Brass Automaton

06 - Again

"You have seen it?"

Snow's eyes focused on the advancing figure. "Yes, Sky," she replied, pausing to keep her voice even. "We all make sacrifices to the cause."

"Reese will be remembered..."

Snow slammed the glass fragment down on her desk, and the impact caused a rough edge to cut her hand. "Damn it," she whispered and looked away from Sky.

Sky walked around the desk and positioned herself behind Snow's seated form. "Let me see your hand," she commanded.

Glistening eyes locked on Sky's and the women shared a poignant moment. Snow allowed Sky to lift her injured hand gently causing her leather armor to creak with the motion. Snow shifted her head first to the left and then to the right, each action resulting is a satisfying snap. "I feel drained," she whispered to Sky as her friend wiped away the blood from Snow's hand.

"No doubt," replied Sky.

Snow turned to look at her most trusted Sister, who busied herself wrapping Snow's hand in a delicate white cloth. The square covered the worst of the cut as the white embroidered apple absorbed Snow's blood. The white-on-white apple transformed before her eyes to a dark red.

Sky finished wrapping Snow's hand and took a step back. "Do we respond to this latest development?" she asked.

Snow shook her head, her dark curls bounced. "To respond would be to reveal that we have acquired one of the mirrored fragments of legend." Snow rose from her wooden chair. "I have many sisters, but only one daughter..." Snow's voice faded as emotion overcome her.

"I understand, my Queen," Sky said in solemn reverence.

"Ha! Queen." Snow heaped as much derision as she could on her title. "A queen usurped by her own husband under the control of an evil sorceress. A queen who hides in the mountains while her subjects bow and scrape to violent subjugation. Bowing to that..." Her voice raised, and she squeezed her eyes closed allowing the thought to perish lest it poison her soul.

Snow opened her eyes, ablaze with compassion and strength. They'd always been the eyes of a ruler, but Sky saw a new fire burn. A menacing fire. "Ready project Muted Sight," Snow commanded, her voice hardening. "I want him in the castle as soon as possible."

* * *

Click.

The sound was as familiar to Ceridwen as her own breathing. She looked at her subjects to see if any of them had noticed the sound. As if the mindless Tenyks would notice, she thought and watched everyone go about their business.

Click.

Ceridwen shifted uncomfortably in her throne of brass. A puff of steam escaped from beneath her elegant gown. She held her hand out and studied the fine lines on her fingers. It's time, she thought and rose. The throne room was suddenly silent as all eyes turned to their ruler. Even in the silence, no one but Ceridwen was aware of the metal-on-metal shifting beneath her gown.

Click.

"Bring me one of the captured rebels!" she bellowed as she walked stiffly to her antechamber.

In her private room, she removed her gown and examined herself in a full-length mirror. Her gaze focused on her brass legs. The magic façade had faded, and the whirling gears refracted candlelight on the walls and ceiling. She adjusted her bosom and turned, so her profile was reflected in the mirror, sucking in her abdomen.

"Mirrored fragment, with sight so clear, tell me now if danger's near." A recess in one of her brass legs opened and she withdrew a mirrored fragment. She aimed the fragment toward the full-length mirror, and it reflected a peeled face from within the fragment. Shadows and highlights reflected off each other, the infinite manifestation forming a visage with blind eyes, but a sight known across the nine kingdoms.

The magic mirror fragment's reply was interrupted by a stern rap on her chamber door. Ceridwen sighed and replaced the fragment. She walked to her bed, sat on the edge, and covered her legs with a blanket before announcing, "Enter!"

A Tenyk ushered in a young man. The rebel's sightless waxen eyes darted around the room. Ceridwen smiled, as she watched the man's eyes move to and fro, a habit left over from when the centers of his eyes comprised a color other than white.

"The rebel, per your command, my queen," said the Tenyk, pushing the blind man forward.

Ceridwen looked from the rebel to her subject. His eyes had color, but they lacked the spark of life. The Tenyk was oblivious to the nakedness of his queen. Pity, she thought, as she examined the Tenyk. His broad shoulders and muscular chest rippled beneath the taut fabric straining to cling to his neck. "Leave him," she commanded. A smile the Tenyk could not see spread across her lips. "You will make yourself available to me this evening."

"As you wish, my queen," the Tenyk droned before he turned on his heel and closed the chamber doors behind him.

* * *

Tell mother I love her.

"Again."

Sky watched Reese die once again. She felt something heavy in her chest. John cradled Reese's body, and before the glass eye sailed out of view, Sky saw Rees's lips try to form her next words. She knew those lips. Even aged as they were, Reese's high cheekbones were the same young ones Sky caressed at night. She would know Reese's attempt to say her name no matter where or when her beloved daughter was.

"Again."

The scene moved forward with precision. She imagined she heard the bones in Reese's chest crack as the chunk of rock struck her. It had only been a few weeks since Reese left on her mission to protect their "future" king. A king who willingly bit the poisoned apple, she thought as the life faded from Reese's eyes yet again.

"Again."

She traced her finger over Reese's lips as they spoke their last words. A teardrop distorted the image, and Sky closed her eyes, imagining the intimate mother-daughter moments with Reese, instead of the broken woman she saw in the fragment. The fierce warrior woman façade unraveled with each subsequent viewing.

"Again," she whispered.