard form to pick you up in my jaw and transport you myself."

"Fine," Aelin sighed. "I'll go. Leave so I can get dressed." She hid some daggers and put on rugged boots, hoping to escape to the Oakwald for a time to get her thoughts together before she faced Sam.

When she left her closet, she found Rowan outside the door. He swung her over his shoulder and carried her through the portal himself. They really weren't going to let her escape this.

Sam was brought a simple lunch of soft foods so his teeth wouldn't hurt when he ate. He tried to eat the food, but with his splinted fingers it was difficult. Despite his reservations about where he was being held, he wished the maid had stayed to help him eat.

The door creaked open without a knock and a cloaked figure entered. He couldn't tell if it was a shorter man or a taller woman. The gait wasn't swaggering like Celaena's, but it was still confident and sure.

"Who are you?" He demanded to know.

The figure didn't answer. They just pulled up a chair and swung their legs onto the bed. "I'm surprised he put you in here, but I suppose I shouldn't be. This is my room."

Sam recognized the voice as Celaena's, but it wasn't quite her voice. No, this voice was the one from the carriage: calmer and more measured, less angry, but with a hint of the mischief Celaena's carried.

"If you don't take off your hood, I'll do it for you," Sam said. He could see Celaena's jaw and mouth, but the hood shadowed her eyes and hair.

"Let me help you eat," Celaena, or whoever this was, offered. She picked up a spoon and dipped it into a bowl of pudding.

Sam stared at her. "Why aren't you showing me your face? Your full face?"

Celaena looked at the window, where the hawk from earlier was glaring right at her. She muttered something that sounded like "buzzard" under her breath and turned back to Sam. "After you eat."

"Why is Lysandra helping you? Or, for that matter, the King of Adarlan?"

"A lot has changed since you died, Sam," Celaena said. "I suppose I should start with reintroducing myself, but you won't be getting any information until you eat something." She shoved the spoon towards his mouth and with some reluctance he took the spoonful.

"Is that good enough?"

The spoon back at his mouth was his response. He apparently had to eat the whole bowl before getting any information, so he did. He supposed if it was poisoned and this was all a trick, well, he had already died once. He shouldn't be alive; dying would reset the balance. It would be good. But somehow, he didn't feel ill at all. He felt better now that his hunger faded.

Sam watched as Celaena began to bite her lip. She then slowly removed the hood of the cloak. Her face was only a little older and without any of the small scars he recognized. He then thought about her hands – now similarly scar-free. But the startling thing, the thing that shocked him most, were her ears. They were now pointed and poking through her hair. He tried not to stare.

"Allow me to introduce myself to you again," whoever this was said. "My name is Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen."

Sam nearly choked on his own spit. Queen? Fae? This wasn't Celaena then. It couldn't be. He thought about her hands again – no calluses, no scars, and a ring on her finger. A ring on her finger. Whose ring?

"If you need time, I can come back," Aelin said.

"No. Tell me," Sam finally said. "Tell me everything."

So she tried. She told him about her childhood and being rescued by Arobynn. He knew about her training, but she told him more. When she started talking about his death and the aftermath, he could feel tears in his eyes. She herself was obviously holding back tears both happy and sad.

Aelin choked when she got to her stay in Endovier, so Sam stopped her. "Yrene told me about the war – about the Valg. She thought I needed to know that much."

Somehow the woman in front of him looked relieved. "You keep looking at my ring," she observed, changing the topic.

"You're married," Sam replied, answering for her.

"Yes, I am," Aelin confirmed.

"Who is it? A good man?"

"Male," Aelin corrected. "A territorial fae bastard. A buzzard. Although he acts more like an overprotective nursemaid when I'm sick." She huffed a laugh through the tears shining in her eyes.

Of course it would be a fae, if she was one as well. Maybe even her mate. He felt a great pang of jealousy – one that he would have to learn to live with. She had every right to move on if he had been irrevocably dead, or so she thought. He didn't like it at all, but he wasn't fit to be king. Frankly, Celaena wasn't fit to be queen either, but this woman – Aelin – was. She was magnificent.

"He even, after Arobynn told me where he'd buried you… He accompanied me to your grave so I could mourn. So I could thank you and gain strength from you before we released magic," Aelin said, wiping the one stray tear she'd shed so far. "He was actually the one that forced me to come see you today. He carried me here."

Sam just continued to stare as Aelin rambled on about whoever this husband of hers was. He seemed like a good enough male, someone who could take care of her, but he had to tune out some of the things she said about him. Losing her was too fresh.

"He killed someone with a table once in a bar brawl," Aelin laughed, catching Sam's attention.

He had to admit, though, although he could see Celaena in Aelin, he had no idea if he would love Aelin herself. She was just – different. Still, he needed a change in topic. "Tell me about your court. Why are you allied with Lysandra?"

"Lysandra is one of my fiercest allies. After we realized that Arobynn kept us apart, we found ourselves stronger together. She was the one to kill Arobynn, for all that he'd done to her. I only gave her permission to do so when the time was right," Aelin told him. "She's a valuable asset to any court, and an even more valuable friend. I'll let her tell you her story on her own, as I'm sure she'll visit you again soon.

"You two were always somewhat similar. I remember Wesley telling me that once," Sam replied softly. "I didn't realize they…"

"None of us did," Aelin said.

"Has she moved on?"

"With my cousin," Aelin replied, adding some disgust into the statement in what Sam knew was an attempt to lighten the mood. "But we don't talk about that for numerous reasons. What, with their friendship with me and their disgusting fetishes Lysandra feels I need to know."

Sam chuckled, happy to see Aelin had some of Celaena's humor.

"We're joined by my husband's cadre – a group of grumpy old fae who can barely say the word 'civilized,' the most beautiful strategist, and a normal human man," Aelin said. "It's a fairly good court, but I suppose we could use some work."

"I'd like to meet them some day," Sam laughed.

"Well, you've already met the one that defeated the valg once and for all," Aelin said.

"Good to see your ego's intact."

"That wasn't my doing. It was Yrene," Aelin replied. "Who is, in my opinion, the strongest healer in the world. The best as well. There's a reason I asked her to work on you."

Sam's eyes widened.

"I'd assume you've also met her husband, Chaol," Aelin said. "She's healed him as well, though he still has grumpy and overly serious tendencies. One would hope their child will fix that problem."

Sam read the subtext in Aelin's face, in her voice. There was some romantic history between the two of them, even though they were now just friends. He wouldn't pry further into that – he couldn't.

"And King Dorian." She said the name as if joking. "You know we met him and Chaol at a party while we were still assassins? He also enjoys books, billiards, and parties, though he's gotten much more mature since the war. He and the queen of the wastes, Manon, are still working to build their kingdoms back up."

"Does he have magic?"

"Raw magic," Aelin replied. "Though these days he's mostly using it to turn himself into a woman and for sexual purposes."

Despite the joke, Sam shuddered at the thought. "Is he responsible for this?"

"No," Aelin whispered. "That – that was a member of my court. I don't know why he brought you back. You were one of a handful of people important to me that he brought back."

"How?"

"I'll tell you at a later time," she said. "You'll meet him, when you visit my court. He can explain himself to you."

"Why?"

"Because for now I'm just happy you're back," Aelin replied. Now tears were starting to run down her face. She reached out to hug him.

Sam decided that for now, for this moment, he could hug her back.

"So how did it go?" Lysandra asked as she lay on a couch next to Aelin.

"Come with tomorrow," Aelin replied. "Please?"

A/N: TBC