｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

｡･:*:･ﾟ★"I've dealt with Burned One, assassins, lost jewels, curses and far worse things. "･:*:･ﾟ☆

Octavia

I've decided that nobody can make coffee like Beatrix can. But maybe that's because she puts whiskey in it. We woke up earlier than the others. I untangled myself from Riven's limbs, shushing him back to sleep when he fussed at the loss of my warmth. Beatrix was surprisingly forced to do the same with my twin who had apparently fallen asleep on top of her last night when she refused to leave with Sky to go back to her dorm.

Sky who left me to check on Bloom. Not that I'm upset about it or anything,

Beatrix and I drink our coffees in silence, having left a note in the kitchen and migrating down to the benches that watch the specialist grounds. We watch Silva in silence as he sets up the training equipment. I wonder where Irene is, she normally helps him. Why is he even setting this up on a weekend?

"How are you feeling?" Bea mutters.

"Empty." I whisper, "free."

She looks at me in silent curiosity as she sips from her mug.

I sigh. "It's like a grounding weight has been lifted from me."

I watch the birds fly through the sky, their wings reflecting some of the early dawn light.

"I feel as though I'm soaring through the sky with only my thoughts." I pause and look back down at the forest. It looks darker today, as if the shadows have retreated from the school.

"Yet I can't pinpoint a single thought. Not properly at least." I confess quietly and steal a glance at an impassive looking Beatrix. "I've lost all tether to reality Bea."

Her eyes glisten as she glances away.

"I know." She whispers, voice clogged with tears, "I'm going to fix this for you, okay."

I nod slowly at her words.

"I'm going to fix this Tavi, Riv is going to help me. We have a plan."

"It's not your responsibility Bea," I whisper, staring at her gratefully even as I protest, "It's not your fault."

"I left you with her." She whispers back, refusing to look at me.

"Bea-"

"No, no." She cuts me off, "We may disagree about Rosalind but you are still my sister... I shouldn't have left you with her."

"What could you have done... hmmm?" I question, nudging her. "She's the Queen."

"I could have done something." She snaps, "I could have done anything. Try at least. Sent a bolt at her heart, burnt the classroom around you so she was forced to leave, taken one of Riven's blades and-"

"Bea," I sigh. Nothing could change Beatrix's mind once she decided something.

"Octavia?" A voice hesitantly calls and I look up to see Musa walking towards us.

"I'll see you later, I've got something to do." Beatrix murmurs in my ear, placing a quick kiss to my cheek before walking away.

She's off to do Rosalind's work again. Sadness weighs down my shoulders but I perk up when I realise Musa can feel all my emotions now.

"What's going on?" She worries as she sits down in Beatrix's place. "Why can I feel you so much?"

I sigh. "I had a- setback, with my shadows. I need to get used to using my powers on my own again."

"On their own?" Musa looks shocked and I see her eyes glow. "Why can't I feel them? They can't be gone can they?"

"I-" I stumble, hesitant on what I can and should tell her.

"It's a restriction," I finally murmured, "My outburst last night required... consequences. The Queen saw fit to take away the Shadows... indefinitely."

"She- she can't-"

"She can." I cut Musa off, looking at her in silence as she sighs.

I nudged her shoulder, "My powers will be back up and running by this evening. So I'll be at the next meeting and you won't have to suffer through my emotions."

She sighs, clearly wanting to disagree with me but is grateful nonetheless.

"How was last night? I never got a chance to ask you how it went." I ask.

It's Musa's turn to sigh. "I stayed with the other mind fairies like you suggested. They... they had some good advice. I felt more in control by the end but when I went into the rave-"

"You got overwhelmed again because you had got too used to filtering in the information." I question with a raised eyebrow.

She ducks her head down and agrees. Giving me an embarrassed smile.

"Hey, I've been there. The shadows were overwhelming when I first got them. Everything they saw, heard and learned I knew. I eventually learned how to lessen the flow of information but they we're still there, constantly. It takes time to learn how to control them entirely, how to cut them off."

"We're more alike than I realised." Musa states, smiling gratefully.

A text pings through on my phone.

𝕽𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖓

𝔇𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔞𝔫𝔱 𝔪𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔪𝔞𝔨𝔢 𝔟𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔨𝔣𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔲𝔭 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔬𝔯 𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔲𝔭 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔰𝔬𝔠𝔦𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔟𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔨𝔣𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔩𝔩?

I grin down at the text and I see Mus roll her eyes at me. She nudges me and glances over my shoulder at the phone.

"Riven's an asshole. Why did you lower your standards?"

I chuckle as I remember Riven's words from last night, I can't stop the blush that arises at the memory. At his promises.

𝕺𝖈𝖙𝖆𝖛𝖎𝖆

𝔅𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔨𝔣𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔩𝔩, ℑ 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔤𝔢𝔱 𝔲𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔫𝔬𝔯𝔪𝔞𝔩

I stand and pick up my now empty mug from the bench, "Shall we swing past your dorm before heading for breakfast?"

Musa nods and stands with me, "Are you sure you're up for it?"

"I have to be," I sigh, "The meetings tonight will require all of my focus so I need to get acclimated quickly."

"Ah," Musa nods with mock seriousness, "Using the big words in preparation I see. Very politician of you."

I shove her.

The walk to her dorm is filled with jokes and light laughter, Musa's doing an excellent job at keeping distracted and grounded to the present. Something tells me she knows how I feel, funnily enough. I practise my shields a few times as we walk, confident with their ability when Musa gives me a thumbs up as we reach the winx suite.

"Not sure it's the new bed giving me nightmares." A small voice flickers through the dorm as Musa leads me to her room where she's set up a little hot drinks table. I look at her in question, nodding when she mouths 'Bloom'.

"How are you feeling, about the whole," I see Aisha gesture openly through their bedroom doorway, "changeling thing."

"Changeling drama?" I whisper, I heard plenty of rumours on my way back to the dorm even in my jaded state but I don't know the specifics, especially if they gave her nightmares

Musa shakes her head, "Burned one."

I frown and glance back at the room before looking at Musa with raised brows.

"Is 'trying not to feel anything' an answer?" Bloom mutters sarcastically.

What Burned one drama?

"Stella didn't tell you?" Musa murmurs to me as she hands me another coffee, disappointingly without whiskey like Beatrix, I take a sip and pause. It's hot chocolate. She gave me hot chocolate.

"Though you could do with less caffeine and more chocolate." She smirks at me and I roll my eyes but drink nonetheless. It's pretty good.

I hear the door creak behind me and look around to see Stella creeping into the suite.

In last night's clothes.

"Oh, that outfit is so similar to yesterday's." Musa mocks with a grin as she comes to lean against the wall leading into the living room area. "Same designer?"

"Do you know how I feel about that joke or shall I tell you?" My twin snarks back before her attention drift to me and her eyes soften.

"Tavi," She whispers and strides towards me, heartbreaking concern filling her eyes and I hear Musa gasp from behind me, she's no doubt overwhelmed by my sister's all consuming emotions.

"How are you feeling?" She questions while bringing me into a gentle embrace, pulling back gently to look into my eyes and for the first time I feel like the younger sister as she stares down at me and brushes a lock of hair out my face, "have you eaten anything yet, of course Riven would forget, let me get changed and we can go get some breakfast."

"Riven's waiting for her in the cafeteria." Musa interrupts and Stella immediately stiffens that cold princess mask coming on.

"Where's bloom?" My twin demands and I pause in confusion.

"Well she had a rough night thanks to you." Musa snarks back.

Okay, I am definitely missing something here. I go to tug on my shadows and freeze when there's nothing there. I forgot. How could I forget? I swallow back the lump in my throat and focus on my sister who's glaring Musa down.

"I didn't think those things were real but we all saw. It was creepy as hell." Musa breaks off and glances at me, so this is what she meant by burned one. Great. More unreported sightings by Dowling. I had to have Sky and Riven confirm the others at Alfea and they don't have access to all of the school's records so I have no clue what the actual number of sightings is. "It looked like it wanted to kill her-"

"What about my ring?" Stella snaps.

"That burned... Thing." Bloom stutters as comes out of her room looking like shit. "That burned thing took it."

"What?" Stella seethes

"Calm down princess."

Not helping Musa

"Don't tell me to calm down and don't use my title as an insult." Stella emphasises each command as she gets more worked up with panic and rage. The Queen is going to kill us if she finds out.

"Right.. Princess," Bloom catches sight of me as I creep forwards to join the discussion, Princesses, I forgot for a second."

She really needs to stop forgetting because this just got so much worse for her. Queen Luna is no doubt pissed at having a changeling under her reign and now said changeling got involved with a burned one? And lost a crown jewel? Helios, I don't want to be a part of that conversation.

"Yeah well, my mother is literally down the hall and the ring you lost is one of the crown jewels of solaria." Stella gripes, fear of our mother making her lash out, "That might not mean much to a first worlder so feel free to ask your suit-mate how big of a screw up that is."

"Almost as big as giving it to her in the first place." Aisha snips as she enters the room, eyeing me as she does.

No I have not forgotten you little water fairy. Nor have I forgotten your little laugh at my expense.

"Dowling has the creature locked up," Aisha states as she glares at my sister, "which you would know if you were here last night when she gave us an earful."

Dowling has it locked up? And failed to notify the ministers at the meeting, or the queen, or the general or me. Oh she is in for it.

"And if people knew there was a burned one even in the first world temporarily." Musa adds on before turning to Bloom, "disaster"

And there it is. The reason Farrah has been keeping her mouth shut.

"I didn't tell her that I lost the ring, and I'm sure if we do, then-"

"We will do no such thing," I cut in smoothly, ignore Bloom's desperate face as she tries to figure out what to do.

"I will figure it out and sort it, but for now no one says anything to anyone." I command and everyone stiffens, I can see Aisha readying herself to snap at me so I continue on.

"This is my job, Bloom." I say gently, aware of how fragile she is right now and aware of how much she apparently means to Sky, "I've dealt with Burned One, assassins, lost jewels, curses and far worse things. Focus on your lessons and take some time for yourself to process everything. We have this covered."

Bloom nods.

"And can someone tell Terra that?" My sister adds with less fire this time, "She can never keep her mouth shut."

Stella storms to her room but pauses when she see Terra changing inside it.

"Got it." terra states with a forced smile and I can't help but sigh at her. What in Helios' name is she doing?

Stella sighs

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Strawberries, chocolate and pancakes, Riven's spoiling me. I munch away like a happy little fairy as the girls talk around me. They're desperately trying to distract Bloom from the changeling drama while we wait for Terra to join us with her food.

I begin to zone out as I draw on my power. The shadows that are directly under my control. Musa mentioned Dowling having the Burned One under lock and key but I need to see it. The shadows allowed me to see things, they taught me the basics of how to do it myself and it seems I am finally being forced to do it myself.

It takes a couple of tries but I manage to push through and send the shadows out to find Dowling. If I'm right then she would have gone to see the Burned One during the morning before classes started.

"Must have brought back memories, seeing a Burned One again after so long." Silva comments with concern as they walk across the fields.

They're outside Alfea, walking through a field. Irene and Silva walk a step behind Dowling and I'm surprised to see Harvey nowhere in sight.

"Too many," Dowling's voice is bitter and tired, "The Black Woods Massacre, our excursion to Maravet Falls."

"Feels like a lifetime ago." Irene comments as she stares out into the forest, an odd expression on her face as she looks at Dowling, "I still remember Saul, Andreas and I being stuck in those trenches for days on end."

There's a silent 'without you' there.

Dowling ignores her in favour of commenting humorously to Silva, "Didn't the three of you keep a kill count?"

"17 for Andreas, and I think a couple hundred for Irene after the Eastcliff incident," he doesn't hesitate to answer. "thirteen, personally."

Dowling pauses and stares at Silva in question, glancing at Irene in apprehensive shock.

Silva gestures in confusion with his hands, "what? Thirteen. As in my sword in its flesh."

I think she was confused at Irene, not your meager number of hills in comparison Silva. He's far too trusting of Dowling.

"Of course I had help. I could never take one down entirely on my own," Silva grins at Irene before turning back to Dowling, "but apparently you still can."

Dowling clicks her tongue, "I got lucky. It didn't see me coming."

She shouldn't be getting lucky. I can see the same understanding in Irene's eyes. They're school teachers and they've allowed that to cloud their judgement. In an attempt to lose the old ways they've lost all fighting capabilities among the students and themselves. We're going to have to up our game if we want to win this war a second time around.

They clamber over a small dilapidated stone wall as rain begins to pour down, dripping down the handles of the twins blades on the two specialists' backs.

"How much Zanbaq did you give it?" Silva questions absently as he looks around the forest in concern

"Enough." Dowling presses a hand against the barrier, "It should be out cold."

Irene tenses and shares a look with Silva. So maybe Silva isn't as trusting of Dowling as he lets on. At least I'll have Irene on my side when I need to get shit done.

"What do you expect to discover when you're inside its mind?" Irene murmurs as they enter the barn.

"Answers," Silva nods awkwardly at Dowling's nondescript response, "I'll sleep better knowing it's a lone wolf."

"And if it's not." Irene asks without taking her eyes off the creature, none of them in fact have taken their eyes off the Burned One, "If there are more."

Dowling's sharp gaze cuts towards her. Irene stares back in challenge. She wants to start preparing. Riven mentioned her going harder on the first years, that she had upped her training with the others in her lessons as well,

I heard a few rumours around school that she was brutal this year but the specialist seemed to respect her teaching more. She never made them do anything she had not proven to them that she could do it perfectly ten times in a row.

The first two to shock them, the next two to impress them. Examples number 5, 6 and 7 were no doubt to inspire them to be like her while 8 and 9 were apparently done with such a flourish that it was clearly a challenge.

Dumaris never backed down from a challenge.

I've heard Riven and Sky griping plenty of times on our morning runs that she save example number ten for at the very end when they're dead on their feet and failing. Just to piss them off so they work harder the next day.

Helios, I want to be like her.

Dowling creeps closer to the creature, crouching down next to as Irene and Silva tense behind her. I watch as the headmistress' eyes begin to glow, magic flaring as she enters the Burned One's mind and raises her palm level with its head. The glow in her eyes begins to pulse in and out as her powers waver and push on. Silva shifts behind her, looking ready to pounce forward and pull her back.

"Just, be careful farrah." he murmurs in concern, keeping his voice soft so as not to wake the creature.

Irene looks at him in surprise at his tone. I do too. That softness is not something you should be sharing with someone who is not your mate. Irene swallows heavily and for the first time I see real doubt in her eyes. Doubt in Silva as she looks between him and Dowling.

Dowling closes her eyes and I see her eyes flicker back and forward beneath her eyelids.

She can see something.

The creature roars, lunging towards Dowling but Silva is faster as he wrenches the headmistress backwards as she gasps in shock.

Irene looks on silently at the actions.

She expected this.

I reel back in surprise, feeling arms wrapped around me like Silva did with Dowling. I look up, tipping my head back to rest against a hard chest behind me. Riven stares down at me with soft confused eyes.

"You okay?" He leans down to murmur in my ear, his lips softly brushing against me as I break out in shivers in response. He chuckles lowly and I pout in annoyance at his ability to rile me up.

"When you're feeling better you and I can have some fun." He taunts quietly, nipping at my ear in a way that makes me melt.

A/N: Do you want to see Sam and Musa in the upcoming chapters or do you want her to have a different love interest?