fairest

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all?” the queen demanded of the glass hanging in her bedchamber. The reflection wavered but no oracle appeared

She paced the room, long skirts billowing around her.

Her stepdaughter, Snow, grew more lovely with each passing day as she neared adulthood, already garnering the attention of princes and kings from the surrounding provinces. Only time prevented her from usurping the throne. The queen would not let that happen.

She sent once more for the shopkeeper, guards pulling them to the castle in thick shackles. But they did not cower at the sight of the queen, not even when she raised her voice, questioning the legitimacy of the magickal object the shopkeeper sold to her at a hefty price.

They simply sighed.

“I do remember reminding you; at the time of purchase the mirror remained untethered. It will not share its wisdom unless a soul becomes trapped inside.”

The queen had not been listening when she acquired the mirror. She stepped close to the shopkeeper. “What must I do?” she seethed.

The shopkeeper smiled back at her. “As I previously relayed, I possess the skills to tether. I simply require a soul, vital and young. Bring me one, and you shall have your mirror within mere hours of my ceremony.”

The queen followed the shopkeeper’s guidance, plucking a girl close to her stepdaughter’s age from a rural village’s orphanage. With promises of work in the royal palace, the handsome girl, Edana, easily obeyed the queen’s requests. As they arrived at the castle, the queen led Edana to her room, where her guards awaited with the shopkeeper. Edana searched the queen’s face, her brows knit together in obfuscation. The queen smiled down at her, pressing her towards the shopkeeper.

She obeyed, floating to where the shopkeeper stood at the mirror. They bestowed a sad smile upon her, before gripping her arms, and shoving her into her own reflection. Edana braced herself for the glass to shatter, but instead a dry, liquidy substance enveloped her body, sucking her in and wrapping tightly around her limbs.

She screamed, and once her eyes focused, she ran to the picture of the room she saw before her, but she simply bounced off the elastic substance. Tears flowed as she struggled to climb back through the mirror, to no avail. As the shopkeeper neared her, she shouted profanity, shrieking in hopes of bursting eardrums. The look on their face made her quiet.

The queen looked on as the shopkeeper peered in at their work; she thought perhaps she saw their lips move in a whisper before her guards whisked them away, but she could not be sure. She pushed them from her mind, instead finding the entombed girl’s eyes, where tears swirled over her inflamed cheeks.

“I will see you tonight,” the queen promised with a smile, twirling through the door and leaving the orphan girl in her opulent, vacuous chamber.

After her tears dried in stark rivulets down her face, the door creaked open, and Edana steeled herself to face the queen. Only, the face that peered into Edana’s was not that of the evil woman, but rather an enchanting girl close to her own age, with shorn, curled hair, and brown skin peppered with pale splotches. Outfitted akin to a scullery maid, the girl’s strong features and regal aire countered her cheap dress. Edana’s eyes traveled from the curly wisps clinging to the girl’s temple, to the Nubian nose which fit her face so perfectly she could no longer imagine it on anyone else, down to where the square cut neckline of her dress accentuated her sharp collarbones, mesmerized by a girl who must have been a dream of Edana’s own creation. But the girl stepped towards the mirror, bringing her hand to the glass and smiling, dimples materializing and eyes sparkling.

“Hi, I’m Snow.”

If she was not long gone already, the sound of Snow’s ethereal voice dove Edana into a beautiful abyss.

Of course, when the queen arrived that night to repeat her query, Edana had only one answer: Snow White.

Each day, Snow White visited the girl in the mirror, and each night the queen would seek her wisdom, maddened by the answer Edana continued to give. While she occupied nearly every crevice of the queen’s mind, Edana barely thought of her malevolent captor. Instead, the princess in commoner clothes spread like wildfire through her own mental labyrinth.

“Do you hunger?” Snow asked one day, peering across the chamber to the mirror while toying with a blanket on her stepmother’s bed.

Edana thought for a moment. “No,” she decided. “I don’t seem to do anything human now.”

“Do you need to breathe?”

After holding her breath for nearly ten minutes, Edana concluded that no, she did not. But she did anyway. She felt she could not forget herself.

Snow took notice. She stood up and approached the mirror, so the two girls stood face to face. “You are still human,” she breathed, placing her forehead against the shimmering glass.

Edana leaned hers in as well, wishing for the thousandth time to touch the girl in front of her. The girl who made her believe the words she spoke.

They did not only speak of their prisons, the mirror for Edana but the castle for Snow. Most of the time, they searched for topics of distraction. Snow shared tales of a scandalous royal family sojourning in the castle, while Edana regaled her with stories from her village. They sat in silence sometimes, crying in other instances, but most importantly they laughed. Smiled. Lifted each other to the heavens and beyond.

“I am glad I met you,” Edana remarked, as she and Snow stood opposite each other.

“Even like this?” Snow questioned, unable to meet Edana’s eyes.

Edana waited for Snow to lift her head before nodding. “I would take years with you like this over unshackled time with anyone else.”

Snow’s cheeks flushed, warming her skin. “I want to come in with you,” she said.

The girl in the mirror smiled, but her eyes darkened. She placed her hand on her side of the mirror and Snow did the same opposite her. “You have a life. You must not squander it with fantasies of me. Marry a prince, reclaim this kingdom. Do not forget me but do not allow me to preclude your story.”

In response, Snow lifted herself to her tiptoes, planting a quick kiss where Edana’s forehead reflected. “You cannot tell me what to do,” she murmured coquettishly.

Edana sighed, but her heart soared, threatening to burst from her body and desert her for the other side of the mirror.

The queen remained oblivious of her stepdaughter’s trysts with the mirror, blinded by the question echoing in her cavernous mind. Who’s the fairest of them all? Snow White, the answer always came. Day after day until the queen could no longer hope for a difference.

One night, after Snow and Edana already parted ways for the day, one returning to her chamber and the other standing in the same place as always, waiting to meet again the next day, the queen sent her most loyal guard for Snow. He obeyed her commands, tying the girl up and leading her to the woods, but as he turned to unsheathe his sword and deliver a fatal blow, Snow sliced the rope ensnaring her limbs with a knife she hid in her skirts, running deep into the woods where the guard could not follow. He could not return to his queen in such disgrace. For hours, he hunted the animals populating the forest, picking the heart closest to human, and returning to the palace.

With barely a glance at the heart, the queen nodded in praise, dismissing the guard. She went immediately to the mirror, where Edana expected Snow at such an early hour. She did not attempt to mask her disappointment.

“Mirror, mirror, who’s the fairest of them all?”

By now the questioning grew tedious for Edana. “Snow White,” she responded.

The queen released a blood curdling scream, slamming her fist into her bed post, chipping off pieces of wood. She ran for the mirror, fist raised, and Edana’s spirit lifted for a moment, but the queen paused before making contact. And

Edana waited for Snow to visit, but the girl never appeared. She did not return the next day, or the day after, and neither did the queen, except to sleep. Edana could handle the physical act of loneliness, mental isolation destroyed her, piece by piece. Meanwhile the queen raged, wondering how a dead girl could possibly be fairest. She sent for her guard, commanding another man in his ranks to torture him until he confessed that Snow had bested him. Reaching for the other man’s sword, she raised the blade and cut down, slicing her guard’s head clean off. As it rolled off into a dark corner, she plucked the medallion that indicated his rank from his blood-stained jacket and pinned it on the other guard, smearing red over the gold surface.

Returning his sword, the queen smiled, teeth stained with red droplets. “Clean it up,” she ordered, shutting the cell door behind her.

The queen scrubbed herself for hours, until the water around her in the bath became rosy and her skin returned to pure porcelain. She stepped out to take a cloth offered by a maid and bid her dump the water after helping her dress. The queen selected a long red gown of gossamer silk that trailed to her feet and billowed around her waist, and after the maid finished lacing the back and braiding her hair, she set off, once again, for the shopkeeper who sold her the mirror. This time, she purchased an opal necklace that promised to disguise her as anyone she desired.

As she returned to the palace and retreated to her chamber, she pulled the necklace over her head and thought of her step daughter. She moved to check her reflection in the washroom mirror, but a voice stopped her.

“Snow?” Edana’s voice rang out. “Where have you been? I have missed you dearly.”

The queen turned to face the magic mirror where Edana’s face pressed against the invisible barrier. Grinning, she lifted the necklace off and watched as the girl’s loving eyes turned to horror.

The next day, she returned to the shopkeeper, dressed as the peasantry, a new plan formulating. Instead of taking Snow’s place, she could get rid of her for good, and then the kingdom would have no choice but to adore her. For a sack of gold, she purchased a cursed apple that sent the consumer into an everlasting sleep, one only broken by true love’s kiss. From the look in Edana’s eyes, the queen knew of their love, and with the girl imprisoned, Snow White would never wake again.

From the shopkeeper's, the queen set off for the woods, the necklace transforming her to the girl in the mirror. She walked for hours, calling for Snow in Edana’s husky voice. She almost turned back to retrace her steps when a girl stepped out from a copse of trees. For a moment the queen did not recognize her step daughter, covered with dirt and scratches, and holding a sharpened stick as a spear, dried blood caking the tip. But then dropping the spear, the girl rushed to the queen, wrapping her arms around her.

“Edana,” she breathed, the melody of her voice slightly broken. “How did you escape?”

The queen drew back from Snow’s embrace. “The shopkeeper who sold the mirror came back while your stepmother was away. He saved me,” she bluffed.

Snow’s mind was too exhausted to see the cracks in the queen’s explanation. She simply nodded and buried her face in the queen’s shoulder.

“You must be hungry,” the queen whispered.

“Yes,” Snow croaked.

The queen reached into the folds of her cloak and withdrew the apple. “Here, I brought this for you,” she cooed, lifting the bright fruit to Snow’s mouth.

Graciously, she plucked the apple from the queen’s hand, sinking her teeth in and taking a huge bite. As she went in for another, the queen unclasped her necklace, and her disguise fell away. Snow’s eyes widened, but it was too late. Before she could discard the apple, the light faded from her eyes and she fell in a heap on the dirt.

The queen smiled, picked up the bitten apple, and turned back to the castle, leaving her stepdaughter to sleep alone in the unforgiving woods.

The door swung open to the queen’s bedchamber, and Edana perked up, wishing for a sight of her fair love. Instead, the queen’s triumphant face stared back at her. She approached the mirror and stood in silence for a moment, before asking Edana for the thousandth time.

“Who’s the fairest of them all?”

Tears ran down Edana’s cheeks as she answered, the same as always, “Snow.”

The queen’s face contorted as her mouth turned downwards and her eyes narrowed. “No, it is a lie.”

Edana shook her head. “What have you done with her?” she begged.

“What have I done? I got rid of her! She’s gone, discarded in the woods. She cannot be the “fairest of them all”. It must be me! It has always been me!” The queen ran to the mirror. “Stupid mirror, you idiotic girl!” she snarled.

Edana’s bottom lip quivered. “Is she dead?” she asked.

“Dead! No, but just like it. She can only be brought back with true love’s kiss and with you in here, she will never awaken.”

The queen’s words struck Edana silent. She cried in silence as the queen fumed.

“Can’t you see?” she finally asked.

“What?”

“Your desire to be loved, worshipped, idolized, will never come true. Snow has and always will hold the love of the kingdom, because she is beautiful, from her body to her mind to her heart. Your mind is ugly, your heart gruesome, and you will never hold more than just the kingdom’s infatuation.”

“Silence!” the queen yelled, but Edana continued.

“Snow could sleep for the rest of her years, she could die, and they would still love her more! They may do your bidding but one day you will wither away, alone as you breathe your final breath, and they will rejoice.”

The queen wrenched an iron sword from its holster on the wall, and stalked towards the mirror, blade brandished.

Edana raised her voice as the queen neared her. “In the stories they tell their children, if they tell any at all, you will be remembered as what you are: the evil queen of—”

The blade made contact with the glass, shattering the image of Edana’s face as shards clattered onto the floor.

As silence washed over her, the shopkeeper’s whispered words echoed in Edana’s mind. Child, listen. You must get someone to break the mirror, then you will be set free, and they will remain

Slowly, Edana shards around her feet lifted into the air, hovering towards the empty frame on the wall. She watched as the mirror reformed, half expecting her own face to back at her.

But it was the queen’s materialized, her features ugly scream that Edana barely heard. She was already hurrying out of the palace, toward the woods, toward Snow.

Before Edana could reach the entrance to the woodlands, a commotion in a nearby village halted her. In the town square, a group of hunters stood over a figure, deliberating as more people flocked to the forming crowd. Edana drew her hood up and hurried into the village, pushing her way through worried villagers and curious children, stopping as she reached the hunters who guarded the figure like a prize. In between their burly figures, Edana spotted a glimpse of the person’s face.

Snow. Covered in dirt and scrapes and dried blood, but still her Snow.

Without pausing to think, Edana pilfered one of the hunter’s spears and pushed her way through the threshold. She scrambled to reach the girl lying on the cobblestone, while hands threatened to pull her back. Kicking at them with her boots, Edana clutched onto Snow, embracing her cold body and kissing her shoulder, before rough arms yanked her back into the crowd. The hunter whose spear she stole stalked toward her, picking up his stolen weapon and jabbing it into Edana’s side.

She cried out as hot flashes of pain curled up her body, willing herself to die quickly as she felt her ribs crunch. But then the attacks ceased, and all she could feel was a steady thrum in her side. Then, she felt soft hands picking her up, wiping the tears she hadn’t known had seeped down her face away. And then, a kiss, planted on her brow, like a butterfly’s gentle wings.

“Edana,” a familiar, ethereal voice rang. “Please open your eyes.”

How could she not obey?

Edana felt her eyelids flutter open, her eyes lift as they focused on the girl who kept her standing. Her mouth opened to speak, but all she could manage was a small cough. My love, she thought, and Snow seemed to hear these unspoken words, for she leaned forward, her small body still bearing all of Edana’s weight, and kissed her.

And Edana felt herself sinking, drowning, succumbing. My love, my love, my love.