It was amazing what a unifying romp and a good night's sleep could do for a man.
As the Dark One, he didn't really need to sleep, but over the centuries, he'd taken notice of moments that his mind needed to rest, to clear and to settle. In the past, he'd handled that by sitting at his spinning wheel and pouring his thoughts into the thread or wool or gold that he spun. He hadn't done that since Belle had come to him. And since she'd left, he'd been so consumed by his work to go and find Belle to really consider that he might need an evening of just that. Spending the night with Belle, sleeping, wasn't like sitting at his wheel for hours on end; it was better.
He'd gone home that morning, as promised, and taken a shower. He'd changed into a fresh, clean suit and brought another back to the shop just in case something like last night happened again in the near future. It was only once he'd returned to his shop that he'd glanced over to the drawer he'd enchanted for Belle when she'd first come home, an enchantment to provide clothes that he realized he'd never removed the enchantment and for that reason, the suit was unnecessary because that draw would provide anything that anyone needed. "Jewelry and all…" he'd huffed sarcastically to himself…
But it was at that moment that his mind made a connection. His rested, clearly settled mind connected dots that it hadn't connected before. He remembered Henry, the jewelry he'd left him with. And his jaw dropped.
"Necklace," Henry had called it. But that wasn't what it was at all. That special necklace was a "talisman." Long ago, he'd prepared it for Snow White, thinking she'd need it after the Sleeping Curse, but she never had. And now that talisman would act as a guide to any who needed it, including Henry. Talismans were enchanted. It was a special spell, a very special potion that turned objects into guides and directed any magic they had in them into the person wearing them. It was a complex potion, a twenty-four-hour brew. And not twenty-four hours of simmering like The Memory Enhancing Potion required. Twenty-four hours of mixing the right direction, adding ingredients at just the right time, watching for certain kinds of bubbles and smells. It was twenty-four hours of hell to make something into a talisman. But if he could manage it, then a talisman might be the perfect thing to get over the town line and keep his memories on the other side!
If he could enchant something, turn it into a talisman and use the potion he'd worked on before, the memory enhancer with a binding spell, on the talisman, then it might be able to direct the magic into him without destroying his mind. And better yet, though the process to make the potion was long and tedious, the magic it used was relatively minimal. Minimal magic had done well at the line in his tests, having some of it removed before being spat back out. If there were anything he didn't want the town line to draw magic from, that would be it!
Oh, but he'd still have to choose wisely. A talisman was a picky thing. Turning a necklace into a talisman for some bad dreams was one thing; crossing the town line with one was another. The town line currently worked by siphoning off the magic of magical people and objects that crossed them. What he was working on already needed some sort of spell to control it. In addition, he had the memory enhancer and the binding spell, and now he was going to be adding the talisman's magic, however small, into that mix. Too much magic might not be something that whatever he crafted to control it could contain.
But if he used natural magic…that might work.
Natural magic was not so easily detected in low doses. In fact, much like Bald Mountain, high doses of natural magic in certain situations could have a canceling-out effect on magic. He wasn't about to start experimenting with applying spells and then dousing himself in lime and salt and sandstone to see if he could get across the town line, but he didn't have to. Natural magic existed in other forms. Natural magic was not just magic in nature, but it could be closely tied to magic of the heart. It could be found in natural bonds that existed between two people. True Love could share natural magic, certain types of friends had been known the share the magic, Ingrid, the Snow Queen across the street, and her sisters had once possessed ribbons that held natural magic like that, and most importantly of all…parents and their children could share the magic.
If he could choose an object that had little to no magic but rather found its power in meaning and attachment, then it might just make the perfect conduit for his spells. The question was, what was there to use? The dagger came to mind first, but he quickly dismissed it for that reason. Who knew if the dagger was his idea or the idea of another Dark One…it had an attachment to nearly every voice in his head; he didn't want to get mixed up. He glanced around the shop and finally made his way to the trunk he'd been packing full of Bae's things when the Curse had broken. There wasn't much. His ball was there. He'd given it to him on his fourteenth birthday after the ogres were defeated. He had strong attachments to it, but if this worked, he'd need to be in constant contact with the item, and he couldn't see himself carrying a ball place to place to place. Not to mention, if he went out there, he'd be human again. If he had to stop somewhere for the night and bed down, there was too much a risk he might let go of it in sleep.
But then what else did he have that attached father to son and would travel well, be easy to carry. He could think of one thing.
Bae's scarf, his shawl. Oh, it was perfect. Of all the things he had from Bae, the shawl was the one he was the most protective of because it appeared to be nothing but a scrap of cloth. It was easy to hide, easy to store, and most importantly, it was easy to wear. Bae used it as a shawl and a blanket because he'd only been a boy at the time, but it was meant to be a scarf, worn around the shoulders. It would be a far cry from anything that Mr. Gold would be happy to be seen in, but he didn't particularly give a damn about that. Especially not when he considered how well it had held up all these years. The preservation spell had done its job. It was tough. If he needed to bed down for a night, he could easily tie it around a wrist or tuck it into a nightshirt…just so long as it maintained contact with him. Showering would be interesting…
He was getting ahead of himself. Already speculating about things that had not yet happened. First, he needed to craft the potion, then he needed to figure out some way to mask it from the town line, and then he could test it. Once he knew it worked, he could worry about sleeping arrangements and how he would shower and shave with the thing.
Twenty-four hours to brew the potion…he glanced at the clock and noted that it was nine-thirty in the morning. That was perfect. He needed an hour to get things together, and then he'd begin. By the time he was finished with the brewing and the bottling tomorrow, it would be just before noon, which gave him plenty of time to return home, shower, and dress for lunch. After all, tomorrow, he had a date.
There you go! I told you when Gold gave Henry the charm to help him in the red room that it was going to turn into a key moment at a later time. Here is that key moment. I know, this is a cerebral chapter. It reads like filler, but it's actually super important because this chapter gives Rumple his answer, his next step to getting across the town line.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Grace5231973, for your continued reviews. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this chapter. It might not have a lot of action to it, but much like the Research!Belle chapters, I enjoy getting the opportunity to explore how the characters work through things. And in this chapter, I love how Rumple ties working through this to getting rest with Belle. He places a lot of positive outcomes on their interactions the night before, and I think that is something that helps him to move forward with her. Peace and Happy Reading!