Snow chuckles, more of the initial tension in her shoulders easing — some of that is a consequence of sitting here, soaking up the hot water, the heat more definitively sinking into her muscles, but some of it is certainly the result of talking to Ruby, developing a better understanding of what things are like for her back home — and coming to the conclusion that they're not so different.

"No, it's more that... the power we have comes from a certain level of belief in the stories about us," she finally adds, after a slight pause to try and decide on the best way to answer the question. It's difficult to explain that she, and Bigby, and others like them exist in tales that people have read again and again, and those stories persisting is what allows them to endure too.

"But we have tried to live as normally as we can, since it's important that no one knows what we really are back home."