Rapunzel:

"Rapunzel, can you please refresh my tea?" Mother asks, not looking up from the paper.

Still a bit drained after the spell, I prop myself up off the table and try to stand; my legs wobble at first but steady after a few seconds and I fill Mother's cup.

"Have you started the next section of your studies yet?" She asks sipping her tea.

I slump back down in the chair, "Uh yeah, the stars, right?"

"Yes, try to have it done by the time I return later and you can tell me what you read." She stands, drinking the rest of her tea and folding the paper back up on the table.

When I was younger I always wondered what lay beyond the cliffs that surrounded the tower. I would dream and always ask Mother questions after she returned from her outings. She quickly got tired of my constant asking and said if I wanted to know what's out there I would have to learn it myself, through books. So almost every day, for a short period, she brought home book after book; books about animals and plants at first, but as I grew older I desired more. I got giant books on history, one for every continent, country, era, everything. My bedroom walls are lined with shelves, holding every book I ever received from Mother, I also have baskets full of all the old newspapers Mother finishes. I've read everything alone in my room, cover to cover, except the new astronomy book Mother gave me last week. She insists I tell her what I read every day because she doesn't believe I read as much as I do, and she only gets me new books once I finish the last.

"Rapunzel, where's my bag?" She asks, gazing around the room.

"Maybe it's in your bedroom, I can..."

"No." She cuts me off, "I'll get it, you clean up the table."

"Yes, Mother." I say forgetting I'm not allowed in her room; it's always just been another rule, just like the one about never leaving the tower.