Three weeks later

Mal was overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities she had now that she was part of the court. In those moments, she thought of Ben. She didn't know if a seventeen year old boy should become king so young. She pondered these questions and hurried to the classroom.

"You're late."

Evie warned her friend as soon as she entered the room.

"I know, I was late yesterday."

Mal tired of the run spoke quietly.

"Were things good between you and Ben?"

"If by good you mean talking to all those royalty I don't know, then yes, it was very good."

Mal laughed tiredly.

"Mal and Evie, if you want to teach a class, be my guest."

The teacher said to the female students.

" Sorry."

The two asked at the same time.

"Good morning, Lady Mal."

After class Mal was standing in front of her locker when she heard someone calling her.

"How many times... " She was ready to curse the person, after all she hated being called Lady, but when turned around she saw her handsome king. "Ben."

"Were you going to call me names?"

She asked, laughing at the situation.

"What? No."

"Did you get some rest?"

He asked, kissing her.

"If a good night's sleep for you is five hours, then yes, I had a great night.

She ironically made it clear that he was to blame for the sleepless hours.

"I've already apologized."

"That's okay, I forgive you for only sleeping five hours."

"How about I reward you with a date, just the two of us?"

He took her hands and kissed them.

"Is this serious?"

She smiled happily at the possibility.

"I have two appointments, but then we can go out."

"I would love that."

She didn't resist and kissed him quickly.

"Where's Evie? The kids from the island are coming."

He asked, looking at his watch.

"Here, I was with Dizzy."

Panting from running, Evie appeared just then.

"Is she settled in?"

Ben asked. Evie's friend had arrived the day before.

"She loved the room."

A room set up by princesses to accommodate other princesses. The only person who had hated Auradon Prep's accommodations so far was Mal.

"Glad to hear it."

Ben declared.

"So, shall we?"

Evie and Ben were dedicating themselves to bringing the children of the Island to Auradon. They had a plan to bring by the middle of the following year 10% of the kids and teenagers of the isle. Today would arrive Celia, Dr. Facilier's daughter, Ginny, Gothel's daughter and the twins, Mr. Smee's sons.

"Welcome." Ben with his cordial smile said welcome to the kids. "It's very incredible to welcome you to Auradon. This is Evie, she'll be accompanying you and this beautiful girl here is my girlfriend Mal."

"They know us, Ben."

Mal warned, wanting to break the formal atmosphere.

"Oh, sorry."

Embarrassed, he stepped aside to let his girlfriend and her best friend continue with the formalities.

"This is scary, but you are very welcome here. In Auradon you'll have the chance to be whatever you want." Mal gave a short speech. "Evie will accompany you and introduce you to the school."

"That's right, are you ready?"

And there were the four kids, learning every detail of the kingdom, impressed and happy.

"Everything okay?"

Ben asked his friend.

"Yes, everything is fine."

She smiled, coming out of her reverie.

"You have that class the Fairy Godmother has scheduled now, right?"

Ben asked remembering what she had said.

"Yes, this teacher will help me understand my powers."

Answered what Fairy Godmother had said.

"I'll expect you in three hours then."

He said, marking the time of his departure on his watch.

"Alright.

"Mal made his way to the classroom where the training with Marlin, the teacher, would take place. She knocked on the door before entering the room. When he was allowed in, Mal entered and his first sight was of a man who appeared to be in his early thirties, bearded, tall, glasses, wearing a blue uniform, but not the same as Auradon Prep, he was also wearing a hat. He looked like a wizard.

"You must be Lady Mal, I'm Marlin.

He held out a goo-smeared hand to her.

"Hi, you can just call me Mal."

She asked, still unsure if she should shake the gentleman's hand.

"That's okay, I live in Camelot, I'm Merlin's grandnephew and I'm your teacher."

He gave all the information about himself. When he did, everything came to a head, he was raised by Merlin. The strangest and most powerful wizard anyone had ever known.

"So, what do you teach?"

Mal knew many teachers, so Marlin was a new figure.

"I don't teach here at Auradon Prep. I help those born with magic to take care of it, you know, not blowing things up, not accidentally enchanting, not turning 'evil', that sort of thing."

He explained, concentrating on what he was doing at the table.

"Are there any more people with magic?"

Besides Jane, Mal didn't know anyone else who had magic.

"Of course there are, but they can't use it, like one of my favorite authors says, magic for evil doesn't work."

It was the second time he had said that, and Mal began to feel uncomfortable.

"Maleficent style?"

"But you're not like her. You may have been born like Maleficent, but you're good, I can feel it.

He said, sure of what he was talking about.

"Thank you." Mal understood the politics of Good vs. Evil, but it was uncomfortable to hear certain words. "So, how are the lessons going?"

"First, I'm going to measure the extent of your magic with this little device." He took the high-tech device and showed it to the teenager. "Then we'll begin the lessons."

"All right."

Marlin passed the device, which looked like small sensors found in airports, through Lady's arms.

"Whoa!"

He let out a shrill scream and knocked his glasses off.

" Everything is fine?"

Mal asked concerned .

"Yeah, I mean, no, I mean, I don't know, I've never seen anything like this before."

The teacher was startled.

"What did you see? Is it a lot of magic?"

"A lot of magic, like there are two Maleficent inside of you."

He explained in a way that she understood the extent of his magic.

"Wow, that t's a lot."

It startled her, after all, she had never imagined this thing inside her to be so big.

"Have you not used magic for a long time?"

Marlin was impressed. Never seen anything like this in all his years as a teacher.

"Sixteen years to be exact, because of the barrier. All these 'powers' appeared when I came to Auradon.

Before coming to Auradon, Mal knew she had magic, because of her mother, but dealing with every part of her body exuding magic is new information.

"Makes sense, she must be overwhelmed."

He thought, his head full of theories.

"Is that bad?"

"Yes, but nothing we can't handle."

Marlin finally said something encouraging.

"So, how do I fix it?"

Mal had been through a lot in her life. She knew what fatigue was, but nothing like this. After twenty minutes with Marlin, she was exhausted. Felt an exhaustion she didn't know. As if her strength had been sucked out of her. But, still had a date with her boyfriend, so she rushed to get ready for her date.

"How about we go to Camelot?"

They were already on their way to a dinner he had prepared, and on the way they talked about the upcoming vacation.

"Camelot? Haven't you got somewhere else?"

Lady knew a few people from the dinners she had been to with him and didn't want to go to that far away land.

"Isn't your teacher from there?"

Ben asked.

"That's one of the reasons. I think I'll see a lot of Camelot every day."

Mal thought. According to Marlin, they would see each other for a long time.

"You didn't like him?"

"No, but controlling my powers is more tiring than I thought."

Mal argued, not quite showing how tired she was.

"Auroria then?"

"You're kidding, right?"

She turned around, expecting him to say it was a joke.

"Maybe. I saw your eyes on the kids today, is everything okay?

Ben asked.

"Yes, those frightened and confused eyes without understanding anything reminded me of when I first arrived."

"I remember that."

"Then I saw a certain smile."

Mal said, seeing the smile that enchanted her.

"And I saw a pair of green eyes."

He turned to her.

"Were they beautiful?"

"The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen."

They kissed, again and again with longing.

"Why do you have to be so beautiful?"

"It's part of being a prince."

"You're terrible."

She laughed at him.

"I'm the best, and soon you'll be the best, because soon you'll be my queen."

"In a while, who knows."

Mal was nervous just thinking about what he had said.

"Who knows?"

He repeated her words, not understanding.

"Yes, I have to think, I'm not ready to be queen yet."

She was sincere, as she had already promised.

"Aren't you ready to marry me?"

"I didn't say that."

Mal saw the disappointed eyes and clarified before a possible argument broke out.

"You specifically said you were not ready to be queen."

He repeated her sentence again.

"Exactly, I didn't say anything about marriage."

"So, you would marry me?"

"Yes, I mean, not now."

Explained to her ever so passionate friend.

"Now I have to give back my ring."

"What? Are you serious?"

Mal got nervous and her heart was racing.

"Of course it's a joke Mal. You should see your face."

He started to laugh.

"Don't laugh at me. If you ask me, I'll say no."

"What? I wouldn't have the guts."

"Wait and see, Benjamin."

"You're bad."

"Thank you."

"You're lucky I love you, bad girl."

Maybe that love was not synonymous with happiness.

(...)

Far away, Marlin freaked out again, but this time in front of other people.

"This won't work, she has very strong and unstable magic."

He warned the High Summit.

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't used it for years, it's pure magic... she... she's overloaded too."

He didn't know how to explain to them what he had seen in Mal. He was surprised and worried.

"That can't be, what do we do?"

"There's more... their magic resembles it to some extent."

Marlin told the other more important information.

"What do we do now?"

"We have to intervene."

"Fairy Godmother, what do you say?"

"Marlin must continue training to stop the overload. We know what will happen if we cannot control their magic. Maybe we can absorb the magic while we look for a solution. We can't intervene, it would cause a collapse and we don't want that. We have spent twenty years hiding and keeping this secret, we will continue to do so."

Fairy Godmother gave all the information she deemed important, while she and the others were consumed by fear.