4

As I sat in my room preparing for bed my thoughts drifted over the day. I suffered in silence under the King's searing gaze while we held court. Shortly after breaking the news of my mother's death, the king decided that a feast should be held in her memory. Many of the lords and ladies offered their condolences. My mother was not a well-loved woman, but she was respected and her formidable presence would surely be missed.

The feast lasted several hours and my father disappeared shortly after. Lately he had been making a habit of drinking in the local taverns to escape my mother. If there was any place that the Lady Cora would not set foot in, it was a tavern. When the majority of the guests had left, I stood and announced that I would retire for the evening. The king ignored me as he usually did and I began to hope that maybe my own guilt was exaggerating the king's behavior. Perhaps he was no more suspicious than usual and I was just being paranoid. Shortly after this thought crossed my mind, my chamber doors opened and closed. The king was standing there with a leering gaze twisting his features.

I dropped into a curtsy and merely said, "My King." He stepped forward and down on my shoulder until I fell to my knees. I didn't dare look up at him for fear of trying his patience. He walked over and sat in a chair nearby and asked "How did your mother die, Regina?" I hesitated before replying, "My king, I…" He interrupted by blurting out, "Yes, yes you don't know. Of course." He leaned forward and studied me with his cold gaze. Then the king reached forth his hand and struck me across the face. He stood and said "Well maybe I can help you remember."


Daniel was still hanging in that dark room feeling the pain of his defeat, when a scene began playing on the mirror. He saw Regina, his beloved Regina, at her vanity with a sad expression on her face. He could only imagine what she had endured since his departure. As he watched he felt the familiar feeling of love envelop his heart and for the first time since he left, the coldness in his heart disappeared. He was content to watch Regina in the mirror, until he saw the king enter her chamber.

At the sight of the very man who had kept them apart, Daniel felt the coldness return to his heart. He watched as the king pushed Regina to her knees, and he watched as he struck her. He became angry and tried to tear his shackles from the wall, but they would not budge. He watched on as the king ripped off Regina's night gown and leered at her with lust-filled eyes. Daniel felt his face purple with rage as the king forced himself on the woman he loved, while she wept silent tears. He saw the bruises begin to form on her hips caused by the King's rough hands. He watched it all on that mirror in the dark room and he felt his heart grow colder still.


Shortly after the King had left, Regina crawled into bed and let the sobs shake her slight frame at the abuse she had endured. Soon the king would send his healer, so that she would be able to appear in court tomorrow. In an effort to distract her from the horrible nature of what had ensued, she used her magic to create a dozen miniature horses. The horses were purple wisps of magic that ran and played along the sheets of her bed. They seemed to be utterly carefree and helped to ease her mind.

The king didn't know that she had magic. Her mother had urged her to keep it a secret, in order to make sure that she could use it to her advantage. The Lady Cora might have had some use in having a daughter with secret magic abilities. Whatever the reason, Regina was glad that she had kept it a secret. The king hated magic, save for the few trusted healers he had in his employ. He would have gone to great measures to try to exorcise the magic from her. All of these thoughts and more retreated to the back of her mind and she let the small horses ease her mind and she drifted off to sleep.