Cinderella is Dead

At the market, the disguised Sophia and Constance split up to buy supplies. Rumors have spread that Liv died by suicide and that some men at the ball took two wives instead of one, which is customary here. Sophia buys rice from a man, but he’s suspicious of her because of her voice. She looks around for Constance, but spots Erin in the crowd instead. Bruises cover Erin’s face, but she recognizes Sophia and comes to her.

Erin thinks it’s wonderful that she’s betrothed and tells Sophia not to worry about her bruises. Again, Sophia asks Erin to run, and Erin declines. Her fiancé, Édouard, paid a large sum for her and will send guards after her if she flees. Eventually, Constance appears and finds Sophia staring; she asks if Sophia knows Erin, to which she replies that Édouard bruised Erin’s face. Trumpets erupt, and a mob of guards pulls up with King Manford. Sophia tries to bolt, but Constance convinces her to hide because if they run, they’ll look suspicious and be killed. The king has come to remind this community of the consequences of disobeying him.

King Manford asks the crowd if they respect his rules, and a woman steps forward to say how disappointed she is. The king seems happy to see her and calls her Lady Hollins. He claims the girl who escaped the ball has been located and dispatched and that someone else aided in her attempted escape: the seamstress.

King Manford learned from the seamstress’s husband that Sophia visited the shop and that his wife’s earnings seemed light this month. He believes the seamstress gave money to Sophia to aid in her escape. He questions the seamstress while preparing to execute her, and when he asks if it was worth her life to help a peasant escape, she says if she could die for anything, giving even one person freedom from him would be it. The king has the executioner kill her and tells the crowd that their lives are gifts from him, which they keep only because he allows them to.

Sophia again wants to bolt, but the man she bought rice from appears behind her, pulling off her hat to reveal her hair and asking where she got money since women aren’t allowed to carry any. Constance pulls a dagger on him and knocks him out; then, they flee and head toward the border of the White Wood. She plans to light a bomb at the base of a watchtower to create a diversion while they cross the area in their cart and then take cover in the woods.

Constance lights the bomb, and she and Sophia cross without being followed. It’s a four-day journey to the center of the White Wood. To cross the border on a return trip, Constance stole an official pass from the king for two men. The girls see a large crow a few times during their travels.

Constance’s mother taught her to use swords, make bombs, and build fires, but Sophia has only ever known life in Lille. However, Constance says this means they have different perspectives that will come in handy when combined. She compliments Sophia as beautiful and brave.

Sophia and Constance travel for nearly four days until they reach a point where the path narrows and their cart can’t fit. They want to bring the horse with them because if they leave him tied up, he’ll be attacked by wolves. However, he won’t follow the narrow path and wounds Sophia’s hand while frightened. Wolves appear and attack the horse, but the girls get away, following the narrow path.

Sophia and Constance start to get confused, as if they’ve forgotten where they are and how long they’ve been here, and they hear singing. Finally, they come across a small clearing with a house.

An old woman emerges from the house and claims she can always tell when someone is nearby because the wolves howl. She invites Sophia and Constance inside, where dried herbs and jars of animal parts surround a black cauldron. The woman says the girls are either foolish or desperate to come this deep into the White Wood. Sophia says they seek information on the fairy godmother, to which the woman replies that she is her.

The fairy godmother, Amina, who also accepts the label of “witch,” helps people who seek her out sometimes. Constance and Amina argue about details from Cinderella’s story. Amina claims she was never employed by the palace but helped Cinderella of her own accord. The girls try to convince the witch that things are terrible in Lille because of Cinderella’s union with Prince Charming and that something must be done to stop it. Amina doesn’t seem to care because she’s secluded herself in the woods.

Sophia and Constance say they want to end King Manford’s rule by learning the truth. Amina says they wouldn’t believe the truth if she told them and that the king probably can’t be stopped even if they knew. She warns them that if she shares the truth, it won’t be what they want, and there will be no going back. The girls want it anyway.

Amina explains that King Manford isn’t a normal man, but a monster. She puts a salve on Sophia’s wounded hand, and it heals almost instantly. She continues with her story, saying she’s always practiced magic, which her mother taught her, and that people have always sought out her services for money. However, other people didn’t look kindly on witchcraft, so they came to her house to try to execute her. Prince Charming prevented them from killing her and then asked her to help him ascend the throne of a burgeoning kingdom by causing a drought and then curing it, leading people to believe he was a savior.

In other words, Prince Charming, King Eustice, King Stephan, and King Manford are all the same person. Each ruler has lived to the point of nobody remembering what they looked like in their youth and then gone into seclusion to “die.” A new ruler from a secret city beyond the Forbidden Lands is supposedly chosen to replace him, and each one follows the same rules as if he wrote them himself. The king sustains himself, but Amina doesn’t know how. The king’s method is not the same as her own because she ages, albeit slowly.

Feeling indebted to the man who saved her life, Amina helped Prince Charming cause a drought and famine and then ascend the throne and “cure” the natural disasters. In return, he offered Amina protection from future witch-hunters. After Charming ascended the throne, he instituted strict laws and killed Cinderella’s parents. Cinderella then went to the first ball intending to kill Charming, not marry him. Amina gave Cinderella everything she needed to attend the ball and accomplish this.

However, once Charming met Cinderella, he wanted her more than anything and begged Amina to help him. She believed love could possibly change him, so she slipped Cinderella a temporary love potion, and the rest is more or less history. Amina doesn’t think King Manford can be stopped at this point but allows the girls to stay at her cottage, even though she dislikes Constance.