An Untraditional Tale

         The horse whinnied, the sharp sound echoed off of the tree trunks. The brush had been thick and both she and her rider were grateful to be free of the clinging growth. "Hush Persimmon."The cloaked man astride it whispered softly as he patted the horse's glossy grey neck reassuringly with one gloved hand. "We're almost there." The two crossed a small stream and cantered across the broad glade that held the shining white stone tower.
         As expected the tower had no entrance save for the windows at the top. The white washed side of it showed a few cracks in the plaster that would serve as handholds. Unexpectedly, there was no sign of the dragon that was said to guard it; the signs of the massive beast were all there: huge gouges in the earth from the wickedly sharp claws, charred undergrowth. But there was no beast.
         With an elegant shrug the man slid off his horse. The graceful creature shied just a little once free of his weight. He took off his cloak and hung it across the thin legged palfrey's saddle.  He wore chainmail over his blue doublet, but removed it to better climb the tower. Pulling it off revealed a handsome man about twenty, blonde haired blue eyed. The picture of a saint from legends. He cracked a white smile and slapped Persimmon on her shiny flank. "Go girl. I'll whistle when I'm done here." He drew his shining sword with a loud schink from his scabbard. With that the prince started his long climb up the tower.
         The dashing prince clambered through the window sword first.  He tumbled through and landed, blinking, on the smooth floor. He dusted off his bright blue doublet and with a haughty toss of his blonde hair he surveyed the area. He was in a sitting room, maybe a woman's solar.
          It looked rarely used. Cobwebs draped elegantly across the wooden beams of the ceiling as if they were ancient banners. Dust covered once plush red leather chairs and couches. Abandoned embroidery frames and spinning wheels were still set up from where women would once use the strong sun from the broad windows to work on their craft.
         The prince stood up, shining sword still in hand, and walked across the polished stone. His brow crinkled as he twisted the knob of the only door to the room. He quietly let himself in to the chamber where the princess slept and crept stealthily towards the ornate bed that was the focal point of the circular chamber.
         Heavy blue-black curtains and light blue silken sheets encased the blond beauty. She didn't move as he approached. She barely breathed. Her ample chest rose up and down steadily beneath the embroidered blue coverlet. He admired the still sleeping form.
         Her hair was the color of spun gold. It flowed down past her shoulders and haloed her angelic features. Smooth white skin, pale as alabaster, rosy cheeks, deep red lips, the girl was certainly gorgeous. The part of her the prince could see above the rich velvet coverlet was dressed in a deep navy blue dressing gown. Would it match her eyes when she fluttered them awake? The prince thought so. With a sigh he sheathed his sword and pulled out a small golden hilted dagger. The ruby in the gilt hilt gleamed like a dragon's eye in the light of the single window as the prince brought it down forcefully towards the sleeping princess's heart.
         
         Princess Leliana awoke to the sound of a quiet sigh and her bright blue eyes flew open just in time to see a handsome blond prince arching a magic dagger towards her chest. She rolled out of bed with a startled shriek and flung the silk sheet at him.
         He was caught unaware and danced, tangled in the strong fabric. It bought Leliana enough time to gather her wits. She arched her perfectly manicured fingers and wove a complicated pattern in the air with her fingertips while chanting softly.
         "Wrap him now. Wrap him tight. Wrap him up to stave off a fight. "  Her voice was quiet with a practice cadence that activated the cantrip.
         The blue silk moved on its own, listening to her command. It drew up tightly around the handsome adventurer's arms and pinned them to his side. It wrapped tightly around his legs and he wavered before regaining his balance.  He struggled futilely against the enchanted cloth. Infuriated blue eyes burned out across the top of the sheet where it had him gagged and bundled like a midwinter's eve gift.
         Once she was sure he was caught and unable to move the princess went to the arching window frame and yelled, "Iltan! Where are you you great lazy beast?"
         A black glittery shape slowly filled the window. The prince let out a mew of terror, only slightly muffled by the blue binding of fabric. A massive dragon's head raised up slowly until its green gold eye filled the window. "I'm here Leliana. What do y-" The slit of the giant pupil narrowed. "Oh! I see you have company."
         "Yes, company, another one come to try and kill me! What do you think you're doing down there? I thought you were supposed to be guarding me! You are the worst tower guardian! Honestly. I think I should have gotten an enchanted wall of thorns, at least it wouldn't decide to go flying off to sun somewhere!"
         "A beast has to eat sometime Leliana. It isn't as if there are enough of the adventurers trying to come kill you to keep me fed." The dragon chuckled, a low rumble that made the stone of the tower shiver. "Speaking of which that one is trying to hop away. You might want to contain him better. He's trying to escape."
         The gorgeous princess sighed and scratched the scales of the dragon's eye ridge. "You're right. I'm sorry Iltan. It's just very disconcerting to keep being awoken like that. I think that we need to discuss beefing up security a little," She turned to the carefully hopping silk enshrouded man and narrowed her crystal blue eyes with a cold smile. "Perhaps after lunch?"
         The dragon chuckled again and disappeared below the wide window  as the princess took five quick steps and after picking up the abandoned dagger she prodded the prince towards the sky-filled opening. He fought, but the fabric would only allow him to move in the direction she wanted it to let him go. Eventually he was right up against the carved wooden frame.
         Leliana's soft alto voice filled the air by his ear. "Have fun lunching with Iltan my darling prince. Thank you so much for your daring rescue." And with those cold words said Princess Leliana pushed her would be murderer from the white stone tower window.
         
         Leliana drummed her white tipped nails on the polished oak table and stared at the yellowed sheaf of letters again. Crystalline tears welled up as she read line after line of the elegant script. With a smothered sob she tossed the papers across the room. The smooth vellum scattered across one empty hearth, narrowly avoiding its burning twin. Leliana's golden tresses bobbed with her suppressed shudders.
         The letters were from home.  Her father wrote about how everyone was doing - well. Which was to say everything was perfect.  His second wife and her two perfect daughters were all doing great and missed her so much. The third child that they expected to have together was healthy. Was she ready to come home yet? It was all so saccharine sweet that Leliana wanted to scream. Instead, she bawled, sprawled ungainly out across the rich wood of the dining table.
         How long ago had everything went wrong? Had it only been eight long years? It felt more like a century. She sniffled. I want my mother. She thought over and over in a miserable tirade. The beautiful eldest daughter of King Leerum and the late Queen Luthia banged her porcelain skin against the wood leaving a bright red welt on her forehead. It complemented her red rimmed ice blue eyes.
         She reached up and rubbed the mark, willing it away with a trace of magic like her mother had taught her so many long years ago. How vivid her memories were!
         Luthia, gorgeous, splendid in her high necked black silk gown with her ebony hair piled up on her head, smiling with her cherry red lips. Her blue eyes had danced when she had taught her craft to her daughter. They had spent hours holed up in her workroom. It was there that Leliana had learned about magic, and potions, and all sorts of other nasty things.
         The queen might have been cold to the populace, but to her darling daughter? Her protégé?  Never. Gods above I miss her. Leliana thought as she sniffled again and stood to check on the simmering sleep potion that filled the cauldron on the burning hearth. She sniffed it delicately. It was almost ready.
         The lithe blond put ingredients away in their cupboards, the faint green glow of her mage light bobbed around above her illuminating her pristine work space, also known as the kitchen. Mother never would have sent me out to a tower. She wouldn't have ever let father do this to me. The princess thought with sullen vehemence.
         But mother isn't here anymore is she Leliana? No. She isn't and she never will be again. You tried everything remember? Not even dabbling in necromancy brought her back. Leliana sighed and flung herself onto the rickety chair again. Her internal monologue was right.
         Luthia had perished in a fiery explosion in her workroom years ago and nothing would bring her back. As fathers were want to do Leerum had remarried. Her step mother was a blond busty thing.
         The new consort, Candyce, was as perky as a spring morning and as lovely as a field of sunshine and roses. She quite literally lit up the room when she walked in, she had been a priestess before she had swept into the palace spreading flowers and laughter in her wake. Her goddess was laughingly called the lady of sunshine and sonnets for her romantic nature and loving ways. Candyce had been a perfect priestess for her. Charming, beautiful, and as much as Leliana hated to admit it, sexy. The loving the goddess recommended wasn't always the romantic kind and had given her two daughters that practically oozed goodness. The populace had rejoiced when she stepped down to marry the grieving king. She and her two daughters were every bit as bright, cheerful, and loving as anyone could ask for.
         Leliana hated them for it. In fact she had hated them enough that she had tried, several times, to resurrect her mother, and when that hadn't worked she had resorted to putting snakes and bats in her new sister's beds and dye in her stepmother's shampoo.
         At first it had seemed to have the desired effect. They had shrieked and cried, tearing at their blonde hair and making the maids pick up the amphibian intruders. The new queen had fainted dead at the sight of her black hair but when she woke up? Nothing. All of the perfect loving witches had just looked at her with sympathy and her stepmother had hugged her and whispered platitudes in her ear.          
         "It will be alright. I understand. You miss your mum." Leliana huffed to herself in a mockery of the sultry voice of her step mother as she dug into the heavy wood with her index nail.  "You poor thing. It has to hurt so much!  I know it must  dear. It will get better." The woman didn't sound remotely nasal or insincere, but the blonde princess made her that way regardless as she spoke to the heavy air in the circular tower kitchen.
         Her father had not been so forgiving. He had sent her here against her stepmother's plea, to this tower as a punishment. It was only supposed to be for a month, the royal equivalent to sitting in a corner. He had hired Iltan to guard and deter anyone from looting the tower and its precious contents. But now she refused to leave. Well she would have refused to leave if the tower would have given her the option. It was wyrded so that she could only find the door out when she had a change of heart.
         Grumbling she leaned back and crossed her arms against the navy blue silk gown. The silver embroidery that covered the tight fitting corset dug into her lily white skin making her wince.
         That had been eight long years ago. By now it was common gossip that the tower held a princess, and not just any princess but an "evil princess that wanted to kill off the queen consort and her beloved children." It wouldn't be long before she was relegated to being an evil sorceress if the news Iltan heard bore any truth. Hence the increasing number of princes and adventurers coming to murder her in her sleep.
         Leliana sighed heavily and rubbed her arms where the silver thread had poked her. What was a spell casting princess to do? Wait around for a murder disguised as a rescue? She stood up to check the sleeping potion and finding it ready bottled it up in a tiny vial.
         The tower prevented her from doing any magic to get herself out, unless of course it was in her heart to go home and reconcile, but it didn't prevent her from dallying in her craft within its thick cold walls.  The sleeping potion wasn't exactly healthy in light of her guardian's lax habits, but sleeping passed the time and at least in true princess fashion while she was asleep she wouldn't age. Maybe I'll sleep through the golden witch's lifespan and the tower will let me out by default... The thought teased at her mind. It had some merit.
         The stunning princess laid herself down in bed and pulled the stopper from the vial. With one glance at the green gold eyeball that stared at her through the window she raised the swirling green vial to her lips. "Now don't leave me this time Iltan!"
         The nodding of the dragon's massive scaled head was the last thing she saw as she dropped drowsily back into the plush pillows and snuggled down into her coverlet. Dreams washed her pain away. In them she took her mother's cold white hand and danced in the bright white moonlight.
                   
         She awoke to an angry roar and the faint smell of smoke. What the? What's going on?  Her sleep numbed thoughts fought valiantly towards coherence. The princess rolled out of her bed and stumbled across the chill stone floor towards the arching window frame. She peered out. A shank of golden hair tangled out across her shoulder and waved in the wintery wind. Leliana stared at it in disbelief. The glowing  cascade of hair was at least two feet longer than when she had been awake last. It would probably brush the floor now. How long have I been asleep? She wondered mentally.
         "Iltan? Iltan? What's going on?" She cried out. Her hand flew up to massage her throat; she was shocked at the raspy sound of her voice, so long unused.  It took long minutes and some frantic searching out all of the windows to find the dragon. He was mantled over the remains of a horse. Broad black wings spread wide like a giant bird of prey. He paused his meal and looked up at her curiously.
         "Ah you're awake at last princess. I'm sorry to have disturbed your slumber. This one was especially tricky." He delicately tore a piece of flesh from the carcass of the horse and tossed it up in the air to be gulped down his long neck one undulation at a time. "Ah the delicious taste of victory." The ancient dragon smiled wickedly. The razor sharp points of his teeth glistened in the sunlight.
         Leliana suppressed a shiver despite knowing that the dragon was on her side.  He was quite the fearsome creature from the black shiny barbed tip of his tail to the glittering grey talons that tore at the earth while he daintily ripped the horse apart a quarter at a time. His wise gold green eye were nearly closed in contentment as he raised his obsidian scaled head up to her window for a gentle scratch.
         "What news other than the latest adventurer's tragic death?" Leliana asked as she rubbed the soft skin next to his huge eye.
         "The evil sorceress in the white tower has increased her trials." He winked. "If you look closely the undergrowth has gotten a bit more bramble filled in the past three years while you slept. I made a deal with a hedgewitch on your behalf. I thought you wouldn't mind." The low grumble of his voice made the building shake, but the blond princess clasped her hands gleefully.
         "Oh Iltan! Really? That's wonderful news! Thank you!"
         "Well, don't thank me too much lady. It has made getting the letters from your father more difficult, and somehow it has made the tower that much more attractive to the errant adventurer." He snorted. "We're up to one or two a month now. It's honestly getting a little ridiculous. I'm going to get fat if they keep it up." He made a sound of pleasure deep in his throat as the princess caressed an especially sensitive spot.
         "Has there been any word from my father?" Her pretty face clouded and she grimaced.
         "Ah, yes, let me get them." His huge head snaked down and disappeared. Moments later it returned with several leather satchels hanging from his long teeth. The sound of his distinguished voice being muffled made the princess giggle as he said, " Her yu gow princesh."
         She took his burden with a bright smile. "Did any of those adventurers have anything to eat with them Iltan? " She pawed anxiously through the mail looking for the latest letter. Pulling the yellowed sheaf out with an "Ah." She turned to the dragon again. "I'm starved."
         "I'll see what I can do majesty." His dark head disappeared below the white wooden framed window sill that marked the end of her domain.
         
         A short time later the princess munched on purloined bread and cheese while she read the letters. A few mice and bats had taken up residence in the tower during her time asleep, but she didn't mind the company. The mice were amusing and the bats kept bugs from infesting the place so she was grateful for their company. She crumbled up a few crusts of bread and fed her new pets. When a crow landed on the sill she fed it too. By the time she had caught up on her years of reading she had acquired a veritable menagerie of crows, mice, rats, and bats all milling about hoping for a few more crumbs; and the knowledge that she now had two brothers-in-law and three bouncing baby siblings. Her father still implored her to forgive and come home, but after three years of unanswered letters his arguments were tired and his begging was more and more insincere. He had started to forget her. How long would it be before he forget that the dark maid in the tower was his once beloved daughter?
         She chattered nonsense at her animal companions and they followed her down to her kitchen workroom. Mice peered curiously around her skirts, their pink noses twitching wildly, as she opened the door . The musty air was stale. All it took was one word to activate the waiting mage lights. They illuminated the room exactly as she had left it, albeit a bit more dusty.
         Mice and rats scurried in. She thought briefly about sending them out, but thought better of it as she saw the running rampant around the room, whiskers a twitch with excitement. Why not let them here? They couldn't get into the magical larder or any of the cabinetry. A raven landed in the middle of the table, his handsome profile glowing faintly green in the light.
         "Well, I guess I have guests for dinner." The princess laughed as she tied a stained apron over her navy and silver bodice.
         And that was how the evil sorceress started her army of vermin. Days turned into weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. The princess aged to a buxom eighteen naturally without her sleeping potions. The animals kept her company and brought her news.
         The crows and ravens she taught to spy for her with their bright intelligent eyes. A few failed spells and she finally succeeded in  giving them the gift of speech. Their hoarse voices cried out at her in adoration whenever she left crumbs on the sills for them.
         The mice and rats snuck bits of grain and news from farmers. The speech spell hadn't worked very well on them, but a few could make tentative sentences, and all could answer yes or no to basic questions. Perhaps with a specialized breeding program I could get more intelligent ones? The princess thought as she stroked the soft grey furred creatures scurrying around her.
         The bats, well, they weren't too bright honestly. They mostly just ate whatever bugs managed to come into the tower and milled about. There were a few that could and would carry tiny little scrolls with messages on them, and those she sent to drop their messages with the King. He never sent any replies by her unusual carriers.
         His letters continued to become rarer and rarer as the months wore on. He had grandchildren now, and a family, and the kingdom to run. It saddened Leliana, but still she could not bring herself to forsake her mother's memory and return to the house while it held  that woman, Candyce, or any of her sickeningly sweet brood.
         "Princess." The dragon's deep voice shook the walls. It was impossible to not hear him anywhere in the tower. "You have a visitor." Leliana frowned at the heavy irony in his voice and climbed to the top floor. She looked out her bedroom window and when she saw nothing she went into the room that once had served the previous inhabitant as a solar.
         "Who is it Iltan?" Her pretty forehead creased with a frown. The dragon lowered his head.
         Astride the dragon's massive black skull a little old woman cackled and clambered into the room. "Hello me dear. Hello! Hello!" The woman tittered.
         Leliana took a step backward. Her long navy skirt stirred up dust. She made a mental note to have her army of mice do a bit of housework in the chamber. She tossed her hair back and glared at the intruder. Her ravens cawing from the rafters.  "Uhm. Hello. Who are you?"
         "Me? Me? Little old me?" The woman cackled. She was obviously not quite sane. Her grey cape was weathered and her lumpy face protruded from it like a benign growth with sticklike hair popping out through holes left and right. "I'm mistress Marley. Yep. Little old mad Marley they call me. But not so mad you see!" The woman winked. "Not so mad. I hear them talk about the witch in the tower and I says to meself, Marley Ann, you need to go meet this witch. If'n she's a witch you have something in common, an if'n not meybe she'd want ta be."
         Leliana scoffed. "I'm not a witch. I'm a princess."
         "Oooh then the people are right they call you the princess of the dark you see. You see. I didn't believe them. Nope, not me. Not little old mad Marley." The woman cackled. She was certainly a dotty old thing.
         "Princess of the dark? I'm the daughter of Leerum and Luthia. I'm quite literally a princess." She put her hands on her hips and stared the woman down.
         "Ah. Ah. King Leerum n Queen Candy ain't been parading that n about. Might be then you'd have princes banding to win yer hand rather than drive a dagger through yer sweet little heart then. But anyways, anyways, Marley has some business with you."
         The princess sighed heavily at looked imploringly at Iltan's quizzical eye. "What business Marley?"
         "I wanna buy me some of yer potions. I has a shrewd mind fer business ya know. I says to meself, Marley Ann, if'n it is a magical type locked in the tower then she'll have nothin' better to be doin' than brewing herself some potions. You could trade 'em off'fa her you could, you could." The woman danced in place. Her worn grey skirts swaying wildly.
         Now that was an interesting thought. "What potions do you want?" Lelenia arched a pale golden eyebrow and looked at the doddering old woman coldly. If the woman wanted what she could make perhaps she could barter for food rather than for  coin, although coin would certainly make Iltan happy. The precious gem he was guarding was getting less precious every day.
         The woman looked down at her gnarled hands, but one green eye slowly moved up to stay looking at the sneering princess.  "Oh you know, meybe a sleeping potion or two, maybe a few love'n ones. A bit o' poison perhaps?" Marley looked at her with both eyes. "Fer a fair price o'course."
         "Alright. Those are simple. I want half the payment in food and half in coin, and I charge at least two crown gold for each vial."
         Marley crowed in delight and spit in her greasy palm to seal the bargain. Leliana reached her delicate fingers into the old crones grasp and tried desperately to not stare at her toothless grin.
         "Yeh won't be disappointed missus. Nope nope. Marley will see you paid 'n paid well. Word of yer work will spread wide. Yes. Yes." She turned to the window and  tottered towards the sill. "You just send one of them birds to me when me order is ready." She bopped Iltan on the cheek and giggled. "Let me down now ya great brute."
         Leliana stood rubbing her sticky palm with the hem of her skirt for long minutes before turning to one of the ravens. "Well, I suppose we should get to work. Don't you think?"

         It didn't take long for word of the princess of darkness's skill to spread. With that notoriety came an influx of petitioners for her aide and more than enough champions to keep Iltan fed. The sleeping potions didn't bother her, and neither really did the poisons, or the items she cursed, but the love potions? Every time she lowered a basket of them down it was with a heavy heart and a longing eye.
         The only men that ever came for her wanted to kill her. It simply wasn't fair. She had tried keeping a few of the champions around by ensorcelling them, but they were simply giant dolls then. Not what she wanted at all.
         Not fair. Not fair at all that I'm stuck up here and every village bumpkin with a half a shilling can buy love. Her mind voice grumbled. But still she sold the potions and stored the profits in the bellies of her companions and in the cellar of the tower. The rodents and birds grew fat and plentiful and Iltan was going to have quite the hoard.
         The day dawned bright and clear the morning of her twentieth waking year and her thirty-first technical one. The princess stretched out her toned arms and her crow companions dropped her eggplant colored dressing gown around her shoulders. "Thank you!" She called out to them and grinned as they preened in her regard.
         She climbed out of her bed and went to the kitchen to stir a simmering poison potion and make herself a cold buttered biscuit. On a whim she set the biscuit on the hearth to warm and put a pot of clear water on to boil.
         She whistled to herself as she busied about the workplace cleaning and cooking. She pulled a book off a small shelf and poured herself a cup of tea. Long fingers carefully handled the delicate cup as she read one of the few books she had been able to barter for.
         The tea was cold when she gradually noticed of the acrid smell of smoke that wasn't from her own hearth. She set the blue and white tea cup on the table and looked up at one of the ravens roosting in the rafters. "Check on the would you please Sigmund." The bird took wing up the winding stairway.
         She had barely read a paragraph when he came winging back down, all his feathers on edge. He landed on the table. His hoarse croak was barely intelligible, "Mis-Tress. Fire. Mis-Tress."
         "Where is the fire Sigmund? Calm down." She stroked his shiny black feathers soothingly. "Shh baby, tell me where it is." She pitched her melodic alto low and soothingly.
         "Dra-Gon-gone. Flock. Big-Flock -Set-Fire-Here. " The bird danced from leg to leg under her soft fingertips. She tried to calm him while her mind whirled.
         This was most unnerving. Where is Iltan? Have adventurers decided to bond against me? Why now?  "This is very troublesome." She whispered to the bird. "Thank you for bringing me the news- as unnerving as it is."
         She swept upstairs gracefully, her aubergine dressing gown whirling out as she passed the rodents and bats that clung to the walls of the hallway. She reached the top of the tower and looked down to see lumps of tinder piled against her home.
         Her pale figure shook with rage as she watched the tinder burning fiercely against the stone walls. It wouldn't burn through, but the smoke would cut off her air. She was trapped. She would die here. She screamed profanities at the crowd until in one of her many scans of the multitudes she landed on a face she recognized.
         Her father's face was more wrinkled than she remembered but just as distinguished. His blue eyes locked on hers and he shook his grayed head. So this was it then. Her own father was just going to stand by and watch the mob suffocate her.
         There was no chance of escape then. He had probably captured Iltan somewhere where he wouldn't be able to protect her. "Come here lovelies! Come here." She called to the creatures of the tower. As one they scrabbled and flew into her chamber. She surveyed all of them with a stern look. "Mistress mother has a very important task for you. You must all go out of the tower."
         "Mother displeased?" Whined one rat his white whickers twitching down pathetically.
         "Oh no baby. Not displeased at all. I want you to help me." She smiled softly down on the rat and patted his head with a fingertip. "I want all of you to help me. Birds and bats carry the mice and rats. Be careful to not hurt each other now. We cannot abide that. Drop them on those wretched villagers. Harry them away from here." She spread her arms wide. "Go children! Go!"
         The steady stream of black shapes that spewed out of the tower frightened the mass of villagers. They ceased throwing more fodder on the already hot flames and stared up at the black swarm of things hurtling towards them. As the flying creatures dropped their loads the people screamed and ran.
         The rats and mice clawed and bit at whatever flesh they could reach, eagerly obeying the command of their mistress. Birds and bats swirled into the crowd flapping their great wings and adding to the pandemonium. People trampled each other to death in the chaos as they scrambled trying to escape the vermin's assault.
         The princess watched the terror sweep through the angry mob with an ice cold smile. One of the larger ravens harried her father into the pandemonium where he was promptly lost under the mass of frantic feet. Would he survive? Probably not, but the princess didn't care. She stared down through the grey smoke until she began to cough.
         The path to her bedroom was well remember by her dainty feet as they carried her of their own accord to the massive bed frame. Her slender hands unlaced the heavy curtains and tugged them down, trying desperately to keep the smoke out just a little longer. Already her thoughts were slurring, slowing and becoming difficult.
         At least they're all out. The smoke won't hurt any of my precious companions. I can take some solace in that. Her thoughts faded then into grey. Her last words a quiet murmur, "I'm coming home mother." The princess reached out purple wrapped lily white arms to grasp the cold fingers of the long dead queen in her dream and knew no more.

         The feeling of someone over her awoke Leliana into a grey filled haze. The smell of smoke was stronger now. Why wasn't she dead?
          She coughed softly as she felt hands pummeling into her chest in a steady beat. One. Two. Three. Her mouth was forced open and air pushed into her lungs by a man whose face swam in and out of focus. The process repeated until she managed to whisper stop. Well, rather she managed to hack out the word stop in a fit of violent coughing.
         The man, her rescuer, hoisted her over one shoulder and hustled across the floor. He hadn't spoken a single word yet and to the nearly dead sorceress he was a dark clad angel. She barely noticed the cold burn of the black chainmail as she ground against it from his bumpy jog. For the first time ever she was being rescued.
         I must be dead. That's it. This can't be happening. She thought to herself, but still he carried her through her solar and out the window into the saddle of a blue-black dragon that eyed her with one wise red eye before he shoved off the tower with a violent bunching of his huge muscles. His claws left holes in the side of her white prison, her home. 
         "Are you alright my lady?" The man called to her over the steady whoosh of air and beat of the gigantic black wings. The dragon snapped idly at the ravens and crows that dove and cawed their delight around her performing ridiculous aerobatics.
         The princess tried to hold the tattered remains of the deep violet silk around her. "I, uh, I thank you. I don't know how to repay you sir." Her golden hair streamed behind them like a banner.
         "My lady. What you have suffered no one should have. To be locked into a tower by your own father? Tis a horrible thought to countenance. Once I had heard of this grievous error I came immediately. No one with gifts such as yours should be locked away. You should be worshipped for the goddess among men that you are." The knight twisted around to look at her and she felt one strong gloved hand under her chin slowly tilting her burning cheeks up.
         "Thank you sir. I, I, never expected to be rescued by anyone. Let alone by one such as y-, forgive my manners, but who are you kind sir so that I may know who to thank?" She clasped the top of her gown closed, still so embarrassed as to not be able to meet his eyes.
         "Prince Elderon of Obsid at your service dark lady Leliana." He voice was quiet and strong. It melded with the memory of his strong fingers lifting her and his frantic lips blowing air into her lungs. The combination stirred her stomach and ignited a burn that she knew well although she hadn't experienced it.
         "Obsid?" She strained her memories for mention of it. "Isn't that the empire to the far south?"
         "Ah, you have heard of the nation my father united then? I'm impressed princess. Not many of your people care to know of the newly unified empire. Let alone chance admitting that they know of us." She saw his lips twitch into a cool smile out of her peripheral vision.
         She smiled a tight smile of her own. "Of course I know of your people. My mother often told me the stories of how your father brought the troublesome clans together under his banner. She was very impressed with his technique. "
         They rode in silence for a long while before she leaned into his shoulder and whispered, "Thank you prince, for kissing me back to life and rescuing my from my tower." She felt him twist in her grip to look back at her again.
         "My pleasure princess. As I said, how could I do less knowing a fair maid like you was trapped?"
         Leliana finally got the nerve to look up into the deep brown eyes of her sable clad knight in shining armor and fell - deeply and irrevocably in love with her personal prince charming, crown prince Elderon of the blood bathed and battered Obsid nation.