Sunshine Challenge Final: Greyscale
Sep. 9th, 2020 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icecheetahFor The Sunshine Challenge
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Cinderella walked on, eating an apple Thandi had enchanted, trying to observe it. The moment the apple recovered from her bites, somewhere before she could lift it to her eyes, and after her lips stopped touching it. Even if she tried waiting.
It was something to do on the road.
Two days of walking in, and Cinderella rested by a stream, cooling her feet in it. She'd made good time, she thought, though she used her ability to not be seen when people passed. She had no idea how to tell if a passerby was someone willing to lend her hand... or a highwayperson. and she did not want to learn the hard way that 'people who could harm me' is too vague a category for her hiding ability to weed them out. At least she didn't have to leave the road to avoid the gaze of these people.
She heard a 'tmph' noise behind her. Tensed. Glanced.
It was Selene's fairy godparent. Looking behind her, gruff, holding a letter.
Cinderella did not grab it. She jumped up. "Do you hate delivering letters to me?"
"Is it not obvious that I do? Yes. Farewell." It...they dropped the letter and started to fade.
"Wait. I might have a way to stop her doing that." Might as well take the chance.
They faded back in. "Are you certain?"
"I want to go to her. I think..." Cinderella took a breath, "Either she will come with me, or... I'll make it clear that I never want to hear from her again. So... ," She scratched her ankle with the heel of her shoe, "... either way she won't need to call you again."
"Well. That would be nice." If only their face wasn't so sheep like, maybe their expressions would be readable. "I'm guessing you're trying to imply something. So I'm going to ask, would you please be straightforward about it?"
"I... can you take me to her?"
They stared at her for a full moment. Cinderella was still, though, as happens, various small itches called to her attention.
Was that a smile on the fairy's sheepy face? Or a frown. "If you want to bargain for my help, then you'd need to give me something more than speculation that she would stop sending letters in the event you DO succeed."
"Would an... apple do?"
The fairy snorted, derisively. But said, "An apple would do."
"Stand back a moment then." First, Cinderella drew her sword, then she carefully balanced the apple on the blade. If she did this right... .
"What are you doing?"
She pressed down until the apple was almost cleaved in half, then clutched it from beneath to pull it the rest of the way. After sheathing her sword, she pulled the pieces apart and presented one of the whole apples to the fair. Good. Splitting it in half worked like she thought it would.
The sheep stared at it for a while, and pulled the apple towards their mouth with an invisible hand. Took a bite. Took another. Stared as it regenerated. "Ah. Someone enchanted this." They bowed their head, somehow causing the apple to vanish, and said, "This is far more than I asked for. I will grant you three boons. The first, I will take you to Selene. The second, I will carry either you or both of you back to the village. The third, I will do both of these the slow way." And with that they reared, horse like, and by the time their hooves hit they had indeed become a white horse, complete with a silver saddle. "Mind that you do not touch me with any iron or steel. I don't know how the magic in the apple endured the steel of that blade, though it doesn't contaminate the reformed apple."
Cinderella approached. "Why the slow way? Can't we just... vanish to her? Like you do when you carry her letters?"
"You are a human of this age. Were I to take you through the planes we use to 'vanish' you would, if you were very fortunate, die. Most likely you would be destroyed." They cast their gaze to the road. "I also will not be able to take you directly to her. The only way to enter her room, without access to the higher planes, is either one door on the inside or a window too small for you to fit through. We'd probably draw much attention if we entered the castle courtyard."
Cinderella hopped on. The silver saddle was every bit as uncomfortable as expected, she manoeuvred so she could sit on her cloak. "That would be close enough for me. Thank you." Though she had a thought, probably best not to test that out on a fae.
"You will find a whistle in the saddlebag. Use it to call me when you are done, but do NOT summon me within the town."
"I understand."
"Good."
And with that, they raced off onto the road, faster than any horse Cinderella had seen, leaping over hills and rivers with ease, skipping the roads entirely. And yet, she felt no wind on her face, heard no hoofsteps in her ears. It was almost as if she was still while the world ran out from under her. At one point, they passed through a thin rain, running to the rainbow ahead, and the drops seemed to avoid them much like people's gazes avoid her when she did not want them to. All this protection and yet those higher planes could not be made safe for her? She wondered.
By the time they arrived, it was a dreary grey night. Only the lights in people's windows provided colour the dark at that distance. Even so, the castle stood above the small town, large, fortified, glowing. What she could see was much like the city she'd fled, but different enough. The shadows that lived here would be new.
She ached for the beauty, the individuality, of the village she had left. Regardless of what happened here, if she rescued Selene, when she got back, she'd paint her home. Perhaps... their home.
Cinderella dismounted.
Selene's fairy godparent pointed their snout at one of the towers; "She's in there."
"Thank you." Cinderella wanted no one to see her, and sped into the town.
Crowds. People. This place was thrumming with them. What looked so dark outside was filled with small fires that kept the place alive at the night. Perhaps Cinderella didn’t need her power to be invisible here. Not with so many.
She searched. Sometimes she let herself be seen briefly, and she asked how to get in the castle. Almost none answered, and she always made herself unseeable before they finished. Until there was a child… .
They asked: “Do you have food? I can answer if you give food.”
And thanks to Thandi that was a small price to pay even if the information was false.
“Just wait here please.” Cinderella stepped off to the side, and, with the eyes of passers-by passing over her, she once again cut the apple the same way as she had for Selene’s fairy godparent. And returning, she passed the apple onto the child.
The child spoke between bites into the apple, twirling it as they did so. “It used to be people like you could go in anytime, but recently with the salt problems, the salt was gone for a while, all the salt has to go through the palace first!” They chewed for a bit. “Nice apple. Anyways there’s carts full of salt going there all the time! If you sneak on it should be easy! Or I guess you can pay to get on one.” The child frowned at that last one. Disapprovingly.
Sneaking on would be easy.
“Where can I find one of these carts?”
Still munching obliviously, the child pointed, “The main road for traders is that way.”
Perhaps Cinderella shouldn’t have gone off that road then. “Is the King… keeping all the salt for himself?”
“No. Just a lot.”
“Thank you, enjoy the apple!” She said, turning.
“You’re a nice Lady. You don’t talk like one.”
Cinderella smiled. And she left for the road.
In the distance, as she left, she heard, “HEY! THIS APPLE DOESN’T STOP!”
She stood.
She swayed.
She shook away the sleep, but like rain shaking it off just gave space for more to pour into her. It was deep in the night and she hadn’t been awake at this time since the day she burned her past. It was nothing to be awake before. Now… .
“I can sleep when I have shelter!” she shouted at herself. Even unseeable, it would not do to crumple on the road. So much for salt carts passing all the time.
But one did eventually pass. Or at least a cart drawn by two horses, with a tarp covering the cargo, and bound fully for the castle. Too fast.
Not for long.
She asked her fire to appear, briefly, in front of the horses. It scorched across the road, halting them.
They reared and whinnied and screamed and in the time it took the driver to calm them, Cinderella pulled herself up and onto the cart. She even pulled up the tarp and looked. Salt.
And they went on, Cinderella clinging to the tarp.
Once the cart was inside the gates, and around the back of the castle, Cinderella slipped away into what looked like a kitchen. Dark, empty, and really far from Selene’s tower. If she was still there.
Cinderella yawned. That… had to be a problem for later. First, she had to find a place to rest. Where in a castle would no one go? Eventually the cooks would return, even if it was late enough that they would be sleeping. And now she worried that her power would stop hiding her in her sleep.
So of course under the table looked fine enough.
She curled up on the hard, cold floor, and called her fire into her bones to warm her. And so, she slept.
“MY LADY!”
Cinderella jumped awake, and banged her head on one of the table legs. After a small stream of decidedly unladylike words, she looked and she saw three servants staring at her. Wide eyed. Horrified.
One of them reached out. “My apologies! I did not mean to startle you!”
Well, fuck.
Cinderella rolled out the other way. “No. No. I’m…,” how would Selene say it, “… quite alright!” If people thought she was a noble… weird. “Please, excuse me!” She started turning to flee.
“What were you doing here, my lady?”
Uh, uh! “My own business! Please continue yours!” She fled. And as soon as she thought she was out of sight, she made herself unseeable again, ignoring the further calls of “My Lady!”
She stopped and felt her head. The spot she’d hit was tender, but did not seem to swell. Good. Now… just to navigate the castle. The vast corridors… she’d never been in a castle before. Still, she had her gifts from Thandi. She just needed places to rest.
…
Or she could tail one of the servants. Eventually one of them would HAVE to deliver Selene food. They probably were late too.
She turned again. Back to the kitchen. She waited outside. Listening.
Inside they gossiped. They laughed. She didn’t know about what. A few servants came out, bearing food. Cinderella followed, and when one split off carrying one plate, she followed that one. They led her in what felt like the right way, away from the main hall...up a winding staircase and tower… and to a wooden door with one guard at it. The door had a slit in it.
Oh.
The servant bowed to the guard. “For her Royal Highness.”
The guard nodded and, after knocking, the servant passed the food through the door and left. That was that.
Cinderella waited. She didn’t want the guard to connect what was going to happen to the servant.
They seemed focused. Whenever Cinderella looked, their eyes were scanning everywhere except where Cinderella was. Even their diligence was not immune to Cinderella’s wish.
After some time, she walked up to them. And in just the exact moment they looked away from her, she wrapped herself in her fire and whispered “I’m here for the Princess.”
They jumped. They faced her. They screamed “DEMON!” They drew their sword.
And she hers.
They charged, swinging, and she caught it and spread her fire to their blade, until they screamed and dropped the now glowing metal.
“You foul beast!” They yelled, holding their hands in clawed shapes. “I’ll…” they cast their gaze down the hall. “You won’t get away with this!” They fled.
Cinderella called her fire back, and called out; “Selene!”
It took a few moments for her to get an answer: “Cinderella?”
It was her.
“Stand back. I’m going to burn your door down.”
“Why are you here? I thought you-”
“Because I. Want. To. Believe. You. And you won’t be able to help anyone stuck here!”
“But I’m… being punished… .”
“And do you really think being stuck here will solve the problem? If you can still control the salt, you can give it to the people.” Cinderella clawed at the door. Come. Out. “If not, you can apologise to them personally. Or you can stay here with the same fool who thinks its right to exile you for no good reason, and then imprison you yet again for no good reason. And if he had already learned his lesson he wouldn’t have imprisoned you and if he hasn’t learned he won’t.” And she took a breath. “Now stand back and gather everything you want to take with you, because I am going to burn that room to the ground.” She heard footsteps. Metallic. The guards were coming.
“Why?”
“So they think I killed you and so they won’t search for you.”
Silence. Shuffleing. “I’m ready.”
Cinderella held back the words “Don’t make me regret believing you.” And she burned.
“If you know a way out, lead the way, but run.” Cinderella spoke in a steely tone. “And don’t speak until we’re gone. I don’t know if I can hide us both.”
And embraced by Cinderella’s fire, Selene nodded.
They had only run a few steps when they came upon the first wave of knights, all wielding their swords. Cinderella reached out, asking her fire to hurt, to be hot, but not burn. And she wielded to the left.
The knights all cowered to the right.
And the two witches ran on past. Other encounters were much the same, the knights did not know how to fight a living fire.
Selene led Cinderella through passages Cinderella would never have seen, and out of the castle walls. And she, stopped, turned and reached through the fire to hold Cinderella’s other hand. She smiled, tears streaming down her face.
Cinderella extinguished their fire. Here it would draw more attention. “I hope you’re ready to say goodbye to being royal forever.” She looked up to the tower, the smoke still pouring out thought she felt it had burned out. “They’ll think you’re dead… ,”
Selene wrapped Cinderella in her arms. “I had already thought I might no return after my exile, and this time… I made a choice.”
For her part, Cinderella didn’t respond to the hug. “What about your sisters?”
“Did you not read my last letter? They wouldn’t hear a word against him.”
“I… .” And Cinderella recalled… it was probably still by the stream where she’d made her deal. “...lost it in my hurry to get to you!”
“Hmmph. I suppose I must tell you everything myself.” Selene crossed her arms, and glanced up. The crossed arms softened. “Once we are away… .”
“Yes.”
They stayed in the city a while, Selene making good on her words and emptying her box of captured salt into bags at various homes. Sometimes the people in them promised to help spread the salt to others, and enough of them made good on those promises that eventually, they kept running into people who had already gotten their salt. And at every house Selene and Cinderella went to, they left what the family there thought was a secret: An infinite apple.
So eventually it came time that Selene’s box ran out of salt, and it was time for them to leave.
They called for Selene’s fairy godmother, and she appeared and said: “I was starting to think you two were dead.” As promised, she took them back to the village, the ‘slow’ way.
And the house, the people of the village, and Selene’s sheep were all waiting for them.
More days passed, and leaves fully crunched under Cinderella’s feet as she walked Thandi to her Grandma’s for the first time since she’d returned.
Said Thandi was… trying to cling to Cinderella. Grabbing her coat. Or her hands. But sometimes she slipped off, dancing away over to an interesting rock or something, then leaping back to Cinderella’s side to cling again.
“Thandi, what’s wrong with you?”
“You were gone so long!” Thandi glared. “You weren’t supposed to take FOREVER!”
Forever. “Sorry, but you see… Selene…” Cinderella leaned down, conspiratorialy tapping her nose, “...had to fix her first wish!” Cinderella smiled. “You saw her, right? Is her wish good now?”
Thandi scrunched her nose. “I guess she made it okay.”
Cinderella chuckled.
The day was almost done, and Cinderella brought a small pile of gifts home. For her. For Selene too. She opened the door. The house didn’t smell cold any more. “Selene?”
“Through here!” Her voice came from the kitchen, followed by enticing smells of food that was nothing like the food Thandi had enchanted.
Cinderella followed. The kitchen was warm, and the fire there… . “You know I can summon fire easily, why do it yourself?”
“And then we would have had to wait longer to eat!” Selene cast a glance at Cinderella before putting something pale in the stew. “Besides which, were I to wait for you to start the fire every time I needed one, some day you could be held back at work! Or training! I simply won’t wait until midnight to cook our meals!”
Our.
A silly idea jumped into Cinderella’s head. Silly words. Absurd. The idea made her grin, and she kept her face that way. Trying to look neutral could go so wrong.
She approached Selene’s back, gently lifted one of her silken locks of hair (how did she get it so soft?). “Turn ...pf… around!”
Selene did so with a “huh?”
“Kiss me, I forgive you!”
And she did.
Author's Notes:
Why Greyscale?
I had originally wanted to make this white, as white contains all the colours and the prompts were based on the colours of the rainbow, so this ending would contain all.
But then I thought that White doesn't contain Black. True white is intense, it is a blend of all the colours at their strongest, and Black is their absence, and a true white would only contain all the colours at their strongest. Greyscale, however, includes both and bridges the gap between the total domination of light and the complete absence.
I had originally wanted to use a silent comic to depict Selene's fairy godparent carrying Cinderella through the 'higher planes', depicting the horse jumping off the words that made the world and landing directly on the next paragraph, but I then thought that the 'higher planes' might be truly incomprehensible to a human mind at that time, and maybe even now.
For the rest of the story:
I had originally wanted to, eventually, call this “Cinderella and the Princess of Salt”, a good name, but once I re read the tale “I love you more than salt” I realised that the Princess isn’t all that innocent in her tale either. And once I thought about that the reveal of who she is seemed more important. So having it right in the title would be a bit… yeah. But also her name, Selene, was actually done backwards from “Salainn”, the Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) for salt.
Thandi… kinda just appeared and made herself. I wanted to have Cinderella meet a kid character. She took on bits of a role of another character that was removed: A faerie who called Selene “Salainn” all the time and jokingly said they’d tell Cinderella why if she married Selene… only to be surprised when she did! I think I like Thandi better.
Since, when I came up with the idea of the village, I thought of Ndebele House Painting, I thought it would be fitting to have the architects of this village have Ndebele ancestry. So I looked up Ndebele names and gave one to Thandi. And I thought she had some Little Red Riding Hood symbolism to her, so of course Cinderella would have to help her visit Grandma, right?
I had originally wanted the wolf in the forest to be more threatening, but the story did not flow until I wrote her and her family as just having a brief contact with Cinderella and Thandi and then moving on. I was a bit surprised myself at Cinderella’s subsequent wish.
Mbali… vastly simplified her backstory. Possibly to the point where she was lying. Cinderella needs to become a much better friend to unlock the backstory, and it might be an interesting thing to go into.
And the magic system. I just asked questions: What are wishes? Are there limits? What would a witch really be in a world where faeries don’t seem to have limits to what they can grant? I thought that having the limits be whatever the wish granting fae thinks fits the wish was interesting. So was the idea of having wishes be purely the domain of those who are at least a little bit woman.
This has all been very, very pantsed. This is basically a first draft with occasional small edits, and I would like to revisit and refine this story some day, with what I have learned of the world that I crafted and what would happen in the end. The meanings of the colours also changed things.
But it was a very good experience and I am thankful that the sunshine challenge gave me the chance to have this idea.
Thank you for reading too!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Cinderella walked on, eating an apple Thandi had enchanted, trying to observe it. The moment the apple recovered from her bites, somewhere before she could lift it to her eyes, and after her lips stopped touching it. Even if she tried waiting.
It was something to do on the road.
Two days of walking in, and Cinderella rested by a stream, cooling her feet in it. She'd made good time, she thought, though she used her ability to not be seen when people passed. She had no idea how to tell if a passerby was someone willing to lend her hand... or a highwayperson. and she did not want to learn the hard way that 'people who could harm me' is too vague a category for her hiding ability to weed them out. At least she didn't have to leave the road to avoid the gaze of these people.
She heard a 'tmph' noise behind her. Tensed. Glanced.
It was Selene's fairy godparent. Looking behind her, gruff, holding a letter.
Cinderella did not grab it. She jumped up. "Do you hate delivering letters to me?"
"Is it not obvious that I do? Yes. Farewell." It...they dropped the letter and started to fade.
"Wait. I might have a way to stop her doing that." Might as well take the chance.
They faded back in. "Are you certain?"
"I want to go to her. I think..." Cinderella took a breath, "Either she will come with me, or... I'll make it clear that I never want to hear from her again. So... ," She scratched her ankle with the heel of her shoe, "... either way she won't need to call you again."
"Well. That would be nice." If only their face wasn't so sheep like, maybe their expressions would be readable. "I'm guessing you're trying to imply something. So I'm going to ask, would you please be straightforward about it?"
"I... can you take me to her?"
They stared at her for a full moment. Cinderella was still, though, as happens, various small itches called to her attention.
Was that a smile on the fairy's sheepy face? Or a frown. "If you want to bargain for my help, then you'd need to give me something more than speculation that she would stop sending letters in the event you DO succeed."
"Would an... apple do?"
The fairy snorted, derisively. But said, "An apple would do."
"Stand back a moment then." First, Cinderella drew her sword, then she carefully balanced the apple on the blade. If she did this right... .
"What are you doing?"
She pressed down until the apple was almost cleaved in half, then clutched it from beneath to pull it the rest of the way. After sheathing her sword, she pulled the pieces apart and presented one of the whole apples to the fair. Good. Splitting it in half worked like she thought it would.
The sheep stared at it for a while, and pulled the apple towards their mouth with an invisible hand. Took a bite. Took another. Stared as it regenerated. "Ah. Someone enchanted this." They bowed their head, somehow causing the apple to vanish, and said, "This is far more than I asked for. I will grant you three boons. The first, I will take you to Selene. The second, I will carry either you or both of you back to the village. The third, I will do both of these the slow way." And with that they reared, horse like, and by the time their hooves hit they had indeed become a white horse, complete with a silver saddle. "Mind that you do not touch me with any iron or steel. I don't know how the magic in the apple endured the steel of that blade, though it doesn't contaminate the reformed apple."
Cinderella approached. "Why the slow way? Can't we just... vanish to her? Like you do when you carry her letters?"
"You are a human of this age. Were I to take you through the planes we use to 'vanish' you would, if you were very fortunate, die. Most likely you would be destroyed." They cast their gaze to the road. "I also will not be able to take you directly to her. The only way to enter her room, without access to the higher planes, is either one door on the inside or a window too small for you to fit through. We'd probably draw much attention if we entered the castle courtyard."
Cinderella hopped on. The silver saddle was every bit as uncomfortable as expected, she manoeuvred so she could sit on her cloak. "That would be close enough for me. Thank you." Though she had a thought, probably best not to test that out on a fae.
"You will find a whistle in the saddlebag. Use it to call me when you are done, but do NOT summon me within the town."
"I understand."
"Good."
And with that, they raced off onto the road, faster than any horse Cinderella had seen, leaping over hills and rivers with ease, skipping the roads entirely. And yet, she felt no wind on her face, heard no hoofsteps in her ears. It was almost as if she was still while the world ran out from under her. At one point, they passed through a thin rain, running to the rainbow ahead, and the drops seemed to avoid them much like people's gazes avoid her when she did not want them to. All this protection and yet those higher planes could not be made safe for her? She wondered.
By the time they arrived, it was a dreary grey night. Only the lights in people's windows provided colour the dark at that distance. Even so, the castle stood above the small town, large, fortified, glowing. What she could see was much like the city she'd fled, but different enough. The shadows that lived here would be new.
She ached for the beauty, the individuality, of the village she had left. Regardless of what happened here, if she rescued Selene, when she got back, she'd paint her home. Perhaps... their home.
Cinderella dismounted.
Selene's fairy godparent pointed their snout at one of the towers; "She's in there."
"Thank you." Cinderella wanted no one to see her, and sped into the town.
Crowds. People. This place was thrumming with them. What looked so dark outside was filled with small fires that kept the place alive at the night. Perhaps Cinderella didn’t need her power to be invisible here. Not with so many.
She searched. Sometimes she let herself be seen briefly, and she asked how to get in the castle. Almost none answered, and she always made herself unseeable before they finished. Until there was a child… .
They asked: “Do you have food? I can answer if you give food.”
And thanks to Thandi that was a small price to pay even if the information was false.
“Just wait here please.” Cinderella stepped off to the side, and, with the eyes of passers-by passing over her, she once again cut the apple the same way as she had for Selene’s fairy godparent. And returning, she passed the apple onto the child.
The child spoke between bites into the apple, twirling it as they did so. “It used to be people like you could go in anytime, but recently with the salt problems, the salt was gone for a while, all the salt has to go through the palace first!” They chewed for a bit. “Nice apple. Anyways there’s carts full of salt going there all the time! If you sneak on it should be easy! Or I guess you can pay to get on one.” The child frowned at that last one. Disapprovingly.
Sneaking on would be easy.
“Where can I find one of these carts?”
Still munching obliviously, the child pointed, “The main road for traders is that way.”
Perhaps Cinderella shouldn’t have gone off that road then. “Is the King… keeping all the salt for himself?”
“No. Just a lot.”
“Thank you, enjoy the apple!” She said, turning.
“You’re a nice Lady. You don’t talk like one.”
Cinderella smiled. And she left for the road.
In the distance, as she left, she heard, “HEY! THIS APPLE DOESN’T STOP!”
She stood.
She swayed.
She shook away the sleep, but like rain shaking it off just gave space for more to pour into her. It was deep in the night and she hadn’t been awake at this time since the day she burned her past. It was nothing to be awake before. Now… .
“I can sleep when I have shelter!” she shouted at herself. Even unseeable, it would not do to crumple on the road. So much for salt carts passing all the time.
But one did eventually pass. Or at least a cart drawn by two horses, with a tarp covering the cargo, and bound fully for the castle. Too fast.
Not for long.
She asked her fire to appear, briefly, in front of the horses. It scorched across the road, halting them.
They reared and whinnied and screamed and in the time it took the driver to calm them, Cinderella pulled herself up and onto the cart. She even pulled up the tarp and looked. Salt.
And they went on, Cinderella clinging to the tarp.
Once the cart was inside the gates, and around the back of the castle, Cinderella slipped away into what looked like a kitchen. Dark, empty, and really far from Selene’s tower. If she was still there.
Cinderella yawned. That… had to be a problem for later. First, she had to find a place to rest. Where in a castle would no one go? Eventually the cooks would return, even if it was late enough that they would be sleeping. And now she worried that her power would stop hiding her in her sleep.
So of course under the table looked fine enough.
She curled up on the hard, cold floor, and called her fire into her bones to warm her. And so, she slept.
“MY LADY!”
Cinderella jumped awake, and banged her head on one of the table legs. After a small stream of decidedly unladylike words, she looked and she saw three servants staring at her. Wide eyed. Horrified.
One of them reached out. “My apologies! I did not mean to startle you!”
Well, fuck.
Cinderella rolled out the other way. “No. No. I’m…,” how would Selene say it, “… quite alright!” If people thought she was a noble… weird. “Please, excuse me!” She started turning to flee.
“What were you doing here, my lady?”
Uh, uh! “My own business! Please continue yours!” She fled. And as soon as she thought she was out of sight, she made herself unseeable again, ignoring the further calls of “My Lady!”
She stopped and felt her head. The spot she’d hit was tender, but did not seem to swell. Good. Now… just to navigate the castle. The vast corridors… she’d never been in a castle before. Still, she had her gifts from Thandi. She just needed places to rest.
…
Or she could tail one of the servants. Eventually one of them would HAVE to deliver Selene food. They probably were late too.
She turned again. Back to the kitchen. She waited outside. Listening.
Inside they gossiped. They laughed. She didn’t know about what. A few servants came out, bearing food. Cinderella followed, and when one split off carrying one plate, she followed that one. They led her in what felt like the right way, away from the main hall...up a winding staircase and tower… and to a wooden door with one guard at it. The door had a slit in it.
Oh.
The servant bowed to the guard. “For her Royal Highness.”
The guard nodded and, after knocking, the servant passed the food through the door and left. That was that.
Cinderella waited. She didn’t want the guard to connect what was going to happen to the servant.
They seemed focused. Whenever Cinderella looked, their eyes were scanning everywhere except where Cinderella was. Even their diligence was not immune to Cinderella’s wish.
After some time, she walked up to them. And in just the exact moment they looked away from her, she wrapped herself in her fire and whispered “I’m here for the Princess.”
They jumped. They faced her. They screamed “DEMON!” They drew their sword.
And she hers.
They charged, swinging, and she caught it and spread her fire to their blade, until they screamed and dropped the now glowing metal.
“You foul beast!” They yelled, holding their hands in clawed shapes. “I’ll…” they cast their gaze down the hall. “You won’t get away with this!” They fled.
Cinderella called her fire back, and called out; “Selene!”
It took a few moments for her to get an answer: “Cinderella?”
It was her.
“Stand back. I’m going to burn your door down.”
“Why are you here? I thought you-”
“Because I. Want. To. Believe. You. And you won’t be able to help anyone stuck here!”
“But I’m… being punished… .”
“And do you really think being stuck here will solve the problem? If you can still control the salt, you can give it to the people.” Cinderella clawed at the door. Come. Out. “If not, you can apologise to them personally. Or you can stay here with the same fool who thinks its right to exile you for no good reason, and then imprison you yet again for no good reason. And if he had already learned his lesson he wouldn’t have imprisoned you and if he hasn’t learned he won’t.” And she took a breath. “Now stand back and gather everything you want to take with you, because I am going to burn that room to the ground.” She heard footsteps. Metallic. The guards were coming.
“Why?”
“So they think I killed you and so they won’t search for you.”
Silence. Shuffleing. “I’m ready.”
Cinderella held back the words “Don’t make me regret believing you.” And she burned.
“If you know a way out, lead the way, but run.” Cinderella spoke in a steely tone. “And don’t speak until we’re gone. I don’t know if I can hide us both.”
And embraced by Cinderella’s fire, Selene nodded.
They had only run a few steps when they came upon the first wave of knights, all wielding their swords. Cinderella reached out, asking her fire to hurt, to be hot, but not burn. And she wielded to the left.
The knights all cowered to the right.
And the two witches ran on past. Other encounters were much the same, the knights did not know how to fight a living fire.
Selene led Cinderella through passages Cinderella would never have seen, and out of the castle walls. And she, stopped, turned and reached through the fire to hold Cinderella’s other hand. She smiled, tears streaming down her face.
Cinderella extinguished their fire. Here it would draw more attention. “I hope you’re ready to say goodbye to being royal forever.” She looked up to the tower, the smoke still pouring out thought she felt it had burned out. “They’ll think you’re dead… ,”
Selene wrapped Cinderella in her arms. “I had already thought I might no return after my exile, and this time… I made a choice.”
For her part, Cinderella didn’t respond to the hug. “What about your sisters?”
“Did you not read my last letter? They wouldn’t hear a word against him.”
“I… .” And Cinderella recalled… it was probably still by the stream where she’d made her deal. “...lost it in my hurry to get to you!”
“Hmmph. I suppose I must tell you everything myself.” Selene crossed her arms, and glanced up. The crossed arms softened. “Once we are away… .”
“Yes.”
They stayed in the city a while, Selene making good on her words and emptying her box of captured salt into bags at various homes. Sometimes the people in them promised to help spread the salt to others, and enough of them made good on those promises that eventually, they kept running into people who had already gotten their salt. And at every house Selene and Cinderella went to, they left what the family there thought was a secret: An infinite apple.
So eventually it came time that Selene’s box ran out of salt, and it was time for them to leave.
They called for Selene’s fairy godmother, and she appeared and said: “I was starting to think you two were dead.” As promised, she took them back to the village, the ‘slow’ way.
And the house, the people of the village, and Selene’s sheep were all waiting for them.
More days passed, and leaves fully crunched under Cinderella’s feet as she walked Thandi to her Grandma’s for the first time since she’d returned.
Said Thandi was… trying to cling to Cinderella. Grabbing her coat. Or her hands. But sometimes she slipped off, dancing away over to an interesting rock or something, then leaping back to Cinderella’s side to cling again.
“Thandi, what’s wrong with you?”
“You were gone so long!” Thandi glared. “You weren’t supposed to take FOREVER!”
Forever. “Sorry, but you see… Selene…” Cinderella leaned down, conspiratorialy tapping her nose, “...had to fix her first wish!” Cinderella smiled. “You saw her, right? Is her wish good now?”
Thandi scrunched her nose. “I guess she made it okay.”
Cinderella chuckled.
The day was almost done, and Cinderella brought a small pile of gifts home. For her. For Selene too. She opened the door. The house didn’t smell cold any more. “Selene?”
“Through here!” Her voice came from the kitchen, followed by enticing smells of food that was nothing like the food Thandi had enchanted.
Cinderella followed. The kitchen was warm, and the fire there… . “You know I can summon fire easily, why do it yourself?”
“And then we would have had to wait longer to eat!” Selene cast a glance at Cinderella before putting something pale in the stew. “Besides which, were I to wait for you to start the fire every time I needed one, some day you could be held back at work! Or training! I simply won’t wait until midnight to cook our meals!”
Our.
A silly idea jumped into Cinderella’s head. Silly words. Absurd. The idea made her grin, and she kept her face that way. Trying to look neutral could go so wrong.
She approached Selene’s back, gently lifted one of her silken locks of hair (how did she get it so soft?). “Turn ...pf… around!”
Selene did so with a “huh?”
“Kiss me, I forgive you!”
And she did.
Author's Notes:
Why Greyscale?
I had originally wanted to make this white, as white contains all the colours and the prompts were based on the colours of the rainbow, so this ending would contain all.
But then I thought that White doesn't contain Black. True white is intense, it is a blend of all the colours at their strongest, and Black is their absence, and a true white would only contain all the colours at their strongest. Greyscale, however, includes both and bridges the gap between the total domination of light and the complete absence.
I had originally wanted to use a silent comic to depict Selene's fairy godparent carrying Cinderella through the 'higher planes', depicting the horse jumping off the words that made the world and landing directly on the next paragraph, but I then thought that the 'higher planes' might be truly incomprehensible to a human mind at that time, and maybe even now.
For the rest of the story:
I had originally wanted to, eventually, call this “Cinderella and the Princess of Salt”, a good name, but once I re read the tale “I love you more than salt” I realised that the Princess isn’t all that innocent in her tale either. And once I thought about that the reveal of who she is seemed more important. So having it right in the title would be a bit… yeah. But also her name, Selene, was actually done backwards from “Salainn”, the Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) for salt.
Thandi… kinda just appeared and made herself. I wanted to have Cinderella meet a kid character. She took on bits of a role of another character that was removed: A faerie who called Selene “Salainn” all the time and jokingly said they’d tell Cinderella why if she married Selene… only to be surprised when she did! I think I like Thandi better.
Since, when I came up with the idea of the village, I thought of Ndebele House Painting, I thought it would be fitting to have the architects of this village have Ndebele ancestry. So I looked up Ndebele names and gave one to Thandi. And I thought she had some Little Red Riding Hood symbolism to her, so of course Cinderella would have to help her visit Grandma, right?
I had originally wanted the wolf in the forest to be more threatening, but the story did not flow until I wrote her and her family as just having a brief contact with Cinderella and Thandi and then moving on. I was a bit surprised myself at Cinderella’s subsequent wish.
Mbali… vastly simplified her backstory. Possibly to the point where she was lying. Cinderella needs to become a much better friend to unlock the backstory, and it might be an interesting thing to go into.
And the magic system. I just asked questions: What are wishes? Are there limits? What would a witch really be in a world where faeries don’t seem to have limits to what they can grant? I thought that having the limits be whatever the wish granting fae thinks fits the wish was interesting. So was the idea of having wishes be purely the domain of those who are at least a little bit woman.
This has all been very, very pantsed. This is basically a first draft with occasional small edits, and I would like to revisit and refine this story some day, with what I have learned of the world that I crafted and what would happen in the end. The meanings of the colours also changed things.
But it was a very good experience and I am thankful that the sunshine challenge gave me the chance to have this idea.
Thank you for reading too!
