Dark Times

History of Book

"You were good and became evil, now you will see these two turn against you."

"Are you sure that's it?"

"It may vary one word or another, but the meaning is the same."

Helena translated the note found under Tulipa's dead body and handed the translation to her old friends.

"So, is she close?"

"Quite likely, what will we do?"

"Marlin sent me a message saying that Mal has overloaded his powers again."

Fairy Godmother said thinking how to reverse this for their benefit.

"What does that mean?"

"If we provoke a situation for her to use her powers, Mal will have a huge burden and can cause damage."

"Meaning Auradon and Ben won't like that."

Helena explained not wanting to do that.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous? From what I've been studying, this girl's magic is unpredictable and very strong."

Cirse asked.

"But, it might be enough to encourage the people to see that she won't be a good ruler, Helena, what do you think?"

"I think it's dangerous, Mal is the daughter of Maleficent, even we can't measure the size of her magic."

Fairy Godmother raised an important point.

"Are you people crazy? Do you want to live through another war? Let's not put everyone's lives at risk because some idiot king fell in love!"

"Making that girl use her magic is putting people's lives at risk just the same!"

"Nothing compares to her and you know it!"

"That's enough! Arguing is pointless! The meeting is over, let's just focus on what's important, separating Ben from her and that will happen without interfering with Mal's magic, understand?"

Helena shouted breaking up the senseless fight they started

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Are you kids? That love is fragile, we just have to force it to break. Mal has full support in her friends and him, just push them away and she'll collapse on her own. As for Ben, if he loses trust in her, he's gone."

Anyone who heard Fairy Godmother say that might doubt that she was one of the kindest fairies in Fairy Tales.

"Will you sort it out then?"

"I won't jeopardize this world, I promised to take care of the Fairy Tales, and I will keep my promise."

Fairy Godmother said certain of her convictions.

(...)

Two weeks later

Fairy Godmother really got what she wanted, to take Mal away from the ones she loved. Ben and Evie were taking care of Tulip's murder which was a total mystery to them.

Auradon was not used to facing this kind of problem and Ben asked Evie for help, because she probably knew more people than he did and as a counselor she could go through different departments of the kingdom. Mal also couldn't count on Jay who was having problems with the new kids and Carlos had to deal with an escape of the dogs from the shelter.

Mal was alone with the organizers of her wedding and was getting more and more stressed, as Helena had predicted. Miraculously, she managed to get away from everyone and is now in Belle's big library. The quiet place full of flowers presided over the strangest event, at least for Lady. Mal was looking for a book to read and spend time and while walking through the aisles and scouring the shelves, a book jumped off the shelf and fell to the floor making a loud noise throughout the library. The girl was startled and tried to understand where it came from or who did it, however it was in vain, even though it was strange she picked up the book.

Hardcover, black, it looked old and carries the title: "villains", behind it was written "all the villains that ever existed". Obviously she was interested and picked it up to read it. The first chapter was about his mother. She smiled at the honorable mention, but she wasn't going to deny it, Mal always imagined how her life would have been if her mother hadn't been the super villain Maleficent.

The next chapters were about Evil Queen, Cruella De Vill and Jafar, then came Ursula, Gothel, Gaston, Hook among others. There was one page that looked like it had been torn out, but you could read "Agatha" at the top of the page. Who was Agatha? He had never seen anyone by that name on the Island or anywhere else. However, as Mal had an unusual curiosity, he could not resist and began to read what he had there about the character.

"Witch, at 18 began her mischief *********** was captured three years later by the then King Harrison**********council******"

It was all she could read, the rest of the page was stained and as soon as she put her hand under the black ink she knew it was from Ursula's tentacles, but who would put octopus ink in a book? Who is Agatha? King Harrison? Council? How had that book come about? The questions were so many and Mal was getting more and more curious. She didn't know why this woman had piqued her curiosity, but she wouldn't rest until she had her answers.

(...)

Far away Ben was with the royal guard trying to solve a crime.

"I'm sorry Ben, but there's no record of her in the school papers or the hospitals."

Evie said as soon as she arrived at the crime scene.

" Great, she's a complete stranger." King complained very tiredly. He hadn't been able to sleep since he heard about this crime. Coffee and his cell phone were his companions at the moment. "How is it possible? A person was murdered." Ben asked Evie, who was even more tired than him.

"Ben, let's find out what happened."

"This is chaos and it happened just two months before my wedding."

To Evie's dismay and headache, Ben tended to be very annoying when he was tired.

"Look Ben, I know you don't want to hear this right now, but you need to talk to Mal."

"Has something happened?"

"Mal needs us, I don't know the reason, but I feel it in me. I feel like she needs us."

Evie commented in relation to that feeling that had been plaguing her for weeks.

"I've been so busy with it the last few days that I don't think I've had time to talk to her."

"King Ben, you need to see this."

A guard walked over to the king, who followed him to the secluded spot.

"What is it?"

The woman's corpse had a huge hole in her back as if she had been hit by a haunting force, but they did not know a weapon that had such power, no Auradonian weaponry had such power.

"Magic."

Evie quickly ascertained.

"It looks like the magic of..."

"Mal."

Ben spoke analyzing at the resemblance of the green spatter that was surrounding the wound that probably killed the woman.