Chapter 3 - Promises and Bribery

Rella rode home in tears. She was thankful her horse brought her here, although she didn't think abut how the horse got there when she was initially teleported to the palace.

Finding herself at home, she rushed inside, clambering up the stairs and into the attic. There she sat in the corner and cried her eyes out. 

When she took off a shoe, and not feeling the other, she cried even harder, "How could it all go so wrong? I shouldn't have gone! Just like step-mother said." 

The bird that had been sitting on the windowsill flew off into the forest, and soon played the scene to Atrobell. 

Atrobell's forehead creased, the furrows becoming more pronounced as Rella mentioned her step-mother. 

"This girl," Atrobell sighed. "She doesn't know just what good will be coming her way." Atrobell ruffled her own hair. "Not that she'd know why. And I don't want her to. Ah, was the dress too much?"

Atrobell paced for a minute before appearing in the attic where Rella still sat crying.

She handed her some slippers, "Although these aren't your mother's, they are of the same kind."

"...what?" Rella gasped for breath as she took the shoes, trying to blink away the tears enough to see who was before her.

"Ah come on, now," Atrobell knew she was terrible at comforting others, not that she ever tried to comfort anyone. Not even now. "The shoe you lost will find it's way back to you. How do I know? I'm the Fairy Godmother, remember? Hired by the same mother who asked me to make a number of her shoes. So take these before you freeze your feet and put them on." 

Rella nodded her head, and put the shoes on, "You truly knew my mother?" 

Atrobell puffed her chest, "Of course!"

"Really?"

"What, you want to hear stories of her to confirm it?" asked Atrobell with sarcasm.

Which Rella didn't take note of, for as soon as the idea of stories of her mother was on the table, "Yes!" Her eyes sparkled more than ever with the tears. 

With the brightness of Rella's face, even Atrobell couldn't say no.

"Geh. Your face shines just like hers. One of the reasons I ended up in such a mess!"

"Are you saying my mother was a troublemaker? That can't be."

"Hah!" Atrobell scoffed, "She wasn't like your step-family. No, she couldn't say no to helping anyone and ended up getting pulled into their messes too! And then she'd pull me in!"

Atrobell huffed, thinking of all the contracts she'd signed over the years. True, many of them led to her knowing secrets of nobility which helped her rise in the Underworld, but, "If she just listened to me properly, we could have finished one job at a time, instead of having twenty at once!"

Rella giggled, "You can't say no to helping someone in need. And if two people need help, there's no reason to make them wait if you don't have to."

"And there's no reason to take it on if the helping can wait!" Atrobell rubbed her temple, "You're too much like her in that aspect too."

Rella's face brighten up even more. She shuffled closer to Atrobell, her eyes clearly asking to hear more. 

"This child," Atrobell grumbled, before pulling out a pocket watch. Opening it up, a hologram of Rella's mother appeared, for this pocket watch could save a recoding of up to five minutes and replayed as often as one would like.

Of course, Atrobell didn't hold a single pocket watch of Rella's mother with her at all times. She held hundreds of similar pocket watches in a separate magical space that could only be accessed by her. Such a space was only able to be created once a Fairy had been granted 'Godmother' status. Thus, Atrobell didn't mind helping out an inconvenienced citizen or two every so often. The space really helped with holding convicting evidence and recordings for bribery after all. 

The recording played on Atrobell's watch involved Rella's mother spinning in a glittering dress, with a huge smile on her face. "Isn't it pretty?" she chimed, her hair flowing in waves over her shoulders. 

As she settled, she continued to speak, "I received this as a gift from Count Randall as a thank you for helping him find his missing shipment of doors." 

"It's a wonder he could afford such a dress given his failing business," Atrobell could be heard scoffing in the recording.

"He said the gems were a gift from a benefactor that he had no need for, so he sent them to a dressmaker, Edna Mode, whom he had promised an interesting project sometime."

"The gem business has taken off lately," Atrobell murmured. 

Rella's mother lifted the dress to show her shoes, "If so, then can I get shoes that match? These ones don't quite have the same sparkle."

After a pause, Atrobell was heard again, "I do have some people who owe me. Walk me through the forest later and we have a deal." 

Rella's mother smiled her large smile again, "Sure!"

The recoding stopped and Atrobell looked at Rella's face. She was crying again, but this time quietly as tears softly dribbled down her cheeks. 

"Did she get shoes to match?" Rella managed to ask, still looking at the pocket watch, her mothers smile frozen on the hologram. 

Atrobell answered, "Of course. Would I ever renege on a deal?"

Rella nodded, "That's good to know," and she smiled again. "What happened to her shoes then? I don't think I ever saw any dress or shoes that sparkly in my mother's belongings..." She trailed off, trying to remember all those years ago when her mother still lived.

"Ah," Atrobell paused, trying to think of a more plausible story than 'they were used as both evidence and bribery, stolen back by me and sold in the black market'. "They were used to help someone in a crisis..." Atrobell trailed off, it wasn't that big of a matter for her to remember, but surely there was something more to it... "And, a little girl was fed and found to be the lost daughter of a high noble." It wasn't exactly wrong, but that was definitely not the full story. Boo was quite they character, let's just say. 

Rella nodded, "That sounds just like her. Okay. I don't need gem shoes and dress."

Atrobell rubbed her temple, "Not having something isn't something you should be happy for. Agh, I'll get you another one some day."

Rella laughed, "Is that something my mother asked you to do for me as well?"

"No..." Atrobell frowned, "I just said it so it will be done! Stop giving everything away and just take something for yourself! For my sanity of nothing else."

Before Atrobell could make another promise to give something to Rella, she put her to bed with a lullaby from the music box next to Rella's bed. As she drifted off Rella thanked Atrobell for fixing it.

Atrobell left grumbling, forgetting most people found that thing really hard to fill with magic. 

* END CH3 *