Though little was known about Queen Natasha Alpin's past, the woman had always been an impeccable royal consort.

Whether the Queen was around nobles of the best breeding or the basest of commoner orphans, she was always beautiful, impeccably dressed, quick to smile and offer compliments, and a generous patron to all the artists and charities that clamored for her attention.

She very conspicuously kept away from any visible sources of power. So far as Regina could tell, Queen Natasha never sought to elevate herself or even her son to any position of influence.

The Queen simply smiled and swanned about in public, an ornament on her husband's arm and a smiling complement to the court.

Regina had only seen that impeccable facade break once - when the Queen had calmly gutted an assassin that had interrupted her tea party while seeking Regina's head…

As the Queen loomed above Regina now, blood in her hair and something that Regina did not wish to focus on dangling from her hands...

Queen Natasha Alpin did not look beautiful or impeccable at all.

Queen Natasha Alpin looked feral.

With great care, Regina took a step back from Robin Buren's unconscious body, crossed her arms over the remains of her outfit, and said, "I am afraid your son is not here at the moment."

Queen Natasha cocked her head, her eyes uncanny in the pale light of the remaining Alpin lantern.

There were a few scattered lights further in the darkness, but the blackness that surrounded Regina and the Queen was absolute... and the Queen seemed to be an extension of the shadows around her.

She tossed the… object in her hands again as blood dripped from the locks to the floor and Regina wondered what exactly had stood between the Queen and her arrival in front of Regina and Robin.

"Well," said the Queen, a smile that was nothing like a smile slowly spreading on her face. "It appears that I need to ask... further questions."

She took a step towards Regina and suddenly the hair in her hands was gone and something was glinting-

"I am not feeling particularly generous," said the Queen. "My son is such a good boy. He would never be late to the wedding his mother planned for him."

Those were knives.

Those were knives pointed at Regina.

"This will not hurt," said Queen Regina soothingly. "Much."

Regina ran.

Regina ran and ran and the worst part was that even though she was the one unencumbered by the skirt she could tell that the Queen could have outpaced her at any time and still she ran because what else could she do?

Regina was nearly naked and exhausted and her never-mother-in-law was trying to kill her.

'I have had,' thought Regina, not at all hysterically, as she flattened herself behind yet another darkened column, 'better days.'

Yet even as Regina thought wistfully of how she should have grabbed Artem's hands and run off abroad while she still had the chance - by the blood, even Robin Buren would have been preferable to this! - her would-be mother-in-law began speaking.

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"I truly did like you," the queen said, her voice as polished as it would be at tea even as she hunted down Regina. "I thought you made Artem... happy."

Even as Regina tried to melt ever closer behind the column, her hunter continued.

"I hoped that you would be a good wife for Artem," the Queen said, sounding almost sad even as the sound of something... dripping gave away her otherwise silent presence. "So many other women have tried to use my son merely to make a connection to Aaron and yet you..."

The queen sighed, sounding almost wistful.

"You did not do that, did you? No, you could have had Aaron and yet you chose my sweet, lonely Artem. I had hoped that meant that you wanted to lead a life in the shadows, just like I do. Only..."

Something made a strange, sharp metallic sound not nearly far enough from Regina.

"Only you could never keep to the shadows... and even worse, you made my little boy want to step out into the spotlight too."

Regina could hear the firm even footsteps coming closer as well as a strange... dragging noise.

Not taking any chances, Regina fled to the next column, well aware that she was only stalling the inevitable, but determined to give herself time to think of something.

"You know," said Queen Natasha in a strangely thoughtful tone of voice. "I thought my husband was the strangest man I had ever met when I stabbed him and he told me that I would make the perfect bride for him."

Regina closed her eyes and truly hoped that if she did have to die, it would not be accompanied by horrifying details about the marital bed of the royal family of Carcosa.

Somehow, she was provided with something even worse.

"The life of a loyal blade of my home country is not very long," said Queen Natasha still in that thoughtful tone of voice. "I did not care if that man was a fool with strange tastes if it meant that I could extend my life."

The Queen was walking again, that strange rhythmic thud accompanying every step.

"I did not realize," said the Queen, her soft voice somehow filling the space around Regina, "that I was the far greater fool until I held my beautiful little boy in my arms and my husband named him 'Artem'."

Regina felt something like dread building in her, something that had nothing to do with her impending death.

"Do you know," said the Queen, as the thudding became louder and more pronounced, "how the Alpins choose their heirs?"

Regina did not know.

Regina did not want to know.

The Queen continued, as unrelenting as her steps. "Only children whose names start with A are eligible to rule Carcosa... and only one child whose name starts with A survives to replace the previous king."

"Because," said the Queen, her voice as warm as the shadows she walked through, "all the other children are killed so that there is no doubt of the heir. The only promise I had made to my husband was that I would thwart his assassins and ensure that his son, Aaron, survived to take the throne."

Suddenly, the footsteps stopped.

"SO WHAT OF MY SON?!" screamed the Queen. "THAT мудак CONDEMNED MY SON TO DIE FROM THE MOMENT HE WAS BORN!"

The sound echoed through the catacombs like an explosion.

The silence that followed was somehow louder.

"So I fooled him," said the Queen, her voice as soft and even as if she had never yelled at all. "Just as I fooled my ёбаный superiors and my targets and the entire noble court of Carcosa. I found a way for my son to live."

Suddenly, Regina felt a heavy weight land directly beside her, something hard brushing against her leg.

The Queen's voice was still at a distance so how –

Suddenly, there was a light directly beside Regina.

The heavy weight beside Regina was a man in a dark cloak–

–whose face and hair had been completely removed.

As if time itself had slowed, Regina slowly raised her head.

The Queen stared back at her, in the hollow ghostly circle of a lantern.

"Nothing," said the Queen, "will get in the way of my son's survival."

The Queen smiled and it was a more terrible sight than the scalped and faceless man.

"Now where," the Queen said, "is my son?"