Fate Be Damned

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Each maddening movement of the clock seemed only another hammer pounding the nails into Mirror’s coffin. She paced anxiously back and forth, and kept stopping to adjust one thing or another, although she had already cleaned the cottage top to bottom. Her own belongings had been carefully stored away in a tidy manner. In fact, she had even gone so far as to remove the gauze curtain that hung over a painting above the fireplace - it was a portrait, one that had made her weep without fail until she’d hidden it away because its occupants looked so happy. She didn’t have to hide it anymore. Faith would finally be there, really there, not just in a painting, and at last the world would make sense again. There was nothing Mirror needed if Faith was by her side, living and breathing and smiling again. There was nothing she would not do to bring her back to her side, no matter the cost. No matter the cost. All at once, Mirror turned on her heel and strode to the door, unhooking her cloak in the same motion that brought her outside and onto the path. She tossed it over herself and kept walking. The sun had never shone so brilliantly as it did now, nor had the forest ever seemed so beautiful. Mirror could not keep herself from smiling the whole way to the clearing. Guardian, powerful witch, any title at all did not keep the spring from her step. There it was. Faith’s clearing. Behind Faith flowed a glittering waterfall into a pond. Fish moved gracefully beneath the surface. And there was Faith, standing as still and serene as ever, untouched by time. With a gentle reverence Mirror laid her cloak over Faith’s back. She leaned her forehead against the statue’s for just a moment. Calm washed over her in that moment, and then she finally stepped back and cleared her throat. Her voice rang out confidently through the clearing. “For your safety, and happiness, Any price I would pay; In any fight I would partake, To sway the winding, weaving road of fate. This sacrifice I offer in your wake: No curse, no threat, your life nor limb shall take. I shield you, from evil’s whim, And when at last this day grows dim, I seal my fate, however grim.. ...And pray that you’ll forgive me.” Her voice broke, but she kept going, her head held high. “Let your blight consume my marrow. For you, I give my every breath, And offer even my own death… Yet still love you to my barrow. So fate be damned, and, Transfer all your pain to me. To break this spell, I forge three keys; A golden apple, from her tree, An honest plea, and finally, Taken - though, not forcefully, My own blood set free.” A hush fell over her words. “Now at last, stone walls abate, From this sleep you must awake, And your freedom you retake.” She would not know until nightfall if her spell had worked. To pass the time, she took to pacing the clearing. It hurt to move - her stomach churned, her muscles were stiff and tired, and her mind was distinctly foggy. Words wouldn’t quite come together. Pieces of them seemed to drift about, but when tugged at, they disappeared like a snowflake landing on skin. Mirror could not have pinpointed when she stopped walking. It was just a little bit before she laid down on the grass and closed her eyes against the chisel in her skull, but after she had noticed the blossoming heat of injury forming between her ribs. She felt like she was suffocating on a thousand paper cuts. And then all at once, she could not have cared less, because a hoof brushed against the side of her face. Her eyes flew open. Faith was there. Really there, standing before her, a sweet and sad smile on her face. The cloak hung over soft, pale fur. Her wings shifted beneath it. She breathed. The pain was overtaken by a strange and wonderful numbness in her skin as Mirror forced herself to stand. It wasn’t a dream. Mirror wrapped her hooves about Faith, and felt the pegasus return her embrace. Both wept, unable to find any words to say, though neither needed any just then. For what might have been minutes or hours they stayed like that, stayed fitted together like two pieces of a puzzle. For that shining period, everything was perfect. At long last, they drew apart, and Mirror knew with a glance that her spell had worked. The yellow and orange flowers that had grown as the curse worsened had begun to close up and dry out as if they might simply fall off. For as bad as it had gotten, the one benefit of her curse was that Faith’s eyesight had been restored. She met Mirror’s gaze. More tears gathered in the unicorn’s eyes, and though she opened her mouth to speak, no words came. What could she possibly say? One warm wing draped across Mirror’s back, and together they departed from that clearing. Neither spoke until they had reached the cottage again, when Faith broke the silence with a whisper. “Mirror, my darling… thank you.” They had tea, first thing. Mirror had readied the blend ahead of time. She knew exactly how Faith liked her tea, down to the finest detail, and though her hooves were shaking she was able to prepare it swiftly. Her own tea was a simple mint medley. In that moment, though, she could have drunk vinegar and it would have been perfect, because there at the table was Faith, just across from her. There was Faith in the chair that Mirror had kept just the same as it always had been. Tick. There was the clock on the wall. Tick. Once Faith had sipped some of her tea, they struck up a conversation, a real conversation with two sides. They spoke of everything from the collection of books that had only grown in Faith’s absence to the mountains in distant lands, and of all that had transpired. They spoke of everything - everything but the spell Mirror had cast. It was late in the evening when Mirror finally remembered to prepare food. Time had ticked by so quickly it felt like a blur. Tick, tick.. She stood, reached for the cups, and then darkness wrapped about her and swallowed her whole. Mirror fell to the floor. Blind Faith stood with a measured calm, and returned the cups to the kitchen, stepping over Mirror’s collapsed form to do so. She rinsed them, dried them, and put them away in the cabinet. From the refrigerator, she took out the berries that Mirror had gathered the day before, and brought them back to rest on the table. Then, and only then, the pegasus stooped and lifted Mirror from where she had fallen, and carried her up the stairs to where three doors led out from the hallway. The second door on the left led her into Mirror’s room - the bed looked as though it had not been slept in for quite some time, though everything was quite tidy and taken care of. Faith set her on the bed, pulled the blankets up over her, and gently kissed her forehead. It was hot as though with fever. Well, a corpse would be of no use to her. She checked the bathroom, and collected a washrag, which she dampened with cold water. This was draped across Mirror’s forehead, above her eyes. Faith stood by the side of the bed for a little while, stroking her mane, but when it was dark she returned downstairs and to the desk that was on her side of the study. Nothing had been disturbed on the inside of the drawers, for no dust had settled in them. Faith drew out a scroll marked with territories and with notes. She had made it long ago, planning her coup to overtake the kingdom she had once called home, and now she compared it to a map which she took from a shelf that was crowded with books and scholarly works. A few adjustments brought it up to date. She made notes, also, of the developments - first of all, the kingdom had bowed its head to the Celestial reign. It was still a kingdom, but it now ran following Equestrian law. Her mother was still alive. That struck her as odd, for although Jonquil was a lectoblix, she should surely have been caught decades ago... Odd, but quite helpful. Faith knew Jonquil’s weaknesses. She could exploit this development. Second, Jonquil was no longer offering a reward for Blind Faith’s capture, only for the magical mirror that had been stolen. Faith had been presumed dead. This was good. Very good. Unbeknownst to Mirror, the pieces of the mirror she had been trapped in were still hidden within the cottage. Mirror never would have suspected any ill intent from Faith and had no cause to look about the cottage for any secret caches. As she was certain must be the case, they remained in the frame of a portrait that hung just above the fireplace. Faith’s plan to get close to Jonquil was very simple: she would reforge that mirror, claim the bounty, and land herself in the Queen’s good graces. Mirror would have refused outright if she suspected anything, but she was naive. She trusted Faith absolutely. It would be all too easy to trick her into surrendering her powers and becoming once more imprisoned in the looking glass. Once they were in the castle, Faith would work from the inside out. There was never any question of winning over the trust of those in power, nor of securing the loyalty of the citizens, because with Mirror trapped, Faith would have access to the raw power that was still contained within her. All she needed to do now was keep Mirror away from any outside influences and keep her from dropping dead where she stood. Outside influences. A particularly irritated scowl was cast to the faded blue cloth folded with care on Mirror's desk. Tick. She glanced then at the clock, and tucked away all of her work once again before swiftly clambering upstairs, where she dragged a chair to Mirror’s bedside. Settling into the chair, she laid herself partly on the bed to make it appear she had been at the witch’s side the entire evening. The timing could not have been more perfect. Mirror stirred, opened her eyes just a crack, and would have sat bolt upright if she had not caught sight of Faith. Instead, she offered a weary smile, and closed her eyes again. It felt as though something was trying to pound its way out of her skull and a cheese grater was at work on her lungs. Everything hurt. Mirror wanted to cry, but the extra pressure behind her eyes warned her that she would only feel worse for it. Her stomach roiled and churned. Still, the single glimpse of Faith was enough to reassure her. Faith was worth any suffering, worth anything at all. Anything. No matter the cost.