The tea in front of each of them wafted steam, looking cozy and calm, at odds with the atmosphere. It was dark out, and the fire was the only source of light inside. It cast odd, flickering shadows over them as they sat. Aurum gathered herself to speak.

“Before I came here, I lost everyone. And I just… just don’t know how to get them back.”  She took a shuddering breath. Alice was watching her intently, eyes guarded. Aurum’s mouth felt dry, facing her like this, preparing to tell the truth. Or at least, as much of the truth as she could. It was still possible – wildly unlikely, but possible – that Alice was somehow working with the witch. So she needed to be careful in how she told this story.

“I had to run away. I am not used to traveling like this, alone, and I was – well, you saw. I wasn’t doing well. I made it here after almost a week of running. I couldn’t ask for help, because I was being chased, and I didn’t know who might be following, or if people would recognize me.”

She waited here. This was where a reasonable audience would ask who she was that she might be so easily recognized. But Alice said nothing. With a sense of growing uncertainty, Aurum kept going.

“The person who took my family, they are very powerful. They made everyone in my family forget me. All my friends, too. But somehow, other people, strangers who – who know who I am, they still remember.”

“I don’t know why they did it. They are an enemy of my family, but I don’t know why they wanted to get rid of me. I’m not – I’m just… And even if they did want to get rid of only me for some reason, I don’t know why they didn’t just kill me. I mean, I suppose killing me would be more difficult than casting – then what they did… they would have had to get physically much closer to me. And I’m…” Aurum started to shake her head. “But they are really powerful. And they are still looking for me.”

 Alice’s dark eyes were tinged red and gold by the firelight, meeting Aurum’s steadily. Still she stayed silent.

Aurum was feeling more and more agitated. “She is looking for me. And she almost found me here. That person who attacked you, that time you went into town, they are one of her people. I don’t know for sure, maybe they attacked you randomly – they are all pretty sadistic – but I think they came here looking for me.”

Still nothing.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m saying you were attacked because of me. And that you might be again. And that I didn’t tell you this when you were helping me.”

Alice finally looked away, seeming torn.

“Are you actually working for her?” Aurum’s voice rose in pitch, disbelieving. None of Alice’s reactions made any sense.

“No,” Alice said, voice low. “No, I’m not.”

Aurum felt a chill go through her. “But you know – you know who I – who I’m talking about. Who I am.”

Alice kept looking away. “Yes.”

The silence stretched thin between them, brittle and tense. Aurum’s head spun.

“How?” No, that wasn’t what she really wanted to know. “Why?” Why hide it? Why pretend?

“I didn’t want to scare you.”

Aurum laughed, a bit shrilly. “Well, you certainly managed to avoid that. Well done. Really excellent.”

“No, I mean – if you kept running, you would have been hurt. You needed a home.” Alice looked pained. “I couldn’t explain, and I didn’t want to lie. So I didn’t say anything.”

“That’s not much better,” Aurum said bitterly. The cottage chose that moment to interject, the fire flaring in something like indignation. I know. I did the same. But she was too alarmed to concede that out loud.

Alice shook her head. “You were scared. And I did know the danger. I was surprised it came so close, though. I thought – thought you would be safe here. I didn’t think you would need to come find me or heal me that time. That was all my fault”

Aurum stared at her. Against her better judgment, she wanted to believe her. Maybe it was the guilt that still lingered from her choice to stay silent for so long rather than admit to Alice who she was. But Alice’s explanation made no sense. “How did you even know any of this?”

Alice said nothing.

“You can’t tell me? Even now?”

Alice shook her head, lips pressed together tightly.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

She sounded sincere, even deferential, and Aurum felt her heart drop at the address. It sounded so wrong. But she realized, suddenly, that Alice had never called her Aurum, either. She had never called her anything at all. Aurum should have noticed.

“How do I know you aren’t lying to me? It doesn’t make sense for you to know so much.”

“Everyone knows who you are, Princess.” Alice winced, apparently realizing the irony of saying that to a princess whose family had forgotten her. “Even if I didn’t recognize you, I’ve heard your name.”

Aurum shook her head. “You know much more than that. You knew I was running, and from whom. You remember that I’m actually a royal. Why would you know that if you weren’t working with the witch? Even if you heard my name and that I was being accused of spying and stealing from the crown, that I am on the run, you shouldn’t know about the witch.” No one does. The public should have all forgotten I am a princess but remembered my face and name. They should consider me to be a criminal and thus be inclined to help capture me.

The witch’s spell was very powerful, convincing everyone Aurum was a threat to the kingdom, and completely wiping the truth from their memories, while preserving the details of her appearance in everyone’s and filling in the gaps with vague memories of Aurum’s supposed misdeeds and plots. Aurum would never forget the shock of seeing no recognition in her parents’ eyes the moment the spell took effect. Usually loving, if strict, instead they only showed her fury and rejection, casting her out. In shock, Aurum had run, her flight response and her luck that they were on a ride together at the time the only things that saved her from being thrown in the dungeons. As she had run, the witch’s voice had whispered in her ears, saying that she was now completely alone. No matter how you run, weakling, no matter where you hide, I will find you. You have no one now.

Aurum shivered, staring at Alice as the old panic started to overtake her. She should run. She had only survived before because she had. The witch had been right to say she had no one; this weird woman in this strange cottage was not someone she could trust. She should run now, while the woman was injured and could not chase her. If she was ever actually injured at all.

“Princess.” The woman in question was speaking softly, gently. “I will explain. Let me – give me a minute. Don’t run again. It’s – it’s not the right choice for you, this time. I really do want to help you.” She looked intently at Aurum, catching her eyes with her deep brown ones. The shadows on her face reminded Aurum of that first night when she had opened the door for Aurum and stood with the golden light of the fireplace flickering behind her.

Aurum scoffed, but she did not run.

Alice took a deep breath, maintaining eye contact as she did, looking as though she was weighing two heavy choices against one another. After a long moment, Aurum shifted, and Alice’s expression turned to one panic.

“I am not from around here.” She said this in a rush, and with a strange sort of finality, as though the statement made any sense at all. Aurum just waited.

“I – you saw my clothes, right? I’m not from here. I’m from – from really, really far away.”

Against her better judgement, Aurum spoke. “Like, from a neighboring kingdom?”

Alice shook her head, so fast it was almost violent.

“I’m from – I’m not supposed to be here. This was meant to be your house. I got here, and it was so kind to me, and I was so happy to be here I stayed.”

“Got here from where?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. You won’t believe me. It’s why – I couldn’t explain.”

Aurum was getting more and more frustrated. The impulse to run was gone, though.

“What do you mean? Just say it. I’ll decide if I believe you.”

Alice was silent for a long time.

“I’m from another world. I know what’s going to happen because I read about this world in a book before I came here. I don’t know how I got here. I don’t even know if you are real. I could just be – I’m probably dreaming. But I’m not supposed to be here, and if you leave this cottage now, it will ruin everything about how the story is supposed to go.”

Another deep breath.

“You are Princess Aurum. Your family forgot you. You need to find the hero and fight the witch and you will save everyone. You are powerful, more powerful than the witch. But I’m just Alice, and I shouldn’t even be here.”