Chapter 7: Wherein A Child Arrives and We Attend Two Weddings

"Rumplestiltskin, a fairy?" Belle was incredulous.

"No, my child," Celestria corrected. "He will have the use of fairy dust and wands, but he will remain human." She turned to Rumplestiltskin. "You will live as a human, with a home and a son and, I trust, a wife, but you will guide the fairies as their king."

His eyes gleamed as he looked to Belle; in them, I could see a little of the old imp, relishing the thought of leading a fight or two against Regina. I could also see the human, willing to serve his fellow man in a role for which he was uniquely suited. He saw his destiny presented to him in Blue's outstretched hands, and so did Belle. With a grin she said, "I should be honored to be a king's consort—and to fight alongside him in the name of love."

Blue set the wand in his hands and gave a little shudder of relief.

"You, my steadfast and courageous servant, are welcome home," Celestria gave Blue a hug. "You have earned your retirement; you are free."

Blue curtsied. "Thank you, my queen." She stepped back to stand among the goddess' attendants, and as she did, her appearance changed: her wings vanished, and in place of her tutu and steep heels, sandals and white gown of silk appeared.

"One more favor I ask of the two of you," Celestria addressed Belle and Rumplestiltskin. "Will you do me the honor of permitting me to unite you in matrimony?"

Belle clasped her hands. "Thank you! Oh, Celestria, thank you!"

Her husband-to-be bowed. "It's we who are honored, goddess."

Celestria seemed quite pleased with herself. She surveyed the couple, Belle in her gold-trimmed ball gown, Rumplestiltskin in his red robes. "You are already dressed for the occasion, and you have the ring, I see, and you have a maid of honor"—meaning me. "All that lacks is a best man." She glanced over her shoulder.

We all followed her gaze, but it happened too fast for us to catch: a blur of color and sound came streaking across the temple and flew at Rumplestiltskin, seizing him by the waist and nearly bowling him over. "Papa!"

When my eyes finally caught up with the blur, I discovered that its maker was a tousle-haired boy, just a shade shorter than the man he was hugging. Although he was dressed in strange garb, there could be no doubt who he was.

Rumplestiltskin lifted the boy's face to study it in stunned silence, then as the youngster squeezed him tight and cried, "Papa, papa, papa," into his chest, the imp bowed his head over the boy's and gasped, "Thank the gods, thank the gods—and the goddess" before he broke into tears.

In the Enchanted Forest, tradition among the royals dictates that a wedding celebration last seven days; tradition among the peasants, who cannot afford to miss so much time away from the fields, let alone feed and house guests for so long, dictates that the celebration last two.

The bride was a noblewoman; her husband, a newly made king; and the officiator, the goddess of love. So the wedding of Belle and Rumplestiltskin lasted twelve days.

When Celestria sent us home again, we were greeted by my entire tribe. Blue accompanied us, just to ease Rumplestiltskin's transition into his new role. Acceptance, as you can imagine, did not come easily; among some of the tribe, it didn't come at all, and they left to serve in another tribe. But as Celestria had foretold, and as Blue demanded, the singers and the poets soon added the Conqueror to their tales of fairy-heroes, and my sisters, remembering how he had saved them from Regina, and trusting that the magic he wielded now—magic that smelled and tasted like their own—would prove just as strong as the new Dark One's powers, learned to ignore his strange ways. The presence of Bae and Belle helped, for, my sisters reasoned, if those two (even though they were just humans) could love him, he couldn't be all bad. As he walked among them, advising them, teaching them, they came to see that the magic flowing under his skin—pink now, no longer greenish-gold—was the same as theirs.

Hatred, I've learned, is like a steel-striker: it requires a flint to make a fire. Though he bore the name of the one they'd long hated, he looked very little now like him; in his appearance and his manner, the fairies could find no flint. But love, as our poets say, is like a waterfall, yielding but persistent, gentle but powerful, and gradually wearing down all that resists it. Those who struck up against him were answered with patience and courtesy; those who sought his counsel were answered with wisdom and humor; and those who kept their distance were yet impressed by the tenderness he showed his son and his wife—humans, for you will remember, fairies were created to love humans. And when they came at last to see that he was no longer an imp, they had to admit then that he was a human, and therefore it was in their nature to love him too.

Any doubters who remained were won over when he won his first battle against Regina as their king.

Blue remained with us about a year before returning to the temple, where she would work a little, assisting in the creation of new fairies, and frolic a lot, among the lambs and the kids.

I remained with my tribe another two years, enjoying the company of my friends, their son Bae, and the daughter whom the gods gave as a gift to celebrate their union. But though I relinquished the anger I'd bore against my sisters, I had changed, in the years I'd lived in the Dark Castle, too much to fit into the tribe again. I became restless. Watching the new family, I came to experience emotions that fairies don't have, a longing for things fairies don't wish for, and in the evenings as I strolled alone in the forest, I began to form a request of my own.

And then the goddess answered.

Wondering about the state of the Dark Castle, Belle and Rumplestiltskin asked me to go and inspect it. The magic instilled in its walls had weakened and faded out, and they wondered what damage intruders might have done. They had no intention, however, of returning, or even reclaiming any of the treasures that the imp had made so many deals to acquire; those things belonged in the past. They expressed a wish to sell the castle and let the profits be distributed among the descendants of the innocents to whom the Dark One had caused suffering.

This gave me an idea. Once the castle and its antiquities had been sold, could we not, I suggested shyly, find a better purpose for the library?

"What purpose, Tori?" Rumplestiltskin asked, but Belle smiled; she already knew. And so they sent me back to the Dark Castle, where my magic and I cleaned and sorted and classified and priced; a full year it took, but at least I finished, and I went out into the world for the first time, a merchant now, and I sold Rumplestiltskin's treasures for very fine prices, excepting the things that had belonged to Bae and Belle: these I sent back to them. Many years I traveled, making sales, tracking down the beneficiaries, and pressing money into their hands, explaining, "Long ago, a man did your family a terrible wrong, and he now begs you to accept this as a token of his regret." No one refused the money, although few of them remembered the wrong for which recompense was being offered.

At last, the final debt paid, I returned to the Dark Castle to rest a short while before I completed my work for Rumplestiltskin: selling the castle. It was not as difficult as I had expected, for now that Rumplestiltskin the Dealer was long gone, his former home had taken on a fascination for some; I sold the castle quickly.

And then I went to work for myself. Taking the money from the sale of the castle, I hired strong men with wagons to remove the books—carefully, carefully, so as not to undo Belle's and my efforts, those many years ago—and I hired stone masons, and they built for me a rather large estate, as Rumplestiltskin would say; and when the masons had finished their work, the wagon drivers began theirs, and the books were brought into the estate and carefully, carefully placed on shelves, and when this work too was finished, I called my estate a library and I opened it to all.

After my long years of labor, I was ready to rest.

Rumplestiltskin and Belle came to see my work; their grandchildren read stories alongside the village children in the ground floor of my library, while their children browsed the upper floors, alongside scholars and statesmen and generals and shoemakers and thatchers and bakers—and spinners. The former owners of these books were well pleased with my choice. As we talked over tea of all that had happened in our lives since those days in the Dark Castle Library, we agreed we had achieved all we were meant to, and most of what we had wished to, and we knew Celestria to be satisfied. Regina had been kept in check, the fairies had learned compassion and understanding, and Rumplestiltskin had finally found love in the arms of his family.

We sipped our tea and agreed we had done well. Yet there was a lingering nagging longing in me that my travels and my accomplishments had never satisfied—

And then the goddess and Rumplestiltskin answered my remaining request.

"Tori, if you don't find it pushy of me, I'd like to bring someone to meet you. His name is Terrowin; he's the father of Bae's wife, a kind and quiet man, but lonely since his wife passed several years ago. . . ."

"And he loves books," Belle added.

And the goddess added, "I would so enjoy performing another wedding!"

What you are capable of feeling, you are capable of giving.

A/N. As I was writing this story, "for some reason I can't explain" two Coldplay songs kept playing in my head; "Viva la Vida" seems such a good fit for Rumple, and "Fix You" a good match for Belle. This story is dedicated to Rumbellers everywhere. Though our ship be tossed in stormy seas and threatened by pirates, she'll carry us through. Aye, mates, she's a worthy ship!