He was going to have a visitor in the very near future, a visitor he hadn't counted on. Truly, what was it with the Arendelle royal family that they thought he could solve all their woes?! Or perhaps he should just say "woe" as he felt certain the problem she was having was the same problem her mother had and her mother's sister before that!
Still, it was merely an accident that he'd learned Princess Anna was on her way. Sometimes, when he got board, he liked to do what he called "the rounds". He used his mirror, his crystal ball, the cauldron, anything he had on hand really to look in on all the important players in his little game…and some of the unimportant ones as well.
He always started with Regina, always looked in on what she was doing, and sometimes looked away quickly. On the days she happened to be enjoying the pleasures of her captive hunter he simply rolled his eyes and made the image disappear. He was the Dark One, not a voyeur. And that was how the mirror he and Regina used to communicate had found its way down into the Great Room and not stayed up in his workshop. He covered it with a blanket and forgot all about her when he needed to. And when he wanted to speak with her, it was as simple as removing the blanket. It was fine with him. At this point, instinct had finally taken over in Regina, and she needed him less and less as she grew colder and colder and colder. She preferred to learn on her own and so long as she continued to advance, he had no problem with allowing her.
It used to be that after Regina he'd check on her step-daughter, but lately he'd taken to looking in on King Maurice's daughter first. It just a curiosity, to see how she was healing, he told himself. The answer was not well. Her memories of the night the ogres attacked were gone, but he could tell she was agitated and studying something or other her father didn't approve of in between dodging a black-haired man who he'd come to learn was her fiancé Gaston, the eldest son of a powerful neighboring Lord with a powerful army. No doubt, her father thought the match would earn him extra soldiers to fight his useless war against the ogres. He usually couldn't bear to look in on the girl after Gaston came into the picture, even a black-hearted villain like himself could see she didn't have the same kind of interest in him that he had in her. And besides, the interest he had in her…he wasn't convinced it was the right kind of interest. When he watched their exchanges, he had a feeling in his stomach like something was gnawing at him, and it made him look away in despair. It was all part of the mystery she presented, and it was the way he had yet to solve that mystery. Why that girl was important, he hadn't figured out yet, but he needed to soon so that he could let her live whatever life she was going to have and move on with his own.
After Belle, he looked in on Snow White, still hiding out with Red Riding Hood and Granny, still selling what she could to gather a bit of money and working on her archery. There was usually not much to see with her. The most exciting thing to happen to her had been accidentally stumbling upon David when she'd gotten into a bit of a scrape. He'd watched that encounter, wondering what would come of it and if he should intervene. But eventually, the meeting had ended, and nothing had resulted other than one brief exchange in which they'd never really seen their faces. She'd concluded her business and gone back to stay with Granny and Red. The duo, who were rarely ever apart, were currently out in the woods. Nothing interesting.
On he moved to his next interest, who would eventually be Snow White's interest, James. Unfortunately, there was nothing new with James either. He was busy wielding a sword at the moment, not for his life, but it appeared he was doing it for demonstration in front of some of his father's peers. There was no excitement to be had there.
He didn't usually look in on David, but bored by one brother, he decided to take a peek at what the other was amounting to…and was shocked to find he had a sword in his hand as well. For a moment, he wondered if his magic had failed, and he was just seeing past images of James, but James had never had his hair that long. Nor would he ever have worn clothes like that. It was David, the shepherd, holding the sword and training as if he was a soldier. He'd given up on the mirror and changed over to the crystal ball which showed him flashes of Bo Peep, the warlord who had been making quite the pink spectacle of herself for the last couple of years. What was she up to now? What did this have to do with David and…another girl?
No, not a girl, at least not just any girl. For the second the image in the Crystal Ball returned to David and a woman teaching him to sword fight, the Seer put image after image in his head of that girl with people he recognized.
Smiling faces, hugs, kisses, warm embraces…Elsa, Gerda, the King of Arendelle.
The girl was none other than Princess Anna. It had to be.
"What does she want in this land?"
He'd muttered the question out of curiosity, but his power naturally pushed itself into the crystal ball, and the image changed to a scene long ago of himself talking to Gerda as her husband stayed frozen as a statue in the room. That message was clear enough…she wanted to know about her parent's visit. A curious thing indeed. If she wanted to know about her parents, what was she doing with one of the twins?
With a snap of his fingers and a cloud of smoke, he summoned before him a familiar man, richly dressed, but obviously unhappy with the way he'd been brought to him.
"Theseus…"
"Dark One…have you never heard of sending a letter? Coming to call? Perhaps even just leaving some small little hint that you are about to need assistance-"
"I never need assistance!" he corrected quickly. "Only desire it and take advantage of those who owe me debts. Oh! What luck…that would be you!"
"What do you want?" he asked, rolling his eyes.
"A good pair of eyes and ears. I'll send you to a certain place, and it is my desire that you watch this man…" he waved his hand over a cauldron and pulled an image of the long-haired David up before him.
"Is that...George's boy?" the dove questioned, staring at the image.
He felt rocks fall into the pit of his stomach. Sometimes he forgot just how connected all these royal families were. Sometimes he forgot that Theseus was now one of them, and not just the little peasant boy in love with a woman who had bad luck. Oh, how the two of them had grown.
"Long hair and peasant's clothes? You think Prince James would ever be caught dead in that way? You think King George would ever let him?!" he covered.
Theseus shrugged as he continued to stare into the cauldron. "No, but...striking resemblance. It's uncanny."
"Well, perhaps it'll help remind you who to look for. Aside from the shepherd boy I also want you to pay close attention to..." with another wave of his hand the images of Anna and Bo appeared David's place, "these women. I want to know what they're up to."
"And your magic isn't good enough for that."
"Some things are better watched in person…or bird in your case." He tossed him a vial of potion that he'd summoned into his hand then. "Destroy this after everyone has gone off to bed tonight, it'll bring you back to me with all that lovely information!"
A twitch of his finger and he was gone, off on his mission, spying as he watched the pair battle through the crystal ball battle and talk. Perhaps Theseus would come back with useful information.
So now we enter into the 4x02 chapters and there are more of them than you think because we have to take a little...side trip. This one is my fault. It's because I added Theseus and Mary as characters and now so much time has passed and...well...I'll let you discover it for yourself. But I will say I was not pleased with the division of these chapters so we all know going in that these weren't ideal but one way or another the point got across.
Thank you MissAmande, Alarda, Grace5231973, and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews on the last chapter! I'm so glad we all enjoyed the first appearance of Belle and now...well...would you look at that, here she is again. The nice thing about Rumple not having any answers that he is able to start getting curious about her and that means he'd going to be watching her like he watches the others. And early on we can already see a pattern with that beginning to emerge. He's not looking in on her because he's interested, oh no, never, of course not. It's just a curiosity, right? He's just curious about how she's healing is all. Isn't it? Mmm, sounds a lot to me like that time Rumple really did enjoy having Jefferson around, but never did want to tell him, wouldn't you say? Peace and Happy Reading!