Chapter 1

Stories are a very misunderstood phenomenon. As children, the stories we hear appear to be concrete objects, linear in fashion and never changing. Indeed in our early years we often yearn to hear the same story again and again, because it is familiar and definite. The truth, however, is that stories are anything but concrete, they are in many ways living creatures. No story remains the same in its retelling; instead it changes with each individual speaker, with every audience. If a story is retold enough times in a long enough span, the end result is often a completely different thing than the retelling. This truth holds especially well with fairy tales. Everybody has heard the most common fairytales of our culture, or at the very least seen a Disney movie about them, and yet nobody knows the true stories. Those are forgotten, and have been for thousands of years. With most of them, they have reached the point where the facts of the story no longer matter, only the messages we take from it. Though these messages are undoubtedly important, teaching as they do the finer points of societal morality, there is also an advantage in seeking the truth behind the legend, for the origins of the tale are often a lot more interesting than the version we know today. Such is the case with the epic tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

This story begins, like so many others, with 'once upon a time, in a far away land'. The specific time is inconsequential; a detail that only adds murkiness to the tale. The location of this far away land is likewise irrelevant. The far away land does have a name however, and that name is Alsir. Though it of course no longer exists, Alsir at its prime was an expansive nation, more prosperous and powerful than any of its neighbor. At the time the tale begins, Alsir was still in that prime, but only just; the economic fortunes of its neighbors were on the rise, a fact that will later be of some import to the story. For now though, suffice to say that Alsir was a great state, and its capitol city of Zemsk was a thriving metropolis, the center of Alsir's trading network and the home of its finest cultural achievements. It should be no surprise therefore, that when Stefan Hart, the scion of a well to do merchant clan, took it into his head to get married and start a family, it was to Zemsk that he traveled.

After he had lived in Zemsk for around a month, young Stefan chanced to meet a beautiful young barmaid by the name of Sophia. The very first moment he laid eyes on her, he utterly captivated. That night, after her shift was done, Stefan bought the young girl a drink, and the two spent several hours in passionate conversation. This ritual was repeated many times over the next few weeks, and when he deemed the time was right, Stefan asked her to marry him. Though the two had not known each other very long, their youthful passions had more say than reason in the matter, and so the couple was very soon married. For Stefan and Sophia, married life was blissful. Stefan had established himself in the city with a moderately successful silk business, and was therefore able to afford his own house. Not a large house, of course: only two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a common room, but it did have its own private courtyard, something that was especially precious to Sophia, who used it to grow a modest vegetable garden, the excess from which she sold at market every month of the summer. There was also an apple tree in that courtyard, its presence there dating back many years before the Hart's arrival. Though the tree was very fertile, some years blanketing almost the entire courtyard with cast off apples, Sophia could never bring herself to sell them.

While for the most part their life was unblemished, there was one matter which caused both Stefan and Sophia great sadness: despite their most fervent wishes, Sophia could not seem to get pregnant. After a year of futile attempts had elapsed, Sophia was desperate enough to seek the aid of what a few of her friends euphemistically referred to as 'lady's crutches', rare potions and remedies sold in the seedier portions of the market district that claimed to be able to sow a viable crop in the most barren of fields. The particular aid that Sophia sought was an amulet. The crone who was selling this thing included a warning with Sophie's purchase: "Beware, milady, this is a powerful trinket that I have here. The product of such a charm is usually said to be destined for great things, something which can be for good or ill, if you take my meaning." Such was Sophia's desperation that she paid the old women no heed, and rushed home to her husband.

That night, as he was eagerly thrusting into her, Sophie's ecstasy was mingled with another sensation, a mild heat that emanated from the amulet that she wore around her neck. As Stefan came closer to his climax, the sensation grew more intense, and when he had finally deposited his seed deep within her, the trinket suddenly flashed a brilliant green, temporarily blinding the two lovers. The bright light lasted only a few seconds, and then in a noiseless puff of smoke, the thing vanished. Sophie gazed downward at herself, towards her womb, and knew with an eerie certainty that the charm had worked, and she was now pregnant. She embraced her rather stunned husband, murmuring to him softly, "Oh Stefan, the child we will have shall be a remarkable one, you shall see." Though neither of them knew at the time, Sophie had spoken prophetic words. The amulet had indeed done its job, and nine months later Sophie gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who was christened Alice.

The very first memory that Alice was conscious of involved the apple tree. She was very young, no more than four years old. Her mom had set her in the courtyard as she often did, where Alice could run and play while Sophie tended to her garden. Alice loved that little courtyard, and most especially the apple tree which stood prominently in the center. Whenever possible, Alice would sneak apples from off the ground, or demand that her mother retrieve her one from the tree itself. On this particular day however, the girl did neither. Instead, she was possessed with a great ambition: to climb the tree and retrieve an apple herself. It took her a while to manage the feat, but eventually she located a crate in the corner of the courtyard that served as a stepping stool, and she was able to hoist herself into the branches. She scrambled up the tree, going higher and higher. As she ascended she took notice of a particular succulent looking apple, one that dangled just out of reach. Determined as she was, Alice swung herself out towards her prize. Though she succeeded in grabbing her apple, the price was the loss of her grip on the tree, and down she tumbled to the ground and began to wail. "Darling!" the girl's mother called out, "What is the matter?"

"I-I wuh-wanted an apple," Alice managed to croak through her tears, "I gots it, but it made me fall down, and now it hurts!" Sophie reached down and embraced her young daughter, cradling her in her arms.

"You have just learned a very important lesson, Alice, one that most people have to take years to learn." Sophie crooned to her daughter. The young girl didn't understand, however, knowing only that the hurt she felt was a bad thing.

"Wuh-what lesson, mommy?" inquired the little girl.

"Well, for one thing, it is a fact that no matter what your lot in life, no matter what your goals, achieving what you set out to do is worth a little hurt along the way. Aren't you proud you got that apple all by yourself?" replied Sophie. New understanding dawned in Alice's eyes, and she was able to resume her afternoon's play. In later years, Alice spent a great deal of time thinking upon this conversation.

With the birth of Alice, the Hart's future seemed to have no limits. The couple was popular and successful, the leaders of their middle class social circle. Everyone who met the family commented on what a smart and active daughter they had, and how beautiful her pale white skin was.

It is a sad reality that nothing good lasts forever, and for the Hart family their bliss abruptly ended rather sooner than they had ever imagined. In the winter of Alice's ninth year, Sophie grew very ill. There was nothing that any of the physicians of the city could do for her, and she died only a week before her daughter's tenth birthday. Though the loss of her mother was hard on young Alice, it was far worse for Stefan. After his wife was gone, Stefan lost interest in the world, and withdrew from it. He stopped attending to his business, no longer saw his friends, and if his daughter had not been there he likely would have given up on life all together. During her father's troubled times, it fell to Alice to support the family. This she tried to do by continuing to tend her mother's garden, selling whatever she could at the market. This netted her only meager amounts however, and in the winter months even that was gone. There were months, more than a few in fact, that the family only survived thanks to gifts, from charities and old friends of the family.

The years stretched on, and Stefan Hart's depression did not improve. For five years, Alice was the sole supporter of her family, a sometimes onerous burden that sapped her of her youth. For the first years, they got by well enough, for Stefan had had a great many friends, people who were sympathetic to what he was going through. Eventually, as one might expect, this sympathy began to dissipate, and these friends began to tell Alice that her father would have to support himself. The next two years were desperate times for the Hart family: there was a mortgage that had been unpaid for far too long, taxes owed to the government, not to mention the basic costs of living. There was one occasion when Alice had been forced to bar every door to the house, to prevent her father's creditors from taking drastic action. Eventually, Alice had had enough, and confronted her father in a way she had been scared to for years. Stefan had taken to sitting by himself in his bedroom, sometimes reading the letters he and his wife had written to each other in the early days of their courtship, but more often he just sat in the corner, the room unlit, lost in thought. This is how Alice found him when she burst into his room, causing the care-worn merchant to jump a bit in surprise. "Alice, honey, please let me be. I'm very tired and-"

"No father, I cannot leave," Alice cut in, "I've left you alone far too often these past five years. I understand how much you miss mother, for I miss her too. But you have carried on this way far too long, and I don't think she would be pleased."

Stefan stared at his daughter in confusion. "What? How can you say that-"

"Look at yourself! You haven't bathed in almost a month, nor left this house in more than a year! Your business is gone; your friends can no longer stand to be around you, and each month we come a little closer to being tossed onto the streets! I can barely afford to feed us sometimes, and its only getting worse. Unless you go back out into the world and start to rebuild your life, I will soon be forced to make a living on my back! Is that what you want for me, father? A life of humiliation and degradation, so that you can avoid life?"

A look of horror now dominated Stefan's face, the truth of his daughter's words having hit him like a sledge hammer upon the head. "Oh god, Alice, you are quite right. I have been a miserable excuse of a father to you, and I apologize. What's more, I intend to rectify it. Tomorrow, I shall go into town and speak to some people. There are many in this town who might loan me enough to start the shop up again, based if not on my reputation than on the Hart name." He stood up and embraced Alice fiercely. "Thank you, my sweet girl, for putting up with me for so long. You are truly an extraordinary young lady to have kept our little family so well for so long."

Alice peered into her father's eyes, and for the first time in many years she saw the energetic twinkle there that she had so loved before Sophia's death. Succumbing to her emotions, she embraced her father back as tears of relief began to stream down her face, and an unfamiliar feeling of hope filled her stomach.

True to his word, Stefan went out the very next day. At first he was filled with boundless hope, totally confident that he would soon be back on his feet. This confidence soon began to erode, as one after another of the major bankers refused him a loan. They all told him the same thing, "You've been gone too long, Mr. Hart, and you owe too much to other people. Terribly sorry, and we wish you the best of luck."