✔ 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝔹𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕦𝕤 Fate: The Winx Saga

16. Flowers of Moonlight

Octavia

"The sightings have increased rapidly, princess." General Lýkos tells me. "Queen Luna doesn't want to make an announcement until we have a better grasp on the situation. I have to say, I agree with her. A mass panic over burned ones is the last thing we need."

I hum in agreement. General Lýkos of the Solarian army has been around my entire life, he had ten years on the job as a soldier in the wolf omáda by the time I was born. Now he's coming up to 60 with greying hair, wrinkles and spark in his eyes. Despite the effects of physical ageing he still fights as strong as he did in his twenties and hasn't lost a bit of his boyish charm.

"Send through the reports on the sightings." I command. "I'll work on a geographical map, see if I can find a pattern."

Lýkos chuckles. "You were always the best at profiling. This new lot is useless."

"How are you all getting on without me?" I ask with a laugh. Lýkos lets out a long suffering sigh.

There was a whole wave of dissent in the army when Lýkos came to power, not that Queen Luna would let a word of it be breathed to the public, they didn't want to take orders from a black general. It's how we met for the first time actually. I was 15 and sent in with my uncle Arthur as royal correspondants to legally allow Lýkos to scare the utter shit out of the racist fuckers and get them all back in line. We had good fun that day. I got to play scary shadow fairy for the first time and he got to beat every soldier in a fight one by one and earn himself some respect.

"It's abismal, my lady." I grin, Lýkos has always been like a brother to me despite our age gap, he's a family guy and I know if he wasn't so scared of Queen Luna he would have stepped up as a father figure for Stel and I. "The reports are all done wrong, some of them are newbies and they're all stiff and unable to take a joke."

I laugh at his petulant tone. The famed 'Wolf of Solaria' whining about his new trainees, helios, the media would have a field day.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to break them in." I jest, knowing full well that Lýkos won't stand for stiffs. He likes his teams and omádas to laugh and joke in the barracks and slaughter their enemies without hesitation on the battlefield. It is a tough combination to achieve but he teaches them well. He taught me until Andreas took over after the incident.

"Ha, ha." He mocks as we trail off into silence and I begin to walk towards the greenhouse. "What about you, Princess?" He questions softly. "How are you doing?"

I pause, choosing to settle on one of the benches outside the greenhouse where I would have a good view of the specialists training.

"I-." I clear my throat. "It's been a rough start." I confess quietly.

"I found a dead body on my first day."

"The shepherd, right. A report landed on my desk."

I nod my head but realise he couldn't see me.

"Yeah, covered in char residue."

"What." He barks.

"Lýk-"

"They didn't say that in the report." he admonishes, heatedly. "If I had know the burned ones had reached Alfea-"
"You would have what?" I demand. "Gone against the Queen?"

Silence.

I sigh. "It's done, Lýkos. Besides, it was weeks ago. I'm getting over it."

I chose not to mention the Ma-Mahe- hes thing.

"Okay." He answers. There's an awkward pause. It's different, now that I don't see him everyday. It's been different since Rosalind.

"Tell me about the Specialists, anyone I should look out for." He commands - back to business then.