There was a problem, but for some reason she just didn't feel that comfortable confessing their problem around Emma. It was clear to her that she didn't need any more stress than she already had on her and she certainly didn't need one more thing to tempt her into popping over to Camelot when they weren't looking and doing the job herself.
Fortunately time was on her side. She spent another restless night curled up under her thin blanket and cloak in the diners booth as Robin and Granny kept watch outside. The next morning she heard Killian rise early, before the sun, and when he returned he sat at a booth and charted out what he believed to be the cardinal directions, after they all rose and had something for breakfast he announced that he, Henry, and Emma were going to venture out into the woods to see if they could figure out distances for the map, the last thing he needed to really make it usable. The moment they were gone she seized her opportunity. Merlin, Mary Margaret, David, and Regina, she gathered all of them outside the diner as Roland played and told them what she'd learned.
"He can't go," she concluded. "He knows magic but only old magic. Arthur will use the latest most powerful magic he can to ward the castle which means he won't be able to bring it down. Regina…it'll have to be you."
"No," she shook her head. "The wards no doubt will be against me and Emma both, I won't be able do anything about them. Besides, I wasn't going to say it, but I'm not comfortable leaving Emma here with no other magic users. If something happens I could be the only one with the power to help her. It's too dangerous."
"Then how are we supposed to rescue Lancelot?"
"Perhaps we could take a little time?" Merlin suggested. "I'm a quick study. I could learn this new magic for myself."
"How long would that take?" David asked.
"Too long," Regina answered for him. Merlin cast her an odd look, surprise at what she'd said to him, but Regina only shook her head. "We don't have two weeks to bring you up to speed on every magical spell that's evolved since you were turned into a living Christmas tree. All due respect, it's just not possible."
"What about another sorcerer?" David suggested. "You and Emma can't be the only ones in the area. We could find someone new to help us just this one time."
"I don't think we can trust anyone in Camelot or around it," Mary Margaret dismissed. "Those in will be under the dusts influence and we could put any one else, not to mention Emma, in even more danger by revealing ourselves to the wrong person. What about spells? Regina, you could make spells to break through the wards and send them along with them couldn't you?"
She shook her head. "No, she'd have to know what kind of ward it is to make a spell that is specific enough to defeat it, or go with us to capture a bit of the ward and add it to a general potion to break down it's barriers. It wouldn't work."
Regina wouldn't go.
Emma wasn't an option.
There was no Rumple around to save the day.
Merlin, powerful as he was, no matter how fast he learned, couldn't do it…
At least not by himself.
The answer was suddenly so blaringly obvious she felt stupid for calling this little meeting. Merlin was a quick study. All he needed were the spells from today! An understanding of magic that she just so happened to possess!
"I'll go," she volunteered suddenly. She wasn't even sure when she'd made the decision to do this or say the words but there they were, jumping out of her mouth whether she was ready for them to or not. And the others didn't appear ready.
"What?" Mary Margaret questioned confused.
"I'll go. He said it himself, he's a quick study. He doesn't have time to go through all the books of spells, but he doesn't have too! We have books in the back, books I stole from the library as well as his tower, I've gone over them dozens of times, I know them inside and out. I can find the spells and he can use them."
Merlin smiled. "That's a fair plan, I don't see why it wouldn't work."
"Yeah, wait just one second, Dumbledore," Regina dismissed actually holding her hand out to silence Merlin as if he were nothing but a child. "It sounds like a lot of risk. Who says the spells that you'll need will be in those books? Who says he can learn them fast enough?"
She grit her teeth together. She knew magic. She knew that she couldn't do magic but she knew magic! Will had been right all those weeks ago! She was the one they always went to for help, she was the one that figured out Zelena's plan, and helped Emma figure out how to get Merlin out of the tree in the first place. She couldn't do magic because she wasn't magical, but in every other way she was just as skilled as Regina or Emma!
"I can do it," she insisted. "I know I can do it-we can do it, together! And it's not as much a risk as you think. Merlin can't do this magic but he can do other magic, he can keep us safe and so can David and Killian. I won't leave their sides if it makes you feel better but…this is what has to be done. It's the only option we have to rescue Lancelot, help Camelot, and free Emma! This is how I get back to Rumple."
"And what about Rumple?" Regina questioned. "This is going to be a hike through the mountains and the woods followed by the siege of the castle at Camelot with a very small inefficient army! Are you going to take that rose with you for all that time? You could be gone a day, you could be gone a week!"
"We're a day away!"
She turned and looked over her shoulder at the ironic answer to Regina's question delivered by Killian as he hiked up the mountain with Emma and Henry with him.
"We're only a day away. Look here!" he laid the map out on the side for Granny's diner and showed them a mark he'd made on it. "We used Henry's talking phone, it had a gadget on it-"
"It's called a stopwatch."
"Right. It took us an hour to go from here…to here. Then exactly another hour to go from here to here! That matches perfectly. If the distances on the rest of this map are accurate, if it was accurate on the dirt…"
He glanced over at Merlin and the wizard only bowed his head and gave his shoulders a small shrug. "That spell has never failed me before."
"So then if we measure the rest of the distance from here to there then if we leave at first light tomorrow we can be there by dinner time the next night."
"This time of the year, it'll be dark when we really get into the heart of Camelot. We could take the night, keep watch on the castle, figure out the comings and goings like we did with Zelena in the Enchanted Forest."
"Then you can go at night and free Lancelot…" Mary Margaret finished with a nod. "Gives you the rest of today to get ready."
"Not like we can take Granny's frozen lasagna with us…" David agreed.
"So we're in agreement then," Killian considered pocketing his map. "We leave tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," David concurred.
"Tomorrow it is," Merlin confirmed.
"Tomorrow," she added for good measure before insisting "I'm going with you."
Maybe it was because Emma was around, maybe it was because they'd taken what she'd said to heart, but this time no one cried foul or tried to discourage her, though Killian did look terribly confused. That was fine, if they had a day to hike then they'd have plenty of time to explain it to him and plenty of time for him to argue it wasn't a smart thing to do. She would say the opposite, it wasn't the safe thing to do, but it was the smart thing to do. And brave, because there was no denying that what she was about to do took more courage than she knew she had.
"Regina!" she called as the group broke up to start their preparations. "You're right, I can't take Rumple with me, but I can't just let him sit around either so…here!"
She shoved the bell jar into Regina's chest, expecting her to take it from her right away but she didn't. Instead she glanced down at it and made a face of utter disbelief before looking back up at her and furrowing her eye brows.
"You're serious?" she questioned reaching out and taking it from her with only her finger tips, like she expected her to reach forward and rethink her decision at any second.
"Very," she insisted letting it go. "But only until I'm back and only because you're the only one who will have the magic I assume is required for someone other than me to check it. And…if something changes, if it starts to die quickly then you also have the magic to come get me. You…you can check it, right?"
Regina rolled her eyes and waved her hand over the glass which cleared almost instantaneously in only a small circle around the rose itself, like someone had rubbed a circle into fogged up glass as opposed to when it cleared completely for her. The bell jar wasn't linked to Regina the way it was her, it wouldn't clear for Regina like it did her, but she could force it and even though it turned her stomach she knew that was the way it had to be. Just like going with the men was just how it had to be. There was no one else left behind that had magic that she trusted to check on him and get her should something go wrong.
"I may not be Merlin but modern magic I know…" Regina finally answered as the glass quickly fogged back over. Still…she seemed unsettled as she held the bell jar against her body and stared it. "Are you sure-"
"I'm trusting you with this," she interrupted. "I won't lie, it's the most important thing in my life right now. If you really and truly want my trust back, you'll keep that safe."
Because their little hunting party to the castle otherwise is the most ridiculous thing ever without this chapter! David and Killian I get, Merlin I can understand why it was awesome for him to go instead of Regina or Emma, but Belle?! With a spell book? Who decided that?! This way at least explains it and doesn't contradict the fact that Merlin is able to use his own magic during the siege but not actually defend against theirs because if a scene like this doesn't happen then the scene where they are standing at the jail cell and Merlin says I can't do this one simple thing would only be fixed by David saying "oh, lucky us we have this librarian we decided to bring with us for no particular reason really, but she happens to have the answer in the book she brought and oh look she's already looking it up!"
Thank you, Fox24, Grace5231973, TracyJean, and Ladybugsmomma! Ya'll are too kind, really I'm just doing the best I can with a crappy story line and trying to write it with the hopes of understanding it a little bit better. Things just got so lazy this season. If only I could be a writer...for sure I'd be making more money than I am at my current job so there's a nice little perk! In the next chapter, we'll finally get into 5x06 where the tone of the entire half season really changed in my opinion. I hope you'll like what is in store for all of that! Peace and Happy Reading!