The king's advisors looked up, startled, at the sudden arrival of a new presence in the fitting room - it was a small quarters connected to their master's bedchamber, where they were busy packing for the king's intended travels to neighboring kingdoms. They were known, the king's destinations. He was to visit both the loyal and the treacherous, taking with him a protective detail of knights and two high clerics - though with the Dark One always close to his side, what did he need with his knights? They were only for show, or so it was thought. An impressive sight sure to set tongues to wag on the new dawn of Avonlea.

A decade of struggle and desperation, of constant terrified dread, and then - power.

The king was determined to make a statement.

The advisors took in the sight of their princess with some amusement. She was a lovely girl but the upheaval in the kingdom had made her forget her place, to an extent. The princess pushed the boundaries, and it seemed that today would be no different; entering any man's quarters was inappropriate, unheard of for a royal, nevermind that the king was her father.

She stepped over the threshold, and, seeing that the king was not among the advisors and servants, she called out for the man himself. "Father! Father are you here?"

The king emerged from the interior bedchamber, a confused frown on his brow. "Belle, what's happened? You shouldn't be here."

The princess ignored his censure and stepped up to him, dwarfed by his size and uncaring of the busy audience that surrounded them. "You must stop all this with the Dark One."

"All this?"

"You well know what I mean." Belle said firmly. She refused to let him skirt this. "You're going to make him kill those who slighted you, he just told me."

Maurice narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you doing, speaking with him?"

Belle pressed her lips into a thin line as she thought on how to answer; "It's as you said at the feast, I've read legends of the Dark One and to have him here, in the flesh...I confess I sought him out in the courtyard."

Her father knew her too well.

"You seek to make him a friend."

"Yes."

The king was not so simple a man as the Dark One claimed. "I see what you want to do, Belle, but he isn't what you think. You can't win him over with a few kind words. The dagger is the only thing that creature is tied to."

He gestured down to his waist, where he'd secured the cursed blade in a sheath. In a flash, Belle could see the horror the Dark One had foretold: lifeless bodies and blood, her father using the dagger to cut the throat of a man forced to his knees. Ice rushed through her veins.

The king went on, "You think I'll set him after everyone who's merely insulted me? No, I will unleash him on those who turned traitor to our country and abandoned us to the ogres. It is justice, not revenge."

Belle blinked rapidly, fearing her tears would betray her. "It is too much, can't you see that? Father, killing the ogres and restoring the land, and now this? You push him too far, the Dark One will find a way to rebel against your hold on his dagger and when he does-"

"Enough. You've seen for yourself - the dagger ensures complete mastery over the mage. He obeys my every order."

"Yes and he hates you for it! Not only do you control him but you humiliate him before the entire court. If he ever finds a way to freedom, he will come for you first."

"Then I will keep a tight hold on his leash." Maurice told her firmly. "As for the other, his humiliation, what are a few songs each night costing the creature? What does some dancing compare to the humiliations our people have suffered, eh, Belle? You know very well what was done to those who fled, how they were treated in the neighboring kingdoms - and Avonlea, powerless to help her people for years while those with true power, the Dark One himself, were content to sit back and watch. So, yes, I humiliate him, I bring him low to ensure that he remembers who wears the crown."

His words were stone and iron. Final.

Belle hated this side to her father and she hated that he spoke sense even more.

What he said was true. The Dark One was no better than the traitors or the gods themselves, he had to have known that Avonlea would see its last day but he couldn't be bothered to lift a finger in aid. That's why he was here now. He had to be forced.

Still, her father was playing with fire. To force the Dark One to defend and restore Avonlea had already earned the king a death sentence. What he was doing now, using the Dark One as a slave during the days and a jester during the feasts...the king's death would not be slow.

Being centuries old, the Dark One had patience and Belle shuddered to think of the tortures he would inflict on her father.

"Oh, he knows all too well. He's already told me he relishes the thought of killing everyone in Avonlea, and you will be the first."

"It's a risk I had to take, Belle. When you are a queen you will see that ugly things may become necessary to achieve greatness."

"Father, you must-"

"Belle, don't speak of what you cannot yet understand." The king warned her.

As had grown typical, Belle ignored his warning. Maurice was grateful for her engagement to the knight. Surely Gaston would be the man to put his foot down when it came to her mouthy tantrums. It was too late for him. His kingdom had been under such upheaval for so long that he had lost his way as both a king and father. It would fall to Gaston to rule his house and this country with a firm hand when the time came.

"I do understand! You've had your first taste of power and you know that without that dagger you are nothing, that without the Dark One's power we would all be dead!"

"Don't you dare speak to me like that again. Yes, Avonlea would have fallen to the ogres were it not for the Dark One, what's left of the kingdom may yet starve if he does not continue his spell to raise the land - and yes, I will command him to take me to the few friends to the crown who sent soldiers to aid in our defense, those good men who died on our fields, eaten alive so far from their homes. Those men deserve to have rewards sent to the families they left behind."

In this, only this, the king and princess agreed. "They do."

"Just as the wretches who abandoned thier people deserve death. They fled and sought to profit when our country fell. Traitors, all of them. Even the Dark One himself can't argue with that. What would you have me do, Belle? Leave them be, wherever they are? Forgive and forget their betrayal?" He scoffed at her, done with this.

"I...I don't know, but not this!"

"Leave me, Belle. I will not hear anymore from you. The Dark One will do as commanded and you will not question me again."

The king waved her away, turning his attention back to his intended travels.

The woman stalked down the corridor, intent for the courtyard, beyond furious.

Belle swiped at the tears that escaped her eyes.

Stupid. Her father was stupid - arrogant, cruel and reckless. He was not the man he had been when she had left for Arendelle.

That man had been hopeless, broken inside. But her father had always been kind.

And now?

It was the Dark One's power that had corrupted him, it had to be.

It couldn't be as the mage said, that the king had always been this way, that he only now had the means to express this side of himself.

No. The Dark One enjoyed lying, or if not outright lying, he was a creature that toyed with words.

He hated her father and wanted a companion in his hatred - what could be better, in his perverse thinking, than luring the man's daughter into siding with the one who hated him most?

"The king pays you no mind."

Belle stopped and turned, confused. She was alone in the corridor, one turn from the steps that would lead outside to the sky that would darken again so soon with the blood of traitors. She narrowed her eyes, seeking the voice and she gasped, for she found its owner leaning casually against the castle wall. Bizarrely, he had changed his coloring to match the gray stones, every inch of him to include his clothing, had become a seamless match of color.

"Dark One!" Belle exclaimed. "What have you done to yourself?"

"This? Just a trick, dearie." He shifted, moving away from the wall and the rightful colors of his clothing, scales and hair flooded back into their rightful place.

"You just said the king pays me no mind. You were listening."

"Please, I'm no eavesdropper." He groused. "Call it a hunch."

Belle sighed heavily. "I thought he would listen to me, come to see reason."

"Reason?"

"He commands too much of you and - and I-"

"You were trying to warn him." He surmised.

"How do-?"

"You fear what I'll do to him."

Belle relented, nodding her truth. There was no point in lying to him. "Yes."

"You fear for your father but I can sense you don't harbor fear for yourself."

"Should I?"

He took a step closer to her, holding her eyes with his strange gaze. Belle did not look away. "No. You know what I am, princess. It should mean something to you that I've killed women before, but I find your company just a touch too amusing to want you dead."

"Thank you."

"Yes, you should thank me. It's something of a compliment when I deem a life worth sparing. There haven't been many."

Just looking at him, Belle knew what he said to be true - she didn't need legends to convince her.

"What makes me so special?" She asked, her voice subdued.

He looked on her, this girl he'd taken a shine to despite his own reservations. She was different than the other royals he'd met, and there had been so many over his time under the curse. There had been many women who sought him out, yet those had all sought favors or to secure a deal. This plucky little royal had sought him out first in gratitude and then seemingly just for company.

He hadn't expected that.

But then, he trafficked in the unexpected and Belle, he found her to be an amusement he wanted for himself.

Still, he felt the need to cement what he was in her mind, lest she claim some betrayal down the road. "Your throat is far too lovely to tear into with my claws. Innocent blood stains the deepest, you know. And you, the kind-hearted princess of Avonlea, I would never get your blood off my hands."

"That is...some comfort, I think." Belle turned to continue walking down the corridor, toward the door that lead out to the courtyard.

Falling into step beside her, he asked, "So, what did the fat fool say?"

"Please stop insulting my father. As for what he said, I'd rather not repeat it to you."

"Then allow me, The Dark One will serve my purpose of uplifting Avonlea by a show of strength against our enemies. Or something to that extent."

He had again taken on the voice of her father, a perfect match. He knew how unsettling the trick with his voice was, and the mage had the cheek to wink at her as he finished his speech!

"...you're right." Belle grumbled.

"Excuse me? I didn't hear that." Here he made a show of cupping his ear and leaning closer.

Belle threw up her hands, exasperated with the Dark One's tricks and her father's stubbornness. She had half a mind to go back to Arendelle.

"I said you're right! You must have heard us speaking."

"I didn't need to hear you. I know him as sure as I know myself - the protests of one upset little girl would never be enough to derail me from my quest." He was almost boasting in this last statement.

"And what is your quest, Dark One?" Belle challenged. "What is the end you crave?"

"Me?" He regarded her for a moment and in his hesitation, Belle could see that he was choosing his words very carefully. All glee had fled him. "A simple thing, but for centuries it's been impossible. What I want...I only want what was broken to be whole again."

There was something in his words, some sudden longing in his voice that pulled at Belle. "What was broken for you?"

Rather than answer, he pulled away, the black proof of his slavery bleeding into his eyes. "The king summons me. Goodbye, princess."

She watched as the smoke rose to overtake him, and he was gone.

It would be days before they saw each other again.

The back of her neck began to prickle, a strange sensation. Belle reached to scratch her nape, turning as she did so and finding a most welcome sight only a few steps from her lonely picnic. It was him, her strange companion, back from several days of carrying out her father's bidding. Belle tried not to think of that now. Too soon, she knew the news would find its way back to her, the names of dead traitors may rival the number of names lost to the ogres.

"Dark One."

He inclined his head to her in greeting, the light casting his scales green. "Good day, princess."

Belle stood and beckoned him to approach, "Will you sit with me?"

He held her gaze steady, expression inscrutable. "You would have my company?"

"Yes." She again motioned for him to come closer. "If you'll have mine."

"Ah, after where I've been, I find I prefer yours." He said as he moved to sit across from her on the blanket.

Any tension between them, held over from their parting words of days before dispelled as the Dark One sat and Belle resettled herself.

"Why mine? You've no shortage of friends here, in fact I think it's safe to say you have many adoring fans."

"You mean the ladies of the court."

She smiled at him, wondering if he knew his own popularity. "Oh, yes. Everywhere I've turned, your name has been on their lips. And after we were seen in the gardens, I was hounded by the more timid ones who were too shy to approach you on their own."

"Am I really so intimidating?"

She smirked at his glib question, and took in his appearance. "Ah...you might rethink your wardrobe. Maybe wear less spikes, for a start."

"Well, I had to dress my part while your father sent me on my errands, but I do prefer a more relaxed look when I'm at home. No need for the black spikes and all when you're spinning in your own castle." The Dark One waved his hand, enveloping himself in a mist that swirled over his form, obscuring him for several seconds. It blew away in the wind, revealing him once more, dressed now in soft brown leather that fit close to his legs and a linen tunic under a vest of soft suede. As he had on their first day spent together in the courtyard gardens, he'd foregone his shoes. "There, that's better. You should go barefoot, princess, I would wager your feet are prettier than mine."

Rather than ignore his comment, Belle obliged by taking off her worn slippers and setting them aside in the grass. Still a lady and mindful of the many eyes that could be turned toward them even now, she kept her feet tucked under her, lest the Dark One see her exposed lower legs. "Happy now?"

"No. I'd be happier if I was home." He said plainly, clicking his claws together.

If I had your word that you would not attack my people, I would free you. No man should be pulled from his home.

"And what is your house like?" She asked.

"I have a grand castle. It's dusty and very remote. I don't like visitors. I prefer privacy, but those who can find their way to me often have something interesting to offer, so in my own way I have an open door policy." He shrugged and wondered when he would see his home next. He was almost sure that he'd left some candles burning...

"You lived in a castle?"

"What, you expected a bog?"

"No. A bog would be too...undignified for you."

He scoffed, "Maybe a cave in the mountains?"

"I don't know. Maybe the mountains, since you enjoy looking down on everyone, but not a cave. Again, you're too civilized to live in the wilderness. Living in the forests and caves, that's more in league with a Huntsman." Belle shrugged. "Your legends never spoke of a place the Dark One called home. You are a master of magic, a castle might be the only place big enough to hold all your spell books and cauldrons and the like. What do you do when you're at home?"

"Besides plotting curses and blood sacrifice?" He asked. "You are so curious! I don't like all these questions, why are you asking?"

"When we first met you called me a curious cat and the ladies were asking me all about you while you've been gone - they were all so eager for you to be back. They want to know everything! Where your homeland was, if you had a favorite color, a favored game or meal, they wanted to know any and everything about you." Belle said, thinking of all the questions she'd been asked of him.

"My, my." He gave her an odd little smile. "I should write a book. It would sell out in no time."

"I would buy a copy. I love books!"

"I know you do. I...might have just donated a few additions to the castle library." He told her, feigning nonchalance.

"You did?"

"Don't get excited, it's just a few penny dreadfuls I filched from the land with no color. I didn't have a chance to read any of them, they may be as boring as the scenery there. If you are as avid a reader as I've been told then you will finish them in no time at all."

"I'm sure I will. I confess I don't do much reading during the day, I usually read at night when things are finally quiet and I am alone in bed." Belle confided. She fought to sit still, tramping down the urge to run to the library and find what treasures he had brought for her.

"You won't be alone in bed for long."

Belle raised a brow, sure she had just misheard him. "Pardon?"

"Hmm? Nothing." He flicked his eyes up to the branches that shaded them. "Oh, look at that, a bird."

She looked up and gasped in true surprise. What animals could flee Avonlea had done so years ago, and yet here was a bird, a tiny brown thing, a twitchy finch.

"I haven't seen a bird in years!"

"Where the land blooms, the animals follow. One bird today, a whole flock by tomorrow." He flourished his hand and the finch flew down, landing on the blanket near Belle's book. The dark one tore off a bit of her bread and sprinkled crumbs near it, watching the bird peck after them.

Yes, the Dark One liked simple things.

A shady spot to rest. Feeding birds. Quiet time spent with a friend.

He looked to Belle. Friend? Well, why not?

The finch hopped closer.

"You have a way with animals, Dark One."

"Seems I do. And why not? As I am a beast myself, other creatures find me no threat."

"Are you truly so removed from humanity?" From their first meeting, Belle could not fathom him an animal. He was intelligent and aware, he possessed a sense of humor and flare for fashion than no animal could ever possess. He was a man, of a very rare sort.

"Hmm...a difficult question. Let it be said that I walk a fine line." He shrugged, glancing down as the finch hopped right into his clawed hand to peck at the bit of bread he had on offer.

"Like me."

"How do you mean that?"

"I have been told that I walk a line myself, the line that separates men and women."

The Dark One looked upon her, his princess companion. With her bright eyes, rosy cheeks and full lips, she was the picture of pretty. "If I may say, you do not strike me as being so manly."

Belle shoved playfully at his shoulder. "Not in body, but in mind! I enjoy the company of the scholars, the men who record our histories and write the peasant laws - and that of our knights, those brave souls who would lay down their lives to protect us. I feel more at home in the library than at court, you have seen that for yourself."

"Yes, it is curious to find a noblewoman of such interest. It seems you are unique."

"You are unique in the world, aren't you?"

He blinked at her, "Hmm?"

"What I mean is...are there any others like you?"

It was an interesting thought, that somewhere in the world there were others who looked just like him, people who shared the features of the dragon; men and women of scales and claws, all of them imbued with magic and wit. Somewhere that he would not be alone.

"No. I am the Dark One. There are none like me, but I was not always so alone. Once upon a time, my world was very simple because there was only one other person in it-"

Whatever secret he was intent to divulge died on his tongue as a woman approached them, her head bowed respectfully.

"Dark One, good day to you, and to you, Lady Belle." She said, and gave a deep curtsey.

They invited her to join them on the blanket and she sat.

He recognized this woman from the first feast, she was one of the bolder ladies, one of those who'd dared to lean in and surprise him with a kiss to the cheek. "Hello Darla. Have you another kiss for me?"

"Dark One...I cannot..."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and he could see it all. "No, you cannot. Your husband would have you kiss no other man, let alone Avonlea's pet demon." He huffed, "Give me your arm."

Before the woman could protest, he had reached for her hand. The bruises on her wrist began to fade, until her skin was smooth once more and no trace of her light injury could be seen.

Darla shook her head and put her free hand over her softly rounding womb. "He...he was only upset, worried for our son-"

"Yes, well, if he should hurt you in his upset ever again, I will take all future sons from him. Life has proven too short for many a man who cross me. His, more so if he thinks to handle a woman in your condition so roughly." He hissed. Belle was startled to see the scales on his face, neck and hands rising slightly with his temper.

"Dark One, please..."

At her plea, the Dark One was smooth again, unconcerned. "Fine, then. I will not see a father broken from his children before they're born."

The woman's eyes widened at his words, "Children?"

He nodded, "I knew it when we met at the feast. Twins." The women watched, transfixed and unnerved, as his eyes were overtaken by that faint white glow. He was using his power of Sight again and, just as he could see the dead, so could he see the unborn. "A son and a daughter - the son will favor his father's looks and grow to be a handsome lad, with a birthmark on his left ankle."

Darla smiled, tears gathering in her eyes. "And my daughter?"

"Gray eyes. Your dark hair. Not so lovely as our princess when she sees womanhood, but a pretty girl."

He blinked, leaving the vision of her children, his eyes focused on them once more. "I will not take their father, he shall live. But fear not - wear this and he will ever be calm when in your presence. A small enchantment, to bring good memories to rise and take the place of any anger he might lash out upon you."

From the air, he produced a bracelet of small green beads and twine. It was so simple a thing, it looked like an adornment any woman could have crafted for herself, as had been his intent. Her husband had accidentally hurt her in his upset that she'd touched the Dark One, what more might he do to see her wearing one of his gifts? With such a plain design her husband would not even notice the bracelet.

Darla held no fear of her own husband, he was truly the best of men. She had roused fear in him by her bold actions at the feast, venturing so intimately with the Dark One. Her husband had been so shamed by his actions, by the firm grip he'd kept on her wrist to leave marks, that he'd apologized again and again, even going so far as to avoid their bed for days, leaving her to sleep alone and silently bringing cinnamon rolls for her so she would not have to venture out to fetch breakfast for herself.

It had been a moment of panic, one that she had forgiven him for, so long as it never happened again. The bracelet and it's calming enchantment would not be needed, but to have a piece of power, even one touched with such a small spell...

"And...and your price?"

He smiled at her, all fangs. "I want...your hair ribbon."

"Such a small thing?" She raised a brow and drew her braid forward over her shoulder, to the rough cloth that bound it.

"Unless you'd be willing to part with the girl child in your belly when she's born-"

Both Darla and Belle yelled out against him, "No!"

"Then the ribbon, please." He held out his hand in expectation.

Darla hurriedly untied it from the end of her braid and gave it to him, words of thanks falling from her lips as she retreated away now their business was done.

Belle waited until the other woman was well out of earshot before asking him, "Why do you want her ribbon?"

"I care not for the ribbon." To illustrate his point, he let the ribbon drop to the grass. "It's the hair I was after."

He held a single long hair, Darla's hair, between his thumb and forefinger.

"But why?"

"Never you mind, child." In a blink, the hair disappeared.

The Dark One went on to speak of the weather as if nothing had happened, and Belle didn't know what to think.