Phria kissed the man she loved, let him wrap her in his arms and hold her close as she clung to the lapels of his dragonlinghide coat dutifully crafted by Una Quartermaine. He smelt of smoke, fire and sea salt from his short battle with Viren, but neither dwelled on it. The lovers broke apart only when the sound of war cries echoed from down below and Rumple sighed deeply.

"What now?" The pair peered downward from the ruined walkway, which was liable to fully collapse at any moment, and spotted roughly half of Ser Chrysaor's men rushing towards Viren as though they stood even a small chance against a dragon, let alone the cardinal dragons. "Here we go again. Idiots are going to get themselves killed."

"Maybe we should prevent that?"

Rumple simply hummed before he teleported them both down between the knights and the infamous red dragon; Viren himself simply sat at the base of the tower curious to see what the Dark One would say. The knights may have been few in number but they were skilled with a sword and braver than most; had they not been, Artem wouldn't have sent them on this mission. However, the dragon wasn't their enemy.

"All right, tone down the death or glory, dearies." The knights almost comically skidded to a halt before Rumple and Phria with Viren as an intimidating backdrop. "The dragon is not a threat, so I'll make it simple for you: Attack the dragon and I kill you."

While he'd promised Bae there wouldn't be any more indiscriminate killing, nobody else knew that so he could still threaten people with death all he liked and, since he was the Dark One, those threats wouldn't go ignored. He watched the knights glance numerous times between him and the dragon until they finally made the decision that they feared Rumple's anger more than the dragon. 'Is that something I should be proud of?' Rumple's mind questioned as the knights sheathed their blades.

"Surely there are more soldiers loyal to LeGume and Tvon remaining." Said Phria in what could only be described as her captain voice. "Best to dispatch them before they have any chance to mobilize. Once you think they're all dead, search the castle to be sure."

The knights obeyed and soon turned to their task, though they did leave while constantly looking over their shoulders at Viren. For numerous generations all had believed dragons to be extinct creatures, yet there one sat proving them all wrong. A living, breathing dragon almost bigger than they could comprehend with sharp claws, teeth and fluted horns. Most people's reaction to seeing a dragon burst out from the history books would have been to flee rather than attack, but Rumple hadn't ever been convinced that knights had much brains.

Regardless, Viren had ceased his attack and Rumple needed to check on his beloved Belle and the Ring of Halinox. He made to walk away – the acrid smell of melted and burnt stone really was rather pervasive, it had begun to turn nauseating – only for Phria to catch him by the elbow and draw his attention back.

"Shouldn't we look through the tower?"

Rumple nodded. "We will, aye. However, it is warded and I'd prefer to ensure there are no guards, morons or do-gooders running around before I release the wards and make the tower accessible. I'd sense if any spells were charging inside there, we're safe. The final part of my deal with Belle is the priority right now."

The white-haired pantherian couldn't argue with that, neutralizing what remained of the threat was by far the most crucial part of freeing Kalecaster Castle and her king. Rumple may have been a touch insane, but he was very logical when he wanted to be. Although, Viren was a little less eager to let Rumple wander away.

"You and I have a pact, Dark One." His deep voice bellowed. "You gave your word to free my son."

Rumple sighed as he swivelled on the spot and tilted his head upwards to the point it almost ached. "And I shall, dearie, I don't go back on my deals. Having said that, fulfilling my deal with my sweet Belle to save her kingdom and free her family is ahead of you."

Though it didn't seem possible what with his skin being entirely rough scales and him lacking eyebrows totally, Viren managed to furrow his brow down at Rumple with a confused expression.

"You are telling me to wait my turn?" Viren questioned more to himself than Rumple or Phria. "This is Princess Belle you speak of?" Rumple simply nodded. "I shall be patient … for now."

The warning was obvious but Rumple remained unaffected, when one had dealt with a hungover Maleficent after an evening of drinking with Cruella, one ceased being bothered by dragons entirely.

"How kind," was all he said before Phria and Rumple headed for the throne room.

A castle the size of Kalecaster shouldn't have been so eerily silent but silent it was, as though life had tried to speak but the words had just fallen away. Disturbingly, the lifelessness reminded him of the Dark Castle with all its eerie silence and dust. He'd wandered the castle's halls for years as little more than an insane ghost that enjoyed jumping out to scare those brave enough to investigate. He'd taken the castle in a deal simply because he could and promptly turned it into a place of dark isolation and inescapable misery. Belle's birthplace shouldn't have been like that, bright light and hope for the future should have filled her home. Rumple had burnt a castle down once upon a time, and the singed scent of masonry kept forcing that memory back into his brain much to his dismay. Now the villains were dead, hopefully life would return to Belle's home.

The throne room was on the other side of the castle, up a grand flight of stairs, so it took a while to walk to. Charging through the castle to the walkway had seemingly taken but a moment, but, when not running and simply barging through everyone in their path, the distance was quite the walk. Phria held his hand as they walked quickly but without urgency. For a moment when Viren had unleashed his powerful fire she'd honestly feared for his life, she'd never truly loved anybody else, so the thought of losing Rumple didn't just make her heart ache, it ripped it in twain. Rumple appeared to understand because he offered a comforting squeeze to her hand and a light kiss as they finally reached the throne room's door – a gargantuan think made of dark wood and iron bindings. The door was partially open so the pair just let themselves in without much fanfare. It looked just as Rumple had expected Kalecaster's throne room to look: all carved stone, wooden accents and flagstones of gray and a sandy color. King Maurice sat slumped in his red throne as though trying to get his breath back while Belle fussed over him and Ser Chrysaor listed orders to the few men he had with him. Marshall Estienne – well, that poor man just looked exhausted and desperate for a bath.

Belle glanced around at the sound of their footsteps and rushed into Rumple's arms with a mix of concern and joy that Azzy seemed to mirror.

"Rumple! Is everything all right? Ser Chrysaor's men said there was a dragon! A real dragon!"

Rumple chuckled to himself. "Belle, as much as I adore your unending quest for knowledge and stories, maybe the dragon can wait for later? Tvon and Gaston are dead. Viren was being controlled by Tvon but is now freed and formed a truce with me."

Just about everybody in the room gasped, widened their eyes, or both upon hearing Viren's name. To Rumple he was just a dragon of little interest, but to the others there, Viren was practically an ancient god.

"Viren?" Belle questioned in astonishment. "The fire dragon Viren is here?!"

"Yes," Phria confirmed for him. "Rumple is right though, we have more pressing things to deal with."

The Valkyrie captain was correct of course and Belle's blue eyes flicked over to her friend only to spot the places her black armor had been cut open.

"Oh my, Phria, are you okay?"

"She's fine, sweetheart, I healed her. Now, where is this ring?"

Cautiously, Belle pointed to a corner of the room where the ruby ring lay on the floor atop a leather glove with Azzy guarding it. It looked gaudy more than dangerous, but Rumple could still feel the dark magic which drifted from it. This thing needed to be locked away where nobody could ever misuse it again. With a single wave of his hand, the ring vanished glove and all.

"Where did you send it?" Ser Chrysaor queried with mild caution. "Surely the Arcane University would be the safest place for such a deplorable magic tool."

"I've seen that vault, dearie, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. The Ring of Halinox will remain in my vault where I can keep an eye on it."

Half of the knight wanted to argue, but the other half knew better than to do so. His king was no fool nor a sycophant, so if King Artem had chosen to trust Rumpelstiltskin then so would Ser Chrysaor.

With the ring stored away, Rumple's attention was quickly turned to Maurice who sat slumped in his throne with his head atop a fist as though he were exhausted. Frankly, Rumple would have been surprised if he'd not been; after all, fighting the ring's hold over a person would have been enough to mentally exhaust anybody.

"Is he okay, Rumple?"

"Aye, my love, looks like he just needs some sleep. Someone should watch over him, but I don't sense any magic overload or lingering traces of the ring's power."

"My love?" Maurice somehow managed to demand all while his eyes were half-lidded and his voice laced with an urge for slumber.

"This is Rumpelstiltskin, Papa." Belle informed her father as she fished one of her healing potions out of her satchel and pressed it to her father's lips. "He's the one who saved Avonlea and all our lives. He's the Dark One."

Maurice spat the last of the green potion out almost straight into Rumple's face, but fortunately missed and the potion seemed to have done its job already. In a state somewhere between panic and utter disbelief, Maurice proceeded to interrogate his daughter about Rumple and exactly what had been going on in the months he'd bee all but sealed away inside the throne room. Explaining was a long and arduous task constantly interrupted by Maurice asking an extra five questions. It was clear King Maurice du Marchand wasn't obsequious in the slightest. However, as Belle went on, he was slowly forced to accept the man stood by his throne wasn't a lunatic or con artist but genuinely the First Demon Lord and, more alarmingly, betrothed to his only daughter. While his father had described himself as 'casually religious', Maurice's mother had been a devout Drazvan and, as such, had raised her son strictly. Queen Angelique had viewed her faith as placing her as a steward of life and had done her best to care for people, it was where Belle got her kind nature from. Although, the one thing she'd drilled into Maurice throughout his life was that demon lords could never be trusted and that the Dark One was the worst for he went against the Mother Goddess. His late wife, the wonderful Colette, had introduced him to the Vita Tree, but even she'd not had a good opinion of the Dark One. 'No hope for one so evil' were her words. Yet, Maurice knew every expression is independent oldest child pulled and what they meant; he knew her forced smile, the one she donned when trying to be brave, but that wasn't the one she wore. Belle actually loved this beast and Maurice didn't know what to do about it.

"You expect me to believe the Dark One just decided to help others?"

"Papa!"

Rumple shrugged. "I don't care what you believe, dearie. I came because Belle asked me to save you. Speaking of saving," he looked over to the chestnut-haired beauty who would soon be his primary wife whether King Maurice liked it or not. "Do you know where your brother will be?"

Though Belle worried her lip, she nodded fairly quickly. "Surely he'll still be in his bedchamber. I don't see why Gaston would have moved him." She turned to the tall black man dressed in red. "Estienne, did you notice them move Lorrimer before you were chained up in the stable?"

He shook his head. "No, Princess. I think he's still there."

Belle's blue eyes snapped back to the demon lord she loved. "I'll take you to him."

"Not without me you won't." Maurice pushed himself to his feet only to wobble a little causing Belle to automatically help support him. "I want to see my son and I'm not giving a demon lord free rein."

Belle tried to talk him out of it since he'd only just been released from the ring's control, but the man didn't heed any of it. He was Avonlea's king and Prince Lorrimer was his only son, he'd do no more sitting around on his throne.

The trio slowly made their way to ten-year-old Lorrimer's chamber with Phria and Azzy because that wolf followed Belle everywhere. Ser Chrysaor's team may have been small, but they'd made a good job of systematically clearing the castle and had roped the few remaining Rose Guards in to assisting once they'd been freed. Estienne had managed to round up a few more pairs of hands as well; including the chief blacksmith who'd delighted in being told he could give as good as he got. Most of the servants had been either dismissed early on, chained or locked in certain rooms; it disgusted Rumple and his allies, but at least they were alive and relatively unharmed. Though unsure of if Kalecaster had been liberated or if the dragon they'd spotted through windows would raze the castle with them inside, none of the servants had seemed sure, but seeing their King and Princess walking around freely again soothed nerves and calmed their souls. The du Marchands endured and so did Avonlea.

Rumple pushed the door of Lorrimer's chamber open when they finally reached it only for a broom handle to swing violently at his face. Fortunately for Rumple, Phria caught it with her cat-like reflexes before it could make contact and yanked it free of the attacker's hands. Fearfully pressed against the wall out of sight was Evie, Lorrimer's dutiful nursemaid with a long chain binding her to Lorrimer's bed a terrified expression on her face. Phria threw the broom down as Evie backed away and Belle jumped to comfort the nursemaid.

"It's all right, Evie, everything is okay. We control the castle again."

Evie let out a long sigh of relief. "Oh, thank Drazva. I were so worried about ya, Milady."

Maurice stepped inside the room then and went straight to Lorrimer's bedside. The moment Evie spotted her King she fell silent, curtsied then stood still and out of the way with her head lowered respectfully. She'd been chained in Lorrimer's room more or less since Belle's disappearance from the castle; only released once when King Artem had visited. Oh how she'd wanted to say something to him, but Evie had feared for little Lorrimer's life, not to mention her own.

Belle quickly hurried over to her brother's bedside just as her papa had. Though unconscious and coated in a thin layer of sweat, Lorrimer didn't appear to have been harmed. His chestnut hair had stuck to his forehead and a slight pink flush had settled in his cheeks.

"Rumple, his fever is worse."

"I've been doin' me best, Milady, but Milord just ain't gettin' better this time."

Knowing saving Lorrimer was the final part to his deal with Belle, Rumple went to Lorrimer's bed as well and scanned over the boy with a wave of magic. However, where he'd expected to find a boring fever, instead he found no sickness, but there was … something.

Rumple's brow furrowed while Phria simply watched on as though she were unsure of how to interact now Maurice was there. Yes, Rumple had made it very clear that he didn't view Belle as superior to Phria, but King Maurice probably wouldn't have taken kindly to a secondary fiancée acting as though she were his daughter's equal.

Rumple, however, was much more focused on the unconscious child in the large bed covered with green silk sheets. Rumple looking genuinely confused wasn't a common sight and frankly, it disturbed Belle.

"Did anything strange happen when your son was born? Was he born early or somewhere like a mine or a lake?"

Belle's head cocked to one side. 'A mine or a lake? What sort of question is that?' her mind pondered. Maurice though, he seemed more taken aback than anything else and finally nodded.

"… He was born in the castle, but Lorrimer was very early. Physicians didn't know if he'd survive. Why? What does that have to do with my son being sickly?"

Rumple was silent a moment as he had some kind of internal conversation with himself. In that time, Phria and Evie basically faded into the background while Azzy sat diligently at Belle's feet.

"What is it, Rumple?"

"Belle, I don't think your brother just has a weak constitution, I think he has a very specific illness. Both du Marchands stared at him expectantly. "It's exceedingly rare and I've only ever known it to occur in people born early or in areas of extreme power. It happens when someone is born unable to safely contain their magical capabilities. You'd call it his magic level. I've only seen this once in a mermaid and another Dark One vaguely mentioned it happening to a baby dragon." While Belle did her very best to follow along, Rumple turned to Maurice for more information. "I assume Lorrimer appears to have a low magic level?"

Commonly royals and nobles, even commoners, would pay the Adventure's Guild to assess their child's magic levels. The du Marchands had done it for as long as anybody could remember. Maurice's sat respectably in the bronze-ranked section, though he'd always turned it to enhancing his physical strength for combat. Lorrimer though, he'd barely even been registered by the crystal test.

"Lorrimer can't use magic. Everybody said how strange it was for a half-elf." The weary king confessed.

There had been kings throughout history who would have disowned a child for such a thing, seen it as disgraceful and a sign they weren't worthy of a crown. Maurice and Colette hadn't ever cared about that though, Belle and Lorrimer were their beloved children no matter their rankings.

A long hum escaped Rumple. "I think it's quite the opposite. Lorrimer probably has a fairly high magical capacity, but he was born before he'd developed to safely contain it." Too much magic could rip a person apart, he'd seen it before; in fact, had his curse not protected him, Rumple would have essentially blown up the moment he received the power of the Dark One. "These constant fevers aren't a common sickness, it's his body and his magic desperately trying to find a harmonious balance. Belle is a tamer, her body is balanced with her soul, that's why her magic level isn't all that high despite being a half-elf. Lorrimer isn't a tamer, so an early birth was significantly more detrimental to him than it would have been for Belle."

"Rumple," began Belle slowly. "Does this mean you can … heal my brother?"

"Almost certainly."

The blue-eyed beauty beamed and hugged Rumple tighter than she ever had before while her papa held little Lorrimer's hand. This demon lord was terrifyingly powerful in spite of his small stature, but Belle adored him and had seemingly been designed to slot against him. This was the first time anyone ad been able to tell Maurice what was wrong with Lorrimer let alone show any chance of curing him. The King didn't want this beast anywhere near his children, but he had taken back Kalecaster Castle and every physician seemed convinced Lorrimer would pass away before his fifteenth year. So, as much as he hated it and wanted to grab a sword and cast the Dark One out of his home, surely it was better to take the chance of Lorrimer's death rather than the certainty of it. Reluctantly, Maurice nodded his consent when Belle asked if he'd let Rumple treat Lorrimer.

"This is going to take hours likely." The demon lord explained calmly. "And he will be in a lot of pain. You may not wish to watch this."

"I shan't abandon my boy, beast!" Maurice snapped which just got a sigh from Rumple. Had it been Bae in that bed, Rumple wouldn't have wanted to leave his side either. "Get on with it."

Rumple turned to Phria who'd been stood so silently that one could have almost forgotten she was present.

"Darling, I don't care what Ser Overly Romantic thinks, you are in charge until I'm done here. Ensure no one decides to fight the dragon. Work on calming the city locals and keep people out of the dungeon no matter what they hear."

Phria nodded. "Of course, Rumple."

The beautiful pantherian warrior kissed his cheek then slipped away determined to ensure Rumple's orders were done.

"You too, dearie, get out."

With a wave of his hand, Evie's chain vanished off to his vault and the nursemaid wasted no time scrambling from the room.

Even with his back to the portly king, Rumple had felt eyes bore into him. He was no stranger to people disliking him, some had tried to kill him on sight, but Rumple was about to save his son's life and had just returned his daughter and kingdom to him, so surely he'd earned a lower setting of the old death glare.

"She kissed you." Maurice announced in a stern tone which had probably put a lot of upstart nobles in their place. "Who is that woman?"

Belle rolled her eyes; of all the times for her papa to have noticed Phria and how much she meant to Rumple.

"That was Phria, she's Captain of the Valkyries and Rumple's other betrothed."

"Other?!"

"Papa, surely Lorrimer is more important at this moment."

Begrudgingly, Maurice was forced to agree with his headstrong daughter and dropped the situation for the time being; all knew he'd return to it soon enough. Pleased he wasn't about to be screamed at for something which hadn't even been his idea, Rumple set to work trying to balance Lorrimer's magic and physical body.

He worked for hours and it really wasn't pretty at times, Rumple hated causing a ten-year-old boy so much agony even if he was unconscious, but it had to be done.