The Queen of Shadows - World of Winx rewrite S.1

Chapter 16: Shattered Dreams

The Shaman was stubborn. He hadn't said anything, which made Aisha frustrated. His stone-cold face was very difficult to break through, like he was trained not to reveal any information to his enemies.

"So... what does the talent thief want?" Aisha demanded. "Why is he kidnapping different talents?"

He was still silent, eyeing all of the girls. But something told Aisha he reacted to her question. One of his eyebrows rose, and he bit his lower lip.

"I won't say anything..." he muttered.
Bloom seemed to have lost her patience and clenched her fist, darting for The Shaman. She conjured a fireball in her hand.

"Well, if you don't tell us, I guess I have to speed up the process," she said with fire in her eyes. The Shaman widened his eyes and looked uncomfortable. Aisha couldn't believe what she was watching. Was Bloom about to harm The Shaman to get information? Bloom's temper was unusually short today.

"W-o-w w-o-w. Slow down, Bloom..." Stella said and pulled her away, forcing her to let go of her fireball. "We can't just hurt him to gather any information."

Bloom pulled away from Stella's grip and furrowed her brow.

"What should we do then? Have a therapy session and wait until he spills everything?" she snapped and crossed her arms.

Stella sighed, visibly trying to keep herself together. Flora put her hand on both the Princess's and the red-headed one's shoulders.

"Bloom, just calm down. Stella just meant well," she said with her calm voice.

Bloom sighed constantly, trying to avoid any eye contact. She muttered something under her breath that Aisha couldn't hear. Tecna and Musa looked at each other before they shrugged.
Aisha watched the diamond-shaped stones in her hand that The Shaman had used during the fight. His eyes widened, and he struggled to break free from her morphix handcuffs. He tried to grab the stones. Aisha shifted her gaze between his hungry olive eyes and the stones. They must be very powerful and mean something to him. He never let them go and seemed to trust them fully in battle. She wondered now if they were crush-proof. What if she could use them to make him speak?

"I will only repeat it once. Why does the talent thief kidnap talents?" Aisha made one of the stones float above her hand. It glowed blue. "If you don't tell me, I'll crush your stones one by one."

At first, The Shaman did not say anything. Aisha started to force the stone to crack. It looked like a red magical essence was starting to bleed from the stone's small crack.

"Okay... okay, wait...! First of all, the talent thief you are talking about is Jim... But he's not the one I take orders from..." The Shaman exclaimed, looking defeated. "I'm working for The Queen of The World of Dreams, known as The Queen of Shadows."

"So... they work together. The talent thief and the Queen of Shadows?" Aisha asked, seeing The Shaman bite his underlip and furrow.

"Not quite..." he murmured but fell silent.

Aisha made the stone crack even more, and he shook his head, clearly panicked. "HE BETRAYED HER!"
"But why does this Queen send you to kidnap the talents?" Flora asked The Shaman, now approaching him and looking into his eyes, inspecting all his facial expressions.

"I don't know... she doesn't say why she wants the talents, only who to kidnap," he finished.Aisha was about to ask one more question, feeling like he still wasn't telling them everything. Just then, she opened her mouth, someone knocked from the outside of the Winx mobile, making everyone confused.

"Who can that be?" Musa asked.

Aisha approached the door at the front and watched out the small window. It was empty, no sight of anyone, making her suspicious. She opened the door slowly and then heard someone exclaim. Instinctively, she shot a beam of water. She heard someone fall onto the ground with a thud and complain about their hair getting wet. On the ground, she now saw Lorelei laying there all drained and crying.

"My hair...!" she sobbed.

Aisha rolled her eyes, feeling like they were wasting their time. Then she looked at her Winx watch, seeing that the program starts in five minutes. 'Lorelei being early for the program? Impressive. Something separates Stella and Lorelei. She can at least be on time.'

"Uh... Stella?! Your best friend here misses you," Aisha shouted, hearing Stella coming running.

"Wait a fan of mine? Who could that possibly...?" she stopped herself when she saw a glance of Lorelei on the ground. Aisha saw how Stella's curious facial expression turned into a disappointed face. "Oh..."

Aisha chuckled to herself. She liked teasing Stella; she would admit. Now she understood how much fun Musa must have had the first year with the Princess on Alfea. She had told her the story behind Stella's nickname 'Princess'. Herself was not used to people using the Princess title as an inside joke. Most royal families would take that as an offense, but Stella did not seem to mind.

The rest of the Winx now stood by the doorway, watching Lorelei on the ground.

"Oh no... did the 'Princess number two' get her hair wet?" Musa whispered, making the rest of the girls chuckle.

"Hey! Don't give her the honor to share the same nickname as the Princess of Solaria," Stella commented playfully and swept her golden blonde hair.

"Are you going to dry her today so we don't have to listen to her crying?" Tecna asked.

"Fine..." Stella sighed, snapping her finger. Aiming a few sunbeams towards Lorelei, who now got dried. She looked around her in confusion and rose up from the ground.

"Oh... I'm dry?" she murmured.

Aisha handed over the stones to Bloom.

"Here, take these. The program starts soon. We'll take Lorelei somewhere so you've got the time to move The Shaman out from the Winx mobile," Aisha said.

Bloom watched the stones for a long second before giving any response. She then nodded and went back to The Shaman.

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