Sometimes doing the smart thing could be the most irritating and frustrating thing in the world.
He hadn't undone Cora's spell on the castle mirrors before he'd left there.
He'd wanted to, of course, he'd wanted to more than anything especially given when he'd just arranged! But how could he?
It was too much of a risk. This was a delicate operation he was running, and until Cora was handled, he couldn't risk anything that might tip her off that something was wrong! So no matter how minor a spell it was to unblock even just one room of that spell, he had resisted the temptation. He'd made a mistake before in underestimating Cora; he wouldn't do it again. No matter how irritating it was that he couldn't hear anything surrounding the most important detail of this mission. He was at too critical a juncture to give in to temptation like that.
At least he was still able to watch.
He'd been able to watch that night as Regina had stayed in her new quarters for an hour, pacing and wringing her hands as she kept looking and glancing at the mirror he'd left behind. More than a few times, she'd gone to it, and he'd been certain she was nearly about to pull the covering from it, but each time she stepped back. Finally, she returned to the room she was sharing with Cora and lay down but didn't sleep. He wouldn't have expected her to even if they hadn't finally met that night. It was the night before her wedding. Did anyone sleep before they got married?
It was an odd thing. In the space between, he used his powers to look into the future, and what he saw there was baffling. He saw before Regina two different futures that he would have thought were contradictory. He saw her marriage. But he also saw her push Cora through that portal and not just with her hands. With magic. It was strange, for he would have thought that sending Cora through that portal would take her farther from the King, but…what better way to build jealousy than to be part of the family he supposed though he was curious as to how she was going to end up married if Cora wasn't there to push it upon her.
He was excited, ready to see exactly how this future was going to play out…but he was also more than excited to hear it play out and not just watch it in the damn mirrors!
As night became day and the castle slowly began to awake for the day ahead, he tried to tell himself that the torture would pass soon. He couldn't lift the spell Cora had placed lest she notice and figure out that Regina had met him. It was one of the reasons that he'd been careful to use as little magic as possible yesterday. A simple apparition spell and then a summoning spell, nothing strong enough to detect unless highly focused. If Regina played things as she had been, then Cora wouldn't know. She couldn't. The last thing he wanted was for Cora to grow suspect and cast another curse around the property to keep him out! But he knew the first thing he was going to do the moment this all worked and Cora was gone.
The wedding was scheduled for that evening. He watched all morning as people came in and out of Regina's chambers, first her hair then her make up. Finally, she disappeared behind the dressing screen, and when she appeared again, she was wearing a dress that was different than the one he'd last seen her in at her estate, but beautiful and white all the same. A crown was placed upon her head, and he didn't think he'd ever seen the girl look so scared in all her life.
And there, ever-present, always in the background, was Cora, beaming as he'd never seen her beam. Her face was so bright at the placement of that crown she might have been glowing. Ultimately, he watched as she shooed the servants from the room, giving instructions for something or other it seemed until they were left alone. Cora moved around that room as if it were she who was the Queen. She was comfortable and talking the entire time; he only wished he knew what she was talking about.
Regina, on the other hand, reminded him of a deer who knew it was within the clutches of a hunter. She moved slowly, her arms wrapped around her waist as if it would protect her, her eyes wide. It was as if she was in a daze, but he knew she was aware of everything going on around her. Perhaps that was why she had turned to the balcony and was looking out as Cora rambled. From Regina's spot there, it would be easy to see the activity in the gardens before the wedding, the final preparations that were being made. It was a good place to look out over the entire Kingdom, a great deal of it could be seen from that location. He'd seen enough in his lifetime to know that this was the time, just before the wedding, when women began to fear their wedding night, began to fear the unknown their parents had tried to keep from them lest they grow too curious and go out and experiment. But Regina was a different woman altogether. Somehow, he knew that it wasn't the anticipation of a potential ravishing by the King that occupied her mind.
Suddenly she turned, and he saw through the mirror he was using that Cora was looking at the other mirror, the one he'd left there for her. That was what drew Regina's attention to her. That was what she was focusing on at the moment. And Cora…
She unwrapped it! He watched as she used her magic to remove the bow and shed the cloth and looked with sweet disappointment at the mirror before her. It was a moment he'd been waiting for, one that meant he was holding his breath. That mirror reeked of magic. If she wasn't too distracted, Cora should be able to feel that it was more than an ordinary looking glass. If she felt something was wrong…
Regina said something, he wasn't sure what, he only watched as she moved her mouth and Cora reacted by turning to look at her.
A distraction! It was perfect! It was precisely what Cora needed not to notice something odd about the mirror. He watched as she walked over to her daughter and pulled her quickly to it. He worked with a mirror of his own, long and thin, a close resemblance to the one in front of them. He pushed and pulled, urging his magic inside of it, and finally, what he saw was their faces before him. Cora's eyes raked over Regina with a sense of pride, and Regina looked at herself just as scared as ever.
Cora noticed; she would have been a fool not to. And from his place, he watched as his former lover played perfectly into their hands by leaving her daughter's side to stand before her, back to the wall, holding her hands. She was speaking to her, about what he'd never know, not until Regina did what she had to do! As she spoke, he used more of his magic, preparing to do what he hadn't let himself do in Cora's presence during these long years…be seen. It was a risky move, especially with Cora in the room. But if Regina stayed looking as frightened as she did, then the risky move was to do nothing! He needed to be sure she'd remember. She needed encouragement. He could provide that if the time was right!
Regina moved.
He rescinded his magic and watched as suddenly the moment turned sour, and she turned away from her mother. He couldn't remember the last time his heart beat this fast. Now was the perfect moment if she didn't do something now then-
Regina turned, her mouth moved, the vein in her forehead popped as she threw her hands out and-
Cora! Her magic! It wrapped itself around Regina so that her arms hugged her waist again, and her brows furrowed with anger. She looked around in confusion, trying to figure out what her mother had done…
Yes! Yes, this was good! She needed anger! She needed the motivation to do this. She was strong now! She only needed to break the spell and give a little push with what she felt!
He felt as though he was pressed to the glass of his own mirror, but quickly, as Cora's back was turned and she lectured Regina he activated the spell, he let himself be seen and knew the spell was a success when Regina looked over her mother's shoulders and stared right into his own eyes. She wouldn't be able to hear him, not with Cora's spell still in place, but he didn't need words, just a smile and a small gesture. A flick of his hands mimicked a push, and he nodded, trying to show his excitement with his own eyes, trying to give her something to be excited for.
The result was astounding. Almost immediately, Regina's face changed. It was as if something in her snapped. It was the same thing he'd seen at her estate just before she'd placed the preservation spell on Daniel, and he found himself laughing as he watched what was happening in the mirror. Regina was angry, filled with the same kind of hatred for her mother that had urged her to make the comment about letting Snow White die.
She exploded. He wished he could have seen Cora's face as it happened.
One moment there was Regina locked in her mother's body bind as she had been her entire life. The next moment she'd let out a scream, one he couldn't hear but felt he could just by watching it. Her arms were free. She pushed, never once touching her mother, but it didn't matter.
Cora flew. She flew so high into the air that her head nearly knocked against the top of that tall framed mirror. There was a brief moment that she lingered, a small second when half her body vanished from his sight, but he could still see her arms, her hands in front of him, holding on to the frame of the mirror, she was fighting. But she, unlike him, was prone to aging. A Cora like the one he'd known years ago would have been able to hold on. This one stood no chance, and a second later, the rest of her vanished through the portal.
For one brief moment, he was able to observe a look of shock on Regina's face, a flicker of a smirk before the looking glass in front of him began to crack. No, his own glass was fine, but Regina disappeared from view as the mirror he'd left her, after finally spending it's magic and accomplishing its purpose, shattered into a thousand tiny shards.
That was a deal well spent.
Again, not so much talking here as Rumple seeing something from the mirror because we know he wasn't in the room. I'm sorry, but I did warn you that this sort of thing would happen on occasion. That's just the way it has to be.
Thank you MerlockVonBaron, Grace5231973, and Alarda for your comments on the last chapter. I do promise that the next chapter will be far more interesting to read. It's a "seen" scene, but I added a bit of framing at the beginning and end that I think will really serve to fill it out. Peace and Happy Reading!
