"Love is the law, love under will."
-Aleister Crowley, Moonchild
Evie was the only one of them who had two parents. Theoretically, they'd all had two parents, but Evie was the only one whose parent was on the Isle (unlike Jay, whose mother still lived in Agrabah), on good terms with her mother (unlike Mal, whose mother refused to tell her who her father was), and acknowledged her as his child (unlike Carlos, who was a mistake, who was neveracknowledged by his demon father, even though he lived on the Isle, because said father was ashamed of having a half-breed heir after one drunken fling.)
This didn't have much of an effect on her upbringing, because Grimhilde was the head of household, and whatever she said was followed to a T. It did, however, give her a glimpse into the woman her mother used to be, because her father, Gregory Huntsman, had been the Queen's loyal servant for many, many years, and he always told his daughter stories of the old Grimhilde, the woman he'd fallen in love with (before all the mirrors and madness, and fairest-of-them-all business).
Mal became Evie's ally at ten (they'd been acquaintances for a while, but nothing solidifies an alliance like painting a blood-ritual circle in a dark alley and meeting the Mistress Of All Evil herself.) So it stood to reason that she was around the castle more often, and she loved hearing Evie's father tell stories of the way things used to be, in Bavaria, before Grimhilde lost her mind. It reminded her of home, of the bittersweet and saddish way that her mother had told her stories of the Moors. It was nostalgia tinted with pain.
"She always wanted power, your mother did," Mr. Huntsman would laugh then, turning some sort of small game over the fire. Squirrel or pigeon. "But not for power's sake, mind you. She wanted power, because it let her change things."
And Mal wanted that so badly. Even at ten, she wanted to grasp that power, anld use it to strangle all of Auradon.
"Back in Bavaria, your mother and I were born to the same coven, just after the last of the purges. Purges, o'course, were those panics, when people blamed witches for everything, and burned them at the stake. As far 's we knew, ours was the last coven in Bavaria." Evie's father had stopped turning the meat then, and fixed Evie with a sly smile. "O'course, your mother found more o' them later, but we grew up thinkin' we was the last witches in the world."
Mal really enjoyed those moments together by the fire, and if she had one good mother, then Evie had one good father, and between them, they had two functioning parents. Knowing that there were people in life (besides each other) who loved them, gave the two girls quite a confidence boost. They became something of a holy terror when they were together, and all of the Isle learned to cower in their wake.
Mal had made a lot of enemies during her childhood on the Isle(Uma, who she almost drowned when she shoved her off the pier and the granddaughter of Mad Madam Mim, whose hair she cut off in chunks, when the girl teased Evie) but the original four were never enemies, even though it took a long time for them to be friends.
Jay sometimes stole something Mal had her eye on, but they were more like friendly rivals than anything. Jay had caught Carlos as he fainted one day, during a surge of magick. He later found out that the surge was caused by Mal and Evie's ritual circle, and he refused to directly attack them after that. He knew it was suicide - everyone knew it was nuts to attack a witch who could cast blood magic.
That's why Jay almost had a heart attack when Jafar told him he needed to steal the ruby necklace that belonged to Evie.
He agonized for days, thinking and pacing (and he'd never admit it to anyone save Carlos, but he cried too, from the frustration and stress). He crossed his arms and watched them from rooftops for days, thoughts racing. Can't cross the witches, can't disobey dad. Mal will kill me when she catches me. Dad will kill me anyway.
There was added pressure after the first week with no necklace too. Because Jafar knew the way Jay felt about Carlos, even at twelve years old, just the way that Mal knew she loved Evie more than anything. They couldn't hide it. And Jafar hated that his son had turned out to be gay (even though he didn't even know Jahid well enough to know that he was pansexual, not gay) so he threatened that if another week passed without the gem, the next time he saw Carlos, the boy would suffer for Jay's weakness. And Jay could take so much abuse, but Carlos was his weakness. He would never let anything happen to that kid on his watch.
So it forced his hand, and on the one day Evie was alone, he cornered her in an alley and pulled a knife. Before he could even open his mouth to ask the question, Mal had knocked him down, by throwing all her weight against him, while Evie got the previously dropped knife, and held it to his throat. It would have been so easy to just kill him and be done with it, but Jay had been basically cool so far, and Mal wasn't in the habit of murdering other children. In fact, after that first ritual circle, no one had ever been brave enough to attack her or Evie again, which made her wonder what made him do it.
"Please." He whispered, not caring that it made him look weak, not hearing how his voice cracked. "Please. I need that necklace."
"Why?" Mal asked calmly, suddenly sensing a faint aura of protection around him, tainted with blood and sigils, not unlike the aura that surrounded Evie, ever since Mal had cast her ritual. It smelled sweet, but biting, like wine that had gone stale.
"I have to get it for my dad. Otherwise..." Jay swallowed hard. Admitting weakness and love in the same sentence was like suicide on the Isle. He was putting himself entirely at Mal's mercy: physically, emotionally, magically. And from what he'd heard, the daughter of Maleficent was not merciful.
There was a moment's pause. Jay couldn't see it, but Mal smirked. She could use this. To have someone in her debt was a powerful thing, and not a gift to be wasted.
"Evie, give me the necklace." Mal finally said, keeping the knife on Jay while the princess removed her favorite gem. Her mother would scream at her for losing it, but Mal had never steered her wrong before...
"Now, I'm going to give you this necklace, on one condition." Mal explained. Jay nodded from his crumpled place on the pavement, and Mal felt his skin heat up with a blush. She found her magic gave a little thrill at having that much control over him, and oh, how she liked it.
"Join my gang." Mal said, and stepped off of him, even though she still held the knife. Jay jumped to his feet and lunged for her, but Mal dodged it easily. He wasn't really trying.
"Excuse me?" Jay laughed. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Because that's the only way you're getting this pretty rock, street rat!" Mal teased, bouncing away again after Jay's second lunge. "And besides. I can't offer you protection from your father, but I can offer you and Carlos protection from everyone else on the island."
Jay didn't even ask how she knew about Carlos.
That was how two became four. Mal later learned that she wasn't the only Isle kid with knowledge of ritual magic - Carlos was good at it too. One afternoon during the school week, Yzla had cornered him in the courtyard of Dragon Hall, and accused the white haired boy of sabotaging his science project - the only class either of them really cared about. Carlos denied of course, and Yzla didn't believe him, so a fight broke out.
Carlos came out on top. But as Ben would later learn, with shocked horror, Isle fights with schoolyard bullies weren't just fist fights, or name calling. It was serious. A fight to the death wasn't uncommon, and even if you got out alive, there was no hospital on the isle, and no one but your gang or your kin would help you. It was you, or them.
Carlos didn't want the blood and bone to go to waste, so he made a circle, and infused a fingerless, studded glove with protective sigils, for Jay. It was what Mal had sensed on the day she held him down and asked him to join her.
There was other magic on the Isle too, as Mal and her allies discovered, one terrible Beltane night, when there came a pounding on the door of their hideout. On that first of May, that balmy witches' holiday, the moon rose high, high into the clouds, and shone like a Cheshire smile, even through the pink-mauve shimmer of the barrier. They were staying in the hideout, because even though the moon was a sliver, Carlos' magic all boiled out during the solstices and equinox, and they all wanted to be near him for support.
Cleverly, the kids had only changed the inside of their base, painting the inner walls with tags and symbols, so the outside looked just like any other warehouse by the water. It had a lumpy couch that they'd liberated from the furniture-stuffed attic of Hell Hall, and a bed that was big enough for all of them to pile up in, to keep each other warm in the winter. Af first, Mal thought the nocturnal visitor was Uma's gang, or their parents, who'd finally tracked them down and located the one place where they could be themselves. They waited with silent breath (even Carlos, who wanted to scream, and usually did, this time of year) for one, two, three seconds - but the pounding kept up, and the four realized mostly at once, that whoever was out there wanted to knock down the door.
Evie slipped over to the entrance, and peered through the peephole to the other side. She knew that whoever was out there couldn't get in without her permission - they'd warded it immediately, as soon as they moved in. Ginny Gothel was out there, Evie saw, through the little circle of light and darkness, pounding hard on the door, and she was covered with blood, biting her lip to keep from screaming. Behind her, taking a defensive stance, was Hadie, the daughter of Hades and Persephone. Her eyes narrowed, and her flaming red hair blew lightly in a non-existent breeze, as if it sensed the danger as she stood lookout for her friend. Evie stepped aside, and gestured for Mal to come and see.
Mal glanced into the peephole, thought for a moment, then nodded. She counted down from three on her fingers, and on one, she and Evie threw open the door. Ginny fell through, and was dragged over the threshold by Evie. Mal waited just long enough for Hadie to get inside, before she slammed the door shut - and locked it, and reset the wards, and retraced the locking runes, and sprinkled the threshold with salt - and then she was ready to face the new arrivals.
"So what the fuck is out there?" Jay asked, beating her to it.
"Her mother." Hadie muttered, glancing at the door. She could see the magic, and she was somewhat impressed, but she didn't show it.
"She - she tried to sacrifice me!" Ginny whispered, trembling. It shook the four a bit, because their parents were terrible, but even Cruella wouldn't willingly kill her own child. Manslaughter by neglect, maybe, but not homicide.
"Are you hurt?" Evie asked, brow furrowed, and eyes narrowed, not caring that it made her sound weak.
"The blood... It isn't mine." Gothel murmured, rocking back and forth.
"She stabbed her mom with her own blade." Hadie smirked, as if to say that's my girl, on an Isle where affection was only pride and stolen glances and half-hearted jabs.
"Why are you running then?" Mal asked, casting a mildly worried glance at the door.
"'Cause Mother Gothel is a freaking maniac." Hadie replied. "Also, Beltane is a night for regenerative magic. She's probably young again by now, and healed of everything Ginny did to her."
"And out for revenge." Evie whispered quietly.
"We should go." Hadie said then, beginning to pace along the south wall. We can't endanger you by staying here. We can make it to my parents' house. Probably. The words hung unsaid in the air.
"Stay here for the night." Mal explained, cutting off all of those thoughts at the source.
"Listen here, purple." Hadie snarled, unafraid of Mal as only a godling could be. "I don't want to owe you. I don't want my girlfriend to owe you."
And Ginny Gothel let out a little gasp, because it was the first time she'd ever publically acknowledged their relationship as such.
"I'm not asking you to owe me." Mal stated. Firmly, kindly. A born leader. "I'm just offering you protection in my gang."
It had started, all because she wanted to be friends with Evie, and when someone threatened them, she protected. When Jay and Carlos were driven to an impossible task, she protected them. When Ginny Gothel and Hadie showed up on her doorstep, dripping with blood and seething with anger respectively, she protected them. And the very next year, on a cold, damp, Samhain night - as the faithful lit candles for spirits, and the fearful drank their spirits from cracked tumblers - Freddie Facilier screamed through the alleys of the Isle, seeking Mal's protection.
To Be Continued...
A/N: This chapter got long - I couldn't leave out the juicy details and keep it an interesting story, thus Freddie, Uma, and Harry's tales will be explored in chapter seven - the next flashback chapter.