Loupe again. So yes, I'm working on Grey Knights along with a couple other fics at the moment. However I did want to publish this one having been inspired by Shane's Voice, The Tale, and my love for English history and Celtic/British lore. Anyways, I'll just say this story borrows from The Tudors, Arthuian/Celtic myths and cycles, and some Romeo and Juliet thrown in there for fun.
Now onto the legalise bit of this: I, in no way shape or form, own Regina Mills or any other characters that are a part of Once Upon a Time. I am merely borrowing them to play with but the storyline is all my own.
I am unsure what to commit to this page. In a few days, I will be branded with both the mark of a traitor and a witch before being sent to burn at the stake so they can ship me to the afterlife's punishments. They whisper that with my death, the rain will come again. I know this will not be true and laugh at them. The royals do not know their cleansing of this land of those who practice magic is what destroys the land from its lack of rain. The King is often the one seen going to the village and dragging both young and old, man and woman to be put to death for being blessed with magic. His Queen pushed him to this. She called for the death of magic in the realm due to my mother's actions. The mother who tried to destroy the White family line. A woman who damned me and others to the stake or hangman's noose because of her feud with Snow White. It's a story that is still told over pints, wagging tongues recalling how the beautiful Cora Mills, a noble woman in the court, elevated to the King's mistress when Queen Eva only bore his daughter, Snow White. The court whispered that Eva's womb dried up only producing death when it came to creating a heir. My mother saw her chance and took it. Born with magic, she used it to secure a throne setting me up to be a princess and a queen one day. She tried to destroy Snow White, to make sure that the kingdom pass to me without any fuss. She attempted to teach me the dark magic that festered her soul, wanting to corrupt me as well. My father knew that if I stayed with them, that Mother would bring death upon me. He entrusted my safety to a man known to a few in the court by the name of Merlin, asking him to protect me and teach me the ways of his people, who I would one day become leader of. They were tasked with the harmony of the lands. I pleaded with him to keep me there with him, did he not love me, after all? Father swore he loved me and promised he would join us when he could escape. It was two days later when we heard the news, King Henry Mills the First was put to death for treason. From this, the Red Queen's reign was born and soaked the land in blood as she searched to reclaim me and to damn Snow to the grave. Cora the Heartless, Cora the Heart Stealer, were whispered in hush tone hoping to ward off the queen's army from raiding their village and destroying everyone in their path. Merlin taught me that the land would not be silent with the blood being spilt and it was not. It revolted from its duties, in pain from all the blood spilt upon it as crops failed to grow. Famine held the land in it's grip as I grew away from her. Despite my distance from her, Mother had cursed me, branding me as her daughter and making me an enemy of the White line. Eventually, Snow White was able to gain control once more. I hoped that I was safe and able to come out of hiding. But my mother's actions had damned me and hundreds of innocent lives. Snow White declared me a traitor and that all of those with magic were evil and to be put to death. I was the most hunted enemy of the kingdom despite the fact my only crimes were to have fallen in love with the wrong person and attempting to use magic to keep balance in the lands. History will recall me as one of the greatest threats to the kingdom. My people will be labeled as monsters for having gifts the gods blessed them with.
However, Fate has blessed me with the gift of ink and paper bound in hide, hidden in a basket of food that was gifted to me by an old friend. In these pages I release my story, binding it with magic so that it can not be destroyed. So that when the ruins of the kingdom are found, the truth shall be told. In these pages, I, Regina Ayla Mills, high priestess of the Druids, daughter of Cora Mills, the Red Queen, and King Henry Mills the First, lover to the daughter of my greatest enemy, swear by Dagda and all the gods that these words are true. This is my story. The story of a land torn apart by a woman's ambition and greed damning thousands to die for it. The story of two women who fell in love only to be torn apart. This is the true history of the Summerlands and perhaps what lead to its fall.