Purple and topaz slants of falling sun strafed dreamily across the fading sky high in the mountains where the Dark One called home. Peach toned rays played off the alabaster fangs of the mountains apex and late clouds puffed along the azure firmament as though in no hurry to get where they needed to be.

The dusk was a tranquil dream on the outside, but a querulous storm within the stone sanctum that resided in the orb of such beauty.

"Rumpel."

"No."

"I mean…"

"No."

"Be reasonable!"

"No."

"But Rumpel-," Belle sighed before she was cut off again.

"No."

"But-"

"No," The Dark One finalized simply in a no nonsense timbre and turned quickly to the woman that doggedly trailed his every step through his ostentatious home.

Whether he employed magic or not, the woman, his apprentice, his Belle had tagged along, through puffs of lilac smoke to swirling portals, a limpet who refused to be shaken, especially with the announcement he had made only half an hour before.

Taken off-guard by his sudden halt, Belle heeled dead in her tracks in order not to run into him. Her blue dress swished and curled about her legs at the sudden stop as she stood face to face with her currently impossible master. Defiance and unknowing sparkled in her cerulean depths but she stood her ground nevertheless in face of his obstinate manners. "I don't see why not, you let me go the last time you struck a deal, in fact every time since I struck the deal with those brothers you've let me tag along."

He would be off to make a deal again, which had sparked their entire spiral into the conversation at hand. All that needed to prod them into another clash was his crisp revelation he would be leaving for a few days and that she would not be coming along.

"That was different," Rumpel huffed and threw up his hands as though she were a fly to be shooed away by such an inconsequential gesture.

Belle remained fastidiously adamant. "How?" she challenged pithily, her lips turned into a stubborn frown. "Is every deal not important?"

"Some more important than others," he returned grimly, his voice bereft of the infamous impish timbre. "This is important. Too important and I can't risk you doing anything that might impede these deals."

Turning about again, the Dark One set off at a brisk pace. His leather buckled boots rapped a steady, heavy thud of finally over the rough stone floor, as though each pace was a gavel that slammed the discussion at a close. A displeased frown lined his scaled visage that became dappled glints of tawny gold in the fading light that told darkness drew near.

"How am I to ever learn if you don't take me into the real thing?" The beauty followed behind, not in the least perturbed by his invariable temper that swarmed just below his terse annoyance. "I am your apprentice, but you refuse to let me actually be your apprentice. I feel as though I'm but some… something to distract you away from deal making."

Guilt inordinately thrummed the already taunt strings of the Dark One's heart with the perceptive words. She was right in a way. She had been cooped up like one of his acquired bibelots, only being taken out when the fancy suited him. Her potential was great, and he needed what power lay beneath her, but she needed something to preoccupy that time.

She was a person, not a thing. Deals were her only time to be out and about, seeing the lands and breathing in the fresh air of the realms away from the dust and gaudiness of his keep. Deal making was a getaway for her, a place to escape for a few hours out of the dreary citadel.

Languidly, the fiend swiped a gray-gold claw before him and opened the double doors to the great hall and strode inside. Licking his dry lips, he stopped at the great table to gather a black satchel and his errant emotions.

As he checked the satchel to buy time, his mind raced. He shouldn't have felt that she was right, less cared. No matter how much she bickered and cajoled and reasoned, by his final decision she would have to obey, but….

"I'll tell you what, Belle." His lips twitched into a small smile in the rare hint of compromise. "No more grousing about not being able to go and we shall study anything you desire the next day."

Darkness scolded the Dark One angrily in his shriveled heart with such a luring offer. He could have commanded the subject dropped, he could have even relegated her to the dungeon for his stubborn will, but there he stood, playing the bargainer, trying to soothe her disappointment.

"Anything?" Her azure eyes narrowed faintly as though peering for a deception under his gray-gold hide. Such generosity was not like the master.

His smile grew wider displaying rows of slightly rounded black and yellow mottled teeth from behind his thin, gray lips. "Anything you please, Belle-of-mine."

"Deal." A smile as brilliant as the stars just beginning to peep out in the crepuscular hours donned her lovely visage. Whatever game he was playing she would discern later. For know, she decided promptly, taking him up on a offer he did not even have to give was the best plan.

Even as the words fled her mouth, an old grandfather clock tolled on the other end of the cavernous room.

Briskly smoothing out his bronze hued dragon hide jacket the fiend smiled with a hint of kindness at his apprentice. "There. I have to be going now, Belle-of-mine. I'll return faster than you'll miss me," he joked as though it were possible for him to be missed at all.

"That's utterly impossible." Her lips quirked into a gentle, genuine grin that encompassed everything that made her Belle. "I already miss you."

Always taken aback by her seeming truthfulness, the impish fiend stared deeply into her azure gaze. His scaled brow wrinkled with lines of perplexity as though trying to unravel what made her so genuine. His fathomless orbs searched her trying to uncover the cruel jest and yet there was none, just as there never had been.

If she sought to mock and make fool of him, certainly she was far too good for him to espy any malice. Which begged the question, why?

Forcefully clearing his throat, the fiend looked away and clutched his jacket tighter over himself. His spindly talons fumbled with the gold buttons so as too no longer drown in her soft gaze. "Don't get into any trouble," he warned precociously before a spiraling flame of lavender magic coiled over him, taking his form to another realm.

A small chuckle fled Belle's mouth and she shook her head as she turned away from where he had disappeared. Really, how could she get into trouble confined to his citadel?

Flicking a hand lazily through the drafty air, she brought a meal to the long table in the center of the grand room. A small globule of dark red swirled upon the furniture then shred away revealing a finally made meal of roasted chicken and red potatoes and beside it a book she had been dying to get her hands on for the past two days.

Now, she supposed rather glumly, her gentle smile fading a touch into a lugubrious thin line, she would have plenty of time without her master about.

"He really doesn't know what to do with you, you know," a disembodied voice stated plainly around the main hall.

The voice seemed to echo from every corner of the room yet seemed as though the speaker of the foreign timbre spoke right in front of her, emotionless.

Surprised, Belle lurched back from the table as though that was the thing that had spoken. Lightly calloused hand on her chest, the beauty summoned a spark of fire in her free hand as see looked around wildly. "Who's there!" she demanded, her voice strong despite the tremor that slipped past her lips.

Who would dare enter the sanctum of the Dark One; much less with the night growing so near, and then so brazenly revealing themselves?

Was the foreign voice Rumpel in some elaborate scheme, she thought for a brief instance, but no, he truly had too much business than to dawdle with ghostly voices. Beside for that the power that seemed to radiate off the voice was not like his. The power that shivered thought he air raised chills on her arms and prompted the hairs on the base of her neck to writhe upon end.

"You know us," the emotionless voice replied in a hollow baritone. "You held me. You felt the power in the name carved upon my silver steel."

Sudden recognition alit Belle's face, though she couldn't believe it. "The…dagger? You're the blade who speaks?"

"So you do remember us. Very good." If the thing was mocking she couldn't discern, but she had the feeling there was true impressment there.

Shaking her head, Belle fought away her bursting surprise. "This is a trick. Rule eighteen of possession, a host with a soul may not enter an object that is defunct of life. They may be turned into an object, but cannot enter that thing," she repeated from a previous lesson. "In other words." Her eyes darted about, still restlessly searching for the speaker that so dared to deceive her. "Inanimate objects don't talk."

"We are no simple inanimate object," The being replied simply as though correcting a well-meaning child from a naïve error. "We are the object that bestows powers to the Dark One. We are the item that gives the fire to the once mortal shells that all the world fears. You insult us by such trivial assumptions."

"Gives him power?" Belle tossed her head. "That's impossible."

She had no knowledge of where Rumpel's powers originated, but she has always assumed, like herself, he had been born with the arcane art. Never did she think his powers were supplied to him by an outside source.

"Impossible? Do you think such power, such evil stillborn wherever it lingers? That it is like a sword to be wielded only? No, it, we, are alive. A living. Breathing. Thing. Can you comprehend that my dear?" The deep, dark baritone questions with a hint of humor. "This is no power that any mortal holds in their soul. We are darkness incarnate in a form your pitiful minds can grasp. We are the very base of evil and darkness and all that is foul. A weapon, a dagger only used for the darkest, the most secret of murders."

Still peering about, the beauty tentatively took a step closer to the table. The thing certainly had a point, there was no possible way such darkness was ever confided to a simple blade without being more than that. She had felt nothing when she had held the dagger, but Rumpel had nary taken his alarmed eyes away when others had held the blade.

Brow arched, she faced the dark fireplace and spoke as though the thing stood before her in some phantasmal form. "What do you want then, why come to me? I am not your master."

"No," the thing acquiesced with no hint of emotion. "But you can be," it repaid simply as though stating a fact without glee or disdain.

Thin lines of consternation and confusion formed upon her flawless brow. "Excuse me?" She was good. How could, if the voice was what it claimed to be, want her? Every emotion in her strayed from such evil and if the thing knew so much, then her desirers for good should have also been scryed by such power. "I don't understand. Rumpel gives into his darkness, as sad as that is. Why would you want a new master?"

Rumpel oft let his darkness have sway. He fed on the darkness in him and though good beamed a small sliver in his heart, around that one bright ray was a mass of shadow. How could something like the dagger want someone willing to fight every inch to keep from such an ignoble state?

"The creature Rumpelstiltskin uses us for purposes we no longer deem… acquiescent. Our being is only darkness and yet he strays in his own ways. His purposes, such as the ones that make you linger here tonight only further prod our displeasure. We see what is in his heart and how his mortally simple, mortally human, goals slowly pry us away from the tapestry that stiches fast us to his black heart. This cannot be allowed. We need a new host to fester in, one that will better accommodate us with their plans and keep us sated upon darkness and magic." The sentient creature explained sagaciously.

"What precisely is his goal?" Belle demanded to know, curious at the cryptic words. To say she wasn't curious about why he needed to traipse the realms alone would have been the grandest lie that ever passed her lips. He was always planning, always spinning a web of deceits and plots, but scarcely divulging a scrap of his machinations.

What was he doing if even the darkness that lurked in him sought to contact another because of his schemes?

The being chuckled, the dry sound emanating like falling dust about her. "Something that affords us very little. Something that… stifles us. Or, that is to say, will. We do not look forward to such a plots he spins."

"Good," the woman smiled proudly, defiant to the darkness. "If he is doing something to fight you, then I encourage him."

"Foolish girl he doesn't mean to fight against us," the thing scolded as though she were a stupid child. "Our impending stasis is but a side effect of his tangled plot. If he could he would keep us just as we are and we would not deem to speak to you. As matters lie what is in his best interest is not in ours and so he must be dealt with." The voice began to grow fainter. "A new host must be found before Rumpelstiltskin damns us all. Consider our offer, Belle. You will be faced with a crossroads very, very soon. We promise."

"No I won't," Belle replied stubbornly. "The moment Rumpel gets home I'll going to tell him about his traitorous dagger and encourage whatever path of goodness you don't want him to follow. His redemption means more to me than any dark power you can dance in my way."

She would not sit idly by, keeping such knowledge away from him and storing the conversation secretly. He had to know what powers worked against him.

Abruptly a loud, brash laugh echoed about the great hall. The sound seemed to be darkness itself, lengthening the shadows in the crevices of the room. "Oh no my dear you shall not indeed. You see, he covetous us with all his might and power, desperate not to lose us and therefor lose his magic. If you so foolishly sought to inform him about this little discussion it would be you who would find yourself in straights. His powers come from us, so we shall always be invulnerable to his wrath. You on the other hand…," the thing of darkness let the words go unfinished, but the meaning was clear.

Rumpelstiltskin would not abide that another had been given the offer to take his place or let someone whom the dagger had confronted to so close.

A cold knot iced Belle's stomachs at the perceptive words. If Rumpel couldn't do anything to the dagger he would do something to her. If he uncovered the conversation he would more than likely put her on strict castle surveillance, if not kill her altogether. He would never look at her the same again. His walls would be even more thick and tall and coated in a carapace of ice. He would be never trusting.

She had just so recently erected a tentative bridge between them, but if she divulged the plot, that bridge would be shattered by the gale that was his dark, fury. Rumpel was not the type of man to thank her for such honesty, he would dive into action, taking no risk, no chance even if that mean tossing their shaky friendship away.

Hand curled into a nervous fist above her stomach, the beauty worried her bottom lip as she tossed courses of action about in her mind. What did it matter if she told him or not, she contemplated nervously? The dagger certainly wouldn't divulge the secret, and she wasn't going to take up the offer.

No, she decided firmly with a terse bob of her head, she wouldn't tell him. For all their good.

~8~8~

"Teleportation," Belle stated in a victorious manner, as she stepped before the returning Rumpelstiltskin.

Four days had passed in abject loneness and Rumpelstiltskin was finally returned!

Wide, lovely smile upon her lips, the beauty held a scroll with a certain enchantment to keep it from being opened. A bright blue ribbon kept together with a wax seal impressed with a dragon rampant kept the parchment closed from her peering eyes until Rumpel deemed she learn the spell.

Teleportation was something Rumpel hesitated to let her learn, knowing her wanderlust and will to see the world, but he had promised. No matter what anxiousness he had, he had promised.

Lips a thin line, his face near unreadable, the fiend cast his black gaze at the neatly rolled parchment in assiduous grip. "I just got back," he played a whine a lessened the red muslin scarf from around his neck.

Deal making with Regina and Snow at the same time was a chore that always left him feeling empty and drained. He had to always balance their wants and his all at the same time in order to steer them were he needed them to be and let them think they had come there themselves.

What made his machinations all the harder was that neither were imbeciles. They were smart and driven and couldn't be played like normal pieces. They were pawns with teeth and if he wasn't careful they would snap at his fingers that spun his plans.

"Not right now." A faint laugh slipped past her pink lips. "I've just been around here long enough to know you'll try to get a loophole into this deal and just keep putting it off until I forget about it."
He was a sly one, in fact, the slyest of the sly. He never seemed to make a deal without there being an outlet for him to weasel past and leaving her empty handed. Too many occasions had arisen with that particular trick and she wasn't letting the same occur again.

When striking a deal, he had taught her, one had to be persistent.

Chuckling in his impish way the magical monster waggled a black nailed finger right before her nose. A look of appreciation twinkled almost with merriment in his eye. "Ah so my apprentice is learning then. Never give anyone a chance to try and find a way to slip out of their bargain." Turning his gray-gold talons to the scroll in her grip, he sent a sprinkling of lilac hued magic over the parchment. A silvery shimmer rippled over the scroll, then faded, taking the sealing enchant away.

"There," he half chirped in a trill. "Now you're may learn it. When you think you've mastered it then we shall go wherever you please."

An incredulous smile lightly donned Belle's lips. "That's very generous of you."

Though his words made her heart leap, she also knew caution had to be taken with every syllable that leapt from his clever tongue. He never did something for nothing. Never.

"I'm in a generous mood." He shrugged noncommittally.

She arched a brow. "Or you're up to something."

"Aren't I always?" he parried back with a low impish rumble.

Chuckles light huffed from Belle's smiling mouth at his all too true jest. Stepping forward she wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. Closing her eyes she held him in a tight hug. "I missed you," she revealed, her words the very core of truth.

She had missed him the few days he'd been gone His jokes, his teaching, his scolding, had all been bereft of her heart in the abysmally quiet castle. Without him there the keep was akin to a crypt and her heart broke for him every time she thought of how long he had spent alone away in the dark mountains enclosed in the Dark Castle.

Dryness filled Rumpelstiltskin's throat as she pressed her body against his. His heart beat a barbaric pace in his chest, filling his ears with the sound of the palpable errant thud. He could almost swear his racing heart was loud enough for all the world to hear.

True he was the most powerful sorcerer into her realms, but when she touched him, he felt weak as a hay stack in a hurricane, being blown in all directions, never knowing which way he would be taken. To cowardice or courageous? To joking or feigned gruffness? Everything was an invariable tossup when things came to Belle.

Looking down, his face laden with surprise as to why she would even touch him, the fiend cleared his throat. "I missed you too," he stammered truthfully with as much courage as his cowardly heart could permit.

Though he oft told half-truths, there was no lie to be had in those words. He had missed her. Whilst he waited to strike a deal, he oft wondered if what she was doing, what trouble she was getting into or what new development in her power. She was a constant fixture on his mind, and yet he couldn't bring himself to regret such.

Delighted by the admission, the beauty pulled away. A brilliant smile donned her lips as she looked up into his fathomless black pits without fear. "You mean that?"

"Of course, Dearie." He stepped away and with a flick of his hand, shooed her off to practice the teleportation spell. "I wondered far too long while I was away who my poor apprentice was going to chatter to once I was gone."

Belle flinched nearly imperceptivity as his jest chuckled through the air. If only her dark master had known who she had spoken with the moment he had departed then he might not have been in such a good mood. In fact, she was almost certain her would have been in a right murderous one.