ᴍᴏɴᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ
ᴏғ ᴏsɪʀᴀɴ 1219ᴀᴄ
1 ᴘᴍ

AFTER THE DISASTROUS EVENTS THREE DAYS AGO at Ben's coronation, the new King of Auradon had led an announcement of the Rotten (dubbed the VK's which was a stupid nickname in Mal's opinion) who would soon become official Auradon residents. Ben's parents, the preceding rulers, also had their own announcement of a celebration for their son's crowning. Their way of trying to redo the first one and try to leave a successful memory of their kid in the eyes of the much older and experienced rulers that now have to answer to him. The festival would be in two days and would be held inside Ivory Castle, the home of the ruling monarch. If she wanted this to go perfectly, she'd need her people to be centered, not actively against her which some were.

Evie was still angry at Mal and it was getting really old, really fast. The boys were out doing who knows what. Carlos dragged Jay away for something and left the girls in their dorm room with nothing but silent tension and an air of resentfulness. She was surprised the witch hadn't retaliated in her usual crude ways: itching powder that burns your skin, tooth decay paste mixed into your breakfast, or the usual hallucinogens that most of the time ends with them attempting to pull out their hair out in clumps.

So, she figured to get ahead of it and offer an olive branch. They were finally making some real progress in blending in with the kingdom, she didn't have the patience nor the time to entertain Evie's convoluted comeuppance plans. Mal would hardly ever be the person to try and end things peacefully, her way often ended with someone under her boot. Whether they were alive or dead didn't matter to her. Now? She needed to make sure her allies remained exactly that, which meant getting Evie back on her side.

"Here," She not-so-delicately placed the large fishbowl on the table set by the window. "Filled with Enchanted Lake water and five fish from the same lake, as requested." It wasn't easy, having to walk with it across campus with a cloaking spell and try to walk normally at the same time so as not to arouse suspicion. She hated water so much, fire was never this heavy. "We good now?"

Evie silently glanced at the fishbowl on the table and then grinned, "I'm satisfied."

Mal sighed as she plopped onto her bed, she was tired and it was barely noon. Auradon was filled with morning people and she would never understand it.

"Aren't you curious what I'm going to do with it?" Evie asked after a few minutes of silence.

Mal was lying still on her bed, an arm over her eyes trying to keep any and all light out of her view. "Not really." She muttered loudly.

The next two minutes were also filled with silence only this time she could feel how tense the room had gotten. Or maybe she could just feel Evie's mood shift, was that a thing for fey? She knew she could see people's auras, especially if they were more open and willing, but could someone learn to feel an aura? Was it something a fey could do?

She thought about that for another minute before inwardly rolling her eyes and giving in, "What are you going to do with it?" She sang monotonously as she sat up to look at the witch.

Evie grinned, excited to explain her work, "Well, we know the lake water was capable of removing one of my potions. I want to know how powerful its reversal magic is and I also want to test a spell of yours against it."

Mal nodded, understanding and already thinking up a simple spell for the experiment. "What about the fish?" She asked.

"Oh, those are for Carlos," Evie waved off, "One to dissect, one to consume, one for an experiment, and the other two are just extra."

"One to eat?"

"Yeah, it's one of my theories, trying to figure out if the fish that dwell in the lake has the same effect." She took a minute to write down some notes on her desk before facing Mal again, "So, say you ingested a lake fish, would you be immune to magic right away? And, what if you ingested it after a spell was placed on you? Would it get rid of it? Or are they just fish?" Evie paused for a second which made Mal pause as well out of wariness. "Do you think... you could get me some sand from the lake and a couple of corals or crabs?"

She stared at her blankly, Evie stared back waiting for her answer, "You realize that's a forty-minute walk, right?"

Evie continued to stare at her.

Mal sighed dejectedly, "Fine," she said, "But this is the last thing, the last shit I have to do to get even, okay?"

Evie only smiled at her excitedly. Mal knew that was enough confirmation.

Mal eventually did make her way back to the Enchanted Lake and got all the stupid things on Evie's list. She kept swearing under her breath the entire walk there that Evie must have done it on purpose, to forget adding the extra ingredients and materials she'd wanted. It was a classic spiteful move on her part and Mal completely understood. She hated it but she understood it. If they were on the Isle and Mal had made her show of dominance back then, she could care less what Evie would retaliate with. But here, no, here she needed her. It was better to have her on the same side when it all comes crashing down.

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

ᴡᴇᴅɴᴇsᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 4ᴛʜ
ᴏғ ᴏsɪʀᴀɴ 1219ᴀᴄ
11 ᴀᴍ

The next two days came quickly. Everyone was gearing up to go to the intimate festival in honor of King Benjamin. She'd been hearing about it constantly, how it was a much smaller affair than his coronation. She thought the death of her mother would still be buzzing around this place but instead, all she kept hearing was gossip about how Ben heroically inspired Mal to choose good and save his people. She'd rolled her eyes so much she was surprised they hadn't dropped out of her head.

The new dress Evie made her was just as uncomfortable as the last one, but at least it was shorter. The event invitation was clear that this was a more casual elegant affair rather than a ballgown type of situation. Most of the party was also held outside on the grounds and gardens.

She was very much aware of the people staring at her as she walked through the small crowds to find Ben. The gossip and comments she heard weren't missed either.

"That's her! That's the girl that killed Maleficent!"

"Isn't she her daughter?"

"I heard it was Ben who actually killed the witch, it was his sword after all."

"Is Beast really going to allow his son to court a fairy child?"

"I can barely control my own kids, wouldn't surprise me."

"He courted Princess Audrey for almost two years and now her? Please! I give her six months before Ben moves on to a pretty new thing."

"I was there, she stole the Godmother's wand and held him hostage! I just can't believe they let her walk around in the open. She killed her mother, how is that a good thing?"

"She eliminated the Mistress of Evil, she did us all a favor."

"If you ask me, they should have sent them all back to that island."

After a while, everyone and everything that came out of their mouths was just noise. It was lies or opinions mixed with fear and prejudice. The people seemed to like making up stories about what went down. The noise got louder and all she wanted to do was muffle it. Mal missed the Isle so badly that if she were home she wouldn't waste a second grabbing one of these sheep and making an example of them to show the rest where they belonged. She was surprised the two glasses of champagne she was carrying didn't crack and break in her hands. It'd be so easy, break a glass, jam it into someone's throat, grab another, and watch them all scream as she'd yell at them, "What do you have to say about me now?! Go on! Say it! Look me in the eyes and tell me exactly what you think." She'd quiet her voice before delivering a final cut through her captive's throat. "Whoever answers right... gets to live." She'd say and she'd smile wildly as she and her friends laughed behind her but there would be no right answer, that's the beauty of it. She'd give them just a hint of hope, something to cling to, some form of rescue or freedom before taking it back all over again—

"Mal! Thank you so much," She snapped out of her thoughts as Ben was in front of her, taking a glass for himself from her hands. She barely remembered the walk now, she had gone so deep in her mind and walked on command to Ben. Huh, well she enjoyed that little trip much better than the bullshit that had been happening since she got here.

It took a minute for her to notice the other person next to Ben. He was tall, six feet if she wasn't mistaken with curly auburn almost-red hair and bright blue eyes. The short beard on his face made him seem older but Mal knew this guy had to be somewhere in his mid-twenties. The fur coat was an interesting touch, they were barely in Osiran, and winter came around early Neith.

"Yer Majesty, I ask you that you grant me an audience at the very least." The stranger asked Ben and Mal could hear his accent, though she could barely tell it apart. It sounded familiar.

"You should know better than to ask favors in the middle of a party. Don't make this harder on yourself, just walk away. Go home, Mr. Mathan."

The stranger— now Mr. Mathan— clearly didn't like Ben's answer and with a small grind of his teeth that Mal recognized as well, he gave them both a bowing nod and walked away, a few people took small glances at him. Mal knew that look, she was the receiving end of it whenever she and the Rotten made other people feel small or trapped in a predicament. They knew they couldn't go against all of the Rotten so they stopped, gave them a smile, a bow, whatever her friends wanted as respect at the moment, and left. It was better than dying.

What she didn't know was that Ben was getting them now too. She liked it, the more skeletons she found in his closet, the more she was impressed (albeit very small, minuscule almost) by the young Beaumont. Mal waited until she and Ben were a little ways away from the crowds before asking, "So who was that?"

Ben knew the question was coming and it didn't look easy for him to answer. After a few minutes he reluctantly revealed, "Laenor Mathan, he's from New Scots."

"Oh, I'm sensing tension which is something I didn't know existed in Auradon." She joked as she looked back at Laenor Mathan who was currently in conversation with a shorter redheaded man, but this one looked ten or fifteen years older than him. She knew she recognized the accent, it was similar to Carlos's favorite little renegade. "What'd he do?"

Ben answered, but he wasn't really facing her, his eyes were trained on Laenor, like his very presence made him uneasy. "He's someone who should not have come to my coronation or stayed this long in Ivory Towers."

Mal clicked her tongue in thought as her gaze went back and forth between Ben and the Scot, "Okay, I'm going to ask again, what did he do? Did he do something to you? To your dad?"

"No," Ben shook his head and she knew he was being honest. Ben was a terrible liar. "It's just a— a bad look. For us, for his— family." Even the way Ben said it, it was like family was a difficult word for him to pronounce.

"Who's his family?" She asked.

Ben took a second before admitting, "His mother is Merida DunBroch."

"Oh," Mal took another look at the tall man, finally the famous red curls and blue eyes made sense to her. "Huh, yeah I see it." She nodded understanding.

Ben kept going, he leaned over and whispered like it was a grand secret, "His mother and father never married, so he was born out of wedlock."

"Okay," She said.

Ben noticed her nonchalance, "That means he's— he's a bastard." He whispered the last word like it were the most heinous swear of all time.

"I know what a bastard is," she responded in a normal tone, "I'm technically one, though to be fair fey marriage and fey children are two very different things. While marriage is common in the Fey Lands, the concept of a bastard isn't. You know who else is a bastard? Evie, Carlos, and the vast majority of Isle children. Jay is legit however, his parents married but his mom left when he was young." She informed him. Mal never really got the importance of marriage being a big deal when a kid was involved. On the Isle having a parent or not having one wasn't that big of a difference, what did it matter if your parents were wed? You were screwed either way.

Ben grabbed her hand, "That's um— that must be very normal on the Isle but in Auradon the matter of dishonorable children is a rather large one."

Mal slightly raised her eyebrows, feeling offense and incredulity, "Okay, let me ask you this then, why take it out on Laenor?" She nodded to said guy, "It's not like he asked to be born, it's not his fault his folks never married." Mal always figured, if you're going to have something against someone at least let the reason be justified. The Rotten went after Anthony Tremaine for spreading rumors and insinuations about them, they went after the Hooks for threatening to rebel, and they went after the Brasstads for... well that was just for fun. Hey, what can she say? Not all of them were justified. Still, being against someone just because his parents never married? As stupid as cursing a baby for lack of invitation to her christening.

And then to wait sixteen years for her to finally prick a little finger, do you know how easy it would've been to just twist her little infant neck instead? Mal was rolling her eyes on the inside, adults were so dramatic.

Her mind had gotten off-topic, but she welcomed it since it was either that or hearing Ben's quasi-bigoted rhetoric. She caught his last few words though, "Sins of the parent follow the child," and the way he said it sounded rehearsed, like someone had been telling him that excuse for a long time.

She waited a little before asking, "Does that include me?"

He hadn't been paying full attention to the question when he asked, "What?" And then quickly saying, "No! No, no, of course not." He shook his head, his attention back on her. "It's- it's just— it's... complicated." He finally admitted.

Mal just stared at him, waiting for him to say something.

Ben licked his lips nervously before saying in a hushed voice, "When the War finished, Scotland was in shambles and my father offered the Borderlands for Merida and her people. At the time she wasn't married but had a child, Laenor." He glanced over to the redhead, "She explained that his father had died before they could wed, and my father understood and even offered to legitimize him so he'd inherit her lands. Then, nine months later she had another son. She was spitting in the face of my father's generosity, doing whatever she wanted, trying to pass off those children as heirs. He relented his decision to legitimize Laenor and a couple of years later when she had a set of twins, it became clear that Merida DunBroch did not want to adhere to the rules of the Twelve Kingdoms despite the fact that if not for my father, her people would be living in a kingdom of ash and bone. If you can call that living." He scoffed. "Since then, we haven't exactly had a great relationship with New Scots. However, the DunBroch triplets, her younger brothers, are great friends to the crown. That's Prince Hubert, talking to Laenor, he works and lives here in Ivory while Prince Harris moved years ago to Southbreak to help the people there. The oldest one, Prince Hamish stayed in New Scots but he's also the designated representative of DunBroch when it comes to trivial matters. Now, the triplets haven't married yet but when one of them does and they have a child, the Borderlands will have an heir and their next ruler after Princess Merida passes."

"So, her children get nothing?"

Despite the fact that it was obvious that Ben didn't want to talk about this anymore, he still kept answering her questions. Price of love, she guessed. It made her laugh on the inside a bit. "I assume their legitimate cousin will allow them to remain in New Scot's Castle and live comfortable lives but other than that, no, they can't legally inherit the land."

"Unless you give it to them," she deduced, "Which is why he's here, Laenor's trying to get the new king to legitimize him."

Ben glanced at Mal, impressed, "Exactly, he thinks just because I'm young that I'm naive." He shook his head. "But I know better than that."

Mal scoffed on the inside, she wondered how many people in the Twelve Kingdoms believed that they knew better.

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

ᴡᴇᴅɴᴇsᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 4ᴛʜ
ᴏғ ᴏsɪʀᴀɴ 1219ᴀᴄ
9 ᴘᴍ

"Evie, have you seen my book?"

Evie clicked her tongue, "Book?" The blue-haired witch was much too invested in her current experiment with the lake fish Mal had delivered to her.

"My book of spells?" Mal emphasized. "Beleathered and clasped? Ancient elven fey runes everywhere?"

"Sorry, haven't seen it." She said.

"Evie, come on, you cannot seriously still be pissed off."

Evie didn't even bother to look at her, but her tone was more focused on her words, "I'm not pissed anymore, I just haven't seen it. Besides, don't you have that thing on lockdown or something?"

Mal was going to explode. She was going to spontaneously combust into tiny little fey pieces. She would go nuclear and take all of Auradon with her because that would be better than facing the alternative of her missing book. That someone had stolen it. That someone was smart enough to steal it and knew to take it.

When she got back to her dorm, she found that her spellbook was missing. It was locked in her trunk before and not just any lock, a fey's lock. Things were starting to unravel too fast and they were barely been out of suspicion for less than a week. She made promises she wasn't sure she could keep. Could she bring down the barrier without help? It was built by five mages, she was just one. It felt like everything was coming undone, the very earth was crumbling around her in just one day. Half the people of Auradon still didn't trust them (and with good reason), the Godmother was at odds with her after Mal broke her wand, Jane was an asset she still didn't know how to exploit, and now she didn't even have her own tools.

At the very end of her trunk was a single note with intricate handwriting:

Enchanted Lake Pillars

6 PM

Alone.

That was all she needed to know.

Huh, so much for the no-dead-bodies rule whilst in Auradon. Because whoever took her book wouldn't walk away from this breathing.

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

ᴛʜᴜʀsᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 5ᴛʜ
ᴏғ ᴏsɪʀᴀɴ 1219ᴀᴄ
5:50 ᴘᴍ

She got there ten minutes earlier, trying to scout ahead and get a jump on who had stolen her property. Only the thief turned out to think like her and had already beaten her there.

There were many broken-down pillar ruins around the Enchanted Lake, she recognized the circle that Ben had chosen for their first date. A couple of feet ahead of it was another circle, only the pillars were still standing and were holding up a concrete roof. There was a round wooden picnic table and lit torches on every column. If it were dirtier and smelled worse, she could've pictured this place being on the Isle.

"You?" Mal was shocked to see who was sitting on one of the two chairs to the table.

Holding her spellbook, in those perfect, pink polished, pristine fingers, was none other than Audrey Rose. "Me." She said with much more glee.

Mal took three seconds, just three, to try and downplay her shock. She did what she always did with Audrey, she made jokes, "I mean I know you're obsessed with me but this is going a bit far, Audrey." She couldn't let Audrey gain more of an upper hand than she already had.

But rather than get annoyed as she usually did, Audrey smiled and even gave a small laugh, gesturing for Mal to sit down, "Always with the jokes, Mal. Come, sit, sit, I brought wine. I know you like wine," She said, pouring two or three ounces into the empty glasses.

Audrey was far too happy for her liking, she wasn't scared or angry and Mal didn't like it one bit. "I just want the book, Audrey." She stayed standing, she didn't want to be here longer than she had to be.

"And I just want you to sit down because trust me," she paused, "this won't be short." She gave her a shit-eating grin that made Mal want to breathe fire and burn all the pillars and concrete to ash. And she wasn't being hyperbolic, she could actually feel the heat warming up her throat. She wouldn't be surprised if at that moment, she lost control and her eyes glowed for a bit.

Begrudgingly, Mal eventually sat on the other end of the round wooden table, small puffs of smoke coming from her nose.

"I have to say, I very much enjoyed your whole spectacle at Ben's coronation. That day will be talked about for years to come. The day the new King of Auradon did the impossible." Audrey exclaimed, her tone impressed and praiseful. But Mal didn't miss the way she spat out the word king, "It took time but when the moment finally came, it was because of him that four children of our most infamous villains turned against evil to choose good." Her voice was serious, yet loitering on mocking. She gasped silently as she clutched her heart, "It almost sounds too good to be true." She finished sarcastically.

Mal wasn't in the mood to play games, though perhaps if her friends were here she'd play them. Games were a lot more fun with more players. "Was there an actual point to this meeting?"

Audrey gave a small shrug, respecting how she wanted to get down to business. "Mal, I've read this thing from top to bottom. I know where your true loyalties lie. The fact that you killed your mother had nothing to do with saving the kingdoms or saving Ben or even your little friends. You sucked out the magic she had, you made sure she'd be a withered corpse at the end before impaling her on Ben's sword because she'd rat you out. All of that— just to gain our trust. I have to be honest... I got chills." She laughed, "I mean, wow, so simple, so easy, yet no one would figure it out. Not with you crying your eyes out on the floor. Saying you had to, you had to, otherwise, she would've killed everyone if you hadn't." Mal didn't respond and Audrey took that as an initiative to keep going, "I mean, think about it from your perspective right? You publicly declare for our side but that's just a load of bullshit unless you do something to prove it. Luckily mommy dearest shows up, you give them a villain, a literal dragon to slay, and bam, you're the hero of the hour. They take their eyes off you, they think it's done. It gives you and your friends some cover, some chances to lay low instead of them constantly watching you. Hell, you stay a while, cement the relationships you grew in your short time, and learn all you can about us." She stopped once more, Audrey was on a roll and her throat was starting to rasp from all the talking. She grabbed her wine glass as Mal finally responded.

"How did you even get the lock open? I put a charm on it." Mal avoided all the talk about the coronation and anything that had to do with it.

"I've been picking fairy locks since I was a kid. My aunties kept a lot of things under lock and key and it got so boring in that cottage during summers. This was nothing, you really need to up your spells, Mal." Audrey shook her head disapprovingly. "Originally, I was going to confront you in your dorm room but then I found this little number," she showed off the leather book, "and then I got much better ideas."

The fey girl clicked her tongue, visibly annoyed, "So, what are you going to do? Show the Fairy Godmother, tell Ben about everything, spread the word to the Twelve Kingdoms?"

Audrey's head tilted in a way that Mal recognized because Mal had done it herself so many times. She slowly straightened her head once more and slid the book towards the fey girl. Mal caught it instantly, the only shift in her look was a curious gaze. Audrey crossed her arms with a smile, "Now why the hell would I do that?"

Mal's eyes scanned her over as though Audrey would short-circuit any second now. That this was all fake and there were guards waiting for the princess to be done, waiting for Mal to say something and give herself away. So, she let Audrey keep talking.

"I read what you had planned and first of all, while you're missing a crucial piece of the puzzle, your current plan is kind of a letdown." She certainly was expecting the princess to open with that.

Mal still didn't speak, just raised an eyebrow in question for her to keep going.

She did, "Even if you do get the barrier down, there's no bridge connecting the island. And most of the bigger villains being brought over would be taken down the exact same way as before, which all current rulers of each kingdom know how to do, especially with the museum taken in as an armory." Audrey spoke quickly and evenly, discussing war strategies as if she were talking about the weather. It was strange and revealing all at the same time. "We'd be able to take down a majority of them with magical items they didn't even have before. The Twelve Kingdoms against one island isn't much of a fight, especially if we decide to ask any or all of our allies across the seas for help. Not to mention that we're better fed and rested, we know the area better, and over the decades our armies have only grown. It's not a war that your side will win, it'll just be a sad battle of has-beens."

Mal couldn't help it, her words were spilling out of her mouth, immediately trying to debate her people versus Audrey's, "Or the angry has-beens who have nothing to lose and are at majority made up of magic users will devastate the majority of your people easily. The people won't be too happy to learn that all your big armies are there to protect the nobles and the gentry, not them. How long before an uprising happens and they invade the castles themselves? We might not have to do any of the work. Meanwhile, the rest of the Isle who have been fighting, training, and devoid of most emotional concepts such as mercy will take out the fat drunk rulers that have only gotten soft in their years of peace." She delivered strongly and evenly. Mal had thought about this a lot. And it looked like Audrey did too.

"We're not all soft around here," It was Audrey's turn to joke now.

Mal only offered her a laugh disguised as a scoff, "Are you done?"

"Not by a long shot," Audrey smiled once more. "See, you're also missing a way to even get it open. But I can help with that," she smiled again, after being around Audrey for a while, seeing her smile so much in one sitting was starting to get at Mal. The princess had the power and Audrey liked it. "Granted only if you change this quite obvious plan." She gave a quick disapproving frown toward the book before sipping her glass of wine once more.

"Let me see if I get this right, you're going to help me unleash a bunch of villains on your land? You?"

Audrey gave her a quick grin before reaching out for the book, "Well, I have a few terms." Mal, curious to see what she had in mind, let her open it and skim through the pages as she talked.

"Auradon will be mine, we'll move the magical artifacts from the museum under the castle so they won't be used against your people or me. After your people have had their fun and calmed down eventually, you will announce my position as High Queen of the Twelve Kingdoms and enforce that they respect it. I already read that they fear you more than life itself. So that won't be too difficult. My grandmother, she will be left in her castle to grow old and die peacefully. My aunties will be allowed to return to the Fey Lands and that's about it." Audrey finished her terms and waited for Mal to respond but the purple-haired girl only looked blankly at her. Audrey added in another quick bonus, "If they cause any trouble along the way, feel free to show them you mean business: rip off a wing or two. That'll send a message."

Mal still felt like she was being played, this was too easy, "What about the Lords and all of the rulers? All your neighbors, friends, all your supposed subjects? Won't they be caught in the crossfire?"

"Why would I care about the people that openly supported my usurper? Or the ones that wrote those ridiculous, misogynistic laws in the first place? As for the common people, well, they're just cannon fodder in a bigger plan." Audrey paused for a few seconds, she changed the subject all of a sudden, "You inherited your mother's gifts, right? My aunties told me about Maleficent, the first hybrid of faerie and— what was it—"

"Flectere." Mal answered, staring at the untouched wine in the glass in front of her.

"Yes!" Audrey nodded, "They're shifters, correct? They bend and break their bones to rearrange into something else. Something big." She emphasized.

Mal nodded slowly.

"I assume you turn into a dragon too? Like your mother?" She asked, drinking more wine. Mal still hadn't touched hers, she preferred to be sober during this encounter with Audrey.

She nodded again even though Mal had never really fully shifted before. The farthest she got was a few bursts of fire from her mouth that morphed her face a bit with a dragon snout, scales and pointed ears. Although Mal tried to avoid repeating her mother's actions, she had to give it to her, the dragon was the biggest, the meanest, and the most terrifying creature she could think of. It was a classic and it was easier to shift into something that was already in her blood.

"The great thing about dragons is the fire. Fire means to purify. When we take back this kingdom, I expect you to burn it to the ground so that I may build it back up in my image." She smiled in an almost lost way, lost in her ideas and the vision she saw. "When everyone else sees the villains running rampant and the kingdoms aflame, they'll have no one else to blame but their precious King Ben and his parents for letting it all happen. That's when I step in with the Rose Army, they're loyal to me and mine alone."

"You really want all of that? Unleashing thousands of villains and criminals into the kingdom, letting the people be ransacked and killed. Burning it all to the ground. Just for the throne?"

"Yes, wasn't I clear?"

Mal waited a minute before asking her, "How do I know you can go through with it? That this isn't just some plan to expose me?"

"Well, I could've just brought that book over to the Godmother and gotten rid of you instantly." The princess answered honestly.

"But you didn't, why?"

"You've been here less than a month and you already have Ben wrapped around your finger, Jane's eating out of the palm of your hand and the people love you. Hell, even his parents like you more than me. But I don't care about being liked, it never did me any favors." Audrey's usual scowl was back, she wasn't smiling anymore. "I'm tired of waiting, I'm tired of hiding, I'm tired of losing. So, if you can get me what I want, I'll help you get what you want."

"Tell me about the bigger plan."

"Tell me we have a deal."

Mal leaned back and recognized the place they were in; a stalemate. They both needed something from each other but they didn't trust one another. Though Mal had to admit, the only person she ever really trusted was herself.

Instead of trying to get the other to try and agree first, Audrey changed the subject, "You know this book was a great read, and I'm not just talking about the spells and the little comments made about us. It was how you described your friends, your Rotten friends." Mal didn't say anything about it so Audrey kept talking, reading Mal's personal notes from the book, "'I know they trust me with this because none of us have the same goal as the other. We're evolved. We're better.' Those are your words, and I have to say, it's very clever. No one interferes with the others, there's no backstabbing, no breach of trust. That's exactly what I'm offering, Mal." And that's what got the fey girl's attention, "Jay's only interested in Agrabah, and Evie doesn't seem to care to pick up where her mom left off. Carlos isn't interested in monarchy at all and neither are you. You don't care about who's ruling the Twelve Kingdoms after everything's over, none of you do. You care about leaving your mark on the world. Imagine being the one that not only unleashed all the incarcerated villains but took down the monarchy from the inside. Colluded with the prince's ex-betrothed to take the throne. No one has even come close to that. Your legacy will stretch over the seas and your name will be remembered for centuries to come."

She closed the book and met Mal's green eyes once more. "So, I'll ask again, do we have a deal?"

Mal made sure her eyes would glow that wickedly green haze before grinning from ear to ear.

☠︎                ☠︎                ☠︎                ☠︎

So I'm assuming you're all very giddy about the Maudrey team-up, finally! audrey has got plans brewing and she has for a while, she's very intense and it surprises mal but she's also very intrigued

their conversations are so fun to write, it's addictive i swear.

in other news, i got some more world-building!

now, i know what you're thinking, "Damn it, can't she take the time to write instead of making kingdom banners and renaming months?"

and my response is no.

i could, but world-building is just so much fun so here's some new trivia, i renamed the months!

see, bc i already have a new year system, i figured, why not fuck around with months too?

so the year is currently 219 AC (no, that's not for after christ, its smth else)

and the new months are:

January - Janus

February - Freyja

March - Minervus

April - Aphros

May - Maiden

June - Juno

July - Baldr

August - Madre

September - Bastet

October - Osiran

November - Neith

December - Crone

many of them have legit easy explanations like January was named after the Greek god Janus and June is for Juno. not all of them are like that, but they are all named after gods in myths and legendary figures. and if you have any questions about why i named certain months i will gladly answer them.

(and please enjoy the new chapter with the family and kingdom crests!)

and we also got to meet one of Merida's kids! Laenor! Merida and Rapunzel are probably my favorite families atm just from their plots in this alone. (not to be confused with my favorite disney princesses: merida, mulan, rapunzel. in that order).

Laenor is the eldest child, his last name is currently Mathan and that's also his siblings last name. It's Scots Gaelic for 'bear'. It's a name they have to use bc the kingdoms won't let them take their mother's name.

let me know what you think!

no mundanes allowed