Chapter 32 "2570 years old"

The Dark Lord was irritated by the news that his grand plan of stealing Red fountain's Codex had failed. The three witches had informed him that Saladin had seen through his scheme so he had posted more guards in front of the powerful weapon, too many guards for the witches to even try to fight.

The three young girls were kneeling in front of their master apprehending his reaction. The latter stopped pacing around the room and came to stand in front of the witches. All of them were completely ignoring the history teacher standing in some sort of trans, his gaze unfocused a few feet away in one of the forteress's many dark corners.

"You fools, how could you fail such a simple mission!" He yelled at them in annoyance. He turned around his cape, whipping around him in an intimidating way. However his mood quickly changed from disappointed to diabolical.

"No matter, we will let them think they have won, like the naive idiots they are, they will eventually let down their guard. And since now we know where they are keeping it, we will be able to launch an attack when they will least expect it. The Codex will soon be mine!" He finished with a maniacal laugh that echoed throughout the room.

Far from the Dark lord's underground lair, in the Alfea's colorful and bright library, the Winx were all sitting around a table covered in thick dusty old books. Some were opened and being read by a few of the fairies, others had been left discarded at the center of the table and finally one was being used as Stella's head pillow.

Except for the lazy blond princess, the girls had all agreed on finding more about the codex, Lord Darkar and their missing professor. And where better to look for information than the five hundred years old school library. However their little improvised search was hitting a wall. Not even Tecna's super computer could find anything about their teacher's past or about the Codex's origins. The girls were quickly getting frustrated by the lack of information on the subject.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Musa slammed her book closed signaling to everyone she was finally giving up. Some of the girls followed her example and put back the books in their rightful places. Flora chose to keep her eyes on the lines of her book about evil world rulers. She felt like if she took them away from her search, her mind would go and wander to things she wasn't yet ready to remember, like a certain teacher that just a few days ago had betrayed them and joined their enemy. These thoughts often led to confusion and hurt, emotions that she didn't welcome right now.

"Nothing about his birthday, his planet of origin, his family, I can't find anything about Professor Darkell's on the magical web. According to the internet, he was never born. '' Tecna explained while typing at a breaking speed on her computer.

"That's because the internet didn't exist when Darkell came to this world." All the girls turned around at the sound of their headmistress's voice. Tecna looked at her in confusion and disbelief.

"But the magical dimension's internet has been up and running for more than one hundred years, professor Darkell can't be one hundred years old, it's just not possible according to his physical appearance and magical presence."

The aged woman came and stood at the front of the room so she could look down and see all her students. She smiled wisely at them and replied in a neutral tone.

"He's not one hundred years old my dear, he's approximately 2570 years old if my memory is correct." Her words were met with silent shock from her pupils. Even Flora had finally looked up from her book in surprise.

"I totally want to know how he aged so well! Living so long and not having even one wrinkle on his face is incredible…" Stella rambled on excitedly. The others just ignored her loud chatter.

"Is it because of his sentence, is his longer life span part of his punishment?" Flora asked out of the blue without thinking. Her eyes showed worry and curiosity. Now it was Faragonda's turn to be surprised.

"How do you know about his situation?" She asked the flower fairy.

"He told me." She softly replied looking down at her hands not daring to look in the headmistress's eyes. "He told me that a long time ago he did some really bad things that's why he can't use all of his magic or go wherever he wants to, it is all part of his punishment."

"It is quite unexpected for him to reveal his reason for being at Alfea. Yes, quite intriguing…" The white haired woman said thoughtfully while looking at her student.

Layla interrupted her musings by asking her own question.

"What crime has he committed for him to be sent here and not imprisoned in Omega?"

"To explain it to you girls, I would have to describe what it was like to be a fairy during the Ancient Times of the magical dimension, particularly on planet Earth." Faragonda's explanation was cut by Bloom.

"But I thought that fairies didn't exist on earth!?"

"Today, no fairy can be found on the planet, however 2600 years ago, Earth was home to hundreds of fairies whose duty was to protect the planet and its inhabitants. But a dark force came and destroyed this peaceful time. Five dark wizards called the Wizards of the Black Circle created a spell that would protect them from fairies' magic and steal fairies powers by taking their wings. These men hunted down one by one each earth fairy keeping their powers to themselves. They were unstoppable. Even the most powerful fairies tried to stop them but they were defeated by the Black mages."

A magical picture appeared in front of the girls. They all gasped in recognition, the man standing on the far right of the picture was Darkell. He was wearing some sort of medieval armor like his comrades next to him.

"Dimitri was part of that group. Every one of them had a special power and role in the group. Dimitri was the brains behind the team. He has a memory that enables him to remember everything he reads, hear or see. That is how he was able to create that spell. By remembering and uniting all the countercurses in existence. Something that a normal person would never be able to do. His crime was the creation of that spell that helped his brothers destroy all the fairies on earth."

The picture disappeared. And Faragonda went to sit down on one of the empty chairs.

"Even Though he created the spell, unlike his brothers he never used it on himself or on others. He never took away a fairy's wing. We don't know why. But that made him magically weaker then his comrades and easier to capture. When it was time to choose his sentence, the magical council chose to use his memory and knowledge for the greater good. They locked him up in the biggest library of the magical dimension; at that time it was located in Magix. They made him memorize hundreds of books and spells, they forced him to write millions of books from what he already knew. He became for the council a fountain of knowledge that needed to be preserved. A few hundred years later a school of magic was created just above his prison. And for the next centuries millions of students came to learn at this school from the books written in secret by him. Headmasters of the school would become responsible of his sentence and his situation. Recently the Principal that was here before me made the decision to make him part of the staff. And then I decided to give him back a bit of his magic."

The girls were completely focused on every word their principal said. They showed horrified expressions when the woman talked about fairy wings being taken away, they looked impressed by the power of memorization of their teacher, however Flora couldn't help but be also sad for Dimitri.

"He spent more than two thousand years locked up and all alone. Can you imagine how horrible that would be…"

"Did he join Darkar to get revenge on the people that locked him up?" Stella asked out loud.

"I don't think so…" Flora mumbled.

"Why is that my dear?" Faragonda asked the young girl to explain.

Flora took a big breath and started to explain her opinion as best as she could.

"He's been under the service of some group of people for more than two thousand years, he was getting more and more liberties and freedom. Why would he throw all of that progress away just to go and be under the rule of someone else?"

"You have a good point there Flora, I also have my own reasons for thinking his betrayal was incoherent with his feelings at that time. I don't think he would willingly hurt this school, especially certain of his students." Faragonda and most of the girls understood their headmasters' unsaid idea and stared at their Flower loving friend who was looking down at the table again with a saddened expression completely oblivious to the attention she was getting.

Suddenly the school's bell rang around the building. The girls thanked Fanagonda for her help and ran to their next class which ironically was history.

" I hope the replacement is as hot as the real deal." Stella whispered to her friends before entering the classroom.

" Girls, you are late. Hurry on to your seat. Class will begin."

Unfortunately for Stella, the replacement was a very angry looking Griselda.