"Whew, glad that's over, being Cupid is a lot harder than it looks!" Maddie declared as she appeared out of her book.
"What's going on with you guys?" The Hatter-girl asked staring at the three others in the room in confusion.
"So… much… running!" Blondie whined breathless, laying flat on the floor. "I can't… feel my… feet…"
"I have learned something rather interesting…" Faybelle murmured, one hand under her chin as her gaze stared unseeingly at the pages all around them, lost in her thought. "And it requires much contemplation."
"Don't ask." Apple growled darkly, her back was to everybody else as she sat down hunched over on the floor.
"Oookay-dokey…" Maddie pursed her lips as she eyed the gloomy princess with a mild level of caution.
XXX
"You aren't planning on ever signing the Book and becoming the next Evil Queen? You're going to token marry the Evil Fairy's daughter so you can be free of that obligation?" Snow White asked eyes wide. "Well that's a relief, especially since you are far more suited to being a prince than a mockery imitation of my step-mother."
Raven blushed, wondering why the princess kept insisting on calling her a prince.
"So, just for clarification; my mother never whipped me, she just brought me here because she believed that this place would be the safest to hide until it was safe to escape the school grounds… someone else drugged me, kidnapped me, brought me here, and tried to… sacrificially kill me all because the Book wouldn't accept him as the new servant to it?" Raven asked feeling upset and more than a little bit terrified. "Why? I was just a kid! What did I ever do to deserve that?"
"Your mother kept asking the same thing, she was rather upset about it, continuing to mumble about how she had not gone through with her evil plans yet and how you were just an innocent little girl so she was quite confused to that man's hatred towards you." Snow White nodded contemplatively.
"That must have been just before she went crazy and poisoned the worlds." Raven sighed leaning back. "And you're saying that she never signed her birth name in the Book?"
The blonde shook her head. "Nope, not once for the title of Evil Queen. And you were never registered to be in the Book when you were a child."
"And technically my grandmother is still the Evil Queen…" Raven dragged a hand over her face. "And nobody noticed, nobody thought to look through the Book and check…"
"It wouldn't be the first time an individual did not write their birth name on their page." Snow White informed. "Many over the centuries have done this and in some cases they appeared to have broken free of their family ties to the fairytale tradition because no new generation came around to fill their roll or someone from a different family had to step in to take over."
"Why didn't I think of that?" Raven laughed covering her eyes; it certainly would have been easier to make everyone think that she signed the Book before running away to a place where no one could find her.
Raven felt overwhelmed and was internally freaking out over her mixed feelings between being relieved that her mother never harmed her and terrified that there was someone out there still who hated her so much, for no real reason at all, that they had tried to kill her when she was small and unable to defend herself.
And she couldn't help but feel guilty that she had just assumed that it had been her mother who had harmed her all this time, Raven remembered very little of the last time she stayed with her mother, the last clear memory she had was eating the candy someone left on her desk and the rest was all fuzzy until one day she woke up in her own bed in the King family's main palace, the healers that had looked her over said that she had been drugged with some sort of special island lotus flower that puts it's victims in a daze for days, sometimes weeks.
Raven kind of felt that she should have been more suspect that her mother had whipped her back in order to get the blood she needed for the spell; if the Evil Queen needed her blood for the curses on the worlds then the woman could have used easier and less painful means to harvest it from Raven.
She was going to have to do a lot of thinking and talk with several key people about what she had just learned, but right now there was one more thing she had to do before she left the book.
The witch put her hand down and looked at Snow White with tender fondness. "Thank you for helping me clear this up and… I forgive you, Snow White, the last daughter of the Queen clan forgives you and just wants to see you smile one more time before she has to leave and forge a new destiny."
"Your Rebellion cause that you had been talking about a little earlier correct?" Snow White asked sounding enchanted by the idea of being able to choose one's own destiny. "It all sounds so exciting! A noble quest for my prince!"
"You still want me to be your prince?" Raven asked with a confused smile, her heart stinging slightly because Apple, Snow White's descendant, would probably rather drink trolls tears than think of Raven as any maiden's prince. "Even after I just told you that I'm sneaking out of the Evil Queen title through marriage?"
"Token marriages aren't real binding marriages." Snow White sniffed, wrapping her arms around Raven's shoulders. "And by coming here, waking me up, listening to me, telling me such wondrous hopeful things about new beginnings and forgings one's own destiny… forgiving me of my wrongs… that Raven King-Queen has given me back some of my happiness, something that a true prince should strive to offer to a maiden with a broken heart… thank you so much."
Raven hugged the other girl. "I should be thanking you too, you brought back some faith I had lost to my sense of family pride, now I know that my founding ancestor was actually a good person… and that my mother wasn't the one to hurt me… you have given me some peace within myself that I had once thought I would never achieve."
"Can I ask you for one last favor before you have to leave?" Snow White asked sounding tentative and unsure.
"If it's within my abilities, I'll be happy to grant you any favor you want." Raven told her honestly, leaning back from the embrace so that she could look at Snow White, the Snow White, who was so very kind and more than a little enchanting and adorable according to Raven.
"Will you… kiss me? Softly, like someone who cares for me? I had only kissed one prince in my short living life and he… was not at all charming… nor did he care about me." The girl looked to the side with a wince.
"And you want a kiss that brings you some happy memories to wright over the unhappy ones?" Raven guessed. It made sense and Raven could hardly blame the girl for wanting that little bit of closure, a kiss from a kind stranger to look back on instead of her memories of the creep that stole her life.
"It does help that I can sense that you are a kind person with princely qualities so I know for certain that I won't regret this." Snow White pointed out.
"Well you would be my first somewhat romantic kiss so if you can… please direct me how you want it to go? Is that possible with kisses?" The witch wondered to herself, a heavy blush painting her nose.
"Only one way to find out!" Snow White giggled happily at the witch's permission for a kiss.
The princess leaned forward grinning mischievously. "Will you seal this with a kiss my dear prince?"
"Uh, sure…" Raven said nervously as she leaned in, only thinking briefly how strange the princess's last statement sounded before meeting her lips with the other girl's.
XXX
"And that is how I brought down three bears single handedly." Kitty bragged to her audience who, save for Maddie, where staring at her with wide, horrified eyes.
"Such a good hunter you are." Maddie sighed dreamily, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's middle. "Our future kittens will be well provided for."
"Kittens?" Apple asks, initially wondering if that was some sort of strange Wonderlandian endearment between close friends.
"In Wonderland the age of legal adulthood is sixteen." Cupid informed.
"We would have gotten publically married already but at Ever After High the school rules say that students can't be official about it until after they graduate." Kitty grumbled sourly. "And there is this big hubbabaloo about married men and women sharing a room. But not the same thing applies to same-sex couples which aside from the whole accidental pregnancy thing is both pretty sexist and good luck on our part." The cat-girl sniffed, kissing a giggling Maddie's ear.
Apple and Blondie stared at the two Wonderlandians with even wider eyes for several moments, as their thought processes appeared to screech to a halt.
"I hope Raven is okay… she's been in there for a while…" Apple forcefully turned her mind to more important matters at hand.
"Raven and not Daring?" Faybelle asked with a sneer.
"Daring is a future Prince Charming, there is nothing that he is afraid of or he can't beat!" Apple snapped irritated.
XXX
"EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW!" Daring continued to chant at the top of his lungs, hands over his ears as he did a strange sort of jig around the room in an attempt to try to shake off the images of himself fornicating with a corpse.
"I got the page right here! Now grab it and leave! Leave I say! You are so annoying! Just leave already!" The mirror begged using magic to hold a piece of rolled up parchment in the air and trying to get the prince to listen long enough to grab the paper and disappear from it's domain.
"THE HORROR! MY MIND WILL NEVER BE CLEEEEEAN!" Daring sobbed.
XXX
"Did you guys hear what sounded like Daring screaming just now?" Raven heard Cupid ask as the witch appeared behind everyone.
The witch looked over nervously at Faybelle realizing that she would have to tell the fairy everything, Raven hoped that the other might be just a little understanding… even though a token marriage did not have the same vows for monogamy as other types of marriages… and it was just one kiss and just a favor done for a girl who had married a necrophiliac…
"W-what's going on?" Raven cleared her throat to get the other's attention.
"Raven!" Apple cheered when she spied the witch, standing up and making towards her roommate to hug her in greeting.
"RAVEN!" Daring cried as he appeared, racing to the witch at a neck-breaking speed, pushing Apple to the side as he grabbed the witch into a bone-crushing hug. "IT WAS SO HORRIBLE IN THERE! How did you stand that destiny for so long?" The boy sobbed hoarsely his wet face into Raven's chest.
"So the prince couldn't take the deeds of the original Evil Queen…" Faybelle directed her smug look to Apple who was sprawled haphazardly on the ground. The princess glared poisonously back at Faybelle in response.
"The Evil Queen was a nice lady!" Daring barked at the fairy. "She only became the Evil Queen because she had to! And she was trying to protect her step-daughter from a sick and wrong person who was just sick and wrong all over, there was not a single redeeming factor about him, and omigods Raven he was kissing dead people! Dead people!" The prince went back to sobbing into the witch's dress.
"Yeah, Snow White told me about that." Raven sighed returning the other's embrace and rubbing soothing circles into the boy's back. "Let's get you out of here and then once we're done with Giles I'll go buy you as much ice cream as you want."
"With the rainbow sprinkles?" Daring warbled out hopefully.
"As many rainbow sprinkles as you can stand." Raven promised.
"I have 't go apologize 't Cerise." Daring sniffled wetly. "Can you take my page for me?"
"Sure thing." Raven agreed.
"Dead people?" Faybelle mouthed at the witch.
"I'll explain later." Raven mouthed back.
From the ground Apple did not know where to look, or which issue to be more concerned about; Daring's sobbing ramblings about kissing dead people, or the way the witch and fairy kept holding each other's gaze.
XXX
"Alright, we have the eight pages old man, what do we do with them?" Faybelle asked holding up her page.
"Faybelle, be more polite!" Apple hissed quietly while Giles spoke to Maddie.
"He says to hold out the pages in a circle." Maddie translated stepping forward and holding out her page, the others in the room soon following.
The group jumped in surprise when the paper in their hands began to glow, dissolving into streams of light that merged into a limestone block at the center of the circle of girls.
"It's a spell tablet?" Raven reached out to grab the stone and stare at it curiously, softly reading the inscription under her breath.
"What is she say-? Yeek!" Blondie yelped when the tablet shot a bolt of light at Giles's throat.
"Finally, after all these years." The man sighed happily. "Thank you, all of you for going on this little quest, I am very appreciative."
"He says that- hey! You're speaking in Ever After standard!" Maddie exclaimed.
"And it's a great relief to finally have the ability to do so." Giles smiled widely.
"Say wasn't there one more with you earlier?" Giles asked looking around.
XXX
"Finally." Briar hummed contently, rolling over on the soft picnic blankets spread out on the grass so that she could prop herself above Cerise's prone form. "I get to have you all to myself."
"Oh? And what does my lady plan on doing now that she has me?" Cerise asked in a playful tone.
"I'm-"
"Cerise!" A hysterical voice cut off Briar's reply, followed by the sound of branches and brush hitting someone as they ran closer.
The two girls broke apart just in time as Daring burst through the thick cluster of bushes and small trees, landing on his knees and dipping his head to the ground as he began speaking. "Cerise! I'm so sorry I said that you couldn't be in the bookball game because you were a maiden. I was following the etiquette of a Prince Charming and that is wrong! So, so horribly wrong! Oh Ancestors it was horrible! He fornicated with a dead man's corpse! I'll never ever look at my title the same way ever again!" The boy wailed, lifting his face up long enough for his audience to see that he was crying.
"Who's having sex with corpses?" Briar demanded, blinking rapidly.
"Daring, calm down, why don't you take a deep breath, and tell us what happened alright?" Cerise tried to sound calm as she grabbed the boy by his shoulders and lifted his face off of the ground, the boy looked like he'd just gone through hell.
"I want my innocence back." Daring sobbed miserably, wiping his eyes with the backs of his hands.
XXX
"He had a pressing engagement and could not come down here a second time." Raven said.
"Ok, this is touching and all, but how does this help us find the Book?" Faybelle asked hand on her hip.
"Faybelle!" Apple reprimanded.
That is a very logical question Miss Thorn, now that the Book is missing Ever After High needs both myself and my brother the Headmaster to work together in order to not only use our inherited abilities to sense out where the Book may be but also to help establish some sense of safety under two people running the school instead of one." Giles informed. "There is little doubt that the Book must still be somewhere in the vicinity of Ever After High or else its magical signature would have been detected ages ago, such a powerful artifact is difficult to hide or mask it's scent."
"So it's like in the school?" Cupid asked.
"It could be…" Giles allowed. "But it could also be anywhere on campus, in the village, or the forest surrounding the school."
"That's over a hundred acres of wilderness!" Apple exclaimed in dismay.
"But, it's better knowing that it's most likely to be here and not somewhere where the wrong hands could pick it up and perhaps try to sign their names to somebody's story." Raven pointed out while placing a kind hand on Apple's shoulder. "Hey waitaminit', did you just say that the Headmaster's your brother?" The witch asked Giles, not seeing the way Apple's eyes widened as the possibility sank in that just about anybody could sign the Book of Legends and take someone else's roll.
"Yes Headmaster Milton Grimm is my brother." Giles confirmed.
"Do you know who cursed you down here in the first place?" Kitty asked casting Apple an odd look as the princess seemed to be frozen in place, looking inches away from crying.
"My Brother did." Giles admitted easily.
"He what?" Faybelle yelped actually horrified for once, coming from an environment where family meant everything the thought of imprisoning a harmless eccentric old man was… rather cold hearted, even by villain standards.
"I wanted fairytale characters to have a choice of whether or not they wanted to take on the rolls of their ancestors. I found myself unable to bear the responsibility of forcing young people to become something that made them miserable… or vengeful…" He said looking away.
"But won't we disappear if we don't sign the Book?" Apple asked worriedly.
The old man surprised everybody when he started to laugh heartily. "Ha, is that batty old wives-tale still around? No, no one will disappear if they don't sign the Book, I've known a few people who escaped their signing obligations and they are still very much alive and well years, some of them over a century later."
Apple's eyes hurt from being opened so wide for so long and her lungs burned from her lack of proper breathing.
XXX
"So the original Prince Charming was a sicko who broke into people's graves to… oh geeze that's horrible Daring, no wonder you're so upset." Cerise patted the boy's shoulder sympathetically as she worked twigs and leaves out of his hair.
"And I thought that the original Prince Charming of my story was bad." Briar shook her head in dismay, she sat next to Cerise and worked on putting her first-aid kit back in order after having finished tending to some superficial cuts and scrapes that the boy had acquired while running blindly around the woods.
"What did he do?" Cerise asked.
"Took advantage of Sleeping Beauty while she was under the spell. Then decided that he wanted her to be his wife so he went back home to get rid of his old wife and went back to my ancestor to see if he could wake her up." Briar said simply. "It actually took him a while to figure out how, imagine Sleeping Beauty's surprise when she awoke to find herself eight months pregnant."
"Are all Prince Charming's in fairytales complete and utter lies?" Daring demanded in outrage.
"Rapunzel's Prince Charming was a pretty good guy I hear." Briar mused. "He'd have to be, after the witch holding Rapunzel in the tower, who had also been Rapunzel's mother believe it or not, threw him out the window once she found out he got her daughter pregnant and he got his eyes gouged out when he landed on a thorny bush. But Rapunzel managed to find him before he perished and the magic spell she put into her tears helped heal his eyes."
"Ouch." Cerise said lowly.
"What am I to do?" Daring whimpered, everything I've worked to achieve to be was a lie, I can't possibly continue on being the perfect representation of a Prince Charming when the people who were the models for a perfect prince were… such horrible people…"
"Then why don't you make up your own perfect ideal?" Cerise proposed. "I mean with all the girls you've dated you must know something about women, all that you'd have to do is observe, listen, use common sense, and always keep in mind the importance of being kind to all living things of all genders who are kind to you."
Daring thought about that for a while.
"Could that work?" He asked.
"I don't see why not." Briar shrugged. "You are nothing like that original Prince Charming, and as long as it makes you happy and it allows you to be who you want to be I think that it could work out. And a lot of those princely rules need updating anyway, tons of us are tired pretending to swoon over guys we don't like just because of their genetics."
"And maybe you should talk to one of the school mind healers about what you've seen." Cerise proposed. "It would be best to nip the nightmares in the butt now before they become a problem."
Daring sniffed. "Okay… thank you…"
XXX
Apple sighed as she was greeted to the sight of Bigsbee one of her family castle's low-level golems, she knew that calling out of the blue like this was going to make it difficult for her to get into contact with her parents, so it was only to be expected that no one would answer her call directly.
"Password code and voice recognition online." Apple ordered, hearing an acknowledging beep from the fuzzy artificial creature. "11616125 future SW."
"Recognized." Said Bigsbee. "How can I help you princess?"
"Please fly me to either the king or the queen if they are available." Apple sighed, cursing Faybelle for making her curious enough to ask about such outrageous claims…
"The great King Prince Charming is not available. "The fair Queen Snow White is available. Please forgive a momentary waiting period while I find the fair Queen Snow White." Bigsbee informed before the phone's screen was moved to its talons and it began to move through the castle. Apple waited patiently as she watched the normal goings on of her ancestral home, it was mid-afternoon so it would be normal to see the maids rushing about to prepare the private living chambers for when the king and queen retired for the day.
Which was why Apple was so confused to see the service hallways so empty as Bigsbee flew through them.
Just as Apple was starting to wonder if there was some sort of event going on for the staff she saw a glimpse of short blond hair the same color as her own, being kissed passionately by a half-dressed man servant.
Apple saw her father's crown being yanked off his head and thrown to the floor by her father himself (the king's crown was never supposed to touch the floor) before she pressed the end-call button on her screen.
XXX
"Yes?" Faybelle asked as she opened the door to her dorm.
"We need to talk." Raven informed looking around the empty hallway nervously. "Can I come in?"
Faybelle moved to the side and motioned for the witch to go in quickly. "I'm surprised that you aren't comforting your roommate or that she didn't follow you all the way here." The fairy observed.
"She asked me to go grab us both a lunch and a dinner while she made a call home… I needed to speak with you about some important developments that I'd learned while in the Book's memories… and I didn't know how long I would be here so I… grabbed a third helping and left Apple's share just inside the door with a note and left before she could see me." Raven fidgeted under the fairy's bewildered stare.
"What did you get for me?" Faybelle asked, trying to mask her own nervousness with curiosity towards the witch's basket, if Raven had learned that her mother had never signed the Book and the title was not tainted then there was about a ninety-five percent chance that nothing would change and she would still be submitting her title to Faybelle… the remaining five percent however, had the fairy worried.
"You said that you liked spicy and sweet foreign foods last night so I got spicy chicken curry, yellow rice, naan bread, several sweet and spicy sauces, a mango yogurt smoothie, and there was leftover apple raspberry pie that I had made for cooking class that I think you'll appreciate more than Apple would." The witch listed out.
"How did you know that I like mango?" Faybelle asked smiling slightly despite herself.
The witch blushed. "Ever since… we made our deal I've been, noticing stuff… I know that I'm going to be the wife in this arrangement so I want to be a good one."
"A useful one is more like it." Faybelle said with an easy smile. "You make excellent beauty care products, you know how to sew, according to Kitty you know how to hunt and trap, you are observant, decently intelligent and headstrong, listen to logic, you can wield magic, and now you can cook. All very good qualities thus far."
"I'm glad you think so, I really want this token marriage to work out as much as possible." Raven swore making Faybelle relax as her fears of Raven pulling out of their arrangement were quelled.
"Why don't you tell me what has you so nervous." Faybelle proposed motioning for the witch to sit on her bed while Faybelle took a chair by her desk.
The witch told the fairy everything, from Snow White's actual tragic story, to the facts about her mother and the unknown man who had tried to kill Raven as a child.
"There is… one more thing you should know…" Raven trailed off a blush blooming on her cheeks.
"There's more?" Faybelle gaped. "Wasn't the rest of it eventful enough?"
"She kissed me… twice." Raven bit her lip. "The first time I think was because she approved of me as a better princely figure than what she had experienced before… the second time was a favor that she asked of me… because she married a necrophiliac who only wanted her money and kingdom… and she wanted a kiss from someone who at least seemed to care about her and wasn't… into doing stuff with her dad's corpse." The witch shrugged guiltily, unable to look the other in the eye. "I'm sorry if I did upset you because of-"
"Raven, she married a necrophiliac, who from what you have described, used to do the do with the girl's father's dead body. Hell I would have kissed her too if she had asked." Faybelle assured, she suddenly felt much more respect for the original Snow White for having to deal with all of that.
Raven let out a breath. "That's a relief."
"So are you going to tell Apple? And if so can I watch?" Faybelle asked excitedly.
"I think that it would be more appropriate if her future husband, Daring, was the one that told her, from what I can gather he pretty much got the same story as I did." Raven said, shaking her head at the other's enthusiasm.
The witch suddenly paled. "Kissing her ancestor on the other hand… that would be a no. Even if she was in an understanding mood at the time I tell her, the moment we have another one of our fights about destiny she might get mad over that and… I'd like my face to stay where it is to be honest…"
Faybelle snorted. "Come on, you can't seriously be afraid of her."
"The night after Legacy Day, she was gesturing a lot and she was so mad that she didn't even notice her surprisingly sharp fingernails cutting through the curtains and she didn't stop yelling until she accidentally shattered a terracotta planting pot with her fist." Raven told her in a haunted tone. "I know that as the situation is right now she would never intentionally lay a hand on me, but everyone has their limits and me telling her that I kissed her ancestor so that Snow White would have a happy memory to content herself with and attempt to move on the best she could from her creepy prince and not-so-happily ever after… that might just be her tipping point."
"So you said that the original Evil Queen died while trying to rescue her daughter from the freaks in the next kingdom? And that your mother never signed you or herself into the Book?" Faybelle changed the subject; making a mental note to keep a safe distance from the princess the next time she taunted the blonde. "If the original Evil Queen died before signing the Book it would make sense why I was talking to what seemed like a mere recreated illusion that looked like your grandmother and not the actual Evil Queen…"
"You don't think that it was her in the Book?" Raven asked.
"Since the apparition spoke like it belonged to a hive mind and yours had enough personality to have a freaking heart to heart with you… no, I'm certain that it wasn't the Evil Queen." Faybelle shook her head.
"She really is unable to apologize to her mother." Raven realized sadly. "To think that memory of her has spent so long trapped in the Book, living an un-life of falsities and sensing that only a few of her descendants actually found love…"
"You gave her closure." Faybelle told the witch severely. "And you will not end up like her. Myself and your clan will not allow that to happen."
"I will get my freedom, you will get a second title, and Apple will get what she wants the most in the world; her fairytale story." Raven murmured. "Apple's not going to be happy at first but she will be getting everything that she's been working so hard for… so… she should get over it by the time she marries Daring… maybe…"
Faybelle regarded the witch carefully. "Stay with me for the night." She said to the other. "I think that the princess would rather be alone and not have a reminder that there is more hope for the rebellion than she previously realized."
"Your right… and I kind of figured that might be the case with Apple so I told her that I understood that she might want to be alone right now and that I would be staying at someone else's dorm for the night, and thank you for letting me stay here it saves me the trouble of finding a place to sleep." Raven said looking down sadly, she knew that the other was right; the only result of her showing her face anywhere near Apple right now would just be another fight about destiny.
The witch was starting to understand that Maddie and Kitty were right; the princess only wanted to be around Raven because she… was enchanted by an imaginary ideal of having a villain poisoning her and having everything just fall into place for the princess when her prince woke her up… but was always so disappointed that she had gotten Raven, who was not very evil and didn't want to poison anybody. "I'm probably the last person she wants to see right now."
Faybelle huffed irritably when the fairy's phone suddenly began to ring.