Carabosse was standing in a very strange place. It was very different to the forest she knew. The ground was covered in stones, arranged in an unnatural, repetitive pattern and cottages made of stone and wood stood in lines either side of her. This place looked so organised, too organised.

"Who lives here, in this strange place?" Carabosse asked Achlys, who she knew would answer her even though she could not see him.

"It's very different to the Enchanted Forest isn't it?" Carabosse heard Achlys' disembodied voice answer. "This is the human village." As soon as those words were uttered many humans began to rush around her in a chaotic crowd. It was so well timed, it was as if Achlys' answer was the cue they were waiting for.

The hustle and bustle caused Carabosse to get flustered, she didn't know where to look and she suppressed the urge to cry out.

"You're alright Carabosse, focus." Achlys' soothing voice managed to pacify her. Once she had calmed down, the streets of the human village did also. Carabosse took in a deep breath. She then saw a young male fairy with shoulder length silver hair, sky blue eyes and large, white feathered wings. He was clothed in a loose white shift and quaint, beige trousers that could only reach his mid-calves. His feet were bare but shone like marble. Carabosse knew immediately who this fairy was.

"That's you!" she said excitedly, not controlling her volume. However, the young male fairy didn't even flinch, because all those living inside the memory were deaf and blind to everything Carabosse said or did.

"Indeed," Achlys confirmed, "That is me when I was your age."

Carabosse blinked and young Achlys was soon approached by a well dressed man. He grabbed him on his dainty shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Whatever the silver-haired fairy heard shocked him, his eyes grew wide and he looked at the man and shook his head.

"What did he say to you?" Carabosse asked.

"He was a very ambitious man, he longed to one day be king and he wanted me to help him." Carabosse drew her eyebrows together in confusion, not satisfied with Achlys' vague answer. She decided not to press him though and turned to where young Achlys and the man were standing, but they were gone.

"What?"

Then the village street changed. Stone walls grew up all around her and a bed stood before her. The sky out of the arched window was pitch black.

A man entered the room with young Achlys in his grasp. It was the well-dressed man from the village street. He had bound Achlys' hands and put his wings in chains.

A horrified gasp left Carabosse as what she was witnessing truly upset her.

"Do it! Curse him now, while his guards are still downstairs!" the man ordered the chained up fairy in a hushed tone. Carabosse was suddenly made aware of the poor oblivious man sleeping upon the expensive bed.

"No, I mustn't, I can't!" cried the young male fairy.

"Do it! Or I and my friends will attack your precious forest! You won't be able to stop us! I can be very persuasive especially amongst my kind!" The man's grin sent shivers down Carabosse's spine.

"Curse him," the man hissed and began to pull on the chain around young Achlys' wings, making him wince in pain.

"Curse him, now!"

Young Achlys began to panic, his breath bursting in and out of his chest in short agonising gasps. He lifted his hand, squeezed his eyes shut and sent out silver glowing magic from his fingertips. As it got closer to the sleeping King it turned darker and darker and absorbed into his bed clothes and his sleeping face.

The King was cursed.

Young Achlys opened his eyes, which now resembled the dark colour of the black magic he was forced to use.

"See, that wasn't hard was it?" the man whispered with glee. He unbound the young fairy's hands and white feathered wings, then hid the shackles and chains inside an empty chest in the room.

Once freed, young Achlys rushed to the king's side, his facial features awash with regret.

"Guards! Guards! Quickly! The fairy! He did something to the King!" The man's screams came from just outside the now opened chamber door. Both Carabosse and young Achlys didn't notice him quietly leave the room. Panic spiked young Achlys' newly darkened eyes. He desperately searched for his escape as he heard the running footsteps of guards approaching the room. He turned to the window, lifted his hands above his head and magically made the glass disappear. He flew out, into the night sky, to safety.

Carabosse blinked then found herself amongst the trees of the Enchanted Forest. She saw young Achlys pacing before the Mother of Fairies. She looked much younger, but it was unmistakably her. Her eyes shone with the same colour of lilac and her golden robe matched the colour of her large transparent wings. The only difference seemed to be how she wore her platinum blonde hair. Rather than being expertly wrapped and neatly placed upon the top of her head, she had it down loose and trailing down in waves to her midriff.

"What is it, Brother?" Heartha asked, scared by young Achlys' chaotic, panicked movements.

"The King... I didn't mean to... the King!"

"You're not making sense, dear brother," young Theia stepped in. She grabbed his arms to make him stop and something she saw in him disturbed her. "What have you done?" she said with a gasp.

"The King... I must speak to the Great Power... I must... Oh..."

"He'll be here," Theia reassured him. Her worried eyes not leaving his blackened irises. "He always comes when we need him the most, you know that."

The memory then began to move as though it was purposely sped up. Many nature fairies whizzed back and forth in a panic as the trees all around them were being torn down and set alight by an army of angry men; who were eventually chased away by Heartha, Achlys and Theia - the head-fairy siblings. Carabosse then watched Heartha turn to her brother and clasped her hand around his throat.

"You! I know you did this! You got those men to destroy my forest! My home! My hardwork!" she yelled in his choking face as she squeezed her fingers around his neck.

"Stop, Sister!" Theia cried, pulling weakly at Heartha's shoulder.

"The Great Power isn't here! He hasn't come to speak to him, Theia, what does that tell you?" Heartha snapped and pushed her little sister away with her other hand. "It tells me that we must deal with this, thing!"
She spat that last word into young Achlys' trembling face.

"No, Heartha!" Theia pleaded. "Please, we don't know what happened. We don't know whose responsibility all this was!"

"Look at his eyes, Theia! Look at them! They've turned black! You know what that means!" Heartha argued. Theia and Achlys' eyes connected in that second and she saw the fear within his poor face.

"I won't be a part of this, Heartha! Whatever you plan to do!" she announced to her determined sister.

"I plan to punish him, in the only way I see fit!" Heartha hissed through clenched teeth. "You destroyed my trees with fire. So I will destroy you with fire!"

She then clicked her fingers and young Achlys' beautiful, white feathered wings caught alight. His screams of agony scorched through the air.

"Heartha! No!" Theia cried and hurried to douse the flames, to save him from further torment.

Once the last flame was quenched, young Achlys collapsed to his knees. Theia wasn't able to save his wings they were damaged beyond repair. His hair was also singed from the fire and now spiked in an unruly way.

"Achlys..." Carabosse heard Theia lament over her brother's damaged body. He pulled away and hid his face.

Heartha then took a step towards him and looked down her nose at his trembling form.

"You deserve so much more than that!" she muttered, not an ounce of regret was found in her tone. "You are evil. I always knew you were. You are the Dark One!" She then turned her back on him and began to walk away.

"Beware, Sister..." young Achlys choked out after her, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. "You will regret what you have done to me... You have made a grave enemy today!"

Heartha let out an incredulous laugh then watched with a scrunched brow as two owls swooped down and carried her brother away. Anger took the place of the confusion that was on her face. She then left the destroyed clearing, leaving her sister and her fairy children behind.

Carabosse felt a tear trickle down her cheek at the injustice she just witnessed. Then she saw Theia turn to her and look straight through her as if she wasn't there (because she wasn't truly there). Even though Carabosse knew that, she still felt her chest tighten.

"Mama... Mama!" she cried out. Then felt a force pull her back.

She found herself back in the slate room, in front of the magical pool, with the Dark One's black cloaked arms wrapped around her in a warm, comforting embrace. Never had she ever felt such a deep connection with another. This fairy knew exactly how she felt. He too was mistreated and shunned by his own kind, for matters out of his control.

A dark thought then entered her mind.

"Mother has a lot to answer for, and I'll be the one who makes her accountable," she growled into Achlys' shoulder. "Mark my words, I'll get her. If it's the last thing I do. I'll make her suffer!"

A small smile played upon Achlys' mouth and he stroked a graceful hand over Carabosse's long amber hair.