At first your mind screams and panics as you attempt to struggle against your prison, but your body refuses to move. You can feel your sanity slipping away with every silent scream. With a herculean effort you force yourself to calm down. You can't breath deeply because your lungs have gone, but by focusing your attention on the peacefulness of the garden. This does manage to calm you. You feel a sense of peace come over you. You even find yourself slowly drifting off to "sleep". Your fixed view of the garden starting to slowly gloss over with a blurry haze. You want nothing more then to simply let yourself disappear into a hibernation. This, too, you fight for fear that that is exactly what the sorceress wanted. She wants you to slip away and become nothing more then a simple tree, oddly shaped though you may be. You force yourself awake.
The days come and go. From conversations in the garden you gather that your disappearance has been noted and that search parties have been sent out, which of course provide a futile effort. You occasionally attempt to reach out with your mind to try to communicate with the people who come around the garden. After great concentration you even manage to briefly touch their minds, but you can't communicate more then a word or two, and they always shake it off as though it were nothing more than their minds playing tricks on them. More time passes. Your family begins to believe the worst, that there is no hope of finding you. You gather, also from surrounding conversation, that your parents have assumed the worst and that you will never be found. Your younger brother has become the new heir, and a marriage has been arranged. This worries you. Who is this woman? Is she the witch, or perhaps one of her agents? Is she seeking to conquer the kingdom from within? The thought chills you. You become determined to recapture your life.
Months pass. You learn to control your roots by concentrating on them. You can only make them grow, not shrink. Though you can control the direction they grow in. Your attempts to communicate telepathically with others stalls at first. You're in a rather remote section of the garden and so people rarely come by. This changed, however, by the arrival of Milly and Eric. Milly appears to be a made in the employ of the kingdom, Eric is a gardener. They appear to have formed strong romantic feelings for each other, and often come to your remote area of the garden. They regard you as an odd plant, but think nothing more of it then an oddly shaped plant. You watch them in their romantic dealings. Sometimes they simply talk, other times they kiss, on rare occasions they make love. They also often argue, as lovers often do. In this you do manage to touch their minds. When Eric or Milly become irate you manage to reach out and calm down. When they appear ready to separate from each other you give a mild push back together.
One day, during their visits you hear them talk.
"Doesn't look like the king's going to pull though." Milly tells Eric, lounging in Eric's arms.
"Still think they should get some mage on it." Eric says to her. "If it were natural he'd have shaken it off with the medicines they been givin' him."
"Well, you know how the new princess is. The minute they came in she insisted that 'magic is evil' and drove away anyone who so much as read a page of the old texts. I can't even dust the old library anymore without one of them guards watching me to make sure I don't open one of the old books and read it." she says.
"Royals..." Eric says derisively "...you'd think they'd just set fire to 'em if she was that against it."
"She'd readin' 'em herself." Milly says.
"You jokin'?" Eric asks. Milly shakes her head in response.
"I was in the library late one night, looking for other places for us to meet. When I heard someone come in I hid. I peeked out from one of the shelves and saw her ladyship flipping through one of the same books she said no one was to read." she says.
"Royals..." Eric says again derisively. "Anyway I better go. Suppers coming up and if I don't get there quick Teddy'll have the whole stew in his belly." Eric says. He gives her a quick peck on the lips and stands. You know now, that the evil witch isn't any simple noble girl wed to the prince. She's cast a magical curse on your father and ensuring that no one can spot it for what it truly is. You gaze at Milly lounging lazily before you. You've grown to like her and don't wish her any pain, but you have a thought. Perhaps you could switch your body and hers. It's an idea you've had before in your meditations, and you're fairly certain it could work, but you haven't tried because it would make you no better then the sorceress. Now, though, it seems that if you don't act the evil witch will get exactly what she wanted. You sigh mentally and beg the forgiveness of whatever gods will hear you and concentrate. You stretch your roots out to her below the earth. They crawl beneath her silently before springing forth from below to wrap around her waist. She begins to scream, but another of your roots spring forth and wrap around her mouth, before sinking into the ground. You have her pinned and struggling. A third root snakes up to the base of her skull. You touch her mind directly. You pull her mind towards your body and into your form. You loosen your grip on her body and try to push your consciousness into her body. Her mental screams cause guilt to wrack you as they remind you of your own, but you try to block them out and concentrate on your task.