A/n: Some action scenes will be coming in sooon, I just need to make a few more thing understandable so that I can continue to the next step. Writing a story with a lot of politics and cold war themes is a lot more involved than I thought, I mean if you can't come at your enemy head on with all out war then you have to out think, out maneuver, and out smart them in every step of the way to not only take them down but to avoid all out war. And then I've got all of these personal relationships going on in the meantime and I need to keep injecting this with bits of humor or else I'll get board with my own writing…
And for some reason I keep wanting to make members of the Queen family out to be complete badasses. Like with explosions and super smarts and insanely powerful in-born magic, and all around more witchyness than what I see in the websodes.
XXX
"Your grandmother called us late last night. She had been told that the healers had translated some writing off of one some of those talismans that they found in your blood, it had been designed to ward away members from a specific group. She had asked us to do a word search on those documents we found to see if we'd find anything, only it had turned out the name of that group had been the key to decrypting everything." Dexter fidgeted nervously in his seat. "I sent her a copy of everything and she had asked us to skim through as many files as we could stomach so that we could give you the gist of what we have."
Raven nodded her head in understanding, looking weary. "Who is this group that has you and Daring so twitchy?" She asked.
With a deep breath Dexter clicked on his computer screen.
Daring had been right, Raven did not like what she saw.
Raven never considered herself one prone to fainting spells, but it was a very near thing for her when she took one look at Dexter's computer screen and saw that horrible image beneath those words that still held the ability to make just about every Ever After witch and warlock's blood run cold. Raven had never thought that she'd ever fall into Daring Charming's arms either but once the whole romance thing was taken out of it the boy was rather sturdy to lean on and very useful in keeping her from making an embarrassing fall to the floor.
"I thought that they died out centuries ago!" Raven's voice shook along with her body. "They should be all gone! Nothing more that a black mark in history and a scary story that keeps witchlings up in the night after they finish scaring each other with the tales!"
"Who are you talking about Raven?" Apple was by the witch's side immediately. "What does that picture mean?" The princess demanded to the two boys in the room.
"Witch hunters." Daring explained, rocking the shivering witch while he held her tighter so that she would not fall. "Centuries ago before the Book was created and before the wars stopped, a particular group of humans used to hunt down anything not human and kill them, witch's used to be a particularly special target because they look so human in appearance, they used to sweep from town to town and conduct witch hunts. They would drag innocent people out of their homes and torture them until they confessed that they were witches, regardless of them being witches or not."
"They did such horrible things…" Raven breathed, unconsciously trying to move closer to Daring, move closer to something alive and what felt safe. "My people. They haven't- I know that there have been reports of people disappearing in the areas just outside of our borders, and the rumors going around but- please tell me that they haven't-… that my people weren't-…!"
Dexter seemed to deflate in his chair. "…I can't tell you that Raven. I'm sorry. It's all in this folder, the accounts of… successful hunts that are required for the new members of this group that aren't related to the people already in their ranks… to be initiated. The only solace that I can give you is that it does not happen very often and it has ceased since your mother fake-poisoned those worlds. …Unfortunately most of them have used code names so…"
"They've kept their group numbers very small, and they have been very quiet and sneaky up till a few years ago about their business against us." Raven acknowledged. "It's what has made arresting the group's members so difficult, we had no concrete evidence against them, and there are secluded hermits dotting all over our rural borders, if something were to happen to one of them very few to no one would know. The magic that surrounds our boarder and the enchanted trees keep unwanted visitors out but more often than not the hermits will cross the border to sell their merchandise to the small markets in the neighboring kingdoms because there is more demand for goods that can only be found in our lands since many of our neighbors can no longer grow the things that the common people used to thrive off of on their lands anymore."
Raven shook her head in dismay. "Many hermits don't even do it for the money, we've publically tried to put pressure on those neighboring kingdoms to pass laws that will allow for conservation efforts or let more aide through since the lords take so much and leave so little to their starving people in return, but very few have sided with us on this matter and because most matters of this nature are left up to a vote amongst the same lords causing all of this… and the ones who go against the majority or the most influential tend to… suffer fatal accidents. To keep up appearances and to stave off rebellions they have allowed small business owners and farmers to send their children off to school in the Queen lands but there is a mandatory rule that those children have to come back for certain weeks out of the year, the children's family cannot migrate away to live as Queen citizens, and the people who want to move away have to apply to leave, despite the fact that our lands, territories, and allies would not mind the immigrants."
"Isn't the way that they are treating their people illegal? I mean can't the United Council of Kingdoms do something?" Daring asked in frustrated confusion.
Dexter shook his head. "These four small kingdoms that we're talking about don't belong to the UCK, and because of the strict laws that prohibit the UCK from interfering in kingdoms that don't belong to it, their hands are tied on the matter. Plus there's the fact that these kingdoms are super tiny and of little consequence to most other realms, almost all of the wealth that these lords get is from outside kingdom investments and shares in businesses, there is no direct trade to them going on that can be taken away to hurt these guy's cash flow, so unless we can nail them by name on substantial evidence from attacks against the Queen lands, there is literally nothing the law can do to these guys."
"The lords of these kingdoms still run under the elitist and better race philosophies of the past." Apple sighed. "They believe that because they were born into royalty they are deserved special privileges over everybody else. It's like stepping backwards in time to the dark days of our past where many human kingdoms treated their people much like these guys are treating theirs."
"We are fighting back." Raven pointed out. "But discreetly, and… sometimes illegally. Underground railroads, sending aide and people who can teach the commoners to read to the resistance groups, and often if it is the parent's wish we send golems that look like their human children back from our schools for the headcount and then the parents can choose to activate the self-destruct mechanism where it appears that by some sort of sickness or accident the golem-child "dies", mostly "fooling" the officials into taking that child off of their list and thus the family is not liable for their child running away from the country. We've got several hundred permanent residents residing in schools scattered all over my family's and our allies' kingdoms."
"It sounds like there should have been a citizen revolt against the governments years ago." Apple commented. "What's stopping them from doing just that."
"Foreign mercenaries." Raven replied grimly. "The main lords have enough money to contract enough boots on the ground to keep the masses in check and to guard them from assassination attempts from their enemies… and sometimes from each other."
"Is your kingdom's efforts to help their people the reason why they're after you like… this?" Apple asked motioning to the image on Dexter's computer screen.
Raven shook her head. "I don't know… maybe it's that, maybe it's because they think that they can get away with plundering our lands and selling off the goods to be found there? To be honest we don't know what their motivations are; with or without the protection of the Grand Coven and High Council, we are still members of the UCK and even as a fairytale kingdom, once the body count on our end gets to a certain degree the rest of your guy's kingdoms would have stepped in. It just doesn't make sense for these people to have started this with us in the first place."
"Is greed and profits over the sale of war munitions a good reason?" Dexter asked.
"What are you talking about?" Raven furrowed her brow.
"The Kingdoms of Ever After have been at relative peace for centuries." Daring murmured while rubbing Raven's back soothingly. "Only a very few guilds have the resources and license to make magical and non-magical machines of war, …and there is only one independent business not attached to any large organization, but has the facilities to make thousands of weapons per hour… you said the other day that these creeps have some sort of method of weaponizing space rocks, if knowledge of this was able to get out to the public other kingdoms would have little choice but to get their hands on as much war materials as possible to essentially wipe out the threat, and some neutral party has been supplying those mercenaries in those kingdoms with weapons, but aside from this one business kingdoms have to apply for permission with the guilds to get a certain amount of weapons."
Raven furrowed her brow. "There's a business out there that has facilities even more efficient than High Councilman Tomak's business?" She asks confused.
"There is no other place in Ever After that turns out the best high quality weapons as quickly than High Councilman Tomak's blacksmithing warehouses." Daring told the witch seriously.
It takes a few seconds for the witch to connect the dots. "That- no but he's a warlock!" She cries out in dismay.
"Who's Tomak?" Apple asks Dexter.
"Some big-shot in the Witch's High Council. Most of his wealth comes from his business that produces things like swords and shields for schools and private sectors." Dexter shrugs his shoulders.
"I already don't like him." Apple declared with a sniff. "All of those High Council creeps sound incredibly out of touch if you ask me."
"But he's a warlock!" Raven emphasizes to the room again. "Sure he and my grandmother, and my great grandmother, and my great-great grandmother never saw eye to eye, and there have been some pretty vicious words spoken back and forth for ages but to go and resurrect a radical group that specializes in hunting his own kind… for eventual profit? How could anyone do that?"
"Somebody from that High Council." Apple muttered darkly. "Don't glare at me like that missy, especially with what those lunatics had been planning on doing to you for no good reason!"
"How had that feud between your family and him start out?" Dexter asked Raven kindly.
"My great-great grandmother broke off her betrothal to him and ended up taking the White family's former court jester as her queen's consort." Raven shrugged bewilderedly. "Grandmother says that Tomak never got over the sting, even though our ancestor had made it clear from the get-go that she was not the least bit interested in Tomak, he got especially troublesome right after my ancestor, the former jester, died of old age and she still refused to give Tomak the time of day. And he never got a chance to woo her for long because not long after her consort died the original high Council chambers had been attacked by a horde of lightning breathing Jabborwocky that had escaped Wonderland somehow. She had been there at the time on a last minute errand, and had rushed in to help people get out to safety while fighting off the horde, she had managed to slay the beasts but she, along with the chambers, had been destroyed in the explosion."
The room was silent for a moment.
"A court jester managed to catch the eye of an Evil Queen?" Daring asked the air.
"Well that would explain where Raven got her rebellious streak from." Dexter muttered. "It's inherited."
"See? All of those council people are crazy creeps!" Apple insisted.
Raven sighed despairingly. Honestly royalty sometimes… marrying a court jester was what they focused on?
"Tomak's grudge against your ancestor not marrying him makes this last bit of news regarding your grandfather make more sense." Dexter shook his head tiredly.
"What about my grandfather?" Raven demanded.
"He had been seduced away from your grandmother." Daring sighed. "Not that it makes up for his blatant disregard for her feelings, or his stupidity in letting someone like her go, but essentially what the account tells us is that these people thought that your grandfather would be useful to them in some way so they tempted him away with the promises of a human wife and a title and then proceeded to throw their daughters at him. The plan had backfired when lords from other kingdoms thought that he would have been a good ally for their families and started to do the same thing, the tone of the writing suggests that this whole plan had turned out to be a bust but your enemy did salvage a small win over your grandmother…"
"They threatened to kill him." Dexter finished soberly. "If your grandmother ever stepped a foot near him."
"…Did this account just happen to tell you my grandfather's name?" Raven asked, breathless.
Dexter shook his head. "It's all in codenames, even your grandmother's name, the only reason why we know that this is referencing your grandparents is that Daring recognized the story from the little bit you told him several weeks ago."
"Is there any indication that my grandfather had… grown sympathetic to my land's enemy cause?" Raven swallowed.
"The account did not say that he had been swayed to either side." Daring shrugged. "It just ended on a rather vague note that told future members that if your grandmother was ever seen with your grandfather, to attempt to kill the both of them in order to send a message to the rest of your family."
"So that's why they have this website with all of these names and documents." Raven stepped back from Daring and put her hands on her hips. "It's propaganda as well as a way to keep the underlings in line because their real names were advertised in connection to those crimes! Once you're in, you can't get out because you did something bad that they can hold over you for the rest of your life!"
"Underhanded, unusual, and cruel but highly effective." Apple agreed while she crossed her arms.
"Now the question is what are you going to do about all of this- hey Nevermore stop playing with the keypad!" Dexter interrupted himself in favor of prying the plastic strip of fancy light up buttons away from the dragon's claws, Nevermore had obviously gotten bored with exploring the boy's dorm and set about looking for entertainment elsewhere.
"Good question." Raven muttered as she began to pace. "We can't nab the main culprits in this due to lack of evidence, war is just simply an option that must be avoided at all costs, I have to talk to Lizzie about what we should do about Wonderland, and we can't risk going to the High Council, Grand Coven, or the UCK for help and resources due to the risk of our enemies getting wind of what we currently know and being forced to go to war regardless of our efforts not to."
"So is there anything that you can do?" Dexter asked while he petted the purring dragon in his arms.
Apple raised a brow. "She could always ask an unconventional source for help…"
XXX
"Ordinem de Malleus Maleficarum et Maleficorum, Also known as the order of the hammer against witches and warlocks, is an ancient order of witch hunters from the period of Ever After history where human attempted to annihilate everything having to do with magic, it was thought to have been disbanded centuries ago." Raven explained in a clinically detached monotone, her haunted eyes looking off into space as she addressed the room. Everyone present had been asked to come at lunchtime.
"As you can see from what I have told you the situation in my kingdom is complicated and dangerous, if this makes you uncomfortable I will not hold it against you if you wanted nothing to do with this, I am only asking for your help both because you are all already privy to my situation with Faybelle and… I- we could really use some outside off the books help in this."
To everyone's surprise Duchess was the first to speak. "Isn't there a Wonderlandian law stating that if persons responsible for gross mistreatment of sentient life are found within Wonderland's boarders then those people can get arrested by decree of the queen?"
"Yes." Lizzie acknowledged. "The law is especially enforced when it concerns our countrymen and allies." She casts Raven a near pleading look. "And since our witches have discovered that the fake-curse can be lifted from someone of the same bloodline as its caster…"
"There was never a doubt in my mind that I'll be freeing Wonderland from its giant blot in the sky." Raven assured to the three Wonderlandians present. "I owe it to my clan for them to be able to return home and the Wonderland people have dealt with more than enough over a fight that was not theirs to be forced in the middle of. The question is how do we smuggle ourselves to Wonderland without the Headmaster getting wind of it."
"We aren't going to tell the Headmaster about this?" Blondie asked; Cupid and Humphrey mirrored the blonde reporter's incredulous look. Because wouldn't something this serious need to be handled by the Headmaster?
"I wouldn't if I was in Raven's situation." Tiffany pursed her lips in a sour expression. "He's way too judgmental."
"He's a wildcard that we can't afford dealing with right now." Ashlynn explained as she leaned against Hunter. "His main job is to ensure his student's safety, he could very simply put Raven on campus arrest and not let her out of his sight regardless of her ability to reverse her mother's spell."
"Headmaster Grimm is technically a neutral party in all of this so if it looks like Raven or any of the rest of us will be in danger he has the right to lock our main player up in a tower if it comes to it." Briar nodded her head towards Raven.
"And there is the fact that he still hasn't a clue that she's married to me and that I now hold her old title." Faybelle pointed out as she walked over and put a possessive arm around Raven's waist (causing Apple to glare stormily at the fairy and Daring to step a little further away from the enraged princess). "The noise he'll make about that will no doubt be heard all the way to the village. Something that we should try to avoid as best we can until after Wonderland is free."
"And just how are we going to smuggle Raven to Wonderland?" Cerise asked. "Isn't it quarantined?"
"Not exactly…" Mira piped up. "This world and Wonderland have evolved to share a symbiotic relationship with each other, Wonderland providing this world with the wonder magic it needs to survive, and our world providing Wonderland with the magic it needs to keep itself stabilized- or as stabilized as Wonderland can get- the Grimm brothers had to leave one door open between the worlds for that to happen. She'll be going through the well of wonder."
Lizzie furrowed her brows. "How did you-?"
"Yesterday a sweet little lady by the name of Ginger, she's a fantastic cook by the way, asked me to help her see if it was possible to locate some Wonderland water for this recipe she wants to try for the spring fair cooking competition, after doing some research in the library we discovered a book that talked all about the subject on the portals between here and Wonderland, since the well was the only one that doesn't stay in one place all the time we decided that we could try checking it out. Somehow we managed to find it within the first hour and… that's when we accidentally discovered what happens when you fall into it." Mira chuckled sheepishly.
XXX
Several hours earlier…
"Hey I'm actually getting some reception from down here." Mira grinned at her phone loopilly from her perch on the shoulder of a white armored figure. She looked around the dimly lit cavernous space filled with dark walkways and waterfalls flowing in all directions until she spotted her second, smaller, companion walking tentatively beside the fully armored one.
"Mira I'm so sorry, if I hadn't asked you to help me look for Wonderland water you wouldn't have bumped your head!" Ginger apologized for what must have been the tenth time.
"Hey, I was the one who thought that it would be a good idea to jump out of that teapot and onto that bed of mushrooms, my head injury was totally my fault not yours, hex I should be thanking you again for patching up my head." Mira assured (once again), pointing the bandage in question. "Overall it's been a pretty fun night… although the violent heard of clam-things with feet had been pretty weird…"
"Thank you for saving us from them." Ginger told the armored figure with a grateful dreamy little smile.
"All in a day's work milady's." The white knight assured. "The portal for which you seek to go back home is up ahead though I do warn you that it is… an eventful trip to take."
"If it's anything like the trip here I believe you." Mira sighed as she fingered her bandaged head gingerly.
XXX
"Is that how you hurt your head?" Sparrow Hood asked in the ensuing silence with a raised brow.
"It was… a very interesting night." Mira stated cryptically. "Though we were lucky enough to come across this charming local called the white knight who was ever so gracious to save us from the clams with feet and show us the way back."
Darling ducked her head, hiding a smile.
"I actually have a map that'll lead us to the well…" Lizzie revealed, casting Mira an odd look. "And I'm certain that my mother won't have difficulty in setting something up so that we can end up where we need to be… Did you just say that you managed to escape from the notorious oyster bandits?"
"Oh! They were bandits? That explains why they kept chanting the word "monies" at us!" Mira grinned crookedly.
"You're a one of a kind sort of gal Mira Shards." Hunter shook his head and laid his nose into Ashlynn's hair in disbelief.
"Speaking of the spring fair, I think that might be the best time to sneak into Wonderland." Blondie spoke up. "I mean with all the attention drawn to the rides and the events the Grimm brothers won't notice if a few of us disappear into the crowds and not been seen again until way later!"
"And if there are a few people in the know here, they can act as a distraction so that the brothers won't think to start asking questions if they do notice something off." Apple smiled innocently as she grabbed Raven's arm (and casting Faybelle a smug glare). "The question now is; who is going to escort Raven to Wonderland?"
XXX
"I can see why that Mira girl would want to come along, she's from your kingdom and she knows defense magic." Faybelle spoke as she dragged raven into her dorm after classes had finished for the day, the fairy spun on her heel and closed the door with one hand while effectively trapping the witch between her and the door. "But I just can't wrap my head around how that preppy little masochist wormed her way into the vote!"
"Apple knows how to work a crowd." Raven sighed, oddly relaxed under the other's annoyed stare. "And she's dealing with some confused feelings revolving around me right now so it only makes sense that she'd want to come along."
"Confused feelings?" Faybelle raised a brow.
"Her parents unintentionally messed her up in a bad way in her head." Raven explained gently. "Her father spun her lies about how in love he and her mother were and her mother seems to have been trying to live through Apple in ways that she either failed to do while in high school or in the ways that she misses doing in her high school career. Apple, as you well know, has just found out that pretty much everything her parents had told her was a lie and she's… carefully trying to pick through what remains of her shattered illusions about the future without hurting herself… or me."
"You?" Faybelle murmurs, trailing a finger down the witch's soft cheek.
Raven leaned tiredly into the door slightly, casually, not feeling awkward or alarmed by their closeness. "Apple is trying to get over this complex that her parents, namely her mother, have given her… you know that whole fixation on me poisoning her and acting evil towards her thing."
"Ah." Faybelle nodded in understanding. "Has she realized just how much of a loon she appeared to be whenever she started going on about that?"
"Actually I think that she's just starting to realize just how… uh… erotic and perverse that whole notion was…" Raven grimaced and blushed. "Apparently when her mother used to bully my mom… my mother started to poison Snow White with a combination of a sleeping spell and a… dreaming fantasy spell, just to get some hours of peace… only instead of getting freaked out by the things that my mother had intentionally put into those dreams, which were designed to creep Snow White out, um… apparently Snow White got addicted to those dreams…? And after a while Snow White began bugging my mother even more just so that she could be poisoned."
"Addicte-?" Faybelle shook her head in disbelief. "What did your mother put into those dreams that got her princess so crazed?"
"Well I wasn't given much details but according to Prince Charming my mother sort of knew that he swayed more towards the male gender, even before he did, so she designed the dreams to be Snow White's perfect version of a happily ever after… but instead of her assigned prince being in her dreams she got a male version of my mother instead."
The fairy broke out laughing, hugging the witch close and snickering into the other's shoulder. "Hooo that's a good one! I have way more begrudging respect for your mother now! …But wait didn't you say that Snow White was addicted to these dreams? How can that be if she was stuck with a male version of your mom?"
"I don't think that she ever realized that leather-clad bad-boy figure in her dreams was a male version of my mother." Raven sighed, looking up at the ceiling guiltily. "And… even if Prince Charming didn't want to admit that something was off with their impending engagement and marriage… I'm pretty sure that Snow White must have at least sensed that it wouldn't turn out well. Knowing my mother, she would have designed the character in the spell to be embarrassingly flirtatious, bewitching, and… sexual… basically everything that one expects to be highly embarrassing and too dark for a pure maiden to ever want to get close to but…"
"But that concept is bullshit because maidens are human, and despite even the most drastic of propaganda there is no way of completely eradicating the need for genuine intimacy." Faybelle giggled a little more, pulling the witch further inside. "Instead of a punishment your mother accidentally did her tormentor a favor! So I guess that things did not go well when your mom stopped making the poisoned apples?"
"Actually I was surprised to find out that my mother felt obligated enough to keep making them for Snow White all the way up to their story." Raven blinked when she was pulled down with the fairy to lie side by side on the bed. "I'm not sure if I should call it an act of honor or an act of pity."
"Hnm." Faybelle hummed soberly, looking at the ceiling. "And then she married Prince Charming and ended up with a not at all good happy ending… and then Apple came along and her mother waxed poetically about the happiest times about her high school- and perhaps the happiest time in her life- experience, which was your mother poisoning her and giving her dreams of a happy life, along with the idea that being the most perfect princess will ensure you the best future possible… that's just… severely messed up. Even by human standards."
"Apple's been left with some really confused feelings about me." Raven mumbled, resting her head on the fairy's shoulder and curling up into the other's side, seeking comfort. "She's not sure that her feelings towards me are those of deep friendship… or something more. All of that… brainwashing that they did to her as a kid has sort of put me, and all the things that I'm supposed to represent as this… idol figure in her mind. She's always sort of seen me as the one who was supposed to grant her happiness and all of her desires by fulfilling my roll as the Evil Queen… and now? She knows that she sees me as a friend, and someone she trusts but… I don't think that she knows just how to categorize me, or how she's going to deal with seeing me for me and not this unattainable icon."
"Bet all of that makes you glad that you weren't born a human princess in one of those kingdoms." Faybelle commented, wrapping an arm around the witch.
"Actually I kinda get how Snow White feels." Raven admitted sadly. "My family… before this all happened… we used to be happy, crazy but happy. But then it all turned sideways and everything, even my memories turned bleak; there are so many good memories that I have of my mother but then all the bad stuff happened and suddenly all that I could see were the bad things and what I had lost. I don't want to feel that way anymore, I want to be happy, I want my kingdom to be safe, and I want… I just want my happy family back. To be able to remember the happy without the tragic." The witch hiccupped, a few tears slipping down her face.
"I'm not sure if that's exactly similar but for what it's worth you've come a long way to make that dream happen." Faybelle assured, holding the witch more securely to her side until Raven was able to get a hold of herself and stop crying.
"Sorry." Raven apologized. "Sometimes it just gets to be a little much."
"Why did you never grow to hate Apple?" Faybelle asked turning over. "I mean, sure you were able to hold your ground and the sheer stubbornness of your will counteracted hers enough for there to be some semblance of common ground in the form of mutual respect for an adversary, but she repeatedly kept crossing the line, kept drudging up all of those hurtful memories even though she knew better, even though you knew that she knew better."
The fairy hefted herself up until she was kneeling over Raven, her hands and legs on either side of the witch's body. "Honor does not demand that a villain has to put up with that sort of punishment, can't wash their hands of their counterpart until the fairytale- or in your case, find Apple a new villain to take your role and leave- you had the right, you had the means, you had a future Evil Fairy who would've gleefully spirited you away and gloated to anybody that would listen that I had been the one to make a proper witchy maiden wife out of you and steal your title away. You would have been stored safely away somewhere far away until we got this far into our marriage, then you would have been shipped off to Hathor Academy to join your long missed relatives and live out your days there not as the daughter of the Evil Queen, but as the bride of a Thorn."
"If Apple hadn't had her sudden life crisis then I might have done just that." Raven smiled ruefully. "But I don't think that I could have ever truly hated her, more likely I would have packed up and left more for her sake than mine, I was incredibly worried about her mental state when she continued to persist that I poison her, admittedly at first I had thought that she was being a little too cruel with her teasing the first few weeks we lived together but after I pointed out that it would be too troublesome for me to get detention for breaking the no poisoning rule that the school has… and then she started going on and scheming ways for me to get away with it and that's when I knew that she was serious… and that's when I got very worried."
"Uncharacteristically cruel for her to be demanding you get into serious trouble just so that she could get her jollies off of you conforming to her perfect villain ideal that only exists in her head…" Faybelle pursed her lips. "Though would you have been really fine with leaving her alone in my care?"
"I'd have no choice at that point." Raven shook her head looking troubled. "It started to get to the point where Apple was just consumed with the idea of me being her perfect villain that she wasn't thinking seriously about what would happen after my part was over, she never talked about Daring, she never talked about her plans for her kingdom, she never even talked about our relationship after the story! The only thing that she cared about was this imaginary ideal of and Evil Queen! It had gotten to a point where I was starting to wonder whether or not me simply attending Ever After High was going to end up doing more harm to her than good! She probably would have thrown all sorts of fits and ended up hating me like I was the most horrible creature to ever exist if I left and sent you to replace me… but I do believe that it would have been… better for her to have you as her villain. You would have been able to prepare her for her most desired role far better than I ever could… better than she would have ever let me."
"But now she's changed." Faybelle observed. "You don't have to worry about her so much."
"She's blossoming into her full potential." Raven smiled, almost as if she were at peace. "It's painful for her but at the same time it's good for her, like all the dead growth has been cut away leaving her the opportunity to flourish. I am so proud of her and how well she's been able to stand up on her own after all of the horrible truths coming to light. Daring too, he's become more real and genuine, more of a charming prince than ever. It just… makes me so happy to see them have a fighting chance at true happiness!"
"And your feelings for Apple?" Faybelle asks leaning closer.
"Still complicated, but it hurts less to think about the choice of either loving her or getting over her… maybe some space will give me perspective on that." Raven seemed to deflate slightly. "It'll be a matter of days to weeks before the Headmaster finds out about most everything and I will have to transfer to a new school very quickly. Somehow… I get the feeling that he won't expel me so much as keep me under constant watch until he becomes satisfied that there is literally nothing that he can do to stop you from becoming the Evil Queen… that and I don't think he'll be too appreciative of us traveling to Wonderland."
"So you're thinking that we should probably arrange for your surprise transfer just after you free Wonderland?" Faybelle guessed.
"I think that its high time I give that poor man some peace from all the trouble my presence has brought him." Raven grinned teasingly making Faybelle laugh. "Besides I miss my relatives and my grandmother, and now that I am no longer a villain I need to catch up on all of the witch studies that I'm lacking in my training!"
"Stay with me for the night." Faybelle commanded. "As happy as it makes you that Apple is starting to be more truthful with herself and kinder to you, I still need to remind her that you are married to me, and I'd like to keep my wife close during times of calm before the impending insanity that lurks around this place like a dense fog strikes us again."
"I wonder if things will be quieter at Hathor." Raven mused as she stretched lazily until she was in a more comfortable position.