The Crystal Palace, Royal Chambers

The Queen sat on the edge of her luxurious bed. Her eyes looked out at the giant window that dominated the room and provided an eye into the city of Fargo. The Crystal Ball sat in the view flanked on all sides by plazas, parks, and fountains. The city in the background, horse-drawn carriages carrying goods and wares, the sails of some ships docked in the ports. It was a beautiful and soothing sight, especially today as the sun peaked overhead and shined down upon the city.

It was a ritual Nora had taken to nearly every day. No matter the weather or the season. It helped her collect her thoughts and provided an insight into how the royal policies boded with the people. A few years ago, riots had broken out through the streets of the city. The non-slave working classes in the manufactories and corporations in the city were pissed that the King had passed a tax on them specifically while lowering the taxes on the upper class. Almost immediately there were effects, and the Queen could still remember a large bonfire being erected in the front plazas burning a replica of the Iscariot flag. Nora had to talk Fredrick into reversing that decision.

In her arms… a child. A baby to be more specific.

Julian. Prince Julian. His little face always put a smile on Nora's own. He was asleep in his mother's arms, peacefully. The sunlight shining down on the little angel. Physically he took after his mother much more than his father, snow-white. A little jewel in Nora's arms. Out of all the things she owned, behind her status as Queen, and the palace, and the jewelry. Behind it all… this was the most precious thing that she ever held.

"I'll fight with all my heart to create a better world for you Julian… even if it kills me, I'll try," She wished that he wouldn't be King. But Iscariot culture deemed the eldest child would become ruler. It just was the way it was. But the path of the King is a path of trouble and temptation. It was hard, she could see that in her own husband. There were too many things that could go wrong…too many ways to die.

She wouldn't be able to ensure a safe life for Julian forever… But for now, while he was still a child, she'd teach him the ways of a true king. So that when the time comes, he will be remembered as one of the greatest.

"Nora!" The queen shook in fear for a split second. The voice boomed through the room catching her off guard and ripping her from her serenity. She looked down at the baby, who seemed a little troubled but not willing to cry.

Behind her stood Fredrick, of course. He looked at Nora as if he was trying to figure out some great puzzle before him. Fredrick did not understand Nora at all, she could tell that much.

"What in the hell are you doing, you keep staring out the window like that! It's scaring me!" Fredrick said in his tone. This greatly upset the child, who began squirming and crying at the sudden outburst.

"Freddy! Will you quiet down? I have Julian right here!" Nora shot him a furious look. Fredrick looked down at her arms, and instantly a look of regret came over his face. He rushed over to her, but Nora stood up and placed Julian in his crib. She turned back to lead Fredrick into another corner of the room.

"Where were you?" Nora asked, the annoyance still present in her voice.

"Talking, to some very important people. About some very important things," Fredrick said. He stopped in his tracks. He hated when this would happen.

"And I wasn't invited?"

"Your presence wasn't required-"

"But I'm the Queen," Nora's voice pleaded.

"And I'm the King! I'm important to the functioning of this kingdom as a who-" Fredrick stopped himself, though he had done it far too late. Hearing the words come out of his mouth, made even him feel bad. Much less Nora.

"I'm not?" Nora asked, her voice sounded hurt.

"No-no-no, I didn't mean it like that sweetheart. I meant-"

"I know what you meant Fredrick and I understand. You're the one placed in power by inheritance, I'm just your wife. You don't have to explain it to me like I'm a child," Nora said standing up. Now Fredrick was doubly confused, was she sad, or…what was she?

"So you aren't upset?" He asked.

"Why would I be? After all, you are doing a fantastic job of running the nation by yourself!"

"So you are upset."

Nora ignored the question and moved on to the mirror, "What did you talk about in the meeting?"

"Are you upset or not?"

"Are you planning on including me in running the nation as a co-regent or not? That's what will make me upset Fredrick!"

Fredrick sighed and moved closer towards her moving on the bed and looking at her through the mirror, "Nora…. Being the monarch takes a lot of work and strength. It's a man's job-"

"Oh so is that it?" Nora turned to face him with a sly grin, "I'm a woman and I'm not fit enough to rule, unlike the other Queen's we've had that we basically worship as gods!"

"No Nora, that's not what I meant."

Nora placed an arm on her Husband's shoulder looking at him, he had hopelessly lost any chance of winning this argument and she knew it, "You want to know something else, Freddy? A monarch must be good with words. You aren't. And you know that."

Fredrick sighed, "Nora… I'm- I'm sorry dear I…" The King sat on the edge of the mattress, arms crossed and his head bowed. This sudden display of regret surprised even Nora, the closest person to Fredrick, "I'm sorry for the way I've treated you…"

Now it was Nora's turn to be confused, as she sat next to the red fox, looking him in the face. Carefully she wrapped an arm around him, "What do you mean?"

"I've been treating you like a… like a second-class citizen! Like you're under me. And you know, I'm terribly sorry," said the King. He looked up at her, "I don’t know I've just had a bad feeling that… I don't know."

"It's something in the air," Nora confessed too, "I've had it as well."

"So you know what I mean? That something bad is coming on the horizon?" Fredrick held Nora at the shoulders looking into her eyes.

"Deeply so," she said looking down and sighing, "It's as if the end is near… for both of us."

"I can't help but feel I've caused it," Fredrick said, "I'm too much like my father, you know?"

"Your father?" Nora asked, "Rupert?"

"He was an evil man, Nora. I can't believe I haven't told you this sooner but… I swear he still gives me nightmares, that man," Nora had been married to Fredrick for almost five years now. But out of the hundreds of days she had known him, in none of them had he ever brought this up, it almost scared Nora listening. But instead, she leaned in closer.

"You can tell me," Nora whispered to him. Fredrick nodded as he heaved a great breath in, and let it all out.

"He killed my brother, Nora."

"What?" Nora asked, confusedly, "I thought he died fighting in the Arden Uplands during the war?"

"Yeah, he did," Fredrick answered, "In an army sent out by my father, in a war he started! I'll never forgive either the humans who killed him there or my father!" Fredrick said, his hand forming into a tight fist as he stared straight ahead.

Nora shared Fredrick's resentment towards King Rupert, from what she could remember of him, he was a cold and rather stern man. Though those memories only came from when she was a young teenager, forced to attend dinners in the Iscariot Empire back before the Kingdom of the Highlands and the Iscariots united upon her marriage. She remembered Fredrick too, a prince then. He was forgettable if anything, a quiet and heavily reserved child. She always summed his childhood tendencies of introversion up to just being shy as a kid, but now she knew that there was something else going on between Fredrick and Rupert?

"I'll never forgive that man, Nora. When I was eleven, I had to watch one morning as he broke my mother's nose, and then in the same breath - turned to me and my brother and said," Fredrick paused, judging by his wavering voice, he was on the brink of tears which was so completely out of place for Fredrick. Nora herself was mortified by all of what she had heard, as she caressed his orange fur slowly, "…He turned and said, 'Boys… One day, you'll be great foxes. But in order to do that, you have to break a few bones, I swear…"

"My own fucking mom, Nora," He said, breathlessly. The white fox held her orange counterpart closer and tighter in an embrace. She couldn't believe the words she was hearing. She knew Rupert was a bad person… but was he really that cruel?

"Fredrick, it's okay. You couldn't have done anything. You were a child," Nora spoke softly into his ear

"Yeah, I was a child. But look at me now, Nora," He said gesturing to his body. Dressed now in plain clothes rather than his luxurious Royal Gowns, "I'm becoming him, Nora. People call me cruel… a tyrant… unforgiving…I've promised myself that I never wanted to see an ounce of that man inside of me. And never inside of him," Fredrick pointed at the crib sitting peacefully by the window. A rogue ray of sunlight seeped in through the window and touched the snow-white baby's crib. Julian couldn’t be like his father's father. This wouldn't be hereditary.

Nora knew what Fredrick was saying, it stunned her to see how much he just opened up at once. She had always loved Fredrick since they were married together, and Nora knew that he loved her. But to be this open about his family was something he just didn't do. Ever.

"If you mean it," Nora started, holding his paw within her own, "Then you know what you must do. You have to change. You must…"

"I know. I will. But it's something about the past few days I-I…" Fredrick jerked up and held his head as if a massive headache had just come upon him, "I just felt like something is going to happen to us. Something big. I don't know if I'm going to die, or if something will happen to you or what… but I do know that this feeling is telling us something."

Nora put a palm on his face, forcing him to look into her eyes, and she into his, "Then we shall listen…"

The two leaned into each other slowly, coming closer and closer…

"Knock-knock!" Came a sound from the door, interrupting the two lovebirds. Both Nora and Fredrick sighed as they pulled away from each the others' warmth.

"What is it?" Fredrick demanded from the door.

"A message you, my lord!"

Fredrick held out his hand, ready to receive it, "Come in!"

The door opened, and out marched an eagle demi-human with someone following close by.

A human.

Fredrick instantly looked at Nora, "A human? You have a human here as a servant?" Fredrick demanded from her.

"Yes, I do, Fredrick. And I expect, that her being my servant, you'll treat her with the same respect you treat any of your other subjects!" Nora told him, standing up and smiling down at the woman who handed her a cream-colored letter, "Thank you, my dear."

The human woman looked no older than 20, she pink skin the color of roses, and black hair that fell to her shoulders. Her most striking feature, were two piercing blue eyes, just like Nora's.

"It has no business being in the Crystal Palace, Nora!" Fredrick argued, fear-filled the woman's eyes as she took a few steps back.

Nora noticed her fear, and in her defense turned around to face Fredrick, "She, has a name, Fredrick!" She scorned him, "Yuri! She's here as an apprentice of mine."

"An Apprentice-"

"Uh-uh-uh," Nora interrupted him, "I don't want to hear you go onto your usual tirade on how you think that Humans and Demi-humans cannot coexist!"

"But we cannot, Nora! How many times do I have to tell you! And besides, what business do you have keeping an apprentice around?"

"She's learning to be a diplomat," Nora said.

"For whom?"

"For our empire."

Fredrick practically died. He sat down, his brow raised far too high to be contained, "Excuse me? A human being a diplomatic representative for our country? Are you mad?"

"I'm doing what was requested of me from your own subjects, and even from yourself. Your people want equality, they want freedom, Freddie! They come to me seeking it when they get brick-walled trying to get a word in edgewise with you!" Nora snapped at him.

"So you just roll over and let them put a bloody Human in a spot for Higher creatures only?"

"No, I listen to them, Fredrick. Like a monarch should! Don't you remember your sworn duty to serve the Iscariot people when you took your coronation oath?"

Fredrick was silent. He wanted to argue, but there was something about Nora's voice that made him sit and listen.

Nora became conscious of the fact that Yuri was still standing there, quite awkwardly. The Queen quickly ran over to a dresser of hers and pulled out a paper envelope that she jotted a paragraph onto. She then returned to Yuri with the note, "Thank you, dear," she said to Yuri, handing her the note, "Bring this to Sir Perceval, yeah? It's yours."

Yuri, upon realizing her ownership of the paper, took a cursory look through it, and a wide smile grew on her face. She quickly took hold of it closer and looked up at Nora, bowing down before her and thanking her, before she trotted off out the door. It left a smile on Nora's face as she watched her leave the room, followed by the Eagle assistant.

Nora turned again to her husband, "She's a sweet girl, you know? She deserves everything I have given her, some things she deserves more than either myself or you."

Fredrick was silent, but he did shake his head in disbelief.

"She's come from a long place of trauma, and persecution. Under both the rule of your father and yourself. She and so many other creatures like her deserve a chance! At least some… why won't you give them one?"

"Nora…" Fredrick grumbled, "I don't care anymore. Do as you wish with the girl, just keep that thing away from my child. Please?"

Nora sighed, "As you wish," she said. At least this was some hint at compromise, right?

She never understood how herself and Fredrick could be so different yet so in love? Her family valued things like; learning, modesty, restraint, and compassion. His family valued strength, warfare, power, and honor. How the Planinia's and Jorgan's ended up intertwined in a cosmic yarn, Nora had no idea. But what she did know, was that only one of the two families could truly survive. As much as Nora and Fredrick loved the other, their love would not be able to surpass the fact that their ideologies conflicted always.

Humans, insects, reptilians… they were all welcome in the Planinia family since Nora was a little cub. She used to play with an arctic Human girl, much like Yuri, when she was in school. And nobody had ever thought it strange. Nora's tutor was an insectoid, and though it was an incredibly difficult experience translating his hisses, growls, and grunts into her own language, she learned all of it and thanked her parents and her tutor for the time.

Why couldn't Fredrick and his family see things her way? If only they could just talk with a Human, they'd love them.

But there would be no equality in the country until either the Falklands were eliminated, or until the Iscariots were made a barren land. Nora knew that.

It was humiliating to embrace those who were perceived as the enemy. The war only slightly held back the Commonwealth's power, even in their defeat, they reigned as the primary nemesis to the Iscariots. And there was no way the Iscariots would see Humans as their equal if the Falklands were still a threat. Both the Iscariot and Falkish were a proud yet foolish people. Nora could see that clear as water. They wouldn't stop until they were engulfed in their own self-destruction.

Nora looked at Julian, still in his crib. She smiled warmly as she walked back towards him. Realizing… that all hope wasn't lost just yet…