The truth now known, Hannah was pronounced heir, and named Vicereine of the kingdom.  The wedding was rescheduled for a week later, time enough for both Hannah's mother and adoptive mother to be located and invited, though her sister's whereabouts remained elusive.  Hannah let the innkeeper sweat for a few days after the wedding, but then sent for her and forgave the debt from their drunken wager.  Just seeing the woman's face was reward enough, and Hannah was all-but-Queen now, it's not as if she had any use for an inn.

While she visited for the wedding, Sarah remained uneasy about the gold that remained in her daughter's hair, but she could not deny that Hannah seemed to have done nothing but good with her life, and was probably not cursed by the devil.  Whereas Marion was terribly proud of what Hannah had made of herself, particularly in managing to defeat a dragon.  She'd refused a room in the castle, preferring an inn, and as chance would have it, she and the innkeeper discovered they had certain preferences in common.

Years passed.  The Queen grew infirm and eventually abdicated in favor of Hannah and Philip, and though they were equals as Queen and King, the huntress had grown so confident as Vicereine that in truth she did most of the ruling.  The new Queen did not spend as much time with her animals as they might have liked, but a small preserve was established near the castle for them to roam, carefully stocked with what forage or prey each preferred.  And she did make a point of taking them out to hunt the wild forest of her youth at least once a month.

Eventually a tale came to her court that over the years many people had gone missing in the woods.  It was feared the woods were haunted, or that some as-yet-unseen beast stalked among the trees.  This was too good a chance to pass up...she hadn't had any real challenge to test herself against since the dragon and the Marshal, so Hannah immediately organized a hunting party to see if they could root it out.

Late in the afternoon, Hannah spotted a hart of pure white, and sped into the woods in chase.  She pursued so nimbly, despite the lack of a trail, that all of the hunting party save her animals were left behind.  But the hart accelerated past even Lepa's fleetness, and they lost sight of it.  Hannah blew on a horn to try to reunite with her hunting party, but they'd well outdistanced them, and it was too late in the day to find their way back to Blackhill, so they settled down to camp with a fire, just like the old days.  As she stirred sparks in the fire with a stick, the young Queen heard a piteous wailing from the night.

"Oh...the cold...the terrible cold..." Peering into the flickering darkness, she made out a wrinkled old man perched in a nearby tree, hugging a tattered black cloak around himself.

"Hello?" she called out.  "I see you are cold, and I've a splendid fire here...you're welcome to share it if you'd like?"

"Nay!  You are set all about with wild animals, and they would make short work of me!" protested the man's quavering voice.

"No, they are my friends, and won't offer any threat that isn't provoked."

"Nay, again!  The animals are all angry, I won't trust them.  But I have a wand of power...if I toss it down to you and you touch each, I will feel safe to accept your hospitality."  Hannah shrugged and nodded, intrigued, and the man indeed tossed a gnarled stick at Hannah's feet.  She examined it in the firelight, and it did not seem overly special, but then neither had her magic sword, before used.  Still, she was wary.

"What's it going to do, spell them to sleep?"

"Indeed!  A dreamless sleep, safe and sound!"  Hannah did not think the man was any threat, but she was not as trusting as she'd been as a younger woman.

"What do you think?" she asked her animals.  They debated it briefly, then Lepa stepped forward.

"We would not have you rescind an offer of hospitality on our part.  But in case there is two-leg treachery, test the magic on me...I'm not as fleet as I once was, and I fear even with an occasional root-nip, my days are growing short."  Hannah smiled at the hare's bravery, and strange maturity, and touched the wand's tip to her back.  Instantly, she became stone, a statue of herself.  Hannah gasped, and drew her sword.

"Betrayer!  I'll have that tree down in a flash, and your head a hot second after!"

"Nay, nay!" cried the man.  "All is as I have said!  Touch her back again with the wand if you do not believe!"  Hannah glared at him suspiciously, but did as he asked, and sure enough, the hare turned back to normal.

"That was a strange feeling, but restful for all that," Lepa remarked.  "I've no objection to it."  Mollified, Hannah sheathed her sword and touched each of her animals in turn, until the fire was half-ringed with their statues.  The man crept down from the tree with surprising spryness, but would not yet approach the fire.

"Toss me back my wand first, lest you release an animal early.  I swear, I sha'n't leave this fire until all is set as it should be."  Hannah didn't understand why he seemed so unreasonably fearful of the animals, but then she was used to them, so she supposed his precaution seemed reasonable from his perspective.  It wasn't as if she couldn't easily handle him if he tried something untoward.  She tossed the wand back, and the old man retrieved it, then tottered up to the fire, squatting next to her.

"Thank you, dear child," he croaked, stretching his hands to the fire to warm them.  "How came you to be in such a strange company?"  It had been a long time since she'd told the story, so Hannah sat back and gave an accounting, swelling her own accomplishments a bit in the process.

"Interesting, interesting...well that you kept the sword and did not fear the warning in the church...it is a fine blade, and I see you are of far too noble bearing to have been corrupted by mere pride."  Hannah laughed agreeably.

"Just so!  It is well you should call me noble, for I have ruled as Queen for some time now," she preened, having saved this bit for last.  The old man clapped, delighted.

"A Queen!  I never thought to catch one of those, and yet here I have, and my sword and my animals, all in the same night!"  Hannah immediately grew tense, and put her hand to her sword.

"Your sword?  Your animals?  I think you are mistaken, old man..." she said, dangerously.

"Ah, but they are!  For who do you think enchanted that sword, only to have it spirited away and girded about by meddlesome o'er-pious priests with wards and warnings.  And who do you suppose spelled the beasts that bore your silver-tongued lot?  I'll have them all back, and you as well!"  With that, he drew forth his wand again and advanced on Hannah.

The Queen had the sword out in a flash and struck quickly, lest he touch her with the wand's tip, but at a gesture from his free hand, she found the sword pulled aside, drawing her arm with it.  She might have dropped it, pulled her bow or even a dagger, but she simply couldn't believe this old man could really overcome her, she'd killed a dragon with this sword.  She pulled with all her might to strike it back at him, but it didn't budge.  The old man casually tapped her with the wand and there she froze, as firmly cast in stone as her animals.  The warlock did a vile little caper and cackled with delight.

"That blade is mine, royal chit, and it knows it," he crowed.  At another small gesture, the sword twisted out of Hannah's stone hand and flew to the old man's.  He admired it for a moment, then stuck it into his own ragged belt and began to drag the statues through the forest one by one, with strength that would have been surprising had there been anyone left to witness it.  He paid no mind to the darkness, for he knew there was nothing within it more fearsome than himself.

An hour or so later, he'd arranged the statues in a place of honor at the front of his vault, where a score or so other statues stood.  They were once men, women and children who had been unfortunate enough to encounter him in his woods, but now were mere decorations to satisfy his wicked greed.

---

Chloe was exhausted.

Over the years, she and the animals had meandered their way through several kingdoms to the East, but they had been traveling back here more or less directly for several weeks, and all were weary from the trip.  But it was long past time to have a talk with Hannah.

She'd lived a comfortable life for years, touring with her animals, and had meandered through the several Eastern kingdoms with no particular destination in mind.  But things had begun to get complicated some months ago.  People had begun to demand she make the animals talk, as if they already knew somehow that they could, and to see her "magic sword".  When she protested that she had no such blade, they frequently grew angry, and the huntress and her companions had been run out of more than one village ahead of pitchforks.  She'd actually started to carry a blade, partly for defense and partly as a decoy she might surrender, for she'd been assaulted more than once in an inn by ruffians seeking a magic sword of their own, and in close quarters with her animals outside, a bow was a poor defense.

At first she'd thought these rumors were just the invention of people who thought a trained menagerie not fantastic enough without adding more magic into it.  But the fact that her animals could talk, and the oddly consistent inclusion of the magic sword made her wonder.  Eventually she decided it must be that her sister was somehow involved, and resolved to find her and discuss the matter.

Chloe felt a little guilty that she hadn't looked her up long since.  But her twin sister had always been a little more fragile, and Chloe kept deciding to put it off, lest Hannah refuse to be parted again and all the difficulties they'd split over fall upon them anew.  The one good spot in the rumors that had so complicated Chloe's life was that it at least reassured her a little that Hannah was apparently doing well for herself.

But when she finally came upon the tree where they'd parted so long ago, her heart skipped a beat.  The side facing the way she'd gone was as shiny as the day they'd left it.  But the other side bore a strange mixture of rust with sections which were as gleaming and untouched as the reverse.  The huntress puzzled over this.

"Perhaps it means your sister is not quite dead, but decidedly not well either?" suggested the fox, Vulpa.  They agreed this was a plausible explanation, and Chloe felt the trail-weariness fall away for the moment, full of concern and determination.  They took the other fork and continued on.

---

"Your Majesty!" cried a guard, when she arrived in the town of Blackhill.  She'd begun to trace Hannah's years-old travels, but had quickly heard a story that she'd somehow been crowned Queen of the kingdom, and had diverted straight for the capital.  Still, she hadn't really believed it...Hannah?...Queen?...until she'd arrived.  She'd been separated from her sister for so long, though, that it had never occurred to her that they'd mistake her for their rightful ruler.  "We feared the worst when your Majesty did not return from the enchanted forest...the King has fallen into a deep sorrow, thinking your Majesty lost!"

Chloe had been about to explain the confusion when the guard continued, and now she hesitated.  They might know that their Queen had an identical twin sister, who also happened to travel with an identical menagerie of talking animals.  But with a supposedly enchanted forest thrown into the mix, it seemed to her that honesty might nevertheless strain credulity...they could think her Hannah's fetch, or a fae seeming or some worse superstition.  Even if they took her at her word, royalty could be a touchy bunch...they might not let Chloe help, and she was desperate to find her sister before death truly took her.  So, despite a twinge of misgiving, she let the mistake stand.

"Ah, lost indeed, but fortunately not as permanently as all that," Chloe offered.

"The Lord be praised!  I shall escort your Majesty to the castle at once!"

"By all means," she said, waving a hand airily.  The guard began to lead her to the castle, but after several furtive glances back in her direction, ventured a hesitant question.

"Ah, your Majesty, if I may ask, what happened to your clothes?"  Chloe looked down at herself, confused, but realization dawned swiftly.  Ah.  Right.  Queen.

"An unfortunate encounter with a skunk and a briar patch," the huntress quickly extemporized.  "I had to buy these...rags from a passing huntress..."  She kept her gaze forward but watched the guard out of the corner of her eye, and was relieved when he seemed to be quite reassured by her fiction.  Emboldened, she continued.  "Actually, take me straight to the royal seamstress," she added, hoping dearly there was such a person, "so I can change before too many people see me?"

---

Philip was conflicted, to say the least.  He truly had been shattered at the thought of losing Hannah, and when he was told she'd returned, he was overjoyed.  Though that still left his usual discomfort.

Hannah had seemed so earnest when he'd first met her, confident but innocent, beautiful but capable.  When she'd miraculously survived and returned to expose the Marshal's treachery, he hadn't hesitated to marry her as he'd asked that original fateful day.  But her year of disappointment in him seemed to have changed her, and her sudden rank even more so.  She was still beautiful of course, and talented, but arrogant and conceited as well in her daily business of running the kingdom.  She'd consulted him less and less, until now it had probably been months since she'd officially asked his opinion about anything of import.  Growing up, he'd seen how his mother put on a mask of unshakable confidence, she'd drilled it into him as well, and seen his mother's mask become more and more real as the years passed.  But he worried that the strain of the responsibility might be harming his wife's sanity.

For each night, when they took to their bed, it was like the Queen became just Hannah again, beset with worry and self-doubt, terrified that she would make a mistake and bring everything to ruin, and hesitant to take credit for what good she had accomplished.  So he would comfort her, and soothe her, and assure her that her decisions had been fine so far, and there was no reason to expect that would change.  And the next morning, she would dress and gird herself...by habit she always wore her weapons, whether hunting that day or not...and all her doubt would vanish.  Not just vanish, but reverse, becoming again confidence occasionally offensive in its certainty.

Thus, discomfort.

When he greeted her, he nevertheless hid his misgivings and displayed all his true ardor.  But rather than the expected off-color remark or inappropriate public display, like pinching his bottom, she was coy, chaste even.  She'd actually blushed upon seeing him, but when they went to their bed, she seemed even more nervous than usual.  But rather than let him comfort her, she placed that sword in which she set so much store between them...in their bed...and simply rolled away from him with no more than a quiet "good night".  He'd been too shocked to say a word, and had eventually fallen into a restless sleep himself.

---

Chloe asked as many offhanded questions as she could, about the forest, about what the other members of the hunting party remembered, but she was terrified of being caught out in her deception.  She wasn't sure what the penalty was for impersonating the Queen, but given how nobles tended to be about things like that, she could imagine several horrifying possibilities, and was thus very reluctant to press the issue.

At the same time, she dreaded another night in bed with her sister's husband, who was damnably attractive and clearly doted on her.  She was so stressed by the absurd situation, she'd doubted her own willpower to eschew his undoubtedly comforting embrace and actually kept her sword between them in the bed to remind herself.  Accordingly, by mid-afternoon the same day, she announced her intention to return to the forest.

"Are you sure?" the King asked her, his beautiful eyes full of touching worry.  "So soon after what happened last time?  If you're that concerned about the rumors, we can send half the army to walk shoulder-to-shoulder through those woods and drive any evil straight out of it."  Chloe tore her gaze away from his eyes and shook her head.

"Nope, my responsibility, Queen and all that," she said quickly.  But she frowned, and added, "Though, come to think of it, if I'm not back by tomorrow this time, I wouldn't mind you sending soldiers to look for me.  Safety first, and all?"  The King looked at her oddly.

"Are you quite sure you're feeling all right?" he asked.  Chloe tried to stamp down on the urge to panic.

"Right as rain!  Speaking of rain, I'd better head out..." and without another word she whirled about and fled the castle. 

Philip watched the empty hallway for a moment, then sighed and set off in search of an apothecary.  Maybe there was some remedy for stress they hadn't tried yet, something he could see was included in his wife's morning tea...

---

Chloe set out with her animals, trying to retrace the route of Hannah's ill-fated hunting party as best she could from the information she'd gathered.  Sure enough, just as the daylight was beginning to fail, Lowe shook his mane and gave a quiet cough to alert her, and there ahead of them was the white hart.  She might've been able to bring it down with an arrow, but she wanted to give chase as her sister had, so made sure the other animals were ready and then simply charged it.

The hart bolted, and they kept pace as long as they could, but were quickly outdistanced.  The members of the hunting party had lost the Queen at this stage, so Chloe could only hope the hart had evaded along similar routes.  She and the animals began to search outward from where they lost the hart, and stumbled across the remains of a camp.  There were clear signs that large animals had walked here, but also strange gouges in the loam of the forest floor.  But the way the fire circle had been laid out was in her father's distinctive pattern, and Chloe had no doubt Hannah had been here.  Encouraged, she rebuilt the fire and resolved to continue the search in the morning.  But while they sat and talked quietly, a peculiar screeching interrupted them.

"How are you here?!  I cast you into stone, took you, mine!  What trickery is this?"  The voice came from an old man, perched in a nearby tree.  Chloe couldn't think what he could be talking about...'cast into stone', was he a warlock?  But then she realized she'd once again been mistaken for her sister.  But that meant he had taken her!  She bit her tongue before she could demand answers, and instead tried to extend the unintended deception.

"Your spell was reversed, and we are free, I'm not sorry to say.  But no hard feelings, eh?"  The old man shook his head vigorously.

"No, that's impossible!"  He withdrew a gnarled stick from his ragged clothing and waved it about.  "Nothing but a touch from the wand that cast the spell can undo it!  All my collections are mine, forever!"  Chloe tensed, but his waving hadn't done anything...maybe the wand needed to touch to spell as well as to reverse?

"That?"  She forced a laugh.  "That's a fake...a daring cutpurse must've switched it, for he used a stick much like it to release us while you were away.  He probably remains there still, freeing the rest of your 'collections'," Chloe suggested, gambling.

"No, he can't, they're mine, all mine!" The warlock, incensed, flung the stick down angrily and set off, moving through the trees with unlikely agility.  Chloe darted forward and snatched up the wand, then bade her animals to follow, trusting their superior night-sight to keep the old man in view.  He was moving in the same direction the gouges seemed to lead, which let the huntress hope her gambit was working and he was leading them straight to Hannah.

They saw the warlock enter a cave, and crept up to watch.  The makeshift vault was lit by eerie blue witch-light, and they could see him moving among more than a score of stone figures, touching each to reassure himself they were in their proper place.  Chloe decided Hannah and the other stoned people were in no immediate danger, and resolved to wait nearby...once the warlock left again, she could enter and actually enact the release she'd tricked him into believing had already happened.  But before she could explain her plan to the animals, they'd seen their siblings cast into stone, and surged forward with righteous anger.  Chloe swore quietly, then drew her bow and advanced with them.

The animals swarmed into the cave, but the old man moved with infernal speed, and her companions could not quite touch him with tooth or claw.

"So clever, oh so clever...the royal chit has a twin, and twin beasts besides!  But it matters not, all shall be mine, all!"  He cackled wildly and danced around the cave with mad unpredictability...and furthermore, Chloe saw he'd drawn another wand.  She did not hesitate, but chose her moment carefully, and loosed an arrow at him, then another.

Both shafts fell to the ground after striking him, their sharp heads somehow completely failing to penetrate his skin.

"Foolish girl, no weapon of flint or iron can harm me!"  Meanwhile, he'd managed to tap Lowe and Tragen, and they were indeed cast into stone, while Lupa growled and darted in and out of his reach and Hase and Vulpa kept their distance, looking for some opportunity to help.

"Thanks for the advice," muttered Chloe.  She ripped several buttons of pure silver from the jerkin the royal seamstress had provided, and bound each to an arrowhead with swift knots.  Hoping the tales of silver being a bane against most evil magic were true, she loosed another arrow.  Though the head once again did not stick fast, the warlock cried out in pain and fear as the silver button struck him, as if from a mighty blow, falling down.  Hase darted in with a hare's swiftness and snatched the wand from the old man's hand, while Lupa gave an enormous leap onto his chest and pinned him, her jaws hovering above his throat.  Chloe advanced, another button-tipped arrow knocked and trained on the warlock.

"These buttons are not terribly sharp, but if you try to move or cast more foul spells, we shall see if your eye is firm enough to keep one out, and if your infernal protection is proof against wolf fangs...the way you were dodging my friends earlier, I suspect it isn't."  The warlock whined in fear, and made no motion.  "Hase," she said, without taking her eyes off the old man, "see if you can tap these statues with the wand you hold.  Vulpa, you do the same with the one stuck in my belt.  Lupa, you have my permission to tear out his throat if he gives you the slightest alarm or offense."

The hare set off to obey, and the fox stretched onto her hind legs to pull the wand away from Chloe with her teeth, then did likewise.  Chloe, meanwhile, set her bow and arrow down carefully, then withdrew a strong rope from her supplies and began to bind the old man securely.  By the time she'd finished to her satisfaction, her assistants had reversed the spells on all those in the cave, including the lion and bear stoned during the fight, and many were milling about in confusion.  One familiar-looking woman, however, quickly found Chloe and embraced her tightly.

"Chloe!  Thank God!" said Hannah, fervently.  Tears of joy and relief streamed down her cheeks.  "If you hadn't found us, we might have been damned to this stone prison forever!"  Chloe returned the hug and felt her own eyes watering a bit.

"You know I'd do anything for you, sister.  Or should I call you 'your Majesty'?" she added with a teasing smile.  To Chloe's surprise, Hannah shook her head, crying in earnest.  "No, never...sister is a much better title."

After they'd taken a few minutes to recover from the excitement of the rescue and their reunion, they turned to the matter of the warlock.  Many of his newly-freed victims clamored loudly for him to be gutted, or burned on the spot.  The old man's eyes rolled wildly with fear, but he cackled nonetheless.

"Slay me, and the others will be lost forever!  Think you this is my only place of safe-keeping?  I have other collections...but even if you sniffed them out, should I die my wands would fall to ashes and then no power could restore my helpless playthings to life..."  This threat gave the assembly some pause, though a few demanded he burn no matter the cost.

"Mistress..." said Vulpa quietly, "the knife showed your sister in stone as not quite dead, nor quite alive..."

"So it did...It's worth the gamble, I think," said Chloe, nodding.  She took up one of the wands and touched it to the warlock, who was cast into stone by his own magic.  They examined the wands and indeed the vixen's notion was sound, as neither had fallen to ash.  The warlock's victims agreed this was a fitting enough punishment.  Fires were laid and supplies shared to put up everyone for the night.

In the morning, all saw that the dark and twisting paths of the forest had somehow become clear and straight with the warlock's defeat, and no one doubted they could find their way back to their homes.  Hannah and Chloe then were left to make their way back to the castle with only their animals for company.  Hannah wrung her hands and hesitated, but in the end she reclaimed the sword from the warlock's cave before they departed.

Chloe insisted that Hannah tell her the whole story of how she'd become a Queen, so as they walked she did, automatically playing up her own accomplishments and prowess, while Chloe made impressed sounds in appropriate places.

"So how did you come to stumble upon my inconvenience?" Hannah asked, once her story was finished.  Chloe thought 'inconvenience' an oddly mild word, in light of Hannah's reactions the night before, but explained nonetheless.

"Tales of your animals and your magic sword reached even the Eastern kingdoms, and many people assumed I was the one spoken of...they were causing me some difficulty, so I'd been coming to talk to you about it.  But when I saw the condition of the dagger, I made all haste."  Hannah nodded, seemingly unconcerned about the trouble she might have caused, even accidentally, though there was a slight narrowing of her eyes.

"Getting credit for my reputation, eh?  I suppose I can forgive that, given your recent help, though I'm sure I would have found a way out somehow..."  Chloe gave her sister an incredulous look.

"Found a way...to un-stone yourself?  That seems doubtful, but I'm told you did slay a dragon, so who's to say, I suppose..."  Hannah shrugged.

"But how did you find us in the wood?"

"Ah, well, when I arrived in Blackhill, they mistook me for you!  For expediency's sake, I went along with it, I feared I-"

"Oh, wanted a little taste of my royal life, did you?" interrupted Hannah, her voice cold.

"Lord, no," protested Chloe.  "I was frightened the whole time that someone would find me out, or ask me to make some important decision.  And I was terrified when I spent the night in the king's bed...he's far too fetching for his own good, and so considerate, but I barely slept a wink-"

There was a quiet sound, then naught but silence for some timeless moment, until Chloe's animals began growling their anger, and Hannah's menagerie moved to protect her...though not without a couple of confused glances cast her way.  Hannah, for her part, stared at her sister's lifeless body, and her head, rolled a span away as she fell.  Hannah's sword was in her hand, when Chloe said she'd shared Phillip's bed she'd drawn and swung scarcely without a thought, though her mind was warring with them now.

"How dare she try to take my husband as her toy, or even design against my title...I had every right to...I had no choice but to...to...kill...my sister..." Hannah's stern self-justifications grew softer and softer, until her words failed and the bloody sword tumbled out of her hand to the ground.

"Oh my God!  Oh my God!"  The Queen fell to her knees and turned her head aside as she violently emptied her stomach.  Replaying the conversation in her head, her sister hadn't actually said she'd done anything, and she would never...  "It's that sword, the sword made me do it!" she blurted out to no one, the animals still locked in a tense stand-off, and her sister beyond hearing.

But even as she tried to deny it, she knew, deep down she knew, that it was her fault.  Every night when she undressed for bed and took off the sword, she knew what she was like while wearing it, how unlike herself, but she was so afraid that without the confidence it gave her, Philip wouldn't want her, or she'd be unable to rule, or the kingdom's neighbors would see she was weak and invade, so every morning she'd made the choice to put it back on, no matter the cost.  Even when the warlock had reminded her about the altar's warning, and the sword had failed against him, she'd still taken it back up.

Face wet with tears, she turned to the animals.

"Let them by," she said, haltingly.  "Let them take vengeance for Chloe, I deserve whatever they do."  Hannah's menagerie hesitated at this, and the other animals surged forward to rend her to bloody pieces, but somehow halted before Lepa, who had jumped once more between them.

"No!" the hare pleaded.  "We still have a root!  We can save her, and she can decide what to do!"  Chloe's animals voiced their confusion, but the fox conferred with her sister and confirmed the root's healing powers.  Lowe, Tragen and Lupa reluctantly agreed to postpone their reckoning, but promised swift retribution if this was some trick.  But Hannah's menagerie well-remembered the process and quickly restored Chloe to life, making certain her head was faced correctly the first time.

Chloe sat up.  For some reason, her upper back and one sleeve were soaking wet...with blood it appeared, all the animals were in various postures of extreme tension, and Hannah was kneeling a short distance away, weeping, near a puddle of sick-up.

"What in all the world just happened?" she asked.  Chloe's animals rejoiced, their anger forgotten for the moment, and Hannah's menagerie hesitated to explain, but Hannah herself spoke, her face twisted with both relief and misery.

"I k-...I...I've been using a m-magic sword, that I killed the dragon with...even though it makes me horrible, I kept using it...even after the warlock said he made it...and I used it anyway, and I killed you!"  Her whole body jerked with sobs.  "I'm so sorry, I don't deserve your forgiveness, or God's, I'm going to Hell for weakness and Pride, just let the animals kill me..."  Chloe was still terribly confused, but her sister was hurting, and that made it the only thing that mattered.

Hannah tried to push her away when Chloe moved over to her and knelt to embrace her, but Chloe persisted, wordlessly, until Hannah gave up and just cried.

"You decide where you go, sister, and no one else.  You know in your heart what you deserve," Chloe said quietly, and Hannah let out another wracking sob.  "But what is in your heart is the sum of your life, and you can add quite a bit more if you don't stop here.  It's your choice, but I think I know you well enough to say that when your time does come, you'll deserve a sight better than Hell."

---

Hannah was somber, but determined not to squander the second chance she'd been given.  The sisters discussed trying to destroy the sword, with silver perhaps, but noted it had been put to good use against the dragon...perhaps whatever priests had separated it from the warlock and set it in place really knew best.  They elected to take it back there, that it might rest against some future need worth the risk.

But Hannah dared not touch the sword again, and Chloe could not lift it.  They managed to rig a harness between the wolves, bears and lions, and with much protesting and strain, the bizarre team was barely able to drag the sword back up the hill, where it was reburied under the threshold of the church.

Philip was so overjoyed to have his wife back that he was disinclined to inquire too much into the events of the past few days, which suited Chloe fine.  Hannah insisted on confessing all her sins to her husband, however, and surrendered herself to his judgement.  Philip knew himself to be too close to the situation, he wanted nothing but to dance for joy that the sword's hold on Hannah was broken, and to hold her and never let go again.  But his sense of duty had always been o'er-strong, so they went to the old Queen and asked her to weigh the matter.

After hearing all the facts, she considered for quite some time, then made her pronouncement.

---

The Queen adjusted her crown once more, but she doubted it would ever feel comfortable.

"I still think this is madness," she complained, though quietly.

"As your Majesty wishes," remarked Philip wryly, "though I can't complain myself."

"Why should you?  You two get to go off adventuring, and I am somehow stuck running a kingdom!"  Chloe pouted a little, and adjusted her crown once again.  Hannah spoke quietly...she'd been changed again by her experiences, but had found a measure of strength from them.

"The Queen Mother has always been wise.  I cannot be trusted to rule, and Philip refuses to be separated from me...nor did her Majesty didn't think much of him not standing up to me when I was being awful.  Besides, someone needs to hunt for more of the warlock's victims to restore, just in case he spoke true, and we are both well-trained in combat in the event the villain had allies."

"Yes, but I have no idea what I'm doing!" protested Chloe.

"Neither did I when I started," said Hannah with a faint smile.  "But the Queen Mother will advise you, and I think she's right when she says the best ruler is one who does so only reluctantly, out of need and duty rather than pride and ambition."  The Queen scowled a bit, but blushed when Hannah softly added, "I have faith in you."

"Besides, you'll benefit from Hannah's...ah...reputation, for quite some time, even if you're more humble about it," pointed out Philip.  "The kingdom just thinks I've abdicated to go on a crusade of sorts, and they knew the Queen had been making all the decisions anyway...telling them about the switch between you two would only confuse them."

"They'd be in good company," Chloe groused.  Hannah and Philip started chuckling, and after a moment's reluctance, Chloe gave up her dour expression and joined in.