Hi all, thanks for the reviews. I'm glad people are enjoying. Thanks to the silent readers too and for the messages. Here is chapter 7!
Thanks again to Laura for all her beat-ing work.
The two women landed clattering to the ground with a thud onto soft sand.
"At least sand is better than tree roots." Emma groaned, deciding this jumping around had happened too many times for her liking.
"I can't believe we just took a joyride in the landscape." Regina croaked. "I see that despite banning me from using my old methods you don't have the same reservations reverting back to grand theft auto."
"Am I ever going to be able to save your life without you complaining about it?" Emma replied, pulling herself up to sit, leaning back on her palms. Regina hopped onto her feet, stretching out her legs with a wince.
"It's my way of showing gratitude." she replied emotionlessly before offering Emma a hand. "Though I'm still unsure how any of this worked..."
"We need to just keep looking forward. Whatever got us here so far we should just roll with it. Even if it means literally." She added with a smirk, taking pride in her joke.
"Seriously?" Regina looked back unimpressed as Emma nudged her arm playfully. The joking aside, something about the amulets still didn't feel right. It may have saved their life, but they hadn't been fashioned as a magic catch-all. Her young apprentice's magical ability was proving a continual source of intrigue.
"You may not like my humour but you should at least like this." Emma broke Regina's thought train and handed her the cup she had rescued from their adventure.
"So this is the famous cup." Regina commented, returning to the task at hand inspecting it in her hands. As she turned it over she began to grimace. It was formed from a thick metal, lighter than it appeared, with a degraded golden colour. There were two side handles framing it, delicately crafted into 'S' like curves. The design was of simple decoration but had various grooves that may have at one point displayed a message or name in some forgotten language. As delicate as it seemed to be, it was its base that had caused the puzzled reaction. It was punctured by a constellation of carefully positioned holes.
"This isn't a cup - it's a holey grail alright but the wrong kind!" Regina sneered, plonking it hard into Emma's hands. "This can't be right..."
"It has to be the cup." Emma suggested. As confused as she was she was reluctant to give up too easily. "They're rock trolls...maybe they just didn't know what a cup looks like and they were calling it the wrong thing."
"They may have been robotic morons with a passion for literal instruction but they are still magical creatures." Regina replied, becoming more anxious. "I'm sure they know what basic objects look like - and Belle said it was a chalice. Are you sure there wasn't another cup?"
"There wasn't exactly a neon sign flashing 'this is your cup' but it's not like there was a buffet of ancient artefacts in the rock were flying down the hill in." Emma defended herself. Before Regina could get out more than a glare they were interrupted by a whirlwind of sand that whipped up around them. They both shielded their eyes, anticipating the imminent arrival.
"You beat the trolls and got their prize now you can make them all oblige, your powers combined can let you in and use your name to sink or swim."
"If you can use old methods, Swan, so can I." Regina thundered as soon as the riddle finished before blasting a clear bubble of light at the riddler, trying to catch it. As he ducked and dived she fired three more before launching for him as he finally popped away in an explosion of gold. Regina landed face first in the sand. She managed to grab at his pocket and snatch the contents but not detain him.
"That slimy - argh! If he is trying to guide us why not just guide us." She ranted, furious at her failure to catch him. Emma ignored the refrain, whipping out her Sheriff's pad as Regina made it back on her feet and peered over the blonde's shoulder. "What are you writ- " she began before noting the design on the paper she was scribbling on and interrupting herself. "The former Sheriff Dark One of Storybrooke has a personalised purple notepad?" She asked with a hint of ridicule, spotting the printed name in italic at the top of the page. It was accompanied by a small picture of a swan. "Your mom gave you that didn't she." She guessed instantly as Emma blushed a little.
"So it's a little cutesy...it makes her happy to know I use it." She admitted as Regina's eyebrows moved up. "It's certainly very…" she paused, catching a warning glace from her companion. "Snow White." She tread carefully, not wanting to say anything too derogatory about her former enemy. Emma flipped the book closed and tucked it away in her pocket.
"As the person responsible for her not being able to get things like this when it was more age appropriate, you don't get to comment." She responded as Regina lifted her hands up in surrender. "And in answer to your other question, I think that riddle actually had clues in it so I'm keeping note." They moved back to topic.
"What clues? He just babbles." Regina argued, still much more wary of the feline than Emma. "Everything so far has been from you, not from him."
"That's not true. I've been following his trail - as much as you keep trying to ignore it." She reasoned as Regina briskly turned her head in denial. Refusing to back down, Emma continued. "He says we have their prize which means this must be the cup and we must be on the right track."
"Well if he knows so much why doesn't he just give us a freakin' map?" Regina blasted, making no attempt to hide her frustration, before squinting beyond Emma's shoulder as something caught her eye.
Without saying another word she began to gravitate behind towards a pile of papers that had been scattered by the riddler's appearance. She bent over and picked a particular one up as Emma walked over to join her.
"What is it? What have you seen?" She asked with a prickle of optimism. Regina turned back to her and held out one of the papers, flapping it out briskly to cause a puff of golden sparkles that came spilling off it. "A freakin' map."
Eyes bulging, Emma quickly joined her as the two huddled over it, trying to make as much sense of it as they could. "I think it's written in some form of rhunic. I recognise it from the books that Elsa had."
"So either your flappy friend is also from Arendelle or we brought these with us when we dived out the rock - "
"And he's pointing us to it. See, not so crazy am I?" She boasted, seeing that Regina was finally picking up on the same patterns.
"You may not be crazy but it doesn't mean he's our friend." The more experienced witch added with a hint of wariness. "This is all too convenient."
"Or, it's just automatic. Maybe we're in a riddle land, like some kind of instant narration. The author used to write your stories, maybe it's like that - " Emma guessed as Regina scoffed again.
"Because that turned out so well."
"Regina." Emma pleaded. "I know you hate the hope angle, but please just have a little faith. We came here to find answers and we need to work with what we've got, perfect or not."
Regina looked Emma's desperate eyes up and down before handing her the map. "Just because I'm critical doesn't mean I'm not on board." She explained, relaxing a little. "I just don't want you to become too comfortable and get careless." She added earnestly with a genuine concern before slipping a hand behind the stone of Emma's amulet. "You can probably still channel some of the trolls' magic to translate the map." She suggested.
"I can do that?" Emma clarified as Regina placed the stone into Emma's hand instead and reached into her bag.
"I'm starting to believe you can do almost anything." She added with a hint of annoyance, even though it was clear it was more of a compliment.
"But the blue is fading back to purple so I don't know how much of that magic you have left. We should probably get Belle on the case as well" She pulled the mirror out. "And as badly timed as their call was before, they obviously wanted to talk to us. No doubt your mother is climbing the walls with worry that we didn't reply."
Regina sat down to join her as Emma tipped her head gently with a smile of fondness, thinking of her mother. She felt bad at the worry she would be going through but she still felt comfort finally accepting that there were people in her life who cared.
"You sure did a number on this, Swan." Regina commented, waving her hand over the cracked screen of the mirror as it zipped itself up under her carefully guiding hand.
"Ok." She held the mirror out. Emma momentarily looked confused before remembering her magic was needed for both these tasks and feeling slightly smug.
"What?" Regina commented defensively, spotting the expression. "It's not like my magic is obsolete. This is just circumstantial." Regina rolled her eyes anticipating a comment as Emma's look turned into a playful smile.
She held her hand over the mirror. It buzzed and vibrated but not as much as they would have hoped. The screen flickered as Emma tried harder.
Regina examined it as best she could as Emma persevered. "Maybe the troll magic is interfering with mine. Or I've used too much..." She inferred.
"You should still have plenty. These amulets should last days unless we go opening any cross world portals. It must be the mix of the two. Let me try this..." Regina suggested before placing her hand on top of Emma's. Immediately the signal was stronger as the two of them worked together and Mary Margaret's voice began to crack through.
"Regina? Emma?" Mary Margaret's voice was coming through clearer. "Can you see us? Are you OK?"
"We're fine mom, you just caught us at a bad time before." Emma replied as the relief was visible on her mother's face. "I don't know how long this connection will last." she got a bit of a warning look from Regina to not to cause unnecessary overreaction. "I mean, because we're tired and are going to get some sleep..." She rescued deciding it was best to leave out the magic issue for now.
"Is Belle with you?" Regina asked getting back to business.
"Right here." They heard the voice as Mary Margaret moved the mirror. "We're still researching. I found some more on rock trolls and something on the riddler. The soldier regiment of trolls are basically just there to protect the species and their assets. They swear a fierce loyalty to some fancy court or Arendelle and will do whatever it takes to follow through with them, that could be why they're not quite as friendly."
"Yeh, once again we're ahead of you there." Emma rubbed her head. "Thing is, we managed to find that chalice you were talking about - or it could be. They had it so we stole it."
"You stole it from them?" Mary Margaret repeated, concerned.
"I don't need a morality check, mom. They were holding us captive. Anyway, it's got handles but it's got holes all along the bottom."
"That doesn't sound like a chalice..." Belle remarked, trying to look closely at it as Regina held her hand out with a "told you so" look.
"Well it's the only cup like thing we could find." Emma batted away the expression with a glare.
"And it definitely wasn't the thing in your dream?" Belle further queried.
"If it was we'd be trying to figure out a way home." Regina interrupted, brashly. "It isn't dissimilar but it's definitely not what we saw. That didn't have handles and it certainly didn't have holes. Do you have anything more?"
"Nothing new. Unfortunately most of the Arendelle scriptures are in an ancient language and it takes a while to translate when we don't really know what we're looking at. It's a slow process."
"Funny you should mention that. We have a rhunic map. It may have some more for you to work with." Regina moved the mirror to show them the parchment. "We are still not sure what land we're in but we're hoping this may help us. We have some of the trolls' magic. Emma?"
"I'll give it a go..." She said nervously as she gripped the amulet tightly. Seeing she was struggling, the three spectators gave her a moment to focus.
"Your magic is still mixed in there, otherwise we wouldn't have the mirror. Just try and focus on projecting the troll magic onto the words of the page. Your magic will boost you on its own." Regina guided calmly before pausing for a few moments more. With a draw of breath the words on the page suddenly began to flicker and Regina quickly turned the mirror.
"It's working. Just hold it." She ordered as Belle and Mary Margaret quickly began to scribble. "OK - the markers seem to be leading to something called the Well of Obligation."
"Oblige, the riddler said oblige..." Emma commented as the words began to fade again.
"Keep focussed, Emma." Regina ordered as the map began to focus back.
"There is a small passage in the corner..." Regina began to read. "The pad, Regina, the pad." Emma suggested back lifting her arm to make her pocket available as Regina quickly got it out and began to scribble.
"They hid the source so that neither light or dark could access the great power alone"she continued to read while both sides desperately started to jot it all down "and the dark within needs the light to leave - " She stopped as the rhunic flickered back. "Emma, just a little more - "
"I can't hold it. I can feel it draining..." She replied, clasping her eyes tight but to no avail. Regina looked and saw that any trace of the blue had now gone.
"It's over, the troll magic is used up." Regina note as Emma opened her eyes to look down.
"It's OK, we got that down and we managed to take a photo of the image of the rest. We'll try and see what we can translate and if the places match any land." Belle commented, immediately diving into a book.
"And what was it we found on riddlers?" Mary Margaret asked, remembering back. "Right!" Belle threw open another book. "There was a page in this book of magical beings. They are magical guides that direct you on your task."
"Friend or foe?" Regina asked suspiciously. "And where are they from?"
"Nowhere specific. They only appear to people of great need and guide them on their journey. There is no guarantee of the best route as they cannot affect free will."
Regina squeezed her fist in frustration.
"So what, like a flying Sat Nav that keeps adjusting its route?" Emma blinked as Mary Margaret shrugged.
"One with its voice choice stuck on cryptic and annoying." Regina remarked bitterly.
"Well at least we know we can trust him." Emma shrugged as Regina looked back wearily.
"You need to get some sleep." Mary Margaret suggested gently as both of the travellers nodded in agreement. "We will try. If you find anything tonight or tomorrow then let us know -" Emma replied. As they wrapped up the mirror call, all assigned to their tasks, they tucked it away and looked again at the map.
"I suppose tomorrow we need to find the well." Regina suggested. "If the flying vermin is sending us there then we should probably go." She began to pull out their equipment to camp as a smile grew across Emma's face. Catching it in the corner of her eye, Regina roughly threw a blanket at her to catch.
"Don't give me that look. I still don't trust him, whether he is harmless or not." She defended herself as Emma laughed, moving it on again. "So how do we get there? We still don't have the translation."
"Well, luckily for us, maps are in a universal language." Regina pointed to a spot on the map and up to a distinctive cliff edge that matched the drawing perfectly.
That would be tomorrow's challenge.
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"I think it's about to come through. Can you hold on?" Regina yelled back as her purple faded and shot upwards and Emma's blinding light, now consuming them in a spiralling cylinder, began to whirr. There was a screeching of what sounded like birds and a darkness began to form at the top, filtering down through the white.
"I can try but I feel like I'm slipping. My energy..." Her words were straining before there was an almighty crack and the two of them felt themselves being plunged down as the black began to chase them.
