Introduction:

I have gone by many names through the years but the one most people remember is "The Sorcerer" although "Merlin" is also a pretty popular one in most lands. These are the names that some fear, most admire or dream about, these are the names that made my legend over the centuries.

I never thought that someone as old or as powerful as I am would ever find himself at a crossroad where the choices to make were to keep the woman I truly love or the daughter I love and have desired for a very long time.

My daughter is my sun, my joy, my life… I've craved for a child to love and spoil my entire life, even before I met Nimue, and now, no matter what I do, I won't be able to see her grow up.

When I fell in love with her mother, I truly believed that I'd be able to bring her back to the good side, to take the darkness out of her heart and change her, but I failed. I know that she loves me in her own way, and her love might even have been true, but she loves her power more and when she learned that our daughter would be powerful and special, she decided that she'd use her heart in a ritual to get more power for herself. She needed that power to destroy one of her enemies and I wish I had been able to change her mind.

It broke my heart but I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't allow her to kill our daughter for something so selfish, or anything really. I just couldn't let her kill our daughter.

I loved her despite her dark heart and I didn't know what to do. Even though I created my magical hat for people just like her, knowing what awaited people inside it, I couldn't bring myself to suck her in it. I still loved her and I couldn't handle the thought that she wouldn't be alive anymore so I did the next best thing: I erased myself, our love and our daughter from her memory. I erased everything she had learned from me and created fake memories before I banished her to another realm, the one I had met her in when we first fell in love.

Before I did that, I tried simply erasing her hatred for her enemy but I failed. That hatred was simply stronger than the love she had for me and for her own daughter. I know that she loved our Bella, I saw her look when she gave birth and saw her for the first time. She loved us, but she hated her enemy more. Emotions are powerful feelings and it just happens that this time, Love wasn't stronger than hate. Maybe someday it'll change and she'll be ready to change, but not now. Not yet.

Without that hatred, she wouldn't have gone after our daughter's powerful heart, I could have solved it all a long time ago by allowing my love to suck her enemy in my hat but I was determined to keep the hat for people who couldn't possibly be redeemed and there was still a chance for that person's redemption, even today. If I started using this hat and its power for my personal ease, then what would differentiate me from the villains I tried to stop?

Our daughter was 2 days old when I forced her mother to leave and I was sure that after that, I'd be happy with my baby girl for the rest of our lives but then I was hit by a vision of the future, one that changed everything and darkened the bright future I had hoped for.

There are many different creatures in all the realms and among them, only one of them is immune to my power and my hat: Vampires, Cold One vampires.

Their tick marble skin makes them immune to my magic and their bloodlust makes them more dangerous than any other creatures. I once saw a Cold One Vampire destroy a group of 5 Bridge Trolls on his own, in less than 10 minutes and my hat was powerless against them.

Of course they'd be the ones to plan an attack against my little girl. They'd want her power, her blood, and would kill her for it because her blood would make anyone of their race who drank it much stronger, more powerful.

I studied every possible course of action for 3 whole days before I came to the realization that the only way to keep her safe from them was for her to grow up without me, away from me.

She couldn't know who I was, who she was. She couldn't know of the love I had for her. I didn't want her to be alone so I used my powers to locate someone she'd be close to, someone that would be her friend, almost like a sister to her.

I knew this magic would have a price but I was willing to pay it. I refused to see my daughter grow up alone and unloved and I refused to allow her to be in danger simply because she'd have inherited my enemies.

My magic guided me to another little girl, born on the same day as my Bella, sent away in the realm without magic by her parents to escape the Evil Queen's dark curse only minutes after her birth. Little Emma and my Bella were kindred spirits, written in the stars, destined to be friends, no matter what.

I cast a small spell to make sure they'd stay close to each other and that they'd always know how to find one another.

I couldn't leave anything to chance in this world where magic was so rare and difficult to create but in a way, I was glad that this was the place where baby Emma was sent to. A world with the technology to create fire and kill Cold Ones, even if they didn't know about them, would be one of the safest for my baby girl.

Bella would help Emma believe and together, they'd be even stronger. They'd be capable of holding their own against the Dark One if they'd wished or needed it. Maybe even to stop him if necessary.

Right after I found little Emma, my magic located another little girl, born a couple of months earlier, that could be close to Bella and Emma. Her name was Lilly and she had an interesting star shaped birthmark on the wrist. I could have added her to the spell to keep her close to the girls but it would have taken more time and she wasn't as perfect as Emma for my Bella, she was weaker and I saw that she would lie to them and betray their trust at some point because of the darkness she had inherited from her mother. Her heart held a very big potential for darkness, I couldn't risk them being touched by it. She would find them at some point in their lives and have a chance at joining them, but I wouldn't help her. I didn't have time for that and she wasn't my concern.

Lilly had been lucky when she found a family that wanted her. I hope that one day we'll find a way to reunite her with her mother but for now, I couldn't take care of her too. The Author was punished for what he forced my Apprentice to do to her, that's all I can give her right now. I had to watch out for my daughter, keep an eye out on the Cold Ones. Even if what happened to her was partially my fault for not stopping the Author sooner, I couldn't take responsibility for her fate as well, not now, not when I had so many other things to take care of.

Unfortunately, strong magic always comes with a price, even for me and the price of my daughter's safety was that the only way for me to have my daughter again, would be for someone close to her to look for me, find me. She wouldn't be able to find me herself, even if I was to stand right in front of her. I wouldn't be able to see her and she wouldn't be able to see me while other people would see us. Someone else she knew had to find me first and introduce us, knowing I was her father. The limits of my magic prevented me from seeing who would do it but I was confident that it would happen.

The good thing was that I'd be able to watch out for her and what happened in her life but I wouldn't be able to reach out, I wouldn't be able to give her obvious clues.

The only loophole I could find was that I would be able to guide the Truest Believer and help him make the Savior believe because it had nothing to do with me or my daughter and everything to do with the Dark Curse. I decided to do so in the form of a Storybook capable of helping people believe, one that told the story of the people the Evil Queen touched with her dark spell. To do that, I asked my apprentice to send me the Quill he confiscated from the current Author before imprisoning him in the Book.

Once I received the quill, all I had to do was write the book, tell the stories the Author should have told and, at the end of the book, I added a special little paragraph that would guide the Truest believer to me, if he read carefully and believed hard enough. He would be the one reuniting me with my daughter, I knew it, I had faith.

It might take 30 years before someone tries to look for me but I don't care. I know it will happen eventually and when it does, I'll finally have my daughter with me and be able to hold her. I know that her smile will be enough to make up for our lost years. It's not like I can grow old anyway. I've been thirty for over a thousand years, I'll still be thirty when I find her.

I live in a large house, a mansion really, that's located between worlds. Because of my last fight with Nimue, I'm banned from leaving this house in certain realms. I can't go to Camelot (or the Enchanted Forest, their lands in the same realms) again before someone powerful enough, the Savior or my daughter, opens the door for me. The house has a solid place in every realm and a door to allow me to get there. I already have my mansion hidden in Storybrook but the curse that prevents me from reaching Camelot extended to Storybrook when the curse took people from the Enchanted Forest here. It linked the two places. I'll be locked in my private quarters in there until she frees me and she'll only be able to do it from Camelot, once she finds my door, which was hidden in the form of a tree by the first Dark One. Thankfully, I'm still able to reach my faithful apprentice. He'll put them on the right path for me.

Of course, it's invisible for now, they'll be able to see it once the magic is brought back but I have faith. Everything happens in due time, I just have to be patient. Even if I can't see everything, I can see enough and my faith does the rest. Everything is possible as long as we believe in people.

Still, it's not easy…

I'm able to reach into any realm I please from Oz to Wonderland, including Neverland or Narnia and have all the power a man with white magic could dream of. I managed to keep a pretty pure heart while collecting powers and have lived a very long life. I've drunk from the Holy Grail and have gained life magic from it. I've created entire realms, saved plants and animals from extinction… Yet I feel imprisoned and weak anywhere I go because I don't have my little girl in my arms.

I've wanted a child for so long… A long time ago I thought that I'd have her with Nimue and when she became the first Dark One, I figured I'd never love again or have children…

All that's left for me is to be patient and to keep on believing that good always wins, no matter how hard it is.

If I lose my faith, I'll lose everything so I'll just have to hold on. I will see my daughter again, we will be reunited. I'm sure of it because she is my happy ending and after all the good I've done in my life, I know that I deserve it.

So here I am now, watching from another realm as strangers take my little Bella and take care of her until someone adopts her, which I saw would never happen.

I already know who will take her in, I've seen it.

Emma was taken in by Billy Swan and his wife. My Bella will be taken in by Charlie and Renee Swan, Billy's brother. It won't last. The parents will give up on them and on the adoption in a few years, once they have their own children but it will set the course of the future for Bella and Emma. They'll be in and out of each other's lives until they become adults. I know that life won't be easy for either of them but as long as they stick together, they'll go through everything. They'll survive and grow stronger each time.

It doesn't matter if I'm alone, my daughter won't be. She'll be happy, and we will be reunited… eventually.

So, what did you think of the first chapter of this rewrite? Not much have changed so far just details.

I'm already working on chapter 15, so rewritting was a good idea but some chapters are still longer to write.

In the future, the Sorcerer's thoughts will in in italic.

Review please, let me know what you think and what you'd like to see happening, who knows, maybe I'll make it happen.

Lorelei Candice Black