Sohna and Vivian - My Brother's Keeper

The baby sighed. Virginia looked down at her daughter, now sleeping in her arms, and ran her fingers lightly down the girl's soft cheek before returning her gaze to the window. The curse had been broken now for two weeks, but she still hadn't gotten used to what she saw outside in what had once been the city of New York. From her vantage point on the seventh floor of the palace (which she still thought of as the Plaza Hotel), in one of the turrets, she had a good view of the surrounding grounds and adjacent forest. I really do live on the edge of the forest now, she thought, feeling a little eerie at having always felt this way when looking into Central Park.

After Lily - Virginia smiled and looked back down at the baby for a moment - after Lily had been born, and she and Wolf had time to get their bearings, they'd been as shocked as Dr. Oberon had been about what had taken place. For a moment, Virginia had wondered if the birth had affected her mind, but it hadn't taken Wolf long to figure out that Lily had been the "child" the prophecy had mentioned who could break the curse. Neither of them (or Tom) had any idea how she or Wolf fit the requirements, but there was no mistaking the effect. However it had been managed, it had worked. They had other things which needed their attention more, such as what to do now.

Since the Plaza Hotel was the only building they could see left standing, - there's a weird thought - that was where they had headed, since neither was anxious to return to the Ninth Kingdom, where they'd essentially been ignored before, if they didn't have to. But even the transformation which had occurred around them hadn't prepared them for what they'd found: Waiting on the steps to greet them, dressed in the (modern) livery of servants, stood the Murray family.

Virginia had nearly turned around and ran for the Ninth Kingdom. Fortunately, Tom, who hadn't been aware of her dad's wish, waved to them first, and Mr. and Mrs. Murray had run out to meet them. To Virginia's surprise, they acted normally - still like servants, but like the ones in Wendell's castle, not like enchanted slaves. Her father's wish had evidently gone with the curse, leaving the Murrays with no real recollection of it - for which she was grateful - anymore than they had any real recollection of their lives in New York City at all. Yet they hadn't simply appeared out of nowhere. When she'd asked, Mr. Murray had told her he was quite aware of the enchantment on the kingdom, and therefore themselves, and glad to be rid of it. They had thanked her profusely (though without ass-kissing or shoe-licking), and welcomed them home. She'd been even more surprised to find that the Plaza Hotel was now her personal castle, but there was no denying it when they'd ushered her into her room, still wearing her soiled nightgown, and shown her the clothes in the wardrobe. They were all her clothes; both the ones she knew she'd owned in New York, and new ones which fit her exactly - no mean trick for a woman who had just given birth.

She'd washed up and changed, but despite being tired, couldn't sleep; she'd been far too excited. So she'd been awake that evening when her father and Samantha had come through the portal, bearing news that the war in the Fourth Kingdom had ended. Her father had been surprised that his own grandchild had been the one to break the curse, but Samantha had assured him that the prophecy probably would have told them so long ago if they'd ever had the entire copy to go by. They'd stayed up late into the night discussing how the war had ended (the army that had captured Virginia had suddenly decided a law in Wendell's kingdom wasn't worth risking their own lives for), and an old loose end that was - hopefully - finally tied up: Dr. Mellifict had been recaptured.

Her dad had told them that he'd been found in the Fifth Kingdom's army camp, still raving about killing all the half-wolfs and trying to incite the soldiers to attack. They'd been as glad to be rid of him then as Wendell was to get him back into custody. Her father had also told how Wolf's brother Rafe had been released; he'd seemed sane, if depressed, since his reunion with Queen Riding Hood, and with the breaking of the curse, Wendell had decided he probably presented no further danger. He hadn't wanted to come with them to New York, however (Tony had invited him for politeness's sake, though it had been obvious that he was relieved when Rafe had said no), but instead accompanied Queen Hood back to the Second Kingdom at her request. But probably what took the most of their attention had been trying to account for what had happened to the Manhattan they knew - and all its attendant people.

Roscoe had visited briefly, bringing a map of the "Restored Kingdoms" with him later. It showed an island kingdom (or a continent kingdom, depending on what you wanted to define as an island) off the southern coast of the Second Kingdom and western coast of the Third which had not previously been there. In outline, it didn't look much like Manhattan at all, nor did it resemble any chunk of the country which contained Manhattan. But this, instead of clearing up their confusion about what had happened to the place and the people, only confused them more. Virginia supposed they might never really know. Strangely, she didn't really care, although she felt as if she should. She'd never been really close to any of the people she'd worked with, and her own family were all accounted for - Tom had found her grandmother - and her little dog Roland - when he'd gone for a hike a few days after the birth, living with a tree fairy somewhere in the vicinity of where her old apartment had been (as near as Virginia could tell). She hadn't really wanted to leave, and had complained to Virginia later about how rude the fairy had suddenly become to her when Tom had shown up and said she needed to come with him. "Fickle things, just like the stories all say," she'd snapped. "Couldn't do enough for me to start with and then couldn't be rid of me quickly enough when he came by!" Not that her grandmother had objected to the palace. In fact, she'd become quite insufferable since discovering that Virginia's child had broken the curse, telling everyone within earshot repeatedly how she'd always known she was descended from royalty.

Virginia looked back down at the quiet infant in her arms, then stepped over to lay her gently in her cradle, so she could begin dressing. Today had been chosen as Lily's naming day, a wolf tradition where the child was given its name - to be used later only by those who'd attended the ceremony and their close relatives. Though they'd called her "Lily" since birth, this would make it official for her wolf relatives, most of whom were expected to attend. Millie would definitely be coming, of course, accompanied by Wolf's sister Abby, and hopefully also his other sister Dierdre and her husband Stephen and their son (whose name Virginia hadn't yet learned). But although Rafe had been invited, she didn't really expect him to attend, though she supposed there was an outside chance that if Queen Riding Hood attended (all the royals had received invitations), he would come as well. She thought it extremely unlikely that any royalty (except Wendell) would take time out of their busy day to attend a wolf-child's naming ceremony, however. Nor did she think Grandmaster Wizard Roscoe would be attending, though he, also, had received an invitation. Regardless, she knew she had to be present and waiting in front of the portal for any guests who might arrive, and quickly donned the simple blue dress she had chosen.

At the exact time of the appointed hour, King Wendell stepped through the portal.

"Virginia!" he exclaimed happily, and kissed her on the cheek before turning to receive the arriving Lord Rupert and Princess Gwendolyn. But before she could greet the two newcomers, they stepped aside and another guest came through: The Dwarf King, who immediately turned himself to allow Reginald, the boy soldier who had helped Virginia escape her imprisonment arrive. The diminutive king then turned to Virginia.

"Lovely lady, I would like to apologize for the way you were treated on your last visit to us," he began.

"Oh, yeah, right," muttered her husband loudly, to her chagrin. He was already shifting from foot to foot with having to wait by the portal. Virginia handed Lily to him and he quickly settled down, however.

The king continued, "Although I assure you that your health and well-being were in no way being neglected - in truth, one of our midwives had been dispatched to serve you - we were entirely remiss in hospitality; we should have made certain you were informed that someone was on the way. As it was, she arrived just as you were both leaving ..."

"And they wouldn't let me follow," chimed in Reginald.

The king looked up at him testily.

"No," he said as if he'd repeated it too many times already. "The new traveling mirror is a gift to the newborn princess. We do not use our gifts before we give them." He glanced back at Wolf quickly and added in a more mollifying tone, "The recipient is, of course, permitted to use the gift ahead of time if need be. And, as the gift is promised ..."

He gestured grandly back toward the portal, which flashed briefly, then suddenly became bordered in the familiar gilt frame with circular designs of a traveling mirror.

"The two mirrors have now been tuned to each other," he explained. "From now on, it will be possible to control the portal from both sides."

"We can move it?" asked Wolf.

The old dwarf nodded, smiling.

"Yes," he said. "So it's no longer necessary for everyone to stand about outside waiting on the other arrivals."

The new mirror was promptly set up in the entrance foyer of the palace, where Murray was assigned to keep watch for the arriving guests. Unlike the outdoor portal in the near-wilderness, it didn't seem necessary for the hosts to be present themselves for the arrivals; they'd simply be greeted by a servant as they would when they entered any other palace.

This, of course, left them quite a bit of time to socialize with each other in the drawing room, which had once been the lobby of the hotel and to Virginia's eyes didn't look vastly different from the way it once had. Wolf began by asking the Dwarf King if he had any idea why all the mirrors led to New York in the first place.

"Well, I can't be certain," the old dwarf hedged, "but I'd suppose that they led there because that was the home of Virginia the Fair, one of those who could break the curse. There had to be some means for her to travel to our world, else the curse could never be broken."

"But it didn't lead to New York when Grimm used it two hundred years ago," Tony pointed out.

"Two hundred years ago Virginia's family may not have lived in New York," surmised the dwarf. "Would they have?"

Virginia laughed. Tony admitted it wasn't likely, and Grandma sniffed disdainfully.

"My family was from Austria," she intoned, as if that explained everything.

"Well, mine was too," Tony told her. "Not the Lewises, but my mother's family; they were from Bavaria."

"Oh, well, Bavaria ..." Grandma waved her hand in dismissal. "I suppose that does explain your great interest in beer."

"Well, whichever side of Virginia's family was involved," interposed Samantha, "I think we can be reasonably sure, given what we do know from the prophecy, that she's descended from the ruling family of the previously mythical Tenth Kingdom."

"I don't see that there's any question involved," continued Grandma. "It's quite obvious which side of the family is the royal one." She smiled archly.

Virginia found herself wanting to shake her grandmother. At the same time, she couldn't help being glad that the woman had finally thrown off the depression she'd gone into following her encounter with the Swamp Witch. If only she could find some pleasant middle ground ...

Her thoughts were interrupted by Reginald, who pulled her slightly aside to apologize for his behavior at the base of Dragon Mountain.

"I should have realized I was being influenced," he explained. "It's just that it was so difficult to tell when the curse was influencing me to do something I was conditioned to do otherwise. That is, not that I would have attacked your husband knowing who he was. I meant wolfs in general, you know."

His sister abruptly interrupted this little speech with, "I cannot believe you thought I was being held prisoner by Wendell!"

He turned bright red with embarrassment, giving Virginia the opportunity to say, "I'm just glad you were able to see through the curse well enough to get me out of there," and to gracefully excuse herself. It was obvious that he was by no means over his dislike of wolfs; she realized that absence of the curse would not erase the old prejudices against them, and her chest tightened as she looked over at her smiling husband cuddling their newborn daughter. Before her thoughts became too maudlin, however, Murray entered and announced the arrival of the "Wolf family."

They entered practically all at once: Millie, Abby, Dierdre, and Stephen, carrying his and Dierdre's five month old son. It was Virginia's first good look at her nephew, and though she expected him to have a tail (they had not bothered to hide it in the company of all who knew they were wolfs anyway), she was astounded to see that he had a full set of teeth.

"Oh, yes, we're born with all our milk teeth," Millie told her in response to her remark about how quickly they'd come in, as if it were common knowledge. "Does your daughter not have them? Not that she should; she's not a full-blooded half-wolf." With that, she walked over to see little Lily's teeth (or lack thereof) for herself, leaving Virginia rather stunned and somewhat glad she'd never heard that little detail before, as it hardly mattered now. Unless, she thought, she and Wolf had another child ...

"Grandmaster Wizard Roscoe," announced Murray.

Virginia's head snapped around just in time to see the old wizard walk into the room, wearing his ubiquitous stained overalls and flannel shirt.

"I would'na miss it," he told her in response to her obvious amazement.

"Is anyone else coming?" a female voice asked quietly at her elbow. She turned to see Abby standing there. "If not, we could get started."

Virginia hesitated a moment, not knowing if she should mention Rafe or not. Surely, if her brother were coming, Abby would be aware of it? But before she could form a question, the Dwarf King interrupted them.

"If your expected guests have all arrived, I've got a special request to fulfill," he told them. "Queen Cinderella told us she wanted very much to attend, but didn't feel well enough to make the overland trip to Wendell's castle. I agreed to refocus the mirror - temporarily - to her castle to accommodate her."

Speechless at the last Great Woman of History's desire to attend her daughter's ceremony, Virginia gestured to him to go ahead. But before he made it out to the hall, Murray had reappeared once more.

"Queen Riding Hood III and her companion," he announced, and the room grew silent.

Rafe held his breath, wary, despite reassurances, of the meeting with his brother and sister-in-law. His last unfettered meeting with Virginia was all too clear in his mind, and despite having been told that the curse, and not he, was responsible for his actions, he knew deep in his heart that it wasn't really so: If he had not allowed the hate to consume him following the death of his family, it would not have been so easy for the curse to make use of him; and he had done far worse things than try to eat his brother's mate. But the self-hate into which he had sunk had been just as bad, in fact easier for the curse to use and more difficult to shake off. Even now it threatened to overwhelm him; he had to consciously battle it back down, and he glanced over at the lovely woman at his side for strength, realizing even as he did so that she was taking her strength from him.

Odd, he thought, that we would have so much in common, and ironic that the mistakes she made which fueled my hatred now give me the strength to live. But if I can see the good in her, despite everything, then I feel there is hope still for me as well. He squeezed her hand, and together they stepped into the reception chamber.

The room was immense, but he'd become somewhat inured to royal palaces by then and was only really conscious of spaciousness broken at intervals by pale marble columns, and great golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. His family, gathered at a seating area by a nearby fireplace, took all of his attention. It occurred to him that he hadn't seen all of them together since Simon's wedding.

Aunt Millie looked pensively at him as if she expected him to fly into a rage - or break down, he reflected - any moment, though she remained silent. Dierdre was holding a cub too old to be Simon's newborn, which confused him momentarily until he remembered that she'd also been pregnant at the wedding. His eyes picked out Virginia, who regarded him warily, standing with her hands on his brother's shoulders, behind him, as he held a small bundle which consumed literally all of his attention. Rafe realized that the passion Simon had always expressed towards everything was probably multiplied many times for him with the cub; he looked as if he were aware of no one else in the room besides his child (and possibly his mate); he hadn't even bothered to look up as they'd entered. Strangely, and with more relief than he believed possible, Rafe felt no jealousy towards the new parents for what he himself had lost; merely a vast internal emptiness broken only by the slight whisper of possibility in the woman beside him. She was truly his mate; there was no denying that destiny had brought them together, but although he knew the possibility of a family still existed for him, he shrank away from the idea. The loss of Melody and Charlie was still too raw; he wouldn't knowingly expose his heart to that risk - at least not yet. Maybe with time he could do it, but right now it was still too soon. Besides, he thought with a small smile, she was still the queen and he a wolf. Despite the decrees she had made for equality of wolfs when they'd returned to the Second Kingdom, he knew that centuries of prejudice could not simply be legislated away. Even if she forced everyone to accept him as her consort, it would be years before the idea of mixed children in the royal house would be accepted, and even then, he knew his status as a commoner would likely give the anti-wolf faction some legal ground to prevent their succession, at least, if not their legitimacy. Such things were too personal for him to battle for at the moment.

"Claret," King Wendell began politely, "How wonderful you could attend!"

"Please, Wendell, call me Claire. I've never really liked Claret and am frankly tired of the color red, blasphemous as that may sound," she replied, smiling kindly, and turned to Virginia. "I hope we weren't interrupting anything."

"Oh!" Virginia exclaimed, tearing her considerably voracious attention from him. If he hadn't smelled her wariness and reserved hostility towards him, he'd certainly have noticed it from her surprised reaction. "No, no, we haven't started yet."

"Virginia," he began softly, with a quick glance down at his brother, who still did not look up. Nevertheless, Rafe did not make the mistake of believing Simon was paying no attention to him; if he were to attack Virginia as he had before, he had no doubt that his brother would spring to her defense faster than he could blink. The thought gave him renewed admiration for Simon; nine years of prison with no hope of parole or pardon had failed to do to him what a single year of self-imprisonment had done to Rafe - he had become not the curse's pawn, but its conqueror. Even had he not already demonstrated his physical superiority, Rafe would acknowledge him the family's alpha for that alone.

"I want to apologize for my behavior toward you," he continued when she replied only by re-focusing her attention on him. He realized then that although he could smell a great deal of wariness on her, she had very little real fear. And, what fear she did have seemed to be for her cub's behalf. It occurred to him that her fear might always have been only for her cub. Out loud, he said, "There is no excuse for the way I acted. I simply wanted you to know that I won't behave so in the future." He looked away from her penetrating blue gaze and felt, rather than saw her hostility wane.

"Apology accepted," she told him simply.

"I've heard you instituted a wolf pardon too," Wendell was saying to Claire.

"More than that," she replied proudly. "The Second Kingdom has declared wolfs to be full and equal citizens, which is more than the Fourth Kingdom has yet done."

"Ah, really ... ?" sputtered the Fourth Kingdom's king. "Well ..."

Rafe noticed irascibly that while Wendell seemed to be genuinely chagrined at being out-maneuvered, his paramour looked slightly aghast at the possibility of wolfs as equal citizens. Or, maybe he was just being uncharitable, he thought, and Rupert was really aghast at Wendell's faux pax.

"Yes, I've even appointed a Minister of Wolfs to see that their rights are upheld," she continued with a meaningful glance in his direction to let everyone know exactly who the new Minister was. Almost all of them stared at him in surprise.

"Do they know that he's a ..." Wendell started to ask.

"They do now," she replied ominously, leaving them to work out on their own that none of the existing council had known he was a wolf until some days after they'd been working together. It still gave him immense satisfaction to remember the looks on their faces. "And any who objected too strongly are no longer among my advisors."

"They resigned?" asked Wendell.

"I asked for their resignation," she replied. "I am the queen of the Second Kingdom, which is - technically - an absolute monarchy. My mother and I relied heavily on our advisors, but I realized while I was ... away ... that it wasn't legally necessary for me to heed them. I only wish I had realized it earlier."

"And this works?" he asked.

"Works," she repeated. "Does your wolf pardon work, Wendell? It's a step, that's all. But it's a step in the right direction."

Whatever Wendell might have replied was cut short by the butler's announcement.

"Queen Cinderella of the First Kingdom!"

Rafe's eyes shot to the foyer doorway, astounded that the ancient queen would leave her self-imposed cloister; so far as he knew, she hadn't appeared in public in over fifty years. As he watched her enter, however, he wondered if maybe this wasn't a descendent and not the original; she seemed too young for the two-hundred year old queen. As was her custom, however, she entered flanked by two very ugly female attendants.

"Virgil assures me I haven't missed anything," she said huskily to Virginia as she slowly crossed the room. "But I do hope I haven't kept you waiting."

As she drew near, Rafe realized from her scent that she was indeed the aged Great Queen. But he had just begun to process that information when a somewhat harried porter rushed into the room, exclaiming, "There's a dragon in the courtyard!"

He walked in through the front door as the others had done, in his human form, the dark-haired, black garbed man Samantha remembered so well from her dream. The sight of him here, in the "real" world stunned her, making her feel momentarily dizzy, and she clutched onto Tony's arm.

"Are you okay?" he murmured to her.

"Oh, yes, fine," she replied distractedly.

"You sure?" he sounded dubious, as if she were hiding something from him which he ought to know about - and considering what the dragon had told her, she supposed it was true, in a way. Still, she could think of no real way to bring the subject up.

"Forgive me for interrupting," said the dragon, addressing Virginia and Wolf, and incidentally giving Samantha a chance to recover her thoughts. "But may I attend the ceremony? I understand if you wish it to remain private - however I do have a personal reason for the request. I may tell it to you afterwards, as circumstances allow."

"What does that mean - ‘as circumstances allow'?" Tony muttered irritably under his breath, and she poked him.

Wolf and Virginia looked at each other, then down at their baby. Finally, Virginia said, "Of course. If it weren't for you, Li ... our baby would probably have been born at the base of Dragon Mountain." Then, realizing what she'd just called the place she'd named, she blushed furiously.

"Shall we get started, then?" asked Wolf's aunt. No one objected, so she indicated that they should all go outdoors.

The naming ceremony, which celebrated the child's relationship with the elements and creatures of nature, surprised Samantha nearly as much as the dragon's appearance had. Chagrined at the revelation that she'd never really thought of the wolfs as a people with a distinct culture, she realized how difficult it was really going to be to achieve the reform which Queen Riding Hood and King Wendell had begun. After all, Samantha had never thought of herself as particularly prejudiced or uninformed, and even she had thought them uncivilized.

Interestingly, it was the bard sister, and not the aunt, who performed the actual rites, dubbing the child "Lily" to all the friendly spirits present, who were thereafter charged with keeping her name safe from those who might mis-use it. The baby awoke just in time for the end of the ceremony and stared at her aunt with round eyes and a serious expression as her father held her proudly up for the presentation. But when she went to ask the young woman about her role afterwards, she found the dragon-man had arrived there first.

"That was beautiful," he told her. "And not very much changed in the thousand years since the Basquel once performed it."

Samantha blinked. She felt as if she'd just been told something which ought to make everything clear, but whose exact nature still eluded her. Wolf's sister looked confused.

"So we got the custom from the Basquel?" she asked.

"No," he said, "Not exactly. You see, the half-wolfs are the Basquel."

Samantha gasped, the realization hitting her. Of course, it all makes sense now!

"Exactly," he said, smiling. "I told you it was right in front of you. Of course, so was what you found, but there was no need to limit yourself."

"What do you mean, we are the Basquel?" asked the bard.

"Shall we sit down, and I'll tell you the story?" said the dragon.

Samantha sat down at once, pulling Tony down beside her. She noticed the faces of the others looked as stunned as she herself felt. When they'd all become comfortable on the ground (with the exception of Cinderella, who remained in the chair which had been provided for her during the ceremony), the dragon began:

"Long ago there lived a princess. Her family ruled the people that called themselves the Basquel, but were known to legend as the dryads, who possessed a kind of nature magic. It was rumored that the royal family contained some dragon blood from a long-ago alliance with a dragon prince, and that because of this, they were stronger in their magic than the average citizen. But the princess was the strongest in magic of any in the kingdom, and was encouraged by her family to develop her ability, so becoming with practice a great sorceress of her people. In due time, she became betrothed to a prince of the neighboring island kingdom, who had been her childhood friend. The two were deeply in love and looked forward to a long life of happily ever after together, as well as a union of the two nations, as both were the heirs to their respective thrones. However, the ruler of a rival kingdom, jealous of the prosperity enjoyed by the dryads, formed an evil plan to gain their kingdom for his own, and directed his necromancer to develop a method of eliminating the populace without destroying the fertility of the land.

"On the eve of the wedding, which coincided with one of the most powerful of magic times - the full moon in Cancer on Midwinter's eve - the necromancer loosed a powerful disease upon the dryad population. People and most wild animals (the disease did not affect domestic animals at the evil king's request) were overcome with madness - a raging delirious fever which came and went. Although not all were affected at once, the disease spread - so that the loved ones of those affected became infected first, along with those healers who had tried to treat them. It was known that the attack of an infected animal would also infect the victim. There was no cure and the disease was invariably fatal. The couple postponed their wedding so that the sorceress-princess could devote all her time to finding a cure. She worked night and day, but still it wasn't fast enough as the people were dying by the hundreds. Eventually the king and queen became infected, and they, too, passed away, leaving only the princess and a much younger brother. Yet she still worked on, assuming the title of queen without benefit of formal coronation as there was no time for it. Her betrothed remained by her side (the island status of his kingdom gave it immunity, and he rightly assumed his people would be safer anyway in case he or his servants inadvertently carried the infection home - plus he loved his intended wife and wished to stay with her), and she felt as if he were her only anchor to her own survival as her family and friends died around her. Yet the only weakness she could find in the disease was in its refusal to attack certain animals. With study she found that, of the higher wild animals, only the wolves were immune. Although it was likely due to their close genetic relationship with domestic dogs, she seized upon this singularity as the key to the problem. Her fiancé, on the other hand, tried to draw her attention to the odd nature of a disease in general which attacks everything but domestic animals, believing quite rightly that its origin was magical. But his lady was under too much distress by that point to listen clearly, and at that moment, in fact, one of the infected study animals broke loose and attacked him. Acting in haste because she dared not lose him above all others, she invoked a spell she had recently devised which would give to him the wolves' immunity. Unfortunately, due to the magical nature of the original attack, the two spells fused and her lover became the first of the half-wolfs - forever bound to experience the madness with the coming of each full moon, and unable to escape what he was because the spell of a dryad sorceress is a spell of nature: What he became, he became, and so also any of his descendants would be. Because it was again full moon, she saw immediately the effects of her spell, and that it wasn't what she'd intended, however she also knew his life was no longer in danger. So, to be with him, she cast the spell again upon herself, and they coupled in the madness.

"With the waning of the moon, however, he became more and more disgusted with what he had become, and with her for making them both into what he considered freaks. So, in a final effort to appease him (though he didn't ask it of her) she cast the spell on the entire remaining population of her kingdom so he would no longer feel different. This also effectively stopped the disease and its spread, but the prince was only horrified by what his princess/queen had done, and unable to bear living his life in thrall to the moon, threw himself from the castle's highest tower. The sight of his broken, lifeless body stripped the young queen of what remained of her sanity. In a fury of hate, she shut herself up in her workroom and invoked the curse which would deprive his kingdom of magic - for he had spurned the magic with which she saved him - and set it apart from all others, so that none might see or remember it, while his people would never recall the existence of any others. But likewise, because he had hated what he had become, so she also hated it, and cursed the day she'd transformed her people into creatures they could never accept being (to her thought), though she could not take their lives to end their suffering since she could not bear to see her sweet dear brother, the only remaining of her loved ones, die. Because she still loved him even as the curse was cast, there would remain one way by which it could be broken - if a descendant of her betrothed's line could ever come to love one of her brother's descendants for what he now was, and bear a child from the union. Unfortunately, in her madness, she was not content with such a simple dissolution, and filled the curse's dissolving with meaningless and irrational trivia, such as the necessity of having the birth take place in her lover's kingdom, among other things. Such a curse required a blood seal to guarantee its continuance. She sealed it with her life.

"As for the rival king and his necromancer, they gained the dryads' kingdom, but at a price. All who entered were invariably attacked during the full moon by maddened (but to the outsiders, apparently invisible at other times) wolves. Eventually, however, they understood that the creatures were involuntary shape-changers, and the persecution of the half-wolfs began. It continues to this day."

His last words fell on silence. Samantha was still trying to work out what the ramifications of the curse's being dissolved meant, when Helen piped up, "How romantic!" and then jabbed Tony in the arm and sniffed, "See? I always told you that you married into royalty. You just never had any respect for your betters."

The dragon-man cleared his throat. "Ma'am, your own line may be quite strong in the magical arts, however the parent through which Virginia is descended from the island king's ruler is her father."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Helen, blinking. "You can't be serious." But her voice wavered even as she said the words. Samantha wanted to shout in triumph, so tired was she of the woman's never-ending put-downs of Tony, but looking at Tony's face she could practically see the wheels turning in his mind as his expression went quickly from shocked surprise to crafty, dangerous smile. She suspected he might end up being even worse at Helen's game than the old woman was, and wondered how long it would be before she tired of listening to insults being hurled the other direction, but it didn't take her long to decide that after listening to her for over twenty years, Tony was long overdue any retort he wished.

"I feel a migraine coming on," the old woman announced in a pained voice. "If you'll excuse me, I believe I'll go lie down." She got up and walked towards the castle, her back ramrod straight.

So absorbed was Samantha in Tony's reaction that she barely heard Virginia's question:

"So, in other words, Wolf is a descendent of the Basquel Queen's brother?"

"Yes," the dragon assured her. "Else his child could not have broken the curse."

"They are royals," said a woman's voice. Samantha looked back to see Queen Riding Hood speaking. "Sovereigns of a kingdom within the Second long thought dead, but still living." She turned to Wolf, who was nuzzling his daughter's face, seemingly the least affected by the revelation of all of them. "You, sir, are the King of the Wolfs."

"What?" he asked. "No. That was a thousand years ago. The wolfs have no king. We're just wolfs."

"But ..."

"He's quite right," the dragon told her. "The Basquel may have been transformed, but they never ceased to exist. The monarchy died out with the casting of the curse, however. There is no Wolf King."

"There could be," she stubbornly insisted.

"I have no desire to be the King of the Wolfs," Wolf told her coldly. "I couldn't do it from here anyway, since I have no intention of leaving my family."

Despite her insistence that Wolf was a king, his statement seemed to satisfy her, which mystified Samantha until Claire pointedly asked, "May I take that as an abdication?"

Wolf glared at her; Samantha thought he probably only avoided growling so as not to upset the baby. "How can I abdicate a throne that doesn't exist?" he demanded.

"I see what you're doing," his brother put in suddenly. "Unfortunately it won't work."

She looked up at him crossly.

"The wolfs would never accept a ‘Wolf King,' you see, as there's never been one," he explained. "The fact that our ancestors might have been royal a millennium ago would mean nothing to them now. In any case, I am not the person for such a position."

"Those in the Second Kingdom accept me, a human, as their queen," she said. "And I am certainly less qualified than you to lead them. Acceptance by the wolf population is not the issue."

They all looked at her, perplexed.

"The wolfs may not care about your illustrious ancestry, but the nobility who would object to you as my legal and recognized husband would be forced to acknowledge you as a royal with an older lineage than they themselves - or I, for that matter - possess. Once we marry, you would be co-ruler of the Second Kingdom; and by default the wolfs - those in the Second Kingdom - would accept you as their ruler, in their case, not because of a thousand year old bloodline, but because you were married to me."

He looked away. "I understand," he said quietly. "You're right, the wolfs would accept a king under those circumstances. I am simply not fit to be their leader."

"Oh," she replied quietly. Samantha could tell she had taken his words as a rejection. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who had, as Virginia said, "But aren't you their leader now?"

The couple both looked at her.

"I mean, as Minister of Wolfs, don't you do essentially the same job? Oversee the rights of the wolfs?"

Claire looked away and bit her lip, not seeing the light of consideration entering her companion's eyes. In the end it was Wolf, who Samantha thought had lost interest in favor of staring at his now sleeping infant, who clinched it: "You're more fit than I am to lead them," he said. "You were always the one so interested in wolfs' rights and reform laws. Plus, you're the only wolf there is who has Queen Riding Hood as a lifemate!" He smiled toothily, and Claire looked up, surprised, to see her man staring at her meaningfully.

"That's true," he admitted quietly.

Behind them, Cinderella wheezed, exclaiming, "Oh, paugh! Honey, take my advice; I've lived a long, long time. When the shoe fits, you wear it. And remember, in my kingdom, that's an honor, not an insult."

Everyone laughed.

"Very well," the future Wolf King said to Claire, so softly Samantha imagined it was meant for her ears alone, though she was too close to the couple not to overhear him, "I shall ask you and then we can stop talking about ‘if ever' and ‘if only' and ‘maybe someday'. Will you marry me?"

She smiled with a sigh, obviously relieved, and replied, "Well, of course I will!"

Everyone applauded and Claire blushed. Her fiancé simply smiled, his eyes never leaving her face.

Feeling that the tension was over and that the dragon might soon leave, Samantha hurried to say, "While I understand that everything has been restored because the curse has been lifted, I do wonder why a Guardian of Time would involve himself in the affairs of the world. Aren't you supposed to remain neutral? At least the wizards have always viewed your role as neutral observers; it was your system, in fact, on which the council modeled their own."

He smiled at her, humor in his amber-colored eyes.

"Tell me," he said, "What purpose would a guardian serve who merely watched, but did nothing when it was necessary?"

"So you are a Guardian," she said, pouncing on his virtual admission.

"What's a Guardian of Time?" asked Virginia. "Don't tell me Doctor Who lives in the Nine Kingdoms too!"

Everyone was uncomfortably silent for a moment. Samantha noticed the dragon-man looking pointedly at Cinderella.

"Oh, all right, I'll explain," she agreed, "But I may not get it exactly right, after all, I'm not one of you ... yet. What it is, is after a person has lived an eventful life, they pass on, but their spirit is allowed to still interact in the affairs of this world for certain worthwhile goals - mostly to help other individuals fulfill their destinies. Usually the destinies in question are close to what the spirit's destiny was in life, or the spirit works to serve his or her descendants or those close to them. If you're wondering, it's the wizards who call them ‘Guardians of Time', although I'm not really sure exactly what ‘time' has to do with it; we call them Fairy Godmothers or Fairy Godfathers."

"Like Snow White?"

"I'm certain that she probably is one, yes. But this sort of thing - a curse cast eons ago from where the Second Kingdom is now wouldn't likely involve her." The old woman paused and looked speculatively at the dragon. "That story you told us said it was rumored that the Basquel royal house contained dragon blood from long in their past. Now that wouldn't have anything to do with your own involvement, would it?" She smiled charmingly, her eyes dancing.

"It might," the dragon-man acknowledged, "But that story has little to do with the present. As for your curiosity concerning time, it probably has to do with how different the future would be for not just a few, but many people, if certain individuals failed to fulfill their destinies. Even so, the help is usually in the form of advice. We only interfere materially when a destiny is continually blocked by opposition."

"Like obstacles being continually thrown in our path by the curse?" asked Virginia.

He nodded. "Or by a wicked stepmother," he said, smiling at Cinderella.

"Like that death-watch thing," Tony put in. "Whatever happened with that anyway?"

"It lost power with the breakin' o' the curse," piped up the Grandmaster. "It's just a plain ol' watch now, though it does'na work no more te keep time."

"But where did it come from?"

"Coulda come from anywheres," was the answer. "‘Tis nothin' but junk."

"It was an ordinary watch that had been enchanted," interpreted Samantha.

"Aww, well that's a disappointment!" he exclaimed. At their bewildered stares, he hastily added, "I mean, I thought there would be a more ... um ... magical explanation. Like the watch was some long-lost artifact or something. Not that I wanted to keep it ... You know, like that prophecy thing?"

"Aye, the prophecy." Roscoe nodded. "What was t'whole t'ing anyway? Was it ever found?"

"Oh, I found it," blurted Claire, looking still somewhat distracted by the mention of the erstwhile watch.

"You did?" Wendell demanded.

"Well, yes, when we went looking ..." she started to explain in a small voice, but then said, "But it's totally useless, really. I mean, now I've heard the whole story, I still can't imagine figuring that all out from what was written."

"Well, where is it? Can we see it for ourselves?"

"It's in a drawer in my bedchamber."

"You didn't bring it?"

"No. Why should I have?" she asked defensively. "The curse is broken now anyway, and regardless, the thing was useless, like I told you."

Unexpectedly, the dragon came to her aid. "She's right," he said. "The prophecy was useless. But if you insist on hearing it anyway, I can recite the entire thing for you:

"Upon a hill, in the world of old
Sleeps a story, remains untold
Sit back, learn this lesson well
Of a kingdom under a great spell...

"Imagine a land, so wealthy, serene
Lived the dryads, gentle has been
But peace here was to end soon
Midwinter's Eve, full of the moon

"A kingdom that once thrived
In the end, no one survived
Land barren, desolate, dry
In the dark, a piercing cry

"Basquel Queen, her time to end
A broken heart that will not mend
By her hand, her love's great pain
Determined to save what remain

"In a whisper, with her last breath
Promise sealed with her death
Gathered her strength, eyes closed
Wove these words, full of woe:

"My dearest, my love, one last spell
I cloak your people, hide them well
I promise you with all my heart
A child twixt two shall take part

"Evil passed over, nothing can quell
My heart, my people, my kingdom fell
I did what I thought was best for all
To save the people, and you ere the fall

"Your eyes, once kind, turned cold
I saw no love, only the hate you hold
On deaf ears fell my woeful pleas
Love me again, I fell to my knees

"Cursing my name, you turned away
Eyes looking skyward, as if to pray
My body, frozen, as if a dream
Lifting my head to heaven, screamed

"By his hand, he took his life
Ease his spirit, tormented by strife
Welcoming death with open arms
He fell blinded to her charms.

"I have plunged to eternal dark
Must naught return peace to my heart?
Return with Oberon to your native land
Ere the hourglass drains of sand."

When he had finished, he looked at Samantha and said, by way of explanation, "I told you I was terrible at riddles."

"You wrote that?"

"Someone has to."

Ignoring their digression, Virginia asked, "What was that about returning with Oberon?"

"Yes," agreed Tom. "What was that?"

"Just one of the trivial stipulations I told you about in the story. In order to make it more difficult for the curse to be broken, she required Oberon to be present at the child's birth."

"But Oberon doesn't exist!" exclaimed Rupert. "He's merely a legend."

"As was the Tenth Kingdom only three weeks ago," replied the dragon sagely. "He certainly existed in the Basquel Queen's day. The stipulation wouldn't have been effective if he hadn't."

"He was trapped here, wasn't he?" asked Gwendolyn, with a sideways glance at Tom.

"What?" exclaimed Tom, comprehending her meaning. "No, I hardly think so. At least I'm not him, which is what you seem to be implying. I have very clear memories of my childhood in Farmington, thank you. More likely it was one of those loopholes that allow anyone named Oberon to fill the bill. Besides, I haven't noticed myself sprouting any wings."

"Oberon didn't have wings," she retorted. "And you very much resemble the painting of him my mother has at the palace."

"I'm sure that's just a coincidence."

"Well, I'm sure the Guardian of Time can clear it all up," she insisted.

But the dragon was already standing up.

"It's time for me to go now," he explained.

"But I still have a question," asked Tom a bit petulantly, after his argument with Gwendolyn. "What happened to all the people in New York? They aren't here; I've gone looking ..."

"Oh, I kin answer that," Roscoe assured him. The dragon smiled and started away.

Samantha patted Tony on the arm, got up, and followed. She wasn't sure he'd acknowledge her after his dismissal to the group, but she had to try. As she headed after him, she could hear Roscoe behind her, explaining to the group that New York and its people had not gone anywhere; that the Tenth Kingdom (as it was now being called) had merely been superimposed upon the world in which New York was located, and that with the breaking of the curse, the superposition was removed - and that the New Yorkers who were not involved would have noticed nothing unusual happening.

When they reached the castle courtyard, the dragon turned and looked at her.

"I just wondered," she began, "why you appeared to me? Your involvement with Virginia and Wolf I understand, but why me? I have nothing to do with this kingdom or the curse on it. Is there some other reason?"

He smiled. "Nothing you need to worry about," he told her. "Though you may work it out for yourself." The area grew hazy, as if a mist were moving into the three-walled enclosure. When she blinked, the man was gone, and a great dragon seemed to tower over her. He spread his rain-colored wings and began to disappear from view, though not into the sky.

"You're doing just fine," she heard in her mind before he vanished entirely, leaving the courtyard abruptly clear of the moisture she'd been certain was there only a moment before. Shrugging her shoulders, she started back towards the group, where Tony waited for her, flanked by his daughter and son-in-law, and holding his new grandchild. They've all fulfilled their destinies, she thought, at least so far. Tony looked up and smiled as she got within view. Behind them, she saw Roscoe wink at her. She stopped and glanced up at the tall, singular mountain peak that hovered over them, imagining she saw something with wide, iridescent wings circling in the sky above it, bank and disappear from view. Then she smiled and went forward to fulfill her own destiny.