Author's Notes: Hey, all! This is just a random idea that sprouted in my head while I was out at Lifetime and decided that I just had to put it down on paper. By the description, this fic will be MUCH more idealistic and positive with both character's family relationships then in the actual canon. I intend for this to be only several chapters, so expect a lot of timeskips so I can get to the intended scenes faster. Of course, that may not necessarily be the case and I'll end up making this thing longer than I intended if inspiration or scenes hit me with more ideas/relationships to flesh out.

What If: Michael

When the marquess of Araphen first heard the news of his son and lover being pregnant, he was beside himself with fury. Blame it on the cultural norms he was raised on when he was a child, but bastard children were looked upon in disdain because of their perceived desire to be born before it was appropriate, along with the many examples throughout Elibian history of those very same children growing into ambitious and power-hungry adults that raised armies to conquer nations. As if to add insult to the already grievous injury, this had all transpired while his son was visiting Caelin to court the marquess's own daughter. This insult from his son would never be forgotten.

However, that did not remain the case. Over the following months, both the marquess's son and his new daughter-in-law gradually melted the ice that he had used to incase his heart. Though the marquess tried stubbornly to remain fixed on his ways, he was eventually proven wrong by his new, ever-growing family. A family that only grew larger once his grandson was born. Looking into the newborn's eyes, the marquess could not find it in himself to hate the child, experiencing the same mixture of happiness and doubt when his own son was born. This child would prove himself to surpass whatever examples history had remembered.

As the years began to steadily pass by and the seasons changed, the child began to grow from a newborn to a toddler. But unlike so many other children, he was patient, well behaved, intelligent, and shy to a fault. But nevertheless, everyone that resided within the castle treated the young boy as the greatest treasure in all the world.

"Grandpa?" the young child asked as he looked up to the marquess, who was busy writing a letter to another member of the aristocracy several territories away.

"Hm?" the marquess grunted as he put down his quill pen and turned around in his seat, "Ah, Michael! What is the matter, little one?"

"I want…never mind!" the young Michael hesitated as he began to turn around to leave his grandfather alone.

"Hey!" the marquess commanded, "Come back here! What were you going to say?" It struck the marquess as strange how his adorable grandson suddenly changed what he was going to say, as if he thought it would be either too bothersome or unimportant.

"Um…" Michael stalled as he took to looking at his feet, "It can wait…"

"Come now," the marquess chuckled as he pulled himself off his seat, "I'm not doing anything important right now. Go ahead; ask away. Tell Grandpa what you wanted to say."

"I wanted to go into the library…" Michael mumbled to the floor as he tried to keep from making eye contact with his grandfather.

The marquess sighed to himself as he let out a small chuckle, "Is that all? Of course I can take you there!"

"Really?!" Michael exclaimed as he shot his head up to his grandfather, a look of excitement in his eyes, almost making them appear to be sparkling.

"Of course!" the marquess nodded as he picked up Michael into his arms, "You never have to feel like a bother when you want to go to the library. I think it's great that you want to go there without being told to!"

"Can we go now?" Michael asked his grandfather as he began to squirm with excitement in his grandfather's arms.

"Of course!" the marquess told him as he lightly threw his grandson into the air before catching him, "Come now, and let's be on our way!"

The marquess wouldn't be the first one to say that the castle library was a large one, nor would he be the first to brag that its selection of books was the finest in the land. But one most definitely could read one book ever day for the rest of their life and never finish reading all of them. The marquess would know, he tried doing that in his younger years before he became betrothed to his wife. Bless her poor departed soul.

"Which book do you want?" the marquess asked, thinking his grandson would want the book with the most pictures or the biggest words. Both of which he would have to gather the support of several castle staff to locate.

"I want…" Michael thought aloud as he tried to recall what the name of the book was, "The Scouring book!"

"The Scouring?" the marquess repeated, "That's the legend of the eight heroes and how they saved the world from dragons. Why would you want that one? Surely you've heard the legends from bards and your parents?"

"I wanna read it myself!" Michael assured his grandfather as he shook his head furiously.

The marquess laughed loudly as he walked over to a table near some of the bookshelves and placed his grandson in one of the seats. "Very well," he told him, "Since you want such a popular book, it won't take too long for Grandpa to find."

It took several minutes of investigation and examination, but the marquess finally found the book his grandson so desperately wanted to read tucked away between two books that were biographies on the lives of two of the war's heroes; the Archsage Athos and the Enigmatic Bramimond. Taking the book off its shelf, the marquess carefully blew away the layers of dust that had slowly accumulated over the cover while in its period of disuse. The words were almost completely faded, but the marquess could still make out its title; The Legend of the Ending Winter and the Eight Heroes.

Flipping through the pages to briefly skim the contents before handing it over to his grandson, the marquess was surprised to find that there were few pictures within the pages, leaving almost all of the book to recounting the details and events of almost one thousand years ago. He didn't know how much fun Michael would have with the book, but he was sure that he would tire of it fast. Closing the book with his left hand, the marquess walked back over to his grandson and gently placed the book down in front of him.

With great eagerness, Michael opened up the book to its first page, and with quite the shock to the marquess, began to read the story, sometimes stopping to pronounce longer words aloud, occasionally stopping to look up at the marquess to see if he was pronouncing them correctly. He was correct almost all of the time. "Where did you learn to read like that?" the marquess asked him, "Did Camael and Gabriel teach you?"

"No," Michael shook his head as he looked back down to the story, "Jeigan taught me! But he didn't start teaching me until he caught me reading in the library by myself…"

"Jeigan?" the marquess repeated, "My brother did always enjoy surprising me… But to think you can read at such a young age, and so well too! Aren't you the little prodigy?!"

Michael looked up to his grandfather with a huge beaming smile, "Jeigan told me you'd be surprised! He also told me to always ask for someone before coming into the library…"

"Which reminds me," the marquess began to say as he remembered something, "Aren't you still too small to reach up for the knob by yourself? How did you get in?"

"The door was unlocked!" Michael replied with a smile, "Jeigan forgot to close it when he went in and I came in a little while after!"

"I fear I may have to get old Martin to get out of retirement early it seems…" the marquess muttered to himself.

"What?" Michael asked, not sure what his grandfather had said, but still just hearing him say something.

"Nothing!" the marquess sang as he ruffled his grandson's hair, "But what do you say to having someone teach you things, hm? You can read books even when you aren't in the library!"

"I think you'll have to ask Mommy and Daddy first, Grandpa!" Michael told his grandfather, "But they don't know I can read yet…"

"How about we surprise them at dinner time tonight?" the marquess asked his grandson, "You can read from this very book to them before we eat."

"Yeah!" Michael agreed as he nodded his head furiously, "And they told me they had something important to tell me at dinner, too!"

"It seems dinner shall be lively tonight then, it seems!" the marquess smiled.

Later that night, two parents were shocked and awed to find their three year old son was already able to read. And a young child and a grandfather were surprised and elated with the news that he would soon be a big brother.

Author's Notes: I realize that having a three year old being able to read at any level of proficiency dangles on people's suspension of disbelief enough as is, but I hope you all can excuse that. Plus, Michael (In this timeline he doesn't have Mark as his first name) isn't the run-of-the-mill kid.

I felt a little warm and fuzzy writing this, especially when I think about the canon of my story. Hope you guys will still act surprised when Jeigan's relationship to the marquess is revealed in the fic! *sweatdrop*