A/N: This is not the Interlude being voted on. Voting is still underway.

"Will you tell me a story?"

The woman smiled as she tucked her daughter in. "Of course. Which one would you like tonight?"

"You told me you'd tell me about the Shadow Princess when I got older. I'm older now!" Staring into lilac eyes shining with proud determination, the mother sighed.

"That's a... sad story. I wouldn't want to hear it at bedtime. Wouldn't you rather hear about-"

"Moooooom. You proooooomised." Her daughter pouted up at her with the force only a young child could muster, and the mother caved in as she always did.

"...All right. Settle down while I remember. It's been a long time since I heard that story."

"Grandma told you that story, right?"

"Yeah. And my grandmother told her. Now." She cleared her throat.

"Long ago, there was a girl. Her people were beset by beasts of darkness, and they struggled against them day after day."

"The Grimm."

"That's right, but back then they didn't have a name. They were just monsters. The darkness. The girl loved her people dearly, and so she fought. Every day, she battled back the monsters... but she wasn't strong enough to defeat them all. People were hurt because she couldn't be everywhere at once. So... she pushed harder. She fought harder and more desperately. Where once others were hurt, she threw herself... and she was hurt instead."

"But... don't Huntresses have a team?"

"Today, they do. Like your father and I. There are teams to help prevent exactly what happened to her."

Her daughter peered up at her with intense focus. "...What did happen?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, dear." As the little girl burrowed back into the covers, she continued. "She was hurt, again and again. And, again and again, alone in her room at night... she cried. She cried for all the people that had been hurt; she cried because she wasn't strong enough to protect them. She cried because her wounds hurt her. And, every night, the shadows in her room watched her as they danced on the walls." She didn't miss the way her daughter's eyes flicked to the wall, where the shadows sat unmoving. "Then, one night, they decided they'd had enough. And when she had cried all her tears... the shadow whispered to her."

"...What did it say?"

She dropped her voice to a soft, rasping whisper, just as her mother had done once. "I will teach you, it said, and you will be stronger. And it did. Every night, it taught her. It taught her how shadows moved, silently and able to fit through the tiniest cracks. It taught her how to listen to the shadows, to learn the secrets that they overheard in the dark places. She spent more and more time with them, learning to be stronger. In the day, she slunk out to fight monsters, although she found she hated the sun. At night she disappeared back to her room to learn. She drank up the knowledge of the shadows, and she became the greatest warrior her people ever had." She paused, before smiling sadly at her daughter. "...That's the end," she lied.

Her daughter's eyes pierced her even in the darkness. "No it isn't. You said it was a sad story. Mom. What happened to her?"

She sighed in resolution. "You should be too tired to be this perceptive," she grumbled, but her mouth twitched upwards at her daughter's smile. "...The shadow finally stopped one night. I have nothing more to teach you, it said. You have learned everything I am. So she took its lessons, and she fought back the monsters. Finally, she was strong enough to do it on her own, and no one was hurt. She returned to her village triumphant, smiling even in the harsh light of the sun.

"But her people could not see her smile, or congratulate her on her triumph. She drifted through the village, a shadow cast upon them, and though they were happy that the monsters did not return they could never understand why. When she spoke to them, they ignored her. When she tried to touch them, she found that she could not. And when the sun sank below the horizon, she stormed into her room and demanded that the shadow explain. You move like us. You fight like us. You listen and speak like us. You have learned everything I am, it said again. I am the King of Shadows, and I welcome you to my family. I declare, from this night, all shadows shall bow to you, for you are the best of us all. Almost human.

"And she was. Wherever she went, the shadows whispered their welcome and bowed in reverence. She watched her people grow older, and new children be born. She wandered, slaying monsters wherever she found them, and she watched her people prosper from her efforts. She was the greatest warrior her people ever had... and they would never know, because they would never speak with her again." She took a breath, remembering vividly the first time her mother had told the story, and how she had ended it. "...So, if you see a shadow dancing... tell it hello. It might just be the Princess, and she is very lonely."

And her daughter, her little Yang, held her pillow tightly, lilac eyes gazing at the shadow she cast upon her bed. "'M sorry," she mumbled sleepily. "I'll be your friend..." A yawn. "...your h'ness..."

Summer Rose drew the blanket around her daughter and turned off the light, a nostalgic smile on her face.