"So, she drank the potion," Ivy says pacing around the dwarves' house, trying to make sense of the story the dwarves just told her. "And then she changed and became very moody and angry, right?"
Grumpy and the other dwarves nod. "So we called Jiminy the cricket to come have a talk with her."
"In which she said that she was better off as this new mean Snow," Ivy says continuing her pacing. "Which means she's clearly not who we thought she was. And then comes this little problem that I have. Why did you guys call me?"
"What?"
"Why did you call for me to come here? Shouldn't you be looking for Snow out there?" Ivy demands slamming her hand on the table. "She did say that she was going to go and kill the Queen, right?"
"Why thought that you would know the best way to stop her." Happy says, though he doesn't seem very happy at the moment. I suppose this new Snow White had the amazing ability of making even the happiest people angry and frustrated, how wonderful. "Besides, we all have work to do."
"Right, well, I should get to work then, shouldn't I." Ivy says walking out the door, the sun is just starting to set, casting long shadows on the ground. "After all, we don't know just how much Snow has changed because of this potion, but, I don't think she learned how to do magic yet." She raises her arms towards the sky letting her breathing become the same as the trees, letting her shoulders relax like the green grass of the hills, and opening her mind become as vast as the earth itself
It's an ability that all earth style fairies could use, if their powers were of a certain level. This type of magic is very advanced and takes up a lot of energy. If a fairy isn't careful, she could burn out her entire magic power source attempting it.
Linking herself to the earth is like seeing to world through the eyes of the trees, feeling the cool water racing through its body from its roots, swaying back and forth in the wind, and watching a young princess walk through the forest with a dwarf axe over one shoulder and a knapsack over the other. "Did you find her?" Grumpy asks, as darkness starts to come over the forest.
Ivy nods, her head swimming from the amount of magic that just left her body. She had used the ability once or twice before and they always left her feeling like she should be sleeping for the next month or so. "Yeah, and she's waiting for one of the Queen's knights. She's going to kill the Queen."
"What exactly are we doing right now?" Eirys asks watching Emma inspect the door, rubbing the wood around the locks and the handle. "Shouldn't we be trying to prove that Mary Margaret didn't kill Kathryn?"
"That's what we're going to do, see if you notice anything that could be the result of a break in." Emma says walking over to a window and wiggling the lock. "If someone's setting her up, then we have to find out how they got her jewelry box."
"Hey, Emma, Eirys, what's up." Henry asks walking into the little apartment room with his school bag over his shoulder. "Need any help helping Mary Margaret?"
Eirys wipes dust off the kitchen windowsill. "Shouldn't you be at school?"
"Well, I'm not going," Henry says stubbornly. "We have to help Ms. Blanchard."
Emma submits to his demands and walks to the window closest to Mary Margaret's bed. "Even if we find a way someone could get in, no one has a motive to set Mary Margaret up."
"My mom does," Henry says.
"Regina? What does she have against Mary Margaret, besides giving you that story book?" Eirys asks collapsing on Mary Margaret's bed.
Henry shrugs. "She hates Snow White." Not that that would mean anything in court as Emma mentions. It's only in that frustrated silence that there is a mysterious clanking noise.
"I never knew she had this here." Eirys says lifting the little cage over the heating vent in her room. "Do you see anything?"
Emma reaches into the hole and pulls something wrapped in cloth. She carefully takes the cloth off, revealing a very sharp hunting knife. "This is not good."
Eirys rubs her head. "I need a drink, with alcohol, or something." She grabs her jacket on the way out. There's always a first for everything, including getting drunk in the middle of the day which is how Mr. Gold found his friend when she stumbles into his shop.
"I didn't even know you owned alcohol." Mr. Gold says bringing her a glass of water. "Try to drink some of that, it might lessen the hang over you're going to have in the morning."
"Mary Margaret is accused of murder, and it's my entire fault." Eirys says through a drunken haze. The only thing she knew for sure is the fact that she is currently laying on her couch in her house. "How did I get here?"
Mr. Gold pulls a chair up next to her. "I brought you here after you passed out in my store, very gracefully I might add. So, about this case with Ms. Blanchard?"
"Oh yeah, if only I had told her to stay away from David none of this would have happened." Eirys rants on even though she didn't find out until very late in their relationship. "I should have tied her to a chair every morning; instead I was sitting here with you drinking tea."
"I can't imagine drinking tea with Ms. Blanchard would be very interesting in the first place." Mr. Gold adds. "Perhaps I could help with the legal counseling. It's my practice after all."
Eirys blinks at him. "You would do that for her? You're such a good friend." She swings her arms around his neck. "We should celebrate with drinks!"
"Sorry, but I have to visit my client." Mr. Gold says pushing the drunken woman away from him. "I'm also going to throw away all of your alcohol." Of course, he had to find it first.
"Good luck with that." Eirys says starting to doze off. "See you in the morning?" and she was gone before Mr. Gold could even reply. He wraps her in a thin blanket and locks the door behind him.
"And you just helped her?" Ivy asks, it's incredible on how much this man just could not understand the delicate balance of events. It only adds to her exhaustion from the magic she performed not too long ago. "You know she's going to kill the Queen right?"
"Well, of course I know that." He says simply, polishing a golden platter which he had managed to take from King Midas's castle. "I gave her the potion after all, you were there as well."
Ivy throws her arms up in the air. "I give up on this; I don't know how this situation could get any worse. There is nothing worse than a crazy Snow who's off to make the worst mistake in her life."
As if the situation planned on becoming worse, another unexpected visitor comes banging through the castle. "Ah, one moment, dearie." Bae says disappearing down the hall towards the entrance of his extravagant castle.
He returns in a few minutes, having finished his business with the customer. He never got visitors, expect for Ivy. "Nice cloak," Ivy says noticing the new addition to Bae's attire. "A payment for a deal of some kind?"
Bae twirls around in it. "But of course, I was thinking I could use a nice fur cloak. For the winter time, it's quite chilly during that time of the year, you know?"
"So, who did you make the deal with?" Ivy asks. The fur looks like it actually came from some poor animal's hide. "Someone rich perhaps? Like a prince?" no wonder the cloak looked so familiar. "Like Prince James, what did he want from you?"
Bae shrugs. "Just a little something about Snow White and trying to stop her from killing the Queen, it's such a shame, I've invested quite a bit into that girl."
"So, you don't want me to go out there and stop Snow White?" Ivy asks, this may be the first time the two of them were on clearly opposing sides. "Is it because I gave you that slice of pumpkin pie that one time?"
"Let's just say that I have a little score to settle with the Queen." Bae explains setting the cloak onto his desk. "Well, either way, I have a little experiment to conduct, so if you'll please." He points towards the door.
Ivy casts him a suspicious glance. "Just what are you up to anyways?" But heads towards her room, she deserved a good rest.
"Nothing that you need to concern yourself with, my dear." He replies holding a magnifying glass to his eye, inspecting the fur cloak. "But the results will be, most rewarding, I'm sure."
Whatever that meant, Bae had the most peculiar way of explaining himself sometimes. Or maybe he said it in such a way that purposely confused her. Ivy wanders back to the room Bae had set aside for her own uses. Not that she really spent much time in the room.
Despite her initial worry about Snow and Prince James, she got the feeling that everything would be alright. Especially since all curses can be broken with true love's kiss. No, the whole situation with Snow no longer plagued her mind. What was on her mind is the experiment Bae is carrying out in the other room. Curiouser and curiouser things were getting.
"Are you sure the tests are right?" Eirys asks glancing at the sheets of paper for the results of the heart analysis. "How are you going to tell Mary Margaret? She's going to be crushed."
Emma shrugs, folding the results and putting them back into its envelope. "I don't know, but we're going to go ahead with the case." Which didn't bode well for the elementary school teacher. "Do you know if Mr. Gold is still there?"
"He's always working." Eirys replies getting ready to close up. She glances out the window towards the pawn shop which is still dimly lit. "Yeah, he's still there. What business do you have with him?"
"Something that I hope will help Mary Margaret." Emma says heading towards the pawn shop and to probably make a deal with the infamous deal maker. Now, being a deal maker doesn't mean Mr. Gold has to be loyal to one party or the other.
Eirys just stares at him over her teacup. "You don't seem too worried by the fact that you're basically double-crossing Emma, which doesn't help Mary Margaret at all."
"She came back, eventually, no one got hurt." Mr. Gold states simply. "Expect for Regina's pride, so technically, let sleeping dogs lie, correct?" He gives her a look that screams 'Don't say a word and no one gets hurt' which meant that he was glaring at her.
A glare that Eirys chooses to ignore. "But there's always that possibility that she wouldn't have come back and how did Emma even find her, that forest is dense. People get lost in there all the time."
"You've never complained about my choices before." Mr. Gold says taking a sip of his tea. Sometimes, when he felt like it, he would purposely say things that would get on the young woman's nerves.
"I never complain about who you do sneaky shady deals with." Eirys counters rolling her eyes. "I just let other people talk about your secret relationship with Regina behind your backs."
"We do not have a secret relationship." Mr. Gold says disgusted by the thought of it. The idea that someone could deal with an attitude like Regina's is quite surprising, but the mayor does have a few friends. Or at least she has people who are loyal to her. "Not even close."
They were heading down that road again, a road that would lead them to stop talking altogether for a few weeks and then pretend as if nothing had happened. "I'm going to start ignoring you again."
The clock puts an end to their time before Mr. Gold can make any words against her statement, which meant that the next morning, he will find her doors locked until she decides to stop ignoring him. "Well, I have to be going; I have a meeting with my client." He downs the rest of his tea and quickly walks out the door.
"Eirys, are you here?" Ashley arrives for work not too long after. She looks as tired as any newlywed would be. "I'm back!"
Ashley and her boyfriend, now husband, had gone on a very delayed honeymoon due to their busy schedules. "Well, I'm glad you're back." Eirys says giving the girl a hug. "I can't believe you got married, I feel so old now."
"Oh, don't worry about it." Ashley says getting her apron on. "Besides, it's not you're that old anyways, you still have time to find someone."
Eirys glances at the clock. "I'm going to take a short walk down by the pier, clear my head of a few things. Here are the keys to cashier and don't let Mr. Gold in." Eirys grabs a dark green pea coat on her way out. It's actually quite a walk from her store to the pier; she's almost out of breath by the time she gets there. "Emma, are you drinking that?"
Emma hands the worn out woman her drink. "Should I be asking why you walked all the way down here?" Next to her is a man that Eirys has never seen before, he actually might be that stranger who came to town not too long ago.
"Don't worry, I just had to argue with Mr. Gold for a bit." Eirys says as if it weren't that big of a deal. "So, who's your friend?"
"I'm August." He says sticking his hand out for a shake. He has the normal white male built, no more than a couple years older than Emma. His blue eyes contrast nicely against his brown hair. There's probably a little something going on between Emma and August. "I came here for some inspiration for a piece that I'm writing."
Eirys gives him a hearty shake making sure to keep an eye on his relationship with Emma. "Are you here to write about the Mary Margaret case?" She points to the open newspaper Emma's currently holding, on the front it a large picture of Mary Margaret.
August shakes his head, but give no other information about is occupation. "I was just telling Emma that when I have a writer's block, sometimes I go back to my first inspiration and start rewriting."
"Oh, and then you can head down a different path with new ideas and end up with something different." Eirys says catching on. "So you get a different perspective about the story. Is there supposed to be some sort of relevant context to this conversation?"
"Well, when Emma started this investigation, it was about a missing person, which later became a murder." August says bringing the talk back to the source of Mary Margaret's case. "And then it became a cover-up, maybe if you knew that then, you would approach things differently."
Emma seems to have an epiphany after August's statement. "I need to go back to the scene of the crime."
"I'll drive." August offers. "You haven't slept in days."
"I could also use a ride back to my store." Eirys says rushing to catch up with the two. "Or I could go with you, either or is fine with me." She was going to owe Ashley an apology for leaving her alone at the store all the time.
Emma glances at her. "I could actually use all the help I can get, everything I've tried just leads to a dead end. And I don't really trust his driving skills right now." As it turns out, August drives a motorcycle mixed in with Emma's trust issues; it's reasonable why she doesn't trust him to drive.
Eirys catches Emma's tossed keys and plugs them into the yellow beat-up bug. "So, we're heading for the Toll Bridge?"
It's a silent drive to the bridge, Emma finally taking the time rest her eyes. "Are you ok?" Eirys asks August when he suddenly winces as they go down the hill to the area where Ruby found the heart.
August nods. "Just some shin splints, let me walk it off for a bit."
"This must be really hard for you, Emma." Eirys says suddenly. "I mean, not that I know everything about you, but you and Mary Margaret seem to be really good friends. Probably even better friends than Mary Margaret and I."
Emma just plows forward inspecting the hole where the jewelry box was found. "Hey, check this out." She pulls something out of the hole. "It's a piece of a shovel; it must have broken off when it hit a rock or something." She hands it to Eirys.
Eirys turns it over in her hand. "So, if we find the shovel that this piece belongs to, then we found the person who buried the heart and clear Mary Margaret's name." She passes the piece to August.
"And I bet you know exactly where to start." August says which meant only one starting point, Regina's own garage.
"Why do you hate Snow White so much?" Ivy asks the Queen just as she was released. It is a risky move since the Queen can imprison her again without the promise of release.
The Queen turns to face her mirror, and for once, the Genie doesn't appear to stare back at her. "Snow White ruined my life." She says bitterly. "She couldn't keep the secret that I told her."
"So you couldn't get your happy ending which is why you're going to destroy everyone else's?" Ivy guesses though the Genie did tell her a couple of juicy pieces of information just because he loved to gloat about the Queen's beauty and wisdom.
"I'm going to make her pay." The Queen says clearly already plotting her revenge on the world, especially on Snow White and that terrible secret that she couldn't keep.
Ivy quietly ducks out of the Queen's room before she became the victim of the Queen's wrath. "Hey, Genie, what's this secret that the Queen's talking about?" She taps a nearby mirror knowing that the Genie had heard everything.
"I don't know everything about her you know." The Genie says appearing in his usual blue hue. "But I do know that she keeps some ring in a little box in her desk. "It's not something I would ever give her; I would give her something more precious."
Ivy just nods and decides to slide away as the Genie goes off on a tangent about his love for the Queen. If one ever wanted to know about the Queen's favorite color, the Genie would be the one to talk to. He's always keeping track of the Queen's likes and dislikes.
"So it's gone?" Eirys asks consoling the sheriff on her cell phone while munching on a piece of celery. "And you're sure it was there when you went to check last night?"
"Of course I'm sure." Emma says totally frustrated beyond belief. "Did you tell anyone about the piece of shovel?"
Eirys thinks back to the day before. "Well, I would have told Mary Margaret if she was accepting phone calls, and right now Mr. Gold and I aren't talking, so I don't think so." She had gone back to her store after finding the piece of shovel and decided to close up shop early. That evening, she sat in her bathtub mulling over her relationship with Mr. Gold with a bucket of chocolate ice cream. "Maybe you told someone else about it?"
"You mean besides you and August?" Emma asks.
Eirys shifts through her receipt box, suddenly having the extra time to do small things. This is what Mr. Gold probably did in his free time when he wasn't restoring old artifacts or working on another deal. "Maybe you talked about it too loudly in the café or when you thought you were alone, something like that? I'm sure August didn't do it."
"Maybe, maybe not." Emma says. "Either way, I'm going to go talk to him." And she's pretty pissed off right now, which would mean that August is in for a very unpleasant encounter.
Eirys nods not wishing to be in August's boots at the moment. "Well, I guess you can always enjoy the flowers Sydney got you." She reads flowers off the receipt. "You two must be good friends. We can talk about it at the café."
Eirys wasn't in the mood to make tea in the mornings; having tea in her house is too lonely and Ashley wouldn't be coming for at least an hour. "You were right." Emma says once Eirys pulls up by Granny's café.
"Excuse me?" Eirys glances between Emma and August who were in the middle of talking before she arrived. "Am I missing something here?"
Emma holds up the evidence bag in her hand. "I trusted all the wrong people and I started to doubt myself and you guys." Upon closer inspection, the bag held what appeared to be a broken bug, the kinds people use to eavesdrop on others.
Their heartwarming moment is broken by a bloodcurdling screech just behind the café. Without a second guess, the three of them run down the small sidewalk towards the back, running into a hysterical Ruby. "Ruby, are you alright?" Eirys asks.
"She's just lying in the alley." Is all Ruby can get out. Emma and August rush towards the alley, probably expecting the worst. "I thought she was dead."
Eirys hugs the crying girl. "Let's go see if Emma found something ok?" The two of them turn the corner and see the last thing they expected to see. "Kathryn, is that you?" the supposed 'dead' person was actually a living Kathryn Nolen.
Despite the massive amounts of questions surrounding the mystery of Kathryn's sudden reappearance some good things did come out of it. One, Mary Margaret wasn't going to jail. Two, Kathryn isn't dead. And three, Eirys finally had a good reason to talk to Mr. Gold again.
The down side to everything is the questions surrounding Kathryn's disappearance and how she got from the edge of town to the alley behind the café. And it all goes back to the simple idea of someone framing Mary Margaret.
"I never expected to hear from you so soon." Mr. Gold says clearly enjoying his tea. "What made you change your mind?"
Eirys shrugs. "It's all so mysterious, first her disappearance and now her reappearance. At least Mary Margaret isn't in jail anymore." After getting over the initial shock of finding Kathryn, Eirys could hardly think of anything else. It's going to be the buzz of the little town soon.