The Impostor

Perfect Balance

"What?" Merryweather stared at the golden-haired fairy, mouth opened, blue eyes growing as big as saucers. "M-Mother?" She croaked.

"Yes, dear," the yellow fairy answered in a mild voice, as if nothing were surprising in the least, "long time no see, is it not?"

"Mother." Flora, who seemed to be the only one of the three sisters who had managed to get a hold on her senses, said in a firm voice. "What are you doing here? We thought you were-"

"Dead?" The tall shining fairy supplied as she raised a pale lean finger to rest on her lips thoughtfully, her voice as light as ever, as if she were merely discussing the weather. "Well, yes, I had feared you might have assumed as much. However, as you can see, I am most certainly not dead."

"Obviously." Maleficent drawled, speaking dangerously slowly, thus interrupting the family reunion without an ounce of regret, as could be seen on her perfectly smooth, impassive features. "Now, you will answer to me." She addressed the new comer coldly, pointing her staff at the yellow fairy menacingly as she extended her free arm in front of the Queen Aurora in an odd protective manner. "What gave you the right to trespass on my domain?"

Stella only smiled sincerely as she showed her hands palms opened to the wicked fairy in an attempt at pacifying.

"I thought you would already know, Maleficent. After all, I warned you all those years ago."

Maleficent stiffened visibly, dark eyebrows frowning in blatant wariness, and her voice was deadly quiet. "What are you talking about?"

"Why, you know very well what I am referring to, Maleficent." Stella replied gently, her smile never wavering. As she met the green-skinned fairy's glowering dark eyes, she nodded wisely. "Yes. I am merely ensuring that the Prophecy will indeed come to fruition. And, judging from what I have seen so far," her twinkling amber eyes drifted to Aurora and her smile widened, "my intervention is highly unnecessary."

Maleficent's murdering eyes widened in realization, and her lean hand tightened around her sceptre. "You wretched fairy!" She howled, raising her arms towards the sky. "How dare you!"

As the dark fairy was about to aim her staff at the yellow fairy, a small hesitant hand seized her free arm, and a soft, but no less steady voice, interrupted her motion in mid air.

"Maleficent, wait." And Aurora's voice was that of a queen, authoritative, commanding, and yet soothing, mesmerising. That caused all four women to turn towards the human woman. "I am sure Mistress Stella didn't come here to threaten you. Let us listen to what she has to say." At Maleficent's silence, she continued bravely, her hand slowly sliding down the black-covered arm to lace her fingers with Maleficent's. "Please." She whispered as she stepped forward to stand at the older woman's side.

A tense silence took over the throne room of the Forbidden Mountains. All fairies were frozen in place, waiting in dread for Maleficent's reaction to Aurora's bold move. After what felt like an eternity, the wicked fairy seemed to unwind. Her body apparently relaxed, she lowered her arms and took a step back.

"Very well." She nodded sternly at the yellow fairy. She knocked the ground with her sceptre as she ordered in a harsh, contemptuous tone. "Now, speak."

"Thank you, Mistress Maleficent." Stella bowed slightly at the dark fairy in recognition. "Now, listen to me, all of you."

The three good fairies startled at hearing similar words as the ones Maleficent pronounced twenty years ago, on that fateful day of princess Aurora's baptism, but they focused their attention on their mother nonetheless.

"Over a thousand years ago," the sage fairy began in a more solemn voice, "I came here, to that same hall, to deliver a very powerful fairy a Prophecy. In that Prophecy lay an opportunity, as well as a fair warning. The exact words of the prediction were the following."