Daphne's Legacy
By Ella Anders
Wednesday, September Eleventh, 2013
Summary: Life as a princess doesn't always mean it's a picture-perfect fairy-tale. A fact Daphne knows well, during the summer before her final year at Alfea she discovers a shocking discovery that could alter everything….
Disclaimer: Winx Club is owned by Rainbow and Viacom. I the authoress do not own and or profit from anything. Please note none of my personal views and or opinions are reflected in this work of fan-fiction.
Authoress' Notes: "Daphne's Legacy" is a re-write of my original work, "The Life of Daphne of Domino", which I will remove from my profile. This story is, of course, AU to the canon series as well a majority of my works. "Daphne's Legacy" is a two-shot.
ONE
Her royal highness, Crown Princess Daphne Nerissaa Kendra of Domino- Daphne for short- lived a very different life than you would expect for a real-life fairy-princess.
Just like all royals, she lived in a charming castle, wore the finest gowns and the most dazing tiaras. They attended lavish balls, danced with princess and had a joyous life-style. To any girl, not matter what age or class, the life of a princess seemed perfectly wonderful.
That is except for Daphne, even at a young age the glitz, glamor and grief of life in politics had crumbled the fabricated reality of her "fairy-tale life". Despite her parents' best attempts to shelter their daughter from the true reality of the danger and darkness of the world, Daphne was much too smart and clever to have a taboo topic like war simply bushed under the rug. Especially when the sight of blood-shed becomes common.
It hadn't been something Ortiel had wanted to do, explain the war to his small daughter, he had tried and tried to get little Daphne preoccupied with other things as well as topics. But alas, it never worked. And one fateful night Ortiel found himself sitting down on the bed beside his sleepy daughter, but in his hands wasn't a story-book, but rather a documents of war.
A story without a happy ending in sight.
Despite the war at large, the royal family of Domino continued on living as normal life as they could given the circumstances. There were balls, galas, and other gatherings with their fellow rulers. Both Miriam and Ortiel greatly enjoyed spending time with close friends and allies in happier occasions. Daphne however, well, she wasn't nearly as keen on royal gatherings. Especially ones held in other kingdoms.
As the adults and even teenagers gathered into their clicks, Daphne often found herself alone far from the others. Hiding mostly from the children in her own age demographic.
Fitting in and socializing had always been problem areas for Daphne. No matter how hard she tried, Daphne struggled to fit in and be accepted by others her own age. Not that it was such a terrible loss on her end, most of the other children she encountered were childish and immature as they regarded anything with bodily functions humorous.
Daphne wasn't like that, no. Daphne was quite, reserved, well-behaved, armed with a kindred spirit and old soul. Translation; a 'goodie-goodie', as she had often been called. Daphne seemed wired to not cause trouble, even on the off chance she tried to do something wrong she failed horribly.
This curse didn't go without gaining un-wanted attention; adults loved Daphne and praised her for her adult-like demeanor and behavior and held her up as a shining example to their own children, who, in turn, resented the mortified Daphne.
As time went on, Daphne discovered embarrassment wasn't the only thing attached with being the poster child for good behavior, there were other consequences. Exclusion and, bullying where two of them. For both social and education activities Daphne often found herself alone and isolated from others. However the childish antics didn't cease there. Oh no, at one point, when Daphne was twelve, a group her peers banded together and made an official club. Their primary objective- to make Daphne's life Shadow-Haunt. Armed with the typical tools of the trade for any bully; words, creativity.
For six-months the anti-Daphne club did everything they could think of to not only to harass Daphne, but also to get the seemingly perfect porcelain doll in trouble. There was name-calling, pranks, and other nonsense that was at time innovative and cliché.
After six-months of failure, and parental and teacher interference, the anti-Daphne club diminished. But the intent to take Daphne didn't dwindle.
But what it did do was leave a lasting impression on Daphne. As the damage had already been done.
She had no friends, little self-confidence and no hope anything would change. She spent as much time as possible alone with her books or with her favorite servants. Daphne became a quieter, reserved and sadder shell of her once cheery self. All thanks to her tormentors.
The changes didn't go by un-noticed, in fact everyone inside the Sparks Castle quickly caught onto the changes. After learning all the fine details about Daphne's bullying, as well as Daphne's perspective on the matter. It was then that Oritel and Mariam decided to step in and take matters into their own hands, they pulled Daphne from her school and enlisted the help of a twenty or thirty-something year old Griselda -who despite lacking decades of experience held a strong reputation for being strict, fair and excellent teaching qualities- to teach the princess of Domino.
Thrilled was barely scratching the surface of emotions that sweltered up inside of Daphne, in addition to the overwhelming desire to jump up and down, as her parents sat her down to talk about their plan. Daphne's eyes grew wide as her parents spoke. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, Daphne smiled for that day was one of the happiest of her life.
It hadn't taken more than a few lessons for the young girl to realize how hard a teacher Griselda was- but much to her own shock, Daphne loved it. And it was then Daphne started to feel hopeful once more despite the darkness that surrounded her.
For the remainder of Daphne's primary and secondary education she was tutored by Griselda. She was so far ahead in all of her courses and magical training that she was able to start college level work during her final years of secondary school. Daphne seemed to be happy, very happy. But the feeling was not shared by her parents.
As they were beginning to worry about their only daughter as she became anti-social and had no friends her own age or any age close to hers for that matter. Ortiel was at a loss of what to do to help their dear Daphne. Mariam on the other hand was not for she had an idea; Alfea.
It was, in Mariam's eyes, the perfect solution as it would allow Daphne to continue her education, become a true fairy and socialize. Ortiel was hesitant, he didn't want his only child to go off to far away Magix for such a long time, he worried about her safety and all the possible dangers- teenage boys included. Knowing the two of them may very well never see eye to eye on the matter, they went forth and presented the idea to Daphne, because in the end the choice was hers.
At first Daphne had been surprised, she had never examined the idea of enrolling at Alfea before. She supposed learning more about her fairy powers would be wise- but Alfea was so far from Domino! How could she leave home? Daphne asked this to her parents in worried tone, causing her father to give a small smug grin to his wife- Daphne truly was Ortiel's daughter. Mariam rolled her eyes and calmly explained to her daughter all of the pros of Alfea and told her to seriously think about it.
Seriously thinking about hadn't taken more than a week, exactly one week after her parents sat her down to discuss Alfea, Daphne sat her parents down to tell them she had made up her mind.
She was going to Alfea.
And Ortiel was about to have a heart-attack.
The next four months of preparation where a blur to Daphne. There was so much that she had needed to accomplish. By the time the time came for Daphne to actually travel to Magix, she was mentally exhausted.
Little did she know how exhausted she would be by the end of her first term.
It hadn't even taken Daphne a day to realize that life at Alfea was a far cry from her old life inside the Sparks Castle. Everything was different. Harder.
The classes where at times very challenging, more so ones that required the use of magic. As Daphne wasn't use to using her magic as frequently nor was she extremely proficient with her gift. Thus leaving her the worst student in the class. However her core classes where a snap, partly in thanks to the many years of Griselda's teaching no doubt.
Despite her short-comings, the school work was the least of her challenges. Getting along with her classmates and roommates where a unknown subject all in their own. Although polite, Daphne struggled to form any type of bond with anyone at the school.
Especially when her one roommate, Cadence, found out about Daphne's secret crush on a fellow freshman at Red Fountain, Brad. Rather than keeping the information to herself, Cadence when and spread word all around campus. It went without saying that Daphne was embarrassed, more so when she found out Brad was secretly dating a teacher over at Cloud Tower.
After the many failure of her first term, Daphne did her best to fly under the radar and spend as much time as she could reading and studying magic for the rest of the school year as well as the remaining two years at college.
The plan worked well for the rest of her freshman and sophomore year. But her senior year, well that all went to Shadow-Haunt. Thanks to her new roommate, Laura, the fairy of desires. Laura was wild, loud, outgoing, and confident- everything Daphne wasn't. And somehow a friendship formed between the two fairies.
With the help of Laura, Daphne was able to break out from underneath her shell and actually have some fun. Perhaps too much fun...