The episode with the dark lions was the last time Mirta appeared in the show. Actually half the reason she loses her powers is because I needed to explain why my Mirta, who's no warrior but isn't totally useless in a fight, was totally useless in a fight. The other half is 'cause I needed to make season 5 go by fast; all my plot developments happen at the end of it!
38 Year Without Magic part 2
Month of the Unicorn
It was a fine autumn day in the city of Magix and at Alfea college the students were enjoying the weather. It was supposed to be a "free outdoor study" lesson, but everyone was just playing around.
Vecta was lying on her stomach on the grass, her newly-built wings spread to collect solar energy. Her oddly pale hair glowed blue at the tips and her face was vacant as she surfed the internet on her internal connection. Next to her, carefully not blocking the sun, her best friend was making plants grow, calling up shoots to twine around each other in intricate shapes. Comfrey was Vecta's opposite, brown and curvy where her friend was tall and pale. Comfrey had had surgery last summer, and the new roundness of her face and arms showed that she was finally recovering full health.
The second-years were dancing. Lindy had charmed a cloud of butterflies that now followed the swirling ends of her long orange pigtails. Alyss, whose hair was the same orange-sherbert color but pulled into a curly ponytail, danced with the pixie peacock. Anjita, long braid swinging, twirled in a stream of violet magic. Clarisse followed her, tossing gold fireworks off her fingertips.
And the teachers' assistant had been assigned to make sure nobody accidentally turned themselves into something they couldn't turn back from. Mirta was sitting against a tree, a book on magical defense open in her lap. She couldn't cast anything in the book, but she could teach the theory. She started reading the next entry.
Vecta nudged Comfrey. "Wake up."
"I wasn't asleep, I was listening to the voice of nature. What's up?"
"There is a seventy-one percent chance we are going to be attacked."
Comfrey frowned. "It would have warned..."
From the forest at the edge of Alfea's formal gardens came the sound of... a sneeze. Then a hideous harpy burst out of the foliage, straight at the dancing girls.
Anjita shrieked. Alyss dropped and rolled, coming up with a handful of glittering energy. She threw it and the harpy flinched back.
It sneezed and turned into a basilisk. Anjita was fast enough to conjure a mirror, then realized that trying to fight while looking only at a reflection might work in theory but it did not work in real life. Lindy shielded her eyes and sent her butterflies to mob the basilisk. Insects crowded the beast's head, preventing it from using its gaze of stone. It roared, clapping its blunt teeth.
Comfrey was on her feet. "We need to help them!"
"Unnecessary. That is Professor Wizgiz."
"Huh?"
Vecta hadn't moved. "Gremlin flu causes uncontrolled bursts of magic. We were assigned here with the teacher's assistant and the strongest healing fairy in case of accident. Logical."
The basilisk sneezed and turned into a hydra, flattening bushes and small trees with its sudden growth. Anjita lassoed one of its heads with magic and Alyss conjured a golden net to throw over the remaining heads.
Comfrey slowly settled down to watch.
The professor made a good hydra, roaring and snapping at the flying fairies. The fact that it could easily have caught them would occur to someone any minute now, but until then it was great combat practice.
Month of the Neried
Professor Avalon's desk in his office was scarily neat, with each class' assignments in separate piles and pens and pencils tidily put away in a leather caddy. The professor set another stack down in the one clear space and pushed it across the desk at Mirta, who eyed the pile with trepidation.
"The History of Magic curriculum hasn't been updated in some years, and whatever poor soul Faragonda hires to take the class next year is going to need something better than notes in my handwriting. I'd like you to take a look at it, help put everything in the right place and add the new material from the school board."
It was quite a pile, folders and papers and a few small books with multiple bookmarks. But everything looked like it was put together in order, it just needed to be put in order in the form of actual lesson plans. "I think I can do that... it might take the rest of the year though."
"If it takes more that's fine; I can finish it up over the summer but I want someone to get a start on it. This might be interesting too—the history texts for Alfea and for Cloud Tower. A few years ago a student went through them and put in a bookmark every time the books said something different. She gave up halfway through, but maybe you could do something with it."
Mirta didn't care if this was work; this would be interesting. "Maybe the history lessons should say what the witches think happened."
"Maybe they should. Since we learned that witches and fairies started out as the same people, scholars have been wondering what else has fallen between the lines in the textbooks. See what you can make of it. I'll back you up if you want to get into any of the private libraries in the city or get help with scrying spells."
Professor Avalon sounded very casual, like he didn't know he'd just handed Mirta the most exciting assignment ever, but a little smile tugged at the edge of his mouth. Mirta looked at the pile of papers and couldn't wait to dig in. She'd learned firsthand why the fairies and witches first began to fight, but nobody really knew what had kept them fighting. Maybe she could find out. "Ok! I'll make some plans for the new history of magic teacher and do my best at.. putting everything together."
Month of the Elemental
Mirta's desk in her apartment at Alfea was usually covered with papers waiting to be graded and books borrowed from the library, about potion ingredients or magicobiology or the history of the magic dimension. Today she'd shoved everything into stacks on the floor to cover both her desk and the table with new stacks of paper. A lot of it was still in boxes.
Lucy and Orion looked at the pile. "What is all this?"
From where she was sitting, on the floor sorting piles out, Mirta answered, "I asked Miss Griffin to send me all the homework the Trix ever turned in. Maybe if we read it we can learn something to help Bloom stop them. Or at least where they're even from or something. I made cookies. You can have some if you help."
Lucy sniffed the minty, chocolaty smell coming from the oven and opened a box.
Orion picked up a stack of essays and sat himself on the couch. "You don't know where the Trix are from? Weren't they students?"
"The address they gave when they signed up was fake. Nobody knows if they're even biological sisters or just call themselves sister. Hex, don't chew on that."
A few minutes passed in paper-rustling silence as the three friends sorted worksheets from essays and the work of the three witches into separate piles, and got things out of the reach of Hexen who, with cat instinct, wanted to walk on any paper on carpet.
Orion held up a stapled set of papers. "Stormy's beginning of term essay, 'My Vacation in the Death Bogs of Tamir.' Shall I read it aloud?"
Month of the Salamander
Lucy had invited Mirta to go out and buy pumpkins and get their fortunes told, and invited her to spend Witches' New Year together. Mirta had gone along for the pumpkins but didn't want a fortune now. Her parents had invited her over too.
But instead Mirta sat by herself in her room at Alfea waiting for the moon to rise. She'd borrowed the elf queen's mirror and set it to catch the moonlight, in case that helped. Her hope, and Professor Palladium's too since he'd written it on the board, was that Hecate might appear on this night when the dead could visit the living. If the ancient witch felt sorry for what she'd done she might be able to undo it.
Or she might not.
Miss Ediltrude was Cloud Tower's expert on ghosts, as much as it was possible to be an expert on something so mysterious, and she wasn't sure if Hecate even could return again. Sealing Mirta's magic could have used the last of the ghost's power.
Mirta lit her pumpkins, with candles since she couldn't make magic lights. She set the pumpkins facing the directions, opened the window and waited. Hexen was asleep, which he hadn't done last year.
Nobody came. Mirta waited until she fell asleep on the sofa.
Month of the Dragon
The dark lion roared and swept a paw around. Mirta grabbed two first-years and shoved them behind her. "Get inside!" Roxy and Kyril were happy to run, but Alyss transformed and took a shot at the nearest lion. Mirta shoved her out of the way just as Darcy shot back.
"Hide! Bloom can handle this!"
They got into a doorway and both hesitated to watch. Musa dropped down to check that they were all right, then zipped away, her skirt swirling behind her.
"The Winx fought these guys when they were second-years." Alyss said.
"Yeah, before the Trix had their creepy pollution power! We're supposed to keep you safe, Miss F's orders!"
Alyss didn't look happy, but she huddled in the doorway with the others.
Roxy put a hand to her head. "Those lions are not real animals. I'm not getting any sense of life from them. I'm not sure they're even here at all!"
"At least we don't have to worry if they get hurt." Said Kyril practically.
"I'm more worried about them hurting us!" Alyss retorted.
"Don't worry, Bloom can handle it." Mirta leaned out to watch Bloom and Sky set up a lion and blast it into glittery shreds.
Month of the Triton
Usually Alfea was quiet at Midwinter, but this year Miss Faragonda decided to have a party for everyone who wasn't going home, and everyone whose families lived in the city and might want to come for a party. Professor Avalon used his paladin sword to hack down a big evergreen from the forest around Alfea, and the students went through the storerooms and found a bunch of old jewelry and stuff and made it into ornaments, and they made a hundred pinecones covered in peanut butter and birdseed to hang outside in the forest.
It was a beautiful night when they went to hang the pinecones, there had been snow and the full moon rose over a dazzling silver forest. It was a big outing, with students from all the schools and the museum. Alyss swore she saw a unicorn far in the distance, but Mirta kind of doubted any unicorn would come this close to Blackmud Swamp.
Midwinter Night Mirta went with Orion and his mother and Alyss to the big temple in Magix to sing the songs for Longest Night. Starria didn't join in, but Alyss said the witch songs were cool.
Month of the Pegasus
Miss DuFour waved her hands and, in a burst of glitter, the words Alfea Talent Show appeared on the board. The students immediately started whispering to each other. Miss DuFour let them chatter while she added the rest of the rules to the board students could work in groups, magic was allowed, and groups would be assigned a third-year student adviser.
Alyss immediately pointed at Mirta. Clarisse whispered, "She's got no magic!" loud enough for everyone to hear. But Mirta still ended up in charge of Alyss, Clarisse, Lindy, Anjita and Jazz, who'd decided to become a band even though only Jazz was a fairy of music and Anji said she could play the flute but nobody had actually ever heard her playing it. Soon they were discussing brewing talent-granting potions while Lindy sketched costumes in her notebook. Mirta was filled with a sort of cheerful dread. This was going to be a long project.
Month of the Centaur
"Professor Wizgiz said there's a secret ballet studio here somewhere, but only a fairy with the magic of dance in her heart could find it. You're not a fairy but I figure you're our best bet."
"Why do you want to find it?" Lucy asked.
Mirta shrugged. "Professor Wizgiz said if rooms get lost for too long it's harder to get them back. And it's Sunday and we have nothing else to do."
Behind her, Alyss, Lindy and Anjita looked hopeful. Anjita had a sketchpad and pens to work on the magical map of Alfea she was trying to make. Lindy was ready for exploration with an expedition hat, a coil of rope, and a belt with a flashlight hanging off it.
Sensibly Lucy asked, "Why don't you just ask your library pixie where this ballet room is?"
"Because that would be boring!" The three second-years chorused.
Lucy gave in. "Ok, let's go. Where do you want to start looking?"
It took them a few hours, and they found several other doors that didn't open, but in the end they found the ballet studio. It looked just like the ones at Madame Glissade's Academy where Lucy studied, bright and airy with a barre and mirrors from floor to ceiling.
"There's definitely magic here." Lucy said, made a few magic gestures and when those didn't work, she magically switched into her toe shoes and struck a pose. Immediately, magic twinkled around her and music began to play. Good music, something with a real beat. Lindy jumped in and tried a wobbly twirl, and Alyss and Anjita joined in too. Soon magic sparkled around them and their shoes changed into magical dancing shoes.
"Come on, Mirta!"
"Um, I'm not great at dancing." Mirta protested, but she was grabbed and dragged into the music.