“Show me Lucinda! Show me Ruby! Show me Martha!” she commanded. The mirror’s surface swirled with a glowing violet light. The Dark Fairy had never quite mastered mirror magic like the odd sisters, and she seldom used their gift. Nevertheless, after a moment, hazy images of the sisters appeared in the glass. They were wandering aimlessly through a large mirrored chamber. They seemed to be calling out a name over and over again, but Maleficent couldn’t discern their words.“Lucinda! Can you hear me? Sisters! I need you!” Maleficent cried. For a moment, she thought that the sisters had heard her, because they abruptly stopped their ceaseless wandering.
“Sisters! Where are you? I need your help with Aurora!” Maleficent shouted.
Suddenly, Lucinda grew more distinct in the mirror. Her face flickered in the swirling purple haze of magic as she ushered frantic orders to the Dark Fairy. “You must get into that castle, Maleficent! Go by fire! Go by smoke! Go by rhyme! Go by any means available to you, but go! Create the mundane instrument of her doom if you must and send her to the land of dreams. We will be waiting for her. But you must find a way to make sure she never wakes! Our powers are not the same in this place. It’s all up to you! Now go!”Maleficent tightened her grip on her staff. The green sphere on the end began to glow. “I will use fire, smoke, and rhyme! Those meddlesome fairies thought they could keep their darling Rose hidden from me. They thought they could keep her safe. But I know the king and queen have their precious princess within their castle at this very moment!”A tiny wisp of smoke curled ominously from Aurora’s fireplace. Maleficent’s yellow eyes contrasted brilliantly with the fireplace’s darkness as she transported herself to King Stefan’s castle.
Enchant the Rose with burning light,
No fear, no sorrow, no flight from fright.
Let her follow without despair
So she may slumber forever without care.An odious green orb appeared in the princess’s room, casting an unearthly green glow on the girl’s pale face as she rose from her vanity. The luminescent sphere danced before her eyes, bewitching her to follow it through an enchanted passageway Maleficent had conjured in the fireplace. The spellbound princess followed the orb up a cold, dark stairway with an archway that eerily resembled a tombstone. Maleficent heard the troublesome good fairies calling their Rose’s name. With a flick of her hand, she closed off the passageway, leaving the good fairies behind.After all those years, her curse had put their beloved princess to sleep, just as she’d decreed. Their attempts to keep her safe had failed. With a flourish, Maleficent swept her cloak to one side. “Well, here’s your precious princess!” she added, cackling triumphantly.
The three good fairies gasped at the ghastly scene. Their beautiful Rose’s lifeless body lay on the cold stone floor. Her tiara lay beside her, like an omen that she would never become queen.
Black crows circled overhead, following the Dark Fairy as she made her way through the tangled forest. With each step she took, the trees grew increasingly dense. The forest was a living thing, moving and breathing. Its vines curled themselves around everything in her path, unknowingly creating a deep, penetrating darkness as they ensnared the treetops and obscured the sky. In the shadows, the Dark Fairy could keep the grasping trees and vines at bay. Even though she didn’t understand that aspect of her magic, Maleficent used it to her advantage. Contrary to the tales surrounding the Dark Fairy, the vines weren’t entirely subject to her will. She had heard stories about how she could control nature. How she could direct terrible forests to destroy her enemies. It was ironic, given the truth. Nature had cursed her for a past transgression. Nature was her enemy, and this forest was no different.The witches’ hearts drew her to them, shining like a brilliant beacon among the ruins of some of the greatest witches of their age.
Two witches, divergent in age and in schools of magic, though with very similar hearts and sensibilities, stood on the windy cliffs near Morningstar Castle. The sea bubbled with putrid black foam, and the sky was filled with a thick, deep purple smoke that obscured the daylight and enshrouded Morningstar Kingdom in a veil of darkness.
For a moment, Circe felt at ease. She was experiencing one of those perfect moments in time when everything was beautiful, even the heartbreak. And she wished that she could live in that moment just a little bit longer. But the present was quickly becoming the past as she heard Nanny gasp next to her. In the distance, the witches saw a large mass. It looked like a living forest entangled by thorny vines, climbing and twisting its way toward the rocky cliffs beyond Morningstar Castle. And with it came a terrible looming darkness that harbored something sinister. Soaring above the darkness, through the turbulent clouds streaked with swirls of green light, were Maleficent’s crows—the very portents of evil.
Circe could feel the fearsome forest’s energy with her magic; she knew the forest was not coming to destroy them. It was trying to protect Morningstar from the Dark Fairy.
In the land of dreams, things worked differently than they did practically anywhere else. Almost anything was possible in the dreamscape. The land was frozen in a perpetual twilight. The never-setting sun cast an ethereal glow and created a special brand of magic known to some as the golden hour. All inhabitants of the land of dreams occupied their own spaces, like many little hamlets in a kingdom of an unfathomable size. Each chamber was composed almost entirely of mirrors. And if the dreamers could master the magic of the mirrors, they would get a glimpse of the outside world. However, the dreamscape’s magic remained elusive to most of the realm’s visitors and befuddled some of its more long-term occupants, making it a terribly lonely place.
The fairies called her Maleficent. They had named her after Saturn, because of its unfavorable influence, and after Mars, a malicious god known to cause destruction and war. For that was what the fairies saw in her future: malice, devastation, and conflict.
Snow looked around her room at the other reflective surfaces. She found nothing other than her own pale face. It was a strange feeling, waking up without her mother smiling back at her from one of the mirrors. Snow glanced around her room at her things, trying to shake off the terrible feeling of her dream. Everything was in its place. There was nothing strange or amiss as there normally would be when she thought she’d awoken from a nightmare but was actually still dreaming. This was her room, with its deep red tapestries, adorned with golden trees and tiny blackbirds, hanging on the walls. This was her bed, with its light petal-pink curtains draped around the four cherry-oak pillars. She looked around her room again at the many mirrors held in beautiful antique gold frames of various sizes. Yes, everything was as it should be. She was safe. That was what her mother always said to her when she woke up startled, wasn’t it? Look! You’re in your own room. You’re safe, my bird. But the shadows of this nightmare remained. She could still feel the looming danger of something pursuing her as she searched the dark corners of her room, hoping she wasn’t still dreaming.
“Right! You don’t know! And that’s exactly my point. There are many things you don’t know, and the only way you will learn them is by going to school!”“And who could blame you if you did?” Nanny looked at the students as she continued. “You’re a shameful bunch, the lot of you. Disgusting horns indeed! Did you ever stop to think there are creatures in this world who might find wings disgusting? Have you not yet realized that the sun doesn’t rise and set by fairy standards? There are other creatures in this world, dear ones! Beautiful, lovely, and powerful creatures that don’t look like me or you! You’d do well to remember that, Fauna! All of you would!”Maleficent smiled, her tears subsiding, as she listened to Nanny. She wanted to hug her. She wanted to tell her she loved her for everything she was saying, but she didn’t want to interrupt her.
She looked at it for a moment, dazzled by the brilliance of something seemingly mundane. Snow mused about how something usually so ugly could turn into something quite beautiful. And she remembered her mother. Her mother’s transformation. Her mother’s beauty.And suddenly, she wasn’t as frightened.
Maleficent liked knowing things. It gave her power. It gave her confidence. The more she read and learned, the less afraid she was of the other fairies. She had a deep sense of pride that while the other fairies were learning how to enchant broomsticks, she was learning valuable charms and spells she could use when she finally ventured out of the Fairylands. Maleficent was learning real magic.
That was most exciting of all.
