Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time or its characters. I only borrow.
A/N: I'm so sorry it's taken so long to put out a new chapter. I've got the next few planned out at least, so it shouldn't be so long before I get the next out. I intend to have this story complete before new episodes start up again, so I'm really going to have to kick it into gear.
When Kyle reentered the training room, Emma was cycling back through some of her earlier visualizations.
"What is it this time?"
"Wine bottle. Pinot grigio," Emma answered without opening her eyes.
"Maybe you should try cabernet. Or a pitcher of margaritas. Pour me a glass while you're at it."
Emma opened her eyes just enough to give her teacher a 'bite me' look. "Or you could get me an actual drink."
"Is alcohol usually your solution to everything?"
"It certainly couldn't hurt." Emma remembered a similar exchange she'd had with Killian in Neverland. Huh. Why didn't I think of that before? "Shut up, I wanna try something else."
Kyle held up his hands in surrender and sat across from her again, studying her 'magical appearance.' (Emma had no clue what that meant, other than it was what he looked at to judge her progress. And that he really hated when she used the term 'aura'.) After a few minutes he clapped his hands together and let out a small cheer, breaking her concentration.
"You got it! You grabbed onto your magic!"
"And so you thought it was a good idea to stop me?"
He shrugged. "I thought you should know you were successful. What visualization did you use? Don't tell me it was actually the margaritas."
"No, now be quiet. I want to try again. In fact, go away if you're gonna keep interrupting me." She shifted a bit to get more comfortable.
"It's my house."
"And I'm sure it's full of things that can keep you entertained. Or go make sure Killian and Henry haven't read from the wrong book and lit themselves on fire or something."
Kyle snorted. "As nosy as they are, they're both too smart for that. Also, they don't have enough magic between them to snuff out a candle," he reminded her. But he did leave the room, leaving her to her practice.
And practice she did. She visualized a very familiar (and seemingly bottomless) flask of rum, and then imagined pouring her magic into it. It wasn't easy; if something broke her concentration or she let go of the visualization for any reason, the flask disappeared and her magic went back to being all willy-nilly inside of her. Kyle had told her that, with enough experience, she would eventually be able to keep all of her magic in her imaginary container without having to think about it.
After about three dozen short-lived successes (she hadn't been able to maintain it for more than three minutes at a time) she decided that she'd earned a break. Also, her head kind of hurt and she was sort of salivating at the thought of Henry's bag-o'-snacks.
-.*.-.*.-.*.-
As Emma approached the library she could hear that a discussion was going on.
"So you're saying you don't have anything that could help us kill Pan?" Good question, Killian. Wonder why I didn't think to ask that. Oh wait, I did. Like, a week ago.
Kyle responded calmly, despite Killian's less-than-calm tone of voice. "I'm not much for violence."
Henry spoke up before Killian could let loose whatever scathing retort he had planned. "Can you think of anything that would help us defeat Pan?"
"Or at least find out which potion we'll need. We don't need the flmbrbogn for the memory potion." Another good question… Which I didn't think to ask. Damn.
Emma saw Kyle shrug as she made her way into the library. "You could visit Divina's grandma. She's a seer, she might be able to tell you which you should make."
Henry chimed in again. "What about the whole 'defeating Pan' thing? Do you know any defensive spells, at least?"
Kyle rubbed the back of his head, not entirely comfortable with this line of thought. "I'm sure some of these books have something, and I can get my hands on a few others. I'll need help with the research, though. I don't have time to do it all myself. I've cut back too much on hours at both the hospital and my clinic as it is."
Emma was not just a little bit miffed. She had only just become able to grab on to her magic, and now they wanted defensive spells? Not that it's a bad idea, but still. "Since I'm the one who'd actually have to do the spells, I'm gonna point out that some pre-made things might be better. Magic grenades, maybe?"
Kyle sighed. What are you frustrated about? It's not like you're being asked to do big stuff after just taking a crash course in magic. "Weren't you practicing?"
She crossed her arms. "Yes, and now I'm looking for food."
Henry looked at her. She was surprised to see a worried look on his face. "Why does using your magic always make you so hungry and tired? My mom doesn't eat even half as much as you do… My other mom." Killian's expression nearly matched Henry's, though with a bit of anger thrown in. Emma guessed that anger was directed at Kyle. It's not his fault… Probably.
Kyle shrugged. "First learning how to use your magic is a bit like first starting to exercise regularly after a long period of inactivity. Only, instead of aching muscles and an amped up metabolism causing fatigue and hunger, it's tapping into that energy that wears you out. You might be more prone to grouchiness, too. It'll pass, mostly, once she has the hang of it."
"Until then, I'll just eat everything in sight." Not now with the leering, Killian. "So, seriously. Magic grenades. Is that a doable thing, or just something I saw on Angel once?"
Kyle sighed. "I don't know. Look up defensive potions and how to make grenades and maybe we can rig something up."
Emma turned to her son. "Henry, feel like researching home-made grenades?"
He shrugged. "Sure, but don't blame me when the police come barging through the door to drag me out in handcuffs."
"I'm pretty sure they'll focus on the woman who asks her son to Google explosives, so you should be okay. Did you find something?" Emma asked Killian, who had returned to combing through the book he had discovered. Kyle looked over Killian's shoulder.
"Huh. I thought I lost that years ago."
"It's a book on things from other lands. Wonderland, Neverland, the Enchanted Forest, something called the Void, there's maybe two dozen in here." Killian answered Emma, ignoring Kyle completely.
"I'm sorry… Did you say two dozen different lands?" Emma had obviously learned that there were others, but she had never imagined that there might be so many. One dozen, maybe. I mean, we already know about, what, five?
"Yes, and it implies that there are more that the author didn't explore."
"Where did you find that?" Kyle asked with not a small amount of curiosity. Emma would describe his expression as befuddled that he hadn't lost the book after all.
"Among the books you said were unlikely to be helpful. Great memory you've got there." Kyle waved Killian's criticism aside and went to inspect the shelf, still looking incredibly confused.
"Whatever. Any chance it mentions our mystery ingredient?" Emma took Kyle's place in looking over Killian's shoulder.
"Not yet, but I've only skimmed most of it. I've only gotten through full chapters on two of the lands so far."
"You know what? Why don't you guys take some of these with you and look through them at home?" Kyle's suggested almost absently. He was still intently scrutinizing the bookcase.
"No more practice for today?" Emma was surprised. They'd been there just over four hours, which was far less than the all-day training session that they'd had planned.
"Now that you've got the hang of it you should be able to practice at home for a while. Try to hold on to it longer, and figure out how to keep it going when you're focused on something else at the same time. We can pick up again in a few days."
Henry, Killian, and Emma just shrugged at each other and started gathering books into a pile to take home. Emma asked them to load their research material into the car so she could talk to Kyle for a minute.
"You seem concerned that Killian found that book. What gives?"
Kyle turned from the bookcase to look at her. "For starters, I haven't seen that book in four years. And believe me, I've looked for it. For kickers, the last time I saw it, it wasn't written in English, it was in Latin."
That made Emma pause for a minute. "So… a potentially helpful book turned up out of nowhere and somehow translated itself?"
"Hence my concern."
Yeah… not thinking about this right now. "I'm just going to chalk it up to luck and hope that it's useful."
Kyle waved her off, turning back to the case and picking up each book to examine it thoroughly. "Let me know if it does anything else weird."
Yeah, really not going to think about what that might mean.
A/N: Help out my muse! Give me something random (i.e.: person in a bear costume stops you on the street to ask for directions).
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