As we talked the bruise on Justin's cheek kept catching my eye. The swelling had gone down and the color had faded from dark blue to a pale green with a purple center, but it was still an incredibly noticeable mar on his otherwise perfect features.

"How did you get that?" I asked, unable to take it any longer.

"Oh, this?" He said, touching the spot as lightly as possible. He sighed. "Yeah. I'll tell you everything. Go ahead and finish your letters, I'll talk as you do."

Justin told me everything.

Everything.

Everything from before he had met me. Everything from after his sister had sent me away.

The Fatalore's are an independent family. They do and live as they please, with one exception. Whatever else they do, they must stay on the side of the good and righteous. They must never stray into what is wrong and evil, rather, they should fight against it.

Everyone in the Fatalore family followed this rule, their magic was based on it. Justin did as well. He specialized in spell's of need. He'd help those who were in need, work magic for those in need who still offered kindness despite the little they had. Once he had disguised himself as an old man and gave a poor young man a golden goose in return for a meager meal. Another time he had made gargoyles come to life to comfort a lonely bell ringer badly in need of friends. At the height of his power he had created a book that, so long as it was held within a countries borders, would provide peace and prosperity to the land.

Sometimes he'd work for king's and queens, following in the footsteps of his grandfather who had taught and put the great King Arthur on his throne. There were very few royals who were worth working for, but Justin's powers worked best when they were working for the others so he sought out clients when he could. He wasn't as powerful as his sister or as mystical as his mother so he didn't have the presence for rulers to listen to him, even when he was working for them.

After hopping kingdom to kingdom he found himself in a small landlocked country with few resources. He went to the castle and told the ruler he was willing to help the country and it's citizens prosper. The ruler was a coolheaded and sobering Queen. Queen Grimhilde. She was young and beautiful but widowed and new to the kingdom she was now responsible for. She accepted his offer graciously, taking great interest in his magic.

At first she was kind to him. She implemented Justin's suggestions, taking advantage of the mountainous region to start mining and increasing the kingdoms wealth. She begged Justin to help her some more. She had a little knowledge of magic herself, though it was much weaker than Justin's, and thought that she could rule her kingdom better if she used her magic to reach out to her people.

She had an idea, but she couldn't implement it on her own, her magic alone wasn't powerful enough. She wished to create a mirror that would answer whichever questions she asked so she could see where and whom in her kingdom needed the most help.

Justin agreed.

She took him to a secret room and showed him the mirror she meant to use. Justin took out his wand and tapped it to the glass, magic swirling around the rim and deepening the reflection. After a minuet he felt something was wrong. He looked up from his task and found that Queen Grimhilde had begun pouring her own magic into the mirror, absorbing the magic Justin was putting in. He tried to stop the spell at once but was unable. Long after the spell should've been finished his magic continued to flow out of him, across the mirror, and into Grimhilde. He couldn't control his output. Soon Grimhilde's power started flowing out in excess as well as she converted his power into hers. It started creeping it's way into Justin's now nearly empty vessel.

Before long Justin collapsed, all his power drawn out of him. All that was left was the little bit of corrupted magic that had flowed from the Queen into him. In his weakened state the Queen threw him in the dungeon and chained him to the wall. She left him there. From that point on Justin's magic was corrupted. Forgotten, he managed to survive as his magic built back up within him, using just enough to keep alive. Because his magic was now corrupted his spells started going wrong. To conjure water was to conjure a high pressure waterfall above his head, nearly drowning him every time he needed a drink. When he needed food the most he could do was have rats drop moldy bits of bread and cheese from the rafters and into his mouth. He was scared to see what his magic might do if he tried to use it to escape.

After some time in the dungeon, someone opened the door and a dwarf poked its head in. It let Justin go, explaining that the witch who had once ruled the castle was now dead and her step-daughter was getting ready to merge the kingdoms. They asked what he was in the dungeon for. Justin explained.

The dwarves drove him from the land at once. It was his fault the humans had started digging at their mountains, disrupting the safe haven of the creatures who lived there. More damming was the fact that he had been the one to create the mirror that had driven their lovely princess to near death. He had helped the evil queen, whether he meant to or not.

Weary, despaired, and disoriented he had left the kingdom and had promised never to return.

But he had not yet sealed his fate.

As he wandered from there he used as little magic as he could, and then only when it was really and truly needed for good. One day he collapsed.

He awoke in an old and run down palace, not much more than ruins. There he lay feverish for a week, meekly accepting the help of the strange devil like creatures that dwelled there. When he was finally able to orient himself he was taken to the leader of these creatures.

She was a tall and gaunt woman with greenish skin and a sickly sweet smile. She greeted him cordially.

"One good deed begets another, sorcerer." She had said.

"I will do you a deed," Justin had replied, "for you and your creatures have been good to me. But I cannot fathom what favor you might ask of me for it seems as though you have nearly as much power as myself."

"It is simple," She had said, hand caressing her cane, "The other fairies have been cruel to me, discriminating and dismissive on account of the magic I use."

"I do not follow."

"Lay on them a spell that limits their power. You are capable of that, are you not?"

"With all due respect madam, I cannot help those who seek revenge. Besides, if you could not do so I do not see how I could."

"Oh?" Her voice was calm, unperturbed. "It is unkind of you to refuse the request of someone who has treated you so well. Fairy magic cannot affect other fairies so well as those who can simply use magic. If it were you it would not be hard."

"Please madam, do not appeal to my conscience. Nothing good will come of asking me to take revenge. Ask me anything else."

"Do not think of it as revenge, sir, only preemptive punishment. So they cannot do further damage."

He accepted her request. It was a mistake. He knew it was a mistake as soon as he agreed. But it is hard for those with magic to break a promise as the very nature of magic is bound by contracts. He did the spell, diminishing the powers of three fairies with old souls. Possibly older than his own grandmother.

And his magic broke completely as a result.

FUN FACT: Justin was not originally going to have a backstory like this (or, if I'm really honest, a backstory at all). This story was originally supposed to be a fluff romance while I tested a few ideas out. Justin was supposed to be like a kind/good version of Howl from 'Howl's Moving Castle', but of course with his own quirks and personality. But then I was reading through the comments of one of the chapters I had up (the one where Augustina kind of spirals into depression while Justin is out finding his family to give them souvenirs) and someone had mentioned that they had started questioning Justin's motives along with Augustina. Suddenly a rush of ideas hit me and was like 'I did say that he had run into some trouble with some dwarves, hadn't I?' So I decided to build on that. Now he is almost a teacher to the evil queen and a conspirator with Malicafent. And I'm not going to lie, this was one of the most fun chapters to write.

Quick note as to Justin's power. He's able to use this power more or less fine in the beginning chapters, I've decided to explain this away by the Enchantresses comment 'Cracks grow larger under presser'. In other words, so long as he's not under presser he can use his magic mostly fine up to a point and if he had his wand he can control it even better, however his magic is broken to the point that if they are in true need something will inevitably go extremely wrong.

Thanks for reading!