The very day after the ball, posters littered the town. They urged the 'young maiden adorned in green and gold' to send a letter to the palace, to Prince Bracken, giving proof of her identity and a means to contact her by. Like the invitations to the ball itself, Seth was first informed about the ordeal by his steps.

"Girls!" Belinda called as she swept in the door from her morning spent shopping in town. Anita jumped from her spot on the couch at her mother's loud entrance, Carmen came racing down the stairs in her slip and the remnant of last night's makeup, and Seth wearily tuned into his steps' conversation from his post sweeping up the cinders in the kitchen.

"What's wrong, Mother?" Anita asked, and when Seth saw Belinda's face he understood why she'd asked. Belinda looked a mess. Her hair was falling out of it's usual tight bun, her breast was heaving, and her brow was drenched in sweat.

"We must act at once, late letters could get lost in the piles I'm sure he's going to get." Belinda had a crazed glint in her eye that Seth had learned meant trouble.

"What are you talking about?" Carmen snapped, then apologized at Belinda's cold glare.

"This," and she showed them the poster. The girls became excited at once, but it was not until they had moved to the study to work on their letters that Seth was able to read it himself.

He'd barley read the first sentence before his hands dropped the paper from shock. Bracken was looking for him. Why? Seth couldn't help but wonder. Why would Bracken be so eager to reunite with him? He felt… a lot of things. He felt a great deal of emotions and he understood very few of them. He was nervous, possibly he was even scared— this stunt could expose him and he knew if Belinda found out about last night he'd be lucky to be allowed out of his room in the next ten years. Yet, at the same time, he was giddy with the idea that someone cared for him enough to search for him. But mostly he was sad. Last night had been a dream— it may have really happened but it was still a dream. Nothing had been real. He'd been at the ball for Kendra, not Bracken. His name was Seth, not Cinder. And he was no maiden. He'd never see Bracken again. How could he? And knowing that Bracken wanted to see him again only made it worse. By not coming forward he'd likely hurt Bracken. And, if Seth was who Bracken was attempting to contact, what did that mean about his search for a bride…But no, that was a thought for another day.

Seth marveled at the irony of his own search. He'd gone to the palace intending to find his sister. Instead, he'd been forced to realize that he wouldn't see her again. Probably he'd lost her forever. And, on top of it all, he'd found a new friend— the only friend he'd ever really had- only to say goodbye to him forever too. What a mistake the night had been.

~oOo~

Carmen and Belinda had perfected Carmen's letter and become impatient waiting for Anita's. They'd hurried off to town to deliver Carmen's note to the post office, leaving Seth and Anita alone.

"And you had better help her finish that letter before we get home," Belinda warned on her way out the door, "Or I'll sell your favorite cow for some beans."

"I don't see how I can help," Seth protested. "I wasn't at the ball, how could I be any use?" But Belinda was already out the door. He let out a frustrated sigh, then trudged to the study. He didn't believe Belinda would sell Viola, but it wasn't a risk he could take.

"I wonder if Mother will read my letter," Anita said absently as Seth pulled up a seat next to where she worked at the desk. "Or if I could write nonsense."

"You don't want to try?" Seth asked her, genuinely surprised.

"I don't think the prince is stupid. He's got to know every girl from last night will be writing him. He'll be looking for stone-sure truth. Carmen and I can't say anything to make him believe we're her." She rolled her eyes, as if to say that her sister and mother were silly for thinking otherwise.

"Not to mention, don't you think he'd recognize her? Or, at least, recognize who she's not?" Seth couldn't help himself from voicing his own thoughts, as they seemed to be on the same wavelength as Anita's.

"He sure stared at her enough last night to have memorized her face," Anita nodded.

"Still," Seth said, turning his focus to the papers littering the desk. "We'd better appease your mother and write this thing before she gets home."

"Yeah," Anita stared forlornly at her bottle of ink.

"What do you have so far?"

"My Dearest Prince, I had a grand time dancing with you last night." She paused. "That's it."

"First, take out the 'prince' bit."

"Why?" She asked, but she scratched out the word anyway.

"It focuses on his title rather than him."

"My Dearest…Bracken? No, I don't like that."

"Just leave it as Dearest then," Seth shrugged. "Any idea what to say next?"

"To offer proof, Carmen described the dress in great detail, claiming to have had it hand made, she talked about the color of the prince's eyes, the grandeur of the ball…"

"That sound fake."

"Agreed. If I were actually his maiden I wouldn't be telling him about my dress! Anyone could have seen it and could describe it well."

"If you were her," Seth said, his cheeks warming at the thought of being Bracken's, "what would you say?"

"An inside joke? My name? How amazing dancing with him was…"

"Well, we can't do anything with the first two. But you could talk about dancing," Seth gave her a one shoulder shrug; it was as good an idea as any.

"But I didn't dance with him!"

"But you did dance, didn't you?"

"Oh yes, and it was really lovely." Anita's lips played into a small smile and she seemed to lose herself in the memory of the ball. Getting an idea, Seth quietly slipped a piece of paper in front of him and carefully took up the quill. He penned in Anita's greeting then prompted her:

"Do you have a favorite? Dance, I mean."

"Well…I did rather enjoy dancing with one of the guards," she admitted with a nervous laugh.

"Tell me about it," Seth urged. "Why was that dance special?"

"It felt as magical as real life can get. I was having such fun dancing—my first dance of the night— that at first I was watching the crowds blur into a colorful fan, and the way the room sparkled. But when I turned to look at his face right in the middle of a spin…I nearly stumbled! I swear I've never been looked at the way he looked at me. Like I was something special, something worth holding on to, you know? And I could see, well, I know it's silly and I feel embarrassed about it, really, but I saw in his face and his kind eyes a future that I wanted. Is that love, do you think? I only met him that night, hardly even knew him before dancing with him. And yet, I was so sure in that moment that I could spend the rest of my life with him." She finished, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. Seth briefly marveled at her willingness to talk to him, especially on such a personal topic. But then, Carmen wasn't the listening type. Maybe, in her own way, Anita was as lonely as he was.

"I know as much about love as I know about blacksmithing," Seth told her absently as he finished scribing her words onto paper, with a few adjustments to make it sound addressed to Bracken. "But that sounds like love, in my unknowledgeable opinion. Or at least it's a connection that's special in some way."

"You think?"

"Yeah, I do," Seth said ruefully, thinking of his own connection with Bracken. "I say after we mail this letter, you'd better go find this guard and invite him for dinner."

"I couldn't! I don't know how to find him, I don't even know his— wait. We can't mail the letter. I haven't written a thing."

"No, but I did. Your story about falling in love, I wrote it down for him. It's vague enough that it works. And it's sincere, even if it's not for him. So it won't sound as fake as talking about a dress."

Anita grinned, "I love it! But I'm not sure Mother will find it persuasive enough."

"Take it to the post office yourself. She did say she wanted it delivered as soon as possible."

"Thanks!" Anita smiled as she stood up. "And Seth?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry. About everything." She was gone before Seth could respond. Just as well, really. He couldn't forgive almost ten years of cruelty after one pleasant interaction, could he? But as he stared after her he found that he could. Resentment weighed heavily on the heart while forgiveness was as light and happy as the soft down feathers on a new chick.

~oOo~

Belinda was by no means pleased that she had not read Anita's letter before it was sent, but the logic behind Seth's argument held her anger at bay. The was no talk of selling Viola, or even of Seth missing supper. Anita returned home in an upbeat mood, and Seth thought to ask her if she'd found anything of her guard, but thought better of it. Belinda and Carmen were home now, making it near impossible to catch Anita away from them. But they exchanged smiles, and Seth felt as happy as he ever had in this house since Kendra had left.

A week passed before there was any news on the letters or the prince's search for his lady in green. Carmen and Belinda spoke of possibilities and went into town frequently for new gossip. Anita pretended to be interested, though she was not. Seth pretended he wasn't interested, though he was.

Seth was teaching Anita how to style her own hair, as he'd taken to doing when the others were out and his chores were finished, when Carmen burst into their room with unmistakable excitement. She only spared a second's quizzical expression for her sister and step-brother's activities before relaying the new gossip.

"It's began! Really, truly!" She squealed, grabbing Anita's shoulders.

"What has?" Anita asked blandly.

"The search! The prince has sorted through the letters and is sending his most trusted men to the houses of those who sound like his maiden in green!" This got Anita and Seth's attention.

"How will they know it's her?" Anita asked.

"They never saw her, if Prince Bracken isn't coming they have no way of knowing if any of the girls they visit is telling the truth," Seth observed.

"They have her shoe!" Carmen told them eagerly. "Each lady who is visited will try on the shoe to prove her identity."

"Sounds like a faulty way to find a bride," Seth snorted. Anita giggled in agreement.

"It's romantic," Carmen huffed at them. "Anyway, Cinderson, Mother has a list of chores for you. We fully expect a visit from the prince's guards and the house has to look spotless."

Seth doubted Carmen's letter was convincing enough to merit a home visit, but he didn't protest. He knew better than to argue. He collected his chores from Belinda and set right to work, losing himself in thought while he scrubbed, swept, and cleaned. The logistics of Bracken's search were…illogical. Would he marry any girl Seth's golden slipper fit? Or would those girls simply move on to the next level of this search? Perhaps a meeting with the prince himself. But Bracken would recognize them all as imposters, surely. But…there was no Cinder. If Bracken couldn't find his maiden in green, would he convince himself that one of the imposters was her after all? For some reason, that thought made Seth's stomach churn.