It all started one morning when Faragonda called Stella to her office. She thought she was in trouble but, when she got there, she discovered that she was quite mistaken. Faragonda had called her there to tell her that, somehow, she had recently gotten information that, apparently, after years of searching, Hagen had finally managed to track down Oritel's sword and that he and Marion might actually still be alive, which is why he'd been searching. Faragonda had decided to tell Stella alone both because she didn't want to get Bloom's hopes up but also because, even with the witches permanently dead and gone, Obsidian was still a world of darkness and Faragonda felt that, as the fairy of the sun and the moon, soon to be guardian fairy of Solaria, Stella was the most qualified to go there.

Luckily for her, her opportunity to go on the mission came only two days later, when the Winx had made plans to meet up with the guys. That morning, she very conveniently caught a cold and couldn't possibly go out while she was sick like that (but not so sick that anyone should stay behind with her, of course). Once they were gone, her convenient head cold disappeared and she puled out her ring, opening a portal to Obsidian.

Her first impression was that it was very dark, rather cold, and that there was a rather unpleasant odor in the air that seemed somewhat familiar but she couldn't quite identify what it was. As she used her staff to light up her surroundings, she quickly recognized the one danger of being there that she hadn't yet considered: she would have to get in and get out before she ran out of magic by powering her staff. She pulled out the compass that Hagen had recently made that finally showed him the true location of the sword, which he verified with math and science stuff that Stella didn't understand, even though she did her best to pretend to.

She followed it by the light of her staff into a large, open cave made entirely of obsidian. Something about being in a cave made entirely of smooth, crystal-like black stone with no stalagmites, stalagtites, or any vegetation whatsoever felt very wrong to her. As she continued to walk across the cave, she began to see a statue on the other side that stood out because, unlike the vast quantities of obsidian surrounding her, this statue was diamond that glistened in the sunlight she carried. Shortly after the statue came into view clearly enough for her to identify it, she saw the sword with its blade embedded in a short pillar of obsidian and broke into a run.

When she reached the sword and the statue, her heart sank. The statue was clearly King Oritel, petrified, but Queen Marion was nowhere to be found. Sighing, she pulled out her fairy dust and sprinkled some over the statue. Even if the queen was gone, she could still try to save the king who was right there. To her surprise, it actually worked. In an instant, hard, glassy stone melted away and was replaced by human flesh. Unfortunately, he was either unconscious or dead, but, either way, he couldn't stand and started to fall as soon as his legs were restored. Stella caught him, though, and gently laid him on the ground, his head resting on her lap.

She wasn't sure what to do next. Even if he was alive and not dead, he might not wake up for hours, or days. She always could just open another portal and bring him back to Alfea or something but she would still have to carry him and she felt like she would have to get the sword, too. She easily spent 20 minutes considering what to do until, before she could make up her mind and do anything, his eyes began to open. When they did, the way he looked at her absolutely killed her. It was as if he saw her as an angel and, if she had been able to see what she looked like with the ring of sunlight she carried on her staff lighting up the dark cave around them and shining on her hair, almost like a halo, then she would have understood why that truly was how he saw her.

"Um, hi." She found herself blushing.

"Who are you?" His voice was hoarse with years of disuse but his tone was soft.

"I'm a friend of your daughter's, Faragonda sent me to get you since Hagen found your location by tracking your sword or something, which, by the way, is stuck in that rock over there." She gestured to the sword, trying to ignore how he was watching her, absolutely mesmerized.

"You know Daphne?"

"Oh, no, I was talking about Bloom-" She just realized both that he had no way of knowing how long it had been, meaning that he probably thought Bloom was still a baby, and that Bloom most likely would have been given a different name by her birth parents. His face twisted in confusion.

"Bloom? I have two daughters and neither of them have that name." Stella took a deep breath.

"Well, here's the thing. 20 years ago or so, when the witches attacked Domino, Daphne managed to send her little sister to Earth where she was found and raised by her adoptive parents, Mike and Vanessa, who named her Bloom."

"What?" He sat up fast, then winced in pain from disturbing the cut on his side. She grimaced.

"Yeah, we're about to graduate from Alfea. But, hey, at least you'll get to be there for that." She tried to give him a reassuring smile. "Um . . . so, anyway, where's the queen? I don't see her." His face expression grew grave.

"She died." Stella had figured that was the case when she had noticed the queen's absence, but she still felt bad.

"I'm sorry, that must be really hard for you."

"Thank you." For a minute, they sat there in thick silence before Stella broke it.

"So . . . you're injured and everything so we really should focus on getting back to Alfea. Do you need to get that sword first?" He nodded, then, with some effort, got to his feet, walked over, and pulled the sword from the stone.

"Wow, if I'd known it was that easy, I would've done it myself." He shook his head.

"You couldn't. Hagen made it so only I and my descendants can use it."

"Interesting . . ." She grabbed his free hand.

"Wha-" In seconds, she extinguished her light and opened a portal back to Alfea, dragging him through it behind her.