Chapter IV: Calling the StormThat night, Rapunzel waited a few hours past what she guessed was nightfall (her room had no windows) and softly crept to her door. She had taken off her shoes and tied them around her waist, afraid of any noise she might make. Pcing her ear against the door, she listened for any sounds. Nothing other than her heartbeat. Her hair slipped through the gap in the door and wrapped itself around the bolt. Slowly she moved it, the grating sound seeming the loudest thing in the world.

  Gently, she opened the door, and stepped outside. This was the first she had been outside her room without a guard. Her world had consisted of that bare room, the corridor outside, the vatory, the training room and the boratory, to which she was always brought blindfolded, lending to a disjointed understanding of her surroundings.

  But even blindfolded, she had taken the path to the boratory so many times that it was etched in her mind. She passed other cells, some open and empty, some locked. Should she open them? She stood in the dimly lit corridor for a moment, staring at an iron door that probably kept someone like her captive. She moved on, the fear of getting caught so close to freedom winning out. Tip-toeing, she went down the corridor. Her hair gave a soft glow, lighting the way. Around one corner, then down a hallway...

  He hair suddenly stopped glowing, like a candlelight extinguished. She froze in her tracks and a moment ter she heard footsteps approaching as a faint light shone round the corner. Panic rising, she hurried to the next door. She was almost surprised to have it swing open at her touch. She hurried in and closed it behind her, careful to be as quiet as possible. Her hair slipped between door and frame, dampening the sound as the door touched the frame. It then returned to gently flowing around her, like a cloak.

  The room had a bit of light, coming from a few jars set in high shelves. They contained some kind of glowing root; one held a crystal that seemed to reflect light that wasn't there. The room seemed like one of the examination rooms that she had been frequently brought to. A rge table with straps in the middle, surrounded by medical equipment. Mostly sharp implements. She quickly turned away from those.

  As her eyes got used to the light, she noticed that there was something strapped to the table. A tree? A bush? Curious, she approached. Someone had tied a small pnt to the table. It was almost funny, so absurd was the idea. Why would you tie down a pnt? The pnt was missing branches, and the bark at the center had a rge hole, sticky with resin.

  Rapunzel's smile fell as her eyes started to make out more details. A tangle of branches that resembled a face, the two long branches to the sides, at about arm height. She jerked back in horror.

  This was a dryad! Everyone knew not to hurt a dryad; they kept the forests safe and blessed the fields. Hurting a dryad carried the pain of death in most kingdoms, because they were so rare and essential to feeding the people. Despite the now months of torture, this was the first time that Rapunzel truly understood the people that had captured her. This was the moment where her heart hardened, seeing a creature whose very nature was to selflessly help people rendered into materials for a deranged alchemist.

  She left as soon as the sound of footsteps had faded, and her hair began to glow again. She took off down the hallway, her mind conjuring ideas of finding a cache of gunpowder, maybe a weapons storage area, and blow this whole pce to ash and cinders. A few turns ter, she saw the first window.

  It was right there, the moon shining through bck bars. A cool breeze flowed through, and she stood transfixed for a moment. Shaking her head, she continued past where she thought the examination room was, looking for an exit. A few times she saw guards walking the corridors, but her hair always dimmed well before she could hear them, giving her time to hide or retreat.

  She made it to what must have been the exit, a corridor branching off a dead end hallway. Two guards were stationed next to the door. She desperately looked for a way out, finding none. There was a metal locker set against the wall just before the exit corridor. She checked that she fit behind the it, then went back for an empty vial from the boratory. She tucked behind the locker and threw it as hard as she could down the hallway. It cttered against the floor, sliding until it hit the wall at the end.

  A sound of arm came from the corridor to the exit, and heavy footsteps could be heard approaching. Only one guard. Rapunzel cursed as she squeezed herself tight against the wall and locker.

  "What is it?" came a voice from further away, probably the guard still guarding the exit. "Dunno." said a closer voice, much too close. The guard must have come down her side of the hallway instead of the one she had thrown the vial down. The thump of heavy boots approached and Rapunzel closed her eyes, no longer daring to breathe.

  "Oi, there's something over there." came the first voice again, closer this time. The heavy footsteps turned around and walked down the other corridor, following the first set. Rapunzel, her heart pounding, leaned over to spy around the locker. The two guards were slowly making their way down the other corridor.

  She tip-toed towards the exit, her socks barely making a whisper of sound against the smooth floor. She turned the corner and fought against all her instincts to bolt for the exit. Swiftly, she made her way to the exit, a bck metal door with bolts and a rge keyhole. She slid the bold, ever so carefully from it's tch, her face flushed with sweat and her ears straining for any sign of the guards. She tried to open the door. Locked. Her throat full of fear, she moved her hair inside the lock, trying to feel the tumblers. She didn't know how locks worked, but the shape of keys must have a reason for it, so if she managed to make a key with her hair...

  "Hey! What are you doing there?" came a loud voice from behind her. Rapunzel flinched, and shoved her hair into the lock, pushing against it from the inside, trying to force it open. A loud whistle sounded behind her, and the thumping of boots headed her way. Tears streamed from her eyes. The lock wouldn't open. A pair of hands grabbed her by the waist and pulled her backwards.

  On instinct, she wrapped her hair around her fist, and swung at the guard pulling her down the corridor. The fist connected, with way more power than her 11 year old arms could manage. The guard was knocked back, clutching at his jaw as he stumbled. The other guard arrived, a thick truncheon descending. It hit Rapunzel on the head.

  And bounced off her hair.

  Both her and the guard were momentarily stunned. The other guard had recovered, and tackled her, pinning her to the ground with his weight. Her hair wrapped around her arms again, and she slowly began to lift him off her. She grimaced with effort, her hair tight around her arms and glowing bright. She barely caught sight of the truncheon descending towards her face, before everything went dark.

  ~

  The next few days were miserable. They only fed her once daily, which was also about as much as she could stomach. She was always dizzy and nauseous, barely able to stand. Her face felt like it had split in two, and though she had no mirror, she could feel the bruise covering half her face. One eye was swollen shut, the other could barely focus.

  At night, her hair wrapped her head in a sort of helmet, cutting off sounds and gently pressing down on the wound. Whatever it was doing, it was helping. The swelling went down after a few awful days. Her skin was still raw, but she could see out of both eyes now, and she could mostly stand.

  But what was the point? She had failed to escape, and now there was a guard outside her room at all times. In four days they would cut her hair, and after seeing what they were willing to do to a dryad, she didn't have any illusions of her own fate.

  She y on her bed crying, wiping away tears that didn't stop flowing. She prayed for help, prayed for revenge, prayed and cursed the Alchemist, and the woman and the dead-eyed man.

  May this whole pce be taken by the sea, or destroyed by monsters. May Alice take it all!

  That st thought triggered something. Her hair twitched, as if startled. She had once heard a servant boy say it and he had been thoroughly thrashed. She softly spoke the worst curse in the Schattenwald. "May Alice take this pce!"Her hair once again twitched, raising slightly from her head. She sat up, and the hair flowed from her head as if she was underwater. "Curse this pce with Alice! Alice take them all! A slow death and a swift forgetting! Alice take them, Alice take them, Alice TAKE THEM!"

  Her hair rose higher, stretching into taught, barely visible strings. A humming started, and the strange sensation of her hair vibrating covered her scull. Like a thousand violins, her hair thrummed and hummed, the sound not getting louder, but somehow more profound. It echoed in her bones, and the walls seemed to shimmer, fighting to contain the wyrd sound. Her hair glowed brighter, a symphony of ill portent. For a moment Rapunzel hesitated, the feeling she was getting not a good one at all.

  Damn it all! She mentally pushed her hair to a higher pitch and the sensations heightened.

  The sound was a portent, yes...A failing light in darkest night, something moving out of sight. A drop of blood upon the floor, the sudden fear that there is more. The smell of storm clouds in the air, nature's fury brought to bear.

  It got louder and louder, drowning Rapunzel in its malevolence.

  The lock on the door was being undone. The bolt was pulled back loudly and the door was flung open.

  Rapunzel y in her bed, her hair quiet, eyes closed. The woman walked in, wary. "Rapunzel?"

  Rapunzel opened her eyes, pretending to just be waking up. "Yes?"

  The woman looked her up and down. "Nothing." She left the room and Rapunzel heard her say "Next room." before the guard smmed the door shut.

  Rapunzel didn't know what she had done, but it had worried the woman, so she had set herself to repeating it. That very night, she began her chant again, calling for destruction like a doomsayer before battle. Her hair didn't react. In fact, it had been lethargic since that strange occurrence. Well, lethargic as far as her hair was concerned. It still flowed on it's own, and she could move it a bit, but it felt... exhausted. So, she left it alone, hoping that whatever it had done would lead to her rescue.

  The week passed, and the day the Alchemist had promised had arrived. Rapunzel had mostly recovered, and her hair along with her. Sadly, no rescue had happened. For every day that passed her hope had shriveled. When they came for her on the morning of the seventh day, she had none left. She walked numbly to the boratory. They didn't bother covering her eyes this time. In the boratory waited the Alchemist and the dead-eyed man. Her guards strapped her to the table. She didn't resist. The guards turned to leave.

  "Wait." said the Alchemist. "What is the situation with Alice?"

  Rapunzel's eyes opened wide and hope filled her lungs like fresh air.

  "Our distractions are working, she'll be gone within the hour." said the guard.

  "Very well." The Alchemist waved him away. He turned to a pair of bdes attached to a crank. They were strangely shaped, like double-edged scissors. In fact, the looked exactly like a giant pair of scissors. The dead-eyes man voiced her question.

  "Pardon master, but why that shape?"

  The Alchemist beamed, stroking the ft of the bde which shone an dark red. "A simple bde would not do. No, no, no... We are trying to cut hair here, not sy a dragon. The function follows the form. That is how magic works, you need the right tool for the job. And these little beauties are made for a single purpose."

  He flicked the bde, which resonated in a strange oscilting note. "Vorpal steel, for the edge, blood iron for the core, and a channel of dryad heart fibers to transmit the power. You see, we will use the hair's power against itself. The more it resists, the sharper the bdes become."

  He turned his eyes on Rapunzel. Twin pits of bck which only looked through her, not at her. The kind of eyes that could see a dryad as raw material. He pulled a strand of hair free and champed it tight between the bdes. She tried to resists, her hair flowing like water, but the dead-eyed man strapped it down. He was well practiced in it by now. She thought of Alice, calling for her help, trying to get her hair to sound that ominous call again, but to no avail.

  The Alchemist began to crank, the bdes moving together, slowly, inexorably. When the bdes first touched the strand of hair, Rapunzel felt a nce of cold stab through her spine. Another crank as she fought to free herself on the table. It felt like a phantom limp was being slowly amputated. Another crank, and another. Then, without ceremony, the bdes closed, and the strand of hair fell into two pieces. It didn't hurt. Not really. It was more like waking up to find you had no legs. No pain, just a profound feeling of her body being wrong, of something missing.

  The Alchemist gleefully gathered the cut hair into a vial, and stoppered it. "The boss will be very pleased with this." He said, and swiftly left he room.

  Rapunzel stared at what she couldn't help but call a stump of her hair. It sparked, like a struck piece of flint. She blinked, peering closely. It sparked again. Then, a shockwave exploded from it, flinging the dead-eyed man to the ground and rattling the bdes. She desperately tried to free her hands, but the straps had held. The dead-eyed man stood up again, looking down at her with the same look of disinterest as always.

  A loud sound echoed from the corridor, a trumpet. Then another, then another. A slight frown crossed the dead-eyes man's face. Then the walls started to melt. The back wall of the boratory literally turned to liquid and melted, leaving a faint scent of vanil. Vines crawled through, and strange pnts grew in seconds, punching through the roof and letting in sunlight. A darkening azure sky stretched above. The dead-eyed man ran for the door, but it had vanished. The entire back wall was now a featureless wooden pne.

  The pnts in the room grew, bloomed and wilted in seconds, only to be repced by new growth in dizzying colors. A strange mist hung in the air. It was purple, no, blue! No, green! It shifted and glittered, wrapping into itself in loops and spirals. Animals came next, small scurrying rodents and birds filled the room, then fled from either the ceiling or holes that appeared in the floor.

  Rapunzel felt Alice before she saw her. An itch inside her brain, colors on the periphery of her vision. Lights that had smells, or taste or felt like biting into wood. Lights that might only exist in this pce, close to the madness of Alice.

  Then, Alice stepped through the wall.

  ...

  A young girl, dressed in a worn blue dress, straight bck hair hanging from a pale face. She didn't seem to notice either of them. Where her eyes looked, mushrooms grew, then shriveled as her eyes moved on. Her gaze slipped past Rapunzel, and the table under her colpsed, now partially made of cake, part rotten wood. The crank disintegrated as well, sending the two swords cttering to the ground. Rapunzel scrambled to free herself from her bindings. Alice in the meantime was slowly walking through the room, warping reality around her. She seemed younger now, a little closer to Rapunzel's own age.

  Her eyes though... Dark bags hung under them, and they flickered from corner to corner, like a hunted animal. While her expression was neutral, her eyes were drowning in terror. She continued walking in that slow pace, like a sleepwalker.

  Rapunzel heard a grunt and turned to see the dead-eyed man struggle to escape a floor that had turned to mud. His skin had taken a strange hue,and boils were growing on his face. Rapunzel looked down to find her hair moving over her body, somehow deflecting the colorful mist that was now choking the room. Rapunzel looked at her struggling tormentor. Her hair wrapped around her limbs and gently urged her to move.

  The dead-eyed man got a grip on a solid piece of floor and pulled himself up and out of the mire. He turned to the back wall, searching for an exit. Scanning the room, he turned back around. He looked down at his chest. Something dark red was sticking into it. A second bde punched into his chest. He looked up at the other end. Rapunzel looked up at him, looking every bit as shocked as he was. Her hands, wrapped in hair, held the two bdes lightly.

  Her wide eyes hardened. Some conflict within her resolved itself as her hesitation melted under searing fury. She gripped the bdes with as much strength as she could muster. "You're the first." She spoke the promise, fixing him with her eyes. His eyes, that had for so long not recognized her as a human being, seemed to finally see her. He looked... surprised.

  She ripped the two swords out, and stepped away as instead of blood, little colorful rocks spilled from the man. Alice's magic had already burrowed deep. He fell in front of her, and by the time he touched the floor, he had turned into a twisted pnt. Small white flowers bloomed over what would have been his corpse.

  Rapunzel froze as a giant harebear slowly walked in through the hole Alice had made. It's savage cws scraped the ground and it growled at her, but it dutifully followed Alice out the other side of the room, where a big hole had appeared, a forest visible on the other side. Rapunzel followed, keeping her distance from the harebear, and Alice further away.

  Alice must have just walked straight through the compound, judging from the line of rapidly decaying trees and giant mushrooms that stretched across it. Rapunzel heard shouts and started running. Not towards Alice, she had more sense than to follow a walking cataclysm. She ran into the forest, at a 45 degree angle from Alice's direction. Hopefully that was close enough that no one would follow.

  She ran through the green and wide open space, filling her lungs with freedom. She ran, then walked, then ran, then stumbled. She took a short break to drink water at a brook, and noticed that she had been carrying the swords with her. Despite the damage they had done to her, they felt right in her hands. Her hair flowed around the handle in an uncanny way, making them light as a feather. She heard shouts in the distance and continued her flight. Deeper and deeper into the forest, as night fell, and her eyes were barely open. She was in the depths of the woods now. Giant trees dominated the ndscape, reaching like towers towards a star-filled sky where a sickle moon hung like a bde.

  She walked through the eerily quiet forest half asleep. Her steps were quiet on thick soft moss. Cool, heavy air hung beneath the branches of the trees, which stretched into a dense canopy far above. Occasionally some star would peek down at Rapunzel through the foliage.

  She found a hollow tree and stepped inside. There was already someone there! A girl wrapped in a red hood was curled in the corner. Their eyes met, and in them Rapunzel saw the same desperation she felt in herself. Bone tired, she sat down, the twin swords left outside. She hugged the other girl and felt her tense, then rex.

  There, in that hollow, that dead tree, hanging on to that small piece of mutual comfort, they went to sleep.

  Incblob