An,

Well we made it to the end of book one of A Dance of Light And Darkness: Hellfire. Enjoy you chapter.

Belle was still kicking and trying to jerk herself free from Gaston's knights' grip, but she couldn't shake them off. She was scared and has always been scared of the Faith. They are said to be the Gods' judgment in the world, but the judgment they passed were cruel sentences that many people in the world did not agree with. Although, every kingdom still kept the Faith to remind the citizen the Gods were always watching. Belle cursed Gaston in her head for listening to her father as he led his men outside the castle toward a tall tower with a single window atop it. Belle lost all her courage as she approached the Faith's tower. She noticed a white satin sheet made from silks blowing in the wind out the top window. It was like the lost souls of people who were sent to the Faith, trying to reach freedom, but still being held down by them even in death. The tower and the silk from the window gave Belle a dreadful feeling. If only Gaston would just let her go. She would even return to the Enchanted Forest, perhaps talk Rumpelstiltskin into changing his mind. He cared for her once.

"Let me go Gaston." She screamed at him.

"Belle that's enough!" He stopped his pace for a moment to yell back at her. "Just do what your father says and perhaps when you're better I'll take for my wife."

"Are daft Gaston? Do you not remember when you tried to propose to me when we were younger? My father would never let me marry you Gaston. You're not a King. A Princess cannot be married to lower lordship house."

"So you think Rumpelstiltskin would have married you to some fancy Prince after he's already defiled you. Or let guess, you want him to married you?" He waved his hand like he was reading from a banner. "Queen of the Enchanted Forest." Gaston shook his head. "Ha. He doesn't even consider himself a King in his land."

Belle became quiet, she never really thought about what would become of her life with Rumpelstiltskin. Of course before they made love she always assumed that he was just going to marry her off to some Lord with an army like it stated in her father's contract. Although, she had no idea what plans he had for her after that passion filled night in her room. She didn't need to; she was content just being his ward.

They made it to the tower and upon its door it read. We are without sin. We are the judgment. Those words put even more fear into her soul. What kind of people are without sin? Sin is in a human's nature, are these people not human? Gaston opened the door for his men and Belle to pass through and they began to ascend the winding stairs to the top room.

"Belle wake up he's a Dark One, all he would have wrought you was misery."

"It's not misery if I love him."

"And how does a maiden Princess come to love a Dark One? He's a tempter. He gave you a taste of love and ripped it from you. Is that not what a monster does?"

When Gaston knocked on the door to room at the top of the tower, a stubby man opened the door greeting them a melancholy look. He was wearing an egg shell white robe with a red rope tied at his waist.

"I am the interpreter for the Silent Sisters of the Faith." Three strange women stepped from the shadows to stand behind the man as he spoke. The Silent Sisters wore long white dresses that covered their whole form reaching down pass their ankles. On their faces they wore a homespun cloth mask, a black X sown on the mouth portion of the mask to show that they did not speak to men only to the Gods. "Who do you wish to give to the Faith and what is her ailment?"

"Belle French, Avonlea's Princess. Her father wishes her to be cleansed of her lechery."

"Bring her to the table for examination." He gestured to a wooden table in a small back room behind the white see-through silks.

Belle was even more scared then she had ever been before when Rumpelstiltskin said he was going to have her burned her alive. She thought back to that moment, his words seemed so disingenuous as he spoke of preparing a pyre. Gaston's men carried her in the room and place her on the table. They held her down in place while The Sisters tie down her hands and feet with frayed rope. Belle still begged Gaston to free her but turned his head to her cries.

"Sir we will begin the examination, you and your men may step outside please."

Gaston and his men left the room and shut the door behind them. He decided to be safe and wait by the door just in case her procedure was a quick one.

A few moments of uneventful standing around and pacing outside the Faith's door, his mind began to ease. That was until he heard the muffled screams of his Princess through the door, did he soon began to realize he did something very wrong. He tried to restrain himself from entering, but her cries grew louder. Finally Gaston had enough and barged through the door with his hand on the hilt of his sword. What he saw next he couldn't stomach and he puked up the contents of his belly. The white satin silks that acted as a divider for the examination room was stained with her blood. Belle was lying naked on the table screaming and begging for them to stop. One of the Sisters was clanging a bell in her hand while the second a Silent Sister dropped a leech onto her pale body when it chimed. The third Sister used a medium wooden rod to whip her across her limbs and torso after the leech was placed. It left her skin broke open with red welts. Blood oozed from lesions as the rod whip down into in her soft tissue. The Sisters showed her no mercy, even whipping her exposed flesh creating even larger gashes on her body.

"I demand you to stop this at once!" He said with his hand on the hilt of his sword, reveling a small chunk of his blade as a threat.

"The King has asked for this. Upon inspection of her, we found out that he's been inside her more than once. She's filled with darkness. The sisters are scourging her of it."

"They are killing her you madman!"

"My Lord our techniques are proven effective."

Gaston ran the short distant to stand beside Belle on the table, he pushed the Sisters out the way and away from her body. They tried to pull him back from her, but Gaston unsheathe his sword and pointed it at the Sisters keeping them at bay.

"It's treason to disobey the King." The interpreter shouted to Gaston.

Gaston looked down at Belle. She was passed out from the pain of the whips. Her body was covered with, what he counted more than eight leeches and red sores where they suckled her skin. The guilt of being the cause of her torment overcame him. He loved her, always had. Gaston only came to his King's rescue in hopes that he would finally be proven worthy of her. He began to weep and lower himself to kiss her softly on the cheek. "I'm so sorry Belle." He whispered to her through his tears. He raised his sword high above Belle's body and brought it down swiftly. If he was going to end things it would be now or never. He plugged it into his gut before he toppled over dead on the ground beside Belle.

When the smoke cleared, Regina and her army stood in the foyer area outside King Maurice's throne room. Emma stepped from the shadows taking the reins of Regina's horse so she may dismount her beast.

"Still no sign of her My Lady, but her father sit there in his throne room."

"Then let's go have a talk with her father. Shall we?"

Regina strolled over to the doors and banged her fist four times on the large tall oak wood of the throne room. Regina prayed he would be an understanding King, but most Kings were not as she thought of her ex-husband, King Leopold.

"You Have No Right To Enter My Castle By Magic. Leave At Once, Or I'll Send My Men Out There To You." His words were muffled by the thickness of the giant door.

Regina looked to Emma, then to the White Walkers. They stood at attention and watched her with icy dead eyes, waiting, almost begging for her command. "If anything happens, we keep the King alive." She said to them and turned back to the doors. She exhaled and raised her hands to gather her power. Taking in a sharp breath she blasted the throne room doors open with magic almost knocking one off the hinges.

"What is the meaning of this!" The King demanded in a yell as he stood from his throne. The King's men united together and stood in a shield arrangement to protect him from the magical invaders.

Regina and her army of White Walkers marched in and filled the throne room, standing in their square formation behind Regina.

"Your Grace," Regina gave the man a bow out of respect. "I am Regina Mills of Mist Haven. I have come to return your daughter back Rumpelstiltskin."

The King held a hand up. "There's no need, he broke our deal when he raped my daughter."

"The fact still remains that you signed a contract promising Belle will remain his ward if any breach were to occur, but yet you hold her with impunity."

"Mills you said?" Regina nodded. "I know of your father. Henry he was brave general. Your words sound of him."

"Thank you Your Grace."

"Fine. I'll let you speak with her, but come back tomorrow she's resting from her tiring journey from the Enchanted Forest."

It was then Regina heard the screams. It chilled her to the bone. She closed her eyes as the screams filled her head. Belle. It reminded her of all the other times she heard her cries. The first few nights of her stay at the Dark Castle and her screams of passion when she gave Rumpelstiltskin her virtue. These screams were none of that. It was a cry for help. It was a cry to end her suffering. Regina opened her eyes to look to the King and ripped her sword from its sheathe, the point of the blade aimed at the King's chest. The White Walkers did same, the sound of all eighty swords unsheathing at once singed and echo the room.

"You have lied to me Sir. I hear her wails for remission." Regina saw the baffled look the King donned. "I cursed myself with a spell of heighten hearing on your daughter's first night in Rumpelstiltskin's castle." She turned the hilt of her blade in her hand so that the flat part was facing up. "I'll ask you only once, Your Grace. What are you doing to her?" She scoured her amber eyes at the King.

King Maurice eyed Regina and her men. Regina saw his face loosen as he relinquished all his hope. "She's with the Faith being cleansed by the Silent Sisters." He calmly said.

"You barbarian, you know their methods are torture, yet you send your own flesh and blood there." Regina shouted at him.

"He's tainted her." He spat back at Regina. "She will be whole again once the Darkness is removed."

Regina lost all belief a King would ever put his children before his kingdom. They were the true Dark Ones in her eyes. And she refused to let another King abuse someone she cared about.

"Walkers! Kill the King's men!"

The White Walkers charged the King and his knights in a roar, slicing and thrusting their swords into each other. Men dying screams were heard as blood began to pool on the marble throne room floor. The clanging of steel on steel rang through room. Regina couldn't help but notice the beauty of it all. She relished in seeing her White Walkers decapitate a man, and showing no mercy as they broke down the King's ranks. One of the King's knights came charging at Regina, she use an invisible hand to break the man's neck, stopping him in his tracks. Another man stupidly came running to Regina screaming his approach with sword in hand. She twirled to dodge his attack before raising her own sword high slashing the man nearly in half from shoulder to waist. He fell over dead in a pool of his own blood, and she felt alive in the excitement of it. Emma rushed to Regina stepping in front of her to guard her from any more attacks, bringing Regina back down to earth from her blood-quest.

"Emma, we have to find Belle." She yelled over the sound of metal being parried and the slicing of flesh.

The dying wails of men could still be heard as they ran from the massacre in the throne room and the castle altogether. Regina saw a large tower with a single window at its highest point. A blood drenched silk blowing from its height.

"She's up there Emma." Regina said pointing to the tower.

They ran the rest of the way to the Faith's Tower and Regina couldn't help the feeling of being too late as she watched the bloody silk flutter in the wind. Emma kicked down the door to the tower and helped Regina through the fame. They stormed up the tower's winding steps until they reached another door with two men standing guard on either side of it.

"Halt, you may not enter." One of the men said as they took a hold of the hilt of their long swords to threaten the women.

Emma pushed Regina behind her and unsheathed her blade, taking a side stance waiting for the men's attack. They both decided to lunge at her. Emma bought her sword across her chest and swung it through the air and slashed open one the man's throat. The cut was so deep it killed him instantly. She dropped down in time to dodge the other knight's blade and plunged her sword through the man's belly. She pulled it out bringing the man's internal organs out in a blood display. She stood as the man fell to the ground trying to hold his intestines in. He was begging for his life when Emma drove her sword through the man's eye from above killing him dead. Emma then kicked the door down the two men were guarding and helped Regina over the dead bodies.

The Silent Sisters were guarding Belle wearing their cloth masks that don a black X over that portion of the mouth. Emma stepped up to them readily, but Regina grabbed her by the arm and told her she could take them. Regina reared her hands back and forced her arms through the air at the sisters, blasting a very powerful surge of dark magic turning them all into a smoking piles of ash. When the smoke cleared from view, Regina was able to make out Belle's body lying upon a table. Regina and Emma wearily ran the short distance to her. She was pale as a spirit. Her body was freckled with open cuts and blue-black bruises. Her eyes were closed and her chest barely rising as she took shallow breaths. The fat leeches squirmed about her body suckling her life's blood. Regina waved her hand to killed them, they rolled off her body dead. Emma ripped down the white, blood coated, silk and covered Belle's damaged body with it.

"Belle can you hear me?" Regina said lifting her head to cup her face gently, but her head only limp back down on the table, lifeless.

"She's dying My Lady."

"Quickly then Emma, we need to get her back to Rumpelstiltskin." Emma picked up Belle's pliant body into her arms. Regina then took hold of Emma's shoulder and teleported them out of the blood stained room.

When the purple smoke cleared, they were in the dining hall of the Dark Castle. Regina pointed to the table so Emma may lay Belle down upon it. They ran to it and Regina used her arms to brush the candelabras and dishware from the table, letting it hit the ground breaking into pieces. Emma placed Belle onto the table, making sure she was careful with her head.

"Rumple!" Regina called for her Master.

"I'm here Regina." A voice said from behind her.

They moved to the other side of the table to give Rumpelstiltskin full view of the devastation that was Belle. He stepped up to her as she lay broken on the table and whispered her name losing all control of his heart as he began to weep. He kneeled down over her letting his tears fall onto her body. Her skin was cold as he took a hold of her hand to kiss it softly. She was barely breathing and looked very near to death.

"Oh Belle. This is my fault." He said aloud to himself.

"My Lord we don't have time for this. Save her." Regina pleaded.

Rumpelstiltskin tried to compose himself long enough to wave his hand over her body to heal all her lesions and abrasions. Though, her body still remained bloodied and white as a ghost. Rumpelstiltskin noticed she did not wake up. He soon realized it too late. There was nothing more he could do to make this right and her breathing stopped all together. He decided to kiss her lips, which still seemed to have held their pink pigment, one last time. It was then while kissing her deeply did he see the shine from her necklace's pendent that Elsa gave her. He ripped the pendent from the chain and crushed it his hand letting its contents fall onto Belle's chest. The snow glow as it melted into her skin, but nothing happen, her body still devoided of life.

"I love you Belle." He kissed her knowing it would his last time to. Only this time when he kissed her a wave of light magic surged from the pair. Extending out, passing through Emma and Regina, flowing all through the castle. It was a surprised to them all, but what was even more surprising was when he saw her eyes began to slowly shift open.

"Rumple?"

"Yes Belle I'm here." He said while trembling. He stroked her messy auburn hair to soothe her.

She gave him a smile. "I love you too."

Regina was astonished and clasped her hands to her mouth in disbelief. Emma nodded her head in approval over her employer's use of light magic. Rumpelstiltskin was in awe as he took in the sight of the beautiful risen creature. He set her up on the table and hugged her as tight as he could. He gently rubbed her back and thanked the Gods she was alive while she stroked the back of his head assuring him that she was going to be ok. They let go of one another and Belle wiped away his tears. He took Belle by the hands, gazing genuinely into her eyes.

"Belle I won't make the same mistake twice." She looked at him with curious eyes. He conjured up a diamond ring with a gold band and slid it onto her ring finger. "Will you marry me?"

It was her time to cry tears of joy as she watched him kiss the ring on her finger and then look back to her awaiting her answer.

"I am yours until my last breath Rumple." And they locked and sealed their promise with a kiss.

Emma unsheathed her sword to swear it to Belle and dropped to one knee to kneel before them. "Belle, Queen Of The Enchanted Forest. Long May She Reign!"

Regina wiped her tears. "Long May She Reign!" Regina said in a curtsy after Emma's pledge.

Belle, in her shock, turn back to Rumpelstiltskin who was giving her a soft smile before bowing his head to her also. "Long May She Reign." Belle threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again. He lifted her into his arms and teleported them out of the dining hall.

When the fire red smoke cleared, Belle noticed the blood covered silk was not around her anymore. She wore a beautiful satin form-fitting dress the color milk with red roses scattered about the skirt of the dress. It somehow still reminded her of the bloody silk she wore only a moment ago. She found herself in a new room unfamiliar to her. It had a large bed that could hold at least five people and a grand balcony that over looked the courtyard of the Dark Castle. She eyed the entirety of the room and looked back to her intended.

"Your room." He said. How he said it prompted Belle of when she first was brought to the Dark Castle.

"Our room my King." She said and they laughed together.

The night of their engagement was an interesting one. She slept next to him entangled in his arms. It was the only way she could fall sleep through the night. She was waking up screaming his name. It frighten him so and only filled him with more guilt. In that night, he made a promise to the Gods that he would never cause Belle to become in danger again. And if she did, the people of the world would know a wrath they soon shan't forget. Maleficent's Burning Wedding would seem like that of child's play. He would consume the world in darkness vanquishing every light and hope as it happened to Belle.

The next morning Belle was still asleep when a raven flew in from the open balcony doors. He eased himself from their marital bed as to not wake her. He took the parchment from the bird's leg, unrolled it and began to read. Belle had awoken just in time to see him bury his brow line at the small piece of paper.

"What is it Rumple." She said yawning.

"It seems I've been summoned." He said burning the parchment to ashes in a fireball from his hand.

"By whom?" She said sitting up in the bed to show her worriment.

"Queen Zelena of Oz. She says I've denied her son, Roland, your hand in married."

"What are you going to do?" She said as he moved to join her in bed. He pulled her into his arms, wrapping them tightly around her to ease her stress.

"Looks like we going to Oz for our honeymoon."

They shared a kiss and changed the topic to wedding ideas. Rumpelstiltskin was happy and he wouldn't let Zelena worry him while his wedding was soon approaching him. He pushed the thoughts of the Green Queen to the back of his mind as he listened to Belle's ideas and he loved them. He loved her. He was going to give her the world. Announce her to all of his High Lords and the world as his Queen. For centuries he thought no one could ever love him but to be loved be her, his Belle, made him believe anything was possible. Perhaps even an heir.

Probably should have warned you about the gore. This chapter was tough, but i was able to set up the premise for book two entitled Emerald Fires. I hope to see you back for that book Ill probably start it in August to give myself some time off from writing.

-RL