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Chapter Text

The powerful fairy of the dragon flame, savior of the magix dimension, and leader of the Winx, was laying on the floor of the bathroom like a child. Bloom’s knees huddled to her chest as tears fell from her eyes. She was crotched on the floor of the castle of Domino’s many bathrooms, the only sound coming from her was the quiet sobs of disbelief. A pregnancy test she gripped in her shaking hand. It was positive, the plus sign was a bad omen to her.

Bloom should be happy, excited, elated but she wasn’t feeling any of those things. She was afraid. Her hands were shaking, her heart was racing, tears, snot, and mascara were running down her face. She sniffled at the thought of Stella making some comment about what a mess she must look and would encourage her to push through this. Bloom was supposed to be a princess, but all she was right now was a scared little girl.

At first, it had felt like a dream when she found out she was a fairy. Meeting Stella, going to Alfea, befriending the other Winx girls, fighting against witches, it made her feel alive and free from the boring, ordinary life she had on Earth. She had mastery of one of the greatest forces in the entire universe and was revered as a hero of the dimension, saving it multiple times. Even her love life was like a fairy tale. Her boyfriend was the greatest guy in the universe, he was kind, loyal, sweet, and brave. Sure, they had their trials and fights, but they always made it through in the end. He was like a Prince Charming straight out from her storybooks. 

Bloom became a princess, the guardian fairy of Eraklyon, and the fiancé to Prince Sky of Eraklyon. Now she was on her way to becoming the future queen of Eraklyon, an entire planet with its responsibilities and duties now rested on her shoulders. Not just that, the entire Magix dimension seem to depend on her to put down her life continuously to stop threats over and over without any break. She thought she could handle it, but she began to be pulled in different directions, a raggedy old doll being pulled around and tearing at the seams.

“Bloom! The kingdom of Andros is under attack by a raging Kraken!”

“Your majesty! We need your input on this decree.”

“The queen of Callisto requests your presence during the next meeting to discuss…”

It was never enough, there was always something or someone in need of her. Magix needed their hero, their fairy of the dragon flame, their almighty savior. Bloom barely had time to herself, had time to breathe. The princess was always tired, always exhausted, always fighting someone else’s battle.

Now she was to bring a child into the same world that she was struggling to live in. 

“It’s too soon, it’s too soon.” Bloom croaked out, “I don’t-I can’t-I-I can’t do this.” She broke down crying again. No one knew yet, she couldn’t call them, not now, not when she hadn’t seen them in months. The Winx rarely got together like they used to. The girls were preoccupied with their own lives. Both Stella as well as Aisha had their royal duties, Musa had soared across the dimension with her music career, Tecna had started up her own tech corporation with Timmy, and Flora had gone into teaching, not to mention she was recently appointed as Queen Krystal’s advisor. The Winx weren’t as close as everyone thought they were, not anymore. 

And Sky, he was busy with his own duties and brushed off her feelings. He wouldn’t understand anyway, he was born and raised to be a king. He understood the responsibilities of being royalty, he had adapted to his role more than she had. She loved Sky, she loved him so much, but there were times that they couldn’t connect, couldn’t see eye to eye.

Maybe that’s why the relationship had been failing and how easy it was for him to sneak in.

Valtor: the traitor of the Company of Light, dark wizard, the demon of Domino. The man who played a part in imprisoning her birth parents and cursing her sister, She was able to get them back months later. but at the time, her hatred and anger towards the wizard was genuine. In her eyes, he had taken everything from her; her birth parents, Daphne, Domino. 

But then the unexpected happened, they fell in love. It was like a hurricane of little moments of passion, hidden away in dark corners and shadows. She wasn’t sure who made the first move, but everytime they met, even with the rest of the Winx or the Trix, it was always just him and her. 

It broke her heart to see the monster, that winged demon, that creature in the place of her love. Her hands were still shaking, tears falling down her face, after using her magic on him. Her friends had thought it was fear. It wasn’t, it was despair. Valtor was dead, only he left behind a piece of him on her.

Bloom was raised to be ordinary, she was raised by two amazing people: Mike and Vanessa Peters. That girl liked to read fantasy novels, draw fairies in the margins of her notebook, and rode her bike all over Gardenia. What happened to her? What happened to that girl? The dreams she had of being an artist, living on the coast and drawing for money? Before her only problems were boy troubles and preparing for college? When was the last time she saw her adoptive parents? Sure, Oritel and Marion were nice, but they didn’t raise her like the Peters did. To her, the couple from Earth would be her real parents. When did the whole universe decide for her who she was meant to be? 

The red head looked down at her clothed stomach, “I can’t do that to you too.” 

Bloom knew what had to be done, she could no longer stay in a place that placed her on a pedestal. 

Even if it meant leaving everyone she knew behind her.

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~16 Years Later~

————————————

Michelle groaned as she looked at her latest science exam. A big red 58 was marked at the very top of the piece of paper along multiple red xs over the wrong answers. She really thought she understood the material this time. She groaned as she laid on her bed, letting the piece of paper fall from her hand. She was an okay student, she got average grades, did her homework, and was pretty good when it came to playing soccer on the high school team. Yet some subjects like science, she just couldn’t grasp. 

Her teachers would say she was in her head too much, daydreaming and fantasizing. The margins of her notebooks were evidence of that, filled with poorly drawn creatures and humans with wings. When she was younger, her teachers used to smile and praise her vivid imagination. Now all they wanted was for her to get her head out of the clouds. 

The young teenager’s phone buzzed as a message illuminated the screen. 

“Hey, girl. You ready for the party tonight?”

Michelle groaned again, she forgot to ask her mom about that. 

“Forgot to ask my mom, will let you know.”

”Text me back after you talk to the warden.” Michelle rolled her eyes at her friend’s comment. Her mom wasn’t that bad. Sure, she could be overprotective at times. She had an earlier curfew than most kids, her mom always made sure she had her phone whenever she went out, and she still drove her to school (so embarrassing).

But it wasn’t like her mom unscrewed her door or deranged over her being corrupted by her friends like some other parents. Though Michelle knew it was going to be tough to convince her mom to let her go to this party. She didn’t even let her hang out with friends for more than a few hours. Even sleepovers had been a pain as she would have to leave the house early in the morning or have them at her own house.

Michelle crumpled up the test then threw it to the trash before exiting her room. 

“Mom?” She peeked her head throughout the various rooms of their house before catching the sight of her mom’s red orange hair.

”Hey, honey. Could you grab the paprika from the spice cabinet?” The older woman smiled as she cut up some vegetables and put them into a boiling pot.

”Sure.” Michelle nodded and opened one of the kitchen cabinets, “There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“There’s this party at Stacy’s beach house, and I was invited to go along with the other freshmen.” She nervously fiddled with the paprika container. “I was wondering if I could go?”

Bloom stopped stirring and looked at her daughter confused, “I thought you didn’t enjoy those parties, you’ve never shown an interest before.”

“I just thought I should give it a try, plus it’s the last summer party before the sophomore year starts.” Michelle nervously explained.

”Do I know anyone who’s going to this party?”

”There’s Valerie, she’s driving us there.”

The woman frowned, ”The same Valerie who attempted the 360 sliding challenge in the living room? And broke my favorite painting?”

“Since when do you have TikTok?” 

“I may be in my 30s, but I know what the internet is.” Her mother chuckled, “I’m not that ancient.”

”Right, there’s also Aaron.”

Bloom furrowed her brow at that name, ”Didn’t he blow up the mailbox with fireworks during the last Fourth of July party?”

Okay, maybe not the best example, “That was an accident, he apologized and we got a new mailbox in the process.”

”Right.” Her mother wasn’t convinced.

”So I don’t hang out with the smartest people.” Michelle shrugged her shoulders, “But I really want to go to this party, so could I please go?”

””No.” With that single word, all of Michelle’s hopes instantly died.

“Why not? Other kids get to go to parties, stay out late, sleep over at their friends house. Why not me?”

“I just get worried at the thought of you out in the night all alone.” Bloom sighed, “What if you get hurt? Or you can’t call me?”

“You keep saying that, but I just feel like you want to protect me from nothing.” Michelle could feel her anger building as she clenched her fists,“It’s not fair, I’m 16! Yet you treat me like a little kid!”

”Michelle-“

“If dad was still here, he wouldn’t treat me like a prisoner in my house!“ Michelle shouted, “I hate you!”

There was a silence between the two in the kitchen, the only sound came from the boiling pot.

”Michelle…” The strawberry blonde haired girl ran off before Bloom could reach out to her.

The red head winced at the slamming of her daughter’s bedroom door. She hated to admit it, but her daughter was growing up. Her daughter’s cutesy room had been painted over to an environment more fit for a teenager. Band posters littered the walls, pictures of herself as well as her friends hung along the desk, and the flowers had been repainted over to a simple lavender wall.

Bloom sighed, she had made the right decision, right? She would ask herself that question over and over the years. The redhead wants to believe she did, after all she was giving her daughter the life she was robbed of. A normal life, one where she doesn’t have to worry about fighting evil forces, suffocating royal duties, or even classes on magic. She couldn’t help but worry and fret that someone had followed her, followed them back to Earth. She had changed her name, her identity, even changed her hair for a few years out of paranoia and fear. 

The woman glanced at a photo of a younger version of herself and a five year old Michelle. There should be three people in the picture, not two. But the universe had not been that kind to her.

”If only you were here.” She whispered, as she held the framed picture. 

“Maybe things would be different.”

Michelle couldn’t take it. Her room had become suffocating. She could feel the tears streaming down her face as she browsed through post after post. Her friends on vacations, smiling faces of birthday parties that she had missed, late night hangouts that looked fun, all because her mother said no.

Her phone screen lit up as it rang.

“So how did it go?” Valerie asked.

“She shot it down.”

“Seriously? Man, she’s got a tight grip on you.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Michelle murmured.

“That bad, huh?”

“We may have gotten a little too heated.”

“You know what you should do?” Valerie lowered her voice to a whsiper on the other side, “You should sneak out.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Michelle had never thought about that before. She had never disobeyed her mom before, so sneaking out never crossed her mind.

“I’ve done it multiple times. You just need to get back before she notices you are gone.”

“I don’t know…I’ve never-“

“Well, that’s your choice, I mean you’re just going to a party, what’s the harm?” 

Michelle thought about it for a few seconds. Could she do it? Could she defy her mom? She wasn’t a bad kid or rebellious. Michelle never crossed that line before. Could she even take a step towards it, much less cross it?

After what felt like an eternity, when really it was a few seconds, she responded, “Okay, I’ll meet you around the back.”

“Awesome! You won’t regret this, it’ll be a blast.” The call ended, leaving Michelle in the dark room.

The strawberry blonde haired girl hurried to change into something more fitting for the party. She just hoped her mom didn’t try to open the door while she was making her escape.

Michelle had never snuck out before, so her first time hadn’t been exactly…graceful. 

“Oof!” She had crawled out of the window and attempted to scale the wall, key word being attempted. If it wasn’t for the flower bushes cushioning her fall, she would have ended up breaking a bone or two.

In the darkness, she looked around and saw a familiar blue convertible cruising by her house. 

”Come on, get in.” Valerie waved her over, and opened the passenger seat for her. In the faint light of the car, Michelle could see Valerie had her dark hair stylized into a braid and was wearing a cute top with shorts. “So how are you feeling after your first break out?”

”Please don’t call it that.” Michelle was already starting to feel bad, glancing at the still open window of her bedroom.

”Don’t worry about it, we’ll be back before your mom even knows you’re gone.” Valerie ignited the engine of her car, causing a rumble under Michelle’s seat as they sped off down the street.

“I’m surprised you were able to get an invitation, doesn’t Stacy hate you?” 

“We don’t hate each other, we just dislike each other’s guts with a passion.” Valerie shrugged, “I think the only reason she invited me was because she’s dating my brother.” 

“I don’t know how Jason even stands her.” 

“Exactly! I mean what does he even see in her!?” Valerie groaned then shook her head, “But anyway, tonight we’re going to have some fun!”

Michelle nodded though she had a sinking feeling, riled up butterflies flying around in her stomach. She shook those thoughts away as her ponytail whipped around in the open wind.

Tonight, she was going to have some fun.

Chapter Text

Bloom hated the silence that echoed through the house, it made her uneasy. Raising Michelle wasn’t easy, especially on her own and without any support. She had thought about going back to Gardenia multiple times, but the thought of crossing her parents, Roxy, Andy, or even Selina made her more afraid than facing any evil force in the Magix dimension. 

So she ran like a coward to Los Angeles. She got a decent paying job, took some classes, (Earth colleges didn’t take Alfea transcripts or princesses who hadn’t even finished public high school). all the while taking care of Michelle. Bloom had built a life for herself, a life for her daughter away from all the crazy shenanigans, magic hijinks, and the drama of being Bloom, fairy of the dragon flame. Every year, it always felt like there was someone out to get her or one of her loved ones. After a couple of years on Earth, she stopped feeling restless, stopped waking up in the middle of the night to check the security alarm or the minor protection spells around their small house. Bloom finally felt safe, relaxed.

“Michelle?” The woman knocked several times on her daughter’s door, “Michelle, please talk to me.”

She sighed when she heard only silence.

”I don’t expect you to listen to me, but just let me speak, okay?” Bloom leaned her head against the door, “Things were tough when your father passed away. Barely no one had known I had been with him and my parents had a complicated history with his family.” She couldn’t stay in Domino, Daphne would never forgive her for it. Then there was Oritel and Marion, they didn’t need to know that their own child, the daughter that had saved them from the Ancestral Witches had also betrayed them.

”I was in a bad place and my friends…they wouldn’t have understood.” Bloom shuddered at the thought of the rest of her friends confronting her. She didn’t want to think about Stella shouting at her or Musa giving her the cold shoulder. So many of her friends were hurt by that man, she didn’t want to imagine how they would react if they knew about her child. She had only told one person, the only person who would offer her kindness in her darkest hour. But she wasn’t even sure if she would even take her back now.

”I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just a girl, who had been pulled out of what felt like a fairy tale and into having you without anyone to support me.”

“So can I please come in?” She started to turn the handle when there was a series of knocks coming from the front door. Bloom turned her head and walked towards it. That’s when she felt it, her protection spells silent alarm went off in her mind. They had been shut off by someone else.

”Bloom, Princess Bloom of Domino?” 

”No, I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong house, My name is Veronica.” She said from the other side, her hands trembling, her face going pale. If she had been younger, she would have been more than happy to take on whoever was on the other side. But she wasn’t that spunky fairy anymore and she had to think about her daughter who was still in her room just upstairs. She couldn’t allow Michelle to be in the crossfires.

The person on the other side chuckled, “Don’t deny who you truly are, holder of the Dragon Flame.”

That was the last thing she heard before the front door was blasted open and she was thrown across the room by the force of the blast. Crack! Her head hit the countertop, Bloom’s vision went blurry.

The fairy attempted to summon a fireball, the familiar heat running through her veins and to her hand. It flew through the air but it hit the wall. Bloom hadn’t casted a spell in years, and the first time she did, it missed.

She felt her vision go dark as she succumbed to her head injury. Her last thoughts were of Michelle and that she got out in time.

Through the busted up door, a trio of figures entered the house. Broken glass crunched along thick boots, scanning their surroundings. Each of them wore black slick cloaks with narrow streaks of fuchsia, violet, and dark blue on their clothing.

”You would think she would put up more of a fight, being the legendary hero she was.” The brawniest of the trio tsked, his face concealed with a fuchsia mask that had lightning marks on it. 

”Show some respect, Stratos.” The black and violet cloaked assailant snapped at her teammate, the mask muffled her feminine voice, “She still holds the power of the Great Dragon.” Her heated eyes were narrowed beneath a black mask with a purple skull on it. Unlike her teammates, she was the only one floating, hovering a few inches off the ground.

”Still, it feels too easy, you know?” Stratos grumbled, kicking some debris out of the way, “I wanted to fight a powerful legend, not some middle aged bat.”

”You were the one who blew the door open.” She pointed a black gloved hand at him, “I told you I could have snuck in and surprised her while you two ambushed from the front.”

“Yeah, but my way was more effective.” He said pridefully.

“More like defective.” She tsked.

”Both of you shut it.” Their leader snapped, wearing a dark blue mask with white icicle shards on it, “Search the house, make sure there are no witnesses.”

”Not it.” Stratos quickly raised his hand, making the woman groan as she floated up the stairs. The leader made some chains appear out of thin air and latched them to the unconscious woman.

”So…did the higher ups say what they wanted with her?” Stratos glanced over his shoulder, glancing the unconscious red haired woman.

”That’s none of your concern.”

”They didn’t inform me or Melly on what they wanted from her. Only to you, their special little snowflake.” Stratos said the last part in a mocking tone.

A small ice shard splintered the floor and nicked Stratos in the cheek. 

”Are you questioning them? Questioning our saviors?” He hissed out. Despite the room’s size, Stratos was feeling claustrophobic and small under his leader’s gaze. Even though Stratos was taller than him by a few inches, he still shivered. 

“Of course not, Frost.” Stratos shuddered as the room’s temperature lowered drastically.

“Good, now grab her and take her back to the hideout.”

Stratos pulled Bloom over his shoulders and vanished from sight with a thunderous effect behind him. 

”Melinoe, report.”

“No one else is here, Frost.” The black and dark purple clothed woman responded, “There’s a girl’s room, but there is no one there.” She held a stuffed blue rabbit then tossed it to him.

”She’s not our mission. We just need the fairy of the dragon flame, not some kid.” Polar sneered at the stuffed animal, then slashed through it with an icy claw. The soft remains and stuffing of the animal fell to the floor as they began to walk into the shadows.

As they disappeared into the darkness, neither of them noticed the pink piece of paper that had been hidden under the couch.

Michelle didn’t want to go through the front door, but she didn’t really want to climb through the window again. She had a fun time at the party, dancing, drinking punch (she was 65% sure it was not fruit punch, but alcohol), and hanging out with her friends. Though she was confused when the door was unlocked and already open.

”Mom…?” She slightly opened it, “Look, I know you’re probably mad, but…” Her eyes went wide as she took in the living room, it had become a war zone. 

“Mom! Mom!?” The girl shouted again and again as she ran through the house, desperately searching through the house for her mother.

”I’m sorry, I’m sorry I went out without your permission, I’m sorry! It won’t happen again!” This had to be a joke, a stupid joke or a prank on her. Soon enough her mom would come out and scold her on not sneaking out. Yeah, any minute now, any minute she would step out and surprise her. So she sat on one of the few undamaged chair and waited….and waited.

”This isn’t funny, mom.” Michelle choked out between her tears. The reality had kicked in, her mom had been kidnapped and she wasn’t home to help her. 

The strawberry blonde haired girl searched through the remains of the living room, she put the kitchen chairs back into place, though one had now become wood chipper fuel, so she side stepped the woody remains.

“It’s like a bomb exploded in here.” She noted as bits of black and ash scorched the furniture.

What’s this?” Michelle saw something hidden under the turned over sofa. It was a folded up piece of paper, slightly singed and burnt. It was bright pink and the words “In case of emergency.” was written in maker. She unfolded it. The damaged piece of paper showed a map of a pink building with blue towers and a vast forest surrounding it. On one of the corners, golden letters spelled out the word, ALFEA. She began to flipped it around, wondering what was so important about a pink map. 

Why did her mom have this? It was beautifully drawn, but felt out of place in their house. She had never seen this before or heard of ‘Alfea.’ As she looked closer, the girl noticed writing on one of the farthest corners.

‘To B, I know you may never want to come back to Magix, not after what happened, but you will always have a home here. I give you this in the hopes that one day we can be friends again. From your dearest, F.’ It was written in beautiful cursive. Michelle was confused by this, she didn’t know any of her mom’s friends with the first letter F in their name.

“Alfea traiceret?” She read out the words written onto the bottom of the map.

Suddenly, the map flew out of her hand and landed on the floor, spreading itself and smoothing out the creases in its corners. The map began to flow and shimmer, moving like the gentle waters of a lake. Michelle stepped towards it with hesitation.

What if her mom used this to escape? If her mom was able to use this, then maybe she’s on the other side of where this goes? Michelle knew she wouldn’t be able to find anything among the ash and rubble of her ruined living room. Maybe her mother would be waiting for her, unharmed and safe. It was the best outcome she could think of. She didn’t want to think of the possible worst case scenario.

The girl mentally prepared for her departure as she inched towards the floating piece of paper, “On three, one…two…three!” 

She jumped into the map, vanishing from the room in a blink of an eye. The map folded itself, returning to the state it was when it had been first found.

Chapter Text

Michelle screamed as she flew fast through a wave-like technicolor dream. All around her, colors and lights bombarded her vision. She began wondering how long she would be in this vibrantly colorful vortex for or where she was heading. The portal dropped her in the middle of the sky. She now found herself falling through the sky several feet from the ground.

“Trees! Trees! Trees!” The strawberry blonde began panicking as she noticed the forest she was descending in. She could only hope for a safe landing as she tumbled and scraped her way until she met the hard grassy ground.

“I’m never going skydiving ever.” The strawberry blonde haired girl hissed as she noticed bruises and scraps on her arms and legs. Fortunately there were no broken bones or major blood loss from the fall, that was a win in her book. She stood up and looked around at her surroundings. It looked like a forest. She thought she would arrive at that Alpha-Alfea place? Only to end up in the woods? She noticed something in the distance, it looked like a building. That was a good sign because a building could mean that people had to be close by and that meant she could find a phone. Her current phone was cracked and unresponsive, staring at a blank black screen.

“Great, just great.” Michelle groaned, beginning her hike through the trees.

As she walked, glowing colorful mushrooms illuminated along the forest floor, small critters that looked as if they jumped out of a children’s storybook, and other otherworldly sights. Several blue furred rabbits hopped in front of her. It was as if she was on another planet. But she still had to be on Earth. Yeah, she still had to be on Earth. 

Her doubts were doubled as she noticed a deer with green fur, its antler having moss and mushrooms sprouting from the roots. Michelle froze as they stared at each other, the deer made the first move and ran off.

The girl needed to stay focused, she couldn’t get distracted by her new surroundings. She would end up more lost than before. Her eyes focused on the structure and began walking towards it. She could feel her feet start to get sore as she walked closer and closer to it.  The exhausted girl had sighed in relief when she exited the forest and onto an actual concrete road. 

Only to dive out of the way as a bus nearly hit her. 

“Watch where you’re driving!” Michelle huffed as she scraped off the dust and dirt from her clothes that she had created when she fell. As the bus drove off into the distance, she noticed something was off about the bus. It had no wheels, it was floating, hovering off the ground. She had to be seeing things, buses didn’t float.

“I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore.” Michelle pulled herself up and began walking again. 

After what felt like hours, Michelle began to notice the details of the building a lot closer. It was a castle on the side of the cliff. It was a dark purple color with mist surrounding it. It had towers spiraling out into the sky. The castle looked as if it was built straight out of a gothic horror novel.

“Well, it’s better than being stranded outside.” She kept her eyes on the castle and started walking towards it. Her feet began to get sore as she grew closer and closer to it. If she didn’t at least gain some leg muscles from all the walking she was doing, then they were going to turn into jelly soon.

Then she noticed that said castle was floating several feet off of the ground.

”Oh come on!!” She cried out in frustration, “Are you kidding?! Who designed this place?!”

Luckily, she found some loose vines hanging off the side and began climbing.

”Just think of this like climbing the rope during P.E., except slimier and more dangerous.” Michelle muttered to herself as she continued climbing.

After way too much arm and leg work, the strawberry blonde haired girl arrived at what appeared to be the front entrance.The front gate in question was made to resemble black spiky thorns that opened inward and was covered in beautifully frightening flowers and fake bones (she hoped they were fake). She pushed on them, the gates creaking slightly and she was able to make her way inside. The place was dreary, dark hallways that went for miles with lamps lightening up. She found herself glancing at reflection and was almost startled by her own appearance. Her strawberry blonde hair now had dead leaves, twigs poking out of it and her face had smudges of mud in it.

“Great, just great.” She groaned as she attempted to rearrange her hair, removing a sticky piece of bark from her hair.

“Young lady, you are in a lot of trouble.” A bone thin and pale woman with a stern face stared at her with a scrutinizing glare.

“I’m sorry?”

“The rest of the freshmen are already in the amphitheater.” The woman took in her disheveled appearance with a repulsed expression, “You must have the brain of a squirrel to have found yourself in the west wing.”

“What? Freshmen?” She looked around, confused. Was this not a castle? 

The woman looked at her with a scrutinized gaze, “Don’t play dumb with me, girl. You’re already late for orientation as it is.”

She did remember falling to the ground during the attack, her head throbbing in pain. Perhaps this was all a dream and she was in the hospital with her mother watching over her as she slept. Any minute now, she’d wake up with a pounding headache in a hospital bed.

“Come with me now.” Michelle winced at the cold grip of the woman as she grabbed her by the arm. It was definitely not a dream. With how strong and painful the woman’s nails dug into her skin, she surely would have woken up by now.

“Hold on, this is all a mistake! I’m not supposed to be here!”

“That’s what they all say.” The woman looked unimpressed or swayed by her words, “You wouldn’t be the first witch to try and flee during orientation.”

“Witch? First day? Orientation?! What was this woman talking about? “I’m not a witch! My name is Michelle and I come from Los Angeles, California!”

“That’s nice, but it won’t help you, Michael.”

“It’s Michelle, not Michael.”

“Yes, that’s what I said, Mia.”

She struggled and fought against the bony woman’s squeeze on her, but it was pointless with the inhuman grip she had over her. The woman opened a door with a flick of her wrist and pushed Michelle inside.

“Hey! Let me out! You can’t keep me here! I just want to find my mo-” She stopped yelling when she realized she wasn’t the only person in the room.

An entire room of teenage girls staring at her. 

Rows and rows of girls glaring at her judgmentally like a germ under a microscope. They all looked at her as if she was crazy, which judging by her messy appearance, could be partially true in their eyes.

Her face flushed with embarrassment as she tiptoed to an empty seat. 

  “Sorry, sorry, excuse me.” She whispered, the other girls either ignored her or stared at her as she scooted her way to an empty seat in the bottom row. The chair was soft and was a lot more comfortable than the plastic ones at her high school. Hours of listening to the principal drone on and on, it always made her sleepy which was impossible to do with how stiff the chairs were. But with these chairs? Michelle could drift off to dreamland very easily, too easily. Her ears were drawn to the conversations going on around her.

“So what do you think of my hair? Wicked, right?”

“How many freshmen do you think are going to chicken out during the first week?”

“Blondie over there looks like one of those swamp witches from Linphea, probably just as crazy as one too.” Okay, that one was definitely directed at her and they didn’t seem to care that she had heard it.

Silence came over the amphitheater as a woman with dark purple hair with silver streaks in an intricate hairstyle stood on the podium, her voice reverberating off the walls like a microphone. “Arriving freshmen of Cloud Tower. You all know me as headmistress Griffin. You have all made it pass the basic administration process and been accepted to our prestigious school. But that doesn’t make you a true witch.”

The woman eyed each and every one of them with a pointed gaze, “It takes blood, sweat, and tears to become a true witch. It may take weeks, months, even years to achieve a level of wickedness as your predecessors. Not all of you will make it to your senior year.” Headmistress Griffin eyed her audience, trying to sense weakness among their ranks, “Some of you may drop out or and seek out other opportunities, easier opportunities. The life of a witch is not for the faint of heart.” 

“But those who stand strong and firm in your convictions, you will achieve all you desire and more.” The woman’s smile could be taken as reassuring, only it came off as creepy and unsettling to Michelle.

 “As headmistress of Magix’s first and oldest Witch Academy in the Magix Academy, I welcome all of you to your first year at Cloud Tower.”

While the rest of the audience clapped, Michelle paled upon understanding the headmistress’ words. 

She was at a school for witches, real witches.

This had to be a nightmare, a bad dream. Witches couldn’t exist, this had to be some religious school or cult organization, there was no way witches could be real. Witches were just stories, fantasy, make believe, they weren’t real. Witches couldn’t be real, right?

“As many of you might know, Cloudtower evaluates its students by putting them through a test. You will fight a shapeshifter that will take the form of a creature it believes you can handle. This is to ensure you’re placed in the right level of classes at the beginning of the year.” She explained as a mirror was rolled out in the middle of the room. Its surface wasn’t clear, rather a black inkinesss that showed no light or reflection.

“During the year, you may advance to a higher level throughout the year, or find yourself falling to a lower level. Now, are there any volunteers?” No one moved a single muscle.

Griffin sighed, “I see, alphabetically by last name.”

Michelle wasn’t sure what this test was about, no one else was freaking out so maybe this was normal?

“Vivian Aagaard.” A girl with dark pink  hair stood up and stepped into the circle. Griffin paused to wave her hand and a faint glowing dome surrounded the circle, protecting the other students. The girl touched the mirror, the surface began to rumble and bubble over like a boiling pot that got too hot and over flowed. The blackness twisted and withered onto the ground, various noises and limbs contorted out from the thing.

Until it morphed into the form of a wolf with tree bark for flesh and evergreen leaves instead of fur. It let out a roar before pouncing on her.

The dark pink haired girl ducked out of the way then her hands began to glow, “Aria of Dissolution!”

The wolf then faltered as it was smashed to the ground by an invisible force, its wooden limbs turning into splinters upon the impact of the shrieks.

”Honors class.” Headmistress Griffin announced. 

“Cool, right?” One of her seatmates noted.

Michelle didn’t think it was cool, it was terrifying. It made her stomach roll. What kind of school did she end up in?

Chapter Text

More names were being called, but Michelle wasn’t registering them or their faces. All she could do is stare in awe and horror as beast after beast was taken down with spells. Some used nets, illusions, crackling fire, and other elements that made her feel queasy. How in the world did they expect her to beat a monster without magic? Maybe if she explained her situation, then they would let her off? Yeah, the headmistress seemed reasonable enough. She just had to talk to her and she won’t have to face a monster straight out of a horror movie.

“Hey, you good?” Michelle flinched as she felt someone gently touch her shoulder. It was a witch with straight dark green hair and dark blue eyes. Like everyone else, she wore dark colors which clashed with Michelle’s bright slightly ruined outfit that she had wore for the summer party.

“Am I that obvious?” 

”I get that, my moms told me it’s all for show, you just need to immobilize it long enough for the headmistress to assign you a class level.” She made it sound so simple.

”I’m not…” 

“Ivy Smokes.”

”That’s my cue, you’ll do great, swamp girl.” The dark green haired girl stood up and approached the mirror. The shapeshifter took the form of…a big pumpkin? It had vine-like tendrils that whipped around the arena and a jack-o-lantern face that changed expressions. For what Michelle had seen, these tests seemed to range from disturbing to just plain goofy. Maybe she’ll get lucky and fight a giant fluff ballball.

“Double Trouble.” Ivy waved her hand in front of her face and several copies of herself appeared. The living gourd kept trying to take out the original but it wasn’t smart enough to figure out the real from the illusion. Ivy was able to defeat the pumpkin easily as it got tired out by the Ivy fakes.

“Hmm, standard classes.” Ivy shrugged in response to the headmistress’ assessment then stepped off the arena.

Soon enough, it was just Michelle left. The headmistress staring right at the girl, making her tense up, “Our late arrival.”

Michelle awkwardly stood up, she could feel everyone’s eyes on her as well as hear snickering from behind her.

”Ma’am-I mean headmistress, I’m not supposed to be…” An invisible force then pushed her into the arena, not even giving her a chance to speak.

”You’ll get your chance, just like everyone else.” Griffin said with an stern expression.

”I don’t have much of a choice, don’t I?” 

“You could always step out and be expelled from Cloud Tower for the school year.” Okay, that seemed harsh. So it was either stay and fight or be pushed out back into the wilderness? Michelle sighed and stepped towards the mirror. She was praying it was something small  and easy to catch. Like a bunny, bunnies were easy and fluffy and cute and fluffy. The mirror took a few seconds, as the blackness formed a shape.

It was a giant blue monster. A giant blue dark haired two legged creature with a giant club over its shoulder and yellow eyes. There were murmurs and whispers from the surrounding witches, even the headmistress raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“A hunting troll from the far reaches of Magix, interesting.” Griffin hadn’t seen many of those during an placement test.

“Get me out of here!!” Michelle screamed as she was chased by the giant troll. Some seemed to be amused by her running around like a headless chicken, laughing at her fear in the bleachers. Though Michelle was not laughing, she was terrified. How the heck was she supposed to fight that?!

“Nope, I’m not becoming food for a giant hairy Smurf!!” She ducked out of the way as it tried to swing its club, only for it to hit the forcefield with a loud wham!

There wasn’t anywhere she could hide, no tables, no chairs or anything. She was trapped in a gladiator ring with a giant troll. it swung its club again, she wasn’t fast enough to dodge it this time. The club came crashing down just inches from her, making her stumble as the ground shook.

Michelle yelped as the club now blocked her way and she was trapped against the wall.

“No, no, not like this.” Michelle murmured, shaking in fear as the troll began to approach her. It let out a roar as it prepared to strike, raising its club high. 

“Get away from me!!” The girl cried out, her hands began to shimmer an orange hue. 

A wave of fire, heat and light emitted from her. The creature recoiled in shock and fear as the fire hit its body. It began to wail wildly as the flames burned its skin.

“That is enough.” A blast of purple energy caused the shapeshifter turned troll to shriek in pain as it melted away into a black pile of goop.

The clicking of heels could be heard as Headmistress Griffin approached the struggling Michelle. The ice around her foot melted as Griffin flicked her wrist.

“My office now.” Those cold words were all Michelle needed to get up and follow the headmistress.

The headmistress’ office was just as creepy as the rest of Cloud Tower. If intimidation was what Griffin was going for, Michelle was already terrified as she sat in the chair. 

“Let me see if I have this right…you are from the planet Earth, your mother was kidnapped by some unknown force most likely from Magix and you were transported here by a magical map?” Griffin said with a raised eyebrow, staring down Michelle like a predator.

“Well when you say it like that, it sounds…made up.” She mumbled the last part. Was all of this even real? She was still wrapping her head around the fact magic existed and that she was at a school for witches.

“Michelle, was it?” The headmistress said, “I’m afraid there’s very little I can do for your situation.”

“Isn’t there like a magical..police that tracks down missing people?”

“In a way, yes. But getting you back to Earth is much more complicated.” Griffin explained, “Due to certain policies made by the current ruler of Tir Nan Og and in agreement with the Council of Magix, the planet Earth is off limits to any magical being. It is forbidden for any resident of Magix to travel in or out of the planet without the right paperwork from both governments. It is meant for the protection of both the civilians occupying the planet and the magical beings themselves. ”

That seemed weird to Michelle, if magic existed, shouldn’t the people of Earth know about this? She brushed that thought aside, she needed to understand her situation first, “What does that mean for me?”

“It means sending you back will be more difficult and a tremendous amount of paperwork.” 

“So I’m just stuck here?” Michelle groaned, this day could not get any worse and she was almost turned into a messy pulp by a giant troll.

“I can offer you a deal: enroll here at Cloud Tower.”

The young strawberry blonde blinked several times as she processed the older witch’s words, “You want me to be a student here? At your witch school?”

“Yes, I do.” She stated, “Despite your lackluster performance at orientation, you show promise and powerful magic.” Michelle wasn’t even sure how she even did that. All she felt in that moment was fear, she didn’t even think, she just did it.

“I have one spare spot among the first years. A poor unfortunate soul decided to drop out at the last moment.” The headmistress didn’t sound that surprised or upset at one of her students dropping out.

“If I assist with the paperwork and have you accepted here, we can work together to retrieve your father safely. You will be provided with lodging in one of our dorms and provided access to all necessities a normal student would have at Cloud Tower. You will also be enrolled in classes and learn to properly control your magic so that you can better defend yourself.”

 “Do you really mean that?”

Griffin nodded, “But you must work hard for it. I will not have a leech among my students.”

Michelle lingered in her mind for a moment. She hadn’t even thought of a place to stay, she didn’t have any money of value on her, and her phone was damaged. The girl was cut off from her family and friends, her mother was possibly locked up in some cell somewhere, and she was apparently a witch. If she accepted, she would get a bed to sleep in, 3 meals a day, and some way to interact with others instead of wandering the streets alone and homeless.

“If I enroll here, can you help me find my mom?” 

“I will do all I can to find your mother, you have my word as headmistress of Cloud Tower.”

“I’ll do it…I’ll enroll in your witch school.” 

The woman smiled, “Then welcome to Cloud Tower, miss Michelle..?”

“Michelle Drake, headmistress.”The young girl shook the headmistress’ hand solidifying the deal.

It had taken a couple of hours, but Griffin finally got all of the paperwork with help from Michelle. The old witch headmi let out a sigh, is this what Faragonda had to deal with when she ran Alfea? Witches dropping out of the sky? Cloud Tower rarely let intruders into its walls, the castle wouldn’t allow another invasion or attack on its walls.

She let out a sigh, eyeing one of the pictures on her desk. A younger version of herself scowled in the weathered photo with a smiling fairy, a sword smith, a would-be king and his future queen. There was one person who was blacked out of the picture, only their arm could be seen wrapped around Griffin in a maroon jacket.

The magic Michelle let out during the orientation felt so familiar, it made her flinch for the first time in decades. Something about the way her hair flowed as the fire came out from her hands. 

“It couldn’t be…must be my age catching up to me.” Griffin murmured, turning her gaze away from old memories.

While Michelle was an surprise to her school, Griffin had a good feeling about the young witch. She will make a fine addition to this year’s freshman witches.

Chapter Text

Michelle stood nervously among the other freshmen witches, waiting patiently in one of the wide wings of Cloud Tower. She spent a couple of hours with Headmistress Griffin going over the paperwork for admissions, it was a lot of paperwork. Some of it was basic information that you would find, though there were some questions that went completely over her head. Like magical types? And planetary origins? By the end of it, she was left with more questions than answers. At least she wouldn’t be over her head alone, the headmistress seemed understanding enough. 

“Hey, swamp girl!” Ivy waved to Michelle and walked over to her. “So you survived the headmistress’ lair? I was so sure you were going to be turned into a toad after what happened at your test.”

“Just had to work out some minor details, that’s all.” She nervously smiled as she reminded of the distressing orientation. She doesn’t want to even see another troll anytime soon, “My test wasn’t that bad, was it?”

”A million people on Magixtube says otherwise.” She then showed her a video of her screaming her head off while being chased by the hunting troll. The strawberry blonde went pale, she didn’t really look like that, did she?

Michelle groaned, “Please tell me I didn’t just go viral on my first day here.”

“Hey, there are worst things to go viral for, besides I thought you were a goner when the headmistress had to intervene.” Ivy reassured her, “Though I’m surprised headmistress griffin didn’t turn you into a statue or something or even worse…put you in remedial classes.” Ivy said with horror.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t be that cruel.” Griffin was a headmistress, she wouldn’t be that awful to her students, right?

“You’re right, maybe she just turns them into frogs!” She did not like that sadistic grin on Ivy’s face. “I like you, do you want to team up?”

“Team up? Like for a competition?“

“Not quite, red. My moms went here and they told that every freshman year class goes through a race for their dorm. It’s first come, first serve, and we can even fight for them, isn’t that exciting?” Ivy bounced with energy. 

“Fight? Like with our fists?” Michelle didn’t know how to fight, she didn’t even know how to throw a punch.

“No, with our magic.” Oh, yeah, that made more sense. She momentarily forgot she was in a school filled with witches. “If we partner up, we’ll have a better chance of securing a room for ourselves.”

“S-sure?” Michelle didn’t know anyone else here, why not be roommates with the first witch who showed her kindness? Actually that didn’t sound too bad.

It’s settled then, you and I are going to be the best roommates ever.” Ivy took Michelle’s hesitation as confirmation. She wished she shared the green haired witch’s optimism.

“Ladies…” One of the professors, the same bony dark haired woman who she had met before addressed the group, “Your dorm assignments will not be determined by simple assigning or your personal preference, but your magical abilities and to defend your territory. You may choose from any of the dorms in this area, one room to three witches. You are banned from the sophomore, junior, and senior floors. If you even attempt to access any of the higher levels, you’ll be in for a nasty surprise.” Her smile was not at all comforting to Michelle. 

“When I sound the signal, you may begin. 3…2..1..” With a snap of her fingers, a series of small fireworks went off, signaling the start of the search.

“Come on, we need to hurry!” Ivy took her by the arm, startling Michelle. The two went racing down the hall like everyone else. Eventually, the hall divided down the middle.

“Let’s split up, we can cover more ground. I’ll take the left, and you take the right.”

Michelle nodded and went down the right hallway. She passed by witches already guarding their dorms like bloodhounds. Some even glared at her as she walked past them. So the girl kept on walking, kept her head lowered and avoided eye contact with every witch she saw. They were meant to protect and defend it, but she couldn’t throw a punch even if she wanted to. The strawberry blonde haired girl really hoped no one would challenge her to a fight.

Then she noticed an unoccupied dorm at the end of the hall. Michelle sprinted as fast as she could (nearly tripping over herself in the process) and stood in front of it. As soon as she grabbed the door handle, words started to form on the slab next to it. The words Michelle of Earth were now engraved onto it. 

She sighed in relief, she really didn’t want to have to fight anyone. If she had so much trouble with a troll, she would’ve been in for a nasty time against a witch.

Ivy walked over to her only a few minutes later, looking exhausted and out of breath, and covered in bug bites? “Looks like you found one, good job.”

“Are you okay?” She looked like she had been stung by a whole hornet’s nest.

“Oh, I just had a fight with a witch from Linphea who used bees. She got a lucky shot and hit the real me and not one of my illusions.” She hissed as she rubbed  her arm, “I’ll swing by the nurse’s office after I unpack.” Ivy walked over to the door and touched the door knob just as Michelle had done. The words Ivy of Magix rested below over her name. She glanced at the slab and she noticed different names engraved into the slab. They must be the names of witches that had the room before them.

“Nice! Now let’s see who had this place before u-” The witch frowned as she looked at the names above theirs.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“No wonder no one wanted this one, it’s the Trix’s dorm!” She started cursing in a language Michelle didn’t recognize.

The Trix? What is a Trix? “Is it cursed or something?”

“No it’s just-” Ivy blinked several times at Michelle’s confusion, “Hold up…you don’t know who the Trix are?”

“Noooo?” The girl just found out she was a witch literally a few hours ago and fell through a portal, so everything was very new to her. 

“All you need to know is that the Trix give witches a bad name.” Ivy had an angry look in her eyes then after a few seconds, it faded away.

Michelle looked at the names that made Ivy pause: Isadora “Icy” of Dyamond, Darcia “Darcy” of Whisperia, and Aella “Stormy” of Tempest.

”Hey.” Michelle yelped when she heard someone behind her, startling her out of her skin. She whipped her head around to see a dark skinned girl with deep blue eyes and curly dark brown hair.

“You need one more person, right?” She asked, lugging a bag over her shoulder.

”I-I guess.” Michelle replied, “I’m Michelle.”

“Nerissa.” She responded, then walked past her without another word.

As the girl touched the wall, a final name appeared on the plaque, Nerissa of Andros. The girl from Earth turned her attention back to the plague, her hand wandering over the names of Icy, Darcy, and Stormy.

Michelle wondered if this was an omen, living in the same dorm as the Trix had.

“Wake up, your highness.” Bloom’s vision cleared as she woke up. The red haired woman groaned, her head still spinning from the collusion.

”What? Where…?” Something heavy and cold kept her hands in place, keeping her immobile. The bars of a cage separated her from her two masked assailants.

“Oh good, you’re not dead.” Stratos kneeled down to her then turned his head back to Melinoe, “See? I called it.”

”I still think your approach was a bit much.”

”What do you want with me?” She narrowed her gaze at them.

”Some people are very keen on meeting you in person.” Melinoe leaned against a decrepit pillar, “You could say we’re your biggest fans, fairy of the dragon flame.”

”If you want the dragon flame, I don’t have it anymore.”

Beneath their masks, they stared at her, looked at each other then back at her in confusion and shock, ”What?”

”You heard me, I don’t have it anymore.” She couldn’t have gone into hiding without some sort of plan to conceal her magic. Her magical signature was unique enough that anyone with a basic tracker could sniff her out. Bloom did what she had to do to keep herself and her daughter safe, even if it meant voluntarily severing the ties she had with the Great Dragon’s fire. It had been an agonizing process, like a piece of her soul being torn from her. It was easy to find a powerful fairy of the dragon flame, but a simple fairy of fire was much harder to weed out.

”You’re lying.” Stratos growled, taking a step forward towards the cage “Why would you-“

“It doesn’t matter, your magic isn’t what we want.” Polar raised an arm to Stratos, stepping towards his two partners and the cage holding Bloom, “You will still serve a purpose to us.”

”Wait, my daughter, where is sh-“ Before she could speak further, electricity shocked her whole body, causing her to scream out in pain. Bloom was still shaking as she collapsed to the ground with a thud, her vision going black once more.

“What kind of fairy does something that stupid?!” Stratos punched the wall in frustration.

Melinoesaid nothing but eyed the unconscious once legendary guardian fairy. Being the rational one out of all three, she couldn’t think of a real reason why someone, even the most powerful being in the universe, to remove their own magic from them. Magic was everything in Magix, maybe the former guardian fairy had been living on Earth for far too long.

“She could still pose a threat to us with or without the dragon flame, so make sure the cage is properly locked before we leave.” Polar said as he began walking once more, “They would like a word with us.”

”All three of us?”

”Yes.” 

Melinoe and Stratos looked at each other in surprise. It was usually just Polar they asked for, not all three. Being requested by their bosses was never a good sign.

Chapter Text

Michelle thought that last night might have been a nightmare, a bad dream.

Until she woke up and found herself in the same Cloud Tower dorm she had entered last night. She groaned and pulled the blankets over her head. She had slept in her clothes, she didn’t have any other clothes with her, but the shirt, pants, socks, and shoes on her body. Her roommates had already waked up and out of the room. There were no classes until Monday, so the students were free to do what they want. Though all Michelle wanted to do was bury herself in the sheets. She had no money, no way to get around, heck she couldn’t even find a way to get back home. Michelle doubt her roommates would even believe her situation.

A series of knocks on the door made her get up from her bed.

”H-Headmistress.” She greeted the older witch politely, smoothing out her disheveled clothing, “What can I do for you?”

”I realized that you may not have your own money or identification with you so I took the liberty of acquiring it for you.” She held out a small leather wallet for her and a small phone-like object, “The ID will not only serve as identification, but you may also use it as a bus pass to and from Magix City. You can also use this phone for emergencies and communication. Unfortunately, the calls do not go as far as Earth.”

Michelle took the items from her,”Thank you, ma’am.”

Headmistress Griffin nodded, “Please let me know if you have any issues with any of these items.”

“Why are you doing this?” Michelle realized she said that out loud, earning a narrowed stone cold gaze from the woman.

“Is it wrong for a teacher to see her student succeed?”

“No, it’s just…I fell out of the sky and you’re just helping me like this?” She shrugged, “I haven’t done anything to earn your trust.”

Her gaze lessened, “I simply sympathize with your situation. You are alone in a strange land, no way to contact your family or get back home. Anyone with at least half a heart would do the same as I have.” 

“I…guess.” Michelle mumbled, pocketing the wallet, “Thank you again.”

“You may use the savings on the card to obtain textbooks for your classes as well as clothing during your stay here. But do not spend too much, I’m not made of money.” She advised, “Anyway, I have a meeting to attend, so I can’t stay for long. But if you have any questions, my office door is open and my number is already on your phone.”

Michelle watched the headmistress go before closing the door behind her. The card in her hand was a small slim plastic with her name, age, and all the other information she would find on a driver’s license except it had a light glowing hue. Her phone had a futuristic design to it, it had no buttons but when she pressed a finger on it, it opened to a series of apps all labeled with different symbols. 

Her stomach growled, interrupting her investigation of her new phone. She needed to find the cafeteria, maybe inter dimensional food would be better than Earth public high school food. Thankfully, the cafeteria was still serving breakfast by the time she went down. She spotted Ivy and Nerissa sitting at a table and walked over to them.

“I see, sleeping beauty is finally up.” Ivy teased.

“Yeah, yeah.” Michelle muttered as she bit into a pastry.

“You usually wear clothes twice?” Nerissa noted, looking up and down at her wrinkled clothes.

Michelle didn’t account for them noticing her wearing the same clothes twice, “My suitcases may have gotten lost when I was getting here.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie. She just didn’t have any clothes or books or anything besides what she had on her when she first fell out of the portal.

“Seriously?” Ivy said between eating her cereal, “That happened to my family once when we were on vacation in Linphea. Worst interplanetary travel experience ever.”

“Yeah, I’m planning on going to the city to get some clothes until they arrive as well as textbooks and other stuff.” She had no idea how long she would be here for, Michelle might as well prepare for the next coming weeks…or months. She could use a shower, her hair was already starting to feel gross and dry.

“You want us to come with you?” Ivy offered.

“I mean, if you guys don’t have any plans, then sure.”

Ivy nodded, “Yeah, we can stop by my mum’s shop, she has a bunch of textbooks on sale during this time of the year.”

Nerissa shrugged her shoulders as a form of a ‘why not?’.

“I guess that settles it.” Ivy said with a smile, “The Bewitching Trio is off to Magix City.”

”The Bewitching Trio?” 

“Yeah, our coven name.” The dark green haired girl explained, “Every great coven needs a name.” 

”No, definitely not.” Nerissa shook her head at the name.

Ivy pouted, “Fine, it’s a work in progress.”

Michelle was shell shocked when they finally got to Magix City. Big buildings, floating cars, holographic signs, she was expecting more magic from a city called Magix, but sci-fi technology works too. The bus pass worked just fine and the three witches were in the city before Michelle even dozed off in her seat.

Though as they walked, she realized that they were walking farther and farther from the glittering lights.

”Um…shouldn’t we be sticking to the main streets?” Michelle nervously glanced around as they walked further away from the nicer looking brightly lit streets. 

”Don’t worry, we’ll be safe.” Ivy didn’t seem too concerned, “We’re almost there.”

Michelle wasn’t as reassured as they walked further away from the more nice looking streets. The store in question was completely black with a sleek looking sign that read, The Crone’s Cauldron.

“Are you sure this is your mom’s place?” Not that she didn’t trust Ivy’s judgment, but she was skeptical that the girl wouldn’t lead them into a dead trap.

”Yep, I even helped design the sign when I was a kid, see?” She pointed to a small child-like signature on the side of the sign.

Ivy went inside without any fear while Michelle and Nerissa both looked at each other with uncertainty, then followed her into The Crone’s Cauldron.

The ringing of the small bell alerted the store denizens of new arrivals.

“Mom!” Ivy scoured the aisles for the owner, “Mom?!”

“Stop shouting.” Lucy grumbled, “Your voice could be heard all the way to the Omega dimension.”

“Sorry, mom.” Ivy sheepishly smiled, “How’s business?”

“Slow as usual. It should pick up by tomorrow, lazy freshmen witches in a rush to get textbooks.” The woman shrugged, “But they’re good for the shop, so I’m not complaining.”

Lucy eyed the three freshmen witches from the counter, “So why are you here? You got your textbooks, right? And you have all your stuff in your suitcase?” 

“Oh, we're just here for my roommate, she had some portal troubles and needs textbooks fast.” Ivy pointed to Michelle who waved to the witch while Nerissa nodded in greeting.

“You’ve all come to the right place then.” Lucy smirked, “What level of class are you in?”

“Standard.” While she wasn’t sure of her own magical abilities, Headmistress Griffin thought it would be good for her to be in the middleweight class, that way she could gauge her abilities without it being too easy or too hard.

“Alright, here.” She materialized a pen and wrote something on a piece of paper, “You’ll need these textbooks for these classes.” She handed the paper to Michelle.

”I’ll look in the back for any of them, you guys can look in the front for any stuff you need.”

With that, Michelle wandered around the shelves of the store, Ivy and Nerissa went on their own as well. She glanced around at all the unusual, strange, and mysterious artifacts and tomes. Everything was unknown and unfamiliar to her. Maybe if she pretended she was in an all year Halloween store, it will put her mind at ease. Though the store didn't make it easy as she was pretty sure that some eyes in a jar were staring at her and even blinked (winked?) in her direction. 

Her eyes landed on a small obsidian statue of a woman with three heads. Yellow gemmed eyes gleamed at her. Each of the forms were different, the left was of a young smiling witch with her hand high up in the air with a crystal in her palm, the middle was of a woman with a calm expression cradling a faceless infant, and the last of a elderly lady with a vial in her possession.

“Be careful with that.” Lucy noted as she passed by with some boxes, “Just because you’re my daughter’s roommate, doesn’t mean you can just break whatever you want.”

“Um, right, what is this?”

“It’s a statue of Hecate.”

Michelle looked at the statue then back at Lucy, “Who?” 

The black magic shop owner raised an eyebrow, “Hecate? The First Witch of Magix? Great Mother to all Witches?”

“I’m not exactly caught up on my history.” Michelle sheepishly said. She couldn’t exactly tell people she fell out of the sky and is from a planet that is considered ‘forbidden.’

“She was the first witch to appear in Magix, alongside her fairy counterpart Arcadia.” Lucy explained, “While Arcadia was of light magic, Hecate was of dark magic.”

“Oh, is dark magic bad?” She immediately regretted saying that as Lucy gave her a bewildered expression then sighed. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and mumbled something incorehant under her breath.

“No, not necessarily. Despite what people might think, dark magic isn’t bad or evil. It’s magic, dark magic isn’t inherently evil, just the intent of the witch or if said witch goes too far into one area of study.” She stated firmly, “Dark magic is all about the negative energies that make and fuel the universe. We, as descendants of Hecate, draw our power from that energy.”

“Oh.” 

“You didn’t understand a word I just said, did you?”

“Yes?…No?” 

“You’re a freshman, I’m sure your professors will tell you all about it.” Lucy sighed once more, “Here.” The older witch dropped a bag filled with several textbooks into Michelle’s arms. 

“Oh wow, this is a lot.” 

“That’s just to get you through the first year.” Lucy shrugged, “Let me know if you need anything else.” The woman left without a response from Michelle. The strawberry blonde witch placed the statue back on the shelf and found Ivy chatting with her mom while Nerissa eyed the jewelry in a glass cabinet.

Ivy came bounding to her “You found your stuff?” 

“Yeah, I think so.” 

“Awesome! And we have enough time to go shopping and get some food before curfew.”

“Do we have to?” Nerissa groaned. 

“Yes, as a newly formed coven, we need to get to know each other and spend time with each other.” Ivy smiled, “Also I already made reservations at Mama Mia’s for the three of us.”

“Fine.” Nerissa’s phone began to buzz and she looked at the caller id with a frown. She declined the call then shoved it back into her purse.

As Michelle gave Lucy the credit card to pay, the witch of Andros’ phone went off again, “You need to take that?” 

“No, it’s not important.” She declined the call again, “What were you saying about Mama Mia’s?”

As the sun setted over Magix City, Michelle was feeling a lot better about being stranded in Magix. She now had several shopping bags worth of clothes, toiletries, and school supplies. She even had a fresh, new outfit: a dark blue striped shirt with bell bottom jeans and sneakers. She was glad to be out of her evening summer party clothes at last, and had a chance to get some new clothes as well as clean pajamas. 

”So you have two moms; one owns the Crone’s Cauldron and the other works at a school called…Alpha?” Michelle asked after exiting Mamma Mia’s. Turns out interdimensional pizza is just as good as earth pizza.

”Alfea.” Ivy corrected as she walked, “And yep. It’s just across the forest from Cloud Tower, you can’t miss it, it’s very…pink.” 

”How pink are we talking? Like a unicorn barfed all over it?” Michelle joked.

“Right, like unicorn actually existed.” Nerissa tsked.

“Wait…unicorns aren’t real?”

“I mean, yeah, you didn’t know that?” Michelle felt her childhood dreams of riding a unicorn crushed within an instant.

“Unicorns…unicorns don’t exist?” The girl from Earth said in a hushed tone, then raised her voice back to a normal volume, “What about dragons? Please tell me, dragons are real.”

”Oh, they exist, my mom even has a few dragon horns in her shop if you are interested. What do your parents do?”

Michelle was taken back by the question which made her mumble, “My mom is an art teacher, she likes to paint.” Her mom…Michelle had been so wrapped up in her day, she hadn’t even thought of her mom once. Was she okay? Was she safe? She wondered if she was even kidnapped at all or just waiting for her back home. No, Michelle knew what she saw, her mom wouldn’t have left the house in such a mess or just leave her without saying something. Sure, they had an argument, but she wouldn’t just leave her own daughter? The young witch’s hands trembled as she struggled to think anything besides the worst possible scenario. Was her mom even still alive? 

“Hey, you good?” Nerissa’s voice pulled Michelle back to reality. 

”Yeah-yeah!” Michelle waved her hand nonchalantly, “I just need to-oof!” She accidentally bumped into someone.

 A pale blonde girl tsked, brushing off dirt from her wrinkled shirt,“Watch where you’re going.” 

“I’m so sorry, I was just-” Michelle murmured.

”Whatever.” The amber eyed girl tsked as she walked away, then she whispered, “Stupid witch.”

This made Michelle pause, how could the girl tell she was a witch? 

“Ugh, so vain.” Ivy mumbled, “She can just wipe it away with magic, she doesn’t have to make a big deal of it.”

”How can she tell?”

”Tell what?”

”That I’m a witch?” Michelle couldn’t see anything unusual about her, she didn’t see any wings or fairy dust, the blonde looked ordinary.

Ivy began to think for a moment then shrugged her shoulders, “We’ve just got an aura about us, you know? Same with the fairies.” 

Michelle looked back at the blonde, trying to find the aura that Ivy had mentioned. She was walking with some other girls who looked just as normal as they did. Besides from a more colorful sense of fashion, they seemed to be more or less the same. Maybe it’s a sense Michelle would learn over time? She decided to shove it away for the time being and focused on Ivy and Nerissa’s voices.

Chapter Text

The weekend went by way too fast in Michelle’s opinion. Luckily, she had set some time aside to study a few passages from the textbooks she got. Even if she didn’t understand half of the words they used. But nothing could prepare her for her first classes. Basic Witchcraft 101 was anything but basic, the Hexes syllabus left her head spinning, and she didn’t even want to think what the class simply titled Mayhem entailed. Hopefully Potionology would be easy enough, maybe it would be like Chemistry except with eyes of newts and toes of frogs.

Instead of a classroom, the class meets in a small clearing near the Cloudtower. Michelle panted as she barely made it there on time. She nearly collapsed on shaking legs as she stood next to Nerissa.

“So many stairs.” Michelle said as she caught her breath, “Too many stairs.”

”You know you can just teleport down, right?”

”Um, yeah, I just forgot?” Michelle chuckled hesitantly, completely forgetting she had magic. Magic that she hadn’t been able to use since the orientation. Everytime she tried to or even thought about it, there wouldn’t be a single spark. She was starting to think it was all just a fluke, that maybe she didn’t even deserve to be here. Maybe headmistress Griffin was wrong and she wasn’t a witch. 

“Welcome to Potionology, I will be your instructor for this semester, Professor Zarathustra.” Professor Zarathustra addressed the class of young witches, “Stirring a couple of ingredients into a cauldron does not make you an expert in potions.”

”In these woods, are all of the ingredients you’ll need for your first assignment.” She directed their attention towards the spooky woods, “But you must gather them yourselves.”

“You want us to go in there?” One brave witch spoke up.

“Yes, you’re capable enough of doing such a simple task.” She coldly responded,”Unless you don’t think you’re enough of a witch to complete it?”

The crowd fell silent after that.

“You‘ll be partnered into groups of three, and no, you will not be able to choose your group.” There was a collective groan among the young witches. 

“Nerissa of Andros, Ivy of Magix, and Michelle of Earth.” The strawberry blonde girl sighed in relief that she at least got to be stuck in a forest with her roommates. After groups were called up, the Cloud Tower students were handed a bag and a list of ingredients.

“Great, we’re going foraging.” Nerissa groaned, definitely not excited 

“Not a fan of the woods?” 

“I’m more of a beach person.” 

“Alright, into the woods, Jinx Gals.” Ivy placed the list of ingredients into Michelle’s hands. 

“Yeah, no.” Even Michelle couldn’t help, but cringe at the name, “That sounds like a rock band, a bad one.”

“Still workshopping the coven name?” 

“I’ve gotten it down to the top 20 options.” Ivy said with excitement.

“Really, and how many of them end in -x?”

Ivy looked at Nerissa, began scrolling on her phone for a few seconds, then turned back with a smile, “Correction, it is now top 12.”

Michelle glanced at the list as they made their trek into the Black Mud Swamp, unaware of the dangers that may lurked inside.

The inside of the Black Mud Swamp was just as terrifying as the entrance. Large thick trees clouded the sky, creating small patches of light to pierce through the foliage. The grass was longer than any Michelle ever seen, and the plants were like nothing she had ever seen before. 

“Ugh, no internet in this stupid woods.” Nerissa huffed as she dug through the dirt.

“I mean if you could just look up the pictures, it wouldn’t be much of an assignment.”   Ivy grimaced as she foraged around some bushes nearby. 

“Is this the Lyredrake?!” Michelle asked from her spot high in a tree while Ivy and Nerissa were safe on the ground.

“No, that’s Sindrake! Lyre has four leaves, not three.”

Michelle suddenly shrieked as she held onto a nearby branch, “I think something grabbed me!”

“It was probably just some tree branch!”

“You’re the one who said she had climbed before!” 

“Yes, rock climbing with my mom at the gym, not grappling tree branches like a freaking monkey!” Michelle shouted back, searching around until she spotted a familiar four leaf plant hanging low on the tree. She continued to climb carefully along the tree while Nerissa and Ivy continued their search on the ground.

“I think I found, what was it…” Nerissa glances at the list, “The Shriek Sprout?” 

Ivy looked over Nerissa’s shoulder, examining the plant, “It is! Now we just need to pull it out carefully.”

“...It’s not going to scream once I pull it out, is it?” 

“No, it doesn’t literally scream.” Ivy smiled reassuringly, “The roots are just fragile, easy to break.”

Nerissa sighed in relief, “Then why is it called the Shriek Sprout?”

“Oh, that’s because when crushed into a powder, it can cause fear-inducing hallucinations.” Ivy said it in such a casual tone, Nerissa wondered if it was a joke. Only for the punchline to never come.

“...Forget I asked.” The brunette murmured as she pulled out the root, placed it in a jar, then into the bag with the other ingredients. 

“Hey, hold on…” Michelle reached as far as she could, grabbing the four leaf Lyredrake in her hands. “Yes!”

Then she felt something wrap around her leg. Michelle glanced around her shoulder to see a large green vine wrapping around her leg. The strawberry blonde poked it, causing it to grow tighter on her leg, constricting it like a snake.

“Um, guys?” She called out to her friends, “Does this type of tree are known for living vines?”

“I don’t think so?” Ivy replied, “Why?”

Michelle must be imagining it, her leg probably just got tangled in it. She gripped the looped up vine tighter, trying to pull it off of her leg. Only it didn’t like that and more vines came out of the tree’s shaking foliage, at her.

“AHHHH!” The young witch could only scream as the vines catapulted her out of the tree. Nerissa and Ivy could only look up at the sky, while Michelle went flying into the air and out of sight.

“MICHELLE!!” The two Cloud Tower students ran in the direction of their airborne coven member. Hopefully she landed somewhere soft, but that was unlikely. 

The strawberry blonde continued to scream as she descended, flailing her arms uselessly around. She couldn’t fly so she fell into some trees which did not slow or soften her descent.

“HELP!!!” She shouted, as a wave of magic came out of her and softened her fall. Michelle found herself floating inches away from going splat on the ground. 

“What the hec-Oof!” Only the levitation did not last long and she landed on the ground with a thud.

“Right, magic, forgot I had that.” Michelle stood back up, rubbing her sore head. The witch looked around at her surroundings, it looked like the same trees, the same rocks, same grass. So no way to figure out where she landed. Soon, the trees gave way and she found herself at a lake.

“Wow…” She couldn’t help but stare at the water, the clearness of it all. But as she looked at her reflection, it changed. She now wore a light blue t-shirt with flared jeans, and her hair was a dark shade of orange. She swore the eyes, the sapphire blue eyes, were familiar. They looked like hers, but she knew she had seen them before. 

“What in the wor-?” Michelle cupped her face, her unfamiliar yet familiar reflection did the same.

“Hey!” Michelle whipped her head at the sound of the voice. A young girl with lightly curled golden blonde hair was staring at her. Her light blue eyes were filled with confusion and bewilderment. She wore a perfectly pressed white blouse and dark pants which were pristine compared to Michelle’s disheveled and grass stained clothes.

“Um, hi?” She waved awkwardly, why was she looking at her like that? She ran a hand through her hair, Michelle didn’t look that bad, did she?

“How do you have that ?” The girl whispered, almost terrified.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Why does your dragon look like that ?” 

“...My dragon?” What was she talking about? She nervously glanced around, but didn’t see anything, “Look I’ve just gotten my butt kicked by a tree and I have no clue which part of this swamp I am in an-”

“Don’t lie to me!” She suddenly stormed up to her and grabbed her wrist, “I followed your magic here, now you better have a good reason because I’m the princess of Domino, I-”

“Hey! Let go!” Sparks fluttered between them as Michelle struggled against the girl’s grip. 

“No, I won’t! Not until you tell me who you are!” Her fingernails dug into her arm, making the witch wince.

“I said, LET GO!!” The witch shouted, as the sparks grew hotter and hotter until…

BOOM! The two girls were pulled apart by a burst of fiery magic. Michelle fell into the lake, her clothes now soaking wet from the water. But when she should’ve felt cold, all she could feel was this overwhelming heat on her skin. For a second, Michelle saw the image of a dragon behind the brunette, golden and orange scaled beast snarling at her. The girl looked just as scared, seeing something that wasn’t there. Then her expression turned into a cold glare.

“Stay away from me, if you know what’s good for you, witch.” She snapped at her, walking away from her.

Michelle could only lay there, the heat slowly dying down, leaving her drenched and shivering. All she could think of was: what the heck just happened?

Chapter Text

Michelle slumped into the amphitheater seat as she tried to keep her eyes open. She couldn’t sleep at all, not just from studying her textbooks, but from worrying over her mother as well as being stuck in another dimension, finding out she’s a witch with real magic AND the crazy blonde from the lake. She kept wondering if one night, she’d close her eyes, she’d wake up in her bedroom on Earth, and her mom would be making breakfast in the kitchen. Everything would be normal, no witch schools, no exploding magic, or weird blondes talking nonsense about ghost dragons. She didn’t tell her roommates about it, she told them she just fell into the lake. 

“I hate early morning assemblies.” She groaned.

“Here.” Ivy handed her a tea cup, “Some herbal tea from Linphea.”

“I think I'm going to need something stronger, no offense, Ivy.”

“I’ve got you on that.” Nerissa chuckled as she placed two styrofoam cups of coffee on their shared table.

“Oh thank god, coffee is a universal concept.” Michelle took a long sip of the cup. She looked up to see Headmistress entering the room along with several other members of the Cloud Tower’s staff.

“Witches of Cloud Tower.” Headmistress Griffin addressed the room of witches from her high pedestal, “The time has come for us to mess with the fairies of Alfea.” 

The upperclassmen of Cloud Tower whispered and murmured in excitement while the freshmen, including Michelle, were confused. 

“The annual Alfea dance is to commence tomorrow night.” Griffin continued, “The honorable boys of Red Fountain have been invited but of course, the witches have not.” Her face curled in a snarl.

“What is she talking about?” Michelle whispered to Ivy.

The green haired girl whispered back, “Basically, the school of Alfea hosts this big party to celebrate the beginning of the new school year and the boys of Red Fountain are invited too, but not the witches of Cloud Tower.”

”Only one witch or coven will be chosen to execute the plan, but all students are encouraged to take apart and form a plot for this dance.” Headmistress Griffin continued, “Though there are some limitations, it can’t be lethal, long term, or anything that gets us reprimanded to the Great Magix Council…again.” The older witch muttered that last part under her breath before speaking louder for all the room to hear, “Other than that, it may be as nasty, vile, and cunning as you can think of and no repeats.”

“So every school in Magix but Cloud Tower were invited to this special dance, and we just get to…prank them?” That didn’t sound right to Michelle. 

Ivy shrugged in response which didn’t make the uncomfortable feeling in the strawberry blonde’s stomach go away. Why wouldn’t just the witches not be invited to it? If this Alfea and Red Fountain place were, why not the witches? Since she got here, the word ‘witch’ was said with disdain, not just once, but multiple times. Something just didn’t sit right in Michelle’s mind at this so she asked the question that was on her mind.

“Why do fairies and witches hate each other?” 

”Biology, I guess?” Ivy pursued her lips, “Fairies use positive magic or energies of the universe while witches harness the negative energies. We’re practically opposites to them.”

”Then there’s the history.” Nerissa jumped in, “Witches have always been viewed as the harbingers of chaos and destruction while fairies are seen as the shining pillars of courage and justice. We’re evil, they’re good. Just look at the Company of Light, not a witch in sight.” She said that last part bitterly.

”The Company of what?”

“...The Company of Light? The protectors of Magix? They saved the dimension a bunch of times.” Nothing Ivy was saying rang any bells to Michelle.

“You’re probably familiar with their other name...” Nerissa took a sip of her coffee before speaking further, “The Winx.”

There was nervous silence as the word settled between the three witches like it would summon them just by saying it.

Only Michelle gave both of them a blank look, “...Should that mean something to me?” 

Nerissa looked like she wanted to say more then shook her head, “The point is witches and fairies are like oil and water, they don’t mix and haven’t for centuries.”

Michelle narrowed her gaze in thought, her exhaustion forgotten to her. 

Her history class did nothing to quell her anxious mind, nor did the library’s books. All she could find were conflict after conflict with fairies on the side of good and witches on the side of evil. There were a few exceptions but it looked as though it was rare for a witch to be truly good.

Michelle turned a corner to see Nerissa speaking to a hologram on her phone. She had been disturbed the first time the whole head of a person just appeared on her phone, apparently it was very common technology in the Magix Dimension. There were times Michelle felt like she had fallen into a sci-fi world rather than a fantasy realm. The holograms always looked so realistic, including the man Nerissa was speaking to. Every hair in the man’s braid looked almost real to touch and his purple robes were swaying in a wind that only affected him, not Nerissa.

“I’m not going back, dad and that’s final.” Her voice was serious, making Michelle stop in her tracks. It was cold-well-colder than usual for Nerissa.

“Please, my pearl.” The man’s desperation could be heard even through the hologram, “We’ve all been worried sick and you haven’t been answering our calls.”

“Maybe because I don’t want to talk to any of you.” Nerissa’s grip tightened on her phone as she spoke.

“I know that you’re upset, but please we didn’t mean any harm, we only thought of your safety.”

“By trying to ship me off to Alfea? To turn me into a fairy?” She angrily tsked, “I’m not like you, or Naida or even mom. Yet all of you refuse to see past that.”

“Nerissa, please-”

“I’m hanging up now. Don’t call again.” With a click of her finger, the hologram disappeared.

“You’re terrible at eavesdropping on someone, you know that?” Michelle nearly jumped at her skin as Nerissa turned towards her.

“I didn’t mean to, I just-” Michelle sputtered out a nervous response.

“Don’t tell anyone what you just heard, got it?” Nerissa narrowed her gaze at her.

“Y-yeah got it.” Michelle gave her a shaky nod in return. 

“Good.”

“W-wait!” Michelle chased after her, “Could you tell me more about the Company of Light or th Winx?”

“Why?”

“It’s just you seem to be the expert on it…them?” It was still unclear as to what exactly these Winx were and Michelle felt a strange familiarity to them. Maybe in one of her mother’s bedtime stories?

“Then go check the library, I’m sure they have plenty of books on them.” Nerissa bitterly responded then stormed off, leaving Michelle alone.

So she took the dark haired girl’s advice and went to Cloudtower’s library. It was just as Michelle expected; a dark dreary library that almost looked as if it came straight out of a gothic romance novel. At least it was clean… ish . While there wasn’t much dust, there were way too many spider webs that made Michelle’s skin crawl. Maybe less on the romance gothic and more horror based, like a funeral crypt. 

“Hello?” Her voice echoed through the large room, the young witch didn’t get a response. It was clear the librarian was either out on a lunch break or there was no librarian for Cloud Tower’s library. Michelle really hoped it was the first. So instead of loitering around, she decided to explore the library…even if she didn’t know where the heck to start first.

As she wandered through the rows of tomes and ancient spellbooks, she spotted a  glowing tattered book resting on a black and purple pedestal. 

“Huh…Guess this is a computer for witches.” Michelle muttered, only upon closer inspection, the pages were blank. She looked down to see a handwritten sign attached that read, “ Speak what knowledge you desire to find.”

“Okay, so more like Siri.” Michelle cleared her throat, “Fairies.”

All at once, a hurricane of books came flying at her. She had to duck out of the way as one nearly took out her head.

“Guardian Fairies! Wait no, Company of Light! Um…Winx! I want information on the Winx!” She called out to the glowing book. As the book hurricane came to a still and several books floated around her calmly.

“Um, thanks?” She awkwardly thanked the living search engine, took the books out of the air and stepped far away from it before she ended up causing a paper cut fiasco.

She peered through the pages, events like the Battle at Alfea, The Shadow Phoenix, The Dark Wizard, The Corrupted Prince of Andros were all historical moments that she did not know or recognize. She was a stranger to Magix and that included its history. Yet at the front lines, every time, were six fairies, the Company of Light. Her fingers traced over their intricately drawn wings of the fairies named Stella, Flora, Musa, Tecna, Aisha, and Roxy.  

One particular image stood out to her; a trio of witches with grey hair, dark expressions, and wearing rags. At the bottom of the page, it read: The Ancestral Witches. A sudden pain began to pierced her mind as her vision began to blur. Images and sounds flickered in her mind. Shrieks of a baby, heat searing flames, but also numbing chills along her body.

“A spawn of his flesh and your blood, how fortunate for us.”

“Her dark talents would be wasted as a fairy, so much potential stored in this one.”

“How long were you planning to hide her? From Magix? From us?”

“You can’t have her! I won’t let you!!” The last voice sounded familiar, was that her mother’s?

Her hands burst into flames, causing the book she held to be consumed by the fire.

“No, no, no!” Michelle desperately tried to put out the fire coming out of her hands, but they wouldn’t stop burning. It was too late, the book was no longer paper and ink, but black ash and cinder. Her hands slowly dimmed to sparks then nothing.

“Why…why now?” The young witch groaned as she tried to recall what she saw…but she couldn’t. Her own magic seemed to be her greatest enemy. 

Michelle decided it might be a good idea to step away from the books for a while, at least avoid burning more to a crisp or the entire library.

Chapter Text

“What about….” In a blink of an eye, there were now two Ivys standing in front of their table, “Now?” 

The three witches were in their shared dorm room, Ivy played with her illusions, Nerissa was writing in her notebook various potion components while Michelle tried to practice some hand techniques she learned in her Hexes class. Key word being tried as she felt ridiculous, moving her arms and hands around like discount Dr. Strange as nothing happened. 

“The hair is the wrong shade.” Nerissa noted as she scribbled down some notes, “And it’s framed on the wrong side.”

“What? No it’s not…” Ivy stared at the illusion of herself more closely, “Oh yeah it is.” As the mirror image disappeared, she groaned in frustration, “I’m never going to get this right in time for the midterm.”

“At least you can use your magic.” Michelle huffed, “Mine just explodes at random or create firecrackers.” She waved her fingertips as little sparks of fire came from her fingertips. It’s all she could muster after concentrating hard enough.

“Keep those pyrotechnics away from my notebooks.” Nerissa turned her desk slightly away from Michelle.

“Noted.” The strawberry blonde haired witch had been keeping all paper based materials at arms length since the library incident. 

“Hey, don't beat yourself up over it.” Ivy said encouragingly, ‘Fire is one of the most volatile magics out there, it’s not easy to manifest or control by any fairy or witch.”

Nerissa looked up from her notebook to speak, “When I first manifested my magic, all I could create were bubbles.” 

“Really? Bubbles? You?” Michelle couldn’t imagine that.

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes, “What I’m saying is you’re not the only witch who’s struggled with their magic.”

“What do you think about the Alfea party?” It was getting closer to the day and a senior witch group had been chosen to execute the plan. Though Michelle wasn’t sure how tampering with the decorations by making them alive would be considered ‘evil.’

“Why? You want to dance with some specialist?” She rolled her eyes, “They’re not that amazing, trust me.”

“It’s just been nagging at my mind you know?” She shrugged. It just didn’t seem fair to Michelle, why can’t the witches of Cloud Tower join in the fun? 

“Yeah, I get it. My mom even said it’s all exclusive this year, some big kids of famous alumni will be among the students so they’re pulling out all the stops.” Ivy plopped into a nearby chair, “My mom’s going to be sending pictures, but I wish I could see it in person, I heard they got lanterns all the way from Solaria getting shipped in.” She sighed.

“Well we can’t just crash it, they’ll catch us in a heartbeat.” Nerissa snapped her fingers.

“Unless…” An idea seemed to flash in Ivy’s mind, making her smirk, “...We don’t get caught.” 

“Wait, really?” Michelle leaned closer in surprise. Could they do that? Just sneak into a party? 

“No, no, no.” Nerissa shook her head, “We are not sneaking into Alfea.”

“Come on, we’ve been studying since the first day of classes.” Ivy argued, “Can’t we just have one night of fun? To let loose?”

“Or we’ll be facing detention for sneaking out after curfew, possibly sweeping up the Potionology Lab for the rest of the semester, or worse we’ll be expelled.” Nerissa slammed her notebook shut.

“We can use the old tunnels.” Ivy pulled out a history textbook, and flipped to a page where a silhouetted figure standing before the entrance to darkness, “Now most of them have been caved in, but the tunnels from and to Alfea are still accessible.”

“And no one will see us?”

“Or they’ll find our dead bodies after getting lost in said tunnels.” Nerissa tsked, then she turned to Michelle, “Please tell me you’re not supporting this.”

Michelle didn’t know what to say. On one hand, they could get caught before, at the party, or after when they were sneaking back. All three of them could get caught, brought before Headmistress Griffin, and be punished for it. But then there was this little nagging voice in that back of her mind. It was telling her that this was unfair, not right. Why should the fairies and the specialists, the rest of Magix, have a dance and exclude the witches? This made her mad at just the thought. 

“Let’s do it.” The young witch from Earth straightened herself up with a determined look in her eyes, “Let’s crash a party.”

Ivy squealed with joy while Nerissa mumbled something under her breath in a language that Michelle didn’t understand, but it was most likely a swear word.

“Dresses, we need to buy dresses.” Ivy immediately went to grab her things, “There are plenty of stores in Magix city that will sell to witches and we’ll be back in time for curfew.”

“Wait hold on, right now?” Michelle found herself dragged by the arm by Ivy out of their room.

“I’m going to regret this.” Nerissa murmured as she followed after the two witches out of their shared dorm.

“Ivy, when you said plenty of shops that will sell to witches, what did you mean by that?” Michelle asked as they browsed around their third store. Ivy wasn't content with just buying the first dress she saw, Michelle had no clue what half of the styles were, and Nerissa always gave a dispassionate 'okay' to most of the dresses they picked out.

“Oh, that some shop owners might have a small problem with witches.” Ivy said as she pulled past some hanging dresses.

“A small problem?”

“To them, witches bring bad luck. They’re afraid we will curse them or hurt them.” Ivy murmured, “So sometimes we’re banned from stores.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Michelle couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “Banned? Like forbidden from entering?”

“Yeah, some restaurants don’t even allow witches to even sit in their seats or they’ll be thrown out.” Ivy shrugged as if that was a common thing to say, “Thankfully, I know how to avoid those places.”

“A-and they can get away with that?!” Michelle sputtered out. That sounded like something she would hear out of her history books! The type of prejudice you hear from older generations. Except it was happening in Magix.

“Just the way things are. The attitude is less in Magix, but I know some planets that despise witches like the plague.” 

“What about your home, Nerissa?” Michelle asked, remembering the conversation she overheard the other day. She hadn’t said anything about it since it had been a personal family drama and Nerissa scared Michelle too much to bring it up again. That glare of hers could make a dragon whimper then roll over on its belly in fear.

“Andros doesn’t like witches, or dark magic in general, that's why I’m here and not in Andros.” She stated firmly as she glanced at some pearl jewelry in a display case.

“Oh! So which heels will go with my dress?” Ivy thankfully pivoted the subject back to dress shopping before Michelle thought any further about the discrimination against a magical species? type? What did witches classify as? Michelle would have to ask one of her professors for that answer.

Nerissa narrowed her gaze at the options, "Neither, are you trying to twist your feet with that high of a heel?”

“That’s why they’re called high heels.”

“Yeah, high heels, not ‘going to the ER because you stabbed someone with them’ heels.”

As the two other witches squabble with themselves, Michelle wandered around the store. She was initially drawn to how sci fi-esque the store felt in and out like the neon futuristic sigh that was hung outdoors and the hi tech inside of it. Such as the dressing room that could automatically dress herself or create a digital avatar of her in her chosen outfit without trying it on. 

Michelle got so enraptured that she didn’t even notice she had bumped into someone and all of the clothes they were carrying went flying everywhere. Both stumbled back with different articles of clothing falling onto the person.

“I’m so sorry.” Michelle frantically apologized, pulling the clothing and hangers off of them, revealing a bewildered guy with sunny blonde hair and green eyes.

“No, it’s fine.” The guy chuckled, waving it off, “I’m the one with the tower high couture.”

“Still, I feel horrible, here.” She helped him smooth out the clothing and set them aside, she could use her magic, but she wasn’t about to risk another explosion. “I’m Michelle by the way.”

“I’m Elio.”

“So you’re out shopping?” And the stupid question came out before she had a chance to shut up. Obviously he would be, since they were in a clothing store. It wasn’t like he was going to

“I mean yes, yes I am.’ He laughed again, “Technically, I’m here with my sister and her friends as their servant for the Alfea ball, are you attending as well?”

She nodded her head which was also stupid since no one was supposed to know they were going, but that smile just did something to her. Michelle then repeated the words he just said in her head in confusion, “What do you mean by as their servant?”

“I’m the one who’s been carrying the bags all day and carrying all the clothes for them whenever they feel like trying on something.” He smiled hesitantly, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh.” She cursed inwardly at not saying more than a single dumb word.

“Yep.” He popped the ‘p’ as he spoke, “Anyway I should get back to them, my sister likes to shout-”

“Elio!” As if on cue, a female sounding voice shouted his name.

“...To get my attention.” He chuckled at the irony which made Michelle chuckle too, “I guess I’ll see you at the dance.” He walked away from her, leaving her alone between the aisles. She waved her hand at him as he left, her smile twitching with nervousness. 

“Y-yeah, see you.” Her response came too late as he was already gone from sight. God why was she so tongue tied at the moment? Was her face always this hot? Did he think she was weird? He had to think she was weird. She did crash into him, he probably just wanted to get away from her. Michelle’s hands warmed up which she immediately stuffed into her pant pockets to keep from burning any of the clothes racks around her.

It was probably just nothing Michelle said to herself, keeping her hands from burning again. Yet while the warmth in her hands quickly died down, her face was still flushed with a soft pink as she walked back to Ivy and Nerissa.

Frost never liked being summoned, especially on his own. But they couldn’t leave their captive unattended, so Stratos and Melinoe were guarding her.

His footsteps echoed as he made his way down the lone, dark corridor. A cold wind opened a pair of heavy doors for him as he entered. Blue electricity pulsated throughout the small room as well as mist hung along the floor. A dark pool of water laid in the center, it was still until he stepped closer to the water’s edge.

Out of the pool, a ghostly figure appeared. Her long wild brown hair floated in an invisible wind, her dark robes trailing behind her as she floated to him. Frost took a knee to her. 

”Mother Beatrix.” He addressed her formally, “You summoned me?”

“Yes, Frost, how is our guest?” Her voice held an echo that reverberated along the walls of the room. Her eyes were completely black except for the irises which were glowing a blue color.

”The keeper of the dragon flame is being held in a magic proof cell, she has shown little resistance.” He reported. Bloom hadn’t done much, though she had attempted to escape several times. But was swiftly recaptured and locked back inside of the cage. She even attempted to talk to him and the others, clearly a tactic to try and get closer to them to escape. It wouldn’t work, he wasn’t a child, he didn’t grow up with stories on how amazing she and the other Winx were. No, Frost was raised to be the best dark wizard of his generation.

The spirit smiled, “Good and has she handed the flame over?”

”I'm afraid that’s going to be an issue.” Frost cleared his throat before speaking further, “She claims not to have it anymore.”

Bellatrix’s eyes widened at Frost’s words, “...What?”

“Apparently she gave it away.” 

“To who?” Frost felt the breath sucked from his lungs as Beatrix’s tone turned dangerous. 

“S-she does not say, but-t I can find out, Mother.” He gasped out to ragged breaths.

“Good, apply some pressure.” She hissed into his ear, “If she is lying, then force it out of her.”

“I do not think she is lying, her magic, it’s weak and common.” He struggled to keep his balance as he staggered to breathe.

Beatrix’s eyes narrowed then she released the magic around Frost, who took a deep breath of air.

“If the dragon flame was indeed inside of her, I would’ve sensed its presence. Instead it’s much farther away.” Beatrix murmured.

“Where?”

“On the planet of Magix, perhaps among the young fairies of Alfea. The Great Dragon has always favored those pests of light magic.” Beatrix said with an irritated tone. 

“I will retrieve it for you, Mother.”

“You will, Frost.” She placed a gentle ghostly hand on his cheek, “You never disappoint me, not like the others.” Though the wispy fingers along his face did not comfort him, instead it scared him. Every nail felt close enough to cut his face if he wasn’t careful enough or too weak. He couldn’t be weak, he was as strong as the ice in his heart.

“Still, bring Melinoe and Stratos with you.” Beatrix let go which made Frost pursue his lips to keep from shuddering. Mother didn’t like weakness, “They shouldn’t be cooped up guarding some has been guardian fairy.”

“I will not fail you, Mother Beatrix.” He whispered.

“I know you won’t.” Beatrix gave him a smile, “You know better than that.”

Beatrix soon faded away into the mist, leaving the white haired boy alone in the room. Frost would not fail, he would bring the dragon flame to Mother Beatrix. She was the last family he had left, besides Melinoe and Stratos. 

Frost would do anything for his family.

Chapter Text

During the night, Michelle found herself in a dark, barren land. The area was covered in gravel and ash, the desolate ground chilled her feet as she walked. There was a cold wind, the only sound for miles beside her own chattering teeth. She was in her pajamas, loose clothing that did nothing to keep her warm.

Out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw movement. Was there someone else out here in this wasteland?

“H-hello?” The strawberry blonde called out, “I don’t know where I am and-“ As she walked closer, she froze up. Only it wasn’t from the cold.

There were three elderly women encased in stone, their expressions were of utter fury, fear, and defiance. The first had white hair, the middle was a brunette, and the last had very curly violet hair. Michelle didn’t recognize these women, she glanced down at a slate of metal chained around one of the prisons. There was an inscription that pulsated with light against the dark sheen of the metal. 

Belladonna, Liliss, Tharma.

She didn't recognize any of those names, but somewhere in her mind, in her soul, they felt familiar to her.

Michelle gasped as the white haired woman’s arm broke out of the ice, grabbing at her throat. Rock went flying everywhere as debris and shards dug into her free arm. But the woman didn’t seem to care or even register the pain and blood. The grip was tight and the hate in her eyes was unlike anything the girl had seen before. Michelle couldn’t speak, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even breathe. The woman’s sharpened fingernails dug into her skin. Frostbite traveled along Michelle’s body, her skin turning blue and purple. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t struggle, her whole body just froze up.

“You should’ve stayed on Earth,” She said, her voice sounded off like a reverberating echo, mixing different tones together, “She hid you good, but not good enough.”

“W-What?” 

“She must be so proud you survived the ritual,” She spat out, tightening her grip, “But you didn’t come out unscathed, did you?” 

Michelle’s fearful expression shifted into confusion as she tried to speak, but all that came out was strained noises. What was she talking about? What ritual? Her hands were warming up from her emotions, but the cold and ice were too powerful for her to burn anything. She couldn’t move her hands or arms either, she was paralyzed with fear.

“Oh, Mommy didn’t tell you?” The white haired woman’s voice was mocking and fake sympathetic, “Make you wonder what else she didn’t tell you, like is she really kidnapped or…” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “Did she just abandon you?”

Suddenly, the woman roughly shoved her away and the ground sank around Michelle, pulling her into the earth. Only Michelle wasn’t sinking, she was being grabbed at by skeletal hands. She desperately screamed and cried out even as dirt and mud built up in her throat. She clawed at the earth as she tried to pull herself up. But it wasn’t enough and she yanked under. Drowning in the cold and dirt, her world soon went dark.

Then she woke up, Michelle was trembling as she took a deep breath of air. Her shaking hands touched her neck, grasped it, but felt no pain, no marks, no dirt. The woman’s sharp nails digging into it, the taste of dirt in her mouth, the feeling of cold on her skin. It all felt so real. Only there was nothing, it was like it never really happened. Michelle tried to go back to sleep, but all she could do was lay in the bed and stare at the ceiling. 

How could she sleep? She didn’t want to go back to that horrible place that was trapped in an ice age with the white haired woman.

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” Michelle felt like they had just gone down the same tunnel a few seconds ago. It felt like they were going in circles.

“Positive, we just need to turn…” Ivy squinted her eyes on her phone, “Left.”

“Didn’t we just turn left?” Nerissa narrowed her gaze, looking cautiously at the dark stone walls.

“Yes, we just need to turn another left.”

“I told you we should have just taken the map from the library, but nooo, you wanted to take a picture.” Nerissa groaned.

“Would you prefer to carry a heavy map around? This…” Ivy waved her phone around, “is much easier.”

Nerissa huffed then stayed quiet.

“You sure the tunnels don’t have a guardian? Or a monster?” The strawberry blonde haired witch was starting to feel like the tunnels under Cloud Tower were less like tunnels and more a confusing twisting labyrinth. She really hoped there wasn’t a Minotaur in here with them.

”No, but I heard they used to a long time ago.” Ivy murmured as she continued walking while looking at her phone, “There are also runes drawn by the foundering witches into the walls that when activated kept invaders in and trapped them in until they went mad or died.” Ivy took a bit too much glee in explaining the grim history behind the tunnels.

”Let’s hope we don’t end up like them.” Nerissa murmured.

They soon came to a dead end with a door that had a strange symbol on it. 

“Oh! I think this is it!” Ivy excitedly walked up to it.

“So we just walked right through?” Michelle questioned how secret these secret tunnels actually were if there was just a door to it.

“Would you prefer to stay out here?” Nerissa shrugged then started walking towards the door. Michelle soon followed after them. There was a flash of a bright light and the three witches stumbled into a corridor.

”Ugh.” Michelle’s head was spinning as she regained her footing, “I hate magic.”

“I can hear the music over this way.” Ivy led the way down the halls, practically skipping down the pristine pink hallway. 

“Come on.” Nerissa gently nudged Michelle forward, “Let’s dance before we get found out and kicked to the curb.”

Michelle’s breath was taken away as the coven entered the dazzling ball-esque room. It looked as if they stepped into a fairy tale like Cinderella. Their dresses made them blend right in with the fairies of Alfea. Ivy’s dark green hair had sparkles in her intricate hairstyle. She wore a short black dress with lacy frills that could pass off as more cute than gothic. Nerissa had a more elegant teal dress that went down her knees that resembled dark waves. She also had blue streaks in her hair that she had added earlier in the night with a spell. Michelle wore a dark purple dress with a dust of glitter along its body resembling a galaxy.

”Okay, so what should we do first?” Ivy was practically bouncing with energy, “Maybe the food? Or the photo booth…Oh The DJ’s playing my favorite song! I have to get on that dance floor!” 

”I’m getting food, that buffet is calling my name.” 

“Wait, hold on…a minute.” Soon enough, Michelle was left alone by herself while Ivy and Nerissa walked in opposite directions. She was hungry, so she might as well get some food. The lights of the ballroom were globes that floated in place above the party goers. It was all elaborate and fancy, even the food looked as if it came from a five star restaurant. A small voice in the back of her mind whispered to her about how unfair it all was, but she brushed it aside, holding one of the pristine champagne glasses. As she took the first sip of the bubbly drink, she noticed a familiar face. It was Elio, walking up to her.

“Hey, Michelle, right?”

“Elio, you look…nice.” He wore a sleek looking dark red suit with amber gemstone cufflinks pressed into the sleeves. She was relieved to be holding a cold glass, otherwise her hands might warm up again.

“Thanks, you look good too.”

“Aurelio!” In the ballroom light, the blonde haired girl that approached them radianted like the sun. Her blue dress looked extremely fancy and over the top, all of her shiny, golden jewelry had a moon motif to them.

“Oh, hey Callista.” Though he was smiling, his tone was polite, even strained.

“Care to dance?” Michelle nearly choked on her drink as Callista not so subtly batted her eyelashes at him. 

“I would love to but…” Elio stepped closer to Michelle and grabbed her free hand, “I’ve already accepted her request to dance.”

If Michelle wasn’t holding an extremely expensive looking glass, she would’ve surely dropped it in shock. She would be flattered, if she didn’t feel like she had just been thrown under the bus. Callista’s heated glare seemed to have the intensity of a thousand suns, or rather moons. Though judging by Elio’s strained expression, he really didn’t want to dance with Callista.

“Y-yeah.” Michelle nodded her head, trying to keep her composure calm. Thankfully, Elio managed to move away from Callista and onto the dance floor still holding Michelle’s hand.

“Aurelio?” She whispered to him.

“It’s my full name.” The blonde cringed, “It’s long and stuffy, so I just go by Elio just to make it easier.” He chuckled.

“Good call.”

“You don’t have to dance with me if you don't want to.” He glanced at Callista who was still looking at them from the side, "I put you on the spot and I shouldn't have."

“I…wouldn’t mind dancing with you.” 

His smile returned then placed a hand along her hip, “Okay then.” 

Her face heated up again as they glided along the dance floor. She just hoped that her hands wouldn't burst into flames anytime soon.

Nerissa watched from the sidelines as the rest of her coven did their own thing. She wasn’t really sure if they could call themselves a coven, since they were just roommates who decided to stick together. Though she did see them as the closest thing she had to friends in a long time. Not even the other daughters of the Winx made her feel these ways. The playdates she’d been taken with her mother never felt real to her. Nerissa forced herself to get along with the other girls, but there was always this awkwardness, this distance between each other. The daughters didn’t get along as well as their mothers did.

“Nerissa? Is that really you?” Oh great Omega, the girl nearly threw up her food at the sound of her name. She thought that blue streaks in her hair would be enough to hide her identity, clearly she was stupid to think that a simple hair change would make her invisible. The fairy of nature wore a simple yet elegant pink tulip dress with green thread resembling vines along the ends of it. The woman’s hair was in a tight bun, and she wore a glimmering golden leaf pendant along her neck.

“Aunt Flora.” The brunette wasn’t really her aunt, but the other members of the Winx were so close they liked to think of themselves as aunts to their friends’ children. A shame that didn’t apply to their own kids' friendships. 

“Your mother is very worried about you.”

She resisted the urge to scowl at the thought of her mother, “Really? I didn’t think she’d notice with Naida and her ego.” The dark haired witch bristled under the harsh yet concerned look the guardian fairy gave her.

“...Sorry.” Nerissa caved under the usually kind hearted woman’s rare stone cold looks. For the Winx labeled the sweetest in the fairy group, she knew when to be scary. 

“Your mother can be stubborn at times, but she just wants to protect you.”

“She has a funny way of showing it.” Nerissa murmured. 

Flora sighed, “Can you at least tell me; are you safe? Are you among people you trust?”

For a moment, Nerissa glanced at Michelle and Ivy from across the room. She admitted she never quite fit in in Andros. Her parents expected so much for her, to be their shining pearl alongside her sister, Naida. She was Princess Nerissa, Queen Aisha’s daughter and crown heir to the throne of Andros. But Nerissa wasn’t perfect. She wasn’t good at dancing, wasn’t good at sports, even fairy magic was difficult for her. After the terror of Tritannus and the Trix, dark magic users including witches were labeled as terrors upon Andros and its people. She wasn’t sure her mother or anyone in Andros on land or sea would let a witch on the throne. She always longed for the dark depths of the ocean, the unknown, not its shimmering ripples like her mother, the legendary Fairy of Waves, did. No one would expect the daughter of Winx’s member to be studying at Cloud Tower and she was finally relieved when no one recognized her. 

Ivy and Michelle treated her like she was normal, and it was…nice. No unreasonable expectations, no transactional friendships, no underhanded motivations. They liked her for her and that was enough.

She turned her gaze back to aunt Flora and responded, “Yes, I am.”

Suddenly a glass broke, and screaming started. The decorations were burnt into ashes, as a fire roared to life. In the center of the chaos was a very familiar face, surrounded by a wall of fire, terrified out of her mind.

“Michelle?!” 

Chapter Text

(FallenFairy crawls her way out of a grave, gasping for breath)

Soooo....it's been awhile, hasn't it? (glances nervously at the update date all the way back in January)

Life just kinda of got in the way then I just started my second semester of getting my masters annd I got into other projects annnnnnnd oi, just ALOT happened.

But GOOD NEWS I started a Tumblr (@fayflutter) but it really is just a lot of Miraculous Ladybug content and a sideblog for Ever After High (sorry Winx Club fans). I do hope to put up some WC content up there....eventually. Unfortunately, that has been taken up a lot of my time too. I've also kind of hit a snag in my writing and honestly a lot of my chapters feel rushed and I'd like to rewrite them.

So, what does this mean for Daughters of Hecate?

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

*CUE THE DRUMS!!!*

I'M REBOOTING DAUGHTERS OF HECATE (CONFEETTTTTTIIII!!!!)

(Yes, I know I do this with ALOT of my other series, but I just can't keep writing knowing I could have done it better, I'm a perfectionist darn it!)

This means new chapters, new characters, include horror, drama, maybe even have new plotlines?!?

The first chapter of the Daughters of Hecate reboot will be up in just a few days. In the meantime, give me your comments, I'd like to know what you think!

That's all from me, folks!

Until next time,
FallenFairy20