Her Glass Heart [SwanQueen]

Chapter Sixteen: Oct 21, 2017 - Emma

A week had passed since Emma learned the truth about Regina's glass heart, but something about all of it still didn't sit well with her.

From the moment she laid eyes on the beautiful queen, she felt something. And she was certain Regina must have felt it as well. Having a heart made of glass didn't have to mean it wasn't able to work properly and allow Regina to experience all the emotions that a normal heart could.

No matter how many times she told herself this, though, she knew it wasn't herself who needed convincing.

She paced up and down an empty hallway in the common areas of her castle, wondering what she could do to show Regina what Emma was certain of: she already knew how to love.

Maybe it was the way Regina treated those around her. Not like they were beneath her, as some queens would, but as equals. She knew empathy well, as demonstrated when Emma told her about her magic. She never judged, she just supported and listened. Those were clear marks for the capacity for compassion and friendship, and surely if she could possess those emotions, that ability to bond with others, she was capable of more. She was capable of falling in love.

An idea popped into Emma's head after a long hour of pacing, but it was one she knew her parents would never approve of.

If she could locate the sorcerer in the southern realm who healed Regina's heart when she was younger, she could ask him if there was a remedy, or even just a possibility that she could love, despite the glass heart.

She headed to her father's large study, knowing he kept maps of the southern realm there. If she set out on horseback just at dusk tonight, she could reach the southern realm by late sunrise and start searching for the sorcerer. The span between the two kingdoms was vast, but not impossible in one night's journey.

She located the maps, then snuck up to her bedroom and began packing a small bag for her journey. She wasn't certain how she'd sneak passed the guards, but she knew she'd have to try, for Regina's sake.

As soon as it was dark, Emma shoved the map into her coat pocket and packed an extra map in her backpack that was flung loosely over one shoulder.

She couldn't just walk out the main entry doors, she'd be spotted for sure, so she snuck out her bedroom window onto the small balcony and assessed the nearby trees.

She'd climbed these trees many times as a child and knew exactly how to get out over the castle's walls, so she let out a breath and reached for the first branch, feeling relieved to see it could still hold her weight.

By the time she made it over the castle's wall, she stopped to catch her breath and folded over, her hands bracing her knees. She lifted the white hood of her cloak over her head, hoping to conceal herself by blending in with the snow as she walked through the woods.

"Princess?" Emma heard someone whisper from only a few feet away, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

When Emma turned, she was face-to-face with the unfamiliar man, the one whose face she couldn't place when she spotted him standing with Regina in the infirmary wing. Suddenly, her memory clicked, and she remembered Regina telling Emma who he was.

"Please, don't make me go back," Emma sighed, uncertain how this knight would react.

"Where are you going?" He spoke softly, and Emma realized she may be able to talk her way out of this.

"I need to take a trip to the southern realm. I'm trying to locate a man, a sorcerer," She tried, then realized what she needed to say to convince him. "It's for Regina."

At the sound of her name, Graham straightened his posture and smiled softly, his glass-like eyes shimmering. "Well, if it's for Queen Regina, then how about I come along? I can protect you on your journey... that is, if you would like me to?"