Written for Ariestess in Rare Pair Fest over on AO3.
Disclaimer as usual. OUAT is not mine.
Regina hated having to ask for things. Asking for something made you vulnerable to the other person, no matter how trivial the matter. Asking meant you couldn't do it on your own. It cost you power and power, as her mother had reminded her over and over again, was everything.
But sometimes there was no choice.
There was only so much that Rumplestiltskin was able or willing to teach her. The basics from all schools of magic - blood magic, elemental magic, creation and casting of curses, binding magic, transformation magic, alchemy and others - were necessary if one wanted to be powerful. But once Rumplestiltskin deemed her profficient at one kind, they moved onto another, even if Regina herself was willing to explore a particular field more. Her teacher seemed to be nudging her towards curses but those seemed slow and unreliable to her. Every curse, no matter how powerful, could be broken, after all.
No, what Regina needed and wanted to explore was elemental magic. Pure, destructive power that was immediate and effective. Few would dare stand in her way if she could send them flying with a sweep of her arm or incinerate them with a snap of her fingers. And if Rumplestiltskin didn't want to teach her more, she would just have to find another teacher.
That reasoning brought her to the Forbidden Fortress, the seat of the Thirteenth Fairy. The Fallen One. The Dragon. Or simply, Maleficent.
The gates swept open before Regina could touch them and it was with the slightest of hesitations that she dismounted from her horse, tied the skittish animal in the courtyard and entered the door. They led into a long hallway which opened into a large room with pillars running down both sides to the dais upon which sat an elaborate throne. And upon the throne itself sat a blond woman in a purple dress, holding a long staff.
Regina walked down with as much poise as she could. Her riding outfit was almost too simple compared to the other woman's but she carried herself as if she was clad in dress spun from moonlight. Appearances were everything. Maleficent was older and, for now, more powerful. Regina would give her respect as was her due but nothing more.
"I don't get many visitors," Maleficent said before Regina could say her greetings. "And they always want one of two things in the end. Revenge for the loved ones I harmed or to seek help that Rumplestiltskin wouldn't grant them. Which one is you, I wonder?"
"What if I merely wanted to meet you?" Regina countered calmly. She might have been here for the second reason but to show your cards too early was to lose even more power in the end. Maleficent smiled and stood up, walking down the stairs calmly, circling Regina, like another magic user had before. This time Regina felt the magic that touched her.
"You have magic of your own. A powerful one. And Rumple's mixed in. He's your teacher, isn't he?"
"He's instructing me," Regina admitted. "But not the arts I wish to master."
Maleficent came to stand before Regina and looked her in the eyes.
"And what arts do you wish to master?"
Regina held the gaze and smiled slowly.
"Elemental magic. Your element the most, Maleficent."
"You seek dragon fires then, Rumplestiltskin's student."
And because titles had sometimes more power than names themselves, Regina hastened to correct her.
"Regina," she said. "I am Queen Regina and you will address me as such."
Maleficent laughed at that, leaning close until Regina felt her breath, hotter and drier than she had expected, on her face.
"You have a beautiful fire inside yourself, Queen Regina. If you pass my test, I shall gladly teach you what I know."
"What test?" Regina asked but Maleficent turned away from her, striding past towards the hallway and Regina had no choice but to follow.
"You arrived at an auspicious time, Queen Regina. Tonight is the night of fire. Tonight is Beltane."
The fact that certain days and nights were more magical than others was well-known and that depending on the type of magic you wished to cast, you needed different ones. There were the spring and autumn equinoces, the balance of day and night so precise that it eased passage for magic that balanced on the edge itself. The respective solstices bolstered works of either the good or the evil. Wish magic was particularly strong in late August when the stars fell by thousands. And the eve of the first May day was for the fire magic.
"Fire is life and death, destruction and creation," Maleficent spoke as they walked around the lake, away from the Forbidden Fortress. "It is beauty and ugliness, power and weakness. To master fire you must burn brighter than anything and be willing to get burnt."
The path led them across the woods and towards a clearing where people moved around already, gathering wood and carrying it towards a large pile in the centre of the clearing. A bonfire waiting to be lit.
"My subjects," Maleficent explained, gesturing carelessly in the direction of the workers who paused only to bow and then hurried back to their work. "The Beltane fires are special. Do you know why, Queen Regina?"
"This night is the night of fire," Regina replied. "The power that can be drawn on this night is immense as long as you can control it."
"Of course, but why is that? Why this night? Why not a night at the height of summer when the air shimmers with heat and everything wilts from it? Or a night in the depth of winter when the fire is the only thing standing between the cold and the life? Why this night of all nights?"
Regina looked around, trying to remember if she had read on it in one of her mother's or Rumplestiltskin's books. But it was seeing a young man with blond hair catching a dark-haired girl's hand and spinning her around that brought back the memory of happier days and a First May's eve celebration she hadn't been supposed to visit.
"Because Beltane is the night of life. It is the true spring beginning. It is a celebration of all that lives and breaths."
"And burns. Burns with life, burns with vitality, burns with a desire to live and love."
Regina looked at Maleficent, fully understanding what the other woman meant.
"Fire is life," she breathed out.
"Fire is life," Maleficent agreed and turned towards the unlit bonfire just as the first stars came out. She put her hand in front of her mouth and breathed out a long flame that raced unerringly where she sent it, the bonfire bursting into a crackling life at once. The people cheered and Maleficent went across the clearing where two chairs and a table awaited her and her guest.
"Let them dance for a while, let the fire draw power," she told Regina as she arranged her skirts around her. "And after that, you shall be tested by fire itself."
Regina drank the offered wine sparringly, her eyes riveted on the fire and the people surrounding it. They seemed to pay no attention to their mistress anymore but the occasionaly glances in the direction where Regina and Maleficent sat betrayed them. Time passed slowly but the fire burned brightly and steadily, fed by the gathered wood. And as the midnight approached, people started to disperse into darkness. Always in two. Always holding hands. The young ones were eager, racing for the edge of the forest while the elders followed more sedately.
Regina watched it all with an acute feeling of envy. That could have been her, happy and careless but a small girl had broken her word and Regina's dreams had been crushed in the palm of her mother's hand. It was Maleficent who brought her out of her darkening thoughts.
"It's time for your test, Queen Regina."
Regina stood up and followed the other woman closer to the fire until she felt the heat all over her body. Maleficent made a sharp gesture and drew a palm-sized ball of fire forward. She turned to Regina who reached out to take it but Maleficent shook her head.
"No. To master fire, you must burn from inside. Touching is not enough."
With that said, she raised her palm and swallowed the fire flickering in it. Her eyes flickered with more than just a reflection of it. They truly lit up from inside and when she opened her mouth, Regina could see the flames still dancing inside.
"Can you do this, Queen Regina? Can you take the fire and let it burn you from inside? Can you accept the life and the power as well as the death and the weakness?"
"I can," Regina said because she could feel the fire upon her skin and the fire within and she would be life and beauty and power.
Maleficent smiled and stepped closer, tilting her head to the side.
"Then take the fire and burn."
She pressed her lips against Regina's and breathed out, the fire she has swallowed passing onto Regina who took it in a single, painful breath. And then she felt it spreading inside, greeting the fire already burning in her, mingling and merging like old friends long separated.
To Regina the fire was life and death, destruction and creation, beauty and ugliness, power and weakness. But it was also love and hate, Daniel and her mother and Snow White and it demanded her to accept it wholly, the good and the bad both.
So Regina took the fire and she burned.
When Maleficent pulled away from the fire kiss, Regina took an unsteady breath and opened her eyes. She could still feel the fire in her, could still feel it coursing through her but it was less intense than before. It was tamed.
"You did very well, Queen Regina. I will gladly teach you."
"Just Regina will suffice, Maleficent."
They smiled at each other in the flickering light of the Beltane bonfire and this time it was Regina who leant forward and kissed the woman who was fire made flesh because on this night of all nights, Regina wanted nothing more but to burn. Burn until she was made anew, stronger and brighter and more powerful. Because while she burned, she lived.
And the Dragon understood for she was the very same.
On that Beltane night and many others, the Queen and the Dragon met and burned together.
A/N: Well, not as shippy as I wanted but the magic and Regina's inner side blindsided me. Feel free to drop a comment. Or don't. As long as you enjoyed reading, all is well.