Froggy was certain the woman’s situation would be far too complicated for the little girl’s expertise, but even in this dilemma, the girl knew the exact advice to give.
“No one ever changed the world by being beautiful,” she said. “If you want to make a difference, you can’t let something as trivial as appearance get in your way. A daisy doesn’t need the roses’ permission to bloom—and neither do you.”
“I may not need permission, but I do need support,” the woman argued. “I can’t fight an army on my own—I’ll need others to join me. But I’m afraid they’ll only see my looks and won’t listen to my words. I’m afraid they’ll only laugh at my hopes of rescuing my loved ones.”
The little girl placed her hands on her hips and stared at the woman with the confidence of someone twice her age.
“Only idiots listen with their eyes,” she said. “If people don’t hear your words, then shout them. If people silence you, then write your message with fire. Demanding respect is never easy, but if something you love is at stake, then I’d say it’s worth the price. Besides, if you can’t get villagers to take you seriously, you’ll never defeat an army! Sometimes we’re meant to face the demons at home so we know how to fight the demons abroad.”
The little girl had waited years to give someone that advice, and it appeared to do the trick. As if a sudden electric charge had run through the woman’s body, she stood taller and straighter, and her eyes beamed with determination.
“You’re right, child,” she said. “With all the energy I’ve wasted moping in front of the mirror, I could have accomplished great things by now. Well, I’m going to stop moping at once and get to work.”
The woman was so reenergized that her hands trembled as she gathered her coat and her hat. She was so eager to begin that she completely forgot she wasn’t alone. Only when the woman had one foot out the door did she remember that the little girl was still standing in the mirror.
“Thank you for the encouragement,” the woman said. “Whatever curse you’re under, I hope someone can free you from the mirror. You’ve certainly freed me.”
The woman left her cottage and hurried to the next village at a determined pace. Froggy was floored by the little girl’s counseling abilities. He applauded her and they journeyed away from the cottage mirror.
“That was quite the motivational speech,” he said. “With just a few words, you may have changed that woman’s life forever. Boy, I sure wish our paths had crossed when I was younger. I could have used that same inspirational—”
Suddenly, the cottage mirror behind them started to glow. It became brighter and brighter until it shined with the power of the sun. Froggy and the little girl both shielded their eyes from the strange phenomenon.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never seen a mirror do that before!”
Rays of light shot out from the mirror like ribbons and wrapped around the little girl’s wrists, ankles, and waist. The light pulled her closer and closer to the mirror until her body was pressed against the glass. Just when Froggy didn’t think she could go any farther, the little girl passed through the plate of glass as if it were a sheet of water. She collapsed on the cottage floor, and all the light faded. Froggy tried to follow her, but the glass between worlds became solid again.
“You’re on the other side!” Froggy exclaimed. “You’ve been freed!”
“But how?” she asked in disbelief. “What broke the spell?”
Froggy thought about it, but it was a mystery to him, too. There was only one possible conclusion he could come up with.
“Maybe it’s just like the woman said,” he suggested. “Perhaps the key to freeing yourself from the mirror is freeing someone else first.”
The little girl got to her feet, but when she turned back to the mirror, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. A beautiful middle-aged woman with long raven hair was now standing before Froggy.
“I’m so old,” she said. “Why have I aged so much?”
“This must be the age you were when you went inside the mirror,” Froggy said. “The longer you were trapped, the more you faded into a little girl.”
The woman stared at her reflection, and after a moment, it astonished her. She looked into her own eyes as if she were seeing a long-lost friend. Suddenly, a wave of memories illuminated her mind like a swarm of fireflies flying into a dark cave.
“I remember,” she said. “I remember where I was born, I remember where I grew up, I remember all the places I lived, I remember the faces of my loved ones… and I remember my name.”
“What is it?” Froggy asked.
“Evly,” she gasped.
Her face quickly filled with shame upon the discovery. It was so overwhelming that she had to take a seat on a small stool.
“Why the long face? This should be a happy moment for you.”
“Because it wasn’t the only name I had,” Evly said.
She walked around the cottage and recited her memories as they came to her, as if she were narrating a film she saw behind her eyelids.
“When I was very young, I was kidnapped by an evil enchantress and forced to work as her slave. I was deeply in love with a young man named Mira, who tried to rescue me. The Enchantress caught Mira and imprisoned him inside a magic mirror as punishment. I was devastated and quickly planned my own escape from her. I poisoned the Enchantress and ran far away, dragging Mira’s mirror into the forest beside me. And then I made a decision that turned me into a monster….”
Froggy laughed. “I have a hard time believing that.”
“No, I mean it,” Evly said. “I was so heartbroken over Mira, I had a witch cut out my heart and turn it into stone. It made all the pain go away, but it also turned me into an irrational, unsympathetic, and cruel woman. I devoted the rest of my heartless life to freeing Mira from the mirror. I married a king in hopes of using his resources, and I tried killing my stepdaughter. The world found out and hated me for it, and I became known throughout the kingdoms as the Evil Queen….”
The name should have sent shivers down Froggy’s spine, but he remained completely unaffected. He listened to Evly’s memories as if they were a story he had never been told, completely unaware that the two of them shared some of these memories.
“Years later, I tried freeing Mira using the Wishing Spell. By the time I collected all the items the spell needed, Mira had faded into nothing but a reflection. He died in my arms just a few moments after being freed. There was a big battle at the time. Soldiers had found me in an abandoned castle, cannons were being blasted outside, the castle began to crumble. The magic mirror crashed over me and I’ve been trapped inside ever since.”
Evly covered her eyes and cried as if the story she had been watching had come to a tragic ending.
“And what about your heart?” Froggy asked. “Is it still made of stone?”
Evly placed a hand over her chest and gasped.