A/N I meant to get a chapter out quickly, but then I ran into a block. I don't consider this chapter to be super significant, but I hope you still like it. Thanks for your support! Please leave a review! :)
"With earth and water, air and fire,
By blade and bowl and circle round,
We come to you with our desire:
Let all that is hidden now be found!"
- S.J. Tucker
The sound of thumping echoed throughout Regina's secret vault. It was faint, but loud enough for Emma to feel that her heart was participating in an orchestral performance. She was trying to train herself not to focus on it. As an alternative, she attempted to switch her fixation on the words spilling out of the brunette's mouth. A slender finger pointed to a picture of a flower in a leather-bounded book.
"Are you even listening?"
"Yes?"
Emma straightened up her slouched position on the chair.
"This flower, what is it called?"
"Um…a daffodil?"
The young woman shrugged with a wince of a smile.
"Does that look like a daffodil, Emma? Have my words gone in one ear only to spill out the other side?"
She could feel the energy emanating from the older woman and it definitely was not a pleasant one. The waters were to too deep for her to wade into today.
"Look, I'm sorry. I just went into a daze. You're uh…this is really mind-numbing."
Or maybe she could just dive straight in and drown.
Regina's nostrils flared and she rubbed her temples. It was a wonder how the princess could spend hours in a library, but the moment someone started speaking she lost interest.
"I thought you wanted to learn magic?"
"I do, I just don't see how this has much relevance. It's a flower for crying out loud."
Regina growled under her breath before replying.
"A flower that might save your life princess. Had you been on this planet the last ten minutes you would know that this daffodil, as you called it, is a honeythimble. Paired with the right ingredients and patience, you can make a healing salve or potion."
"Why can't you just teach me how to heal? That's magic right?"
The brunette shook her head and sighed. This magic coaching was more irritating than she could have imagined. Was she like this when Rumpelstiltskin taught her?
"Your restorative magic will be much different than mine; magic is unique per user and to add to that, your magic is by default Light, being the child of True Love. We pull from two different wells and that barrier cannot be cross. The Dark Arts cannot conjure healing energies; therefore, we must funnel energy from another life force. So can you use your magic to heal? Sure, if you study and learn how to, but do I know how to teach you? No."
The sudden slam of the book made Emma jump. Had her fingers been any closer, they would have been a goner. The brunette murmured something about trying a new approach and placed the book back on the shelf before she opened up a cabinet full of jars, bowls, and other strange items.
"This," she placed a decent sized granite bowl in front of the blonde along with a small, stone club, "is a mortar and pestle. I'm going to set out some herbs and I want you to grind them up. I know you won't, but try and pay attention to what the labels say before you go crazy."
Three different jars were set on the table. The first one contained dried up yellow petals and read honeythimble. The second one looked like someone had pulled a random, flimsy root out of the dirt while the other looked to be been some kind of dehydrated fungus. They read runewort and Anyaver respectively.
She did as she was told and opened up each jar, adding the amounts that Regina instructed. The smell was strange at first, but over time, it became peculiarly pleasant. When there was nothing but powder in the bowl, the blonde grinned. At least she could do something right.
"Now, in cases where you don't have much time, this would be sufficient enough. The powder can be sprinkled on a wound or mixed with water and consumed, but for a stronger and more stable effect you'll want to use this."
Brought to Emma's attention was a spherical, glass apparatus with a long downward pointed neck coming from the top. She placed the glass in a ring stand that had a candle underneath it.
"This is a retort. Add a bit of water to the vessel," she pulled out the corkscrew on the side of the glass and did the steps as she spoke, satisfied with herself as the blonde gawked, "then sprinkle the powder into it with this spoon."
Regina did each step with such swiftness that it could have been called art. Emma had never seen her look so at home, so at peace with herself. The brunette plucked up the corkscrew and sealed the round glass. A small vial was placed underneath the end of the open neck.
Unbeknownst to the princess, this was how the Queen relaxed and forgot about the world. Late at night when thoughts kept her awake, or she found time, she would venture into her vault to create concoctions. It was her way of centering herself. A personal meditation. Over the years, she had perfected her very own creations that would sell like hot cakes if she ever wanted to market them. Rumpelstiltskin would be proud, but there was a reason she kept them in her vault. The Dark One, especially, could get greedy when someone had such masterful brews akin to his own; perhaps even better.
Slender fingers moved as if flicking away a fly, and a small flame erupted from the candle. It took a good minute before the heat began to make its presence to the substance within the vessel.
"So," Emma started, "this is nature disguising itself as magic?"
"A clever way to look at it, my dear."
Their eyes met and Regina offered her a calm smile. Her brown eyes were bright with life, stealing away a lifetime's worth of air from the blonde's lungs. A pale hand reached out, thoughtlessly, and grazed against the other's.
It had been six months since she had run away from Lucia. Now, it felt as if it were a whole other lifetime ago. Here, with a woman everyone else called the Evil Queen, she felt as if she had found her place. It may have seemed odd to an outsider looking in to watch the daughter of True Love entangle herself with the Queen of Darkness, but none of that mattered; she was finally here as if it had always been her destiny to call Obscuria her home.
As painful as the beginning was, she fulfilled her intentions; to understand the Evil Queen. She did not know all, but she was well aware that the accusations thrown onto this woman were skewed by biases from both sides. She had seen the essence of the Evil Queen, had nearly been roasted, but looking at the brunette now, she couldn't imagine it to be true. This woman was simply Regina; someone who had been beaten and battered by the past with a dangerous darkness to show for it.
And that's where the mystery stirred within her again. Regina's past. The woman kept everything locked deep within the walls of her personal fortress; there had only ever been glimpses of her past. She wanted to have a family and be a mother. She had an awful mother and a loving father. Did Emma really know anything else about this Regina's past?
The sound of water boiling pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked over to watch golden steam rise inside of the glass. It condensed and entered into the narrow neck. What dripped out of it into the vial was only a fraction of what it had been.
"Is that it?" the blonde asked in disbelief, grabbing the golden liquid.
Regina didn't respond immediately; instead she trained her eyes on Emma's and plucked the vial from her fingers, sealing it.
"Less is sometimes more," Regina told Emma "what you have now is a highly concentrated healing tonic. Give me your hand."
"What? Why?"
Regina grabbed her free hand without answering and proceeded to pull out a small dagger. Before Emma could break from the grip, her finger felt a prick.
"What the fuck, Regina!" she yelped at the sting and watched a small bead of crimson form on her pad.
"Oh, please," the older woman scoffed, rolling her eyes, "I know you can take more than that."
A blush creeped up the pale one's neck.
"You could have still warned me."
"I asked for your hand."
"Um, more like you demanded it."
She opened the small bottle back up and drew out a small amount of liquid with a dropper. Then she held it over the crimson and squeezed. When the tiny bead of gold hit the skin, a tingling sensation spread through her finger and suddenly the blood went clear and dissipated, leaving nothing behind.
"I wanted you show you a hands on approach since it seems you can't focus otherwise."
"Ha ha…" Emma drawled, rolling her eyes and they drifted into silence.
It was about time to call a close to their magic session, as Regina had many duties to attend to, but instead of cleaning everything on the table, they simply sat there waiting for the other to do something.
"So…" Emma started, "How much longer do we have until the war actually…I dunno, becomes a war?"
"Given what my scouts have told me, I'd say about two weeks. I have my best dark druids reconstituting the forest barrier. The Obscurian Forest shall shroud them in confusion and torment for a good while. Delay their travels by at least a few days."
Emma narrowed her eyes in thought, wondering what exactly that meant. Could this forest fight back? She recalled a passage she had read from a book about druids. They possessed earthly powers that could manipulate nature itself, but dark druids? She had felt the dreary energy of the forest the moment she had entered Obscuria. She remembered the way the trees curled, the thorny vines that begged for blood sacrifice, and the deathly look of the bark as if it had taken on a life after death. Had the trees and everything else around it been enchanted by these more sinister druids?
"Are you nervous?" Regina asked her as she noted the blonde's silence.
"No…"
"Your eyes tell otherwise, my dear."
"Will you tell me something?"
"Perhaps?"
"Will you tell me what actually happened between you and my mother."
"…Emma," the older woman warned, her face growing darker.
"Please? Isn't it about time I knew? I could die out there, Regina," those last words stabbed Regina in the chest harder than she was expecting and she gasped internally; "Don't you think it's fair I know the truth?"
"You're not going to die."
Regina attempted to redirect the conversation.
"Please? What else do you want from me? My heart?"
She saw the way the older woman's lip twitched at her remark, but it faded away into a sigh. Emma saw a glimpse of a fragile soul. She held her breath as the mask visibly slid back onto Regina's face.
A/N Thanks for reading! Don't forget to tell me whatyou thought!