The first step into the palace hits her the hardest.

There are no people around, barely even any sounds. Only her with her quiet.

Her head, thoughts and feeling on full display. Bloom's eyes settle over the darkness within the palace, slightly adjusting. Dread washes over her instantly. It has been at least two years since she was back here. And even then, she had her friends guiding her back. Now she was alone.

It's the right thing, after all, her own voice whispers to her.

You're a danger to everyone. You should have stayed away.

You can't go back.

They will never forgive you.

A real Princess would know what to do.

Maybe people were right.

You're a threat.

You're a murderer.

You're like Valtor.

You hate it.

You want more of it.

Bloom tries to snap her thoughts back, but it does nothing to calm her down. She went full-on psycho on Diaspro for her own selfish desire to prove herself. To show them she is in control. And it's not even the first time she had done so. She remembered pretty well the first time she and Diaspro saw each other after Sky's funeral.

Where did any of that get her?

Bloom rounds a corner, coming to face a hallway. On each side were two sets of doors. She tries the first one and the lock squeaks but gives way. She dares to summon a small fireball to lighten up the area. What she sees is someone's bedroom. A big canopy bed laid in the centre with what used to be ravishing furniture, but now is eaten away at. By time or animals, she's not sure. She's about to turn around when a voice stops her.

"This used to be my room," it's weak, barely there but Bloom knows it by heart. Her sister's transparent form sits atop the wooden frame. But it's not nearly as strong as it was two years ago. Like a shadow of its original shape.

But Bloom doesn't care as she takes those few steps back and wants more than anything to wrap her arms around her sister. But she can't. She will never be able to. And that tiny realization in this specific moment is what sends her over the edge.

Tears come pouring out of her eyes, completely unstoppable as her body starts to shake. A sob gets stuck in her throat, unable to escape. "I ruined it. I ruined everything."

Daphne moves her hand closer as if she wants to wipe the drops away.

"Life is never fair to those who live it," she answers and her eyes soften. Bloom lets the tears fall, the redness around her eyes worsening. Daphne's form in front of her begins to crumble.

"Please, please don't leave me alone. I don't want to be alone," Bloom begs but she can do nothing but watch. Watch as her only connection to family withers in front of her eyes.

"You need to be careful. There are still traces of their magic here-" Daphne starts and just like she was never here, she fades away entirely.

Bloom leans on the wall behind her, slipping down until she's on the floor. She bends her knees, hugging them to her chest and screams.

She screams until her throat hurts and it feels like she won't be able to speak again.

Then she gets up and heads down the hallway. Daphne said there were traces of their magic, it could only be the Ancestral witches'. If she could find some, maybe she could also discover clues about her parents.

She turns the left corner, and a small familiar feeling pulls within her chest. She looks down the unexplored hall, noticing a door that seems newer than the rest. She walks over and sees engraved flowers on its frame. She isn't sure how she knows, but she can tell this bedroom, or rather a nursery belonged to her. The doors open without protest and indeed there's a half-broken crib against the wall.

And something else.

Something that shouldn't be here, that doesn't belong.

Dark magic.

She ducks just in time to avoid an ice-made monster that wanted to jump at her back. "What even-" she curses, looking behind herself.

It's not just one monster. It's an entire army of them.

And they are not small either, they remind her of mountain lions or well a deformed version of them.

Bloom goes to transform, but one lunges, biting her calf. She yelps, hand flying to the wound on instinct. Some kind of liquid drips into the bite, inflaming the area. She hisses as she tries to avoid a new attack and jumps behind the furniture.

She needs to transform if she plans to get out of this.

But when five of the monsters all jump at her, she can't push them all back. Two grip at her torso, while the other three get hit by her fireballs. She shouts as sets of teeth dig into her skin again. Bloom tries to make a move but stumbles, allowing the monsters to crowd her again.

She shoots at them, managing to keep some distance but it won't be enough forever. She bites her bottom lip, and ignoring the pain whispers: "Charmix."

In a second she feels strength flood her body. Four monsters go flying into the hallway, while the rest continue circling her. She struggles to use her wings, the venom of the creatures burning inside her. It's slowing her down and in such a state she isn't sure if she can beat them.

Bloom summons a sphere, aiming at the centre where a group has formed. Three of them evaporate and two scramble away. She notices too late one that had managed to jump, grazing her other leg with its claws. It's enough to topple her to the ground and they are on her in seconds. Two more bites on her hands and one somewhere on her neck.

Her head feels extremely dizzy as she tries to kick them back. She can't see straight, and there's no way she'll be able to get back up. Her vision is so blurry that it feels like she will be knocked unconscious at any second.

You'll die here.

A voice she can now tell is Valtor's whispers. She's so weak that not even that fact makes her scared. He's toying with her.

Get up.

But- she can't. She manages to put some distance between herself and the beats with a fire wall, but it's wavering as seconds go by. Soon it will fall apart and there will be nothing stopping them from tearing her apart.

You're not as weak as you think Princess. Now, get up.

She laughs inside herself. Something she never thought possible was happening. Valtor was trying to stop her from dying.

The fire wall around her loosens and she focuses more, trying to push against the pain in her limbs. She wants to listen to him, but it's her body against her head. And sadly, the latter is winning.

Just a little more.

Just. A. Little. More.

She thinks she hears Valtor again, but it's too much concentration, to try and hold the spell while also listening to her head. She can't do both. And frankly, keeping herself alive is more of a priority.

One of the beasts collides with her wall and it falters. She automatically closes her eyes, bracing herself for the attack. She'll die in the room where she was born. Where she was supposed to be raised. It will all go in a full circle.

But the monsters never strike.

Instead, she hears them wail in fear, their feet scrapping against the floors as they run, but not at her. Rather, away.

She dares to open her eyes and sees a set of black boots, covered mostly by a maroon coat. The fear returns instantly. By now she had every part of him memorized.

And she still can't move to face him.

"We meet again Princess," Valtor says at last. She sees him crouch down and grip her jaw, forcing her gaze to meet his.

"What a pathetic state I find you in."

Bloom manages to twist herself away from his touch. "Why did you save me?" she hates the way there's evident shaking in her voice.

Because currently, she's completely defenceless against everything he might do. He could snap his fingers and she would be dead.

But.

There's still that factor that he had plenty of opportunities to kill her and she is still alive. And now he went as far as to insure another enemy didn't get rid of her. What she couldn't figure out was why.

Instead of answering, Valtor aims his hand at her and she feels her body move. It hurts, every single move of her muscles aches but her feet still obey. He was using them on her again, the blood spells.

Valtor forces her onto a still-standing chair. Bloom tries gathering up her power, but it won't budge. Nothing she tried would work. He was in full control.

He watches her in amusement now, his head cocked to the side. "Extend your hands," he orders. Bloom, of course, does not move an inch.

"Didn't think you like my control so much," he says with a smirk, moving his hand towards her as if to do it again. Bloom bites her lip as she does what he asked. Anything just so she doesn't have to feel him pull her strings like she's a puppet.

There were way more than just two injuries on her hands. She saw scratches upon other bruises, red flaming marks and what looked like infected wounds.

"I can heal you."

Bloom fights back the urge to roll her eyes at him. "What do you want from me?" she says in response. It simply didn't make any sense, none of what he was doing lately did.

"You want to fight me," his brow rises: "don't you?" Bloom would love nothing more than to show him the same courtesy she did Diaspro.

Like he was reading her mind, he adds: "We both saw what you're capable of when your mind sets on it."

She doesn't respond but watches as he lowers himself down, standing now in a crouch, but at her eye level. His hand hovers over her wound.

A thought strikes her suddenly. Something far more terrifying than Valtor killing her.

Placing his mark on her.

Her heart starts rapidly beating at the realization. She didn't know how it hasn't crossed her mind until now. Bloom trashes in her chair when blue magic begins to pour from his palm.

But it doesn't form a mark, it simply floats over the injury and tickles as bit by bit the venom leaves her body and the skin starts to put itself back together.

Bloom makes the mistake of looking up from the spell. Because Valtor wasn't watching it, he was watching her.

They have never been this close without trying to kill each other. Bloom's already rapid heart now seemed to abruptly stop. She never noticed the small detail of his face, the fact that his eyes weren't pale green, but grey.

"The gold suits you," he comments, never once breaking eye contact. But she doesn't realize what he means right away. Then it hits her.

Her eyes.

Bloom couldn't tell what brought them out now. She wasn't angry, wasn't in danger, at least that's how it seemed. So, why?

"What game are you playing Valtor?"

"It makes your hair shine," he simply continues, ignoring her question. The hand that wasn't healing her now travels to the loose strands on her forehead. Bloom is too stunned to move so she just watches as his gloved fingers brush her skin, then drop from her face to under her chin.

"Where are my parents?"

He smiles, not smirks or grins. Smiles. But Bloom knew better than to believe it was real. Valtor slides the glove, from the hand touching her off, and waits for her to pull away. But for once Bloom is more curious than angry.

So she lets him continue, eager to see what he will do. His hand traces over the line of her throat, without actually touching her and stops under her hair, at the small spot behind her neck. Gently, he places it there and it feels like something in Bloom unlocked.

She was somewhere else, not in Domino nor in Magix. It looked like a bridge, a bridge made out of blue flames. And at the end of it stood stone shut doors. She tried to open them, but couldn't like they were sealed away. She looked behind her and saw another door, laid wide open. A red link travelled from the stone ones to the open ones as if linking them together.

Suddenly the eerie lonely space between starts to fill. Bloom's heart lurches when she realizes it's shadowlike monsters that are surrounding her. They feel oddly familiar.

Her eyes snap open and in horror, she realizes that she must have leaned forward in her daze because Valtor had definitely not been that close to her. And that the reason she came out of it was that he put his glove back on and moved his hand away.

The spell now trailed around her legs instead.

"How does your hand feel?"

She tries moving it and finds no resistance from either herself or Valtor's magic. It was like nothing ever happened. "I can move it now, that's a start," she answers. The end of his lips goes up.

"Turn around," he says, a command in his voice returning. Bloom wasn't sure whether to listen because she was certain none of the monsters attacked her from the back. But against her better judgement, she exposes her back to him and watches as something plays out in his eyes.

"That's not from the monsters," he says, eyeing the scar that ended just below her shirt. He moves a hand toward it but Bloom flinches away, coming to face him again. "No, not that one." Red spreads over her cheeks from both embarrassment and underlined irritation.

"Who did that to you?" Valtor asks, sounding angry. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Doesn't concern you, does it?" she snaps back, wishing suddenly she had something to cover herself with. Anything to draw attention to something else. A small pinch of sadness appears in her like she was disappointed the moment got ruined.

"I guess not," he responds in a mocking tone, his demeanour back. "Can you stand by yourself Princess, or do I have to use the blood spells to force you to fight me?"

He was back to provoking her too it seems.

Bloom was happy about it because whatever this last hour has been, it wasn't pleasing.

In response, she summons her Dragon to her side. She feels it resist her, overpowered by the shadows that crowd her soul. But she needed him if she were to do this. If she was ever going to fight Valtor and win, she needed both the dark and the light. No matter the consequences.

Valtor stood calmly opposite of her as if waiting. And as Bloom engulfed herself in her fire and aimed it at him, she saw his lips move. She couldn't hear the words but knew instantly the fight would be over before it even began.

He simply raised an open palm in the direction of her attack. Bloom had only a second of time to lessen the fire around her when she saw the spell start to turn into ice. Like he reversed it. It caught her still, everything from her torso to her feet trapped frozen.

She trashed around but it was of no use, he forced the ice up, snaking it around her throat. The Dragon quivered out of her control, fading from her. She tried to focus her energy on it, just like when she beat Icy on the lake. Back then her entire body was under the ice and she broke out of it with her raw power. Now, most of it still lay inside her, unreachable and uncontrollable.

She shivered at the thought as Valtor laughed in her face. "Didn't think you would be so pathetic," he mocked.

"Where has your spark gone Princess? Come on, fight me," it was a challenge. A challenge she wanted to win. She may not be able to overpower him yet, but maybe she could do this.

She closed her eyes, to focus on her inner energy, but instead felt her mind wander elsewhere. She stood on the bridge of fire again, right in front of the wide-open doors. And the opposite of her still stood the closed doors. It dawned on her then, where she was. And what this place represented.

Valtor and her.

They have always shared a link. For as long as she knew of him, she could feel him. Whenever he was close, she knew it before she saw him. And he somehow had access to her head. Maybe this was it. A bridge between their minds.

Was this how he was keeping her alive while she was rotting in Omega?

She walked through the bundle of shadows, passing each one without a second glance before coming to a stop in front of Valtor's gate. She pressed a hand against it and could feel it, his power radiating all over it. He was guarding it profusely, probably had trained how to do it too.

An idea sparked to life in her head.

It was a lousy attempt but if it worked she'd have an upper hand. At least for a little while.

So she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It was easier in here somehow, to reach for the core of her powers. She saw the Dragon in its darkness-consumed state with eyes fully open as if it was waiting. Instead of placing a hand on it, Bloom leaned all the way in and brushed her lips against its head.

"Will you help me?" she asked quietly.

The Dragon slowly curled around her, as if they were one. She was back at the doors, but with a power running across her fingertips. But she wasn't done. It would never work with just her flame. Because now there were other parts of her that needed her too.

She turned back to the shadows and extended her hand.

"You're not alone," she mused quietly.

The shadow figure, that looked almost human stepped forward a few feet away. She took a step forward and let the shadow take her hand.

Two forces, not entirely joined within her, but each with the same purpose now flooded inside her soul. She concentrated, allowing the power to flow to her palms and a sphere to appear. It was a beautiful shade of maroon, red and grey.

Bloom smiled.

And hauled it directly at the doors to Valtor's mind.

For a second nothing happened and defeat echoed in her bones.

But then the doors shook.

Valtor took a step away from her, as if burnt while she found herself completely free of any ice.

"An apt pupil you are," he said with a smirk. Maybe he could tell, Bloom wasn't sure. He didn't say or showed he knew. He only stood there.

But Bloom's heart filled with happiness unlike any she felt in months.

It wasn't much in any sense. But it was something.

And that something meant everything.

She had a term, a name. Hers to cherish until she found out more.

Obsidian.