Do not feel badly for me, my story does not end there thankfully. I did not feel sad…well, of course, I did not feel sad I was a mirror, and as I've said before, emotions were something of a mystery to me still.

Needless to say…I was not to be very happy with my circumstances for the next few centuries.

I would not have a friend like Portly again for quite some time.

/

A thousand years later

/

My owners after King Rupin were not a great improvement over him. I always fancied being a well of infinite knowledge, where curious kings would sit before my glass and ask to have the mysteries of the world solved by my power. I wanted the young princes and princesses to come before me with their own curious questions. I wanted to be used like the gift I was.

I suppose I always thought I had a higher purpose than what I actually received.

King Rupin used me for the rest of his days as jury so he could skip ahead to playing the role of judge and executioner. When he was not dragging men directly before me he was trying to decipher who was after his new throne next. I had to constantly remind him to speak in rhyme, and it made him irritable to no end.

He died, and I was passed on as an heirloom in the royal treasury, to the new king, the first born son who's birth I had proclaimed would produce an heir many years ago. The new king used me for much the same reason. By the time his son had come to the throne and become my owner, a full on war had broken out over the whole thing. Too many spies captured, to many plots discovered.

I had my part to play in it. I was always a short walk down the hall from their headquarters to determine helpful information, and set up the right battle plans. I was by far the best spy in all the kingdoms.

They were not very good at asking in rhyme either and they had little time to speak with me apart from their demands.

The war ended, with us as the victor, though I had to admit the other kingdoms put up a very good fight, and did not give up. Had Rupin's line not had me as their own weapon, they would have likely lost. The war lasted three generations , and the king in the second one knew nothing about decent battle schemes. When all the fighting finished, no one really knew what to do with me, and I had to wait what seemed like forever to be called forth again. Evidently, I had been forgotten by a few of the princes that followed.

That happened every now and then, me being forgotten. At some points I was almost afraid they would throw my mirror out and the glass would all shatter and I would end. But the rumor of the magic mirror was kept alive by the servants (such gossips!) and some new king would always find me eventually, and awe at the long lost treasure in this chamber.

It was a little awkward to see someone new every now and then and have to ask "I'm sorry…excuse me, but who are you?"

I was used for many things.

Such things included (but were certainly not limited to): predicting the weather, condemning more criminals, telling the queens they were pregnant, telling them of the genders of those babies, and delivering a few unwanted messages that some of them would have nothing but daughters. I helped spoiled royal children by answering their work from their lessons for them. I told women if their husbands still thought them beautiful. I helped to win more than a few games of 'chance'. I helped make advantageous marriages to couples who had never laid eyes on each other. I helped the kingdom avoid bankruptcy not once, but three times over the centuries. I helped to win another war. And I was always used as a spy.

Did not anyone simple want to know of stars and seas and far off places?

Never mind the far off places I simply wanted to know about life. I wanted to know of feeling, and being human and being alive.

But I was not human, my destiny was not for me to decide. I had simpler ways of living.

Luckily, these days I was not without company. The queen visited daily, having made it part of her morning rituals. I came awake whenever I heard her ladies-in-waiting (she had a small army of them to attendant to her whims and follow her about) collecting all her bathing things, soaps and oils and dried flowers. A maid from the kitchen, commonly a large able-bodied women in her middle-aged years, would come grunting past the chamber as well, heaving great buckets of hot water for the bath. The noise of them was enough to stir me from my reveries.

I did not like this queen. I found her very vain, as her perpetual question was "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

It was her, and there was no denying she was beautiful. But who would not be beautiful if they had baths in rose petals and eucalyptus oil and then dressed themselves in fine clothes every day? I liked being used for something every day (and thank all heaven, for it not being war), but I was irritated by her constant need to be more beautiful than anyone else, and know this to be true for every day.

Really, I had to blame much of my dislike of her from what I heard of her. The servants gossiped of her with much vigor, even her prized ladies-in-waiting. Rumor was she also had nightly baths in the milk from spotted goats to keep her looking young.

I had once asked a middle-aged maid, probably the one who had done quite a lot of the heavy lifting for those baths, what it was like to age, and why women disliked it so much. Her name was Prudence, and she snapped at me, demanding to know if I was insulting her for getting older. She also gave the threat that if the Queen didn't love standing before me as much as she did, she'd take her shoe and smash my glass all up.

I never dared ask again.

But that was only the beginning of the tales of her. There was also talk of her temper, and how she had spent large sums of money on her clothes and jewels, and how she had once ordered that a young, beautiful girl who worked in the palace have her hair cut so short it was nearly to her scalp.

That was what annoyed me most about her, that being beautiful on it's own was not enough. If she was not the most desired there almost seemed to be no point in living for her, and she would come to me sometimes in fits of woe, and was only comforted when I told her she was thought the most beautiful in the kingdom.

There was the sound of my chamber door opening and I stood, smoothing out the skirt of my dress.

Sometimes I liked to image I had the pretty dresses that the ladies-in-waiting wore always, in bright pastel colors with necklines that dipped elegantly to reveal a little décolleté, and lace collars. They got to wear curls in their hair and pin it up in matching combs, sometimes with jewels on them. In all truth, I had been wearing the same white gown, with its flowing elbow length sleeves since the beginning of my days.

"Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, reveal yourself to us all."

I appeared and saw Wilhelm in front of me.

"Good morning, your majesty." I bowed my head a little.

Wilhelm scowled at me, though not for being a mirror. He hated being referred to with his title. "On the hunt for the white stag again?" I asked pleasantly.

"A stag of any color will do." He nodded.

Wilhelm was the son of the queen, from her first marriage. He was very lucky to inherit the title of prince and if the old king not died he would have never had a chance for the throne. His mother had seen to changing that though…

I believed Wilhelm had never wanted the responsibilities that came with the title his mother fixed on his shoulders, though he carried them, begrudgingly. He was far better suited to the hunting and trapping his real father had taught him.

"Slipping out before your mother comes out of her chambers?" There was no reply from him, so I knew it was likely true. I sighed. "Well, I know why you've come." I straightened up. "Go on, in rhyme if you please."

"Mirror, Mirror, before the queen does suspect my stunt, tell me where it is best to hunt."

"The east meadow, but not in the ravine." I replied. "The deer will be migrating on towards the lake along the first foothills."

He nodded in thanks. Wilhelm did not talk with me much. I often tried to speak with servants and tried to get answers for my burning questions from them. A good many times they were too busy to answer me, and if they did the responses were not nearly detailed enough for me to be satisfied. Wilhelm did not like to answer any questions of mine, but neither did he snap at me. A neutral character in my eyes.

"Good hunting to you then." I wished him. He turned, but before he cast me back I spoke again. "You know…I think you'd make a far better huntsman than you would a prince."

Wilhelm looked back and gave a small smile. A cool person, who had never shown me much kindness, and who used me for such trival purposes…and yet I did not hate him. He had simple needs, and they were simply met. Perhaps it was just his lot in life to be a little begrudged or bitter. Was he cruel? No. Merely misunderstood…

It would be nicer in a few years when Wilhelm was my master and I was responsible for putting food on feast tables at least. People had to eat.

But people did not have to be so obsessed with beauty, I reminded myself as I sat waiting for the queen to approach. Wilhelm had stepped out and no doubt vanished into the wilderness. A the world outdoors…how long had it been since I last saw it? Wilhelm could not be bothered enough to tell me of the hills and valleys and groves. The servants were too occupied and often embittered to even look out of the window and tell me what the sky looked like that day.

I knew so much, yet some things were doomed to be a mystery.

Fanfare trumpeted from the halls, and I prepared myself. "Mirror, Mirror…" And thus I was called forth. The queen was striding toward me, her hair pulled back from her face, revealing the sharp angles of her cheekbones and jaw, her jewel bright eyes were locked upon my glass. Her dress billowed behind her, puffed out at the hips a little to give her a more ample, womanly figure, with her laces pulled tight to preserve an aging waist.

"My Queen." I greeted as a pair of ladies-in-waiting followed her like two little flowers being blown in the wind after her.

"Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of the all?" She asked, an eagerness in her tone not to be mistaken. She did not waste time on any small talk.

"You, your majesty." I replied. Her dress was a deep, jewel toned green, and made of rich fabric. No doubt her team of dress makers had slaved over the project for weeks, the fabric in her elaborate skirt with it's flares and ruffles was enough to make a second dress in itself.

She beamed, red painted lips parting in a wide smile, and laughing the way a schoolgirl who has been complimented does. "Oh, what an enchanting mirror!" She grinned. "Such a clever mirror."

I almost wanted to heave a great sigh, for cleverness and the opinion of beauty did not cross roads in my mind. All the same, I now had to go on, if only for the sake of her not having to return for another session of vanity later that evening. "The men of this kingdom admire your attributes and face…the women look at you with envy and awe…the children think you are an angel cast from the sky…" These things were not really truths, but she liked to hear them, and they kept her happy.

"Of course." She smiled, doing a girlish spin. "For no other beauty on this earth compares with mine. Is that right?"

I nodded, though she had not asked in rhyme. "Yes." I said, without any meaning.

"Truth, it is truth." She went on, touching her hair as if she were placing it just so. I didn't have the heart to tell her it might not be so…it would send her off into a fit of emotion, either sadness that would depress her for the rest of the day, or anger that would endanger me greatly.

She swooned about for another few minutes, and when satisfied with her looks left without a word. Her underskirts rustled as she left, bidding me goodbye, and the flowery ladies-in-waiting blew themselves out after her.

I wished my skirt rustled when I walked. I did not have much space to roam in my little chamber though.

I sat down on the floor, pulling a small cushion underneath me. My chamber was simple, dove gray hangings on the walls and a few embroidered cushions on the floor that I had heaped into a day bed of sorts. I took great relief in lounging on it, and resting when I was not in use. My important…well, what counted as important given who was my master right now…duties done for the day, I could sleep now.

If anything, some servant would come hiding in here and perhaps ask something of me. Perhaps Oswald…he was a jumpy, skittish little footman who was positively frightened by the Queen and he chose to hide here when her temper flared or when the other maids started snapping at his heels. He was always asking if people had stopped looking for him.

I fiddled with my dress, smoothing the skirt and toying with the sleeves, day-dreaming of a thousand things.

The door opened, and I sat up. Someone was crying. It wouldn't be the first time some tearful young thing had wondered in here for such purposes. I waited, hoping whoever it was would speak to me.

I waited, and waited.

Whoever had come was crying as if her heart was breaking. I had never cried before, but usually the tears of the young maids did not last long, and led to some spiteful grumbling. This girl sounded as though she was spilling years of bottled up tears that had aged and cured in her soul.

I felt pity for her, like she had wondered in like an injured kitten, and I wanted to take the creature in my arms and comfort it.

I could nothing though until she summoned me. Undeterred I sat by my glass, and listened to her. "Shhh." I hushed, though she could not hear me. "Hush, poor thing."

She cried for long time, until it all subsided, in a few broken hiccups. Had I been able to put my arms around her I would have.

"Mirror…Mirror…" Her voice was still shaky and full of pauses. "On the wall….reveal yourself…to us all."

The glass cleared and we saw each other, the two of us kneeling on the floor, and staring into the glass.

I had never seen such beauty.

Her hair was long and black as the night sky I had once seen. Her skin was pale and free of blemishes. Her lips were red like blood, but not from the cosmetics that the queen used.

She appeared equally as awed to see me. "So it is true." She said. "This mirror is enchanted."

"Yes." I nodded.

"You speak?"

"Of course."

"And is it true that you know everything?"

"Well, not everything…" I said. "But I can answer any question truthfully, so long as it is posed in rhyme." I raised my eyebrow a little. "How do you know of me? I have not seen you ever before."

"I don't work in the halls." She answered. "I work in the scullery."

Ahh…the kitchen maids had their hands so full with cutting vegetables, scrubbing floors and washing the laundry, it was no wonder that I rarely saw them.

"Why were you crying?"

"I don't really know anymore." She sighed. "The cook was being awful and temperamental again, and when I starting crying the tears would not stop."

"Why?"

"I've been working in the kitchen for years, and not once has it been easy." She sighed. "I suppose that's why."

"Why do you work there then?" I smiled. "You're very pretty…you could be a lady-in-waiting if you wanted to be."

"Oh no, she'd never let me do that." The lady shook her head, black hair floating about. "I have to work in the scullery because the work is hard, and endless…and that way I'll be dressed in plain things." She motioned to the skirt of her dress, which had been worn out, holes dotting the fabric.

"Who makes you work there?" I asked. "Your mother?"

"Stepmother."

"Well that is not very nice."

"She does not know kindness toward others."

"My master is like that too." I answered. "Though it isn't very good of me to say, if she heard of me speaking ill of her, she would smash my looking glass to shards…well, maybe. She needs someone to tell her she is beautiful every day, and I'm the only one who can give her the truth."

"Who do you serve?"

"The Queen." I said. "I am a royal heirloom."

"I know." She replied, with a tiny smile. "My father told me of you. He'd say I'd one day have you as my own."

"What?"

"The King…he was my father."

"I…I'm sorry I did not know." I apologized. "I only know what people tell me, and what I am asked. Who are you?"

She smiled. "Mirror, Mirror, you are not to blame…may you now speak my name?"

With that phrase I knew her, as though her entire story had been told to me, from it's start to it's finish where she sat now.

"Snow White." I answered. "You are the daughter of the king, and his first queen. You were the child they were gifted with after years of barrenness. The legend is that the queen pricked her finger with a sewing needle and three-"

"Drops of blood fell upon the snow on the black windowsill, and she wished for a child with hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow and lips red as blood." Snow White finished.

"And here you are." I said. Then I frowned. "But fortune has not been with you since…"

"Since father died."

"The queen is very jealous of you." I said.

"Yes."

We were silent for a moment, and simply stared at each other. There was something that drew us together, two servants of the same master. And if fate had been kinder we would have been servant and master ourselves.

"Do you stay in here often?" Snow White asked.

"I have not been moved from this room for a thousand years." I answered. "People don't come in here usually in the afternoon…servants sometimes, but that is all…you could hide in here when the cook becomes unbearable…if you like."

She smiled. "I'd like that."

We had touched each other, like kindred spirits. A simple meeting and our friendship was started. We were both trapped in here, in our own ways, and for once saw someone who was like us. It was the beginning of the answers to all my questions, it was the beginning of one of the only dear connections I had.

"What should I call you?" Snow White asked.

I was beaming. "Mirror, you may call me Mirror."