Archive of Our Own

Work Text

Saying
 
Was it close or maybe far?

Was it low or maybe high?

The hero was gone,

Cursed, couldn’t survive.

The hero was not just made by the Wise

His glorious deeds and force were recognized.
 
The Magic became the escape

For his mind that was ready to break.

But his half-life just lasted

While his soul was being blasted

He leeched off other known heroes

Just to vanish again.
 
In those heroes’ bodies he dwelled

The being in the shadows hidden

He simply watched them and followed

Because his powers were hollow.

Just try and show me the hero

That is not quite strong-willed!

So he took the path of a villain

Knowing how to erode will of hero

To zero.
 
He got caught by that one little girl

That in future could master

Protecting her world.

So they fought in their minds’ battlefield

Even if their friendship was already built.

But all that was just a saying,

Serving as prelude of sorts.

You should know -

Fairytale Lies Ahead

But still has bond t

o the real world

Through a very thin thread.

Chapter 1: The Hope
 Heroically getting out of bed, Emma Swan heroically went to the bathroom and began to heroically brush her teeth.Everything as usual, actually.In this life one could add “heroically” to every action - and never hit the target.It even seemed to me that somewhere in my Curse something clearly failed, because earlier, even when I got incarnated into women, I was in the heat of struggle and resistance, heroism and dedication. Only at such moments could I bring everything subtly to the point that the hero accepted my promised help, and I captured the body. Because very few of them knew that all magic has a price, and if I do not offer this price, then something is not right here very obviously.Well, they believed, since I was with them in one body and didn’t possesed it the same day I got there, and I really liked to pretend that I was the same as they were, a hero, damned by a villain into eternal existence in the form of a ghost of former strength, so I want to sincerely help them.Maybe once I was.“Well, how are you there, alien?”  I suddenly heard this on the telepathic channel configured between us. “Why are you silent?”“Too long to wait till I die” I barely restrained a laugh and asked in response. “And why asking?”
“You got silent for a long time. Lonely?”

“Your birthday, huh?”
I was again blown up in the hope that she would not notice, as many did not notice, and sell me her body for a little knowledge, which my heroic ability can give her, yes.
“I have already offered to find your parents, you just need to allow me to control the body, Emma, I will create a ritual and direct the energy - I’m still a Hero so I’d be glad to help! Or maybe we’d finally find your son? You didn’t listen to me, when I said that that guy was not the best company, even if I was …”

“Listen, you Hero, shut up and go to hell!”
She threw a toothbrush in the sink and looked in the mirror with a very serious expression.Once again I saw the usual beautiful high-cheeked face, golden curls and bright eyes coloured asure because of what she felt. There were marks of toothpaste on her lips, and the expression was gloomy and even angry.Her appearance, by the way, is quite heroic, and the girl clearly monitors the ability of her body to kick ass. But she had something obviously wrong with her mind, if we compare it with typical heroes.She is suspicious and rather clever, even reminded me of myself long time ago.And this is not the best quality in relation to those who want to take her body.And she, of course, was lucky - since she never mastered the magic at the proper level, I also do not have access to her to accumulate enough strength to move to a new level of possession of the body.Those sparks that are available to her, just do not count!Her enormous potential was simply lost in the absence of training, and the fact that I absolutely don’t intend to teach much, either, but I don’t feel my guilt.It was her parents who abandoned her in her childhood, even maybe because of that same magic, bright and alive, that sleeps and only occasionally tosses.And once again she was unlucky with me.I wanted to capture the body, and I didn’t have the need to train her well, thus becoming attached to her too much. Still, I am not Dark, I am mostly Evil, and these are two big differences, and therefore I cannot kill the person to whom I will have bonds of teacher relationship.And still, I couldn’t get rid of this feeling of guardianship over her that lasted for so many years, no matter what intentions I ever had.It never seemed catastrophic to me, not at all, because she feels my attitude towards her, as we share one body, and I just need to be friendly to do what I wish, yes…
“Hero, hey, Hero?”
She called me couple of minutes later on our mental connection.
“Sing a song like in childhood, be a friend?”
She rinsed her mouth and spat, then again looked in the mirror, but she wore much more kind look than before, and explained.
“It’s me who is sad, to be honest.”
Yes, it was still impossible to step aside from her until the end.I smiled to myself - well, what a friend I am to you, you fool, my friendly attitude is like a goat’s milk. There's a obscene joke in this phrasing somewhere, yeah.I am the conqueror of the Queen of the Sea, Kaschei the Immortal and the Iron Wolf, a friend of the Gray Wolf, Bulat the Fighter, Nicanor the Hero and the Firebird, I am still the husband of Vasilisa the Wise, and I will never stop being the son of Tsar Vseslav, who is not here and never would be.And I live in the body that don’t belong me and live in the country that I don’t belong.Well, I have been cursed in disembodiedness for too long.And I no longer have those friends, and I still cannot go to the motherland of the fairytales, depicting me, to try to find something.This stubborn girl doesn’t let me. Otherwise I’d try to find my very first realm, because this memories are the only thing left from me the Hero.The memory of the past long gone.Emma could understand me whatever language I chose to sing mentally, but I still decided to do myself a favor and sing something in Russian. Although I still don’t consider her to be my friend, but Swan thinks differently, and so far it is beneficial for me.“Make some coffee, Swan, I like the taste,” I grinned. “Then I will sing. You know the terms of the deal.”Emma smiled to the mirror and, wiping her face, walked over to the stove.
Whether the wind it was or the bird

Flapped its’ wings under me

Only a feather spins up in the sky

Over the long empty nest.

Howling blizzard sings her song

Over the vast sleeping fields

Or you can hear the cry in the sky

Cranes flying away.

Sadness shall pass and bitter shall melt

Do not cry, soul, this is not the first time

Fly as easy as feather

Fly back home! Fly home!
(https://youtu.be/LjphKWJ90Ls)
“It’s so… calm with you, Hero. Life seems less lonely and hollow”
She said that into the air, and I felt a tear on my… our cheek, and I cursed myself twice for not thinking about the meaning of this song properly. And then she made a stupid joke.
“I don’t even want to go to a shrink anymore to lock you away or something.”
“Well, then do not go. You’re trying to visit him for a couple of years now, ” I commented. “I can’t disappear.”Today was her 28-th birthday, we were in Boston and she was finishing a fairly profitable business.And nothing foreshadowed trouble.I couldn’t imagine this day might end with the appearance of hope.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 2: Family Matters
Emma and I had fun in the company of a cake, sparkling wine and a pleasant, non-binding girl, in short - Becky.This type of girl could be picked up only in bars, clubs or by lucky chance somewhere in the art gallery, but in our case it was obviously not an accident, because my dear mistress could not bear to calmly walk around museums and other similar "dullness" as she aptly expressed each time I dragged her there.Certainly, the only thing to blame was my insatiable enthusiasm in exploring this world, so my girl visited that kind of places enough for a lifetime. And while we had fun, I still couldn’t suspect anything about the approaching bearer, so to speak, of all my hopes and dreams for this boring, almost non-magical world.Therefore, we enjoyed the company of a half-naked beauty, I must admit quite successfully enjoyed, and she was already ready to spend the night with us.“With us” meant - I felt and saw everything, despite the fact that I’m removed from direct control of what’s happening.Well, I don’t know how Emma felt deep inside, but some time ago I was nauseated by the greedy glances that idiot debtor was throwing at us. He tried to escape us so ridiculously, that Emma, who, due to my significant presence in her head and the equally significant presence of my rather gloating humor, learned how to manage her face at a decent level, still couldn’t handle the situation without sincere laughter.And she laughed on the way back to our apartment, when the face grimace and the convulsive actions of the jerk resurfaced in our dialogue.And in order to dispel this filthy feeling after unpleasant words, though they came from a complete stranger, I offered to call a friend who showed interest in Emma and they already have enough dates to have hours of sexual activity, as I call it, trying not to look and make myself jealous.Swan was not too amorous, and it always seemed to me that I didn't play a very important role in that quality of her character.I was the only adult who had been with her throughout her life, even though I told myself not to give her any extra advice or help just because it’s a good thing to do.After the death of Cleo Fox, a woman who was chasing my careless Swan, I stopped giving advice at all and stopped saying anything other than "Decide for yourself, Emma Swan.""Why didn't you talk me out?" - It was the first thing she constantly told me when she didn’t listen to my advice, especially when it was about that woman’ death.Although it didn’t come to a quarrel, because Emma knew very well from my tales, which I rashly told her as a child, that I could not heal the dead.For this you need the Death Water and The Living Water, both. But in this world there were absolutely no such thing, and she didn’t want to give me control over the body to create the ritual.Cold blood, indeed.Throughout my entire stay in her body, I was like: “I’m the only one who understand you!” or “Oh, these modern dishonourable people,” or “You deserve more!” and, that one is the most used: “Try not to trust my ass-based feeling again when I say this person is sketchy!"Yes, yes, I am an evil freak, a manipulative pig, and, in general, I’m extremely aggressively defend my property from the encroachments of all kinds of other freaks, yes!Well, I still feel everything that Emma feels, and her ignorance of my words about this Neal, who left her soul with disturbing wound, was based on the fact that I constantly grumbled about any guy looking obliquely at my beautiful girl, Emma. It seems, that I already considered this body my own to some extent, and that’s why I had such an attitude - Emma had to shut me up every now and then until she grew out of her teenage surges and began to listen to me more often.The question arises - why I never moved into her body, taking advantage of childhood and the deplorable situation?It's just because I never do that!Children are inviolable, and the child can not, should not be absorbed by me.I didn’t think about the original reason for that decision, but I never had many problems with little Emma.I soothed her, sang songs when she asked, told her about my life in the guise of rhymed legends or tales, forced her to read, and that last one was for avoiding the horrible death from boredom in these many years. I would even associate myself with her parent, I had to educate her so much and so much to invest in her, but I would never trade my own undivided and indivisible, of course if you don’t take into account the possible dismemberment, body for her friendship.I could tell myself that only thing for sure even when Emma was an incredibly touching lost being, close to me in spirit and literally brought up by me from her very self-awareness of herself as a person.Emma Swan, by the way, could be not only touching. She often pleased me with flashes of anger, which gave me a microscopic opportunity to pick up the drops of magic that emanated from her during that display of emotions, and it sparkled with such a bright flash when the doorbell interrupted the removal of the panties of our excited girlfriend.“Oh, fuck this late guest!” I growled and moaned with doom. “Emma, your birthday and it’s eve are too full of surprises.”Emma irritably pushed the beautiful girl away and went to open the door.First, my ass-based feeling howled even more than when I met Neil or that strange girl, Lily.Second, the boy said that Emma is his mother.The boy looked like someone else, but not Emma - I thought so at first glance at him.At his age Emma was much less self-confident, she never had this deceit and manipulation, which he showed later when we tried to expel him, and I personally suggested just throwing him out the door by the scruff.At the same time, I sent to the devil my non-quite-immutable rule-on-advice, again.And in spite of my old age extremes like paranoia and grumbling, I can't help but remember Emma when she was ten years old - this is exactly about the time when I finally and fully showed up, making a course of action with this active kid without a tsar in her head, really, and that means she was “flaky” and “rudderless”.The boy was dark-haired and quite puny. He definitely was not from a poor or especially unhappy family.Emma and I have always noticed these - their eyes were different, they were too incredulous for the age of the child, but this boy's eyes were alive.He smiled quite sincerely, didn’t try to hide and shrink under the stern look that Emma gave him for the interrupted party.And these are the signs from which I drew a conclusion - parents rarely shout at the boy, spoil him well and love him with high quality, I’d say.“He seems to be lucky with his family,” I said to Emma as she walked off to the door with Becky, who was looking at the child with undisguised interest.
“Well dressed, taught independence, not intimidated, not clogged. For example, my father sold me before I was born to the Queen of the Sea because he couldn’t drink from the Living Creek asking for permission first, as everyone does. The King, for fuck’s sake, unable to just ask for the cure. At least, that’s why I met my future wife, yes... And since I was the firstborn, and very foolish as my father thought, it…”

“Listen, old man, stop your flashbacks! I have already heard this story about the Queen of the Sea five times!”
In fact, I felt Emma’s panic and focused my attention on what was happening.
“A child came to me, I have no right to even see him, after what I did to him!”
“Then your foolishness is enough! Let's get the boy back!” I snapped back and looked at the situation closer, trying to understand what Emma feels right now.
“I understand everything, you do not want to remember your oh not the best choice in life, but the result of this choice now stands before you, my darling!”

“Enough with this "my darling"! I constantly ask you to stop because it is contagious, and I repeat after you this mocking "my darling" without any need for it!”

“Emma, if there was no need, then throw at me... Well, take what you can throw at me, then throw it!”
I laughed, forcing Swan to roll her eyes, and the boy, her son, took the grimace at his expense and put an extremely discouraging remark at the end of his speech.“And if you won’t agree, I will tell the police that you kidnapped me!”Emma couldn’t stand it and laughed, as if echoing me, and I literally just finished laughing in our inner world.“Kid, you are very clever for your age and independent, yes!” she trustingly patted him on the back - he sat on a bar stool and drank orange juice from the bottle throat.“But you should know that the testimony of two adults that you yourself found this apartment and that address would beat your babble on this. Study the laws, kid! And please, if you come to stranger’s house, could you still ask permission or at least drink from a cup?”Emma sighed, took the juice out of his hands and twisted the lid.“And now, kid, we take my cake and... now completely your juice - after all, you drooled into it - and we go to your family. Would you like a sandwich? I’ve got with tuna and egg. Ok?”He looked incredulously into our eyes, as if surprised at such an easy agreement on his request, but Emma — I knew — understood that she had no special choice, because she had a criminal record even if it was appealed and kind of amnestied, and that stopped her from any calls to the police.Emma didn’t wait for an immediate response from the child and asked."So, where to?""Storybrooke, Maine."***"Fairy tales?" Emma repeated my thoughts, looking mistrustfully at the book that the boy was holding in his hands. “Is this a fairytale book?”“This is not just a fairy tale!” the boy answered without any hesitation and I was somehow immediately alerted, after all, he was ten years old, not five.At this age, not everyone believes in Santa.“It's true! Every story in this book actually happened!”“Of course it did…”I am quite sure that Emma did not argue with the kid, not because she was sorry to debunk the boy’s illusions.She was screaming at me now, panicking again, although in the real world she was simply frowning.
“Are you kidding me?! Is it contagious? Is it transmitted genetically? Is this some mutation? He thinks that fairy tales are real, and a relic of one of these fairy tales lives in my head!”
“Not these!” I would have shook my head if I could. “These are yours,” I emphasized this word especially, “fairy tales. Not ours, Emma. Not the ones I come from. We don’t tell tales of the Queen and the Snow White. We have other heroes, you know it.”“And how do you know that the book says about the Queen and Snow White?” she was surprised, but didn’t forget to follow the road - we turned onto the highway.“I read briefly just now”, I answered and gave a laugh. “If you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean that I don’t see it, Emma. I need one glance to remember.”“And why haven't I graduated the University with this ability yet?” Emma sighed, but her sarcastic question didn’t require an answer, and I knew how much I would infuriate her if I answer it.“Of course, because you're a stupid lazy bird,” I drawled with pleasure. “And not a swan, but a penguin. If you don’t kick it, it won’t fly!”“Did you believe me?” Henry decided to ask after a long silence and reached for a bag of juice and sandwiches. “May I...”“It’s much better when you remember to ask,” Emma nodded but stopped short that parenting attempt. “So what were you saying about fairy tales? What’s that about?”“They are about you. You are there.”The child shrugged and, putting the book aside, dug into a sandwich with indescribable pleasure written on his face, despite the fact that just couple of seconds ago the car was slightly inclined aside because Emma was a bit dumbfounded.“It seems you have problems, kid…”Emma sighed, straightening the steering wheel, and was hardly surprised when she heard the boy’s answer.“Yeah. And you fix them.”***“Thus, the Sandwich Eater, I have a task for you!” said Emma, when we moved into this Storybrooke of his and drove up to the clock tower.“You must make your parents finish my cake with me on board. Judging by your ability of whining and persuasion, you are quite capable of it. It is going to melt to hell, and the holiday is already ruined enough. Though we will talk over a cup of tea about your behavior…"We discussed Emma's further behavior strategy, and in the end she decided to ask kid’s parents why the boy ran away from home - Emma herself had similar runaways, and the reason of those wasn’t the great love of the adoptive family, for sure. But there was something obviously wrong in all that, and how he could find Emma was an unsolved mystery yet.I felt something strange somewhere on the border of Yavi, the Reality, but it could be just an ancient burial ground of some Natives, or a nasty cemetery, so for now I decided not to tell my mistress that I was slightly shaken by the thin Border in this terrain.“I have no parents, I only have a mother,” our little jerk replied. “And she is evil!”“Evil?” Emma slowed down in the middle of the main square of the town and got out of the car. “Get out!”He obeyed, and I murmured to Emma, not to dare to hurt that little asshole, but she waved it off and sat down in front of the child so as to see his lowered eyes, shyly in search of a way out of the situation.“Do you even think what you say? She is not evil! She is the person who became your family, when I - hear me - I was the very first evil in your life! And, you know, boy, life is not a damn collection of fairy tales - you are very lucky at least with the fact that you do not have to climb out of your skin just to eat enough.”“My name is Henry!” he exclaimed and looked us straight in the eyes. “She doesn't love me. She only pretends to love. And you can help break the curse!”“What other curse?” Emma lowered the tone, during the interrogation of the little boy, asking me an extremely urgent question.Urgent for me, mostly.
“Old man, do you think he is talking about you? You yourself told me that this is your curse and you don’t know how to remove it ... Maybe it’s not by chance that everything's happening now? The kid fell into the hands of this book or… oh, backwards, and you always said that there are legends about you in our world, which definitely correspond to reality you lived in.”
I want to take your body, and you want to help me.Ironic, really.I would grin if I could.There’s too much inaccessible things to me that I would like to feel, that’s why I’ve long been thinking about how to finally seize that receptacle. And I'll pretend to be who you want as long as it is needed. I won’t repay good with good, no, that would be a mistake.Although, I wonder what Vasilisa would say on how exactly and how much I changed during this time?And does she know that I am alive, if finally I got lucky and came across the reality that’s parallel to mine?
“Emma, my darling, do you even know how to experience brain activity? I told you there was something about Snow White and the Queen in the book. Read it - and you would never find either Ivan, the son of tsar Vseslav, nor the daughters of Koschei, nor himself with his Sea Queen wifey. Although, on the other hand, no one knows what’s on the other side of the Infinite Forest…”
My mocking words were not particularly important to Emma, in any case, that was clearly unnoticeable.She didn't respond, continuing dialogue with the boy.He explained her exactly what kind of curse we are talking about.And it was clearly not mine.“Look at the clock,” the boy pointed to the tower, where the clock should've been hitting something around midnight long ago. “Time is frozen here. The Evil Queen did it with her curse. She sent all of the Enchanted Forest here.”“So, now I understand,” Emma put her hands on her hips and paraphrased. “The Evil Queen sent all the heroes of fairy tales that you told me about to this place?”“Yeah, and now they are trapped.”“Stuck in time and locked up in Storybrooke of Maine? Urban fantasy looks cool only in big cities, you know.”Sarcasm obvious feel I in the Force... But she is right - I haven’t heard of such spells.My wife could, knew and practiced to transform the dead into a living, to unwind time, or with the help of the mavka-navka, little magical fairy creatures, to collect magic and use it for whatever she wished to built.She also was quite good with fire and learned from her grandmother how to pick up soul-skulls and use them for magical purposes.But to clear the memory of all that people, not even for forever, when the cure is possible…This is either hopeless stupidity, or such conditions were written into the curse, that wasn’t written by the Queen.So, the point is - it was the writing of someone else but that Evil Queen.Approximately and apparently she’s called like that as I was called the Terrible once upon a time, yet never Dark, this is a slightly different level.There was no other choice, and if there was, then the achievement of the goal was more important.Although I can’t even imagine how much you must not want to kill your enemies, this Queen... Instead of simply turning the whole reality into Stone or something like that, as the Stone Princess once wanted to do, and she was the blood of Yaga’s blood. Yagas have protect the Reality because of that blood, so it wasn't really natuaral fro her to be that aggressive...That Queen bothered herself too much for petty avenge.Though, I think, the same thing guided the one who cursed my soul into this semblance of the Underworld.The Queen had not only the desire to make her enemies suffer, but had the desire to rule and entertain her Ego. After all, I, in all my loneliness, cannot be compared to a large number of people to fit the kingdom.“It’s true!”“So why don't they all just leave?” Emma tried to appeal to reason, while I was silent, thinking about what is happening.“They can not! If they try, bad things happen!”Henry also seemed to appeal to reason, but for Emma it was clearly not an argument, and the boy was not allowed to explain more.We were interrupted."Henry!" slightly bald ginger man with a dalmatian on a leash approached. “What are you doing here?” he looked at us with a worried look and asked Emma. “Everything is good?”“I'm fine, Archie,” the boy immediately started to stroke the dog, that showed his close acquaintance with a man who smiled uncertainly in the direction between Emma and Henry.“And who are you?”“I’m just bringing him home.”Obviously Emma didn’t want to make new acquaintances here, as well as I really wouldn’t want to, if it’s not so suspicious and not connected to fairy tales.Once I asked Emma to look for something from the history of the Russian lands. The search ended in folklore, and most of the adventures from fairy tales named folk or based on them were true, but incredibly distorted, and that probably happened with…Do I even believe it?!“She is my mother, Archie,” said the kid, solding out my darling Emma for nothing.“Not really,” Emma clarified and asked Archie. “Do you know about adoption?”“Ah, yes,” he let the dog off the leash and it came up to us, sniffed Emma's knee, and Swan immediately began patting it on withers. “He goes to therapy. I had to find out.”“Therapy? Kid, it gets harder for you to convince me, honestly!”“Convince you?” Archie looked at Emma inquisitively.“No worries, we both know what I mean!”Emma smiled awkwardly, winked at Henry, who wanted to answer, but realized that his mother had finally behaved like an adult who had learned a bitter experience and understood that the voice in her head was almost as serious as believing in a fairytale world, and very few of the “caring adults” will like it to such an extent that they decide not to do anything about it.“Oh, he told you as well!” Archie's face lit up. “So, what are you doing here?”“I am searching for his mother's house,” she shrugged and added. “I think you could tell me the address, or maybe you want to take him there yourself…”“Oh, no, no,” Archie’s smile became tense, as if he definitely didn’t want to meet that woman. "It’s on Mifflin Street, the mayor’s house is the largest. You’ll recognize.”“No matter who Henry’s mother is”, I told Emma in a casual tone, “she’s clearly no less annoying than her son.”“Mayor! His mom is a fucking mayor! She will put me in jail!” Emma panicked.She loves to panic in her own brain, especially when there is such a wonderful me, ready to listen, understand and forgive. For the time being, of course, but... Sometimes I even like it.
“That’s why we come, bearing the cake!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 3: Raspberry
“I found my real mom!” The boy screamed, twisting out of the arms of a beautiful dark-haired woman with tears in her eyes.And then the boy tried to rush past the sheriff into the house.“Stop!” Emma was fast to react.And I grumbled with contentment something like "idiots need to insert their brains back into their skulls immediately after the shit they did."Not only the mother of the boy and the Sheriff, who was looming at the door like an uncertain shadow, were surprised at this roar, but Emma herself. The boy turned and walked in the opposite direction from the door, back to Emma.“What’s happening?” his mother asked my ward.The Mayor wore a power suit or dress or whatever they call it, and the expression on her face was identified by me as something that was characteristic of my wife when she tried not to hit me for that special kind of stupidity, which I showed her completely involuntarily sometimes.Well, it seems that all women with certain powers have this expression in active use.“Yes, Emma?” The boy asked.But we were in no hurry to answer, looking at the woman standing opposite, and as soon as one of the eyebrows of the mayor of this town crawled up, Emma shifted her gaze to too insubordinate son.“Are you all good with memory, kid?” Emma asked him gently, folding her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows. “Less than ten minutes ago, I told you what? Can you repeat? Start with the word "she", please.”“She is not evil …” the boy mumbled and looked up, waiting for something.“Further,” Emma encouraged him, although those who were looking at the boy at that moment would hardly believe that she was encouraging. “What did I say next?”“She is the person who became my family, when you were the very first evil in my life!”The boy sighed sharply and his face twisted sadly, but he still didn’t cry.The mayor and, concurrently the dear mother of this blockhead gasped and reached out to embrace her cub. He no longer resisted, although I bet that for some reason he was offended by his mother.Most likely, the thing was precisely that they were making him look crazy because of these fairy tales, and his mother was the initiator of the shrink campaigns.As for me, as long as he does not rush out of the windows, let him believe what he wants, even if it is flying spaghetti.“It's cruel!” Henry squeaked, hugging his mother.And he really understood why he was forced to say it, and it was precisely because he understood that, the original goal pursued by Emma failed. He did not cease to reach to us, not physically, but emotionally, he didn't stop it.“Why do you hate yourself so much?”“Oh, Good God ...” Emma rolled her eyes, and I’ve decided to remind her about the cake, so Emma only nodded her head in agreement and turned her face to the boy. “Go, better take what you left in the car.”Henry nodded grimly and dashed towards our Beetle full speed - his mother's hands only shrank in the air when she realized that she no longer hugs the little boy by the shoulders.She looked at Emma and smiled, though not really using her eyes in that smile.“She really is, like a son, good at pretending. From tears to a smile - and that's instantly. The best, isn’t she?” I drawled, even without expectations on any response from Emma, because she probably already made such a conclusion, but she nevertheless expressed herself.“And she definitely loves apples. Seriously?” Emma awkwardly sniffed. “I smell Montale, Sunset Flowers? Perfume with apple flavor? Well, at least we have the same brand of perfume, and that’s a start! And I thought I’d smell something more… complicated.”“I suggest you try the best apple cider in your life.” Mayor said in an absolutely urgent tone, and I was again convinced that powerful women in all worlds are equally peremptory.“I told you,” it is not quite clear for me why Emma cheered inside herself to such an extent that she even sincerely smiled at the adoptive mother of her biological son in response and added. “She is just an incredible fan of damn apples!”“Well, yes, but if they are not rejuvenating, then what's the point …” I wondered and Emma snorted at it, continuing to communicate with this apple-lady in the real world.“Thank you,” Emma smiled, as if she was high, while looking into the eyes of this woman, “Henry’s bringing a cake. It’s delicious.”“Cake?” the sheriff asked in surprise, already getting closer to the mayor. “In honor of what event exactly?”“And what, the day, or rather the night, in which I was lucky to meet my biological son, whom I gave up for adoption a decade ago, is not enough for you as an excuse?” snapped Emma.But then she wavered slightly, meeting the woman’s skeptical gaze, and waved her hand at her face in a denying gesture.“Okay, okay, it's just my birthday today. Henry rang the doorbell in the midst of my... ahem... celebrations, so to speak. I suggested that neither you nor I would want to end the conversation so ambiguously, and I simply wanted to offer to discuss what happened. Nevertheless, I would like to be sure that this will not happen again when I leave. I have a home, a job and a relationship in Boston. What happened today was a little unexpected, you know... By the way, I fed the kid tuna sandwiches with orange juice, no worries here?”Emma couldn’t say out loud what she told me after her little speech.
“And it would be good for my well being to clarify how exactly Henry was treated in this family, and whether it is necessary to save him from his environment. Anything might happen in this world - even the most pleasant people turn out to be maniacs…”
“She is, according to you, the pleasant?” I was surprised. “Rather, she is that kind of strict mommy, controlling everything and everyone …”“In my opinion, she is fully in line with her position,” Emma slightly closed her eyes and looked at Henry, dragging the cake and smiling slyly at something. The ice in the eyes of the Mayor somehow melted. “And you see that she loves him.”“Sheriff?” Henry’s mother addressed to the guy in an extremely hinting tone.“Ah, yes, I will go, I still have night shift, yes, ” he scratched his head and hurried to close the gate on the other side, finally looking at Emma with an odd expression on his face, but without saying anything.“Hmm,” Emma cleared her throat, drawing the attention of both Henry and this woman. “My name is Emma Swan. Nice to meet you.”“I am Regina Mills. Mayor of this town. I won’t pretend it's that nice.”
“Oh, her malice erupted, it is as funny as I thought that would be!”
Emma did not restrain a grin, my comment caused, and looked with kindness I never expected, into our new acquaintance’s eyes. But this prickly look was difficult to bear, and she decided to distract this negative attention from herself.“Henry, would you be able to eat the cake? Still, it’s night already, and you’ve eaten sandwiches.”“Of course I would, Emma!” the boy sound surprised. “I carried it after all!”Emma slyly turned this around - now the prickly look was on Henry, though that eyes fairly lost its’ intensity.“Mom, please!” he could not resist. “It smells great! And I'm very tired of looking for Emma in Boston, Mom!”“Indeed!” failed not to chuckle Emma.And it was funny, because the kid still carried out her request to sit for a slice of cake with a member of his family.She took the cake from the boy's hands in order to immediately put her nose in the cardboard box in which this work of culinary art was located."There is a special magic of friendliness and forgiveness in the cakes. And yes, it’s raspberry. Do you like raspberries, Madam Mayor?”“Magic?” Regina's eyes widened.And I suddenly realized that she had shaken unreasonably at the word, but then she stopped short and answered the question.“Please, enter the house, miss Swan. I don’t mind raspberry.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 4. Another Tactics
 The raspberry cake had an extremely positive impact on the mood of a woman who initially was absolutely not happy with us.Well, I’d have said, Emma and I never pushed it and demonstrated her our lack of claims. I don’t mean we wouldn’t try it in the future if anything dangerous for the kid would come out, but we had no moral high ground to do that right now.The adoptive mother of our biological son never asked the question about why Emma abandoned the child in front of said child, but that didn’t mean she never wanted to.Because of the late hour, the boy went to bed almost immediately following the second slice of that marvellous cake with the middle layer of raspberry and the top layer of buttercream with crumbled almonds.I had no idea what gods managed to invent that recipe, but that cake was a little masterpiece.Somehow Emma is capable of networking, if she is willing to. That was her ex’s sweet bakery. And they broke up without any drama, still seemed to be friends and congratulated each other with all holidays they could remember, except St Valentines.Something subtly changed in Regina Mills as soon as Henry disappeared on the second floor. He was sure that everything would be quite calm between his adoptive and biological mothers.Personally, I thought that any mother who dared to abandon the child has no right to interfere further.Just once I hinted to Emma about my real opinion, that was right after she had already repented of her deed. Unfortunately, I cannot remember either being in prison with Emma or giving birth, or how exactly she decided to abandon the kid. Well, I can’t say I didn’t warn her before I finally managed to leave her…The moment was awful for her, as I understand it now.But… Well, I warned my dearest idiot a hundred times about the fact that my radar goes off, no, not just goes off, it fucking yelled like cat whose balls got pulled by someone! And that cat-radar-thing was always on when her new acquaintance, and then the guy she slept with was nearby.I already didn’t give a shit how exactly she was ruining her life, because those days I thought that the faster her body would die, the sooner I could leave to capture some real hero.Actually, I would not be very comfortable being in her body as a full owner, with all that complications and even without fully awakened magic.Better let her die, I thought, poor kid, because there are people who are rubbish and many more are just sluggish.Well, magic can be awakened - such a surprise really! - in the magical places of power and with the help of a trusted person. And the last one was the greatest problem in that realm.There’s one more option.There are always more options than one, but it hardly helps sometimes.The bearer of magic should be engaged in deliberate suicide attempts with the participation of complex magical enemies, which is not entirely possible here either - the world is ordinary, it seems, not magical, like, at all!And I must admit, I expressed everything I thought about Swan’s stupid teen acts almost as soon as I returned to Emma after our short separation. Not even as a consequence of said separation, but during which she managed, first, to get into an FBI investigation, secondly, get pregnant.Anyone might ignorantly ask, how that was even possible, if Emma dates women?And, well, it’s not even a question, because she’s not exactly into girls. To be honest, Emma was not heterosexual even in her snotty youth, nor was she a lesbian, no matter how my outlook influenced her emerging character.She was very rarely interested in the sexuality and even the appearance of her intended partner, if we are talking about stable canons grafted by society. It was the pansexuality in such a manifestation that was not very good for Emma herself.That was because Emma had lots of complexes, with which I didn’t seem necessary to fight for the most part, and that shit set the bar low enough for her partners and, accordingly, downgraded Emma herself. It is logical that for me it was oh how profitable, that lack of self-esteem, but sometimes I wanted to bring up a real hero from the canon of a fairy-tale genre, like most princes from classic fairy tales were.But, I'm afraid, the reality wasn’t quite disposed to ensure that I educated Emma for real. And I never raised anyone in any of my lives, I usually had to wait until some major heroism in adulthood, staying somewhere on the sidelines, just looking at the life of the hero and arising in time, but Emma was the case that was even more interesting, than when I ended up in Naruto.There was just a simple demon there, in the only reality in which I captured the body of the child, and that demon who was planted inside the poor child had nearly crushed my very essence with all his might.By the way, it was then that I made it a rule not to touch children and their formation as heroes, because you never know what might occur.At the same time, my, in some way, rapprochement with the ward of mine was due to the fact that my heart wasn’t hardened enough, and I never saw anything special in it - to reassure the little girl, who was paying me back with crumbs of the magic, which she periodically threw out.And that gave me the opportunity to gain mobility and dump that relationship to hell. I was hoping to wait until the child would get tired of playing oh so independent lady and fulfills certain gestures conceived by fate, as I hoped would be better than just a mere non-magical world with lack of high-tech as well.Of course, it never reached extremes, but to have something intimate with that asshole… The one I would approve only in a hospital bed, and that setting would’ve happened by combining my fist with his jaw. I told her to punch his pervert balls right after the very first meeting with him.Oh yes, it was the highest degree of the very self-deprecation inherent in Emma in her early years.Yes, and do something in defiance - we obviously can do it, we definitely know how, so we practice it, hell yes, Emma Swan.Although, as I’ve already said, everything that my ward creates before his or her heroism is, more often than not, what brings him or her to this heroism. Information, so to speak, is time-tested and the number of repetitions is remarkable.So, the face of Regina Mills subtly changed as soon as Henry went out of sight and hearing. She rose from the table and motioned for Emma to follow her.“Cider,” the woman lightly poured alcohol into glass cups, but I whispered to Emma that we need to defuse the situation somehow. “You are welcome.”“Do you want me to stay overnight?” Emma grinned, sipping a drink.“What do you mean?” Regina looked at my ward with quite perceptible hostility. “I don’t think that you will spend the night in this house.”“Whatever.” Emma almost chugged the entire glass, oh so kindly filled by the foster mother of her long-lost son.I barely felt the taste, because I was absorbed in analyzing the woman’s reaction to Emma’s words.“I just drank alcohol, and if you are a hospitable hostess, you are unlikely to expel a person into the night, and expect that person to drive along some dark slippery road after the rain in state Maine…”“There is a hotel in the town,” Regina shrugged, barely holding her palms - they seemed to tremble, I think, in order not to throw all her cider out of her glass into Emma’s face. "The hotel is pretty close. And the rain has never melted people in that region of the US. My hospitality has it’s limits, so…”The last phrase sounded so threatening that Emma flinched. She even took a half step back, but there was something for her to find out from Regina.Therefore, my ward threw away the vague sensations whispering about the imminent danger to both of us, and changed the subject, making an offer that was hard to refuse.“Madam Mayor, may we finally finally discuss what happened to Henry?”“Let's go to the office, Miss Swan, we'll talk there. But it seemed to me that you have no right to care…”The woman inquisitively looked at Emma, after suddenly turning around. She was about to put my ward in a very much awkward position.Swan’s eyes found something to watch out for when such a gorgeous woman was climbing the stairs, and it was not so easy for Emma to pretend that she was looking a little higher than Regina’s loins, and not lower.“No, of course not,” Emma rejected any accusations, “I just do not want that to happen again, only next time might be much worse. You know, I can imagine what’s happening in the mind of an adopted child. Unfortunately.”“Have you been abandoned?”"She’s not familiar with the word “tactfully”" I stated, and Emma sighed agreeing that way with me and having no coherent thoughts on the matter.“And I was not so lucky with my parents as Henry.” In one breath said Emma and conciliatory shrugged before entering the office at Regina invitation gesture.“What do you mean, Miss Swan?” Regina said with obvious curiosity.And that was said exactly for the maintenance of the conversation, because she probably wasn’t interested in anything of the life of the person she merely despised, no matter how she tried to cover it with indifference.I felt it in my guts."Have you been abandoned for several times instead of one?"“You …” Emma sighed abruptly and stumbled. “You are amazingly ingenious, madam mayor.”“Usually, if they take the child, they can give it away, ” Regina shrugged her shoulders and opened the door. “We went through the procedure of full adoption. And you did not want contact. And you have no right to demand it.”“I demand nothing,” Emma walked into the room and sat down on the sofa near the coffee table. "It’s Henry who demands. I think that one of his whims can be fulfilled by you and me both. It’s easy to be disappointed in me in a couple of days, and I will hardly be here any longer. It’s quite a sober assessment of my qualities, you know. He has the right to believe that I just never needed him, and because of this I put him into adoption. Roughly speaking, this is exactly what happened.”“Hmmm …” the mayor put down her glass of cider and slightly tilted her head to the side. “It will be easier for me if you tell me the details. And I myself will assess whether Henry should know that details. Do you agree?”“If ...” Emma jarred, and she remembered my characterization of this controlling Madame, and then continued to speak out loud, “You really need this so much, huh? Control over his life...”“You may not understand this, Miss Swan,” I traced an undoubtful grin in her tone “But this is a necessary maternal care, until he grew up. You do not have the slightest right to get into our lives. And if I'm still going to give you …”“Uh, no,” Emma twisted her index finger in a negative gesture, interrupting Regina. ”It doesn't work that way. I told you that the boy himself wants it. And if he's half as good as I was at his age, and at the same time he’s so sure of himself that he found me contrary to common sense, then he’ll do what he wishes. I think with Henry, Madam Mills, just like with me, you’d need a slightly another tactic.Mayor Mills was barely holding back the facepalm.Or maybe not a facepalm but a facefist to Emma’s face, really.My beloved ward sometimes seemed to possess a very thick bone in the area of the frontal lobe.Of course, we didn’t have the right to intervene in the life of the kid, but in order to understand at least something of what actually happened in the boy’s life, it is quite necessary not to engage in prohibited stalkering, but to agree on any terms of the real mother of our child. So that the child would Not decide that the whole world is against him and would Not run off somewhere else, not to Emma, but to a much less secure environment.The result was supposed to be, like, the Mayor Mills need to have that feeling that all she had to do was just to suffer this crazy woman a little, I mean, Emma and I as I am crazy of her woman or something, and then after that little bit of suffering everything will be fine.And, of course, Swan masterfully turned the situation around, and if it were not her son’s fault, I would even be proud a bit.
“Listen, swan. Do you think that if a boy is exposed to something like domestic violence… would he have a hard time?!”
“She doesn’t look like a person who’s able to beat a beloved child, presumably, for his own good,” digging deep into the nature of relationships of this kind, but at the same time being extremely sarcastic, said Emma and added. “I always hear when you call me a bird. There is a certain difference in the translation of your thoughts into mine, I hear something like Swan the Bird, I told you already. And warned that I did not like it!”“Yes, of course,” I grinned, “there are no other problems except for discussing nicknames. In which, I note, again, my cygnet, I’m gonna call you as I wish because you can’t run away from yourself...”
“Shut up. I pray thee, I am both fuckin’ funny and want to swear. She will not understand if I don’t keep my face neutral!”
“Well, then keep it.” I advised, and yet I fell silent, as she asked.Next five minutes were like…In the real world, a whole epic of verbal struggle unfolded for the right to be in this glorious town.Emma was sure of what she was going to do and claimed that she was not going to get involved either in the relationship between her son and his other mother, or in the senseless and merciless altercations about whether he could be in her company at all.She simply stopped the bickering - Regina Mills started it actually at the time of our inside dialogue, disguised as reverie in the reality. The mayor felt some detachment in Emma's behavior and decided to seize the moment.“You have no right to tell me how to behave with my son! You recklessly abandoned Henry in the past, and whatever your reasons, you have no right...”“Wait a bit, I just care for the boy!” Emma allowed herself to interrupt this stream of polite translation of obviously obscene thoughts and continued, under the scornful gaze of Regina Mills. “Yes, it turned out that I had to give him up for adoption. There are times when you need to decide the better course. And after seeing where he is now, I still think that it was better “Aha, girl, you caress her ego, keep it up, the corners of Mills' lips just started in a smug grin, but I noticed.“I’m not trying to re-establish a maternal connection with him, Madame Mills. Understand, I did not come here myself - this child brought me to your town. And I would very much like, first, to understand why that happened and, second, honestly, it frightened me that he went so easily and naturally to look for me in Boston! Damn Boston, Regina! Boston is in another state since 1820 for fucks’ sake!”“I think that I’m quite able to convince my son not to do this in the future... And I’m quite able to make you go back to where you are from and tell my, ” she emphasized again, as if we hadn’t said anything here before on this account, “son, so that he no longer seeks to meet you, because you don’t want it. After all, you really do not need it, Miss Swan. What is this all for?”“I think you don’t quite understand that he shouldn’t feel betrayed again. Yes, you are unlikely to meet me again if you do this, but... ahem... the child will not be easier, I assure you. Instead of driving him to therapy, you could’ve…”“How do you know about therapy?!” the mayor snapped to a harsh tone, and Swan soothingly raised her palms in a sign of surrender to the mercy of the enemy.“Oh darling, calm down! We just met Archie on the square in front of the clock tower - an evening walk with the dog, and it became clear that Henry went to the sessions for him just after a minute of observing their communication!”“All right,” the fists of this woman were already unclenched, but we were a little wary because of that breakdown - you never know, would these failures to hold her anger also extend to Henry? “What did you want to say?”“You can just solve the problem, and not analyze and pick it out. This is exactly what any psychotherapist does when the patient has no desire to get rid of the problem. And Henry obviously has no such desire. He is a fighter. Does not run.”“He does not run?” Mayor slightly mockingly looked at Emma, waiting for clarification. “What are you talking about?”“Henry found me, didn’t run away from certain doubts. He may think that he may not be needed. Even if he is hiding behind these fairy tales, he simply had to change something in this life, to make sure that he was needed. That is what I understood from his speeches on the way to this town, and you know …”“Stories?” Mills alerted, interrupting my ward. “What stories?”“The boy is kinda addicted to classic fairy tales.”Emms kinda told the truth but I really saw it differently, and well I really thought to stop her because that controlling mommy might dispose of such info the way it might hurt the boy.“It’s no big deal” she continued. “Say all thanks to the Universe, he’s not following the comics and the anime. You see, believing in Snow White singing songs with birds and bunnies is much better than believing in punishing villains in the name of the Moon or Dr. Strange and all that I am Batman business…”“Hmmmm” visibly discouraged by Emma’s joking attempt, the mayor decided to pay attention to the obviously familiar name - and I really don’t know if there are people who don’t know that name. “Snow White? How is she... I mean, how is Snow White from a fairy tale related to Henry's behavior?”Emma let pass that slip and I didn’t really pay attention to that either, but Regina’s fists clenched again for a few seconds.
"An odd reaction. Hates fairy tales much? Realist to the bone? Would break you on the wheel for your love of Harry Potter books? Any of these explanations is complete nonsense, but something alerted me all the same. And so far I do not know what, but I am going to find out… Though, probably it’s just boy’s fantasy. She might be just an ordinary woman, even though the mayor. And Henry can just invent a fairy-tale world for himself. After all, this world really differs little from previous worlds like it in magical content, as far as I could find out. There are places - and nothing more. But it wouldn’t hurt to go to the local cemetery and check the background; it can even turn on the absorption of magic, if there is something special we can find, Emma.”

“Hey, slow down, old man! We're not going to stay here for long, are we? Or do you think something has changed? Make sure that she is not crazy or psychic, and go home.”

“Yes, Emma, yes. I'm just thinking.”

“Make your thoughts a bit quieter!”
She didn’t hold a displeased grimace under the mask of calm that she had previously held, and therefore the mayor slightly changed her tone to a more oppressive one — it was a natural reaction.“You know, Miss Swan, for some reason I don't care much for this other tactics of yours already. Because this is my son. And I know what he wants. Always knew.”“And I know what teenagers are thinking about, ” Emma objected tiredly and rolled an empty glass in her palm. The hint was understood and Regina, with a theatrical sigh, poured them one more portion of her cider. "This particular teenager is still worthy of not thinking that he's not needed. It’s the least I can do for you.”“For us? “ Regina was as surprised as I was, but I would wait for Emma to explain, but this woman was less patient. “What does that mean “for you”? For me and Henry? Or just for me? I don't need anything from you!”“For you.”Emma looked into her eyes, and I suddenly realized that I feel heat, spreading in my chest and getting to my throat. And Emma cannot suppress a half smile when she realizes how her body reacted to this piercing and even evil look while she was saying such intimate words to the other mother of the child.“Because you were the one who gave him a better life than I could ever give. I can't thank you in any other way. It seems to me that giving the boy what he wants is the least I can do to improve your relationship. He may not understand, but he began to look for me because you are probably a busy person, you probably forbid him something and definetely control him. And that's fine. And at this age, rebellion is also normal, it just forms character. And now it seems to him that I can be... I don’t know, something better? He idealizes me, and that's okay too…"“What are you, a shrink?" Mills wedged into the pause and grinned at her assumption. “Not likely.”“No,” Emma did not restrain a giggle.And their eyes met again, and I suddenly was made aware of how Emma feels, it was always when feelings just went beyond ordinary, but I felt, of course, less than Emma herself.“I am a bounty hunter with childhood, directly related to the adoption system. Psychologists in my life are... more than necessary.”“And you grasped their shtick, ” Mills nodded.To that my ward only snorted and then the pause descended upon their conversation until mayor snapped.“Pardon me, but I’d like you to finally speak out, Miss Swan.”“I just... It’s not normal that he's becoming distant from the closest person in his life. He might lose his shit when he grows up a bit and he’d always have the feeling he’s not needed. Since you are unlikely to be removed from the post of mayor, you will still solve the problems of the town, not the problems of the child. Simply feeding and clothing - never enough, you know. You can get into a bad company, accidentally commit a crime... Or not accidentaly. But I believe in your prudence. And I still ask you not to put pressure on the kid, he is already having a hard time with this truth about me. Especially, when that truth he doesn’t even know, he does not know the whole story, Madam Mayor. And, I assure you, in this case, forcing him to stop communicating with me will be an achievement of only a short-term goal.”“It won't remove the problem,” Regina looked somewhere over the top of Emma's head, wondering. “Oh, well. You… I believe there's need in your... Another tactics."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 5: The Night
Spending the night in the backseat of our Beetle is not something to expect from a seemingly normal ending of the evening with a relatively pleasant conversation with the mayor of a small town in the wilds of Maine, is it?As a result, Emma and I - she’s a little tipsy, and I’m a little discouraged - we are going on sly through the town. It all seems suspicious, you know. When Regina Mills subtly asked if she should worry about Henry's father, I literally forced my dear ward to say that she could call the boy's father if this a little bit imbalanced woman would like so.Sometimes Emma can be a huge slowpoke when it comes to such a long con, like the one I thought of, making this Mills think that Emma can still somehow claim to be Henry’s mother, despite all our assurances that this won’t happen.After all, if Mills does not twitch, then all our stay here really ends extremely unproductive and quickly. Emma won’t stay if she feels the kid is loved.True, Emma very much regrets putting the kid for adoption, but it was too long for us not to cope with her self-blame much earlier than the kid showed up.So, on the part of Emma, Regina never really had a problem, and we would quickly ride back to Boston, regardless of the strange town and its inhabitants, and I urgently needed to come up with something to keep us here for a longer time.A confrontation with the adoptive mother of this tiny piglet, who, by a misunderstanding, considers himself our son, would be reason enough for Emma to stay. She is a keen and stubborn person.Here in this town I need time to find my salvation from being only nearby the body of my ward, because I don’t really want to kill her if that heroism I've been waiting for begins.Well, I just could not wait for twenty eight years of her life for it to begin but…Everything is too strange, because I definitely remember, and Emma just didn’t yet add the pieces to the puzzle.The little Us happened to be found in this particular area in the state of Maine.As soon as it reaches Emma’s dimwit brain, it will be even easier to convince her to stay here, leaving her not quite miserable life in Boston and moving into these still waters with magical stink.After all, I still feel this...Not just some obscure strangeness of this town, I kinda recognized something dormant and at the same time immensely familiar.I felt it a long time ago while in my travels as still a disgraced prince I wandered into the City of Masters on the border with the Infinite Forest and couple of Distant Kingdoms.It housed a rarely used portal supposedly leading to other realities and parts of the world, but usually it was connected to the Tower of Silence, which was used at that time to expel those who had problems with those who were in power in my realm. That tower actually belonged to the Princess Nesmeana, the One Who Never Laughs, the great grandmother of mine, The Immortal Stone Princess.She was called such a nickname in ancient times, when the curse of the Stone Heart was in action and it fettered her feelings, when she was the sovereign of the Dark Forest, she was the daughter of one of the ancient Yaga and the strongest witch of her time, and of mine too actually.By my time she had already settled down and turned soft, it became possible when she returned her fiery heart and felt the heart-ache for the first time in hundreds of years. That story is long and I don’t have much to say about it, I was not there and I did not eat bread there, as they say in The Thirty Realms. [Authors Note: that’s the saying you say if you want to admit that you have no idea what you’re talking about but you still try. It’s related to the other saying that shows that you’re going to tell something that’s hard to believe in but you still try. “I certainly was there, Mead and wine I drank, I swear; Though my whiskers bathed in wine, Nothing passed these lips of mine.” ]That blood relation to the Princess, by the way, once upon a time allowed me to positively participate in the skirmish that was extremely profitable for me at that time and also allowed me to receive the support of the City of Masters in my claims for throne in the Distant Kingdoms.I managed to save those who were in opposition to the acting regional government of one of sovereigns, they still existed those days.It was from the City of Masters that my conquest began at the time...Meh. Well, this is not what I’m talking about right now.The city of Masters was at the crossroads of worlds and, as we the poor inhabitants of a world without magic say, it was more magical than real. Here everything seemed diametrically opposed, although in its own way similar - the fairy tale was only in the air, and now it wasn’t so unattainable to get to Magic.The portal to the Tower was through the well, and I never tried to go to other worlds - I had other things on my mind, but it is worth looking for something similar to that well here.Here's the problem - as long as I'm so tightly attached to Emma it's just hard to do. And the last time I separated from her …First of all, everything did not end too well, and I still think that partially I was to blame for what happened with that jerk Neal and with that giving the child up thing. After all, if I had not disappeared for such a long time after she fell in love with that dull dude …And I would not have disappeared if it weren’t for that very “second of all”, which goes after “first of all” by the default.Second of all, I tried to seize Emma’s body. As you can see from the result, I did not succeed.I remember, it was also a restless and half-drunk night …***“Well, hello, Emma,” I said to Swan, who had not yet realized anything, while she peered into my eyes with all curiosity she had in her and tried as if to absorb my face in her memory.“Hi ... You are ... Old man, right? Don’t look like the old one. Why you never correct me if you look like thirty years old? Where are we?” she bombarded me with questions, looking around, but I looked at her point blank until she finally stopped talking and looked back, asking the most important one. “Why are we here?”A green steppe stretched around us, an almost boundless and life-giving plain, familiar to me from times of travel and conquest.The steppe united three states - the Golden, Silver and Bronze Realms. Where the Three Wise Lady-Sorceress ruled since time immemorial, and that land was called Wonderful, because their castles were - one’s more beautiful than the other and besides in the colors inherent in the name of each kingdom. And in the castles those were gardens of magical plants. And in the middle of that steppe was the source of healing water, it was also called the Death Water.Quite a tidbit, if you look at it like that... Meh, wasn’t going to go there now.
“Because I'm sick of enduring it.”
I came closer to her, without meeting the slightest resistance of the surprised girl, and put my hand into her chest, squeezing the pulsating heart with the usual gesture.She looked back with pain and incomprehension, so vaguely familiar and unpleasant to me, that I decided to remain silent and finish it as quickly as possible, tugging at the focus of her power.The next moment I was blinded by a bright light, and the steppe turned around, then whitish magic began to shimmer, cast in gold, but cold...And then I discovered my spirit, barely dense and quite visible, outside of my girl’s sleeping body.Next to Emma, Neal Cassidy slept, whom I hated with every bit of my soul, because it was because of him that I made the decision.She wasn’t even eighteen yet - it was not by my rules.She should’ve never fallen in love so much.My reaction even reminded me of some kind of irrational jealousy. Irrational because I was dead for a long time and never even supposed to respond to the romantic relationship of my, let's say, random transit point, but no, I was ready to devour her and kill her just because of that relationship.It would be extremely strange if it weren’t for the constant vague feeling that slipped into me gradually…I had to prevent the continuation of that relationship, because I was seized with fear every time I imagined that I’d stop playing the primary role in her life, she would gain more power and get rid of me.And now she knows that I am not her friend anymore, and I don’t have much magic left.I touched her forehead and measured exactly half of the remaining mana on the spell.The condition is…

She will remember only when she finds true love and a dear soul in the world, which is saturated with magic no less than my own, and will share the kiss of true love with that person.

It will never happen, will it? Indeed, in this world there is almost no magic.My limbs grew dim, and I became fully disembodied again.But it's worth it - I now have where to come back.And now I’ll let her be alone.Now she remembers only that we shouted at each other, and I left her, promising to return someday.And I came back when she called.And then, too, was the night.That night Henry was born.“His father’s name is John,” Emma said, noticing me behind the midwife who was holding the baby — I was only visible to her, and she looked into my eyes with regret and pain, so that my heart would have sank in if I had a the body and the heart. “John Oldman.”“You screwed up my name,” I said and smiled like I shouldn't have smiled.I looked at her face with an undoubtedly noticeable painful tenderness I felt, and she smiled encouragingly at me - even now she remained the same Emma, whom I would never touch or try to do what I did, my baby Emma, whom it was impossible not to adore.And I touched her cheek.She began to cry, still smiling shyly, and she snuggle up to my hand, forgetting that I’d been dead long ago, and the child had been taken away - I had not even looked in his direction.
“Honey, hush. Hush, do not cry. We'll figure something out. We always come up with something.”
“I gave up the kid,” she whispered. “I didn’t think you’ll appear. Together we could've come up with something.”“I also didn’t think I’d appear,” I touched her forehead with my lips and then pressed my palms to her cheeks, looking into her dilated pupils. “Take me back again. Forgive me. Is he already impossible to?..”“Impossible,” she closed her eyes and began to cry softly again, barely sobbing and swallowing tears.I hugged her and disappeared again, losing my freedom.Before that I looked through the prison hospital window.There was a moonless night

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 6: The Flesh
 “Ems,” I called. “Do you remember how he was born? And why?”“I could’ve listened to you, and he wouldn’t be born,” she stopped the car and told me. “I don’t regret. Now - just not anymore. Where next?”
“Come on. It is in the forest.”
So we did.At that moment, when we reached the well - I almost knew that it would be a well, because it was like that in the City of Masters - we saw the clouds gathered over the city. Such clouds promised to give out more rain, perhaps in the morning.The moon looked out the darkness in the sky and illuminated Emma, who was already peering inside the well.I caught a glimpse of water.
“So what?”
“Now,” I separated from Emma, not without effort and spending a lot of energy on it, but I did. "Hello, darling."She silently looked at me for the first few seconds - in her eyes I saw disbelief at first, then timidity, and then she tried to bury her face in my neck, but I held her back, putting my hand into her chest.“What? ..” She looked blankly at what I was doing, and sighed, her hands on her hips. “Well, you’re such a shit, you could just say that you’re still intangible!”“Well, at least you can hear me in the real world,” I moved my fingers between her ribs, making her giggle. “What?”“You like touching my guts, you know. It’s certainly unpleasant, but it was just ticklish.”“Ticklish, well then…”I remember the last time I tried to pull out her heart, and it seemed to me quite likely that now, if I try to do the same, there will also be a surge of magic that I could use to wake up this source.I won't even have to kill her then, will I? I’d just use magic, become denser and find my way back, then I will return at the time of my first death - this source is capable of such a travel, I can feel it!And it won’t be that far to search for the healing water and the life-giving water, because if my spirit shall fall into that world of mine, half the work will be done.It’s settled, I’m gonna try then.Well, in other worlds, if you take the first few of my migrations, gaining density due to the magic of the carrier of my spirit always worked, but unfortunately I always kinda died when my original bearer died, and then I finally got tired of losing so much time and moral strength on so that this very bearer would find a place from which it would be possible to feed off to such an extent, and then that bearer should not finish himself off with his own heroism to live and let live.But now I'm going to use this portal, and the smack of the magic of this place reminds me of my world and, I think, has some connection with it.And this is logical - There are fairytales about me in the ordinary world, aren’t they?“I’ll try to attack you right now,” I warned her.And she cringed with all her body, but so far her gaze expressed a lack of understanding and a desire for me to explain everything to her in more detail.“You will release a response magic, it’s going to work by itself, it will be an instinct, and then I will use it to awaken this source at least for a while. I think it’ll work out, because your magic is strong enough, and this town already displayed enough about its magic … and if you want to feel dramatic, its fairy nature."“So it's all true?” She spoke softly, and it made me frown. “Attack. Do what it takes for you... I want you to be alive, old man.”“Do you have any idea how it sounds?” I grinned. “Still, you are the hero as expected, so sick in the brain, my lil' birdie.”“You helped me with your presence, old man,” she wiped a tear from her cheek.I slightly tilted my head to continue to look into her eyes, I studied her and still couldn’t understand why she respects me so much, even when it’s understandable that if I hadn’t left her alone with that jerk Neil, nothing would’ve happened.“And now you will help even more. You reminded me of that day not in vain.”“What do you mean?” I frowned and a moment later identified the very transformation of Emma, which I cannot stand - from a gentle bird with wet eyes to a cunning little monster.She smirked just like I do — I saw that grin so many times in the mirror, in every life of mine.“If you’ll be alive, I’d be able to introduce you to her as his father. You are John Oldman, haven't you forgotten?”I silently and almost definitely viciously pulled her heart towards myself and again felt the helplessness that had befallen me when I did it the very first time.Me and this magic, which I had - because I was ready - to begin to absorb, was thrown right into the well.The water enveloped me with warm magic, and the light that Emma’s heart threw out finally merged with the sleeping magic of a local source.I knew what to do.It was the magic of legends, the one that pervaded my home world, the one that could fulfill any wish without even asking for an immediate price, as any of its extant conduits would do.And I decided, oh yes, I immediately decided what I’ll ask for.But it was already asked for me and made a wish for me - and it was the mistress of that magic.Emma enshrined me in the flesh.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 7: Father
I frantically clutched at the edge of the well and pulled myself up so that in the next moment the elbow of my other hand was completely outside, just like my probably unusually tense face was.However, I had to unexpectedly swim in the musty water of a well because of some incomprehensible magical perturbations that occurred a little earlier, when I had already tried once to climb up.Literally snorting the dirt out and at the same time conjuring up decent clothes with my thoughts, I completely pulled my body onto the edge of the well and then sat down on it to look at what I would step on before lowering my legs to the ground.Magic is magic, but a stone in the heel is not very pleasant to get - I’m bare feet now, I always had problems calling the whole set at the same time, for some reason I separated clothes and shoes in my head, oh well…My thoughts were interrupted by weird ohs and ahs, the sound of Emma's voice and other feminine one I did not recognize.But then I identified the sound of a burning fireball - it appeared in the palm of Regina Mills, as I managed to notice when I froze like a rook under her stern look.I knew that something was wrong with her!Although somehow, in principle, everything's just not right.Now it’s day and it was night!We were alone in this forest with Emma, and now there is a whole delegation here, moreover consisting of people I don’t know at all. In general, a strange scene appeared before me, and frankly, what was going on gave me a feeling of being all sorts of stoned.The woman seemed quite fresh and self-confident only a couple of hours ago, even though she wept slightly at the time of the meeting with Emma and me. And now she was almost lying on the ground, leaning on a tree, while she successfully threatened me being in that position, but this didn’t cancel the presence of shadows under her eyes.Just as she did, some man unknown to me tensed, clutched at some vaguely magical cane, at the ready.This man stank of the Koschey Realm by a mile, but it was still muffled, otherwise I couldn’t ever resist and would’ve attacked - this is the first thing any king or self-respecting prince of my land must do with the undead, even such a prince long ago parted with the honor like I did.And that’d be okay if it wasn’t muffled for a reason.I simply couldn’t ignore the echoes of the deadly force, but no one seemed to notice this - they were staring at me only, even Emma, as if she didn’t recognize me.I looked around at all of those present, including a tall, long-haired girl, who was in the tight embrace of a pretty brunette with short hair.I got vaguely interested in a somehow familiar smack of magic of that tall girl.Also, I did not ignore the attention of the open-mouthed Henry, who clung to Emma.The boy looked somehow different than I remembered him.“Emma,” I frowned and focused my eyes on my ward.Thank Gods, all possible fights for the body shell won't be happening, the only success, and therefore I could relax in communication with her and even, perhaps, teach something good. After all, she’ll be able to share the magic with me, I already felt it in her, and the stronger she is, the stronger I will become.“What is this delegation? And what is Henry doing here?”I tried not to show emotion, but I couldn't help but chuckle, which somehow alerted Emma.Well my grin can't be that unnerving, can it?“Who are you?! “ Henry could not stand his own curiosity and in response to his question at once he received several reactions from the people present, which explained a lot to me in turn.“Do not talk to him!” Regina screamed, and then for some reason her fireball went out, apparently, she’s not quite good at magic, since she loses control that easy.“How do you know his name, answer me!” a girl with short hair ended a hug with her friend and pulled a sword in my direction.Where from did she get it?Although I myself could not refrain from answering Henry’s question, after all, Emma and I had long ago agreed on who I was for this boy, hadn’t we?What I didn’t know was that I should've kept silent and found out Emma’s reaction to my presence, as she stood, you know, opening and closing her mouth without any word.I thought she was so happy about the arrival of her permanent best friend, the dimwit swan, but no.But at that moment I knew nothing and, by clicking my fingers, I called alligator leather oxfords with thick soles into my hands, because I’d always preferred shoes with a small heel since my first life, there were simply no other high-quality boots.I’ve put my eyes on these shoes not that long ago, last month, when Emma surfed the web in search of a new leather jacket, the last one almost got shredded on a job.I got into them, stomped a couple of times and laced 'em up with the power of thought — I guessed the right size, thank the gods.Then I slightly bent my back to look into the eyes of the boy, which is why for some reason made Emma and everyone else twitching.So I simply said that cherished lie we had sort of prepared long before the night of my revival.“Henry, I am your father.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 8. Donkey
 I tackled the sword out of the hands of that miniature pixie-haired girl.She attacked me first and now she was pulling a bowstring with an arrow at me, while standing not far from Regina.Regina herself was barely keeping up, but all that standoff never mattered.I suppose they thought I’m stupid, because it’s a stupid thing to do...I didn’t direct the sword towards the girls attacking me, including Emma for some reason.I sent my swirling magic into steel and made the sword shine with holy flame. This holy flame worked nevertheless and it convinced me that there was a Koschey in front of me.The highest undead with the qualities and abilities of a living creature.The problem is - this Koshchey wasn’t related to me by blood, which is why all his thoughts in my direction would probably be far from beneficial to me.I personally knew only two of their kind, and the only one I personally had no problems with was Kashchei with whom we killed the previous one together, Uncle Chernomor, the brother of my father and the former Vojevoda, military commander of our kingdom.It’s hard to kill such a thing, but in order not to kill it, you have to try to imprison Kashchei in magical ice and constantly renew this magic. The key word is to imprison.Give him some pure water to drink and a handful of earth to touch, and all bets are off. That would bind you to that prison, the Koshchey would become quite insane and enraged if he leaves, I know that for sure, but it’s much better of a choice than becoming the new one. If only Uncle had any other choice than becoming that hated one undead. He did it to save me, after all, so we were at peace and I never was hard on his underlings if they weren’t putting my people in harm's way. I doubt this guy with a cane is as benevolent as my uncle.Kashchey was the most dangerous here, so somehow I considered him to be the only threat to me, but he never even tried to attack, he just watched me with his brown eyes. There was not an echo of his horrific magic, the one I sensed with all my nature, in those eyes.“You are behind all this shit, aren't you?” I said.I was speaking not too loud, for sure, but that was the first thing I ever said since their attack on me. That’s why all those present paid attention to what I told this Koschei and stopped their attempts to do whatever they were going to do.“Why can't you, fuckin’ Kosh, simply pine over gold and riches in your castle and never disturb other people? Either you wish for an unwilling lady to marry, or you need yourself a worthy student and perform a ritual with the heart of that student. My experience is quite disturbing, really. Dark magic seekers of your kind are quite disturbing, really!”“Kosh?” Emma asked, as always a fan of interrupting someone’s conversation that’s not quite related to her. “What the fuck is Kosh?”“Koschei the Immortal, Kashchey, Chahlik, Kosh, Koshmar. The last one in my kingdom was called Copperbeard, because in our family hair is either red or blond, and he is my uncle, by the way. So I know quite well how the magic of the dark sovereign stinks. Me and my Uncle killed one on our own, and my Uncle took this curse upon himself or it would’ve been me. So, no matter how you’re called here, I’ll cut you into pieces and shackle you in stone and ice, if you dare even move a finger against me. I’m strong enough, never worry.”“I see you for the first time, mister.” This man chose to play a normal human being instead of becoming the real him and starting their usual death threats to everything living. To be honest, it would untie my hands if he did that.“While it would be an interesting sight to see how you try to carry out this threat,” he smirked.“If you start something, then I won't hesitate to continue,” I said with that nostalgic evil grin on my face and continued. “The sacred duty of any living thing is to fight against the undead. The sword is in flames, which means I can’t be mistaken.”“Who are you?”Regina's voice sounded too tired and hoarse, and it made me turn to face her and even think about providing some kind of support. After all, it was she who was literally saturated with the magic of death, I felt it in the air.“How do you know Henry and ... Miss Swan?” she continued.“Finally, at least someone decided to talk, not fight!”It was hard to resist an awkward laugh, so I didn’t. Still, Emma was tense so I decided to tell her how much I’m disappointed.“By the Asure Stone, I was trying to knock some sense into your brain for half of your life not for nothing, Emma! Not for you to... ”“Who the hell are you ?!” Emma couldn’t stand it, interrupting me mid-sentence.“Is your memory failing you? By no means it was Rowling who came up with the concept of Obliviate, so... But for you not to remember me, someone needed to change all the damn memories! Everything was fine just yesterday…”“I don't know what you're talking about, you moron! You’re not anything to Henry and I see you for the first time! I just got out of the fucking world of fairy tales and yesterday I wasn’t even here! You're lying!” she shouted.“Well, well, well,” I was stopped by sincerity in her eyes and completely lowered the sword, it was highly unlikely that I’d put it into use.“Let's check something. I remember yesterday quite distinctly. Me and you, we arrived in Storybrooke yesterday together. A selfish eccentric kid named Henry decided to appear on the celebration of your birthday. So, we gave him a talk that he shouldn’t call his Mom evil, and that mother is not the one that gave him birth, but the one who raised him. Actually, that talk was mainly due to the fact that we were going to leave back to Boston a week later and weren’t going to stay here. After Regina kicked us out, we were definitely too buzzed to drive back. So we decided to take a walk to the nearest Place of Power, which this awesome Well turned out to be. I started to make fun of you, and you accidentally pushed me down, you stupid bird. And here I am, and you don’t remember a damn thing. Tell me at least what month is it? And who’s able to erase your memory of me?”“It’s not just her.”Regina went up to the aggressive girl who already lowered her bowstring but didn’t remove her arrow. She and Emma looked at each other, and she clenched her fists.“I don't remember you either.” Regina continued.I didn’t respond to this, looking at my ward with hope. As soon as I understand the timing of what happened, I might be able to restore it.“I came to Storybrooke over a year ago. And I never knew anything about any places of power!”I was silent for about a minute, but the usual grin crawled out onto my face by itself. I broke down and burst out laughing. I laughed in silence, that was secured by astonished, as I already guessed, fairy-tale characters, plus Henry.For quite a long time the boy just stood there and kinda silently absorbed our confrontation at first, then my threats to the local Kosh, and now there’s this ominous laugh. I’m such a good role model for young children, no doubt!“The only conclusive hypothesis is that I just crawled out of the well in another reality, where we simply didn’t know each other,” I said that after I laughed it all out. “Therefore, I should introduce myself. This knowledge might be useful to you, we ain’t strangers after all.”I laughed again, albeit on the remnants of the hysterical fun. I shouldn’t laugh, but cry. Without my Emma, her magic and support, I won’t be able to last long in my living form, and here, even if I feel Emma’s magic, we weren’t side by side for more than twenty years so that I can steal her magic without her noticing.“According to official documents, my name is John Oldman. According to unofficial sources, I’m Ivan the Talentless, ruler of the Stone Realm, heir to the Belogorie and protector of the City of Masters.”“First time I hear it,” Regina muttered. “Though…”“Though you never know what’s beyond the Endless Forest!” Kosh insinuatingly reminded us of his existence, waving his cane in the air. “That’s the place where the curse that I gave you takes its roots, Queen.”“Queen?” I smiled almost sincerely. “So you are the stepmother of Snow White from that book of fairy tales! At least in this fact the fairy tale doesn’t lie, if it’s true. I must say, you are very much humane, Queen. You just erased the memory and mocked them occasionally, as I get it.”Emma tried to say something but I shrugged it off, it wasn’t my Emma, after all, so there’s high probability she’d just say some shit I’d want to kill or pity her for it.“Of course, I don’t know what the essence of the whole mess was, but it was probably something no less fucked up than betrayal." I elaborated. "The half-brothers of mine, my father’s kids, once encroached on my future wife and true love.They left my deceased body to feed the crows, and I would have been dead if not for my best friend, who saved me. I caught up with them and dismembered them in response, and then delivered those pieces in a bag along with explanations of their actions to our father. He went ballistic, our father, never believed that I could justify my treachery, although it was a righteous revenge. I poured them with dead and then with the living water, the remnants of what saved me, and they both came to life. My father believed me, but lied, then he expelled me from our lands, he was just looking for a reason. The same father who promised to give me as a prisoner to Koshchey and his wife, mistress of the Sea and Lakes. The man made that promise even before my birth, so there’s nothing to be surprised at…In general, that’s why I am now only one of the heirs of the Belogorie throne, like many other glorious warriors of my kin. Though, the Asure Stone Realm rightfully belongs to me, so, if the portal in the tower of my great-grandmother is still working, I’ll probably travel there through the Well. I hope it’ll work out, this place is half-real and magical, so it must be easier somehow. Are there any magical forges here? Those will do too.”“I'm glad to hear, ” Regina understood the most important thing for herself and dismissed everything else I said, like it wasn’t important at all, “that no one changed my memories.”“I'm glad as well,” Emma assented, furtively glancing at Mills, or better say, at the Queen, and then I realized that the grin is on my face again.After all, I'm no saint. I couldn’t help but mock her."So, how is, by the way, since you're still here, your undoubtedly existing plan to conquer the local queen carrying forward, Emms? I remember that in the reality I came from, you drooled that much, we almost decided that it would be better to get out of town just then, until you started to develop something more than simple drool. So, I mean, you’ve been here for a year and you’re still not even in a relationship?!”“John!”“Emma?”“Regina!”“Mary Margaret?”“Mom!”“Donkey!”Yeah, I definitely did it.Despite the pleasure I received from the contemplation of these crimson, embarrassed and indignant faces, one cannot but admit that I, without any doubt, such an ass… of a donkey.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"That's how the Good won in Belogorie, and that's how I ended up not far from Emma when she needed it most," I finished a very lengthy and not to say overly truthful story about exactly how I managed to get acquainted with Emma from another temporal reality."That is, you are seriously saying that good wins this way?"That was a girl with a short haircut, who turned out to be Emma's mother, trying to clarify my life story for herself. She was now sitting in the arms of that very Charming Prince. The man had so far been stupidly silent after her kiss and strong hugs."Whoever wins is the Good," I shrugged and turned my face towards a choir sigh from several people present. "What is it?"Henry blinked dazedly, staring at me, Regina also kept up with her son, staring at me in surprise, well, the third sigh came from Emma's mother, whose name I caught very vaguely and was wary to repeat, so as not to make a mistake. Maybe I should wait for official introductions.You just told me that you were expelled from your home reality by your younger half-sister. The one who fell madly in love with a warrior who was almost the hundredth in line to inherit the throne. While you were the firstborn of the tsar and a hero? And you are calling them "the good"?! asked Regina, who is actually the Evil Queen according to the local classification. "The Good is kinda like...""I didn't call anyone good, it's just a saying," I interrupted her. "Good and evil do not exist at all, there are the living, the dead and those in between."I realized from their looks that only the local, as they say here, the Dark One understood me."As soon as I start thinking in terms of good and evil, I will immediately die of guilt and be buried under the yoke of self-searching. So yes, the good has won. I've never considered myself one of them good, you know. I was a hero, a savior and a warrior, yes, but not because there was some good, but because it was impossible otherwise. I am the great-grandson of the Stone Knyazhna, not a blissful optimist.""What does it mean?" Emma shook her blond disheveled head, seeming really discouraged. "How does the fact of your relationship with that queen of yours change the concepts of good and evil, or what did you mean at all?""Well, look," I decided to start from quite a distance, preferring not to notice that I was somehow oddly translated into English when I was talking about my great-grandmother's title. Probably, it's worth it starting to speak English on my own, and not using a translator spell, or it might get confusing... "My great-grandmother lost the lion's share of feelings because of the curse of the Stone Heart, which was cast by Koshchei of that time. Accordingly, even a kindred soul could not remove the spell from her. Only the already existing true love would have worked, well, or the last tears that became diamonds would be encrust in her heart, only she did not know this and therefore gradually went crazy.Under the spell, it becomes this, you know, bright blue color with rainbow flashes. This was reflected in the attire of all her descendants, by the way, those who have magic and her appearance, respectively. Do you think where from do I get these green eyes?Only a true Master could encrust her heart. In general, in ancient texts it was said not to encrust, but to polish. That's why she was still looking for a master and began to understand stones, both precious and magical, like no one else. This is exactly how the City of Masters was created, so that every master in any of the worlds and times that are close to mine would find a way there - all sorts of roads - and serve the Princess in getting rid of the curse. My great-grandmother was called many thing. Mistress of the Copper Mountain, Stone Knyashna, Never-Laughing, the Daughter of Yaga, the Stone Heart...At some point she went crazy, you know? I didn't believe it myself when I heard it from her, she's become so wise, though her sarcasm and jokes could curl your ears, honestly! And as a result, she almost destroyed the whole reality, including all the relatives and friends of that time Koshchei,  the one who was my wife's father, if anything. As soon as he found out about her plans, he immediately acted and brought those diamond tears into the hands of a true master. The boy managed to fall in love with the Princess's adopted daughter, and my great-grandmother was going to use the soul of this very daughter to revive the stone, polished by the Master. In short, the Master had to remove the overgrown stone and give time to revive the heart with a loving soul, and a child's soul is always loving... As a result, the girl ran away with that Master, taking the polished heart with her, the boy learned from Kashchei and Yaga that the heart needed to be encrusted with tears. And well, this was combined with the fact that the daughter of the Princess got killed by the order of the governor of the City of Masters when they realized that she was the daughter of the Princess.The master could do nothing but hope to get rid of that heart. He encrusted it with the tears of the Princess and left it on the girl's body. The princess felt grief and, according to an old prophecy, the Stone wept for life. And tears of True Grief have always been valued precisely for their healing properties. Everything ended well in total. By the way, I am a descendant of her own child - as soon as she got rid of the curse, it became possible to find a kindred soul and start a family...""So you're saying that your great-grandmother was kind of mean, but then she reformed?" Henry asked, though I noticed how all the adults, including me, looked at him oddly, surprised at such a simplification, probably. "Well, did I misunderstand?""She was cursed in her early youth," I made sure to make the explanation as simple as I could. "She only knew her mother's love and the pain of loss. She wasn't mean. Her father was of royal blood, but her mother was the yaga, and this is not the best union, even if it is a kindred soul...""How's that? It's a soulmate!" Emma's mother was surprised. "This is True Love!""Po-o-ower, just po-o-o-ower!" I drawled. "You seem to forget something about people, darling. What's with their True Love, if Yaga is such a witch who's supposed to devote her whole life to the forest, exploring the world of the undead and collecting skulls to control other humans and non-humans?Yagas are, of course, defenders of the living from the undead of the Dark Forest, but there is even a saying about this, if you're interested. The one who lives on the edge of the forest as far away as ever, will soon become an outcast in life and death forever. And it really is like this.We, like it is everywhere, have not that much of kindred spirits finding each other, ordinary people need to determine them in a particularly difficult way - with the help of fortune-telling, magic and other things. But after that, you always know if you meet. But there can be many kindred spirits, but true love is the one that you choose yourself. Otherwise, my friends, it simply does not work...So, what's that I was talking about?""Soulmates... Many of them?"Gold suddenly spoke up, it would be quite odd if I didn't remember his name. Though he was called either Rampel or Rumpel a few of times. I think, is also really necessary to somehow learn Koshchei's full name - it may come in handy."It contradicts everything I've learned in the last three hundred years of my life.""You mean non-life?" I grinned and shrugged. "Well, yes. We have come up with a bunch of ways to determine them, because when you live near bridges to the Underdark, where Gorynychs, Yudo and other evil spirits come from, there are never enough light spells, getting rid of curses without using mortifying water, and then life-giving one, yeah. And where else would you get the last ingredient, if not in the Dark Forest that is teeming with evil spirits. We determined about a dozen kindred spirits per person, this is kind of a studied fact. There's a matter of magical compatibility, and old lords like my great-grandmother cooperated and made it so that magic is now known to everyone in our reality. Another thing is that not everyone will develop it, but anyone will have enough power to find a kindred soul.""Complete nonsense!" Emma's mother exclaimed and squeezed her husband's shoulder with a sincere gesture, snuggling up to him as close as it did not disturb the psyche of little Henry. "We are the only ones for each other!""But you are not just kindred spirits, you are also True Love. You have the maximum magical compatibility with him, plus you also fell in love with each other, plus - I see a search thread that connects you. The spell is on the verge of darkness, using blood, actually. I wonder who put it on... " I looked significantly at Koshchei, who assumed a mocking look. "I didn't even doubt it. Is Emma's magical wretchedness also your doing? Or the reason for it is this world that rather needs magic, and she had to grow up in it?""What do you mean, wretched?" Emma glared at my face with a tenacious gaze. "I don't feel any wretchedness! Here, all in all, magic works strangely, or so Regina said when she tried to open a portal to expel the Wraith. And you know what. You're probably used to talking like we're friends. I don't think this should continue. It becomes very awkward, as if I really forgot you, and you're trying to help me remember.""N-yes? Well, whatever you want, it's quite convenient for me, and I don't see a problem," I raised an eyebrow mockingly. "About this Rave portal of yours, or whatever it is, we'll talk more, but about magic... My darling, your magic, whether in the past reality or in the present one, is like hammering nails with a microscope. There is no dark aspect, and this is generally unnatural. In reality, where I came from, it was me who balanced you in this regard. That's why you felt more or less whole and confident, these are my suspicions due to the fact that just a few minutes ago you stubbornly claimed that you never had any plans for Regina. I don't believe it, by the way, even if you hit me on the head, I don't believe it at all. Her cider, once again, is something for which it is worth at least making friends with her. But here...""Interesting," Henry's adoptive mother was already standing straight, hands on her hips and watching Emma with a grin. Emma's awkwardness was already palpable. "Miss Swan, is there something you want to confess?""No!" Emma snapped. "I do not know what he's talking about, and while I am very grateful for the rescue, but...""Rescue?" I seized this word, because for half an hour I had been languishing with the desire to find out why Regina reeks of a deadly curse and no one notices it. "Does this have anything to do with the welcoming delegation near the well?""Mom took some creepy magic off the well," Henry started explaining. "They put it on with Rumplestiltskin to prevent Cora from coming here. I didn't believe they would lose, and they beat Cora! I was right!""Well, if anything, I also bumped into your dark spell from below, but I didn't realize that I bumped into it, I was just a little stunned. The magical perturbations had already begun by that time, so it was you, Regina, who got to getting it off. I probably stink of death from it as well, just like you, but couldn't notice it. And who is Cora?""Stink of death?" the Queen identified, once again, the most important thing from my speech, the Queens, as is known, cannot be Ex-ones. "What does that mean?""You know, I have no idea how in the name of the Blue Stone you function at all. Only a very powerful wizard can tolerate such a dose. Do you know that just a little more and you would have left Henry to Emma? And leaving Henry to Emma is generally an interesting idea, not devoid of adventurism, but permanency could be catastrophic. And here it could've been permamnent...""Regina," Emma turned pale and leaned a little closer to her son's adoptive mother. "Is it as dangerous as he says it is?""Calm down, Miss Swan," the queen forced a grin, but, oddly enough, Gold ratted her out."Yes, Regina could very well have died when she tried to save you and Mary Margaret, do not understate it, dearie.""As if your words can be trusted, Dark Magician!" a bearded, stocky man, who had been standing still and silent in the corner, growled quietly. "She is a witch, and she herself, as I understand it, cast this curse! So, everything is fair!"For some reason, everyone present, even this Rumple, chose to remain silent. Emma was definitely not my Emma, I realized that crystal clear. Therefore, I chose a side, before, however, pinning down Swan with my special gaze so that she understood the whole palette of the dissatisfaction with her behavior that I keep to myself only for the reason that she is not really the Emma I know. She's supposed to act differently."I won't leave you alone today," I decided to show support to the woman, in whose eyes I saw the anger flaring up, mixed with pain from the fact that no one objected. "This thing was clearly dangerous. Let's drink your cider - I'm ready to butt heads with curses for it pretty much every day.""We are not even friends," the queen muttered, though, rather, the mayor of a small town after all, because queens do not mumble and are not confused by the support of other people. "Why you...""I show class solidarity," I explained, without clarifying anything. "By the way, Emma, we haven't finished talking about your magic. Are we going to?""Yes, I..." she looked at me and Regina standing next to each other in an odd way, but then she just nodded and voiced her agreement to the end. "Yes, it would be useful for me to get what you mean.""I'm kind of talking about... Well. Your abilities are slightly flawed, and therefore in this reality, in order to gain abilities in truly worthwhile magic, you will have to look for a magician who is developed in the dark side more than in the light side. Well, like Regina, for example. She's not Kashchey, not Yaga, but I see darkness and light in her, but the darkness, like in me, is noticeably more prominent. I got mine in other worlds in which I traveled before I met Emms. But in my own world I was more like you, that's why they called me Talentless while I lived at my father's court. And so it stuck... But it wasn't the lack of an aspect that was my problem, but the fact that no one taught me anything since childhood, not like the other princes. In short, if we don't go deeper, our main problem is that I'm stuck here while my Emma is there. In a year ago, without knowing that a woman she likes, might want to kill her because she belongs to a family of blood enemies as soon as she realizes that my Emma could remove this stupid curse of yours. What's the point, by the way?""To take away the happy endings, since mine was taken from me," Regina shrugged her shoulders. "And according to Gold's prophecy, she should return these endings to everyone.""Hollywood plot twist, kinda," I grinned and, with my hands on my hips, solemnly proclaimed. "Bring back happy endings! By the way, what is the happy ending? I seem to be a positive hero of my fairy tale, but usually fairy tales ended on a good note just so as not to traumatize the childish's psyche of listeners...""You're kind of mean," Henry said, looking at me with his stupid, stupid, but childish eyes full of sincere faith. "There are happy endings, it can't be that there weren't.""Happiness is a temporary pleasure."I shrugged and reached out to tousle the boy's hair. He didn't remind me at all now of Neal Cassidy, whom I simply hated with all my heart. Even though I promised myself not to get too into the situation of my ward, but...The kid threw off my palm and shouted."I don't believe it!""And I know that it's true," I lightly poked him on the top of the head with the edge of my palm and then pulled slightly by the ear. "You can't be rude to your elders. I'm fine, but if you're rude to someone like Rumpelstol... Rumpleshtil... By the name of the Blue Stone, what kind of sick moron came up with a name for you, Koschei?! What I mean is, being rude to someone like Mr. Gold in his best years of functioning is not the best idea. And you, in my opinion, with such a forgiving mother, started to loose the touch with reality.""I'm not your Emma," Swan moved in between me and the boy and looked up, to which I just raised my eyebrows. "And he's not your Henry. We'll figure it out ourselves.""That's what you told me when I told you that I really didn't like that guy with a fake name. And you know how it ended.""In your reality, it also ended the same way, then," Emma grinned too much like my Emma, so much so that I suddenly wanted to go back, even without a body, just not to deal with a person who doesn't remember me, but I still can't treat as a stranger. "And what did you do? Left me in jail?""You thought I was dead, you idiot. You gave him up because you thought I was dead. I will never be able to forgive myself for this. And therefore, in any world, even in one where you don't know me, this kid will be my responsibility to the same extent as in the world where we are friends. You're still the same Emma Swan, after all. Though stupider, of course, without my guiding hand..."And of course Emma couldn't stand my patronizing tone! Well, it started as usual. Which was at least a little comforting - she's still not that different. The pride is still the same, and it even looks like it."Narcissistic jerk!""Stupid bird!"Insufferable smartass!""An overgrown swan!Well, you see, you're almost the same. We fight like this every day, only with more imagination, but there are children here..."I hinted at something she couldn't misunderstand and left her blushing under the mocking glances of Gold and Regina both for myself and for the other guy, that is, for my Emma."Well, now," I followed with my eyes how a couple of Emma's wayward parents got up from the couch on which they were sitting, and finally they uncoupled. "Now, Emma's father, I need a short talk with you.""Yes, what did you want..." He took a step forward, but it wasn't meant to be.He was met halfway by my fist, decorated with a ring with the sigil of the Blue Stone, Alatyr. Therefore, my ancestral sigil will surely remain on his cheek and will burn until it passes. Such a wound is treated only with life-giving water or tears of sorrow, if I don't allow it... Let him think about his behavior.""Putting a daughter in a tree is the height of idiocy. Emma was unhappy too much and for too long for me to wait until my world before hitting you. Of course, Mary is no less to blame, but..."Emma interrupted me. Completely simply and extremely unexpected.She also punched me in the face, but unlike her father, I didn't even think about falling on my arse, I just touched my split lip and looked at the blood in surprise. It's been so long since I've seen it, and it's been so long since I've felt real physical pain..."If anyone is to blame, it's..." Mary Margaret started, holding the hand of her husband, who pressed his palm to his cheek and looked at me, but not to say it was anger.He stopped his wife with a handshake and shook his head."You're probably right. Won't you do the same in that other world when I know why?""No doubt," I broke into a smile and wiped the blood from my split lip under Gold's gaze, and then added. "I never imagined that I would meet her father at all, because - I'm sorry - it was a very spontaneous desire. But if it helped, there's more where it came from."I cleaned the blood with an enchanted handkerchief, and then with a snap of my fingers I removed a couple of drops on the floor, which earned the attentive glances of all those versed in magic, and the surprised and suspicious ones of all those who are complete ignoramuses in it. Except for Emma's father, whose name I still did not know and I had not yet received an answer to my assumption from him."Thanks, but no," Emma's dad replied, chuckling and hissing with painful sensations. "By the way, we were not introduced. My name is David. And you... Ivan, right?""You can call me John. Well, in the adoption documents, it was "John Oldman" that was written in the father column. So since we are in America, then let's do it as it is more convenient for you and as it does not hurt my ears. Your pronunciation of my real name could torture particularly sensitive girls of my state, honestly...""John," Henry interrupted me timidly, holding Emma's hand at that moment. "You said that... That you're my father? But we are not at all alike! And Emma... Mom didn't tell me you were alive.""He's not your father," Emma said as she snapped. "Your father is dead.""He's dead to us," I corrected her. "He left your mother in prison, she was imprisoned for a crime that he committed. This freak set her up and left her alone. It's unforgivable. If you want to communicate with such shit, if it suddenly miraculously appears on the horizon, then I will be very disappointed in your Mother's educational resources. And I will remember with nostalgia about the canes with which I was treated for any offense, but at least they grew me some sense.""You wouldn't dare," Regina hissed, pulling me by the elbow towards her and tugging like a spiteful wife. "I never laid a hand on him!""I am against corporal punishment," I said in the same tone as her. "But if the young man does not understand...""You still cannot!" she pulled my elbow one last time and let go, finally noticing the strange looks of everyone around.I burst out laughing at their reaction and made a successful attempt to hug the queen. She just seemed to feel a little unwell - she even tripped on her heel a little and stumbled."Of course I understand everything, but that's not urgent. Someone, let's not name names, of course, is tired and some other person is in dire need of sustenance. And probably you won't do without a kiss from a kindred soul in your case," I looked worriedly at the increasingly paling Regina, who did not even try to get rid of me, but on the contrary, leaned on me. "You'd get through even without, if there's nobody, but then tell me where to take you.""Is Mom really sick?" Henry whispered guiltily, I heard and simply nodded."We need a kindred spirit, I'm telling you. So that it does not remain to dissolve for some six months.""I might be able to brew an elixir if you give me your blood in return," Gold suggested."You can make the Stone-heart Curse out of it, yes," I nodded, squeezing Regina's shoulders a little harder than necessary. "But it is better not to, it could lead to the destruction of reality from the petrification of all living things. I'm just warning you.""Well, then what to do?" Emma somehow looked helplessly at the woman in my arms, and I remembered something about my current self and was still deciding whether I needed it or not. "I don't think that...""I have to try something."I still decided that trying it wouldn't hurt, and I let go of Regina's embrace to immediately stand in front of her and, lifting her face by the neck with one palm, kiss her. After the rainbow flashed before my eyes, when I had already poured into this kiss a huge share of Emma's magic, the magic that I received before I was transferred to this world, it became clear to me that everything worked."Congratulations," I said. It sounded not as I was planning it to sound - triumphantly, but rather quietly. Because I looked, before I started to speak, into Regina's eyes, full of tired tears and vague hope. It immediately disappeared when she slightly squinted at the witnesses of this magic who were gaping at us. "We found you a kindred spirit."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 9. Pale shadow
 "Well, my darlings," I slapped the former Evil Queen on the shoulder. That made her shudder a bit and look at me in surprise. "Tell me what was going on here before all this mess with the well. I still have to warn my Emma. The more details she knows, the more likely it is that she will be fine." "Why are you asking Regina instead of me," Emma said in surprise. "I will surely give you reliable information about how not to act in my place, and what I would have done otherwise for sure.""What would that be?"I barely managed to suppress a grin, but the Queen, standing next to me, noticed my attitude and slightly raised her eyebrows, asking without words what was the matter. But I barely shook my head and prepared to hear the great revelations of the local Emma."Believe in magic before Henry ate the poisoned turnover. To know that Gold will want to kill Regina when he releases magic into Storybrooke. Do not fall into the portal and do not meet Cora.""You're not my Emma," I simply said, shrugging my shoulders and making Emma twitch. It's kind of odd, I didn't say it offensively, although I'd never know what's wrong with her, not here. "Of course, I still consider you friendly, but I do not know you, because our friendship has largely determined the formation of your personality. My Emma is a skiptracer, it's certainly not the most prestigious job, yes, but she got a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Massachusetts, and that's seven years of hard work. And I would not say that her training ended there. She saves money for the higher degree, consults on civil cases, but working in the office is not our thing, so we drive around the vast expanses of the motherland on the Beetle...""And yet she did not part with the bug, we are not so different," Emma smiled weakly, looking into my eyes with some hidden pain, but I just shook my head. That made the local Emma raise her eyebrows and ask. "What?""Ems found it extremely funny to buy a yellow Nissan Juke, so as not to forget about the betrayal, and not to drive with stick shift. Standard transmission is a complete mess in the city limits. You'll get sick of yanking the stick, like it's an airplane, damn it. Juke means beetle in Russian, so it kinda fit the whole thing.""Just don't tell me that Emma can drive aircrafts," Mary Margaret turned gray, I wonder why, before that listening attentively to everything I told them. "Don't tell me...""I won't" I shrugged and smiled broadly.  "I'm the one who can drive aircrafts."I didn't say which kind of aircrafts. After all, my craving for flying carpets will never fade. After all, boots-runners are the most stupid transport in any of the realms! Well, who, tell me, who established that the step should be exactly seven miles?My thoughts made me sigh sadly. After a good proper sigh I returned to reality and realized that Emma had started to tell me something."That is, you wanna say that my information will not correspond with the actions of the other version? But the facts..."I interrupted her."The facts that you know simply won't happen.Emms knows about magic, places of power, and even knows how to use the minimum of her abilities. For example, to light a fire, or to cool down when the situation requires it. Fix an old thing, strengthen the blow, cure a small cut. I'm no stranger to magic, so Ems received a small dose of enlightenment on my part. Although I wasn't going to teach her much, because I was completely unaware of the existence of Storybrooke. She would have had to use personal magic if I took it upon myself to teach her what I know, and the slightest overexertion in a world without magic is an interesting way to die of exhaustion.Although the information about the poisoned pastries in Henry's mouth is, of course, without any doubt an interesting fact. Who poisoned him, at least?"Our diverse company fell into silence, and Rumplestiltskin looked at Regina with a grin. She seemed somehow painful. Emma looked at her with a shred of anger, indignation and the same painfulness, only much less of it."It was me.""I didn't think that you had this "if I can't have you, noone else will" He's a child!""I didn't do it on purpose," the Queen said wearily and looked up at me. "I am fully responsible for this. Henry doesn't want to see me.""Henry, are you a fool?" I turned to the kid and then looked at Emma in surprise. "Emma, you really aren't the Emma I know. You know perfectly well that you won't find such a mother for a foster child in the System during the day with all the light you could carry. You should get really lucky.""It's because of her that Emma grew up without us!" Snow White exclaimed and even jumped up, pointing at me with her finger.  "And you have no right to judge!""And I'm not judging, I'm expressing an opinion and asking questions. It seems to me, pixie girl, you're the one who's judging. As if I didn't know that no matter what you say about goodness, only one mistake separates your heart from the dark? Goodness does not exist. There are only actions and their consequences, my darling Snow White.""You killed your own brothers! Don't you know all about the consequences!"I froze and involuntarily bared my teeth.The left hand shone even through the jacket, I will not confuse this blueish-white shade with anything. I involuntarily activated the stone flesh spell and at the same time scared everyone around, including the boy. His apprehensive look brought me back to myself."By the Stone," I extinguished my magic and began to clench and unclench my fists in order to disperse this trembling and stabbing sensation from the tips of my fingers. "It's the wrath, I'm sorry. I haven't been in a magically full location for a long time. And I didn't have a lot of control, I need to get used to it...""You're someone like our Evil Queen, aren't you?" Emma's mother asked inquisitively and exchanged glances with her prince. "That's what your words about class solidarity were about."I chuckled."How long has it been reaching your high horse, Snow White, that I'm not the kind of hero you see in your fantasies. Too long, even if you take into account that you listened past everything I said, it's still not too fast. It was obvious.""Will you cause problems?" deliberately not showing displeasure in his tone, the prince asked his question."I'm going to go back, so I think it would be great if you just share the information, and I can resolve everything more or less bloodlessly and safely for the boy. And I never actually get how he got poisoned at all. Well, the fact that Regina is to blame, I understood that, but... How?!""I wanted to poison Emma so that the curse would not be broken." she muttered."Every curse dreams of destruction," I rolled my eyes. "Curses disrupt the structure of reality. The curse is a thorn in the eye of the universe, even if it is small, but there is no way to notice it. Surely you fulfilled the prophecy yourself. It made you decide on those actions that were supposed to help it not to be fulfilled?""Approximately... Yeah, that's how it happened." Regina Mills shook her head. "So, everything was useless, and in your opinion I couldn't win?""Well, why," I put a sly grin on my face and added. "You defeated my Emma when you jumped out to Henry on the porch, and then called his biological mother into the house, showing hospitality. I think the differences go further, don't they? My Emma has her own life, a sweet girlfriend and a bunch of friends in Boston, and in the end there's me, her best friend and occasional mentor. Owns property for about three years now. How're you, Emma? All the same? I doubt it. It will be the same with Regina Mills. I need to find out, rather, who else to fear besides the two of you in a possible relationship, which will, of course, undoubtedly be enchanting, but extremely explosive... Though I won't say anything about the local Emma, Regina. Since she denies it like that, then maybe there really is nothing there.""I don't really understand where you get that I'm interested in relationships with women at all," the local Emma almost growled, blushing sincerely and putting her hands on her hips at the same time. "Just please stop talking about me like I am...""My Emma doesn't care about those things that you pay too much attention to. I taught her to desire something and take it immediately after the formation of the first conscious desire." I ranted. "She is the smart and beautiful woman who has an inquisitive mind and a desire to develop, be better and stronger. You just... You're just her pale shadow."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 10. Anticipation
 I looked into the eyes of the local Emma and suddenly realized what exactly I had said. The truth. Why the fuck?My chest suddenly prickled. Somehow it seemed familiar, but I didn't immediately understand what exactly was going on. I just rubbed the solar plexus area with probably noticeable pain on my face - the looks of those around me were surprised and even worried, because I abruptly fell silent, clutching my heart, and that would have made tense anyone.I was trying to say something to Regina Mills' questioning look when I met her gaze and realized that I was seeing real concern, even though she might not be aware that she's worrying about me. Just like that, healthy men in their prime do not grasp for their hearts. And it didn't look like some stupid joke on my part either, so even Snow White, who had previously burned me with her stares, leaned forward when I almost collapsed, like I had some sort of wadded legs. The former Evil Queen supported my frame, as she was closest to me, and Emma, to whom I turned my gaze, was oddly attentive to my condition. I smiled at her painfully, while clenching my teeth so as not to moan."What's wrong with you?" Regina whispered, and I tried to answer, but decided that it was better not to let them know, because I would still be returning to another reality, and my problems would not affect them. "Don't stay silent, answer something!"I got rid of her awkward embrace and, nodding at the doorway, spoke through my teeth."I need to get some fresh air, don't pay attention."I took a couple of steps to the exit, but I shook again, and this time Regina was no longer there to put her arm around my shoulders and hold me. I fell to my knees, wheezing and clutching my shirt on my chest so that several of the top buttons were undone at once. I couldn't leave my eyes open, the world revolved around me to such an extent that the sensations were like a mixture of the first flight on somebody else's dragon and astronaut training on the development of the vestibular apparatus. That's why when I opened my eyes, I couldn't expect to see Emma. She was looking at me with quite distinct fright, crouching down next to me, and her palm froze a couple inches from my chest. Regina was looming a little behind her, but she was also not quite calmly looking, her emotions were somehow not very clear from my position on the floor, to be honest."What?" I muttered. And Emma shifted her gaze from my face to the place that I was trying to squeeze, push through or something like that.I looked there after her, saw a dark blue mark spreading out with veins and cursed, not paying attention to the fact that a kind of not too grown-up kid is right next to his caring mom."Fucking fucked up! It shouldn't be like this!"I was feverishly thinking about how I could get out of this situation. After all, here either I am telling the truth about what is happening, or I am playing a role that til the end, while quarreling with all these goodie-two-shoes. Admittedly, the second option is extremely tempting to me, but I haven't lost sense that much yet, no... It is better to tell a half-truth, as it is always better."What's going on?" Regina said in a firm voice and gave me a demanding hand, gotten closer. "You need help getting up?""My heart is turning to stone," I announced, following this statement with a hiss of pain and grabbing the center of my chest again.  "I'll sit like this for a while, to rest. I'm sorry, Emma," I shook my head and looked at Emma, who was clearly surprised by my gesture. "For the first time in many years I am in a place where magic works similar to the reality where I come from. So it was stupid of me to believe that the curse that lies in my blood wouldn't activate after all.""What are you apologizing for?" the local Emma decided to clarify, pushing back an unruly strand of hair from her forehead and deciding to get up from her squat a moment later. "For saying what you thought? Or for scaring everyone here with his heart attack? What happened?""I am one of the descendants of the Stone Princess," I laughed in a particularly hoarse way and used Regina's help to get myself to my feet. "The curse of the Stone Heart is passed down from generation to generation in a weakened form. I've always considered it more of a blessing than a real curse. To get rid of it, you don't need any inlays with precious tears, or something like that. I wasn't particularly worried about this curse, because I knew who my True Love was from the age of fourteen, we met for the first time then, well, we agreed that we would definitely be together. So we were in the end, of course, but...""As I understand, it wasn't that simple," Regina was standing pretty close, that's why she didn't even have to delve into my story much to understand from the slightest expressions on my face that it really didn't end well. "Someone interfered.""My father at one time was looking for access to living water, and the mother," I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat and continued, "of my future wife at that time still had access to the lands where the source is located. In exchange for the magic water, the father had to give his firstborn to them for upbringing. Her mother is a powerful sorceress, her father is Koschei, the one who was later killed by me and my uncle.The mother knew who would magically suit her daughters, and one of these candidates was my father's firstborn, that is, me. All the daughters of this sorceress were my soulmates, only I didn't know it at that time. I perceived it not as an adventure, but as a confinement, so one day me and my peer, by that time she was a very good friend already, decided to run away. At the age of fourteen, the concept of love is extremely odd, so she was still a friend, not a lover. Well, on the orders of my father, the memory that I fell in love got erased, and I only remembered that I ran home. Well, she, in turn, was forcibly captured by her father and forced to live with Yaga in the swamps, cursing her so that during the day she turned into a frog, and with the coming of night, she turned herself again...""Like in Shrek?" Henry squeaked with a strange delight, not too clear to me.I just grinned at that and continued."Yes, something like that, the beauty by night, the frog by day, and her skin is not a toy," I crooned, quoting Yaga, who eventually enlightened me on the topic of the curse that struck the girl I loved. "In the end, the time came when the tsar's children had to look for brides, I was just seventeen years old. We have those magic arrows. They fly in the direction where your heart's desire is, and then they fall into the hands of the chosen one, instead of hitting through. The arrows of my brothers landed - one got merchant's daughter, one got the daughter of one of my father's vassals. Mine flew into the swamps. And this was when I couldn't remember anything, neither the promises we made to each other, nor the friendship that had formed between us.""What's the point?" Emma frowned and scratched her forehead in thought. "Are you going to retell the whole story now? It's all exciting, of course, but...""The point is, my darling, is that I fucked up my True Love for many years then, because I thought she was just one of many soulmates and didn't have any relationship with her. She did all the tasks of my stupid father, and when some... ugh... kind people told him whose daughter she was, he decided for me again. He ordered me to burn the frog skin she shed at night. I thought then that this was the way to cure the curse. She kissed me one last time before she disappeared, and I remembered everything because she still loved me. But the burning of the skin only summoned her father, the one who cast the spell.Koshchei's infiltration into the royal palace, due to my actions, made it possible to expel me to the faraway kingdoms, to the tower of my great-grandmother, the Stone Queen. Well, a year later I found out that the girl I loved had seized power in her birthplace kingdom. Well, next there is a long story about how I tried to conquer her after she became a Queen in her own might, of course I conquered her. Though she was sharply opposed at first because of my previous wrongdoings, well. And after this story there is a story about how Koschei kidnapped her and how I saved her.And this, mind you, when we were still unmarried. Then I forgot her again because of my father, whom I met at one of the assemblies of the sovereigns to confront the undead and hostile evil. Well, in the end, I had to go look for my love again because of the activation of this curse. And I met Gray, my best friend and kindred soul as well. We then found the firebird, the talking mare Rosa and my future wife, who was again abducted by her father and also cursed to forget so he could control her powers.Of course, we fought with her for almost a day, but it all ended with a kiss and as I was cured, so she remembered everything. In general, I can tell you everything later, in more detail and by request. I like telling telling such stories mostly around the campfire and with some alcohol,"I joked wryly, after reminding myself of all the twists and turns that I happened to get into, and about those wrongdoings that I shouldn't have committed."The only thing that matters is that she really was my True Love. And now she's dead. So with the curse that once again activated, I will have to fight it without the kisses of true love or tears of sorrow, which means taking out a stone heart from my chest as a last resort. If I don't go back to my reality, I'll probably die. After all, there is no one here who could just kiss it better so it would pass.""But how did you get rid of Regina's curse, then?" Emma was surprised and looked between me and the former Evil Queen. "You said you were soulmates...""There are a lot of soulmates, the true love is one, except for children, and then there are options. After all, a child can be unwanted or, on the contrary, not love in return,"I rolled my eyes."What are you listening with? I've already said that those are different things. Well, it wouldn't have worked, if I hadn't specifically concentrated bright thoughts and light magic to cure her. We just met. And yes, soulmate can become true love, but for this you need to get real close. Everything was simple for me in this regard, since Vasilisa and I met as teenagers, and her mother encouraged our relationship. It seems to me that any mother from the lands where I come from dreams of her child having not just a soul mate, but true love. It makes the family happier," I shrugged. "In general, I told you lot all this so you could understand that the curse of the Stone Heart will develop for quite a while, and the only thing to be afraid of in the next ten years or so is the unpleasant truth and periodic chest pains. Everything else would be more of a plus to me.""What are those positive side effects?" the local Koshchei decided to make his contribution with taking on an extremely significant issue. "Would you deign to enlighten, dearie?""I will not deign,"  I said it with a mocking tone and looking straight into his eyes. "This can only be learned in practice. Try."I lit up my stone whip spell on my left hand again and formed something like a ray in the palm of my hand instead of the usual whip. I directed this beam in the Jedi style, because it was very much a Jedi color, to the floor, while butting eyes with Koshchei."Don't tell me you love Star Wars too."Emma made a facepalm and could barely suppress a smirk, but the next topic touched quickly did it for her."So you did mean what you said? It's true..." said Snow White and squeezed her prince's palm waiting for an answer."This is the truth, twisted in such a way as to offend everyone and force me into conflict with the environment. The curse develops as a result of conflict. This is its way of increasing the probability of its destruction. Straighten me out, please, if I start again. And here's another question.""What is it" Snow White asked, snuggling up to David's elbow and looking at me with her deer eyes. "Something serious?""No, no, the question is more to Regina, and there are probably two of them," I turned my face to the Queen, who was still standing next to me, closer than everyone else. "My darilng Queen, are they always so sweetly disgusting?"Emma burst in laughter, covering her mouth with a fist a moment later, and Henry cheerfully laughed as well, the reason for which I did not understand at first, but they kindly explained to me."You... hahah... You looked so much like my mom just now... Ahhahah... Intonation... Exactly the same...""Kindred spirits, what can I do," I innocently shrugged and looked again at Regina. She was looking at her adopted son with love in her eyes, but immediately stopped when noticed me looking and stared back at me much more coldly. "And the second question. May I ask for cider with you?""Cider?" she repeated after me absentmindedly, and although I kept my smile glued on, my eyes didn't smile a damn thing, I'm sure of it. And she caught it right away, that I wanted to talk to her. "Allright, I'll be glad to treat you, since you like it so much.""It's strong," I shrugged and out of the corner of my eye followed the emotions that were clearly overcoming the local Emma when she had some idea of what I'm trying to do with Regina. She obviously didn't like it, but she clearly fought her dislike. "And it's apple. I like apples.""Even from the Evil Queen?" Regina teased me, realizing that I know about poisoned apples cliche and it will turn out to be a fun sarcasm."Only," I emphasized the word and repeated, "only from the Evil Queen."We met eyes and literally copied each other's grins.I felt anticipation.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The meeting at Koshchei's pawnshop ended extremely stupidly. Emma's lost family, the dwarves, Emma herself, and for some reason Henry went together wherever they were going. I slightly pinned Emma down with my gaze when she tried to offer me to go with them. That would've bern stupid and short-sighted.I need some info on Regina.The Queen, unlike Emma, will be the same, not this demo version. Regina will be her enemy for a while, despite the warm feelings she evokes in my Emma with her caring and feeling for our... her son, yes, hers after all, I'm not sitting in her head anymore, and Henry is basically nobody to me. And Emma could get hurt. So I can't let that happen while I owe her this much. After all, she gave me a new life, her own body, and if we omit all moral reasons to care for her, then the existence of this very body bestowed by her magic depends on the existence of this very magic in my direct access to it.It would seem logical then to cling to the local Emma and find some access to her magic, but then I would pass up Regina. And I think that Emma is not so different here that she would refuse me if I asked her to share magic, explaining first that otherwise I would die. Of course, it would be much more utilitarian to just absorb her heart, but, firstly, this is not really my method and, secondly, touch her heart and you will find out what a rainbow punch is most real, and not in the world of those cute little ponies. I hope, Fate would prevent me to ever get into that stoned-up world.The Queen and Rumple said goodbyes while spitting venom and clearly seemed like some old sworn frienemies. And afterwards I initiated an extremely interesting conversation with Regina. It was when we were already on our way to her place of residence."Why didn't you go with them?" she asked bluntly when we just reached the main street and strolled towards her mansion."Why would I go with them?" I decided not to answer right away, but to understand why she was asking at all."You're not..." the queen chuckled and then continued, after a short pause.  "I think I understand. You understand that I have much more knowledge about magic than all of them put together. You want to go back. That's why you need me. And you will not go to the Dark One because of your obvious contempt for him and because he will surely demand your blood.""You're right," I agreed easily and couldn't suppress a grin. "I won't lie, it's pointless. Emma from my world is the only person who cares about me," I shrugged and looked into the Queen's eyes. "Emma is my friend and my ward, if you think broadly, of course. I want to go back because she needs me also.""I understand."We walked in silence for another three minutes, after which she broke the pause."I will help you in gratitude for getting rid of that deadly curse traces. This is the least I can do for you, Ivan," she said the name correctly, which made me smile sincerely in response, and she grinned with a sly smile while she added. "But don't count on anything more."I laughed in response to her joking tone and decided to respond in kind."The kiss with you was almost as good as your cider, so I'm open to suggestions if anything. You can safely count on anything more that you could ever want.""I wouldn't want anything of the sort," Regina reassured me and grinned again, and her white mansion on Mifflin Street was already looming on the horizon. "At least, not something too much, for sure.""That is, it's too early for me to offer my hand and heart," I ruled it out, trying not to burst in giggles at first.But the Queen clearly did not expect the conversation slide to the wedding theme, and I suddenly felt a dull pain in my chest from mentioning a topic related to matrimony. Although perhaps it's just the way the curse manifests itself, yes, definitely a curse..."Not that I'm thinking about it..." I muttered."You're not doing any better by continuing to try and disentangle," the woman put her palm to her forehead and it seems that it was a very obvious facepalm. "Just stop and let's talk about something else. I thought you said you'd been to other worlds. It would be interesting to listen. Any wizard would be interested, so, come on, share. We'll consider it part of the deal.""I would have told you just like that," I tried to pretend that I was pointedly offended, but only made the Queen laugh, which was also a good result. "Well, listen up. There was a case in an extremely odd world where the use of external magic led to dramatic changes in appearance, and all magicians there preferred to use only internal magic. Their society was extremely curious, there were several hidden villages consisting only of magic users and their staff. And in one of these villages, I became a participant in a most amusing accident involving women's bathhouses, an old pervert and a huge magical toad..." *** When we entered the mansion, Regina was still laughing at my story and seemed to feel much more at ease around me. She took me to the very office where my Emma was drinking cider with her, but I was in no hurry to sit down. The hostess hasn't sat down yet, so it would be extremely rude. Regina took out a couple of hard liquor glasses and a corked bottle of apple cider from her personal bar. It was as if she wanted to ask something, but she hesitated - I could see it in her slightly narrowed eyes and frowned, not evilly, but more like perplexed eyebrows. In response to my questioning look, she opened her mouth, and I realized that she dared to ask after all."What happened to you wasn't because of the magic around us," the Queen stated and waved her palm invitingly, pointing to the sofa near the coffee table, probably offering to sit down I suppose. "You lied that it was because of the magic, didn't you?""Not exactly," I shook my head and grinned, waiting for Regina to sit down herself to choose my location relative to her. "Emma would know I was lying.""Oh, yes, this... superpower of hers," the queen emphasized, rolling the on her tongue. "A manifestation of magic, sleeping within?""Yes"She finally perched on the edge of her seat, not giving herself the opportunity to relax and looking at me questioningly, and I nodded to myself and landed next to her, but not pressing on her too much, otherwise she would have moved even further to the armrest."It happened because I got too angry and forgot to monitor the activation of my abilities directly related to the Stone Heart curse.""It happened because Snow White can't keep her mouth shut," Regina translated and winced. "As usual.""And here I request more detail," I propped my chin with my fist, and I twirled the other palm in the air, to which the bottle of cider magically - literally - uncorked and began to pour itself into glasses. "It has something to do with your revenge on that girl, doesn't it?""Girl?"I take it Regina isn't going to answer questions directly any more than I am."And you, I'm sorry, how much older than her? You look the same age." she continued."I'm just slow at getting old," I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Should I grow a beard to match? Anyway, there's not many people to kiss, and you could probably tolerate it."I almost laughed at that indignant look she gave me, but immediately tried to hide it, like, she doesn't care what I'm saying here."And if I try to count, it's about hundred years, I guess. Magic rules the world," I stated and took a sip of cider. "Indeed.""Indeed," Regina, who had already taken control of herself, agreed.Even after my insolence, which I allowed myself only to bring the Queen into a more loose state for the sake of improving the quality of truthfulness in this conversation, and for nothing more."I think my mother hasn't aged much either..." she murmured."That's what you've been thinking so hard about all this time!"I really didn't realize, her face can be taken as the standard of a poker player when it comes to hiding real emotions and thoughts."Your mother," I said. "I'll help you deal with her when she gets here, and you help me. And she will definitely appear here. From all this story that Mary and Emma told us, I clearly caught that their fight with Cora took place near the lake, which in some of its effects is similar to what I know about the source of Living water. And that the magic bean that they needed to travel between worlds was left with your mother and the pirate from the story about the kidnapper boy.""The kidnapper?" Regina was surprised. "Peter Pan in children's fairy tales doesn't seem to be too much... negative. And Hook, I know this for sure, from personal experience, is still a scumbag. Probably, the boy opposing him had to be somewhat kind. What makes you think that at all?""We've already talked about how I feel about the concepts of good and evil, Regina," I looked at her in surprise and answered her puzzled look with my explanation. "And you definitely haven't read that fairy tale. Peter Pan, you know, he's like my dad. He doesn't care about anything, he wants to control everything, and he will do everything not to grow old. Read James Barry without editing and you will understand everything yourself.""Almost the same can be said about Rumplestiltskin," the Queen nodded and rubbed the corners of her eyes. "And about my mother. She... she was his student.""You were also his student."I noticed how Regina's mood changed dramatically to a more painful and sad, even melancholic, and soothingly touched her palm, squeezing her thin fingers and fixing them firmly to attract her attention."Don't be angry, I don't mean anything, I'm just providing support. Everyone needs it," I shrugged and continued the interrupted thought. "But you took on a death curse today for the mere approval of your child. For the ghostly possibility that he might choose you over Emma.""I wasn't..."I interrupted her, not giving her the opportunity to lie to herself."You love him too much," I said, and covered our clasped hands with my other palm. "You don't understand that he loves you too, but he needs to understand what it's like without you. Keep fighting for him, don't stop, he will definitely not forgive this when he realizes his mistakes. But don't harm those he values. Simply - don't. He will never say thank you for the choice that he did not make himself. Children should not be toys in adult troubles.""Speaking from personal experience, I see."Regina tried to free her hand, and I quickly removed my palms and made a gesture of surrender to the mercy of the winner, when the queen almost serenely continued."And, back to Pan, Henry has not yet read the unedited versions of local fairy tales. And I must admit, I did not go into much detail, especially about those who are not too familiar to me. And, let's be honest, the stories that I happened to read also do not coincide too much with the actual events that took place, just people's imagination, nothing more.""I have no children," I gritted my teeth and looked straight into Regina's eyes to let her know that right now I'm stone serious. "But I was the one for whom my father decided everything that he could decide. You think that in those few sentences in Koshchei's shop I told all the shit that I experienced thanks to my father's actions? This man is already dead, thank the Stone, and I played a significant role in his... finding peace, let's say. He wanted to become Koshchei, after all. How the fuck, the Soveregn of Belogorie, the defender of the Living - the Koshchei! Completely off the rails. But that's not what we're talking about, although I think the message is clear. And you're right, no matter how detailed the fairy tales are, they all lie.""I think I get what you mean, Ivan. I think after what he went through because of me, and I don't mean visits to Mr. Hopper, but the curse of Eternal Sleep, which was intended for Emma...""I don't think you should worry too much if going to a psychologist and a tiny sleep spell is the only thing he's been through because of you. This Rumplesite of yours is probably behind it all... the imps must've fucked in the head his fucking witch of a mother! Who called him that, tell me, what a sick jerk?!""I don't know anything about Gold's parents," Regina disavowed such an honor and finally took a sip of her glass with her incomparable homemade alcohol. "After all, he is roughly three hundred years old...""And no one has killed him yet?"I was surprised, but then I remembered that we had no intentions to jump to a new topic, having not yet completed the old and most important at the moment."Well, Regina, I'm not going to pretend that I specifically helped you with the curse in order to get help with getting back to the right world and the right time. I did it because you need to be ready to face your enemies fully armed. Because both Henry and Emma of this world will be fine if you're fine. No matter what Emma Swan says, she does give a damn about you. She's an idiot girl, it's undeniable, but Regina, believe me, I definitely don't need to lie about this, if you're in danger, this idiot girl will rush to save you.""She did rush," the Queen smiled painfully and looked into my eyes, and I felt like such a fool because I hadn't noticed what's been there all this time. "Ivan, she has already saved me. Many times. When I tried to hurt her. You're right. She's such an idiot girl.""Yes," I agreed, not taking my eyes off the dark eyes of the former Evil Queen. "Idiot."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Emma cried quietly, leaning on the edge of the well, and trying to calm her irregular, close to a panic attack, breathing. That nasty sensation when you can't really inhale or exhale has not gone away even when Emma realized that the well didn't start working.The little that the Old Man taught her, meant really simply and obviously that his spirit had left its safe place beside Emma completely and irrevocably. And the light glow of the water with the obvious sound of the physical body plopping into the well's waters explained the disappearance of the incarnation of his spirit.If Emma Swan had all the knowledge of her accidental Mentor, then she could've definitely said that both her wish and the Old Man's wish ended up getting intertwined, all thanks to the intensity of their joint magic. And while he wanted to get into the world from where he originated, where his dearest Vasilisa probably was, Emma Swan wanted to keep her Mentor for herself, of course subconsciously, but still, that was her wish.And at the same time she wished, sincerely wished for Ivan to have a body separate from her.Emma Swan didn't like losing friends almost as much as she didn't like being alone now, without an arrogant voice in her head. The voice that helped her with everything her life involved, throughout her conscious existence.Now, through her stupidity, she has forced a very dear person to evaporate in an obviously magical well. And now painfully aware of her stupidity, Emma Swan took out her phone and dialed one of her most frequently used contacts."Hello, Thomas. Do you remember telling me how you and Lenny rented a villa using the services of one of your realtor friends? Yes, Thomas... No, Tom, I'm not crazy to call at this late hour, and no, my voice is fine, don't worry. Yes. Talk to me."Literally a couple of seconds passed - and Emma, pressing the phone to her chest with one hand so that she could not be heard into the receiver, squeezed the corners of her eyes with the other palm, wiping away the tears that sprang up again. This happened because Swan habitually waited for the time that her "headache buddy" needed to memorize the information and confirm its memorization.""Damn, how is it..."The blonde said with a heavy heart and bit her lip, trying to bring herself to her senses this way, and it cannot be said that she failed, because a moment later she continued the conversation."I'm sorry, Thomas, say it again. Memorized. What for? It's simple, Tom. I'm moving. And it seems to me that this is going to be a long one."The forest fell silent immediately after the call ended. It was Emma's good friend, a red-haired and slightly bearded man of a goofy appearance, who fifteen years ago almost bloodlessly left the Irish syndicate Winter Hill.At one time, it was the prophetic "the rat is right on top there, because everything is too easy and simple" from the Old Man helped to guide on a slightly truer path a guy would not have spoken to her at all if she had a different skin color. And if she did not pretend she was older than she was, in one of those half successful attempts to escape from the System.Now Thomas, the Irishman, and Lenny, very much Italian by birth, from that same Patriarca Family that kept New England at bay all the same fifteen years ago, were united both by a business partnership and by extremely curious circumstances of acquaintance. Circumstances in which two seventeen-year-old teenagers who strayed from their packs featured, and, well, one really young Emma with Ivan, who was real wise with experience but clearly unknown to anybody but Emma.At that age, there was still a chance for both of them to get out of the game before the FBI purge in ninety-seven, which they, without knowing it, successfully took advantage of.Ivan, Emma recalled, was literally puffed up with pride that his analysis of the underhand situation in New England crime life had helped her youthful charisma break through the thick foreheads of two idiots who were going to kill each other right in front of her...The friendship continued only when Emma returned to the Northeast, and both idiots who did not serve time, unlike Emma, became a little less idiots when they created an extremely profitable company together. This company branched not only in the New England states, but also throughout the East Coast.They fit in right on time, as they say, because the continuous growth of the US economy in the nineties of the twentieth century gave citizens stability, and businessmen the opportunity to find new niches for the use of capital. That's exactly what Emma's friends were doing, trying not to go beyond the law.Swan didn't give a damn about her friends and their past right now, but thoughts in such a frustrated state can only be given direction, but never ordered not to think about something at all. She definitely needed a distraction. Of course, she can also call a realtor at midnight, but how he would fuck you over later is a huge question.So Emma Swan, guided by an inner sense of the right direction, which always helped her to find both the TV remote control and missing people, jogged to her yellow brand new Nissan and stopped for a second, wanting to take one last look at the well in which her only true friend disappeared.Despite the hopes, nothing happened.Emma furiously slammed the door behind her and buried her forehead in the steering wheel, folding her hands on her knees. She sighed. Wiped away a tear and chuckled."Well, Old man. Your job now is just to try and get back. And I will do what I do best. Search." *** Swan was sleeping in her Juke parked under a boarded-up building with a clock tower, in the back seat, and would have been sleeping if it hadn't been for the persistent knocking on the window."Eh? What? Who!"Emma roused herself and stared at Regina Mills's irritated face. Her own face totally had a slightly discouraged expression. And then her sleepy gaze refocused on Henry, who, in fact, was the one who knocked on the window.The boy waved to Emma and smiled awkwardly, squinting somewhere at the front seats. Swan followed his gaze and caught a corner of a large book of fairy tales sticking out barely noticeably. Emma stopped squinting at the consequences of the boy's insidious plans and turned her gaze to the adoptive mother of her biological son."Miss Swan," Mills greeted when Emma had already assumed a slightly less horizontal position and opened the door, forcing the boy to jump aside. "You are parked in the wrong place.""Oh, Madame Mayor... And good morning to you too," Swan rubbed the bridge of her nose with her finger and tried to get out of the car, not as shakily as she felt, if possible. "It's better than breaking into the devil knows where late at night or driving drunk to another state, also at night. I'm not prone to..."Emma yawned so that a crunch in her jaw would've been heard if there had been complete silence around, and then finished."Not prone to self-destruction.""What are you doing here?" Regina squeezed out a question, interrupting Henry, who already wanted to say something childish. "Are you going to leave?""I think not," Emma Swan said to the local Evil Queen without any evasion and started to stretch her arms and spine. "We talked to you yesterday. And I have a counter question - what are you doing here at such an early hour?""We went out earlier to have breakfast at Granny's," Henry chimed in. "Mom has a headache, but I'm already up anyway, and I don't need much time to get ready. Do you want to come with me... us?""Well, to begin with, I wanna eat, and it would be nice in good company.""Good?" Regina echoed the word after Emma, grinning oddly, subtly and enigmatically.The blonde would've been glad not to notice, but after yesterday's incident she was too on edge. Even for half-asleep Emma it seemed odd, it just did, that Henry's foster mother didn't fully believe that someone really applied neutral-positive definitions to her.But it was still hard for Emma to believe that all these fairy-tale things were not just real somewhere in the Old Prince's past, but here, in this ordinary-looking world, her world. And as it turned out, according to the version Henry told her on the way to Storybrooke from Boston, not really her native world.And all the same, this Enchanted Forest is much less close to her than the understandable, clear and quite satisfying ordinary world with ex-mafia buddies, the former girlfriend who's a part-time excellent pastry chef and the current girl who's an all-time non-binding Becky...And, of course, one must not forget about the absence of magical creatures and places where to find them. Except for places of power, which Emma stumbled upon only thanks to the tips from her accidental mentor, so she could commune with some rare spirits, most of whom were able to think only in extremely primitive ways.The real world was not without mysteries, but it could not compare with the realities where Fairy Tales were the basis. The Prince's stories alone about how it was to live in a world where evil spirits and the undead are not sick fantasies of fairy tale lovers, made Emma freeze with anticipation of a good story ready to become a script for either a horror or a fantasy action movie. And also gave her a good perspective of that strange society, in which, with the help of enchanted arrows and annual divination, the people searched for kindred souls so that curses, generously distributed by both the smallest dark creatures and sometimes Koshchei, could ever be removed.And when she started thinking with the non-adventurous part of her brain, Emma hardly seemed to want to live in that kind of world. Totally not the one she could reconstruct in her head after many stories of the Old Man."Yes, good," Emma shrugged and looked at Regina's face. "I hope I'm not interrupting, Regina?""We didn't switch to names," the woman grimaced, but immediately, glancing at the dark top of Henry's head, who shuddered at the quality of ice in the tone of his mother's voice, she corrected herself. "You can call me that if you want, Emma. After all, you are here, as you said yourself, for a short time. I can be patient."Henry tossed his head and vigorously shook it, ruffling his previously combed hair."It's not like that! Emma! Tell her!"Swan would have told the boy just yesterday that his adoptive mother is quite right. She would not have thought of staying here, but the disappearance of her only true and unconditional friend in the forest well played a role in her answer to the question of her biological son.And a suspicious book of fairy tales made it possible to study the history of this probable curse, this Enchanted Forest and its inhabitants, the history of her supposed parents... And she will cease to be herself if she gives up her most important passion in this life.The search for those who are guilty. The salvation for those who can be saved.After all, it was not in vain that she and the Old man sought to appeal her imprisonment, and it was not in vain that she studied to be a defender of the rights and freedoms of citizens of the United States of America all her adult life, after the betrayal of that bastard with a fake name.No wonder she traveled around the states and persecuted those who were worthy of it. No wonder she became a freelance employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after all. Security in cybernetic space is her forte, of course. But this is the situation in which Emma needs the help of a real wizard and the knowledge of this wizard.So it was impossible not to direct her thoughts towards building plans for the most ordinary investigation on the topic "if Henry Mills is not crazy, and Emma Swan is not crazy either, then probably Regina Mills is the Evil Queen of fairy tales."And if this miniature, delicate woman, who captures all of Swan's attention with her presence, is indeed the queen, and the people around are cursed, then it becomes vital for Swan to make sure that this very queen does not suspect that Emma knows about the imposed witchcraft until the very last moment."I'm afraid I'm gonna have to stay here," Emma replied.Then she smiled too promising, not taking her eyes off Regina, whose smug grin, with which she looked at Swan a moment earlier, faded a little."I want to stir up this town a bit."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

We were sipping cider, silently enjoying the tranquility, when Regina's phone rang."Swan," she drawled, looking at the screen."You going to answer?"I raised my eyebrows and straightened my back in anticiapation."If something is urgent, she will write," the Queen shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "It's just Miss Swan's way of saying something more emotionally.""How would you..."  I didn't finish because they understood me instantly."Sheriff position.""Yeah."We were silent - the phone stopped showing signs of life only after a couple of attempts to get through, and she refilled my glass of cider. Not mead, of course, but not bad anyways.Regina picked her phone and scrolled through the messages.As I understood her somewhat brightened and at the same time puzzled expression, there was something worthy of attention."What's brewing?"I took a bigger sip and squeezed my eyes shut in pleasure.My heart almost didn't sting, the curse didn't try to grab more and force me to conflict, but I still thought before I spoke, and there is a small problem with this approach to dialogue - I have to speak mostly to the point, briefly, choosing words."Invites to celebrate their return.""Is she completely stoned out there?!" I muttered."What?! Emma's did not, did she...""Of course she did, it's Emma!" I chuckled, but the laughter was brief. "Do you only care if Swan smoked light drugs? Especially at the moment when she behaves completely differently from what I expected.""What did you expect?"Regina squinted and put down her glass, so that she could then get up and start straightening the folds on her skirt, while not ceasing to look at my probably thoughtful face."To tell the truth, this is a very unpredictable move. From all their Charming family..." she murmured."It's not from the family."I shook my head and smiled slyly, showing my teeth, to which the Queen raised her eyebrows and batted her eyelashes with expectation in her eyes.Her eyes were attractive, tea-colored, dark, such that you want to see desire and pleasure, lust and something even deeper in them, but I almost chanted to myself not to even think about it. Although such thoughts did not prevent me, once again imitating the Queen's tone a little, to continue my thought."Do you think that Snow White and David will suddenly become grateful for what, as I understand it, in their opinion has already happened through your act? No one corrected that black-haired, bearded little man when he decided to speak out. Emma... She would have thought, I know for sure, she would have thought to correct, but it seemed to me that since she values the opinion of her newly found relatives so much, she would have to swallow once again what my Emma would never have swallowed and would certainly have done dif...""And she's just done what would have occurred to your... Your Swan?" Regina interrupted."I perfectly understand your skepticism," I just shrugged,  "but Emma believes in people and at the same time does not trust them. Gives chances, too much sometimes. And it paid off, it really paid off. And apparently, it was this trait that she somehow got on her own, without my direct influence.""And you are happy with it?" Mills was surprised and tried to dig deeper. "Are you such close friends that any of Swan's character traits have been changed by you?""I'm her mentor," I shrugged again and also put down the glass, then stretched with my hands clasped. "Although, as you can see, Emma Swan still repeats both mistakes and ... perhaps this is not much of a mistake. I hope you'll go.""Why should I?" Regina massaged her temples. "I'm tired and I want some sleep. And I don't want to decide anything today.""Henry will be there.""She wrote the same thing... I want..."Regina froze, looking somewhere through the window, blocking out the light and giving out a shadow that fell on me."What do you want, Queen," I leaned back on the sofa and studied the woman, "and how can I help you?""Are you offering help? Again?"She turned around sharply and glared at me, her hands were on her hips, and her body was pushed forward, her posture was regally straightened, but her eyes betrayed that she was pleasantly surprised."Again just like that?" she asked."Actually, there's something I need, but Regina, it's not too important when it comes to, perhaps, those events that will happen anyway! You never know, maybe I'll be back later than necessary, and my Emma will be at the same moment where you need to save Storybrook from your mother. And I doubt very much that my Emma will know about Cora even if you communicate somewhat affably in this or that reality."Our eyes met, and the Queen nodded cautiously, confirming my thought. She wouldn't share information about Cora, especially not during a working curse."Accordingly, she may well, once in the portal, also run into that lady, not kill her and return back. I would not particularly like to interfere in what is happening in this regard, especially until your mother arrives here. But still, Queen, it's just good for you to keep me informed of what is happening, and I will try to make some sort of chronology of events so as not to confuse important things and significant milestones.""I see. I think I'll still go to the meeting and would've even without talking to you. And I would make a good lasagna according to my favorrite recipe," Regina closed her eyes and asked. "So what did you need, Ivan?""I really need a good hand-made whip." I stated."Excuse me what?" Despite her outward coldness, Regina was a little taken aback, I could hear it in her tone. "A whip?""Lash, whip, that kinda thing. An instrument of torture and horse grooms," I clarified with a bit of humor, noticing out of the corner of my eye how she shuddered, probably from the word "torture", but in a home environment, I think it's permissible for her to show emotion like this, I won't try to pick at it. "Surely you've had one, no?""Yes," the Queen answered slowly and asked. "I'm curious, why do you need it?""I don't trust the blade," I shrugged. "And spent too long in the steppes between the Principalities of the Three Metals not to master this tool. Once I defended one of the directions of the attack on my capital... by my Vasilisa while using a whip and  stone magic bound to it. It would be nice to have a familiar tool, which is working without much blood. Especially against the witch who doesn't expect it.""Against my mother," Regina nodded and smiled at me with a slightly stiff but sympathetic smile.In general, I had a feeling that she really liked me. Something in the story that I told made her sympathise and feel somehow warmer... After the kiss, that aching warmth in her eyes dissolved, as if it had never existed, it was only a residual effect and, probably, some sort of nostalgia. The light in her gaze then immediately went out, but if I recall her various reactions during the story that I was weaving from truth and lies, so as not to touch, as Emma and I called it, "that ass-based feeling." Probably, me and the Queen still have something in common, not just disgusted intonations when talking about that vile-sugary couple, and that besides royal origin... Doubtful in my case.I didn't tell them that I wasn't just the firstborn son, no.I was the bastard one.