AN: And here I am, once again with another chapter of Twin Flames! Sorry, this took a while buuuut I'm hoping this 5k long chapter will make up for it!

Before we begin, let me respond to because I had no idea the actress in Castle was the voice of Nick Bloom! My family watches it so much, probably should've caught that lol.

Sorry for any typos that may creep up, I am too lazy to read through this chapter again lol.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Magic Lost

Bloom was thrown back through the air as an attack slammed against her stomach. She let out a grunt of pain as her platform boots skidded against the ground and her wings fluttered to stop her from crashing in a heap.

Sucking in sharp breath and rubbing the sore area, she yelped and quickly leapt into the air in time to dodge another blast of magic and retaliated with an energy blast of her own. Scowling, she watched as Valtor caught the orb in his palm, the flames fading from white red to purple before crushing it in his palms.

"Make them larger," he instructed. "So that something like that doesn't happen."

Bloom nodded before holding up her palm and filling it with fire again, her goal to make the flame as big as a beach ball at least. Before she could finish however, Valtor had sent a long whip of violet flame at her.

Crying out in surprise, Bloom zoomed beneath the stream and turned to quickly hold up a barrier as the top of a tree he hit instead barrelled towards her.

She sighed in relief as the tree top crashed and burned from her shield before falling to the forest floor.

"Hey!" Bloom said, turning to him with a frown.

"Work faster. Good foes will take any advantage they can get their hands on; your slothfulness most certainly," Valtor said as he made a circular motion with his hand. The only warning Bloom got was a flaming roar and the cracking of earth before a geyser of fire shot up towards her.

"Ah!" She exclaimed, directing a barrier beneath her. The force of the geyser still managed to shove her upwards and crack at it however. So with a gasp, she quickly flitted out of the flame's path just as the shield shattered.

"Good. Keep moving; being idle in a battle could spell death," Valtor said as he snapped his fingers. A circle of orbs surrounded him, and with a commanding point forwards they all zeroed in on Bloom.

She let out a squeak as she jerked haphazardly around the firing orbs, crying out and flailing when one clipped her wing. Like a kamikaze plane she went crashing towards the ground, hitting it with a pained gasp and rapidly bruising midriff.

Valtor landed lightly in front of her and Bloom looked up blarily through the smoke and sparks in the air to watch him hold out a hand to her.

Sighing, Bloom took it and allowed him to help her to her feet. This was about the tenth duel they'd had that heated Monday morning and Bloom's skin was now more bruised purple than peach pale. Long story short, if Valtor told her "Again," one more time, she was going to have a very heated back and forth with him.

Thankfully, what he said instead was, "Good. You can hold your own farely well against a lesser magic user than I—however I see an issue now."

"Issue?" Bloom mumbled as she swept a hand through her sweaty bangs and leaned panting for breath against a half charred tree.

"The raw power is certainly there, but you struggle with…creativity," Valtor mused. "This would fall on me however; I've never expanded your spell arsenal beyond simple blasts and shields."

"So you're going to…hoo…" Bloom breathlessly slid to the ground to sit as she tugged her magic back and felt her fairy form melt away. "Teach me cool spells?"

"Yes," he said, and Bloom grinned excitedly—or tried to, her muscles were tired from making pained noises. "You can choose one from the books we have back at the hotel—but please make sure that it's combat based; as I'm sure you've been reminded of Friday night…"

Bloom's smile faded at the memory, wincing as she touched her neck before nodding. "Right."

There was pause before Valtor crouched in front of her and smiled lightly. "When we get them off our backs, we can go on a little holiday to a realm of your choosing, would you like that?"

Bloom's smile returned. "Like where? Wonderland?" She asked half-jokingly.

Valtor's smile turned into a scowl. "No."

Bloom blinked in surprise at the venom in his voice. "Are you…going to tell me—?"

"No."

Well, it was worth a shot.

"Flora Salgueiro and Adelaide Ainsworth, step forward please, you're next," Professor Palladium said.

Flora let out a nervous breath and shot her dorm mates a smile. "Wish me luck!" She said as she stood from her seat and strode towards the arena with her duel partner. They took their positions, curtsying in a sign of respect as the survival and defense instructor put up a glowing barrier between them and the two transformed and readied themselves.

Stella, meanwhile, was fiddling nervously with her ring. It felt…weaker somehow, it felt unfamiliar, it felt wrong.

"You okay, Stell?" Musa said, putting a hand on the princess's shoulder.

Stella forced a smile. "Yup! Course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"Your words and the inflections of your voice coupled with the tension in your face are in direct opposition with one another," Tecna frowned. "You've been tweaking your ring since class started; has something happened to it?"

"No!" Stella exclaimed a little too quickly as the other students cheered at the action of a battle she didn't care to watch (sorry, Flora). "Everything is fine?" She winced as her voice lifted into a question near the end.

Musa and Tecna exchanged a look from across her before Musa said, "You can tell us, y'know?"

"It's just…I don't know if something's wrong so why worry, right?" Stella tried.

"Intuition isn't something you ignore when it comes knocking, Stella," Musa said and Tecna nodded in agreement.

"The Ring of Solaria is tied to you and your magical core, if you feel something is off-kilter then you should investigate."

Before Stella could respond, the buzzer sounded and a round of applause swept through the auditorium.

"Very good, both of you," Professor Palladium said as Adelaide helped a groaning Flora off the ground with a sportsmanlike pat on the shoulder and smile. "Flora, I fear you're holding back however. Perhaps you should privately practice with your combat so you could become confident in your abilities."

Flora smiled sadly as she de-transformed and nodded. "Of course, Professor."

"Up next, Princess Stella Haleigha and Amaryl Mayflower. Please make your way to the arena."

As Stella moved to stand, Tecna grabbed her wrist. "Stella, if you feel something is wrong maybe it's best to—"

"I'm fine Tecna. A little paranoia is not going to make me lose my winning streak," Stella said, and Tecna reluctantly let go with a frown.

Stella smiled at Flora as she squeezed her shoulder and said, "Good luck!" as they passed each other down the steps, a smile that faded once her heels touched the arena.

For once, she felt she needed it.

She and Amaryl curtsied as Professor Palladium placed a barrier between them. Amaryl transformed but Stella hesitated, the odd energy of her ring weighing on her mind.

"Stella?" The Professor frowned.

Stella took a deep breath and forced a smile once more. "I'm alright, Professor."

"Scared?" Amaryl asked with a smirk.

Stella scoffed and called on her magic, feeling relief as it enveloped her and imbued her with the familiar power boost, wings, and killer outfit. "You wish."

"Ready? And…" Professor Palladium clapped his hands together, causing the barrier to shatter and the battle to begin.

Amaryl pumped a fist upwards and the ground beneath Stella jutted out sharply, launching her into the air.

She almost rolled her eyes. That attack again? She'd just used it last week!

Oh well, at least they could finish this quickly.

From the high vantage point Amaryl had gifted her with, Stella spread her arms and arched her body, filling her skin with vivacious sun magic and directing it towards Amaryl.

The girl gave a cry of surprise as she became blinded before quickly putting up an earth barrier to block the rays. A moment later, the rock was shot towards Stella.

Stella was able to dodge to the side with ease, what with Amaryl still furiously blinking away the sunspots from her eyes and not being able to aim properly.

The rock crashed against the invisible barrier protecting the audience as Stella zoomed towards the still dazed fairy.

Amaryl flailed her arms around, blindly tossing projectile after projectile at Stella as she elegantly glided out of the way of each. Smirking, Stella then lifted her feet, tilted back and kicked Amaryl in the stomach.

The earth fairy tumbled to the ground with a grunt before pushing herself up and glaring at Stella, eyes still red-rimmed from her magical attack.

"Still think I'm scared?" Stella snarked.

Growling, Amaryl lifted her hands, cracking a big chunk of the arena and raising it into the air. The audience oohed and gasped as the rocky attack eclipsed Stella.

Narrowing her eyes, Stella reached for her ring and slid it off her finger. "Don't let me down," she murmured to it before tossing it into the air and catching it in sceptre form. As the rock came barreling towards her, Stella slashed her sceptre in an arc and sliced it cleanly in half to the whoops of the audience.

She briefly smiled at them and blew a kiss before zipping towards Amaryl to finish her off. She really had been overreacting—her ring and magic felt perfectly—

A stalactite shot from the arena ground and sliced through Stella's fingers, causing her to cry out and drop her sceptre. She stopped her flight to quickly double back and grab it when a rock slammed into her side and sent her crashing with a gasp.

As Stella got to her knees with a curse under her breath, she found Amaryl twirling her sceptre and smirking. "Not so smug now, huh?"

Stella held out her hand before her and her sceptre lit up before blasting Amaryl directly in the face.

"OW!" She shrieked as she crumpled to the ground and covered her face in agony. Had the girls not had their magic diluted to 50% before dueling, she was certain she would've knocked unconscious.

"Not so smug now, huh?" Stella mimicked before flying towards her sceptre, before she could grab it however, a snarling Amaryl blindly lifted one hand and sent it downwards. A boulder materialized over the sceptre before crashing on top of it.

Snapping it in half.

The CRACK that echoed through the auditorium functioned like a silencing spell as Stella and everyone else stared horrified at the Solarian heirloom. Magic spilled out of it, continually trying to re-enter the weapon before failing and trying again.

Stella let out a strangled gasp as her legs weakened to toothpicks. She fell to her knees, shaking as tears lined her eyes. No, no, no, no!

She did not just manage to get one of the most important items of Solaria destroyed!

Gasps and screams and footsteps sounded surrounded her but Stella couldn't hear, all she saw was her family's legacy…melting into an unrecognizable lump of metal.

Huh?

Stella crawled forward and held one half of the metal in her hands as Amaryl anxiously exclaimed that she hadn't meant to. Stella ignored her as she felt it with her thumbs this wasn't sun stone at all, which meant—

"It's not the sceptre!" Stella laughed in relief as she wiped her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Flora, Musa, and Tecna as their horror and sympathy shifted to confusion. "It's okay, it's not the sceptre! It's—!" Stella's smile froze on her face.

It wasn't the sceptre.

Then—

Stella's mood quickly switched back to horror and fear as she blubbered, "It's not my sceptre! Someone took my sceptre!"

Tecna took the metal from Stella's hand as Musa helped her up and Flora tightly hugged her quaking form.

"Someone took it! It's gone! I lost it!" She may not have gotten it destroyed but it was gone. How was that any better?

"This is starlight magic imbued warp metal," Tecna said with wide eyes. "That explains why it felt so strange but still functioned!"

Professor Palladium held out a hand, causing a clear orb to appear. The aimless magic pooled into it and caused it to burn vividly. "Come, Stella," he said gravely as he handed the orb to her and Flora let her go. "We will take this to Faragonda."

"We'll come too," Musa said immediately and the other two girls nodded.

Professor Palladium hesitated before Stella said, "Please, Professor. I don't want to go alone."

Sighing, he nodded and strode out of the auditorium while firmly telling the remaining girls to go to their rooms and lock them well. Flora was rubbing Stella's back and murmuring soothing words and Tecna was talking to Musa about ways a thief could've gotten in and committed such a high risk robbery.

As they walked through the hallways, Stella's tears dried, and her hiccups quieted. Clutching the starlight orb to her chest, she felt a fury build in her chest.

Someone had taken her sceptre, so she was going to find them, and so help her when she did.

Break

For Icy, Darcy, and Stormy, the weekend had been filled with snickers and jeering.

There was nothing, nothing more embarrassing than getting caught doing something devious, and to add insult to injury, the ring was in their grasp and that Valtor bastard had stolen it away from them!

The three witches sat in class, glaring at all the other girls who had the gall to whisper and giggle at them. Things were made worse when the speakers crackled and Griffin's voice coldly uttered, "Icy, Darcy, and Stormy, please see me in my office."

The whole class burst into snickers that caused Icy to grit her teeth angrily and the desk to freeze under her clenched fists. Darcy made a noise of displeasure and Stormy blasted the nearest heckler with a lightning bolt.

As she spasmed against her desk, the three witches stalked towards the Headmistress's office.

"I can't believe she's doing this to us!" Stormy snapped. "Hasn't she humiliated us enough?"

"I suppose she found something more demeaning than a public verbal execution," Darcy grumbled.

"Let's just get this over with so we can focus on getting that ring back." As loath as she was to admit it, Icy didn't want to take it back by force. That guy was powerful enough as is, with all that starlight magic…

Yeah, no. They needed a plan. Luckily, she had one brewing.

Icy knocked on the double doors with perhaps more force than necessary and Griffin barked out "Enter."

"Good afternoon Headmistress Griffin," The witches said in unison with varying degrees of annoyance. The older witch glared at them from behind her desk, chin resting on one raised fist as the other drummed an agitated beat against the desk.

"I've just gotten a call from Headmistress Faragonda," Griffin said.

"Ugh! What does she want? She yelled at us already!" Stormy snapped.

Ignoring her, Griffin continued. "It appears that Princess Stella has lost her ring and she wants to know if you three had anything to do with it."

"We wish," Darcy huffed, wincing as Stormy elbowed her.

"You…wish?" Griffin repeated slowly.

Icy rolled her eyes. "The Solarian Ring is one of the most powerful artifacts in Magic Dimensional history, no duh it'd be nice to have. But no, we didn't take it. Can we go now?"

"Hmm," Griffin said before snapping her fingers. Three orbs that the witches hadn't noticed before zoomed away from over their heads and sank into Griffin's palm.

Icy narrowed her eyes. Invisible spells? Wow. What a lovely break in witch etiquette, even if it was a mostly harmless Truth spell.

"You may go. I will update Faragonda on this information." Griffin waved them off and the trio of witches exited.

"Looks like we have to hurry that plan up," Darcy said when they were far enough. "They'll start a manhunt for that stupid thing soon."

"Great, just great," Stormy grumbled.

"Don't worry girls—we'll get that ring back and we'll make that pretty boy suffer, just you wait."

Valtor stared blankly at the paperback Bloom had tossed before him on the desk where he'd been researching. It was of a raven haired girl surrounded by flames, posing dramatically and smiling up at him.

Not a magic book.

"And this is…?"

"Well it's a manga—"

"A what?"

"But that's not important," Bloom continued as she towelled down her shower wet hair and tossed it behind her back, leaving it to frizz out.

"What's important is her," she tapped the cover of the raven haired girl with a cheerful smile. "Sailor Mars!"

Valtor turned from the computer and swiveled his chair around to face her properly. "Explain."

"See, Mars uses fire—like me—and she has super cool moves in the anime—"

"Ani—pardon?"

"Which I can't show you because of that technology gap with VHS, but what if I replicated them?"

Valtor leaned back in the chair and steepled his fingers. "You would like to incorporate Earth Fantasy into your training?" He tried to keep the disgust out of his voice but Bloom's withered smile made it clear he had been unsuccessful.

"What's wrong with that?" She frowned with crossed arms. "You said so yourself, magic is about imagination—"

"Intent."

"Same difference! And there's nothing more imaginative than Earth Fantasy, trust me."

Valtor sighed heavily and rubbed his temples. "First, open a dictionary please, intent and imagination are not the same. Second, why?"

Bloom shrugged helplessly. "Sailor Mars is cool."

"She's a fairy tale concocted by the ignorant minds of human beings."

"And she's still cool."

Valtor sighed again before turning back to his work. "Tell you what, impress me with a…spell from this source and I will consider its validity."

"Consider it done!" Bloom chirped before leaning over his shoulder. "What're you doing?"

"I am looking for inexpensive curse breakers that have above a 2.5 star rating," Valtor uttered in annoyance.

"For your coat?"

"Precisely." As well as his new Solarian souvenir. It was fairly amateurish on his part not to protect his prize from any tracking or summoning spells.

"Why don't you specifically look for 5 star curse breakers?"

"I suppose you missed the adjective inexpensive. Again, Bloom; open a dictionary. That was not said in jest."

Bloom rolled her eyes and snorted before asking, "Why don't you get a job then?"

"I suppose the word incognito is also lost on you?"

Bloom paused before saying, "Why don't I get a job?"

"Bloom, you're just as much a target as I am."

"Not really. The guy from the movie theatre was sent to limbo just like the ones at my house, so nobody knows I'm your 'accomplice,'" Bloom argued. "Aaand more Magic Dimension exposure for me! It's a win, win if you think about it."

Or, he could keep Bloom's training going at a breakneck pace and go around stealing Earthling wallets—risking exposure and magic waste with constant portal usage and a suspicious amount of Earth bills constantly showing up at the bank for conversation…

Not to mention if this was what Bloom truly wanted and he was supposed to be fulfilling her heart's desire—well.

Patience. He needed to remember that.

"Where would you like to work?"

Bloom beamed. "Anything with dragons! Or an enchanted book shop, or, or, or, or! A superhero career!"

Valtor gave her an amused smile. "A superhero job?"

"What do fairies and specialists do after graduation? Don't they go around fighting people?"

"Ah. You'd like to be a bounty hunter?"

Bloom paused. "Before I say something that'll have me on record…is that legal?"

Valtor chuckled and was about to answer when he heard a rattle from the desk drawer. It flashed violet briefly from the wards he'd put on it before the rattling stopped and Valtor's smile faded.

"What was that?" Bloom asked curiously as Valtor opened the drawer and took out its only contents with a frown—The Ring.

"What's that?"

"Errant spell," he said vaguely as he glared out the window and clenched the ring in his hand. "Stay here."

"Valtor?" Bloom asked as he strode towards the balcony doors and tossed them open.

"Stay," he repeated as he leapt from the balcony.

Those damned witches. Well, he was stronger now and had a rough grasp of their fighting style, as well as a healthy know-how on their ability type—he would force respect out of them once and for all.

Stella gritted her teeth in frustration as her scrying spell activated before going cold once more.

Her ring clearly wasn't too far away—unlike the other couple dozen tries she'd attempted the spell as she purposefully roamed the nighttime streets of Magix, she felt a tug three times in the past minute. Her magic must be acting wonky.

"Where are you?" She muttered under her breath, snapping her fingers again. By the time she got back to the dorm, her fingers would be red and sore—and she'd also probably be in a whole lot of trouble.

Maybe if Faragonda hadn't decided to keep Stella away from the private investigation involving her heirloom, then she wouldn't have been sneaking out at all. But no she just had to groan and moan about danger and protection—!

The tug continued onwards when she snapped once again, and she gasped as it led her forward this time.

"Ah-ha! Yes!" Stella cheered before touching the temporary magic orb in her handbag and calling on its power to transform. Nearby people covered their eyes to block them from the burning rays of light and she tossed a "Sorry!" Over her shoulder before zooming into the air after her ring.

Best case scenario, she would find the ring and zip back to Alfea before anyone even noticed she was gone. Worst case, the spell wasn't working and she was tracking something else entirely. Mid-case, a fight broke out.

The pull became stronger as she left the city centre and entered the more rural areas. Houses replaced the apartments and hotels before they were replaced with industrial factories and rusty warehouses.

"Weird place to keep a powerful heirloom," Stella muttered to herself as she dropped altitude near a particularly run down warehouse next to an old abandoned dock.

Her heels made an echoing click as she landed, and her glowing finger instinctively tweaked to the right. When she followed its pointing, she didn't find any witches or burglars in black and white—she found a man with flowing hair and a simple white blouse and vest. And there, in his gloved hand was a familiar ring glowing with Stella's tracking spell.

He narrowed his eyes at her and tilted his head to the side as he stood up from the empty crate he was sitting on. "I admit," he said in a smooth baritone, before leaping down and landing lightly on the balls of his boots, "I was expecting someone else."

So was she, but that didn't matter right now. She snapped her fingers to cancel the spell before pointing an accusing finger at him. "That ring is Solarian property, buster! Hand it over right now and we won't have a problem."

The man ignored her completely, much to her frustration. Instead he idly rubbed it between his fingers and asked, "How did you figure out it was missing so soon?"

Stella scoffed and crossed her arms. "Your stupid dupe snapped in half like a twig."

"Did it?" The man asked with a frown. "What an unfortunate waste of my money." And with that, he casually tossed her the ring.

Stella gasped and lunged forward to catch it just before it hit the ground, glancing up sharply at the man to see if he had just done that as a distraction.

He didn't attack though, just crossed his hands behind his back and watched.

"You…gave it back?" She didn't actually think he would listen to her when she demanded he give it back; it had been more of a formality.

"It was a convenient carrying tool and source of powerful metal, but at the end of the day it was more a souvenir than anything."

He…stole the Ring of Solaria for…fun? That explanation sounded super sketchy.

Stella narrowed her eyes and backed up slowly, keeping her eyes on him as she called the temporary orb into existence. It illuminated the murky darkness as Stella held it up and pressed it to the ring. The light exploded its prison and sank into her weapon, causing it to glow and sing as it became restored to its former glory.

Sighing in relief and smiling fondly, Stella slipped the ring on her finger where it belonged…

…but—

Smile disintegrating into a scowl, Stella accused, "You did something to it!"

The man shrugged. "I skimmed magic off the top. Why do you think I stole it? For fun?"

Duh. Of course he didn't.

"Well—give it back!"

"Hmm. I'm afraid not."

Stella gritted her teeth and stormed towards the man, body glowing with magic as she snarled, "Give me my magic back right now before I blast you off into the nearest star!" She stopped directly in front of him, glaring up at his infuriatingly smirking face.

He bent forward to smirk at her face to face before saying, "I have a better ultimatum—be grateful I didn't leave you powerless and crippled, crawl back to your little school and pretend this encounter never happened."

Stella was not going home—let alone Alfea—with a half working Ring of Solaria. There was no way, no way.

Narrowing her eyes, Stella sent the magic swirling around her stabbing into the man's magic core. His eyes widened in shock and he staggered backwards as Stella searched for any semblance of her power. It was very, very different from the usual cores she sensed but she should still be able to—there!

She had her magical hands reach out to snatch back her magic when the man roared and sent an orb of flame shooting from his palm at her. It hit Stella directly against her chest and she crashed to the ground with a cry of pain.

As Stella scrambled quickly to her feet, she watched the man wrap his arms around his chest, panting wide eyed as violet sparks rose from his body like fireflies in the night. He stumbled forwards in pain, closing his eyes and wincing before opening them once more and glaring murderously.

"You dastardly little brat!" He held both hands palm up at his sides and Stella watched in horror as the rusted machinery surrounding her flared to life. Their engines rumbled and squealed like an enormous kettle before exploding simultaneously in a dangerous cloud of flame.

Stella transformed her ring to its sceptre form before quickly slamming its end against the ground. Her magic exploded around her and kept a circumference of protection circled her form as the flame wave roared high around her.

A fire wizard? Gosh darn it.

The man rose and thrust a hand down, causing the flames to curl together before slamming down towards her in a spinning tornado while the flames in front of her shut like a curtain. Squeezing her sceptre tighter, Stella tightened the shield around her and shot through the inferno storm shaking at the effort with gritted teeth.

Near her leg, the shield faltered and singed her skin. The pain was so searing that it broke her comcrentartion briefly, causing her to lose herself in an ocean of flame that punished her lungs for screaming in pain.

Before it could do too much damage, Stella swiped her sceptre and warped herself out of the inferno. Not far enough to get her out of the battle thanks to her weak concentration and less than tip-top sceptre, but enough to collapse gasping against the concrete nearby.

"How dare you," The man snarled, floating above her with a snarl. "How dare you!" A stream of flame shot from his palms and he grasped its tail and used it like a whip.

Grunting, Stella managed to stumble to her feet and produce a weak shield that shattered on impact and sent her tumbling. Before she could even recover, the ground beneath her exploded and a geyser of flame threw her into the sky with more searing pain.

She shrieked as she fell backwards through the starry night sky before an invisible force wrapped around her and sent her slamming back into the ground.

Stella gasped in stunned agony as she shakily pushed herself to her knees. Gosh, who was this guy? Either she wasn't as good a dueller as she thought or this man was something—ack!

Stella jumped and rolled as a giant fireball crashed against the ground she'd just been taking a breather on and held her arm up to block the onslaught of raining debris that followed.

She fluttered her wings and used her sceptre as leverage to help herself to her feet and share a glare with her duelling partner as he landed in front of her.

She flinched the crimson his eyes had turned, and the almost monstrous echoing of his voice as he said, "I wonder what the headlines will be when they find your corpse." He flung a flame orb that Stella batted away with her sceptre before returning the attack with an energy ball of her own that he caught and crushed in his palm.

"I wonder…" he continued in a dangerously low voice as he stalked forwards with a rapidly darkening aura. "If said corpse will even be identifiable enough to mourn."

The ground opened up beneath Stella and two stony hands squeezed around her midriff. She squirmed desperately, panting for breath as tears of both affixation and pain blurred her vision. Her fingers grew numb, causing her sceptre slip from her grasp and clatter to the ground.

"N—no—" she gasped as the man held his hand towards her heirloom and it sank through a portal in the ground. Her energy disappeared with it as her fairy form slipped off her in a shower of yellow sparks, causing her to slump limply in the stone clutches.

Just when she was about to slip into unconsciousness, the man sighed, and the stone hands let her slip to the ground and collapse into a defeated heap.

Blearily, she looked up at him as he stared down at her, the red in his eyes and the flames surrounding his body all gone with the murder in his gaze.

"Had I gone to Psychonious before my captivity, I would have let you go," he said, which confused the hell out of Stella. Wasn't he threatening to mutilate her corpse just seconds ago?

What a wishy-washy weirdo of a bastard.

"Alas," he said, pointing a glowing finger at her head. "I can't have you running your mouth to Faragonda. Farewell—"

A loud BOOM sounded, and the man spun around just in time to watch a giant sound wave crash into him with an exclamation of surprise.

Stella, thankfully, was low below the attack range. But where had it—

Wait—

"Take that you bastard!" A familiar voice cheered, and Stella looked up to see Musa, Tecna, and Flora fluttering in the air. They all zoomed down to meet her as Stella pushed herself to her knees.

"Girls," she gasped happily as they all wrapped her up in a group hug. She let out a relieved sob into their chests as her fear washed away.

"You okay, Stell?"

"Why did you go out on your own?! You could have died just now!"

"Was it all worth it however? Did you locate your ring?"

Stella shook her head in defeat as the girls pulled back. "He took it."

Musa punched a fist into her palm. "Where is he? Let me at 'em!" She shot to her feet and looked around, hands glowing with pulsing sound magic.

"I can't see him," Flora frowned. "I think he's gone."

"We have to get back to Alfea and update the Headmistress," Tecna said urgently as she helped Stella to her feet. "You must tell her everything so we can locate this man."

"I can't have you running your mouth to Faragonda."

As Stella nodded, she frowned to herself.

Just who was he?

AN: I would like to call this chapter, Battles, Battles, BATTLES! I LOVE BATTLES because I do. I literally do lol. Even though the final action scene was more Stella getting a beat down than anything else, lol.

Canon Amaryl isn't an Earth fairy, she's actually a starlight fairy or something but whatever, idc I'm changing it for battle purposes lol.

ANYways, before we go I'd like to quickly plug in my Kofi page (ko-fi slash thefantasygoddess) where you can give me a little cha-ching, or give me a little cha-ching in exchange for a writing commission from me!

Fantasy Fan OUT!