Chapter Ten

"A Dark Journey Begins"

Part II

Mara, Scylla, and Emma stood in front of Head Mistress Griffins desk, their heads hung in shame. The jewels upon them had vanished on the walk to the head mistresses office and now they looked like the normal troublemakers that they saw walk into Griffins office.

"Do you have any idea how much of a wrap sheet you three are getting!" Griffin started out calm as three large scrolls appeared on the table in front of her, labelled with an M and S and an E. Griffin began with opening the one with an M

"Mara, insubordination, sneaking off campus after curfew, sneaking to another realm without clearance." Griffin threw the scroll down and picked up the one labelled E "Emma, constantly ditching class, refusing to do assignments, fighting, bullying both teachers and students" the head mistress slammed down the scroll and picked up the one marked with an S, not even having to read it this time as she just turned it so they could all see the red ink flowing across the paper like blood

"Scylla, Breaking and entering, theft, use of powers on humans, lying on your entrance application" This scroll she threw at them and they all shrunk back a step so it wouldn't hit them

"I have not in over twenty years had students that showed such insubordination and yet so much promise!" the head mistress sat down in her large purple clawed throne, pinching the bridge of her nose

"Not to mention this most recent stunt you pulled in class and opening up the forbidden dorm, the latter of which I was willing to overlook so long as you continued to prove yourselves as strong as you shown on your entrance into this school. Yet not even halfway through the year and you three are making regret my choice! Something I have not done in a long...Long time" the anger in the headmistresses voice had started to fade out and Mara thought that this might be the best time to speak up

"um...Headmistress Griffin, what did we do that was so wrong? What were those things?" she asked, tapping her forehead for emphasis. Griffin sighed as she leaned forward and put her hands on her desk

"Those, Mara, were called Gloomix. No witch in over one hundred and fifty years has gained the Gloomix naturally, no witch in over twenty years has progressed passed the standard witch form"

"Their are witch forms?" Emma interrupted, earning a glare from Griffin who slowly leaned back and gripped the arms of her chair

"Girls. It is not common knowledge that witches are in fact stronger than our light counterparts, fairies" Griffin looked at each of them

"What I tell you does not leave this room, do you understand?"

Scylla, Mara and Emma nodded together.

"When Cloud Tower and Alfea were founded the headmasters at the time agreed on a dual curriculum. Three years of study for each school. This worked well for a time since darkness comes easier to people then the light, but as the years went on and it became harder and harder for witches to progress it became easier and easier for fairies to move forward." she paused in order to cough "Where each witch and each fairy have a standard form, Fairies gain their Charmix though overcoming a shortcoming. Something easy to do since fairies have many shortcomings to battle with. Witches on the other hand in order to naturally gain the Gloomix had to steal magic from another switch to boost their own. As witches continued to graduate it became harder and harder for new witches to steal power substantial enough to form a Gloomix and eventually the art was lost. Now Witches in their last year graduate with enough magic power to rival only first years, something we have been keeping secret for over a century now." Griffins eyes travelled to Emma's arm

"How did it get hidden for so long?" Emma asked suddenly "my mother was powerful and yet she never had this power" she crossed her arms and Griffin scowled at her

"Your mother was powerful but to nice. A witch fights with darkness in her soul, I was tempted to teach Lucy what she needed to know to gain her Gloomix but she would have never gone through with it"

"And yet if you had she probably wouldn't have died!" Emma hissed at Griffin and turned around and stormed out of the room, leaving Scylla and Mara alone with the headmistress.

"Scylla, Mara" Griffin looked at them both "The Gloomix is simply a boost in power, nothing more. You will be able to call on it to aid you but do not think yourselves better" she said to them.

"Headmistress." Scylla stood a bit straighter "do you have a Gloomix?" she asked and Griffin nodded her head "can we see?" Griffin nodded her head and slowly she stood up

" Power of Darkness. Gloomix" the older witch said in a bellowing voice, the woman was covered in dark lavender for a moment before suddenly the lavender light vanished, Griffin had several loops of gold around her waist and a wing charm on the side

"Who'd you steal your Gloomix power from?" Mara asked in awe as the belt of golden magic pulsed and then was gone, just like that. Griffin clasped her hands together

"From my best friend a very long time ago before she became a fairy herself." she said and looked at the two of them

"No, Scylla before you ask I don't know where you stole your magic from" Griffin said as she saw Scylla start to open her mouth, but when she answered Scylla shut her mouth and lowered her head.

"I was the last Witch to gain the Gloomix naturally so I know the signs. Mara, Scylla, and your friend...Emma. You stole someones Magic. Though I don't know how, since you all drank the same potion in order to get it it's likely that it's all from one person." she looked at them again

"And it was a lot of magic. I would be on the lookout for anything strange. Powerful beings do not like having their power stolen from them. Now."

Griffin walked toward the door and opened it

"I will allow this mishap to slide without an expulsion for any of you, however you can all learn to harness your new strength in detention, six weeks. Tell Emma" she said. Mara groaned loudly and dropped her head forward

"Yes headmistress" she grumbled out and walked out of the room.

Delilah put a hand over her mouth to mute a scream as she lost her footing, her only saving grace was the hand that slapped around her wrist and pulled. She felt tears run over her hand as she looked up to see bright short red hair and blue eyes meet hers. She was slowly pulled up and Delilah grabbed onto the rock again

"Thank you" she whispered to Aiden who just grunted in annoyance and turned away from her

"You alright back there!?" Ciaran yelled back from the front, Delilah looked up to see Ciaran standing above her at the top of the sheer cliff. Ciaran has been the girl that had come to get Lily back in the library, she was strangely beautiful with her Black hair and eerie glowing red eyes

"Yeah!" Delilah yelled back as she gripped the rock tighter

"Good. Now hurry up!" Ciaran yelled again, her hands on her hips this time as she narrowed her eyes. Ciaran was much older then her, a teachers assistant which made her wonder as to why in the realms she would willingly bring them though Shadowhaunt. Delilah then turned her head to look at the climbing boot of Aiden, and why did she have to bring him along? When they had met back in Lily's dorm he had just been standing there, looking vaguely familiar but not ringing any bells.

"You heard her, Hurry up princess" Aiden growled down at her as he climbed up the rest of the cliff face, leaving her to climb the rest of the way alone. Who was he calling princess! He looked more like a girl then she did! Delilah's winx flickered and she screamed as she started flying upward without asking. Her wings fluttered and she slammed forward, head first into Aiden's back, knocking him forward into Isolde who yelped and stumbled forward into Danica. The chain stopped and Delilah was slowly lowered to her feet and her wings vanished. Aiden turned on her with fire in his girlish blue eyes

"Watch it half wit!" he snapped at her

"Can't control it, sorry" Delilah shrugged and Aiden seemed to fume as he took two steps forward and gripped her by the front of her red blouse

"Can't control it? Can't control it?" Aiden pulled her closer and Delilah could smell the turkey on his breath and see a piece of parsley in his teeth "How can you not control it, that's why you go to that school for in the first place!"

"Aiden!" Ciaran snapped and the red haired boy dropped Delilah's shirt and help up both hands. Delilah sighed a breath of relief but it was short lived as Aiden glared at her "How useless do you have to be to be a fairy that can't learn shit" Aiden then flicked his tongue over his teeth and spit, narrowly missing Delilah's climbing boot before storming off down one of the tunnels. Delilah silently hoped he'd get lost and never find his way back, but that was short lived as Ciaran started walking down the same tunnel. Perfect.

They walked in silence for quite some time before Isolde dropped back, her light blue hair was tied up into a braided bun

"Aiden means well...He's just hot headed. Something he got by being raised by his sister" she whispered and Delilah looked at her confused as Isolde darted her eyes to Ciaran several times. Then it dawned on her and her mouth almost fell open

"Ciaran and Aiden?!" she whispered and she could almost feel the burning gaze of Aiden for a moment but she didn't look. Isolde nodded her head

"Yeah"

"But they look nothing alike!" Delilah whispered again and Isolde grinned

"They're only half siblings. That's what I overheard anyway" Isolde dropped her voice even lower so no one but she could hear her "I was listening in on the head of discipline, Mirta, and they were talking about how Aiden's father, the King of Eraklyon, was currently a guest on Solaria and couldn't have Aiden come back to the Palace for a while so Mirta had Ciaran take care of him...thats when they found out they were half siblings. They seemed to be just as surprised as you where" Delilah's mouth had opened again

"So...same father?" she asked and Isolde shook her head

"No, Same mother. Supposedly Ciaran is actually the daughter of-"

"Were here!" Ciaran whispered only loud enough that they could hear and Isolde shut up "I'll tell you later" and Isolde rushed to the front, Delilah followed her and on her way to the front she looked back at Aiden again, he did seem to have the same cheek bones as Ciaran.

"Holy fairy dust" Danica gasped and Delilah turned around, in front of them was a floating fortress. It was huge! "C'mon" Ciaran whispered and continued moving forward, this time across a ledge until Ciaran told them to stop once more before throwing out her hand, a bridge of fire appeared and Ciaran nodded her head, one at a time the group started across...First Aiden, followed by Danica, Ivy, Holly, Isolde, Lily, she herself, and lastly Ciaran before the bridge vanished

"Alright, no talking from here on out" she whispered and they all nodded as they started to walk forward as silently as they could, and yet as they moved voices could be heard. Ciaran's eyes went wide, she clearly hadn't been expecting others. She made a motion for them all to crouch down and they obeyed as they hid behind an archway.

"Are you sure it's ready?" a voice that was cold and crackling like ice say as heals clicked on the ground.

"I'm sure, that's what they said" another voice, this once with a wilder tone said

"Yes, but I want it to be ready, we can not afford to mess up" the icy voice spoke once again. Delilah took the chance and quickly took a peak to see what was happening, she saw perhaps the three most beautiful women she had ever seen. One had long white hair tied into several tails with bright blue makeup and wearing a blue short dress, another had dark purple hair and wore a magenta short dress and the last one had the longest hair a mixture of brown and gold and wore an orchid one piece, that's when the last one dropped something and Delilah quickly turned so she couldn't be seen. Whatever was dropped rolled along the ground and through the archway. Everyone froze

"Darcy! Go pick it up!" the icy voice said and someone groaned as heals clicked again the one with brown and gold hair walked through the archway and bent to pick up the glowing green circlet, but mid bend she stopped and turned her head, her eyes going wide as they met with her own. Delilah stared into those golden iris' twins of her own and just stared.

"What's taking so long?" the wild voice said just before a second set of footsteps came toward them and that's when the world came crashing down as the dark purple haired woman saw them all, a grin splitting her lips

"Well well well, looks like we have intruders." the woman turned around "Icy?" the woman laughed wickedly as the one named Darcy slowly picked up the circlet and stood back up. The last woman, the one with white hair walked across the archway and looked at everyone. A shiver went through her and suddenly her short blue dress changed to crimson, dark red ribbons wrapped around her arms and came from her shoulders to make it look like she wore a red tarnished cape, her makeup turned black and when she opened her eyes again they were blazing iris' of fire instead of crystal ice. The woman waved her hand and suddenly they were all is blazing cages

"Welcome to Shadowhuant intruders."