A Snippet from To Rival a Reflection

 To Rival a Reflection

A Snippet from my Draft in Progress

“Perfect,” she said over the red gown as she admired herself in her mirrors before heading over to the magic mirror to ask the question, to which she had no doubt what the answer would be. She reached for a tiara from her vanity and opened a drawer to retrieve some gloves, adding some rings overtop. The shoes she donned last added a few extra inches of height, which gave her the sensation that she towered invincibly over the world.

She passed several other mirrors on her way, and her smile grew wider and wider as she progressed down the hallways and continued to see her beautiful, perfect face in each glass.

“No one could be fairer than I!” she breathed to her reflection. “Except you,” she added with a wink. Then she walked with an air of confidence and poise to the room wherein stood the Enchantress’s magic mirror. 

The room was reserved solely for the purpose of displaying the magic mirror. Having once been her father’s study, it had become a shrine for the Enchantress’s magic. Lush velvet curtains and rich carpets adorned its surroundings. Handsome marble pillars had erected where once stood simple wooden beams, and the former oak desk was now gone, in its place only the grand mirror on the wall, polished smooth and rimmed with elegant gold and bronze designs.

The clicking sound of Snow White’s opulent shoes echoed in the room as she advanced towards the mirror with her head held high. She felt she commanded the attention of the mirror rather than the mirror commanding her, and it waited like a silent, reverent servant for her approach.

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

The mirror came alive as the Enchantress’s face was summoned from its depths. 

“You are the Fairest One of All,” said the face in the mirror. Snow White nodded, and did not remain to pay heed to the almost imperceptible warning: 

"But should one come along who is fairer than thee, all of these gifts will return to me, so I may bestow them on her.”

Snow White remained in her red gown while she breakfasted and took her time enjoying her morning, feeling like a true queen in her royal garments. Then she took a long stroll throughout her castle. 

As she walked the hallways, the hint of a memory crossed her mind, remembering what some of these rooms had looked like when they had been… still fairly grand, for Appledale, but so much simpler, smaller, and poorer than the enchanted wealth that surrounded her now. She had deserved so much better than that simple life – but one thing arrested her thoughts and tugged at her heart, tainting it with a glimmer of guilt. She had not lived alone in that house. No one had discovered what had happened to her father after he had disappeared. He would have loved this enchanted improvement to his home, and he should have been here to see his daughter’s rise to glory.

“My little Snow blossom,” she recalled him crooning, “you are the prettiest girl in all of Jardonia.”

She smiled in agreement, nodding her head in a small bow whenever she crossed a mirror. She noticed that her face and shoulders within the frames looked like the paintings that would hang for posterity after she became queen.

This thought led to her typical musings about what the prince would be like. But an unfamiliar shadow hung over her usual hopeful conjectures, interrupting her regal dance from mirror to mirror. Her reflections suddenly seemed vacant as her thoughts moved outward, wishing for something she couldn't quite put her graceful, gloved finger on.

She didn't understand why she suddenly felt deflated as she returned to her chambers to remove the red gown and replace it with something more suitable for riding, or why her limbs felt so heavy as she went to the stable and got onto her horse. She was most surprised of all when she found herself uncharacteristically heading in a direction she hadn't gone in years, towards the woods rather than towards the town. 

“I just need a good ride and some fresh air to clear my head,” she told herself as she led the horse down the forest path. She felt lighter and freer now that she was out in the crisp forest air, but her mind still felt jumbled. She tried to peel back the layers of her thoughts to see what had her so disoriented.

It had all started with the apple at the market. She had closed her eyes to focus on not choking and when she opened them, another girl's face was in hers. A beautiful face nearly as beautiful as her own, but without any magic to ensure its perfection. The bitter poison of jealousy was beginning to rear its head. How had she been so confident, so certain that she would always be the Fairest One? What would stop any child from the village from turning into the Fairest One when she came of age?

And it wasn't just that she was pretty. There was something else about that girl that wasn't sitting right in her heart.

That girl had had a mother, with whom she bore a strong resemblance. Snow White's father had said she looked so much like her own mother, too. But Snow White thought her mother would probably have preferred to join the ranks of apple sellers in the marketplace than those who preened themselves before mirrors all day. 

"Surely that girl's apple must have carried some kind of poison," Snow White muttered as the shadow of guilt returned to tug at her heartstrings. 

And the prince? What would he prefer? Snow White couldn't help but wonder: If the prince met a girl like that pretty girl at the market, why would he like me rather than someone like her? 

“…Because I'm more beautiful,” she countered to herself. She knew it was true, because the mirror had still said she was the fairest one of all. That was not merely the admiring words of a doting parent, but the indisputable declaration of Enchantment. 

With that reassuring reminder, Snow White began to feel her confidence returning, and she dashed away all intruding thoughts of jealousy or doubt. She was the Fairest One; she would win the heart of the prince and unite the kingdoms… whenever he finally came.