After the demise of Lucy's mother, her life only became much darker. Her father barely let her ride her precious horses anymore, she only saw her grandfather once a month, and he forbade her from speaking to anyone outside the castle which made her very lonely. But what truly sealed her fate as having a miserable childhood was the day her father caught her playing in the gardens with a boy who had passed by. He was furious and decided to punish her in a way that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"Father I'm sorry." She pleaded as he dragged her roughly by the arm through the castle hallways.

"I've told you not to talk to anyone outside the castle but you disobeyed me."

"I only wanted a friend."

"A friend? Girl you will never have friends because no one in this world will ever love or care for you! No one but me and it's time that you learn that!"

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Something that I should have done the very instant you were born."

Down and down the hallways they went until they reached the stairway leading to the tallest tower of the entire castle. The very place where her mother had died. Lucy tried to resist out of fear but eventually she was forced to go all the way to the top where a luxurious room with silks and finery awaited her. As soon as they were inside the room Xavier snapped his fingers which caused the door and the stairs to the tower to vanish in a puff of smoke.

You see Xavier was not only a king but a great sorcerer. One of the greatest that had ever been known through out the land of Fiore. Known and feared. He was wielder of dark magic and for years he had used it to do many cruel and deplorable things. Things that would make nearly all too afraid to ever appose him.

"Father why are we here?" Lucy asked.

"This is your new home now my dear daughter." He said. "Since you cannot be trusted to live by my rules and act as a good girl you shall remain here where I can make sure that you do."

"But the door is gone. How shall I leave this place?"

"You won't."

"What?!"

"From now on you shall never set one foot out of that tower until I have decided that you are a good girl."

"But you can't keep me here! I'll starve!"

"I will see to it that all your meals and necessities are brought to you daily."

"How? There's no way in or out."

"Oh yes there is."

He pointed over to her brush which now lay on that vanity that had been moved up here.

"Brush your hair."

"Why?"

"Be quiet and do what I say!"

Trembling, she sat down at the vanity and proceeded to comb her hair with the brush. Almost instantly her blonde magically grew longer and longer and longer. So long in fact that it nearly covered the entire floor of the room. The golden locks then magically braided itself into a blonde rope.

"Throw your hair out the window!" He ordered.

Lucy did as she was told and her long braid reached all the way to the very bottom of the tower.

"Whenever something needs to be brought to you, myself or a servant will use your hair to climb in and out of the tower. " Her father told her. "Also your hair is now enchanted to where I am the only one who can cut it thus you can never use it to escape."

"Father you can't do this!" The poor girl cried.

"It is for your own good. You will be safe here and you won't get yourself into trouble by disobeying me!"

"Father please don't leave here. I promise I'll never disobey you again. I'll be a good girl."

"Yes you will as long as you stay here."

He grabbed hold of her braid, swung his leg over the window of the tower, and climbed down. The whole time Lucy begged, pleaded, screamed, and cried for him not to leave her locked away in the tower but the heartless king would not yield. When he left she desperately tried to somehow cut her hair off so she could use it to climb out too but just as her father said, no one but him had the power to cut her hair. No scissors or knife or any blade would be able to cut through her locks unless it was used by the king.

From that moment forward everyday Xavier or a castle servant would go up to the tower and call out,

"Lucy, Lucy, let down your hair!"

Then she would let down her golden braid and the caller would climb up to bring her food, water, and anything else she would need. The tower room in itself was very comfortable and elegant. She had silken bed to sleep on, a marble tub to bathe in, furniture to sit upon, a wardrobe full of fine dresses and shoes, and a table to eat at. But none of this mattered to Lucy because she had now lost something that was far more precious than any elegant room. Her freedom and in the beginning all she ever did was beg for her father to return it.

"Why must you be so ungrateful?!" He would snap whenever she made those pleas. "Ever since you were born I've brought you up like a proper princess! I have given you everything!"

"You've never given me anything that I really wanted." She once retorted which earned her a slap to the face.

"Don't you dare start to behave like your mother! No one ever loved her except me but that wasn't enough for the shrew! She never appreciated me! And the same goes for you! You're nothing special yet I still keep you and care for you and love you! But you have yet to show me any gratitude!"

"Forgive me Father I spoke without thinking!"

"Another terrible trait you inherited from your mother! She always ran her mouth without having a single thought! The stupid woman!"

"Why are you saying such things? I thought you loved Mother?"

Xavier then realized how this looked and quickly changed his demeanor. He smiled sweetly at the girl and moved to gently hold her with affection.

"I did love your mother." He told her a calm voice. "She was the only woman I ever loved and I love you. My little ray of sunshine, I do not mean to be so harsh with you but you must understand that everything I do, I do out of love."

"But if you love me so much why must you insist that I stay here where I am miserable?"

"Love is not easy Lucy. Sometimes it makes us do hard things. I do not want to keep you here but I must for your safety and for your character. This will humble you and make you appreciate what I do for you. If I didn't love you why would go out of my way to make this tower comfortable for you and have the servants bring you your meals and other things?"

"I suppose you are right but will I stay here forever?"

"No. Someday you may leave but it will be when I decide that you are ready to leave. I know what is best for you Lucy and no one will ever love you like I do. In fact you could say that I am the only one who truly loves you. Now enough talk of leaving this place."

"Yes Father."

Lucy never asked to leave the tower again. Her grandfather tried to convince the king to let her out but his efforts proved to be futile. In the end she would spend the rest of her childhood isolated in that tower and would not know the outside world again until she became a woman.

...

Elkis went to meet with Minajane when she took her lunch break. The plan was to somehow convince her to reveal the identity of the woman Mina was certain had given birth to a child in Edolas. This reason being because she suspected this woman of being Greige's mother.

"Minajane may I talk to you about something?" Elkis had asked her after the nurse finished her salad.

"Of course. What is it?"

"Well it's about a patient you had some years ago. A woman you examined and you believed that she possibly had a child but denied it. Do you recall that?"

"Yes. But how do you know about that? I never told anyone save for the doctor that the patient was seeing and my supervisor."

"Huh?" Elkis thought. "Then how did Siegrain know?"

"It doesn't matter. Anyway I was wondering of you could give me the name of that patient?"

"Elkis you know I can't do that."

"I know it breaks doctor-patient confidentiality but this is important."

"Elkis I could lose my job for this. Why do you even want to know who this woman is?"

"Because I think that she may be Griege's mother."

"What?"

"Griege was found outside of Edolas when he was a few months old so there's a chance he might have been born here and the patient you examined my have been the mother who birthed him."

"No she's not."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Yes I do. Because the age and the time doesn't match up."

"What are you talking about? The age and timing was perfect. It was ten years."

"Ten years? I estimated about thirteen- Wait! Are you talking about the one I saw with vaginal scarring?"

"Yes."

"Oh...Uh-oh."

"Hold on who were you talking about?"

"No one. No one at all."

"Mina is there another woman in this town who may have had a child?"

"It's none of my business to say if there is."

"So in other words there is another here woman who birthed a child but you won't tell me."

"Well I wouldn't exactly say birthed."

"What does that mean?"

Minajane looked around herself to make sure that no one was looking and the hospital cameras had been broken down recently so nobody would be able to get any inkling of their conversation.

"Alright I can't give you any names but I had another female patient who we believed may have had breast cancer. It was a false alarm but during the process of getting her x-ray  I noticed that she had scars on her abdomen, cesarean scars."

"From a C-section?"

"Very likely. They were faded scars but the medical profession has trained us to notice these things and the way they were edged it looked a little improper."

"What do you mean improper?"

"Whoever performed it was no doctor and if I were to estimate how old those scars were I would say around twelve to thirteen years."

"Did she ever mention having a child?"

"I asked her about it. She denied ever being pregnant and said that those scars were from when she had an ovary taken out years earlier but it was the wrong kind of scar."

"So she definitely had a child."

"Yes."

"Who was she?"

"I told you I'm not giving any names."

"But Minajane this doesn't sound right. Two women from this town bear scars only obtained in the process of having a child and both deny it. You have to admit that is suspicious."

"It is but it is not my place to meddle."

"So it never occurred to you that maybe these women were dangerous? That maybe they did something to their babies?"

"Of course and I wanted to tell the police but my supervisor says that breaking the confidentiality of a patient would not only cost me my job but could possibly land me in jail. I can't risk that."

"Minajane  I promise you I won't let anyone know that you're my source. I'll keep it hushed up. But I have to know their names."

"I have already told you too much and I'm not telling you anymore. I'm sorry."

"Alright fine but can you at least tell me what you think might have happened?  If you thought any of those women were a threat? If they may have killed their babies?"

"I can honestly say from my point of view, they didn't look like the types of horrible women who would do that. The first one acted as if she didn't even know that she had lost her virginity let alone got pregnant and gave birth. She was genuinely confused, shocked, and insisted that I had made a mistake. Judging by her reaction and the brutal vaginal scarring, I'd say that she was traumatized by a difficult labor that lead to a still born and she's mentally blocked out all memory of it as a way to cope."

"And the second woman?"

"She looked very bitter and grieved when I asked her if she ever had a child. Like she had lost something very dear to her. She hid it well but I could see it in her eyes. My guess for her situation is that she had some inexperienced moron perform a C-section on her but something went wrong which caused her to lose the baby. An event so heartbreaking that she likes to pretend that it never happened."

"But you never suspected any of their babies could be alive?"

"Not really. The first woman has a history of extremely weak health and gave birth without any medical treatment, at least I saw no trace of medical treatment based on her scars and both factors will often lead to stillbirths. While the second one had the scars of an improperly done C-section and usually one out of ten infants survive an improper cesarean."

"That's all you can tell me?"

"Yes and I'm begging you, don't tell anyone that I told you this. Not a soul."

"I won't. I swear."

"Thank you. Now my break is over and I have to get back to work."

"Okay Mina, see you around."

"And Elkis."

"Yes?"

"Some advice for the future. Forget this information and don't meddle in it. Because whatever you find may only make things worse for you and those kids."

But Elkis was never one to give up on anything and Minajane knew that. Still she warned her and she prayed that for once in her life Elkis would actually heed her words.