So I shortened the title to simply "Spelled". The other was too long for me. Though if anyone has a better title, tell me!

I hope to update more frequently. I'm kind of nearing the "good part". So... no one seems particularly upset by Prince Matthias' little stunt of the last chapter. Yeah, I planned him evil all along (bwahahaha!). Which I can do, because the character of the original fairy tale on whom he is loosely based isn't exactly helpful, either.

Anywho, thanks for your comments. I do love reviews! And please critique! I like this chapter for its subject matter, but I just don't know how I feel about the style of it. So, please comment if thou wilt!


Mimi ran, and ran hard, hardly minding the obscurity of the darkness. Some kindness of fate, or simply the sprawling hallways of the manor, kept her from any tripping. She would not have cared if she had. Her heart was broken. Shattered like she hoped was that ring she had thrown. In stories heartbreak always sounded so wonderful, so tragically romantic. It wasn't. Heartbreak was painful and stupid and the opposite of romantic. Had romance anything to do with it she would not be bawling her eyes out in the middle of the night in some house that did not know she even existed outside the goose.

She finally stopped out of habit outside Jacob's door and sunk to the floor, sobbing. She felt ridiculous and it would serve her right to awaken someone and be caught. And what would that someone think of a strange girl crying in the hall? Oh, she didn't care! If it were Lucy, by any stroke of luck, she would understand. Though Prince Matthias was, most unfortunately, still alive. She would prefer him dead.

How could the Prince act that way? Say such things? He did not even care what he had done! She curled her knees into her chest, ugly servant girl skirt stretched over them. Had he really seen her as beautiful in this dress? Or was she just the first girl who had ever paid him any interest? Ignored by every noble girl in the land, he was ready to settle.

To her surprise the thought drove away some of the heartache.

She took a deep breath, wiped the back of her hand over her eyes, and entered the room. Her little sitting room, all deep blue in the darkness, starlight streaming in. She found a candle and lit it. The flicker of the flame comforted her as she crawled into the chair, so much more comfortable than the hall floor.

Perhaps she was unfair. It was true she had been so preoccupied with her fight with Jacob she hadn't time to think much of the Prince or his proposal. According to every story she heard, she wasn't supposed to think. The prince found the princess, rescued her from whatever disaster had her trapped, and, save for the occasional incident of memory erasing, immediately married her. There never was time to consider a proposal, get jealous, attempt to get someone killed….

Oh, dear. Jacob. The reason she had been so mad at the Prince in the first place. After he had announced the demand of the Duke he had locked himself in his room and had not made a sound the rest of the night, not that she blamed him. She pushed herself from the chair and rapped on his door. "Jacob?"

No response. She tried again. "Jacob, I know you're in there!" Unless he had already made a break for it. That is what she would have done.

Finally movement sounded from behind the door and with a swift rattle of the knob the door was opened. "What?" Jacob demanded.

He looked terrible. His skin was ashen and his body seemed at the verge of trembling. His eyes were tired and lined. The candlelight did not improve his appearance one bit and he was all but some terrible monster of the night. Good thing she knew better.

It was then she realized she had never planned on anything outside getting his attention.

He stared hard at her. "So? I suppose you saw your prince?"

"I said no." The last subject that should be brought up at such a time, but he had asked.

"No?"

"No to his proposal. Actually, I didn't say anything. I just threw the ring."

That almost brought a smile. "At him?"

"I don't know. I wasn't looking. I just threw it."

Jacob leaned tiredly against the doorframe. "Let me get this straight. You took a ring given to you by a handsome royal prince and then threw it who knows where?"

"Well, it was dark."

"Why?"

Wasn't it obvious? "Jacob, it's his fault you're in this mess. He's the one that wanted the stupid dish. He asked for it. He didn't like what we made."

Jacob closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm trying not to think of it like that. I was stupid enough to act like I knew what I was doing. If I had just told them straight out that I had never even heard of the thing in the first place, life would have gone on as normal. Your prince was just showing the exquisite taste of all royalty. It's not his fault."

"It is."

"What makes you so sure?"

"He was mad at you."

"We've barely seen each other! What did I do?"

"Nothing!" Mimi stepped back from the door and sat back in the chair. She was suddenly so tired. "You didn't do a thing, Jacob, and that's why I said no. "

Jacob followed her into the room. "I don't understand a word you're saying."

"It was me. He proposed. Then you and I fought over that and the next night when I went to see him our fight was all I could talk about. He told me tonight he was, well, jealous."

Surprise filled Jacob's face. "Jealous?" He paused. "Of what?"

"I wasn't thinking of his proposal. I don't think he meant anything serious, which is the odd thing. He didn't think the Duke would threaten to kill you over this."

Jacob hopped into the other chair. "And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

She sighed. 'That. The recipe. I found out the missing herb. It's called shadow's breath."

"Never heard of it. I supposed I could ask Michael. He's been cooking longer. If nothing else he has all those years on his side."

"But the Prince says it doesn't grow around here."

He sniffed. "And I suppose the genius is an expert on local herb lore."

"So you think it does grows around here?"

"I never said that. I just think the prince is an idiot."

She laughed. The perfect word to describe him. "You'll make it, then? If we can find the herb, you'll make the Suzeraine again? You'll just do that for someone who wants to kill you?"

Jacob stared into the candlelight. "What else am I going to do?"

"If we don't find it?"

He smiled faintly. "I'll leave. I have already decided that. After the initial panicking and moaning and groaning I thought, to hell with it all. If I succeed, I succeed and I keep my reputation as a great cook. If not, I'm out of here. I'll sneak out of here and find another position elsewhere. The Duke can chop off his own head for all I care."

"What about me?"

"You can come, too, if you want. I don't know what your duke squirrel friend would think of that, but you're welcome to come."

She fingered the fabric of the chair. "And just when I was getting used to this place. No. Blake and I were going to leave anyway in a few days."

Jacob started at that. "And when were you going to tell me?"

"Well, the recipe came up and then this mess. We were going to go back home, find Lavender, make her turn us back."

"You're going to try that? Make her change you back? You think it's any good?"

"Better than sitting around here. Not that I am not grateful to you. It's just that—"

"It's just that with this death sentence hanging over my head this is probably as good as time as any to risk your life. Don't worry; I doubt she kills. Not like His Madness."

"I hope you're right," she said, thinking of her father. "No, I think you are right. She's too selfish to kill. Doesn't care. Good grief, what am I going to do with her?" Taking a deep breath she stood up. "I have a few more minutes of human. Jacob, this is our last night. Let's do something. Something requiring thumbs before I lose them."

He stared at her in bewilderment. "More chess?'

She bit her lip. "I feel mean. I hate the prince. He and the Duke both want you dead. Let's break something."

It was like mentioning sin. "Break something? Here?" But then he began to smile. "How about windows?"

A random thing, but it felt right to her. Something to shatter everything she was feeling. "All right. Let's go. It sounds wonderful to me. Who can we blame?"

"Who cares?" He was already halfway out the door.

They decided to attack a section of windows belonging to a manor section that was purely for useless purposes and therefore had no risk of waking anyone up, including a sleepwalking duke; the terror of actually getting caught set in when they picked up rocks. But still there was a certain satisfaction to pounding pebbles and larger stones against the austere visage of the manor. Starlight glinted against the panes, presenting the delicious challenge of hitting the right set of sparkles rippling over the blackness of the house. Mimi was a terrible shot, her rocks striking nowhere near a window if even hitting the walls. Jacob was better, shattering a grand total of two windows in the first five minutes.

"Impressive," said Mimi with envy.

"And it's only an irritating sense of responsibility holding me back from perfect aim."

"How did you get so good?"

"You were raised girl while I was raised boy," he replied with a wink.

"I just want one before I return to goose," she muttered as she took another swing.

"And just what do you think you are doing?"

Blake had appeared from seemingly nowhere, a tiny grey shadow on the manor lawn.

Mimi's rock flopped to the ground a few feet in front of her. "Blake?"

He watched from the ground, happily amused. "You know I hang around the grounds. I have to say I did not say I expected to see you out here. Without the prince. So again I ask, what are you doing here?" There was a pause. "You're not drunk, are you?"

"Believe it or not, no," said Jacob.

"You can understand me?" Blake bounded forward.

Jacob shrugged and bent to look for another rock. "Apparently it's what I do. Communicate with enchanted creatures."

"Incredible. I've been stuck like this for years and Mimi is the first person with whom I could speak."

"And now we're all here, just talking away to each other." He swung. The stone collided with the wall just inches from a window.

"Don't you find it incredible?"

"No, not really."

"Aren't you afraid you'll break more windows?"

"That's the general idea," said Mimi. "Don't worry, we'll be back inside, completely innocent, by sunrise."

Blake frowned.

Jacob dropped the rock he had just picked up. "Oh. I see. Mimi said this is actually yours. Not only have you had the misfortune of spending years as a squirrel, you've lost everything. My apologies. And they are insincere, no matter how I sound. Bad day. No more broken windows. I'm Jacob, by the way."

"Blake." His squirrel bow was even visible in the darkness. "Thank-you, Jacob, for taking care of Mimi. I haven't exactly been earnest in that regard."

"Oh, Blake, you've done fine!" She fought the sudden urge to pick up the squirrel and, oh, she didn't hug him. He and Jacob both had done more than the Prince had. "Both of you, thank-you."

"I still don't understand the window breaking."

Mimi and Jacob exchanged glances, or what semblance of such they could give in the darkness. The mindset was the same. "We're leaving," she said.

"I know."

"Blake, I want to go now. As soon as we can. It's been an interesting day to say the least. The Prince? Remember him? No more."

"Because," put in Jacob as he picked up a rock, "His moronic dinner request is probably going to cost me my life via the Duke. The fake Duke." The rock flew straight and hard, and the shatter of glass sounded through the night. "Oops. Sorry, Blake. I forgot. That whole death threat thing. It gets to a person."

"I think I understand. Don't worry. So you're leaving, too?"

"If I don't find the secret ingredient that apparently isn't anywhere around here."

The idea was in Mimi's head even as it came from Blake's mouth. "You should come with us, Jacob. To Mimi's home. To Lavender."

"Lavender?"

"Might as well. Then when Mimi and I are again human, and yes, Mimi, I am going to say 'when', we'll come back here. So join us. Since we all now have something against the Duke."

Mimi nodded. Oddly enough she felt a twinge of bitterness toward Blake. She should have offered first. "Please, Jacob?"

He didn't move. He just stared at the manor, probably thinking of throwing another rock. Finally, he nodded. "All right. I don't know what you can do against… this Lavender. But, yes, I'll come. Even if I find the herb, well, too bad for the Prince and His Madness. I'll go with you. Tonight. Or earlier if I can't find the thing."

Blake clapped his paws. "All right. So soon."

"What?" asked Mimi.

"It's nothing."

"Now you even have me curious," said Jacob. He forced himself to drop another rock safely to the ground.

"I wanted to…"

Mimi gasped. The looks she had seen on these very grounds. "Lucy," she whispered.

"It's silly," Blake said softly. "We should just go, when you're ready. We can find what we need today. Then we'll we be back. If all goes well. But it will go well. After all this time I have to do something."

But Mimi wasn't thinking about that. She could feel her body shivering, desperate to return to goose. She didn't even think of that. "I can't believe I didn't notice before. Pretty Lucy."

"Yes," Blake said shortly. "We're done with that, you're transforming as we speak. Now back inside before Jacob's caught."