Verboten
Chapter 37

Friday, March 12, 2010

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

Flora shuffled about her room, trying to put things in order. She had only come back yesterday afternoon after dinner. Time difference made her stay up until it was early morning in Magix and she felt like a flower desperately trying to acclimate. She had not slept much, maybe five or four hours. After forcing herself out of bed and a shower, she had begun unpacking things, deciding that her walls were too plain. She unpacked a bag full of old books. To some, her collection was nostalgic. She had every book that she had ever used in school with her: magic, language, math, history, you name it, except for the one she gave to Roxy. She felt a slight pang having forgotten it but she quickly decided that it was better if the Earth fairy had it.

As she was placing her books on the shelf, she came across a green journal stuffed with scraps of paper. She could see his writing on the loose pages. She closed her eyes and gripped the little book tightly.

Images of him and her sitting happily at a picnic table in the park, at the bar, on the beach just laughing and talking came to mind. He would often just stare off into the distance after they became silent from talking. She would find it awkward and embarrassing as she was so unfamiliar with the experience and then he would flow with words or something would spark his inspiration and he would be found scribbling on a piece of paper or napkin. Then she would say it was perfect and he would argue that it was not. He would say that he had done better but she would smile compliantly and keep the piece behind his back.

She could feel herself threaten to cry but before she could she hid the journal behind the books and placed the rest of the books in her hand, away from view.

She sat herself on her and bent her head into her lap, taking deep breathes.

There was a knock on Flora's door and she went to answer it.

"Hey, mind if I come in to talk?" Layla said. Something seemed off about her. There was a slight almost non-existent smile pulling at her cheeks but she was quick to quash it.

Flora herself felt emotionally numb but she hid it as well behind a cheery smile.

"Come in, come in. I was about to go to breakfast after I finished with the books."

"Are you okay, Flora? You look like you were crying."

"I'm just tired."

"Your voice sounds raspy. Is something wrong?"

"No, no." Flora sat on the bed. "What was it that you want to talk about?" Flora patted the space beside her on the bed.

Layla hopped on and sat cross-legged. She fidgeted for a moment, unsure of how to start. She was bouncing with energy. A grin that reached from ear to ear pulled at the dark woman's face occasionally. She stumbled with her words. "I…I don't know how to go about this. I've never really talked about this to anyone because I never needed to. You know how people don't really kiss in Nabu's kingdom?"

"Something happened?"

"Okay, we were on that floor with the aquarium and you know that room that he came out of?" Layla waved her hands about wildly, projecting her scattered thoughts. "I was in there and well, he kissed me!"

The water princess looked relieved to finally have gotten that off of her chest. Her face became more demure and the energy dissipated. She was struck by the boldness of her own statement and deeply embarrassed. "I know I look like I'm overreacting but this is Nabu. If this was any other guy, I wouldn't have made such a fuss about it but it's been on my mind since yesterday. Everything's been crazy with the things on Earth and he just suddenly comes out with that. I mean, what do I do? His people don't kiss. I just don't know what to think, Flora."

Layla rested her head on her hands. She her face twitched to smile, as if she were remembering the moment. She pouted her lower lip and looked to a corner of the room with her eyes glazed. Her eyebrows were knitted together showing that she was deeply troubled.

"Well…I'm glad for you, I guess," Flora said slowly. Truly, she was happy. She was just was not showing it outwardly. Her happiness for her friend was inside her heart.

"Thanks," Layla said sincerely. She was grateful that Flora was not one to blow up over the slightest details of her rants, especially the ones that involved her fixed love life. "I need your help on this 'cause I just don't know what to think."

"What do you mean? Aren't you happy?"

"I am…but I have this feeling. I'm not confident about it, about the entire thing. It just felt wrong after the fact when I thought about it."

"Well, you like him, right?"

"Of course I do! I mean, well…"

"If you had never been engaged to him, Layla, would you have ever thought of dating him?" Flora said.

Layla opened her mouth to speak and then closed it, afraid of what she was going to say.

"Layla?"

"I'm not sure. I mean maybe if had know that he had existed but I never met him until he bumped into us in Magix. I didn't even know that he existed until then. I met his parents a couple of times but that wasn't much. It's not as if they just talked to me just about their son. They mentioned that they had one but I always thought that it was some kid."

"Layla!"

"Well, I guess not. He's a merman afterall. It never occurred to me to look at them like that. They're just so savage, so archaic. They're like animals sometimes."

"But Nabu's not an animal." Flora caught her pet cat Coco in the air and settled her in her lap. Coco purred. "He's not like Coco, is he?"

"No, Nabu's more than that. He's like the perfect gentlemen almost all the time. I've never seen him angry. Can he even get angry? When I saw him in the tank, I was horrified to see him in the tank. There are places where mermaids are only pets and I thought Sky had…I know Sky isn't like that but I was so scared, Flora. I just suddenly remembered how fragile his world was. In the water, I could tell that he was so…not angry but concerned. Maybe worried. He kept his sight on me the entire time. The way he did that just reminded me of so many things."

"Do you think he kissed you because of that? Do you think that he did it maybe to make you happy or reassure you? He understands what it means right?"

"I'm sure he does—understand a kiss, that is. Like, I know that he likes annoying me because I'm a fairy and a human. He just likes picking at human culture sometimes and that's the way he went about it."

Flora smiled, figuring the rest for herself. "I won't pry about the details."

"I'm so confused. I'm happy, but confused."

"Maybe you should call him?" the flower fairy offered.

"He doesn't own a phone. Underwater, you know…"

"Well, I don't think calling one of the guys and asking to get Nabu on the phone wouldn't hurt."

Layla sighed. "Maybe. Hey, thanks for putting up with me. And you? How was Helia? You guys didn't really say anything to each other when we left."

Flora stared at her bookshelf and swallowed hard. "We…he broke up with me."

"What?!" Layla raged. "How? Why?"

Flora shut her mouth, unwilling to talk.

"Flora, you have to tell me. Why? Did he blame you or something?"

"I just don't want to think about it right now," she quivered.

Layla moved to wrap a comforting arm around her friend.

There was a knock on the door. "Hey, um, Flora, if you can hear me, me and some of the others were wondering if you were going to come down for breakfast. We need to meet Faragonda ASAP," Stella said to the door.

-

"Gotta say, it's really strange to be back at Alfea," Musa said.

"Well, I'm glad that you're all back!" Chatta stated.

The pixies were scattered across the table, chatting with their respective bonded fairies. Stella entered the dining hall. Layla and Flora soon followed after.

"Bloom's not coming?" Lockette said.

"Her room is locked," the sun princess said.

"Is something the matter?" Amore said.

"No, I mean she's not in her room at all."

Lockette fumbled with her key-shaped staff. "Maybe she went to Faragonda early. She's been having troubles lately, I can tell."

"Lockette, I'm sure it's nothing she can't handle. She seemed pretty fine when she said goodbye to Sky." Tecna sipped her coffee. She turned to Digit. "How is the Tree of Life? Are there more blossoms on the branch for Earth?"

"There are five buds but nothing bloomed except for the one that belongs to Roxy. It grew exponentially fast that we thought it was going to die." Digit projected an image from her wrist of the Tree of Life showing the lonely branch that represented Earth's magic. "Are you sure that Roxy is fine by herself?"

"She's in good hands, Digit. The men are not useless. They are trained for this," Tune said primly. "We must get going. It's almost time to meet Faragonda."

A few minutes and down a magical mirror later, they found themselves in the Hall of Magic. Still getting used to the existence of the golden room, the fairies and pixies could not help but stare in awe for a bit. They found Faragonda and Bloom submersed in profound silence. Bloom had a face that said she was thinking heavily.

"Good morning, girls," Faragonda said.

They returned the greeting and each took a seat. The pixies stood on the table, or as Piff did, on their bonded fairy's shoulder.

"So, what's going on?" Tecna asked tentatively. "Madame DuFour came in saying that we would still be interns."

"You must if you want to stay at Alfea, girls. I can't just give free-housing, unfortunately," Faragonda said.

"So how do we work that in while trying to find the Trix?"

"At the moment, we still aren't sure if the Trix are up to anything at all."

"It's the Trix. What else do you need?" Stella said.

"People can change, Stella. Those witches are no exceptions."

"But that lady from the video called her Stormy and Stormy's grandmother Cosima. That should be proof enough."

"And how do we know that Verena doesn't just have a hard time recognizing faces?"

"Stormy acted like she had two personalities—"

"The Stormy that we know didn't speak until Verena mentioned Cosima. It doesn't mean anything unless we find a definitive piece of proof."

Stella crossed her arms, stumped. "Fine, so what are we supposed to do?"

"If the Trix are up to something, you must keep up the appearance of being unaware by continuing your duties as interns here if they happened to be watching. At the same time, you have to use that time wisely and be in peak shape to handle anything that may come."

"That's going to be difficult, miss." Tecna said. "We need to plan classes and train?"

"Ladies, it's going to be even tougher than that. You need to train to be stronger than you are now. Peace, although a good thing, makes us rusty and out of shape. You're not like your men. Those boys train their body everyday to keep in shape. And if the Trix are back, there is no doubt in my mind that they're going to be stronger, especially after a year and a half."

"That's going to be hard!" Musa said. The other girls mumbled similar things.

"I know," Faragonda said sadly. "Know that the Hall of Magic is always at your disposal. The forbidden section in the student library and Concorda's library are also available to you. Even the libraries of Cloud Tower and Red Fountain are opened. Don't feel limited by Alfea because it's conveniently at home. We aren't be-all and end-all of magic. Not everything is learnt in a book, which brings on to my next order of business for all of you.

"Your journey as a fairy has already begun, for sure but you have glaring weaknesses that could be exploited."

All the girls looked at each other, trying to think of each other's weakness.

"As a group, you are powerful but individually, you're easy picking for some people. Musa, what would you do if you were totally deprived of your voice? How would you cast your spells or sing your stronger enchantments? Surely not with your flute? And if someone broke your flute? Stella, what if you were in a world of complete darkness? You're reliant on your powers from the light of a star. I'll discuss this later with each of you individually but you have to think of it. Some of you can fall under the slightest of conditions."

"You want us to train so that our weaknesses can't be used against us?" Tecna asked.

"Yes. You must each find a mentor of your own because we at Alfea can no longer teach you," Faragonda breathed out. There was a disappointed look on her face.

"And how do we find a mentor?"

"They find you."

-

In Magix.

"Thank you for traveling with Aerospace Solaria, Mr. Marquis. We hope your—" the stewardess stopped mid-sentence as the man who had ordered a private chartered shuttle to Magix waved her off flippantly. He grabbed his suitcase and left.

The man was surprisingly young, about twenty-five years but extremely powerful in both body and mind. It had been years, about three to be exact, since he had returned to Magix since his stupid father's last scandal but he was not his father. He had short black hair that gleamed blue, a strong square jaw and poignant dark blue eyes that hid his calculative thoughts well. He was tall but lithe, not lanky. He had finished puberty a long time ago. He wore dark pants, leather shoes and a loose linen shirt. His black suit jacket was in his arm and he gave off the feeling of classic good looks.

He was sick of naïve fairies and even more narrow-minded witches. Of the three schools in Magix, the only respect that he had was for the men of Red Fountain and those with power, not magic but real power, the kind that swayed the masses.

To put it blunt, he was an arms dealer. He owned the market on weapons in this corner of the universe and he thought that it was fine time to restart that business branch in Magix again. The branch had never worked out three years ago when his father stupidly made a couple of calculative mistakes that sent them into running but he was not his father. He would not make the same mistake, he was better. He knew the mistakes that his father had made.

Magix was a place of education and culture, but underneath it all, it was a culture of garbage and lies. It was a society run by paranoia and the disgusting lust for knowledge. It was a city that had been ransacked by the Army of Decay and destroyed by Valtor. It had trembled and felt the magical shockwaves as Realix was opened. All of the while, the city's denizens stood helplessly in face of these crisises. What was once a peaceful city was turning into a militia government under the direction of those senile idiots in the Council of Magix. The only notable militia that the city ever had was the Red Fountain specialists. They were the closest thing they had to an offensive force.

The city was built inside the valley of several treacherous mountains. It was a cradle of magic with Shadowhaunt standing bastion over it and numb spots that dotted the forest. Numb spots were regions in which magic was completely rendered null due to the microscopic fragments of the Shaab Stone. The biggest fragments of the stone had been removed (and subject to a scandal of one of Red Fountain's finest) but the finer pieces, like the dust and pebbles were simply impossible. It was also a strategically bad place to defend from attacks outside the mountains, especially from the air but that was the least of their worries. Most of their problems had originated from their infamous problematic magic schools.

What it all meant was that now was a perfect time to open a branch in Magix. There was a need for weapons to protect the masses and he was going to supply it. Sure, there were a couple of competitors but one dealt with only vehicles and the other was a mercenary agency. Perfect. Maybe he could somehow arrange it so that they all worked together.

He made a mental note of it. They were going to own Magix.

Outside the spaceport, his black racecar hovered arrogantly waiting for him. The car just screamed the arrogance and swagger of the owner. He threw his case in and got in the driver's seat. It was more than obvious that this man was overconfident and liked to strut his power about.

He floored it and sped out onto the highway. His car was like a bullet. On both sides of the road were miles of forest. The spaceport was just a little out of the way from the main city. There was no one on the road. That's how he liked it. He had dabbled into underground racing before he had to take over the family business and he was more than happy to do a couple of conceited drifts around some corners.

On the horizon, he could slowly see the spires of Cloud Tower on his left rising to compete with the skyscrapers of Magix on the right over a view of the lake. Alfea sat at the foot of Magix. He rolled down the window and let the wind ruffle his hair.

"Come to me,
flesh of witch."

He braked so suddenly that he thought that he was going to flip over. He must have been hallucinating. Maybe he should slow down with the speed. After all, Magix was a completely different atmosphere to Solaria. The differences were subtle but important.

No, he had not been hallucinating. Something wrong. Or he was paranoid. Was the change in air making him imagine voices? That voice had been eerily too familiar. It was a voice that he had not heard in a long time and did not want to ever hear. He began to drive again, taking his time.

"Come to me,
flesh of witch.
Come to me,
black soul and heart of fire."

He stopped the car again, his heart racing. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he said to himself.

His hands were clammy but he drove still. Once he got to his penthouse, he going to down a couple of sleeping pills and throw himself into a bed, he told himself. He needed to acclimate.

Out of nowhere, a woman in black and purple appeared in the middle of the road with her back to him and he swerved out of the way to avoid hitting her. He came to a stop again and looked back to see what happened to the woman. The road behind him was devoid of life, as if the woman had never been there.

He looked forward to the road ahead of him. "Holy shi—!" A finger was placed on his lips, magically taking away his voice. He stared into viperous golden eyes.

There was a woman on him. She had dirty blond hair and wore a retro purple suit jacket over a black outfit that showed her neck. One heeled foot was near the gearshift and her knee was between her legs. With glowing eyes, she shoved a down his partly opened shirt and the other around his neck with an iron grip.

He tried to raise a hand against her but his body would not listen. He felt the magic flow from her hands into his body. He felt something grip his heart. It was a choking dying-like feeling. He could feel the innately dark and raw magic flow into him. Some black and shapeless, like a shadow flowed out of her sleeves and onto his neck. It went down his shirt. The magic annulled his will to fight against his attacker. The magic was claiming the seat of his soul.

"Come to me,
flesh of witch."

He could feel the inky mass on his chest spread. It was like a million insects crawling all over him. It settled on his skin satisfied and then there was the sensation of burning, like hot iron was being pressed into his skin. He tried to scream in vain. A dozen tendrils appeared out from under his assailant's hand and the pierced his chest like needles. Those needle-like tendrils were flushing something into him. It was like his body was slowing down, becoming weaker, anaesthetizing him.

It was the same spell that his entire family had suffered while they were still in the Whisperian Coven. The Whisperian Coven was comprised of dozens of witch families from all over the universe and had settled in an untamed world that they had named Whisperia. There, they had study magic in solitude and eventually, understood the secrets of the universe. The higher echelons of the Coven had enslaved his parents to do their bidding when they came of age. This was the spell that his mother and father warned him about and that the Coven was renowned for developing the spell of enslavement. His parents told him to stay as far away from whatever was left of the Coven when he was growing up.

It was not simply hypnotism or persuasive suggestion, the spell of enslavement. It was a parasitic relationship where the master could extort the slave to do anything. As long as the slave did the master's bidding, the master would not destroy the slave's soul. In death, the soul would leave if the body was incapable of functioning. It was the same for the reverse. If there was no soul, the body would simply die, or decay from lack of use.

"Come to me,
flesh of witch.
Come to me,
black soul and heart of fire.
Come to me,
my merchant of death.
And as your fathers and mothers before you,
be the servant of the Coven,
Darko il Nero."

The purple witch smiled triumphantly as the symbol of a spider appeared under her hand in his shirt. The spell settled in nicely and he slowly regained control of his body.

"DARCY, YOU BITCH!" The man reached for the witch's neck in retaliation, intent on strangling her.

Darcy pushed his hands away as if she was swatting flies away and they fell limply to his side. The spell was working nicely. "You're under my spell, prettyboy. You cannot hurt me, or us. Your family owes the Coven and it's time to pay up," her voice reverberated through his bones. She opened his shirt and traced a cold finger over the spider tattoo at the base of his neck and over his heart. "I think that you are familiar with the binding spell of the Coven. You were too young to have the spell cast on you but look at you!" she cooed. "You're all grown up and successful in life! We are so proud of you but your parents unfortunately, are another issue.

"Your parents abandoned the Coven as soon as we fell and the Company of Light ransacked our home, your home, darling, the one where you were born. Are you so steel-hearted from your success that you would turn your back on your birthplace? Your soul is bound to our will now."

There was more than one person speaking, he knew it, he felt it. Something much older and terrible was at work than what he saw in front of him. He could recognize the soft voice, the erudite accent behind Darcy's deeper voice. He recognised the voice but could not quite fit a face with it.

"When we call, you will come and serve the Coven. You will pay for your family's betrayal."

In an instance, as if nothing had happened, Darcy disappeared like a ghost, teleporting herself away. The pressure of her weight was suddenly gone and that suffocating feeling from the spell disappeared. He looked down to the tattoo that burned on his chest: the spider curled over his heart.

Latter Note: What do I say? Are you the reader thinking 'what the hell was that with the guy in the car and Darcy?!'?

Go to my forum, if you really want to know: Kikurukina's Technical Stuff: Winx Club, thread Rants. Or, read issue 27 of the Winx Club comics.

This video might be enlightening or confusing but you'll get an idea if you're too lazy to do either: please go to my blog which is now my homepage on my profile. See the post 'Icy and Darko.'