The first thing I saw was my mother, younger than she was the last time I'd seen her. She had always been beautiful, but here she was radiant. Her golden locks were elegantly braided to look like a crown, her blue eyes shined as she kissed the baby on her hip.
"This is your history," the tree's voice echoed in my mind. My mother left the baby with a nursemaid and made her way down a stairwell that led to the physician's quarters. A man not much older than herself was there, bent over a book. When she called out his name, a smile broke out across his face. He had sandy blonde hair that he had cropped short, with deep brown eyes. He wore the brown robes of a physician. My mother ran into his arms. They beamed at each other as he pulled away, then kissed her before leading her into his chambers.
When the chamber door opened, my mother was pregnant. It looked like she was far along, and the physician placed his hand upon her belly.
"I wish-" he began.
"It does no good to wish," my mother interrupted. "This child belongs to the king. We could never be together. We should have never started this." He hung his head, then withdrew his hand from her. Everything became black for a moment, until I saw the physician before the gods.
"If I am to be with her, the king must perish." I could feel the gods' amusement at his demanding tone.
"I am the god of the living," the green god replied. "I will not harm one of my own." The ice sculpture's shape was different from the shapes it had been when I'd seen it. It now resembled a bouquet of roses.
"I still have use of the king," the blue god stated. "I will not grant you the power to kill him." The physician's face turned toward the pillar of sand, the red god.
"Will you help me?" he asked the red god. The pillar grew in size, spinning at a faster rate, spraying sand as it did. The sand hit the man in the face, but he did not move. The pillar came closer, until the wall of sand was before the man. A moment later, the wall of sand covered the man's entire body before passing him over, leaving him in the middle of the pillar.
"You are a mage," the red god stated.
"Yes-yes," the man stuttered.
"Disguised as a physician."
"I use magic to heal people," he explained. The red god was silent for a moment.
"I will not go against my siblings" it began. "But I can give you the vengeance you seek."
"I'll do anything."
"Your child will be born of fire, with the power to destroy the king and his legacy. They will build a new world in their own image." The mage smirked, imagining the king losing everything he had. "In return, you will serve me for the rest of your days."
"I accept," the mage responded immediately. The pillar of sand began to spin frantically around him. He screamed as the sand ripped down his body, leaving his skin raw.
"You will have a new face, a new name," the red god said over the mage's screams, "and you will be my servant from this age into the next."
The world was dark again.
"Where is he now?" I asked the tree, my mind racing. My father was not my real father.
"He wanders the world; but where he is, I do not know."
"He's still alive? Are my mother and father-"
"No," the tree replied quietly. "The ones you loved passed on an age ago. The mage is kept alive due to a bargain struck between the gods. His time has not yet come."
Suddenly, I stood in a small cottage. There was one window at the front of it that barely let in any light, and a woman lay in a bed at the corner of the room nursing a child. Her dulled raven hair hung over her face like a curtain, her skin was covered in bruises. She looked so familiar.
"Maleficent," the tree finished for me. My body seized seeing the curse-giver. She looked so young and fragile, and it was apparent that she was alone.
A breeze blew in from the window, sounding like a song. Maleficent finished nursing her child, lay the baby boy down in his cradle, and went just outside the cottage a tree. It had apples growing on it, despite them not being in season.
"It was a magic tree. One of my children. Maleficent did not have magic, but had always respected them," the tree offered.
Maleficent bowed to the tree, then took an apple from its branches and ate. She turned her face towards the sun and smiled, before collapsing on the ground. She awoke before the green god. The leaves of the tree enveloped her and whispered to her.
"There is a child who will be born of royal blood. It will destroy everything and everyone. The magic of this land will be wiped away if the child is allowed to grow. You have always respected magic. If I give you the power to, will you kill this child?" Maleficent, thinking of her own child, rejected the green god. "If you do not, there will be no other, and your son will perish."
"Do I have to kill them?" Maleficent asked, guilt filling her mind.
"Yes," the green god insisted. "If the child is allowed to live, all will die." The green god showed her the images of villages burnt to the ground, the castle in ruins, countless bodies left to rot. Maleficent took a deep breath.
"If you give me the power, I will accept it. I kill this child to save us all." The leaves fell on Maleficent's skin, covering every inch of her body. They then began to die, changing from green to yellow to brown, shriveling until they crumbled and melted into her. Maleficent screamed as the leaves burned her.
When she awoke, she was in front of the tree she'd picked the apple from. Her hair now shone brightly and, where before there had been bruises, her skin was a creamy white. She was breathtaking at first glance, but gazing upon her showed something more. There was a power that lurked within her, and it was desperate to be unleashed.