After giving careful consideration about whether or not he wanted to get Pirithous involved and send him out to watch the couple, he ultimately decided, yet again, not to. He returned to his tower to do what he felt like he'd been doing for the last week…watch. He might not be able to hear, but he could watch. He lay the cloak he'd collected from David out on one of his tables, but, as much as he wanted to examine it right then and there, he ignored it. Instead, he continued to fiddle idly with his egg project, keeping his hands busy with perfecting it, and his eyes and mind stayed focused on the players in the story unfurling before him.
David, far better at tracking than his brother James ever would have been, was able to easily locate Snow White. Their first encounter wasn't pretty. He'd give the kid credit, when he went for something, he went for it, completely, no resistance. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly have the tact to see that was probably not the best thing to do at certain times. He watched as David walked right up to Snow, exchanged in only a few brief words with her before he brought his mouth down on hers and that was that. He kissed her. Contact that was unexpected and very obviously, on Snow White's part, unwanted. David pulled away and looked her over hopefully, thinking that he'd just broken the spell, only for her to give him a good sound punch that left him unconscious and helpless.
In his village, as a boy growing up, he could occasionally remember the women rolling their eyes and whispering the word "men" under their breath as a simple explanation when a man did something stupid. He understood that now. It was his own first response. If he'd tried that with Milah or Cora he probably would have been smacked too, if he'd tried it with Belle…
He shook his head and tried to swallow his grief back down. He tinkered with his egg creation and focused a bit too heavily on the rope that Snow used to tie the would-be Prince up with just to distract himself from such thoughts. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if he'd ever kissed Belle like that. He didn't want to dare to think she'd still be here or that somehow things would have turned out differently. He didn't want to think about her at all because all it made him do was want to cry. Or worse, turn the dagger over to Regina and give up.
So he focused on them. He focused on how Snow tied David to the tree, he focused on how she prepared herself and her bow and arrow, he focused on how she realized that she wasn't in the exact right place just yet, counting down the minutes until she finally saw David move. It was evening and she was packing her stuff as if she was giving up on him waking when he roused.
He'd barely gotten a word out before he realized he was tied to a tree. That was a development the False Prince wasn't pleased with, but she was. He'd hoped that she'd take him with her as a prisoner, and that would give them time. The reason that David's kiss hadn't worked was obvious to him, she didn't love him. True Love was mutual, deep, enduring…it was layered. Thanks to his forgetful potion, she had none of those feelings for him. However, somewhere, deep down inside of her, a spark of their love would remain. If they spent time together, if he talked to her, he might be able to stir it up, kindle it once more, and then…then a kiss would work to reverse the potion. But to his dismay, she didn't do that. She left him behind. She left him tied to a tree and disappeared into the forest to the place that Regina would pass when the sun rose.
That was when he began to panic. He couldn't let her kill the Evil Queen. He may have given her all that she needed in order to do just that, but that was only because he didn't believe in making deals that weren't genuine. And he might not be Regina's fan, especially not after what had happened with Belle, but he needed Regina too much to let Snow do such a thing. He'd been counting on David to stop her, the vision he had told him that David would stop her, but how the hell was he supposed to do that when he was tied to a fucking tree in the middle of the woods?!
He wanted to go, he wanted to take off and help him, help get things back on track. But still, the Seer talked, whispering away in his head as she had been doing lately. Be still. Stay put. All will be as it should. His relationship with the Seer was a complicated one in the sense that he hated it just as much as he needed it, that was to say, he trusted her, but sometimes he wished she'd be a little more forthcoming about the details of the future. Still, she said stay, so he stayed and watched. Just like he had been doing.
He was nervous, his leg bouncing around like an anxious toddler, his eye on Snow in the cauldron and David in the crystal when hours later, suddenly David began to twitch about as if something was wrong. And then…
He rose and switched the images, pulling David into his cauldron so that he could see something he wasn't in the smaller crystal. It looked as though he'd been talking to himself, but seeing it up close and bigger…well, this was the last place in the world he'd expected to see the Cricket. It was Jiminy. He'd seen him try to help the dwarves when he sat them down to confront Snow White but not to much effect. And now here he was again, talking to David; freeing him! After a small conversation, he saw him he saw the Cricket begin to gnaw on the ropes that Snow had tied to bind David to the tree. The rope weakened and David gave a tug that this time succeeded in his freedom. The moment he came loose, he'd gotten to his feet and run off in the direction that Snow had disappeared to.
Another winning prediction by the Seer. Followed, naturally, by another.
David ran off to confront Snow and found her just in the nick of time that morning. There she was, crouched behind a tree, Robin's bow in her hands, golden arrow notched, aiming for none other than the passing caravan. Regina's caravan. Regina was out on her horse. The guards flanking her as scared villagers bowed to her while they went along. Her carriage followed behind them for those moments when she wanted to hide from public view.
David stumbled upon the scene, took it in, and he held his breath the same way the False Prince did as he took in his options for all of two seconds before it was nearly too late. Snow loosed an arrow. David jumped. When he crashed to the ground, the arrow was embedded in his shoulder.
Snow ran over to him as the caravan passed. This time it was more than words that were exchanged. She was angry at first, but as David cringed in pain and spoke to her, Snow's expression began to soften, it went from disgust and hate to thankfulness; a tear rolled down her cheek. The spark was kindled, now, unlike before, was the right time, the pair kissed and this time, when she opened her eyes…oh he'd seen that look before. He'd felt that look before, just once, when he and Belle…
Before he could allow himself to be overcome with memories, just as Snow and David went back to kiss each other again, he jumped up and waved his hand to make the painful images disappear. Then he began his work.
He had a feeling he could have done this earlier, but he'd wanted to wait, wanted to wait until this moment. This magic he was about to do was theoretical and experimental. He had no idea if it would work on the first try or the second or if it would ever work at all! And while he had what he needed, he didn't have it in ample supply, which meant that if he stood any chance at making this work, he had to give the magic it's best shot.
He hadn't done this earlier because he wasn't willing to risk it when Snow wasn't herself, afraid that might carry over into her ingredient. And besides, True Love was so much more powerful than the grief of unrequited love. Now that the pair had kissed, now that Snow had her memories back and they both knew they loved each other, he was ready to begin.
Carefully, very carefully he scanned and scanned the cloak David had left him, going over and over the fur collar until night fell and he had to light candles to see. It took hours. He was trying to keep calm. This was going to find what he was looking for, even if it took him days he was going to-
He found it! Exactly what he was looking for. A simple strand of hair. He extracted it with a pair of tweezers and held it up under a magnifying glass. It was the same color as David's, roughly the right size. It smelled like soap but deeper than that was sweat, sun, and sheep. James would never have smelled of sheep.
He grabbed a vial, one of which he'd prepared earlier by putting a bit of the extra hair he had from Snow White into it. He dropped David's hair next to her own and then pushed magic into it. It was a simple spell, one that allowed like to find like and manifest then harvest the similarity then…
The strands came to life.
They glowed, curled around each other in a double helix, perfect, strong, there was so much Light Magic coming off of it that it nearly made him sick. He couldn't create that. Only harvest what was. He'd done it. He'd created a potion from True Love. Well…not precisely. It still needed to set. In each of the vials in his cabinet he had the items needed to create potions if he infused magic, but in order to make it a potion the magic had to dissolve the hairs, it had to form a liquid that he could use. That would take time. Not long, judging by the strength of the magic coming off of it, but it wasn't going to happen in the next few minutes.
His heart was racing as he added the vial to the cabinet to steep overnight. He laughed. Smiled and beamed as he watched them together. He'd done it. He'd made of potion of True Love. With any luck when he returned to it there would be liquid inside, hopefully enough to add a single drop to his curse, enough to weaken it so that the product of their True Love, specifically, would become the Savior. A child. A girl who will return to break the curse at twenty-eight. Now he just needed her name. He'd done all he could for the curse, now he had to worry about breaking it.
Not a whole lot of excitement but still a really important moment. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything for him to use to get sound in the Forest with Snow and David, this is just the way it goes with this section sometimes.
Thank you Grace5231973, Jennifer Baratta, and Alarda for continuing to read. If memory serves correctly this is the end of what I have for this episode and up next we begin 1x21/1x22. And yes, it's still a lot of watching, but there is also a really important exchange that has to happen and a sword fight! So, something to look forward to! Peace and Happy Reading!