I don't know if you'll be able to tell that this is one of those chapters that I had outlined and ready, then when I started writing the chapter kind of said "Screw your outline; I'm doing what I wanna do." And that's what happened...

Um, trigger warning, I guess, past character death. ... It feels weird doing these.

Where had the time gone, Link wondered as he walked to the stables. Ione was seventeen; a year away from taking the throne. It had seemed like just yesterday she had been learning her first words and running around, causing a panic to all of the servants. The latter thought made him chuckle. Sometimes she still drove them a bit crazy – she could still be quite willful…

That was also what made him a bit apprehensive about the day.

As he entered the stables, hearing the whinnies of horses and the scuffling of the stable hands that had long grown accustomed to leaving the Prince-Regent to his business since he demanded no formalities, he wandered to the stall that called his attention most days. The mare that took residence in that stall whinnied happily to see him; he smiled at her and softly stroked her muzzle. "I hope everything goes well, girl. Hopefully you'll help along with that, yes?"

"Daddy?"

Link turned to see his birthday girl and smiled. It was hard to believe the young woman he saw over at the end of the stables was the same little girl who loved to roll around in the mud so many years ago. That wild blond hair had been so caked with dirt in her younger years, most never really noticed the slightest tints of red in the girl's hair that was now groomed nicely, and hung up with a red bow. And he remembered how hard it was to get the little girl to wear "princess" dresses, yet here she was now looking like a true princess. How had she grown so quickly? "Happy birthday, Ione." He said with a smile.

The girl smiled back and rushed to her father to give him a hug. "Thank you, Daddy."

"You're supposed to thank me after I've given you your gift," he teased lightly.

"Gift?" She pulled away and looked up at him excitedly.

He supposed some things would never change. "Yes; look in the stable."

Zelda looked, then her blue eyes widened and she looked at her father with utmost shock. "Epona? B-but she's your horse!"

"And I know you love to sneak rides on her when you say you're practicing embroidery," he said good-humoredly. "She's all yours."

Despite an initial blush that said she'd thought she kept her truancy a secret, she tightly embraced her father again, excitedly saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Daddy!" She pulled away and reached out to pet the mare happily, "Oh I wish I was in a riding gear to take her out right now!"

The apprehension came back. "Why don't you go get changed? We can take a ride together." Link suggested.

He'd barely suggested it before the girl rushed off. The stable hands laughed as they saddled Epona for Zelda and a stallion for him. The Prince-Regent was just glad that someone could see the amusement in the situation; all he could think of was of how all badly this could go. He had faith in his daughter and a reasonable and rational young lady, but like any good father, he worried if all that he had done for her was "right." Link honestly had no idea what the conversation he would attempt to broach with her would yield.

Would she lose that smile? He'd been so busy in the past few weeks in forming the trade agreements with Holodrum, arranging for their ambassador's visit, he'd barely seen her. And the added stress of trying to help the local militia locate the serial murderer and keep it a secret from the general populace… He didn't want their first real conversation after such a long while to be one that would grieve her. For both their sakes.

He knew that Potho's successor, Cole, had called her Hyrule's precious gem. It was a purely political thing, as Cole was the very opposite of Potho, being the picture of a heartless politician, but the people ate it up. Ione was a miracle child, a blessing from the goddess. As cheesy as it sounded, however, Link would admit that it was true.

He could still remember the terrible day as his wife was rushed to the birthing room. Men weren't allowed in the room, only making the situation all the more tense for Link when all that he could hear was the woman he loved screaming in agony before a deathly silence fell. There was no screaming from a woman or a baby, only the frantic chatter of hushed voices from birthing room. He remembered thinking, Tradition be damned, and running into the room to see the midwife manually moving his wife's bloodied legs apart, while the tearful maids tried to rush him out. The picture in his mind of that moment still caused him an unending amount of grief. Zelda, his best friend, the love of his life… blue-lipped, pale and lifelessly staring at the ceiling. The world had seemed to crash around him, and he remembered pushing his way through the maids and wailing as he fell to his wife's side, pleading to the goddesses desperately for this tragedy to be a lie. But the midwife told him to shut up, saying that there still may have been a chance for the baby.

Oh that flicker of hope! He could only remember begging the goddesses further, if they could at least save his child… And they did. Despite the mother losing life, Ione was born, a perfectly healthy, wailing baby. A miracle.

Link would always think of her as such. A miracle in his life. The last remnant he'd had of his beloved Zelda and the love that they had shared. And it was always at his busiest times that he regretted not being able to give her as much attention as she deserved.

It went to show how excited Ione was when she had come back minutes later in her riding dress and the father-daughter pair rode off into Hyrule Field. The princess happily rode ahead of her father, only further making him recall the more carefree days of her youth.

Unable to catch up to the wily girl and her mare, Link didn't even try to converse during their outing until it was time to water the horses. They sat down by the edge of the creek as the horses drank, and Ione took to looking at her reflection in the water. As his daughter began to redo her hair in the ribbon she'd become so fond of, he finally said, "Ione, you're seventeen now."

The girl's smile shrunk slightly, "Yes."

"… Next year, my regency will be revoked."

The girl's face became stoic; Link's heart sank. "Yes…" She responded.

"I know it isn't something that you like to think about; but the longer we put off discussing it, the harder it will be when the day comes." He said gently.

Ione sighed, and nodded, "I understand, Daddy." She said, sounding somewhat disheartened.

There was short pause before Link began, "You know, when your mother and I were young, she often snuck out of the castle to see me." Ione looked at him, interest in his words clear on her face. "It was only with me did she have the chance to know what it meant to really be a child. So when…" he stopped, not wanting to be reminded of his wife's death again for the second time that day, "When you came along, I said I would give you the chance to live your childhood as I did. It wasn't a particularly liked idea, but I have no regrets. You've had a childhood every child ought to have. I think that, if anything, that works to your advantage. You've lived a normal life, gone to classes with others of your life, and you've had a sprinkling of your mother's life, with private classes and etiquette… You're the balance that Hyrule needs to continue to be prosperous." He told her, looking at her fondly with pride.

The princess wasn't sure what to make of those words. The idea that the kingdom would be fully her responsibility in a year was terrifying, but her father had such faith in her… Sensing her worry, her continued on, "And when you're unsure of something, you always have me and Minister Cole to look to – yes, I know Cole isn't a pleasant fellow, but he knows what he's talking about."

She'd made a face at the mention of Cole; she didn't like him very much, but her father was right. Still, she couldn't quite find the words to express her thoughts and feelings on all of this. Truthfully, Ione had hoped she wouldn't be having this conversation until it was closer to her eighteenth birthday. But she could understand the importance of bringing up this up earlier, much as she just wanted to not think about it.

"But Ione… that isn't what I really wanted to speak to you about." There was a degree of discomfort in his voice, one that said even he didn't seem to want to get into the next subject. The girl forked an eyebrow, finding it unusual that her father wasn't getting straight to his real point. "The thing is… you're seventeen… And," his face scrunched up, "Technically… the age that… that young women are of age to be… to be courted… is fifteen." He finished, looking as if he were saying the most horrible words to ever come from his mouth. Then again, he was a father. If it were up to him, his daughter would never get married.

Ione, however, did not really see why it was such a horrible prospect. No, in fact, she was confused. She knew as well as anyone else did that fifteen was the magical age where a girl was eligible to be courted, but she never really thought of it because there was no debutante ball for her advertising her eligibility, nor had any potential boyfriends seemed to want to spend much time with her. It dampened her spirits quite a bit, but now that she was thinking of it, she realized that certain outside forces might have had something to do with it. Looking at her father, she had a fairly decent idea what that outside force was.

As if reading her mind, her father blushed and said, "I may have delayed your debut."

While she was fine with her father being protective, she had to admit she wasn't very fond of the measure of control he'd taken over her life. It made a lot of sense why the boys around her, with the exceptions of the guards, never seemed to want to spend much time around her. Who would dare try to court the daughter of the Prince-Regent, slayer of monsters and the man who defeated the great sorcerer from thirty years ago? No one, that's who. Those that did usually seemed to change their minds within the next few days. In fact, she remembered last year she had the hugest crush on the son of a guardsman, Kasuto. He was an older boy and super handsome; he would often flirt with her and she began to spend more time with him than she even did with Poe. Within a month, his father had been stationed at Hyrule-Labrynna border and he had to leave. "Daddy, how could you?!" She wailed.

Link's lips were a thin, flat line, "I won't anymore." She crossed her arms and gave her father a skeptical look, but he continued on, saying, "I'm telling the truth. In realizing that next year you're going to be taking the throne, I've also realized that… Well… Such a position is difficult to handle alone."

The girl cocked her head to the side in a measure of puzzlement. "But I won't be alone. You said it yourself, I'll have you and Cole."

Her father sighed, "Ione, even with us around, there will be times when you feel as if no one is there. Sometimes you need someone… different."

She considered his words for a moment, looking back to the stream as if the water held all the answers. But she grinned that broad smile of hers and said excitedly, "All right then, Daddy," he relaxed, but tensed up when he heard his daughter add, "But-" With a grimace, he nodded for her to continue, "But I want a proper debut – the one I was supposed to get when I turned fifteen." She stood up excitedly and spread her arms wide, "I want a big party with all of Castle Town invited! In fact, it should be in Castle Town, just like the Picori Festival!"

Link frowned at that. Inviting all of Castle Town was fine; Hyrule was a small kingdom with very few "courtly manners;" while there was still some royal tradition expected of the royal family, interaction between all walks of life was the norm – partly the reason why he was able to wed his Zelda so easily. He was born a commoner after all and, even with the title of Prince-regent, still identified himself as such . What concerned him was his daughter's choice of venue. He hadn't told her about the murderer… And a party… There would be so many people and so many places to remain unseen… If the murderer had another target, it might be his chance to strike again… He stood as well, approaching his daughter and gently saying, "Ione, I don't think Castle Town is-"

But she stopped him and pointed an accusatory finger at him, "No, it's going to be in Castle Town." She said sternly. "I don't see why the people have to leave the comfort of the town to have fun. Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean they have to come to me; in fact, it even makes more sense that I should go to them."

Flabbergasted by Ione's logic, Link gave in. There was no arguing with her, his strong willed child. But while she made excellent points, and continued her tirade of planning as they rode back to the castle, the Prince-Regent refused to subject the people of Castle Town to any further danger. There was the option of telling Ione the truth, why he truly thought Castle Town was unsafe… but he did not wish to worry her. With an inward grimace, he planned the security in his mind. The guards would, unfortunately, not be getting a day off. All of them were reporting for duty. They needed to be on full alert during the celebrations just in case anything unfortunate were to happen.

Despite the cheery attitude that Zelda had while with her father, she was secretly quite distressed. She tried to be genuinely excited for the party she had suggested, even going so far as inviting the mayor to come to the castle that evening so she could discuss it with him. In a way, she knew that this party she was throwing for herself would probably be the last one she could genuinely enjoy without worrying how ambassadors from Holodrum might perceive it or how it would affect the economy of their small kingdom. It would be her last true ounce of freedom, since after that, she would have to focus on doing the best she could to make sure she could handle the kingdom.

After arranging for the meeting, she had taken to spending her time in the garden by one of the fountains. She waved her hand absently in the water, watching the disturbance of her fingers cause small swirls in the slowly flowing water. Sighing as she watched her warped reflection wavering in the water, she tried to consider the fact that things wouldn't be so bad. While it was true her father had been so busy lately, trying to expand the kingdom and build better relations with the neighboring countries, who was to say it was really so bad?

But her train of thought was disturbed as she noticed something odd in the reflections of the water. There was herself, the castle wall, the greenery of the flowering bushes but… It almost looked as if something was circling overhead, carefully avoiding causing shadows. Was it a bird? No… it was flying but, not like a bird. More like… a bat. Which she didn't mind much; bats had been flying past her window for as long as she could remember. But it was broad daylight. With a puzzled pout, she went to look up.

"Princess!"

Zelda jumped a little, not having expected to hear Poe. He must have just gotten off of his shift. She looked to the maze of bushes to see her favorite guardsman coming over to her and carrying a cheese bun. Poe quickly approached and handed her the bun, "Happy birthday."

She accepted it, "Thank you, Poe. You'll never forget how much I love these, will you?"

"Of course not, Princess." He said with a smile. Anyone who wasn't Zelda might have thought seeing the hook-nosed guard smile looked kind of scary, but she knew he was as sweet a soul as there could be. The only reason he even had that hooked nose was because he'd saved her so long ago. "I heard your dad gave you Epona," he said, sitting on the grass before her. "I still can't believe you can actually ride that wild thing."

She chuckled and reprimanded him playfully, "She's not a thing; she's a beautiful, graceful mare. If you can't even walk her from the stable it's only because you don't respect her as much as you should."

The guard rolled his eyes. She knew he wasn't much of an animal person.

She nibbled the bun cheerfully, her spirits having raised now that her best friend was by her side. "Oh, and there's going to be a celebration! I'm hoping it'll be next week, but I need to sort the particulars with the mayor – I want it to be in Castle Town."

"Party, huh? Eh, too bad your dad'll probably have all us guards working." Poe mused.

Zelda gave him a sympathetic smile. There were no breaks for the guardsmen during special events… though in all honesty, she'd noticed that most guardsmen hardly got any breaks anymore and her father seemed very tight-lipped as to why. She supposed she could always ask Poe why that was, but that just seemed like the sort of thing she needed to ask her father herself. … After the party, she told herself. That was official business; no worrying about that until after the party, her last stint of freedom.

"Something the matter, Princess?"

Snapped out of her reverie and back to the present, she looked to her friend and tried to be cheerful, but failed. Finally, she decided if there was anyone to tell, it would be Poe. "I'm scared, Poe. In a year, I'll have to take the throne. It seems like such a long time, but it's really so short of a time."

The guardsman just smirked, "That just means you have to live life to the fullest while you have it. Go crazy; do things you'd think twice about normally." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A musical chuckle escaped her lips, and for a moment she considered it. "Yes, I should! I should… I should take up fox hunting, or metal smithing – I imagine Daddy could teach me a thing or two about that. Or maybe I should do something truly outrageous and run away to Labrynna for a week!" Maybe even find that Kasuto and give him a kiss, she thought with a playful blush. It's not like her father could stop her now that he'd said he wouldn't interfere in any potential love life she were to have. But she chuckled the thoughts out of her head, knowing she probably couldn't do something as crazy as leaving the country for a day let alone week. With a sigh, the girl tilted her head thoughtfully and looked to her friend, "Did you do that before you became a guardsman?"

There was something in the guard's expression, a gleam in his eyes that added a certain enigmatic quality to his smile. "Actually, I think I'm more alive now than I ever was before."

She looked so hopeful for a moment, "Perhaps I can feel that way when I take the throne; I mean, I remember when you seemed so hesitant about being a guardsman."

The guard pulled lightly on one of his straggly black locks, "Yeah, things certainly change." Again, there was a quality about him as he said it that made him seem like he wasn't telling all. She wondered what it was, but wasn't about to pressure him to share. If he wanted to, he would. Evidently, he didn't feel like it was important, as he ended up losing that far off look and saying carelessly, "But really, Princess, I wouldn't think too hard about what the future might hold. Just enjoy life as it comes to you."

She finished off the cheese bun and gave the guardsman a broad smile. "You're absolutely right, Poe. Thank you."

Looking as if his feathers had been preened to peacocking quality, he only responded with, "It just means I'm doing my job as a servant."

The girl rolled her eyes. Leave it to a guardsman to think like that. "No, really, Poe. Even though I have friends in Castle Town and in the castle itself… thank you. You're really the only one I can open to like this." She said honestly.

The guard just gave her a prideful smile… which quickly dropped to one of utmost loathing as a voice rang out through the gardens calling, "Poe! Where are you, Poe?!"

"Dammit…" the man cursed.

"Oh, Poe, you didn't skip work, did you?" Zelda asked her friend in a hushed whisper.

He had no time for any sort of response as he scrambled up just in time for a bearded guardsman to walk from the small hedge maze to them. The man grimaced at the sight of Poe with princess, "Poe! You were supposed to cover for Shiro, not… not flirt with the princess just an hour after her father says she's open to be courted!"

The younger guardsman slapped his own forehead, "Goddesses… Gibdo you're being ridiculous. She's like a sister."

"We already have a sister!"

"Yeah, who you drove away from the family!"

Zelda fidgeted as the guard brothers went back and forth then, talking about the runaway Ghini. She always felt strange around the two when they were like this, mainly because she was always put in the position of a spectator to some family drama. Then again, as long as she could remember, the two brothers never really got along. Gibdo always had the passion to be a guard, followed orders right to the letter and never broke a single rule, while Poe was the exact opposite in a lackluster attitude towards his work (but not when it counted, Zelda made sure to mentally add) and wasn't above 'bending' the rules. From what she understood, the older brother actually pressured Poe into being a guardsman as well.

In the end, a very pride-beaten Poe was being dragged by the ear by his brother while she sadly waved him off.

And sometimes she wondered what it would be like if she'd had siblings…

Whatever the case, she was alone in the garden again. As she let out a sigh, she remembered the bat she saw flitting around overhead. She looked up, seeing what she had expected: nothing. The bat probably wandered back off to its nest after having accidentally flitted off or something. She knew there was a nest of bats somewhere nearby, despite all the servants and guards saying that the only bats nearby were the keese in the Minish Woods. Only Poe seemed to know anything about the bats she spoke of, but he always assured her they were friendly and wouldn't cause her harm. Nothing had ever happened to prove him wrong, either.

She laughed then, remembering one time when she was small even going so far as to try and catch one of the bats. Zelda could remember telling Poe all of her plans to catch them, and the guard would just laugh at her and tell her, "These bats are different from ordinary bats – they're really hard to catch. Not that you need to catch one," then he'd scruff up her buzzard's nest of a head and finish off with a, "One day, those bats are going to be real friendly with you."

What goes through that guard's head, she wondered then. A bat was a bat; it would fly and shy away from humans unless a human were to feed it… And these bats were strange in the fact that in all her years of trying to coax them to get near her, they never once took any food she offered. Even food she left out remained untouched. So she was fairly certain the guard had his head up in the clouds when he said they would be friendly with her.

Then something seemed to zap through her head; a sense of wrongness that made her stand abruptly and nearly retch. She was still clutching at her stomach when the feeling suddenly left, leaving her feeling helpless… and disturbingly nostalgic. She'd felt this sensation before. When she was just a child and unspoken words seeped into her head, trying to trick her, a memory that always changed in her nightmares, when she'd felt it as a malicious, black claw sweeping her from the ground and squeezing her with slow, crushing force.

Just the mere remembrance of the nightmare caused her knees to buckle a whimper escape from her lips. She knew what the feeling was, she knew what it meant. Something had to be wrong with the seal on the Four Sword…

Princess Zelda was terrified.

If there was something wrong with the sword, then it was her duty as her mother's successor to check and rebuild the seal if necessary. And something was wrong with it, she just knew it. That feeling of horrid menace…

The monster was not real, she had told herself in the early hours of the morning… She released the shuddering breath she had hitched in her throat and slowly stood up. But the monster is real… She clenched her hands into fists, a fire coming into her eyes. And I have to make sure it doesn't get out.

Zelda gave no warning to anyone; she rushed to the stables, saddled Epona herself and rode off to the Sanctuary. It was customary usually to have at least two or three guardsman or her father with her when she went to the Shrine, but she had to do this alone. That sense of wrongness that so reminded her of her nightmares… if she didn't do this alone, she would never see relief from those horrid dreams. She had to face it and contain it, or else this fear would own her. She'd been known as a strong-willed, fearless girl for a reason, and she'd be damned if she was going to let something as silly as a child's nightmare get the better of her!

Never mind the fact that the content of the nightmare was as real as she was and just waiting for a crack in its seal so that it could break free and wreak havoc on the populace.

But she had to do this alone… and if she could come back quickly before anyone noticed, all the better when she announced what she had done by herself. Proving that she was capable… That she was not just some wild child…

Hah… my last week of freedom has barely started and I'm already taking on serious responsibility. She thought bitterly as her horse galloped through the dirt beaten path. But this was also incredibly personal, she justified. Trade with Holodrum was business; Vaati was family history and the source of bad memories and nightmares.

As she saw the clearing in the woods that lead to the Shrine, she was becoming increasingly more aware of the fear in her mind growing as the horse continued to gallop forward. But upon reaching the stones of the Shrine, the mare abruptly came to a stop with a protesting whiny, and had the princess not been holding so tightly to her steed in anxiety, she may have fallen off. Zelda pursed her lips, noting how the horse only seemed to be comfortable when her hooves were completely off the stone floor and back on the dirt path.

She dismounted the mare, staring at her mare's rusty coat for a long moment before taking a shuddering breath to gather her courage and walk forward.

Given Epona's reaction to the stone floor of the Shrine, the girl had expected that her first step onto the stones might provoke something as well. But there was nothing. She did not re-experience the surging sensation of malicious intent towards her or feel anything aside from normal… or as normal as the Shrine usually got. Still on edge, she continued to step forward slowly. Everything in the area was unnaturally quiet. It always was. There were never birds or squirrels in the place. The only movement was that of the wind blowing the trees, and currently the only sound was of Zelda's nervous, quick breaths, her own steps, and the nervous mare's movements just outside the Shrine proper.

Content that everything in the surroundings was more or less normal, Zelda was able to continue towards the actual Four Sword with a bit more confidence in her stride. She tried to focus on the blade itself and not on the mural on the wall behind it. The mural reminded her all too much of the beast from her nightmares, and, while she was doing her best to fight off the sense that she needed to high tail it out of there, she didn't want to face that just yet.

Still, she had calmed significantly when she had reached the step leading to the dais with the pedestal that contained the Sword. She let her magical senses probe at the blade, poking and prodding it in attempts to find any weakness or cracks within the seal on the Four Sword.

There was nothing.

She rechecked the blade two more times and came up with the same answer. Absolutely nothing was wrong with the seal since she last checked on it over a month ago. There were no weaknesses to the seal, no little cracks… Perfectly intact in every way.

Stunned, Zelda took a step backward. How is this possible? She thought to herself. How could she have felt what she had felt earlier if the seal was perfectly intact? Had she just been imagining things? She had to have been… but how could something she just imagined be powerful enough to send her to what she thought was the source of that power. The girl knitted her brows, trying to figure what was happening; if anything was happening at all. She frowned, walking back towards Epona deep in her thoughts. She paused, looking back over her shoulder at the Four Sword. But her gaze went beyond the blade and to the mural in the back, at the upwards glancing eye. A shudder went up her spine, and she decided that she had to leave. Quickly.

She rode Epona back to the castle stables, leaving the hands to tend her mare while she absently found herself walking back to her room. The princess paced back and forth anxiously. What she had felt was real, she knew it… But did that mean there was something else in Hyrule giving her this feeling? No… no, she could still remember the venom laced voice that had called to her as a child when the seal was weakening… it was the same feeling. But how? The more she thought of it, the angrier and more confused she became. She would need to tell someone… Should she tell her father? But he was so busy these days…

A knock at her door made her do a tiny jump in surprise. Resting her hand over her heart and sighing, she called, "Come in."

A short red-headed man with beady little eyes in a hideous suit opened her door, "Princess. The mayor of Castle Town is here; he says you have a meeting with him." He said somewhat disinterestedly.

That's right… The party at Castle Town. "Thank you, Cole; tell him I'll see him in a minute." She said. But Zelda wasn't quite sure how she could talk about anything so normal as that when something very abnormal was devouring her mind. As the minister left to relay to her message, she'd come to the conclusion that she would have to tell someone. She'd tell Poe. She could rely on him. Her father didn't need to be bothered with such things…

Putting it out there right now: I don't do cliches, and if I do, I work very hard to make sure to write in such a way that it's amazing. So Zelda's little party that she's throwing? I'll be straight up with all ya'll... Vaats isn't going to be there.

Things to note: while this story is a direct sequel to Minish Cap, it is very, very, very loosely based on Four Swords, as such the Zelda in this story is based off of Four Swords Zelda. I didn't want this Zelda to be too reminiscent of her mother, who was the Minish Cap Zelda. Also, did I reference a certain thief who makes an appearance in Fly Away and give certain overtones that show off my second Zelda OTP? Maybe. Teehee. Also, I noticed that Hyrule, as a very small nation in Minish Cap, doesn't really have a proper Courtly system. MC Zelda is even referenced as having gone to school with Link for a short period of time, not to mention the fact that she was best friends with Link is saying something already. As such, I'm actually having a somewhat difficult time working this setting. I think I'm sort of managing...

So while I was working on this groundwork chapter the other day, I realized something. This story is not a story for the VaaZel fans that desire an M rated story. No... this story is a story that is being written to absolutely wreck you mentally. If this is what George RR Martin feels like all the time, then it's a pretty great feeling. Also, if anyone out there is an artist who's willing to do a lil' something something for the story, might you kindly consider contributing cover art? I got three other stories (one completed, one ongoing, the other sorely lacking a title but ready to go) that I'm working on cover art for and I find myself not really wanting to add a fourth to that list. Much as I may love sparkly Changeling pony butt as my profile avatar, it does not make for a good cover image. If anyone would look into their hearts to make one for me, it'd be much appreciated and you shall have my eternal thanks. If you're interested, PM either here or on my DeviantArt (linked on my profile) and we can talk about it.

MidnaHytwilian, but how do you know it's good? I'm only two chapters in! D: Also, it's not spoilers if it doesn't happen, so nope. XD And don't be sorry because I don't know who or what that is. :3

fleets, Ah, but one of the definitions of tragedy as taken from Merriam-Webster is "a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror." Nothing in any of that speaks about death. Anyways, doesn;t work for me either just because it doesn't make sense. He has no royal blood in him so why, oh why, would he be promoted to king upon marrying a princess. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. Yup, though again, I need to emphasize that a part of him didn't fight back. But yeah, pretty much. And it's only going to get grimmer.

Lol, honestly, so am I. I have the general idea down, and this story is already proving to be rebellious with outlining. What's planned in my head and what I write down may end up differently! D: Also, yes, I'm aware of it and I know what I'm doing, no worries.

Mystique Luna Tique, Maybe not FOUR years ago... more like two or so. -shifty eyes- Nope, I hadn't forgotten. XD

SwordspiritFi9, well, I'm working on both! XD Thanks!

Swamp Dragon Princess, you see, that's what I noticed while I studied how the British hierarchy works, and that's another reason it bothered me so. Ohoho, you'll see.