When Kori arrived in Eory’s room, she saw him reclining on the couch with a glazed look in his eyes, staring up at a leaky ceiling. 

Because it was freezing outside, Kori had been wearing a cloak to keep her warm from the chilly weather, but she removed it now. Eory rolled on his side to face her, tears welling in his rosy eyes.

Kori tried not to cry, herself, when she saw her beloved surrogate son in such pain. She cleared her throat, placing the pack she had been carrying on the ground. A bright smile rose on her lips when she remembered that she was about to tell him something very happy.

“Eory, I am happy to inform you that you have been Redeemed.” Kori nodded, planting her hands in her pockets.

Eory shifted into a sitting position, his mouth agape. For a moment, he had no words to express his gratitude. “I’m to be free, then?”

“Well…” Kori said, clearing her throat, “on the condition that you attend the king’s ball with no mishap and demonstrate yourself to be a fine asset to society, you will be set free.”

Eory breathed in deeply with a face that told her he couldn’t believe his ears. In a moment, he couldn’t contain himself; he embraced his caretaker and lifted her in his arms.

His caretaker, like all waifs, was a tiny, four-foot-tall woman, who was easy to carry. 

Kori giggled for a moment. Despite the fact that she was only thirty-eight, she had the wrinkled, pruney skin that all waifs had regardless of whether they were six or sixty, and she wrapped these wrinkled arms around him affectionately. When she realized how far she was from the ground, she politely asked Eory to put her down.

Kori then dug through her pack and pulled out many beautifully packaged presents for Eory. The first was a golden headdress that belonged to his older brother, Gerhsom. Kori brought a small, waif-sized mirror with her which she handed to Eory so he could get a good look at himself. Kori put the headdress on him. He was a sight to behold in it; the golden circlet wrapped around his head beautifully--looping around his large, elephant-like ears--and the gold and silver chains dangling from the sides and back of it complimented his complexion unbelievably well.

Eory cocked his head to the side. He didn’t look at himself often--there was no need to--but he thought he looked a little strange, since the only person he had to compare himself with was Kori.

He saw Kori clap her hands in the mirror and she told him, “You look so handsome!”

Eory blushed, looking away. “If you say so…”

“Let me show you what you’ll be wearing to the ball!” Kori said excitedly as she handed him the next brown-paper package tied up with string.

But Eory was weeping.

I can’t believe I thought she was a bitch… He sniffled and wiped his eyes as Kori came to his side. I’m such an awful person!

“Don’t cry, this is a happy occasion…” Kori said as tears came to her own eyes. “I know what will cheer you up!”

She handed him a blue-and-white striped box with a green bow tied prettily around the cap. Eory opened it. There was a tiny dog with bulging eyes inside, panting.

It licked his face.

 Eory smiled cheerfully at his new friend and lifted him out of the package; the dog was small enough to hold. Eory thought it was a little bit of a funny looking thing.

Its fur was black-and-white, and it had a whiter stripe traveling up from its chest to its forehead. It had small, upright ears and a tiny, round, black tail.

“I love him!” Eory exclaimed.

“Happier now?” Kori asked as Eory’s new friend licked his face.

Eory nodded and buried his face in the terrier’s fur. “What should I name him?”

“Whatever you want, darling.” Kori said with a nod. “You’ve earned the right to pick.”

Eory looked into the creature’s bulging eyes, and felt as if its dark eyes bored into his soul. “I think… Gershom.”

Kori’s smile melted into a deep frown. “Your brother’s name?”

Eory nodded. “He was my best friend!”

Kori’s face was twisted into one of white fear. She had hoped he would have forgotten about his family; she needed him to forget. His family was horrible—he had to separate himself from them entirely if she were to save him. “How about something else? Robert or Larry?”

Eory turned his spiral-tipped nose up and stuck out his tongue. “Larry? Bleh…”

Kori was sweating profusely at his choice of name. “Eory… You know you have to separate yourself from your family. After all, you’re…”

Eory looked away from her as his dog panted and licked his face. “I’m good—I’m different from them, I know. It’s just… My brother—he was… So kind to me, from what I remember.”

Kori, who had always been so strict to her surrogate son, relented this one time.

It was not an easy choice.

She had mulled it over in her mind for a full thirty seconds, which felt like thirty hours.

She had never allowed him to think well of his family; she had spent extensive time showing him precisely why they were to be reviled, in fact, but it was a special day, and Eory had worked inhumanly hard to get to this point. She let him have this one extra gift. After all, in the past, she had been exceedingly stern when teaching him exactly why his family was so evil.

Repeatedly, she would ask,“Your family used their vile magic to take over Maribel and kill thousandas. Why is this wrong?” She would ask.

Eory would sometimes take a moment to think which would worry her, but for the most part he would immediately answer, “because I wouldn’t want to be hurt like that; because so many people lost their families because of mine and I know it would hurt so much to lose mine like that—including you.”

“And how does this fact make you feel about your family?” Kori would go on relentlessly.

Eory would have a sad frown dawn on his sweet face and it would break her heart as he said, “I hate them. They disgust me.”

Kori thought she owed him for turning him against his family because, even though they were evil people, she had no doubt that they loved him and he loved them. “Very well. You can name him Gershom.”

Eory thanked her with a hug.

“Now, gather up your things, let’s get going. Are you ready to see the world?” Kori asked elatedly.

Eory nodded, quickly gathering up his clothes in a sack along with some of his drawings and his pen. He scribbled some letters on the back of a piece of parchment and then tucked it away.

Kori looked at him with pride before she revealed the cursed door she had hidden from him with magic for so long in green fire. He never thought he would cry at a door, but he did. He sniffled and, with his new dog tucked under his arm, set out to freedom.