Regina watched Emma as the fireworks exploded in the air. The different colors from the pyrotechnics highlighted Emma's blonde hair as her wife was leaning hard against the ramparts as she watched them go up. Emma's face was the picture of awe.

As each one jetted into the sky she tried to follow its path and when it boomed and shot out the array of colors Emma would smile. Regina had seen many fireworks shows in her years as they were common during festivals in her home kingdom so she no longer looked at them with such child-like adoration. Yet she found watching Emma's reactions to be just as enjoyable.

They had finished dinner with the rest of the nobles – an overall polite affair as the conversation was mostly about different events they had all seen that day or other comments pertaining to the entertainment. Her parents had been mostly quiet during the meal and she noticed a wariness to her mother that she wasn't sure was there before.

She had not spoken to her parents and they had not spoken to her.

Another oddity Regina had noticed – and had not appreciated – was King Midas and his grandson Patrick. The younger Midas had asked for the honor of sitting next to Emma during dinner. Emma being Emma had granted the request. Being seated on the opposite end of the table from Emma, Regina was able to view Patrick speaking often to Emma as if there was no one else in the room. And she would have expected it to be perfectly innocent except she had seen Emma's father watching Patrick carefully and the expression on his face was not one where he appeared to be welcoming the attention Patrick was giving his daughter.

Then there was King Midas, who had sat two seats down from her, next to her father. Her father had barely acknowledged Midas' existence. But he wasn't the only one who was giving Midas the cold shoulder and Regina couldn't help but wonder what this man had done to make the others be – not hostile, but the very least dismissive of him. For his part, Midas seemed to relish the non-attention. He was probably the most talkative person at the table yet no one seemed to be engaging him in conversation. Some of the other nobles spoke to him, but he kept most of his attention on her and she didn't like it.

Every time she felt his eyes on her, she got a creepy feeling that he meant her harm in some way. She knew it was irrational but the smiles he gave her were forced and she couldn't figure out why he was putting so much effort into trying to get her to speak to him. She was of course polite and spoke to him as needed, but whenever there was a lapse into silence she saw him looking at her.

After dinner, they had retired to the ballroom where they watched a performance of a ballet. Then it was up to the castle walls for the fireworks. For the first time that day, Regina felt truly relaxed as she observed the joy of her wife.

Emma glanced over at her in between fireworks, the grin plastered to her face and Regina responded in kind. How was it that this woman could make her forget the bad things, let go of her anger with such a simple gesture, she wondered?

It was almost like magic, she thought.

Moving in closer to Emma, she took her hand, intertwining their fingers as Emma's attention again went to the sky above them. Regina took the opportunity to look around them, noticing that Midas was standing behind them but several paces back. He noticed her attention and gave her another smile. She turned back quickly, a shudder passing through her which drew Emma's eyes back to hers.

"You ok?" Emma mouthed.

Regina gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Just a cold chill," she said.

Emma leaned in so that no one could hear her next words, "I could help warm you up."

A part of her wanted to say yes, to drag Emma from the ramparts and back to their room. "Later," she said instead. Emma still gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before again watching the show.

They had already decided that after the fireworks they would be asking their parents to join them in the library. They had a very simple message to impart to them and whether it went well or not, they were going to make the stand together.

As the finale began, the atmosphere was reduced to brilliant lights going off one after another, the sounds of booms echoed across the land, and at what was the height of it, Regina felt something. She let go of Emma's hands as she felt like a warm air had passed through her. It didn't hurt, and she wasn't even sure she had felt anything as it was over almost as soon as it had begun.

This time when she turned to look behind her she saw her mother whose eyes were darting from side to side like she was looking for something that wasn't there. Then those eyes came to rest on Regina. Mother and daughter stared at each other for a second before Emma's clapping at the last of the fireworks drew her attention back.

The crowds down below were cheering loudly and Regina felt like time slowed down as her mind tried to make sense of what she had just felt. Because even if she had thought she had imagined it, the look her mother had given her told her she had not. She was sure whatever it was, her mother had felt it too.

Looking back again at her mother, she saw Cora's attention was below them as if she was trying to search the crowd which was impossible at this height. Regina left Emma's side and went over to her.

"What was that?" Regina said, keeping her voice low.

Still, her mother looked around them to ensure no one was in earshot, but there were too many people up there. Cora took hold of Regina's arm and leaned in close much as Emma had done a little while ago. "There is another magic user here," Cora whispered. "I must go."

"Where?" Regina said, stopping her.

Cora again glanced around them. "Down there. I must see if I can figure out who that was."

"Let me go with you."

"No," Cora hissed. "You must stay up here, no matter what. I will return; then we will speak of this when we have some more privacy. I know you don't trust me, but I am begging you, stay up here. Whatever you do, don't do any magic. I know we haven't even scratched the surface of you learning to control it, but what you just felt, it was another magic-user using magic to try and get a magical reaction from one of us. It was a test, so you must not do any magic. Do not give yourself away. Now go and keep close to Emma."

She moved away before Regina could protest, stopping quickly to say something to Henry, before hurrying away.

"It was a most excellent show."

The voice forced her to pay attention to what was going on up there. Midas had made his way over to her and had been the one to speak.

"Thank you," she said, feeling again uneasy with the man so close to her. What was it that was making her feel this way about a man she had never met until a couple of days ago?

"You and Emma should be pleased with yourselves," he went on to say. "In just a year you have built a fine kingdom, a strong kingdom."

She wanted to flee suddenly and she didn't know why.

"Regina," a voice called out. She turned toward it to see Emma's father approaching her. "Oh sorry to interrupt," he said giving Midas a cursory look that didn't convey apologies. "I hope you don't mind if I borrow the queen a moment." He didn't wait for a response from Midas and Regina found she was being guided away from him by Charming toward Emma. It was then that she noticed Patrick was again speaking with Emma and this time it was she who strode forward and interrupted.

"Emma, we have that matter we need to attend to," she said.

"Yes," Emma said. "It was nice speaking to you again Patrick."

"It was my pleasure. We'll be leaving in the morning but I hope that I get the chance to come back and visit." He took Emma's hand and bent down and kissed it. Then he turned to Regina. "Queen Regina," he said, nodding to her before walking away.

"Are you alright? You look about two shades paler," Emma asked.

"I … I'm fine," she said, although she didn't feel that way. Again, the feeling that she needed to flee this place hit her. While people were beginning to leave the walls, she felt closed in as if there was no room for her up here.

She recognized her emotions were spiraling out of control. The one thing she couldn't let happen was happening.

"Regina," Emma said, touching her. "What's wrong?"

"I think we should retire for the night."

"But what about speaking to our parents," Emma said.

"It will have to wait until tomorrow. I just need to get out of here," Regina said. She looked down at her hand as if expecting a fireball would appear and that movement spurred Emma into action. First, she took Regina's hand in hers once more, and then they walked over to Emma's parents.

"It's been a long day," Emma said. "And I want to go to bed, do you mind if we speak tomorrow?"

"No, of course not," Snow said.

"Good. Thank you," she said.

"Good night to you both," Snow said.

"Good night," Regina managed to say. She was beginning to feel calmer and she wondered if she had let her uncertainty and fear create overblown anxiety. They had other people they had to say goodbye to be polite, including Regina's father. Emma had repeated what she said to her parents to him.

"Should she be alone down there?" Regina asked suddenly.
Her father paused, looking at Emma, not Regina before addressing her. "Your mother will be fine."

"But …"

"She'll be fine," he interjected. "But I will go down to ensure that if it makes you feel better."

"Yes," Regina nodded. "She shouldn't be down there by herself."

She didn't know why she felt that way or why she was even saying this to her father.

Henry bid them both good night and Emma began leading her back inside.

"Do you want to explain what that was all about?" Emma asked.

"I will, once we are somewhere private."

Once they got to their rooms, Regina didn't want to let go of Emma's hand but she did as she gave some final instructions to the handmaidens on duty. When the door was closed, however, she returned to Emma, getting in close as Emma put her arms around her. "What's wrong?"

"Something happened," Regina said. "I don't know what it was but my mother said there was another magic user there."

"What?" Emma said in taking a half step back. "Where at?"

"She didn't know, that is why she left quickly. She wanted to try and find out who it was."

Regina moved over to the couch with Emma following. She went on to explain what she had felt and the idea that her mother had felt it too.

"Ok, so if there was another magic user there, was what you felt magic?"

"I don't know," Regina said. "I have never felt anyone's magic but my own and it didn't feel like that."

"Well, we will wait until your mother returns then," Emma said. "She said she would explain when she got back, so we wait."

Regina stood once more, her anxiety had not left her fully.

"She was scared," Regina said. "I don't know that I have ever seen my mother scared. Maybe we should go look for her."

"No. We can send guards down to find her and your father," Emma said, going over to her. "We stay here as she instructed. If she was scared then you are staying right here because she was concerned for you. I may not like how your parents have handled this magic stuff with you, but I'm also not willing to risk your safety if someone was using magic to draw you out."

"But what if they weren't trying to draw me out," Regina said. "Maybe they were targeting my mother. After that storyteller, people now know she was involved. My parents warned me that keeping it a secret was about safety and what did I do, I got angry like some selfish child because they kept this from me. Now, what if something happens to her?"

"Hey, hey," Emma said touching her arm. "Nothing is going to happen to her. I'm going to speak to the guards right now and send them to find your parents. Everything is going to be alright. That story was just told today, what are the odds that someone heard it would have moved that quickly to do anything? We're going to send the guards and then we are going to wait here until your parents return."

Emma left the room and while Regina knew Emma was going to speak to the guards, she wished she hadn't been left alone. She wanted her wife's arms around her.

…

Cora had rushed from the ramparts, hoping that by the time she got down to the courtyard she would be able to tell who it was that had used that magic. While the fireworks were going off, she had been thinking about Regina and the first time they had fireworks in their kingdom when she was a young child. Henry had put Regina up on his shoulders and she clapped and made sounds of joy as each one went up.

Then she thought about the day Henry had returned from the rulers' council to tell her about the seer's prophecy.

Her hand had been resting on her stomach the moment he mentioned their unborn child. The weird thing was that from the moment she knew she was pregnant; she had the feeling that she was having a girl. To hear that a seer had predicted she was having a daughter had somehow made her feel like the seer was indeed telling the truth. She hadn't doubted that what the seer had said was a true prophecy.

Having her own magic she knew there was a chance that any offspring she had would also have it. The idea that Regina would cast a curse that would devastate their world had immediately made her think of Maleficent.

She knew then she would do anything to protect her daughter.

It was her immediate thought when she felt the unknown magic wash over the ramparts. She had felt it and knew it for what it was – a querying magic meant to evoke a magical reaction. It was similar to how she knew the magicians invited to the festival didn't have any real magical power. When Regina had looked back at her, she knew her daughter had also felt it.

Having not been trained in magic, she was somewhat surprised Regina had felt it. It made her wonder if her daughter's magic was more instinctual than she had thought it was. Regina hadn't recognized it for what it was, but she had at least felt enough of it to know something was unnatural about it.

And while she and Regina had felt it, Cora did not for a moment believe the magic was directed at her. Regina was the target, of that she was sure, which is why she needed to find out who had done this and why.

As she had gone down the stairs to the courtyard, she began to call up her magic. Not knowing what she was up against, she used her magic to put up a protective spell. If this person was skilled in magic, this protection spell would be like a beacon to whoever it was. They would be able to sense it, and that was fine with Cora. She wanted the attention on her and not Regina.

Once she reached the courtyard, she sent out her own querying magic. It washed over the crowd but whether it was because of the size of the crowd, the power of the unknown magic-user, or her own magic's inadequacies, she was not able to determine anything from it.

She began to move through the crowd, which was breaking up as they were returning to their homes or the inns. Everywhere she went, she sent her magic out, not like before, this time she was looking for a trace of the magic. If she could narrow down the area from where the magic had been cast she may be able to follow it.

She hurried knowing that the trace of magic wouldn't last long if she could find it. She got to the far side of the courtyard and she felt something briefly. Closing her eyes, she used her magic to cast out a net that would have the effect of capturing any trace and keeping it from disappearing, but she felt nothing.

A hand on her shoulder had her whirling around.

"Whoa, it's just me," Henry said.

"What are you doing down here, is Regina safe?"

"She's with Emma. They were returning to their room but she was worried about you and bade me come after you," he replied.

She took only a momentary comfort in the idea that Regina was concerned for her. Telling her husband what had happened more fully than she had been able to upstairs, she also told him of her failure to find the source of that magic.

"It may be that I have let my magic go fallow for too long," she said. "I should have been able to detect the source from far away. There was a time when this would have been child's play for me. Now when I need my magic to protect my daughter I can't even do this simple task."

Henry embraced her, holding on to her knowing that he was probably the only person in the world who truly understood what this must be like for her. Before she had given up magic Cora had been one of the most powerful magic users in all the land. It was why, she confessed one night, that Maleficent had chosen to teach her – because she had sensed the power in Cora. If she hadn't been as powerful as she was, she did not doubt that Maleficent wouldn't have bothered at all with her.

And there was a time when she reveled in that power. She had admitted to Henry how it made her feel invincible like she could do anything. It was a feeling they never wanted Regina to have because while they didn't believe their daughter was capable of doing what the seer said, it was always there in the back of their minds that what if it was possible?