Once We are Descendants

Chapter 73: A Bit Bizarre

The teen with blue hair looks mortified and can feel the tears in her eyes. She tries to hug Mal and Jay tighter to hide her shame.

Rumple comes over to the young teens, with concern on his face, but also a glimmer of intrigue in his eyes. He attempts to meet the girl's gaze.

"Were you playing with magic dear?" he inquires.

"I'm so sorry!" she whimpers. "I...I just wanted to see what I could do but then Mal surprised me and I...I"

"There's nothing to be sorry about Evie," Crystal says, coming over to join the group. "It was an accident and you didn't mean for it to happen."

"Indeed, it's okay to be curious about one's abilities," Rumple nods. "Especially since this is a new development."

"But magic is a serious thing," Emma adds. "And despite how easy everyone makes it look, it takes a lot of practice to be in control."

"I make it look easy," Crystal smirks jokingly, creating an orb of purple light in her palm. Emma elbows her in the ribs to cut it out, which she does. "But magic is strongly connected to your emotions..."

"And if Mallory has surprised you as you said, your magic acted as a sort of defence in connection to how you were feeling," Rumple says.

Mal sighs heavily. She hates the nickname that the Dark One has given her, but at least it was unique. She is technically named Maleficent, after her own mother, but they called her Mal for short. And it was not a name given out of love or tradition, the mistress of all Evil had done it out of vanity, desiring to let her daughter be named after the greatest person of all... herself. She didn't even try to be original or let her daughter have her individual identity, Mal was always meant to live in her mother's shadow, that is until she stood up to the dragon lady at the coronation.

"And it appears that Mallory's magic did the same thing, defending against an attack, unintentional as it was," he finishes. Crystal can tell that her father is excited by this display of magic, perhaps allowing him to relive his glory days of training powerful individuals like Regina.

Evie still looks utterly frightened by this and when she lets go of her best friends, she notices that her hands a glowing blue. The light flickers under Evie's gloves.

Immediately, Crystal and Emma are at the girl's side. They knew what the girl was going through and they had to help her.

"It's okay Evie," Emma says gently. "I know it can be scary and you didn't mean to hurt anyone, but panicking is not going to help."

"She's right," Crystal nods. "Being afraid of who you are and what you have doesn't help. Magic is a beautiful thing and it does take a lot to control it, but the more you hate it, the worse it gets."

"You won't hurt others if you simply accept yourself and think about love," Emma adds. Her mind shudders with the memories of when Ingrid the Snow Queen got to her personal insecurities and she ended up nearly hurting her dad and blasting Henry back when her magic became unstable. She regrets doing these things, but she always remembers what Elsa had told her that love and self-acceptance were the keys to control. Accepting her magic allowed her to gain control again and she'd be forever grateful to the real Snow Queen for this advice.

Crystal could also relate deeply to the experience, though hers came more from two opposing forces of energy that fought for dominance. It took her a long time to find the balance and even now her magic could still be unstable, but it wasn't out of self-doubt or lack of love, it was just the darkness being darkness. She did resent what was inside herself, but she learned to tolerate it as it was better for everyone.