Professor Wizgiz's class had moved on to inanimate metamorphosis and each girl had been given a small potted flower that needed it's colour changed as their task for today. It was a lesson that Bloom would have enjoyed had she been awake enough to fully comprehend what was going on. Every time she closed her eyes to focus on the spell she started to nod off and completely lost where she was and what she was supposed to be concentrating on.

Sleep was not as simple as it had been; she'd been repeatedly dreaming of that masked woman in gold every night for almost a week now, and, while she was pleased that she could see her visitor in clearer detail now, it was causing her to loudly sleep-talk until Flora had to wake her up to make her stop. Her roommate was suffering from a lack of sleep too, and Bloom was finding that if her dream was interrupted by an exhausted Flora she was having the dream again once she went to sleep. Which was made even more difficult by the fact she was so wired after seeing the woman that she struggled to get back to sleep again each time.

Apparently, last night's dream had been so intense that she'd been flickering in and out of her fairy form. She'd woken up to Flora and Stella arguing about it over her bed. Flora had been worried, fretting that this was a bad sign for Bloom, whereas Stella had been shouting about how common it was to have that kind of reaction during nightmares and it was no cause for alarm.

They'd quietened down again after they realised she'd woken up and Stella had returned to her own room after grumpily making Bloom promise to go see the nurse the next day about how badly she was sleeping.

And she intended to go see Ofelia pretty soon, but she was dragging her feet over it since she felt that whatever the woman as saying was important and she didn't want to ignore that. She had seen enough of her now that she was convinced that she'd seen the golden fairy before, and it was killing her not to remember where.

Bloom opened her eyes and stared at the white flower in front of her. Come on, she just needed to shift it to another colour… even a pale yellow would do, and then she could excuse herself to go to the nurse and maybe have a nap.

Next to her, Stella was tapping her pen against her desk, eyes closed and looking serene, much to the annoyance of Amaryl sat across the aisle to her. She was making her flower go through the shades of the rainbow as she drummed to the rhythm of some song. The slight smirk on her face told Bloom that she was being irritating on purpose; the feud between those two looked like it wouldn't end. Enough that she was pretty sure that Amaryl was close to exploding and put a curse on Stella.

"Bloom?" Wizgiz had appeared at her desk. "Are you having trouble?"

"Er… no, I'm just, I slept really bad last night. May I go to the nurse's office please?" Her eyelids were getting heavy just thinking about the work she was supposed to do in this class. Wizgiz looked displeased, which made her heart sink, but he allowed her to leave early so that she could stumble her way to see Ofelia.

"Is there a test today by any chance?" The School Doctor asked cheerily when she beckoned Bloom in.

"No… I mean, I don't think there is, not for me anyway…"

"What's causing you to be here then?"

"I've been sleeping really badly," Bloom said. "Waking up repeatedly during the night and struggling to get back to sleep after. It's affecting my studies now."

"Any particular reason this is happening?" Ofelia asked, opening Bloom's medical file on her computer.

Bloom paused. She did need to have an unbroken night and so did Flora, but she didn't want to give up seeing the woman in gold just yet. Not to mention, Bloom had had other dreams during the past few days and she was concerned that any magical intervention might mean sharing those. And she didn't want anyone to know what her subconscious enacted with Brandon, even if it meant solving a problem. Perhaps that was a terrible and unwise decision but it was the one that she was making.

Now, she just needed to think of an acceptable lie to solve her problem without taking the actual dreams away.

"I keep sleep talking and waking my suite mate up. I'm having some sort of nightmare but I don't remember it. And then when she wakes me up I can't go back to sleep."

"Okay," Ofelia said, clicking some things with her mouse. "Well, I'll try you on some very mild sleeping tablets, it should make you sleepier and less likely to actually move or talk when asleep."
The printer whirred as it started up and prepared to print the request for the pills.

"Thanks."

"Now, take the prescription to the pharmacist in Magix and let me know how you feel after a week."

Bloom thanked her again, awkwardly, and was given permission to head back to the dorms to catch up on little rest before going back to class in the afternoon.

She passed out joyfully quickly and was face down in her pillow, snoring away until she heard the door to her room open and shut, followed by a few whispers.

Grumpily, she rolled over to see Flora letting Tecna into their room and gesturing towards Bloom's bed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes clear of sleep so that she could better see what was going on.

"Sorry," Tecna said without sounding at all apologetic. "I did not want to wake you up, but since you are no longer asleep, we can talk now."

"About what?" Bloom shuffled so she was sat up with the duvet pulled up around her chest.

"I asked Tecna if she might have anyway of helping you solve your dream problem," Flora said gently, and looking a bit guilty, as if she thought she'd broken Bloom's confidence by saying something.

"Oh. Do you have a way of helping?"

"Yes." Tecna produced what looked like a metallic ladybird from a steel case. "If you are able to give me as much information as possible that would help."

"You think just talking about it will be enough?" Bloom was a little surprised but she supposed that police sketch artists on Earth could do a lot with just an eye witness account.

"Not at all. But if you talk about it it will activate the parts of your brain where the memories are stored and this can scan it to try and get an accurate picture of the woman. If we have a picture, then we can work out if she's a real person and if so, whether this is magical or not."

Bloom stared at her for moment, trying to work out if that was how brains actually work, before she was prompted to start with her description. She found she was able to talk at some length about the shape of the woman's face, the colour and shape of her hair, the counters of that mask she wore.

Stella and Musa wandered in at different points after their morning classes finished and milled around getting their stuff together for the afternoon and relaxing during their break. Musa was draped over one of the common room sofas, out of ear shot, but Stella waltzed in when Bloom was talking about what the woman had said to her and gave a heavy sigh.

"Are we still on this? Did you not solve it when you went to the nurse?"

"Well…" Bloom was taken aback at how aggressive and irritated Stella was now, given how relaxed she'd been during Wizgiz's class. "I didn't tell her everything about the dreams, and Tecna offered to help but…"

"I knew it!" Stella's eyes went wide. "I knew you were doing this! You just want everything to be about you!"

"What?" Bloom couldn't keep up with what she was insinuating. But her eyes flicked to Flora and Tecna to see if they thought Stella was right. But neither of them looked impressed with the outburst.

"You don't lie about medical stuff unless you want attention. Has Brandon not been texting you enough lately? Is that why you're blowing stuff out of proportion?"

"Stella, that's not very nice," Flora said, trying to sound stern but looking worried.

"It's not supposed to be Nice, Flora, it's supposed to be a wake up call."

"Anyway," Tecna cut in loudly. "I think I've got enough data to come up with a picture. Why don't you have a look, Bloom, and see what you think."

Sure enough, the hologram produced by the little metal ladybird looked almost exactly like the woman in her dream. The full lips, the dainty nose, the elaborate hairdo, it was all there. Bloom
grinned.

"That's it! That's her! She's from my dream and I know I've seen her before. Just, where was it?"

Bloom had a feeling that it was linked to the City of Magix, and not the school or Red Fountain. But she had spent so much time looking around sightseeing and shopping that all her trips seemed to blur into one. Vaguely, she remembered the woman and Musa, which sort of narrowed it down…

"Oh I get it!" Stella laughed. "It was indigestion!"

Tears stung the edges of Bloom's eyes, and she desperately tried not to cry or even look like she might. It was a stupid thing to be upset about, but the idea that Stella didn't believe her, or worse, thought she was lying, hurt her a lot.

Rather than confront her or burst into tears, she decided that it was just better to get up and leave. The other's would understand and Stella might appreciate some space from her for a while.

"What?" She heard Stella say. "What did I say? Seriously, why is she so upset?"

The next class Bloom went to was a study session for her History of Magic essay in the library under the light superstition of Miss Barabatea who was reading at her desk. Her essay was already well-planned and several paragraphs in, so Bloom let her mind wander. She had been so close to figuring it out before Stella interrupted her and she put her pen down to concentrate hard.

She had been in Magix - with Musa - and they'd been shopping. But she hadn't seen the woman in a store, no, it had been after that. In a temple? Yeah, that was right. She got up quickly and headed over to the lectern to search for a book on the Temple of Magix, and specifically, the nymphs that adorned the facade on the front.

Alfea's library had a rather unique way of sourcing books for students; you had to speak clearly the name of a person or subject and picture the kind of thing you wanted to read about. It was a system that Bloom was still getting used to.

"Temple of Magix," she said, managing to stumble over the three words, and waited for the top selection of books to fly onto the podium in front of her. Bloom opened the first one to skim the contents page to see if it had what she wanted.

There was a short paragraph that listed the Nymphs of Magix and she was able to recognise the name Daphne. Not only had Daphne been on the facade out front, but she'd also had her image inside at that art exhibit she'd seen with Musa.

Pausing, since she struggled to remember the procedure for returning the books to their places on the shelves, Bloom considered what to do next.

"Go back," she said, attempting to shoo the books away from her. "I'm done with you." They didn't move. She grimaced at them.

"'Return'," Francine hissed from across the room, and shot her a thumbs up. Bloom flushed and muttered her thanks before following the instruction.

The books went back to their places and she tried again.

"Daphne," she said, and was almost hit in the chest by the onslaught of books. Her search had not been specific enough and the library had thrown the most relevant three books from each category it could find at her. Shaking herself, she tried again. "R-return. Daphne the Nymph."

She pictured the woman in her dreams, the one that she now knew was called Daphne, and could hear her voice as she called to Bloom. She was smiling at the excitement of solving the mystery; now that she knew who the woman was she could work out if this really was a magical recurring dream.

The first book that came to her was a history of the Domino Royal Families through the ages. The second was a history of the City of Magic, the next on the Guardian Nymphs on each planets, the next on the different fairy transformations achieved in history, and then Bloom noticed that there was a torrent of books heading her way.

Miss Barbatea was drawn away from her semi-pornographic romance novel by the shouts of several of the girls on their study period. Rounding a book case she saw Bloom at the lectern, crouching down to avoid being knocked black and blue by a tornado of books.

She had to react quickly to override the search request and send the books back to their places on the shelves, but the tomes in the restricted section were rattling against their cabinet doors and that was something she wasn't expecting to have to deal with. They shouldn't have responded to the request of someone without clearance or administrative privileges at all, let alone be actively fighting to leave their confinements.

"Everyone," she called. "You can consider yourself excused from this class. There appears to be a serious problem with the archiving and I will need to sort that without any distractions."

Bloom carefully crawled off the raised stage of the lectern and walked out trying not to meet anyone else's eye; what had happened? She can't have fudged the search that badly, right?

"Erm, Bloom?" She paused, almost in the corridor and free.

"Yes, Miss?"

"I think you should go see Ms Faragonda. You're not in trouble but she should know what happened."

"Oh… yeah."

Bloom had had a few tutorials with the Headmistress since the grounding, but she had felt very awkward and out of place during all of them. She knew she had disappointed her mentor by breaking into the other school and she didn't feel like she was forgiven yet. The enthusiasm over solving her personal mystery had dissipated and now she was reluctantly dragging her feet to Faragonda's office.

She knocked on the ornate door and it opened for her so that she could enter. The Headmistress was sat behind her desk, filling in some forms and finishing her signature before looking up and greeting her student.

"Hello, Bloom, what can I do for you?"

"I was just in the library and…" and what? What had happened? "The library kind of went weird."

"How so?"

"I was trying to search for a book and then, like, all the books tried to hit me."

"I'm sorry, what happened?"

"I tried searching for a book, and then I got loads and loads of books trying to come to me, even the ones behind the gold gate thing."

Faragonda raised her eyebrows and got up from her seat to put a hand on Bloom's shoulder.

"That must have been quite a shock. I assume Miss Barabtea is handling things down there?"

"Yeah, she just asked me to tell you."

"And thank you for that. Would you mind coming back down and showing me what you did, Bloom? It shouldn't take long." It wasn't really a request so she nodded and headed back down the stairs to the library.

Barbatea was stacking the books on one of the tables manually, carefully making sure that each one was not damaged and was in the right pile for archiving. The books behind bars were still feebly trying to break out although they were barely moving the doors anymore.

"Headmistress," the librarian stood up, dusting off her skirt. "Has Bloom told you about the incident?"

"She has. I see that you are doing things without magic; I would like you to continue with that please and also to close the library for the time being."

"Close it?"

"Yes. This is important. Now, Bloom, go up and repeat exactly what you did when you searched the library."

Hesitantly, and very aware that she was being scrutinised, she called out again for Daphne (followed by explaining what happened with that) before 'searching' for Daphne the Nymph. Faragonda's face was unreadable after Bloom stepped down from the lectern. She hoped she hadn't disappointed the Headmistress any further but she also wasn't sure what it was she could have done wrong.

"Thank you, Bloom. You may return to your classes."

"May I ask a question first, Miss?" Faragonda gestured for Bloom to continue. "Who is Daphne of Magix? I never did get to find out."

"Oh, Daphne? She was one of the Nymphs of Magix; protector of this realm. Each planet has their own Guardian Fairy but Magix has several since it is the centre of the magical universe. She was very successful until she was cursed, after that she passed away. A very inspirational figure, I'm pleased you're looking into her for your projects."

"Er, thanks. Just one more thing," Bloom felt like she was pushing things a bit. "Where was she from?"

"Magix itself," Faragonda said. "But her family was originally from Domino. Have I answered all your questions."

"Yes, thank you. I'll leave now."

She shuffled out of the library, focusing hard on not tripping over her own feet, and not looking behind her in case it confirmed that both members of staff were staring at her as she left. She paused behind the big doors in the hall to shake herself and caught what sounded like Faragonda talking lowly to Barabtea.

"I don't understand how this happened. How could Bloom override all of the safety features like that? She clearly didn't mean to."

Bloom hurried away, hoping not to be caught and make them think that she was eavesdropping. She got back to the suite quickly, avoiding all the other girls in the halls, so she could pick up her books for her next class and almost ran full body into Musa running out.

The other girl didn't even stop once she'd dodge around Bloom and kept going. Bloom watched her go, puzzled, and carried on into the dorm where she almost ran into a second of her friends. Stella stopped herself and looked over Bloom's shoulder.

"I said something really stupid, Bloom. I don't even know why it came out of my mouth."

"What happened?"

"I told Musa about Riven and Darcy. And not in a gentle way."