6

From that day onward, the King and Queen bemoan their daughter's fate; if Maleficent's words are true, then it would mean that the royal bloodline will ultimately cease. But surely, the three good fairies are able to undo her magical condemning, the royal couple would ask – and the fairies would tell them, "No, it is virtually impossible. Maleficent's spell is too powerful to undo, even for all three of us combined.."

It only makes Charles brood in silence; in pain, he closes his eyes and dwells on that woman he's once idly spent his time with. Who is she, to have turned from that young woman into the wicked witch?

He's heard all the rumours over the years about the witch Maleficent, flaying people who ventured into her forest, and the occasional torment of crows, sent to villages – but he's dismissed it all as folklore superstition that's cropped up, in preference of focusing on real problems such as religious integrity (holding Catholic France pure against Islam) and the tense relations between Spain, between Britain.

He's paralysed when the memory comes back; a memory he's long since dismissed – where Maleficent, dressed in black, is crying out for his love. It was so bizarre, the moment; she looked like she was dressed for a funeral. How was he to answer her then, when he was filled with apprehension about the madwoman who chose to make a fool of herself at his wedding?

"Please.. don't forget me, whatever happens. I just want you to remember me."

He thought it was only a distractive excursion from the monotony of looking for a suitor. He thought wrong. For her, it must have meant the world, and he curses himself for involving himself with that seemingly innoceous affair.

Her resentment has lasted over time.

"Your Majesty." The head faerie, Flora, nudges Charles out of his reverie in his private chambers. "We've come up with an idea that could potentially save Aurora."

Upon hearing that news, Charles glees with hope. "Really?"

"It may not save your daughter outright, but it will provide us with a chance to resuscitate her, should she succumb to dying."

Charles's smile droops to a frown.

"It's a technique that we pioneered on one of our patients. His lungs were diseased, and when he gave in to consumption, we put him under suspended animation, so that his body shall not deteriorate while we sought to replace his organs. We were able to revive him soonafter."

"What is suspended animation?" Charles asks.

"We put him in an airtight casket, that we've enchanted so that time does not pass inside it, while it's sealed. And with Aurora, we can do the same; but it will be incredibly hard to find a replacement for her heart.."

"How come!? You're fairies, you have magic that can conjure up the wildest fancies-"

"Our magic simply cannot replace an intricate organ like the heart. If she were to lose a finger, or a tooth, we can regrow it back, bone, tissue and skin, but the heart is.. still a mystery to our comprehension, with its veins and its power to pump blood through the whole body."

"Then study the heart! I'll get the royal doctors to send you hearts to dissect.. you can't also heal my Odette's womb?"

"Not to our present knowledge, no," Flora goes.

In Odette's arms, petite Aurora is crying – her mother's face is so sad and teary, if only she were happy like she used to be..

"You lied!" Raki yells at Maleficent. "You said you weren't going to harm their child.. how could you be so despicably cruel?"

She looks away from him, almost wincing, unable to bear the shame of what she's done, despite her heart reeling from inflicting the same wound upon the royal couple.

The evening is gloomy – only the overcast sky illuminates darkly their forest.

"You saw how the scene unfolded.." Maleficent goes. "Everyone glared at me like I was a freak – which I am, Raki. Like Judas Iscariot betraying Christ's joy with a kiss, I broke in and interrupted their festivities. Charles.. Odette.. they pretended they didn't even know me! When I goaded them, Odette spilled out the truth of it all: I wasn't wanted.

"So I condemned their future, their Aurora. Now they know better than to turn their fucking backs on me-"

"You're so petty," Raki goes, tears escaping his eyes. "I thought you'd be better than that – you've hurt a child who did nothing to you. Please.. with what good heart you have left, take the curse back."

"Raki.."

"TAKE IT BACK!" he cries, taking her aback. "Take it back, take it back take it back.." He is sobbing into her chest, and she holds him gently, and then his sobs become filled with rage, and he pounds against Maleficent with his fists – "Maleficent, let go of me! I hate you! Don't touch me!"

In her bout of distraughtness, Raki manages to squirm out of her grasp. He flees down though the trees, his steps soft and moist on the soil, before Maleficent makes a tree root protrude from the ground, catching Raki by the foot and tripping him, face flat.

Calmly, she walks over to him, and kneeling down, she wipes the soil from his face-

"Go away!" Raki screams, sitting up. "You're an evil murderer!"

It's strange – there's a difference between having a murderous reputation, and having someone actually witness you commit an evil act.

"Go away!"

Maleficent is holding him by his head and back – she's weeping. ".. we're both murderers, Raki. Where can we go?"

The resignation of it hits him; he's killed his brother, and it's no different from Maleficent killing Aurora, or another person – no matter the context. Even if it had been to save her from Zaki's bloodlust. He's tethered to her now; the one he hates, the one he's loved, and the only one who understands him.

They are outlaws, fallen leaves off a tree – lone stars separate from recognisable constellations, together drifting away in a vast, unknown space.

"Why do we end up hurting others?" Raki says.

".. I honestly don't know." Maleficent thinks about it. "People are unhappy – they're frustrated with what's happening in their lives. You want to love someone, but the closer you get to their heart, the more it will hurt when they wrench themselves away from you. For every happiness you may feel, there is an equal and opposite unhappiness underlying it. And vice versa when you decide you won't bear the pain by yourself anymore; it's easier to bring others down. You can't bear to see it when others.. like Odette and Charles, they're happy without consequence. It feels so unfair."

"But Maleficent," Raki goes, "you're responsible too for your own happiness. I know it's one of the worst feelings to be humiliated in their wake. I mean, I wasn't too happy with my older brother, and I got into rough scratches with the other kids. What would hurting them in return actually achieve? Nothing much, except to assuage your own ego – you'd just be bringing more pain in return. If I could go back to that time.. when Zaki was alive.. I'd wish I could muster up the courage just to walk away from him, and live by my own right. He wouldn't have to die.." He tears up at the horrid memory.

She considers his words, musing on her own situation. "How it could have gone so differently.."

"Yeah. Maleficent – I know you might have thought about it, but you're born of the same ilk as your sister Odette. The same blood runs through your veins. You're family, even if she left you behind."

"I know she's my family- I wish she wasn't, what are you trying to say?"

"My only love, sprung from my only hate," Raki quotes. "I don't remember where the phrase came from – it's something I remember from my literature studies, but you can change it. You don't have to hurt them. You always have that choice – you can be better than your sister; I don't think I like Odette too much myself. I feel there's this vanity in the public speeches she gives." He grins.

"Oui; she was such a vain person back then – she'd kiss up to anyone who seemed of high status, and she is a vain person now, as the Queen of France." Maleficent is liking the direction of the conversation. "It's humbling actually.. because I've always felt that I was the only person who knew what a creature she is, and I felt I had to scream it out for everyone in the royal court. For her to be humiliated and torn, with her husband!"

"Do you love me, Maleficent?" Raki asks, looking her right in her eyes. "Like you did Charles then?"

"I was hurting when you went away from me Raki," she goes. "We were so happy.."

"Let's run away. From all this. We can start it all over again.." He holds her by his chest, his voice turning into a low whisper. "If you could lift the curse from Aurora.. you could forget about Charles. He's a jerk who you mistakenly entrusted your heart to."

It's hardly crossed her mind before of the possibility of actually walking away, and start a new life with Raki, under a new identity. Even though she's hung onto her hate for the people who have humiliated her – like a nagging reminder she faces for much of her waking moments.

Because she'd face new humiliations, perhaps stemming from the very kind of personality she holds. Too eccentric for emotions, yet too stormy to cast herself as a straight thinker.

But Raki has given her a hope – the possibility she could be truly loved for herself.

"Ok. I'll need to be by Aurora's side again to do so.. I'm a little tired, Raki."

After much hesitation, the King and Queen decide – for Aurora's safety – to allow the three fairies to carry Aurora away from the castle, under disguise as peasants, who will nurture their child with the greatest care, teaching Aurora the basics of royalty as she grows up, so that she will come prepared one day to be a good Queen for France.

King Charles, feeling bitter at the sight of a black crow perched upon his windowsill, for he recognises now Maleficent's influence through them – he enacts a decree for everyone to extinguish the crows, drawing upon the already-existing superstitious fear to unite everyone behind the effort.

The witch will no longer be welcome.

So shall it be done.

Poisoned bird feed, scarecrows, slingshots and arrows – all jab against the sight of the crows. ("Maleficent must not prevail with her terror!" proclamations declare across the country.)

Then, with fearing for his daughter not subsiding, he takes the fight one step further – to slay her.

Much of the King's men are frightened by the prospect of facing Maleficent's wrath, but that is what they're trained for, no? To serve their country to whatever lengths needed.

The scouts are sent out in search of the witch, and at first, no sign of her turns up, but when Charles is advised about the rumours regarding the forest by Gaumont, he sends a full siege party with pyromancers to raze the trees down – instinct telling him this is where Maleficent resides.

Even if it means destroying the location of his private memory, and razing the landscape with smoke.

"3.. 2.. 1.. loose!" By the siege commander's call, the pyromancers set aflame the trees (which have been doused with oil) – the wind blowing drives the flames inward, threatening to devour the forest.

Maleficent acutely senses the malice being done to her home. Furious, she conjures up the waters from the pond, and sends the droplets to the burning areas, where the flames are extinguished in a bout of hissing steam.

"They will not drive me away so easily," she tells Raki, hurriedly, knowing the soldiers would persist. "But if they grab ahold of you – I wouldn't know what to do. Raki. I don't want to see them hurt you, or turn you against me."

Raki is distraught; this is the end of the dream as he knows it. "Mal.. what are we going to do?"

"I'll send you away – to Italy. I know a good friend, Antonio, a museum curator; he'll take care of you in my absence. He'll be kind to you, and will give you a full life, the kind of life I could never give to you."

"No.. Mal! What about you? Won't you come away too..?"

A beat.

"I will," Maleficent tells him. "But if I run away now, from this battle, it's not a wound I've made to them that could be brushed aside easily, threatening the life of those bastards' child. I've made my humiliation clear to them, and now they want to return the favour by extinguishing me forever. They could hunt me down to the ends of the Earth.. and I don't want to carry that doom to you. You deserve to live a beautiful life – that is the greatest honour you can have, believe me. To live amidst other people, to be respected as a human being, instead of a freak."

A portal emerges from the pond, the waters forming a shimmering gateway to the rivers of Venice. Maleficent shoves a parchment in Raki's hands – it has a portrait of Antonio, with his fuzzy beard and curious eyes. "You'll find him in the Palazzo Ducale; tell him that Maria sent you to be taken care of.. I did him a romantic favour once."

"I'm not going without you Maleficent!" Raki cries. "I won't go, I won't go!"

"Together, we have no chance. What could you do? You'll be killed if you step into battle with me – I have my magick, and that is more than enough to handle their battalions. Raki, please go- the time I've had with you will be my fondest memories. I promise, when everything is over, I'll find you. We'll live the rest of our lives as happily as we could, make money and friends, eat rich food.."

"No, you're just saying that so I won't worry-"

"I love you, Raki." A genuine smile on her face, as she caresses his cheeks one more time with her fingers. "Go now, go to that better place. I'm going to get rid of them all." She winks.

"I'm sorry I called you an evil murderer," Raki goes, holding her.

"I'm sorry I clinged onto hate for this long. Look what it's done to me already, look what's about to happen. It's revenge bouncing back-and-forth. I hope you never get hurt like I have."

You can hear the chanting cries of the soldiers from the distance; they are swarming in.

"Go," Maleficent says, and Raki hurriedly steps into the portal, looking back at her before he disappears from her sight for the next 20 years.

Then the soldiers arrive, their pikes and crossbows aimed at her, and the first thing they notice is her calm and resolute eyes.