28 November 2022

And here it is. The last piece of the climax. With this I could officially say I’d written the whole story from start to finish, and had a working draft. There was one scene that felt incomplete that I added to to finish off my last two days, but this was the moment it all came together.

As for the climax itself…I’m not sure. I really enjoyed all the different emotions at play here, and I hope I was able to express them well. It surprised me how anti-climactic the actual moment was, though. I don’t know that I want to change that, even if it’s possible; a lot of major life events are small, simple, anti-climactic things, I think.

…gathered. “In particular, you want to see how viable it would be to use some facet of my existence to replace the curse now afflicting the king and queen?”

Maleficent nodded. “I believe that has the best chance of making this solution work. However, even then…”

“Indeed. I do not have a close enough connection to the rest of Aurora’s family, or anyone else whose life was affected, to impact them the same way the curse has. Additionally, the risks of unraveling are too great.” He stroked his beard. “However, if, rather than replacing the curse, you just wanted to divert it again, you would only need the target to be someone close to Aurora.”

Maleficent pressed her lips into a thin line. She looked over to the corner where Aurora sulked in a corner, arms folded. “She’s not going to like that. And things have not exactly been easy for her, recently.”

“No, they haven’t. And you’re right, she won’t.” The Tower’s gaze followed Maleficent’s to Aurora. “By chance, could I beg of you to lend Aurora your ears? I’d like to speak with her about it.”

Maleficent nodded, and pulled a piece of her own hearing to lend to Aurora.

“She’s not going to like that. And things have not exactly been easy for her, recently.”

As soon as Aurora heard those words, especially with the way Maleficent and Tower looked at her, ice crawled up her back. It was like a claw squeezed her heart. What were they talking about?

Then Maleficent pulled something out of her ear and sent it to Aurora.

All of a sudden, Aurora could hear things that she didn’t even know had sounds; the echoes of moonlight off the rain-soaked grass, for example, or the secrets that whispered from the corners of the room. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as the faerie sight had been, and Aurora was able to tune most of it out. She focused on the Tower. “What’s going on?”

“We have a way to save your parents,” Maleficent said. “But that doesn’t mean the solution doesn’t come with complications of its own.”

“Well, what is it?”

The Tower interjected. “I will be the one to take on the curse.”

For a second Aurora couldn’t breathe. Then she began to shake her head as she said, “No. No! That’s not a solution. We’re just passing the curse around again. There’s… there’s got to be a way to fix it.”

“Aurora…” Maleficent began, but Aurora ignored her.

“We still had that replacement idea, right?”

“Aurora.” The Tower, this time.

“Or… or we could find someone random. A criminal. Someone on death row. If we have to give someone the curse, might as well be–”

“Aurora.” Tower’s voice was soft but insistent.

Aurora looked up at him, and tears flowed down her cheeks.

Tower kneeled down in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “This is the only other option. This is the best way.”

Aurora shook her head. “Please, don’t go. I can’t lose you, too.”

Tower smiled at her, though tears filled his eyes, as well. “I’m old. So old I don’t even know how old I am. And look at me.” He gestured to his transparent body. “I’m not even truly a part of reality anymore. It’s time for me to move on.” He looked over to her parents. “I’ve been blessed to watch over you these last sixteen years; they’ve only had a chance to be with you a few days. They still have full lives ahead of them; so please, let me go, so you can be with your real family.”

“But you’re my family, too.”

Tower couldn’t respond for a moment. Then he swept her in a hug. “Thank you.” When he pulled back, he stared straight into her eyes. “But isn’t that all the more reason for me to do this?”

Aurora bit her lower lip, then looked over to Isaac. He just watched her, and when their eyes met he nodded to her once. He trusted her; the decision was hers.

She clenched her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, then.”

Tower stood up and stepped back. Over by the bed, however, Maleficent had an apologetic expression. “There is one more thing, however.”

Both Aurora and the Tower looked at her. Maleficent sighed, then tried to pick up some of the Tower’s threads. “I cannot touch his fate. You have to be the one to do this, Aurora.”

Once Aurora’s brain caught up with what she was hearing, all she could do was give a dry laugh. If she botched this, she’d be responsible for the death of literally every parental figure she ever had. Even if it worked, she’d be responsible for half their deaths. She curled into a ball and wept into her knees for a moment.

Isaac reached out for her, but Aurora waved him off. “I’ll be alright, just give me a moment.” She took a deep breath, then stood and walked over beside Maleficent. “Alright. What do I need to do?”

Maleficent walked her through it, and Aurora, very delicately, shifted the bump representing the curse through until it only diverted the Tower’s silver string away from the rest.

When she finally finished and pulled away, Tower was already starting to flicker. Black streaks spiderwebbed up his face from his neck. Despite all that, he seemed utterly at peace. “Farewell, little one. I’m grateful my last few years of existence could be spent watching you frow up. I’m so proud of you.”

A fresh wave of tears spilled across Aurora’s cheeks. “Me, me too! Thank you for raising me!”

The Tower nodded and waved, and finally he disappeared. Aurora sank to her knees.

Isaac moved to comfort her, but before he could reach her, Hannah and Frederick stirred and began to sit up. Hannah, in particular, seemed a little confused, but as soon as she saw Aurora weeping she jumped out of bed and held her tight. Aurora turned and began sobbing into Hannah’s chest.

Frederick moved more slowly. As she stood, he looked between Aurora, Isaac, and Maleficent. “What happened?”

Isaac wasn’t sure what to say. “There was… a tower. Aurora’s tower, where she grew up. It was… alive somehow.”

“Alive enough to offer his existence in exchange for yours.” Maleficent wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “All so Aurora would have a chance to know you.”

Hannah’s eyes widened, and she hugged Aurora closer and kissed the top of her head. Frederick spread his arms around both of them, and Isaac moved in and leaned against his mom. Maleficent dipped her head and left the room, and they stayed there for a very long time.

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27 November 2022

As you might be able to tell, I was very much still struggling with the climax last Sunday. And it was Sunday anyway, and I’d gotten sucked into an old game I was replaying, so… There’s not much here.

“Good afternoon. I believe this is the first time we’ve formally met; I am the Tower. Up until recently, I could be considered young Aurora’s primary guardian.”

Maleficent raised an eyebrow. She’d known the Tower had developed some measure of sentience; she hadn’t realized it was so human under the surface. That created all sorts of implications, and Maleficent’s mind buzzed with all sorts of theories sparked by the Tower’s existence. She would have loved nothing more than to sit him down somewhere and pick his brain for information, but this wasn’t the time for that. “How well do you understand what we’re attempting?”

“Well enough, I believe.” He strode over to peer more closely at the threads Maleficent had gathered.

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26 November 2022

I tried so hard to figure out the climax and how it all fits together, and it just wasn’t coming together for me yet. So I decided to switch to something else, and I wrote the epilogue.

Honestly, I’m not sure I’m satisfied with it. The epilogue, I mean. It feels a bit too dry, and there’s also this nagging sensation that I’ve forgotten something. Not Phillip; at the time, I’d intentionally left him out so anyone who shipped him with Aurora could be free to do so. There’s still things I could figure out and say about him, though.

“Perhaps. But this is not the time for that, you are right. My apologies.” Maleficent turned back to the weaving. “There is one other thought I considered. If we found a way to replace the curse with something else, we might be able to choose something to tie things together rather than split them off. Even if we were to find something, however, it would be incredibly subtle and detailed work, and the risks are immense; if we handle this poorly, it would be as catastrophic as simply removing the curse, if not worse.”

“Well… what could we replace it with?” Isaac asked. “And what would that mean for us?”

“To be honest, I was still looking for the right materials and methods.” She fingered a deep blue thread. “I’d considered using Gothel’s threads, but even if she were yet alive, she is too wrapped up in all this, and too present in the real world, for that to be a viable option.”

Aurora looked back at the tapestry, and the silver thread that connected to the mini tower. “Is that why you were interested in this? Would Tower’s thread work?”

Maleficent shrugged. “That is one reason for my interest, though not the only reason. And it is a possibility; however, I do not know what the ramifications might be, either for the tower or for all of us.”

Aurora bit her lower lip, then held the tower figurine up and pushed her will into it. It glowed with violet light, and then expanded to cover the far wall with a new, stone one. A doorway opened in the center, and the more humanoid form of the Tower walked out. Unlike last time Aurora spoke with him, he was translucent, as though he wasn’t truly there.

He bowed to Maleficent, and Aurora could tell from his lips he was introducing himself to her. However, Aurora could hear nothing.

Once they’d all returned to the capital - for the most part via carriage - King Frederick and Queen Hannah declared the date they reunited with Aurora to be a national holiday. They formally accepted Venwald as an ally, and lauded Queen Brynne (or Maleficent) as a friend and hero. For the next two weeks, the capital celebrated like it never had before.

Before she left, around a month later, Maleficent made a point to spend time with Isaac, teaching him how to make sense of the things he could see now. In particular, she taught him how to recognize what it looked like when people lied to him, or when they were trying to skirt around the truth. When Frederick and Hannah stepped down and bequeathed him the throne, almost two decades later, that ability served him well, and he was known far and wide for generations as one of the most just and honest kings in all the land.

Hannah continued visiting Queen Brynne every year, though it was always after Aurora’s birthday now that she’d returned. The people of Venwald all spoke of how much the queen had softened due to Hannah’s influence, and Maleficent herself was surprised at the increased respect the people offered her. Nevertheless, there came a day, after Queen Hannah started getting old, when Maleficent appointed one of her counselors as ruler in her stead, and she vanished. No one knew where she went or what she was up to.

Fairies were, understandably, unwelcome in any of the western kingdoms after everything that had happened. They’d already been viewed with skepticism after Aurora had been kidnapped, but after the events surrounding her return to Lowenveil’s royal family, and all the stories she and her family told of Gothel (particularly her transformation into a dragon), the western kingdoms redoubled their stance.

As for Aurora, she lived a happy and full life, short as it was. Artists and connoisseurs from all over the known world came to see her work, and her fame grew, not only for her skill but also her temper. More than one foolish young man had come expecting a demure and sickly artiste, and experienced the ire of the firebrand princess.

She became particularly known for her portraits and figure paintings, in a variety of styles. However, it was near universally agreed on that her most famous piece, and likely the best, was the one that hung above her mantel, depicting a tall, thin man with steel-gray hair in a charcoal suit. Art critics from all over the world debated who the figure might be, or what he might represent, but Aurora never shared.

She had a mansion built in the forest at the site where the remains of the Tower had been. Frederick gifted her the forest and its environs as her personal fiefdom, and named her a grand duchess after she formally seceded from the line of succession. It was there she raised her family, after she got married. She had three children, and finally passed away giving birth to the third. Despite her weakness, she was perpetually optimistic, and her only regret when she died was that her children would grow up without their mother.

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25 November 2022

Coming up with rules for magic is hard. I don’t know how Brandon Sanderson does it, and does it so well. I actually figured out a lot of rules for fate-spinning here, and in particular I came up with the idea the death doesn’t cut peoples “strings” of fate; it just splits them off to go somewhere else. That fits in nicely with my beliefs, and made it easier to conceptualize what the curse might look like to someone who can visualize fate. I felt fairly proud of that, but I still have a lot of work to do to figure out the limits of fate-spinning, how everything works, and how exactly that ties into the witches’ ability to steal things, or the fairy gifts that created them in the first place.

(While Isaac and Aurora are talking after Gothel’s death)

For a moment, Isaac didn’t respond. Then he said simply, “Thank you, by the way. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead.”

Aurora wiped her eyes. “Huh?”

He nodded over toward the alleyway, not far from where she’d first arrived. “I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. I was about to be roasted alive. And then you showed up, with that Tower wall.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “How did that work, by the way? I mean, you literally appeared out of thin air. And I thought the Tower was, well, a tower. It can move?”

“Oh, right.” Aurora reached into a pocket and pulled out a figure of a tower. “While I was stuck in time, I actually met him. The Tower, I mean. He gave me this. He’s the one that helped me get back to the real world.”

Isaac froze. “Stuck in time? Back to the real world?”

Right. He wouldn’t know about that, would he? “So… I was headed over to use fate-spinning to break the curse on our parents, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, turns out fate-spinning is really dangerous. Like, ‘erase everything out of existence’ kind of dangerous. Though, it’d be much more likely I’d just erase myself.”

Isaac’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Let me guess. You tried anyway, and that’s how you got ‘stuck in time’.”

“Basically. Maleficent actually tried to stop me. She didn’t want me to risk my life like that or something. And nothing else I tried to get past her worked, so…” She shrugged and pulled her shoulders in. “One more for the list of screw-ups for the great Aurora Lowenveil.”

Isaac sat down. The smile he’d worn ever since they’d beaten the dragon had long since faded away. The weight of the world settled on his shoulders, and his face sank into his palms. Then he looked up, a curious expression on his face. “I wonder if that’s what she’s been up to.”

“Huh? Who? Up to what?”

“Maleficent. There are these… golden threads I can see sometimes now, that connect all of us together. The past few days, she’s been messing with them, D’you think she’s trying to break the curse herself?”

Aurora stood suddenly, feeling more alive than she had in ages. “That… that’s it.” She took off running for the inn.

(While Aurora is stuck in time, talking with the Tower)

… enjoyed so much? And that’s not all. How many people - witches, if you will - have ever successfully stolen from a fairy? Is there anyone besides you and Maleficent?”

Aurora leaned her head against him. “But what good does that do? Even with gothel’s eyesight. Isaac’s been overwhelmed with all the things he can see now, and he can’t understand it, and I can’t help him because I don’t even know what he’s seeing.” She chuckled bitterly. “Not that it matters anyway. I’m stuck here now.” She glanced up at Tower’s face. “At least I have decent company.”

“Don’t worry about Isaac. He’s smart; he’ll figure it out in time, and it will be surprisingly useful during his reign as king.” Tower stroked Aurora’s head. “As for being stuck here, well. I can probably do something about that.”

Aurora frowned. “How?”

“I have my ways.” Tower gave her a knowing grin, then turned more serious. “I know things are difficult right now. If you really can’t bear to deal with it anymore, you are free to stay with me as long as you like.” He clasped her hands in his. “But don’t you remember? In all those stories you used to read, there’s always a darkest hour. The night is darkest just before the dawn. Things will get better.’

From his suit coat pocket he pulled out a small figurine of a tower and pressed it into her hands. “Know that whatever happens, I will always be with you. I’m so proud of you.”

Tears started flowing down Aurora’s cheeks again. She hugged him tight. “Thank you.”

He reached out and grabbed what looked like the finest golden thread. “Are you ready?”

Aurora nodded. Tower pulled the thread, and time moved again.

(After convincing Maleficent to let Aurora help her)

Maleficent led the pair upstairs to the room their parents lay in. She asked Aurora, “What do you know of the workings of fate?”

Aurora grimaced. “Less than I thought I did.”

The corners of Maleficent’s mouth twitched upwards. “At least you recognize that.” She looked over to Isaac. “And what about you, boy?”

Isaac shook his hand. “Is it connected to all the golden threads I see?”

Maleficent nodded. “Very good. Now, over here. What do you see?” She handed Isaac a glass lens, about a foot and a half in diameter, then angled it so he could focus on a space about a foot above his parents’ bodies.

“Woah.” Isaac stared for a little longer, then pointed at a specific spot. “Wait, what’s that?”

Aurora tried to angle herself so she could see, too, but no matter where she stood, even when she looked in the lens, she couldn’t see anything unusual. She bit her lower lip and backed away.

Maleficent glanced over, then asked Isaac, “May I share your sight with her? I’d like her to see this, as well, so she can understand what we’re trying to do.”

Isaac nodded, and Maleficent pinched at something in front of Isaac’s eye. She held whatever it was with the utmost delicacy. “Aurora, would you come a little closer, please?”

Aurora stepped up in front of her, and Maleficent guided whatever it was she held to her eyes. A moment later, and Aurora thought her eyes had exploded; bright threads of all colors streamed around them.

Aurora flinched back and blinked desperately. Isaac watched her from the side and commented, “Yeah, it takes some getting used to.”

Aurora took a deep breath and clenched her eyes shut for a moment. When she opened them again, things were somewhat back to normal. She could still see the threads, when she focused on them, but now she could clearly see the real world around her. When she looked at Maleficent, though, the witch-queen looked like a brilliant beacon of all kinds of colors. The magics and lives she’d taken, maybe?

Aurora squared her shoulders and stepped up beside Isaac. This time, when she peered through the glass, she saw a tapestry woven together. When she focused on the specific section Maleficent had pointed out, she saw a thin lump set crosswise from most of the threads, which diverted a handful of threads away from the tapestry entirely. “What’s with this weird bump, over here?” Aurora asked, as she moved in to look closer.

Maleficent sighed. “That’s the curse I placed on you as a baby. It was designed to separate you - along with the curse the fairies placed on you - away from the tapestry of reality. By killing you, in this case. But the important thing to understand is that this cord was placed in a way to separate some threads from everything else.”

“But… That bump’s been woven in,” Isaac said. “There’s threads running back and forth all over it.”

“Of course,” Maleficent replied. “That’s what makes this so hard. Think about it; is there any part of your life - either of your lives - my curse has not impacted in some way?”

Both Aurora and Isaac shook their heads.

“No, right? Even I’ve had my life changed drastically; see here.” She gestured to a large, multi-colored band of threads that bent sharply where the bump was at. “I never would have become such good friends with Hannah had she not stormed my castle, a year later, and demanded my reasons.” A ghost of a smile played at it her lips, but it vanished so quickly Aurora wondered if she’d imagined it. :That’s why we can’t simply remove it. It’s such a big part of who we are, doing that would unravel our very reality.”

“But then…” Aurora glanced over where her parents slept. “How did you…?”

“Very carefully.” Maleficent sighed. “In essence, I nudged it, so it pushed a different froup of threads up. That was extremely delicate work; in particular, positioning it so that neither of your parents died was quite the struggle.”

Aurora’s heart felt like it turned to lead. That’s why Maleficent hadn’t wanted Aurora messing with things. Especially when she couldn’t even see what she was doing. “So, is there anything we can do?”

“I’m still figuring that out.” Maleficent leaned over and stared intently at the bundle of threads. “The simplest answer would be to weave their threads back into the tapestry. However…”

Aurora brightened at first, then drew her eyebrows together. “What is it?”

Maleficent grimaced. “If I wanted to do that in a way that doesn’t cause any problems, they might remain asleep for the next hundred years. That, in itself, isn’t a problem; I have ways to preserve them, so they would not age or rot. But I do not think that is the life they would choose.”

Aurora bit her lower lip. Isaac studied the tapestry. “You said that was the only way that didn’t cause problems. What did you mean by that?”

Maleficent shrugged. “It would be possible to force it sooner. As early as tomorrow, in theory. But that starts pulling a lot of other threads out of alignment. Yours, especially.” She glanced over to Hannah’s face. “And considering Hannah’s motivations when she asked me to do this initially, I don’t think she’d appreciate it if I forced that cost on you two.”

“Even if we were willing? Even if we wanted it?” Aurora asked.

Maleficent glared at her. “I will not trample on Hannah’s wishes on this matter. That is not negotiable.”

Aurora frowned and retreated. How had the Tower woven her back in so simply, then? “I have a question.” She pulled out the tower figurine Tower had given her. “After our duel, when I was trapped between moments in time, my thread had been pulled free of reality, right? How hard would that have been to weave back in?”

Instead of answering her question, Maleficent stared at the figurine. A line of translucent silver thread Aurora had never noticed before ran from the figurine to the tapestry, and was closely tied to a series of blue and violet threads Aurora guessed represented her and Gothel.

“Where did you get this?” Maleficent raised a hand and lightly brushed it with her finger.

“In that other world, the space between seconds, I met him. The Tower, I mean. He gave me this, as a way to keep him close.”

“May I?”

Aurora handed the figure over, and Maleficent raised it to study it from every angle. “Fascinating.” She returned it to Aurora and asked, “This lets you summon parts of this Tower around you at any time, correct?”

“Yes.” Aurora looked a bit skeptical. “Does that matter for what we’re doing, though?”

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24 November 2022

With a total of 2765 words, Thanksgiving was actually my most productive day this year for Nanowrimo. I was surprised, because my family had a fair amount going on that day, too. Not only that, but it took two hours or more to plan out the first half of the dragon fight with Gothel, during which time I got no words in, since it was all in the planning stage. Overall, I was quite pleased with myself after this.

I’ll probably add more specific notes to the sections below.

Rapunzel couldn’t believe her ears. “Wait… You’d still let me go?”

Isaac shrugged. “You’re as stubborn as I am. If you decide you’re going, you’ll go whether I let you or not. I just want to make sure you’re okay if you do.”

Rapunzel slumped back into the bed. She hadn’t expected that. She took a deep breath and winced, holding her side. Finally, she said, “It’d probably be a good idea to spend a few days, maybe even a week, for me to recover anyways. After that, if your - our - parents aren’t here yet, we can decide what to do then.”

Isaac heaved a sigh of relief. “Sounds like a plan.” He stood up. “I’ll let you rest, then. Do you want me to get you anything?”

Rapunzel’s stomach growled. “Breakfast would be nice. Or… whatever meal it would be right now, I guess.”

Isaac smiled wryly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

(After Phillip and Aurora have attracted the dragon, but before any dragon fights have started)

When Phillip returned a week later - and without Rapunzel, at that - Isaac was more than ready to tear into him. But the worry and urgency in Phillip’s expression made him pause.

Even before he’d fully dismounted, Phillip started trying to explain. “You’ve got… got to get everyone… out of here. Dragon… there’s a dragon coming.”

Isaac exchanged looks with Maleficent. “Dragon? Why? Where’s Rapunzel?”

Phillip put a hand on the wall to brace himself. He took a deep breath. “I think the dragon’s that fairy. Gothel?” At that name, Maleficent’s eyes narrowed, but she let Phillip continue. “She was hunting Aurora, so she used herself as bait and told me to come warn everyone.”

Isaac’s fists clenched. Logically, he knew they’d probably made the right call. But he still wanted to deck his friend for leaving his sister behind to face down a dragon alone. He looked over at Maleficent. “With your magic, would you e able to prepare any defenses? I want to keep the townsfolk safe while they’re evacuating, and, well…” He glanced over at the inn where his parents were located.

“I have a few things I can do about that.” Maleficent turned and got to work, though Isaac couldn’t be sure what she was planning.

Then he called General Conners over. “What do you suggest? I was thinking we should have half the men begin evacuating the citizens, and once they finish, have them set up within the village itself. I could join the other half outside the walls, to try and hold the dragon off as long as we could until the people are safe. We’d need ballistae for both sides.”

Conners saluted him and said, “My only concern, Your Majesty, is that it seems like you’re placing yourself too much at risk. We’ve already as good as lost the king and queen; what will happen to Lowenveil if you fall, too?”

Isaac grimaced. Then he shook his head. “I have to do this, General. For myself, if nothing else, and I think it’s important to show the people that I’m not afraid to stand with them when things get difficult.”

Conners looked like she had thoughts on the subject, but she kept them to herself. “Yes, sire!” She began shouting instructions, divvying up the soldiers into the two camps.

Isaac looked out toward the tower. If Rapunzel did come back, and she’d better, would she want to get involved in the fight, too? If Gothel was after her, Isaac wanted to make sure rapunzel was as far away from her as possible. Somewhere safe.

What if Rapunzel and Maleficent worked together? They were both witches, right? Isaac nodded to himself. That should work.

He watched with baited breath for any sign of his sister. He was so nervous, he almost didn’t react when a great wall of thorns sprouted up and surrounded the village, leaving only an opening at the gate.

Aurora didn’t recognize the village. Her father’s army had amassed outside of it, and somehow a great wall off thorns fifteen feet high had grown up all around it. Maleficent’s doing? Did she have a gift for growing plants?

She spotted Isaac and raced toward him. She could feel Gothel closing in on her, but Isaac gave a signal and a barrage of ballista bolts flew over Aurora’s head and impacted against the dragon.

Aurora pulled up next to Isaac. “I’m pretty sure that’s Gothel.” 

“I can see that.” He did seem to be looking at something specific within the dragon. A quirk of having Gothel’s eyesight, perhaps. “Maleficent’s taking care of our defenses; would you go help her?”

Aurora nodded, and walked through the gates in the hedge into the village. On her way, though, she got thinking. Would she get a better chance than this? Maleficent was busy, and no one else was around that would interfere.

She clutched her satchel, and headed for the inn. To her surprise, a second layer of thorns had wrapped themselves tightly around the building, even crawling up and covering the windows. She forced her way inside, only to find Maleficent…

It actually took me a long time to figure out what was going on with Aurora while she was trapped in time, or in the other dimension, or however you want to put it. At this point, all I knew for sure was that it ended with her speaking with the Tower. Then, I had an epiphany. If this happened because she messed with fate, isn’t it like she pulled herself out of alignment with fate? And since fate in this case means the things that happen to you, rather than what you will choose to do yourself (to distinguish between destiny), it means she can’t be affected by anything, but nor can she affect anything else.

…to get back?

She carefully walked past Maleficent and headed upstairs to the room they were keeping her parents. When she reached to open the door, however, her hand passed right through it, like nothing was there.

Aurora shuddered. Then she closed her eyes, braced herself, and stepped through the door.

There they were, asleep. Now, with time frozen, Aurora didn’t even have the rise and fall of their chests to confirm they were still alive. She steeled herself, and reached out to grab their threads of fate. Only… there was nothing to grab. Nothing at all.

Desperately, Aurora rushed over and tried to place her fingers on Hannah’s pulse, forgetting for a second that time had stopped. Only, it wasn’t even that Hannah had no pulse; when Aurora reached for her, her hand passed right through.

That’s when everything clicked for Aurora. She’d accidentally removed herself from fate; nothing could affect her, but she couldn’t affect anything else, either.

Dully, Aurora wandered around the village. She wasn’t sure how long she was at it; it was hard to tell time when nothing around you changed. It could have been fifteen minutes. It felt like days.

She mostly spent time in the room with her parents, though she often visited Isaac out on the battlefield, too. Aurora actually wished she had her paint supplies; she’d actually caught him at a good moment, and he looked quite kingly as he shouted something to his troops. She’d even found the perfect angle, where his outstretched arm framed dragon-Gothel as another round of bolts streaked toward her.

Eventually, though, she decided to go a little farther. She made her way back to the Tower, and was delighted to learn she didn’t get tired. Or hungry. Or randomly collapse because she’d pushed herself too hard. Soon, she started off running, and the feeling was so amazing she could almost forget how screwed she was.

Once she arrived, however, that all vanished. Because there was no more Tower. All that was left was half a wall, no taller than Aurora herself was, and a field of stone and rubble where Gothel, as a dragon, had burst out of it.

(First half of the fight with the dragon)

Isaac confirmed Aurora had made it inside, and then stared at the dragon. The dragon turned her head right and left, sniffing at the air; Isaac thought she seemed confused.

Then the dragon turned to Isaac and her nostrils flared. She roared and rushed toward him.

“Pikes!” Conners yelled, and the two squadrons of pikes, fifty strong each, charged forward from either side and halted her advance. Gothel swiped the claw of her left wing at them, but they managed to divert the attack.

From along the wall, the archers on either side of the gate fired a volley of arrows at the dragon. However, to Isaac’s chagrin, they all bounced off her scales. Isaac had seen those arrows punch through the finest steel armor; what the heck was her hide made out of?

The cavalry on either flank circled around, so they could charge in when an opportunity arose. Meanwhile, Isaac and his guards headed to the right, behind the second squad of pikemen.

Gothel tracked Isaac’s presence, flaring her nostrils now and then. Suddenly she lunged through the squad of pikemen to snap at him, and Isaac barely danced his horse far enough to the side to avoid her. He swung his sword at her face, but much like the archers before him, he was unable to pierce her hide.

“Have the archers retreat to the village!” he shouted, and Conners rushed to carry out his orders. Beside Isaac, the half of the second squadron of pikemen that had neither lost their weapon nor been critically injured split to either side of the dragon’s head and tried to spear her eyes; however, Gothel jerked her head up, beyond the reach of their pikes. The first squadron circled behind her to try to pin her down.

The four squadrons of spearmen repositioned, ready to rush in with their shields of need be. Behind them, two of the ballistae fired; one missed, but the one on the opposite side of the dragon from Isaac glanced a hit on her head, knocking her back a step.

Gothel roared and snapped her head the direction of the ballista, and Isaac saw threads of flame gathering in the back of her throat. His face turned white, and he screamed, “Fire! Get out of the way!”

The ballista crew got the message and barely managed to get away before a stream of flame turned the ballista to ashes. The squadron of spearmen between Gothel and the ballista, however, weren’t so lucky. They got their shields up in time, but many of the men at the front of their formation screamed as the shields in their hands superheated and burned the skin off their arms. A couple even fainted from the heat.

Isaac grimaced, and pulled back with the pikemen from the second squadron. That gave the first cavalry unit room to charge through, and drive their lances into Gothel’s flank. While none of them could pierce her, they were able to knock her off balance. This time, as well, Isaac finally noticed the streams of blue magic swirling under the dragons scales, and the way they focused wherever Gothel was getting attacked.

With a roar, Gothel swiped with her tail. While the cavalry had already cleared past her, the tail did smash into the other squadron of pikemen, and three or four of them flew into the air a ways.

Isaac scowled and ordered, “All pikemen, retreat! Spearmen and cavalry, cover them!”

Gothel cocked her head and turned back toward him. She roared, and Isaac caught a whiff of peppermint mixed with smoke and charcoal. She beat her wings, and the winds knocked him off his horse. He barely rolled out of the way before the claws on her right wing slammed down where he’d fallen.

Two more ballista bolts rocked into her, diverting her attention away from Isaac. She glared up at the one closest to her, and once again sucked in and prepared to spew flames.

“Here it comes again!” Isaac yelled. But before Gothel released it, the second cavalry unit charged in and drove her head up, and the flames blew harmlessly into the sky.

As they passed by, however, they got too close to Gothel’s tail, and with a single swipe she knocked a dozen horsemen off their horses.

A quick glance confirmed that most of the pikemen had finished retreating, other than those that couldn’t move. “Everybody, pull back!” Isaac called. “Behind the hedge!”

The cavalry rode off, and the spearmen locked shields and backed as quickly as they could toward the village gates. Isaac took one last look around, at all the dead and injured they had to leave behind, and cursed under his breath. Then he ran for the gate with everyone else.

This scene takes place just after Hannah and Frederick have sacrificed themselves. I was dissatisfied with the attention I’d given their grieving up to that point, and wanted to expand on it. The next two scenes are actually the bits I was most proud of today. I felt very happy with them.

Phillip knocked on Isaac’s door. When no one answered, Phillip cracked it and poked his head in.

The room was completely dark. No candles, and the shutters were closed, not that it mattered this time of night. Isaac himself sat on the bed, slouched over so his elbows rested on his knees, staring down at nothing.

“Yo! Still living?”

Isaac started. “Oh, it’s just you, Phillip.”

“Who else would I be?”

Isaac shrugged and returned to staring at the floor.

“What the heck are you doing all alone in the dark, anyway?”

Isaac clenched his eyes shut. “Ever since Aurora gave me that fairy’s sight, everything is… weird. I see things. Too many things. And none of it makes sense.” He flopped backward onto the bed. “Even without that, nothing makes sense.”

Phillip plopped onto the bed opposite him. “Wanna talk about it?”

For a while, Isaac couldn’t find the words. “It’s like… I thought it’d be different, you know? I’ve searched for her for years. My whole life, in a way. I thought it’d be so amazing when we found her, and everyone would be happy, and… Instead, Mom and Dad are all but dead. My eyes are going to drive me insane, and technically, I should’ve been blind. And Aurora… Rapunzel…” He snorted. “Well, whatever I was expecting from my sister, she is not it.”

He sat up and really looked at Phillip for the first time. “It’s like, the moment we found her, my whole life fell apart. Does that make sense?”

Phillip shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I get that. Things kinda suck.” He leaned back. “Still, though, if things suck this bad for you, how much worse to they gotta be for her?”

Isaac’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. You lost two parents, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t she just lose three? Maybe four, if you count the Tower. Heck, she blinded Gothel herself, and that was for your sake. It’s not like she wanted us to find her, either. You still have your home, your friends, everything else in life. What does she have?”

That hurt. Isaac didn’t want to admit it. He knew Phillip had a point, but didn’t he have a right to grieve, too?

Phillip let the silence rest for several minutes, then lay down to go to sleep. “It doesn’t gotta be right away. But sometime soon, you oughtta talk to her. You’re all the family either of you has left right now.”

Isaac didn’t get much sleep that night.

Aurora was heading outside when Isaac caught her. “Hey, I think we should talk.”

Now? Aurora sighed. She took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”

They headed out to a little meadow not far from town. Aurora watched Isaac and tried to figure out what this was about. He kept fiddling with his hands, or pacing back and forth.

Finally got fed up. “Is this about what happened with Mom and Dad?”

Isaac blanched, then nodded. “I’m just… still trying to process everything.”

Aurora nodded. They waited a moment longer, then Isaac sat down and looked at his hands clasped in front of him. “A lot has happened since we met. You blinded the mother you grew up with. I see things that make no sense. Our parents are so deeply asleep, they might as well be dead. I guess…” He sighed and looked up at Aurora. “I wondered how you were holding up.”

Aurora rubbed her arms. “I… I don’t know.” She looked at Isaac. “I was supposed to be dead right now. I’ve lived most of my life coming to terms with that. And now… that’s gone.” She laughed bitterly. “I’ve screwed everything up, haven’t I? It’s like I told you. It would’ve been better just to leave me in my Tower.”

For a very long time, Isaac didn’t answer. It struck Aurora that he might actually agree. She’d screwed up his life just as badly as she had her own, after all.

Eventually, he sighed. “Rapunzel–”

Aurora flinched, and he paused. When he didn’t continue right away, she asked, “Actually… Would you call me Aurora from now on? I know what I said before, but…”

Isaac’s eyes widened, but his expression softened into a smile. “Yeah, I can do that.”

After a moment, Aurora spoke again. “Sorry. About getting so… angsty, I guess? I just… I feel lost.”

Isaac scooched around and hugged her shoulders. “Well, you’re stuck with me, now. Like it or not, you’re kind of the only family I have left.”

Aurora chuckled and poked him in the side. “You don’t suppose they offer exchanges on little brothers somewhere, do they?”

They both laughed at that, and just enjoyed each other’s company in the afternoon sunlight.

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20 November 2022

We’re starting to get close to the end here. It’s actually becoming harder and harder to know what to write, and this was one of the first days I started to feel that. I did enjoy writing Frederick’s arrival, and tried to catch some of the subsequent awkwardness. But I had no idea where to go with her talk with her Tower, so I shelved it for quite a long time.

For a long time, Tower just held her close. Finally, he said, “You are an amazing and wonderful young woman. And don’t let anyone, especially yourself, tell you otherwise.” He smiled down at her. “These people - your parents, Maleficent, your brother Isaac - it is clear how much they care for and love you. That’s because they see the things inside you worth loving.”

Aurora smiled weakly. It was a nice sentiment, if nothing else.

Tower raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, if you don’t believe me, answer this. Is a life’s value only in how long it is? Does being the oldest automatically make someone the best or the wisest?”

“Well… no. Not really.”

“Then why should you be worth any less just because you may not live as long? Isn’t it the same principle?”

Aurora shook her head. “But I’m sick. I can barely walk from one town to the next without collapsing. I can’t do anything worthwhile.”

Once again, Tower looked at her with a single eyebrow raised. “Excuse me? You brought an entire room to life with your paintings and skills. And that is just one example. Do you know how happy it made me to see you working on something you enjoyed so much?”

A couple days after collapsing and waking up in town.

When Rapunzel woke the next day, she could hear a great commotion from outside the inn. She forced herself to her feet and struggled out the door.

She gawked as soon as she got outside. Somehow, overnight an entire army had appeared as if out of nowhere. Isaac seemed to be arguing with the man in charge, who looked to be in his late 30s or early 40s. The family connection between the two was obvious, and he had the same bright red hair as Rapunzel, with a well-trimmed beard to match. King Frederick; Rapunzel’s father.

He and Rapunzel made eye contact, and Rapunzel gave him an awkward wave. He stopped mid-sentence and walked over to her. He stared at her face long enough she started to get uncomfortable, before he finally said, “Aurora?”

“Um, yeah.” Rapunzel looked down at the ground and rubbed her arm. “Although, um, I actually go by Rapunzel now.”

Frederick gingerly raised a hand to Rapunzel’s cheek. She looked up at him, and in the softest voice he said, “You have your mother’s eyes.”

A moment later, he hugged her tight, as if he was afraid she’d disappear if he let go. Once that thought crossed her mind, Rapunzel’s heart sank. She would disappear soon, wouldn’t she? In two or three days, now, she’d most likely be dead. And if she avoided that, whatever was left wouldn’t be her, would it?

Isaac coughed, and Frederick finally released her. He gave her one last smile, then looked over to Isaac. “What happened to the fairy? And I thought Aurora–” He paused, then corrected himself. “Rapunzel wasn’t going to leave?”

“Yeah… about that…” Rapunzel smiled sheepishly and wouldn’t meet Frederick’s gaze. “Moth… *cough* Gothel stole away Isaac’s eyesight when she caught him in the Tower, so I kind of… got mad and stole hers back? And after that, well, I couldn’t exactly stay, could I? So… here I am.”

Frederick’s eyes widened, and he looked at rapunzel with newfound respect. Then his expression hardened. “Still, she might come after you, either in retaliation or hoping to take you back.” He turned to one of his officers. “Conners, take a squad and–”

“Please don’t!” Rapunzel ran out into the road ahead of the army. “Gothel is… okay, I know she kidnapped me as a baby, but she’s mostly harmless. She’s still dealing with trauma from whatever happened between her and Queen Maleficent, that’s all.”

Frederick scowled at the mention of Maleficent, then sighed and softened. He focused his gaze on Rapunzel. “You say she’s harmless? Are you sure?”

“If she were going to come after us, she already would have,” Rapunzel answered. “Besides, she’s blind now.” Assuming she hadn’t used Isaac’s eyesight. But she didn’t need to tell them that.

“Plus, disturbing her now when she’s stable might be like kicking a hornet’s nest,” Isaac added. “Who knows how much damage she could cause if she gets serious.”

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17 November 2022

Well, here it is. We’re finally caught up, or at least as caught up as I’m going to get. I want to keep that one week buffer to give myself time to type everything in after I’ve written it.

At some point, I realized that after Maleficent’s discussion with Isaac on the dangers of fate-spinning, and considering his own stubbornness, there’s no way he’d agree to help Aurora figure it out. He would, however, be likely to send Phillip instead, and Phillip’s in so far over his head that he’s pretty much willing to roll with whatever.

Phillip smiled. “Aurora it is, then.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “You do have a plan, though, right? To make sure you don’t vanish everyone?”

[skipping how she convinces him for now]

“Alright, then.” Phillip leaned back. “What do you need me to do?”

Aurora stared up at him in shock.

“Oi, don’t give me that look. You’re my friend, and Isaac sent me to keep an eye on you. Least I could do is help you try, right?”

Tears welled up in Aurora’s eyes, and she laughed. “Come on, then. Let’s go.”

The trip there went a lot faster than the trip back had been. Part of that was because it was just the two of them but part of it also had to do with the fact they better understood Aurora’s limits. Soon they arrived at the forest where the Tower was hidden away, and then the tower itself.

“Would it be better if I waited out here?” Phillip asked. 

Aurora nodded. “I’ll try to be quick. The Tower will let you know if something goes wrong.” She moved to the base of the Tower, which opened up to let her in.

Gothel had shut herself in her room ever since that witch had blinded her. She’d barely been able to eat, though the Tower provided plenty of food for her, and sleep evaded her. Her daughter, her Rapunzel, was like them. Like that woman. The one who’d taken her sisters away.

Gothel could have used the boy’s sight to at least partially heal herself, but she did not. She wanted nothing of his. It must be his fault. He’d changed Rapunzel somehow. Gothel snarled, then forced herself to calm back down.

Rapunzel’s words dug at her heart, but Gothel couldn’t understand them. So she stayed in her room, cycling through all the negative thoughts, until she caught a whiff of something familiar.

Rapunzel had returned to the Tower.

Edited bits to get the following:

“Can I leave the kingdom in your hands for a few days?”

“That would be unwise.” Maleficent shook her head. “Even were I well-regarded in the kingdom, which I am not, this is a critical time in your young reign. You need to prove that you are not a puppet, whether to me or anyone else.”

Isaac grimaced, and clenched his fist as he looked out over the parapet. Was there anyone else he could send?

A moment of inspiration struck him, and he gestured to one of his guards. “Please fetch my my friend, Phillip Charmande.”

Phillip didn’t really understand what Isaac had been talking about. Something about cobwebs, and fate, and his sister. All Phillip knew was that Rapunzel had gotten herself in over her head somehow, and Isaac wanted him to watch out for her.

He’d barely traveled two or three hours when he ran into Rapunzel off the side of the road. She was breathing heavily, and Phillip figured the ache in her chest was back. Her horse had been tethered beside her.

“You know, your brother was worried enough before he thought of how weak you get,” Phillip said. “Wouldn’t it have been better to let him know what you were doing?”

Rapunzel started and looked up at him. “Phillip?”

Phillip grinned at her. “In the flesh!”

“But… How? Why? I didn’t think anyone would notice–”

“That you left?” Phillip looked at her askance. “You do know that you’re a princess right? Even if you don’t want to be. And where you were gone for so long… People notice you now.”

Rapunzel scowled and looked away. Phillip dismounted and walked up to her. “Why didn’t you ask someone to go with you? You collapsed a couple times on the trip back, didn’t you? What if that happened again?”

“I, just… I don’t know.”

“Uh huh. And what’s all this about people disappearing from existence and fate and cobwebs and things?”

Rapunzel sighed. “It’s complicated.”

“Yeah, I got that much.” When she didn’t say anything, Phillip said, “Look, Rapunzel–”

“It’s Aurora.”

Phillip blinked. “Huh?”

Rapunzel - Aurora - looked away and rubbed her arms. “You can call me Aurora. It seemed rude not to use the name my parents gave me after they… well.”

Phillip smiled. “Aurora it is, then.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “You do have a plan, though, right? To make sure you don’t vanish everyone?”

“Not…exactly.” She looked down the road. “I know Moth - Gothel had some books about fate-spinning in her hidden library. So I was going to find them and see if I could figure anything out.”

“Alright, then.” Phillip leaned back. “What are we waiting for?”

Aurora stared up at him in shock.

“Oi, don’t give me that look…

Back to new stuff

Aurora crept through the Tower. She didn’t know where Gothel was, or if she was even still in the Tower, and she didn’t particularly want to find out. Even in the best-case scenario, Aurora didn’t think that encounter was going to be pleasant. It still felt weird, though, coming back like this. Kind of like coming home from a long vacation, only to discover you weren’t welcome anymore.

She made her way up the stairs to the meadow, and was surprised to find the animals still there. She was pleased to see they were well fed, and Fenrir was far more energetic now that Gothel wasn’t stealing his health to cover Aurora’s.

“Say, Tower,” Aurora said. “Would it be possible to let them out? When I leave, I mean. I don’t want them to stay here alone, and definitely not alone with her.”

The ground rippled in a way Aurora knew meant yes. She smiled and said, “Thank you.”

From there, she made her way through the Tower to the library. She went to a very specific bookshelf in the back left, pushed the switch, and [magical thing to open the door]. The bookshelf swung free, and she entered Gothel’s hidden library.

Aurora looked around at the piles of books and scattered documents everywhere. That was the downside to this place; nothing was organized the way it was in the main library.

Fortunately, Aurora had an idea of where to look. Soon, she was skimming through documents, looking for anything that might be useful. In particular, she looked for any references to fate-spinning or lifting curses.

Whenever she found something that looked promising, she grinned and stuffed it in her satchel. After an hour or so, it was already full to bursting, but Aurora wanted to look for a bit longer, just in case there was anything else she could use.

Then the Tower banged the door open and closed to warn her about something. Aurora jumped, then snuck into the main library and peered around the main bookshelves to the main entrance.

There, Gothel was sniffing the air, turning her head this way and that. Her eyes were milky white, and she kept one hand on a wall or bookshelf as she walked. “Somewhere, somewhere, here,” she said, her voice almost sing-song. “My Rapunzel is here somewhere. The nose knows, and I can smell her.”

Aurora’s breath caught in her throat. Had she ever seen Gothel this bad? She took a deep breath and began to stealth through towards the doors.

Then Gothel paused, and turned straight toward Aurora. If Aurora hadn’t known better, she would have sworn Gothel could see her. Gothel moved to block Aurora’s path to the door. With a snap of her fingers, the bookshelves joined together to keep Aurora from slipping through them and past Gothel.

A horrid grin spread on Gothel’s face, and she began walking down the aisle in Aurora’s direction. “My darling Rapunzel has finally come home! But she’s been a naughty, naughty girl. For she’s gone and become a witch, and even stolen my eyesight away!”

Aurora backed away, slowly at first and then more an more frantically. Soon, she’d backed herself up against the wall, while Gothel slowly advanced on her.

“So what will we do with this naughty girl? What should be done now she’s become a witch?”

Gothel reached a hand out as if to stroke Aurora’s cheek. Aurora barely held back a scream, and desperately reached behind her, hoping for a way out to appear. The Tower obliged, and Aurora turned the new doorknob and practically fell back into the hallway. She slammed the door in Gothel’s face, then raced down the stairs.

Stone clattered on stone when Gothel forced the Tower to open the way for her. “Dear Rapunzel, is my dear Rapunzel trying to run away? Where do you think you can go?” She whistled a tune, and a few steps ahead of Aurora, the floor slammed up into the ceiling, cutting her off. 

Aurora scowled and shouted, “Tower!” To her right, a door appeared, and she rushed through it into the lake room. She began sprinting along the shore; it was only moments, however, before she started to wheeze, and the pain in her chest returned.

Behind her, Gothel slowly pursued her, walking at the same even gait. “Dearest Rapunzel, such a sick little thing. All I wanted was to nurse her and make it better. And yet she blinded me.”

Aurora glanced back and yelped. Gothel’s face had transformed into a bestial snarl, and leathery wings sprouted from her back. The nails on her hands lengthened into claws. “Yet she blinded me! Why, Rapunzel? WHY!?”

She leaped into the air and dove at Aurora. Aurora rolled to the side, narrowly escaping her claws, and kept running. The Tower created a door in the wall closest to her and stretched the room to make it even easier to reach.

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16 November 2022

This is the first time it’s come up in the story directly, but even a couple days before this, I was playing with this idea of “fate-spinning” - that the fae directly mess with the threads of fate, and witch powers do the same indirectly. Mostly, I think it came from realizing the rules I’d established for witch powers wouldn’t save Hannah and Frederick, but it also didn’t seem like the kind of story that solely built up to their sacrifice, or ended with them still dead/asleep.

The thing is, “fate-spinning” as a general concept is way too vague, so I was trying to come up with rules. Honestly, I’m still not satisfied with it; if I can re-think my strategy to remove it (and that might be easier than I thought), I probably will, but I needed it to come up with some of the plot points that are now so critical to the story.

I also really enjoyed the bit with Isaac as king. That eyesight of his is going to come in handy, even if, again, I need to get a better grasp on how it works.

It took a moment for that to sink in for Aurora. “Wait. You stole from the fairies themselves? That means you’re probably ridiculously powerful, and have access to faerie sight and stuff, right?”

Maleficent dipped her head. Aurora’s posture relaxed as she said, “Maybe you could teach Isaac some things. After I gave him Gothel’s sight, hes been seeing a lot of things that don’t make sense. He can’t do anything with them, either, so he was ignoring it, but…”

Maleficent looked surprised. “Your brother has Gothel’s sight?”

Aurora nodded. “She blinded him, and I got so mad I took hers in retribution.” She averted her gaze. “It’s… kind of why I left at all. I fully intended to stay there in the Tower.”

Maleficent tapped her lips as she though. “Perhaps I will speak to the boy. Not many mortals get a chance to see the threads of fate; as far as I know, I was the only one until now. It would be interesting to see what he makes of it, and how it will serve him as king.”

“Threads of fate? That’s actually a thing?”

“What else would we be tampering with every time we pull a piece of someone into ourselves? How else could the fairies pull from our futures to bless us now?”

Aurora stood up and began pacing. So it wasn’t just a crackpot theory. Does that mean fate-spinning was possible? Hope began to flicker in her chest. “Maybe, if we used fate itself, do you think we could–”

“No.”

Aurora looked up at Maleficent. She seemed to have grown taller, looming a foot or more over Aurora, and her expression was stern. “The risks of fate-spinning are too great, for both you and your parents.”

“But–”

“You think I did not consider this? That I would not do anything for the sake of the only true friend I’ve had in nearly a century of life? Do you think if I, with the combined magics of twelve fairies and decades of experience, had a way to save her, I would not have already used it?”

Aurora flinched and looked down. “Sorry.”

Maleficent stepped back. She took a deep breath, then said, “No, I must be the one to apologize. You were reaching out for whatever hope you could find. There is nothing wrong with that.”

Aurora nodded. She turned to leave, and gave Maleficent one last look as she headed through the doorway. The witch was impassive, just staring silently down at the glass coffins, her fingers lightly resting on Hannah’s.

Isaac was about ready to chuck the crown into a lake somewhere and run away. And he wasn’t even wearing it yet. He’d had to deal with countesses and bankers, earls and the merchant guild’s representatives. Most either wanted to curry favor with him (even offering daughters or nieces for him to marry, despite the fact that he was still only fourteen), or else call into question the circumstances that surrounded his parents’ coma and his sister’s return.

The man before him, Duke Hareln, was one of the latter. “It is unusual,” he was saying, “that you returned with not only some long lost sister, who had been cursed to die three days ago, but also with the very witch who cursed her to begin with. It’s convenient that neither the king nor the queen are available to verify your story, isn’t it?”

Isaac sighed and rubbed his eyes for the umpteenth time that day. He looked back up at Duke Hareln. Every word the man spoke looked like smoke spewing out of his mouth, and the duke himself seemed covered in shadows.

Then something caught Isaac’s eye, an image in the shadows. He peered a little closer, only to regret it immediately. He pulled back and shuddered. “Does your wife know you’re sleeping with Baroness Riegan, Duke Hareln?”

The duke stopped mid-prattle, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his sockets. “I… have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Hm.” Isaac risked another look, hoping to find something more useful. And hopefully a little less…stimulating. “Oh, that’s interesting. What about the time you cheated the merchant’s guild on the quality of your wine this past year? I’m sure they would love to hear about that.”

The duke’s face went pale, and then transformed into a snarl. He lunged across the table and jabbed his finger in Isaac’s face. “Now see here, you little–”

Isaac simply snapped his fingers. “Guards!”

The guards posted on either side of the door stepped forward and each clamped a hand on Duke Harlen’s shoulders.

“Escort the duke to the dungeons, until we can verify the full extent of his crimes,” Isaac instructed. “And inform Duchess Hareln she is responsible for the estate until further notice.”

The guards saluted and dragged the duke away, ignoring his numerous protests. Isaac rubbed his temples and left the room as well, making a point to head the opposite direction.

After a moment, he decided to head to the room they’d given to Rapunzel. He really needed to get her a room to paint in, too, assuming she hadn’t already just taken one over.

However, when he entered her room, he found it mostly empty. Or rather, anything expensive was still there; all the gowns and dresses had been left in the closet untouched, for example. It was only the things Rapunzel had brought with her that were missing.

I really did not need this right now. Isaac closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. Then he turned around and asked, “Has anybody seen my sister recently?”

After about half an hour of investigating, he learned that Rapunzel had been spotted heading out of the castle on horseback not long ago. He’d taken a moment to shout various insults and epithets at her from the parapets, just to vent, and then began trying to figure out what to do next.

It was at about that time Maleficent found him. “You asked to speak with me, Prince Isaac?”

“Yes, thank you.” He straightened and gave a bow. “My sister has seen fit to leave the capital without warning. I was wondering if you could shed any light on her destination, or at least what might have motivated her to leave.”

Maleficent frowned. “We did speak at some length not long ago, but nothing we discussed should…” She paused, then her expression grew harsh. “Do you know if Gothel had a library, by chance?”

“I’ve never seen it myself, but Rapunzel has mentioned it several times. Why?”

“Well, I cannot say for certain, and I certainly hope I am wrong. But one of the things that came up in our discussion was the idea of fate-spinning; I fear she may have gone to learn more about it on her own.”

“Fate-spinning?”

“Where a fairy or witch directly takes the threads of a person’s fate and twists them, for whatever reason.”

Isaac grimaced. “So, control a person’s future? Their choices, etc.?”

“Not exactly.” Maleficent thought for a bit, then pointed to a large cobweb. “Take this web, for example.”

“Alright.”

“Fate-spinning is like trying to affect one string in it, whether to pull it out, move it, or whatever else, without disturbing the rest of the web.”

Isaac’s jaw dropped, and Maleficent continued. “Even those of us who can see and manipulate fate cannot force a person to make certain choices; their will is inviolable. Most who have attempted it throughout history have tried to manipulate circumstances; however, as we are all interconnected, it can be hard to predict the results anytime we tug on a string.” She grimaced, and added, “Sometimes even when we don’t touch fate directly, that’s still true. Look at what my meddling has caused here.”

Isaac nodded. “So, while fate-spinning could theoretically break the curse on my parents, it could also cause a war or a plague or something.”

Maleficent nodded. “Or erase them, and you, and who knows who else, entirely out of existence.”

Isaac froze. “Has that happened before?”

Maleficent raised an eyebrow. “Would we know about it if it had?”

Isaac’s face paled. He looked to the northeast, where Rapunzel’s Tower was located. “Can I leave the kingdom in your hands for a few days?”

“I doubt that would go over well. I will, however, offer my assistance to the stewards and officials that would be running it.”

Isaac smiled wryly. “Thank you.” Less than an hour later, he was on the road.

He’d barely traveled two or three hours, however, when he found Rapunzel off the side of the road. She breathed heavily, and Isaac could tell the ache in her chest was back. Her horse had been tethered beside her.

“Just when I thought this couldn’t get any more bone-headed,” Isaac told her, “you find a way to prove me wrong.”

Rapunzel started and looked up at him. “What.”

Isaac just glared at her. “You really thought you could just take off and no one would notice? Like it or not, you are a princess. The long lost princess, at that. People know who you are, now.”

Rapunzel scowled and looked away. Isaac groaned and asked, “You couldn’t have at least asked someone to go with you? As you like to remind everyone, you’re weak and sickly. What did you plan on doing if and when you collapse again!?”

“I, just… I don’t know.”

“Uh huh. And what’s all this about fate-spinning and cobwebs and things? Is that really what you ran off for?”

Rapunzel glared at him. Isaac sighed and said, “Look, Rapunzel–”

“It’s Aurora.”

Isaac blinked. “Huh?”

Rapunzel - Aurora - looked away and rubbed her arms. “You can call me Aurora. It seemed rude not to use the name they gave me after they… well.”

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Most recently updated draft of Rapunzel, the Sleeping Beauty (potentially including unposted content)