Page 12 – Narrative Stakes
"I call the first meeting of the Assemblage of Royals to order!"
The echo from Daring Charming's gavel echoed throughout the meeting hall. It was far bigger than it needed to be, and like all the quarters meant for royalty at the school, its wood-paneled walls, floors and even ceiling polished to a shine. Behind the desk where Daring Charming stood, the stuffed head of a red-scaled dragon hung, slain by one of Daring's ancestors and proudly displayed ever since.
It wasn't quite the informal gathering space set up behind the school, for the signings on Legacy Day. Its padded luxurious seats were bolted to the floor, and the sound system to make sure the speaker could be heard throughout the entire room was permanently wired in.
That was a room meant to announce serious kingdom-encompassing business.
Today was the first time it was going to actually serve that purpose with the students.
For real, and not just for Model United Kingdoms.
"Something absolutely inexcusable has happened," the prince addressed the other princes, princesses and other traditionalist students who'd come, a very uncharacteristic scowl on his chiseled features. After glancing down at his notes for a little too long, he went on, "A student's defied Destiny. As I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you, Raven Queen not only refused to sign for her role, she made a mockery of our school's grand traditions in her open disrespect to Legacy Day and the headmaster.
"I'm glad to see I don't stand alone in my disgust. That all of you have answered the call to stand together against the ideas she's demonstrated, and is spreading among the student body. We are here to show a united front, and demand the school take action rather than let one person undermine everything Ever After High's stood for, for generations."
With that, Daring held up his hand. "A job I'm proud to share with my good friend, Solaris West. Or Reisender, as some of you may have heard. His story might not be as well-known as some of the rest of us, but he's acquired an awesome power he intends to use to champion our cause. Sol, would you care to say a few words?"
Sol West did indeed step up, giving the crowd a polite smile while he took Daring Charming's place in front of them. "Thank you, Daring, and thank all of you for answering our invitation. Some are saying that because Raven Queen didn't sign her page in the Storybook of Legends, that's proof that the world won't go poof. Others are saying, not yet."
Some general murmuring of agreement from the other students followed, and Sol went on, "I'm worried the truth is going to turn out to be 'not yet', too. A lot of us here are destined to be heroes; when there's a danger to face, we're the ones who face it. The threat of our world disappearing is a danger if ever I heard one, and not one I plan to just sit by and let happen because a few students are unhappy with their stories."
A boy a few rows back held up a hand. "Mr. West?"
"Please, just call me Sol," he smiled. "I hate being all formal like that."
A few of the students, including Daring, blanched slightly at Sol's unintentional admission. Princes and princesses spent most of their childhoods learning the importance of formalities, after all. This was not a meeting just for royalty, though, but for everyone who valued the importance of Destiny.
"Uh, sure, Sol. You got some kind of item that gives you special powers, right? Can you tell us where it came from?"
He held up the Ride Book that had appeared during his battle with the Dark Mirror of Ferdinand the bull, but had to shake his head. "I'm afraid I don't know where exactly this came from, but I do know it came when I refused to give up in the face of a great danger."
Dexter Charming suddenly spoke up, "I came last in rescue classes three times in a row, and I didn't give up either. How come I don't have a magic book like that?"
A few of the other less-accomplished heroes laughed at his remark. Hopper Croakington choked in the middle of one a little too hard, and in a puff of green smoke turned into a crowned frog once again.
One person certainly wasn't amused, and that was Anna Weaver, who sat listening in quiet disgust. She felt perfectly justified, having the hero of her story actually befriend Raven Queen, and choose Raven over her. Over her!
Why? He'd wanted to take it to take it slow, and she'd agreed to take it slower. When he'd talked about going to see a concert with barnyard animals, she'd thought Taylor was joking. But then he'd actually gone there with not just Raven Queen, but another girl, too!
Thinking that hard about Raven Queen made Anna notice something: Apple White was sitting a few chairs down, looking sullen and distracted, glancing down at her mirrorphone or out the window. Looking as if she was waiting for the meeting to end.
Scooting closer, Anna leaned over and whispered, "What's wrong?"
Apple sighed quietly, whispering back, "Just not sure I agree with the mission, here."
"How can you not agree? Raven Queen blew off your story! How are you supposed to get your Happily Ever After now?"
Apple sighed again, but shrugged. "I don't know, yet. I'll find a way to do it without making Raven be someone she doesn't want to be."
Anna looked away, even more irritated and confused than before.
Oh, godmother. This is gonna be a big problem…!
Suppose it will. You think Taylor was wrong to tell Anna they should take a break from each other?
No way, dad! Nobody should force someone to be with someone else, if they don't love each other!
Never is a very strong word, Brooke. Stronger than most people realize.
You're not saying he should, are you? That sounds like something mom would say…
Heh. All I'm saying is, never say never. Stories can really surprise us, sometimes. You can't have real freedom, without the unexpected happening sometimes.
Hmmm…
"Taylor, order up! Pumpkin latte, and pumpkin pie! Want cream on that, honey?" asked the smiling barista behind the counter.
"Please," Taylor replied, watching intently as she added a swirl of whipped cream to the top of his pie. "Little more." She covered the entire front of the pie with cream, then looked up at him uncertainly. "Perfect, thanks," he said, and walked over to the table where Raven and Melody Piper were waiting for him.
"Geez, T, you want some pie with your whipped cream?" Melody giggled, and Raven was giggling behind her hand too.
"Some of us come from humble backgrounds, and learn to appreciate the simple things," Taylor said, shoveling down a bite, and leaving his mouth ringed with fluffy white matter.
Melody snickered again. "My dad got stiffed on getting rid of the rats, remember? We aren't exactly rich."
Raven shook her head. "Don't try and trick us, I've seen inside your room. You've got so much DJ junk in there, no wonder Ginger's never home!"
"Ginger's never home, because she's always sneaking into the Home Economyths room to practice baking with nobody around to hassle her," Melody mumbled, "and I need to introduce you guys to her sometime when I can pry her away from that. Right now, let's wait for Jillian to get down so I can introduce you guys."
After wiping his mouth clean on a napkin, Taylor looked up at the giant beanstalk from which the bakery where they had set up their meeting took its name. A girl in green and black was scaling it, while a few of the patrons were recording her on their mirrorphones. For his part, Taylor shook his head. Kids did wild things sometimes when their parents weren't around to stop them, but his own brushes with danger had given him a slightly different view on taking big risks.
"Don't worry! Jillian's an expert!" Melody assured him, seeing what he was looking. "And she has all kinds of followers from doing this stuff. She'll be a big asset to getting the word out about the Rebels taking on Destiny."
"You make it sound so dramatic," Taylor chortled. "We're not building an army. Are we?"
"In a way, yeah!" Melody declared with a fist pump. "We're taking on the establishment, so we need to show them we mean business!"
"Gonna take a long time to get everybody organized if we're doing it one-on-one, though, won't it?" Raven pointed out.
Melody shook her head, smiling knowingly. "We're building a core to form the rest around!"
"Sorry," Raven chuckled. "I didn't pay attention when my mom was trying to teach me how to be an evil mastermind…Taylor? What are you looking at?"
That was when she saw it too: a flock of birds flying, seemingly out of nowhere, right toward where Jillian was clutching the side of the giant beanstalk. They flew in circles around the beanstalk, then flew around and around where Jillian was hanging. One hand slipped.
Then both.
In the next instant, everyone in the bakery was calling for emergency services at the same time.
No surprise, Melody Piper's earlier enthusiasm was gone when Jillian Beanstalk was rolled into an ambulance that blazed away with sirens flashing. To their surprise, Melody was clenching a fist and whirled around to face Raven and Taylor.
"Sorry about what happened with your friend," Raven said, "We don't have to keep go—"
"Yes, we do!" Melody cut her off. "We are not going to be scared off! I need to go and talk to some of the other kids, but I'll hext you as soon as we can get together again! Be wicked, you guys!"
Once she was headed back to school, Raven and Taylor started back too, but another way. Where Melody wouldn't overhear the quite conversation they were about to have.
"Did you see what kind of birds those were?" Raven whispered.
"Owls," Taylor replied without hesitating.
"In the middle of the day? Weird coincidence."
He shook his head. "No, a warning. We know from who."
She nodded, her face a grim mask that Taylor didn't like one bit. "Can we really do this, if other people are going to get hurt over it?"
"No, we can't just back off now," Taylor replied. "If the Seeker sees he can push us around, how do we know he won't stop doing it? Besides, I don't trust anybody who'd send a kid to the hospital to get what he wants, do you?"
"We have to do something about this," Raven agreed. "We have to meet the rest of the Rebels."
Taylor chuckled. "What?" she asked.
"Look who's starting to sound like a queen," he smirked at her.
Raven elbowed him in the side. "Cut it out."
But she was smiling again.
Next day, Fablebook was absolutely flooded with posts from a new group in school, calling themselves "the Royals".
Wall after wall of words from princes, princesses and their sympathizers, of Raven Queen disrespecting her school, their school, and its traditions. All of them had tough things to look forward to from their stories, others said, and they were going along with it anyway. Yet others were making the somewhat inane claim that if Raven was going to refuse to accept their system, it was up to her to figure out a better one to replace it.
After a while, though, more recent posts were showing up of other kids standing up for Raven's decision. Who seemed to finally feel brave enough to bring up their own problems with their imposed destinies. Like, of course, Melody Piper, who proudly declared she wanted to make music for her own reasons. Sparrow Hood, son of Robin, wanted to be famous, instead of infamous, for making music.
Ginger Breadhouse gently voiced her desire to use her baking skills for good instead of evil like her mother, who'd trapped Hansel and Gretel in her gingerbread house. Humphrey Dumpy mentioned he'd rather not fall off the wall and bother all the king's horses and all the king's men. Likewise, "Tiny" the giant expressed a desire not to fall off a giant beanstalk, especially after someone else just had…
Cerise Hood spoke up too, simply pointing out how she felt that her friends had the right to have a say in their own futures, didn't they?
For her part, Raven Queen herself only said a little:
"Oh, godmother! Wasn't expecting this much support for just standing up for myself! But thanks, everybody! Hope we all find our Happily Ever Afters! :dragon laughing emoji:"
And Taylor Valiant wondered what he'd need to say on the topic, sooner or later.
At the moment, getting ready to face a regular day was seeming like a big enough challenge. A quick shower and heading to first period without breakfast, he still tasted toothpaste when he ran down the hall to Heroics class.
After a whole period of mock rescue exercises, Taylor headed to his locker, so he could exchange books for his afternoon classes without having to run from one side of the gigantic school to the other. No sooner had he filled up his back and given the lock a spin that the locker next to his suddenly popped open, and Madeline Xylophone Hatter exploded out of it.
"HI TAYLOR!" she exclaimed, looking down at where he'd landed after being thrown back in surprise from her dramatic entrance. "Are you okay? Wow, you look like somebody gave you a Queen-of-Hearts attack!"
"Hi Maddie," Taylor sat up, gasping and indeed clutching at his heart. "Been a while since I saw you."
She held up a small rectangular object that was just as much a chaotic mass of colors as her outfit. "Can I show you the thing I made?" Maddie asked excitedly.
"Maybe later, Maddie! I've got one of Rumpelstiltskin's classes next period, and I'm not being late for that!"
"Okay!" Maddie called at his back. "I'll show you at lunc!"
"You mean lunch?"
"We can do it then, instead!" she giggled.
Taylor had no time to figure out what she meant. Maddie was so mad it was in her name, after all! He ran down the twists and turns that were becoming familiar, and with the period bell ringing in his ears, snuck into the classroom. Taylor slid into his desk and realized someone different was sitting next to him.
She was a willowy girl, Taylor decided the word was, whose bright blonde hair contrasted with her darker complexion. Her dress was green on top and yellow on bottom, covered in the same floral pattern as the climbing straps on her shoes.
Also quite to the point, as she immediately whispered to him, "You're Taylor Valiant, right?"
"Uh-huh. May I ask who needs to find out?"
She smiled politely, but a little cautiously. "Nina Thumbell. Thumbelina's my mom?"
"Nice to meet you. What's up?"
Nina walked her fingers across the edge of the desk, as if unsure how exactly to say what she needed to say. Finally, though, she spoke up, "Look, I said on Fablebook I felt like joining those Rebels that are getting together, because I don't want to live a life like mom's, you know? I want to explore the world, see everything it's got offer, and see how I can make it a better place…not just get dragged from one thing to another until I meet my prince."
Taylor nodded for her to continue.
"Okay, sooooo, I posted that. Then, this morning, I got this really scary hext. Look." Nina showed him her mirrorphone.
On the screen was a simple, but menacing message: "make sure you dont get stepped on". Instead of a number, it only said "source unknown". Nina hadn't replied.
"What does this have to do with me?" Taylor asked, trying to think of when he could've slipped.
"Um, I didn't know what else to do, so on the way here, I passed Raven Queen? I asked her if she knew what to do, and she said ask you for help," Nina said, not concealing how nervous she was very well.
"Okay. What did she tell you about me, though?"
"Just…that you can help, if something happens," Nina whispered, looking at him helplessly.
Their clandestine conversation was interrupted when Rumpelstiltskin stomped into the room, making up for his lack of imposing stature by taking the noisiest steps of anyone in Ever After High. Nina and Taylor leaned away from each other, but she gave him a hopeful—but also fearful—look, as class started.
Taylor didn't sit with his regular group at lunch. Part of him was worried that whoever had threatened Nina—no doubt the Seeker—would start putting things together if they saw both of them with Raven Queen and her group of friends in such a public spot as the school castleteria.
At the same time, he couldn't let himself get too distracted by hanging out with his friends when someone was being directly threatened. So, Taylor just watched from a table in the corner of the castleteria, while Nina was picking uncomfortably at a cucumber sandwich. Maddie was sitting with the others, showing them the colorful object she'd tried to show Taylor before, saying something that made Raven and Pyotr laugh.
Cerise smiled slightly, then turned to look in Taylor's direction. She smiled a little wider and looked back at the group's own table.
He still had a date with her to look forward to, didn't he?
"Are they all your friends?" Nina interrupted his thoughts by asking. "Yeah, I've seen you guys hanging out at lunch before, now that I think about it. They look really close."
"Been through a lot already, yeah," Taylor lightly volunteered about them. "Guess when you have a bad reputation, or a weird one, you don't have a lot of kids who want to be friends, so you get really loyal to your crew."
"A crew sounds really nice," Nina sighed wistfully.
Taylor muttered, "It is." Despite the chaos that'd engulfed his life within a few weeks of coming to high school, there were people there that helped everything seem worth it.
The bell rang, and the rest of the day Taylor thinking about Nina Thumbell, and what the Seeker had in mind.
And if he could keep his own secrets for much longer, with the way things were escalating so fast.
It'd be nice, having more than just the couple of them, standing up to people like Headmaster Grimm.
The Royals.
And the Seeker.
Once the final bell rang, Nina Thumbell headed for the front of the school, not even going upstairs to put her bag away. She joined a cluster of other kids who waited for the school shuttle bus to take them into town.
As soon as it came into sight, she turned around, and said to Taylor, "Thanks for watching out for me today, but I have some things I need to take care of."
"Sure you don't want someone around to keep an eye out, in case something happens?" he offered.
"That'd be kind of weird," she smiled apologetically. "Besides, would Raven like the idea of you hanging out with another girl all afternoon?"
"What? I'm not dating Raven Queen!" Taylor blurted out, taken completely by surprise by her purely playful question. Managing to collect himself and lowering his voice, Taylor added, "Actually, I'm going on a date with Cerise Hood, soon."
Nina's smile warmed a little then, turning sympathetic. "Guess loners do find each other sometimes. Anyway, yeah, I'm feeling better than I did this morning, and I don't want you to have to spend your whole afternoon following around some girl when you've got another waiting for you already. Talk to you guys soon about the group thing, though, okay?"
She hopped up the steps into the bus, and the doors closed before Taylor thought of a diplomatic way to stop her. As the bus pulled away, he reached into his backpack, clutching his fingers around the Ride Book of Charge Unicorn.
A short ride later, Nina and the other students who caught a ride dispersed into the town. Despite the threat she'd received that morning, being in town reassured her, as it usually did. She was a pretty serious environmentalist, but she didn't want to be trapped out in nature because of her size like her mother had, either.
The charming little town reminded her of the amazing things people could do if they all worked together, and thinking about that reminded Nina that she wasn't alone with her feelings on wanting to live her own life.
As if in response to her thoughts, suddenly the sky went dark. Nina glanced up, expecting to see a cloud in front of the sun. Instead, she saw a giant, winged shape.
Instinct made her freeze, expecting it to be a dragon or something else terrifying. The fear remained, joined by confusion, when she recognized the shape.
An owl.
A gigantic owl.
With a shriek, it dove at the street where Nina Thumbell stood.
With a shriek of her own, Nina shrank.
Like her mother, Nina's original size was no bigger than a thumb. She could change back to it whenever she needed, and tended to do so when threatened. Unfortunately, that reflexive action made her a much smaller target, but also made it a lot harder for the people running around in complete chaos to see they might be stepping on someone.
Feet came down like boulders all around Nina, who gave a scream none of the people above her could even hear. She tried to run between the rustic buildings, and will herself back to regular size at the same time, but the fear was too much for her to make the change.
"Bet someone's wishing they'd listened to the warning they got," trilled a strange voice, a quiet but sharp taunting edge to it. The world became even darker, the huge owl beating its giant wings and hovering over the street. People scattered out of the way of a giant taloned foot, which missed Nina by an inch, even though it was more like a mile at her size.
Its claws ripped into the asphalt, and Nina ran for all her tiny legs were worth. She'd gotten off the sidewalk and into the space between a pair of shops when she saw another pair of huge, dark shapes, these ones charging down the road in her direction now.
"Oh godmother…what are they?" she gasped.
The fear faded just a little when they crashed into the giant owl.
With her mind focusing a little, Nina was able to recognize one of them: that Mendyr character, except his suit was an icy blue instead of the apple red color she saw on Blondie's mirrorcast. Not to mention he was riding a metal unicorn and had a staff held in his hand instead of a mace, which he'd stabbed the owl with in the chest and pushed it away.
The other one had on a red cape, but charged along the ground on all fours with movements that reminded Nina of a wolf. She was just grateful they were focused on the same target as Mendyr.
"Not this time!" Mendyr yelled. "Not ever again!"
As if in response to his angry cry, the tip of his staff erupted into a miniature tornado that pushed against the giant owl's chest. Smaller owls were blown away, leaving chunks missing from the big one's body. After a few seconds, the sky was full of retreating owls, and in their place was someone in black and silver armor.
The Seeker, himself.
"How does it feel," he asked, "to play right into someone's hands?"
Nina didn't stick around to hear the answer. Now that she'd survived the attack, she'd managed to concentrate just enough to spring back to her normal height. Thoughts about things like controlling her destiny were gone for now.
Only thoughts of running for her life.
Charge Unicorn threw itself forward, intent on stamping the Seeker with its sharpened hooves. At the last instant the Seeker spread wide wings from his back and a powerful beat pushed him into the air.
"You two are wonderful," he absolutely sang, "but you're only giving me exactly what I want: bold heroes saving the downtrodden!"
Scarlet snarled, sounding more like a wolf than she ever had. "If you want heroes, why don't let the Royals find out what you're doing? Not enough heroes there, you have to go looking for other ones?!"
"Why should I bother with them?!" Seeker laughed. "The Royals are already giving me what I want: loyalty to Destiny!"
She snarled again, and lunged up into the air at the Seeker. He didn't even bother trying to move out of the way, and swatted her back to earth with a smack from his wing, a metallic echo ringing up and down the street.
Perhaps Mendyr should've come to her aid, but instead he urged his steed into a jump at the Seeker. The owl warrior beat his wings and flew higher, but Mendyr stood up in the saddle. He planted his feet on the back of Charge Unicorn and vaulted off, bringing his staff down on one of the Seeker's wings and snapping it off. The sound he made when he hit the ground was quite satisfying.
Still Mendyr didn't let up, landing in front of Seeker and immediately swinging his staff at the owl warrior again. Who defended himself by raising his other wing and blocking the attack like a shield.
"Maybe I overestimated the honor of these bold heroes," Seeker said with unsettling calm.
"We've got the whole system trying to keep us down, and now we've got an assassin trying to terrorize us, too," Mendyr retorted. "Don't you try and educate me about honor!"
Scarlet had recovered by then and launched herself at Seeker from the other side, which was no longer shielded by his shorn-off wing. Her claws found his midriff and she got in a good hit, a fountain of sparks flying from the impact.
Even after such an attack, Seeker made no sound. No cry of pain, no growl of defiance. Instead he rose to his full height with their weapons still digging into his body, and said, almost in a whisper, "Very well, I'll educate you about power."
He pulled a Ride Book out from under his armor and threw it on the ground, where it exploded into three Dark Mirrors between Seeker and his opponents. Three bears, large, medium, and small, which made Scarlet growl low, as they were just like ones she'd fought before.
"Destined Vestments," his belt said, and the bears suddenly slid backward and occupied the same space as the Seeker, their Ride Book locking into his belt. There was a dark flash, and he had transformed: instead of his owl-like visor, there was now the head of a bear atop his, the mighty jaws framing his mask, while his black undersuit strained to contain his suddenly bulging muscles. A cloak of bearskin hung from the back of his neck, and his hands were engulfed in heavy furry paws, claws even longer than Scarlet's jutting from the front.
Then he suddenly seemed to be standing a few feet away, and in the next second he'd dashed up and shoulder-checked Mendyr backward. By dragging his staff, Mendyr managed to steady himself after going almost twenty feet. Once he'd stopped shaking from the powerful blow and started running back to rejoin the fight, Seeker had already engaged Scarlet and was forcing her backward with a series of powerful swipes that tore up the street every time she managed to dodge at the last second with her enhanced speed.
Even she couldn't keep dodging forever, and one smashing blow from Seeker's gauntlet knocked her onto her back. Before Seeker could attack again, Mendyr threw his staff and it struck an upward blow to his chin, knocking Seeker off-balance.
For just a second, before he swatted the staff away, cleared the distance between himself and Mendyr in one powerful jump. Its impact knocked Mendyr down, and before he could even see straight again, Seeker had smashed a mighty blow into his chest sent Mendyr skidding away. Even in his dazed state he could feel the road chipping away underneath his back.
He felt himself crash into something very painfully, but at least he'd stopped. When his vision cleared, he jumped back and ran into the wall that'd stopped him in surprise.
Kneeling over him was Maddie Hatter, holding up the thing she'd tried to show him at lunch again.
"Try this!" she said enthusiastically, and locked it into the slot of the Tale Driver on the front of his belt. It flipped open, and a rush of power like his other Ride Books flooded his body, but even greater. Even more invigorating. All of a sudden, Mendyr could see everything with a clarity he'd never experienced before.
But then even more pain than when Seeker had attacked him, and a scream escaped his lips.