A/N: hey guys sorry for not updating for a long time. it took a while for me to write this after I had some computer problems and I got caught up in the real world doing college stuffs. hopefully i'll be updating more regularly now!
Maleficent didn't bother with the main castle gates or trying to argue her way to Aurora's room. She could have easily burst her way through the castle by sheer force but such things were time-consuming and now far beneath her. Instead she took the more direct route to the girl and flew in through her opened window in a whirl of fury and feathers.
She saw the blonde laying on her side, shivering and weak, and the small dark-haired girl standing worriedly over her with a damp cloth, trying to cool her raging temperature.
Ella looked up at Maleficent's sudden appearance with slight fear in her warm brown eyes, but it was gone in an instant when Aurora began to shiver violently, replaced only by the fear of what was affecting Aurora.
"Where is she?" Maleficent demanded, not bothering to introduce herself.
"Oh thank goodness! I was hoping that raven of hers might somehow end up finding you," Ella sighed, relieved. "I didn't want to have to request that someone else go and find you. That wouldn't have been…" The girl stopped her rambling, seeing the faery's patience with her talkative ways dwindle.
Clearing her throat she began again. "I'm afraid Queen Aurora is not doing so well. She's right here, but I must say I've never seen a sickness like this," she fretted. "And I think…I think there might be something you should see."
Maleficent made her way to the side of her bed, like she had done once before, and looked down on her lovely Aurora. She had fallen asleep, finally, but still trembled slightly, and her hair stuck to her forehead and neck in stringy strands.
The sight made her stomach churn, the situation all too similar to when the curse had held Aurora in a vice grip.
She didn't notice that Ella had joined her at the bedside, so when the girl reached across her for Aurora she flinched defensively and growled at the petite young woman. Ella paused only a moment before continuing, not fearing the actions of the faery in the slightest and instead gently lifting Aurora's right hand in both of hers.
Maleficent watched, intrigued, as Ella unwrapped a linen cloth from Aurora's hand. When it was peeled away, the faery's breath caught in her throat and green mist swirled at her fingertips.
The once untarnished pale skin of Aurora's hand was marred by an ugly burn that ran the length of her palm.
"Incompetent fools!" Maleficent snarled. "What did you let happen to sweet Aurora?"
Ella was not deterred by the faery's outburst, instead proceeding to explain calmly, "Actually, that's what concerns me. When she first came here she was different than she had been before."
A look passed between the two and Maleficent knew that she spoke of the changes she herself had noticed. When Ella did not accuse her of any sort of witchcraft or sorcery on the girl, Maleficent urged her to continue with a nod.
"Well. Things have gotten progressively more noticeable," Ella explained. "I was worrying about how I was going to keep hiding them from the others when I was summoned back to the council room and found her fainted in her chair with the burn on her hand."
She paused once more before speaking; what had happened was so strange that she was half wondering if she had imagined it all, even with the evidence sitting right there before her.
"She had come into contact with an iron dagger, and when she had gripped the blade in her hand it singed her on contact," Ella finally managed, her voice small as the thought urged questions to the forefront of her mind.
"I see," Maleficent said in her usual clipped tone, though she felt as though her heart had stopped entirely and her brain must have short circuited along with it because she felt incapable of any sort of reaction.
By this time Diaval had managed to catch up and flew in through the open window, croaking loudly with worry. Her trance broken by his entrance, Maleficent waved him into a human.
"Oh, do shut up Diaval!" she hissed through clenched teeth. He complied immediately. "We have an emergency. Fly ahead and alert the border guards. Bring Flittle, Thistewit, and Knottgrass to my tree to await our arrival. Go, now!"
Another flick of her wrist and Diaval was gone again. While Ella still tried to wrap her mind around the sudden appearance, transformation, and departure of Diaval, Maleficent tended to rewrapping the girl's burn carefully, sealing it with magic that would help to heal the worst of the wound.
As she set the girls limp arm back down to her side, she noticed something in Aurora's other hand. Upon closer examination, Maleficent realized it was a feather, one strikingly similar to her own.
"She keeps it with her at all times, you know," Ella said mildly behind her. "Your feather, that is. She told me it was yours, and that she missed you terribly. I think carrying it with her made her feel closer to you."
Maleficent managed a smile. "I hope it did. Thank you for watching over my little Beastie during her stay…" She pasued. "I don't think I caught your name?"
"Ella. And I'm assuming you're the Maleficent Aurora tells me so much about?"
"I am." Her heartbeat leapt once more upon hearing that Aurora spoke of her often, but this was not the time for such things. "Thank you again, Ella. I can see you genuinely cared for her while she was here. You have the respect of the moors."
Ella assured Maleficent that she would tell the council that Aurora was taken to the moors for emergency care as she roused the girl enough that she could sit up.
"Godmother!" she exclaimed, and the little blonde monarch nearly fell into her faery's arms.
"Yes, Beastie," Maleficent whispered to her, voice thick with the tears she was trying to hold back as she clutched Aurora close to her heart. "I am here now. We're going home."
Aurora did not reply; she had drifted back to sleep, and Maleficent held her tightly as she felt the girl begin to shiver again.
She lifted the girl in her arms and made sure her grip on her was secure, walking hurriedly to the window. But she paused just before Ella.
With one of her usual apathetic sighs, Maleficent extended a shimmering golden magic out to the young woman. Aurora's grip on her feather loosened as it was coaxed out of her fingers and found a new home in Ella's open palm.
While Ella was still admiring the gift bestowed upon her by the faery, Maleficent made her way to the open windows.
"Give the council my regards," Maleficent said coolly over her shoulder as her wings twitched in anticipation before lifting the two to the sky and setting course for the moors.
Ella watched them go until their figures disappeared from view, running her finger over the feather.
She hoped that one day she would see them again, but something told her it would not be, and that if Aurora ever returned again it would not be as their queen.