- Gothel's Testimony

They brought in the kidnapper. Gothel was dressed in a plain grey prison dress. Chains ran from heavy iron collar to the iron belt around her waist to iron shackles on her wrists and ankles. Four guards surround her each holding an end of chain.

But it looks like it's too heavy for the old woman trudging into the courtroom, with her gray hair and sunken eyes and terrible air of depression.

"Oh, Mother," said Rapunzel into the quiet chamber. She was sitting beside her real mother and father. It had taken days to hear the testimonies of all the guards, Pubthugs and others. But the defendant looked to have aged decades in the meantime.

"Mama, Papa, may I heal her, please?" Rapunzel asked. Seeing Mother so old was disturbing.

The king and queen looked at each other, this was unexpected and a problem if she died before the trial could run its course. She now looked like the old woman that had stolen their baby. The queen's face was stony, but the king nodded.

Rapunzel walked over to Gothel, knelt and placed her braid in Mother's lap and sang. There was a gasp as the hair glowed and the kidnapper became young again.

"Thank you, dear. You're such a good girl," said Gothel quietly.

"Thank you, Mother," replied Rapunzel. There was a hiss of breath from the queen.

Rapunzel walked meekly back and sat next to her real mother.

After bring order to the court again, the judge asked, "Freiin Gothel Von Ellwangen, you are charged with the kidnapping of the Princess Solara. How do you plead?"

Gothel stood. "I took back my Flower that they stole. So, yes, guilty."

The judge looked to the King, who rose and said, "The people of the kingdom heard that there was a magic golden flower somewhere in the forest on the coast. They found it. It was given to us, it was turned into a tea for the queen to drink. She was pregnant and desperately ill. The tea cured the queen."

"They didn't even ask. They just dug it up and took it. It had been keeping me alive for centuries," stated Gothel.

The judge frowned, he was familiar with Coronaian law, but it looked like there were several legal breaches going on here.

"The flower was taken from your lands, without recompense. You stole the Princess Solara to retain your immortality."

"How do you put a price on my life?" asked Gothel. The judge nodded about that.

"But it is illegal to deny a pregnant woman needed foods," said the judge.

"She didn't need to eat the flower to be healed," stated Gothel, "that's how I stayed alive so long. As you saw when Rapunzel healed me."

"Why would you do something as awful as kidnapping a child?" Asked the judge focusing on the primary matter.

"I didn't want to, I tried to take just a little bit, a lock of hair, but it turned brown, the power faded and I was old again. I had to take her, be-because I promised to wait." said Gothel very quietly.

"What? Louder please."

"Because I promised to wait for Jonathan, my beloved." Gothel said straightening and more loudly, but not looking at anyone.

Rapunzel's eyes went wide and gasped, Mother had made a promise and she was trying to keep it like she had taught her to do.

"To wait for a man."

"Yes, but I promised and I don't break my promises." Gothel pleaded.

"You're Honor," said Eugene standing, "One thing that Rapunzel told me when she captured me was that she never breaks her promises and Pascal confirmed it."

The judge turned to the princess. "So princess, do you ever break your promises?"

Rapunzel stood, "No, your honor. I never break my promises, Mother taught me that. I loved her and tried to live up to that."

The judge considered that for a moment.

"What happened?" Asked the judge.

"I was the youngest daughter of a large family. We weren't important enough for much of anything, but we owned the land we had. There were no real political connections our family cared about. We were too small to be of interest and large enough to be comfortable. Jonathan was a stable hand, and he loved me. I ignored him for the longest time, but then I started to notice he was always there for me, like when my cat died. She was so kind and beautiful. She was black with white muzzle, bib and socks. He comforted me after we buried her."

Gothel sighed in regret, so many things she couldn't remember anymore, but she still remembered her cat, Tallstar.

"I was the youngest daughter of a baron. He was just a hired hand. He helped around the manor doing stable work, fixing things, helping. He was always around it seemed like, it was annoying most of the time. I would torment him badly by sending him on pointless errands. But he would always say "No problem, m'lady." Gothel got misty-eyed as she remember that.

"Then, eventually, I realized that he said it to me differently from the others. It wasn't long after my sixteenth birthday. I was in the kitchen making vegetable stew, I asked him to fetch me some water, and he looked at me and said "No problem, m'lady," and I found myself blushing, the words he used were ordinary, but they meant something totally different now. I could just stand there and then he brought the bucket of water and put it on the table. I couldn't do anything but look at him and I wanted him to stay so much. I asked for a bowl from high on the shelf and he looked at me and said those words again and my insides melted completely, my heart was so warm like the sun flaring inside me." The chains around her wrists clanked as she put her hands near her heart.

"He wasn't saying the words he was saying; he was telling me, he loved me."

Then the stew boiled over and he was gone. I saw him later, he was there and his arms were around me, I could barely think straight, but he was holding me. He was going to leave, to get on a ship and to seek his fortune. He was going to come back he promised. I didn't want him to leave. I finally knew what he was telling me."

"He told me he loved me very much, I said I loved him more, and he said he loved me most, and I knew in my heart that was true."

Rapunzel was weeping.

"Then we kissed. It was the most amazing kiss ever, I felt it all the way down to my toes. We really loved each other, it was true, wasn't it?"

"We had true love, didn't we?"

"He'll come for me, won't he?"

"True love always finds a way, doesn't it?"

"Somehow?"

Gothel looks around and sees nothing but pity.

Tears begin to run down her face.

"He's never coming back, is he?" Gothel says quietly. The pity she sees in everyone's faces is terrible. She begins to sob and misses her chair as the full realization of that takes her. The queen is holding onto her husband so tightly weeping into his chest, Rapunzel gets up and takes Gothel in her arms as she continues to sob.

"Please, just kill me. I can't let go myself anymore. Make it stop, please." Gothel begs.

The judge calls a recess.