They say Rumplestiltskin has ruined lives, has ended cities, has brought the most powerful kings to their knees.

He demanded payment for his deeds, but the further he allowed his magic to control him the further his heart broke. That was until he had no heart left, until it was reduced to nothing but black ashes.

And the fact that Rumplestiltskin wasn't actually a male like the stories led you to believe. You see, it was her cover. If authors wrote her as a male, it was under her spells. She allowed her gender to deceive others, her beauty was its own spell, that way she could make deals easier. Her beauty is both a curse and a blessing.

And why was it curse? Because those who were foolish enough to summon her under the grounds that they would walk out alive were immediately enchanted by her appearance. She allowed her silky voice to soothe them into sitting down, she allowed her nimble fingers to brush encouragingly along their shoulders, and she used her deer-like elegance to distract their minds and hearts. Men wanted her for their wife, women wanted her as a gossip bird to walk the streets with, and children wanted her for their mother.

Not one person for the length of seven hundred years have been able to talk their way out of her snake-tongued deals, to see past the fake glow of compassion in her wicked green eyes to see the glittering malice and triumph that the rest of her held back.

That was their mistake, you see, listening to the books that directed her summoning. She, perhaps, read those books. She didn't find anger in being summoned for petty things like a curse on the neighbor next door, or the death of an enemy that killed a grieving widow's husband. It was her job, and she always enjoyed the reward.

But the humans began to see her for what she was for. They began telling her in the tales of a wrinkled, green-skinned man who would trick you for every deal you made. She was no longer summoned, and she found herself no longer welcomed in the human realm.  Books stopped giving directions on how to summon her, and soon she was trapped in her own castle.

Until Penelope made the mistake of finding a buried spellbook and playing in the field of magic.