Chapter Five
"So, I feel weird calling you Quasimodo. Do you have a nickname or something?"
Emma asks as they make their way down the dim corridor.
"No one has ever called me anything else." Quasimodo says, as if the question has never occurred to him before. Emma is silent for a minute.
"How about I just call you Q?"
Quasimodo says it to himself quietly and then brightens noticeably.
"Yes! I like that. I will be Q." he says and walks on with a proud smile. Emma can't help but smile back at him.
"So, Q. Where are we going?"
He turns serious again.
"The only place where we are still safe from Frolo; The Court of Miracles. We will meet with the Elder and form a plan."
Emma nods and ponders before replying.
"I was kinda hoping that there already was a plan, but okay."
Q begins to explain to her the plight of the gypsies as he and Emma walk.
"All Gypsies have been forced underground by Frolo and his persecution. The Court of Miracles is the only free place left for them in Paris because it is hidden."
Emma absorbs that for a moment and then asks him,
"I still don't really understand what you want me to do for you here."
Q looks at her with a look of incomprehension.
"You are a saviour."
He states, as if that explains everything.
"Yeah. Okay but that doesn't mean that I can just wiggle my nose and save the day."
Q walks on for a while, thinking intently, before a look of determination comes over his face.
"The Elder will know what needs to be done."
They come out of the corridor into, what looks like, an underground marketplace. There are brightly coloured shop stalls and tents crowded into this huge square where people were bustling around everywhere.
Many people look curiously at Emma's unusual clothing but other than one teenage girl who runs away at the sight of Emma, no one else takes much mind of her.
Emma and Q make their way through the camp town to a large tent at the centre. Q addresses the guard outside in French and after a few back and forths, they are admitted and seated on cushions in a large comfortable looking room filled with pillows and tapestries.
Sitting at the head of a long, low table, there is a woman older than anyone Emma has ever seen. Q is showing her quiet respect and Emma follows suit.
The old crone watches Emma with a studying gaze and silently offers her some tea from the teapot steeping in front of her. Emma accepts the tea with a nod of thanks and takes a sip.
And nearly chokes.
Emma coughs and swallows, so as not to offend the Elder, but the spicy tea burns all the way down her throat and starts giving her head the spins.
The Elder continues to stare at Emma as if expecting this reaction, and then motions to the large wooden bowl of water on the table.
Emma peers into the bowl and blinks in shock.
"Whoa!" she says as she looks at the swirling colours that change to form into a vision of Killian and Regina talking intently but Emma can't hear them.
"What?..."
Emma begins but is cut off by two words from the Elder.
"The present."
Emma is confused and unsure what she is meant to glean from this vision but the dizzy feeling is making her irritable and impatient.
"Okay. They are probably wondering where the hell I went." What does this have to do with what you want me to do here?"
Q nervously looks from Emma to the Elder and back a few times. Not receiving a response from the Elder, Emma continues.
"Look, I have people that I would very much like to get back to, so can we skip the cryptic crap and get to the part where you tell me how to get destiny back on track, so I can get back to my people?"
Her outburst hangs in the air for a moment with Q looking at her with his mouth open.
Finally the old woman shrugs and grins a toothless smile as she replies,
"I thought you would like to see your love before we begin and the tea will help with the language problem."
At Emma's speechless expression, the old woman cackles gleefully and goes on with a wide grin.
"It was very difficult for us to extricate you from his arms. [she looks at Emma slyly] I was young once, too." She offers as explanation.
Emma quirks her head at the Elder in amused confusion and Q sits there with a completely baffled expression.
The Elder puts the teapot to one side and looks at Emma soberly.
"To business, then."
She folds her hands in her lap and leans forward on her cushion.
"We need you to kill a man."
Emma's shocked expression freezes on her face and the Elder clarifies.
"She must kill Frolo to fulfil the destiny that you have forfeited." She says, looking to Q. Having said her piece, the Elder is silent once again.
Emma recovers finally.
"You want me to KILL someone? That's not exactly what I do. I mean, I'm supposed to be more of a 'bringer of happy endings' rather than a [she struggles to find the right words] … gun for hire!"
Q is looking equally as upset by this revelation and murmurs to himself.
"It was my destiny to murder Master Frolo?..."
The Elder seems bored by their reaction and begins to rise, saying,
"That is what needs to be done to save the people." And she shuffles off to another room of the tent.
Q ushers Emma out of the tent and they both stand outside the entrance to let the old crone's words sink in. Q looks completely gob-smacked.
"I had no idea that was what I…, you…" he stops awkwardly and just stares at the stone floor. Emma starts trying to console the boy but her attention gets stolen by screams on the other side of the square. Some shouting has Q's head snapping up and he and Emma start moving towards the disruption.
A voice bellows out.
"WHERE IS THE WITCH?"
The blood drains from Q's face.
"Noooo…" he whimpers, seeming to collapse in on himself.
By now, Emma can see that soldiers are filling the camp town, rounding people up. A sudden 'bang' sounds above everyone's heads and a dense powder drifts down, causing a few people to cough and splutter. Emma coughs wildly and she feels a burning sensation run through her body.
When the air clears, Emma sees a very pompous looking man in official robes standing amidst the soldiers. His voice resonates again.
"SHOW ME THE WITCH!"
Q crumbles to the ground, mumbling.
"No, no, no,…"
Emma stoops to comfort Q, laying a hand on his shoulders, but keeping a wary eye on the commotion happening in the crowd.
Emma looks up to see the teenage girl that had run from the sight of her, standing by the shouting man. She is scanning the crowd and locks eyes with Emma. The girl raises her hand slowly to point directly at Emma, wearing an expression of deep regret.
The ugly pompous man sneers triumphantly and shouts orders at his guards.
"SEIZE THAT WOMAN!"
Emma stands, taking a defensive stance in front of Q. She tries to repel the encroaching guards with her magic, but nothing happens. Looking down at her hands in shock, the guards roughly grab and hold her as the pompous man approaches.
"Having trouble with your devil magic, witch?" he says grinning widely at her.
Emma struggles slightly against the guards and addresses the ugly man.
"Let me guess, you must be this Frolo guy." She says bravely.
"Indeed. And you are just another witch for the fires." He says dismissively before turning to the guards.
"Take her." He says with a wave of his hand.
Q is quivering at Frolo's feet.
"…master… please…"
"Out of my way, BOY!" he says as he kicks Q aside. He turns to the teenage girl, who now has silent tears streaming down her face. He drops a small sack of gold at her feet without looking at her and walks away.
Regina walks faster to keep up with Killian, who is barrelling down the sidewalk, away from Gold's shop.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
Killian doesn't slow down as he answers her.
"The Crocodile wants us to convince Belle's father to wake her in exchange for Emma's location. So that's exactly what I'm going to do." He says determinedly.
Regina grabs his shoulder and whips him around to face her.
"And just how do you intend to do that, walking in the opposite direction to Maurice's flower shop?" she says, glaring at him.
Killian matches her glare and steps closer to say,
"I may not know what will convince the man to wake his daughter from the damned sleeping curse, but I do know three of the most knowledgeable people around on the topic of sleeping curses. And two of them, are this way." He finishes, giving her a pointed look, before turning on his heel to continue stalking away in the direction of the Sherriff's office.
Regina takes a moment to recover from his verbal slap to the face before catching up to him again.
"So, I suppose it's time to confer with the Charmings, is it?"
He gives a curt nod, without looking at her.
"Aye."
He rounds the last corner to the Sheriff's office and stomps up the steps and pushes the door open, holding it for Regina impatiently.
"David!"
David comes running down the hall towards them with Snow hot on his heels.
"Did you find her?" he asks, stopping in front of Killian and Regina.
"No. But we have a way to." Killian replies.
At their puzzled expressions, Regina picks up the narrative.
"Gold knows where Emma is but refuses to tell us unless we convince Maurice to wake Belle with true love's kiss." She sums up.
Snow, visibly agitated by this new information, asks,
"Wait. Why is Rumpelstiltskin involved? What did you find out there?"
Killian interjects anxiously.
"We found Emma's coffee cup in the bushes, Regina did a spell and found magic that the Crocodile identified as Gypsy but he is holding further information from us until we resolve this dispute with Belle's father."
David gives a humourless smile.
"Succinct as always, pirate. [smile dropping] What's our next move?" he asks, looking around all of them.
Killian throws his hand up in agitation.
"Well we have Storybrooke's foremost on sleeping curses standing right here. Surely we can come up with some sort of convincing argument for the man to wake his daughter."
He pauses for a moment while they rest think. Lowering his voice and adopting a distinctly 'piratey' expression he says,
"Barring that, I'm quite ready for a spot of violence this afternoon."
David, eyeing Killian warily, responds slowly.
"Well, let's call that 'plan B'."
Meanwhile, Snow has been pondering intently.
"Does he know how much pain she is in?"
Snow looks up at the others and they wait for her to continue.
"I mean, we all know that 'sleeping' curse is a bit of a misnomer, right? It's less 'sleeping' as it is 'trapped in a fiery nightmare'. Does Maurice know that?"
David picks up his wife's train of thought, first and warms to the idea.
"Well, let's go enlighten him!"
Killian holds the doors open again for them all as they all start walking out. David gives Killian a sideways glance as he walks by him, saying quietly,
"And if that doesn't work, a bit of violence might…"
Killian grins eagerly at David and follows the rest down the street.