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Chapter Text

“Andros is drifting closer to complete destruction. The cursed mermaids are getting more aggressive the more the omega portal opens, and that, in itself, is a nightmare.” The royal ambassadors of Andros finished their report to the council. The old mage had spoken for nearly half an hour, explaining the exact steps the royal families had taken in the last months. With a nod, the chamber master dismissed them, and in their place, a representative of the united Realms of Melody stepped up.

“It’s getting worse with every day. Our singing Whales have disappeared into the depths of the oceans, and our holy caves are loosing a bit more of their voices with each passing day. And…” THey hesitated for a moment. “We are in dissonance, the realms of Melody are suffering, because of the destruction around us. Our song do no longer connect to each other. Two of our queens are ill, their voices slowly fading, and the king of the north is losing his hearing.”

“Not even talking about what happened to Princess Galatea off the Isles.” Someone muttered. It wasn’t completely clear who exactly did it, but the nervous looks and twitching fingers of many members of the council made it clear nobody was really disagreeing. The representative nodded only once before stepping back.

“Has anyone heard from King Radius?” The only answer the question got was head shakes.

“Linphea can not keep up with the demand for medicine supplies. We barely manage to keep our own people save.” Wise lady Asase spoke up. Her long staff, which was usually bright with fresh leaves and twigs, looked more like a neglected plant than the powerful magical device it was.

“I don’t think there is any need to mention the happenings on Eraklyon.” Queen Esmeralda of Isis said. Everyone in the chamber shared nervous glances. It was well known that her daughter along with Prince Sky had been pulled under the magic of Valtor.

As if the floodgates had opened, the voices of the people speaking up about their planet's problems got more and more until there was only a cacophony of noise. Not a single word could be understood by anyone. With it, the magic of the chamber slowly twisted and turned and darkened the room further and further. The crystal columns that were holding the ceiling started to vibrate. The lamps and fires strewn all over the room twisted and flickered.

“ENOUGH!” High council head Erasmus’ voice thundered through the room. It took nearly two minutes until there was true silence again. No more wildly flickering flames, no vibrations, only the breathing of the council members and representatives.

“There is one thing we all have in common and it’s that Valtor is destroying our worlds. Our homes.”

“And we can’t do anything about it.” Headmaster Saladin’s voice made a majority of the people in the room flinch. Nobody wanted to admit to that truth, but now that it was spoken it bounced between every single person in the room. Making them turn their eyes to the table and their fingers.

“Yes.” Erasmus said quietly. “We are powerless to find him. Powerless to face him. We can not win against him.” He said and with every word, the lines etched into his face grew deeper.

At the end of the table, Headmistress Griffin leaned back, her eyes narrowed. The magic in the room had taken on a particular taste that very few would notice. Even fewer would be able to recognize it. She knew it perfectly well and it made her nervous.

“So what should we do?”

“Ask yourself what he wants.” The duchess of one of Erakyon's moons muttered. Heads snapped in her direction and she raised her chin. “Let’s be real here.” She said and stood up. “As the head of the council already said. We can not fight him, which leaves us one option.”

“And that is?” Snapped a Lord of the Solaria Moon.

“Negotiation”

“NEVER!”

“What are you thinking?”

“TREASON”

The duchess didn’t even blink throughout the screaming. She kept standing, her head high. A cool look in her eyes.

“LISTEN TO ME!” She snapped. Her voice was laced with magic and the chamber echoes with it. “Listen to me before you scream abuse at me.” She said much quieter once the echoes stopped. “WE can not fight him, but we need him to stop. We can not find him, but we need to make him reverse what he did to our worlds. So we meet him at eye level. The man is a master manipulator. He is his most powerful with words. That is how Eraklyon fell. He trapped Princess Diaspro in a verbal treaty that she could never have noticed. So we do the same.”

Mutters and nervous glances were exchanged.

“Only we make it a treaty that will be unbreakable. One written on this table. One bound to this chamber. A treaty that’s magic will be spun from this hall.”

“We would need something worth bargaining for first.” The mage from Andros snapped. “He has omega and its prisoners on his side. He has more power than any of us. There is nothing we could offer him.”

The Duchess smiled, coldly and with calculation. “There is one thing.” She said and turned her head looking directly at Griffin. It took a moment, but the witch's eyes widened and with a screech of her chair she was on her feet.

“Don’t you da…”

“Freedom.” The Duchess said and Griffin reared back.

“His freedom is bound to the ancestral witches.” The Queen of Isis snapped. “Nothing can break that bound.”

Griffin fell back into her seat and more than one person looked at her with concern. Her face was paler than usual and her fits were sparking with dark magic.

“There is one thing that can.” Faragonda said softly and at one all eyes were on her.

“FARAGONDA!” Griffin snapped and slammed her hands onto the table. The Crystal darkened with the magic it absorbed. “Remember what happened the last time that was involved?” She growled. “It nearly killed all of us.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Someone from Magix itself spoke up. The calculating look he gave the Headmistresses made it very clear he knew exactly what they were talking about. He only wanted it spoken out loud.

“Faragonda I’m…”

“The Dragon Flame.” Erasmus spoke over Griffin. Making the room fall back into silence.

“Madness.” Saladin said softly. “Griffin is right, if we give it to him he will not stop. No matter the treaty we use. He will kill us all.”

“Then we don’t give it to him directly.” The duchess spoke up. She was seated again. “They are right, giving him the Flame itself would doom us all. Not even talking about the fact that it’s impossible. The Flame is bound to the royal line. Both through magic itself and the fact that genetically…well, we all know Domino’s history.” There was careful nothing in her tone, but everyone could read between the lines. Domino hadn’t been called the Dragon Realm, because of the Flame, after all.

“So we give him the closest thing he can have to hold the Dragon Flame.” She smiled, cold and angry. “It’s Keeper in marriage.”

The room exploded. Screams of outrage and treason were loud. Some people called their magic up. Some just stare in disbelief. Others muttered with their neighbours, taken by the idea. Faragonda sat silently, her face impassive.

It took a silencing spell over all of them, cast by Erasmus, to stop the chaos.

“This would hand Domino to him. We would hand him the thing we imprisoned him for on a silver platter.” The old man stated. “How are we justifying that?” He asked and lifted the spell for the duchess.

“Not at all, because it wouldn’t happen. I’ve read up on this. Domino is a queendom. Its magic and crown can not be worn by a man. It literally will kill him. More than that. All the power, figuratively, literally, and symbolically, is bound to that crown. No matter what he does, not even calling himself the proxy ruler, would allow him to make any decision. The power would still lay with the girl.” She paused and smiled at Faragonda. “If she had any.”

Although the room at large was still silenced the questions and demands to explain were loud and clear.

“Her older sister might still be a ghost, a spirit trapped, but she is alive. Not even talking about the fact that nobody knows what happened to her parents. So, no, we would not hand Valtor anything. The Flame can not be taken from the Princess. The crown isn’t hers. He would gain nothing outside of maybe killing the ancestral witches. Which, let’s be real, would benefit us all.”

With a flick of his fingers, Erasmus lifted the spell on the other occupants. One of his eyebrows raised, he asked silently for any objection.

“Bloom is still a child.” Griffin said quietly.

The duchess scoffed. “Please, the girl, whose birth name, by the way, is High Lady Hestia of the Wild Winds, is almost twenty one.”

Griffin's face twitched, but she remained quiet, no matter the hard pinch of her lips.

“We would draft a treaty that would allow Valtor to marry her, to call her his and by proxy, “get the Dragon Flame”” The duchess used air quotes while saying it. “and therefore freedom for himself. In return, we would get the freedom and restoration of our homes and people. And security that he wouldn’t do it again.”

“We will have to involve Bloom.” Faragonda’s voice was empty of anything.

“Why would we?” A lord asked.

“If we spring it on her, she will fight it on every step, or worse, she will disappear. She grew up without magic. She may feel its loss, but she could stop using it completely.” Faragonda looked up and let her eyes drift down the table and over people. “Which would mean we would lose her.”

Unease rose in the ranks of people. Whispering started to get more and more and finally, Erasmus lifted a hand.

“So we involve the girl, but how do we make sure she will agree?”

“By giving her a choice.” Faragonda said. “We tell her she can refuse, but what that will cost. Furthermore, we will be allowing her to have a hand in the initial drafting of the treaty, and again once Valtor gets involved.”

Someone pulled out paper, and people started to discuss the idea. First, laws and demands were called out, dismissed, or further specified. Faragonda along with Erasmus guided the discussion and provided guidelines and other opinions.

Nobody paid attention to Griffin, sat at the end of the long table.

Chapter Text

Bloom would like to have it on record that if she got a choice, she would have liked to be told that she was getting therapy, paid by Alfea, the next time she was going to be called into Faragonda’s office. Which she knew was a dream that probably would never happen, but it seemed justified. Especially with what had just been dropped onto her.

“Dear bloody fucking lord, kill me right now.” She muttered into her hands as she buried her face into them. Just low enough that none of the people next to Faragonda, or the woman herself, could hear.

I’d like to be sixteen again and have Mitzy as my biggest problem. She thought bitterly. Out loud she asked. “This is a joke right?”

Faragonda’s face twitched and Bloom groaned, loudly.

“You are telling me that the only way you can deal with Valtor is to …” She stopped and opened her mouth a few times. Trying, and failing, to find a flattering way to say it. In the end, she found none. Channelling her best Stella, she just said the thing she was thinking.

“I’m gonna be a war bride! That’s what you are saying.” No wonder they needed teenagers to save the magical dimension. She thought bitterly and threw her head back.

Sometimes, she wondered when exactly she had become such a sarcastic pessimist and what had happened to the magic-loving girl she had been before meeting Stella. Then she remembered Darkar and the fact that she had been groomed for a whole school year without anybody bloody noticing and she stopped thinking about it.

“Yes, Bloom.” Faragonda said and sounded surprisingly gentle. Bloom just nodded absentmindedly, while staring at the stupid desk ornament, the headmistress was keeping. Iron Man 2 came to mind and Bloom barely suppressed a snort. She was gonna find out if Faragonda was allergic to anything and start sending her baskets of that thing. Just for the joke.

“So you understand?” One of the councilmen asked. Bloom knew that he was Erasmus, the current head of the High Council of Magix, but she pretended the opposite.

“Nope.” She said and popped the “p”. She looked him straight in the eyes. “Don’t get me wrong. I get that you are desperate, I am too. Waking up knowing the bastard stole another realm's magic, because you can feel his smugness, isn’t fun.” Now it was her turn to feel smug. She could see by the Councilmen's reaction that Faragonda had forgotten to mention that little tidbit.

“But I refuse to be a fucking bargain chip.” They all twitched at her cursing and it made her want to curse even worse. She could see Flora glare at her in her mind and refrained.

“Bloom.” Faragonda said, and oh boy. “I’m not comfortable with this either, but there is no other way.”

Like there had been no other way to find Darkar than to send them, and especially Aisha back into the cave system?

“A war bride…” Bloom said slowly. “I’m going to be a war bride, Headmistress. I’m gonna be sold like cattle. Which I’m pretty sure is basically human trafficking, if not…”

“There would be no such thing.” The second councilman spoke up, visibly uncomfortable. Bloom was pretty sure he was from Zenith and actually against this whole charade. “It would be a formal agreement at best and you would be involved in pretty much all steps of drawing up the treaty.” Bloom raised an eyebrow, she could hear the but coming. More than that, Tec had taught them all to read between the lines of legal talk. And she had taught them good. So what Bloom understood was: from the moment you agree to this you are involved. As of right now, we are already writing down stuff without your consent.

Bloom could smell smoke and carefully brushed a hand through her hair to make sure she wouldn’t set herself aflame. She was sure that it wouldn’t help her right now. She was handling her anger pretty well at the moment. And she wasn’t going to blow up until she was with people she could trust.

“I need more information,” She said and leaned back.

***

She knew that she was smoking. She was very much aware that the few students who were out in the corridors were jumping out of her way. Some were even pushed into the dorm rooms, no matter if they were their actual rooms. Bloom couldn’t care less. She was fucking angry.

A choice they had said. She had a choice in this.

“Absolute bullshit!” She snarled, throwing the door open hard enough that it nearly ripped off its hinges. She was immediately met with the dark looks of her friends.

They had listened in. Bloom threw the door closed behind her. She would apologise to Griselda later. Bloom was pretty sure she would be forgiven just this once at least.

"What are we going to do?" Bloom asks softly. She barely made it to the sofa collapsing against Stella. Nobody said anything until Tecna had activated her portable ward and Flora and Stella had checked Bloom for any surveillance spells.

"Give me the…” Tecna started, but Bloom was already unclipping the pin that Tecna had designed for them. They looked for the most part like normal pins but had the best video and audio recording available in them.

Bloom's was a little dragon, Stella's a matching pair of sun and moon pins that she wore pinned to her skirt. Flora's was a rose for her sister, Musa's a little cluster of notes, and Aisha's a trident. Tecna was the only one of them not carrying a pin, for obvious reasons.

"They are going through with this, aren’t they?' Flora's voice was calm but low enough to make the hairs on Bloom's whole body stand.

"The logs of the council chamber show the first negotiations between the council members as well as a new meeting to continue the negotiations and the drawing up of the contract for Monday," Musa said, her voice echoing with her anger.

"Well fuck me." Stella muttered. Bloom reached a hand out to Musa, asking silently for the tablet that was linked to the records of the High Council of Magix. It had been an accident that Bloom had even found out about the online database. She had complained to Daphne about getting some stupid letter asking for a form of agreement for something. It had taken about an hour until Daphne had stopped snarling. Apparently, Bloom had been supposed to be part of the council meetings in Daphne’s name. Which had been how Bloom had gotten Daphne's login data and later a new tablet from Tecna.

That had been at the beginning of Bloom's third year, two years ago. Since then they had an eye on every council meeting, which was enlightening and infuriating at the same time.

Bloom silently read through the record of the meeting. They had already set up the basic ideas and rules for the marriage contract as well as some consequences for both her and Valtor should they break the contract.

"Griffin was against it." Bloom said silently.

“Yeah, We noticed that one. It makes sense.” Aisha said. “Considering her own position when it comes to Valtor, but also as a witch.” Bloom hummed in agreement while reading further along.

“I have saved your pin’s recordings in the vault. My parents are making copies as we speak and put them in the family vault as well as filing a copy with Mother*.” Tecnas announced and Bloom finally relaxed.

“Say hi to your parents for me will you?” Bloom asked and scrolled down to find the votes.

“Solaria refused to vote, so did Lynphea. Zenith voted against.” Both Tecna and Stella relaxed.

“I hope so.” Stella snapped. “Especially considering what we did for my realm.” Cassandra might have been found out, but that didn’t mean Solaria was back to its former glory. Bloom shuffled until she was pressed against her friend. They stayed silent for a long moment. Her friends watching the video of her meeting with Faragonda, while Bloom was reading through the negotiations. She absentmindedly highlighted every time Erendor brought up another idea. Or made another demand. So far he was the person who had been pushing this the most. Bloom sighed. She and Sky were over. They had been since before the Millenia party. She was also pretty sure that Sky had told that to his parents. The whole speech they had prepared for the party hadn’t had anything to do with their relationship. So why was the man so damn insistent on this stupid contract?

“So what are we going to do?” Bloom flinched as Flora spoke up. Her voice was colder than Icy’s ever had been. All around them Flora’s plants were shivering and shaking.

“Get in contact with Griffin.” Stella said without any hesitation.

“I’m gonna talk to Daphne.” Bloom muttered. “Faragonda said they haven’t made the offer to Valtor yet. They won’t until they have a solid basis with me.”

“United front.” Aisha said, nodding slowly. “Makes sense.”

“You are going through with this, aren’t you?” Tecna asked. Bloom looked at her friends and smiled. Her hair caught on fire and she knew her pupils had changed form.

“Yes, if only to make them regret it.” She snarled. Her friends shared a long look and then, much to Bloom's delight, started a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Flora was the only one who didn’t take part in it. Bloom raised an eyebrow at her. “I did it last time.” She said primly. Bloom barked out a laugh. Aisha lost, not that she looked sad about it.

“Come on, B!” Her friend said with a grin. “Let’s get Griselda and beat some shit up.” Bloom let herself be pulled up from the couch and bullied into changing. Her friends were right. She needed to let off steam. There was also a huge chance that Aisha had lost on purpose. After all, Aisha was the one of their friend group,who could wipe Bloom’s ass, without having to sleep three days afterwards. Bloom just hoped that Griselda had thought of a new scenery.

***

“You are awfully quiet.” Icy voice cut through the silence of the cave. Valtor tried to ignore her, but he could feel the eyes of all three witches on him.

“She is angry.” They snorted.

“What else is new?” Stormy muttered, and Valtor turned to them. They all flinched back at the look in his eyes.

“No,” He said softly. “She is angry.” The witches exchanged a long glance. Wariness in all of their postures.

“We didn’t do anything.” Darcy said.

“And we are pretty sure neither did you…” Stormy added. Valtor smiled.

“Someone else did.” He affirmed. “She has been angry for the last three days.” He said after a moment. The witches flinched back. Fear all over their faces.

“Well…” Stormy started, hesitant. “Maybe we are gonna be invited to the funeral.”

“Let’s hope we’re not.” Icy said and turned away.

Valtor leaned back and closed his eyes again. He wanted to enjoy the pure rage of the Dragonfire for a bit longer. Whatever had happened three days ago had been strange enough that he had destroyed a book because of the backlash. Since then, it had calmed down to mere anger, but it was still a beautiful feeling.

He couldn’t wait to find out what had happened.

***

Daphne was so pale she had turned transparent. Which was a feat, considering she was already a ghost.

“They…” Bloom hummed and watched the water around her head boil. Her hair hadn’t stopped burning since she first had gotten the news. Which had turned half of Alfea into a bit of a mess. Griselda for her part had used that energy to make Bloom work even harder in training.

“They want to make you a war bride.” Daphne said and Bloom felt Aisha next to her stiffen. Her friends hadn’t met up with Daphne as often as Bloom did and in the instances they did, they usually met with the Princess of Domino. The girl that had been a fairy of oceans first. They never had been around when Daphne had fallen back to her training as warrior and queen. When she had become the Priestess of the Dragon. Bloom found comfort in this particular face of her sister. This Daphne was the same as Bloom. The angry dragon with burning hair. The one that was ready to rip and tear.

“And they didn’t even have the…” Daphne screamed and the water around them bubbled when Daphne's magic flared up.

“They also rejected my letter.” Bloom added and was met with the dark green dragon eyes Daphne only ever showed when she was truly angry.

“That was the tenth wasn’t it?” Aisha asked softly. They had been trying to get Bloom into the council meeting since her third year. So far she had been rejected.

“Did they now?” Daphne asked and her tone made Bloom pay attention. Daphne’s hair was still burning, but her eyes had returned to their soft brown. Bloom shot Aisha a look. They both had heard Daphne's tone. The way all anger had drained out of her and was replaced with contemplation. Daphne knew something they didn’t, something that could make this situation so much better.

“Do you have the tablet with you?” Daphne asked. Bloom nodded and pulled it out. It was a special thing that was produced for Andros. Waterproof and with a much better reception than most other tablets. Tecna had also tweaked this one.

“I need to see the Laws of Engagement. No, don’t look them up. Go to the folder containing…”

***

“Is it sad that I enjoy this place more than Alfea?” Musa asked from where she was standing next to Bloom. Aisha agreed and Bloom nodded.

“We know where we are with them.” Bloom said after a moment. “Griffin is blunt to a fault and also doesn’t coddle us.”

“And the witches are always ready to fight us.” Aisha added.

“They are also honest about their opinion of us.” Musa sighed.

“Do you think I could change schools?” Bloom asked only half joking.

“No.” Her friends said in unison and Bloom sighed.

“Well then.” She said and crossed the border line. Bloom immediately felt Cloudtower reach out, feeling their magic and stripping any concealments off of them. “Just us.” Bloom said, reaching her magic out towards Cloudtower. “We need to talk to the Headmistress.”

“We wouldn’t mind to be seen.” Aisha added.

“But don’t want any fights.” Musa finished the ritual. Mirta had shown them this. Unless one was expected by Cloudtower, they would always inform Griffin about new arrivals. But if they make a request and worded it along the rule of three, then one could get around it. Or simply inform Griffin about what was to happen, which put the witch in much better moods, the best way to meet her. They all had enough encounters with Griffin over matters of defence, war, or Valtor to know the difference. Not that they had many meetings with Griffin that were just to chat and learn from her. Bloom winced. Aisha and Musa both shot her looks.

“She is going to be so annoyed.” Bloom muttered and her friends pulled faces too. Cloudtower reached out a second later. Concern, calm, playfulness in their magic. Making Bloom smile and reach back with just a hint of her own.

“Thank you.” She whispered just as they reached the bridge to the castle. Griffin was standing at the door looking tired, angry, and concerned.

“I am assuming,” She said slowly, witches gathering behind her. “that the council has sought you out?” Bloom met Griffin's eyes for a moment. The witch was ready to defend herself. Without thinking Bloom’s eyes flickered up and towards the aura above Griffin.

I tried, but who listens to a witch when it comes to the Ancestrals and their pets?

It was all Bloom needed. Without a second thought, she gave up the air of a guardian fairy she had been taught at Alfea, and just became Bloom Peters. Bloom Peters, who had become a child soldier. Who had been groomed and beaten. Just Bloom who desperately needed someone with power in her corner.

Because that was who she was. A tired child who needed someone who actually cared for her and could help her. They all needed it. Aisha’s fingers brushed hers and Musa hummed a soft melody. They would be the guardians for now. They would let her look for help. Bloom met Griffin's eyes, watched her aura flare with disbelief and ignored the witches behind their headmistress as their whispering got louder.

“I need your help.”

Cloudtower groaned and their magic flared.

***

Bloom could feel the eyes of the witches on her. She was hyper-aware of everyone right now. She had let down her shields. She had done that with intention, but it had been three years since she had done that the last time, her skin was itching. Shivers were running up and down her spine making her twitch now and then. Musa hadn’t stopped humming since Griffin had invited them into Cloudtower. Bloom knew that it was too low for most people to hear. It was a frequency that only dragons could hear. Something they had figured out after Dakar, after fleeing the Relix. Bloom could hear the melody and it was comforting, but it wasn’t enough. Aisha was still touching her. Their fingers intertwined. A comforting and protecting touch that helped, but wasn’t enough. None of her friends had been enough for the last three years. Not even Daphne was enough.

“Do you think she means it?” The whisper pierced through the others.

“Do you see how she’s shaking?” Another one whispered back.

“Maybe curse?” People scoffed.

“Miss Griffin-“Aisha's voice cut over them all. “Please.”

The witch didn’t hesitate, she reached out for a door that was decidedly not her office door, Bloom would know, with how often she had been here. Yet when Griffin opened it, the familiar room was visible.

Aisha basically manhandled Bloom into the room, Musa right behind her.

“Bloom, look at me.” Aisha said, her voice harder than before. Bloom tried, but she could barely focus.

“Bloom, you need to breathe.” Musa said, her voice piercing through the fog in Bloom's mind. Aisha's hands were wrapped tightly around Bloom's upper arms. Magic was rushing over her skin. Aisha’s familiar cool magic that smelled of salt and storm. Bloom felt her own magic flare in answer and protest.

Fingernails dug into her wrist making Bloom yelp and snap around to Griffin who met Bloom's gaze, her eyes hard.

“Breathe.” She snapped and Bloom sucked in a startled breath. A moment later, she was coughing and doubled over.

“I get that you want to get sympathy, but this was stupid even for you.” Griffin snarled over Bloom's head, as both she and Aisha led Bloom down to sit on the floor.

“I would like to know what you would have done in her position?” Aisha snapped back. Gently leading Bloom's head between her knees.

“Asked for help, but not exposed myself like that.” Griffin answered.

“No, we needed to do that.” Musa spoke up.

“And why, by the Great Dragon, would you do that.”

“Because I don’t know what to do.” Bloom rasped. “I know I won’t get out of this, but I can’t…” Before she knew what happened a sob crawled its way out of Bloom's throat. She hadn’t even realised that she was crying. “Faragonda betrayed me.” Bloom whispered. “After Avalon…” Bloom could feel her own shaking. Cloudtower groaned around her, their magic reaching out and trying to comfort Bloom the same way they would for their witches.

“Someone who you trusted sold you out again.” Griffin said softly.

“You are literally the last person we can trust with this.” Aisha said softly. “So far, you have been fair to us. You listened if we brought something up to you.”

“Bloom agreed.” Musa said softly. “She will start negotiations, but we won’t be able to help her with them.”

“As you are not allowed in the council chamber until you are appointed or called upon.” Griffin said softly.

“Yes.” Aisha grumbled.

“We have plans.” Musa kept going. “But we will need someone who will go over them with us.”

“If possible, also other witches.” Bloom muttered. “You are invaluable, because you knew Valtor fought with him. But you also know the council. Other witches can put in outside views that we wouldn’t even consider.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“What are you not saying?” Griffin asked softly. “You are making some great points and grand speeches, but there is something you are not telling me.”

They shared a look. Held a conversation in a way that had been born from battle experience and friendship. Aisha sighed and Bloom turned to look at Musa, who was already pulling out the tablet.

“Daphne made us aware of this.” Bloom said softly. “We need to make sure that negotiations will go smoothly without anyone realising this.”

They could see the exact moment Griffin understood. Shock and delight and vengeance light up her face.

“What have you already planned?”

***

“Still angry?” Darcy asked lazily from where she was draped over the armchair she had conjured.

“She hasn’t stopped being angry for a good two weeks.” Valtor answered absentmindedly. Icy grumbled something. Stormy hadn’t returned from wherever she had disappeared to.

“But she is also anxious.” He added grinning at the way their head snapped up to him.

“Excuse me?” Icy asked sharply.

“And exhausted.” Valtor said. He enjoyed this too much. Usually, the link between him and Bloom was nothing but an annoyance, considering he could feel everything. She still hadn’t figured out how to shield her feelings and by now he was wondering if Faragonda was even aware of the connection.

“And annoyed.”

“So the usual?” Darcy drawled.

“No.” Valtor said and lowered himself from back down to the floor. “No, something is happening. Something that keeps her in a steady loop of annoyance that fuels her anger,then turns into bone-deep exhaustion.” He could pinpoint the exact moment the witches understood exactly what he was talking about.

“It’s time for a little trip, isn’t it?” Icy said, a razor-sharp smile slowly stretching over her face. Valtor shrugged.

“Who am I to stop you?”

***

“There was an attack from the Trix.” Lucy’s voice was carefully neutral, Mirta, on the other hand, was sparking magic.

Bloom put her face in her hands. “Shit.” She muttered. She had forgotten the Trix.

“Bloom,” Flora's voice was warning her not to even think about it.

“Do you think they won’t jump on this?” Bloom asked back. Meeting Flora’s stare head-on. She felt her own magic shrivel up under the patented I-disapprove-stare. Bloom wanted to do the same, wanted to agree with Flora and just forget this stupid realisation, but she knew better. She knew Icy would see the chance and hold onto it. Darcy would find the right words to make it look reasonable, and Stormy would threaten whoever would disagree.

“They will get it.” Bloom repeated. “And Valtor will back them.”

“What are you talking about?” Mirta’s voice was almost as frosty as Icy’s. It didn’t manage to lower the room's temperature quite as effectively, but damn, was it close.

“The Trix will be included in the negotiations.” Lucy drawled slowly.

“The fuck they will.” Mirta exploded and her magic flared. Painting monsters and nightmares into every shadow.

“Mirta.” Stella’s voice was calmer than her aura. “I’d like to punch them too and throw them right back into the darkest prison I can think of, but it won’t happen.”

“Valtor might be the person who’ll benefit the most from the contract, but he’d be stupid not to include the Trix in it, too.” Tecna said, diagrams and percentages writing themself in her hologram.

“And you will let them?” Mirta snapped. “After everything they did?”

“They won’t have a chance.” Lucy’s soft voice cut Mirta off. “Listen to me.” She told her girlfriend. “Valtor will want to have them close. They are the Coven, after all. Not including them would mean getting the attention and rage of the ancestral witches tenfold.” Mirta growled. Lucy smiled and took Mirta’s hand. “If he wants them pardoned, he will demand it.”

"If I go against it, so will the council," Bloom said against the tabletop. A moment later, Stella's nails started carding through her hair. “Which will mean the whole deal is off the table.”

“Valtor goes right back to what he has been doing.” Aisha added, and Mirta slummed back into her seat.

“And Bloom will be the scapegoat.” She added miserably.

“So the question is:” Griffin said, her voice contemplative. “How do we keep the Trix in check?” Silence followed the question.

“We won’t be able to do the same as we have for Valtor, will we?” Cassiopeia asked. She was a witch who had graduated Cloudtower a year before Bloom had come to Alfea. Griffin had pulled her, Lucy, and another three witches into the negotiations on the basis of protection. The council had eaten it up, considering Cassiopeia was the witch of contracts. Lucy, as the witch of poisons, had a knack for seeing how things could get sour. The other three witches, Elaine, the witch of truth, Nina, the witch of blood, and A’do, who specialised in contracts, didn’t hurt either.

“No,” Bloom confirmed. “That is only Valtor, and even that won’t work unless he agrees to it.”

“Which he will.” Flora said. Her voice full of forced convection.

“Which he will.” Aisha agrees, her voice softer. Bloom looked up to see her reach out for Flora. She was wilting, and Bloom knew that all of them showed signs of their exhaustion. Stella wasn’t glowing as brightly, Musa was constantly humming, Tecna was overloading her gadgets with open tabs, notes, and research on the council laws, which was also affecting her, and Aisha, who hadn’t been able to go for a proper swim since the whole thing started was looking a bit grey. Bloom, for her part, was aware that she was constantly smoking.

They needed to get this over with, but that meant getting a contract ready that the council agreed on and that wouldn’t make Valtor laugh himself straight out of the council room.

“Give them a full pardon.” Lucy cut through Bloom's musing. Every head in the room snapped to her. Out of the corner of her eyes, Bloom could see Griffins accessing stare.

“Luc?” Mirta asked, visibly confused. Lucy took a deep breath and kept going.

“Give them a full pardon.” She repeated, vengeance flashing in her eyes. “But make it so they have to serve at least two years in Cloudtower as assistant professors.” Both Cassiopeia and Elaine choked on their own laughter. Bloom didn’t react to them. Something in Lucy’s face made her instincts scream to not look away.

“I remember both Icy and Stormy loudly declare that they would rather die than tutor or teach anyone.” Lucy said, her calm facade slowly breaking. A devilish smirk made itself known.

“Oh you…” Mirta gaped.

“Darcy might come to like it, but the fact that they won’t have a chance…” Lucy let the rest of the sentence hang in the air.

“It would also help,” Griffin said slowly. “As assistant professors, they would be at the bottom of the ladder.”

It clicked for Bloom, then. “You are tenured.” She whispered to Lucy.” Which earned her a sharp smirk.

“I think.” Mirta said slowly. “I can live with that.” She was smiling too.

“I can make it better.” Tecna said, out of nowhere. She waited until everyone was looking at her. “Griselda wanted someone to help her practical classes, didn’t she?”

Chapter Text

Brightly coloured amusement fills her mind. It’s like sunshine underwater. Clear, but still not the same. It quickly turns into curiosity. Whatever is happening is not normal. It is just enough of a commodity that it keeps his attention. Curiosity turns into disbelief. Bloom can feel the emotions bleed into an endless loop of What the fuck?“s.

Which is the moment the anger hits. Sharp spikes of anger that slowly dig through her mind. That claw at her chest and tear at her lungs. Anger, rage, possessiveness. She knows him enough to translate this, too.

How dare they?

She wants to laugh. It isn’t funny. It's the furthest thing from funny. But something about the rage-filled affront is just making her laugh.

Bloom figures it’s less of a happy laugh, that someone is finally in her corner, but more of a sarcastic little laugh. After all, isn’t it pathetic that aside from friends and Griffin, fucking Valtor is the first person to be genuinely outraged on her behalf?

Bloom comes back into her body with a gasp. Avalon is standing behind her friends. He looks anxious, like he wants to help her, but he stands back. Bloom is grateful for Avalon. He understands why she is the way she is, that she can not trust him. He has his own scars left over from Dakar. So far, he and Griselda are the only adults who actually acknowledged that Bloom had been tortured and groomed.

“Bloom!” Stella’s voice made her focus. The anger is still burning in her throat. If she had to make a bet, she would put her money on Valtor throwing some shit right about now. She wonders if she could do that, still.

“BLOOM!” Aisha’s voice snapped her back, and Bloom took a deep breath.

“He knows.” She whispers. There is disbelief in her friends' eyes.

“Tell me you are joking.” Bloom shakes her head as her friends help her to sit up. Their classmates look nervously at her. So far, they have gotten used to Bloom’s little attacks. Most of them are aware that Bloom is a radar for Valtor. It's what had kept them safe half of the time, because Bloom could tell when he planned an attack. Bloom also knows that she never before had been knocked to the floor as a result of such an attack.

“Bloom?” Avalon's voice is soft. It is always when it comes to her.

“No attack, he just got news.” The class relaxes.

“Go and return to your room.” Avalon says, turning back to the blackboard. “Inform us if anything changes.

“Yes, Professor.” Tecna answers, and she and Flora grab their stuff. Stella and Aisha help Bloom up, making sure she doesn’t stumble on her way out. Bloom is grateful for it, as another wave of rage hits her.

***

She comes back to herself in Stella’s room.

“What happened, Bloom?” Aisha sounds like she knows already but wants Bloom to tell her she’s wrong.

“The council informed him of the deal.” Bloom says. She sees Musa and Tecna leaning over the tablet. Aisha hands her a glass of water, which Bloom takes gratefully, tired, and her throat hurts.

“Fuck me.” Musa breathes, and Tecna is sparking.

“They really sent it.”

“Why?” Stella asks. “It wasn’t supposed to be sent for another week. That was the deal, a week to figure out the last demands and then…”She stops and sighs.

“They don’t want to deal with you negotiating, don’t they?”

Musa hums, eyes still fixed on the tablet.

“They had a meeting without Bloom yesterday. They decided it would be best to put pressure on her by informing Valtor today and changing the first negotiation to next week.

“Bastards.” Flora snarls, and her plants start shaking again. Bloom only sighs and leans back against Aisha. They share a long look, a silent back and forth of options and plans that they hadn’t brought up to the others yet.

“What are you thinking?” Flora asks them.

“If they want to fuck Bloom over, we let them think they won.” Aisha says slowly.

“But?” Tecna asks.

“Well, if they want to put pressure like that on me by forcing the confrontation, I say we let them see just how badly it will turn out for them.” Bloom says slowly.

“If they want to open negotiations to Valtor and the Trix now, that means they think they can pressure Bloom into just deferring to them.” Aisha’s voice is like the calm before the storm, and even from where she is lying, Bloom can see the spark of mischief in her friend's eyes.

“They open negotiations for Valtor and Bloom as a unit.” Flora mutters. Bloom points at her friend.

“Why fight a two-front war if I can just watch them burn themselves out?”

They stay silent for a few moments, interrupted only by Tecna and Musa pointing out some bullshit the council decided to put into the contract yesterday. Most of them are things they can easily dismiss on grounds of impracticality. Or stupidity, not that they will call it that.

“Has anyone informed Griffin?” Stella asked after an hour of work. Bloom stiffens and then sighs.

“Someone give me my phone.” She uttered tiredly. Stella handed it over. Bloom, feeling very sorry for herself, dialled Griffin, putting her on speaker.

She picked up after the fourth ring.

“There better be a good reason you interrupt my class.” The witch snarled, and Bloom felt her friends cringe. Bloom, for her part, doesn’t even blink. She just sighs again.

“The Council informed Valtor.” She answered in a clipped tone. There was a long moment of silence.

“When?” Bloom shot Tecna a look.

“The meeting was yesterday evening at nine pm.”

“I will…” The rest was an indistinguishable crackle of magic interfering with technology.

It took a few moments before Griffin’s voice rang out. “Class dismissed.” She said sharply. Then there was the rustling of people standing, and finally Griffin again.

“How?”

“He didn’t shield his emotions. They knocked me out in class.” Bloom answered dryly. “He is not happy.” She added.

“About the contract or the audacity?” Griffin asked back.

“No clue.”

***

“This is a joke, right?” Darcy knew her voice was trembling, but it felt appropriate. When the letter from the high council had dropped at the magical post box they had set up, they had been suspicious. When none of them had found either a surveillance or location spell on the paper, they relaxed a bit. Right until Valtor had read the fucking thing.

He had started out loud, clearly amused. Darcy had been, too. The fact the letter had started with an address of the highest honour had been too funny. They had nearly been rolling on the floor with laughter. The way the council had grovelled at Valtor’s feet had been delicious. Right until it wasn’t anymore. Valtor’s reading slowed just after reading out a sentence that was the council begging him for a ceasefire and to meet with them. They had watched how he had read the next few sentences. Darcy had picked up on his emotions too slowly. Amusement turned to disbelief, and before she could even comprehend what was happening, Stormy had pulled her and Icy behind the couch.

A second later, Darcy had registered the anger that had swept over their hiding place in dark violet flames. It had taken long for Valtor to calm some flames that were still dancing in the corners of the room.

“It isn’t.” Icy said, her voice void of everything. Her fingers were glowing with the spell Griffin had taught them years ago to prove the validity of a document. “This was sent by the council, and the idiots mean what they wrote.”

Valtor growled in a completely inhuman way. Darcy forced herself not to twitch.

“This is…” Stormy faltered. Looking disturbed and in awe. Darcy understood that part in particular. It was disturbing that they would offer up Bloom on a silver platter like she was nothing. As if she wasn’t the future head of the council and the most powerful guardian fairy out there. More than that, she was the guardian of the Dragon Flame. Yet Darcy was also in awe of their idiocy.

“How much do we bet they already had the thing drawn up by the time Bloom got informed?”

“Nothing because that is a suckers bet.” Icy snapped.

“How long did you say she had been angry?” Stormy asked out of nowhere. All eyes immediately went to her. Her eyes were fixed on the letter.

“What?” Valtor's voice was a rasping growl. Stormy only rolled her eyes. “Bloom, you said she had been angry for what a week? Two?” The thought hung between them for a moment. Then Valtor let out a breath and seemed to calm just enough that the flames put themselves out.

“Three weeks almost.”

“How much do we bet that she knows since then.”

“Suckers bet.” Darcy muttered softly. Her thoughts were flying. “Let’s say she has known since then.”

“Working out a deal for herself or trying to find a way out of it.” Icy drawled lazily and flopped back on the sofa.

“What does the letter say?” Stormy said.

“We are asking for a temporary cease-fire that is connected to an offer for you. We would offer a full pardon as well as the Dragon Flame, through marriage to Princess Hestia Morgain of Domino in exchange for the return of our spells,secrets, and the lifting of any and all curses on the worlds of the Magical Dimension. This is a stupid deal, you get nothing.”

“It is not.” Valtor said softly. His voice was barely audible.

“How is you giving up everything you fought for and marrying Bloom not a bad deal?” Icy asked. Darcy could see the genuine curiosity in her sister's eyes. Valtor sighed and conjured a seat for himself.

“Aside from the full pardon, which the realms can not disrespect? It would mean independence from the Coven.” They stilled. The Coven, their Coven, was bound through blood and magic to the Ancestral Witches. It was the whole reason they were still fighting this stupid battle. None of them could leave even if they tried to. It was a secret they would take to the grave, yet anyone with a bit of brain could figure it out.

“How?” Stormy asked. She had come out the worst. The last time Tharma had forced herself into Stormy to speak to them, Stormy had not been able to use her hands properly for two weeks. Darcy tried not to think about her own eyesight, which got worse with each of Lysis’ little visits.

“Domino has a system of vows and oaths.” Valtor said. “They are as strong as the life debt you owe the coven simply by being born. If the Dragon Flame is involved they can block it completely. No backlash, just freedom.”

“How?” Darcy wanted to believe this fairytale, but it was too good. Too easy. “Just swear loyalty to Bloom and boom we are free?” She snapped. “I call bullshit. Nothing is that good.”

“The Dragon Flame nurtures and protects life.” Valtor argued back, not looking at any of them. “The Coven takes from your life every time they pay attention to you. Why do you think Griffin is still alive?” He asked. “Griffin went straight to Marion and Oritel, showed them her coven bond, and asked for a way out. When we met again, the Coven tried to drain her and got burned so badly that they had to stop their attacks for a year.”

Darry shared a look with her sisters. If it was true, if Bloom really could do that. They would be truly free. After all, the fairy was soft. She might come up with some therapy or community service for them or shit, but it would still be better than what they had now.

“Where is the problem?” Icy muttered. “This is too easy.”

“You will burn alive if you break your vows.” There it was.

“Is it fast?” Stormy asked dryly.

“Less than a second.”

“I’ll take it.”

Icy and Darcy shared another look. Stormy was right, burning for a second was much better than what the Ancestral Witches would have in tow for them.

***

“I still don’t understand why she needs her school friends.” Bloom closed her eyes and ignored the muttering of the Eraklyon representative.

“Because, bitch” Stella muttered under her breath. “We, unlike you, have been fighting Valtor for three years now, like hell we are leaving her alone even here.”

“Especially here and after the stunt they pulled.” Aisha grumbled. They were in the main council chamber of the Council of Magix. It was an enormous hall made of crystal and glass. With pillars and arches and mirrors so that it looked much much bigger than it already was. Bloom barely cared for the room. She had been here for a good month now. Trying to get a better deal than the adults in the room wanted her to have. Aside from her being familiar with the room, she also was much more interested in the dias that held the actual council table. A large oval thing that had apparently grown right out of the floor and was made of the same crystal as the rest of the room. The dias was built in a way that enabled the people sitting up there to look over the room below and for the people below to see the council. Bloom had still no idea how that one worked, but she could see each seat at the council table. Including the throne of the head of the council. It had been empty for twenty years, ever since Bloom's birth mother, Marion, had died.

“Don’t stare.” Flora muttered. “You will shift their attention.” Bloom nodded once, still looking at the throne, before she turned back to look at the table before her.

It was a thick wooden table. Nearly thrice the size of the council table. They had brought it in for the negotiations. So that Bloom, her friends, the council itself, Valtor, the Trix, and every consultant could sit on it and still have available seats between them.

“How long?” Bloom muttered.

“Less than five minutes.” Tecna answered, and it was a sign of just how nervous Tecna was that she didn’t give the exact time.

“As much as I am grateful for the Winx and their work, this is Council business and has nothing…”

“Duchess Tan’ra” Aisha’s voice was as calm as the ocean. Stella turned her head to look at Bloom. Bloom met the eyes of her best friend with an indulgent smile. While Stella’s calm mask was holding up, Bloom could see the laughter dancing in her eyes.

“Yes, your Highness?” The Duchess answered, looking too innocent and attentive. Very much like someone eager to gain favour with royalty.

“The architecture of the Council room is amazing, isn’t it?”

The Duchess looked completely confused about the strange topic. “I guess?” She answered hesitantly. Aisha smiled primly at her.

“What is your favourite feature?” By now, most of the people in the room had gone silent and were watching the exchange. Stella had turned back to look, but her hand was gripping Blooms hard.

“I…um…I guess the dias and the carved pillars?” Tan’ra answered. Aisha nodded slowly, what seemed to be genuine interest on her face.

“That is a good one.” Aisha admitted, the face of the duchess lighting up.

“She thinks she is getting somewhere.” Musa’s voice was just low enough to be not heard outside of their group. Tecna’s lips were twitching.

“I personally love the arcs and high ceiling.” Aisha continued. “It does amazing things to the way sound travels here.” Aisha turned to Musa with a smile. “You mentioned it yesterday didn’t you?”

The whole room had fallen silent, by now.

“She still isn’t getting it.” Bloom breathed. Stella snapped back around to her, her shoulder shaking.

“It emphasises sound, Aisha.” Musa drawled lazily. Then she got to her feet. “Let me show you!” Everyone watched as Musa walked away from the table to the grand stairwell leading towards the dias. She turned back around and opened her mouth. The soft melody of one of Musa’s favourite songs filled the room. It was a traditional whisper song from Melody. Yet it was clear as if she would have stood next to Bloom.

Bloom, who hadn’t turned to watch her friend, but remained turned towards the Duchess, watched the exact moment the woman realised what was happening and what they were hinting at. All colour drained from her face and she seemed to shrink into herself.

“It’s a beautiful feature, isn’t it?” Aisha asked once Musa had stopped.

“I…um…”

“A special design and magical feature that makes it possible for every single person to be heard by the council, no matter how far away they are.” Tecna muttered, seemingly absentmindedly, as she kept tipping on her laptop.

“Ah…” was all the duchess could mutter out.

“Bloom, honey.” Stella said she had gotten control of her laughter, although it was still dancing in her eyes. “Did you find your homeworld’s tradition around creating a fairy cycle?” There was a startled meep from the duchess, but Bloom ignored her and turned to Stella.

“Not yet,” She muttered. “I know it’s the last step to get out full circle, but unless I get the approval to enter the council’s library there is nothing I can do.”

Immediately the muttering returned, louder than before. Bloom let herself feel smug about the whole situation. Yes, they had an almost completed fairy circle and while Bloom knew exactly what to do thanks to Daphne, she also desperately needed to get into the Council’s library to check the wording and find the proper vows. Daphne couldn’t remember them.

It also helped that they just completely derailed most of the council members from plotting. Tecna’s fingers twitched in a familiar pattern, and Bloom smiled. Everything was working.

There was a reason why they had everyone here. Stella and Aisha had the background to shut up the members of the council without affronting anyone. Flora had remembered every law they had looked up in the last week and would be responsible for keeping things the way they wanted. Musa, for her part, had a copy of the contract as it stood, so far, before her, with all the changes they wanted and those of the council that Griffin had told them about. Musa, who had the best hearing, would be responsible for keeping track of changes and demands together with Tecna. Tecna had the most important role. The council chamber had a myriad of wards so integrated and strong that nothing could get in or out once the chamber doors closed. Which included recordings. While Tecna's pins were amazing and would have worked without any connection to Tecna, there would have been a small magical threat connecting them. Which would have alerted the council to their recording.

With Tecna in the room, the tether was contained and therefore undiscoverable.

Bloom, for her part, would only need to sit and look pretty. Mostly.

She would have to argue the most important parts, she would have to keep Valtor in check so that he wouldn’t ruin their work, and more importantly, wouldn’t give their plans away.

They kept talking for a bit more. As time ticked by, Bloom kept playing with her pin, which earned her more than one angry look from Tecna. Bloom smiled innocently back at her friend, which earned her an eye roll.

Around them, people kept talking. Ideas were thrown around between groups of three of pairs. Each of them was noted by Musa and Tecna and sent to their individual tablets.

“Sorry!” Someone called out as they rushed into the hall. All attention immediately on them. “I’m here with the updated contracts.” They said and then walked around the table handing out copies to every person.

“What the fuck?!” Stella hissed. Bloom caught Griffin’s eye from across the room. The witch looked furious.

“Someone just did that.” Aisha said.

“Look at the Solarian delegate and the one from Callisto.” Flora added. Bloom let out a bone-deep sigh.

“Here we go again.” She muttered darkly.

“Makes your case easier later.” Aisha muttered, taking a copy from the secretary… or archivist. Bloom smiled at them as they put a copy on the table before her.

“Sorry.” They muttered, but were gone before anyone could ask for more.

“Ok, what the fuck is happening?” Bloom asked a bit louder than she intended. Several people turned to her, facing a mix of annoyance and disbelief. Some even had sneers on their faces, right until they realised who had spoken, then they couldn’t look away fast enough.

“Musa, should I help?” Flora asked, Musa just waved her off, flicking between pages like a maniac, comparing their copy to the new one.

“There…”

“He’s here.” Bloom interrupted, this time she intended to be heard. Conversations stopped and the atmosphere changed immediately.

“How far?” Erasmus asked, Bloom couldn’t stand the man, so all she did was smile and indicate her head towards the door. Seconds later several guards entered. They were holding formation until they reached the door, then they opened and revealed Valtor with the Trix right behind him.

Valtor smiled and Bloom felt the tension skyrocketing. Smugness bloomed in her chest and she rolled her eyes.

“Stop showing off and sit down.” She grumbled. Several shocked gasps rang out, but Valtor kept smiling.

“Why, Bloom so impatient to put a ring on it?” Two years ago, Bloom would have reacted with anger and probably exploded in his face. Now she just snorted.

“They just handed out an updated copy of the contract. Apparently, there were changes made.” Valtor’s eyes flashed and the smugness snapped to anger. Still, he stayed where he was.

“I want a vow that we won’t be contained.” He demanded. “The letter was nice, but a piece of paper isn’t worth much.” Some people protested, and Bloom felt irritation and smugness war inside of her. This time, her own feelings. This would give Musa time to see the whole contract. At the same time, she just wanted this to be over.

“Oh, for the Dragon’s sake.” Bloom snarled after about five minutes of arguing. She stood, forcing her chair back with a loud scratch, and met Valtor’s eyes.

“You won’t be attacked inside of the Council palace, everything outside is fair game, good enough?” She snapped. More protests rose.

Valtor indicated his head toward Bloom and finally moved.

“I agree.” Bloom didn’t let her relief show, but from the amusement that was shining through their connections, she was only fooling the council members.

“Well…” Erasmus sounded unsure, and Bloom indulged in a bit of petty smugness and also disdain. She really couldn’t stand Erasmus. Something about him was just ringing all the bells in her head.

The connection spiked, and wariness radiated through. She met Valtor’s eyes across the table, he raised an eyebrow. Bloom let the nails of her fingers drag over the table, making a faint noise. Aisha shifted in her chair, slightly closer to Bloom. Bloom stretched her arm across her head, then stretched her neck indicating, first towards Valtor and then Erasmus in what seemed to look like a simple one shoulder to the other stretch. Stella crossed her arms. Bloom’s nose twitched.

She met Valtor’s eye again. Narrowed eyes, filled with suspicion, looked back at her. Bloom smiled.

You don’t face one power-hungry monster after the other and not develop a way to speak without speaking. Bloom thought bitterly, which immediately was met with curiosity from across the bound. Bloom decided to ignore him, and focus on the important part.

Getting through the day without murdering anyone over their own stupidity.

Chapter Text

03.They tried to bind your fire too

“Murder me.“ Bloom muttered against her hands. This whole farce had been stretching on for hours. If she wasn’t completely off, then the council had been arguing about the wording of a clause of the contract that’s dealing with the public announcement of this whole farce.

“That could be arranged.” Icy grumbled back from across the table. Both Aisha and Stella kicked Bloom under the table before she could react. Bloom just rolled her eyes.

She was tired, needed a break, and she really would like to get her own demands into the fucking contract.

“As interesting as this is.” Valtor’s voice rang through the room. “How about we wait with the publicity of this until after we actually reach an agreement?”

Erasmus bristled immediately. “What do you mean ‘reach an agreement’? You are here, aren’t you? Therefore you agree with it.” There was a flash of green in the corner of Bloom’s eye, and when she looked over Flora’s chair was overgrown with green, as was the chair of the Linphean representative.

Valtor’s face kept the smile, but it had grown strained and hollow. “I haven’t even seen a copy of the contract.” Bloom had to look away from Erasmus’ face to not start laughing out loud. She hadn’t had a good opinion of the council in the first place, but this was ridiculous. “All I know is what you wrote in the letter you sent. The Council offered me Princess Hestia’s hand in marriage, and in exchange, I would return what I have stolen.”

“Are you telling me,” a council member Bloom couldn’t place said, slowly rising. “Are you telling me you made us discuss the public announcement for three hours when one half of the contract doesn’t even know what it is about?” They snarled, and the council hall darkened with the magic the representative was radiating. Erasmus and his lackeys tried to talk their way out of it, throwing justifications around like candy without saying anything substantial. Bloom sighed, closed her copy of the new contract, and pushed it across the table. She winced a moment later when it was nothing but a blur. Valtor caught it just before it fell off the table, by slamming his hand on top of it.

“Thank you.” He said softly. Not looking up from the contract. A moment later, Stella’s copy made its way across the table and stopped right in front of Icy. She didn’t say anything but started reading it immediately. Her sisters bowed closer, reading with her.

“I think.” Aisha said softly. “We should take the time to all read through the new copy, considering how late it was delivered.”

There were agreements and murmurs all around the table, followed by the rustling of paper.

Stella leaned closer.

“Do you think Erasmus did it on purpose?” Stella muttered.

“Possible, but I also can see him genuinely not remembering that Valtor and the Trix have no idea.” Bloom muttered back.

“Musa?” Bloom asked and leaned over to her friend. “Anything yet?”

“You will be forced to finish school.” Musa muttered absentmindedly. Bloom rolled her eyes.

“I would love to finish school.” A moment later, a message popped up on her tablet.

They tried to refuse you a seat in the council until you finished school. Wording is off, though.

Bloom suppressed the indignant rage flaring up inside of her and reached over to Aisha’s copy to see for herself.

Under paragraph 28 b9, there was indeed a clumsy formulation that intended to bar Bloom from any council meetings until she had finished her education with her Enchantix. The wording was clumsy and left several loopholes. Bloom pointed it out to Aisha and Stella, and shook her head towards Musa and Tecna. They wouldn’t bring any attention to it. Right now, the wording was in their favour, so Bloom wouldn’t risk anyone with brain changing it.

“Then there is…” Bloom keeled over with a gasp as her vision whited out with white-hot rage. Their physical proximity multiplying and strengthening the bond. Making his feelings echo inside of Bloom like one of Musa’s sound attacks in a cave.

“Absolutely not.” Valtor’s voice thundered through the room a second later. Sharp dark swirls exploded in the crystal floor beneath them, a manifestation of Valtor’s rage as the council chamber absorbed it.

“What…” Erasmus started, but Valtor shot him such a venomous look that the man shut up.

“I will not become an attack dog for you.” He snarled.

“Neither will we.” Icy’s voice rang out, and Bloom could see the pillar behind her slowly gaining a frosted glass look.

“It would…” Bloom found the paragraph several pages behind the law she and her friend just talked about.

The parties belonging to the Coven (clarification see page 3) will agree to stand ready for aid if and how the Council requests it.

Bloom was too out of it from the still burning anger that Valtor was slowly feeding into the council chamber to be of much use. She unconsciously registered her friends arguing against it. She, for her part, just stared at the paragraph. When they had informed her about the contract, Bloom had called it human trafficking. Erasmus and Faragonda refused that. Right now, with this before her eyes, Bloom realised her mistake. It wasn’t human trafficking. It was fucking slavery. The council wanted all five of them under their thumb without any way to get out.

Something else stirred inside of her mind. Something darker, that Bloom did her best to ignore and suppress. Destroy them. It whispered. Destroy them and leave nothing but ashes. Burn them down.

Bloom ignored the voice, but they both knew that Bloom would follow the demand. She would end this council.

***

“I think this is it.” Erasmus proclaimed. It was nearly eight in the evening. Bloom’s head hurt, and her fingers were full of colour from where she had marked passages they would have to bring up next time again. She was also thirsty and hungry. While there had been some refreshers, they hadn’t been there for long, not after twelve hours of discussion and negotiation.

Relieved muttering started up immediately. People relaxed, most of them closed their copies of the contract and got ready to leave. Bloom let out a little sigh and shared a look with her friends. So far everything was working in their favour, but they needed to make sure that it would work. Which meant Bloom would have to have a talk with Valtor.

“Well then.” She muttered and stood. “Valtor.” She called out, gathering a bit of attention, but not much. He met her with raised eyebrows. Bloom nodded into a corner of the chamber. “A word.” She demanded. There was the slightest moment of hesitation, but he bowed his head the smallest bit in agreement and stood up himself.

“What? NO!” Bloom froze, turning towards the woman she just protested. Bloom couldn’t remember her name, but she knew she was from Eraklyon, and also close to Erasmus.

“Excuse you?” Bloom asked, they were gathering attention, which was both good and bad. Bloom wasn’t sure which she liked right now.

“There will be no such thing.” The woman said. Bloom felt absolutely taken aback.

“I beg your pardon, but I wasn’t made aware of any laws or protocols that forbid me to talk to the person I am going to be forced to marry, while we are still negotiating.” Bloom replied.

“I think you and Valtor had more than enough conversations over the last three years.” Erasmus chimed in and Bloom felt her jaw hit the floor.

“If you count shouting insults and spells at one another, then the exchanges the two of them had definitely counted. Aside from that, there has been no conversation in any form.” Stella cut in.

“This will be in fact the first civilised conversation between them.” Aisha added.

“And as far as I am aware of protocol,” Bloom managed to get out. “I am allowed times to talk to him after each negotiation meeting to see if there are any points that we need to get an agreement about or want to stay unchanged in it.”

Erasmus snorted. “Considering this was the last negotiation before the planning starts, I don’t think this will be necessary.” Even the last conversation was shut up by this. Bloom just stared at Erasmus, her jaw open again.

“The fuck?” Stormy blurted out and Bloom would have liked to echo the statement, but she wasn’t even able to form a proper thought right now.

“I think I speak for everyone in the room when I ask you to elaborate, Erasmus.” Faragonda said. She had been silent so far, but even their headmistress seemed confused.

“This was supposed to be the last negotiation, and the whole room just agreed to that. Didn’t they?” Some people, the ones that were behind Erasmus, without questioning, nodded. The majority of the room just stared.

Bloom barked out a laugh and then buried her face in her hands.

“Care to explain what is so funny, Princess?” Erasmus’ voice was venomous. Bloom took a deep breath and straightened.

“Your audacity!” She snapped. Gasps rung through the room, but Bloom couldn’t care less. “I might have not grown up as a Princess or in the magical dimension, but I can read. If you want to close negotiation this has to be on the plan for the day and be voted on with an 80% majority. Which, I can guarantee you from the reactions around the room, is not the case.” Erasmus’s face was reddening with anger. Bloom could smell smoke.

“Aside from that, closing negotiations right now would be careless and just stupid.” She continued. “Or do I have to remind you that more than half of the people included in the Contract weren’t even aware of its content and wording until, what? Six hours ago?” Bloom wanted to explode, but the chamber’s magic was lying around her shoulders like a weighted blanket, keeping her magic at bay and tainting the room in a bright orange instead. A sound registered at the edge of her awareness, but Bloom couldn’t pay attention to it right now.

“Not even talking about the fact that someone made changes to the contract without the approval of anyone and delivered the new copies today less than a minute before the start of negotiation. We all need time to read over the new copies. So, I will have a talk about the whole affair with Valtor, because so far nobody has even asked him if he wants to agree to this and…”

“Bloom!” Musa’s voice was teetering a voice range that wouldn’t be audible for most people in the room. It was also echoing with magic and fear. Bloom snapped around all anger drowned by the absolute fear this tone of voice induced.

Musa was staring back at Bloom, her eyes huge, disbelief, fear, and anger in an endless loop. She was pointing at the paragraph on the last pages of the contract. Bloom leaned in to get a better look and read what the fuck was getting that reaction from Musa.

Her vision whitened out once she comprehended what Musa had discovered. For a long moment, Bloom could hear, feel, and see nothing but her own rage. Then something shattered in the background and Bloom came back to herself. The whole council chamber was vibrating with the pure rage Bloom was feeling. The weighted blanket of magic suppression was basically gone. The chamber was no longer orange, but a deep blue.

“Who?” Bloom growled. “Who put that in there?” Her voice was booming, her own anger and magic amplifying it. She was met with the startled and afraid looks of the whole council. When they stayed silent Bloom growled again, giving into her dragon heritage. Her hair puffed and darkened. Its flames, due to her rage, were probably more blue than red.

“What are you…” Some brave soul stuttered.

“Paragraph 308 Section C, Subsection 12.” Bloom snapped and then grabbed Musa’s copy. She slapped it on the table hard enough to make the whole thing rattle.

“Both parties, Princess Hestia and Valtor, agree to produce an heir within a year of marriage. As well as at least another one within the next five years.” Bloom read out loud. What followed was nothing but silence. People stared at her with open mouths. Some were nearly tearing pages out of their copies to find the paragraph. Others were whispering furiously. Every single person in Erasmus’ circle refused to look at Bloom. Nobody answered her. Bloom growled and leaned closer. Her hand where they were pressed flatly on the table caused smoke to rise. There would be a pair of handprints left once she lifted them.

“Let me make myself abundantly clear. I barely tolerate this bullshit as it is. The only reason I went with it in the first place is because my friends are suffering under the weight of their planet's misery. Aside from that, there is literally nothing the Magical Dimension has to offer me to make me stay.” Some protests started and Bloom silenced them with a look. “There is nothing keeping me here, aside from my team and the friendships I made with my classmates in Alfea and Red Fountain. From the moment I set foot onto Magix for the first time, I experienced nothing but pain, misery, and responsibilities that should have been on YOUR shoulders! Why else,” Bloom raised her voice even more when several people opened their mouths again. “Why else was it on my friends and me to free Cloudtower’s witches? Why did STUDENTS have to defeat the Army of Decay while the council was hiding in this room? Explain to me why we were sent back into the Underlands to fight Dakar without being given all the information we needed?”

“While bad circumstances…” One of Erasmus’ lackeys started. The Duchess of Iris too looked like she wanted to say something. Bloom didn’t let them.

“May I also remind the council that it was YOU who expelled me from Alfea for two months when it became clear that Valtor knew who I was? And that I was only allowed because it became clear that he would keep going independently of my being here.” Uneasy looks were shared, but this time nobody said anything. “So write this down because this is the only time I will say this! If anyone dares to put any clause regarding my sexual life, the lack there of or whether or not I will have children into this contract, I will disappear without a trace and leave Valtor to do whatever he fucking pleases! Anyone who minds keeping it out?” Bloom asked and straightened, two handprints were charred deeply into the wood. The room remained silent.

Bloom snorted derisively. “That’s what I thought.” She locked eyes with Valtor.

“So, excuse me while I have that talk.” When people still looked mutinous Bloom rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. “In that corner, within sight without a fucking silencing or privacy spell.” She grumbled and walked away from the table muttering angrily. “Honestly they act as if I was going to murder him just to get out of it.” Nobody said anything as they walked away. Part of Bloom wanted them to say something. She desperately wanted a fight.

Bloom sighed, at least she knew Griselda would run her through the paces tomorrow or even today if Bloom asked.

“Care to share what exactly we should talk about?” Valtor asked when they were about twenty metres away from the table. Bloom shook her head.

“Not here.” She muttered, pointing to the furthest pillar. “To quote a friend, the Chamber is built to emphasise sound, so we will be heard either way. But I want at least an illusion of privacy.” Valtor raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t say anything more. Bloom took it as a good sign and started on the second part of this. She needed to speak to him in private since the council would absolutely block that idea. She had to use plan B. Open up their connection so that they could talk telepathically. Bloom just hoped that Valtor could talk and listen at the same time, because she couldn’t.

As they walked, Bloom took a deep breath and pulled on the connection between her and Valtor. For a long moment, nothing happened then there was a crackle and something like a pop and it was over. Bloom silently prayed to the Dragon, that it would work, before reaching out and sending a thought in his direction.

Can you hear me?

She only noticed the stutter in his step, because she paid attention to him.

Yes. The tense answer came and Bloom relaxed instantly.

Can you talk this way and normal at the same time? She asked, there was a long moment of silence, before he turned back to her, they had reached the pillar. He met her eyes and indicated his head just the slightest bit. Bloom flexes both of her hands behind her back. A second later Musa started humming. A twitch flashed over Valtor’s face.

What is that? He asked silently out loud he asked: “Now why exactly is this necessary?”

“How far have you read through the contract?” Musa can hum at a frequency that is just our hearing range, but will make it impossible for most people to concentrate.

“Properly the first twenty pages,” He said, crossing his arms. What do you want?

Bloom leaned against the pillar. “And just glancing over?” She asked. I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I am going to tell you right now.

Valtor snorted. “Most of the document.” You will have to convince me.

Bloom barely managed to not roll her eyes.

“What was an immediate no go?” She asked.

Will you be able to listen to what I say and explain? He asked her mockingly. Bloom smiled sweetly up at him.

I won’t need to, just start talking! Thankfully he did. Tecna and Musa would be transcribing everything in real time. And everything they wouldn’t get, the pin could give them later.

Bloom waited a few moments to hear what he was saying, then started talking herself.

They don’t remember the Law of Engagement. Valtor stopped talking. Bloom rolled her eyes. Yes they are that stupid. She thought venomously. Out loud she shifted her position to be clearly challenging and asked out loud: “Is that all? I would have thought someone as old as you had more to say.” Someone’s head- Flora’s if Bloom had to bet- hit the table. Valtor met her eyes with a heated glare and started talking again. Disbelief, triumph, and suspicion flowed through their bond, and Bloom raised the corner of her mouth that the council couldn’t see.

So what I need you to do, is to keep your mouth shut about it. If the Trix know or ask about it, you make sure they hold their tongues too. We worked too hard for this to blow up in our faces now.

Valtor stopped talking. Bloom sighed.

“Anything else?” She asked.

“Are you truly rolling over like that?”

“If I had had any say in this tragedy, I would be murdering you right now.” Bloom snapped back. “But we are, aren’t we? So do me the fucking favor and tell me anything else you disagree with in the contract.

They truly haven’t brought it up? Valtor asked just before he started talking again.

I have been emphasising the Term War Bride for a month. Nobody made any moves to correct me beyond the first time. Either they forgot, or they just don’t know, or whatever. Fact is, I will not let this chance run through my fingers, because of you or the witches. She knew she was snapping, she knew she should be smearing honey around his mouth, but they had been in this fight for three years. She was tired of the pressure from everyone around her, and she was tired of Valtor challenging her in absolutely unnecessary ways. She was done with fighting a fight that was stupid, and she was absolutely done hearing the and feeling the screams of planets that had parts of them ripped out, when Valtor stole their magic. She shivered thinking about Andros and Melody. How they barely saved the Weeping Willow, and then had lost Linpheas most important growing charm a month later, to a secret attack from Valtor, while the Trix had been distracting them on Callisto.

Bloom was tired of the way her classmates and underclassmen were pulled into this fight. Galatea’s screams when her wings had been shattered were haunting her to this day.

So, Bloom didn’t censor herself, she was tired and wrung out. Either Valtor had figured that out already, and was riling her up on purpose, or he didn’t and could suck on it.

You are planning a coup. Was all he said, delight and intrigue flooded their bond. He had stopped talking. Bloom turned to look at the table, more than half of the people, sitting there, were staring at them.

“Anything you want to have included in the contract?” She asked out loud. Yes. She thought. We are planning a coup.

“I can think about a few things.” he leered, and Bloom turned her head just enough that she could look at him out of the corner of her eyes.

“I can, and will leave you to fight that battle for yourself.” She muttered. Valtor grinned.

And what exactly are you going to do to them during that little coup of yours? He asked. His voice full of dark amusement. Their bond, though, was singing with delight and anticipation.

Bloom turned her head back around, and looked at the table again. She met Aisha’s eyes and almost on instinct her nose twitched. Aisha’s shoulders relaxed minimally. Stella didn’t seem to care, her eyes were fixed on Valtor. Musa and Tecna both were bowed over a notepad and the laptop, typing and writing down each word of this conversation furiously. Flora was bowed over the new copy of the contract, going through it with a fine-tooth comb. Her friends. She turned her head, and looked for Griffin, the headmistress was watching just as pointedly as Stella was. Her gaze flickering between the two of them, it settled on Bloom when she saw her looking. A moment later, Griffin’s aura unfolded above her. Bloom couldn’t hear it from here, but it was radiating, calm, safety, and protectiveness.

Bloom sighed. Those were her people. People in her corner, who were helping her fuck the High Council of Magix over. They would also be ready to get her the hell out of here if Bloom asked. She turned back to Valtor, looking at him for a moment. He could have been the same man from three years ago. Bloom would have fallen for the illusion, if it wasn’t for their connection. There was a permanent low grade current of emotions feeding into her own. Tiredness, exhaustion, not physical, but mentally, and fear. Pain would mix into it in irregular intervals. And beneath all of them, was the smaller spark of hope.

“I mean it.” She whispered. “I want to get this over with as fast as possible.” She didn’t let her guard down, but she let tension seep out of her a bit. “If that means helping you and the Trix get at least a fair deal, I will try.” It wasn’t a promise, but it was an offer. It was all she would offer him.

Valtor started talking about the things he and the Trix had talked about. The things they wanted, some clearly fake with how large they were, distractions to get more important things through.

I ask again. He thought. What exactly are you going to do to them during that little coup of yours?

Bloom thought of the voice in the back of her head, and then of one of the few Dominion poems that remained in Alfeas library.

She met Valtor’s eyes, and let one of her masks slip. Let the darkness of the dragon inside of her look back at him, and recited the last two lines of the poem back to him.

Oh Dragon fly,

Oh Dragon Burn. Them. Down!

Chapter Text

“Paragraph 27 speaks about consequences, but doesn’t specify consequences for what?” Darcy’s voice was calm, where her aura was spitting insults.

“Oh please it is clear…”

“No, it is really not.” Bloom cut in. “The way this is worded, it is unclear what has consequences, the limitations of said consequences, and who will be punished. This is an open book for blanket punishment every time one of us, involved in the contract, does something someone else involved doesn’t like.”

“It also doesn’t specify if the person dealing out the punishment is a person named in the contract or an outsider.” Stella added.

“Which brings us back to the point of not being your attack dogs.” Valtor drawled. “Right now, with this wording you could take offence to us breathing and punish us for it.”

“Which is absolutely unacceptable.” Surprisingly, it was Faragonda who spoke up. Bloom didn’t so much as look at her.

“So, this needs to be edited.” The Zenith representative said, pulling out a pen.

“The use of our magic is completely off the table for punishment.” Bloom said, before anyone could open their mouth. “With the exception of murdering an innocent, there is no reason for the council to limit it.”

“What about Valtor stealing spells?”

Bloom rolled her eyes hard. Thankfully, Stella was faster than her.

“By the wording of paragraph 4, they will be married under Dominion Law, which gives Bloom the ability to shut down his magic.”

“In extreme cases” Bloom added. “And he can overrule it if it saves lives.”

“That.” Stella said, nodding. “Bloom would be aware of him stealing spells, and considering the actions we took and fights we had in the last three years to stop him, it is more than clear that she will not tolerate this.”

“You are arrogantly sure that he won’t be able to go around it.” Erasmus snapped.

“It is a vow of loyalty.” Valtor growled, he sounded as done, as Bloom felt. “I break the vow, and I die a fast and spectacular death, or do I have to remind you of what happened to Prince Consort Andor?” Some mutter broke out along the table.

“Point taken.” Someone muttered.

“Now for the Trix…”

***

“The council unanimously agreed” Bloom doubted that a lot, from the looks of some people shot Erasmus. “To not grant the addition to Paragraph 107, since it’s irrelevant.”

“With what reasoning?” Bloom asked. Erasmus blinked at her.

“Excuse you?”

“What reasoning gives the council to decline the addition?”

“There is no need…”

“By the laws of the council, you have to give a proper explanation on why you decline or agree to a change, so that future additions and or proposals can fit in the parameters given for the denial. Or so that future additions can be added properly.” Flora recited. Bloom noticed the way the lips of the Lynphean Elder were twitching.

“So, what is the reasoning for not adding in a clause that would allow the Trix to rebuild and expand their coven?” Aisha asked sweetly.

“And keep in mind, they agreed to a vassal vow, to gain independence of the Coven, making it impossible for them to follow the Ancestral Witches’ footsteps.” Bloom said.

“Which we still do not have the wording of.” Erasmus snapped venomously. Bloom smiled at him.

“Considering that, to work out a vow like that, I would need time alone with them, since it’s a VASSAL bond, which only works if the parties involved are truly happy with it.” Bloom started, ignoring the shouts of the council. “AND” She shouted. “Might I remind the council that a prepared vow will not work. It has to be specifically tailored to the people involved BY the people involved.”

People growled and snapped at her, but ultimately Bloom got to concessions. She would get time with the Trix to work out their vassal bound, which would be supervised by Zenith's representative. And the addition to paragraph 107 was granted.

***

“Your Highness?” A voice asked and Bloom barely managed to bite back the sharp comment. She took a deep breath and looked up.

“Yes?” It still sounded tense, but a lot less snappy than she felt. Before her was an older woman dressed in the clothing that was assigned to the people working for the council but weren’t in it. The woman curtsied before Bloom, looking at her with a mix of awe and nervousness.

“I am head librarian A’Sha of the council.”

Bloom, who at this point had been in the council chamber for nearly eight hours discussing changes to the contract, barely comprehend what the woman had said. Her head was filled with the need to add in more changes and also the amount of lessons and homework she was missing. Griselda, while aware of what was happening, was still hounding them to do their best. The rest of their teachers had no clue, and were understandably pissed off. Thankfully, A’Sha seemed to understand that Bloom wasn’t at her best.

“You mentioned at the first meeting with Valtor that you were looking into the traditions of Domino when it came to fairy cycles.” Bloom nodded slowly, still not getting what the woman wanted from her.

“As head librarian, I am able to grade you access to the library and archives.” A’Sha said, her voice barely loud enough for Bloom to hear. Bloom blinked twice at A’sha before it finally clicked for her. She was standing a second later with a huge grin on her face. “Really?” She asked in a hushed scream. A’sha smiled and nodded.

“If, in exchange, you would be willing to take a look at some of the documents we have that are written in the language of Dragons.” Bloom hesitated. There was a reason nobody outside of Domino had ever gotten the chance to learn the language and not be bound in a vow of silence. A’Sha only smiled.

“All I wish to know is what the letter one of my instructors gave me from the war says.” Bloom narrowed her eyes.

“You were instructed by one of my people?” She asked. A’Sha bowed her head, her eyes gleaming with mischief. “Lord Bartelby himself, if only for a few weeks. The best time of my life.” A’Sha admitted and Bloom felt her connection to Valtor flare. Greed and need sparking in her chest. She looked over A’Shas shoulder to see him looking at them.

Talk to her. It was a demand. If she was truly taught by Bartelby, then she was in line to become a royal scribe of Domino.

“That would mean you were in line for the royal scribe?” Bloom asked, making her words slow as if she was trying to remember facts. A’Sha brightened even more.

“Yes, your Highness.” She confirmed. “My grandmother was of Domino, it was the proudest day of her life.”

Do it. Bloom had already figured that one out.

“Not today.” She declined, wincing a bit. “Are you working on Sunday?” A’Sha nodded.

“I have rooms in the library. Just knock, and I will let you in.”

“May I bring a friend?” Bloom asked. A’Sha hesitated.

“Not the Zenithian.” She said after a moment. “I can’t allow it without alerting the full council, since they are known for their…enhancements.”

Bloom nodded once, and then smiled at A’Sha.

“Thank you.”

***

“That whole page is not acceptable!” Eraklyon’s representative declared first thing. The meeting had barley be opened.

“Which page?” Icy asked coldly.

“45”

“All it is discussing is the…” Aisha stopped cold, still looking at the page and then looked up. “The council member is aware that the relationship between Princess Bloom and Crown Prince Sky had been ended three years ago on mutual consent, since the laws of Eraklyon are built in a way that would kill Princess Bloom with their demands, if she had chosen to marry Sky?”

Bloom lazily rifled through her copy until she found page 45. It was about her responsibilities as an ambassador and diplomat for her planet and family. It also highlighted no favourable treatment on Bloom’s part for anyone she was befriended with.

“Would the council member please explain his reason for the objection?” She asked softly. From the way he twitched, Bloom took it that this was the work of Sky’s father. She really would have liked to know what the hell the man had against her.

***

“Soo…” Musa started, Bloom groaned when she saw the gleam in her friends eyes.

“No!” She whined.

“Who is going to be in the meeting between you and the Trix?” Her devil of a friend said, completely ignoring Bloom’s protests. While they had been one silent heap of limbs before, now the silence was pointed.

“Mirta.” Bloom deadpanned.

“She would love that.” Flora commented with a grin. Bloom’s stomach dropped.

“I am not bringing Mirta into that disaster.” She protested fear in her voice. Mirta was an amazing fairy, but dragon above she was scary. You could give the witch fairy wings, but you couldn’t get the witch out of the fairy. Bloom thought and stared at the ceiling. Especially considering that there was a reason why Mirta and Lucy were steadily getting closer to being engaged.

“I actually think it’s a good idea.” Stella said, and Bloom shot her friend a look.

“Don’t stab me in the back, Stel.” She growled.

“I’m not.” Stella said, sitting up, shifting all of them and making everyone grumble. “But Mirta is actually a good idea.” She kept going, and Bloom shot her a dirty look. Stella rolled her eyes.

“Think about it B. Mirta was a witch that has seen the Trix in and outside of Cloudtower. In addition, she is a fairy that half of the time uses witch methods to work her magic.”

“Which baffles and infuriates half of our teachers.” Flora muttered, clearly amused.

“Which is stupid.” Bloom said it was a well work argument, and she could see her friends roll her eyes.

“Yes, dark fairies are a thing, and yes Alfea is neglecting them.” Stella interrupted. “Don’t start this argument.” Bloom fell back onto the couch. “The point we have is that Mirta is powerful and fucking terrifying. The Trix still see her as nothing but the little witchling, they probably remember. Let them believe that, and when they try to pull shit, they will have a harsh wake-up.”

“It also helps that Mirta is the Fairy of Truth Displayed.” Tecna said. Bloom sighed, and wiggled out of their pile.

“Fuck all of you.” She cursed and was out the door before they could start laughing. Getting to Mirta’s dorm was easy. While there were only two floors in each wing of the castle for dorms, there were space expansion charms on each of the dorms. Which was necessary for a total of 50 dorms and made it possible to have 20 dorms each on the first floor, right above the classrooms. The remaining ten dorms were under the roof, five in each wing. Bloom’s dorm, as well as Mirta’s, were under the roof of the left wing. Which basically meant that Bloom had to get out the door and walk across the hall to get to Mirta. When she knocked at the door, one of Mirta’s dorm-mates opened the door. Thankfully, Tasha was used to Bloom just showing up, so all she did was point in the direction of the common room.

“Thanks.” Bloom said with a smile and made her way across the dorm. Mirta had only three dorm mates so they could space out over the couches and armchairs without fights. When Bloom stalked in, all of them looked up.

“Hey Bloom.” Mirta said, but there was a calculated look in her eyes that made Bloom smile. She opened her mouth, but hesitated. Neither Mirta nor her dorm-mates were giving any indication that they would move to give them privacy.

“You have each other under a secrecy oath, don’t you?” Bloom asked with a grin. She got four identical grins back.

“Nice.” Bloom said, but shot another look at all of them. “Either way, I’m going to remind you that if the thing we discuss right now gets out, you will have problems that will make Mirta look harmless.” They didn’t lose face, but Bloom could see in the auras of the three girls that this was a threat they would heed. Bloom nodded. “Good” she said and turned to Mirta. “I got the council to give me time with the Trix to work out the vassal bound.”

There were several shocked exclamations and noise, and then one of Mirta’s dorm-mates, Irina of Eraklyon, was right in Bloom’s face.

“The fuck you mean you talking to the Trix?” She snapped, Bloom didn’t move. Irina was one of the strongest fighters, both in long range and short range, but her focus was defensive magic.

“Rina” Mirta snapped. “I’ll explain la…”

“They are afraid enough of Valtor that they’re making me a war bride.” Bloom cut in. Irina stumbled back. Tasha actually turned invisible in a flash of light, and Mirta’s third dorm-mate, Osaima, made the paint curls of the walls. They were a strange mix of fairies. Mirta, the fairy of truth uncovered, Tasha, the fairy of broken light, Irina, the fairy of shields, and Osaima, the fairy of pigments, but they found their rhythm, and they were better than most other dorms.

Bloom shot the other three fairies a look, and turned back to Mirta. “I will give you the freedom to explain it to them later.” Mirta nodded once.

“Why are you here though?” She asked, and Bloom sighed.

“I need someone with me while working out the Vassal bound. While the representative of Zenith is fine…”

“You want someone who knows them too.” Mirta kept going. Bloom nodded.

“I threw your name out as a joke, but the others think it’s the best idea.” Mirta looked at Bloom for a long moment, then nodded.

“I’ll do it, but you have to get me out of classes for the day.” Bloom grimaced, but nodded.

“Can do, now deal with your dorm-mates.”

***

“Your Highness.” A’Sha was waiting for them at the door to the Council library. Bloom smiled at her.

“Hello. This is my friend, Musa of Harmony Melody.” Bloom introduced Musa to the other fairy. A’Sha bowed a bit and then opened the doors.

“You’ll have to wait here. I’ll step over the threshold and announce that you’re allowed to enter the Library. Then you can come in.” they both nodded and watched as A’Sha did as she just told them. There was a tingle along Bloom's spine, and the delicate woodwork started filling out with magic, but other than that, nothing noticeable happened.

“Welcome in.” A’Sha said with a smile.

“Can I ask a question?” Bloom asked. A’Sha hummed in agreement. “How old exactly are you?” A’sha threw her head back and laughed.

“I’m getting towards sixty three.” She admitted. “I studied on Livre since my magic directed itself early on towards the restoration of books. After I finished my schooling there, I immediately started to work in Livre’s royal library while applying to the program on Domino. Took me two tries since they wanted me to have more experience before they’d accept me.”

Bloom tried to keep up. From what she knew, Livre was the planet of writing in the third circle of the Magical Dimension. Their apprenticeships took up to ten years. Domino also only allowed outsiders to apply for an apprenticeship under their scholars every five years, the last only two years before the fall of the planet. So, if Bloom did the maths right, A’Sha would have gotten into the program just before the war took over. It also meant she had no clue of the language of Dragons since that was only taught to those scholars that had stayed five years into their apprenticeship.

“You immediately got under Bartleby's wing, didn’t you?” Musa asked, and A’Sha nodded, glowing with pride.

“I managed to fix a book our instructors gave us as a challenge and warning. None of them expected me to succeed, but when I did, I was pulled aside for individual lessons.”

Bloom smiled as she listened to Musa and A’Sha talk. Her aura was bright and happy. She was genuinely only interested in learning everything she could and even helping Bloom out. It felt nice to have a break. With that thought, Bloom relaxed enough to look around. The library was nothing fancy, reminding Bloom more of an archive than a library. Tight rows of simple crystal shelves as far as the eyes reached, barely any decoration, but frequent tables to work at.

“Here we are.” A’Sha finally said. Before them was what basically was a house, a ground and first floor walled off by opaque crystal that looked like shelves had grown on it. Its entrance was blocked by a counter and workshop area, half hiding the house.

“Let me get the letter, and then I’ll show you to the Domino section.” A’Sha said, weaving through the space behind the counter, past the workshop, and then disappearing into the house. Bloom and Musa shared a look.

“Do you think she’s informed the council?” Bloom mumbled under her breath.

“Nope.” Musa said. “Theres nobody else in the library. Besides, I genuinely think she’s been chewing nails to get to you.”

Musa had come with Bloom to meet A’Sha for two reasons. One, she’d be able to hear anyone besides them and A’Sha being in the library, including people hidden under silence spells since those either caused a low humming or a complete absence of sound where they had been cast. The other reason was that Musa and Bloom could communicate at a pitch that was impossible to hear for anyone but people from Melody or Domino.

“Here we go!” A’Sha called out when she returned, waving a thick envelope above her head. Bloom leaned on the counter so A’Sha didn’t have to come around again. The woman eagerly pushed the envelope over to Bloom. It was opened already and showed clear signs that A’Sha had pulled the papers out and put them back inside again a lot over the years.

“He gave it to me when he sent me a delivery run to the Royal Library of Livre. It was to look for books and bring some correspondence to some of his friends there. After everything that happened, I think he knew what would happen and wanted me off planet.” Bloom stilled. A’Sha was still staring at the letter and sighed.

“Many of us who weren’t born on Domino or had mixed parentage were sent off planet for one reason or another.”

“There are people from Domino that are still alive?” Bloom asked, her voice shaking. A’Sha looked up, clearly startled.

“Yes. Many parents that were born on a different planet chose to take their children off the planet when the situation got worse.” Musa’s hand on her shoulder, startled Bloom enough to start breathing again.

“Are they in contact?” A’Sha bit her lip.

“Some of us Apprentices are, but I don’t know about the others.” Bloom nodded silently and let Musa take over the conversation. Instead, she concentrated on the letter. Carefully pulling it out, Bloom immediately felt the magic on the pages. Once she unfolded the stack to the first page, she immediately knew she was right.

Bloom had always been sensitive to fire. Her dad always said she’d inherited his firefighter instincts. His firehouse said Bloom was some kind of saint sent to them to help them. She had spent a lot of her time in the firehouse as a child, drawing and telling everyone before the bell rang that there would be a call.

Once they had been able to talk properly, Daphne had explained that it was their language. Dragons had learned it from the fire, which was why they understood each other. Originally, Domino’s language had been oral, but with interdimensional trade, they had been forced to create a written form, which ended up looking like a lot of fancy scribbles that confused the hell out of people from other planets. Daphne had taught Bloom a lot about their native tongue, making Bloom realise that she had written her whole life in her mother tongue. Daphne had been very amused when Bloom had ranted for a good hour about being told that her made-up language was nice.

The letter in her hand was addressed to someone of Dragonkind. It was a short explanation of who Bartleby was and why this letter existed. It was also an explanation of the reason why A’Sha had been sent away. By page 4, Bartleby also started to explain that A’Sha had been one of his favourite students, that she had potential, and that he wanted her to learn under Master Ri’Son of Livre. The last sentence of the letter was a note explaining that the following pages would be under a spell that needed to be lifted by a Dragonborn. Bloom put the letter to the side and pulled out the pinned-together pages. It was where the spark of magic was coming from. Bloom took a deep breath and gently blew over the pages. Golden magic sparked and then disappeared, leaving behind letters that shifted around the paper at a speed that made them look like nothing but blurry smudges. Then, after a moment, they settled, no longer Dragonsspeach, but English, at least for Bloom.

She looked up to see A’Sha staring down at the pages with disbelief and Musahiding her laughter.

“The first pages are explanations of what happened and why people did what they did.” She kept it vague. Just to be safe. “This, on the other hand.” Bloom said, handing the bundle over. “Is a letter of recommendation to Master Ri’Son.” Bloom smiled at the absolute panic on A’Sha’s face. “Bartleby wanted you to continue your apprenticeship under them.” A’Sha just stared at the papers in her hand. That was when Bloom noticed the smaller piece of paper lying on the table. It was under a heavy disillusion charm that had been linked to the charm on the recommendation. When Bloom picked it up, it glowed again.

Princess,

She nearly dropped it again.

Princess,

I have to believe that one of you survived. I have to hope that you find your way to A’Sha. She is a good soul, but she doesn’t believe she can do half as much as she is capable of.

So I gave her the papers, with this hidden in them, in hope of you finding it.

I will do what I can to save your father’s library, even if it costs me my life.

When you find this, and my magic is still holding up, I have succeeded.

Come and find me. I will wait for you.

Lord Bartleby

Royal Head Scribe, Archivist and Historian

When Bloom looked up, Musa was staring at her, while A’Sha was still going through the papers.

“Fine” She whispered and hid the letter in her pockets.

“A’Sha?” She asked and raised the remaining letter. “Will you keep this safe for me?” The woman agreed and then led them to the shelves that had all the books from, about, or concerning Domino.

***

“Ladies.” Bloom said, not even having to fake her cheer. She was genuinely delighted to have this meeting with the Trix, simply for the comedy and the fact that, for once, she had the longer end of the stick.

Icy’s glare was…well Icy. Stormy seemed to see the comedy as well ,and Darcy was just done.

And then Mirta walked in. Bloom was so fucking grateful that she had her pin on her. Since they weren’t in the council chamber but a smaller meeting room, Tecna didn’t even need to be close. Her friends were probably watching the whole thing live and eating popcorn.

Bloom, for her part, was enjoying the show too. Icy’s face lit up with quiet rage, Stormy was gaping, and Darcy was spluttering.

“What the fuck?” Icy snapped. The Zenithinan Representative was typing away in their corner. Their lips twitching.

“Might I introduce you to, Mirta Fairy of Truth Displayed. She will be able to find the best way for all of us to word this.”

“I’m also just going to enjoy watching you squirm.” It was low enough that it could be dismissed as nothing important, but from the looks the Trix were shooting Mirta, they had heard it just fine.

Bloom sat down, putting her notepad and pens on the table in front of her, and Mirta sat down next to her.

“What do you want?” Bloom asked.

“Don’t you…” Darcy started.

“Yes, I know your overall goal, but this is about a Vassal bond, which means we have to talk about every little detail.” Bloom said. She shot the council member a look. “Otherwise, it might be dismissed as breaking protocol.”

The Trix shared look. Icy spoke up.

“We want to be out of the Ancestrals’ influence and safe from them.” Mirta’s fingers twitched once. It was the truth.

“Ok…” Bloom hesitated. “I need to know what they can do. In detail.” Icy clamped down. Stormy turned her head. Bloom looked at Darcy. She was met with rage and fear.

Without thinking, Bloom’ eyes flickered up. Darcy’s aura was curled into a ball.

“The Coven was built to keep them alive.” Darcy muttered.

“Who?” Bloom asked. Then Darcy shot her a look, and Bloom nodded towards the council member.

“The Coven was built to keep the Ancestral Witches, Belladonna, Lysis, and Tharma, alive.”

Mirta twitched.

“How?” Bloom asked.

Darcy stayed silent.

“They possess us and pull at our magic, which gives them strength and life.” Bloom froze. A chill creeping up her spine. Without a second thought, she slammed her hand down and called upon her strongest ward.

“Are they…”

“They haven’t been in contact for months.” Stormy said. “They usually do it once a year.”

“Which was four months ago.” Icy said.

Bloom stayed frozen for a long second, then snapped towards the Zenith Representative, who was staring at the Trix with an open mouth. “Not a single word of this leaves this room. No documentation of any kind. Do you understand me?” They startled and shot Bloom a look.

“I can’t just…”

“If the Council finds out about this, they will call the Trix traitors.” Bloom bellowed. “Which means they will kick them out of the contract.” The Trix, who had already been still, seemed to become utterly motionless. The representative, on the other hand, lost colour.

“If the Council does it to the Trix, because of something they have no control about.” Bloom hesitated and turned to look at the Trix.

“It is a bloodline thing.” Icy said, correctly interpreting Bloom's look. “We were born with that connection.” Bloom wanted to throw up. Instead, she turned back to the representative.

“That means Valtor will back out too, after all, nobody knows what the Coven has on him.”

“Valtor backs out, and the contract is off.” They deflated, slapping a hand over their face.

“And they will make it sound as if the parties involved were responsible.” Bloom just nodded.

“I am begging you to keep it secret.”

“How do we make sure they don’t accidentally let anything slip?” Was the answering question. Bloom turned to the Trix.

“We can keep some things from them.” Stormy muttered, from the glare Darcy directed at the table top, it wasn’t much.

“Truth.” Mirta muttered, Bloom cursed. She cursed a blue streak, that would have been her uncles from the firehouse horrified.

“Do you have bracelets or necklaces or rings that you wear everyday?” Bloom asked. “That you don’t mind not taking off?” She had an idea, but she needed a focus point. Darcy held up her hand. A simple silver finger was on the middle finger.

“Give it to me.” Bloom said, her tone harsher that she had intended too. Darcy didn’t move. “You get it back, but wards need a focus point.” Bloom snapped. She was stressed, she was terrified, and she knew she was being unfair, but considering the news she just got… it seemed fair.

Darcy hesitated for a moment more, before she pulled the ring off and handed it over.

For a moment, Bloom just felt the energy of the ring, felt how much Darcy's magic had wrapped around the metal and sunken into it. Then she took another deep breath and looked up.

“I need you to tell me exactly what happens, how it feels, and what the aftermath is like.”

Darcy’s aura screamed out, and Bloom stilled. She didn’t look up. She stayed focused on the ring, but when nothing happened for a long moment, Bloom reached under the collar of her shirt. She pulled out the birth medallion. The one that fake Avalon had given her had been a duplicate, and it was the ceremonial medallion. The one around her neck wasn’t. It also wasn’t hers, it was Daphne’s.

“I did it before.” Was all she said. Darcy stayed silent for a moment more before she started talking.

“It’s like all of my senses are cutting out one by one. Touch first, then my eyes, then smell and taste and last hearing.” Mirta stood up and walked away from the table. Bloom could see her fingers trembling. Darcy kept talking. Bloom started weaving the ward.

“Then I get a splitting headache, and she’s there.” The ring in Bloom's fingers was glowing with bright blue and deep purple magic. When Darcy didn’t keep speaking Bloom gave a cue.

“How does it feel when she leaves?”

“Same thing, only all senses at once.”

“Aftermath?”

“I’m blind for up to three days, and afterwards, my eyesight is shittier than before.” The magic around the ring exploded into smoke. Bloom handed the ring back over.

Stormy gave her a solid metal bracelet before Bloom could ask.

“My whole body tingles. Then lightning hits, but it actually hurts.” Her voice was clipped and angry,.Bloom worked silently. Mirta, behind the Trix, was fighting with herself. Bloom knew Mirta hated the Trix., especially for everything they had done to Lucy. It was absolutely fair, but Mirta, while a dark fairy, was a fairy, and this kind of torture was too much, even for her. Bloom wished she had Musa’s empathic powers.

“When she lives it’s like my body is on fire, and my fine motor control is nonexistent for at least a week.” The bracelet, encompassed by reddish-pink and blue magic, exploded like a ball of lightningKugelblitz and Bloom handed it back.

Icy stared at Bloom for a long moment. Silent and judging. Bloom stared back. Something must have been enough because she unclasped a thin silver necklace and handed it over. There was a ring on it. Bloom brushed her fingers off the ring, contemplating if it would be better to use that, but at the charge of magic that exploded at her touch, she decided against it. It wasn’t worth it.

“I get slower. Like she is freezing me in order to get to me, then I black out. Same thing when she leaves, only it’s literally. I will freeze solid for a day and then have problems moving for a week.” Icy’s light blue magic and Bloom's own blue gave out in a sizzle of fire meeting ice. She gave it back silently.

Mirta sat back down next to her.

“We are not leaving this room until the Vassal bond stands and is absolutely airtight.” Bloom declared.

Chapter Text

Breaking News! Princess Hestia Morgain of Domino, last survivor of the Dragonborn becomes War Bride.

-The Moon

They were whispering, behind her back. Bloom could feel both the nervous eyes of her friends and the looks their classmates gave them on her skin. She had known from the start this would happen. They wouldn’t keep the whole marriage thing quiet, couldn’t keep it quiet, but that didn’t make it easier. At least their Professors seemed to realise why they missed too many lessons in the last four months.

WizGiz had looked as if he wanted to start a fight when he first laid eyes on Bloom after the announcement. Avalon had looked lost and frankly terrified, and while Palladium had seemingly been the same as before, his aura had begged to differ, but Bloom had been grateful nonetheless. Grieselda had been in the know since the first time Bloom had been out of school the whole day. Nobody in Alfea could keep a secret from that woman, and they all knew it. Now if their classmates could just shut the fuck up. It wasn’t like the news hadn’t also used the term War Bride.

War Bride to save the Dimension. Princess Hestia Morgain of Domino, Guardian of the Dragon Flame has agreed to political marriage to the Sorcerer Valtor to save the Magical Dimension

-Guardian Fairy

“Anything to add?” Erasmus asked. It sounded a bit like he was chewing on stone, with how hard he was grinding his teeth together. Bloom watched him in amusement. After nearly three months of negotiations with everyone and an additional month before that, where it had been just Bloom and the council, this felt a bit like freedom.

Destain and anger snapped through the bond, and Bloom crashed back down to the ground. This wasn’t freedom. This was her getting put in prison, and not even Erasmus, having to take out everything that would make them his leashed dogs, was enough. She hated that she agreed with Valtor on this. That Valtor had to remind her of it.

When the room stayed silent, Erasmus nodded once. “Then all in favour of ending negotiations?” He asked again, and for a moment, there were looks and chatter shared, then slowly, hands raised. Bloom kept her hand down, so did her friends, although they technically didn’t have a vote in the first place. Griffin shot Bloom a look and raised her hand. They had talked about it, keeping the peace a bit longer. Let them think Griffin had come around to them. They would wake up soon enough. Neither Valtor nor the Trix raised their hands.

“Princess Hestia, why…”

“I abstain.” She said simply, not explaining nor making a scene. A moment later, without any prompting the sentiment was echoed by the Trix and Valtor. Erasmus' face twitched, and Bloom suppressed a smile. She just had to wait until the Law of Engagement started to take hold.

The vote was in favour of ending negotiations.

Moments later, through the magic of the chamber itself, a new copy of the contract appeared before Bloom.

The one to sign, to make this real.

To make her a war bride.

Similar copies were before the Trix and Valtor. Bloom's stomach flipped and left her body.

“If the parties please…” Erasmus stopped when Bloom took her own copy, edited with everything that had been discussed and started reading and comparing page by page.

“Princess Hestia, what are…”

“There have been attempts to put things into the contract before.” Bloom said coldly, refusing to look up. Tecna was scanning each page and comparing them to their copy. Bloom just had to wait for Musa to hum to get to the next page. “I will not risk it, so the council will have to wait for me to go over everything before I am willing to sign.”

They had talked about it. This was necessary but still made Bloom want to cry and scream and curl up into a ball. This was real. Not just talks anymore, but her future, printed right before her eyes.

“So the council might like to get comfortable.”

Valtor defeated through paperwork? High Council announced marriage between the Sorcerer and Princess of Domino, along with a peace treaty.

-The Sword

There were still new articles published by the hour. Interviews with Council members and employees, asking questions and painting a picture that Bloom had no way to influence. Faragonda had banned reporters from Alfeas grounds long before Bloom had been born, and Bloom refused to go to Magix city. She barely wanted to set foot out of her dorm room.

People were still whispering, some more than others. Mirta and her dorm-mates had started a game of Make-Them-Realise-Their-Idiocy, in which they questioned each and every person making snide remarks about whether or not they had recent memory loss. Reminded them of how Bloom had always been the first to protect people, how she had kept them safe from Valtor, the Trix, and the Shadow Phoenix. The word only had an effect for a short time until the next article made it out.

Bloom lost all humour when something landed in her cauldron and nearly blew up the whole class.

Palladium looked livid when Bloom lowered her wards, and in the remains of her cauldron, were the remnants of the thing still intact, a firecracker.

Bloom silently left the classroom and returned to her dorm. All of this was getting too much. She wanted to go back to being 16 and not knowing anything.

End of the Terror. A War Bride and a Sorcerer. How the Laws of Old will return us to normal.

-Realms News

“Girls.” Faragonda’s voice was warm when she greeted them. Bloom didn’t say anything. Faragonda had been the one who told the council to involve her, because she would bolt otherwise. Faragonda had stabbed her in the back and ripped out her wings. Bloom hadn't talked to the old woman since she had been informed. Her friends were similarly silent. Faragonda sighed.

“The announcement will be made by Council Head Erasmus today.” Bloom didn’t so much as twitch. Faragonda kept going.

“I have also informed the teachers about it, and will make an announcement before breakfast so that your classmates and the lower years don’t find out through the media. I am hoping to keep school life running like before.”

What about me? Bloom wanted to scream. Why can’t my life run like before? Why do I have to sacrifice my future for everyone else? She didn’t say a word and just kept glaring at the desk ornament. Griffin had said Faragonda had a mild allergy to a certain flower. It would swell up her eyes and make her sound three octaves lower for a day. Flora was already growing them in an abandoned classroom in Cloudtower. The first flower would be sent to Faragonda by next week.

“Is that all Headmistress?” Stella asked. When nothing else was said, they left the room silently.

Has the defeater of Dakar and the Army of Decay fallen to darkness? Marriage between Princess Hestia of Domino and Sorcerer Valtor of the Coven sparks great concern.

- Celestial Sun

“I never liked her.” The voice was familiar and grating. Anna was well known among their year. The Leader of the Arcadia suite. The one who had gotten the biggest hit to her ego, when Bloom's own Wing suite had suddenly been more prodigious than hers.

Bloom had always ignored her, but right now, with eyes on her, her skin itching and her brain foggy, Bloom wanted to scream and rage at her. She didn’t even move a muscle, too afraid of losing control, and just stayed seated, even as the conversations around them grew quieter.

“I mean, she shows up out of nowhere, then pulls one stunt after the other. I agree with the Celestial Sun. It’s too suspicious that all of this shit started just after she came back, and now she’s marrying Valtor?” By now, only the teachers were still talking. Stella was radiating light, her hair basically white. Musa was vibrating, Tecna sparking, and Flora was sprouting leaves. Only Aisha didn’t show a clear sign of her anger, but Bloom could see the way every beverage around them was shaking. From the look of the more shadowy corners, Mirta was also not happy.

“Who says it wasn’t her plan all along and this is just…”

Bloom stood so fast her chair screeched over the floor and fell over. In the sudden silence of the room, it was like a cannon shot. For a second, she met Anna’s eyes, who was smirking at her. Thinking she got the better of Bloom, that Bloom would attack her or something. The Bloom of four years ago might have done it, but Bloom, as she was standing here, wouldn’t. She was too wrung out from years of non-stop fighting. Instead, Bloom turned and walked around the table. All eyes followed her as she walked until she was passing right behind Anna. And still, everyone jumped and yelped when Bloom slammed one of the first copies of the contract on the table right between Anna and her best friend.

“Those are damn brave words.” Bloom snarled. She was smoking again. “From the daughter of the person who proposed and sponsored the Contract.” Bloom pulled her hand off the contract, where it had obscured the title page. It took nothing but a flick of her wrist to project the cover for everyone to see while she walked out.

Due to the situation with Valtor escalating, the High Council had to make a hard decision. We entered into negotiations with Valtor, trying to find a solution that wouldn’t cost more lives. The solution we finally agree upon is an old war law. A marriage contract between Valtor and Princess Hestia Morgain of Domino, also known as Bloom Peters of Earth has been negotiated. The ceremony will be held in two weeks’ time.

-High Council Head Erasmus through Magix News

Earth was quiet, compared to Magix, even Alfea. Or maybe it was just the clearing where Bloom had landed. It was the same one where she first met Stella. It had, at one point, become their portal place to Earth and was warded accordingly, which also meant local wildlife used this spot a lot. Bloom smiled when some foxes popped up between the higher grass. She nodded to them once and turned towards the path.

None of the wildlife. The foxes and ravens and bunnies, even the cats and stray dogs that lived in the clearing, so much as twitched when she moved past them, or tried to attack them. Tecna and Musa had analysed the clearing once, and it turned out when Bloom had first used her powers, she had wanted to be safe, which apparently had enveloped the whole clearing. Bloom thought it was probably more the fact that Bloom had played here for years and slowly infused the clearing with her magic. When she had broken Daphne's seal on her, it had probably just added the last bit to tip the scales.

She absentmindedly put headphones in as she crossed the border to the clearing, and sure enough, it was more like Magix here.

Then music was taking over and Bloom just walked. She knew she could walk past her dad’s fire house, but that would mean that she would have to talk to her dad there and then she would tell him. Bloom knew her dad’s crew. If he got upset, they would be upset and ready to beat shit up. Bloom, while appreciating the thought, knew that they couldn’t do shit, so she couldn’t talk to her dad just yet.

Her mum would be home when Bloom arrived. Bloom had taken care to hit the small time window, that would guarantee that her mum was home, but her dad wouldn’t, even when she took the long way home. She loved her dad, but she just needed her mum.

For a time, Bloom just walked along the beach, silently pulling off her shoes and walking within range of low waves. She didn’t even mind that her trousers would get wet. Somewhere in the last three years, they had all switched from regular clothing to more practical and protective. Bloom had started to wear clothing made from dragon leather since fire protection spells were either really expensive or exhausting to use. Funnily enough, it had been Riven who had pulled her aside and told her about that.

It had taken a while for Bloom to find someone that only traded in the shed skins, but it had been worth it. Then Tecna had asked if there would be clothing like it on Domino, and they all got sidetracked since then, Bloom had been wearing dragon leather. Some of it looked a lot like Ren Faire clothing, but not all of it. Water dragon skins were waterproof and almost looked like jeans. Bloom had fallen in love with her home world's clothing and had made sure Tecna would have enough scraps from different skin types to science to her heart's liking.

“BLOOM!” She snapped out of her contemplation upon realising someone called out for her. When she turned, she barely had time to register the largest dog she had ever seen jumping at her, before she was underwater.

She came up sputtering and coughing up water with the dog whining pitifully into her blouse between its teeth. Apparently, the dog had realised their mistake. Bloom blinked at them once, then twice, and finally: “Artu?” He let go of her and barked once, dancing in a circle. Another wave hit Bloom’s back, prompting her to get up. It was around this time that two people reached her. Roxy jumped at Bloom with a big grin. Bloom had been ready for it and caught Roxy hugging her back for a moment before threatening to dump her into the ocean, making Roxy shriek with laughter and Artu bark. Klaus, on the other hand, had stopped several metres away from them. He was holding a towel that he handed to Bloom once she was out of the water and had put Roxy down. The Frutti Music Bar further up the beach was buzzing with people.

“Hi.” She said with a grin. Klaus just shook his head.

“Hello, Bloom.” He said, Artu standing at his side, which was when Bloom realised just how big the dog was.

“What the hell happened to Artu?!” She asked. “Wasn’t he supposed to be a Labrador?”

Klaus snorted.

“Yeah, I thought that too. Obviously, I was wrong.”

“Uncle Klaus thinks he has some Irish wolfhound in him.” Roxy said, putting her hand on Artu’s head. Even splayed out, her fingers didn’t bridge the gap between Artu’s ears. Said head was also at the height of Roxy’s chest while Artu was sitting and slightly slummed

“Well…” Bloom said slowly. “I wouldn’t be surprised.” She muttered. They chatted for a bit longer before Bloom waved them goodbye. They had to get to work, and Bloom wanted to go home.

***

“I did wish for her, didn’t I?” Bloom muttered to herself when Mitzi called out. Bloom turned and forced the polite little smile on her face that Aisha and Stella had drilled into her.

“Mitzi,” Bloom said. She noticed the group around Mitzi, old schoolmates. “As nice as it would be to stay and chat, how about we don’t?” She turned before Mitzi could pull a face.

“Oh, come on, Bloom!” Mitzi called after her. From the sound of her voice, she was walking after her, her friends calling after her, with both insults and demeaning comments. Bloom contemplated stunning them, just enough to get away, but let it be.

“All I want is to visit my parents. I neither need your immature high school drama nor do I need to be entertainment for you and your friends, Mitzi.” Bloom snapped, not turning around. “So unless you actually stopped being a massive jerk, don’t talk to me.” A hand landed on her shoulder. It wasn’t Mitzi’s, but that of a man.

Instinct took over, and a second later, the guy was on his back, groaning. Bloom would have felt bad. Concrete wasn’t comfortable, especially not when this move was used, but still, she couldn’t bring herself to care. She snapped around.

“I warned you.” She growled at the stunned group. Mitzi stared for a moment longer, but when Bloom moved to turn, she snapped out of her stupor and screeched like a banshee.

“What the fuck did you do?”

“That’s what a year of a murderous stalker breathing down your neck does to you, you...” Bloom snapped, barely holding herself back from cursing them out. Something in her face must have shown, because they finally shut up. Bloom turned and left before they could get any other comments out.

***

“Mike, you’re home early today.” Her mum's voice was coming from upstairs.

“It’s me, Mum,” Bloom called out. A moment later, Vanessa came down the stairs, smiling brightly.

“Bloom!” She called out, and Bloom, who had slipped off her shoes, gratefully fell into her mum's arms.

“I missed you so much, baby.” Her mum whispered into her hair, and whatever had been keeping Bloom together finally snapped. She didn’t start crying, but whatever happened to her, her mum noticed. Vanessa leaned back, and upon seeing Bloom's face, she went pale.

“Bloom, what’s the matter? Did something happen?” The genuine concern made all the explanations Bloom had thought off disappeared, and Bloom blurted the truth out.

“I’m getting married, Mum” Bloom choked out and burst into tears. She could see the way her mum's face circled from worry to confusion to a split second of joy and back to worry, this time mixed with anger.

“Bloom…” Vanessa said slowly. “Bloom, did you and Sky get back together?” She asked. Bloom shook her head, sniffling and trying to blink the tears out of her eyes.

“Then who the hell are you getting married to?” Her mum snapped. Bloom hiccuped and tried to breathe slowly enough to get a word out. It took her mum dragging her out of the entryway and onto a kitchen chair for Bloom to speak.

“I’m a war bride.” She whispered. Somehow it was still ringing loudly through their kitchen. Vanessa dropped the mugs she had been holding, snapping around and staring at Bloom with wide eyes.

“I think I just misheard.” She said, her tone bordering the tone that would make even Bloom’s uncles from the firehouse turn and run for their lives. “Repeat that for me, sweetie.”

“I am going to be a war bride.” Bloom sniffed.

Her mum, who hadn’t yet moved to pick the mugs up, balled her hands to fists. There was a long moment of silence.

“Why?” Vanessa asked, her voice gentle, even though Bloom could feel the anger in it.

“The Council couldn’t get a handle on Valtor.” Her parents knew about Valtor. It was a whole thing. She had begged her parents to move after the whole Dakar thing, but they hadn’t budged, so Bloom and Aisha had spent several hours over ancient textbooks trying to find a ward strong enough to keep out anyone magical that Bloom hadn’t authorised. In the end, they had created one themselves and put it on her parent’s land with the other girls. Right now, Bloom was grateful for it. The familiar walls of her childhood home were a comfort to her.

“You’re telling me a bunch of grown adults, probably all well past forty, or their equivalent of forty,” Vanessa added when Bloom opened her mouth. “didn’t manage to take care of one man. A man that they already were sending children out to fight.” Bloom nodded. She had put the cups back on the counter, with a bit of magic, and also pulled out the ingredients for hot cocoa.

“So they decide to marry one of said children off to the bastard?” Her mom's voice reached another high.

“I’m twenty one, Mum…” Bloom whispered. She was still crying, but by now, she could breathe again. “I’m not a child in their eyes. I haven’t been in two years.”

“Two? Baby, you haven’t been a child for them since you arrived! Besides…” Her mum stopped and gripped the spoon in her hand enough to bend it.

“Why did you agree to it?” She finally asked, not accusing but curious.

“They would have blamed me if I didn’t. For the whole dimension to hear.”

“Cowards.” She spat.

***

An hour later, they were curled up on the couch, with their favourite TV show playing in the background, when the door opened.

“Nessa, I’m home.” Her dad was snickering. “You won’t believe what Lexi did today! She bet Patrick that she would be first back up the…'' Her dad stopped when he saw them. Bloom knew that look. Her dad was processing what he was seeing. First, that she was back then, that she was curled up with her mum, the hot cocoa and ice cream before them, and lastly, he saw the wine on the table. Her dad went from joyful to worried in two seconds flat.

“What happened?” He asked, stalking over. His boots were still on, which usually would earn him one hell of a scolding.

“ou ae jetting a Counfil orere hon in aw.” Her mum said around a mouth of ice cream. Bloom giggled at both the look on her dad’s face and the sentence. She wasn’t drunk, not even tipsy. Her mum's good Italian wine or her dad’s poitín weren’t enough to manage that. Even Tecna, who was basically drinking rubbing alcohol, didn’t have stuff strong enough to get Bloom drunk, not since she had broken Daphne's second seal.

“What?” Asked her dad dumbfounded, but leaned down to hug Bloom. “Hey, darling.” The kiss he pressed to her forehead was almost enough to reduce her to tears again.

“You,” Her mum said, swallowing the last of the ice cream. “are getting a Council-ordered Son-in-Law.” Bloom, who like her dad, didn't understand the sentence the first time around, stared at her mum for a second before she dissolved into hysterical giggles and tears.

“That is a good joke, Vanessa.” Her dad said. “Cruel, but goo…” Her mum must have mouthed something or given some other kind of gesture because her dad stopped. His aura was spluttering and slowly getting angry.

“WHATWhat the FUCK?” He snapped, wiggling between Bloom and the couch to hug her.

Bloom didn’t listen to her mum explain everything to her dad or show him the final copy of the contract. Instead, she just focused on her ice cream and her dad’s hug.

Life was shit, but this? This, at least, was the same. She also didn’t need any masks or wards or walls here.

Bloom didn’t notice falling asleep, cuddled by her parents, who were planning a murder spree.

Chapter Text

06. Prepare their stake. It's their mistake.

A week before the wedding

Griselda standing in their dorm room usually meant either missions, one of them got caught doing shit, or one of their schemes didn’t work out as planned.

Griselda, with a huge box and a face that indicated she wanted to be everywhere but here, actually sent shivers down Bloom’s spine.

“What is that?” Bloom asked cautiously. Griselda’s face darkened even more.

“The council sent this to you.” Was all Griselda said before she plopped the package onto their table. Bloom didn’t move and just stared at the package.

“They wouldn’t DARE!” Stella snarled. Making all of them jump. She was radiating light again.

“Stel…” Musa asked cautiously. Stella ignored them all and instead stalked towards the package and ripped it open.

Griselda, still standing next to the package, jerked back once the lid was off. “Great Dragon.” She cursed.

Her friends got to their feet, crowding around the thing and cursing up a storm. Bloom stayed where she was. From Stella’s reactions, she had an idea of what was in that box. And she really didn’t want to see it.

“Bloom.” Stella’s voice was soft and gentle. She looked up.

“Can I?” Stella indicated the package, and Bloom just nodded. Even though she promised herself not to look, to ignore it, Bloom stared as Stella pulled out the dress.

It was a snow-white princess gown with more glitter than even their fairy forms. There are no sleeves of any kind and a neckline Bloom instantly hated.

Bloom stared silently at it.

“It’s fucking ugly.” Musa said. Bloom started giggling. From the look Griselda shot her, she was also crying.

“Yeah, it is.” She giggled between sobs. She needed this farce to be over. She couldn’t handle the emotional toll this had on her. “Do you want any of the fabric Stel?” Bloom asked. Her friend turned the dress and looked at it. She separated the lace from the lower layers, and by the great Dragon, even the lace was ugly as fuck.

“It’s of the rack, cheap as fuck, and glued instead of sewn.” Stella said after a moment, clearly offended. Bloom nodded once.

“Alright. Give it to me.” Bloom said. Stella handed it out to her silently. Bloom got up, grabbed the dress in one hand, the box in the other, and walked out the door. Several fairies stared at her with open mouths as she walked past them. Understandable, the wedding dress in her hand was an ugly eye-catcher.

“What exactly are you going to do?” Aisha’s voice came from behind her. Bloom stayed silent, the fact that her hair was burning bright red with blue tips being the best indication of her mood. By the time they made it out of the building, there was a drove of fairies behind her, as well as a few teachers.

Bloom threw the dress into the air and willed it to stay there, perfectly in view. The box landed right below it.

“B,” Flora started hesitantly. “What exactly are you doing?” Bloom smiled and turned around, flames dancing over her hands.

“Domino’s wedding tradition has a lot to do with fire. One being both parties literally setting each other on fire, a bit.” She said calmly. Stella’s jaw fell open with realisation. Griselda looked like she was about to have an aneurysm. Bloom smiled and threw a fireball behind her. There was a flash of light and the smell of burning plastic. Then nothing.

“Well fuck me!” Someone said, and Bloom turned back around. The ashes, like she had intended, had fallen into the box. Bloom slammed the lid of the box back on and used a bit of magic to wave a spell around the box.

“Right back to whoever sent you.” She snapped and turned back around. Stella’s hair was white again.

“You and I.” Stella said and she couldn’t have sounded more dangerous. “We are going to do something about this!” Bloom didn’t protest when her friend pulled her back into the building by her arm.

Six days until the wedding

“This place is perfect!” Stella exclaimed, going through books on Dominian fabric works, motives, and clothing. Bloom, sitting on a table, just watched her friend. So far, the Council hadn't said anything about her stunt with the dress, but there was a good chance they would send another. There had been a second box, but that one had a white tuxedo inside. Bloom had scared the living daylights out of her friends when she had gotten a giggling fit at two in the morning. They had joined her, though, once they’d realised that the Council wanted to put Valtor in white.

Aside from that, though, Bloom knew she needed an outfit for the wedding, one that was a statement, which was why she and Stella were currently in the Council library. Stella, while still only doing it sporadically, did design clothing, and if she had references, of both the general style of the culture and personal preferences of the person she designed for, then she could design and create the most amazing clothing. Which was the plan for Bloom's wedding outfit.

Bloom refused to wear a dress. She was a war bride, not some blushing twenty-year-old who'd fallen in love with the wrong guy. She would look the part. Thankfully, Stella had agreed with her on that, so here they were, looking through books on different fashion styles of Domino and trying to find something that would fit. So far, they had a ceremonial outfit made up of a long ceremonic dragon leather tunic, simple pants, and some armour for shoulders, underarms, and back.

The other was actually a day-to-day outfit, which, so far, was Bloom's favourite, just to be able to later say, well… I got married in street clothes. She was sure that Valtor would get the joke, too. The day outfit too was a long tunic, simple pants, and a waistcoat that would be embroidered with whatever motif Bloom preferred.

She turned and looked at the one dress she had allowed Stella to show her. It looked like dresses she had seen on Earth, a uni-coloured, high neck, A-line gown without any embroidery or decorations. The true eye-catcher of the dress itself was the missing back. It was actually quite scandalous how deep it went. The thing that gave the dress its flare was the long piece of fabric that reminded her of Indian Sarees. Put over the shoulder a half skirt held by a thick ribbon the colour of the main dress, tucked into the dress itself in the back. This part of the dress was embroidered on every inch. Bloom wanted something like this. She wanted this, yet the thought of wearing this style of dress, and the specially embroidered piece of cape that would represent her family and Bloom herself, made her ill. She wouldn’t wear them for a wedding she never even wanted in the first place.

One day, she might be willing to wear them, but not now. Not for this.

“Oh!” Stella’s voice was full of wonder, and Bloom looked up to see her friend holding a book almost as big as Bloom's torso.

“Stel?” Bloom asked. Her friend looked up, and her eyes were sparkling.

“I found it.”

Five Days until the Wedding

“Sky sends his regards.” Riven said as he let the burlap sack fall from his shoulder onto the couch.

“How is he?” Bloom asked.

“He has been fighting with his father nonstop since the announcement.” Timmy said he and Tecna were in a corner swapping intelligence.

“Brandon has been keeping us updated.” Helia said where he had collapsed into an armchair.

“Anyone care to explain why several rolls of fabric were just delivered to the front hall?” Griselda's voice cut through their idle chatter. Stella, who had been grilling Helia to get more information about Brandon, jumped up with a devilish gleam in her eyes that made Griselda jerk back in horror.

“What have you devils done now?” She asked, looking ashen. Someone once said that Griselda was lawful good. Bloom agreed. It also explained why they tended to crash with her so much. Their group was chaotic… something. So, they were natural antithesis.

“Stella is going to make my…” Bloom grimaced. “Outfit for the Day.” Griselda’s face spasmed.

“If anything explodes, I will make all of you clean Alfea top to bottom, without any magic. Even if it means you are late to…” Her upper lip curled in distaste. “That.”

“Promise?” Bloom called after Griselda’s retreating form. Sadly, she didn’t get an answer.

“What exactly have the two of you planned anyway?” Aisha asked.

“Ask Stella that question once she’s back. I’m not risking her poking me with pins just because I didn’t let her explain her grand masterpiece to her liking.” Bloom muttered back and tried to concentrate on her homework. That she still had to do that while her days of freedom were slowly running out was wild to her.

“Oh, come on, Bloom.” Riven whined. She kicked him.

“I mean, I get the Dragon scales,” Timmy said from his corner. “But the teeth?”

Bloom just smiled.

Four days until the wedding.

She woke with annoyance and anger burning in her chest. Valtor had been quiet the last few days. Him acting up now would either mean something was going to happen or the Council did something stupid again.

Bloom sighed and turned around in bed. She could sleep a bit more, so she would do the sane thing and escape reality a bit longer.

“B…” Bloom opened her eyes to Flora holding a package. Their window was open. Bloom sighed and sat up.

“Wanna get the others?” She asked tiredly. At least Valtor's anger made sense now. He, and probably the Trix, had also gotten a second outfit. Flora brushed her hand through Bloom's hair and then left.

Kiko immediately climbed the box, ready to claim it as his throne. Bloom smiled. She had an idea for this dress if Stella didn’t want the fabric.

It took less than a minute to get the rest of her friends into their room. Flora, with the long practice of someone who knew their dormmates, had woken everyone else before she even knocked on Stella’s door. Bloom watched through the open door as Flora knocked once, just hard enough to pull Stella out of deep sleep, and then shouted: “They send another dress.”

Without another word, Flora turned and walked back into the room. Aisha and Musa were giggling while Tecna was projecting a stopwatch.

Three seconds after Flora sat down, there was a screech that made Musa cringe. Bloom had to keep herself from giggling at the cartoonish slamming and baming coming out of Stella’s room. When the door slammed open, Stella looked like she just lost a fight with one of Flora’s plants.

“Twenty seconds.” Tecna said dryly. “New record.” Stella’s rage just falling off her face and turning into disbelief was what did Bloom in. She threw herself back, giggling. Her friends followed, making Bloom’s bed shake.

“All of you are cruel bastards.” Stella huffed, but she, too, was smiling as she came over, which lasted right until she caught sight of the box. Kiko was still sitting on it, chewing on the corner.

“They really did it again.” Stella said with disbelief.

“They probably assume that this close to the date, they can pressure Bloom into accepting it.” Tecna said. She picked Kiko up, giving Stella the freedom to undo the ribbon and lift the lid.

Bloom, still laying on her back, didn’t have the right angle to look into the box. She did have the perfect angle to see all of her friends losing any control of their faces, though.

“You gotta be kidding me!” Aisha whispered.

“How did they manage to make it even uglier?” Musa asked. Stella was absolutely silent, her jaw basically on the ground. Bloom, contrary to her sanity, sat up and looked. She didn’t know what her first feeling was. She didn’t even know if she felt anything at all, but whatever she had accidentally pushed down the bond got Valtor’s immediate attention. He was knocking at the door between their connections. Bloom took a second to slam some iron doors on top of the one already installed.

She'd rather face Darkar again than let him see this.

“What the fuck?” Bloom asked. Stella, her hands visibly shaking, let the lid go. It bounced off the corner of Bloom's bed and slapped onto the floor. They all watched, with apprehension and dread, as

Stella pulled the monster of a dress out of the box.

“It doesn’t stop.” Someone, Bloom thought it was Flora, said. It did indeed not stop. Stella had to climb onto the mattress and then Bloom's bed frame, yet somehow, there was still a part of the skirt in the box.

“What the FUCK?” Bloom asked again. Stella, balancing on Bloom's footboard, was holding up a dress in pretty much the same style as the first one. Princess gown with a deep heart neckline, still blindingly white and with lace on top.

The problem was the lace. It was incredibly beautiful, and Bloom could tell it was handmade, but the issue was... it was bright pink.

Now, contrary to popular belief, a redhead could wear pink. You just had to find a colour that fit your skin and hair tone. Bloom loved herself some pinks that went a bit more in the direction of violet or these really pale pinks, although she only ever wore them in sheer pieces under black.

This pink, though, was the colour you got when you looked up the colour pink on Google if you ignored the singer. It was too bright, and in combination with the snow white, it hurt to even look at it. There was also the thing with the seemingly endless train.

“Are they planning on murdering you through people with a fashion sense?” Aisha asked.

“I’m more concerned about that train.” Bloom whispered. Stella, thank the Dragon for Stella, got what Bloom meant. She jumped off the bed frame, not caring a single bit for the dress, and started walking backwards. She was almost by their dorm door when the last bit of fabric fell out of the box and off the bed.

“I’m staying in bed today,” Bloom decided. “If anyone comes calling, just point at this monster. I’m not getting out of bed after this.” Her friends looked like they wanted to agree.

“Oh no, you are getting up!” Stella said. “I need to get started on your actual outfit.” Bloom relented with a huff.

“So what are we doing with this beast?” Aisha asked, poking the train of the dress with her toes.

“The lace is amazing.” Stella called from where she had returned to her room. “I’m keeping that one. Just have to make some colour-changing potions.”

“And the rest?” Musa asked.

“Didn’t Griselda ask about something for target practice?”

“Kiko needs new bedding.”

Bloom and Flora looked at one another and grinned.

“Stella, get the seam rippers!”

Three days until the wedding

“There are reporters outside.” Mirta said when she walked into Stella’s room. She looked pissed.

“And Faragonda hasn’t done anything?” Aisha asked. They had been in Stella’s room for a few hours. Aside from practice, they all had been excused from lessons by Faragonda until the day arrived.

“She has warned them once.”

“Griselda called the police.” Musa said from where she had put her head out of the window.

“Yikes.” Mirta muttered and sat beside Flora, staring at Bloom, where she was trapped on the little podium Stella used for altering clothing.

“This looks amazing.” She breathed.

“It’s a ceremonial outfit, but like, not the really important ceremonial outfit.” Stella said. “We found it in the Council library.”

“I know you gave a big speech and all, but what is the meaning of the whole thing?” Musa asked.

“It means that I will rely on the Dragon to protect me, but my own strength to guide me.” Bloom muttered. “It is the closest translation I can give you. There are some other things in there that can’t be translated.”

“Eh, it’s fine.” Musa said.

“It fits you.” Mirta said, and Bloom smiled gratefully at her friend.

“Thanks.”

“Especially the sword. Makes you look a lot more dangerous.” Bloom cackled and immediately got jabbed in the ribs by Stella for moving.

“Daphne told me where I could find that one in the vault. It’s basically a declaration of war.” Bloom explained with glee. Daphne had looked a bit manic when she had told Bloom about the sword, which had been all Bloom needed to know. “It belonged to my grandmother… well…” Bloom hesitated. “ it technically belonged to my grandmother.”

“What?”

“The sword was forged for the spymaster.”

“And you are wearing the thing in the council chamber?” Mirta asked, her voice spiking.

Bloom grinned at herself in the mirror. The sword on her back was almost as long as she was tall, the scabbard, a beautiful dark blue with sea and water dragons painted on it. The handle of the sword, the only part she had seen so far looked almost like the sharp spikes that would greet a person should they find themself thrown against cliffs by a wild sea.

“That’s the best part!” She exclaimed gleefully. “It hasn’t been seen in public for several generations.”

“Our generations, not Dragonborn generations.” Aisha threw in.

“Yes, that.” Bloom said with a wave of her hand. Stella poked her again. “I get it, Stel!”

“Then hold still!” She poked her tongue out at her friend.

“Bloom? Explanation, please!” Mirta begged.

Bloom focused back on her friend. “Ok…right.” She wanted to scratch her head, but the stare Stella shot her was screaming danger, so she didn’t.

“So the thing with the sword is this. It was made for the person who later on would become the spymaster. When my grandmother ascended to power it was in the middle of one of the worst attacks of the Ancestrals. Daphne said, that in the middle of a fight, grandmother was disarmed. Someone threw her their swords and guarded her back. The two of them did that until the fight was over.”

“Ok…” Mirtha said slowly and Bloom knew that she still hadn’t explained enough.

“Dominan swords are inherently magical. If a sword is forged for one specific person it only ever will obey that specific person. When the Spymaster decided to throw their sword at my grandmother it changed things. Their magic twisted things happened I haven’t completely underwood yet and that I can not explain either but…the sword became theirs.” Mirtha nodded in that slow but precise way that was her way of silently saying I understand keep going.

“The point here is that this sword is a legend among my people and the outside world, because there are only two ways one will see this sword. One being when a person is faced with the spymaster, which is a sure way to die and never tell the tale. The other is when grandmother was carrying it.”

“Which is a declaration of war, since this would mean the spymaster was disarmed.” Musa drawled from where she was draped over. Bloom nodded carefully as to not anger Stella further.

“Since it has been out of the public eye for nearly a thousand years, it basically turned into nothing but a legend. A legend,” Bloom emphasised, “which has been heavily embellished in the past and for the last twenty years hasn’t been told at all. It also doesn’t help that the sword was forged in a style that originated with the last queen of Sparxs. Which means that the general consensus is that it belonged to that last sparxian queen and not my grandmother.”

“In other words nobody will recognize the danger they are in! Nobody but those people who actually know about Domino and Sparx and don’t believe the lies the Council has been promoting.” Mirta breathed. Bloom nodded emphatically, not daring to move or speak.

“All of you are terrifying, you know that?” Mirta asked. They all agreed with her, and she only shook her head. “And a bit mental.”

“Not our fault.” Musa grumbled. “We just have seen too much.”

“And never got enough of an outlet to actually empty the craziness.” Tecna added. Mirta didn’t grace that one with any comment. She just stood up with a shake of her head and left the room.

Two days until the wedding

“The guest list is here.”

“How many?”

“…”

“Tecna?”

“They will stream it live all across the dimension.”

One day until the wedding

“Is it too late to just run away?” Bloom asked into the silence of the room. They had pulled every mattress, blanket, and pillow in the flat into the common room, where they’d built a nest out of them.

“Tell us where you want to go, and we’ll get you out of here.” Stella whispered back.

“It’ll look like you just died.” Musa added.

“Sudden combustion.” Tecna muttered, clearly sleepy.

“No questions asked.” Flora said.

“Do you really want to do it, though?” Aisha asked. Bloom felt tears brimming in her eyes.

“No.” She whispered. “No, I don’t.” She whispered. “It would mean leaving you behind, and I can’t do that.” Arms wrapped around her, holding her close and safe. Bloom let her mask slip like she had done at her parents. She was safe here. Her friends understood.

Tomorrow, she would get married to the man who destroyed her life twice.

“Let’s do it.” Bloom whispered and fought out of her friends’ arms.

“Are we still talking about running away or…?” Stella asked.

“No.” Bloom said and rushed into her room to get the bag she had packed for this. “The fairy circle.” She said when she returned. Her friends lit up with excitement.

“Are you sure, B?” Tecna asked, looking somewhat unsure. Bloom nodded.

“I need this.” She whispered. “I need to know that, no matter what, I will have you by my side. That we won’t be separated again” Her friend shared a look. Then they started moving. Her friends got dressed, then carefully climbed out of their window and down the vine Flora had encouraged to grow up here years ago. Once they left Alfea’s wards behind, it didn’t take long to reach the small clearing where they’d first found Aisha. There, the bag left Bloom's hand. The next few minutes became a flurry of silent movement.

Bloom watched it, just a bit detached. The book in her hands and its wording running loops in her head.

A fairy of Domino who wants to step into a fairy circle or plant one has to offer a bit of herself to the other people in the circle.

If the fairy circle is only between fairies of Domino, then all they need to do is exchange scales. These scales will become the recipients, and even if they fall out and regrow, they will stay as before in the style, colour, and hardness of the fairy who gave them.

If the ritual is between a fairy of Domino and fairies of other realms, one has to share the small pieces of their own magic in addition to the scale to show that their circle partners are equal to them before the eyes of the great mother.

Bloom called upon a small flame. She’d never done this before. Her flame had been ripped from her, it had been corrupted, but she'd never given it away.

“B?” Someone asked, and Bloom was startled out of her stupor. The clearing was brightly lit, a thin but powerful shield of Stella’s magic hiding them from view. Smaller magic lights and candles gave it a warm and safe feeling.

“I’m ready!” She whispered. “Let me teach you the words.”

The Wedding day

The room the Council had given Bloom to prepare was a guest suite. And, if one were to believe Stella, one of the smaller ones, at that. Bloom didn’t care, though. She just stood at the fitting platform and stared at the wall. Stella was running around her, adding last-minute alterations and details to Bloom's outfit.

Daphne's birth medallion was tied to Bloom's belt. She was wearing a crown that Daphne had insisted she should wear. Her friends were chattering all around her, but it all sounded hollow and nervous to Bloom.

“Bloom, sweetie?” Flora asked, and Bloom slowly turned her head to look at her. Her friend was right before her, holding out a hand with a sad smile. “Come here, honey, let me do your hair.” Bloom nodded and took Flora’s hand.

Flora led her from the platform to a chair before a vanity. Bloom didn’t look at herself and instead stared at the bottles and flasks, trying to find any kind of emotion. Yesterday had been the best day of her life. They had finally formed their fairy circle, the small tattoo between her shoulder blades, that was the result of the ritual, pulsed when Bloom thought of it, as if it could tell that Bloom was reliving the moment. The magic they had called upon, the way their magics had mixed and bonded. It had felt like home and safety, and Bloom had relaxed for a few hours.

“I can feel it pulsing.” Flora’s voice didn’t cut through her thoughts but slowly wormed its way in. “It feels warm, Bloom. What are you doing?” There was a smile in Flora’s voice. Bloom opened her eyes and met Flora’s in the mirror.

“Just thinking about yesterday.” Flora's smile widened.

“It was amazing.” She whispered, her hands sparking with magic Bloom hadn’t felt before.

***

By the time a Council servant knocked on the door, Bloom was dozing in her chair. Stella, at one point, started to put some light makeup on her face while Flora was still weaving flowers into her hair.

“I am here to pick up Princess Hestia and…”

“We’ll bring her.” Aisha said firmly. Her tone clearly told the man that arguments were useless. There was a bit of a discussion that turned into an argument, but Bloom didn’t care. It also helped that Flora and Stella were done.

Flora gently tapped Bloom on the shoulder to get her attention while Stella’s hand wrapped around Bloom’s.

“Ready, B?” Musa asked from where she and Tecna were shielding Bloom from sight.

“No.” Bloom whispered but opened her eyes anyway.

She looked like herself. That was the first thought she had. Even wearing an unfamiliar outfit and a crown, she still looked like herself.

“Thank you.” She whispered and stood up. Aisha had managed to get the servant to leave, and Bloom took the opportunity to take a look at herself in the big mirror.

Stella had taken a ceremonial uniform of the Dominian army and had changed it to fit Bloom. A thick blue dragon leather made a tunic, cut to both look much more formal than it actually was and to give Bloom every bit of movement she could need. Stella, after sewing the tunic, had given Bloom some special colours that the boys had organised and told her to go wild. So, the leather was painted with both her family's patterns, as well as those Bloom had developed, and the symbols that stood for her friends. A heavily decorated belt made it look like talons wrapping around her waist, that was where the teeth had gone. Stella had somehow commissioned heavy-duty boots from black dragon leather in just a week.. No heel, just practicality.

“It looks amazing.” Bloom whispered. Her stomach felt funny.

“What about the hair?” Flora asked, still holding Bloom's hand. A second mirror was held up, and Bloom got a good look at her hair. It was simple, a half up-half down style. A few braids kept her hair out of her face, but nothing was up in a complicated way. Forget-Me-Nots wrapped around the bottom of the crown and down the braids at the back of her head were hawthorn blossoms, cornflowers, and chicory, as well as aster and, tied to the bottom of the braids: Delphinium. Bloom had wanted blue flowers since blue was her signature colour and her favourite colour too. Apart from that, the symbolism of each flower was important to her. Most of those flowers, at first glance, stood for love, but once one looked past the first impression, each of them meant more.

Forget-Me-Nots, a reminder to not forget. In Bloom's case, a very loud warning to everyone that she was still the most powerful person in the room. Not that anyone would heed the warning.

The white hawthorn blossoms could be mistaken for cherry blossoms, which was why Bloom had picked them. Hawthorne blossoms stood for revenge. What was this whole thing, but hidden revenge?

Blue cornflower on earth stood primarily for military power. Something nobody expected in Bloom, but it also stood for power and pride.

Chicory symbolised perseverance and martyrdom. Flora had been the one to suggest this flower. Considering that Bloom was quite literally a war bride… Well, if she wasn’t a martyr, then what was she?

Lastly, the Delphinium: growth and seizing new growth. Bloom smiled for the first time that day.

“It’s perfect.” She whispered.

“Not yet.” Flora said, pulling out a single flower and placing it at the centre of the braids and flowers, right at the back of her head.

“Larkspur.” Flora explained.

“What does it stand for?” Bloom asked.

“Protection, archiving success, new beginnings and seizing life.”

***

Her friends had brought her up to one of the side entrances to the Council chamber. There, they had left her alone to take their places. Bloom knew it was necessary, but she really didn’t like it at the same time. There was a small monitor to her left that showed the whole hall. Bloom wanted to throw up again.

The Council was sitting on their dias, looking down on the rest of the people. There were rows and rows of seats around a three-step platform right before the stairs to the Council chamber. She and Valtor would enter at the same time, from opposite sides, and walk towards and onto the platform. The official marriage ceremony would be done by some kind of priest of the Great Dragon that, according to Tecna, had nearly peed their pants when they found out WHO they were marrying. Bloom knew the way it would work. The priest would talk, she and Valtor would sign a fake treaty, and then, it would be over. At least, that was the Council’s plan. In doing so, they completely ignored the contract clause that explicitly said that the binding would be in the way of old Sparx. A literal binding ritual.

Bloom had both wanted to bash her head in on the table and laugh until she cried when the wedding timeline had been sent to her. They really still wanted to think that they could control Bloom.

Erasmus stood up, and the chamber fell silent. The man, true to what Bloom had guessed, started a long speech praising the Council and completely ignoring Bloom’s contributions while still calling her a war bride. Bloom wrapped her fingers around Daphne's birth medallion.

“I wish you were here.” She whispered. What felt like a second later, the door opened, and Bloom was met with the eyes of hundreds of people and several cameras.

There was a long, stunned silence as the people took Bloom in. She noted with amusement that she pushed down their bond, that barely anyone paid attention to Valtor. He send back the impression of rolling his eyes.

She felt people taking her in. She saw people finally understand that this wasn’t a wedding. This was a peace treaty. She heard the whispers start in the silence of the room. Bloom reminded herself to thank Stella for the boots later. They were absolutely silent, even on the crystal floor of the Council chamber.

Above everything else, Bloom heard the hissing of Erasmus and his minions. She did not look at Stella, who was dressed in a beautiful golden dress with lace in several gradients of pink at the top, making it look like the sunrise.

“Her Royal Highness,” Someone called out. “Princess Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino. High Priestess of the Great Dragon. Guardian of the Dragon Flame. Daughter of Queen Marion.” Slayer of Dakar. Vanquisher of the Army of Decay. She thought bitterly.

Winx. She added as she walked past her friends. None of those titles were called.

Finally, she reached the platform. The priest looked like they were both terrified out of their mind and absolutely delighted. Bloom wanted to roll her eyes but refrained because of the cameras.

They came to a halt simultaneously, facing each other with nothing but a small altar-like structure between them.

Amusement, realisation, and then glee radiated down the bond. He’d spotted the sword.

“People of the magical dimension…” The priest said and Bloom took a deep breath.

It had begun.

Chapter Text

The priest’s speech both took forever and was over in the blink of an eye. They spoke of the sanctity of marriage and how it was an honour to love and more things along those lines. Bloom wanted to stop them on more than one occasion and ask if they realised that this whole marriage was an arranged one decided by the Council without the slightest hint of love. More importantly though, she wanted to shout that neither she nor Valtor had even been aware of it until after the contract's first draft had been drawn up. Alternatively, she wanted to ask if they really thought the two were wearing actual battle armour just for the hell of it.

She stayed quiet, though, and instead listened as Musa kept up a steady hum of old Domino melodies Daphne made sure they found. Bloom was pretty sure that everyone in the crowd who was from Melody was listening to that instead of the speech, which sounded like it came straight out of Erasmus' ass.

A small piece of dragon leather appeared on the altar between them, and Bloom just stared at it. This was how they thought Sparx had done their binding ritual?

“Please be shed skin.” Bloom whispered under her breath. Valtor, who had glared up at the Council, snorted.

“Not likely.” He grumbled back.

Well then… Bloom thought through their connection. Let’s make sure it really looks like a proper ritual, shall we?

She didn’t give him a chance to ask any questions or feel more than a vague sense of amusement. Bloom carefully lit up her pointer finger with a bright blue flame and signed the dragon leather with her full name, adding a little sigil Stella had taught them all to block teleportation. Once she was done, she raised a challenging eyebrow at Valtor, who was grinning a bit maniacally down at the piece of leather. He turned to look up at the council, his grin going a bit more feral, as he laid a hand over the leather and let his magic flow in. When he pulled it back, his mark was printed opposite of Bloom's name. A second later, they both watched with amusement as the teleportation circle etched into the skin lit up once and then sparked out. It happened twice more as the priest declared them married. There was some harsh whispering from the Dias and scratching of a chair. Bloom saw Erasmus stand out of the corner of her eye and stretched her hand over the altar, her palms up and fingers relaxed. On the leather, her name burst into blue flames. Whispers started up, but Bloom ignored them all and focused on Valtor. For a moment, she thought there was concern on his face, but before she could think more about it, he lifted his hands and wrapped his fingers around her wrists. She did the same and felt Valtor’s violet flames lick on the back of her hands.

“By the laws of old, under the eyes of our mother. I call upon the flame of life. I call upon the dragon spirit inside of me. May our mother, the Great One, witness this union and bless it.”

Bloom heard her own voice echoed through the Council chamber. It sounded strong and calm, completely different from the way she felt. On the dais above, shouts of protest could be heard, but Bloom ignored them.

“We ask for your blessing. We ask for your flame. Might you grant this marriage.” The people watching whispered in awe and fear,confused about why they did this. Bloom could hear Stella's voice over the noise. She sounded haughty and arrogant, questioning the royals and ambassadors around her on their knowledge of Domino's traditions and asking if they were really that ignorant. Bloom smiled.

Beneath their hands their flames twisted into one another and then turned into one big, white flame that was enveloping their hands. Her heart was simultaneously hammering in her chest and dropping to her stomach. This meant her wish was granted. Daphne had explained it to her months ago. The mixing of the flames stood for the dragon being here with them, watching. It could still go horribly wrong, but this was always the first sign that the marriage ritual would succeed. Bloom looked up at Valtor. He seemed as startled as Bloom.

“With the Great Dragon, our mothers our witness and officiant, let magic witness the vows of loyalty. That this consort might never stay from his chosen.” The words barely made it out of Bloom's mouth.

The Council chamber burst into colours. The sky turned deep sky blue with nebulas dancing over it. Every pillar had a different colour but somehow gave the impression of biomes while being nothing but blurry colours. The floor beneath them seemed to be made of golden, violet, and blue flames that were locked into an endless dance. Bloom, for a moment, forgot about her role and her duties in this ritual and just took everything in. The people around them did the same, exclaiming excitedly when they seemed to find their home world represented in the colour.

“I swear loyalty.” Valtor's voice brought Bloom back to focus. “I swear protection to the one before me. I swear that I will guard your back. I will be a shield or sword when necessary. An advisor and helper, someone to protest if a choice is wrong.” The words were familiar. Bloom had heard Daphne tell them to her over and over again. Daphne had been taught them for her own marriage. She taught them to Bloom as one of the first things about their culture, long before Valtor. They hadn’t always been about marriage. They only became about marriage if the last words were said right.

The flame, by now, had almost reached their eye level, wrapped and turned into a vortex wrapping around their hands, bathing them in white light.

“Will you stand with me in times of peace, where you will help our realm flourish without any personal gain aside from the happiness of our people?”

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.”

“Will you stand with me in times of upset and help me find the root of our peoples' upset, and resolve it without sewing more chaos or destruction?”

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.”

“Will you stand with me in times of war, when our people are dying and hurt, and not turn your back on us neither through coercion nor your own free will nor through my own words? May they be true or a lie.”

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.”

“Do you swear those things on your own, or were you forced to say them in any way?” Bloom asked.

“Nothing but my own determination and will. Nothing that isn’t by my own design, these words and the intentions behind these promises are my own.”

“Then speak your own wishes for this bound.”

Valtor took a long moment to think about what to say. They both knew that Bloom had the better hand here. She was already holding his metaphorical collar. He had sworn to stay with her no matter what and never betray her. Through the silence, though, the muttering of the people around them filtered back in.

“What did they just say?”

“It sounded so strange!”

Bloom realised then that they had switched into the Dragon tongue. She didn’t really care. At the same time, though, she hoped this wouldn’t blow up in her face. Bloom turned her attention back to Valtor. He met her eyes and spoke.

“Will you grant me protection from those I have been bound to before, even if they attack and endanger our people?”

Bloom tightened her grip around his wrists.

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.”

“Will you heed my warnings in things that I am more experienced than you, even if you only consider them?”

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.”

“Will you free me of the ones that enslaved me, not now, but when a true chance arises?”

Bloom softened. Some tension drained from her body.

“I swear on my Magic, my life, and my soul.” And she pushed a bit more magic into the flame around their hands.

“Then I swear to help you in those goals that you set for those who’ve betrayed you and those who helped you.”

Bloom snorted, knowing he did that just for the dramatics.

“Then by our magic, through our mother’s will, and with her blessing. Might this bond be, our lives together, our fate twisted, a marriage and a deal for the flames.”

The colour in the crystal around them rushed back to the point where they stood on their podium. The vortex exploded into thin bands of white. Bands of it settled up and around Valtor’s forerarms, turning a rich blue when they touched his skin. Once they settled into his skin they glowed once and then sunk into his flesh.

The same happened to her. A few strands of fire wrapped around both wrists, going no further than her pulse point, and sunk into her skin, just a few shades darker than Valtor’s signature coat.

It was for this reason neither of them wore sleeves past their elbows. To show off these bindings. To reinforce that this was how Domino and Sparks had done it.

Bloom raised her arms to the people around her.

“By the blessing of the great Dragon.” She made sure to slip out of Dragon tongue. “This bound is done. This marriage is true. The first promise of the treaty is almost complete.”

People around her started cheering, pulling attention away from the Trix walking up to the podium. The people stopped cheering when they stopped right before Bloom. Technically, they would have to kneel, raise their arms above their head, and not look at Bloom, as the Vassal bondshad demanded, but Bloom refused that idea. She’dspoken out against them being slaves to the council. She didn’t want to paint a picture of something similar. So the Trix would remain standing, but wouldn’t step onto the podium.

“You come before me to ask of me a vassal bond?” She asked, and the Trix, in unison, agreed.

“Then take my hand.” Bloom reached out her right hand just like she had done with Valtor, palm up and open. Icy was the first to reach out.

“Icy, Witch of Ice, why do you ask for a Vassal bond?”

“I want freedom from the Coven.” Icy said calmly. Three things. Three demands, that was how they had worded the Vassal bound. “I want to be able to live my life apart from them. I want to break their blood curse on my line.”

“Will you turn your back forever on the Coven?”

“With pleasure.” It was nothing more than a sharp growl. Bloom nodded in acceptance.

“Will you stand with me and protect those that need protection? Our people and those of Domino, as well as the Magical Dimension as a whole?”

As well as. It was a fine line, putting their friends and family before anyone else, while also including the rest of the dimension.

“I swear on my magic, my life, and my soul.” Icy said loud and clear. Beneath her feet, the council chamber frosted over with the access magic put out by the ritual.

“Then I take your Vassal bound swear to protect you in the ways you demanded until you break your promises.”

Icy enveloped Bloom's hand, and she had to fight down panic and the instinct to wrench her hand back. Icy, whose hand was aflame, was as tense as Bloom. Then it was over, just as fast as it had happened.

When Bloom pulled her hand back, she saw thin blue markings around Icy’s wrist. They were shaped like frost flowers in the same rich blue of Valtor’s marks. Bloom looked down on her own wrist and found a single ice-blue snowflake on her pulse point between the twirls of Valtor’s bound.

Icy stepped back, and Darcy stepped forward. It started over again, but, like Bloom had told the Council, each Vassal bond was different, which mostly showed itself in the demands made by each person. Darcy demanded freedom from the Coven, the liberty to learn and to break the blood curse on her line. The crystal darkened as if smoke was curling through it.

When their magic disbanded, Darcy had blue ever-shifting lines wrapped around her wrist.

Lastly, Stormy stood before Bloom and took her hand.

"I want freedom from the Coven. I want to explore the dimension without fear. I want to break their blood curse on my line.” The whole chamber lit up as if lighting was striking.

Static crackled through and over Bloom's fingers, for a moment, and then it was over.

“Thank you.” Bloom said softly. On her wrist, purple weaved above and below Valtor’s red wrapping around the snowflake. Where Darcy’s mark was subtle and elegant, Stormy’s was wild and without care. Lighting crackled over Valtor’s swirls, wrapping around the marks of her sisters.

“With the Vassal bonds formed and the end of the Ancestral Witches’ blood curse, the first promise of the treaty is fulfilled. We have ensured the peace as promised and will return what has been stolen soon.”

This time, the people around them were even louder. Bloom caught Stella's eyes. Her friend smiled, her eyes sad but also determined.

It was over. Bloom realised then. It was over! She had done the worst part. From now on, the Council had no control over her anymore. As if it had heard her, the magic of the chamber started vibrating. It was like a call. Voices softly whispering, telling Bloom to come back, to return to them. There was an empty place where she belonged. Bloom took a deep breath and turned. Erasmus was standing on the top of the stairs, staring down at Bloom with hatred in his eyes, while the realms celebrated that they finally had found peace. Bloom smiled and stepped off the platform.

The vibrations that before had been barely noticeable and ignored by the cheering crowd, turned into powerful tremors. People soon began to scream and cower.

“What in Dragon’s name are you doing?!” Erasmus shouted, one hand clutching onto the railing and the other pointed at Bloom. She smiled and stayed silent. The crystal ceiling above them lit up in almost iridescent light that rushed down the walls and pillars to where Bloom was walking. It centred around her feet for a moment, then started rising out of the ground in concentrated magic, bands and sparks of magic wrapping around her.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Erasmus shouted loud enough to silence the last screams and draw all attention to where Bloom just reached the first step of the stairs. The magic was up to her knees by now.

“Don’t tell me, Council member Erasmus, that you don’t know your own law?” She asked sweetly. The sword on her back felt as if it was burning.

“Wha…what?” Someone above her asked. Bloom forced a concerned mask onto her face, not breaking eye contact. She was still climbing the steps. Her hair set itself aflame. She just hoped the flowers wouldn’t burn.

“The Council's law?” She asked. “The one that is activated when a war bride is named?” She asked, careful to make her disbelief loud but not forcefully. She could have thrown the towel and just told the people watching that their most prominent ruling body was a bunch of idiots but showing them was so much better. It would undermine them and show how little they cared for the law. She felt the magic of the chamber dance over her arms and lay itself over her shoulders. It felt less like a blanket and more like one of the cloaks Griffin once conjured up.

“There is nothing of…”

“May I present to you.” Valtor’s voice cut Erasmus off. The calm, almost bored tone jarring in comparison to Erasmus’ frantic cries. Bloom turned on the steps to face the people below her and the cameras. The magic of the hall gave one last pulse. The shaking of the hall returned to small vibrations and then stopped just as the iridescent magic vanished from around Bloom in a flash of light. Leaving her in a dress and new crown, the sword still on her back.

“Her Royal Majesty, the Dragon Queen. Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino. High Priestess of the Great Dragon. Guardian of the Dragon Flame. Slayer of Dakar. Vanquisher of the Army of Decay.” People whimpered at the mention of the last two.

“Winx.” He said and Bloom felt the mark between her shoulders flare with joy and delight and pride. Valtor smirked past Bloom up at Erasmus, then spoke the last words without concealing his glee.

“Head of the High Council of Magix.”

“What NO!” Erasmus screamed, and Bloom twisted just enough to look at him and let her face be visible to the cameras.

“Have you truly forgotten your own rules?” She asked, worry clear on her face. “Lord Erasmus.” Just Lord, not Council member, not Council Head. Just Lord, he had just lost all of his power by a game of his own design.

“The Law of Engagement was one of the first this Council voted on. Well, not you but the first Council.” There was muttering and some snickering from the people who actually knew what Bloom was talking about.

“The Law of Engagement says: If a War Bride is named, she signs her treaty and completes a marriage ritual in the traditions of her realm, then she is the next queen, no matter bloodlines or lines of succession. After all, this one woman has been chosen to save her whole realm by giving up her life for it. Therefore, she is recognized by magic, law and the Council as the only truly qualified queen of her realm.” Bloom quoted.

Erasmus looked as if he was about to keel over. Bloom decided to be gentle in his humiliation.

“I think, Lord Erasmus, it’s a good thing. You are clearly overworked if you can’t remember this simple law.”

“I am just fine!” He snapped. Bloom wanted to shout in triumph at how easy he made it for her.

“Lord…”

“It is Council Head for you, you insolent brat!” He snapped. Bloom just straightened.

“No, it is not! I am Queen of Domino, made so by your own hand. Wasteland it might be, Domino always had responsibilities outside its atmosphere. A primary one being the Head of the Council.”

“You aren’t even in line for…”

Bloom leaned over just enough to brush her fingertips over the steps. Behind Erasmus, the throne of the High Council lit up.

“I, Bloom Hestia Morgain, Queen of Domino, claim my seat as Head of the High Council of Magic unless the Chamber chooses another to represent the best interests of the Magical Dimension.

The throne lit up and began burning before settling in the same rich blue wrapped around Valtor’s arms and the Trix’s wrists.

“The chamber acknowledges my claim, Lord Erasmus.” Bloom said gently and turned to find a pair of guards. “Please escort Lord Erasmus to a guest room so he can rest.” The guards hesitated for a moment but ultimately did as Bloom had asked. Once Erasmus was guided past her, Bloom fully turned to the seated people below her. She took them in for a long moment before she descended the stairs again. The whole thing had been just to show off. Now, she needed to be one with the people, different from the Council.

“People of the Dimension.” Bloom said once she stood back on the chamber floor. “I am truly a Queen of Nothing. My realm was destroyed by a curse. My people gone hiding from those who destroyed our home. My family is not one of blood but one chosen. I grew up away from magic and politics. Just a girl that watched as politicians made promises to gain votes and public approval then discarded those promises the second they gained power.”

Bloom hesitated. She had a whole speech, at least in flashpoints. She just needed to find the right words.

“I came into power when Stella of Solaria crashed into Earth, far away from her destination, Magix, because of an attack. I broke the seal my sister put on me to hide me from the Ancestral Witches. The first act of Magic I ever did was to protect my friend. My last so far to finally bring peace to those same friends that stood through thick and thin with me.”

Several faces had darkened while Bloom had spoken. Most of them were people who had either been against Bloom from the start or were simply Erasmus’ disciples.

“I know I am just speaking pretty words, telling you a story is of no worth to you. So, I will make one promise to the Dimension as a whole. A promise to Witches and Protectors. Specialists and Fairies. All those who are none of those. I promise you all to do my best.”

Whispers started up again, this time, not from the royals but the people further back, those that had come out of curiosity.

“My best sometimes will be nothing more than a word changed in a legislation. My best might be to return the balance of the Dimension. Maybe my best is something in between, a kindness, a word, something given, without expecting compensation. I don’t know what I can or need to do now. So I won’t give grant promises. Just…” Bloom hesitated. “Just an offer.” She raised her arm, indicating towards the Council's dais.

“Like the Law of Engagement, there are other things that have been slowly lost over time.” Bloom explained. “One of them the Rule of Thirteen.” Shouts from the Council were heard immediately. Some demanded that Bloom be arrested, while others just shouted abuse. Bloom ignored them all.

“Not much is known about the Rule of Thirteen, just that it is an overview of the Council, made of thirteen people of all possible situations. Seven of the Major planets. Three witches, a neutral person, someone who is against them, and those that came before.”

Bloom had to take a deep breath and then intentionally looked into a camera. “There are no records of how these people will be chosen, so I am asking those of the Seven biggest planets to nominate a few people. I ask the witches to find three to send to Magix. I ask for people who deem themselves neutral and those who stand opposite of them all to come forward. I ask those who have seen too much and lived too long to make the journey, too. We will need your advice. I ask all of you to come to the Chamber. I will greet you and ask you to let the Chamber decide, between all of you, who is the most fitting for the rule of Thirteen.” It took a moment to also look over the people before her. Valtor on his platform, her friends, the Trix in the back. Then Bloom turned back to the camera. “I especially ask the people with a parent born on Domino to step forward. I…”

“Bloom.” Stella’s voice stopped Bloom cold. She whipped around to her friend, afraid of danger, but was only met with nervousness. “Bloom, what are you doing?!” Stella asked, her voice climbing higher with each word.

“What are you talking about, Stel?” Bloom asked. Stella pointed at her feet where a golden circle had appeared.

“I… What?” Bloom asked, turning to see if maybe there was an indication of what was happening. She turned to Valtor, but he looked just as confused as Bloom. So she turned to the people most likely to do this. “What is this?” She shouted up the stairs. The council members only stared back with horror.

You are in no danger, child.

The voice startled Bloom enough that she whirled around and shot a fireball before taking in the situation. It never reached its target. A golden shimmering hand caught it and snuffed the magic out.

“What?” Bloom asked as she took in the glowing golden figure before her. It was a fairy, her wings made of pure light, her body wrapped in stars and what looked like molten gold.

“I don’t…”

I am Arcadia, the first fairy. Whispers and protests started. You are right, child. There are no records of how a new Thirteen are chosen because you living are not the ones who choose. We are.

“We?” Bloom whispered.

“The ones that came before, little sister.” Daphne’s voice came from right behind her. Bloom spun around and was immediately enveloped in a hug.

“Daphne?” She whispered.

“Oh, my sweet little sister. It is so good to hold you again.” It only then clicked for Bloom that she could touch her sister! That there was a physical body holding her and not the ghostly sensation of magic dancing over her skin and through her.

“Daphne!” She cried, tears slipping down her face as she hugged back her sister for the first time.

The Thirteen are chosen for their duty by their predecessors. My friends speak. Tell magic and the people of the dimension whom you have chosen to return balance to the universe.

“I, Crown Princess Daphne Guinevere of Domino, choose my little sister, Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino, to take my place as one of the Seven, for she is the Priestess of the Dragon.”

“Daphne, no!” Bloom protested. She didn’t want more responsibility. The Thirteen had been meant to give power to others, to get some balance, not this! Daphne just smiled and kissed Bloom's brow.

“You will understand.” Daphne whispered.

“I, Politea of Andros Waters, choose Princess Aisha Orome of the Coast, for she is the bridge between the Tides, our guiding star.” Another voice spoke up, and only now did Bloom notice the other golden and floating people around her.

One by one, the seven were filled by her friends. Bloom wanted to pull out her hair. They never had planned for this! They had wanted the Thirteen so that someone else, someone chosen by the people, could overview the Council and their actions. Bloom had wanted someone else in charge so they could get away from responsibility. And here they were, given more power, more duties.

“I, Yemaya of Earth, do not choose anyone, for my people are out of reach.”

‘Out of reach.’ The words reverberated through Bloom's skull like a gong. She searched for Aisha and was met with the same wide-eyed stare she herself was probably sprouting. Earth magic was alife. There was a chance Earth could be returned to the Magical Dimension.

More people were named. Lucy as one of the three witches, as well as the Trix. The third witch wasn’t named from someone in the crowd. Arcadia proclaimed her chosen, but not on this planet. The one who is neutral turned out to be Griffin. The way Faragonda deflated was almost funny. That was until Valtor was chosen as the one who opposed. Bloom understood why. The man truly was always opposite to them, but really?

These are the twelve that have been chosen. Arcadia's voice called through the chamber. Some people protested. Most just stared in silence. Those who have chosen, do you take your place as the Thirteenth? The ones that came before?

There was a chorus of agreement.

“Why?” Bloom only realised she had been the one to speak until Arcadia floated closer.

I chose you six, six fairies who needed each other, to balance each other, and I brought you together. I made fate cross and intertwine your strings. Why would I not?

“I just don’t understand!” Bloom cried. “We wanted this to be the people. The ones that never are heard. Not nobles, not powerful people who already can make decisions without asking. We wanted to hear those who have hurt the most. Those that have been ignored.”

Which is exactly why you are chosen. Arcadia said softly, cupping Bloom's cheek. You don’t want power. You want to restore balance. So do. Return the Magical Dimension back to what it once was. Right the wrongs committed return the magic that has been stolen. I chose you six. You have yet to disappoint me.

Then she was gone in a shower of sparks.

“Daphne!” Bloom whirled around to her sister. “Please, I…” Daphne stopped Bloom with a soft kiss on her brow.

“I love you.” It was all Daphne said before she, too, turned into sparks. Bloom grabbed uselessly for Daphne, knowing full well it was too late. Muttering started up again, louder. Awe and suspicion turned the Chamber hall murky.

Bloom did the one thing she could think of to save the situation. She raised a hand, conjuring a flame to envelop it. Turning slowly, she spoke. “I swear on my magic, my life, and my sister’s soul,” Whispers intensified, and gasps rang out. “I…I knew nothing of this. I did…” Bloom hiccuped. “I didn't plan it, and I had nothing…nothing to do with this. I didn’t want this responsibility.” The flame stayed strong, burning a bit brighter as the vow took hold. Around her, her friends echoed her. Every person chosen swore a vow on their magic, life, and soul, promising that this had been real.

Once the last of them had proven, without a doubt, that this was real, Bloom's knees buckled, and she hit the floor.

This was not how this was supposed to go. How could it be that even when they planned for months and pulled in so many people, they still somehow managed to end up somewhere completely different with bigger problems than before?

Chapter Text

Power, grasp it, take it, use it!

The voice was so damn loud. Bloom knew she was shaking. She knew she was crying too, but at the same time, everything was so far away. She barely remembered her friends pulling her out of the Council Chamber and guiding her into the private rooms that belonged to the Head of the Council. Erasmus’s stuff had already been removed by the magic that was rooted in the whole building.

She had been given more power.

There was a high keening sound from somewhere, and Bloom was pretty sure that she was the one making it. At the same time, she couldn’t hear anything over the thundering of her own heart in her chest.

It hurt.

Her heart hurt, and so did her ribcage. Her skin was burning, and her fingers were numb.

Power! The voice crooned. More power, USE IT!

She could feel the Relix blooming between her fingers. She could see it forming now in her hands: the burning flower that Tecna later identified as a Hestia flower. A plant native to Domino, the plant Bloom had been named after, also known as ‘Fire Bloom’.

Arcadia had given her more power. She was responsible for more magic. She would need to balance even more.

There was something in the background, sounds of chatter that almost sounded like her friends. Bloom couldn’t hear them, didn’t want to hear them. She felt blood running down her arms, pooling in her palms, turning into burning flowers.

Warm hands cupped her face, forced her eyes up. Stella was terrified, her eyes wide and nothing but silver mirrors.

“I don’t want it.” Bloom’s own voice pierced through the silence.

“Bloom, sweetie.” “Take it, I don’t want it. I can’t have it. Take it, please take it.” She was babbling. She was crying. She was begging.

“Stella, take it. I can’t have more. I don’t want more. Please…” It was getting harder to breathe. Her throat hurt, as if someone was slowly tightening their fingers around it.

“Bloom.” Stella said again. Her voice rising in pitch, her fingers tightening around Bloom's face. It still felt gentle.

You have more power. The voice crooned again. You have more we can use. More we can control, take it, grasp it, USE IT!

Bloom wrenched herself out of Stella’s grasp and scooted back. Her dress was in her way. It felt like iron bands around her ankles.

She was back on the altar.

Talon's glinting in the light, white wings stretched out. Bloom screamed and begged, but they didn’t listen. They just kept going, magic glowing like blood and rust over her.

Calm swept through her.

Not her own, though. No, this was forced down a thin line connecting her to another. It tried to control her, tried to stop her from feeling. Tried to make her listen.

They got her, they had her again. They would force her to kill her friends.

The voice which had demanded power, that had crooned and pleaded for Bloom to listen and USE the power given to her, shut up as something older, more powerful reared its head. Something older, something Bloom had been born with. It was warm and burning and destroyed every last bit of coldness, Bloom hadn’t even noticed in her limbs. Her dragon snarled and snapped as it clawed its way out of her.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

Thunder rattled the room, and a mirror cracked.

It was Darcy stumbling back, all colour drained for her face. It was Stormy throwing lighting at Bloom, which was eviscerated by a burning shield. It was Icy stepping between Bloom and her sisters. It was their reactions that snapped Bloom out of it enough that she finally managed to take her environment in. The first thing she noticed were the people around her. Her friends were standing or kneeling in a half circle around her, Stella the closest. Their faces were not afraid, but full of worry and protectiveness. Valtor was lying on his back, groaning as if he had been hit. The Trix were huddled in a corner.

The next thing Bloom registered were her burning lungs and with it was the rapid gasping of her own breaths. They were shallow and too quick- She wasn’t getting enough oxygen. She wasn’t breathing out, just breathing in, in short staccato gasps.

The last thing she realised was the way her hands were shaking. Gentle blue flames were dancing through her fingers, but it looked as if her fingers were vibrating, with how violently they were shaking, turning the flames into a blur of blue. Something else was hidden below the flames. Bloom keened, fear quickened her already impossible fast breaths.

Fingers closed around her cheeks. The faint smell of sea and salt and ruins reached Bloom’s nose. She could hear waves breaking on harsh cliffs and feel the tides swishing around her feet. For a long moment Bloom felt nothing, but peace as Aisha’s magic was flooding her system and Bloom’s Dragon Flame eagerly rose to meet it. Something else rose with it and Bloom whimpered.

“STOP!” Aisha’s voice was harsh, but gentle. “STOP, Bloom!” A command and a plea and insurance. “B, we are ok, nothing is going to happen.”

“Take it!” Bloom pleaded, the words nothing, but air escaping her lungs. “I can’t have more power. I can’t control anymore, I just can’t!” She hiccuped, the panic was still there, but Aisha’s magic was washing it away as fast as it was rising in Bloom.

“There is nothing to take.” Aisha said. “Arcadia did not give us more power. No new magic.” Bloom tried to shake her head. Aisha wasn’t understanding. Her friend didn’t let her move her head. Keeping her eyes on Aisha’s own.

“We weren’t supposed to be the Thirteen. It was supposed to be others. I can’t be more. I am already too much. I can’t keep anything more under control.”

“It’s not like that, B.” Aisha whispered. “It’s not magic and control. It’s listening and letting others speak and presenting their voices as your own. No more power.” The idea was comforting, but also not right. The Thirteen were power. They controlled the Council and…

“Politics Bloom. The thirteen are an old political system. No magic involved. No new responsibility, aside from having to listen to people and stand for their needs. Something you are already ready to do.”

The Dragon in Bloom stopped growling, it was as confused as Bloom.

No magic.

Politics.

Its wings curled in. It relaxed and Bloom finally understood her friend’s words.

“Poli…” She started, but her words were cut short. Bloom couldn’t breathe. Relieved flooded Aisha’s face.

“Yes. B. No power, just politics. Now breathe! In and out.” One of Aisha’s hands left Bloom's face and grabbed Bloom's left hand. Aisha guided it onto her own chest.

“You can feel my breathing?” She asked gently. Bloom nodded. Careful to not disrupt the contact between Aisha’s remaining hand and her cheek. “Good, now breathe with it. In and out.” They just breathed like that for a bit.

In and out.

Until Bloom's hands stopped shaking and her lung’s weren’t burning anymore. At one point Stella scooted closer again. A handkerchief in her fingers, dabbing tears and probably snot from Bloom's face.

“You’re back with us?” Aisha's voice asked and Bloom nodded. Her friend didn’t remove her hand. Still breathing intently with Bloom.

Valtor had gotten back to his feet.

“Never,” Musa said dryly. “Try to do any emphatic work on Bloom, while she is like this.” There was a sharp comment and Musa snorted. “Dude be grateful, that she only knocked you back. The first person, who tried that only survived, because they were fast at dodging.” Bloom snorted and let her head fall against Aisha’s shoulder.

“Sorry.” Bloom whispered to nobody in particular.

“Don’t you dare.” Flora snapped. “It’s not your fault, and you know it.” Bloom just sniffled.

“What the FUCK?!” Stormy snapped.

“Never seen a panic attack?” Musa snarked back. Bloom leaned away from Aisha, her friend's magic was still in the back of her mind, wrapping gently around the Dragon there. Washing away the fear that was lingering, pushing back the darkness that was waiting for Bloom to stumble over her own thoughts again.

“Tec…” Bloom started. Seconds later a hologram of the exact moment Bloom had snapped appeared. Her hair was burning. Her freckles were glowing and her eyes had slits.

“If you keep going like this, Daphne’s last seal won’t hold much longer.” Tecnas muttered. “Your teeth changed this time, everything else is the usual transformation. Nothing more than the second seal allows.”

“How the fuck are all of you so damn calm about…” Darcy started, her voice high and shaking.

“Do you really think that this is the first time this has happened?” Stella snapped back. “We had THREE YEARS,” The words were pronounced with intent, hinting to the last villains they had faced. “To learn how to react. And let me tell you, this is still mild!” All three witches looked afraid.

“Did anyone?”

“Newspapers already call it a miracle and nobody noticed us leaving this fast. Your reaction has been called understandable. After all, how many people are being named Fated Chosen, by the first fairy of them all?” Tecnas monotone had never before been so appreciated.

“I would call it more than just a miracle.” Mirta said. Bloom jerked around to find her friend. Mirta was sitting in a corner of the room. Looking almost completely unbothered. Bloom could see her aura trembling though.

“What?” Bloom croaked. It seemed, her brain had finally caught up to the abuse, she had just put her body through. Her treat hurt.

“Bloom.” Mirta whispered gently, leaning forward in her seat. “We all swore an oath that we had nothing to do with it. So unless someone comes forward with claims and provides proof that it was their illusion or some shit, this is the best case scenario.”

“How?” Bloom asked. She was so damn tired, she could barely think.

“Bloom, your reign and the reinstallation of the Rule of Thirteen has been blessed by Arcadia. The most well known and liked legend in the Dimension.” Bloom just kept staring at Mirta, who softened and grinned. “If the Council fights you, they will question the Golden Kingdom.” The words were like a blow to Bloom’s already crumbling shields. She hiccuped again.

“Fuck!” Someone said, Bloom started giggling and she was very much aware that she sounded manic.

***

For a living being Cloudtower was surprisingly quiet. There was the magical storm that was always in the sky above it and had given Cloudtower its name, but aside from that, there was almost no noise.

It was almost too still, especially for Bloom, who didn’t want to think. She would have loved to be asleep right now, but she also knew better. Her panic attack had been the clear sign that Bloom wouldn’t be able to sleep for at least forty-eight hours, if not more. Around her her friends were asleep.

Stella was speaking in her sleep like always. Musa was singing this strange and complicated song, that Galatea once told them was a sleep melody. Apparently most people of Melody did this while they slept. Tecna was almost unnaturally still. Flora, Bloom couldn’t see from where she was and how Bloom was lying, shielded by her plants, but she knew her roommate. Aisha for her part was stretched out over her bed, in motion even in sleep. Bloom smiled and slipped out of their room.

They had decided early on, once they had the realisation that the Trix would be part of the deal, that they couldn't remain living in Alfea. If they did there would be four dead people and Bloom having to avenge them. Fairies weren’t often seen as vengeful. Their fragile wings and beautiful dresses made sure that they would be misjudged, but after five years in Alfea, Bloom knew better. Fairies were just as cut-throat as witches, the difference was that fairies had to hide it.

Tecna’s words to Mirta a week ago had been true. They did not get enough outlet to air their crazy, no matter how hard Griselda tried.

Patting through the silent and mostly empty hallways of Cloudtower felt nice. Bloom could feel the consciousness of the school reaching out to her every time her feet hit the floor. They would live here now until they finally were finally allowed to graduate.

Schooling in Alfea, work at the Council palace, sleeping in Cloudtower. Travelling the Magical Dimension whenever needed. Bloom could feel the exhaustion settle in her bones. A door appeared to her left. Bloom reached out for it without thinking. Cloudtower was proud and powerful, but contrary to popular belief it wasn’t cruel. The door opened to the tunnel connecting Alfea and Cloudtower. From the look of it right at the border to Alfea.

“Thank you.” Bloom whispered and offered a spark of her magic. Cloudtower took it with a thrill.

A few witches rounded the corner, heckling and shoving each other. Bloom closed the door and started walking again.

“Your Majesty” One of them sneered at Bloom. She curtsied without breaking her stride. The witches howled with laughter. Bloom grinned to herself. Alfea was a complicated game of politics and rules and behaviour that had to be kept up. They were fairies, future guardians and half of the time Royalty or nobility, they weren’t allowed to miss a single step in a protocol nobody had told them about. That was one of the reasons why each dorm was under layers and layers of secrecy wards and dorm mates usually had each other under oaths of silence. Not that anyone would believe it if Bloom told them.

So, if the Trix had shown up at Alfea to live there after the Wedding, the school would have to close due to renovations. Bloom didn’t even want to imagine what her classmates had in stock for Valtor.

So they had addressed the witches of Cloudtower, once the Trixs pardon had been securely in the contract. Are you willing to take what you deal out? Do you agree to have them once again in your school, domain, home? They had been met with gleaming eyes and sparking magic that promised silent and painfully retribution, but nothing that would start people to ask questions.

It was one thing witches could do better than fairies, be subtle. Ironically as it was, but once again, wings and dresses and glitter.

“Out so late?”

“Fuck off.” Bloom muttered and ignored Valtor who fell into step with her. The part of her that had once upon a time been a teenage girl from a US High School, screamed at her about her outfit and that she was basically half naked in front of Valtor. Her logical mind, the twenty one years old who lived through five years of dorm mates and had been in and out of wars in that time, scoffed and flipped her the bird. She really had turned into a grumpy old person at twenty one.

“What a charming wife I…”

Bloom had him by the throat in a second. Cloudtower, beautiful, loyal and protective Cloudtower helped her by turning their walls into nothing the moment Bloom slammed him into it. Valtor was effectively trapped in the walls, and therefore unable to get out of the situation.

“We might have been a closed front for our own benefit and to fuck the Council over, but let me make this perfectly clear for you.” For the first time since she had met the man, he looked actually startled. “Wife and Husband are titles that are only to be used in public. They are a mask and a play and nothing more. You try it again and you will regret it.”

He didn’t react, but Bloom could see the gleam in his eyes. So she let go of him and stepped back. He of course opened his mouth immediately. It was almost comforting, how predictable some things were.

“Last warning.” She said softly, before he could get a word out. He was still trapped in the walls, but it didn’t seem to concern him once a bit. Bloom promised herself that she would use her next rage fit and channel it straight into Cloudtower.

“Please Bloom, after everything we…”

She grabbed for the bond that the marriage had created and pulled. Valtors words turned into a gasp and Bloom smiled.

“Yes?” She asked sweetly. He only stared at her with his eyes wide open. “Last reminder. Public and private are two very different things. We are not on one side. What we are is the enemy of my enemy. Do you understand me?”

There was no reaction from him, but Bloom smiled and took it as her answer. “Perfect.” She said and walked back to her dorm. Behind her she felt Valtor straining to get out of Cloudtowers hold. Bloom let another spark sink into the floor.

Good, use your power. The voice in the back of her mind crooned and every bit of smugness left Bloom immediately.

***

It was still dark outside when Bloom returned to the Council Palace. It truly was a beautiful thing. If the legends were right this thing had been raised from the ground as a finished palace, by the first council. The ground below is so rich with magical crystal, that it had been barely a challenge for anyone. It sure showed in the perfect lines and pillars and arches. There wasn’t one single break in the stone.

Her friends were still asleep and she had no clue where Valtor or the Trix were, but at the same time she really didn’t care. Although she half wondered if he had gotten out of Cloudtowers wall yet. She stopped just outside the wards. She could see them now. As Head of the Council she was in charge of them, which meant she was able to see, feel and control them at will, unless a Warden was working on them. Bloom stared long and hard at them. Something about those wards wasn’t right, they looked too frail for something so ancient.

Bloom sighed and stepped through them, with intention. The wards and the Council Palace reacted to her instantly. The Palace was like a cat rubbing against one’s legs, while the Wards were wary and on guard. Bloom sighed again. Fantastic. Erasmus had traumatised ancient sentient wards. She wanted to curl into a ball and scream, but she was visible to the public, so she refrained.

“Where is the ward stone?” She whispered under her breath and the sentience of the Palace reacted with a gentle pressure to her back. Bloom let herself be guided, giving some instructions to get the current warden and their whole team up and to the ward stone. She knew it was an unfair move, not all people had insomnia like her, but she needed to do this.

When she arrived at the small chamber that held the ward stone there was a group of three people, none of them looked like they had just been asleep. Bloom raised an eyebrow.

“Where is the rest of your team?” She asked in into the room and was met with shifting looks and shuffling. She didn’t scream, but it was a near thing.

“Erasmus fired them, didn't he?”

“Three is enough to power the wards.” A gruff older man grumbled and Bloom sat down on the ground.

“They are starving.” She muttered. That was the wrong feeling. The wards were slowly failing, because not enough people were taking care of them.

“Erasmus said there wasn’t enough money to pay more than three of us.” The only woman in the group said and sounded absolutely deadpan. Bloom snorted.

“So what do you want us to do?” The last one of them said. Bloom didn’t say or do anything for a long moment. Then she got to her feet and walked to the centre ward stone. She gave it only half as much as she had given to Cloudtower, but the chance was immediately visible. The crystal around them seemed to clear a bit, the ward lines carved into the stone glowed.

“I want thirteen people working here.” She said softly. “I don’t care for names or titles, I want you to get me ten people who are competent and whom you trust.” She turned to the three, who were gaping at her.

“I don’t care who they are, or where they are from. Just get me people that know what they are doing and willing to work their ass off for the first few months. I don’t care about money, I want those ward’s at their strongest as soon as possible.” She went to leave the room, but stopped.

“I have one thing.” They all stiffened. “I want at least three witches here.” The eyes of the old man grew wide. “And if you can find one, get me a dark fairy in here too.”

“You’re serious!” The woman called out. Bloom turned back to them.

“I am here to bring balance, how would I do that if I push stupid bias and prejudice?”

***

“You can’t just employ ten people without informing us!” Bloom had no clue who was speaking. Her head hurt, she was exhausted, but here she was in a full council meeting that she had not authorised.

“Yes I can, or do I have to remind you again, that I am head of the council?” She asked sharply.

“And who is paying them?” Another voice asked. Bloom let out a breath. It came out as a flame.

“I am,” Bloom said slowly, she could feel Valor’s eyes on her, he had appeared just before the council meeting had started. Her friends were in class, so she had to rely on him. The thought alone made her skin itch, but at the same time, having him on her left was a bit comforting. “for some reason I'm getting a monthly stipend of over seven figures.” She said coldly. “Which I do not understand, but that is not important right now. I do not need that money, so I will redirect it into the funds dedicated for the ward team.” There was ringing silence and Bloom smiled sharply as she looked up into the disbelieving eyes of the council. “Do I have to remind the Council of the fact that I am an orphan and last living full-blooded Dragonborn? I am the only person able to access any funds Domino has. I do not have need of any money.”

“That still doesn’t excuse you not including…”

Bloom slammed her hands onto the table. Magic ripped through the room. She could feel the wards shifting their attention to her. “I am the Head of the Council.” She repeated. “Which means I am responsible for the Council palace. I don’t know how Erasmus handled it before me and I do not care. What I care for is the fact that the wards of the Palace were starving. What I care about is the fact that there were three people, who worked basically 24 hours seven days a week, got a laughable salary and were absolutely exhausted. Oh scratch that all three of them are exhausted, mentally, physically and magically ” She took a deep breath in and forced herself to relax.

“784 after the fall of Spare.” Valtor's calm voice cut through the silence. Bloom looked up at him. He had his eyes trained on the people lower on the table.

“Excuse you?” Bloom knew who that was, the Duchess who had proposed the marriage.

“In the year 784 after Sparx fell, the Council had been ruled much like it had been the last two decades. Domino was still rebuilding itself in the ruins of Sparx so the Royal family decided to allow the Council to appoint a representative as the Head of the Council, until the time that the Queen would be able to return to her duties without devastating her people. That representative too only employed tree wardens to keep the Council Palace running.” It was captivating, how he spoke. Even though it was almost monotone Bloom felt all of her attention shift to him. She had to focus on paying attention to the people around her. Still she could feel the pull of his voice.

“The problem was that the Head back then employed such weak and incompetent wardens, to fill his pockets, that the wards starved. There was no protection anymore, only a thin layer of illusions that made it look and feel as if there were powerful wards.” Bloom had an inclination on where this was going, she just hoped the point would get crossed.

“When a rogue band of Sorcerers attack the Council Palace over a disagreement with a new law, they found no resistance. They found no wards and they nearly slaughtered half of the Council before they could be detained.” Valtor's look was haunting and superior. “Unless you want to face the same fate, only that it would be the Ancestral Witches then please keep arguing this useless point. If you have even an ounce of sense, then be grateful for the new employees and the fact that the Council Palace is returning to it’s old glory.”

“I choose thirteen because it’s a powerful number. It will allow for several different protocols. We can have a permanent three person crew in the Ward stone chamber. If there is a need for seven people in the chamber, then there are five people as backup. Should all thirteen be needed then we still have almost half of them well rested. The three who had been employed alone until now were close to magical exhaustion.” Bloom let it sink in. She watched as faces that had been nervous until now warmed up to her idea and those that had been against it contemplative.

“I think she has a point.” One of the Representatives of Andros said softly. “The Chamber certainly feels different than before, why is this a bad thing?”

Nobody knew the answer to that and Bloom ended the meeting with a smile she barely kept from being feral.

***

“Ladies” Bloom said with a smile, she was bouncing on her toes, but this was too huge to not enjoy it. “I, Bloom Hestia Morgain, Queen of Domino, grand you unlimited access to the Council Library and it’s Archive.” The door behind Bloom lit up with magic and then slowly swung open. Musa and Stella, who both had been here already grinned at the faces of their friends. Tecna looked like they would need to put her on a leash to not lose her, while Flora and Aisha were just as giddy as Bloom.

“I am going to inform A’Sha about me adding you.” Blood said and turned. “You go and have fun.”

Chapter Text

“There is a letter for you.” Bloom looked up from where she was hunched over, behind a tower of books. Nova was standing next to her, her face neutral and a letter in her hand.

“Thank you.” Bloom croaked, she had been in Alfeas library for a few hours, without drinking or speaking. Her work load hadn’t been reduced even a bit and with all the extra work she had to do outside of Alfea, she was weeks behind in her studies.

“You want my notes?” Nova asked, a quirk to her lips and Bloom just blinked at her. Nova rolled her eyes and sat down next to Bloom. The letter, which Bloom still hadn’t taken, was thrown onto her notes.

“Look, most of us know better than to blame you for what happened. I mean we saw you fight tooth and nail against that man for three years, no way you just decided to marry him one day.” Bloom quirked a small smile.

“We also see the way you run yourself ragged, it’s no secret that the council is not happy about losing control.”

“Still the best person to find knowledge.” Bloom muttered and finally drank something.

“Of course I am the best.” Nova said hauntingly, but with a smile. “The point I am making is that most of us think the way you and the Winx are treated is unfair. The six of you literally are literally reworking our government and trying to make things better and our teachers give you shit for not doing homework.” Bloom sighed and nodded.

“Except Griselda and Avalon.” Bloom muttered a bit bitterly.

“Those two are by far the ones with the most common sense.” Nova nodded sagely. “Although WizGiz assignments for the six of you are a joke too.” Bloom conceded the point, WizGiz mostly just gave them practice as homework and let them show it off to him after class.

“Anyway, what I wanted to say was this: I can get you my notes for all the other classes. So you just have to go over them and not rework everything.”

“That would help a lot.” Bloom muttered.

“Oh please we all know that you have worked out a schedule on who does what homework when and then you just duplicate and reword that shit.” Bloom carefully didn’t react to that accusation. Nova grinned. “Yeah, yeah I know. Never admit to anything, sometimes I wonder if Griselda is just mental and then I look at your group and suddenly understand. Anyway, I’m gonna send you a copy of my notes later today.”

“Thanks Nova.” Nova flipped Bloom the bird and disappeared between shelves. Bloom sighed and turned to the letter. It was one sent by the Council. She wanted to scream.

***

“Can’t I just replace them all?” Bloom asked later into the cushions of Griffin's couch.

“That would make you look like a tyrant.” Griffin said dryly.

“Would it really?” Bloom asked back. “Or would it make me look like someone who is absolutely done with the old way? Especially if I make the people of the realm choose their own representation?”

There was a long moment of silence and Bloom looked up to be met by the bewildered and amused looks. “You do realise that I am from earth, right?” She asks dryly. I grew up in a…” She hesitated. “Well technically it’s a democracy. We got to vote” She put that word into air quotes because was there really a choice when it came to US elections? “for the people we want in office.” The blank looks remained and Bloom pushed her face back into the pillow. Her friends snickered, the traitors.

“But for real, what are we going to do?” Lucy asked. “I mean Bloom is right. We need to do something, or the Council will keep walking over her like she isn’t important at all.”

“Well there is always the Rule of 13.” Darcy said. “We do have the power to look into them and more importantly stop them from just barreling through with their plans.”

“But to do that we would need to find something on them first.” Aisha cut in.

“They are getting paid seven figures a month.” Bloom said into her pillows.

“EXCUSE YOU?” Musa snapped. Bloom raised her head again and looked at Musa, she was vibrating.

“They each get a seven figure stipend a month.” She repeated and was met with wide eyes and open mouths. Especially Griffin.

“I’m mishearing you.” The Headwitch said slowly. “What was that?” Bloom felt as if she should be running for her life, right about now.

“I got a payment of about seven and a half million three days ago at the first of the month, titled “Head of Council, Monthly Stipend”.”

Bloom felt Cloudtower groan beneath her just seconds before half of the books started levitating. Griffin looked absolutely furious.

“You are telling me those bastards are getting paid?” She snapped.

“I am assuming you are not?” Bloom asked back. A window pane broke. Bloom sighed. “I don’t have full confirmation yet, but if Erasmus was paying himself like that, then I am assuming his lackeys were too and some of the smarter Council members figured it out and are lining their pockets to keep him quiet.”

“We do have open access to the library and archives of the Council through Bloom.” Flora added in. “And the head librarian A’Sha is loyal to Bloom.”

“Are you sure about that?” Stormy asked, clearly not convinced.

“She was one of the last people accepted into a scribe apprenticeship under the Royal Scribes and Librarians of Domino.” Bloom answered. “She was also Bartley’s personal apprentice.”

“Should we know who that is?” Icy asked, she sounded bored, but Bloom knew that glint in her eyes. Icy was after every bit of knowledge she could get.

“Bartleby was The Royal Head Librarian, Scribe and Archivist, personal friend of Oritel and Marions and some even say he was a cousin of Queen Marion.” Valtor added in lazily. Bloom startled at the last tidbit and turned to look at him. He met her eyes head on and there was a challenging glint in the. He wanted her to ask, this was his payback for the other night. Bloom decided then that she wouldn’t do it. She had access to the Council library, she could find information there.

“The point,” Aisha cut in sharply, Bloom knew it was, because Aisha had picked up on the same clues and seen the trap. “Is that A’Sha has been sworn to keep the secrets of Domino, an oath that can’t be broken even in death.” The witches looked startled about that little information and Bloom smiled.

“Shouldn’t you three especially know by now that we don’t mess around, when it comes to our oaths?” Bloom asked sweetly, enjoying the dark looks just a little bit too much. Aisha’s dark look made her turn back into her pillow.

“We need time to find enough proof to slowly replace them with new representatives that actually care for the people.” Stella brought them back to the point.

“So we do what they want?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Bloom said and finally sat up. “If we roll over and just do as they demand, that will make them think they found an open door.”

“So we find a middle ground.” Valtor said. Bloom nodded stiffly.

“They are right in the point that we can’t just…” Bloom stopped when she felt Cloudtowers magic lash out. Every hair on her body stood on end and a shiver raised down her back. “Something is happening.” She whispered, moments later Griffin let out a sharp hiss.

“Someone is trying to enter with force.” She snapped and got to her feet.

“Someone is coming.” Musa said a moment after that and then the door flew open. A witch Bloom had never seen before stood in the doorway.

“Headmistress, there are council guards at the door.”

“Excuse me?” Griffin sounded as startled as Bloom felt. What in the name of the Dragon were council guards doing here?

Another pair of running footsteps were coming closer and the first witch jumped out of the way, before she could be shoved. The new witch was a young man, who was vibrating so hard Bloom knew instantly that he was for one pissed as hell and for another from Melody.

“They demand you unhand the Queen of Domino and the rest of the Winx.” The tone of the witch was both furious and so sarcastic, that Bloom was reeling, before she even processed the words.

“I beg your pardon, they demand WHAT?” Stella snapped. The witch turned to her and smiled a sharp and angry smile that was full of too sharp teeth.

Bloom’s heart stopped for a beat. Her inner Dragon roared and demanded that she either fought or got the fuck out of there. The witch was of harpy descent and Bloom was pretty sure that he was two seconds away from turning.

“They are saying that you and your friends are being held hostage here, your Majesty.” He said, anger still loud in his voice. “And they demand that we unhand you immediately.”

If Bloom hadn't been pissed off before she would be now.

“Out of all the stupid and brainless things they could be coming up with!” She snarled and got to her feet. Her friend followed without a suit. “Griffin,” Bloom started, but stopped when she met the witch's eyes. Bloom smirked. “After you.”

***

Griffin decided they would take the long way down to the main doors of Cloudtower.

“If they are behaving like fucking idiots, then I’m going to let them incriminate themselves as much as possible.” She had snapped and Tecna had silently pulled out her phone. She would be officially recording this whole disaster. Just to be safe.

While stalking through the long corridors and down the endless stairs of Cloudtower more and more Witches started to follow them. Bloom assumed it was because of the way Cloudtower’s magic was still a mix of anger, betrayal and hurt, but also just because Griffin was pissed off enough to stalk and actually show her emotions. So there was the promise of a good show.

By the time they reached the ground floor the bellowed commands to release Queen Hestia were already getting on Bloom's nerves. There was a crowd of witches already gathered before the entrance, but they moved like the sea parting, when the first witch noticed Griffin.

Which got them perfect sight of the group of men hammering against an invisible barrier preventing them from getting onto the bridge leading to the main entrance.

“I am Captain of the Council Guard Everheart, I was sent to free Queen Hestia of Domino and I demand to be let in immediately!” Bloom had comments about several things that man had said, but she pushed them to the side for now to focus on the other guards behind the man. All of the guards were men, which is not that uncommon mind you but still strange. Bloom shared a quick look with Aisha. Her friend, through their sign language, pointed something else out to Bloom. A small emblem on the Captain's shoulder. It wasn’t the Council chambers white crystal, but something Bloom hadn’t seen before. Aisha fell back to hold a quiet conversation with Tecna. Bloom slowed her steps just enough to be behind Griffin and out of sight. The other thing Bloom noticed was that several of the guards looked like they would have liked to be everywhere but here. Some even had their faces hidden in their hands.

“WHAT!” Griffin bellowed and Cloudtower underlined it with a sharp thunderclap. Bloom really loved this castle. “Do you think you are doing here?” It shut Everheart up for about two seconds, before he restarted his monologue.

“Oh wow.” Flora breathed as the speech slowly turned from some pompous nonsense into outright hate speech against witches.

“Even if I was trapped here,” Bloom whispered to her friend. “I would refuse to leave with him.” All of her friends nodded silently.

“So I demand the handover of Queen Hestia into my custody immediately to return her to Alfea, where she belongs and not this infected rats nest.”

Bloom jerked forwards fast enough that her friends' attempts at holding her back turned into nothing but fingers scratching along her arms. Valtor on the other hand was faster. He placed himself right between her and Everheart, blocking Bloom's sight of the man and did not budge even when Bloom growled at him.

“Keep a cool head, or you play into Erasmus’s game, exactly like he wants.” He hissed at her. The mention of Erasmus startled her enough to snap her out of it.

“What do you mean?” She asked. Valtor looked down his nose at her.

“The insignia on the guards, you already noticed.” He said. “It’s Erasmus's personal symbol. Those men have nothing to do with the Council.” Bloom turned other friends to see if they had heard them, but was met with blank looks.

“We are still not allowed to learn Dragon tongue.” Stella said with a grin. Bloom told them what she had heard without thinking too much about how she hadn’t even noticed a difference.

“So this is a ploy by Erasmus.” Aisha said.

“How much do we bet that he wants to kidnap Bloom?” Tecna asked dryly.

“Suckers bet.” Stormy muttered. Musa nodded in agreement.

“Bloom.” Aisha said sharply. Bloom turned and realised that the conversation between Griffin and Everheart had escalated into legal speech.

“I know what to do.” She said softly and walked past Valtor. She felt him following her like a shadow. His body was close enough to hers that she could feel the heat it generated. The other guards noticed her almost immediately and straightened, Bloom noticed that none of them reached for any kind of weapon, neither did it look like they would try and attack. She risked a quick look at their aura’s and realised that they had no clue why they were even here in the first place.

Everheart only noticed Bloom, when she stopped next to Griffin and then he completely tanked Bloom's already under worldly opinion of him. “Queen Hestia I am going to escort you and your friends to Alfea, as the council commands…”

“Enough,” Bloom said softly. From the gobsmacked look on his face he had expected her to just follow his demands. She wondered what the hell Erasmus had told the man.

“Firstly it is Queen Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino. Hestai might be my birth name, but I choose Bloom as my reigning name. Secondly.” Bloom said her voice rising to stop the man from speaking. “Secondly I am the Council. I am by birthright and as the chosen of the Council throne the Head of the High Council of Magix. So whoever gave you those instructions has lied to you.” By now Everheart was slowly growing red in the face.

“Thirdly,” Bloom said, eyeing his uniform meaningfully. “You are not Captain of any unit affiliated with the High Council. I neither have seen your name in the files, nor have I been introduced to you and the insignia is not one affiliated with the council. So I doubt that you truly are who you say.”

The man was spluttering and Bloom could see behind them several unit’s of real Council guards as well as Magix City police approaching them. A few reporters were also in that crowd.

Good old Tecna. Bloom though with affection. Always one step ahead of us.

“And lastly,” Bloom said and waited just enough to be heard by everyone. “You are trespassing.” The look on everyone's faces were absolutely hilarious and the way there were giggles behind Bloom told her that Tecna was projecting what was happening for the hoard of witches behind her.

“I…what?” Everheart stuttered.

“You are trespassing.” Bloom repeated, careful to keep her voice calm and collected. She also copied Stellas behaviour when she wanted to be seen as nothing but a snotty, stupid princess. Looking down at the man even though he was a head taller than her.

“But I…” Bloom didn’t roll her eyes, but she wanted to.

“Captain Everheart” Bloom said, putting emphasis on the Captain part, with careful mockery in her voice. “You are standing on the land of the Royal Embassy of Domino, therefore you are trespassing on my land. More than that, you are threatening the people that live on this land and are protected by the Crown of Domino.”

There was absolute silence. Even Cloudtower’s everlasting storm had gone still. The reporter in the background looked like she was having a heart attack, but was grinning so widely that Bloom assumed the woman was seeing one hell of a promotion in her near future.

The bond between her and Valtor was very loud with confusion and Bloom noticed that there was absolutely no sound coming from the witches of Cloudtower, which made her think that one of her friends had thrown up a silencing charm.

“There is no such thing as a Royal Embassy.” Everheart stammered. Bloom raised an eyebrow and asked Cloudtower for permission. She was answered with a soft shove to her back and warmth in her bones. She had been given the allowance to use her claim on Cloudtower just for now. For just this moment, so Bloom did.

Several people screamed when the border marking Cloudtowers land started to burn. Several stumbled back when slowly but steadily a giant dragon started to form and wrap around Cloudtower, coloured like Cloudtower itself.

“As Cloudtower is my home until Domino has been freed, I have offered it additional protection. They asked for safety and the best I could do was to declare Cloudtower School of Witchcraft as the first Royal embassy of Domino since its fall.”

Everhearts breaths were coming so quickly and he had turned such a violent shade of purple Bloom was almost concerned. She waited just long enough that he opened his mouth, probably to protest, then she spoke again.

“Since you have crossed the border of the embassy with the intent of taking me, against my will from a place I feel quite secure at, this is your one and only warning! You are as of this moment banned from this property. Leave now and do not return, if you do so Cloudtower is free to use every bit of power to protect itself and its inhabitants, as well as me.“

Then Bloom nodded once to Griffin. “Headmistress, he’s all yours. I said my piece.” Bloom walked off under the cursing and screaming of one Captain Everheart with Valtor on her left.

She heard Griffin call for the police and guards, but before the sentence was even finished Clodtowers magic flared and there was a long scream and then a thud.

“Pity,” Bloom murmured as she crossed through the silence ward, which had been created by Musa. “Here I thought there might be some brain in there.”

“What the FUCK?” A witch asked and Bloom just grinned.

“You get your answers after dinner.” She promised and walked off. She didn’t let anyone see the way her hands were shaking. Or how her breaths turned into gasps when she was far enough to be sure not even Musa could hear her.

Captain Everheart had been tall with long dark hair and cold eyes, worse than that, he had been a Paladin.

Bloom allowed Cloudtower to swallow her whole and tried to forget.

***

“As many of you demanded.” Griffin's tone made it perfectly clear what she was thinking of that. “We will explain how, when and why Cloudtower has become an Embassy of Domino.”

Griffin motioned for Bloom to step forwards and speak, so she did.

“When I asked you if you would be willing to house me and my friends, Valtor and the Trix you agreed, even when we told you the possible backlash.” Bloom said softly. Her voice was ringing in the silence and the architecture of the dinning hall. “Even though I knew that you are witches and can protect yourself, I am still a fairy and had at that point been subjected to the Council for months. I knew those people would take offence, so I offered Griffin a deal. I would make Cloudtower an embassy of Domino in exchange for you housing us.” Muttering started, Bloom let them complain. They were complaining that they knew what they were doing and that they would have been able to protect themselves.

“I don’t doubt your power or the protectiveness you have over what is yours, but I would like to offer you another thought.” Bloom waited until the witches calmed again. “When Valtor infiltrated your school, Cloudtower couldn’t do more than warn you, and even then it was too late.” Grumbling and hisses rose. Bloom waited.

“The title of Embassy in Dominan law comes with this passage.” Bloom carefully spoke the words of her mother tongue that had made her offer this option to Griffin. She felt realisation and surprise through the bond.

“A home, a place named Embassy of Domino will be free of all restraints. No law other than that of Domino will be recognized here. No treaty that hasn’t been acknowledged by the person who names the place Embassy has any effect here. No curse that has been placed on a person can affect them once they step over the border. Blood bounds are broken for as long as those under them are on our land. An Embassy of Domino is a place where the Dragon, our Mother, has her eyes and mind and she does not care for the fear and pain and suffering of her own children.”

She felt Cloudtower brushing against her mind. So much more awake than before, so much freer now that the bound placed upon it by the Council had been broken. Not even the old ties to the Ancestral witches were there anymore. When Bloom opened her eyes she was met with the open mouthed disbelief of hundreds of witches and she smiled.

“Cloudtower has become a safe haven.” Bloom said. “Especially since I have sworn to Griffin that this Embassy will outlive me, I swore that neither me nor anyone of my line, should there ever be descendants of mine, will be able to undo this promise. Nor will they be able to control Cloudtower unless they asked and have been given their permission.”

“We will be able to welcome those witches in hiding.” Griffin spoke up. “We will be able to bring home those unfairly accused of crimes. We will be able to teach every single witch that comes to us. No more games to please the Council. They have no say over us anymore. We are finally free to be witches.”

Bloom stepped back. This wasn’t about her. She had promised that she would listen and make things better. The witches never had said a word, but Bloom has seen how they had been treated.

She just hoped they would take this first bit.

***

“Why did you make Cloudtower bring me here?” Griffin’s voice was annoyed. Bloom didn’t react to it, she was sitting on the ground before Cloudtowers heart.

“You swore an oath to my mother, didn’t you?” Bloom asked. She felt Griffin go stiff. “Not loyalty, but fairness and care for those that came to you.”

“Yes,” Griffin’s voice was tense.

“I found Council papers today.” Bloom whispered. “About the restrictions on Cloudtower.” The heart before her beat a bit faster. “They didn’t trust my mother.”

“No they didn’t, they didn’t want to.” Griffin said as she stepped closer to stand next to Bloom. “What do you want?”

“Ask for your permission.” Bloom muttered.

“For what?”

“Did my parents ever tell you about Dominion embassies?” Griffin went stiff.

“You…”

“I promised fairness and equality for all.”

“Not in those words.”

“Will you allow me to do it?” Bloom asked. Griffin hesitated. The heart before them pulsed evenly and calmly.

“Will they be free?”

“Yes, from everyone, even me and my people.”

“Do it.”

The pain created by the shallow cut was nothing. It was just above her pulse point, and within seconds Bloom had a small pool of blood in her palm. She closed the cut and dipped a finger in the pool and painted a circle onto the heart. It wasn’t big, just enough that Bloom could comfortably put one of her hands in there. Then she used the rest of the blood to coat both of her hand’s, before she pressed them onto the heart of Cloudtower.

There weren’t really words for this. Just intention and emotions and meaning it. So the reaction was instant. Bloom felt bounds and curses snapped in half. Felt the way Cloudtower strengthened. She realised suddenly that she had an acute awareness of where the border of Cloudtowers land was. More than that she felt the wards and protections. She felt them strengthen. When Bloom finally pulled her hands back, they were clean and the handprints one inside of the circle and one outside of it, as well as the circle itself, had turned silver.

Thank you

It was a voice Bloom had never heard before. Not one singular, but hundreds of them at once, overlapping.

“They speak again.” Griffin whispered and she sounded close to tears.

Chapter Text

“You still have not said anything about our proposal!”

Bloom rubbed her temple and carefully pushed down her emotions. Her hair still caught on fire.

“What is there to recognize?” She asked sharply.

“Well considering it is part of the contract.” Duchess Ta’Ra snapped.

“Part of the contract is that Valtor returns the magic he has stolen.” Bloom retorted.

“Which he still hasn’t done!” This time it was King Erendor who spoke up. He had returned to his place on the council during the last session, that Bloom hadn’t been informed about and that had ended up with the letter.

“Which is something we are still figuring out.” Stella cut in, interpreting Bloom's hair turning bluer correctly.

“What is there to figure out?” Erendor asked, his voice full of mockery. “The council offered a solution, why wouldn’t you take it?”

“Because it will take years.” Bloom snapped.

Which is exactly what they want. Valtor muttered dryly through their bond. Bloom snarled.

“Your proposition would mean a visit to every single planet and moon and region that Valtor has stolen from. A proper diplomatic visit. That would mean a month or more at each location. Considering that he stole over two dozen spells from Melody alone, that would take YEARS. If not decades, that is time we do not have.”

“Why not?” Bloom pushed back from the table and grabbed onto the throne’s armrests. Her magic was absorbed and instead of her exploding into fire, the crystal sparked blue for a moment, before the energy was directed into the wards.

Do not explode at them. Valtor's voice was sharp and commanding. That is exactly what they want from you.

Oh really she snapped back. It earned her a sharp wave of annoyance.

Focus on your goal, we worked out a plan as the Thirteen, Eleven of us are here.

“All known members of the rule of Thirteen objected.” Bloom heard her own voice say and watched how all colour drained out of several faces. The magic of the hall flared and Bloom knew that the proposition had been basically declared useless.

“Why?”

“Aside from the financial strain this plan would put on the hosts, most of which are still struggling to keep their people safe and their magic balanced?” Tecna’s voice was so monotone it was basically an insult.

“Or the fact that such a long tour would be best for times of peace and prosperity, none of which we have right now.” Flora added.

“The fact that most planets still see Valtor and the Trix as terrorists?” Aisha said.

“Most importantly though.” Griffin said not looking up from where she was correcting some tests. “Council Head Bloom is needed to sign any new legislation. If she and Valtor are travelling through the Magical Dimension for years, that would mean each negotiation of any contract would have to be stretched out for months if not years until the last detail is ironed out and she is willing to sign it.” Bloom shuddered just thinking about that bureaucratic nightmare, several people out right whimpered.

“We would offer a counter solution.” Flora said softly, her persona as the gentlest of them all, the peacemaker was beautifully covering up, that she was delivering the death blow.

“The tour itself isn’t a bad idea. If we just announce that the spells have been given back, this will lead to mistrust and unrest. A tour as proposed is too costly for most planets and regions that are victims of Valtor. So we need to find a middle ground.”

“And what would that be?”

“Visiting the most important planets of each ring and sending the magic back from there.” Bloom said. It earned her confused looks.

“We start here on Magix. This Dimension ring holds the Magix planetary system, with its moons and the tree adjoining planets. As well as the Planet systems of Orobo and Anais. If we make a grand announcement here in Magix city and return the spells stolen from the schools in a ceremony, as well as the ones stolen from the rest of the ring then, we have shown the dimension how it will be done and also started the process. This way, before we travel to the next Dimension ring, there can be interdimensional communication on whether or not the spells have been returned.”

“What if someone says they didn’t?” Erendore asked sharply. Bloom heard her hair hissing. She forced her temper under control.

“It would be addressed in the ceremony.” Musa cut in. “We would include in a speech that every planet that hasn’t had all of their spells returned should send a missive to the council. This way we can visit the planets in question over time.”

“Either while returning to Magix or later on as more missing spells are noticed.” Aisha ended their speech.

“It also helps that should all spells be returned there is a change in the contract.” Bloom said, which earned her wide eyed looks for some reason. She wanted to bang her head onto the table.

“Would the Council please be so kind as to remember that the contract is a magical agreement. One that upon fulfilment will turn blue.”

“Why were we not informed about that?” Erendore asked sharply.

“You were.” Stella said dryly. “Several times.”

The people, the adult people some well into their second century didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed.

I need a vacation.

“Which planets would you visit for that to work?” Elder Asase from Lynphea asked.

“The big five. Zenith, Melody, Lynphea, Solaria and Andros.” Flora answered.

“As well as Eraklyon as it is the most powerful in the Dominon tertiary.” Bloom added.

“If the council would have any more planets that would need to be visited please bring them to our attention.”

“Especially those in Earth's circle.”

***

“There is something I would like to add.” The Solarian representative- an older man Stella always spoke fondly of- said hesitantly.

Bloom, already linking him more than anyone else in the room, nodded encouragingly.

“Usually it is custom to have a formal celebration when the Head of the Council changes.” Bloom felt dread pool in her stomach, she knew where this would be going.

“Considering how things were at this time, it is understandable that that didn’t happen.”

“You want to have a ball for the announcement of the tour.” Bloom said softly. He nodded, still looking hesitantly.

“It isn’t a bad idea.” Bloom muttered, which promptly got her disbelieving looks from everyone. She suppressed a smile.

Sticks and carrots. Valtor's voice sounded in the back of her head. Bloom slammed the door shut.

“It would need to be a small celebration.” Bloom started to think out loud. “Considering the reason for it is rather sombre, it…”

“On the contrary.” Someone else chimed in. “It's for a good reason! Our magic will be returned. It should be a…” They stopped talking, when Bloom held up a hand.

“I am willing to agree to a larger celebration or out right a proper ball, but only after the magic is returned and the Planets are at rights.”

“Considering the destruction that is still going on, with the loss of the Magic, it would be tasteless to celebrate, while people are still living on the brink of destruction.” Aisha added.

“Especially since the import of half of the food and drink for such a celebration is impossible right now.” Tecna added.

“Lynphea is still struggling to grow our own food, not even talking about food for exportation.” Flora said and got a grave nod from Elder Asase.

“Andros has to concentrate on keeping our people alive.” Aisha’s voice was calm, but Bloom could feel the thunder building under her friend's skin. “The underwater population is still struggling against the corrupted mermaids and the over-water population is in danger of drowning.” Aisha’s words left half of the council open-mouthed and staring. Bloom suppressed an eye roll.

“You see why I am hesitant to hold an elaborate ball and force the most valuable and needed people away from their planets?” Bloom asked softly. “Especially since most of them will have a stronger guard than usual, considering that Valtor and the Trio would be attending as guests.” Stormy’s head snapped around so fast Bloom winced. That couldn’t have been good for her neck.

“We are what?” She hissed and lightning crackled through her hair.

“You are Bloom's vassals and named in the contract as a main party.” Stella said in a bored tone. “Of course you will attend.”

“Honoured guests even.” Musa muttered under her breath.

“THE POINT!” Tecna, snapped. “The point of this is that if there were a ball now, it would mean Royalty would be forced to attend. Which means they take soldiers and mages away from their people, who need them more.”

“So I propose a different approach.” Bloom said. “We make a formal announcement during which they can return the spells that belong to the first dimension ring. Once we have reached Eraklyon we will announce the ball.”

“If we would travel back through the space paths, instead of the portals, then we would have enough time to prepare the ball.” Stella continued.

“If the ball would be a month or two after returning the last magic it would be enough to restore Eraklyon to a basic balance without endangering them.” Griffin muttered.

The council members around them were exchanging looks. Bloom carefully used her aura vision to get some insight into their thoughts. She immediately shut it down again, once the thoughts of the people around her reached her. It was too funny. Tecna, noticing what Bloom had done, raised an eyebrow.

The quick sequence of tapping on the table and stretching held a rather simple message. They are surprised by us. All of her friends did their best to suppress their laughter.

“I think…” One of Melody’s representatives said and looked actually thoughtful as they eyed Bloom and her friends. “We can agree to this. I have questions though!”

Bloom simply inclined her head.

***

“What about a guard?” It wasn’t one of the council members that had spoken up. Bloom looked up in surprise and blinked at the member of the council guard who had stepped forward and spoken.

“Huh?” She asked, several people snorted, but most of them seemed just as thrown as Bloom. The Council chamber, while the most secure place in the whole palace, aside from the ward room, still had a few guards. Most of the time though, they were motionless and positioned so that they wouldn’t be noticed.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, Your Majesty.” The guard, a woman from Lynphea if Bloom was interpreting her tattoo’s right, said and bowed. “But there is still the question of a guard for the trip.”

Someone snorted, but Bloom waved the woman closer. “I’m not yet familiar with all the guards.” She admitted darting a quick look to Tecna who wasn’t looking at her but tipping. Ok she was looking for the answer. “Would you introduce yourself?” The guard flushed a pretty green colour and bowed again.

“I am Thorne of the Old Growth Mountain.” Mine the dragon inside of Bloom roared and when she met Thornes eyes there was a recognition there. The old Growth Mountain once had been the title of Domino’s highest Mountain, now it was the title of a settlement on Lynphea, that housed people that had Dominon roots. “I’m head of the Chamber guard.”

“Why do you think there is a need for a guard?” Flora asked and Thorne straightened.

“While I understand that Her Majesty is one of the most competent and powerful people around, she needs sleep, so does her entourage.”

“There is surely…” Bloom stopped the speaker at once, they were one of Erasmus' people and she knew they were still talking to the man.

“Explain.” She whispered. Thorne looked back at her for a moment and then indicated her head in the direction of Valtor and the Trix.

“The five of you can easily defend yourself at all times, but you will need a night guard, or people who are able to take care of the ship you will travel in.”

“What if we already have people for that?” Tecna asked.

“If I may, who?” Thorne asked.

“Helia of Lynphea, Grandson of Headmaster Saladin. Timmy of Zenith and Riven of Magix.” Stella said.

“A group of Specialists?” Another of Erasmus' people asked with disbelief, a part of Bloom knew she probably should be learning their names, but she also really didn’t care. So she focused on Thorne instead, who seemed to think of it.

“They are good fighters and already tuned to you and your fighting styles, but I would still like a group of at least five to remain at the ship or in front of whatever rooms you are given.”

“Three and we would stay in the ship at night.” Aisha cut in.

“That would be more than disrespectful!” Duchess Tan’Ra cut in.

“It wouldn't,” The representative of Melody Harmony said thoughtfully. “If they remain in their ship for the night there would be no need to redirect resources in that capacity. At most they would need to be given some new rations.”

“I can accept that. My men could sleep during the travel time and then in shifts during night and day time.” Thorne said slowly. “Although I still would prefer at least four men, so that there isn’t one man alone on shift.”

“It would be a good compromise.” Flora said slowly.

“Who then would be with you?” Tan’Ra muttered scornfully. Bloom smiled serenely back at her.

“I’m sure Thorne can present me with a list by tomorrow.” She turned to Thorne. “Meet me in my office tomorrow around seven pm.” Thorne nodded once and stepped back into her position. Around her people spluttered.

“Why would you …”

“You can not just decide…”

“This is outrageous!”

“It is really not.” Bloom said. “This would be a personal guard, as far as I remember a personal guard of one of the council members is never to be discussed with the whole council, since this a personal matter.” More spluttering all around and Bloom rolled her eyes hard enough that it hurt.

“While we are at the topic.” She snapped sharply. Causing the people around the table to silence.

“I will be taking the Arcadia for this trip.” Bloom announced and watched out of the corner of her eyes how Musa held up four fingers and then started a silent count down.

The screams were almost deafening when they started. Bloom leaned back and let them scream themselves hoarse.

“The council remembers, that this is a COUNCIL mission, right?” She asked once most of them had stopped. “Which means I have the right to use one of the council's ships for it.”

“But the Arcadia?” One of Erasmus' men called out. “That is our second biggest ship.”

“And meant for fifteen to sixteen people.” Tecna said. “Bloom, Valtor and the Trix, Helia, Timmy and Riven, as well as one of us, depending on the next planet, as well as four guards, you do the maths. That’s fifteen. The next smaller ship, the Ninth Nymph, can only host ten people. With much respect, that would be disrespectful and also not possible long term.”

“If we say the whole tour will take four months, that would end in murder or the ship getting damaged.” Flora said and did a wonderful job of appearing nervous and concerned.

“Neither is good, so instead we take the Arcadia and return safely after four months.” Bloom finished. “And before anyone will say anything about fuel costs, I still have the stipend of this month.”

For a moment there was silence and Bloom already had hope that maybe, just maybe this would be all, but of course it couldn’t be that easy. This time it was Faragonda of all people- and shouldn’t she be teaching right now?- that spoke up.

“What do you mean with one of us?”

Bloom shared a long and silent look with her friends. Tecna raised an eyebrow, Stella shuffled down in her seat, Flora stretched, Musa yawned loudly and Aisha just shook her head in obvious annoyance. Bloom sighed and turned around only to meet Valtor’s eyes. He was looking at all of them with interest and Bloom remembered suddenly that he was aware of their silent language. She immediately pushed a sharp “DON'T YOU DARE” down their bond. He simply raised his eyebrows in a silent challenge.

“We are guardian fairies of most of the planets named for the tour.” Tecna finally said and Bloom turned away from Valtor.

“What has that to do with anything?” One of Erasmus lackeys asked. Bloom, already annoyed by all of them, snapped.

“Tecna is a guardian fairy of Zenith and also one of Mothers chosen diplomats- as the Council member representing Zenith can attest- Mother will demand Tecna to be present.” She snapped sharply, the council member nodded once, a small smile on their lips. “Flora is a guardian fairy of Lynphea and also held in high regard for protecting the Weeping Willow over her own life. Not even talking about the fact that she is in a relationship with Helia, who as I apparently have to remind the Council is a close friend of Princess Chrysalis.”

“Even if the Princess didn’t request her presence,” Council member Asase spoke up. “The council of the Elders would.” Bloom inclined her head in a small bow towards her.

“We do not have to talk about Princess Aisha or Stella, do we?” Bloom bit out sarcastically. Both of them representatives of Solaria and Andros suppressed snorts.

“Musa of Melody, once again guardian fairy, but also restored Princess Galateas wings and protected her from the Trix at the risk of her life.”

“She is also in consideration to apprentice under the Muses of of the High Note realm once her education in Alfea has finished..” Drawled the representative of Melody Harmony, which earned him nods from the other representatives of Melody. Musa for her part was staring at them wide eyed and open mouthed. Bloom giggled, apparently nobody had informed her of that little detail, which from the looks of the representatives, they realised too.

“Any more questions?” Aisha asked sweetly, taking the attention off of Musa who was having a rather monumental little break down.

“We are of course aware that we need to keep our education up, so instead of doing the full tour we are going to trade in stages. Magix will see all of us with Bloom. After that it will be me, travelling with them to Zenith.” Tecna started, projecting the holographic plan they already worked out. “After Zenith I will return to Magix and Musa will take my place. Once the stay on Melody is over Musa returns and trades places with Flora and so on until we have reached Andros, Aisha will stay with them for the rest of the tour.”

“How would the trading work?” Erendore asked snidely. Stella instead of answering turned her ring into the sceptre of Solaria.

“Any more questions?” Bloom asked sweetly.

“What about homework and the like?” Faragonda asked.

“Another reason for us to trade off, like this we can share lecture notes and also take homework with us.” Flora explained.

“Of course most of it will be mailed first, so we can make deadlines, but all of it will also be handed in in physical form.” Bloom explained, smiling sharply at Faragonda who was meeting Bloom's eyes with confusion. “For the records and all.”

“What about tests?” One of Erasmus goons asked.

“That will be discussed with our teachers, the council has no right to get involved in our education.” Stella said sharply in a tone Bloom hadn’t heard since they had dealt with Cassandra. Nobody dared to speak up after that.

***

“How are you feeling, B?” Stella asked and Bloom just shook her head. Outside in the palace court yard hundreds if not thousands of people had gathered. Reporters were circling in the crowd and in the air, trying to get any information out of the guard or glimpses through the windows.

“Terrified, I would guess.” Musa muttered.

They all were dressed in the most formal attire they had. Bloom had conjured her coronation gown again. Looking at it now, that she wasn’t high on adrenaline and panic she realised there was barely any Dominian style to it. Sure the material was dragon skin- which Bloom refused to question the how off- but the style of dress was more like the coronation dress from the Anastasia movie she had loved as a child, only deep blue. Flora had once again braided the blue flowers into her hair. It were the same from her coronation, since the magic of ascending her throne had preserved them. It wasn’t all of them though, since she now had a crown.

Aside from that she hadn’t changed much in her outfit. Well there was the sash that was marking her as the head of the High council and she wasn’t wearing the sword now. It had disappeared when she had had her panic attack and Bloom hadn’t been able to find it in the royal treasury of Domon’s palace.

“How is this different from the last time she held a speech that was changing the fate of the dimension?” Icy asked where she was lounging in one of the few chairs that had been brought into the entry hall for this moment.

“Icy is right, you did a good speech for suddenly being queen and head of the council.” Stormy muttered from her position against the wall. Bloom just stared at the Trix for a moment, confusion muddling her already wildly circling thoughts.

“Huh?” She finally managed.

“Elegant.” Valtor snorted from her left. He was dressed in deep blue, which honestly was half the reason why Bloom was so thrown. This man really should not wear that colour. Stella had agreed, but Aisha and Tecna had reminded them of the importance of symbolism. Valtor wearing blue, Bloom's colour, was a very big sign. It also helped that his marriage bounds were on full display.

“I… what?” Bloom asked, still very confused because the Trix could not be that dense. Through their link Valtor seemed even more amused, Bloom didn’t have the mental energy to deal with him right now. So she shot a sharp flash of magic down their link. It was one of Stella’s light attacks, that Bloom had modified for her own use. From the way Valtor jerked back and almost stumbled over a chair, it worked like a charm.

“Your speech after you took our Vassal vows and got all glowy and got a magical transformation?” Darcy asked, seemingly as confused as her sisters.

“That wasn’t improvised.” Flora muttered and only then did it click for Bloom. She snorted, for the first time this day her anxiety lowering enough for her to sort out most of her thoughts.

“Excuse me?” Icy asked, straightening up where she was sitting.

“Honey, we knew of the council's plans long before you.” Stella drawled and Bloom once again imagined Stella in lower Texas, just for the hell of it. It would be such a glorious massacre.

“First thing we did was tell Daphne about it.” Aisha said, bowing over the tablet that was holding Bloom's speech. She and Musa had written that one with additions from Stella and Bloom herself, it needed to sound like her after all.

“You are telling me the whole thing was planned?” Darcy gaped. Behind her Tecna twitched in a way that made Bloom snap to attention.

“Only because Daphne informed us about the Laws of Engagement,” She said, reaching up to brush a hand through her hair. Flora slapping her wrist hard, stopped her. Bloom sighed. “Between my sister and Griffin, as well as the senior princesses over there.” This time it was Bloom who got nearly blinded by the flash light. “We managed to work something out just in time to also prepare a proper speech.”

“Having access to the Council records helped a lot.” Musa muttered and from the way she smiled when all three of the Trix and Valtor turned to her Bloom knew that comment had been deliberate to change the topic.

“You have…”

Before Darcy could speak up Thorne appeared through a servants door. “It is time, Your Majesty.” She said and Bloom straightened.

Valtor was at her right in an instant, just half a step behind her with Aisha and Stella to her right, at the same hight as him. Icy took Valor’s right. Her friends, Darcy and Stormy, organised themselves behind them so that if there would be pictured taken from the air- which there would be- their formation would look like a diamond shape.

“Ready?” Thorne asked. She and another guard were positioned at the doors ready to open them at Bloom command. Bloom allowed herself one last act of nervousness. She reached for Daphne's birth medal which was proudly displayed on her chest and pressed her thumb against the edge just enough to hurt.

“Yes.” She said as she let her hand fall down to her side. The doors opened and immediately a cacophony of noise hit her. The amount of people in the courtyard made them all blurry to gather into a massive sea of colourful dots. Faintly Bloom registered that she was walking, slowly and steadily as Stella and Aisha had taught her to wards the magical microphone that was hovering in the middle of the steps.

To her left and right seated in several rows of chairs, that looked like they had grown from the palace crystal, was the High Council. Bloom couldn’t see any of them. Couldn’t even head the crowd, everything was a huge mix of Musa’s humming, her own blood pumping through her veins and her magic roaring inside of her.

“Breathe.” Valor’s voice was almost soft, as his hand touched her lower back. She managed to hold on the gasp of air, but her slightly louder inhale was still audible through the Microphone. Valtor was right behind her, so were Trix, her friends were sitting in the first row of chairs on her left and right. The rule of thirteen was the first row six to each side of the isle and the Throne that had just grown from the ground in the middle of it. The rows behind that were the council.

“People of the Magical Dimension” Thorne spoke, she was several steps below Bloom, her voice clear and filled with magic that was mage of green fire and smelled like sage. Bloom's slow exhale drowned in Thornes words.

“Her Royal Majesty the Dragon Queen Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino.”

“Hello,” She said gently. “Thank you for following this invitation or tuning in to the life streams.” Bloom said and indicated her head towards the crowd of reporters that were held back by Council guards at the bottom of the stairs, as well as the ones in the air.

“As you already know, this announcement is about the second part of the Peace treaty that stopped Valtor’s attacks against you.” Murmurs rose, but they were gentle, although Bloom could see the agitation on many faces. He had thought about calling it an onslaught, or reign of terror, but attacks seemed the better choice. It was both an acknowledgment of the destruction, but also its end. At least that was what Musa and Aisha had said.

“After long negotiations with your representatives on the High Council as well as the Members of the Thirteenth, we finally agreed upon a way to return the Magic Valtor stole from you.”

This time there were shouts and screams all around her. People curse out Valtor, screaming about their home planet's destruction.

“Please.” Bloom said softly. “Please stop.” Somehow it worked. The crowd quieted. “I know how you feel.” She allowed herself a self deprecating little smile. “I remember and have been reminded of the Fall of Domino. My older sister, the Nymph Daphne is still bound to this plane and guarding all of you. She never was quiet how all of the Magical Dimension suffered when Domino fell.” Bloom didn’t need to turn around or even look up to know that Daphne was there in all of her golden glory, taller than life. She could feel her sister's hand on her shoulders.

“The plan is simple.” Bloom continued. “Valtor, the Trix and I will travel through each Dimension Ring visiting their most prominent Planets to return the magic of each Ring.” People were gaping, their mouths hanging open. Bloom raised a hand, making it look as if she was conjuring the illusion of the magical Dimension above the courtyard, even though it was Stella.

“We will start right here.” She said and the illusion showed the first ring of the Dimension with the Planet Magix glowing brightly. “Once I have explained everything, Valtor and the Trix will return the Magic they have stolen from this Ring. Magic that involves, but isn’t limited to Magix itself, as well as its planetary system and the systems of Orobo and Anis. Once this is done we will, together with Guardian Fairy Tecna of Zenith, travel to the second ring, specifically Zenith to return their Magic.”

Above Bloom the illusion zoomed out into the second Dimension Ring, showing Zenith.

“We will continue on like this. Travelling to the United Realms of Melody to return the stolen Magic of the third ring, where we will meet with Guardian Fairy Musa or Melody Harmony and every Head of State that is able to meet with us, without endangering their people..” The illusion zoomed back out again Melody in focus.

“To Lynphea for the fourth ring, alongside Guardian Fairy Flora Hawthrone and Spezialist Helia on the recommendation of Princess Chrysalis.”

Zooming out.

“And Solaria for the fifth, alongside Princess Selene of the Second Sun.” Zooming out.

“Before we travel to Andros to return the magic of their triennial with the help of Princess Aisha of the Coast.” Andros was displayed above Bloom. “We will then visit the Earth triennial to return the magic of those planets” Stella showcased the very few still inhabitable planets in Earth's part of the sixth ring. Nibh and Ranahn in the part that was closer to Andros and Pollux on the side that’s closer to Domino.

“We will end the tour on Eraklyon after visiting Esperos, where Prince Sky and Princess Diaspro will meet us.”

Bloom gave the people around her a moment to understand what she just had told them. The Illusion of the Magical Dimension above her had frozen on Eraklyon. Bloom dared to glance up. As far as she was aware Erakylon, Pyros and Esperos were the only planets on Dominos triennial that were still habitable. It used to be more, if Daphne’s stories were right. Not hundreds of Planets like Andros or Earth's triennial had, or the near thousands of the other Dimension rings, but nearly fifty planets. Most of which had been vacated after the attack on Domino or been destroyed before that. Bloom sighed.

“As the contract is a magical vow Valtor is both bound by it and myself to return your magic, but I am also aware of the distrust towards him and any action that is connected to him.” The crowd muttered and Bloom gave them a small bitter smile. “So we, the council, decided that it would be best to give you time. We want you to catalogue and restore your planets once your magic has been returned, should something still be missing, we want you to inform the Council. A letter or a message will be enough and we will find a way to contact you or visit you to find and return your magic. There will be no limit to this offer.” Bloom gave them a moment to understand what she had said. Muttering started up again, Bloom let her aura vision rise and saw hope and bitterness as the most prominent emotions. “As we are aware that the reconstruction of your homes and planets comes first. That being said,” Bloom said and let her voice turn sharp. “We only can return what has been stolen by Valtor and the Trix, any magic stolen by others or the Ancestral Witch is not ours to give.” Protests sounded, the crowd moved and the guards at the bottom of the stairs moved into a defensive position. Bloom let them rage. She knew the feeling, how she had hoped when she had released that she had a sister and how the truth about Daphne's fate had crushed her.

“How can we return what isn’t in our power?” Bloom asked softly. “Would you ask a Fairy from Lynphea to summon light, so they can grow better food for you?” People were staring at her. “Would you ask a fairy of Andros to summon fire, because you are cold? Would you ask a witch to act like a fairy?” It was that last example that shut the people up. “No you wouldn’t.” Bloom declared. “So would you ask the people who have broken their alliance to the Coven to return the magic still held by it? Knowing they will die before they ever reach it?” Mutterings rose and Bloom didn’t need her enhanced hearing to know that some people were saying that it seemed fair, that the death of the Trix and Valtor wouldn’t be that much of a loss.

“If they live they will be able to help us end the Coven once and all.” Bloom said. “If they live and fight with us, your lost magic can one day be returned.” Bloom allowed herself to quirk a smile. “That being said, the contract is magical, it will show if all magic has been returned, which we will announce. So please do not embrace you people by claiming that something is still in the grasp of the Trix of Valtor, when it clearly isn’t.”

For a long moment there was nothing but silence, then a single voice called out.

“What about the destruction?” Bloom blinked and thought about it.

“The curses.” Valtor muttered behind her.

“They will be undone!” Bloom called out, startled by the belief that only the magic would be returned. “Of course we will undo anything that has been done to your plants by the Trix or Valtor.” Bloom shook her head. “We will help as much as we can, but we can not undo everything.”

It was as if a dam had been broken. More questions were asked and Bloom did her best to keep on top of them. For some Valtor muttered the best answer to her. For some one of her friends or a member of the council stepped up next to her and spoke. Slowly but steadily the crowd quietened and when the questions stopped, Bloom nodded once.

“It is time that the first Ring of the Magical Dimension has its magic and secrets returned.” She announced and stepped back. Valtor and the Trix stepped past her.

Bloom knew she should sit down, but she couldn’t. She could feel the restless energy under her skin and the gentle whisper of the voice in the back of her mind. So she stepped back but remained standing.

The four of them started chanting at once. It was a simple spell they had come up with, something that could be easily adapted to reach dimensional ring and later the triennials.

We claim the curses that we have woven.

We undo them as we speak.

None of our magic shall remain,

that had ill intent as seed.

We let go of what we have taken.

We return what we have stolen.

May the white light of this Ring take from us what belongs to it.

May the white magic return it to where it belongs.

For a moment nothing happened, the crowd started to whisper, shouts rang out and around Bloom the council and her friends started to shift. Bloom was frozen, out of the corner of her eyes she saw Tecna just as right as her. Beneath them something groaned. Something rumbled and something woke. Bloom gasped sharply, when something white and cold and artificial raised through her. She heard her friends shout when Tecna doubled over. And then Magic exploded around them. It wasn’t purely white. More like a soft cream or silver. The Magic of the first dimensional Ring had answered and came to collect what it was owned. Balls of pastel coloured Magic, too many for Bloom to count, floated above the Trix and Valtor and were cradled gently by a figure of white light. It almost looked like Arcadia.

They will fall. A voice muttered, in Bloom's head, a voice that sounded white like snow and like the crystal of the Palace and she reacted, before she was thinking. It was easy to pull on the bounds between her and the Trix, almost natural to pull on Valtors. She fed them the tiniest amount of her magic. Not enough to truly do something, aside from keeping them awake and on their feet.

Then it was over. A few balls of magic sunk into the ground before them, most of them rose higher and then disappeared into the sky.

Daphne appeared between Bloom and the four before her, announcing loudly. “The magic is returned, this part of the contract is fulfilled.”

Bloom let out a little laugh and closed her eyes. They really had done this.

Well, then next stop Zenith.

Chapter Text

“See you in a week.” Musa muttered as she hugged Bloom tight, behind her Timmy and Tecna were already starting the ship. Engrossed on the technology and challenges of a new play thing.

“See you.” Bloom muttered. She was to well dressed for the occasion. She really didn’t see any reason to wear a formal outfit only to get into the ship and stay on it for a day. Since they were taking the official council rout to Zenith, it would take a full day of travel in the Arcadia, instead of the few hours the Specialists rout usually took. Bloom was resigned to her fait, but not happy.

“See you soon B.” Stella said crushing her the second Musa let go of her. Flora snorted and Bloom flipped her the bird. Several reporters gasped, Aisha rolled her eyes, but grinned. She was after all not visible for the cameras.

“B.” Stella said in a warning tone.

“I’m twenty, and spent my last five years fighting evil, because the adults are to incompetent.” Bloom answered. Stella shot her a withering look, but Bloom could see the shadow in her eyes. She presses a quick kiss to her best friends cheek and then stepped back. Flora’s good bye was nothing, but a quick kiss and hug, before she went on to say good bye to Tecna.

Aisha on the other hand took her time, her hug was tight and warm and smelled of the sea.

“We are going to take care of the Council meetings.” She whispered into Blooms ears. “And spent as much time as we can in the library.” Bloom relaxed even more into the hug. Underneath Aisha’s message she could hear the clear: “We will find something to end them all.”

“Thank you” She said. “I have put in several copies of authorization with everyone I could think of. The council guard knows, the Wardens know, the Archivists know, Griselda too” Aisha snorted. “the Council members would know if they check the records, but…”

“No hopes there.” Aisha grumbled back. Bloom grinned.

“Exactly.” They hugged a moment longer, before one of the guards, Thorne had chosen, cleared their throat and they separated. “Your free to take action, if needed.” Bloom told Aisha through their sign language. “Especially if it’s importation.” Aisha nodded once and then stepped back. Bloom turned and stepped onto the ship, walking up the ramp until she was at the top and then turned around. Her friend were standing in a line just out of the blast radius, Griffin behind them and there were some reporters, aside from that, only a few people of Magix had shown up. Bloom waved once as the ramp rose higher and then on impulse bowed at the waist. Not much but enough to be visible.

“Clever” Valtor said behind her and Bloom stiffened. The guards did too. She smiled at them holding out her hand to calm them down.

“Not today.” She muttered back.

“Oh why ever not?” He asked, the grin on his face wide enough that she wanted to punch him.

“Close quarters.” Bloom snapped back and walked past him into the ship. She felt him walk behind her. She ignored him, quickly making her way into the cockpit.

“Well then, Tec.” Bloom muttered as she sat down in the seat behind Tecna, which conveniently was the chair surrounded by Helia and Riven behind her, Tecna and Timmy in front of her and two of the Council Guard Kwame and Jabari at her sides. Leaving no more room for Valtor to shadow her.

“Tell us what we have to expect.”

***

Aisha watched the ship leave the planet with a knot in her chest. It’s been a long time since they had been separated like this. Her friends flanked her silently.

“Where do we start?” Stella asked, it wasn’t their sign language, it was the mix of all their native tongues mixed together. Stella and Tecna had come up with that one during Darkar when Bloom absentmindedly had mentioned an earth concept. Apparently it was possible for the inhabitants of earths continent Europe to understand each other even if the languages of the different countrys were mixed into one. Apparently Europanto was a thing, Bloom had stumbled upon a few years back when she had been awake too late and on Tumblr. Which considering the madness that was Tumblr Aisha completely understood. She did hate Bloom a bit for letting Flora and Tecna finding out about it. Because of course Tecna would fall down a debate rabbit hole and Flora was just a troll, as Bloom loved to say.

“Erasmus lackeys.” She answered.

“Not Erendor?” Musa asked quietly. Aisha shook her head. They all knew that Bloom had been questioning Sky’s father for years, every since she had first met him, but especially since his behavior in the Council. It didn’t help that he had been in the meeting that had create this whole situation, but then had been absent until after Bloom had become Council Head. They weren’t stupid, something was going on with the man.

“Not until both Musa and Tecna have done their rotation.” Aisha answered quietly, in the back of her head she was running through ha thousand different scenarios. Tecna was the fastest member of their group to notice and catalogue things, but Aisha was from Andros, she had grown up in the water and on land, being raised as the warrior queen she was supposed to be, she was the who could find a strategy in seconds. Be it for them or the strategy of the enemy.

“For now we interrupt the meeting the council has called the moment Bloom left the planet.” They all snorted, the Council hadn’t even been subtle, so they had noticed the invitations, even before Griffin had informed them.

“After that we get into the library and archive, let’s see what we can find on Erasmus.”

“Alright then.” Musa grinned and bumped her shoulder against Aisha’s “Let’s see if anyone bothers to read the notifications Bloom send out.”

***

“They’ve got to be kidding me.” Bloom muttered where she was bend over the table in the suit she shared with Tecna. It was the largest one on the Arcadia and Bloom knew that technically she was supposed to share it with Valtor, but she would rather murder herself than do that.

“Huh?” Tecna, bowed over the transcript that Aisha had send her, look up and blinked at Bloom. She enlarged her own scree so her friend could see it.

“Describe the Magical Dimension and it’s Rings, include the history and hierarchy as well as the importance of the Golden Kingdom. Three thousand words minimum.”

“Is this diplomatics or History homework?” Tecna asked and bowed back over the transcript.

“History. Apparently our little announcement and the tour gave them some ideas.” Tecna snorted. Bloom just sighed and started to write. Considering that they weren’t sure, if the homework they got, was the same that their friends on Magix got, they had decided that they would do it on their own, in a daily rotation. Bloom had volunteered to do the first day, since it was the one spent traveling. Tecna would do the next.

You need help? Tony asked and Bloom smiled, but shook her head. Tony was The A.I. or M.A.I. considering he was a Magical Artificial Intelligence, that Tecna had programmed, when Valtor had become too much for them to keep up with homework. One of the would do the homework and Tony would multiply it and make sure that it would be in the right handwriting and writing style to fit each of them.

“Thank you darling, but not yet, this is easy.” Tony flashed a quick smile and disappeared into the depths of her computer. Bloom loved the little one something fierce. When she had shown Tecna Iron Man, she never would have thought, that she one day would end up with a Jarvis, that was named after Tony Stark. She also couldn’t regret it. He was too cute.

“Magical Dimension.” Bloom uttered to herself and started writing. When she had first come here she hadn’t understood the Dimension, not really. After all the knowledge Earth had of their galaxy was still somewhat limited. Yet when Bloom had finally gotten books on the whole think she had fallen a bit in love and gotten a lot more terrified.

The Magical Dimension was a system of Rings that held different star and planetary systems and Galaxies. Six of them in total, that surrounded an extremely magically powerful star. A star that was also a mini dimension, the Golden Kingdom. From what Bloom had understood there was a way to access it, but because of the fact that she was the guardian of the Dragon Flamme and she wasn’t allowed to leave the Magical Dimension, she would never be able to visit it. Bloom wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse, but then she also had lived through the Shadow Phoenix. A being from beyond the sixth ring. Shepushed down the memories of the horror stories about beasts and monsters living beyond the sixth ring, which was divided in three equal parts, between Andros, Earth and Domino. Apparently there were stories and legends that if all three of them fell, the Magical Dimension would be swallowed hole.

Bloom shook hear head and deleted this paragraph. It wasn’t part of History, more Magical Lore, so not important for this essay.

There were a lot of scientific papers and research about the different Rings and the simplest was the closer to the Golden Kingdom a Ring was the less natural magic the planets in that Ring produced. Magics was a good example for that. The planet itself had only a spark of magic and everything else was build on the absorbed magic that radiated from the Golden Kingdom.

Andros, Earth and Domino on the other hand were basically self-sufficient. Their magical cores so powerful that they didn’t need any additional magic, to sustain themself. Well they used to. Only Andros was still working that was. Earth, nobody could read, there was magic there, but it seemed to be muddled and nobody dared to get close enough to get readings. As for Domino…her home planet was basically a personal non grata. Travel to Domino was basically illegal, the closest one could get was Pyros, a dwarf planet several hours of travel away from Domino.

As usually there was an exception to the rule. In this case Zenith, which originally had been a witch planet. It’s magic harder to connect to and to wild for most fairy’s, aside from the Dark Fairies and then it had died. If the records were to be trusted, there had been a natural disaster that had whipped out the Kingdom of Dyamond and left behind a planet that was empty of magic.

Bloom looked over to Tecna and smiled, not for long, apparently. The people of Dyamond, who had survived managed to adapt and change and rebuild their home, coming out of it stronger. Which was fitting to what Bloom had experienced with Tecna and Timmy. She turned back to her laptop and continued writing.

***

“What are you doing here?” Someone asked, but Aisha didn’t dignify that with a word. Instead she watched as four seats grew out of the crystal of the dias as they approached.

“Council Head Bloom has send out a missive had she not?” Flora asked and Aisha had to suppress the grin, that rose at Floras soft tone. She was truly the greatest actress out of all of them.

“What?” Someone else asked and Aisha sat down on the chair on the left of Bloom’s throne. Musa to her right. Stella sat down on the thrones other side with Flora next to her.

“Her Majesty made us her spokes people in her absence. A letter of authorisation has been filed with all the necessary departments and people and you were informed by the Council Head herself through a message.” Stella said lounging regally in her chair and playing with her ring.

“Which begs the question.” Aisha said and her voice was like the currents of Andros deepest pit. “Who authorized a meeting without informing us or her Majesty?”

Nobody so much as moved, of course, fucking cowards.

“Well, a meeting is a meeting.” Musa called out, she too was lounging, but she didn’t do it in the way of a Princess like Stella, but in the distinctive Musa way that always made Aisha smile and caused raised blood pressure in everyone else. “Let’s not waste time, and instead give us all the important details that have been discussed so far,” Considering the meeting had been going for less than two minutes it probably wasn’t much, but the point was to get the Council under their thumb. “As well as the agenda and let’s finish this up as fast as possible.”

More than one person started having breathing problems, but Aisha also noticed the fond glimmer in themes of every single representative of Melody.

“Musa is right.” Aisha said and stood up. “Someone please hand me the agenda and recount everything else.”

Aisha smiled a shark smile, that her cousin Tritannus had taught her and settled into the role of a ruler. Oh how she loved swimming in dangerous waters.

***

The door opened and Bloom reached for the dagger under her pillow.

“You Majesty?” It was Alemayehu, a zenith witch. One of her guards. “We are almost there An hour until we reach the atmosphere.” Bloom realized that they hadn’t moved from where they stood just outside of the door.

“Thank you.” Bloom said looking up and was met with the glowing eyes of the witch. She inclined her head and watched them do the same. The door closed behind them Bloom let got of her dagger as she sat up. Tecna’s side of the bed was empty, the sheets neatly folded. Of course she managed to sneak out without waking Bloom. Tecna was probably the only person alive who was able to do that.

With a sigh she stood up and stretched, trying an failing to get the tension out of her. She was going on a diplomatic mission without Stella or Aisha at her side. Bloom silently sent a prayer to the trinity, begging them to not let her fuck this up. Technically this should be easy. She thought as she went through the routine Stella had written down for her.

Touch down, greet the people meeting them. Travel to the point where the magic would be released, make Valtor and the Trix return it. Spent a few day’s on Zenith, to help in some way and also to talk to the people and make Allianzes. Wait for Stella to arrive with Musa, say good bye get on the ship spent two day’s traveling to Melody. Rinse and repeat with increasing travel time after each Ring.

There had been protests, from the council of course. The some of the old fools residing on Magix had insisted that Bloom would spent several days visiting the planets first before releasing the magic. Which had been vetoed by immediately and in unison by everyone else. Magic first, help where you can later. Politics had to be sneaky thing in-between. After all the Council had to think they still had a say in the matter. If Bloom was actively seeking out replacements for most of them, well…that was her business.

“B?” Tecna’s voice came from the door, just as Bloom finished tying the outfit Stella had designed for Zenith.

“Oh wow.” Considering this came from Tecna, this was one hell of a compliment. Stella would be so pleased.

“It’s ice dragon skin.” She said with a grin. “From the reservation you told me about, they were happy to sen several skins to Stella, when she asked them.”

“You look both like you and like you are from Zenith.” Tecna answered and grinned. She wasn’t dressed in several layers like Bloom, after all she was used to the cold of her home planet, but Bloom didn’t mind. Ice dragon skin if layered with normal dragon skin was the best winter clothing you could get, which was why Zenith had iron clad rules and regulations on their dragons. Poachers used to be such a problem, that the dragons had retreated into the city’s of Zenith, to gain protection, which had been bad.

“You look a bit like you stole Icy’s wardrobe.” Tecna said with a shit eating grin. Bloom just rolled her eyes.

“Shit up, you know you can’t dye dragon skin.”

“You can,” Valtor’s voice made both of them jump and Bloom reach for one of the knifes she had on her all the time. He eyed her speculate, but didn’t mention it. “But the technic was one of Domino’s secret traits. None of the masters, journey folk or apprentice left the planet when the attack happened.” He actually sounded mournful. Bloom figured it was because of the missing change to stela the knowledge.

“Which means it’s dead.” Tecna said bluntly. He nodded, still eyeing Bloom.

“Interesting outfit choice.”

“Honors our hosts and keeps my own traditions.” Bloom eyes him back, he was wearing his usual get up. “Warming spell enough for you?” She asked. Valtor smirked, the asshole.

“I’m actually cold blooded.”

“Murderer” Tecna couched and Bloom didn’t suppress her wide smile neither did Alemayehu and Jabari behind Valtor. He rolled his eyes.

“Charming, but I mean it, dark side of the flame and all, I don’t react to cold.”

I didn’t used to either. Bloom though bitterly. But then I was frozen solid several times. Valtor looked funnily at her, probably noticing the massive wave of bitterness from Bloom, she smiled a serene little paparazzi smile and walked past him. Nodding to the two guards.

“Any reason you are bothering me?”

“I haven’t even started.” He hissed as he fell in step next to her. Bloom didn’t mayane to ignore the fact that he was just ever so slightly behind her.

“Do not,” Tecna snapped from behind them. “Start a fight here. This ship is bad enough, I don’t need it to have holes too.”

Alemayehu spoke up. “There is an amazing arena on Zenith. Maybe there should be a demonstration for the masses.” Bloom could feel their eyes on her back. “Although maybe separately.”

“Definitely,” Tecna agreed. “Zenith’s wards a strong, but not that strong.” Bloom grinned.

***

“I fucking hate these people.” Stella groaned, from where she was nursing a cup of Solarias strongest tee. It was four thirty a.m. They just had woken Griselda two hours ago- which never was a good idea- to tell her they wouldn’t make it to morning training, because the council had decided that Aisha being Bloom’s proxy in her absence meant nothing.

Half of them, the people who either were Erasmus lackeys or genuine assholes, who didn’t want change, had set up a meeting at five. Notifications sent out a two, if it hadn’t been for Tony screaming bloody murder to wake them, none of them would have noticed.

So here they were, awake since fuck o’clock nursing whatever beverage helped them wake up, ready to murder the high council. Aisha was pretty sure that the flowers growing on Flora’s seat were carnivorous and poisonous.

“Maybe us sitting and waiting from the in the dark will scare them enough to hammer some sense into them.” Musa muttered where she was still half a sleep over her cup. They stared into the darkness for a moment more, then snorted.

“Not a chance.”

“If we are lucky,” Flora growled. “We have trained them out of it by the time Bloom is back and if not…”

“They will learn really fast, why it is a bad idea to wake sleeping dragons.” Stella grumbled. “Did you see the homework from WizGiz?”

Somehow they managed to finish the homework for both WizGiz and Griselda’s theoretical defense sessions just in time to see the first people walk into the room.

“They behave as if the own the place.” Musa grumbled. She was a bit more awake, but clearly still pissed off. Stella snorted.

“They did until a month ago.”

“And they never truly used it.” Flora grumbled. In the last month they had taken a better look at the records of the past council meetings. While most representatives were lazy bastards half of the time, some had tried to change things. Aisha for her part was ashamed for the laid back attitude her people had taken in the last twenty years. Half of the problems they had to fight with today could have been resolved if people stopped only caring for their own planets. She knew that Stella too wasn’t happy, there would be a rather big argument waiting for her father once it was Stella’s turn to go home.

Around them the table filled with people, most of which used to nod and smile at Erasmus every word. There were others of course, but still the could was rather limited.

“So this is not an official meeting.” Stella said, her eyes were fixed on the people before them.

“I’m not surprised,” Flora said, she had her head tilted in a way that usually promised a carnage. “Considering that most of the representatives when home, to prepare for the tour.”

“Still enough of the planets are here.”

There were at least two representatives of each planet, one with a permanent seat and one with a temporary seat. The permanent seat holder was stationed on Magix and was not allowed to leave the planet, while the temporary seat holders, were the people that traveled between the council chamber and their home world, to deliver important documents and messages.

“Lynphea and Zenith are not present.” Flora sounded relieved.

“Neither is Solaria.” Stella said, it sounded more like a growl.

“I can’t see anyone of Eraklyon.” Musa muttered.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Aisha ordered. Just because Erendore hadn’t send anyone, it didn’t mean they weren’t involved in this.

“Me? Never.” Musa snarked back.

“Looks like this is it.” Flora pointed out as the door to the chamber closed an the magical seal indicating an active session appeared.

“Well then…” Aisha muttered and stood up, “Time to let the curtain fall.”

Aisha let the wards they had been sitting behind fall. This was a beautiful feature of the Council chamber. The most complicated and layered ward she had ever seen, several different silencing spells, that combined made it impossible to detect an anomaly. Which normally was impossible to do. Musa had spent moths in their second year trying and failing to create a spell exactly like this. In addition to the silence ward there was a visual component, something that even surpassed Darcy’s illusions and hiding spells. All in all it was a marvel of work that Aisha desperately wanted to analyze and make a portable version of. All of them wanted that. Sadly there were no records on the creation of it. At all.

“Care to explain what this is?” She asked her voice, sharp and cold. Bloom liked to call this voice of hers the “Arctic sea voice” what ever that meant.

Every single adult in the room jumped.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Someone asked, sounding of all things angry and disbelieving.

“I am Head of the Council in her Majesties absence, ask again with a less stupid question.” She saw several people bristle, but Aisha was tired, she would have to deal with Griselda in about two hours, try to not talk to Faragonda and then have class at the same time, then return to the Council Palace and spent hours in the Archives. She was done with them trying to go around council rules and trying to one up them.

“Here is the deal, if you have problems? Fine talk to us. We might be young, but we know better than most that this dimension is in scrambled right now. That does not excuse you breaking council law!”

“We are not!” Someone protested.

“And yet here you are, in a meeting that has NOT been approved by either me or Bloom. A meeting that has been called at two in the morning. A MEETING,” She thundered as voices started to protest, slapping her hands on the council table. “A meeting that doesn’t have all of the representatives present. “

“Only 45% of the Council were informed.” Flora said calmly from behind her. Aisha raised an eyebrow in silent judgement at that.

“There is also no agenda, something that has to be included before the meeting starts for any meeting to be legit.”

“You are not the council head, so no matter what…”

“I have full authority given to me by the council head, allowing me to decide in her absence. You were informed of that, you saw a copy of the letter of authorization. Which was legitimized by the Master of the Law, put in place by the Wardens, and filed in the archives.” There were still mutinous faces glaring back at her. So Aisha straightened.

“Fine,” She growled. “I am recognized by the Council Chamber.” She declared someone snorted, seconds later the crystal of the Chamber lit up in the parter of light breaking on water surface. The salty smell of the sea and beach fulled the room and there was the faintest sound of waves breaking.

A lot of the faces paled. Aisha smiled sharp and emotionless. “Any more protests?” She asked sweetly and straightened up again. When silence continued she crossed her arms.

“Well then, what is the agenda for this meeting?” Silence. Several people shifted and shared looks, clearly nervous and unsure, but they remained silent.

“Unless there is an agenda presented, this meeting is finished here.” She declared and this finally got a reaction.

“You can’t do that!”

“This is outrageous!”

“Preposterous!”

Aisha rolled her eyes and turned around just enough to take the tablet from Flora, it was already opened to the right page, so she held it up and read out loud.

“The council has to oblige three criteria to meet. Firstly the head of the council may be part of the meeting and involved in ever step before the chamber doors open. Secondly every member planet and state of the council, have to be given a chance to accept or deny attending the meeting. Lastly, there has to be an agenda has to be presented to every member that agreed to the meeting.

Should one or more of these criteria be ignored, broken or violated, they have to be rectified before the start of the meeting or the meeting shall not start.

If all three of the criteria be broken then the meeting is against the Laws of the Council Chamber and the Chamber doors shall not open to those that violate them.”

“And yet the door opened.” Someone snarked and Aisha rolled her eyes.

“Because I am here.” She snapped. “Because as intermediate Council Head get notifications when a meeting is schedules.” They still looked at her like she was mad.

“Fine.” Aisha muttered. “I invoke the Council Law, for those before me have broke the Laws of this Chamber, may the magic filling these halls, decide their punishment.”

It was an easy out but also so very clever. Like this nobody could say that she had dealt out unfair punishment because it hadn’t been Aisha at all who decided what happened next. Several protest rung out, loud and sharp, Aisha only watched, as the walls brighten with magic and then as fast as it stared the table before her was empty. The doors to the chamber slammed shut hard enough to shake the whole Palace.

“Well that is something.” Stella muttered.

“Worse than herding sea horses.” Aisha muttered and let herself fall back into her chair. Gentle cool magic wrapped around her temple and Aisha patted the Crystal beneath her. At least someone was on their side.

***

Zenith was beautiful. Bloom had already thought that back when she first had researched her friends home planets and only seen pictures, but standing in the heart of this high tech city that also was a beautiful winter wonderland was an experience.

They had landed on top of the Congregation Hall. The tallest and largest building in the capital city. Zenith, like Magix’s wasn’t run by a royal family, but instead by a council of people that came from the different provinces of the planet. At least that was the official explanation. Bloom knew better. Zenith at its core was ruled by Mother. A magical Intelligence that was older than Zenith itself. If the stories Tecna had told them were true- and Tecna always said that it was fact, not legend- Mother used to be a guardian of Zenith that had saved a small group of people by using her powers. Creating magical ice that would never melt and protecting her people by encompassing their community in it. It had killed her physical body, but her mind, because of how focused it had been on the her magic and the spell, had remained in the Ice.

Bloom desperately wanted to have a proper chat with Mother. Both about what kind of magic she had used and what kind of magic user Mother had been, but also how her mind worked and about the historical changes she had witness. Sadly her chances of meeting mother were nonexistent. After all this was a political visit not for Bloom to geek out.

So instead she schooled her expression and followed Tecna as she led them over the roof of the Congregation hall. Valtor was right behind her.

“Tecna, we welcome you home, daughter.” The spokesperson of the Congregation said and smiled at the Blooms friend. With their white hair cropped short and dark skin they looked ethereal in the light reflecting of the snow and ice around them. Their tone was even, but Bloom could see in the way they smiled that they were genuinely pleased to see Tecna again. All of them were.

“Thank you Sasha.” Tecna answered quickly crossing the distance to grab the others under arms. “It feel amazing to be home again.”

“It is even more wonderful having you bring peace with you, daughter of my community.” Another person spoke up, her hair was similarly colored to Tecnas, only much more lilac. Bloom knew from the stories Tecna had told, that this meant that the woman was an elder.

The older we get the darker our hair gets. If you ever meet someone from Zenith with black hair, treat them with the greatest respect.

“Thank you Grandmother.”

Two more people steppe forwards. One of them with hair that was almost wine red, her eyes fixed to Blooms left where Timmy stood. The other person with hair the colour of spring leaves, looking past them all into the ship.

“Timmy, son of my community” The redhead said, her voice gravely, but gentle. Bloom turned her head to see her friend look back at her and she rolled her eyes.

“Go on.” She whispered and he was of in a flash greeting the woman with the same hand clasp and a giddy “Grandmother”

“Will you relieve the child of my community of their duty for a moment, your Majesty?” He asked and Bloom inclined her head.

“Alemayehu, is not on shift, so it is not my decision, but I thank you…” She hesitated.

“Uncle Dusan” Alemayehu said as they walked past her, greeting Dusan with a bow and then a hug.

“Master Dusan, for the respect.” She finished, smiling.

“It is Uncle.” He corrected gently.

“Not in my culture. Tecna said you are the best in your field, outranking every single person in your community, province and the planet, that is a Master in Dominion culture.” Bloom explained grinning. She could see Tecna rolling her eyes. She also could feel the disbelieve rolling through the bond. Valtor was probably staring at her like she had lost it. Dusan threw his head back and laughed.

The terms Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother and Grandfather meant something different for Zenith that it was for the rest of he magical Dimension. Family was different on Zenith. People had family units, that lived together, but didn’t necessarily share genetic connections. From what Bloom had understood the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” was exactly what happened on Zenith. Which was why children of the same age range and even several above or below them would call each other either cousin or sibling. Those that were older than them but not yet elders Aunts and Uncle or a term Bloom couldn’t pronounce for those that were neither. Those that were heads of their community were called Grandmother and Grandfather or varieties there of. Only Mother and Father wasn’t use at large. It was only for the specify family unit that child belonged to. Considering that one family unit could be more than two adults that still mean little. A small part of Bloom desperately wanted the people of earth to be introduced to Zenith, just for the shock value.

“I see why you like her Tecna.” Dusan declared, with mischief in his eyes. Bloom only inclined her head in his direction.

“I think.” Sasha said, they were more somber now, but their posture was mostly relaxed. “We should start the diplomatic pat of this visit now.” The temperature, if possible dropped.

“Of course, where would you like this to happen?” Bloom asked.

“The balcony.” Sasha answered. It will be visible to all of our people and can easily be recorded by drones. So that all the people of our Ring can see it happen.”

“They are waiting for us already.” The elder with the red hair said, indicating the stairs leading down. Bloom nodded and followed after the group. Squeezing Alemayehu hand when she walked past them.

***

Bloom had thought Magix had been bad with the amount of people looking up at her. Standing on the balcony she realized that she had been wrong. The problem was that she was standing on the balcony, Sasha had mentioned, which was located right in the middle of the council building. Just high enough that the ground was barley visible, but still there. This meant that all around her, below and above people were waiting.

“Oh shit.” Bloom whispered. Tecna gently bumped her shoulder.

“Relax” she muttered, but Bloom only stared at the rows and rows of balconies all around her. Every building that surrounded the Congregations building had at least one side build out with balconies.

“This is so many people.” Bloom whimpered. She had thought this would be like Magix. The courtyard of the Congregation filled to the brim with people and a lot of cameras. From what she could see every balcony and the ground far beneath them was fill with people. Not even taking about the camera drones that where everywhere. Bloom was pretty sure that she could see screens every hunter meters in the distance, making sure that the people filling the streets below them could still see and hear everything.

A light shock made her jump and when she looked back, Stormy was stretching like nothing was happening. When she noticed Bloom stare Stormy grinned and winked.

“B” Tecna said her voice gentle, but cold in way that Tecna only ever used during missions. “You know what to say you know what to do. Concentrate on that and then focus on the magic. After that we will go inside and eat and then go to bed.”

Bloom took a deep breath and straightened. Tecna’s simple outline had stopped the frantic thoughts and feelings, that had knotted her insides and thoughts. Her friend was right, it was simple, there wasn’t a real speech here, that would come from Sasha, Bloom didn’t really have to say anything. The spell through which the Magic would be returned and any curses or spells lifted, would be said by Valtor and the Trix. She would only stepp in if something went wrong. After the they would return inside and eat something.

“Ok…” Bloom muttered and met Sasha’s eyes. They smiled at her Ready? Clear to read on their face. Bloom nodded.

Together they stepped closer to the railing and immediately the people went silent. It was almost scary how still the mass of people went. Boomlet her eyes flitter over the different houses and balconies. Bright shades of violet, blue and green met her. The whole crowd radiated a mix of excitement, anticipation and hope. Bloom closed her eyes and just let herself feel.

“People of Zenith.” Sasha’s voice was loud and clear as they addressed their people. “As has been promised to us the Dragon Queen has arrived with our very own guardian and Diplomat Tecna.” The crow exploded into noise. It almost sounded like static, but Bloom could see the way Tecna lit up, who had stepped up next to Bloom when Sasha had named her. It clearly was a way of communication Bloom simply couldn’t understand. She reached out and quickly squeezed her friends had. Tecna closed her eyes and squeezed back.

“To return the magic and secrets that have been stolen from our planet and those of our siblings in the second Ring.” Sasha continued and the crowd quietened again. “I will not speak longer than necessary, so may I present to you the Dragon Queen Bloom Hestia Morgain of Domino, Guardian of the Dragon Flame, Winx.”

The crowd exploded in a few seconds of polite clapping. Clearly Bloom wasn’t alf as important as Tecna or Sasha. As she should.

“Thank you.” Bloom started. “Thank you for so peacefully welcoming us. Thank you for giving me a chance to do the right think, when I know that the people needed for it, are not well liked. So all I want to say to you, people of Zenith and people go the second Ring, is that I hope you prosper and surpass the beauty and vibrancy you have before you were hurt and robbed. That your world recover without any lasting damage.” It was short and sweet, yet if felt as if something was missing. Behind her she could feel Valtor and the Trix move closer. Something was at the tip of her tongue, but Bloom couldn’t find words. “Thank you” She said again and bowed, before stepping back.

“B?” Tecna whispered, but Bloom just shook her head. She couldn’t say what was going on. So instead she closed her eyes and just listened to the chant of four voices and felt along the bounds she had to all of them.

We claim the curses that we have woven.

We undo them as we speak.

Non of our magic shall remain,

that had ill intent as seed.

We let go of what we have taken.

We return what we have stolen.

May the sharp energy of this Ring take from us what belongs to it.

May the cold magic return it to where it belongs.

This time Bloom could feel the magic from the first word. Where the magic of the first Ring had been artificial and cold in a way that had felt more like filtered air from an AC this felt like the wind on the coldest day of the year. A sharp cold that smelled of snow and promise. That reminded her of snow ball fights and making snow angels. If let like waking up at two a.m. with an idea that made it worth having to get out of bed and touch the freezing cold floor to find something to write. This magic felt like ideas and energy. Like creating when you know better than to still do shit, because you hadn’t slept in three days and also drunken to much coffee mixed with energy. This magic felt like life.

Even when this planet has been more witches and dark fires than anything else. As soft voice spoke in Blooms head. We first and foremost wanted to challenge the limits and see where it would lead us. We wanted to change the dimension little dragon. Open your eyes and look at us, truly look at us.

Bloom did as she was told and gasped. Her aura vision had never before been this bright. The whole planet was bathed in an ice blue and mint coloured hue of magic that absolutely saturated the air. Yet every single person had their own bright and distinctive aura.

We rebuild ourself, it brought changes, but it never robbed us of our individuality. The voice continued.

You are mother. Bloom thought into the magic. A small figure materialized, their head barley reaching Blooms collar bones.

Yes little dragon. That I am.

I am honored. Bloom thought back projecting the image of a deep bow. There was a big chance nobody else could see mother.

I am too, it’s been to long since a child of fire has come to use. Mother turned and looked at the quarter behind her. Or one of the remaining children of Dyamond. Bloom followed Mothers gaze and saw Icy her eyes glowing with white magic and smiling. Not the sharp angry smirk Bloom was used to, but a real smile.

Her ancestors never moved past their anger over what happened to us. It is what drove them into the arms of Ice Witch. Still she is one of mine, as removed as the connection is.

Will you visit her? Bloom asked. Mother turned back to her and smiled.

Yes, I will. I will walk at her side as long as she is on our planet. Request to visit the blue planes little Dragon, they will need her, they have been defrosting for longer than she has been alive, and I can not refreeze them anymore.

Bloom nodded I will.

Then it was over. Her aura vision shut down, leaving Bloom with a sharp pulsing in her tempe. The ritual ended almost at the same time. Bloom carefully sent a bit of her magic along the connections to Valtor Stormy and Darcy, who looked exhausted and shaking. Icy looked as if nothing had happened.

What just happened B? Tecna requested through their sign language. Bloom shook her head, asking for more time.

“We will remain in Zenith until the end of the week.” Bloom said, carefully stepping past Valtor shielding him and the Trix ever so slightly. “If anything is still in disrepair by then inform us or the Congregation and we will try or best to find a solution. After that we will return to help on our way back from Eraclyon.”

She turned once the crowd started chattering and it was clear they had understood. She put a hand on Valor’s arm reaching for Stormy and guiding both of them into the Congregation building again. Icy right before them leading Darcy along. Behind her she could hear Sasha say something else.

“What did you just do?” Valtor asked, his voice sounded raspy and Bloom could feel the slightest tremors running through him.

“I didn’t do anything.” Bloom answered evenly. Valtor stopped immediately.

“Don’t play Princess.” He snapped. Stormy, who was leaning on Bloom, looked at him as if he had lost his mind. So did Icy and Darcy, both got who had turned around.

“I…”

“You did some kind of magic while we did the ritual.” He snapped. For the first time Bloom could feel his emotions. Anger, confusion, bone deep exhaustion and fear. He wasn’t shielding.

“I didn’t…” A moment later her head hit a column. Faintly Bloom felt gratefully that they were out of sight.

“What” He snarled, his eyes glowing deep red. “Did you just do?” One of his hands was pressing along her collar bones almost gripping her neck. There were shouts as the rest of the group left the balcony, but Bloom signaled Tecna to stay back.

“Nothing.” Bloom repeated calmly. She hadn’t done anything. “Now let me go and get something to eat.” Bloom forced her voice to remain calm and even. “Clearly returning magic makes you hangry.” Silently through their bond she added. Do not cross his line. He answered her in a deep and sharp growl, his hand moving just a little bit higher and Bloom snapped. Her own hand snapped up wrapping around his wrist and squeezed. Their marriage bound snapped tight, reached out and wrapped around Valtor. At the same time her own aura sight kicked back in. Valtors black aura twisted and howled focussing and unfocusing frantically.

“You are doing it again.” He whispered where he had fallend to his knees. Bloom looked down at him, his eyes were bright red.

“Bloom.” Tecna’s sharp monotone made her look away from him. Her friend was worried, everyone was worried. Her inner dragon growled. Do not let them think anything , do not let them know what you realized. Do NOT! Only one of them is trust worthy.

Bloom smiled and hoped it was jus the right kind of exhausted to fool everyone but Tecna. “It’s alright.” She whispered. “Just backlash from the ritual, it’s under control.” She send a second bit of her own magic through their bond, his aura stabilized, the red eyes remained. Valtor straightened but didn’t move away from her.

“I think something to eat would be the best now.” She said and let go of his wrist, offering her hand to help him up. For a long moment he stared back at her and then ignoring her hand stood up on his own and walked away.

“Are you truly alright?” Master Dusan asked, as he followed Tecna over to her. Bloom smiled at him.

“I promise, it was just a side effect of the ritual. I think we need to ad some kind of shield, so that the backlash doesn’t affect them.” The Master keep his eyes on her a little longer, but ultimately accepted her explanation. With a nod to her and Tecna he turned and walked after the rest of the group.

“B?” Tecna asked softly, reaching out. Bloom closed her eyes and let Tecna into her head. She never before had been grateful for Musa teaching them this spell and desensitizing her to it.

What really happened?

He could feel my aura vision. Bloom answered. Tecna startled, her eyes wide.

***

“Go back, repeat that for me.” Stella was wide eyed and so close to the phone that the holo image was only her head.

“Stell,” Flora’s voice was calm enough it made Bloom shrink back. Stella leaned back, pouting, but Bloom could still see the frantic energy in her whole frame.

“You are telling us Valtor could feel your aura vision?” Musa asked, her guitar was propped up against her chest, but her fingers were still. Which indicated that Musa was just as strung up at Stella.

“Yes.” Bloom answered.

“That is impossible.” Aisha said softly. They were sitting on Stella’s bed, since Stella’s room was the one with the most room and the loudest security wards. “Your aura vision isn’t…it doesn’t work like that!” Bloom carefully ignored Aisha’s slip. She knew where her friends thoughts had went. She knew why her friend had stopped, they never talked about it, ever.

“I know.” Bloom whispered and flopped back onto Tecna’s lap.

“Yet he did and he completely flipped out.” Tecna said calmly. Too calmly.

“Define flipped out?” Flora asked her eyes narrowed. Bloom sighed.

“He threw me against a pillar and was just shy of choking me.” She muttered.

“WHAT?!” Bloom rolled her eyes. As her friends voices tumbled over one another as they spoke. Their pitched slowly rising.

“His eyes were red.” She said. They continued for a moment, before they stopped.

“What?” Tecna asked.

“His eyes.” Bloom muttered and turned her head to look into the dumbstruck faces of her friends. “They were glowing red.” She repeated getting to her feet. The nervous energy she had been feeling since that moment was coming back.

“Why were his eyes red?” She asked wringing her hands. “What else is there that I don’t now? I mean I didn’t want this one the first place, but why in the name of the fucking dragon is there even more?” She could feel her breaths shortening. Red eyes. He had red eyes and they had glowed. Like his. Could there be a connection? The ancestral witches had been in connection with him hadn’t they? What if… You could find out! The little voice in the back of her head crooned. Just one little thought and you…

“Why were you in your aura vision?” Bloom stopped so abruptly that she almost stumbled. Her breathing was still too fast, but Musa’s questions had reigned in her frantic thoughts and shut up the voice.

“Huh?” Bloom asked not turning around. She could feel the eyes of her friends in her back.

“Musa has a point.” Flora added. “Why were you in your aura vision? You usually keep it contained for big magic like this.” Bloom felt her shoulders slump.

“I didn’t, them magic did.” She whispered.

“The second Ring is about finding out right? Asking why and finding a solution?” Tecna nodded slowly.

“Yes, Zenith focuses on finding ways to protect other planets and ourself, while most of our neighbouring planets are focused on simpler things.”

“I mean Mirta isn’t a fairy of truth for no reason.” Stella said. “Every magic user from Justicia has some for of truth magic.”

“Yes well, the magic wanted me to see and Mother wanted a talk.” Bloom said and finally turned around. Tecna was standing her eyes focused on Bloom with disbelieve.

“You talked to Mother?” Bloom nodded once.

“Why? I …” Tecna floundered and Bloom waved her off she knew her friend didn’t mean to be mean. “She never talks to people outside of the heart.”

“What are the blue planes?” Bloom asked back. Tecna went rigid.

“Mother told…” Tecna sat back down. “They are the oldest field of ice. They are older than Zenith. They belong to Dyamond one of the last things we can securely trace back to our old culture.” Bloom didn’t need her aura sight to know something else was up with it.

“They are melting, that is what mother said.” Tecna shook her head, then nodded and finally groaned.

“Yes, no, kind of.” She muttered throwing herself back onto the bed. “Mother is contained in the ice that she created, right?” She asked, Bloom nodded and saw their friends do the same out of the corner of her eyes. “Well, it turns out even magical ice has a limit of how much is can contain. So some millennia ago, Mother started failing, loosing memories, so we figured out how to change normal ice into her magical ice. The problem is Zeniths ice is not powerful enough.”

“So you take from the blue planes.” Bloom muttered, sudden realization clear in her mind.

“But why wouldn’t she talk to us if she knew a way to safe her?” Tecna asked sitting back up to look at Bloom. Bloom made a strangled noise and trapped onto her hair.

“Because none of you are Space Jesus.” She muttered tiredly. Aisha snorted.

“So you need to power what ever is needed to restore those fields?”

“I need to power Icy, that is what I am going to do.” Bloom snorted. Her friends just stared at her, Bloom grinned self-deprecatingly. “Icy is of Dyamond. She is a direct descendent of Dyamond that is why she can restore them.”

“Her magic is ice based.” Stella muttered. “Which means her line is still teetered to the remains of Dyamonds culture. How muh do we want to bet that her magic is powered by those blue planes?”

“Nothing, because that is not how witch magic works!” Flora said. “What is possible though is that her magic is keeping her bloodline intact.”

“It would also explain why the ice witch calls herself her ancestor. If Icy decent of the old ice realm…”

“Tat is power she would be stupid to not use.”

“Add a few centuries of bitterness and a blood curse and you have powerful as shit magic users that forgot their heritage.” Musa added.

“Almost as bad as the council.” Bloom muttered.

“Icy is still a heartless bitch of a crazy psychopath, that enjoys turning people into popsicles.” Stella said.

“All four of them are nutcases.” Bloom agreed, sitting down next to Tecna. “How are we going to do this?” She finally asked.

“You could use your vassal bound.” Aisha muttered spitefully.

“And risk bad magic?” Bloom asked. “I am not going to hurt mother.”

“Well then no sleep for us I guess.” Musa sighed. “Let’s find a way to convince the ice queen who a surprisingly tragic backstory, that she should safe the world.”

Chapter Text

“Guy’s” Tony’s voice was too loud. Musa, who had been deep into a transcript of a council meeting from several years ago, startled hard enough that she threw the transcript into the air. Thankfully the magic of the archive reacted immediately and caught the thick tome.

“Fuck me, Tony, what the hell?!” She snapped. All around her her friends seemed just as startled.

“I’ve been trying to talk to you for five minutes.” Came the snippy answer from her phone.

“Why, dear?” Stella asked softly.

“Mirtha just contacted me, something in the school.” Their little helper answered.

“Oh no…” Flora whispered and jumped up from where she had been huddled on the floor. There were several seconds where all of them just watched as Flora sifted through the endless amount of papers they had accumulated over the last week.

“Flo, what…”

“Griselda is going to kill us!”

“What?” Musa asked, her throat suddenly dry.

“It’s Wednesday!” Flora snapped and that was all they needed. All of their notes were packed up and stored in the enchanted bag Stella had bought for this.

“What time is it Tony?” Aisha asked.

“Five minutes until she wants to see you!” Their A.I answered. Musa heard Stella whimper.

“We need four minutes to reach the teleportation point.” Flora said they were already rushing to the door of the library. Musa waved at A’Sha as they passed her. The librarian seemed both amused and slightly concerned.

“We only need three to the next balcony, I can teleport us from there into our suite.” Stella said, as they rushed out the door, that A’Sha thankfully had already opened. Once they crossed the library border they all started to run. They somehow made it to the balcony in under a minute.

“Two minutes!” Tony told them once Stella had teleported them into their suite.

“Where?” Stella asked.

“Her office!” Flora answered. Musa cursed.

“We never make it in time if we…”

“We have wings! We jump out the window.” Aisha commanded, already opening Stellas overly large windows. Twenty seconds later they were on the ground, back in their street clothing, running.

“What the fuck?!” Someone shouted after them as they pushed through the crowd.

“Meeting with Griselda in…” Flora shouted back, hesitating over the time.

“Thirty seconds” Tony sounded from Flora’s phone. Thankfully at that everyone in earshot jumped out of the way.

By the time Tony started counting down from ten, they could see Griselda’s door.

“Wait!” Stella called out just before Musa could reach out and knock.

“What?!” Flora hissed back.

“Five.” Tony called out. Stella snapped her fingers and with her usual flash of light they were dressed in new clothing. It was only when the freshen up spell hit her, that Musa realised that she had been wearing the same clothes for over 24 hours.

“Thanks Stell.” She muttered and knocked just in time for Tony to say.

“One!”

Musa heard Flora’s gentle “Thank you darling.” At the same time Griselda told them to enter.

“Almost late…” Griselda said, without looking up from her paperwork. They all cringed.

“Sorry Griselda” They said in unison, as they sat down. None of them tried to hide that they were breathing hard.

“Where did you just come from?” Griselda asked, still not looking up.

“Council library.” Stella answered.

Griselda hummed and started organising her papers. “How long have you been there?”

“We left yesterday immediately after class.” Aisha muttered.

“That’s how many hours?” Griselda asked as she stood up and Musa curled into herself. She could see where this was going. They were getting a health lecture. She wanted to groan and curl up in a ball. Was this really why Griselda had called this meeting a week in advance?

“Almost ten” Tony answered the question, as they remained silent. Musa whimpered. Griselda stopped for the barest second in putting away the paper work. Next to her Stella went stiff and Aisha put her face into her hand’s.

“When exactly did you leave to meet me?”

They remained silent for a moment longer until Flora sighed.

“Tony?” She asked.

“Up to this point, seven minutes ago.”

“End me.” Stella breathed and slammed into her seat, her head thrown back and her eyes closed. Griselda sat down again.

“Well…we will add that to the end of this meeting. Aisha whimpered.

“Now, this is about the training you have been missing.” Flora cursed. Griselda didn’t even falter. “I understand why, that doesn’t mean you can slack off.”

Musa wanted to strangle Faragonda.

***

"Your Majesty?” Bloom startled hard enough to almost spill her drink over her lab. Thankfully, Helia grabbed it at the last second. Bloom smiled up at him with a tight little smile. Over the last three day’s Sasha and the other members of the Congregation had shown Bloom and her little group around the most famous places of Zenith. Today they had been invited into the Zenith equivalent of the ballet.

It was a beautiful thing, that hadn’t so much to do with dancers, but with the mind and Bloom had been kind of lost in the beauty of the images the people involved created.

“Your artist isn’t getting enough attention isn’t it?” Helia whispered to her and Bloom shot her friend a dark look, before she turned to the person, who had spoken to her.

“Yes?” She asked, it was a member of the Congregation she hadn’t yet met.

“The Congregation discussed what you asked of us.” Tecna next to her went stiff so did Icy. Darcy, Stormy and Valtor, all of who- Bloom realised- looked bored, turned to them in interest.

“Oh?” Bloom asked and ignored how her voice shook.

“If what you say is true, then we would be delighted to grand you a tour.” Bloom grabbed for Tecna’s hand, holding into her friend, because she knew otherwise she would start shaking.

“Really?” She asked and got a smile and a little nod in return.

“Considering that Princess Selene will arrive the day after tomorrow we would like to do it tomorrow. That would need a rather early departure, since the travel time is several hours both ways.”

“Of course.” Bloom shot a look at the screen where the artist was still at work and sighed, the part of her that was an artist started protesting. “Could someone speak to the performers? If we really depart tomorrow I would like to speak to my guards and members of the party.”

“Which means you would leave now.” Bloom nodded once, pulling a face.

“I wish I could stay and talk to them, this kind of artistry is something I have never seen before and it is so beautiful, I would hate for them to get the false impression.”

The congregation member, who still hadn’t introduced themself preened.

“I certainly will tell my company this.” They said, bowed again and disappeared before Bloom could say anything more.

“What?” She asked as Tecna ushered her out of her seat and out of the private box they had been assigned.

“That was Congregation member Isa. They represent the artistic guild of Zenith.”

“You just made friends.” Icy said, her voice sharp and angry. She had refused to talk to Bloom or even look in her direction since Bloom and Tecna had talked to her about the Blue Planes.

“What exactly was that about?” Darcy asked sharply. Stormy and Darcy, of course, had noticed the much cooler behaviour of their sister.

“Not here.” Tecnas said sharply, gesturing for their coats and jackets. “We discussed this in the Arcadia.” She said sharply and Bloom silently took her coat from her friend. So far only their friends back home, Icy and the Congregation knew about the possibility of restoring the Blue Planes. They had, upon Icy’s request, not told anyone else. Bloom wasn’t sure she wanted to have this talk, but it would be necessary all the same.

The worst part by far was the way Valtor still hadn’t said a word to any of them, since the incident he had been silent, not talking to anyone, not even to make a snide remark.

To put it simple the whole situation was fucked up for everyone. Icy was pissed off because of what they had asked, which made Darcy and Stormy suspicious. Making interactions with the tree of them as a whole charged and ready to explode.

Valtor had turned into something of a silent shadow. Always just a few steps behind Bloom, looming and radiating so much dark energy, that most of the outings they had had turned into short and really awkward encounters. It didn’t help that all Bloom could get through their connection was cold apathy and silence. Bloom was tempted to actually use the arena Alemayehu had mentioned and beat the shit out of him, to get any reaction.

Both Timmy and Helia, who had been with them most of the time, had commented on the tension. River on the other hand had turned silent and brooding and more than once had snuck into Bloom and Tecna’s room to get away from the tension.

All in all Bloom was done with the whole thing.

“Why did I agree to this?” She asked softly to her friends, as they said goodbye to the driver and made their way to the Arcadia.

“Because you had the option between being Erasmus or several months away.” Timmy answered.

“You also are a dragon, Bloom” Helia’s soft voice was low enough that Bloom only heard it, because she was in fact a dragon. “You are not made for sitting back and leaning back.”

“Past trauma also doesn’t help.” Riven’s voice greeted them.

“Oh, go jump off a cliff.” Bloom grumbled as she walked past him.

“Only if you shove me off yourself!” Riven answered, grinning and throwing an arm over her shoulder.

“And risk getting a beating from your partner?”

“That’s it!” Stormy snapped behind them. The landing of the Arcadia had closed and clearly Stormy had enough. “Icy has been pissed off for days, what ever the fuck happened with Valtor and now we have some unnamed trip tomorrow? Someone spill or I am frying this ship!”

Tecna, Timmy and Alemayehu all flinched at that. Bloom had listened to more than one rant from the trio and by now she could point out three very obvious problems with the main controls alone. From what she could remember the electricity of this ship was so delicate even pressing the wrong button at the wrong time could be catastrophic.

“Do not.” Bloom said softly. She could feel her temper boiling over. The tension between all of them, keeping Valtor’s slip hidden. The messages her friends were sending from Magix, all of it had been pulling at Bloom, if Stormy didn’t tone it down right now, there would be no need to fry the electronics of this ship. There would simply be no more ships and that would be that.

“Then talk!” Stormy snapped her hair growing as lightning laced through it. Bloom felt all feelings she had go silent, muted, as if a blanket had been dropped over them. Valtor, who was lurking just in the corner of her vision, went rigid and she could hear Tecna curse.

“Be very careful how you talk to me.” Bloom said evenly. She raised the hand that had the vassal marks of the Trix. Stormy’s hair only grew. Bloom snarled back.

“This used to be Dyamon.” Icy’s voice was completely emotionless. Tecna, ever the levelheaded one, grabbed Bloom by her upper arm and hurled her back.

“Start feeling again B.” She whispered harshly and Bloom looked over at her friend.

“Why?” She hissed back. Great Dragon, she was tired. Why couldn’t she just for once be left alone? For the last months she had been feeling too much and at the same time kept her feelings at bay so that she wouldn’t kill anyone and now she was supposed to feel all of them, when she just got a bit of peace? Didn’t she deserve a moment of silence and not feeling?

“Enio”

The emotional blanket went up in smoke and with it came the sharp angry feeling of almost. Bloom stared at Tecna, her friend stared back. They stayed like that for seconds, minutes, hours. Bloom had no idea. She really didn’t care. Because her heart was hammering in her throat, this had been too close.

“Ok” Tecna whispered and relaxed. Bloom closed her eyes.

“When you returned the magic of the second Ring.” She started. “It reached out.”

“It wants me to do something.” Icy added. Bloom could feel her cold stare prickling in her back.

“Why?” Stormy shouted.

“Because Dyamond never died.” Alemayehu said. “Sure Zenith isn’t a witch planet anymore, but it never really was. It was just a dark planet.”

“We still have the old ways.” Tecna added.

“They are the greatest treasure we have.” Timmy muttered. “But Zenith isn’t Dyamond. Our magic is different, our ice is different from Dyamonds.”

“It has been melting.” Tecna whispered. “Seven different species of fauna and flora have died last year alone. Not even talking about the animals that survived the disaster. So many of them only survive in genetic material or special environments.”

“Icy is of Dyamond. Her magical line is unbroken. Which means she can restore our old ice, the blue Planes, something we can not do.”

“But why didn’t the magic talk to Icy then?” Darcy asked, genuine confusion in her voice. “Why Bloom?”

Bloom threw her head back and barked out a sharp laugh, opening her eyes, when she turned around to look at Darcy. “Beats me, but if you ever find out, tell me, I own them a fire ball to the face.”

The trio looked at Bloom as if she had lost it. Bloom darted a quick look over to Tecna.

Would this be a good time to let them know the truth about that? She asked silently. Tecna levelled her with such a flat look, that Bloom raised her hands in surrender.

“I asked Icy, before I told anyone else, she agreed. We,” Bloom pointed out Icy as well as the Zenithians. “Went to the Congregation and told them what we could do. Today we got the go ahead. Tomorrow, Icy will restore the blue plane, the day after that we will be on our way to Melody.”

“You keep secrets.” Valtor said softly. “You made Icy keep a secret.” Tecna’s whence was a physical thing. Bloom, still reeling a bit from the way she had almost lost control, turned to Valtor and smiled at him.

“Yes and no.” She said, “Yes I have secrets, because none of you deserve anything from me!” Bloom met Valor’s eyes and then turned to look at Darcy, Stormy and Icy.

“The three of you tried to kill me at least three times. Not even talking about all the metal and physical shit you did over the years. The only reason anyone even agreed to include you in that deal at all, was because we knew better.”

“Bloom” Helia’s voice was concerned, but Bloom held up a hand.

“No.” She said, turning to look at her friend for a moment. “They want the truth fine, they get it! I am tired. Tired of this stupid fighting, of these unnecessary squabbles. I gave up every damn dream and hoped I ever had the moment the three of you ripped my magic out of me. I stopped being a child that day and turned into a soldier for a course that never benefitted me. A course I never wanted to help. I have suffered under your illusions of grandeur for five years, because you can not stay on the fucking ground when you are beaten.”

Icy’s face was impassive, but paler than usual. Darcy was wide eyed and Stormy was gaping at Bloom open mouthed. She really didn’t care. The part of her that still was the bruised and beaten sixteen years old frozen to her parents wall felt vindicated. This whole screaming match felt so damn good.

“Not even talking about you.” She snapped around pointing at Valtor. “You are nothing but a manipulative bastard, who twists and bends the truth until it fits you and helps you manipulate people like you want. I don’t care if you call me a liar, because you are sitting on a giant horse made of hypocrisy.” He had the gall to raise an eyebrow at her, to which Bloom bared her teeth, which felt much sharper than usual and snarled.

“So yes, I have secrets, but that's none of your business, because none of you are trusted in any way. None of you have proven anything outside of that you are willing to save your own skins. Which I respect, but that is absolutely worthless to me.” She let that sink in, just for a moment, let herself feel the furry and pain and then pushed her emotions down. Fuck she wanted Stella here. She needed to get away to go home and beat something up.

“So here is what is going to happen.” She finally said fixing the witches and Valtor with a look that she hoped held authority. “We are going to bed now, get up tomorrow and Icy and I are going to restore the blue planes, which will put you in a much better light in the eyes of the Magical Dimension. If it is necessary we are going to do that in every damn ring. You all of you are going to smile through it and do as asked, because one misstep from you will mean that the council will fuck us over. Something I can not let happen, if you do anything that will compromise my position or give the Council more power, I will gladly cut ties with you. Do you understand me?”

There was a long moment of silence, then much to Bloom's surprise Darcy nodded.

“Understood.” Stormy echoes her and Icy simply nods. The three of them turned and walked away. Bloom didn’t need her aura vision to know that none of them were happy.

“Do you understand?” She asked, still looking after the three witches.

“Yes, wife.” Valtor answered. Bloom walked away.

***

Aisha’s phone rang for the fifth time and Musa heard both the calming breath her friend took, and the way Palladium balled his fists.

“Aisha.” His voice was deceptively calm, but everyone knew better.

“I know,” She muttered back, declining the call. “I told them we would be in class and that it had to wait.” As if on cue the phone rang again. Musa looked over to Aisha. She looked seconds away from exploding. Her skin was turning slightly teal and her finger nails sharpened. The call ended and then a seconds later started again.

“Oh for Dragons’s sake!” Stella snapped and reached over to snatch Aisha’s phone, she answered the call.

“WHAT?!” She snapped. Musa could hear the surprise choking on the other end of the line. She almost absentmindedly opened another page and waited for the conversation to start, so she could record it.

“I…” It was a new voice, so nobody from the direct council, but probably a lack of someone.

“Either you talk right now fast enough that not even a voice recording keeps up or this conversation is over and you will wait until after we call you back. Do you understand me?” Stella didn’t give them the chance to answer.

“Good! One minute to start!”

Whoever was on the other side of the call, kept silent. Musa counted in her head, once she reached thirty, Stella, who’s eyebrows had raised more and more with each silent seconds, finally snapped.

“Do you have to say ANYTHING?!” She growled and her skin started to glow slightly.

“Do not blind us, Stel.” Flora muttered under her breath. Their friends were still pissed off over the lecture and the new timetable they had gotten from Griselda yesterday. Not even talking about the recording of the confrontation between Bloom and the Trix last night. Tecna had sent them that once after she had made sure that Bloom was asleep. It was clear to all of them that Bloom wasn’t coping well with being in such close proximity to the Trix and Valtor. Or the social and political pressure of the tour, without all of them.

Which in turn put all of them on edge.

“I won’t,” Stella grumbled to Flora. “Listen up, darling.” Half of the class and Palladium cringed. Stella calling anyone darling, that wasn’t her friends, was a dangerous thing. “Take out a pen and paper and write down what I am telling you, so that you can rely on whoever you are working for, understood?”

There was some shuffling and a meek agreement.

“Whoever put you onto this mission of spam calling, is going to earn themself a lawsuit that will be pushed by my lawyers. The council has been made aware that her Majesty Queen Bloom, will not be available for the duration of the Tour which the Council proposed. They also have been made aware on several occasions that we, as her Majesty’s proxy holders for the duration of the Tour, will not be able to be contacted during school hours.”

“But…”

“Do not interrupt me!” Stella snapped, her hair turned white. Flora leaned over and flicked her cheek. Stella, in a remarkable imitation of Bloom hissed back at her. The person on the phone whimpered and Musa felt herself grin.

“Every member of the Council, as well as each Council guard, the Archivist and Librarians, the Wardens and all the other employees of the Council have a copy of our class schedule. ALL OF THEM! So unless you have been just hired and your employer has neglected to tell you about that little detail, you are aware of the times where we can and can not be called for questions. So do not play dumb. This talk is now over because I am in fact in class. If you actually have something important to talk to us about, you will call us at 17:15 this evening, once all of our classes are done. Do you understand me?”

There was a very loud gulp on the other end of the phone and then a soft, “Yes, your Highness.”

Stella deflated almost instantly and rubbed her forehead.

“Am I on speaker phone?” Stella asked, her voice still hard, but not angry anymore.

“No your Highness.”

“Should you in fact be new,” She added much softer. “Then this is not on you and probably malicious intent from your employer. Can you tell me who you are employed by, without getting into trouble?” There was another negative and Stella shot Aisha a look.

“Sealed letter to Bloom’s office.” Isha answered immediately. “I am the only one who can access that. If you hand deliver it to the box in the door, there will be no possibility of tempering.” Stella nodded once and repeated the instructions and directions to Bloom's office in the Council Palace.

“Thank you, Your Highness.” was the last thing they heard before the call ended. Stella let out a long and bone deep tired sigh, before handing the phone back to Aisha.

“Sorry Professor.” She said, Her head lolled back and Musa almost instantly reached out to scratch though Stella’s hair. It was a sign of how exhausted she was, that she didn’t even put up any protests about her hair style.

Palladium eyed them all a bit longer, before he asked the question none of them wanted to answer.

“The Council is still not cooperative?”

Flora snorted. “I prefer to deal with a cursed simulator.” Their whole class cringed. Bloom’s exam was still a very memorable experience. Palladium sighed and without another word turned back to the blackboard to continue the lesson.

***

“Considering the delicate balance of the blue Planes and the security measures we have of the whole area, aside from her Majesty and Missy Icy nobody else will be allowed to leave the observation deck.”

Sasha explained. They had left the congregation building in one of the Zenithian ships just a few minutes ago. The ship was bigger than the Arcadia by a lot. So it was easy to fit Bloom's own group and most of the Congregation and still have some space.

“Where will that be?” Angus asked softly. Bloom looked up at her guard. He ignored her star and kept looking at Sasha. They bowed their heads in understanding.

“You are worried about the Queen's safety?” Angus nodded once.

“The Blue Planes as a whole are a national park and also under strict laws. It is guarded both on ground and in the air and each person entering is documented.”

“That still leaves space for someone to sneak in.” Angus spoke up. Bloom felt her dragon put in content and leaned back. She trusted the four of them, so she had no problem with them talking this out. Angus and Alemayehu had insisted on travelling with them on this. Riven had volunteered to stay with Jabari and Kwame to take over for them, should one of them get tired.

“There are three different shields around the area. Each of them is three kilometres apart and all of them are a mix of magic and our own technology.” Elder Nikola explained, their face gentle, but a certain unhappiness around their mouth.

“There is no way for anyone to sneak up on Bloom?” Helia asked. Sasha shook their heads.

“We will not claim that our system is perfect, but so far it hasn’t failed us.

“Alemayehu?” Bloom asked, turning to look at the last of her guards. “You are most familiar with the system, what do you think?” There was the barest hint of surprise on her face, but she straightened and took a moment to think about Bloom's question.

“I would like both of you to wear the body armour that has been developed for stealth missions, but outside of that I do not see any problems.”

“If that would be possible, then I would like that. Unless…” Bloom hesitated and turned to Icy. The witch seemed surprised about Bloom turning to her, but after a quick moment of confusion she nodded.

“We will provide two sets.” Master Dusan said, seemingly approving of the discussion.

“Now, Elder Zbyna is native to the Blue Planes. They are waiting for us at the outlook and will walk the two of you to the borders. It is important that you do not wear shoes when you set foot onto the ice.” Bloom went stiff. Sasha shot her look.

“I know,” They said apologetically. “But we can’t risk any contamination. Clothing is fine, especially if you wear the armour over it, but we can not allow shoes or socks.”

“There are spells.” Tecna muttered. “Elder Zbyna will put them on you if you ask.” Bloom shot her friend a look, noticing the concerned looks from Timmy and Helia and the confusion from everyone else. Icy looked as if she knew what was happening.

“Ok.” Bloom uttered. “Please keep going.” She said to Sasha, trying and failing to keep the wobble out of her voice.

“The Elder will return to the outlook, while the two of you will keep walking until you reach a point that feels appropriate to you. We would like to have some sign before you start, after that it is all up to you.”

“Will you record us?” Bloom asked, she had the feeling there would be a bit of a discussion once they got started.

“Visual and magical happenings will be recorded, yes. Audio will not be possible.” Dusan said, looking disgruntled. “For some reason it is impossible to record or transfer any audio signals with our equipment or magic.”

Bright, hot curiosity lit in her chest and Bloom almost startled. It was the first time in a week that she could feel anything from Valtor.

“Any more questions?”

“Why Bloom and Icy and nobody else?” Darcy asked.

“Icy, because of her magic and because Mother asked for her specifically. Bloom will be going with her to make sure Icy will not burn out.” Tecna answered instantly. She and Aisha had spent two hours last night working out their story. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was close enough that Tecna didn’t feel like she was disrespecting her elders. Bloom felt shame rise in her. She made Tecna lie to her people. People that were clearly both caring and protective of her and she was lying to them for Bloom's sake. Her dragon snapped at her. Bloom knew what it wanted. She knew that her friend understood, but she still felt bad.

“Oh?” Stormy asked mockingly. Tecna rolled her eyes hard enough it was a whole body thing.

“If you have noticed, she has been making sure that none of you fell into a coma because of magical exhaustion, every time you give back the magic you stole.” Instantly four pairs of eyes were on her and Bloom only raised her hand’s to show up the bond marks.

“Vassal bonds, remember?” She snarked. “You do not fuck me over and I make sure your healthy and protected.”

“Why aren’t you coming with us?” Icy asked, looking at Tecna.

“Wrong magic.” Her friends said dismissively and Bloom noticed the looks the elders shared.

“So we walk up to it, put some magic and extra ice into the ground and walk back?” She asked, turning the attention away from her friend.

“Yes.” Sasha answered and Bloom nodded.

“I think that will be possible.” She said with a smile.

***

“Anything from our caller?” Flora asked.

“The wards of the office alerted me to a letter arriving, so there is a chance.” Aisha answered softly.

“Do you think it would give us a chance to get someone out?” Stella asked under her breath. Aisha shook her head immediately, Musa let out a sigh.

“We will get a gateway into an investigation, but even that is a maybe.” She grumbled. Stella grumbled and cursed.

“Musa!” Galatea's voice made them all turn. She was running up to them, humming with excitement.

“Hey,” Musa greeted the Princess with a smile. Galatea was singing under her breath. Not the conscious singing most people did, but an unconscious action that was almost biological. From the lively and excited, but also a bit high pitched melody Musa got that it was something good, but also important. She felt her own melody quieten and slow to help Galatea to relax and welcome her.

“I got this from my father.” Galatea said. Holding out papers. Musa felt a soft ward rise up, making it impossible for anyone to listen to their conversation.

“Sight” Musa muttered as she reached out to take the papers from Galatea. Stella flickered her fingers and a moment later the hallway around them got a bit blurry. “Thanks.” She muttered reading over the paper, Aisha shuffled closer and Musa leaned back, so that she could see better.

“It’s a list of Realms that will attend.” Galateas whispered, her melody rising again with excitement.

“That’s…” Musa flipped through the pages counting them. “That’s four pages.”

“Almost everyone will come.” Galatea confirmed.

“Every…” Musa started, but stopped once she saw the name, she never thought she would see.

“The High Note realm is sending a representative.” Musa whispered. She noted how her own song rose and rose, but she just couldn’t believe it. “They haven’t been at any assembly of the Realms in centuries.”

“I know!” Galatea whispered. “Father already made sure I would be able to leave school for the next week. That is why he sent this to me. They just finished writing the list out and he thought you should know, so you can help Bloom understand what is happening.”

“Will we also get that talk?” Stella joked and Musa nodded.

“It will be a video conference, because I have to have that talk in person with B, but yes you will be involved.” Musa said, still staring at the paper, she couldn’t believe it. “Thank you,” She said, her own melody rising and twinning with Galateas, to show her just how great full she was for this. “I can’t wait.” Galatea said, her Melody giving a last thrill and then her sound barrier dropped. Stella let her own sight screen block just a second later. They watched her walk away.

“This is good right?” Aisha asked.

“More than good.” Musa breathed, giddy with excitement.

“Girls” Musa shrieked, she would stand to that. She shrieked, loud and grating, more of an defensive attack, than just surprise.

Everyone in the hallway stopped and stared. Musa felt Aisha holding her shoulders. Flora, who somehow had moved slightly before them within less than a second, was standing too straight to not be a threat and Stella was radiating light and cold. Faragonda looked back at them and had the audacity to look startled.

“Headmistress.” Aisha said coolly. Bloom would call this tone arctic. Musa thought absentmindedly as she watched Faragonda’s face fall. Early in their first year they had started to call her Miss F. Something Stella had done and they just did too at one point. It had been, because they were fond of her and a sign of respect. Sometime during their second year, when Dakar had gotten more aggressive with trying to catch Bloom, they had started to call her Miss Faragonda. When Valtor had gotten out and she hadn’t talked to them, given them no information it had become Headmistress Faragonda. When Bloom had told them about the contract and they had watched Faragonda sit back and say nothing during negotiations, she had become Headmistress.

It was a nice and clean loss of trust. None of them trusted Faragonda anymore. She was no longer a person they would turn to for help, she was simply their headmistress. Seeing her face fall and hurt flicker across it made Musa’s hackled rise. Her song turned sharp and angry and Musa knew if she opened her mouth she would use her powers. So she leaned further back into Aisha’s frame and gripped her hand tightly. Aisha squeezed back, silently.

“Could I have a moment with the four of you?” Faragonda asked. Flora’s fingers twitched, Stella’s light got even colder, Musa pressed close to Aisha. All of them were clearly signalling that they had no interest in that.

“I am so sorry Headmistress.” Stella finally said after a long moment of chilly silence. “We have to get back to our dorm room, to finish the homework and then return to Cloudtower, to help Musa packing. She and I will have to wake up early tomorrow to portal to Zenith.” Her voice was polite enough to scare off reporters. Faragonda’s face fell, but before she could say anything else, Stella was walking past her.

“Have a good day Headmistress.” She shot over her shoulder and they all followed after her.

“This was too close…” Flora muttered. They all agreed.

***

“This is as far as I go.” Elder Zbyna said, stopping at a line of scrubby that grew just a foot away from the almost unnaturally perfect line of ice. The Blue Planes as their name suggested were a huge stretch of deep blue ice. It was surrounded by a huge forest that Bloom had the feeling of surrounding the whole Plane. The thing that she had noticed though was that the forest line was several hundred metres away from the actual Blue Planes.

“The green spaces that are growing in…” Bloom started. “It used to be ice right?” Elder Zbyna remained silent for a long moment before she nodded.

“Yes, the scrubs growing only developed over the last century. We tried to keep it as clean as possible in the hope to regrow the ice…”

“Ok.” Bloom muttered. Icy hadn’t said a word since they had landed on top of the outlook.

“You have to take off your shoes and socks and step onto the ice. I’ll cast the spell and then you go on on your own.” The Elder explained Icy was done in a few seconds. Standing on the ice, while her booths were lined up on the ice, socks sticking out of the ice. Bloom took longer. She hated ice. She hated touching it with her bare skin, at the same time she knew that she had to do this. She couldn’t fuck this up. She couldn’t let Tecna down just because she was afraid of the cold.

“Ok” She muttered, trying to regulate her breathing, while she pulled off the first boot and then sock. It still took her several seconds to actually put her foot onto the ice. She could feel Icy’s eyes on her and the way Elder Zbyna looked at her. The second her foot touched the ice her aura vision roared to live.

Bloom unable to cope with the sudden influx of magic and emotions she could feel toppled forwards. Her hand’s hit the ice and she just barely managed to not scream.

It hurt. It was so damn cold. She couldn’t move. Her mum was still falling, she needed to get her mum! Dad was screaming! Her wings weren’t working. She was falling… she was falling and her wing felt wrong she was…

Breathe child. Mother’s voice was warm and familiar. Her aura, which was so much stronger now that Bloom was at her original resting place, was still cold but the emotions and the kindness in it was like balm and a warm hug.

Good Mother whispered in her mind. Breathe child of fire and Zbyna help you.

Bloom took several more deep breaths and watched how the ice turned milky with each of them.

“Your Majesty?” The elder asked and Bloom finally managed to push herself up. She turned around, sitting on the ice and tried to smile up at them. From the look of it she didn’t do a good job.

“I’m f… I’m fine, just… let’s get this over with.” Bloom muttered, ripping off her other shoe and sock and then scooting back so that she had both feet on the ice. With her aura vision now active it was fascinating to watch the Elder work their magic. It was as if she was weaving a net. A few moments and a sharp pushing motion later the magic wrapped itself around Bloom’s feet and the cold instantly disappeared.

“Thank you.” Bloom breathed and tried to ignore the looks of both of the witches short her. Icy’s was knowing and apathetic and Zbyna’s full of worry.

“B?” The telepathy connection was quieter than usual, but she could hear Tecna.

“Yeah?” She thought back. There was a moment, where she thought that the connection had broken, but ultimately a worried “Are you ok?” Made it through. Bloom sighed as she got to her feet.

“Yeah…just ice.” She shot back and then broke the spell, before Tecna could do anything more. Bloom bowed before Zbyna with a smile.

“Thank you Master. Let’s go.” She said to Icy, and turned. She was walking barefoot on ice. Magical or not this wasn’t something she wanted to prolong for longer than necessary. There was a well wish from the Elder, but Bloom didn’t turn around, she just hoped that they would understand.

You are afraid of ice. Mother’s voice echoed in her head and Bloom just nodded. It felt funny, walking one ice without feeling the cold. Bit like walking on the bowling lane, when you accidentally took a step too far. Slippery, and so even it felt a bit unnatural.

Yet you still came here. Mother whispered and Bloom closeted her eyes.

Why wouldn’t I? She asked back. I fear ice, but I want my friend to be happy. I want to return the planets to their old glory. I want balance. If that means I have to be a bit uncomfortable for a few minutes? Fine by me.

“You talk to her too.” Icy’s voice startled Bloom hard enough that she almost slipped. Bloom caught herself just before falling over, but Icy still reached out and grasped her arm.

“What?” Bloom asked, genuinely confused, about the question and Icy reaching out to help her. Icy rolled her eyes and let go of her.

“Mother” Icy said and started walking again.

“Of course I hear her!” Bloom called out. “Why do you think I even talked to you?”

“That’s what I don’t understand.” She actually sounded frustrated, or well she sounded like that too Bloom.

“What?” Bloom asked, genuinely confused.

“Why you? Me, I get I am of Dyamond, so is Mother, but you?” Icy said, looking at Bloom with disgust. “You are fire, why are you here?!”

Bloom didn’t answer immediately, instead she just kept walking side by side with Icy.

“Zenith’s magic is based on understanding.” Bloom finally said after several minutes of walking. She held out a hand when Icy opened her mouth to …snap back probably. “When Dyamon fell to that disaster, the people that survived tried to find out why. So over the years Zenith’s core changed and so did the people. As such most people from Zenith are not only incredibly good at creating and programming things, but also in understanding magic. They can literally see magic and analyse it just by looking at you. Technimagic isn’t just about electronics, but literally understanding what is around you.” Bloom didn’t look at Icy, just at the endless blue icy all around them.

“What I am telling you next you will not tell anyone else.” It was a command Bloom carefully gripped the vassal bond that connected her and Icy and pulled. Icy tipped around and glared, Bloom glared back.

“If you talk to anyone about this that isn’t Aisha, Stella, Flora, Musa or Tecna, the vassal bond is broken and I will not make a new one.” She said calmly. Icy on the other hand looked terrified. It was almost startling so see that emotion on her face.

“My sisters.…” Icy tried but Bloom only pulled harder on the bond.

“No. They find out if I want it when I want, but you will not tell them. If they figure out that you are hiding something from them, send them my way, but you will not tell anyone!” The magic rose and rose between them until Icy nodded.

“Nobody, but your friends.” She whispered. Bloom let go of the bond and started walking again.

“I’m an amplifier.”

Icy stumbled. Icy stumbled so hard she was all flailing limbs and skidding feet for a moment. Bloom would have found that funny if the whole situation wasn’t so against every urge she had.

“What?!” Icy whispered disbelievingly.

“Keep walking, or they will wonder what the fuck just happened.” Bloom snapped, when Icy didn’t move.

“Oh I am sorry, but what the actual fuck?” Icy snapped back, taking several long steps to keep up with Bloom

“Tecna noticed it in our first year.” Bloom explained. She could feel numbness rising, thinking about her first year. “After you ripped parts of my magic out of me, you fucked up my core so badly I couldn’t use my magic, which made everyone believe I actually lost it.” Bloom hated talking about this, but she also knew Icy wouldn’t stop until she knew everything.

“So the council, in their infinite wisdom, send us on suicide mission after suicide mission to find a way for me to get my powers back.” Bloom could feel her hair turning into flames. That was another sore subject for all of them. How they had been put through too much in addition to the Army of decay, while the Council had closed the Palace to protect themselves and nobody else.

“On the last one before we went to Cloudtower we went to Domino. Tecna noticed how somehow everyone of my friends got stronger after touching me. Turns out even with my magic so broken that it was hiding, I can boost people.” Bloom turned her head to look at Icy.

“I am an amplifier, not my magic, or the Dragon Flame, me.” She watched Icy’s face, the different emotions flickering over her face.

“That is why I am here. Because I naturally boost people’s power by touching them, now add in the Dragon Flame and do the maths. You are going to restore the Blue Plane and I am going to make sure you do not burn out.”

It was almost amusing to see the witch flounder. Icy in Bloom’s mind only ever had two moods. The ice witch without emotions or a beast made of rage and desperation. Well there was also madness but Bloom knew better than to judge that, she was hearing voices half of the time. The problem was that this was still Icy, the woman that had single handedly ruined ice for Bloom and who had created all of Bloom's nightmares, because she wouldn’t understand when something just wasn’t worth it. So watching Icy lose faith in the universe right before her wasn’t so much funny as vindicating.

“Feels shitty doesn’t it?” Bloom asked and didn’t hide her amusement or the grin she was sprouting.

“Huh?” It was the most undignified thing she had ever heard from Icy, and it felt amazing. Oh she would turn this into her notification sound the moment Tec uploaded the recording of her pin into the cloud.

“To have one’s world turned upside down by someone else.” Bloom explained. She heard Mother snort in her mind.

“You're here.” She commented dryly and Bloom stopped.

“You…” She started and got a sharp nod from Icy. Bloom let out a little sigh and turned towards Icy. “Well then, how do we do this?” She asked softly.

“What?” Icy asked back, sounding clearly confused. Bloom raised an eyebrow at her.

“I am asking you how you want to do this.” She repeated.

“Why?” Icy asked back. “You're the fairy with the greatest power of all!”

“And I am a fire fairy. Dragon Flame or not, I’m still a fire elemental. Besides, Mother needs you to do this. So tell me, how do you want to do this?” Icy stared for a bit longer until she turned away from Bloom. Bloom followed her and turned to look over the large blue expanse. It was beautiful. The deep blue of the ice in combination with the sunlight makes it look as if they were standing right on top of an endless void. Yet Bloom’s aura vision showed her more. There was something bright and pulsing beneath them, something made of ice blue magic. The pulsing looked like a heartbeat with how it brightened and dimmed and at the same time it looked like a chest expanding.

“Do you need skin contact?” Icy asked softly, pulling Bloom out of her focus on the magic beneath them.

“Huh?” She asked, while pushing down her aura vision to look at Icy. Icy, for all that she was posturing and doing evil, had a blindingly bright aura. Her magic was snow white with a hint of light blue in it. Making it rather painful to look at it. And wasn’t that telling?

“Do you need skin contact to do your amplifying stuff?” Icy ground out. Bloom nodded.

“Yes, one point of contact is ok, but two will make this much more easier and powerful.” Icy nodded absentmindedly.

“I need to touch the ice.” She muttered back, going to her knees and pressing her hand’s flat onto the ice. Bloom moved so that she was facing Icy and then kneeled right in front of her, reaching out slowly, grasping her shoulders and pressing her thumbs lightly against Icy’s pulse points. For a long moment nothing happened aside from Bloom feeling her fingers going numb because of the cold that Icy’s was radiating.

“You need to see.” Mother whispered. “Truly see.”

Bloom let out a little sigh and slowly, but steadily let go of the control of her aura vision.

Faragonda once had said that Bloom being able to see auras was because earth was so magically weak, that the people there could not reel in their aura’s. That they were projecting and that Bloom would only see them on earth. Bloom had believed Faragonda for all of six months, right until after the Army of Decay and her true understanding of who she was. After that everyone had had an aura and the magic around her had started to show itself to her shortly after that. It was Tecna’s ability to analyse magic and Musa’s knowledge of old magic to truly understand what Bloom was able to do.

She didn’t have aura vision. She could see magic and listen and speak to it. The few books they had found on the topic, in Bloom’s palace on Domino, had made it clear that it was an ability of the royal line and even there it was rare. For Domino at least. Then Dakar had happened and Bloom had understood that particular power of hers even better. She also had learned how to build wall over wall to shield herself from the true extent of the power. Most of the time she only needed to let go of the first lay, maybe the second, Bloom hadn’t truly used the full power since she had freed herself of Dakars mind control.

Now as she slowly let go of each layer of protection and connected with Icy, she allowed herself to see, not with her eyes, but with her magic. The first thing that happened was that Icy lit up like a beacon. Then the taste and smell of her magic hit Bloom. It smelled like the air just before the first snow was falling. Clean and fresh and cold. The taste was a bit like drinking icy water tasting of nothing and minerals.

Then Icy’s magic was overpowered by the magic of Zenith. It’s core that was dead and yet somehow alive, holding onto the bright thing beneath then and the magic of the Golden Kingdom. Magic that was raining down from above, like soft golden snowflakes and turned more and more white the closer to the core they got. It was beautiful and it hurt. Her head was throbbing and Bloom forced herself to not shut everything down.

“Fuck.” She groaned and felt herself fall forwards until she was leaning against Icy. She felt the witch flinch. “Sorry”, she muttered, but didn’t move away, not that she really could. “This takes it out of me.” She whispered and tried to wrap herself into Icy’s cold and fresh magic to combat her headache. Gentle fingers pressed against her temple and magic like a cold, wet towel wrapped itself around her head.

“I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself, for me.” Mother said and Bloom knew that right now Mother had a body and voice.

“Tecna will freak out.” She muttered and looked up just enough to look at mother. She was in humanoid form, but that was all. Her body looked like it was made of electricity that was trapped in a cage of thin ice. Making her sparkle and reflect light in the most beautiful way’s. Bloom’s inner artist perked up and begged her to take pictures. Mother smiled at her, not in the way of facial features changing, but in a whole body lighting up kind of way. It was beautiful and scary and just amazing.

“My daughter will meet me again, so I think that’s ok.” Mother answered and put her hand over Blooms, where they were still holding onto Icy’s shoulders. Icy’s head snapped up her eyes filled with snow white magic and the world exploded.

***

They were on round fifteen of flight training when Aisha’s shriek of absolute range sounded. Musa, who was very much in tune with Aisha, turned sharply to dodge a morphix ball. Sharp enough in fact that Flora had to catch her by her ankle with vines or she would have collided with a tree. She shared a quick look with Stella and Flora, looking beneath them where most of their classmates were either glued to a tree, struggling with their half tied up wings or caught in the safety net Griselda had erected. There weren’t more than a handful of them still in the air and without Morphix stuck to them. In the distance they could see the faint glow of a truly pissed off Aisha.

“I want to make a bet about the Council or Erasmus people, but…” Musa sighed.

“Nobody would take it.” Stella muttered darkly.

“Let’s go back, girls.” Flora said while she used her vines to help release their classmates and returned them safely to the ground.

It took less than a minute to return to the gate of Alfea where they had left Aisha, with Griselda, yet somehow Aisha had only turned brighter.

“Isha?” Musa asked carefully, reaching out toward her, her fingertips immediately felt cold and wet and she pulled them back. “Ok!” She muttered her eyes wide. “What the fuck?” There was a deep gurgling sound from Aisha, but nothing else.

“She got a phone call aside from that…” Griselda explained. Stella cursed and de-transformed to get her phone out of her pocket. “Tony?”

“The council called for another meeting, without informing any of you.” Their little helper answered and Musa groaned.

“You gotta be kidding me!” Flora hissed.

“You know what?” Stella said, transforming again, her eyes shining like little suns and locked with Aisha’s that had turned into a stormy sea. “Let’s fly over there and deal with this!” Musa turned open mouthed to Stella.

“Stell…” Flora started.

“We are sweating buckets and are dirty from dodging and…”

“WELL I don’t care!” Stella hissed, her hair was lightening towards a pale silver. “They want to fuck around they find out, if that means they get me at my worse, that is their mistake, now get on with it!”

“I’m in” Aisha rasped and her voice had an undertone of waves crashing violently against the shore.

“Send me your time through Tony and you might get a good grade out of this.” Griselda said and turned away from them towards the other fairies.

***

Tecna would later show Bloom the video recordings of what happened. The explosion of magic that turned into a giant steam cloud and then a blizzard so bad it actually destroyed the tree line and every piece of recording equipment aside from some very old and very new stuff.

It was a literal explosion of magic, yet for Bloom at the centre of the storm it was something completely different.

Beneath them the magic rose higher than before. Like it was taking the first deep breath of waking up. Its dimming and brightening didn’t stop, instead it seemed to grow brighter and more steady.

“It’s waking up.” Bloom whispered and looked back up to Icy. Her eyes were still glowing white and where her hand’s were pressed against the ice frost flowers were growing on her skin, growing higher and higher until they changed into symbols Bloom couldn’t understand. Behind Icy Mother laughed.

“Oh child of my sister.” She whispered and bowed down to press a kiss into Icy’s hair. “Do not listen to the ghosts of those that failed to break us. Look at our magic. Look at it rising, look at it waking.”

Bloom looked down again, Mother was right the magic was just beneath the surface of the ice. It’s magic swirling in the most beautiful mix of teals and ice blues and greens. It was all sharp edges and swirling lines, smudged and clear and whimsical and clean. Underneath her own skin her dragon- awakened when she had set foot onto the ice- roared. Something old calling out to something familiar. Dyamon’s- Zenith's magic answered the roar with a high call. It sounded like a snicker, it sounded, Bloom realised as the magic shot out from beneath them, like a fox.

Around them the blizzard stopped and for a long second it dissipated, giving Bloom the perfect view of the magic shooting into the sky. It looked like northern lights. A sharp and clean line of ice blue, bright electric green and the most beautiful pinkish violet that Bloom had seen. It grew the higher it reached into the sky, growing wider and longer until it seemed to reach its highest point turning into an almost perfect arch and turned back downwards. At the same time it changed shape. A sharp snout pointed down at them two front paws tucked themself against a lean body while another set of paws stretched out with a long bushy tail. Zenith’s magic, the magic of Dyamond, was the shape of a fox. The magic rushed back down washing over them, as it returned into the core of the planet. Leaving Bloom gasping for breath when she was enveloped in icy cold. Yet she didn’t panic, because in her head the delighted giggle of a young girl took all of her focus.

Sister! The voice called and around them the ice lit up. No longer the deep blue, but in the colours of the northern lights. Rising around them towards the sky.

“My dear little one!” Mother breathed and Bloom watched how Icy’s eyes dimmed back to their natural light blue. She was crying. Bloom realised.

You woke me! The voice called out and a second form rose from the ice. This one is not made from electricity but northern lights. She wasn’t much taller than Bloom, but the way she moved made it clear that it was a young girl.

“Of course, my sister, of course I woke you.” Mother breathed and she sounded so fond. She sounded like Daphne. The spirit giggled again and danced around them. Bloom smiled when she knew this, the itch in her limbs when she was forced to sit still for too long. The need to move and stretch and run. For a moment the body of a child was running circles around them, then it changed and instead a fox mage of polar lights was ducking between gollum’s of light and then she was a child again. She stopped and started at Icy and Bloom.

She had no eyes, but Bloom could have sworn she could feel a cold gaze travelling over her skin, mustering and judging her.

A fire dragon! She whispered and then turned from Bloom towards Icy. Icy who was looking back at her tears streaming down her face. And my blood sisters descendent.

Icy shocked on a sob.

“Sapphire,” Icy whispered back. The spirit, Sapphire, giggled and turned into her fox form and jumped right into Icy’s arms. Bloom managed to hold onto one of Icy’s shoulders, keeping their skin in contact, while Icy held onto the fox spirit.

“Will you stay awake my sister?” Mother asked and the little fox barked once, pressing her snout against Icy’s cheek. Bloom tried to feel anything but jealous and painful yearning for her sister.

“Then let us restore our ice.” Mother whispered and Bloom watched her squeeze Icy’s shoulder. The Sapphire giggled again and jumped out of Icy’s grip. She danced around them in a tight circle, before slipping underneath Bloom's arm and sitting down between her and Icy.

“Put your hand’s back down onto the ice.” Mother whispered. “It is time to restore the blue planes. Sapphire wiggled with excitement as Icy followed Mother’s instructions. Bloom reached out and put her free hand back onto Icy’s shoulder returning them to their original position.

“Now just breathe. Feel the ice, feel the magic reaching out and let it grow.” As Mother spoke, her voice nothing but a soft whisper, Icy slowly bowed down further and further until her own nose touched the snout of Sapphire’s fox form and around them, already reaching several metres above their heads, the ice grew.

***

“Sapphire was my ancestors' little sister.” Icy whispered. Bloom had no clue how long they were sitting here. How long it had been since both Mother and Sapphire had returned to the core of the planet. “One of the first to die.”

Bloom hummed softly. Her fingers tracing the white form of a jumping fox that was scratched into the ice beneath them. When the magic had ended and the two spirits had disappeared she and Icy had found themselves surrounded by several hundred metres of ice in what felt like a temple. The pillars of light that Sapphire had danced around had taken the form of colourful ice with a round roof above them. Beneath them, stark white against the deep blue of the ice, was a jumping fox and Mother’s form chasing one another in a circle.

“Bloom?!” Tecna’s voice echoed above them. It sounded faint and from far away.

“We're fine!” She called back hoping that she used the technique Musa had taught them to project their voice right. “Give us a moment.” For good measure she pushed the feeling of contentment and safety down her bond with Valtor.

We are fine. She thought, hoping it would reach him through the iron doors he had built up.

“Come on,” Bloom said out loud, climbing to her feet and holding out a hand for Icy to take. “Time to go back up, everyone is worried.”

Icy ignored her for a moment longer, still staring down at the ice.

“Icy,” Bloom said again, louder and with more force this time. “Come on. It’s over, you can not bring her back to life.” That got her a dark glare. Bloom didn’t even flinch. “You can’t.” Bloom whispered. It’s been too long and she is happy here. Let it go. Let’s get out of here and keep going. You can come back here whenever you want.” Icy just snorted. Bloom rolled her eyes.

“Do you really think that anyone from Zenith would refuse you now that you restored the most valuable connection to their past?” Bloom asked.

The look on Icy’s face after she said that was like a punch to the gut. Most of her would never truly trust Icy, not after everything she had done to her. Not after Dakar and three years of Valtor, another part of Bloom, the part that was younger and was clinging to Daphne that one understood.

“Don’t stay here.” Bloom whispered. “There is nothing here for you, aside from a spirit that can not touch you, a spirit that can not age. Sapphire, will forever be a child. She understands who you are, and loves you, but she can not leave this place. You will age and grow and always love her, but Sapphire will always be here, the little girl that died millions of years ago.” Bloom held out her hand again. “Trust me Icy, let go of the idea that you can save her, it will save you a lot of heartbreak in the future.” Icy looked up at Bloom and Bloom offered her her hand again.

“Grieve what could have been. Grieve the lives lost and then look forward. You have a future and Sapphire knows that, she wants you to live.”

Icy took her hand and Bloom pulled her up. For a long moment they stayed where they were staring at the ice beneath them and the temple they created. Then Icy turned away and walked towards the gap in the ice that was steadily going up. They had created a temple and stairs leading down to it. Bloom followed Icy until she reached the first step, then she turned one last time.

Sapphire looked back at her, not a spirit made of Northern lights, but a real spirit. She looked like Icy. The same hair and facial structure. Her eyes were a bit darker, but that was it. Sapphire looked back at Bloom and there was grief in her eyes.

I am sorry. The little spirit whispered and her tone was mournful.

“It’s nothing you could change.” Bloom thought back and turned to climb up the steps. “Nobody can bring back the dead. Not even me.”

Chapter Text

13. Interlude

Council Library Catalogue

Copy Nr.: MLA1.1915.135.19115

Topic: Magic Lore

Classification: Restricted to Members only (reading) (Lending to nobody!)

Titel: Amplifiers- A Study of Magic Enhancing Subjects and Objects

Edition: First Print, Manuscript

Pages: 802

Published: 07 before Sparks fall

Added to CL: 27 after Sparks fall

Excerpts from the pages: 35, 70, 145, 156, 199, 200, 278, 304, 388, 414, 416, 578, 580, 659, 670, 678

Page 35

[…] the easiest way we can define Amplifiers is as something or someone that can boost a persons or magical creatures' natural magic as well as physical health, by touching them. For this book we try to prove this and[…]

Page 70

[…] It has to be noted here, that being an Amplifier does not mean that the object/subject in question has an excess amount of magic, instead they have a overflow of energy that sits in top of their skin (we will use this as an example since differentiating between the different kind of surfaces, would be too time consuming and enlarging the book unnecessarily), that will connect to the people or creatures touching them. […]

Page 145

[…] It became very clear we needed to differentiate between different kinds of Amplifiers to create a reliable way of judging their power levels. After analysing our findings we realised that the best way to do this was with two categories, both of which have two subcategories.

The categories focus to differentiate between “How an Amplifier is created” and “What kind of Material they are made from”. […] The first category, which will be called How for the rest of the book, is divided into natural Amplifiers and artificial Amplifiers. As the names of the Category and Subcategory might imply, the focus is set on how the amplifier in question was created. The second Category- from here on out is called: What- is divided into organic and inorganic Amplifiers and focuses on what kind of material the Amplifiers is made of.[…]

Page 156

[…] After analysing our 1724 study samples we can rather reliably conclude that natural Amplifiers are created (in the case of inanimate objects) or born (in the case of living beings) as Amplifiers. Looking at our samples, the material of the Amplifier doesn’t influence the How. Although we notice that inorganic natural Amplifiers are much rarer than organic natural Amplifiers. With one exception: from the samples we managed to get, it became clear that any kind of pure or mixed plastic object, can not be a natural Amplifier. (This is said with caution, since we are the first to research the subject in depth.)

Page 199

[…] Examples for natural Amplifiers are the gem-weapons the Red Fountain students use, as they boost the physical endurance and strength of a Specialist as well as their natural magic.[…]

Page 200

[…]Artificial Amplifiers as the name implies are the opposite of natural Amplifiers, they are man or creature made. […] The difference to natural Amplifiers is that everything can be made into one: people (if rarely), stones, metals, technology, animals and so on. There is no limit to what can be turned into an amplifier.

Page 278

[…] Examples for artificial Amplifiers are so called fairy animals, that many young fairies have from childhood on. […] The animals, through long time exposure to their fairy, absorb their magic and turn into Amplifiers. […] From our small sample pool we concluded that fairy animals are a special kind of Amplifier, since they do not boost their fairy in a magical or physical sense, but instead in an emotional aspect, keeping their fairy calm or helping them focus.[…]

Page 304

[…] Organic Amplifiers have to be or originate from something living. This makes this Subcategory the largest after natural Amplifiers. As examples we will look at Trees. From the root to the leaves every part of certain trees can be an amplifier, since they originate from a growing organism, they are categorised as organic Amplifiers. This also includes fossilised parts of trees, such as Amber, ect. The same applies to more conscious -and loud about it- creatures. If one would use a dragon for example, there is a very high probability that the eggshells, that are left behind from a dragon hatchling, are amplifiers. If one were to find a fossilised dragon horn or the remains of a creature that happened to be an amplifier, the fossil will be categorised as organic even if it is stone. […]

Page 388

[…]It turns out that, after reaching a certain point of consciousness, even man-made robots can be qualified as organic Amplifiers. (I am sure the people of Zenith are not surprised (I now owe money to Nika)) […]

Page 389

[…] YES bones are organic Amplifiers, we discussed this already as they are from a living being! […]

Page 414

[…] inorganic Amplifiers as we have hinted in artificial Amplifiers happen most often, when around magically high areas or people, through long term exposure, or intentional creation by a person or creature. Another thing we noticed that they also happen most often when exposed to organic natural Amplifiers. We used Dragons as an example before, but this is especially noticeable in gems and metals found in the planetary systems around Sparks. The planet of Isis is especially large […]

Page 416

[…] examples for what kind of material an inorganic Amplifier can be are: all kinds of gems, metals, stones, technology […]

Page 578

[…] In the beginning of our book, we explained that we started the book to understand what Amplifiers are, but also to be able to classify them. After spending over 500 pages on doing so, we are now ready to explain the conclusion we have come to. The ranking is as followed:

How always ranks over What

Natural always ranks over Artificial

Inorganic always ranks over Organic.

Our reasoning for this is that natural Amplifiers are inherently stronger and longer lasting than artificial Amplifiers, due to the fact that they started out as Amplifiers. Artificial Amplifiers, because of being made to be Amplifiers, have a limit of how long and how much energy they can hold and give out. A problem natural Amplifiers do not have. They are always inherently stronger and have more endurance than artificial Amplifiers. […]

Page 580

[…] Inorganic Amplifiers rank over organic Amplifiers, for the simple fact that they are not alive. Organic Amplifiers, a person, creature, fossil, or part of a living organism, has a physical limit. If a person were an Amplifier, this would manifest in severe physical exhaustion, that would also cause a magical exhaustion, because the magic tries to keep them alive. In worst cases, especially the abuse of a living Amplifier, this will end in death. Something we have not tested and refuse to test, no matter the compensation. In the example of a tree part, or fossil, it would show itself in the object starting to decay or crack, if this happened, the Amplifier has to be put in a safe place to recharge, or it will be destroyed completely. […]

Page 659

[…] The following list is a compilation of different examples of Amplifiers.[…]

[…] The Red Fountain weapons.

They are classified as inorganic natural Amplifiers, as they are created with gemstones from Isis that are natural Amplifiers. […]

Page 666

[…] The royal Sceptre of Solaria

This is an inorganic artificial Amplifier. While the materials, solaria gold steel and moon silver themself are powerful in the conduction of magic they do not have an amplifying effect in themself. The amplifying element was added through the smithing process that is said to be aided, by the Dragon Flame itself, or at the very least through a Dragonborn smith. Either way the object is extremely powerful and can cut down cross dimension teleportation from Domino to Earth down to under an hour. […] Due to it being an artificial Amplifier, the Scepter is limited in its power and the material it was made from limits the user to a member of the royal line of Solaria.[…]

[…] We found that people who have both Luma Umbra and Solaria heritage can use the sceptre much more efficient.[…]

Page 670

[…] We can not say much for people that are natural Amplifiers, in fact we only managed to find one person. An older witch close to her first millennia, who only agreed to talk to us, because and we quote: “I am going to die soon and my descendants know better than to leave anything behind.” From what we could glean from that encounter, there is no genetic or magical identifier that marks a person as an Amplifier. We did get an answer from the witch, although we are not sure about how the scientific world will take that answer.

“Those of us that are born as Amplifiers, are either chosen by fate, or their destinies are too great. They will need the ability to make sure the people helping them will stay with them. Another reason why a person must be born an Amplifier, is that they are a champion of one of the old gods.[…]”

We are not sure about the involvement of gods of old, or fate, but what we can say is this: the witch was magically extremely powerful and her title, which we can not name due to the agreement we made with her, is one that holds elemental power. So it might have to do with a natural defence of the body, of people that are born with magical legacies or titles, that surpass the normal magic user. […]

Page 678

[…] Of course we can not ignore the Dragon Flame when it comes to amplifiers. It would be categorised as an organic natural Amplifier due to the fact that it originates from the Great Dragon, whose existence has been proven many times over the centuries. It is also the greatest amplifier of them all. Its power is never ending, at least that is what the empiric evidence implies, and it can be divided between people, as the “Bloomix“ transformation indicates.

[…] This transformation is only possible for fairies that are in a fairy circle with a Dragonborn fairy. This is due to the fact that the Dragonborn shares a bit of their own magic and a scale from their dragon form with their circle members, making them eligible to the transformation that originated on Sparks. {1} […] It boosts the fairy in question physically and magically and makes it possible to transform in a dragon scale armour that will protect them from much harsher attacks, […]

Footnote: {1} The name “Bloomix“ originates from the Hestia flower, which is native to Sparks. It is said to make the first transformation, both the ceremonial and the war transformation, look like a flower of magic blooms, giving the fairy the new transformation. Similar things are to be seen once the Hestia flower is old enough to Bloom for the first time. After the first transformation, it looks like a flash of flame in the colour of fairy magic. Once again referencing the Hestia flower, which will, after maturing, spit out flames in various colours.

“Flo?“ Aisha’s voice pulled her out of the book. She found her friend standing right over her, with their stuff already organised in a neat pile behind her.

“What time is it?” Flora asked, blinking a few times, now that she was aware of it, her eyes hurt. Aisha snorted.

“Time to go or Griselda is after us.” She muttered. “What did you read?” She asked, indicating the notes Flora had taken.

“It’s a manuscript about amplifiers.” As she had thought, the moment the words left her mouth, Aisha’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait what?” She called out, sitting down in the chair next to Flora.

“Yeah, It was never published and it’s not allowed to leave the library, funny isn’t it?” Flora said softly, as Aisha read through the notes she had taken.

“Are those direct quotes?” She asked and Flora nodded. “I used one of the pens, Bloom and Tec made, I am not completely done and this is just my first read through, but if what they are saying is right…” Flora trailed off.

“Bloom being a natural amplifier because of fate isn’t even the strangest thought I had today.” Aisha muttered.

“Read the next part.” Flora said with a grin. Watching Aisha slowly losing it, was amusing. There was the slow furrowing of her brows, the little crow's feet around her eyes appearing and then everything smoothed out with shock as Aisha realised just what she was reading.

“There is a transformation based on our fairy circle?” Aisha asked looking up to meet Flora’s eyes. She nodded.

“They don’t have any more information on it than what I copied down, so that’s all I can say.” Flora grumbled.

“Have you tried a search spell?”

“Dragon speech book.” Flora answered and Aisha cursed.

“So we have to wait for Bloom to come back. Damn, this would be amazing. A whole transformation, just because we care for Bloom.” Aisha chuckled lightly. “This woman”

“I’m pretty sure it will not happen until after she has her Enchantix though.” Flora said.”I mean Daphne did say that until Bloom has her Enchantix, she has the blocks on her.”

“And a fairy circle is about equality and seeing eye to eye.” Aisha muttered. “I just hope B doesn’t try and force anything, like she did on Pyros, just to protect us.” Flora winced, she hadn’t even thought about that.

“Damn it, are we sure we should tell her then? If it triggers her to overwork herself, then…” Aisha stopped her with a hand on her arm and a little smile. For a moment Flora wasn’t in the library, but ankle deep in her homewards ocean, the warm water playing around her legs. “Thanks” she muttered once her thoughts had slowed down and the image stopped.

“I don’t think Bloom will try anything. It’s been three years, I’m pretty sure she has found peace in the idea that she won’t get Enchantix unless she frees her planet from the curse.” Flora sighed and nodded, it was a sore topic for Bloom, for all of them, but at least it meant Bloom stopped being overprotective and reckless at the same time.

“Have you looked at the publishing date?” She asked.

“Seven years before Sparks was destroyed.” Aisha muttered. “Added 27 years after.” There was a moment of silence in which Flora was content to just let Aisha think.

“Any authors?” Flora shook her head.

“That information was either destroyed or kept hidden on purpose. So the only way to find out would be access to Livres library.” They both pulled a face.

“Not right now, that would raise too many red flags.” Aisha muttered. She turned the manuscript over a few times. “What do you think?”

“Two at least, none of them Zenithian.” Flora pointed at the side note she had written down. “Although possibly friends with someone from Zenith.”

“So still 99% of the Dimension.”

“I think they are from Domino’s tertiary. With their knowledge about Iris and the Phanomblades, it makes sense.” Aisha nodded. “I mean we only understood how they worked after Diaspro explained them to us.”

“Exactly, which is why I think they are possibly from Iris.” Flora faltered, her enthusiasm dying a swift death dealt by her frustration. Why was the council so damn secretive?

“I’ll put it on the todo list, Bloom would love some more information about that part of herself.” Aisha said, standing up again. “Now come on, we really have to get out. Or Griselda will storm in here.” Flora grinned and got up, putting her book down in the pile of books neither A’Sha nor the magic of the library moved any longer. A few more hours and Tecna and Stella would be back the first week of the tour was over. Just a bit more and they would be together again.

***

The muttering of voices all around her had lulled Bloom into something like sleep. Not true sleep, she couldn’t do that anymore, not around people she didn’t trust, but the floating half consciousness that made you hear everything like static and that made time feel funny.

Tecna was on her right, pressed up against her on the chair that wasn’t made for two people, yet they made it fit, with Bloom wrapped around Tecna and her friend half in her lap. Helia was on her left, standing right behind her, with his hand on her shoulder. Tecna was excitedly talking about the readings of the magic and the way the ice was exactly, like the old one although more powerful. Tecna’s excited tones and the way both of her friends would touch her shoulder or leg in regular instances, left Bloom floating, but not so deep that she would be groggy once they arrived. Dragon she loved her friends. The dragon in her chest purred with agreement, they had been more awake ever since Bloom and Icy had finished their project. It was nice and Bloom had the nagging feeling in the back of her head that she needed to talk to her sister, because her dragon hadn’t been this active ever before. Something was up, but not wrong. Bloom sighed and opened one of her eyes.

“Dragon damn it Bloom not here!” Tecna groaned, but there was laughter in her voice. “Do you have to let your inner Dragon out right now?” She asked, the smile bright, even though Bloom couldn’t see it from, where she was pressed against her friend. What she did see though was the wide eyes of several council people.

“Both eyelids Bloom!” Helia muttered softly above her, which prompted Bloom to turn her head upward to him, in an angle most people just couldn’t do. Tecna was shaking, with what Bloom assumed was suppressed laughter. It took her longer than she would like to admit to understand what Helia meant. Her vision had a light blue tint.

“Oh” She muttered, blinking several times as she lowered her head. It took a moment of blinking one eye and then the other and then both until she managed to raise her secondary eyelids with her primary pair. Several of the elders looked amused, Valtor was laughing at her, even though she only knew this, because of how their bond felt. The Trix and the research staff on the other hand all looked like they had seen a ghost.

“What the fuck?” Stormy muttered softly. Bloom snorted.

“I’m a Dragon, what do you expect?” She asked softly and stretched.

“You have two pairs of eyelids?” Dusan asked and Bloom was about to answer when her brain- which was still a bit foggy- and her inner dragon- which was vibrating with mischief- made her stop. “Eh” She said and closed her eyes again.

“BLOOM!” Timmy’s shout was exasperated, but already too late. Bloom opened her eyes again. Right now her vision was like those home-3D glasses. Her left side is slightly red and her right side blue. Mixing together in a dizzying overlap of blue and red. “Three actually.” Bloom said, blinking them back into their hidden position. Tecna slapped her again.

“Why?” She asked, looking exasperatedly at Bloom. Bloom only grinned at her and shrugged.

“I’m still a bit high on the magic.” She answered. Tecna groaned again, Timmy in the background did so too.

“How do you have three different pairs of eyelids?” Darcy asked and there was curiosity burning in her eyes.

“I’m a dragon.” Bloom answered.

“None of our Dragonborn have three pairs of eyelids though.” Sasha said amused.

Bloom shrugged. “Your Dragonborn are most likely all single line dragons, descending from ice or storm dragons, even if you mix those heritages you only got the secondary eyelid, that will protect them from the harsh light of lighting or snow blindness.” Bloom answered lazily.

“Are you implying, you descend from two lines of Dragons?” One of the researchers asked and when Bloom turned to them she realised that their eyes were a strange greyish colour that indicated ice dragon heritage.

“Why is everyone so confused by that tidbit?” Bloom asked honestly. Stretching a bit more and repositioning Tecna so they could sit easier.

“What is a single line or whatever you are talking about?” Stormy asked, looking just as intrigued as Darcy.

“Dragonborn descent from Dragons, lines are the different kinds of Dragons. Ice dragons or stone dragons for example.” Valtor explained from somewhere behind them. Bloom pointed a finger in where she thought was his direction.

“What he said. Dragons always have two eyelids, because of their power. Fire dragons for example have a blue pair that’ll protect them from fire and make it possible to see even in the middle of an inferno.” She said softly.

“Which would be the blue one you showed?” The researcher asked and Bloom nodded.

“I got it from my mother and the fact that I’m the guardian of the Dragon Flame. The blue lid is from my father.”

“What line does it represent? Or is it a universal one? I am sure I have seen several ice line Dragonborn with orange eyelids.” Sasha asked and Bloom pulled a face.

“Yeah it is tricky, blues and reds are a bit more universal, but if you get the time to properly look at it there are colour differences depending on the specific kind of dragon. Mine is much darker than an ice line person would be, but much lighter than for someone from a storm line” She explained, seeking the curiosity she rolled her eyes. “Water dragon.” She said, before anyone could ask. “My father is from a water dragon line.”

Before anyone else could say anything more they landed. There was some grumbling and several looks from the research team, Darcy and Sasha alike, that made it more than clear that they still had questions. So Bloom made the wise choice and high tailed it out of the ship. To immediately be met with someone hugging her. The sharp smell of ozone, cold night and bright day as well as the glowing blonde hair, making it easy for her to identify the person.

“Hey Stel.” Bloom muttered into her best friend's hair and hugged her back.

“We saw the broad cast.” Stella whispered into her ear. “The whole city is so excited, not even talking about the interdimensional media.”

Well there went Bloom peace. “Damn it.”

“This is good.” Musa said, her tone itching Bloom's brain in a way that made it clear this was their dragon frequency.

“Maybe.” Bloom muttered as she pulled back from Stella, to hug her friend. “How was the journey?” They fell into mindless chatter for several minutes, Tecna and the boy’s joined them and for a moment Bloom could have been back in their room in Alfea.

It was Sasha who interrupted them. “I hate to interrupt, but the Congregation has a little surprise for your Majesty.” They were smiling softly at Bloom and even though she knew they didn’t mean anything by it, she couldn’t help but tense. “The Princess and Tecna would be invited too, but I have to ask that it’s only the two of them.” They exchanged a quick look.

“The safety…” Tecna started and Alemayehu appeared beside them.

“I’m coming with you.” She said a knowing and excited gleam in her eyes. “It’s nothing bad.” She promised.

Helia and Timmy Shared a long look with Tecna and Stella before turning into Bloom’s direction. Her decision. She sighed and deflated. She had had a wonderful time so far and nothing had happened. “Why not?” She finally said with a smile. “But I reserve the right to turn around and leave if I don’t like it!” Sasha nodded in agreement and turned to the elder for a quick chat. Bloom did the same. Valtor didn’t seem happy, but surprisingly she didn’t even have to threaten him a lot to make him return to their ship. The Trix on the other hand had already disappeared.

Moments later the five of them were in an elevator with Sasha going to one of the many floors of the congregation building that Bloom hadn’t been able to see.

“We weren’t sure if we would be able to get this on its feet in time, so we have kept it quiet until now.” Sasha explained. “When the tour was announced, well actually before that, shortly after your coronation, we started getting messages from people asking to meet you, your Majesty.”

Bloom felt herself tense up. Fantastic, with her luck it was a bunch of religious people that wanted to meet the High Priests of the Dragon. She barely suppressed a groan. Both Stella and Musa took her hand when the elevator doors opened and Sasha led them down a hallway.

“We weren’t sure if it would be a good idea to allow this meeting until you approached us about the Blue Planes. We were unsure how much you would appreciate being overwhelmed like that. But after …well, it seemed unfair to not give you the same courtesy you gave us.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” Stella’s voice was sharp, not yet rude, but close to it. Sasha only smiled as they opened a pair of double doors.

Bloom was immediately rushed by the sharp smell of ozone, different from Stellas, more static and sharp, the cool smell of ice and snow followed it immediately and then came a smell Bloom hadn’t really smelled before. Her dragon on the other hand roared with excitement, recognizing the smell immediately. She faintly felt her hair puff into flame and heard herself whimper, as she took in the gathering of people before her. They weren’t much, maybe a hundred people of all ages, but all of them looked back at her with slit pupils. Some of them had visible scales, others had claws and a very few had horns.

“Your Majesty.” Sasha said, their voice far away and so very close. “May I introduce you to a part of Zenith's Dragonborn population?”

Bloom heard her own wet and shocked laugh as she let go of her friends to slap her hands over her mouth. She stumbled a few steps forward, trying to take in every face looking back at her. There was an elder, who’s hair was the dark blue of the night sky. What looked like a woman, with soft reddish hair was holding a baby with tiny ice blue horns. A boy of maybe twelve with lighting dancing through his storm blue hair.

Her dragon was roaring and calling out, their wings wide and flattering excitedly, in beat with her racing heart.

Mine! They were roaring. Mine mine mine MINE!

Over and over again, pitch and voice rising with excitement, as Bloom felt her chest expand, as she felt something she only ever had felt with Daphne and then it had been so faint that she hadn’t even realised it was happening until her sister had explained it to her. Dragons and Dragonborn, while territorial, were also creatures that valued community. If mixed with humanish traits and genes as well as the inherent magic of Dragons, it meant that there was a connection between every Dragonborn. Whether or not they were born on Domino, didn’t matter.

For Bloom, who had the Dragon flame in her, who was seen as a direct descendant of the first Dragon this was much stronger than for other Dragonborn or Dragon. Feeling the connection snap into place for the first time took Bloom’s breath and made her feel warm and happy.

She took another step forward, before she froze as a small ice blue dragon darted out from between the crowds legs. The crowd, that still hadn’t moved or spoken, was looking back at her. The dragon was rather young, not much older than ten or eleven if they would be in human form, yet their body was long and muscular, a sharp line of spikes growing down their spine starting just behind their three pairs of horns and ending in a morning star tail. They had no wings, but that was normal for ice dragons. They made another careful step towards her and Bloom was on her knees before she could think about it. Both hands stretched out before her, palms up and shaking hard.

“Hello” Bloom whispered, as the little dragon made another step towards her, stretching their neck and sniffling to get her sent. At her word they froze, their ears flipping up and directed in her direction. They had little tufts of fur at the tips. Bloom desperately wanted to put her hand’s back over her mouth, because this was so precious, but she kept her hands out. “Hello, little one.” She said again. The words of her mother tongue like ice cracking and fire roaring.

And then the little one was touching her left pointer finger with their nose. Magic made from ice and snow crashed against hers, her dragon roaring loudly with excitement as the connection to this little dragon finalised. A moment later she was holding a little girl with white hair in her arms. Her slitted eyes staring back at her with awe, a single pair of horns was still on her head and Bloom couldn't help the soft “Oh you are so precious.” that slipped out of her mouth.

“Soo pretty!” The girl muttered, her wide eye reflecting the dancing reds and blues of Bloom's hair, as she tried to reach for it. Bloom caught the hand, before it could do much more than feel the heat of her hair, but it was enough to end whatever had held the other Dragonborn back. Within moments she was surrounded by her people. All of them spoke excitedly in the Dragon speech. Hearing her language floating through the room in so many different voices and tones, the feeling of more and more connections solidifying with each touch to her skin and then the little baby that was put into her arms, was what made Bloom start to cry.

In her arms she was holding a baby, not much older than a few months, a little sky blue tail sticking out of the blanket, little horn numbs and soft blue scales all over their face and arms. Her people were alive. Her people were thriving. She wasn’t alone.

Bloom was the Queen of an icy tundra. Bloom was the queen of a cursed no-man's-land, but she wasn’t the queen of dead people. She wasn’t the Queen of an extinguished nation. They were scattered, sure, but they were alive!

Chapter Text

Musa was vibrating with excitement and Valtor was seconds away from exploding. Bloom started humming almost absentmindedly. Icy hissed, Stormy cracked lighting and left the room and Darcy only groaned. Their boy’s were stifling laughter, where they were piloting the ship. Valtor only stared at Bloom. She could feel the hated in his eyes burning into the side of her face.

Musa, as Bloom had hoped, stopped vibrating as she picked up the song Bloom had started humming and within seconds the melody of Bohemian Rhapsody filled the cockpit and Bloom turned her head to shoot him a smug look. To add a cherry on top of his irritation she mouthed a silent Your welcome! Seeing his eye twitch with irritation was so worth it.

It had been two days since they had left Zenith and Bloom was still riding on the high of meeting and connecting to some of her people. She knew better than to expect the same thing from Melody, or the other planet’s that she would be visiting, but she knew that Stella had already organised for them to meet the Smith’s of Solaria, one of the most well known group of surviving Dragonborn in the whole dimension.

“Are we going to make some grand statement on Melody like we did on Zenith?” Darcy’s voice was loaded with passive aggressiveness, but Musa only turned to her and smiled.

“Nope!” She popped the P and Bloom caught Riven’s smitten look. “We are going to meet on neutral land.” Musa explained, Bloom had already heard the whole explanation a day earlier, after Angus and Kwame had taken over flying the ship for Riven and Timmy. “So we are meeting on Aria Harmony.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see Valtor perk up, clearly the famous Island was worth his attention.

“That’s the Island where the different continents meet for official festivals and such right?” Darcy asked, something like excitement growing out her irritation.

Musa nodded. “Considering the importance of this meeting the Nations thought it would be in bad taste to host it on one of the Continents, so Aria Harmony was chosen.”

The Planet of Melody was divided in many different sovereign states and countries over two main continents and several smaller island lands. Bloom still couldn’t keep them apart, especially because there were a lot of States that had the same names and only differed in the Suffix that was added. For example the city states Melody. There was Melody Harmony and Melody Aria and those weren’t the only ones, just thinking about it made her head hurt. Musa was from Harmony, several of the lower year students were from Aria and there was Galatea, who’s home the Humming Isles were considered neutral. It was a bit of an Alfea wide sport to get them all to cross paths and then just enjoy the way the air grew heavy with Melodies and tension. Although everyone knew better than to make the fairies from Melody aware of that little fact. There was a reason why Fairies from Melody weren’t allowed to work together outside of emergencies. Apparently it was worse than Stella’s first first year disaster.

“How many of the Countries will be attending?” Valtor asked and Bloom felt herself tensing, as much as she loves Musa, this was a bit of a breaking point for her. More people in danger.

“Pretty much everyone.” Musa chirped in excitement. The air in the ship changed and Bloom smiled, she couldn’t hear Musa’s melodies, not like people from Melody could, but she could feel the way it changed the air around them. Which wasn’t easy to decipher, but Bloom was pretty good at picking out excitement, sadness and anger. This right now was excitement.

“Just tell them.” Bloom said with a smile. She still hadn’t understood why Musa had kept it quiet. Sure she understood that it was a big deal, but there wasn’t really a need to not tell the rest of them. Especially since she had told Bloom and the boy’s immediately.

“Tell us what?” Icy asked sharply.

“The High Note realm will attend too.” Bloom watched them all. Stormy- who was leaning in the door- didn’t seem to know what that meant, Darcy was still thinking about it, while Icy was gaping. When she turned to look at Valtor she had to suppress a grin. He was ridged in his seat, staring at Musa like she was holding all the answers, and according to their bond, there was sharp greed and want and need. Bloom let out a soft growl. It filled the cockpit and made Musa go stiff. Valtor, the absolute Bastard completely ignored her until she forced their bond to flare.

“WHAT?!” He snapped and Bloom just raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like I can do anything.” He grumbled and sounded almost petulant.

“I am willing to bet against you on this one.” Bloom said softly. “From what I understand the High Note realm, can outwit even you.” He growled back at her and Bloom rolled her eyes. “So do us both a favour and do not embrace either of us or our people.”

“What people?” He snapped and a moment later he was out of the cockpit.

“What was that about?” Riven asked hesitantly.

“The High Note Realm is the oldest civilization of Melody, one of our first.” Musa explained softly. “They never fell to any war or any attack, since they reside on a flying island that can move as fast as the wind and is so magically powerful it would need the Dragon herself to destroy.”

“Ok so powerful people, nice, what now?”

“It’s a Conservatory, it is the conservatory.” Musa whispered. “It is basically the equivalent to the Library of Livre. Every song ever written, every melody over hummed it is recorded there. It is magic so old and powerful nobody even understands it anymore.” Musa was rapidly going down into a frenzy and Bloom leaned back, happy to let her friend have fun.

“The seven muses themself guard it and decide who is allowed to study under them. If the rumours are true then there are spirits of the greatest of our Guardians still up there, teaching and preserving the knowledge of our people.”

“So in other words, paradise for Valtor.” Helia said dryly. Musa pulled a face as Riven snorted. Bloom just rolled her eyes.

“My biggest concern is insulting them.” She muttered darkly. “I can not deal with an incident like that three months into my reign.” She shot another look out of the window where Melody was coming into view. “And considering we are almost there…” Bloom let out a sigh and stood up. “I’m gonna talk to him, just in case.” Zenith was one thing. Their biggest secrets were guarded by Mother. He never had a chance in the first place with their bond and everything, but Melody was vulnerable. She just couldn’t deal with the thought of risking them right now.

***

Knocking was decidedly not working, so Bloom let her head fall against the door and tried not to scream. “Look, we both know you can hear me.” She finally said, because while she had pride, she was more focused on making sure that Musa stayed happy. “How about a deal?” She asked and the slightest reaction echoed down the bond.

“If you don’t start anything, and don’t end anything in a fight, I am willing to let you have supervised access to the council library.” Their bond got very still and Bloom knew she got him. She leaned back just enough that she wouldn't fall into him once the door opened, but Bloom refused to budge. Which was how she ended up almost chest to chest with Valtor.

“Unsupervised.” He demanded and Bloom snorted.

“Absolutely not.” He narrowed his eyes at her and Bloom raised an eyebrow. “You will also not get any permanent access to the library.” She said with a sweet smile that made him twitch.

“Daily supervised access.” He tried and Bloom thought about that one.

“Once a week for as long as you want, unless anything needs my attention.” She offered.

“Twice a week.”

“Twice a week” His face twisted in triumph. “One of those for as long as you want and one of them for a restricted amount of time.” His face fell again, Bloom sighed.

“Do I have to remind you that I’m still in school? And that I have the Council duties and the stuff tailing the Council to deal with. Two day’s all day in the library isn’t something I can do!” She snapped.

“Then don’t be the one to supervise.” He hissed back and now Bloom made a step back.

“I’m not stupid enough to do that.” She said flatly. “Take it or leave it and be ready to feel the bond all week.” She said flatly, ready to turn around. She felt more than heard his frustrated growl.

“Fine.” He snapped. “But the second time is at least five hours.” Bloom thought about it. She could do paperwork and homework at that time and hell she could use the time and Tecna’s cameras to sit in on her classes.

“Deal,” She said, turning back and offering her hand. He shook it and their bond roared to life ready to hold them to their word.

“Ah fuck…” Bloom uttered. Even Valtor seemed unhappy by the turn of events.

***

Melody's atmosphere was as diverse as earths. At least that was what she had understood after years of research. She knew that Musa’s home country was one of the smallest, high in the mountain region right in the middle of the continent of Harmony. The Humming Isles, where Galatea was from, was right in the middle of the ocean, between Harmony and Aria and had an accordingly humid climate.

The island of Aria Harmonie, while mostly named to keep the peace and symbolise neutrality, had also a much more neutral climate. The air was warm and humid, but not enough that it would bother anyone. Bloom- according to her friends- wasn’t allowed to talk about temperature issues, because she was a Dragonborn. To be fair though, none of them really were allowed to do that, if going by that logic. Musa and Tecna both were used to much colder climates. Flora and Aisha were born in the humid hell holes that were Lynphea and Andros- Bloom loved her friends, but not even her fathers water dragon genes weren’t helping her on their planets, so yes she was biassed. As for Stella, well Solaria had three suns, it was honestly a wonder that she wasn’t used to a desert climate. Bloom was simply discriminated against, because she was a fire fairy and from a fire line.

“You’re biassed, on the basis that you set yourself on fire while you sleep.” Musa grumbled as she pushed past Bloom. There was a smile on her friend's lips as Bloom flipped her off.

“Bloom!” Galatea's excited voice was radiating happiness and excitement loud enough that Bloom felt a smile tugging on her lips.

“Hey.” She greeted the other fairy with a smile, not hesitating for a second to pull her into a hug. There were cameras going up in the distance, but Bloom didn’t care.

“How are you?” Bloom asked, taking a quick look over Galatea's shoulder to look for Galatea's father. The man was nice, his voice had this rumbling quality that reminded her of the Dragons on Pyros. The man waved at Bloom with a huge smile, which faltered after a moment, replaced by worry and fear. Bloom reared around, her hair already smoking. Icy, Darcy and Stormy were at the top of the landing, looking down at them, as if nothing was happening.

“Musa, fuck talk to me!”

This had to be the worst thing about this fucking suspension. Bloom could deal with being benched if it meant her friends were ok. Fuck, Bloom could deal with having to work three times the homework, because apparently not being able to be in school meant that she had the time to learn more. What she couldn’t deal with was watching her friends fight, while she was in her room on earth. They were a team, they were a unit, they had their roles and right now Bloom was so far removed from her role it made her sick.

The live stream, Tecna had set up for her, was meant to make sure she wouldn’t miss classes. It had been meant to keep her in the loop, it wasn’t supposed to make her watch Musa burn in their school library.

“MUSA!” She shouted, her voice less human and more like the spitting cracking of fire exploding. She heard her dad running up the stairs, but Bloom couldn’t look away. Musa was in the fire, Musa and Galatea were both in the flames with the Trix, who according to Tecna had gotten another magic boost. Another planet robbed of their spells and magic. Fuck where was Faragonda?

Why wasn’t she back there with her friends?

“Aww…” Icy’s voice was like putting petrol right into a flame. “Two little fairies, well that seems a bit unfair, doesn’t it?”

Her door opened and she knew her dad was right behind her, but all Bloom could see was the way Musa was thrown back. The way her friend barely managed to put up the shield Bloom had taught her. The shield that would protect her from any flame and heat.

“Musa.” Bloom whispered, something dark and violent, something loud, she hadn’t heard in months started whispering in the back of her head. Let me help. It whispered with a voice too gently and too sweet, but Bloom pushed it back. Not right now, she couldn’t do this right now!

“Musa- the spell- use the fire whip I taught you.” Bloom called out, fumbling for the head set Tecna had made her, trying to make Musa hear her.

“How about we make you a fairy with a handicap?” There was a sound of stepping onto untouched snow, crunching and cracking. Bloom felt both herself and her dad freeze. The memories of this sound in their home crashing into her like a tidal wave. Bloom remembered the way their living room bookshelf had pressed into her spine. The cold seeped into her bones, burning her flesh.

“Ding.” Stormy’s voice sounded delighted and sweet and a little bit like a child’s voice. Moments later something splintered. It wasn’t like glass, Bloom had thought that it would sound like glass shattering into a million pieces. It didn’t, it sounded like an ancient tree falling, sounded like fire being doused with water, sounded like glaciers breaking apart. It sounded like the sharp “fip” of an arrow being shot. It sounded like something ancient, something familiar and something wrong at the same time.

Bloom watched through the camera in Musa’s pin, how Galatea's wings shattered. Watched how Galatea turned motionless. Bloom wasn’t there, she couldn’t feel the Princesses melody, but Bloom knew deep in her bones that Galatea was silent. The glowing pieces of wings clattered to the floor with the sound of a wind spiel, elegant, gentle and jarring. The Trix cackled and threw words that Bloom couldn’t hear, as they disappeared. Galatea was still frozen. Motionless in a way that Bloom knew from three years with Musa, were absolutely unnatural.

“Galatea.” Bloom whispered, she was crying, something in her was breaking, she was a healer, she was supposed to be there. She was supposed to stop this, to protect first years like Galatea from this, yet here she was useless on the ground in her childhood bedroom, watching as someone that looked up to her was hurt, because she wasn’t good enough.

Galatea's knees gave out and for the first time, Bloom saw the way the Melody manifested into something visible. Deep dark magic that swirled like smoke, like ink in water wrapped around Galatea as she fell, vibrating and spreading. It doused the fire just a metre around her and Musa. Galatea's fairy form started to flicker as the darkness intensified. Breaking apart and slowly disintegrating.

She was screaming, before she hit the ground, Galatea's melody exploding outward. The scream was like nothing Bloom had ever heard. It was something that settled in her bones, that fed the dark thing inside of her and that she couldn’t describe with words, or thoughts or experiences. It was something so unique, it was as jarring as the action that had caused the scream.

“Shit.” Riven’s curse brought Bloom crashing out of the flashback. She didn’t hesitate, without a thought she turned and grabbed for Galatea turning around them until she was looking up at the ship and Galatea back at her father. Bloom grabbed for the golden light inside of her. The light Maya had called a gift. Bloom only knew it from healing, from protecting. It was what had helped her in her darkest moments and she forced it to the surface. She forced it into her palms where she was holding onto Galatea and made it mingle with the faint impression of Galatea's melody, she could sense.

“Breathe, gentle voice.” Bloom whispered. “Breathe and listen to this.” Bloom couldn’t imitate the natural melody that every person on the planet sends out from birth. It was their special gift that had given the planet its name. Bloom knew better than to try to imitate it, what she could do though was to make Galatea feel the magic.

It was a bit like her own Aura vision, like Tecna’s magic sense. People from Melody didn’t just feel magic, because it was in them. They felt it because it changed the world around them, because it had a frequency. So Bloom forced the healing into her palms, forced it until her fingers hurt with the amount of magic she was holding in them. Forced it up until her skin felt like splitting apart every second now and she made Galatea focus on it.

“Breathe, gentle voice and sing me the song of my magic.” Bloom commanded just like Musa had taught them. Galatea opened her mouth, even though her eyes were still clouded with fear and tears that were streaming down her cheeks. The first tone wavered, the seconds died in her throat, but then her voice was as bright as the magic in Bloom's hand, was warm as the heat Bloom radiated and beating like their hearts.

“Ok gentle voice.” Bloom muttered and felt Musa hold onto her arm, her brilliant voice joined Galatea and then Galatea's father was there, grabbing for where Bloom was holding onto his daughters arm and his voice joined them too. Bloom stayed silent, as she carefully dimmed her magic, pulled the healing back into herself, made the three voices go quieter and quieter until they stopped.

“Ok?” Bloom breathed once Galatea was able to focus on her again. She got a silent nod as an answer. “They attack you and they break their contract.” Bloom whispered gently, knowing all too well that every single person could hear her. Her dragon senses were one thing, but the hearing of a Melodian was something different. “They are mine through bond, and mind and magic and soul, they hurt you and I burn them myself.” Galatea hiccuped and Bloom stepped back in an instance, allowing her father to guide her away. He nodded at her once. Bloom stayed where she was on the landing of the Arcadia, with Musa still holding onto her arm, humming a song Daphne had taught them. Neither of them spoke, neither of them had too, they both knew what the other thought. Bloom raised her head just enough to meet the wide eyes of the Trix, where they had frozen. They had the gall to look confused, scared even. Bloom met each of their eyes. Watched them rear back, with fear and smiled, a sharp grin that had more teeth than probably natural. Daphne’s seal wavering when faced with the pure rage burning in Bloom. She didn’t need to say a thing to make them understand that she had meant her words.

They would burn before they could hurt her friend again.

***

“Huh…” Stella’s voice was quiet enough that it made alarm bells in Flora’s head ring. Stella only ever got this quiet when something bad was about to happen. Everyone in Alfea knew to seek shelter immediately if Stella got quiet. So hearing her friend mutter a quiet little Oh made Flora’s fight instinct kick in hard.

“Ah fuck.” Aisha muttered next to her slumping deeper into her seat while Tecna just stared into Stella’s direction. They were still tired from the training Griselda had put them through this morning and another unauthorised council session. Really by now those idiots should have gotten the message.

“If something is going to blow up I’m going to rip you apart Stella.” Flora grumbled as she got out of her seat. A’Sha had, sometime in the last two weeks, made a little nook for them. Empty spell protected shelves all around them so that they could store the books they were reading and referencing, without the magic of the Library kicking in and returning the books in their original place. A second shelf for the proper storage of scrolls and then a locker for their notes and papers, that was keyed into their magic, so that nobody, not even A’Sha could get to them. That wasn’t even talking about the privacy and anti spying spells above their little nook. Flora was growing more and more fond of the librarian and she was pretty sure that if they ever managed to free Domino, that Bloom would drag A’Sha up to Bartleby to make her his apprentice again.

Stella just held out a small scroll, so that Flora could read over her shoulder.

The library of the high council is divided into three parts.

The library, which is divided into the public library, the Council Library and the private collection for the Heads of the Council. The public library is only secured by anti-stealing charms as well as charms preventing any damage of copying of the books, otherwise there are no precautions to who can enter or what can be read, since most books here are publicly available for everyone.

The council library is only open to members of the High Council, be it stationary members or the travelling ones. Here are council records stored that have been taken during private sessions as well as high risk topics and spell books that should be protected. Therefore this part of the library has to be keyed to the members and the security is much higher. (Note: the author isn’t part of the council and has therefore no access to the specific protections.)

The Head library is only keyed to the Head of the Council themselves. They can invite other people to enter the library and read the books, which are stored there, but it is an invitation that ends when the person sets foot outside of the Head library.

“Huh…” Flora muttered, gesturing for Tecna to come over so that she could project the information on the scroll.

“That’s not what got me.” Stella said, her eyes were narrowed in a look that would send Griselda into a fit. “The other two parts are the really interesting ones.”

That sent Tecna into overdrive and within seconds she had a projection running.

The second part of the Library is the archives. They can only be acted if someone was invited in by the Head of the Council. While members of the council can enter this part and read almost all records kept there, they are not authorised to change or remove anything. It is said that the whole history of the Magical Dimension is stored in this part of the Council Palace as well as all the information to keep our societies running.

“Now that is interesting.” Aisha muttered. “Do we know where the Archives are?”

“A’sha pointed them out to Bloom. They are in the back through the golden gate and then down.” Stella explained. “They are directly under the library and yes the golden gate in Alfea is inspired by this one.”

“Do we have access to the Archive?”

“Bloom welcomed us in, so I think so.” Aisha muttered, she and Stella started discussing it, but Flora kept reading.

The third part of the Library is the Confessional. It is a chamber hidden within the depths of the library in a way that nobody knows how to find it. Legend says it originated from an ancient and long eradicated creature that tried to take the burden off of people, by making them speak their darkest truth. This creature found solace in the heart of planet Magix when the truths and horrors told to it got too much and it died encased in the crystal that was later raised to build the Council Palace. Since the magic of the creature remained, the Confessional was created.

There is very little known about the Confessional, aside from that it will be found by those that are in true need of it and that every confession ever made in it can not be unspoken, can not be hidden. Some rumours say that every member of the High Council will be faced with the Confessional at least once, that is the price they have to pay for the privilege of sitting on the crystal table. A secret for power.”

“The confessional.” Flora said absentmindedly and Stella snapped around to her.

“That’s the part that got to me.” Stella whispered. “If that is true, if every member has been inside the Confessional, that nothing can be hidden…”

“It would be the thing we need.” Aisha whispered, awe in her eyes. “It would probably not hold up in any court or even public opinion, but…”

“It would give us the facts that we need to find the paper trail.” Tecna said, picking up on Aisha’s thought process. “If we know what we are looking for it is only a matter of time until we find it.”

“Yes, but how do we find it and why hasn’t it found us yet?” Stella asked and Flora blinked at her friend.

“What do you mean?” Flora asked. Stella turned to her, while highlighting the passage.

“Why weren’t we approached by it yet? Who but us holds so many secrets? It should be all over us.”

“We aren’t members of the council.” Aisha whispered. “We are members of the thirteen and seven. Bloom and I are members of the Trinity, but aside from Bloom none of us are actually members of the High Council of Magix. We are the control and the thing breathing down their necks, we have no power in the Council, not truly.”

“But we can still access it.” Flora continued the thought. “Nothing in the text says that access to the Confessional is limited to the Council. They HAVE to share a secret, because they are members of the council, but just because we don’t, doesn’t mean we can’t do it and go through the records in there.”

“So we need to shift our attention from the Library, to the Archive and Confessional.” Tecna summarised.

“Yes, I mean it’s been six weeks in the Council library and we found nothing, not even the financial records. Unless they are in the Head library, we won’t get anywhere just going through file after file.” Stella huffed in clear annoyance.

“Well then…” Aisha started, but Flora shot them all a withering look.

“Not today, I’m beyond tired, let’s just stop here and take a break please! We have a new goal, let’s just…” Her friends shared a look, none of them really wanted to stop, but Flora saw the signs in all of them. They were running themselves ragged, they needed a break or Griselda would do worse than give them a health lecture.

“Ok fine…a day in town?” Stella asked, her eyes shining. “It’s been too long since we just had fun.”

***

The transition from tense confrontation and threatening to having almost fun little conversations over music on earth was as jarring, as it was needed. The last week on Zenith she couldn’t really do much aside from asking questions, asking for clarifications and asking for clarifications again. She knew a bit about technology, it came with being Tecna’s roommate. That didn’t mean she had any clue how to explain earth’s technology in any way.

Music on the other hand, music Bloom understood. She hadn’t been a theatre kid, but she had worked with the art club on enough theatre backgrounds to know her way around music.Not even talking about the endless hours she had spent with Andy wither in the practise rooms of his mums dance school or listening to him explain how he created his songs. After five years around Musa that had turned into solid knowledge of terms and some decent singing skills.

“Stop it,” Musa grumbled next to Bloom. “You have an amazing voice.”

“Nothing compared to yours.” Bloom answers which earned her several soft snickers from the people around them. Galatea was there and so was a large group of royalty from Harmony, but also some people from Aria. She had been introduced to all of them, but she barely could remember any names.

“I have to agree with our Guardian Fairy.” A princess spoke up. “We all have heard the legends about the beautiful voices that the Dragonborn have, will we be graced with a song from you your Majesty? I mean it's a tradition during the feast.”

The part of Bloom that had been drilled on etiquette and protocols knew what feast the princess was talking about. Tomorrow there would be a large feast, that basically took all day and was a way of letting each royal show off their prowess with their musical skills.

“It’s been over three years since I have gotten any lessons in singing, and unlike you I actually need them.” Bloom smiled tightly. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Singing…she was supposed to sing tomorrow. She couldn’t sing! She couldn't risk everyone, she would…

“I know it isn’t that late, but we have been travelling all day. Would you mind if I kidnap my friend and show her around the island a bit?”

Musa’s warm hand on her under arm and her words were like a life raft. Bloom smiled tightly at the gathered group that looked a bit confused and let herself be led away.

“Breathe.” Musa commanded, once they were on an empty path leading down to the water.

“Muse, I can’t!” Bloom whispered, between deep breaths. “I can’t do that.”

“B.” Musa started, but Bloom just shook her head. “Please don’t.” The grip on her arm tightened comfortingly for a moment, before Musa led her silently down to the water.

Bloom didn’t hesitate to slip on her shoes and wade into the warm water.

“Isha will be so smug about you doing this.” Musa muttered. “She won a lot of money today.”

“Why do you always bet on what I am going to do?” Bloom asked, without any heat. Musa snorted and joined her in the water.

“Because you do stuff nobody expects all the time. Let us have fun with it.”

“Fair.”

They stood like that for a while, staring into the dark water.

“Does it feel better?” Bloom finally asked. Musa was silent for long enough that Bloom wondered if she had to rephrase the question.

“It’s so much calmer.” Musa breathed. “Ever since they stole the Instruments of the realms Melody had been off-key. Its melodies are not right and too quiet, but when they return it…” Musa stopped and smiled. “It feels like my home again.” She whispered, turning to look at Bloom. “I can hear every single song clearly instead of it being a garbled mess.”

“The magic was beautiful.” Bloom whispered. Melodies Magic and the magic of this dimension ring had been various shapes of reds and pinks, when Valtor and the Trix had done their ritual. In combination with the setting sun it had been so very magical. Words had written themself into the sky as Libra’s magic disappeared, the magic of Opaque- the planet that Bloom had dubbed the Art Realm- had enhanced everything around them in a way that made it look both realistic and like…well a painting. Melodies magic had shown itself in strings upon strings of sheet notes drifting across the sky like northern light and the Instruments of the Realm, a collection of Instruments that were quite literally made of Magic had returned to their owners.

“It almost feels normal again.” Musa said after a long moment of silence in which they just listened to the waves lapping around their feet and breaking gently on the beach. “Some of our birds and animals are already returning to their songs.” Bloom blinked and focused some more. Musa was right, there were a few hesitant sounds coming from nature all around them. “By the time we are going to leave they should be back to their…”

Musa froze where she stood, going utterly motionless. Bloom did too. Something was happening. It was like a switch had been flicked. Everything had gone utterly silent. Even the faint sounds of the party far behind them slowly stopped. Without thinking Bloom grabbed into all four bonds she had, pulling onto them until she could feel them. All four of them were confused and in the case of the Trix a bit terrified about the strange feeling of their bond being pulled. Right, unlike Valtor they hadn’t really felt that one before.

What is going on? Valtor's voice was deceptively calm, but she could feel him getting ready to fight through the bond.

I don’t… Bloom started, but stopped when she realised that everything had gone silent.

“Bloom” Musa’s voice was vibrating. Her pitch rose in the single word in a way that made Bloom’s dragon rear its head.

“It’s not them, they are just as…” Bloom stopped and looked down at her feed. There was magic in the water. Swelling and raising, moving and dancing through the water like a song.

“Musa…” Bloom whispered as slowly but steadily the ocean before them lit up in the most beautiful shade of red and pink. It reminded Bloom about the algae on earth that once a year would glow blue. Behind them there were shouts and Bloom picked up the faint sound of steps.

“Bloom…” Musa whispered her voice vibrating with awe. “Bloom this…” She faltered again when the magic swelled again, turning into a storm of power. Bloom gasped, trying to wrap her head around the feeling, but before she could she realised that she was on her knees, her dress soaking in the glowing water. The feeling of the magic even more intense, now that she had more points of contact.

She heard it a second before it happened. Just a single moment of clarity as the magic turned into music. Hauntingly beautiful music that was full of grief and joy and change. Bloom wanted to close her eyes and bask in the feeling of it. The way the music vibrated in her bones, wrapped around her head, weaved itself into her burning hair and made her mind so much clearer. The way it made focusing easier, it felt like the music was slowly sorting through her brain, making it easier to see and feel and understand everything.

Just then the music reached its peak. Joining the feeling of magic in the air, turning into a beautiful duet, but made Bloom’s dragon purr with pleasure.

The water a hundred or so metres away broke, forming a spray of glowing water from which a single creature emerged. Faintly Bloom heard Musa sob and the rising voice behind them, but her focus was on the giant whale that was sailing through the air in an arc that should have been impossible for an animal of its size. Then again, this was literally a magical animal with deep red glowing markings on its lilac body, why was she questioning it?

The whale reached the highest point of its arc and let out a single note. A single note that was both high and low, that was sorrowful and happy. A note that was from the beginning to the end filled with magic and emotion. It saturated the air, vibrated in the water and stayed in Bloom's head until it almost sounded like a word.

Intimissimo

For a long second it felt as if the whale was looking straight at her, its giant eye full of joy and warmth, it was like they could see everything in her, every emotion and feeling. This, Bloom realised faintly, this was what the third Ring was about. Feeling, emotions and how to make them powerful.

The whale sang another note as it hit the water again and the world exploded around them.

Insects started humming, birds let out trills and high notes. Animals that Bloom wouldn’t even know how to categorise joined the song that was slowly saturating the air.

Musa hit the water next to Bloom, forced on her knees, just like Bloom had been. It was too loud and not loud enough. Bloom felt as if she was vibrating out of her skin, and at the same time as if her skin wasn’t enough. Her dragon howled inside of her and it was only then that Bloom realised that she was humming a single note. It died in her throat the moment she realised what she was doing, but it didn’t matter, because a whole pot of whales jumped out of the water, their voices joining the song around them.

Bloom starred and listened to everything, every last noise joined this incredible symphony and found its place in it. Even the waves seemed to follow a rhythm.

“They are back.” Musa whispered and Bloom turned her head to look at her friend. Musa was crying, gentle tears that fell from her chin into the water and even though Bloom knew that there was no way she could hear them hit the water, she was sure that it was Musa’s tears that gave this song its beat and tempo. “The singing whales are back.”

Chapter Text

“Griselda?” Flora asked softly, she knew why her friends had asked her to do it. Flora also knew that they weren’t standing here at six am on a Saturday because something had happened, but from the look in Griselda’s eyes she wasn’t suspecting anything good.

“Did you kill anyone?”

“No Ma’am.” Flora replied evenly. “And even if we did, there would be no evidence.” Her friends choked both on laughter and their own shock behind her, but Flora didn’t move a muscle. Griselda looked back at her and after a moment she gave Flora an approving nod.

“With your combination of powers I would hope so.” Her friends were choking again, while Flora gave their teacher a sharp grin. “So what do you want?”

“Permission to be excused from training today.” Griselda went very still.

“That is something you have to go to Faragonda to get.”

“No we don’t.” Flora answered confidently. “The rules say that the teacher responsible for us has to allow our absences. Responsibility is defined by the teacher, who is our main point of contact while on campus.” Griselda crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back, looking at all four of them with a calculating look. “Which means you, Ma’am” Flora finished. They stared at each other for a long moment, while her friends fidgeted behind her, Flora stayed calm. She had grown up in the wildest parts of Lynphea, because of her parents' work, where staring down things that were more dangerous than you, could save your life. Griselda was more dangerous than Flora, because she could rat them out, but at the same time Flora was hoping that she wouldn’t, they all respected Griselda more than Faragonda, something Griselda knew, they had made it very clear many times even before the whole marriage debacle.

“Why?”

“We have a lead.” was all Flora answered.

“Why do you ask?” Now all four of them snorted.

“Because we would like to live.” Flora replied dryly. “Missing class or training, because the Council can not respect us and us having to remind them of our power is one thing. Missing training, because we have a lead is something else. We are idiots, but not stupid.” There was another long moment of silence before Griselda’ mouth ticked up.

“Permission granted.” Her friends broke into quiet cheers, but Flora kept her eyes on their teacher. “On the condition that you find me a translation of Queen Eris' book on Magical Combat.” Flora thought about it. Queen Eris was one of Bloom's ancestors, who had revolutionised magical combat, by writing a series of books, based on the different creatures on different planets.

“Which one?” Flora asked. If she remembered the number right, and she did, because Bloom had had an absolute conniption when she found out that there were 59 books written by her many times great-grandmother, the series was rather extensive.

“Rune.”

“Deal.” Flora said and reached out a hand, Griselda didn’t hesitate to grab it.

“The four of you are excluded from all of today’s lessons.”

***

Galatea let the last note ring out, before she lowered the bow of her cello and Bloom tried her best to not sob. Musa grabbed for her hand and Bloom squeezed back hard, a soft sound made it out of her throat and around her the crowd started clapping. It startled Galatea out of the trance she had been in and she shot a quick smile into the crowd before quickly moving off the stage.

“That was a personal attack, wasn’t it?” Bloom coughed out and Musa nodded. Bloom risked a quick look to her left where the Trix sat and found all three of them frozen in their seats. As they fucking should. What had started as a traditional song from Galatea's home realm, had slowly but steadily turned into something else. Something more heartbroken, something painful, something that sounded like that day in Alfea’s library. Her heart was still hammering in her chest when the wait staff brought out another round of meals. It was getting let and the day had been long. So far Bloom had eaten way too much food, but she also really enjoyed herself. There had been almost a hundred performances. Beautiful lullabies and heartbreaking duets, as well as quiet literally magically charged group performances as well as a myriad of different instrumentals. It was beautiful and Bloom's inner artist- as her friends liked to call it- was basically purring inside of her chest, content with the amount of beauty and art she had experienced so far.

“What a…” Someone tried to say, but clearly didn’t find the right words to express what they were saying, especially when Galatea joined them back at the table where she was immediately hugged by her father.

“A beautiful but heartbreaking performance.” Someone else piped in, a kindly smiling woman. Out of the corner of her eye Bloom saw the three representatives of the High Note Realm share a look. Without thinking about it she let a bit of her aura sight taint her vision.

Idiots One of them was thinking.

How do you not hear the trauma in those notes? Another one and Bloom pulled back immediately. Stupid idea. Stupid, stupid idiot idea. Valtor elbowed her arm and Bloom jumped. Several pairs of eyes focused on her for a few seconds she smiled and turned to Musa who was humming again.

Close your side of the connection or get you feelings under control. He hissed down said connection and Bloom flipped him of mentally and then slammed the doors close. Dragon why did she have to open this stupid link? What had she been thinking?

“What inspired it, Princess Galatea?” Someone asked. Bloom and Musa froze in sync. The vassal bonds she had with the Trix all fared with terror and the High Note Nymphs looked like they would like to kill the asker. Bloom for her part was focused on Galatea where she had frozen with her water half to her mouth. Bloom didn’t need her aura vision or the melody to figure out that her friend was panicking. The slight tremor in her hands, the way her throat bobbed and the even for Bloom audible garble of notes that was Galateas melody made that very clear on it’s own.

“Lord Hayato” One of the Nymphs thundered her voice booming with anger. Bloom met Galateas eyes where they had found hers. Galatea wasn’t as well versed in their sign language as the rest of her friends, but when Bloom silently asked if she was ok she got a nod and then as very shaky I can’t do this!

Bloom shot Musa a look. Her friend was still looking at Galatea, but there was something calculating on her face.

“Tell them.” She whispered Bloom's head snapped around. Faintly she could hear the Nymphs of the High Note continuing in their furious scolding and Valor’s disbelief down the bond, but all Bloom could really focus on was the jump between looking at Musa and Galatea.

What? She asked silently. Musa turned and there was the look of the spy instead of her friend. This wasn’t a friendly situation, this was political.

Ask her for permission first! Bloom demanded and then looked at Galatea, watched her friend's face lose all colour and then harden. Her eyes flicked over to Bloom and she got one hard nod.

“Shattered wings”

Her own words, even though Bloom had consciously said them, sounded strange and like someone else had said them, silenced the screaming and all the muttering around them at once. An amazing record scratch one could say. Bloom straightened as all eyes turned to her, her hand was still holding onto Musas, her eyes still locked with Galateas, checking if she was going too far.

The terror in the bonds with the Trix hightened somehow even more and in her chest Valtor was a bright flame of curiosity.

“Excuse me?” Someone at the end of the table choked out.

“Shattered wings inspired that song.” Bloom stated calmly, still focused on Galatea, her aura vision sparking again to help her with keeping Galatea safe. She was still trembling, still shaken, but she was ok. There was another nod.

Keep going

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?” Bloom leaned back in her seat letting her eyes dart over all the people she could see. Galatea's father who looked wary, but content to let it play out and all the people Bloom couldn’t name or place, but were absolutely shocked by her words.

“I mean I was banished at that point, stranded on earth, but I still knew what was happening!” Maybe she was mocking them. Maybe she was playing a game she was sure to lose, but at the same time Galatea's scream was ringing in her ears and the look on her face was right there behind her eyes. If they really didn’t know, if Faragonda had covered that up, then…cold dread settled in her stomach, what else did she cover up?

“What are you talking about?” It was one of the High Notes representatives, genuine confusion and concern in her voice. Bloom leans forward again.

“Galatea's wings were shattered.” She said softly, watching how people flinched and darted a quick look at her. Galatea was still looking at her, her jaw set, focused only on Bloom.

“It was back in our third year, when the Trix and Valtor occupied Cloud Tower. They attacked Alfea and robbed our Library, Galatea found them and …” Bloom hesitated and shot another look at her friend, another look.

“They held her hostage until a fire was started, at which point they shattered her wings.” The out cries started immediately. People jumped up, shouting were heard all around and more than one person transformed or summoned their magic. Someone actually pulled their fist back to attack. The Vassal bond turned burning hot.

“ATTACK MY VASSALS” Bloom thundered, her magic lacing through her voice and making it sound like the giant dragons of Pyros. Once again everyone froze. The room suddenly smelled of fear, her inner dragon roared with victory. “Attack my Vassals,” Bloom repeated, much calmer now that she would be easily heard. She leaned forward to look at the person who had started it and fixed him with a gaze she knew was more Dragonborn than anything else. “And my husband and I will finish you.”

“Why are you defending them?” Someone behind Bloom asked and she scoffed.

“Because they are already paying for it.” She answered, turning back to Galatea. She was as ok as she could get. Bloom kept speaking. “There is an understanding between me, my Vassals and Galatea, they will not go near her unless Galatea approaches, and if they do anything to her…well they will wish their Vassal bond would be broken.” Musa squeezed her hand. Once, twice and third time and Bloom settled back into her seat.

“Besides, that isn’t the point that is concerning me.” She started waiting just long enough to build more tension. “How come nobody in this room had heard about it?” The silence could have been deafening, if Bloom hadn’t revelled in it. Musa was a damn genius.

Topple the empire. Valtors voice was amused as it drifted through their link and Bloom barely managed to suppress her smile.

“I mean I had been exiled by the Council for three months at that point, because of who I am and who Valtor is, and yet I knew of what was happening in Alfea. From what I have seen the only people who knew what I was talking about were my group, Galatea and her father. It’s been three years since her wings were shattered and we somehow managed to restore them. How come none of you knew anything about it, when the Council had a full report?”

Several people around them shifted and shared glances and then started whispering.

“I think…” Someone said, “I think we need a break of half an hour.” People jumped out of their seats as if bitten, but Bloom only cared for Galatea who shot her a shaking smile and mouthed: “Thank you.”

Bloom smiled back.

***

“So…” Stella started and Flora snorted. That was a fair way of saying it. They were standing in front of the Council archives staring at the Golden Gate. It was different from the one in Alfea, much more detailed and of course bigger.

“This is the original Golden Gate?” Stella asked, mustering it as if it was a dress she was contemplating buying.

“The first one that was built, yes.” Tecna said looking up from her laptop. “This is what inspired the other Golden Gates across the demotion.”

“And in turn this was inspired by the Golden Kingdom.” Aisha added, sounding bored. “Yes we know our history.” There was a sharp bitterness in her voice and they all shared a look. The Golden Gate of Andros hadn’t been opened in millennia. Not since the infinite ocean had been sealed and understandably Aisha was pissed off about it.

“Ok, let’s stop looking at this ugly piece of metal and get to the real treasure!” Stella said, cheerfully reaching her hand out and putting it on the large Council crest right in the middle of the gate.

“I, Crown Princess Celeste of Solaria, Dark Fairy of the Sun and Moon, member of the Rule of Thirteen and Seven demand entry on behalf and command of Council head Queen Bloom of Domino.”

For a long moment nothing happened then the metal of the gate turned red hot and finally when Stella didn’t flinch nor move she hadn’t it opened.

“Told you.” Stella said smugly, shooting them all a look. “Nothing compared to my solar blast!”

“It also doesn’t hurt that Bloom taught us how to turn heat into energy.” Tecna muttered under her breath and they all giggled while Stella flipped them off.

“Welcome to the Council Archive ladies.” Stella said once all of them had crossed the Golden Gate and descended the stairs into the dark cave the was said archive.

“Oh wow.” Flora muttered softly, stopping cold on the stairs as the archive came into view. It was a bit like the books and movies Bloom had shown them. Endless rows of solid shelves reaching further than the eyes could reach, slowly descending into darkness.

“Well…” Aisha muttered from next to her. “This is going to be fun.”

“There is a floor plan.” Stella shouted from the bottom of the stairs. She and Tecna were bowed over a large round crystal table that was right at the bottom of the stairs. Forcing everyone coming down here to basically fall over it.

“Please tell me the financial records are down here!” Aisha said and Stella nodded. “Yep, we need to go down until the first major cross way and then left for three. If I’m getting this right, then the shelfs are colour coordinated depending on the section.”

“I need to know who organised this, because they deserve something nice.” Flora said, glancing over the list of different sections carved into the table.

“Let’s split up.” Aisha said after a moment. “Stel and Tec you go over to the finances, since you both are the best in that regard, get me any salaries for the last twenty years. There should be yearly reports. Flo you come with me and look over these session recordings. Let’s meet up here in two hours or until something happens.”

“Does your tea work down here?” Flora asked, since both Bloom and Musa were off planet they couldn’t rely on their hearing for emergencies. Tecna nodded once.

“Everything is working fine, but I want you to check in with me every 100 metres until you reach your section and then every five minutes, deal?” There was a round of agreements.

“And no splitting up.” Stella said darkly. “Secured Archive or not, we will not leave our backs open.” None of them protested.

***

“Where is this meal from?” Bloom asked one of the waiters as they put down the next plate. It was nothing fancy, just a simple soup that smelled of the sea site and smoke.

“Oh.” A delegate from across the table lit up with delight. “This is something the Melodian Dragonborn used to make, it is a receipt that originated from Domino, but was adapted to Melody and our specific spices.”

Bloom startled. She knew that she looked like an utter fool with her mouth hanging open, but this whole situation was just confusing. Musa next to her seemed just as confused, her Melody bursting against Bloom’s arms like a cat.

“There are Dragonborn’s on Melody?” Bloom heard herself ask and all around the table people turned to look at her with confusion.

“There used to be.” One of the Nymphs of the High Note Realm said, her voice cautious. “After Domino’s fall most of them left for Solaria or Lynphea. Why do you seem so shocked, your Majesty?”

Bloom darted a quick look over to Musa who looked back at her with the same wide eyed look.

“While Musa charred a lot of history. It is a fact that my primary source for historical facts areAlfeas history courses. Those always made it sound as if Melody was never welcoming to my people.” Bloom said after a moment. “Considering the phoenixes and songbirds of old, I wasn’t surprised.” Sharp and angry feedback echoed around the room as several people, probably unconsciously used their powers in anger.

“It seems we need to take much more interest in Alfea.” Someone muttered darkly.

“While it is true that the Dragonborn didn’t used to mix with our people like they did on other planets across the dimension, that was because of respect for our gods, not in spite of them.” The same Nymph spoke up again. “The phoenixes and songbirds of old are still children of the Great Dragon after all, and with that came a certain…rivalry.”

Musa snorted and Bloom groaned.

“Are you telling me that Alfea inflated a sibling rivalry?” She asked and felt like sinking into the floor.

“Yes.” Valtor said and Bloom let out a sigh.

“Simeon reminded me to get in contact with Livre. It seems I really need to take a look at their history books.”

“You might want to go to Aika for that, their magic is focused on time and history after all.” Someone else chimed in and Bloom nodded in their direction.

“There are no more Dragonborn on Melody.” One of the Nymphs spoke up, but we still held their songs and music close.”

“As well as the traditions they shared with us.” The first speaker said. “We thought it would be a nice gesture to have one of the meals your people brought to Melody and that is still part of our daily life.” Bloom stared down at the steaming soup before her and tried to not cry. This was the first time in a long time that someone other than Daphne had just shared something about her culture.

“Thank you.” She whispered and for a moment Bloom allowed herself to just bask in the smell of the soup. It was warm and rich and reminded Bloom of the memories Daphne had shared with her in the past. Of the Hestia fields and the Dragon Valleys.

“It smells like home.” She whispered after a moment and soft murmurs started all around her. The first taste reminded her of breathing fire and Bloom completely forgot the people all around her in favour of eating the soup. Faintly she heard Musa explaining something.

“While we are on the topic of Domino, will we hear you singing your Majesty? It’s been too long since Melody has heard a dragon's voice.” Every bit of peace and contentment left Bloom all at once, replaced by soft cotton around her thoughts and the feeling of fingers around her throat.

***

Valtor was old. Older than most nations and in some cases even planets. This meant that he had seen and survived a multitude of Flame guardians. Those that had been trained according to the rites and rituals of both Sparx and later Domino and those that hadn’t. None of those past guardians had been anything like Bloom. Not even Daphne- who had inherited Oritels short temper, unlike Bloom who was following their mother- felt emotions like her. Every last guardian, even those that hadn’t gotten a proper education on his to use their powers, before meeting him, could shield their emotions. One way or another they managed to hide them from him. Bloom didn’t.

From the moment he had woken up in the ice her emotions had been in the back of his head, nothing more than an echo. He hadn’t paid attention to it until Solaria. Because Domino was dead. He had felt the flame dim and go dormant. He had been so sure that his mother’s had whipped out the last true guardian. That the line of the great Dragon his… that he was the last one defended directly from her.

And then he had brushed past Bloom on the stairs of the Solarian Palace. They hadn’t touched, not even through their clothing, but the connection had flared so much brighter than anything before. Curiosity had swapped over to him and suddenly the emotions in the back of his head, the emotions he had told himself were his own, had made sense.

Their first meeting, the real one on Andros, had made him think that she had no control at all over her powers. That she truly was the blundering fool of a fairy the Trix had described. A perfect little fairy in Faragonda’s image. When their connection had muted several months later but her emotions had still been understandable to him, he had started to believe that too. After all, no guardian, no high priestess before Bloom had been so incompetent. No one before Bloom had failed in something so simple as shielding their emotions from him.

But now? After three months of negotiations and nearly a month of marriage, after being properly bonded to Bloom, he had started to doubt himself. He had seen a different side of Bloom and her friends. Scarily competent fairies that reminded him of the fairies of old. The first ones even. The even older part of him, the part of him that had been alive in the flame before it fell into the darkness, that part called them greater than Arcadia. Whatever doubt he had had left after all these months, it shattered right here in the grand hall of Aria Harmony, while Bloom’s emotions were drowning him.

He had thought Bloom had been to incompetent to shield, now with the raw force of her terror and the strange sense of being muted and dizzy, Valtor realised that the problem wasn’t that she couldn’t shield. The problem was that her emotions were too powerful. Valtor pressed his hand to the wood of the table to hide their trembling and turned to look at Bloom.

Her hair burned. It had been burning ever since the little discussion about shattered wings and just how much the Council and Faragonda were hiding. It had changed though. The flames had turned darker, less red and orange and more blue. She was motionless aside from her rapid breathing and the trembling that had taken hold of her whole body.

“Bloom?” The little princess was stopped by nothing more than a silent head shake from the music fairy. Bloom’s friend looked utterly calm and as if she was used to this. As if she was dealing with this every other day. Valtor wanted to dismiss the thought, wanted to scoff, but Bloom’s emotions were so very loud and there were words mixing into them. Thought’s taking shape. Was…was that a hand around his throat?

“She has the most beautiful voice.” Cold dread ripped through the dizziness. The hand disappeared from his throat and settled in-between his shoulder blades, cold and unnatural, as if it was draining his energy.

“Mus…” It was nothing more than a strangled croak, but it was so very loud at the same time.

“No confidence though.” The music fairy was grinning and looking at Bloom, her eyes sharp and challenging even as they were filled with mirth.

“Musa” Bloom tried again and there was something else in her voice. Power.

“And yes she has the Dragons Voice.”

The hand on his back disappeared for a fraction of a second and then five burning claws ripped through his flesh. He barely managed to suppress his gasp, but he could feel the looks of the Trix and several of the delegates. She knew how to shield, she probably was the most scrolled shielder out of all of them, because Valtor was drowning in panic and pain and feelings that weren’t his own and he was sure if this wasn’t stopped in the next few seconds he would learn exactly what caused all of this.

“The problem is that Bloom wasn’t told who she was until it was too late.” Musa sounded flippant, as if this was just another little story. “Faragonda suspected Bloom’s heritage for months, but wouldn’t give anything more substantial than hints and vague clues.”

There was a faint little sound that made Valtor look down, made him look away from the music fairy and to Bloom. She was crying. Silent tears were dripping into her soup, while her hair had dimmed down into its usual bright red.

“I had given Bloom singing lessons for months at that point. After the army of decay and the recovery after, we tried to find her dragon voice.” The pain was still there like a hand wrapped around his spine…not wrapped around the base of wings, where they were anchored deep under his skin, but the emotions had dimmed. Panic had turned into a dull flutter, something dark and emotionless was creeping in.

“We didn’t…not until someone else forced it out.”

The hand on his spine flexed and pain shot up, through his muscles, past his shoulders and into his throat. It settled there, slowly expanding until it felt as if it would explode if he didn’t open his mouth right now.

“The dragon voice can not be forced.” A nymph protested, and she sounded scared.

“The Shadow Phoenix could.” The throaty, raspy and parched voice that spoke the word sounded nothing like Bloom and yet Valtor had seen her mouth form the words. She was still shaking, she was still not looking up, and her emotions and feelings and probably her memories were still too loud, but somehow her voice also broke the connection.

Or maybe his own feelings finally overshadowed Blooms. The shadow phoenix. Darkar. She had been under his spell, there was no other explanation on how he could have forced her to do anything. Faintly he remembered the Trix telling him about their brush with the Phoenix and dark, sharp anger ignited in him. Not even his mothers had been that stupid. They had worked with it, but not for long. Not even those three had dared to play with that power once they understood the danger.

“Darkar, who had a spy planted in Alfea, managed to curse Bloom.” The calm tone of the music fairy was just as jarring as Bloom’s broken voice. “He forced her to use the Dragons Voice against us several times, twisted one of he most beautiful gifts of the dragon flame.” Another tear dripped into the soup and the pressure in his throat worsened.

“She hasn’t sung since then.” The words were soft and melancholic. “Which is a shame, because she truly has talent.”

“I don’t” Bloom protested turning her head ever so slightly to look at her friend and the emotions lessened even more.

“Yes I know I am the singer of our group, but B…” Musa looked at Bloom as if they were alone and the tone in her voice made it clear that they had worn this argument out a long time ago. “That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.” They stared at each other, the flood of emotion slowly ebbing away more and more. Turning into the familiar current at the back of his mind.

“If I may.” A nymph spoke up. “If you only ever used the Dragons voice without choice, wouldn’t this be the best place to do it on your own terms?”

Fear reared up and for the first time since this started did Valtor think of raising his own shields. It barely damped the sharp sting off the emotion, but it allowed him to breathe.

“I mean.” The nymph continued. “Every last person in this room knows how to read music magic. We can feel and predict the slightest change in it and if something should happen we could react long before you would even realise something was going to happen.”

“I’m not a singer.” Bloom whispered and it sounded more like her even though her voice was still shaking and full of fear.

“But you are an artist.” The music fairy whispered. “And you have been starved.” Before Bloom could do anything more Musa stood. Holding a hand out to Bloom. “Do you trust me B?” It was nothing more than a conspiratorial whisper, full of mischief and a plan. The hand around his spine eased up just the slightest bit. Just enough that Valtor realised it was still there, yet it was a relief. Bloom stared at the hand for a long moment. “Don’t make me sing.” She pleaded.

“Do you trust me Bloom?” Came the question again, still so very gentle and warmth started creeping into his bones.

“Yes.” Bloom whispered and the other fairy grinned.

“Then take my hand.” Bloom did, after a long moment of hesitation she took the hand and was gently pulled to her feed. “I wrote songs.” The music fairy started as she slowly made her way towards the stage, walking backwards and with her eyes focused in Bloom. “One for each of my sisters. I wrote them the songs that I heard in their heads and souls.” Bloom was trembling again, each step she took seemed to worsen it. The hand around his spine didn’t tighten again, but it felt as if it got heavier.

“Mus…”

“And I taught them those songs. Their own soul song, their heart songs, because if they only ever knew how to sing one song, I wanted it to be that one.” Whispers stared around the table. Valtor didn’t hear a single word, Bloom’s emotions were roiling. The golden warmth of the trust she had for her friend was fighting her own fear and the hand on her wings. It was all he could focus on as the two of them ascended the stairs. When they stopped in the middle of the stage, Bloom’s back to the crowd and she was a shaking mess.

***

Finding their section was the easy part. It took a bit of time to walk past the seemingly endless rows and rows of crystal shelves, but in the end after a lot of check ins from them and Tec and Stella, both of their groups reached the sections they were supposed to look over. That was when the problems started.

“Hey Isha?” Flora asked slowly where she was thumbing through one of the ledges from the closest shelf. There was a low hum from her friend, where she was setting up the portable document camera as well as special pen and paper, for the documents that were magically protected.

“Did you take a picture of the map?” Flora asked, turning to her friend.

“Yeah, why?” Flora didn’t answer immediately, just motioned for Aisha to hand over her phone, and then walked over to the end of the shelf where the numbers and sections were inscribed in addition to specific information regarding the ledgers and books on the shelf. Checking the image on the phone and then comparing the page to the shelf confirmed that they were in the right section, yet when Flora looked back into the ledger she was still holding she was met with something completely different.

Council session records year twenty after Domino’s fall read the plaque in front of her.

Council ordered research into the change of magic, since the fall of Sparx read the ledger in her hand.

“Fuck me.” Flora whispered slowly, accepting the truth.

“What is going on Flo?” Aisha asked, but before Flora could answer Stella’s voice came through the pins.

“Tell me you are in the right section!” Stella’s voice was tight and Flora groaned.

“No, the ledgers here are about research the Council commissioned.” Flora answered, meeting Aisha’s wide eyes.

“Pack your stuff back up and meet us at the map. We are getting A’Sha involved in this.” Stella ordered and ended the connection. Moment’s later Tecna piped up.

“Also check on your way back along the other sections. Let’s record this, I have a feeling this isn’t supposed to have happened.”

They met up half an hour later where they had started out. Stella was radiating light and Tecna looked stressed.

“Not one section is where it’s supposed to be.” She hissed. Flora winced.

“Same with us, the exception being the first sections right here.” Aisha said looking at something over Flora’s shoulder, when she turned she found Stella walking up the stairs.

“Uh Stel?” Flora asked as she started running up the stairs after her friend. “What are you doing?” Stella only flared a bit brighter.

“I’m getting A’Sha involved.” They shared a look behind Stella’s back.

“Stella I don’t…” Stella whirled around before Aisha could even start her sentence.

“No, listen to me!” Stella hissed. “This means someone fucked with documentation. I might not be good with books, but I know a crisis when I see it. This better be fixable with magic otherwise we can suspend the council right fucking now.”

“Why?” Flora asked, she had the feeling Stella was holding back and she desperately wanted to know why. Flora also knew that this was bad, but Stella seemed to operate on a different scale than Flora.

“Because this means tampering with documents and records that have to be kept by inter-dimensional law! Considering that this is the Council Archive, this means they either did this themselves, or let someone in to do it.”

“Making checking in on them impossible.” Stella pointed a finger at Tecna.

“Intentional obstruction of the law in this way? It basically screams we are hiding something!”

“But why A’Sha?” Flora asked. Stella turned back around and started walking again.

“Because she was supposed to be an archivist on Domino. I looked it up and then I talked to Daphne.” They shared a look. This wasn’t like Stella to do something like this and not tell them about it.

“Did you tell Bloom?” Aisha asked hesitantly. Stella shook her head again, her shoulder fell and her steps faltered.

“She was supposed to learn under Bartleby. She literally was already under his tutelage. When I asked Daphne about it, she said that those interns that got Bartleby’s attention were immediately sworn into the archivist guild.” All three of them gaped at their friend.

“Stell, are you telling us we have been working with someone who is literally bound to Bloom by oath for months and nobody told her?” Flora hissed and the bigger thought pushed past her confusion. “How long did you know this?!”

Stella turned back around to them. She looked tired and worn down and afraid.

“Since you found out. I went to Daphne immediately after you showed us Bartleby’s letter.”

“STELLA!” They shouted in unison. Stella’s face hardened immediately.

“I don’t care, I needed to know that she hadn’t been pulled over by the council. I needed to see her interact with bloom first. I needed to know that that oath meant something to her, before I actually let Bloom bonding with her.” Flora thought back about the interactions between Stella and A’Sha when Bloom was there and when she was absent. How drastically different Stella had acted.

“Fucking hell, don’t tell me you started developing dragon traits.” Flora groaned.

“She is good.” Stella whispered as an answer. “She looks at Bloom like the first years always do when they understand that Bloom doesn’t give a shit about titles or victories or anything of that.” Stella pushed both of her hands through her hair and Flora flinched. Damn it just how much had this weight on her that she was reacting like this?

“I’m pretty sure that if I go up there and ask her to reactivate that guild vow she will do so without hesitating.”

“Do it.” Tecna’s calm tone started all of them.

“Huh?”

“Ask her, let her reactivate that bond. I looked up the Master Bartleby mentioned in his letter. They are more prestigious than Domino’s program ever was. I looked up A’Sha. That grandmother she told you about? Half Dragonborn, who left Domino before she hit her teens. A’Sha has no real connection to Domino. Yet she has chosen to apply, she chose to seek Bloom out. She chose to not leave the Council library.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because the council Library isn’t important in the grand scheme of things.” Tecna said. “They are secret and hidden behind walls. Nobody who cares about their career wants to be here. Zenith for our archives or Livre for their everything hell, even Aika for their historical documentation, would be better for someone who worked under Bartleby, but A’Sha is here.”

“Tecna, are you implying that the librarian is a spy?” Stella hissed under her breath.

“Not a spy. The term that the spymaster gave us is Wyrm. Dragons without wings and legs and who can not fly, but who are some of the most feared on Domino, because they will not be noticed until it’s too late.”

They all whirled around to look up the stairs where A’Sha was standing holding a sound barrier that looked a bit too colourful to not also be a shield against physical attacks.

“Now, how about you explain to me what exactly made you have a fight where everyone can hear you?”

***

There was a sharp tension and almost oppressing silence in the grand hall as all of them watched Bloom and Musa getting ready. The soft and gently coaxing of the music fairy was loud and clear for all of them to hear.

“Come on B.” Valtor watched the expression of the music fairy, how open and soft her face was. How deceivingly relaxed her posture. “Create a shield, or a ward, I don’t care, whatever you need.”

There was a long moment of silence as Blom just shook where she stood, before she let go of her friend. Within a few fast hand movements a bright blue outline appeared on the ground around them. Warding line, his mind whispered. The part of him that was solely focused on collecting and understanding magic demanded that he stood up and analysed what she was doing. He needed to know what she was doing, because he could taste the magic in the air. Whatever ward Bloom was creating it was powerful enough that he could taste it in the air. His instincts kept him right where he was.

“I’m going to let go of you to conjure instruments ok?” The soft whisper of the other woman made him focus back on what was happening. Bloom nodded once holding onto the bright blue ball of magic that was her ward. Slowly but steadily more and more music instruments made of reddish pink magic materialised around them until there was a whole orchestra around them. Faintly he heard the whispers of the people around them. Valtor picked up on their amazement about how easily Musa was doing it. He listened in on the whispers about, if she managed to control all of them properly, that she would get a mastery right then and there. His gaze flickered to the representatives of the High Note realm. All three of them looked like they wanted to grab the fairy and have her in their Conservatory right now. Once again he wondered about how much control over their power these fairies had. Clearly the Winx’s were much more skilled than they showed.

“Ok B.” Cold sharp dread pulled all breath out of him. It sliced through his shields as if they were paper, as if they were nothing. The hand on his spine dug in and Valtor wanted to scream.

“Breathe with me ok?” Bloom whimpered. Around his wrists their marriage lines started to burn. The instinct to protect rose so suddenly in him that it took Icy’s magic running over his skin to startle him out of it. He had half risen and there were several eyes on him. Valtor ignored them all and focused back on Bloom.

“I’m going to start to play ok?” Musa’s face was still gentle, but there was excitement creeping in. “Just listen to the music. This is your song. No matter what happens next, it can not harm you.” Bloom only trembled harder.

It took a moment but slowly the instruments started to move. A steady beat was the first thing they heard. Then violins and a piano mixing in, more instruments. It was calming and stead, almost dreamy. Valtor had never been a person who paid attention to music. At least not enough to actively be able to describe anything that was happening. He could feel the magic rising. He could feel the way the song was resonating with him. Still above all else Valtor felt Bloom's terror and fear and the hand on his spine. How it sunk deeper without moving.

“Bloom, breathe.” It was nothing but a gentle reminder that was barely audible over the swelling of the music. A moment later with the sound of brass instruments the music cut out, leaving only the piano and a few violins. Valtor watched Musa breathe in exaggeratedly, and hated how Bloom mimicked the movement. How she just breathed, how her fingers tightened around her friends until her knuckles were white.

Another inhale and the much cut out completely. Bloom sang the first note accompanied by nothing, but the piano. Her voice was throaty and not one note was the right one. All around him people flinched, but Valtor watched the music fairy. The way her face glowed with delight. How her instruments quivered.

Bloom took another deep breath and started singing properly.

Her voice was still quivering and shaking, but with each word she gained more confidence. Each word came out stronger and stronger until the Music fairy was positively glowing. Slowly the other instruments set in. The melody rose with Bloom's voice, getting stronger, more confident and more magical. He didn’t need to be tuned to the specific music magic to feel this. The tension in the air. The slow rising of temperature and the way it tasted.

The Dragon's Voice had always been the most well known power of the Dragon Flame guardians. It was supposed to calm people, heal them if the right words were sung. It was connected to emotions and the old days when there had been no written form of the dragon tongue. It was how they called upon the great Dragon herself. Valtor had to admire Darkar, it had been a brilliant move to make sure Bloom would never use this part of her power. After all, even if she was possessed, all Bloom had to do is call out. One scream, one call from a hatchling and mother couldn’t be stopped by anything.

Bloom stood still with her back to them all. Shielded from actually having an audience aside from her friend, who by now had let go of her hands to conduct the instruments. All Valtor could see of Bloom was the way her hands moved and how her hair, burning brighter than he had seen before, whipped in the sharp wind that had stared inside of the warding line.

Magic exploded as the music swelled again. Bloom's voice was growing even stronger. Golden flames exploded into a tornado with Bloom and her friend in the centre as Bloom's voice broke.

Echoes and a second voice joined Bloom’s power lacing each word. He felt a shiver run down his spine as a sensation almost like a hug enveloped him, ripped the hand away from his spine and replaced it with pure love.

The flames turned and twisted the Dragon forming wrapped tightly around the dome of blue magic that manifested for Bloom's ward. For a long moment the Great Dragon was there with them all. Her voice mingled with Blooms. Mother and child singing together. Then the dragon was replaced with the golden form of Daphne, and the instrumental part broke. Bloom's voice was no longer filled with echoes of power, only herself. Hitting each note and filled with heat breaking pain.

Then it was over. The last note died in Bloom's throat. The instruments silenced themself and they were left in utter silence. This time nobody dared to say anything. Well almost.

“I told you.” Musa whispered and seemed to vibrate with energy.

“Fuck you!” Bloom whispered and her voice was nothing but a croak. The music fairy laughed, reaching out without hesitation to hold onto Bloom.

“That’s my partners job!” Bloom let her head fall onto her friend's shoulder, shaking and crying. Someone slowly hesitantly started to clap, within seconds the air was vibrating with it. Bloom startled and whirled around. She looked like a mess. Her eyes red and tear tracks clearly visible on her face, but at the same time she looked much younger, and lighter. Valtor leaned back as praise was thrown at both Bloom and Musa.

Just how much were they hiding?

Chapter Text

Bloom woke up with Musa’s warm body pressed against her. Musa’s head pressed under her chin and the soft vibrations of the sleep song seeped directly into her chest. Bloom smiled and pulled her friend closer against her chest, her own purr rising and falling with the melody Musa was creating.

For a long moment she just laid there in a nest of blankets and pillows that they had built yesterday and enjoyed the peace. Her mind replaying the events of the previous day in the way five years of constant fighting and war had taught her. It was a slow process, that both Aisha and Tecna had taught her, as well as several techniques that Flora had explained to them.

Firstly Bloom pulled up a mental image of the list of todo’s they had made for yesterday. Which was rather tame. After all, the whole day had been blocked off with nothing, but the all day feast. Bloom instead thought about the list of acts that had been provided and added the acts that had been pulled off on short notice or due to requests. It added rather a lot to the list, something that made her inner arts wiggle with content.

Which was when Bloom finally allowed herself to think about the less …kind parts of the day. The fact that the Council never informed the people of Melody about what happened to one of their princesses. How they had reacted and how Bloom had to protect the Trix and Valtor from being attacked.

“You stopped purring.” Musa’s voice was heavy with sleep and a yarn. Bloom smiled and started purring again. “What point did you reach?” Bloom sighed and willed her body to take over purring, so that she could talk to her friend, she hadn’t quite reached the point where this was an automatic biological thing.

“Galatea.” Bloom muttered. Musa pressed closer against Bloom. “Or more the Trix.” Bloom admitted.

“Yeah…” Musa muttered against her sternum. “The part with Galatea went off rather well.”

“It was a brilliant move from one of Domino’s main spy.” Bloom snorted, Musa answered with a soft kick against her thigh, which didn’t even land considering their tangled legs.

“Don’t call me that, not in walls we haven’t warded permanently.” Musa muttered. Bloom simply started drawing absentmindedly on Musa’s back.

“I mean it though, it was a brilliant move. I never would have thought that they never informed the people about what happens to their guardian faires.”

“I’m not really surprised considering Faragonda’s track record, but it still …”

“It’s another point on the list that makes you wonder just how much they have hidden.” Musa said darkly. “I fucking hope the other’s find something.”

“Me too.”

For a long moment they stayed silent and Bloom allowed herself to think over all the possible implications of the whole Galatea incident. Musa shuffled in her arms until she had pressed herself even closer to Bloom's front and started humming a song that Bloom associated with cuddle piles and blanket forts and tangled legs and laughter. It was the combination of the low vibration against her chest, the song and the magic that came with that, that Bloom allowed herself to think about the second part of the evening. The bigger event.

Bloom had known objectively that she would be asked to sing. She had known that the Dragon's voice, especially the singing aspect of it, was something that had been revered throughout the dimension. It still hadn’t prepared her for actually being asked to sing. Or the terror and fear that had come with it. Or the memories.

“I think…” Bloom started as she thought about the moment’s leading up to her actually getting on the stage. “I think Valtor might have gotten a hint about my shielding ability.” Must stiffened and the song she had been humming ended so abruptly that the silence was jarring.

“B?” Musa hissed and Bloom sighed.

“There was a feed back and I’m pretty sure some of my memories leaked through my shields.”

“Which ones?” Bloom hesitated, long enough that Musa pushed herself back to look at her face.

“Darkar…” Bloom faltered, trying desperately to not let the same memory rise again. “Holding onto my wings.” She whispered after a long moment.

“You're ok?” Musa whispered, her eyes jumping all over Bloom's face.

“Just hug me again will you?” Bloom muttered. Musa immediately pressed against her again. “I think he convinced himself that my shielding is like that, because of my emotions.” Bloom whispered after Musa started humming again. Musa snorted.

Bloom went back to her categorizing. She thought about getting on the stage. How Musa had made sure Bloom had the illusion of being alone with her. How she had kept her attention on her and had hummed with her just under her breath. Dragon Bloom loved her friend.

I sang. Bloom thought. I sang and nothing bad happened. I sang and…it felt good.

They hadn’t stayed long after that. It hadn’t been that late and Musa was still supposed to sing, but Musa had put her foot down and had told Bloom that it was enough. Nobody had said anything, only wished them a good night. Considering that Bloom had fallen asleep the seconds Musa had stopped making the bed, she figured her friend had been right.

“I really like your people.” Musa snorted.

“Wait until they stop caring about the diplomatic aspect and image. Then the talon came out.”

“Like today?” Bloom asked, allowing herself to think about the to do’s for today. “Singing, dancing, and culture, right?” Musa giggled and sighed softly.

“My dad is going to come.”

“Let’s just stay in bed until we absolutely have to get up?” Bloom pleaded against the crown of Musa’s head.

“Hmm fine, but you owe me a dance later.”

“Deal.” Bloom muttered and closed her eyes, ready to just enjoy her friend humming vibrating through every bone in her body. Bloom just listened for several minutes, an idea slowly forming in her head.

He has no power over you. A voice that sounded like a mix between Musa and Daphne whispered in her mind and for the first time Bloom believed them.

Bloom took a breath and started humming along with Musa’s Melody, which promptly faltered and stopped.

“B?” Musa’s voice was shaky and full of disbelief but also hope.

“I think…” Bloom started. “I think I am finally starting to believe you.” Musa’s arms snuck around her chest and hugged her tightly. She didn’t say a word and instead pressed her harder into her sternum and started one of the Dominian song Daphne had taught them. Bloom joined her after several seconds, their voices filling their bedroom.

***

“Ask your questions.” A’Sha said where she was lounging on one of the sofas in her home. They shared a long look between them all and then, with a series of silent signs and hidden communication Aisha started the questioning.

“Who are you?” It was sharp and low and dangerous as a riptide.

“I’m A’Sha of Livre. Fairy of Records and the last apprentice of the royal Archivist of Domino, Sir Bartleby himself.”

“What does that mean?” Stella didn’t turn her head to look at Tecna, but she could basically feel the emotions leaving her friend.

“It means I am loyal to Domino and Domino only. Even twenty years under the High Council can not change that.”

“Will you sear us an oat on that?” Stella asked. She could immediately feel all eyes on her. “A temporary oath that will make sure you will not betray us or Bloom until Bloom can return and actually reactivate your old oath.”

A’Sha leaned back even further, a proud little smile wrinkling her eyes and making crow’s feet appear around them. Stella was startled once again just by how old A’Sha was. Even though the age of maturity here on Magix and in the whole Dimension in general was 18, most people wouldn’t actually be seen as adults until they reached a mastery or reached fifty. Perks and pullbacks of people that generally reached 200-500 years of age. A’Sha in her fifties wasn’t old. But she sure was older than them.

“Or why Domino's would use infants as spies.” Flora muttered darkly. There was also that. Dominians much like the people Andros and Earth lived much longer lives. Nobody really knew the exact numbers and even the records were vague but 5000 years was a Dragonborn reaching full maturity. There were other ages and more categories on what maturity meant, but none of them had completely understood those yet.

“My great-grandmother was one.” A’Sha replied calmly. “Which means as a legacy each woman in our family could ask permission to enter the wyrms. While my grandmother lived most of her life on Domino, she left like great-gran when she fell in love. Mother never showed any dragon traits and she was in line to fill the position of catalogue, so she never wanted anything to do with Domino.”

Stella gaped. She knew she was gaping.

“Your mother was a catalogue?” Tecnas asked with excitement in her voice. Livre, while having a royal family, was ruled by the people of the library. A not small group of people that could connect to the ancient spirits of the library and channel them into their body. Those people were called catalogues. One of the most important roles on the planet.

“Still is. Catalogue of the library in my home province.”

“Why did you choose to become a wyrm?” Aisha asked. A’Sha looked at them all for a long moment before she let out a soft sigh and put down her glass.

“Dragonborn traits are not that dominant, did you know that?”

“Yes.” Aisha answered. “They are like the merpeople traits on Andros, recessive.” A’sha pointed at Aisha.

“Yeah well, Dragon traits might be recessive, but they are not weak. My grandmother had a tail and horns, mother had only the eyes. I was born with these.” There was the feeling of magic in the air and then slowly A’Sha’s form changed. It wasn’t obvious at first, but after a moment scales started to appear all over her skin. They looked like parchment, a gentle brown colour with deep bluish black markings that looked like writing.

“I am what they used to call a paper dragon. Great-Gran’s form was that of tree dragons that could produce paper without harming the tree itself. Every once in a while one of our lines will be born with markings like these. They are called paper dragons.”

“Then why did you say you didn’t know the Dragon tongue?” Stella asked, it had been bothering her for weeks now.

“Because I don’t know it.” A’Sha replied flippantly. “I am too far removed from my actual line to be allowed to learn. You see, my grandmother learned it, because she was half dragon. Mother didn’t because she was only a quarter and also didn’t show any interest. I could have learned, but I would have been required to attend school on Domino.” A’Sha smiled. “Which neither my mother nor I had any interest in. Not even mentioning the already rising tension at the time. So I never learned.”

“Wouldn’t you have been allowed to learn under Bartleby?” Flora asked and A’Sha barked a sharp laugh.

“No, the man might have behaved like a gentleman, but he was a stickler for the rules. Besides, learning the language? That was the big prize we were looking forward to.”

“So Wyrms were people of Dominion descent?”

“Nope!” A’Sha said cheerfully. “Nobody cared where you were from, the only thing that people and more importantly that Bartleby cared for was loyalty. I saw people go into apprenticeships under well known cooks and healers and be approached by him, because they showed that they could detect poison, nobody else notices. Or stuff like that. Nobody cared who you are, what kind of magic user you were or where you are from. That I am of Dragonborn descent is honestly just a bonus.” A’Sha stopped and pulled a face. “I take that back. It made the apprenticeship harder for me. Bartleby was of the opinion that those who had Dragon descent had to work harder than the rest, because of who we are.”

“Really?” Stella would have thought that he would work the people from outside harder. Then again just because she was used to something from home, that didn’t mean it was everywhere.

A’Sha shook her head. “I saw him around the royal family.” They all stilled ever so slightly. “He was utterly fond of them, you could see it in the way he interacted with them, but they had to work for every scrap of information they wanted. Marion the least, he would make fun of her being the queen all day, but hand out information without much fuss. I think Oritel stopped asking some time before I started.”

“Oh?” Tecna had leaned towards A’Sha. She grinned.

“I saw him ask for help once. He got a list of things Bartleby needed to be done in the library and when he needed them to be done he told him that he would get his information once that list was completely crossed out.” They all blinked. “And he was grinning like an idiot the whole time.” A’Sha smiled fondly, shaking her head. “We had soo many bets among us apprentices. Both the archivists and the worms. We never found out why he was behaving like that. The older apprentices and the graduates always told us we would get it once we were sworn into our positions, but well…”

“That never happened.” Stella muttered darkly. A’Sha nodded again.

“Did you ever interact with Bloom or Daphne?” There was a long moment of silence in which they all watched A’Sha think of what to say.

“Bloom only once.” She finally started after several minutes. “She was maybe three months old and Queen Marion needed to look something up, but Bloom wouldn’t settle. The whole library was getting nervous, because Dragon, that girl had lungs.”

“Still has.” Flora grumbled and they all snorted. Bloom’s was loud even without enhancing it. Loud enough that Griselda used her regularly during training to get their classmates to pay attention.

“Yes well, Bartleby walked up to the Queen and asked her if he could help her. Next thing we knew he had produced a sling from somewhere and was walking around with a baby strapped to his chest for the rest of the day. She didn’t cry once while in his presence.” They shared a long look. Bloom would love that information. It also gave at least some credit to the thing Valtor had said a while back. That Bartleby was a family of some kind.

“And Daphne?”

“She was already twenty two when I started, so I don’t know how he was around her when she was younger, but from what I have seen it was a mix of both of her parents. He was utterly fond of her, but wouldn’t give her anything for free.”

“How many of you are there?” Stella heard herself ask. This didn’t feel right. Bloom should be here for this conversation.

“Huh?”

“Wyrms, how many of you?”

“I don’t know.” A’Sha said. “In my class? I think fifteen, but even there I could be wrong. Only Bartleby knew how many there were at all times. We were put into teams of three or five to get to know some of us, as a safety net so to say, but that’s all.”

“Are you still in contact with them?” Aisha asked a sharp and calculating look in her eyes and out of the corner of her eyes Stella could see a rapid line of signs. Aisha wanted to get into this network. If there was an active spy network that was loyal to Bloom and Bloom only it could be exactly what they needed.

“With the people of my team, yes, and I am pretty sure they are in contact with their teams.”

“Teams?” Flora asked.

“We are in two teams. Three people from our year and five in mixed age groups. Like this we were connected among our peers and also the older students. Bartleby made it clear that we needed the support system, but also that we shouldn’t seek the other team out unless we actually feared for our lives.”

“So there is a network of spies all around the dimension who have sworn a loyalty oath to…” Tecna started, leaving the sentence pointedly unfinished. A’Sha just stared back at them.

“Why do you want to know that?” Her voice was too calm, too even and Stella pulled the ring of her finger without a second thought.

“We are her fairy circle.” Aisha cut in. Her voice calm, but dangerous. “Bonded the Dominion way.” Stella watches as A’sha’s posture changed once more, for the first time since they had entered her home A’Sha looked at them like they actually had power over them.

“Prove it!” She commanded her voice sharp, but Stella could hear the slightest waver. More than that she could see hope rise in A’Sha. It wasn’t a well known ability, one that Stella did her best to suppress in fact and keep hidden, but Stella could feel and see hope. It came with being the Fairy of the sun and the moon. With her ability to sense light of all kinds, after all what was hope, but the light at the end of darkness? Right now looking at A’Sha she was glowing just faintly with hope.

“Ok” Stella said before anyone else could.

***

“Ey carrot top, calm down.” Bloom let out a little squeak when all of a sudden hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her back. Several of the vendors around them started giggling or just stared open mouthed.

“Was that necessary?” Bloom hissed, Riven only chuckled into her ear. The asshole was still holding onto her and had placed his chin onto her shoulder.

“Considering you are high on art right now, yes it absolutely is. After all, Musa isn’t around to catch you once you start flying away.” Bloom kicked his shin as an answer.

“Oh her Majesty is abusing poor me!” Riven giggled into her ear. Bloom promptly slapped him.

“I hate you.” She grumbled but allowed River to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Helia promptly settled on her other side. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see the looks the Trix were sending her.

“Pretty sure I just gave them a crisis.” Bloom muttered, both boys snorted.

“As if you would hurt either of our girls like that.” Helia said softly. Bloom looked up at River who was looking back at her with the same disbelieving look. They turned to Riven as one.

“Dude…” Riven started his voice affronted.

“Have you met Musa and your girlfriend?” Bloom asked. “Do you really think I would survive stealing anyone's boyfriend?” Bloom asked. “I mean Flora alone could stomp me. But should I touch Riven, Musa is just the first in a long line of people ready to beat my ass.”

“Aisha for one and by association Nabu.” Riven threw in and Bloom shuddered.

“Not even talking about Stella. Do you remember that she is still salty about Cassandra? Or the fact that her parents had a bad divorce?”

“Or which pixie Stell is bonded too?” They seemed to have gotten through to Helia from the way he paled.

“Why are you friends with so many scary people, Bloom?”

“I was the sad kitten they found in the rain and took home.” Bloom answered proudly and grinned even wider at the amount of snorts and giggles from all around her. Both boy’s just shot her looks.

“Sad wet dragon hating you mean.”

“I mean to be fair.” Bloom started. “Daphne did say our specific kind of dragon tents to be born with fluff and then later on loose it in exchange for the scales developing. There was a moment of silence as they walked through the long isle of people presenting their work and music. Then at once they asked her a single question.

“Are there pictures of that?”

“Maybe.” Bloom answered and ducked out from under Rivens arm to get a better look at a vendor advertising fabrics. They had the most beautiful colour combinations and Bloom desperately wanted to gift Stella some. She listened half heartedly to the discussion the boys were having behind her. Once more forgetting that Bloom’s ears were almost as good as Musa’s.

Bloom was bargaining the price of several rolls of different fabrics when she was almost bowled over. It took her several seconds before she recognized the vibrating blur of colours as Musa. She hadn’t seen her friend since they had left the Arcadia this morning. Musa had been grabbed by Galatea and pulled away. Shouting something about meeting up later and then they promptly vanished leaving them alone. That had been hours ago, around lunch since neither Bloom or Musah had wanted to leave their bed or stop singing together. By now the sun was starting to set.

“Hey, how…”

“I’m cashing that dance in!” Musa stage whispered. Bloom just stared at her friend for a long moment. She was vibrating and her melody was almost visibly with the excitement Musa was radiating.

“Are you ok?”

“Bloom.” Musa said, grabbing onto Bloom's hands. “B they have an open stage.” Musa started to actually jump in place.

“Musa I am not following.” Bloom started, grabbing Musa's underarms to steady her. “Explain please.” Behind Musa Riven and Helia were inching closer. River eyed his girlfriend nervously. Further behind them Valtor and the Trix were eyeing them with clear amusement.

“Bloom it’s an open stage.” Musa repeated. Her eyes lit up with magic.

“Meaning?” Bloom asked again.

“Everything is allowed. Dances, singing instrumentals. As long as there is music involved everything goes.”

“Ok why exactly are you still talking to me?” Bloom asked. She had the feeling she was missing a really important detail in this conversation. “You could have texted me the location and we would have been there.”

Musa let out a sound of frustration that made Bloom wince and people in a five meter radius go silent for a moment before they all glared at Musa.

“B!” Musa shouted. “I want you to illustrate me!” She snapped.

Open stage…everything goes…music involved…oh

“Oh no.” Rivens' horrified whisper barely registers over the sudden ringing in Bloom's ears. She heard Helias “You better get ready to run.” as if through cotton and then there was Valtor's confusion through the bond. All Bloom cared for was the delight and hope in Musa’s vibrating form and her inner artist begging her to go. Right fucking now.

“Show me!” Bloom whispered. Musa squealed and then they were off. Weaving through the masses at a neck breaking speed, with Riven cursing and hollering at their heels.

***

Stella could feel A’Sha’s fingers hovering over her skin and it made her whole body itch.

“Either you touch it or you don’t.” She hissed and felt the phantom touch disappear only for it to actually turn into real touch a second later. The scale buried in her back flared with angry magic, the moment A’Sha’s fingers touched it. Stella could hear the roar of a dragon. She could smell the sharp, warm sense of Bloom's magic and it was almost like Bloom was hugging her and then it was over. A’Sha’s fingers retreated from the circle mark and from Stella’s back.

“Do you know when the last true Fairy Circle has been formed?” A’Sha asked as Stella pulled her jacket back into place. Stella shot a quick look at Tecna and Flora since the two of them were the best with historical facts, but none of them seems to have the answer. Even Aisha looked puzzled.

“No we don’t.” Aisha said finally.

“There are records of several fairy circles in the last several thousand years, the problem with all of those is that they were never full Fairy Circles.”

“Neither is ours.” Tecna said softly. “Bloom, doesn’t have her Enchantix, there is a good chance she never will get it. Which means we won’t be a full circle until she reaches that point.”

“True.” A’Sha said softly. “But purely based on what I just felt and your circle mark? You get pretty damn close.” She seemed to contemplate something else. They stayed silent and just watched her. Every now and then Stella saw the way one of her friends twitched or moved, silent conversations going on between them.

After what felt like hours A’Sha finally nodded and looked at them. “I’m going to get in contact with my groups. I can’t promise you anything, but I am willing to swap something right now, if it makes you happy.”

“Oh thank the dragon.” Aisha muttered. Tecna was already writing something out and Stella knew she and Aisha would have to look over it later on.

“Now that that is sorted, why did you come looking for me?” The questions froze all of them. Stella blinked once and looked between her friends and A'Sha for a moment, trying to remember the problem.

“Oh…” Aisha muttered, seemingly unsure how to say it.

“Did you reorganize the archive without changing the plaques or was that someone else?” Flora asked, because of course the little shit would do that. Flora was after all a creature of chaos and she was probably thriving. Sometimes Stella wondered what her life would have been like if she didn’t take the dare a former classmate had given her during that first year at Alfea. How different her life would be now. The circle mark between her shoulder blades throbbed and Stella smiled. Who cares? She wouldn’t exchange these girls for the world.

***

“You look utterly besotted.” Helia’s voice was teasing and three years ago, Riven would have denied it. Right now, he just stared at Musa and Bloom, both vibrating with excitement, as they were explaining what they wanted to do to the open stage organizer. Who looked utterly confused, but was slowly getting more excited with each word they were saying.

“When was the last time you have seen them like that?” He asked instead.

“Utterly carefree and actually in their elements?” Helia asked back and Riven nodded, still refusing to look away from the girls.

“Before Darkar.” It was a soft and sad answer and River felt his own mood dampen ever so slightly.

“Yeah,” He finally said, watching how Bloom's hair caught fire in the most vibrant shades of red and orange, that looked almost pink, her happy colours. “Exactly. So let me look besotted, I missed Carrot top burning, because she is happy and my girlfriend is vibrating out of her skin in excitement.”

“Do you think Flora will be like that once we are on Lynphea?” Helia asked. Riven finally looked away from the girls and at his friend. He caught a glimpse of the Trix and Valtor in the process. They weren’t far away, just far enough that their conversation wasn’t audible for him. Not that he needed that. The way Darcy was shooting him looks and Icy and Stormy’s faces was more than enough for him. He winced and concentrated on Helia instead.

“Of course she will. She will start to turn green again once she’s back home and away from the stress for a few days. And once she truly recharged we will have our hands full on Bloom interacting with the Old Growth people and Flora will egg her on while sounding like the most reasonable person alive.”

“Yeah she will.” Helia said and he sounded like the most smitten person in the whole Dimension. Riven snorted and turned back to look at his girlfriend and Bloom. They had stopped explaining whatever they wanted to do and now even the organizer looked like he was vibrating. Which was causing the people around him to get closer and ask questions.

“Oh this will be amazing.” River muttered to himself and for the first time in years, he actually meant it without any sarcasm. His chest felt warm and light.

And then with the last light of the day disappearing behind the horizon leaving nothing but twilight the organizer stepped on the stage.

“Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone in-between, it is my great pleasure to announce that in half an hour after the next two acts we will see our very own Guardian Fairy Musa of Melody Harmony and the Dragon Queen perform in a musical and visual act like we haven’t seen before. A Mix of our culture and that of Domino's, like in the times of old. Please be advised to listen to our yard organizers so that you don’t get caught in the expansion magic, once we start the expanding of the square and the building of stairs to sit on.”

Riven saw several people turn tail and run in all directions, probably to inform friends and family and probably the other delegates.

“I’ll get them, you hold us a place?.” Helia said gently and motioned into the direction of the rest of their little group.

“Top of the stairs?” Riven asked softly. On the stage a pair of musicians and a dancer took their place and from the little Musa had taught him about the Melody he was pretty sure that they were just as excited about the upcoming performance as everyone else was. Helia nodded and ducked between people to get the attention of the Trix and Valtor.

It took them the better part of the performance to get to the back of the crowd where shops and stands had been magicked away in favor of wooden stairs to sit on. Once there it was rather easy to get to the top, since most people didn’t seem to want to sit there. Riven only smiled to himself, if only they knew what was coming.

He had an idea what Musa and Bloom would be doing. It had been a while since they had done this. It predated the army of decay and Blom being the Guardian of the Dragon Flame. Back when they had been just first years Musa and Bloom had teamed up as an unholy duo of an art kid meeting a music kid. In other words. Bloom had figured out how to use her fire powers to draw shapes into the air and then how to animate them. It had driven WizGiz crazy because apparently Bloom had been incapable of changing her hair colour, but could create so many different flame colours that even the fairies from Pict had a hard time differentiating them. Riven grinned thinking about the first time Bloom had managed to actually animate one of her drawings. It had been a crude drawing of Kiko a bit too bright blue to match, but she had been able to hold it for several minutes while it was hopping through their dorm. Right until Griselda had walked into the room with a form Bloom still needed to fill out. Apparently Bloom had been so distracted that she accidentally had sent the fire Kiko into Griselda’s face. Nobody had been hurt, aside from Griselda’s pride, but well…Bloom had been on the fast track into personal training with Griselda. She still refused to tell anyone what she had been taught.

Riven watched the performers down and exit the stage and the next group get on. His thoughts still swirling around the time Bloom and Musa had invited them into a clearing near Alfea in the middle of the night and proudly shown them the little act they had build together. Musa singing with Bloom animating her using her flames. It had been amazing back then, which Blooms flames cutting out and the animation being stocky and slow. He hadn’t really seen her use this skill since, but River had seen Bloom animate on her tablet. She had gotten so very good at it. He had no doubts that she would awe everyone here.

“Riven?” He turned to the voice from behind him and lit up with delight at the soft smile of Musa’s dad.

“Hi!” He said getting up and hugging Ho-Boe. “I thought you couldn’t make it?” He asked motioning Helia to scoot over a bit.

“And miss my girl singing?” Ho-Boe asked. “Not a chance, it did help that the temple allowed me to leave once they heard about my daughter getting her mastery.

“WHAT?!” Helia and Riven called out at the same time. Ho-Boe looked both insanely proud and a bit sheepish at the same time.

“Oh so she hasn’t talked to you about that?” He asked. “Mind you it’s a minor mastery in instrumentalism. Not the Mastery she is still working towards, but apparently the little performance she showed at the feast was enough to grant her one instantly. She got it this morning.”

“That makes so much sense.” Helia whispered where he was looking around Riven. Galatea was basically vibrating out of her skin.

“Mhm…” Ho-Boe looked like he was contemplating saying something. “Did she tell you about the High Note Realm and their offer?”

Riven and Helia exchanged a look, noting the way the Trix and Valtor were clearly listening in. “No?” Helia finally said, even though it sounded more like a question.

“She now has a standing invitation to study with them for her proper mastery.” Ho-Boe said proudly and Riven could actually hear his Melody swelling.

“Wow…” Riven said. Looking down at where he could see glimpses of Musa and Bloom, behind the stage. “She won’t take it, will she?”

“That is why they offered a standing invitation.” Ho-Boe said, his hand gripping Rivens shoulder. “Because they knew Musa wouldn’t leave her friends behind, not even for this. Apparently her dedication to her friends and their bond was the whole reason why she got the offer. You really will need to tell me what happened during that feast.” Riven nodded.

“She will be so delighted to see you again.” He muttered once his brain started working and he could feel the excitement creeping in. His girl, his proud independent and scarily competent Musa was going to get her Mastery in the High Note Realm. Riven wanted to scream and dance and most of all run back down and backstage and hug the hell out of her.

“I’m going to have to start looking for flats here.” He finally said, still feeling a bit dazed.

“Chill out dude.” Helia laughed just as the second act cleared the stage. “It will be some time until things calm down enough to even think about stuff like this.”

“As if you don’t have your eyes on a house for you and Flora.” Riven shot back and watched as Helia turned bright red. “Wait…Helia you are still contemplating that right?” He asked, his voice slowly climbing several tones higher.

“Crystal pulled a few strings. Apparently there is an old estate in the part Flora wants to work at, that hasn’t been touched in a few decades. It’s half ruined and the land is apparently haunted, but well…”

“That’s Flora for you.” Riven said he could hear the way his own voice was a bit weak and flat with bafflement.

“Yeah…” Helia said.

“You own a house?”

“Half of it. The other part is Flora’s, which only happened because Crystal signed in her name. It won’t be official until Flora signed, but until then…yeah I own a house and about 8 hectar of protected land.”

“Fucking hell.” Riven breathed. “Are you sure Crystal doesn’t just want to date Flora? Because this is one hell of a favor to pull.”

“Crystal is very happily engaged to her long term girlfriend thank you very much.” Helia snorted. “Although her parents do not know that one yet. Apparently her fathers told her she isn’t allowed to propose to Kí until after both of them turn eighteen.”

“Which is when?”

“About two years.” Riven snorted. “Gremlin child.”

“That she is.” Helia sighed happily. “Which is why she and Flora get along so well.

Before Riven could say anything more, the organizer stepped onto the stage again. Riven and Helia both pulled out the little drones that Tecna had gifted everyone. It was a well trained response, that Tecna and Timmy had engrained in everyone and neither of them were ashamed to admit this. It had saved them so many reports, because they had video evidence. Dragon, Riven loved these scarily competent women he called his friends.

The drones hovered next to the heads for the moment, waiting for the moment they could take off to film this properly.

“Thank you all for coming, now without any fuss. It is my pleasure to announce our next act. A combination of visual and musical art. Guardian Fairy of Melody Harmony Musa of the Singing Mountain and her Royal Majesty the Dragon Queen, Bloom Hestia Morgan of Domino performing Feel again.”

The organizer left the stage and was immediately replaced by Musa and Bloom. While Musa took the centerstage position standing proud and with a huge smile Bloom settled in the back of the stage, basically sitting cross-legged in Musa’s shadow.

Neither of them said anything and it took the crowd a long moment to understand that the performance had started. The stead sound of a heart beat was only audible once the crowd went completely silent. It was visible though, at least to the people who knew what was happening. Riven could see Bloom perfectly from their position so it was easy to see the pulsing ball of flame in her hands was slowly changing colour with each heartbeat. Around them every light magical or real flame pulsed with the heart beat and changing colour with the ball.It took almost a minute until everyone was silent and was listening intently to the heartbeat.

So when Musa raised her hands for a single clap everyone jumped. The sudden darkness didn’t help. Bloom had extinguished every last light source around them, bathing them in darkness and the starlight above them.

The music started first, eternal sounding slowly building up until Musa started singing. Behind her Blooms fingers moved around the flame in her hand Musa was bathed in bright light the colour of her magic. She just stood there singing with a smile on her face, her hands clapping the beat as slowly but steadily flames danced around her. They took the form of the magical song bird that used to be native to Melody. Flying around Musa for a moment before they transformed into the birds that were native to Magix's, leaving Musa standing in the clearing near Alfea where they had first shown this skill off. Leaving only one of the birds that looked more like a songbird, that fluttered around Musa and landed in her hands. Musa pressed it to her chest as the music changed for the refrain. When she held her hands out again it turned into a golden sun and silver moon dancing around each other throwing a single beam of light which turned into a bright violet lighting that formed into a triangle and which bloomed into a pink flower that crumbled into a green wave breaking and turning into bright blue flame before turning in Musa’s signature bright red double quaver. It was beautiful and fluent in a way that made the transitions look natural like they were supposed to happen. That these different symbols belonged together and their transition was supposed to happen.

The double quaver exploded into sparks when the music exploded and differently coloured stars surrounded Musa pushing against her and making her laugh and dance with them. Right until she stumbled. While still singing Musa stopped in her dancing seeking eye contact with Bloom. It made Riven look away from Musa and at Bloom, who was still only illuminated by the ball of flame and her glowing fingertips that were dancing through the air, controlling the stars. There was a moment of stillness between them and then Musa started moving again further and further towards the back of the stage where she just stood and sang for a long moment before she started running.

Then there was a collective gasp as Musa didn’t stop at the end of the stage. Riven saw the way the stage organizer was trying to jump onto the stage to stop or catch her, not that it was needed. Musa’s foot connected to a flat golden flame that glowed even brighter at the contact and then she was off. Singing and dancing through the air above her cheering and hollering people.She looked absolutely beautiful like this. Her hair pushed back in the short pony tales she had used to wear was dotted with little differently colored flames that looked like stars in her dark hair. Her outfit was something uniquely Musa, but also paired homage to Musa’s heritage and looked a lot like her mother’s stage outfits.

Riven whistled gently, just loud enough to catch Musas attention but not enough to disturb her singing of the music. She made a bee line for their row, the flames beneath her feet turning into something like a wave so that Musa could reach down to let her fingers trail over the outstretched hands of the audience. Riven- always one to enforce Musa and Bloom’s chaos- held his hand up high, letting Musa grab his forearm. She bowed down to press a quick kiss to her fathers cheek. All the while the flames enclosed her as if she was sitting in a cloud of fairy dust. Musa’s eyes met his and nodded once. Riven pulled his arm back in a sharp, but practiced movement and catapulted Musa straight into the air. She fell straight into the air for a few seconds, shimmering with the dust like flames that Bloom didn’t pull back or just thought looked amazing on Musa.

The crowd started to whisper again as Musa reached the zenith, only for her to land on another flame that exploded into silver and gold, taking on the form of an intertwined sun and moon. Little stars, suns and moons were dancing around Musa as she started the refrain again. When she stepped off the platform clearly symbolizing Stella, a few of the stars, moons and suns followed her giving her the image of being a shooting star. The next platform exploded into Tecna’s signature violet and her triangle and a few lighting bolds and triangles joined the stars, suns and moons. The next into Flora's pink flower and once she stepped off this one gentle pink flowers and petals twisted between the other symbols. The last platform was Aisha’s signature green with hints of blue mixed in. Once Aisha’s symbols- little sea stars and bubbles had joined in it looked as if Musa was wearing a cloak made of her friends magic. It looked amazing.

Down on the stage Bloom lights up. She was bathed in her own flames, her frame looking as if someone had outlined her with fire. For a moment River could do nothing but look between Bloom light up in her own magic and Musa bathed in their friends, her own magic almost mimicking Blooms. Then Musa’s voice reached its pique. Suns, stars, moons, triangles, lighting bolts, flowers, sea stars and bubbles exploded into bright red magic and Musa shot into the sky on bright red wings that looked like the wings of the song birds and phoenix’s that Bloom had created at the start of the song. She was followed by a golden and blue dragon. Riven didn’t need to look back at the stage to know that Bloom had frozen, her eyes wide open and glowing. This dragon, glowing so very brightly and with its eyes filled with magic was Bloom projecting her consciousness into the form of her dragon.

Riven watched transfixed as the two of them chased each other through the sky, Musa singing still, while Blood was breathing fire in forms and colours that symbolized their friends. They were dancing in the sky in a way that made Riven think that they had done this before. That they had planned this whole act for months, years possibly, but he also knew that this was the beauty of this particular friendship. Both Musa and Bloom were incredibly creative and spontaneous. They were able to create something at a moment's notice, which was exactly what they were doing right now. The only preparation they had had was Musa singing the song a few times for Bloom to hear. Everything they were seeing here was nothing but importation and so much trust. The music was slowing down and Musa, still circled by Bloom's holographic dragon form was lowering herself to the stage, they had a perfect timing, just as Musa sang the last word she landed back on the stage. Bloom moved again and the dragon lost the slightest bit of colour, just enough that you had to look for it. It still looked breathtaking as it soared into the sky and exploded into red, pink, violet, green, gold and silver and blue stars that rained down slowly onto the roaring crowd, dimming and going out just before hands could touch them.

For a long moment everyone's eyes were on the stars above them, but Riven kept his own on Musa. Musa whose chest was heaving so hard that it was visible. Musa, who’s Melody was visible and Musa who was grinning so very wide, her hands stretched out at her sides. Then Bloom joined her, their hands finding each other instantly and their fingers intertwining. Both of them were covered head to toe in the sparkling dust like flames and Riven had the sneaking suspicion that Musa gave Bloom a bit of her fairy dust for this particular trick. They grinned at each other, clearly high on the adrenaline and the knowledge that they just blew everyone out of the water with a damn improvisation.

Riven let out a loud whistle and started clapping. At once everyone turned back to the two and within moments the ear splitting applause was cutting through the night.

“They will be high as a kite won’t they?” Helia whispered with the widest smile on his face.

“Bloom hasn’t done art in three years, nor did Musa.” Riven answered. “Not for the fun of it.”

“They will be high as a kite and drunk on their success.” Helia summarized.

“I can’t wait for it.” Riven shot back, watching them bow for the fifth time. He didn’t pay attention to the sharp, angry look on Valtors face.

Chapter Text

Bloom felt alive. She was happy like she hadn’t been since she had first figured out she could use her fire to draw. Her magic was vibrating in her bones, making every move she made feel more powerful, feel more like the person she used to be before Darkar.

Bloom turned to look at Musa, who’s hand she was still holding onto. Her friend was meeting her eyes with the same feverish light in her eyes. The same bright spark of a magic high.

When Bloom had first figured out that she could animate her fire she had done so by accident. She had been drawing in the air. Trying to train her control. Turns out the music she had been listening to keep Stella’s and Tecnas discussion out, had caused her thoughts to wander. Next thing she knew she had the stocky image of a warrior fighting a troll projected in the air before her. Musa had been the only person who noticed it. Three weeks later, after the Griselda thing happened and two grueling weeks of fine motor training that had made Bloom unable to look at her sketchbook for a solid month, she and Musa had presented a small animation to her friends. A little tale based on one of Muse’s favorites songs.

After the Trix and the Army of Decay Musa had used to drag Bloom into an old Music hall in Alfea. A room that had been forgotten over time. At least for the majority of the students. The people from Melody attending Alfea never forgot about it. They used to go there to unwind from the threat that was Darkar and to help Aisha to relax, find her balance again. So many hours of giggling and happiness and just music and silent stories. It had been the little light they could produce under Dark’s darkness.

Of course after him…after the Relix…it had become something Musa pushed Bloom into. Practice for Bloom to regain her control. To make her finger stop shaking when she couldn’t stop feeling Darkar and fake Avalon’s hands in her.

Until today this hobby, this fun thing they used to do had lost its light, its happiness and most importantly for Bloom it’s lost its joy.

Daphne had told her about the people, their people who used their dragon's voice and years of training to give their legends and stories life. People who were so very skilled in this that they could make it look like life footage. Bloom wasn’t there yet. She hadn't had the time to train this not for the simple joy of simply making art. She had used it numerous times over the last three years to create distractions and give her friends a better chance in fights.

She hadn’t used it for herself in so long, she had forgotten just how much she loved it. Yet here she was high in the magic coursing wild through her body, making it feel alive looking at Musa and knowing full well that she was feeling the same thing. It felt like this morning's realization about her singing voice. It felt as if something that had been holding onto her, dragging her down had been cut loose. Bloom smiled and allowed the magic in her body to saturate every last part of her. Let the joy truly sink in.

“Does our culture really mean that little to you?” Valtor's voice was like ice. Freezing her where she was half was down to her room on the Arcadia. Her friends and the guards who had been chattering excitedly, where they were bowing over the recordings of their show, went silent.

“What?” Bloom asked as she turned, feeling the light thing in her chest deflating. It turned into something heavy, something dark.

“That cute little thing you did on that stage.” Valtor repeated, staring at her with something almost like hatred. “That beautiful show of magic,” he sneered. “That spectacular show of disrespect to your own people and culture.” He snarled and even though he hadn’t moved from where he was leaning against the closed entrance of the ship, Bloom felt as if he was looming over her.

“The fuck are you talking about.” Riven snapped. Valtor didn’t acknowledge him, his eyes staring straight into Blooms something dark and angry in them. It was only then that she realized that his side of the bond was silent. All she could feel was the sharp cold darkness radiating from him, nothing else.

“I…what?” She asked again. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Cold fingers wrapped around her neck, making it hard to breathe.

“What you just showed ever so freely to all of Melody and probably half the damn universe was one of our most sacred practices.” Valtor spat and pushed himself away from the wall stalking towards her. Bloom felt herself fall back, felt herself stumble backwards. The darkness in their bond roared and rose with each step he made closer to her. Around them the lights started to flicker.

“Don’t tell me my queen” The title was an insult and mockery at the same time and even though she half expected it she still flinched and took another step back. “That you still don’t know your own culture, your own practices.” He was mocking her as he crowed closer. As he pushed her past Musa who was frozen like the rest of them. The magic in the air was heavy and cold in a way that made Bloom's dragon whimper and hide. That made something deeper in her spark sharp and bright in recognition and that made the voice in her head pay attention. Bloom started to panic. Too much, everything was too much. Her magic was too close to the surface, while so many things were trying to awake inside of her.

“Don’t tell me you have no clue just how badly you just disrespected our rituals.” He snapped his eyes were glimmering with magic and with the shadows on his face they looked almost red again. He took another step closer and Bloom threw a hand out. He grabbed it and pulled her closer. The anger in his magic sparked in her skin at the contact, making her whimper. The marriage mark on his wrist flared warningly, but she knew even without staring into his eyes that he didn’t care one bit about the consequences as he opened his mouth again.

The word he spoke was in their mother tongue. One of the first Bloom had learned. A word almost holy in their culture. Loaded with magic and meaning and history. A word that meant the first magic her family had learned from the Great Dragon. A word that had no equivalent in any language. Dance of the flames was the literary translation. Movement of a dragon's hair with our heart, was the closest thing you would get if you translated the meaning. None of those translations could encompass the sheer volume of meaning and value it held for them.

“I didn't do that.” Bloom protested, but her voice was high and weak, more a plea than the sharp protest she wanted to make.

“Yes you did.” He snarled, anger transforming into rage. Valtors magic raced through her body and Bloom felt her own rise with a roar. Her dragon was insulted over her mistreatment. Insulted by the treat.

“I didn't!” Bloom screamed back and there was the roar of her dragon in her voice. Her magic, still just under her skin, flared and Valtor was on the floor. His marriage view glowing brightly, the magic connecting them visible and tying his hands down. He looked almost startled, almost confused, almost …scared. Bloom only stared down at him and wrapped the strings around her fingers, pulling them tight. Valtor hissed in pain.

“What I did is something I created.” Bloom snapped. Her confusion and uncertainty turned into rage and anger. “I showed it to Daphne once I knew who she was and while yes it holds similarities to…” The word tasted like joy in her mouth. Its meaning and magic felt like her magic at its peak when she was bathed in it. It felt like the eyes of her mother goddess on her once again, bathed in her love. It filled the air with magic and ignited her hair and a deeper blue than ever before. “But it’s not the same.” Bloom snarled. “I don’t invoke our goddess. I don’t ask for Mother to have her eyes on me. This is a realization of my own damn soul in my magic. I am creation, Valtor.” Bloom thundered and she could see the magic radiating off her body. Could feel the power with each word. “And what I just did is me showing it to the world out there. I will not apologize for who I am, especially not to you.” He looked scared of her. The thought helped enough for her to calm down.

“I will not apologize for your own incompetence.” Bloom whispered and let go of their bond. His marriage marking flared one last time in warning, before they settled back into their simple blue. She turned away before he could start speaking again. Her footsteps sounded like gunshots in the silence of the ship.

“B.” Musa’s voice stopped her just at the door to their room. Bloom turned to look at her friend. Musa was wide eyed and uncertain, but she still silently asked to join her, to be allowed into Bloom's space. Boom nodded once and disappeared into their room, leaving the door open behind her. The rest remained silent until the door closed behind Musa.

***

“Well would you look at this!” Musa’s voice was scorching. “It looks like our friends remembered us!” Bloom chuckled softly, she felt drained. What joy their performance had brought her had been completely destroyed by Valor’s temper tantrum, leaving her drained and sad.

“Not our fault.” Aisha mumbled. Bloom turned her head to look at the projection of her friends and was surprised to see A’Sha with them.

“What?” She asked and Aisha only grimaced.

“The council rearranged the archive.” Stella howled from somewhere off screen. Bloom gaped at Aisha, who only looked back at Bloom with tired eyes.

“Yes…” She groaned, “which caused Griselda to excuse us from lessons until it’s fixed, so we can sort it out. Or until the end of the year, whatever happens first.” Bloom blinked once then again and finally pressed her face back into her pillow to scream.

“Do you know when this happened?” Musa asked and this time it was A’Sha who answered.

“I checked everything before I allowed you access to the library.” The librarian sounded enraged and just a bit feral.

“So somewhere in the last two months.” Musa summarized. Bloom groaned into her pillows again.

“Yes, and they also tempered with my recording spells, which means I have no idea who.” A’Sha snarled and Bloom shot up. Aisha’s look was just as flat and unimpressed as Bloom expected.

Don’t jump to conclusions. She said silently and Bloom wanted to protest, but let it go. Aisha was right. It could have been everyone. Just because Erendor was an asshole didn’t mean he was the reason for everything.

“You locked the library and the archives down right?” Bloom asked.

“Yes.”, was Flora's too calm voice and Bloom winced. Oh it was bad if even Flora was pissed.

“I have the authority to do that on my own, but since Crown Princess Aisha has your authorization to interfere if necessary, the library was sealed in the name of the Head of the Council.” A’Sha reported calmly and something about her tone made Bloom’s eyes jump to Aisha.

Laster, important, good. Her friend promised silently. So it was nothing bad. Well that was something at least.

“Riven sent a recording.” Tecna said, change the topic in a move to obvious to not be intentional. Whatever they had hashed out with A’Sha was really important. Bloom just groaned and buried herself back into the bed. Musa explained the whole situation. The cursing and promises of vengeance of her friends felt like balm to Bloom's nerves.

“When are you coming tomorrow?” Bloom asked once her friends had calmed down a bit.

“It’s already been a week?!” Stella called out jumping into the frame, her eyes wide and her hair wild. Great Dragon, this really was bad when Stella hadn’t had time to look after her appearance.

“You have been ignoring us for the last three days.” Musa said with a chuckle.

“Musa was awarded her instrumental mastery this morning.” Bloom crowed. Which promptly caused the reaction Bloom was expecting, her friend losing it and Musa turning bright red.

“Bloom sang.”

“You little bi…”

“WHAT?!”

Musa only smiled while their friends absolutely lost it.

***

“Your Majesty?” It was early enough that aside from the nature of the island nobody was up. 3 am truly was the witching hour and yet here Bloom was face to face with someone who clearly belonged to the High Note realm, but also someone she had never seen before.

“I am sorry you have me at a disadvantage.” Bloom said standing up from where she had been huddled and half hidden under one of the legs of the Arcadia. The representative only smiled.

“I would be very worried if you knew who I am.” They said and bowed ever so slightly.

“I am Toriyama.” Bloom went absolutely still.

“Toriyama is a legend. She was the first guardian fairy of the Singing Mountain.” Musa’s voice was gentle and full of awe. “The stories my mother told me always said she was the one our home was named after. Our people had been sharing the mountain for centuries with the fire birds back then. We learned from them and sang with them. While Toriyama was with them to learn like all the women of her family had done, a jealous man approached them in secret and stole some of their magic.” Musa chuckled. “Well that’s what some stories say. Others say he stole an egg.”

Flora had asked for the story Musa’s mother had told her.

“He snuffed out their flames.” Musa whispered. “He used magic we hadn’t heard of before. Magic that has its roots in silence and the absence of sound. He used it and just put out their flames. Hey could still sing, they are songbirds after all, but they no longer were firebirds.” Musa had stared into nothing for a long moment.

“Toriyama, she had magic that was different too. Her voice was different from her families, more clear, almost as powerful as the Dragon voice, when the songbird fled their next a few remained, angry beyond believe, hey turned against the man and ended his life the way he destroyed theirs, they silenced him, trapped him in that magic he had used against him. Once he was gone they laid down, ready to die where they had sung and burned. Toriyama refused to let them. Their fire had been put out, but their melodies were still the same. So she sang their song. Sung the song of melodies made from fire. She sang the way the firebirds had always sung among themselves. She set herself aflame with the same fire that wasn’t fire at all but music, and the songbirds joined in her song, enclosed her among them and took to the sky, once again burning. They never returned, it was the last time anyone saw the firebirds of the Singing Mountain for decades.”

“What happened to Toriyama?” Bloom had whispered. Musa smiled.

“She earned her Enchantix, after all she had been willing to burn alive to save the firebirds. She remained at the top of the mountain for decades, singing the same song she had sung, while tending to the nests and temples, hoping for at least one firebird to return.”

“Did they?” Tecna had asked and her voice had been fragile and full of emotions Bloom hadn’t been able to place until she had heard of the way Zenith's animals were dying, hope and desperation.

“Yes. One returned the day Toriyama was called to become a spirit of the High Note Realm. Mum always said they came to guide and guard her on her way, to allow her to fly on their back. The biggest honour anyone could be granted. Her children remained and each time one of them reached their full potential a firebird flew over the singing Mountain, never leaving until the day they died.”

“There are no more firebirds on the Singing Mountain.” Stella whispered, where she was wrapped around Bloom.

“No…they disappeared with the last of Toriyama's children when the Shadow Phoenix attacked Melody. Phoenixes are native to Melody, a specific kind of Songbird, but different, when the Shadow Phoenix came to our planet, he killed them all and the songbird hid themselves to protect themselves until the day the Shadow Phoenix would be defeated for good and banned from the Magical Dimension.”

“Lady Toriyama” Bloom whispered and bowed just a bit deeper than the other woman had to her. There was surprise and delight on her face when Bloom looked back at her.

“You know me.”

“Musa is from the singing Mountain, she told us your story, back in our first year. I knew nothing about the magical dimension so I asked my friends to tell me about their planets.”

Toriyama lit up with a pleasant smile and Bloom all of a sudden understood what Musa had meant when she had told them that a firebird's fire was different from another kind of fire.

This fire burned in different hues of red and wasn’t so much fire as that it was the Melody given proper shape. It was beautiful and powerful and Bloom's inner dragon and her magic reacted to it in the same way. Calling out for a sibling long lost. Toriyama smiled, her eyes fixed on Bloom’s burning hair with a sad and tired look in her eyes.

“It’s been a long time since I have been welcomed like this.” She whispered. “The Dragonborn left Melody when the Phoenix came for my friends and family. Not one has returned.” The other woman chuckled. “Legend has it they will return the same way my family of flame will, when the Shadow Phoenix leaves this dimension.” It was then that she met Bloom's eyes. “You fought him and lived, all six of you.” Bloom only nodded silently. She wasn’t sure of what to say, or to expect.

“My siblings and I had a discussion ever since you arrived, which is the reason why I am here.” There was a twinkle that Bloom had seen many times in Musa’s eyes. The eyes of someone that knew something huge and was finally allowed to say it.

“The little show you and the daughter of my home did yesterday only showed us once more that we can trust you with this.” There was another flash of that fire that was more than fire and then there was a beautiful scroll. Deep red and gold, with the most beautiful details and tassels Bloom had seen in a long time. It was also radiating power. Bloom reached out for it carefully and with gentleness. Whatever this was, it was valuable beyond the physical price tag. Bloom unrolled it just enough to get a glimpse at the title of the scroll. She almost dropped it when the meaning fully sunk in.

“That…”

“It’s a copy.” Tariyama said and grinned. Bloom blinked a few times at the woman before she allowed herself to just deflate.

“Rude.” She muttered.

“Let an old woman have her fun.” Toriyama muttered and winked at Bloom. “I copied it myself.” She explained and Bloom rolled it back up again. “It’s still valuable beyond what most people can imagine, which is why I need to make sure you understand. Nobody. Nobody, especially your husband, can see this.”

Bloom stared at the scroll in her hand, the red that reminded her of Musa and happiness. She held out a hand without a second though. The flame that sprung up above her hand was nothing but Bloom's essence turned into fire. Toriyama gasped and now it was her turn to stare.

“I swear by the flame that burns inside of me, I will not let anyone that isn’t me or Musa get so much of an inkling that this scroll exists let alone it’s content.” Bloom whispered into the silent night and now it was truly silent, even the animals around them had silenced themselves.

“Your friends may also learn of the scroll and its secrets.” Toriyama said as her hand burned with the red flame of the Melody as it grabbed Bloom’s. “You are a fairy circle after all.” Magic flared and then as fast as it had started it was over. The sounds of the island's fauna returned and Toriyama stepped back. Bloom looked a moment longer at the scroll contemplating what to do. Finally she lit it on fire. Letting a deep blue flame slowly engulf the scroll until it looked more violet than red. It disappeared into nothing when the flame extinguished itself. The scroll settled in the little pocket dimension that nobody but Bloom could reach. Something that was tied to her magic and her soul and herself in a unique way that nobody else could touch. If Bloom died today the scroll would cease to exist without anyone the wiser.

“Thank you.” She whispered knowing just how much this would mean to Musa.”

“I have to thank you. There are not many who face as much as you and still are kind.” Bloom smiled and turned to her blanket pile, when Toriyama’s voice stopped her.

“You fought the Shadow Phoenix.” Bloom nodded without turning around.

“Did you…” The other one hesitated. Her voice shook with true fear. “Is he gone?”

Bloom wanted to curl up and cry, wanted to scream and hide, she did neither. Instead she straightened and turned back to one of the Priestesses of the High Note realm.

“We fought and we won and we sealed the Shadow Phoenix in a way that they can no longer reach out into our world.” It said nothing and everything. She could hear Toriyama’s aura howl with grief as her hopes collapsed into itself.

“It is still in the magical Dimension.” She whispered.

“I am sorry.” Bloom breathed back.

***

“Bloom, Musa” Even though it was Stella who called out for them it was Flora who reached them first, grabbing onto Bloom like one of her clinging plants. Bloom let herself sink into the embrace. Flora’s soft set of fresh air and spring and life was like balm for Bloom's nerves. She hadn’t stepped a foot into the ship since she had snuck out in the middle of the night. Which had earned her a scolding from all four of her guards and concerned looks from her friends. The Trix had left the ship shortly before dawn and hadn’t said anything, Valtor hadn’t left his room at all. In short there was too much tension and having two more of her friends around her was exactly what Bloom needed.

“That bad?” Bloom only grumbled into Flora’s shoulder.

“There was…the incident yesterday we told you about and Bloom snuck off the ship in the morning.”

“Well excuse me for not wanting to spend my insomnia ridden hours in close proximity to the asshole that caused them.” Bloom hissed. Musa only stuck her tongue out in Bloom’s direction.

“How about a walk?” Stella asked, sensing the mounting tension. “Down to the water so Bloom can cool down.” They all agreed.

“I’m coming with you, your majesty.” Kwame said and the look on their face made it more than clear that there would be no arguments. Bloom only nodded and waved the boy over. Helia immediately bounded over to step Flora off her feet. Bloom watched the two of them twirl around with a big smile.

“Helia bought her the house.” Riven whispered and all five of them choked on air.

“EXCUSE ME?!” Bloom hissed her voice rising. Riven grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

“He told me yesterday, while you and Musa were pitching your act. Apparently Crystal got impatient and pulled a few strings, it’s the old mansion that is on the sacred land out in the wild corner of Lynphea.”

“How?” Stella breathed her eyes fixed on the pair.

“It’s Crystal.” Riven shrugged. Which honestly was a fair statement. Crystal was the closest equivalent to a princess Lynphea had, being born from nature herself instead of parents. She had been born from one of Lynphea’s most important trees and therefore her opinion mattered more than that of most older people. Even the circle of elders.

“What is the firecracker trying to hide?” Musa asked, her eyes fixed on Riven. Bloom turned to look too, and immediately felt dread creep up her spine.

“She popped the question behind her father’s back.”

“Yeah…” Stella said dryly. “That fit’s.”

“What is going on?” Flora asked and Stella waved her off. “Riven told us about yesterday.” With that they were off. Walking through the endless rows of vendors, calling out to them, while chatting aimlessly and about topics that had nothing to do with the politeness they were trapped in was refreshing. Bloom especially enjoyed the gossip that Stella had collected. Both from Alfea and Cloudtower.

“The Mansion, huh” She asked at one point when she and Helia were trailing a bit behind the others. Kwame right behind them. Helia blushed.

“Riven told you.”

“Yep.”

“I don’t regret it.” He said, puffing his chest. “Besides, I didn't pay for anything. The Circle was happy to find someone willing to tackle it and take care of the land.”

“They heard Flora’s name and threw it at you didn’t they?” Bloom asked dryly and watched Helia blush even more.

“Yeah…” He looked over to where Flora and Stella were discussing something with Timmy. “It’s gonna be hers completely once I tell her about it. My name is only on the deed, because they needed someone else to sign the papers, since you know Crystal isn’t technically an adult yet.” Bloom snorted.

“We are going to meet Crystal properly this time, won’t we?”

“Did we ever manage to stop you from doing anything?” He asked back and Bloom elected to ignore him, she would not dignify that with an answer.

“Come one you two! I want to go to the beach!” Stella hollered from further down the idle and they shared a look.

“So…” Helia started.

“Don’t”

“How much are we betting that they uncovered something big?”

“Suckers bet.” Bloom sighed. “I mean it’s us…I don’t think we can do low-key anymore.”

It took a few more minutes until they reached the beach and then Flora and Stella kept leading them further away from the crowd. They didn’t stop until they hadn’t seen a single person for at least ten minutes.

“Bloom wards now, Musa sound barrier.” Stella ordered the moment they had found a spot they liked. The boy’s unrolled a large blanket to sit on, while Bloom and Musa did exactly what they were told. Bloom set up the base warding structure that would alert them if someone was approaching or using magic on them, while also keeping everyone away from them. Musa added her own warding scene on top, making sure that nobody could hear them even if they used spells to listen in. Stella was the last to add her magic to it making it impossible to read their lips with a visual shield that caused a slight blurring.

“Timmy? You have Tec’s spy-fry?”

“That’s not its name!” He said with the most dead-pan look on his face, pressing the button to activate the little gadget. Immediately several things exploded and spells fizzled out with a sharp hiss.

“That’s a concerning number.” Stella groaned.

“Do it again.” Bloom commanded. Timmy pressed the button again and a second wave of pops and fizzling started.

“Cleansing magic?” Flora asked after a moment where they just looked at each other.

“Do your worst.” Bloom agreed and closed her eyes. There was a flash of light and the feeling of being overgrown by vines and then the soft smell of cut grass in the rain, before Flora told them that it was over.

“Any more ideas?” Bloom asked, more as a joke, but Kwame raised their hand. A few sharp motions and bright orange light later Bloom felt as if she had been soaking in fresh mint water.

“Ok that's enough!” She decided. “If there is anything left, they deserve to listen in.” There were several snorts, but nobody opposed her.

“What the fuck is really going on?” She asked, her voice growing cold, as she nailed Flora and Stella with a look.

“We went into the archive hoping to find the financial records of the last twenty years. You know since your mother disappeared.” Bloom nodded once.

“Which leads you to find out that someone reorganized.” Bloom said dryly remembering that conversation. “What else? Because you don’t care nervous looks that often if it’s only someone fucking with records.”

“Bloom…” Stella asked hesitantly and didn't start several alarm bells! “Did Daphne ever tell you about the Wyrms?”

“The what?” Bloom asked. Stella deflated immediately.

“So it turns out that your Head Archivist wasn't just a paper pusher.”

“Stella, you are talking around the problem.” Musa stated flatly, just as aggravated as Bloom felt.

“Apparently Bartleby was one the recruiters for Domino’s spy master.”

Whatever Bloom had thought, hoped, dreaded, it all was nothing compared to what she had gotten.

“Excuse me?” She asked pretty sure she misheard.

“Bloom…” Flora started, grabbing for her hand’s. “Half of the people sent off the planet before the attack were spies. There is a literal army out there loyal to you.”

“How…what?” Bloom’s thoughts were spinning. This. This made so much sense, but also not. Domino had been the most powerful realm in the Dimension, guardians of the dragon flame, head of the council, so much political power, not even talking about all the physical power that came from being literally dragons. Yet somehow Bloom had never thought that spies would have been included in that.

“How did you…?”

“A’Sha is one.”

“The Council librarian?!” Musa shouted. Riven, Helia and Timmy looked just as stunned.

“She found us in the middle of a…disagreement.” Flora started.

“Shouting match.” Stella cut in. “At which point she revealed herself.”

“Are you sure she is loyal?” Musa asked. Which was the question that made Bloom’s dragon pay attention. Stella silently moved her bracelets to the side. There was an oath line around her wrist.

“She swore a temporary fidelity oath to me and Isha.”

“Why temporarily?” Bloom croaked. When did her throat get so dry? Helia handed her a bottle of water.

“Because the Wyrm oath is sworn to the queen and the spy master.” Flora said softly.

“From what A’Sha told us, all you need to do is activate one of them and every last one of them will be back in service.”

Bloom just sat with that knowledge for a moment. There were dominion spies out there. People who had chosen to put their lives on the line for information. People were loyal to her home and all she had to do was call them. People who had been collecting information for over two decades at this point. People who could have the information they needed to change the Council.

“I won’t be able to return to Magix for another two months.” She finally muttered.

“You are going to wake them?” Riven asked. Bloom nodded absentmindedly there was something that was still bothering her. There was a point she hadn’t thought about, something that just itched.

“They are what we need to take the council's power. To replace them with people that actually care. I mean two decades of information. Spies, even those that are technically asleep, do not stop collecting information and playing the game.” Bloom shot Musa a meaningful look. Around her her friends started discussing the pros and cons of actually awaking sleeper agents. Wile Bloom puzzled over the missing piece. Spies, loyal to Domino. People that had sworn loyalty to…

“The Crown or Domino?”

“Huh?”

“Who exactly did they swear loyalty to?” Bloom asked. “The Crown, the individual queens, Domino as a whole or something completely different?”

There was a long moment of silence in which Stella and Flora were just staring at each other. Bloom watched the silent conversation, paying close attention to each unspoken word.

“You have no idea.”

“We would have to ask A’Sha.” Flora muttered finally.

“We swear loyalty to the High Priests actually.” Bloom yelped and whirled around to stare disbelieving at Kwame, who was sitting innocently on one corner of the blanket. She had completely forgotten that they were there. From the smirk on their face they knew that.

“What?” Bloom asked, once she had calmed herself enough to think and speak.

“Worms swear on the High Priestess.” They repeated calmly. “And technically you would need to swear the spy master in first, because he traditionally is the thing keeping us organized and connected.”

Bloom blinked a few times at Kwame and then let herself fall backwards into Stella’s lab. “Of course you are one of them.” She groaned.

“So are Jabari, Angus, Alemayehu, Thorne and about half of the guards in the council palace.” All of a sudden the conversation with Thorn Bloom had had, while organizing the tour made so much more sense.

“Your Majesty.” Thorne’s bow was much deeper than protocol dictated.

“General Thorn” Bloom greeted back and took the chair that Thorn offered her.

“Four guards?” She asked. There was no need to beat around the bush and Bloom wouldn’t bring up the Dragonborn thing here in the Council Palace. Not while the wards were still being rebuilt and not at full strength.

“Yes” Thorne answered. “Like I said during the meeting. Four guards so that there will alway be at least two awake and ready.”

“Who do you have in mind?” Bloom asked and tried to smother her amusement at Thorne’s confused look.

“Just like that?” The other asked and Bloom nodded.

“I learned a long time ago that arguing is useless when it comes to the safety of me and mine. Besides you were reasonable during the discussion in the Council chamber, why would I ignore that?” Bloom smirked. “It does help that your record is immaculate and that you were trained in the Wild Parts of Lynphea. Flora grew up in the Wild Lands, the dark Path if I remember right…so I think I have an idea just how uncompromising and strong you are.”

“My mother doesn’t have to do anything with this?” Thorne asked- her eyebrows knitting together- and Bloom threw her head back with a barked laugh.

“General.” Bloom said and let just a little bit of her dragon slip into her voice. It was rising in her chest proud to meet their own, ready to claim them should they wish and something much deeper was calling out for the other woman. “While I recognize you for who you are.” The double meaning in her words was loud and clear and Throne seemed to sit up straighter at the acknowledgment. “I don’t know enough about our culture to value you only by that. Neither would I want that. Just because you are mine doesn’t mean you want to be.” It was a hard earned lesson, but one Bloom would choose to learn again every time.

“Thank you” Thorne whispered and picked up a folder. “I would recommend these four.” Straight to business then. “They are my best.” Bloom flicked through the folder taking in each face and the information on the first pages. All four of them were well trained fighters, each one with several medals of all kinds. From title holders in martial arts or magic tournaments to class best in their training program.

“How many of them have dragon heritage?” Bloom asked, because she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to this.

“Three. Technically. Kwame's great-great-grandfather was Dragonborn, but it’s far enough removed that all he inherited is the strength, speed of a dragon and a slight elevation in his senses. Angus has a stone dragon father and while he doesn’t have active magic, his fathers heritage is strong. Jabari’s grandfather was a wind dragon, my best flyer and able to land every ship safely no matter the circumstances.”

“What about the fourth one?”

“Alemayehu is a Zenithian witch. They are the best I have for stealth. Nothing will get past them unnoticed.”

“Who is Thorne in the ranking of the worms?” Bloom asked. The way Throne had held herself during their conversation, the calm but sure way she had talked about her people, Bloom had a feeling there was more to it.

“Second highest person in the Wyrms ignoring the Spymaster. She was just under Bartleby and the other recruiters.” Kwame answered and Bloom sat back up. For a moment she just stared at him. He stared back. There was nothing dragon about him and yet Bloom felt the same way about him as she had felt about Thorne. This strange proudness, the feeling of her dragon rising higher ready to meet Kwame.

“What did you mean about swearing to the Priestess?” Bloom asked instead of dwelling on the feeling in her chest. Kwame’s face softened immediately, his eyes closing and his shoulders relaxing.

“We swear loyalty to the High Priestess of the Great Dragon. We are not bound to her instead of the Queen because not every Queen is a Priestess or Guardian of the Dragon Flame, but every Priestess is a Guardian. It gives us a level of security a queen never could.” Kwame smirked, a crooked and mischievous thing. “It also grants us diplomatic immunity not even royalty can give us, after all who would dare to touch someone that operated in the name of the Great Dragon.”

Bloom leaned back on her hand contemplating the man before her.

“Why didn’t you come to me then?” She asked, “When I took the Throne, why didn’t Thorne tell me?”

“The only person allowed to inform those outside of the inner circle, is the spy master and they…”

“I know that he is a man.” Bloom cut in smirking at Kwame’s wide eyes. “I wore his sword during my coronation and marriage. Daphne told me of its importance and meaning and who it belonged to.” Kwame bowed his head just the slightest bit.

“While the spymaster is still alive he is in no position to meet with you. He went into hiding during the attack to protect our records and we haven’t heard from him since. What A’Sha did, informing you, should have cost her, her apprenticeship and the part in the Wyrms.”

“To be fair, we kind of strong-armed her into admitting it.”

“Yeah I know.” Kwame smiled. “Thorne gave us ASha's report. You are much more dangerous and skilled than you let on.”

“It’s how we survive.” Bloom murmured. “Do you want to be activated?” She asked.

For a long moment Kwame just looked at her.

“Your Majesty…” He finally started after a long moment. “Every last member of the Wyrms I have been in contact with want’s nothing more than to be reactivated. To be called back into service isn’t a burden, it's something we long for. We worked too hard to earn our positions to die outside of them.”

“What about your families? The danger you would be in. What if someone finds out.” Kwame moved closer, his eyes fixed on Bloom.

“Our families are in the know, sworn to silence, but they know who we are, what our job is. Each one of them is trained for emergencies. If needed we would only need to blink in a wrong way and our family would disappear two minutes later.” Kwame hesitated speaking his next words. Instead he reached out, just shy of touching Bloom's hand he stopped again.

“Do you know how it felt when Domino fell? When our Priestess was cut down? When Daphne gave up her title and the Flame to you? We were cut off with her. We swear to the Priestess, because it means that in return she binds us to the Great Dragon. We are trained under her eye, we are wrapped in her magic. We are just as close to our maker, our mother as the priestesses are. It is down because the Dragon can protect us in way’s the Queen never could. When Domino fell, when your sister gave up her right to protect you, our ties were severed. We used to bask in the warmth of the endless fire and suddenly we were in the dark and cold.”

The look in Kwame’s eyes was a look Bloom knew she remembered looking into the mirror back in first year, after Stella had gotten her back, after she had been pulled back from the brink of death and she had seen the same look in her eyes. That feeling of being so very cold, of being adrift in a sea of darkness. No boat, no help in sight and then with a blink it was gone, replaced with the warm touch of Kwame’s fingers wrapping around Bloom’s.

“You are here, our High Priestess, that can lead us back to our Goddess. Your Majesty, I will tell you this with my full chest, with all of my conviction, not a single member of the Wyrms would fault you for calling them back into service. It is so much more likely that you will be met with people on every planet you visit, people that you will recognize, because they are bathed in the Flame and light of the Dragon, people who will thank you without reason. I am begging you Priestess, Child of our Mother. Call for us. Awaken us, we have been cold for so very long. We have been freezing and alone. Bring us back to our mother. Bring us back to the light and warmth of her embrace!”

Bloom starred at Kwame for a long moment before her eyes flickered up at his Aura. It was repeating the same words with the same desperation and hope. For a moment Bloom hesitated, but then her Dragon roared again, their wings finally spreading and for the first time Bloom truly felt like the high Priestess she was supposed to be.

“How?” She asked and watched Kwame’s eyes light up.

“Awaken us” He whispered. It took a moment until Bloom understood that he hadn’t spoken in common, but the Dragon tongue. She let the words roll around in her head for a moment, her eyes closed as she felt the magic in it. It was like yesterday, when Valtor had thrown their most important practice at her head. This word held so much more meaning and importance than could ever be translated. It meant waking from a deep sleep. It meant reviving those laid to rest. It meant that loyalty that had been promised and wasn't forgotten. Most importantly it was a choice.

Bloom breathed it softly and yet she felt the amount of magic in it. She felt it in the way it curled around her tongue and made her mouth feel as if she was breathing fire.

“Awaken us.” Kwame whispered again and Bloom opened her eyes to see tears running down his cheeks. “Please Priestess, my Queen. Welcome us home.”

Her dragon roared and Bloom reached out. Her hand splayed out on his chest and was met with the warm feeling of her own magic. Blooming under hand just like it had with Cloudtower was golden magic that slowly but steadily wrapped around each part of Kwame’s body. Magical markings that were echoed in his aura in his soul. Faintly Bloom heard Stella curse and felt the way the sight ward got stronger, but she really couldn’t care, because there was a teeter, no not one, so many golden lines going away from Kwame. Before she could think better of it, Bloom tugged at one and found herself traveling down it.

It was a bit like the images of brains and neurons she had seen during biology when she had been sixteen. Hundreds of thousands of lines meeting again and again in knots all across the dimension. Forming a net of golden lines. Bloom could feel all of them and none at all. She could feel individuals and the groups they belonged to.

And just like Kwame had said each one of them was thrumming with anticipation. There was an athlete who moments ago had been completely enthralled in their sport, who was now bowed over pressing their hand’s to their chest, disbelieving and hope and yearning, written all across their body as they felt warmth and strength seeping back into their bones.

There was a doctor operating on a child, their fingers calm, their magic used with a precision that they had trained beyond what they had been capable of two decades ago when they had lost a part of themselves to the cold. This surgeon was frozen over their patient, as they felt their fingers grow more sensitive, more precision where no more should have been possible. Bloom could hear the shouts from the nurses and other people in the theater, but the surgeon batted their worries away. She could feel them smile and return to work, their magic suddenly so much stronger. She felt all of them every last Wyrm, every last person who had sworn themself to the Great Dragon. Who had sworn that they would protect the dimension. The members that had completed their apprenticeship centuries ago, and those that were still trained by the members of their groups. Those that had been in active service and those that had been sworn in and immediately sidelined.

Bloom could feel each of them as their vows started to wake up. As warmth returned to their limbs. Bloom could feel those that were alone starting to light up as they aloud their vows to take shape. Bloom could feel those that weren’t in safe places revel in the knowledge that they were truly safe, that no matter what someone would look out for them, before they returned to their tasks. Bloom could feel the embraces of family members as they too basked in the warmth of the oath.

“Awaken” Bloom whispered. Her magic shooting down every last sting and bond. She felt them all as they greeted her. Some shouting it out loud, some whispering, just under their breaths, some only in their heads until there was a chorus of voices in her head, speaking the same words.

“We hear you Priestess and we recognize you.”

Bloom felt alive as she pulled back out of the net of magic. Her hand was still glowing, Kwame was still painted in the golden lines of his oath, but now there was soft blue in there too.

“High Priestess.” Kwame whispered, his head was touching her’s. Something intimate but also so simple. “Thank you.”

“Welcome back”

Chapter Text

“Hey Bloom, can you stop burning please?” Timmy sounded like he was two seconds away from snapping.

“Huh?” Bloom asked. She had curled up in one of the seats in the cockpit, trying to work through all the material her friends had sent over in the past week. “I’m not…” Bloom started and stopped, brushing her fingers through her hair. Nope, still just hair, no flames in sight. “I’m not burning.”

“Ok but why is it smelling like…”

Which was the moment Bloom registered the smell.

“Wait, chloro…” The realization hit her the same time it hit Timmy. They turned as one to look at Flora. “Shit.” Timmy muttered. Flora’s cheeks had turned a deep green and her hair had curled itself into spikes and thrones. Not even talking about the way her clothing was slowly growing leaves and flowers.

“Bloom…” Timmy said slowly. “Do something.”

“You noticed you did something.” Bloom hissed back, slowly uncurling in her chair, ready to jump away from Flora at any moment.

“The fuck?” Stormy asked and Bloom jumped out of her skin, her eyes darting over to the door for just a moment. It was enough time that the plants had grown even more.

“Don’t” Bloom wanted softly. “Just don’t”

“Bloom…” Timmy said again. He had turned back around and was eyeing the controls panels, his face slowly turning white. “Do something NOW!” Bloom groaned and got up.

“Flo.” She whispered. “Flo, we have another two days on this ship.” She said softly letting her fingers trail over the leaves that were reaching out furthest. If there was one rule when it came to calming down Flora then it was this: Never EVER just touch her directly. Go slow and let her grow accustomed to you. Otherwise you end up tied up and face first looking into the mouth of a carnivorous plant.

“Flo, come on calm down, we can’t risk the ship breaking. Not only is my portaging abysmal, but the council will pitch a fit.”

“Bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Stormy snorted where she was standing in the door, letting her sisters watch the whole thing.

“Would you like to change places with me?” Bloom asked and as if on clue a thorn the size of her underarm grew to of Flora’s shirt. Dragon Bloom hopes it was the shirt.

All three Trix went very still when the thorn started turning a sickly shade of violet and then started to produce a very pink resin.

“BLOOM” Timmy barked. “If she devolves this ship I will kill you!”

“I’m working on it damn it!” She snapped back. Carefully Bloom started shoving her way through the mess of leaves and vines that started gently curling around her, thrones going soft when they touched her skin.

“B?” Flora’s voice sounded very soft and very confused.

“Hey Flo.” Bloom said, grinning down at her friend when she finally managed to make her eyes out in the jungle of leaves. “Could you pull back a bit? Timmy is kinda scared you will melt the ship.”

“Oh…” Flora whispered and then nodded. Every last thorn retreated leaving no evidence behind that something had happened. The leaves shrunk, but didn’t disappear and the vines only curled tighter around Bloom.

“I’m here, Flo!” Bloom said softly. “Now, mind telling me what pissed you off? Council scheduling another meeting?” She tried going for humor but Flora’s face made it clear it fell flat.

“I wish.” Flora muttered darkly. Bloom closed her eyes for a long moment.

“Dragon help me.” She whispered and opened them to Flora’s phone right in front of her face. It took Bloom a moment and her leaning back a bit until she managed to read what had pissed Flora off so much.

“OH FUCK ALL OF YOU!” She growled the moment she understood the implications.

“BLOOM!” Timmy barked and there it was. The bit of magic Timmy had showed itself in the way his veins light up a bright yellow.

“OH EXCUSE me for…” The sharp wave of annoyance down the bond was enough of a cold showed that Bloom got herself under control. Her hair stopped burning, and Bloom took a deep breath before she took the phone out of Flora’s hands. Almost immediately Flora’s vines pulled her closer to the chair Flora was sitting in, so that she could press her head into Bloom’s stomach and scream.

“Should I be handing out live support masks and jumpsuits?” Riven asked where he had appeared behind Darcy.

“Dear, Bloom, this week’s assignment is an 8 page long essay on the differences between Sparx and Domino, with a focus on the reason for the split and the political changes of the two nations. Also focus on the different branches of Dragonborn that life and are born all across the dimension, but are still counted as Dominian citizen. Use at least three old tomes from the library and another seven sources that you can find commonly across the dimension.” Bloom read out loud. Both boys blinked at her.

“That…” Riven frowned and pushed through the wall of Trix to get closer. “That sounds like your third year essay you had to do for history.” He said reading the mail over her shoulder.

“Because it is.” Bloom hissed.

“Read the last line.” Flora growled and it sounded like a tree falling and taking at least a dozen more with it.

“You are not allowed to reference or hand in the assignment from your third year. We will check the two against each other and any copying will mark this assignment as fail and will DOUBLE the page number for the rewrite.”

“Oh shit”

Bloom stared down at her friend, who was looking back at her with dead eyes.

“We do not have a warded room for me to lose it, do we?” Bloom asked softly.

“No we don’t!” Timmy barked.

“Fine…” Bloom said, letting out a softly little sigh. “I’m going to write the most passive aggressive fucking paper Faragonda has read in her damn career!”

“Faragonda?” Icy asked, looking too amused for Bloom's liking. “What does the old bat have to do with this?”

“Who do you think teaches history?” Flora asked and all three witches gaped at them.

“You do not have a historian teach you history?!” Darcy asked, looking like she would like to faint. Bloom snorted. “Not even a certified history teacher?!” Darcy asked, her voice rising an octave. Bloom shook her head and gently patted Flora’s vines, so that she could get to their room.

“Why need a history teacher if you have the greatest fairy of them all?” She asked.

“That is a quote by the way.” Flora added dryly, at the looks of the three witches shot Bloom. “Which is a direct verbatim quote, from several historians we asked to teach us something over the years.”

The Trix shared a long look and Bloom snorted.

“We know.”

***

The original Dragonrealm was the Queendom of Sparx. It was ruled by the Dragons of old. They were given a secondary humanoid form by the Great Dragon, just before she fell into the long sleep. This was done so that her children could travel the dimension and connect to the other planets without being seen as a threat. Most of them didn’t choose to take on that form until

Bloom groaned and deleted the whole paragraph. She knew better than to hand in the history her sister had taught her and that was written down in the few history books that she had taken from the palace. She had tried it in her third year after all. All it had gotten her was a firm talking to, from Faragonda to not write down stories and to keep with the proven history books. Bloom had tried to argue, but gave up after Faragonda had told her point blank that unless there would be a certified translation of the books Bloom had referenced, she would need to rewrite the essay.

Which was the point Bloom had realized that all Faragonda wanted was a sheet code to translate other dragon tongue books. So she had rewritten the damn essay.

“You’re not getting your page count?” Flora asked, from behind her. Bloom just snorted.

“It's hard to explain that the old Dragons just liked to imitate the two legged creatures living with them and at one point realized that they could share their gifts and genes and that’s how Dragonborn came into the world and started to travel through the dimensions along the sky paths.” Bloom grumbled.

“Not without Faragonda getting nit-picky.” Flora agreed.

“Have you considered…” Helia started and then stopped. Both of them turned to look at him with curiosity in their eyes. “Never mind.” He was blushing and Bloom narrowed her eyes at him.

“Nu-uh Mister, spit it out!” She commanded. Helia just looked at her and then at Flora and blushed harder.

“You could ask Valtor.” Bloom blinked at Helia, the words turning in her head once and then again.

“Huh?”

“You know everyone knows the man is millennia old, right?” Helia asked, sitting up on their bed. “Which means he has seen so much history. He basically is a source in himself.”

“Huh…” Flora said slowly. Boom shot her friend a look and found the dreaded gleam in her eyes.

“Flora.” Bloom said softly and with a warning. “Flora don’t even think about it!”

“No Bloom we are going to think about it!” Flora said and turned to Bloom, her eyes gleaming and sharp. “He is a valid source! I mean look at the Elders and Mother and the High Note spirits, each of them is old as dirt. Each of their words matter and are seen as valid historical context. Why shouldn’t Valtor be the same?”

Bloom closed her eyes and shook her head. “No Flora, I refuse!”

“Bloom.” Flora said softly and the gentle and sweet tone made every last instinct in her scream to run. “Bloom, think about it. How mad Faragonda would be, if we forced her to recognize Valtor as a valid historical source.” Bloom started shaking her head harder, she would NOT fall for this. “She would be so mad, that she would be sharing this title with Valtor of all people.”

Bloom groaned and let her head hit the top of the desk.

“All we had to do is quote each of the books we need to incorporate and then everything else we just attribute to Valtor.”

“Technically you wouldn’t even have to ask him…” Helia pointed out. “Just put his name under the whole thing and be done.

“He would rip it to shreds on principle.” Flora shot out and Bloom groaned again.

“Fine, but you ask him!”

***

“Why exactly are you talking to me right now?” Valtor asked and his voice was sharp. He still refused to look at Bloom, which was just fine with her, thank you very much.

“Faragonda decided she needed to punish us for ignoring her and going to Griselda instead of her to get permission to not attend classes.” Flora explained patiently, her eyes dancing with mirth. “So she assigned us an essay about Sparx and Domino.”

“I don’t see why I am involved in this.” He repeated and Bloom let out a sigh.

“She wants the sanitized and Council approved version of what Sparxs was like and what the differences between Domino and Sparx are.” Bloom said. “Or in other words. Sparxs was a realm of barbarians that slept with Dragons and which didn’t gain proper social standards until half of them were killed in the first large scale attack of the Shadow Phoenix. Which left the people of the dimension to pick up the pieces and rebuild the planet with proper rules and laws, making it Domino.”

Oh, would you look at that. Bloom thought the sarcasm thick even in her thoughts. The man was looking at her again. It only had taken a week and the most fucked up piece of censorship in the damn dimension.

“Excuse me?” He asked and oh, fuck Helia, but Bloom started to enjoy this stupid idea. Considering that the absolute rage in his eyes was for once not Bloom's fault.

“Come one don’t tell me you didn’t open at least one history book in the last three years?” Bloom asked and leaned against the wall behind her. Valtor only kept glowering, their bond flaring with indignation and the demand for Bloom to spit it the fuck out! She rolled her eyes.

“Every last history book that has been written since Domino was cursed and my parents disappeared distinguishes Sparxs and Domino by the level of influence the rest of the magical Dimension had on their development. Sparxs has been painted universally as a realm without laws and full of people that were willing to sleep with dragons for power.” Bloom said slowly, raising her hand to tick up the major points that came up every time. “No written language until contact was made by other nations. No proper buildings, but holes on the ground or caves of different kinds. Diplomacy wasn’t a thing at all, but our people were warmongers that killed other Dragonkind instead of finding peaceful solutions. Magic used only to kill other people.” Bloom shrugged, trying her best to not let her grin grow too feral. “Some of the more radical anti-Domino people went so far as to say that the dragons kept the humans as their slaves and playthings.”

And there it was, hook, line and sinker. Bloom needed to remind herself to do something nice for Flora later on and Helia. Valtor was staring at her openmouthed and wide- eyes. Bloom just smiled and conjured up the standard Alfea history book.

“What the actually fuck?” Darcy asked.

“That explains why Griffin set each history book on fire that she hadn’t approved of.” Stormy muttered.

“They wouldn’t dare change history that drastically?” Icy asked, sounding like she would like to lay down and die right here and now.

“Considering what the Council brushed under the rug…” Bloom started and made a triumphant noise when she found the page. “There you go!” She said with a grin and presented the double page that dealt with Sparxs. All four of them took a step closer to get a better look at the pages. Watching their faces slowly falling was the most amusing thing Bloom had seen all year. The slow creeping in of disbelief, the sharp anger and the absolute indignation.

“That… What?” Stormy stuttered and stared at Bloom with absolute shock.

“Jep” Bloom chirped and grinned wider. “My first copy was shredded by Daphne when I came to her with questions.”

“Then why don’t you go to her?” Valtor’s voice was very empty and very calm considering that Bloom could feel the absolute rage down their bond.

“Because Daphne can not be used as a source.” Bloom said and there was a touch of bitterness. “She bound herself to me, which means she can not be called by anyone but me, making her biased.”

“Which is a moot point,” Flora cut in. “Considering that every last person alive, that is part of big historical events, is biased, but because of the fact that Daphne is a spirit it’s different.”

“You on the other hand are alive and breathing.” Bloom pointed out gleefully. “Which means you are a valid history…” She trailed off as a thought rose to the forefront of her mind. “Valid historical source…” Bloom muttered to herself, her eyes fixed on Valtor. The implications slowly sink in. Bloom turned away from Valtor who was frowning at her to look at Flora.

“He’s a valid historical source.” Bloom whispered. Watching Flora reach the same conclusion that Bloom had come too was exactly what Bloom needed.

“Great Dragon.” Flora whispered a grin slowly spreading over her face.

“Ok what does that mean?”

“I am going to piss so many people off, that is what it means!” She called out and sprinted over to the cockpit doors. “Timmy!” Bloom hollered.

“If you set something on fire I will leave you all behind to die!” He growled back.

“Timmy how stable are we? Is a video call with Tec possible?” Boom asked completely ignoring Timmy’s threat. She needed to talk to the others, she needed to get it black on white that she was right. The cards Faragonda just dealt her, the fucking opportunity.

“Why?!” Timmy asked and sounded slightly hysterical.

“Valtor is a valid historical source and I need Tec and Aisha to tell me I am right.” There was a long moment of silence and then Timmy barked out a laugh.

“Alemayehu,” He called. “Alemayehu, I need you to take over the ship!”

***

They had just finished sorting the books in the first section, when the call came through. Tecna, at this point two seconds away from breaking down and sobbing hysterically, basically threw herself at her laptop and answered.

“Tec!” Bloom was vibrating with excitement and it was balm for her nerves.

“Hey B.” She muttered back. Her voice or face must have given something away, because Bloom stopped and eyes her with visible concern.

“Are you ok? You look absolutely exhausted.” Tecna chuckled tiredly.

“We just finished sorting the first section they tempered with.” She started waving over her friends and A’Sha. “Bloom they didn’t just swap sections, they pulled books at random and shoved them in the wrong shelves!” On the screen Bloom froze.

“But…” Blooms said slowly. “The books in the archive are spelled against magic…” Horror was taking over Bloom’s face right along with the realization of what that meant. “You have to hand-sort everything.”

“Yes.” A’Sha growled, her dragon markings were slowly breaking through the concealment spell.

“Please tell me you have better news.” Stella grumbled as she flopped onto the table. Almost immediately the wide grin returned to Bloom's face.

“What is the earliest written and recognized mention of Valtor?” Bloom asked. They all blinked at Bloom for a moment, then A’Sha closed her eyes and started muttering.

“I think it’s when the first high council was formed.” She said after a bit. “So before the fall of Spraxs, which makes this difficult because those documents are all under lock and key. Why?”

Bloom completely ignored the question and asked another one instead. “What makes a person a valid historical source?” She was vibrating again and Tecna shared a baffled look with Aisha.

“Uff…” A’Sha muttered. “Some kind of proof that they were there? And it doesn’t even have to be approved, as long as they can give a memory that can be validated they are good.”

“YES!” Boom shouted and jumped out of her seat. She was grinning like an idiot while she was jumping on the spot.

“Care to enlighten us?” Stella asked, sarcasm dripping from her words.

“How do you not connect the dots with all the clues we just gave you?” Flora asked, leaning into the frame and obscuring Bloom.

“To be fair” Bloom’s voice sounded in the background. “I also didn’t get all the implications until two minutes ago and we were talking about it in person!”

They watched Flora roll her eyes and then she finally said what she had been thinking: “Valtor is a valid historical source!”

Tecna starred a moment longer, her brain fried from the amounts of anger and numbers she had been dealing with all day slow on the uptake. When it finally sank in though, it felt like Stella throwing a rage fit. Too bright and very much amusing.

“Oh shit.” Tecna whispered.

“Why did you…how?!” Musa asked, delight slowly creeping into her disbelief.

“Faragonda wants us to completely rewrite the third year's history essay.”

“The one about Sparxs and Domino?” Bloom nodded with excitement.

“Helia brought up that we could talk to Valtor, since you know he’s older than Faragonda, which ended us up here. Although I will admit that I didn’t make the connection about the valid historical source until we were already half way through talking about the damn essay and just how badly our history books are painting Sparxs history.”

“And yet I still do not see a reason to help you in this.” Valtor’s voice was sharp and irritated even though the speakers. Bloom whirled around, revealing pretty much everyone who was on the Arcadia standing behind her.

“You don’t know what a valid historical source is?” Bloom asked, as if this was the first time she actually thought about it.

“No” Valtor said and a moment later the Trix. Tecna shared a long look with her friends. Well, it wasn't that interesting.

“But Griffin is one!” Stella said, leaning closer to get a good look at the screen.

“Griffin has a history degree so fine by me, that she’s a historical source, but that doesn’t explain Valtor.” Darcy snapped. The shadows were getting longer and Timmy was hissing at them like an angry cat.

“Wait.. you have no clue?” Aisha asked in disbelief.

“Will someone just explain what you mean with a valid historical source?!” Stormy called out and the picture fizzled a little, while the tone cut out completely. When it cut back in, Timmy was yelling and Alemayehu, who was piloting the ship, looked like they wanted to join him.

“Guys.” Tecna tried once and then just looked at Musa, who let out a sigh and then put her fingers to her mouth and whistled once sharp and loud.

“A valid historical source is a term that describes living people that were part of a historical event. Therefore they are the first source for this specific thing, as they are witnesses.” Stella explained when the groaning and complaining had quieted down.

“In other words,” Bloom said, picking the conversation back up. “Valtor since he is the oldest person alive that can give credible answers and reports.”

“And I still do not see the point in helping you in this.” He shot back immediately and from Bloom's eye roll and the sigh Flora let out, Tecna deduced that had been his answer since the conversation started.

“Faragonda is a historical source.” Bloom said and even though her back was still to them, Tecna knew that Bloom was staring right into Valor’s soul right now, probably with intentionally summoning her Dragon eyes. “She is also one of the primary sources when it comes to research into the realm of Spraxs and Domino, since you know she was such good friends with my birth parents.” Tecna didn’t need to have the Dragon Flame connection Bloom had with Valtor to see the absolute rage in his eyes.

“She is one of the authors for pretty much every book mentioning or about Spraxs and Domino.” Bloom continued. “Now we are not talking about the abysmal job she is making. What we are talking about is the fact that right now Faragonda is the expert, because until two months ago, you were classified as a threat and most likely lying for your own amusement.”

“I still could.” Valtor snapped.

“Yes you could, but would you really risk Faragonda loading that over your head?” Bloom asked and the question was asked in such a sweet tone that it made Tecna cringe. “Because the point of this is that if you tell the truth and are willing to back it up with memories later on Faragonda has two choices.” Bloom held a finger up.

“Number one being that she refuses to recognize you as my primary source.”

“That is possible?” Stella asked, and she was glowing with a gentle golden that made Tecna think of mischief. Boom whirled around and pointed at Stella.

“Yes! Because all Faragonda specified in her mail to us was that we have to use three old tomes- do not give me that look Tecna I know what you think and I agree- and five books freely available.”

“With Valtor as your primary source that would mean you also discredit those books.” Aisha breathed. Bloom pointed again and whirled back around to stare down Valtor.

“Choice one: Faragonda discredits you and refuses to accept you as a valid historical source, which in turn gives me the perfect change to question her validity as a source.”

“Loudly and publicly.” Flora said with a lazy grin.

“Yes! And get that…” Bloom wired back to them and her smile was turning manic. “The paper has to be 8 pages long.”

“Meaning that if you write it properly and do the proper source work you can publish it for peer review.” Tecna whispered, mentally calculating just how much she and mother would need to push the paper in different forms to get it the proper attention. “Faragonda would need to get loud about her opinion, meaning you can get loud in questioning her.” Tecna continued the thought.

“Discrediting her for the whole public to see.”

“What is the other option?” Darcy asked and was eyeing Bloom with a nervous look.

“Faragonda realised just how dangerous her refusing my papers' credibility would be for her. So she remains quiet, while watching every last history book that has been written over the last two decades being slowly ripped apart.”

“Considering she has her fingers in pretty much all of them…” Aisha said slowly.

“She is fucked either way and she will know it.” Bloom said between giggles.

“Hey Flo…” Musa said softly. “How long since she last slept?”

“Full eight hours tonight.”, came the dry answer.

“So why will it be Valtor?” Bloom asked and it was the first time Bloom sounded delighted at the prospect of opening time with him. “Discrediting Faragonda or letting her keep fucking our people over?”

There was a long and heavy moment in which he was looking between them all, something calculating in his eyes. Tecna refused to look away from his face, carefully cataloguing every last blink. It was how she could see the glimmer of dark delight taking over.

“Fine” He gritted out between his teeth. “But don’t you dare get upset with me if I criticize your family.”

“Deal!” Bloom said. “How much sleep do you need?”

“BLOOM!” They shouted in unison, but like the little monster that Bloom was she just cut the connection, before either of them could get a protest in.

“I don’t know if I should be delighted by the slight against Faragonda or terrified at the prospect of Valtor getting power by being a valid historical source.” Stella muttered as she let herself fall against a small stack of books.

“Me neither.” Tecna grumbled.

“Hey A’Sha?” Aisha asked and there was a thoughtful tone in her voice that made her often pay attention.

“Mhm.” A’Sha answered, eyeing Aisha just as intently as Tecna.

“How many of your librarian and historian friends have been frothing at the mouth to speak to Bloom?” A’Sha let out a confused noise and Aisha waved her hadn’t. “Not the Wyrms- not only- like the genuine historians that want to know more about Domino and Sparxs and do not like the way Faragonda is the only person asked all the time?”

“Too many to count, why?”

“In a moment” Aisha said and turned to Tecna, a lazy smile slowly forming on her face. “You have the recording from Bloom's pins right?” Tecna just shot her a deadpan look.

“Perfect, can you play the exact wording of the deal they made on the way to Melody?” Tecna nodded slowly. It needed a bit of sound splicing but in the end Tecna managed to play the final agreement.

“Twice a week, one of those for as long as you want and one of them for a minimum of five hours.”

“What are you thinking, Isha?” Musa asked, her eyebrows waggling.

“He never said that he has to be left alone during those times.” Aisha explained softly. “So there would be no backlash for Bloom if all the historians that want to know more about Spraxs and Domino were to talk to him during those times.”

Stella barked out a sharp laugh and the stack of books she had been leaning against toppled over.

“He is going to hate this.”

“I am counting on it.”

“So in other words…” Musa started her Melody loud enough that they could hear it and it was joyful. “Once they come back, the Trix are going to have to help Griselda teach as well as whoever in Cloudtower and Valtor is going to have to deal with historians hunting him down at least twice a week. Man, I love it when we tie up loose ends so nicely.”

They all started giggling hysterically.

***

Having grown up with a florist for a mother and a father that loved being outside, Bloom had grown up with an innate value for the beauty of nature. One of her earliest memories was of her mum holding her close, their faces pressed together while they were laying on the ground looking at the pretty flowers all around them. Her mum’s voice gently rose and fell with each word she spoke. Explaining each flower, their meanings and just how dangerous they were to Bloom. So flowers were something that Bloom had treasured from an early age.

Later on her dad and his firehouse had gotten to her. Bloom had spent half of her childhood and adolescence there. Partly, because even suppressed her magic had been strong enough to make an incredible fire alarm. Most of her dad’s coworkers used to call her their little Saint, because Bloom would always tell them to get ready just before the alarm went off. It had driven the other firehouses a bit bonkers, with just how amazing their response times were when it came to fire’s but just how normal they were for everything else.

So it had been a given that Bloom had been part of the youth program the fire houses had sponsored all year round. Camping and proper camping etiquette, how to respond if there was an emergency. What to do if there was a fire. How to build an emergency shelter and so on. Bloom had grown up in the hectic chaos that was a fire house and when she had turned sixteen she had been allowed to go on calls with her dad. Only for crowd control, but it had been something that she had loved. It had also driven Griselda a bit around the edge, just how easily Bloom had taken to the emergency scenarios that sometimes even the fifth years were struggling with. That had been a very amusing conversation. Bloom was pretty sure that at least some of her classmates hated her for the change in the scenarios.

The point was…Bloom had grown up with nature even though she had lived in a city. Both of her parents loved to spend their vacations either in the national parks or the beaches up in the north, which honestly was still a moot point for Bloom. Gardenia was literally a beach city, why were they spending their vacations on different beaches!

So stepping out of the ship into the warm and humid air of Lynphea that was rich with the different aromas of nature and plants was like finally getting out of the car after an all-day car trip ready to put up tents and start a fire. For a long moment Bloom allowed herself to just stand there visible to too many eyes and yet somewhere where nobody could follow her. The sound of the wind brushing through the leaves of the giant trees was almost like that from back home. Only here the wind was whispering the words of the trees and Bloom could understand them. The smell of rich earth and a myriad of flowers was overwhelming and yet welcoming after almost a week in the filtered ship air.Lastly there was the warmth of the sun and air slowly seeping through the seemingly light clothing and into the bones. Bloom was once again amazed and grateful for all of her friends. Stella had created a set of clothing for this visit that was tailored like the traditional clothing of Lynphea. Light and airy, so that one wouldn’t overheat, but also tight enough and covering enough to be protective of sun and other elements without being in the way when climbing or running. The soft dragon hair it was made of was also just heavenly on Bloom’s skin.

And yet…it wasn’t as peaceful as Bloom was yearning for. She could see bald spots in the trees. Dead and dried up black vines stood in sharp contrast with the vibrant green of leaves and then bright colours of the flowers all around them. There was also an uncountable amount of leaves that were slowly turning yellow or brown in a clear sign of infection or a dying tree. Unable to tear her eyes away from the clearly sick trees, most of them, who were probably older than most people in the dimension. This time Bloom let her sight intentionally blur until her aura sight had taken over. All around her the trees were weeping, calling for their siblings. Calling for their guardians, begging them to help them, to return their magic and their souls to them. Those calls were nothing but whispers compared to the screeching calls of those trees that had given life to earth borns. They were calling for their children to hide, begging them to leave them, to find a safe place and plant new roots.

A soft hand in hers was what pulled Bloom out of her daze. She had to blink tears from her eyes to see Flora’s sad face and teary eyes.

“Don't,” her friend whispered. “Do not do that to yourself, B. This is just temporary, none of them are dead and we will reverse most of this pain today. As for everything else…” Flora turned her head and just took in the view of her home planet. Bloom didn’t need her aura vision to see the heartbreak and the fear of losing everything she loved. “Everything else we can heal.”

It was the most hopeful sentence Bloom had heard.

Everything else we can heal. Flora had said those words before, years ago, after Darkar when Bloom’s magic had gone haywire for a solid month, when Bloom had needed to relearn how to control her magic and her wings and her mind. Flora had sat right beside her and held her hand.

Don’t worry B, you just get back to who you were. You will get there until then there is nothing we can’t heal.

“You’re right.” Bloom whispered. “There is nothing we can’t heal, right?”

“Exactly!” The smile on her friend's face was wide and warm and then the wild twinkle started in her eyes that shot a cold shiver down Bloom's spine. “Now come on.” Flora said and pulled Bloom down the ramp towards the waiting elders.

When they reached the ground one of the Elders stepped forwards to greet them. They didn’t even get to open their mouths, when a blur of purple shot past them and right into Flora’s arms.

“CHRYSALIS!” Flora was laughing over the shocked shouts of Crystal's parents and several of the Elders.

“Hello you terror!” Flora giggled and immediately sunk her fingers into Crystal’s sides, making the girl squeal with laughter. Bloom- knowing what would happen next from her years of babysitting Roxy- took two steps back and just watched as Crystal was trashing in Flora’s hold, but unable to get out. It also helped that Crystal did this every time Flora visited Lynphea.

“What the?” Darcy asked as she stopped right next to Bloom and Helia.

“Might I introduce to you. Chrysalis of the Wild Lands, The earth born Elder of the Chrysalis tree.”

“Elder?” Stormy snorted and eyes Crystal who to be fair didn’t even look like she was 15 years old.

“Yep.” Bloom replied. “I mean come on you can't tell me you don't know about the Earthborn?” It was a dirty comment, but from the unsure looks the Trix shared it worked and Bloom revealed the feeling of holding this over them.

“Earthborn elders do not get their titles because of their age or what they did to help but because of their birth.”

“So Nepo Babies.” Icy snorted.

“Brave words coming from Miss We are going to finish what our Ancestors started. But hey who am I to judge?” Flora asked over Crystal's shoulder. There was some spluttering and complaining but ultimately they were shut up by one of the Elders that actually looked like an Elder.

“The Earthborn are children of our most holy trees and plants. They are literally born from the earth around those plants and have a connection to nature that not even our guardian fairies can archive.”

“Huh” Darcy said.

“Now!” Bloom started feeling the thoughts and questions about failed world domination coming. “Let’s get on with this shall we?” She asked and started crowding the Trix and Valtor who had been suspiciously quiet the whole time down the path towards the large ring of boulders and strangely grown trees, in and around which a lot of people had gathered.

“No threats this time my Queen?” Valtor asked lowly and Bloom rolled her eyes. “Are you really willing to risk ANYTHING on the one plante where your surroundings are more dangerous than the people?” She asked drily and nodded in satisfaction as at least the Trix started looking around warily. “Thought so!”

The next free steps went fast and without any problems Bloom managed to get them all into the ring and just enjoyed the feeling of magic roaring through her body as she followed after them. She didn't make a speech this time. It had been something she had talked about with Flora. While Lynphea did politics and circle/talking just as good if not better than most planets on the council, there was a certain value attributed by their people to a moment of silence, to let nature speak around them and listen. To prove that one was willing to put themself behind the endless loving things around them. It had been something Vanessa and Mike had taught her too, even if it was in different circumstances.

Vanessa had always said that nature had a distinctive sound that on should listen too, since it could be helpful. While Mike had taught Bloom that in every call, every emergency listening to what happens around you would save your life. Bloom had taken both of those lessons to heart. One saving her life numerous times and the other making her excel in at least one discipline in her early Alfea days.

So when the time came to give back the magic of the fourth Dimensional Ring, Bloom remained silent. Her nose tucked high into the soft breeze to take in the aromas to nature around her and her eyes closed so that she could listen better. Listen with both her magic and her ears. She intentionally directed her aura vision to go further to concentrate more on her ears so that she could hear the voices of nature around them.

She could hear the whispers of the trees that had turned away from their pained pleas, towards soft muttering and wondering about what would happen next. She could hear the grass beneath her bare feet whisper about the ley lines that were crossing right at this point, how it would strengthen every spell she could say. How it would increase the power of a healing spell by tenfold. Bloom smiled into the silence and opened her eyes to nod once at the four people beside her.

The chant of the spell was tarring in the silence that had fallen over everyone, yet it was nothing compared to what Bloom could see. She could see the sharp sickly green magic that had taken hold of trees and plants all around them rush out of its victims rush towards the circle the Trix and Valtor created. She watched as the warm and alive magic of Lynphea flowed out of them and into the ground. Bloom watched it creep up all those plants that had been hurt and give them back their strength. For most it was enough to return to their former glory, but some still looked sickly and like they would fall over every moment now. Bloom kept her eyes on the magic, watched it reach its peak and inhaled the smell of spring and growth and new life and just before the spell ended Bloom went down to her knees.

Her own magic setting herself alight with green fire like she rarely used.

“Everything else we can heal.” Bloom whispered softly and let the slightest bit of her healing magic seep into the ground. She would have loved to channel it until each tree affected by the cursed and stolen steel had been healed, but Bloom knew that it would only hurt the ecosystem more. It needed a few days to stabilise and then she would be able to return here, to channel the magic of the Goddess inside of her and heal whatever damage was left. For now all she could do was send a get well wish into the earth. A little blessing that reached out to the flora and fauna and the people.

A little step but already enough to heal a lot of the damage. Bloom caught Flora's eyes and smiled. Her friend was bathed in barely visible but brilliant green light. Yeah this was exactly what she needed to do.

Chapter Text

Crystal's chatter was loud enough to be heard all across the clearing. Bloom watched her and Helia explaining something to Crystal's fathers, while Flora was leaning against her shoulder looking absolutely smitten.

“I’m going be godmother of every single child the two of you are going to have.” Bloom said conversational, causing both Riven and Icy to choke on their drinks. “This includes animals of all kinds.” Riven was still coughing, but at this point Bloom was pretty sure that he was also trying to hide his laughter.

“You will teach them healing?”

“Yep.”

“And get your dad down here so he can scare them into behaving by running his drills?”

“I can ask, you are going to have to convince him.”

“I can do that.” Flora answered and held out her hand. “First godmother of every single child me and Helia are going to have.” Bloom took the offered hand and shook on that.

“Great Dragon, good luck Helia!” Riven giggled, finally giving up on trying to hide it.

“He wants at least three.” Flora explained softly. Bloom squealed and started planning. Stella had already said that she would make clothing for any child that would come out of their group, but that still left a lot of things open for Bloom to do.

“What’s Lynpheas stand on murals?” Boom asked.

“We have non toxic colours.” Flora answered.

“Well then the two of you better have themes for each child otherwise I am going to use every last bit of knowledge I have about earth's fairy tales and legends.”

Flora only chuckled. Before the conversation could continue any further Miele popped back up a tray of food in her hands. She had been brought over by her grandmother, since her parents were in the middle of a dangerous rescue and couldn’t attend, but refused to not let Miele see Flora.

“I found all the best treats!” She told them with the widest grin. “Half of them were made by the people of the Old Growth, so I think you will like them Bloom!” Bloom smiled at the other girl and encouraged the small plant in the middle of their half circle to grow a bit more until the leaves were strong enough to hold the food.

They had left the stone circle clearing pretty much immediately after the magic had been restored. Considering that it had been already late Bloom and her group had been brought back to the ship for the night.

This morning the Elders had led them into the maze of plants. They had walked until Bloom had lost all sense of direction and then even further until they had reached this clearing. It was beautiful with the large trees all around them that were growing flowers of all shades and the buzzing city in the crowns of the trees. Bloom had hoped that they would go up there and have a meal in the sky, but much to her dismay they had remained on the ground. The look off Flora's face had been a warning to not push, but Bloom could feel the excitement already rising. Every part of her body was itching to get high, to feel the wind. She could feel her wings itching to fight against the sharp winds of Lynphea.

“Stop dreaming.” Flora scolded amused. Bloom shot her a look and smiled. She shuffled around one the soft ground until she found a position that was easier to eat in and reached out to the plant to pick some food. Flora had explained that this was the traditional place to eat with visitors. A place to connect to the earth and enjoy being surrounded by nature. It was a place where only very few animals ever stepped foot in, due to the Elder tree, which was toxic for most of them, but not for most humanoid species across the dimension. In the past one could eat here without so much as a fly drawing close or any insects climbing across their skin. Making it a perfect place to sit on the ground and just talk over food.

Now with the Elder tree sickly and just barely recovering with the return of the magic, insects and animals had to be kept out with the help of magic. Bloom let her eyes wander over to where the Elder tree was. If the stories were true this was the only tree, aside from the weeping willow that had survived the devastating fire that had plagued this part of the planet millennia ago. It was also said to be the oldest tree in all of Lynphea, the keeper of knowledge and traditions. Bloom remembered how it had looked three years ago, when she had first been here. The bark that looked like red rubies and the leaves in hundreds of different blue tones. Each leave seemingly another shade of blue, while its flowers all were a beautiful green or yellow. It had been so beautifully alien, so very magical. Looking at it now broke Bloom's heart. The brilliant red of the bark had turned into a dim brown, its leaves where they were still grown were a murky grey blue and there were no flowers anymore.

“Stop overthinking.” Flora scolded softly and handed Bloom another piece of food.

“It’s…”

“Yes, still ill, but Bloom you can not do anything about it. Not yet, it’s been less than a day.” Flora scolded and Bloom turned back to the tree. Unlike any other tree around them it was silent. The only sign of life Bloom had noticed was the soft feeling of Magic radiating from the tree and the almost inaudible whimpers.

“Do not do this to yourself, B.” Flora said again, grabbing onto Bloom’s knee until she turned back to Flora.

“If I may..” A voice cut in and Bloom turned to see that several Elders had approached them. One of them looked a lot like Helia so Bloom made an educated guess that this was his grandfather Baccata. “While a grand act of healing that encompasses large quantities of land would do more harm than help. Several of the keepers are of the opinion that it would be better for the Elder tree if it would get help.” Bloom only blinked at the Elders.

“You are saying it is dying.” Flora breathed, her voice shaky and usure. Baccata nodded once, his face had turned grim, his laughing lines and crow feet suddenly much deeper than before.

“We are doing our best and the return of the magic did slow the decay down, but…” He closed his eyes and sighed.

“It might still hurt the Elder, but everyone who has been caring for the Elder has agreed that it would be best to let the Dragon Queen help as soon as possible, which is why we are here instead of our original destination.”

“I’ll help.” Bloom blurred out before anyone could keep talking. Flora’s face alone was enough to send her scrambling to help, but the resigned fear in the older Elders eyes was what made her sure of her decision. “Just show me where to start and I’m doing it right now.”

“Bloom!” Flora growled and around them the gras moved away from here.

“Everything else we can heal.” Bloom snapped back, holding Flora’s eyes, even though Flora had a look in her eyes that made even Bloom's inner dragon whimper with fear. Whoever had decided that the people of Lynphea where soft, peace loving, hippie fools was a fucking idiot. They were by far the scariest people Bloom had ever met. Flora huffed and turned to grab more food. Bloom felt herself deflate.

“You are damn scary.” She muttered darkly which promptly earned her another look. Baccata chuckled and offered his hand to Bloom.

“Well then your Majesty, let me show you to the root of the problem.” Bloom couldn’t help but snicker at the joke as she was pulled to her feet. A moment later Valtor was standing by her side.

“What are you…”

“You're healing something older than most cultures.” Was all he said, at least out loud. Flora snorted.

“He’s right.” She sounded like she was chewing stones. “You will need someone to boost you.” The unspoken Your an amplifier if I touch you we both know what happens. hung heavy between them.

“Fine.” Bloom grumbled. “But you will not touch the Elder Tree.” It was more for the Elders than Valtor, by now he probably knew better. Then again…Bloom shot him another look. He met it with a raised eyebrow. Bloom let out a sigh, fair enough.

***

“You know…” Stella started, staring down at the organized chaos that was the archive. “I always thought Solaria was the worst kind of …crowded. Especially in the smiths district, but this takes the cake!”

They had been banned into the stairs leading down to the archive two days ago. A’Sha had called it guard duty, but all of them knew better, none of the hundreds of archivists and librarians wanted them in their way.

“I am more scared of the fact that most of them are Wyrms.” Aisha muttered under her breath. Several of the melodian people stopped and glanced at them at the words and then winked up at them.

Stella stared down at them and then slowly nodded. “Yeah…Yeah you're right, that is more scary.”

“And another one…” Tecna growled.

“Really?” Aisha asked and bowed over to read the email Tecna had just received. “Huh…this one has balls. Threatening me, when it’s Bloom's signature on the papers.”

“Do you really think they care?” Musa asked where she was lying with her head in Aisha’s lap. “I mean some of them are responsible for this damn chaos.”

“Which is probably the reason why they are so pissed.” Stella snorted, leaning back until her weight was completely on her elbows. “What do they want? Access or for us to ban everyone but A’Sha out of their archive?”

“Both.” Tecna muttered. “They also are questioning the validity of the contract.” All of them flinched.

“I’m sorry.” Musa said as she sat up, disbelief in her eyes. “They are questioning the fucking document that has been created by the first council?!”

“Yep.” Aisha answered, grinning down at the display. “Something about there is no way that people will keep to it and something about the sanctity of the archive and its knowledge.”

“WELL MAYBE!” Stella started, already pissed off beyond belief.

“Your Highness?” The soft voice stopped Stella in her tracks. She looked up to find a Solarian archive apprentice in front of them, a basket full of books and scrolls in their hands.

“Yes?” Stella answered.

“I was told to give these to you. Head librarian A’Sha said they would be of utmost importance for you and your circle.” Stella nodded once and gestured for the apprentice to hand the basket to her. They did so without a word, gently placing the basked in Stellas lap, while doing so their uniform moved enough to show a distinct skin coloration.

“You're from Umbra Luma?” Stella asked. Meeting the eyes of the apprentice for the first time, of it the honey colour of Solaria and the other the bright silver of Umbra Luma.

“My mother, your highness. I was born on Solaria.” Stella nodded once and smiled at them, the formal goodby of her mothers home planet slipping easily from her lips. The apprentice brightened up almost immediately and bowed deeply, with the same words tumbling haltingly from their lips. Stella watched them return to the archive and then disappear into the crowd.

“Care to share what you just got?” Musa asked with a smile in her voice. None of her friends commented on what just happened, they knew the story, and they knew the meaning. Stella shook her head and took a good look at the books.

“Financial records of the last 20 years.” She finally said once her brain actually understood what she was reading. A wide smile slowly inching onto her face. “A’Sha you wonderful woman!”

***

The general consensus among every healer or healer adjacent person Bloom has ever met was the healing magic feels new. It’s the sensation of understanding something for the first time. It’s the slow slipping away of pain. It’s the absence of something bad, the new sensation of no pain. It is the feeling of being able to breathe. Everyone Bloom had asked about it, Nurse Ophelia, Flora, the other healers from Lynphea and her friends' planets all said that healing feels like the gentle pressure of summer rain. The cleansing feeling of heat being washed away and the smell of petrichor.

It is different for Bloom, because of course it is. For Bloom, using her healing magic means her fingers burn and everything grows unbelievably hot. It’s flames filling every inch of her. Healing is the sensation of pain draining into her body, where it is met by flames feasting on the wound and the pain and turning them into unblemished flesh and well…health.

For everyone else, healing is something given for free. For Bloom it is a transaction, the pain, blood, flesh and bone of a wound in exchange for being unblemished and healthy. Tecna, Musa and Flora think this the most fascinating insight into magic theory and how it is different for the Dragonborn. Bloom never told them that it has nothing to do with being Dragonborn, that this is a 100% Bloom of Domino thing. Daphne used to describe healing the same way everyone else used to. It makes Bloom unique in all the worst ways and makes her hesitate to talk about her healing magic every time. Sometimes she thinks Aisha and Stella know that.

For Bloom healing is a transaction and she thinks that is why her healing magic seems so much more powerful than everyone else’s. It’s not her for once, that is paying the price of the magic. It’s the person who needs healing, they pay for it with their pain and Bloom is just the conduct.

That doesn’t mean it is easy for Bloom. Her aura vision alone makes the whole process so much worse half of the time. Being able to hear the pain out of the mouth and soul of a person she is trying to help…

Bloom sighs and sinks her toes deeper into the gras of the clearing. She can feel eyes on her. The people standing and sitting on the clearing. The people above them in the trees and she is pretty sure every last plant is also watching. Considering that this is probably the biggest use of her healing magic since ripping Sky back from almost dying…

Which was the worst day of her damn life.

Bloom stops just a few feet shy of the Elder and just looks at it. It is dying. A slow and creeping death that is already reaching its fingers out to take the tree. She can not phantom what the loss of this tree will do to the people of Lynphea. Or the ecosystem of the planet as a whole. She also wonders if there is someone like Crystal who calls the tree their parent. If there is someone who would mourn this wonderful creature differently from the millions of people that just see it as a central part of their culture.

“Do they have a child?” Bloom asks softly, still just staring at the tree in front of her. She knows that Valtor heard her and she knows that if anyone will know it is him.

“In the past, yes.” His voice is a whisper just like hers, not sound enough to be heard by anyone but them, even in the almost silence of everyone watching them. “I don’t know if they are still alive. They left for the deep wild before I was captured.” Bloom nods once and concentrates back on the tree. It’s not just the colour that is off. The problem goes beyond the fact that red turned brown and blue turned grey, the texture is off. Bloom doesn’t know how she knows that, she never before had been close enough to the Elder to be able to see the texture of its bark. But standing righting from the tree, being able to look at the way the bark bubbled and twists she knows that this isn’t right. The bark of the Elder should be ruff and thick like that of oaks with lines of orange and darker red that look like silvery stretch marks on skin. But it’s stolen and almost looks like bubbles of bark will leave the tree any moment.

Almost as if the Elder can hear her thoughts a single leaf falls onto the ground before her. Bloom doesn’t think before she bows down to pick it up. It’s gray but there is still blue, veins of colour like the sky piquing through storm clouds. The leaves are warm and smooth, almost triple the size of Bloom's hand and in the form of stylized lighting bold. It feels like the Elder is greeting her, like it is welcoming her and giving her permission to do whatever is necessary.

Bloom grips the leaf in her right hand and reaches out with her left. Touching the bark feels like dipping into the Wyrms network. All of a sudden Bloom can feel every last connection between the plants of Lynphea and between the plants and the animals and the people living on the planet. Some of them are nothing more than pressure points on the barks and roots of the trees they live on.

Those are those that weren’t born here. A voice whispered. It sounds like the rustling of wind in the leaves of a tree. Like the groaning of branches and falling trees it sounds like claws and talons and feet on top of wood. It ’s the voice of the Elder. Old and wise and patient, but also so very tired and sad. The Elder is alone. Its child lost to them in a way that not even they know if they are still alive. It’s people unable to properly connect to them, because they refuse to let them. The Elder knows that should it allow anyone but Bloom, who’s magic is burning too hot and whose body can burn too, to touch that they will die. The Elder has been alone since this sickness has become dangerous to more than just themselves and Bloom can feel the joy in them. The joy of connection and the ability to talk again. So Bloom asks the Elder to show her more to explain more to her.

For a long moment Bloom just listens to The Elder. Allowed herself to be led through the net of magic and connections and shown just how much the Elder cared for all of them. She listened to the Elder speak about how different people felt to the trees and plants. How the pressure points of non native differed from the people born on Lynphea. How even those steps were very different from each other.

Ultimately she had to return to the Elder and to the task of healing them.

“It’s going to hurt.” Bloom whispered as she pressed her forehead to the bark of the Elder. The only answer she got was the soft rustling of leaves and the feeling of a gentle laugh. Yeah that made sense. She thought. You're too old and lived through too much, to be scared by a little pain.

***

“How…How did the Council stay in business for so long?” Aisha looked like she wanted to rip out her own hair. Stella felt sentiment with that.

“These numbers are…nonsensical at best and a fantasy at worst.” Tecna muttered where she was sitting with several calculators, Conjured, borrowed and digital. Each of them showing another number.

“The salaries of half of the council members alone should have bankrupted them ten years ago.” Musa grumbled from behind the tower of documents she was hiding behind. Her face pressed into the pages of one ledger.

“Yeah, they leveled that out by firing people that were absolutely needed and slowly decreasing the salary of everyone else.”

“I see that, but that still doesn’t explain how the fuck this Council is still working?” Aisha cursed. “With the amount of money people get, compared to the donations from planets and individual people…it still doesn’t add up.”

Stella turned a page in her own ledger, only half paying attention to what she was reading, more focused on what her friends were discussing, so it took her a moment to actually understand what was in front of her.

“Holy shit.” She muttered, staring down at the numbers and documents, which quite frankly were obscene.

“Stel?” Musa asked, raising her head just enough to look at Stella, with her chin still touching her own ledger.

“Listen to this!” Stella growled.

“Considering the fact that A’Sha of Livre, head librarian of the Council Library has taken residence in the holy halls of the Council Library, as a direct result of taking over the position of head archivist, the Council decided to garnish her wages. Included in this deduction will be the the cost of living in the library’s quarter, water and electricity, wifi, three meals a day as well as a stipend for additional foods.This stipend will be accessible through a monthly credit for the Councils cafes and small convenient shops.”

Stella looked up at the openmouthed looks her friends were giving her.

“This is a joke right?” Aisha asked then the smell of sea air and summer storms rose in the air.

“Nope!” Stella laughed and then met Tecna’s eyes. “You have the ledgers from before Marion disappeared right?” Tecna nodded once something guarded in her eyes. Stella knew that look. It was the look Tecna god every time Stella got the twinkle that Bloom called prophet of utter mischief and mayhem. “What was the original salary for the head librarian and archivist of the Council Library?”

“Considering that those used to be two different job? 200.000 a year for the head librarian and about 400.000 for the head archivist.”

“Wanna guess how much A’Sha makes?” Stella asked sweetly and watched her friends squirm. Well most of them Musa had pulled out another ledger and from the looks of her frantic page turning, well Stella guessed there was more to come.

“I am guessing a quarter of what she should make?”

"Probably less than that, a quarter of the librarian's salary, the other one being garnished.”

“Wrong.” Stella laughed. “I am not telling Bloom this!” She proclaimed and then finally told them the number. “She gets 300 a month.” All of her friends froze in utter disbelief. Stella could basically see the gears running in all of their heads. The amount of lawsuits they could start for A’Sha alone in Aisha’s head. Musa who seemed just frozen with disbelief, probably thinking about some kind of historical treaty that had been violated in the most hideous way by this and of course Tecna who was doing the math.

“That is 3600 a year.” She said softly. “That is 596.400 a year they are stealing just from A’Sha, not even including the fact that there definitely should be other librarians and archivists working for her too.”

“How much would that be?” Aisha asked softly.

“There are tiers for both the librarians and the archivists. A team of ten people each just for restoration with 120,000 for the librarians and 170.000 for the archivists. About 30 people were just librarians and 50 for the archive with a salary of 80,000 for the first and 100.000 for the latter. There is also cleaning staff for both of them and at least five warding and spell masters who should be on permanent rotation through both. The budget for apprentices in library and archive science.” They all watched Tecna throwing numbers in several new calculators and adding those up and then those again, while slowly getting more and more frantic.

“Tec” Musa said softly and gently, like someone would to a spooked animal. “Tec…talk to us, how much is that?”

“Considering that A’Sha is doing this on her own and probably by calling in favours and the help of the other employees of the Council…” Tecna hesitated looking up to meet Stella’s eyes. “About 15,000,000 a year only in the library and archive.”

Stella was pretty sure that that about of money could cover her own spending habits for the next few years

“Great Dragon…” she muttered. “That amount of money…” She sorted through her mental library of Solarian and Umbra Lumas financial records. “That could cover every damn loan on Solaria and Umbra Luma and still have room.”

“And I know where at least 1 of those millions are going…” Musa muttered darkly, turning her ledger around raising it so they could read the lines. “Faragonda’s fucking salary.”

***

Bloom remembered healing Sky during her second year. Well she remembered the fear and the desperation and the crushing knowledge that if he stopped breathing everything would be over. That something in her would break and never return. Bloom doesn’t actually remember healing Sky that day. All she remembers is the way her magic had burned even in her own veins. How her vision had tunneled down to the image of a flame behind her closed eyelids. How her hearing had turned inside until all she could hear was the slow and stocking beat of Sky’s heart. She remembered feeling the cold sweat on his forehead and the way his body had cooled down rapidly against her thighs. Bloom remembered the feeling of Icy’s magic so very intertwined with Darkars rushing through his veins towards his heart.

Even four years later Bloom couldn’t put in words how she had healed Sky that day. What actions she had taken and what she had sacrificed.

Most of all though Bloom knew that she hadn’t healed Sky with her normal flames. The brilliant yellows and oranges and reds or her fierce and raging blue had nothing to do with healing. It had been the one thing about healing with the Dragon Flame that Daphne had known. If you want to heal, truly heal, like the Flame was meant to do, you have to feel the flame and you have to move past it and your rage and find the flames of hope.

Tecna had shown her the recordings of that day. How her fire hair had flickered between reds and blues until it had changed into a brilliant green. The bright and gentle green of newly grown leaves and fresh spring gras. Green the colour of hope. Aisha’s green.

She was looking for that flame now, with her head pressed against the bark of the tree, where she could feel the infection and the curses attack the Elder's life just under the surface. Bloom pressed her hand’s against the bark and dug her nails- sharper and much more durable dragon nails- into the wood and called for the green flame. In the back of her mind she could hear Daphne’s soft voice as she recited the first verse of the Trinity poem.

Burning soul

you make the wards

never hold them

not your part

Bleeding hand

that heals the wounded

heal the broken

Fire awoken

The part of the poem representing the Great Dragon, the healer, the creator. Bloom let her physical eyes close and her sixth sense, her aura vision awakened. The tree beneath her hand was glowing with the brilliant yellow green that represented Lynphea, that was Flora. She also could see the red-ishh brown taint of the curse or illness or whatever Valtor and the Trix had done to the Elder. She took a deep breath and when she let it out there were sparks and flames dancing over her tongue and into the sky. She felt her hair catch one of the sparks and then start burning and she felt the way her hair set the Elder aflame as if it was nothing but dry kindling.

Faintly she heard the screams and curses of the people behind her. She felt magic rise and shatter on a barrier made of familiar magic.

Valtor.

He had placed himself right in her back. Her shield, making sure she could do what was necessary. She almost smiled as her dragon purred in her chest. Charade or not, at least he kept his word in his.

Then every thought left her mind as she felt the pain of the Elder reach her. The agony of being cut off from its home and people and family to protect them. The painful loss of its child decades ago, when they went into the rocky caves and never returned to the connecting earth. The first prick of the infection, when the curse had been spoken, while she and her friends were protecting the healing plants and the old farms from the Trix. Bloom whimpered when she started to feel the infection squirm under her skin like it had been doing under the bark of the Elder for nearly a year now. Her knee’s wanted to give out as it started to affect her joints in a mimicry of the destruction of the Elders roots, but Bloom remained standing just like the Elder was. Let the feeling of the curse take her over. Let the infection settle inside of her too, it was the price to pay and she was taking it willingly just like the Elder was doing.

Bloom waited, panting as flames sparked against the bark of the Elder until the pain reached its peak, as it reached her heart and more importantly the center of her, where her magic was resigned. Where the Dragon Flame was burning in the most brilliant green. Bloom let the curse close around her center, her magic, just like she had done with Icy’s cold four years ago to save Sky. She let it completely encapsulate her magic, let the pain become unbearable and then she let go of the tight control she had of her own magic.

Her center exploded into a dragon made of green flames. A dragon that consumed every last bit of the curse inside of her, that set ablaze the dark tendrils that were trying to hide deep in her flesh and soul until nothing was left in her and the Dragon left her body to chase the rest of the darkness.

To destroy what had hurt her, to heal and restore her child, for that is what the Elder is. A child of the Great Dragon. A tree older than most people can imagine. A creature as old as the planet, the guardian of secrets, the teller of stories. Most importantly they are hurt and the Dragon can not stand it. Can not see her child in pain like she despises Bloom being in pain, so she rushes out and hunts the pain bringer.

And Bloom leans into it. Bloom puts herself and her magic behind that image of the Great Dragon that is burning through every fiber of the Elder, that is filling each cell from the deepest root to the highest leaf and the earth and air around the Elder with fire the colour of hope and healing and Aisha. Bloom burns just as bright as the Dragon as her fathers heritage of the ancient water dragons fill in the roll of the Hippocampus and wash away the infection so that the Great Dragon can restore the Elder.

Bloom wonders about the irony of her being a child of water and fire. That her parents were so different and produced two children capable of guarding the Dragon Flame. Bloom remembered Arcadia's words from her coronation day and wonders if it was done on purpose. Children of water and fire, to fill the position the Hippocampus banishment had left open for centuries. She longs for Aisha who should have cleansed the Elder, who’s water magic is true and not just a single threat like Blooms.

I am alone when I shouldn’t be. Bloom thinks and the Dragon of green flame, wrapped around the Elder cries out a single note, a mournful song, a call for her siblings that have been ripped from her. I shouldn't cleanse, I shouldn’t hunt, I am a healer. I should restore and guide. It is all she can think about. Her thoughts are a whirlwind of pain and sadness and the crushing feeling of being alone when there should be two more people holding her hand. Above her the note shifts, the cry gets louder and the darkness in the back of her head grows eyes.

You are alone, where three should be. It whispers, tauntingly, daringly. Can you hold the darkness back all by yourse…

Before it can say more she is pulled back. Cold hands grab her arm, pull her away from the Elder, breaking the connection, silencing the Dragon calling for her siblings and turning her back into Bloom. At the same time darkness and silence envelops her. For a moment Blom panics, she is back with Darkar, trapped in his inky darkness that fills her mouth and wants to take over her mind, makes her reel and gasp for air but then the stars appear.

Little flames all around her that are already dead, but still shining in the darkness. The sparks of the Dragon Flame, the children of the Great dragon that have died and fallen into darkness, but still shine so very bright.

Valtor let’s go off her. The sharp cut between her and him is what makes her aware of the fact that her eyes are still closed and she takes in the world around her only through her aura vision. That all she feels and sees and hears is tainted by the magic around her. The people talking and reaching out, the people living and breathing. Bloom forces it closed and opens her physical eyes.

She is laying on the ground before the Elder. Hundred thousands of leaves and pieces of bark floating through the air above her. Flakes of dull brown and gently tumbling gray fill the air, for a moment Bloom can only see them, the signs of infection, the curse and thinks that she killed the Elder instead of healing it.

Then her eyes adjust to the sunlight and focus beyond gray and brown. Beyond the destroyed remnants of the curse stands the Elder, taller than before, its branches reaching further, its roots raised above the ground, almost sheltering where Bloom lays. The colour has returned too. Ruby and garnet bark that shines in the sun, endless shades of blue from the deep midnight sky to the faintest opal shimmer making each leaf unique and between them millions of flowers. Their colour is the same bright green as the Flame of Hope. Bloom stares up at this magnificent tree, this child of her mother, this almost sibling and doesn’t understand what just happened.

Almost as if the Elder heard her thoughts and maybe it did- she is still laying amongst its roots, on the earth it has been growing in for millennia- a single leave lands on her chest, half of it the colour of her fairy form, the other the deeper blue that her hair takes if Bloom is truly angry when she is reaching for her magic and allows is to fill her. A single flower follows the leaves in the colour Bloom associates with Aisha.

Healing. Bloom thinks and looks up at the Elder while Flora and Helia and Timmy crowd around her. The duality of healing, washing away the infection and restoring health. A simple message.

You are not alone, thank you.

Chapter Text

“I’m intervening now.” Aisha blinked a bit confused at A’sha, who was standing before them.

“Huh?”

“Ok that’s definitely it!” The librarian laughed and motioned to someone behind her. All at once several more librarians or archivists, Aisha couldn’t differentiate between them, came up the stairs and started pulling pens, papers, calculators and laptops from their hands.

“HEY!” Tecna bellowed when all of her laptops were pulled away from her.

“A'Sha, would you please explain what you are doing?” Aisha asked, her voice tight.

“Your teacher called me.” A’Sha said. “Which is a feat considering that the archive is technically under too many layers of spells and crystal to be reached.”

“Yeah no Griselda can always reach us.” Stella muttered where her head was pressed on the table.

“Mhm…” A’sha said, mustering all four of them with clear amusement on her face.

“Do you know what day it is?”

“Uhm…”

“Because apparently none of you have checked in with her Majesty or Madame Griselda for the last two days…” A’Sha let that statement hang in the air for a long moment. Aisha blinked at her. Once then twice and then the implications sunk in.

“Shit.” She muttered and let her head fall onto the table top.

“Mhm…” Came the amused reply. “We have managed to catalogue all the changes that have been made…”

“For the whole archive?” Musa asked, disbelief in her voice.

“Yes.” A’Sha answered with a wink. “We are trained professionals and very offended because it really wasn’t that hard. Now my colleagues will leave the archive in shifts for the next few days, to get some proper sleep, wash up and eat something other than rations. You will do the same.”

“We can’t leave the archive!” Stella protested. “Aside from the fact that it would compromise the order we got from Griselda, if we leave then the treaty…”

“Which is why Thorne has delivered fresh food and laundry to my home. The five of us will be able to share my house for a day, or will that be a problem?”

“Sleeping might be a bit of a problem…” Musa muttered.

“We can move my living room furniture and you can conjure a mattress.” A’sha winked at them. “I have seen the way you fall asleep on top of each other, so I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Aisha turned to her friends. A proper cuddle pile sounded amazing.

“We will need extra blankets.” Stella muttered sullenly. “Bloom isn’t with us.”

“I’ll tell Thorne. Now please ladies, up and moving! Thorne will be standing guard with some of her people until we have recovered, so our work is safe. After that I will send people from Calcula to take over the work with the financial records.” She held up a hand before Tecna could protest. “I know you started working on it and that you are more than competent.” She shot a grin in Stella’s direction. “The fact that Princess Stella is more than capable with numbers and the financial workings of a state is well known to us archivists and librarians.”

It was a bit of a left field comment. Not many people looked at Stella, who’s hobby it seemingly was to spend as much money as possible on clothing and saw the financial genius. Then again not many people actually thought of Stella as a competent politician either. Yet here they were. Almost three months into a government cue collecting evidence on so many levels.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Stella said hauntingly, but there was a tired smile on her lips. “I guess you are right. A show sounds heavenly. Not even talking about a proper bed.” Stella shot the hastily conjured couch behind them a nasty look.

“Fantastic!” A’sha smiled. “Once you are rested and have talked to her Majesty I have found something that could be beneficial for you. And if not…well it’s certainly interesting.”

They shared another look, but followed after A’Sha nodding at Thorne’s soldiers as they moved into the archive and across the library.

Stella was right, Aisha thought, rubbing her aching head. Sleep sounded heavenly and a shower even better. Maybe A’sha would allow them to modify one of her rooms so that they could set up a training room. Aisha felt itchy.

***

Darcy, more than her sisters, was used to feeling eyes on her. It was part of her powers, to be able to notice every single person taking interest in her. It had been horrible when it first started to develop, making her itchy and jumpy all the time and sleeping had been almost impossible for the first three months. Darcy had been either awake or knocked out due to sheer exhaustion. So really she shouldn’t be bothered by a few eyes on her. Lynphea or specifically this forest seemed to disagree and was apparently trying to teach her a lesson. Darcy felt like ants were climbing all over her and everything in her itched to start a fight or something just to get the nervous energy out of her.

“I want to start something.” Stormy muttered and pulled Darcy back and away from the mental cliff of needles and- for her- destruction. Icy shot Stormy such a hard look that several plants started trembling, while others grew a few inches.

“I’ll kill you myself if you start something now!” Icy hissed. She had been tense ever since they had left Zenith. Darcy knew that Icy was hiding something, it wasn’t hard to figure out, especially considering that Darcy’s magic implied that secrets belonged under her domain. The thing was Icy never so much as twitched when they brought it up, so they let it be. There was more behind Icy’s silence and Darcy suspected that it had to do with Bloom and their vows.

A few yards in front of them Bloom threw her head back and cackled, not laughed, cackled, freely and full of joy at something one of the boys had said.

They had been hiking the whole day. Someone from the damn planet had come, at ass in the morning and told them to get dressed, because it was time to see their original destination. That had been several hours ago. Well Darcy thought it was several hours ago. Now after being let into the endless maze of green and brown and other colours, well Darcy was lost, both geographically and chronologically. So she was absolutely and completely lost, with no idea where she was or what the fuck their goal was. After all nobody had fucking asked, which was half her problem. Why couldn’t people just tell them what they were doing next? Zenith and Melody had done that, without any problem, why was this stupid flower power planet different? Something in the shadows moved and Darcy wanted to burn this whole forest down!

While there was an abundance of shadows around her…they had a feeling that made Darcy wary of actually interacting with them. It was as if the shadows in this place were alive. Shadows that weren’t willing to listen to a child of the first shadow to the last descendant of the mistress of shadows. The plant next to her moved in a way that was unnatural and Stormy leaped back with a yelp. As if that was a signal more and more plants started moving, all around them hundreds of eyes opened. Some on leaves, the next on the bark of a tree somewhere in the flowers and others seemed to be growing from the earth itself.

"What the actually fuck?!“ Darcy whimpered, crowding closer to Icy and Stormy until they were back to back. Beneath their feet the roots of the plants started to move and …was that plant snarling?

"ARE THOSE TEETH?!“ Stormy shrieked and Great Dragon and the Ancestral Ones she was right. All around them plants started to move in very much not natural ways and revealed different kinds of maws. All of which were filled to the brim with teeth that could rival a dragons.

Darcy wanted to curl up and cry, because fuck this shit! Not only were there eyes some poisonously green, others in a blue that was so vibrant it hurt to look at them and even others that were very clearly trying to hypnotize them with their swirling colours, but there were also plants all around them that had shark teeth and some had an endless swirling row of teeth. Roots and vines and leaves were reaching out for them as if to herd them closer to the teeth, closer to…oh Great Dragon forgive her that was poison dripping from the teeth.

"Enough“ It was nothing more than a gentle call, yet there was magic and a command behind it that could break steel. Everything around them froze and Darcy snapped her head around to look at who had spoken. It was the plant fairy, the ridiculously soft little mother of the Winx who stood there utterly motionless in a way that made Darcy’s heart race and all her instincts scream at her to run! All of a sudden the shadows moved and seemed to flock around the fairy, no not the shadows, the plants, the centuries, millennia even old trees reaching so high the tops were impossible to see were leaning in to shroud the plant fairy in shadow. With the vines and roots twisting around her form like fucking cats asking to be cuddled Darcy had the uncomfortable though of that day three years ago when they had been on Lynphea to destroy the weeping willow. It almost looked like the plant fairy was trapped in the shadow of that old tree. More than that it reminded Darcy of how the tree had looked from beneath the water. Less like a plant and more like something older and infinitely more dangerous and powerful than she could imagine.

"I said enough.“ Flora, because Darcy couldn’t call her plant fairy anymore said and it sounded almost scolding. Her eyes were trained on something behind Darcy and her sister.

When she turned to look it was Darcy who shrieked- she saw the way the forest seemed to shiver in pleasure at the sound and WHAT THE FUCK?!- behind them at least three meters tall while crouching over them was a twisted creature made of vines and leaves and roots. It looked as if it was a willow and why was that thing haunting her right now? Darcy refused to contemplate the idea of the forest remembering them and being pissed, she just couldn’t deal with that right now. It had frozen just shy of touching Stormy’s hair and there were so many teeth and eyes and Darcy would really like to leave this damn planet right fucking now.

"Uhh!“ Bloom sounded delighted and vassal bond or not Darcy wanted to hex her. "Biblically accurate angels!“ The group behind them started discussing and arguing about whatever Bloom had meant with that, but Darcy was still frozen on her spot. The thing was looking at her.

“Come along now!“ It was Flora’s voice, still calm and gentle and there was enough amusement in her voice that Darcy turned to look at her. Flora looked back at her. “We are almost there.“ She said gently petting the roots and vines and Great Dragon was that a carnivorous plant that was pudding against Flora’s side right now? Their guide had his eyes focused on Flora and Darcy would have sworn that he had stars in his eyes.

"Unless,“ The voice of the fairy pulled her back. "You want to stay in the forest without any of us?“ Darcy grabbed for both of her sisters and practically sprinted past both Flora and the tour guide. They managed to catch up to Bloom's group, which was the exact moment that the endless trees opened up and gave them the most amazing view into a bustling valley.

“Great Dragon…” Stormy whispered. They were standing on top of a cliff maybe two dozen meters away from a large river that thundered down into the valley as a gigantic waterfall, ending in a lake that took up a good third of the valley ground. Faintly she wondered how the hell they hadn’t heard the river before, but that came second to moving slowly towards the edge of the cliff trying to get a better look down. She almost instantly recoiled. Beneath them in the lake was a hoard of dragons swimming with laughing children and adults. It was as if that moment had made her brain tune into a certain frequency, because all of a sudden the dragons were everywhere. Large earth brown dragons that were plowing the land with their claws and pulling out large stones. Dragons that looked like flowers and trees wandered slowly through crowds of people, with baskets in their backs. So many dragons and people just living and working together, it was like nothing she had seen before.

A shout from her left made Darcy and everyone else turn. There was a group of teenagers on the other side of the river. Shirtless boys mostly, although there were a few girls, all of them giggling and shoving each other. Shouting challenges that were drowned out by the sound of water. The teenagers completely ignored their group, or simply didn’t notice them, but none of them could look away. The kids kept shoving each other closer and closer to the edge of the cliff until one of them stumbled and started running the few steps between him and the cliff.

“Holy shit!” Someone shouted, but the boy was already vaulting over the edge of the cliff. It looked too practiced to be the first time he did it. That didn’t stop Darcy’s heart from beating out of her chest in panic. The mere thought of falling accidentally let alone doing this on purpose made bile rise on her throat. Images of being dangled over the waterfalls of Shadow haunt made her head spin and her body stiffen. Darcy forced herself to focus on the boy.

From where they were standing they had the perfect view to follow the kids way down. His friends were shouting and hollering loud enough to be heard over the waterfall. A moment later, just two seconds after jumping, the kid plunged into the water with a mighty splash and Darcy held her breath. She remembered being drowned under the sudden rush of water during Darkar, when they tried to kidnap Bloom, while she had been camping. The inability to know where was up and down, the pure pleasure of water that forced all air out of her chest. Darcy heard herself whimper. Stormy’s hand was in her’s in an instance.

The lake exploded as a greenish blue dragon that looked a bit like kelp surfaced with a kid on its back. His friends hollered louder and started discussing who was next, while the dragon moved over to shallower water. Darcy wanted to get the fuck away from here.

“Flora…” Bloom’s voice was so sweet and innocent that Darcy whipped around, all thoughts of water drowned by the absolute terror that tone of voice brought her.

Bloom was bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her hair had caught fire, but it had taken a colour Darcy had never seen before. She had seen enough of Bloom's emotions and fire hair to know that there was a correlation, but she never before her seen pink and purple.

“Oh no…” Riven groaned, sounding like he was about to cry and slumped against a boulder jotting out near the cliff.

“Flora” Bloom repeated, her hair flaring brighter, her whole face lighting up in an absolutely innocent grin of delight and wonder. “Light of my light, most gracious of my friends…” Darcy took a step closer to the labyrinth of plants, she much rather dealt with that, than the sugary sweet imposer that was pretending to be Bloom.

“My dearest friend, my wonderful room mate.”

“No” The plant fairy answered coldly, a look of utter resignation on her face.

“Please.” Bloom begged and Great Dragon she meant it. “Please, please PLEEEEAAASEE”

“Don’t you dare give in, Flora!” Riven shouted. The redhead specialist was nodding along with him, while Helia just seemed mused. Stormy inched behind Darcy. Yeah this was creepy as fuck.

“Bloom…” Flora started only for Bloom to crowd her even closer.

“I am begging you Flora, please!”

“FLO!” River barked, desperation clearly visible on his face.

“Is she vibrating?” Icy hissed at the same moment that the plant fairy visibly folded.

“Give me all of your electronics and shoes.” She sounded defeated and absolutely done.

“FLORA!” The shout of the boy’s was almost drowned out by the delighted squeal that Bloom let out.

“I love you so much!” She muttered and pulled out her phone and headphone box as well as a lot of smaller pieces that Darcy couldn’t get a good enough look to recognise. Not that it was as confusing as the damn game of rock paper scissors that the boy were playing behind Bloom and her friend.

“What the fuck?!” Stormy asked with emotion. Darcy would love to know that too.

“She is stripping…why is she…no!” Stormy breathed and she started to grab Darcy’s arm harder. Bloom was indeed stripping out of the flowy clothing she had been wearing ever since they had set food on Lynphea. She pushed the dress into her friend's arms, now only clothed in a sports bra and a pair of shorts, and pressed a kiss against friends cheek.

“I love you sooo much!” Bloom said.

“And I fucking hate you carrot top!” Riven yowled as he too started stripping. “You better fucking catch me! Do you hear me?” Bloom only beamed brighter. Their guide chuckled.

“We figured this would happen, which is why we took this route.” He admitted and let out an ear piercing whistle that got the attention of the kids on the other side of the river and of some people down below them.

“OUR TURN!” He shouted and motioned to Bloom who had moved back to the line of trees, whipping between her legs like she was getting ready to….

“Holy shit she will jump.” Stormy whispered and Darcy just stared at the brightly lit fire of Bloom's hair.

“What the fuck?” She whispered as the kids called out encouragement and also stared at Bloom, who with her burning hair was rather easy to recognise. Riven sully handed his clothing and electronics as well as his weapons over to Flora and took his place halfway between where Bloom was bursting at the seams to start this madness and the cliff.

“Ready?” The guide asked, his eyes still fixed down towards the lake. Darcy took a look and saw that the people who had played and swam in the water below them had moved away to the edges of the lake.

“Yes!” Bloom answered and it sounded like the hissing of fire. Darcy turned to look at her and noticed Valtor out of the corner of her eye. He had been silent all day, hell he had been silent since the whole thing on Melody. It had gotten better when Bloom had started the whole thing with the valid historical source, which was something Darcy still only understood half of. Yet ever since Bloom had done that absolutely mental demonstration of her healing ability where she had set herself and Lynphea’s most holy tree on fire and then produced a fucking image of the Great Dragon, he had gone silent again. It reminded Darcy of the early days, when they had just left Omega, when he had just sat back and observed. Darcy had the feeling he was recalculating everything. She just hoped he would tell them his conclusions.

“Alright, the coast is clear!” Their guide called and Bloom pushed off, before he stopped speaking. The distance between the tree line and the cliff was maybe fifteen meters. Enough that it technically should take a few seconds for Bloom to reach them. Seconds that Darcy should be able to take in how Bloom behaved. It didn’t happen. Between one blink to the next Bloom had crossed the distance and time slowed. Darcy watched with bated breath how Bloom twisted, the balls of her feet pressed against the edge, for a moment it looked like she would just let herself fall backwards, then she pushed off.

Time stopped, or maybe Darcy just focused hard enough that her mind took an incredibly detailed image of what was happening. Bloom was basically floating, her back arched in a position that would have been the front cover for every magical magazine and fairy gossip column Darcy had seen. A fairy in the moment of letting herself fall. A fairy who had stopped moving her wings. At the same time Bloom looked over worldly. Her front bathed in sunshine and her own fire hair hugging her back, with the reflection of both creating rainbows and diamond like twinkles in the water drop spray of the waterfall and the look of utter peace and joy on her face. Bloom looked like she was something more, like she truly was a demigod child of the Dragon herself.

In the next moment, time or Darcy’s brain set up again and Bloom was plummeting down, head first towards the water with her hair a blazing trail of fire that looked like the great Dragon herself.

***

They wake up almost twenty hours after A’Sha finally bullied them into bed. Aisha finds herself curled around Musa with Stella's head pillowed between her ribs and hip bone. Aisha's own head is pressed into Tecna’s stomach and Musa’s is on Tecna’s chest. Their limbs as usual for them are woven together in a way that would make most people question if they had bones.

Tecna is the first to wake as usual. Tec usually doesn’t need as much sleep as the rest of them, which means that she is always the first to rise. If they are a cuddle pile and Tecna is at the bottom of the cuddle pile, which once again she usually is, that means her breathing changes. It’s something Musa is sensitive to, being from Melody and heavily relying on the air, vibrations and most importantly patterns. So if Tecna wakes up, Musa wakes up too. Aisha wonders if that was the reason why they were roomed together, or if Faragonda had hoped to make them hate each other. She doesn’t want to think too badly about Faragonda, but with all the evidence against Faragonda, it’s rather hard not to.

Musa stirs again in Aisha’s arms. Which is how she woke up, as usual for a cuddle pile. Bloom tends to be in the middle of any cuddle pile, since she has the highest body temperature. Stella tents to wrap herself around Bloom like an octopus, Tecna tends to use Bloom as a weighted, heated blanket, Flora is either fighting Stella in sleep about who has the right to warp around Bloom or she is back to back with Stella.

Aisha for all that she is from a warm planet doesn’t like sleeping sandwiched between Bloom and another of her friends. Musa on the other hand loves it. Which means she has her back to Bloom and her arms around whoever fell asleep closest to her.

If it’s Aisha that means she wakes up when Musa wakes. She doesn’t know why, she just does. She always knows when her friends start moving because they wake up, which wakes her up. It’s the same today. And as usual Stella doesn’t wake up. Aisha thinks that the thing she likes the most about Stella. Stella can sleep through every last domestic thing imaginable, but the moment something seems suspicious she is on her feet and ready to smack with her staff. This also means that Stella isn’t moving as A’Sha’s and Tecna’s soft conversation is filtering into Aisha’s brain.

“Morning…” She muttered and pulled Musa closer to her. Musa lets out a low vibration and throws her arm around Aisha’s waist, hugging Stella to her back.

“Good Morning to you too.” A’sha sounds amused and gentle, her voice still soft. “I have breakfast for you and a message from Griselda.”

Stella sit’s up fast enough that Aisha shivered from the cold draft she created. A moment later there is a flash and Stella is dressed in work out clothing, her hair down and looking for everyone who doesn’t know her like she is ready for the day.

“I’m awake!” She shouts panic clearly audible in her voice. A’Sha blinks in confusion and their group starts laughing. Aisha edits her mental list. The other thing that will alway get Stella up, even if she is in the middle of a REM phase is the simple mentioning of Griselda…then again if Griselda is in their room that is usually suspicious or outright bad for them.

“Wait…” Stella mutters looking around and squinting. “This isn’t…we aren’t…”

“Still free of lessons by Griselda’s degree.” Musa giggles into Aisha's shoulder.

“Oh…” Stella says she flashes again and is back in Brandons t-shirt and pair of shorts she stole from Tecna. She falls face first into the mattress next to Aisha and then robs over until she is pressed against her back. “Wake me if something important happened.” She muttered and for a moment it looks like she can go to sleep again.

“We found the old Headmistress diaries.” A’Sha said softly.

Aisha just stares at her. “Excuse me?” She asks. This can’t be right. The old diaries are all in Alfea, in Faragonda, not the Headmistress personal library. It’s always been like that. The history of Alfea has to be kept by the ones writing that history.

“Faragonda has those!” Stella growls into Aisha’s back.

“She has copies.” A’Sha smirks. “The originals always appear in the Archive. It’s an old magical agreement that goes back to the founding of Alfea. It’s to make sure that nobody can temper with the truth.” They just stare at her. Disbelieve so very loud in their silence.

“If you have the diaries…” Tecna starts slowly. “Does that mean you also have the old lesson plans and subjects and laws and rules?”

“Jep” A’Sha lets the ‘p’ pop her grin somehow getting even wider. She jabs her thumb at her kitchen table, which is loaded with crates and crates of books and scrolls and folders.

“We are organizing a table right in front of the Archive entrance for you to work at. It’s going to be warded to the Darkness and beyond and once that is down those babies are yours, while we keep organizing the archive.”

“Why?” Stella asks. While she is calmer when it comes to A’Sha she still isn’t too happy about her influence and just who the other woman is.

The crows' feet around A’Sha’s eye’s tighten and a small crease appears on her forehead as her smile disappears. “Remember when you asked why Domino would employ children for spies?”

None of them answer, but A’Sha seems to get what she is looking for either way. “Because we were told from the get go, and we were trained properly and we had people older and more experienced to look out for us and to turn to if it got ruff. People have been watching Alfea, especially since the Queen showed up. First only because an earth fairy? That’s something noteworthy, but the lost princess of Domino? It could have changed the Damson. It is changing the dimension. We are not impressed.” A’sha looks at them and a corner of her mouth ticks up. “Besides…Faragonda is a sanctimonious hypocrite, who really should be taken down a bit.”

They stare at A’Sha in silence.

“So what’s for breakfast?” Stella asks and Aisha sighs. Right overthrowing the ruling class isn’t suspicious or strange anymore, not for them.

***

Her dad had always said that was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He had also indulged her in that. Had allowed her to be part of his firehouse's youth program. Had indulged her when she had spent hours upon hours with Andy in the studio, dancing together until they both were bathed in sweat and barely able to breathe. Hell he had more than once planned holiday’s in areas where the beaches or lakes had cliffs you could jump from. That or he had made sure to bring her to swimming pools that had jump towers. Her mum had always hated it, but Bloom had loved it. The feeling of air rushing past her, the hammering of her heart in her chest. The sweet rush of adrenaline, because she was at the complete mercy of gravity. In the past she had thought she was, just like her dad said, an adrenaline junkie. That her body or well her brain joyed the rush of chemicals her body produced in moments where she was either in a danger or doing something controlled that could go so very wrong the second she moved wrong.

When Bloom had found out she was from Domino, well it had changed things a bit. Alfeas library didn’t have a lot of books on the biology of Dragonborn’s and most of those that existed weren’t the most accurate. It had barely satisfied Bloom's need to know, her desperate reaching for information and helplessness. It didn’t help that the few things the book actually got right and been confirmed by Dragonborn scholars, had made Bloom's life so much harder. She hadn’t really gotten a good overview of just how different her body was until she had had her first proper talk with Daphne. The thing that Daphne had confirmed the books had gotten right, was that Dragonborn were a warrior species. The need to protect and guard was in their blood and souls, it was embedded in each child that was born to a Dragonborn parent. It meant that their bodies were naturally stronger and faster and could cope with even the most strange of scenarios. Bloom was still only the fourth best strategist in their group, but she was by far the best at getting a command or plan and turning them into action.

They had tested it once, with an obstacle course. If she had the time to warm up or in other words had been under attack already, her reaction time to a command was less than a centisecond. At least for simple commands like “left, right” or “duck” Something that had the three different measuring devices and too many cameras to actually measure. Tecna had had the time of her life figuring that one out.

The drawback of her biology was that Bloom needed to exercise a lot more than most people. While she didn’t get fidgety like Aisha would if she couldn’t get her energy out, Bloom tended to get in her head. So every once in a while Bloom needed a proper adrenaline rush. Thankfully Griselda seemed to know her way around Dragonborn biology or she was just that good at her job, but ever since she had arrived at Alfea Bloom’s adrenaline junkie day’s had seemed to stop.

That was until she had been forced to miss classes for several months because she was stuck in negotiations about her own marriage. Then meetings with a high council that would have like to strip all her power from her and in the latest lines of way’s to fuck her up, she had been trapped in a ship for almost two months with only three a week long breaks for diplomatic visits. While also trapped in a confusing and rage inducing circle of being able to work with Valtor and ready to rip his fucking throat out.

In other words, Bloom felt like vibrating out of her skin with the need to move and do something absolutely reckless. Not even the use of her own magic was helping. Their little performance on Melody had helped until Valtor opened his mouth. The healing of the Elder Tree had somehow made the whole thing worse, because Bloom had protected it. She had healed, but not truly fought the problem. She had just stood there and let her magic take over. SHE hadn’t done anything, not really. So when she had seen the teenagers jumping from the cliff. A cliff that was at least a mile high, if not more, Bloom’s logical brain had set out and her lizard brain - literally in her case- had taken over.

And Oh Great Dragon did it feel good. It felt like freedom. It felt like relief. There had been a moment, when she had stood by the trees and all eyes had been on her, when her fear of heights had kicked in, as stupid as it sounded, but Bloom had always been afraid of heights, of falling and not being able to stop. It had stopped when she had grown her wings, because Bloom knew she could save herself, but it was still there. In the back of her mind, in a little box that would open up at the most inconvenient moments and free her solid before she remembered that she had wings and that she was a dragon and that the sky was hers to play with.

The short run to the cliff edge had been like a wake up call for her inner dragon. The moment of push off had been a moment of pure weightlessness the moment before wings would unfold before her dragon self would take over. It had been pure bliss and joy. The serotonin rushed in with such force it had taken Bloom's breath away.

And then gravity grabbed her and pulled.

The heady rush of adrenaline was even better than the serotonin moments before. The feeling of air rushing past her. The cracking of her own hair aflame with the radiant pinkish purple of her own joy and the feeling of cold mist setting on her skin. It was everything. Bloom didn’t even open her eyes as she fell. Just let her magic replace her eyes, let her instinct take over. She didn’t remember opening her mouth, she didn’t remember when she started screaming, but she realized her own elated, joyful and utterly dragon scream, when it was answered by her people below her. It had been the same moment when her inner dragon had roared and Bloom had turned just in time to land feet first in the water.

She had stayed there for a long moment. Allowed the spell that allowed her to breath under water settling over her skin and just floated for a moment in the bliss of calmness for the first time in over a month. Aisha had drilled the spell into them all until they could cast it without thinking and she was once more grateful for it. Her dragon purred in her own chest and Bloom opened her eyes to meet the giant seaweed green eyes of a water dragon. They snorted a gush of bubbles in her direction and Bloom chucked her own little cluster of bubbles rising to the surface as she moved forward. A moment later someone breached the water above her. Bloom looked up and was met with Riven’s familiar form. His momentum propelled him close enough to her to make his face visible. His eyes were shut tightly and his face was a grimace of displeasure. Bloom started giggling and reached out to Riven to cast the same spell over him she was under. His eyes snapped open instantly and he gasped for air. Right, the boy wasn't as used to this as her friends and her were. Bloom waved and Riven squinted at her. She saw the exact moment he registered the Dragon behind her. His eyes bulged out of their sockets and he made an aborted move that looked like he was both trying to scramble back and swim up. Bloom only rolled her eyes and grabbed his ankle to pull him back. She turned in the same moment and gestured the dragon closer. They were under both of them in an instance and while Riven still looked like he would like to get the fuck away from their back. Bloom braced her feet against their sleek scales and waited for them to break the water's surface.

They did so just a moment later and Bloom, expecting the change in pressure, light, air and body weight remained standing straight, while Riven looked like a starfish next to her where he was laying spluttering and cursing her. For a moment Bloom stared down at her friend who looked a bit like a wet poodle glaring up at her, then the positive rush finally registered in her brain she threw her head back and started laughing.

All around her, her people were cheering and clapping and laughing with her.

***

A’Sha had allowed them to float the books and scrolls around them while they ate, as long as she was right next to them all and supervising. None of them had protested. They knew that librarians were scary people and they were surrounded by a lot of them. Blooms friends and fairy circle sisters or not, none of them would survive if they damaged any books because they were eating close to them. So they let A’Sha hover and levitated the books.

“Listen to this!” Tecna growled, there was lighting dancing through her hair.

“Alfea, while a school for fairies only, does not discriminate between genders. Fairies of both the female and male gender as well as those in-between or outside of the gender spectrum are welcome in our halls as long as they either come with the recommendation of their planets, a familiar connection to a royal family, the guardian mark of their plante or have proven their worth during the entry tests.”

“Wait, the all girls school rule is bullshit?” Stella asked with rage on her face. “From when is that entry?”

“Three headmistresses ago. This entry is from six hundred years ago. Shortly before Headmistress Mavilla took over.”

“So Headmistress Tika from Zenith right?” Musa asked. Tecna nodded once, pride and rage in her system. Alfea was barely open to people outside of the gender spectrum or those that were in between male and female. If she remembered right there were a total of four intersex students and maybe ten nonbinary or agender-spectrum students. Half of the reason why Tecna was still very firmly sticking with the she/her pronouns was the amount of paperwork and restructuring she would have to endure should she change to her preferred pronouns. Not even talking about the fact that she would be reassigned to a new suit. She was mostly ok with she, but there were days where she would feel like ripping the skin of her body when their teachers called her Miss. Most of them seemed topics up on those days and tended to just call her by her name on those days but some simply didn’t care. Knowing that in the past as recently as two Headmistresses ago, she could have gone by her preferred pronouns…it made her skin crawl.

“How do you feel?” Aisha asked, probably picking up on the way Tecna was feeling right now. Like Tecna, Aisha wasn’t necessarily bound to the gender binary. The merpeople and the land people of Andros were known to be mostly intersex and chill about it. So Aisha was almost always the first to know when the vibes about Tecna changed. She called it the gender tides. Bloom loved it and had made a pin for Tecna that could change its colour depending on just which pronouns Tecna preferred. She wasn’t wearing it right now.

“Not the usual.” They whispered. Aisha nodded once and out of the corner of their eye Tecna saw Stella whispering to A’Sha, if they had to guess, Stella was explaining their situation. Muse’s hand reaching out and squeezing their own was what got their thoughts away from the slow downwards spiral they were experiencing and they forced a smile, even though they were sure that it was more of a grimace.

“We know from Griselda that Alfea was an all girls school during her time.” Musa started. “And considering that she is only four years younger than Faragonda we can assume that Headmistress Mavilla was the one to change it.”

“The question now is if it was her own decision or if someone …” Stella hesitated, seemingly looking for the right word, before she finished her sentence. “or if she was inspired by someone.”

“I’m starting a list.” Tecna muttered, pulling out their tablet and opening another vault. Mother’s familiar code wormed its way into the document and made sure that nobody but Tecna, her parents and mother herself would be able to access the vault. The familiar lines of Mother’s code were the last piece to calm Tecna down enough to actually concentrate on what they needed to do.

“So…” Musa’s voice immediately threw them again. Tecna wanted to slam their head onto the table top and just knock themselves out. “Would this be a bad moment to mention that Alfea used to train dark fairies until about a hundred years ago?”

Stellas hair turned white instantly with the amount of rage she was feeling. Making her look like she was crowned by the sun itself.

“Excuse you?!”

Tecna opened another page in the new vault.

Chapter Text

Lynphea had been beautiful when Bloom had first seen it. It had been dangerous when she had understood that half of the plants on this planet were either carnivorous or so pumped full of wild magic that simply touching them could fuck you up good.

It explained some of Flora's behavior too. For all that she was the calmest of all of them, the seemingly collected and calm wallflower, Flora was dangerous enough that even the dragon living inside of Bloom got scared if Flora had a bad mood.

It didn’t help that Lynphea and the Elven Realm of Ellesmera were basically siblings and close trade partners. Bloom had seen Palladium exchange enough recipes and experimental ideas with the Elven Queen Arthis Morwen to know that they all had a bit of a reckless streak mixed with a research need that would make even Tecna on a binge look harmless.

So really Bloom expected the Dragonborn of Lynphea to be …something. Bloom didn’t really know what she did expect, she had stopped having expectations when it came to the Magical Dimension around the time her teacher abducted her.

Still having the excitedly shattering group of children most of which had at least some kind of dragon features all around her was exactly what she had expected. It did help that she had been placed in the middle of a large stone circle and the children and teenagers were coming up to her with their most precious plants, most of which were either poisonous, carnivorous or brimming with wild magic.

"You are having the time of your life don’t you?“ Flora snickered as a kid no older than six waddled up to them a pot in their hands as tall as themselves with an absolutely toxic plant in it.

"Is that?“ Bloom asked knowing full well what kind of plant that was, Flora had raved on about this specific murder puppy often enough. Bloom was still unsure if Crystal was to blame for that one or Flora’s mother. Either way Bloom could see the argument coming.

"A present!“ The child chirped, hazel eyes locked onto Bloom for a moment before they flittered over to Flora with absolute adoration. "For our guardian fairy, my family’s most healthy Wild Snapdragon. I raised her myself.“ The little dragon looked like they were ready to vibrate out of their skin with pride at their words.

"Flo…“ Helia started softly behind them and Bloom rolled her eyes, as if the man wouldn’t fold the second Flora actually tried to convince him to her side. Flora was already moving around the Snapdragon, her eyes alight with delight and happiness.

"How old is she?“

"Four years old. I accidentally raised her from a clipping when I was three, she’s our most precious little guardian.“

"Oh we are fucked.“ Timmy whined.

"You are complaining about the plant fairy getting another plant?“ Stormy snapped. She was the only Trix that was still chill after the little incident in the forest. Darcy had become rather twitchy and Icy had surrounded herself in an aura of freezing cold that made every living thing avoid her. Stormy seemed to be mostly relaxed now that they were out of the main forest.

"That is a Wild Snapdragon.“ Bloom drawled softly, watching Flora and the baby dragon talking animatedly as both of them gently petted the plant.

"A plant so what?“

"It’s the penultimate plant.“ Valtor sniffed, he had been rather calm ever since the tree and Bloom both wanted to start a fight and just enjoy the peace.

"That one.“ Bloom agreed. "It can only grow around an extreme concentration of wild magic.“ Bloom turned to look at the Trix. "And I mean Wild Magic with capital letters, the good stuff, the magic that corrupts people by just being near it.“

"The magic that forced Lynphean fairies to develop a whole transformation to safely interact with it.“ Helia groused. "And don’t you dare call it Butterflix.“ He growled. "That’s an insult both for our people and the Wild Magic.

"So what is it called then?“ Stormy asked, looking a bit pale all of a sudden. She, more than most of them, understood the magnitude of Wild Magic with capital letters. Storms were still classified as wild magic for the most parts, since even the most accomplished weather magica’s tended to have problems with them.

"Willow’s will.“ Helia whispered and Bloom felt a shiver run down her spine, even just saying the words invoked the magic. Flora instantly looked up and so did several other adults near them. "It’s named after the sister of the Weeping Willow, since our tales name her the spirit of the untamed wild and the spirits of old, the bridge between the unknown and the orderly.“

"It’s also nothing but a legend.“ Valtor muttered.

"For you maybe.“ Helia snapped and Bloom let out a sharp growl. All around the valley heads snapped up and in her direction.

"Stop this right now.“ She commanded while waving the other Dragonborn and dragons off. “The point of our conversation was, that Wild Snapdragons need Wild Magic and the real deal at that to even take seed.“ Bloom explained harshly. She knew this lecture by heart now, Flora had given it so many times, while making cow eyes at pictures of the plant.

"It is also carnivorous and highly intelligent at that and most importantly it’s toxic both in a venomous and poisonous way.“

"How?“ Darcy sounded hoarse and when Bloom turned to look at her, she had moved closer to Icy.

"Venomous, because every part of the plant is highly toxic, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, vines, sap and pollen. Poisonous because it’s like I said carnivorous and highly intelligent which means it has a personality and can move to a certain degree. Like that.“ Bloom remarked dryly. The plant had opened several of its deep black eyes and was moving its vines and leaves in Flora’s direction purring loud enough that it was audible for Bloom even over the chatter and rustling of the Dragonborn living their lives.

"Flora!“ She called out as she watched the face of the dragonling light up with delight. Flora, the child and the plant turned to look at Bloom. "You are not allowed to bring her with us!“ Bloom said and she made sure her tone was clear and sharp.

"She will stay in our dorm, Bloom.“ Flora said gently and softly and Great Dragon she was intentionally wilting. Bloom didn’t need to look at Helia to know he already had crumbled.

"Which dorm?“ Bloom asked cooly.

"Cloudtower, they will like her.“

"Yes, so will the witches once they realise how powerful she is and we either have a lot of dead witches on our hands, because this little lady ate them. Or we have a lot of other people, because the lady was used for poison or venom.“ Flora deflated a bit at that and wilted for real, but Bloom only raised an eyebrow.

"Alfea then.“

"And have to explain to Griselda why we have a murder plant in the dorm we do not use anymore? Or where do you want to plant her? Faragonda’s office?“ Both the boys and Valtor snorted at that, Flora on the other hand brightened.

"Am I allowed to do that?“ Bloom should have known that would happen. She knew her roommate after all.

"No!“ Bloom said sharply. "Because Faragonda will kill the Little Lady and then you are going on a rampage and we both know how that will end.“ Flora only pouted and Bloom raised an eyebrow at her.

"She’s a present!“

"Yes and the Dragonling has already taken good care of her, they can do for a little longer while you make sure the little Lady can actually thrive wherever you will plant her.“ Flora opened her mouth again and Bloom just sighed. This was payback for her jumping the cliffs earlier, she could just feel it.

"Flo, she need’s wild magic in quantities that will trigger every last alarm installed in Magix’s atmosphere and you know it!“ This finally got Flora to give up and she went back to discussing the plant with her Dragonling.

"Helia.“ Bloom said softly.

"Mhm.“ He sounded so damn smitten. Sometimes Bloom wondered if having a person to discuss paints and colours with was worth dealing with things like this.

"Flora better knows that she owns the Manor by the time we are leaving for Solaria or I am going to tell her myself.“

"BLOOM!“

***

"So you all are still alive?“ Bloom’s voice was cheerful and delighted as she answered the call. They had gotten many different videos and pictures ever since Bloom, Flora and the group had reached the Old Growth. Stella’s favorite was the one where Bloom in her fairy form was wrestling and play-fighting with a huge group of Dragonborn children. More than once Bloom had been lost under a pile of scaly limbs only to appear again and again.

Musa had, with the help of some solarian archivists, printed a picture of Bloom being taught how to grow plants with her healing magic and as a group they refused to acknowledge just how many pictures they had of Bloom healing little scraps or wounds. Nobody dared to say it but Bloom healing was the thing that showed her at her most peaceful.

As much as the footage of Bloom healing the Elder Tree had gone viral for the sheer amount of fire and dramatics, none of them cared the slightest bit for the seemingly impossible feed of magic Bloom had that day. The only thing they kept watching over and over again was the moment after the healing was done. When Bloom had been laying on her back, cradled by the roots of the Elder, looking so utterly content. She had actually looked 21. Without any expectations on her shoulders, without the political power and fate of the damn dimension in her hands. No, at that moment Bloom had been the healer she was supposed to be. Stella ached to see that face more, to see that utter content and peace on her sister’s face.

"Barley.“ A’sha muttered where she was controlling the lists of the shelves that had been organized already.

"Griselda managed to phone into the archive.“ Tecna grumbled. She and Musa were still trying to figure out just HOW Griselda had done that. Bloom snorted and Stella rolled her eyes, of course Bloom would think this funny, she liked Griselda. "Forced us into time out and sleep.“

"Classic Griselda!“ Bloom nodded sagely.

"Go fuck yourself!“ Musa grumbled.

"Where is Flo?“ Aisha asked, knowing just as well as Stella that if they let this go this would end in a full on bickering session.

"No clue, she and Helia disappeared into the wilderness a while ago and haven’t resurfaced yet.“

"Wait what?!“ Musa called out alarmed. Bloom only brightened up more.

"Right, you don’t know! Remember the Manor Flora used to tell us about?“

"The old thing that is rumored to be built on the place where the weeping willow’s sibling was destroyed by the fire?“ Stella asked dryly.

"The one that is rumored to be built with the wood of what remained of that willow?“ Tecna added.

"The house that is sitting on top of the biggest and most dangerous Wild Magic source in the whole dimension?“ Musa asked dryly.

"Yep, we remember that, why?“ Stella asked, she had the feeling she knew something about that, she just couldn’t place why.

"Yes, well Helia with the help of Crystal, managed to get approval from the Elders Council of Lynphea, to give it to Flora.“

"WHAT?!“ Aisha and Tecna called out while Stella shot a look towards Musa, who was looking back at her.

"Right, he told us that!“ Stella said, remembering their picnic on the beach.“

"Why did nobody tell us?“ Aisha protested.

"Because that was the same moment Bloom got introduced to A’Sha and her guild.“ Stella snapped making it clear what she was meaning without saying the words.

"Right.“ Aisha said, looking much calmer.

"Yeah, well Helia told Flora during lunch and now half of the Old Growth wants to move into her territory to start cleaning everything up for her.“ Bloom said beaming.

"Huh…“ Stella muttered and apparently her tone gave away her thoughts, because her friend shot her an absolutely withering look.

"Not all of them are as mental as me or as …Lynpheans“ That was a nice way of saying batshit crazy and scary enough to frighten dragons. "Like Flora, they just know and love their home.“

"Ok, let’s not go further down that road, Ok?“ Musa asked, looking a bit green.

"Why did he tell her though?“ Tecna asked and Bloom blinked owlishly at them.

"Because I told him to?“ She said, clearly confused.

"And why, little dragon, did you do that?“ Aisha asked softly, it was pretty clear after all that Bloom had apparently skipped a few details.

"Because she was gifted a Wild Snapdragon by a Dragonborn?“

"NO!“ They shouted in sync and loud enough, that all around them librarians and archivists popped up, half affronted at the noise and half scared.

"None of you are even her roommates!“

"We are in Cloudtower!“ Tecna snapped. "Besides, do I need to remind you WHO was tied up by one of Flora's vines in first year?“

"Baby.“ Bloom sniffed. "I told her no from the get go. I will not have a murder puppy in my Cloudtower dorm and risk witches getting their hands on it.“ Stella went absolutely rigid at that thought.

"Oh fuck.“

"So many dead people.“ Musa breathed, half delighted, because of course she would and half terrified.

"Duh, Like I said, I told Flora no and made Helia tell her about the house. They have been missing ever since and my people are fighting each other to be the first to get to the place.“

"As if Flora’s parents aren't the first to be there.“

"None of them will actually.“ A’sha said she had put down her lists and was looking at Bloom. "The Willow Grave Manor and surrounding land is protected by ancient spells that prevent anyone from entering, even the owner“ Oh the air quotes were loud in that one. "of the place unless the magic deems them worthy. Especially if the owner is unworthy. Most likely until Flora shows up and gets the approval of the magic nobody will get even a toe on that land.“

"Huh…“ Bloom looked contemplative. "Well that isn’t stopping my Dragonborn, they are dead set on… ARE YOU KIDDING ME!“ Bloom roared and this time it was A’sha who straightened and paid attention to Bloom. Bloom who was looking at something beyond them. "Sorry, have to go, kids fighting, see you tomorrow for the pick up!“ The connection ended after that and left them behind.

"Well…that’s something.“ Musa said dryly.

"Will the contract be ok, if we leave tomorrow?“ Stella asked and A’Sha nodded. "As long as two people are here it’s fine.“

"Not a problem, I'm the next on the list.“ Stella said. "So it’s a direct portal with me and Flo switching places.“

"Can Flo get in?“ Aisha asked.

"You were defined as Winx in the contract so all of you are involved from the get go.“

"Small mercies.“ Musa sighed. "Murder puppy, my ass.“

***

Bloom wasn’t sure which of them was harder to get away from the Old Growth, her or Flora. Both of them had enjoyed the Dragonborn and the general atmosphere of the valley. Bloom more for the way her people had immediately started teaching her things, concerning her cultural, biological and magical heritage, when Bloom had shown she didn’t know how to do something or had no idea what they were talking about. Her head was swimming with all the new information she had learned, both in a positive and negative way. It had been incredible to learn the healing magic her people practiced and to see how different her magic had reacted to it, it had been scary to understand how deadly their particular way of healing was.

Dragonborn as a rule tended to be very strong and skilled healers if they presented the gift which only one in one hundred Dragonborn did. The problem with that was that they had to be so much more careful than anyone else, a little bit too much magic and the person they were healing could either be high as a kite on magic or die because of an overdose. On the other hand if it was too little magic it could easily turn against the person, especially if one was to heal curse damage. It would mean the healer was feeding the curse more energy instead of the person they wanted to heal. Bloom had needed to stop then and there, when the Elder Dragonborn had explained it to her. All of a sudden all of her past healings seemed dangerously uncontrolled and a threat to the people she cared for. Even scared senseless though, Bloom wouldn’t give all the new knowledge up if her life depended on it, or well because it did.

She felt a shoulder collide with her’s as they walked up to the Arcadia. Flora was glowing with energy and happy magic. Bloom had only found out about it when they had left, but apparently every last Dragonborn who had a speciality for poisons or venomous had gifted Flora at least one plant and promised her that once she had been accepted by the Willows Manor those plants would be waiting for her. Bloom kind of felt bad for the look on Helia’s face when they had found out about that little detail. Then again Helia, who had grown up in the treetops of Lynpheas milder provinces was used to different plants than Flora who had grown up in the thicke of the Wild Magic heavy Wildlands. It was probably the reason why they worked so well together. Bloom also couldn’t really feel bad for Helia, after all he was the one who had gotten Flora the most dangerous and mysterious piece of land on the whole planet. So really it was his own fault.

"BLOOM!“ She perked up at the loud and excited voice of her best friend. Stella was glowing in the half shadows of the plants, her hair more white than blond and a magical grin on her face. Bloom mowing her friend and sister more than well enough sped up just enough to be ahead of everyone else so that nobody could get hit by flying limbs as Stella collided with her. Although a small part of her was kind of hoping that Valtor would at least be hit by a shoe. The asshole had started to hover silently over her shoulder every moment of the day and Bloom was REALLY getting sick of it.

"Hey Stel.“ Flora chirped as she walked past them. The boys let out several rude comments, while the Trix and Valtor just walked past them. The Trix were faster than Valtor, apparently they were still freaked out over the incident from two days ago, when the forest had started to wake up. It probably didn’t help that on their way back to the ship the forest seemed to be teeming with life and movement and call her a bad person or not, but Bloom had enjoyed the absolute horror on their faces the whole way back. Payback and all that jazz.

"What did you find?“ Bloom whispered into Stella’s hair, which promptly lighted a few more shades.

"The diaries of the Headmistresses.“ Oh Stella was seething with rage. "They used to also male fairies and there wasn’t a problem with gender nonconforming varies either until two headmistresses ago.“ Bloom closed her eyes. Fuck, this was bad!

"How did Tec take it?“ Bloom felt Stella’s head move until her mouth was hidden by Bloom's shoulder.

"They are working themselves to the ground.“ Bloom groaned.

"Do I have to involve Griselda or…?“

"A’Sha and the Zenithians are on it.“ Well that at least was comforting.

"Anything else?“ Bloom asked, because as much as Tecna not being able to live as their true identity was bad, it wouldn’t get Stella seething.

"Alfea also used to teach dark fairies.“ There it was! Bloom squeezed her sister closer and felt Stella go boneless in her hug.

"Do you want to talk about it or…?“

"No.“ Stella muttered and straightened up. "I want to go home and see my dad and my mum and then see you in our arena work off the pent up energy.“ Bloom laughed and let go of her friend.

"I can get behind that, anything else?“

"The smiths have been asking if you will meet them. Apparently their fires have been getting moody and even the Dragonborn smiths have been having trouble with theirs, so they want you to talk to their fires.“

For a moment Bloom just stared at her friends retreating form then she let out a noise somewhere between delight, fright and disbelief, before she ran after Stella.

"Do you mean that?“ She didn’t need to see Stella’s face to know that her sister was smiling brightly.

***

Council Library Catalogue

Copy Nr.: MLFK.202013.20156.20412.21.32021.1321

Topic: Magic Lore

Classification: Restricted to Members only (reading) (Lending to nobody!)

Titel: Fairy Kind- The three major types of fairies, their differences and what makes them unique magic users.

Edition: Third Edition, edited

Pages: 60

Published: 1030 after Sparks fall

Added to CL: 1036 after Sparks fall

Page 1

While most people hear the word "fairy“ and think of the benevolent and kind guardians of the planets and the successful graduates of Alfea College it is a little known fact, that fairies are not a single kind of magic user as many think. In fact there are three distinct types of fairies with more possible variants that might be undiscovered. For this book though I will focus on the three mentioned types which are:

the classical fairy

the dark fairy

the earth fairy

[…]

Page 3

[…] The differences between the different fairy kinds focus majorly on the different ways in which they use magic, which is the most diverse, but there tends to also be differences in their approach, even though they are minimal. […]

Page 5

[…] The classical fairy which is the most common of them is generally seen as being of pure light and someone who grows wings, this in itself is wrong. There are hundreds of examples of fairy who use dark magic, the prime examples being the fairies of Rune in the Domino tertiary. No, the primary identifier for a classical fairy is that they are beings of sacrifice. For a magic user to present as a fairy they have to commit to a life of sacrifice. It is in fact the essence of fairies that they are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their people, their homes or their chosen domain until they die. This is best seen in the historical guardian fairies all across the Magical Dimension, since not a single one of them has died of old age and in peace. No, most of them have died due to curse damage (in the most gruesome ways most of the time) or have fallen in battle to guarantee the safety of what they have sworn to protect. […]

Page 8

[…] I could not find a common age or cause that makes a magic user a classical fairy. Instead I have after years of questioning fairies, found a general range for both of these. […] The age range of a fairy presenting as a fairy can start as young as 10 years old, although these cases only happen under extreme crisis (war, famine, extreme weather conditions) most fairies I talked to were around the age of 12, making the presenting of a fairy older than that of witches. […] The latest age I could find was a 30 (in equivalence, she was in fact a 500 years old Dragonborn, but we all know that they age differently) years old woman who had to protect elderly family members, as well as her own children and a non Dragonborn spouse against an ice dragon. […] This is once again an outlier; the general age cap tends to be around 18 years old. […]

Page 10

[…] as for the reason for the presentation… in most cases it is the willingness to endure pain or ill fortune that will trigger an initial transformation and with that make the magic user a fairy.

I would like to point out at this point that fairies are NOT only women or gender nonconforming people, male magic users are just as likely to be fairies as everyone else.

Sometimes the cause can be something as simple as refusing to back down while haggling over the selling price of their own product (specific to less fortunate places) or the refusal to leave behind their family or friend even if there is a better path for the person. […] As there always are there are also extreme cases in which a magic user risks their own life knowing that they could die, but refuse to move which then triggers the first transformation and an extreme outburst of magic to protect the person in question (something that is often mirrored in the Enchantix transformation).[…]

Page 15

[…] The second fairy kind I named is the dark fairy. This is not a magic user which uses dark magic, which I already mentioned when discussing the classical fairy. A dark fairy is a being of change.

Page 17

[…] At this point it is vital for me to note that there are two specific classifications for someone to be a dark fairy. One of them is when a classical fairy chooses to become a witch and vice versa, while this is an extremely rare thing to happen, it will happen. Most of these cases the witch or fairy were pressured into their original presentation by someone else and therefore they did not choose their path. […]

Page 19

[…] The other reason for a dark fairy presenting as such is their magic. Most dark fairies were born as a dark fairy, because their magic is divided into two opposing forces. The best example for this are children of Solarian and Umbra Luma parents. Their magic is sourced both from the suns of Solaria and the moons of Umbra Luma making them wielders of dual magic. They grow up carefully balancing both of their heritages in cultural, physical and magical ways which guarantees that they will present as dark fairies. […]

Page 20

[…] Another example for born dark fairies are the before mentioned magic users of Rune. They, much like the people of Domino, are bound tightly to the magic of the Dragon Flame and the Great Dragon, but because of the location of the planet, which is hidden permanently in Domino’s shadow, the dragon magic used on Rune tends towards colder and darker presentation. […] During my studies I had the chance and privilege to talk to several fairies both from Domino and Rune and it became very clear that there is no animosity between them. They speak highly of the other and more than once fairies from Domino named them their siblings of balance, which encouraged me in my thesis and belief. […]

Page 25

[…] Unlike classical fairies, dark fairies do not need to endanger themselves to unlock their first transformation. Every fairy I talked to told me, for them it was the act of using both of their magic in harmony and as equals that made them transform for the first time. […] This has been said by both born dark fairies as well as those who changed their primary alignment. […]

Page 29

[…] The fact that many dark fairies started out either as a witch or classical fairy or had been born as such, means that the transformation age is much broader than for a classical fairy. […] The youngest transformation age I found was eight years old. The fairy in question is the fairy of storms and explained to me that he used to have an affinity for ice winds and deserts winds in equal measure and him using them at the same time with equal power and creating his first thunderstorm was what triggered his transformation. He also admitted to me that he mostly did it out of spite, to pay back an older sibling that had been tormenting him. […]

Page 30

[…] the end of the spectrum is generally the early to mid twenties and focuses on those dark fairies that started either as a witch or classical fairy. Some of them told me they didn’t actually needed to use their magic for a transformation to happen. For them the realization or verbal admission of being not what they had been presenting was enough for their magic to completely unfold. […]

Page 35

[…] Since some dark fairies used to be witches or choose to become witches there is a certain visual difference between them and classical fairies and witches. This is not the case for born dark fairies. They do not differentiate from classical fairies. The only possible marker for a dark fairy is the opposing colours in their transformation. Although this isn’t guaranteed if the dark fairy in question is suppressing one side of their magic either out of fear or the need to protect themselves. […]

Page 36

[…] The visual marker for witch to fairy (and vise versa) dark fairies are the wings. Unlike classical or born dark fairies these dark fairies can hide their wings even in transformed states by laying them flat against their back and wrapping them around their hips or over their shoulders. This will dim the fairy dust glimmer and make the dark fairy look as if they are wrapped in an incredibly detailed shawl or dress/skirt looking like wings. […]

Page 39

[…] The last kind of fairy is the earth fairy or fairy of earth and no they are not the same or are exclusively born on earth, but this has to be explained once the specific characters of earth fairies are understood, or it will be harder to understand. […]

Page 40

[…] Earth fairies unlike every other fairy in the Magical Dimension do not rely solely on their own magical core. While this is the primary source of their magic the most important factor for an earth fairy is belief. In themselves, their people, what they want to do and their goddess. Which is why I categorise earth fairies as beings of belief. […]

Page 43

[…] It has to be noted here that the term: fairy is very loosely applicable to the magic users of earth. According to the remaining records, they preferred the term of fay given to them by the non magical people of earth, since an earth fairy is an umbrella term for witches, fairies and sorcerers. Unlike with dark fairies there is no difference in appearance. Every earth fairy has wings and a transformation and there is no clear sign or markings on which magic user a person is. […]

Page 45

[…] Now to the differences between earth fairies and a fairy of earth. An earth fairy is a fairy born on earth while a fairy of earth has been born off planet, but has found a home on earth. Both kinds of earth fairy have a deep connection to the Wild One, one of the holy trinity and the guardian god of earth. […] An earth fairy is born with the connection, which has to be activated by the belief in oneself, a specific test or in the Wild One. […]

Page 49

[…] A fairy of earth on the other hand has to forge the connection between themselves and the Wild One. This will trigger a one time boost in that fairy or magic user (once again fairy is a term for all magic users) which grants the person the ability to summon a magical weapon and adds an additional colour to their transformation. […] For fairies this will be represented in their wings, while witches and sorceresses are granted either body markings or a sash.

Page 50

[…] Outside of the transformation each fairy of earth will be marked by the Wild One through a pair of silver bracelets, which can not be taken off. (I mean that! No magic or weapon or tool can break the bracelet. I have been given the chance to try it by a fairy of earth who has been living on earth for over a century. They seem to be amused by my trying and creativity, but not surprised by my failure.) These bracelets show up either around the wrists or ankles and reflect the magic user and the Wild One in a specific design unique for every fairy of earth. […]

Page 53

[…] Like I explained before, when a magic user gains the status of fairy of earth it triggers a one time boost in magic as well as a change in the transformation. Contrary to the belief across the Magical Dimension this is not in fact a new transformation. For one the boost is only granted once and is directly connected to the Wild One accepting the magic user as one of hers. Secondly the weapon the fairy of earth can summon is not instantly available. Much like earth fairies they have to work on themselves to build a solid foundation of believing in themselves and build up from there to slowly create the weapon most suited to them and then learn how to use it. […]

Page 55

[…] While it is not a transformation, the earth fairies have a word for the change. They call it Creidim. Apparently this comes from the primary language of the earth fairies Gaeilge and can be translated to I believe. […]

Tecna slid their notes over to where Aisha and Musa had their heads bowed over one of Faragonda’s first diaries and watched them read through it.

“Ok…interesting…“ Musa said. Tecna snorted, all of them had been awake for way too long again, but since A’Sha wasn’t here due to an emergency, and Flora had just found out about the diaries…

“How do we get this into the Alfea curriculum?“ Tecna asked dryly. Aisha blinked and looked back down at the paper. Flora made a questioning noise and Musa slid her the paper.

“I think the more important question is…how do we make EVERYONE aware of this?“ Aisha asked. “I mean not only would this help Stella a lot.“

“And her people.“ Musa agreed. “But think about it…Faragonda was a witch first.”

Tecna blinked, Flora started blooming a wide smile on her face. Tecna wondered if… maybe, just maybe they should have forbidden her to meet the Dragonborn. Clearly her vicious streak had been fed too well in the last week. Then again it all came back to Flora’s parents who thought it was a good idea to take a toddler into Wild Magic areas.

“It would further discredit her.” Flora said. “Bloom's paper will be published next month, which is already a blow to her credibility, but it is coming out that she is a witch turned fairy meaning a dark fairy…”

“Which in turn would boost the reputation of dark fairies, since Faragonda is still seen in a good light.”

“Oh, we are going to have to do this with kids gloves on.” Musa groaned.

“We wait until Stella is back?” Tecna asked and got a round of nods. They set a reminder for later.

Chapter Text

22. Lingering Shadows

Bloom had been visiting Solaria since their second year. Well no, she had been visiting Solaria ever since the summer break after the Army of Decay. Stella was insistent that Bloom had to see her home planet and when Bloom had mentioned missing her parents, Stella had invited them to come as well. While Bloom adored the amazing architecture of Solaria, the rich colours, the nature her artist was itching to draw, she also really hated the planet for the amount of sunlight.

Something she was immediately reminded of when the Arcadia opened to the bright light reflecting off the sun bleached stone of the courtyard that lined the plaza in front of the palace gates.

“Oh Dragon no….” Bloom muttered, squinting against the bright light of the solarian sun. It was jarring after the much more moderate light of the Arcadi. Stella was already running down the ramp to meet both her parents, not caring one whiff about protocol or behaving like a princess.Bloom heard Timmy snicker as he walked past her, unlike her he was used to such harsh light. Zenith was covered in snow after all. Her own eyes, additional eyelids or not, were not make for this. Not even talking about her skin. Bloom tried to remember the damn sunscreen spell. After all these years she really should have it memorised.

“Any reason why you are not leaving the ship?” Icy’s voice was biting and Bloom wanted to say or do something rude, but restrained herself.

“Because, Icy, I’m a redhead.” Bloom growled, giving up on her mental search for the spell and pulled out her phone to ask Tony.

“Okay…” Stormy sounded confused and Bloom only sighed. Valtor moved past them and even thought he was silent and his face a stoic mask, she could feel the amusement through their bond.

“I tend to get a sunburn pretty quickly in weather like this.” Bloom explained, pulling out her phone and sending a quick message to their AI. “Thank you Tony.” She said and quickly performed the spell feeling the thick layer of magic settle on her skin.

“I don’t get it.” Darcy said, just as River walked past them.

“Unless Bloom casts a sunblock spell, the moment she steps into the sun, she’ll turn as red as a tomato. Last time she forgot to do so her skin was peeling for weeks.” All three Trix’s eyes seemed to want to jump out of their sockets, darting unsure between Bloom and Riven.

“Thanks Riv.” Bloom smile weakly and took a deep breath. She liked Radius and Sarina. She loved Stella. Solaria was a nice place to be, sun or no sun. Bloom took another deep breath, lifted the skirt of her dress just enough to not fall down the ramp and started walking.

The moment she stepped into view, cameras started clicking and people started shouting questions. She really hated the paparazzi. Bloom let her Water Dragon lids close over her eyes to lower the brightness of the camera flashes, even just a smidge, smiled and waved until the guards started pushing people back. Only then did Bloom move to meet with King Radius of Solaria and Queen Luna Sarina of Umbra Luma.

“Your Majesty.” Radius greeted, his voice booming with warmth and joy at the sight of her . He offered her his hand and ghosted a kiss over her knuckles. Bloomfelt her expression turn soft and a smile, a real one, tug on her lips.

“Please Radius,your daughter is like a sister to me in all but blood, don’t you dare get formal with me just because I wear a crown.” Bloom grumbled fondly loud enough to be heard by the paparazzi, who immediately started taking pictures again. Radius let out a loud, booming laugh and enveloped Bloom in a warm, bone crushing hug. The comforting smell of heated stone and dry earth enveloped her and Bloom allowed herself to relax for just a second. When Radius let go of her Sarina was right behind him, courtly and coldly ordering her soon to be ex-husband to move. She bowed shallowly before Bloom before she too hugged her. Sarina’s hug was much gentler than Radius’, but nonetheless warm and welcoming.

“The dress looks exquisite on you.” She said moving back without so much as glancing at Radius, the coldness between the two almost enough to make the sting of sunlight bearable for Bloom. She saw Stella roll her eyes over her parents’ shoulders, clearly done with them already.

“Stella designed it for me. She mentioned that it is based on the clothing the Dragonborn living on Solaria and Umbra Luma favour.” The dress was an incredible piece of work reminding Bloom of a mix between ancient Egyptian and Greek clothing. Something that reminded her of Padme Amidala’s flowing sunset dress from the Star Wars prequells. It was flowing and draping artfully over her form, accentuating Bloom’s figure but without the revealing cuts Stella favoured in her traditional clothing. Stella had also kept Bloom’s preference for blue in mind. The dress flowed in a stunning cascade of layered blue tones, blending seamlessly to create new shades with every movement. The combination of golden jewellery and silver thread woven into the fabric, made Bloom feel absolutely beautiful . The dress perfectly representing both Solarian and Umbra Lumas traditional clothing without favouring one over the other. All while also highlighting Bloom's own heritage.

“You outdid yourself, my dear.” Sarina said, gently turning to reach a hand out for Stella to take. Bloom smiled but straightened when she saw the dark look Radius sent behind her.

“I don’t think there will be any need for an introduction, will there?” Bloom asked her tone just a bit warningly. She liked Radius, but she also knew where Stella got her temper from and she really couldn’t deal with him starting a fist fight with Valtor. Not with the paparazzi fully focused on them and, more importantly, not if she was forced to stop Radius and take Valtor's side.

“Of course not.” Radius said smoothly.

“The return of the magic will happen here, after which we will head back to the palace, where a banquette is being prepared.” Sarina said in her Luna voice, a thinly veiled warning in her tone.

“That sounds wonderful.” Bloom said and tried her best to sound genuine, she really wanted to get out of the sun as fast as possible. Sarina seemingly reading Bloom’s thoughts winked at her. “I ordered some sunscreen for the two of us.”

Radius scoffed. “Please just because you can’t deal with the sun…”

“I think it’s time to return the magic!” Stella interjected, knowing just as well as Bloom that if they let the two of them start arguing, it would turn ugly. Bloom nodded and gestured for Valtor and the Trix to come forward.

“Try not to start anything.” She warned softly, tugging on the marriage bond between her and Valtor. He only shot her a dark look. Valtor still refused to speak to her, continuing his hovering on the journey between Lynphea and Solaria. Bloom now fully understood what Sarina had told her a few years ago about wanting to strangle ones’s husband.

Bloom thought about following them, to stand behind them like a sentinel. After all, Solaria had been the first planet that Valtor had intentionally hurt, and Bloom had a feeling that the people wouldn’t hesitate to use this moment of weakness to attack him and the Trix; but something else held her back. Just watching as they took their positions for the ritual, their voices forming a soft chorus as they started the now familiar chant.

There was something niggling at the back of her mind, something familiar, but it was buried too deep for Bloom to reach. So Bloom stayed back, lingering next to Stella with Riven on her other side, and Timmy and Helia behind her.

“Something is going to happen.” Bloom whispered. Ignoring the way Stella’s parents tensed at her words.

“I know.” Stella muttered back, and there was a slight shift in her voice. Bloom didn’t dare to look over, too afraid of drawing attention to the shift in Stella’s demeanour- but she knew that her sister's eyes had turned bright silver.

“Oh perfect,” Timmy muttered. “Should we be worried?”

“I don’t know.” Stella muttered again, her voice still different. It was deep, raw and overflowing with magic. “I can’t see anything, I just know something bad will happen.” Before they could ask any more the air shifted. Just like the last four times, Bloom could feel the distinctive magic of the fourth Dimension Ring fill the atmosphere around them. Even though the ritual had been the same every time it was a wonder to behold. In her mind Bloom could see the Magical Dimension form. The unbelievably bright star and pocket dimension at its core, that was radiating so much truly neutral magic. The Rings of planetary systems that had formed around almost all of them lit up with their magic returned to them. Bloom basked in the magic around her and allowed her mind to replay the other times she had witnessed the result of this ritual. The first Rings- Magix- had had an artificial feeling, which had stood in stark contrast to the cold freshness of the second Ring and specifically Zenith. The third Ring had less of a smell like the first two and more of a feeling to it. Like music vibrating over your skin and the feeling of something just under your fingertips.Representing Melody and every planet on that Ring perfectly. The fourth Ring had been like a sharp thrill up Bloom's back. The joy of flying feely, the breathless laugh of running too fast, trying to be even faster. The fourth Ring was like living on the edge knowing that you had a safe place to go home to, but also enjoying every possible opportunity to be stupid and wild.

This though, the fifth Ring… it was…

Bloom took a deep breath and it felt as if the warm and dry wind of Death Valley was hitting her dead-on. Sharp, dry wind mixed with the faintest hint of something… alife. It felt like waking up by a sunbeam hitting your face. It was like working long and hard. Like stepping out of a dark room into the light. It reminded Bloom of when her mum would close the shop to sell her flowers from the little booth in the middle of the market square. It reminded her of the parties Andy had dragged her to when they had been younger. It was like the Tutti Fruity Music Bar and the pub that Klaus had called- ironically- Teach Tabhairne. Bloom reached her fingers out until she could feel the back of Stella's hand and latched onto it. The magic of the fifth Ring was that of comfort and familiar things. Mundane things that you do every day while enjoying the good weather. Bloom gripped Stella's hand tighter and let herself enjoy the feeling of Stella’s sunshine magic on her face as it strengthened along with Solaria..

She opened her eyes when the chanting reached the lines for the fifth Ring.

May the rays of light of this Ring take from us what belongs to it.

May the bright magic return it to where it belongs.

Bloom opened her eyes to see the exact moment when the sky darkened. Both Suns of Solaria seemed to dim, and the scorching heat of the day plummeted so sharply it made her shiver. Around her people screamed and the carder of soldiers moved as one to block the people watching from rushing at the Trix and Valtor. A part of Bloom knew that she should do something. That she should move and start talking, reassuring people, diffuse the situation, but all she could do was stare at the twin suns and try her best to keep her breathing level.

It’s exactly the same as three years ago, when Light Rock had fallen.

The Golden Kingdom had vanished from sight, hidden from all of Magix. Panic had spread like wildfire, loud and deafening. For ten long minutes, darkness had loomed- slowly growing more oppressive. It had been alive even just at the beginning. As if fingers of darkness were covering every last saucer of light. By the end there had been ten long seconds of complete, disorienting darkness. Then, just as suddenly, everything had returned back to normal.

It happened again when Avalon- fake Avalon had taken her. The view from his office in Alfea had been strange, like a desaturated or sepia picture. Colour missing or too yellow and And then there had been nothing but darkness—darkness that stole Bloom’s breath, that coiled around her wrists and ankles, holding her still, binding her to the ground of the bubble they were trapped in. The only thing she had been able to move was her chest, heaving in shallow, desperate gasps—until she couldn’t anymore. Until the darkness wrapped around her neck and squeezed.

It squeezed until her head swam, until she was faint, until it sealed her mouth shut. Only now did she realize she had been screaming, begging, her voice rising to a pitch she had never reached before. The first and only time she had been able to use the Dragon’s Voice.

Bloom remembered how the darkness smothered her nose, how black spots danced at the edges of her vision. And through it all, her wide, terrified eyes locked onto what she thought was Avalon. As she watched, his gentle face melted away, replaced by something else. Something her magic recognized instantly—an enemy. A threat.

And only then, far too late, did she understand that Tecna had been right to suspect Avalon was hiding something dark. Only, she had been wrong about what kind of darkness he truly was.

Bloom’s consciousness snapped back to Solaria when she felt hands on her cheeks. Large hands- just like Avalon’s, Bloom couldn’t help the whimper that escaped her lips. Someone was touching her side and there was blinding light to her left, warm fingers tangling with hers a moment later Sunshine exploded across her circle mark.

Stella! Stella was here!

The buzzing sound of people filtered in followed by camera flashes and for a moment, she could have sworn there was a giant black dragon staring down at her. It’s body between her and the crowd. Milky white pupil less set into eyes that held the weight of too many years. Bloom blinked and the dragon disappeared. The world around her taking its place as her eyes focused again Riven's worried face came into view. He was talking to her and so was Timmy. They were all talking. Talking to her. Bloom couldn’t understand a single word of what they were saying. The sky was normal again, bright blue with two blindingly bright suns burning down at her, but Bloom could feel the darkness settling in her skin. She could feel the sharp sting of claws on her skin ripping her open, carving into her. Hands grabbed her upper arms and she was quickly escorted back to the Arcadia. Bloom felt herself stumble , her knees giving up on her every other step. She couldn’t…she couldn’t make them move. She could still feel the darkness l wrapped around her limbs, holding her tightly. Trying to choke her like it tried to do all those years ago. She felt her consciousness slipping, welcoming the relief it provided her tired mind. If only for a moment before blood red magic and insane laughter made her claw her way back to consciousness.

***

Stella watched how Timmy and Riven moved Bloom back into the ship, with Helia behind them shielding Bloom from the eyes of the paparazzi. Angus and Jabari closed ranks behind them the second they cleared the ramp.

“Stella…” She could hear the worried look in her father's eyes. He liked Bloom, both of her parents like her sister of choice. They cared for her like they cared for Stella and she knew that there was very little they wouldn’t do for Bloom. So she took a deep breath and centered herself. She needed to be Blooms Third right now.

“Cancel the banquet.” Stella ordered softly. “Give the food out to the people of the capital and tell everyone else that the magical backlash of this ritual was much stronger than the ones before. This in combination with the other rituals overwhelmed Bloom.” Stella ordered her parents softly. It wasn’t what was happening, but Stella would be damned before she let anyone outside of their circle know the truth.

“Of course darling.” She heard her mother whisper and then the soft click of her heels walk away. There was a soft press, a hand on her shoulder, before her father moved past her in towards the advisors at the palace gate. Stella watched as he talked to them and how several of them disappeared in a flash of light. She stated where she was waiting for Valtor, Icy, Darcy and Stormy to get close enough to hear her.

“Get in the ship.” Stella ordered and even she heard the sharp angry tone her voice had taken.

“Or what?” Stormy’s voice was raspy and sounded dry enough that Stella’s throat hurt, and maybe another day she would have felt bad for the witch. Any other time, when Stella would have been allowed to just enjoy the way her home planet felt right again. How the suns of Solaria were brimming with magic. The way Stella could feel the triple Moon of Umbra Luma even in sunlight. Maybe Stella would have felt bad for the witches and Valtor. How exhausted they must be, but this wasn’t another day!

Stella had been feeling on edge ever since they had entered Solaris atmosphere and now she knew why. Today her planet had been healed after nearly three years of their weather being completely unpredictable after three years of their deserts slowly turning into muddy pits while their grasslands were slowly dying. Stella could feel the magic righting itself. She could feel the way it took hold of the damaged parts of her planet and started to slowly heal them. Maybe Stella could have been gentle with the Trix and Valtor, if it wasn’t for the terror radiating down her bond with Bloom. If it wasn’t for the circle mark burning coldly in her back.

“That wasn’t an option.” Stella said and she could feel three pairs of eyes on her. She was pretty sure that she was radiating light that only her people from Umbra Luma could see. For a split second she let her eyes flicker over the wide eyed faces of the Trix before she lingered on Valtor. His eyebrows were pinched and there was something different on his face. It made him look not completely human, and gave him something …old. Stella could have sworn that for a second his eyes had been red.

“What is happening?” He asked. Unlike the Trix there was nothing in his voice that hinted at the nearly impossible feat he had just done.

“Get in the ship, without drawing any more attention than we are already getting or I will remind the whole dimension right here and right now what it means to carry the sceptre of the Sun and the Moon.” Stella threatened and barely managed to keep her hair from turning white.

“NOW!” She hissed and watched them walk up the ramp just fast enough to be quick, but not fast enough to be suspicious. Valtor remained, because of course he did. He just stood before her, looking at her. Stella was so tired, out of all the things that had to happen today it had to be Darkar haunting them.Valtors eyes moved away from hers up over her shoulder and his face darkened. A moment later he had turned and walked away.

Gentle hands pressed down on her shoulder, thumbs pressing into her neck and fingers massaging her stiff back muscles.

“Go and take care of your sister, little moth.” Her mothers gentle tone was almost as relaxing as the sweet and cool touch of their shared moon magic. Out of the corner of her eyes Stella could see one of her fathers advisors point at them. It was one of those advisors that neither her parents nor Stella liked, a relic from her grandfather, whom they had inherited.

“Oh look, here he comes. Stamping like a mooncalf.” Her mother whispered and sent another wave of moon magic down Stellas spine, before letting go of her and stepping back just in time for her dad to reach her and glower down at her mother.

“The banquet is set for tomorrow and the food will be distributed.” He rumbled, but pressed a gentle kiss onto her brow. “Go take care of the little dragon will you?” Stella could hear some humor creep back into her father’s voice. “Or my smiths will start a riot.”

***

“I am terrified of you.” Tecna muttered, staring at the digital document that A’Sha had sent them. It was a comprehensive list of where which book had been found and where it belonged. With time stamps for the moment the book had been found and then the return. Across from them right before Aisha and Musa was a long line of folder piles, the printed version of this madness, organized by category.

A’Sha grinned at them and behind her, the little group of archivists and librarians who had presented them with the folders smiled just as wide. Flora looked like she wanted to congratulate A’Sha but at the same time couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“How?” Musa asked, looking absolutely befuddled. “It’s been barely a month since you found out. Three weeks at most when you started! How are you done with the whole thing?”

“Oh we aren’t done.” A’Sha said, blinking almost innocently. “We have barely done a quarter of the archive, which the reports show.” A’Sha explained, as one of her people set a huge folder onto the table. It was heavy enough that its impact on the table made the whole thing rattle.

“This is the official report on our progress, which one of you will have to sign and then hand to the Council.” Aisha’s eyes narrowed.

“And these?”

“For you and the Queen. I know that you have a secure line that nobody can access, so I would appreciate it greatly if you would share it with her.”

“Then why the secrecy?”

“Because our wards were tempered with.” The Solarian Representative answered. “We have found the ward stones and the key points of the archives wards. Several of us are already working on resetting the wards to their former power and wards, but we can not do that until we have recorded and identified the magical signatures that tempered with them in the first place.”

“And if the Council finds out that the Archive is organized again they will demand you to leave immediately.” Flora muttered softly. Aisha made a gurgling sound in the back of her throat, that was her equivalent to Blooms growling.

“So we hand this in.” Tecna said, “and report on the progress, so that you can find out who tempered with the ward, which will hand us more evidence against the Council.”

“That’s what we are hoping for, yes.” Tecna turned to look at their friends to find Flora and Musa pressing their pointer fingers to their noses. For a long moment Tecna just blinked at their friends before she realized what they were silently saying.

“I hate both of you.” They muttered and sent Aisha a long-suffering look. Aisha, still not catching onto what was happening, kept glancing between them and their friends, before she groaned.

“I’m not…MUSA!” Musa only shrugged and grinned as Aisha.

“You were too slow, so you will go out there and deal with it.

“We also found the last of the financial records you were asking about.” Someone else said holding out another stack of folders. Tecna brightened immediately.

“HA!” They shouted and grinned at their friends. “That’s my job, since Stella isn’t here!” This time it was Flora who let out a long sigh.

“Fine, I'm going.” Which was all the clues Tecna needed to figure out who had started the whole thing.

“Ok, so Flora and myself deal with the Council and tell them they have to wait for another three months, while A’Sha takes care of the archive and Tecna and Musa go over the last of the records. Did I get that right?”

“Most of us will work through the Council library.” A’Sha threw in. “Since someone tempered with the archive, I have to imagine that they also tempered with my library.” Aisha shuddered visibly and Tecna was with their friend. A’Sha’s dragon scales were showing which meant that she was taking a lot of offense. Dragons and their hoards and all that.

“Well then…” Aisha said, standing up and grabbing for the folder. Flora was standing up too. “Let’s not waste time and get to it.”

“Oh I can’t wait to hear Stella getting all excited when she tells us about the banquet.” Flora grumbled as she moved past Tecna to the entrance of the archive.

***

Darcy wasn’t sure what had happened. One moment Bloom was complaining about sunlight and charming the King and Queen of Solaria, and the next they were suddenly commanded back into the Arcadia by Stella, who looked like she was seconds from exploding. After a month of traveling with them, Darcy knew that the Winx Club fairies were hiding a lot of their competence and skills. She had seen all of them being competent in ways Darcy could have never imagined. If someone had told her a couple of months ago that the Winx were planning an interdimensional coup she would have laughed, because while a bit far-fetched she and her sisters had been planning the same. So if someone had told her that all six of them could be more cutthroat than Griffin, the infamously strict headmistress of Cloud Tower, Darcy would have knocked that person out. Sure the fairies were moderately powerful, after all, surviving so much as an encounter with Darkar was impossible without a lot of raw power and a lot of quick thinking, something the Winx had done for almost a year. Her position had changed though, ever since the contract negotiations had started…

Well, it made Darcy start to question every single interaction she had had with the fairies. When did this bunch of bumbling idiots become such an elite group of fighters? When did their mastery over their powers surpass most of the fully trained witches Darcy knew? When did they start acting like witches when it came to politics? She didn’t know and at this point, she was too afraid to ask.

For the most part, they were still fairies though, and acting like it. Gentle and sweet, caring too much for other people. Yet, seeing Stella like this, being able to feel the Moon Magic radiating from her…for the first time Darcy felt afraid of the Princess. Darcy had grown up watching Princess Stella of Solaria, she watched the golden child who could have been the solution for her people's problems. Stella of Solaria, daughter of Serina “Luna” of Umbra Luma, the heir to the Moon throne, the child who had held all the hopes of Darcy’s people until she had shown that she didn’t give a fuck. After all, what kind of Moon magic user suppressed and ignored their powers? Darcy had seen the way her mother had reacted when Stella had been chosen by the scepter. Darcy remembered the way her mother’s face had lit up with happiness so full of hope. After all, the scepter stood for the moon and the sun in equal parts, it meant there was moon magic in Stella, and powerful moon magic at that. In that moment, that short sweet moment, Stella of Solaria and Umbra Luma had been everything Darcy’s mother had hoped for. Darcy also remembered how her mother's face had closed off the first and only magic Stella performed with the scepter was a sun spell. That day when the only light from the scepter had been bight and golden Darcy had seen hopes crumble and shatter all around her. From family, friends and her community. So she had taken great pleasure in targeting Stella every single time they fought. After all, the Princess Stella of Solaria was a traitor to the people of Umbra Luma.

Yet seeing her walk past them once the ramp of the Arcadia had closed, being able to see and feel the pure moon magic radiating off of her, Darcy dared to wonder once again, if maybe there was more to the fairy than she thought.

There were moon runes moving underneath Stella’s skin, her hair was more white than blonde and Stella's eyes had turned into the silvery mirrors that came with using moon magic. A part of her was still on the fence, was still angry and defensive, but a bigger part of Darcy wanted to cry and tell her mum; this was the moon princess everyone had been waiting for. This was the person the people of Umbra Luma had been praying for for years. Yet even so, Darcy couldn’t stop herself from being terrified. The magic Stella was radiating was colder than anything the high priests were even capable of. It was icy and dark but so bright at the same time. Everything in Darcy wanted to get closer and keep away at the same time. Her mind told her to stop, that this was the girl she had heard for years. Yet her magic was singing, soaring, reaching out, wanting to be close. For Darcy’s magic Stella was familiar and welcome, a comfort. So she followed her, moved behind Stella like a shadow, pulled along by the magic like a moth to the flame. Her sisters were right behind her. Valtor was already halfway down the hallway at the door to Bloom's room. It was pitch black in there, the windows blacked out for privacy, and every light in the room turned off. The only source of light was the soft blue light hovering over Stellas shoulder. The angle in which the light hit Bloom's face made the whole scene jarring.

Darcy only got a glance at the absolute terror on Bloom's face, before Riven pulled Bloom back into his chest, but it was enough.. He was restraining her as she trashed. They were both on the bed, Bloom curled into a ball, shaking and crying, muttering ‘please’ under her breath, while Riven was holding her. It looked like he was trying to wrap completely around her in order to stop her from moving.

“It’s ok honey.” Stella’s voice still sounded like usual, but there was a breathless and throaty quality to it that sent shivers down Darcy’s spine. “He’s not here, he can not hurt you.” Stella moved onto the bed, kneeling just close enough for her knees to touch Bloom's legs, all the while continuing to whisper gently in Bloom’s ear.

“Ladies…” The silky smooth voice of the double sent shivers down Darcy’s spine. When she had first seen the Double, just after Darkar captured the Paladin, something had seemed off. Stormy had commented on it. How this thing felt…strange. Icy had called him hollow. Darcy hadn’t been able to understand what exactly made her so nervous around him until he had shown up carrying an unconscious Bloom. He didn’t have a shadow. Bloom’s shadow had been on the walls of the cavern, projected there by the flames of the torches, but nothing else, just her lonely shadow, seemingly floating in midair. For someone like Darcy, who relied on shadows it felt like being dipped in ice water.

Things only got worse from there. Now maybe two days since he had shown up with Bloom and Darkar hadn’t left his throne room, where the imposter had been ordered to bring her. The magic in the air was becoming more and more thick with each passing moment.

“His teeth are sharper.” Stormy whispered, ust loud enough to be heard by Icy and Darcy. She instantly wished her sister hadn’t said anything, because Stormy was right. His teeth HAD gotten longer, and sharper, his bottom lip looked like it was torn open. Blood trickled steadily down his chin. His face paint isn’t paint at all. Darcy thought faintly. It’s blood.

“Yes?” Icy said, sounding almost dismissive. But Darcy knew her sister, she could hear the slight tremble in her voice.

“The Master wants you in the chamber.”

“She’s not reacting to anything.” Riven's voice was high with panic. “We’ve tried everything but Bloom isn’t reacting at all. She’s …”

“Frozen, I know.” Stella said back her hand rubbing over Bloom's back. “Hey honey, listen to me. Can you hear my voice?” Bloom remained unresponsive,her gaze staring blankly into nothing while her voice seemed to climb ever higher with desperate pleas for someone to stop. Darcy had the feeling she knew where Bloom’s mind was right now.

“Stella, we need to do something!” Riven pleaded.

“I know, Riven.” Stella said. Darcy would have given almost everything to see her face at that moment. The Moon Magic radiating from Stella got more pronounced. Filling the air around them like fog in the early morning hours. Darcy wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the ground and weep with joy.

“Then do something!” Riven barked. Stella’s hair turned even more white than before.

“Get her on her knees.” She said softly, yet somehow it sounded like a threat.

“What?” Riven asked and Darcy could see the terror on his face.

“Get her on her knees with her back to me, you know what I am going to do.” Stella commanded,every last bit of gentleness leaving her voice.

“No, it will make it worse, Stell you…”

“NOW, RIVEN!” Stella barked. Behind Darcy, Valtor moved.

“I could try…”

“You will stay right there where you are or I will have you arrested for disobeying orders and keep you in the palace dungeon until we leave!” Stella cut him off, turning to look at Valtor and she didn’t look like she was from Solaria at all. The moon runes had settled and Darcy could read both her family line and something else in them that she hadn’t seen before. Darcy standing perfectly to see Valtors face watched his eyes widen ever so slightly. She could see his thought process as his eyes skipped over Stellas face to take in the runes. One long moment of silence then Valtor moved back.

“Riven, now! I can feel her losing…” Stella cut herself off, Riven didn’t protest this time.

“Alright.” He muttered. They moved together, gently guiding Bloom to her knees, facing Riven. It was calm and controlled a glaring contrast to the way Bloom's voice was getting louder and more frantic. Her pleas slowly became more coherent.

“P-Please, don’t...d-don’, please, ple- please, leave me alone. I don’t… I don’t know how… I can’t help…help you, please, please let…let me go, please sto…stop, don’t…”

Darcy wanted to turn around and run. Everything was better than this. Take her back to Light Rock, with their mind-numbing peace and quiet. Hell, enrol her in that godforsaken fairy school, anything but this.

Darcy liked dark magic. She loved the taste, the feeling, and the rush of joy it brought her. But, whatever Darkar did and dared to call magic, she despised it. It felt oily, slick, and like it was burning her from the inside out. No matter what she did, she felt it stick to her skin, burying deeper into her, making her feel sick to her stomach.

There was nothing she could do since part of his shadow magic was burned into her flesh. The deceivingly beautiful jewel around her wrist was a testament to that. After carrying it for almost a year, she wasn’t sure if it was her magic rejecting the Shadow Phoenix magic or if that was something the magic of the Shadow Phoenix did on purpose as some kind of reminder that it was there. That it- Darkar- had power over her.

“Really?” We are allowed to enter…” Stormy started. “Ever since…”

“NOW!” The double barked and his wings flapped into existence. There were markings on them too. They no longer looked pristine creations of light, they looked almost black. Like the tar-like substance the creatures Darkar could conjure. Darcy flinched slightly, the voice in the back of her mind screaming at her to run. Where were Bloom's little friends? Why were they still not here? Were they waiting for an invitation or something?

“Of course.” Icy nodded and grabbed Darcy’s and Stormy’s arms, pulling them after her. As they breezed past the Double Darcy wanted to scream and kick scramble back so that the imposter was no longer behind her, but Icy kept her grip tight and pulled hard enough that Darcy was stumbling to keep up.

“Not a word.” She hissed. “I don’t want to see any hesitation, do whatever he says.” It sounded almost as if Icy was trying to talk herself down.

Moments later they reached the doors to the throne room. Darcy hesitated to open them, but Icy did.

“We need to get her top off, I can’t access her back.”

“Stell…” Riven croaked. His eyes darted between everyone, frantically trying to find another way. Darcy could see his hands trembling where they were holding Bloom up against his chest. “Stella I can’t.” He whispered tears rolling down his cheeks.

“I know, it’s okay.” She started to unclasp the jewellery holding the dress together. “I designed the dress, all you need to do is hold her and keep talking” Stella faltered and Darcy could see that she too was trembling. “Moon stay with me, maybe I don’t have to…” Stella stopped again, when Bloom hiccuped and whimpered, and let out a sigh. “Just hold her Riv.”

They watched in silence how Stella opened the dress leaving Blooms back exposed,. Stella let her fingers trail over Bloom’s spine and she shrieked.

“My wings, please no, please not my wings. Leave them alone.” Cold dread settled in the pit of Darcy’s stomach, she had heard those words before. She had…

“It’s okay, darling.” Stella’s voice was sweet and gentle as soft blue magic rushed over Bloom’s back. “Your wings are okay, remember? You are flying as the best of us, almost faster than our Enchantix wings.” It didn’t help, Bloom kept whimpering and pleading as Stella gently rubbed her fingertips over her back, carefully tracing the lines of the Fairy Circle tattoo right between Bloom’s wing marks.

It was the first time Darcy got a good look at the Fairy Circle mark on Bloom's back. While it wasn’t talked about as detailed as witch covens, Griffin had made a point of explaining the different magic users and their connections. Witches covens, fairy circles and how close to covens they actually were. Griffin hadn’t really talked about the Witchers packs, then again not even witches wanted anything to do with them. Lastly there had been sorcerers conclaves. All of the information were nothing to actually seeing the representation of one of these. Sure Darcy knew her own coven mark, but a fairy circle mark? They were so very rare ever since the fall of Sparx fairy circles had lost popularity, after all the whole dimension had seen how hundreds of thousands of fairies had died across the dimension because thieves circle members had been killed. Not even talking about the supposed backlash when a Dragonborn fairy was part of the circle and died first.

“What now?” Riven asked and pulled Darcy out of her musings.

“Keep her still.” Stella muttered and then without warning or explanation she put her hands on Bloom's back. Palms flat, fingers splayed she half covered the circle mark. What Darcy didn’t expect was the immediate reaction from Bloom. There was a short, strangled sound that was somewhere between a scream and a shocked off moan. Bloom started trashing and buckling where she was leaning against Riven. Darcy stared in disbelief as Riven wrapped one hand around Bloom's waist and buried the other in Bloom's hair trying to hold her still. It didn’t stop Bloom from flailing, her arms pushing and scratching Riven until the fabric of his ceremonial Red Fountain uniform gave way under what Darcy realized were claws, blood started to stain the fabric. A moment later Bloom's hair turned into flame, in a colour Darcy had never seen before.

Over the years that had fought the Winx and Bloom in particular, they had started to make a list. Bright orange flames meant anger. Red’s for various stages of rage. The occasional blue stood from something that surpassed rage and could only be described as furry. The green the healing flame and there had been white once. The blood red flame Darkar had created. This colour though… Darcy had never seen that colour. A strangely muted yellow that looked almost sickly, with weak and limp flames, that clearly didn’t burn hot, if Riven’s lack of reaction was any indication.

“STOP!” Bloom's voice was rattling with power and emotion. Behind her Valtor jerked forward only to be met with the barrel of a gun pointed at his face, as the redheaded specialist appeared out of nowhere.

They had stripped her. It was the first thing Darcy registered. They had stripped Bloom down to the sports bra and the pair of shorts she had been wearing beneath her skirt and top. The most cynical part of Darcy, the one that had gotten more than one lecture on how evil people could be- especially men, wondered whether this was a threat.

The chains were the next thing Darcy noticed, thick black chains…no not chains, chains allowed at least some movement, these things…these were cuffs forcing Bloom to stay down. Restricting her movement to nothing except raising her head. She had been bound to the altar, on her stomach, like an animal for slaughter. It was demeaning amd terrifying in equal measures.

Bloom’s lack of clothing with Darkar looming over her made Darcy’s breathing quicken to the point where she was almost hyperventilating. Faintly she could feel the sharp sting of Stormy’s magic and Icy’s freezing cold fingers wrapping around her wrist, but Darcy didn’t …couldn’t react.

The position Bloom was in, it was Darcy’s worst nightmare. She couldn’t imagine the terror Bloom was feeling at that moment. Faintly she wondered why they had thought it had been a good idea to ally with Darkar of all people. Every warning tale witches told to their children was about the Shadow Phoenix. Master manipulator, a creature born from discord and hate, something nobody could control. What few chains bound darkar were basically useless and here they were... serving him, bound to him…

Bloom's eyes were open. Darcy hadn't expected Bloom to be awake, a small part of her crumbled under the realization that she was fully conscious through all this. Bloom stared at her and her sisters, gaze unfocussed and blurred by the tears slowly running over the bridge of her nose and down her cheek. Her mouth was moving. She… she was mouthing something but Darcy couldn’t understand it.

“Isn’t she pretty like this?” Bloom’s eyes widened with absolute terror as she bucked against the cuffs holding her onto the altar. Trying and failing to scramble back and away from the double. Darcy watched as Bloom's fingers elongated and grew pointy, red flesh slowly turning blue and scaly and then there was the scratching sound of claws ripping through stone.

Bloom. Dakar's voice was almost gentle. but his actions spoke otherwise, quick as a snake striking it’s prey one of Darkars hands slammed down onto Bloom’s neck forcing the faintest sound of pain past Bloom's lips and making her body go limp.

If you destroy my altar, I will be cross with you. Somehow the gentle tone and the choice words were so much worse than any threats he could have told her.

“One more step.” He growled, talking over Bloom's whimpers and pleas as if they were nothing, even as the magic in the ship rose. Darcy could see the small tremor in his hands, but the look in his eyes made her take a step back, even though the gun wasn’t pointed at her.

“One more step.” He repeated. “And I’ll blast your brain out.” It was only then that Darcy realised that the boy had magic. She knew that all of them had. It was how they activated their weapons, but actually being faced with it wasn’t something she had been prepared for. Especially not considering how such thin and weak magic- the colour of sunflowers- was this incredibly precise and focused.

“I would like to…” Before Valtor could say anymore Stella turned her head just enough glare at them magic radiating from all around her.

“GET OUT AND SHUT UP!” She thundered. Icy cold moon magic rushed over them and pressing, pressing, pressing until they stumbled back. Darcy felt herself hit Icy’s chest. It barely registered, as her brain focused on the moon runes floating in the air around Stella’s fingers. They pulsed once before they shot underneath Bloom's skin, into the Circle mark. A moment later Bloom was forced to transform. The sharp cry of terror was the last thing they heard from Bloom, before the redhead- Timmy- closed the door. The gun still trained on them.

“Get lost.” He ordered, magic crackling faintly in his voice, “Or what?” Icy challenged. Darcy heard Stormy’s sharp hiss as the magic of the boy took form in the shape of angry yellow lighting dancing through his hair.

“YOU are the last person to say anything on this!” He barked, his voice thundering with anger. “All of this is your fault!”

“How is this our fault?” Icy snapped back. Darcy could feel the temperature drop and pressed herself closer to her sister, trying and failing to make her stop.

“WHO ALLIED WITH DARKAR?!” He roared. “WHO LEFT HER ON THAT ALTAR, EVEN WHEN SHE WAS BEGGING YOU TO HELP HER?!”

“Bound and unable to move…” The Double crooned behind them, Darcy could hear his wide, leering smile. “I like her like that, although her fighting is also…quite nice. Her screaming is the best thing I have heard though.” Darcy wanted to throw up, consequences be damned, she’d rather die than stay here any longer. Darcy felt the imposter crowd her personal space, his chest almost touching her back, cutting off any possible escape and nearly forcing them to take a step into the throne room. “The Master invites you to watch the change. He finally figured out how to do the transformation permanently and he wants to share this beautiful moment with you” The double walked past them towards the altar. Darcy could see the way Bloom was shaking her head, trying to move away, growing more frantic the closer the double got.

“Why isn’t she making any noise?” Stormy whispered, barely audible even for Darcy who was pressed against her. Stormy was right, for all her struggles, Bloom was silent, breathing heavily sure, but no noise left her.

Almost as if she could hear her thoughts, Bloom’s eyes skipped past the Double and back to them. For a second Darcy met Bloom's eyes, and was hit by a wave of emotions, strong enough to make her gasp. Bloom was staring at Icy, mouthing words again. Only this time Darcy’s brain made sense of them.

Help me.

Over and over again Bloom was mouthing ‘Help me’ in their direction, begging and pleading for them to do something- anything. But the Double caught it too.

“They won’t, darling.” he whispered, leaning over the altar to bury his face in Bloom's hair. She jerked, pressing her eyes closed, her mouth snapping shut with the faintest whimper as one of the double’s hands traced over Bloom's exposed back. It almost looked loving, and gentle, right until his nails dug into her flesh, drawing blood.

Bloom's eyes snapped open, something unfocused and unnamed in them. Something lifeless. The double raised his hand, fingers dripping with blood as he moved them to slice Bloom’s back once again. Behind the altar looming over the two, hands outstretched and whipping with magic, was Darkar; muttering quietly. Bloom's blood rose into the air from where it was either pooling or running down her body onto the altar. Great Dragon there was so much blood. Runes were scattered across Bloom’s arm and shoulder, what Darcy could see of her chest, and now the double was moving towards Bloom's leg. The blood rose into the air as mist, ít was met by the foulred magic of the Shadow Phoenix.

Silence. Then, Bloom let out a blood-curdling scream.

“We would have died!” Stormy’s sharp voice pulled Darcy back from the memory, just as Timmy’s face contorted with rage.

“Do you think we would have cared?” He snapped and somehow out of all the things that happened today, this shocked Darcy the most.. “Do you really think anyone would have cared if you’ddied? At least it would mean that you had some kind of empathy, some morals. Instead you just stood there and watched as they tortured her until she couldn’t take it anymore.” Timmy’s hand holding the gun did not even so much as twitch . “She was begging you to kill her and you just stood there, watching her lose herself.”

“What?” Stormy whispered. Darcy couldnät name the emotions that flickered over Timmy's face. They were too fast and to many at once, she could name the one his face settled on though. The kind of rage that ended up in mad laughter and bared teeth.

“You didn’t tell them, huh Icy? Too cowardly to admit that you weren’t able to kill a second time!”

“You have no idea…” Timmy didn’t give Icy the chance to finish her sentence.

“Bloom asked you to kill her just before Darkar’s magic overtook her. She begged you to kill her when he used his CLAWS to rip her wings into ribbons. She asked you to kill her just before he locked her into her own mind so that Darkar couldn’t have gotten access to the Relix, but you were too much of a coward to do it. Strange considering you had no problem almost killing Sky a few months earlier.”

Icy straighted, the air around them cooling significantly she she spoke “And where would the Dragon Flame have gone huh? Some random baby fairy, easy to influence, easier to be captured by Darkar?! You really would have sacrificed the whole Dimension for…”

“FUCK THE DIMENSION! My friend was tortured until her magical core was splitting itself into pieces! Death would have been more merciful! Do you know how long she needed to relearn her own magic?” Timmy roared getting closer until the gun was grazing Icy’s nose. “You have no idea just how much damage it did to Bloom, how much you being a coward did to her. You could have had it the easy way, just kill her and your whole coven, ten seconds total and everything would have been over, but you decided that you didn’t have it in you!.” The gun clicked and Darcy realized until now the gun’s safety hadn’t yet been released.

“So understand this, you might earn a morsel of respect from us, we might even warm up to you, but none of us will ever trust you.” He bent his finger on the trigger ever so slightly and Darcy could hear the faint hum of magic building up inside the weapon. “Now move and do not come out of your rooms until one of us gets you. Or I swear by the Great Dragon,you’ll wish you were back with Darkar. He’d bee more merciful than me.”

Sharp bright flashes of light made Darcy blink and tear up as Bloom changed rapidly between her civilian and fairy form. Darcy didn’t know all that much about fairies and their transformation, but even to her it looked involuntary and forced. It kept going for what felt like hours, flashes of light as Bloom transformed and detransformed. Fighting whatever ritual she was being subjected to until her voice was hoarse from screaming , until there was nothing more than an occasional whimper Bloom lay motionless on the altar in her fairy form, with only her wings fluttering frantically, glittering fairy dust filling the air. Darcy was frozen in place by the half lidded and absolutely empty blue eyes staring at them. Bloom’s face was emotionless and her eyes were staring at them with the kind of hundred-yard stare Darcy had seen only ever in people whose mind had been ripped apart during an interrogation. When the mind magic user hadn’t given a shit or wasn’t skilled enough to not damage the prisoners. Bloom had that same look of emptiness as if something vital had been taken from her. Stormy whimpered and she could feel the sharp sting of Icy’s magic as her sister froze their fingers together.

Almost there, my dear. Darkar sounded elated, it made Darcy feel sick.. He motioned the double over to take the dark ball of magic that was still syphoning blood from Bloom and moved closer to her. The way he moved, and the clear view they were given of each movement, made Darcy realize that this was intentional. Dakar wanted them to see this. He wanted them to watch as they carved runes into Bloom's flesh. Darcy just wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a warning or a …

Any thought she had died when he grabbed for Bloom’s wings, right at the base. There was a sharp twitch and a whimper.

Shush, dear Darkar crooned as his talons trailed up along the veins of the fairy’s wings, making her choke on air and twitch as she tried and failed to get away from him. Darcy watched with horror. She might not be a fairy, but Griffin held a whole lecture on fairies every year. Darcy still remembered the sharp words their former Headmistress had used.

“Unless the fairy in question is trying to kill you, and you have no way of knocking her out or magically exhaust her, you do not touch a fairy's wings. Killing them would be more merciful. Do you understand me? Under no circumstances do you damage a fairy’s wings if you don’t plan to kill her.

“Icy…” Darcy croaked.

“Quiet!” Her sister hissed, back, but her voice was wavering. Darcy heard her sister take a deep breath as if to say more, but she was cut off, by a sound Darcy had never heard before.

It was like the ripping of fabric, sharp and quick, like a shield or strong failing. A shield failing meant a short moment in which the magic got worse before a sudden absence of magic. This was…as if time had stopped as the magic intensified.

The stone of the altar creaked and broke with a thundering rumble. Accompanied by the deafening and pained roar of a dragon. Bloom was screaming again, her hands flailing up. She tried to reach back, possibly to grab for Darkars hands, to stop him, but she could get her hands up. The altar had broken apart before the cuffs had given, meaning that the corners of the altar were weighing her hands down, limiting her movement.

Oh, Bloom. Dakar purred, pulling his fingers higher, elongating the rips in one of her wings even further. Didn’t I warn you about destroying my altar table? He snapped his free hand, and a shadowy figure rose from the ground grabbing onto Bloom's wrists and forcing them down again.

You really should have listened! He jerked his hand up. Bloom threw her head back, her eyes wide and bulging, her mouth open in a scream without a sound as her whole body was being wrecked by sharp tremors. Darkar moved his now free hand to cup Bloom’s throat forcing her head to bow back further. Her wing, the one that had been in Darkars grasp before, was fluttering weakly compared to the frantic twitching of the still intact one. The base was the only thing still intact, but that was all. The tears started maybe two centimeters above the place where her wings met her back. Dividing Blooms wing into five almost perfectly even parts all of which were hanging down. Darcy watched as the glitter slowly started to fade, as the tips of the wing started to turn darker, and change colour. There was a sound, a choked groan or a laugh and when Darcy finally managed to tear her eyes from the wing she was met with the double, whose face was full of perverted pleasure. The orb in his hand pulsed and Bloom's form started to flicker again. Dakar crooned again, hiding his face in Bloom's hair, but his voice was so very loud.

Now look at what you are forcing me to do! This wasn’t supposed to happen, Bloom. If you just …listened. Too late now, all you can do now is to learn your lesson.

Chapter Text

“You look bad. Did you also had a bad day?” It was Helia who answered their call. They all looked up at the absolute exhaustion in his voice.

“Are you ok honey?” Flora asked her brows furrowing. Helia snorted.

“No, because everything went absolutely mental about ten minutes after we landed on Solaria.”

“That’s a new record…” Aisha muttered dryly, motioning silently for Musa to create a sound ward. “What happened?”

“The sky turned dark during the return of the magic.” They froze, knowing full well what that implied.

“Is Bloom…”

“Flashback. A bad one at that. Riven’s formal uniform is in pieces and B ripped his arms open badly, Stella had to force her to transform to calm her down.”

“Oh sh...” Aisha muttered. “Is she ok?”

“She’s sleeping sandwiched between Stella and Riven.”

“There is more to it.” Flora said slowly, reading Helias face just right to get the hints and clues. He sighed and nodded.

“The Trix and Valtor…”

“NOOO!” Musa groaned and let her head fall onto the table. “What did they do?”

“To be fair…nothing…kind of.” Helia hesitated and Aisha narrowed her eyes. She might not be able to ready Helia as easily as Flora, but this was suspicious as hell.

“But?” She asked, her eyes focused on Helia.

“Valtor offered to calm Bloom.” They all hissed. Aisha felt like baking her head onto the table top.

"Didn’t he learn the first time? When Bloom threw him clean across the room, when he tried to help?”

“I don’t know and we also didn’t find out what he wanted to do, because that was the point when Timmy pulled his gun.” It was Tecna this time who let her head fall onto the table.

“He lost his temper didn’t he?” Helia just nodded. “I’m pretty sure the only reason why he didn’t blow their brains out was the fact that Bloom would have been forced to intervene, while still having a panic attack. He did tell them about WHY Bloom had the attack though…” Helia looked away from the camera to something behind his screen and sighed.

“None of them have left their rooms since and Timmy is refusing to acknowledge that he did anything wrong.”

“Stella is backing him isn't she?” Aisha asked tiredly.

“Yeah…” Helia agreed and Aisha sighed loudly. This was so damn bad. She shot a quick look at the notebook she had been writing in.

“Well that makes our decision then.” She muttered softly.

“What do you mean?”

“We figured out how the Council kept afloat, while having such horrible spending habits and were discussing if and how we were to tell Bloom.”

“Do I want to know?”

“They rerouted the funding for the Enchanted Forest Neighbourhood and put it into their pockets.” Aisha watch almost amused how Helia went very, very pale.

“That’s the mossy corner isn't it?” He asked faintly, his eyes fluttering between all of them, almost like he was begging them to tell him that he was wrong. Aisha was about to pop his bubble.

“Yep!” She told him cheerfully, popping the “p”. “Bloom’s favourite part of Magix City and a neighbourhood in the most impoverished district of the city, which is technically supposed to be getting money from the government to help the people, is the thing that lines the pockets of the Council.”

“Yeah no, we are NOT telling Bloom that.” Helia groaned. “I’m ending this phone call right now, I don’t need to get any more bad news. Love you Flo, by guy.” Then he ended the call.

Aisha eyed the notes on the paper before her. The Enchanted Forest was part of what was known as the Southern Town. One of the four newer districts of Magic City. Bloom had found it in the first few days of being on Magix. She hadn’t even noticed it was populated exclusively by witches, until she had dragged Flora in there for the first time, because some children had been ill. Then again, nobody had been aggressive with Bloom after she set a couple of older fairy from the local high school on fire, because they tried to intimidate a bunch of children. From the stories the others had told Aisha, Bloom had escorted the kids back home and then helped someone with their flowers. Using the knowledge Vanessa had taught her and that Bloom had picked up by helping out in the flower shop. She never stopped coming back and just fell in love more with the people each time she visited.

They knew perfectly well just how much Bloom loved the people of that district and how much of Dominos wealth had been given to the people of the Enchanted Forest, to help them pick themselves up.

“We have to tell her…” Aisha muttered.

“We are going to ask Stella to do it. The best time would be when she is introducing Bloom to the smiths, at least then she can channel her rage into something.” Tecna decided.

“Otherwise she will just set the courtiers on fire.” Flora muttered tiredly.

“I also think we need to stop looking at the finances.” Aisha said after a long moment of silence. “It’s helpful, sure, but…we need something new and more than that…” She took a deep breath. “It’s time we start looking for the confessional.”

***

The solarian sunrise was one of the most beautiful things Bloom had ever seen. It was a slow thing of deep blues turning into the most stunning violets, before sharp and warm reds appeared as the two suns slowly rose. Only to bleed into stunning golds and yellows. It was faster than earth's sunrise. Most of the sunrises Bloom had seen in the Magical Dimension were faster than the sun rises on earth, with the exception of Andros and Domino. Andros' sunrise was slower than Earths but still relatively quick. Domino's sunrise on the other hand was slow, if there was a sunrise at all. Stella had been pretty quick to figure out that part of the curse on Domino was that the sun couldn’t shine there. So the sky was always hung with clouds or it was snowing. Which had impacted the view on Domino's sunrise the one time she had witnessed it. It had been a slow, creeping up thing. That had made it look as if the sun was tired of bringing light to the desolate planet. Bloom knew intellectually that it was stupid and made no sense, but knowing what Domino used to look like…

“Thinking about the sunrise?” Stellas voice came softly from the entrance of the Arcadia.

“Morning Stel” Bloom muttered. She heard her friend walking closer to where she was sitting. The gentle rustling of skirts and the body heat of her best friend told her that she had sat down next to her.

“Wondering again how fast it is?”

“I know intellectually that it’s because of the proximity to the Golden Kingdom and all that, but it’s still hard for me to think about.” Bloom muttered and felt her friend lean into her side.

“When did you get up?”

“Two hours ago.” Bloom muttered. A moment later she felt a kiss pressed into her hair.

“Want me to tell you the itinerary of the day?”

Bloom nodded silently, everything that would help her stop thinking about yesterday and what had happened.

“The banquet will be tonight, so some things have to be moved around. The smiths demand all of your attention two days from now, but some of them will meet with you today.” Stellas even voice and calm magic was slowly lulling Bloom into the closest thing she could get to sleep right now. A meditative state that made her magic relax enough that she could… just breathe and stop thinking. Simply taking in what had happened and what she would be doing today.

Usually holding audiences was a chore that Bloom loved to ditch. There had been a few people who had tried to talk to her. Religious fanatics that claimed Bloom needed to take over the dimension because it was slowly decaying and only she as the daughter of the Great Dragon and the last true High Priestess would be able to stop it. Therefore she needed to topple the reigning governments of each planet and bring the Dragon back to them. It had put Bloom off of interacting with people, who only wanted to talk to her because of who she was. Not that she could avoid that anymore…

Solaria was a breath of fresh air on that topic. While the planet had strong ties with Domino- they generally believed in the Great Dragon as one of the oldest Gods- they were much closer in their belief of the two suns. According to them, the first sun of Solaria had been an incredibly powerful Sun line Dragonborn that had settled on the planet to teach the magic users of Solaria how to control the sun magic. While doing so she had fallen in love with the firstborn daughter of the Queen of Umbra Luma, who had fled on Solaria after abdicating her throne to avoid the pressure of all her princesses duties. They had loved each other dearly and lived peacefully together for a long time, just studying and teaching magic. Right until the younger sibling of the princess, a cruel person whose only goal was power, decided that their sister was threatening their rule. They tried to assassinate the princess while she was visiting their mother. According to the legend she managed- with the help of the wedding band that also happened to be an amplifier- to channel the magic her Dragonborn wife had taught her and return to Solaria. The Dragonborn, while holding her dying wife, had used all her power to call out for her mother- the Great Dragon- begging her to save her wife. The Dragon did, but as all magic, this came with a price. The Dragonborn, exhausted by the use of power that was needed to call her mother to Solaria, had been close to dying herself. So the Great Dragon tied her daughter's soul to the sun of Solaria, which she had been guarding and pulling her powers from, while turning her daughter's wife into the second sun of Solaria, forever allowing the two to be together.

Bloom liked this tale, it had a certain classical fairytale vibe that Bloom missed in most legends of the Magical Dimension. It also meant that the Solarians, while treating her with reverence, weren’t cowed by Bloom being who she was. She was seen as something like an equal to the Solarian royal family. Bloom hoped that it would translate to the couriers that she would be interacting with.

“So we will meet with the nobility today. Tomorrow we will spend the day in the city, visiting all the big touristy hotspots and the day after that the smiths will get a day with you.” Stella summoned up and Bloom could feel her friend's eyes on her.

“Is there also space for me to beat shit up?” Bloom asks only half jokingly. “Because I really, really need a workout and to blow off some steam. I am going mental. What happened and the constant traveling…”

“Yep, we will announce it tomorrow. Dad already talked to the arena masters and our best wardens. Everyone who wants to is allowed to challenge you, only in magic mind you, on our sixth day here. The fifth is for you and them to train and warm up.”

“Everyone?” Bloom asked sceptically. She could already see the sea of children trying to prove just how good they were.

“Everyone over the age of 18 and who has their secondary school diploma.” Stella amended with a grin. “I know what kind of mother hen you are.” Bloom completely ignored the teasing to forge on.

“In the arena. The arena that can life stream the whole thing to the planet?” The smile on her face felt real.

“Yep.” Stella said, grinning brightly. “There will also be running commentary.”

“Fair enough.” She leaned back on her hands and focused back on the first sun. It was peeking over the horizon by now.

“There will be rules of engagement for you.”

“Oh!” Bloom laughed, “I get rules on how I can fight?” She grinned at her friend, who grinned back.

“You are all-powerful, so it’s only fair to limit what you can do, or my people will start getting nervous.”

They kept joking that way. About how things would be fair for everyone and what that meant for Bloom, as the second sun followed the first up. Bloom wasn’t sure if the legends were true, but the way the warmth of the first sun settled on her skin. The way the second sun seemed to make Stella glow even more ethereal than she usually did, Bloom was willing to believe that she was basking in the magic of one of her sisters, as many millennia removed as she might be.

***

For all that Bloom had never really gotten any training in proper behavior for court - outside of Stella’s and Aisha’s cash courses, as well as a horrible case of imposter syndrome- she had to admit even her meager knowledge and training beat most of the Solarian nobles.

Bloom had been drilled on countenance, calmness and an air of superiority. None of which the seemingly endless amount of people around her seemed to have.

They were trying their best to endear themselves into Bloom's bed, loudly, without any shame. While Valtor was standing right beside her.

The first person had been sleek, she had to give it to them. Calm, collected even they had implied things more than saying them. Bloom had endeavoured the veiled insults and digs they had thrown at Valtor all while smiling into his face with a challengingly raised eyebrow. He had been hovering a step behind her right shoulder ever since their official entrance, almost like a sentinel, almost like he was trying to guard her. Bloom wasn’t sure if she wanted to acknowledge the reason for his changed behavious. She really didn’t…

The utter boredom that was radiation through their bond had told her exactly what he was thinking. So she smiled politely and waited it out. After all they needed to look like a united front. Still she had enjoyed the way Valtor had started a running commentary. Countering each insult with one of his own. Most of them were founded in background knowledge he had gotten during the last three years.

That was until the noble had taken Bloom's hand, pressed a kiss onto her knuckles and then didn’t let go of her hand. Instead they had slowly gotten closer to imply heavily that they would like to show Bloom a more private and much more …scenic place.

Which had been the point it had clicked for Bloom. The sharp sting of rage- annoyance and possessiveness flooding their bond had helped too. She had somehow managed to end the conversation and fled, not that it had looked like she was fleeing. After that it had been as if flood gates had been opened.

“I mean it is clear you are interested in blonds, your Majesty.” The newest person flirting with her was saying. He looked like the classical Californian surfer boy: blond, windswept hair combined with bronze skin. A lot of which was on display in the traditional robe he was wearing. Said robe boiled down to nothing but golden jewelry and a skirt. The problem was that the man was skinny in a way that told Bloom he had never worked out in his life. On top of that she had the sneaking suspicion that his tan wasn’t natural either. The fake tattoos certainly weren’t in his favour. “So I just thought you and I could go for a long walk in…”

Bloom set her still full glass down on the tray of a waiter walking past her, she needed to put it away or she would make a scene. Either by drenching him or shattering the glass over his head, turned and silently walked away. She caught Valtor’s eyes for a split second. Darkness pulsed in the back of her mind and in what she would later on swear was a short moment of pure madness smiled at him, wide and with teeth.

A war cry….

An invitation…

Permission…

Really? He asked giddily.

Really! She answered back.

She only got a glimpse of the sharp and charming smile he directed at the man behind her. As she walked away she carefully didn’t listen to anything he said, but the words were colder than Icy’s magic and probably stung like hell. The joy and delight that was their bond made it worth it. She made her way over to Stella, refusing to make any eye contact with anyone, but her friend.

“Do I want to know?” Helia asked softly.

“If one more person asks me to find a dark and quiet corner with them, I will start a fire.” Bloom answered cheerfully and plucked another glass from a tray. She really wished she could get drunk.

“Using Valtor to intimidate them though?” Stella asked and there was a wide smile on her face.

“It’s either letting him be a snarky, cutting bastard to other people, having him silently hovering over me or me starting fights..” Bloom hissed.

“What is up with that anyway?” Timmy muttered into his glass.

“Me starting fights?” Bloo asked innocently. Which earned her a look.

“I am assuming it has to do with him being in such close proximity with us and seeing that we are much more competent than he assumed.” Riven cut in. “I mean his demeanor changes from planet to planet, but most of the time he is just silently watching everything.”

“Mhm…” Bloom hummed into her nearly empty glass, watching as the crowd parted for Valtor as he moved into their direction. “He might also catch onto the fact that I am not completely incompetent when it comes to shielding.”

“Is that good or bad?” Helia asked.

“He thinks my emotions are the problem.”.

Timmy snorted. “It might also be what happened yesterday and his inability to fulfil his oath.”

Bloom didn’t get a chance to answer that as Valtor was getting in earshot.

***

“Ok, what do we know about the confessional?” Aisha asked, holding the list of facts they had gathered.

“It is a creature that used to live in the crystal of the palace, before it was risen by the people of Magix.” Flora said.

“From what we could figure out, it died because of abuse of its powers.” Musa muttered.

“Which is empathy based and supposed to bring comfort to the people it’s interacting with, by making them talk about the worst things they lived through or did.” Tecna added.

“So basically forced therapy.” Aisha muttered.

“Do you think it would help us if we just …talked about everything?” Musa asked only half sarcastically. For all that they had endured horrible things in the last five years, none of them had ever been so much as contacted by a mind healer. Which was suspicious, considering everything. Then again they also had a still running list of things Faragonda and the Council had been brushing under the rug for years.

“Knowing our luck, we might just break it and then we have an even bigger problem.” Aisha sighed. “Is there anything about the location of the confessional?”

“It’s moving around and appearing to everyone who is part of the Council, basically collecting blackmail in exchange for their increase of power.”

“Anything specific?”

“Nothing, although it might be located in either the archives or the Council Library…” Musa added, sounding tired.

“So we have nothing.” Aisha said and leaned back into her seat.

“Not necessarily.” Tecna said slowly, her eyes darting between a gadget they had been fidgeting with and their laptop.

“Ok what did you create?” Aisha asked, half amused, half hopeful. Tecna knew what they were doing especially when it came to analyzing magic, it was their speciality after all.

“I managed to create a tool that can pick up the usual magical frequency of the council chamber.” Tecna explained holding up the gadget which looked like a wrist watch. “With this we can walk up and down the library and the archives and just…test for anomalies.”

“How did you do that?” Musa asked and sounded suspicious. “Like kudos to you, but Tec…how in the name of the Dragon did you manage to pick up the normal magical frequency of the archive and the library?”

Aisha was interested in the reply just as much as Musa had her eyes fixed on Tecna so it was easy to see them blushing and ducking their head sheepishly.

“I might have forgotten to turn off the analysis program that has been running since second year.” They muttered, sounding adorably abashed.

“Wait…do you mean the program you developed after Bloom’s first possession episode?” Tecna nodded and they all looked at each other with open mouths.

“You mean to tell us this thing has been running the whole four years?” Musa barked out, sounding absolutely delighted. Tecna nodded again, blushing even brighter and Musa started laughing loudly. Aisha for her part was still hung up on the program thing. It had been a precaution, something Tecna had offered Bloom as a defense. They had developed it together, Tecna had created the program based on Bloom's description of what happened. Bloom had put the experience of her magic being taken over by something else into words, so that Tecna could develop her program based on it. It had helped a bit, but not a lot, since they had figured out way too late that it took a long time to pick up specific magical signatures and categories them as normal to alert when something was wrong.

It had worked in the end, because they had known the exact moment that Bloom had been turned into Dark Bloom. Not that it had made things easier for anyone.

“How big is your database?” Flora’s calm question made all of them turn to her and Tecna blush even bigger.

“I don’t…”

“Tec, this thing has been running for four years, how many people did you categorize?” Flora cut in, in her no nonsense tone, that could calm down even a pissed off Bloom.

“All of the teachers, most students and a good group of the council.” Tecna muttered, by now their whole face was bright red.”

“Holy shit.” Musa giggled. “Great Dragon, Hippocampus and Wild One strike me down. This is hilarious.”

“So you have a full magical signature and frequency for the magic of the palace?” Aisha cut in, deciding to help her friend out. Tecna nodded once and shuffled in their seat, while fidgeting with the gadget.

“Here…” They shoved it into Aisha’s hands. “If we split up in two groups we can go through the library and the archive at the same time and make more progress than…”

“You will do none of those things!” A’Sha’s sharp voice cut in as she popped through the small privacy bubble they had created around their table. She looked remarkably like Griselda on a health check.

… Oh…Oh

“It’s been two days since you have slept in a bed. Whatever you want to look for can wait for later! All of you will get your asses back to my home, shower, eat and then go to sleep, or so help me the Great Mother, I will drag your teacher in here.”

None of them protested, since none of them were stupid enough to challenge that claim from A'Sha. Not after they had seen her drag an apprentice to the library's doors just so they would be scolded by their parents. Which A’Sha had gotten on the planet and into the Council Palace within a few hours.

“Yes A’Sha.” Aisha said quickly. Moving her hands in the spell that was needed to lock down their table under a high level privacy spell. It would make it impossible for anyone, but their group, to touch their stuff or ready any of the papers. Should anyone try anyway there would be a loud alarm and some nasty curses.

“Go on move!” A’sha ordered and Aisha held her hands up in surrender before quickly leaving the privacy bubble to make the walk to A’Sha’s home.

“What were you looking for anyway? None of the papers looked like the financial records.” She asked as she herded them along.

“The Confessional.” Aisha muttered and then shot a look at A’Sha. “Are there any books on that?”

The librarian was silent for a long moment, clearly thinking about it.

“I know that there is a secure way of calling it, but that is restricted to the private library of the Council Head.”

“Damn” Musa grumbled, knowing full well that without Bloom's physical presence and agreement none of them could get into the Council Head library.

“But I know that there are books on it in the archive. It’s just enough of a delicate detail that the Council would want it to be private. You go to sleep, I go look for them.”

***

“Oh please kill me!” Stella hissed and turned just enough to Bloom that it would look like they just started a conversation.

“What is going on?” Bloom asked calmly, knowing her friend well enough to see that something was going to happen.

“Well my parents just met each other…” Stella started, Bloom grimaced. As lovely as Stella’s parents were, Selene and Radius together was an explosion waiting to happen.

“As bad as that is, you can deal easily with that one.” Bloom said dryly. She instantly felt the eyes of Valtor and the Trix on her back. Right…political intrigue was supposed to be a hobby for all of them and not her and her friends. Bloom elected to ignore this and focus on her best friend.

“Mhm…” Stella hummed, sounding a bit manic. Bloom shared a look with Helia, they really needed Brandon to come back. It had been a year since Brandon had been ordered to remain on Eraklyon as Sky’s personal bodyguard and since then communication had become sparse. As much as Bloom loved Stella and knew how to help her, Brandon was still ten times better at it than anyone else.

“That isn’t the problem.” Stella hissed, before she threw her head back and laughed as if Bloom had said something funny. “The problem is that Minister Mare is coming over.”

Bloom saw the problem.

Minister Mare was the head of the government of Umbra Luma and as far as Bloom knew an absolute asshole. He was condescending as hell and dismissive of everyone that wasn’t Solarian. Which sadly included Stella since she was- through her mother part Umbra Luma. Which meant the man completely ignored the fact that Stella was the crown princess and future queen and was generally acting as if Stella was a child.

“Want me to pull rank?” Bloom asked, realizing that she was no longer princess and therefore much higher on the food ladder than him.

“Yes please.” Stella muttered and then turned.

All it took was a soft pull on their bond and a moment later Valtor was hovering over her shoulder.

“Was that necessary?” He hissed.

“Do you want to intimidate another idiot?” Bloom asked back. She turned to look at him. After a moment of him just mustering her face he nodded softly. “Then just stand there and glare.”

Before Valtor could say anything else a man called out for Stella. Using her first name and completely ignoring protocol and propriety.

“Celeste!”

“I am going to punch him.” Riven muttered right behind Bloom. If Bloom had to guess he and Valtor were shoulder to shoulder. She kicked him as a silent No you will not! If anyone was going to punch that man on Stella’s behalf it would be Brandon. Who had called dibs on the man, the first time they met.

“Minister Mare” Stella answered standing so straight, she might as well have swallowed a stick. The minister reached out as if to hug Stella. A habit he had been doing for as long as Stella could remember without anyone reigning him in. As usually Stella took a step back - which placed her ever so slightly between Bloom and Valtor- all while still smiling tightly at the man. Bloom knew what was happening. If he was following protocol the man would bow before Stella since she was -as mentioned before- his future Queen and ranked higher than him, something the man had never done before. With Stella moving to stand just behind Bloom she included her in the conversation and also forced Mare to acknowledge Bloom or start an inter-dimensional incident. Not even talking about the glare Valtor was most likely sending him right now.

All of which Minister Mare was very much aware of from the hard look that flittered over his face, almost too fast for anyone to see, but Bloom knew what was coming, so she saw it.

“You Highness,” He greeted, still refusing to bow, even though Bloom was at the top of the picking order and he really should be groveling before her.

“The proper title for a greeting would be ‚Your Majesty‘” Bloom said cheerfully, while staring the man into the eye, daring him silently to contradict her. “Or ‚Council Head‘” She added almost like an afterthought. She saw the sharp twist of his mouth at her words and the ugly look in his eyes, but Bloom had seen worse.

Sometimes she wondered if the man was simply a sexist asshole, considering how he treated women in high power positions, but then Bloom remembered his very public anti Umbra Luma speeches and how he called the people of the moon, creatures and realized the man was just a racist asshole. …As much as one could talk about a “just racist”.

Valtor moved closer to her. The single step moving Stella even farther away from Minister Mare. Bloom could feel the heat of his body against her back. It was comforting and strange in equal measure.

“Your Majesty” He gritted out. His eyes flittering nervously between hr and Valtor. He still refused to bow to Bloom. The air took a sharp turn. Growing cold rapidly. Bloom felt the cold touch of snowflakes and icicles on her bare arms. She grabbed for the Vassal bounds and pulled before she could actively thing about the action. It was just sharp enough to be a warning, but not enough to force Icy to heed it.

“Celeste, I would like a dance.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement filled with the expectation that Stella would simply allow him to decide for her, Bloom really wanted to punch him too.

“That won't be possible.” Bloom cut in and gently laid a hand on Stella’s arm. “The Crown Princess promised me she wouldn’t move from my side tonight. Since she knows both of her courts by heart, she assured me that she would introduce me to everyone that wanted an introduction.” It was the truth…to a point. Stella had already introduced Bloom to all the truly important people of both the Solarian and Umbra Luma court over the years, but she had done so officially today. Not that Bloom cared- no- the reason why she had said it, was so that she could pitch and project her voice in a way that would allow far more people to hear her announcement than should be possible. Thank you Musa! Or in other words in a few moments they would be mobbed and there would be no time to dance.

“Courts?” Mare asked, his voice straining and with a hard look on his face.

“Of course!” Bloom explained and smiled even wider. “I understand that the economic problems of Umbra Luma have made the planet a foster of Solaria, but it still has its own Court and politicians, which is not even taking into account the priest’s and magicians, I am hoping to meet one day.” Bloom stopped, smiling almost bashfully, gods was she grateful for all the etiquette and behavior lessons Alfea had forced on them. “I am sorry, but the rich culture and exchange between Solaria and Umbra Luma are just so fascinating to me.” She said, “What I meant to say is that while Solaria is helping Umbra Luma a lot, the planet is still their own independent realm, don’t you think so too?”

Or much much shorter: Your move, you asshole and pay attention to everyone listening in. Not that Bloom could say that.

“I …” He was floundering. Visibly, audibly and in any other way. Bloom took delight in angling her head in a way that would look encouraging to everyone else and mocking to Mare.

“I haven’t seen it like that before.”

“Pity” Bloom said and thought Refused to, more like it. “They truly are marvelous people. Maybe you should leave the capital of Umbra Luma and visit the countryside more often, mingle with the people?” He hummed in forced agreement and then left in a cloud of fake pleasantries.

“Remind me to organise the biggest “Thank you” present basket I can get, for Aisha.” Stella muttered. “You were marvelous.” Bloom silently moved to hug Stella in a little, awkward side hug.

“There is very little I wouldn’t do for my friends.” She muttered and then let go turning around, so that her back was to the crowd. She was met with a silently fuming Icy, a sparking Stormy and Darcy who looked as pale as Icy.

Bloom immediately let go of the Vassal bonds she still had tied around her fingers, but there wasn’t any change aside from the sharp cold wind that exploded in all directions, causing people to call out in surprise and move further away from their group. Bloom didn’t say anything, just looked at them all silently. When none of them said anything she let it go. If it wasn’t life threatening, she couldn’t do anything, not even forcing them to tell her what was going on. Valtor moved even closer to her his chest almost touching her back and Bloom felt something spark inside of her. On top of the warm comfort his presents was giving her, there was a pulse as the darkness rose. The softly crooning voice she hated so much, whispered sweet nothings. Encouraging her to do it. Encouraging her to give in.

Bloom hesitated, shooting Stella a quick look and silently communicated the idea and where it came from. This was Stella’s call, no matter how much the voice crooned. For a long moment it looked like Stella would refuse, the way her face tightened was familiar with Bloom, but then just as she was about to give up Stella nodded one.

“Valtor” Bloom said, still holding eye contact with Stella, waiting for her to stop Bloom should she change her mind. She felt his eyes on her too, everyone's eyes were on her and Bloom twitched her fingers so that nobody would be able to hear them.

“Don’t you dare interact with Minister Mare,” Bloom said softly. Immediately felt pure vindictive pettiness rise across the bond. Now he would do it for certain, now he wanted to challenge her and see just how far he could push her. Bloom kept staring at Stella while feeling the raw spite build up between them. Only when it reached its pique. When their bond felt like a crackling inferno between them. When Stella’s eyes glittered silver with absolute delight did Bloom turn her head to look into Valtors eyes. “If you do not find something to absolutely ruin him.”

She felt the spite explode in her chest and turn into confusion. She saw the way he blinked at her and just behind him- out of the corner of her eyes- she could see the way the Trix were staring at her with open mouths. Bloom smiled and smiled that was sharp and full of teeth, that were too big for her mouth.

“You are the political mastermind aren’t you?” She challenged, feeling indignation return, but with it there were intrigue and disbelief. The faintest hint of thoughts traveling down their link.

…not serious.

“Prove it.” She challenged “Prove just how much of a mastermind you are and find whatever you can on the bastard!”

“Are you planning another coup?” Valtor asked, stepping closer to her. They were basically chest to chest now. His voice was a velvety purr. “Sparkly, little goody-two-shoes Princess Bloom is now also attacking other governments.”

Bloom snorted. She pressed her flat palm against his chest, putting her whole weight on it and therefore him. A sharp smile on her face that was all dragon and she knew in her bones that her eyes had slitted pupils.

“It’s no cue.” She protested softly and her voices just as much a purr as Valtor’s had been. “It’s political murder.”

She stayed just long enough to see his eyes widen, before she turned and walked back over to Stella. “Don’t get caught, will you?” She asked sweetly over her shoulder.

“Oh and girls?” Stella added, absolutely enjoying the way the Trix bristled at that. Bloom saw the way her friend was focusing on Darcy. “The Umbra Luma foster governors…” There was a lot of emotion in those words and none of it was positive. “They really need to be …humbled.” They left then to stop the slowly exploding argument, that was Stellas parents, before magic could be slung around. But Bloom had never before been so grateful that Tecna had created those pins.

***

The moon was already high in the sky when Bloom heard footsteps on the landing of the ship. She knew her friends well enough to know that it was none of them. It only took a moment of sniffing the air to smell the absence of cold freshness and the static of storms to know, who was behind her.

“Evening Darcy.” Bloom greeted softly, knowing full well that she was startling the witch.

For the most part Bloom was good with her senses. They had slowly grown better over the last five years. Her eyesight had sharpened first, then her hearing and lastly her smell. It had been slow enough that Bloom hadn’t noticed anything, until she started hearing things only Musa could hear and was able to beat most of the students from Ocular when it came to long distance and detailed sight. Which was the point Aisha had ordered Tecna to do a proper check up on Bloom. Turned out her dragon traits were growing in, as Daphne's seal on Bloom slowly broke and weakened.

“It’s creepy that you can do that all of a sudden.” The witch muttered and sat down to Bloom's left, not close, but enough that Bloom could see her.

“I always could do that.” Bloom said. It wasn’t a lie, she had technically been able to do it her whole life, she just never been aware, or allowed. “It just happened that until what? Four months ago?” It was probably more than four months, Bloom had lost track of time again though. “You were my enemy and I sure as hell wasn’t giving you any advantages.” She saw the startled look of the witch, in the way her head turned. “We aren’t stupid.” Bloom muttered dryly. “The wings just pull a lot of attention.” She knew full well that this probably confused Darcy even further.

“I liked you better when you were nothing but little princesses in pretty dresses.” Bloom snorted.

“What scared?” There was a long moment of silence between them and Bloom snorted again. “If you knew half of the shit that being a fairy entails you would never try to cross one.” This time it was Darcy who snorted.

Fine by Bloom, let her think their group was an outlier.

“Just because your group is competent at hiding how well organized you are, that doesn’t mean fairies as a whole are like that.” Bloom just shrugged and turned back to the moon in the sky.

“Is there a point for you being here?” She asked after a long moment of silence. It was almost comfortable. Something churned in Bloom's stomach and the voice was whispering in her mind, it liked Darcy, or well her potential. Bloom really regretted giving into its demands earlier, she hadn't been able to quiet it ever since.

“Why are you still awake?” Darcy asked after a long moment and was the witch trying to make smalltalk?

“Until…” Bloom hesitated. Oh fuck this, she already had turned their worlds over once today. Besides, there was no reason for beating around the bush. “I don’t sleep after panic attacks.”

If Bloom interpreted the sharp rustling of clothing right then Darcy had just flinched.

“Takes me up to three day’s to calm down enough and get out of the fight modus to be able to sleep.” Bloom said softly, but sharply. She was done with tip toeing around these witches. Timmy already threatened them with his gun, Bloom had them on a leash, why hide this from them?

“I…”

“If you start apologizing I will blast you into the fountains a mile that way.” Bloom drawled lazily, pointing to her left. “You never apologized, before so do not start now!” She snapped and Darcy flinched again. They stayed quiet for a long moment then Darcy opened her mouth again, Bloom almost growled.

“Did…” The witch stopped, took a breath and started again. “The Specialist…Timmy …he said…” Bloom rolled her eyes hard enough, it was projected in her whole body.

“Spit it out or let it be.” Bloom growled.

“You asked Icy to kill you.” Well Bloom didn’t expect that one, that was for sure.

“Is there a question in there or?” Bloom snapped back. She already hated the topic, but she sure as hell didn’t want to get into it with Darcy of all people.

“I…” Make her stop. The voice crooned and pointed out to Bloom just how easy it would be, nobody would be able to see it or record it. The ship was under a massive privacy spell Stella had created in addition to the privacy wards of the palace. It would be so easy to just…kill her without anyone noticing. Something must have shown on her face, because Darcy was pailing rapidly. Before either of them could do something, soft footsteps got closer and when they reached the light of the ship, a single person was revealed with the shimmering of a resolving illusion.

“Hi Serina.” Bloom greeted softly.

“You are full of dark thoughts tonight.” Stella’s mother answered gently. “Are you sure you want to do this?” “Do you really think you can stop Bloom?” Stella asked from behind her, her voice teasing, but there was a hardness to it that made it clear that Stella knew what was up.

“Hasn’t happened so far.” Another voice called and there was warm laughter in it. Bloom felt as if the sun was shining on her face as Radius stepped into the light of the ship. She felt Darcy tense up next to her.

“Hi Daddy!” Stella called out happily and strolled past Bloom. There was the soft touch of fingers and the feeling of sunshine flooding her system and Bloom felt the voice go quiet enough that she could relax. She watched Stella greet both of her parents with hugs and soft words Bloom couldn’t understand. When Serina and Radius turned to each other Bloom turned her head to look at Darcy. The witch was frozen in what looked like terror, which made the absolute confusion even more funny when Radius strolled over to Serina and hugged her tightly.

“You really need to stop with the impotence jokes.” He grumbled good natured and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Serina snorted and brushed a lock of his hair behind his ear.

“I will, the moment you take that thing with the moon howling back.” Bloom snorted at the look on Radius' face.

“What the fuck?” Came the absolutely disbelieving and a little bit horrified whisper from Darcy and Bloom looked over to see Stella smiling widely at her.

“Welcome, Darcy.” Stella said and her smile was such a trickster little thing that would cause Griselda to quit on the spot. “to the rebellion.”

Chapter Text

Solaria was the second richest planet in the whole dimension. Only surpassed by Eraklyon. It tended to switch up every now and again when the Solarian smiths managed to create something new and spectacular that everyone wanted. Generally speaking though, Solaria was the second richest planet in the Dimension. If one were to look at it from a size point, Solaria was still in the lower half of the top ten. There were a lot more categories one could measure Solaria in, but the one thing that nobody could deny Solaria being the leading force in was beauty.

The planet itself had been voted the most beautiful for the last twenty years consecutively. While Lynphea was a nature paradise, it was incredibly dangerous. Most people couldn’t live with the amount of water Andros had. Melody tended to overwhelm people. Domino was dead. Zenith was too cold. Which had made .

Another thing where nobody could keep up with Solaria was the amount and quality of weapons they produced. While Eraklyon boasted of their military prowess, even their weapons came from Solaria. According to the boys, it had been centuries since there had been a weapon produced for Red Fountain students that didn’t come from Solarian smiths and Isis gem makers. There were two reasons for that, one being the richness of the Solarian Mountains all over the planet. The second was the concentration of stone giants that lived on the planet. Or in their proper name: The Stone Dragonborn. Bloom couldn't wait to be introduced to them. From what she had seen and heard so far, they were not only the most talented when it came to metalwork of any kind but also working closely with a huge amount of other Fire Dragonborn. A combination which promised incredible results at all times. Or unbelievable explosions. If the stories were to be believed, that was the reason why every last smithy that was owned and operated by a Dragonborn had to be in the mountains, away from civilisation. Well, the non-fireproof civilisation.

Of course, aside from that, there were also the unbelievable deserts with their raw magic and the weaving traditions that could be tracked back for millennia. Bloom had been a victim of Stella's fabric-related mania episodes often enough to know all kinds of Solarian fabric. She also had been gifted so many pieces of clothing made from Solarian fabric that at this point she would never go back to anything else. She loved herself some denim, but by the Dragon, Solarian fabrics were something else. Soft to the touch, with the ability to cool or heat the body through magic that had been woven into the fabric itself. Sometimes that magic was in the threads of the fabric. Sometimes it was in the way it had been woven and sometimes in the colours. Bloom had developed the hypothesis that the fabric was a bit sentient by her second year in Alfea. It had been a combination of things that brought her to that conclusion. The way Solarian clothing knew exactly what the wearer needed. How it was never in the way– even if it was the most ruffled dress with a ridiculous amount of petticoats and hoop rings– it had to be magic and sentience.

Stella had once explained to Bloom how many different categories and subcategories of fabric magic there were on Solaria. The first subcategory alone had given Bloom a headache with all its branches and techniques and secrets. Still, she had listened to Stella ramble excitedly about it. Had watched her friend glow softly and excitedly. Not once regretting her decision to ask about the topic.

Another point that made Solaria beautiful was its people. The people were kind and welcoming, at least the lower class. The nobility were something else, but the normal people were kind and welcoming, ready to give food and money if you so much as looked unwell.

It reminded Bloom of the one holiday to Africa she had once made with her parents. She had been eleven, and her dad had been saving up for years to gift this to her mother. Vanessa had wanted to see Morocco since she was a girl, and Bloom's dad had finally been able to do that for her. Bloom had fallen in love with the beautiful cities and the old towns and art and the people. The kindness of the people living in the streets of the country. The hardships they faced.

The strong voices of the people all around them trying to get their attention were a lot like the bazaars they had visited. Handmade wares everywhere, the rich aroma of freshly made food wafting through the air and the heat of the sun were clear even through the hundreds of colourful fabrics hung from house to house to shield the markets and stores.

“Stop thinking.” Stella muttered under her breath, pointing to an old man selling small statues of the twin sun deities in the same breath.

“Bit hard to do that with the storm cloud right behind me.” Bloom muttered back. Unlike with Icy on Zenith, she hadn’t forbidden Darcy from telling her sisters what had happened. Which was mostly because Stella and her parents had agreed to letting them all in on it. After all, if Darcy was that agreeable to the whole thing, getting her sisters to agree and help was probably easy. Bloom hoped so, at least. She noticed the sharp glimmer of magic out of the corner of her eye.

“Stel”

“I know.” Her friend muttered darkly. “I’m surprised it took them this long.” Watching them from beneath the shimmer of a glamour that should make them invisible, a heavily armed foster government soldier was watching them, placed very conveniently in one of the city entrances to the maze.

Solaria was similar to almost every country on Earth in this. At the same time that Bloom had been introduced to the prized beauty of the planet, she had been introduced to the shadows that the twin suns were casting.

After all, why else would there be a massive and secret tunnel system beneath the capital city and the palace grounds if not to follow and watch over the biggest threat for an illegal regime?

***

They had been walking for what could be mistaken for hours in the dark tunnels. Bloom walked beside Radius at the end of the little group. Stella was at the front with her mother right next to her. Both of them glowed a soft bluish silver light that made it possible for them all to see where they were going, without anyone really seeing them until it was too late. Darcy was right in front of Bloom and Radius, and from the looks of the speechless aura, the witch still wasn’t done processing everything.

“Do I have to worry about you fainting on us, Darcy?” Bloom asked and ignored the absolutely done look Radius shot her. Bloom snickered for all of three seconds before she was running into Darcy’s back and tumbling both of them and Radius to the ground.

Bloom groaned where she was sandwiched between Darcy and Radius and knew in her bones that if Griselda had seen this, she would be forced to restart reaction and attention training instantly.

“And here I thought we got all of your clumsiness out of you.” Stella laughed above them. Bloom managed to flip her the bird, even as she grinned a small, please smile.

“Rude.” Stella snickered and helped Bloom up once Serina had helped up Radius. Bloom immediately turned to look at Darcy. She had rolled onto her back, still lying on the ground, staring at Radius and Serina.

“I don’t understand.” Darcy muttered. “Everyone knows that the two of you hate each other! Everyone knows that King Radius is supporting the Foster Government on Umbra Luma, while Queen Luna was forced out of her position as queen because of her opposition! How are you this …”

“Sweet?” Offered Bloom.

“Codependent?” Asked Stella dryly.

“Civil!” Snapped Darcy. “Especially because yesterday you almost set the palace on fire.”

“We didn’t.” Radius protested weakly.

“Because we stopped you.” Stella cut in, staring at her father in disbelief.

“Which was the plan!” Sernina muttered hauntingly. Not even Bloom believed that one.

“I think,” Serina said softly. “We need to sit down for a moment and explain what is really happening.”

“We are already past schedule because of the ball.” Stella protested anxiously, staring down in the direction they should be going.

“Stel,” Bloom said and gently pulled her friend to sit down on the ground. “I think you need to tell someone that isn’t in our group.” Without saying anything more, Bloom raised her hands and sent out wave after wave of cleansing and detecting spells. Trying her best to make sure nobody would be able to listen in on this. Only once this was done, did she cast the privacy spell. Stella had slumped against the wall opposite of Darcy. It was almost funny how the fairy of the Sun and the Moon and the Witch of Darkness sat opposite each other. One exhausted and one freaked out, both of them unsure what to say. There was a bar joke in there; Bloom just knew it.

“I think the first thing you need to know is from us.” Serina said, smiling gently. “While we are horrible spouses and the divorce is real, Radius and I are terribly fond of each other.”

“We are good friends but terrible spouses.” He nodded slowly. “Then again, neither of us wanted to marry the other.”

“I know.” Darcy snapped. “Arranged marriage and all that.”

“Forced, actually.” Radius said. His voice could have been soft if it wasn’t for the look on his face and the sharp, dry smell of desert wind that rushed through the tunnel. “We were never given a chance. It was a fact from the start, and even me objecting when we were young didn’t stop my father.”

“My parents didn’t have anything to say, because they weren’t allowed.” Serina explained. “We met for our official engagement on my thirteenth birthday.”

“She slapped me.” Radius said fondly, clearly not bitter about that fact. “It took a while…” Serina explained. “But we managed to reach an understanding when both of us noticed the other spying on the old King and Lord Sol.”

Darcy recoiled. None of them had ever met Lord Sol, Radius' grandfather. The man who had taken over Umbra Luma under the pretence of helping the failing government. Stella had told Bloom stories, and then Radius and Serina had done the same. Bloom wasn’t mourning the fact that she never had met the man. If Radius was to be believed — and he could be in this — Sol had had a horrible temper. He tended to scream and punish at the slightest insult and never once did anything that wasn’t benefiting him first.

“My father and grandfather raised me in their image.” Radius said softly. “The servants and guards who knew of the time before the Fostering raised me better.” Towards the end, his voice grew hard and angry. Bloom knew why. It was a story Stella had told her only once with great reluctance after an especially cruel article had been published insulting both her mother and her father.

When he was ten, Radius had watched his mother being murdered by his father's hands. A murder ordered by his grandfather. She had been killed for daring to be kind to starving children on Umbra Luma.

“Let’s just say we used the time until our wedding to get to know each other properly and reach an understanding.”

“We swore to each other that we would end the Fostering.” Serina said, and her voice was hard and cutting like moonlight from behind a cloud.

***

“How many?” Bloom heard Riven whisper.

“More than us.” She muttered back. They had been followed the whole time they had spent on the market. Glamoured people standing on each corner and every other alley. It would have worked if it wasn’t for the fact that Solaria was known for illusions and people seeking through them. Or maybe their watchers had counted on the fact that their people would not come near heavily armed soldiers standing around. It was beyond creepy, and Bloom would have loved to just sit in the small little restaurant Stella had shown them too, to relax, but soldiers had followed them inside and even more had placed themselves just outside.

“They make it look like I ordered them to watch over me.” Stella signed silently. “Promoting the idea of the princess accepting the fostering.”

“I wasn’t aware we needed an additional entourage.” Valtor said dryly. Bloom blinked at him. “Or should I be flattered? Bloom blinked a bit more and then started laughing.

“We are stupid.” She giggled and tried her best not to keep over and right into the bowl of soup she had been presented with.

“Oh Dragon,” Stella muttered, sounding mortified.

“We are aware of that.” Icy snapped.

“We completely forgot that Valtor is a threat.” Timmy muttered and sounded gobsmacked. Valtor glowered. Bloom giggled harder.

“We forgot that he stole the twin suns.” Stella grumbled. “Gods above, Bloom, I am joining you in the arena; clearly sitting around and organising books has been fucking me up bad.” She sounded almost amused.

“Griselda would have our hides.” Bloom muttered and brushed away tears of laughter. Riven just blinked at the Trix and Valtor.

“Man, we really are fucked up if we do not even see them as threats anymore.” He muttered and took a sip of the golden juice that Bloom never could remember the name of.

“Sun’s delight fruit.” Stella muttered, clearly catching Bloom's train of thought just as Stormy hissed at Riven.

“I’ll show you danger.” Her hair was crackling, and she was burning fingerprints into the wood of the table. Stella hissed sharply, her hair turning white.

“You will pay for any damage you cause.” She growled. “And that is beam wood.” Darcy turned very, very pale.

“Repair it now!” She hissed.

“What?” Stormy asked, completely confused, but no longer angry.

“You could buy the land Clowdtower is on with the money this table is worth.” Now it was Stormy’s and Icy’s turn to look put out. Valtor seemed to contemplate whether or not he would be able to steal the table.

“Minister Mare owns a lot of beam wood furniture.” Bloom muttered under her breath and instantly felt the looks of her friends on her. There was a thunk as Timmy let his head fall onto the table, and Stella looked more amused than anything else.

“Bloom…” She brawled, clearly amused.

“Mhm”, Bloom answered. Valtor was looking at her like she had grown a second head.

“I’m going to send word to the smiths.” Stella finally said, shaking her head. “You need more enrichment.”

“She needs to be completely exhausted.” Riven grumbled.

***

They were moving through the tunnels again.

“Most of the ministers and advisors I have in my court weren’t chosen by me.” Radius explained. “They were inherited either from my father or grandfather and made it very clear that we were watched at every turn. Even with those I could replace, there was a fifty-fifty chance that they were lovely to the fostering.”

“So we tried to change the laws and policies to make Umbra Luma liveable for the people again, not just for the rich and nobles that wanted some kind of exclusive holiday home.” Serina snarled.

“And then Stella was born.” Radius sighed. “Best and worst day of our lives.” Boom watched as Darcy turned around to look at Radius and then turned to look at Stella.

“She was born during a solar eclipse.” Serina explained softly. As the moons of Umbra Luma and the suns of Solaria aligned perfectly with each other. A once in a millennia kind of event.”

“It is a well-known legend that the children born on such a day or under this specific event are born with both sun and moon powers.”

“And instantly the whole court had their eyes on us.” Serina sighed. “And nobody has looked away since.”

“We are there.” Stella said softly and pointed to the blank wall right in front of them.

“A dead end?” Darcy asked sceptically.

“A hidden door.” Bloom answered and moved past them to put her ear against the wall. It was thick enough that to most people it was completely sound muffling. Thankfully she wasn’t everyone, and her ears, while not Musa’s, were really good. She closed her eyes and just listened. The first thing she heard was the breathing. Five even and calm breaths, Bloom pushed them to the side and listened more intently. It took only a few seconds before she started to hear heartbeats. Darcy’s quick and nervous heart, the calm and even heartbeats of Stella, Serina and Radius, as well as her own heartbeat, were so much louder than the others. It took her a moment of concentration until she was able to hear the heartbeat on the other side of the wall, and with it came the cheerful whistling that was their sign.

“Everything is alright.” Bloom muttered and stepped back. Radius, Serina and Stella took her place. It was a quick snap from Serina that revealed the runic array which functioned as a lock of the door. There were three keys, Bloom knew: Radius signet ring, Serina’s wedding ring and the royal sceptre. All three needed to be inserted several times in quick succession and in a specific pattern. Of course there was also magic, but the amounts were so minimal that nobody would be able to see it.

Once the last key was inserted in the right position the last time and the magic had sunken into the stone, the lock shone once and then disappeared, leaving behind the shimmering and ripping wall, their doorway to the other side of the wall.

“Well then…” Bloom muttered and sighed for Darcy to follow her. “Welcome to Alcatraz.” Bloom muttered as she stepped through the wall and was greeted by a whistling guard who tipped their head slightly before moving a few steps away from the wall to give them space.

“Alcatraz?” Darcy asked in a whisper.

“Well, technically the prison doesn’t have a name, because a name would mean it exists, but I am not calling it the prison all the time.”

“So she named it Alcatraz after one of the most infamous prisons on earth. We have a code name, and nobody is the wiser.” Stella explained as she handed out shrunken saddlebacks she pulled from her pockets.

“The prison?”

“The officially non-existing holding facility for the Umbra Luma rebels and magic users that were…” Radius turned to Serina and raised an eyebrow. “What do they call it?”

“Magic users in breach of the fostering decree on forbidden magic.” Serina answered.

“Moon magic, Miss.” The guard muttered scornfully, and Serina nodded once.

“They banned it?” Darcy sounded confused and disbelieving.

“Shortly after Stella turned eight.” Radius answered, and his voice was rough with anger. “Calling it protective measures, when all it is, is suppression of culture, tradition and knowledge.”

“What better way to slowly kill a culture than to take their traditions and self away from them?”

“Only those loyal to the fostering are allowed to practise moon magic, and only the way the Fostering Government approves of.” Serina grumbled.

“Unofficially, there are a lot of heavily shielded and protected places where the people of Umbra Luma are practising the old ways.” Stella said and turned to the guard. “Where are we needed the most?”

“The old wing.” They answered without any hesitation. “The rations have been cut again, and there was an alleged riot a few days ago that had to be beaten out.” Their faces made it clear that it was not the truth at all. Bloom cursed.

“How did you scale it today?” She asked to take the map from the guard's hands.

“The blue dots are those in need of immediate attention. Green are the people who haven't had food in a few days, and the yellow dots need water.”

Stella thanked the guard as they handed her another holo projector, this time with the guard rotor, and then they were moving into the bowels of Alcatraz.

***

“Welcome,” Stella said, her voice incredibly soft and reverent. “To the Temple of the Two Suns.” They were standing at the foot of a small hill, which was surrounded by a beautiful iron fence, the colour of gold and with an unbelievable amount of details. Right behind the open gate, there was a sandstone path leading up to the temple itself. White stone that had hundreds of yellow- and orange-toned veins marbled the stone that reached at least five stories into the sky. In every window and between each of the columns, different fabrics had been hung with the most beautiful depictions of the first Sun and her lover, each a bit different, each a different facet of the tale. Bloom wanted to just stare at each of them for hours and compare the differences.

“Come on.” Stella muttered and led them up to the temple. Bloom twined her bonds around her fingers, nothing more than a warning and slight tuck.

“Chill,” Icy hissed. Bloom ignored her. She had given a warning; should they ignore it, they would be the ones to pay for it.

The track up to the temple was quick and without much effort; still, Bloom felt relieved when they stepped into the temple itself. Even though the temple was sunlit by the many windows, it was cool and the air was fresh.

“I am staying here.” Riven whispered, only half joking. Stella smiled brightly at them and moved through the first room into the main chamber of the temple.

“Legends say that this first room is the place where the Second Sun was wounded. Which is why it’s kept darker than the rest of the temple, to remind everyone that darkness is always close.”

Ironic thought Bloom, especially from them. She would bet that they knew this better than most people.

“And the big chamber is where Sol prayed to the Great Dragon to save her lover.” Stella said, stepping through the arch that separated the first and second rooms. “When you come in, light one of the balls. It’s Lumin Zunder; it will rise into the air and burn for several days. If you are not able to do it by magic, use the lighter; otherwise, stay in the first room.” Bloom watched her friend grab one of the small balls of what looked like a yellow bath bomb and set it on fire with a concentrated sunbeam. The ball burst in white flame and shot at least three metres into the air before stopping, hovering and then slowly rising a few more metres to be met with other colourful balls of fire.

“It looks like little suns.” Bloom whispered and stepped into the room. The magic flared, and Bloom felt herself swoon. Instantly hands were grabbing for her and steadying her.

“B?”

“It’s alright.” She smiled silently, signing to Stella what had happened. Whether it was really a place the Great Dragon had touched or a place where magic naturally collected or simply the belief and worship of generations of people, the air was filled to the brim with warm magic that felt like a hug and the soft words of her mum comforting her. Bloom would have sworn she could hear both Mike and Vanessa shushing her and promising her that it would be alright, that she would be fine and everything else was just a small stone in her way.

It took Riven gently bumping her shoulder before Bloom could pull away from the magic and turn to pick up one of the Zunder balls. She watched Riven, Helia and Timmy light theirs with the small flame that was burning in an elaborately painted vase. Neither Valtor nor the Trix made any move to enter the second chamber, and Bloom only mustered them for a moment before she turned to light her own ball.

It burnt a familiar blue and instantly sought out Stella’s. She watched them bobbing around each other for a moment before she moved to catch up with Stella at the feet of the statues. The Great Dragon had been carved out of almost black stone that had veins of gold. She was towering over a pair of women. One of them, made of the silvery stone that Bloom knew was from Umbra Luma, was lying on the lap of the other, clearly injured with a small silver halo on her head. The other figure had been made of the same golden stone that the palace was made of, and her halo was almost too huge for the depiction of her and brilliantly golden.

“The first and second Sun of Solaria.” Bloom muttered.

“Under the great mother.” Stella whispered back.

"She looks so…” Bloom couldn’t look away from this depiction of the Great Dragon. While gold was featured in the veins running through the stone, it was very different from what she was used to.

“Some people say this shows her in the form she takes when travelling the universe. The form the star travellers were used to.” Stella explained softly. There was a snort from behind them. Bloom didn’t need to turn around to know it was Valtor.

“What do you think?” She asked, ignoring her husband.

“I think whoever made this wanted to remind people who come here that in the end the Great Dragon is a goddess, a primordial being and very much different from us.”

***

The Solarian version of Alcatraz was exactly like the US prisons were portrayed on television. With endless grey stone hallways, it made it easy to lose one's way in this endless maze of a building. If Radius and Serina were right, then the building had been originally built on the side of a mountain range south of the capital city. It had been intended to hold a thousand prisoners maximum, but when the cells had been filled with up to triple the amount of people they could hold, it had been expanded in secret by drilling further into the mountain. Which had created hallways and cells in complete darkness, with no windows and the only fresh air supply being the general ward that had been built in the foundations of the building. Considering what she had seen over the years, Bloom was pretty sure the only reason why the wardens didn’t meddle with the air supply was the fact that if they did, everyone in the building would be suffocating. To say that the living conditions were bad was a bad joke, considering that it was a regular practice to beat the inhabitants up for any possible misbehaviour.

Bloom – who had been here several times over the last five years – had seen people beaten half to death for the crime of sneezing at the wrong moment. Not even talking about the nonexistent food schedule and regular withholding of water.

“We spent most of our marriage slowly infiltrating the prison.” Serina explained softly, careful not to speak too loud, as they crept through the warden's hallway towards the cell block that had been nicknamed the Old Wing. Not because it was the oldest part of the building but because it held the prisoners that were here the longest.

“We can’t really do anything about the day guard, but most of the night guards are our people.” She explained and nodded to another guard that turned away from them after nodding once.

“We spent ten years slowly swapping them out. It did help that nobody loyal to the fostering wants to do the night guard, so volunteers are always taken for that task.”

“It does help that most prisoners tend to play up just how badly we treated them overnight.” Another guard muttered, her voice ever so slightly tinged with humour, as she opened a door. “You need to be out in three hours.” She commanded and then closed the door once they were through.

“What exactly are you doing here?” Darcy asked, looking like she was seconds away from shaking into pieces.

“First aid, proper healing when someone is really badly injured.” Bloom explained. “Sometimes we make sure they pass without pain.” She added softly, trying not to think about the number of people she had to help find peace. Darcy stared at her wide-eyed.

“It’s rare.” Stella cut in, rummaging through her bag. “Mostly we bring them water and food to make sure they don’t die of starvation. It’s what the bags are for; they have expansion charms on them and weightless charms on them so that we can carry over three hundred bottles of water in addition to food without being slowed down. If Bloom is on the planet, she will come to heal, since her magic doesn’t really leave traces.”

“If we heal someone, we also anchor illusions over them to make sure they look as bad, if not worse, than before.” Radius said. “We can’t risk anyone getting suspicious after all.” He too looked through his bag and then looked at them all. ”Ready?” He asked. Bloom nodded silently, while Stella and Serina whispered their agreement. Only when Darcy too nodded did Radius turn around and let out a sharp whistle. It was a sharp and long sound that in the silence of the cellblock sounded haunting. The hall and echo of the empty hallways didn’t make it any better. It took a long time before Radius stopped, and then they were once again plunged into silence.

“What?” Darcy started, but Bloom shushed her with a sharp look. It wasn’t yet time to talk. They weren’t yet sure that they were safe. They stayed where they were, close to the door – ready to run for their lives should it be needed – waiting and hoping for everything to be ok. Bloom almost missed it with how soft and quiet the whistle was but caught it just before it stopped.

“One” Bloom whispered and cursed herself; her hearing was good, but they really needed Musa for this part of the whole ordeal. Another whistle minimally louder than the first one. “Two” The third and fourth whistles came in such quick succession that they almost blended into one. By the eighth, Bloom saw Darcy jump and Stella and her parents relax. Every one of the three whistles that followed after got progressively louder and closer until one relatively close to them sounded.

“Now we can talk.” Serina moved towards the first cell where pale hands were poking out between the bars; four fingers stretched out.

“It’s how we announce ourselves.” Bloom explained softly. Ushering Darcy forwards as she explained. “Every hallway has a person responsible to whistle back. If one doesn’t, that means either that there is danger or that the person in charge is badly hurt. Alternatively, if someone from the fostering is in a block, there will be two short whistles that will be passed down from hallway to hallway. If that one sounds, we turn around and leave instantly.”

“Why are they…?” Darcy asked, pointing to the hands sticking out of the cells, all holding out different amounts of fingers.

“So that we can know how many people are in each cell. One hand with only fingers means they need water and food.” She pointed to the cells Stella and her parents were walking past and handing out water bottles and small bundles of food. “If someone is hurt in the cell, one hand will switch between the number of cellmates and the amount of people who need medical help. While the other hand is waving. The worse the injuries, the faster they wave.”

Bloom stopped at a cell where the inmate was waving slowly and flashing a 3-1-3-1.

“Hey,” Bloom whispered, and the hands moved back into the cell. “I’m going to open the door. My friend will hand out water and food, and I’ll take care of the injured person.”

“Thank you, your highness.” A croaky voice called from within. Bloom opened the door to the sight of an old man standing in the door, looking like he was ready to pounce. Bloom knew that it was one last defence, should the inmates suddenly be faced by someone that wasn’t a rebel. Behind the man, a middle-aged woman was half-crouched over a teenager.

“Fuck me.” Bloom breathed and rushed towards the kid, whose elbow was pointing in the wrong direction. The next few minutes were a blur. Bloom tried her best to keep the pain to a minimum while setting the bone and healing it. It took less than three minutes, and they were out of the cell again.

“Why don’t you let them out?“ Darcy asked as they moved past cells handing out water and food.

“Wards, Bloom muttered back, softly healing the burnt and broken hand an older woman was holding out through the bars. “If we let them out of their cells, an alarm is triggered which in turn causes a lot of those soldiers to arrive who are in favour of the fostering.

“Thank you, milady.” The woman said, but her eyes were fixed on Darcy. Bloom felt some foreign magic roar and then silence again, and before she could think anything more of it, the old woman was back in the darkness of her cell and handing out food and water to her cellmates. Bloom made the mature decision to not worry about it until later. Right now she just couldn’t extend the energy to worry about anything else but making sure people got food and water and those who needed it healing. For the next hour things blurred into a familiar pattern of opening doors to heal prisoners who couldn’t move anymore, handing out food and healing smaller scrapes that could be healed through the bars. She could feel Stella and Serina right behind her, weaving illusions over the people Bloom healed and making sure that nobody would notice that their injuries were gone.

“How do you know there isn’t someone dying deeper in the block?” Darcy asked sometime later. Bloom, who had been concentrating purely on the broken ribs of a young woman not much older than her, startled out of the post-healing haze and blinked at Darcy. It took her a ridiculously long time to understand the question.

“It’s silent.” Bloom muttered. “If someone is seriously injured, their cellmates or the people around them will make sounds. Something long and high-pitched that can be heard throughout the whole block. Other than that…the speed of their waving.” The faster they wave, the more dangerous their injury is.” Darcy let out a soft little oh as Bloom dove back into the next cell to set a mangled ankle.

“Take a break.” Stella grumbled once they had worked their way through the first eight hallways.

“It’s all so mild.” Bloom blinked away tears. The guard had said there had been a riot, or in other words, the day guards had been bored and went from cell to cell and decided on a whim to beat people up until they could no longer think. Yet the worst Bloom had seen today were broken bones and torn muscles.

“Several people have died in the last few days.” Serina said softly. “None of them were in pain, but that is why you only have milder injuries.” Bloom sat down, her back colliding with the bars of a cell and causing them to rattle and the inhabitants to jerk back. Bloom heard herself whispering apologies, but her head felt foggy and slow.

“I am so sorry.” She muttered, slowly curling into a ball.

“Don’t you dare.” Radius commands, his voice soft, so as not to send the prisoners around them into a panic, but firm nonetheless. “Not only are you already making things better, but you have been working to undermine the Council. To restore the dimension to what it’s supposed to be.”

“I could have been…”

“You would have been in school. We all know that Alfea would have never let you leave this close to exams and graduation.” Bloom startled up at that, staring confused at Serina; out of the corner of her eyes she saw Stella looking just as confused. Serina sighed and shook her head gently.

“The school year will end in about four months.”

“Fuck,” Stella swore, her hands disappearing in her rabidly sailing hair. “We are going to die.” Bloom wanted to laugh at that because she had completely forgotten that she was still enrolled in Alfea. She opened her mouth to make a joke about it only to freeze. There were four of them. Bloom craned her neck to the left and then the right, but there was nothing. Darcy had disappeared.

***

Children were giggling all around Bloom, trying and failing to change the colourful bubbles of light and fire. It was a delightful exercise in concentration and managing her own magic. A servant had haunted them down an hour ago to hand Stella a piece of paper.

It turned out that the schools of the capital had started to teach the children for a small performance. It had been adorable to see hundreds of children gather nervously in one of the smaller arenas, ready to show off their school pride. It had been a total of thirty-four performances. Differently to what Bloom was used to, schools went from primary to secondary schools teaching children from age six all the way up to sixteen, at which point they would either get an apprenticeship under a master of the magic they specialised in, go to another school or, in the very rare cases, leave the planet for their further schooling. The capital of Solaria had a total of about 400 schools across thirty-four districts, each of which had chosen a group of up to fifty children from across the district to be part of the performance. From what Bloom could see, there wasn’t an age limit. At least fifty-six years old were running around trying to catch the bubbles, and even though they tried to play cool, Bloom could see a horde of teenagers doing the same.

“Stel” Bloom whispered, a huge grin on her face. Her friend turned, smiling brightly, just as delighted to play with the children as Bloom was.

They didn’t really get a lot of chances to just have fun with their magic. Alfea had been training them to use their magic for protection since they had stepped a foot on the grounds, and even outside of the school, all Bloom had ever really done with her magic was to fight or help people. Even the animation thing had been taken over by necessity and turned into a lifesaver on more than one occasion.

So when the children had finished their presentation, Bloom, wanting to be reckless and bask in the joy of the moment, gathered the teachers of all the schools and asked if it would be alright with them to let the kids have some fun. Stella had joined in once Bloom had explained her idea, and here they were summoning harmless fires and light balls that would double every time a child touched them. It was a complicated mental exercise to keep track of each ball of magic to keep them doubling; there were so many bubbles floating around that Bloom couldn’t see the other side of the field anymore. Bloom desperately hoped that the boys were filming them so that Griselda could grade them on it.

“Yes.” Stella asked, and Bloom silently and quickly explained her idea. A moment later Stella had waved over the teachers to talk to them. That did mean that her light balls disappeared, much to the loud protests of children all around them, but Bloom only grinned wider.

“RULE CHANGE!” She bellowed, catching the attention of the kids all around them. “The bubbles will disappear from here on out and leave colourful marks on you. I bet you nobody will manage to get more than 24!” Instantly the pitch descended into chaos.

“Was that necessary?” A teacher groaned, but their smile told Bloom that they didn’t really mind.

“Absolutely,” Bloom answered and pitched in to explain her idea further.

She felt the exact moment the last bubble burst and children started rushing them. Bloom did some quick thinking at the absolute panic on several teachers' faces and the amount of children screaming their numbers in their direction and summoned burning numbers to float in the sky above the field.

“Listen up!” She called out, using the projection trick Musa had taught her to be heard properly. “Everybody sort themselves under the number of bubbles you caught!” It took very little magic to change the marks into numbers on the kids' palms. “You have the number of bubbles you caught on your palms now, so nobody can cheat!” There was some grumbling, but they did it. Behind her she could see Stella and some of the teachers organise the next exercise.

In the end there were 15 people who had popped 24 bubbles, 16 who had gotten 25, ten with 26, ten with 27, 8 with 28, 5 with 29, three with 30 and one young fairy who was grinning brightly at Bloom and his flabbergasted teacher who was presenting a very large 50 on his palm.

“How, Sor?” His teacher asked.

“I summoned 24 bubbles to me, and then I started catching them properly.” He explained loudly; there was a long moment of disbelieving silence before Bloom burst into laughter, doubling over. On her left, most children started protesting, and it took a long moment for the teachers to regain silence.

“No, he earned his victory!” Bloom called out once she managed to breathe again. “I didn’t give you any rules, so thinking outside of the box was very much allowed!” There were some weak protests, but nothing more than the grumbling of teenagers.

“Besides.” Bloom added after a long moment. “This is what makes a good fairy – thinking on one's feet and doing turns that nobody expects!” Sor grinned brighter and bowled dramatically, which earned him both cheerful booing as well as genuine applause.

“Now, let’s see if he can defeat his victory!” Bloom challenged it; it instantly got everyone's attention. “This next part is only for those fairies who have absolute control of their wings.” Bloom saw the hurt and anger in the eyes of witch children and young sorcerers she had spotted in the brief second it took her to take another breath and keep speaking. “As well as those witches and sorcerers who can have mastered either the wind or a flying spell.” Most of the witches were staring at Bloom with an open mouth, not believing that she would include them. “So everyone else into seats!” Several six-year-olds tried to stay on the field. Bloom shot them a look. “Your teachers will sort out those who can’t fly or are not absolutely secure in their knowledge.” The six-year-olds glared at Bloom at the indignity. “So move off the field before they send you off.” Several teenagers smelt the threat to their ego and left on their own; others didn’t. The six-year-olds had already been ordered off the field by their teachers. Once everyone was done and only a small group of maybe fifty children was left, Bloom offered Stella her hand.

Ever since Faragonda had introduced them to conversion spells, Bloom and her friends had started to test out how far one could push the limits of them. It turned out summoning obstacles and barriers was much easier if two or more people did it since the drain of one's magic was much less intense and it was easier to hold onto the summoning. Being familiar with a certain summoning also helped a lot, and considering Griselda’s lessons, everyone in their group had gotten very good at holding onto magically summoned things.

So when Bloom linked her magic to Stella’s and thought about an obstacle course for flyers, it took nothing more than the bright flash that was usual for Stella and the soft warm breeze that accompanied Bloom's summonings before there was a complex parkour floating above them. The bright amber structure was beautiful in its reflection of light and the warm orange it bathed them in.

“This is your challenge.” Bloom explained and pointed to the maze of tunnels and structures. “Blue flames will show you the way you have to fly, and the goal is to get through it faster than me or Bloom.” Stella continued, already stretching to warm up.

“We will fly first. Your teachers will be taking our flight time.” Several of the children exchanged excited looks and smiles, ready to jump into the course this instance, and Bloom pinned them down with a hard look. “There are moving components you can not see at this moment. When a person flies through this, it will get seen through to make sure that if something happens, we know it instantly.” Bloom warned sharply and watched several of the children deflate and some even take steps back.

“Furthermore, since it was made from my and Bloom's magic, some of the obstacles are made for fire and others from the offensive parts of sun magic. I need you to understand that you can get hurt badly in this course.”

“We still step in instantly should this be the case, and I am going to heal any wounds that happen.” Bloom was assured at the frightened looks she was getting.

“There is one exception though.” Stella said sharply. “If our magic tells us a fairy’s wings are in danger, that fairy will be instantly encased in a protective bubble, and their turn is over. We are not risking that.” Bloom saw the ways several teachers deflated with relief at those words.

“If any of you do not want to participate in this challenge, that is understandable. It is a course modelled after something we train with at Alfea sometimes, so it will be most likely harder than anything you've ever done before.” Bloom watched some students brighten with the challenge, while others deflated more. “So here is one more rule for this: if you do not want to fly this course, simply walk away. Even if it is your turn. Even our teachers encourage us to take a step back. They tell us that we do not need to face every challenge the first time. They will offer us private lessons in the things we are not ready to do.” It was true, especially in the first two years; they were taught with training wheels, and nobody was forced into anything they were truly unsure about. Nerves were one thing, actual fear another.

“So for those who want to fly, watch me and Stella carefully.” Bloom explained and felt the warm tickle of sunbeams sliding over her skin that came with Stella transforming. There were a lot of awed sounds from the students as they took in Stella’s Enchantix form for the first time in person. Bloom grinned and let herself be enveloped in flames. Her wings twitched and buzzed with excitement and sent pleasant shivers down her spine. “And let me show you why wings are not the deciding factor in who is the better flyer!”

***

“Can you feel her?” Stella asked, her voice high and nervous. They had left Radius and Serina behind to hand out more food and water while they were following Darcy. Bloom had never before been so grateful for the vassal bond between her and the Trix. It made it easy for her to find Darcy. The sharp violet thread connecting them was barely visible in the darkness of the prison hallway, but Bloom could see it enough to know where they had to go. It still baffled her that she hadn’t noticed Darcy disappearing.

“Her magic is based on shadows; of course you didn’t.” Stella snarked and shot Bloom a look.

“That doesn’t mean shit.” Bloom hissed and stopped. This was part of the reason why they still hadn’t found Darcy. Bloom stopped for all the really bad injuries. The smaller ones she could ignore and placate the person asking for help with a simple later, but the bad ones? Bloom ducked into the cell. Cold dread ran down her spine the moment her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The guards had basically skinned the first layer of skin off an older man's arm.

“Hi.” Bloom said softly, sinking to her knees before the man who held out his arm to her. Trust, relief and hope in his eyes. She had healed this person before; back then, all of his fingernails had been ripped out. Bloom handed out water and food once she was done before she left the cell. She desperately hated that she was just leaving them all behind. Left to rot and to experience more of the violence they were subjected to on a daily basis, but at the same time she knew that if one of them moved so much as a toe out of their cell, there would be hundreds of guards flooding the cellblock. Which would mean that all the work Radius and Serina had been doing would be for nothing. So Bloom forced herself to keep going. Forced herself to not look back and to focus on finding Darcy. They stopped three more times for Bloom to heal injuries before they found Darcy. She was standing at a crossroad between two hallways, staring into the darkness of the left one. Bloom wanted to care that Darcy was looking like she had seen a ghost. Bloom wanted to ask about it, but by the Great Dragon, she was pissed off.

“What were you thinking?!” She spat, reaching out, grabbing for Darcy, ready to turn her around and start a fight. Instead, Bloom felt the same cold magic flare under her fingers that Stella radiated whenever she used her moon magic. Bloom jerked back, but Darcy was already turning. Faintly Bloom heard Stella's sharp intake of breath as they took in the moon runes that were dancing over Darcy’s face. Bloom knew very little about Umbra Luma’s culture. Ever since the planet had been taken over by Solaria and the true government had been replaced by the Foster Government, the magic users and wise people of the planet had either left, disappeared or had been arrested. Those that remained to pass down knowledge kept it tight to their chests and never told an outsider anything. So all Bloom knew was what Stella was willing to share.

For Bloom, that could be summarised by the ability to divine the future through actively seeking it out or passive visions. The fact that moon and sun magic were equal. Lastly, the family lines existed and how they could present. Runes that were specific to a person and the family this person came from. Stella had layers, since she was the fairy of the moon, princess of Umbra Luma and a daughter of the Mondvogel line. Bloom had learnt to read the moon runes somewhat; she wasn’t good, but she knew a bit. Enough to know that the family Darcy belonged to was old and powerful and that their magic was both from the moon of Umbra Luma and very much not.

“HOLY SHIT.” Bloom cursed and reared back. Stella took her place, staring at Darcy like there was a challenge. Bloom just watched as Darcy’s eyes darkened and darkened until even the whites of her eyes had turned black before a vibrantly glowing ring of violet appeared. Bloom didn’t need to turn to know that Stella’s eyes had turned completely silver.

For a long moment they just stood like that. Bloom was shielded by Stella, who was locked into a silent battle with Darcy. Darcy, who was crying. It was a startling realisation, and Bloom didn’t know what to do with it. She really needed Flora for this because she was so much out of her depth.

“Go on; we will follow.” Stella’s voice was soft, almost gentle, and only the training she had gotten in Alfea kept her from losing her face right here.

“Stel?” Bloom asked as she followed her friend who followed Darcy.

“Someone here belongs to her.” Or in other words, someone of Darcy’s line, a family member, was somewhere down this tunnel. Bloom allowed herself the slightest moment to stop in her tracks, close her eyes and suppress a sharp and angry scream. Really? Another tragic backstory? What came next? Stormy being the lost princess of a dead planet? Some kind of child star in the acting scene? She pushed all thoughts down and focused on following Stella and Darcy into the dead end that the hallway led to. The cell had gotten slowly emptier, and in this corridor each cell was smaller and only had one inhabitant. It took until Darcy stopped in front of a cell for Bloom to realise that the air was heavy with magic and a tone just at the edge of her hearing. It took her even longer to notice the way shadows danced over the walls.

“Who are you?” The voice on the other side of the bars was rough with disuse and probably dehydration.

“I followed your song.” Darcy croaked, and that wasn’t dehydration; that was the tight throat of someone who was choking on emotions. The person in the cell didn’t answer, but Bloom could hear the almost silent movements of the person in the cell. Bloom moved closer to Stella, both to be ready to shield Darcy and to see better.

When the person finally shuffled into the light, Bloom wasn’t sure if she still wanted to scream or just turn around and leave. The moon runes on the face of the woman were almost identical to Darcy’s. Worse than that…aside from the snow-white hair, she had Darcy’s face.

“Fuck me.” Bloom groaned and let her face fall into Stella’s shoulder. She didn't miss the almost silent “Hello, Nanay,” that Darcy croaked out around a throat most definitely blocked by tears and emotions.

Bloom knew that word. It was what Stella called her mother whenever they were in a safe place.

The woman in the cell was Darcy’s mother.

Chapter Text

Bloom was vibrating out of her skin with excitement. Stella watched, smiling brightly, as her friend was stalking from one side of the room to the next. Her hair was burning an incredibly bright pink, and every now and then she was glowing with magic. The image was soothing Stella's fried nerves.

“Let me get this straight.” Aisha sounded as tired as Stella felt. “Darcy is from Umbra Luma.” Stella nodded, her eyes still on Bloom, who got a bit too close to Stella’s pile of clothing.

Pink hair meant excitement or joy, and that usually came with setting things aflame. Stella desperately didn’t want that to be her clothes. She barely had time to design clothing that wasn’t combat-related; Bloom burnt the little she designed for fun, not practicality…

Stella sighed and turned back to the video call with the girls.

“Her mother is Calypso Kara, the last known priestess of the eclipse moon. She was imprisoned on treason charges almost twenty years ago. Incredibly powerful and skilled dark fairy who specialised in the old magic of Umbra.”

“Umbra was the nation before Solaria made first contact, right?” Musa asked, and Stella nodded. Much like Domino Umbra, Luma had been created in stages. Before the alliance with Solaria, there had only been Umbra, a dwarf planet; after the contact, the first Solarian king had added the title Luma, which meant “understanding” in their languages. Umbra Luma understanding darkness; it was a fitting title that was one of the few remnants of the genuine friendship between their nations.

“They are similar to the people of Rune, mostly witches and dark fairies, but also classical fairies and sorcerers. Mixed magic and normal, really warm and welcoming people.” Stella shot another look at Bloom, who had accidentally set herself on fire.

“I’m going to portal you here before the fighting starts. Isha,” Stella muttered, only half grumbling.

“Why? Can you not handle Bloom?” She teased back.

“OI!” Bloom snapped, her flames changing colour to violet in indignation.

“Back to Darcy.” Tecna, wonderful, predictable Tecna, said, and Stella wanted to kiss her.

“Well, turns out the old magic that Darcy’s family knows? It has a biological connection that draws two people of the same line together.

“Which is why Darcy wandered off.” Stella nodded in agreement with Flora's words.

“So we have Icy, who is the last of a long line of Dyamond witches and the only person alive who can properly connect to the old magic of Zenith.” Musa said only slightly bitterly. “Which is also haunted by some kind of spirit. Then we have Darcy, whose mother has been in prison most of Darcy’s life.”

“She watched her mom being taken away.” Stella muttered and snorted at the looks she got from her friends. Bloom was slowly calming down, thanks to Riven, who looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel.

“Excuse me?”

“Both of Darcy’s mothers and seven-year-old Darcy herself were at the protest where Calypso was arrested.” Stella explained. “Her second mum, I think her name is Cethlin, got away, packed their life up and left Umbra Luma. They went dark after that.”

“So that’s a two for three on the tragic backstories. Anything on Stormy we need to know?” Flora asked dryly enough that any flowers would be willing if they were close.

“Na…” Aisha said, and she was way too casual to not be hiding a bomb of some sort. “She grew up on Calisto, a good family, better schooling.” Stella narrowed her eyes at her friend and waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Turn out the family business? Cult.” There it was! Stella wasn’t sure if she should scream or laugh.

“What?” Tecna was bug-eyed and trying desperately not to laugh. From the way their fingers were flying over her keyboard, they were doing research.

“Turns out the council has access to the Light Rock records.” Aisha explained. “Which means we have access to them.”

“WHAT?!” Stella screeched, halting Bloom in her tracks. “HOW, WHAT?!” All of her friends were staring at her.

“Stel?” Musa asked carefully; Stella felt herself fuming. “They shouldn’t have any access to those records; what the fuck?!” Tecna stopped typing, Musa plunked her head onto the tabletop, and Aisha looked old all of a sudden.

“We are going to ask A’Sha and look it up.” Aisha sighed and waved at Stella. “Go and get Bloom out of the ship before she sets something aflame.” Stella did not stick her tongue out.

***

The phone rattled, and for a moment the blows of the hammer slowed. When the phone placed on the other side of the workshop kept ringing, the hammering started up again. For a few minutes there was nothing to hear but the insistent ringing of the phone and the blows of a hammer on steel; then there was a click.

“I know you are ignoring me, love.”

The voice on the other end of the line was familiar and not welcome. Then again, nobody had been welcome in his life for a long time.

“I really need you to pick up your phone and talk to me." She sounded sad and nervous. He ignored her. “But I know you. You got my thick head, and I know that.”

The hammering stopped.

“Hagen, sunstone, my dear son, I need you to listen to me and come to my forge today! Hagen, the Council has a new head, and she…”

The rest of the message was drowned in a thick pulse of magic, and the phone disappeared somewhere else. Hagen didn’t care where it had ended up. Aside from commissions, he had been avoiding contact with the outside like a plague. The last time he had seen a person face-to-face was when his mother had stormed his castle to treat him like a little child. She had left him alone for some time, but for the last few months, she had been insistent that he visit her, that he at least look up the news. Hagen had been ignoring her and her requests for the last five months, and he didn't plan to change that. If it was really important, she would tell him outright and not beat around the bush.

Besides, he didn’t care to know that Faragonda finally took Erasmus' place as head of the council or whichever fool it might be. He hadn’t been involved in politics or people since he had found Daphne’s dead body in the ruins of Hestia’s completely destroyed nursery.

He didn’t plan to change that, no matter how much his dragon was acting up.

***

The Smiths of Solaria were – at least to Bloom’s knowledge – the most skilled smiths across the dimension. Which was on one hand because of the incredible quality of ores and metals that the Sun-tear-mountain was hiding, but on the other hand, the fact that most of the smiths were Dragonborn was a widely known fact that Solaria proclaimed proudly. Even before the fall of Domino, a lot of the Dragonborn Stone-Dragons had been living on Solaria simply because the planet was so rich with materials.

Stella had Bloom promise after their first year to visit them so she could connect to her people. Then Drakar had happened. After Darker and Bloom’s possession, they had planned to visit after Stella’s princess ball. All of them had been packed and ready to go because Bloom had desperately needed the help to control her own magic again.

That trip hadn’t happened for obvious reasons. So now, after almost four years of whispered promises, Bloom was finally meeting this group of her people. Neither Radius nor Serina were with them for this, even though they had wanted to. Serina had been called by her divorce lawyer because something unexpected had come up. Radius, on the other hand, had been called before the Solarian Court to once again give testimony on what had happened to him under Cassandra and Chimera. Even two years after they had freed him, the trial still went on – Bloom and Stella had the sneaking suspicion that the fostering government had their hand in the prolonging of the process – after all, both Cassandra and Chimera were rather prominent figures of the fostering nobility on Umbra Luma.

Even without Stella’s parents, they weren’t alone. Stella’s godfather, a distant relative and Radius' best friend, was chaperoning them.

“I volunteered because ever since my daughter married one of the Smiths, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her.” He had explained once the Solaria ship had taken off. That had been an hour ago; now with the ship descending onto the landing platform, Bloom tried her best to not set herself on fire again. While her clothing was made from the fabrics the smiths created for their forges, she knew that Stella was still on edge from the last night. So she was fidgeting with the hem of her sleeveless tunic, trying and failing to keep her knees still. The garment she was wearing was beautiful. A nice teal blue tunic with the most beautiful trim that looked like little flames and dragons were dancing over it. A pair of black trousers and dragon scale boots. It was simple clothing that allowed Bloom a full range of movement, which would be more than necessary if she were working in the forges. Bloom desperately hoped that she would be working in the forges, even if it was just coaxing the flames to behave again. When they had announced the tour, the Smiths had reached out, asking Bloom to visit them. According to them, the ancient flames that had been passed down from one master to the next had started to behave oddly. They had been behaving strangely for years, but it was escalating now. They refused to listen to the smiths that were trying to coax them to the right temperature or colour. Some smiths had even reported that their flames had gone out. A devastating event for those smiths, as it could mean the end of their careers should the flames stay cold.

“Are you ready?” Stella muttered, and Bloom realised that they had landed. Bloom just blinked at her friend. Speaking felt strange and impossible all of a sudden, and Bloom wanted nothing more than to curl up and disappear.

“None of that!” Stella said and pulled Bloom to her feet. “You’ve been excited to meet them since you found out they existed; you are not getting cold feet now!” Bloom smiled weakly and nodded. Still, Stella needed to pull her all the way to the ramp of the ship and out of it before Bloom was able to walk on her own. Bloom stopped halfway down the ramp. Most of the landing platform and the stairs leading up to it were filled with people. In her chest her dragon was standing to attention. Almost three quarters of the people looking at her were Dragonborn. The sharp, almost glittering skin of the metal dragons was almost indistinguishable from the shine of the gem dragons, and the giant forms of stone dragons – the nickname of stone giants was literal – and the very few light dragons, which radiated light much like Stella did. Bloom could do nothing but stare at them, trying to breathe normally. Her chest felt tight with the need to get closer and keep them safe. These were her people. Her dragon was demanding that Bloom move, to engulf all of them, to curl around her hoard, and to not let them go again.

In moments like this, Bloom really hated the fact that she naturally hoarded people.

Someone moved, and Bloom instantly snapped towards them.

It was a giant of a woman; her almost snow-white hair was masterfully braided with wires of different metals and then knotted into a crown framing her face and making her look regal and powerful. Bloom tried her best to not look too long at the massive arms that the sleeveless tunic revealed.

“Your Majesty.” She spoke, and it was much louder than Bloom expected. Her inner dragon only purred louder. “I am Baç. The royal smith of Solaria and the leader of our community.” Bloom knew her. Or, well, she had heard of her. Stella had good things to say about Baç. The woman was primarily a silver and goldsmith, but like many of the smiths of the Sun Tear Mountains, she was also more than able to create weaponry. She wasn’t as good as her son Hagen, but then again, weapons weren’t her speciality.

“I have heard of you and your work.” Bloom managed to say after a more than awkward pause. “I think I am wearing one of your pieces right now.” She really didn’t mean to say that.

“She is.” Stella said, throwing an arm around Bloom's shoulders and smiling brightly at Bac and the rest of the crowd. “I loaned them to her.” Several people chuckled, and Bloom could see the way Baç’s eyes crinkled with mirth. Yet she had the feeling that the woman was only seconds away from crying. Bloom wanted to know why and wanted to comfort her. Bloom forced herself to stay rooted in place; her dragon instincts were playing up, and she needed to not overdo it right now.

“Well…” Bac said, and some light and life seemed to come back into her eyes. “I think we all agree that that isn’t good enough!” The crowd chuckled and agreed loudly. “Our queen will need her own jewellery!” More cheers this time, louder; Bloom Dragon roared with them. “Any wishes for your Majesty?” Baç asked, and something in the question was off, but Bloom couldn’t concentrate on it. Not while her dragon had gotten the zoomies inside of her chest, and her magic was tingling, and all of her body wanted to scoop each person up and just put them somewhere she could guard them.

“Uhm…” Bloom managed. “Something blue?” The crowd chatted excitedly, and most people dispersed like they were chased.

“Oh, Bloom.” Stella sighed fondly.

“What?” Bloom genuinely didn’t understand what she did wrong.

“You just gave them free rein to design whatever jewellery they would like for you.”

Oh…Oh.

***

Four hours later Bloom was holding a small booklet that Stella’s godfather had produced out of nowhere. It was stuffed with dozens of receipts, order notes and names that she had been handed by the smiths, telling her to come back tomorrow or the day after to pick up her new jewellery. Baç, who had been showing them around the forge city, was smiling brightly.

“What the...?” Bloom whispered, taking another recite when Valtor handed it to her.

“We do respect the royal family of Solaria.” Baç explained, smiling brightly and mischievously. “But making jewellery for them is something different than making jewellery for our queen.

“I…”

“Certain materials are only allowed on Dragonborn.” Valtor cut in before Bloom could ask. “Such as dragon scales, teeth and claws.”

“Spouses and family of Dragonborn can wear them to a certain degree, but it’s limited, and they are only allowed to wear them on specific celebrations or if they mean something for both them and the Dragonborn who gifted them to that person.” Baç explained, and Bloom noticed once more that she was ignoring Valtor. Every Dragonborn they had interacted with had acted as if Valtor didn’t exist. When he asked a question, nobody answered it – when he picked something up to look at it, either the smith themselves or one of their apprentices or employees simply plucked it out of his hands within seconds. Bloom thought it a tiny bit hilarious, but at the same time it was getting on her nerves. This behaviour meant she needed to repeat each question he asked since Valtor tended to ask the things that interested Bloom or something that needed to be explained in detail. In playing his parrot, she had learnt that the Smiths taught different methods depending on who they were teaching. Solarian smith apprentices learnt something that was almost the traditional Dominion way of forging since they could control the fire to a certain degree. Other people learnt the “normal” method, which meant they had much longer apprenticeships. Most of the apprentices were the children or grandchildren of other smiths. If Bloom had understood the whole system right, then no parent was allowed to teach their child until they had learnt the basics from someone else, at which point very few were willing to learn under their parents. There were exceptions to the rule, of course, the most prominent being Baç’s son Hagen, who not only was a true stone giant with almost twenty feet in height but also a dragon whose horde was the flame of the forge itself. That combined with his talent for creating magic had made him an exceptional smith, who created weapons that tended to have personalities.

“Baç…” Bloom asked hesitantly. The woman instantly stopped in her slow walk – she was basically creeping along so that they could keep up with her – and turned to Bloom.

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“I was wondering about your son.” Bloom started. Baç straightened, and …something flickered over her face. Stella’s harsh inhale made Bloom aware that it was hope, incredibly raw and powerful hope at that. It made Bloom hesitate; something was going on, but she couldn’t…she just couldn’t figure out what.

I could help! The voice crooned, and Bloom needed every bit of her willpower to not flinch violently. Instead, she pushed the voice back until it was so far in the back of her mind that Bloom felt safe and asked her question.

“Will I meet him?” Hope flickered again, and Bloom kept talking. “I have heard about him and was wondering if he could tell me more about my parents. He was their friend, right?” Stella whimpered almost inaudibly and reached to fist a hand into the back of Bloom's tunic. She didn’t need to say anything; Bloom had seen the way Baç’s face had grumbled and then turned emotionless. Whatever she had hoped for, Bloom hadn’t delivered.

Behind her, Valtor snorted and then started coughing. Sharp panic flared in her chest; that wasn’t her own, and Bloom whirled around to look at Valtor. He was doubled over, wheezing and coughing painfully; it sounded unnatural and forced. Bloom let go of Stella’s hand to reach for him, letting a sharp burst of her healing magic sink into his skin. It seemed to help even though he was still breathing heavily when he straightened up.

“I’m surprised Faragonda hasn’t made contact yet.” He asked, and nobody could miss the thick undertone his words had. Bloom turned around to Baç to find the woman staring straight at Valtor, acknowledging him for the first time.

“Faragonda knows him?” It was Riven who asked, and Bloom was grateful for it.

“She and Hagen had an alleged fling during the early days of the war.” Valtor answered, still locked in a staring match with Baç. Bloom desperately wanted to demand answers, but she could hear both Griselda and DuFour scolding her at the thought alone. For different reasons, of course.

“My son …” Baç hesitated, seemingly trying and failing to find words. “He hasn’t left his moon or his castle in a long time. Communication has been dwindling down to commissions and food deliveries, and even then, nobody sees him.” It was then that Baç broke eye contact with Valtor and turned back to Bloom. “You are right; he was close to your parents. When they disappeared and Daphne was confirmed to have died in the attack, he … he hasn’t been the same since.”

“If I may, your Majesty.” Vedant, Baç’s husband, cut in, holding out both of his wrists to showcase which were encircled by scale bracelets. “These are examples of dragon jewellery that non-Dragonborn can wear all the time. In my case, they are our wedding bonds.” Vedant kept talking and explaining the process of how they were made, but Bloom only listened with half an ear. Baç was ignoring Valtor again while he was watching her like a hawk.

“That was a very obvious topic change.” Timmy muttered into Bloom's ear, just loud enough that their group could hear.

“That was some very unnatural coughing.” Bloom retorted.

“Something is going on…” Stella stated the obvious. “Are we investigating?” Bloom shook her head.

“Tell the others, but … I can’t concentrate on another mystery right now. We need to finish the Council first.” Still, Bloom couldn’t get it out of her thoughts for the rest of the day.

***

“And here we are.” Vedant said, preening like a peacock as he presented his wife's forge.

“The way he behaves, I am always wondering if he isn’t the dragon of the household.” Baç whispered, leaning over Bloom, half shielding her from the sun and her husband. Bloom tried her best to muffle her smile. None of her friends held back.

“Baç,” Vedanta grumbled, but the look he shot Baç was full of amusement and adoration.

“Tell me I am wrong, my love.” Baç answered, leaning down to kiss her husband’s cheek.

“Without ruining the mood…” Stella's voice was tense. Bloom didn’t need to think so much, as it was an unconscious decision to slip her hand into Stella’s. Her friend was missing Brandon. “But I think there was a reason why we are here today?” Both Baç’s and Vedant’s faces darkened instantly, and they nodded in sync before opening the door to their home and forge.

Bloom was the first to slip through the tall gate that shielded Baç’s home from view. Like most of the houses, it was built out of the stone of the Sun Tear mountains. As in literally built into the mountains, which made it look as if this was nothing but a movie set. Through reading up on her people and Stella stories, Bloom knew that this was partly to keep the homes cool and partly to be closer to the volcanic heat and magic sources that powered the forges.

“As you might know, our forges are built into the hollow parts of the mountain. Either in natural caves or in places where the stone was softer than the rest.” Baç explained as she led them beneath the house. Like all the other houses, the upper stories were reserved for living, while the ground-level entrance led directly to the forges. Baç’s forge entrance was flanked by carved stone pillars and a heavy metal door, both of which had so many small details that Bloom wouldn’t have believed that it was all handmade. Depicted in the centre of the door was the family's coat of arms. A dragon without wings with the sun behind its head and all four limbs and its head bowed around a hexagonal structure of fine lines, while its tail held onto a scroll.

“Most of us rely on the magic of the mountains, but we also channel the light of the twin suns to light our fires or keep them strong.” Baç opened the gate and motioned them all to follow her. “I use both. Magma keeps the fire of my forge steady while I use the sun for the detailed works that need a single beam of light to be forged. If I want to weave magic into my work, I need both of them together.”

The hallway was dark, as aside from the light coming from both ends, there weren’t any light fixtures.

“Over the last few years we all noticed that our fires have become…unstable. We thought it might be the mountains, but our communication with the spirits of the Sun-Tears has brought us nothing but confusion.”

“Why?” It was Darcy who asked, and Bloom was grateful that Baç was only ignoring Valtor.

“They are just as confused as we are. None of them are angry, and the fire sprites that live in our forges are happy. Which means it isn’t the magic of the mountains.”

“And until three years ago it also wasn’t the sun,” Stella added. Baç nodded.

“The other thing that spoke against the Suns is that there wasn’t any drastic change when the Twins were hurt.”

“So what do you think it is?” Bloom asked. They were getting closer to the other light source, and she could hear voices whispering to each other. They sounded throaty and scratchy. Like someone who hadn’t had water but had been speaking for hours.

“We think it might be you.” Baç admitted it, and Bloom stopped cold. It caused Timmy to walk into her back, and Bloom stumbled into Baç with a curse.

“Me?!” She shrieked. Baç didn’t seem angry though, or concerned; she looked amused.

“Yes, your Majesty. We think it is you who caused our flames to become moody and tired.” Bloom felt something cold wrap around her throat.

“You see, back when Domino was still alive,” Vedant said from the end of the group. “Solaria and Domino were close. The similarity in powers, the high percentage of Dragonborn and many other factors lead to a rich exchange between our cultures. As such, the Dragon Queens tended to frequent the planet a lot.”

“They blessed our holy fires.” Stella breathed from behind Bloom. Baç nodded.

“Your mother, Queen Marion, she was close with my son. I raised her along with Hagen. I and many of the Elders think that the flames miss the closeness to the Great Dragon. They were spoilt from Marion's close proximity.”

“How come they didn’t misbehave after Domino’s fall?” Timmy asked.

“They did.” Vedant answered. “They all dimmed at the same moment to the same degree, and they haven’t returned to their original heat since.”

“We needed to change our practices and relearn our craft to keep our pride with less powerful flames.”

Bloom didn’t need to read between the lines. Every last Dragonborn smith had known what had happened before the rest of the dimension because their forge fires had grieved her mother.

“So when I returned to the dimension, they felt it?” Baç nodded; they had started walking again when Vedant had spoken up, and by now Bloom could see parts of the forge. It was clean but rustic, a mix of the modern forges Red Fountain used and the old-timey ones Bloom knew from movies. No matter the inspiration, there was something magical to it.

The whole forge was built in the form of a circle around a single fire pit, which was set lower than the rest of the forge. Its three-tier cylindrical build reminded Bloom of an upside-down block tower for babies and small children. The highest level was the one they were standing on right now. The fire was set into the lowest tier, rising as a glowing red-hot cylinder that was reaching slightly higher for easy access. This lowest tier also doubled as a walkway around the fire pit. Bloom, who was bad at judging height, even after five years of flying, was pretty sure that the second level was just about hip height for Baç, so it would make sense if this was her working bench. The tools hung onto the wall of the cylinder certainly made her believe that.

They were nothing like Bloom had ever seen before. Sure, there were the usual hammers and pliers and files, but there were things that Bloom couldn’t even imagine what they were for. She desperately wanted to ask but kept the questions locked behind her teeth; it wasn’t the moment.

“Welcome to my forge.” Baç said, and this time she was the one looking unbearably proud.

“It’s …different.” Timmy said. He was vibrating with excitement, and his eyes were darting from one place to the next with the gleam Bloom only ever saw if he and Tecna were left unsupervised.

“It is a dragon forge. We do not need to get the heat away from us; it is how we truly do our craft. Of course, it is different from your forges.” Baç explained.

“It also helped that Baç works alone.” Vedant said his grin was audible. “The only apprentice she ever had was our son. Other forges are much bigger and wider to allow several people to work on the bench and walk on the walkway.” So Bloom was right. Behind her the conversation kept going; technical terms for tools and metals were flung around the room. Bloom, for her part, was more interested in the holes of various sizes and forms drilled into the wall above the platform they were standing on. Each of them was full of different metal bars and rods as well as other materials. All of them were reaching ever so slightly over the edge to the workbench. It made Bloom think of the Alfea kitchen, where spices had been stored in large boxes above the stove, which allowed them to just reach in to season their food.

“I think we lost Timmy.” Stella whispered into Bloom's ear, and she snickered. Stella was right. Timmy was basically glowing with excitement and magic as he was needling both Baç and Vedant with technical questions about the build of the forge, the storage system and everything else he could think of. “How mad do you think Tecna would be if we leave him here and you and Aisha pick him up on your way back?”

Bloom considered it for a moment. “As long as he can share his new knowledge with her, she would be ok with it.” Stella snorted again. “I think the problem will be Thorne. She would absolutely rip me a new one if I leave one of my guards here.”

“She wouldn’t need to find out.” This time Bloom snorted.

“Stel, do you think Angus, Jabari, Kwame or Alemayehu would hesitate a second before telling on me if I do something stupid? They liked me, but they were loyal to Thorne.” They stood in silence for a long moment before Bloom felt Stella’s chin pressing into her shoulder as she nodded.

“You are right; they would tell the second we come home one man down, and I fully believe Thorne would send the council after us.” Bloom shuddered at the thought.

“Let’s not do this.” Bloom agreed. “Timmy!” Bloom called out; she had a feeling if she didn’t stop them now, she would have to deal with the council. Her friend, now glowing in the faint yellow of his magic, turned to her, his eyes looking like light bulbs. “If you just got an apprenticeship, then push it back until after the tour is finished.” From the way Timmy blushed, that wasn’t what had happened, but Bloom didn’t care. She could see Baç’s considered look. How the hell did she keep collecting incredible people? “Thorne would kill if I leave one of my best guards behind.” His magic settled down, and Timmy turned even redder.

“I hate you.” He muttered as Helia and Riven cackled with glee.

“Love you too.” Bloom shot back before she turned to Baç. “What do you need me to do?” Baç considered her for a long moment.

“Talk to the forge flame. Everything else they need to tell you themselves.” Bloom nodded once. She turned to climb down the ridiculously high and steep stairs leading to the walkway but stopped when she remembered something.

“You said the flames haven’t been as hot as they used to?” Baç nodded in answer. “Is there a system to talk quickly with the other smiths?” Bloom asked. “I am sure the Dragonborn can deal with sudden heat changes, but I don’t think the same can be said for the Solarian smiths or the others.” Vedant made a choking sound behind her and then bustled over to something Bloom had thought was more material. It turned out to be a speaker. The first thing he said into it was in the dragon tongue. It was a sharp warning and a command for everyone to step back from their forges and to get out of the immediate vicinity. To find places to watch that were far enough to avoid burns. Once he had given his warning, he repeated it in common for the Solarian, this time adding a sharp, “If you get hurt while ignoring us, I am going to reserve the right to note it down in the ledgers.”

“My husband was a scribe and accountant in the royal palace before he married me. He never gave up on his profession, so now he’s the person keeping track of everyone’s finances and general happenings. Him threatening to write something down that works better than anything else.” Baç smiled softly and fondly. “The easiest way to shut up a drunk Smith is to remind him of the ledger.”

“I would like to read through them at one point.” Bloom whispered. Baç snickered.

“One day, your Majesty.” She looked pained again. Bloom turned to the fire and carefully climbed down the steps. They were tall enough that she needed to almost crouch to reach the next.

“Getting back up will look ridiculous.” Bloom grumbled to herself, hearing the snickers of her friends and the Trix.

Reaching the walkway was like stepping into a room filled to the brim with talking people. Bloom had been able to hear the whispers of the fire since entering the tunnel leading to the forge; standing on the walkway, the whispers turned into words. It wasn’t just the language of the fire she was hearing; it was the laughter of the flames as fire sprites were dancing through them. The shatter of the sprites mixed with the magic that kept the flames burning might above the magma at the core of the forge. Even that had its own voice. Before her was a chorus of voices that blended together in harmony, or what should have been a harmony. It was wrong. Something didn’t add up, something … It sounded as if the voices overlapped each other, talking over one another instead of with each other, as if they couldn’t reach each other properly.

“B!” Stella’s voice was sharp and worried, and Bloom turned around blinking dazedly at her friend.

“Huh?”

“Don’t interrupt her.” Baç sounded calm, but Bloom could see her aura; she was angry. Bloom was confused; why was Baç angry? High above her, her friends and Baç started arguing, but Bloom couldn’t really hear their voices; they sounded too muffled. Besides, what they were talking about wasn’t half as interesting as the words of the forge. Bloom turned back, shuffling closer until she had pulled herself up on the edge of the centre cylinder.

Huh… when had she moved close enough to be on the edge?

It didn’t matter; the flames were talking to the sprites, telling a story of faraway fires, those that could be seen when the Twin Fires had hidden themselves. Flames so powerful their magic was beyond anything the mountain's magic could do. The magma added to the tale spoke of something it had witnessed when it had been stone: magic users steeped in the flames of the faraway fires. People who danced among the fireless cold place, who could reach the mother of flames and truly bask in her warmth. The magma was mourning them and the mother. Neither had been seen in so long.

I know her. Bloom thought. She is my mother too. She is in my heart and gave me my fire. The flames and the sprites and the magma when absolutely still. It was funny; Bloom had never before heard fire go so deafeningly silent. Somehow it translated into a lack of motion. The flames were racing, the sprites weren’t moving and the magma wasn’t bubbling. All of them looked like a photo someone had taken, beautiful but not quite right.

You can not know the mother! A sprite protested, their small body ballooning with the rage and indignity they were feeling. The last daughter of the fire mother died long ago!

But I am here, and Mother is in my magic and my heart. Bloom answered, trying to not feel the same kind of indignity right back at the little sprite. They didn’t know better.

No, you are not! The sprite hissed and got right into Bloom's face, catching her hair with her fire. It went up in the familiar orange flames that her hair always took. The sprite screeched and disappeared into the magma.

You are a flame! The flames whispered, their voices cracking and shuddering.

Yes. Bloom answered, leaning closer. The warmth of the flame was comforting; it reminded her of sitting in her backyard too close to the campfire for her dad’s liking but not quite close enough. Bloom wanted to be closer.

You feel like the other daughter. The magma answered. Not the one who visited us so much. But the golden one and the grey one before her.

Bloom blinked. Baç had only spoken about her mother, Marion, but the golden one, that had to be Daphne. Who the grey one was, Bloom couldn’t fathom.

The golden one is my sister, and the one who visited you so much is my mother. Bloom answered hesitantly. Why do you say they felt different?

The fire crackled and the magma bubbled in quiet conversation, something older than the Dragon tongue, something Bloom couldn’t understand completely. Only part of it. Several sprites slowly crept closer to her face, their eyes focused on her burning hair.

You can explore it if you would like. Bloom offered, and the sprites dove into her hair instantly. It felt funny. Like fingers carding through her normal hair. Like a warm stick being rubbed through her hair. A bit like a massage and a bit like a tickle.

The golden one… The magma spoke. She was brighter and warmer. The other one did visit us a lot, and her fire was powerful, but she wasn’t as bright or so clear as the other one.

Bloom hummed softly. She didn’t really understand what they were talking about; maybe Daphne knew; she would have to ask.

Baç said your fire has been dimmer, less hot; why is that, and why did it get even worse lately? They went still again.

We are mourning. A tiny sprite answered right above her ear. We are mourning our mother. Her flame disappeared, and ever since that moment, we decided to mourn her.

But I am here, and Mother is still out there! Bloom protested; she didn’t understand why they couldn’t feel her, feel the Dragon Flame, when it was right before her.

You are bright and true, but you are nothing like the daughters of the mother who were blessed by her! The magma told her with the patience of an old person who had repeated themselves many times. You are flickering and dimming too much to be like the golden one!

Bloom blinked at that. She was dimming and flickering… nothing like Daphne… Could it be that they could feel the spell Daphne had put on her? The one that was supposed to keep her hidden on Earth and the spell that had been hiding who Bloom had truly been?

Is every fire mourning Mother's loss? Bloom asked, trying to find a way around the spell. She knew that she couldn’t break it. Daphne’s condition to truly break it was that Bloom gained her Enchantix, something Bloom had given up on a long time ago. Yes, there were Dragonborn out there. Dragonborn that were hers, but she knew, every fibre of her being knew that unless she saved a person born and raised on Domino or someone of her blood, every person with power would decry her accomplishment. They would call it half an Enchantix. A broken transformation, Maya had warned her of trying, had explained to her what had happened with the few fairies that didn’t sacrifice their lives in a horrible enough manner. Maja herself had earned her Enchantix not through the sacrifice but by the older method, by being chosen by one of the old gods. It was the reason why she didn’t interact with people anymore.

Yes. The flames answered. Everything that holds so much as a spark of fire in it knows that mother is gone and that we need to mourn her until she returns to us through a new daughter.

Bloom sighed and closed her eyes; several sprites tugged at her hair, giggling and wrapping themselves into strands as if they were fabric or dresses.

I am here; you need to mourn no more. She whispered. She felt so tired, as if her bones had gotten heavier, as if her muscles no longer worked. As if her skin was too tight.

You are not bright enough. The magma answered, and Bloom wanted to scream and rage and show them just how wrong they were.

I am, but my flame was hidden by the Golden One. She needed to hide me, and I can not shake the smoke she has woven around me.

The fire hissed, sharp and loud and cackling as it rose higher, touching her cheeks and tasting her and feeling for her magic. The magma only bubbled with displeasure, as if it was scolding the flames.

She does smell like smoke.

Let her prove it. A sprite whispered, wrapped completely in Bloom's hair, so that only her eyes were visible. Let her be judged by the heart of the mountains. Let her fire burn without restraint; if she is who she says she is, nothing will happen.

What if I fail? Bloom asked. She couldn’t leave her friends behind. Someone else would gain the Council Throne. Everything they did would be for nothing.

You are powerful enough that you would only feel tired. The magma bubbled, shooting sharp gases right into Bloom's face. You haven’t blinked or coughed once since this talk started. You will live no matter what.

Bloom thought about it. What does it mean? To see the heart?

You would come to us and travel the paths only we know down to the places nobody but mothers’ children can live. Every fire on the planet will touch you and judge you, and if you are who you say you are, then we will tell every other flame. Then we will announce the mother’s return. The magma whispered; it had gotten quieter for some reason. Maybe it had to do with the voices behind her. If you don’t, we will still respect you, for nobody has even dared to do this since the grey one’s mother.

Bloom thought about it. Allowing herself to be enveloped by fire wasn’t anything new to her. She did it every time she was truly angry. She did it whenever she lost control. Bloom knew also that at the heart of things she had been born as a form changer. Not a shapeshifter; her forms were too limited for that, but a form changer. Like all the Dragonborn, she had her two-legged form, her dragon form, although she never had been able to connect to it, to feel the stretch of limbs, to know just how strong her body was. Her last form was raw fire. Daphne had promised her she would be able to touch this form, that she had never blocked that part of her heritage, because it would mean blocking her magic.

Ok. Was all Bloom said, leaning closer to the fire, deeper until her face and shoulders were embraced by flames. Take me to the heart of the mountain. Something crashed behind her, someone shouted, but Bloom didn’t care. She let go of the edge of the fire pit, let gravity pull her down and let herself fall into fire and magma face-first.

***

“Something is happening.” Tecna’s voice in the earpiece was almost frantic, and Flora turned on her heel to run back to their table. When she reached it, Tecna was typing frantically. A’Sha was right at her shoulder, watching with a pale face.

“What is going on?” Flora asked, coming to a halt just short of running into the table.

“I don’t know!” Teen answered. “My readings just went through the roof, but it’s nothing anywhere near us, and it is certainly not natural. And every other sensor I have placed shows me the same rise in energy. It’s everywhere. It’s an even rise in magic, and it’s …”

“TECNA!” Aisha and Musa came running up to their table, several of the Wyrms at their heels.

“I don’t know; something is going, because the magic everywhere is going haywire and…” Tecna stopped, and for the slightest moment resignation flittered over her face. “Someone call Stella.”

“You think…” Musa asked Aisha, already dialling Stella’s number. “She is the Avatar of one of your primordial gods; of course Bloom has her fingers in this!”

“She’s the reason you’re mean.” Flora muttered, taking a seat next to her friend, to keep an eye on the readings too. “Holy shit…”

“Stel?” Aisha’s voice was calmer than she looked. “What is going on, and how did… Woah, stop, wait, let me put you on speaker.”

“We went to see the Smiths; we figured out what was going on with their fires, and Bloom was talking to them in Bac’s forge.” Stella sounded out of her mind with panic and, at the same time, so very done. “Next thing we know, she transformed, set herself on fire and fell face-first into the magma pit that powers the forge.”

Flora closed her eyes, trying not to see this set of events in her mind. It was too easy to paint a perfect picture of Bloom doing something so stupid. The weeping willow gives her strength.

“Do you have any way to locate her?” Aisha asked.

“No… We don’t even know what she said. Valtor said he could understand the first part of the conversation, but the second part got strange and muffled.”

“Anything else?”

“My forge fire is bright blue…” Another voice, that of an older woman, said. “So is every forge fire in the Sun-Tear mountains.”

“And probably all across the planet.” Riven said dryly. Flora would have liked to smack him, because he was most likely right.

“The flames said they were mourning the Great Dragon.” Never before had Flora been grateful to hear Valtor's voice. Right now it was downright comforting. “There was a discussion about Bloom not looking right, her flames being dim and flickering.”

“Daphne’s glamour.” Musa whispered.

“It’s not just Solaria.” Tecna said, and Flora turned back to the laptop. Tecna had opened another page in the program she had been using to analyse the magical signature of the palace. This showed different planets all over the dimension; every single one of them showed a change in the magic of each planet.

“It’s across the dimension. Every planet is reacting strangely.” Tecna explained clicking through data at a pace Flora couldn’t follow. “It’s still rising.”

**

Bloom had never thought about how magma would feel on her skin. How being completely and truly engulfed in her element would feel. For some reason it had never crossed her mind.

Bloom had been in the endless wilderness of Lynphea, and in the darkness that was hiding beneath Magix, she had swum in the endless sea on Andros. Yet even when she had been on Pyros, one of the last living planets of Domino’s system, and its single viable moon, she hadn’t been this close to her magic as here.

It was almost poetic, thinking about how Stella had been the first to introduce her to magic, and now here she was, deep beneath the crust of Solaria in its burning core, surrounded by her element for the first time. They really went full circle.

“Strange,” the voice of the magma said. It was different here, where fire was the only element that mattered. Louder, more real. More like a person than magic. “You changed.”

“I have never been so truly on fire before.” Bloom whispered back. She could feel the tingle in her limbs as the magic of the mountains and the spirits of every Solarian fire came together to look at her, to judge and measure her, to see if she really was their mother's daughter.

“I thought she would be like the dim one!” The voice belonged to the first sprite that had taken such offence to Bloom. Faintly she wondered if she would be offended on her birth mother’s behalf, but she was in the fire, and she could see the magic and the flames and feel how much they cared for her, and really, did it matter if the fire found Marion lacking?

“We could have told you otherwise!” One of the other sprites sang. Other voices interrupted, demanding to know what was happening, why they had been called down here, and who she was.

“I am my mother’s daughter.” Bloom answered, still floating in the embrace of fire, not caring for anything but how it felt safe and gentle and like nothing bad could happen to her. “I am here to tell you that there is no need to mourn anymore.” Sharp, indignant voices rose all around her. Telling her to be quiet and that she didn’t know what she was talking about.

Bloom just kept floating as they bickered. As the flames of Baç's forge demanded quiet, and her sprites told them about Bloom's fiery hair, through it all, Bloom kept floating.

Her dragon was sleeping soundly on her chest. It had fallen asleep the moment they had entered the flames. Its breathing synchronised with Blooms for the first time since they had met each other on Pyros. Bloom turned to her dragon, tuning out the arguing of the forge fires and sprites and the magma. She had never before been able to just enjoy the company of her dragon; every time she tried to connect with it in the way Maya and Pyros had taught her, someone or something stopped her.

Here in the flames, where nobody but her and the spirits could be, Bloom could reach for them and could allow herself to connect to her dragon like she hadn’t before. Feeling the warm, dry scales and the leathery membrane of its wings. The even rise and fall of its chest as it breathes. Bloom let her hands explore the ridges and bumps of its horns and the soft velvet of its nose. This was her dragon, not her, but her dragon.

“Will I look like you?” She whispered to it. “Or something else?” She didn’t get an answer, but it was okay; she would one day. The dragon lazily opened an eye, and its large pupil focused on her, dilating ever so slightly.

Mine It thought, and Bloom laughed.

“Mine” She whispered back, and her dragon closed its eyes again, pressing its head against her fingertips and purred gently.

“Blue one!” The voice of the magma pulled Bloom back. She turned back outside to look at them. No, not look. Her eyes were closed, but she could see them. The magma was like bubbles. The flames, like the dancing and flickering of shadows, and the sprites seemed like little light points.

“Why do you call me that?” She asked, her voice deeper than she had ever heard before, reverberating with the purr of her dragon.

“Because you are a blue flame.” The flames answered. More voices called, fires she hadn’t noticed before, sprites of different colours and magma spirits of various sizes.

“Blue?” She asked. She couldn’t see herself. She couldn’t see anything at all because her eyes were closed, and yet she could see each spirit and sprite as clear as day.

“Open your eyes, blue one. Look at yourself and look at us.” Baç’s flames whispered to her, and for a moment Bloom was sure that gentle fingers were tracing her face. “Let us see the eyes of our mother, blue one. Allow us to feel her warmth.” The flames were pleading and yet full of hope. Here in the home of flames and magic, Bloom understood what Stella was speaking about when she talked about feeling hope. It was like light in the darkness growing slow and steady, so that you didn’t notice until all of a sudden everything was in colour. Bloom could see flames of every shade she knew and colours she had never seen before dancing around her. The different magma spirits with their bubbling forms made her skin tingle with the idea of touch that was just shy of being real.

Beneath her, the heart of Solaria pulsed once and then twice before something sparked in it. Something familiar and welcoming. Something that she had known her whole life. Bloom took a deep breath and opened her eyes, careful to keep her secondary pair of eyelids lowered. She had a feeling this was a moment in which she needed her fire dragon eyelids.

She was bathed in blue flames; after that came the realisation that she had transformed at some point. Her wings fluttered gently behind her, and Bloom breathed in the fire magic that was all around her. For a long moment her lungs twinged, and then she exhaled, and it didn’t matter anymore. Bright blue flames danced out of her mouth, flames the colour of her transformation, her favourite blue. The spirits around her dove for them, giggling like children as they tried to touch and envelop themselves in her fire.

“Daughter of our mother” The magma from Baç's forge whispered with awe in their voice, and with her secondary eyelids, it looked like sunlight that had been fractured in a crystal, and each strand was dancing.

“Hello,” Bloom whispered, more blue flames escaping her mouth as she did. Beneath her, the planet’s heart gave another pump, louder this time, stronger. “Will this be enough?” Bloom asked. “Will this be enough to stop you from mourning our mother any longer?”

“It is.” The magma whispered.

“We will tell the others.” The flames answered.

“Every fire will know that it is time to burn brightly again.” The sprites sang.

“It is time we wake!”

“Just be careful that nobody will be hurt.” Blood asked. She could feel her wings fluttering behind her as a sprite tried to touch them.

“We will, sister.” The magma promised.

“Should we bring you back to the surface?” The flames asked, and Bloom hesitated for a moment.

“Just…just a little longer. I have never before been surrounded by my element like this.” She admitted to them. The heart beneath her beat again, stronger this time. Bloom got the impression that it was a sad heartbeat, yet this world of flames seemed to grow just a little bit brighter. “This is the first time I am in fire without fear or anger or danger close to me.” She said, and the flames dimmed with displeasure. “I just want to be at peace for a little longer.”

“Then you will be at peace.” The magma assured her. “No shadow will reach you here, sister, and when you are ready, we will return you to the surface.”

***

“Tell me you know how to get her out!” Stella barked; she knew her control was slipping. She could see every single strand of light that was in the room. The forge fire had exploded into a million colours on top of the bright blue; her own hair was blindingly white, and she could see the unbelievable bright hope that was radiating from Baç and Vedant, but she really couldn’t give a shit right now. Her best friend, the person who had been in her corner without wavering or hesitating for a single second, had just disappeared down a magma-filled hole. A hole that was burning in bright blue flames the colour of Bloom's transformation.

“No.” Valtor said, and his voice was too calm for her liking. As much as people tended to point fingers at Bloom for having a temper, Stella knew full well that she was far worse. She was prideful and bitchy and could play the petty stupid princess better than anyone to get what she wanted, which was why she knew full well that she needed to step away from Valtor or she would break his nose.

“Why?” Stella demanded.

“Have you heard of the Vortex of Flames?” Riven hissed behind her, and she could hear Timmy frantically demand Baç to step the fuck in.

Breathe sunshine. The mental image of Brandon she had been carrying around in her head – ever since he had been called home to Eraklyon to protect Sky – smiled at her. It was the stupidly crooked smile she had fallen in love with. The smile that told her he was way over his head but that he was thinking on his feet and wouldn’t back down for nothing. Breathe and think and be the person Bloom needs in moments like this! Stella took another deep breath, carefully stepping back until her heel bumped into the step leading out of the forge. Come on, sunshine, tell me, who does Bloom need?

The eye-catcher, the person who demands everyone's attention.

Good, but not quite right. Who else? The image challenged her.

The invisible one, the one who nobody notices until I want them to. The person they do not expect to listen and watch.

Still not the right one. Come on, sunshine, who does Bloom need here? Thought – Brandon shook his head, his smile only growing.

Stella took another breath and opened her eyes. She didn’t push down her moon runes; instead, she allowed every bit of her own magic to course through her veins and be visible.

She needs her sister. The person who believed in her when she saw nothing but a simple earth girl in herself.

There we are. Brandon cheered.

Stella focused on Valtor. “The Vortex of Flames is a test to prove that a guardian fairy of Domino is worthy of taking their position. It’s rare and only ever done in moments when the fairy isn’t sure if she is fit for the role. It challenges the guardian fairy, and if they can survive, it will reveal their fate and the role they are supposed to take.”

“Yes…” He said his face was too even, too calm. He had the same look he had had when he and the Trix had stolen the Agrador box. He was nervous. His hands twitched, and for the faintest of moments, Stella could almost see light reflecting off a thick band.

“It’s also used when the Guardian of the Dragon Flame dies suddenly. The planet will go into mourning, and the new guardian will have to dive into the Vortex to present themselves as the new guardian and high priestess.”

“It's the same?”

“It’s the closest thing we have. The Vortex is on Domino, and only the Priestesses know how to open the gate. It’s a secret I never found out. It’s passed down from High Priestess to High Priestess.”

“Daphne knows?”

“Most likely.” Stella took another breath and let go of her magic. Let it settle under her skin, leaving only a small ball of raw light that formed a ball over her hand.

“Come back, please.” She whispered into it before sending it into the fire.

***

“Blue one” The voice of the magma was soft and gentle, and Bloom opened her eyes to look at its bubbles. “The child of light is calling for you.” It took her a moment to understand that they meant the bright ball of white light.

Come back, please. It was Stella's voice radiating out of the ball of perfectly balanced sunlight and moonlight. Bloom couldn’t shake the pricking of panic that slithered over her skin. She reached out silently, asking the magma to hand the light to her. The moment it touched her fingers, or where her fingers should be, she could see Baç's forge before her. It’s fire-bright blue, casting the tense faces of her friends and allies into an airy light that made them look gaunt and haggard. Stella was facing Valtor, lit up with the light of the forge and her own magic, while Valtor’s face was nothing but shadows. For a moment Bloom was sure she could see something different from his face, something almost familiar. Her dragon growled.

Come back, please. Stella’s voice sounded again, fainter this time, and the image started to get blurry at the edges.

Come back, please! The ball popped in her hands, and all that was left were two sparks. One silver and the other golden.

“It is time, isn’t it?” The flames asked, and Bloom nodded silently. She knew that the sparks wouldn’t disappear until she handed them back to Stella. They were a guiding light. The thing that had brought Sky and her out of the dark forest in their first year. They had used it when Stella had thrown herself after Brandon in Darkar’s lair.

It was a sign that she was alright. It was a promise that she would be there until Bloom got back to her. Bloom took another breath. Let the sharp burn of fire fill her lungs until her skin stopped tingling and then closed her fingers around the stars. One in each hand.

“How do I get back?” She asked. Every magma spirit started to bubble stronger, the sprites started to dance around her, and the flames flickered sharper.

“Like you came to us. We will guide you, and we will help you, but this time we ask you to lend us a bit of your power. It’s been so long since we have burnt bright. We have mourned our mother for so long.”

“You want me to light the spark.” Bloom answered and smiled, her wings fluttering faster in her back.

“We aren’t sure if we can burn bright enough to send the message out.” Bloom smiled and spread her arms wide.

“Then let me help you; let Mother speak to our siblings through me.” Colours exploded around her as her own magic mingled with the fire spirits surrounding her; within the blink of an eye, Bloom was surrounded by a vortex of colours and flames. It felt almost familiar, like something she had seen before. The colours shifted in a way that wasn’t quite natural, like something else had woken. Yet Bloom wasn’t afraid; this was nothing that meant danger to her. This was…for a moment she could have sworn that she was looking at a huge pair of eyes. Eyes older than most of the dimension, eyes almost like her mother's. Then the vortex tightened around her, and magma, fire and sprites held onto her. The eyes turned into streaks of colour as Bloom was pulled upwards.

***

“What the actual fuck?!” Tecna whispered, instantly getting everyone’s attention. The data on her screen was rising and rising, reaching heights that should have been impossible.

“What is happening?” Aisha behind her whispered. “Bloom, what the hell are you doing?!”

“I know this.” A voice proclaimed. When they turned to look at the speaker, they were faced with a transformed Enchantix fairy, burning in violet flames. He looked back at them, his eyes crinkled with joy. “I just earned my transformation when her sister took the role of high priestess. She is waking the flames. She’s telling them the mourning is over. There is a guardian again; there is a priestess who will take care of us again.”

Tecna turned to look at her friends, only to find Aisha’s skin shimmering in an iridescent green. It almost looked like scales. Aisha was smiling, and it was a smile Tecna had only seen once before.

***

His flames were calling for him. They demanded that he come back to them, to look at them. Hagen only turned in his bed, trying to force himself to sleep. He loved his fire, but he was tired.

He had been tired for so long.

Until a few moments ago, he had been so sure that he could fall asleep peacefully. That finally his mind would be quiet. That it wouldn’t force him to relive the feeling of carrying the lifeless body of his little niece. He had thought, hoped even, that he would be able to not see the bloodied remains of Hestia’s nursery when he closed his eyes, only for his forge to act up and demand his attention.

Hagen ignored it, humming the song his mother had taught him when Daphne had been born. It did nothing to drown the demands of his flames out.

***

“The stars are dancing.” The voices of the children all round her were filled with awe. She had meant to teach them the constellations so that they would be able to learn their history and legends. It was something she had done hundreds of times before, yet she had never before seen the stars dancing. There were legends among their people about this. There were even eyewitnesses to the last time this had happened. It had been before her time, almost forty years ago.

“You know what this means.” The voice of her mentor was gentle, and she whirled around to find the old woman walking over to them, leaning heavily on her crutches.

“What are you doing out here?!” She asked frantically, running over to help her mentor onto a bench.

“Make sure you are believing your eyes, Kea. The stars are dancing; they are waking up. What does this mean?” She turned back to look at the sky, watching as the flickering lights of the stars got brighter and then grew steady until they were no longer dancing but burning brightly. Constellations she hadn’t seen since she was a little girl had returned. Burning so very bright that it looked as if they were winking at her.

“They are no longer mourning.” She whispered into the night and watched as the town square was slowly filling with people, each of them smiling or laughing and pointing at the stars.

“And what does it mean that they are no longer mourning, Kea?”

She looked at the stars again. The constellation of the dragon was brighter than ever before.

“Hope…it means we can have hope!”

Chapter Text

“Stop scratching.” Stella’s voice was clipped with the mix of anger and anxiousness that Bloom knew from experience was more fear than anger. It had been two days since Bloom’s little trip down to the core of the planet. None of her friends had forgiven her yet. It probably didn’t help that Tecna had recorded the whole incident across the dimension.

“It’s itching.” Bloom muttered back trying and failing to keep her fingers from rubbing over her arms.

“That happens when you grow scales, after one of the stupidest, most reckless and absolutely brain dead things you have done so far.” Bloom opened her mouth only for Stella to cut her off instantly. “And don’t start with the ‘I didn’t know or plan this!’ It makes this whole thing worse.” Bloom deflated and started scratching again. Bloom got it. Stella more than her other friends was rather sensitive to Bloom disappearing. She was used to it, due to the Fostering and Fake Avalon kidnapping her had made the thing worse.

Stella grabbed for her hand, which made Bloom see the slight tremor in them. Riven without hesitating took her other hand.

Bloom felt instantly like lighting herself aflame. Her whole body was twitching and tingling, and Bloom desperately needed to scratch.

“Bloom”. Helia said softly, and a moment later, Bloom felt his hands on her shoulder. The touch was grounding, at least for a moment. It got a bit better when he started to draw patterns on her back and massage her neck ever so slightly, but even that was only a slight help. When Riven and Stella started rubbing their fingertips over the back of her hands, Bloom managed to settle a bit more, but she could still feel the itch just under her skin. Literally in this case.

She had scales, which she had known since Daphne had told her; on top of showing the scales, Daphne herself was covered with them. She had also seen enough Dragonborn to know that colourful scales all across their bodies were basically the equivalent of freckles. Still, she never imagined that actually growing her scales– to break the seal that had been hiding hers– would end up with her half out of her mind because of an itch. Sure, scales were new, but Great Dragon, why did they itch?

“Great Dragon.” Valtor mirrored her own cursing, and then there was the sound of him moving behind them. “Close the damn connection or I am going to lose it.” He barked, dropped a pot of something in her lap and walked back to his seat. With her hands still in Stella’s and Riven’s hold– both of which were frozen staring after Valtor– all Bloom could do was look at it. A small black pot that looked like it was made of stone, with bright yellow wax sealing it closed.

“What is this?” She asked, turning to look at him.

“Scale balm”. He snapped; Bloom noticed the way his fingers were moving over his pulse point. Oh, he was feeling her itching.

“Scale balm?” Stella asked. Taking the pot from Bloom's lap and inspecting it.

“Not every Dragonborn is born with scales; it soothes the skin around the scales and also keeps them healthy.”

“Why do you have this?” Stormy asked, sounding perplexed. “You don’t have scales, do you?” Valtor's icy silence was an answer for most of the people in the room. Stormy was right; he didn’t have scales, his human form at least. Bloom remembered the images of seemingly black scales and horns and lips that looked like they had been broken over and over again.

“What is in it?” Riven leaning over her lap to take a look at it pulled her out of her thoughts. She rolled her eyes, wrenched her hands out of her friend's grip and took the pot out of Stella’s hands in the same motion. Both Riven and Stella protested for a moment, but by then Bloom had gotten a nail under the wax and popped the seal open.

Instantly she could smell the soft scent of burning wood, something aromatic and calming. There were hints of fresh air after snowfall and something else. Bloom moved the pot until it was right under her nose, ignoring the mental voices of both her chemistry teacher and Palladium, basically screaming in her ear to not do that if she didn’t know what she was smelling.

The smell brought up images of a match being lit, the flickering of candles and the opening of a new flower.

“Hestia.” Valtor's voice broke through the fog the smell had conjured. “It’s the roots of the Hestia flower boiled in dragon ice with ore tree wood.”

“Strength from the ore tree, the cooling of dragon ice and the natural healing and refreshing elements of the Hestia flower.” Bloom muttered into the pot, pulling it back from her face to dip her pointer finger into the bright orange paste. Even just the contact with her skin feels like balm…literally. She put the pot onto her thigh and rubbed the paste into the crook of her elbow, where the itch was the worst.

“This is heaven.” Bloom muttered and took more from the pot to spread along her whole arm, moving the angel sleeve of her dress until she had coated the limb.

“Bigger on the inside?” She asked when she noticed that the pot didn’t even dent after coating her second arm too.

“Yes.” Valtor answered tersely.

“How long does it keep?”

“It’s made with molten dragon ice. If stored somewhere cool and dark, it will freeze instantly.”

“So a few centuries?” She got a hum as an answer.

***

“So are we going to talk about that thing with Valtor and the balm?” Stella asked with a grin in her voice. It was so much better than the tense wreck her friend had been the last few days.

“He was feeling the itch through the bond.” Bloom answered. They were in a changing room in the royal arena of Solaria, waiting to be called outside. The almost muted TV in one cover produced the voices of announcers and commentators explaining what was happening and who the people fighting were; both of them ignored it. Stella had been given the list of competitors yesterday.

“Mhm…” Stella said, and Bloom turned around to look at her friend.

“Talk to me, Stel. What…” The door to their changing room, a private suite reserved for the royal family, opened. Aisha smiled brightly at them.

“Might I join you?” She asked, and Bloom threw herself at her friend. The last bit of itchiness, which the balm couldn't soothe, settled when Aisha’s cold and deceptively calm magic enveloped Bloom.

“I missed you.” She whispered.

“Me too.”

“And I have tea!” Stella declared gleefully. Bloom groaned, knowing full well where this was going.

“I don’t.” Aisha said, settling down on one of the lounge chairs. “We haven’t found anything yet, but Tecna is smelling something off with the data…so…might be during our time on the ship.”

“Wait…” Stella was squinting at Aisha. “How are you here?” She asked, and Bloom, still wrapped in Aisha’s hug, looked up too. They had been together since the morning… well, Stella had been clinging to her since she had risen from the forge, so it hadn’t been her who had portaged Aisha over.

“Your father organised the transport for us.” Aisha said, shuddering. “I am never going to say anything against your teleporting ever again, Stel. Whoever operated the teleportation is bloody inexperienced, and it showed.”

Bloom saw the way Stella was preening, but she had the sinking feeling that Aisha was buttering her up for some bad news.

“Isha…” She asked, “Who are we?” Aisha pulled a face. A face they all knew all too well, and Stella went pale.

“NO!” She screeched, and Bloom couldn’t even say that she minded.

“Griselda heard about the arena.”

“AISHA!” Stella moaned and let herself fall dramatically onto a fainting couch. “How dare you betray us like that! We were supposed to have fun with this and not get graded!”

“To be fair, the announcement and preview for this have been broadcast for the whole dimension. Both on social media and in the official channels. I know we always joke about Griselda and her technophobia, but she isn’t that bad.”

“At least tell me it’s just her!” Bloom pleaded. She could deal with Griselda. She couldn’t deal with a whole class or, worse, a year, watching them fight as a learning opportunity.

“In person, yes.” Aisha had the decency to look apologetic; Bloom groaned.

“I hate you, Stella!” She grumbled into Aisha’s shoulder.

“WHY ME?!” Her friend hissed back.

“Who gave the existence of Tecna’s drones away?” Bloom hissed back. “Now we have the whole of Alfea watching us in an arena fight that was supposed to be for letting off steam!”

“How about you tell me about that tea?” Aisha said, and this time Bloom hissed. Stella, on the other hand, brightened like the literal sunshine she was.

“Ok, so Bloom is behaving like a little bab-…”

“STELLA!”

***

Walking into the royal arena of Solaria was something else. Her parents had once taken Bloom to the Colosseum in Rome when she had been ten, and they had been on their vacation to Italy to meet with her mum's family. This was similar to that but also different. The large round building seemed almost endless with how high the seats reached. Beautifully masoned stone– similar to the golden sandstone from home– framed the stairs leading up and down the rows and blended seamlessly with the colourful paintings and fabrics all over the building. The arena itself was set almost thirty metres deeper into the ground than the lowest stand. Bloom knew that it was to protect the people. Considering that flying and magic were part of an arena fight unless specified differently, something as simple as a massive stone wall could save lives. Bloom knew from experience that a shield could always fail and that you had to expect something to go wrong at all times. This line of thinking had saved her life and that of her friends more than once, as depressing as the thought was.

“AND HERE THEY COME!” The announcer’s voice echoed through the air, and instantly the crowd roared.

“Her Royal Majesty the Guardian of the Dragonflame, Winx, The Dragon Queen Bloom of Domino!” She stepped into the soft sand of the arena to the thunderous applause of too many people. One section to her left had been reserved exclusively for Dragonborn, something the chantings in dragon tongue made very clear on top of the banners they were waving around.

Knowing that Stella’s eyes were boring into her back and basically able to hear DuFour’s lesson on how you never leave a crowd hanging if it can give you a boost to public opinion, Bloom raised a hand and shot a single fireball into the air. The crowd went silent instantly, watching it climb higher and higher until it reached its zenith and exploded into the image of the Great Dragon. The crowd went wild, which was the exact moment Stella shot past Bloom, her wings almost nicking Bloom's cheek. Bloom watched amused as Stella shot into the sky– appearing as nothing but a bright blur– waiting until Stella reached it, at which point, as they had agreed upon, Bloom let her dragon explode. Immediately multicoloured sparks danced all around Stella, bathing her in ever-changing light. Sparks being carriers of light, Stella used them to create a mesmerising display of flashing colours and beams of light with Stella at her centre.

Bloom, for her part, smiled and watched her friend enjoy the happiness and cheers of her people. There was a reason, after all, why Bloom had come out first and untransformed. These were still Stella’s people, and as much as Bloom enjoyed being around them, her friend should be in the limelight for this.

…or well for this part at least. Bloom wasn’t sure if Stella would be the focus for long once they started beating people up. Sometimes it was a bit of a curse to have the Dragonflame and actually have a competent degree of mastery over her own powers: everyone got ridiculously easy to beat, at least on a pure power level.

Bloom half hoped that Valtor had agreed to fight against her too. She needed a good workout, and neither she nor Stella was allowed to fight each other. Aisha had put her food down because– according to her– that would be giving the game away and frightening people on top of that.

Bloom shook the thoughts out of her head and turned around, trying to find where Aisha and Griselda were sitting. She found them in the royal pavilion, between Radius and Serina, alongside the Specialists. The boys were sitting closer to Radius while Aisha and Griselda were next to Serina. Valtor and the Trix were right behind them, just out of sight of the public.

Well, so much for a proper workout.

“Now gentlefolk!” The announcer said just as Stella landed next to Bloom. “Considering the nature of Queen Bloom's powers, she has agreed to some rules to even the playing field out a bit.” Chuckles and even some boos run through the crowd. Bloom grinned at Stella; apparently the people of Solaria wanted a proper fight.

“Oi!” A second announcer called out. “Do you really want to sentence our fellow Solarians to a shameful death by embarrassment via a two-second fight?” More boos and protests rose. The crowd valiantly arguing for their own pride and the prowess of their fighters.

“Alright, folk!” The first announcer called out, sounding amused. “Let’s show you what we mean! If you could guide your eyes to the screens.” On command, the huge screens that had been hung all over the arena to allow people in the higher seats a better view. “What you can see here is a quick comprehension of every fighter that has been selected for this fight, trying to break a star sphere.”

Quick images of a long line of fighters throwing spells at their own version of what looked like a simple glass ball; only a single person managed to chip a tiny piece off of the glass that looked like it had been pierced with needles and then filled with colours. Star spheres, for all that they looked like they were breakable glass, were one of the hardest materials in the whole dimension. It was a tightly guarded Solarian secret how they were made and that magics and materials were used to produce them. Owning one granted a person both the privilege to brag and an incredibly high bill for security systems and services. They were basically unbreakable, so this really was an incredible show of power.

“Now these are the ratings of magical energy each of those spells had.” The rating was based on a mathematical and magical system, which went straight over Bloom's head every time Tecna tried to explain it to her. But she knew the basics: the higher the number, the more powerful the spell. The highest number archivable was 10000… or was that the standing record? Bloom wasn’t quite sure; what she did know was that this scale was used in two ways: magical people and magical machinery. Considering the difference between the ending point of the people scale and the starting point of the machinery scale…there was a reason for the difference.

Images of the different fighters appeared on the screen and caught Bloom's attention. If she remembers right, then the power needed to destroy a star sphere was around 8000.

The highest number on this particular list and the person who had chipped the sphere was 4642. Whispers broke out, and some people started cheering, probably family and friends of that person.

“Everyone got a good look?” The second announcer asked, and two pillars rose out of the round, both holding a star sphere. “Now let us show you what we mean! Your Highness?” Stella raised her sceptre to show that she had heard them. “Would you do us the honour and go first?”

Stella shot a look at Bloom, wiggling her eyebrows, and then turned towards one of the spheres. The whole arena went silent as Stella slowly channelled her magic. The sceptre started to glow, and a tiny ball of light appeared, growing until it was just big enough to cover the yellow stone at the centre of the sceptre. With a movement that was incredibly smooth – something Bloom had seen Stella do hundreds of times over the years– her friend reeled back and then snapped the sceptre forwards in a perfect arc, sending the ball flying. It hit the sphere with an almost silent tink before it just disappeared.

Someone snorted.

The air around the sphere exploded into heat and light, and at its centre, a tiny speck of darkness. The sound of the explosion crashed over them seconds later, leaving Bloom's ears ringing as if she were wearing headphones and the volume had jumped all the way up without warning. When everything was over, the crowd were so silent that Bloom could basically feel their shock and awe and, in some cases, maybe horror. The pillar, which had been holding the sphere, had been reduced to charred rubble, with the exception of a stump near the bottom, revealing the bright blue string magic that was anchoring the sphere. After a long second, a huge piece of the sphere, almost a quarter, fell off. Bloom reached silently over to Stella and slapped her shoulder.

“Show off!” She hissed. Stella shrieked, which caused the crowd to either scream themselves or start a thunderous applause.

"SHOW OFF?!” Stella snapped back.

“I mean, did you have to almost blind me?!”

“THAT is what you are focusing on?!”

“Oh, excuse me! I am very much aware that you are competent and terrifying and magnificent and powerful. I just thought you also had the decency to mind my eyes and warn me to lower my secondaries!”

“Oh BO-OH! Did I manage to surprise the big bad fairy of the dragon flame? Someone tell Valtor all he would have needed to do was…”

Bloom never found out what Stella was about to say, as a very distinct clearing of a throat cut through their argument and silenced them instantly. It was calm and steady but loaded with silent judgement. Bloom stared at Stella, and her friend stared back. Both of them had pulled their shoulders up and hunched over ever so slightly, ready to duck away from any possible blow that might come at them.

The silence kept going, and Bloom knew exactly what was expected from them; she just really didn’t want to turn around. She looked back at Stella. Her friend's eyebrows rose softly. Bloom twitched her nose. Stella’s face fell, and Bloom sank into herself with a soft groan.

“Are the two of you done? Or do I need to actually come down there?”

“No Griselda,” they chorused and turned around to face their teacher. Out of the corner of her eyes, Bloom could see the way several people in the crowd were sitting ramrod straight and were turned in the same direction as them. Good to know that Griselda was a conditioning that never leaves you.

Bloom looked up at Griselda and noticed the dropped jaws of the Trix. Griselda raised an eyebrow. Bloom couldn’t see it…she just knew.

“Sorry, Griselda.” They chorused again, which earned them a sharp nod. Aisha was sitting very straight too, but Bloom could see the way her friend was looking into the sky. Aisha was trying not to laugh, the traitor. Also knowing her…their friends were getting a live show. Bloom touched Stella’s hand twice with her pinky and got a single flick with the pointer finger back. Stella had noticed it too. Oh, they were so damn screwed. They would never…

“MISS BLOOM, MISS STELLA!” Griselda barked. She didn’t say anything more, but the silence was more of a threat than anything she could have said anyway.

“Sorry, Griselda.” They repeated.

“Honestly, one would think you know how to behave being a princess and a queen; imagine what Madame DuFour would think.” Bloom didn’t flinch, but Great Dragon did want to. All around the arena, many people flinched with her. “Now do me a favour and move this along so I can get started with grading your performance; you do not have enough graded in the semester.”

“Yes, Griselda,” they chorused for a fourth time. The Trix looked like they were about to faint.

Bloom turned around to face the second star sphere.

“That woman scares me…” The first announcer mumbled. “Only ever met her at Red Fountain-Alfea events, but Great Dragon, help me.”

“Now imagine learning under her for five years.” The second announcer said.

“Are you aware that I can hear you, Miss Ooagh Sherburn?” Griselda said, and the second announcer squeaked.

“It is Mrs Sherburn, actually; I married.” The second announcer, one Oonagh Sherburn, said, her voice hesitant and a little higher than before.

“Congratulations. How is Mrs Meija?”

“Holy shit,” the first announcer whispered. Their colleagues just sighed. Bloom shared a wide-eyed look of disbelief with Stella.

“Taj is fine, thank you for asking. Now people.” Oonagh sounded defeated and not as funky as before, but Bloom could hear the slight humour in it. “This is Miss Griselda, and at least in my opinion, the only reason why Alfea is still working as it is.” Fair and true. “Now if you could look at the screens and take notice of our beloved princess’s rating. Which, by the way, was a nice shot.”

Stella preened, and Bloom chuckled. Stella’s name was at the top of the ranking with a score of 5945.

“Nice”, Bloom whispered. Stelle glowed a bit brighter, and around her, light fractured and turned into tiny rainbows floating around her. The crowd roared.

“Okay, now let’s see what the Dragon Queen has to offer, shall we?” The crowd went wild, and Bloom huffed with amusement. Bloom didn’t give herself time to overthink or really put a lot of effort into the simple fireball she called onto her palm. Most of her energy was focused on hitting the target. After five years she was getting really good at it, but sometimes Bloom could still revert back to her old pre-magic self and miss her target by a mile. Considering the way Griselda was watching them… Bloom would really love to not embarrass herself like that.

The fireball shot out of her hand and flew through the air, drawing a perfect arc before it hit the star sphere with a roaring explosion. Flames reached into the sky, and there was the faint sound of a roar before the flames died down as if nothing had happened at all. Everything that was left was the charred pillar and probably some dust.

“And you called me a show off?” Stella asked drily.

“Really?!” Bloom asked. She really, really didn’t want to restart this argument and have the same conversation they just had with Griselda. It had been embarrassing enough the first time.

“Oh, excuse me!” Stella said, and there was enough attitude in her words to knock someone out with it. “Bloom, get a hold of yourself! You erased the sphere.” Bloom snorted.

“That’s the outcome we expected out of this.” She answered, crossing her arms.

“B…” Stella said, and her tone had gone so even that the hair on her arms rose with goosebumps. “Bloom, you pulverised the damn spell that held the sphere in position!” As if in cue, the pillar collapsed into itself and turned into a black and white pile of dust.

Bloom winced; maybe Stella had a point. “Oops?”

Stella threw her hands up and turned away from Bloom. Not that it did anything. Bloom could read all of her friends, and judging from the amount of fairy dust Stella was throwing into the air, she was trying not to double over laughing.

“Oh, shut up…” Bloom muttered, but she was smiling. Oh, how she had missed moments like this.

“Well…” The voice of the second announcer said. “Anyone left with complaints?” Bloom looked up and found the scene displaying her name right at the top next to a fast 10070. She had officially broken the records. The crowd remained silent.

“Now for the rules…” ***

Aisha tried her best to hold in her laughter. She could feel Griselda twitching on her one side and Serina trying to hold onto her stoic queen facade on her other. Below them Bloom and Stella had a running commentary going that consisted solely of snarky banter and underhanded quips against their opponents.

“Well…” Griselda said drily as Bloom manoeuvred one of her opponents to get shot by Stella.

“That counts for me!” Stella snapped, and Aisha could feel the cocky eye roll Bloom was shooting her.

“No dice, Stel! You missed that shot; nobody in their right mind will award you that point!”

“But you, huh?” Stella called back, dodging a fireball that Bloom had thrown over her shoulder; it hit the person behind Stella.

“Yep!” Bloom chirped and dove back into the range of people they were fighting.

“At least I know they have enough endurance.” Griselda sounded tired to everyone who didn’t know her. Aisha knew– better than most– that the woman was proud of them.

Below them, a group of fighters threw themselves physically onto Bloom.

“Oh, you poor fools…” Aisha winced. Behind her she could hear the Trix making agreeing noises. For all that they all still went hot and cold at any possible moment, the Trix knew that this was a bad idea. As if on cue, Bloom exploded into her demon form. Her wings were beating furiously, sending little tongues of flames in every direction, while her hair was like a halo of deep orange fire around her face.

“She just lost the fight.” Griselda tutted.

“Did she really?” Aisha asked. “The rules said she’s only allowed to use fireballs and only indirectly to hit opponents. Nobody said anything that would stop her from protecting herself.”

“It was also said that Bloom would only be allowed to fight long-range.” Serina cut in. “Which means that the people who just attacked her ignored the rules.”

“Mhm”

Aisha took it as a win.

***

“That was a joke.” Bloom grumbled into her pillow. Aisha and Stella were sitting left and right of her. “I thought I was allowed to beat something up; all I got was an exercise that wasn’t even half as good as Griselda’s.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment.” Griselda’s voice cut in from the door.

“Pleasure.” Bloom grumbled back. “They could have included Valtor or the Trix.” She was feeling worse than before; her skin was prickling with the remaining excitement of the fight, and she wanted to do more, to power herself out completely. This hadn’t even scratched the itch.

“Honey, do you want to fund the rebuilding of the royal arena?” Stella asked drily.

“Stel…”

“Miss Bloom, I don’t think a magic fight between you and Valtor should be allowed anywhere but the most desolate planets or at least anywhere near any viable ecosystems.” Griselda said, and Bloom shot her a sharp look. Her teacher’s eyes were gleaming with challenge and amusement. Bloom groaned and buried her face deeper into her pillow.

“It is time, girls.” Griselda said. “Stella and I will have to return to Magix.”

“Did we at least pass?” Bloom asked, not caring to raise her head from the pillow. There was a long moment of silence that forced Bloom to turn her head to look at Griselda.

“Yes, you did.”

Bloom let her head fall back into the pillow and just listened to Stella running around the room and packing the last of her things while giving Aisha the rundown of the last few days.

“Before we go, one more thing, Bloom?” She turned her head to look at Griselda. The teacher wasn’t smiling anymore; her eyes were hard, but approving.

“Good job on keeping your score low.”

“Someone once told me fireballs do not need a lot of energy.” Griselda’s lips twitched.

***

“Anything new?” Musa asked as she sat down next to Tecna; by now they had walked all of the archive and the library at least once, giving Tecna a good overview of the magic in the whole place. Yet she hadn’t been able to find anything out of the ordinary. The magic of the Council palace was calm and even, almost asleep with how little it was fluctuating. Compared to the other places Tecna had regular readings, it was like a steady heartbeat, always the same, with the smallest of changes that went completely unnoticed.

“Not yet.” Tecna muttered. She refused to give up on the data. Partially because it had been too long since she had been able to just go down a data hole, to completely immerse herself in numbers and graphs and statistics. This right here, the slow but meticulous process of going over every number and comparing it to all the numbers she had already gone over? This was the kind of mind-numbing, but still challenging, process she had missed. Her education in Alfea was invaluable and the thing Tecna needed to become the guardian fairy she had wanted to be since her parents first took her to the Blue Plains. Tecna had heard the fear and worry in the voices of the adults. No matter what the rest of the dimension thought of them, they had emotions, and they felt them to their fullest. The people of Zenith just weren’t comfortable with the way other people demanded that they follow the same rules and showed their emotions in a way that made them comfortable. So Zenith's people didn't.

Tecna couldn’t put into words the way she loved her friends for the simple acceptance they had shown once they had understood that difference. Stella, who would get louder and more demanding every time someone made passive-aggressive comments in Tecna’s directions. Flora, who would sometimes just carry a potted plant around with her whenever she knew that Tecna couldn’t deal with emotions, strategically placed it between Tecna and everyone else. Musa and Aisha, who sometimes demanded that Tecna watch over their music equipment or help them record something. Bloom, who never judged Tecna no matter the emotions she showed or did not show, was the first one to pick an actual fight with people.

She loved her friends so much it sometimes hurt.

A gentle static wave colliding with her skin reminded Tecna that she needed to breathe.

“You spaced out there.” Musa muttered. She kept producing the static sounds that Tecna had once told her she liked ever since she had been a child and gotten overwhelmed by input. Musa did it every time to get her out of his mind instead of touching her.

“Just thinking…” Tecna muttered and actually focused back on her numbers.

“Come on, Tec, walk me through this. I might not understand half of it, but we know that it will help you.” Tecna snorted and bumped her shoulder with Musa’s.

“I am monitoring the general magical output from the palace in this column.” She started pointing to the first list of numbers. “It’s the baseline for everything.”

“Where are your sensors for that?” Musa asked.

“One is right in my laptop; it’s giving me direct input from here. The wardens allowed me to put one in the front room they use to shield the ward stone. Bloom gave me the blanket allowance for the Council Chamber since it’s just monitoring and not actually transmitting any sounds or video.”

“That’s the colour coding?” Musa pointed at the column next to the first.

“The first column is the combined numbers; most of the time, they are the same. If there is a spike, it gets recorded in the second column. The colouring tells me where the spike happens.”

“Blue for the council chamber, black for the ward stone and yellow for the library and archive?”

“Exactly.” Tecna nodded, smiling at her friend. “The third column is the input from the people walking around. It’s actually really distinct, so it’s easy to differentiate between personal magic and a building's magic.”

“Huh…” Musa muttered. Tecna watched her friend. Musa and Stella, more than any of their friend group, could work easily with Tecna’s charts and graphs. Musa, because music was both maths and patterns, and Stella, because she was good with numbers on top of her being a seamstress. It was why Tecna turned to them first if she got stuck in her research. Bloom was a creature of chaos and art, and for all that art too could rely on patterns, Bloom really didn’t. Aisha too was too much of a force of nature and emotions to really help, although if it came down to it, Tecna would ask her first. Flora simply couldn’t stand staring at a screen long enough to actually help. If Tecna printed her numbers out, Flora was a force to reckon with, considering the number of mathematical principles that could be found in nature, but the technology was a problem. There was technology that had been developed specially for Lynphean people to be more nature friendly and to withstand the amount of wild magic the planet had. Tablets and laptops and phones that had been made from natural materials and worked on a different magic system than the usual technology. Sadly for all that they had been developed on Zenith, Tecna was the one who would get a splitting headache if she worked too long on them. So she and Flora had an arrangement that they would be each other’s last resort in this kind of thing.

“What about this pattern?” Musa asked and pulled Tenca back to focus.

“What pattern?” She asked and scooted over so that Musa could highlight what she had found.

Musa highlighted three instances of the same four-number pattern in the personal magic column before scooting the laptop back to Tecna.

“There is more.” She was sad and grinned, knowing as well as Tecna that it was a matter of seconds for her to create the lines of code to highlight the pattern.

“It doesn’t show up regularly, but it’s always the same.” Tecna muttered, watching the new column slowly filling out.

“Ok, this might be just me imagining things, but do you remember what that book said about the confessional? That it can move, since it was a living thing?” Tecna nodded and watched as Musa highlighted several instances of the pattern where one to three numbers were missing.

“These numbers repeated themselves several times right before your sensors and then just cut off in the middle. Like something just getting out of range.”

Tecna instantly wrote another command and quickly new numbers; more numbers were highlighted and put into another column.

“I think…” Tecna said slowly. “I think we have found the Confessional.”

“And I think you need to make more sensors and place them everywhere you can.” Musa added.

“Or…” Tecna muttered, drawing over her tablet and quickly opening the schematics for the drones she had developed for her friends, clicking furiously through the menu and code until she found the lines that belonged to the sensors. “I need to add to something we already have enough of.”

Chapter Text

Out of all the planets of her friends, Bloom probably knew Andros the best. For all that she had been visiting Solaria a lot in the last five years, those visits had always been in secret and then reduced to spending nights in the prison.

Andros, on the other hand … Bloom knew Andros. She had seen its cities, she had met its people, and she had been above and below water. Bloom was beyond everything else, though painfully aware that the only Andros she knew was the Andros that had been cursed.

Bloom was more familiar with grey water, untameable thunderstorms, wild winds and snarling, twisted merpeople than she was with the planet Aisha used to talk about. The planet Nabu had conjured memories of. Bloom had drawn countless pictures and painted canvases based on the descriptions of her friends. They always said that when the sun rose, the water would look like diamond, and every single plant on land as well as beneath water would glow. Looking at the desolate grey and the dead plants all around her, Bloom wasn’t sure if she was about to cry or turn around to punch Valtor.

“Nabu!” Bloom turned away from the desolation and watched Aisha sprint past them all to jump into Nabu's arms. Much like Brandon, Nabu had been called home a little over a year ago. Aisha had told him to go, to take care of their home. While it had been Aisha’s decision to send Nabu away – he was one of the most skilled magicians on Andros, after all – Bloom had found Aisha more than once curled up on the couch next to Stella with melting ice cream and a horrible movie playing, in an attempt to get over their heartache.

“Look at them.” Riven said his tone was borderline rude. “Idiots.” Bloom just shot him a look.

“Shut up and get over there, you ass.” She snapped and pushed Riven hard enough that he stumbled and barely managed to keep his balance.

“Fuck you too, Carrot Top!” He groused back but dutifully walked over to hug Nabu just as tight as Aisha.

“After all these years, he still acts as if he’s allergic to emotions.” Timmy muttered, shaking his head. She walked over to Aisha’s parents, who were watching the animated conversation between Nabu, Riven and Aisha with gleaming eyes.

“Queen Niobe, King Teredor,” Bloom greeted, reaching her hands out in the fashion Aisha had taught them all. Both Niobe and Teredor reached out to hold one of Bloom's hands in both of theirs, and Bloom brought them towards her forehead in greeting.

“Queen Bloom”. Niobe said softly. “It is wonderful to see you under better circumstances.” Teredor was watching over Bloom's shoulder, and she knew he was looking at Valtor.

“Please do not start a fight.” She muttered quietly, still holding onto their hands. “I am obliged by magic to take his side.” Teredor's eyes turned back to her and softened ever so slightly. For all that he was always strict when it came to the protocol, he was a genuinely kind man once he got out of it. Bloom held his dark eyes until the darkness left them, and he too smiled gently.

“I apologise, Your Majesty.” He muttered, squeezing her fingers once, and then let go to open his arms for Aisha.

“There won’t be any speeches.” Bloom explained. “Considering that Andros has been suffering for five years, we thought it prudent to get this over as quickly as possible and then spend the next days fixing what we can.” Niobe shot Bloom a grateful look before hugging her daughter.

“Won’t I get a welcome?” Nabu’s voice asked from behind her; Bloom just turned and opened her arms for him. Even though Nabu spent as much time in the water as Aisha, he never smelt of it. His smell was that of old tunnels and dirt and cobwebs with the faintest hint of a fresh sea breeze.

“Oh, Nabu.” She muttered into his ears. “It’s been way too long.”

“It certainly is. I am gone for five minutes, and you are marrying to end a war. You really decided to go all in, didn't you, B?”

“Under protest!” She insisted and got a sharp laugh from Nabu.

“Now then.” She said as she stepped back to allow Timmy to hug his friend too. “Let’s end this. I have been promised the most beautiful sunrise for over three years; I intend to see one during our stay!” Aisha giggled as she let go of her mother and turned to Bloom with a wide smile.

“Well then.” She said, her eyes gliding over to the Trix and Valtor. “Let’s get down to ocean.”

***

There were hundreds of people down at the beach. Merpeople in the shallow water that had been barricaded to stop the cursed merpeople from entering, priests, guards and land walkers all over the sand with only a small corridor for them to pass through and an even smaller space for them to stand, just at the water's edge.

“Go on.” Bloom muttered and watched as Valtor and the Trix stepped onto the shore, just shy of stepping into the water.

The melody of the spell was still the same, and after five times of listening to it, Bloom was familiar with it. The words might change, but the intention behind them was the same. To undo what had been done, to give back what had been stolen and to heal what they could. The magic of Andros’ tertiary rose with the sharp crackling of storms, the wild crashes of waves against rocks and air filled with minerals and salt. It made Bloom shiver, because it felt as if a warm, well-known blanket had been pulled from around her shoulders. Yet at the same time, it was as if someone had put a new fresh blanket around her. One that wasn’t quite warm yet but was thicker and much, much fluffier.

That was the magic of this part of the dimension. Taking away the old, washing away worries and allowing new things to come to you. For all that Domino was fire and the ultimate power, Andros Tertiary was the place one went to to get rid of curses and spells that had been put on a person. It was Callisto with the endless storms and thunder; it was the place people went to truly lose themselves after bad experiences, the ever-raging storm eager to add more rage and pain to its howling. Ohm was in this part of the tertiaries too. Closer to Domino than most planets, but still part of Andro’s system, and while their tactics were much softer, they too focused on letting go and giving up on the things that dragged you down.

Aisha had spoken more than once that the day after everything was over– when there was no more crisis for them to tackle– she would take their group out into the ocean. Take them to a place where magic was high and nobody lived, to the places where the most dangerous sea creatures lived, and let them rage. Let them fight until they were too exhausted too, and all the while she would command the magic of her planet like it was supposed to.

Bloom looked past the glowing greenish-blue balls of magic into the raging ocean that was slowly calming down and thought about the legend Aisha had told them.

The most dangerous of sea creatures was the one who could reach every ocean in the dimension: the Hippocampus. The ruler of the sea would come up to the surface only for those who had proven themselves by the worst of challenges but also had been broken by those challenges. Aisha had told them about how the Hippocampus would only appear in the most dangerous storms to drag those people she had chosen beneath the waves of Andros to a place that nobody but the Hippocampus could reach. Where they would let that person fight all of their demons again. This second time those demons would be just as helpless as the person once had been, and when the last demon had died – when the person could avenge what had been taken from them – the Hippocampus would let them onto their back and carry them to the surface just in time for the sun to rise. It was supposed to be the most beautiful sunrise the person would ever see; after all, they had been born anew and freed of their burdens.

Bloom wondered if one day she would be allowed something like that, to let go of all her demons, to fight them until they didn’t scare her anymore.

The balls of magic disappearing into the sky pulled her out of her musings, facing a clear blue sky she had never seen before and the same greyish water that was now littered with hundreds of confused mermaids trying to get past the barrier keeping them from land, friends and family.

“Why is the water still grey?” Niobe whispered.

“It’s been too long.” Bloom answered. She didn’t need Valtor to say anything; the answer was clear and easy. “It's too much pollution to simply reverse by taking the spell back.”

“Then they broke their part of the contract!” Teredor growled, reaching for his sword, but Bloom held out a hand.

“They didn’t.” She answered. Flora had made that prognosis on the second anniversary of Valtor's curse. “This is normal; the ocean is such a delicate ecosystem, even more so if magic is involved. By removing the spell, Valtor and the Trix kickstarted the healing of Andros’ oceans.” Bloom motioned for the Trix and Valtor to get back to her and away from the shore.

“I have seen this on earth many times. If the ecosystem is out of balance, it needs time and some help to generate the way it is supposed to.” Bloom moved down to the water, smiling at Tressa and her mother, Queen Ligea, before turning around. “That being said…we can make sure the ocean has an easy time of it.” Bloom searched out Aisha’s eyes, raising an eyebrow in silent challenge and in invitation. They had talked about this time and time again. Bloom boosted Aisha while she cleansed the waters of Andros. Aisha is leading Bloom to the places where healing is needed the most.

“Will you help me, Aisha? You know the waters the best, and I know how to work with your magic.” Bloom turned towards Tressa and Ligea. “Otherwise I would have asked you.” Both of them waved Bloom off, silent understanding in their eyes. Unlike the land-walking people of Andros, the Merfolk had neither forgotten nor buried their old goddess. They knew just as well as Aisha what Bloom was doing.

“Let’s do it.” Aisha whispered, pressing her hand into Bloom's to step into the water without hesitation, their magic mixing in joy and harmony.

One of the first things Aisha had ever said to Bloom, once they had found the equilibrium as a group of six, was this: “Why do you only use your fire powers?”

The following conversation had been long and full of hastily suffocated fires. Aisha, whose blood was just as powerful as Bloom's, had felt the water dragon calling out for her within minutes of meeting Bloom. It had been this conversation that had made Bloom aware that different dragon kinds existed. Up to that day, all Bloom had ever heard of were the fire dragons she knew so well. That question might have also been the reason why Bloom had stopped believing in Faragonda as a mentor.

Even though it was a well-known fact that Bloom's father, Oritel, was from one of the most prominent and powerful water dragon lines on Domino, nobody had ever mentioned it to her. They only ever talked about Marion and her proficiency with fire. It had been Aisha who actually had told her what Dragonborn meant.

"Dragonborn are those people who are part dragon.” Aisha’s voice was calm, but confused. “How do you not know this?!”

Bloom had simply stared. “Are you telling me I am a dragon?!”

“Yes?” It was Stella who answered that question, her voice full of confusion and unusually timid for her. “Didn’t you say Faragonda talked to you about your inheritance and your people?”

“All Faragonda told me about was the Dragon Flame and how my people were really good at controlling fire!” Bloom shrieked, her voice slowly rising in pitch.

“WHAT?!” Flora piped in, her voice so dangerously calm, the plants behind her shivered and shrank away from her.

“Do not tell me there is more!” Bloom pleaded.

“There are hundreds of Dragonkind. Yes, the fire dragons are the most well-known but by far not the only ones. Each element has their own Dragonkind with hundreds of subspecies for each of them.” Aisha explained gently, her dark eyes narrowed.

“Not even talking about the mixed species. Storm dragons are some unholy love child of fire and water dragons, and there are poison dragons that come straight from plant and water or plant and fire dragon parents.” Tecna explained in her monotone that Bloom was slowly growing to love in situations like this.

“Are there books on this?!” Bloom asked; by now her head was between her knees, and she was pulling on her hair.

“Yes.” The friends chorused.

“Fuck…”

It had gone on like that, with Bloom hastily conjuring a massive whiteboard to note down every new fact she was learning about herself and the people she was supposed to protect. It had taken hours and almost till the sun rose again, at which point only Aisha had still been awake. She had offered to teach Bloom how to control her water aspects. Something which had massively increased the control Bloom had over her fire-based power. In return, Bloom had helped Aisha with something she had always been curious about. Turned out as a fairy of fluids, she could control mist. It got out of hand from there, as all of them had started to teach each other their very specific spells. Spells that should have been impossible for a non-specialised magic user to learn.

“Ready?” Aisha asked, still holding onto Bloom’s hand, waiting for her to step into the water. Bloom nodded and let her friend lead her until they were almost hip-deep in the ocean.

The soft sand beneath their feet made standing a little bit awkward, but digging her feet into the soft ground solved that problem easily.

“Like we always talked about.” Aisha whispered, not loud enough for anyone to hear. “I go first, washing away the sickness, and you follow immediately after me, giving life.” Bloom only nodded. Aisha lowered their joined hands until they were completely submerged.

The ocean started to glow.

***

“Ok”, Tecna muttered, holding the screen strapped to their forearm a bit higher and tilting it so they could get a better picture. “Everyone ready?” There was a chorus of positive answers coming through their headphones, and Tecna smiled. “Then start up the drones and move them slowly along the walls of your sector.” Tecna ordered and watched as the screen lit up with new data. Well, no, old data. She had already scanned all of this and only needed to compare it for the wandering sequence.

With a steady stream of the general magical frequency of the council palace at the top of her screen and the sequence they thought was the Confessional right below that, it was easy for Tecna to compare the data their friends' drones were feeding to the screen.

“I’m getting all of your data; keep the pace and do not speed up.”

They had, as a group, worked out a schedule on how and where to scan the whole of the library and archive in their quest of finding the confessional. A’Sha and her Wryms had offered to help, but Tecna had gently declined the offer. They didn’t have any extra drones on hand right now, and getting new ones into the building was out of the question. So it was just the five of them scanning, while everyone else was cataloguing everything, rebuilding wards and spells and repairing books. Their friends were down in the archive, each of them scanning one wall of the massive square room that the archive had turned out to be. Tecna, for her part, was sitting on the stairs just above the map. Their own drone hovering just below the ceiling to collect the data the other drones send in and copy it into Tecna’s screen.

“Now for the fun part.” Tecna muttered. “Waiting.”

***

“If this is sundown,” Bloom whispered, where she was sitting on a cliff, Aisha and her friends right next to her, staring at the ocean. “Then I can not imagine the sun rising.”

According to the people of Andros, the ocean was still not quite the right colour, but it was very close. Every now and then a wave would break, and the water would shimmer with the same vibrant green that Bloom associated with both Aisha and healing.

“I’m going to wake you before the sun really rises.” Aisha promised and put her head onto Bloom's shoulder. “You are going to see a proper sunrise.” Bloom put her own head onto Aisha’s with a smile, just enjoying the closeness and warmth Aisha was radiating.

“You are trending!” Timmy snickered.

“Of course we are.” Bloom sighed. “What else did I expect?” She pointed her finger at Helia to shut him up before he could say anything else. “What do they say?”

“A lot of nonsense.” Riven muttered. “Incredible power of the Great Dragon, more powerful and impossible conversion.”

“Wait, why do they say that about our conversion?” Aisha asked, raising her head and promptly headbutting Bloom. Bloom hissed and buried her face in Aisha’s shoulder.

“Something about the incompatibility of water and fire magic. More importantly, the incompatibility of the Great Dragon's essence and Andros native magic.”

“Oh wow…” Bloom drawled, holding tighter onto Aisha’s arm, who was too still to not fly off the handle every moment now. “Not only is this factually incorrect, but didn’t we perform like over a hundred conversions in public? Right in front of cameras?”

“We did.” Aisha growled sharply.

“Yep, the comments on the article are basically only people pointing that fact out and posting links to those videos.” Timmy said, snickering again. “I think this is the third time this journalist has posted something inaccurate that can be fact-checked easily.”

“Mhm…” Bloom hummed, thinking of Stella. “That sounds like a lawsuit.”

“Cold Bloom” Riven giggled. “Very, very cold!” Bloom blew him a kiss.

“I only serve my revenge hot enough that there is nothing left.”

***

Funnily enough, it was Flora who saw the change first. Tecna had been focused on the inscriptions Musa had noticed as well as the resulting conversation with the archivists, so they would have missed the sequence of magic if Flora hadn’t paid attention to it.

“I have it on my screen.” Flora called out, instantly drawing Tecna’s attention to her. Their friend was right. Flora’s line of numbers was displaying the sequence that they had noticed.

“I’m coming over.” Tecna said into their headphones and activated the blinking function on the drone to make it easier for them to see Flora’s position. Then it was only a matter of transforming and flying over. Tecna didn’t even transform back; they just landed and held out their own scanner, only to realise that the readings had gone back to the normal magical frequency that the Archive gave off.

“I took three seconds?!” They asked, staring at the wall with disbelief. Flora was moving further down the wall.

“It’s gone…” She muttered. “It was going this way and then just disappeared.”

“I think we need to talk to A’Sha and get that book from her.” Stella muttered through the line. “We can have the best equipment all we want. If the confessional has its own rules, then we can’t do anything unless we play by them.”

Tecna really hated it when Stella got logical and serious, because that usually meant she was right.

“Okay,” Tecna muttered. “Let’s end this here. I’m going to go and find A’Sha.”

It seemed this thing was going to be much more of a challenge than Tecna had anticipated.

***

“Bloom, a word?” Aisha asked and waved over everyone else who tried to follow them. “This is a girls talk thing.” She smiled brightly. Both Riven and Nabu got that look in their eyes, which meant they understood and would cause chaos. Bloom really loved her boys.

“We really trained them well, didn’t we?” She asked only half jokingly. Which earned her a light slap to the shoulder from Aisha, but her friend was smiling.

“Yeah… they are great.”

“So what are you going to show me?” Aisha shot Bloom a look and just kept walking; the silent comment to not question her and to follow loud between them. Knowing her friend and trusting her, Bloom did as told and just wandered after Aisha.

“This is the first time I really get to see the palace.” Bloom muttered as they passed a massive mural that had been created from mother of pearl and shells. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah.” Aisha muttered, but there was something else in her voice.

“Talk to me, Sha.” Bloom muttered and cloaked them in several silencing spells so that their conversation couldn’t be heard.

“Sometimes it’s as if I can see a different palace.” Aisha admitted haltingly. “It was worse when I was a child, but it also never stopped. The walls are still the same, but they glow…I think.“ Her friend was motioning frustratedly with her hands. “That’s why I always ran away from the palace. Yes, I was lonely, but the whole palace felt so lifeless and dead, and I hated it.”

“Is that why you and your parents mostly live in the summer palace?”

“Partly.” Aisha admitted. “Mostly that decision was made when my parents realised just how strong my connection to the water is and asked Aunt Ligea for help. Nobody expected me and Tritannus to work together so easily.” Bloom snorted.

Tritannus was Aisha’s youngest cousin; as such, he didn’t have any claim or role in the Royal Palace or line. Tressa, as the oldest, was going to be queen of the merfolk, and Nereus was both the spare and the leader of the guard. Tritannus, who was an ‘ups-baby’ as a twin to Nereus, hadn’t been planned at all. Something Bloom still thought was funny as hell since the merfolk laid eggs, and while most of the time only one of them was actually viable, twins weren’t that rare. So the fact that nobody knew what to do with Tritannus had been hilarious to Bloom. Which didn’t mean that he was useless. He had the strongest deep-water magic anyone had seen in centuries and had used his affinity for pollution to suck away the milder strains of Valtor's curse to store them in crystals. It had saved many merpeople, especially after the quarantine zones had been set up. So far nobody knew what to do with the tainted crystals, but Bloom had seen the manic light in Tritannus' eyes as he had talked with Nabu and Timmy. Both Aisha and Bloom had decided it wasn’t their litter of dragon eggs and just let them talk. They weren’t the boy’s minders.

“He understands too, you know.” Aisha admitted. “He used to tell me that for him the ocean always felt off. Like something had been taken, and that missing link had turned into poison. He thinks that’s the reason why he’s so strong: Andros oceans have been poisoned from the start, and he can pull from that pollution.”

“Does anyone know about that?” Bloom asked, looking around to see if anyone was around them.

“Tressa and Nabu. We love Nereus, but that man can neither lie nor keep a secret even if his life depended on it.” Bloom snorted.

“We are there.” Aisha said before Bloom could ask anything more. They stood before a grand pair of doors that were flanked by a pair of guards.

“Welcome to Andros's throne room.” Aisha motioned at the mighty double doors, which opened immediately, something Bloom almost protested. The doors themselves had been made from the same orange coral Ligea’s staff was made of and decorated with the most beautiful mosaic of the hippocampus.

“It gets better on the inside.” Aisha whispered, and Bloom pulled a face in doubt only to be proven wrong instantly. High above her was a dome with a mosaic that looked so realistic she really thought the Hippocampus would jump down to join them any second now.

“Whoa.” Bloom whispered.

“Want to take a closer look?” Aisha asked, and a second later she had turned into her fairy form.

“Absolutely, yes please!” Bloom answered, grinning widely.

***

“I got another one.” Tecna let her head fall onto the tabletop.

“How much do we bet the moment Tec shows up it’s gone?” Musa snickered, and Tecna sent the slightest shock down that drone connection. The yelp of her friend was like music to her ears.

“Please don’t start,” Flora asked. She sounded tired and wrung out. A’Sha hadn’t been able to find the book. Someone had put it into a ‘to-be-repaired’ pile due to some serious spine damage, and nobody remembered which pile. So they had returned to the scanning and numbers, and Tecna was two seconds away from starting to throw lightning around. Getting in trouble with the librarians be damned.

Somehow every one of her friends was able to scan and actually encounter the string of numbers they thought was the confessional, but the moment Tecna got close to it, it just vanished. Stella had recorded the whole thing with her phone. So they had it on video how the numbers steadily moved left, and Stella followed along with it without problems, but the moment the sound of Tecna’s wings had become audible on the video, the numbers just…stopped. It was driving Tecna absolutely mental, and A’Sha was eyeing her in a way that was giving her the creeps. Tecna could feel Griselda looming over them, her specifically.

“Let’s stop for today.” She muttered, eyeing the string of numbers. It was mocking her. Tecna could feel it in her wingtips. It was taunting her with the answer to their question of how to find it, and she was just not getting it.

“What day is it?” She asked while typing in lines of code for the drones to return to her so she could collect their data from the hard drive.

“First day on Andros.” Stella answered.

“Second.” Musa cut in. “Different time zones.”

“There are articles and videos,” Flora muttered.

“Wait, wasn't that whole thing private and only for the royal family, priests and the merfolk?” Tecna asked.

“Yeah, well…” Stella started. “If you believe Nova”,

“Which we do!” Musa called out, earning her several hisses from the Liberians and archivists across the archive.

“Because that woman knows everything.” Flora muttered into the com, and Tecna, who really had a bad day, decided right in that moment that she needed some fun.

“Can you imagine how screwed we would be if Nova ever teamed up with Griselda?” All of her friends hissed at her for that comment. Stella, who had flown across the archway instead of walking and had reached the table already, stared at Tecna like she just called back Darkar for shits and giggles.

“You are evil if you are cranky, Tec.” Musa snickered as she landed.

“Do not encourage her.” Flora ordered. “It’s bad enough that Bloom can inspire her to be a monster. I don’t need more of that.”

“As if you aren’t just as bad.” Musa called back.

“Hush now, dear.” Flora answered as she rounded the corner, her eyes twinkled with mirth.

“What I was saying!” Stella cut in clearly down with their banter and wanting to spill her tea. “According to Nova several teenagers snuck into the merfolk quarantine zone and got hidden by the younger ones in an attempt to see the Dragon Queen and the Princess of Andros work together.”

“Are you telling me there are videos of what happened during the ritual because some kids believed in the ‘fire and water hate each other’ thing?” Musa giggled.

“Yep. As they are teenagers, they had their phones ready to record and posted it seconds later. It’s getting shared faster than it can be deleted by the Andros officials, and the merpeople refuse to rat out the kids who did it.” Stella shrugged. “So everyone knows what happened.”

Tecna mulled that thought over and ended on a rather simple conclusion.

“Who wants to watch it on the projector in A’Sha’s home?”

***

“Ok, explain it to me once more…” Bloom said slowly. They were lying on the floor of the throne room, right beneath the centre of the dome. “I get the theory behind it, but …how did they get muddled?”

“Ok, so the Hippocampus? She’s part of the holy trinity, right?”

“Yeah, I get that. Giant water horse that is half fish.” Bloom said, trailing the mosaic above her with her eyes. It was depicting the Hippocampus in positions that made Bloom think of dolphins. The whole mosaic had been made from the various shells and scales that – according to Aisha – were either directly from the Hippocampus or from water dragons that lived on Andros. It made for a stunning image of reflecting light and ever-shifting colours. Greens that turned violet if one leaned to one side and blue if one leaned to another. Black hiding beautiful rose and green tones. Hues of pinks streaked with yellow and white and almost lilac. It was a kaleidoscope of colours that shifted if you did as much as to blink.

“Promise me something.” Bloom whispered, staring at the unbelievable palette of colours that formed the strong and wild body of the Hippocampus. “If we ever manage to find peace, make me a morphix platform and just let me paint.”

“Done.” Aisha whispered, not hesitating at all. “But only if you let Stella play with the light.”

Bloom turned onto her side to face Aisha. “With Musa singing or playing her flute?”

“Tec being allowed to play with the echoes.”

“Can we let Flora loose on the stone walls?” Bloom whispered.

“And I will dance here.” Aisha whispered back, raw, unfiltered want in her voice. “This room will be filled with nothing but joy once we are done. It will hold all of us in our element, doing the thing we love the most.” Bloom smiled at her friend, scooting her hand over the floor to take Aisha's hand.

“The moment we find calm, we will do this.” She promised, intending it with every last fibre of her being. Speaks blue and green and something in-between that was completely unique to their powers in combination, rose and wove through their fingers. A promise made with trust and magic and yearning they both felt, while also holding hope. A vow they wanted to keep. Bloom stared at their fingers as faint colour lines appeared twining around each digit.

“Guess there is one more vow between us, huh?” Aisha asked, chuckling. Bloom only hummed and held tighter onto her friend’s hand.

“Tell me about the Hippocampus and the leviathan and how they are confused by the general public.”

“Well, the Hippocampus is neither man nor woman…they…she is ever changing like the ocean. She takes a different form for each of us. She is one of the Holy trinity that made the universe, together with the Great Dragon and the Wild One.” Bloom nodded slowly. She knew this last part of their history or legends according to most of the magical dimension. That the Hippocampus was ever changing was new to her.

“The Dragon went out to bring life to the dimension, and the Wild One went with her to help and protect her.” At her words Aisha’s fingers held tighter onto Bloom’s. “And the Hippocampi stayed here on Andros, forming the people and the world only they would be able to control. It’s what they decided between the three of them. Magical Dimension was for all of them to be equals. The Wild One would have the Hunting Lands, where only he would run. The Dragon got the place beyond the Vortex, and the Hippocampus would have the Infinite Ocean. A place where she could be truly free. Her siblings could visit, but only at the Hippocampus invitation and with their power greatly diminished.” Bloom hummed.

“That’s where Sirenix is from, right?” She asked. “From the Infinite Ocean, since it’s the key to it.”

“Yes.” Aisha whispered, but it was raspy and sharp. Anger hidden just under her breath, Bloom knew why. Sirenix had been declared cursed a long time ago. It had been made out to be something that would kill anyone for daring to try and gain it. A transformation that would take a magic user's magic. Bloom wondered if they would ever manage to correct that misunderstanding.

“When the Hippocampus left the dimension, she gave one of her children, her oldest and most powerful one, the task to guard her younger children and those of her children that guarded the old and deactivated entrances to the Infinite Ocean.” “The Leviathan”. Bloom muttered, and Aisha hummed gently.

“Yes. He was their firstborn, created when the first storm unsettled the oceans of Andros so badly that even the deepest ravine felt it. He was born from Andros's first dark magic, and he lives deep down where light no longer reaches and where the cold is unbearable even for the Arctic merfolk. He is down there with his only company being the selkies that can travel down there without harm.”

“You told me about them.” Bloom hadn’t been this content and sleepy in a long time. Even lying on the cold stone floor of Andros' ancient throne room, doing so with Aisha’s voice washing over her as Aisha told her one of her childhood stories, was just unbearably peaceful.

“Yes. Every planet has one of them. Somewhere deep in the ocean, hidden from everyone but their sisters and the Leviathan. They were the only ones who knew the location of the old portals and who could use them. Not to get to the Infinite Ocean; that passage is closed until the Hippocampus returns, but they can use it to visit each other.”

“If the portals still work, but the Hippocampus is gone. What is beyond them?” For the first time today, her friend hesitated.

“These are just stories, but…” Aisha sounded scared. “They say beyond the portals, should one be able to convince a selkie to open the portal for them, there is a void. A place where nothing but nightmares and darkness lives. Nobody who went through a portal for the Infinite Ocean ever returned. The selfies swear they are fine, but you can see it in their eyes that they are lying. Something is beyond there. Something that scares them.”

Without thinking about it, Bloom let a small blue flame appear above their fingers. Small and warm, even though the flame itself was unable to burn anything.

“So the people think the Leviathan is the Hippocampus because he protects the portals and the selkies, as nobody has seen the Hippocampus for too long.”

“Basically.” Aisha muttered dryly.

“Tracks…” Bloom muttered. “Did Mus tell you about the phoenixes and the Dragonborn?” Aisha hummed, and then they settled down into silence. Travelling through the stone, Bloom could feel the faintest of vibrations from the ocean that was lapping against the castle walls. It almost felt as if she was on a boat that was gently rocked by waves.

High above them, the first beams of sunlight reached through the windows at the base of the dome, hitting the mosaic of the Hippocampus. It created an effect like water reflecting light. Bathing them in a marriage of shifting colours.

Chapter Text

“Your Highness?” The voice came from beneath them, and it took Bloom embarrassingly long to figure out that it was a mermaid speaking to them. Aisha didn’t have any problems like that; she was already leaning over the railing when Bloom moved to look.

“Yes?” Aisha asked, and Bloom saw the fond looks her friends' parents were shooting each other.

“Do you have any plans for today?” The mermaid asked. Bloom couldn’t read her face, but the way her tail was twitching in and out of the water made her think of excitement.

“I promised Queen Bloom that I would show her the white cliffs.” Aisha said. Bloom smiled wider. The white cliffs were the tourist spot for anyone visiting Andros. The water beneath them was so clear it looked like an illusion and it was deep enough that it was a popular spot for cliff jumping. Something Bloom was exited to do.

“Would you and the Dragon Queen be willing to delay or cancel those plans?” The mermaid asked, and Bloom blinked down at her. Aisha looked equally confused.

“Could you explain why, before I answer?” Her friend asked, and the mermaid rose a little bit more out of the water.

“It’s a surprise.” She whispered loud enough that everyone could hear her and then shot Bloom a look. Aisha followed the mermaid's look to look at Bloom.

“Should I move?” Bloom asked, smiling brightly. Aisha’s confusion instantly turned into a deadpan look.

“Haha! You are absolutely hilarious!” Her friend snarked, and Bloom poked her tongue out at her. The mermaid giggled beneath them.

“I am afraid you will have to say what you want to say in a way my friend simply can not understand.” Aisha sighed after a long moment. “Her hearing is only surpassed by that of the people of Melody.” The mermaid shot Bloom a knowing look.

“I am aware; one of my sisters is bonded to a Dragonborn…” She pulled a face. “Keeping surprises from the children is a nightmare.” Bloom snorted and smiled.

“Yeah… we tend to do that.” She admitted to carefully not thinking about the many times they had abused Bloom's hearing in the last three years to spy on Faragonda.

“Now!” Niobe said, smiling down at the mermaid. “Do tell what my daughter and her friends shall do today instead of behaving like children.”

“MUM!” Aisha called out, but there was laughter in her voice. “You know as well as I do that it's Bloom's fault!”

“Rude!” Bloom called back.

“True.” Riven and Timmy called from behind her. Bloom flipped them off.

“Mhm…” said the mermaid from beneath them. She looked between Aisha and her mother and Bloom for a long moment before fixing her eyes on Aisha.

“The smallest of our kind asked for a dance.”

Bloom blinked in absolute confusion. She knew that the whole thing with her and Stella and the children of Solaras capital had been broadcast, but she hadn’t thought that the people of Andros wanted her to meet their children too. Bloom looked to her friend to gauge her reaction and instantly knew that it probably hadn’t all that much to do with children.

Aisha was wide-eyed and open-mouthed, while Niobe had her hands clapped over her mouth. Both of them looked down at the mermaid frozen in their disbelief. The mermaid – and Bloom really needed to ask for her name – smiled up at them.

“They felt the magic of your convergence and can not wait to meet the two of you.” Aisha’s mouth floundered, and Niobe was still frozen, although Bloom could see tears slowly dripping down her cheeks.

“I might not know who you are talking about,” Bloom started eyeing her friend and her mother. “But I know Aisha; if this was something bad, she would be cursing you out.” Teredor snorted. “So I am willing to accept your invitation on behalf of my friend.” The mermaid smiled brightly and beautifully, exposing several rows of sharp teeth.

“Wonderful, I will inform my sisters and…”

“Will you tell us when and where we are to meet?” Bloom asked quickly, already seeing the mermaid leaving without giving them all the important information. The mermaid blinked.

“Oh…” She said and blushed a gentle blue. “Of course. Her Highness knows where we will meet, and my sisters have asked to meet around noon.”

“We will be there.” Bloom promised, and the mermaid disappeared. “Dragon,” Bloom muttered. “I forgot to ask for her name.” Riven started giggling behind her, and Bloom flipped him off, again.

***

“The third part of the Library is the Confessional. It is a chamber hidden within the depths of the library in a way that nobody knows how to find it. Legend says it originated from an ancient and long-eradicated creature that tried to take the burden off of people by making them speak their darkest truth. This creature found solace in the heart of planet Magix when the truths and horrors told to it got too much, and it died encased in the crystal that was later raised to build the Council Palace. Since the magic of the creature remained, the Confessional was created.

There is very little known about the Confessional, aside from that it will be found by those that are in true need of it and that every confession ever made in it can not be unspoken and cannot be hidden. Some rumours say that every member of the High Council will be faced with the Confessional at least once, that this is the price they have to pay for the privilege of sitting on the crystal table. A secret for power.”

“That is the book that put us on the trail of the Confessional.” Stella muttered, paging through the book in hopes of finding more on the Confessional. She tried not to look at Tecna, who was slowly going mad over the way the Confessional was playing with them.

“It’s the only thing I found in the library.” A’sha admitted. Tecna let out a sound that reminded Stella of a dying computer.

“You have more than just that book with you.” Flora said, knowing just as well as all of them, that Tecna needed a distraction or they would have a problem. They really didn’t need their friend to melt down.

“While I can not find any instructional or semantic material on the Confessional, I did find these.” A’Sha said and pushed a stack of notebooks over to them. “They are diaries and notes from past council members and some researchers. It isn’t much, but all of them have at least a sentence about the Confessional in them.”

“Well…” Stella shared a look with Musa. “Thank you.” Tecna said in their stead. “We take what we can get.” Stella let out a small breath. Crisis pushed back for at least a few more hours.”

“Mhm…” A’Sha said and was looking at them in a way that made her look scarily like Griselda. “What day is it?” She asked, and Stella groaned.

“Griselda called you, didn’t she?” She asked and wanted to curl into a ball. Of course they missed talking to their teacher, and now they had the librarian breathing down their necks on Griselda’s orders.

“Mhm,” A’Sha said again and smiled. “Bed, all of you!” Tecna made a strangled sound, reaching for the books.

“Oh, Dragon, no!” Stella snapped and grabbed her friend's wrists. “You are coming with us! You are two seconds away from smoking. I'd rather deal with the ancestral than have Griselda breaking in here and lecturing me on health! The lecture waiting for us once we can get out of here is bad enough.”

“Alternatively, we can get Mother involved.” Musa chirped sweetly, and Tecna froze where she was fighting Stella, who was trying to get her out of her chair.

“I am sure she will be thrilled to know that you do not take care of yourself.” Tecna whimpered, and all fight left her.

“You are evil.” She muttered, not making any moves to get up.

“Yes, we are.” Flora answered and gently pushed Stella to the side to throw Tecna over her shoulder. “Now bed for all of us.”

***

Aisha hadained tight-lipped about their destination and who they were going to meet. That didn’t mean that Bloom couldn’t see the raw excitement everyone was portraying. Aisha was vibrating with excitement, and Nabu wasn’t calming her down, as he was just as energetic, which was driving Riven crazy, and that was riling Timmy up, who was tinkering with something.

Helia, for his part, had decided to behave like the dignified grandson of Headmaster Saladin and just stood beside Bloom. As if he wasn’t two seconds away from saying something to rile them up even more or, worse, start drawing their faces. Bloom really wanted to draw her friends' faces.

The Trix, who clearly didn’t understand what was happening, had decided to nope out of the whole thing – Bloom had the sneaking suspicion that they were slowly getting overwhelmed by the number of masks Bloom and her friends were wearing – and had retreated to their room in the ship. Valtor was right beside Bloom, leaning against the railing. From the smug feeling of knowing, Bloom was guessing he knew what was going on. She refused to ask him.

“Anything from the others?” Helia asked, watching Aisha coordinate her family, both the land-dwelling and the near people, onto a boat.

“Asleep.” Bloom answered. “A’Sha sent pictures; apparently Griselda was threatening a health lecture.”

“You managed to tire out an AI?” Helia asked, and he sounded too gleeful. Whoever thought that Helia was a calm and adjusted individual was an idiot. The man was just as unhinged as Flora, just differently.

“Are you surprised?” Bloom asked back. Helia had seen the data Tecna and her friends had accumulated in the last few days. She also knew that Tony was sifting through it with Tecna. Considering all of that, it was understandable that he was refusing to also babysit them.

“B!” Aisha called and waved them over. Ending their conversation. “Come on, we are ready for you.” Bloom smiled and started over to her friend. Valtor got up and followed after her. “Do we have to take him?” Tressa asked, gripping tighter onto her sword.

“Do you want me to stay behind?” Valtor darled. “Alone on the ship without proper supervision?” Bloom, knowing full well that nobody wanted him on the planet at all, sent sharp annoyance down the bond.

Yes, please annoy them! She thought sharply. Valtor only smiled at her as if he had never done something wrong in his life. Behind him, all three of Aisha’s cousins looked like they were about to murder him on the spot should he try to stay behind.

Several of the High Priests chuckled nervously, sending pleading looks in her direction, Bloom. “So, does anyone want to tell me where we are going?” She asked in a very obvious topic change. The atmosphere changed instantly.

“No chance, Bloom.” Aisha answered. “This is a surprise.”

Bloom let out a small sigh and turned to Nereus. “You promised me a lecture on underwater art last time I saw you.” He immediately straightened up and pulled out a small box. Helia leaned over her shoulder, listening just as intently as her, but to be fair, the topic was beyond interesting. Somehow, completely distracted by the theory behind creating paints that could be used underwater, Bloom didn’t notice her surroundings change until they entered the cave. The sudden darkness was offset by the colours in Nereus' hands starting to glow, but it still sent shivers down Bloom's spine.

“We are almost there.” Aisha called over her shoulder from the bow of the ship, where she and Trianus had been the whole journey. The gentle prickle that felt like warm water dripping down her spine made it clear to Bloom that her friend was looking out for her. Sometimes she wondered what she did to deserve them.

“You are wrong, princess.” A voice called from all around them; it sounded like a gentle spring gurgling and the deafening rumble of storms at the same time. “You are there.”

Beneath them the water lit up with colours that reminded Bloom of Daphne. Golds and oranges mixed with cheerful yellows as bubbles rose into the air to slowly form the body of a woman. She looked like a mermaid made from liquid gold, shimmering in light that illuminated the cave. The light she produced revealed the paintings drawn all over the stone ceiling.

“My sisters told me you would come today.” She called out. “My name is Omnia, and I am the door guardian to the ethereal spring. You are all welcome, but be warned.” Omnia’s colours darkened until she looked like she was made from tarnished gold and hardening lava. “All of you will be watched, and should one of you dare to defy my instructions or those of my little sisters.” Around them Bloom noticed dark looks being thrown in Valtor's direction, but it wasn’t him who Omnia was staring at. Her eyes were focused on Bloom. “Then it will have consequences.” Valtor didn’t dignify this with any reaction. Bloom didn’t either, but unlike the sharp indignation that was radiating down their bond from his side, her silence was based in fear.

Omnia broke eye contact first, her body returning to the kind golden facade. “Now, let me welcome you to the ethereal spring.”

Colours exploded all around them as the paintings on the walls and ceiling of the cave came to life. It was as if light hit water, and Bloom realised that it was the same thing that had happened the night of their arrival when the sunrise had lit the dome above the throne room. The figures were dancing and walking and running and swimming in a pattern Bloom couldn’t make sense of. Ever changing, ever moving and beautiful in a breathtaking way that made Bloom itch for oil pastels and some paper. Fingers wrapped around her wrist, pulling her hand from the railing of the ship, and Bloom turned to find Aisha looking down at her.

Her friend looked breathtaking. Bathed in the golden light Omnia was producing and the ever-shifting colours of the paintings, Aisha looked ethereal and majestic. Her face had been painted with gold highlights that made her warm eyes sparkle. The way the water reflected light made her curls ever-shifting and seemingly alive, swimming around her face like tides. The Aisha in front of her was water given form. It was the Aisha Bloom who was best known to someone unbelievable and yet so familiar; it was calming and welcoming.

“Ready?” Aisha asked, and Bloom just nodded. She trusted her friend. Aisha wouldn’t endanger her. So without any second thoughts or protests, Bloom let herself be led across the deck of the ship until they were at the bow, stepping onto a small platform made from Aisha’s morphix.

“Together.” Aisha said, barely audible against the thundering of the whirlpool just beyond the ship.

“Together.” Bloom answered, kicking herself off the boat the exact same second as Aisha did.

***

They had slept. They had eaten. They had worked out and done their homework – which, considering everything, why were they doing this? On Stella's behalf, they had taken the rest of the day off to just…be for a little while. Tecna wouldn’t admit it, but they had needed it. The simple act of existing alongside their friends chatting and catching up with the gossip while doing something they loved just for the fun of it. It had been exactly what they had needed. It had also led to them slipping into their preferred mindset. Where gender wasn’t a thing, and they were just Tecna.

And now, a day later, they were back on their table. Their friends by their side and chatting lively along. Once upon a time, Tecna would have hit the roof from the amount of noise they were working in. It would have been distracting and tiring, and they would have snapped at everyone and just disappeared to find the other people from Zenith to just exist in silence. It no longer felt like a burden to work alongside their friends. It had, sometime during the last five years, become something that grounded them. That allowed them to be as they were while still connecting them to reality. Tecna closed their eyes for a moment, allowing the yawn to slip free before they just basked in the feeling of their friends and the magic of the council library.

Flora’s magic was flowing and ebbing in a way that was startlingly close to Aisha’s but different, more like the movement of plants and trees in wind than those of waves and water currents. It was surprisingly nice for something so uncontrollable.

Musa’s magic right next to Tecna’s was the same as always; for all that they had started off on the wrong foot in their first year, Tecna could really appreciate the way Musa was so very predictable in her magic. It was a simple pattern that mirrored the melody of her people. Songs that Tecna could give a name and organise into feelings and emotions. It was comforting in its repetition and yet just different enough that Tecna needed to pay attention to it at all times to keep up. Musa was the only person in their group that Tecna could actually relax with since she was the only one that was holding onto patterns. Bloom was an unpredictable mix of feelings and power and surprises that was both the most fascinating thing Tecna had seen in her life and so very frustrating. After all, how could it be that after five years of studying and testing and working in a group to understand who Bloom really was, the girl still had surprises in her?

Aisha was the same. Silent waters are deep and all that. Aisha had more power than most people gave her credit for. On top of that, she had a mind for both tactics and improvisation to make it count. For all that water and fire weren’t supposed to mix, Aisha and Bloom were frighteningly good at working together to cause chaos. Or develop things nobody had thought about. Then again, their whole group was something of a strange combination of people that really shouldn’t work as well as they did.

Stella was surprisingly organised beneath all her bluster and I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude. It showed in her magic and the way she had complete control over both her sun and moon magic, even though she had barely any training with the latter.

This combination of powers and secrets and surprises was something Tecna had fallen in love with early on, significantly because of how much they could study the way their magics interacted and mashed. It was an incredibly fascinating process and something too little research had been done about because nobody had thought of studying it before.

“Hey, Tec?” Flora’s voice was gentle, and Tecna only hummed in answer. “What are you thinking about?” Tecna hummed again, this time questioning.

“The screens went dark.” Musa sounded teasing.

“Which usually means that you are contemplating things that will come to haunt us.” Stella snorted, and Tecna opened their eyes to glare at their friend.

“I don’t think Griselda agrees.” They snapped back and watched Stella light up in embarrassment.

“Rude!” She snapped back, but there was humour in her voice. “Is it my fault that she can’t see past your mask?”

Tecna only smiled brighter.

“Is it my fault that you are too incompetent to fly under the radar?” Their friends snickered and giggled, and Stella flipped Tecna off with a huff, the shimmer beneath her skin betraying her amusement.

“For real though, Tec, what were you thinking about?” Musa asked.

“My research.” They answered gently, waking the screens of every device around them.

“You don’t really get to work on that, do you?” Flora asked.

“No, so many other things are more important.” They said and leaned over their laptop to get back to monitoring the magic of the Council Library and Archives.

“Well…” Stella said her shimmer had dulled down, and there was a crease of disapproval between her brows. “Once this is over, I’d say we get back to that experiment schedule you worked up in second year.” Tecna didn’t react to Stella’s words or the answers Musa and Flora gave, but they did smile.

***

Plunging headfirst into a whirlpool of water and colour and light while holding only onto Aisha felt a bit like flying through fireworks. Really not something Bloom would recommend, but just stupid enough to be fun. Then again, she was self-aware enough to know that she was an adrenaline junky and only so much of her biology was actually at fault for that.

That being said, when she had jumped into the water headfirst, Bloom had expected…something. Maybe the need for Aisha’s water breathing spell. Bloom was not at all pissed about the fact that out of all the water dragon traits she had gotten, breathing underwater hadn’t been passed down.

She had expected the shock of cold water. The sharp sting of it hitting her face and the immense pressure of the whirlpool against her body. She even had expected the disorientation of being thrown around like a rag doll, which was why she was holding so tightly onto Aisha.

What Bloom didn’t expect was a mere few dizzying seconds of being underwater before she was breaking through the water's surface, like the Black Pearl in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

“What the fuck?” She gasped, letting go of one of Aisha’s hands to push her bangs back and get the water out of her eyes. Secondary eyelids were nice in theory, but Bloom had been conditioned for over sixteen years that she needed to get water out of her eyes after diving.

Opening her eyes, she was faced with Aisha, just as wet as her but somehow looking even more ethereal. The water dripping down her face made her look like she was dripping with crystals. The way some of her tight curls and coils lengthened with the weight of the water, while others simply repelled the water, was something out of a fairy tale.

“Can you please stop looking so damn gorgeous when you are in water?” Bloom grumbled, trying to get her hair in order. “Some of us look like drowned rats.” Aisha laughed loud and carefree, and it echoed from the walls of the cave they were in like bells.

“Sorry, B, but this is payback for hot climate.” Bloom shoved her friend back underwater and turned to look at this new place they were in.

It was a crystal cave. Turning around on the spot, Bloom realised that the cave above them was almost perfectly round, and dunking her face underwater confirmed that they were in a giant geode. There was a light source coming from somewhere above them. Clearly visible rays of light going in all directions were breaking again and again on the crystals growing all around them, bathing the cave in multi-hued light.

“What is this place, Aisha?” Bloom asked, trying to take in every last facet of it to draw it later on. Before her friend could answer, the crystals beneath them started to glow, and a bubble rose.

“Shit.” Aisha muttered. “Move, B.” Bloom did as she was told, swimming after Aisha towards a large dipyramid crystal, which was sticking out of the water just enough to allow them to climb onto it and sit somewhere drier.

Moments later a large circle made from submerged crystals lit up, and their friends, Aisha’s family and Valtor, were catapulted through. Knowing that she had looked exactly like them, Bloom allowed herself to giggle about the amount of flaying, cursing and gasping every land dweller did, while Aisha’s water family simply dipped down again to swim over to them.

“They will curse you out in a moment.” Tressa said the moment she broke through water.

“That being said, it was hilarious to watch them freak out after you jumped.” Nereus said, his eyes twinkling with no little amount of glee.

“Children…” Ligea scolded gently, but there was a grim satisfaction in her eyes as she watched Valtor struggle with his coat. “The priests will stay behind to watch over the boat and to help us back into it later on.”

“Thank you, Aunt Ligea.” Aisha said softly, her eyes focused down towards the bottom of the geode. Bloom followed her and found Tritannus floating just above the circle at the bottom. Almost motionless, with the exception of his fingers, which were tracing the runes and symbols of the circle. Bloom watched silently as Aisha put her left hand into the water, her fingers glowing with magic. The reaction was instant. Tritannus turned to look up at Aisha, and Bloom had to hold herself back from flinching.

He had changed.

His usually slim and lean body had grown into something larger and bulkier. His tail's colours were much more vibrant than before. It reminded Bloom of her high school biology classes.

The most dangerous animals have the brightest colours.

The startlingly bright combination of red, violet and blue along with the multiple fins and spikes along his tail make him look like something of a nightmare.

“Holy shit.” Bloom whispered, and almost like he had heard her, Tritannus turned towards her. His eyes were glowing in a swirling vortex of reds and violets.

“THE FUCK BLOOM?!” Riven’s angry shout startled Bloom away from the hypnotising gaze of the changed Tritannus, and she was almost relieved. Tritannus, even though he looked like a predator, had looked at her with something Bloom had seen very little of since entering the Magical Dimension: compassion and understanding underplayed with a deep sense of sorrow.

“I thought you got dangerous stunts out of your system after Lynphea and the fights on Solaria settled you?” Riven barked and swam over, clearly ready to start up a whole lecture. Riven, for all his tough-shit behaviour, was the biggest fucking mother hen Bloom knew.

“In my defence…” Helia hissed at her with the same kind of quiet fury while trying to manoeuvre Timmy over to another crystal they could sit on.

“Oh, come on!” Bloom snapped. “What did you expect when Aisha called me over? Besides… I don’t remember any of you asking questions about where we would be going.” The boys had the grace to look embarrassed. “Thought so!” Bloom snapped. “Besides,” she added. “I was holding onto Aisha; do you really think she would have let anything happen to me?”

Nobody had an answer to that. As Bloom suspected, they wouldn’t.

“She is part water dragon.” Valtor's calm voice ripped through the cave, and Bloom blinked at him. “And more than capable of using breathing charms.” Bloom glanced over to Aisha. That was unexpected. He pulled himself onto another crystal, shrugging out of his coat, which left him in his usual shirt and trousers. His usual white shirt. His white shirt, which was soaked through. “So will you all stop yelling about unnecessary dribbles and pay attention to the important things?” Ah, there it was.

“Like what?” Timmy snarled; he was sparking slightly, and Bloom dunked her hand into the water before she could think. Instantly Timmy’s magic, which had sunken into the water, zapped over to her to crawl up her arm. Bloom growled and shivered but refused to stop until Helia smacked Timmy.

“Sorry, B.” Timmy muttered, and Bloom let out a soft keen. They had realised long ago that Bloom didn’t really have any problems with lighting. Thanks to Tecna tending to zap people when startled. It was either her fire powers growing stronger or overexposure to Stormy, but Bloom had grown rather used to calling lightning over to her. After all, what was lightning but the most dangerous and raw version of fire?

“Like the door guardians.” Valtor answered, seemingly ignoring the whole encounter, but Bloom could see the way he was taking in every movement she made.

“You are the first person in a long time to notice us before we reveal ourselves.” A soft voice whispered, and a moment later, seven shiny heads poked out of the water. Bloom knew instantly what they were. Aisha had pointed them out in the mosaic of the throne room.

These small colourful merpeople were selkies. Aside from one of them, they looked nothing like the shapeshifter from Ireland. Only the smallest looked like a baby seal. White fur covered a small tail that had been decorated with various shells, all of which Bloom remembered from her childhood. The selkie's grey hair had been swept back into a bun to keep it out of a beautiful brown face. Bloom was startled to realise that the selkie's hair was held by a pair of tusks. Bloom knew without a doubt that that was the selfie that had once upon a time guarded the deep portal on earth.

“We welcome you to our home.” The selkie from before spoke. “My name is Laro. I am the oldest of our clutch and the guardian of the Andros portal.”

Laro was by far the largest of the selkies; their colours mirrored those Bloom had seen on Tritannus, violet, red and blue mixing in a startling design that made Bloom's head hurt just from looking at them. The most striking feature of the little creature by far was their hood. Laro was the only selkie which didn’t have hair but a fin-like hood and spikes which were moving around their head as if they were alive.

“These are my siblings. Taraka of Solaria.” A brightly coloured selkie smiled softly at them. They didn’t say a word, but Bloom could see the way the light of the cave was playing around them, almost like Stella when she greeted her people.

“Waliyy of Zenith”. The next Selkie was by far the thinnest, reminding Bloom more of an eel than a fish or mammal; their colours were twisting in a way that made them look like living lightning. It didn’t just look like lightning; it was lightning! Bloom didn’t hesitate to snap her hand back into the water. Only this was much more powerful than Timmy. Before she could stop herself, a growl slipped out of her throat, and her hair was lighting itself aflame, shifting through colours. Completely distracted by the lighting, Bloom didn’t notice the fourth selkie getting closer until their fingers closed around Bloom's pointer finger. She startled badly enough that she nearly flung the poor thing into the crystals above them. It was Aisha who plucked the startled selkie out of the air and placed them back into the water.

“Taayin of Domino”. Laro’s voice was gentle, almost sad.

“Oh.” Bloom breathed. The selkie looked like a very fluffy water dragon. The long, almost gangly body and a pair of tiny horns all covered with differently coloured blue and golden fur.

“Hello,” Bloom whispered and offered her hand to Taayin.

They completely ignored Bloom's hand to crawl onto the crystal and curl up in Bloom's lap. Bloom had expected them to be wet, but instead she was presented with warm, dry fur and a gentle croon.

“Mamoru of Melody”. This time when the selkie reached for Bloom's hand, she didn’t startle.

“Thank you.” The little one whispered. “For letting my friends sing again.” Bloom knew without a doubt that Mamoru meant the Singing Wales. They looked a lot like them.

“Wasn’t just me.” Bloom whispered. The selkie only smiled brighter.

“And lastly, the twins. Rai of Earth and Ukit of Lynphea.” Ukit reminded Bloom of one of the underwater creatures from Lynphea that Flora had shown her once. A bit like a rainbow fish but also looking like a plant.

“Thank you for inviting us into your sanctuary.” Aisha answered for them all.

“We are the ones who have to say thank you.” Laro said, and Bloom noticed that two of the selkies were at the bottom of the cave with Tritannus curled around them. “Very few of the old magic users are born to Andros anymore; even fewer find their way to us.”

Bloom blinked, not able to understand what Laro meant. Aisha, on the other hand, seemed to know.

“Tritannus…” She whispered, her eyes seeking her cousin in the water. From the startled shouts of everyone else, it seemed as if this was the moment most of them realised that he had changed.

“He is our mirror.” Lara explained patiently. “Born here because he is one of a pair.” Laro shot Nereus with a meaningful look. “One of them to guide the lost souls to our portal at the bottom of the ocean and protect them on their journey there. The other one to welcome them in the Infinite Ocean.”

“He is the first one to come visit us in a very long time.” Mamoru said softly. “Now that he knows the way, he is welcome at any time; it is more than overdue that he learns how to properly use his magic.”

“His affinity for pollution…” Ligea whispered, her eyes focused on her son.

“A sign that he was meant for the infinite ocean. A sign that he was born for Sirenix.” Taayin piped up from Bloom's lap. “He will not be harmed, but he was never meant to simply learn the way of the Andros people.

"The lost ways.” Rai muttered, their eyes sharp and angry. “Our people lost their way, and none of you are willing to listen to us anymore.”

Bloom just blinked. She wasn’t sure she understood what the Selkies were saying, but the way their pupiless eyes were fixed on every person from Andros sent chills down her spine.

“Enough.” Laro said sharply. “We will have a conversation with our people about that once the priestess and the bridge leave; until then we invite you to dance with us.” Not waiting for any protest, Laro dove beneath the water.

“Use breathing spells; our dances are not meant to be performed above water.” Waliyy advised, and Bloom shared a look with Aisha.

“After you.” Bloom said only to be pulled into the water by Taayin a moment later. She didn’t need to resurface to hear her friend's laughter.

Diving beneath the water put her eye to eye with Tritannus. Bloom instantly froze as the merman, suddenly twice the size she was used to, towered over her. His tail, sharp spikes and bright colours wrapped around her. Not touching, but clearly stopping her from moving away. Frozen beneath the bright red eyes of someone Bloom knew was a friend but wasn’t sure would be able to recognise her, Bloom was desperately thankful to Aisha for drilling the breathing spell into them until they could do it without thinking about it. Which meant for all that Bloom felt as if she was slowly running out of breath, she wasn’t.

“Don’t fear him.” Taayin whispered and curled around Bloom's shoulders. Tritannus' eyes jumped away from Blooms, and she dared to take a breath. Bubbled streamed out of her mouth and pulled his eyes back to her. A moment later his giant hand reached out to her. Even though he looked like he could crush her by just looking at her – seriously, he had grown by at least six feet and developed muscles that would look ridiculous on anyone else – his hand was gentle as it cupped her cheek. His hand, which was the size of Bloom's torso– hip to neck.

“When the portal opens.” Tritannus said, and Bloom realised that his voice, at least, was still the same. “You will be the first I’ll allow to cross.” Bloom met his eyes and remembered all the stories Aisha had told them and the legends of the merpeople that Tressa, Nereus and Tritannus had told them over the months they had spent trying to help Andros against Valtor.

The Hippocampus made their realm for those weary of the Magical Dimension. For those who have been wronged over and over again and never been allowed to feel anything about that. They made their realm so that those people can rage and nothing can be destroyed. So that no more blame or fault can be put on those who need Hippocampus help.

“When.” Bloom whispered and felt Taayin wrap tighter around her shoulders. Their tiny claws diving into Bloom's shoulders and drawing blood. “When not if?” Bloom repeated and wrapped her fingers around his thumb. It was big enough that she couldn’t wrap them around it completely. This wasn’t the first time she was giving this promise, and it wouldn’t be the last, yet she would never hesitate to give it.

“Come and dance with us then.” Tritannus whispered and pointed to a particular crystal that, on a second look, wasn’t a crystal at all but a doorway. “The hall of stars is waiting for us.” Bloom didn’t let go of Tritannus, holding tightly onto his thumb, simply letting him pull her through the water. What she did do was turn around and hold out a hand for Aisha. Her friend, who had been just behind her, smiled and took her hand.

The crystals of the passage Tritannus pulled them into lit up ever so slightly as they passed through.

When… not if!

Chapter Text

“Ready?” Aisha asked, her eyes gleaming with delight. Beneath them– like sharks in the water– were Aisha’s cousins, hackling and shouting up at them. As Aisha had promised Bloom, her friend had woken her up early that morning to make the short trip up the coast to the White Cliffs.

The boys had come along, and this time the Trix did too. Bloom could see the three of them and Valtor leaning against the railing of the boat's lower deck. Aisha’s parents were sitting on the top deck with some of the priests chatting softly but glancing up at them occasionally. Valtor's eyes were on her, and there was a mix of boredom, resignation and intrigue simmering in their bond. Darcy and Stormy were enjoying the drinks that the boat's staff had mixed up– well, Stormy's drink at least; Darcy was handy with them herself and had taught her favourites to the staff– while Icy was chatting to Tritannus, who wasn’t really paying attention to Aisha and Bloom at all.

Since their whole plan for the week had been changed by the Selkies yesterday, Aisha had made some compromises: they were allowed one jump from the White Cliffs, after which they would move on to the Bridge Cities– a collection of cities built for both the ocean and the land-dwelling people of Andros. Bloom had seen pictures of them, and it was a complex system of magic, tunnels, handmade rivers and aqueducts that allowed merpeople to swim over the surface and the land-dwelling people to walk underwater without getting wet or the use of breathing charms.

“Ready.” Bloom answered, taking a few more steps back. Like the stories promised, the White Cliffs were surrounded by breathtakingly clear water, which hid just how deep the water beneath the cliffs truly was. According to Aisha, it was well over 30 metres deep, and yet, Bloom could see the soft sand at the feet of the cliffs. So jumping down these cliffs was both nothing, since they were barely ten metres high – nothing compared to the old-growth mountain waterfall or the stunts Bloom had done in the past– and yet there was something uniquely breathtaking and adrenaline-inducing in this jump.

“One,” Aisha whispered, and Bloom tensed, moving her feet until she felt comfortable in her stance.

“Two.” Bloom said, leaning forwards and tensing her whole body, ready to start sprinting. Aisha rolled her shoulders back, ever the relaxed athlete who was comfortable and confident in her abilities.

“Three!” They called together and started running.

For a moment everything was normal, just them running towards a cliff. Challenging each other by ever so slightly going faster, therefore pulling before the other. It was exhilarating and brilliant, and then the cliff ended, and Bloom got a look down into the water.

The ocean floor was way too close. Everything in Bloom– her head, her instincts and the dragon in her– was screaming at her that this wasn’t safe, that she would hit the ground the moment she hit the water and would end up with broken legs, if not worse.

The quick movements of Aisha’s cousins in the water woke something else in Bloom, and her dragon – already unsettled– roared in her mind. The noise echoing through her head and chest was a strange mix of anger, defensiveness, delight and something older. The sharp posturing of someone seeing their sibling too close after a fight or simply because they were startled. All of that happened the moment after Bloom had already jumped. Her throat closed up, so all she could do was make a strangled sound as gravity grabbed for her, plummeting down into the water. The sharp flash of her hair igniting in a mix of colours was less expected, but by then Bloom was already in the water.

***

“You ok?” Timmy called and reached down to pull Bloom out of Nereus’s arms.

“Yeah…” Bloom croaked, still fighting to get her hair out of her face. “Just…monkey brain.”

She had explained earth biology and its many different theories to her friends once, which thankfully meant that she didn’t need to do it right now. Especially since she wasn’t sure she would be able to do that in her current state.

Her hair, soaking wet yet half burning still, was a mess. She had learnt quickly that firehair and water did not mix and only ended in the worst kind of tangles and twists. She had expected that thought; the way her knees gave out under her when Timmy set her down on the deck was less expected.

“Shit.” Bloom cursed and let Timmy lead her over to a bench, where she collapsed gratefully.

“Proving once again that the White Cliffs are nothing for tourists!” Aisha chirped as she was climbing onto the deck.

“Oh, shut up!” Bloom snarled through her chattering teeth. She was shaking all over, and even the quick-drying spell Aisha levelled at her didn’t help that. The subtle heating spell that came from her left did help a bit, not much but a bit. Thankfully her friend didn’t dry her hair, which would have ended in a disaster they would still be combing through by the time they reached Eraklyon.

“It’s just an adrenaline crash.” Bloom wouldn't admit it, but a healthy dose of panic was also present. “Too much in too little time, that’s all.” Bloom whispered, silently taking the thick towel Riven was handing her. Valtors' heat spell helped, but that monkey part of her brain really liked the idea of having something to wrap around her.

“B…” Riven started. Bloom shot him a look; she would not get into this right now.

“Ok, all of you move! Bloom needs space.” Aisha ordered; Nabu, listening to his girlfriend's tone, managed to move the boys away from the bench Bloom was sitting on. Valtor stayed to her left, just far enough to not be a bother but still close. Bloom didn’t draw any attention to it, even though she knew that Aisha noticed.

“We are going to swim ahead, Aisha.” Tressa called from where she had propped herself on the ladder leading up the boat. “See you at Bridge in an hour!” Aisha waved her off and then shouted something onto the top deck. A moment later the boat started moving, and then Aisha took a seat next to Bloom.

“The water?” Bloom nodded silently.

“And your cousins.” She admitted. “I just…it looked so damn close.”

“Yeah… I know, and even though we looked down the cliff before– the moment you jumped, it was…”

“Too close.” Bloom agreed. “My dad made me talk to some professional cliff and high divers when I first started. They were frank with me. Dragon, they showed me some videos of them or other professionals not jumping right or misjudging something and just how badly it ended…”

“When you jumped, all of that came back.”

“Yeah… and your cousins woke my dragon even further.” Bloom admitted, which earned her a sharp look from her friend. “I don’t know, it just felt as if …remember when Flo told us about the fights she would have with Miele or her cousins sometimes? It felt exactly like that. I wanted to jump them while just needing to get the fuck away from them at the same time.”

They just sat like that for a long moment, Bloom still shaking with Aisha’s shoulder pressing into hers.

“So this was a one-time thing?” Aisha asked after a long moment.

“Dragon, no!” Bloom whispered back. “We are going to do this again.”

Aisha threw her head back and cackled.

***

The numbers on her screen were easy and clear. The unknown magic source was playing with them. Tecna stared at the charts and tried to understand. Every single one of her friends had been able to get closer and closer to the source. At this point all three of them were swearing that they could see something that looked exactly like the descriptions of the creature the confessional was based on. Stella had even been able to see something like a door for a few moments before it had disappeared. Tecna could trace that happening. The numbers had almost tripled before they just disappeared from right in front of Stella. Yet Tecna hadn’t been able to get so much as a trace of the confessional or even the signature. It was slowly driving them mad.

“At it again?” Flora’s soft voice cut through their thoughts, and Tecna looked up from their screen to watch their friend sit down next to them.

“Anything from Aisha and Bloom?” Tecna asked back, knowing full well that Flora would see through them with ease.

“They just jumped from the White Cliffs. Bloom’s a bit rattled by the whole thing. Apparently it’s a lot worse the first time, even if you know what’s coming.”

“Mhm…” Tecna hummed, scrolling through the data again.

“Bounce it on me.” Flora said, making Tecna look up at their friend with disbelief.

“Flo”

“No, I mean it; bounce your thoughts on me. We both know that you can get into your head easily, so just tell me your thoughts, and maybe we will get somewhere. We have been at this for almost a week, and you are going crazy!” Tecna bit their lip and let out a sigh.

“Fine.” They whispered and moved their screen so Flora could see it better. “I’m pretty sure that this is either a game or some sort of test from the Confessional.”

“Yeah,” Flora said and looked just as pissed as Tecna felt. “We are all tired of this.”

“So that is why you are out here?” Tecna teased back, and Flora shoved them softly.

“Don’t you dare!”

“Ok… So it’s been showing itself to each of you, but each time I get close, it just disappears. Which you can see in the way the numbers just cut off here.”

“It also did it here, with Stella, right?” Flora said and pointed at the window of data that was depicting the door incident.

“Yeah, that was when she said she saw a face and then a door.”

“So it definitely happened, but whatever it was seeking,”

“It wasn’t Stella.” Tecna agreed.

“So…what's next?”

“Well, we could just keep going like this…” Tecna started hearing their own hesitance and the sharp tone of frustration in their own voice. ”

“Yeah, no.” Flora said, shaking her head sharply. “None of us want to keep going like this. It’s getting old, and I am very much done with it.”

“I mean, at this point I have enough data that I can track it with just a drone, but I am also sure that this won’t work either.”

“Why?” Flora asked.

“I have been leaving drones in the archive whenever we go to sleep or eat. There are no recordings of its magical signature.”

“At all?”

“Nope, nothing.”

“So it definitely needs a person to respond to, or it will just hide away?”

“Yeah, that’s what I have been thinking too. I just need to figure out which one of you it will react to.” Tecna huffed, frustration rising again. “Stella isn’t it as we have seen.” They pointed to the door incident. "I don’t know if Aisha could be it, you or Musa or Bloom. If it’s Bloom or Aisha, we are in trouble; they won’t be back for at least another month.” Tecna growled lowly in their throat and dug their fingers into their hair. It just didn’t make any sense. Why was this so difficult? Like they understood that this wasn’t supposed to be easy, but this was just…

“Why not you?” Flora asked, stopping Tecna short and making them snort humourlessly.

“Yeah, no. I think at this point we all know that it doesn’t want me. Or how am I supposed to understand all those instances where it just disappeared after I got close?”

Flora blinked once then frowned. Her eyes were flickering over the screen of Tecna’s laptop, and Tecna watched their friend. “What?”

“It’s just… Did you ever approach those readings alone?” Tecna blinked.

“What?”

“It’s just…you said that you need to find the person the confession is reacting to, right?” Tecna nodded, and Flora hummed again, clearly encouraged. “It’s just…since we started this, every time we got readings, it was one of us alone, right?” Tecna nodded again, not really understanding what their friend was going on about.

“You are the only person aside from Bloom who has never been alone in the archives since we started actively searching for the Confessional.” Tecna blinked.

“Huh?”

“I mean, think about it. You were always either on the stairs, recording the readings and analysing them, or you were coming to one of us. Not once have you been down there looking for the Confessional by yourself.”

“Are you saying the thing is shy?”

“I mean, do we even know if it can show itself to more than one person?”

Tecna wasn't sure what to say to that. Quickly they thought back to the book they had first heard about the Confessional, which was all the information they had.

“There is no indication about that.” They muttered. “All we have is that it will seek out a person new to the Council to get a secret from them in exchange for them getting their position.”

“Right… So let’s say only one person can see the confessional at the time. Every time you tried to see it, you got close to one of us.”

“Which would mean it can detect and analyse magical signatures.” Tecna picked up where her friend had led her to.

“Possible.” Flora agreed. “What I know for sure is that you never just went looking by yourself… well, in person. You always had either us or your drones look for it. Maybe you just need to go down and seek it out. I mean…we do know that this is some kind of game for the confessional.”

Tecna just stared at their friends.

“You are a wonder, Flora of Lynphea.” They whispered and pressed a quick kiss onto her cheek before getting up.

“Tell the others not to wait for me.” Tecna called over their shoulder as they speed-walked away from A’sha’s house. They didn’t dare to run; they and their friends had gotten one lecture about that from a Callisto librarian early on in this whole madness, and none of them wanted to experience that again.

“I’m going to be down in the archive!” If Flora said anything after that, Tecna didn’t hear it as they rounded a shelf.

***

“Now this! This was exactly what I imagined the Magical Dimension would be like!” Bloom said as she stared at the city that had been built into a lagoon. The white houses contrasted with the dark stone of the island and the black beach and made it look almost like a fairy tale.

“Welcome to the Bridge City.” Aisha proclaimed loudly, visibly preening with delight. “It’s name comes from the many connection points between the upper city, which was built by the land-dwelling people, and the underwater city, which was built by the merpeople. Over time, through trading and later on, relationships between the people of the two cities, they built ways to connect the cities with one another until they started looking like this. The main connections are the water or air tunnels which are easier to traverse for both land and merpeople since they can be used in both directions. While the waterfalls and jump points are one way, and the elevators have a limited capacity.”

“Is it really the oldest city on the whole planet?” Timmy asked, leaning over the side of the boat to get a closer look, even as they neared the harbour.

“Yes and no. The oldest cities on the planet are those in the deep parts of the ocean. The merpeople are the older part of our civilisation; the land people only developed through some quirk of magic and some inter-planet relationships.” Aisha explained. “It is the oldest city that connects both land and merpeople. The first, in fact. We can trace my family's lineage back to the first inhabitant of this city. She was a fairy of the water who married the third-born daughter of the then queen of the mermaids, and they built a house half in the water and half above the surface to be together.”

“Cool.” Bloom muttered and watched several merpeople swim through a glass tube high above their heads that connected the higher parts of the lagoon with the water. The whole island was a mix of beaches, cliffs and plateaus. All of which had at least one pool and a lot of vegetation. The city beneath the water was built from the dark stone that the cliffs were made of and had white markings and patterns painted on them that made it look as if the bottom of the ocean was one giant art piece. Unlike the White Cliffs, the water was much less clear, making it impossible to look deeper than a few metres, which in turn made the markings stand out even more. This, of course, didn’t hide the merpeople or the brightly lit air tunnels running between the black houses.

“Wait till you see it in the dark.” Aisha said, her eyes focused on the large lighthouse that was marking the entrance to the harbour. Bloom stared at her friends and narrowed her eyes.

“That’s it!” She declared in a voice close to a growl. Instantly she could feel Valtor's eyes on her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the boys straighten. “The first thing we do once we are through with all the introductions is getting me a sketchbook and paint.”

Aisha blinked once and then turned her head. “What?”

“Ish… For the last three days I have been presented with one incredible sight after another. I like taking pictures, but this is it! I’m going to get a sketchbook and paint, and tonight you are going to get me to the best vantage point and let me paint!”

“Hand over your money, boys.” Bloom heard Nabu whisper from behind them and instantly whirled around to stare them down.

“Did you bet on this?” She hissed.

“Yep.” Nabu confirmed as he counted the bills that Timmy, Helia and Riven had handed him. “Riven said you would crack on Melody, Helia said Lynphea and Timmy said Solaria. Brandon and I said Andros, and Sky said Earth. Which means he owes me money too.”

“At least they didn’t bet over something stupid we would do.” Aisha muttered.

“We did!” The boys called but didn’t elaborate. Bloom didn’t ask any more questions, just rolled her eyes and turned back to the lighthouse. On the walkway next to it, a small group of people had collected; some of them remained in the water, some sat on the pier, their tails and legs in the water, while others simply stood there.

“Eldest Noibh and the Council of the Bridge City alongside some of the Water Dragon council.” Aisha whispered, and as if that had been a cue, a long thrill sounded from beneath them. A large, thin body rose from the water next to their boat. Bloom's breath caught at the sight.

It was a water dragon, by far the biggest she had ever seen. White and silver scales twinkled in the sunlight, and the effect was multiplied by the water that was slowly dripping off them. Thin, strong fins grew along its back and around its head the colour of sunlight. Without thinking much about it, Bloom followed the long body until she reached the bow of the ship and was staring into a pair of bright golden eyes. Eyes full of intelligence and recognition. The face of the dragon surrounded by thin material that wasn’t hair but also not really fins rose from the water and got closer until it was just in reach for Bloom to touch.

“Hello,” Bloom whispered, reaching out to let her fingers drift over the warm scales of the dragon.

Hello, Queen. The dragon answered, their voice echoing in her head. A moment later they pulled back and let out a long sharp sound that reminded Bloom of a whale calling for its pod. The call was answered instantly by a hundreds of voices. Bloom turned ready to run back to the back of the boat but was stopped by something that gently pulled on her hair. She turned to see the dragon let go of her hair.

Let me show you. They said and lowered their snout so Bloom could just step onto it if she climbed onto the railing. She did so without thinking about it. Faintly she heard the protests of her friends, but by then the dragon was rising out of the water, and their voices were drowned out by the rush of wind. The dragon stopped what had to be fifty meters above the water surface, making it possible for Bloom to see the whole island and the incredible amount of water dragons in the water beneath them. Most of them didn’t get close to the city; only the giant white dragon and a few smaller ones were in the lagoon. The rest of them, hundreds if not thousands of them, were just outside of the lagoon, coiling beneath the surface or sticking their heads out of it. Long, snakelike trees were right next to winged water dragons, who were next to some type of dragon Bloom had never seen before– they looked like fishes and whales. It was a beautiful rainbow of colours moving beneath the water.

You called for us, Queen. The white giant said gently. And we came.

“I called?” Bloom whispered, unable to take her eyes off the number of dragons she was seeing. She knew that at least a quarter of them had to be Dragonborn.

This morning. You called; the whole ocean lit up with it.

Bloom blinked and turned to look at the white giant, trying to understand what they were talking about. This morning. All she had done was…the cliffs, her hair…

“Oh,” Bloom whispered and turned again. “I didn’t call on purpose.” She admitted. “I jumped the White Cliffs and got scared.”

We do not mind. The white giant said, and their voice was even gentler. The stars told us that the mourning was over, and our siblings on land told us the fires were telling them of a new priestess, but we didn’t truly believe until you called the ocean for help.

“How many of you can come to land?” She asked softly.

Are you asking about the Dragonborn? Bloom nodded, and the white giant hummed. The action shaking Bloom’s whole body.

Many of them. It is good, though, that you travelled to the Bridge City; many of the young ones were born with a tail and no legs. Bloom blinked with disbelief at that. It had never occurred to her that Dragonborn would be restricted to one shape outside of their dragon form. Then again, she wasn’t sure what she had expected from the water dragonborn.

Either way, you will have to call them, or they will just guard the city.

Bloom nodded once and then hesitated. “How do I call for them?”

How did you do it last time?

Bloom thought about it last time she had panicked and just reached. She hadn’t thought about anything when she had jumped that morning. There hadn't been intent behind her actions. So maybe…

Bloom looked down at her hands.

Flames.

She had been burning when she hit the water, which had lit up the whole ocean, and she was guessing her magic had been easily detectable for her people. So maybe…

“Are you fireproof?” She asked, and the white giant snorted.

I am older than your grandmother, Queen. Bloom took that as a yes, and without another thought, she summoned her flames. It was a gentle orange flame at first. The small thing she could hold in her palms. A simple thought let the flames reach for her fingers, and then it was a matter of seconds until her whole body was wrapped in flames. Bloom gasped at the feeling. It was different than before; it… it reminded her of the heart of the mountain. When she had been surrounded by the forge fires and sprites and magma of the Solarias Mountains. It felt like her…like this was just another part of her and not something she had to actively trigger.

Like this queen. Lead us home; show them that you will welcome them should they seek you out.

Bloom opened her arms, letting her flames grow, both in intensity and size. Bloom closed her eyes and allowed the feeling of flames to fill her and mix with the anticipation and joy and contentment she was feeling. She was meeting her people. They had come here because they thought that she might need them. They had come without any proof, just the feeling of panic.

A single call pierced the air. It was a soft and joyful song, and Bloom felt it rattle in her bones.

I see you. It said. I can hear you. It was saying, and then another joined it.

I can not wait. This one whispered. Then another and another until there was a chorus of calls. Some like whales, some like dolphins and some like sounds Bloom had never heard before. She simply spread her arms wider and smiled. She knew without a doubt that it was burning and shining a warm and deep violet.

***

“Holly shit…” Riven breathed. Bloom wanted to agree with her friend, but all she could do was to stare in disbelief as the priests kept increasing the difficulty of their twists, flips and vaults all while holding ceremonial swords, spears and tridents. Aisha and Nabu are right in the middle, moving with them and evidently also steering the whole thing.

“I know people always look to me when it comes to fighting, but I have the advantages of genetics. Aisha is just talent and dedication.” Bloom whispered, and as if on cue, Nabu turned in a way that ended with him on his hands and knees– ducking a sword in the process– which allowed Aisha to use his back as a ramp, and in the next second she was sailing through the air to land on the shoulders of a priest.

“This is some Bollywood-level stuff.” Bloom giggled and saw the boys nodding next to her.

“What kind of stuff?” Stormy hissed, and Bloom twisted slightly. “It’s a movie industry on Earth. It is famous for its dances and music.” It was the easiest way of explaining Bollywood without starting a whole lecture about continents, what India was and the movie industry on earth.

“Ok…” Stormy answered, looking ever so slightly put out and intrigued.

The music, a lively mix of drums and flutes, ended, so Bloom pushed the witch to the back of her mind in favour of applauding her friends.

“Dragon, that was amazing!” Bloom hollered and watched how the priests stood a little bit straighter with the praise, while Aisha grinned cheekily.

“Duh!” She handed the ceremonial trident off to one of the priests with a grateful nod. Aisha, with the ease of someone who had grown up on boats, walked back over to them, completely nonplussed by the shaking of the wooden platforms that had been placed in the water. The people of the Bridge city had prepared a varying display of their skills. So far Bloom had seen several water magic users combining their powers to tell the legend of the bridge city. The merpeople of the underwater city had performed a dance beneath the water with the help of the glowing fish that inhabited the lagoon, and of course there had been the display of the priests. Not even talking about the crafts; everyone had shown up on their way here. Aisha hadn’t originally meant to be part of the priests' display, but it had turned out that Nabu had been training with the priests, and he had asked Aisha to join them. Everything else was history.

“I missed exploring the magical dimension like this.” Bloom admitted to her friend watching silently as the mayors of the Bridge city took up their position on the central platform.

“As many of you have noticed, the water dragons have been visiting our city.” Mayor Ka’a said her smile was bright and teasing. Bloom felt herself blush as the people around them started giggling. The whole city had found a seat in the large amphitheatre that had been built on the other side of the island. The stone steps ended about a metre in the water, which allowed the merpeople to have a seat too, while the land dwellers sat higher. In addition to that, there were several rocks peeking out of the water that had been masoned in a way to allow merpeople to sit on them. In combination with the slowly sinking sun behind the performers, it was something out of a fairy tale.

“As such, we have asked them to perform one of the old dances that tell the story of friendship between Domino and Andros.” Mayor Nika of the underwater city explained, and Bloom perked up instantly.

“We have to ask the people in the lower rows and on the rocks to either agree to being placed under a protective charm or to relocate to a higher tier. As the water dragons have informed us that this dance, even though it will be performed farther out in the water than anything we have seen today, can summon waves and tides that would endanger you.” Mayor Nina went on.

“We will give everyone a few minutes to make their decisions, although we would advise everyone to go to a higher seat either way, since this performance will have a greater impact if viewed from higher up.” Mayor Ka’a explained, and instantly people stood up and migrated higher.

“The high priests have prepared the pools on the fifteenth and twentieth rows for those merpeople who would like to take that offer.” Nika added.

“Are we moving?” Bloom asked quietly. They had found a place closer to the water so that it was easier for Aisha’s water family to stay with them.

“The protection charm they were talking about is something old.” Tritannus said. He had been quiet all day, but at the same time he seemed to be livelier than before. Last night he had been taken to the Selkies again, this time accompanied by Nereus; when they had come back, the twins had looked calm and happy. Nereus too had changed. It wasn’t as obvious, but his tail had coloured similarly to Tritannus's, but much more muted. Today there was nothing left of the change, and Bloom was pretty sure that it was either proximity to the selkies or the crystal cave.

“It’s good, and unlike the charms that have been developed by outsiders, this charm doesn’t fog up or have water clinging to it.”

“This doesn’t happen to be the truesight spell, does it?” Valtor asked, leaning over Bloom's shoulder to look at Tritannus below her. Bloom barely managed to not turn around and slap him. The flinch – she couldn’t do anything against it. Judging from the way Tritannus instantly bristled and the way his siblings were gripping their weapons, Bloom knew where their thoughts were going.

“He can not steal any magic.” Bloom muttered slowly. “His leash is too short for that.” His head snapped around to glare at her, and the force of it made his hair brush against her cheek. She heard the siblings snort and turned her own head to stare back at him, which put them almost nose to nose. It was the closest they had gotten in a while. “If he wants to learn a new spell, he has to do it like us lowly mortals and ask someone to show him and then knuckle down and study.” Bloom said, smiling brightly and keeping eye contact. “Am I right, husband?” She asked sweetly and enjoyed the sharp twitch of his lower eyelid.

“Yes…” He gritted out, and without thinking about it, Bloom reached up and patted his cheek once before she pushed his face back. Her friends resolved in peals of helpless laughter.

“Now…I take it we will stay down here?” Her friends agreed, and Aisha stood up to motion one of the priests over to them. They weren’t the only ones who remained in their original seats, so it took only a moment for the priest to finish applying the charm to a group of teenagers before he came over to them.

“You will remain down here, your majesty, your highnesses?” He asked, and they all nodded. “Very well, when I apply the charm. It will look like you are surrounded by a bubble. This will fade a few moments after I finish, so you have a clear view. Should the dragon dance create waves that could threaten to pull you out of your seats or hinder your sight, the bubble will stop the water from reaching you while simply looking like a clear barrier. Any questions?”

Valtor did have some, and the priest hesitated until both Aisha nodded and Bloom explained again that he had to actively learn new spells for the priest to answer them. Which ended up in a spirited discussion about the spell and its mechanics that pulled Bloom in too. The discussion ended when another priest came over and told them to finish up; they were holding up the start of the show. The priest blushed ever so slightly, applied the charm and disappeared up the steps.

“Have you seen this before?” Bloom registered only a moment later that she had spoken. Judging by the silence in their bubble, everyone was just as surprised as her.

“Once”, Valtor muttered. There was something in his voice. Longing, awe, maybe even joy. Bloom wasn’t sure. She didn’t dare to touch their bond, but she wanted to.

Movement in the distance caught her attention, and Bloom pushed all thoughts about Valtor from her head to look at the water that was starting to swirl and move. It built slowly from the movement of the waves; it was most likely a whirlpool that the water dragons were creating. In the next moment something rose from the water; at first Bloom was sure that it was a giant flying fish, then her mind caught up and provided her with the right term.

“Amphithere”, she whispered. A snakelike dragon with wings and no other limbs. More and more Amphitheres followed the first one out of the water, turning into a mesmerising pattern in the air. They were sweeping and diving down into the whirlpool only to emerge a second later.

“Water dragons”. Riven breathed, pointing out the back fins rising out of the water around the whirlpool. Gold, red, blue, violet, and fins of every colour Bloom could think about and more cut through the water surface only to dip back beneath it a second later.

“I get why they told us to go higher.” Tressa muttered. “The pattern they must form.”

“Their scales will be clearly visible.” Nereus muttered in agreement.

Water crashed against their bubble, making Bloom blink at Icy’s flinch. Right, the dam in their second year, the Trix probably didn’t have the best memories of water.

What had before been the gentle lapping of tiny waves had turned into sharp waves that were growing in height with every second.

Another body rose from the water, this one more like the classical European dragons. Four limbs and wings in addition to giant fins all over its body.

“Mixed lines?” Aisha asked, and Bloom nodded as she watched the dragon take flight. The membranes of their wings were so thin the light of the setting sun was filtering through them, throwing beautiful multi-hued shadows in different green tones.

A much smaller dragon, no wyvern, followed the first one out of the water, dancing up the spine of the bigger dragon and using their nose as a diving board to get even higher. Bloom felt the magic in the air before she saw the flames. The smaller dragon – bright red with soft golden spots that were glittering in the sunlight – was sparkling and shimmering with magic, and then just as they reached the zenith of their jump, they unfolded their wings and breathed out a single deep blue flame.

The ocean exploded in colours. All Bloom could do was gasp for air and watch as more and more water dragons, wyverns, amphitheres and dragons of mixed heritage rose from the ocean with incredible speed, turning the surface of the ocean into a column of mist and water drops, all of which were reflecting the sunlight and the flames breathed by those dragons capable of it.

The magic was breathtaking and all-encompassing. It was like a blanket that was slowly settling around Bloom, making her feel warmth and a hug, and she really, really wanted to cry. Bloom felt the desperate need to throw herself forwards, to fling herself into the ocean and wait until one of the dragons would notice her and pull her down.

It wasn’t malicious magic, though; it was the incessant touch of her mum, who was telling her to go to bed after spending half the night drawing. It was the sharp tone of her dad telling her junior group of firefighters to get the fuck away.

The thrall wasn’t there to hurt them; it was an extension of the ancient healing magic that the Hypocampus had once woven. It was there to guide them down to the portal through it to help them find peace.

It wasn’t until a hand clapped around both of her elbows that Bloom realised that she was getting to her feet.

“Do not!” Valtor commanded, his voice harsh, but Bloom could see the same longing in his eyes as she could feel in her.

What had he seen? In all the millennia that he had been awake? What all was the human shell hiding, and what had the demon lurking beneath experienced that the shell couldn’t survive? Bloom wondered suddenly and sharply if the Hypocampus would allow him to enter their realm. If she would offer him the same opportunity to heal as Tritanus had promised her. Valtor pulled her back down but didn’t let go of her arms. Bloom opened her mouth to say something she was sure of; she just wasn’t sure what she would say when a sound like a thunderclap rose in the air.

A moment later the white giant rose from the centre of the whirlpool, and Bloom realised that she could see the magic the dragons had been weaving. It was a delicate net of magic woven to be seen and understood. This was the might of the dragons and Dragonborn; this was water and fire working together in perfection and unison. Bloom stared as the white pearlescent scales of the white giant reflected the magic, sunlight and the light reflected by the mist into something else. For a moment it looked like her mother. The great dragon was dancing through the mist and light above the water's surface, bright, happy and unburdened. Bloom longed to touch her. To call out for her mother in magic. Bloom wanted, just for a moment, to touch and feel the connection.

A giant wave crashed over them, and for the seemingly endless moment that they all were underwater, something else looked back at them. Glowing like a reverse northern light were the dragons that had hidden beneath the water, twisting and twirling together, bouncing magic along their scales and trapping it into the air bubbles that were catapulted down into the ocean to form something else.

The strong muscular body of the Hypocampus was dancing through them. Aisha let out a strangled sound, and this time it was her who was rising.

Without thinking, Bloom jerked free to reach for her friend, Nabu doing the same from Aisha’s other side.

“It’s just an image.” Bloom whispered. She knew what it was like to have the real Great Dragon before her. To feel the weight of her mother’s magic, not just the impression of it, her children could create. “She’s not here; it’s how they remember her.” Bloom whispered harshly. A moment later the water sank back down, and it was over. Within seconds the ocean calmed down, the mist settled and everything just stopped. The dragonkind returned to the ocean, hundreds of heads poking out of the water to stare at them. Aisha hiccuped and gripped so tightly Nabu's hand that he hissed in pain.

“How do I break it?” Bloom asked.

“What?” Her friends asked.

“The bubble, how do I break it?” She asked again. Bloom felt the disbelieving eyes of everyone on her, but she also knew that this wasn’t over. “This dance.” Bloom whispered. “It isn’t done. Something is missing…”

“Step out of it.” Valtor said, and Bloom just nodded; without thinking, she pulled Aisha with her, down the steps and into the water that was covering the last two steps. She stopped just shy of the edge, turning back around to Aisha.

“Remember in second year, when you taught me about water dragons?” Bloom asked and felt Aisha’s grip on her tighten. “Remember when you told me that Domino and Andros used to be allies, friends, siblings? When they exchanged culture and gifts as well as their knowledge, because we used to be siblings?”

Aisha’s nod was tiny and broken, but Bloom could see her friend’s aura. Could see the hope and the joy. Bloom could see the tears in Aisha’s eyes.

“Dance with me, Sha. Dance with me along the waves just like you promised me you would. Let’s finish this like we are supposed to do.”

And Aisha laughed. It was watery and sad, but it was real, and joy was creeping into it as Bloom raised her foot and stood on top of the water.

“But I am Jesus.” Bloom whispered, earning another laugh.

“Yes, you are.” Aisha muttered, stepping back onto the water– like Bloom– forcing her to stumble off the edge. She felt the magic take hold, felt it race through her and solidify on her feet. Felt the way it changed her and allowed her to do the same impossible feat her friend was doing. Bloom was walking above the water.

Right until she wasn’t walking anymore; instead, she was twirling and ducking, moving with Aisha in a dance her friend had taught her nearly four years ago. A dance that had been in both of their blood. They twirled and danced and moved over the water as if it was a dance floor under the combined eyes of dragons and people.

Bloom didn’t care about the eyes watching and the cameras she knew would be pointed at them. She didn’t care about the giant bodies moving beneath them, just under the surface of the water circling them and watching every step. Because she had Aisha, whose hands were always holding at least one of Bloom's hands. Bloom could feel their magic as they mingled together wherever they touched. Dancing over their skins and forming into something they had never before dared to summon. Fire sprung from Bloom's hands; Aisha pulled water from beneath her; their magic clashed and twisted together.

Once upon a time, Domino and Andros had been the Hypocampus and the Great Dragon. Once upon a time they had been siblings dancing through the endless cosmos, and where they had touched, where their dance had met, their magic had created planets. Once upon a time they had been siblings, and then they had been separated. Once upon a time they had been free, but now both of them were trapped, but that wasn’t important at that moment.

Because they were dancing together. Their magics mingled and joined in ways that had been deemed impossible.

For once they were just Bloom and Aisha. Siblings in magic, who had found each other and chosen to stay together. For once they were just happy, and as the ocean and sky of Andros bloomed with magic that had long been called impossible, they danced and laughed, and in their voices there was the roaring of a dragon and the neighing of the Hypocampus.

For they were together, and they didn’t have to worry about anything but the next step.

***

So much for rule number one…

Tecna thought as they were walking through the silent rows of shelves that made the archive. It was the first time that they were alone down here, without any of their friends nearby. Several of their drones were drawing lazy circles right above them, and Tecna took their comfort from them. They knew that this was a stupid decision and at the very least they should have given Flora the time to inform their friends about their plan before they entered the archive. Rule one and all, but Tecna had known that Flora was right, that the whole game would be over if Tecna just got down here on their own. They knew that tonight they would either find the confessionary or know that they weren’t supposed to find it at all. Either way, Tecna would get an answer tonight. They would also be yelled at; once Stella truly understood what Tecna was doing, all of their friends would have words for them, but most of them would be Stella.

Stella had lost so much from the day she had been born. Stella, who had lost her culture and her family, was watching how more of both was taken from her. Tecna sighed and veered down another random corner. Ducking between shelves. For all that Stella was loud and brash and acting as if she could do anything on her own, she was also terrified of being left. Of her friends leaving her like the people in her life had done.

Stella had told them all of her cousins, aunts and uncles –her mother’s siblings and their children– who had been born on Umbra Luna. Those who had been born with moon magic and refused to bow before the Fostering. Stella had told them how they had slowly disappeared– one after another– her aunts, uncles and zizi first, then their partners and spouses. Lastly, how her cousins had been fostered and then stopped replying to letters, mail and invitations. How evidence of them existing had vanished until only memories remained. The Bloom kidnapping by Darkar had made things even worse.

Aisha was the person who was scared of being alone, her childhood and Darkar multiplying this fear, but it was Stella who was terrified of being left.

So Tecna wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Stella screamed at them and then refused to let them out of her sight.

“Quickly then.” Tecna muttered and ducked around another corner. It took another three minutes until they reached the outer wall of the archive. It probably would have gone quicker if Tecna had followed along the walls from the entrance, but something just didn’t seem right with that. So they had simply wandered into the archive and walked around corners carefully to not double back. The phone in her pocket chirped, telling Tecna that the software for the analysation of magic had started. Another chirp told them that everything was steady and ready. Tecna started walking, their fingertips tracing the wall of the archive. After the first hundred metres, Tecna closed their eyes, trusting their hearing to keep up with the readings and their touch and magic to not run into anything. It went like that for a long moment. Tecna walked, their fingers slowly going numb due to the overstimulation of dragging along the smooth wall. Their magic hummed beneath their skin, warning them if there was an obstacle. After a while the phone emitted another sound. A quick little melody that was well known but hated by all of them. Their friends were in the archive. Strangely enough, they didn’t do much more than arrive, if Tecna interpreted the vibrations of the phone right. Their friends remained on the lowest steps of the stairs leading down into the archive. It seemed Flora managed to calm them down. That or the whole thing had been planned by Flora, which honestly Tecna wouldn’t be surprised by.

Tecna shook their head and focused back on their magic. They were the fairy of Technimagic. This was them! The finding of magic and the analysing of it, the reaching out and searching until they found what they were looking for. As well as the curiosity behind the questions why. Tecna had once upon a time listened to their parents worry about their planet and their planet's magic; the next day they had snuck out of their home with a small gadget they had built in the middle of the night. By the time they had been found, Tecna had managed to discern the exact composition of minerals, microorganisms and magic that made up the old ice. Their parents had been baffled, pissed off and delighted, while the other people looking for them had compared Tecna’s results with older records. It turned out Tecna was right on all accounts, with the exception of the magic part. Theirs was more detailed. The grandmother that had been the head of their community back then had asked Tecna then what she had wanted to do with their little experiment. Tecna remembered the indignant furry, of their research being called a little experiment. They had bristled and snapped back at Grandmother, showing her the detailed notes Tecna had taken while developing their gadget during the journey and while analysing the ice and had declared that it wasn’t an experiment! What they had done was research to help her parents. Grandmother had smiled and asked why Tecna had done everything she had done.

It was in that moment when her tiny self had repeated the words their parents had said and admitted that they didn’t want their parents to be sad, that they wanted to show that it would be ok. It had been the first step that had sent them down the road to becoming a fairy.

Grandmother had been impressed with Tecna’s invention and data and had sent it to the Congregation. They had taken Tecna out of their regular schooling and put them into a programme for gifted children while also allowing Tecna to continue their research. They had been twelve years old back then. A year later they almost worked themselves into a coma, trying to prove that the problem wasn’t just the rising temperatures but something much bigger. Their magic was failing. The temperature of their planet was rising because the magic was failing, which in turn was melting the ice faster, which sped up the magic failing.

It was an endless circle of bad things enabling bad things, which made the bad things worse. It had taken Tecna a year to have concrete evidence for it. Upon finding out, they had promptly worked themselves into the ground for a week. They only stopped when Grandmother had told them to, and Tecna had refused, tears in their eyes, hands shaking from sleep deprivation and panic, because they couldn’t stop. Zenith would die if they did! They had earned their transformation that day. Earned it for their unwillingness to stop. Earned it for sacrificing sleep and then promptly passed out for three days. They had become a fairy, a being of sacrifice out of love.

Tecna’s fingers caught a spike of magic that made them stop cold. For a long moment they just felt the magic gathering and pulsing beneath their fingers. Tecna kept their eyes closed to actually allow themself to analyse the magic: it was neutral, just like the magic of the Golden Kingdom, but with a twist. There was a softness beneath this magic that the Golden Kingdom didn’t have. Something sweet but cold; bitterness underlined with comfort. This was neutral magic in the sense that it would always fit the person it was coming in contact with. Neutral magic that would change itself to make the other person comfortable instead of forcing the other magic to fit itself to it.

“I am Tecna of Zenith’s third quadrant. Child of the Blue Country.” They whispered and felt the magic twist around their fingers. “I have been looking for you with the help of my friends. You met them. The bright one you almost showed yourself to; the one of motion, who isn’t here; the vibrating one and the calm one. You have met them all, and now you have met me.” The magic pulled back ever so slightly.

“Will you stay now?” Tecna whispered, still not daring to open their eyes. “We need your help. The council have been abusing their power, and we need to stop them.” Beneath their fingers the magic turned sour and sharp, and Tecna had to stop themself from flinching. They could feel the magic filling their whole body searching for the truth, and Tecna allowed it.

“Open your eyes, child.” A voice said. It was there and not, raspy and smooth, female and male. It was a mix of opposites and confusion, and Tecna followed their direction without hesitating. There was a door before them. A door, a mare of light etched into the smooth crystal of the palace walls, and before that, quite literally growing out of the crystal, was a creature. Tecna couldn’t stop the flinch. It was made of the same crystal as the walls, angular and completely see-through, which allowed Tecna a clear sight of its organs and veins. None of which were functioning.

“I am no longer alive.” The creature whispered. “I am nothing but pure magic, and the body that remains, be not afraid of me, Guardian of Magic. You have earned entry, even though you took longer than I thought.” Tecna was pretty sure that it was amused. The creature moved back, fusing with the crystal.

Then the doors opened.

Chapter Text

“Bloom”. Aisha was motioning her over to the side. Bloom smiled and excused herself as she walked away from the noble girl who had been asking questions about Alfea for the last half hour.

“You and children.” Aisha muttered and linked their arms to pull Bloom to the side and away from the people in the ballroom.

“Excuse me, but at least they do not tend to have a three-step plan on how to take over the Dimension or stuff like that.” Bloom hissed back and got an annoyed look from her friend. “Tell me I am wrong!”

Bloom challenged and smiled brightly as Aisha kept quiet. “Thought so.” She got a light kick for that. Which was probably earned.

“Where are we going?” Bloom asked after a moment of passing people silently.

“I want…” Aisha hesitated and faltered in her words, but her steps quickened and the pull on Bloom's arms got stronger. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Nabu shooting them a look. He looked calm, if a bit worried, so whatever Aisha was planning, it wasn’t jumping any cliffs.

Bloom hoped.

“Do you remember what you promised me a while ago?” Aisha asked when they had passed the last person of the party.

“I promised you a lot of things.” Bloom muttered back.

“I…” Aisha stopped again; this time her steps faltered just the slightest bit.

“Isha, what is going on?” Bloom asked, still following her friends through the hallways of the palace. “Do you remember the story about the Hippocampus fate?”

“Of course.” Bloom doubted that she could ever forget a tale like that.

Aisha squeezed her arm slightly. “Tell it to me while we walk.”

Bloom blinked twice considering the request. While she couldn’t really see a reason for it – at least not yet – Bloom didn’t see any reason to protest it.

“Back when the universe was young, there was only the Holy Trinity: the Great Dragon, the Hippocampus and the Wild One. They created together and fought and laughed…” Bloom bumped their shoulders gently. “As siblings do.” It got her a smile from Aisha, but it was weak and strained.

“At one point, early on, there was a more serious fight between the Great Dragon and the Hippocampus, something less like bickering siblings and more like genuine anger and hate. It sparked something, something dark. Not something new, as negative feelings were just as much part of the three of them as they are part of us, but…it gave birth to a new shape.”

“The Shadow Phoenix”. Aisha whispered, her hand tightening on Bloom's just as Bloom's tightened around Aisha’s. Their friends had faced and fought Darkar, but that had been for mere moments, fights they had managed to flee from. Neither Bloom nor Aisha had gotten that privilege. It bound them together differently than the rest of their friends. Having been under Darkar's mercy was a terrifying thing neither of them would wish on their worst enemy.

“Is it ironic that our worst enemies were in a similar situation to us when it comes to Darkar?” Bloom asked softly.

Aisha kept walking them through the halls for a long moment before she answered. “I don’t know, but if it means something, I want definite answers and not speculations.”

That was fair. So Bloom shelved the thought and picked up the story.

“At first the newly created Shadow Phoenix wasn’t much of a problem; it just disappeared into the wastelandwhich made up the magical dimension back then. Only it did’ stay like that. All three gods created the Dimension we know now. Planet by planet, sun by sun, with their combined power in the centre. When the first creatures were made by the Trinity, the Shadow Phoenix – the personification of hate, unrest and darkness – showed back up. It forced death and destruction to follow it, unlike anything recorded beforehand.” Blom faltered only for a second; by now they had walked further into the palace than Bloom had ever been. There were almost no guards anymore; Bloom hadn’t seen a servant for almost ten minutes. Whatever Aisha wanted to show her, it was important and a secret.

“The trinity tried to stop it but failed. They managed to contain its power, but even that came with a cost, creating something less powerful but just as dangerous, if not more so.” This time when Bloom's voice broke, magic was tracing her tongue, blaring a warning along her vocal cords and tightening around her throat. The words were guarded by the magic of her ancestors. Magic that didn’t agree with Bloom speaking this particular truth here, where everyone could overhear it. Aisha squeezed her hand again, and when Bloom looked up, there was understanding in her friend's eyes. This part Bloom didn’t need to speak aloud.

“Somehow the blame for this failure” – Bloom hated that word; it wasn’t failure. There was no blame; nothing had gone wrong at any point. None of the Trinity had known better, and yet… “ended up on the Hippocampus shoulders, and the most powerful people of the time took action. Arcadia and her fairy circle – if you want to call a combination of a fairy, a paladin, a witch and a sorceress a fairy circle – bound the Hippocampus to themselves and then exiled themselves to the Golden Kingdom. And because the Golden Kingdom is outside of our Dimension– as it was meant to be a neutral place where the Trinity could meet as equals and in peace, the Hippocampus cannot return on her own.”

“And the only person who can free them is not allowed into the Golden Kingdom until the day she dies as a fail-safe.”

“I really would love a word with Arcadia about that.” That stopped Aisha cold.

“Bloom, promise me you won’t do anything stupid. Nothing is worth you dying.”

“Your heritage…”

“Has been gone for longer than my people can think.”

“Aisha!” Bloom called out.

“The throne room”, Aisha started, completely derailing the conversation. “The throne room I showed you it’s not the original throne room. It's a newer version. Don’t get me wrong; it's still old, but it’s not the original throne room.” Bloom felt cold dread mix with her confusion. Even though she had promised her friends a long time ago that she wouldn’t intentionally read their auras, that didn’t mean she could suppress the emotions that swapped over every now and again, especially the strong emotions.

“Aisha…” Bloom started but stopped when Aisha pulled her down a long, dark hallway. It wasn’t neglected or showed any signs of being old. It fit perfectly with the rest of the palace Bloom had seen so far, but she could taste the stillness and staleness in the air. Nobody had been down this path in a long time.

“I told you about why my parents were so overprotective in the past that it bordered on controlling?”

“Yes.” Bloom answered hesitantly and kept going when Aisha didn't say anything else. “Your father's sister, the original crown princess, died shortly before taking the throne. Leaving your father, who witnessed her death, to ascend the throne.”

“Yes…” Aisha whispered. Bloom could see the outline of a door in the darkness. “What I never told you was why.” Aisha’s steps got slower the closer they got to the door. “My aunt had the same talent I was born with. The same birthright connection to the Hippocampus.” Bloom suddenly felt cold.

“Aisha.” She whispered, trying to tug her friend back, but Aisha was unmoving in her forward momentum.

“It’s not calling me.” Aisha whispered. “I just need you to understand, ok?” Bloom relented and kept walking. Aisha knew what she was doing, and Bloom trusted her explicitly.

“My dad, he tried to stop Aunt Ayize but didn’t get there in time. My grandparents decided, as a result of my aunt's death, that they would move the throne room to the Hall of Light and make sure nobody would be able to die like that again.” They had reached the door, and even in the faint light Bloom could see that this door was far, far grander than the door to the current throne room. Doors made from mother of pearl, inlaid with numerous jewels, crystals, colourful corals and other shells, towered over them. Holding a gravitas and grandeur that the other door just couldn’t reach.

“It’s beautiful.” Bloom whispered, and even in the darkness she could feel Aisha smile – a sad little thing.

“Yes, it is.” Aisha whispered and put a hand onto a small mermaid made of shells. “Open,” she whispered. Bloom watched with bated breath as the little figure came alive and nodded once before swimming higher until it reached a large blue-green gemstone. Her breath hitched when the jewel started to glow ever so slightly, sending veins of colour down the door.

“It’s an old magic.” Aisha whispered. “The gem is petrified water that will liquify to open the door while also presenting a proper show to people that need to be impressed.”

“It is beautiful.” Whispered, watching how more and more of the door was bathed in beautiful light.

“When this room was locked up”, Aisha's voice was tight with suppressed emotions, “my grandparents called for a priest of the Golden Kingdom.”

Bloom's attention instantly left the door to look at her friends. “They changed our Golden Gate, Bloom.” Aisha whispered and turned to look at her. Bloom felt as if she were about to pass out. Bloom had always known that Aisha didn’t like the Golden Gates. There was always some degree of anger in her voice when the topic came to them. Sometimes Bloom was willing to say that Aisha hated them. But this changed things.

“They closed… no, they wielded it shut, and then they changed it.” Bloom felt anger spark inside of her, felt raw rage ignite her insides.

“They did what?” She spat.

The Golden Gates had been a present from the Holy Trinity. They had been a way to connect to the old gods and a way of asking for help, as they were a direct link to the Golden Kingdom, where it was easier to partition one or all three of them. They had a spiritual and magical meaning that was heavy and powerful. Someone – priests or not – changing the gates was not even an affront but a loud declaration of disrespect. Before Bloom could say anything, the doors opened, and Bloom got her first look at the old throne room.

It was gigantic. The ceilings were reaching twenty metres with countless pillars – styled like corals or hydrothermal vents – framing the sides. Every wall was filled to the brim with mother-of-pearl images depicting Andros history, the left being dedicated to the merfolk while the right showed the development of the land people. The ceiling looked as if it was a single giant gemstone the colour of Andros water, creating the illusion of being underwater, something that wasn’t helped by the pools that would allow merfolk access to the room. The wall opposite the doors was a marriage of land and ocean, depicting corals seemingly growing out of the walls on one side and Andros distinct trees on the other side. Both forests were filled to the brim with creatures of all kinds, from the giant kraken hiding behind corals to birds landing on tree branches. It was a union of land and water, representing Andros at its core.

Taking a step forward was what made Bloom aware that the floor was a mix of sand, gravel and earth, further deepening the impression of being just beneath the surface but close to solid land.

“This is…” Bloom whispered, her eyes catching the throne nestled between the two forests; it was a statue of the Hippocampus. Its body – like a canopy – curving over the seat itself, which was propped up on a small platform created by the long tail winding around it. Bloom could see the image that this was supposed to create: the true ruler of Andros land people sitting beneath the Hippocampus, the goddess of the planet, part of the Holy Trinity, and being both protected and approved by it.

“It is beautiful.” Bloom whispered.

“It’s magic.” Aisha whispered back. “The stone the throne is made of was imbued with the magic and blood of the Hippocampus and my family's line while it was built. This way only the true ruler can sit; everyone else will awaken the statues' wrath.”

“I can see it.” Bloom whispered. It really was beautiful, which was why the monstrosity rising behind it was so jarring.

The Golden Gate of Andros had been placed behind the throne, beautifully included in the mural of the dual forest; it looked as if the trees and corals were revealing the gate to the onlooker while the Hippocampus was guarding it. Bloom could imagine the original intent. A ruler who was allowed to sit beneath the Hippocampus herself and was also backed by the Golden Kingdom. The direct link to the magic holding the Magical Dimension together is in their back. It should be powerful and beautiful. It should have been magical with the light and the whole room; instead, it looked…jarring.

The gate itself wasn’t the delicate golden colour it was famous for anymore; instead, it had tarnished. Looking like copper in some places, while others had turned black. Something that should have been impossible since it wasn’t real gold, but magic given form. It was a literal portal, and here they were, yet somehow the discolouration wasn’t even the worst part. A long rectangular piece of metal – real gold, Bloom would guess – had been soldered to the gates, wielding it shut. The colours of the gold tones didn’t match; even in their tarnished state, the wielding job had been butchered, making the whole thing a jagged scar.

“They put the great dragon onto it.” Bloom whispered. Wielded on top of the first rectangle was a golden plate – yet another gold tone – which had been engraved with an image of the Great Dragon.

It looked horrible. It felt like a violation of something so sacred. The magic in the air was even worse. It was vibrating in so many different frequencies. The gate itself produced the faintest, gentlest hum of magic. The first plate felt like a child screaming into Bloom's ear compared to it. Not even talking about the Great Dragon image, Bloom knew how the Dragon felt. She knew the magic of its depictions; this…this was none of this.

“They wielded the gate three days after my aunt's death. That ugly plate didn’t show up for another month after that. The record has the priest saying that the dragon needs to be added to keep the balance and to make sure nothing bad can come through.”

“They meant the Hippocampus, didn’t they?” Bloom asked her friend. Aisha squeezed her hand in answer. “Isha…” Bloom whispered. “Not to be rude, but when did your aunt die?” Blom could feel the way Aisha was looking at her. The answer made Bloom smile.

“That was during the war. My parents were still alive.”

“What are you?”

“Did you know that public images of the Great Dragon have to be approved by the royal family of Domino or the high priests of the Great Dragon before they are allowed to be put up?”

“This isn’t…”

“Public in this case means outside of Domino.” Bloom could feel the way her friend went utterly still. “Daphne told me about it. Daphne also showed me the records. The last approved proposal was a statue for the temple of the Great Dragon on Magix. In fact, it was the last proposal to set up an image in general.” Bloom turned her head to look at her friend. “You know, with the war and all.” She smiled a sharp smile full of teeth. “Would you like to know the date of that approval?” Aisha nodded, hope and glee in her eyes.

“When my mother ascended the throne.”

***

“Will we be allowed to enter?” Stella whispered as they got closer to the confessional. When Tecna had called them over to their location a few minutes ago, Stella had felt hope. Seeing the brightly lit entryway, guarded by a creature unlike anything Stella had seen before, hope had turned into light that was painting rainbow colours beneath her skin.

“One way to find out.” Tecna grinned and offered their hand to the creature. It sniffed it once and then crawled up the doorway until it was looming over them like a gargoyle.

“None of you need to prove anything.” It whispered, and Stella was going to ask it for a name the moment she got the chance because this was ridiculous. “I have watched you as you entered these halls for the first time. I watched you stand with the throne heir even when it would have been easier for you to not do it. I have watched you work together, research and take a stand for the librarian and archive guardian. You did not come here to gain power like all the members of the council. You did not come to leave your pain with me, like those in the past did, when my body was still alive. You came to take pain and help those who cannot stand up for themselves.”

Stella felt magic in the air. Felt the way goosebumps broke out across her body, and she felt the way Tecna went rigid.

“So answer me a question, and I will leave you inside the confessional.” Truth magic. Stella thought hysterically. Of course the thing wielded truth magic. It made sense. How else would it be able to get secrets out of politicians?

“What do you want from me?” This was not what Stella had expected. At all.

“A lead to end the current council's power.” Tecna was the first to speak. Their posture seemed relaxed and calm. Stella, after five years of living with them, knew better. Tecna hated this. They had mentioned it once. How truth magic was something frowned upon on Zenith because it wasn’t true discovery. It was taking away choice, and Zenith had a dark history when it came to taking choices.

“Truth to help Bloom.” Flora muttered. She was calm and relaxed, seemingly basking in the magic around them. It sends shivers down Stella’s spine. Right…truth magic was chaos magic…wild magic, after all. What is wilder than a truth? What brought more chaos?

“I…” Musa seemed to struggle. Stella turned to look at her friend and tried to concentrate the way Musa had taught them. To get an impression of the Melody so she could help Musa, and immediately flinched back with a pained hiss. Whatever was going on between Musa and the creature, it was loud and violent on a frequency Stella normally couldn’t hear.

Noted: do not try and get involved.

A moment later Stella felt the magic tighten around her. Her turn.

“A name to call you.” Stella asked before the magic could take hold of her. It was the truth, maybe not the deepest or most pressing one, but the most important at the moment. The creature hesitated and blinked. It sounded like stones grinding against each other.

“Door Guardian”, it answered. Stella nodded once. Fair enough. At least it wasn’t as much of a mouthful as her full name.

“Thank you.” She answered. Door Guardian disappeared into the walls, and Stella exchanged a look with her friends. “Shall we go in?” She asked, motioning for Tecna to go on.

“You asked for their name?” Flora asked? Stella shrugged. “I didn’t want to call them `the creature of the confessional` the whole time…”

“And Door Guardian is better?”

“Would you like to keep using my nickname or start calling me by my whole name?” Stella asked back and grinned as Musa gave a full-body shudder.

“That’s just evil.” Stella shrugged and grinned.

“Am I wrong though?”

“I hate you sometimes; do you know that?”

“How about you tell us what was going on between you and that truth spell?” Stella shot back.

“It was…” Musa stopped cold, both in her speech and in motion, causing Stella to walk into her.

“Oi, Mus…!” Stella stopped and stared along with Musa. Flora, just as overwhelmed as them, had managed to get out of the door before she had stopped. They were in something between a cave and a forest. At least that was what Stella thought it looked like. Unlike the seemingly endlessly high ceilings that the palace was made of, this room really was nothing more than a low cave. It would be barely tall enough for Aisha, who was the tallest out of them, to stand up completely. Nabu, the giant, would have been forced to walk hunched. It still wasn’t the strangest thing or the most breathtaking. No, the cave was endless. At least that was what Stella was seeing. All around them, even behind them, were columns going as far back as her eyes could see. Each of the columns – a good metre in diameter – was basically hollow. It was that detail that made her think of a forest. A crystallised forest that had been cannibalised. Thin centres remain along with four or five shelf-like platforms that were filled in with tablets. They were barely distinguishable from the trees themselves, as they had been created from the same material – the council crystal.

“I think this is worse than searching for a needle in a haystack.” Stella breathed and watched the ceiling above them light up in a mimicry of northern lights. A moment later the head of the Door Guardian popped out of the ceiling, and even though it didn’t have a mouth in the classical sense, Stella would swear that they were grinning at her.

“Don’t make that face, star princess.” They whispered. “Each of these trees is their own government.”

“Wait, what?” Tecna asked, hurrying over to the tree the door guardian was above. Tecny pulled out a tablet and read it over.

“Confession of the Lady Risha of Callisto, Council of the Dragon Queen Elodar of Domino.” Tecna read out. Moments later she had shoved the tablet back in and pulled another one from the shelf beneath it.

“Confession of the Representative of Lynphea Ka of the Leave City, Council of the Dragonqueen Elodar of Domino.” They pulled tablets from each shelf of the column. All of them were from the Council of Elodar, Bloom's grandmother.

“This means we need to find Bloom’s tree, right?” Musa asked. Door guardian shook their head.

“No.” They crawled out of the ceiling towards a tree behind them. Stella followed them with her gaze. The sight sent shivers down her spine. Door Guardian was sitting on the door frame leading back into the archive – a doorway that was standing in the middle of the cave all on its own. Suddenly Stella understood why they had chosen the name door guardian.

“This is the tree of the new head.” Door guardian explained and sat down next to a tree that was still empty. Its shelves were almost hollow, but there were faint shadows that gave the impression of half-formed tablets – things that still needed to be recorded.

“There are no confessions yet, which means none of the tablets are ready to manifest. No, they will not be able to until the Queen herself grants me something. Until then her tree is nothing but an idea.” Stella – if asked later – wouldn’t be able to explain what had come over her, but the next thing she knew, she was standing next to the door guardian and reaching out to grasp one of the shelves. Her hand went right through the tree.

“Bloom isn’t officially in office until she has talked to you, is she?” Flora asked faintly. Cold, hard dread settled in the pit of Stella’s stomach. Everything they had worked for, the useless and unnecessary marriage to Valtor could be for nothing. Them completely breaking with Faragonda. Leaving Alfea, all of it for nothing, because Bloom was still not legitimate.

“You are wrong. The magic of the palace acknowledged her. The throne has claimed her. Nobody will be able to take that from her, but she will not be able to create her own council until the day she has talked to me.”

Stella sacked against the door frame behind her. “I might hate you a little bit.” She admitted faintly, and Door Guardian cackled. It sounded like glass cracking.

“Then you will definitely hate men for what comes next.” Stella wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

“You now know how my forest works. You are not ready to confess to me and become part of the new council. Which means you have no claim to my help navigating this forest.”

“NO!” Musa jumped forwards, trying to tackle Door Guardian; they disappeared and reappeared, staring down at them from a tree several metres away.

“You will have to find the tree of the last council on your own.” They announced it and were gone without a trace. Stella stared at the endless forest all around them.

“Will we be able to call for you, or is this a one-time thing?” She asked faintly. A moment later, the Door Guardian’s head grew out of the crystal by her feet.

“I will listen if you call for me. I have seen you work and destroy yourself. If I were still alive, I would have feasted on you for years.” Their head disappeared again, and Stella closed her eyes again.

“I am not doing this today.” She exclaimed. “I don’t give a shit what you have to say about it. We are getting out of here; tell Bloom and Aisha the good news and then sleep for a day.”

Nobody protested, and somehow that was worse than if they had.

***

Bloom knew – intellectually – that the Golden Gates were magic far beyond her. The calculations of magic to balance both sides of the gate, the runes and the raw magic alone were way, way over her head, no matter how powerful she was. Bloom was a tank, not a sniper. That was Tecna’s and Aisha’s work. She was there to blow things up and heal the people she liked.

So once again – intellectually – Bloom knew that her meddling with the Golden Gate was beyond stupid. It was risky and dangerous, and had she mentioned stupid?

But… Aisha was hurt!

It was painful for her to see the destruction of something that should have been for her. The clear erasure of her own primordial goddess was even worse. Bloom knew the history around the Hippocampus, the Wild One and the Great Dragon. Knew that for most of the dimension, the Hippocampus was the bad guy in the equation. She also knew better than to listen to anything that wasn’t from the source. After all, her people were no mindless savages, thank you very much. Bloom knew the Hippocampus that her friend had worshipped all her life, that fierce guardian Aisha yearned for. She knew that this was wrong – complicated magic she knew nothing about or not – the gate was screaming. It was barely working anymore. It had been desecrated. Its stabilising runes had been destroyed when the massive plate with the dragon had been welded onto it. Yet somehow it was still standing.

So Bloom put every thought that she could not do this to the side and put her fingers against the metal plate in front of her and made her magic call.

Nothing was answered.

Bloom reared back. Staring at the lifeless, magicless metal plate before her.

“Isha.” She breathed; it was suddenly very cold here.

“Mhm.” The tension in her friend's voice told Bloom that Aisha was holding back.

“When was this done?”

“Before your parents disappeared. One of the last acts of the Magix-based priests before the temple was burnt down. Why?”

“There is no magic in the plate.” Bloom whispered. Everything went very still. Here was a terrifying fun fact: generally air tended to have a certain percentage of water… Aisha could control that, which meant she effectively could stop sound.

Someone please tell her again that she was the most powerful of her friends!

Bloom took a deep breath and ignored the taste of salt. “This wasn’t done by the priests of the temple.”

“Take it off!” Aisha barked, and there was magic in the words, magic only the future queen of Andros or the true heir could command. Only Aisha’s father would be able to tell Bloom to stop, and even then…technically Bloom outranked them all. If she wanted the plate gone, it would be gone. No matter what Terendore said.

“With please.” Bloom whispered and pressed her hands against the plate. The gate groaned, and Bloom let flames dance around her fingers and then her arms. The plate slowly and steadily grew hotter until it glowed white, but it didn’t move or dent. There was magic holding it in place.

“I, Bloom Hestia Morgan of Domino, Dragonqueen, Guardian of the Dragonflame, High Priestess of the Great Dragon, Head of the High Council of Magix,” This was a mouthful. Bloom thought, amused, as the gate reacted to her command. Thin bands of magic became visible around the wielding of the gate, the plate and the wall holding the Golden Gate.

“I command this dragon to leave this gate; this is not yours to guard. You were never authorised to be placed here. Return to our mother and wait for me to call you back.” The dragon beneath her fingers came to life in slow movements at first, then slowly gained momentum until it was dancing beneath her fingertips, roaring silently, and flew towards the top of the plate where it just disappeared.

Bloom kept her hands on the plate. Several strings had snapped when the dragon had disappeared. The remaining ones looked like they were barely holding on. This was the part where Bloom really, really didn’t know what to do. For a moment she wished Valtor was here. He knew this kind of magic; she would bet on it. Their bond resonated, and Bloom tightens her shields. She couldn’t let him close to this. He would figure it out. She couldn’t risk Aisha, not yet. So Bloom let her forehead fall against the plate and realised, amused, that it was bending under her forehead.

“I have not been instructed in the art of the gates.” Bloom explained softly. “I don’t think anyone alive is still able to do this.” She whispered against the metal. “Help me.” She pleaded with the magic of the Golden Gate. It came alive against her skin, warm, familiar and welcoming, while also being painfully cold against her skin. Even her Bloom was barred from entering the Golden Kingdom. The strings snapped. Bloom reared back to see the plate melting to the sides as if it was running down a hill. The previously dead metal of the plate came alive with magic as it wrapped around the bars of the gate. The thick and ugly scar of the rightful wielding shimmered, smoothing out and thinning until it was barely even visible anymore.

Not that it mattered, as the magic dimmed, Bloom stepped back to look at the gate as a whole. The gate looked the same as before, with the exception of the giant three-dimensional figure of the Hippocampus wrapping around the bars of the gate to keep it closed.

“Do you think anyone will notice?” Bloom asked; her chest felt strange.

Aisha started sobbing.

Chapter Text

They hadn’t seen Bloom in just over a week. Ever since they had left Andros to travel to the last planets that counted themselves as part of Earth's tertiary, Bloom had been locked up in her room. Valtor had been silently stalking the ship ever since. He had seen the looks the redheaded specialist had given him. Not that it would matter if it came down to it. He could easily put him down, but he held back.

His chest felt empty.

Their connection had been open for nearly six months, and in this time there had been very few instances in which he hadn’t been able to feel anything from Bloom. At this point he was sure that her emotions were the problem, that Bloom was truly a dragon trapped in a human body, which was why she couldn’t shield properly. It made him wonder.

Was she really a child of the Great Dragon? A distant grandchild like Daphne and Marion had been, or was there more to it? He wanted to know. Itched to figure it out, but here he was, standing in a corridor on a ship he never wanted to see again – after nearly three months of travelling across the Magical Dimension in it, who could blame him?

Watching the door behind which Bloom was, not daring to get closer because of a boy with a gun. It was pathetic. The blue marks on his forearms pulsed and writhed in warning. Valtor gritted his teeth.

His chest was. Still. Empty!

Something was wrong. Their bond was dead, emotionless. It had been for a week. A week in which Bloom hadn’t left the room she was sharing with the Andros princess. The other girl showed her face at least once a day, but there had been no sign of Bloom. He glanced behind him again. The boy’s – Bloom was so very fond of – were asleep in their own room; the Trix too, and the guards the council had insisted upon were piloting the ship. It wouldn’t take more than a day to finally reach Earth’s last living planets. They could have been done months ago if the council hadn’t insisted on the proper star paths. Fucking idiots. Instead of using the faster paths Red Fountain and most travellers had been using for millennia. Those paths took no more than a few hours to travel from Ring to Ring. But the council, in their infinite wisdom and their desperate need to keep a hold of the reins they never had to begin with, forced them to use the oldest paths. Valtor scoffed under his breath.

Those paths were ancient when the Ancestral Ones had made him. Paths the ancient star magicians had used to find connections between planets. It was a nice gesture, a lot of symbolism of rebuilding broken bonds and reconnection and all that rot, but it also took twice – no – thrice as long. Not that he really wanted to get faster to Earth.

He had heard of what happened to the tertiary. He hadn’t been awake when it happened. His mother had recalibrated him at the time, but he remembered what Earth’s tertiary used to be like. Vibrant wild magic everywhere, he had loved it almost as much as he had loved Sparx.

He shot another look into the cockpit of the ship, checked along the magic thrumming through the air if everyone was where he needed them to be and walked silently down the hallway towards Bloom's room. He passed the rooms the three boys were sharing. It was a connected suite, so they were living in both rooms. Moving between them like the pests they were. It also meant they were blocking the way down to Bloom's room. In a way at least. He stepped over the tripping jinx that had been set up to alarm the boys and wake them should someone other than them or the fairies walk through it.

It was a child’s spell. It was also underestimated a lot. Valtor would know; nobody looked for the simple magic or the easy solution. Everyone expected him to use the most complex magics; nobody thought he would use this. It was why it was so easy for him to just step over it and keep going without alerting anyone. He reached the door moments later; there had been nothing else in his path. Valtor wondered if there was something else or if they felt safe enough being underestimated.

Personally he was betting on the last. If this hellish voyage had proven one thing, then it was that this group were incredibly talented in making themselves look weaker than they were. They had perfected incompetence to a degree he had never seen before. It was masterful, it was perfect, and it was embarrassing that it had taken him three years to pick up on it.

He checked the door for any spells, jinxes or alarms that would be tripped if he opened the door and found nothing. It felt too easy.

He silenced the door with a spell nobody but him remembered anymore and opened it.

Valtor was hit with stale, warm air. It smelt like dragon and seawater. Beneath the smells that very much Aisha of Andros and Bloom of Domino – he knew all their names; he just liked the way they twitched when he called them by anything but their names – was something else. Something he knew better than himself.

Misery.

Dread.

Sickly tiredness.

The room smelt of misery and slow dread that made it impossible to move or think. Dread that settled in the bones and made everything – but lying there, the worst kind of torture. He walked silently through the room. Aisha was sleeping curled around Bloom's back. Shielding her from anyone entering the room.

That had been something he had noticed early on. For all the arguments Bloom had started with the council about needing the Arcadia to give everyone their own room, a lot of rooms were empty. Bloom always shared her room with whatever friend was currently travelling with them. The boys that were tagging along with them shared a room. The Trix tended to do the same, even though they also used the rooms that had been offered for them individually. Even the guards the council had provided tended to share rooms. Half of the rooms were empty of people living in them. Instead, most of them had been turned into offices. For all that Bloom had basically graduated already, the council was insisting on her finishing her schooling. Not that it mattered much. The moment the new school year started, Bloom would be graduating. Not with honours, since she did not have an Enchantix, but she would graduate. Traditions were valued in Alfea to a degree that bordered on obsession.

Valtor walked until he could see Bloom. The room had turned into a mess since he had seen it last on Solaria. Pillows were strewn on the floor. The couch in one corner was piled with clothing. Even more clothes were on the floor.

Both Bloom and Aisha were beneath a mountain of blankets, and the only reason why he could identify them was the way Bloom's braid was poking out beneath the satin cap Aisha was wearing for sleep.

Something flared in his chest, there and gone again in a second, and he stopped to look down. Blooms was looking back. Beneath the emptiness in his chest, his heart started thundering. Her face was emotionless and pale in the darkness of the room. The little light that the open door let in the room made her look paler than she actually was and accentuated the dark rings beneath her eyes. She looked gaunt and exhausted. Her hair – half of it had escaped her braid – was hanging limply around her face, making everything worse.

Yet nothing could reach the way she was looking at him.

Valtor had gotten used to the fire burning in Bloom's eyes. Not because of emotions or anything she did intentionally, no, it was something that was in her blood. A feature emphasised by the Dragon Flame. There were no flames in her eyes. Valtor stumbled back, almost falling over a pillow that forced him to grab for a wall to steady himself. Bloom was watching silently and motionless as he regained his balance, her eyes never leaving him. Valtor was gripping for the collar of his shirt, pulling on the hidden drawstrings to loosen it. He couldn’t breathe. Raw panic was coursing through him, and he grabbed for his magic. Across their bond, the Dragon Flame roared in answer.

It was still there. It hadn't been suffocated. It hadn’t gone out.

Valtor stared back at Bloom; she still hadn’t said anything. There was nothing in her eyes, only the natural light that most fire dragons radiated. The pale blue glow made her look like a corpse.

Their bond was still empty; no twitch, no cheek, not even annoyance that he broke into her room. Nothing.

Blom blinked once, a slow thing, and her eyelids fluttered when she opened her eyes again, as if she was fighting to stay awake. Valtor didn’t look away. Bloom's eyes opened again, and she stared at him again. It felt like forever and like not long enough before she closed her eyes and turned her head into the pillow she was holding. Valtor stayed where he was – one hand pressed against his empty chest, the other against the wall – for a little bit longer. His feet refused to move. He had no idea how long he had been inside the room. He didn’t care if the boys would wake up or if someone would notice him. He just couldn’t move at all.

***

“I hate this shit.” Stella muttered, and Musa wanted to agree with her. Technically, this was easy.

One of them, one tree, one tablet.

Pull the tablet out of the tree, read the headline and put it back if it wasn't the right Council head. Easy, right?

Right until the point where things had started to move around. The tree would change position the moment they put a table back into its place. Which meant they could stand on the same spot for hours, and the names on the tablets would always be different. No way of marking them. Not that they didn’t do that anyway. Musa wasn’t sure if it would even stick or if Door Guardian could wish it away. The only help they had so far was Tony. Tony was recording the names of the Council heads they found and cross-referenced them against the list. They were about a third through and had found five council heads that had never been recorded at all.

Flora had put out the idea that those were council heads from before there was a council. When it was just the rule of 13 instead of the council they knew now, which involved every planet in the magical dimension. They had no way of knowing, so they kept digging.

“Have you heard any updates from Bloom or A’Sha?” Flora muttered, and Musa glanced over to her friend. Flora was sitting on the ground, leaning back against a small plant she had conjured, and lazily pulled out a tablet, stared at it and put it back. Musa snorted. The underlying message of Talk to me or I am losing it! was loud.

“A’Sha just presented the council with a second report. According to the report, she and her small army of archivists and librarians are done about halfway.”

“That means what kind of statistic?” Stella asked, and there was humour in her voice.

“Well…” Tecna started shooting them a look that told them she knew what they were doing. “This whole thing started when Bloom was on Melody, towards the end of it too. The first report – detailing that a quarter of the library and archive were organised properly – was handed in just after they got to Solaria.” Musa sat down, leaning against the tree she was working on, and watched Tecna do maths. “So that is the travel time from Melody to Lynphea, a stay there and the travel time from Lynphea to Solaria. Five days travelling to Lynphea, seven days on Lynphea and then another eight days to Solaria – that's a total of 20 days, almost a month.”

Musa did the maths in her own head, but Stella beat her to it. “The second quarter took 34 days.” Tecna shrugged.

“Only A’Sha knows whatever is going on in her head. I am guessing she’s trying to make it look realistic and is implying that people are getting tired. She has been letting people leave and visit their families before letting them back in.”

“And the Council didn’t start a fight?” Flora asked, her eyes shining with mischief. Tecna shrugged again, but their eyes were glowing.

“Oh, they did. So A’Sha made a call to Bloom, and Bloom sent them a signed decree from her as Head of the Council that people working on the library and the archives were allowed to come and go as long as they could identify themself with their magical signature.” Musa felt glee rise in her. Flora was glowing with colours, so she was guessing her friend was having the time of her life.

“Bloom also called into a meeting via video call to yell at them.” Tecna added, and they burst out laughing.

“Tell me you have the recording of that call?” Stella managed to cough out between cackles.

“Who do you think I am?” Tecna asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm, and several screens flickered to life between them. Bloom's face was on one, while the others showed the gathered council. For a bit they just watched as Bloom dressed down a group of people. Some of them were ten times her age; the looks of shame and hatred on their faces were absolutely worth it.

“Oh, I needed that!” Musa giggled and leaned her head back against the tree. Several tablets moved, creating a small nook that cradled her head.

“I don’t like the look of several of those people.” Stella muttered. Musa opened her eyes to look at her friend and found Stella holding one of the holo screens in her hand, slowly moving through the recording and highlighting the faces of different people.

“Is that a you-hate-the-council type of worry or a my-magic-of-prophecy-is-telling-me-to-pay-attention kind of worry?” Musa asked if the happiness the recording had brought was slowly dying in her chest. Stella flicked her a look and Musa hissed. Stella's eyes were a shimmering whirlpool of gold and silver.

“The second” Musa muttered and got up. “Show me those you like the least.” She asked and waved Flora and Tecna off. She could deal with Stella in one of her visions and they needed to find the confessions made by Marion’s council. So Musa watched as Stella marked down almost half of the Council before she stopped and hesitated. The camera zoomed in on Erendor of Eraklyon. Musa’s stomach dropped. It was a well known secret among them all that Bloom hated the man. It was a bit hard not to when he had started the lawsuit against Bloom that had given the Trix the ability to get the Dragon Flame. His treatment of Sky, Brandon and Diaspro– Sky had talked and Brandon had even more to say, Diaspro was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve what she had gotten– didn’t help at all. Still, there was a certain unreasonableness to Bloom's distrust and outright hatred of the man that they had to remind her of regularly. It was as if Bloom knew something she couldn’t put in words, something nobody else knew. The fact that Stella, in a fit of a vision, was stopping on Erendor made Musa feel sick. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.

“His eyes look…” Stella muttered, and Musa focused back on her friend. “They look…dark.” Musa looked away from the golden glow on her friend's eyes and towards the screen. It was a matter of a few seconds to zoom in further on Erendor's face. Tecna’s magic cleared the picture so that it looked as if the man was right before them. Stella was right. Musa suddenly felt shivers run down her back. Erendor's face was showing the usual disdain he had for Bloom. Nothing strange there…his eyes through.

“Hey, Tec?” Musa asked, refusing to look away from the screen. She heard her friend's affirmative answer.

“What eye colour does Erendor have?” She asked. There was a long moment of silence.

“Why are you asking that?” Flora asked, her voice shaking.

“What eye colour, Tec?” Musa repeated.

“Brown, hazel almost. Sky gets his eyes from his mother.” Tecna answered, and they sounded confused and too calm.

“Musa!” Flora hissed.

“His eyes are black in the recording.” Musa answered.

“What the fuck?” Stella muttered. Musa looked over to her friend. Stella’s bright brown eyes were staring back at her. Whatever vision she had was over.

“Tec”. Stella muttered. “Check other recordings in which he looks at Bloom.”

“Stel, are you implying that this is a Bloom exclusive thing?” Musa asked. Stella shrugged, confusion and restlessness in her face.

“I don’t know; it's just… just a feeling.”

“Yeah, and we all know better than to ignore your feelings.” Tecna muttered.

***

“Hey, B?” Riven’s voice was calm and soft. Bloom hated it. “You're ready?” He asked, and Bloom nodded. She still felt as if everything was wrapped in cotton, but it was better than before. When everything had just been … nothing.

“Here”, Aisha said and threw a blanket at her. Bloom, not expecting her friend to chuck a weighted blanket at her, didn’t manage to catch it and was buried beneath it instead. She heard Riven snicker and tried her best to keep herself from laughing. Things felt strange still, but Aisha treating her like she always did helped a lot. It was better than the fragile way they used to be around her when she had one of her episodes.

“He was in here.” Bloom muttered and watched both of her friends freeze.

“What?” Riven asked, and there was something dangerous in his voice. People really needed to start looking at the specialist. Every last one of her boys had at least a bit of magic, and all of them tended to show it if they were pissed. Just because their magic was too weak to materialise as a proper alignment didn’t mean they were useless.

“When…I didn’t …” Aisha spluttered, and Bloom felt a small spark of happiness and joy at the absolutely baffled look her friend was shooting at her.

“You were asleep.” Bloom said and only got a flat look for her trouble.

“The trip wire!” Riven said, and Bloom shot him a look.

“Riv, he uses the same spell.” Bloom said. “Do you really think he wouldn’t notice that?” Her friends didn’t look happy. “He didn’t do anything.” Bloom muttered.

“Then why?!” Riven hissed. Bloom looked away.

“Ah shit.” Aisha muttered.

“What?” Riven didn’t shout, but it was a close thing.

“I didn’t feel anything, Riv.” Bloom said. “The whole last week I…” She saw the way Riven sank into himself when he understood what she was trying to say.

“Your bond. You had an episode and…”

“I still have.” Bloom muttered.

“Guys”, Helia said and knocked on the door frame, “it’s time.” His eyes were soft when he looked at Bloom, and she felt her skin crawl.

“Don’t look at me like that, B.” Helia said, and with two large steps, he had crossed over to her, pulled the weighted blanket around her shoulders like a cloak and pulled her to her feet. “You know that I am the last person who will feel pity for you.” He said and pushed her to walk before him. “I know how you feel.” Bloom felt shame. Helia really did understand. While they didn’t speak about it, Bloom knew why he had quit his schooling on Red Fountain. Helia knew the feeling of blood on his hands just as intimately as Bloom did. He knew the helplessness of not being able to move your own body. Dragon, she knew that the only reason why he had remained in the school was that his grandfather was the only person who could help him.

“So, I am going to tell you this. I will not pity you, but I refuse to not be gentle with you knowing full well that you need it.” It was rare to hear Helia sound this harsh, but Bloom was grateful for it all the same. It made the mess that was her head and her chest a bit less daunting.

“Thanks.” Bloom muttered, and the gentle but firm pressure on her shoulders told her that Helia got what she couldn’t say. He didn’t let go of her as he led her down the hallway to the cockpit or when they entered the room, and Bloom was grateful for it.

“Look who is showing their face!” Stormy called out when Bloom walked through the door, and her overly cheery tone made Bloom itch to just turn around and leave again. Or maybe it was the amount of people all around her. Everyone who was living on the ship was in the room. Thirteen people, most of whom were staring at them.

“When are we setting down?” Bloom asked, completely ignoring Stormy or the looks she was getting from the Trix. She knew that she looked bad. She still hadn’t taken a shower, and if it wasn’t for Aisha, she wouldn’t even have managed a cleaning charm. Her hair looked like a bird's nest, and her braid was probably tangled like hell. Not even talking about the rings under her eyes. Valtor wasn’t looking at her, but the tension with which he kept his body angled away from her said everything. Bloom suddenly remembered the way he had jerked back when he had snuck into her room last night.

“We won't." Timmy said from where he was piloting with Alemayehu. They had started mixing shifts whenever they were flying for days.

“What do you mean?” Bloom asked and walked past everyone so she could get a better look at the planet in front of them.

“The Tenu system asked for us to not land on one of their planets.” Timmy explained and held out a tablet for Bloom. She let go of her blanket to take the tablet from Timmy. It was a protocol of the conversations between Aisha and the leaders of the Earth, as they called themselves.

Earth's tertiary was a bit of a delicate thing. Of course there was Earth itself, which was still alive as a whole but generally labelled as magically dead. Most planets in Earth's direct orbit or their solar system were dead too. It had been a fun day when Bloom had figured out that yes, there had been green people on Mars and that Doctor Who had imagined them right. The fact was: with Earth gone, most of the planets closest to it had slowly died due to the missing magic Earth used to produce. This meant that most of the planets in Earth's system would be nothing but uninhabitable rocks until one of them developed the ability to produce magic like Earth used to or Earth's magic returned. According to most magical researchers, it was a wonder that humans were alive, considering that the magic was gone completely from a slight radiation of magic that kept the planet barely floating. Considering that Earth's magic had disappeared long before Sparx had fallen, nobody knew what happened if there had been any records at all. It also meant that a lot of people had moved to the outskirts of the tertiary, either towards Andros or Domino/Sparx, since the planets produced enough magic that those fringe planets managed to survive. For Andros' side of Earth's tertiary, that was still a fact. Domino’s side, on the other hand, was slowly declining. A lot of the planets that were closer to Earth than Domino had already started to evacuate their population since the magic of their planets was slowly tipping or disappearing. Some people were still hoping that Bloom could save them by restoring Domino. She refused to answer any questions for those people.

Looking at the calm explanation of the representatives of the planet Tenu and its system, Bloom understood. Their magic was a delicate balancing act, and they were afraid that a direct release of the stolen magic on their surface would tip that scale. Bloom could respect that.

“They also admitted, off record, that they had a little … cult problem.” Bloom closed her eyes and tried to push down the sharp sting of emptiness that rose with those words. It was immediately followed by something from Valtor.

“Me, him or someone else?” Bloom asked.

“You. Some fanatics who think you should abandon Domino to take over Earth and reignite its core to save them.”

“Yeah, I am not dealing with that.” Bloom said dryly and put the tablet down so she could sit down behind Timmy.

“Thought so.” He laughed and turned to smile at her. “Tec send over some equipment to make sure that the ship survives the amount of magic the ritual will create. She added that it’s untested equipment, and she would like you to add your own shielding.” Bloom nodded once and felt Aisha sit down on the floor next to her. Helia’s hand was still on her shoulder.

“Set up Tec’s stuff first, and then I’m going to add a ward that will boost it and fill in any holes.” Timmy gave her a thumbs up and then motioned for Jabari to take his place. It was the work of a few minutes for Timmy and Riven to set up and activate the device Tecna had sent over. When they were done, a shield had formed around the interior of the ship and its outside in a way that excluded them but also didn’t. It reminded her of a balloon in a balloon, with both of their openings overlapping. The image of them inside two balloons was funny enough that it made the pressure in her chest ease ever so slightly.

“We are done. Your turn, oh great and powerful lady of the dragons!” Timmy said, and there was a shit-eating grin on his face. Bloom felt irritation spark inside of her.

“Fuck you.” She muttered. She wiggled her toes on the ground to feel the magic of the ship better. The magic Tecna had built felt jumpy against the calm magic that the Arcadia radiated. She added another layer to the shield they were surrounded by, basically adding another balloon to the one on the inside. She made the opening Tecna had created smaller. Tecna's configuration would allow the magic to leave and return to their planets, technically a good idea; the problem was that Tecna had made the whole windscreen say opening. Sky and Timmy had enough discussions about interdimensional ships that Bloom knew the strength of that window. Aside from someone intentionally breaking it, almost nothing should be able to crack it. That didn’t mean that Bloom wanted to test out said strength. Or if she could survive space long enough to save everyone and reseal the window. So she shrank the ward opening until it was one long bar of free space. Long enough to let out a lot of magic at once, but not wide enough to allow any of them to be sucked through, should the glass shatter. She also didn’t close the wards but let them be active. It allowed her to change them at a moment's notice.

“We are good.” Bloom muttered and closed her eyes. It wasn’t hard…not really. She was good at warding. It was like drawing, only with different components. Instead of making a sketch, Bloom needed to imagine the area a ward encompassed. Colour blocking was replaced by warding foundations and so on. She loved it and had expelled it in the few classes Alfea had. Griselda had gone so far as to force Bloom into the warding club just to keep her at it.

Right now Bloom's biggest problem was that a lot of people were looking at her, half of whom had no idea what was going on. Aisha leant her head against Bloom's leg, pulling her out of her musings. Helias's finger massaging her neck pulled her away from the last dregs of fear clinging to her thoughts as the Trix and Valtor started chanting.

Nothing broke, nobody got hurt, and Bloom was allowed to dismiss her wards less than five minutes after she had made them. Timmy didn’t start programming their new course until the tablet chimed with a confirmation that the magic had returned. Bloom felt wretched, but she was grateful that this part of the Magical Dimension was basically dead, allowing them to take the faster path. Bloom was grateful that she had pushed the Council on this until they had relented. It wasn’t a total win since the Council, especially the Eraklyon delegate, had argued that they needed a warning of at least five days to set everything up and make sure that nobody would disrupt the visit. All Bloom had heard was that he wanted to have some control over when she arrived. Then again, she was always cynical when it came to Eraklyon. Most of them, at least. She couldn’t wait to see Sky and Brandon again, and arguing with Diaspro would be nice too. So they would be jumping between several of Red Fountain's fast paths until they reached the old path connecting Eraklyon with the edge of the Domino-Earth border. It would then take at least a week until they reached the planet, so Bloom was hoping for some impressive welcoming from Sky and his parents.

“We are leaving our current path in a moment to change to Eraklyons,” Timmy announced. “This will be bumpy; the Eris path tends to be pissy, so brace yourselves.” A moment later the ship gave a giant lurch and then twisted upside down when they left the path. Bloom felt the magic of the chair she was sitting in kicking in, keeping her seated. Helia, who was still touching her, was wrapped in the same gravity field, while Aisha simply glued herself to the floor. The Trix, who didn’t know what bumpy meant and who hadn’t been sitting, yelped and screamed and somehow managed to not crash into the ceiling. As the bottom of her blanket booped Bloom on the nose, she wondered if Valtor was floating behind her or if he had crashed too.

“We are turning around; brace yourself.” Timmy warned. This time nobody crashed.

“Dragon, I hate this path.” Riven grumbled.

“At least we only got turned upside down.” Timmy mumbled. “Remember when Codatorta took us the first time? Half of the ship was dead.” Bloom felt Helia shaking with laughter.

“All of you are babies!” He giggled, and Bloom had a front-row view of Timmy and Riven turning around to glare at Helia.

“When I did this tour the first time…” Whatever Helia said next didn’t register in Bloom's brain. Before them was a planet. It looked gigantic to Bloom.

They were way too close to its atmosphere. After five years of living in the Magical Dimension, Bloom had learnt enough about flight paths to appraise the distances they needed to keep when coming out of a dimension path. There were regulations and mathematical stuff that was there to keep them from burning to death because of leaving a path too close to a planet's atmosphere. The planet right in front of her was too close, and Bloom knew that Timmy would never make a mistake like that.

I remember this.

The thought snuck up on her. Eris, the planet was called Eris. Bloom had read about the planet. It had been a powerful planet, close enough to Earth that they counted as the second in command. Their population was primarily witches and dark fairies, but they tended to have powerful light fairies too. Nobody could figure out how the planet had died.

Eris was in front of them.

A dead planet.

Bloom knew with sudden piercing dread why she knew this planet. Palladium had proposed it in her first year. One of the planets they could use for their simulation exam. Nobody had done it, because nobody had ever managed to do it. It was an exercise in failing.

Bloom tried to take a deep breath, but she only managed a short intake of breath that was lost in the bickering of the boys and Aisha’s quick comments to stoke the fire.

Her chest hurt.

Bloom was staring at Eris.

She had seen pictures of the planet when she had done her research. It had been a beautiful planet. Its primary colours are violet and wine red. Eris had been made of ten per centland and ninety per centwater. Water that had been a greyish violet blue. The pictures and paintings that Alfas's library had of the planet showed its single continent with deep wine-red earth, trees the colour of steel that bloomed like the wisterias on earth and grass like cotton candy. It was as beautiful as it was dangerous. Eris was known for its abundance of monsters and creatures. Everything one could imagine, every legend ever heard, Eris had a pair of them, if not a whole clutch.

The planet before her was nothing like that. It was a burnt husk with thick yellowish-green clouds drifting through its lower atmosphere. Here and there Bloom could see small volcanoes and oddly coloured magma.

Dead, it’s dead.

The voice from the back of her mind whispered, and Bloom flinched. The planet before them was dead. Truly, irrevocably and unchangeably dead. Its magic had completely deserted the planet. Its empty core slowly poisoned the ground and the air and the water until all that was left was nothing but uninhabitable toxic waste. The knot in her chest burst, and Bloom whimpered.

She felt cold. Colder than she had been when Icy had frozen her to her parents' built-in. Colder than the moment the Trix had stolen her magic. She was cold and alone, and she was so very sorry.

“I didn’t mean to.” She whispered, the word tumbling out of her mouth in nothing but a mumble. She felt her own hand press against her chest. She didn’t want to feel this. She wanted the emptiness back, the not-caring, the listlessness. It was better than this. Her whole body hurt. Her fingertipsand toes were tingling as if they had fallen asleep, while her hands and feet felt as if they were stuck in cold water.

I am sorry; I didn’t mean to.

Bloom didn’t know if she was speaking the words, if she was thinking them or if they even were her words; all she could do was stare at Eris before her. A planet that had died a few years before Earth had fallen, and nobody knew why, and her head was spinning with the words. They were filling her chest with sorrow and the desperate need to apologise to make them understand that she didn’t mean to do it. That this wasn’t her fault. That they didn’t deserve this, that please, please…

“Not the children.” Bloom sobbed. She could hear the screams and the crying of children. The pulsing of angry magic rushing over her skin made her wish she could leave her body behind. This kind of magic, she had never felt before. It wasn’t just wild; it was raw and mad and twisted in a way she never wanted to feel again. Whatever had caused this magic had been relentless and cruel. It had come for everyone on that planet. It had destroyed every hope of escaping and then poisoned everything the people had needed to survive before it had killed them. Slowly and painfully, and it had come for the children first.

“Not the children.” Bloom pleaded again, and she didn’t care if she was screaming or whispering or not saying the words at all. She could see the children. She could hear them scream, and she could feel how their skin had slowly stripped off their bones. Eris had done this. She had killed her own people in an endless moment of madness and grief and rage. Eris had killed her own people because…

“BLOOM!” Someone pushed between her and the planet she was looking at. His hands – warm like the ocean on a summer day, like a warm shower after being in the snow – cupped her face and forced her eyes to focus. Aisha was glowing with her own magic. Darcy was right behind her, spinning her own magic until they were wrapped in a blanket of absolute darkness and silence.

“Bloom, honey, I need you to shut down your aura vision.” Aisha’s voice was faint, but firm.

“I am not using it.” Bloom protested, but her throat felt raw and closed up, breathing hurt, and speaking felt impossible.

“Bloom, you had an episode! You didn’t feel anything. B, you don’t mean to do it, but you let your shield slip and allow your aura vision to activate.” Aisha’s words made sense. Bloom knew that her words made sense. Her brain knew that she did do that sometimes. She couldn’t feel; her brain would go foggy, so she used her aura vision to protect herself.

“BLOOM!” Aisha hissed, and magic travelled over her skin. Bloom screamed. It was too much. It hurt. It burnt. She could still feel the way Eris had burnt her children, and Aisha’s magic was too much; it hurt. It opened those wounds again; Bloom was dying; she…

“Breathe.” Aisha whispered, her head bumping against Blooms. A hand slipped under the blanket and grabbed for Blooms, pulling it out and pressing it against Aisha’s chest. “Breathe with me.” Aisha ordered. “Look at me and concentrate on my aura.” Bloom just stared at her friend who was too close to focus on.

“Bloom, damn it, close your eyes and use that useless third eye of yours to see my aura.” It was like a switch. The order shut down a part of Bloom's brain that was fighting for its life. Someone was here to help her. Aisha was here, and she wouldn't budge until Bloom was ok. Bloom went boneless. Whatever fearful tension had been keeping her up until that point disappeared as the water magic that was Aisha washed over her and filled all of Bloom's senses. She faintly understood that she slipped out of the chair and onto the floor, guided by Aisha and Darcy, who looked pale enough that Bloom started to worry.

“Don’t think, just feel, ok?” Aisha butted in before the thought caught up to her brain, and Bloom followed her friend's voice. “Concentrate on my aura. We are back on Andros. Can you hear the waves? Can you smell the breeze? It’s just before sunset, and the day has been perfect.”

By the time Darcy lowered the wall of shadows she had conjured, revealing that they had just left the path to the edge of Domino's tertiary, Bloom had already slipped into unconsciousness, guided by Aisha’s voice and cradled in her friend's magic that was acting like the ocean on a calm day.

***

It had taken Tecna less than ten seconds to compile a gallery's worth of pictures of Erendor. Half of them had gotten a blue frame; those were the public appearances, moments when Erendor was just the king. The other half, those with red frames, were moments when he was close to or outright looking at Bloom.

“Not to be that person…” Musa started, staring at the frightening amount of pictures with a red frame that were showing Erendor's eyes were pitch black. “But I think we need to apologise to Bloom.”

“I don’t think she really wants to hear this particular We are sorry, and you were right.” Stella muttered.

“What gives you that impression?” Tecna asked, and even their friend sounded disturbed.

“I just don’t…” Stella started and narrowed her eyes. “Tec, get me the picture from our first year, specifically the Red Fountain exhibition.”

“The moments when he saw Bloom and Diaspro?” Tecna asked. Musa watched as Tecna isolated the images and pulled them big.

“His eyes are normal.” Musa breathed.

“Do you have access to the conversation about Bloom's expulsion?” Stella asked, and Musa got an idea of what was going on.

“You are going back looking to find the point it changed.” Musa whispered. Stella nodded once. Tecna worked silently and fast. More and more pictures showed up, this time organised by date. All of them showed Erendor with normal hazel eyes.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Musa breathed.

“STOP!” Stella called. She was pointing to a picture. “There.”

“When is that?” Musa asked.

“The day I introduced Bloom to my father as Crown Princess of Domino and guardian of the Dragon Flame.”

“When did that happen?” Tecna asked; clearly she was as confused as Musa.

“After Magix was cleared. Daddy stayed in the council palace suite that is reserved for the Solarien diplomats. He wanted to see me, but they wouldn’t let him anywhere but the palace, so I went there. Bloom wanted to get away from Alfea. We snuck out.”

“You managed that?”

“Bloom asked Griselda.” Stella admitted with a little grin. “Daddy was waiting for us in the courtyard. I introduced them properly after he let go of me.”

“And Erendor was there too.” Musa concluded.

“That was …” Tecna stared, and her hair puffed up in volume as she thought. “I had given you the pins by then.” She called out, triumphantly.

Musa tried to keep up with the babble of her two friends, but a movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention.

The door guardian was back. They were hunching on the door frame that connected the confessional with the archive. Their tail was flicking back and forth agitatedly. Musa stared. The door guardian was from the same material as the council palace: clear, bright bluish crystal, meaning that they were basically see-through, yet the creature Musa was looking at wasn’t. Door Guardian was looking as if they were made of frosted glass. Their eyes were glowing a strange mix of colours. The moment Musa met the Door Guardian’s eyes, they turned their head to look at something else. Musa followed their gaze and cursed.

“FLO!” Flora was wilting; her colour was slowly draining from her, and her hair looked as if someone had plastered it to her head with too much hair gel. The plant she had been leaning against had already died, and all that remained of it was a sad, black string.

“I found the right tree.” Flora whispered, turning her wide eyes to look at Musa. She looked ashen.

“Shit, you are trembling.” Musa whispered, wrapping her hands around the tablet with the intention to just shove it back into the tree and deal with it later. Door Guardian had promised them that once they found the right tree, it wouldn’t move.

“NO!” Flora shrieked and pulled until Musa let go of the tablet. Even more colour had drained from her friend's face, but her eyes were burning with intent and stubbornness.

“Read it and tell me I am going mental.” Flora ordered and shoved the tablet at Musa. Musa stared at her friend, blindly taking the tablet but making no move to do as Flora had told her. No matter what this was about or how important this was, her friend was wilting. Bloom, the Council, hell, even the mystery that was Erendor could wait until Flora was ok again.

“READ IT!” Flora thundered, and Musa flinched back. Flora rarely got angry enough or desperate enough to shout, but if she did, not even Bloom's dragon voice held a candle to her. There was no command in Flora's words, but there could have been. Musa pulled the tablet away from her chest and read it.

“Tell me I am misreading this.” Flora pleaded. Musa reread the words.

“Musa, tell me that I. Am. Wrong!” Flora hissed. Musa felt as if her voice had just disappeared as she looked back up to meet Flora’s eyes. Her voice was gone, so all Musa could do was shake her head. Flora let out a sound of anguish and paled even more. Stella’s warm hand pressed on one of Musa’s shoulders, and she could feel the static that Tecna radiated on her other as her friends leaned over her to read the tablet.

Tecna’s static turned into a single piercing tone when they got the point that broke Musa. Stella’s bright glimmer was snuffed out for a long moment before making space for the cold, sharp moon magic to illuminate the words.

“What are we going to do?” Flora whispered. “We need to tell Bloom.”

“No!” Stella ordered, and her voice had echoes. “We will not.” This time there were compulsions in the words.

“We need to tell Bloom.” Tecna protested. They sounded absolutely emotionless. Combined with the way Flora was wilting, Stella's light change and Musa’s own hypersensitivity to each sound her friends made. They were barely managing to not panic.

“We can’t.” Stella said, and her voice had calmed down a bit. It didn’t mean that the emotions in her voice didn’t sting like hell. “They just left Earth's tertiary.”

“So what?” Flora hissed. “Bloom has a right to hear this from us. Instantly. We cannot lie to her.”

“Teno refused to let them land.” Stella hissed back. “Timmy sent the message an hour ago. Apparently the magic is fragile enough that it inspired a cult, who is gunning for Bloom. They are still on the Arcadia, and they will stay there until their next stop on the tour.” Musa felt cold dread running down her spine.

“Eraklyon”. She whispered, and somehow her voice sounded normal, if a bit faint. Flora closed her eyes and swayed. She leaned back as if to lean against her plant only to fall flat on her back; some colour had returned to her face.

“We would tell her while she is either on the Arcadia or in reach of Erendor.”

“In either situation, we will cause her to destroy the Arcadia, or she will murder Sky’s father.” Tecna whispered.

“We need to keep this down. We need to talk to Aisha first. We need to make a plan on how to tell Bloom in a way that will not end in destruction of the damn planet.” Stella agreed, but her voice was tight and her light was still silver. Stella hated this plan. She wanted to do everything but what she just proposed. Musa looked back down at the tablet in her lab.

The title was simple enough, normal even.

Confession of King Erendor of Eraklyon, second of his name, friend of the Dragon Queen in magic, heart and vow, Council of the Dragon Queen Marion of Domino.

I am speaking these words knowing they will be the truth and nothing else. I speak these words knowing that if I lie, the Council Palace will reject me for life and beyond. I will give a secret to take my place among the people of the High Council of Magix.

Beneath it was a lot of legal talk, or maybe the confessional's magic taking hold. Erendor was agreeing; he truly understood what he was doing. The agreement was followed by Door Guardian asking test questions. Erendor's age, who his wife was, that he had one child, his son Sky. So on, it was a test to prove that Erendore was speaking the truth. The real confession had been highlighted and printed in bigger and darker letters on the crystal tablet, as if to make sure that this would be the thing everyone was looking at.

I confess that I was holding the wards that the Dragon Queen, Marion of Domino, wove to protect her people and her planet from the Ancestral Witches.

I confess that I intentionally and knowingly of the kind of destruction and suffering it would bring, gave away that ward to the three Ancestral Witches and their army.

I confess that I willingly, intentionally and without being forced, condemned my friends and their planet.

I confess that it was me who named the last guardian of the Dragon Flame, breaking the protective magic that was hiding Princess Daphne of Domino from the Ancestor's eyes.

Chapter Text

“Are you going to explain what happened, or are you just expecting us to keep it quiet?” It was Valtor who was speaking, but Bloom could feel the vassal bonds of the Trix throb with anticipation. They were hiding behind the wall right next to the door and were eavesdropping. At least that was what Bloom was assuming.

“No,” she said flatly and tried to concentrate on her paperwork. Thankfully there had been little to no homework for them ever since they had left Andros. Griselda had put her foot down and refused to let Faragonda give them any work. Bloom was so out of her normal schedule that she had forgotten that holidays existed. Power-hungry megalomaniacs didn’t tend to pay attention to something as trivial as the end of an academic year. It gave Bloom the time to brush up on her stuff from Earth and get up to speed with all her paperwork, and – she eyed the book A’Sha had sent her about different types of magic users. It did help that she had been snapped out of the funk that changing the Golden Gate had left her in.

“To my first or second question?”

“Yes.” Bloom grumbled and tried to figure out where – in the business proposal – she had been before she had been interrupted.

“Would it kill you to answer a question?” Valtor asked, and his tone was icy. Bloom whirled around to throw her pen at him. It was one of those cheap things you could get when you visited fairs, the type that were produced with the single intent of being stolen.

“If you want answers, you get out of my office and leave me alone long enough that I get my paperwork done.” Bloom snapped. She really needed to get this done since she had been pushing this back again and again. Stella was out of it for some reason, so calling her for a video chat to beg for help wasn’t an option either.

Her friends had found the Confessional, and more importantly, they had found her mother’s council. Now they needed time to sort through the hundreds of confessions that made up the council and also figure out if those confessions would hold up in a court. Door Guardian – the creature that had created the Confessional – had said yes, but Bloom was pretty sure that someone – at one point in time – had pushed a law through to protect their asses. At least that was what Bloom would have done. She grabbed another pen to scratch a line out of the contract she was working on and scribbled her notes next to it for her lawyers to reread. Her friends, ever since finding the thing, had been off. Aisha was just as confused by it as Bloom, but neither of them had gotten an explanation so far, so all Bloom could do was to try her best and distract herself.

“And when will that be?” Blom allowed herself one single deep breath – in and out – to calm herself. She didn’t understand where all the anger came from, but it always came after an episode of feeling nothing. She would be normal, right until something triggered her, which turned into not feeling anything, and once she managed to crawl her way out of that hole, a monster of rage was waiting for her and refused to let go of her until she either beat the shit out of something or exhausted herself by trying to control her emotions. The second option tended to set up another emotionless episode. Bloom hesitated to call it depression.

Depressions were different…

“So?” Icy asked, and Bloom let her head fall onto the desk.

“If I murder you, will you come back to haunt me?” Bloom asked, and Great Dragon, was she tempted?

“No, but I am willing to ward whatever arena you find and then fight you.”

That smug bastard. That manipulative, evil arsehole!

“Ask Aisha and leave me alone for two more hours.” Bloom said and used her magic to push the four of them out of her doorway to close the doors. She desperately wanted to scream.

“Two more hours.” She whispered to herself. That was if Aisha wasn’t ripping her head off first.

***

“You agreed?” Bloom asked, eyeing Aisha as if her friend had been replaced by an imposter.

“Sky offered the use of one of Eraklyon's old mining moons.” Aisha answered with a shrug. Bloom narrowed her eyes.

“As in the mining moons that Iris decided were too dangerous to keep active? The one that belongs to Princess Diaspro?” Aisha smiled like a shark, and Bloom sighed.

“Well, with a bit of luck, they can reactivate those moons by the end of the week.” Bloom muttered with a grin. “Loath as I am to do Diaspro a favour.”

“Stop dithering and talk to us.” Stormy called from where she had taken over a couch that could easily fit three people. Bloom decided to ignore her and followed Aisha to a smaller couch. Everyone was waiting and watching. In their haste to get away from Eris, they had used the Red Fountain path that connected Eris with the tertiary border of Earth and Domino. Because this path didn’t take a fraction of the old path, they were early. The last three days they had been hovering over Eraklyon, waiting to finally get the all-clear to land. Bloom might have started to send Sky lightly passive-aggressive messages to get his ass into motion and get her out of the ship before she blew something up. She was sure that the others were doing the same.

She intentionally sat close enough that Aisha’s hips and shoulders were bumping hers. Then she kicked her shoes off and threw her feet onto the coffee table in front of her. Aisha made a half-aborted sound between a giggle and a moan, and Bloom smiled. Nobody started talking, so Bloom got more comfortable.

She wouldn’t tell them shit until they started asking the right questions. It was the Trix and Valtor who had needled her into doing this. They could do the work to get an answer from her.

“Are you really going to just sit there and watch us?” Darcy asked, and Bloom could have sworn that the witch was impressed. Bloom raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. The boys were tittering, and her guards were trying to hide smiles.

“Oh wow, this is petty.” Strom growled where she had turned upside down on her couch.

“Which one of us decided to demand a meeting over something that is none of their business instead of letting me do my paperwork in peace?” Bloom asked, and maybe she needed to tone it down a bit. Her fingers were tingling in a way that made her stomach drop.

“What happened to Eris?” Icy asked.

“The planet died approximately fifty years before Earth fell and turned into a magic-less death trap. An all-caps DEAD planet. At least that’s what the historians say. A bit before my time, you know? But history books on the topic are interesting, if you want to read them. Then again, we also have Mister Historical Source over there.” She pointed at Valtor. “He might have some more detailed answers.” Riven started howling with laughter. The Trix were gaping at her.

“You do realise that – over the last three years that we have been fighting you – we have been working closely with Griffin. Right?” Aisha asked, and Bloom felt her teeth turning pointed at the slow journey of facial expressions the Trix went to.

“Oh, look. Disbelieve.” Bloom commented.

“Dread”. Aisha nodded.

“There is understanding.” Bloom smiled.

“Mh, that is anger.” Aisha said, smiling widely at Icy, who was glaring at them.

“Oh, there is the resignation.” Bloom pointed out and turned to look at her friend. “How long and how much do I owe Griffin?”

“Did you bet on this?” Stormy screeched.

“Sure.” Bloom admitted as she took a look at the document that held all of their bets. “HA!” She grinned. “Stella lost that bet; I don’t owe Griffin shit!” Bloom promptly nicked Aisha’s phone, took a screenshotof the bet in question and sent it to Stella. The whole time she felt the eyes of the Trix on her.

“Why did you react the way you did when we came out of the path close to Eris?” Icy asked, and Bloom hesitated, thinking about what she would answer.

“Because the planet is dead.”

“You said that already.” Stormy hissed. Bloom clamped down at the pure rage that exploded inside of her as if someone had thrown a match into gasoline. Valtor tensed.

“First warning.” Bloom said coldly. “You get three, and then this is over. The planet is dead, but there are echoes of its magic and the tragedy trapped in the orbit of the planet. I could hear them.” Bloom explained and looked at the four of them carefully. She didn’t know what she was waiting for, but she was waiting.

“Because of your aura vision?” Darcy asked carefully.

“Yes, and that is all I am going to tell you on that topic.” Bloom said, in a tone she hoped conveyed just how serious she was on that. She would not tell them about her aura vision.

“Why was that open in the first place?” Valtor asked, and Bloom hesitated. There were so many ways she could answer this question. Most of them held just enough of the truth to satisfy them, but…

Bloom looked at the Trix. They were looking at her. Eager to know more, calculating and ready to take in every bit of information with the sole intention of using it later on.

“I am pretty sure I have severe PTSD.” Bloom said. Bloom carefully and methodically gazed into the eyes of each Trix member.

“You think?” Icy asked. “Doesn’t seem like something you would guess about.” It wasn’t a question per se, but it was such an amazing setupthat Bloom had to take it.

“No, you would think so. The sad thing is Alfea doesn’t have a psychologist on staff, and every other person who actually is qualified to deal with it is on the council's payroll.” Bloom enjoyed the slow horror creeping onto the faces of the three witches.

“While it would be amazing to get professional help, I would much rather not be blackmailed over something I have no control over.” Her tone was cold enough that it could have burnt something.

“Now I think this conversation is over. I told you what happened and…”

“You stayed in your room for a week and then broke down screaming.” The bond was dead, and for all intents and purposes, so were you. Her mind was ringing, her head started to hurt and Bloom wanted desperately to just throw a fireball at him.

“Maybe it would be for everyone's benefit if you looked up the symptoms of PTSD.” Bloom snapped. “Panic attacks aren’t the only way it materialises.” She left the room before anyone else could say anything.

***

Council Library Catalogue

Copy Nr.: MLMU.111520.611521.2041213

Topic: Magic Lore

Classification: Open Access

Title: Magic Users – An Analysis of the Five Archetypes of Magic Users – Their Differences and Unique Characteristics

Edition: Second Edition

Pages: 467

Published: 5625 after the Sparxs Fall

Added to CL: 5625 after the Sparxs Fall

Page 3

The general consensus is that there are five different types of magic users: fairies, witches, sorcerers, paladins and witchers – most of which have their own subgroupings. In this book I am trying to explain the differences these five archetypes have in common and also lay to rest some of the more outlandish stereotypes and prejudices that have been circulated over the last few millennia. […]

Page 10

The one thing all Magic Users have in common is the fact that they can use all types of magic. Light, dark or neutral magic – it doesn’t matter what a magic user's alignment is; they can present as each of the five archetypes.

[…]

It is a completely fabricated rumour that fairies are always light magic users and witches are always dark magic users since there are numerous accounts of classical fairies with a dark core and witches with a light core. Note even taking into consideration the subgroup that is dark fairies (which is technically a subgroup for both witches and fairies) […]

Page 24

Fairies

The first archetype of magic user I will be discussing in this book is the fairy. […]

A fairy is a being of sacrifice; their first use of magic was triggered by a selfless moment, gaining the ability to grow wings […]

A group of fairies that have bonded is called a Fairy Circle.

[…]

A larger collection of fairies is called a Fairy Ring.

[…]

Page 46

This might be the least known fact about fairies:neither of the subclassifications of fairies – earth fairies and dark fairies – are technically fairies. Dark fairies are their own – unrecognised – class of magic users, as they are beings of change. In most cases this means a witch or fairy does not feel that they fit into their current designation and wants to change. This can happen in different ways: through the simple act of stating the change or trying a spell of the other kind of magic user or, in more extreme cases, being consumed by revenge (fairy to witch change) or doing an act of sacrifice (witch to fairy change). […]

The other subclass of fairies, the Earth fairies, are beings of belief; therefore, once again, they are their own subclass. Since it has been millennia since an earth fairy existed and all of their literature and texts have been lost, I cannot make any statements on how their magic works or how one can classify an earth fairy.

[…]

Page 63

Witches

The second major archetype is witches. […]

Witches are beings of vengeance; their magical designation is not triggered by an act but an emotion. If a young magic user experiences a moment of extreme rage and chooses to hold onto it and fuel themselves with that, then they become a witch. Often this is accompanied by some kind of vow, but it is not necessary. […]

A bonded group of witches is called a coven. […]

While the most common name for a larger group of witches is a treachery, it is not actually the proper term. The name was circulated by a hate group after the fall of Sparx and got so popular that the original term was basically forgotten. […]

The real name for a large group of witches is a shelter, as witches used to be the guardians of strongholds and homes. Today this term is even more fitting, as witches take in everyone that was exiled from society as long as they do not harm the witch(es) in question. […]

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There are no subcategories of witches. The author – being a witch themselves – can explain this rather easily:

“We are already outsiders, frowned upon by everyone else; there is no use dividing us further and risking hatred among ourselves.”

[…]

Page 90

While there are no subclasses of witches, they have hundreds of titles to describe a witch's abilities. Some of them can be applied to all witches of a certain type: The term whisperer is used for all elemental witches. Others can only be given to very specific witches: shamans are witches that can see in the future or the past or commune with the dead. […]

Page 104

Sorcerers

Sorcerers are the third archetype of magic users and qualify as beings of balance. […]

Both in everyday and academic circles, sorcerers are often the butt of the joke. Since they are beings of balance, they are often seen as indecisive and flighty, jumping from one magical topic and specialisation to the next, collecting knowledge like participation trophies that could be disregarded at any moment. It makes them rather unpopular in most circles, especially academical ones. Personally the author thinks that this is simply a matter of misclassification in their mind; sorcerers should be known as beings of knowledge. Their inability to choose a specification for their magic isn’t because of missing talent or dedication but the simple need to know everything that is also anchored in their magic. […]

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A bonded group of sorcerers is known as a conclave.

A large group of them is known as an expertise. (Another reason why the author would like to petition a designation change) […]

Page 127

The general consensus is that there are no subcategories of sorcerers, which the author can disprove as they got an invitation to talk with several of the ancient sorcerers. […] While the author is not allowed to name the different subcategories, they were allowed to publish the fact that there are fifteen subcategories. Each of which is something a sorcerer can train and test to achieve. […]

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Palladins

The fourth archetype are beings of order focused on guarding magic. […]

A bonded group of Palladins is known as a wing.

A larger group is known as a Chapter […]

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The most prominent characteristic of a paladin is that they have feathery wings, not of magic, but flesh and bone. It is something they can hide, but that is extremely uncomfortable for them to do. […]

Page 168

Paladins are by far the most reclusive group of magic users. Most of them live as monks in secluded buildings that are unreachable without powerful wings. With their magical alignment being order, many paladins offer healing and guidance to people that need it. […]

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The most famous group of paladins are the Monks of Light Rock, who dedicated themselves to helping people that lost their way – criminals in most cases, but also people that suffered under war or torture – by offering them a safe and calm environment […]

Page 200

The most infamous group of Paladins is the Order of Silence. While most Paladins choose guidance or solace, this group is a more militaristic group that is known for their violent and merciless way.

The most prominent examples of their behaviour are Andros and Zenith. Due to the nature of the Hippocamups and their danger to the dimension, they were locked away; still, many people on Andros kept up their worship and practices to their god. At first the Order demanded that Andros people stop; when that wasn’t done, they went further, culling and murdering the practitioners with the single-minded goal of extinction. Something that wasn’t stopped until Domino stepped in and declared war on the Order of Silence should they hurt one more Andronian. […]

Zenith's people suffered under a similar after they started rebuilding their planet; the Order started a silent genocide that wasn’t noticed until a young child was teleported into an active session of the High Council and begged for help. […]

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A fact that most people tend to forget is the way the Order of Silence keeps themselves alive: they kidnap infants the moment they show any Paladin traits. If the child’s magic does not fit with their code, the child will be abandoned at a different Paladin monastery; otherwise, they will be raised as “warriors of justice”. Any parents trying to hide their child end up dead. […]

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Witchers

The last archetype is witchers, beings of destruction.

Before anything else, the author would like to voice their protests on this classification. A magic user that classifies themselves as a witcher is not a new type of magic user. Witchers are a title. The most famous group of witchers – the Dark Circle – are a group of four that are made up of a dark fairy, a sorcerer and two witches; their magical designation never changed when they became witchers; only their magic did. […]

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A bonded group of witchers is called a pack.

While there is no evidence that there ever was a large group of witchers, there is a term for them: a Ruination […]

Page 257

To understand how a witcher is made, one has to understand the different types of magic:

Body

Mind

Soul

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Magic of the Body is magic that is born from something concrete. The best examples are elemental magic users: fire magic, earth magic, water magic – all of it is something you can touch and know instantly what it is. […]

Page 264

Magic of the Mind is the type of magic that is a concept everyone knows: Melodian and Solarian magic are the best examples. Everyone knows what music is, but it is highly individual and different for everyone. […]

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Lastly, soul magic, which is only an idea: Justicia’s truth magic and Eraklyon's honour-based magic. These are things that we know of but cannot truly quantify or put into set rules. […]

Page 275

There is also the dark, light and neutral magic division, but that is an outdated system based on missing information and fearmongering.

Dark magic cannot be negative emotion, and light magic cannot be positive emotions, since that would mean that every fairy casting a spell in rage would be dark. […]

Page 293

Witchers are made when a magic user decides to betray everything they are. Their family, their morals, their home and their own magic. They let go of everything they once valued and quite literally destroyed it. As a result, their own magic rips apart and resembles itself in a different way, resulting in the last type of magic, twisted magic.

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Magicless People

There is also a large population of people that are known as magicless beings. Something that is factually wrong and simply a result of suppression and misinformation. Every person in the magical dimension has at least a spark of magic; for some, it is strong enough that they can channel it into a physical appearance. (Visible magic, wings, markings, etc.) […]

Page 325

For less powerful magic users, the spark will only ever be enough to activate a phanto weapon or use an already loaded amplifier. […]

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Statistics

In a group of 100 people, this would be the make-up:

40 Witches

25 Sorcerers

15 Palladins

19 "Mon Magical"

1 Fairy *

*The author would like to note that they do not count witchers among this count for two reasons: 1. There are not enough witchers in history to factor in, and 2. Witchers are not an archetype.

“We are getting out of here!” Timmy called as he raced through the door to Bloom's room and threw himself onto the bed.

“Are we?” Bloom shuffled over until Timmy had enough space to roll over and carefully placed the book onto the bedside table.

“Sky just sent a message. The division agreed to let us land.”

“Finally.” Bloom groaned.

“Stella sent you a garment bag.” Timmy added on, and Bloom stared at her ceiling for a long moment. “It’s traditional clothing, isn’t it?” Resigned to her faith. For all that Stella was the fashion-obsessed member of the friend group, it was Aisha who would demand protocol until someone keeled over.

“Yep. Aisha is putting everything up in one of our rooms since you locked yourself in.”

“You are here to get me up?” Bloom asked. Timmy nodded and rolled off the bed.

“I am going to get you into Aisha’s waiting and capable, if terrifying, hands, get dressed in my best and then wait gleefully to win this bet.” Bloom snorted and allowed Timmy to pull her up.

“There is no way you are winning this.” Bloom laughed as her friend manhandled her out of the bed. Timmy made a disagreeing noise and pushed her out of her door.

“Yes, I am! Now move it. We need to break Riven’s new uniform in.” Bloom winced.

“I’m…”

“Nope!” Timmy called, and River echoed the sentiment from the other room.

“You do not apologise for reacting to a traumatic event, B!” She sighed and walked past Timmy into the bathroom where Aisha was waiting for her. The open garment bag proudly presenting the dress she would wear for the first official meeting between her and the Royal Family of Eraklyon.

“Well then…” Bloom uttered and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. “Let’s get it over with.”

***

“Why do we have to wear this?” Stormy asked, and Bloom refused to roll her eyes.

“Because it’s Eraklyon, and they are pretentious fuckers.” Riven muttered.

“Public image and snottiness.” Timmy chirped.

“Do you like Erendor?” Aisha asked, and Bloom turned to look at her. Aisha winked.

“No?” Stormy answered even though it sounded more like a question.

“See, like this you are presenting yourself as someone higher ranked than him, which will irk him to no end and drive most of his nobles mad. If you show up in your usual get-up, they will dismiss you as if you are nothing.”

“So the planet didn’t change at all.” Valtor muttered where he was standing just behind Bloom's left shoulder. Bloom snorted.

“This is the nicer version.” She admitted. “When I first came here, it was worse.”

“The first time you were here, everyone was cranky because of several assassination attempts.” Aisha muttered from Bloom's other side.

“That is normal for them.” Bloom retorted. A moment later the ship landed.

“Your Majesty, they…” Jabari had appeared from the cockpit, looking affronted.

Fanfare started on the outside, cutting the man off before he could say anything.

“Well then…” Bloom muttered. Someone in the cockpit lowered the ramp.

Three people were waiting for them.

“Mhm…” Aisha hummed. “Petty.”

“Timmy, you just lost that bet.” Bloom declared under her breath and walked down the ramp to meet with the delegation of the royal family of Eraklyon that was waiting for her. Valtor and Aisha are right behind her. The smile on her face turned up a notch when she saw the paparazzi hiding a corner of the large courtyard.

“Your Majesty.” A familiar voice greeted her, and the figure in the centre of the trio stepped forward a step. Then immediately fell into a deep curtsy. “Well, back to Eraklyon, your Majesty.”

“Thank you, and please stand up.” Bloom tried her best to keep her smile from turning into a grimace. The woman before her straightened, and a pair of stunning golden eyes met her own.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Princess Diaspro.” In the corner a camera clicked away. Diaspro smiled the same tense, fake smile Bloom had plastered on her face. Bloom saw the sharp edge to it. She could see the sharp narrowing of Diaspro's eyes, even if it was nothing but a fraction, and the glimmer of tension that was dancing over the other woman's skin.

“The pleasure is all mine.” Diaspro answered with another stiff bow. Her eyes flicker to Bloom's companions.

“I am sure you know my company?” Bloom asked sweetly. “Especially my husband, Valtor.” The dig was subtle, and yet it hit hard if the hatred in Diaspro’s eyes was anything to go by.

“Yes, I remember.” If Diaspro were anyone else, she would have leapt for Valour’s throat already, and Bloom desperately wanted to see that. Sadly Diaspro was bred to be the perfect princess, so she didn’t even sound off.

“Of course there is Crown Princess Aisha of Andros. I am sure there is no further introduction needed.” Bloom said, pushing past any hurt feelings that might be there. Diaspro’s fake smile returned to greet Aisha.

“The Trix should be known to you and my personal guard. Helia of Lynphea, Timmy of Zenith and Riven of Magix. You should know them through your husband?” Bloom asked, intentionally forcing the conversation in the direction she wanted and needed it to go. Diaspro knew it too if the annoyed look that flashed over her face was anything to go by.

“Yes, Sky is rather fond of them, even after two years of … little interaction.” She ground out.

“How is Sky?” Bloom asked, intentionally using his first name. The reminder of familiarity would sting. “I have to admit I expected him and his family to greet me. Not that I am not happy with the greeting I have received.” Oh, how the tabloids would love this. Diaspro didn’t stiffen with discomfort or nervousness, but Bloom knew her tells. Sky was a talker when he was pissed and had talked a lot about Diaspro over the years. If she tensed ever so slightly and then brushed her hair back, then it was a sign that she was nervous.

“There was an incident this morning. The division of generals called an emergency meeting, and Sky and his parents are not able to get out of it.” Bloom smiled benevolently, knowing full well that that was a lie. If the division had called for a meeting, then Sky wouldn’t have been able to text Timmy. So whatever was going on, Diaspro didn’t like it and was forced to cover for it.

“Oh my, I hope nothing bad?”

“Lord Yoshinoa is making demands again.” Diaspro replied, and her voice wobbled ever so slightly. The severe-looking man – who was standing behind Diaspro and whom Bloom thought was some kind of advisor – flinched. Bloom didn’t need her abilities to know that that was a lie.

“Mhm…” Bloom hummed, narrowing her eyes at him; the man started to panic instantly, while Diaspro kept a strained smile on her face.

“Would you and your party like to accompany me inside?” Diaspro asked sweetly. “I have prepared the pearl sitting room for your arrival so that we could sit and talk.” She explained and turned, one hand outstretched as if to invite Bloom. Bloom stayed where she was.

Diaspro’s skin turned ever so slightly see-through as her magic gave her emotions away. “Turmalin will fetch my husband. The meeting should be over soon, so him leaving early shouldn’t be a problem.” It was an order that startled the man – Turmalin – until glaring at Disaspro with disdain. He opened his mouth as if to protest, his hand tightening on the tablet he was holding, but stopped when he noticed Bloom was looking at him. A strenuous smile or agreement appeared on his face; he turned without a word of acknowledgement to Diaspro. Not even the palace staff respected the Crown Prince's wife. Shameful and pathetic.

“Lead the way.”

Diaspro nodded once and bowed slightly. “If you would honour me and walk with me?” She asked, and Bloom thought about being petty and making her sweat but decided against it.

“Of course.” She said and finally stepped off the ramp.

“Are there any plans for the return of the magic?” She asked, and Diaspro pushed her hair back again. She was flanked by Diaspro and Aisha, while Valtor was right behind her. The rest of her group were following after. The other person who had greeted them, an unhealthily thin-looking woman, had fallen back and was walking at the end of the procession.

“It will be done tomorrow in view of the palace staff.” Diaspro said, and she sounded like she wanted to say something different.

“I am not sure I approve of that plan. So far we always returned the magic on the day of our arrival and in view of the people. Not just the royal family.”

“I…” Diaspro started, but Bloom held up a hand.

“On top of that, this is my tertiary. I am grateful that Eraklyon has been keeping an eye on my people, but they are my responsibility. I would much rather have them see that I kept my word.”

“I…” Diaspro foundered, processing the words as they rounded a corner. “I think that is a wonderful idea.” She finally managed to say, "But I am only a part of the royal family through my marriage to Crown Prince Sky. I think we should wait until he or his parents arrive to talk about this.” It was a diplomatic way of shifting blame, and Bloom would give it to Diaspro: it was brilliant.

“That is a good point.” Bloom said, willing to give the other woman an inch. Diaspro relaxed the slightest bit and motioned to a door that was decorated with pearls of all colours.

“This is the pearl room.” Bloom heard the other woman move to open the door, but Diaspro was faster, opening the doors wide to show them a vision of white with hints of pastel colours and gold. The effect of the pearl-like walls was magnified by the delicate cut of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“It is beautiful.” Bloom whispered as she walked past Diaspro, and she really meant it. This was the Eraklyon straight lines and simple style combined with the incredible skill of the Iris jewel smiths. Her friends followed her while Diaspro stayed by the door, blocking the woman from entering.

“I know protocols, but don’t you think it would be better if she could speak freely?” Diaspro hissed. The woman looked thunderous and ready to push past Diaspro. Bloom waited for a moment, just watching the argument, before she cut in.

“I have been inside the Arcadia for nearly a month. I would truly appreciate some space. I am not sure if I can stand having people I do not know around me. So please leave us in the capable hands of your crown princess.” The woman flinched and stared at Bloom. There was disdain in her face, and Bloom knew in her bones that the woman was ready to argue.

“That wasn’t a question.” Bloom said warningly. In her mouth her teeth sharpened enough that the change would be visible. “It would be best if you reminded yourself that Eraklyon is a vassal planet of Domino. My planet might be nothing but a tundra, but the magic of those vows isn’t. ” The woman flinched back. Bloom took a step forwards. “Nobody – but Prince Sky or his parents – is allowed to enter this room. That might change when I have seen a born member of the royal family; until then, if we need anything, we will call for a servant. Leave.”

For a moment the woman refused to heed Bloom's words, so Bloom bared her teeth and let her hair turn into flames. The woman shrieked and turned. Diaspro sighed and gently closed the door. Once they had clicked close, she let her head fall gently against the doors while a shimmering shield rushed up and down the walls until they were enclosed in it. Several spells and listening devices stopped working with a sharp crack.

“Great Dragon, I hate this palace.” Diaspro whispered.

“They really have you under constant surveillance, don't they?” Bloom asked and watched Diaspro flinch, hesitate and turn eventually. The other woman stayed where she was and leaned against the door.

“I am the wife of the crown prince, no matter how much they want a divorce.” Diaspro declared hauntingly. “Eraklyon's magic witnessed our vows and agreed. So I am their crown princess.”

“And that means constant surveillance?” Aisha asked dryly. Diaspro shrugged.

“Could be worse.” Bloom shared a look with Aisha.

“Are we going to keep up the distant play, or are you going to greet me properly?” Bloom asked after a moment of tense silence.

“The fuck?” She heard Stormy call from behind her, but Bloom didn’t care. A wide, genuine smile grew on Diaspro's face. A smile Bloom had earned and loved, and without another word, she threw herself forwards and right into Bloom's waiting arms. The hug was tight, tired and boneless, and Bloom simply hugged Diaspro back and spun until their momentum was gone.

“I missed you so much, all of you.” Diaspro whispered, her voice trembling with feelings and exhaustion that had nothing to do with too little sleep. At the same time, Bloom muttered, “Great Dragon, it is good to see you in person.”

“Not to be crass.” Darcy said, and she sounded bewildered and resigned. “But what is going on here?” Bloom heard Aisha snort and the rustling of her skirts as her friend moved away and then sat down on a couch.

“Remember when Stella let you in on the fact that her parents are not in fact hating each other?” She asked mildly. “Same situation, different font. They have been friends since second year.”

“HOW?!” Bloom, who was still holding Diaspro, felt the other woman starting to shake.

“I got kidnapped.” Diaspro muttered into Bloom's shoulder. “Sky decided to bring Bloom to my rescue mission.”

***

Bloom knew that the tent was shielded in all kinds of ways. She and Flora had added their own wards onto the already existing shields embroidered into the fabric of the tent and of course there were the wards Tecna had created together with Aisha by scratching runes and symbols into the tent posts. That didn’t mean it helped her relax when she could hear the ninjas or whatever those idiots called themselves moving around her.

Footsteps got closer and closer, and Bloom screwed her eyes shut to keep herself calm. Flora was muttering the incantation of her flower for the third time, and Bloom really wasn’t sure if this would be working. Freaking out wouldn’t help her, or Flora or Disapro, but… someone stepped onto a twig, and that was, of course, the moment the switching spell worked. Between one moment and the next, Flora was gone, and Diaspro was sitting in front of her. The princess squeaked as she flopped down onto the ground. Her hands were still tied behind her back, and for a moment she looked genuinely terrified, then Diaspro’s golden eyes met Bloom’s, and her face twisted.

The steps got closer, and Diaspro opened her mouth. Bloom launched before she could think. Her hand clasped over Diaspro's mouth as she pressed the other girl to the ground. The silencing spell Musa had taught her was rushing from her lips, causing the tent stakes to glow with light as the steps got closer.

“You can yell at me once they are gone, but for the love of the Great Dragon, be quiet, or they’ll get us both.” Bloom hissed under her breath. Diaspro instantly went boneless. Bloom wanted to be relieved that the other girl had listened to her, but instead Bloom smelt a familiar smell. Ever since she had found out who she was – and even more so since Aisha had told her about the Dragonborn – Bloom's senses had gotten stronger. Smell was the one that had developed the fastest, and right now Bloom was drowning in the panic Diaspro was feeling.

“It’s ok; nobody can see the tent. Stella – Princess Estelle – designed the rune pattern, and it’s woven into the fabric. It was a present from her mum, so you know it’s quality.” Bloom started babbling. She knew it was probably not doing anything but agitating the other girl, but she much rather dealt with an angry Diaspro than a panicking one. Panicking fairies tended to throw magic. Angry princesses only mean words – technically.

“Tecna also added some old Zenithian snow spells or something. Do not ask me about those! They are over my head, but nobody can see us or get close to us; they will be redirected. We are just not sure about the silencing spell. Musa didn’t have a lot of time to carve it into the stakes. So please, please be quiet.” Diaspro was still tense, her eyes shut tightly and her whole body trembling.

“I…” Bloom hesitated. “If you want…I can untie you. So you can defend yourself.” Diaspro's eyes shot open and stared at Bloom with a sudden focus that made Bloom's skin crawl. “I take that as a yes. Ok, let me help you into a sitting position.” Bloom carefully crawled off Diaspro and then pulled her up. The other girl let out a sharp cut of a hiss as if she was in pain but didn’t want to admit it. It was only when Bloom had crawled around Diaspro to untie her hands that she understood why. There were thick bruises and even open skin that was bleeding sluggishly.

“I can heal that if…”

“Shut up and leave me alone!” Diaspro hissed, and there was sharp venom in her voice, even though she was whispering. So Bloom did. She scooted backwards until her back hit the tent wall and curled into a ball. Not daring to look at Diaspro, who had turned around so that her back was to Bloom, but sneaking glances every once in a while.

Bloom knew what she had promised herself after Sky had told them about needing to go home to save Diaspro. She had wanted to apologise. Really apologise for what she had done to the other girl. It was half of why Bloom had stayed in the tent instead of switching places with Diaspro.

The other half was that Diaspro was a bit taller and thinner than Bloom, and the flower needed someone really close to switch people. Bloom wasn’t close enough.

She wanted to apologise. The thought was running circles in her mind, but her mouth stayed shut. The words stayed in her throat and turned painful. She really needed to apologise.

“Why didn’t you take my place?” Diaspro asked, and even though her voice was low, it was sharp and angry.

“I…”

“Oh, forget it! What did I even expect from the likes of you?!” Diaspro scoffed.

“I’m sorry.” Bloom blurted out. She hadn’t meant to, but she had seen the faintest glimpse of the other girl's aura – she was not used to that at all! She was not supposed to see magical people's aura – and the bone-deep exhaustion she was carrying with her. Whatever had been happening to Diaspro behind the closed doors of the Royal Palace of Eraklyon, it wasn’t good.

Diaspro froze, somehow getting even tenser than before.

“What?!” She spat and whirled around. Somehow the movement was graceful even though neither of them had much space and Diaspro was sitting. Her eyes were blazing and shining in a way that reminded Bloom of crystals reflecting light. Bloom flinched back but straightened herself up a second later.

She would NOT back down! She would not take it back. She would apologise, and she would do it right! Her dad had taught her early on that apologies were never about you and the only way you could do it right was to be selfless and accept whatever was going to happen, but most importantly: to do it. Bloom had made a mistake, and Diaspro was still suffering the consequences. Bloom could apologise even if Diaspro would never accept it.

“I am sorry.” Bloom repeated. “For embarrassing you at the Red Fountain exhibition.” She said firmly. Somehow this seemed to make Diaspro even angrier.

“Really?” Diaspro snapped, and maybe Bloom had miscalculated in thinking that angry princesses would only use words. They were alone after all, and Diaspro was as much a fairy as she was a princess. “So what? You say those pretty words so you can close the chapter in your story that has to do with me? Be happy with Sky knowing you said sorry?”

“No, I…”

“Shut it!” Diaspro’s skin had turned sharp and even. Her hair looked as if it could impale something. Stella’s voice echoed through Bloom's head: “People from Iris tended to turn their skin into crystal if they were angry or in danger.”

“You said sorry; you can go back home and sleep happy knowing you tried. Good for you, but know this: it changed nothing! No matter what you do, this will change NOTHING!” Diaspro looked ready to keep going when something crashed outside of the tent. They both froze and listened. Trying to figure out if they had been too loud or if they were ok. When nothing happened for a whole minute, Diaspro huffed and made to say something else, but this time Bloom was faster.

“I was wrong—“ She rushed out. Not waiting to see how Diaspro was reacting, just wanting to get her words out. “You are right. Me apologising will change nothing. That doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve it. I hurt you. I made things with Sky …I…” Bloom stumbled and floundered, not knowing how to say it without pulling up bad memories and making the whole thing even worse. So she kept going.

This… she would come back to this later.

“I am the reason why your engagement was cancelled. I didn't mean to do any of that, but I did, and I cannot change those things. So at the very least you deserve to have me give you a genuine apology. It might not change anything; it might not make you hate me less, but it means you are not at fault. So…” Bloom straightens, looking up and at Diaspro's dumbfounded face for the first time since she had started her rant.