"Keeper of Names" by yuletidefairy (PG13)

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Fandom: TIN MAN
Pairing: none; gen
Length: 3026 words
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: yuletidefairy
Author Website: unknown
Why this must be read: As Azkadellia rises to power, Ambrose is enlisted by the Queen to begin taking the royal family out of collective memory, and in the process becomes the keeper of all the kingdom's stories. A wonderful look at Ambrose before he became a headcase and the Queen as she slowly loses both her daughters.


Ambrose never asked why the Queen had tried to take herself off the map, nor why she wanted to bind her daughter's name, or any of the others to whom she had alluded. It simply didn't occur to him. The why was not important to him, only the how: how to solve the problem. Ambrose was a problem-solver. He solved problems.

It started to come out when Ambrose had the princess tell him all about herself, because to do this sort of binding, you had to know what you were putting under lock and key, especially if you meant to be able to unlock it later. The princess (Dorothy) told him about her sister Az and apples in the forest and a witch in a cave and how Az had gone away, and the witch was walking around in her skin and had tried to kill her.

Ambrose said, "I'm going to take all that away, I promise," and looked over the little girl's head at her mother.


Keeper of Names