The journey to Hill Hall had taken several days and nights. They had camped along the road where travelers and merchants rolled by on carriages. Charlie had been amazed to see Maleficent cast a spell on herself - what she called a 'glamor' - to become disguised as an old beggar woman dressed in rags and a rough-spun hooded cloak. Should fellow travelers pass by, the story was that Charlie was her grandson and they were traveling to Hill Hall to work as servants for Lady Tremaine.
"Why are we going to Hill Hall?" Charlie had wanted to know as they left the region of Lysahor, the home of Bald Mountain.
"Lady Tremaine is an old friend," Maleficent had told him. "She and her two daughters will soon depart Hill Hall and travel to the capital to attend the royal ball being held in Prince Roger's honor before he sets sail for lands unknown. Unknown to man, anyway."
"They're throwing a royal ball to celebrate the Prince going on a voyage?"
Maleficent shrugged as they walked. "Yes, but also I believe the Queen wishes him to take a woman to bride before he leaves. Roger is the heir to the throne, after all, and must needs leave a replacement heir in the womb of a wife in case some tragedy befalls his ship. I don't believe the realm would prosper if his sickly little albino brother became King."
"I'm surprised the Queen would let his heir go on such a perilous journey."
"Yes," said Maleficent dully. "So am I. It is not in Cardia's nature to let go of the people she loves. I suspect she may have some ulterior motive for allowing him to sail the seas instead of preparing him for the role of King. Especially after her firstborn son was killed by bandits in Sherwood Forest, if the Sheriff of Nottingham's account is to be believed."
Charlie frowned.
"Could it be the same motive as ours? To meet with the fae?"
"I couldn't possibly say."
Where they could, they hitched rides on the backs of passing wagons that were willing to pick up a few travelers and take them onwards in exchange for a few coppers. When they had finally left Lysahor and Charlie could no longer see the distant peak of Bald Mountain on the horizon, he finally felt free. Maleficent had performed some ritual to bind the spirit of Chernabog to his body. Charlie understood that he had recently died, and that Maleficent had pilfered his lifeless body and presented it to the black god - and yet, he did not feel like a god. He also did not feel like a young boy. The memories he had before his supposed death were blurry and mismatched. He could not remember the faces of his parents or the name of his sister, but he remembered what it felt like to suffer and succumb to the plague that had taken him. The uncomfortable heat and the deathly chills that would make him alternate between sweating and shivering violently in his sickbed. Even so, on the other side, when Charlie thought of Bald Mountain, he could vaguely remember the discomfort and silent agony of being trapped within the mountain for hundreds of years, unable to move. Unable to scream. The solid stone of the mountain covered him like a second skin and filled his mouth and lungs. Centuries of darkness.
"So, they trapped you as well?" Charlie had asked Maleficent on the road. "As they trapped me in the mountain?"
"Indeed they did," Maleficent had said. "I was trapped in the Tulgey Woods. Just over twenty years ago, a young woman freed me from my prison and gave me her body; the body you see before you. It took some time before our minds became one. I imagine the same will be said of you. Give it time."
Moments of silence followed, wherein Charlie pondered whether to say what had been on his mind for hours.
"Why did you choose me? To free Chernabog."
"You are Chernabog. You just don't remember. I chose Charlie's body to give to you because I knew him briefly before he died of an illness. He was a clever boy, and brave. I watched over him from a distance when he fell ill. I could have saved him, cured him of his ailment. But what I have done instead is a far greater blessing. It is a rare honor to sacrifice one's body in order to bring forth gods onto this mortal plain."
"Gods," Charlie murmured, "stuck in human bodies, though. Have we not truer forms than these that we can show to the world?"
"We do," said Maleficent. "Our true forms are that of large, winged beasts that tower over even the tallest of men. But it takes a lot of energy, and we can only reveal our true forms for a limited amount of time. We are not of this world, remember. The realms can only handle so much of our power."

Charlie did not need to be told when they had arrived at the region wherein Hill Hall held dominion. The town they approached from the back of a wagon was surrounding a large hill, and atop that hill was a grand estate that was the home of Lady Tremaine, who had inherited it from her late husband. The wagon stopped in town at one of the markets, and both Charlie and Maleficent got off and made their way to a nearby carriage that had been waiting for them. When they entered, the carriage began moving towards Hill Hall. The journey uphill on the winding road was steep, yet the driver of the horse-drawn carriage rode around the hill with ease. As they reached the top of the hill, the gates to the estate opened, only closing when the carriage was right outside the front entrance to the building. Charlie and Maleficent got out of the carriage, where a servant waited for them.
"Welcome," he said. "Come right this way. Milady is waiting within."
They entered Hill Hall and traversed the place until they arrived outside a room with large white doors. The servant entered alone, leaving one of the doors ajar, and Charlie heard him murmur to someone. A refined yet steely female voice replied, and the servant opened the doors wide.
"Please enter. Her Ladyship will see you now."