Even though Cora told her there was no use, Emma ordered messengers to all the gates to keep any women from leaving without being vetted first. Cora had explained that with Maleficent's magic she had no need for gates and chances are she had already planned out where she was going before she ever stepped foot in the castle.
Still, Emma needed to do something.
If she didn't the guilt she felt threatened to overwhelm her. Regina had left – of her own accord because she now knew that everyone had been lying to her. It didn't matter that Emma had only known for a short time, it wasn't as if Regina would be willing to listen to her at this point. But she needed to find her and at least try to explain.
Emma had always felt conflicted about lying to Regina and this was why. It hadn't felt right, yet she had done it and now she was paying the price for it.
She could only imagine what Regina was feeling at this moment. She had to have felt betrayed and this time it was bigger than her parents. She knew now that entire kingdoms had been involved in this.
Worse, she knew that Emma was complicit in it.
The expression on Regina's face when she told Maleficent "let's go" was hard and it reminded Emma of when they would be forced to interact with each other before their marriage. Regina could always let her contempt about it be known with a simple look.
Emma had thought she would never have to see a look like that ever again from her wife, but now she knew she was just being foolish. She should have known – she did know – that lying was wrong no matter the reasons she did it.
The only thing that mattered now though was finding Regina.
Flora had tried to convince Emma that Regina was in no immediate harm. After all, Maleficent had wanted Regina for a purpose. What that purpose was, they didn't know – although they all suspected it had to do with the prophecy.
"Can't you use your magic to find her?" Emma asked finally.
"Maleficent knows how to hide her tracks even magically," Cora said. "We might be able to pinpoint Regina's magic, but that would be dependent on her using it."
"And Maleficent would surely use her magic to keep us from tracking Regina's," Flora said.
"We can't sit here and do nothing," Emma said. "I need to find my wife."
"There may be a way to track her magic," Cora said. "But it won't be easy. My concern is that I would be more useful elsewhere."
"What is it?" Emma said.
"Yes, Cora, what is it?" Flora said. "Do you know some way to track another's magic that Maleficent wouldn't know some way around? Because her magic is just as powerful as ever and she knows every trick there is, so I'm curious as to what magic you possess that could match hers. I'm not saying your magic isn't powerful, but you admit yourself that you aren't at the level you once were."
"It's not my magic that I'm talking about. Even at the height of my power, I still needed assistance to take on Maleficent," Cora said. "No, I'm talking about a more powerful magic – the one someone has who is the product of true love."
Cora looked at Emma as she said this, as did Flora.
"Why are you looking at me like that, I don't have any magic," Emma said.
"But you do," Cora said. "You have since the moment you were born, but that type of magic is not only rare, it's also not something like Regina and I have. We are born with magic and we know it, we feel it, and we have to learn it. Your magic is somewhat different, it's extremely powerful, but it doesn't manifest like ours. That is why you don't know you have it because it has never manifested, and typically it won't unless you have a need for it."
"Ok, well I need it now," Emma said. "What do I do?"
"It's not that simple," Cora said. "I said I might be more useful elsewhere because just because you have magic, doesn't mean you will be able to use it on cue. Just finding a way to get it to manifest for the first time could be tricky and take time."
"We don't have time," Emma said. "We need to be doing something right now to find her. Do you have any idea where she would have taken her?"
"Even if I did, Maleficent would be smart enough to take her someplace that I would never know," Cora said. "She isn't likely to make the same mistake of letting me use my knowledge of her to beat her."
"Then what do we do?"
"I don't know," Cora said. "I don't know."
…
Regina nearly stumbled when she and Maleficent reappeared. She wasn't expecting it to be as jarring as it was.
"Come, we must hurry," Maleficent said.
Regina looked around and realized they were outside the castle walls – not too far out. There were two horses there and Maleficent was untying one from the tree she had used to tether it.
"Regina," Maleficent said. "Tend to your horse, we're leaving."
But Regina didn't move she just kept her eyes on the castle walls. Her mind felt like it was moving in slow motion and yet at high speed at the same time. The amount of information she had just taken in threatened to overwhelm her.
She was shaken from her stupor by Maleficent. "You have questions, I have answers, but you must come with me now," she said. "You've made your choice."
Regina wasn't even sure what choice she had made. The only thing she knew was that people had been lying to her all her life. She felt Maleficent put something in her hand and she looked down to see a set of reins. She turned toward the horse, mounted it, but looked once more at the castle walls.
"Let's go," Maleficent said as she got her mount moving. Regina paused only a moment more before following her.
…
Snow watched her daughter, feeling helpless that there was nothing she could do to help. She and Charming had made their way after a messenger had arrived to tell them that Regina had been taken by Maleficent. The message hadn't been sent by Emma – it had been sent by Cora.
The moment they arrived it was Cora who greeted them not Emma. Snow hugged her.
"I'm so sorry," Snow said softly.
"Thank you," Cora said once they separated. "Come, we have much to discuss."
Cora hadn't gone into details in her message to them, but once they all gathered she told them what had happened beginning with Flora coming to her up until Regina leaving with her.
It wasn't what Snow was expecting.
When the message had said that Regina was taken by Maleficent, she thought that meant by force, but what Cora had just told them was the opposite of that.
"It's my fault," Emma said. She had been silent the entire time up until now.
"Oh honey," Snow said. "It's not your fault."
"Would you rather I blame you," Emma shot back. "Or what about you Cora, should I blame you? Were your lies any worse than mine? I am her wife, and I betrayed every vow we made to each other, and why? All because I was worried about how hurt she would feel learning the truth. What do you think hurt her more, the truth or the fact well hid it from her?"
"What is done is done," Cora said. "You can keep sitting there sulking over your part in it, or you can help us find Regina."
"How do we find her?" Charming asked.
"We are supposed to use magic that I never knew I had," Emma said getting to her feet. "Another lie? Another thing that was kept from me. Tell me, once the seer came out with this prophecy did any of you ever consider the possibility that you could have done nothing. That you could have let Regina and I meet naturally and develop a relationship on our own. That she could have learned magic and she would never even consider using it to cast some curse. That I would still love her and she would love me and there would never be any cause for lies? Tell me. I want to know – did you ever consider it or did you all want to lie from the very beginning?"
She was exhausted at this point. She had barely slept in the days since Regina was gone. She just wanted her wife back and it didn't matter if Regina was angry at her, she just needed to know that Regina was safe.
"We considered not lying," Charming said to her. "We also considered not having the marriage contract at all. We talked over many things in the days following the pronouncement not just with the other rulers, but amongst ourselves. We wanted what was best for our children and there were times especially once you and Regina knew about that contract that we thought we were doing the wrong thing because you two didn't seem to like each other. But it wasn't that you didn't like each other, you both hated the situation you were in."
"The other rulers would never have accepted us letting things take their course naturally," Cora said. "This became bigger than our two families the moment the seer decided to make her prophecy known to not just us but the other kingdoms. There was a lot of fear among them, fear of my daughter that I hadn't even given birth to yet. And maybe we did get caught up in some of that fear ourselves. I know I did. After Regina was born I asked Flora to come see her, see her and tell me if there was a way to bind Regina's powers. To this day I don't know what I was more afraid of, that she would indeed cast this curse or that one of the other rulers would try to act to put an end to it by putting an end to Regina's life."
Emma looked at her. "Regina said there were always a lot of guards around her while she was growing up," she said. "Did you think that someone would do that?"
"I was not willing to take the chance," Cora said. "Despite what you may think of me and the choices I have made, my daughter is the most important person in my life and I will do anything to ensure her safety."
Flora, who had been standing off to the side, came forward now. "We can keep wasting time going back and forth about decisions made in the past or we can start working toward some real solutions," she said. "Now, we have identified a possibility – getting Emma's magic to manifest for her to use it to track Regina's magic. That's going to take time, however. We received word that Merriweather and Fauna are only days away from arriving here, between all of us magic users we are hopeful to find a way to unlock Emma's powers. Someone is going to need to handle the day-to-day operations here if Emma is going to give her full concentration to this."
"I'll do it," Snow said. "Of all of us, I'm the most familiar with the setup of the kingdom."
"You and the others will need to work with Emma," Cora said. "I have something I must do."
"And what is that?" Flora said.
"What I should have done years ago," Cora said. "I will travel to Midas' kingdom. It is past time he and I have a talk."
"You aren't going to confront him without me," Emma said. "Not after what he did to my wife."
"No," Cora said. "You must stay here and work toward finding Regina. She has to be your mission in this. I should have dealt with Midas years ago but did not because of the balance we must all have as rulers. He broke the seal of secrecy we all agreed to once when he brought Rumpelstiltskin into this, and I refuse to believe he isn't in part responsible for what is happening now."
"You aren't going alone," Charming said. "Our regents are set to handle the day-to-day at our kingdom. They knew we might be gone for a while. I will accompany you. Our families are one now and I will not let allow you to face him alone."
Cora nodded to him. "We leave at dawn."
….
After days of riding and only stopping to rest the horses and themselves, Regina was surprised when they stopped at what appeared to be a simple range of mountains. She knew where they were – her lessons in geography growing up were quite extensive – what she didn't know was why they were there.
Over the days she hadn't said a whole lot. Her mind was still reeling from everything. On the first night they camped, she asked Maleficent about the nightmares she had been having – well the memories she had been having. Now that she knew they were memories, Maleficent offered to fully remove the spell placed on her by her mother. Maleficent explained that what she had done in allowing Regina to remember through her dreams was not a full restoration of the memory.
Regina wanted to know so she asked Maleficent to remove it. She had not been prepared for experiencing it, however.
It was almost like reliving it and that had shaken Regina to her core.
Those people – the other rulers – they had allowed that to happen to her. They had stood around doing nothing while that man had hurt her.
They hadn't all though. She had seen her mother rush to help her only to be stopped. She saw the fear in her mother's eyes.
Then there was Emma.
When she remembered how the two of them had stayed together in her room prior to all of that and how happy they both were, she felt a sense of comfort, a sense of home. But then she had been taken and hurt and she heard Emma's cries asking them to stop.
Then there were the dark days that followed where she hadn't wanted to leave her bed. She was afraid of everything – even the shadows in her room. At night, she couldn't attempt to sleep unless there were candles lit and her mother was there. She had clung to her mother, seeking her protection.
It wasn't until Emma arrived that she felt any better. Just seeing Emma made her feel like everything was going to be alright.
She was still wrestling with that – the at ease she felt with Emma when they were younger and she wondered why that wasn't the case when they met again as teens. Was it merely because she had forgotten those moments from the past?
It was not a question she had asked Maleficent. She hadn't asked much at all. Maleficent had spent the days either silent with her thoughts or speaking to her of magic. Each time they stopped to rest included another lesson. Regina hadn't objected to it. She felt a strange comfort in having those lessons because it gave her mind something else to concentrate on for a little while at least.
But now she did have a question.
"Why are we here?" she asked.
"Come," Maleficent said, without offering up an actual answer.
Regina followed her, but even as she did she decided that if Maleficent didn't start answering some questions, Regina was going to leave. She didn't know where she would go – and maybe it no longer mattered where she went.
They went through and up a narrow pass, although they didn't go very high. They were on an outcropping facing nothing but rock. She was about to ask what they were doing when Maleficent began to perform magic and suddenly the rock wall disappeared and revealed a cave. She followed Maleficent in and she was surprised that this wasn't just a cave, it was a cavernous space.
Again using magic, Maleficent lit torches that were hung around the chamber.
"What is this place?" Regina asked looking up and around.
"This is where your mother and the others banished me to," Maleficent said. "For years I was left here, frozen in both my dragon form and time. While the world outside kept moving on, while you were born and growing up, I was here forever locked away. And I do not doubt for a moment that it would have been forever."
Regina knew from what her mother had told her that they had no intention of letting Maleficent out and each year one of the magic users involved was to travel here and check on her. She also knew from what Flora had said that Maleficent had been released.
"How?" Regina asked. "How did you free yourself?"
"I didn't," Maleficent. "I could never have freed myself. I was given some assistance."
"Now, now, don't downplay my part," a voice said. Regina turned to see a man entering. She took a step back as she recognized who this was. It was the man she had seen in her nightmares.
It was Rumpelstiltskin.