DISCLAIMER:: do not own. just borrowing for purpose of creative expression. no profit obtained.
A/N:: another update. hopefully this will clear a few things up, but it might leave you with more questions than answers i'm afraid. such is the way my mind works. working on the next update, will post once it is finished. enjoy and review if you feel so inclined.
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-Chapter 30: I'm Bound By The Life You Left Behind-
Velia sat up on her bedroll and looked at the woman and little girl next to her. Regina was lying on her back, Savya strewn across her torso, her little face tucked against the brunette's neck. She smiled at the sight of her family, for that's what they were, sleeping beside her. Let them have their peace, at least for a few moments longer.
She got up, dusting off her peasant skirt and went to the other side of the fire pit where the Huntsman was using a hunting knife to whittle branches down into arrow shafts. She sat down on a rock beside him. "You don't like me much, do you?"
He was silent for so long she began to believe he wouldn't answer. Finally, "I don't care what you do with your life. Whether you owe her, or you just agree with her principles, that is yours to decide and I am not the man to school anyone on their choices. You do what you are wont to do. But her…" He tilted the half-made shaft toward the sleeping little girl. "This life may not be her choice. But she will grow up in servitude now. She will know no different than this and so she will believe this is life. You are robbing her of her choice. It is not surprising, but it is always disappointing." He began to work the shaft again.
Even though Velia knew it was a dismissal, she didn't move back to the other side of the pit. "Why did you do it?"
"She has my heart. I have little choice in the matter."
Velia rolled her eyes. "Not now. I refer to Snow White. I refer to the price of your heart. Why did you save a stranger?"
The Huntsman frowned. "There have been many times since I wished I never had. But I knew, no matter her crime, it was not justified. Life, while we are fortunate enough to possess it, is a beautiful thing. It should be revered, admired, never tossed away as if it means nothing." He glared at the brunette across the pit. "Some people feel it gives them power to take it from others. But with every life they take, a part of them dies too, until all that remains is an empty shell that consumes."
Velia didn't have to hear him say it to know he was giving her his description of Regina. "Maybe her soul was restored her. It's possible."
He scoffed. "Flights of fancy fall from your lips. Once a soul is gone, it is nigh impossible to return. If that magic exists to do so, not even the fairies have been able to find it, lest they would have restored her soul long ago."
Velia thought of their first true kiss, on the piano bench in that third floor room of the ruined keep. It had restored Regina's powers, in part, brought back her magic. "No one has ever been able to harness the power of true love. Maybe that was all it took to call her back from the void."
He had to throw a hand across his mouth to keep from laughing so loud as to wake the Evil Queen and Velia's daughter. "You think you're her true love. She has no true love. Nobody could possibly love a heart so black and in turn, a heart so black is incapable of returning any love that it may receive."
She chuckled to herself and shook her head.
He narrowed his eyes. "What? You think I do not speak the truth?"
"I think you believe you speak the truth. And maybe that is the truth for someone who's never felt true love. But I have to believe her soul's in there. I have to believe it came back. Because otherwise, what purpose do I have?"
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They saw nary a soul on the road the whole morning and well into the afternoon. The Huntsman seemed quite untroubled by this and even Regina privately assured her it was common. Thieves didn't generally stroll right down the lane, they were more fond of tactics of the ambush variety.
But Velia stayed worried. She wasn't exactly used to the Forbidden Forest. They were still a few days ride from the lowlands below the first Hex, but the Huntsman assured them they would reach Regina's old palace before the peak of night. What they were planning to do once they got there was still unsure. Regina was wary of Rumpelstiltskin after her dealings with him in the past. She wouldn't confess to Velia all of what she'd experienced in her meetings with the imp, but she could tell that he was among the Queen's least favourite people.
Savya remained utterly quiet. She rode before Regina on Starfire, nestled back against the brunette and stared around, not with wonder, but with recognition. She knew this road, this place. Velia took note of it, as did Regina, but neither could risk broaching the topic with the little girl while they were in the company of the Huntsman. He thought Savya to be Velia's daughter, and a mother would already know of her daughter's past. She'd just have to wait until they made camp before she broached the subject with the little girl.
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The woman in the white cloak had been trailing their party since they'd left Peppergrey. With the addition of Savya to their little troop, their progress had slowed considerably but they were still making better time than she could have hoped. They'd reach the former palace of the Evil Queen by the high point of night, if Queen Emma made it that long of course. One never could predict when she'd be pulled from this world and into the other.
As the group stopped near a stream to water their horses about a half mile south of where she was hiding, she decided to take the time to update her. She hopped down from the tree that concealed her to the forest floor, making sure to keep herself from the sight of the party she was trailing. She crouched near the stream where it curved away to the east. It had been several days since she'd been able to inform her of the party's progress.
She made a scooping motion with her hands and a spherical ball of water rose from the surface of the stream as if she had just scooped it out with her hands though she hadn't touched the water itself. The crystal clear spring water caught the afternoon light, glinting and reflecting the rays back as it rose. She stood with it, matching its progress into the air. Once it came to a halt over five feet from the surface it had just risen from, it began to expand out in every direction, its girth flattening out as it got taller and wider until it looked like the watery surface of a mirror. She looked into the glistening water, not surprised when the face appear on its other side as if there were someone standing on the other side of the water wall, but looking beneath her mirror, there was no body on the other side, just the reflection.
In the last sixteen years, Snow White had not aged. She still appeared to be in her mid-thirties, though she should be fifty or more by now. Her hair was just as black, her lips still bright red, her skin pale as the snow she was named after, her bright green eyes reminiscent of spring. She looked exactly as she had all those years ago when she'd ruled over the Enchanted Forest by the side of her true love, as she had when she'd been a mother to a vivacious little Princess. The only indication of what she'd endured was a jagged scar, marring the beautiful pale flesh of her face. The scar extended from her chin up, cutting across her mouth diagonally, extending across her right cheek just below her eye and up across her right temple into her hairline. Still, her beauty was unmistakable, though it may be argued that she was no longer the fairest of them all.
"My Queen." The woman in the white cloak bowed her hooded head.
The bright green eyes of the woman in the water mirror were distressed. "You've been late in contacting me. Tell me… how is she?"
The woman in the white cloak frowned. "I bear mixed tidings I'm afraid. Emma is safe for now, but it will not take Hadrian long to discover she has slipped past him. He is as clever as he is stubborn."
Snow sighed. "What she ever saw in him, I shall never understand."
The woman in the white cloak smirked. "There were worse choices, but there were also better. If only Pinocchio had survived the Battle of Hollow Station, he may have been in King Hadrian's place and all this running would not be necessary. But alas, that was not the will of Fate."
Snow pursed her lips. "Fate. She is quite the bitch, that one."
"That she is, but don't let her hear that." She glanced around. "They've made it to the Forbidden Forest, but we are still several leagues south of the Evil Queen's former palace. We'll make it there just after nightfall, before she goes back to the other world."
"I should have known they wouldn't pass without going to Rumpelstiltskin's. Even if they had decided to circumvent him, he would have found someway to draw her in. No matter, he can't do anything to harm her and he's unlikely to harm the Evil Queen either. He'll want her power and he won't kill her until he can find a way to get it. He never counted on the prophecy diminishing his power too."
"Even in his weakened state, he is still a force to be reckoned with."
Snow sighed. "How I wish he had been drawn into the war. Maybe the Red Army would have been able to take him out for me and I could have returned by now."
"The kingdom was broken and calling for change. Even Rumpelstiltskin's death wouldn't have improved the situation. Only your death was enough to satisfy the Red Army."
"And Charming…"
"You would have been proud my Queen. He sacrificed himself to see your daughter and her companions safely into the Forbidden Forest. I do not believe Hadrian will see him killed. He knows to do so would be cause for Emma never to return to him. It would certainly compromise his claim to the crown."
"It is not the best of circumstances, but he is safe enough for now. What of Emma?"
The woman in the white cloak glanced back through the trees. Though she could not see the party, she thought of the young blonde. "Her love for Regina… it is strong."
Snow closed her eyes as if she were fighting back tears and sighed deeply. "It is as I feared then. I knew that very first day, when she picked Emma up from her crib. The way she'd looked at her, as if she'd waited her whole life to look upon that face."
"Regina loves her deeper than she ever loved the stable girl. Her love is pure and true. She will die if it means seeing Emma safely through this."
Snow looked apologetic at the very thought. "Let us hope it doesn't come to that. Emma… does she feel the same?"
The woman in the white cloak nodded. "Her heart beats only for the woman once known throughout the land as the Evil Queen. She truly is the saviour she was prophesized to be."
The green eyed Queen nodded solemnly. "Who am I to argue with true love?"
"The prophecy grows weaker, I see the breaks in its strength more and more as the days pass."
Snow smiled. "Their love must truly be strong. Emma must have found Regina in that world. It is the only way. She's connecting with both their souls." Her smile only grew in size. "There is hope!"
"What do you wish me to do my Queen?"
"Continue to protect her. Rumpelstiltskin cannot harm her, and her love for Regina will keep the sorceress protected as well. But that will not prevent him from trying his best to manipulate her. Don't let him. It's in his best interest that the prophecy be followed to the letter. Make sure she does not linger there. Once Regina finds that her hearts are no longer there, I doubt she'll want to stay anyway. Make sure she makes it to the Forbidden Fortress. She must reach the witch. Maleficent is the only one who can bring my daughter to me."
The woman in the white cloak nodded. "As you command Queen Snow White." With a wave of her hand the water fell back down to the stream in a mini-waterfall, the face of Snow White instantly disappearing with it.
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They rode through the last grouping of trees before the Huntsman stopped their party with an arm. "We're on his lands now."
Regina's eyes narrowed. "We're on my lands Huntsman or do you so easily forget the one who you serve?"
He inclined his head by way of apology, but Velia noticed the curling of his lip. His opinion of Regina had obviously not improved with the decades, not that she could blame him. She would not be fond of a woman who had stolen her heart from her very chest without her consent. Although, now that she took time to think on it, that's exactly what Regina had done, in mind if not in deed.
Regina glanced over to her by way of asking what she wished to do. Should they proceed to the castle and call on Rumpelstiltskin tonight or should they make camp and tackle the task in the morning? Surely he was already aware of their approach. He would have eyes in the forest surrounding the castle he had bartered for. Was it even safe to make camp? Would he attack in the night when Emma was most vulnerable?
She gave a nod of her head to show they should continue on.
Regina turned her gaze on the Huntsman. "Let's go drop in and pay my old comrade a visit, shall we?"
He narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing as he spurred Mary Brave onward.
Regina rode over to Velia and passed Savya, who had fallen asleep a few miles back over to Velia's horse. It wouldn't do to have Rumpelstiltskin see her caring for anything. It would just be ammunition he could use against her. She would do whatever it took to protect the two women in her life. She would not lose one more thing that she loved. "Stay close."
Velia wrapped one arm tightly around the sleeping toddler, pressing the girl close to her body and nodded. She would also do whatever it took to protect the two most precious things in this world to her. She followed Regina's horse as they rode the last few miles to the castle gates slowly, on the constant lookout for any type of ambush.
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The gate was unmanned and the portcullis up as if begging them entrance.
"No guards?" Velia raised an eyebrow. She'd seen no one the entire ride. It was a curious thing.
Regina looked up at they passed under the gate. "A magical barrier. He knows we're here."
The Huntsman scoffed. "He's known since we crossed onto his lands."
"My lands." Regina's fist was clenched around the reins.
Velia rode under the portcullis and a terrible pain gripped her stomach. She winced and had to fight from doubling over, lest she crush the little sleeping girl in front of her.
Regina turned. "What is it?" And she saw then that the magical barrier was not meant to stop intruders from coming into the courtyard, it was designed to strip any spells away. Emma sat on the horse behind her, Velia no longer.
The Huntsman's eyes grew wide as he took in the blonde haired Queen. Then his gaze flashed to Regina. "You used me to smuggle the Queen out of the land? Her husband will bring war down upon us!"
"Know your place Huntsman!" She glared at him, something dark flashing in her eyes.
"I hope you know the consequences of what you've done witch."
Emma saw Regina's hand flick dangerously as the older woman fought the urge to go to the dark place in which she'd resided in the years prior to Emma's birth.
"Ah, Your Majesty."
Both women looked up at the title, neither knowing which the man was referring to.
It was the first Emma had ever seen of Rumpelstiltskin. He was as many a traveler had described him. Small in stature, his skin a sickly and pallid green, most certainly not human, yet not definable as any other creature either. He held himself with an air of frivolity, like a court jester. His grin was somehow the most frightening thing about him, it told of secrets that only he knew. His hair was long almost to his shoulders and his eyes held a fevered, yet somehow sane gaze. She barely saw any trace of Mr. Gold, but she knew instantly that was the other half of him.
He gave an exaggerated bow. "The Evil Queen has come home."
"Rumpel." She didn't even deign to incline her head in his direction.
"And the White Queen, come calling to my doorstep? What a day this is. Come in dearies, the hour draws late." He turned without another word and out of the corner of the courtyard a woman appeared.
"I'll take your horses."
"Belle." Regina raised an eyebrow but did not look surprised.
The woman glanced briefly in Regina's direction. "Your Majesty."
Something akin to pain flashed briefly across Regina's face as she dismounted and handed off the reins to the woman. She walked over to Emma's horse and held out her arms for Savya. Emma placed the toddler into Regina's arms and the girl instantly curled herself into the brunette's embrace, even in sleep responding to Regina's touch. Emma dismounted and handed the reins off to the woman with a smile.
"Thank you. I'm Emma."
The woman's surprised eyes flashed briefly up to her and then downcast once more. "I know who you are Your Highness. It's a pleasure." She led the horses away without another word.
Emma raised an eyebrow, about to ask Regina after the woman that the brunette obviously knew, but she felt the tug. "Oh no."
Regina tensed as she saw Emma sway dangerously. "Huntsman."
Emma collapsed into strong arms as the other world called her back.