A/N Alrighty righty! Here I come with the next part of this story. This time, it is dedicated to my favorite White Queen of instagram, miranaofmarmoreal
Regarding to her own words, she is hooked on this story and the ship Mirana/Margaret which she named Margana, so that's the real ship name now guys, so this part is hers. Thank you for your support Your Majesty. Oh and also, you may have or may have not noticed, that Margaret is named and inspired by me...(well, no shit Sherlock). Also, I want to thank my sweetest fangirl Sum, who supported this story even before I uploaded it, so thank you love! You are the best!
Without further senseless blubbering I love so much, part two of Sine Qua Non!
Castle of the Black Queen-to-be matched its surroundings perfectly. Three high, glass like shards of black color towered between same mountains. Really, from some distance, you wouldn't even know that the castle stood there.
The place itself was quite scary, actually, because it bordered with Outlands. Margaret herself picked the place when she was younger, so she could keep an eye or two on the evil brewing there. Giant maze from black roses surrounded the castle, full of traps, both magical and the ones that could simply bite off your leg.
Margaret's faithful raven stood guard on the gates and presented each visitor with simple question. „Right or left?"
Only the people who knew Margaret well enough figured the answer out. And when they did, the answer was clue as to how to get through maze safely.
As for the insides, the castle was black, as expected. But it was elegant and tastefully picked even the interiors of Marmoreal castle, which was considered the most beautiful building in Underland, would go green with envy.
And so it happened, only Cheshire cat knew that she actually didn't leave Underland, but hid herself in her castle,
He knew her, he knew her oh so well and the grinning cat knew she would be holed up in her palace of isolation, the guilt of doing something to Mirana eating her away.
He appeared wordlessly, every day without a fail, She was either crying, breaking things in her temper tantrum, or destroying training dummies in the most vicious ways. That, or she was practicing black magic and scouting Outlands for any signs of danger.
He often found her covered in various scratches, cuts and bumps. Chessur could tell it was just her wanting to bleed, because she could kill Jabberwock without as much as hair wrong on her head. Margaret was reckless, desperate for blood to be shed and she didn't care whether it was hers or the one of the creatures of Outlands.
Everytime Chess came, he would curl around her neck, and she would burrow her face in his fur and hold him close, but what made the grinning cat loose his grin was the fact she wouldn't utter a single word. It was as if she had no desire to use her mesmerizing voice anymore.
What kept Margaret from breaking down were rare visits from Absolem. Blue butterfly would sit on her nose (he did similar thing when she was fifteen, the caterpillar always crawled on the line of her hair) to make her crack a smile and Cheshire stared from nothingness.
That absolute bastard did care, after all. The two of them would lead conversations by projecting each others thoughts to each other. And Chess was was happy she didn't fall for the darkness completely. He could only guess what was wrong in her head and offer comfort to her, but when she broke down after catching glimpse of old piano in many rooms of her castle, he had had enough.
She needed to cheer up. Luckily for him (and everybody else), her bright smile was brought back by Tarrant, who brought her coronation dress and by Alice, who tagged along to see the woman who became her friend.
The woman even spoke to them, even though her voice was throaty and scratchy from not being used for weeks. The smile appeared when they drank tea together and Tarrant made utter idiot of himself just to see her laugh.
But her smile didn't last long. It disappeared when she saw the all two familiar figure gliding through the maze ever so graceful, with her hands in the air and all the stuff that was so her.
For a moment, Margaret saw much younger Queen with pink in her hair, coming for tea, endless chess games and sleepover.
But those Times were long forgotten and gone.
So she encountered Mirana with the poise and composure of the Queen she was, never letting hint of hell she went through shadow her mask.
„Whatever it is you came for Your Majesty?"
Mirana's sweet and gentle tone hurt a lot more than the harsh words masked behind the grace.
„Oh, I am just checking that you are still here, that you didn't run off week before the coronation, just like the last time."
Anger flared high.
„Well, your majesty, thanks for your concern, but if you are here to just insult me, you are wasting my time I could spend protecting Underland that, regarding to your words, doesn't need me."
Margaret just didn't care anymore, she stroke back with poison with her words and all feelings went aside, she just wanted to be the evil one.
Both marched in the opposite directions, anger radiating from both women.
„Wait for Diaval to lead you out of the maze! Wouldn't fancy finding your corpse in the morning!"
Black Princess threw this last remark as she was marching towards her castle. She knew she went a bit overboard with this, but on the other side, Mirana didn't care about her feelings when she threw her remarks around with no idea just how much they damaged the already damaged woman.
When she searched through her wardrobe for nightgown, it didn't strike her that Mirana asctually didn't wait for Diaval. She didn't think Mirana would be that stupid.
The rose maze was full danger and if one got lost in it...he was as good as dead.
Meanwhile, Mirana regretted not waiting for that silly raven. Soon, she got lost in the maze of black flowers, the walls high and thorny. Plus, as soon as the darkness fell, it got incredibly cold and the thin fabric of Mirana's elaborate dress did nothing to warm her.
And than there were the traps.
The charms which mad her relieve her worst nightmares, the thorns which sprung up and scratched her pale, smooth skin...we could continue like this for eternity. When the icy rain began to pour, Mirana sat slumped against sharp thorns, all anger vanished and she just wished for Margaret to come around and help her out of this horrible place.
Black Princess laid in her bed in front of the fireplace when Diaval pecked the window with his beak. It was pouring outside, of course her friend would want to hide. She opened the window to let him in, but closed him again to stop the freezing wind from getting inside.
„Did you accompany her out?"
His shake of head was more than enough. She bolted out of palace, her nightgown soaked in seconds, because she forgot to put on protection charm.
But she didn't mind, she didn't even realize. Panic overtook her common sense as she ran through the maze, completely forgetting she could use teleportation and location spells.
Margaret's black eyes were wide as she scanned every corner and crevice of the dangerous maze.
„MIRANA! MIRANA! WHERE ARE YOU!"
Her feet carried her through the maze, her throat hurting from all the screaming.
Finally, after what felt like eternity, she saw white crumbled mess in the darkness. Mirana was half unconscious, and even in the darkness, Margaret could see that the rain wasn't the only wetness on Mirana's face.
Suddenly, Margaret forgot that she shouldn't touch her, that they were changed, that they weren't even friends anymore and she embraced shaking Mirana in her strong arms, picking her up bridal style and running back to her castle as fast as her feet could carry her.
„Shhh, shh...Shh Mirana, I've got you, you are safe now. I've got you, shh."
Walking to her chambers, she hummed soft melody while Mirana curled into her instinctively, because times when Margaret was smaller than here were than in the past and even though the monochrome haired woman was still relatively small, she was much stronger and braver. Even though Mirana still hated her and wanted nothing to do with her anymore (lies, blatant lies), she was too weak to resist the warmth that radiated off of the rain soked woman who carried her. It must have been magic. And magic it truly was, because Margaret was freezing.
White Queen was placed upon a bed with soft, warm black beddings and Margaret quickly skimmed Mirana's body, her eyes still wide and breathing heavy.
Woman laying on the bed was even whiter than usual, her makeup running in scary streaks all across her face, her lips blue and violet from the cold. She was still shaking and her perfect skin had bloody gashes from all the thorns. The dress was beyond repair, but that was last thing Margaret cared about.
She rose her hands, which began to glow and after a while, Mirana's dressed were dry again because as much as Margaret would love to undress Mirana, now was not the time and their relationship was horrible enough, no need to worsen it.
Of course, she could use magic, but she didn't desire explaining it to Mirana who would't listen at all.
Mirana stopped shaking slowly and as fell into slumber, her lips slowly loosing the blueish color as she got warmed up by the fire and blankets Margaret charmed from nowhere.
Black monarch was exhausted herself and while healing the wounds and making the scars fade away, she could barely stand, because light magic was something she wasn't used to. Sure, she excelled at it, but she prefered the black magic. Yes, it eats even more of your energy, but if you use it long enough, it makes more resilient and powerful. And the more you incline to dark magic, the more is white magic difficult to use. But than again, making scars fade wasn't really easy task but Margaret didn't want Mirana's skin tainted.
It the end, stream of light coming from shaking hands got thinner and thinner until it faded completely. Margaret's knees buckled and she almost fell on top of the White Queen, but she held herself up and managed to pick the woman laying one her bed one last time.
Strength was being drained from her by the teleportation spell she chanelled. It was almost like there were leeches on her skin, sucking her blood.
After the spell was complete and they appeared in Marmoreal, Margaret just dropped Mirana on her bed, rather unceremoniously, might I add.
Short message was scribbled with weak hands.
Woman with black eyes gazed at person who was her everything, once upon a time. If one could look to her soul, he could see war raging.
Sometimes, heart knows things mind could never explain.
That's why Margaret left with kiss on White Queen's forehead. Heart knew her days with Mirana were over, but her mind couldn't bring itself to explain how or why.
And the message that was left on White Queen's table?
I can't forget, but I can pretend.
~M~
TBC
Oooh, what did it mean? What's going on? What is Margana going to look like now? Review your thoughts my lovely readers. Fairfarren
