Disclaimer: If I owned any of these characters, the end of The Miller's Daughter would have been very different
Cora had barricaded herself into the tower along with her three-year-old daughter while her husband and father-in-law had ridden out to fight the invading forces that threatened their kingdom. With magic encasing the room, the door was impenetrable, keeping them safe from those who would do them harm. But not from the man who had taught her the spell to begin with.
"Gotten yourself into trouble again, have you, dearie?" Rumplestiltskin's voice sounded from behind her, and as she turned around to face him, the déjà vu of meeting again in this room that had once been filled with straw spun into gold did not escape her.
"I am hardly responsible for this war, if that is what you are trying to imply," Cora returned flatly, folding her arms across her chest.
He tittered at that, flashing her a smile full of rotten teeth. "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that," he said. "You are the one who won Prince Henry's heart and stole him away from Princess Eva. Who is now Queen Eva, wife of the same King Leopold whose forces are surrounding the castle as we speak."
"Leopold's goal is to take the kingdom's riches for himself," she said, "not to avenge some petty dispute of his wife's."
"Riches that you spun into creation, dearie," the Imp pointed out. "No matter how you try to paint the picture, you're still at the root of the problem."
Cora gave a roll of her dark eyes before fixing him with a look sharp with impatience. "What do you want, Rumple?" She demanded. "I doubt you came all the way here just to pin the blame for the war on me."
He conceded to this with a slight incline of his head and an equally slight spreading of his hands. "No, I can't say that I did. But the few minutes wasted were made worth it by seeing you grow so agitated."
She fought the urge to clench her teeth, a reaction which would no doubt satisfy him all the more. This was all part of his revenge for reneging on their deal, she realized. For as long as she lived, he would find all sorts of way to torment her, big and small. Thank the gods she had removed her heart, otherwise that realization might have been painful.
Rumplestiltskin's gold-eyed gaze then turned on Regina, who was silently observing the scene from where she sat on a pillow, clutching a doll. "They grow up so fast, don't they?" He remarked, his tone of voice almost casual, as he glanced at Cora again, but the casualty was belied by the threat she read clearly in his demeanor.
"You have no claim on her, Rumple," Cora shot back, taking a few protective steps in front of her child, shielding her from the Dark One's view with her skirts. "You know that. She's my child and mine alone."
"I wonder what the prince would make of that little assertion," he said, a hint of sardonic amusement in his voice, as he settled down into a chair, threading his scaly fingers together.
Her expression was withering and in need of accompanying words.
"But," Rumplestiltskin continued, dropping his hands, "to get to the heart of the matter." There he paused to titter again at a private joke that was easy for Cora to guess the context of. "I'm here to offer my services once again."
Cora tilted her head back haughtily. "I am not in need of your services."
Just then, there was the sound of battering rams coming into contact with metal and stone, signaling that King Leopold's army was laying siege to the castle. Rumplestiltskin raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Are you so sure of that, Cora?"
She pressed her lips together, her gaze falling on Regina, who was tugging at her skirts and peering up at her with fear in her dark eyes. "What is it that you are proposing this time?" She asked finally, her expression cautious.
His eyes glinted as they always did just before a deal was struck. "Simple enough terms," he answered, leaning back in his chair. "I whisk you, along with your husband and child, away from danger and the threat of imprisonment. And in return," a slight of hand resulted in a book appearing out of nowhere, "I want you to see to it that our little princess here learns magic once she's a little older."
Cora's eyes narrowed as she studied her former lover warily. "That's all you require of me?" She said slowly. "That I teach my daughter magic?"
"I told you once that she's quite important," Rumplestiltskin replied simply, his gaze once more falling on Regina as the child peered curiously at him around her mother's skirts. "And if I can't take her and teach her what she must learn myself, then you'll have to do it for me."
"I'll have to teach myself first," she pointed out, the thought of learning more magic sending a little thrill through her veins that wasn't all that different from arousal.
"I realized as much, dearie," he said, offering the book, a heart-shaped gem shining on the cover, to her. As she started to reach for it, however, he pulled it back slightly, adding, "A word of warning: these spells are quite potent and the backlash can be rather…severe. Do we have a deal?"
"Then I'll just have to be careful, won't I?" Was all Cora said, plucking the book from his grasp by way of answer to his inquiry and clutching it close to her chest. "Now get us out of here."
The Imp jumped to his feet with an exaggerated bow, tittering, "As Her Highness commands." With a pass of his hand, both mother and child had vanished from the tower room. Now alone, he smiled, murmuring, "One can always rely on the greed of kings." He then transported the gold from the treasury into the room and lifting the protection spell from the room, leaving it for King Leopold to find, as he had been promised he would.
The glimpses of the future that he had been granted through taking the seer's powers as his own were vague, but there was now one thing Rumple knew for certain. One day, when she was a woman grown, Regina would find that book of spells he had given her mother and while rifling through it, she would come upon his name and she would call him to her. It was written in stone now; no matter whether Cora fulfilled her end of the bargain this time or not, the first step of his plan was set. The girl would lead him to Bae and years of patience would prove worthwhile.