For as long as she could remember, Audrey had lived in the quaint little castle called Rosemore, ancestral home of house Rosiers, her mother's people, who had wrested the land from the clutches of the evil faeries generations ago. It was a beautiful castle, made of white sandstone, with gardens and gardens of roses, lined in perfect rows without end. Audrey spent a lot of her childhood getting lost in those rose gardens, peering out at her nursemaids and nannies from behind a curtain of leaves, and thorns that never stung, because it was Flora's gift to her fairy goddaughter, that no thorn would ever prick her finger.

She had never spent much time playing with her parents, because her mother was flighty and Grammie called her "hard to manage," because she'd been raised by faeries. Her father was very busy running the country, even though he was never meant to be King. He was a seventh son of a neighboring kingdom, and all six of his brothers were ahead of him for the throne in the land where he was born. As a result, he didn't always know what he was doing, and being too proud to ask his councillors for advice, he spent a good deal of time boarded up in his office, drinking the good brandy.

So when Audrey wasn't hiding from her nannies, she had lessons with Grammie Leah, learning all the things her mother never got to learn when she was exiled to the moorlands as a child. She learned which was the soup spoon and which was the teaspoon, and the difference between a dinner fork and a salad fork, and a dinner knife and bread-knife. She learned how to sit properly like a lady, with her legs crossed, or ankles crossed, with her knees always close together, as if something precious were between them.

She studied and danced, and practiced piano and baking, and all the other skills her Grammie said it was important for a princess to know. She did all this at first, because it was a way to get attention from her grandmother, the only family member who properly spent time with her. Then, she did it because she liked it, and baking, cleaning, sewing, and dancing made her feel feminine and graceful.

Many years later, after a dozen summers spent at Fairy Cottage, away from her classmates and friends, and isolated from the world, Audrey began to see it as her duty to be the perfect princess, the best possible wife to her future husband. Because she overheard her Grammie talking to someone on the phone that summer, the summer she turned thirteen. Queen Leah spoke very low, and quiet, and Audrey had to strain to hear her words from the shadowed recess of the stairwell.

"A disgrace..." The words came softly, bitterly, creeping under the kitchen doorway like the smell of garbage in the summer time. "...And all thanks to that faery bitch, that horrid witch-queen. The whole thing's ruined!"

Audrey gasped silently, hand to her mouth as she listened. She had never ever heard her grandmother curse before (it wasn't proper! A Queen didn't curse!), and Audrey had no idea who could be on the other end of the phone.

"Because of that pixie twat, all my work for Aurora was gone! Out the window! It was a damn miracle she was married to a royal at all, there was no way I could arrange for a better match than that layabout idiot, Phillip." Queen Leah scoffed into the phone. "Who would want a touched village idiot for a wife? After Aurora came back, she insisted to be called 'Briar Rose', she'd rather walk in the gardens than practice to be queen. She didn't know a thing about etiquette, politics, religion, history - anything! She was hardly fit to be a chamber maid!"

Audrey slipped back against the wall, in shock. Everything she thought she knew about her family was... Well not a lie, per se. It was more like she could watch as her mother and father fell from their pedestals and became mere humans. Less than humans, they were so flawed and imperfect, and they had let her grandmother down. Audrey swore she wouldn't be like that. She would be the very best, most proper, most perfect princess she could be.

What she heard next, only solidified her hopes and dreams.

"It's no matter though." Queen Leah muttered. "Audrey will be ready to take my place by the time she graduates. If she holds true, and I feel she can handle it, I plan to leave everything to her. Not her failure of a mother, and certainly not to that insipid Phillip. Audrey alone will be the queen of Moorland."

Audrey alone.

Audrey alone.

Those words echoed in her mind with an insistent echo, she couldn't have forgotten it if she wanted to.

When Audrey turned fourteen, the very next year, she was sent away to study at Auradon Prep. It was partially to bring all new rulers of Auradon to the same academic standard of the capital state. It was also a chance for young royals to network, to meet each other and form alliances that would last long into adulthood. For Audrey, it was a chance to catch a husband.

"Remember, dear, always smile, even when you feel like crying." Grammie Leah explained as she fixed Audrey's collar, and straightened her skirt. "And make sure you are always presentable, and above reproach. No one wants a Queen who gets into trouble at school."

Audrey had a whole list of things she couldn't do - a list of things that would make her a less eligible wife and ruler. A list that would make her more like her failure of a mother.

A princess must not shout. A princess must not say obscene words, or make obscene sounds. A princess must always sit with her legs closed and crossed. A princess must look presentable, and clean. A princess must be demure and honest.

If she followed the rules, she could find a good husband, like her grandmother wanted. If she followed the rules, she might even get Ben, who'd been her friend since childhood, and who could arguably be called her best friend.

A princess must not cause trouble. A princess should always be composed and kind. A princess must be graceful and elegant, and use her manners.

That was why it was so utterly shocking to Audrey when Mal arrived in Auradon, and broke every rule immediately.

She had no concept of etiquette! She stuffed dinner rolls in her pockets at meal time, without even caring who saw! (A left-over behavior from the Isle, when she was starving and had to hoard food for tomorrow.) She cursed loudly, and often, and received citations for it constantly during her first weeks in Auradon (on the Isle, you cursed to prove you were bad enough, that you didn't care about the rules. It was a way to mark your territory and announce your presence). She sat like a boy, with her legs slung open, and sprawled almost obscenely over whatever furniture she could find (she took up space the way a cat did when it fluffed out it's fur - to make herself seem bigger and more intimidating). She dressed like she'd rolled out of a garbage bin every morning (she did - everything on the Isle was cast off garbage), and she lied constantly, blatantly, and outlandishly.

And she still ended up with Ben.

After so much work, all that effort and tears and practice, and all her hopes were stolen away by - by that Isle tramp! She called her grandmother in tears (it was part of why Leah was so hostile to Mal at family day) and she begged for help, but her Grammie had none. Clearly, the young prince had been bewitched, and no one could fight against fae magic.

So she settled for Chad Charming, who was handsome and vain, and almost too easy to manipulate. She had never expected to marry for love, but she had hoped at least, to marry someone she could respect. Someone with the intelligence and experience to pull her kingdom back from the brink of disaster.

(A disaster that was brought on by a queen who wanted to play at being faerie instead of doing her damn job, and a king who was a worthless seventh son, content to drink himself to death instead of working for his people.)

Curiously, it was that same autumn that her faerie godmothers: Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, revealed a secret that changed everything.

"There are four families in Auradon who are touched by the fae, linked to them by fate. They are as close to being faeries as humans can get." Merriweather explained with a grin.

"In the old days, they were often taken at birth, and replaced by changelings. Once the fae-blessed human had completed their training, they would return to their families at last, as a go-between of the two races." Fauna continued.

"We tried it with your mother, you see." Flora clarified, frowning. "But it didn't quite take. There are reasons for that, but it doesn't really matter to this explanation."

Audrey had wanted to know more - why was her mother so flighty? Was that because of the Fae, or was it just her nature? She didn't ask though, because a princess should never ask rude or prying questions.

(It was because Briar Rose was touched by the Unseelie, from the moment she was linked to Maleficent at her christening. She was tied to the sign of the briar with the red thread of destiny, something no Seelie training could undo. No manner of tutoring or charms or bibbidy-bobbity-boos could change her, and the trying was what broke her.)

"But for you, Audrey." Merriweather smilled, and wrapped her in a hug, stronger than any she had ever received from her grandmother. "For you, we will do it correctly. We will bless you with the flowers and animals, and the sky, which are our domain."

"Why are certain people Fae-touched, and not others?" Audrey couldn't help but ask.

"It is a blessing and a curse." Flora explained. "The Unseelie cause mischief for humankind, and by their mischief, connect our destinies. It is what happened once upon a time with Tinker Bell, who fell in love with Peter Pan, and in doing so, gave him the ability to draw from her magic. That is how he remained forever young."

"But it wasn't a blessing." Fauna added quickly. "It was a curse. They are linked forever by magic now, and Peter will never die, even though his wife, Wendy, will surely fade with age."

"The fairy who once came across Beast Castle might not have meant any harm by teaching Adam a lesson," Merriweather continued with the theme.

"But she harmed his family nonetheless. The Beast line is forever tainted now, touched by the Fae curse." Flora explained, and Audrey gasped. They were both Fae-touched, two of only four families in all of Auradon.

(That they knew of)

Merriweather continued, but Audrey could hardly see her through her tears.

"The last family, is that of Pinochio. He became a real boy through the blessing of the Blue Faerie, also called the Winter Lady, an illusive queen of the Seelie Court who rarely walks among humans."

"So you see," Flora sighed. "Two touched by Unseelie. Two touched by Seelie. In this way, we maintain the balance."

And Audrey saw everything laid out before her, like a massive chess board. Upon one side, the white queen, human (only human), but blessed by the Seelie Court. On the other side, the black queen (Mal Mal Mal MAL) born Unseelie, but half human.

Which of them would come out on top?

The red thread of destiny connected her to Mal, Audrey knew. It had connected them through their mothers, through the curse of the dragon and the blessing of the briar crown. They were two halves of the same coin, human and fae, Seelie and Unseelie.

"Just tell me what I need to do." Audrey whispered, and she acted like she wanted justice.

(But all she ever really wanted was power.)