A/N: I missed the Maleficent anniversary by virtue of… being in the woods… but I realized that, as of today, it has been exactly 365 days since I posted the first installment of my Glass and Iron series on tumblr, and I decided that finally bringing it to a close one year later was just right.

Have this final little glimpse.

To End an Age

"Sabrina is asking for a bedtime story," Tris said with a smile, joining Maleficent and Aurora in the shade of the undying rowan.

Aurora laughed. "Of course she is." As any mother of a toddler was want to be, Tris looked exhausted with happiness, and even after so many centuries since her own time raising Ava, Aurora understood.

Tris was a granddaughter of the Moors many, many times over, but after one or two "greats" were added, it became far too much of a hassle, and it made Aurora feel old. Now, all of their descendants were "granddaughter" until they grew older than she and Maleficent appeared, then "daughter" until they passed.

None since Ava had spent enough time in the Moors to earn her wings. The draw of the growing world had proven too great, and so Aurora had grown used to goodbyes.

"I'll tell one, this time," Maleficent murmured, pressing a quick kiss to Aurora's forehead. She moved away through the deepening twilight towards the low-hanging nest in which Sabrina was falling asleep.

Aurora could hear Sabrina's delighted laughter drift back through the trees as she cried,"Avia!"

Though Aurora had never minded being "grandmother" to the many children who had passed through the Moors, Maleficent had always preferred the old tongue, and being "Avia" saved the confusion of having one too many "grandmas" too make sense of. As Maleficent's soothing voice calmed Sabrina's enthusiastic greeting, she and Tris shared a smile.

"Tell me of the world," Aurora said, beckoning Tris to sit beside her on a fallen tree. "I can still hardly wrap my mind around the 'cellular devices' your grandmother showed me, but I'd love to hear what life is like out there."

Tris chuckled. "We're way past cell phones these days, and I think we're finally past any danger to the Moors, too."

"Is that so? Are we still a… 'nature preserve?'" Aurora asked. She found the thought that the land beyond their borders believed they had done anything to preserve her world rather comical, but as towering cities of glass and steel had replaced the realms of iron, their little haven of breathing forest had become an object of some political importance. There had been centuries when the world had forgotten them completely, losing belief in magic and the fae, and then there had been centuries of war, centuries of fear and fire and an endless destruction of the natural world. Then, as Ava's children and her children's children continued making the pilgrimage to visit the fabled Moors, there had come a time of regrowth and rediscovery. Any number of strange papers were signed, and Aurora had laughed at seeing herself described as an "endangered species," but Maleficent believed their interaction with the larger human world might pull it back from the brink of self-destruction.

Finally, there had been centuries of uneasy peace.

"You might say that," Tris answered. "Actually, it's alla nature preserve these days. We're planting forests on top of the cities and gardens on the moon. I think, after all this time, we're finally figuring it out."

Aurora shivered as a cold breeze brushed the hair away from the back of her neck, but she shook off the sudden chill and took hold of her granddaughter's hand. "That's wonderful news. Sabrina must be growing up in a beautiful world."

"That she is."

As another joyous laugh pierced the night, Tris stood with a grin. "C'mon. I know you're not going to miss saying goodnight."

Aurora smiled. She wasn't sure she'd ever catch up to the strange ways language and technology had changed in her absence, but the joy of children was unaffected by the passage of years.

"Grandma 'Rora!" Sabrina screeched happily when Aurora joined Maleficent at the side of the vine-woven nest.

"You don't look very sleepy, little one," Aurora said, bending over and tickling Sabrina's belly as she giggled with far too much energy for this time of night.

"Storytime!" she squeaked, futily batting at Aurora's hands.

"Haven't you just had one?"

Sabrina pouted. "I want your story."

"My story," Aurora gasped in mock annoyance. "You heard it only last night!"

Sabrina's pout grew even more focused and far more adorable.

Maleficent slipped an arm about Aurora's waist. "I want to hear it, too." At Aurora's unamused glance, Maleficent kissed the side of her neck and whispered, "What can I say? It is her favorite, after all, and no one tells it quite like you."

Aurora sighed. There was no use protesting against these two. "Oh, very well. How does it start again?" she teased the girl in the nest.

In a small, determined voice, Sabrina prompted, "Lewus tell an old story a-new…"

"Ah yes. Let us tell and old story anew..." she echoed. "And we will see how well you know it. Once upon a time, there were two kingdoms that were the worst of neighbors. So vast was the discord between them, that it was said only a great hero or a terrible villain might bring them together. In one kingdom live folk like you and me..."

Maleficent was quiet throughout the tale, tracing her fingertips over the back of Aurora's neck and shoulders with the familiarity of endless years spent side-by-side. The story spun on, meeting the unnamed princess and her dark faerie as though for the first time, and Aurora's gentle voice carried the listeners back through the ages to another era in the Moors. Her words galloped to Stefan's castle and wandered a world where the greatest dangers were found at the heart of an iron fortress, then carried them safely out the other side and into the skies beyond.

"…So you see, the story is not quite as you were told, and I should know, for I was the one they called 'Sleeping Beauty.' In the end, my kingdom was united not by a hero or a villain, as legend had predicted, but by one who was both hero, and villain."Turning her head, she shared a loving smile with the faerie at her side as she offered, "And her name wasMaleficent."

Sabrina had heard the story oh so many times before, but as she always had, she giggled and exclaimed, "But that's you, Avia!"

"That it is," Maleficent answered in her most serious tone as she reached over to tickle the precious girl. Even as she squirmed and squealed with laughter, Maleficent added, "And you know very well Grandma Aurora used to be a princess. But I do believe that's enough dragons and adventure for one night… off to bed with you!"

No amount of pleading eyes and exclamations of "but mom" would convince Tris or her grandmothers to let her stay up any longer, and there was a look in Aurora's eye that had Maleficent drawing them away after only a hurried goodnight to their guests.

"Is everything alright?" Maleficent asked.

Aurora glanced back to where Tris had tucked her daughter into the nest. "I… I dreamed of her last night," Aurora murmured as she followed Maleficent further from their grandchildren.

"Who, Sabrina?"

"No. The Moors."

Maleficent's step faltered and she braced her hand against the nearest tree. "Did you really?"

"Yes," Aurora replied. "I was afraid, at first. She was just as you described, and I felt… I felt like a little human girl again. But she didn't speak. She just looked at me. She saw me, and I sensed that she… she approved." Aurora reached out and rested a hand against her dark faerie's shoulder. "We've done so much."

Maleficent nodded. "That we have, Beastie," she replied, voice rumbling from deep in her chest. "That we have."

"You know, then."

"I do."

"Tris told me how the world has changed. They have finally grown mindful and perhaps… perhaps there is no more need of a Protector."

"Perhaps so," whispered the dark silhouette.

"Our time is nearly up."

"Yes."

The stood in silence beneath the trees, the wind and moonlight caressing the timeless mistresses of the Moors with the same reverent joy it had for so many centuries past.

"Fly with me?" Aurora asked.

"Of course."

They rose together through the trees, watching the Moors fall away below them as the stars beckoned above. On a night as cloudless as this, they could easily see to the nearest city, spires of silvery steel and smooth, dark glass clawing their way towards the heavens. Once, such a sight would have made Aurora shudder with rage at the audacity of human greed, but now, lit with thousands of tiny lights, the city appeared as little more than a fractured reflection of the starry sky above, and Aurora could feel that the earth upon which it had been built was beginning to… forgive.

Aurora drew Maleficent close and kissed her, folding her wings and letting her lover hold them aloft. They hovered together above the headwinds as they had so many times before, a dusting of magic flickering between their fingertips, but then Maleficent folded her wings, and let them fall.

The forest was rushing up to meet them, faerie lights a twinkling blur amid the branches, but as Aurora reveled in the dive, the lights seemed to draw together, blurring into something golden and glowing, as though the sun had decided to rise in the heart Moors instead of on the horizon. As Aurora spread her wings to slow her fall, she caught sight a figure in the center of all that brilliant light, a figure sprouting hundreds of roots anchoring her to the earth, but with the breast and hands and arms of a woman, reaching out to welcome them home.

The End.