Into the Villain's Mirror

Chapter 3 - Know your Fate

The reason Lucy chose 'European Fairy Tales and their Modern Applications' as a literature elective was not very deep or profound - it had sounded easy. Read some well-known fairy tales, do a little research, maybe watch a Disney movie or two and finally write some sort of essay and be done with it.

The lectures themselves had been interesting, though she hadn't invested much more time or energy than was required, treating the course as a breather between her more challenging subjects.

Considering all this, Lucy was still painfully familiar with the famous tale of Snow White. The story began as the first queen wished for a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony. She had her wish granted only to miserably die in childbirth and end her part of the story quite prematurely.

The second queen was an evil enchantress, possessing witchcraft and a magic mirror, whose only function was to every morning tell her that she was the fairest of all - until Snow White's beauty surpassed hers and the evil queen strived for the young princess' death in retaliation. As evil plans tend to do, hers failed and as a consequence she tragically died herself at the end of the tale.

Maybe Lucy should have figured it out upon discovering the iconic magic mirror. But being inside a story had been so far out of her realm of possibility that she hadn't even considered it. Possessing some queen in a faraway land was already farfetched - possessing a witchcraft-practicing and child-murdering villainess in a well-known fairy tale hadn't even been a consideration.

It was a work of fiction after all. A fictional kingdom, fictional characters, simply parts of a story. Though Lucy knew, thanks to her course, that there had probably been a real-life inspiration for the tale, it hadn't played out quite like this and the girl had certainly not been named Snow White!

After the horrible revelation, Lucy had shooed the flustered girl-servant away, claiming a headache. Hopefully the excuse would keep anyone away long enough that Lucy could gather her senses.

She already felt better than she had a few hours ago when the first realization had caused her to hysterically laugh and cry alternately. She also was no longer tempted to jump out the window and see if her ghost couldn't possess someone else, preferably someone in the real world.

Instead, now she just felt ... numb. As if all her emotions had drained her empty, leaving only the cold realization behind that she found herself in a ridiculous situation.

Trapped in a fairy tale. And not even as the main character, but as the villainess.

If it didn't feel so real, she would be tempted to believe herself delusional. But ... even in her wildest dreams, she wouldn't come up with this. And she felt pain, warmth, stress ... her heart beat and her lungs filled with air. She was alive and no matter how she had ended up here, this world felt real enough for her.

Her eyes strayed to the recessed alcove, hidden behind a heavy, satin curtain. A magic mirror ...

Frustrated she rubbed her face, feeling the smooth and flawless skin sting under her hands. No wonder her looks were so otherworldly - this body formerly belonged to a witch and she could apparently keep herself young and pretty as long as she wanted.

Not prettier than Snow White though. Which was the whole reason the original villainess had been so obsessed with eradicating the girl's existence.

Which was ludicrous in itself. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and while there was probably no-one that would claim this body didn't possess a stunning visual, some might prefer a different kind of face or body. How did the mirror measure beauty anyways? While she hadn't seen Snow White, she had glimpsed herself in the mirror and she couldn't think of a thing to change to enhance this body's appearance further. So how could the mirror judge the two women? Was it all-knowing? Was it some truth of the universe?

Or had it simply been a story-device, to showcase the queen's jealousy and Snow White's innocence?

A god-damn story ...

Her eyes felt swollen from all the rubbing and she let her delicate hands fall to her side. The question was, at which part of the story were they? In the original tale the queen's age wasn't specified, which meant Snow White could have disappeared yesterday or years ago.

If the story followed its original trajectory, Lucy would suffer a horrible end as the villainess. There were different versions, but one that stayed in her mind was the evil queen being forced to wear fiery iron shoes and dance for others' amusement until she died from the pain.

Her soft-skinned feet hurt even at the thought and a shudder climbed up her spine. She had to avoid the queen's original end at all cost.

Maybe she should simply disappear? But this world was a story after all - what would happen if one of the main characters wasn't there to play their role? Would it simply go on or would it collapse on itself? And would Lucy even be able to change anything or was it one of those 'Fate always finds a way' kind of things?

Once more, her eyes strayed to the dark curtain. In the original tale, the mirror had only answered one question, but that didn't necessarily mean that was all it had the answer to. It was some kind of magical entity after all, able to speak and seemingly all-knowing - at least if it concerned the kingdom's beauty standards.

In the original story, the mirror had known more than just Snow White's appearance though, able to tell the queen about her situation and where to find her - 'Snow White beyond the mountains at the Seven Dwarfs'. Which meant it was omnipotent enough to know where the young girl was at all times.

In the original story, the mirror had also tricked the queen, actually leading to her gruesome death. When she asked her infamous question, the mirror claimed there was a new queen fairer than her, without informing her it was Snow White herself. The evil queen had cluelessly made her way to the wedding ceremony only to die at the hands of an enraged prince who wanted revenge for his pitiful newly-wed bride.

So, Lucy could definitely not trust whatever the mirror might tell her. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt, because while it never lied in the original tale, that didn't mean it couldn't twist the truth.

Did she actually want to do this?

Bolstering her courage and taking a deep breath, Lucy sat up and stepped toward the curtain. Would she have to say an incantation? Yesterday, the shadowy figure had appeared without any prompting ...

Before she could second-guess herself further, Lucy grabbed the curtain and drew it aside with a powerful sweep. The same perfect reflection stared at her, though the smooth skin had gained dark circles and her big, amber eyes were slightly pink.

Before she could find more stress-induced changes, her reflection began to ripple as if someone had thrown a pebble into a still pond. Gooseflesh crawled up her arms like an armada of ants and she couldn't resist the urge to rub it away.

A shadow manifested on the clear surface, swirling as if ink had been dropped into silver water, forming a humanoid, faceless creature. An icy shiver licked up Lucy's neck when it was fully formed.

For a second they just stared at each other (though the mirror-creature had no visible eyes), and then the rasping voice sounded: "My Queen ..."

Alright, this is it. Lucy took a deep breath, preparing herself, when it continued:

"My Queen already knows her fate."