For a moment, I can only stare, transfixed. Then, to my shock, they both disappear, exiting out the great door we came in from. I don't know if Snow is willing or not, and based off my past experiences with Mother, I can only hope not, but I do know that this is an opportunity. Of course Mother will know about my past. She's a sorceress, she probably even knows why I'm resistant to magic. And if not, well, she's clearly dangerous, clearly. I mean, anyone who will throw someone thirty feet off a tower nearly killing them isn't okay. She took away my childhood, nearly killed Charm. I can't let her take my friend.

Before it can register, I'm sprinting across the ballroom, pushing dancing couples out of my way as I go without even stopping to apologize. They've already disappeared from the room, I can't let them get away. Can't lose everything like that again. I hear feet behind me, and Charm calling my name, but I ignore him. This is important to me. He knows what Mother looks like, surely he'll understand. And hopefully the others won't notice I'm gone.

Too late. I can hear other voices calling after me as well. I had no idea I was so popular. I think I can hear a deep heart wrenching familiar voice, Leon, and it almost makes me want to stop. I owe him an explanation. But can wait, and it's evident that Mother won't.

"Ivy!" This time, the shrill voice belongs to Liliana, easily recognisable by the fact that it's several octaves above all others. I ignore it as well. She knows that I'm looking for my past, she'll understand.

I race out of the ballroom, internally cursing the endless stairs. What seemed so majestic before is now a huge pain to get down. I brush one hand on the banisher and gather my huge, impractical skirt with the other, trying desperately to get out as fast as possible as the great clock starts to chime. Despite my speed, I still can't see Snow or Mother, and that motivates me even more to pump my legs faster.

Finally, I can see the great doors exiting the palace. With no regard for the bemused looking guards, I race past, anticipating getting down the one remaining staircase. To my delight, I can just see the faint shadow of two people in the distance. I haven't lost them yet.

I race out of the palace into the cool night air as the twelfth bell toils. The time is irrelevant to me though; I just need to get out. In my haste, I trip over my skirt and to my horror, the ground looms closer. I throw out my arms, breaking the fall so I roll over onto my left side and down several stairs. I realize that I've lost a shoe and look up to see one diamond slipper several steps above. There are also several figures at the top of the stairs, looking down towards me. I debate going back for about a second, they whip my head back around to discover that the two people I'm seeking have become barely more than a shadow. On a snap decision, I ignore my shoe and race off, down the rest of the stairs, past our enormous pumpkin carriage, out of the courtyard, into the street.

I'm unstable with one foot higher than the other, and reach down to grab my shoe. With nowhere to place it (I left my bag at Kamella's), I merely grasp it in my hand and take off down the street barefoot. Despite the stabbing pain from the rough road, I race faster without my unsteady heels, for once thankful for my dreadful time in the Krwenian desert. For all the pain and suffering, it would seem that my feet managed to build up monster calluses that are certainly a help now.

The night air is cool on my face and arms, but my running quickly heats me up. My hair flies behind me, and for once, I'm grateful for the loss of my thirty foot locks that would drag behind me and hinder my run. It seems ironically fitting, that the very thing that Mother took from me is that which will save me now. I can see them ahead in the distance, walking, likely unaware that they're being pursued, and with every second, the gap between us closes.

Feet slapping, arms pumping, I've been so lost in my thoughts that I haven't even noticed the sudden change in scenery. We've left the city, presumably from a different direction than the one I came from because I didn't recognize it, and are now in the forest. The moonlight on the trees casts dark, looming shadows, and I shiver despite myself.

It takes a moment for me to recognize the stabbing pain in my feet. Whatever the pain I endured in the desert, it's nothing on this. At least there the ground was flat and all the same, if hot. Here sharp twigs and little rocks poke into my feet, likely breaking the flesh and perhaps even embedding themselves within me. As I slow my pace to ease the pain, I curse myself for abandoning the shoe. I suspect that the few moments it would have taken to retrieve it would save me time now, but there's nothing to be done.

The dress too, is a pain. While my arms may be comfortable- the cold air on my sweat cools me immensely- my legs are in stifling heat beneath endless layers of skirts. A look behind me reveals that my long skirt drags behind me, the hem becoming ragged and grey-brown, picking up twigs, rocks, pine needles, and so on, a laughing knockoff of the majestic masterpiece it used to be.

I'm no athlete either, and before long, my lungs have started to gasp for air. It take all I have to not stop and collapse on the ground. My breathing is becoming heavy and ragged as I struggle to breathe, but I tell myself it's not so bad. Charm fell thirty feet into a bramble of rose bushes, and I'm complaining about a little stroll through the woods. It's ludicrous, and it's perhaps that thought alone that keeps me going.

I've slowed to a walk now, behind the two I'm seeking. They're close now. They're walking in silence. I can't tell whether or not Snow was willing. Mother has a hand on her wrist, leading her, but Snow doesn't seem to care, and walks without complaint of her own free will. She certainly seems more comfortable than I, limping on shredded feet. I'm close enough that I could catch them with a few large steps, but I hang back. They're obviously going to a specific location, and I'm curious to know where.

We walk in silence- relative silence save for those irritating twigs snapping beneath me and thankfully them as well- for a while, longer that I know. Long enough to make my lungs scream for more air, my legs to scream for us to stop. But we slug forwards, or at least I do, anyways. Surprisingly, neither of them seem winded in the slightest, and I have to stop myself from resenting Snow for it. It's probably Mother casting some sort of a spell.

So caught up in my thoughts, it takes a moment for me to recognize the woods thinning. More light filters through the far slighter canopy far above. Eerie shadows fall all around me, cast from the light of the full moon. And ahead, in the distance, I can see a clearing.

I stop dead in my tracks, an involuntary gasp escaping my lips. This clearing... it's familiar. Too familiar. The gentle slope of the land, the little creek running through it, the slightly oblong shape, the way that the trees are smaller to the north. The gardens, full of green vegetables always in full bloom despite the season. And right in the middle...

The tower.

Thirty feet tall, made from grey stone, with perhaps the slightest blue tint, to match the cone shaped room made from a spiral of teal shingles. The one large window, far at the top, with the little wooden sill that I used to lean out. The sad remnants of Mother's prized garden below, scraggly plants and weeds poking out of the cleared ground. All the ivy plants crawling up the tower's sides.

My home.

My prison.

It takes a moment for me to catch my breath again. This is what I've been looking for. Here I am, at my tower, with Mother just in front. I didn't expect it to affect me like this. For so many years I wanted out. I was ready to do anything, everything, for just one taste of freedom. And now that I know it, I can never go back to this.

Slowly, on unsteady feet, I make my way out into the clearing, marveling at the way the tower stands like a tall shadow in the moonlight. I can feel my breathing accelerate even though I'm moving at snail speed. How I managed to survive here for so many years will forever be a mystery, for now I can barely force myself to take one step.

And then I hear it, and it's like something from my worst nightmares all over again. "You can come out now, Rapunzel." Gasping, I whip my head towards the sound of the voice and find myself staring directly into Mother's cruel eyes. And next to her, with a smile I can't decipher, Snow White.

I consider running back towards the forest, before realizing that that would be futile. They already know I'm here. Nothing I can do will change that. And this is what I wanted anyways, conformation. I just hadn't expected that seeing her in the flesh again would be so terrifying.

I open and close my mouth a few times before finding the strength to form the words. "How did you-"

"Know you were there?" Mother finishes. "Silly child. I let you come. I wanted you to follow me. I knew you were there the whole time. Why else do you think I would have gone the slow way- on foot? And even if this hadn't been my intention all along, which it was, I would have found you out in a heartbeat. Do you know how loud you are?"

I'm surprised at how familiar this feels. Her chiding me, scolding me, like the little girl I used to be. I shake off that feeling quickly though, and it's replaced by a sinking feeling. I was playing right into her hands. I didn't accomplish anything.

"What I didn't anticipate though," she continues, oblivious to my thoughts, "Was your little friend tagging along. It's no matter though. We're all friends here. You can tell her to come out now."

I stare at her, horror struck. "What are you..." Slowly I turn around, peering back the way we came. And edging her way out from the cover of the trees is none other that Liliana herself.

"Liliana!" I exclaim. "Why- what- you shouldn't have come! Why are you here? Couldn't you tell by how I left that I didn't want anyone to come with me? This isn't your pampered city life. This is the real world, and it's dangerous, and you shouldn't have come."

"I'm not afraid," she says, lifting her chin and striding towards me, eyes trained on me at all times and not even flickering to Mother. "I came to Styluna to help you find you home. I wasn't going to abandon you in a time of need."

I'm surprised, actually, and even a little touched. Of course she had told me why she came, but I didn't think I ranked higher in her priorities that the frivolous ball. I open my mouth to respond but am cut off by a bitter, angry voice.

"Of course you did," Snow snaps. "You have to be Little Miss Perfect, don't you. Do you somehow think that trying to get yourself killed will make up for the way you treated Ivy in the past?"

I turn back towards her, suddenly reminded of her presence. "Excuse me?" Liliana demands. "You act like she's your best friend, and you leave with her worst enemy instead? Kind of hypocritical, if you ask me."

I sigh. Even if everything else in my world is changing, I guess Liliana and Snow's hatred for each other has stayed constant.

"Do you have to?" I ask, before Snow can shoot another comment back at her. "Quarrel, I mean. What exactly is your problem with each other? You've practically hated each other since you first met, and it seems rather childish to me, especially since you don't know each other."

"I can't help it," says Liliana, rolling her eyes. "She's just so fake. Always putting on this air like she's the perfect, sophisticated princess. That everyone should love her. Well, all I have to say is that if everybody loved you, your stepmother wouldn't have tried to kill you, now would she?"

"Are you seriously listening to this girl?" Snow demands of me, ignoring Liliana's statement. "You've seen how she acts. When things are all good with her, she'll be nice, but as soon as you do the slightest thing that might irritate her, she explodes, she becomes skies-bent on making your life miserable, she refuses to be reasoned with. Is this really a person you want to be associated with?"

A month ago, I would have agreed with Snow. But the past few weeks have changed my perspective. I ponder my words carefully before speaking. "Yes, I acknowledge that Liliana may be a bit unreasonable and overreactive at times, but I believe that deep down she really cares for the people she loves, cares for me. I think that she's someone I can count on. She wouldn't have followed me into these treacherous woods otherwise."

"Or perhaps she's just stupid. Honestly, Ivy, you're my friend and I love you like a sister, but you're being really dense."

There's a light laugh, and it takes a moment to realize that Mother is the culprit. "I am so sorry for my rude interruption in this... bonding," she says, eyes laughing. I don't like it. She's mocking me, mocking us, and I don't like it. She had no right.

"But," she continues, "I have to say that it is a little ironic that dear Rapunzel, or shall I say, Ivy's friend loves Ivy like a sister more than Ivy's own sister does."

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