Once Upon a Time there was a girl named Javotte. She was the eldest of three children. The middle child was Meava. The youngest by far was Cinderella. When Chinderella was born Javotte was seven and Meava six. Not even Madame Dupont had expected herself capable of having any more children. The unexpected third child was more than the family could afford. For the Duponts were only minor royalty. Barely that at all. For their daughters to live a good life they were expected to marry above their station. And quickly or else. All the Duponts could do was to establish a sizable dowry so their girls might have a chance to marry into a richer family. 

Unfortunately for the unexpected third, there was no money left over by the time she was born. To make her a dowry money would have to be found from the two established dowries. Which would make sure none of the girls even got married by the right sort of men. And by that it would be a wealthy man. So Madam Dupont wasted nothing upon the new daughter. Instead she passed her off to one of the servants and did her best to wash her hands of poor Cinderella. Sir Dupont, wishing only the best for her children agreed it was far better to save the two eldest than to condemn all three to a life of misery.

And so the Dupont scrapped a living out, waiting for suitors for their daughters. Yet day after day no one expressed any interest in the ladies, despite their sizable dowries. By the time Javotte was twelve, Madam Dupont was besides herself. She began to suffer foul mood that no one could bring her out of. Sir Dupont, unable to withstand his wife's mercurial moods went on extended tours to far off places leaving his daughters unprotected. 

With the absence of her husband, Madam Dupont grew worse. There were far more foul tempers than good. Javotte, the eldest tried her best to shield her sisters from her mother's wrath. Meava, the middle child was the worse affected. She found that by taking her mother's side she was spared the worst. And so Meava herself began changing into something cruel and harsh to her sisters. Javotte found the more she shielded Cinderella the worse it was for the youngest. But if she pretended that Cinderella didn't exist, the worst never quite came out. Sure the girl had to do unforgiving chores, but she was never physically harmed. 

It was a terrible price that Javotte paid to try and hold her family together. Something the fates seemed to mock because the harder she tried to make sure Meava didn't turn into terrible lady, the worse she became. Cinderella began to hate Javotte and Meava more than anything else. Even the servants took her side and turned their back upon her. And so it was that by her fifteenth year Javotte was alone. She had no one and she despaired. By her sixteenth year Javotte fell into a deep apathy which allowed her to be cruel like unto her mother and sister. By the time Cinderella was fifteen, Javotte twenty-two and still unwed. Her manner along with her family's was off putting to any potential suitor. 

At the age of twenty-three Madam Dupont received an invitation to the King's Ball. By this time Javotte said nothing when Cinderella was promptly and cruelly denied the chance to go. For her spirit had long since died. After the ball and the disappearance of the most beautiful lady there, her mother and sister were in an uproar. Madam Dupont hatched a scheme to get at least one of her two daughters wed, Cinderella had long ceased to be her blood.

When Madam Dupont handed Javotte the knife to cut her heel off in order to fit into the glass slipper, the girl didn't object. The pain was terrible, but so had her life been such. Indeed, a part of her wished the deception to work for it would take her far away from her family. Barely daring to hope she went before the Prince, only to be found out because she continued to bleed. Javotte fled in tears and didn't remain to see her youngest sister get saved by the Prince. 

When the invitation came from their youngest sister to the wedding, the entire family went. Javotte had no idea what her littlest sister had in store for her life long tormentors. As the marriage carriage sailed down the street, Cinderella's fairy godmother granted her one last wish. Cinderella used it to punish her mother and sisters. Doves dive bombed the women, clawing and pecking at them until their eyes were gouged out. After that they were very much forgotten in Cinderella's tale of Happily Ever After. Javotte's sister died shortly after. Was it from shame, or blood loss, she never knew. Her mother's death was much more obvious. She killed herself in despair. Javotte cared too little to end her own life, nor to crawl away like a wounded animal and die. 

Sir Dupont took upon himself to make Javotte whole, or as whole as an eyeless scarred girl could be. Still, he wasted money away trying to find anyone who could reverse the damage. The money ran out before long. Javotte knew her father went to Cinderella to beg her for money. Javotte also knew they never got any. By the time Javotte was twenty five, she was quite accustomed to her blindness. Able to move about with ease. Even her butchered heels troubled her no more. It was that year something changed in her. 

One day when she was out at market with the last servant. Javotte stood as she always did, with a cloth wrapped around her empty eyes, slightly to the side of the road and out of the way, waiting. She rubbed the top of her walking cane as she listened to the sound around her. When quite unexpectedly someone pulled her cane away from her. Javotte cried out but none paid her any attention. They all knew who she was. Yet one wrinkled hand laid itself upon her arm.

"Fret not." An old woman's voice instructed. "Here, you can have mine."

"[color=7bcdc8]I could not.[/color]" Javotte protested, yet the came was trust firmly into her hands and she couldn't find the old woman to return it. She asked the servant if she had seen an old lady but the woman had not. She could not ask anyone else for they all ignored her. All the way home Javotte felt the cane. It had a dove perched on the stick. The first emotion Javotte felt in a long time was anger. Anger at why someone would do that to her. Anger that [i]hadn't she suffered enough[/i]? Yet the more she pondered it, Javotte changed. She embraced the change and feelings that she had so long denied. That night she wept for who she was and for her sisters. And yes, even her parent. 

The next morning Javotte announced she was going to visit Cinderella. Her father tried to talk her out of it, but Javotte insisted. So it was that morning that Javotte and her father secured audience with the Princess Cinderella. The girl the whole kingdom loved. Yet when she arrived she found the castle in a great state of disarray. People bustled everywhere and no one quite noticed her. 

"What is wrong?" Her father asked someone, for his voice was not directed at Javotte. A male voice answered that Sir Dupont needed to leave. At that point Javotte turned her finely tuned senses to what everyone else was saying. Cinderella was missing. Javotte let her father lead her away from the castle back to their crumbling home. When night fell Javotte went into the garden and cried for Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. She didn't think the fairy would answer but she had to try. Cinderella was important to her, if only so Javotte could finish moving on.

"[color=00aeef]Javotte.[/color]" The voice of the Fairy Godmother wasn't one she had heard before, but she knew it all the same.

"[color=7bcdc8]Have you heard?[/color]" The woman asked.

"[color=00aeef]I have.[/color]" The Fairy concluded. "[color=00aeef]And I cannot find her.[/color]"

Javotte frowned. "[color=7bcdc8]You cannot? Is she dead then?[/color]"

"[color=00aeef]Nay.[/color]" The fairy cried adamantly. "[color=00aeef]But she is beyond me all the same.[/color]"

"[color=7bcdc8]Do not speak in riddles.[/color]" Javotte chided. "[color=7bcdc8]Speak plainly so that I may understand.[/color]"

"[color=00aeef]I fear Cinderella is not in this world anymore.[/color]" 

Javotte was about to get angry at this, for how was this plain speak. But the Fairy continued.

"[color=00aeef]She is gone into a different one. I cannot follow her, for while she is not dead, she is beyond my magic.[/color]" And so the Fairy explained to Javotte the concept of the worlds and of Fairy Tales. 

After the Fairy was finished Javotte spoke. "[color=7bcdc8]Then I will go after her.[/color]"

"[color=00aeef]But why?[/color]" The Fairy Godmother asked.

"[color=7bcdc8]For she is my sister. And nothing can change that. I failed her once, I will not do so again.[/color]" [i]Plus[/i], Javotte added silently, [i]I need to tell her something.[/i]

"[color=00aeef]Very well. I have but the power to send you to the next world. It is only something I can do once and only once. Once in the next world the task to finding where Cinderella is, is up to you.[/color]"

"[color=7bcdc8]I'm ready.[/color]" Javotte said clutching the dove walking stick. Surely if she had her eyes with which to see the world would have changed about her. Yet the only difference came through her other senses. Suddenly it was sunny. The ground her underneath her slippered feet was hard like stone. The wind came from another direction and brought with it strange scents. 

"[color=7bcdc8]Hello?[/color]" Javotte called out. "[color=7bcdc8]Anyone there?[/color]"