The magical ancester-viewing machine on Solaria, I remember it appearing in an episode in season three… except that I couldn't find any mention of it on the wiki or episode synopses so I think I imagined it!

3 151 Twig ~ Squire~

I have a new after school job. My old job was making juice drinks and waitressing, my new job is working for Princess Amber as her squire. And apparently the first part of it is hearing why I was chosen.

"Because Aria is on tour, Parva is busy being a princess and Mila has other things to do. I need a female squire who can come to school with me, and Twyla is a talented fairy." Amber lifts a neat spoonful of cereal to her mouth.

Cassie asks, "What is Princess Mila's deal?"

Amber shrugs gracefully. I'm sure she does know, though. Amber's best friends are the other daughters of the famous Winx Club, and other princesses like Eimi and Eili, but today she's eating with everybody else in the Alfea cafeteria. She's having classes with us today but tomorrow she's going to a royal ball in the realm of Solaria.

And as her squire, so am I. If Vera delivers my dress in time.

I check my phone one more time before we head off to potions. There's the message I've been waiting for. Your dress is at Mom's. Weirdness here. Call at lunchtime?

Weirdness? I want to call now and see what's up, but I have to go to class. Professor Palladium is teaching the many uses of magical plants and there's so much to memorize I can't afford to miss class. I'm going to become a great fairy, no matter how many nights I have to stay up late studying.

After potions and history of magic at last it's time for lunch and I can get back on my phone. Mom texted that my dress is here. My phone's calendar reminds me I have an essay due tomorrow, but I wrote it already so that's ok. I find a quiet spot in the courtyard and call Vera. Her hologram pops up, looking troubled, her eyebrows pulled together.

"You all right?"

"We're fine. But Madame Sophie's acting strange. And… she doesn't have a shadow."

"No shadow?" I repeat. How does that even work? "Is she see through?"

Vera smiles. "No, you can still see her. Just no shadow. Really. It has to be magic, right? I haven't asked Shimmergloom, we're in different classes so I can't see her 'til after school."

Something sparks in my memory. "Isn't that in Peter Pan?"

Vera shrugs. We're sixteen; we haven't seen any Disney movies in a while and mostly it was just Frozen over and over. "I have to find that movie in English, I don't think Shimmergloom's even seen it and it's about her family. Anyway, can you ask your teachers about people without a shadow?"

"Sure. I'll ask. How's Madame being strange?"

"She's really mean—more than usual. And she doesn't like light. Maybe she's turning into a vampire!"

"Vampires exist. We studied them in magicobiology."

Vera gapes. "No! Really? What are they like?"

"Well they don't sparkle!" We laugh. We read every vampire series that came out. Now I try to remember what I learned about real vampires. "They can't go out in the sun, they can drink your blood of your energy and they can hypnotize people."

"I think if Madame got vamped at least her wife would've noticed."

"The magicobiology book listed lots of ways you can turn into a vampire, I think you can get cursed into it or just bitten. But I guess on Earth there's not a lot of witches who could do a curse like that either."

"There aren't any witches or fairies in this school." Vera says, resting her chin on one hand thoughtfully. In the hologram I can see she's in her room; there's a pile of crumpled fabric behind her. She grabs a scrap and waves it at me, the hologram scatters pixels from the sequins on the fabric. "Call back tomorrow ok, I want to see you in your dress! In color!"

I grin. "I will! I can't wait to see it, I think all my friends want to come over just to see it! I'll go to the library and see if I can find anything about shadows before fighting class starts."

I trot down to the library. There's not much time before strike arts class and Miss Grizelda is scary when people are late. The Alfea library is several rooms connected, and I'm pretty sure it's bigger inside than there's really room for in the building. I've been here most of a semester and I haven't seen the whole library.

Miss Barbatea the librarian looks up from eating lunch in front of her computer. "Morning Twyla, looking for anything?"

"Shadows." I say. "Some kind of magic with shadows, is that a thing?"

"It's several things and none of them are good! Where did you even hear about shadow magic?"

"My sister thinks her teacher doesn't have a shadow."

"How odd. Well… Miss Barbatea gestures and a cloud of sparkles streams off her hand and vanishes between the bookshelves. A minute later it's back carrying a book bound in red leather. "This should have the basic information on shadow magic. If you have any further questions please come back and ask."

I hold out my hands and the magic spell gives me the book. Its title is Shadow Magic: An Investigation. I love how books in the magic dimension have these great old-timey titles. Of course now I don't have time to read it; I have to run to class! "Thanks Miss Barbatea! I'll bring it back soon!"

I send the book to my room with a flick of magic and rush to the courtyard for strike arts class.

When school ends for the day I go home to see my dress. Princess Amber and my roommates Phe and Cassie tag along and, to my amusement, Mom's already cooking dinner for all of us. Her friend Nerys is fluttering around setting the table and shooing the cat away from the action. We eat a quick dinner then I open the box Vera sent from Earth.

She's always wanted to make a ballgown and she really went to town. The fabric is dark blue with a small diamond pattern in black sequins. When I put it on the skirt falls down to my feet but has a clever slit up one side, a concealed panel that allows all the petticoats to fold out of the way giving my legs room to move. The bodice dips low enough that Mom raises her eyebrows, but she doesn't object. Too bad; I was going to remind her of the dresses she wore when she was my age—we've seen pictures!

Amber looks me over critically, looking much older than her real age, then smiles and nods. "You look very pretty."

Cassie says, "Can we see your dress, Amber?"

Amber twirls and her clothes change. Her dress has the same sequin diamond pattern but it's a lovely aqua color. Phe explains that our dresses were designed to make it clear we're together and Amber has the brighter color so I will fade into the background. I can't believe there are people other than my sister who think this much about clothes. Of course I actually do believe it because Phe is kind of a fashionista. Being both male and female means Phe has double the fashion options, and he loves it.

Amber's looking out the window as she changes back to her school clothes. "Is that Lake Roccaluce? Can we go down to the lake?"

"It's cold!" Cassie complains.

It is, but it's not quite dark. Amber smiles and holds up a handful of fire.

So we change out of our dresses—Amber magically, me the normal way—and go down to the lake. It's a bit of a walk for a spring evening, but when we get there Amber breaks a stick into pieces and lights it on fire. It's a tiny campfire but magically warm. Phe and Cassie sit down against a log.

The lake sparkles with reflected starlight. I'm sure it's a magical lake and I want to ask Cassie for the story but I really need to be reading the shadow magic book so I can tell Vera about it!

Something splashes out in the lake and I look up to see a person poling a raft towards us. Amber waves and smiles and I realize it's her friend Jamie. He greets us with, "I found a boat. It's not totally dry on the feet." but Amber hops to one stone then another then leaps onto the raft, laughing as it rocks and she and Jamie grab onto each other.

Even if there was room for someone else, I'd rather keep my shoes dry. I sit down next to Cassie, stick my feet towards the fire, and pull out the book. It's not very big, so I have a hand free to shoot texts at Vera as I read.

It looks like the whole first chapter is warnings why you shouldn't use shadow magic. It's dangerous to the person using it and if you do something wrong the shadows can eat you. Lovely. The next chapter gets to what shadow magic actually does—which turns out to be plenty. Manipulating shadows to move things, influencing people using their shadows. Shadow magic also lets people travel between shadows, which is cool. And they can steal or damage people's shadows in a bunch of different ways. One way is to steal a piece of shadow and make a 'Nemesis' whatever that is.

There's a whole section on how to help people who've had their shadows stolen. Symptoms include aversion to natural light, moodiness, and 'evil inclinations.' The treatment is 'having the shadow reattached' or 'other magical treatments.' Untreated lack of a shadow leads to vampirism.

No, really. We were joking but the book calls it 'transformation into one of the children of the night' and references another book for information on vampires.

I'm gaping at the book and texting furiously at Vera—who isn't answering, I think she's already in bed. The times don't match up exactly between our two worlds.

Cassie leans around, "What are you making those faces at?"

"Um… my sister's teacher Madame Sophie doesn't have a shadow so she's turning into a vampire." I've been a fairy for months but I still can't believe that sentence came out my mouth.

"Oh dear!" Phe says.

Cassie tugs on her pigtails. "Shadow magic? All I know about that is it's so creepy even the Trix never tried it and they've tried every other creepy thing."

"What's creepy?" Princess Amber hops back onto the shore.

"Twig's reading about dark magic."

I vanish the book back to my room and get up as Jamie splashes to the shore to join us. He gives me a questioning look and I say, "I'm not going to do any dark magic, don't worry."

"Is it all right to have a boat here?" Phe asks.

Cassie says, "Nobody minds if it's kids. This is a holy place though. A nymph used to live here."

"What's a nymph?" I ask.

Phe and Cassie gape at me like I just asked what the sun is. They explain that nymphs are basically like angels, fairies that died but keep going as guardian spirits by the blessing of the Great Dragon. Which is sort of like God but not really. Nymphs are made of magical fire, the same fire as Amber's magic. We didn't go to any church on Earth but we had TV so I know about beliefs and stuff and I think it works differently here where powerful spirit beings come out and talk to people directly. So asking about the lake leads to Phe and Cassie trying to explain the Big Questions of the magic dimension. I'm not sure I understand, and I'm not sure it's even something that people can understand, but by the time we wind down Amber and Jamie have gotten bored with playing around on the raft. We walk home with a flock of conjured fireballs keeping us warm.

The next day I have off from classes to get ready for the ball. My job as squire is to know and remember things for Amber, so I've been studying names and faces and histories of all the important people we'll meet at the ball. Of course I don't know half as much as Amber does; she's been teaching me. It's clear that all the years I spent playing and reading and going to renaissance fairs with Mom and Dad, Amber spent learning to be a princess. It's why she's so poised even being as young as she is.

We take a dimension ship to Solaria, my first trip in one. It's about like an airplane except it passes through 'dimensional space' which looks like blue and purple swirls outside the window. Then after a while the swirls are replaced by a pale blue sky with two suns overhead. Since we're important our ship lands in front of the actual palace. It's a tall buttery yellow building with a golden sun arch in front of it. More ships are landing and taking off around us, dropping off more important people. I wrack my brains to put names to faces then Amber calls out, "Yaya!"

Aria, her black hair combed down from her Mohawk into sleek wings on either side of her face, dashes over and hugs Amber, "Sweetie! Hello, Twyla. Ready to party?"

"Are you going to sing?" Amber asks.

"Queen Galatea hired me!" Aria's smile is so bright she practically glows. She links arms with Amber and gives me a smile, inviting me to come along.

I'm kind of glad they';re chatting so I don't have to talk, I can just follow them and look at everyone to see who I recognize.

The Winx are pretty much the most famous people in this world. Stella is Queen of Solaria and our hostess, and she greets us at the door in a glittery blue dress with a hug for Amber and a smile for me. "Hi, Twyla right? How did your dress turn out?"

"It's great! Vera really liked your design."

"I can't wait to see it." Stella moves on to asking Aria about the music and Amber and I go inside.

Thankfully Amber knows where to go in the huge palace. It's surprisingly crowded with people arriving, people dressed in parts of their party finery and parts of their normal clothes, people carrying things and bustling back and forth. "Over here. We have time to get dressed."

The Solarian palace has dedicated dressing rooms for balls. Seriously. They look about like actors' dressing rooms I've seen on TV, with lighted mirrors and sinks and everything. "Um, do all palaces have dressing rooms? I haven't been in very many."

"Only this one, Stella had them built when she became queen." Amber waves a hand and conjures her dress in its wrapping, a box with her mask in it, and a silver makeup case that unfolds to reveal a rainbow of cosmetics.

This is one of those moments I think Amber should have hired my sister as a squire. I can do makeup, sure, but not like Vera can. But in the next moment we're swarmed by Aria, Princess Mila, and Eimi and Eili. The twins are already dressed, in massive gowns with layers of lacy petticoats. They look like a pair of wedding cakes in pink and blue. Mila's in the same sort of sequined thing her mother is wearing and Aria's got it best in her leather-and-sparkles concert clothes. We all get down to the business of dressing and getting our hair and makeup in order. My short curls don't need more than a whisk with a brush so I have extra time to help Amber do up her flame-colored hair into a crown around her head.

Princess Mila zips up our dresses for us and helps us with our masks, which will be kept in little purses until after dinner. The masks are translucent porcelain, painted differently for each of us. They aren't painted to look like faces, that would be creepy, but with flowers and geometric patterns. Mine has abstract swirls, Amber's has flames that look like flowers. Aria's mask has swirls and stars in midnight blue and Mila's is all delicate lavender flowers.

Next up is dinner, which I dreaded. But the girls never start acting all proper, they whisper and laugh as we file into the vast dining room. This party has so many attendees that there are three long tables for the most important people plus several smaller ones for the hangers-on like me. Eimi's explained it to me: my father is a famous wizard and my mother knows a lot of important people neither of them is blood-related to a royal family and I haven't done any great deeds yet so I'm a commoner. So is Aria but she's a rock star and her mom's a guardian fairy so she gets to sit at a big table. I'm happy to be off in a corner where nobody will realize I don't know which fork to use. The others at my table—all girls about my age, all dressed slightly less fancy than the royals—all hate being here. In their polite chitchat every one of them slips in some reason they really should be counted as royal but some mistake left them sitting here. I don't say much, and I don't catch any of their names.

Queen Stella stands up and gives a speech about this great day. This kind of eclipse happens on Solaria every ten years so it's a time to look back and rejoice at what's been accomplished since the last one. Stella tells stories of new projects on Solaria and around the magic dimension and it all sounds impressive. Next to Stella sits her husband Brandon, who's handsome in a kingish sort of way. Next to them are their sons, all of whom inherited their father's good looks and their mother's golden hair. So there's a whole row of five stunning blond guys from the twentysomething future king to the youngest, prince Aiden, who is Amber's fiance.

I still think it's super weird that they're engaged while Amber's thirteen, but nobody thinks so. Eili did tell me they don't have to get married, but it's still weird.

As smiling servants deliver food I look up and down the big tables, putting names to faces before everyone puts on masks for the masquerade. I recognize the Winx and their husbands. Princess Parva isn't here but her parents are, and Aria is sitting with her mother.

Even at the lower tables the food is really good, little roasted birds that turn out to be molded from the vat-grown protein that people eat here that tastes just like actual meat. There are also a lot of strange vegetables and I have to watch my snooty tablemates to figure out how to eat some of them. But everything's good, and I manage not to spill anything on my dress so I declare my first royal banquet a win.

Before the dancing begins there's some milling around and I head for the bathroom. Eili is ahead of me and I'm wondering how she's going to manage her huge skirt. But while I'm admiring the bathroom—it's hugely fancy, with gold faucets and individual stalls with wooden doors that go all the way down—Eili unclips her skirt from the bodice and steps out of it. The skirt remains standing by itself. I smother a laugh.

"Please wait for me. It takes two people to get it back on!"

I wait and help her with her dress and we rejoin the others to go into the ballroom. It's a huge space with tall windows and golden chandeliers that look like stars. On one side a whole orchestra is set up and on the other are tables for people to rest from dancing and get drinks and snacks.

Queen Stella says, "I already made my speech, I won't make another one. Music!"

The orchestra begins to play, something lively that's clearly a particular dance, that I don't know. Everybody else gets their masks on and gets out on the dance floor. I tie my mask on, slowly since I want to wait for another song. My mask does have decorative ribbons I tie behind my head, but what's really keeping it on is a little bit of magic. I finish tying and look up—and am struck by the sight before me. it's like something out of a movie, the swirl of colorful ballgowns, the rhythmic stamp of hundreds of feet as everyone dances. I can feel it through the floor, I can smell the floral layers of lots of different perfumes and hear the murmur of a hundred conversations under the music. It's all so real, it hits me every so often how amazing it is that this is all real.

The bouncy song ends and a slower one begins. Already out of breath and glowing Amber comes to get me. "Twyla!"

"I didn't know the steps!" I explain.

"Never mind that, meet my boyfriend—Aiden, Twyla is my squire."

I curtsy because Aiden is a prince even though he's younger than I am. Aiden is a perfect golden boy, in a classic princely uniform with epaulets. He and Amber look like something out of Disney. Prince and Princess.

"Nice to meet you." The prince says.

"Your Highness." I don't know anything about him, other than the fiance thing.

"Twyla, will we be seeing your sister tonight?"

"Ah—no. Vera doesn't want to move to the magic dimension."

Amber winces and Aiden looks politely baffled, so I think I've failed my first attempt at being diplomatic. It never occurred to me that anyone would ask about Vera. But Vera is royalty I guess. Important, mysterious royalty. Lost royalty. I might wish she was here with us, but anyone else who wants her here will have to go through me.

Before I can say something else awkward, a new song starts and I'm saved—by one of Aiden's royal brothers. He steps up next to us and offers his hand. Startled I take it, and he bows over my hand in a very princely way. "Care to dance?"

Yes I would. He's stunning. "I'd love to, but I don't know the dances."

"This one doesn't have steps. I'm Samuel—number three."

Only a year older than I am and not the crown prince. Safe to dance with.

After that, the party is a lot of fun. I dance with prince Samuel and some of his friends, I watch the eclipse with everyone, I listen to Aria's concert. I've always liked dancing and even if I don't know the steps I still know how to shake it without looking totally silly, even in this dress.

Eventually I have to take a break; I've danced until I'm about to overheat. I see Amber slip out of the ballroom and, mindful of my job, I follow her.

She goes through the only door that has darkness on the other side. Maybe she's feeling overheated too, and everything here is really bright. The door of the shadowy room is open and I peek in. Amber is standing before a big sculpture or something. Her hair practically glows. She looks back. "Mimi?"

"Just me. I'll leave you alone if you want."

Amber makes an 'it's ok' gesture. "I wanted a break from people looking at me. You don't count—I mean, you know what I mean."

I do. it's not usually a problem at parties but it's the worst thing about my school on Earth, no breaks from people looking at you. "What is this thing?" Closer I can see it's not just a sculpture, more like a piece of machinery with joined arms and metal moons and stars on the ends. It's absolutely humongous, a magical machine that fills the whole room.

From behind us Princess Mila says, "It's a magical thingamabob someone gave the royal family ages ago. If you stand right there you'll see an image of all your ancestors."

Mila hands me and Amber tall glasses of ice water with lemon and mint leaves, just what I needed. I take a long drink and look at the circle inlaid in the floor. "Really?"

"Uhuh. Back then they were having lots of pretenders to the throne so they had to be able to see if someone was really related. So someone built this giant thing that we now have to dust every week. Try it out if you want."

I'm a little shy of something that looks so important, but I'm too curious to resist. As Amber teases Mila about doing her own dusting I step into the gold sun inlaid on the floor. The whole mass of machinery begins to move, suns and moons swinging up and down. The huge thing looks like it should move with groaning of metal, but it's almost silent.

When everything stops moving Mila says, "You were born in the spring, huh?"

"Mmhm… is that my astrology?" I still have trouble remembering what month my birthday is in, with the sixteen-month calendar they use in Magix. Years here aren't exactly the same length as on earth either so I'm not totally sure I'm even sixteen yet here.

"Your chart says you're brave and loyal but a little silly, and you fall in love a lot."

Amber giggles. "Come on, you can't really tell all that by looking."

Mila protests that she can too, and with more time she could tell my entire fortune.

Another arm of the machine swings down holding a big round piece of glass. In it I see my reflection, and reflected on either side of me are Mom and Dad, and behind them my grandparents, my great grandparents, and more going back into blurry history. The message is clear: my ancestors are real, my family goes back and back. It's really cool.

Vera isn't in the reflection. I guess this magic only goes by biological family, but I feel insulted on her behalf. She's my twin, she ought to be here.

If I turn around will I see my future? My descendants? There's not another glass lens but I turn anyway.

Colors flicker in the air, but all I see is what's really behind me: Amber and Mila. Mila's mask is pushed back, and she's fixing her friend's hair. Amber stands with her shoulders drooping, her mask in her hands.

I step back, and the machine's arms swing back to their original position, which I guess is the current position of Solaria's real suns and moons.

"That's really neat."

Mila's warped mouth quirks into a smile. "Yeah, but it takes up a whole room! The rest of the royal treasures at least fit into the vault!"

Amber giggles. "We have a pit full of fire at my house."

The magic dimension is weird.

Amber pulls a tiny pocket watch from some hidden pocket in her dress, checks the time, and smiles. "We should go back."

I wouldn't mind a longer break; royal parties are exhausting! But we probably should go back.

The door opens and Queen Stella looks in. "There you are! Sweetie, the ambassador from Ferelund was looking for you..?"

Mila shakes out her skirt. "Thanks mother, I said I'd introduce him to the sundog puppies."

Amber and I ask, "Puppies?" in perfect unison.

Mila laughs, slips her mask back on and practically dances from the room, calling, "You can see them later!" back to us. She looks so happy I wonder if there's something going on between her and this ambassador.

Queen Stella steps over to us, "Let me look at your dresses!"

"You made our dresses!" Amber laughs and turns like a model so Stella can see the back.

"I only made yours, and I only saw it on a mannequin!"

While the queen looks her over Amber tells me, "Stella has twelve mannequins, all the boys think they're sooooo creepy."

Our dresses are really great. Amber's is bright shimmery aqua with lines of black sequins crisscrossing all over it and a ribbon belt with charms hanging off the ends. If Queen Stella made it on a mannequin she's really good at fit.

My dress is a darker, shorter, less shimmery version that Vera made for me to Queen Stella's design, so she wants to see how it turned out. I turn to let her see how the skirt falls, the whole model turn. I know how to do it because every time a fashion show comes on TV Vera hogs the remote to watch it.

"I want to hire your sister for Stella Couture!"

Amber answers for me, "So does Eimi and Eili's stepmom." Her eyes sparkle, she's teasing.

"I'll just have to make her a better offer!"

I'm not sure any offer of a job is going to be enough to bring Vera back to the magic dimension to stay. I'm not sure I can say that to a queen though. She saves me from it by waving a hand and summoning a little ball of light and passing it to me. "Here! Give this to your sister, a thanks for her work."

The ball of light pops in my hands and it's a thimble, an ordinary silver metal one, but it gleams with more light than it should be reflecting in this shadowy room.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I'll give it to Vera and tell her you want to hire her."

"Oh, call me Stella! That's Sophie's thimble, she gave it to me for luck after the show we did together! Maybe it'll bring her luck too."

Amber, perhaps sensing I'm uncomfortable talking to grownup royalty even royalty a likable as Stella, waves at me, "Let's go back to the party. I want to dance some more."

Queen Stella walks with us and I tell her we still have all the Winx Band cds and Miss Morgana plays them when we have dances at the Frutti Music bar. Stella is delighted.

When we reach the ballroom Amber slips away and I find myself face to face with prince Samuel. He pulls me into a slow waltz and I'm happy to since this song is slow enough that we can actually have a conversation. The party is winding down and I can hear the low rustle of conversations between other couples. Samuel points out his brothers so I can put names to them in the flesh. Robert and Jeffrey, the oldest two, are looking for eligible princesses to marry and Samuel is happy to be number three and not under so much pressure. Then we get to talking about martial arts, since princes all learn sword fighting so soon I'm learning all about how phantoblades work and I'm telling Samuel about Officer Evans teaching us. And we're having a great time.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Amber dancing with someone—not Aiden; her partner has black hair above his mask. Jamie? Did he sneak in? Because a sailor is definitely not going to get invited to this royal ball, even by being a princess' friend.