(A/N: Good news, for anyone who’s interested in actually reading this to the end--I finished it! I’m very excited, to have finished writing something in less than a year--even if it’s not all that good… But I want it to be good, or at least better. So I will update the rest of the chapters regularly as I finish proof-reading through them all… But yeah--this will have 24 chapters in all, and I’ve finally typed up every last one of them. Since I’m in the proof-reading stage, I decided to delete all the chapters that I haven’t finished editing yet, and just put up the ones that are done--I know I didn’t catch all the mistakes, (I never do) but I think I got the majority of them, at least. Now… without further ado…)

Chapter One: Diplomacy

The golden rays of sunlight crept out from under the closet door, giving Vanda just enough light to read the elegant script in her mother’s diary.

She had found the little brown book a week ago--it was one of her mother’s many journals. Vanda discovered it in an old trunk along with a few of her other forgotten possessions. It had never occurred to the young princess Vanda that her mother’s life might have actually been interesting, but she had been sadly mistaken. Despite the fact that Vanda was now painfully aware of just how different she and her mother were, reading her old diary had been a very interesting experience…

Parts of it were really very annoying. Her mom constantly went into tedious details about every stitch of clothing and piece of jewelry she was wearing. But she wrote long and frequent entries--so Vanda was giving a well rounded picture of her mother’s life as a teenager…

July tenth, 7 pm, dressing room. Dear diary… Oh, how I love Stefan! I've come to a decision! Tonight when we meet in the garden after the banquet, I'm going to allow him to kiss me! Oh, it will be so wonderful! I've picked out the loveliest dress to wear tonight--I think it was one of mother's gowns. I had the seamstress make a few changes to the fit, but it's absolutely wondrous! It's a pale blue, with a full shirt and a square-

Vanda sighed and skipped the end of the passage--why did her mother think anyone cared what she had been wearing!?

11 pm. my bedroom. Dear diary… father has done such a dreadful thing! Although it has quickly became a very good thing I don't know why, but something has put it into father's head that I must be married soon!

Vanda raised her eyebrows--this was interesting.

He's scheduled this horrid tournament and guess what the grand prize is… ME!

"Grandpa!" cried Vanda out loud.

It's absolutely horrible! But I managed to persuade father to do something about my misery… He’s agreed to make sure that Stefan wins the contest! So this turns out beautifully! One month from now--I will officially be queen, and Stefan will be my king!

Eagerly Vanda turned the page--her mother had gone a whole week without writing! That was rare for her...

July seventeenth, 4 pm. inside our tent set up by the battlefield. Dear Diary… It's the first day of that wrecked tournament. Stefan's first battle just ended! He did beautifully! Oh--there's so much I need to do before out wedding!

Vanda skipped through seven pages describing and re-describing her wedding dress--then skimmed through her mother’s account of Stefan's stunning performance in each of his battles until finally she found herself on the last day of the tournament…

July 31 11 pm. in my closet--crying a lot. How could father and Bela betray us like this?! They didn't rig the last battle so Stefan could win--and they paired him up against Dorin--who possibly really is the best fighter of the whole lot! Stefan lost dismally! The wedding will accrue on the seventh of August as planned... but with a different groom. Oh! I may kill myself before that day!

Vanda turned to page and found it to be the last in the book. Surely her mother had gone on about her misery for pages in her new diary…if only Vanda could find it.

The princess snapped the book shut and sighed angrily.

"Vanda!" called Cami, Vanda’s personal maid.

Vanda opened the door and stormed out, "They're all horrible people!"

The nursemaid jumped in surprise, but quickly regained her composure.

"Who is child?"

"My parents,” Vanda exclaimed, “my grandfather! Uncle Bela even! I at least had respect for him as an intelligent being before now…" she sat down on her huge black velvet bed and crossed her arms and legs scowling at the ground.

"Whatever makes you think so?" Cami rushed to Vanda's closet and began to pick out something for the princess to wear tonight. She was a young and pretty girl, tall and skinny with long brown hair and kind green eyes. She was new at the castle and still constantly fascinated by the lavish lives of her new royal employers.

"I finished my mother's diary--you remember that boy I told you about? Stefan, the one she was madly in love with? Well--they were engaged." Vanda stated nonchalantly.

Cami gasped in surprise.

"Yes!" Vanda replied, "-and guess when they were going to be married?"

"No!" the maid shook her head.

"Yes! They were supposed to be married the same day that my mother married my father!"

"What happened?!" demanded the nursemaid. Vanda told her of the tournament and how her grandfather and Bela had decided that Dorin should win instead.

Cami shook her head sadly, "such a secret!"

"I know! I can't believe my mother didn't stay with the man she loved--I can't believe my father forced my mother to marry him, when she was so smitten with someone else, and I can't believe grandpa thought up that blasted tournament. But the thing that most surprises me is that Bela had something to do with it! I always thought he was the only other sensible person in this castle..." she sighed, "Oh! They're all terrible! I hate them..."

"You don't mean that, love!" Cami finally withdrew a glittering silver gown from the closet, and strode purposely over to Vanda, who began to undress while still fuming about the injustice of her parents union.

"I remember--when I was little and no one but Uncle Bela would play with me--he used to pretend to be the all-powerful protector of love," she smirked at the name she had composed for him one rainy night all those years ago… "And of course I was the beautiful young princess and he had to make sure that the prince I married was good enough for me…" For a moment she almost laughed wistfully but than she remembered she was angry with him and her face grew stony.

"Maybe it's not what you think…" Cami offered--but she sounded doubtful.

"They're all so evil." Vanda murmured bitterly.

"You're just going through a phase." Cami shrugged, and motioned for Vanda to step into the dress.

"A phase when I suddenly see the truth about my family?" she hopped into the center of the beautiful dress than forcefully pulled her arms through.

"Careful! I don't want to have to sew another one..." Cami began to lace up the back.

"Well think about it! Children are naturally inclined to love their parents--right?" she queried, letting her rage pulsate through her vocal cords.

"Usually," Cami agreed, fumbling with a knot in the ribbon around the small of Vanda’s royal back.

"And I do love them--or at least I did, until I started to notice what kind of people they are." Vanda concluded.

"They're really not that bad--they might have a bad reputation among the servants-"

"Because you’re all treated like dogs?" Vanda cut her off, and turned about crossing her arms.

"-No, I was going to say they have a bad reputation among the servants because they're impatient with slackers, and they'll hire anyone who needs a job." Cami corrected her. The maid finished tying the back of Vanda’s gown and went to get the shoes that matched perfectly.

"Like you?"

"Certainly," Cami agreed.

"I think you’re splendid." Vanda said with a genuine tone of surprise.

"You don't have very high standards." Cami blushed in spite of herself.

"You’re a lot nicer than my last maid."

"Nice isn't necessarily good." Cami pointed out.

"What about that appalling vampire raid?" Vanda asked, bringing back the conversation to the original topic.

"Well..." Cami bit her lip uncomfortably, "It certainly was a thing of nightmares..."

"Or all the money father wasted on that sea voyage to discover the fifty pound diamond that supposedly sunk to the bottom of the East-Moor bay?" she continued.

"That was a bit silly-"

"It was a reckless and inane!" Vanda declared, "And now I find out about this? How can this man properly lead our Kingdom when he lives like that?"

"That's your father you're talking about." Cami warned.

"He almost wasn't!" Vanda pointed out. "And my mother," she groaned, "Don’t get me started on her!"

"I won't--we don't have time. The banquet is starting just after sunset." Cami glanced out the open balcony doors at the haze of orange and purple on the horizon.

"And the way they treat me!" Vanda went on, ignoring Cami’s haste, "Like I'm still a child with no opinion and 'father knows best.' I try to show them what they're doing is wrong and they just stare at me like…like I'm-"

"-Their infantile daughter who, along with barely becoming a young woman, is beginning to developing strong, half-informed opinions?" Cami finished her thought incorrectly.

"No! They treat me like a servant! No offence meant--as I pointed out before they're very unfair to you all…" Vanda stepped in front of her vanity and examined herself in the mirror.

It was one of those days where she was startled by how much she looked like her mother. It irked her severely since she was so angry with her mother--but at the same instant it was the kind of day were her face just seemed to fit in with everything around her… She couldn't deny that she was beautiful, even if no one else ever told her so anymore… She had the same dark eyes as her mother, the same hair, the same lips--her nose was slightly different… But it didn't look like her father's. For some reason this struck her as odd. She really didn't look like her father…

In the back of her mind she wondered what Stefan had looked like. Was he still around? Would her mother break her wedding vows for this boy? It certainly sounded like she loved him--the way she spoke of his many idiosyncrasies and virtues in her diary…

Sadly, Vanda found she wasn't troubled by the notion that her mother may have had a secret lover after she and her father were married. The idea didn't surprise her either. Both her parents kept a lot of secrets…

Thoroughly angered once again, Vanda silently wondered over this as Cami began to fix her hair.

One thing Vanda did like about her father was his hatred of making speeches--it meant she didn't have to hear from him very often. However, it seemed tonight was an exception.

They were holding the banquet in honor of some visitors who were staying at the castle--the royal family of a neighboring kingdom called Baymoore. So her fathered gave one of his rare speeches--it was short and rushed and she could tell he hadn't written it for himself, most likely it was Bela's hand that actually scribed the words, and his mind that crafted the honey sweet sentiments. Just as she was thinking this, Vanda saw Bela at the back of the room--he'd entered late as usual. Vanda didn't know how old Bela was--by looking at him you would think he wasn't much older than her, late teens early twenties maybe, but her whole life he'd looked like that, so she assumed he was probably close to her father's age…

He was very tall, and thin, with a beautiful face made up of angelic features. His skin was very pale and smooth; his hair was long and black in great contrast to his complexion. But her favorite feature was his eyes. They were wide and faded from grey to black depending on the light. He was always shrouded in black robes and he always wore those same gloves--they were black too--with long sharp fingertip covers sown onto each finger, making his hands look like claws. He had unusually large hands and Vanda knew from experience that their power matched their size. At the moment, his massive paws were resting on the head of a long black cane--he looked somber and a bit depressed.

Vanda sighed--she couldn't be mad at Bela...

But she still had no trouble being angry with her parents.

Her father was barrel-chested, and tanned from being out in the sun too much. His hair was golden-brown and flecked with a few grays here and there. He had deep brown eyes and an infectious smile, though he rarely showed it anymore.

Her mom stood at his side--a vision of royal beauty unlike any in the land. Vanda had decided that though she and her mom looked very much alike, her mother was still the more beautiful of the two of them, even as she aged gracefully. The queen caught her eye and started to smile but the princess looked away defiantly.

Finally her father's speech was done, and the dining and dancing began. Out of habit Vanda rushed back to meet Bela. When he saw her, his face changed from the sobered mask she had seen before to a playful grin. He strode to meet her than scooped the princess up into his arms the way he always did, twirling her around until, in a fit of giggles, she begged him to stop.

"Forgive me your majesty!" He folded over into a low bow, with mock humility.

"All is pardoned," she was able to hold her face perfectly straight for a full three seconds before he made her smile again by dropping to his knees and kissing the hem of her dress,

"Get up!" she blushed with embarrassment at the raised eyebrows the two of them were receiving from a few of their royal spectators.

"So what have we been up to?" he asked, quickly growing serious.

She shrugged. "Princess stuff, the usual hiding all day from my teachers and parents." For some reason she thought she saw a look of concern on his face but he quickly brushed it off. "Good girl."

"What about you?" she wrinkled her brow, "I haven't seen you in a fort-night! Rumors were beginning to surface."

"I'm no stranger to those," he flashed sharp, white teeth but didn't answer her question. It was very true that Bela and rumors were often paired together in the same sentence. Uncle Bela was a mysterious kind of person--the foremost of these rumors wasn't really a rumor at all, but the pure truth.

Bela was not Vanda's uncle. In fact--she didn't really know who he was. He'd lived at the castle--off and on--since before she was born. He’d spend a few months with them then disappear entirely for a while, only to reemerge later as if nothing had happened. All she really knew about her “uncle” Bela was that he was good friends with her grandfather--but he wasn't related to the royal family in any way. But--the more vicious and outrageous the rumors, the more Vanda loved him.

Bela was very intelligent--he spent the majority of his life reading it seemed--she often supposed he knew everything. And knowing everything was probably quite the burden because he seemed very weighed down much of the time. Especially lately, moments when he would forget all dignity and act out with Vanda were becoming rare. She was surprised he had played with her so, just the moment before. Serious minded…dark minded some called it.

Most of the servants believed the tale that he was a traveling sorcerer who had the whole royal family under a spell, and eventually he planned to take the whole kingdom for himself. But Vanda knew that wasn't true. Her grandfather had offered Bela the kingdom repeatedly--but he always refused. "Keep it in this family," Bela continued to advise them. There were also other rumors, that he was some kind of elf, or wood sprite, or worse. Vanda had never asked. As far as she cared, he was her uncle Bela. He was strange--sometimes frightening--but always gentle and kind… to her.

Bela ran his tongue across his teeth and suggested the two of them tuck in before he starved to death right in front of the foreign royals. "And that wouldn't be good for diplomacy."

One of the guests was the Prince of Baymoore. Vanda could have sworn she’d met him before… but she couldn’t quite place his face with a name, so when he asked her to dance, she agreed, to help herself remember.

Vanda normally didn’t particularly enjoy dancing unless her partner was agreeable, but she knew her mother would scold and say she was being unsociable if she didn’t participate in the festivities. Besides--the prince was a nice chap, and he introduced her to a few of his friends who each insisted on taking a turn with her around the room.

Vanda smiled politely, made sure not to say anything offensive, and acted as normal as possible. She did a fabulous job considering the rage that was ready to overflow inside of her from the scandal she’d read about in her mother’s diary. After a while she trained herself not to look in the direction of where her parents were chatting with some friends.

It only made things worse.

Vanda sighed as she realized that she was going to have to confront them. She wasn’t good at keeping secrets--especially scandalous ones.

“Merpeople,” Vanda raised her eyebrows and turned in the direction of the speaker, “I’ve never met one!”

“Our castle is on an island you know--it’s not uncommon to accidentally catch one in our nets. I’ve seen to it they’re safely returned to the ocean. But not all the sailors are trustworthy I’m afraid.” The Prince sighed sadly but quickly let his face relax into its usual smile. He was a cheerful sort of person, a fairly short boy with chestnut colored hair, soft green eyes and a healthy build.

“What would the sailors want with them?” Vanda asked, confused.

“Well, many of the mermaids are very attractive, but they’re also powerful creatures if you can get them to do what you want… Takes some persuasion though--people can be awfully cruel.” He shook his head.

“I know just what you mean--why just last month I found out that my own father-” Vanda stopped short, “-I mean… It seems many people disregard the safety of anyone who’s not really human. It’s no wonder the fascinating magical creatures keep themselves hidden from us…”

The prince had appeared intrigued by her first train of thought, but didn’t press the matter. “Makes you wonder how long they’ll even allow us to be aware of their existence.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well--there are a lot of people like you who’ve never actually met a non-human before. It wouldn’t be hard for you to just assume that they didn’t exist, am I right?” the Prince asked.

“I suppose--but I can’t imagine people would ever completely deny their existence.”

The prince shrugged, “It’s not so impossible.”

“Prince Teodor!” called the manservant who had accompanied the royal family. Suddenly Vanda remembered where she had met the prince before--it had been at a ball last winter.

“Yes?” the prince stood to greet the servant.

“Your father wishes to speak with you,” the manservant bowed low, then held out a hand, offering to accompany the prince. Teodor turned and bid Vanda goodbye.

“It was nice to see you again Teodor,” she curtseyed out of habit. Vanda began to make her way through the thick crowd of nobles, hoping to find Bela and demand again to know where he had been the last few weeks. But a group of people who were just entering the room caught her attention and retained it for long enough that she forgot her purpose. It wasn’t a masquerade--but all five of them had their faces hidden by full face masks.

They didn’t look familiar--but they didn’t seem out of place either. It wasn’t so strange for someone to wear a mask, in fact it was very much in style up north--but something about them struck her as odd. They were all men, two of them had chosen to don deep red garments that complimented their creamy white masks perfectly, one had white blonde hair that had about as long as Bela’s and pulled back off his hidden face.

The other red robed stranger had short jet-black hair. His stunning blue eyes from behind the mask looked a little frightened as they darted about the room, searching for something.

Another of them was wearing all blue from head to toe save for a royal purple sash that held up a silver sword, encrusted with a flawless blue gem, cut in the shape of an equal sided cross. He had his hood pulled up over his face so you could barely see his blue mask.

The man closest to her was the shortest, and wearing a flowing emerald costume with a golden mask. The backs of his hands and up his arms were heavily tattooed with symbols she didn’t recognize.

The last stood right in the middle of them--though he was the tallest he was the least noticeable in a shadowy black suit with equally dark mask and hair.

Slowly he shifted his head in her direction. Vanda found herself making contact with a pair of red eyes--no they were brown. Vanda shook herself mentally. The angle of the light had only made them look red for a moment.

The man in black was looking past her now. She wanted to turn and see what held his attention, but resisted and kept moving toward the balcony--where Bela was likely to be hiding from the party. As Vanda passed over the threshold and into the night air she couldn’t help but give the strangers’ one last curious glance…

“Prince Teodor is a nice boy,” Bela had his elbows resting on the railing on the balcony, overlooking the forest ahead of them. His massive hands were folded over each other and his claw-like gloves clicked a forlorn tune onto the cold marble.

“Perhaps hope isn’t lost… If the next generation of rulers can correct the mistakes of their parents,” Vanda leaned against the railing, and cocked her head to the side.

Bela’s impossibly young face suddenly looked confused, “Your father is doing a splendid job.”

Vanda shook her head, “Never mind… I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No--I’m glad you did. I want to hear what mistakes you believe need to be corrected.” Bela didn’t sound angry--they way her parents would have been if she dared to defy them. He sounded genuinely interested to know if he had missed something… For a moment Vanda was tempted to simply unload all of her concerns. But she thought better of it before the words were properly formed in her throat.

“Those things always frighten me at night…” she motioned to a stone gargoyle that resembled some kind of flying dog, mounted on the side of the balcony. Bela was silent for a moment--perhaps he was thinking of pressing her to speak to him of their previous subject, but after some time he committed to leave her be. “Are they so frightening?” Bela’s cold eyes glittered in the moonlight as he glanced at the princess’s face.

“Certainly… Just look at this... with those huge teeth and claws… It’s frightening. I used to always be afraid as a child that one of them would attack me if I provoked it. I remember once, I accidentally broke the nose off of one in the garden--my nursemaid scared me so badly! She told me it would attack me for causing it so much hurt… I didn’t sleep well that week.”

Bela’s beautiful face flickered into a little smile, “They won’t hurt you… You know what gargoyles are, don’t you?”

“Stone monsters?” the princess guessed.

“Well, yes. But they’re placed around the outside of a home like this one to protect the residents… They’re guardians… Ugly angels,” Bela defended the lifeless creature to his left.

“I never thought of it like that…”

“Not all good things can be as pretty as you.” Bela smiled, “Why aren’t you enjoying the dancing?”

“I was…” Vanda admitted.

“Well, run off then! Take another turn about the room with some handsome knight… for my sake.” Bela gave her an encouraging wink. He obviously wanted to be alone with his own deep thoughts.

Refusing to be hurt by his rejection of her company Vanda shook her head and smiled, “No… I’m quite tired actually… I think I’ll go to bed early.” She turned to leave, “See you in the morning?”

“Evening,” Bela corrected her. He always spent his whole day locked up alone in his study where he would read for hours on end, uninterrupted.

“Ah--yes, of course. See you tomorrow evening.” She curtseyed again then did as she had said before and hurried off to bed. She noticed the strange masked individuals were also making their way to the exit. They certainly hadn’t stayed long…

Lying fully awake on top of her sheets Vanda pondered over her plan for the morrow. She would rather confront all four of them at once. Perhaps she could call a private meeting in her father’s office, and demand that Bela, her parents and grandpa all come so she could reveal what she had discovered about their forgotten scandal and demand an explanation--or apology--for their astonishingly stupid behavior…

Vanda was just beginning to wonder where exactly her grandpa had been tonight when she heard a muffled whisper and felt a hand clamp down over her mouth--another arm forcing her to sit up. On either side of her someone had taken a hold of her arms, and at the foot of the bed a shadowy figure with long white-blonde hair and a masked face seized onto her legs. Vanda struggled against her attackers viciously before she felt someone’s knuckles collide into the side of her head.

(A/N: I’ve got the next chapter and the one after it for that matter--all ready to be uploaded, so I guess… I’m just waiting to get some decent reviews and by decent I’m not meaning that they necessarily have to be good… Remember, tell me the truth! I can take it... Really--I can!)