Work Assessment

[Maleficent]

January 7th, Mid-Afternoon, Year 1

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Thomas's punishment, a week long fast, had come to an end. The days had been a flurry of activity for the rest of the Legion, the preparations for the coming mission to Australia keeping everyone busy. Of course it had probably felt like an eternity to the aforementioned Ghazi. Going hungry was never easy.

Oh the boy hadn't been completely starved. He had been allowed a modicum of food and water. Enough to survive and avoid any permanent weakness. It was a punishment, not a death sentence after all. And now it was over. Maleficent herself stalked to the solitary quarters he had been assigned to, to announce his freedom personally.

Thomas hadn't been sentenced to imprisonment. He hadn't been locked in the dungeons. He had been free to move about and attend to his duties. He merely had been relegated to a small solitary quarter for the time being. Oh, some could argue it was the same thing as imprisonment in the dungeons. But, those same people had never been in the dungeons...

Maleficent had the graciousness to knock twice on the door, and then pushed the door open. She glided into the room and smiled at Thomas, her hands folded in front of her, "Well, your sentence is served Thomas. You're free to go to the dining halls with my blessing. Hopefully you've gained a new appreciation for punctuality, hm?"

[Thomas]

Thomas had thought things were unbearable under Jafar; the self-proclaimed "Most Powerful Sorcerer in the World" was notorious for having an explosive temper. He once had a guy thrown in the dungeon for not standing up straight. His meanness was as legendary as his sorcery, and Thomas had lived in fear when he was still alive. But as bad as Jafar got, Thomas thought Maleficent was even worse in the one week she had been here than all of the late sorcerer's reign. Thomas had been in and out of trouble ever since she got here. He had no trouble training: John Smith had taught him how to shoot, so he rarely missed his targets in the shooting range. No one could have faulted his aim. But the new rules and expectations here annoyed the teen beyond reason. On top of having to adjust to the new regime, he had to do so on almost no food and water - just because he was late to orientation. And when he was not in his cell, he had to constantly be supervised by Perthmail, another ghazi. It would have been less humiliating if Maleficent had picked an overseer to do it. Needless to say, the first week had been absolutely miserable.

He warily watched Maleficent come in. Aside from being an unkind ruler, there definitely something sinister about the sultana. Maybe it was the fact that she looked a lot like a demon, like the ones his old preacher had described. Thomas did not like nor trust her. But to save himself from further grief, he had to pretend otherwise. No one had the courage or the morality to stand up to her when she punished him in front of everybody. They were either afraid of the same thing happening to them, or they were just masochists.

"Yes," he agreed meekly, submissively averting her hard gaze. Though he was indeed relieved his punishment had finally come to an end, he did not feel very optimistic.

[Maleficent]

"You know, Thomas, I do not like being cruel," Maleficent said with out preamble, and then raised up her hand, "This past week was an exception. You see, your infraction had been in front of the entirety of my Legion. I need you to understand that I couldn't have you setting a dangerous precedent."

Maleficent didn't expect the boy to believe of even listen to her, but that was fine, she wasn't trying to win him over merely educate him. She folded her arms at her waist, hands clasped over her forearms.

"Had you caused a problem in a more private setting, such as when you had escaped from Perthmail," Maleficent smiled sweetly and tilted her head, "Then I wouldn't have needed to make an example of you."

[Thomas]

Thomas doubted Maleficent "did not like being cruel", but, of course, he wouldn't dream of contradicting her. True, showing up late to an important meeting did not look good. Maleficent would have had to do something to discourage the others from dragging their heels to appointments, but did it have to be starvation? Surely being chastised or even given extra work to do would have had the same effect. 

"What?!" The color drained from his face. "You knew?!" Oh no. For days, he had secretly dreaded this. Perthmail and that mean overseer had been furious with him for running away, but Thomas had assumed they would keep the blunder he made sequestered by moving forward, and he prayed that would be the end of it. He was already low: he knew he had stuffed up by bolting the first chance he got, and the fact that he could not remember why he ran made him feel like an even bigger loser. Now Maleficent's knowledge of the incident had hit him like a blow. Did anything get past her? 

Thomas cringed. What should he do now? Apologize? Ask for forgiveness? Even he intuitively knew that he was already fucked. But he had nothing else to lose by apologizing. He might as well try to de-escalate the situation. 

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered weakly. "It was a mistake..." 

[Maleficent]

"I know everything, dear boy," Maleficent laughed and even reached forward to straighten his shirt collar affectionately. Then she stepped back and shook her head quietly.

"Thomas, Thomas, Thomas..." the leader of the Blackblood Legion sighed, " Your last punishment had been an example to everyone, but not really a lesson for yourself. I've been thinking about you, Thomas. What you need is a little more direction. You don't really know what you're doing here. You don't have any motivation."

Maleficent gestured out the door, "Walk with me."

She swept out the room in a billow of robes, not looking back. She knew Thomas wouldn't hesitate to follow.

"I'm going to assign you to a specific role, Thomas. No, this isn't a punishment," Maleficent sighed and shook her head, "I'm sure you'll think it is so. I'm sure you're convinced that I'm a devil woman who wants to see you suffer."

She glanced over her shoulder at him, hooded eyes winking in amusement, "Don't try to deny it..." then she looked forward again, "It's alright, I understand your feelings. We often resent those who have our best interests at heart."

She swept down a different hall with Thomas still trailing behind her, "I'm assigning you to a mentor, Thomas. You're not being demoted, my dear boy. You're still a full fledged Ghazi with all the rights and privileges of your station. It's just you know how a task to focus on. A specific role."

The dark faerie pulled up to a modest set of doors, well as modest as a doorway can get in the palace of Agrabah, and gestured towards them with a wave of a bejeweled hand, "Go on then..."

[Thomas]

Thomas did look at her incredulously, but, again, he said nothing. So Maleficent was omniscient?! Thomas, who was beginning to think that she was some kind of devil, had been told that Satan and his demons were incredibly intelligent - there was no denying that - but they weren't all-knowing either. They were great at predicting human behavior because they have seen so much of it, but omniscience was beyond their scope. Though the evil queen being omniscient would explain how she knew about him running away, it went against everything he had been taught. She had to be bluffing. She had to...

But who was he kidding? Maybe she did know everything. Maleficent had not been wrong about him. Now that he was more or less stuck in this God-forsaken hellhole, he had no long-term plans. Wars could go on for years; he may not live to see the end of this one. And even if, by some miracle, he did, what then? What would life be like for him if Maleficent took over the world?

"Walk with me."

Thomas did not need to be told twice. Like a compliant dog, he followed her out of the room.

"- I'm sure you'll think it is so. I'm sure you're convinced that I'm a devil woman who wants to see you suffer."

Thomas felt himself flush from forehead to throat. The accuracy of that remark had cut into him like a bolt of lightning. When she told that he was going to get a mentor, Thomas did assume he was being demoted and was relieved to hear that was not the case. But his solace was soon overshadowed by fear. She could read minds?! By God's nails, she really was omniscient! And of course, before he could get a word in, a snowball's chance to deny it, she shut him down again. So he said nothing - again. 

They stopped at an unshowy set of doors. They were here. Thank God, he thought. If he had to spend one more minute with her, he would have gone into cardiac arrest.

"Go on then..."

Thomas opened the door and went in. When he saw the room's occupant, he blanched. 

"Oh hell."

[Edgar]

"Ah, hello!" Edgar looked up from his desk. He had been examining a small jar of... something. Something festering and grotesque. He pushed it aside with a long-fingered hand. Edgar's spindly fingers were too thin and long in proportion to his palms. They at times twitched and tapped resembling a skittering spider. 

The surgeon pushed back from his desk and stood up. He offered a small bow at the waist to his guests, "You must be Thomas. Maleficent has already discussed with me about your tutelage."

"I look forward to working with you!"

[Thomas]

Edgar was seated at his desk in the middle of the room like a spider at the center of its web. Yes, a spider was probably the best way to describe the spooky jerrah-bashi. The way his long limbs and equally long fingers were splayed apart made him look as though he were about to spring. Bloody hell. He just could not catch a break.

"You must be Thomas. Maleficent has already discussed with me about your tutelage."

It was as though a funeral bell had rung. Of course she did, Thomas brooded cynically. He noticed the strange jar on Edgar's desk and almost instantly decided that maaaybe he should go look at something else. Yes, that desk corner seemed promising!

"I look forward to working with you!"

"Yeah...me too," Thomas lied. He glanced back at Maleficent as if to say, "Okay, joke's over. That was real funny; you almost had me!" 

[Maleficent]

Maleficent almost wanted to laugh at Thomas's blatant dismay at seeing Edgar. She was sure that the boy was doubly convinced she was trying to kill him. She gently brushed aside some invisible dust on Thomas's shoulder, "Don't look so dismayed my dear boy. You are to be Edgar's assistant, not guinea pig. He isn't going to hurt you, much less kill you."

"I must be off, I have other duties to attend to. I'm sure Edgar has a lot to discuss with you, Thomas," Maleficent nodded at the feared Jerrah-Bashi. The man provided her with a polite bow of his head.

Maleficent turned and swept off with a light rustling of her robes. The dark faerie passed through the halls, lavish by most peasant standards, near silently. She had the entire layout of the palace committed to memory, and thus was able to find the room that was her goal with out incident. It would be embarrassing if the queen of the Blackblood legion got lost in her own capital.

Maleficent extended her hand and lightly rapped her knuckles against the door to Perthmail's personal chambers where Crow had told her she could locate him.

[Perthmail]

He should have expected that he would not get off scotch clean from losing Thomas. Some deep dark part of him just knew that somehow, some wicked way, the dark fae herself would find out about it. Yet he had somehow convinced himself it wouldn't happen, for whatever purpose he had done that for.

His fingers had been lightly tracing over the inked squid tattoo on his arm when the rapping of Maleficent's knuckles had warranted the demon mage's attention. Icy irises slowly raised to look towards the door while he sat in relative silence. For a beat of a second, he wondered if he should ignore the sound that his ears had caught and continue focusing on the tattoo, or actually answer it. Something in him mildly wondered also in that moment if he should have just stayed on the beach back home. Away from all the trouble and shit he had been drug into here.

All of it was just questions that often boggled about his mind and already knew the answers to each before the thought had even fully crossed his mind.

Still, though, he wondered.

There was another moment of hesitance before he stood up. He made his way across the room, opening the door for the Blackblood Legion leader before meeting his gaze. "Maleficent." He greeted with his usual cocky grin, despite the war raging inside his mind. "What brings you to my room~?"