The city has a rapid pulse. Everyone here is in a frenzy to breathe, to live, to couple, and to gobble. A maelstrom of emotions eddy in the air: hunger, greed, and lust are more common than others. What would it be like to live here forever, trapped within the metal and the stone, captive to decay?

Croi stands against a fence and watches human children shrieking with laughter as they play a game of chance by the road. Would the people here accept her? Would she want them to?

After a minute or so, she starts walking and doesn’t stop until she reaches the castle. As usual, the entrance is crowded. Guards stand in front of the horde of people seeking audience with the king. There’s no point in waiting; people won’t make way for Croi no matter how long she waits. So she shoves her way through the crowd, stepping on feet and pinching any flesh available. Humans react quite quickly to pain.

Once she has crossed the sea of people, Croi starts running. She runs until there is no breath in her. She runs until she can breathe again. Slipping into the inner grounds of the castle, she walks unseen through hallways and outer corridors until she reaches her destination: a forgotten courtyard in an older part of the castle. The place usually sees very few visitors, so the air is still and dank here. A sad fountain spews up rusty water in the middle of the courtyard while a few straggly trees wearily lift their branches in obeisance to a distant sky.

Croi is not concerned with the dilapidated state of the courtyard. Her attention is on the stone maid half hidden behind the trees on the right. The stone maid is frozen midmotion; both hands have lifted her voluminous skirts to aid her running. One foot is arched on the ground while the other is lifted in a step. She is looking back, her features petrified in an expression of anguish.

Croi was six when she crawled through the hole in the city wall and into the castle grounds for the first time. As soon as she got to her feet and regained her bearings, she found herself pulled forward entirely against her will. She walked without knowing where she was going until she ended up in this courtyard, in front of the stone maid. At first she was confused, not knowing why she was called to this place. Then she looked into the stone maid’s eyes and met a horrific truth there; someone, alive and aware, looked at her through the stone maid’s blank eyes. Croi immediately returned to the Wilde Forest, found the Hag, and demanded she help the stone maid. The Hag refused, saying that some magick was beyond her. Croi, teary and apologetic, returned to the human city, clutched the stone maid’s hand, and cried.

It was at that moment that Croi first felt warmth in her hands. Though the stone maiden can’t speak using words, she makes herself clear by warming Croi’s hands. The stone maid became Croi’s only friend, a confidante, and someone to love—Croi, who is lacking in people, human or kin, adopted her. She tells the stone maid all her secrets, all her complaints, and all the dreams she is brewing for the future. Of course, she hasn’t stopped trying to break the curse on the stone maid, but she has even less magick than the Hag. Croi hasn’t given up, however. Someone out there will know how to free the stone maid.