CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: FREE FALLIN'
(In which Henry and Baelfire attract mortal peril.)
"That's definitely the same beam," Bae remarked with a frown, pointing to the vertical support that had a cluster of badly bent nails that vaguely resembled a squashed spider.
"It's got to be a spell."
"Yeah," sighed Henry, frustrated. After several twists and turns that didn't match up with the map, it seemed clear there was some kind of enchantment on the mine, something like labyrinths, or at least what he remembered Belle expounding once during one of her random detours about something magical she'd read during her years at the Dark Castle. It made sense after the number of break-ins down here over the years, he supposed, for someone to finally put a spell on the place... particularly if there was a crop of readily available magical crystals ripe for the picking and knowing what could be done with a stolen fairy wand. Though given how often break-ins had happened, it hadn't occurred to any of them that anything had changed. Storybrooke, after all, had pretty much been operating on a good faith everyone keeps their doors unlocked small town philosophy since forever... which was actually pretty stupid once the Curse broke and they were attacked by villain after villain and monster after monster.
"I'm sorry you got dragged into this, Baelfire," Henry told the other boy as they continued to trudge along. Much as he'd initially been excited at the idea of having an adventure with his dad - even if Bae didn't know that part - he'd gladly go back to fake make-out dancing with Grace.
"I didn't get dragged into it, Henry. When Gretel said she needed a Cracksman, I thought this sounded like an adventure. I wanted to come," Bae argued with a shrug. "My papa is pretty overprotective. I got to be quite independent living on the streets for six months, which I think he would rather pretend didn't happen, and he's worried something will, I guess given this town's history and, well, my own," he amended with a wince. "I know he wants to protect me and look after me, but it's gotten stifling. I was just glad that Belle talked him into letting me go to the dance, even if I'd have to put up with your grandmother's matchmaking. No offense."
Henry snorted. "None taken. My whole family's been grudgingly 'putting up with it' for years. You should have seen how she squealed and gushed and showed up to be there and watch when I went out on my first date with Grace, that Gramps basically pressured me into, probably because she nagged him incessantly about it and he just wanted her to shut up already. Sometimes I just want to tell her that she's wasting her time trying to pick who I love with her magical scheming and it's just humiliating."
"So, why don't you?"
Sighing, Henry answered, "I don't want to hurt her feelings. Her and my grandpa have a particular view of the world and relationships that even though they were caught up in the whole 'arranged marriage' thing and think they're so great for being the exception to that Enchanted Forest rule, they seem to want everyone else to play by some... weird speed dating true love finding philosophy that's just as screwed up. I mean, considering how my grandmother shoved my moms at men... I don't know, I think it's a lose-lose proposition. Either way, I'm going to disappoint them both somehow by not living up to their expectations. I'm already a bastard who was born in this world and I like math, which is probably something that'd get you beheaded in the Enchanted Forest if you weren't using it to build a castle or a ship or balancing some ruler's accounts. So, having passed on the magical Author thing, that's my future if they find a way to return to the Enchanted Forest and bring me with them - the Bastard Bookkeeper."
"Well, at least you have more education than I do," Baelfire reasoned. "And you went to school outside of Storybrooke for awhile. Even if you can't apply a lot of it to life in the Enchanted Forest, just having that knowledge is worthwhile."
Henry smiled at that. Often times Baelfire was a mystery, but now and then pieces that had survived as Neal came through. His love of learning was one of those things, one that he'd passed on to Henry... and seemed pretty rare for fairy tale characters. "Now you sound like Belle," he chuffed, adding, "No offense. Seriously, I wish more people here had that curiosity and thirst for knowledge. It's like the Middle Ages around here with how little people give a shit."
"It does seem that way. I don't know why people don't jump at the opportunity to learn what this world has to offer or find a way that everyone could explore it instead of clinging to the idea of going back to such a primitive world," said Bae. "Yes, it was home, but this is a world with so much more opportunity that more than makes up for the lack of magic. People have been to the moon and are planning to visit other planets. They have devices that can see to the very beginning of the universe and an understanding of it that is so much more amazing than the astrological 'shit' I was taught."
"And my grandmother still teaches in school," groaned Henry, which got an eye-roll from Baelfire. "Everyone should be trying to acclimate to this world instead of holding out this false hope that the Dark Curse can be broken in some way to send us all back and repair all the damage caused from the multiple castings when it's lost so much magic that we're probably lucky we can even keep up a protection barrier and use magic at all, let alone return to a perfectly restored world."
Shaking his head, Henry continued, "You know, everyone was so horrible to G... your dad about his always picking magic over the greater good, yet they're all so terrified of having to live uncursed lives without magic in it, they're stuck in some delusion that their old lives were so great, that somehow horrible as their last trip back was, it won't be like that again because next time magic will fix it."
After a beat, Bae recalled, "Mulan told me that there's an old saying in her land, that never again can a kingdom that has been destroyed be rebuilt. She thinks they're a bit mad too." He smirked, adding, "Actually, she said 'They act like fucking Disney cartoon characters, and it's really starting to piss me off!' I don't think she meant for me to hear that. It was after Princess Aurora stopped in to her studio following a class and I was putting away the mats."
Henry fought a laugh. He couldn't even imagine Mulan saying that, but it must have been brilliant. He got the impression that the warrior woman slipped up sometimes around Baelfire, saying things he'd probably said when he was Neal and they commiserated together over losing their friends. Really, Henry felt bad for Mulan. He'd heard about her harrowing tale of helping his mom and grandmother with Aurora, but they never talked about getting Philip's soul back and it seemed like their close friendship had been falling apart already when his dad met them, then Mulan had left the Merry Men (which didn't surprise Henry given Robin's concept of "honor"), and despite being responsible for bringing her to Storybrooke, none of her old friends had tried to help her acclimate - probably, because she didn't understand their bullshit reasons for becoming fiends and lovers with the people who'd tired to murder them.
Henry would have taken a class at her studio if his grandfather and Hook hadn't insisted on being the ones to teach him how to "fight like a man, not a girl"... which given Mulan's track-record in fights meant "how to get your ass kicked and kiss the floor repeatedly".
"It wouldn't be so bad," mused Henry, "if Storybrooke became just another dumpy little New England town. We wouldn't have apocalypses every few months. We wouldn't need special laws for dealing with magical offenses... which I don't think there actually are, which seems pretty stupid. Things could just be normal for once. I'd really like things to be normal."
Baelfire kicked a stone. "I remember wanting that," he sighed. "What amounted to it in The Frontlands, anyway. I thought me and my papa could find it in this world. That didn't work out so well. And I know this is supposed to be a second chance, but... sometimes it just doesn't feel right."
"Yeah," Henry agreed with a grimace, "it really doesn't."
Suddenly, the mine shook again, followed by the sound of cracking and crumbling rock. Henry felt the ground give way beneath his feet and letting out a shout of surprise, his helmet tumbling off as he reached blindly, hands gasping onto the metal rails that remained.
"Give me your hand!" Bae called out, his dirty one reaching out of the darkness and Henry reached back, his heart pounding and his arms straining under his body weight, certain his shoulder was dislocated. It had to be worse for the shorter, slender boy, though to pull him up, but together Henry managed to clamber away from the hole.
"Shit, thanks," he gasped, "that was-"
The crack was loud and singular and Baelfire dropped from view, his own head lamp falling away. Henry gasped and reached forward, but his hands met air, and gripping the splintered edges of the track he watched in horror as the tumbling light dimmed and vanished entirely into the void.
AN: Much as I wanted to write more of Henry and Baelfire together and get more Victorian lingo, the plot demanded advancing. Sadly, characters on this show just never seem to get a chance to bond as planned. Mulan's saying is from Sun Tzu's The Art of War — "But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life." Foreshadowing?
Next up: The Blue Bitch is back!