It felt horribly close to fleeing as I ran forward. Unsure of my own destination until I reached the well. Maybe the messenger was still crying out his message because no one was there. I looked down into the black water and saw my distorted face at the bottom of it. The water didn’t seem any lower to me. For a fleeting moment, I wanted all the water inside of it to be gone so I didn’t have to look myself in the eye.

Auden had asked me if I wanted a guarantee. I did. I wanted a guarantee that if I did all of this Ella would be happy. I wanted a guarantee that if she was happy, I could forget about all of these things that I was feeling. I wanted life to move on painlessly. 

“I want to guarantee her a happy ending,” I whispered into the well. It rippled without me saying anything at all. And I wasn’t even surprised as the hair by my ear fluttered from another voice. 

“That’ll take a bit of magic,” Auden said and I swear his eyes glowed.

~~~

"First, this is what I need you to bring." It was a heavy book. The front was a language that I didn't recognize. I struggled to keep it under my arm as he dug through the belongings of his wagon. "And then this, if you'd be so kind." It would be much easier if he'd just lent me the wagon to begin with. He pushed a leather drinking flask into my hands as well. I struggled to adjust them before they fell. 

"Sir-" I hadn’t expected him to explain much more to me. It seemed the only thing he liked to speak in was platitudes. But he could at least let me fetch a backpack. Or allow me something--anything, to carry them.

"And if I'd had a little more time, I would have made this a bit more special for you," Auden stated with a wink. I just rolled my eyes at him. "But as things are right now, this is the best I can do for you." A small silver velvet bag appeared in his hands. A black drawstring that he deftly tugged open with one hand as he held out his other. "May I?" I stared at him. 

"May you what?"

"I doubt 'Old Maggie' would do something for free; you need a little token of sincerity."

Wasn't the entire reason I was doing this because I didn't have anything to my name? What could I possibly have as a token of sincerity? Besides, she was a local. If I had anything she wanted, I'm sure she could have taken it from me already.  But Auden didn't seem to agree with me as he waited expectedly. 

"What?" I asked impatiently. A solid tap of my foot followed as I wanted to get to the point. 

"May I see your coin purse?"I might have said no if I still had more than a few coppers left. I wasn't so foolish as to give a man I didn't even know all of my money. But seeing as he already knew I was dirt poor, I pulled it out of my bodice and held it out towards him. 

Then it was the strangest thing. His mask of joy, of foolery, all melted away. The world was constantly moving; air drifted around us, blood beat within us, and nothing was ever still. But it seemed that Auden was still. Truly still. Not even the air touched him. The hair on the back of my neck was rising straight, and I shuddered. 

“Would you pour it into your hand, please?” I felt a pressure upon me. Threatened. I looked over my shoulder, suddenly sure that I was being watched by something dangerous. Something that I couldn’t see. Not unlike unspoken words, I could hear it accusing me of not being serious. I was trying to guarantee a happy ending. That wasn’t something anyone outside of stories was assured of. If I really loved her, if I really wanted her to be happy, then I had to give it what it wanted.

“I-” I swallowed dryly. The moisture had left my mouth, yet I was sweating. I didn’t know what to do other than what he asked. A few of the coppers I had left clinked together in my hand, and my stones. His finger hovered right over the stones, pointing square at my robin’s egg stone. 

“That.” All of his theatrics had rushed away just as the blood from my face had. His eyes didn’t break away from my stone and I could feel him see it. I could feel him see me in the river sobbing as I held Ella. “Put it in the bag.” 

My hands moved of their own accord. They danced to some song I couldn’t hear and plucked up my rock. I could only watch as something in my veins and muscles and bones held it over the open bag and then dropped it. In the moment between gravity, in that second when it fell through the air, I knew what he wanted. I knew what the 'it' watching me wanted.

They wanted a- 

It made no sound as it fell into the velvet. But pressure popped in my ears and left behind the roar of a river. Painful flowing water made me yelp, and I slapped a hand to my right ear. I was sure there would be blood when I pulled my hand back away, but there was nothing. Just an excruciating ringing. 

Too late, I saw something wild leave Auden’s eyes, and the white grin returned. The word I’d known was gone. 

“There are more than a few people who would pay good money for a token such as this." His voice was pleased, cheerful, like the chill in the air had been nothing and he commented on nothing. Not on my shaking, or his own as he tied the bag closed. "What better thing to hold some luck and heart than a pretty stone traded by a girl who wanted to give her friend the happiest night of her life.”

At this point, it seemed useless to spare the energy to wonder how he knew so many things that I was sure I hadn’t told him. At this point… I was afraid of him. 

I don’t know why my stone in that bag suddenly filled me with fear. It was, if anything, a trifle. Just a stone Ella had given me once that reminded me of both her spirit and her pain. It reminded me of my lack of power and the beautiful things that could be in the world. I should be happy to cast it away. But it reminded me of Ella. I didn't really want to give it to him, or the witch. But maybe that was what he meant by a token of sincerity. Though it wasn't precious, it was just colorful. And it wasn't particularly large or interesting. What would a witch want with it? Was it the bag that scared me? What made it important? 

“Who are you?” First, he was a stranger, then he seemed a fraud, and now he seemed something else entirely. Familiar and terrifying as the forest had been when I was a child. 

"Hand to heart, I am someone who wants nothing but your best interests. And the best interests of your friend."

But what if he was just trying to get rid of me so he could whisk off Ella? No, that didn't make sense either. I was hardly a threat in that situation. Unless he wanted the witch to eat me and then comfort me when Ella was distraught. Or maybe he was just a demon. An evil witch that tempted children away with promises that sounded much like this. 

"You're not wrong to be suspicious of strangers," He murmured with a surprising seriousness. There was no joy in his eyes. "But if you truly want to change the future into what you want it to be, you'll have to take that risk for your taste of magic." 

“You are magic though, aren’t you?” I asked. Desperate, not for that taste of magic, but for proof. An assurance that I wasn’t being tricked and that it was all possible to happen. “If you are, why can’t you just walk up to Old Maggie herself?” The smile spread on his lips but not into his eyes. 

“That’s not allowed.” 

“Why me?” Was it pity? Was I allowed to think it was destiny? Couldn’t it be that I wanted something so hard that the world heard me?

“Bad luck.” He motioned with his head upwards. I looked up and there was only the sun. Bright and orange as it rose higher and higher into the sky. It was a blink, only a blink, and I thought the orange sun above me had exploded. Pieces of orange shattering above me. Then one brushed against my face and I realized what they were. Feathers. Orange feathers filled the sky above and danced gently in the breeze. “Good luck.” Words drifted through the feathers as they settled onto the ground.