A/N: This is a companion piece to episode 2x15 "The Queen is Dead", because the scene you can find under "Cora's Monologue" on YT struck me as odd and not just a little bit gay, as if these two had history. Like major history. Anyways, this is what happened in my head at the point of that episode, explaining why Cora is evil, and why Eva was a bit cool and aloof and the whole daughter and Queen and royals business. Anything else after episode 15 of Season 2 does not come into play, very obviously. This One Shot has been sitting on my hard drive ever since. For maximum enjoyment, google Cora and Eva on Youtube and watch the brief bit between them at the time.
There was a song in the trees that day.
When Cora Mills, at the dawn of her sixteenth birthday walked down to the creek where her father's faithful mill sat, she could hear the trees sing their song of spring among the budding leaves.
The wind blew colors into the air that sparkled brightly in the early sunlight.
Dew drops twinkled merrily on the tips of grass blades.
The tune was catchy and it was humming that Eva found her by the river bank.
„I come bearing gifts." she whispered softly, sure that the witch by the water would hear her, nevertheless.
There were those times that Cora was so immersed in the world around her, that loud sounds and words, demands to her attention, would startle the girl and make her withdraw back into herself immediately.
Eva had learned to tread carefully with time.
She was rewarded with a beaming smile as Cora turned around from where she was bent drawing water.
The miller's daughter had told tales of the sun laughing and made flowers dance on the wind since they were children, but only when Cora had started making her feel like she was enchanted, special, floating on air,with both feet firmly planted on the ground, had Eva suspected,that magic, was actually, at play.
It was her who had told Cora the secret that would be hers to keep for a lifetime.
Witch, Sorceress, Magic.
Witches were feared and abhorred in their land.
And not even her father's,the Baron's, power would be able to protect his neighbor's only child if the secret would slip out and travel upon the wind like the flowers they used to play with as children.
As they grew older, it turned out,that Eva had been right at sensing and understanding Cora's innate ability, however, she had been mistaken about herself.
Or rather, maybe she had been correct after all.
Love was the most powerful magic of all, and she had grown to understand, that she had loved the girl who lived by the creek, since probably the first time she had lain eyes on her.
It had been on a day such as this,clear and crisp, only, that the impending winter could be felt on the air.
Fall was drawing to a close, and Cora had been wildly underdressed in only a short, ragged dress, as she stood by the water with another bucket, that looked yet just the same.
Her face was full of tears that she had kept at bay inside the mill where her mother lay dying, but which were now mingling with the ever flowing water of the creek.
Both of them had been eight years at the time, and Eva who had returned from the South with her father, that day, the nobleman in charge of these lands, drew her silken shawl from her shoulders and wrapped it around the shivering girl.
They had been inseparable ever since.
Much like their fathers had been before them.
The miller had been the noble knight's pawn during many battles fought in the horrifying Ogre wars.
There had been lives saved repeatedly,by both parties for each other, forming a bond that saw both men through a lifetime.
But the Baron had not been quick enough to save his friend's wife, despite his best intentions.
Hearing of the woman's illness, the nobleman had returned from the South where he had remained after his own wife's untimely death, but it had been too little,too late.
After his True Love's death, the Miller had taken to drink and withdrawn entirely back into himself.
Therefore, witnessing the blossoming friendhsip between their two daughters, warmed the baron's heart.
For at least his best friend's daughter would not be all alone.
He had,of course, noticed the magic about her in the passing years.
They had discussed it,even, in sober moments.
But the ruler of these lands and Cora's father had been bound by a promise stronger than their responsibilities to Society: The Miller's wife's dying request had been to protect her daughter.
And it was only logical: She was the product of true love, so of course, she would have magic.
It was up to them to raise her to learn to hide it and use it well.
After his friend's demise to drink, it had been up to him, to guard her, at least.
It had been time to settle down anyways, so the Baron acquired the generous lands by the miller's farm and settled in close enough to keep an eye on both of his neighbors.
That his lonely, kind hearted daughter found a friend in the miller's daughter was only an extra bonus.
Maybe friendship,too, by the way of shared sympathies, could be transported through the blood down to the next generation, he figured.
Little did he know, that the two girls shared a charm that was devoid of any influence of either of their fathers.
„What is it?" the girl by the water nodded to whatever the Baron's daughter held hidden behind her back.
Cora's eyes sparkled in the sunlight and Eva could feel her heart clench with emotion at the sight.
„You don't know?" Eva smirked back.
The wind and the colors and the sun and the songs..it was all of it nothing, compared to the sight before her, Cora figured.
She had missed her..she had missed her so,so much..and they had only seen each other yesterday.
„No cheating."Eva laughed and the girl by the water rolled her eyes to the sky in mock annoyance.
It had been one of the first rules of their friendship.
„Well, here it is then." Eva drew a small bundle of snowdrops from behind her back.
She was blushing wildly and shifting from one foot to the other.
Cora plucked it carefully from the slightly shaking hand.
„They are beautiful.", she said reverently, studying the perfect flowers.
Snowdrops were her favorites.
Because they were Eva's favorites, too.
Her heart beat double time, and she could feel her cheeks begin to warm at the unexpected gift.
„As are you." Eva looked at the ground while she said it,only raising her eyes after the other girl didn't say anything for several rapid heartbeats.
„I am?" Cora was many things, but beautiful hadn't been what people usually called her.
„Yes." Eva was the elder of them by eight months.
She needed to be the brave one and took one step forward and then another until she was only half a step away from the birthday girl, that now clung to the delicate flowers as if unto Life itself.
„I actually thought really hard about what to give you for your 16th birthday," the usually so regal brunette stuttered furiously.
„And it,well, it wasn't the flowers." she bit her lip.
„It wasn't?" Cora was distinctly aware of her pulse hammering wildly in her ears.
„It was..it is...this." Eva shut her eyes and lunged the short distance forward with only instinct to guide her.
She met Cora's lips harder and not quite as she intended,but she moved the rest of her body in,when the younger girl did not shy away and repositioned her lips ,and turned her head slightly.
She felt a shiver run from the base of her neck all the way down her back.
She withdrew, and bit her lip again.
„I wanted to give you my first kiss, and I know, it's your first one, too..so Happy Birthday." she rushed out, wanting to run from the spot,when Cora just kept staring at her, her eyes wide.
But something kept her rooted to the spot, she didn't know where to run, which direction, her mind was simply and blissfully blank.
Maybe an apology was in order.
„I.." Eva began, but suddenly Cora's arms were about her and the shorter girl pressed her lips clumsily to hers, and her world was in fireworks, fireworks like they sometimes had had at the king's court.
Only better.
There was water and sand swirling up around them as they rose a few feet up into the air.
The light broke into a million little crystals, and yes, it was magic.
6 Years Later
„No. It's a simple answer."
Cora felt her insides grow cold.
„I have an obligation." Eva paced the room, each of her steps carried her a bit further away from The Miller's Daughter.
The witch could feel the distance stretch between them like something physical being pulled beyond endurance.
Maybe it was.
Ice cracked on the skin of both of her forearms.
She really was getting cold.
A mist formed a small cloud in the July air of Eva's room at the castle, when she exhaled.
„And you have me." Cora breathed quietly.
Eva turned suddenly, her eyes were the opposite of the shorter woman's cool depth.
They were alive and full of fire.
The last time that Cora would see them thus.
„I have been born into this duty. I must serve my people."
Both of them knew, that this wasn't quite right, that the king had fallen severely in love with the nobleman's daughter that occasionally resided at his court.
He had finally proposed the day before.
„But I am..", Cora took a helpless step towards her „I am your happy ending."
She reached out her very white hands towards the young woman in the scarlet velveteen dress.
„I can..we can.. you don't have to do anything. I have magic..I..we.."
Eva took a step back from her advancing form, a gesture that hurt more than any words, and she could see the pain that flashed across the younger girl's face.
„I don't want to,Cora." Eva's eyes were permeated by sadness.
She could not, under any circumstance, let her touch her.
She would not be able to hold up her pretenses then.
She was breaking Cora's heart,and she was breaking her own, but this, this was the right thing to do.
And it demanded sacrifice.
„If I am Queen, imagine all the good I can do." there were tears now blurring her vision, and Eva felt almost nauseous by the whiteness and forlorn look on Cora's face.
„But he will rule, what good..." Cora took another step forward, but stopped herself, glancing at her hands that were now literally crackling with the cold.
Eva was already backed up against the door.
She felt the pain in her gut physically from what she was about to say.
„But I.." she swallowed hard.
„I can make him a better man, Cora.." their eyes met, and the witch felt as though she was falling, a sensation altogether different from flying, no matter what people said.
„And if I have a child, it will rule."she whispered, knowing that the implications they had been skirting around would hit her Love the hardest.
„You will have a daughter." Cora stated matter of factly,as she always did, whenever she predicted the future.
„Then she will rule, and I will raise her to be a wonderful human being and a righteous Queen." Eva caught herself in the impulse to step forward and gather Cora up in her arms.
The brunette looked towards the ground, her tears were making a shattering crystalline sound as they hit the marble floor.
„It was to be our daughter, yours and mine. We could have freed the lands from the cruel king by revolution." Cora's voice broke around the words.
Eva gasped when she looked up.
The witch's tear tracks were tiny craters carved into her skin in blood.
„But you and I could not have married nor ruled. You're not..only royals can rule the lands and marry amongst each other." Eva held onto the door.
She mustn't touch Cora, by any means.
It would mean defeat and surrender.
It always did.
No more.
She closed her eyes briefly at the image of the king in her bed and supressed a shudder.
She could change things.
„Think of all the lives lost." she whispered instead.
„What about my life lost?" Cora asked in return.
„It is..I.."she bowed her head.
„Cora, it cannot be."
„But I am your true love." the girl looked at her with the last flicker of hope in her eyes.
And Eva diminished it.
„As am I yours. But love is a choice. And the answer is No." she turned to lean her head against the door.
„You will never be happy." Cora's voice was flat and cold,and Eva could not tell if she spoke a guess, a fact or a curse, but she didn't doubt it either way.
„My happiness is irrelevant. I am no longer my own woman, but belong to my people." she swallowed hard.
„And you're paying with my happiness as well."
Eva felt the truth in those words, without having the power of foresight.
It made her heart ache so much, she was afraid it would cease its motion from sheer anguish.
„Leave now." her voice was flat and strained.
She couldn't bear this anymore.
It had to be done, and it was.
She had told her.
Eva could hear the other woman straighten up by the way her frozen dress cracked and her back unlocked itself from its icy hold.
A last impulse in her bosom, to rush to the witch,to beg her to take her away with her, and hide, happily, forevermore, was quickly crushed by her will, her mind made up.
„As you wish." Cora's voice matched the temperatue in the room.
She dissipated as she was wont to do as of late.
But the smoke around her coagulated into water and spears of ice this time.
They shattered like a million pieces of glass as they hit the floor.