Mirror Tells the Truth - 1. Mirror Tells the Truth

My name is Mir Trendror, though that isn’t so important. In fact, other than my maker no one has ever bothered with my name. What is important though is my job which is being the ‘Magic Mirror’ of legend. I sort of, well to be honest my stupidity, landed the job by accident but it ended up being a great gig.

Thing is my maker ended up passing me on to this really sexy young witch. You would think I had it made with someone so young and powerful, however this woman was really insecure. Lucinda had looks, power, and wealth but she managed to marry herself a recently widowed king with a small kingdom, where she naturally became the queen. Anyone would believe that Queen Lucinda had it all; beauty enough to break hearts, powers enough to keep things as she wanted, and me to always tell her the truth. However, the problem is the woman thought only of her beauty and never about the future.

So I was promptly put into her personal dressing room and got to watch as she did the most disgusting things all in the name of beauty. I watched as she rubbed berries into her skin to make them look like the sun had gently kissed them, soak her body in weird chemical concoctions, cinch her waist so tight I wasn’t sure how she could breathe, and dye her golden locks with even stranger things to make it softer and more blonde. She knew I wouldn’t lie to her and made it clear I was to keep it that way.

“Mirror, mirror before me come, tell the truth, or be undone.”

When a woman says that to you while holding a poker you know for a fact there is no way you would ever tell her a lie. Hell she would shatter you into pieces.

“I am here oh Queen. What do you desire of what I have seen?”

“Mirror, Mirror, tell me true, who is the most gorgeous in the land?”

To be honest, that was an easy question but then she never did ask the right one. I mean all she had to say even then is who will be the most beautiful in the land? Or hell, who will be the most beloved in the land? Those would have given her time to plot out things but she was always about the here and now, especially if it meant having her way immediately.

“Oh Queen Lucinda, I can tell no lie, your beauty pales the others no matter whose eyes.”

Naturally that didn’t mean a thing to her stepdaughter. That kid was a little hellion at the outset. She ran around the castle, slid down banisters, and was basically a terror. It happens when you grow up without a mother and a father who prefers to not reign in her wildness. Now if things had continued as they were, that little girl would have knocked out a number of teeth, broken a few bones, and been slightly disfigured when she knocked over a large candelabra and had waxed spilled on her face. That didn’t occur because the Queen didn’t want any child in her way. She arranged to have the King’s daughter sent to the smaller summer castle, with two nursemaids and a guard to keep her company.

“Ladies, you are to take the girl, train her, clean her, and keep her away from me.”

So the two nursemaids were the first to take an interest in the little six-year-old. Instead of her being allowed to run all over she was taught to walk and act as a princess. Instead of knocking her teeth out sliding down the banister, she was taught to read and write. At the age where she would have run after the cat, upset the candelabra and been disfigured she was instead taught the art of sewing and cooking. So the little girl grew to be as her mother once hoped her to be, fair with raven hair, and lips that shamed a red rose. Her name was Rowena but everyone called her Snow for the clear color of her skin. So the gangly mess of a child that left the official palace at age six became a well behaved young lady by the time she was ten. Of course that is when all the trouble began.

“Mirror, Mirror tell me true, who is the most beautiful in all the land?”

So here is the Queen asking me the same question she has every day for years on end now. Granted, she might be a witch, and a powerful woman, but beauty will slowly begin to fade unless it is immortal, and Queen Lucinda might be many things but immortal wasn’t one of them.

“Queen Lucinda, I tell no lies; there is one now whose beauty cannot be denied.”

Have you ever seen a mountain lose its top? Or how about a jinn skin its master because it foolishly released it without wishing to stay safe first? Well as scary as those are nothing compared to seeing Lucinda realize her beauty had been trumped.

“One dares to live in my domain and look better than I? Who can look better than I? That just cannot be! I want an answer, Mirror,” she raved as she flew around her private chamber. I feared she might just destroy me out of her sheer anger.

“Truth be told, she is quiet fair, a girl of ten with raven hair,” I commented. Who knew what her next command would be? Well I did but I also knew there was a tiny chance she might give up on it. I was of course wrong.

She had her huntsmen go in search of every ten year old girl who lived within the local town with raven hair and have her brought to her. The huntsmen kidnapped five girls who fit the general description and were brought before the queen. Each one she made drink a potion that caused them to trans-mutate into cats. The cats scattered and were lost into the countryside.

Now Rowena, that lucky girl, got one last gift from her father. He visited her at the summer castle and then decided she needed to experience court life. He sent her and her nursemaids on what was supposed to be a year long trip. Once Rowena had left court and begun her visits the king became sick, and died leaving Queen Lucinda to rule the kingdom till Rowena was old enough to assume the throne. Needless to say, Rowena’s one year trip was extended into two, then three, and finally four years. In the end it turned out to be a good thing for her.

Lucinda continued to age. She spent more and more time trying to hold back the ravishes of time that occurred to everyone. The kingdom was taxed so she could buy more exotic treatments. Her dressing room began to look like a strange sort of torture chamber, not that anyone else but Lucinda and I would ever know. It was taking her every bit of magic at her disposal and a large part of the royal treasury but she was keeping her looks. Yet every day there was just the slightest variation of her question.

“Mirror, Mirror, hanging there, is there a beauty in my land that can compare?”

“Oh my beauty, I cannot lie, still your beauty can’t be denied.”

Naturally, that afternoon Rowena finally arrived home from her courtly visits. Her father was right about one thing, they helped to craft the young woman into a creature of perfection. She had become very beautiful, able to handle court intrigue, and proved that beyond her pretty face was a damn shrewd mind. She had hoped to come home and prove to her father what an asset she could now be to his court. Of course instead she came home to find her father had died and she had been relegated to the summer castle permanently.

A woman in her prime at twenty six just isn’t the same at forty. Lucinda may have done all she could to prevent the wrinkles but she also froze herself in time. She hadn’t changed with the styles. Even eight years saw plenty of changes in court styles, yet her dresses and hair style were the same as the day she arrived as Queen to the kingdom. News began to travel that a beautiful young maid was wearing the clothing of the royal courts from all over and everyone wanted to see. Needless to say this is where things began to get a little dicey for Rowena and Lucinda.

Having heard the rumors in her own castle, Lucinda was outraged. How dare some upstart try to out-dress her. She stormed into the dressing room and right up to me.

“Mirror, Mirror, I want to know, who is this creature they call Snow?”

“A tender rose of fourteen years, she’s your stepdaughter, dear.”

Lucinda smiled a truly wicked grin. She then sent the strongest and ugliest of her work women to replace Rowena’s nursemaids. The three work women were told to strip the princess of her royal clothing, dress her as a maid, and get her scrubbing the entire summer castle from top to bottom.

Now going from royalty to scullery maid isn’t something that happens, normally. However, since only rumors of Rowena had gotten around no one knew the whole story. You would think forcing a young girl to do hard labor would strip her of her beauty and age her quick, but it isn’t what happened. Instead, the hard work toned and sculpted her body so the frail form became something really impressive to behold. Her form became stronger and she had never really cared much for others doing things for her. She learned to cook and in a short time the work women became friends and her life wasn’t too bad at all. Of course for the next year Lucinda just had on question, and for a change it wasn’t about her beauty.

“Mirror, Mirror, does Snow scrub, does she work just like a drub?”

“She sews and cooks, cleans and mops, even wipes the counter tops.”

Like I said, Lucinda never did ask the right questions at the right times. Rowena did do all sorts of work but it also helped to make her more and more attractive. I swear that girl was just given the right genes. Lucinda also never asked if the girl read or if she was discovering how much power she would have on her eighteenth birthday. Rowena was a really smart girl and managed to convince the work women when they went home to see their families to drop off notes to various nobles stating that the princess soon would be of marrying age. What better way to fight for the kingdom then with a nobleman to back her up.

Lucinda naturally caught wind of it and decided it was time to take out the girl. She sent this truly sadistic man to hunt her down, kill her, and bring her the girl’s heart in a silver box. Truth be told, I thought it was overkill but Rowena’s beauty and apparent innocence managed to be enough to save her life. The huntsman took a pig’s heart back to Lucinda who never opened the box. She might have been blood thirsty but the sight of blood made Lucinda sick.

So Rowena knew she had to stay out of her stepmother’s way till she was eighteen. Running through the woods she came across some dwarves. Now these creatures preferred darkness, being surrounded by diamonds, rubies, and the like. However, they also were food for the dragons and powerful beasts that seemed to appear the moment they found a rich vein of gold, jewels, or semi precious stones. They learned to keep a house far from work just to stay alive. It also helped that unlike most their fellow dwarves, these guys had a major crush on each other and didn’t exactly want a woman in their bed, but having one keep house for them was fine. They told her to keep herself inside, keep it clean, and to avoid strangers. In my opinion for a bunch of guys who wanted to live under a rock, they gave damn good advice.

“Mirror, Mirror, tell me now, if there is another beauty in my land to which I should bow?”

“Lucinda in your land you are so fair, there is not a beauty to compare.”

I know that was the first time I let it slip that in her land she was fair. Okay, even mirrors can have off days and I was human once too. However it took the queen nearly a month to puzzle it out. Her magic was beginning to fade with the beginning of what she called the change. The tiniest of wrinkles appeared over night at the corners of her eyes and a few strands of her golden locks became silver. From the screams she let out the next morning, you would have thought someone spread manure on toast and fed it to her. Realizing her ability to keep ageing at bay was at an end, she was determined that whatever rival she had would die before her. She remembered then how I kept answering in her land she was so fair so she finally changed her question to me.

“Mirror, Mirror, tell me now, is there a woman anywhere to whose beauty I must bow?”

“In the nearby woods lives one whose beauty delivers yours a deadly blow, her name to them is Snow.”

“Snow? You mean Rowena? I have her heart in the other room! If you lie to me, Mirror, I'll have you shattered and spread to the four winds.”

Oh, the curses and words she used! I wondered if army men knew half of what she mentioned or even how to do it. Lucinda was livid to put it mildly. She took a full day to cast a seeing spell. The silly woman was quickly using up her reserves to get back at her stepdaughter who was simply growing up. The spell was done on a pool of water and clearly showed Rowena as she did laundry in the back yard of the dwarves’ cottage. Her long flowing raven hair, her snow white skin without a blemish, her rosy cheeks, ample bosom, and strong arms cut an image that even the queen found momentarily tempting. But lust never lasted long as Lucinda fell back to what she considered her one great treasure, her own beauty. Lucinda watched Rowena and the dwarves for two days to learn their routines. She also ended up watching the dwarves play together and got an eyeful of some interesting things. Then once she knew what they would do, she disguised herself and went in search of Rowena to kill her. Knowing she couldn’t use a knife or see blood she took a poisoned comb, plenty of ribbons, and even an enchanted pair of underwear that once on would keep shrinking till the parts they covered were mangled. If nothing else you had admit that Lucinda could be original in her spells.

Lucinda arrived hot and sweaty but a short distance from where Rowena now worked folding laundry and singing some song that the girl had learned at one of the many courts she had visited. Lucinda took a moment to get into the character and stumbled in toward Rowena. Remembering the worker women she once was with, Rowena ran over to help.

“Are you alright, Ma’am? Would you like a cup of water?”

“Thank you, dearie. I am afraid my old bones just aren’t use to walking so much,” whispered Lucinda, sounding pretty tired and drained. Her gray hair looked dusty from the road and the old clothing was certainly nothing she would be caught dead in normally.

Rowena soon returned with a cup of water which Lucinda took and drank. She smiled while she watched Rowena return to finish taking her laundry down.

“My dear, I really must thank you,” Lucinda began. “You are far too kind to an old lady like me. I really must repay you. Come here dear; pick anything you like from Granny’s items.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. I just offered you a cup of water. Really, there is nothing to repay.”

Lucinda wasn’t pleased at all. She kept at Rowena till the girl felt guilty not taking something just to appease the old lady.

“If you don’t mind then,” Rowena said gently, “I’ll just take the blue ribbon you have here to replace the one on my dress.”

I have to be honest; sometimes I just don’t understand women. I mean Rowena was a fairly intelligent woman, she had been warned by the dwarves not talk to strangers, yet she fell for the old lady and really got herself into a ton of trouble.

“Oh, what a good choice, dearie. Here, I’ll help you cinch it up.”

Lucinda tied that bodice so tight Rowena collapsed to the floor. As a safety precaution she slipped a poison comb into Rowena’s hair and slipped away thinking the deed was done and her beauty would reign from then on till her death.

I really have to wonder why people are so careless with their supposed dead victims. I never would believe a person is dead until I was holding their heart and their body was burning before me. I guess that is just because I can see the possible futures so I know how often the ‘dead’ aren’t and rise again. Then again I don’t have hands and one wrong move around me would see my ending as shards lying on the ground.

The seven dwarves sort of took off early from work. As much as they loved digging, getting their muscles all built up, and teasing each other with their bodies, they also loved to go home and have fun. As they got close they could see the bundle that was Rowena on the floor. One cut the new string off her bodice and another slid the new comb out of her hair. One of the dwarves got a bucket of water to wash her hair and face while another went to work trying to get her to breathe. In almost no time, Rowena was up, functioning, and being lectured about the stupidity of accepting gifts from strange women.

Queen Lucinda raced home in the meantime. Sliding off her disguise she peered into her regular looking glass and was horrified. The energy and magic she had been using to find and get even with Rowena had allowed crow’s feet to form near her eyes, little crinkles near her mouth, and few more silver strands were now woven into her normal golden locks. Her magical fight against the aging process was beginning to show that she was on the losing end. However she did smile as she strode across to me, thinking that she had rid herself of Rowena.

“Mirror, Mirror, tell me and do not lie, where the body of Snow does lie.”

“She walks the ground a happy girl, her beauty fresh and like a pearl.”

Lucinda stared at me a moment before she broke into another tirade. The words she used would have made the royal navy blush. The only good thing to come of her rage was she destroyed so many dresses in her fury that she was finally brought a bit up to date with her fashions. Once more she decided to use her failing magic to make sure Rowena would be a threat to her beauty any longer.

If you remember I told you the old king, Rowena’s father, gave her one last gift, the tour of the other kingdoms where she learned to be a lady. Well the gift was twofold really. Lucinda cast nearly all of her magic to make the draught of eternal sleep. It causes those who take it to fall into an everlasting sleep that can only be broken by someone whose heart they captured while they were awake. The queen figured she was safe because the dwarves Rowena lived with wouldn’t ever want a woman and as far as she knew Rowena had never seen a man.

She coated two apples half way with draught and disguised herself as a poor farmer’s wife. She tossed in a few bruised pears and a half dried orange before she headed out. This time she had dyed her golden hair brown as roots, aged her face, and let the crow’s feet and wrinkles stay. She added a few pounds to her normal thin figure before she was satisfied with her disguise.

The walk left her feeling heavy and out of shape. It added a true glisten to her skin and the sun worked at browning and turning her delicate skin pink. By the time she reached the cottage where Rowena lived she looked really distressed. Rowena spotted the woman as she crossed the yard.

“Are you alright, Ma’am,” asked Rowena from the safety of the house.

“Yes, I am, thank you very much,” commented the woman as she sat herself down on a stump not too far from cottage window.

Rowena felt she was safe inside the house but could see the woman looked sick. There was a heavy sheen to her skin, while her face and hands looked burned from the sun. That would be very strange for a farmer’s wife, which is what she took the woman to be.

“I’ll just rest here a moment. I caught a summer cold and haven’t been able to get around much till lately. I think I overdid it coming through the mountain pass but wanted to get to the next kingdom to go see my son and his family,” lied Lucinda rather convincingly.

Rowena smiled. To her the woman sounded like all she needed was a rest and perhaps a cup of water. Rowena got a cup and filled with fresh cool water and carefully walked over to where the woman sat.

“Thank you so much for the water. Would you like to share something to eat?”

Rowena shook her head no and stood beside her.

Lucinda carefully split one of the apples and smacked her lips. She bit down into the hard skin and Rowena could see hear the crisp crack as the skin broke. Lucinda even made a show of wiping away a little juice that dribbled down her chin. Rowena began to stare hungrily at the other half of the apple.

“Here dear, I can afford to share the other half with you. My son’s family will get the rest of the fruit though.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” With that Rowena took a large bite and fell to floor as if dead.

“No, thank you, dear trusting stepdaughter. At least now, I am finally rid of you.”

Lucinda would have continued to gloat over Rowena’s body but the dwarves had cut work short again, figuring last time they had to help out Rowena so today they would be able to play. She heard them arguing and running toward the cottage. She gathered her skirt and ran like the wind as far from them as she could get.

Now even I don’t need to tell you that these guys liked beautiful things, and dead or alive Rowena was gorgeous. They built a glass and crystal case to display her body in. They would have kept her in the house but they feared if she started to decompose it would smell and she was taller than they were and they were afraid if left inside she would also take up too much room. Dwarves might be many things but sometimes they could be fairly mercenary in their thinking. They slid Rowena’s body into the crystal case and posted a guard to keep someone from walking off with their treasure.

“Mirror, Mirror, tell me what you see, is anyone living as beautiful as me?”

“My Queen I tell you here, your beauty has nothing to fear.”

Time passes and eventually it passed on Queen Lucinda’s face as well. The energy she had spent tracking down her stepdaughter brought further wrinkles, more gray hair, and even age spots. She was left with using concoctions, natural remedies, and thick makeup to hide the approaching age. Lucinda was most disappointed with her drooping breasts but the bodice helped hide that. However news had gotten out that truly beautiful women in the kingdom seemed to vanish so it became the in thing to make yourself look ugly. The fear helped to keep Lucinda the most beautiful in the land.

Things might have continued to be good for Lucinda if she hadn't felt that such a beauty as herself deserved a new paramour. She invited all the eligible men from nearby kingdoms to a ball and planned to marry the most handsome of them. One of the ones invited was Prince Henry, a young man who had been introduced to Rowena while she was visiting courts. He passed into the glen where the Rowena’s body lay on his way to Queen Lucinda’s ball. He took one look at Rowena and remembered how she had captured his heart. He called to his young squire to find out what had happened.

“She was killed by a wicked old queen who wanted the princess dead,” grumbled the dwarf as he stood watching the prince and squire talk. He couldn’t help but look over the squire who was just his type. Then again the other six were all partnered up and he was the lone single dwarf.

“What will it take for you to give me her body, oh dwarf?” Henry asked proudly.

The dwarf took a moment and looked over the prince, the squire, and the horses. The dwarf couldn’t help but note the well built young man with curly blonde hair and dark honey brown eyes who was the Prince's squire.

“Your squire is what I want,” stated the dwarf with growing ardor.

The boy looked scared for a moment. Then he looked over the dwarf, seen how muscled he was, and figured that, well, things could be worse.

“I’ll do it, your Highness. I’ll stay with him,” said the squire with a sly smile.

“Fine you have yourself a deal then,” Henry stated happily as he climbed down off his horse to gather his prize.

Rowena was placed in a liter behind the prince and the squire stayed with the dwarf to begin an entirely new type of training.

I’ll say Henry was in love with her and that is why he kissed her once he was out of sight of the squire and dwarf. The kiss woke up Rowena and he took her home and promptly announced they would marry. Lucinda naturally got an invite.

“Mirror, Mirror, this here bride, will her beauty prick my pride?”

“Do not go to wedding feasts, you will end up looking like a beast.”

It was exactly the wrong thing to tell Lucinda but I did tell her more truth than she realized. She cancelled her ball and packed her most beautiful gowns. She went right over to the castle the following day.

Henry spotted her immediately after Rowena described her. He walked over and struck up a conversation.

“Did you hear the news? It is being told all over. A truly vile person tried to steal a woman’s place in life and then attempted to kill her,” Prince Henry began to explain in a low voice.

Lucinda was intrigued. It had been so long since she paid any attention to what was happening to anyone who wasn’t, well, Lucinda.

“Really? Have they been punished yet?”

“Oh, I hear they are waiting to figure out just the right punishment,” commented Henry.

“It is all very simple my dear boy. In my own kingdom, I make the rules. If someone attempted that I would dress them up like an animal, tie them to a spit, and roast them till they died.”

“Would you really?” asked Henry rather surprised, at the blood thirsty nature of the answer.

“Yes. A woman always should be strong and show no mercy when offended. That is why I am Queen Lucinda.”

At that moment the bride walked up behind Lucinda. She tapped Lucinda on the shoulder and smiled brightly.

“Thank you, stepmother, for such good advice. Guards you heard her issue her own sentence. Please make sure it is carried out exactly as she described,” stated Rowena rather regally. Rowena had learned something from her stepmother; she didn’t want to see the blood either. About the only thing those two ever did have in common, besides the king.

I don’t think you need the details about what happened to Lucinda. Rowena and Henry were happily married and enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon. When the returned from their honeymoon they took over Rowena’s kingdom and began to clean up Lucinda’s mess. Unfortunately, I was placed into the darkest corner of the palace by Rowena and forgotten. Let me tell you, hearing about all the changes in the world from mice doesn’t make my life a thrill. Besides I can see what is happening all over the world and finally convincing them to get my story out wasn’t the easiest thing I have ever done either. Oh, the joys of being a mirror that can’t lie to people! I just keep waiting for someone to wish me out of here. Someone remind the genies and jinns that I’m still around, please. Thank you.