The first light of the morning glittered on the lake whose gentle waves washed lazily onto the shore. The sun had just risen, and the morning dew illuminated the grass on the lakeshore. She let her hand slide through the water and felt the pleasant coolness on her skin. It was the summer of five years ago, when the world was still intact and her life was in those innocent, childish years of slowly growing up. There was nothing else at that moment except the intimate togetherness of two growing children in whom the tender buds of first love were blooming. She still remembered how the sunrays had caught Sky's hair and made it shine. She still remembered how the boundless blue of the lake was reflected in his eyes. She still remembered how electrifying the feeling was when his warm hand took her cool hand and brought it to his lips.
"You look beautiful."
"I know," the mischief flashed in her eyes, and she offered him her hand with pleasure. "But thanks for confirming it again."
He smiled almost shyly. "How many times have I told you today?"
She grinned and leaned back into the dewy grass. "Hmm, if you count last night, that's a total of six times."
"That many times?"
"Don't worry, little prince. You can't tell a woman enough how beautiful she is. So just carry on."
He lay down next to her and they linked their hands together. One as cold as a winter morning, the other as warm as a summer day.
She closed her eyes and sighed softly. "I wish time would stop right now."
She could hear the smile in his voice. "Maybe it really will if we want it hard enough."
"Then let's try."
And so the morning had dawned. In retrospect, that sounded more than cheesy, and Icy almost ashamedly remembered her spirited fifteen-year-old self, who had spared no consequences and had made the Prince of Eraklyon lose his head. She still remembered how naive they both had been back then. They really believed that things could go on like this forever and no one would complain. But time had marched on cruelly, bringing her into those complicated spheres of adulthood where duty and appearances were stronger than the innocent love between two children. They had grown up and that was how their time together ended. Fate had twisted paths for everyone, and apparently, it had decided that the two of them had to part ways.
She opened her eyes. For a moment she wasn't sure where she was until her eyes caught the familiar outline of her room at Cloud Tower. Morning dawned and a faint light shone through the curtains. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and sat up. How long had it been since she thought about that morning at the lake? It must have been a while, but the dream still hung over her and she could almost smell the water lilies again. She made sure that Darcy and Stormy were still fast asleep and then quietly got up. Stormy was snoring softly, and Darcy was curled up like a baby, breathing gently.
It was not without envy that she looked at her two sisters, who were sleeping peacefully. But there was no point in trying to sleep again now. She was also afraid that she would dream about Sky again, and she really couldn't afford that any longer. It was much easier to forget someone when you aren't dreaming about them. Annoyed with herself, she shook her head and made her way to the bathroom. She had more important things to focus on now. Sky was the past and the future she had in mind had nothing to do with him. She would continue where Lilith had failed, and then she would be the one before whom the kings of the dimension knelt. She had a legacy to fulfill, love be damned.
"But yesterday you promised me!" Stormy whined as if she were three years old and not 18. It was early evening and Icy used the time after her first day of class to go over the material again. Stormy, on the other hand, was busy pacing up and down and making her displeasure known loudly.
Undeterred, Icy underlined a passage in her book. "I didn't know then that I would be writing a test right at the end of the first week."
"Now don't be such a nerd and come!" Now Stormy started shaking Icy's arm like a toddler and she tore herself away with a hiss.
"Being a little more ambitious wouldn't hurt you here either," Darcy was also reading a book, but, unlike Icy, who was studying, for her enjoyment. She looked up briefly and continued: "Good grades don't just come to you at Cloud Tower. You have to do something for it."
"You have to do something for it," Stormy mimicked her older sister. "Gosh, when did you two get so boring? Come on, let's go out. You can study later when I'm asleep."
"Interesting that you think we don't need sleep."
Stormy grinned: "You have to do something to get good grades."
Icy sighed, slipped a bookmark between the pages, and closed the book. With a yawn, she stretched and stood up. "Alright girls, get ready."
"Yes!" Glad to have gotten her way, Stormy buried her face in her suitcase, which she still hadn't unpacked since her arrival the day before.
"Are you serious?" Darcy didn't seem enthusiastic. "If you always let her have her way, she'll never change."
"I gave up trying years ago," Icy replied, taking the book from Darcy, who protested loudly. She quickly maneuvered the book out of Darcy's reach and smiled diabolically at her. "Tsk, tsk, Darcy. I thought you would be more excited to finally be out and about in Magix again after two months at home."
"What do you mean by that?" she hissed, now stood up and tried to get the book back from Icy, who kept bending backward to prevent exactly that.
"You know exactly what I'm trying to say, sweetheart. You blush every time that little grumpy puppy dog speaks to you."
"Don't call him a puppy dog!" Darcy now leaned against Icy and tried to reach the book with her outstretched fingers, with the result that they both fell astride Icy's bed. Icy laughed. Darcy snorted and finally Icy gave her sister back her book but didn't stop grinning at her. "You're blushing."
"I am not."
"If you say that."
Stormy's voice came from the bathroom. "Has anyone seen my mascara?"
"Come on," Icy held out her hand to her sister to help her up, "let's help the kid find her mascara and then make ourselves pretty too. Not that you need rouge right now."
Darcy grimaced and then followed Icy into the bathroom. She didn't dare ask herself whether she was so red because of anger or because of embarrassment.
"Come on, boys. Who knows how long we can continue partying in the evening. The daily studying routine will come soon enough."
Brandon ran from one specialist to the next in the room, telling each of them the benefits of nightlife in Magix. Sky was sure that Brandon was hoping to see his new favorite fairy again. It was strange. Brandon's liaisons usually didn't last more than a few months. Whether it was a witch or a fairy, it didn't matter. Every pretty girl fell into his prey scheme and as soon as his best friend got bored, he would break up and get the next one. The back and forth with Stella had been going on for four months now and Brandon showed no signs of boredom. But Sky let him enjoy it as long as he could. At the latest when they ended their masquerade at some point and it was discovered that he was not the Prince of Eraklyon, then, Sky was sure, Stella, the Princess of Solaria, would give him a pass.
"Come on, Riven. Stop lifting weights and let's have some fun!" Brandon stood in front of Riven, who didn't look like he was going to stop his training.
"I'm having the time of my life right now, Your Highness. No reason to interrupt."
Timmy turned in his swivel chair to look at Brandon. "Really, Prince Sky. I'm just trying to get used to this new wind glider system and could use some silence."
Brandon shook his head disapprovingly, "No, Timmy. What you need is some casual fun with some girls."
Timmy adjusted his glasses on his blushing nose. "I'm the wrong guy for this," he muttered, turning back to the computer screen.
But Brandon didn't give up and turned to Sky with a pout. He knew this trick and knew that sooner or later he would give in if Brandon looked at him like that. "All right. Come on guys. Sky is right. Who knows when we'll next come out of here in the evening."
Riven looked at Sky sullenly: "It was clear that the good squire was following his master's wishes."
Sky looked at his teammate annoyed. "Riven, could you please stop emphasizing my position in every sentence you exchange with me? It's slowly getting on my nerves."
"I like to call a spade a spade." A cocky grin appeared on Riven's face and he looked at Sky challengingly. Timmy, who had already seen the situation escalating, intervened. "All right, guys. Let's go out."
"That's exactly That's exactly what I've been saying this whole time!" Brandon jumped up and dragged Sky into their shared room. "Come on, Riven, ditch the dumbbells and get changed."
The two disappeared out the door and Riven and Timmy looked at each other for a while. Really, Riven thanked God every day that he hadn't been put in a room with the prince or his squire. He would have gone crazy. Strangely, he got along with Timmy extremely well. The ginger-haired young man was of the quiet sort and, unlike Prince Sky, did not chatter excessively. During training, Timmy was also one of the weaker ones and, unlike Red Fountain's super talent Squire Brandon, didn't get on Riven's nerves. That's why he allowed himself to remark in front of Timmy, "I hate these two crazy guys." Nevertheless, he put the weights aside and headed for the bathroom. There was one thing worth going out for tonight. There was a very interesting girl with amber eyes that he would like to get to know better.
From across the street a group of guys whistled after them. Stormy turned her head flirtatiously and blew them a kiss. Without paying any further attention to the group, Icy continued walking, dragging Stormy behind her. She would never in her life go to a proletarian club like this, where these types of guys buzzed around you like blue bottles. Lilith, on the other hand, had liked these kinds of loud clubs. The ones where the dealing happened out in the open and where the neon lights hurt your eyes. She had always picked up her men there and dragged them into the dark corners to do whatever she did with them. Icy shared neither Lilith's passion for neon lights nor for the blaring music, or rather, the deafening noise of the establishments her former friend always chose for them. She had also been secretly worried for the past year that Lilith might have been a bad influence on Darcy. In the end, that worry had been unfounded, and the more Icy thought about it, the more ridiculous that worry seemed to her. Darcy was of a completely different breed than Lilith had been. Stormy, on the other hand, was already heading in Lilith's direction and Icy could have slapped herself for giving in and now wandering the darkening nightclub districts of Magix with her sisters. She was admittedly hoping she could see Sky again. But the closer this possibility became, the more she called herself a fool. It wasn't going anywhere, and it was better to stay out of his way. Besides, Sky probably had enough problems already. For the second year, he and Brandon had to swap places because Erendor suddenly realized that his son, as the prince of one of the most powerful empires in the magical dimension, offered a good target for assassins far from home. A dangerous smile crept onto Icy's face at the thought of King Erendor. That damn idiot had raged when he caught her with Sky that time. She hated how he had taken the right to judge her. Of course, she wasn't the ideal princess he imagined for a son. Her bloodline, while ancient and noble, was no comparison to the royalty of Eraklyon, not to mention the fact that Icy's family had never been on the light side of magic. In the magical dimension, a clear distinction was made between the royal families on the light side and those on the dark side, and except for the annual Mirror Ball on Eraklyon, both parties meticulously avoided each other.
"Hey, Icy. Are you even listening to me?" Stormy waved her hand in front of Icy's field of vision, snapping her out of her dark thoughts.
"I rarely do that," she replied, giving Stormy a bright smile.
Stormy didn't let that deter her and pointed to the club across the street, with Paradise emblazoned in big red neon letters above the door. "Let's go in there, it looks good!"
"If by good you mean strung-out guys who can't tell up from down, then don't help yourself."
Stormy snorted and dug into her bag. "I never thought there were clubs like this here in Magix."
"Magix is big," Darcy said, "and so it has nice and not-so-nice corners."
"Where have you been going for the last few years? I don't feel like just walking around here stupidly." She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and started to light one.
Darcy looked at Stormy, paralyzed, and Icy could barely resist the urge to slap the thing out of her little sister's hand. "When did you get into the habit of doing this?" she asked disgustedly.
Stormy shrugged and blew out blue smoke. "Last year. It's not like I I haven't enjoyed the time without your critical looks." She stared somewhat perplexed at the faces of her older sisters, who had stopped and looked at each other as if they were talking to a mad woman. "Gosh, you guys have really gotten stuffy," Stormy said, rolling her eyes.
Icy just snorted and they continued walking. "It's your body, you can do whatever you want with it."
"That's exactly how I see it," Stormy said, inhaling her cigarette.
"But I don't feel like constantly smelling of cold smoke just because my sister is having her defiant phase. Besides, it's bad for your health." For Darcy, it seemed the topic wasn't finished yet.
"Yes, mommy," Stormy imitated a baby voice and argued a bit with Darcy and Icy let her have her way. It wasn't that she had never smoked. She too had once had that phase in which she grabbed every opportunity to look adult and independent. But after a while, she realized that smoking didn't help that at all and that she was far too old for such childish behavior. So from then on she quit it and her puberty was over. Besides, Sky had never approved of it. At that time they still met regularly in secret. However, during this time she had been careful to ensure that Darcy and Stormy didn't notice anything and emulated her. Then the big sister in her came out. At the moment, however, she was of the opinion that she couldn't take her sister's cigarettes away like a three-year-old's her lollipop. So she left it at that. With any luck, Stormy would realize sooner or later that cigarettes didn't necessarily go hand in hand with independent coolness.
"So, are you satisfied now?" Stormy put out her cigarette, put her hands on her hips, and looked annoyed at Darcy.
She defiantly held her sister's gaze. "Only if you never blow that disgusting smoke in my face again."
Stormy grinned maliciously. "I cannot promise that."
"Save your bitching for later or we'll go back to school."
Without another word, her sisters let go of each other and followed Icy as she turned a corner.
She sucked in a breath, fighting the feeling of anticipation that flared up as the Mystery came into view. At that moment she was grateful for Stormy's loud voice distracting her as she announced, "Hey, maybe we'll run into that stupid fairy with her ring and we could take her down today!"
Icy held back her laughter at the suggestion. "To be honest, I had no intention of causing a bloodbath on the street."
"What then?"
"If I tried to explain this to you, we wouldn't be finished in the morning."
"Oh of course," Stormy bowed, "of course you have a grandiose plan for everything."
"Of course I do," Icy grinned, her teeth flashing as they crossed the street and headed towards the Mystery. Her instincts hadn't failed her, and she was able to make out exactly that one make out that one voice she longed for in the babble of voices. Then she would start forgetting him from tomorrow. After all, every ending needed a grand conclusion.
And so she stepped into the dim violet light of the Mystery, her prey squarely in her sights.
In this chapter I wanted to shed light on the sisters' relationships with one another. They always appear as a unit in the series, but they are all different. This sisterly relationship is the cornerstone of their cohesion and I wanted to explore their relationships a little bit by thinking about normal everyday situations. Stormy is a total extrovert and seems to be quite annoyed by being the youngest. That's why she seems to be rebelling a bit here. Darcy is more of a calm and sensible type, and so she sometimes clashes with Stormy. In the end, Icy is the one who has to drag them apart. It's not easy for a big sister. Especially when she can barely think clearly in her otherwise cool head! Therefore, a little flashback should lay the foundation for SkIcy. In the next chapter, Darcy and Riven will finally be a thing and Stormy will definitely get her money's worth too. Stay tuned!
