I felt so sad that night. And when my I felt as though that sadness, shortlived, was lifting I forced it back onto myself. Being a mirror, I was not meant to feel sad, and so if anything I suppose disappointed might be a better word to describe what I truly felt.

But I wanted myself to be sad. I wanted to cry for the first time in my thousand years of existence. I wanted to feel the most tearful of all emotions and never stop feeling it, because if I let myself stop focusing on pounding glass, and worrying over her, and feeling an emptiness in my chest that would mean her friendship had meant nothing to me.

It had meant the world to me. And I would not let it go.

/

Somewhere in the young hours of the morning I stopped pounding on the glass, my knuckles not bloody, but the skin dry and chaffed from such use. It was clear no one was going to hear me. No one would listen to me anyhow. My mind slipped away from me, and I thought of Snow White and the hours we had spent pressed to the glass, talking as friends would, learning about a world we would not see.

I had betrayed her, I thought bitterly. The one good friend I ever had and I had tossed her to the wolves. I had turned her in.

"I'm horrible…" I whispered to myself, laying in a heap upon my floor. I did not care for the softness of the cushions now. That was too grand of luxury when I was to feel sad. "I'm awful….I'm not meant to befriend anyone…"

Harsh things to say about myself, but it helped me focus on being sad, and when emotions are as ambiguous as they are for me, concentration is key.

I lay all huddled up on the floor for some time, tired and weary and wishing I could go to sleep, or cry, or truly feel things as they were meant to be felt.

Noise woke me from my daze, the brisk steps of boots on stone floors. It wasn't Snow White, she only wore shoes in the winter, for she had only one pair and could not wear them out with year- round use. It may be the Queen, and I did not want to see her ever again.

Someone entered, and I did not bother to rise from the floor. Let whoever it was see me like this.

"Mirror, Mirror, one the wall, reveal yourself to us all." The glass cleared and I looked up the tiniest bit to see Wilhelm standing before my mirror. I did not move any more than that. "You do not even rise in the mornings now?" He asked, lightly. "I did not think you could sleep."

I blinked in response.

"And you didn't even attend last night's festivities." Wilhelm shook his head a little. "That would give someone permission to be tired."

My head shot up suddenly, at the mention of the party.

"It seems I have struck a nerve." He nodded at my sudden reaction.

"What do you know?" I asked.

"Do you want to know?"

"Tell me about Snow White!" I demanded, jumping to my feet now. "Where is she?! Is she safe?! What is she doing?!"

"In her own room, yes, and presumably getting dressed." Wilhelm answered.

"Send her to me, I have something to tell her." I asked, a pleading tone in my voice.

"I'm afraid I've been told not to."

"You do know…" I said. "Please, please, you have to take her to me."

"Mirror, Mirror-"

"No questions!" I cried out. "Please, no questions!"

"Very well." He answered. "I suppose I'm capable of finding a secluded glen on my own."

"What? Why?" I asked, as my mind started to pull it all together. "No, you couldn't be Wilhelm…you wouldn't hurt her…"

"My mother has plans." He responded. "Orders, really."

"You do not have to listen to her." I pleaded. "She cannot make you do something like that."

He shook his head, grimly. "She can, Mirror. She has a good many threats up her sleeve."

"You're stronger than her." I protested. "Please, Wilhelm, Snow White has never done you any harm, she has never done anyone harm."

"And throw away my ability to rule?" Wilhelm asked.

"You never cared for ruling over anything." I tried to reason with him. "You never wanted to inherit this…I think you would have placed it in Snow White's lap after your mother died."

"It's not a question of do I want to, it's a question of me being able to, and having the power too." Wilhelm stopped me from continuing. "Who would you rather have in charge? Her or me?"

"Overthrow her, please Wilhelm, I'm begging, do not do this."

Wilhelm turned to leave with a heavy sigh. I shouted after him. "I hope your guilt chokes you in the night!" I was screaming, in a vain attempt to break through with him. "I hope when you dream at night all you see is the face of someone who had never done you any wrong and blood on your hands that can never be washed off from-!"

He was gone.

I entered a weary state again, full of my attempts at remorse and guilt and sorrow.

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

It was the Queen, and something made me stand tall and face her, a look of pure disdain on my face. "What is it that you want now?" I asked, forcing my voice not to waver and gritting my teeth in the process.

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall…"

She's asking that dreadful question, I thought. This is it then. I have killed my only friend. She is dead by my power, my unlimited knowledge.

The queen held up a small casket, the kind that one places relics in. I grimaced. What piece of her lay in there? A torn bit of fabric from her dress? A ribbon from her hair? I dared not imagine it be any actual piece of her body, for that was too cruel.

"…who is the fairest of them all?" The Queen finished.

It was as if my mind left my body, and I saw my friend, curled up in a strange bed, under a rabbit's fur quilt. Her hair was unbound. Her brow was peaceful. She was resting, alive and well, and fairest of them all.

I was giddy.

Too giddy.

With a broad smile and much enthusiasms I all but shouted "Lips red as blood, and hair black as night, the fairest of us all is still Snow White!"

"What?" The Queen seemed to be in shock. "It is impossible!"

"No, no it is the truth."

"It can't be the truth…" The Queen went on. "I have her heart in this box!" And she opened the casket to reveal a pound of flesh that was definitely a heart, but not Snow White's.

"You spoke in rhyme." I smirked. "I have to answer, and I can only answer with the truth."

"Mirror, Mirror, …you may have another start…" The Queen began to piece together a rhyme, the effort of which was rendering her even more frustrated and confused by my news. "Who once had this heart?"

The image of a boar being tracked and hunted down by a figure that must have been Wilhelm filled my head. "A pig!" I grinned, squealing the answer in delight. I felt a happiness stronger than any in my life, so powerful I felt that for once I was experiencing emotion as humans did, and my joy was no different, no weaker, than anyone else's. "It's the heart of a boar! A boar!" I clasped my hands together gladly. "She's somewhere out in those woods still." I half-frowned, half-smiled. "Oh! That poor, poor brave girl."

"A boar…" The Queen's face fell. For a moment her form slouched, and her eys lingered over the useless heart in the casket. "A boar!" She snapped, standing straight up and expressing nothing but fury and revenge. "That fool!" She spoke of Wilhelm.

"He didn't do it." I smiled. "He was good enough not to…oh, I'll never second guess his character again. He's proved himself a thousand times over."

"Must I do everything myself?" The Queen asked herself. She threw the casket to the floor. "Out in the woods is she?" She pointed a finger accusingly at me. "I'll find her. I'll find her if I have to hire every man with a crossbow!"

My giddiness faded, swept from my body with a sudden force that rendered me hollow. "Please…is it really worth it…being the most beautiful?" My throat constricted and my words came out sounding almost like a sob. "She's so scared of you, she'll never return. No one will ever see her again. They'll think you most beautiful…is that not enough? Is it not enough for you?!"

The Queen left, not heeding my words, and instead wringing her hands and saying "No, no, no…I must be fairest…I must be…"

"But why?!" I shouted at my now blank glass in front of me, my half reflection showing my pain. "Why is it so important to you?!"

Thus began a new cycle of grief and being lost in my subconscious (if I even had one) and pounding on my glass, and recalling bitterly the happy moments I had spent speaking of the world with snow white. Someone came in to clear away the boar's heart and the casket. There was walking in the halls, servants going about as though nothing special was happening and it were any other day.

Eventually, all went quiet. It was night at last, and I remained alone with my memories and my thoughts.

I recalled smiles and laughter and learning the secrets of the world. Pressing hands up to the glass as though we could touch one another. How I had been treated as though I were human and not some figment or object. How I had been used the way I wanted to be, for higher knowledge, for discovery, as an escape of sorts.

Sadness, more potent than any I had ever felt, built inside me as I thought of how those pleasant days were gone. How my trusting friend was in danger. I fretted for her safety in the woods. What if she were hunted down by wolves? What if she had fallen and hurt herself, tripping over some tree root? What if…oh forbid it from ever happening…what if she had fallen into a stream, or a lake and been drowned? So much could have happened to her, and my mind was whirling with horrible possibilies.

"Oh Snow White…" I whimpered sadly. "This is all my fault." I sniffed, and felt moisture at my eyes for the first time ever. I was surprised by this, but my sadness was too deep to stop the single tear. "I wish I could help you…" I cried. "I wish…I wish I could do something."

The tear fell, and I could hear the faint splatter of it upon the floor.

I wiped at my eyes then, clearing away the trace of my tear on my cheek. When my eyes eyes were cleared I made the mistake of looking up.

I let out a shriek, in surprise and fear, and jumped back against my wall.

There was a man standing before my mirror. A little man no taller than two feet, with a white beard that was just as long as he was tall, and a pointed nose and ears. His eyes were the strangest color, like that of gold, and big and bulging as a frogs, beneath a very thick pair of snowy eyebrows. He was dressed in a strange blue robe, and wore a little red cap.

"Hello." He greeted, surprisingly casual. His voice was like the creaking of a door and the crackle of a fire.

"I don't understand…" I said. "I did not hear you…you never asked me to reveal myself." I shook my head. "Wha-…who are you?" I corrected myself, hardly escaping the use of the word 'what' instead of 'who'. It was hard to believe that a man so small and odd-looking was entirely human.

"I don't need to call you forth, we're both creatures of magic." The man replied. He grinned suddenly, revealing two little rows of perfectly white, and if I was not mistaken, also pointed teeth. "You are grieved." He spoke. "Why?"

"How do you know?"

"I happen to have a gift for appearing when those who are most sad need a little aid." He replied. "But I must say I never expected to see you, Mirror." His grin broadened. "It is not every day that a mirror cries, now is it?"

"I am not an ordinary mirror."

"A fact I know all too well." He nodded. "Your reputation proceeds you, mysterious as it is."

"What do you want?" I asked. "Have you come with a question?"

"No, I come with no question for myself but one for you." He went on. "Why do you weep?"

The whole story poured out of me like rain from the sky, unstoppable. During the emotional tale, two more tears slipped from the corners of my eyes, and the little man seemed to watch them fall down my cheeks with an odd sort of fascination.

"It is my fault…" I finished. "I could not help it, but I still feel it is my fault. I wish I could have warned her, or said something, or simply thought to say a more meaningful goodbye the last time I saw her."

"What if I told you I could give you all that, and more?" The little man said when my story was done.

I looked up, my face blank. "You're lying…" I replied. "You must be lying."

"I am doing no such thing." The little man replied, frowning at me for my disbelief. "Here I am, offering you your hopes and dreams, and you take me for a liar." He shook his head. "I am not lying, Mirror, I am quite capable of making those dreams come true."

"I could warn Snow White?" I asked.

"Warn her, bid her goodbye, tell her everything you wish to…" The man listed for me. "Send her off to another kingdom if you deem it necessary."

"How? Will I be able to send a message to her?" I asked. "Will you carry it to her for me, word for word?"

The little man shook his head. "I'm too busy for such things." He said. "I was thinking that you could go off and warn her yourself."

"You'd send my mirror there?" I asked.

Forgive me my naivety , but you really must remember, I had been stuck in my mirror for a thousand years with no way out, or even a suggestion as to a way out of the glass. I thought I was going to be there for all eternity and it seemed to always be true. To me, every other idea was naïve.

The little man was quite frustrated by my ignorance though. He sighed, aggravated. "No." He replied. "I'll be sending you." He answered. "You, yourself, with no glass or frame, just a person, no mirror attached."

"Me?" I gasped. "You could free me?" I asked him, standing up. "You could get me out of this?"

"I could." He nodded. "Imagine it, Mirror. Imagine what it would be like to finally be free. You could go wherever you'd wish to go. You and your friend could finally escape. You wouldn't have to answer any more questions for the Queen. You could leave this palace behind you, see the outside world for the first time in…how long has it been since you've seen anything apart from these chamber walls?"

"A thousand years."

"In a millennium." He went on. "You can finally explore the world, you can finally use those legs of yours to run to far off destinations, not stand before some Queen, day in and day out." He grinned, revealing sharp teeth again. "I could give you everything. I could give you freedom." He placed a hand upon my glass. "I could make you happy."

"You would do that?" I asked. "For me?"

"Why of course!" The little man grinned. "It's all part of my business, it's what I'm meant to do in this world. Granting wishes, performing miracles, all in a day's work for me." He smiled up at me. "What is your answer then, Mirror?"

I was beaming, my answer, miraculous and unexpected as it was, found, having landed right in my lap it seemed. My answer to everything. My key to being a real person, to experiencing life, to having my millions of questions about what the world felt like, finally in my grasp.

"Yes." I nodded, with enthusiasm. "Oh yes, please."

The little man chuckled with delight. "Excellent!" He stood before me as though to bring forth some immensely powerful spell, and then his shoulders drooped and he appeared almost sad.

"What is the matter?" I asked him.

"Oh, if only I could grant your wish as simply as this!" The little man exclaimed. "If only I could!" His shoulders drooped further. "But it is a sad truth that beings of magic like us are limited by rules and regulations."

"So, you cannot help me?" I asked, thinking of how my power was regulated by rhyme. "Because I am only a mirror?" I grew very sad again. "Oh." I said, upset.

"Oh come now, your wish can still come true." The little man rose. "I just need something from you."

"I can't give you anything." I said. "I'm on this side of the glass, I cannot reach you."

"You'll be able to give it to me once you're free of the glass." The little man said.

"Really?" I replied. "What is it that you want?"

He pondered. "It would have to be something of immense value to you. Nothing ordinary would do, or else the trade would be unfair. Freedom does have a very high price. " He looked over at me. "What is it that you value most, now?"

"My friendship with Snow White." I replied. "But I cannot give you that, it is an intangible thing."

"But I can take intangible things as well." He grinned. "Perhaps I could take memory that you two have shared."

"You would take her memory?" I asked, sounding unsure of the trade going on between us.

"Not all of it." The man shook his head. "Just those which have you in them."

I wept. "But then she won't recall who I am, and I'll never be able to warn her. I could try, but she'd wouldn't believe me."

"Ah, yes. You have your urgent matters to attend to." The man nodded. "Very well, I'll accept that." He went on. "I will free you, and give you ample time to see this friend, Snow White, and warn her of her approaching dangers. Enough time to say a proper goodbye. Let us say…three moons?"

Three months. Three lovely, golden months of freedom, and adventures with my friend. It was more than enough time to warn her and get away. And it sounded like a good enough amount of time to have our fun and say goodbye. But my heart still ached, for she would not remember those happy times when I had paid my debt for them.

He caught onto my doubt. "Of course, you can always befriend her afterwards." He said, offhandedly. "Nothing is stopping you from that. You'll just have to start from the very beginning again. That won't be too hard, now will it?"

I fidgeted.

"They often say 'the heart remembers what the mind forgets'. Who knows? She may even feel compelled to befriend you, simply because it feels as though you've known each other longer." He shrugged. "It happens all the time in this line of work."

I fidgeted once more.

"If you do nothing, the Queen will find her eventually, and you'll never see her again, for sure."

That did it, and my fate was sealed as I replied "It is a deal then. My freedom, and three months time, before I pay you with the memories I hold most dear."

"Very well." He said. "We have struck a deal then. "And if you should withhold your payment…" He said seriously. "You'll be shut back in this mirror, and I think you'll find that a rather unpleasant thing, after three months time outside it."

"I will pay you what you are owed." I promised. I smiled at him, grateful. "Thank you…?" I tried to draw his name out from him.

"My name is one I do not share." He waved his hand. "Let's get on with it, shall we?" He stood by my mirror and placed a hand on the frame.

"What spell will you use?" I asked.

"I don't need one, you just need a little push, that's all." And he tipped my mirror forward, and for the first time in my life I felt a great imbalance in my person, lost my footing and fell to the floor. I got up to give the little magic man a smart remark, but when I looked over my shoulder I beheld a simple looking glass, with no person inside it. I had fallen straight through my glass and into the world.

The little man was gone, no where to be seen.

And I was free.

The 'casket' that contains the boar's heart is not a casket like a funeral casket. In this time frame/ world it's more of a fancy box. Sort of like a reliquary that would hold some heirloom or religious artifact, like in 'Merchant of Venice' by Shakespeare.