Chapter One: The Arranged Marriage

Queen Charming pursed her lips in distaste. She was sitting in her private parlor with her husband and three children: Daring, who was almost a year old, and the newborn twins Darling and Dexter.

Her husband looked up and noticed her frown. "What's the matter, Dearest?"

"It's cousin Generous," she said, setting down a letter. "She just had another baby. That makes six. One more and she has the whole set for The Six Swans."

"Say, aren't Beautiful and Benevolent's children all in the same fairy-tale too?" King Charming asked.

"Yes, and Lovely wants to have all twelve dancing princesses," Queen Charming replied. "The Dancers might declare war on them for that; it's their story. I suppose Lovely is hoping they do, actually-you know Likeable wanted to marry Septima." She sighed. "Sets are so fashionable lately. I feel like at Charming Reunions everyone will laugh at us."

"No one would laugh at us," her husband said. "We're the D Charmings, the fourth-most important."

"But our children aren't in a set!" Queen Charming cried shrilly. "The twins don't even have destinies yet, and Daring's is clearly unstable!" (Daring was unofficially betrothed to Apple White,the next Snow White.) "The Evil Queen's daughter is younger than Apple! Younger! How can she be Apple's stepmother if she's younger than her?!"

"Well, you know that she's stepmother in name only," her husband pointed out. "The Good King hasn't been Snow White's real father in centuries."

"But every Evil Queen as long as we can remember has been old enough to remember her mother's death!" the queen said. "That's how their resentment of the Whites is born!"

The king thought for a moment. Then he said, "Well, my dear, I think I have the answer to all your problems. Clearly this generation of the Snow White story needs guidance to proceed properly. Daring has to have his happy ending; Dexter needs a fate; you need your matching set; and the Queen girl needs supervision. The Good King's fate is still open, isn't it?"

And so it was that the Charmings came to betroth their second son to the fledgling Raven Queen.