"I've got some good news," Minister Dingsworth said after calling the Lyre's crew, Chloe and Lord Florian to the throne. (The admiral was conspicuously absent.)"And some bad news and some very bad news. What would you like to hear first?"

"I'm still amazed dis guy isn't evil," Tony barked from Elise's hands.

"Not evil, simply stuffy," Dingsworth with a not-so-humble bow.

"Oh something's definitely stuffed up your…owch!" Archibell said as he got bit by Tony.

"Now what will it be?" the minister said. "I'd advise the good news first. A little bit of positivity helps the bad news go down easier."

"Good news it is!" Elise said with a happy bounce.

The minister crossed his arms, closed his eyes and tugged at his whispy mustache. "On the behalf of Mainland Square, I thank you pirates for your assistance in helping us avoid a potential catastrophe. And not only that..."

The minister motioned to two guards. "You managed to foil an attempt to craft our naval army into something we wouldn't be proud of. Guards, seize Lord Cornbury."

Florian Cornbury gasped as the guards grabbed him. "Good heavens! I only wanted a promotion," he cried.

"You could have acquired that by being a hard worker!" Archibell said, "Like my brother."

"You odious Archibells are below me! I'd rather cheat my way to the top rhan be associated with you!" Florian cried and as they carried him off, he asked the minister. "Where are you taking me?"

The minister chortled and cast his hand forward. "Where else? The prison. The prison's former warden is now its newest inmate!"

"Ohhhhh nooo," Florian cried, turning pale. "I'll never survive in prison."

"Aren't there a lot of rugged, hairy, cuddly men in prison?" Elise asked curiously.

"Actually," the former warden said as his eye glinted. "That doesn't sound bad at all"

But he still threw up his arms as he was carried away. "But still, curse you Archibells and that ginger, freckly child. You will rue the day when I'm out again!"

Once Cornbury was out of his sight, the minister held his hands together. "Enough good news. Now for the bad news. Because of recent events, Queen Annabell has inspired me to invoke the Law of Unfit Royalty."

Everyone turned their heads to Chloe who winced over his words.

"The Law of Unfit Royalty," the minister stated, "is summoned when a high ranking leader in the monarchy feels that the current monarch is unfit to govern their people."

Chloe bashfully gazed at the ground and fluttered on her toes timidly. Elise tilted her head and gazed at the young queen. "Surprisingly," the minister said, "Queen Annabell was very eager to do so."

When the minister wasn't looking, Chloe gave Elise a sly wink. Elise immediately knew Chloe was finally on her way to shedding her title and becoming a pirate queen.

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"However," the minister said. "We will have to send our fair queen to be researched at the Dedlam Research Facility for Dark Aliments of the Everworld. Her rather unruly eye seems to be causing her brain to short circuit."

Chloe immediately turned a ghastly pale. Panic gripped her whole body. "But that's where they sent my Uncle Arthur ever since he went crazy from Everblight. And they never let him out!"

"I'm sorry, my queen," the minister said, "but after that display, we cannot take any chance with something as dangerous as your affliction."

Chloe wobbled back and forth like she would faint, but Elise caught her. "It's going to be okay," the young girl told her friend sweetly.

"I'm not so sure about that, starfish," the normally cool queen said, looking very ill and timid.

"And the very bad news?" the cold hearted minister asked rhetorically.

Sincirce rasped. "Just spill your guts, ya weasel!"

"You pirates are still enemies of the Mainland," the minister said. "And though I'm feeling very generous and kind, you'll have to leave immediately."

The minister glared so harshly at the Lyre's crew that nobody could protest. They all took on last look at Chloe, and Elise gave her queenly friend a hug.

"Mark my words, starfish," Chloe said with a tentative smile. "I'm gonna be that pirate queen. Not even a dark asylum is gonna stop me."

Elise's lips wobbled and she smiled. "Your friendship was my greatest booty of all."

"Oh I bet it is," Tito said, turning a bit red over the two.

"I've already came up with my pirate slogan," Chloe said with a devious smirk. "We're all gonna land ho's and take names and we're all outta names."

"I don't get it," Elise said, but Chloe put her hand on her friends back.

"You'll understand when you're older!" Chloe said, and with those words, the Lyre's crew bid her farewell.

The four left the castle and walked into the market. Elise was brushing tears away from her face. "Poor Chloe! I don't want her to be stuck in an as-i-lam."

"Me neither, pally," Tony said. "Kids got a great head on her shoulders. She's simply got a bad eye on her head."

"Hey what in a name," Archibell said as he spotted a tall, beaky, bald man standing in the square. "It's the Moonshadow."

The infamous stealth pirate was caught snatching a kumquat from a local fruit stand. "Hey," he said, "If it isn't Archibell and his motley crew."

"How'd ya get out of the slammer?" Archibell asked slightly amazed..

"During that whole commotion in the Mainland Square, there was a jailbreak on Prison Island and we all managed to get free. I reckon there's nobody left in that giant ice cooler now."

"Nobody 'cept that fruit juicy warden," Sincirce said, innocently holding her hands behind her back.

"What was that?" The Moonshadow asked and hid the fruity kumquat behind his back. "Anyway, you guys really saved my skinny neck. I owe a debt to you."

"A debt?" Captain Archibell said. "Good turn of fate, mate. We need someone like you."

The good captain wrapped his arm around the Moonshadow. "Listen, there's a saucy young girl with an eye-patch trapped in that building over there."

Archibell pointed at the white and pink castle on the hill. The Moonshadow observed it with his beady eyes. "The castle eh?"

"She's a real peach," Archibell cawed.

"With quite a few pits!" Sincirce smirked mischievously before Tony bit her finger. "Owww!"

Archibell rose his hands to the highest tower. "Now there's nothing this girl would love more than to be a pirate like the lot of you. She's already got the eyewear for it!"

The Moonshadow scratched his chin. "You drive a hard bargain, friend. But I was already planning on sneaking in there."

"You were?!" everyone said.

"Once they realize there's been a jailbreak," the sneaky pirate said, "the castle will send all the guards down there and I can scoop up some royal jewels!"

Archibell held his hands together. "Excellent. I guess you'll…Wait where'd that ragamuffin go?"

The Moonshadow had vanished into thin air. "You have my word," his disembodied voice said. "I'll get that girl."

Everyone was stunned into silence. It only took the admiral running up to them to break it. "Speak of tha' devil!" Captain Archibell said.

"Bro!" the admiral said. "No time for your sea urchin barbs. You have to come with me...it's mom and dad…they're dead."