"Today we are going to discuss the ethics behind the story of Cinderella." Sela stood at the blackboard.
She was a guest speaker at Elaine's school for the Elementary Graduation. Apparently Ms Mathers taught a class at the University called "Fairy Tales: Ethics and Allegories."
But there it was again. That strange book.
Sela Mathers was holding it. It had an Auryn on the front cover, but otherwise was bright red, huge, and had fade-edged paper.
Elaine sketched the Auryn on her notebook. She liked symbols. The Auryn was a symbol of time and eternity. But what was it doing on a book of Fairy Tales?
"In the clean version of Cinderella," Sela continued. "We have someone who worked hard all her life rewarded with a happily ever after. But in the version we all know, the Stepfamily moves into the castle with her."
"Now let me ask you. Do you think their cruelty would have stopped there? Wouldn't they have manipulated their new position to terrorize Cinderella even in the palace?"
Elaine looked up. That was precisely why she hated Cinderella so much. Lofty, awful story with absolutely no justice.
"The Grimm brothers had the same idea. At the end of the tale, crows gouge out the eyes of the stepfamily. Seems more fitting that they are punished doesn't it?"
"But even then there are a thousand more endings. For example. What if Cinderella went to the ball to murder the prince? Or what if her stepfamily wasn't evil at all, just misunderstood?"
"Ethics are the same way. That's why, in school and in life; you must look deeper."
Sela finished her monologue and got off the stage. As she was leaving, she dropped her book next to Elaine's desk, and made no move to pick it up.
Elaine knelt, sure she wouldn't be able to lift the heavy tome with her slight frame; but the book was...smaller?
She carried it off, chasing the older woman into the dense forest to return it.
At some point, Jack Frost joined.
"You again?" Elaine said. "Go away. I'm already crazy enough!"
"You really think I'm going to abandon you after all the trouble I've gone to?" Jack grinned.
The trees blurred past and suddenly everything was different.
The air was clearer, crisper.
She was falling...
Falling...
Falling...