The next morning, Lucy and the Captain decided to leave, in order to return home before the fall winds set in…and to give Pitch ‘a chance to bond’ with her stepmother.

“…I just know you two can make it work this time!” said Lucy. “And if you can’t, then Mr. Azor is still around j-just in case.”

“I suppose he is…somewhere…” Pitch said absently.

“By the way, d-did you guys talk to each other last night…?”

“We…yes, we did.”

“Yeah? Did he say anything…interesting…??”

Pitch blushed. “I don’t know what you’re getting at,” she replied. “We simply discussed the…current situation. He shared his thoughts on the matter, and I shared mine.”

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare for some kind of audience with my…the Queen,” she went on. “I don’t remember what she called it; she used some strange word that I’ve never heard before…”

“Brunch! It was brunch, wasn’t it?? I heard some maid or somebody mention it earlier,” Lucy crowed. “Yeah, I guess y-you wouldn’t have heard of it, s-since you’ve been living up on the mountain…it’s one of the hottest new trends~.”

“So…what exactly is it…?”

“It’s a meal in between breakfast and lunch; that’s why they call it brunch! A-and you can serve breakfast foods and lunch foods at the same time…I always have quiche whenever I host one. ‘Cause it’s like a pie, b-but there’s so much egg in it that it still feels ‘breakfast-y’.”

“I see…”

“I also like to have fruit and cream, and t-toasted oats, and of course bread and jam, and scones and…oh; now I’m getting hungry…”

“You know you’re welcome to stay…if you want.” Pitch laced her fingers together: secretly, she was hoping Lucy would change her mind about leaving right away.

Unfortunately, she did not.

“No, no…this is your s-special time with your mama,” she said, bouncing on her toes. “The first meal you’re gonna eat together in years…for this, I can put up with c-camping food for a little while longer.”

Lucy gave Pitch one last hug. “D-don’t forget to write to me,” she whispered. “I wanna hear all about whatever happens…!”

Pitch sighed. “You will…I promise,” she replied.

After saying her goodbyes, Pitch went upstairs to her old bedroom.

She had never actually had the nerve to go inside since she’d arrived at the castle: all her armor and weaponry still sat on the floor outside the door, where she’d left it.

But since it was to be a day of firsts, she decided now was as good a time as any to confront her past. Timidly, she opened the door.

The room was surprisingly clean. She had expected to find it full of dust and cobwebs and other reflections of the passage of time…but it was just as spotless and tidy as the rest of the palace, from the polished brass bedposts to the freshly-washed curtains over the window.

Pitch slowly walked in, running her hand along the bookshelves as she went. Like the garden, it was a place of both sorrow and solace…already she could remember the many miserable hours she had spent there, only because she hadn’t felt safer anywhere else.

She sighed deeply. She felt she’d been sighing a lot lately.

On the bed there lay a golden gown, with an embroidered skirt and delicate lace sleeves. Pitch looked at it, then down at her own tattered dress, the patchwork remnants of the one she had run away in five years ago. It certainly wasn’t fit for an elegant brunch…

She looked back at the new gown. Her first thought was that it was some sort of trap…a thought which she reluctantly dismissed as paranoid.

“…At some point I have to stop being afraid,” she thought to herself. “If I’m going to stay here…if I’m really going to stay here with her, I have no other choice. This is my home, and it’s going to be safe for me…I must make myself believe that. Starting with…letting go of this…”

With just her fingertips, she took hold of the stone gauntlet on her wrist. The one the seven stone giants had given to her the day they met; the one through which she had always felt protected by their power.

She took a deep breath, gripped it, and pulled it off.

Gently, she laid it down on the bedspread, and stared at it for a while. Then she picked up the gown and walked away.