A week was up and she was lying on her sorry excuse of a bed when Robin appeared to her, softly glowing in the darkness of the room. 

"How are you, young Alvee?" He asked her softly. 

"Terrible, Robin. Erasing the designs has only made it worse for me. Now I have to work from memory. Can you put the designs back?" 

"Done," Robin replied, and the world shimmered softly as he focused his eyes up to the horizon. "Now are you sure you don't want me to just kill your oppressors?" 

"I don't want you to kill them, Robin. They raised me. Maybe just make the shop and the house dark, and make no candles burn. Then they won't be able to make me work because it will be too dark to work."

"Very ingenuitive, Alvee. You really are rather smart." His voice was soft and gentle. 

"You really think so?" Alvee's voice had an amazed edge to it. 

"I really do, young one. Now, I have already put your plan into motion. Hopefully it works. Would you like to talk before you fall asleep?"

"I sure would, Robin."

And so the two talked until sleep weighed heavy on Alvee and she could no longer keep herself awake. 

She awoke to perfect darkness, and she smiled. 

The two women also awoke to darkness, and were once again befuddled. Why was everything dark? What had caused this? They looked through all the rooms in their house, and even though they saw through the windows that it was a bright morning, none of the light reached the inside of the house. 

They woke up Alvee, and demanded that she take a look around the house as well. And so she did. And she found no light anywhere. She said sorry, saying nothing of her meeting with Robin and nothing of the plan that she had made. She hid the mirth in her eyes, so that only those who looked deeply would be able to see it.

The women tried lighting their candles, but no matter how many times they struck the matches, no fire would come. They were exasperated and cursed whatever forces had left them like this. And they flung their matches into the fireplace, which was as cool as the ground after a rainstorm. 

They went to the shop, and found it as dark as their home. They exclaimed in exasperation, and they pushed the girl to the floor. She got up and asked them if there was anything she could do. They told her to go get the matches. 

And so she did. And she suppressed her smirk when the matches didn't light. And she pretended that she was as confused as the rest of them, that she was as irritated. 

She thought that for sure now the women would not make her work. But they did. 

The women made her take her sewing and go outside, out under the glaring rays of the sun, under the window where they could keep an eye on her, in the heat of the day. Once again everything was worse than it was before, as the two women stayed inside the shop, holding their design books out the window in order to draw from them. 

And so she spent the week working outside, with the women keeping a constant eye on her. She was surprised at how well they adapted to everything. But still, she was determined to keep them alive. 

Robin showed up later, in the silence and safety of her tiny room. He asked her how she had been and she replied honestly. 

"Aww shucks," said he, eyes full of sadness, "I was sure that that plan would work. It was such a good plan."

"I thought it would work too, but it just made everything worse."

"You cannot give up, Alvee. You can never give up. Don't you dare give up. You have to keep fighting for your rights, no matter what works and what doesn't."

"I will. I'll keep fighting. But what should we do now?"

"My initial offer still stands. We could kill your abusers and you could come with me."

"No, Robin. I don't want to kill them. How about we try another tactic?"

"Sure, Alvee. You're a much better planner than me. What do you think that we should do?" 

"Well, first of all you have to bring the light back to the house and the shop."

"Of course." The world shimmered again. 

"And now, how about you make all the dresses smell? That way, no-one will want to buy them and we won't get any new orders."

"Wow, Alvee. I'm very impressed at your planning skills. I hope this works."

"I hope so too. So how are the woods, Robin?" 

"They're amazing, but all their beauty feels empty without you. I wish that you could come enjoy them with me. I wish that you were free to."

"Robin, I belong here. I grew up here. This is the only place I have ever known."

"But do you belong here, though? Or is it that you're just used to this place?"

"I do belong." She had to belong here, she thought. Because otherwise, where would she belong? Where would she go? 

"Alright. If you say so. Have you ever flown with your wings?" 

"No." 

"Well then, I'll have to teach you how one day."

"These are dragon wings. They don't work the same as birds wings do."

"Well you've seen my wings. They change all the time. I've flown with dragon wings before. I know how they work." 

They continued talking until sleep overwhelmed her. 

Alvee woke up and she was tired but she smiled anyways. For she remembered the plan she had made with Robin, and she remembered all the conversations she had with him. 

When she got to the dress store she saw that it was filled with foul odours. And the two women saw this too. They wrinkled their noses and held their breaths. They wondered what the source of this smell was, and sent Alvee to check all the nooks and crannies, to check if maybe something had died within the store. 

When Alvee came back with nothing, they did a search of the shop themselves. And they found out that the source of all the foul odour was the dresses themselves. 

All week they made Alvee wash the dresses, but the odour would not go away. In the meanwhile, they lost business. Finally they realized that the dresses could not be washed clean and whatever the source of this odour was, it would not go away. 

Robin came to Alvee on the night that a week was up. And he asked if the plan worked. 

"It did work, Robin!" Alvee exclaimed excitedly. "They can't get the smells out!"

"That's amazing, little one. Now we will be able to free you. Well, at least somewhat."

"Yes. And we'll have more time to hang out."

"So we will. Would you rather live on a mountain or in a valley?"

"Hmm, I don't know."

They continued their talking late into the night. 

The next day though, the dress shop was full of customers. For the dresses were so beautiful that none of the townspeople could say no to them, even if they smelled. They simply decided to cover the smells in expensive perfumes. 

And so Alvee was given more work. And she silently fumed at the prospect. But she did not let anyone know. 

Alvee wondered how she was so good at keeping Robin a secret. She wondered how she was so good at keeping secrets. Though, she supposed, she always had to keep her true emotions secret, even from her own self. She hated keeping secrets. But in a strange way she loved it as well. For what was secret was safe. 

So she sewed and she sewed and she overheard a piece of conversation from the two women. 

"I told you we shouldn't have bought that egg," the purple-feathered one was saying. "It has cursed us, just as its mother said it would."

"Do you really believe the words of a dragon-woman witch? She probably only said them so we wouldn't take her egg."

"Well now look at us. All these strange things happening. How do you explain that?"

"Well it certainly can't be the girl's fault. She doesn't hold that much power."

Alvee went back to her sewing. 

But late at night she thought about what she had overheard. It was plain to see that they were talking about her. And she knew what this meant. She had a mother! A mother that was out there somewhere, missing her. A mother that did not want to be parted from her. 

She did her work and she waited for Robin to return. And once he did, she told him her new plan. 

"We have to kill them. We just have to. We have to kill them both."

"Perfect, young one. And after we kill them, what do we do?" 

"We find my mother."

"Done."

Alvee woke up the next morning and searched through the house. The two women were lying in their beds, as if asleep. But she knew better. They were pale. They were cold. They were dead. 

Alvee stepped out across the threshold and into the morning.

———

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