Chapter 28

War Council

The next day, at the White Horse.

It seemed to have been ages since the last time the Trix had been at the White Horse. Miss Greta, the owner, was not particularly enthusiastic about their visit, but her aged face continued undaunted to show the smile of those who faced the bad boys of at least three generations of students. As usual, the place was crowded with students of all ages.

Icy would have liked to take a photo of the bar for Lzzy, who had repeatedly expressed a certain curiosity both for Lake Roccaluce and for the places frequented by her mind mate, but she didn't dare to do it in front of Cassandra and the other girls to not lift questions.

Bloom guided her friends to the terrace, to some secluded tables, half hidden by a small hedge.

- Nobody will disturb us here. - said the fire fairy.

- I still don't understand why we couldn't talk in Alfea. - said Darcy, taking a seat.

Stormy sighed.

- Because none of us wanted to stay in that candy-colored school one more minute! -

The morning had been very heavy. Of course, the lessons could not be interrupted because of Valtor, but it was still frustrating to spend five hours between the library and the potions laboratory without concluding anything.

- And for Desirè and Maria too. - added Ioanna more gently.

She and her friends had another reason not to stay in Alfea: they would have had under their eyes Adelaide who was packing. The white-haired fairy didn't want to join them on the adventure. Not only that, she would return to Earth and there she would study at the Tir Nan Og school and the departure was scheduled for that same evening.

Surrendering to the fact that she was the only one not to like that sunny afternoon, the witch of darkness turned to important things.

- What do we know about the Mystérion? - she asked when the others had also sat down.

- I did some research. - Tecna began.

- As always. - Aisha grinned.

The fairy of technology rolled her eyes and continued:

- The author of the Mystérion is unknown and there are those who hypothesize that it was written by more than one person since the spells it collects come from ages and worlds even very distant between them. The most recent spell reported there dates back two centuries ago and... -

- Two centuries ago?! What about the principal's "almost to the present day"? - exclaimed Francesca.

Icy chuckled. The blonde's reaction was similar to that of Halestorm when they discovered that Wizgiz boasted several centuries of service.

- The sense of time of you earthlings seems to be more contracted than ours. - she commented.

- I was saying, the most recent spell contained in the book goes back about two hundred years ago and we could say that it is an old acquaintance of ours: the Spell of the Four Elements. - Tecna resumed to be interrupted again by Desirè.

- Never heard of it. -

- Have you ever been in the Phoenix? - asked Aisha.

- Yes, it's the new neighborhood in the west side of Magix City if I'm not mistaken. - answered Cassandra without grasping the connection between the two arguments.

- That neighborhood was destroyed four years ago by an earthquake caused by Valtor, who took possession of the Spell of the Four Elements. - said Aisha.

- Earth to Magix, Water to Cloudtower, Wind to Redfountain and Fire to Alfea. - Darcy muttered with downcast eyes.

She remembered well the terrible tone with which those words had been spoken for the first time years before. Desirè and the others shuddered at the spell's reach.

- Do you think he will use it again? - Giunia asked.

Stormy shook her head.

- It is unlikely, it's no longer in his possession and moreover he is almost drowned by using it. Valtor is not the type to repeat the same patterns of the past, especially when they did not lead to a good result. -

- Then we can assume that he will work alone this time. - said Cassandra remedying a lightening glance from the Trix. - Sorry. -

- I have to admit you're right. - said Darcy twisting her nose with a certain disappointment - Working on behalf of someone with a colleague led him to hibernation, giving orders to the three of us led him to failure... At this point he has no choice but to go solo. -

- In that case, good for us. From how Stormy's lightning was deflected he seems to need no allies this time. But back to the book. - said Musa.

- I don't have much else to say Musa, that book was jealously guarded and there isn't much information on the net. I can only tell you that most of the spells collected in the Mystérion touch forbidden magic: evocations, exchanges of soul... Things that you should not even think about. There is even a first draft of the Renounce. - said Tecna.

At the word "Renounce" Icy straightened up in her chair with her heart in her throat. If Valtor knew about her and Lzzy's intentions, he could take advantage of it somehow. Although unaware, Flora gave her hope.

- For the Renounce the person concerned must be present and we have no intention of being kidnapped, do we? -

- Do we know other spells from that book? - asked Maria.

Tecna explained that, for obvious reasons, only spells of positive magic were known, mostly related to medicine.

- So we don't even know what could hit us. I would say that we don't exactly have the knife on the side of the handle. - said Aisha disconsolately.

Rebecca was thinking aloud.

- We do not know the author or authors. But there will be scholars who have dealt with the Mystérion. If we find them, they might give us a hand. -

- Or kick us off because we ask for information on a forbidden book. - replied Cassandra.

Rebecca's response was stifled by a surge of voices coming from beyond the hedge: boys had just emerged on the terrace and looked like they were one of those noisy and, in the long run, unbearable companies. Bloom, who had instinctively turned to the noise, looked back at the table, covering her face with one hand. The gesture was rather ridiculous, since her red hair was unmistakable.

- Man, it's Jordan! - she hissed.

- I smell gossip. - said Icy, happy to torment the redhead, who had leaned as much as possible on the table - Who is Jordan? -

With feigned indifference, Aisha pointed to a tall, athletic boy, with an amber complexion on which his long black hair stood out.

- That's Jordan. A braggart. -

- Unconscious. - added Stella.

- Play boy. - said Musa.

- With a tremendous physique. -

Rebecca didn't even notice the looks of the others, too busy enjoying the view.

- Remember Mick. - said Ioanna waving her hand in front of her eyes.

Rebecca grabbed her wrist without even looking at her.

- Do you know what polygamy is? -

- Yes, and I think you're beyond the allowed threshold of husbands. -

- Are you married, Rebecca? - asked Darcy who, like the others, struggled to hold back the laughter.

- Mhmh. You have Mick Jagger's secret wife in front of you. - answered the fairy, still without taking her eyes off Jordan.

- And Orlando Bloom's, Andy Biersack's, Tom Hanks'... - Cassandra listed, keeping the account with her fingers.

Revived by those names, Rebecca finally averted her eyes from the boy.

- Don't mention Tom in vain, heretical. -

Chuckling, Tecna returned the group to order.

- Break over girls. The idea of tracing scholars isn't bad. It might take a while, but at least we would know what to expect. -

- And to find Valtor? - Francesca asked.

- That remains a problem. - answered Flora - It seems that Valtor has found a way to cancel his aura. -

- Man, that was the best way to find him. - exclaimed Giunia with a grimace of disappointment.

Desirè was not surprised.

- It's not like he's a fool, he knows it too. Could the Mystérion also have an aura? A magic book should emit magical energy. -

Musa put her hand to her chin.

- As far as we know, the Mystérion is a book of magic, not a magic book like the Legendarium. -

- Even the Book of Destiny, however, has an aura... - said Flora.

- Yes, Bartleby's. - retorted Stella.

- Besides the Book of Destiny is magical, it recognizes the members of the Domino royal family. - added Bloom.

- I am dying to ask you about this Book of Destiny but I hold back. - Francesca said.

- Oh, it's a book that tells the story of my family. - replied Bloom, - My father, King Oritel, protected the entire library where it was kept with a spell and entrusted it to a caretaker, Lord Bartleby, in order to save it from the destruction of Domino. -

- Anyway we are point and start again, to find the Mystérion we have to find Valtor and to find Valtor we have to know if the Mystérion emits magic energy, track it down and follow it and to do this we have to look for a series of professors that we don't even know where they are. - intervened Darcy.

Stormy was more optimistic and already considered it a good base to start from, so she said:

- One step at a time, sister. -

- Stormy is right, looking too far doesn't help us. - said Maria.

- Why don't we ask Faragonda if she knows who studied or was studying the book? Or Barbatea, maybe she read it herself. -

Flora laughed and Musa said:

- She could have done it, knowing her. -

They all approved the idea of the fairy of lightning: Faragonda could have known someone who had taken care of the book, and in any case she would certainly have received more cooperation than them. Since Jordan's company was always more cheerful and annoying and they had no reason to stay there, the girls decided to take a walk along the lakefront. Bloom was not thrilled to be seen by the boy, if only to stand in front of him pretending not to see him, but she had no choice. "Pleasedonotseemepleasedonotseeme" silently prayed the fairy, walking as far as possible from the boy, who in fact did not see her. Not immediately at least.

- Look who's there! - said Jordan in fact, - The fearsome Trix. Or maybe I should say the once fearsome, I don't know. -

His friends laughed and one of the witches who accompanied them, more undressed than dressed, added, teasing them:

- How are you doing in the new school? Are your wings popping up? -

Stormy would have gladly picked up the provocation but was held back by Aisha. Darcy, as usual, seemed not to have heard anything. Although determined to imitate her, Icy could not avoid hissing between her teeth:

- Swallen head. -

"Swallen head" was not her best insult, but she didn't feel like fighting. She had never been particularly bully. Touchy, proud and even a bit narcissistic maybe, but it was not her nature to go looking for trouble without a good reason. Many would have laughed at her conviction, pointing out that she had done nothing else in the last few years, but the truth was that the Ancestral Witches had given her and the others the best possible reason: if they had carried out their orders they would have spared their families. Family was a topic to which Icy was not particularly sensitive at the time, but Darcy and Stormy were her weakness and they would not have borne the loss.

When Darcy's parents learned of her transformation into a witch and asked her daughter why she had changed, Darcy had closed down and after leaving for college she broke off contact with them, although this made her suffer very, very much. Her mother had never openly told her not to upset her, but in her heart she hoped her daughter would once again become a fairy and Darcy hadn't felt like taking that hope away from her: by cutting her and Icy's wings, in fact, Lillis and Belladonna had ensured that the transformation of the two was not reversible. Once torn, in fact, the wings could grow back, even if years later, just as had happened to terrestrial fairies; but if they were cut there was nothing left to do. Darcy had always had an excellent relationship of trust with her parents and having to lie to them, even if to protect them, made her feel like a monster.

Stormy had also suffered from the separation. However, more than her mother and father, she missed her brother Donnie, four years younger. Owners of a small restaurant, Stormy's parents were almost never home with their children and this meant that the relationship with them was very detached, while the two siblings were very close to each other. Stormy had not hesitated a moment to accept the proposal, or better, to submit to the blackmail of the Three Ancestral Witches: she would never endanger her brother, who at the time was only ten years old. She would never admit it, but Icy was sure that every now and then Stormy was still thinking about him, she understood it by how she avoided talking about him to anyone. She wondered if Stormy and Darcy would ever find the courage to go back to that life.

Icy was taken from her thoughts by the shrill voice of the witch.

- Look at her, she doesn't even react. She really got soft! -

"Oh no, you shouldn't have said that!" thought the witch of ice, whirling around and silencing the girl with a glance.

- Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't realize you were talking, I just heard an annoying buzz! -

- Icy... - Musa whispered, worried by the turn the situation had taken.

- Don't worry Musa, if we must fight, we'll take care of it, it's all exercise. - said Desirè putting herself between Icy and the witch.

Jordan intervened to cool the spirits, knowing that for his friend it wasn't going well.

- Come on Julia, let it go and let's enjoy the evening. -

Julia let herself be convinced easily and Icy and the others could finally go down the stairs that led to the riverfront.

- Would you really have started a fight... for us? - asked Darcy to the witch of art.

Desirè shrugged.

- It would have been the right thing to do. -

- I wanted to give her a lesson! - muttered Stormy to then roll her eyes and prevent the reproaches of the others: - I know, I can't. But in front of certain people my hands really get itchy. -

Icy felt her cell phone vibrate, a sign that a message had arrived. Instinctively she read it, without bothering to be seen by the others.

"Last minutes before going on stage. Tension to the stars. I don't know if I'll be able to hold it all evening. Get ready to welcome an outlaw. See you soon"

More than a message, it seemed like a telegram, Lzzy must have written it in a hurry to keep from being discovered. "Damn!" They just needed her to panic! Icy closed the chat and made her gaze wander over the surface of the lake, where the last rays of the sun made the waves sparkle, and tried to convey to her mindmate all the confidence and tranquility possible.

§§

- Lz, you look worried. Is everything alright? -

Lzzy nodded absently at the lively blonde who had spoken to her. It was time to get back on stage and she was terribly scared: if she freed her aura it would have been blue. In universally normal conditions she would have been tense, but it was the first concert since she had discovered her powers, plus with the risk of being taken out by Valtor... What could have gone wrong? Everything!

- Hey-o? - The girl waved her hand in front of her nose. - Look, it shows, it's useless to pretend nothing happened. Are there any problems with Joe? -

The neutral surrendered to answering by voice, even if this meant lying to a dear friend.

- No Detroit, Joe has nothing to do with it. It's just that I've had some... problems with my voice lately, and I'm afraid I can't sing. -

"This is the only excuse that can be good" Lzzy thought. Detroit knew how bad it had been when her voice had changed, what insecurity had taken over her.

- Are you kidding? You are Lzzy Hale from Halestorm honey, go and kick ass! -

Saying so, the girl pushed her playfully towards the stage. Lzzy smiled, picked up the white and gold guitar and slung it over her shoulder, then joined the others near the steps.

- Ready? - she asked.

- When you want Lz. - answered Arejay.

- Then let's go. -

The stage was dark, the lights turned off. As already hundreds of times, everyone quietly took his place on the stage. Lzzy inhaled and exhaled, then filled her lungs again and...

- Oh! I miss the misery! -

The audience welcomed her with a roar, the lights came on and the boys started playing.