Hellfire | Isle of the Lost

TWENTY-SIX: The Dragon's Strength

So I'm sleeping, then? Or am I awake? Or maybe I'm dreaming? Because Mal knew she was seeing something else as well. She wasn't in the Forbidden Fortress anymore.

She was in a palace, and there was good King Stefan and his queen and a baby in a cradle. They were happy. She could see by the light in their faces, and by the way their eyes never left the child.

Almost like a magnet, Mal thought. I know how that pull feels.

A huge, gaily-dressed crowd of courtiers and servants and guests assembled in a beautiful throne room around them. There were two good fairies hovering above the cradle, their wands making beautiful sparkles in the air. It was all so sweet, it was sickening. Mal had never seen anything like it, not up close like this. Not in some kind of insipid storybook.

What is this? Why am I seeing this?

"Because you need to understand," replied a strong male voice that Mal didn't recognize. 

Who are you? What is this? What's going on?

The voice merely chuckled, "Just keep watching." 

Then a green ball of fire appeared in the middle of the room, and when it dispersed, Mal saw a familiar face. 

Her mother. Tall, haughty, beautiful, and scorned. Maleficent was angry. Mal could feel the cold heat rising from her very being. She stared at her mother.

Maleficent addressed the crowd gathered around the royal family. "Ah, I see everyone has been invited. The royalty, nobility, the gentry, and the rabble. I must say, I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation."

What was her mother talking about? Then Mal realized. Maleficent had not been invited to Aurora's christening. Mal had never known this was the reason her mother hated parties and celebrations of all kinds.

But she knew exactly how her mother felt. The hurt. The shame. The anger. The desire for revenge. Mal had felt exactly the same thing, hadn't she? When Evil Queen had thrown her party for Evie, all those years ago and kept her out?

Mal watched as her mother cursed the baby Princess Aurora to sleep a hundred years if she pricked her finger even once on a spindle. It was some fine spellcraft, and Mal was proud of her mother's efficiency, her power, her simple rendering. One prick of one finger could bring an entire royal house crashing down. It was a beautiful, terrible destiny. Well-woven. Deeply felt.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Because this story is the one you've been trying to emulate your whole life. But it does not belong to you, Little Dragon. You are not your mother and you never will be."

The words hurt the daughter of Maleficent, striking at an insecurity hidden deep within her. "You're wrong. I can do it. I can be evil, ruthless, and mean just like her."

"But what do you feel when you look at her?" 

Pride, Mal thought instantly. Mal was proud of Maleficent. She always had been, and she always would be. Maleficent had raised her daughter alone, and gotten by as best she could. If only because there was no one else to do it. But her mother was made for Evil; she was good at it.

"And what else?" The voice continued as if it could read her mind. "What else do you feel for your mother when you think of all that she did? The prices that she had to pay for her actions?" 

Mal thought about all that her mother had to go through, not just the part where she had cursed Princess Aurora and her entire kingdom. Maleficent was defeated in the end, a sword thrown through her heart by Prince Phillip. The great Mistress of All Evil had met her end, her soul transported to land over which Helena's parents ruled. Though she was brought back to the land of the living, Maleficent was banished from Auradon. She was sent to the island, where she had to spend the rest of her days in poor living conditions and no access to her magic.