Daphne may be my new fave character to write for…
Helia gave himself just a moment to watch the girls vanish before focusing on the smaller almost raft-like structure attached to the yacht, the one he’d made sure he’d know how to drive well enough for this.
“Princess Daphne, we’re ready.”
Daphne starred at the waves another moment before nodding along, “Just Daphne is fine Helia.” She accepted the hand he offered, climbing into the raft.
Helia nodded, going to press his comm, “Sigurd, Macaria, Horus be advised, Atlas is disembarking. We shouldn’t be more than ten minutes. Over.”
“Stay in sight. Over.” Sky told him, eyes flying between the holograms showing Brandon and Riven’s footage and vitals, Nabu holding a pair of binoculars to his eyes, watching the girls.
The smaller boat fell into the water, Helia at the wheel, taking them further towards the left.
“Did you ever have any meetings here?” He dared ask Daphne, who was leaning against the side, watching the waves being disrupted as they passed by.
“Only at the very start of my tenure as Nymph.” Daphne said softly, not quite wistful more… thoughtful, “But I know it was rather popular with Nymphs who had to work harder for a true connection to the ocean.”
Helia nodded along, “Let me know when we’re far enough.”
She let herself watch him for a moment, tilting her head, “I knew you too… you know?”
Helia blinked in surprise, turning to her, “You did?”
“Well, I suppose it’d be more accurate to say that I knew of you… I saw you once or twice… when I’d visit Avalon at Red Fountain after I graduated… I only just remembered that… I was never close with your parents, only really spoke to them a few times but… you look like your mother.”
“…makes sense… I was wandering about the schools since I could crawl.” He tried to discern the look on her face, failing at it.
“…what are they doing now? Malia and Derek?”
Helia tried not to let it show how weird it felt for her to know his parents by name, to have gone to school around the same time as them.
“My mom is working as a historian. She’s a teacher at a college in Magix, writing a book on the previous downfall of Earth as a magical planet. She’d been working on it since before we were sent to Earth… and my dad is working for the Company, helping set up vigilance around certain planets.”
“Hm. This should be far enough.”
Helia killed the engine, leaving them bobbing along, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Daphne looked for something in the water.
Helia still answered it, “Yes.”
“I remember Derek was thrilled about that, I overheard him talking about it one of the few times I saw you… Avalon caught you trying to sneak into one of Red Fountain’s armories… you couldn’t have been more than a few months old but you were already showing a few signs of magic.” She spoke as she seemed to locate something, leaning against the railing and dipping a test tube into the water.
Helia truly didn’t know what to say, “Umm… yeah. Magic skipped a generation so… dad was happy that I had it…”
Daphne nodded along, frowning to herself as she pulled out another flask, “I’m sorry I just… I’m trying to… make sense of it all still… there’s a lot I don’t know about… a lot of people I once knew.”
“Don’t apologize… I imagine it must be… overwhelming.”
“That’s an understatement.” Daphne dipped a hand fully into the water, as though trying to sense something, “It’s odd… how many of you guys I used to know… I babysat Stella and Sky plenty of times… I saw Aisha at a few balls before things became dire in Domino, carried her around one time when she fell asleep… she was there when I pleaded with her grandmother to let us try and make a portal to Omega to trap the Ancestral Witches there… and I remember you going about the schools… I think I might’ve also seen you once at Alfea.”
Helia stayed quiet a moment, trying to process that. He’d known in theory that Daphne had known not only Bloom but also Stella and Sky as babies… it didn’t make it any stranger.
“…fate has an odd way of working sometimes.”
Daphne nearly scoffed, shaking her head.
Helia tilted his head, more curious than anything, “You don't believe in fate?”
She considered that, the faintest golden glow emanating from her fingertips, the first trace of magic he’d seen come from her, “I believe that sometimes people perceive a certain individual as stronger than others… so they decide they can hold more weight than anyone else… certain individuals have no choice but to be as strong as the world needs them to be… I don’t know that I’d call that fate… maybe just… convenience for a world in need. The more you rise to the occasion… the more is expected of you.”
Helia stayed silent, for a moment he could almost see the ghost of Daphne, hiding the fact that she was alive and in pain from Bloom.
He knew about her outburst when Bloom had asked for help to take Valtor down.
For a moment, he saw not the twenty-four year old who’d come back to life, but the woman who’d served for twenty-four years and had then spent nineteen years cursed, frozen in time and in her pain.
He could see the years weighing on her shoulders and behind her eyes even if physically she looked just like in the history books.
Daphne took a shaky breath, lifting her hand from the water, watching tiny flecks of silver that’d materialized into the water cupped in her palm, turning to him, “I have what we need.”
Helia nodded, going to guide them back.
UGH she’s just so haunted and so many people failed her- it’s delicious!