It's no surprise these days for Maleficent to come back to the Forbidden Fortress and find Regina in her library poring over musty tomes that are decades old. Sometimes the girl is curled up in the seat by the window, wide eyed and with a little smile on her face as she wonders at all the knowledge she was denied so long, and now has free access to. Other times she sits straight backed in the wooden chairs at the table, fierce concentration on her face and storm clouds brewing behind her eyes.
Today is one of the second kind of days.
"I didn't expect you tonight," Maleficent says. Regina lifts her eyes from the page in front of her and watches as the sorceress slips off her over cloak and gloves, placing them near the warmth of the fire.
"My husband," there is a hint of a sneer in the word, "is off on yet another 'hunting trip' with his knights. I suspect it is simply a desire to have them fawn over him, but as long as it keeps him elsewhere I will not complain." Regina returns her eyes to the page in front of her.
"So what is it you are studying this time? Another project set you by the imp?" Mal's voice is dry, but also curious. She admires Regina's commitment to learning magic, even if she does think that the young queen could have done much better for a teacher than Rumplestiltzkin.
This time Regina doesn't glance up. "How to transform a snake from one species to another without killing it." The woman's jaw clenches slightly. "I've killed three already."
Mal snorts. "Well then it's a good thing snakes are easily found." Regina doesn't seem amused at Mal's comments. "Come now Regina, you can't tell me you are feeling bad about killing a few reptiles."
"Of course I'm not," Regina sniffs. "Although pointless death does not amuse me."
"What then?" Maleficent conjures them both a glass of wine with a wave of her hand.
Regina sighs and marks her place in the book before closing it. Apparently she's not going to get much more studying done while Mal is here. "I'm simply frustrated with learning his little parlour tricks. What does being able to change one thing to another have to do with getting revenge on Snow White?"
Mal shrugs. "Did you learn to walk before you learned to crawl?"
Regina gives her a look that says she's not impressed with being compared to an infant. Mal isn't fazed in the slightest.
"Tell me, Regina, if you were caged in a room with a deadly snake, and being able to transform it into one that would not be able to harm you was the only way to survive, would you then see the usefulness of that spell?"
"I'm not stuck in a room with a snake so your metaphor is pointless," Regina says stubbornly.
"Leaving aside the fact that as a dragon I am, in fact, much more akin to reptiles than to mammals, you are deliberately missing the point." Mal can feel her patience wearing a bit and has to remind herself yet again that this woman is, in fact, still mostly a child. A child that was never really allowed independence, or even freedom of thought. It can be difficult to see under the paint on her face and the finery of her clothing, but this is a person that is still expecting to be punished each time she steps out of line. And yet she still does it. A strange mix of courage and apprehension if Mal has ever seen one.
"Let me put it another way. What if one day Snow White the Insipid decides that she wants a menagerie of snakes to show off to her fellow royals. Say she collects them from all over the Enchanted Forest and takes pride in owning them. But say she only chooses to keep snakes that have been made 'safe' to own. Perhaps their venom has been extracted. How easy might it be then for you to transform one without her knowledge? She picks up something she thinks is safe. And dies a painful death." Maleficent tilts her head and gazes at Regina.
"That is a ridiculously complicated plan," Regina says. "I'd rather just cut off her head."
"Yes well I'd rather have three glasses of wine than one but since I know it's not the healthiest option I'm going to control my impulse."
Regina sighs and reopens the book (albeit with a slight pout), conceding defeat for now.
It's as she reaches out to put her wine goblet on the table that Maleficent notes a slight tension around her eyes. Because she's observing more carefully now she also notices the very small wince that crosses the young queen's face as she stretches her arm.
"Are you injured?" Mal's brow is furrowed. She knows of Regina's penchant for riding spirited horses, and supposes that it isn't outside the realm of possibility that she took a fall, though there aren't any visible injuries to her face or exposed skin.
"I'm fine," comes the dismissive answer. A lie. Mal can tell by the tone of the sentence. A sense she retains from her dragon even in this human form.
"Are you certain?" Mal asks.
"Yes."
"I see," Maleficent replies, standing nonchalantly. As she moves to walk by the other woman she feigns stumbling and leans some of her weight on Regina's shoulder. The queen flinches and small whimper escapes before she can stop it. She brushes at Mal's hand impatiently, and Mal removes it but it doesn't matter, she's already felt the bandages that were skilfully hidden under the woman's riding attire.
"Would you like to try that conversation again?" Mal asks softly.
Regina's jaw is set, though the pain lines around her eyes are deeper now. "It's nothing. I fell."
"I don't believe you." Regina's eyes flash at being called a liar, but Mal holds up a hand to forestall the verbal tirade she expects to hear next. "Now that I'm not distracted I can see it. I can smell it."
Regina flushes at that. "I bathed just this morning thank you."
Mal rolls her eyes. "Not what I meant, little Queen. I meant that to a dragon you smell of hurt. Pain has a specific smell, somewhat acrid, like heated metal."
"Oh." Regina doesn't meet her eyes. Maleficent waits as patiently as she can for the other woman to decide whether to trust her. "It's really not that bad," she says defensively. Mal just continues to watch her. Finally Regina rolls her eyes and loosens her cloak, allowing it to settle on the chair behind her. She fiddles with the laces on her shirt for a few seconds and then tries to pull it over her head, which doesn't end well. As she tries to move her arms over her head she gasps and then bites her lip.
Mal has had enough of watching her suffer and takes her hands, helping her to her feet and then reaching out to guide the shirt over her head. She grasps her by the shoulders gently and turns her, and then a gasp of her own falls helplessly from her lips. "This was no fall," she says, and she can feel her dragon snarling for release, possession flaring under her skin.
The pale skin of Regina's back is marked with horizontal lines. They're quite uniform, about an inch or two between each one, and in several stages of healing. The one closest to the top, where her skin stretches over her shoulder blades, is bandaged. Maleficent wants to heal them all right this instant, except she knows better. Whoever made these marks did it with a sense of purpose. There is every chance that the person will hurt the woman in front of her more if Mal takes them away.
That doesn't mean she can't stop them from hurting though. A wave of her hand and Regina's shoulders relax visibly at the nerves in her back stop sending pain signals to her brain. Regina turns around to look at her with an adorable look of confusion on her face. She reaches around and touches the marks, then drops her hands and tilts her head at the dragon woman.
"Who?" Something in Mal's eyes implores Regina to tell the truth.
Glancing at her shirt, and then at Mal, Regina instead opts to simply wrap her cloak over her shoulders and picks up her wine, moving over to the fireplace and sitting in a chair with much more ease than she'd had previously. "Rumple is… impatient… with mistakes," she muses, staring into the fire.
"So he beats you?!"
Regina shrugs a bit. "Not every time. Sometimes he simply banishes me from the castle for a few days or a week, hindering my lessons. Others he uses physical punishment to try to deter me from making mistakes. I suppose in a way it makes sense. I'm hardly likely to get one of us killed trying to transform snakes, but I doubt he wants me setting fire to his castle. Or him," she says, and is that? Mal stares. There is a ghost of a smile on the woman's face.
"You set him on fire?" Maleficent asks.
Regina flushes a bit. "It was an accident! He made me angry and I just… lost control for a second. The next thing I knew his hair was smoking." She glances at her hands contemplatively for a few seconds. "That's where most of these were from." She tilts her head a bit to indicate her back.
"I'd heal them but…" Mal lets her voice trail off.
Regina shakes her head. "He'd know," she finishes, taking a long drink of her wine.
"Is your revenge worth so much to you?" Maleficent asks. "To let him hurt you just so you can learn magic?"
She has to look away from the pain in Regina's eyes for a moment. "Is what he's done any worse than being stuck in Leopold's castle for weeks and months on end?" the young woman whispers.
"And what does your royal husband think of the Dark One marking his prized possession?" There's a little bitterness seeping into Mal's tone now. She'd be lying if she said she hasn't dreamed of claiming this brave little human as her own many times. But she can't do it without becoming another one in a long line of people who have ignored the girl's right to choose for herself. She won't be one of them.
Regina gives a huff of exasperation. "My husband pays me no attention other than to take what he wants from me, during which I am on my back anyway. One of my ladies in waiting was the one who placed the bandages. She's known me since I was a child."
"And what does she think of it?"
"It's not the first time she's bandaged my injuries." Mal looks a bit horrified at the thought that Regina's been abused like this most of her life and it must be obvious because the queen is quick to add "I liked climbing trees and swimming. I was saved many a scolding from my mother by that servant helping me to hide scrapes or bruises."
Maleficent sighs. "I will never understand humans. At least animals only hurt each other for protection or survival." They sit quietly for a bit, finishing the wine.
"I should leave before it becomes too dark for Rocinante to see the path back to the road," Regina says reluctantly. Maleficent nods, watches from her seat as the woman redresses herself. Before the queen leaves, Mal conjures a small vial of clear liquid and offers it to her.
At the woman's questioning look she says "One drop in a glass of water or wine, no more than three times in a day. It will lessen the pain. The spell I used will fade by tomorrow."
Regina takes the vial with a small smile, and murmurs "Thank you" a bit shyly.
As she turns to leave Mal can't help but ask, "What did the imp's face look like when you set him on fire?"
Regina's grin stays with her long after the queen is gone.