Shut Up, Cinderella

Keeping Silent

Early the next morning, before the sun could rise or the villagers woke from their sleep, a hooded and cloaked figure emerged from the inn. In silence it made its way through the sleeping streets, a single track of footprints forming in the snow, heading directly to the house of the village's only doctor.

"What do you want?" the woman grumbled as she opened the door, glaring sleepily at the cloaked stranger. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Do you know what the kids from the orphanage need?" came the urgent response.

Rubbing her eyes, she slumped against the doorframe. "'Course I do," she muttered. "What's it matter? They still haven't paid off all of last year's medicine." She yawned. "I can't keep giving them stuff for free, I have a family to feed."

"I'll pay for it."

She stared.

"All of it?"

"Everything." The cloaked figure produced a wallet. "Cure the kids. Make sure nobody else dies."

The doctor looked back and forth between the wallet and the stranger, disbelief growing on her face. "But..."

"And one more thing," the stranger added. "Don't tell anybody who paid for it."

No more children died at the orphanage that winter. But none of them could find out who had saved their lives either.

~ ~ ~

"Someone's in a good mood this morning," Olive remarked, watching Gem shovel down his second plate of breakfast.

The prince did indeed look much happier than yesterday. What exactly had happened neither Cinder nor Olive could guess; but one way or another he had stopped being upset and come to breakfast with a big smile on his face.

"What," Cinder joked, "got used to the suffering already?"

"No!" Gem almost choked on his food. "If you need to know, I already helped some people."

"What," Cinder replied, "before breakfast?"

Gem puffed up where he sat. "People need help before breakfast too!"

Cinder snorted. "Horrible."

"Don't be so cold-hearted, you jerk! I'll get up as early as my duty calls me." Gem's expression turned serene. "If somebody needed me to, I'd even stay up all night!"

What an idiot, Cinder thought. But a kindhearted idiot all the same.

"That almost sounds like you're turning into a responsible prince," he remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Disgusting."

"Hey! Somebody needs to be responsible around here."

"Somebody also needs to get moving before we stand out too much." Cinder pushed away his plate. "Someone will figure us out if we stay here much longer."

Gem's face fell.

"But," he said.

"Listen to Sir Obsidian, servant boy," Olive chided him. "It's a small place, people will talk. I'm sure you can do more good in other places too."

Gem stared down at his half-finished plate.

"But what if people here need help too," he said, "and I can't get to them in time because we keep moving?"

"Then that's life."

Gem looked up to glare at him, but Cinder kept his tone gentle. "You can't save everyone," he said calmly, meeting Gem's wide eyes. "In other towns and villages people need your help too. Maybe just as urgently." Gem sighed, and Cinder continued, "Would you rather let them down because you're still busy here?"