Wow! Over 9000 views, I really can't thank you all enough. I know I'll sound cliche saying this, but I really never expected to get that many views on this story. Please enjoy and thanks again!
I was unsure how long I had been sitting in Maleficent's throne, but I decided to return to my task once the seat grew to an unbearable level of discomfort. I don't know how Maleficent could sit there for hours on end with only the slightest of movements. Removing my stiff body from the cold stone, I took my leave towards the exit of the room. The daunting staircase that lead to the study loomed over me. All those long restless and sleep deprived nights were finally starting to wreck my body and mental health. It took me longer than I would have expected to ascend to the top of the stairs.
Dragging my feet across the threshold, I entered into the study and propped myself into the chair I had spent many uncomfortable nights of reading. I attempted to rid myself of the terrible head ache that I was starting to get by rubbing my fingers against my temples. I knew that I had to start preparing everything, but I couldn't help but feel tempted to return to sleep's embrace. Maybe a little bit of rest would help me get my mind focused. Slowly closing my eyes, I let myself drift off to sleep.
Once I started dreaming, I realized that I was in a dark room. It took me a minute to realize that this was the same room that I had had my conversation with Maleficent. I kept waiting for the flames that had surrounded me the last time I was there, but nothing happened. Straining to see even five feet in front of me, I took in a deep breath and concentrated as I conjured a small flame in my hand. I lifted the flame above my head in an attempt to light more of the room.
"That dress suits you well," I heard a familiar ominous voice say behind me. Out of fear, as soon as I turned I let the small fire that I had conjured leave my hand to fly towards the voice. As it flew towards its target, the blue flames were quickly engulfed in green ones that surrounded it. My fire was diminished in a matter of seconds and the green flames that were to blame vanished as soon as their work was done.
"You still have much to learn," the voice said as the person who the voice belonged to stepped forward.
"Is it too much to ask for one peaceful sleep?" I muttered under my breath.
A slender hand lifted my chin to look at them. "I went sixteen years without a single one. Don't complain to me for your lack of rest." Her hand left my chin and returned to her side.
"Your Excellence, I have done everything you have asked for." Maleficent's hand gently landed on my shoulder as she started to lead me further into the dark room. I had no idea where we were going, let alone what perils or lack thereof lied ahead.
"So you have, but I am still within my prison, which is why I needed to speak to you. Do you have the spell yet?"
"I..I have it down to two possibilities. I believe that I know which one it is. I just need more time to try and decipher them to be sure."
"That is not a luxury you have. It must be casted during a new moon, and the next is tomorrow evening. My patience has been tried long enough."
"But what if I can't translate it? What if I'm not ready?" In a hushed tone I added, "What if I fail?" I lowered my eyes towards the floor.
"If you do not wish to fail then don't." Her answer puzzled me and I looked up into her cold dark eyes. "If there is the slightest thought that you might fail, you allow for failure to become your master. Besides with the spell, you have to use the sword." Her response to my concern baffled me even further. "You have one chance at this," I could feel my facial expressions becoming more and more anxious with each syllable that she spoke. "But there is no one else that I would place my trust in for such an important task."
If this was her version of a pep-talk it wasn't very effective. Despite her attempt at motivation, I was only filled further with anxiety. Crossing my arms, I returned my gaze back to the ground. I could feel the stress and anticipation starting to slowly eat away at me.
"The choice, in the end, is yours. Do you want to live this life you have now, alone and stumbling for answers, or do you want to achieve more?"
Bolting up from my chair, I looked around frantically. My eyes eventually landed on the darkened sword that sat on Maleficent's desk. She was there, sitting, watching my every move. I allowed myself to rest against the back of the chair I was in and try to slow my breathing in order to calm my mind. A storm was spiraling violently in my mind, sporadically running through all the pages I had read over the past few months.
Unable to subdue the raging storm of thoughts, I heaved myself out of the chair and threw the door open with more force than I could have thought possible. I hurried up to the top of the tower. I sat against the cold, stone walls and conjured a small flame. In the attempts to alleviate my anxiety, I toyed with the flame, willing it to run between my fingers and along my arm. Even though it was getting easier to control with practice, I still did not want my flame anywhere near my scarred arm.
Averting my gaze from the flame in my hand to the horizon, I noticed the steady rising of the sun. Whether it was the tranquility of the sunrise or the warmth of the flame in my hand, I had somehow managed to attain a state of composure where I could think clearly again. Extinguishing the flame, I dusted off my dress and returned back to the study.
When I entered the room, I pushed everything away from the book that my life had revolved around as of late and pushed my chair away from the edge of the table. Leaning over my work space, I analyzed all of the scribbles and barely legible notes I had written along with Maleficent's own writings. Periodically I would hurry across the room to grab containers off the shelves of odd ingredients. By the time I had everything I needed and translated as much as I could the sun had started to set. In my unbroken concentration, I had managed to pass by the entire day making the final preparations for Maleficent's return.
On the floor I had lit a circle of candles with the ingredients scattered amongst them: the scales of a dragon, the feathers of a phoenix, the egg shells of a basilisk, and the teeth of a hydra. With the new moon closely approaching, I lifted Prince Philip's sword that contained Maleficent off the shelf. Wrapping it in Maleficent's robes that she had worn the night of her demise, I placed the sword gingerly in the center of the circle. Stepping back from the circle I took a deep breath. Glancing outside of the window, I saw the final rays of sunlight trickling away and the stars starting to twinkle. The star light was starting to shine in through the window.
I flipped in the massive book to the spell that I had decided upon using. I had chosen it based on the ingredients I had needed for it. Upon my attempts at translating I had remembered as a child hearing stories of fearsome beasts that seemed to regenerate and rise from their ashes, which were ingredients of this spell. Leaning over the book with what little light I had left to read, I took one last deep breath before I started reading in the archaic and foreign language.
"Eiris sazun idisi, sazun hera duoder. Suma hapt heptidun, suma heri lezidun, suma clubodun umbi cuoniouuidi: insprinc haptbandun, inuar uigandun."
The flames of the candles that were in the room had shot up and almost tripled in size, and then suddenly returned to their normal height. A brilliant light then started to come from the sword that was still where I left it. It then started to levitate in the air and the light it emitted continued to grow brighter. As the final step for the spell called for, I conjured a ball of flames in my palm and sent it towards the luminous blade. It started circling around and around the sword, and accelerated to a point that it just made continuous lines of light around the blade. The blue flames started turning green just as they had done in my dream. The light started to get to be too much for me, so closing my eyes I had to turn my head away from the intense light. An enormous blast shortly followed after I turned.
Then nothing. It was completely quiet in the room and the light had started to subdue. I turned back to see that the green flames were still present and slowly being subdued. That wasn't what had caught my attention though. The entire room could have been on fire and I wouldn't have noticed it at that moment.
Maleficent. It was her. Just as she was the last time I had seen her in person. My breath caught in my throat and I forgot to continue breathing until I started to feel dizzy. I was almost starting to believe that she was simply a figment of my imagination until I did something drastic that would tell me one way or another if she was really there. I quickly closed the space between the two of us and wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my face into the folds of her robes. I don't know if it was my excitement with thinking I had actually done it or the thought that if this were an illusion I would be alone for the rest of my life that motivated me to do it. When my arms weren't greeted with air, but in fact a materialized figure, I started to feel tears well up in my eyes.
Now I know what you may be thinking, "why after all those years of servitude would she act so happy about her mistress's return?" Well to be perfectly honest, if you had lost the only source of what you knew to be normality and you were able to bring it back, wouldn't you hold onto it as tightly as you could, and never let it slip from your grasp again? That was what I was doing. After all that I had learned since she had left, I couldn't help but feel that Maleficent was the closest I may ever have to a family.
It was probably only mere seconds, but to me it felt like hours that I sat there and embraced her, sobbing and muttering, "I did it." I could hear Maleficent clearing her throat to try to get my attention, but I didn't want to move from this position.
A gentle pressure on the back of my shoulder caught my attention. Carefully shifting my head, I saw a hand. Her hand, mimicking the same gesture I was doing. For the first time since that fateful birthday, Maleficent was showing, in her own way, a display of positive emotion towards me.
"I did it!" I uttered one last time.
"That you did," was the response that I received before I felt her other hand rest on the top of my head. And for that moment, everything seemed perfect.
I hope you guys enjoyed that as much as I did writing it. I had the warm fuzzies the entire time. For those who are wondering where I came up with the spell that I used here, it is actually part of the Merseburg Incantations which were written in Old High German. I mainly picked it for the last lines that loosely translate into: Escape the bonds, flee the enemy (according to the source that I got it from) and it talked about how it was a "liberating spell". I hope to hear what you guys thought of this, and if you have any ideas of what you would like to see let me know!