A/n: is doing that thing again where it says that I'm getting reviews but I can't see them, so for all of you who reviewed last chapter I'm sorry but I can't see what you said so if you really wanted to tell me something you should probably PM me for this chapter's reviews.
Also (if they ever fix the review thing) did they ever announce who had won the thronecoming king? I know that they did like four separate clips of all four queen candidates but did they ever announce who won the king title for the dance?
XXX
"Hey Ashlynn how did that slumber party at Blondie and Cupid's go?" Briar asked while holding her comforter up to her chin, when the other princess walked into the dorm.
"It was off the page!" Ashlynn grinned, lifting up the surprisingly attractive eye patch that Hunter had kindly decorated for her to wear at the dance so that she didn't have to feel as self-conscious about her black eye. "I'm actually going to sneak back there in a little bit I just forgot to pack my toothbrush in my overnight bag. I'm surprised that you never made it over, did things with you and Cerise go well?"
"Very much so." Briar grinned goofily.
"Awww did you two stay up and talk all night or something?" Ashlynn asked walking into the bathroom. "When me and Hunter first got together we'd spend hours talking until we had to rush back to the dorms before we got busted for skipping curfew."
"Yeah, talking…" Briar coughed, blushing slightly. "Cerise and I have actually been unofficially dating for months now so… last night was like taking the next step in our relationship… we got… a little closer than I had expected and uh "talked" almost too much, but neither of us regret it."
"Well that's even better." Ashlynn grinned as she reemerged from the bathroom with her toothbrush and toothpaste in hand. "It's always a good thing to progress a relationship along its natural path, that's what keeps these things going. Hey are you going to pop into Blondie's room, or are you going to sleep in?"
Briar smiled innocently as she tugged her comforter higher up her chin. "Sleep in… ya know, before I go and see how Apple faired the night spent in her dorm contemplating how much she loves Raven."
"Do you want to go alone or should I be there too?" Ashlynn asked sounding vaguely worried.
"It all depends on whether or not you feel up to potentially having to deal with a worst case scenario so early in the morning." Briar sighed. "But if you do decide to go, I'd like your support since she can be pretty unpredictable at times. By the way do you know who won the thronecoming queen and king titles last night?"
"Well…" Ashlynn cleared her throat. "Who… or more specifically how many won the thronecoming queen… and king title… you'll just have to see for yourself on Blondie's blog since it's pretty hard to believe myself, and I was there. But let's just say that there was a computer glitch and a tie and… well everybody found it all in good fun so nobody opposed it."
"By the way could you hext Cerise to see if she wants to pop over or not before breakfast? Cedar said that when she went into their dorm this morning to get changed and that Cerise wasn't there, she's probably doing her morning run and nobody but you knows how to reach her when she's out running." Ashlynn asked while she stood poised to open the door to leave.
"I'll give her the message." Briar grinned, looking slightly panicked.
"Thank you!" Ashlynn called over her shoulder as she left.
Cerise waited a moment before she cautiously peered over the top of the covers.
"That was close." The wolf-girl whispered, her exposed ears twitching in the air.
"Are you talking about her almost seeing your ears or her almost seeing us wearing only our underwear?" Briar asked looking under the covers; they still had some clothes on since, somehow, they had managed the presence of mind to stop before things got too far but in the moment neither one of them really wanted to put clothes back on…
"I'm pretty sure both would have given her a shock." Cerise scratched her head. "And somehow I get the feeling that she wouldn't have been very happy with our current state of dress… even though we didn't quite get that far last night…"
"She probably would have appointed herself as our designated chaperone." Briar agreed sitting up in order to reach for her purse lying haphazardly on the floor on other side of the bed, opposite the line of sight of the front door.
"Could you please grab the Book while you're down there?" Cerise requested to the other girl's back. "I just remembered that we forgot to rip out Raven's page."
"Oh! You're right! Well we can't have that now can we?" Briar exclaimed, sitting back with Book and phone in hand.
"Are you going to look up who won the queen and king of the dance?" Cerise said while she carefully pried open the Book, tapping the bit of eraser that they had jammed into the locking mechanism to keep it from sealing up tight whenever they closed it.
"It sounds like something rather interesting happened." Briar chuckled flicking through the contents of her phone. "Almost as interesting as our time last night…" The princess waggled her brows.
"You flirt." Cerise snickered flipping past the title page of the Book of Legends.
There was moment of silence when both girls paused as they read through their prospective materials.
"What the?" Briar blinked at the article she was reading.
"Is this a joke?" Cerise wondered looking the page in front of her over again.
"It says here that some computer glitch tied both Raven and Daring for the king of thronecoming! They decided to run with it so Daring ended up walking Raven's picture in one hand, and Apple's picture- she had won thronecoming queen- in the other!" Briar exclaimed. "How strange!"
"I think that I can top that." Cerise said still staring at the Book in her hands.
"What's this?" Briar leaned over to look at the same page Cerise was pointing to. "Lady Raven King-Queen? Keeper of the Book of Legends and… the original Snow White's one true prince?" The princess read out loud in disbelief. "Is that…? Why is there a drawing of Raven embracing Apple with dark-hair under the title description?"
Unable to say anything Cerise just shrugged and shook her head.
"Where's the page for the Evil Queen?" Briar wondered suspiciously turning the page only to pause once again.
"Faybelle Thorn, future Evil Fairy Queen of the tails of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty?" The princess exclaimed again.
XXX
Raven hugged herself and tried not to think about how uncomfortable she felt as she was being magically suspended in the air wearing only the white band from her wedding dress across her chest, and nothing else while she waited for the henna that had been placed from the bottoms of her feet all the way up her legs to her hips and backside to dry and have time to sink into her skin. To top it all off the nymphs had waxed her completely bare.
She felt very exposed.
"So… any ideas as to what our families will be discussing with us tomorrow?" Faybelle asked, her decorated feet swinging from the high perch that she had found so that she could both dry her feet and look at Raven's face.
"Most likely the majority of it will be about the Queen territory's quietly hostile neighbors, my mother, but perhaps we'll get some talk in about trade and more commerce between our people and yours… but most of all I'd like some answers… about what exactly had happened nearly seven years ago." Raven sighed.
"All that I was given were the facts found in the reports and some vague guesses that the investigators made while pursuing their inquiries, I always knew that my grandmothers and father knew more about it all, but they didn't want me involved too much in it while I was still so young, and since I had just assumed that my mother was the sole one responsible… I didn't have any interest in asking… but now that I know differently… I'd like to know everything that they do."
"Because if your enemy is not solely your mother then who are they, why did they try to kill you, and what are their real goals in all of this?" Faybelle murmured thoughtfully. "And here I thought that you only had to worry about the Royals trying to bully you into signing the Book."
"I can't believe that I'm saying this… but I almost long for the days where that was my chief daily concern, fights with Apple, cruel whispers, and all." Raven grumbled sourly.
Faybelle considered the witch for a moment.
"How do you feel about going shopping and trading your old clothes for some new ones tomorrow?" The fairy asked out of the blue.
XXX
Ashlynn and Briar walked into Apple's dorm to see the blonde princess hugging a black pillow to her chest
"If I'll become queen of Ever After anyway does that mean that I'm… allowed to forgo the title of Snow White and not have to marry Daring? I don't love him… but then there are my duties to be considered… and the fact that I'm the Royal faction's leader… but if I do decide to go through with becoming Snow White then… Raven… I'd never have a chance with her because she's trying to get over me and… I'm running out of time with this! But I need more time to figure something out!" Apple howled tugging at her hair.
Nevermore made little noises as she ate her breakfast, as if mimicking the princess's new habit of talking to herself.
"Yeah well I guess I could talk to her… but what would I say, "please don't stop being in love with me because I kind of love you too but I need time to figure out whether I should go through with becoming Snow White or whether I should just become Queen Apple and kiss you, because ever since I found out I was in love with you kissing you is all that I can think about?" She might be understanding that I'm confused but she might also tell me that she's done waiting and needs to move on to her future." Apple sighed. "How do I convince her to wait just a little bit longer…?"
Ashlynn looked at Briar.
"Hooo boy…" Briar complained covering her face with her hand and shaking her head.
XXX
"So… my mother wasn't the one who cursed you?" Raven asked her grandmother early Sunday morning, feeling completely surprised. The two were sitting at a big wooden table along with the rest of the King family, Faybelle, Charlotte, and their respective mothers on one of the Thorn castle's terraces.
"If my daughter were to poison or curse me she would have been far bolder with her attack, not hiding in the shadows to attack me while I was unconscious and down for the count in magical power, like only a true coward would." Elenore sniffed knowingly. "And she wouldn't have left me a message telling me where you were my dear." She revealed to Raven. "I know what the reports say, but I highly doubt that the investigator's theories are true, but because I don't have the proper evidence to prove otherwise, I can't redeem her for at least the allegations of poisoning me."
"Down for the count?" Faybelle turned to the elder witch. "What do you mean? Had you been injured before you were poisoned?"
"There had been an incident before Lady Elenore had been cursed." The Evil Fairy informed her daughter calmly, making Faybelle realize that her mother already knew the full story. "I'm sure you've heard of the meteor that had landed on the kingdom neighboring the Queen territories."
Faybelle nodded. "Yes, it had left a crater half a mile wide just over the border didn't it?"
"It was a good thing it had just missed our lands or else it would have caused a lot of damage." Raven shivered at the thought.
"That's just it." Elenore told Raven gravely. "It nearly did. If air control hadn't detected it and if I hadn't been near the estate's central tower so that I could cast the spell that had created the magical shields used to deflect the thing away from us…" The woman's lips thinned. "One of our major cities would have been hit."
Raven shook her head looking both concerned and disbelieving. "Grandmother, that was an object the size of a full grown swamp troll and it had fallen from the sky at incredible speeds, even with your talents and magical strength, in order for you to deflect such a thing so that it could land safely miles away…"
Elenore smiled kindly. "I wasn't alone in casting the spell young one, but my actions did come at a cost… the temporary loss of my ability to use my legs."
"Temporary…?" Raven peered over to her grandmother's wheelchair.
Elenore shared a look with the Evil Fairy and the Evil Fairy's sister.
The Good King sighed. "Raven… you are old enough to understand now, and you will have to be dealing with these issues soon so… there is something that we should tell you."
XXX
"It's like there's this whole underground market going on at the school!" Daring reported to his brother excitedly as he burst into their dorm.
Dexter reached one hand out of his cocoon of warm covers to grab his alarm clock and blink blearily at the digital numbers displayed on it. "It's six thirty in the morning, on a Sunday Daring." The younger boy groaned rolling over to glare at his older brother.
"It's the only time Ginger and the other witches Darling was talking about were willing to meet with me, they're all busy on the weekends making merchandise for their clients!" Daring explained belly flopping down on Dexter's bed and kicking his feet in the air as he stared at the lump of covers that was his brother.
"Why are you so interested in this all of a sudden?" Dexter demanded when it became apparent that Daring wasn't going to leave him to get some more sleep.
"Raven said to me once that she is working on finding ways to support herself when she graduates, as in she doesn't expect that they'll let her assume her birthright because of the crimes her mother committed and Raven being the heir to the title of the Evil Queen." Daring admitted. "I was just… curious about this group of witches she's apart of and… if they could tell me any more with what's going on with her. She's my villain and she's my friend, her acting so like she'll be banished at any second worries me."
Dexter peered further over his covers. "I've never heard you talk about Raven like this before." The boy said. "The most you've ever said about her in the past was about how much black make up she wears and how even a lesbian like her should find you at least charming."
Daring winced. "I'll admit I have been remiss about catching on to something being out of place up 'til now… I'm going to have to work on that… but I will not stand by and let her have an unhappy ending to her life…" Daring trailed off looking haunted.
"The time spent in the Book's memories and the truth of Raven's ancestor's story has really got you rattled." Dexter observed. "Not that I blame you, but you seem to be particularly focused on Raven."
Daring looked down shaking his head. "She should have never been cast as a villain!" He exclaimed. "Her mother wouldn't have turned out the way she did if it weren't for that lie! We have all been lied to and so many…" He breathed deeply. "So many people have suffered needlessly because of it. It has gone too far!"
"And Raven is caught up right in the middle of it." Dexter sighed sitting up.
"She has scars…" Daring confessed lowly. "Marks of a whip all up and down her back. Raven said that there are people who want to harm her family because she is related to the Evil Queen, and she has old scars from someone who had whipped her years ago."
Dexter put a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide. "Gods…"
"On Legacy Day I would have never guessed… I had just thought that it had to do with cold feet or girl drama I… I feel… something that I've never… felt before. I don't like it, I want it to go away!" Daring sat up and held a hand to his chest looking slightly nauseous.
"We call that guilt Daring." Dexter said flatly. "And I'd say that it's being magnified by the worrying new information you've found out about her and her ancestor."
"How do I make it go away?" Daring asked desperate. "Most times I feel sick but sometimes it hurts! Right here!" He pointed to the place where his heart was.
"Well first… you could always talk to Raven herself about your concerns. Don't pledge to rescue her or anything; she doesn't like that, just… assure her that should she be of need of a friend and ally to help her… that you would be available to help her and will do whatever she asks of you." Dexter proposed. "She's a sharp tack Daring, she doesn't need to be rescued or taken care of, she just needs friends that she can count on."
Daring nodded. "I will speak to her as soon she gets back… when does she get back?"
"She hexted me last night." Dexter rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he informed his brother. "She said that she'll be back eight o' clock our time today, so you can tell her once she's all settled down. I'll even hext her asking for a time for the two of you to meet to discuss your desire to promote her shampoo formula and your interest in her designing a series of beauty products specifically designed to your needs, Now if you don't mind; I'd like to go back to sleep for a little while." The younger boy informed nestling back down under his covers.
"I do like what she's done with that shampoo…" Daring patted his hair, which he had gotten many complements on over the weekend. "And that shaving cream… it would be so nice to have a reliable, good quality source for these things."
XXX
Raven sat down heavily on the white stone bench, leaning back until her spine rested on one of the gazebo's wooden supports, she tilted her chin up and breathed deeply. In a few minutes she would walk back to the dorms, face Apple, and go back to daily life at school, but for the moment she needed to look at the positives and scrape together enough calm and reason to carry on with life as an ordinary student until the next wedding ritual or if her home needed her.
She needed to focus on the fact that everything was just fine and she didn't need to over-worry about anything because the Queen lands had themselves a powerful new ally and it was just one ritual away until it had the legal backing of the high council and come under the land protection act of the Grand Coven.
Raven gingerly (so that she didn't wipe off her make up) rubbed her face and took another calming breath. "Everything will work out, stop worrying, stop worrying…" Raven told herself reassuringly, moving the large white and blue woolen wrap she had on, more securely around her frame (going from a hot dessert to cool forest through mirror-travel did not give her the time to put something on that would have both hidden her new henna designs and be more appropriate for the cool morning chill of Ever After).
The witch twitched, putting her hands down and looking around when she felt eyes on her, and since there were no mirrors in the woods her mother wasn't the one watching.
"Hello?" Raven stood up and looked around. "I can sense you whoever you are, if you have something to say you had better-… Headmaster what are you doing out here?"
"I often come out here to think." Milton said cryptically, which was the truth, but in this instance he had gotten a message from the Good King telling the school that his ward would be back on campus at eight and Milton had sent out some pixies to search for the witch and they had been the ones to inform him where he could find the girl. "But while you're here I'd… just like to ask you how your little trip went, on Friday I got a rather vague permission form about a religious piercing and… some form of… skin decoration?"
"Friday?" Raven furrowed her brows. "But I though that you had already gave permission for that… days before… oooh! They didn't wait for your permission did they?" The witch slapped both hands to her face and combed her fingers as much as she could (the tikka ornament, crown, and the way her hair was styled got in the way) before fixing her most apologetic look towards the older man. "Sir, I swear I was completely under the impression that you had signed the forms long before Friday and as soon as my business is done and all the rituals finished I will take out the stud in my nose and let it heal over... you don't have to worry about the rest of it distracting the other students, I had always planned on wearing clothing that would hide the tattoos-"
"Tattoos?" Milton yelped his eyes wide. "And just where young lady are these tattoos?"
Raven sighed in resignation as she stepped down from the gazebo and removed her large shawl from around her shoulders exposing her arms, what part of her legs that were visible over her new knee-high boots, and the new dress that she wore (a dress more fit for a maiden than an Evil Queen, something that Faybelle had suggested and Maddie and Kitty jumped in to help her find when they had enough spare time to explore the local market).
The Headmaster seemed to choke on air for a moment one hand flying up to cover his mouth and impede any hasty remarks while his other hand reached out to loosely pick up the girl's arm by the wrist so that he could see the damage better.
Raven bit her (very light pastel purple) lip and winced at the old man's reaction. "They're henna tattoos spelled to last as long as my contract does, they are a requirement that I have to go through with my business arrangement with some… future allies to my maternal kingdom, and like I said before; I will wear clothing on days that I have school that will hide these and the future tattoos the best I can so that it won't become a distraction, and I will discourage anyone who asks from getting one of their own that is not related to any sort of religious-"
"Future tattoos? Kingdoms Miss Queen! They've already got you drawn up like a painted egg from the Eternal Winterlands of the north! Just how much more do they expect you to be covered in… these designs?" Milton demanded his latent paternal instincts reeling in outraged shock, despite his best efforts to remain neutral and to keep in mind that Elenore had made it quite clear that he was to have nothing to do with her family aside from the necessary, there was still this persistent voice in the back of his mind that screamed; granddaughter, flesh and blood, piercing, and tattoos!
Raven fidgeted shiftily. "… A lot more, but thankfully I won't have to go through any more painful piercings!" She tried to smile encouragingly in the face of his disapproving scowl. "At the very least I'm grateful that I don't have to pierce anything else… to be honest I don't like the nose stud much and it's still very sore despite my best efforts to take care of it." She mumbled nervously looking guiltily down at the ground while she gingerly prodded the tip of her nose, which was indeed sore. "And once again I thought that you had a better warning about all of this…"
Milton looked over the girl's overall apologetic demeanor and sighed in defeat, internally softening at the genuine expression on the witch's face. "You don't have to apologize Miss Queen. I will admit that I'm not at all happy about this but… this was obviously not your idea, and you weren't the one to submit that permission slip." He assured, giving the girl's hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go.
Raven relaxed slightly in relief since the Headmaster seemed more outraged at the unnamed new allies of the Queen lands for and not her.
"I really am sorry if this results in any inconvenience." Raven tells him. "But trust me when I say that it is necessary for my kingdom."
"I'm guessing by your tone that your not going to tell me what is so important that you would be willing to go through all of… this…" Milton grimaced as he gestured at the witch.
"I can't." Raven shook her head. "I'm not allowed, sorry."
" Evi-… daughters of the Queen clan shouldn't apologize on matters such as this. And what do you mean that you're not allowed? You're the heir to the throne for Ancestor's sake!" Milton couldn't help but chastise.
"It's… the kind of business that needs secrecy, and I can't tell anybody unless I get permission from the other people in this, but I'm sure if you can think of a good reason, my grandmother could tell you, I've got her contact information if you'd like." Raven offered, her brain wondering why the older man had halted himself from calling her an Evil Queen.
"Yes!" Milton exclaimed before remembering his place and stating in a more sedate professional tone. "Y-yes I would very much like that Miss Queen, how about you come over to my office and give me that information, and while you're at it could you please wright up a more detailed report on what your teachers should be expecting when you show up to class on Monday?"
Raven nodded. "Sure thing sir, I just need to pick up something hidden in the gazebo for my grandmother, she told me to retrieve this box that she and my grandfather had hidden there years ago to give back to her the next time that I see her."
"A-actually..." Milton blushed, remembering the box of love letters that he had discovered in his and Elenore's secret hiding place not long after the Evil- Clawstorm had been imprisoned. He had gone there out of nostalgia and was surprised to find the box with all of their old love letters to each other inside (Elenore had somehow gotten her hands on the letters she had written to him, since he had foolishly thrown those out when he was a young man). "I… found that box a while ago. It's in my chambers, if you want I can get it for you?"
"Thank you." Raven studied the Headmaster's face. "Tell me; If I were to open that box out of curiosity… will I be scarred for life?"
Milton's blush deepened; internally battling whether or not to remove certain… incriminating letters or to just take the risk and give it all back to Elenore. "Well those letters are very romantic…"
"Never mind." Raven held up a hand and screwed up her face as if pained. "I won't look, I'd rather not know how my grandmother and the former love of her life, no doubt it would be both life scarring… and heartbreaking." The witch turned to retrieve her duffel bag from the gazebo.
Milton considered the girl's words for a moment. "He was the love of her life?" He asked blinking in surprise.
"Yeah." Raven huffed as she walked past him. "She's said so herself more than a few times over the years, she keeps blaming her sentimentality and the cautiousness of her heart for the reason why she hasn't quite moved on yet, no matter how hard she tries she still finds herself a little too cautious with taking the plunge into a serious relationship and no matter how much she curses and works at it she can't ever quite get him out her head you see. Personally I think that the part of her that will always love the good person he used to be feels guilty that she decided to keep the fact that mom was his daughter a secret from him, and she was left wondering about whether or not he would have snapped out of it and gone back to being the person she fell in love with if he ever did find out."
"What did your mother think of all this?" The Headmaster asked a strange catch in his voice.
Raven thought for a moment. "She was torn between agreeing wholeheartedly with her mother's decision for going with caution and protecting her as a baby and… wanting to know who her birth father was. Grandmother always said that if mom really wanted to know then she'd tell her… I guess mom was afraid of what she would find if she ever did know so she never asked much about him."
"And you?" The Headmaster's voice was smaller, more defeated this time. "Do you still not want to know about your grandfather?"
"To be honest I don't have the time to wonder about him." Raven said exasperatedly. "I suppose that if things ever settle down I might get curious enough to find out who he is at the very least, but right now, between my kingdom's issues, the Rebels, school, getting the hang of my magic, the mess my mother left behind, finding the Book of Legends, practicing making potions, living the witch's lifestyle the best I can in a dorm room, my roommate, and whatever insanity that seems to pop up on a weekly basis around here… I barely have the time to sleep a full six hours a night! And what little free time I have during the day I'm making up for my lost sleep by napping! As terrible as it is to say, but finding my long lost grandfather is not an option. I don't have that kind of time to devote to looking him up, judging whether or not it would be worth seeing him, and then dealing with the drama of him finding out that I'm the grandchild he never knew he had!"
"… I suppose nobody can argue with that…" The Headmaster commented a strangely amused lilt to his tone.
XXX
When Raven carefully tiptoed into her dorm she found the room empty, much to her guilty relief, right now she just wanted forget about her responsibilities to her kingdom and that oddly awkward half hour she just spent in the Headmaster's office where Giles studied the designs on her arms with keen interest and the Headmaster taking forever and a day to find her grandmother's box, and then nervously asking strange things when he got back like; if she ate well on her trip and how things were going in her classes. It almost felt like he had wanted to tell her… or ask her something but kept biting his tongue about it.
She just needed to focus on putting her things away, take out the bits of metal in her hair, and lie down in her own bed for a little while until her head was in proper order again.
Moving with nearly desperate speed the witch had taken her boots and socks off, put her washing kit and new clothes away, and had gotten the hair fasteners that had been keeping the mass of it pinned up and swept off to the side out and was now working on getting all the gold and silver loops, hair cuffs, and her new crown out before she worked on the tikka, not noticing when the front door opened.
Apple stared at the girl standing in front of Raven's mirror, the pink and purple skirt of the girl's dress flowed as if weightless behind her, parting in the front to reveal the expanse of exotically painted legs, the bodice was of a corseted design that flattered the curve of the waist and bust and accented the winged appearance of the shoulder straps and the violet sleeveless undershirt that collard close to the girl's neck, her painted arms moved expertly in removing the thorny, modestly jeweled ringlet crown from her head, the metal of her hair jingled lightly as she moved, the soft sound, Apple felt, accenting the soft strokes and light tones of the girl's make-up, overall making the girl look like an angel.
Nevermore purred in greeting as the tiny serpent dragon flew across the room and twined herself around the angel's shoulders, talking all the while.
"Hello Nevermore." Raven spoke petting the chatty dragon's head. "Did you miss me?"
"Yes." Apple spoke weakly, not waiting for an answer before stepping forward and wrapping the witch in a tight embrace.
"I missed you." The princess whispered exhaustedly into the exposed flesh of Raven's neck, nearly falling asleep when painted arms wrapped around her and held her frame up.