A/N: Well, it's been a good ride with you all. I hope to do some more Maleval in the near future, but I have also started on my own original novel- so I may be a bit distracted. This is the last chapter, but I will also post a small epilogue, maybe later today. I hope you have all enjoyed and that you review it! Happy reading everyone.
Chapter 18:
Diaval felt himself falling, but above that, he felt himself dying.
The lightning went through his wing and into his side. He felt it squeeze his heart and the magic that surged through his blood tried to repair it. Unfortunately, Maleficent's magic cannot undo or even touch the dark magic of the sorcerer. He believed that his heart was going to stop probably before he hit the ground. In his free fall, he saw a large blast of green from above him and smiled. She was free again. She would stop Elwine, probably tear him apart. She would free the Moors of his hold and soar through the clouds and skies once more without his hold on her. Aurora and Phillip would reign in peace with their blended kingdoms and would become gracious and loved rulers. He would have loved to have seen their children. He could almost see the two of them in the clouds overhead with a bundle in Aurora's arms and he heard her laughter in the distance.
He felt branches catch against his arm from the side of the cliff's wall and knew that the ground would come shortly after. Darkness crawled around the outer rim of his vision. He closed his eyes as he tried to think of her. If it was to be his last moments, he would not waste them. The darkness receded for a slight moment as the memory of their nest came forward. She was over him in their nest, her arms folded over his chest as she stared down at him. Her hair framed her face, laying loose around her horns and shoulders. Her large wings circled around them and the feathers fanned out behind her. Her face seemed to glow as she smiled at him unguarded and warm... that's what he remembered as he felt what he knew to be his end.
Before he fell into the trees, his body was scooped up by another form that drifted down not too far from the fighting. Borra braced himself and Diaval as they impacted into a field just West of the main battle. Borra rolled with him into some tall grass and let out a breathy laugh when they settled.
He leaned back from Diaval, "Hard landing, but it is a landing. Right, Raven?"
There was no response from the usually loud raven and he turned back to Diaval.
"Raven," he called out to him again and pushed his shoulder back to roll him on his back. There he saw the vicious slice from earlier and the blast of magic that had skewered him, "...Diaval."
Maleficent screamed in fury as she glowed in green fire. The resulting blast blew the goblins from their hold on her and into the walls that surround the ledge they were all perched on. Elwine blocked his face and blue magic rushed up to protect him. He turned quickly and disappeared back down to the battlefield far below. Maleficent fell toward the edge where Diaval had fallen and saw the tell-tale sign of dark blue smoke of Elwine at the far edge of the gorge. He was trying to make a retreat back into the Moors. She stood ready to take flight and noticed that Borra sat with Diaval in a glen not too far from the treeline.
A relieved breath let loose, "Thank the Gods."
Her wings stretched behind her before she jumped from the perch and down to the fallen trees from earlier. She landed just at the edge of the gorge where Elwine had just climbed onto. She reached out and clutched the pendant at his belt line. She pulled it from his neck and hissed at the pain from the ironwork that was around the jewel. She shifted to hold the pendant by the light chain and looked back at the man. His eyes instantly held dread with the knowledge that she held all his power, quite literally in her hand.
"ENOUGH!" she yelled out into the gorge as her wings spread far out on either side, Elwine frozen in fear in front of her.
Silence once again spread through the gorge below as both human and fairy turned all attention to her. The Dark Folk shrunk back as they noted that she now held the jewel of magic and no longer showed signs of being under anyone's control.
She looked over the gorge and spoke out to the Dark Folk, "Your last hope for thoughtless slaughter is gone. All but one of your magic masters are dead and the last one is soon to be as good as such. Enough of this useless war!"
Talom and Shrike flew to her and landed to her side.
Maleficent's empty hand glowed as vines grew from directly below Elwine and wrapped him in tight restraints. The last vine crawled around his mouth and around his head, a very fitting gag. She handed the jewel to Talom by the chain and nodded to Elwine, "Make sure he doesn't move. I must check on Diaval."
They both nodded and Shrike held her spear at his neck.
"There is no need to come to us," Borra grunted as he broke through the thin trees with Diaval in his arms.
She let out another calming breath and walked toward them, "Borra, I am in your debt. I could never thank you enough. I wouldn't have been able to reach him... in time..."
Her steps slowed as Borra set down Diaval on the ground, unmoving and his wing hung awkwardly under him, "Borra?"
Borra looked up at her and with gritted teeth told her, "He made sure that you came back to us. He always made sure that others get back. It's always at his expense."
"What?" her steps finally stopped with her heart. Borra stood from him and took a few steps back for her. She then ran to Diaval's form, her hand barely touched his cheek and temple as she looked over his silent features, "D-Diaval..."
"It wasn't the fall," Borra growled behind her.
She didn't hear him as her hand touched his cheek and she looked directly at his closed eyes, "Diaval. You need to open your eyes. Open your eyes!"
The order went unanswered and he remained silent and limp. His body laid flush against the grass where Borra laid him. His wings were bent oddly behind him, one torn asunder by the lightning that was thrown at the both of them on the cliff and a large hole in his armor where the same attack hit his side. Opposite from the burned hole was a slash from what looked like a ghoul from earlier in the battle.
"Diaval-" coldness began to creep into her being again. Her hand began to glow gold as she put her hand to his chest. She felt her magic in him react to her touch and she pushed at it to heal him. The slice at his side showed healing with the help of extra magic, while the damage to his heart seemed to fight and dispose of any of her magic that tried to restore him. He hissed as her magic was blown back toward her only to try again, "Dammit, don't you dare leave me now! You promised me... Now and forever was not supposed to end at now."
"Pheonix- Maleficent," Borra took a step forward again and knelt beside Diaval's head, though Maleficent didn't look up to knowledge his presence. He sighed heavily, "He's gone."
Emptiness filled her whole being in those words. Her golden magic stopped and fell back from her fingers at his chest. The coldness that began only a moment ago flooded her veins and lungs so she couldn't breathe, couldn't talk. Her heart finally acknowledging the instant and cruel severance from his own. For the first time, she felt what it was like to be completely without him. There was no pull or warmth from the other side of their magic bond. There was no heart on the other end of her magic. He was gone.
He was gone.
Gone.
Her eyes clenched closed, her hands made fists in dragon scale armor that covered his still chest. With a deep inhale she breathed again and her eyes opened, their color a flurry of red and green.
"You," she turned to the man still in vines. She walked right up to him and ripped the vines from his mouth and stared into his eyes, "You did this to me. You did this to them. To HIM."
"Your first love was killed by a monster. Now it seems like your pet did as well. Shouldn't have gotten in the way as he did," Elwine said proudly and stared up into her enraged eyes.
"Monsters... yes, monsters who dress and speak as men," she shook her head only slightly, "Stefan killed himself. And you- you took the best of who I am and turned it into a weapon. A weapon you thought would destroy everything that I held dear. You didn't think that we were strong enough to overcome. That he wasn't strong enough."
"He wasn't."
"I think he was the strongest of us all," she looked over her shoulder at Talom and reached for the pendant. She held it in front of Elwine's face and looked at the crack in the center of the jewel. She saw swirls of her own magic struggle against the sides of the jewel, ready to be released. Diaval had made a sizable crack in the jewel where she could call forth the magic from within without touching the iron that surrounded it. She called to the swirling colors and they escaped from the large crack and flowed into her hand easily. She spun the colors in front of his face and then narrowed her eyes in thought.
"What are you to do?" he asked with a slight crack in his voice.
"It's hard to say, my compass is gone. I am known to do the most despicable of acts on innocents. Imagine what I can come up with for those who deserve punishment," she stood and looked out at the gorge where both Moor and Dark Folk stood side by side with the humans below. She threw a sad glance back at Borra who stood sentry over Diaval until she would return back to him. Her eyes suddenly flashed and she turned back to the gorge, "Listen well, all of you!"
The magic in her hand flickered from green to red to gold as she spun her magic, "The Moors will continue to grow in magic and allurement- a shining example of beauty and magic in this world... but it will never belong to any one man or fellowship- as it belongs to all who inhabit it and they to it. Any who followed this man or his dark magic is banished from the Moors. If you step once into its borders you will become that which you fear the most: A human. A powerless and poor human who no one would even care to notice. You will all leave this blended kingdom and never return to any border which is ruled by our queen and king or their descendants!"
The Dark Ones began to pull back from her, from the Moors, from the home they had hoped to rule.
"And you, dear Lord Elwine..." she said slower and knelt back down to come eye to eye with the man in vines, "You will wander the lands outside of those you coveted, alone, powerless and unknown. Without love, without warmth, without a single kindness. As that is what you have taken from me. This curse will last until the end of time and nothing on Earth shall break it."
"Not even a kiss? Something that I can work toward?!" he yelled and pulled against the vines.
"Nothing!" she shouted back as her eyes glistened with unshed tears, "Nothing, Elwine. As that is what you left for me."
He fell to the ground as the vines pulled away from him. Tree guardians came toward him to pull him from the kingdom, but he pulled up and reached for his pendant. Maleficent saw his intent and swung the pendant to crash against a rock and the jewel cracked completely open. Elwine screamed as his family heirloom now laid shattered and useless in the grass at Maleficent's feet. He tried to pull the shards together, but all its power was gone- used in the curse that would follow him until death and beyond.
"Take him," Talom asked the tree guardians. They nodded and took hold of his arms as they pulled him toward the kingdom's far border.
Dark Folk below and throughout the Moors who had once followed the men and the robed Redcap fled the Moors and the lands that surrounded them. They had wanted the Moors to themselves but now were in fear of them. None of them wanted the fate of being a human. A human that had no place even among its own kind.
Now emotionally drained, Maleficent returned to Diaval's side and collapsed next to him. Her legs and wings dropped useless to one side of her, while her arms held enough strength to keep her sitting upright next to him. Her hand carefully ran through his black hair, careful to pull some of the long locks from his face.
Percival made it to the ledge and walked toward her, "My lady, we will take you back to your daughter. Preparations must be made-"
"I will not leave him," she said coldly and firmly.
"We will bring him with us," Shrike said softly as she came up next to Percival.
"Leave me," she ordered in a barely-there voice. She turned her eyes up to them, "I must face this."
Shrike looked at the broken Phoenix, then to Diaval and then to Percival. She put a hand to his arm to gain his attention, "She will come when it is done."
Percival frowned a little in confusion but nodded as he put his hand over Shrike's on his arm. They turned and began to walk away. Talom looked to Borra for direction.
"We will wait a ways away to protect them," Borra ordered and Talom left to take the Eastern bank, out of sight of Maleficent and her grieving.
"Thank you, Borra," Maleficent said without taking her eyes from Diaval.
"Call when you are ready," he answered and flew to the Western edge to wait for her summons.
Her hand finally stopped combing his hair and landed on his chest, over his heart. Her other hand curled around one of his tightly and brought it to her chest. She leaned forward and placed her forehead to rest against his, their hands sandwiched together between them.
"Forgive me," she strained against the tears in her throat, "I was not strong enough to fight against the curse he put on me. I was a fool to think that I would be able to overcome on my own. That's why I will always need you, my wings. I was not strong enough, but please... please come back to me."
She took gulps of air, but couldn't stop the tears from coming. Her tears dropped from her eyes and onto the lids of his eyes and the corner of his mouth. Her one hand gripped at his armor as she pleaded with him, "...come back to me. I love you."
One long moment passed and then another with nothing changed. She leaned back with a watery intake of breath. As she sat back she opened her eyes to see a slight golden glow over his face. She wiped at her eyes as she noticed that her tears were glowing on his face. The glow intensified and then went out completely against his skin. She waited to see what it all meant. Her hand reached out for his cheek where she had seen one of her glowing tears while the other kept a grip on his hand against her.
One sudden intake of air filled once quiet lungs. The hand in hers gripped back as painful coughing racked the body below her. A rough voice strained to answer her, "Yes, Mistress."
He was moving and talking. One hand wave to open the armor to see the gashes and burns repair themselves from the inside out. Her face broke into a radiant grin as she looked back to his face to see his eyes opened and searching for hers.
"You... stupid raven. Don't do that again," she said as her own throat closed up on her, the words only whispered.
He only smiled up at her and pulled at their still joined hands to bring her down into a kiss.
Borra walked back toward the glen to help Maleficent back to the castle and offer to carry Diaval back for her. He was sure news of the battle's outcome had reached the royals at the palace. He assumed the queen would be numb for a few days, if not weeks. At least she would have the phoenix to help her in her grieving. The phoenix herself would be worse off than what she had been when he was merely missing. He saw the claiming marks that they each had. They had claimed each other. A fey was only half of themselves when they lose a mate.
The glen was quiet as he entered and Maleficent was seen still over where Diaval laid. Her wings heaved a little in movement as they covered both her and the one below her. There was slight movement underneath and then a large, black wing pulled upward and wrapped back around Maleficent which earned a small chuckle that floated to his ears. The small heaving of her wings were not from tears, but some mildly contained laughter.
"Maleficent?" Borra called out very confused.
She sat up instantly, her wings pulled back as she looked over her shoulder at Borra. Directly after Diaval sat up, his wings and injuries mended. His hair was more disheveled as he leaned back on his arms to get a good look at Borra.
"R...raven?" Borra's eyes widened at the sight of him.
"Don't be so surprised, Borra," Diaval smirked, "I couldn't just leave her in your hands, could I?"
"How?" Borra shook his head and walked to them only to circle them a few times to take in the healed winged man, "I saw you dead. You passed in my arms when I caught you."
"I don't know how," Maleficent started, but only smiled as her hand pushed lightly against Diaval's chest to feel his heart strong under her hand and her magic swirl with it, "I cried over him. When I opened my eyes my tears that fell onto him glowed gold. A moment later, his wounds healed and he was back."
"A phoenix's tears are the most potent substance in our world," Borra acknowledged, "You healed him."
"But he was hurt by the dark magic," she frowned, "I couldn't do it before. I tried."
"It wasn't your magic that healed him," Borra finally knelt before the two of them, "It was you. The last phoenix. Your tears aren't magic that you wield or that you control. They are primal, ancient. They come from a place inside your heritage that was before dark or light magic. Your soul saved him."
"As it always has," Diaval added on and put his hand over hers on his chest.
"Though sometimes I wonder why you waste effort on such a beast," Borra huffed with a taunting smirk thrown at Diaval.
Diaval groaned as he worked himself to his feet with Maleficent's help. He put an arm around her waist as she did the same to him as he was still on the weaker side. He looked at Borra and returned the smirk, "Well, I am genuinely sorry that I took your opportunity to carry my carcass all the way back to the castle."
"There will be more opportune times, I am sure," Borra crossed his arms over his chest, "I will at least walk with you two back to the castle. I will tell Talom to fly ahead."
Diaval caught Borra's arm before he turned from him, "Thank you."
"You are more than welcome... raven," Borra took a short flight to the side to tell Talom to head to the castle so that they would be ready for their arrival.
Diaval chuckled lightly as he watched Borra leave.
"What is it?" Maleficent lifted an inquisitive brow.
"Do you think he would go as far as to carry me to the castle if I played it up?"
"Let's not test the theory, love."
Aurora was at the archway awaiting their arrival with Talom and Phillip at her side. Borra kept in pace with the two of them, but made no hand to help them as they told him numerous times that they had one another. Aurora raced from the archway at the front of the castle and toward her parents. As she reached them, she threw her arms around them both and pulled them all together tightly. Both Maleficent and Diaval hugged an arm around her and buried their faces in her golden hair.
She pulled back after the hug and pouted, "You two are now forbidden to go out and risk your lives! I refuse to worry about my parents so."
"Your word is my command, your majesty," Diaval bowed his head to her in acceptance.
"No jokes, father!" she pointed her finger in his face, "No more dying and coming back nonsense. You two are to stay alive so that my children and theirs may know you. The both of you."
"Talking of children again, are we?" Maleficent asked with a lifted brow line.
"The war is over, the walls can come down and we are to unite our lands once more," Phillip announced and came up next to Aurora, a hand at her back, "Let's plan for the worst, but I think it is time that we finally live in our peace."
"That sounds like a good plan," Maleficent nodded with a small, contented smile.
