Aleia stared out the window with a dissatisfied sigh. She was sick of winter. It wasn't nice, soft snow anymore, it was just ice and cold. On the occasional thaw, it was not much better. Everything was wet and slushy, and then it would freeze again in a matter of days. A most annoying vicious circle.

It was not only the weather invading on her good spirits. It seemed that all anybody talked about anymore was the spinning wheel. Every time she walked down a hallway people would be whispering. When they saw her, they would hush and then start up again as soon as she passed them. She wished they would all just go away.

Aleia jumped when she heard the knock on the door. Once she had regained her composure, she turned to the door eagerly, happy for the distraction from her depressing reflections.

"Come in," she said, without even bothering to ask who was calling.

She was even more pleased when she found that it was Raoul.

"Raoul! What brings me the pleasure of seeing you today?" she asked him with flawless court manners.

He smiled, but didn't bother with further small talk. "Yesterday, I got a letter telling me to go to the inn; a message would be waiting for me there. When I got there, I inquired to the innkeeper, and he said that this was left for me there," he said pulling a paper from his pocket. "It's another riddle."

Aleia glanced at the paper. She was surprised; a riddle had never come to them in that way before, though, of course, there was a first time for everything. "Well, why didn't you bring Josh with you?" she asked Raoul. "I refuse to decipher it without his dumb jokes and sarcasm. I simply will not do it."

Raoul grinned. "You want to look at it in here? What if someone comes?"

Aleia shrugged. "I'll lock the door and if anyone calls, I'll pretend we're not here. We'll just have to be sure to be quiet."

Raoul nodded. "Alright, then. I'll be back in a moment." He went out the door.

In a few moments he returned with Josh at his side, who was grinning broadly.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"I know, strange, isn't it? Who would have thought I would ever want to see you?" she replied with sarcasm.

He smirked. "Well, shall we begin, our deciphering of the ancient code?"

Aleia waved her wrist at the small table. "Be my guest, though, I would hardly call it ancient...or a code, really."

As the two men seated themselves, Aleia entertained herself for a moment of what the court ladies abhorrence would be if they knew she had had not one, but two men alone with her in her apartments. She smiled slightly at the thought, before sitting down herself.

Raoul passed the note to her, which she placed between Josh and herself, so they could both read it. It said—

From insect, to goat, to beggar, to courtier, to child, to lady.

"Well, I think it's fairly simple," Aleia stated after reading it through.

"Oh, yes, so incredibly simple, I would beg you to enlighten the rest of us not-so-intelligent beings," Josh remarked.

"Well, it's about something changing, obviously."

"Shape-shifting," Raoul said.

"Like the sorcerer-assassin?" Josh asked.

"Yes," Raoul said slowly, "though after the last one, I'm inclined to think it might not be about him."

"You think it's Morwenna, then," Aleia said, half stating and half asking.

"Both of the riddles mentioned children," Raoul reminded them.

"Well, I don't usually think of Morwenna as a child," Josh said.

"No, but she had to have been one at some point."

Aleia thought about all this. "If Morwenna is a shape-shifter," she began, "she could be...anyone."

Raoul and Josh both looked at her.

"That's why we have to be particularly careful," Raoul said.

Aleia was disturbed by the ideas she was getting about Morwenna, from the riddles and the spinning wheel. She really did not want to die. To be sure, she still felt a bit of curiosity in the woman, but the duke's words at the banquet, his assurance of her death, had bothered her more than she let on. She was rather relieved when the bell rang for tea-time.

Aleia quickly left the table. "I have to go," she said quickly.

Raoul watched her go out the door, hoping she was alright.

Aleia wanted the story of her birth from someone besides her mother. Someone like a servant perhaps, someone who might've noticed something strange. When she saw an old man walking towards the servant's quarters, she stopped him immediately.

"You, Sir," she addressed him.

"Your highness!" he immediately bowed to her, upon turning around.

She ignored the title. "How long have you been working here?"

"About fifty years...ma'am."

"Could you describe to me the day that—well, the day I got—cursed. Your day, I mean, I already know what I was doing."

"Uh—well—I s'pose I could."

Aleia smiled her encouragement.

"Well, us servants knew it was gonna be a big to-do, so we had ta' get up earlier than usual to start workin.' We set everything up, and all the courtiers came in. Then came the king and queen and—well—you. Everything looked real nice. Then the fairies came, o' course. They were all real perty with their blue eyes and curly hair. They gave ya' some nice gifts, I think. Well, then, we were just gonna serve refreshments when—" he looked around, as if it were death to utter the next word, "Morwenna came. She was a striking woman, almost perty in a way, but cold, real cold. She strode right up to the king and queen in their thrones, as if she had some right to address them without any of the proper etiquette. She started screaming and shrieking, but I don't think anyone understood what that was all about. Except—the king almost looked like he did. He kept his hand on his forehead and kept shaking it, like everything had gone all wrong. Which it had, o' course. She proclaimed loud and clear that she, well, cursed you, ta' die on your twenty-first birthday. Then she walked out o' the room. Everyone was kinda dazed at first. Then the king sent everyone outside of the castle to see if they could find her. I only saw one little girl walking around. O' course, that doesn't have anything to do with anything. The point is, we ne'er found Morwenna."

"I see," Aleia said when he was through. She frowned to herself. So the king acted a bit strange, even back then. And the little girl. It reminded her decidedly of the two riddles, which mentioned children. Perhaps Morwenna liked to disguise herself as a little girl. But the first had talked about two children, not just one...Aleia noticed the man looking at her in askance.

"You may go now," she said, starting to continue her walk around the castle alone.