Beyond the Tower

| Thirty-Four | The Tower

The cold night air stings on the tear tracks staining my frigid cheeks. It seems to taunt me, singing a cruel song as it rustles the tree leaves, flying way out to the freedom of the world that I tasted but was not to have. And in that moment I despise everything.

I want to just sit here and cry, but eventually I force myself to stop. To get it together. All can't be lost yet. I refuse to let it be. That is what Rapunzel would be. But I spent so long distancing Ivy from her that I can't go back now. Ivy is a fighter. I won't go down quietly.

Getting up to wobbly feet, I walk back over to the window, the wretched, skies-awful window, and look down. To my relief I can still see two figures down below in the clearing. Mother and Snow. I'm a little surprised they haven't left yet, considering that Mother can travel and they can be anywhere in the world they want in a mere instant but I'm not one to question my good fortune. Instead I start thinking. I need to get down. To get that knife away from them before they can do any damage.

I remember Aysela's words. Stronger, deadlier than any other blade you could get. Whether you want it or not there's no way you're going to be able to escape magic, so you should be protected. How right she was. That magic, that knife in the hands of someone as powerfully evil as Mother can be nothing but bad.

Who just makes a pair of shoes that will kill somebody. She said she changed and I was fool enough to believe it. Clearly this evil monster is who she is at heart. And my resolve strengthens; I will do anything it takes to bring her down.

And Snow. I feel my hands clench to angry fists at my sides as I think of her. I can't believe she betrayed me like that. Took me away from everything and everyone I've worked so hard to build; anything I may have faltered and allowed myself to love. I risked my life, risked everything to save her and she was conning me all along.

I guess Lily was right all along in thinking of her as evil, in relentlessly taunting her and trying her best to point out all her flaws. Of course she was. All along I was spending all of my time and energy hating the wrong person.  I just wish I had seen it before.

I shake my head. I can't afford to stand here hating her. I don't have that luxury of time. They'll be gone and I'll be here forever if I think like that. Besides, something tells me that Mother won't be paying me the frequent visits she used to.

I start to pace back and forth. Think think think! What can I do?

No matter how much of that was flattery, how much was buttering me up so I'd go willingly to my prison, some of what Mother said must have been true. I've seen it for myself in the sirens and the shoes. The question remains; how far can I go?

How much can I actually exert that so called resistance? Surely I must be able to use it somehow. Otherwise it's just... useless.

Duh. I mentally reprimand my brain for that useless thought. I need to be able to do something. I can't just stand here wasting time. I can't afford to.

I run her words over and over in my head again. I disenchant things. She enchants things. I should be able to take her. I'm the only person in the universe that balances her out. Surely that should count for something.

What have I been able to do?

I could easily see through the sirens' glamour.

I could get into Snow's enchantment protected tomb.

I could wear the cursed diamond slippers without dancing to my death.

Mother said I disenchanted small objects.

And the largest of all: I disenchanted my tower.

I took control of my own fate. Not really since it was subconscious, but still. I broke the hiding spell on it, I allowed Charm to find me, and thus to escape. Nevermind that it was all Mother-mandated, that she allowed the whole thing to happen, she never would have if Charm hadn't found me in the first place.