Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Raven sighed heavily, her racing thoughts finally settling after what felt like forever thinking about the day’s events, she blinked up at the intricately painted round ceiling of the Heart clan’s harem nursery, taking a moment to just focus on the feel of the soft sheets pressed beneath her, the cool pillow she shared with a familiar blonde head of hair, the thin quilt that covered the both of them, hiding the other’s limbs tangling with hers.

The witch raised one arm upwards towards the ceiling, her hand splayed out as if reaching towards the center of the artwork on the ceiling, where there was a painting of Di`one’ the ancient Wonderlandian goddess of fertility and family protection, the light from the Wonderlandian sunset casting the skin on her arm and the paint on the ceiling in a warm, inviting glow.

Apple shifted beside her, propping herself up on her arms so that she could look down onto Raven’s face.

“Hey.” The princess greeted looking at the witch tenderly.

Raven smiled moving her hand to caress Apple’s cheek. “Hey.”

“How long have you been awake?” Apple asked in a quiet whisper.

“Long enough to get my thoughts in order.” Raven sighed moving her hand to rest on the princess’s arm. “I’m still… overwhelmed, but I think that I can start handling the things that have happened now.”

“So you won’t faint again when you see…?” Apple trailed off, Raven had fainted twice so far; the first time was when they had been on the battlefield and the second when the witch had woken up while being transported from the Wonderlandian medical field unit to the Queen of Heart’s royal palace, Raven had taken one look at the infant swaddled up in a makeshift cradle beside her and had promptly lost consciousness once again from shock.

“I’m going to try to not do that.” Raven promised with a blush, she looked around, just realizing that it was awfully quiet. “Where is she by the way?”

“She had been given a clean bill of health so her grandparents took custody of her until you were awake enough for them to fret over you properly.” Apple informed with a tired sigh. “I didn’t think that your father would ever stop crying with joy and my mother has already started listing out baby names… your grandmother, your father’s mother that is, seemed immensely disappointed that she didn’t get to fight anything. Speaking of which is it normal for her to whack your father upside the head? And curse using medieval peasant slang? Because she had been doing a lot of that while she was in here.” Apple asked with wide eyes.

“Only when’s she’s really happy… or drunk.” Raven replied seriously. “It stems from her royal training to become a female king, back in her day all of the Lady Good Kings had to become strong no-nonsense individuals reminiscent to ancient Arthurian period kings to gain respect amongst the other kingdoms. It was either that or marry, and let their husband take the throne… which has never happened as far as I have read from the family history books.”

Apple eyed her skeptically. “You aren’t gonna-?”

“No.” Raven shook her head. “I mean; times have changed, besides can you seriously see me spouting off that kind of language and hitting people? For fun?”

Apple breathed a sigh of relief. “Back to our main conversation.” The princess ordered.

Raven nodded. “I’m… calmer now. Though it might help if someone explained to me hexactly what is going on with all that… Like how I distinctly remember waking up this morning with nothing in my womb to suddenly giving birtha few hours later… And… is… is she… ours?” The witch asked tentatively, tilting her head back so that she could breathe a little easier, she already knew the answer (he ache in her lower regions was kind of difficult to miss); she just… wanted confirmation, to make it a little bit more real to assure her that she was not dreaming.

“Yes. She is ours.” Apple sat up a little so that she could breathe easier too, taking Raven’s hand and cradling it in her own. “The healers are still trying to figure out the specifics of how it happened but according the most popular theory going around; in order for the Evil Queen’s magic and the evil power laced in the spell written into the fabric of the curse to be negated there needed to be a conversion of the raw power connected to you and for it all to be burned up while creating something else… and since we were using the power of True Love to battle that thing…”

“Ah.” Raven nodded, it made sense. “I’m guessing that means your theory from earlier has been proven to be true.” The witch mused feeling a little dazed.

“I swear I had been speaking metaphorically.” Apple insisted. “I had just assumed that you’d gain more powers not… spontaneously grow a child.”

“Well…” Raven tilted her head in thought. “I guess that if we were to speculate what would happen in the realm of “what-if-this-afternoon-never-happened” we… well mostly you, until I could get my head around it, would have been thinking pretty seriously about having witchlings as soon a possible anyway… right? Or would you have been thinking about waiting a while-?”

“After having to deal with rival suitors, almost losing you to my own thick skulled ideals, and the Evil Queen looming in the background; you can bet that I would have whisked you away to marry me the moment I turned eighteen! I know that it probably would have taken some time to convince you that I was being genuine in my affections and you would have probably wanted to take things slowly, but I’m sure that I could’ve convinced you sooner or later. And, if I were to be completely honest, I would not be too surprised if I began secretly trying to convince you to gift us with a witchling… hmm a month or two after we graduated, that is unless I could somehow manage to convince you to let us try sooner.” Apple figured rubbing her chin in thought.

Their witchling was quite the big surprise (in the most epic sort of way) and Apple had been practically catatonic from the shock of it all (mostly wondering why she hadn’t fainted like Raven because she sure felt like she should have fainted) but after Raven’s family and her mother had whisked away their new grandchild Apple had the time to properly digest what had happened, looked at the situation rationally, she found herself feeling a little better.

Raven would make an excellent mother, Apple had no doubts about that, Ancestors knew that she at the very least had enough patience to make a rally good one, what with having to deal with all the squabbling between the Royals and Rebels for so long. And she was incredibly kind, always doing nice things for others even if they constantly snapped at her for not following her “destiny”, though Apple was sure that by now it was pretty obvious that being evil was never in Raven’s cards for the future anyway.

Apple had some experience with children herself; being a White meant that she had been doing charity work since she had been old enough to understand that helping others was important. It was a part of her princess training and family tradition to go out to the public and help out, it was important to understand the condition of her people after all, children included.

Another factor to consider was that Apple was a princess, and being a princess meant that it had been drilled into her head since she was a small child that she would have to have a child herself as soon as possible after her story had finished. It was her duty to keep the line going, and it was best to get that out of the way while she was still young. Raven had just given them that child about a little more than year or so earlier than what was usual in Apple’s family, that was all.

And it wasn’t like they didn’t have a support system to help them out, not only did they both have family that seemed to be extremely pleased by the new surprise addition, but they were both heiresses to kingdoms, Apple certainly knew that her mother was probably already thinking about who would be a suitable nursemaid from their kingdom, she didn’t know about how Raven’s family did things but the princess was certain that the witch would appreciate the help.

And most importantly they had each other; their relationship thus far had survived a great deal of stress, in comparison to a lot of the adventures and stresses that the two had gone through a child was surprising but… oddly less daunting than it should have been for Apple. It just did not hold nearly as much freak-out value as thinking that everyone that one loved would disappear unless they assumed the names and stories of long-dead family members.

“You did promise to bear our witchlings and, saving me from a poisoned apple or no, I am determined to get my happily ever after with you.” Apple pointed out seriously to Raven’s wide-eyed face.

“That soon?” Raven gaped outraged from the shock of perfect princess Apple White admitting to being married while in high school, Apple’s birthday was in the spring and well into the school year. “Really?”

“Well if I could have convinced you to go through with all of that then; yes really.” Apple told her seriously. “Personally, I am still very overwhelmed by all of this… and more than a little scared… but after the shock of it all has died down I… I really want to start this whole family thing with you… I know that this is sudden and I don’t want to scare you-”

“Apple.” Raven cooed bringing the princess’s hand up so that the witch could kiss her fingers. “I’ve… already thought about that, and while I’m still very overwhelmed… yeah. I want a family with you too, I want this family.” The witch admitted sincerely.

“Really?” Apple breathed in relief. “I had worried that you would be more freaked about all of this.” The princess was aware that Raven’s childhood had been vastly different from hers despite the both of them being heirs to thrones. Over the past three months Apple had become all too aware of the hateful whispers spoken about Raven that she had previously been deaf to, and a lot of those whispers had not been too kind about Raven’s future life nor of the idea of Raven… having a little one of her own. It seemed that many had once deplored the idea of not only Raven’s existence, but also the existence of a hypothetical child.

It was one of the reasons why Apple gave up trying to be nice or diplomatic to those who spoke so much ill about Raven, at the very least she had been able to terrify those whispers into silence within the walls of Ever After High.

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I am still very freaked.” Raven warned. “But… I had never thought that I would ever have a child, not because I didn’t want one, I did want to have one someday, so very much… but between the dishonor to my maternal name and the curse inside of me-… I had given up hope of having one of my own so long ago… I never could bear to see a witchling that I had birthed and loved go through with any consequences because of all of those painful things which would not be her fault.” The witch sniffed, her eyes misting.

“Hey…” Apple murmured moving down to kiss Raven’s eyes. “It’s alright now, the curse is gone and after today you had better have your family honor restored back, or there will be trouble coming to those who dare deny you.” The princess promised, her tone was light but there was a look in her eyes, which told Raven that whatever that trouble entailed… would not be pleasant for her critics.

“I am free.” Raven whispered in awe as the realization dawned on her, laying her head back and grinning. “You saved me, my beloved princess.”

“And you saved me.” Apple grinned back kissing Raven on the lips, reveling in the knowledge that she could do that whenever she wanted to now.

Raven pulled Apple down and the two curled up around each other, enjoying the quiet of the moment.

“I guess the Canvas of Eros was right after all.” Raven murmured to the ceiling.

“What?” Apple asked peeking over to the witch.

Caught, Raven bit her lip and tried to look innocent.

Apple’s eyes narrowed. “Is this one of the things that you had kept from me while everyone was freaking out over whether or not I was going to freak out? If so, I can assure you that I am feeling perfectly sane and put together at the moment so, my dearest, if you would please be so kind as to spill.”

Raven chuckled nervously, knowing it was better to get that story out of the way sooner rather than later. “If that’s your desire Apple…”

XXX

“You’re a maiden Tiffany Whey Muffet!” A shrilly-stern voice reprimanded. “You should have done the proper thing and fainted picturesquely, or wept beautifully while the princes and heroes came to your rescue! If you had done that then you would not have been injured!” The voice continued to nag as if they knew anything about what had transpired in the afternoon battle. “I bet none of the properly trained heroes got injured, it’s their destinies after all. Oh how are you ever going to find a proper hero to marry if you continue on like this?”

Practically everyone in the air-ship Thebes’s med bay looked up from what they were doing to turn to the blonde who was having her turn to converse with her parents on one of the phones that they all had to share to call relatives.

Tiffany rolled her eyes at her mother’s words. “We weren’t in a fairytale story mum, The Evil Queen had us pinned down in such a way that it was either fight to survive or to give up and hope that our deaths were swift.” The blonde told the screen dryly, already tired of this conversation. She looked around the room noticing the eyes that were now trained on her and blushed. “I know that the whole Rebel versus Royal conflict has made you all edgy but could you at least find the decency to, I don’t know, be happy that our world is no longer threatened by a crazy woman who wanted to annihilate and enslave everything, or, ya know, at least tone down this whole obsession about making me presentable so that you can marry me off to some rich Joe with a title? At least give your injured, only daughter and the people around her, who can hear you by the way, some illusion that you care more about my safety and the fact that the realms are no longer in danger, than gaining a title and the money that would come with it.” The girl hissed her words dipped to sub-zero tones and she gave the screen a stern glare.

Tiffany had decided that she was too tired and too irritated to be dealing with her mother’s usual shallowness, the blonde knew that the older woman would sooner or later try to guilt her daughter using tears, but like most arguments from the past two years with her parents, they were pretty predictable, and Tiffany knew that as soon as she got the crying out of the way then her mother would spend the next few days, perhaps weeks, giving her the blessed silent treatment, or if she hit the right buttons, the girl would be shipped to stay at her Uncle’s house (for some reason her mother thought that was a decent form of punishment, even though Tiffany adored her drag-queen relative). Tiffany had (begrudgingly) grown to live for the days of the silent treatment while she was at home, especially if she was dropped off at her uncle’s house as a result.

Everyone but Tiffany jumped when the phone started making loud overdramatic boo hoo-ing noises, many wincing because even though they could not see the screen, they could tell by the sound that the older woman was faking those tears, and badly too.

“What have I done to deserve such a wicked child? Oh if only I had married a Charming Prince while I had the chance back in high school, he went on a date with me and everything you know, he could have been my king and I could have been the queen who bore his three children, but then that horrible woman swept him away before I could do anything about it! Oh that poor man… having to live with that demon woman everyday! I’m just glad that his children at the very least inherited all of his good qualities- save that one nerd- it would have been terrible if any of her muddy genes showed on their perfect faces.” The voice turned vicious at the thought of the current Queen Charming.

Tiffany tried to suppress her bitter, nervous laughter as she noticed the three Charming siblings in the room sit up from their beds with three identical looks of protective annoyance to her mother talking trash about their mother. Two of those looks seemed even more severe because the woman had just spoke ill of their brother on top of their mother.

Oh dear gods.

“And now you are laughing at me you horrid girl!” Her mother wailed. “You’re just like that no good father of yours!” She accused.

“And where is daddy? The noble drunkard you married because I had been an… unexpectedly-on-purpose surprise? Tiffany asked with a sneer, then paused in thought. “…Well unexpected for him at least.” She grumbled, feeling that if her mother was going to try to embarrass her then she was just going to have to embarrass the woman right back in a far worse manner. Which wasn’t that difficult seeing as Tiffany made it a point of pride to rarely be ashamed of her usual quirky and cheerily morbid behavior.

Tiffany squinted at her screen. “I can see the empty bottles of whiskey and moonshine all over the place behind you mum! Would it kill you to pick those up before daddy wobbles back from picking me up? I know that the staff all quit a few weeks ago, and I am in no condition to do that job for you.” Tiffany scolded, feeling far older than her fifteen, almost sixteen, years.

That was one thing she was not looking forward to, going back to the mansion without the maids and other staff being there to help her out. After having to deal with her parent’s increasingly troublesome behavior and decreasing salaries (Tiffany suspected that her parent’s funds had… hit a very low point and they just did not want to admit it), Tiffany had decided to provide the hard working staff with glowing references under the table (forged her father’s signature) so that they could find better jobs elsewhere.

Most of the hired help had been with Tiffany since birth, had helped raise her while her parents were away at social parties or too hung-over to take care of a baby, she loved them all as if they were extended kin! …And eventually she could just not bear to see them have to live in such a household with increasing deplorable conditions, both of her parent’s tempers (they never as of yet laid a hand on Tiffany… but the staff… she suspected that the staff may have been a different story), and a decrease in monetary wages.

The help had been worried about her (which was unnecessary since Tiffany could hold her ground against her parents), so the blonde had accepted a plan one of the butlers suggested for her to attend a summer school program so that she could avoid going “home” altogether over the summer.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love her parents though, when they weren’t drinking or trying to claw their way up the social ladder, they could be pretty decent parents… it was just that ever since the whole Rebel vs. Royal thing came about she had been seeing less and… less of that side of them.

And right now Tiffany was in no mood to be dealing with a sorry attempt at a guilt trip and public shaming just after she had survived a majorly scary disaster and just minutes after she had just found out that she had hair fractures in her hand, wrist, and lower arm, (it had been the adrenalin during the fight that had allowed her to still use that arm, the Healer had told her, and it was the reason why she didn’t feel as much pain until things had quieted down and the sharp ache in her bones turned to agonizing pain) plus she busted up her knee so bad that she’d need surgery, perhaps even an artificial replacement of the entire joint!

…Maybe she should see if Charlotte, whose turn with the phone was next, would be willing to let her spend a few extra minutes on the phone to call her uncle and see if he could do… something.

“Li’l Missy Muffe- hic-… Oi! You miserable wench! Grab me more moonshine you worthless monies stealin’s… wifes! We’s ouuuut!” A voice warbled from the background.

“He’s not coming.” Tiffany’s mother sounded oddly calm and dry eyed.

“Obviously.” Tiffany’s tone was flat.

“Hic.”

“Oh for the love of- you’re drunk too? I knew that something was off when you wouldn’t shut up after I told you that people could hear you!” Tiffany snarled at her mother, her face aflame with utter embarrassment.

“Demon child!” Little Miss Muffet accused and then began ranting, causing Tiffany to drop the phone into her lap and lay back on her pillows so that she could cover her mortified face with her hands.

In the background Healer Phalange (who had been quickly picked up by a broom-rider to board the Thebes, due to being an able bodied Healer, while the rest of the safe camp were carted off in the air-ship Quint) silently accepted a phone from Ashlynn and began speaking to someone in quiet tones, little did the Muffets know but soon, within the next hour, child-welfare would be making a surprise visit.

“Hanging up now!” Tiffany decided, wondering why she hadn’t thought of that solution sooner.

“Hold on one moment!” Daring called out jogging to the girl’s bedside, taking a moment to steel himself before picking up the phone and giving the screen the most Charming smile that he could muster. “Madam Little Miss Muffet I presume?” He asked, his tone sickly sweet.

“Uh?” Was the not-so-eloquent, drunken reply, the woman on screen halted mid-rant and blinked owlishly at the boy, her head bobbing around as if she was having trouble comprehending the switch from her blonde headed daughter to this strange blond boy.

“I am prince Daring Charming, I am certain that you’ve heard of me?” The boy pressed on. “I was wondering if you would be so kind as to allow your daughter to stay at my family castle while she recovers? Since you are having difficulties arranging for her to be transported to you… and I have found myself quite charmed by her bravery in defeating the Evil Queen. I do hope that you are so kind as to accept my request.” Daring spoke as if he were giddy and hopeful.

“Why is you interested in Tiffany?” The woman asked bluntly. She blushed once she realized whom she was speaking to, collecting as much of her inhibited brain cells as she could, she straitened her spine and tried to appear more formal. “Forgive me Prince Charming but aren’t you engaged to that White girl? That little br- I mean, my daughter hasn’t been causing trouble for your happily ever after has she?”

“Princess Apple White has found someone more suitable to spend her life with, leaving me without a maiden.” Daring answered cryptically, politely putting an emphasis on Apple’s title. He did not like how this woman had seemed to sneer in disgust at the mention of Apple, or Tiffany.

He suppressed a wince at the way the woman seemed to perk up, he didn’t know what it was but the way the woman was eyeing him… it made his skin crawl.

“By all means! You can keep her as long as you want!” Little Miss Muffet insisted with a force that made the boy lean away from the phone for fear that she might try to jump though it.

“Ok, great, listen I need to cut this call short so um… good day.” Daring explained his charming mask slipping in the face of such a creepy lady.

Little Miss Muffet didn’t seem to notice his odd behavior. “Good day Prince Charming, take extra good care of my little girl! I insist!”

Daring hung up, handing the phone over to Charlotte.

“You do realize that she’s going to be picking china patterns as soon as she’s sober enough to read, right?” Tiffany informed from her bed. “…Thank you anyway though, I really appreciated that.”

“You aren’t mad that you aren’t going home?” Daring asked tentatively, although he did not regret what he had done. “I mean; they are your parents.”

“I… don’t really feel comfortable being left to their care in this condition.” Tiffany admitted quietly.

The blonde looked up as if horrified at what had just left her own mouth. “They’re not that bad, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that… they… they aren’t really child friendly all the time, when they are it’s great but they tend to drink a little when they’re stressed and well… it can get a little embarrassing when people are around to hear them… she didn’t mean half those things, she-… she was just not herself.” Tiffany seemed to be trying to convince herself more than the boy or the room.

Pico Paco stood up from his makeshift nest of surgical rags and a bowl of reward coffee beans on a bedside table, and hopped over to Tiffany’s side in order to give his distressed mistress a hug.

The people around her exchanged looks, Tiffany turning Rebel suddenly made even more sense than before, well aside from not being afraid of spiders.

“I’m sure everything will sort itself out after some time has passed.” Darling assured diplomatically as she walked over to the girl’s bed. “In the meantime we’d be happy to let you stay at our place until everything calms down, and you are back on your feet.”

Tiffany nodded. “Yeah.” She said distractedly. “Yeah that’s probably it… thanks again for…”

“Not a problem.” Daring assured her. “How about we focus on something else for the moment.” He suggested swiftly, offering the distressed injured girl a distraction.

“Yes please.” Tiffany seemed to beg.

“Did you manage to get in contact with Edward?” Ashlynn asked curiously, thinking back to the emotional display the two of them shared before Tiffany was flown out to fight.

“He sacrificed his phone to Dexter and Humphrey’s super cool impromptu battle communications matrix. So I posted my condition on a forum that Blondie has just set up a few minutes ago.” Tiffany informed, several people perked up, tapping their shared phones to get a look at the mentioned forum and promptly started typing things down onto it. Letting their friends know that they were alive, and what injuries they may or may not have sustained.

“Briar and Cerise have already posted a bunch of pictures of a curse-free Wonderland and of Raven and Apple’s newborn little one.” Charlotte offered, holding up the mirrorphone in her hands so that the three people in front of her could see the mentioned pictures. “Oh! Maddie and Kitty have just uploaded a short video!”

“Awww! She’s so cute!” Tiffany squealed happily at the sight of a pudgy face peeking curiously out of her swaddling blanket, the camera zoomed out showing the Queen of Hearts standing proud on a speaking balcony, holding the witchling carefully in her arms, and flanked by the ecstatic Good King and Snow White as the three showed off the bundle to the cheering Wonderlandian citizens below.

The blonde girl’s mood instantly brightened. “Look at all of those people celebrating in the streets Pico Paco! And don’t you think Cerise looks awesome with her ears showing?”

“She sure does.” Dexter agreed, coming up on the other side of Tiffany’s bed. He seemed to look at peace as Charlotte scrolled through more pictures.

The coffee golem nodded in agreement, striking a pose when someone tried to discreetly take a picture of the scene around Tiffany’s bed.

“I wonder what name they’ll choose for her.” Dexter mused looking at the wide-eyed baby on the screen. She was adorable he admitted to himself, and for some reason he felt… not as heartbroken as he had been over a week ago, he was happy. Happy that they had won, happy that they were alive, he even happy that Raven and Apple had created such a cute kid.

He still felt a little pang in his chest, but after he analyzed it, he worked out that it was more for the loss of his first crush, not because Raven had found someone else to be happy with.

He was going to apologize to the witch first chance he got, the prince promised himself, finding that under all the hurting damage to his pride for never standing a chance, he… he missed his friend greatly.

“Maybe we should give them some suggestions.” Hunter proposed with a mischievous grin. “As a way of both congratulating them and helping them figure out just what to call her. I highly doubt that they’ve had the time to think of anything yet.”

The med bay was filled with murmurs of agreement and lots of lighthearted giggling as people started coming up with names and soon everyone started winding down from the events of the afternoon.

XXX

The soft tuffs of hair on her little head were blonde and littered with little spots of dark red, Apple noticed as she pulled back the blanket just enough to see.

The red spots inherited from her great-grandmother definitely made her Raven’s witchling but Apple had the sneaking suspicion, a feeling, that their little girl would grow up to look more like Apple than Raven.

However the witchling’s eyes were all Raven, a little lighter in color but Apple knew they’d darken with time.

From beside her Apple could hear Raven sniffle, the witch running a finger down her witchling’s cheek so gently that Apple wondered if Raven was afraid that the bundle in the princess’s arms would break.

“She’s perfect.” Raven declared as if this child was the only perfect baby in all the realms.

In that instant Apple felt a firm tug in her heart, cementing the knowledge that the witch and their witchling was hers, and that she was going to love and take care of them forever after into her brain.

“Just like her mothers.” Apple stated kissing Raven on the mouth.

XXX

“It’s beautiful out here.” Cerise said as she admired the brightly colored lanterns filling the night sky from her seat at a balcony table.

“I’m so glad that we’re finally able to see a curse free Wonderlandian night.” Briar agreed, smiling softly at the sound of the still celebrating people in the streets.

“I don’t know how my human side feels about the food talking back at me though…” Cerise murmured poking at the soup she and Briar were sharing with a spoon, the clams floating in their own broth giggled and swam away from the utensil.

Briar squinted at the merrily swimming shellfish with the same distrust. “Raven once said that the food itself isn’t sentient, it’s just that there is so much Wonder magic in Wonderland that the simple act of cooking… gives some sort of illusion that the food is talking? To be honest my brain sorta glitches whenever someone tries to explain the method behind the madness of Wonderland.” The mage-princess sighed.

“At least the bandersnitch steak isn’t talking.” Cerise murmured in relief as she sliced off a hunk of the rather large slab of meat on her plate, she hummed in appreciation to the taste.

“I wonder…” Briar hummed as she eyed the giggling clams.

The princess took a deep breath before scooping up one of the clams from their dish into her soupspoon, the morsel cheering as it was picked up.

Before she could cower out of her intent, Briar plucked the clam up with her fingers, cracked the shell and sucked up the giggling meat into her mouth and swallowed.

“Weeeeee!” Cerise could hear the clam cheer as it traveled to Briar’s stomach.

“You are officially one of the bravest people I’ve ever met, aside from my mom and Raven.” The wolf-girl stated with nothing but respect in her voice.

“Thanks.” Briar breathed with a hint of pride that she was actually brave enough to do that and keep her meal in her stomach, her face soon softened and she put her hand over Cerise’s.

“How are your parents?” Briar asked; the two of them had called their parents before they met up for a private dinner in their shared room (which was apparently Kitty’s doing seeing as the girl couldn’t stop snickering when she led them to their assigned guest room).

“As soon as they saw that I was alive my papa cried and my mama has started coming up with ways to hunt the Headmaster down so that she can exact vengeance on him.” Cerise smiled softly. “Mom’s promised not to get too into her dislike for the guy while she’s around Raven, once they manage to get here sometime tomorrow, though I did learn some new words when I told her that he’s actually Raven’s grandfather.”

“According to Blondie, she’s not the only parent out for our former Headmaster’s blood.” Briar hummed as she chewed on some sliced fruit on her plate.

“They want to meet you.” Cerise coughed, blushing as she ducked her head.

Briar paused just in time to avoid choking on her food; carefully she swallowed before looking over to Cerise with a comforting squeeze of her hand. “I take it you’ve told them that we’re going to try out this whole dating thing?”

Cerise cleared her throat and nodded. “Yeah, but I should probably warn you that some of the pack were with them when I called so… it won’t be just them who will want to meet you… eventually…”

“I’d love to meet them.” Briar assured leaning over to briefly rest her head on Cerise’s. “It’s only fair because my dad wants to meet you too, along with my siblings, grandmother, grandfather, great-grandmother and great-grandfather, and my aunt has mentioned that she wants to see you again, she will be arriving here actually, as soon as she picks up Roseabella from the airships stationed outside of the enchanted forest surrounding Ever After High. She said something about helping the fish and wildlife services here and in Wonderland, to assist efforts to clean up the forest from all of that junk in the forest and make restoration efforts in the areas where the curse was at it’s worst.”

“How did your conversation go with your family?” Cerise asked curiously.

“It started out pretty expectedly; my mother threw a fit because before I called, word had reached her that I hadn’t been at all damsel-like or human enough for her tastes, since someone from Wonderland had called to praise me as the mage-princess who helped defeat the Evil Queen and save Raven from danger.” Briar said lightly though her eyes had turned stony.

“Then she started saying some unkind things about Raven and her witch heritage, so I countered by telling her that I was never going to become Sleeping Beauty, which made her say… some things that I’ve always known but… have never heard her voice out loud…” The princess took a deep breath, trying not to feel hurt that her own mother despised her not only because Briar had a chance at the perfectly planned destiny her mother had been denied, but on top of that, she was going to forgo the whole thing anyway because Briar did not want to sleep for a hundred years…

Briar felt that she should not have been so surprised that her mother also admitted that she disliked the fact that she had been born a mage instead of a human like her father.

Briar’s great-grandfather was the full-blooded mage in the family, but he had spawned with a human princess, and her grandmother, who was half-mage, also spawned with a human, her son, and Briar’s father had a fifty-fifty chance of being born completely human, and Briar had even less of a chance, yet lo and behold, Briar had been the one to be born with the powers of a full-blooded mage.

 It was never a secret that Sleeping Beauty hated it when Briar or any of her other children acknowledged their mage heritage, so Briar strived to try to feel more… apathetic more than hurt over all of the previously unspoken words being spoken.

Try being the key word, because despite it all coming out into the open for her to actually inspect and affirm that her previous impressions about her mother were correct, it still hurt like hell.

Cerise winced. “I’m sorry you had to hear all that.” The wolf-girl stated sympathetically.

Briar shook her head. “It turned out fine in the end, because daddy finally asked for a divorce and then once the drama had stormed out, declaring that she would not be coming to Wonderland and darkening anybody’s door, we were finally able to talk about more important things; like how daddy was proud of me, Apple and Raven’s surprise addition, and how we’ve officially started dating, or admitting that we are dating, apparently daddy was under the impression that we were dating all along.” The princess listed out, trying to bring back the lighthearted mood.

Cerise tilted her head. “I guess we were kind of dating unofficially for a while… I think, really I’m not sure when we switched from friends to- well whatever it was we were until this afternoon to be honest…” She hummed deciding to let Briar focus on something else for the moment, something that the princess was obviously thankful for as the two continued to talk through their meal before heading off to bed.

“I wonder if Kitty realizes that we’ve already slept in the same bed, platonically mind you, before. Adding in the fact that we’ve only just started dating? I’m pretty sure that it’ll take a while before we start to feel all awkward sharing a bed.” Cerise sighed as the two stood silently staring at the heart-shaped bed.

Briar rolled her eyes. “Let her have her fun, she’s already missed out having to lock two certain somebody’s into a closet, so she’s stuck with giving us the same room.”

“Until she gets a chance to lock someone else into a closet with their secret true love right?” Cerise asked with a smile.

“Well of course, this will hardly be enough to satisfy her for long.” Briar replied seriously making her new girlfriend laugh.

XXX

“That is her highness’s final decree on this matter.” Bunny Blanc’s voice rang clear through the giant communications screen in the brig of the leading air-ship Quill.

Giles took a deep, relieved breath, closing his eyes for a moment; his age-gnarled hands shook as they came up to his mouth as he breathed out through his nose. “Thank the Ancestors.” He whispered.

“There are conditions to this deal.” Lizzie warned. “My mother and the Wonderlandian authorities have mixed feelings about allowing this much mercy, so they came up with some serious restrictions that will have to be implemented if he’s to avoid a warrant to be shipped here for a full trial, and if he ever sets so much as a toe in Wonderland he will be hunted down for trial.”

Giles nodded. “Understood.”

“Another thing that you should be aware of Lord Giles.” Bunny spoke up, looking down at a list in her hands. “While some of the other formerly cursed worlds have agreed to our ruling, provided that the punishment sounds suitable, others are demanding that he be formally charged to the fullest extent in their courts.”

“I expected as much.” Giles nodded again, still far too relieved to feel too down about the expected fact.

Lizzie was silent for a moment. “I know that Raven will ask this eventually, when she does… what should I say about how they are treating him? Even where he might be going?”

“Tell her that Gus and Sasha will be helping Giles make sure that he gets to his destination safely, and as for the location… tell her that he’ll be put in the special secret place where no one can try their luck getting to him before she does.” A tall handsome dark skinned man spoke. He and the woman he mentioned stepping forward to flank either side of Giles.

Lady Mage Sasha held up a hand. “Oh and if you could tell Raven and our Lady King’s harem wife, Sandrine Blue Feather, to send us lots of pictures and updates? And… well our Lady King will be doing all of that anyway but tell her and the rest of them that we love them all, and that we can’t wait until they come back home.” The green haired woman exchanged glances with Gus, the two giving each other a warm smile.

 “I’ll be more than happy to relay the message.” Lizzie nodded, smiling at the thought of the Lady King and her harem wife. It was nice to finally meet an Ever After monarch who was both a woman warrior and had a healthy harem, not unlike a Wonderlandian one. It gave Lizzie a sense of security knowing that Raven, and now Apple, had a family with such a strong sense of open-minded kinship to help them out.

“Be safe on your journey.” Lizzie waved in farewell to the screen.

“And may your country find even more good fortune in the days to come.” Giles replied with a nod before the feed was cut.

In the following silence Gus turned to look at Giles then at the blanket covered figure huddling in the corner of his brightly lit cell.

“Raven’s not going to be too happy that he’s been arrested at all.” Gus sighed running a hand through the short black curly hair covering the top of his head. “Hex, I wouldn’t be too surprised if she throws a fit over this whole thing.” The man spoke with certainty; he knew his adopted grandkid after all.

“Hmm.” Sasha nodded in agreement. “But that’s exactly why you chose her to be the one to execute the punishment, isn’t it?” The mage’s words sounded more like a statement of facts rather than a question.

“Raven is now the co-heir to the two most powerful human kingdoms in the realm of Ever After.” Giles spoke gravely. “In the time that I’ve known her she has always been a kind and just individual. I trust that hatred and vengeance will not be the driving force behind her decision for my brother’s fate.”

“I’d bet good money that she’ll either think that he’s done nothing wrong, or try to forgive him of everything.” Sasha sighed knowingly in a way that only someone who had been in the witch’s life since birth.

The blanket covering the former Headmaster seemed to move in a manner that appeared skeptical to the woman’s words.

XXX

“This kind of feels… I don’t know why I don’t feel completely safe yet.” Blondie confessed into her assigned mug filled with steaming hot stew, huddling further into her standard issue black woolen blanket.

“I feel the same way.” Cupid admitted into her own mug wrapping a wing protectively around the blonde. “After everything that’s happened I wouldn’t be surprised if almost everybody is feeling the same way.”

The two looked around, night had fallen hours ago yet neither of them felt tired, they were sitting on an empty crate somewhere between the two landed air-ships, the lights coming from the ships gaping open to display the boarding decks and illuminate people who were milling about.

They could see soldiers at work, healers making their rounds, the school’s staff was also going around checking on people, and then there were students of Ever After High.

Everyone had been cautioned not to travel too far away from the main area, but none of the teens seemed too keen to step even a foot away from the areas lit up by the ships’ internal lights and the floating high-beam lanterns scattered everywhere anyway. Not even when a few parents had managed to show up to collect their children, the guardians all seemed to be alarmed when their teenaged kin clung to their hands or their sibling’s hands like they were small children as they bravely stepped out into the dark in order to get into vehicles of transportation.

“We are all going to need therapy.” Blondie stated soundly.

“Agreed.” Cupid nodded. “It’s a good thing that all of the students have managed to survive, a miracle even.” She whispered shivering when her thoughts strayed to the golems, and Raven suspended in the air…

“How many injured from your ship?” Blondie asked curiously, trying to distract the distressed winged girl with facts.

“Scrapes and sprains mostly, a couple of bites from bad magic, a few broken bones, several people have some pretty bad scratches severe enough to scar, some fairies’ wings are a little torn but nothing too serious to my knowledge, Sparrow’s missing a good portion of his ear, but I’d say Tiffany’s got it the worst. Her knee is completely shattered, some of her leg tendons have snapped clean in half, her hand and arm is broken, and there was a tiny bite from the Evil Queen’s magic on her hip that everybody, including her, had missed until she had started to convulse when it worsened. They’ve managed to stop the spreading of the poison no problem but everyone is on high alert with her.” Cupid listed out, pointing her chin in the direction of Tiffany, who was catching some fresh air while sitting in a wheel chair and being escorted by a fretting Edward and all three of the Charming siblings.

“Tiffany’s parents have turned out to be pretty irresponsible.” Cupid elaborated in the face of Blondie’s questioning look. “So much so that child services had been quietly called and the Charming’s are going to take her in while she recovers. Though from what I’ve overheard from a call Dexter had with his parents, she might be staying longer, turns out some of the Charming’s maids used to work at Tiffany’s parent’s place, they’ve called up the rest of the staff that used to work there too and they all want to testify against the Muffets, that added with the deplorable conditions child services discovered earlier at Tiffany’s house and it seems as though the Muffets are going to lose custody rights very soon.”

Blondie’s eyes widened. “Does Tiffany know?”

Cupid shook her head. “Not yet, but the Charming’s know and they’re trying to show as much support as they can. I think that it’ll work out pretty well, despite her morbid personality Tiffany seems to share a lot of the same interests with them, especially with Dexter and his computers.”

“So it looks pretty much like they’ve just gained a sibling?” Blondie asked, noticing how Daring earned smiles of awe from their blonde charge when he pointed out star constellations and spoke about each one, how Dexter gently bundled her up in a blanket and gave up his scarf to wrap around her so that she didn’t get too cold, and How Darling surveyed the area protectively, gingerly ruffling Tiffany’s hair when the girl laughed at something funny Daring had said.

“More like two, Edward’s moms are going to see if they can spend some time in the Charming’s kingdom so that they can help watch over Tiffany as well.” Cupid said with a small smile. “So Edward is going to be hanging around a lot too.”

“She’s very fortunate to be so loved.” Blondie agreed with her companion’s unspoken assessment.

“Speaking of which, how did your group fair?” Cupid asked.

Blondie hummed. “The teachers and staff found closest to the school have recovered, so have the animal-kin, Duchess has been unusually kind to everyone, last I saw her she was helping Faybelle and Charlotte catch Cedar up on the day’s events, and I’m going to be stopping over by Raven’s dad’s kingdom in order to drop off two special packages.”

“Packages hm?” Cupid asked pulling Blondie’s blanket far enough away to see a tiny sleeping dragon and mouse between them.

“Mom and the Bears want an excuse to visit and see the sights, help me wind down a little before going home.” Blondie explained looking down. “Though I don’t think I’ve got the nerves as badly as others.”

The reporter caught Cupid’s eye.

“Call me, message me, visit me, I don’t care if you turn up in the middle of the night, just… I care about you, I… I’m scared that I’ll get nightmares about you never coming back and I don’t want you to bottle it all up in an effort to protect me. I want to share our fears with each other so that we don’t have to be so scared anymore, and I want to make sure that you, and the rest of my friends are safe, so please keep in contact and visit. I… don’t know if we will all be going to the same school now that Ever After High has been torn to pieces, and my parents have been threatening homeschooling they were so freaked out. I never even knew that my mom could utter one swear word, let alone swear to heaven and back that she’s going to rip out the Headmaster’s lungs for keeping the Evil Queen inside of a high school and-”

The blonde squeaked when Cupid leaned over to plant a kiss to her brow, her hand rubbing soothing circles into Blondie’s shoulder.

“I’ll plan on swinging around your neighborhood as often as I can if homeschooling is the case for you.” Cupid promised. “And I’ll take you out to places where you can review all of these fun things on your blog. Let’s celebrate being alive and have fun days in the future.”

“Sounds just right to me.” Blondie sniffled and smiled at the winged girl fragilely.

XXX

“She’s so tiny.” Raven murmured in awe as she peered over the side of the cradle placed beside the bed, unable to stop staring since the child had been brought back to them.

The witch winced making a pained sound when she shifted too far. “How can something so small cause so much pain to my rear after she came out?” Raven grumbled easing back a little.

Apple snickered leaning over to kiss Raven on the cheek. “That’ll heal up soon.” The princess promised. “Just rest up and have some patience.”

A small dainty woman with brown hair decorated with feathers hummed in agreement from her spot in the rocking chair beside both the bed and the cradle. “Your wife is right little miss, the healers said that’d all heal up soon. Provided that you steer clear of… certain activities.” The woman’s voice was deceptively soft, even as she gave the two teenagers a pointed look.

“Sandrine!” Raven hissed quietly, mindful of the sleeping child.

“I’m not naïve to the fact that you two are both able bodied teens.” Sandrine defended with a quiet snicker. “Really what would you two be doing if you had some privacy and you were well enough?”

The two teenagers in question blushed.

“That’s the only downside to this.” Apple admitted making Raven blush even more.

“I could have sworn that not more than a week ago she was a lot less… forward about this kind of thing Sandrine.” Raven swore to her grandmother’s spouse.

The fellow witch, Sandrine Blue Feather only chuckled. “It’s only to be expected for someone your age little miss, after all your wife is at her prime and she is technically married to you.” The woman pointed out.

“Which means that I don’t have to wait until after a wedding ceremony to be intimately close to you.” Apple proclaimed, wrapping her arms around Raven’s waist. “Once I realized that I had a chance to be with someone who I was truly attracted to… well you and Cupid have said that love is a beautiful, pure thing, as long as it is healthy and we are both happy right?”

Raven blushed redder but nodded all the same. “Yeah, that’s right.” The witch smiled placing her hands over Apple’s.

“Have you two settled on a final list of names?” Sandrine asked making the embracing couple groan with dread.

“Ashlynn sent us a list of suggestion names so long it took two files just to send it all.” Apple confessed in dismay.

“We’re still coming to terms with her actually being here, thinking up names in the wake of all of the stuff that just happened today-” Raven glanced at the wall clock. “Yesterday is…” Raven made a frustrated gesture.

Sandrine chuckled. “I’ll bet it is.” She agreed sympathetically. “Well I suppose you can leave that for a few more days yet to get adjusted to the idea before committing to anything. Speaking of the time though, perhaps you two should take you little one’s lead and get some sleep yourselves.” The older witch suggested with a pointed look at the clock.

“I’m going to visit the bathroom first.” Raven announced, gingerly moving off the bed. “I’ll be back soon.”

“I’ll leave the light on.” Apple promised as she yawned.

Apple had nearly dozed off when she felt an emotion of distress from Raven.

Without giving Sandrine an explanation the princess marched out of the room, finding Raven in the main sitting room of the harem chambers. Her witch had both hands covering her mouth in horror as she stared wide-eyed at a very solemn Lizzie.

“What’s going on?” Apple demanded rushing to Raven’s side, wrapping her arms around the witch protectively.

“They’ve arrested the Headmaster!” Raven whispered sounding shocked.

“It couldn’t wait until morning.” Lizzie assured Apple before the princess had the chance to glare at the girl of hearts. “Perhaps you should sit down.” Lizzie advised picking up a doughnut-shaped cushion for Raven to use.

“Why?” Raven asked as she and Apple took a seat on a couch and Lizzie in a matching plush red chair.

“He endangered the lives of everyone on campus by keeping the Evil Queen there and he refused to hand over the Evil Queen to the authorities.” Apple sighed having already seen this coming.

“The murdered secretary, every injury sustained on the students and staff, and your own attempted murder he’s being charged as an accessory for. They’re combing through his traceable life to see if they can pin anything else onto him but all of that is more that enough to keep him from seeing the light of day again.” Lizzie added as gently as she could.

“And Giles?” Raven asked frightened.

“Lord Giles has been cleared of any wrongdoing and as a reward for his bravery he has been given an honorary Wonderlandian lordship by my mother.” Lizzie spoke carefully, gauging Raven’s reaction.

Raven slumped a little in relief.

“Please don’t kill him.” Raven begged. “Or lock him up in some tiny cell, I don’t think that he could survive that either. I’ve heard Kitty tell me horror stories-”

“He is not in Wonderland.” Lizzie interrupted. “Giles has handed him over to the Grand Coven and he used his good standing with my mother to be considered seriously when he asked us to allow you the honor of deciding the former Headmaster’s punishment.” Lizzie informed the suddenly wide-eyed witch.

“You want me to decide his punishment?” The witch asked incredulously, looking ready to argue.

“Let me explain before you jump to conclusions.” Lizzie told the hysterical girl kindly but firmly. “Giles has asked that you be the one to determine the punishment because he knows that you, the rightful heir to a kingdom and a Witch’s State will probably be the only ruler who would not demand his brother’s head be displayed through the streets. Trust me, there have been a lot of offers from all sorts of realms to do just that. Giles is looking to you to word things in such a way that will make it seem like the former Headmaster is going to be suffering terribly for his very legitimately serious crimes, while not actually being killed or shoved into a cell and forgotten.” The brunet inhaled deeply once her point was across.

“You’re being oddly merciful.” Apple observed calmly as she held a fretting Raven close. The witch in her arms seemed to be trying to let the information sink in but was still feeling immensely worried about the situation.

Lizzie looked out one of the large windows looking out on the lanterns and fireworks lighting up the night sky.

“My childhood friend, Lenna, she would have become my chief harem wife if she had not been taken away from me the night Wonderland was attacked.” Lizzie murmured, her voice raw with rarely shown emotion. “She was not the sort for vengeance and settling offence debts with those who did wrong to her, while there is a part of me who would like nothing more than to see the Headmaster pay for endangering my countrymen and my friends… Lenna would not want that. So in her memory I have decided to do what I can for your grandfather Honorable Lady Raven Queen, daughter of the Good King, grandchild of my country’s new hero; Lady Elenore, adopted sister to the Hatter-Cheshire tribe, and the esteemed chief wife to my dear friend Princess Apple White of Ever After. Do tell him when you next see him not to mess this up, I will not be so generous if he ever has the misfortune of crossing my path again.”

Satisfied that her point had been made Lizzie stood up to leave.

“Oh yes, one more thing.” Lizzie halted as she spoke. “If you are worried for his safety, your grandmother’s harem wives, Lord Gus and Lady Mage Sasha are assisting Giles in ensuring that he reaches his destination safely, they told me that they’ll be putting him in this “special secret place” where no one can try their luck getting to him before you do.”

“Thank you Lizzie.” Raven breathed out in apparent relief before the girl left the room without another word.

Apple shifted, bringing Raven to lie on top of her as the two silently thought.

“What do you want out of all of this?” Apple asked, combing her fingers through Raven’s hair.

Raven thought for a moment. “Well I don’t want him to get locked up or get his head chopped off!” She stated soundly. “Aside from that I… I don’t know how to do this, I’m afraid that my training in judgment and punishment is… woefully lacking.”

“I’ve always found it a bit odd that they never offered you any of the kingdom management courses in school.” Apple confessed with a frown. “I mean I know that Elenore took them, I’ve seen the photographs of her in that class.”

“It was for the same reason why I never attended princess appreciation day.” Raven mumbled, eyeing Apple carefully, she didn’t know how sore the subject of how people used to treat the witch was going to be for the princess.

Apple remembered princess appreciation day, how the one time Raven had shown up and how Apple had been a bright-eyed freshman so happy to see the witch because it had been the first time in years that she had been able to get close enough to talk to her, but as soon as she stepped close the entire room started to scream and the other princesses all ran away.

Raven had looked devastated, running away herself before Apple had the chance to stop her.

“I mean I take home-classes during the summer, and my dad was going to substitute the classes from school with a few years of hands-on experience watching him and yaya, where I would assist for a few years until they thought me prepared enough to become the new Good King while still co-ruling with them in the background.” Raven quickly added when she saw Apple’s scowl.

“Yaya?” Apple asked still looking upset.

“It’s how we say grandmother in my father’s family.” Raven informed. “And grandfather is either geepaw or nono.”

“Can you see yourself calling the former Headmaster geepaw?” Apple asked the ceiling, her mood turning bemused.

Raven thought about it, the word in association to the man was… too weird. “I don’t think that I can ever call the Headmaster as anything other than… Headmaster.” She finished lamely.

“Seeing that guy as anybody’s doting grandfather is pretty weird.” Apple concluded, her own brain seemed to stutter at the image of Milton Grimm sitting down to have tea and cookies with Raven and Elenore as a family, or even being… nice to Raven, like going out of his way to check up on her by saying hello in the morning, or ask if she had a nice day.

“I… I don’t know if he wants me around him.” Raven realized, the thought making her depressed. “I mean I wouldn’t mind having a grandfather… or anybody from the maternal side of my family, get to know him, maybe figure out a truce of some sort. But… he must have already known! Back… on the lawn just after the quarantine had sealed us in, he didn’t seemed surprised when my mother called him out about him being her father.”

Raven sniffled into Apple’s nightgown, she was surprised at her own tears. “Sorry I… the birth has made me all emotional.”

Apple sighed. “It’s alright to feel somewhat bothered by this, it’s been a really bothersome day overall.”

It was a gross understatement of the day but Raven nodded in agreement all the same.

“We have earned a few days rest, as long as your family is keeping the… former Headmaster safe we can worry about him later, right now let’s try to get some rest, sleep while the baby is asleep and all that.” Apple suggested.

“I’m scared of nightmares.” Raven admitted sounding small.

“I am too.” Apple confessed to the unspoken worry as well. “But we’ll be right next to each other the whole time, and Sasha said that she’ll call for Briar or one of the Wonderlandian healers if things get really bad. I guess one of the benefits with recuperating in a wacky warrior society is that they know how to nip post traumatic stress in the butt better than anybody.”

Raven thought back to when Healer Phalange had been looking over Raven after Snow White had brought her granddaughter back to her parents, the woman had mentioned something about immediate warrior healing to take place late morning the next day, the witch felt a little more comforted that there were people who would know how to deal with them once the shock wore off and it all finally sunk in.

“Ok.” Raven relented, letting Apple help her up.

XXX

Faybelle looked down at Cedar’s sleeping head cushioned in her lap. It looked… odd to her eyes, mostly because she had rarely interacted with the other girl but after that whole fiasco over a month ago…

They were hanging out on one of the rooftops of the tall spires of the main castle right in the middle of the Thorn clan’s territory, like many structures in the fairy realms the building was designed to merge with the surrounding landscape with local natural materials, organic shapes, and things growing all over it. It was an imposing building from a distance, what with its black rock base material and the sage-blue tint the lichen and the moss made when the light hit it in just the right way, at night the light orange glow from the weeping creeping willow trees was also considered eerie to any newcomers passing by.

As imposing as it was at a distance, Faybelle’s childhood home lost it’s initial scary feel once one got up close enough to see that the black rock was carved with finely intricate Celtic knots and ancient elven runes from a time nearly forgotten to written history. The plants and animals that called the outside walls home added to the beauty of the place, and the view of the territory from the spires… nothing helped ground Faybelle more than looking out to the living forests of the fairy realm and the distinct towering plant covered black rocks (some were actually buildings but one had to see the light from the windows at night to actually tell) that towered over the forest like silent giants, hex, Faybelle wouldn’t be surprised if some had once been giants of some sort of long extinct species.

The fairy breathed, focusing on the sweetened taste of the summer air, focusing on the life out there as well as the life of the girl softly snoring in her lap.

She tried to focus on the feeling of being alive, of having survived, escaping death to live life free from dishonor and the constant threat of-

Faybelle breathed.

“Thinking surreal thoughts again cousin?” Charlotte asked making her presence known on the roof.

“It’s been over a month.” Faybelle murmured looking forward with unseeing eyes. “It had been a full month as of last week and yet my mind still can’t escape that day.” The fairy released a frustrated huff, looking down to make sure she hadn’t woken up her guest, even though it was highly unlikely that Cedar would awaken for a good while yet what with the sleeping potion that the family spiritual priests had given her.

“The wounds of fear and battle take longer to heal than those of the flesh.” Charlotte stated knowingly as she came up to sit beside her cousin.

“How’s Cedar doing?” The witch asked peering at the slumbering girl in question. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to my p`ere about her yet but when I crossed paths with him earlier he seemed pretty impressed.” Which was saying a lot since the witch’s father only looked impressed about the recently possessed when they had either done something particularly idiotic to get possessed in the first place, or survived against insurmountable odds.

“He should be impressed.” Faybelle swore passionately, almost sounding disgusted as she unconsciously cradled the sleeping girl protectively in her arms. “They found traces of several dozen individual spirits inside of her head and they are still counting as they wipe what the things had left behind from her body! It was a good thing that she wasn’t a human when she had been possessed or else the damage might not have been as easily fixed as it has been so far!”

“It’s a good thing that we insisted on having her examined and that her father was so willing to take us up on our generous offer.” Charlotte choked out after a stunned silence. “By the way, where is her father and why is she here and not in a bed?” The witch asked looking around.

“They want to keep her here for a while, a few days at least, weeks at most, depending on how many more traces they have to scrub from her. Pinocchio asked that I look after her while he made a quick trip home to gather some things for both himself and her, put a notice of absence sign up on his shop door, bring some tools with him because apparently he likes to work when he’s nervous and mom has more than enough odd jobs that need to get done. She’s pleased with the discount she’s getting from all of this and he should be getting enough money to keep things afloat for when they return home.” Faybelle informed looking shifty.

 “And the reason why Cedar isn’t in a bed?” Charlotte asked again, a bit dryer this time.

“… No one told me to put her to bed, and her father’s the one who left his unconscious daughter to my care…” Faybelle looked to the side.

“At least she’s still clothed.” The witch sighed.

“Hey! I grew out of that when I was like… twelve!” Faybelle defended.

“Myself, Ginger, and Briar were ever so happy when you finally did, we got tired of waking up naked the morning after a sleepover with you. It took weeks before dear Ashlynn could look any of us in the eye that one time.” Charlotte recalled her voice flat.

“Duchess never minded.” Faybelle pointed out with a pout.

“One; Duchess can turn into a swan at will, Two; we are talking about the same Duchess who is now in silent competition with that very long haired princess for Darling Charming’s attentions.” The witch countered, distinctly remembering how the dancer looked fit to be tied because some princess… Holly-something… seemed keen on the same girl that Duchess had her eye on for a while, but what really infuriated the dancer was that this princess was also interested in Darling’s older brother, Daring. And the princess was finding herself hard-pressed to choose one over the other, but she was also refusing to back down from at least a chance with Darling… even if she still had the hot’s for the girl’s brother.

Charlotte was grateful that she had not yet had the misfortune of being dragged knowingly into a proper love triangle, or square, or anything of that sort (she did not count that incident where Apple was thoroughly jealous because Charlotte had not actually been after Raven’s hand).

Faybelle on the other hand found the whole situation hilarious, especially since neither Charming sibling seemed to be aware of the silent war brewing under their noses. Especially now, since the Charming siblings had gone back to their home kingdom with an injured Tiffany Muffet, and Daring Charming, plus each one having their own personal emotional hurts that they now had to work on healing.

“Oh.” Faybelle blushed, finally realizing what her cousin meant. “Well that does explain a lot, now that you’ve put it into that context...”

“Um Hmm.” The witch hummed, reclining back until she was on her back looking at the clouds moving lazily across the blue sky.

“I… Just wanted to hold something alive ya know?” The fairy spoke quietly after a long silence.

“Yeah.” Charlotte breathed, her tone sincere. “Yeah, I know that feeling, been feeling that a lot lately.”

“She’s got a living flesh and blood body now, and she’s got no memory of the scary things that happened.” Faybelle murmured in awe, gingerly putting Cedar’s head back into her lap.

“Why does this knowledge make me more happy than jealous?” The fairy demanded looking to the sky. “I know me, I know how I work, I should be feeling… not resentful but at least exasperated, so why do I want to smile when I think about freaking Cedar Wood escaping the memories of that horror, or that witchling of Raven’s, why do I find joy that she was born? I barely know the brat, not that she’s been around long enough to get to know, and I’m irritated at her human mother for stealing away such a profitable potential wife, and yet I find myself sending them a list of all the fairy girl names that I can think of first chance I get! This is just not like me!”

“Because you are supposed to be the Evil Fairy who gets cranky at the slightest thing, like not being invited to a baby’s party?” Charlotte asked dryly.

“They’ve already given me an unofficial invitation to her witch-naming ceremony!” Faybelle growled a blush painting her cheeks. “They need two qualified magic-users to preform the ritual and apparently Briar has mentioned that as a Thorn I’m qualified to preform these kind of rituals, and so now they’re asking for me to help preform the damn thing!” The fairy cried sounding exasperated.

 Charlotte eyed her cousin. “Speaking of you preforming rituals, Raven called me earlier to ask me if you are still interested in taking over the Evil Queen role. Even though Apple White’s technically already lived her fairytale and the Book of Legends has mysteriously disappeared after the defeat of the dreaded Great Evil, they’ve been talking about doing a reenactment of sorts, granted it’ll be far tamer and much more boring since they’ve had it with actual poisons and they want to turn the whole story thing into something that resembles more of a witch’s ritual. Think something like the GreenWitch ritual, only you three playing the pretend parts as the princess, prince, and the Evil Queen.”

Faybelle snapped her head around to stare at her cousin. “What?” She asked hoarsely.

“Raven feels… a little cheated that her mother’s actions had spoiled the fun and honor that used to come with the responsibility of being the Evil Queen, so now that she’s freed from the dishonor and the responsibility she wants to form a new tradition to honor the ancestors of her and Apple’s family, to teach their witchlings not to feel disgraced by the actions of one Evil Queen.” Charlotte explained.

“Why would she want me involved in this?” Faybelle asked her eyes as wide as they could go.

“I asked the same thing and Raven said that it’s partially because when she had originally proposed this idea to her wife she figured that she could play both the Evil Queen and the prince roles, ironically it was Apple who said no to that because Apple now despises the thought of anybody in her family playing the part of the Evil Queen, even for this theoretical tamed down ritualized version. So Raven figured that since she had already given up the role to you, if you wanted to participate in this family tradition they are trying to start then the right to the Evil Queen title was still yours… and Apple White will only allow it if it is she who gets to play the prince and thwart your pretend plans.” Charlotte snickered remembering how the princess could be heard in the background of that call mumbling unkind things under her breath about Faybelle.

Said fairy continued to stare at her wide-eyed.

Charlotte shrugged. “Hey her father is a Prince Charming, it makes sense.”

Faybelle looked away quickly but not before Charlotte caught the expression that formed on her cousin’s face.

“Looks like living in a world free from fairytales and evil crazed people has given the grouchy Evil Fairy a reason to feel hope.” The witch observed.

“Shut up silly cousin.” Faybelle couldn’t quite get the sound of her smile out of her voice.

XXX

Raven stared at the large hedge labyrinth from her childhood bedroom balcony, wearing her new royal robes cut in the style that resembled a long sleeved kimono with elaborate designs of silver Bleeding Rebel Hearts and golden apple branches with their fruit woven onto the lavender purple fabric. Her long hair was styled up and held together with long silver hair sticks and golden-knotted charms that framed her lightly painted face artistically. Apprehensive butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she stared at the structure of the greenhouse-mausoleum standing tall in the center of the flowering hedges.

She touched one of her visible scars self-consciously, Lizzie had convinced her to have her dress tailored in such a way that her shoulders and upper back would be visible, exposing enough of the reddened lines of healed skin to make a glaring point to all those who would be watching the sentencing later that day.

Lizzie had advised Raven that she had to show to the other realms that she meant business with her decision, for the former Headmaster’s safety the witch had to convince practically everyone that she had very good reason and rights to be the one to hand down this punishment.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Apple asked quietly, coming up to the witch and hugging Raven from behind, the princess pressing her lips to the gnarled scar at the base of Raven’s neck.

“I’m half tempted to ask you to do just that.” Raven sighed, leaning into the embrace. “I want answers but I’m apprehensive about what they may be… and I can’t keep putting this off, he doesn’t deserve to wait any longer.”

“Well it’s not like you’ve been dragging your feet.” Apple defended. “It’s only been a few days ago since the Wonderlandian healers have deemed us able to leave their care and we were certain that our little one was old enough to travel. Hex, we’ve barely had time to ourselves since we’ve arrived here.”

Raven smiled slightly. “And now that things have settled a bit, how are you faring?”

“Your home is beautiful.” Apple assured nuzzling Raven’s neck. “And blessedly quiet, it’s nice having some privacy after spending the past couple of weeks under observation.”

Raven hummed in agreement, though she had mixed feelings on the matter, while it had been nice to wake up next to the princess without there being a nurse, her grandmothers, or one of their parents hovering in the background; Raven had also felt immensely grateful when there was someone there to help out when the infant decided to wake up loudly in the middle of the night and neither Apple nor Raven could figure out for the life of them what was the matter.

“Sometimes the little ones need to just cry, or in your little one’s case yowl themselves out. She needs to exorcise those tiny lungs, you did the same as a babe’, though you also yowled and growled as well as cried, spooked your father it did, the first few times before Sasha decided to tell ‘im that was normal for witches.” Raven’s grandmother had told them the first difficult night when both Apple and herself were petrified that they had done something wrong.

“It had been nice to sleep in this morning.” Raven relented turning her head to peer longingly at the large bed that had been newly installed to accommodate the new addition of the princess as her wife. Apple had called in one of the Ladies from her kingdom to become their official live-in nanny and while Raven had been hesitant at first (her father never needed a nanny to take care of her), she soon found that the shy young maiden, named Samantha, that had moved into the Pendragon estate a day after they had was proving herself not only capable but invaluable. Samantha had uncharacteristically declared that morning that she was taking care of their growling witchling for the entire duration of the former Headmaster Grimm’s trial so that a certain princess and her witchy-princely-queen could focus fully on the serious matter at hand.

“Do you think he’d want to see her?” Raven asked turning slightly in Apple’s arms so that she could both lean her head on the other’s shoulder and stare in the direction to the nursery, which was adjacent to their room (as was commonplace in old castles such as Pendragon, traditionally, the Lady’s chambers had a nursery where their child and nanny would stay, and then once the child was old enough they and their nanny would get their own rooms. Raven’s father was one of ones who broke tradition and moved into a Lady’s chamber so that he could take care of Raven when she was a witchling himself). She noticed that the princess had put on one of her official dresses for the occasion, it looked similar to the one she had on from Legacy Day.

“If he’s a decent person he would.” Apple almost growled as she placed a kiss to Raven’s temple. “Just don’t get your hopes up until after he answers your questions, you’re already doing him enough favors by sparing his life and giving him a place to live out the remaining of his days, hand down his punishment, inform him of his rights, and then let him show his true colors. After that… we shall see.”

“K.” Raven murmured taking a deep breath. “Guess it’s now or never.”

“Daring and I will be right outside with Giles if you need us for anything.” Apple promised gently kissing the tip of Raven’s nose.

“Thank you.” Raven whispered with a brave smile. “Love you.”

Apple grinned. “Love you too.”

XXX

The beginning of a new chapter

XXX

The mausoleum was supposed to resemble the trunk of a tree, but to Raven it looked kind of like a giant thumb pointing up to the sky, something she and her father found immensely odd due to the fact that the ancestor who had designed the building had a father who hailed from a land where a thumbs up… was actually considered a rude gesture. The building had special blood protection talismans that only allowed either those of King blood or the most trusted outsiders initiated into the King family into the building, it was an elegant structure with glass ceilings and elaborate metal structures cut with glowing white magic to tell of the story King Arthur, from his humble beginnings to how he was injured from battle, and went with the Lady of the Lake in order to recover from his injuries and to one day return to rule again.

Wishful thinking, Raven knew that now but when she was a small, frightened child healing from her own wounds, she had spent much time in the family mausoleum, tracing her little fingers over the glowing words and hoping that the great King and theoretical ancestor to her father’s family would return, protect her from the terrible things in the world and save her from the destiny she did not want.

It became her safe place, a deceptively delicate structure that had been reinforced with protective magics and prayers of love to her deceased ancestors for centuries.

For the first time in her life Raven hesitated before opening the door.

“I shouldn’t be this nervous.” The witch grumbled, her hand tightening on the large, decorative brass handle, and adjusting the lavender cashmere shawl covering her scars on her bare shoulders.

“It’s perfectly fine to be nervous.” Daring assured, coming up from Raven’s left side, he practically shined in his official princely attire, even making his bandaged arm look naturally in place with his overall look. “You’ll do fine, I’ve seen you stare down an entire crowed of fellow rulers and not back down, comparatively this is far less dangerous.”

“And this time you’ll have us both to back you, no matter the outcome.” Apple promised from Raven’s right placing her hand over the witch’s on the door’s handle.

Raven nodded at them both with a small brave smile and opened the door.

Giles stood up from his seat on the large steps of the first set of double staircases leading up to the next floor, the pattern repeating until it reached the ninth and final floor.

“You three look as pretty as a picture.” Giles told them with a warm smile, the old man had traces of bags under his eyes from several sleepless nights but overall he seemed to be in good health and spirits.

“Thank you.” Raven smiled nervously up at the man she had grown to trust before breaking down and taking a chance at hugging her newly acquired great-uncle.

Giles did not hesitate to hug the girl back a wide grin on his face.

“Is he… ready?” Raven asked after stepping back from the embrace.

Giles made a so-so gesture with his hand. “I was only able to get to the part where I told him his sentencing was today before he took my flying rug and retreated to the top floor, to await his guarded escort to your throne hall no doubt.” The old man snorted. “For a cripple he can move deceptively fast.”

Raven blinked. “He hasn’t been told that I have no intention of hurting him?” She asked in concern.

“I think he is more worried about being shamed and shunned by his granddaughter.” Giles told her honestly. “He may act all grouchy but on the inside my brother is nothing but a worry wart, it was difficult getting him to enjoy something that wasn’t work on a good day back at the school, and now…”

Raven nodded walking past her uncle to stand in the center of an ornamental circle of her family’s crest tiled onto the floor. “I’ll go see him at once, Apple and Daring can debrief you on the specifics of my final punishment.”

“How are you going to get up there in that dress?” Giles asked but his question was answered when Raven muttered a phrase and a magic energy platform emerged from the crest gently picking her up and carrying the witch to the top floor.

“It would have been nice knowing that little trick before!” Giles called with an amused smile, making Raven giggle.

Nostalgia overcame the witch as she looked at the funerary cubbies lining the walls (her father’s family preferred to be cremated), only to be broken up with tall gothic windows, which only helped add to the brightness of the white marbled interior, it all flew by her field of vision as she was carried up and up.

If this wasn’t a giant funeral house Raven could see this place being perfect as a converted library or stargazing laboratory.

The witch stepped quietly onto the top story landing; she wasn’t wearing heels, just soft-soled slippers so her footfalls were almost too soft to hear as she trekked along the floor, looking for any sign of her estranged grandfather.

Raven paused looking around the large area with a small frown, there were several living quarters that her father had added after she had taken a liking to the place, knowing that she’d want to hide here should she need a reason to escape her destiny the old fashioned way.

The girl tapped her feet loudly onto the floor hoping that the sound would rouse the old man from his hiding place.

“Yes I am coming.” A gruff voice sounded out from behind her, his tone defeated. “No need to drag me off I’ll go peacefully- who are you?”

Milton Grimm blinked in surprise as the strange young woman turned around and turned out to be someone not so strange at all.

“Miss Queen?” He blinked at her bewilderedly for a few moments before remembering himself and looking away. “–Ah I suppose it’s your highness now.”

Raven gently shook her head. “My father is still on the throne and there is no need for such formalities when there are no prying eyes of the other realms watching.” She spoke softly padding forward, the quiet rustle of the fabric of her cloths sounding defining in the following silence as she moved.

“Why are you here?” The man asked looking at her curiously, he did not understand why the witch was there, why she was bothering.

Raven smiled softly, apologetically. “To inform you of my decision, of what will transpire in my father’s throne hall later today… and to ask you some questions.”

Milton nodded grimly standing like a man ready for his execution.

Raven frowned a little, feeling worried at the sight of this broken shell of the stubborn Headmaster she had once known. The shadows under his eyes were long, and his bad leg was shaking slightly under the strain of his weight.

“Please sit down.” She nearly begged; using her magic to pull forth one of the comfy wicker chairs that sat by a window. “This may take a while and you really should be resting your leg.”

He seemed to hesitate before sitting down without complaint.

Raven pulled over a chair for herself and sat down across from the man, heavy silence descending between the two.

“How… how are you?” Raven asked tentatively, noticing to her distress that once the man sat down his coat flared out in a way that showed that he had lost weight far too quickly than what was healthy. “Have you been treated well? I know that Giles and my grandmother’s lovers have ensured your safety but if there is anything else that you need for your health or peace of mind, if it’s within the bounds of my ability I will get it for you.”

He took his gaze off of the floor to stare at her for a long while. “Why did you come here, in person?”

“I wanted to explain what the actual terms of my sentencing means without all of the carefully written malice designed to keep the other realms happy and off of your back. I want you to understand before hand that everything I’m going to say in the throne hall… it’s not going to be that bad for you and my actual feelings toward you aren’t at all malicious, but I have to make it seem that way to protect you.” Raven told him holding his gaze. “And as I said before I have questions that only you can answer.”

His brows furrowed. “Protect me? Your high- Miss Queen I am a criminal. I have harmed many due to my actions.”

“You were only trying to protect my mother from herself, we both know that legally you had every right to hide her away for her own protection as the Headmaster of Ever After High, and that what crimes you did commit were not nearly enough to warrant this violent backlash.” Raven spoke, trying to get the man to understand. “Most of this is just about a bunch of angry people who are frustrated that the one they despise is dead and so they want to take it out on you.”

“The students and staff under my care were all nearly killed!” Milton exclaimed his voice shaking. “My secretary was murdered, many students sustained injuries, and you were nearly-” He looked away, unwilling to face her.

“And now you are going to live the rest of your life in hiding and under the care of your granddaughter who has to pretend that she hates you when she actually doesn’t.” Raven told him firmly. “I’m not going to hold you responsible for the things that my mother, of her own free will, has done, you had tried to protect her, gave her someplace safe where she could not be harmed by her enemies, she is the one who was blind to just how lucky she was that you showed such mercy, and she is the one who committed those crimes, the only thing that is keeping you from being a free man is the fact that you had tried keeping her close, so that you could watch over her.”

Milton shook his head disbelieving.

“She’s the one that had done all of those horrible things, not you.” Raven reiterated with slow emphasis on the mentions to her mother. “She has harmed us both, and I am not going to give the crazed evil creature we had witnessed that day the satisfaction in the knowledge that even though her grip on my life has been severed, her shadow has settled for you. I won’t stand for that.” The witch told him in a tone that dared him to argue, her eyes clear and steady as she tried to catch his gaze again.

He covered a hand over his mouth and stared at her, his eyebrows raised so high they appeared to be trying to reach his hairline.

“Where did this come from?” He asked carefully. “I haven’t exactly made your life very easy, just the opposite in fact.”

“You have never been a danger to me.” Raven said with a shake of her head. “And my life was already difficult long before Legacy Day, certainly your attempts to get me to adhere to tradition were… underhanded, but I never feared or hated you. Annoyed at you yes, and I’ll admit that I ended up taking everything you said with less than a half of a grain of salt, but I was far too busy counting my lucky stars that you hadn’t tried to banish me or force me to sign the Book through harsher means, like I had heard being done in the past.”

“You are young, I had hoped at first that my years of experience as a Grimm, and my constant convincing would eventually get you to see reason.” Milton admitted guiltily. “When your resilience and revolution continued and grew however… I’ll admit I had panicked, causing you much trouble.”

“More trouble for you as time wore on.” Raven pointed out nodding her head to the cane the man used to help him walk.

Milton nodded sheepishly then staring at her in contemplative silence. “What is my punishment?” He asked.

“Well the first part I suppose would be having to go through with this public sentencing.” Raven took a deep breath, adjusting her shawl unconsciously. “Apple will officially strip you of your status as the Headmaster of Ever After High and the steward of the Book of Legends, which is just a formality considering that the school is in ruins and the Book has vanished without a trace. At the sentencing Daring, as my third party representation, will list out the realms that have banned you from their boarders the ones to be mentioned had either been cursed themselves or were the homelands of one of the students present at the battle of Ever After High. Your crimes, the ones that they have legally been able to pin you with, will be read by me and… I will be the one to read you your punishment.”

The witch swallowed thickly almost running a hand through her hair but abruptly aborted the gesture, remembering that it had taken forever to get her hair all done up. “My official words have been carefully written to seem as harsh as possible, but as I have said before, in reality you will be taken care of, ultimately you will have a safe place to live out your days in a house arrest of sorts as an imprisoned servant to my family name and as an official caretaker to my family’s deceased, your communication to the outside world will be limited, only a handful of chosen people will be allowed to visit you, essentially except for my family, ad your brother, you will eventually be forgotten.”

Milton mulled over the girl’s words, his brows furrowing in and up.

“That is far too lenient.” He told her.

“I don’t care.” Raven countered bluntly. “I may be lenient in my punishment towards you but in the wider scope of the bigger picture anything worse than your imprisonment would be far too excessive; because you are now the target of so much malice your exact location will have to be kept a secret for your own protection, as far as the worlds will be concerned you will become a living ghost that haunts a graveyard somewhere and that very few people will visit to torment you for your supposed crimes, and I will have to keep up this farce of wanting nothing to do with you… isn’t that more than enough to bear for a once free man? For someone who was just trying to protect a mad woman?”

Milton blinked slowly. “Farce you say… and by that you mean…?”

“I want to get to know my grandfather.” Raven confessed her voice cracking slightly before she caught it and cleared her throat of the growing lump trying to stick inside. “Or at least protect you from being excessively punished just to sate the blood lust of others… whether you want anything to do with me or my daughter after this is completely your decision of course, but for what it’s worth… on my end I… want to get to know the person who my grandmother loved so dearly she had given them her heart, and I want my daughter, and my future daughters to know their heritage both from the Grimm side and from the Queen side. You had been there in the days when there had been honor to the title of Evil Queen, you can tell the stories better than anybody else.”

Stories… why did it always lead back to that? Milton wondered what it was about the Queen family and their love of hearing stories. Elenore’s love for the stories he would tell her were how this all began, it was his daughter’s last request before she had slipped away from him, just after he had found out that he was a father…

And now his granddaughter, the only one left, was asking him to tell her a story.

About a week prior they had hidden Milton away in a mirror (of all the ironic places) while the Good King had a small memorial stone installed in honor of Elenore in one of the greenhouse rooms, her arm, the only existing remains that they knew of, had already been lovingly transported to the White family, a formal burial (one Milton would not be allowed to attend) would commence in the fall.

It was during that time, when the workers had been fitting the memorial stone, when Milton was in the mirror, and Giles stood guard inconspicuously as possible beside him, and no one was there to listen, was when Giles told him that he had, somehow, smuggled Clawstorm’s body for a final rest inside the grave plot that would have been Milton’s if he had kept his status as a Grimm and a Steward to the Book of Legends.

He had no use for the grave now, but Clawstorm’s body would remain undisturbed in the quiet dark of the family tomb, his father’s spirit will just have to accept the fact that the granddaughter whom he had done his utmost to turn away would be resting peacefully beside him, as Milton’s daughter, as a child of a Grimm.

And despite his father’s efforts, he now knew that Raven Queen (King? White?) was his granddaughter and she knew Milton was her grandfather, wanted to give him a chance to be apart of her life, to make up for so much lost time.

“As boys Giles and I were taught how to wright in a certain handwriting style that imitated the handwriting of our founding ancestors, my father used to make us forego meals and playtime until we were able to match our written words identically to our ancestors, as his father had done and his father before that, it was family tradition for Grimm’s to have similar handwriting with each other. Giles being Giles developed his own handwriting style as soon as he was old enough to get away with it… I, the dutiful one out of us, did not.” Milton began noticing that Raven’s expression turned to open pity and confusion.

Milton swallowed. “I’m telling you this because… as you have probably become aware, while your grandmother had been pregnant with your mother, she had sent me a letter informing me of her pregnancy… and received a letter back with what looked like my handwriting telling her… that I did not want to be associated with her or her child.”

“The thing is; I had never laid eyes on Elenore’s letter, and if I did I would have never abandoned her.” Milton swore passionately. “Whatever you may think of me right now, at least know that I was and am not the kind of man who would have turned away from the woman I loved more than anything in this life.” The man begged, hoping to at the very least fix this one wrong, the perception Milton’s granddaughter had of him and Elenore.

Raven shook her head, her eyes wide and horrified. “But who had written…? It wasn’t…” She searched her brain for reasonable culprits. “It wasn’t your father was it?”

Milton nodded. “It was. Father didn’t approve of my relationship with your grandmother from the very start, he wanted me to marry someone above my station, and so after I had finished university he arranged me to marry Lady Margret Hilliard, daughter of the Earl of Cabbage.”

The witch before him made a face. “Ok, first; wasn’t the Earl of Cabbage’s family exposed for… ahem, incestuous activities, and the Earl himself… didn’t he try to mate with himself in the middle of a royal function?”

Milton hummed, sounding suspiciously cheerful, shrugging his shoulders and nodding his head. “That had happened years after my father died and I broke this off with his daughter, my former potential father-in-law and his family had always been an odd bunch, to be honest I’m surprised he hadn’t done something just as publically scandalous sooner. But he was an Earl and father was keen that I marry into the family.”

“Your father was all for you marrying into that? For a Earl’s title? And yet he was against you marrying my grandmother, who was a queen, in title as well as in name, of a witch’s state?” Raven asked incredulously.

“As you know, the Queen clan has never birthed a son, and by tradition no kings have ever been crowned, if a Queen had decided to marry.” Milton pointed out. “My father wanted me, the good son, to have both a title and a chance to bear a son.”

Raven shook her head as if to clear it, her eyes filled with pain for her great-grandfather’s blatant bigotries. “That’s it? That is why he did that to you, to my grandmother, a human title and a child born male? But the Queen’s realm is a Witch’s State, being the Queen’s Consort and a Grimm on top of that would have been just as good if not better than a human king title, there’s even a hall dedicated to the most beloved of Queen Consorts of the past, hospitals and schools are even named after them.”

Milton reached forward to gently touch Raven’s knee. “I know you know that there was more to it than that.” He said, knowing that she could see his father’s bad habit of racism a mile off in the undertones of his words.

Raven grabbed his hand and held it in a tight grip. “Unfortunately… yes, I think I do see.” She whispered.

“I am… surprised that you are my granddaughter… but I find myself unopposed to the idea, to be honest I should have seen it coming; you seemed to have inherited my distinctive stubborn streak after all.” Milton coughed awkwardly.

“Does this mean that you want to be apart of my life?” She perked up looking hopeful.

“As long as you want me to be in it.” Milton promised squeezing his granddaughter’s hand back.

Raven smiled, tears of relief gathering in the corners of her eyes.

“May I ask what your daughter, my great-granddaughter’s name is?” Milton asked a light coming into his eyes and a hopeful lilt in his voice.

Raven looked at him sheepishly. “Well… about that…”

Twenty six years later…

“I’d been around over a full month and they still hadn’t named me?” The blonde witch yelped in outrage.

Milton chuckled into his tea.

“It’s not that funny grandfather.” The girl- woman now (dear gods where had the years gone?) pouted at the old man.

“I must inform you otherwise my dear girl.” Milton guffawed, doing his best to sober up a little. “Though to be fair, a lot had been going on and your parents did not want to just pick out any old name without some serious consideration.”

“I still can’t believe how close I came to be named Tatyana or LillyWyvern!” The blonde shook her head looking pained.

“Mister Croakington had supplied some odd naming suggestions.” Milton mused. “I take it his wife was the one who named your cousins.”

“If cousin Redfish was feisty enough to scare away all of her competition for uncle Hopper’s hand in marriage then I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.” The woman giggled remembering her mothers’ retellings of how gob smacked the frog prince had been when he was the one who was being romantically sought after for once; the boy had made quite the unexpected impression on the visiting witches, many of them Raven’s cousins, Redfish being one of the chief front runners for the boy’s heart.

“Was that the day you named me?” The witch asked curiously, she knew that her great-grandfather had been the one to name her but this was the first time she had heard the full story from the man himself.

“I had always guiltily fantasized about having daughters with your great-grandmother, I had always liked the name Amelia, though I had not breathed a word of any of this to anyone until the day your mother had come for my sentencing.” Milton confessed. “The first time I had seen you was a half hour after I had been convicted, and the moment I laid eyes on you I knew without a doubt that Amelia Elenore King-Queen-White was a name that would suit you to a T, and now all these years later I know that I had been very right.”

Amelia grinned, her cheeks flushing at the old man’s praise.

The witch perked up at a thought. “Did they ever find out what happened to the Book of Legends? I mean an artifact as powerful as that just doesn’t disappear.”

Milton smiled knowingly. “I have my theories, after all it would have had to take a lot of magic for the curse to turn into a cure that would burn out all of the other curses over the other realms and wipe out the Great Evil’s magic, the power needed to make you possible had to have come from somewhere after all.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “I thought that it was the other way around.” She said with a perplexed look. “What makes you think this is so?”

Milton bridged his hands and rested his head on them. “Well my first major clue was when you were able to understand words written in books with your magic before you had been taught how to read… and ever since then there have been numerous examples done by your very unique magical affinity throughout the years.”

“So if you’re right, being the first witch in history with the magical affinity over words and books wasn’t just because of my mother’s being released from their destiny and me being a descendant of a Grimm?” The woman asked holding up her hand where magic the color of candlelight surrounded the extremity, random words glowing at a higher intensity could be seen coming and going in the bit of the visible magic.

“I’d like to think that my Grimm blood had something to do with it.” The man sniffed, but was smiling all the same. “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if your great-grandmother had some hand in that as well, did you know that she is the only known magic-user ever to singlehandedly invent the mysterious magical technique to allow her spirit to remain on this plain for so long? And that was when her power had been reduced, she was quite the thing to see when she got her full powers back.” The man boasted with pride, Milton found it amusing how experts were still scratching their heads over just how the witch had managed to do that much while in the throws of death, and no one has as of yet figured out how she had preformed the spell that had allowed her so much freedom while she had been a ghost.

Wonderland had been wise to proclaim Elenore “the one who got even death to bow to her will”.

“Do you think that she would’ve liked me?” Amelia asked a little vulnerably, Elenore had always been this larger than life, almost mystical character while she had been growing up. It was more than a little daunting at times to imagine the well-spoken woman as her ancestor.

“She would have spoiled you rotten if she had been given the chance.” Milton swore handing the woman another cookie to munch on. “And you have already done more than enough in your short life to have made her proud to be your great-grandmother.” He assured softly looking off to something behind Amelia’s shoulder. “A tangible part of her stayed with me when she had gone so I know this to be true.”

Amelia turned her head on childish instinct to see what her relative was looking at, had always been looking at as far back as she could remember.

The ghostly, barley visible image of Elenore smirked playfully, disappearing like always before Amelia could spot her.

“Do you think that she is happy wherever the part of her that isn’t with you is?” The woman asked giving the room behind her one more look before turning back to Milton.

“I have never worried about her happiness on the other side…” The old man assured, Elenore was just that kind of woman, the type who forged the situation to mold to her own liking.

“My father on the other hand… wherever he had ended up, may not be as at peace since she had arrived however…” Milton muttered, his suspicions being confirmed when the ghostly manifestation of Elenore’s heart (a sort of ghostly impression of a ghost Milton figured since he had felt all but this small bit of Elenore fade away not long after Raven had let him hold Amelia for the first time) blinked into his field of vision just long enough to give him an impish shrug, wicked gleam shining in her eyes before disappearing for the time being.

Milton turned to the blonde witch. “I can say for certain that she would be proud of your decision to become the next Headmaster of Ever After High.”

“It’s not going to be easy but I’m willing to do my very best.” Amelia promised.

“At least it should be a lot less eventful than in my time when there was Royals, Rebels, and evil world conquering villains to worry about.” Milton assured.

Amelia giggled. “Well yes, I won’t have to worry about that, but Brooke has let slip that I’ll be dealing with things like auntie Cupid applying to be the next consumer sciences teacher, the Charming-Spider twins skipping a few grades to terrorize the rest of the school’s populace with their genius, and a whole lot of other stuff that will surly drive my remaining sane staff to insanity.”

Milton nodded not seeming very surprised; Amelia had always had this imaginary friend named Brooke Page, a supposed “narrator” who would slip hints about events that were happening miles away sometimes even what would transpire in the near future (he attributed her never growing out of it to a side effect of being born in the rift between Ever After and Wonderland, and her particular type of magic so he never really worried about it), and he had little trouble seeing her predictions coming true seeing as how many of his former students (they all seemed to be trouble makers at the time so it would only make sense that their children were going to be worse) were sending their prodigy to the rebuilt school.

“You already know that you can handle them, as for your staff… I’m sure they’ll adapt… eventually.” Milton assured.

“Thanks for the pep talk grandfather.” Amelia said setting down her empty teacup and standing up. “I have to go now, but I promise to contact you the first available moment I get once I arrive.” She swore hugging the old man and giving him a kiss to his temple.

“Oh I have a feeling you’ll find the time even when you are at the height of busy school affairs.” He predicted, already imagining her calmly holding a conversation with either him or her parents whilst complete pandemonium ensued in the background, and then calling him up completely panicked and paranoid because things had gotten far too quiet for her liking.

“She’ll do just fine, wouldn’t you agree Elenore darling?” Milton asked the air as he watched their great-granddaughter descend to the bottom floor of the mausoleum, a confident skip to her walk and the suspected sword of Excalibur strapped to her belt.

He felt a ghostly touch of agreement in his chest, could practically feel the presence of the witch’s spirit behind him, resting her hands on his broad shoulders as she watched with him the next generation step forward to forge her own life story.

The End (This is just the beginning…)