Incomplete Madrigal
The day Mirabel hosts her first ceremony she witnesses her worst nightmare — Casita is filled with cracks and the candle almost goes out. Her aunt and uncle insinuate that this was always bound to happen and want everyone to leave as soon as possible, but Mirabel won't give up on the Miracle.
0. Prologue
Alma stared at the wall as Mirabel’s door disappeared. She turned around and shared a look with Julieta and all of her family, avoiding Mirabel's confused and nervous stare. Alma looked at the audience with as much reassurance as she could muster and distractedly took Mirabel's hand, preparing to speak.
"Our Miracle is an uncontrollable force, blessing us in our most trying times. We cannot judge its choices. If the Miracle decided that Mirabel doesn't need a gift, we cannot argue. And our familia will not let this… misunderstanding get in our way." She said, pausing after every sentence to look into the villagers' eyes, trying to instill her own bravery in her people. Alma took a quick breath as she reminded herself: she needed to redirect people's attention and not let them ask questions. "Let us celebrate our special girl's birthday and not fret on such things. The Magic is strong, the music is loud and the night is kind."
Casita's courtyard filled with cheers, growing louder as they were encouraged by the most enthusiastic of the Madrigals. The party was decided to move to Camilo's room, farther from the absent space in the wall where the new magical door should have been. Mirabel's sisters and cousins quickly ran up the ladder to wrap Mirabel in a group hug. Mirabel's favorite flowers appeared on the top of her head. Luisa squeezed and slightly lifted them. After Rita's eyes briefly flickered purple, she whispered something in Mirabel’s ear. Bruno was immediately sent to have a vision.
Camilo skipped on the way to his door, excited to have everyone in his room again. Walking beside some of the children, Alma heard someone behind her say how "bummed" they were. In their opinion, Mirabel should've gotten a gift of speed. Ridiculous.
In a couple of hours Alma found herself in her room. A terrible image shone at her.
"What do you see?" Bruno asked with caution and genuine curiosity.
She heard the question but couldn't answer. What did he want her to say?
Alma certainly saw Casita: the tower, the little balcony on the left. She wished it was a different house (how dared she?), but it was Casita.
She also saw Mirabel. It was undeniably her, older, but her.
"Mirabel would never-"
"I know," Alma cut him off. "But this…"
"This is impossible," she wanted to say. But, well, the vision clearly showed her the opposite.
What did she do wrong?
"Oh, mi niña," Alma searched Mirabel's face for any sign of hate, resentment, any sign she would change into a monster that would explain-
"Ma," Bruno called her gently, "do you want me to tell you what I think this means?"
When she raised her eyes to meet his she decided she didn't want to hear it. Bruno didn't understand her.
"Uhm, I think the magic has its limits," he said bluntly.
She sharply exhaled, "No."
"And Mirabel was just… unlucky." Bruno said seriously, searching for understanding in her eyes. "Our family is big, the town is growing faster every day and, well, it's been a long time and we are not getting any younger."
This sounded like nonsense. How could Miracle get weaker with their family growing bigger and stronger? Alma was getting irritated with Bruno's new ability (willingness) to explain, to accept any future, however bad it was.
"No, I think I- Maybe this is…?" She searched desperately for an answer. She shakily brought the vision closer to her face and suddenly noticed the image changing. Her eyes widened and then relaxed somewhat when she saw Casita completely untouched by cracks.
"Oh, well," Alma quickly sighed with relief. "That means there is another way."
Bruno froze.
"I suppose, but-"
"How could you not see it?" She asked. Bruno didn't answer, but Alma didn't listen. She tilted the vision again.
"We will take care of it," she said slowly as she watched the cracks appear and disappear, "yes, and the Miracle will be safe." She raised her eyes to Bruno and met his uneasy expression with a serious frown. "We will save the Miracle."
"From… what?" He asked, carefully choosing the words. "And how?"
"I don't know."
What was a way to save the Miracle? What could be hurting it? How could something so strong and powerful be hurt?
Noticing his mother's pensive state Bruno decided to interrupt it.
"I just wanna be sure we both agree that Mirabel is not at fault for wha-"
"Who do you think I am?" Alma said tiredly. "This is all a big mistake, Mirabel could never hurt us."
She remembered herself. "No one should know about this vision."
Bruno was silent for a moment.
"Daniela already knows." He said almost apologetically. He started walking across the room as he thought outloud. "She won't tell anyone, for sure. Dolores will understand but- If more people know, we can prepare for the- y'know? For the worst?"
When she didn't answer, he tried to clarify. "Right?"
"No." He stopped pacing. "Bruno, no one has to know. Imagine how our people will react if they see us," she paused, thinking, "how do you even plan to prepare for…?" She couldn't bring herself to say what could happen.
"I- We thought we could make a few more beds so you could move in with us." Bruno said. "That's the best we got, really, but we didn't have much time to think-"
"No, no," Alma shook her head and stood up, leaving the vision on the bed. "This will create more panic," she met his eyes, trying to bring up his own memories of some of the worst visions he had. Bruno barely nodded and Alma continued, "The Miracle can't leave us. We have time to make everything right, we will do anything to make this right."
Bruno frowned.
"I am happy that you are this sure Casita will, you know, live, but it's just reckless to ignore-"
"I am not ignoring this," Alma cut him off. "Is doing our best not enough?"
"I didn't- I'm not saying that-" Bruno tried to hide from her glare.
"You are suggesting we better let the Miracle-," one of Alma's hands turned into a fist, "That we don't fight for our home and just let it-," she gestured her other hand emphatically instead of finishing her sentence.
"No, this is not quite-," Bruno shrunk.
"I don't think you understand what's at stake here!" She stepped so close to him that she practically shouted in his face.
"Mama, just, please," Bruno tentatively gripped Alma's hands with his fingers. "Let us help you."
She breathed loudly and slowly pulled her hands out of his grasp. "If you are not willing to save our Miracle, you are free to go." She moved away from him to stand beside the candle on her window.
Bruno grimaced at his mother's back. "I didn't-"
"Go."
When Bruno left the room, she let her shoulders slump.
She found the locket she held Pedro's photo in and brought it to her chest. Cold wind carressed a few strands of hair that got out by the end of the party. The wind was sobering on her forehead covered with sweat. She opened the locket and let her eyes fondly graze over his face.
"Pedro."
Alma sighed deeply, as she began the day's retelling.
"Tonight, I need you more than ever. We had the ceremony. We didn't change a thing since Camilo's and Rita's ceremonies, everything was the same." There weren't even as much people as on Camilo's ceremony. "People probably got tired of celebrations, having 3 in the last 6 months was quite overwhelming," she chuckled lightheartedly as she would with the guests at the afterparty. She felt him warmly smiling, but waiting for her to continue.
"Mirabel turned five." She paused, her eyes darting between Pedro and the empty wall on the second floor. "The dress was wonderful."
She was distracted by Agustin running out of the nursery with an empty plate.
"Julieta and I let her have more cake." Alma explained. Her lips quivered.
She cried quietly. "What do I do?"
Pedro was silent, but reassuring, somehow.
"Help me." She looked at the sky. "What is happening to our Miracle?"
What even is the Miracle?
The wind that flew past Alma barely touched the candle's flame and it seemed to burn brighter. But it could just be wishful thinking.
The candle was undeniably connected to the Miracle, but it stood in front of Alma unchanged since the day of Encanto's creation. The wax didn't melt at all, despite what she feared, but the usual warmth that the candle provided felt less comforting, instead burning cold through Alma.
Not finding any answer, she calmed herself and prepared to sleep.
Alma stared into the ceiling unable to make her body rest. She turned on her side to take the vision from the bedside table. She traced her fingers on Mirabel's image and sighed. How old will she be? Thirteen? Sixteen? Twenty? How could everything go so wrong in more or less 10 years?
Bruno dared to say that they were running out of time, but the candle was the clear example that it didn't have any effect on the Miracle and vice versa. The candle didn't age like people would.
Oh.
And the Miracle's holder wasn't an exception. Alma couldn't deny that she was older than some people of her old town could ever dream of being. This year she turned 60, her own mother didn't get to live past 50.
Was she supposed to be the Miracle's holder forever? How? Frankly, the thought of death had been so far postponed in Alma's mind because she had yet too much to do for the Encanto. But she couldn't rely on her body to give her just enough time to lead Encanto further to prosperity. If only she could.
She wouldn't call herself the greatest leader, but she had a lot of experience. And what if something happened to her? Where would all this knowledge go? Who would lead Encanto, who would hold the Miracle, who would guide the new generations, her family, to the safe and beautiful future? And was the Miracle supposed to choose its new holder?
And that was it, as clear as the sky.
"Yesterday's ceremony took an unexpected turn," Alma said on the rainy morning at the family breakfast. "After Mirabel's door disappeared, I will admit, I thought that the Miracle made a mistake, that it didn't recognise Mirabel's willingness to serve our community." She saw the same confusion on the faces of her family. Julieta hugged Mirabel. "But I was wrong. Bruno's vision opened my eyes and I finally saw the Miracle's plan: Mirabel will one day guard the Miracle and guide the Encanto." The ray of sunshine went through the loosely closed shutters and warmed Alma's face. "Instead of me."
After a stunned pause the family cheered and congratulated Mirabel on such an important and, as they concluded, suitable role. Julieta and Agustin were visibly uncomfortable. Alma interrupted the silent conversation Bruno had with his wife with only one glare. Daniela quickly joined the rest of the family and made sure Mirabel felt loved and supported, which Bruno couldn't not reinforce.
Alma's heart filled with love as Mirabel shyly looked at her family and sheepishly laughed.
A/N: I really want to ramble about the story premise and all my insecurities concerning it, but I think I'd better focus on the fact that I finally finished at least one chapter of a wip!! Yay!!
So the prologue's kind of a proof-of-concept. I wanted to see if this whole situation could at least exist and tried to show the train of thought that Alma could go on to reach the conclusion I needed her to reach.
If I finish this, I think I will edit and post it to Ao3. For now, it's just for the mutuals and the few people who read fics on Tumblr.
Needless to say, this was heavily inspired by foggyfanfic's Shifted Sands, but I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction :)
It’s always interesting to get a look inside Alma’s head.
I really liked your take on this concept. Alma is definitely the type of person who spends so much time taking care of everything she rarely ever thinks about herself.
My theory is that not only has she passed that on to her family but she’ll be projecting especially hard on Mirabel. I look forward to seeing more of this in the future.
