Princess | Riven (Fate: Winx Saga)

Act Two: Chapter 1

OMG WELCOME BACK TO ACT TWO FINALLLYYYYYY!!

I've been so excited to start writing this Act ever since Season 2 came out but haven't had enough time😭😫 so I am sorry about that! Plus my mind is intent on fucking itself up so that's fun...

Anyways, hope you enjoy the first chapter - starts pretty heavy, not going to lie....

Hope was a curious thing.

Sometimes it was slippery and evasive and difficult to obtain. Sometimes it was vibrant and renewing and a lifeline to pull you from the dark. Sometimes it was teasing and taunting, dangling its golden promises in front of your eyes but yanking them out of your reach every time you tried to hold on. Sometimes it cradled you in such a safe and secure embrace that nothing could ever ice its warming touch on you.

But for Morrigan Chambers, hope had been like the spring flowers after a bitterly cold winter. It had blossomed and bloomed and radiated colour that chased away the shadows and banished the frozen fingers of doubt that threatened to pierce her bones. With it, she had counted the days she'd been kept locked up in her cell like an animal, with nothing but the rats, Rosalind and her thoughts for company.
But, like every flower, Mor's hope had withered and shrivelled, shedding its petals one by one until all that was left was a dead stalk. Then that decayed, too.

Morrigan stopped counting after 113 days.

Maybe that made her weak-willed or perhaps it meant she gave up too easily, but what was to be expected?

Ever since being locked up, Mor had not heard anything from anyone.
Not her friends. Not her brother. Not Riven.

At first, her hope had whispered words of comfort to her, promising that they were working together to find a way to get her out, that they were going to come and visit her, that they would even send a letter or a text to ask if she was ok. But after 113 days of being lulled into a false sense of security, Mor finally realised that no one was coming. The only human interaction she would receive would be from the daily visits from Rosalind, who'd stalk in with a smirk on her face that would end up haunting Mor's dreams.

As the girl lounged back on her rickety bed and stared up at the drab silver bars above her head, she contemplated all the things she missed that she once took for granted - it was the only thing that seemed to pass the time nowadays; wallowing and mourning for the life she lived mere months ago.

It was the simple things, Mor realised, that she missed the most.
The comforting smell of the forest, the wondrous hues of green that greeted her in the great outdoors, the feel of the sun stroking her skin and the tug of the wind in her hair, the laughter that used to bubble from her lips so freely.

Now, Morrigan Chambers was but an echo of her former self; a hopeless husk of skin and bone. It had been too long since she'd had a shower. Her cheeks were streaked with dried tears, and her eyes had nothing left anymore. Her lips were chapped and cracked from her constantly gnawing on them. Her emotions were exhausted and worn thin. Her magic had been subdued and chained from the barbed shackles around her wrists, the ever-growing pressure of not being able to use it becoming almost unbearable, and a headache was now a constant companion to her.

Truth be told, part of her didn't want to give up - refused to, in fact - but everything had gone to shit, and it was all so hard.
Would anyone even care anymore?

All of a sudden, the groan of stone against stone rumbled throughout the large chamber that her cell was kept in, and Mor flicked her gaze over to where nonother than Rosalind was walking through the doorway that opened up in the walls. The woman strode into the chamber, her hands clasped in front of her and her signature smirk curled upon her lips as her cold eyes fixed on Mor. Behind her, the door grumbled shut once more - blocking out the outside world, and Mor's freedom along with it.