“Um… hello,” Delphie said.

The girl gasped. “Who are you?” She scrambled to her feet tucking the locket quickly inside her clothes.

“I’m Delphie.”

The girl looked at Delphie’s ballet shoes. “Of course. You’re the girl with the red ballet shoes! Oh, have you come to help me?”

“I’ll try,” said Delphie. “What’s your name and what’s wrong?”

“I’m Cinderella, although everyone apart from my ugly sisters calls me Cinders. I’m supposed to be a princess by now and be married to my handsome prince but… oh!” Cinderella started to cry again. “Something’s gone horribly wrong and it’s all King Rat’s fault!”

Delphie’s heart sank. She’d met King Rat before and he was horrible. He lived in a smelly castle and he hated dancing. He was always trying to stop it and to cause problems for everyone else in Enchantia. “What’s he done this time?” she said. Cinderella pushed her long hair back from her face. “The whole thing started just after I became a princess. I was living in the palace and having such a lovely time. But then King Rat invited me and Prince Charming to a party at his castle. I didn’t want to go because King Rat’s so mean; I said no, and King Rat got really cross because he’d already told people that we would be there. He said we had to go and when I wouldn’t he turned back time to before I became a princess to punish me. So now I’m back living here again and being bossed around by my ugly sisters.”

“That’s horrible,” said Delphie. “But surely it’ll be OK. If he’s turned back time, all the things that happened will happen all over again. You’ll be invited to the ball, you’ll see the fairy godmother and you’ll meet Prince Charming. It’ll be all right.”

“It won’t!” Cinders’ voice rose to a wail. “Every night I see my fairy godmother and get to the ball all right, but as soon as I get there time jumps forward to midnight and then as the clock finishes chiming midnight, time jumps back and I end up here in the afternoon before the ball again. King Rat has somehow cast a time-spell so it just keeps happening over and over again. I never meet the prince and I never get to leave my slipper and I always end up back in rags.”

“Oh.” Delphie didn’t know what to say.

“Can you help me?” Cinderella begged.

“I’ll try,” Delphie promised.

“My fairy godmother should be here any moment,” said Cinderella.

Delphie had just started to nod when there was a bright silver flash and Cinder’s fairy godmother appeared. She was wearing a beautiful blue dress with a skirt that sparkled as if it was covered by stars.