Fire and Ice - Riven | Fate: The Winx Saga

Chapter Twenty-One: Aster Dell

"There you are." I sighed as I found Sky sitting on the steps outside of the fairy hall. "I tried calling you."
"I saw." He told me.
"So you ignored me." I frowned as I sat down beside him. "Did you know Stella left?"
"What?"
"She's gone. We got back to our suite and all her things weren't there. She didn't even say goodbye to us. Did she not say anything to you?"
"I kind of broke up with her."
"Really?" I questioned. "Is this about Bloom?"
"It's not about Bloom, Eira. It's about me and Stella."
"That's too bad." I said. "She was actually starting to grow on me."

Sky didn't react to my comment. He just sat, looking straight ahead. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Silva." He admitted. "I tried asking him about why he wants information on Bloom."
"What did he tell you?"
"You're a soldier. You're loyalties lie with Alfea. They lie with me." He said, mimicking Saul's accent. I sighed.
"You have got to stop doing that." I smiled.
"Sorry, it's a habit."
"So, what are you gonna do?" I then asked.
"I don't really think I have a choice." Sky told me as he stood up. "I think I'm just gonna go to bed and sleep on it." He then started to walk towards the specialists hall.
"Sky?" I asked. He turned around. "There is always a choice."
"Maybe not this time." He replied before turning back and walking away.

I was now alone and it was extremely quiet outside. There were only a few lights on in the hall as most of the students and the faculty had already gone to bed. I pulled my phone out of my pocket as a flashback on my phone popped up. Three months ago, today. A video of me and Riven shouting the words to Sweet Caroline and a party. I smiled as I clicked the screen. The next one was a picture of Riven smoking a joint. The next one was a selfie of me and Riven with people dancing in the background. Then I clicked on the last one. A photo of me and Kenna at that same party. The night we had met.

Tears started to fill my eyes and one fell from my cheek and onto the screen. I wiped my phone dry and I clicked on Kenna's phone number before putting it to my ear. It rang several times before going to voicemail and I took a deep breath as my voice grew shaky. "I know you're never gonna hear this but, uh... I miss you." I began, my voice cracking before I sighed. "I don't know what to say exactly I just... I needed to talk to you..." I then picked my voice up. "We met three months ago. We should have known each other a lot longer.... Everything in my life seems to be falling apart and you're the only person I want to talk to." I took another deep breath and sniffed. "You were right... I mean, you were sort of wrong, but, uh... I understand. I just.... I just needed you to know-" I was cut off by the beep.

I sighed as I switched off my phone and stood up. I wiped my face dry on my sleeve and sniffed before walking inside and back to my suite. When I got back, I was immediately pulled into my room by Bloom. "Ow!" I exclaimed as she shut the door.
"Shh." She told me. "I don't want to others to wake up."
"What's going on, Bloom? What is this about?"
"I need to tell you what Beatrix told me." I nodded and sat down on my bed.

"Do you remember that locked room in the east wing?" She asked me. I nodded my head as Bloom began pacing up and down my room. "We broke into it. It was a secret war room."
"A war room?"
"Yep." Bloom nodded. "So, we were looking through it and the only thing I could find was about a town called Aster Dell. That's where me and Beatrix went tonight."
"So, what does this have to do with anything?" I frowned.
"There was a barrier around the town. Beatrix managed to take it down with her magic and, Eira, the town has been destroyed." Bloom explained. "Burned ones invested it and a military unit from Alfea decided that destroying the creatures was more important than the lives of the people who lived there. Queen Luna was the one who hid the town away to hide that they killed hundreds of innocent people."
"Wait, wait, wait. Beatrix told you this?" I asked. "And you trust her?"
"She was born there." Bloom told me. "You should have seen her face when she told me that her family died there. I trust her."
"Okay." I said as I stood up. "So we're trusting a psychotic fairy... What happened next?"
"The attack happened two days before my First World birthday. My family was killed at Aster Dell. Beatrix saw them."
"You're parents?" Bloom shook her head and frowned.
"Silva, Harvey... and Dowling."

"She's lying." I said. "Farah would never order an attack that would kill hundreds of people. Not if they were innocent... How would Beatrix even know that? She was a baby."
"Because Rosalind saved her, too!" Bloom exclaimed. "The memory was embedded in her mind like the one she gave me. Rosalind had a conscience, Eira. She didn't want to murder all those people even if it meant killing the burned ones in the process. Dowling, Silva and Harvey didn't agree. They staged a coup and carried out the mission."
"No." I told her. "Dowling has lied to me, yes, but she would never do that."
"Then why have they been covering it up?"

I fell back onto my head. I didn't know what to believe. I didn't know if I wanted to know that the woman who had taken care of me my whole life, was a murdering lunatic. "So... so does this mean that Beatrix is a changeling?" I asked Bloom.
"No. She said that Rosalind stuck me in the First World and gave Beatrix to a friend to look after." She explained.
"Why would Farah bring you back to Otherworld if she killed your family?"
"What if she's not put it together, yet?" Bloom asked me.
"Right." I said as I stood up and headed towards the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to confront Dowling. I need answers." I said. "I need to know the truth."
"You can't."
"And why not?"
"Because Rosalind is still alive." Bloom told me. "Dowling is the one who imprisoned her."
"You realise that if you're telling the truth, everything will change for me." I said.
"It changes for me, too."
"Then we should go and talk to Beatrix." I told her. "I want to hear it from her."