Maleficent had spent a lot of time thinking about her next move. As annoyed as she was over Rumpelstiltskin's appearance at her shop, it had proved to be of some use to her. Now that she knew about what had happened all those years ago with Regina, the more she was convinced that Cora had done something to remove the memory from her mind. It wouldn't have been hard for Cora to do.

It was why she had chosen Cora to be her student – her raw power if tempered correctly would be near impossible to defeat when used in conjunction with her own.

She had been plotting her revenge against Snow from the moment she was turned out from the White kingdom. To pull it off she knew she would need power. The problem with recruiting others to her cause was simply that other magic users in her mind at least couldn't be trusted. She knew of Rumpelstiltskin back then just as she knew of others who may have been persuaded to her cause, but the price was too high for Maleficent's tastes because she hadn't wanted to share the kingdom once it was in her grasp.

Then she heard about this miller and his wife who had been inquiring about finding a magic teacher and her mind began to formulate another plan. Why recruit someone when she could teach someone to do what she wanted.

But first, she needed to learn about who it was that this couple was wanting to find a teacher for. When she tracked them down, she learned that the mother had died but the father was still interested in finding assistance for his daughter.

And so Maleficent began to observe her from a distance. When she first saw Cora, she saw a beautiful girl who she thought perhaps was too innocent for her needs. Still, she tested the girl's power from afar, and for the first time, she found someone with an inborn ability that may even be a match for her own.

If she played this right, she could forge this girl into a weapon for her revenge.

She approached the girl's father who explained that his daughter had been experiencing infrequent bouts of magic for years. Her father admitted that he nor his late wife had any idea about magic, but they hadn't wanted their daughter to be ignorant of this power inside of her. Maleficent thought it was the smartest thing the man said in the brief time they spoke.

The result was Cora coming to live with her, so she could teach her about this power inside of her. At first, Maleficent thought that she was wasting her time. Yes, Cora had power, but she couldn't unleash that power. She was holding herself back and Maleficent had no idea why.

It was then that she started to not just teach Cora but talk to her to see if she could figure out what was wrong. It didn't take long for Maleficent to figure it out – that the girl who was raised as a commoner didn't believe she deserved the gifts of magic.

The only way she knew to break through that was to push Cora to the point where she had to use her magic – her full magic – or die trying. She didn't want to lose her student, but Cora was useless to her if she couldn't use her full abilities. So, she told Cora she was being sent back home because she couldn't learn to do real magic if she kept holding back. Packing the girl up and putting her on a coach back home, Maleficent waited for the right chance and she used her magic to upend the coach.

For several moments, Maleficent thought that this was a failed experiment on her part and the girl would plunge to her death – and frankly Maleficent was fine with that outcome. After all, if Cora was no use to her then what would be the point of keeping her alive?

But just when Maleficent almost walked away, Cora did it – she used her magic to save herself.

At that moment, Maleficent knew she had found her weapon.

What she hadn't been expecting was to find a friend or at least as close to one as she had had in a long time.

In the end, it hadn't mattered – Cora had betrayed her. It was more than that though. She had shared with Cora her secrets such as how she couldn't access her magic while in dragon form. That had been her biggest mistake.

This time she would make no mistakes as she had no intention of becoming friends with Regina. She was nothing more than a tool for her to use to conquer not just the Mills and White kingdoms but also this new one.

If those within the kingdoms would not bow to her, well, that is why she had Regina. That stupid young woman would cast the curse of that Maleficent was sure – she just needed the push in the right direction.

…

There were times when Maleficent had used magic outright – used it like a hammer to strike. Other times, she knew it required a more subtle touch.

After spending days trying to figure out her next move, she finally decided to take the path of subtly. It's not like she didn't want to make things go quicker, but merely lifting a memory spell off of Regina would not get the desired effect she was going for. No, she needed Regina to begin to remember but in a way that would make her question not only what happened all those years ago in Midas' kingdom but also to consider why it happened.

The young woman needed to know that others thought she was dangerous. It would breed distrust and once Regina learned that Emma knew of it, well, she had been observing the two women enough from afar that she knew that would not go well.

She needed Regina to feel abandoned by all those who proclaimed to care about her so that Regina would feel like Anita was her only true friend.

And she had to act now because of other forces of timing of which she had no control over. She wished once more that she didn't have "partners" in this venture or at least they would not interfere, but she didn't have that luxury.

Midas was growing impatient despite knowing that this would all take time.

Maleficent had finally decided the way to handle it was to give Regina her memories back slowly through her subconscious – through her dreams. It was a simple enough spell for her to perform but now that she was teaching Regina magic she knew the woman would be able to sense her magic in use. It meant performing the magic openly but in a way that Regina thought she was doing something else. Or at least mask it in a way the other woman didn't know what she was doing.

As it was, Regina gave her the perfect opening.

"I spoke with Emma and we both agreed that me learning how to detect magic in others would probably be a good idea for safety reasons," Regina said shortly after they materialized in their meeting spot.

"Splendid," Anita said. "I'm also happy that Emma is so supportive of you and your magic. You must feel very lucky to have her."

"I do," Regina smiled. "I can't imagine my life without her."

Anita smiled back even while thinking that Regina would soon get used to a life without Emma once she fully remembered what had happened to her.

"Let's begin shall we," Anita said. "I think the best way to start is for you to first learn to detect magic like mine. You have been able to sense when I do magic but let's show you how to detect it if I am not doing anything."

There were several ways to accomplish this, most of them passive, which is what Anita was going to show Regina. But she couldn't help but think back to the last night of this kingdom's anniversary celebration. She had been there for it, using the large crowds and her magic to mask herself while she observed the goings-on. She wasn't supposed to be there as those she was working with hadn't wanted her there yet, specifically Midas. But she wasn't going to let him or anyone else stop her. It was the first time she had seen Regina, but more importantly to her, it was the first time she had seen Cora since her betrayal.

She had been in the courtyard that night and sent her magic up to the battlements in hopes of drawing Cora out and she hadn't been disappointed. While she had been told that Cora no longer openly practiced magic, she was still surprised that her former pupil had let her skills lapse so much that she hadn't even been able to track her through the crowd.

She knew then that Cora posed no real threat to her, so she had slipped back out of the kingdom, only to finish the arrangements to become Anita.

It was pure chance however that she met Regina as she had.

She certainly hadn't expected the young queen to be out riding by herself, but Maleficent had learned to be more vigilant since Cora's betrayal so she kept her magic up during her journey so she would not be caught unawares. Never again, she had told herself.

Then she had detected magic, specifically, she detected a magic user and so she saw Regina from afar and began her hasty performance of being in distress. It had worked better than she could have ever imagined.

"Why is it possible to detect magic when it's not in use," Regina asked. One thing Anita had learned from the start was Regina was never in short supply of questions.

"Because it's in us all the time even when we aren't using it," Anita answered. "It's like how you can feel it inside of you even when you don't actively use it. As you feel it, so can others if she know the right ways to look. I'm going to teach you a couple of ways to do that. First though, a couple of small uses of magic by me, where I just want to you concentrate on the feel of my magic. After a while of working this closely with another magic user, you will be able to pick out their individual magic. Like for instance, say there were three magic users including me standing in front of you right now. The other two you have never encountered before. If the three of us used our magic at the same time you should be able to detect what magic came from me because it will be familiar to you."

Anita performed some simple magic – making a chair float, transporting, and finally using it to change the color of Regina's clothes temporarily. Regina felt the magic, stronger even when it was performed on her, but Anita smiled because she knew the young woman hadn't detected that it wasn't the only magic performed on her. There, she thought, it was done. Regina would start remembering again but through her dreams. It wouldn't all come back to her at once as Anita didn't want the memories to flood her brain. No, she thought, Regina needed to be broken down not struck down.

She continued with the lesson and by the end of it, Regina was able to perform the passive magic of detection. It gave Anita a bit of confidence that maybe Regina would be able to pick up on more complicated magic once she was fully committed to it, committed to her.

They finished the lesson with Anita telling her that the next lesson would be to detect other types of magic.

"Like Rumpelstiltskin's?" Regina asked.

"Yes, like his but also latent magic."

"What is latent magic?"

"There are other people out there, rare people, who have inborn magic like you and I except theirs never manifested."

"How is that possible?"

"It could be any number of things. It could be that they only had a small bit of magic in them so they never felt it, never did anything with it, so to them, it doesn't exist," Anita said. "In even rarer occasions, and this is one that I have never encountered, but there are those that are born with powerful magic that won't manifest until it's needed. To be honest, I don't even know what that means exactly, it's just something my teacher taught me. These people, she said, they don't know they have magic until one day their need for something is so great that the magic will come pouring out of them."

What she left out is that these were rare because they were the product of true love – like Emma.

It wasn't enough for Regina to remember what happened, she needed to know her wife had magic. It would help turn her world upside down.

"This Rumpelstiltskin, do you think he is still out there?" Regina asked.

"I don't know, but he very well could be. Why do you ask?"

"Emma seemed concerned about him is all," Regina commented. "And after what you said about him, I think it would be wise to be able to detect if he or someone like him was in the kingdom."

"Very prudent," Anita said. "Next lesson."

"I'm looking forward to it."

So am I, Anita thought, so am I.

…

Regina returned to do the bedroom after changing clothes, picking up the conversation she was having with Emma when she went in.

"I thought you liked Patrick," Regina said. "He certainly seemed taken with you."

"Another reason for us to write a polite rejection to this invitation," Emma said.

They had received a special courier today from the Midas kingdom with an invitation for one or both of them to visit. There didn't seem to be a formal reason and the trade agreement they had with the Midas kingdom was very small and still in effect – something that had been negotiated and put into place before their marriage and presumably handled by their parents.

Emma hadn't seemed keen on the idea of either one of them going but they hadn't gotten to discuss it much earlier.

"You know we have to do these diplomatic visits," Regina countered. "I can go on this one if you don't want to, but it won't get you out of the next one. We're both queens so we both need to get out there."

"No," Emma said forcibly. "You aren't going." She realized quickly how that came out and saw the quizzical look on Regina's face. "It's just you went to the last one and you said yourself that Midas gave you the creeps when he was here."

"Yes and given how people seemed to treat him I'm beginning to think many aren't fond of him," Regina said. "Still, just because he gave me an uncomfortable feeling that is not justification enough to ignore this invitation."

"We don't have to accept every invitation that comes our way either," Emma said. "We're ruling a kingdom and our priority is to our people, which means we can't just leave for visits every time someone asks us to come somewhere."

At this point, she was trying to get Regina to just agree not to go because it's not like Emma could tell her the truth of why she didn't want to go, nor would she let Regina go. When the invitation had first arrived Emma thought Midas had a lot of gall to even dare to send such a thing to them.

"True, but there is nothing so compelling going on here that one of us couldn't afford to go," Regina said. "Plus, if we do, it means we can reject the next invitation Midas may send. If we don't go now we will feel more responsibility to go the next time."

Emma sighed, "I say we risk it." She turned down the bed and got into her side.

Regina didn't respond as she blew out the lights around the room and then got into bed. Once she was settled in, she looked at her wife. "Let's sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow."

"Ok," Emma said, kissing her. She knew her answer wasn't going to change so she hoped Regina's would. They each got into their normal positions and Emma hugged Regina closely to her, thinking in her mind again about that one time they had been to Midas' kingdom. She was determined never to let that man close to her wife ever again now that she knew what he had done.

While she understood that her parents and Regina's parents had to be diplomatic with him, she felt no need.

Midas knew what he had done all those years ago so why couldn't he leave well enough alone and never bother them. Did he think that Regina still posed some sort of danger? And if he did, what he would do to her if given the chance? All these thoughts kept her awake longer than she normally would be.

Regina too was awake for a while that evening, thinking about many things such as why Emma was being so against one of them going to the Midas' kingdom. If anything, the way Patrick had been vying for Emma's attention while there should make her the one with reservations, not Emma.

Yet, Regina could admit that she too did not like the idea of either of them visiting that kingdom, and maybe they should respond politely with their unavailability.

It wasn't the only thing on her mind though. Ever since her lesson with Anita, she had this weird needling in her brain that she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was while she had been concentrating on feeling Anita's magic. She was beginning to understand that yes there was a difference to it from her own as far as being able to feel or detect that difference. But there was something else there that she wasn't quite able to figure out. She wasn't even sure why it was bothering her.

She wished she could speak to her mother about this as crazy as that seemed. She wished with the knowledge she had now that she could experience her mother's magic like she had Anita's. She wanted to be able to know the feel of her mother's magic like she could feel Anita's like she could feel her own so she could experience the differences.

Maybe it was just the thought that even though she was going to learn about detecting magic, the odds of her encountering someone with magic were probably very slim.

Either way, the thoughts were enough to keep her up, but she finally did drift off to sleep.