Verboten
Chapter 38

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.

Fore Note: I probably messed up on a bunch of astrophysical and biological technicalities in the beginning so forgive me. (There's also computer technicalities. I don't claim to be an expert. That's my disclaimer.)

In a system inside the Milky Way galaxy, there was a yellow-white sun that was vital to the survival of one planet and fatal to another. A dozen planets orbited the star. It was approximately three hundred and ten light-years away from the Earth and was commonly called Canopus. In this system, it was called Soheila, named after the previous Fairy of the Sun and the Moon. The name of its sun always changed and took on the name of the last deceased fairy of that affinity.

Only two planets contained life, Solaria and Lunaria. These two sister planets had a synchronous orbit. Lunaria was constantly in Solaria's umbra no matter where in their orbit around their sun they were. Solaria was the planet of light while Lunaria was the planet of darkness.

Solarians thrived on the light of the sun. That was the basis of their evolution on their planet. They harnessed the sun's radiation in their biology. UV intake was an essential part of a Solarian's being and without even at least one hour's worth of sunshine, they would die.

To Lunaria, Solaria was their moon. In Lunaria, very little light from the sun of Soheila ever touched the planet. To them, Solaria was a daily annular solar eclipse, a very thin white ring of light in the sky. Nighttime was when Lunaria faced Solaria and the eclipsed sun, daytime was when the planet faced the rest of the stars and galaxies (something that would have been effectively called nighttime on Earth). Lunarians with anymore sunlight than what they had been evolved to intake from the eclipsed sun would have decimated all of life on their planet.

"Your Majesty, um, your—" the highly decorated and robed secretary searched for the appropriate terms, "—Queen has arrived." The poor secretary tried to look small and nonexistent as the King of Solaria jumped out of his seat and turned to his secretary with a pointed look.

"What?"

"Queen Luna has arrived. She came, well, you know, she fell out of the sky like a shining star, sir. Just like usual."

"And why didn't you inform me that she was coming to visit today?" the king said tensely. The king was tense for many reasons, mostly because his ex-wife was still Queen after the Cassandra debacle. Luna had disappeared from court after the divorce and had seemingly cut all forms of communication off. When the entire ordeal was over, Luna had reappeared and everyone had voted that she remained Queen despite the apparent separation, her puzzling disappearing and the rumours that had ensued.

He grabbed his fur-lined red mantle off the back of his chair and fastened the golden clasps to his shoulders. He was in plain clothes, as plain as he possibly could for the King of Solaria, and wore a golden circlet with protruding spikes representing the golden rays of the sun.

"I was not informed that she was coming."

"It's your job to be informed." Radius exited his office and walked briskly towards the gardens where he was sure his ex-wife would be coming from.

"Sir, no one knew that she was coming at all. She didn't give any kind of message, no letter, no call on record," the secretary said.

The king grunted and was halfway down a set of grand staircases when Luna nonchalantly walked up passed him, without any sort of acknowledgement. Radius stopped and turned to look at Luna who was making her way up.

Luna was radian as the brightest sun. She wore an impossibly white stola, spun with silver threads. A stola was a long pleated dress. Hers was held up by straps. Her blond knee-length hair was down and shone like a mirror…except there were leaves and twigs haphazardly strewn in her hair as if she had walked through a storm.

"Luna, you look like a wild child! Where did you come from? And-nd are you weren't anything under that dress?!" Radius said, following her back up the stairs. Traditionally, a tunica intima, the equivalent of a slip or undergarment, was supposed to be worn under the stola. Luna was apparently not wearing any. Luna's dress flew after her and he could see that she was barefoot.

"No, but talk anymore about it and the servants might think that you're vaguely interested, Radius. I'm not in the mood to deal with rumours again."

"Why are you here, Luna?" Radius pressed.

"Do I need a reason to go to my own castle?"

"Last time I checked, you abhor this planet."

The shining queen stopped and turned sharply. Radius almost walked into her. "I hate your world, Radius. I hate your people. Don't mistake it for hating the planet. I love this planet more than you can imagine, even more than my own daughter."

"What would you do if Stella heard that, Luna?"

"What do I care anymore, Radius? The girl has obviously abandoned her mother for her ever-doting father. Who am I to question how to raise a child? I am only a fairy who watches the universe grow on its endless journey to infinity," the woman said bitterly. "I've said all I've needed to when we separated. We are King and Queen, not husband and wife. I have no bearing on Stella's growth anymore as a mother. My duties are to make sure she understands her role as the guardian of our planets and defender of our sun. That is it."

"I thought you cared! She's your flesh and blood, for the light of the sun!"

"I care because she still has sentimental attachment to me from being born from my womb. I do it for her sanity, not mine. I am her biological mother but she's all grown up now. I cannot choose what she wants except for her duties as a fairy."

"This is your daughter!" Radius roared.

"Stella is the Fairy of Solaria's Sun and Lunaria's Moon," Luna said finally and turned back up the stairs. "You've turned her into a despicable child, sheltered in gold and jewels, covered in frivolous finery, sucked into the dirty game of money."

"You wanted to send her into the forest for a week without food or people when she was five. That is not befitting a princess!"

"Do I need to explain to you the methods of the fairy, again? Should talk about how my theology is actually reality? If all we're going to do is argue, why don't we just stop talking? Go back to your office Radius and leave me alone."

Radius became silent. It was the same argument all over again. This had been the cause for the separation: how they should have raised Stella. Luna knew the moment that Stella was conceived that her daughter would be her successor as the Fairy of the Sun and the Moon. Radius also knew that but it worries had been placed on the well-being of his kingdom and what the impact of his first-born child being a girl was.

The first couple of years of Stella's childhood was like a far-off dream to Radius. He remembered happier times when he and Luna would walk in the garden hand-in-hand, smiling at Stella as she discovered the world. There had been talk of a second child as soon as Stella started formal schooling.

"I want this child not only because I want it, but because I want Stella to understand the joy of life," Luna had said years ago.

That second child never happened when Luna had started to frequently pull Stella out of school for days on end. Where Luna brought her, no one knew. When Radius brought it up about how it would be detrimental to Stella's social skills, this was what Luna said: "Social skills, honey, Stella has much more pressing things to learn than making friends and learning the social ladder."

"And what about reading and math?"

"I think understanding the workings of our universe are much more important than knowing the names of her would-be suitors and their phone numbers."

"What are you teaching her, Luna?" Radius voice had taken a dangerous tone.

"Everything she needs to know."

One evening as Radius tucked Stella into bed and Luna had been off to host a quiet dinner, Radius had asked her the same question.

"Mommy calls them life lessons. She teaches me about the people of Solaria and how they need Soheila," little Stella yawned and hugged a pillow. "She showed me that everyone, not just the people but the flowers and your doves needed Soheila. She said that everything was connected and they needed each other. One time, she flew me into the sky and showed me Solaria. We were so far away from the castle that the sky became black and there were stars and I saw Soheila for myself! I even saw a bit of Lunaria! I never knew that it was so dark for them.

"Mommy says that Lunaria is very pretty. I want to see it, Daddy? Can I? Did you know that Mommy is a very pretty fairy? Her wings are big and sparkly and she flies so fast! She says that I can be just like her!" Stella's eyes glazed as she remembered flying with her mother.

Radius's heart had stopped when he realized that his daughter had flown in space with her mother. Stella held her pillow tightly and downcast her eyes.

"Daddy, are you mad?"

Radius was snapped out of his shocked stupour. He smiled to assuage his daughter after Stella saw his angry face. "It's alright. I'm just shocked, that's all. Now, it's time to sleep, darling. We'll talk about your adventures tomorrow." Radius rose to turn off the lights.

"Daddy?"

"Yes?" Radius had turned off the lights when he responded. Stella's eyes were luminous in the darkness.

"Mommy said that tonight is a very important night."

"Yes, it is," he had said uneasily.

"She says that tonight was the night that the planet Sparks died and the Great Dragon abandoned us. Why did He abandon us?"

"Stella, it's time to sleep, okay?"

She nodded and settled in bed. Radius had closed the door and made his way back to the dinner with the remaining members of the Company of Light. Back then, it had been generally believed that Great Dragon had abandoned them when He had refused to interfere in the events of the destruction of Sparks.

After that, the arguments had ensued.

"Stella, shouldn't know about that!"

"She needs to understand what her role in this universe is!"

"She's too young to understand death."

"Quite the contrary, she understands the role of death and birth!"

"Her role is Imperial Princess of Solaria!"

"She is the Fairy of the Sun and the Moon! That's more important!"

Of course, the King of Solaria had won, no questions asked. Luna was after all a woman in a patriarchal society. Fairy or not, Radius had the final say and an entire platoon of guards ordered to follow Stella wherever she went. If they could not follow their princess, the princess could not go. Stella had soon returned to regular schooling after that.

Eventually, the bitterness had built up when Luna could not show Stella the wonders of the universe. Radius and Luna argued and argued until one day, Luna just stopped caring about the family altogether. She stopped talking to Radius and barely even acknowledged Stella's existence other than that she was a child wondering around a big castle. She had become a woman who just resided at the imperial palace and was called the Queen of Solaria.

In the present, Luna had reached the final floor of the staircase and turned left down the hallway.

"Where are you going, Luna?" Radius asked. He had a bad feeling.

Luna came to a stop in front of a set of tall golden double doors at the end of the hall. The doors opened for her and Radius was briefly blinded by the light that spilled out of the room. The light receded and he followed his ex-wife into the Steeple of the Sun. The doors closed behind them heavily. The steeple was a plain stone chamber except for the pedestal in the middle. On the pedestal was a ball of light that floated, the Sun of Solaria. It was not the real sun as in the one that floated in the sky but a representation of it. It radiated a feeling of joy and warmth that had Radius forgetting his anger momentarily.

"Luna, what are you doing?" Radius asked again.

"Holy Soheila," Luna exalted the miniature sun on the pedestal. The queen fell to her knees and bent her head as low as possible. Radius was bothered the low back of Luna's gown. The queen's shimmering silver wings sprouted from her back.

There was another moment of blinding light again and Radius gasped when the sun had disappeared. In its place was translucent specter, much like the nymph Dafne. The specter was a woman and had long wavy hair with smiling eyes, half there but half not as if threading two worlds. She wore a simple stola like Luna and her wings reached from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. She glowed blue and was beautiful as a statue.

Radius instinctively fell to one knee in face of the god-like being. All Fairies of the Sun and the Moon when they died returned themselves to the universe and became the spiritual guardian of her succeeding fairy. Soheila had left the world of the living a long time ago but she was still present in the little ways when she made the sun shine brighter than other days. She was a ghost that guided Luna, a very powerful one. She was the embodiment of the sun, a veritable god, Luna and Stella's fairy affinity.

"Luna," the specter Soheila said. "Rise and face me. You as well, King Radius."

Luna rose. "You summoned me, Holy Soheila."

"I have a new task for you," the specter smiled.

Luna waited for her instructions.

"Stella has returned to Magix. Time is of the essence and you must act swiftly. Something is going to come, a great engulfing darkness," Soheila said grimly.

"A darkness? What kind?"

"My reign…it will end soon…"

"What do you mean your reign will end?!" Radius asked.

Soheila looked to Luna meaningfully.

"What do I need to do?" Luna asked.

"Stella, your successor, she needs to…understand our power. It is immense our power, which is why it is so burdensome. The Great Father Dragon bequeathed us the Scepter of Solaria because he saw that we understood his vast love for all of his creations. Luna, I am a soul who has yet to reattach itself to a new body. I reside in the void and it is lonely. You must teach your daughter the secrets of the scepter because the Great Father will need her in time."

"Holy Soheila, pardon me," Luna fell to one knee with her head canted. "Why her? Why not me?"

"You won't be there. Luna, you have to believe in Stella, she is your blood, too. No matter what happened between the both of you, what matters most is Stella."

Radius and Luna jolted. Luna recovered first. "So, I must teach Stella what I wasn't allowed to teach her when she was a child?" Radius could hear the poison in her voice.

"Yes."

"Stop!" Radius commanded. "Stella is our Imperial Princess, she's my daughter!"

"Her roles behind her conception far exceed the dozens of titles that you've attached to her name, Radius," Soheila said. "You must let go of her. Right now, she needs her mother."

-

She needed a mentor. The thought plagued Tecna. The technology fairy sat cross-legged on her bed, trying to meditate as another part of her mind was telepathically wondering cyberspace for anything associated with the word 'mentor.' Apprenticeship came to mind and she supposed that it was probably something like that but she was not sure. Despite the size of the web, there was scant information on topics pertaining to magic, especially when it involved higher learning.

She was the fairy of technology. She could telepathically connect to almost every computer in the universe so long as it was close enough and was connected to the web. Her medium for telepathy involved the internet and she practiced her new ability with zeal. Ever since graduation, she had felt so complete after she finally graduated. When she received her diploma in the bejeweled box, as soon as the box opened she felt as if some higher god had spoken to her. In that god's words was the secret to connect to everything digital. She finally understood the extent of her powers and she was awed by what she was capable of.

On Earth, she had streamed information at a mind-blowing speed and Bloom had been amazed by what she had accomplished in a few simple hours. The Earth's internet was so small compared to the universe, Tecna thought.

Standing in cyberspace with Digit just over her virtual shoulder, they stood back looking at their search engine. They passed another dozen words through it and translated thousands of languages but nothing was useful. It was all the basics. A person apprenticed themselves to a mentor or teacher to learn or become better at whatever they had been hoping to learn.

"And what about your weakness that Faragonda was talking about?" Digit asked.

"Do you think we have a weakness, Digit? Other than water, I mean, when you throw it on a computer." Tecna reasoned.

"You're right. Digital technology has more strengths than weaknesses."

"We can do so many things with just the internet. We can learn about the life of one person if one knew how and where to look. We can learn weaknesses in an instant but what weakness does a fairy of technology have? I'm afraid to say none."

"My thoughts exactly…" Tecna ran another string of search words in vain.

"But?"

"Perfection is impossible when you account for my natural flaws, the ones that I'm born with."

"Like your emotions?"

"Well, yes. So that means that I'm imperfect and by being imperfect, I must have a flaw."

The pixie and fairy were silent.

"I don't want to think about this anymore," Tecna said.

"I agree. We should not be too preoccupied. Faragonda said that she would help so maybe she knows. Let's do something more productive, Tecna." Digit smiled reassuringly. "What about the Trix?"

"Right! Thank you for reminding me. At Red Fountain, we watched a video of what was possibly Stormy."

"Can I see it?"

"Of course." Tecna tossed a video file to Digit. "What do you think?" she asked after a while.

"It looks like Stormy but the woman Verena called her Cosima. As in the Cosima of the Ancestral Witches?" Digit sat on Tecna's shoulder pondering.

"That's what we think."

"Impossible. Bloom destroyed them with Obsidian, didn't she?"

"We think she did. There really is no way to confirm a spiritual death is there, especially when the place of death is destroyed?"

"That's true. So then all that they we've thought as the truth is just a bunch of conjectures and theories."

"Exactly."

"What do we do, then? Where do we start?"

"The woman Nina, she's the one gave us the lead. Maybe we should look into that ourselves just in case."

Digit agreed. Tecna opened the file with the contact for the daemoness Nina. All the woman had left was an email address and a phone number. The technology fairy tried the email first. She opened a dummy account, made a quick message to confirm that this address belonged to Nina and sent it through a remailer to scramble the message until it reached the other end.

"That should be sufficient," Tecna said.

"I don't like the username of the address," Digit said. "Puppetmaster006?"

"You're thinking way too deeply about this. It's only a name. Have you seen some of mine, Digit?"

"But they all mean you in some little way! Purplefairy, techiegirl79?"

"Look, be happy its not marionettevirus1, okay?"

"The Marionette Virus is dangerous, Tecna, especially for us. That thing rewrites the entire OS of machines and makes it go haywire. They usually attack people!"

"But that's for military computers only, Digit. Like the fightercraft. It's fine."

"And what about Red Fountain? It's a military school."

"Digit, stop it!" Tecna plucked Digit off her shoulder and put her on one outstretched palm. "I don't understand why you're so jumpy all of a sudden."

"I care for you, Tecna. I feel that something bad is going to happen." Digit chewed on her bottom lip and her eyes glistened. "I don't know what's going to happen and this is surely illogical of me but I feel that I'm going to lose you!"

Tecna was silenced by the thought.

"Digit, I'm not going to leave you," the fairy reassured.

She turned slightly and noticed that her email had been replied to. She opened it and suddenly, she could feel something at the operating system. The sensation was akin to standing in an earthquake with everything falling on you. She felt the OS being shredded to pieces. The virtual floor, wall and ceiling were falling over into digital recycling bin in heaven around her, file by file. The email she had opened became an all-consuming black hole and Tecna took flight on her green glider wings, putting as much distance between her and the email while holding Digit tightly in her hand. She activated all her firewalls but it was too late. The OS was not strong enough to put up the firewalls.

"Digit, get out!" Tecna threw the pixie at the USB portal.

"No, Tecna!" Digit struggled against Tecna's had as she was forced down the portal. The digital pixie found herself in the real world on Tecna's laptop keyboard. She turned back to the screen and tried to upload herself back in. The last thing Digit saw was Tecna's turquoise blue eyes before the screen blacked out and the mauve laptop shut down.

Her tiny heart racing, Digit tried to push the On button to no avail. She turned to Tecna's body and tried to shake her out of her trance-like state. The fairy fell limply back unto her bed.

"No, no, no! Tecna?! You can't—no! Tecna?!" Digit cried.

-

…
MARIONETTE AI UNIT DOWNLOADING…
MARIONETTE AI UNIT DOWNLOAD COMPLETE…
EXECUTING MARIONETTE AI UNIT …
RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…

WAKE UP FAIRY.
My name is Marionette_

Latter Note: So what do I say? This is becoming increasingly difficult to talk about.

God, this keeps slipping my mind but hey, I got 100 reviews. That's a milestone, right? Thanks to Stills and Photographs for that.

- Kiku