Chapter 5

The mental signal grew stronger and stronger and Riven became slower and slower at the same time. Only an hour ago, it had seemed like a good idea to go and see Darcy. Now, with every step, he doubted it more. Could Darcy even go back? And did she want to?

Even if she still had feelings for him, did that guarantee that she would join them? For years, the Trix had only cared about one thing. Power. Would Darcy simply turn down the chance that Valtor offered them? For him?

Of course, the Winx now had the power of the Water Stars, with which they could defeat Valtor... and yet. Darcy had never known anything other than darkness. The light had always rejected her. Even as a child, darkness was all that could give her support, because the Whisperias had deliberately been denied the path to the light.

A final bend came into view. Riven felt that Darcy's chambers lay behind them. He took a deep breath and stepped around the corner.

The room, if you could call it that, was sporadically furnished. At least as far as Riven could see in the darkness. A bed, a few small bookshelves. A carpet covered the cold cave floor. Darcy's crystals and a tarot deck shimmered on a small table.

His witch was fast asleep. Her legs were drawn up so that she looked small and fragile. Her hands were formed into a kind of pillow under her head. Riven stepped closer. Out of the corner of his eye, his gaze fell on the tarot cards on her table. He was unfamiliar with the system of laying out the cards. When he was still with Darcy, she had taught him some of the simple systems and sometimes laid out the cards for him. Now he wondered how many lies she had told him and how much she had reinterpreted to fit her plans.

The system that was spread out on Darcy's table looked complicated. Now he noticed that the crystals were also integrated. The crystals and cards all seemed to converge on two cards. The 6 and the 12. The Lovers and The Hanged Man.

If he wasn't mistaken, that was probably a bad omen. From everything he knew, The Hanged Man stood for betrayal. The card with The Lovers next to it made it clear. One would betray the other.

What was I even thinking, Riven thought. Darcy had always been a liar, all her life. Do I really want to risk falling for that again?

He turned to leave. He would get Flora and then get out of here as quickly as possible.

Just as he turned around, a voice behind him asked: "Riven? What are you doing here?"

Shit. Couldn't she have just kept sleeping? Then she would never have known he was there.

Reluctantly, he turned to Darcy. She had sat up. Her long hair wrapped around her like a cloak.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated.

"Something foolish I guess."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's not really smart to come into the lion's den."

"You were never a lion. More like a snake. Or a spider that caught me in its web."

Something in Darcy's expression changed. In an offended voice, she continued: "If that's what you think, what do you want here?"

"I wanted... nevermind."

"Look at me, Riven. Say what you wanted. Or are you afraid I might enchant you?"

Stubbornly, he raised his gaze and looked into her amber eyes. "Would you do it again?"

"I never did," she whispered hoarsely.

And if you had ever really loved me, you would know that. She didn't say it. The fear of final rejection was too great.

"I really loved you."

Darcy froze. Damn, the mental bond. He had heard her thoughts.

"Damn it, Darcy. I think I still do. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. I just don't know if I can believe you anymore. If I ever could."

Riven searched for words, he spoke slowly and weighed each word carefully. "I'm here... because I know... because I think I know that you would come with me if I asked you to."

His gaze fell on the cards again. She followed his gaze.

"But you didn't like what you see."

"Correct."

"Well, me neither. Why do you think I read the cards? Because I... shit, because I've been confused ever since you held me back."

"Darcy, would you come with me if I asked you to? Would you fight Valtor with us?" Riven asked bluntly.

"I can't come with you. Even... even if I wanted to. Too much has happened. It's too late for me to turn back." She lowered her gaze so he wouldn't see the tears glistening in her eyes.

"Listen," he began. "I didn't come alone. Flora is here with me."

She raised her gaze sceptically. "What does that have to do with - "

"That means that I was able to convince Flora that you deserve a second chance and she can convince the rest of the Winx that you deserve a second chance too."

"What about Musa?", Darcy asked seriously.

"This isn't about Musa. It's about you." And about me, he thought.

She looked at him knowingly. Fuck, now he had forgotten the mental bond too.

"Suppose," she began hesitantly, "suppose I agree to this, then only under one condition."

"One condition? You know what position you're in, right?"

"Sure, that's why the condition. The condition is absolute rehabilitation. It must be ensured that all things... all crimes that we... that I have committed in recent years are absolutely void."

Her eyes held his in a spell. Only with great effort could he tear himself away. "I'll talk to Flora - "

"No need," Darcy commented. "She'll be here in a minute."

A moment later, Flora, now back to her normal size, flew around the corner. "Stormy is fast asleep but we have to get out of here. Valtor could notice us at any second."

"She's right," Darcy replied. She stood up and faced Riven. He could see her heart pounding under her negligee. "There is one more condition." Darcy lowered her gaze, took a deep breath and then looked at him again. "Stormy and Icy must be rehabilitated too."

Flora took a sharp breath.

"I'm not leaving without them," said Darcy, a hint of defiance creeping into her voice.

"Do you think Icy wants to be rehabilitated?" Flora breathed.

Darcy chewed on her lower lip. "No, I don't know. But I'll talk to Stormy. As strange as that may sound, she's been more sensible than Icy lately."

Flora gathered all her courage. She was afraid of Darcy, even though she seemed as fragile as a glass ballerina at the moment. "Ever since you came back from the Omega Dimension, Icy seems even... even more cruel than before."

Darcy smiled in pain. "It doesn't just seem that way to you. I hardly recognize her myself, she's become so... well, cold. But that doesn't matter now, leave my sisters to me. You talk to the others. If they don't agree to my conditions, the whole thing is invalid anyway."

Flora was sensitive. That was her strength and her weakness. She sensed the smallest changes in the body language of the person she was talking to and knew exactly how to react so that the other person felt comfortable. But she also tended to question everything and anything, which led to a certain insecurity in her nature. But at that moment she knew for sure that Darcy was telling the truth. It wasn't just her mind that seemed completely exhausted to her... it was obvious that Darcy had been crying shortly before. Her eyes were red and puffy. She had become thin. Her bones were clearly visible under her skin. And she was obviously afraid that the thin thread that Riven had just thrown to her to save her could quickly break again. Darcy was standing on the edge of the abyss and it was only a matter of time before she would lose her footing.

So Flora approached Darcy and put a hand on her shoulder. Almost in a friendly way. "I'll convince the others, don't worry."

Darcy couldn't bring herself to thank the flower fairy. But she smiled weakly at her and knew that Flora would understand.

Then Darcy looked at Riven. "Go now, before Icy or Valtor notice you."

"I don't like leaving you alone in this state," said Riven.

"I'm afraid you have no other choice."

"Come, Riven. It's getting more dangerous with every second." Flora became small again and floated towards the exit.

Riven reluctantly followed her and left Darcy alone in the darkness.

Icy was in high spirits. She had just completely absorbed the last Water Star in her vacuum crystal. The golden box that she had found in Faragonda's office was now completely empty.

"Well, that's it, you sweet little fairies." Icy enjoyed being sneaky. Especially when your sneakiness could harm those you hated. And she hated the Winx. Every single silly fairy. But most of all Bloom.

Bloom had been just a stupid earth girl and had gotten everything from one moment to the next. A past, a home, a crown. And she had done nothing for it. Because she was a fairy, everything came to her. Fairies always got everything.

Icy remembered a conversation with her mother shortly before Icy turned sixteen.

Malicia Whisperia is lying in her bed. The black velvet curtains seem to smother the whole bed. Icy is holding her mother's pale hand, which is even colder than her own.

Malicia Whisperia is the witch of visions. She can see things that were, things that are, and things that may one day happen. For this reason, she called her eldest daughter to her today.

"Are you still meeting Sky of Erakylon, Isobel?" she asks in a weak voice.

"No," Icy lies. Lying is easy. Easier than the truth, which her terminally ill mother will probably not be able to cope with.

Malicia says nothing. She raises her brown eyes up to the black canopy.

"Isobel," she begins, "you carry the Eternal Ice within you."

"I know," Icy confirms.

"No, no, you don't know. You don't know that it's true."

"That what is true?" Icy grips her mother's hand tighter. Were the rumors true after all? The rumors about Malicia's daughters, who are said to be the ancestors of the three Ancestral Witches? That's nonsense. Their powers are similar, but that's a coincidence. Pure coincidence. A feast for the press, but a coincidence.

"You only have the ice powers because Belladonna had them too."

"No," Icy interrupts her mother, but Malicia ignores her daughter's objection. "You three are the incarnations of the Ancestral Witches, or rather their heirs."

"That can't be, we," Icy begins, "even if our family was related to the three at some point, it can't be - "

"Isobel, you were born first, under Belladonna's blessing. Then came Darcielle, who was born under Liliss, and Beatrix is finally the heir of Tharma."

"How -," Icy begins, but her mother doesn't let her finish. In a torrent of coughs, she says, "It was stupid and it cost me my health. I had hoped to be able to bring our family back to greatness, but it was a mistake. The past is past and now listen to me, Isobel. The three Ancestral Witches must never awaken in you. They would destroy you, drain you, use you for their own purposes and throw you away as soon as you are no longer of any use."

"Darcy," Icy began, speaking louder so that her mother could not interrupt her again. "She has always had nightmares, but recently they have been getting worse. She says that someone appears in her dreams and forces her to do things." Icy thinks of the incident at the academy recently. Through sheer force of will, Darcy had made a girl who had made fun of the Whisperias fall down the stairs. It was still not clear whether the girl would survive.

"She was back. This person, that comes into my nightmares. She has been coming so often lately and then she torments me with nightmares until I agree to do what she wants. But why? Why does she do this and who is she?" Darcy had asked desperately. Icy hadn't known, she had only consoled her younger sister until her tears had dried up. It wasn't the first incident of this kind, Darcy's entire life had been filled with "outbursts," as the teachers called them. And now Icy knows who was pulling the strings behind her sister's mind. Liliss, the witch of darkness, had cast her shadow over Darcy.

Malicia nods and then has another coughing fit. Her black hair sticks to her forehead, wet with sweat. "There's only one way you can keep the witches out."

"What can I do?" Icy asks determinedly.

"You must never go to Cloud Tower."

"What?" Icy asks, astonished. "But we're witches, all the female members of our family went to Cloud Tower - "

"No," Malicia interrupts, "all three of you will go to Alfea."

Icy snorts contemptuously.

"You will go to Alfea, study white magic and become fairies, and so suppress the Ancestral Witches within you. If they ever break out of you, Isobel, then you are lost."

The conversation had been over four years ago. Malicia was dead and her daughters had never gone to Alfea, never become fairies and had inflamed the fire that their ancestors had been igniting in them for years.

Maybe everything would have been different if Icy had swallowed her pride and went to Alfea when she was sixteen. Maybe the Whisperias would have been rehabilitated long ago because all three daughters turned out to be model students at Alfea.

Icy had not been the only one who had rebelled against Alfea. Stormy was destructive, she could not do anything with the peace and control in Alfea. And Darcy... Year after year, Darcy became more entangled in the dark waves of black magic. She perfected her mental magic and developed remarkable skills in the dark arts. Icy wondered how much of this commitment came from Darcy herself and how much Liliss's influence had to do with it.

Icy clenched her hand into a fist and the vacuum crystal disappeared. But none of that mattered now. They, the Trix, were stronger than ever and as soon as Valtor was in power, he would equip them with new powers again. For years, Icy had told herself that they just had to get stronger to keep Belladonna, Liliss and Tharma out of their minds. No one would ever dominate her, Icy. No one.

And as soon as Valtor had snuffed out the Winx's light, Icy would take care of Eraklyon. She would put an end to Erendor's pathetic rule and the Whisperias would rule the planet as it should be. She would be Eraklyon's Queen and everyone would kneel before her. All the damned nobles of Eraklyon who hadn't given a damn about the Whisperias but laughed at them at most.

It's almost time, Icy thought and disappeared. All that was left behind were a few ice crystals that slowly fell to the ground.