Chapter twenty-six
"This is delicious!" Graham exclaimed as he tore another bite away from the chimera he had been served.
Dawn shook her head at him, he may have been afraid of many things, but it did not appear that he was too frightened of appearing uncouth. She could understand though. She was sure that she had reacted the same way when she had first tried to food outside of the Enchanted Forest. As much as she loved going to the Underworld just to visit her mother, she had to admit that the food was somehow bland when compared to the offerings of the other realms.
"You really need to slow down or you will definitely throw up when we teleport back," she said semi-seriously.
Graham faltered for a moment at the thought of teleporting, but then the taste of the meat hit his tongue once again and he decided that a little bit of nausea would definitely be worth it.
Dawn rolled her eyes with a grin tugging at the corner of her lips as he continued to devour the meat and she reached forward to bring up her tankard of beer up to her lips.
"I never thought they would let her out of the castle, let alone allow her to explore on her own."
The demi-goddess furrowed her brow at the sound of the gossiping women behind her. She was not usually one to listen in on conversations, but she was fairly certain that there not many people that they could be talking about and she had thought she had seen one of them before when she had entered the tavern. At the time she had quickly pushed it aside since she had to try and temper Graham's nerves, he wasn't too used to being around this many people.
Now though, he seemed more than comfortable so her attention naturally shifted to her surroundings.
"I can't imagine how they manged to hide an heir for twenty-one years, people were starting to panic, you know," the woman's companion laughed into her drink, "we had no idea if they ever even planned to have a child and now we find out that the princess is already of age."
"In body maybe," the woman who worked in the palace laughed, "but I find it hard to believe that my little Persephone is truly grown in mind."
At the sound of the name, Dawn choked on her beer and placed the tankard down hard as she tried not to sputter too hard onto the table.
Graham frowned at her, looking very much concerned, but she quickly held up a hand to tell him that she was fine.
"Are you okay, dear?" the woman behind her asked and Dawn instantly realised why she had recognised her. She had met the princess's tutor during her stay in the palace and now she was slightly embarrassed that she hadn't recognised Granny considering Emma had actually introduced her to the woman.
In the same moment, Eugenia Lucas seemed to realise that she too had met the other woman and her eyebrows knit together. She was sure that she had never seen a royal's companion in a tavern before, especially with a man that was not her prince.
Dawn cringed when she realised her folly, but she decided that she didn't really have much to worry about. Though she wasn't quite ready to admit it aloud, she didn't really think that there was much chance that she would be returning to Devin forever. She just couldn't imagine wanting to spend an eternity with him, even if she could.
"Mrs Lucas," she greeted as she shot Graham a look that said she would explain later, "how strange it is to run into you here."
The tutor nodded her agreement, choosing not to comment, though Dawn was sure that she would be telling someone soon. The woman was clearly a gossip. It must have killed her to have to hide the existence of a princess that only a select few knew about.
Silence passed between them, while Graham looked between to pair to try and figure out what he was missing, but he mostly just wanted to know the same thing as Dawn did.
"We really must be going," Dawn announced as she elbowed Graham, who promptly rose from his seat while wiping some food from his face.
Granny nodded, still with the glimmer of suspicion in her eyes and Dawn decided that there was no way out of this situation so she might as well ask what she wanted to know.
"Why do you call Princess Emma Persephone?" she asked brazenly.
The older woman's frown deepened, but she seemed to decide that there was no harm in telling her since she already knew that she was one of Emma's friends.
"She has always taken great pleasure in working with flowers, it seemed fitting," she replied with suspicion dripping through all of her words, "why do you ask?"
Dawn simply shrugged and offered her a smile as she tried to keep the excitement down in her stomach.
"Just curious," she said, "it was a pleasure seeing you again."
With that, she grabbed Graham by the arm and pulled him out of the tavern in five seconds flat. She was suddenly grateful that she had paid upfront for everything they had ordered.
"Did you hear that?!" she exclaimed excitedly once they came to a stop outside.
Graham opened and closed his mouth a few times as he considered what the woman had just told them. He knew exactly where Dawn's mind was going right now but he didn't want to be the one to tell her that it could simply be a coincidence.
"You think…that proves that Emma is the one?" he asked slowly.
Dawn nodded vigorously and Graham bit the inside of his cheek. As much as he believed that Emma could easily make Regina happy, the fact remained that the young princess would not be able to be with the goddess for the rest of eternity.
In her whirlwind of excitement, Dawn failed to see the doubt evident in her companion's face and she reached forward to grab his arm.
"We need to get back," she announced.
"Why so urgently?" Graham asked as he tried to pull his arm away, he suddenly felt a wave of nausea at the implication of poofing.
"Well, we need all the time we can get if we're going to try and make some plants grow in the Underworld."
Emma was sure that she should be able to sleep after the exhausting day that she'd had.
After she had disarmed Lancelot, he had stopped going easy on her and she was sure that she had more than one bruise for every new thing that he taught her.
Despite this though, she still couldn't stop the massive grin that adorned her face when she thought about the training. It wasn't so long ago that she would have spent the day sat in the White Palace's library reading the Le Morte d'Arthur.
With a quiet sigh, she realised that was precisely the reason that she couldn't sleep.
Her head lolled to the side and she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the sight before.
It also wasn't too long ago that she would never have imagined that she would ever meet a goddess, let alone be sitting next to a sleeping one and thinking about just how adorable the woman looked.
She had been more than surprised to find that Regina had already gone to sleep before she had arrived in the room, though she imagined that it was because she didn't want to deal with the awkwardness that was the previous night.
Emma spent a few more moments staring at the goddess of the Underworld, before she decided that it was kind of creepy that she was just watching her wife sleeping. So, her head lolled to the other side so that she was looking at table by the side of the bed. Upon its surface laid the leather-bound book that Hecate had gifted to her earlier.
In all of her eagerness to continue her sword training, she hadn't really thought much about the book since she had asked Regina to look after it.
She looked over her shoulder to make sure that she wouldn't disrupt the older woman as she reached over to bring the book towards herself. She smiled down at the cover. She hadn't noticed in the daylight, but 'Emma White' inscribed on the cover.
A shift at her side brought her attention away from it for a moment and she looked back over to Regina to see that the woman was stirring slightly.
The blonde cringed slightly and got out of the bed as sneakily as she possibly could. After pulling on her boots, she made her way over to the door and followed the now familiar path towards the library.
It wasn't long before she found herself sat cross-legged at the foot of one of the shelves and she placed the book onto her lap.
Slowly, she lifted the cover of it so that she could turn to the first page and a frown instantly overtook her face when she was faced with a blank page.
Her fingers quickly moved to turn to the next page and then the next page until she finally just pick up the book and flicked through every page. There didn't seem to be a single bit of ink anywhere in the book and she blew out a breath of disappointment and fell back against the bookcase with slumped shoulders.
"You have to tell it what you want to know," someone said behind her and Emma jumped where sat so that her head collided with the shelf.
"Ow," she called as she brought her hand up to cover the spot in which she hit.
Merlin's eyes widened and he fell into a kneeling position in front of the princess, "my apologises, I didn't mean to surprise you."
He raised his hand questioningly and Emma frowned for a moment before she nodded her consent and he reached forward to place his hand over the injury. Without even a word, his hand began to glow and the blonde allowed her eyes to close as the magic sent a soothing jolt throughout all of her nerves.
The magician pulled his hand away once he was satisfied that the spell had done its job, he leaned back so that he was sitting in front of her, though not quite as close as he had just been to her.
"My apologises, I just couldn't bear the thought of you giving up on that perfectly good book," he chuckled lightly as he gestured towards the book.
Emma frowned down at the pages and replied, "but it's blank…"
"And if you hadn't been asked a question, your mind would also be blank of answers," Merlin shot back with a grin when the women seemed to only become more confused. "What is it that you were planning to learn from this book?"
Emma's eyebrows knit together as she considered this for a couple of moments. What she knew about magic could probably fill less than a page of paper. All she knew was that her magic was governed by her emotions, but if she couldn't control her emotions then she would never be able to control her magic. But she had no idea how she would even begin to start understanding something that she had only recently been made aware that she even possessed.
After a brief pause, she looked back up to Merlin and replied, "everything."
Merlin laughed at just how excited the young princess looked and he held out his hand so that she could hand him the book.
"I'm afraid that a single night will not be enough time for everything. Magic is complex and unique to each person. It gives its user exactly what they want and what they need and it always comes with a price."
"A price?" Emma repeated, suddenly looking somewhat afraid.
"No spell can be cast without some kind of consequence, for the simplest of spells the price will be very imperceptible. But if you use your magic for something more significant, the price will be equal to your intent. Should you use your gift to harm another, then harm will most definitely come to you in ways that you could not possibly expect."
"And if I use magic for good?" the blonde asked, now more nervous about the prospect of magic.
"Then you will be rewarded in some way, I believe the concept is called Karma in other realms."
The blonde nodded her understanding, she had come across that term in her reading.
Merlin smiled at the woman, hoping that he looked somewhat reassuring. He had lost count of the years that had passed since he had first learned magic, but he was still painfully aware of how he had felt when he had learned on all of the restrictions that was placed on the art. Being ultimately powerful didn't mean that one had the right to do whatever they pleased.
"Perhaps you could try a simple spell with no repercussions?" Merlin suggested after the silence became longer than could be considered comfortable.
"Like?"
The sorcerer thought about this for a moment, before he grinned and whispered something to the book.
It didn't take long for writing to appear on the page and he turned it over to show the princess.
"I trust you understand Elfish?"
The blonde took the book from him and nodded, "I studied the language in my free-time at the palace…"
"Strange hobby for a princess," Merlin chuckled.
Emma shrugged, "it was interesting…" She trailed off and looked down at the book once more and a smile started tugging at the corner of her lips when she read just what he wanted her to do.
"These are spells to create a gift?" she asked.
"Well, it seems quite unlikely to me that there could be any prices to pay for creating a gift for your wife," he replied, "and this will give you a chance to learn how to follow a spell rather than relying only on your instincts."
The blonde nodded and returned to reading the words, before she looked back up at him and asked, "could…could you show me how to follow a spell?"
Regina groaned as sunlight invaded her peaceful sleep and her forehead scrunched as if the action would stop her from having to wake up. If anything she didn't want to have to repeat the awkwardness of the other morning, even if she could admit in her mind that there had been a brief moment before they had both achieved full consciousness when the moment was perfect and uninhibited by all of reasons that they shouldn't be sharing a bed.
The goddess groaned again when it became clear that her mind was already thinking way too much into everything, which meant that there was no way that she would be falling back to sleep now. She sighed heavily and finally decided to open her eyes and pushed herself up on her hands.
It took a moment for her still tired mind to process the fact that she was alone in the bed. Though this was something that she was very much used to, she was still aware that she shouldn't actually be alone while they were in Camelot. After all, they had appearances to keep up.
However, she soon had her answer as to the reason to the princess's disappearance when she noticed that there was a certain book missing from the bedside table. Though she had no idea why that would have taken the young woman away all night since she had yet to show her how to actually use the enchanted book.
Regina shook this off and swung her legs around the side of the bed so that she could begin to get ready, but she was interrupted by the sound of the heavy door opening and closing.
The brunette expected to see another maid when she looked up and she prepared a method to dismiss her, but any words died on her lips when she saw a very tired looking blonde smiling at her timidly.
Regina's eyes fell down to the book she clutched and she instantly knew that she had been right about what the woman had spent her night doing.
"I trust you discovered the books secret and didn't spend hours staring at blank pages?" Hades asked with a slight grin.
"Merlin gave me something of an introduction to magic," Emma replied as she made her way across the room. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone, but I couldn't resist exploring an enchanted book given to me by the goddess of magic."
"I understand, dear," Regina chuckled.
Emma smiled in response and then rocked awkwardly on her heels as a silence between them. Finally, she decided to move the conversation along:
"Merlin showed me how to use the book and allowed me to practice a spell…" as she explained, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace. It was a simple chain with a purple pendant that matched the colour of the bracelet she had brought her wife in the Enchanted Forest.
The goddess blinked a few times, just as she did the last time that she had received a gift from the blonde. In all of her time, she was sure that she had never wanted anything other than freedom from the Underworld, but being given jewellery by a mortal still somehow made her heart swell. And this was the third time that it had happened.
The princess moved around the bed so that she could sit next to her wife and she placed the necklace into her hand.
"I know that the shape isn't exactly perfect, but I think it turned out fairly well…" Emma said as she waited for Regina's reaction.
"It is perfect," the goddess corrected her as she smiled at the carving of the White Family crest upon the surface of the pendant. She was sure that it would piss off Snow White if she knew that her daughter had given the symbol so freely to the goddess of the Underworld, but it wasn't that which was making Regina smile. It was the fact that Emma actually wanted her to wear a necklace with her family crest upon it.
"I just thought that it could serve as a reminder that whenever I visit the Enchanted Forest, I will always return to the Underworld…to home…"
Regina opened and closed her mouth a few times as she tried to think of something that she could say to show the princess just how much that meant to her, but no words came to mind.
So without much thought, the brunette whispered an incantation so that a similar necklace (though this one was obsidian) materialised in her own hand and she handed it over to the blonde.
Emma furrowed her brow for a moment as she inspected the pendant, but she quickly recognised the crest of Hades that she had seen many times in the Underworld.
Emma didn't need to any explanation as to why she had just created a similar necklace and it was as if her mind had completely repressed all of her Regina-related nerves in that moment.
She leaned in as an invitation, giving the goddess a chance to stand from the bed if she wasn't prepared for this, but it seemed that she too was taken in by the moment as she met her half way and their lips connected.
At first, the kiss was tentative, far more akin to the innocent peck that Emma had stolen before she had left for the Enchanted Forest. However, it wasn't long before the blonde raised her hand to cup Regina's cheek and somehow pull their lips impossibly closer as they moved against each other with increasing passion.
They eventually parted, though they still remained closer than they had before.
Emma let out a small laugh as her smile reached her eyes and Regina couldn't help but mirror that expression. In that one perfect moment, she had forgotten that the blonde was mortal and that there would eventually be a time when she would have to live without her.
"I was thinking…" Emma began once the comfortable silence had run its course, "perhaps we should return to the Underworld soon?"
Regina quirked an eyebrow at the blonde curiously. The princess had been so excited to visit other realms and she found it hard to believe that one kiss would make her want to stop her adventure so soon.
"I believe it would be best to pace our realm-hopping before we run out of new places," Emma replied in response to Regina's unasked question. Though, she didn't say out loud that the real reason that she wanted to return home was because it would be easier define their confused relationship without all of the distractions.
Regina nodded in understanding, even though she was still finding it hard to think straight after that kiss. Her mind was still somehow processing every moment of her and the fact that it had actually happened and that it had felt so right.
"Perhaps we should remain in Camelot for a while longer?" she suggested after her mind allowed her to think of something else, "it would be quite rude to our hosts to just disappear and it would be foolish to pass up the chance to study magic with Merlin for at least a few days."
The princess nodded by way of reply, mostly because she didn't want to show the immortal that she was slightly disappointed. However, she did understand that the woman had spent thousands of years alone, so one spontaneous kiss would hardly be enough to make her completely comfortable with a mortal that she had known for only a few months. Despite this though, the fact that they were still closer to each other than they would have been in the past ignited a fire of hope.
"Get some sleep, dear," Regina announced as she reluctantly rose the bed, as much as she didn't want it to be, the moment was over and all of her doubts were beginning to creep back in. "You look exhausted."
Emma hummed in agreement as she fell back against the bed, almost instantly closing her eyes.
"'night, Gina," she mumbled.
Regina shook her head with a small laugh as she leaned over to pull the blanket over the princess.
A/N Reviews are a great motivator :D