I wish I could follow. That's all Aurora could think after Maleficent and Stefan broke through the glass. I can't follow. She clenched her fists tightly, fingernails digging into her palms, and walked quickly towards the enormous doors of the room. The guards, preoccupied trying to look for their king, didn't even attempt to stop the newfound princess. Aurora fought for memory, retracing her earlier steps to the tower room. Bursting into the room, she ran over to the window and looked down, hoping to catch a glimpse of the parents, blood and could-have-been, that she could not follow.
A familiar black bird flew above her head and into the room.
"Hello, Diaval," Aurora said without turning around. There was a pause, and then the human Diaval walked up next to her. She turned her head to look at him and was about to speak again, but Diaval shook his head and said solemnly, "Good-bye, Princess."
Turning back into the black bird, Diaval flew away, and Aurora watched as he swooped and soared above the castle. As he dived out of sight, the princess exited the room into the main hall, determined to discover what had happened to the parents she had never truly gotten to have.
Two men in armor entered the far end of the hall, carrying between them a body wrapped in cloth. Aurora walked forward, and hearing her steps, the first man turned around.
"I'm sorry, Princess. There wasn't anything we could do," he said, and removed part of the cloth so that Aurora could see the face of her father.
"No," Aurora whispered, "No, she wouldn't do this."
But even as she said it, she remembered Maleficent's story and the great wings in the glass case and realized that yes, she would do this. And she had.
Stunned by the death of Stefan at Maleficent's hands, Aurora walked back to her room in a dazed, trancelike way. As she entered the great chamber, she noticed on the bed a folded piece of cream-colored paper that she had not seen before.
She approached it as she would a cannon about to fire. Unclenching her fists for the first time since the battle, she saw four deep red crescents in the palm of each of her hands. The blood shook her out of her stupor, and she picked up the paper, reading the single word, Aurora, written on the outside I a looping script she recognized.
Diaval, she thought. That's why Diaval came back.
Now knowing who the message must be from, Aurora opened it carefully, both wondering about and scared of what it might contain. There was, however, only a small note.
After reading it, Aurora returned once more to the window, but this time her gaze was directed to the moors, where she saw, as she had known she would, that the thorny walls had risen once more to separate their kingdom from the world. Aurora knew that they would not come down again. Maleficent had had enough of the mortal world and its struggles for power.
Beastie,
I had to do it. I'm sorry. You were right about the evil.
Goodbye.