Verboten
Chapter 33

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

Fore Note: RAWR!!!

Bladen regarded the beach before him. The boats had been anchored not far from the shore. They had been waiting, he and Shang. Everyone had gone ashore to look for the fountain of youth while they guarded the ship. Kasimir was just visible on the shore. On the deck, Shang looked up into the air, seeing something with his eagle-like vision.

"A phoenix?" He saw a fiery mass flying in the sky, shaped sort of like a bird.

Bladen shielded his eyes with his hand and looked for what the Chinese man saw. "No, a message from my son. It's only magic." The man raised an armoured arm for the bird to perch on. The orange-red bird extinguished its flames mid-flight and landed Bladen's arm. It clicked its beak several times and strode up his arm to whisper in his ear.

Bladen's eyes widened at the news as the bird evaporated into the air. "Nebula!" he said stricken with fear.

He quickly explained the now updated situation to Shang and both of them eyed the man with wary. The entire situation had changed and turned on them now. They looked to the Teutonic knight who was talking to a local.

They would have to move fast. Shang's eyes began to glow with power as he slowly faded away into dust into the air. The Chinese man nodded for him to make the first move and Bladen did. Unsheathing his sword, Bladen leapt the impossible distance between the boat and shoreline, soaring high in the air with his sword poised to stab the blond man straight into the chest. No amount of armour that Kasimir wore could stop Bladen's sword.

At the last moment, Kasimir turned out of the way and Bladen's sword dug itself into the soft sand. Bladen rolled into a landing and cursed. The tattooed black man Kasimir had been talking to backed away from the two warriors and Kasimir laughed demonically at the sudden development. He seemed to relish it and pulled out his own sword.

"And so it has begun!"

The clouds overhead were thick and gray and without warning, they thundered with blinding golden light and red sparks. Bladen looked up to the sky and feel the air sizzle with electricity. It rained blue balls of fire on the beach, all of them flying towards Kasimir. Bladen closed his eyes for fear of being blinded when the flames hit their target. There were several waves of heat that blew him off his feet.

A sandstorm rose and sand pelted his face. He summoned a magical barrier over himself and waited until the mess abated. He could see nothing through the sand and he hoped that Shang had hit his mark. Above him, the clouds were pockmarked with circles that the fireballs had evaporated.

The sand settled and the warrior looked for some sign of the enemy knight. Shang had really done it. The man had turned himself into a force of nature and rained fire on the man, burning him to death.

The beach was littered with chunks of cooling glass near the site of impact. A glassy crater was filling up with salt water trickling in from the ocean. Steam was rising from the pool. Bladen felt the ground tremble and crack from the sudden temperature change. The trembling worsened and molten rock flew out from the centre of impact. On instinct, Bladen dropped his sword and used both hands to raise a purple psionic wall between him and the lava. They made splatters across his wall and crashed to the ground into glowing chunks.

"Shang!" Bladen sweated from the intense heat and looked between the sky and the crater. The beach was like desert with the heat making mirages of pools of water.

A black smoke swirled from the crater and an insane laugh reverberated. The smoke coalescenced into Kasimir's body. He floated in the air with his arms crossed and his seared off-white cloak billowing in the wind. He ripped his cloak off and it fell into the water.

"Is that all?!" Kasimir taunted.

"We know who you are, Kasimir!"

"Throw everything at me! I am already immortal!"

Bladen's heart stopped at the news. He glanced at the sky for signs of Shang. Only an immortal could kill an immortal and Shang was immortal as far as he knew.

BOOM! The clouds burst out into a large white ring in the sky. Like a prolonged bolt of red and gold lightning hurling itself at the beach, a Chinese dragon dove down on Kasimir with its jaws wide open to eat the man. Before Kasimir could react, Shang swallowed the knight whole. Bladen jumped out of the way before he got hit by the beast. Shang glided onto the sand and coiled itself upon its coils. The dragon seemed to have no end to its long body.

Shang turned his head to face Bladen and growled gruffly. The dragon was Shang's true form.

"I have eaten him," Shang said. His voice was only heard in Bladen's mind.

"Will it kill him?"

"It will—in a week."

Shang's head stiffened and he convulsed and writhed violently as he struggled to keep his mouth closed. At the last moment, he opened his mouth and spat fire and a black and purple smoke into the forests. Shang roared in pain and began to set fire to the entire forest.

"Shang, what are you doing?!" Bladen took flight to get out of the way.

"He's poisoned me!" he screamed.

"What?!"

The black and purple smoke rose over the forest like a cloud and encircled them. They recognized the lethal miasma that would drain them of magic and finally destroy their bodies. Bladen threw a bubble over himself. Shang coiled himself around Bladen in a tight circle to make his own barrier with his body. Surprisingly, the miasma casually circled around Shang's dragon body, not intent to go after Shang.

"The miasma will not touch me. I am more beast than magic."

"What about the poison?"

"I cannot feel that anything is happening."

"I don't like that!" The warrior looked up the sky. They had been enshrouded in darkness so deep that they could not see the sky above. They were blinded from all sides out of fear from the disease.

They waited, fearing the worst would happen. The worst that Kasimir could do was set fire to the boats, destroying their only way home.

Minutes passed by like hours, slowly and torturously. Bladen concentrated on keeping his barrier up. They thought that they could finish off Kasimir by themselves because of course they had a semi-immortal dragon on their side. Dragons were by nature more animal than magical being with a hide tough as metal, venomous teeth, the ability to breathe fire and great intelligence. Dragons were not magical by nature unless the dragon practiced magic like humans. Other than that, they were like any other beast in the world, just marvelous as Indian elephants.

How wrong and badly thought out this plan was. It had been pretty simple and simplest plan was always the most effective one but Kasimir proved to be more powerful than they had thought and his disease much more of a threat than the cold.

The ground shook again and there was the sound of something exploding. The miasma was lifted, blown away by a godly wind.

Shang and Bladen came face to face with the ocean and beheld a terrifying sight: the boats had been destroyed. They were fully engulfed in fire with halos of black smoke rising to meet the sky. Rubble floated on the ocean's surface with several dozen men treading water and one by one, dropping into the depts. Some of them managed to stay up with the help of mermen or latching on to wreckage. The water was stained black with blood and tar. The tar was slowly catching on fire.

Before Bladen could register another thought, he found himself flying into the sand feeling as if he had been kicked by a horse. His head was ringing and his felt that he had broke a rib in that hit. He called his sword to his hand and it flew across the sand and over Shang's coils into his open hand.

What the hell had that been?! An invisible force, or some purple blur, had hit him. He turned around and tried to get up as fast as he could despite the pain. He grunted and used his sword as a support. Breathing was becoming a struggle and his head was spinning.

"Where are you, bastard?!" Bladen roared. He regretted it instantly as he doubled over. He fell back against Shang's hard red scales and slid to the ground in pain.

Shang looked into the sky with his eagle eyes and spotted Kasimir flying from the wreckage. The dragon shot himself into the air in an attempt to maul him again. Kasimir saw the beast's hungry intent and veered to the right. Shang veered after him and begun a pursuit after the flying morsel of human meat. Shang chased him into the clouds.

Bladen watched the pursuit. It was almost beautiful the way Shang chased the dark wizard. There was nothing violent about it. It seemed natural like a predator chasing his prey. His long body swirled in the air in an indescribable fashion, making impossible shapes.

He relaxed, trying to alleviate the pain in his rib but at the last moment, something warned him to throw up a barrier. A bolt of lightning ricocheted off his shield and hit the sand, making it fly and visually blinding him from the new attacker.

Bladen cursed in pain. Who would attack him?!

The sand settled and Bladen looked up to see a dark mass approaching him. The man wore rags. He had tanned skin and his hair was in braids. He had the body of farmer. His arms were painted with tattoos that Bladen recognized as written spells used to protect oneself from the repercussions of messing with forbidden magic. He recognized him as Anagan and he was probably the man Kasimir had been talking to.

"You must be a wizard," Anagan said. "Let me end your suffering." He lifted a hand and a sword materialized in his hand.

Bladen shot a blast of energy at him. Without warning, Anagan vanished into thin air and bolt headed straight for the sand. The next moment, Bladen was rolling in the sand, having been kicked by Anagan in face at superspeed.

"As I was saying. Go quietly and it'll save us both the trouble."

The warrior groaned in pain. His jaw felt painful and dared not to test whether or not it was still connected. His whole body was reeling in pain from being hit with impossible forces. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo, he prayed. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

-

As they say, "Deus vult." God wills it.

The cruel wizard kicked the pitiful man onto his back. Bladen wheezed. Anagan raised the sword up, aiming to behead him and watch the body writhe without a head until Kasimir would return.

In the distance, Gaetano shot five cursed arrows in quick succession into Anagan's body. From his vantage over the trees, the Italian had hit the mark spot on and the black wizard had fallen stiff to the ground. The arrows were cursed to cause bodily paralysis.

There was a rush of people out of the burnt forest. Delirious, Bladen was glad that his last sight was of his wife looking over him.

Meadhbh worked her healing magic on her husband, cradling like a baby. For a moment, she almost cried until she remembered where she was. There would be time for tears later. She left her husband in the capable hands of another fairy and broke through the protective circle, striding to Anagan and brandishing her own sword. Emotions had taken their toll on her and she was ready to end it.

Anagan laid on his side, like a figure frozen in a motion. His eyes were wide in shock and his mouth contorted in an inhuman scream. One arrow was deeply embedded in his arm, two in his side and another two in his chest. He was bleeding blood on to the sand and his clothes, making a thick mess.

Something primal inside her was aroused by the blood. She was seeing red everywhere. Her husband was in God knows what state, her daughter was possibly dead and her son was the only thing that she knew she had left for sure. She let out a bone-chilling scream, akin to a harpy's and slammed her sword into his face. Blood spurted and the man's eyeballs popped out of their socket. His body disintegrated into dust and flew with the wind.

She fell to her knees with her tiger wings flattened against her back, marking her grief.

"Queen Meadhbh, Bladen needs you." Someone shook her shoulder and pointed to her husband. She was at his side instantly.

He whispered haltingly. "The…black mist."

"Don't speak, my love!" Meadhbh placed her forehead against his, telepathically connecting.

STAY AWAY FROM THE MIST! he roared and Meadhbh recoiled at the strength of his thoughts. He raised a weak hand, indicating a purple and black patch in the sky.

Meadhbh regarded the miasma, her face devoid of colour. Was that the pestilence? She saw the burning boats and saw no hope there. She looked to the sky where an angry Shang was descending towards them. He had not caught Kasimir. He coiled himself around the crowd of magical beings protectively.

The mist dove down on them like a snake and surrounded them. Everyone tightened into the circle, fearful of it.

"A barrier now!" Drained and tired, she screamed, "Charmycks!" She glowed with warm white energy. A gentle breeze caressed her being. A shower of lights circled her head and formed a white metal circle that shone like a halo.

Rejuvenated like drinking a powerful brew, she took off her halo and held it up about her. She could think clearer now. There was no way that they would get out of this alive unless they ran right now. They need to leave and take a strategic retreat.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. She magically broke everyone into their most basic components and stored them in a pocket dimension in her circlet. Everyone had disintegrated into the glowing particles and surrounded her. She poured them into her circlet and finally broke herself and went in. The inside was an exact replica of Tir Nan Og during the spring.

The silver halo dropped into the sand. It glowed and started to spin, floating in the air and humming with magic. Within the blink of an eye, it vanished to Sicilia.

-

Morgana did not know what had her in such a knot but something innate was telling her to look up to the sky constantly. It was annoying. She could not name it but something was not right. Something had gone wrong somewhere in the universe and she had to tell someone. She just did not know what had gone wrong. She was talking an afternoon walk to clear her mind about many things. Like why she didn't have any kidsor why was she being so picky about finding a husband. She had prospects but she just could not see her going down the aisle.

Before she knew what was going on, there was a flash of energy and white searing light and Morgana held Meadhbh's white circlet in her hands. Upon recognition, she dropped it and gasped like it had burned her. Next, there was an explosion of people and one dragon.

Everything happened in a blur to Morgana. She could not understand what was going on but as soon as her eyes fell on Meadhbh and Bladen, she jumped into action stumbling towards her queen and her consort.

"What happened?!" she cried out.

"GET BACK!!!" Meadhbh roared and psychically sent Morgana flying back. "Find Rafa, tell nobody what happened here. Only Rafa. Stay away from Cipriano. Go!" she ordered from a distance. Meadhbh was disturbingly pale and her breathing was rapid. Bladen held her tightly.

Incapable of thinking for herself at the moment, Morgana did not question her orders and did as she told. Within the hour, a tent was erected over the meadow by what gypsies were present in the village. Morgana sat herself at the entrance of the tent, unsure of what was next. Her heart was racing and she was just confused.

Nebula stood beside Morgana, looking at her for guidance. Rafa exited the tent in hurry and Nebula flew to him with her questions.

Inside, Rafa kneeled between Bladen and Meadhbh's cots. The entire tent was like giant sickroom for magical people. Rafa practiced no magic and so he should have been safe. Meadhbh hoped her daughter was fine. The fact that Morgana was alive and had caught her circlet surely meant that Nebula was fine.

"I need paper and ink. I need to write down everything I know, Rafa." Meadhbh curled in her blanket. Her wings were discoloured, showing her condition.

Rafa nodded and did as she said.

Four days later, 95 of the 124 magical beings in the tent had died, including Meadhbh.

Far from the village, a deep trench had been created where several fires were kept burning all day. Morgana held Nebula tightly as the fae queen's body was carried out unceremoniously on a stretcher towards the ever burning bonfires. A crown of flowers was placed on top of the linen sheet that was covering Meadhbh's body.

Nebula collapsed to her knees, holding herself. She felt sick, terrified, alone, desperate. She wanted her brother and her father. They were alive still but it felt like it was only eminent. She felt her stomach tighten at the sight of the flames. Nebula vomited and cried.

"I-I knew that this would happened!" she screamed. Rafa and Ruairi threw Meadhbh's body into the fire. Her wings burned to ashes like autumn leaves, showing the thin rudimentary structures.

Morgana gently brought Nebula into her arms and held her, uncertain of the future.

The memory ended abruptly and exploded into darkness.

-

Roxy woke up to a crowded room of people, her recently made friends.

"Don't talk. Give it a moment," Chandra said gently.

Roxy's eyes darted around the room, going from face to face and the memories rushed in like water in a broken dam. She recoiled in fear. Her breathing came in hurried gasps. Everyone made no move towards her. Roxy took in her surroundings, looking at the ceiling the separating curtains on both sides, her hospital gown, the intravenous tube in her arm, the drip feeding her and the beeping monitors.

Something seemed off.

Her eyes fell on her father's face. She took in his ragged state. He was unshaved, his hair was uncombed, his clothes wrinkled and his arm in a sling. She immediately started to sob and cry.

Latter Note: Writing that was really scary on so many levels but I feel so much better getting all of that out of the way. I acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of questions but it's up to you interpret what happened. You have the facts, real like the Black Plague killed about 450 million people and fictional like that Morgana is the Fairy Queen. I just filled in the events prior to that.

Spoiler: Morgana traps everyone in the White Circle.