Regina sat on her stallion on top of the hill overlooking the castle that was being built on the site. That castle had been under construction as long as she had been alive and it was nearly complete.
Her fate had been tied to that castle since before she was born yet for most of her 21 years she gave it little thought. Yes from the time her father took her there when she was a young child – the incomplete walls seeming huge to her at age seven – she understood that one day this would be her castle.
One day this castle and the lands around it would be hers to rule.
But at the young age she didn't understand the concept of what that castle represented. Now she knew - it was her prison.
She pulled on the reins to move away from the offensive structure. Over the past year she had come out here more and more to watch the finishing touches being put on it. Each time she did she felt more anger.
It wasn't fair.
Why was she being forced into a marriage she didn't want? And why did that marriage have to be to Princess Emma?
She forced Quicksilver, her horse, in the direction of her home – well, her parents' castle – and went at a full gallop. She needed to get far away from that other castle. After all, the next time she saw it, she would be married in it.
Emma kept her guard up as she circled her opponent. She had been studying him for any weakness in his stance and found none. Although they were only using wooden sticks bound together instead of swords she found this exercise almost more grueling than having the real thing in her hand. Mostly because she knew her opponent would never give a killing blow with a real sword but she had experienced plenty of welts on her body over the years from these practice ones.
She feigned right, knowing it wouldn't fool him, but immediately spun and she allowed herself a smile even though her attack was blocked – barely blocked. She backed off again, again circling and studying. From the moment she was old enough she had learned the finer points of how to use a sword. And there was no better teacher than the one in front of her.
She was going to miss this she realized. Soon she wouldn't be able to take off at a moment's notice just to come here to the practice grounds. No, soon she would be in her own home and her life would be changed forever.
Getting caught up in her thoughts, she didn't see the attack coming until it was too late. She couldn't get her guard up and she caught the hard wood into her side. She was so flustered she dropped her weapon.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"Besides a little embarrassment, yeah I am fine," she said picking her weapon. "Go again?"
"No," he said. "Your mother will kill me if we keep this up much longer."
She didn't want to quit knowing this may be the last time she got to do this with him. She nodded to him and they handed their weapons off to an attendant. They began to walk back to the castle and he put an arm around her.
"Why did you lose focus back there?" he asked.
Of course he would notice. Her father was just like that when he had a sword in his hand. He noticed everything which is why he was a formidable opponent because he knew when to strike and when not to.
She exhaled. "I was thinking about Regina."
"Oh," James said, trying to sound encouraging.
"Oh is right," she said. "Can you honestly say you are happy about this?"
James stopped causing her to as well. He put a hand on each of her shoulders as he faced her. "It's a complicated situation Emma. But going into it with a negative attitude won't serve you well."
"But you see it's not complicated. You and mom decided to marry me off without my consent or input."
He sighed. "Emma you have to believe that this is what is best for all involved. Even you."
"I am marrying someone I don't even like."
"You don't know even know Regina well enough to say that. Maybe when we travel to their kingdom in a week's time you will actually try and speak with her."
"I don't have anything to say to her."
Regina sat at the dinner table with her parents pushing her food around the plate with her fork.
"Regina, if you aren't going to eat it, then give it to one of the maids to remove. Don't play with it," Cora said.
"Yes, mother," she said and she signaled for one of the maids to come forward and handed her the plate. "May I be excused now?"
"No, we need to talk about what is going to happen tomorrow," Cora said.
Suddenly Regina wished she had kept the food where it was at, at least then she would have something to concentrate on rather than listening to yet another lecture from her mom.
"Regina this is important," her father said.
"I know it's important. You have drilled it into my head how important this is for the past four years, ever since you decided to tell me that I was due to be married."
"Then perhaps you should start acting like it's important," Cora said.
"Maybe I should rephrase what I said. I know it's important to you."
"It's important to all of us," Henry said before his wife could speak. He knew his daughter well enough to know that this conversation wouldn't go well if Cora pushed too hard. "It's important to not just our kingdom, but to all of them. Your marriage to the Princess Emma will end of generations of hostilities between our kingdom and theirs."
"We haven't been at war with them since what, your great grandfather's generation. Why is this happening now? Why didn't you marry Queen Snow if the joining of our bloodlines is what all the kingdoms wanted?"
"That's enough," Cora said. "This marriage will go forward. You will greet your future wife tomorrow and you will not bring shame upon your father's house. How many times do I need to remind you that you are a princess Regina, and as such you have responsibilities that go beyond your own desires?"
"That's easy for you to say," Regina said standing up. "For you marriage was a step up."
She left without seeking their permission to leave. She knew she shouldn't have fought with her mother like that but she couldn't help it. She didn't want this marriage. She didn't want to greet her future wife tomorrow.
Instead of going to her room she went out to the stables. She went to Quicksilver's stall and fed him an apple before brushing him down. She didn't need to do it but it gave her something to do other than sit in her room and think about tomorrow.
"You need to apologize to your mother," her father said coming into the stall.
She wanted so much to ignore him, but she never could. He was always the one playing mediator between her and her mother.
"I will tomorrow," she said even though she kept her eyes on Quicksilver not him.
"Do it tonight."
Something in his tone caused her to look at him. His inflection had been stern and while it wasn't the first time she had heard that tone, she didn't often hear it directed at her.
"Father …" she stopped not sure what she was going to say or what she wanted to say.
"Warring with your mother won't change what will be done. You will marry Princess Emma," he said.
She looked away from him, not wanting to hear this. It was one thing to hear it from her mother – it seemed that was all she had heard from her mother for four years, but to hear it from her father made it more difficult for her.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know you don't want this."
"Then don't make me go through with it," she said, unable to stop the pleading sound in her voice. "You are king, can't you stop this from happening?"
"You know I can't. And even if I could, I wouldn't."
She stepped away from him feeling as if his words had physically hurt her. She rarely ever spoke back to her father, but the anger that was ever-present in her nowadays, helped fuel her next words.
"So that's it then. Your own daughter is something that you could trade away as easily as you do one of your prized stallions. All to appease the rulers of the other kingdoms. Tell me was it so easy for you to back down to all of those kings and queens when they came up with this idea? Was it easy because I hadn't actually been born yet? Or did it even matter to you when I was? Did you hold me that first time and think to yourself well here is the final bargaining chip?"
"You know that's not true."
"Do I? You arranged this marriage before I was ever born. You used to take me to that castle and tell me one day it would be mine like it was some sort of fairy tale. Then I turn 16 and that's when you choose to tell me the price of that castle is my freedom. Fine, I have to marry her, then I will marry her. Let it not be said that Princess Regina didn't do her duty."
She threw down the brush and stormed past her father. She knew he could easily order her to stop and she almost wished he would so she could ignore it. But he said nothing as she left.
Later that night Cora returned to her bedchambers after leaving Regina's. She had gone to make sure the girl had picked out an outfit for tomorrow and of course she hadn't. In the end, Cora had to do it and then give instructions to Regina's handmaidens on making sure she dressed in it the next day when Princess Emma arrived and also how to arrange her hair and what accessories to wear. Regina had sat there silent the entire time barely acknowledging her presence.
"All is set for tomorrow," Cora said to Henry.
"Did she apologize to you?"
"No. She responded when I asked if she had chosen a dress and otherwise she said nothing."
"She's upset. The closer we get to the wedding, the more distant she becomes."
"It's not distance, it's anger," Cora said. "I just wish she wouldn't direct so much of it at me."
She took a seat on the edge of the bed. "I miss my daughter, the one who used to sit over there by my vanity and insist I braid her hair. Or the one that would crawl up here in bed and sleep between us during a thunderstorm. Now I am lucky if I can get a civil word out of her."
Henry came and took a seat beside her. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"Yes it is. I left it to you to explain things to her when it was time. I wasn't even here. We should have done it together then at least I could share the blame that she is heaping on you."
He took her hand and she took comfort in the gesture. "Do you think we did the right thing?"
"We did the only thing we could."
Emma was quiet throughout the ride and for the most part her parents seemed to respect the fact that she didn't wish to speak. They had stopped at the castle that would soon become her home to speak with the overseer who was on site. It would be done in less than two months, he assured them, in time for the wedding.
This would be the last visit with Regina before they were to be married. These visits had rotated between each kingdom every few months for the past four years. They had begun the month after she had turned 16. She remembered it was two days after her 16th birthday when her parents sat her down and explained to her that she was to be married to the Princess Regina from the neighboring kingdom.
She honestly thought it was some sort of joke.
Yes, she knew about the castle that was being built and that one day it would be hers. It sat between the two kingdoms and once they were married the boundaries of the new kingdom would come into place. The White kingdom and the Mills kingdom were the biggest of the eight kingdoms by far so giving up land to form the new kingdom wasn't going to hurt either side.
The idea was that this new merger of their families would keep either kingdom from ever waging war on the other. While there hadn't been a war in more than a hundred years, the last one had gone on for 20 years and nearly decimated both kingdoms. The idea of a total destruction is what eventually led to a truce, but the kingdoms were concerned that it could happen again and somehow her marrying Regina was the result of some super secret council of the heads of all the kingdoms.
She could hardly believe it herself when her parents explained that they weren't joking and she was going to marry Regina – someone who at that point she had never even met. When she had met her, well it was clear they may be forced to be spouses but they wouldn't be friends.
Before their first meeting Emma, after being talked up by her parents, was willing to give the situation the benefit of the doubt. She tried to have an open mind, she really did, but then she actually met her future wife.
That first meeting had taken place at the site of their future home. They had been taken on a tour of the structure and Regina never said a single word to her, nor to anyone else. When she caught Regina looking at her, it was as if Regina was looking down on her as if she wasn't good enough for her. Stuck up bitch was her first impression of the brunette and things hadn't improved from their.
In fact, she was pretty sure they hadn't exchanged a single word with each other in about a year. Yet their parents insisted they keep taking these little meet and greet trips to spend time with each other.
Now their wedding was a little less than eight weeks away.
"Emma," Snow said breaking her comfortable silence. "Please make an effort today."
"Why should I? She certainly isn't."
"Maybe that is why you need to make the effort, because she won't."
"So she gets a free pass to be bitch?" She knew she shouldn't have said it and the condemning "Emma" came out of both of her parents' mouths.
"Sorry," she said. "It's just that I might be able to handle this all a little better if she didn't make it so hard. She doesn't want to marry me, she's made that clear. I don't want to marry her either. You would think we could find some common ground there, but apparently that is too much to ask for."
"You two can't ignore each other forever," James said.
"I think we are both willing to try."
"Emma," Snow said again, this time more softly. "You keep saying you don't want to marry someone you don't even know yet you have had four years to get to know her. What's her favorite color? Her favorite food? What does she like to do for fun?"
Emma shrugged.
"My point is you can surely manage a simple conversation with her."
"Ok, I will try, but don't get your hopes up."
The first few times she was forced to spend time with Emma at her parents' castle, it had taken place in the library. It had given her the perfect escape from talking with the other girl. But her parents quickly put an end to that when they realized all the two girls had done was sit in there reading books and not speaking to each other.
Ever since then, they had been placed in other rooms. Today, it was in her mother's garden. Her mom loved flowers and plants so her father had given her free rein over the gardens. The one they were in now was called the Queen's Garden because it was her favorite. As a young child she used to spend time out here playing while her mother concentrated on making her garden perfect. As she got older she would help her mother. It used to be funny to her to see her mother getting her hands and knees dirty as she knelt to plant some new arrival.
Those were simpler times unlike now.
She wasn't sure how long she and Emma had been out there. They were both sitting on stone benches that faced each other, yet both had managed not to actually face each other.
"This is really pretty out here," Emma said breaking the silence.
It wasn't something Regina felt like reciprocating so she remained quiet. There was more silence and then a couple of minutes later Emma spoke again.
"What do you like to do for fun?" Emma asked.
Regina continued to ignore her.
"Do you have a favorite color?"
"What?"
"I asked if you had a favorite color?"
"Why?"
"Look, I am just trying to have a conversation here."
"Again, I will ask why?"
"Because ignoring each other is boring. I mean are we really going to ignore each other forever?"
"I know I am willing to try," she smirked.
Emma turned away. At least she wouldn't be lying when she told her parents she tried.
More minutes passed in silence.
"Green," Regina said.
"What?"
"You asked if I had a favorite color. It's green."
"Oh. Green's nice. You probably like it out here then."
"I used to."
Emma saw a flash of sadness cross Regina's face and she wondered if she had said something wrong.
"I like blue. For a favorite color." She was pretty sure she sounded like an idiot. And when Regina didn't respond she was sure that Regina thought she was an idiot.
"I think our mothers were comparing notes today to make sure things go well with the wedding," Emma said. She honestly had no idea what to talk about with this woman and while her impending marriage was something she didn't like to talk about what else could they talk about.
"I don't really know."
"Hasn't your mother told you what the plan is?"
"I usually stop listening the moment she brings it up."
Emma could relate but it wasn't as if she could really stop listening when her mother talked. "It doesn't seem possible that it's like two months away, not even two months."
"Is there anyway your parents will put a stop to this before it happens?"
Emma was caught off guard by the question.
"I don't think that is going to happen."
"I asked my father to stop it?"
"What did he say?"
"He said even if he could, he wouldn't," Regina said bitterly.
"You actually asked him to stop it. You really don't want this marriage to happen do you?"
"Do you?"
"Well no, but I guess it didn't occur to me to ask my parents to stop it."
"Maybe you should. Maybe they will be more willing to listen than mine."
"They aren't going to change their minds about it. Besides, it wasn't just their decision; the other kingdoms were involved as well. Everyone seems to want this union to happen."
"Everyone but the two people it affects the most."
Emma sensed that was the most she was going to get from Regina as she fell silent again after that. She couldn't believe Regina had actually asked her father to stop the wedding.
"How did things go with Regina?" Snow asked her as they prepared for dinner. They would be staying overnight and leaving in the morning to return home.
"Her favorite color is green."
"You two actually spoke then?"
"A little bit.
"What else did you talk about?"
"Just about how neither of us wants this."
"Dwelling on it isn't going to change things."
"Regina asked her father to stop the wedding from happening?"
"She did what?"
"She asked her father to stop it. He told her that even if he could, he wouldn't. I've been thinking about it since she said it. I mean if she is so unhappy about this and he could stop it, why wouldn't he? Or at the very least why wouldn't he say he would if he could."
"Maybe he said it that way so she wouldn't indulge in the idea that it could be stopped."
"I suppose. What about you, would you stop it if I asked you to, if you could I mean?"
"Emma."
"I am just asking. I am not trying to indulge in some fantasy or anything like that. I just want to know."
"Your father and I really only want what is best for you. Regina's parents want the same thing for her."
"And you think this marriage is it?"
"I think your marriage will be what you and Regina make of it."
"Then it will be a disaster."
Throughout dinner Regina tried to ignore the constant talking. Her parents and Emma's parents were talking about their stewardship of the new kingdom. Despite their marriage establishing a new kingdom, nobody apparently was willing to let her and Emma actually run it at first. It would be under stewardship of her father and Emma's mother until such time as they deemed their daughters fit enough to take it over.
Yes Emma and her would be queens, be the titled royalty of the kingdom and handle most of the day-to-day duties, but they would have to report on things to their parents and if anything major came up it was expected they would consult with them first.
Since it was no secret that the new borders would be established those who had chosen to stay in this new kingdom were already there. Regina had heard of only one family that chose to move and that was someone from the White kingdom and arrangements had been made to transplant that family to another part of the White kingdom.
Those people who would be working in their castle were for the most part already there helping with the final preparations. Some of her own staff, her handmaidens for instance would be traveling with her. She assumed the same for Emma.
Others had come from other kingdoms in order to settle there and make a new life for themselves. For instance she had met the young blacksmith on her last official visit to the castle. He had been an apprentice in another kingdom but wanted to start his own smithy and now he was there.
At one point during the discussion Regina looked at Emma who was across from her. She seemed as bored as she was. An idea popped into her mind though.
"May I be excused, may we be excused? I was hoping to show Emma the horses that will be coming with us to start our stable."
Her father looked so shocked it took him a second or two to recover from it. "Yes, of course," he said smiling.
Emma had an equal look of shock but with the prospect of getting out of there she didn't care what the reasoning was. She followed Regina out of the room.
"Are we really going to go look at horses?"
"We might as well, especially if they send anyone after us. I just couldn't stand being in there a moment longer and I knew they wouldn't let me leave on my own."
"Hey I am not complaining. I wasn't exactly enthralled with the dinner conversation."
"Nor was I. It seems as if our parents will be forever making decisions without consulting us first."
They got down to the stables and Regina went directly to Quicksilver.
"Is he yours?"
"Yes. This is Quicksilver. I've had him since he was born. He was bred here in these stables."
"Your kingdom is known for having the best horses."
"It's true. I am surprised you know that."
"Why are you surprised?"
"I don't know. I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it's not like I know anything about you."
"I don't know you either. That usually requires talking."
"I guess I thought if we didn't bother maybe everyone would see what a bad idea this is."
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure, ask."
"Why are you so opposed to this? Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of this arranged marriage either, but you, you seem to be taking that to a whole other level."
"Because up until I turned 16 I believed that when people get married it was because they loved each other. Maybe I wanted to hold onto that idea a little longer. But I can't. Not now. Now I know marriage is nothing more than contract that doesn't even have to be signed by the two being wed. I am opposed to this because I don't love you."
"Are you in love with someone else?"
"No. What would be the point in that?"