Chapter Text
There was, perhaps, nothing that he hated more in this world than being idle. That was why running the pawn shop was always such a perfect fit for him, why spinning was always a perfect hobby. There was always something to be spun or tinkered with, always something for his hands to do. Waiting with nothing to do was driving him mad. Though, he had to admit, it wasn't bothering him nearly as much as it was bothering Cruella. Back at the cabin, waiting for Regina to return with the page, Maleficent was still as a statue. She moved occasionally, choosing to sit or stand as she desired. He took up residence on a couch. But Cruella, she paced like a caged animal.
At first, she'd been quiet and he'd been patient. It was dark by the time they'd finished in the mansion and sent Regina off, but dark didn't mean late. While he'd shuffled about the cabin, going through some of the belongings and experiements that Ursula had left behind in her hasty exit, his mind worked through the potential timeling.
After the heroes rescued August, they'd no doubt be busy finding a place to put him, somewhere he could recuperate safely while also being hidden away. No doubt August would try to tell them of the page immediately and they would assess its importance but he was hoping that by that time Regina could get in and out without trouble, before they knew about it. Or else she could wait until they were asleep.
At first, they'd been quiet and patient as they waited for her. But as the hours grew from later to earlier, as each one excused themselves to eat and shower and see to other needs, as the sun rose and they found themselves once more convened in the cabin he was growing more worried than impatient. And Cruella was growing restless. And loud.
"This was a mistake. I never should have trusted her. I should have gone and done the job myself! She should have been back by now, why isn't she here? What's taking so long?"
And perhaps, for the first time since he'd met her, he realized just how little he knew about her. Aside from the fact that she came from the other realm and that her magic was lesser, aside from her fondness for gin and fur coats, he knew nothing about what her happy ending might look like. In fact, he knew so little he couldn't even take an educated guess.
When she'd first started to ramble he and Maleficent had taken turns telling her to calm down, making excuses for Regina, but now they'd both given up it seemed, more content to let her release the energy she had than bottle it up all the while casting each other stoic glances that communicated what neither of them wanted to say out loud.
This was taking too long.
He sent his former student a message, asking where she was and if there were any problems. Thus far she hadn't responded. And given Cruella's behavior that meant that he wasn't just coming up with a plan to go after Regina, but also one to stop Cruella when her hot head overwhelmed her. He wouldn't let that woman near Henry, not in a million years.
"Well?! What are we all standing here for?! It's been hours! Don't you think it's time we faced the facts and went out to retrieve the page ourselves!" the girl finally erupted to Maleficent.
"Regina will be here," she answered, still confident in her old friend.
"I'm not so sure," he admitted joining the two of them. Someone needed to go, but it wasn't going to be Cruella and because he wasn't about to let her out of his sight it wasn't going to be him either. He was impatient but he wouldn't play with his family's safety.
"Perhaps it's time you pay our friend a visit," he suggested to Maleficent.
"She hasn't turned, she wouldn't."
"That's a matter of opinion," Cruella snapped at the Dragon. Her tone was cruel, but he did think she had a point. Ursula may have betrayed them, may have seized her own opportunity for a happy ending, but that didn't mean that Regina was on their side. Once a villain, always a villain. And Regina's motives, like all villains, were questionable. The lines between good and bad blurred as they were, he didn't trust her the same way Maleficent did.
And if he sent the Dragon after her, not only did that keep Cruella away from Henry, but if Regina was betraying them, then the Dragon, strong as her opinion of Regina was, could see it with her own two eyes before returning and being brutally honest about their situation.
"You should go," he ordered calmly of Maleficent. "Be discreet, don't interfere, and return when you've discovered the reason behind her delay."
"And what should I do if I find that she's in trouble, or the heroes have taken her?"
"What should we do with her if she'd been lying to us?!" Cruella demanded.
That was the kind of question only a lesser sorceress would have to ask. The answer was so obvious.
"If she's in trouble, you'll inform us, and we'll consider what must be done to get her out of trouble. And if she's lying to us, then put her to sleep, take her to her vault, and hold her there until we arrive to assist."
"I doubt that will be necessary," Maleficent drawled.
"Well, you never know until-"
He felt Regina's magic on the property about a second before the door slammed open and Regina burst in. Finally.
"Oh, at last. I feel I've aged a decade waiting for you," Cruella snapped.
"Well, you certainly look like it," Regina tossed back without missing a beat.
"Where's the page, Regina?" Maleficent snarled.
She, like him, never missed a beat either. Which was how he knew that Maleficent had to be seeing the same hesitation that he was seeing in her now. Eager as Regina had always been, if she had that page, then she would have produced it by now.
"Don't tell me you failed," he assumed.
"The page was under a protection spell!" she defended. "Something cooked up by the Savior. She almost caught me trying to break it. I had to flee."
That would have been a fair story if it weren't so inherently suspicious. He knew what Regina was capable of just as much as he knew what Emma was capable of. Yes, he knew Emma's power was growing, but unless she had some magic lessons while he was away, her abilities were still limited. In fact, the only one he figured would have worked with Emma while he was away was Regina, which meant that she should be able to break a simple protection spell cast by a budding, albeit powerful, witch. Two and two made four; it was simple math! Why did he feel like Regina was trying to convince him that two and two made five?
"Are you sure that's what happened?" he challenged.
Regina's eyes narrowed in his direction, and her heart suddenly skipped a beat. Anger at his accusation? Or nerves from possibly being discovered. "Of course I am."
"It's just that you've been gone an awfully long time…and yet you come back empty-handed." Even if her story was true, finding the page and discovering a protection spell on it before nearly fleeing should not have taken all night. There was time unaccounted for.
"I'm not empty-handed," she smiled cheekily before reaching into her pocket and producing her cell phone. "I got this." She flipped the phone's screen around to show them-
"A photograph."
"Oh, and an incompetent one, too!" Cruella accused, snatching the phone from her grasp. "That glare ruins any clear view of the door."
He took the phone and stared down at the incompetent picture in question. It was a terrible picture, but that so-called "glare"…it was too perfect to be that. He'd seen things like this before, never in a photograph, of course, not in their world, but in paintings and drawings like this one, sometimes in other spells where…
Where someone magical or magic itself was held captive.
Magic wasn't meant to be in stasis; it was meant to move and breathe and act. Magical items were one thing, but when magic was stored involuntarily in a way it shouldn't be, then it found ways to break free, to let others know it was there. He'd seen it winking at him once when a genie had been inappropriately trapped in an hourglass of all things. And in the case of a man he'd once met who never aged but instead kept a portion of his aging essence stored in a painting he'd made for himself, he'd noticed when the sun touched that painting just right there was a ray of light that would interact with that magic. A ray of light that looked suspiciously just like this.
"No, that's not a glare. That's magic," he declared. The Author was hidden behind a door, a door they could not find, and yet the one picture of it that existed was magical…he could think of only one thing that might mean. Two and two made four…
"This door has been sealed by it. This is the door we've been looking for."
All this time, the Author was in the book itself?!
Regina's heart was pounding, but so was his, so were all of their hearts. It was a most remarkable discovery. A fantastical piece of magic with implications he didn't quite understand.
"You think the Author is trapped in an illustration?" Maleficent questioned. "But that would mean…"
"The Sorcerer imprisoned him in the book." Or the Apprentice, seeing as how Merlin was a tree, which they certainly didn't need to know. Looking at this, there was really only one thing they needed, one thing he needed. "We need to get it. Bring us the page."
"That won't be easy. The Savior isn't about to let it out of her sight."
"Don't worry about her. I've got just the thing," Maleficent smiled.
"What were you thinking?" he questioned, looking up at the Sorceress.
"Sleeping Curse," she grinned. "It'll be awfully hard to defend the page if she's passed out asleep, wouldn't you say?"
"A bold, if not predictable, move," he admitted. "But we don't have time. Besides, we'd have to get close enough to them first, and I rather suspect they'll be suspicious of spinning wheels at the moment, given the situation."
"You might still be using spinning wheels and close encounters for your Sleeping Curses, but I moved on long ago. I have something a little different in mind, something a little more dramatic but far more effective."
He was intrigued. If it were Cruella or Ursula making this suggestion, he'd probably want to know more about it, but Maleficent…no other Sorcerer had delved into the power of Sleeping Curses half as much as she did in their world. And her power, great as it was, had a way of erasing doubt from his mind. He smiled at the possibilities before him.
"Lead on…"