Chapter 13
Ancrua places her hand on Silver's shoulder as the fire blazes around them.
"We have to help Jade!" she cries.
Silver nods, "Right! Time to transform!"
Silver and Ancrua transform into their Fairy forms and fly up away from the forest floor.
"Can you see Jade anywhere?" Silver asks, looking around.
Smoke now blankets the forest as green fire runs rampant through the trees.
"No...I can't see anything!" Ancrua shakes her head, shielding herself from the smoke with her hand.
From among the flames, Silver spots a fleck of dark green hair trying to fly out of the forest, "I think I see Jade!"
She zips over to her, and grabs Jade by the wrist, "Jade! Oh, thank goodness we found you!"
Ancrua flies in behind Silver, "You guys! We need to take out this fire!"
"I can't!" a weak Jade declares, "I caused this, my magic would only make it worse."
Silver extends a hand to Jade, "We could use a Convergence spell, Jade. The three of our powers together could stop this fire from reaching Alfea."
"Or at least stop this forest from going up in flames," Ancrua chimes in.
Looking up at Silver, Jade nods her head before flying up with Silver and Ancrua. They go far above the forest, and Silver points to Ancrua.
"We should converge on your water magic in order to take out the flames."
Jade and Ancrua exchange glances, and nod, "Okay!"
Ancrua stands in the middle as the three girls charge up their magic, placing their hands in the center.
"Winx Convergence!"
Silver's white magic and Jade's green magic mix into a ball of Ancrua's blue magic, creating several streams of deep blue energy that swirl around the forest, dousing the flames.
As the fire petters out, the three girls fly back down to the ground, exhausted from the spell. Jade immediately collapses onto the floor.
"Girls! What is the meaning of this?!" Assistant Headmistress Griselda demands, as she comes marching through the charred trees.
Silver and Ancrua gasp, and glance back at each other. Jade, unaware of Griselda, sits up from the ground, holding her head. Noticing Jade, Griselda gasps.
"A Witch?! At Alfea?!"
Panicked, Jade immediately stands, and starts to back away from the other girls.
"Assistant Headmistress, I can explain-" Silver's immediately cut off when Jade snaps her fingers and she's suddenly enveloped in green smoke. By the time the smoke's cleared, she's vanished. Silver sighs, "Oh, Jade…"
"You girls have a lot of explaining to do," Headmistress Faragonda informs Silver and Ancrua as they stand in her office.
"First an outburst in the school library, setting the woods around Alfea in flames, and to top it all off they've been harboring a Witch on campus!" Griselda cries.
"Headmistress Faragonda, the Witch-...Jade, she's my sister," Silver explains.
Griselda laughs, "Ha! The sister of a crowned princess, a Witch! A likely story…"
"Now Griselda, it may be unusual, but it certainly isn't forbidden for Witches to be on campus, as long as they don't cause any trouble," Faragonda adjusts her glasses, "but that doesn't explain Silver's radical behavior in the library."
"That's it! The Witch must have cast a spell on Silver!" Griselda concludes.
"It wasn't like that at all!" Ancrua protests, "There's something bigger going on at Alfea. Whenever Fairies get irrationally angry, Jade said that she sensed some kind of...dark energy."
"Yeah, it sounded like someone was trying to get inside my head," Silver explains.
"Girls, these are some serious accusations," Faragonda warns them, "if this is true, this dark magic could be a serious threat to Alfea."
"Girls, thank you for telling us this. You may go now," Griselda tells them.
As Silver and Ancrua exit Headmistress Faragonda's office, Griselda closes the door behind them. Her eyes glow red for a brief second before she turns back around towards Faragonda.
"I think their accusations are completely false! They're just two sophomores trying to stay out of trouble!"
Faragonda raises a finger, as if she's about to argue against her, but then her eyes glow red as well, and she lowers her hand.
"You're right, Griselda. Let's not discuss this matter any further."
From an unknown location surrounded by red mist, the cloaked figure watches from his crystal ball as Faragonda and Griselda return to their daily business.
"That's right you old hags, wouldn't want you finding out about my plans, now would we?" he cackles, the moment his hand flickers red the eyes of the teachers glow red as well.
He waves his hand over his crystal ball to change the image from the Headmistress's office to Silver's room, where Silver has trashed her side of the room with clothes from her closet.
"Ugh! So many choices...I'll never decide on what to wear for the dance at Red Fountain!" Silver declares as she rifles through her closet.
Ancrua turns around from feeding her fish, "You know we still have time to go shopping in Magix. I thought we were already going there to help Jade get a new wardrobe."
"I know...I know, but that doesn't mean I can't start scoping my current closet for ideas!" Silver cheers, jumping up and down.
The cloaked figure places a gloved hand on his crystal ball, and his hand glows red. Suddenly, Silver's eyes glow red, and she clutches her head.
"Silver…" the man says aloud, speaking into his crystal ball, "why even bother going to the Red Fountain dance anyway? They'll be so many Fairies there, and they'll all be so much prettier than you."
"No...stop…" Silver grunts, "get...out!"
A white spark of magic shoots out of the crystal ball, throwing the cloaked man back, "What is this?! No matter how hard I try, she can still resist my powers!"
Getting up, the cloaked figure shakes his head, "No matter, if I can't get to Silver, I'll just have to target her friend…"