"Mum?" A smile briefly appears on Merida's face as she watched her mother grimace at the taste. Swallowing painfully, Elinor tries to smile at her daughter but blanches at the lingering aftertaste. The queen sets down the plate and openly gags, her hands sweeping for the top of the table for water.
Elinor had seized a half-filled cup of water and Merida could hear her mother gargle to rid the taste in her mouth.
The cake had been a peace offering - or so Merida claims. The princess could barely stomach her excitement when her mother had taken a bite. Fate be changed, the witch warned. Merida smiles at the break in her mother's usual composure.
Her mother forces the drink down and seemed undeterred. "Now, why don't we go upstairs to the lords and put this whole kerfuffle to rest?" the queen smiles as she sets the goblet down.
The smile disappears from Merida's face. "W-what?" A slow moving white fury bubbled in the pit of her stomach when she realized that the spell hadn't worked and her mother was trying to arrange a marriage.
When the two reach the great hall, Elinor collapses against the wall, barely standing. "I'm woozy suddenly. Oh, my head's spinning like a drop!"
"Mum?" She should have felt sorry for her mother but she doesn't - all the thought of was the spell. Perhaps it wasn't too late for the tart to take effect. "How... How do you feel about the marriage now?"
"Merida!" Sweat began to bead under the queen's crown and grew heavier by the second. "I'm not well, I'm not well."
"Mum?!"
She almost dropped her mother when the queen fell into her arms. The walk from the great hall to her mother's room was just as painful as hearing of the marriage for the first time; the rising hope that her mother may reconsider, and then the crushing blow when she knows her mother was adamant about the arranged marriage and unification. Once her father took charge, hardly anyone batted an eye towards the pale queen.
"Just take all the time you need to get yourself right, mum." Merida cooed as she pulled the sheets under her mother's chin. "And maybe in a bit you might have something new to say on the marriage?"
"What was in that cake?!"
The redhead leaned back; her mother's breath still stinks heavily of the witch's tart. "Cake!" A nervous laugh bubbled out and Merida tries not to feel the impending guilt. Her mother's cheeks bulged suddenly and the queen wrenched herself away, shaking, and heaving over the edge of the bed.
"Mum?" An anxious knot burned in the archer's stomach but she pushed herself to continue. "So, I…I'll just tell 'em the wedding's off then?" Merida didn't get an answer. Just her mother's gasps and heaves. The queen rose on her elbows and knees, coughing and sputtering. The frame protested under the full weight of the queen as she sagged deeper into the mattress and heaved.
"... Mum?"
The sound of retching caught Merida's ears as she saw her mother shudder from a wave of nausea. Then again, and again, and again. The knot of anxiety had numbed Merida to the point where it felt almost supernatural. As if she was having an out of body experience; watching the scene unfold. Watching her mother convulse—her body beginning to succumb. Elinor's normally healthy complexion turning a blue sickly pallor.
Soaked pillows and tangled sheets - details that were not truly there. The queen gasps and it sounds like she's breathing through a hole against the side of a barrel thrown into the ocean. The ugly sound grating and still the queen cannot breathe. Elinor gasps and it's such a wet noise. A seeping cold rakes through the archer's neck.
After some time, her mother's retching begins to subside. The bed groans again. Silence nearly as thick as the witch's tart. Merida stood frozen nearby. A surreal experience; her legs refused to move, frozen to the spot and heavier than they've ever been in her life. Her father would say later that she was in shock.
Merida waited for that sharp whistling inhale, any signs of life from the motionless bump under the covers. Her throat closed tightly as she ran across the bedroom.
Though numb, her mother feels heavier than before. There's blood running down from her nose and Merida tries to wipe away the red, because a princess is always clean. A princess doesn't stuff her gob and always strives for perfection. Elinor squeaks in her daughter's arms, croaking, choking. Her brown eyes ghosts over her daughter's blue ones. Hauntingly, knowingly. The queen's eyes fill with red and Merida sees her arms shake with the exertion of her mother's weight.
A beat.
"Mum. Mum." She doesn't realize she's been screaming until she's heard the rawness of her voice.
Merida tried to focus the eyes that weren't hers as they rapidly blurred the image of her mother. Stuck in a nearly hypnagogic state, she hears herself calling for her father.
"Dad!"
Maudie comes first, then Fergus and all the while the play continues. Her father grieves. Her brothers mourn but Merida remained in shock; disbelief that the tart had actually worked and unaccepting of her mother's death. There were too much left unsaid, too much left unanswered.
And when Merida closed her eyes, all she could see was her mother's brown eyes before filling with red.
Somewhere, deep down, her mother knew.
I'm very surprised that no one's done this "What if" deviation yet. Please don't hesitate to point out any ooc moments. I love criticism, I truly do. How else are you going to improve?