- 8 -
"Are you worried?" The Curse asked when it walked upstairs with Cinder towards the bedroom. "It is going to rain. I hope Bella will be fine."
"A little bit, but not for Bella. She can take care of herself." Replied Cinder in anxiety. "I have been to the tower for about seven years, but I feel that these days more and more people invade and attack us. Yesterday Prince Issac came when you were in the basement. He didn't recognize me and tried to kill me with his sword. I told him I was Cinder and I just wanted to live in the tower peacefully."
"What did he say? Did he believe you?"
"I feel that he believed I am Cinder. He told me that after I left, he was forced to marry a princess, but his parents could not find a proper one during these years. Then he was pushed to follow the rumor and search for the princess in the tower and marry her. He said nothing else and left, but I have an instinct that he will come back." Cinder said. She took up her cup on the table and drank some water. Feeling surprised that the Curse did not reply to her, she turned back, but the figure of the Curse was not there anymore. There were only its clothes on the floor.
The Curse had gone.
In the mirror, Cinder saw her face. It was her face rather than Ruby's, and her long black hair and black eyes. Her hood became the blue azure gown she wore when she walked into the tower.
She could not say anything or move, but just stood still and shivered. Prince Issac ran into the door and asked her with delight, "Cinder? Do you turn back from a witch?"
Cinder tried to calm her voice down, but she failed. "What did you use?" She asked in a trembling voice, but Prince Issac was too happy to notice that. "I made a white flower whose name is Understanding." He said with content. "I used to be an introvert, but now, finally I can do something bravely. I'm glad I can save you."
"You don't save me. You just destroy my eternal happiness." Cinder whispered.
"Why? Don't you want freedom?" Prince Issac asked in confusion, but he soon forgot it and asked eagerly, "You know why I come to the tower. I am thirty-six years old now. If I still keep single, my people and my parents will say I am unfilial. It's fine if you don't love me, but we can pretend to marry and you can enjoy my wealth and power..."
He said when he approached Cinder, but she pushed him away heavily. Now she understood how Ruby felt. "You just kill my lover! How dare you ask me to marry you! You don't understand I have the rights to choose and live my life!"
"Killing you is too simple. I curse you..." She screamed fiercely. The prince was so terrified that he sat down on the ground, looking at her with fear and bewilderment. She thought of Ruby. How ridiculous! Similar tragedies happened before and after seven hundred years, and they would end with the same ending, with a curse burning out women’s life to show pain and opposition.
Then she thought of the Curse. The Curse had gone, but what would it say to her? If it had been she who had gone rather than the Curse, what would it do?
Did it wish to curse the invader again? To be another Ruby?
No. It had witnessed all the history of the tower. It wished that it could stop all of these misunderstandings.
"...No." Cinder stopped. She bent down slowly and picked up the Curse's clothes. "You are a victim, too. I will not kill you nor curse you, but you should get punishments." She stared at his eyes, "I hope you can know that I have the rights to live by my own."
Cinder looked up to the dark cloudy sky and began to cast a spell. The Curse had gone, and there was no need for her to stay in the tower. She had more goals to achieve, to ask her friends whether they would like to travel with her and to visit other towers and help witches there.
The prince lost his consciousness with an astonishing look on his face and fell down. A flash of blinding lightning flashed across the sky, with a thunder it finally rained. When the lightning disappeared, Cinder disappeared as well.
