A Crack in the Mask

Letter to the King

Notes:

Hey Descendants,

We hope December is treating you all well.

Remember way back in book one when Deez decided she was going to write a letter to the king about herself?

...

Enjoy :D

-Dark-

(See the end of the chapter for Twisted's review questions.)

The next day...

He knew he took most of the gifts in his life for granted. Being a prince, especially the prince of the United Kingdoms of Auradon didn't leave him wanting for much.

That concept had never been clearer than it was now with Mal and her friends.

But receiving these letters always made him feel like he was a six-year-old on Christmas morning.

He knew most people wouldn't understand, but he'd always had such a hard time with the politics of his life. He had to question everyone's motives, their integrity.

It was exhausting.

So when he'd first found the letters, it had been like a godsend.

As far as he was concerned, he was already friends with everyone Deez had written about, they just weren't aware of it yet.

Sometimes it felt like cheating. Deez had taken all the guesswork out of who was worthy of trust, and who needed a push in the right direction. But he knew what each kid was made of, knew their motivations, their wants.

He was never sure how much information Deez hoped her reader would glean from her carefully selected words. But he was pretty sure that he understood a majority of these kids better than they knew themselves.

Except it had been months since he'd gotten a letter. Before he'd talked to Mal and the others, he'd been worried that something had happened.

But this morning he'd gotten a text from one of the barge workers, saying they had a letter addressed to the king, except it wasn't written in stone. He unlocks the door to his library and races for the desk. There it was. In a small crate.

He grins as he looks over the carefully printed name. Yep. It was definitely Deez's handwriting.

He slips around his desk and falls into his chair as he breaks a multi-colored glob of wax with a single small fingerprint pressed into it.

To His Royal Majesty,

You don't know who I am, though that is no one's fault but my own. I've been attempting to show the Isle of the Lost through my eyes for the last several years. If you've been getting my letters. I mean, I saw your second chances announcement on the fireside chat a few days ago, so I'm really hoping you have.

In those letters, I've tried so hard to show the little ways goodness runs through many villain kids here on the isle. I tried to give you their names and who I saw them capable of becoming by explaining their actions and the connections I saw. They deserve to be seen as people after all.

Today though, painful and scary as this is for me, I'd like to introduce myself. Because I've realized, with a lot of help from my friends, family, and my mentor, that I'm not just an outsider hoping to get better lives for people I care about. I want to be able to stay with them through the changes. I want to be part of their lives. No longer just an observer. Which I guess means it's time I turn my writing skills on myself.