Chapter 2: Wherein the Reul Ghorm Answers

It was a commonly known fact that just as Rumplestiltskin the Dealer couldn't resist an opportunity to bargain, his counterpart the Reul Ghorm couldn't resist a heartfelt plea for help. And Belle's plea was most certainly from the heart.

The Reul Ghorm was not unknown to Belle; her father had approached the Blue Fairy first before summoning the Dark One, but Blue, whose magic held no sway over the underworld's denizens, could not stop ogres, the spawn of giants and demons. Belle herself, as a small child, had called upon the Blue Fairy, asking her to bring her mother back from Master Death, but the answer then too had been no. So for Belle to turn to this same dubious source of aid showed just how desperate she felt the situation had become, and upon receiving the call, the Reul Ghorm felt an obligation to help, since she had failed Belle twice already.

It was, however, with reluctance that Blue made her appearance, for this was the Dark Castle, and no one could enter without the castle itself warning the owner—and everyone knew Rumplestiltskin hated fairies.

Not despised, not loathed: hated. Hated beyond reason. Hated unto death. And however hard the fairies tried to project a public image of goodness and light, they hated him right back, just as deeply. He'd killed some of their own, and they would have taken revenge—they would have called it justice—if there were a way to do so without bringing the Dark Curse upon themselves. At one point they even discussed sharing with another human the dreadful secret of how to kill him, in the expectation that any replacement for Rumplestiltskin would not bear his grudge against fairies, but in the end, they couldn't do it. Not because they were too good to trick a human or instigate an assassination, but because that would violate cosmic law, and they shuddered to imagine the punishment, for the crime would be considered treason against the natural order.

You see, contrary to what both parties would have you believe, Rumplestiltskin and the fairies are not the greatest power, nor the highest; there are ones greater, the ones who created them both, the ones who released magic upon the earth and allows it to remain. The ones who create life and take back again—and who decided that death will be inviolable. The ones who created love in all its forms and gave it to man as his strength, his comfort—and the ones who created evil, so that man would always have a choice. The ones who created and enforced the laws of the universe. And yes, there are laws that control even evil; even the Dark One must answer to those laws.

So as soon as Belle called, Blue appeared, fluttering her wings and wringing her hands nervously. "We must speak quickly, Belle; he'll know I'm here," she whispered. She held up a finger in caution: "Be aware, he can hear us."

Belle whispered too. "Reul Ghorm, I beg your help. I am—"

The dungeon door flew open and Rumplestiltskin swept in, teeth bared, eyes flashing. "How dare you?" He reached out to grab the Blue Fairy, but she vanished and reappeared in the highest corner, well out of his reach. That did not, however, render her safe, and she knew it: he could easily call upon the castle's magic to imprison her or evict her. "How dare you enter my home, without my permission?"

"I was summoned," Blue argued, and of course he knew as well as she that this was one of the laws she was required to obey.

"I asked her here." Belle thrust herself between the two, as if that would make any difference. "Your complaint is with me, not her. But hear me out first, Rumplestiltskin; you owe me that much."

"You betray me, Belle!" His voice shook with rage and his hands shook with magic pushing to be released. "This is the Reul Ghorm! My mortal enemy! It's because of her that Bae—" and then he clamped his mouth shut.

"That Bae what?" Belle grasped his shaking hands, tried to open his clenched fists, but he pulled away. "What happened to Bae?"

"He's gone." That's all Rumple would offer; Belle could see it pained him to admit this much.

"Safe from the Dark One." Blue turned up her nose. "He came to me. He asked my help—as you have, Belle. He feared his own father."

"He didn't fear me!" Rumplestiltskin shouted. "He feared for me." It was Belle he was trying to convince, of course; the Reul Ghorm's opinion meant nothing to him.

Blue ignored him, turning to Belle. "I sent Baelfire to a safe place where the Dark One can't reach him. I can send you to safety, too."

"I don't want to leave," Belle insisted, then informed Rumplestiltskin of the same. "I don't want to leave, Rumple; don't drive me away. I love you, and I think you love me too."

His mouth opened and closed. In the presence of his enemy he feared to reveal such a huge weakness as he thought love to be, but in the presence of his true love, he couldn't lie. The best he could do was to remain silent.

But Belle could be just as stubborn as he, even in those days. She stood there between two powerful mages, just a human, words her only weapon, yet she stood them both down. "I love you, Rumplestiltskin; even if you drive me away, I always will. Do you love me?"

His mouth remained clamped shut, but he slowly nodded.

"Do you want me to stay?"

He tried to change the question around. "For your own sake, Belle, you have to leave."

Belle wouldn't let him slip out of the question. "Don't be guessing what's good for me; I'll decide that. Do you want me to stay?"

The blood drained from his face as he whispered, "I'll hurt you if you do."

"Will you use your magic against me?" Belle persisted. "Will you strike me? Is that what you did to Bae?"

He looked horrified. "No, never."

"Then why did the Blue Fairy send Bae away? And why do you say you'll hurt me?"

"I am the Dark One, Belle. That's not just a name. I destroy. I kill. It's what the Dark One was created for. For you to witness that—you will hate me in the end." He stepped forward and took her hands in his claws. "Every waking moment, you will dread what I might do to the innocent and the corrupt alike, because the evil in me is unpredictable and sometimes out of my control. Bae witnessed that, and it broke his heart. If you leave now, before our lives become entangled, your heart will be spared, and I can be at peace, knowing there's one I cared for who hasn't been destroyed by contact with the Dark One."

She read his eyes, those reptilian eyes that were both large with innocence and frighteningly alien, and through them she read his soul. "You want me here. You love me. You wouldn't be telling me this if you didn't love me." It wasn't a question; it was a challenge.

"Which is why I have to send you away."

"Why?" she whispered. "Why won't you let me break the curse, so we can be together?"

"I need my magic, Belle."

"Why?" she demanded. "Can't you see how it traps you? Can't you see it's destroying you?"

"I need it for Bae!" he shouted back. And then, his secret half-exposed to his mortal enemy, he gaped at the two women in horror.

The fairy fluttered a safe distance away. "It's true, then. You're creating the final curse." He pretended to ignore her, but a muscle in his cheek twitched and she knew she'd caught him. "You will wreck this entire land and destroy hundreds of happy lives, just so you can be taken to the Land without Magic." She clasped a hand to her mouth. "You are truly are the most evil creature that's ever been."

"I am a father!" he roared. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you, fairy? You've never had a child. You've never loved."

"We love!" the fairy shouted back. "We love all life, even you, Dark One. Although we would destroy you, if the law allowed, we love you."

"You never held your flesh and blood in your arms and rocked him after he woke screaming from a nightmare. You have never dried your child's tears when he hurt himself. You never prayed to every god that's ever existed to heal him when he was wracked with fever. And you have never surrendered your soul to save your child from certain death. Until you do those things, Reul Ghorm, do not claim you love!"

Belle now understood, and her eyes welled with tears as she took his pain onto herself, and her heart swelled to overflowing with love for this man, now that she knew what he had done for his child. She wheeled on the fairy. "Take us to Bae. Take us, and Rumplestiltskin will no longer need his magic, I'll break his curse and we can be together."

"I can't, child," the fairy protested.

"Help us and the Dark One will be no more. Help us in the name of love."

"There is no magic left that can take you to that land." She crossed her arms and glared at Rumplestiltskin. "You should have gone with him."

"Casting blame won't change anything," Belle pointed out. "I refuse to believe that something so good, so right, as the reunion of a loving parent and child can't be done. The gods put this man together with that child. They meant for them to be together. And why would they create love between this man and me if they didn't mean for us to be together too? You said something about laws. Does that mean you have laws you must follow?"

"Yes, of course," the Reul Ghorm answered with an uncertain frown. She may have been the most powerful of all fairies, but she was beginning to realize Belle had a great power too: a quick mind that she was quite capable of expressing effectively. For you see, because her father the duke cared nothing for the position he had inherited, his wife did; she realized the duchy could not survive without a strong leader, and she had ruled from behind her husband's throne, with their infant daughter playing at her feet; and when her mother died, the teenage Belle became her father's guide. That strength was what had first piqued Rumplestiltskin's interest, and it would continue to arouse his curiosity for the rest of their days together.

"Who made those laws?"

"The gods."

"The same gods who created you?"

"Yes."

"And me and Baelfire and all other humans?"

"Yes."

"And Rumplestiltskin?"

"Only evil could beget the Dark One."

Belle slammed her open palm against the wall, startling the fairy. "I'm not talking about the Dark One! Who created Rumplestiltskin the man?"

"The gods."

Rumplestiltskin sniffed. "If so, they abandoned me immediately after."

Belle's eyes lit up; it was at this moment, she told me, that she found her path. "And who created love?"

"The gods."

"Is it true that there is one god who governs love, another who governs war, and so on?"

And now Rumplestiltskin forgot how angry he was at Belle for defying him, how insulted he was that the Blue Fairy so disrespected him as to enter his home without permission. He unclenched his claws and watched his beloved build an argument, and perhaps just a shadow of hope passed across his wretched soul.

"Yes, there is a god of love, a god of war, and so on," Blue was obliged to answer.

"What is the name of the god of love?"

Caught in the web of logic she was spinning, Rumplestiltskin—the master of names—felt obligated to answer. "She goes by many names: Aphrodite, Venus, Hathor, Freya. In our land, she is most often called Celestria."

"Is it she that you answer to?" Belle kept after Blue.

"Yes." Blue raised her face proudly. "We serve her by serving mankind."

"Then take me to her. Take me and Rumplestiltskin to her."

Even the Dark One raised his eyebrows at this request. Blue gasped. "Child, you can't be serious."

"Why not?" Belle demanded. "She is the goddess of love, we are lovers; that makes us beneficiaries of her benevolence, does it not? Why would she not want to see us?"

"No human sees the gods. It just. . . isn't done any more."

"Ah ha!" Belle waved an accusatory finger. "But it was done, in the past! What reason would prohibit it from being done again?"

"There was a time when the gods would come here to. . . socialize with humans."

Rumple snorted. "Is that what you fairies call it—'socializing'?"

Blue made a mouth at him but continued her explanation to Belle. "But that was long ago. They determined that fraternization leads to familiarity, and familiarity leads to contempt, so they distanced themselves, and they created us, to serve mankind in their stead."

"'Us'? Fairies?" Belle wondered.

Rumple growled, "Tell the truth, fairy."

"I always tell the truth!" the fairy snapped. "Yes, Belle, the gods created fairies to serve mankind—and they created other magical beings for that purpose as well."

"Such as?" Rumple prompted.

"Such as," Blue added painfully, "the Dark One. Because the gods believe man must always have a choice."

"And?" Rumple prompted again.

"And"—the fairy gnashed her teeth—"and because evil serves a purpose in this world." She added in a mutter, "Though what purpose, is beyond me."

"Oh, I'm sure you can think of a few," Rumple sneered, beginning to pace. "If there were no 'evil,' Belle, there would be no ambition, no longing, no passion, no desire: none of the qualities that made man crawl out of the cave and try to be more than a hairless ape. If not for acquisitiveness, nations wouldn't have been built. If not for anger, there would be no justice because man wouldn't fight for it. If not for pride, there would be no art, no architecture, no fashion. If not for greed, there would be no wealth, and without wealth, there would be no patronage. If not for destruction to clear away the outdated and the decaying, there would be no progress. So yes, the gods created 'evil'—to serve mankind, right alongside 'good.'"

"It would seem the gods value the Dark One's work as well as the fairies'," Belle mused, causing Rumple to laugh harshly and Blue to grunt. "I should think the gods would welcome a visit from him—and I should think the goddess of love would find it especially intriguing to speak to a human and a Dark One who have fallen in love. A rarity, is it not?"

"A rarity, indeed," Rumple said wryly.

Belle looked at him closely. "But a truth, is it not?"

He swallowed hard. "A truth."

The Blue Fairy floated a little closer, and she too studied Rumplestiltskin closely. "You. . . really do love her?"

"I fail to see what business it is of yours," he snarled, but then he glanced at Belle and softened his voice. "But yes, I love her."

"Is it True Love, Rumplestiltskin?" the fairy asked quietly. The three of them knew full well that the consequences, if indeed what the Dark One and the duchess felt for each other was True Love, would be life-changing for them and historic for humanity. For if Rumplestiltskin surrendered to love, his curse would be broken; the Dark One would cease to exist.

"The balance. . . ." the fairy murmured.

Rumplestiltskin nodded. "The balance."

Belle told me later she was so caught up in her own her argument that she missed the small exchange between her beloved and his mortal enemy. Had she listened to it, she would have asked; and had she asked, she would have learned that the two magical beings—she who was tasked with fostering good on earth and he who was tasked with fostering evil—were quite aware that a union between a human and the Dark One could have consequences for all of mankind. As Rumplestiltskin had just proven, evil serves a purpose, and the Dark One must continue to exist if the balance of power were to be maintained. Blue and Rumple exchanged a glance that communicated the same thought: the Dark One must survive.

"It doesn't have to be me," Rumple pointed out.

"No, it doesn't have to be you," Blue agreed. "Probably better for me if it isn't."

Belle continued, "Take us to Celestria, Reul Ghorm; that is my wish, and I will continue to wish it loud and long until you fulfill it. And that is all that I wish: you need only take us there and bring us back again, so that I can make my request to her. If you haven't the power to reunite father and child, she will, and I trust that, unlike you, she'll want to, for the sake of love."

"Is this what you want, Rumplestiltskin?" Blue asked. "If you had your son, would you truly give up your power?"

"For Baelfire and Belle, I would consider my magic a small price to pay." Rumplestiltskin the Dealer had made many a bold statement in his long career, but this one surpassed them all. I, who have worked for this man for thirty years, consider this his greatest moment, and I would defy anyone to hear of his decision and yet continue to call him a coward.

That is not to say Rumplestiltskin didn't relish his power. After a lifetime of abuse, even in front of Milah the scornful and Bae the impressionable, when power came to him, so suddenly and in such quantity, he had no middle ground to stand on: in a single knife thrust, he'd gone from being an object of ridicule to being the most powerful individual on the planet. I challenge you to imagine you could have done any better, in his situation—could have resisted the temptation to revenge yourself on your tormenters, and to create in all those around you a fear and a trembling that would keep them at bay? For let us not mince words: it's the fear that kept men from attempting to attack the Dark One and force him to do their bidding, or steal his power. Had he had not constructed this barrier of fear between himself and other men, the Dark Castle would have been littered with bloody bodies.

Yes, I defend him. No, I do not condone his random acts of violence—but I understand the causes, and I sympathize with the man who found, as many do, that power is a living thing, a parasite that eats its host. For Rumplestiltskin to see that, despite the tight hold the curse had on his soul, and for him to stand up to it is most remarkable. Even more remarkable, Rumplestiltskin managed to turn the power's own rules around on it in order to free himself; for those rules compel the Dark One to seek deals, and here Rumplestiltskin was offering the ultimate deal: the trade of the power itself for an opportunity to be with his loved ones.

Rumplestiltskin said once that he is a fan of True Love. I am, as you see, a fan of True Cleverness. Quite fond of moxie, too.

The Blue Fairy, impressed by neither cleverness nor courage, nonetheless realized the importance of this moment. Love left her no choice: by the laws of the gods, there must be a Dark One, or else fairies will cease to exist, and apparently, this Dark One would give up his power for love. Blue had to take this to a higher authority before it became too late, before Belle wore the Dark One down.

A problem remained, however: Blue did not know how to reach the goddess of love. And that's where I came in.