Reul Ghorm awoke hanging upside down from the ceiling. Her feet stuck, her bright blue wings wrapped around her body. The room she occupied was a hotel room decorated in brown and yellow. Brown bedposts, dresser, and vanity table. Yellow walls, blanket, and lampshade.
Her gaze swept the room from her upside down perch. Fondling the soft, unwrinkled blanket. She slowly brought herself to full consciousness.
She'd had a terrible time falling asleep last night, worried she'd never find that gauntlet. Worried the mercenaries would never kill King George. She'd fretted and paced so much that she'd broken a hole in the floor. She'd fixed it with magic. Before the family sleeping below her had noticed and filed a complaint.
There was a festival in this town in Gaston's land. People from other countries were visiting. Reul was going to the festival on the off-chance the gauntlet might be there, but she wasn't holding her breath that anyone would try to sell something so valuable at a festival, of all places. If they were ridiculous enough to sell such a priceless object.
She'd been gone from Snow White's kingdom for a fortnight now. Desperately hunting that gauntlet. Coming up empty-handed.
Reul Ghorm did a somersault. When she landed on her feet, they were no longer sticky. Her wings were now inside her back.
She pulled her wand out of a drawer on the vanity. She placed it on the top, grabbed her hairbrush, and ran it through her tangles.
After tying her hair back into an astute bun and doing her makeup out of habit more than a real concern with her looks, she used her wand to clean her clothes. Then she trailed downstairs for a bowl of hot porridge with her wand in her cape pocket. She took a seat the moment she entered the dining section.
The family that had been below her were leaving. The mother with her long, honeycomb-colored hair flowing like a curtain around her body. The father with dark brown skin and black hair as short as freshly mown grass. The three girls, aged five, four, and two, all with light brown skin, dark brown hair, and blue eyes.
The girls were sticky. Two with syrup, the third with strawberry jelly.
One of the girls called cheerily, "Bye, gnat!" making Reul suspect the girl had caught her when the floor tumbled in.
Reul hated when people (especially that Ogre Slayer) called her a gnat. Just because she was created by magic spilling on a gnat when an abused ten-year-old girl sobbed heartbrokenly in a corner, trying to hide her distress from her cruel parents, did not make Reul a gnat.
But Reul was too full of purpose to be much bothered by the comment. She gritted her teeth and waved regally.
She waited for the staff to notice her.
It didn't take long. A woman wearing a hair net approached Reul. Scratching Reul's back, the elderly woman asked, "Would you like a bite, dear?"
"Yes, some piping hot porridge, please. With cinnamon trails."
The porridge was served in a bowl made of moose antlers.
"Prince Gaston killed that buck," bragged the woman with the hair net. "He donated the antlers. Bless his chivalrous heart!"
"Sure," agreed Reul Ghorm diplomatically.
After her tongue-burning breakfast made its way to blister her belly, Reul Ghorm pulled out her wand then tapped herself into invisibility.
She walked out of the hotel.
She had ridden a horse here, but when it occurred to her she didn't want to be een, she sold the horse. The gaunltet would teleport her back to Snow White's kingdom.
She followed a crowd to the festival grounds.
The festival was alight with bright colors, loud noises, and shifting bodies. Reul Ghorm nearly felt overwhelmed when she glimpsed several people tossing bright blue cups at a trashcan, shrugging with an aloof laugh when they missed, and walking off without correcting their mistake.
She thought to herself, They must have incredibly low self-worth if they pay an arm and leg for a drink then turn around and blotch up their planet. No one at the castle was a litterbug.
The band must have magic behind it, she deduced. The moment she entered the festival grounds, she could "suddenly" hear the music. And that moment, it thumped so hard her chest (and everyone's ribs that she could see) started moving in tune to said music. Granted, no one could see her chest. But she could feel it.
She followed an array of tables with magical objects. The scent of raw fish and oysters filled the surrounding air, as the food carts in this area were full of seafood.
The air was neither scorching hot nor uncomfortably chilly. With Reul Ghorm's chosen garments, she didn't notice the weather. She glided on her way, her eyes opened wide, trying not to miss a single detail in spite of her own absence from the naked eye.
As she walked past a table with a seller who had twenty golden rings in one ear and none in the other and twenty bracelets on the wrist opposite her beringed ear, she smelled a strong scent of vanilla and peaches, mingled with jasmine and too many flowers to name. Some teenaged girls leaned over the table to haggle, and Reul got a whiff of honey and heard the seller giggling.
On and on walked Reul. Several times, an overly energetic small child would barrel into her hip. The kid would become momentarily confused, shrug, and resume the game.
Reul was just about to give up on the grounds of being fatigued when she smelled apples.
Her spirits instantly lifted. She turned her rejuvenated neck in the direction of the smell then started. A seller with horribly ugly teeth and a display of perfect apples, apple pies, apple sauce, and apple perfumes was gesturing excitedly as he showed a tall, lanky, bearded man the gauntlet.
Patiently, she waited while the seller promised the man in gold that the gauntlet would allow him to procure the heart of the maiden he most desired. The man tutted, shook his head, and stated, "She loves another."
"Surely a man of your wealth could purchase her heart? The gauntlet will only cost you a hundred thousand pounds!"
"Not worth it." The man started to walk off.
The seller put the gauntlet down and turned his back to it—the moment Reul Ghorm had been waiting for. She pounced.
While she pulled the gauntlet into her invisibility, the seller called, "With this gauntlet, your rivals will be in your fist!"
Reul pulled the gauntlet on, closed her eyes, ad envisioned Queen Eva's face. She heard a woman scream, "The ogres are coming for Prince Gaston! Quick, call the Ogre Slayer!" then Reul left the country.
She opened her eyes to gaze upon Queen Eva's hot tub, steaming and bubbly, with champagne in a fluted glass on the side.
Reul Ghorm knew Queen Eva well enough to know this was her greatest weakness on a long, stressful day full of meetings with no conclusion and tiresome arguments.
When she was feeling womanly, her greatest weakness was her husband. She'd look at him with a kittenish smile, and anyone with eyes knew what she wanted.
Other times, her greatest weakness was her daughter.
When she saw something new she adored, she temporarily had it for her greatest weakness, but this was short-lived.
Sometimes, Queen Eva was dying to listen to her favorite song.
The woman was complex. Or moody, depending on the opinion.
Reul looked up from the tub and saw Regina scrubbing a shelf.
First, Reul slipped the gauntlet off her arm and into her cape pocket. Then she pulled out her wand.
With the right spell, she became visible again.
Regina turned, glimpsed her. Her lips formed a tight line, but her brows twitched with anxiety. "H-hi. I h-heard you'd vanished. D-didn't know you were…back."
"I've been back," Reul replied with a thin smile. "For five seconds."
Regina clearly was at a loss on how to respond. "Okay," she said finally without conviction.
Reul studied her face. "Did you learn anything?"
The ten-year-old didn't reply. She glanced at the steaming hot tub.
"I only want what's best for the princess. She's young and rash. Without guidance, she will be eaten alive in this cruel world," Reul persuaded in her most affable tone.
Still, Regina hedged. "She told me…" She licked her upper lip. "You…betrayed her." Regina slowly lifted her gaze from the hot tub to stare solemnly at Reul Ghorm.
The fairy didn't miss a beat. "She misunderstood the situation," she asserted smoothly. There was no flicker of a lie in her eyes or voice. Because she was convincing herself what she was currently saying was true. "One of King George's men framed me. That's why I've been gone," she convincingly improvized. "I've been looking for him. I caught him. He's dead."
"Really? King George?" Regina's neck tensed. She dropped the tube of cleaning liquid and the washcloth she was carrying. Glancing down, she eyed the supplies but made no move to pick them up.
"Really. Would you like some help, dear?" Reul Ghorm waved her wand. The bathroom was immediately clean. Immaculately spotless.
Regina's jaw dropped. She hurriedly reeled it back up. "That's cool. Thank you."
"Do you still doubt my intentions?"
Regina thought before answering. Furrowing her brow, she inquired, "How could Princess Snow White misinterpret? How did King George interfere?"
"Sweet naïve youngling. You know real children are always brave, truthful, and unselfish. Prove me a real girl." Reul Ghorm whipped out a fan, fanned herself, then said stoically, "A man I trusted brought me some letters he claimed were from the princess. He claimed it was immensely imperative these letters go out immediately. I carried out these orders then discovered he'd vanished. A few days later, I learned he'd been planted upon us three years ago by King George for the very purpose. If I didn't trust him so, I would not have had his false orders carried out."
Though Reul Ghorm was careful to conceal it, Regina's resulting expression infuriated her. Though Regina's neck relaxed slightly, she was still thrumming with skepticism.
Reul had better step it up a notch.
"Snow is the loveliest princess Rhilopia has ever seen." She sat on the tub then reached for Regina's hands. Gazed beseechingly into her eyes as she clutched the hands comfortingly. Touched Regina's foot with her faux playful own. "It would be a terrible fate if we lose her."
"I agree," promised Regina.
Hypnotically, Reul Ghorm murmured, "Then tell me what new discoveries you have, my child."
Regina shook her head slowly, her unseeing eyes drifting from the fairy's face and past the wall. "I can't."
"You can't?" repeated Reul Ghorm. "Or won't?"
"I promised Princess Snow White."
"Oh, pish-posh. Promises are only words," she encouraged. "They're not magic. They can easily be broken and discarded." Nodding heartily, she voiced, "Just as easily as a porcelain cup."
Regina's eyes widened. She was still plainly dissuaded.
Reul would have to try even harder. Regina wasn't as easy as she'd like.
"You never had a mother, did you?" she asked slikily. "Having watched our princess grow up from a baby, I feel like her second mother. I try to protect and love her in the ways a mother would.
"What if," she continued, "you'd promised her not to tell me she was starving herself? It'd be your duty to save her life.
"In this case," finished Reul Ghorm triumphantly, "I am very concerned about her. I simply want the peace of mind that all is fine."
Regina began visibly struggling with herself, thinking how badly she yearned for a mother, but her purple magic failed to produce one.
At last, she whispered miserably, "It's Prince James."
Smiling brightly, Reul Ghorm patted the girl and asserted, "See? That wasn't so bad after all! Thank you, sweetheart," she intoned warmly, "for being brave, truthful, and unselfish."
Regina felt a bit uneasy. Then she thought how lucky the princess was to have the fairy looking out for her. Reul Ghorm didn't seem angry at all.
She hugged the fairy tightly. Whispered, "Thank you for protecting our princess." The ten-year-old went on to her next chore seconds before the exhausted queen came to use her hot tub.
