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Chapter 14
'Nightly Conversations'
-.-.-.-.-.-Primrose Palace-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I'm beginning to wonder if there is something in the air…" Steven turned around surprised to hear his mother's voice behind him. She was wearing a deep burgundy night gown with a tied green robe, her long hair done in a braid for bed.
Steven was wearing a pair of old riding pants and a white shift, his hair a mess most likely a result of his tossing and turning in bed. He offered her a genuine smile; he hadn't seen much of his mother in the last few days. He and Emma had been taking long trips during the days, leaving before the crack of dawn and returning well into the evening. His mother was busy with attending meetings at his father's side on the days they returned before sunset.
The Primrose army had been dispatched to spread across the borders of the Dark Queen's growing kingdom. Of the dozen plus villages that had 'fallen' to the Dark Queen, five of them were former Primrose border villages. It had been cause for great alarm and his father had been in deliberation with Desmond and their Generals for days.
"Oh? Penelope and Desmond sneaking around as well?" Steven was curious. He hadn't seen Desmond around his usual haunt overlooking the west courtyard on the second floor. He had passed by, hoping his twin would be around to just sit with. Talking with Desmond had been hard the last two weeks. It hurt him to know that his brother was so firmly attached to their father's ideas, to his ideals. It hurt knowing that Desmond would be the first to jump up at the chance to kill the woman he himself loved beyond true measure. What bothered Steven the most was that he couldn't even confide in Desmond about his love for Maleficent. Desmond would never understand. He'd never liked Maleficent.
"Your father actually." Aurora amended as she brushed her hand across Steven's back as she took a seat on the stool beside him. She was happy to see that there was not an empty goblet of wine in front of Steven as there had been in front of Phillip. Aurora worried over her husband. His fear was beginning to seem founded and she wondered if the friendship she had forged with Maleficent would be so easily shattered now that Regina had returned. Would the woman who'd saved her only daughter's life truly turn her back on their friendship, on Penelope? Phillip certainly thought Maleficent would and that scared the King even if he was hard pressed to admit it. His increase of patrols and long nights in front of maps of their kingdom proof enough for the torn Queen. "I also believe that it was Emma I passed in the library asleep at a table."
Steven's eye roll became a soft smile at the imagined image of Emma asleep at a library table. He couldn't remember a time that Emma enjoyed being in the library, ever. She was more of a doer than a reader. As kids she was usually the one trying to convince the lot of them to skip lessons and go find an adventure in the stables or in the courtyard or in the woods. Then again, Steven was never very hard to convince and he loved sneaking around the castles as a child trying to escape detection.
Even though Emma was the one to convince them, them being Desmond, Alexandra and himself to leave their studies for adventurous activities that were located anywhere but the library, he was the one to convince the group to do a recon mission into the kitchen for the freshly baked…well anything. These days however Emma was all for sneaking into the library well after she should have been in bed. She needed to do a bit of research on the policies of both their Kingdoms to make sure their first draft of the peace treaty went better than they were thinking it would.
Lately, they were thinking it would be disastrous. The ensuring arguments that had come up while with Maleficent and Regina had been proof enough for the Prince. Things were not going well, or as well as they had hoped things would. With the increase of patrols by the Primrose army and that of the White Kingdom and the dispute between his Kingdom and the Enchanted Kingdom, spouts of violent outbreaks had spread. It wasn't until Queen Snow White and King James took a firm stand against the violence spotting up in the White Kingdom that things began to settle down.
There was a tension in the air, one that every living person could feel. If the pressures mounting around this continents Kingdoms did not settle soon, more violence would rise with the threat of war heavily hanging above them.
A frown formed across his mother's soft features. "I understand your disappointment with your father."
Steven couldn't help the bitter chuckle that left him, "I'm sorry mother, truly I am, but I do not believe you can understand my disappointment. He so feverntly calls for her death as if she is to blame for all of our troubles. She has not raised a hand against this family or this Kingdom since before Penny was born."
"Do you not think perhaps you are being too hard on him?"
"Hard on him? Mother I am being gentle on him. He has called for open war!"
"That is not true and you know it."
"It is not true? Mother, look at the violence that has broken out against the villages that willingly left our Kingdom. He has called for his people, our people, to take a stand against what he sees as immorality. His hatred for magic and those that wield it has brought suffering to innocent people!"
"You cannot blame the violence against those villages on your father he has not laid a hand on any of…"
"He might as well have!" Steven objected standing swiftly from his stool as he stared at his mother, disbelievingly. "How can you not see it? He's so consumed by his fear that he is going to tear this Kingdom apart at the very seems, for what!? For what mother?"
Aurora turned away from Steven's eyes, unable to hold his gaze. Steven's shoulders sagged at the dejected and bowed head of his mother. He kissed her cheek as he squeezed her hand, but still turned to leave the kitchen. "She is my friend as well." Aurora knew that Steven was planning to fetch Emma from the library but his feet stopped, leaving him standing with his back to her in the middle of the doorway.
"I understand my children better than they seem to think I can. You reaction is overly hostile, protective in a way." Steven swallowed nervously. "Penelope is not the only one that is overly fond of Maleficent." Steven's shoulders stiffened, but he did not turn to look at her or say anything, so she continued. "You let her know that I am still her friend. If she is mine. That I, well that I miss her company for tea. Alright, my darling? You let her know that for me."
Steven's curt nod of his head was hardly noticeable, almost like he was afraid to even acknowledge her words at all. Standing up Aurora made her way to Steven and touched his shoulder gently, "I love you Steven. Nothing will ever change that." Aurora felt Steven flinch under her hand and watched as he quickly moved away from her down the hallway, never glancing behind him. "Nothing…" Aurora whispered to the empty corridor, not even a relationship he was terrified of admitting to the rest of the world.
The way that Steven acted around Emma, the way he softened at the mere mention of the Princess' name, it would truly seem as if he were in love. There were times that she watched the young 'couple' together and truly believed the rouse they were creating, and in those moments she questioned herself all the more. However, she knew Steven and she liked to think she knew Emma well. Their relationship lacked one crucial element for their charade: passion. There was a love between the two of them but the closer one looked at them the more apparent it became that they acted more like Steven and Penelope did together than like Aurora had with Phillip when they first met.
It was in their eyes. Steven loved Emma, and Emma loved her son as well but Steven's devotion and passion were directed at a different blonde altogether. She hoped that someday soon Steven would feel comfortable telling her what she already knew. For now she would let the two have their time together.
In the beginning Aurora had prayed Steven knew what he was doing, what he could lose in Maleficent with his faux relationship with Emma. Nowadays she knew that he was well aware of what he could have lost. He knew the fire he was playing with, he seemed more capable than anyone in learning to control it. Aurora knew this because he was far too energetic and happy to not have seen Maleficent. It was the only explanation she could come up with.
For months before Regina's return he had been so unhappy, so obviously heartbroken, love sick as he forced himself to stay away from the source of his former happiness. Now she saw a smile on his face she hadn't seen in what felt like ages. She was able to look her son in the eyes and know that he was happy, and that made her heart feel light even in these troubling times. It made her think that sooner rather than later, things would get better. Just like they always had in the past.
Sighing, Aurora moved back into the kitchen to get herself one of those cookies that the cooks had made today. Judging by the crumbs in front of Steven's seat he too had enjoyed a little midnight snack. Smiling at the evidence of how alike she and her son were, she settled into her seat and enjoyed her cookie.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Emma sat hunched over at a seat before a round table, the same table Steven had daily lessons with his tutors as a young man. Leaning against the doorway he watched Emma closely, her shoulders slumped forward for only a split second before she straightened her back, took a deep breath and continued reading the scroll in front of her. Scratching the back of his head he wonders how many of the royal scrolls she's read the last few days. She never struck him as an intellectual, and to be honest even as he stares at her furrowed brows and slightly tilted lips as she concentrates he can't even pretend to think of her as one. Emma isn't the type of Princess to sit in a library reading book after book like his mother. She isn't one to cook or clean the castle either. He's seen her make nice with politicians, having an uncanny knack for reading people. Sometimes Steven wonders if there isn't something truly magical about Emma and her ability to manipulate the truth out of someone who has lied to her.
Emma struggled to remain awake, this time her arm falls slack and her nose narrowly misses being squished against the wood. "Come on sleeping beauty…" Steven called out, startling Emma as she tried to focus once again on the scroll in front of her.
Looking up Emma sighed at the sight of Steven making his way into the library. The torch light was dim and her eyes burned from forcing herself to continue reading. The words are all jumbled inside her head and not for the first time she wishes she was more like Alexandra and had a genuine love for reading.
"I thought that was your mother…" Emma quipped as she leaned back in her chair, her fists coming up to rub at her burning eyes.
Steven chuckled, "Perhaps you're right. So what kind of beauty does that make you?"
"Tired?" Emma knew what they called her, Swan Princess. Like the whole Kingdom was expecting her to lead them into an era of peace and tranquility much like her symbols appearance. She wondered if people had ever seen a swan claim it's territory by scaring away the other birds. How peaceful would they seem then?
"Isn't that almost the same as sleeping?" Steven asked her as he helped pull the chair out from under her. Slipping an arm under hers he steadied the exhausted Princess, letting her lean against him as they slowly leave the library.
"No of course not. Silly, if I was sleeping, I could hardly be tired, now could I?" Stumbling through the halls Emma feels as if she's had far too much wine at a feast. It took longer than usual for Steven to bring Emma to the rooms she has been using during her stay.
"Prince Steven, may I be of some assistance?" One of the night guardsman asked as Steven approached his section of the castle. Steven recognizes him. He is one of Desmond's friends. He came to work here at the castle three years before. If memory served him correctly, and often times it did, his name was Dylan.
"I can handle the tired Princess on my own." Dylan stepped back at his words, thinking he did not need any assistance after all. "Opening doors while helping my darling Princess is of another matter entirely."
Dylan leads the way through the halls back to Emma's guestroom; he opens the door before making his way back to his post. He only looks back over his shoulder once.
Emma drowsily looks over Steven's shoulder at the guard, something familiar about his voice. Too tired to think on it further than admitting she's probably had to sneak passed him to get to the library in the last few days, she leans against Steven letting him take on more of her weight than before. Her muscles were sore from all the exertions of teaching Regina the basics of self-defense. They hadn't even gotten to hand to hand combat yet. The dark haired witch showed great promise as a pupil; she learned fast and was eager to learn, even if she was a sarcastic pain in the ass most of the time. Thankfully Steven and Maleficent were present during their training sessions to keep the two of them from killing each other. It wouldn't do for one of them to lose their marbles before they'd finished their business with each other. Most days Emma swore she'd never willingly talk to Regina ever again. Others she couldn't wait to see just how equipped Regina was at sparing physically. In comparison to their verbal sparring, well, it was almost unthinkable to think she could be better at something else.
As Emma is lost in thoughts of her last encounter with Regina she Steven and the guard walk them through the quiet halls.
-.-.-.-.-.-
"Must you be so brash?" Regina questions her tone grating against Emma's nerves.
"B-brash?" Emma sputters, incredulously.
"Have you lost your hearing in the last two hours, your highness?" Emma blinks, "Yes, brash!"
"My lady you are the most…"
"Hmm…?" Regina encourages, as if she is hoping Emma will finally bite back.
Emma does bite; she bites her bottom lip to the point of nearly breaking skin. She cannot risk angering the witch in front of her. She cannot alienate herself; she needs to keep Regina at ease. There cannot be this tension between them. Regina has to feel comfortable around her, enough to trust her. Without that trust everything they have been working towards in the last two weeks will have been for nothing. The treaty is nearly finished!
Emma closes her eyes and counts to five before she slowly lowers her staff from its defensive position blocking her neck and angled across her body. Regina sees her opportunity and attempts to best her teacher while she is distracted. Without opening her eyes Emma jumps the leg swipe and opens her eyes in time to block the higher swing of Regina's staff. Pushing against the blow their staves remain connected long enough for Emma to judge how much strength she needs to use to push Regina off balance. Stepping forward with her forward thrust she brings the top of her staff down, gently, on the juncture of Regina's neck and shoulder. Holding it there the Queen glares daggers, her head slightly turned to look at Emma.
"Maybe you should pay more attention to my lectures, no matter how brash they and I might be about the attire you deem 'appropriate' for sparing." Emma comments, her eyes looking from Regina's shoulders where towards the very bottom of them the Queen's dress clings, the bodice form fittingly tight showing more of the Queen's décolletage than is decent. The skirt goes down to only her lower thighs above the knees and clings there, making it nearly impossible for the Queen to move, let along move swiftly.
Emma knows that the Dark Queen is doing it just to aggravate her, just like she had used magic the first three lessons to appear behind Emma to strike the 'final' blow. The second time she had done it Emma timed how long it took for the Queen to reappear so that when she tried the same maneuver a third time Emma easily deflected and advanced on the surprised Queen. That was one of four times she had knocked the infuriating woman on her ass, quick, ruthlessly and indifferent to her shock and then fury.
It didn't hurt that those occasions had given her an opportunity to teach the Queen one of her own rules: The first: never defeat the same enemy with the same tricks. She learned that with her own tutors, especially the Master of Arms for the Royal guard and her father. A smart opponent knew better. Regina needed to learn better and the only way to teach her was to make the maneuvers useless, prove she would fail if she attempted to trick her twice. The second: no magic while sparing. The purpose of their lessons was to teach the Queen how to protect herself without the use of her magic, or her powers. It was in those lessons that Emma realized the Queen relied far too heavily on her magic and they'd begun from the very beginning.
"How else am I supposed to entice you to return each day, Princess?"
Emma let the sultry tone roll off her back, or at least she outwardly did so, however on the inside she was becoming a puddle of goo. "Seduction may have gotten you all you wished for in the past, your majesty, but it will be the end of you before it saves you in battle."
"Battle, pray tell when will I be in battle when I have men willing to go into battle on my behalf because of my…seductress ways?"
Emma growled and threw her staff to the ground, finally having had enough of Regina's impudence. She grabbed the Queen by her shoulders and stared into her brown eyes. They widened only a minute bit at the forcefulness of her grip, or perhaps it was because of her closeness. You found battle when you returned. You'll find it again far easier than you think you will here in these lands. No matter how many men are willing to die for you, it is not their heads that have a bounty upon it. They're soldiers. They're trained. They know how to protect themselves without conjure and tricks. They will survive."
Emma pulled herself closer to Regina, their breath mingling together as she was a hairs breath away from the witch's face. Behind them somewhere Emma heard Steven trying to calm Maleficent, who was probably throwing one of her ten fits of the day about the way she was 'handling' Regina. This time, and this time only did Emma possibly consider that she was being too rough with the Queen, but she was just so aggravated. Regina had once seemed to take these lessons seriously, had convinced her that she was truly interested in learning. Now, all the woman wanted to do was test her limits, see how long it took her to break. Today, it seemed, Regina found just how far she had to push to break Emma's will.
"You will not. Not if you do not listen." Emma hissed, searching the Queen's face hoping to see some semblance of understanding within them. All she received was laughter, cocky cold laughter.
Grumbling Emma pushed Regina away from her and stormed out of the practice room they used. Normally it was full of soldiers, the Dark Kingdom's soldiers but for two or three hours a day it was empty save for five people, their group of four and a weapon's hand.
The laughter began to die down when Regina seemed to realize Emma was not about to come back.
"Good riddance…" Maleficent called, thrilled with Emma's impatience finally getting the better of her. If she had even the smallest bit of regard for Emma she might have thought she was a tough nut to crack as others would have broken long ago. Regina was stubborn and rueful when she wanted to be and it seemed lately all she wanted to do was push Princess Emma's buttons and see which buttons did what. However, maleficent didn't have any regard for the devilish Princess so she focused on the fact that the woman had manhandled her friend. Incensed with righteous indignation on behalf of Regina she waved cheerily as Emma stormed from the training room. "Who did she think she was touching you like…"
Blinking in confusion Maleficent frowned, Regina was gone. Disappeared in a crack of smoke.
Emma was ready to stalk right to the stables and commandeer a horse for her long ride to the Primrose Kingdom, let Regina deal with her fate by herself. With her fists tight at her sides she barreled, gracelessly, right into Regina as she appeared instantaneously in front of her path. Unable to get her balance righted she and Regina toppled to the ground. She could feel more than hear the "omphf" of Regina losing her breath as she fell on top of the regal Queen.
Emma stared into Regina's pained eyes for a moment, finding it hard to look away from the woman's face, especially while so close. However the push against her shoulder and opening eyes that glared back at her got her moving, or rolling, off the fallen monarch quickly. Standing Emma prepared to continue her storm off until Regina caught hold of her wrist and tugged on it, using it to help leverage herself up off the floor into a sitting position.
"A hand if you would." It was not a request.
"Having a bit of trouble standing?" Emma's eyes twinkled with mirth, knowing that the reason Regina found herself still stuck to the floor was because her dress was far too tight around her legs to leave her much room to move her legs.
Regina glared dangerously at Emma, her hand waiting for the Princess to pull on. Emma rolled her eyes and grasped Regina's forearm and pulled her up her feet braced. Once Regina was upon her own two feet Emma waited for her to finish brushing off the dirt or lint, nonexistent as it was, off of her dress.
"Where do you think you are going?"
"I thought it was obvious. I was leaving."
"To where exactly? How did you expect to get anywhere?"
"Oh, that's easy. I was going to steal one of your mares and ride to the Primrose Kingdom."
Regina laughed until she realized Emma was serious. "You wouldn't be so foolish. The ride would take you at least a week." She didn't bother commenting on the fact that Emma's plan included stealing from her.
"At most two." Emma agreed.
Her mouth open to say something but found no sound emerged. The Princess was absolutely mad. "You, you'd freeze or die of hunger before you arrived."
Emma grinned, "I'm a skilled hunter and scavenger. I assure you I would make it there healthy and well fed and groomed." Well mostly, her clothing would probably never be wearable again, even if they were a white shirt and black sparing pants.
Regina's nose flared at the better than thou tone in the Princess' tone, as if it were such a feet to be capable to live in the woods. "You are just like your mother." She accused uncertain where this hostility was truly coming from.
"I would offer you the same compliment but I'm afraid I know nothing about your mother."
"Uhh…just, get back to the training room!"
Emma crossed her arms over her chest, "No."
"No!?" Regina screeched, to Emma's delight. She hadn't seen the Queen this out of sorts since they were up on that waterfall edge.
"No. I am not your servant. I am not here to take your orders. I'm not your student either. You are not here to give me instructions to follow. I am here so you will follow mine. I've been restrained in my interactions with you thus far…" Emma admitted through gritted teeth, because she had held her tongue for far too long in regards to this woman. "…but I refuse to continue these lessons any longer knowing how little you truly value them. If this is all just a silly game for you, then I feel sorry for you. I will not stand around here and waste my time trying to help you, possibly save your life, when you take nothing I say or am trying to teach you seriously."
"I take this situation, very…seriously." Regina hissed her eyes slitted, her fists clenched at her sides.
Emma laughed, "If this is you taking your personal safety seriously then I would hate to be present when you are fooling around."
Emma pushed her shoulder against Regina's as she walked away from the Queen, again.
"Do not turn your back on me, child!" Regina's voice was only slightly raised but with the echo of the hall it sounded like she'd bellowed after the departing Princess.
Emma stopped, looked over her shoulder slowly before looking forward for a few moments before continue to walk away.
"Emma…." Nothing, no reaction from the Princess. "Emma!"
Growling the smoke swirled around her as she transported herself in front of Emma, this time taking into account the Princess speed so they did not land haphazardly on the floor once again. Emma rolled her eyes as she stood before Regina once again.
"Do not make me chase after you again." Regina's words were imbued with a threat.
"Then do not make me feel a fool!" Emma challenged her eyes bright with her anger. "I am risking far more than I truly think you realize to be here, to help you. I will not be treated as your entertainment. If you cannot treat me with respect, respect that I am due not for my birth status but for my skill, leaned and practiced skill, than you will not see me within these walls again. Ever."
Regina did not give out apologies lightly, so it was with great difficulty that she delivered one sincerely to the Princess before her. "I..ap..olo..gize." Taking a deep breath Regina steeled herself, "I do not feel comfortable in a setting where I am not in control. I am not well acquainted with the reality of being unskilled in…anything."
Emma grinned internally, so this was where their problems were stemming from. Regina needed to feel as if she were in control; she was uncomfortable with allowing someone else to have the power in a situation. Emma could understand that. If she was so accustomed to getting her way, having her will done, the one looked to for instructions; it would be unnerving and intimidating to have someone else instructing her. Emma needed to be in control of not only her movements and actions but how she moved and when she did something or did not to teach her. No wonder Regina had preferred refreshing her memory of how to use a staff and sword first rather than moving to how to fight hand-to-hand.
"We move at a pace you control. We do only that which you are comfortable with, confident in." Emma voiced her realization. "Regina, you will not always have control during our lessons, but I assure you that all you need do to get it back is request it. You can trust me to give it back." Emma promised. She needed Regina to trust her; if she didn't then none of this would work in the end.
Regina grimaced looking like she felt sick to her stomach but she nodded her assent to her words. "Will you return to the training room? I will…be there momentarily. I must," She looked down at her clothing, "change."
Emma grinned, progress. It had taken longer than she wanted it to, but they'd made it. "Very well."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Lost in her memory Emma falls asleep on her feet.
Steven grins as he realizes Emma has fallen asleep while leaning against him. Picking her up he carries her the rest of the way, thanking Dylan as he opens the doors to her chambers. Gently placing Emma in her bed he kissing the top of Emma's forehead as she mumbles insignificant nothings about Primrose laws and black bodices, Steven grins. The mumblings seem jumbled up to the prince since he'd never heard of a law that put a man in jail for sleeping in black bodice while selling fruit.
The dark circles under Emma's eyes worry Steven, even as he knows beneath his eyes rests the same dark pallor. Slipping out of Emma's room he whispers, "Sleep tight…White beauty."
-.-.-.-.-White Kingdom-.-.-.-.-
Standing by the open balcony door, Snow White was bathed in the moonlight shinning high above them. The clouds were few and scattered across the sky. The breeze was cool and held a touch of the coming frost in store for them in the winter months. Summer had long since left them behind and the fall has been kind, the harvests bountiful and plenty. The Kingdom was flourishing, the people light on their feet, even with the looming return of the Evil Queen.
Snow had heard the rumors, heard the whispers even among her own castle. The Evil Queen's moniker had somehow become less…evil. Less foreboding in a way. They called her the Dark Queen. Snow had barked a short humorless laugh at the title. Queen? She'd thought. Queen of what, she'd asked James and their advisors. What Kingdom did Regina had under her reign? She had long ago withdrawn her right of the land she'd once claimed as her own, land she'd stolen.
And yet Snow found it fitting for someone such as Regina to be called the Dark Queen. With her dark clothing and the way she sulked around in the shadows, hiding behind them and their ability to deceive the naked eye. Fitting for someone who wore such dark clothing and sulked around in the shadows, hiding behind them and their deceptiveness.
There was nothing for Regina to take over. Snow had been sure of it. As sure as she was of anything in her life she was sure that no town or village in the White Kingdom would join Regina again. She had been sure of it. She should have known better.
Word had come as soon as it had begun, as soon as the villages, dozens of villages and towns, were sending Regina messengers, requesting her as their matron, their Queen! Three of those dozen were of the White Kingdom. Three! Snow had lost three major border lands to Regina in the span of seven days. How many more would defect to her enemy by the end of the month? How many would turn to Regina instead of her?
And what did Regina do? What did she do!? She had accepted them! Each and every last one of those villages now had the protection of the Dark Queen. It gnawed and ate at Snow every minute of every day. To know that she had been so useless to people of her own Kingdom that they felt they would be better cared for, better looked after, by the Evil Queen. Excuse her, the Dark Queen.
Those people willingly sent those boys on foot and on horseback to her castle. They willingly sent those young men into the darkness beyond any of their imaginations for the hope that she would not hurt them, that she would hear their pleas and take on their towns and their peoples as her own.
Snow had wanted to warn them all, to tell them of their folly. Regina would never take them on. She had no interest in them. She did not care for their well beings. Regina cared for no one but herself. Snow knew this, personally knew the darkness of Regina's heart.
Snow sighed, she also knew the light and kindness of it as well. She'd been raised by a kind woman whose face she'd memorized as a child. She had looked up to Regina in more ways than just the physical. Snow wanted to be her step-mother, to make her proud and be the reason why Regina smiled. Snow wanted to be the most important thing in Regina's life, because as a child Regina had been everything to Snow. In a time where her father could hardly look at her because she reminded him of his wife, her birth mother, Regina had made the ache in her heart hurt less.
Regina had been only a young woman herself then. Just barely Emma's age when she was given the responsibility of caring for Snow as only a mother could. Snow had never thought of the hardships that Regina must have gone through as such a young bride. But not only to be a bride to a man nearly twice her age but a mother to a toddler, a baby girl not of her own blood as well? Snow could hardly imagine what that would have been like and yet for years Regina did it all with pose and grace. A grace that Snow has never quiet seen her lose.
Snow had looked up to that graceful, educated, posed young woman and in some ways still did. All Snow had ever wanted to be could easily be found in Regina. Regina had always been on her side, until she wasn't. Regina taught her things that others thought she was too young to know. She brought Snow out to meet the people and taught her how to be a loved Queen. Regina was the one to instill in her that a happy people made for a prosperous and happy Kingdom. That love was the most powerful magic of them all and if her people loved her, that if her Kingdom loved her she would be untouchable.
Phillip did not understand how Snow ran her kingdom. He did not understand how the White Kingdom could be so powerful and it's people so loyal when she as Queen did not rule over the populace with a strong iron fist. Phillip thought her too weak to be strong enough to instill fear in her people. Sometimes Snow wondered if King Phillip knew her at all. They had grown up together after all. If there was a Prince among the Kings ruling now that knew her better than James, it should be Phillip.
Phillip was afraid. He did not know how to live without the castle and the servants and the power. Snow did. She had lived in the woods and scavenged for her food and built her own little home in the form of a cave with stolen items for years. Snow knew how to live without this luxury. She did not fear living without it. Phillip did. He feared that with Regina's return that everything he had been working so hard to keep was going to slip out of his fingertips. He could not defeat Regina. They had all tried, and they failed each and every time. Regina had fled the White Kingdom after Snow had awoken from the curse she'd been placed under thanks to that damned apple.
Regina had not even called her men to fight against the army Snow and James had begun to raise. She had taken those loyal to her and left the White Castle and retreated into the Dark Forest where she had built her own castle and could rule over her own land from there. Rule over the land and towns that were once again seeking her out to guide them, to protect them. At the time Snow thought it was Regina's cowardice. Like with her inability to simply stab Snow, or pull her heart from her chest as she'd always threatened to do, Regina could not fight against her. Would not fight against her. Snow had been foolish to think it was because Regina knew she would lose.
They were lucky that Regina had decided on her own terms to leave this realm, but now she was back and that terrified Phillip. It terrified Snow as well but she was not squeezing her Kingdom tighter against her. She was not suffocating her people because Regina had returned. She was doing all she could to maintain her Kingdom, to reassure her people that Regina's return did not mean war…even as their armies spread out across the lands. She was trying to reassure her people that she would not let Regina take the lives they had all built for themselves away.
No one would believe that "reassuring your people of their safety and protection of their livelihood is key to ruling over a Kingdom" lesson had been given to her by Regina on horseback as they rode into one of the larger towns in the White Kingdom. Snow had been ten years old, Regina nearly twenty four, and a Queen for six years. No one would believe that Regina, the Evil Queen who ruled by fear would have taught her to rule over her Kingdom with love, kindness, and truth.
No one could understand her devastation when Regina turned against her, shunned her, and called for her death by the hands of the huntsman. She had only just felt the loss of her father, a great man in her eyes and a loving one, when she was forced to lose the only mother figure she'd ever had as well. The only balm for her broken heart at the time was that Regina could not kill her, herself. It was always through other means that Regina tried to snuff the fire of her life out.
"Sick of me, wasn't it? To almost be glad that she couldn't kill me herself." Snow asked of the open air, her head lowering as she stared down at the stone of the balcony floor.
Snow always thought that Regina's inability to kill her with her own hand was there because a part of Regina could not hurt her, that a part of her loving step-mother still cared for her. However, when Regina gave her the ultimatum, of her life or James', and offered her the poisoned apple, Snow had lost all of that hope. The last flame of hope she'd held in her heart that Regina could be saved, that the young woman who'd raised her was still 'there' was lost as she bit into the apple and collapsed to the ground. Regina could not use a blade to kill her. The instrument of her death would be poison, fast and quick because even if a part of Regina still cared for her there was a larger part that longed to see her suffer, to see her die.
When Snow woke up from the darkness that she had thought was death to see James' face and his eyes looking down at her she had wept. Wept for the second chance at life and for the final death of the bond she had hoped still existed between her and Regina.
"Foolish, I was so foolish." Snow whispered to herself as she leaned her head against the doorway in the inbetween of her bedroom and the balcony, the outside. She stared out over the tree tops to the town a short ride outside of the castle grounds. The lights from the town still shown in some areas, lighting the area amidst the surrounding trees.
If Regina had wished to fight for the White Kingdom, there was a chance she could have won. With the power she possessed, and still does possess, Regina could have beaten back the feeble army she and James had been raising. Even with the help of the fairies and some of their allies, Regina had the support of a well-trained army. She had the friendship with some of the most powerful dark rulers, creatures, and witches in this realm. She could have easily called on that force to squash their rebellion. Snow wondered sometimes, on nights like this one, why Regina didn't fight. Why give up so quickly? It had only puzzled her for a few moments in the past but she had been young and full of anger, righteous anger, and thought it wise of Regina to run from her. Who could possibly win against her then? Who stood a chance against her when she was so obviously on the side of good and good was meant to triumph over evil and in her mind then Regina was the darkest of all evils alive.
Now? Now Snow wasn't so sure. In truth she wasn't sure she ever had been set in her convictions that Regina was as Evil as she was portraying herself to be. Why send her a gift for Emma before she left? Why send her that plush toy? Why had Snow kept it, was a better question. Why did Regina still have the ability to get to her so profoundly? Everything, everything Snow had ever known was being brought to her attention for her to scrutinize over. Every action her father ever made, all the words and praises she could remember hearing from his voice, it was all in question. All while Regina sat happily in her castle and built up a Kingdom from the 'scraps' of her Kingdom, of her friends Kingdoms.
Regina had no worries. Regina never was here to see the devastation her actions left behind. Snow had been there to pick the White Kingdom back up from Regina's swift retreat. Snow had been the one to fight through the famines and the plagues and the uprisings. Snow liked to blame all her misfortunes on Regina, that the witch had truly cursed the White Kingdom and left the realm to its own devices with the 'curse' still milling about as it would. She had liked to place that blame because it was easier to blame Regina for all the natural disasters and the hard times that she and her people had faced in the last nineteen years.
It was childish to put those uncontrollable circumstances on Regina's shoulders. Snow knew that, had known it then even, but it had helped keep her sane during the most stressful part of her reign. Now she wondered if she shouldn't have blamed Regina for so much more.
It was disgusting how with a few well-placed words, the promise of the truth being spoken in those words, and the invocation of her mother's name, everything Snow ever considered to be the truth was in question now.
Snow did not know her mother; she never had the pleasure to really truly know the woman who bore her. She had only heard stories. Wonderful stories, beautiful tales of a beautiful woman, of a kind and generous woman who would not hurt a fly. She heard stories of a woman who would spend hours of the day reading, learning and then spent even more hours teaching those lessons to others. She'd heard such wonderful stories all told by the same person. Regina.
Regina told such illustrated, lovely, passionate stories about the mother Snow could barely picture on her own without looking at the portraits of her painted. The love that Regina had for her mother was obvious to Snow now. Regina held a devotion and love for her mother that Snow could never truly understand. There was a bond there that Snow was jealous of, even now as a grown woman she was jealous of the relationship that Regina had with her mother.
It was always jealousy that clouded her judgment. It was always the green envy that caused her to speak out of turn, to do things she shouldn't. It was her jealousy of Regina's love for that horse breeder and his daughter that had made her tell her father of Regina's plan. Regina had been about to leave her. There was a tension in the castle during that time, one that Snow had been aware of even at the tender age of twelve. She could not identify the cause of the tension in these very halls, this very castle, all those years ago, but she knew what it was now.
There was an anxious tension in the castle then. Regina swears it was because she was planning a coup, planning to dethrone her father from within the castle itself. The servants and workers, the guards themselves were split down the middle. There were those loyal to her father and then there were the growing number of those loyal to Regina on Snow's behalf. Regina was going to leave. She had planned to leave at the end of the week. She swore to Snow that she would be back, that she would come back for her, but that she needed to leave the Kingdom for a little while.
Fear, Snow remembered the fear she had felt course through her. She had been afraid. Afraid that Regina would not come back to get her, that she would be left behind by another mother. And maybe, just maybe she was afraid of what would become of her if Regina did not return. So, two days before Regina was supposed to leave Snow White had gone to her father hoping that he would be able to convince Regina to stay. She was his wife, he was her husband, they were supposed to love each other, and he could convince her to stay. She had been so sure of it.
"I was a sure of a lot of things back then…" Snow shook her head at herself. However her father made Regina stay, whatever means he'd used to make her stay, she hadn't thought about. She did her best not to recognize the sadness in her step-mother's eyes. She had just been so happy that Regina didn't leave. The tension in the castle had calmed down as well then. Little did Snow recognize until she'd really thought about it though that half of the servants and guards of the castle were gone, she never saw them again. It was after that also that Merrywether stopped coming around to visit with her sisters as well.
Wiping away the tears slowly falling from her cheek, Snow looked at the tear drop as it dangled from her fingertip. With the gentle breeze it swayed for a moment before dropping down to the stone beneath her.
"Snow?" James voice reached her from within the darkness of their bedchambers. "What are you doing?" James asked, his voice gruff and a bit slurred with sleep. Rubbing his eyes he sat up and stared over to Snow, frowning. "Come back to bed."
Wiping away any evidence of her tears she closed the balcony door and closed the curtain blocking out the moonlight before slipping in to bed beside James. Feeling him wrap his arms around her gave her a sense of peace she had been lacking for nearly two weeks.
"We'll talk about those tears of yours in the morning. For now, rest. You need your sleep." James whispered, as he placed a gentle kiss to the top of Snow's forehead.
"Oh, beauty sleep? Have I become frumpy looking?"
"Of course not, just a bit weary. Jamie has started asking if you are feeling well." Snow felt her heart constrict, James knew just how such a statement would affect her. If Jamie was beginning to ask questions, inquiring after her health she truly did need more sleep. It was just so hard to come by these days. She was having such horrible dreams lately. Nightmares where she watched as all those she cared for die in disturbing ways as a voice she couldn't quiet place even when awake narrated each death.
"Are you cold?" James asked, feeling Snow shiver and snuggle in closer to him as he pulled the thick comforter around them both.
"Yes," she lied as she pressed her cheek against James' shoulder. "I haven't meant to worry you or James." She whispered as she played with the loose string of James' night shift.
James sighed, realizing they weren't going to go back to sleep just yet. "James only wants to know you are happy. He is worried, just as the rest of us are. No one is quite sure what to expect now Snow. With Emma in Primrose and Regina's armies moving across the Kingdoms…" He shook his head, "Everyone is worried. You just show it a bit more in your face than others."
"Others, like you?"
"Yes, like me." He kissed the top of Snow's forehead once more as he tightened his hold around Snow. "I feel it too…" he whispered. "The change in the air. The tension. I feel it just as much as you."
"I'm afraid."
"Of what?" James asked, a part of him wondering how to slay an evil witch that still seemed so enthralled with his wife's suffering. The other part wondered if this was even about Regina at all.
Everything, she was afraid of everything. "What the future holds." She was just a bit more afraid of the future because of what it held, the knowledge it would finally reveal about the past. The only thing that didn't scare her was the present, the here and now. The only reason it didn't scare her as much as the past and future did was because she knew, within her very bones, that her children were safe. Jamie was tucked in his bed sleeping soundly just down the hall and Emma was safe in the Primrose Castle with Steven. And that she and James were safe, here, together.
Snow's voice was soft as she leaned on her elbow so she was looking down at James as he sat up a bit. He wished he could see her face more clearly than the shadowed silhouette before him.
"Whatever it holds, we'll face it together. Just like we have everything else. Nothing will keep me from you, Snow."
"It's not me I'm worried about." Snow looked over her shoulder towards the closed curtain.
"Or our children Snow, I'd die for you three."
Snow turned back to James quickly, shaking her head as she placed her palm against his cheek. "It's not us that I'm worried about James."
"Then who…?" His brow crinkled in his confusion.
Snow bowed her head, looking at the blankets pooled around them as images of their friends deaths played before her mind's eye, "Everyone else."
-.-.-.-.-Dark Castle-.-.-.-.-
"Having trouble sleeping, my Queen?"
Regina spun around, jumping off her feet a bit at the question that came from, well, nowhere. Seeing the Mirror's face shimmering in the glass door in front of her was frightening. She had gotten used to mirrors now having a devoted man's face in them while away. She had rather liked knowing that she would not be followed by the Genie to the other world. His devotion was sweet, but it bordered on stalkerish, and was rooted squarely in the realm of creepy. It was nice to know she couldn't be watched every second of every moment she was in front of a reflective surface.
There were times that she missed him though. Times where she wished to know what was going on in the world, in this world. It had taken her almost two years to become accustomed to the life she had situated herself into in the other world. Its technology was something very foreign to her but now it was a missed commodity. Especially when she wished to hear some music. Most of the music in that world was atrocious, and grating on her ears, however there were many melodies she would not mind hearing once again. Sadly when she decided to return to this world she lost that opportunity. Perhaps she should have worked harder on finding a way to bring an ipod with her. Not that it would last forever. Without electricity she would only have the battery life of one full charged battery meter. Then again she could have found a way to use her magic to charge the device.
The books! Regina sighed, the easy access to whatever texts she wished to read were also a sad loss for an intellectual such as herself. She had spent months reading the historical documents and had not even made a dent in that worlds history. It fascinated her that there was a time in that worlds history where Kings and Queens ruled over Kingdoms much like they did in this realm but that had been centuries ago. There were still several countries with royalty but most of those monarchs did not have an active role in ruling and governing over their countries—not Kingdoms—countries.
There was also the invention of television. Sometimes it was nice to just have the contraption on and hear the voices of the actors and actresses having a discussion. There were also the weapons. Those, well Regina did not miss the black powder powered weapons such as hand guns and automatic rifles. There was just something about holding a sword in one's hand and using a blade that was lost in that world.
Sipping on her tumbler of what could be considered brandy she looked to the Genie, "Yes. I have a lot on my mind."
"Can I be of any assistance?"
Regina shook her head, "No, I'm afraid I just need," What was it that she needed? Time alone to think some more? No, she'd done that enough in the last few nights. "In all the years that you have been in that Mirror you have allowed me to call you by that title, but I never asked…what is your name?"
"I, I do not understand."
No, of course he didn't understand. "I no longer just wish to call you Mirror."
"But that has been my name for nearly thirty years."
"And before that you were Genie for over a century. Don't you want a name that is not just your title, what you are perceived to be?"
"Your majesty?"
Regina sighed and waved him off as she sat down in her father's favorite armchair. "In the other world, I had a name. I didn't have a title, a moniker that everyone knew me as. The only insulting title I was given was bitch." She smirked, "Because, I am one."
Mirror just looked at Regina through the oval family crest above the mantle. The flames of the fire place making his image flicker like the breathing fire beneath him.
"People knew me as Regina Mills. They did not call me Evil or Dark. They just called me Regina, or Ms. Mills." She couldn't find the proper way to explain this to someone who never experienced the world she'd briefly lived within. "I had a name. I didn't have a title. I didn't have a dark past attached to me. I lived as a, as what would be considered a commoner. I lived in a modest home in a middle class area."
"Middle class my queen?"
"Think of it as an area where the Dukes and Duchesses would live, except…less spectacular and with no servants."
He gasped, was it so hard to imagine her living a life without servants at her beck and call? She had rather enjoyed doing things for herself, granted living in the non-magical world was made easier by the inventions and wonders of electricity.
"I do not understand. This, having no title, no standing in the world or people to serve you, made you happy?"
"It did. I was happy. No one was afraid of me. It was so nice to be free of my past. I…I miss that. I came here because this is where I belong. This is my home, but it doesn't feel like home. I feel like I would have been better in the other world, where no one looked at me like I was the devil incarnate." She took another long sip from her drink before setting it down against the armrest of the chair. "Had anyone known the crimes I committed, I would have been locked away in their jails, left to rot away." She laughed, "I feel like I am still rotting. Even now. While a free woman, I-I feel like I'm rotting away from the inside out." Her voice broke as she stared across from her at the wall, seeing nothing but the dark outlines of the furniture in the room. "I was happy there because I didn't have any responsibility. I didn't have to face my crimes. I could start over, have a clean slate. I could be whoever I wanted to be. Be anyone I wanted to be."
"Then why did you return?" He knew how it felt to be trapped, to forever be something, someone, that others could never see past. He had been a Genie, he lived to grant happiness to others, never himself. He was cursed to bless people with the things they wished for, longed for and craved most while. He was trapped to a confined life with a duty borne onto him because it was his Fate, his destiny. He lived hundreds of years to see the beauty of love and the wretchedness of hate and vengeance in others. All while longing for just a taste of it, the smallest drop of it for himself, he'd never thought that was too much to ask. Not until he'd found himself free only to be trapped once more.
"Because…"
Regina remained silent. The Mirror thought she wasn't going to continue as the silence permeated the air before she broke it.
"I can't run from who I am. What I must do. I had to come back. Something here needed me to come back. I have unfinished business here."
"Snow White…"
Regina's lips twitched, just the slightest bit. "Yes, but not in the way you might think. I made a promise to someone many years ago, and I knew that I needed to return to keep that promise."
"Queen Lillian? You returned to keep your promise to Snow White's mother, to keep her safe." He had not been told this information by his Queen, rather he had listened in as she spoke of it with Maleficent just the day before. "But my Queen, if you are not here to harm the Queen what is there to protect her from?"
Finishing the last of her drink Regina stood from her father's chair and looked up as she stood before the mantle up at the Mirror, "That, my dear Genie, is what I came back to find out." She laughed bitterly, "And maybe make up for some past deeds while at it." Perhaps she could finally feel free of her guilt, her burden of sin, if she kept this promise to Lily. "Sadly," She continued looking into the flames, "I've fallen right into the trap of the Fates."
"How?"
"There's something in the air, Mirror. Something I've only just begun to notice, its weak, whatever it is, but it's growing stronger…getting closer. The longer I've been here. I can't help but think-"
"That if you had not returned if it would still be here." The Mirror finished, watching as the regal queen nodded her head once as a soft, 'yes' left her lips. She turned away from the warmth of the hearth beneath him and walked towards the center of the room. There she stood and looked out at the closed balcony doors at the moon.
"Why allow the Prince and Princess closer to you then my Queen? Should you not be looking for whatever it is that threatens Snow White?"
"It'd be like looking in the air for a single thread of wind," Regina stared bitterly out at the invisible wind she spoke of as it blew against the closed balcony doors fogging the glass slowly with its chill. "It could be anything. It may very well be me…"
But that was not why she'd allowed the two royals to become closer to her.
"I let the Princess and Prince closer so that these treaties might be made. So when whatever it is that threatens Snow White and most certainly her Kingdom, I can aide her without question or speculation." Regina smirked, "Steven and Emma think they're so very clever." Regina grinned at the ingenuity of the two, or rather the lack thereof. "Trying to worm their way into my life to make certain that I am not a threat to their families. They want to be closer to Maleficent and I, to make us trust them so that we would share with them any nefarious plots we might concoct and stop us."
"Are there any plots, your majesty?"
"Currently?" Regina asked, looking over her shoulder before shrugging as she turned back to the balcony doors. "I suppose there are no plots. Though, truthfully, I did have such fun teasing Snow and the rest of those bureaucrats." Sadly it had left her in a bit of a tight knot she couldn't untie by herself. Which, thankfully, was where the young future monarchs came into play. They could help her untie the noose wrapped tightly around her neck without even realizing they were doing all she wanted them to. Steven's love sick glances at Maleficent surely helped ease any of her fears that the royals themselves were smarter than they seemed. Thus far they had been honest, to a point.
"Do you doubt Prince Steven's feelings for Maleficent?"
"No, that boy, though merely a child, truly does care for Maleficent. He loves her, truly and deeply. It is not him that I doubt."
"Ah, Princess Emma…" He nodded his two dimensional head as if he had known this all along and had just wished for her to say it aloud. Perhaps he had known.
Regina tapped her finger against her bottom lip, humming in agreement with the Mirror. "It hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be, ignoring that prophecy. Maleficent has made it impossible for me to continue to play the unaware victim. I had hoped to continue to play just a bit longer."
To think that she would be unaware of the prophecy that foretold her own death? Please, people mistook her for a fool far too regularly for her liking. She had been aware of it the moment that blasted old coot moaned and groaned it out for all those willing ears to hear.
The Fates were unhappy with her, angry even with how she had disrupted their plans for her and Snow White. She knew that she would have to face the consequences of her actions against Leopold and her 'destiny' one day. She just hadn't truly thought that the harbinger of her death would be the daughter of Snow White. Wouldn't it have been more just if it were Snow herself, not her progeny?
They could have easily let Emma kill her that first day in the woods before she truly knew who it was delivering the final blow and extinguishing her life force for good, finally. But those three ancient witches hadn't.
Of course they couldn't have been easy on her, no, they wanted to play hard ball. There was something they had in mind for her, something she had to do before they'd let Emma kill her. Even if the poor dear thought she could avoid it. Regina knew what it did to a person's life, to their very soul to derail the Fate's plans for them. It had cost Regina everything she held dear.
"That girl has no idea what she is getting into, trying to befriend me so intently. I know very well that it is her destiny to kill me just like it is young Prince James' and Princess Penelope's destiny to unite the Primrose Kingdom and White Kingdom together." Regina had the decency to hide her cringe as she sarcastically recited, "Bringing onto this world an unparalleled reign of peace and prosperity the likes of which Snow and Aurora could only dream of, blah blah blah…"
"Snow and James may be considering the idea of that prophecy being met by Emma and Steven, but Aurora knows the truth. Maleficent herself was the one to prophesize their union and confide that bit of the future to the 'gentle' Queen." Not that Regina thought Aurora gentle in or fragile. The phantom pain along her jaw belied the concealed truth about the once Sleeping Beauty. She had and possibly still did have a wicked right cross.
"You are playing them, my Queen?"
"In a way, yes, I suppose I am playing them all. Not Maleficent. At least, not any longer. We had a very long discussion her and I this afternoon after the two royals left for the capital of Primrose. But…you already know about that conversation." The tone wasn't as accusatory as it could have been. Regina was almost grateful he had been spying on them, at least this way she did not have to explain her motivations a second time. "She will refrain from commenting on my relationship with Princess Emma, now completely aware of my knowledge and intent with the girl."
"What is your intention with the girl, majesty?"
Regina, for a short moment, wished to lie to the Genie just as she had lied to Maleficent. She wanted to tell him that she would make certain the girl did not fulfill her destiny, did not steal her beating heart from her very chest and hold it proudly for the rest of the realm to marvel at in awe. "I wouldn't wish my fate on my greatest enemy. At least," She sighed, "not anymore."
"My Queen you can't possibly mean that you will let the Princess kill you when the time comes!" The Mirror was horrified at the prospect.
"It is my life to do with as I see fit. Besides…I'll make her work for it. She'll truly have to best me to win my heart from me. I will not willingly lay it before her on a platter. I promise." Regina assured her loyal 'minion'.
The silence descended upon them once again, the howl of the night wind outside the closed doors whistling a soft echo through the otherwise silent room. Conjuring a duvet, Regina wrapped it around her shoulders as she shivered. With one last look at the Mirror who stayed within the crest, staring at her, she bid her goodbyes. "Goodnight…Mirror."
Regina stopped at the doorway when she heard a soft, "My Queen…"
"Yes?"
"Sealy. My…I wouldn't mind being called Sealy."
"Sealy," Regina knew the root of the word in French, it meant blessed. Openly smiling she hoped that the Mirror, Sealy, truly saw himself as blessed, rather than cursed. "Well, then, goodnight Sealy."
"Goodnight, Regina."
Regina stood still for only a moment before she closed the door to the sitting room and made her way to her bedroom, ready to see the end of this night and the morning of another day.
End Chapter Fourteen
2nd Author's Note: So really there isn't an excuse for not updating. I had the time, sometimes, but not the inspiration. Now that some inspiration has taken hold hopefully I'll have some updates given out regularly for a bit of time. Sadly I can't make any promises. I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter and everyone is enjoying their summer if it is their summer.
Ramblings ahead, skip at your own leisure. :-D
I had a lot of trouble, I think, writing for this story because it has gone off track from where I originally had wanted it to be heading. There is a part of the story that I haven't focused on in some time that I need to remember to do more of if this story is going to work/make sense to someone that isn't me and my sister.
As for the Mirror's name, I looked for something close to Sidney and also something that sounded like SEEING and that's what I came to. The meaning doesn't hurt either since he's always blessed people with things, or now as the mirror he grants/blesses Regina with knowledge or connections. Lol yea, it may seem silly but that's alright for you I hope.
Hopefully now that I have this chapter up and some of the next chapter written the flow will return. The easiest piece of this chapter was the conversation between Regina and Mirror/Sealy and Snow/James. The conversation between Steven and Aurora didn't flow as easily and there was much more I wanted to do with Steven/Emma in this chapter that just didn't want to write itself, and isn't integral so I skipped it especailly since there was a decent chunk of Emma/Regina. :-)
Anyway, goodbye for now. Hope you enjoyed. :-)