Prologue
The king looked down at the woman kneeling at his feet. He knew who she was, and what she could do, but he had a responsibilty to his kingdom.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I truly am. But you know what it is to be a matriarch. I have to do what is best for my people. The Northern kingdoms entrusted me with this man's imprisonment. It would start a war if I just let him go."
The woman looked up at him, green eyes red from crying. She looked devastated. She stood, eyes downcast.
"Would you reconsider? If you let him go, you would be the richest kingdom in all the Realms," she said.
The king shook his head. "I am sorry for your troubles madam, but he was a bother to my kingdom as well. I will not release him."
The woman raised her eyes to his. For a moment, they were so full of hurt and pain that he almost wished he could take the words back. Then they hardened, and she smiled, the smile you would expect a charming noblewoman to give to her newest suitor.
"Very well then. You shall share my pain." The smile disappeared, and she looked him in the eyes with a terrifying expression, calm, but terrifying.
"I curse you now. You shall share my suffering. You shall find your true love. You shall be wed, and no thing in the world shall come between you, for one year. Then, you will lose her, just as I have lost my true love, just out of reach." The smile crept back, and his blood froze. "She will only be returned to you when I have my love back." She raised her hands, and clapped them once above her head, shuddering as she did so. A cold wind blew through his court, and he turned his face away from the icy blast, closing his eyes. When he turned back to the woman, she was gone, leaving him to ponder his fate. He had no doubt that the curse was potent. The Rapunzel family had a history of magic, and this queen had proven again and again that she was one of their finest.
The woman collapsed on her bed, sobbing. Why did they have to take him? She knew from personal experince that he was ver troubleseome. And she supposed that he may deserve imprisonment. But that knowledge did not change the fact that she would do anything necessary to free him. She lay there for an indeterminate amount of time, sobbing into her pillows. Eventually, she quieted. Her curse would reunite them. The king would release him. She closed her eyes. She was so tired. She thought back, years ago, to the day they had first met...
Chapter 1
Mirren was shoved roughly into the small cell of the red queens dungeon. The gaurd locked the door, and walked away, the other prisoners reaching through the bars in a futile attempt to grab the keys as he passed by. Mirren closed her eyes, reminding herself why she'd run away in the first place.
"This is better than what waits back there, " she said, not realizing that she had spoken aloud.
"Oh really?" came a voice from the back of the cell. Mirren spun around quickly, startled. There was someone, a man, sitting in the shadows in the back of the cell.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm nobody," he replied. "But I might be somebody to the right person." she heard a low chuckle, him laughing at himself.
"I meant your name," she specified. She'd dealt with this kind before.
"I don't have one," he replied.
"You are Nameless?" she asked, highly skeptical.
"I have a name, two actually, but yes, I am Nameless." He said it flatly, like someone stating they have a tick on the back of their neck.
"If you are Nameless, how can you have two names?" she asked.
"One is my Name, and the other is what the world knows me as," he replied.
"Well, since I doubt you're going to tell me your Name, what does the world know you as?" Mirren asked.
"Oh, I'm not really sure I should say," he said, playing with the chain that bound him to the wall.
"Why not?" she asked. He looked up, and she could feel his eyes moving over her, though she couldn't see them for the lack of light in the cell.
"Because you would judge me. I don't like being judged," he said.
"I judge everyone I come across. You won't be an exception," Mirren said.
He chuckled. "Fine then. My name is Rumpelstiltskin," he said.
She looked him over. "You're awfully large for an Imp, don't you think?"
He started laughed hysterically, and didn't seem to be able to stop.
"What is it?" she demanded to know.
He choked a bit, pointing at her. "You're the first one to ever tell me that. Most just assume I am an Imp. No, I'm not an Imp. I am human."
"Well, if you aren't an Imp, why do you have an Impin name?" she asked.
"Had a lot of dealings with Imps, have you dearie?" he asked, sidestepping her question.
"Quite a few as a matter of fact, and I know how they behave. You aren't getting out of answering me. Why do you have an Impin name?" she asked.
Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness of the cell, and she could see his eyebrows go up. "Well, you're insistent," he said.
She fixed him with a glare that could have melted lead.
He laughed, throwing his hands up above his head in a gesture of surrender, before the chains dragged them back down with a clank.
"Fine. You win. I was raised by Imps," he said.
She cocked her head. "How did that come about?" she asked.
"Your questions are getting awfully personal missy." He looked at her critically. "And I don't even know your name yet."
"My name is Mirren. Answer my question," she said.
"You're awfully demanding Miss Mirren." he said. "How about this then. I want out of here."
She snorted. "You're probably in here for a very good reason."
He raised his hand. "My being here is a mistake. I was framed, and I can assure you missy, when a Nameless wretch is accused, there is hardly any question at all. They're just thrown in a cell to rot," he said.
"So you're saying you don't deserve to be here," she said.
He nodded. "Come over here, " He said, making a come here gesture with his hand.
Mirren hesitated, and he sighed. "I'm chained to the wall, it's a good bet you can get away if I try anything," he said holding up his hands.
She nodded, walking over to him. He gestured for her to come closer and she did, crouching down next to him. He moved over just a bit, exposing a small hole in the wall that had been stuffed full of straw so the sunlight wouldn't alert the gaurd to it's existence. It wasn't much, but Mirren was 13, and the Rumpelstiltskin was thin as a stick. They would make it out if they wanted to. He quickly moved back in front of the hole, making sure she didn't try to make a break for it.
She looked at him funnily. "If you have had this hole here, why haven't you just climbed out?" she asked. He held up his hands, showing her the chains around his wrists.
She stared at him meeting his eyes. They were an odd kind of hazel, brownish blue flecked with yellow. Her own eyes were hazel, brownish green with flecks of blue. They sat like that for a few minutes, before she sighed and looked away. He cocked his head to the side.
"Please help me?" he asked her in a small voice.
Mirren was thinking very hard. If she didn't get out of here, her parents would find her. They would come get her, drag her back to the palace, and make her marry that horrible boy. And she'd sworn she would kill herself before she married him, and she'd meant it. She didn't really want to die, she just didn't want to spend the rest of her life with him.
"Please?" Rumpelstiltskin asked her again, staring at her with wide eyes. She glared at him, but stoppped, realizing that he could be the answer to all of her problems.
"I will, on one condition," she said, before she could think about it too much.
"What?" he asked.
"You have to marry me. And the marriage needs to be consumated."
He raised his eyebrows at her. "Fallen in love already dearie?" he asked.
She scowled ferociously at him. "No, I have not," she replied. She thought about telling him he would be her last choice, but she was willing to take him over that prince after all.
"Then why this? Instead of anything else? Eternal servitude? Life debt? Why choose marriage?" he asked her, sounding genuinely curious.
"Why is none of your affair," she said crisply.
He nodded, smiling creepily. "Deal." He raised his hands, holding them out so she could get at the chains easily.
She reached up into her hair, pulling out a pin. He raised his eyebrows at her, again. "You know how to pick locks?" he asked.
"It's not really that hard," she told him, inserting the pin into the keyhole of the left hand chain. It came away almost instantly. She looked at him with an odd look.
"What?" he asked her.
"These chains are shit," she told him.
He looked quite amused. "I didn't know that Royals had dirty mouths," he said.
She froze.
"What makes you think I'm Royal?" she asked, as the other chain fell away from his wrist.
"Oh, just the way you carry yourself, the way you talk. You've obviously been educated." He looked her up and down again, and smirked. "And I'd bet anything that you were marrying me to get out of an arranged marriage."
She stood there dumbly for a few minutes as his words hit home. Then she cursed herself. He was Nameless, of course. He was perceptive, she wouldn't be surprised if he could tell the future in a limited way as well. She pointed to the hole in the wall.
"Why don't we make our exit now?" she told him.
He made a ladies first gesture, and she would've kicked him if her plans didn't revolve around him. She climbed out of the darkness of the cell and into the darkness of the night outside.