"Whoa what is this?" Sparrow exclaimed grabbing Raven's exposed arm and looking at her henna tattoos with extreme interest. "That is sick man! I never pegged you as the tattoo type. Where did you even get this done?"
Raven sighed despairingly.
It had been several weeks since the first set of wedding rituals had taken place and to Raven's relief it had been a rather quiet grace period, the neighboring kingdoms to her own had remained as quiet as the day her mother tried to conquer everything (according to her yaya and grandmother that disastrous show of power by her mother had been a mixed blessing, as in it had successfully petrified the hostile lords into thinking twice about starting anything with the scary witches), and school had been relatively… normal (or as normal as Ever After High could ever get), in fact things had actually been improving in her school life much to her cautious relief.
With most of it's leaders suddenly falling silent in their daily proclamations about the importance of maintaining tradition the Royal faction was left to scratch their heads and wonder among themselves as to what was going on, and the Rebels, having been mostly left alone in the wake of all the confusion, peacefully went about their own business and mostly seemed to keep out of causing trouble with the other faction.
The most trouble between the factions seemed to come from Duchess and her new league of casual maiden acquaintances, Duchess having gone through trying out the entire list of the other maiden's destinies still felt undecided about which one to take, so the other maidens proposed that she continue trying out all the different rolls on a daily basis, they didn't mind since none of them wanted their fairytale titles and were happy to be rid of people saying; "oh it's the daughter of so-and-so the future so-and-so" instead of saying their birth names and refusing to recognize them for more than their family's stories.
With Duchess taking up the token acting out of their stories the maidens could protest others people's predisposed ideas of them by pointing to Duchess and saying that they weren't keeping their titles (which caused a minor scandal but most Royals were too preoccupied with their leaders lack of opinion on the subject).
So far everyone involved was happy with the arrangement, Duchess had even seemed to have had some of her cold attitude towards other people thawed out a little. She was certainly far more pleasant towards Raven these days.
Except for Edward. Edward did not approve of this idea at all and he was not happy with the arrangement whatsoever.
He had an entirely new reason to despise Mondays especially since Duchess seemed to be even worse than Tiffany when it came to not acting the part, for Duchess's fight or flight instincts when it came to somebody trying to spook her were all fight (teeth, feathers, super strong dancing muscles, and all).
After the third day of that first week Edward had stopped trying to get Duchess to scream and runaway at the sight of him, which not many people blamed him for since getting hit in the nethers and thrown like a Frisbee out a window by a girl half your size and weight (and who looked fantastically terrifying when she was stuck between morphing from human to swan) was just not something that many people had the heart to tease a guy about (save for Sparrow since he had grown up with Duchess and did not feel the need to pity what he considered to be Edward's hilariously stupid actions).
Duchess had held a grudge against Edward ever since those first three days and had taken great pains to befriend Tiffany so that the girl could teach her all the secrets that were involved with tying people up with rope. And since Edward could not seem to perfect the art of pleading to Tiffany to please get Duchess to stop without mentioning destiny or the fact that he thought that Tiffany should just adhere to the script already… he always ended up with an angry Duchess and a peeved off Tiffany going after him while Sparrow laughed and teased in the background.
Speaking of Sparrow…
"They are for religious and important trade negotiation purposes, I did not get these on my own will and I did not get them from around here." Raven sighed, cursing the fact that she had to pair up with the boy for lab work. Usually she was able to keep her tattoos hidden under her sleeves but for lab she had to take off her gloves and roll up her sleeves so that she (since Sparrow never did anything in lab) could work.
"Is that how you were able to get that nose piercing? Because when I tried to get permission for one I got shut down so fast I don't even think that the Headmaster even read what I had to say." The boy pouted.
"Kingdom business and cultural sensitivity, triumphs over what the Headmaster thinks is appropriate for his students to adorn on their skin." Raven sighed taking her arm back so that she could get to work. "And as you may have noticed I am being polite by hiding my arms and legs so that I don't cause too much issues."
"Since when have you ever been one to be concerned about whether or not you'll cause other people issues?" Sparrow said looking down his nose at her.
"Since I want some relative peace before the rest of my body is all done up and nothing short of a ski mask and a full bodied cat suit can hide all the henna designs." Raven grumbled adding an ingredient while stirring their assignment in a glass bowl. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the designs or being done up for the sake of my country, but I'm not too thrilled with the people around here calling me the tattooed girl."
"Who cares if you're called the tattooed girl, this is too awesome for you to just hide!" Sparrow insisted. "If I was allowed to get to get even a small tattoo I'd be showing that baby off to anybody with eyes… it's a real shame that there isn't a tattoo parlor in the village or I would have gotten one already, permission and scary needles be damned."
"Henna tattoos don't use needles Sparrow, it's a plant mixture that dyes the skin like ink will dye a white shirt if spilled. Normally the pigment fades away after a few days to a few weeks but in my case the henna had been spelled to last as long as my contract does." Raven eyed the contents of the glass bowl critically when it began to bubble.
"Huh." Sparrow said sounding suspiciously interested. "So if I were to get my hands on this henna…"
Raven spun to face the boy fully. "Am I going to have to worry about your mother showing up to my dorm with a fencing blade demanding why her son has henna stained all over his skin? Because I do take fencing classes now and I have been there when she had to be the substitute teacher for us, and since I value my life I will have no qualms using anything at my disposal to throw you under the carriage on this issue."
Sparrow rolled his eyes. "Relax will ya? Ma and I have a deal going on; if I get a tattoo so does she. And since it's temporary it'll be even better 'cause we can experiment with all sorts of different designs and not have to worry about getting surgery to get it removed."
"…In that case, as long as you don't involve me or the person who puts the designs on you if you ever get into trouble over it… I will not stand in your way, have fun." The witch dismissed the argument and turned back to the liquid in the bowl.
"So you're getting your entire body done?" Sparrow asked returning to his curiosity.
"Even the bottoms of my feet, my palms, and my face." Raven confessed since there was no reason to hide what was going to become obvious very soon.
"Sick!" Sparrow grinned.
Raven sighed again.
When the boy fell unusually silent the witch looked up to see that Sparrow was shyly glancing at something… or more like someone over her shoulder.
"You know you stand more of a chance with him than you think." Raven murmured quietly when she noticed that Dexter was making eyes at Sparrow too.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sparrow mumbled sullenly.
Raven took one last glance over to the lab space across from them and sent a silent apology to Cupid who was staring at a blushing Dexter in perplexity.
"He's like us Sparrow. He… has feelings for his own gender just like we do. And I've known Dexter long enough to tell that he finds you attractive. Even if you two don't get together, he'd… he's been really depressed about having to hide who he is, and while having someone like me around has helped, I'm not… of the right gender to understand some things- certain things that only another male would know." Raven whispered as discretely as she could, hoping that the ever-observant Cupid did not pick up on anything off.
Sparrow took a shaky breath. "Yeah." He said his voice thick with emotion. "I sure can relate to that. Pretty damn perfectly."
XXX
From across the room Clawstorm glanced away from her and her lab partner's work to peer over to where her daughter was working. At the sight of the strange designs on Raven's arms Clawstorm couldn't help the quiet exclamation of shock that left her throat.
"Mira are you okay?" Humphrey, the sweet boy that he was, asked the woman masquerading as a girl in concern.
"Uh… yeah… I was just… those markings on the little lady, they look familiar that's all." Mira coughed eyes blinking back tears.
"The little lady?" Humphrey asked looking around him.
"That's what the citizens of the Queen territories have called Lady Raven Queen since she was just a babe', it is believed that she is the spitting resemblance to Lady Edonia Queen, granddaughter to the first Evil Queen and the first Queen in history to sign the Book of Legends, since the original Evil Queen had died before she could be coerced into signing it." Mira explained taking a deep breath.
"Oh. That's cool." Humphrey blinked at Raven curiously. "I had heard the rumors that Raven had gotten tattoos along with her nose piercing for some sort of secret deal. You said that you recognized those markings; do you know what they stand for?"
"Not exactly…" Mira half lied. "I just recognized them from a ritual I had researched when I was younger. I was home schooled and the Enchanted Mirror wanted me to have a basic grasp of most of the main witch cultures you see and one of those cultures included the Sands and Rivers region, and the Lands of Sand and Stone… where I've seen pictures of henna designs similar to the little lady's used for legal contracts of weddings, title transfers, business deals, and cementing allies."
Which was all just another way of describing a token marriage. Not that Humphrey seemed to pick up on it seeing as how he just nodded his head and shrugged.
"I'm thankful that I don't have a kingdom that I have to look after." The boy confessed. "Sounds like such a complicated thing to have to take care of while still in school."
"It is indeed." Mira nodded sagely.
XXX
"We'll be leaving for the third ceremony early Saturday morning." Faybelle greeted Raven as soon as the fairy had shut the door after the witch had stepped into her dorm for their weekly after school tea and sleep over.
"Good." Raven breathed, because Saturday was just two days away. "An increasing amount of people have started asking me about my tattoos after every lab I have to do, and I'm pretty sure that quiet new girl from my maternal homeland has figured out at least the nature of these tattoos, if not the whole story."
Faybelle clasped her gloved hands together self-consciously, the fabric hiding her own marriage tattoos. "I think that Cupid might be catching on too, I accidentally burned a pair of gloves off of my hands during hex-cheer practice the other day, she had been covering a story about our new routines when it happened, I swear her eyes looked like they were the size of dinner plates when she saw my hands! And then that Mira girl walked by and just stared at me like I was the solution to the mysteries of the cosmos! That would also explain why I caught Blondie at study hall surrounding herself with books about fairy and witch rituals and laws."
The fairy nodded to her bed. "I keep rechecking out all the books that have the potential to lead Blondie in the right direction and stashing them under there but it's only a matter of time I would think before her astute skills with detecting pull through for her."
Raven deflated, limply flopping down on Faybelle's bed. "And I keep catching glimpses of the Headmaster and Giles watching me during class and around the school, Daring's turned mother hen on me more than a few times in the past couple of weeks, and Apple's starting to get anxious. I actually had to run around half the campus before I was able to lose her tail on me as I was trying to make my way here!"
Faybelle's expression soured. "I thought that you said that you and she had talked it out and she had promised not to bother you?"
"She promised not to bother me about fairytales and trying to force me into a destiny." Raven clarified. "And following me in an attempt to find out who I've been meeting secretly with for the past few weeks isn't so much an act to bother me as it is a logical part of Apple's personality and thinking process, to be honest it was a miracle that she had been able to hold herself back from following me those first three weeks since we've started this."
The fairy stared at the witch in equal parts respect and horror.
"You consider this behavior normal?" Faybelle asked slowly.
"Normal for Apple." The witch shrugged before sighing despairingly. "So overall it would seem like we are at the cusp of being found out." Another sigh. "So much for peace and laying low."
"Has that Charming boy translated that stuff he found on that lord's flower website?" Faybelle asked.
Raven shook her head. "He still has lots that he needs to decrypt, but he has retrieved a list of soil contractors that those lords have yet to harass us with and several banned formulas for the use of the rare creatures and plants from the Queen lands and the Dessenti sea sponge for poisons or expensive gifts to lure in allies greedy for a false prospect of getting rich off of our pilfered resources. Oh and he found a nasty video file of the prime minister to the neutral kingdom neighboring ours and some man who was not his wife going at it, accompanied by a blackmail letter threatening the prime minister to side with the enemy lords who were trying to annex the Queen kingdom."
"This would explain why that narcissistic pretty boy has been on you like a worried mother wyvern lately." Faybelle nodded. "Sounds like more than enough to warrant a few arrests and heavy fines of certain kingdoms' lords, with luck we'll get enough to strip the bastards of their titles and shut them all down."
"I'll be issuing all the evidence to my grandmother along with that box she asked me to give to her first thing when we get there." Raven sat up to unlace her boots.
"You're seriously not going to open that thing to at least find out who your grandfather is?" Faybelle asked, a troublemaking glint in her eye.
Raven cast the fairy a flat look. "My grandmother is a passionate woman, and has no reservations with proclaiming this in very expressive words. Even the Headmaster was cherry red when I had asked him about whether or not he had read those letters."
"Ah." Faybelle's troublemaking glint was replaced with slight revulsion. "Didn't you say that at one point the Headmaster and your grandmother…?"
"I really would rather not think about it." Raven shuddered. "I've always wondered why the Headmaster didn't banish me after Legacy Day… now I know why…"
"The power of a woman's wiles is a thing to be respected." Faybelle mused. "Though on the flip side it was probably jealousy over your grandmother having a witchling with your grandfather that had caused him to act so horribly towards your mother."
Raven shook her head. "I still can't see Headmaster Grimm being that cruel. Sure he's been irritating at times ever since I've turned my back on destiny but… he's never been cruel to me."
"Probably realized his mistake after your mother lost it and tried to bring all those realms down with her." Faybelle clicked her tongue. "Human hearts are volatile things, they don't follow rules well."
"I'm not sure that witch's hearts are much better." Raven sighed. "Grandmother still can't get over her first love and I… am stalling the inevitable conversation that I might just have to have with Apple if I am ever going to get over loving her."
"Being married to me might help things." Faybelle pointed out. "At the very least she can't accuse you of coveting on her while living in the same dorm as her if you are working to move towards a brave new future."
"A brave new future filled with cloaks and daggers." Raven rubbed her temples with her fingers. "I'm starting to see why my mother went insane."
"By the way did you already give my new prince and princess the talk yet?" Faybelle asked.
"Cupid and I will be grabbing Daring tomorrow after class. For the record I am not looking forward to this so you better appreciate it." The witch grumbled.
"I would think that it is Daring and Apple who should be the thankful ones." Faybelle moved to sit down beside the witch. "If it were me in your shoes I would have gone for mischief rather than mercy."
"I'll be sure to point that out once Apple starts in on me for giving up my birthright." Raven rolled her eyes.
XXX
"You brought me here to talk about what?" Daring squeaked.
Raven sighed blushing slightly. "It's family tradition, all the future Evil Queens save for my mother sat their princes and princesses down and talked about how not to mess things up during the wedding night. Apparently way back in the old days there had been some… issues so the Queen's being witches and thus taught about this kind of thing in a more… liberal manner stepped in and after a while the parents to our human counterparts traditionally left us in charge of being the ones to… give you an advanced version to "the talk" if you catch my drift?"
Daring held up his hands and shook his head. "I already know about it, you really don't have to…"
"It's just a formality. I don't want to be here any more than you do. Which is why I'm just going to ask you a few basic questions, and if you already know the answers you are free to go and we never speak of this again." Raven promised worrying her hands together. "But if you don't Cupid will be here to step in if I get too embarrassed to explain things properly."
"And teach you some extra things that might be helpful." Cupid chimed in cheerfully making both witch and prince twitch.
"Apple's going to get the same talk?" Daring asked mostly to stall; he looked around Cupid and Blondie's dorm as if he feared that something might try to jump out and bite him and he fidgeted like his padded chair had needles under it.
"…I decided to go with a more subtle approach with Apple." Raven said cryptically.
XXX
Apple blinked at the strange sight in front of her, the previously well-maintained row of books that she kept on her desk had been messed with. Some of her old books had been left to rest atop some new ones.
Apple reached out for a book, nearly dropping it a moment later when she read the title.
XXX
Daring raised his hand. "I opt that I just get some books and leave."
"I had suggested that but I was shot down." Raven grumbled miserably.
"This is not a matter to take lightly Daring." Cupid chastised casting Raven a flat look. "It's one thing to know about sex, it's another to know how to actually preform the act. There is more to it than what the initial talk talks about, if you don't know what you're doing you could end up hurting both Apple and yourself. Torn skin on your nearest and dearest is nothing to think small of."
"Torn-! What?" Subconsciously the boy put his hands protectively over his groin.
"For the record; I apologize in advance, and I did try to just get you some books to read." Raven piped up.
"Oh come on Raven, this isn't going to be nearly as bad as you two are making it out to be." Cupid rolled her eyes.
"I'd like to argue to the contrary!" Daring blushed.
Raven really hoped that Faybelle appreciated her having to go through all of this so that the fairy didn't have to.
XXX
"What happened to you two?" Cerise blinked, as she stared at the two blushing people who were staggering past her in the girl's dorm hallway.
"I didn't know people could do that…" Daring murmured with a hand to his chin, a haunted look in his eye.
"Today Daring and I learned that perhaps tradition is over rated." Raven grumbled tiredly.
"More like X rated." Daring pointed out weakly.
"And to never ask a friend to help in matters such as this… they tend to be too helpful." Raven scowled.
"I'll never be able to look Cupid in the eye ever again." Daring hummed wearily.
"Especially if they are the daughter of Eros." Raven's scowl deepened.
"Especially then. Especially, especially then." Daring continued to hum. "Maybe I'll become a monk."
"I would not blame you after all of that." Raven's eye twitched. "Dreadfully sorry I didn't try to orchestrate an escape."
Daring patted her on the back. "Is okay, you were busy curled up on the floor and covering your ears."
"I should have just given you the books." The witch sighed guiltily.
"You did say that you tried. But at least I learned something… a whole lot of something…" Daring trailed off.
"Should we pretend that this never happened?" The witch proposed.
"Probably for the best that we do." Daring nodded. "Well, I'm off to take my vows for the life of a monk."
"And I'll be gleefully throwing myself in the middle of one of Apple's scolding sessions." Raven declared as she wandered away.
"I'd look good in a robe." Daring mused as he walked in the opposite direction.
Cerise looked between the departing figures.
"I probably don't wanna know…" The hooded girl shook her head and continued on her way.
XXX
"Um… Raven…?" Apple awkwardly held up one of her new books.
"Trust me it was either give you that or having you sit down and listen to Cupid explain it all to you." The witch glared at the floor. "I can tell you from experience, that is far more unpleasant than reading a book."
Apple surveyed the witch for a moment. "Is this about that family tradition of yours? The one where the villain is supposed to teach the future king and queen about the wedding night?"
"You've heard of it?" Raven asked as she kicked off her shoes and flopped onto her bed.
Apple slid out of her own shoes and crawled onto Raven's bed to curl up beside the witch. "Mom said that I should not be surprised if it happens, your mother skipped out on her talk with my parents but you… are different so…"
"I worry about you two." The witch confessed. "Even if you don't end up getting married to each other, I still want you guys to be happy."
"It that due to honor or is it because you like us?" Apple murmured into Raven's shoulder.
Raven quirked up her lip. "Both actually. Though there's a bit of witch culture bleeding through this too. How little you seem to know about this actually worries me a great deal."
"So your books have proven." Apple states dryly. "Although… I think that I'll only be needing this one." The princess holds up the book still in her hands.
"You'll make some lucky girl very happy." Raven swallowed thickly.
"Hopefully." Apple sighed. "Hey Raven… are you still willing to wait a little bit longer for your princess? She still needs time."
"Are you ever going to tell me who this mystery maiden is?" Raven asked with a raised brow.
"No mystery, I know who you have a crush on." Apple assured. "You've just been missing the obvious hints that I've been dropping proving that she likes you back. So… will you be waiting?"
"My personal life is still on hold until everything's sorted out." Raven closed her eyes, wondering why Apple was talking in riddles all of a sudden. "But to be honest I haven't a clue what life is going to throw at me next."
Apple sighed taking Raven's prone arm and resituating it around her shoulders so that the princess could curl up better around the witch. "I guess we just take things one day at a time." The princess murmured into the witch's shirt.
XXX
"Nice work Mira!" Blondie praised as she walked up to the witch in question outside forest facing the dorms. "Thanks to your investigative work the Marsh King's restaurant has been closed down for both polluting the local rivers and mishandling the food in his restaurant!"
"I wouldn't have been able to gather all the evidence needed if I didn't have Miss Ashlynn and Mister Hunter's help." Mira smiled shyly. "Really the only thing I did was discover was the source of the illegal dumping of swamp grease and take the video."
"Hey don't sell yourself short, you really did do a good job!" Blondie patted the redheaded witch on the back. "Mark my words; you'll be made into a true reporter yet if this keeps up!"
Mira nodded, accepting the praise. "Thanks chief."
"No problem, I'll be seeing you tomorrow!" Blondie waved as she departed.
"See you tomorrow chief!" Mira waved back.
"Second round of high school seems to be working out well for you." A gruff voice spoke from behind the trees.
"I'm surprised too wolf-boy." Clawstorm sighed leaning back until she had her spine resting against a tree.
"Don't you mean Professor Bad Wolf?" Came the teasing reply, Clawstorm could just see the outline of a fuzzy muzzle out of the corner of her eye.
The witch snickered. "Don't try your luck old friend, I'm only calling you that while other people are around and in your advanced biology classes."
"Ooh, don't look now but it looks like your secret admirer is looking for you." One furry claw appeared out of the shadows to point to a familiar glasses wearing blond.
"He didn't see me did he?" Clawstorm hissed now beside the Big Bad Wolf and behind the tree line.
"You moved rather quickly." The man laughed.
"Don't get me wrong old friend, Humphrey's a sweet boy and all but I'm not a cougar, and I've already learned my lesson when it comes to forming an attraction to your high school best friend." Clawstorm muttered as she peeked around the tree, Humphrey had a bouquet of flowers in hand and was looking around, searching for someone. And Clawstorm feared that someone might be herself, Bad Wolf had a sense of smell so acute he could detect the pheromones coming off of a un-perfumed human up to ten yards away, if he said that a boy liked Clawstorm, she'd believe him.
"I remember." Bad Wolf huffed quietly. "I was in love with you, you were in love with Simone, and Simone was…"
"Simone was politely pretending that our antics didn't embarrass her." Clawstorm finished. "That or she was holding in her laughter to spare us our hurt feelings. It was always difficult to tell with that wife of yours."
The wolf-man hummed in thought. "You know after I had found out that you used to have feelings for Simone I had thought that you only went for the fairer gender, but then you had that thing with the Good King and I got confused all over again."
Clawstorm smiled, a bittersweet look crossing her face. "Raphael and I met while our mothers were conducting business back during senior year of high school and I got to go back home for the weekends and soon after that the two of us bonded… in a way… we used to be each other's wingman for when we would disguise ourselves and go terrorize the local watering holes with our combined awesomeness.
"We were never an official couple; about a day or two before I fulfilled my princess's happily ever after and was so rudely sent an un-invitation telling me that I was not to be present at our beloved Snow White's wedding- not that I would have wanted to go anyway but still- Raphael so kindly offered to buy me all the drinks that we could stomach, the subject of sex was brought up, a bet that I can't remember for the life of me what it was about was formed- though I think I won-… and the finishing blows were one ripped expired condom and one killer hangover that made me forget to take the morning after pill, and ultimately made me pregnant with Raven." The witch shrugged.
Bad Wolf winced. "…Remind to never ask about your personal life ever again." The man complained. "Because you are so not romantic. Like at all."
Clawstorm smirked as if she were proud of the man's words. "If I was half as romantic as you wolf-boy I'd be the one who married Simone, however it's lucky for you that I managed to get over her and that she only goes for manly men with fur all over."
"She really does like the fur." Bad Wolf admitted smugly.
"Raphael did offer to marry me you know, once I told him the child in my womb was his and he turned all nesting father-to-be on me." The witch sighed in annoyance.
"You didn't punch him too hard did you?" Bad Wolf asked, mildly concerned.
Clawstorm pursed her lips. "Didn't have to. All I did was remind him about how crazy high school had made me and he snapped out of it, remembered who he was talking to, and went back to treating me as a friend."
Bad Wolf was silent for a moment. "It seems so unfair that you were never really given a chance to get over all the bad things that other people threw at you during high school. It had started with just a little racism and kept getting worse as time moved on."
The witch scowled. "At least now I know that most of it was due to mom moving on with her life without the Headmaster in it, though he claimed that it had been mostly jealousy derived from him thinking me being the child that he had thought mom had loomed with some other man… he was never as bad or as persistent as the maiden brigade but he sure as hell didn't help any."
"And what are you going to do now that he's found out that he's your father? Hex, what are you going to do with this information?" Bad Wolf asked. "Whenever I walk under his office windows my ears keep picking up on him trying to talk to you- well he's talking to the mannequin in the mirror, but still he thinks that it's you in there."
The witch snarled, her eye twitching. "Well right now I'm going to let him keep talking to that stupid doll, and if by some stroke of unimaginable luck he'll continue thinking that I'm still in the mirror and I won't have to interact with him for the rest of his life." The witch spat. "If he's smart he'll try working on gaining a better relationship with my daughter but he's still light-years away from me ever considering even willingly being in the same room as he is let alone speak to him about him being my father."
"Light… years?" Bad Wolf winced. "You know, ever since you came back from your little emergency visit to that other world your vocabulary has gotten really weird."
"Hey, Boo York was totally ghoul man! And I learned lots from those mad scientist classes at Fright University." The witch smirked. "If I didn't like Raphael and my kingdom so much I would have taken Raven and moved there while I was still pregnant with her, that place is far more appropriate for a smart witch like her to have been raised in."
"Speaking of your daughter, you said that you found out something?" Bad Wolf steered the topic of conversation away from subjects involving how Clawstorm's life could have been different, the witch always got really depressed if she thought about how easy it could have been to just runaway that day when Clawstorm got her princess's un-invitation, how she could have left Snow White to wait for days and wonder when Clawstorm would be coming for her before finding out that the witch was never going to come and fulfill her story.
Bad Wolf didn't know where Clawstorm stood on that old issue, on one hand the witch was intensely proud that she stuck to her family's honor code; but on the other hand she regretted being so merciful to the woman since Snow White had been the witch's single most persistent bully, even when all the others lost interest and left the Clawstorm alone.
The witch leaned her head against the smooth bark of the tree. "She's struck a deal with the Thorn clan; I recognized those markings on Raven and that Thorn girl's skin from back before our Legacy Day when I had been researching ways to get out of becoming the Evil Queen, it's a special kind of token marriage that is designed to exchange titles in return for regaining honor."
Glowing golden eyes blinked in surprise. "How do you feel about this?"
Clawstorm grinned. "My little girl is way smarter than I ever was at that age; she's keeping quiet and getting out of this before anybody has a chance to stop her. She's gaining her freedom and she's not letting anything stand in her way. To be honest I couldn't be more proud of her if I tried."