Chapter 69: Family Ties
Evie continues in the direction that her alternate mother went. She knows that she should be going with Jay to meet up with Mal and then find Uma, but the curiosity seems to get the better of her, powerful enough to overwhelm her common sense.
Despite how small Storybrooke is as a town, it's still hard to navigate especially if one is not a local. She tries to keep an eye out for Regina's car. She checks every driveway that she passes to see if the queen went to visit somebody but to no avail. She crosses Main Street as discretely as she can and continues forward towards what she assumes is the outskirts of town. The daughter of the Evil Queen wants to stop and ask for directions, but something is speaking to her in the back of her mind. Maybe it's a soft whisper or even a quiet song, but it's as if she can sense where her alternate mother was going to go. She continues to listen to this strange voice until she comes to a clearing that is surrounded by many tall trees.
Evie swallows when she realizes that this is a cemetery. She sees many gravestones within the area. Regina's car is parked beside the apparent entrance to the clearing. The VK ducks behind the woman's car and peers around it. She looks for the dark hair of Regina Mills.
Eventually, she sees a hunched-over figure in front of a gravestone, very close to a small stone building on the edge of the cemetery. Evie would have almost missed the figure completely had it not been for the red scarf wrapped around the woman's neck.
Curiosity overrides her common sense again and the blue-haired girl enters the open space. Her desire to know more makes her forget about why people come to graveyards. It doesn't dawn on the young teenager just yet that Regina was likely paying respects to one of her loved ones.
Evie leans down behind a tree on the edge of the clearing and waits patiently until Regina stands up again. The dark figure then turns and heads to the small stone building. The woman waves her hand and seems to disarm some sort of magic surrounding the structure, which spooks the blue-haired teen as she wasn't used to the open displays of magic. Once the former Evil Queen's figure disappears inside, Evie leaves her hiding spot and approaches the gravestone that her mother was kneeling in front of.
Her heart drops into guilt when she reads the name on the stone.
ROBIN HOOD
Regina was visiting her true love. There was a fresh bouquet of flowers laid next to the inscription:
Brave Hero, Loving Husband, Devoted Father, True Love
Also placed on his gravestone were two arrows, likely from his quiver, pointing in opposite directions.
Evie kneels down in the grass, feeling overwhelmed with emotion and the guilt of letting her desire to know more about her mother invade a very sad and personal visitation. She tries to fight back some tears
"I'm sorry I never got to meet you," she says quietly. "From what Regina has told me, you were the most amazing person in the world, and I know you saved her from being a villain forever. I wish my own mother could have found someone like you, then maybe things would have been different between the two of us. I never knew my father, but I kind of wished that it could have been you. You do have a son from Auradon named Robbie and he's as brave as you probably were. He's also an amazing archer like I'm sure you were. I'm sorry if I invaded your time with Regina. I didn't bring any flowers, but…"
Evie reaches onto one of her gloved hands and removes one of the many rings she usually wears. She places a single gold band with a heart gem and a crown on top of it next to the arrows.
"I figure you would like this a bit better. I bet it matches your colour palette."
She smirks at her own joke before becoming serious again.
"It's from the daughter you never had. We'll try to get Robbie out here at least once so you can meet him… and thank you for taking care of my mom."
She smiles and wipes away a few of her tears before standing up again. She readjusts her purse and then casts her dark eyes on the stone building in front of her.
She takes a few slow cautious steps towards it, hesitant to go near it because of the magic. Once again, that voice that seemed to be calling or beckoning to her reappears as she stares up at the symbol above the door. The image is of two interlocking deer antlers. She slowly places her hand out to touch the field surrounding the building.
She winces expecting to be hit by the magic, but the magical field of white appears in front of her and ripples with her touch. Evie places her index fingertip against the seemingly solid wall of power, and it seems as though her finger began to glow blue. Shocked, she takes her hand off and gazes at it… nothing, but she felt something. It was strong, warm, and powerful.
She then places her entire hand against the barrier; her entire hand, including her palm, glows a bright blue. It feels very warm and almost tickles, like the flickering of a candle. She presses a little further and suddenly, in a gust of wind, the wall of magic vanishes. Evie presses her hand forward, but there's nothing there any longer. She stares at her hand; completely confused, amazed, and a little freaked out. She sucks in a deep breath and goes towards the large orange coloured doors between the tall two stone pillars of the building.
She opens the door and enters into a very dark and shadowed room... almost like the foyer of a house. Two stone archways are in front of her and to her shock, there's a large wooden coffin on the other end of the room.
Immediately, Evie retreats, ready to go back out, assuming that her alternate mother was visiting another deceased loved one, but… she's nowhere to be seen. As she continues to peer through the doorway, she doesn't see Regina anywhere. The place is not exactly very big, so there is no place for her to hide and usually, places in cemeteries didn't have alternate exits.
Despite her better judgement, the same voice returns to her head, only it's stronger than before, the VK enters the stone structure.
She cautiously and quietly makes her way to the other end of the room where she notices on the left side of the coffin is a wall of holes containing candles. She also sees two roses placed on top of the casket. She leans down to read the inscription:
Cora Mills, Beloved Mother
Was this the resting place of her alternate grandmother? Evie wondered to herself.
She then notices something odd. There are scratch marks on the floor as if something had been dragged across it. That would be common if they were moving the coffin in here, but these marks were deep as if this movement had been done many times.
The voice in her head seems to become even stronger as she places her hand against the stone platform on which the casket lay. Adding some pressure, Evie is shocked to find the entire podium shifted ever so slightly. She pushes a bit harder and notices a gap underneath. Finally, using all her strength, she pushes until the coffin moves completely to reveal a staircase leading downwards.
This might be where Regina is, but the VK hesitates. Would Regina be mad that her alternate daughter invaded her inner sanctum? Disturbed the remains of her mother? Followed her when she said she would do some task by herself?
Evie turns to leave when she hears the voice. It's the strongest it's ever been. Something down there was calling to her. Her stomach turns as she gazes down into the shadowed darkness of the stairs.
Inhaling sharply, the daughter of the Evil Queen descends. She walks into temporary darkness before coming into a lower sanctum illuminated by many candles and a few torches. Maybe Regina should invest in electric lighting. Evie can hear her heart pounding very loudly as she slowly takes a few steps forward, gazing around. The beating of her heart pounded like a bass drum… Then more hearts join in… It's then the young teen realizes that it wasn't her heart she was hearing, but other people's. Heading straight forward towards the sound, Evie comes upon what might be a room but has a yellow curtain in front of it. The sounds of those beating hearts are coming from behind the curtains. With a shaky hand, Evie peers behind them to find gold boxes arranged in many rows and columns. Several dots on the boxes are glowing yellow and flash in the rhythm that a heart would.
Horrified, Evie shuts the curtain and moves on. She turns back towards the stairs to get out of this crazy place, but something shiny catches her off-guard and she stops. To her left, she finds a room where there are strange items; books, and chests are strewn about, and a very fancy mirror hanging on the wall. She assumes that this is the shiny thing that caught her eye.
Approaching it carefully, she stares at her reflection for a long time. She assumes that she will not see the face in the mirror because she was pretty sure she met him the other day. It has a large metal frame that is meant to resemble the sun. She quietly adjusts her hair as she would often do and swallows. She opens her mouth:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall…"
Suddenly, the mirror lights up as if in response to the girl's voice. Evie steps back in fear, wondering how it came alive, but immediately assumes that those were the magic words to activate it. The glass turns blue and it begins to fog over, no longer revealing a reflection.
"Who…who is my true love, one and all?"
The fog continues to swirl and glow. It's then that the same voice calls to her. It's right in front of her, clear as can be. The voice compels the teenager to get closer.
Despite her reservations, Evie obeys the voice, taking slow steps towards the mirror until the enchanted decoration is inches from her face. The musical voice is singing to her, but she cannot understand what it's saying.
"What do you want?" she whispers.
She reaches forward and touches the glass. However, instead of it being solid, it ripples like the surface of a pond, much like the magical field outside. Evie's hand glows blue and she pulls it back… only for the reflective surface of the mirror to go with her.
In a panic, the girl steps back further, but the shiny, silvery liquid mirror follows her hand. It glows blue like the teen's hand and continues to move out of the frame until it is a shimmering sheet of liquid stuck to her hand.
Evie lets out a noise of fear and attempts to shake it off.
It's then something purple surrounds her hand and releases the liquid mirror. The substance snaps back into the frame and stops glowing completely.
Evie turns to her right and sees Regina standing there, her hand outstretched as it was likely her magic that detached the VK from the mirror. The blue-haired girl's eyes immediately fill with tears and she opens her mouth to speak, but a lump in her throat prevents the words from coming out.
However, Regina doesn't look mad… She's just as shocked as her alternate daughter.
"I'm… I'm so sorry," Evie utters through her tears.
"How did you do that?" the former Evil Queen asks.
"W-What?"
"How did you do that?"
"I-I don't know, I just touched it."
"I've never seen my mirror do that before!"
"W-What…?"
"And not many people can get past the barrier around my mausoleum…"
Her head tilts slightly as she examines the frightened girl.
"When did you realize that you had magic?"
A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, but here's a new chapter. Seems that Evie has some unrealized magical potential. I took the mirror's magical reaction from the Snow White and the Huntsman movie, where the mirror man comes out of the Queen's mirror-like a liquid and looks like a sheet ghost. Say what you want about the movie, I think that effect is cool.