Chapter Text
The day couldn’t have been better. Some fluffy clouds were slowly making their way across the blue sky, sheer enough not to really block the sun even when they got in its way. It was warm, but the gentle breeze brought a refreshing gust of cooler air every now and then.
For Marion, the beautiful weather was just a bonus, however. She would’ve been just as happy in the pouring rain, though it would’ve meant she would have had to come up with something else for her and Daphne to do on her rare moment of freedom.
Pushing her wings to flutter with a little faster pace, Marion raced over the gloriously green hills, her eyes on the flora below her, in search of her daughter. She had lost sight of Daphne a few minutes ago after they’d passed the lake and crossed to the forest. She doubted she’d fallen far back – it was more likely that with her slender, fragmented wings and blueish-green dress, Daphne just blended well into the canopy.
As if on cue, Marion finally spotted Daphne a little ahead of her, zooming between the trees with speed that would’ve had Marion worried if she hadn’t seen her daughter do it several times. After some deliberation, Marion abandoned her own plan of flying straight over the trees and descended to the same level Daphne was on, having to put all her focus into both following Daphne’s trail and avoiding smacking into one of the tree trunks she was zigzagging in between.
Daphne noticed her before long, glancing back with a gleeful smile before speeding up. Marion had always been a fast flyer, but Daphne had inherited that trait, too, so Marion was forced to do the same, even when her turns grew sharper as she had less time to process the obstacles on her path.
They raced across a small meadow hidden in the middle of the deciduous trees and around a hill, coming by and following a river that ended in a small lake surrounded by jagged rocks on several sides. Daphne maintained her lead, but Marion had managed to gain ground on her a little as she only needed to follow her daughter instead of constantly analyzing their surroundings for the best route.
Looking up, Marion had to wonder where Daphne was planning to swerve next. They were reaching the other side of the lake that had nothing but tall boulders leaning against each other in a formation that looked not only impenetrable but dangerous with its sharp, ragged edges. They would have to go over it, but Daphne was cutting it awfully close with changing her course.
Marion slowed down. Her daughter was hardly reckless by nature, but there was no way she hadn’t noticed the roadblock ahead of them. Her hesitation had turned into bafflement, and as it morphed into worry, she opened her mouth to call out a warning.
“Daphne!”
Daphne didn’t seem to have heard her as she only straightened her hands in front of her and continued towards two of the largest stones. Marion had already stopped a safe distance away, though close enough to see Daphne fly straight towards the hard surface – but instead of ramming into it, she disappeared out of sight.
“Daphne?”
Marion hadn’t flown as fast during their entire race as she now rushed over the boulders, dizzy with relief as she saw Daphne waiting for her on the other side. She was standing on the ground and seemed completely unharmed, judging by the wide grin she greeted her mother with.
Marion landed next to her, unable to stop herself from running her hands along Daphne’s face and shoulders. “Honey, you scared me.”
Daphne’s eyes widened, and her smile turned sheepish. “I’m sorry, mom.”
Marion waved her hand, evening out her breath from their race and especially the more than exiting finish. It was no matter as long as Daphne was all right. “How did you know there was a crack between the rocks? I’ve never noticed it.”
“A nymph must know her realm”, Daphne said lightly, fluttering her wings as if she was flicking fairy dust on her mother.
Placing her hands on her hips, Marion feigned offense. “Are you suggesting I don’t know our land as well as you? May I remind you, my dearest daughter, that I’ve lived here longer?”
Daphne threw her head back as she laughed. “Yes, mama, I know. But… well, the Queen has her duties. And you can only see so far from the palace windows.”
Daphne was smirking, but behind the playful gleam in her amber eyes, Marion could see how carefully she treaded, mindful of the line she was toeing, ready to retreat the moment it got crossed. Marion knew very well how considerate her daughter could be, but witnessing it never failed to fill her with pride and love. Determined to reward Daphne for the effort, Marion kept drawing the line back with all the force she could muster, Daphne’s brilliant smile sheltering her from the lurking negative thoughts.
“Is that a challenge I’m hearing?” she asked, indulging in the rare opportunity for banter.
Daphne shrugged in mock-disinterest. “Only if you take the bait.”
Marion laughed. “Oh, you’re on! This time, I’ll go first.”
They spend the following hour flying around the forest, alternating between bursts of speed and intricate spirals, avoiding tree trunks, and testing which one of them could fly closer to the lake surface without causing ripples.
They hadn’t had a chance to do anything like that in a long while; Marion was nearly delirious from both the happiness Daphne exuded and the feel of the wind in her own hair. Flying was something she had tried to do with Daphne as often as possible when Daphne had been younger. It had been a chance to bond over something else than the etiquette for a change, in addition to improving a fairy’s agility. Marion had flown zigzag on the courtyard numerous times in her life, but she’d always preferred the real forest to the identical, neat-shaped bushes. Once she’d grown old enough that hitting the architecture would harm it, her parents had given in, allowing her to leave the yard, provided she stayed close to the castle in case of an emergency.
Marion regretted following the courtesy rule as she suddenly spotted a castle worker riding towards them. She peeked over her shoulder to Daphne who was, luckily, immersed in her somersault routine; Marion was as displeased about the idea of disturbing Daphne as she was to be disturbed herself. While the man planted his feet on the ground, Marion did the same, not transforming back in hopes that it would make the man think twice before trying to whisk her away.
“Is something the matter, Alter?”
“Your Majesty”, the advisor greeted with a quick bow. He sounded out of breath, which caused Marion to frown in confusion. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’re desperately needed in the library. It’s urgent.”
“Of course”, Marion agreed despite the sigh that had escaped her. “What is it about?”
The look on Alter’s face had Marion worried. The unevenness of his tone, coupled with the choice of using a horse instead of crossing the rather short distance on foot, ringing the alarm bells Marion had been trying not to turn on in her head.
“We received word of an attack to Solaria by a powerful dark wizard. Given the news of other similar incidences across the Magic Dimension, His Majesty King Radius is requesting our help in determining whether the attacks are connected and whether the wizard should be considered a threat.”
Marion nodded. She’d heard of the random hits during the past few months, but even the most recent one had been far from Domino, so she hadn’t paid them much mind. The increase in their number and proximity, however, was distressing. Especially if the details she’d thought had been exaggerated proved to be true.
“I’ll come straight away.”
“Mom?”
Slightly startled, Marion turned around to find Daphne standing behind her with a wary expression. Her voice had carried out several questions from genuine confusion to serious concern.
“It’s all right”, Marion reassured.
Daphne accepted the attempt, but it was clear she didn’t believe it. She didn’t join Marion on the flight back to the castle, either, which was an even bigger sign she’d read the tense situation and knew she wouldn’t be consulted in the matter. Marion was pleased about and proud of Daphne’s insight, even though it didn’t help ease her mind.
She hadn’t said anything, taking the news seriously but with the kind of placating smile she’d been taught to use in order not to alarm people outside the inner circle. But she didn’t like the feeling she had, and it wasn’t just because this dark wizard had interrupted her time with her daughter. It was her Dragon, warning her against something so grave she couldn’t even put it into words. She knew Oritel sensed her unease as she tried reasoning with Radius, suggesting they didn’t sound the alarms before they had concrete proof of the wizard’s intention to harm them. Marion knew she was lying, though. The dark magic was already infiltrating their kingdom and home. She just had no idea how drastic the separation of her family would eventually become.
It was the most disconcerting feeling, Marion thought, when every glimpse at the teenage girl who shared her hair color made her stomach simultaneously flip and sink to her toes. Then again, the disconnect felt almost normal compared to how odd it felt to be in her own form again, to be able to move. Her body felt so strange that despite the fact that Oritel hadn’t let go of her hand since he’d first grabbed it, Marion kept glancing down to make sure her senses weren’t playing tricks on her but he was indeed still holding her.
“So”, she spoke, comforted when Oritel immediately turned to look at her like he’d recognized her voice even though it sounded unfamiliar to her own ears, “where are we?”
The group of young fairies and soldiers – all too young to have gone against the people they must have faced, and won – turned to look at her then, too.
“Domino”, said a boy with glasses as thin-framed as himself. His streamlined answer was elaborated on by a pink-haired girl next to him, who actually seemed to be speaking mostly to herself.
“It seems that creating an interdimensional portal to resurface from a void is equally as complex as it was maintaining a sense of direction while introducing a physical form into abstract conditions. That’s interesting.”
“Tecna, not now, please”, sighed another girl, her hand awkwardly wrapped around her stomach and holding onto her left side. “I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t really care as long as we’re not in Obsidian anymore.”
Marion couldn’t help agreeing with her as most of the group echoed the sentence, so she tuned out the rest of the conversation. They were free; the thought almost brought tears to her eyes. The only thing rivaling the wave of relief and happiness was the pain that shot through her when she looked at her daughter, unsure if she had even recognized her without Daphne.
And Daphne… her sweet, clever, brave little girl who had first acted so beyond her years and then suffered from that sacrifice so horribly that Marion knew she could only ever be considered “little” in her eyes anymore. She squeezed Oritel’s hand tighter, hating herself for being even the tiniest bit relieved Daphne hadn’t been able to stay as the pain of seeing her first-born but not being able to hold her was-
Well, it was as paralyzing as the pain of watching the baby she’d last placed in her big sister’s arms now lean into the side of an unfamiliar young man, hugging herself and avoiding eye contact. Marion wanted nothing more than to run to her and never let go, but although Bloom had made it clear she was excited to meet them, Marion understood why the girl stayed back.
She was a stranger to her own daughter.
Unable to keep her eyes off Bloom since they were the only part of her that could touch her, Marion studied Bloom. She’d last seen her as a baby, yet she was just as perfect as she had been then. Where Daphne had taken after Oritel, Bloom seemed to have taken after her. She had her mother’s hair and eyes, the shape of her nose familiarly distinctive, and she was more on the petite side like Marion was unlike the rest of their family.
The longer Marion looked, the clearer the similarities became. She took them in, trying to memorize even the smallest of details, like the pastel shades of Bloom’s fairy form that complimented her skin tone, the freckles on her shoulders that were so faint Marion wasn’t entirely sure they weren’t just dirt, and the one lock of hair that seemed to bend in the opposite direction than the others around it. Bloom would’ve looked like any one of her friends to Marion if she hadn’t known it was her, but now that she knew, the idea that she wouldn’t have recognized her seemed absurd.
It was the truth, though. She wouldn’t have been looking, and if she’d noticed the resemblance, she would’ve turned away. Her daughters had been dead.
“Are you all right?”
Startled out of her thoughts that had slowly been spiraling out of control – Oritel must have seen it as he was better at reading people than he wanted everyone to know – Marion turned to look at her husband.
“Yes”, she answered before thinking, giving him the depressed-yet-meant-to-be-reassuring smile he had surely seen hundreds of times. She’d never had the luxury of being able to voice her problems out in the open – something Oritel still disagreed on with her, but he had seemed to quickly learn to distinguish the degree of which she meant the word by her tone and body language.
Marion lessened the power with which she was gripping his hand.
Answering her smile with a dry but fond one of his own, Oritel tugged her closer so that she was fully facing him, reaching to idly push a piece of her hair behind her ear. The fervor in his gaze captivated her attention fully, reminding her things were better now. Truly, she was more all right than she could’ve been. A short while ago she had still thought she’d never see her daughters again, hadn’t been sure if she’d ever get to touch her husband again.
Curling her fingers around Oritel’s forearms so that she was cradling them, she debated resting her head against his chest and listening to the beat of his heart so she could be sure he really was back. Being publicly affectionate had been on top of the list of things Marion, already as a child, had learned were frowned upon and thus never grown comfortable with, but now, her chest hollow with longing for time she’d been robbed of, and bitterness about a war that had cost her her daughter, she let Oritel draw her closer.
His lips lingered on her hairline, as if not yet ready to part from their beloved, while also allowing his familiar scent to soothe her. Still, Marion found her thoughts getting away from her and the man in whose arms she currently was, and towards the boy who currently had his arm around her daughter.
Who was he? He wore a uniform similar to the other boys’, with a crest Marion imagined belonged to Red Fountain – and the idea that apparently at least Magix had been spared from the destruction that had threatened their entire universe eased her mind a great deal. He carried a sword he held in a relaxed but confident grip like he was accustomed to the weapon – which he probably was if he was a specialist student like she suspected. That most likely meant he was either nobility training to become a leader or a commoner with something or someone to protect in the future.
She wasn’t interested in his heritage at the moment, however. Marion stepped back just far enough that she could observe their daughter with her suitor, while still keeping her own hold of Oritel. The important question wasn’t who the young man was or where he came from but who he was to Bloom.
Bloom was resting her head on his shoulder, while his arm was curled around her waist, fingers gently stroking her hip. The minimal distance between them painted a clear picture of the level of intimacy the pair shared, but Marion tried to push her fears aside and find comfort in the idea that at least Bloom hadn’t been utterly alone.
Marion swept her gaze over the group of students she reckoned she owed everything to. They’d returned her to her daughter, which made her curious about whether they had a bigger role in Bloom’s life. Whether they were strangers brought together by coincidence or duty, or if Bloom considered them family.
The word slit something inside her, but as torn as Marion was, she hoped Bloom had found someone to replace the family she’d never had in Domino. Marion had no idea what had happened to her daughters other than what Daphne had explained a moment ago – a brief story Marion assumed had been cut to spare time and her parents’ feelings, about how she’d sent baby Bloom through a portal somewhere that the witches would never think to look for her.
But where had that portal landed her? Marion knew Daphne’s plan had worked at least to an extent; seeing that the witches had been trapped in Obsidian as much as Oritel and she had, Bloom had been free of them. Marion hadn’t had the strength to fantasize about a world where Bloom had survived, but now that she knew that it hadn’t meant her child abandoned on a destroyed planet, she indulged herself for just a second. She allowed the pictures of baby Bloom being carried on broad shoulders and held in a warm embrace soothe the ache in her arms.
Marion had had a family, too – before. She didn’t know where that left her.
She had had a kingdom before, as well, she suddenly realized, pulling away from Oritel. She’d managed to purge it from the witches, but as a result, she’d inadvertently turned her back on it. Her brain slipped back to a queen instead of a mother and a wife with ease, the role coming to her more naturally than breathing at the moment since her lungs were out of practice. It was the only thing that didn’t cause her pain, so she greedily focused on it.
“Excuse me”, she interrupted the conversation among the teenagers, gaining their attention instantly; it was only in hindsight she realized she’d halted a brewing argument. “I thank you all for helping my husband and me, and I can imagine that the mission wasn’t without difficulties, but I’d ask you to pause your personal conversation and focus on practicalities for a while. I know time has passed, but I had a kingdom to run before the witches attacked, and I have a duty to whatever remains of my land and people.”
“We understand, Your Majesty”, said a brown-haired girl graciously, but Marion didn’t miss the alarmed looks thrown behind her back.
“I hate having to ask”, Oritel spoke, and Marion had a feeling his thoughts had traveled along the same lines as hers since he continued, “but how many years has it been, for starters?”
The grimace spreading through the group made Marion extremely uneasy. She knew it hadn’t been the century it had felt like when she’d been trapped in metal, trying to silence the panic of her own mind and the taunts of the unholy hags surrounding her, but Bloom was proof enough that it had been significantly longer than she’d dared hope.
“I… don’t think we’re the right people to tell you”, the well-mannered fairy answered again, leaving Marion to briefly wonder whether the softness of her voice was natural or deliberate.
The pink-haired fairy stepped up with a decisive nod. “Flora’s right; we should probably head back to Alfea and to Ms. Faragonda.”
“Faragonda?”
The familiar name had stuck to Marion’s ears as well, and she’d been about to ask the girl to repeat her statement, but Oritel had beat her to it, no doubt just as eager for confirmation that their friend was all right as she was.
It was the first time since Marion’s… resurrection that she wasn’t too overwhelmed by what was happening around her to spare a thought to the circumstances under which she’d ended up in Obsidian.
They’d had a carefully crafted plan that Oritel had pored over with Griffin for several nights – a plan that Marion had nearly thrown out the window when she’d seen the destruction among her people and her planet. Her flame had burned in her chest as if it had wanted to jump out and reignite the smolders lying on the ground and falling from the sky. The only one she’d wanted to burn at that moment, however, had been her counterpart.
They’d split up, aware that the link between Marion and Valtor had been the fastest way to find him and take him down even when Marion had felt a little guilty about leaving her friends in charge of her people and army.
It had been the last time she’d seen any of them.
Not knowing what had happened had been on the long list of things that had haunted her during the time she’d spent in limbo. Just because she’d been “lucky” enough to escape death didn’t mean that all of her friends had been as well. She hadn’t dared assume one way or the other, but she had hoped they’d survived, that since she and Oritel had defeated the witches, everyone else would’ve been all right and managed to take Valtor down.
“You fought together.”
Marion’s eyes immediately shifted towards the voice that had broken the chatter caused by Oritel’s question so abruptly that a couple of the teenagers, too, turned to look at the girl who’d spoken; Marion had to once again fight back tears when she realized she hadn’t recognized her daughter’s voice.
She was about to answer Bloom, but her daughter hadn’t meant it as a question rather than a statement waiting for confirmation, which Marion gave in the form of a nod and a smile that grew genuine as she processed the true meaning of what Bloom had said. If she knew about their time at the Company, she most likely had heard about it from Faragonda – meaning they knew each other.
She hadn’t needed any more reasons to want to go see one of her dearest friends, but that realization made her charge towards the specialists’ ship, dragging Oritel after her.