"Professor! You have returned!" the research assistants gathered around their long missed superior, eager to hear his report. "How did you fare on your journey?" one asked.

Dimitri shrugged. "The floors were sticky, the food overpriced, and the Makers just couldn't help talking throughout the shows. The stories felt a little bit on the derivative side, but the special effects were top notch. All things considered, I would call it a worthwhile experience."

The researchers looked to one another with confusion but no sense of surprise. It was clear that the experience was an incredibly enlightening one, the head researcher already significantly above his peers, and now hardly on a level that they could even comprehend. "Um, yes... And have you learned anything? Anything that will aid us in deciphering the ancient text?"

"Oh, right, of course!" the old mouse said, before looking about the damaged surroundings. "I trust that it is unharmed?"

The bulk of the structure had remained intact through the assault of the dark lord, aside from a large metal beam which had broken through the roof of the library. Thankfully the book itself remained unscathed.

"Fortunately, yes. We were lucky to have weathered this storm. Who could have possibly anticipated such a disaster?"

Dimitri smiled knowingly. After watching movies for the past month or so, he had learned that the wide-scale destruction of cities was far from uncommon.

"I have learned much from my studies. It taught little of true translation, but I've been able to grasp their grammatical structure, which, to some extent, clearly mirrors the written script of the Makers. My vocabulary is still terribly limited, but I have a lot more tools to make sense of the language, and from there, perhaps extrapolate the missing words from those which I recognize nearby. If nothing else, I truly understand the human alphabet now, and the sounds which each of these runes is meant to signify."

The researchers 'ooh' and 'aah', impressed by the word 'human', which sounded so much more scientific than 'Maker'. It was clearly a sign that the head researcher knew what he was talking about.

"It's time to get back to work. We have learned so much just from the pictures, but I can only begin to imagine the depths of the secrets that such a huge amount of text must hold, and how it will aid in the development of our society." Dimitri said, "Although it will be difficult to grow accustomed to studying without popcorn."

"What-what is this popped corn?" an awestruck researcher asked.

Dimitri simply chuckled. "You still have very much to learn, young one."

Jerin squirmed uncomfortably. It wasn't that the ropes which bound her to the post in the center of the castle waiting area were extremely tight or anything. Still, they were just strict enough to keep her from moving in the specific ways that she had wanted to, into the positions that she was certain would be far more comfortable. Of course, chances were that the whole reason that she believed this was due to the fact that she was currently so uncomfortable, and that those other positions just happened to be the ones which she couldn't move into. With no opportunity to be proven wrong, she could only assume that she was, in fact, right.

Her weapons, clothing and tools were all taken away, but what she missed most of all, even more than her metal sword, was her tail, the remaining nub of it rubbing uncomfortably against the wooden pillar. It seemed ridiculous, but the guards, very politely of course, insisted that it could be removed and used as a whip or some other manner of weapon. The young mouse rolled her eyes at the time, but had to admit, that sounded like a pretty great idea, and made a mental note of it for later. Her whole body ached, not so much from the brief skirmish in the throne-room. She had been hurting all over ever since the battle with Fury, and while no stranger to the sensation, having found herself banged up pretty badly on a few separate occasions since her journey had first began, it seemed to weigh more upon her now. Before, she was able to largely ignore it, putting it out of her mind when she needed to focus on more important tasks, but now, now it just felt omnipresent, sending at least small twinges of pain throughout her entire body whenever she so much as breathed.

More than anything, however, she was tired. Sure, it had been a long day, and ordinarily, she would have been in bed by now, but she knew that this was mostly due to the loss of her sword. Ever since it had been damaged she felt it, a sense of general weakness, hopelessness, a lack of focus. Occasionally this sensation would diminish slightly, but it never quite went away. It grew all the worse now that she found herself fully separated from the blade. Still, that sense of vacancy, the space where her artificial tail should have been hanging but now was not somehow felt even worse. The loss of her sword may have left her feeling powerless, but it was the loss of her knitted tail, the precious gift from her mother, that left the young mouse feeling something even worse than powerlessness, even if she wouldn't have previously believed such a thing possible. Without her tail, Jerin felt truly alone.

The entrance to the ornate room was framed by two armored guards, who looked everywhere but at her and to one another, clearly displeased with this duty. They were both visibly relieved when the king finally entered, dismissing the pair with a wave of his hand.

"I apologize for these accommodations." he said in a slightly embarrassed voice. "You gave me no choice, however."

"Oh, of course! You had no choice! Clearly, this was the only possible option!" Jerin said, rolling her eyes. "I understand. Hey, I find myself in a situation where I need to rob and kidnap people, two, sometimes three times a day! It's just an unavoidable part of everyday life!"

"Look here-"

"Oh, wait, my mistake. I forgot, it was me that gave you no choice. Yeah, clearly this whole situation isn't because you're a big jerk, it's all my fault, because I didn't do the sensible thing and give my treasured weapon, which I've been using to defeat the enemies of the kingdom, to some obviously sinister guy who demanded it out of nowhere!" she huffed, "If only I'd been more flexible, I wouldn't have put you in this terrible situation. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it is for you! I Gee, sure hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me!"

"You are not a king!" he angrily shouted at Jerin, making her recoil slightly. His voice softened somewhat as he continued, but still maintained an audibly aggravated tone. "Do you think the petty decisions that you make every day even compare to mine? At any point in your little crusade, you could walk away if you felt like it, and no one would fault you. Quite the contrary, you would be praised for it! I don't have that option. I don't get to simply do whatever I want, and hope that it turns out for the best. I have real responsibilities, and not simple options like whether I help good people, or punish the villains. I have an entire kingdom, countless lives which depend on me for shelter and safety, managing the limited resources of the nation, often deciding who eats and who goes hungry, not because one group deserves it more than the other, but based entirely on the greater good of our people. Should I decide poorly, countless citizens may suffer and die." he growled to her, "So, yes, I dearly apologize if I have briefly gotten in the way of you and your friends playing hero, but the loss of respect of some foolish girl is a small price to pay in exchange for the survival of my kingdom."

Jerin looked away, answering back in a soft voice. "I did respect you. A lot of people spoke badly of you, but I always thought that you were doing the best that you could."

"I still am." the crowned mouse said with a sigh, the remnants of his anger fading.

"Then why did you take my sword? Me and my friends were going to defeat Midnight, and then all of this this would be over!" she tried to lean in closer, and succeeded to a small extent until the cords about her paws and body decided that she had moved enough.

"Oh, really? It would be over, would it? Let's just say, for the sake of argument, than you won the battle. Then what? Do you believe that the threat of the dark lords would simply vanish into thin air? There are plenty of others around, just as powerful and aggressive. Were you going to defeat them as well?"

"Umm..." Jerin crinkled her nose a little at the unpleasant question. The original plan was, of course, to discourage other dark lords from attacking, but that hadn't worked out so well thus far. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Were you and your friends going to take on every dark lord in the world and win? Even if you could, which you can't, do you plan to fight forever, as new threats inevitably appear? To never grow old or die?" he asked.

"I could, actually! Funny story, it turns out that down in the Maker's tunnels-"

He shook his head, cutting off the nonsense which he was certain was about to follow. "Of course you can't. Even if you were that powerful, and I know for a fact that the two victories you and your friends had earned were won by the narrowest of margins, the safety of the nation cannot depend on the fickle whims of a child. A more permanent solution is required."

"So, what's your solution? You going to take them all on yourself with my sword? No offense, but you don't really seem like the fighting type." she said, before giving the matter a little more thought. "Well, maybe just a little offense. I figure you've earned that."

The white male mouse reached into his robe, pulling out the damaged sword. Jerin instinctively squirmed, not that she had any chance of reaching it.

"This isn't a sword." he said in a plain voice, looking the blade up and down.

"Huh? Sure it is! Well, okay fine, it's also a needle or whatever, but it's way better for stabbing than making outfits!" The prisoner said. She wasn't exactly certain of how outfits were made, and similarly couldn't even imagine how such a large device could aid in such things, but it still felt like common sense. The worst tool which functioned in service to a noble cause was naturally superior to the greatest tool serving a corrupt one.

"No. It can be used as a sword, and quite effectively at that, but that isn't its true purpose. This is an artifact designed for harnessing power from multiple sources, namely that of a Maker, that of a champion, and that of a lord of darkness. Now that the handle has been touched by all three, it is finally ready... or at least will be, once it is repaired." the king said, eyes focused on the damaged tool, gently stroking the tip of a furless finger along its surface.

"Well, I'm not sure I'm a champion... hmmm, maybe. Is that better than a paladin?" she asked, tilting her head.

"This is a relic of great power, far more significant than some blade, and with that power, I'll be able to make sure that nothing can ever threaten this great nation again."

"Okay, okay, let's just say that all of this is true, and that I've been doing all of this the hard way, fighting with it, and instead it can be used for something far better." she said, looking to him, "Why not just tell us this earlier? If we all want the same thing, you could have explained it, and we could have worked together! Why try to steal the sword?"

"I'm not some chum of yours, asking for a favor. I rule this land. When I demand something, you are supposed to give it, because I know what is best."

"Just because you're a king doesn't mean you can't ask nicely." she grumbled.

"Yes, that's exactly what it means. Maybe in your world you can simply be charitable and kind and friendly, but here? Everything has a price. Kindness is seen as weakness. Charity just tells others that they can take from you. Friends simply try to stack up favors to serve their own selfish needs, at the expense of the kingdom. When you rule, that means that you can't give to someone without taking from another, can't help one without depriving another. It's all a delicate balance where personal feelings cannot come into play, and at the center of this? At the center of this is respect. Strength. I may be smart, and I may be a ruler by divine right, but in the end, I'm still just a single mouse. My power comes from the belief, the trust that I am something greater, and to maintain that, I need the respect of the people. That has proven very difficult to obtain. No matter what I do, no matter how much I improve this nation and the lives of the people within it, respect is something I have little of. I can't risk compromising what little I have by being soft. By being 'nice'."

There was a brief pause.

"I... I sort of get what you're talking about you know. About responsibility." Jerin said, looking down at her feet. "When I first set out after Midnight, I just wanted to get back at him, avenge what he did to me, but before I knew it, I had friends depending on me, and a lot more to lose. Then there was the attack on the city. Everyone said otherwise, but in the end, it was all my fault. People got hurt, people who had nothing to do with this. I still don't know if what I did was wrong, or what I should have done differently. All I know is that it doesn't feel good."

"And yet you are still hailed as a hero for it." King Deathlocke sighed.

"That doesn't help much. In a way, it makes it even worse, makes you feel more guilty. It takes more than respect to make everything right, and to make you happy. I know, I know, you think it's necessary to run things, to make people follow your orders, to keep the kingdom strong, and hey, maybe you're even right! But in the end, though, I think you mostly just want the respect for yourself."

"Is that so wrong?" the king asked, no hint of frustration at all in his voice, just a sense of sad weariness.

"No, I guess not." she said, with a slight smile. "...although when it leads to, well... this." she added, looking down at the cords around her white fur. "Maybe rethinking your approach isn't such a bad idea."

King Leon turned away. "That's not an option. It never was. No matter how grounded, how practical and in the end how effective my ideas are, they were always met with distrust. If I were to clearly lay out my plan, nobody would accept it. You, most of all."

Jerin blinked, staring at him. "Why me most of all?"

The king coughed and lowered his head, still looking from the girl. "Anyways, there's another reason that I came here. This one is somewhat awkward to bring up. I'm sure that you know that I have little respect, not only among my staff, but among the general populace as well."

"Oh.. I Guess you've seen the puppet shows, too, huh?"

"Puppet shows?" The king asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"Oh yeah, you know, plays put on, showing stuff going on in the kingdom! that sort of thing!"

"And... I often appear in these shows? Am I well represented?" he asked, suspecting that he already knew the answer.

Jerin hmmmed, furrowing her brow, deep in thought. "They don't seem very accurate. I mean, I don't exactly know you all that well, but I haven't heard you say your catch-phrase even once yet."

"My catch phrase?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's 'duh'."

"Duh?" the king repeated.

"Yeah, you know... like 'duh, I'm a big idiot', and 'duh, I don't understand what's going on', that sort of stuff."

"Yes, I understand that 'duh' means." he sighed, feeling a headache coming on.

"Oh, and you fall down a lot too." she said, before abruptly changing her tone in an effort to sound cheerful and reassuring. "But hey, you're the most popular character! You always get a lot of laughs and cheers, and you know what they say about there being no such thing as bad publicity!"

The king fell silent, eventually clearing his throat and turning back to the captive. "As I was saying, faith in my rule is at an all-time low-"

"I wonder why." Jerin huffed, giving her paws another tug against their cords.

"As I was saying," he repeated, louder, "Faith in my rule is at an all-time low. Meanwhile, you are almost universally loved by the people. While I'm not entirely certain that I approve, some of my ministers have recommended that it might be prudent to take advantage of this fact..."

"Huh?"

"They have suggested a marriage between us. For you to rule as queen by my side." he said with a deep sigh, clearly less than thrilled by the notion.

"What? No way!" Jerin exclaimed.

"I know how you feel. You're still young and marriage should be based on love, not political convenience. This is little more than showmanship to win over the people, but unfortunately, I can't argue that they are entirely wrong." the king said.

"Oh, it's not that. I just don't want to be a queen! I want to be a princess!" Jerin said.

"Excuse me?"

"Queens are all evil and scheming and manipulating. Kings and princes and about half and half, some good and some bad. Princess' though? Princess' are almost always good and kind and loved by everyone!" she said, letting out a content sigh, envisioning herself in full princess garb, which is, of course, incomparably softer and warmer looking than queenly garb.

"Is that even a stereotype? We've had plenty of benevolent queens in the past, and stupid fat oafs of kings."

"Well, I guess those are the exceptions that prove the rule." Jerin said, confidently, clearly undeterred.

"No, that's just complete nonsense! Even if it were true that queens were usually evil, and I'm not even remotely convinced that is the case, you'll still be you. You can be as good or evil as you wish!" He said, a growing tone of frustration in his voice. "It's just a title! it won't change who you are!"

"Oh really, mister 'Deathlocke Soulcrusher'?" Jerin said, giving him a sideways glance.

"Ahem, be that as it may..." he said, looking away once more. "We can't be a married couple of king and princess... that would be... that would just be weird, and similarly, there's absolutely no way that I'm going back to being a prince." He sighed, turning back, forcing a smile and making a desperate, forced effort to sound empathetic. "Just think about this. As queen of the nation, you'll be loved by everyone, and have real power to change peoples lives. Similarly, I would, of course offer a full pardon to you and your friends, and once the ritual is complete, all of the dark lords, including Midnight, will never be a threat to us, to any of us, ever again."

"Oh, I'm not falling for that! You just want me to become some evil tyrant to rule at your side, laughing at the suffering of the people, and being all spiteful and jealous of all the prettier and younger and gentler princess'! Well, it's not going to work." she glared at him.

"This is ridiculous! Why does everyone around me seem to go out of their way to make things as difficult as possible? Why on earth am I here arguing with some foolish child, as though she were my equal? I swear, I'm the only sane mouse in this entire kingdom!" He stomped a foot, shouting at nobody in particular, spittle spraying as he raved. "It'll be all over soon, though. All those who looked down on me, all those who second-guessed me, all those who fought me every step of the way whenever I tried to improve the well being of my people even the slightest bit, soon, they will all see the error of their ways. Soon, they will all pay the price for their foolishness!"

"You're not exactly sounding all that sane right now." Jerin said, head tilted to one side.

The king stared at her, wide eyed, trying to sputter out some words, but instead choking on his own rage. He finally gave up on it, simply tossing his hands up and letting out a frustrated noise before leaving the chamber, slamming the door behind him.

Samuel leaned against the opposite wall of the hallway, wearing a smug smirk. "Are those wedding bells that I hear?"

"I swear, that is the most infuriating creature that I have ever met, and I have dealt with more than my fair share." King Leon grumbled.

"There's still no sign of her allies. We found the passageway that they must have escaped from, but by the time we had reached the opposite end, there was no trace of them, and no footprints to track." the red garbed mouse said. "They could be anywhere, but I suspect they're not far. I don't see them abandoning that little one in there. They'll come for her, and when they do, we'll be ready for them."

"Fine, fine..." the king pinched between his closed eyes, the earlier growing headache arriving with reinforcements. "I leave the girl in your hands. Make sure that neither she nor those friends of hers are able to interrupt the ritual."

"Of course..." Samuel said, smiling wider still, his face still asymmetrical as his natural grin stretched up further than the scarred side of his mouth. "Leave everything to me."

And so, the alliance between the royal family and the hero of the land ended before it could even begin. It was probably for the best, considering the fact that unknown to either Jerin or King Soulcrusher, they were actually brother and sister.