Time passed. Beneath the water, the young woman could hear what her mother and father were saying about her, and the other people in the village too. They despised her arrogance, they thought she was stupid, and no one mentioned her beauty. “How stupid can you be, thinking that a loaf of bread will keep you afloat?!”

The girl who stepped on the loaf of bread was the laughing stock of the village. In his castle, the count found another lover whose downfall the countess is already plotting.

The queen awakens from her dream about the girl with the bread, certain that no one remembers who she is. A few days later, she gives birth to a boy. The Illuminata attends the baptism. When the Forest Girl is getting ready for bed, before her golden finger traces its usual path between the sheets and her thighs, the Illuminata appears.

“Did you open the door I forbade you to open?”

The Illuminata shines just as brightly as the forbidden room. The queen shakes her head.

“Think carefully about how you answer me. What will it cost you to tell the truth? If you lie, you’ll lose your son. Don’t you love your son? Answer me truthfully: did you open the door I forbade you to?”

The queen shakes her head.

The Illuminata disappears, taking the boy with her.

The queen mother and the other ladies of the court think the queen has eaten her own child. They tell the king he should punish his wife by exiling her from his kingdom. But the king loves her and refuses to believe she’s a cannibal. The queen writes him a long letter telling him everything. The Illuminata makes the ink disappear and all the king sees is a blank sheet of paper. The queen writes to him again, but to the king her words appear to be written in water.

The couple is blessed with another child, a girl. The queen postpones the baptism, afraid the same thing will happen again. But the baptism is celebrated before the end of the year, according to the custom of the country. The Illuminata is in the crowd. Before the queen comes out onto the balcony, the Illuminata appears to her in the royal chambers and asks, “Do you love your daughter?”

The queen nods silently.

“Tell me the truth. Did you open that room in the palace?”

Once again, the Forest Girl denies it. The Illuminata picks up the little girl and vanishes.

This time even the king cannot protect his wife. The queen is taken to the gallows. She climbs the steps with bare feet. She’s been stripped of her finery.

The Illuminata appears like a shadow at the top of the steps leading to her death.

“Did you open the lock?” she asks. “Save your life, confess!”