A whimper leaked from my throat as I stood at the doorway to Kindred's stronghold. The sun was dragging itself into the sky, out of the bed of the eastern horizon, bathing the mythical land of Loor in weakly lit beauty. "You know, considering how long you've been living here, one would think you'd be used to leaving the house by now." I turned toward the voice to see Malice, my half sister, smirking at me with her hand on her hip.

"This isn't my home," I reminded her, "I'm never going to be used to it." She was about the only one I was used to. And that's only because she was practically sewed to my hip when I first came here with our father, Kindred. She'd been so attached to me that she even adopted my speech pattern that I carried over from the mortal world.

"Why? You know the other Folk are all bark and no bite," she chuckled as she came to watch the sunrise at my side.

"You are all bark and no bite," I corrected her. "But you're also not the one who's 99% human, and in danger of traditional Folk foods and customs. You can live however you want. I need to watch myself at every fucking turn."

She went quiet, her beautiful smile fading as we looked out over the forest we were to travel through to get to our daily classes. "Father made your lunch," she said after a moment, handing me my satchel.

"Of course he did," I muttered as I took the bag and slung it onto my shoulder, not bothering to look at the contents. He was still trying to earn favor with me, but he refused to take me home. Which, to his dismay and my own, was the only way he would get so much as a hug from me.

We left the house and started our walk to classes, set to be held in the palace courtyard. I hated the courtyard. It was much, much too close to the royal family for my comfort. Not to mention we had one of the Prince's in our class. That location always gave him a holier-than-thou attitude. More so than normal.

"You're kicking again," Malice muttered as my boot collided with a rock that I had guided along the path since we left the yard of the stronghold.

"So what?" I asked, sending the rock flying across the forest floor. "It's better I kick the rock than Prince Rovaki's head, right?"

She only sighed before giving me a look that would make anyone think she was older than me. "You know fathers training you in combat for a reason, right?"

"It's literally his profession. He's not trying to do anything but bond with me," I told her, scorn evident in my voice.

"No," she shook her head, "He's trying to give you the courage to stand up to Rovaki and his little circlet of puppets."

I clapped my hands in front of me as I abandoned the rock. "Mal, you know I love you," I started.

"But?" she sighed.

"My courage wouldn't come from a blade. I'm an alchemist, and the day I get Rovaki back will be the day I finally find a recipe to turn him into a worm I can feed to Fred."

Malice rolled her eyes. "I still don't get why you named that crow something so mortal."

"I am mortal, what do you expect?" I retorted as we left the forest and walked into the palace gardens.

Prince Rovaki was already there, sitting beneath a tree with his three power-hungry friends. He was leaning back on the trunk, aiming a small bow and arrow at another of the human students, who was reading a book not far away. I glowered at the Prince as Malice and I passed. He glared back at me as he released the arrow, skimming the boys arm and making him release a cry of pained surprise as Rovaki's puppets burst into laughter. The Prince himself smirked at me, his blue eyes shining with scheming delight as he flicked his oak hair out of his face. Hate burned in my gut as I took a step toward him, reaching for a knife on my belt. If he wanted to inflict unnecessary pain on a student who did nothing to him, then he was going to have more necessary pain inflicted on him in return.

Before I could take another step, though, Malice grabbed my arm and pulled me away, ignoring my angered growling as she led me to another tree on the other side of the yard. "You're going to get yourself killed one of these days," she warned as we started climbing the trunk to get to the middle branches. She settled herself on a slightly lower branch and I climbed a few feet higher before picking one for myself.

I'd started taking classes in trees about three years ago, after Nimbus, one of Rovaki's minions, had released a snake behind where I sat. Not just any snake, though; a Matlic Gunver. Also known as one of the deadliest snakes a mortal could encounter. Native to Loor and very abundant. They couldn't climb and rarely let one of their victims live. I had been lucky that Kindred had walked me to school that day and stuck around to chat with the professor. After that I never took another class on the ground and Malice felt bad for me looking weird, so she started to join me.

I opened my bag on the branch and took out my portable writing board, some parchment, my quill and ink pot, and my books. I had perfected the art of balancing the stack of reading material in forks of the branches, and forming a fairly functional place to do my note taking. Malice still struggled a bit with getting things situated, but she never took me up on the offer to join her on the ground for one session so she could have a break from the struggle.

I finished setting up just as the professor walked into the yard and announced today's topic: Grey Mold; effects and remedies. I smiled to myself as I labeled my parchment for notes. Today would be rather useful, indeed.

***

I glared at my note paper in frustration. With Rovaki and his friends laughing for the entire lesson and causing so much chaos with their jokes and shouted disruption, I had only been able to catch a few phrases form the Tutors mouth. And most of them had been him shouting at them to shut their fruit folds...fruit holes. I sighed as I saw a dried puddle of ink that blotted out most of the ingredients to a remedy I was trying to copy down. At some point during the class, Miliko had decided it would be fun to shoot an arrow at my hand. He had missed and hit my ink pot, ruining the majority of the more useful notes I was able to jot down. I grumbled to myself as I stuffed my things into my bag, forcing myself to brush it off so as to not get a lecture from Kindred after my retaliation.

"So, I saw Hintch takin a few glances at you," I commented teasingly as Malice and I climbed out of our tree and slung our bags onto our shoulders.

"What?" her voice got high and squeaky, like it usually did when her crush was mentioned. "No he wasn't." All I had to do was smirk at her before her cheeks flushed pink. She'd been staring at him all lesson, so of course she knew he looked back at her. Even cast her a smile or two.

"When are you going to talk to him?" I asked as we started heading for the edge of the yard, noticing the boy standing by his brother and a group of girls, watching us walk.

"Um..." she glanced at the boy, resulting in a smile coming to his lips. "How about the day after never?"

"Well, not sure you're going to have that much time to prepare what you're gonna say," I commented as he started walking over.

"Shit, hide me, hide me!" she whispered in a panic as she moved behind me and ducked behind my shoulder. Hintch's smile widened as he got closer. He was one of the few Folk who talked to me like an equal, and found Malice's childish avoidances endearing.

"Good morrow, Macosna," he greeted me with a small bow.

"Hey, Hinch," I returned with a smile, feeling Malice stiffen against my back.

"I came over to speak with Malice," he told me, acting as if she wasn't here. "Alas, it appears I have missed her once again."

"Just by a millisecond," I said apologetically.

"Very well," he made his air one of grief as he reached into his pocket, "then might you mind delivering a message to her?"

"I would love to, Hintch. What would you like me to say?" I asked.

"I have it written," he said as he handed me a folded piece of paper. "As soon as possible, if you please."

"I'll make sure she gets it right away," I told him and we exchanged a smile before he winked at me and walked back toward his brother. Once his back was turned, I started unfolding the paper.

"What are you doing?!" Malice snapped as she came out from behind me.

"What?" I chuckled as I got the paper open, "Not like you were gonna read it any time soon." In response, she snatched it from me and started biting her claw as her eyes skittered over the words.

"Oh, my great Queen Mab..." she whispered as her claw fell from her shark teeth. "He wants to meet me at the pond of memories at moonhigh." She turned to me with a smile that seemed too big for her face. I chuckled as she rushed toward me and threw her arms around my shoudlers with a shout of excitement.

"Careful," I warned as I saw Hintch smiling at her scene. "You don't want the attention." She noticed him too and took my wrist before pulling me toward the trees where she could gush in peace.

"I can't believe this is happening!" she cheered as she pranced about the forest path. "What am I gonna wear? What am I gonna say? What if he tries to kiss me?" Her excitement dropped and she clutched her chest as she came to a sudden stop on the path. "Holy shit, am I ready for that?" she asked nervously.

"Malice, would you calm down?" I asked with an affectionate eyeroll. "You're going to be fine. And if he knows who your father is, he won't try kissing you until about a month after your wedding."

"Wedding?" she repeated, all color draining from her mossy face.

"As for what you should wear," I continued, deliberately changing the subject, "I'd go with that black and silver little number you got; the one you wore to the 132nd birth revel for the High King a few months back."

"You think he'd like that?" she asked as we kept walking.

"He couldn't take his eyes off you the whole night," I told her, "He danced with you like five times. Yes, I think he'll like it."

"Yes, I remember that dress, myself," the voice touched our ears in a sneer and made us freeze in our tracks. My fist clenched at my side as Malice's shoulders tensed, her eyes drifting to me with a pleading glint in them.

"As do I," another voice responded, "A rather splendid little surprise it was."

"I hadn't thought the daughter of a redcap could look so...clean, yet dirty at the same time."

My knuckles turned white as they mocked my sister.

The voices slowly walked in a wide circle to surround us; Prince Rovaki and his friends. Miliko, Nimbus, and Disarray stood in a semi circle behind us while Rovaki took his place dead center front. A mocking gleam shone brightly in his eyes and a smirk rested on his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't listen to them," I ordered Malice, "That dress was beautiful and very modest considering the amount of naked Folk that showed up."

"Who might the dress be for today, dear Malice?" Disarray asked, scorn in her voice as she glared at me.

"I have a...date...of sorts," my sister answered, keeping her gaze low. She might be a part of the Folk, but she never liked testing the faeries in Rovaki's little circle.

"Malice, why don't you run along and get yourself prettied up for it," the Prince suggested. "While Macosna gets on her knees. I've been meaning to have an audience with her for a time."

"Get on my knees," I muttered in annoyance. "Like I have anything to grovel for."

Malice looked at me and gave me a corrective pinch by my elbow. "Would you just do it? You're not equipped to take him on. Just make it back with no scratches and with no new grudges against you. I don't want to be the one ot report to Father that you got yourself mixed up with these guys again."

"So that means I need to let them turn me into a beetle?" I asked.

"For me?" she asked, "Your sister who hates to confront our father on her own?" I grumbled as I crossed my arms, glaring at the group around us. She was terrified of Kindred, but I got some sort of pleasure from him getting ticked off.

"You're lucky I like announcing to him that I got in trouble myself," I muttered as I dropped myself to the dirt and crossed my legs.

"Promise me you'll stay mellow," she ordered as she slowly let Rovaki usher her out of the circle.

"I promise," I hissed, my teeth clenching together to bite back a snap at the Prince.

She cast one more glance around the Faeries before turning and running down the trail toward Kindred's stronghold. "And now the real fun can begin," Miliko chuckled as the circle tightened around me.