Mirror, Mirror

3.01 Ice Queen

Long ago, Queen Wynn reined over a little kingdom in the bitterest corners of the world. She was tough as nails, and her people were even tougher. They had to be. Nestled at the base of craggy mountains, wedged up against a cold, raging sea, they were literally caught between a rock and a hard place. Still, they survived thanks to the steady rule of their beloved Queen.

Then came a particularly brutal string of winters, year after year. With the harsh weather, the land's already meager crop yield dwindled. People starved, if they didn't freeze to death first.

The suffering of Queen Wynn's people broke her heart, but she stayed strong, continuing to lead them forward. That is, until the cold killed her own son.

It was the night the temperatures plummeted to a record-breaking low, and even wrapped in blankets people shook with the cold. Maybe if the heating hadn't failed, maybe if the kid wasn't already sick, maybe if someone had checked on him sooner, he wouldn't have died that night. But the next morning, there they'd found him, curled up by window, looking like he'd fallen asleep watching the snow.

He'd been dead for hours, they said. Hypothermia, they said. It wasn't the Queen's fault, they assured her. Many others died in their sleep that night too. She'd just gotten unlucky.

It didn't matter. Queen Wynn had failed her son, and she'd failed her people.

Queen Wynn had had enough. She was still a mother of three and a Queen of a kingdom of thousands, and she couldn't bear to lose another person.

So, the next day, she climbed the tallest mountain and bared herself to the elements, praying for a way to protect her kingdom. Some say the mountains heard her plea and spoke to her. Some say she that was the moment she went mad. Whatever it was, something drove her to pry the shards of ice from that mountain top and stab them into her own skull, where they grew and tangled into a crown of ice. With that, the snow and the ice and cold all swirled around her and disappeared inside her.

She began to carry winter inside her. That way, no one would ever have to suffer from it again.

She returned to her family, triumphant. She showed them how she had conquered winter, and how now she could conjure it willingly from her fingertips, rather than be a slave to it.

At first, people rejoiced. Now, it was warm and beautiful year-round. The Queen, who changed her name to Winter, was a hero. A walking goddess with a permanent crown of ice.

It didn't last forever, though. Years later, when the Queen's daughters were grown up and beginning to start lives and families of their own, the Queen started deteriorating. It was small things at first, like shimmering frost trailing her footprints, leaving the ground wet after it had melted. Sometimes, it was a chill in the air. Other times, it was a glassy look that came across her eyes, or a blue tint to her skin, or shivering, even when right next to a fire. Most noticeably, the crown on her head grew, becoming a twisted mass of ice.

Then, it began snowing again. At first, just above the queen's room. Then over the castle entirely. Winter was beginning to escape, and it was only getting worse.

Queen Winter had to get away, to protect everyone. Her daughters begged her to take of the ice crown and give up winter. They feared the ice crown embedded in the Queen's skull like thorns was damaging her brain, and maybe had been all these years. They would figure something out. She didn't have to suffer like this.

The Queen refused. She couldn't take off the crown if she wanted to; the ice had burrowed into her skull like thorns. It was a much a part of her as her own beating heart. And anyway, she had to be a hero. She could control the growing storm inside her. She just... needed to get as far away as possible, to protect her beloved people. Her daughters could lead the kingdom without her. Her youngest daughter, Princess Starlene, fearing for her mother, convinced the Queen to let her come too. Starlene would help her get away, if only she wouldn't go alone.

The two of them traveled together to the furthest, tallest mountain they could find. At times throughout their journey, Queen Winter's sanity lapsed, and she attacked Starlene. They both became afraid of what she might do and traveled faster.

Finally, they stopped on the furthest, tallest mountain they could find. It felt like they were on top of the world. With what little control Queen Winter still had over her power, she commanded the ice to create a beautiful frozen palace for herself, where she would live the rest of her days.

The Queen stayed there, and Princess Starlene returned to the kingdom. Things had already gotten better again since the Queen left with her winter storm. However, not long after, the storms began rolling over the mountains toward the kingdom, and they grew worse and worse. The winter had started spreading from the mountain into the rest of the kingdom. The plan to just keep the Queen far away wasn't working.

The older princesses wanted to kill the Queen. They saw no other way. However, Princess Starlene wanted to try one last time to talk to her mother and peacefully end this winter. She agreed to take soldiers with her, in case there was no other way but to kill her mother.

So, she and a group of soldiers made the journey back to where she knew her mother was, at the top of the world. When she got there, she saw the Queen chained to her frozen throne, ghastly and skeletal. Starlene begged her mother to take off the crown. It wasn't too late. She could do it if she really tried, couldn't she?

By this point, Queen Winter had fully lost her mind. She was convinced everyone had betrayed her, abandoned her up here. She was convinced that, even as heroic as she had been, no one appreciated her. She was in so much pain. And when she saw Starlene had brought soldiers, she felt betrayed, thinking Starlene was there to kill her. So, she attacked Starlene, blasting her in the belly. She swore that Starlene would be cursed to be betrayed by her own daughter, and her daughter would be betrayed by her own daughter, and so on.

However, by attacking Starlene, the Queen had unwittingly given her daughter ice power. With her new found power, Starlene created chains of ice and trapped the Queen on her own thrown. Then, she encased the Queen in ice and sealed her off from the rest of the world forever. At least, she thought forever.

Starlene returned with the soldiers to the kingdom a hero. However, she was still cursed. She would die giving birth to her first daughter, who would have magic ice powers like her. A betrayal, a transfer of power, a trade— one life for another.

As for the mad Ice Queen, after enough time, her frozen prison would deteriorate, and her power would seep out across the land again.

Thus, each daughter, each new Ice Princess was doomed to keep coming back to this cursed place, to keep rebuilding the mad Queen Winter's icy prison, for the rest of eternity.