The Chase
Blade and Nebula had been in the first-year Sorceress classes all day long. Once there were no more to be attended Griffin had sent them wordlessly straight back to the dungeon much to the fairies' dislike. Down there, they had discussed for hours what they thought of the dark magic philosophy. What was similar to light magic, what were the differences, and what they generally liked or disliked about it. And after that eventful day, they were fast asleep.
Blade heard a heartbeat. It was pounding slowly relaxed even. Blade opened her eyes. She stood in that empty black space again. 'What now?' She noticed that the sky was filled with red veins, which gave her a scare at first. They reminded her of the red crystal veins. These veins glowed up every time she felt a heartbeat. She examined the construct closer. "It goes so far…." She gazed at it astonished. The veins crawled up the firmament branching out in all directions converging on some points which had an especially bright shine to it. On closer inspection, Blade could actually make out the base structure of the Cloud Tower's building. She had gazed upon the Tower from afar through an Owl's window or forest trips she had done in the last school year, so she was sure about this. "Hello?" Blade finally asked into the emptiness, she was standing in. Yet nothing appeared like last time. "Now, what?" She scratched her head. Annoyed she turned around, "Am I missing something? Is Griffin blocking the communication? Griffin?" She asked once more. All that she could stare at, still, was that vein display. "Great…hmmm… Zombix!" Blade tried to activate her dark Fairy form. It worked to her surprise even though her body was in a magic prison. She flew upwards. It was a rather complicated web of veins. The vein branches got as thin as hair as they stretched out. Blade ruffled through her dreadlocks, "I still don't know what you want…" she complained a bit. She noticed some veins glowing in a slightly different red, while she passed by exploring the vein structure. They were intertwined with the red ones from Cloud Tower. This reminded her of how orchids settled on trees and could enter a symbiosis. Blade looked around to orientate herself, "Could be near the library…hmm…I still don't get it. Do you want me to get rid of that? Is it a parasite?" All she got was silence as an answer. Blade looked over her shoulder back to those other veins. They weren't spreading far or had a strong glow or presence to them. Blade bit her lip, "Let's see if that works… voic- wait, Nebula and I figured this one out… well, let's see the debut of the dark magic version, Whisper of creation!" She cast her dark magic version of voice of nature to connect to those varied veins. Everything was tainted in a bright light and out of nowhere Blade could hear someone shouting behind her. She turned to face the person. It was another of those shadow figures.
"You can't be serious!" An older Lady argued with another.
The other even older Lady flickered into existence, "It has been decided. This is for the greater good, the balance we try to sustain. Now, please, reconsider. Go through with the ritual if you do not want to change your alignment," she replied calmly.
The Lady growled, "I did not fight my whole life to let it all end like this…" She was not giving in. She was upset.
"And I will not lose another of my students. Haven't we sacrificed enough? Will you blast a hole through the next Fairy we lose to that bastard? Or to any of those, oh, so noble selfish kings? We searched for centuries for a better way. They found it for us. It was their last great achievement, their gift to a better future. I will not let their deaths be in vain," The elderly told the protesting woman off.
"Oh, come on, this will not be the last time that someone is so stupid to sit on that cursed throne and become the Phoenix. And what do you think happens to all those alliances once they notice their precious extra magic boost is gone? It will be war! You're just a cowar-" That older Lady wasn't budging.
The elder woman waved with her hand as magic flared up and crashed the other woman to the ground, with the use of her magic. "Silence! And how many wars broke out because one of us died, huh?!... Enough - …Enough, is enough… We are more than just political pawns. These girls deserve better…" She sighed deeply, "My decision is final, but I will not force anyone. Please, haven't we killed enough of our own? Isn't it, time for others to take the fall when the time comes?"
The lady shook her head as she stood up, "You are deluding yourself. This will never work. You'll usher in the next age of chaos. Did you ever think of how many of your precious students will die then? … And for what? Because you are terrified!" She balled her hands, "Mark my words, you'll regret this." The older Lady turned to leave and the figure fell to dust and got blown away.
"May the Great Dragon protect your soul, when he comes for you…" The elder Lady closed her eyes in disappointment. The imagery of the elderly splashed to the ground and only a pile of dust remained.
Blade frowned, "Great, even more, dead people I don't know…" She looked back to those different veins. But everything was fading away.
"Blade…" she could hear the faint voice of Nebula growing louder. "Blade… …BLADE!"
Nebula held her friend, "What did you guys do to her!?" She hissed at Alyssa, who was right in front of her on the other side of the prison bars.
"Nothing," Alyssa gazed at Blade. She wasn't moving. "Not my fault if she's too weak to stay in the Tower…" She had no idea what was going on. "I told you, I just came down here to get you out."
"Yeah, right, a Sorceress with a change of heart…" Nebula rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Alyssa crossed her arms, "Change of heart? Ha, I am doing what I was told. Why would I ever set foot in here again for no reason? She's supposed to attend the first-year classes with you again."
Nebula stared at her, "Wait, so you…urgh… what did I expect… Hey, Blade, wake up…" She could feel Blade's chest rise and fall. She felt so groggy herself. Cloud Tower really had done a number on her. As they had agreed upon it had absorbed her Mana as she had slept. And with Blade out cold she hadn't gone to meditate yet.
"Are you always messing around with opponents stronger than you?" Alyssa stuck the key into the magic lock to open up the prison cell. "No wonder she always looks like shit. I am not so stupid to fight Griffin on this. I don't have a rich family to go back to if this would go south. Still, would like to know where the heck you two have been…It could help in the hearing in two days…"
Nebula scratched her forehead, "This again…you, tch, … Well if you weren't her little spy already chances were that we would have told you after drafting a contract of course." They both stared at each other for a second. 'Are we getting along? What is happening?!'
'She got a point. I wouldn't tell me either. Wait am I agreeing with her?' Alyssa surprised of herself shook her head. "Hey, wakey, wakey." She gave a subtle kick to Blade's shoes but didn't get a response.
"Ah, so much better with those anti-magic runes gone." Nebula felt her magic flowing through her more freely again, now that the cell was opened. "Blade…"
Alyssa didn't like Blade's condition, she eyed her closely, "Is she meditating? A trance?"
"Ehm, could be… Hey, Blade," Nebula shook her a bit more firmly. "Oh, for crying out loud. BLADE!"
Blade woke up. She noticed Alyssa and asked Nebula, "What's she doing here?" She stood up, dusted off her clothes and rubbed her eyes as she yawned.
"Rude. I am standing right here," Alyssa complained while she tucked on her purple hoody.
Blade tilted her head to face her, "And yet you would only tell me lies or half-truths." She smirked.
"At least you get half. You tell me nothing," Alyssa hissed back.
Nebula laughed, "Because you are a spy…Well then, we should go to class. I am pretty sure that being late here has worse consequences than in Alfea." She straightened out her messed-up clothes. Her walk looked a bit drunk.
"You okay?" Blade had never seen her out of balance after a good night's rest.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll just meditate in class. After all, they want you to learn stuff. Nobody gives a fuck about me. Man, Cloud Tower is really stingy," she replied frustrated.
Alyssa chuckled, "Maybe you are just bad in haggling. All Sorceresses have a bond with Cloud Tower you know. I never expected it to make one with a Fairy though…" She guided them up the stairs and halted abruptly. She wavered to find the right words. "Thank-" She uttered barely understandable. She stopped and started a new, "That mission papers, Jewels provided, is going to wreak havoc in the hearing. It is somewhat helpful, I have to admit. I know Jewels is gone… I owed her. She…" Blade stared wide-eyed at Alyssa, who picked up on it instantaneously. "Urgh, stop looking at me like that. She said I owe you two. Since you are the only one left, I only owe you, - But less, of course. You better get that into your head, since you don't have the authority to give out mission papers and so on. I owe you less…than her…so, thanks, grrrrrr…never mind…" She stomped up the stairs. Her black braided hair flung around wildly.
Blade and Nebula gave each other a side look. They tried hard not to laugh. Blade moved on, 'She's really bad at saying thank you…So cute. As if it is a fatal disease or something. Come to think of it… I thought the payback was trying to stop the Sorceresses sneaking back to Desertia. Now she owes me? She really feels bad for what happened, doesn't she? …'
Alyssa didn't say anything more. She had dropped them off at their first classroom and from there on the two fairies had followed the crowd. The constant staring was a bit unsettling. Both Nebula and Blade felt like everyone was out to get them. They had their guard up. What was unusual was that the lectures were rather cramped today and for some odd reason there were a lot of toads and their numbers were growing along the lessons. The Sorceresses were having their laugh with them, chasing them around, stuffing them into jars or doing races with them. In general, there were a lot more Sorceresses in the Tower than the last day. It felt overcrowded. There were a lot of adults around as well, who were stuffing the storage rooms with all kinds of plants and potions. Here and there some fights broke out, which got decided by the victor. No one batted an eye at all. The younger Sorceresses took the long routes around the older generation as if they were the pest. It was clear that there were some unspoken rules, although it felt very anarchic. The next class the two girls had thy attended was with a smaller group of first years. They entered a dark room with only a chandelier up above and a curved table with seats. On it were colourful crystals for each student there was one.
"Welcome to your first Cursology class, take a seat. Today's lesson is about how to turn someone into a mole rat." Ediltrude stood in front of her class. The first years were rubbing their hands eager to get started. "Well then, to explain the exercise. You focus your magic into the crystals and pick someone amongst your peers. Remember, you need enough magic to overcome their passive defences and their name. Don't forget that Nebula, Blade." She looked intensely at the two of them with a smirk.
'Yeah, real subtle…' Nebula rolled her eyes. The Professors or guest speakers had made it their mission to make them suffer. Even yesterday they had been picked out for the weirdest stuff.
Blade grinned and whispered to her friend, "Think that we can curse Griffin if we try together in convergence?" She joked around.
"If you want to go for a teacher, Organa, maybe would work…" Nebula thought about it while she smiled.
"What's so funny?" Ediltrude came to hold in front of them. She leaned on the table. "You better pay attention. I don't explain twice," She turned around again once the girls shut up. She picked up some charcoal and wrote on the board her nails screeched over the board. "There, now, insert the name of your choosing and cast."
Blade stared at the blackboard. She was still rubbing her ear. That noise had been unpleasant, 'Wait what… but that's…' Blade was a bit confused as she read the spell. The flow was fine yet something didn't quite line up in the grammar.
Nebula bumped Blade into her side, "Hey, this looks awfully like mirror stone, don't you think so too?" She snipped against it. She looked up. The other students were already at it amassing huge amounts of dark magic.
Blade turned her attention to the crystal. Indeed, it was similar to transmutation stone, yet its shimmer was more silver rather than rainbowish. She looked up to Ediltrude she was coldly staring at them all with no intention of explaining anything more. Blade whispered to Nebula, "By the way, that spell… isn't that an older version for a toad? Remember in potion class, with Wizgiz…"
Nebula checked the blackboard, 'Buforum? Yeah, that was toad…' She nodded to her friend.
"Too dumb to read, pfff, fairies," one of the students commented while she was infusing her magic into the crystal.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. That is mirror stone, not a transmutation stone. The only thing you achieve with that is curse yourself at best. The spell is wrong as well," Blade stated simply and crossed her arms.
"And what do you know of dark magic, you're just a Fairy," the student barked at her.
Nebula shook her head, "Buforum is toad… really?" She looked towards Ediltrude unimpressed. "Don't tell me all these toads are the first years… is this some stupid initiation ritual."
The students looked to Ediltrude, "Cute story, if you could earn points I would give you one for creativity. You girls are so simple-minded. Are you falling now for shenanigans of fairies? With that attitude, you'll never become Witches. You might as well pack your stuff and go. These two are fairies. Fairies hate us and they won't be graded. It has no impact at all for them. Your performance on the other hand will. So, unless you don't want to leave in your first week… you better get to it. Last chance or you can pack your stuff," She put on the pressure.
"No don't!" Blade warned again. Still, out of the seven Sorceresses with them, five recited the spell. She sighed deeply as the students screamed as the spell got reflected back at them and they turned into wild croaking toads.
Ediltrude burst into laughter, "Oh, hilarious and you even warned them." She could barely stand.
Nebula growled and nodded to Blade, "Fairy of Mist."
"Fairy of Blades," she transformed as well. Ediltrude glared at them. "Darkness break!" Blade tried to break the curse. It didn't work. "Oh, shoot…"
"Reverti mutatio," Nebula tried after watching Blade and their noisy classmate shined up brightly and turned back to normal. "We told you…"
Blade tried the same spell and it worked. Still, she felt that breaking these curses took a lot out of her. She finished another and Nebula took care of the last two. Blade dropped her form again, "Gesh, how much magic did you throw into these spells…" She got no answer from the young witches.
"Yeah, overkill…" Nebula shook her head. Initially, she had thought that they could get all of the first years reversed, but that was out of the question. "You better shut up and tell no one we reversed you."
"Nebula?" Blade was a bit confused.
"I will not run with a swarm of frogs behind me all day. They'll croak my ear off. I just finished meditating last class. I will not waste my magic on people who think so lowly of us," Nebula made her point.
"Hmm… you're not wrong there," Blade scratched her head. "Let's make it the payment then. No spilling the beans. Unless you want to pay up with something equal." She smirked at the first years. All were shaking their heads. "Great, now, we got some free time Nebula. Class is over early after all. Let's go exploring." She waited for her friend to drop the form and opened the door. Outside in the hall, she saw a bunch of students waiting with jars and other containers. "Did we miss an announcement?"
Nebula slung her arm around Blade's shoulders, "Don't think so." A big disappointed moan rushed through the crowd. Nebula spotted Steela and Gilliana.
"Told you," Steela opened her hand.
Gilliana pressed some money into Steela's palm, "Tch." She turned around transformed into a puddle of water and left.
Blade stepped up to Steela, "Hey, there. Can you tell us the way to the library? We got some spare time. I wanted to check something."
"What do you have to offer?" Steela raised an eyebrow unimpressed. She seemed rather distant probably because a lot of Sorceresses were staring at the fairies in disgust.
"Frog bar," Nebula pulled one out of her pocket and threw it to her, "Special edition, last one as well."
"Pfff," Steela threw it back, "I don't eat that crap, that's for prisoners."
"Fine," Blade sighed, she concentrated on her negative thoughts and laid her hand on the wall. "Whisper of creation!" She connected with the tower. 'Library, library, library...'
Nebula noticed that Ediltrude was squinting her eyes as she watched Blade use her spell. 'Creepy… why is she so confused? Is she confused?' She couldn't quite tell. The other students were confused for sure. Nebula watched as the wall opened up barely. "Time to go," she shoved Blade through.
"Woah, hey!" Blade turned around as she activated her bracelet for lighting, which still had no connection to the MagicWeb. Blade guessed that those runes were Griffin's craftsman's ship. All because of some hex runes she had found in the inner workings and wasn't able to break. The pathway had already closed up behind them. "What hornet stung you in the butt?"
"I hate that," Nebula complained. "All that stalking. I swear, I will create clones and flood the hallways with them." She followed close behind her friend. "Why the library though?"
"Cloud Tower showed me something weird. I want to check it out," Blade followed along the hall, which bend and twisted a few times.
"When? Weird how?" Nebula saw the tunnel opening up again.
"As I slept, there were two older women bickering," Blade looked around. The library was gigantic as well. "Where to start? … I think, it was in one of the corridors leading in here."
Nebula picked a corridor at random. But they didn't find anything. So, they picked the next one. "I never can get a clear read on the Professors here. Sometimes I think I know what they are thinking and then it's something completely different. Or I get no read at all…with our Professors, you at least know then you are in trouble."
"Yeah, I know what you mean…" Blade stopped. It felt similar enough, she could feel the veins of the Tower, which were creeping through the walls. Blade stroked along the vein's routes as she walked on. She bumped into a picture frame. She stopped and stared at it. "Hmm, it is hard to tell, the woman in the picture at least looks similar to the elderly from my dream."
"First Headmistress of Cloud Tower…" Nebula read from the frame tag. "So, this was the founder… what now?"
"No clue, maybe behind it?" Blade shrugged. Together with Nebula she carefully lifted the frame.
"What are you doing?" A harsh voice resounded behind them.
They turned around, but it was just a girl around their age. She was mostly barefoot besides some bands slung around her feet. Her dress was shoulderless and in a dark blue with white ruffles on the ends. It was cut open at the front and an ever darker nearly black underdress showed. She wore some long-sleeved gloves in the medieval style. "And you are?" Nebula asked as she still had her fingers pinned between the frame and wall.
"I am a second year and you will answer to me," The girl glared at them. "That's the founder of the Witch school you are fiddling with, Fairies."
Blade was lost for words, "It is? You sure? Damn, we got the wrong one." Blade slowly let go of the frame.
The girl seemed rather unimpressed, "That's not an answer." She tapped her foot.
Nebula tilted her head, "So? Not giving straight answers is the norm here. We're just fitting in."
The girl growled, "Don't kid yourself, you're not fitting in. You're an aberration at best." She tilted her head backwards to look down on them. She was actually a few centimetres bigger than them. It made her look like a stuck-up queen.
Nebula stepped forward, "My apologies my Queen." She joked around.
"You might speak the right words, but your attitude is severely lacking, Milady," the new girl was dead serious.
"Eh?" Nebula stopped chuckling, "You're a Queen? You are kidding, right?" She glanced in disbelief at her. Then she noticed that the headband, the girl was wearing, had a giant royal gem in it. "Oh…ehm…my apologies. No offence, but aren't you a bit young to be a Queen?" Nebula was off her game in an instant. She couldn't get too informal with an official Queen. She had to avoid political disputes in the interest of Andros.
The girl sighed, "I'm indeed am Queen Dusk of Eventide. I'll ask once more. What are you doing with the picture of the first headmistress?"
"And I always thought Griffin was the founder…" Blade scratched her head.
The second-year frowned, "Don't they teach you anything at Alfea? Am I glad, that I declined their offer. Griffin got the school restored after the fall of Domino. That doesn't mean that it didn't exist beforehand. The Headmistress together with the Company of Light freed the tower of the influence of the Ancestral Witches. Because of her efforts, Witches can study dark arts in this school again. We all learn and grow here before we have to fend for ourselves in the outside world."
"Wait, what? You had an offer for Alfea, are a Queen and still declined?" Nebula couldn't care less about the history lesson. She desperately tried to recall anything about Eventide, but besides being a small and weak kingdom nothing came to mind. "Why?"
"Simple, I refuse to be some sort of guinea pig for someone else's cause," she stared intensely at Blade. "It's a fool's arrant."
"What did I do?" Blade was even more confused now. "But why become a Sorceress? I thought all Queens chose the light alignment, even if they aren't Fairies. It pleases their subjects."
"As long as I can keep my people safe. I don't care what they think. There is no point for me in trying to learn Fairy magic. My bloodline has long been washed out. So why try at being a weak Fairy when I can be a powerful Witch? If my subjects refuse to judge me by my character, they'll judge me by my deeds. And I have plenty of those that speak for themselves. Just because big kingdoms, like Andros, don't like dark magic doesn't mean it's worthless. Or are you suggesting that I should deceive my own Court? We all know how that ends…" She paused as she saddened and shook her head before she refocused on the discussion. "Now, I only ask once more, what are you doing with the painting?" Dusk was tapping her foot impatiently.
"Checking for mites?" Nebula shrugged. None of the two was even sure what they were looking for, she even less than Blade.
Blade closed her eyes, 'Whisper of creation…' She tried to find a clue while Nebula distracted the Sorceress. She could clearly feel another presence calling her from near the frame.
"Mites? Oh really? This is a living organism. Any creatures you meet here are part of a delicate biotope. You don't have the knowledge to distinguish what is parasitic and what is symbiotic," Dusk found the notion utter nonsense. "So, the truth?"
"Do you really think becoming a Fairy would be a waste of your time?" Nebula stalled for more time. 'Come on, hurry it up….' She gazed at the young Queen. She had a completely different vibe than Jewels. Proud and sure of herself, polite and well-mannered and yet she still had that witchy bitchy side to her. "And just so you know, Blade is a Fairy because of her own choice."
Dusk sighed, "Yes, I have a small Mana pool and I know other Crown houses laugh behind my back at banquets if I get invited at all. I am not stupid. I couldn't possibly defend my Kingdom as a Fairy." She eyed Blade who had been quiet for a while now. "And just because her wishful thinking became true, so far, doesn't make her any less of a puppet. HEY! What are you doing?!" She felt as Blade's dark magic output grew.
Nebula picked up on it as well. She turned around to her friend. "Blade!" Out of nowhere, the picture came alive. Like layers of leaves, the picture parted wide open. Now it looked more like a carnivorous plant. A high-pitched ring echoed through the air and that flower plunged down on Blade to swallow her whole.
Blade quickly opened her eyes, a panicked Nebula was dashing towards her and a shadow hang over her head. The ringing noise was disorientating. Nebula tackled Blade against the wall before she could even do something. "Ouch…stop…" Blade whispered to Nebula who fiddled around to get away and held her tight.
Dusk stared perplexed at the plant as she held her ears closed, "That picture was alive?! A plant? Since when?! What the heck did you do?" She wasn't sure if she should help them or not. Or rather what to do in general. The plant kept screeching.
The flower missed the first time, yet simple bend and turned and rushed the two fairies who had pinned themselves against the wall. With a loud thud noise, it smacked against the wall as well and gobbled them up.
Another Witch came scrambling around the corner, "Where is the mimic? It's mine!"
"Not now Kitty!" Dusk made herself ready to defend herself.
Kitty stared at the plant that turned within seconds back to being a picture, "The painting was a mimic?! I walked past it nearly every day, damn it." She readied a spell, "You're going down." She grinned.
"Shadow binds!" Dusk entangled her in some shadow ropes. "Are you stupid? The fairies got swallowed up. We need them for the hearing! Besides Griffin will have your head if you destroy her stuff…"
"Ahahaha, what did they do to piss it off?" Kitty grinned even more amused. "Now, LET me GO!" She struggled to get free and thought her plan over, "Hm, I am sure Griffin wants the Fairies more than the mimic... So, it's mine! Answer my call, Terror Wolf!" She flared up magic. Next to her, a rift opened and a huge Wolf jumped out, growling deeply. "Go get it!"
"Oh, no you don't! You'll kill them all!" Dusk raised her arm to fire, "Shadow Orb!"
Kitty extended her wolf claws and cut herself loose before Dusk could hit her, "Oh, you're on, your Highness. That mimic is mine!" She jumped back and ledged onto the wall. 'Damn that Queen and her shadow magic. So unpredictable… But no one will keep me from my price.'
"Tch." Dusk had to be careful now. Kitty could summon her own version of any monster she defeated and beat into submission. And also morph her body alongside her summoned monster. 'Shit, of all the Witches it had to be her… She's so annoying to fight against…'
Blade and Nebula had stared into the carnivorous flowerhead for one second and the next they were in some sort of room. "Yikes! Veil, Solid fog!" Nebula created a platform to stand upon. The floor was some mushy plant matter and the whole room they found themselves in was filled with acid. "I think Cloud Tower is trying to kill you.
Blade found refuge on the fog platform as well, "Calm down, since when are you so hysterical? Rushing to the rescue like some white knight. I can take care of myself you know…" Blade's heart was pumping.
"Hello, giant dark plant trying to eat you… of course, I'll protect you," Nebula argued.
"But I didn't ask to be rescued. This is part of the plan," Blade turned around to inspect the room.
"We have a plan?" Nebula was irritated, "Since when?!"
"Since, you distracted the Sorceress. That was our plan, you distract, I go search. Do you really think I would have been too slow to evade? You initiated that plan through the distraction yourself," Blade pointed forward, "There. At the walls. Zombix!" She transformed.
"Yes, but-, but we constantly get eaten. You were so focused. How should I know it was still going to plan?" Nebula crossed her arms. She watched Blade hover over the acid to the other wall.
Blade scratched her head, "By the serenity in my aura or my stance? I was simply waiting and I wasn't panicked one bit. How many more hints do you need? I understand you want to make up for past misjudgement. But, really, it's fine. Forgiven is forgiven. You don't have to overcompensate all the time." She was a bit upset. Then she ruffled through her dreadlocks, "Ahhh, that sounded ungrateful, sorry. Nebula, it's just… You won't always be able to reach me. Or others will need your help more than I. If you have such tunnel vision… I just don't want you to get hurt on my account. Sometimes things are out of our hands… Some people can't be reached…" Blade had turned around to look Nebula in the eyes.
Nebula sighed, "I know… still, I'll always will try to save you. Any of my friends. And you are one of them. Plus, you are weaker than me. It's a Fairy's duty to protect the weak," She smirked devilish.
Blade facepalmed, "I am a Fairy. You're unbelievable." She knew Nebula had heard her point and was trolling her. "And I recall last match to be a tie, Milady." She grinned sheepishly as well.
"Yeah, because I took like a thousand handicaps," Nebula chuckled. "Not that I mind being swallowed with you. Nearly every day since we are here. But please tell me there was a good reason for it…" She jumped backwards as acid dropped down from above.
Blade shook her head, "A thousand, yeah right… well, we came for this." Blade moved with her hand along the wall and stopped and plunged her hands into the mushy wall and pulled.
"EEewww," Nebula watched her a bit disgusted, "Be careful with the acid…" Blade was really struggling there. "Need help, oh powerful, Fairy of darkness?" She teased.
"No, nope," Blade pressed her foot against the wall and pulled even harder. "Holy electron, that is stuck…" She used the other one as well and pulled with all her might infusing some magic into her legs. "AHHHHHHHH, WOAH!" Blade got flung through the room.
"Veil, Solid fog!" Nebula created another wall in front of her and Blade rammed into it and slid down like a wet towel. "Nice landing." Nebula giggled.
"Ouch, why didn't you catch me?" Blade complained as she got rid of all the extra plant matter around her price.
Nebula smirked as she dispersed the wall and bowed over Blade, "The serenity in your aura was overwhelming, so I thought you were fine." She stuck her tongue out and offered a hand to pull her up.
"Next match, I'll squash you…" Blade growled, took the hand and once up her feet ripped away the last pieces to reveal yet another book. It was brimming with a dark magic aura. "Woah, is that a grimoire… like a real one?" She was staring at a hard-covered book in leather and scales, with a moving mouth. Locks and chains hanging around it.
Nebula stared at the grimoire. That thing gave her the creeps. She jumped backwards as the mouth yawned loudly. "By the great dragon… why do you always have to touch creepy stuff, we know nothing else about!"
"How else am I gonna become an evil overlord? Besides, the cursed sword went all fine. And that had a corrupt Dragonflame," Blade inspected the locks.
"A partial, a spark, a drop. You're not immune," Nebula sighed. "So, how is this grimoire about? How do we open it up? Why do you need it?" Nebula asked bluntly.
Blade turned the book several times, "I hoped you have an idea. That's my first magical book so to speak." She grinned unsurely.
"Oh boy…" Nebula scratched her eyebrow. "That can be anything, a phrase, a key, spell… anything. Ouch," Nebula looked below. "Damn, how do we get out?" The acid was rising and had burned through her platform. "Fairy of Mist." She jumped into the air. "Blade?...now…"
"Right, right," Blade closed her eyes, "Whisper of creation!"
The acid kept rising, "Blade! Now is a really good time…" Nebula pulled her upwards and watched her platform disintegrate. "Please tell me this isn't a trap. Blade – Blade!"
"I am working on it! Talking with dark creatures ain't that easy, ya know…" Blade peeked through her eyelids into the room, 'Shit, shit, shit. Outside, let us out! Cloud Tower, Cloud Tower, Cloud Tower!'
"Iron Bark!" Alyssa raised a shield around herself. A growling Terror Wolf bit into it.
Kitty slashed away another shadow orb, "Ha, your aim sucks, Dusk! Dark strike!" She sent three energy waves off her claw hand. And jumped backwards to evade the mimic's poison spray attack.
The flowerhead of the mimic gulped up from the deepest depths of its stomach and fired. And out with everything came a white big ball of solid fog that shattered on impact with the opposing wall. Out slid Nebula and Blade whose heads were spinning. Everyone stared at them and then their gaze fell to the grimoire which slipped over the melting ground.
"Yuck," Nebula complained. "Don't lose it, dummy!" She rushed to her feet to grab it. As out of nowhere a blob of water splashed down right on top of it and Gilliana in her blue skirt crop top reformed.
The girl grinned, "And what have we here? Uh, tasty, a little secret book, Water Vortex!" Gilliana covered herself in a water sphere. "Ah, ah, ah, you might be a Lady of Andros. But you ain't getting this back. HA!" Gilliana glared at an angry Nebula who had her hand flung back by the water current of the shield. "Loser."
Blade chucked two darts at the shield one to break through the shield. The other shot the grimoire out of her hand, "Keepers finders!" She charged full strength ahead and infused her leg with magic and landed a high kick at the structural weakness of Gillianas shield where the water was still thinned out by her dart.
Kitty whistled loudly and her Terror Wolf fletched its teeth running for the book, "Thanks!" Kitty rushed towards the book and clashed with Blade, who just got a hold of it.
"Veil, Solid Fog!" Nebula engulfed Kitty's arm with which she had caught hold of the book as well and blocked Gilliana who was reaching out again as well. "Move it!"
Blade grinned and twisted Kitty's arm and got the grimoire loose, "Bye, bye." She darted away.
"Shadow curtain!" Dusk shouted and a black wall appeared in front of the fleeing fairies. "Hold it right there. That belongs to the Witches of Cloud Tower, you pretentious Fairies!"
"Urgh, drop the grimoire before it kills you!" Alyssa moaned, "The heck did they do now… Griffin will have my head… Willow's Grasp!" She reached out with her hand to entangle all the witches. 'Keep them alive she said. Don't let them do stupid stuff she said…they are FAIRIES, it's their reason for existing! Fuck sake, it's not even Tea time and they got eaten by a mimic no less…'
Nebula amassed light magic, "White Fog, Fog Illusion, Plasma Sphere!" She fired wildly into the corridor with the Witches and nodded to Blade, who already was on it to open a new pathway for them.
Kitty got protected by her Terror Wolf before it dissipated, "Answer my call, Blood Bat!" She summoned the next creature and with ease evaded the grasping vines from Alyssa and the Plasma Spheres.
Gilliana turned into a puddle and crawled up the wall, "Water ridge!" She fired into the fog at a shadow. "That book is as good as mine."
Dusk glared at Alyssa, "Oh, you little no name! Shadow grasp!" She fired back at Alyssa.
"BLADE!" Alyssa called out angry just to see the fog lift as a giant bat screeched at the fog parting it to reveal an empty space, where a fog clone got cut in half by Gilliana's attack. Where a teethy hole was closing right up in the floor.
"Shit, below," Kitty bit her lip. She stormed right around the corner her Blood bat in toe.
"I thought you wanted the mimic," Gilliana water-skated after her.
"Who needs a mimic if you can get your hands on a secret grimoire? Destroy her!" She ordered her bat, turned her ears into bat ears, and soared down the staircase.
Blade and Nebula fell through the ceiling. Blade held the book tide this time. "So close…" She looked around and noticed that they were in the cafeteria.
"YOU?! What are you doing?" Steela gazed perplexed at them. "One can hear the fighting down here…"
"Who the fuck cares? They ruined my coffee!" A rather pale small girl stood up from her chair. "Magnetic scythe!" The girl opened fire.
"Woah!" Blade scrambled away in time. Nebula was still catching her breath from her last big spell combo and got shot down.
"HEY!" Now Blade was pissed, "No one hurts my-" She fired a dart which crackled and exploded before it even hit her target. 'Crap.'
"Will you all shut up! I am trying to compose here!" A rumbling shout interrupted Blade. It came from a girl in a fancy white mantle and an orange bow tie in her hair. "Twister!" She set loose a swirl.
A stone suddenly appeared as a light green-haired girl, in a Zenith outfit, fired a boulder at the white mantle girl, "No one splatters cake over my calculations! No one wants to hear your cat screeching music anyways, Breeze!" The girl tried to save some of her papers.
"You take that back, Marble!" the small girl flew up in the air, "We're going to be famous! You stone deaf bitch!" She flared up some magic and rapidly all metal spoons, forks and knives where floated mid-air. "And you! Pay for the coffee you ruined! Or feel the wrath of Polarissa, stupid moths!"
"Steel pillar!" Steela took cover. 'I thought Alyssa was on babysitting duty… fuck…'
Blade got catapulted away just in time by a fog clone. "White fog!" Nebula cast anew. 'Screw this. They are all so short fused…damn…'
At first, the cafeteria was flooded with deadly metal ware and people scrambled to safety. If that wasn't enough a light magic fog exploded in the fleeing masses and then everyone could feel the ground shaking as a massive water wave washed Kitty and her Blood bat out of the stairwell right into the room.
"You asked for it, Gilliana! Answer my call, Tide snake! That grimoire is mine!" Kitty summoned a water snake to aid her.
"Grimoire…" A girl in black halted her retreat and noticed Nebula and Blade with the book still in their hands. But Kitty closed in. 'Hmm, juicy.'
Another girl in a green dress stopped as well, "Sirena…"
"Hm?" Sirena glanced to the side. Everyone was blasting spells at the fairies at each other. The book was changing owner every five seconds and Sirena didn't really want to lose sight of it.
"Night, night." The green-dressed girl blew some powder at her.
Sirena coughed, "You… Misery, you snake!"
Blade blocked another water ridge with a crackling dart, 'Fuck still unstable…'
"Plasma sphere!" Nebula faced off with a girl in red. "And what do you want?!" She tried to pinpoint who was in possession of the book.
"Vulcano my name, and I gonna burn your world to the ground," she grinned devilish and not the good kind. "Consuming fire!" She threw a sphere.
"Why?" Nebula was so annoyed by her. She evaporated her fog so quickly with her fire spells. "Gesh, your fire spells are so annoyin-" She pulled up and looked behind her. 'Oh, no, no, that's lava.'
"Oh, fire is so last season. I'll melt your little wings in my lava. They make for such bright sparkling target signs," She formed another round of orbs.
"Cold stone, thanks, your contribution to my channel has been noted!" Marble highjacked Vulcano's spell. The lava cooled down in an instant and Marble used the orbs to bombard her attackers as she tried to flee with the grimoire at hand.
"Will you sit still!" Alyssa tried to get a hold of Blade. She had just reached the cafeteria and wasn't happy at all that Blade was brawling with kind of everyone. This was going off the rails fast.
Blade used her stable dart to cut through Alyssa's plants. "Ahh, these are way too small…" She dropped her dark Fairy form and roll-dived to get away from another sphere going astray, "Fairy of Blades!" She ducked away to evade the Tide Snake's tail, which ravished through the room yet again. "Piercing spear!" Quickly she twirled around her spear to deflect more spoons and forks. "Now, where is my grimoire?!" She shouted challenging.
"Shadow binds! Sirena stop messing around get the book!" Dusk let a massive version of her spell run rampage and entangle anyone quickly.
"Fine," Sirena appeared next to Marble and snatched the tome. "Bye, bye." She grinned and vanished again.
"What!? But you were out cold…stupid mind tricks!" Marble complained as she tried to free herself.
"Nebula!" Blade pointed into the room.
"Plasma sphere, fog illusion, mirror space!" Nebula fired at the pointed location and truly hit Sirena. She created a clone near Sirena and swapped out with her clone freeing herself of the shadow binds. "That's ours thank you. White fog!" She grabbed the book.
"Urrrghh, how did she know?!" Sirena scrambled back to her feet. Everywhere spells got cast, which only worsened the fog.
The two fairies rushed out of the room. Blade grinned at Nebula, "That mind illusion was nothing against Shanna's." She stopped, "Wait, I need to swap forms again." It took her around six seconds to swap out of Winx back into the Zombix. "At least that way I can keep the spear…"
"In there," Nebula opened a door at random and shoved them both inside. They were in some kind of storage room. She dropped her transformation. "Puuh, light magic in the tower is a bitch… even with a contract… Quickly we need to unseal it, scan and scramble."
The book didn't seem to be happy at all. The mouth on its cover was coughing and growling. Blade stared at it. "But how?! I have no clue, the Tower doesn't say much since we found the tome and it is not talking-" She whispered as Nebula abruptly held her friend's mouth shut.
She gestured for her to be quiet. They could hear fighting in the hallway. 'Pfff, what to do… what to do. Hey, those teeth of the mouth look much like the bat one's…blood bat…blood…BLOOD!' She grabbed the spear and then took hold of Blade's hand and fisted it into the mouth of the book.
"HMMM; ffffffff…" Blade complained as the book bit her. The looks at the side sprung open. "Lucky guess…" she glared at Nebula. "You could have cursed me."
"Oh, chill, it didn't react to any of the Sorceresses," Nebula ignored her bickering. "So?"
Blade opened the book and the girls stared into it. A rush of dark magic flooded their little hideout. "500g potatoes, a pinch of salt… WHAT?!" Blade skipped through the pages but all had the same stupid potato mush recipe.
"Cookbook… we did all that for a cookbook?!" Nebula dropped the spear and stared at the book, turning it upside down, searching for more clues. The door got ripped open.
"It's mine!" Kitty jumped in like a wild insane monster, a water puddle was close behind her. And a bunch of witches squeezed through the door after them. While right and left wholes got blown or melted into the wall. Yet even with the opened-up wall that crumbled to bits and pieces, they were now thirteen people cramped into basically a broom closet. The shelves tumbled over.
"Shadow binds!"; "Stun Spores!"; "Chains!"; "Magnetic force!"; "Plasma sphere!"; "Roaring wind!"; "Magma sphere!"; "Sleeping vapour!" "Water ridge!"; "Mind blast!"; "Stone cannon!"
And whatever spells got cast it all ended in a giant explosion. WAAAHMMM! Everyone was coughing and their heads were spinning. Now they were just one bunch of students being crushed as the interior was smouldering in the aftermath of their magic explosion.
"And what in Magix do you think you are doing?" A seriously pissed-off Griffin sent out a magic wave to extinguish the smouldering shelves. "We just had the refuge-seeking Witches stock up and you bunch of incompetent mindless buffoons burn it to the ground. Not to mention the flooding of the cafeteria, destruction of hallways…"
"It was their fault. They STARTED IT!" The young Sorceresses answered in a choir as everyone hopped to their feet to face their impending doom.
'Right, now they work together. Loners my ass,' Blade kept her tide grip around the grimoire or rather the cookbook. "We were minding our own business, thank you."
"You're supposed to be in class!" Griffin shouted enraged.
Nebula rubbed her ear the explosion had been so loud, "We finished that boring first-year toad debacle in like five seconds. So, we had some spare time to kill. But really, is the first lesson Sorceresses learn not to curse onese-"
"Shut it." Griffin glared at Nebula who went quiet instantly. The Headmistress had lined the girls up neatly without even having to say it. They all looked like they had brawled with a giant quill cat. Her gaze fell on the brimming aura behind Blade's back. She stepped up to her and held out her open hand.
Blade ground her teeth visibly, "Oh come on…I found it fair and square…." She mumbled as turned the grimoire over to the Headmistress.
"What did I say about strolling around my Tower? ..." Griffin snatched the grimoire. She could feel the strong dark aura. Yet the book was unfamiliar to her it wasn't one from the crypt. 'Great… they broke the seal…' She waved over the book and some hex runes appeared.
"Pshh, we weren't supposed to stroll around…." Nebula uttered with an unsure grin. 'We're so doomed.'
"So, you do have ears - You stay right here!" Griffin flared up some magic as some of her witches were ready to sneak away. "I'll punish you in a moment. Glow worms first." She swapped her attention back to Nebula and Blade. "Well, you obviously made your choice, I warned you. And now to you lot. Not only did you lose to two fairies on home turf. You destroyed this storage room, failed your assignment," she eyed Alyssa and Steela, "You also ran rampage in my school." She snipped with her fingers and a list appeared, "Fix it."
Kitty moaned and grabbed the list, "What? But that will take forever!? You'll pay for this…" She glared at the fairies.
"No one asked you to chase us," Nebula growled back.
"Oh, you," Kitty hissed.
"GET OUT! Fix it now!" Griffin shouted so pissed. All of the second-years scrambled out of the room. Griffin turned her head back to the fairies. "You already know what's coming…" Griffin tilted her head. "Blade?" The Fairy student in her care looked pale and that was considering the dark Fairy form already greyed her skin out.
"Blade?" Nebula poked her. And her friend in return simply toppled over. "Blade!" Nebula caught her before she would smack her head open on the floor. "Hey, what's wrong!? Talk to me!"
Headmistress Griffin stared at the grimoire. It was giggling mischievously. "Please don't tell me… How did you unlock the grimoire?" Griffin laid another sealing layer on the tome as she asked.
"Eh, who cares? Help her!" Nebula pressed her hand on Blade, "Darkness Break!" A few magic sparks flew and nothing else happened. "No, no, no, we… ehm… well we used blood, the teeth in the mouth of the grimoire are from a Blood Bat. Blade donated some and…"
"You used blood and of all things your own," Griffin stared in utter disbelief at Nebula. "Are you insane?! Move, your kid games will do squad!" She shoved Nebula aside. 'Faragonda will have my head…freaking blood curse two days before the hearing. Wonderful…'
"Oh, Griffin, I see you already took care of…." Zarathustra just came by to check what the commotion in the cafeteria had been all about. She stared at the scene. "Don't tell me one of our students killed…"
"Take the other and nail her to my office wall. They are going nowhere ever again!" Griffin hissed. She was already examining Blade closely for all the symptoms.
"Wait what?" Nebula was rather perplexed. "I'm not- hmmmhm hm mhmm…"
Zarathustra had used her magic to gag her and pulled her out of the room. "Sure, Headmistress. Ceiling as always…"
"HM!?…hmmm hhm mhhhhhm…" Nebula complained but the magic rope tightened around her and forced her out of her Winx form. She could simply watch as a hole in the wall opened and the Professor pulled her through.
