Chapter 8

"I found Clarissa Silver," declared Flora. "Here it is."

Mirta and Lucy saw that she was holding a book. It was titled Manual of Amulets, Talismans and Other Small Items of Great Power, by Clarissa Silver.

"A manual of magic amulets?" asked Lucy. "Yes, that's going to be VERY useful."

"Who knows. Maybe it is," said Mirta.

"Lucy, does this book have a special meaning for you? It can be important," asked Flora.

"It's a book used in some subjects, but that's all. I don't know how's that going to help us," said Lucy.

"Maybe there's some sort of secret message on it," guessed Mirta.

"That doesn't help either," replied Lucy dryly.

"Still, we should take a look. All the messages we got were useful, and I'm sure that this will be as well," countered Flora.

"Alright, alright, I'll see if there's something useful," said Lucy in defeat. "I'm not in the mood for arguing..."

Meanwhile, not far from there, the five remaining members of the Winx Club finally managed to enter in the school for witches. Like Flora and Mirta before them, they were more than shocked to see Cloud Tower's ruined state. However, more than the cracked walls, leaks or the overall bad smell, it was the emptiness and extreme silence that scared them most. It was Stella who broke the silence.

"This place really needs some alterations," commented Stella. The other girls glared at her. "What? It's true!"

Bloom ignored Stella's comment and carefully observed the building's state.

"This confirms our suspects that there's something wrong here," stated Bloom.

"Hey, where's everybody?" asked Musa. "I know that classes are over here as well, but there should be some people here."

Tecna was checking her tracker.

"Flora is in exactly in the floor above us," said Tecna, much to the other's girls joy.

"Perfect!" said Stella. "Let's pick her up and get the hell out of this place!"

"Yes, the less time we're here, the better," added Layla.

"Wait, I count two more signals," said Tecna. "I presume that one of them is Mirta, but I don't know who the other may be."

"Maybe another witch," conjectured Musa.

Their conversation was disrupted by Stella once again, but this time wasn't because of one of her untimely cracks.

"Girls, come here! You have to see this!" said Stella from afar. None of them noticed that she began to explore the school on her own.

The girls rushed to where Stella was, and their amazement grew even more. All of them guessed that the large room was a training room like those in Alfea, but this was completely wrecked. There were several burn marks in the walls, as well as lots of small holes in the floor, however, the most glaring damage was a huge hole in the floor. From there, they could see a pile of debris in the floor below.

"There was a battle here," pointed out Layla.

"A recent battle," specified Tecna, taking a closer look at the hole. "The edges of the hole are still hot. And I can perceive some leftover energy from the spells used to open this hole."

"Do you think it was Flora and Mirta?" asked Stella.

"It's the most logical conclusion."

"Judging by the gargoyles we had to fight in the terrace, I wonder what kind of horror they had to face here," said Layla.

"It's me, or all you feel a bit...uneasy?" asked Musa, rubbing herself.

"I already told you. It's Cloud Tower's aura," said Tecna.

"Well, Musa never liked this place," said Layla.

"None of us like this place," said Stella bitterly. "And much less now."

"Girls, focus," said Bloom. "We need to reach the upper floor and find Flora and Mirta before they decide to move on."

Tecna pressed some buttons in her tracker, and the screen displayed a detailed holographic map of Cloud Tower.

"Okay, we're here," said Tecna, pointing the fifth floor. "And Flora, Mirta and an unknown person are here," Tecna was pointing the sixth floor.

"I remember that. It's Griffin's office," pointed Musa.

"Let's go, there's no time to lose," urged Bloom.

The five girls made their way to the sixth floor taking the same stairs as Mirta and Flora.

"Ow!" shouted Stella, quickly turning around.

"Something wrong?" asked Bloom.

"Yes, something smacked me in my back of my neck!"

"Stella, there's nobody behind you..." said Layla.

Stella realized that Layla was right.

"Anyway, somebody hit me!" complained Stella.

"Maybe you just imagined it, although I can see why, this place gets on my nerves too..."

"Ow!" shouted Bloom, quickly turning around as well. "Something smacked the back of my head too!"

"What's going on here?" asked Layla.

Suddenly, Layla felt that a rocky hand grabbed her ankle and made her trip and fall down the stairs, Unfortunately, she dragged Stella and Tecna with her, and landed in a landing they passed seconds ago. Bloom and Musa went to see if they were okay.

"What a fall! Are you okay?" asked Musa.

"Next time, watch your step!" said Stella, angered.

"It wasn't my fault! Something made me trip!" protested Layla.

"Are you sure it wasn't your imagination?" asked Stella mockingly.

"Please, stop! This is no time for pointless fighting!" said Bloom. "We have to rescue Flora and Mirta, remember?"

"Yeah, sorry..." apologized Stella before standing up and smoothed out her clothes. "Let's continue before this place finishes us off..."

A far but loud roar echoed through the stairs.

"Okay...what was that?" asked Layla.

They could heard the roars again, but this time were louder. What happened next would be something they never forget in their whole lives. The door that lead out to the landing suddenly grew lots of teeth and began to swallow the whole landing, while uttering roars. Bloom said the obvious.

"RUN!"

The five girls ran like there's no tomorrow, while the giant mouth devoured the stairs. After what it seemed an endless race, they reached the sixth floor, and slammed the door that lead out to the stairs. Whatever it was chasing them tried to knock the door down, but it desisted after several minutes.

"Is that thing gone?" asked Musa.

"I think so," replied Tecna.

"Too bad that we have now another problem...Look!" said Stella, scared.

Back on Griffin's office, Lucy was still studying the talisman guide in order to find something that could be helpful, but there wasn't any luck. Meanwhile, Flora and Mirta were trying to activate Griffin's crystal ball. The fairy and the half witch were focused in making it work. Suddenly, the ball began to glitter

"It works!" said Mirta.

"Don't lose your concentration!" warned Flora.

Lucy closed the book and came closer, expectant.

"Continue like this, Mirta, you're doing it fine!"

Suddenly, the crystal ball let out a powerful flash, blinding the three girls alike. When the bright light disappeared, they weren't in Cloud Tower, but in one of Alfea's rooms. In said room, a younger and saddened Griffin talked with Faragonda.

"You were right," said Griffin. "You were right about everything."

Faragonda didn't reply. She was looking at the witch with serious expression.

"I want to quit," said Griffin. "The Coven is not a place for me. I...I want to be with you. I want to join the Company of The Light."

Faragonda slowly stood up, came close to Griffin, and hugged her.

"I'm so happy to hear that," whispered Faragonda in Griffin's ear.

"I'm sorry," said Griffin. "Sorry for all the things I told you. Sorry for all the bad things I've done. And sorry for being so blind." cried Griffin.

"Maybe that's true," said Faragonda. "But at least, you realized of your mistake in time."

"Is there any time left?" asked Griffin, hopefully. "Can we stop the Ancestresses?"

"Yes, we can," said Faragonda. "But you have to tell us everything: their plans. The location of their bases. Number of troops. Everything."

"I will," said Griffin. She was eager to say all the things she knew about the coven.

"However, first I must cut your connection with your former allies," said Fargonda. "Your arm, please."

Griffin removed the long glove from her right arm, revealing a tatoo on it. It was the emblem of the Coven. But it was much more than a distinctive mark. Fargonda's hands began to glow white.

"I won't lie. This will hurt. A lot,"

"I don't care. Go ahead."

The very moment Faragonda put her glowing hands on Griffin's tatoo, the witch let out a loud scream.

The short flashback ended, and they found themsleves again on Cloud Tower.

Suddenly, the crystal ball start making weird noises and cracked. Smoke began to come out from it, while getting bigger, until the crack was so big that the ball broke in a thousand pieces. Mirta and Flora were downbeat.

"Yup, Griffin is going to be really mad when she sees this," chuckled Lucy.

Mirta's phone rang again. Another text message.

Your friends are here

Both Flora and Mirta beamed with excitement.

"Do you think that...?" asked Mirta.

"It must be them!" said Flora. "Where can they be? We need to find them!"

"Silence," said Lucy. "Don't you hear that?"

They pricked up their ears, ad noticed that Lucy was right. They could heard voices coming from afar. Young, female voices. It has to be them.

"Come on, let's go!" said Flora, extremely happy to know that her friends were here.

"Not so fast, fairy!" said Lucy, grabbing Flora by her wrist.

"Lucy, what are you doing?" asked Mirta.

"Did you forget what happened when you found me yet?" asked Lucy. "It can be a trap."

"Maybe, but maybe not," replied Flora. "If they're here, they probably came here to rescue us. We should meet them."

"Alright," said Lucy. "But if it's a trap, I won't stay and help you."

"Deal," said Flora.

The three girls followed the direction of the voices, until they reached one of the classrooms. There, the rest of the Winx Club, all in their enchantix form, were fighting against a giant spider.

The spider shot several strings of web at Stella, who was able to dodge them.

"You better not lay any of that goo in my hair!" shouted Stella, indignant.

"Stella!" called Flora.

"Hey, it's Flora! And Mirta! And that friend of Mirta who's name I don't remember!" said Stella, forgetting about the spider for a brief moment. Lucy frowned at her last line.

"I think that we should give them a hand, don't you think so?" asked Mirta.

"That would be very nice," said Layla.

"Enchantix!" shouted Flora and Mirta in unison, and turned into their advanced fairy forms, and joined the battle.

The fight was short, since the spider wasn't half as though as the black knights (which Bloom and the others didn't have the pleasure to meet them), but still rput up quite a fight. After taking several shots from the fairies (and Lucy), the spider ran away, emitting creepy shrieks.

Shortly after the fight was over, the Winx girls rushed to hug their missing member and Mirta, expressing their joy for finding them. Lucy looked at the fairies, and grumbled something inaudible.

"You have no idea of how happy I am to see you girls!" said Flora, overwhelmed by emotion.

"When we realized that you were taking too long to come back, we immediately knew that something bad happened," said Bloom.

"By the way, Mirta, you earned your Enchantix!" said Stella.

"Yeah, tell us, how it was?" asked Musa.

"Please, don't overwhelm them," said Bloom. "After all the time they've been here, they must be exhausted."

"We should go to a safer place and rest," said Layla. "If such thing exists here..."

"Let's go back to Griffin's office," suggested Flora. "We will talk there."

Back at Griffin's office, they began to tell their tale. The first one was Lucy, who explained all over again how she found Cloud Tower in ruins, and she and her students were hunted by a mighty black knight.

Flora and Mirta told them all what they did and what they saw since they arrived there, including all of Griffin's flashbacks, how they found Lucy, but it was a trap set by the black knights, and how Mirta earned her Enchantix. Flora also said that, during a brief moment could come into contact with the entity who was controlling the school.

"But where's Griffin? Or the teachers? Or everybody, for that matter?" asked Stella.

"We don't know," said Mirta with a shrug. "Lucy is the only witch we found."

"And before you ask, no, I don't know where I've been when that knight captured me," said Lucy.

"I guess that you don't know who sent you those text messages either," said Tecna.

Mirta shook her head in response.

"Anyway, now that you're safe, we should leave this place as fast as we can, and tell Faragonda about what we've seen," said Bloom.

"We can't leave," said Flora. "All the doors and windows are locked. There's no way we can't escape. That's why we're going to the upper terrace."

"Oh, there is a way, my dear," said Stella, smiling.

Flora, Mirta, and Lucy opened her eyes wide.

"How? Tell us!" demanded Lucy.

"The same way we entered," said Bloom. "With this."

Bloom then showed Cloud Tower's master key. Lucy recognized the key immediately.

"How did you get that?" asked Lucy. The idea of a fairy having free access to the school made her to feel a bit uneasy.

"Faragonda had it. Anyway, now-"

Suddenly, a dire, spiked black rat came out from nowhere and snatched the key from Bloom's hands with its jaws.

"What the hell...?" asked Musa.

"The key!" screamed Stella. "Don't let her go!"

They tried to catch the rat, but the rodent dodged them easily. It made its way out of Griffin's office.

"Don't let it go! That key is our only chance to escape!" shouted Layla.

And said chance to escape was quickly escaping from them...