A/N: Reworked! And retitled! No major changes, just some tweaking.


Chapter 7 — The Redirection

Dear Aurora,

What a thrill to receive your letter! I dearly hoped you would take my offer of correspondence seriously, and I am so glad to hear that you continue to find Mistress Acacia's story an engaging one.

This may not be apparent to you as a non-fairy reader, but it is not unusual for wicked fairy mothers to murder their children. It happens most often shortly after birth, for the mother finds that she is physically and emotionally unable to care for the child, and this is, more often than not, an accident. Almost as common is around the time the child is fifteen to twenty, and has really begun to show magical promise. The mother becomes jealous, paranoid that her child will usurp her power, and she attacks before the child is able to properly defend herself. This should explain to you why Mistress Cordelia's many children left the Kingdom by the Sea as soon as they were able.

At the time of the book's first publication, I did conclude that Mistress Acacia must have been infertile, for she had a handful of lovers throughout her relatively short lifetime and none of those unions resulted in children. Even given her mother's obvious fertility as you noted, it is probable that Acacia was not particularly healthy, which would also explain why she could not take the advice of her siblings and leave the Kingdom by the Sea to keep herself safe from Cordelia's wrath. However, many years later, a team of wicked fairies were allowed to investigate the grounds of her former castle, where they found the decayed remains of an infant of unknown species. It's possible that Acacia did give birth to a child and managed to keep it a secret, but it's also possible that the bones belonged to someone else's child. There's a more detailed section on this mystery in the new edition of the book, of which Maleficent has a copy, if it interests you.

You seem very conflicted about the discovery of your magical ability, but it should not surprise you. All royal children are blessed at their christenings with gifts of magic from all of the good fairies in the land. If nothing has gone amiss in your family history, magic has been in your blood for generations. For this reason, almost all people of royal descent are predisposed to have limited magical ability. As you've been touched by Maleficent's magic since your conception, you're likely to have considerably more power at your disposal than most of your kin.

Good fairy spells look like gibberish to me, too, actually. It's always baffled me that Maleficent can read and use them just fine. After many years of study, I can still scarcely make them out at all. I've never used one for fear it might go horribly wrong. Perhaps you ought to take a look at a wicked fairy spell? Unsurprisingly, there isn't a Big Book of Spells for wicked fairies, as basic spells are generally passed down from mother to child; however, most families keep a small notebook of basic spells scribbled down in case something dreadful should happen. You could ask Maleficent to take a look at hers if you're interested, but the more useful ones have been published.

As to the moral conflict you seem to be expressing, I realize that you must feel utterly victimized by the users of magic in your life, and I can understand how you would want nothing to do with the force which has harmed you so much. An argument could be made that magic is a tragically unnecessary complication in our lives; however, we cannot deny it from existence. I'm not certain what your intentions are, but you must know that if you continue to live among fairies, magic will always be a threat to you. It's true that you could find yourself some secluded, non-magical corner of the world in which to live out your life free of the stuff, but I imagine another move to a place full of unfamiliar faces would be very lonely indeed, and even that would be no guarantee of your freedom from magic forever.

If, however, you intend for any length of time to remain in the midst of the likes of Maleficent and me, we and our kin have an unfair advantage over you. You will always require the protection of someone with magical ability in order to do anything or go anywhere without putting your life in imminent danger. Would it not be in your best interest to attempt to level the playing field? My advice to you would be to learn some defensive magic for your own safety. Then you won't actually be using magic to do anything except to protect yourself, and as an added bonus, you'll be able to protect yourself.

Additionally, you'll get Maleficent off your back. I'm sure you feel that she's trying to manipulate you into using magic when you don't want to, but I assure you it's only that she hates to see a talent go to waste. I applaud you for holding out—she can be quite exhausting when she wants something. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but if you do decide to pursue magic, certainly with Maleficent, but most especially with anyone else, make certain that it's always on your terms.

Oh, I almost forgot! While it's true that Mistress Acacia's story is intended for fairy children, it was rather unfair of her not to note that fairies are considered children quite a bit longer than humans are. The typical readership of Mistress Acacia is only a bit younger than you are.

I am delighted to offer you some suggestions of a similar reading level, but I fear I don't know just what will strike your fancy! Mistress Hilda of the Mountainlands, in addition to her numerous contributions to the Big Book of Spells series, wrote a handful of biographies aimed at younger readers, all detailing the lives of the great good fairies: Mistresses Terra or Gianna might interest you. She also wrote one on Mistress Sara, but I find her later works to be unforgivably biased. I'm afraid I have the market cornered on wicked fairy biographies, but I imagine Maleficent has a copy of Mistress Joy, which you might find worthwhile. Mistress Konstanze of the Black Forest writes lovely fiction—mostly love stories. I doubt Maleficent has any of those, so I'm sending along a couple of my favourites.

Please let me know which ones you like! I hope to hear from you again soon!

Warm regards,

Kinsale

Mistress Kinsale's handwriting was neat and easy to read. Without her intimidating, slightly discomfiting presence, it was easy for Rose to think of her words as warm and friendly, and of her concern as genuine. Rose felt that she somehow knew Kinsale through her writing, if she didn't perhaps fully understand her in person, and Kinsale's letter endeared her to Rose quite a bit more than their first meeting had.

Kinsale's words made perfect sense to Rose, and she had addressed the concerns weighing most heavily on Rose's mind with surprising accuracy. Though she wanted to be unnerved by this, Rose found it somehow comforting that Kinsale could offer Rose some helpful insight into a decision she'd already known deep inside that she must make.


"Merryweather, I'm surprised at you," Fauna spoke for the first time that afternoon.

"She knows. She knows where they are," Merryweather replied, her voice broken.

Fauna patted her shoulder. "Perhaps, dear, but—"

Flora interrupted her irritably. "But now that we've made ourselves so unwelcome in her house, we're not going to get that information, are we?"

Merryweather humphed. "What would you have us do? Follow her advice and go on a wild goose chase through the Mountainlands because some old wicked fairy said so?"

"What if it were useful information, hmm? What if Maleficent really is in the Mountainlands waiting for us?"

"Oh, what if?"

"Now that we know Mistress Kinsale is most likely on Maleficent's side—"

"Most likely? She's a wicked fairy—I could have saved you this whole trip…"

"—we know that we ought not to go to the Mountainlands until we're prepared."

"What about the Kingdom between Two Rivers?" asked Fauna.

"She didn't seem to know much about it," Flora replied with a shake of her head. "It isn't high on our list—there aren't any good fairies there that I know of. Speaking of which, we'd best get to Felicity. She'll be expecting us."

Mistress Kinsale lived in the deepest part of the valley for which the kingdom was named. Mistress Felicity, her sisters, and occasionally a few other good fairies of moderate repute inhabited a small circle of dwellings at the top of a hill. Fauna secretly hoped that the fairies from the Mountainlands were not visiting at the moment, as they had been on her last visit. She found them utterly terrifying.

Felicity's security system was not quite what Mistress Kinsale's was. The three fairy sisters simply flew up to her front door and knocked.

"Flora!" cried Mistress Felicity with a wide smile. "What a pleasure to see you again—come in! Fauna, Merryweather," she said as an afterthought.

Mistress Felicity was of average height, about a head taller than Flora, and her figure was slender. Her hair was long and blonde, and whenever she appeared anywhere in the public eye she let it down and enchanted it to flow elegantly around her. However, as Flora and her sisters could have attested ages ago, long, thick curls were no one's friend on a day to day basis, and Felicity was not so vain that she did not keep her hair tied back under normal circumstances.

In addition to being far more powerful than the three of them combined, she was also at least a century younger than Merryweather, which made it all the more amusing for Fauna and Merryweather to watch Flora attempt to be genuinely nice to her.

"Felicity, dear, thank you so much for meeting with us on such short notice!" Flora gushed as Felicity ushered them into her sitting room.

"Not at all, Flora. Your definition of short notice is my sisters' definition of planning ahead. Please, sit! Will you ladies have anything to drink? Tea?"

"That would be lovely," Flora answered for all of them.

As she spoke, Felicity conjured up a tea set complete with steaming tea. "Now, what is the nature of your visit, Flora? I've been expecting to see the Three Kingdoms declare a Golden Age for at least a couple of months now."

"Unfortunately, we are still under threat from a wicked fairy—an uncommonly powerful one, evidently. The Chains of Avasina failed to contain her."

Felicity frowned and the three sisters noted that her eyes took on a strange glow. "Failed? The Chains never fail."

Flora waved her hand, "So we've been told. Explain to me how else Mistress Maleficent bewitched Stefan's daughter into setting her free."

The way Flora spoke, it was as though the words had lost their meaning to her. Perhaps she'd said them so many times that the image of sweet Rose being deceived by frighteningly cunning Maleficent no longer haunted her as she recounted the event.

Felicity's eyes widened. "What happened? Is the princess all right?"

"Who knows?" Flora cried angrily. "Maleficent disappeared and took Aurora with her."

"Oh no," Felicity said, putting a hand to her heart. "I am terribly sorry, Flora. I had no idea Maleficent had grown to be that powerful."

"I thought I made that rather clear at our last meeting," Flora said unhappily.

"Not that she was too powerful to be contained by the magic of the Mountainland Fairies. Mistress Sara will want to know about this."

"Mistress Sara? But why?"

"The Mountainland Fairies are the strongest fairies living on Earth. If Maleficent will not yield to them, Sara will want to know."

"Well, that's the reason we've come to see you."

"Oh, I see. I can try to get you a meeting with Sara, but I'm not very high in the ranks. I rather thought you would have an easier time of it. Perhaps you ought to try someone else?"

"No, no, we were hoping to assemble a force to go after Maleficent," Flora clarified.

"A force?"

"It wouldn't have to be too large. We did manage to imprison her already."

Felicity's eyes again took on that eerie glow. "You? You had the help of the most powerful artifacts available and by sheer dumb luck you managed to imprison her, evidently for a fortnight at most." She stood and leaned over the tea table. "She disappeared into the night with the princess you risked your lives and your magic to protect and is currently doing who-knows-what to her, and you want to, what? Get a group of friends together and try again?"

"Well, I…I didn't…"

"What? Think of it that way?" Felicity's lovely face contorted into a sneer. "This foolishness has gone on long enough. Do you have any idea what is going on outside of your tiny little kingdom?"

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather shook their heads silently. Felicity settled back into her seat, but the glow in her eyes remained ever unsettling. "Do you not agree that wicked fairies are a menace to society? An unwelcome complication in our lives?"

They nodded.

"And do you not agree that this world would be much better without them?"

Flora and Merryweather nodded. Fauna suddenly felt sick to her stomach.


A little over a week had passed since Maleficent had more or less tricked Rose into discovering her magical ability. Rose knew Maleficent meant no ill, and Maleficent had even apologized for her deceit, but until she read the words from Kinsale, she had not felt entirely better about it. The letter confirmed an inner need she could not express herself. If she was going to do this, she wanted it to be on her own terms. She had been told too many stories of people being corrupted by magic, swept up in its charms and carried away into eternal damnation. And she knew from considerable experience that she was prone to being swept up by charm. She'd been swept up by the charm of the handsome boy she'd met in the woods, and she'd even occasionally been swept up in that strange, chilling charm Maleficent sometimes exhibited.

During their brief time together, Rose and Maleficent had formed an uneasy sort of camaraderie, and Rose's reasons for wanting to learn a bit of defensive magic were unsurprisingly centered upon Maleficent. Though Rose had more or less accepted that Maleficent no longer posed an immediate threat to her, their relationship was extremely unbalanced, which was the cause of Rose's lingering fear and uncertainty where Maleficent was concerned.

She knew Maleficent felt responsible for protecting Rose because she owed Rose her life, and Rose hoped that having some ability to defend herself might help to level the playing field between them on a personal level. The possibility of venturing out on her own without feeling as though her life were in danger or she were betraying Maleficent's trust in some way had not occurred to her, and only served to further support her plans.

Rose set Kinsale's letter aside and examined the books she had sent along. The first was a small book with a green cover. This was Song of the Water Nymph by Mistress Konstanze. The second book was much larger and thicker. It had a dark blue cover with an ink drawing depicting two hands reaching for one another and almost touching. It was entitled And Yet So Far. Rose flipped through the first couple of pages. She found a portrait of Mistress Konstanze, whose skin was pine green and whose hair was a green only a shade or two darker. She had a kind face with high, prominent cheekbones and dramatic eyes. The tale was allegedly based on a true story, "but very loosely." Rose set the books aside with Kinsale's letter. She did not feel much like reading now. She wanted to discuss the letter she had just received.

One very large and delightful improvement in Maleficent and Rose's relationship since their visit with Mistress Kinsale was that Maleficent seemed much more willing to talk to Rose than she had at first. Rose supposed this might have something to do with the fact that the issues plaguing her mind no longer directly involved Maleficent, but she would take what she could get as far as conversation was concerned. Maleficent had proven to be as fascinating a conversationalist as Rose had first suspected, and she found it rather exciting to be able to look forward to such conversations on a daily basis.

She found Maleficent sitting in her usual armchair in the ballroom by the fireplace, nose buried in a thick book with a deep red cover.

"Are you always in the mood to read?" she asked. Maleficent took a moment to look up.

"Yes, I suppose so. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. You read a great deal more often than I can ever imagine doing. I'm not always in the mood to read."

"But you still find reading taxing, am I correct?"

Rose nodded.

"More often than not, I find it relaxing. It's possible that, given more practice, you will begin to find it thus."

Rose nodded again. After a moment's silence, Maleficent spoke once more. "Is there something you wanted to discuss?"

Rose took a deep breath. She'd found that she usually got the best response when she did not beat around the bush. Maleficent responded surprisingly positively to clear, blunt expressions of thoughts, feelings, or opinions. "I want to learn to use magic."

Maleficent's expression remained neutral, but her eyes sparkled with interest. "Really? Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to start? Enchanted crocheting, perhaps?"

Rose's somber mood was not to be disturbed. "I want to learn how to defend myself."

Maleficent closed her book and placed it on the table before her. She stood and turned to face Rose. "A wise choice. I imagine Kinsale's letter had some influence upon this decision?"

"In a manner of speaking. She also offered up an explanation for my inability to comprehend what I saw in the Big Book of Spells."

"That you're a wicked fairy?"

"That I should try reading wicked fairy spells, anyway."

"It's certainly not out of the question." She raised her hand and pulled a small book from nowhere which she then passed to Rose. Finding herself once more overcome with fear, Rose stared at the book blankly until Maleficent said, "Open it."

The book was entitled Essential Camouflage, and the author was Mistress Zenovia of the Mountainlands. There was a brief introduction, and then the first spell was entitled "Don't Mind Me."

This spell will render you unimportant to the casual observer.
Advantages: Low magic expenditure
Disadvantages: Will not work on anyone who is actively looking for you

There was some more information on the creation of the spell, its linguistic derivation, and so on. Rose's eyes fell upon the incantation and she marveled at how different the text looked from the good fairy spells she had seen. First of all, it took up much less space—only one line—and it seemed more akin to words than to drawings. Rose got the feeling that if she looked at the almost-words long enough, she might be able to figure them out.

"What does expenditure mean?" she asked idly.

"Expense, use. Magic expenditure refers to the amount of magical power necessary to perform or maintain a spell. That first one might not be your best bet, though. It won't work on me, so no one will know if you succeed in casting it. May I?"

The request did not make much sense to Rose, but she nodded, nonetheless. Maleficent waved her hand and several pages of the book flipped as though by a gust of wind. The spell Maleficent had chosen was called "Mistaken Identity."

This spell will cause your facial features to appear altered, so that someone who has spotted you will believe he has found the wrong person.
Advantages: Very low magic expenditure, very favourable results with all targets
Disadvantages: A last resort.

"A last resort?"

"Mistress Zenovia intends the art of camouflage to be used as an alternative to active magic. If someone who is looking for you has already recognized and approached you, this spell is a final attempt to avoid any interaction whatsoever."

"She must not like parties very much." Rose murmured as she skimmed over the origins on the spell and examined the incantation. Again she got the feeling that if she concentrated hard enough, she could make sense of the words, and she spent the next couple of minutes glaring at the page before Maleficent spoke quietly.

"Touch the words."

"What?"

"With your fingers. Touch the words of the spell."

Rose balanced the book in her left hand. Experimentally, she lightly tapped the spell with two fingers. Nothing happened. She tried again with three. Maleficent approached her and took her hand gently, and Rose shivered involuntarily. Maleficent folded all of Rose's fingers down except for her index finger and guided it in a slow, sweeping motion over the words.

And suddenly they were words. Rose's fingertip tingled and her vision became blurry and dim. All that she could see clearly were the words of the incantation.

"I am someone else," she murmured softly.

Maleficent let go of her hand and the world came back into focus. Now that she had read the incantation, though, she could see I am someone else as clearly as any of the other text on the page. She tore her eyes away from the book to gaze up at Maleficent in wonder. "I can see it now," she said.

Maleficent smiled. She turned the page.

Now You See Me
This spell will make you invisible.
Advantages: Favourable results on all targets
Disadvantages: High magic expenditure when unpracticed. If someone sees you disappear, you might have some explaining to do.

"This seems like a bit of a leap in difficulty."

"Perhaps. Try it."

Rose swallowed and gazed at the incantation. Again she saw only unfamiliar text which looked almost, almost legible. She traced her finger over the words the way Maleficent had shown her. This incantation was two lines long. She tried at first to trace both at once, but then focused her attention on the first.

Now you see me

Rose felt a tingle in her finger which began to spread through her arm, causing it to feel weak. As her finger ran across the words, they became clearer to her. Now you see me seemed to be written everywhere. She tried to move on to the second line, but the instant her fingertip disconnected with the page, she lost the feeling and the words were only words, legible now, but with no special property about them. Rose sighed in frustration.

"Now you see me…then what? The second I stopped touching the words, I didn't feel them anymore." She shook her head. "That sounds like nonsense."

"It isn't nonsense. In order to learn a spell, you must feel it. Sometimes the only way to conceptualize that is to touch the incantation, to feel it literally. Do the same thing with the second line, then we'll move on."

Rose bit her lip and gazed at the second line. She repeated the slow stroking motions of her finger until she could feel the tingling sensation and from her fingertip flowed the words Now you don't.

Rose felt a painful spark and quickly withdrew her finger. The feeling went away, but the words remained.

Now you see me,
Now you don't.

"Multiple-line incantations are tricky, but if you can do this, you can do one line just fine," Maleficent told her. "The next step is to learn to keep that sensation you feel in your fingers when you've stopped touching the incantation. You'll then use that magic to essentially erase yourself from view."

Rose looked up, mildly concerned. "Is it going to hurt? What if I can't get myself back?"

Maleficent shook her head. "If the spell stops working, you simply come back into view. There's absolutely no chance of becoming permanently invisible."

Rose nodded. "All right. What do I do?"

"I'm going to give you all of the instructions at once. If you pause in the middle, it won't work. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"With two fingers, trace the entire spell in one fluid motion: first line, swoop back, second line. If you need to trace it again to feel the magic, keep your finger connected to the page, but don't touch any other words on your way back to the beginning. Once you feel the magic, speak the incantation as you trace the words with your fingers. Do you understand so far?" Rose nodded. "You may need to do this multiple times, but you'll know when you can let go. When you feel it, the magic will be contained in your fingertips. As a test, run them over your other arm. Repeat those instructions to me, please."

"Trace the spell with two fingers: first line, swoop back, second line, swoop around." Rose traced the pattern in the air to remind herself. "When you feel the magic, speak the incantation while still tracing it. When you feel…something…let go and run your fingers over your other arm."

"Correct. Begin."

Rose traced the incantation several times, and only when she was beginning to feel frustrated did she feel the tingling sensation begin. On her next round, she spoke the words, "Now you see me, now you don't," but felt nothing different. She paused and felt the same painful spark.

"Ouch! I didn't do anything!"

"You paused."

"Oh," Rose shook her hand a few more times. "What if the other one only worked because you were touching my hand?"

"It did, but that doesn't change the fact that you could still read the incantation when I let go. Try again."

Rose started over, a somewhat lackluster attempt at first, but when she began to feel the undeniable tingling sensation in her fingertips, she dared to believe for an instant that it was real, that she could do this, and suddenly she was no longer aware of anything else but the task before her. "Now you see me, now you don't," she murmured. "Now you see me, now you don't…now you see me, now you don't…now you see me…now you don't."

She felt a spark, but it was quite unlike the ones before. She felt a surge of power not just in her fingers, or her hand, or even her arm. Her entire body felt full of a force and vitality she had never known. She felt strong. Rose swept her fingertips from the page and over her left arm. It did not disappear completely, but something very strange happened. She could see through herself to the stone floor beneath her. Entranced, she continued the sweeping motion of her fingers up the rest of her arm, but the magic fizzled out somewhere around her shoulder, and her arm slowly faded back into solidness.

She felt mildly disappointed, and suddenly quite exhausted, as though all of the energy she possessed—and even more she hadn't known she possessed—had been drained from her. She looked up to Maleficent, who was smiling.

"Well done," she said.

"It didn't work. And now I am so tired."

"Oh, it worked. You did it. Now you only need practice."

Rose fought to suppress a yawn. "Why am I so tired? I only half-made my arm disappear."

"The spell requires a great deal of magic. Yours has lain dormant for upwards of sixteen years. It is weak and finite, and it will take some time to replenish itself. Have a seat."

Rose obeyed readily. She curled her feet under herself and basked in the warmth emanating from the fireplace.

"Is that what it was like for you? Learning magic?" Rose asked as Maleficent sat across from her.

"With fairies, the learning process mostly involves how to control our magic. As children, we accidentally perform magic constantly. Particularly clever children learn to harness their abilities in various unrefined ways, but in order to master the craft, we must force ourselves to become disciplined."

"So I'll take that to mean that for you, making yourself invisible is akin in effort to a sneeze."

Maleficent chuckled. "That's one way to look at it, I suppose. But humans who possess magic are quite a different matter. Usually they've been taught that they cannot possibly use magic, or that even the rare few who can invariably meet a horrible end. Humans must first bring their abilities to the surface before they can use them properly."

"How is it that I can read wicked fairy spells and not good fairy ones?"

"I suspect it's because you're innately wicked."

Rose's head snapped up in alarm and Maleficent chuckled.

"Oh, don't look so surprised—I know that's the answer you were expecting. Most humans can only read wicked fairy spells. You can learn to read good fairy spells if you want to, but it takes a great deal of time. They are intentionally difficult to understand."

"Kinsale said she can still barely read them, and you read them just fine."

"In the same way that some people are more naturally inclined to learn another language than others," said Maleficent, "I am naturally inclined to understand different varieties of magic with greater ease than most people. It isn't so unusual. Mistress Zenovia wrote another book called Demystifying the Good Fairy, the aim of which was to deconstruct some useful good fairy spells and explain to wicked fairies how they work. It was quite controversial. Good fairies spent ages trying to make their magic unintelligible to us. The more militant good fairies of the world led a rather bloody crusade. They imprisoned Zenovia, then went around marching any wicked fairy too weak to oppose them out of her home and demanded that she burn the book or face death."

Rose frowned, but her mind was fuzzy. "How could they have gotten away with that?"

"Easily. There are far fewer wicked fairies in the world than good ones, and they aren't particularly willing to unite, nor are their opinions held in particularly high regard by the general public. Kinsale is of the opinion that Mistress Sara is building ranks to wipe us all out of existence."

Maleficent's tone did not change as she revealed this information, but it jolted Rose out of near sleep nonetheless. "But she couldn't, could she?"

"Probably not every last one of us, but supposing that is her plan and she is ready to enact it at this very moment, she could make us very scarce indeed."

Rose felt ill and also dizzyingly sleepy, but she sat upright. "That's a lot of supposing. Is any of it true?" Maleficent seemed remarkably calm if it were so, but Rose supposed that was not a good indicator of the seriousness of any situation.

"It's very likely that this is her ultimate goal—Kinsale wouldn't believe something like that without significant evidence—however, such an attack is not imminent."

Rose did not find this news particularly comforting, but she decided not to press the issue any further. "You and Kinsale seem to know each other very well."

Maleficent nodded. "I have considered her my friend for a very long time."

"How did you meet? When did you meet?"

Maleficent was silent for a moment before she spoke. "I was very young—not even twenty. She was very famous. I had read everything she'd ever written. She invited me to a party. I don't even know how her little messenger bird found me. I didn't live anywhere—I moved all the time. People had heard of me, but I hadn't met very many other wicked fairies in my lifetime. And yet she found me, and I went." Maleficent sighed. "I was rather desperate for company by that time, and she was, by some gracious whim of fate, exactly what I needed her to be."

Rose leaned her head on her hand, trying to fight off the exhaustion which threatened to overtake her. "What was that?"

Maleficent thought about this for a moment. "Persistent," she replied.

This answer troubled Rose somewhat, and yet she wasn't quite alert enough to process the many questions she wanted to ask. She found it difficult to wrap her drowsy mind around the quality of persistence as it pertained to Kinsale and Maleficent, and as it pertained to her own life.

Still, by all appearances, Maleficent led an incredibly solitary existence. Rose had assumed at first that this was by choice, but the more she learned about Maleficent's past, the more it seemed that her life might only be so empty because she had lost a great number of people (and other creatures) who were important to her. It was of some comfort to her that someone—even someone as troubling as Kinsale—had been in Maleficent's life for a long time.

Rose wondered again what a young Maleficent would look like, for she did not appear to be very old. Rose recalled the first time she had set eyes upon Maleficent in King Stefan's dungeon, a memory which still filled her with a vague sense of unease. She had been utterly shocked by Maleficent's youth and beauty, especially because of the way Philip had spoken about her. However, she had already determined that Maleficent must be more than a century old, and the way Maleficent spoke suggested that Kinsale, who generally seemed younger than Maleficent, must be quite a bit older.

Rose wanted to ask, but she felt it would be rude, and the information didn't matter very much. Of the multiple nonsense statements which had occurred to her in her sleepy reverie, Rose decided to respond, "I am very glad you have such a loyal friend." This seemed true enough to Rose. Though she had found some of the things Kinsale said to be a bit disconcerting, Kinsale had made it clear that her loyalties lay with Maleficent, and she seemed to have extended that friendship to Rose because of this.

Maleficent chuckled lightly. "It appears you would benefit from a nap."

"A nap?" Rose asked, her incredulity somewhat dampened by the long yawn that followed. "I was thinking of sleeping the whole night through, thank you. You'd do well to do the same."

"I suppose I would," she responded, her voice rich with amusement. "But I think I might wait until the sun sets, at least."

Rose rubbed her eyes. "Why do I feel as though it's the middle of the night?"

"Magic is a tiresome skill to learn. Go. Get some sleep."

Rose heaved her legs over the edge of the sofa and drew herself drowsily to a standing position. "Good afternoon," she said wryly as she made her way slowly up the stairs.

"Sleep well, Briar Rose," said Maleficent.

Before she was out of sight, a thought occurred to her. "Maleficent?"

"Yes?"

"Would you show me?"

"Show you what?"

"The spell."

Maleficent smiled. She made a sweeping gesture, as though bowing. "Now you see me," she said, taking hold of her cloak, "now you don't." She swept her cloak in front of her face and down her body and faded from view. Rose, who was leaning her elbows on the banister, rested her face upon one of her hands and let out an unconscious sigh of contentment.

"Thank you," she said softly to the empty room.

"Sweet dreams," said Maleficent's voice from nowhere and everywhere.

Rose reached up to suppress a yawn against the back of her hand. "You're quite remarkable," she said as she continued her path up the stairs. "But I'm certain you already know that."

Rose had no way of knowing this, but long after she had drifted off to sleep and Maleficent had reappeared and attempted to continue reading her book, her words had left a very conflicted wicked fairy in their wake.