The first snowflakes came at midafternoon and the hunting party had not returned. Luna was locked in her room with two young knights guarding the doors. Her stepmother's favorites. They would never let her out.

Instead she wrapped her old quilt around herself, pressed a hand over the plaster on her cheek and, stared out her window. It had no view of the gate but she could see the courtyard and would know when her father returned. She refused to allow herself the terror of questioning if he would return. He must. She must be wrong and overreacting. Otherwise... 

The little Princess slid from her perch on the sill and paced the room with the quilt trailing behind her. Her patchwork tail slithered erratically as she circled the room at random. Luna grabbed a stuffed rabbit and squeezed it tight in her arms. He must come home.

There was a knock on her door and Serena stepped in. Her stepmother laced her hands together, her eyes red rimmed in her white face. Makeup couldn't quite conceal the splotches of red on her cheeks or the brightness of her eyes after crying.

"Luna, sweetheart. I am so sorry for hurting you. I was frightened you'd hurt yourself. I know we don't always get along but - " She opened her arms to the little Princess who fell into them crying. Serena sank to her knees to hold Luna close.

"I'm scared." Luna whimpered. "I have such a bad feeling." 

"Do you want to see if the magic mirror can see him? With both of us seeking him we'll have a better chance of seeing him." Serena stroked back Luna's hair with a soft smile. Luna gave a tearful nod.

"Yes, please, I'd like that very much." 

"I'll have some cocoa and a snack brought. You can rest in my rooms after." Using a lace edged handkerchief Luna's stepmother wiped away her tears. Hand in hand they walked to the princess-consort's chambers, Luna's quilt still over her head and shoulders like a cloak.

Luna loved her stepmother's rooms. The bed and walls were draped in a pale blue velvet that made the room feel like it was open to the sky. The mirror hung opposite Serena's fireplace, a bubbly glass surface that cast everything in warm golden tones. Luna drifted close to it, but she knew better than to touch it. 

The princess-consort's mirror was a powerful magical object that could show a person or thing if Serena could picture it clearly enough in her mind. The mirror was linked to only her stepmother and no one was allowed to touch it, not even the maids to clean it. Serena did it herself with a specially mixed compound of herbs and pure water.

Serena stepped up and took Luna's hand, squeezing it gently. 

"Think of your father. Build his image in your mind. His hair, his eyes, his expressions." The princess-consort's voice was soothing, lulling.

Luna pictured her father in her mind's eye. Her eyes drifted closed as she saw his pale hair and the circlet of gold on his brow. His brown eyes twinkled at her from over his chalice of wine. The mirror's magic tugged at her mind but Serena was there to balance it out. Her cold fingers stroked Luna's cheek to anchor her mind in the physical world. 

"There he is. Look, Luna."

She opened her eyes, holding her breath as her stomach tightened. At the same time she relaxed because he was there, his face serious as he spoke to one of the hunt masters. Luna turned to press her face to her stepmother's side, tears in her eyes. Her father was safe. She felt Serena's hand stroke her hair.

"Come now, you're already tired and the magic takes from you." Luna let herself be guided to the plush couch and sipped the cocoa put in her hands. She hardly noticed when the half empty cup was taken from her hands, curling up under the old quilt.

Serena sat by her, a cool hand on the side of Luna's head. The girl rested her temple on the velvet of her stepmother's skirts. "Let me tell you a story my mother told me about how this world was born and where magic comes from." Her voice was soft and lulling, Luna nodded fractionally as Serena went on.

"Once two Divine beings built a universe with their dance. There were many souls but some were special, given a spark of divinity from the creators themselves, the power to change their own worlds. All was good, these marked souls were drawn to each other through peril and wonder to create beautiful magical stories that endured through time. The Divines were delighted - or at least one was." Luna closed her eyes imagining the beings of shimmering stars twirling and spinning together. Serena's words seemed distant as sleep tugged at her.

"The divinely marked souls began to vanish, crying out and then extinguishing. Realizing that her companion was devouring their creations she gathered the last of these special souls and fled where he could not pursue. 

"Her grief flavored the single little world she built for her remaining creations, making their stories darker than she ever intended. The darkness grieved her more still and it affects us to this day as tragedy and misfortune. 

"But that's where the magic comes from too, that divine spark that lives in us, the Goddess' chosen people." Serena's fingers carded the girl's pale hair tenderly as her stepdaughter's breathing evened into sleep. 

Luna woke to a distant sound in the courtyard - the deep grinding of the great gates opening - Luna ran for the window. The hunting party was back - she could see the massive body of the boar laying on the stone. But not her father's horse, nor the King himself. Jaeger turned into her view with a limp body braced before him on his steed, gold flashing on the pale brow. The courtyard boiled into action with people running about like ants. The snowflakes whirled to the flagstones below.

The King had come home.