Regina had barely stopped her march down to the depths of castle when Robin called her name. But the sound of her True Love's voice always seemed to have a calming effect on her and she paused to allow him to catch up with her. When he was by her side, he took her hand. "You're going to confront Rumplestiltskin, aren't you?" Robin asked.
"I need to know some things," she told him.
"About the curse?"
Regina took a deep breath. "And other things." She tried to look away from him, but he caught her chin in his fingers. "It took me until after she became the Black Fairy to learn how she had gotten her start on the path she took. I know that she only married my father for his title, but she went to such extremes into pushing me towards Leopold."
"When it was Daniel that you loved," he stated, remembering her sad tale of love murdered.
"Even if he turned out to not be my true love," she smiled knowingly at him. "But after she was defeated and exiled, I found a spell book she had been forced to leave behind. There were notes in it, that spoke of the Dark One and a curse to end all curses. I have my suspicions that he has all the information."
"Then we shall learn it...together," Robin declared, taking her arm. They continued down to the dungeon and a guard took them to the cell that held the unwanted visitor. Regina ordered the guard to leave and approached the bars cautiously.
"So, you can defeat this curse the Black Fairy has placed upon this land?" she asked archly.
The demon giggled. "Any curse can be broken. That was what I said earlier."
"Fine, you will tell me how," she ordered.
He shook his head. "No. You will not break the curse. You cannot because it was not placed on you."
"This land was cursed. I live in this land. Therefore I have the ability to break it," Regina reasoned.
"The curse was NOT placed on you. It was placed on Princess Emma and her handsome husband. They will be among those who will break the curse," Rumplestiltskin replied.
Regina stepped back a moment. "Yes, about your son. It seems rather convenient that he is in a position to break this curse. Can to enlighten me as to how that happened?"
The sorcerer did not answer, but let out a giggle. "About parents and children...your mother has become quite powerful, hasn't she?"
Regina narrowed her eyes. "My mother...you did know her!"
"Yes dearie. I had such high hopes for that one. Be thankful I stopped when I did," Rumplestiltskin replied. "Well, I did love our chat. But I will not speak to anyone until I see my son."
"From what I could tell, your son really doesn't seem to want to talk to you," Robin piped in.
The imp's eyes shifted to the chancellor. "Well, then, I take my tea black and I request a rose with my morning tray," he giggled once more as he moved to a cushion of hay at the back of the cell.
Regina and Robin could tell a dismissal when they saw one and both swept out of the dungeon. "Well, that went smashingly," Robin said rather glumly. "It'll be a few weeks until he talks. Emma and Baelfire were supposed to leave about now."
"We do have ways of making him talk," Regina supposed aloud. Then she let out a defeated breath. "But he would be too powerful to use any of those methods on."
"And it would take you down a dark path, my love," Robin said to her. "You have turned away from that darkness already. I don't wish to lose you to it again." With that he lay a soft kiss on her lips.
They made their way back to the Council Room and an expectant David and Snow. "Has he told you anything?" David asked immediately.
Regina shook her head sadly. "Only that Emma and Baelfire are the one who can break the curse. He said that because it was placed on them specifically."
Snow's eyes brighten for a moment. "Cora also turned to David and I when she spoke the curse. Maybe we can break it ourselves."
Robin looked thoughtful for a moment. "His exact words were 'They will be among those who will break the curse."
"Then we have to talk to him, see if we can avoid using the children," David replied, a glimmer of hope in his voice that an alternative had been found.
"That is the other problem," Robin began to admit. "He says he will not speak to anyone else until he speaks with Baelfire." He looked over to Snow. "I gather they have already left for the Summer Palace?"
Snow's eyes dimmed a bit. "We saw them off just before you arrived back here. They'll be gone for a couple of weeks."
"And I do agree with Snow White," Regina said. "Let's not disturb them as much as possible. If things get critical, we can always send a bluebird with a message. Until then…"
Regina's thoughts were interrupted by a guard opening the great doors to the Council Room. "Your Majesties, there is a woman demanding to see you."
"Who is she? What does she want?" David asked as Snow nodded to the guard to allow the woman in.
"I am the Lady Belle of Avonlea and I want to speak to my husband," the woman said from behind a brave front.
"And just who is your husband, Miss?" Regina asked dismissively.
"My husband is the sorcerer Rumplestiltskin. He was coming here to warn this land of a curse the Black Fairy had planned. Now, where is he?" Belle responded.
"Well, Lady Belle, I can assure you he has arrived with his warning. But the Captain of the Guard had him placed in a cell in our dungeon. And I must say, I quite agree with this action," Robin informed her.
"Then I demand you take me there, now!" came the ferocious reply.
"Did he go down finally?" Neal asked Emma when she reappeared in the living room.
"Took him a while. Cake, that late, not the best idea." She fell down on the couch next to him. "Good save, by the way."
"It was the only thing I could think up that didn't sound crazy," he admitted. "Custom-made story books...well, so much is customized nowadays, I hoped it would work." He picked up the book again, opening the back cover as he made his way backwards. Then he saw that his hand was glowing faintly. "What the hell?"
Emma sat up straight. "What's happening?" When he didn't answer, she implored him. "You're the one that's the son of a sorcerer."
"Papa said that there was no magic in this place!" By then, the glow brightened and an envelope appeared. Neal picked it up and read the front. "Emma and Baelfire" it said across the parchment. He looked to her again and opened it.
The envelope contained two pieces of paper. One was a map, folded several times over and the other was something written in a strange script. Emma took the map and opened it up fully. There was a golden dot within the outline for the state of Maine, along the coast. "Storybrooke, I'm guessing," she whispered, turning to her husband. When he didn't respond she turned to him and saw him concentrating on the other paper that had been in the envelope. "Do you know what it says?"
"I can't translate it fully, but it's definitely a spell of some kind."
"What's it for?"
Neal looked up from the paper at her. "My guess, it's a way to get to this Storybrooke. There may be magical protections around it and this needs to be spoken in order to pass through them." He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. Then he shook his head in frustration. "I need to look this over more. Maybe I can remember some the the crash course Papa gave me in magic to help me read this."
"Then I guess we're going there," she said to him in a shaky voice. "But how do we get there? There's no road shown, no directions," Emma questioned.
Neal thought about it as he stared at the spell again. For a brief instant, he thought he recognized some of the writing. He felt like the translation was just outside of his grasp.
"I guess going to see the ships is off the calendar for tomorrow, then?" Emma's voice broke his revive.
Neal shook his head. "No, that's how Henry wanted to spend his birthday and that's how we'll spend it. We'll deal with this afterwards."
Emma nodded, agreeing with his plan. She took the book from him and leafed through it. She had never been much the type to get teary-eyed, but seeing the story of her family, of her life, caused a tear to slip past. Neal took her chin in his hand, but she smiled at him. "Until I saw this book, I'd almost forgotten how much I missed them. I mean, these were the stories they told me when I was growing up. It helped me remember."
"I know how much you miss your parents," Neal said.
"They barely had time to see their grandson before we had to go through the portal. I...I didn't know the the first thing about being a mother. I was expecting my mother to be there to help me," she cried, the tears now streaming down her face.
"Hey, listen to me. Despite all of that, look at how good of a mother you became. How good parents we became," he reassured her. "I would have never thought I could be a good dad, after everything that went on during my childhood." He took her in his arms soothing her until he glanced down and saw the smile on her face.
"We did do pretty good, didn't we?" She met his eyeline and kissed him again. "Henry's a good kid."
"Henry's a great kid. And I have faith that he'll be able to handle anything we throw at him."
"Even magic and fairy tales coming true and the fact that he's a prince and a savior foretold?" she asked him.
"Yeah, even all that," he replied, hope in his voice and concern.
As the night wore on in New York City, a fog rolled into the bay just passed the Verrazano Bridge. Then out of the fog a tall ship sailed, the bow pointed at the docks. On the deck, it's captain stood, holding a looking glass in his hand. A voice called to him from below. "Did it work? Did we make it through?"
"Aye, it appears we did. Or else, I hope so. Who knows with magic," the captain replied to his lady as she made her way towards him. He looked around, seeing buildings taller than the palaces of his realm. "Now, all we have to do is find them," Killian Jones said, turning to look at his companion. "You think you can sense any magic?"
Lilith, daughter of Maleficent, closed her eyes, searching. It was then that she felt a brief spark. It wasn't much, but there was enough that she sent a reply and hoped it would reach its destination. Then she smiled at her lover. "There is magic here… and I can hear it calling to me."
Killian smiled back at her. "Then I guess we wait to see if you get a response."