Chapter 7: Rough Meeting

Stella walked happily through the streets of Magix, stopping from time to time to take a look at the various shop windows. She had the urge to buy something, but what's the fun in shopping alone? Besides, her friends were waiting for her. They finally had some time for themselves, and they were going to make the most of it.

The blond girl finally saw her friends sitting on a terrace, having drinks and talking. Stella sat beside them.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late," said Stella.

The rest of the girls stopped their conversation, and stared at Stella incredulously. Of course this was noticed by her.

"Uh, what's wrong, girls? Do I have some lipstick in my face?" asked Stella, pulling out a small mirror from her purse.

"Excuse me but, what do you think you're doing?" asked Musa.

"What do you mean?" asked Stella.

"You come here and sit with us like we were longtime friends," said Tecna.

"That's because we're longtime friends, silly," said Stella, who was starting to get annoyed.

"Longtime friends? We don't even know who you are!" said Bloom.

Stella's confusion grew even more, but then she let out a small laugh. "Very funny, girls. Come on, drop it now."

"Maybe we should let her to stay with us," suggested Flora. "She looks to be desperate for friends."

"What's going on? Don't you remember me? It's me, Stella! The Princess of Solaria!"

"Listen, I don't know who you are or where do you come, but there's no such a thing as a 'Princess of Solaria'" said Aisha. "The king and queen of Solaria got divorced before having any children."

Stella then realized that they weren't kidding. They didn't remember her. Hell, it was like she had never existed.

"Hey, what's going on here?" asked a male voice.

Stella turned around, and saw her boyfriend Brandon as well as the rest of the specialists.

"This girl," said Bloom. "She came here talking like we know her."

"Because I do know you!" said Stella. "Brandon, please, tell them who I am!"

"And how am I supposed to know?" asked Brandon. "I don't know who you are either! And how do you know my name?"

"Listen, you need help," said Tecna softly, putting her hand on Stella's shoulder.

"No, YOU need help!" yelled Stella, while smacking Tecna's hand out of her shoulder. "Why doesn't anyone remember me!"

Stella then woke up. She was in her bedroom, in Solaria. She then jumped out of the bed and began to run through the palace screaming for her father. She opened every door she found, but her father wasn't in any of them. Finally, she found him in a meeting room, talking with other people.

"DAD!" yelled Stella.

"What's going on?" asked Radius.

"Dad, please, tell me that you remember me! Tell me that you know who I am!"

"Stella, calm down!" said Radius, holding Stella by her arms. "You're my daughter; of course I know who you are!"

Stella sighed in relief. It was just a bad dream.

"Stella, you entered here, hurling screams and interrupting one of my meetings, asking me if I remember you...what happened? Are you sick or something?"

"Nothing, Dad...nothing," said Stella, hugging her father. Radius hugged her back. "I just had a nightmare."

"My poor Stella..." said Radius. "Little do you know that your nightmare just began!"

Stella saw that she wasn't hugging her father anymore, but a huge man wearing black armor under a long, hooded, black robe, and a silver mask. Stella suddenly stepped back.

"You have something that's mine...and I want it back!" said the man in black.

Overwhelmed by terror, Stella tried to run away, but even if she was running, she felt that she wasn't moving at all. The man in black was coming...

"No, no, no, no...NOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Stella!"

Covered in sweat, Stella woke up startled and sweaty. Bloom was looking at her.

"Bloom?" asked Stella.

"Stella, did you have a nightmare? We heard you scream..." said Bloom, worried.

"Yes, it was that...just a nightmare," said Stella, now relieved.

Stella found the place she was unfamiliar. However, she then remembered that it was one of the Prometheus rooms, since they were no longer students and therefore could not sleep at Alfea.

"Don't worry, she's okay," said Bloom to the rest of the girls, who were in the door, looking at them. Once they knew that Stella was okay, they left.

"I told her that she shouldn't eat so much mushroom pizza," Stella heard Aisha say.

Now she remembered. The last night they went out to downtown Magix with the specialists, have dinner and danced the whole night.

"Come on, get dressed. We have to see if Tecna's made some progress deciphering the cube," said Bloom.

Stella nodded in response.

It was a nice afternoon in Alfea. Mirta woke up early, and decided to spend some time in the courtyard. She already missed the sunrise, but she liked to be there anyway, to sit on a bench, and let Alfea's peaceful aura overcome her body. However, she saw that somebody already had the same idea.

Marco, the paladin they encountered in Danpal, sat on a bench, staring at nothing in particular. He wasn't wearing his armor, but more casual clothes: a black short-sleeved shirt, a blue waistcoat, brown trousers and black shoes.

It was the first time she had seen him since Faragonda told them about the Forge, since he hadn't hung out with them the last night (even though they had wanted him to go out with them, so they could get to know each other a bit better), nor slept in Tecna's ship. She wondered why he acted that way, why he wanted to be a loner. In fact, he didn't even look to have any friends. Well, maybe Mirta could be the first one.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" asked Mirta, snapping Marco out of his thoughts.

"Oh...sure," said Marco, moving aside, allowing more space for Mirta to sit down.

"By the way, I think that we haven't introduced each other yet. I'm Mirta," said Mirta, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"Marco," said the paladin.

Suddenly, Mirta realized that she had no idea what to talk about. The paladin didn't seem to be too talkative, so it was up to her to avoid an uneasy silence.

"We were you yesterday night?" asked Mirta. Once she realized what she had asked, she felt really bad for being so indiscreet.

Marco looked at her, a bit incredulous.

"Sorry for that! I didn't want to be so tactless, it's just that, well, yesterday we wanted you to come with us to downtown Magix, and..."

"I just went for a walk," answered Marco.

"Did you want to be alone?" asked Mirta.

"Yes. I wanted some time to think," said Marco.

"Think about what?"

"About the events of these past days. And what I'm going to do."

"Well, the next time...maybe you could come with us. You could have had some fun," said Mirta.

Marco didn't reply.

"Well, where are you from?"

Marco then chuckled.

"Okay, why are you so interested in me?" asked Marco.

"I'm not interested! It's just that-"

"If you're not interested, then why did you come here and bombarded me with questions about myself. What's the deal?"

"I'm just trying to befriend you," said Mirta. "You could be a bit nicer. Two people get closer to each other when they talk and share things with each other and-"

"So now I'm supposed to ask things about you and feign interest?"

"Will you let me finish?" said Mirta, now irritated. "You know, when I first saw you, you looked so...lonely. And the worst thing is that you didn't even make an attempt to befriend anybody. That's why I-"

"I get it," interrupted Marco. "So, you're doing this out of pity, don't you?"

"Yes-NO!" said Mirta. "I don't this out of pity. It's because I know how you feel."

"Oh, really?" replied Marco sarcastically.

"Yes, I DO know!" yelled Mirta, earning a curious look from the paladin. Mirta suddenly clapped her hands over her mouth.

"You do?" asked the paladin, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's that...you know what?" said Mirta, truly angered. "I came here with my best intentions, just to cheer you up and be your friend, but now I see that you're not worth of it. You're the biggest jerk I've ever met! Goodbye, and enjoy your loneliness!"

Mirta stood up, and still angry, decided to go back to the Prometheus.

"Mirta, wait!"

Back in the Prometheus, Bloom and Stella were about to join Tecna and the rest of the group in the ship's bridge. They ran into Mirta, and said hello to her, but Mirta, who seemed to be uncharacteristically angry, just went past them, not even looking back. In the bridge, Tecna was typing something in the ship's computer, while Timmy, Flora and Musa watched.

"Hello everybody," said Bloom. "How are you doing with the cube?"

"Not good," said Tecna, a bit disappointed. "This became a harder challenge than I anticipated. It may take longer than expected to decipher the cube."

"Where's the problem?" asked Stella. "I thought that with your powers and intelligence, that thing wouldn't be any trouble."

"It's not that easy, Stella," said Musa. "This cube is something not even Tecna has seen."

"Besides, it's not just that the information within the cube is codified," Timmy interjected. "There are loads of trash files mixed with the information that we need to filter first. It takes time, since first we also have to tell the difference between the good files and the bad files. We created an algorithm that can do that, but it will take time."

"In other words," said Bloom, who barely understood anything of what Timmy said. "You still have a lot of work."

"Well, not us, the computer," said Tecna. "I just loaded the program. We now can go and the computer will work on its own, and send a message to my badge when it's finished. I can't estimate an accurate amount of time, but it will be completely decoded between one and two days."

"Hey, do you think it's safe to have the cube here?" asked Flora. "They could come here and steal it."

"I don't think so," said Tecna. "They don't know where we are. Besides, we also took safety measures."

"So you can relax," said Timmy. "Everything's here is under control."

Now that the cube matter was solved (or, hopefully would be solved soon, if Tecna and Timmy were to be believed), Bloom decided to change the topic.

"Hey, any of you guys knows what's wrong with Mirta?" asked Bloom. Everybody shrugged.

"What do you mean?" asked Flora. "I talked with her yesterday, and she's fine."

"Well, it's that we saw her coming here, and she looked really angry," Stella explained.

"That's weird," said Musa. "Mirta isn't the type of girl who gets angry easily. It had to be something grave."

Now that Musa said it, none of them recalled seeing Mirta angry anytime.

"I'll talk with her," offered Flora.

Mirta was in her cabin, lying in a bed, muttering profanities against the paladin. At first she thought that maybe it was her fault. She went to him, and began to hassle him with questions. He felt lonely, alienated, and homesick. She knew it.

However, her kindness was returned with hostility and displeasure. The jerk! If somebody wanted to befriend and comfort Mirta when she felt lonely and unhappy, she would have been grateful! No, it wasn't her fault.

Upon thinking about it a bit more, Mirta surprised herself when she realized that it was the first time she was angry at somebody who hadn't tried to kill her first.

"Everything okay, Mirta?" asked a voice behind her. Mirta turned around and saw Flora.

"Yeah, everything's alright," said Mirta, giving Flora a fake smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Well...it's that you almost ran over Bloom and Stella," said Flora. "Come on, Mirta, tell me what's wrong."

Mirta's smile faded, but her face relaxed as well.

"It's nothing Flora. Really." Mirta answered. To some extent, it was true.

"Still, I think that it would be good if you talked about it with somebody," Flora insisted. "You know you can trust me."

Mirta stood up from the bed, and sighed heavily.

"I had an argument with that new guy you and the others brought," Mirta explained.

"Really?" asked Flora, frowning. "He looked to be a nice guy."

"Well, he isn't!" said Mirta. "I just tried to be nice to him and he kept being a jerk!"

Stella then entered the room.

"Mirta, there's somebody here who wants to see you," said Stella, grinning.

Please, not be him, not be him...

However, it was him.

An apparently remorseful Marco entered in the room.

"Hello," said Marco shyly.

"What do you want?" asked Mirta bluntly.

"Listen, I want to apologize for my behavior toward you before," Marco began. "I'm not too...social. However, that wasn't an excuse for what I did. It was wrong."

"What do you say, Mirta?" asked Flora.

"Alright," said Mirta. "Apology accepted."

Deep inside, she was still a bit mad at him, but her (usually) soft temper forced her to forgive anybody who was truly repentant. Of course, she couldn't recall anybody apologizing to her before.

"And, since I see that a mere sorry won't be enough for you to not be mad at me, let me repay you," said Marco. "How about if I...invite you to eat, and we talk a bit? You can ask me everything you want. Do you accept?"

"It's very generous, but-"

"Of course she accepts!" said Stella, much to Flora and Mirta's shock. "Pick her by one P.M. Goodbye!"

Stella then practically pushed Marco out of the room, not even letting him say goodbye.

"Stella, why did you do that?" asked Flora.

"Do what?" asked the blonde innocently.

"Stella, why didn't you let me to say if I wanted to eat with him or not?" asked Mirta, obviously pissed. Speaking of being indiscreet!

"Sorry, I thought that you needed a little push," said Stella.

"A push for what?" replied Mirta.

"Oh, come on! It's obvious that the guy likes you. And even more obvious that you like him back."

Flora always knew that Stella loved to pair people off, but she never thought that her friend would go so far.

"That's not true!" protested Mirta.

"Oh, come on Mirta! I saw the face you had when you saw him," said Stella.

"Which face? I was angry at him."

"Not that face. The face you had the very first second you saw him here."

"Stella, you can't know for sure if Mirta liked that guy," said Flora.

"Yes, yes I can," said Stella with a smug expression. "Besides, eating with him can't that bad, right? You should give him a chance. And if things don't work out, you don't have to see him again."

"Maybe you're right...there's no harm in trying," said Mirta, although still unconvinced.

"See?" said Stella, satisfied. "Anyway, I'm leaving. Have to tell the rest of the girls that you have a date!"

"Okay...wait, it's not a date!" said Mirta.

But Stella had already left.

"Tecna and Timmy started working on the cube," said Musa. "It should be deciphered in less than two days."

Musa, Aisha, Riven and Nabu, were in Faragonda's office, informing the headmistress about their progresses.

"Good to hear it," said Faragonda. "Once we get the location of the Forge, our top priority will be to find it and make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"I was thinking that, if the Forge is so dangerous, wouldn't be better if we destroyed the cube?" suggested Aisha. "This way, the location of the Forge would be lost forever, and we wouldn't have to worry."

"Aisha, I don't think that you're aware of the scale of all this. That Forge is a technological treasure. Back in the old days, we had to hide it so it didn't fall in the wrong hands. However, part of the plan was to recover it someday. That's why one of the wizards created a map with the location of the Forge."

"And...do you think that the time to recover the Forge is now?" asked Nabu.

"I don't see why not," said Faragonda with a shrug. "The knowledge that lies in that place could be used for a lot of good things."

"Yes, but, look what happened in the past," said Aisha. "After that Craftsman guy created the Forge, it sparked a lot of battles for it. I still think that we'll be better without it."

"You don't understand, do you? I'll try to explain," asked Faragonda. "The Forge is like, let's say, Bloom's Dragon Fire. Remember that the Trix wanted her powers, were successful in their quest and almost destroyed Magix. However, do you think that the best solution would be to kill off Bloom?"

Aisha was horrified. "Of course not!"

"But Bloom was – is – the keeper of the Dragon Fire. If we would kill her, the Dragon Fire would disappear along her. But both you and I know that that isn't the right thing to do."

"It's not the same," countered Aisha. "Bloom is a human being, a living creature. The Forge is just a building."

"Okay, let me try again," said Faragonda. "Do you think that we should burn Alfea's library?"

That question took Aisha by surprise, mostly because it was something rather stupid.

"Of course not!" said Aisha.

"And why not? Applying your logic, we should. Alfea houses books that contain very powerful spells, potion recipes, registers about every fairy that has ever existed, maps, and many more things. Just think what would happen if that knowledge fell into the wrong hands and was used against us."

"Yes but, well, those books are used to train and instruct fairies, right? And I remember when we..."said Aisha. Suddenly, she realized what Faragonda wanted to say. The headmistress smiled.

"Aisha, knowledge, like magic, is not good or bad. It depends on what you choose to do with it. Just because somebody may use magic for evil deeds doesn't mean that magic should be forbidden. And just because somebody uses knowledge for evil deeds doesn't mean that we should be afraid of research and make new discoveries."

Everybody meditated on Faragonda's words.

"The first Master Craftsman was probably one of the most intelligent people who ever lived, and make a lot of progress in the fields of both science and magic, progress that was sadly lost. And now, we have the chance to recover it. Do you understand it now?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Aisha.

"I'm glad to hear it. You're dismissed. Tell me when you have deciphered the cube."

Some minutes later, Aisha was on one of Alfea's balconies, looking at the horizon with dreamy eyes. She could see the Prometheus, where the cube lay. She could also see the few fairies that had already arrived at the school. She even discerned Musa, who was talking with Riven. She wondered what they were saying.

"Aisha."

The princess of Andros started, and turned around to see Nabu.

"Nabu! What do you want?" asked the fairy of water.

"I just wanted to say that I'm with you," said Nabu. He came close to her, and placed his hand over hers. "I also think that the Forge is too dangerous."

"Oh," said Aisha flatly. Nabu didn't say anything during their conversation with the headmistress, and now that Aisha was convinced of Faragonda's point of view, it came as a surprise."Then why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because I also agreed with what Faragonda said," said Nabu. "She set up a good example. But then I started to think: how much good can the Forge do? From what we know, the Forge was used to create weapons primarily. And, regardless of all the technology and knowledge and stuff...just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you have to do it, right?"

Aisha raised an eyebrow, intrigued."What do you mean?"

"I mean, what the technology in the Forge can do," the wizard said. "I agree that knowledge itself is not a bad thing, but what we must think of are the applications of certain knowledge. Let's say that the Forge has the way to build a weapon that can blow up a whole planet. That's just indiscriminate destruction, with no good uses."

"I see," said Aisha. "However, we're not aware of what technology we might find."

"Exactly," said Nabu. "That's why we can't take this issue lightly. Once we find the Forge, it should be of paramount importance to inspect it closely, and then decide what to do. I know that our mission is to report the location of the Forge once we find it but—"

"Don't you trust Faragonda?" interrupted Aisha.

"Yes. But, as I said before, we should be very careful."