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The garden is beautiful. Frigid and beautiful.
Snow heavily blankets the ground on which a fountain rests, it’s water forever frozen in place. Around the base of it is a circle of flowers, deep blue and violet in color and outline by a sharp dusting of frost.
Spotting the ground and lining the slippery, stoney pathways are dozens of tiny tealight candles. They cast a strange, cold blue glow that seems to keep the snow around them at bay.
And hanging from frozen branches are more candles that illuminate within silvery holders.
There are crystalline flowers in branches that are heavy with snow and encased completely in ice. She doesn’t know how but her sister has managed to climb at least halfway up the tree.
“Come on! Come up here! The view is so pretty. We can watch the sunset together! Oh you should see how the snow glitters on the treetops.”
And she is certain that it is just as lovely as her sister promises. Maybe even more so. But she is scared. Of heights, of falling, of almost everything really. She doesn’t think that it is a bad thing to be cautious, one of them has to be…
“You have wings, just fly up here!” Her sister urges.
And she feels silly, why hadn’t she thought of that? “I’ll be right up.”
She carefully perches herself on the branch next to her sister and puts her arm around the girl. The sun bathes her face in gold but it gives off little heat. It is just as it should be. Were it not so blinding she could look at it and see a gentle, iridescent halo around it.
Instead she watches the ground, the way that hills of mostly undisturbed snow glitters and glints beneath its brilliant rays. Right down the middle, looking as though the animal who had left them there had walked straight into the sun, are moose tracks. She follows them for as far as her eyes can see.
Shadows of trees elongate as the sun sinks further. Gentle gusts send skitters of loose snow skittering across snow that is more densely packed, creating impressive and towering banks all over the tundra.
“Are you ready to head home yet?”
Her sister shakes her head.
“You’re not hungry?”
“Nope!”
“Not even a little bit?”
“Well…hmm…maybe a little.” Her sister smiles.
She laughs.
She scoops her sister into her arms and carefully brings the two of them to the ground. She ruffles her sister’s hair. “Well that’s good because you begged our mother to make that mint-chocolate chip cheesecake.”
“Oh yeah! I did! Well come on, come on! We better hurry before dad eats it all!”
.oOo.
Layla blinks. Once. Twice. She rubs her eyes and sits up, waiting for the last tingles of sleep to clear from her head.
“Well! How’d it go!?” Stella asks.
“Give her a chance to wake up a little more.” Bloom laughs.
“It went…” Layla frowns. “It was beautiful but…”
“But what!?” Stella leans over the bed. “The spell worked, right? Did you see him? Did you see your soulmate!?”
“It worked.” She replies uncertainty.
“But?” Musa prompts.
“Oh my gosh, he’s got no sense of style! That’s it, right, he doesn’t know how to dress himself?”
“...Yeah.” Layla replies. “Yeah, I guess that he’s a bit of a fixer upper like that.”
If only.
If only the problem were that simple and easy to fix.
If only the problem were that small, small enough for her to be willing to get used to it rather than change it.
“He’s not your type is he?” Stella asks. “Well, my darling, that is the beauty of falling in love! He doesn't have to be your type.”
“No offense, Stel, but could your spell have gone wrong?” Layla asks. “I really don’t see how I can be compatible with this person.”
“A spell can always go wrong.” Tecna nods. “But the probability in this case is pretty low.”
“Right.” Layla mumbles.
“Well you at least have to give him a shot!” Stella declares. “He might surprise you.”
.oOo.
Icy is full of surprises, that’s for sure. But they are never good ones. They come in the form of traps and disguises, sometimes a disguise used to lead the Winx girls into a trap. They come in the form of showing up at Alfea with her sisters and Valtor at her side. Rather she has taken to following Valtor around again.
By choice or by force, she doesn’t particularly seem to mind so long as she can take vengeance and power. The man is literally about to destroy the magical universe and Icy seems perfectly content to go along with that so long as it can get her another taste of the power she’d lost when Bloom took her dragon fire back.
Layla shakes her head. She hasn’t done the universe particularly wrong.
So why?
Why then did Nabu die on her?
Why then did the universe offer Icy up as a potential new lover?
It is funny, Layla thinks, that Stella had mentioned looks as a reason to not like her soulmate when a pretty face and an elegant aesthetic is just about all that Icy has going for her in terms of finding a lover.
Do witches even love?
Last Layla had heard, witches scorn and resent love on principal.
And so Layla decides that she has to come to terms with being single for life. She supposes that, that isn’t such a terrible thing. Musa seems happier than ever since she has taken a break from Riven.
A shard of ice sails pat her, nicks her ear. Layla jolts and Icy cackles. “Pay attention fairy or I’ll have you pinned to the wall by your wings.”
Layla smirks as Bloom drifts behind Icy, a ball of flames burning in her palms. But Icy turns around and throws up a wall of ice to catch that fireball before it reaches her. She sends a blast of frigid wind at Layla for good measure before turning her attention fully back to Bloom.
Layla shakes the stars out of her vision just before she can hit the ground. But Icy had it her good, the chill still radiates up and down her right arm and so she slowly lowers herself the rest of the way to the ground and tries to work the frost off of her arm. She grits her teeth, she will probably need Bloom or Stella’s help to come melt it away but the both of them are occupied with Icy and Darcy respectively while Stormy finds her usual opponent in Musa.
For himself, Valtor sits back and watches the show until, inevitably, the Trix fall and he is forced to take his turn. What a sad, pathetic creature. At least the Trix can say that they never hide behind someone else for protection.
Brave.
She supposes that she can apply that quality to Icy, if she is really digging for redeemable qualities in her. She is also persistent but she uses that persistence to achieve horrible things.
Loyal comes to mind.
If nothing else she does seem to care for Darcy and Stormy, as much as a witch is capable of that sort of thing. Maybe witches can love. Maybe she just doesn’t understand the language they convey affection in. She doesn’t want to understand the love language of a witch.
Especially not the witch that blasts her friend right out of the sky. Flora gives a sharp cry. She, Musa, and Tecna race to catch her and Layla feels entirely useless. Especially when Musa is struck down by a bolt of lightning from Stormy, Layla’s own cry of warning hadn’t made it on time. And, to add insult to injury, Icy pelts the music fairy with a rain of hail.
And in that moment she hates Icy. Hates her more than anyone in the universe.
She looks up at the witch, at the woman who she is supposed to love.
At the woman who is taunting and mocking them.
At the woman who hates them.
At the woman who would probably kill them if they don’t take her down.
She wonders if it would be cruel to cast the lover’s soul spell on her.
She wonders if she should care.
The spell is on her lips, and she is bringing it to the tips of her fingers.
She almost sends it Icy’s way.
Almost.
Bloom strikes first—it is quite an awful blow. One that might have ended a less resilient person. But Layla, after years of fighting the woman, has come to realize that Icy is strangely durable. She has seen the woman take some pretty ridiculous damage and get right back up, angrier and meaner than ever.
She doesn’t get up this time.
It is a terrible thing and she feels privately guilty for it, but Layla hopes that maybe now she can cast the lover’s soul spell on herself again and get a better result.
.oOo.
They have nowhere to go.
Icy hadn’t expected anything less but after his most recent defeat, Valtor has left them to their fates. He, of course, had left an out for himself. Found himself some nice, cozy, and dark place to lurk and hide away in until he regains his strength while she and her sisters find themselves, used and humiliated, on the verge of a grim fate.
She supposes that she should have seen it coming.
She had to have known that Magix would grow tired of dealing with she and her sisters eventually.
That their had would be, in some sense, forced.
She can tell that Darcy and Stormy are angry. Angry and…scared. For once they look scared. Truly terrified. And maybe Icy would feel the same way if she wasn’t feeling so empty. She had failed her coven sisters and failed her blood sister. For that their sentence isn’t particularly daunting to her.
“Magix can no longer tolerate this kind of behavior.” Faragonda says. “The three of you are a danger to not just this realm but the universe at large.”
Next to her Saladin nods, “The magical universe is growing tired of the consistent threat and therefore they have put pressure on us to not be so lenient.”
Stormy feigns a yawn.
Darcy is biting her nails.
Stormy doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the situation.
Icy hasn’t seen Darcy bite her nails in ages.
She knows that Griffin is relishing in being the one to deliver the news, “that is to say that we are not to be lenient at all.” She pauses to let that sink in. “The Trix are to be executed by the month’s end.”
Seldom does Icy feel chilled but today she feels so potently so that her entire body stiffens. Next to her Darcy pauses mid-gnaw and Stormy’s eyes widen. Icy thinks that she has actually gasped. “Yo-you’re not really going to kill us, are you?” Stormy asks.
“Get your affairs in order.” Griffin raises a dismissive hand. “As much as you can while in a jail cell. All we have to do is sign a few papers and then it is done.”
“But what about my sister?” Icy inquires.
“Sister?”
It is a story she doesn’t care to delve into. “I have a sister, yes. She is currently a fox, I intended to break that spell before…” before she had gotten a taste of power and ruefully distracted. She supposes that she can’t really blame anyone but herself. And Sapphire will suffer for it. “Someone will break that spell on my behalf, yes?” But what then? What happens when…if Sapphire becomes human? She won’t have anyone to guide her, to help remind her of what it is like to be a human.
“Well I suppose that you should use your final month to figure that out.”
.oOo.
It should come as a relief to hear that news.
Finally, after so very long, they won’t have to worry about The Trix ever again.
And for herself, Layla can find a new soulmate. A real soulmate.
But it doesn’t.
Not to her.
Not to Bloom.
Not to Stella.
Not to any of them.
Somehow it makes her sick to her stomach. They aren’t good people, The Trix, but she doesn’t think that they deserve to die. Not when Valtor has gotten away.
“Well they had to have seen it coming!” Stella declares. “I mean, yeah, I don’t like it either but nothing else has worked and nobody can seem to keep them locked up, they always escape. So what’s left to do? Because the head mistresses can’t just let them keep terrorizing Magix. Something has to be done.”
“We know, Stella.” Bloom sighs. “We aren’t disagreeing.” But they certainly aren’t agreeing.
“Well what else can we do?” Stella asks.
It is the question that nobody wants to answer.
Because the answer is nothing.
They can’t do a thing.
Nothing except return to their home realms for the summer and try not to let it get to them.
But Layla can’t seem to put it out of her mind; that look on Icy’s face. That raw and absolute dread.
Remorse even.
It occurs to Layla that, when all of this began, the three of them had just been girls. Three teenagers who had been rewarded for their misdeeds until it no longer suited headmistress Griffin to do so.
It occurs to her that the three of them never really had a real chance.
She isn’t supposed to care.
She isn’t supposed to mourn.
She is supposed to be happy.
She is supposed to be relived.
But she does care and she might just mourn a lover that she never had the chance to love and never wanted to love anyways. Maybe it only bothers her so much because it is happening so soon after Nabu has died. Although some would say that four years isn’t all that soon.
Those people have never lost someone.
And maybe that is why she had agreed to go when Faragonda announced that, “Icy asked to see you.”
“Which one of us?” Musa asks. There are only three of them at the school still. Bloom had already returned to Sparks. Stella is on her way to visit one of her parents, she hasn’t mentioned which. And Flora is currently on her way to spend the summer with her sister at some volunteer program.
“She had asked for Bloom but I would imagine that any of you will do. Especially since Bloom isn’t here and won’t be back on time to see her.”
That is probably for the best, Bloom was particularly bothered by the news of The Trix’s sentencing.
“Do Darcy and Stormy want to see anyone?” Tecna asks.
“Darcy and Stormy will be serving a different sentence. Icy had managed to convince the council that the two of them won’t be a problem with her out of the picture. That she was the one who had been making all of the decisions.” Faragona pauses. “She had claimed that she had used some sort of mind control spell or potion, there wasn’t evidence to prove that one way or the other.”
“I’ll go.” Layla volunteers.
She’ll talk to her supposed soulmate.
She supposes that she should at least do that.
.oOo.
It is terribly humbling to let anyone, let alone a former enemy, see her in such a state. Hair disheveled, face free of makeup and in need of the shower she is only allowed to take every few days, and wearing a frumpy prison robe that hangs much too loosely on her frame.
Darcy and Stormy visit as often as Light Rock permits and she swears that they see less and less of her with each time they do. She is fading away, becoming a shell of the spirited person that she had once been. But what does that matter, she won’t be a person soon. She won’t be anything at all. Nothing but a corpse. So she might as well vacate her body before that can happen.
She is trying to get them to convince Light Rock to let them keep Sapphire as a ‘therapy animal’ of sorts but Light Rock’s lack of trust and an expectation that it is some sort of trap makes it an uphill battle. And she is quickly losing her fight.
By the month’s end there is going to be nothing left of her and maybe that is for the best. Maybe this is all very deliberate. Maybe they are slowly breaking her down and whittling away at her spirit until she yearns for death. Maybe it is a mercy that they are helping her embrace death.
“Where’s Bloom?” She asks when a different fairy is brought before her.
“She had to go home, Icy. So it’s me or nothing?” Her voice is firm, powerful. Icy has a begrudging respect for that.
“I guess that it doesn’t really matter who I talk to. I just need someone to do me a favor.”
“You’ve made all of us miserable and you’re going to ask for a favor!?” The fairy seems outright flabbergasted.
“It isn’t a favor for me. It is one that I’m making on behalf of someone else.” She pauses. “My sister, Sapphire. She’s a good person. She’s nothing like me. She doesn’t even know what I’ve done.”
Layla swallows hard.
“Some time ago, a shaman witch had turned her into a fox. I have been trying to turn her back…I’ve gotten distracted but…” She tapers off. It always makes her feel so heavy and so tired to talk about it. “She needs someone to take care of her; to break the curse and then help her readjust to not being a fox. Darcy and Stormy can’t. I…I definitely won’t be able to. Darcy and Stormy can probably step in after they serve their sentences but she needs somebody until then.” She bunches her fists and leans herself heavily against the wall.
She hadn’t expected to see tears in the fairy’s eyes.
“I’ll help her.” Layla agrees. “I’ll help you so that you can help her yourself.”
“Help me?” Icy furrows her brows.
“I’ll talk to the council of Magix.”
Icy shakes her head. “They made it pretty clear that their decision is final.”
“I’m guessing that they don’t have all of the details.”
Icy shrugs. She is quiet for quite some time. “Why would you do that?”
“I just…” Layla falters, seeming to fight to find the right words to say. “I guess that it’s just a fairy thing. We see the good in people. We want to help people. And…”
“And?”
“Nothing. I guess that it just doesn’t feel right to let you take the fall when Valtor is still out there.”
Icy knows when key details are being omitted. But right now it doesn’t matter. It might not ever matter if Magix has its way. “If you can’t get them to budge, will you take care of Sapphire for me?”
“I’ll take care of Sapphire for you.”
Icy swallows. And she tries, but she can’t choke the tears back this time. She doesn't remember the last time that she had cried.
.oOo.
“She was willing to take the fall for her sisters. Is that not proof that there’s good in her?” Layla argues. “She brought me to that cell to ask me to take care of her sister! She didn’t mention sparing her own life once.”
The council members exchange looks.
It has been a grueling day but so far she is finally making progress.
“What do you propose, Layla?” Headmistress Faragaonda asks not unkindly. “We have offered them many olive branches that were rejected.”
“They’re probably going to be a lot easier to work with now that they realize how serious this is.”
“Light Rock will not take Icy back. The Omega Dimension can’t hold her, she seems to thrive there, in fact. Where do you suppose that we should place her.” Griffin presses.
“I…” Layla beings. “She can come with me to Tides, I’ll keep watch on her. If you take away her powers, I can handle her.”
Griffin regards her with her lips pressed into a thin line.
“Maybe you should take some responsibility.” Layla changes her tactic. “From what Bloom has told me, you were encouraging The Trix the whole time until it started to make your school look bad.”
The headmistress draws a sharp breath and Layla knows that she has won. She has backed the woman into a corner. Either she will have to show one final act of mercy to The Trix or she will have to take some sort of fall with them. With Icy specifically.
And so it is Layla finds herself in front of Icy’s cell. It’s door is ajar and Icy is staring at her with a perplexed look on her face. “You…” she furrows her brows. “You actually did it?”
Layla grins and holds her arm out. “Yeah. I did.”
She takes the hand of her soulmate and walks her to sister.
Icy scoops the fox into her arms and holds her close, very close. Her hair, still unbound falls over her shoulders. She nuzzles her cheek against Sapphire’s head. She looks like she might be ready to cry again—this time out of joy or relief. The tears are certainly glistening there even if they haven’t been shed. She spares a glance over her shoulder, her lips part but she doesn’t speak. Or maybe she had but Layla hadn’t quite caught it. If she had spoken it was so so very softly. But, come to think of it, Layla swears that she had heard a thank you.
And finally Layla can see it, why the lover’s soul spell might have pointed her in Icy’s direction.
She clings to Sapphire as the guards slip a magic blocking crown onto her head. It pulses a faint green.
“Your fate is entirely dependant on Layla.” Head Mistress Griffin comments. “If she decides that you are too much to handle we will proceed with your original sentencing. So I suggest that you treat her well.”
“Right.” Icy mutters. Layla is surprised by the flicker of relief she feels to hear a touch of the old Icy in that one disgruntled grumble.
“Don’t worry about it.” Layla says after the elder witch leaves. “I’m a pretty patient person and I think that we’ll get along just fine.”
“You sound very sure of that.” Icy frowns.
“Yeah. I just have a feeling I guess.”
She will tell her eventually.
But not now.
“I guess I better give you a tour of Tides.”
“Your cousin already did that.”
“Tides has changed quite a bit since then.” Layla shrugs. “And besides, Sapphire hasn’t seen it yet.”
“Trust me, that’s a good thing. Once she gets a sense of direction she likes to wander around. And it’s a handful. She doesn’t know how to swim for one thing and…”
Layla can’t help but laugh. “And you’re worried about her.”
Icy’s face seems to flush. “I…it’s more like…” she sighs and concedes in an almost intelligible mumble, “yeah, I worry about her.”
Layla regards the ice witch with a smile. “There’s nothing wrong with that.” In fact is so very reassuring.
“Right, well don’t get the wrong idea…”
“Don’t worry, you’re still a badass, stone cold, and powerful witch.”
“Yes. That’s correct.” Icy holds her chin up. This is directly contrasted by the fox cooing in her arms and cuddling against her neck. It is rather endearing Layla turns away before the witch can see her own blush.
She wonders what Stella and the others will say when she introduces them to her soulmate. And yes, Icy is definitely her soulmate. Whether either of them want her to be or not.