Chapter 36: Magic
As Emma and Henry walked down the streets of Storybrooke, Henry realized that Emma really had no idea where they were going. Though she had been sheriff for almost a year, her face clearly said she didn't know how to get to the monastery—at least, not on foot. Henry smiled to himself but kept quiet, giving her a little time to figure it out. She kept her hand on his good shoulder and he walked with her until they came to a corner. She turned right and he moved forward slipping out of her grasp.
"Emma, where are you going?" Henry asked, his body poised to cross the street. "The monastery is this way."
She opened her mouth as if to give him an excuse or maybe a joke to save herself, but Henry only smirked. "I knew that," she said shrugging.
"No, you didn't." Henry grinned and held out his hand to her. Emma took it and let him lead her across the street. He did give her the benefit of the doubt though. Storybrooke seemed small but that was only because everyone knew each other from twenty-eight years in a curse and the numerous years they'd spent together before hand. Really, Storybrooke was a labyrinth and he marveled at how more people didn't get lost more often.
"Do you know everything about Storybrooke?" Emma asked, looking down at him. Her blonde hair was loose and flitted around her shoulders, brilliant in the afternoon light.
"Pretty much," said Henry. Emma chuckled and shook her head.
He said it jokingly, but really Henry did know everything about Storybrooke. He had spent months, even before leaving to find Emma, exploring and trying to figure out why everything about the town felt strange. He had only gotten the book from Mary Margaret about a month before leaving Storybrooke for Boston, but Henry had always known in his gut that something was very wrong. He never understood why he had known. He had grown up in Storybrooke, never leaving or seeing anything else of the world; this town was his world. For him, everything should have seemed normal, but from the beginning it hadn't.
The more curious he became, and the more his mother obviously lied, the more Henry took his hours after school and before dinner to explore the town. Because of that, he did know everything about Storybrooke. He knew how almost none of the headstone in the cemetery had inscriptions, and those that did were of names of people no one could remember even existing. He knew the docks held ships that never went anywhere and weren't owned by anyone. Henry knew there was a well on the other side of town that was rumored to have magical properties but he could never figure out how it worked. And he knew the monastery was close to the docks almost in a part of Storybrooke that was secluded.
Though he knew where the monastery was, Henry had never personally been there. They approached the hill and watched as the high steeple grew in the distance. The leaves were soft under their feet and Henry felt something in the air. It was like a buzzing, a slow hum that vibrated through his body. Suddenly he remembered that the nuns were really fairies. He wondered if the hum was the presence of magic, heavy because of the concentration of magical beings. Emma's hand tightened in his grasp and she slowed her walk. But Henry, excited to talk to the fairies, pulled on her hand and walked up the hill with more purpose.
Soon they were at the door of the stone-faced building, knocking on the soft wood. The door opened quickly and a small black woman revealed herself. Her eyes widened as they alighted on Emma, and she bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty," she said, her voice full of an unimaginable reverence. Even Henry's eyebrows shot up. He looked over at Emma and almost smiled at the confused look she gave the nun/fairy.
"You don't have to do that," she said as the fairy stood. "My name is Emma."
She struck her hand out for a handshake, which the fairy took with a wide grin plastered on her face.
"How can I be of service to you, Savior?"
Emma glanced once at Henry before straightening up. She assumed the role of Sheriff, her face all business and impassive.
"I need to speak with Mother Superior. Immediately."
The fairy nodded enthusiastically. "The Blue Fairy has been hoping for a chance to speak with the royal family. Right this way."
Henry followed Emma through the door and together they followed the fairy through the dark halls of the monastery. Storybrooke wasn't necessarily a happy place to begin with, but Henry felt as if the monastery had suffered a great deal. The walls were cold stone and those areas that had been painted were peeling. The wood floors were worn and unpolished and as they climbed the stairs to the second floor the stained glass windows appeared more stained than they did artistic. Still, Henry felt safe within the walls. It wasn't just because Emma was close, a hand always in contact with some part of him. There was something protective about the hard exterior of the nuns' monastery.
They found the Blue Fairy in an office at the far end of a hall. When the door opened she turned away from the fairy she had been speaking with and her shoulders straightened.
"Emma," she said, stretching out a hand, inviting them in. She turned to the fairy beside her—a short and stout woman with curling gray hair—and said, "We can continue this discussion tonight, Merryweather."
"Of course," said Merryweather. Her smile was radiant as she passed Emma and Henry. She closed the door behind her.
"I am so glad you've come to see me, Emma," said Blue. She gestured for them to take seats on the old couches pushed against the far wall. Henry plopped down, surprised to find the cushions still springy. Emma smiled down at him. Blue took a seat to their side.
"I heard there was another council meeting this afternoon," she said.
Emma nodded and leaned forward. "Just so you know, Snow and James feel bad about what happened a couple days ago. They wanted to apologize."
"And yet, they have nothing to apologize for," said Blue shaking her head. "Your parents have always been too kind, too forgiving. Anyone else would have my head. They would see it as treason."
Emma suddenly looked at the fairy with sharp eyes. "And it wasn't? They may be forgiving, but I'm not so easy."
Both Henry and the Blue Fairy stared at Emma. He heard the sharpness of her tongue and swallowed. He was wrong to think that maybe Emma was over everything that had happened. She had given her father, Charming, a hug on her own and seemed happy to be around her family, but the anger was still there. A part of him wanted to admonish Emma and tell her to try to be a little happier but at the same time, he knew there were a lot of factors at play. He thought about his own situation. He was still mad at his mother for everything she had done to him and for making his life miserable, but he still loved her. As much as that irked him, he still couldn't stand the thought of seeing anything awful happen to her. And he knew he loved Emma for a fact, but sometimes the thought would creep in and he would find himself hating her for giving him up. He imagined what life would have been like with his real mother and his firefighter father. Sometimes he couldn't forgive Emma for taking that from him. In the woods the night before, when he looked at Regina and Emma facing off he saw the Evil Queen and the woman who gave him away: two people who had, in their own ways, made his life a very sad one. But he also saw two women who meant more to him than anything else.
"Emma, I am truly sorry—" started the Blue Fairy, but Emma cut her off.
"It's not me you have to apologize to. It's them," she said nodding her head as if her parents sat right beside them. Henry kind of wished they did. "It wasn't me you lied to. You hurt them."
"Nevertheless," Blue said with sad eyes that flickered over Henry, "you all suffered."
Emma crossed her arm over her lap and took Henry's good hand into her own. Henry squeezed and tried to give his mother a good smile. She returned it and turned back to the fairy.
"Yeah, well," she said shrugging off the last conversation, "that's not what we're here to talk about. Do you know August Booth? The stranger that came into town a couple of months ago."
"Yes," the fairy nodded. "Pinocchio."
"You knew who he was!?" Henry piped up. She would have had to know before the curse broke; Emma said he had turned before she could break the curse.
The Blue Fairy nodded and said, "I had a couple of conversations with him. I realized, after I regained my memories, who he must be. Especially after finding out Gepetto has not yet found him. Has he left Storybrooke?"
"He turned back into wood," said Emma bluntly. Emma was never one to sugar coat things.
"Wood?"
"Like, all over," said Henry, waving his hand in front of his face. He remembered August's eyes. Those had been the most terrifying. The Blue Fairy's eyes widened and she sat back, surprised.
"How could that have happened?"
Emma shook her head but Henry answered. "He said he wasn't a very good boy. He was turning for a long time."
"It was my fault," Emma admitted, tightening her grip on Henry. "He tried to tell me about the curse but I didn't listen. I couldn't save him in time. But I'm here now, and I need help. I have to turn him back."
Again, the Blue Fairy shook her head sympathetically. "Emma, for that—"
"I need fairy dust," Emma said. "I know. Gold said so."
"Yes, but you also need magic," the fairy explained. "We only have a little fairy dust stored away—until the dwarves find more. And still, we don't have any magic."
"But aren't you magical? Can't you do something?" Henry asked.
The Blue Fairy finally turned to him."Yes, Henry, but magic is not so easy. Fairies, we are magic, but with nothing to channel our magic, we are little else. We don't have any wands."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Well then, how do we get wands?"
"That is what the other fairies and I have been working on. Our wands are gifts, bestowed upon us by the purest of magical creatures. They're made from the horns of unicorns."
"Unicorns," Emma sighed obviously annoyed.
"As you may have noticed, there are no unicorns in Storybrooke."
"So then I'm stuck? We can't bring him back?"
But Henry shook his head. Just because the fairies couldn't use magic didn't mean there was nothing to do.
"What if you gave the fairy dust to someone who could use magic?" he asked.
"I don't think Mr. Gold is going to be gung ho about helping us, kid," said Emma immediately.
"Nor would Regina," Blue added.
Henry shook his head. "No, not them. You, Emma," he said looking directly at his mother.
She leaned back automatically and looked at him as if he were crazy. But Henry wasn't crazy. It was obvious Emma had magic. Powerful magic. He didn't know if she had done anything else but to send him and his grandfather miles into the wood with just her hand meant she was something special. If she could do that, was it so hard to believe that she could turn a puppet back into the human he was. She had broken one curse already. Who was to say that she couldn't break another.
"Kid," started Emma.
"I thought something was different," whispered Blue. She was looking at Emma with bright eyes, scanning his mother up and down.
Emma started back wearily. "What does that mean?"
"Magical beings," Blue said quietly, "we can feel each other, sense one another's presence. We have a certain pull." She moved her hands demonstrating the attractiveness of them. "In the hospital, when the curse broke, I sensed something different. At the time I thought it was just the magic that had come to this land and my memories. But even now I can feel it. It's you. You are magic."
Henry froze. he had not even considered that as a possibility. How did one become magic? He knew Regina and Mr. Gold had magic, but that came from years of dealing and training to learn how to use it. What Emma had done was not planned and in the second before he disappeared he was sure he saw fear in her green eyes. if Emma was magic, a pure form of it, then she truly was a powerful being. She was like the fairies and even like unicorns, one of kind.
"That's…ridiculous," Emma said, taking her hand off of Henry's knee and wringing it in her own lap.
But the Blue Fairy continued on as if she hadn't heard. "The product of True Love, of course."
"Okay, stop."
"Emma," Henry said turning to her. "You're probably more powerful than my mom and Mr. Gold!"
"Our savior," said Blue with awe.
Emma turned away from both of them and took a minute to compose herself. She took several deep breaths but Henry couldn't understand why she was so anxious. Emma having magic, being magic, was wonderful. It made sense. That's why she could break the curse and bring happy endings to all the sad fairytales. Maybe that's why his mother never seemed to be able to keep the upper hand during her battle against Emma. Emma wasn't only strong willed, but she was literally powerful—a pure source of magic, even when she didn't know it.
Emma finally turned around and looked at the Blue Fairy. She seemed determined and strong. Henry beamed.
"If I have—am—magic, can I save August? Can I turn Pinocchio back?"
The Blue Fairy nodded. "I think you could."
"Then I need fairy dust," said Emma standing up.
But the Blue Fairy immediately protested. "I think we should wait until the dwarves have found more. Using our little supply—"
"You owe my family," said Emma, "and I'm cashing in."
And with that, Emma effectively ended the conversation and any further debate. Henry stood up next to her and they waited while the Blue Fairy seemed to weigh her options. She finally nodded and stood up as well, leading them from the room with her shoulders somewhat resigned. They found, in another room deep in the basement of the monastery the supply of fairy dust. The Blue Fairy pulled out a small cloth bag, tied at the top with a thick string. She handed the bag of fairy dust to Emma who held it in her hand as if it were a bomb.
"You must be careful with that, Emma," said the Blue Fairy.
Emma tucked it into the pocket of her leather jacket and then took Henry's hand. "I will be."
Then, they left, leaving the fairies in search of wands to make them powerful again. But Henry now felt a power radiating like heat on his side—not from the bag of fairy dust, but from his own mother.
Thanks for reading. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but i always thought that Emma was literally magic. Like Gold said, he took advantage of what she was. He needed magic in a land without any and he made sure Emma was delivered to our world.
Anyway, please review. Thanks for reading.