To all my readers:

Whew! I feel a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders at the completion of this story. I've finished another one of my fanfictions!

I just wanted to explain to you my thought process and why I did things the way I did, since I got more than a few confused reviewers. I apologize for not making these things clearer.

First of all, when I decided to write a fanfiction, I looked first to Tamora Pierce's descriptions (obviously). Her characters are wonderfully developed, but one thing got my attention: Dove was never described in great detail. Even when she became queen, not much was being explained.

Yes, you could sketch an outline of her personality, but I wanted to do more than that. So I made my task to bring the strong, politically-minded fourteen year old to life. I'm hoping that you got a better picture of who she is this way.

The next question I know you will ask is why did I create Marin? Well, it seems to me that in Trickster's Queen, the women Dove is close to are pairing off. Her sister runs away with a man, Aly gets married, and even her stepmother has a love life (or did, until her husband died).

Tamora Pierce never really explains how she feels about all of this. Was she scared? Happy for them? Jealous? So, again, I wanted to bring Dove's feelings about those she loved into the picture.

Another question reviewers asked was why did she fall in love with Marin? I wanted Dove to have a love life. Now, she wasn't giving me much to work with, since she's fairly quiet, and doesn't blurt what she's feeling very often.

So, I had to force her into a situation that would be difficult for her. I know that falling in love with the person who kidnaps you probably isn't realistic. It poses more problems than anything else.

So why isn't she mad at him for longer? My only explanation is that she gets to know him more, and softens up. I realize how this might not be realistic, and kind of a silly notion to come up with.

And Aly. She's such a strong character that we know really well after the Trickster's duo. I wanted to take the focus off of her for a while and focus on someone else, in my opinion, kind of more important.

I did want to put a wrench into the queen's plans (much to Marin's delight) that would prevent her from going on tour after Aly's child was born.

One last note about the story:

I chose to end this the way I did because I really dislike stories that end so neatly there's no room for a what if. But if you were so confused you didn't like the ending, though, please tell me so I can fix it…

Also, I'm thinking about a sequel, but I need to take a break and do some more reading. I have an idea as to Dove's choice, but the story is a bit elusive right at the moment.

So may I ask one favor before I leave you all? (Not for good) That is to review and vote: should there be a sequel, and if so, what was confusing to you? I'll try to tie up loose ends.

Lastly, thank you's:

Heartfelt thanks to my first five reviewers, pleasantly surprising me with feedback almost instantaneously.

To MadameSButterfly for encouraging me and giving me awesome reviews. This helped me stay on track.

Also, thank you to anyone else who took time to read this story and review. You have helped me greatly!

A thousand thank you's go to all!

If you have a story you want me to read, I would be happy to do that for you. Just give me the title and category.

Love, sincerely, and all of that,

-MaroonPhantom5