A/N: A new chapter before 5PM? What? Thanks for the follows, favorites, and comments. Enjoy.

Chapter Eleven: Loophole

Gold smiled triumphantly.

Over his long career as the Dark One he had learned many things. But this one lesson remained with him always: there is always a loophole. And after a week of searching, Gold had just that.

A loophole.

The contract had been burned to ash when the Evil Queen made a surprise trip to his shop one afternoon. And even when he had it, the two versions of the queen, with the aid of Snow White and Emma Swan made it impossible for him to reach the princess. Although he did get through the protection spell once.

That still wasn't enough to prove that he didn't want to harm the girl. At least, not then.

If he couldn't get the princess's magic, he'd just steal her heart. That way he'd have control over her magic.

And then, he would kill her family.

One by one.


"Get away from her!"

Before Nadja had time to realize what exactly was going on, The Evil Queen was standing in her bedroom. The fireball in the palm of her hand was big and bright. Its target: the woman by the window. But before the queen did any damage, she recognized the Seer from Leopold's memory.

"Shouldn't you be dead by now?" the Queen asked. The died out in her hand.

"Your majesty."

The Evil Queen dismissed the woman's curtsy with a scoff. Despite the early hour, she was dressed as extravagantly as ever in red and black. The Seer looked unfazed by the Queen's glare. It was almost as if she was waiting for something. Nadja climbed out of bed and walked to stand she between the Queen and the Seer just as the door opened.

"What is going on in here?" Regina asked as she walked into the room. Her hand drawn back. She wasn't going to use a fireball. Probably something much worse. Like her other half, it took a moment before she remembered the Seer.

"Now that we're all here," the Seer said. Her attention turned back to Nadja.


Her home was just outside of the kingdom's limits, only a three-hour journey. When the King's messenger sent word for her, she packed up immediately and set out toward the castle. The Seer waited for the King in the castle's dark corridor. It'd been a little over an hour since her arrival.

King Leopold walked toward her with the tiny newborn. The baby made a noise in its sleep as she was placed into the Seer's waiting arms. It wasn't until she held her that the Seer knew it was a girl. As the King wished, she looked into the child's future. The baby girl slept on.

A sense of dread washed over the Seer. A combination of bubbling rage and fear. And an overwhelming urge to protect the baby girl in her arms, all at once. "Well, aren't you a special girl?" The Seer smiled sadly.

The statement peaked the King's interest.

"Special how?"

"She has no one path." The Seer said. "There are two."

There were many.

"Which shall she choose?"

"You will be the one to choose the path, my king."

"Show me."

It was the Seer's overwhelming urge to protect the baby that led her to lie to the king.


Nadja stumbled backward.

"How did you do that?" Nadja asked.

"Do what?" the Seer asked.

Nadja's mothers exchanged a look but said nothing. The Seer smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. She looked so much older than she had in her memory. Unlike everyone else from the Enchanted Forest, the Seer had aged. It made Nadja wonder where she'd been all of these years. Why she'd come back? Nadja asked her those things.

"Everyone has one path." The Seer said. "Some overlap with others. Some do not. In my visions, I see many possible outcomes because the future is always changing. But I never see the end. At least not until I held you."

Something wasn't right in the words that the Seer was saying. Something felt off. The entire time she spoke, it seemed almost as if the Seer was fighting against her words. Then Nadja saw it. The struggle in her eyes. A cry for help. She'd slipped up with the memory.

Nadja took that as a sign to go back into the Seer's mind. She brought her mothers with her.

They stood in the middle of a shack. Nadja didn't remember much about this place but she assumed the shack to be somewhere in the middle of the Enchanted Forest. Her attention moved to the window. Far off in the distance, she could see the castle where she was born. Nadja smiled.

"You got the hint."

Nadja turned to find the Seer, young as her memory, standing beside her mothers. The sight pulled a laugh from her lips. Regina, underdressed in her pajamas and the Evil Queen overdressed. The Seer looked right at home.

"Gold has your heart." Nadja said. "How is this possible?"

"He's controlling my heart, not my mind." The Seer said. "Your gift is not one-sided, my child. Like you can bring people into your dreams and memories, you can enter theirs. If they allow it."

Nadja nodded, considering this new information.

"Gold wants me to pull out your heart. A loophole, he thinks by using a familiar face. But this is ours." The Seer smiled. "I have been waiting such a long time to see you again."

"You knew?" the Queen asked.

"I also knew that she'd be reunited with her mother." The Seer said. When the Seer turned back to face Nadja she saw the panicked look on her face. Her mothers saw it as well.

"What did you really see?" Nadja asked. "Why did you lie to the king?"

The Seer kneeled in front of Nadja before speaking. "Knowing the future is both a blessing and a curse. I won't burden you with that."

"What happens at Granny's?"

"That, Nadja," the Seer said. "Is up to you."


When an hour passed and the Seer didn't walk through the door with the princess's heart, Gold let out a scream. The heroes had found a loophole of their own. He crushed the Seer's heart to dust.

tbc