Once Dreadlilocks made it clear that she was no threat, the two girls got to talking. The princess introduced herself as Zellandine Rosamund Talia Briar-Rose. But most people had taken to calling her ‘Lucid Fright’, on account of her now-infamous curse.

“When I was ten years old, I p-pricked my finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel,” she explained. “And since then, I haven’t slept one wink. Not for s-six whole years…”

“That sounds awful,” Dreadlilocks remarked. “Just looking at all these pillows makes me feel like taking a nap; I can’t imagine not being able to…aren’t you tired?”

“In lots of ways…but since I can’t ever sleep, it’s k-kinda my new reality now. I’m used to it.” Lucy grinned, revealing a missing front tooth.

Suddenly, the wooden doors were thrown open. “Princess?!” a voice called from the doorway. “Are you in here?? There’s an intruder in the castle; you should come with us right away!”

“I’m here, Captain,” Lucy said nonchalantly. “And if you’re still looking for the intruder, she’s in here, too.”

The Captain of the Guard entered the room. He wore golden armor like the other knights, but with a vermillion sash and a royal purple cape. His face could not be seen from underneath his helmet, but all the same he seemed to have a look of disapproval.

“…I should have known,” he said. “You always seem to be where the trouble is, Princess.”

“Oh, but Dreadlilocks isn’t t-trouble,” Lucy protested. “She’s j-just a little kid. She’s lost…I think her family was unwrit, just like Mother and Father.”

“Really?”

“We walked into a pale fog, and that’s the last thing I remember,” said Dreadlilocks. “But what does ‘unwrit’ mean??”

“To be unwrit is to be removed from the world,” said the Captain. “The fog comes from the Margins, seeping into the land and producing the phantasms, which come forth to pull us all back into the void from whence we came. And it’s been getting worse as of late— there are places where entire cities have been unwrit. Nothing and no one is left: just a white cloud of emptiness.”

“When the unwriting happens, the area around it s-sometimes gets…scrambled,” said Lucy. “The people and things can end up in strange places…I ended up in the well after what happened to Mother and Father.”

“So that’s how I got here,” mused Dreadlilocks. “But why does the unwriting happen? Isn’t there any way to stop it?”

“No one knows…the Margins, and thus the phantasms, belong to Mère L’Oye. They say her son, a mand named Jack, is using them to unwrite the world out of jealousy…but no one knows why she doesn’t choose to stop him,” the Captain explained.

“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Dreadli suggested. “Or maybe she can’t stop him…maybe her son has her locked up somewhere.”

“Th-that’s a dreadful thing to do to your mother,” said Lucy. “But I guess powerful people like that don’t think the way the rest of us do...”

“The only way to know what has happened is to go to the moon and see,” said the Captain. “But if anyone has gone, they have yet to report back to the rest of us.”

When she heard that, Dreadlilocks thought for a minute or two. Finally, she said:

“I’ll go to the moon.”