Now what page was I at? Norbert flipped through his book, annoyed at his forgetfulness. He remembered something about a river and a barbat... or was it a batterfly? Ahh, nevermind, he gruffed, making a mental note to find a bookmark somewhere. He flipped the book randomly and it opened somewhere in chapter 8. I guess this is where I shall start today, he thought with a smile.

As he was about to focus on the first few lines, he saw flashes of violet light. He blinked and looked ahead of him. He saw his five garden gnomes staring blankly at each other. He scanned his yard slowly and his eyes fixated on his row of Purple Hydrangea bushes. Hydrangeas need to watered, he muttered to himself.

He looked back down to his book. The wind had blown it a few pages forward. He didn't mind and started to focus in on the first few lines once again. As he leaned back and relaxed, there it was again! A flash of violet light... then green... then violet!

He looked up quickly and tried to figure out what he had seen. He was grunting with annoyance and he had fogged up his reading glasses for the sixth time today. Through his blurry lenses, he saw a shadow moving quickly around his yard. He sat up and started to yell...

"You there! GET OFF MY LAWN!!"

"OH STOP YELLING, you old Ixi! Come down here and help me," came the stern reply.

Norbert stood up, startled by the loud voice. His rocking chair creaked loudly and his book fell open on the floor, its pages flipping in the strong wind.

The Ixi could not believe his eyes.

"Jhudora!?!" Norbert said. "What in Neopia are you doing here?!"

Norbert looked around warily, hoping none of his neighbors had heard.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten, old fool," Jhudora said.

Norbert blinked slowly, and then shook his head. It was one of the few things he could NEVER forget.

"I didn't think..." he muttered as if to himself. "I mean, for you to come back..."

Jhudora sighed, giving the old Ixi a look that was surprisingly patient, and not unkind.

"Quit murmuring to yourself, you old Ixi. And I need you to carry this package. Are you going to help me with it or not?"

Norbert nodded, and Jhudora gestured for him to pick up the medium-sized box at her feet. The old Ixi lifted it with relative ease. Jhudora sniffed. She was above carrying anything when someone was around to carry it for her.

"Into the house," she ordered, and they made their way across Norbert's porch into the warmth of his home.

"I'll make some tea," said Norbert as he put the package down on his kitchen table, wondering where the tea even was. Had he remembered to buy more sugar at the store?

"I don't care for tea," said Jhudora curtly. "I care for business." She slapped her hand on the box.

Norbert nodded, sitting across from Jhudora at the table.

"What's in the box?"

"Something that concerns both you and me," said Jhudora.

She began to open it...

"Close the blinds. We don't want your nosey neighbor eavesdropping again."

Norbert hurriedly drew the thick, green curtains and returned to his seat.

Jhudora resumed opening the box. She pulled out a book... the kind that looks really old and a little bit intimidating. She dusted off some cobwebs, which revealed a dull grey cover with fancy silver writing. With a menacing grin growing on her face, the dark faerie peered at the old ixi with wild purple eyes.

"I need your help deciphering the old texts in this book."

Norbert knew that he was one of the few elderly Neopians left that were able to translate the ancient faerie language. Norbert felt a little unsure. "What is it for?"

"That does not concern you. All that concerns you is repaying your favor to me -- unless you would prefer the alternative..."

Jhudora's fierce gaze was entrancing. Norbert considered for a few minutes and then shook his head.

"No, no, no. You are right. I owe you this favor, and what you do does not concern me."

Norbert took the book in his hands. He felt an old power surging in it that he knew should not be bothered. After carefully placing it back on the table, Norbert slowly opened the book. A gust of stale wind seemed to envelop him. The Ixi shuddered, and then took a look at his guest.

"Where do I start?"...

Norbert ran his thumb down the gilt-edged pages and sighed to himself. This was bound to be a long evening. "Of course, of course, let me see here... there's a prologue: 'In the beginning, the world was fresh and new and divided into two realms; the outer realm of air and light, and the inner realm of earth and dark. Connecting the two was the Bridge of Tears; the font of power, healing and corrosive, that divided the elements into their numbers. Although now separate, they were to be forever linked...'"

Norbert trailed off, deep in thought, and Jhudora interrupted with an impatient, "Well?"

"I'm considering that word," the Ixi explained. "Linked isn't quite it. You see, this character can mean either chained together or mirrored, twinned." He tried to demonstrate the difference by linking his fingers together in a chain and then pressing his palms together. "Ancient faerie tongue is a language of nuances, and although that has always been a fascinating subject for my own study, I suppose the shades of difference aren't really that important here."

"These shades of difference might be more important than you think," Jhudora said, raising an eyebrow meaningfully. "What else does it say?"

"Well, from here it seems to be a book of charms, as I'm sure you expected with a title like Sea Spells."

"Mmm hmm," Jhudora said noncommittally. "And these charms, do you happen to see one that would break the links, perhaps between earth and dark?"

Norbert flipped ahead a few pages, reading aloud the names of several of the spells before stopping dead. "Is this where I should ask you what, exactly, you're looking for, Jhudora?"

The faerie smirked, but said nothing.

"Just tell me: does this have anything to do with Illusen?"

From beneath the open window, Norbert's young neighbour, a green Eyrie named Tatsu, didn't hear the faerie's answer. She had come to retrieve her wayward Yooyuball, but after overhearing that old Ixi conspiring with Jhudora, she knew where she had to go...

"It doesn't concern... did you hear that?" the dark faerie asked, frowning and examining her surroundings with a flashing gaze.

"What?" Norbert replied instinctively while trying to concentrate on the fading curls of the ancient symbols that filled the pages in front of him.

"Never mind... back to work. I need to find what I am looking for before dawn."

The old Ixi sighed and stood up. He slowly proceeded to walk over to his kitchen table to grab some coffee. This is going to be a long, long night... he thought to himself.

"No... it can't be..." the Eyrie murmured while trying to hide behind the Hydrangea bushes near the Ixi's window. "I must warn her."

Tatsu flew away over the light lilac clouds that surrounded the fallen city.

"That! Did you hear that? Wings... whirring? We should go back to my bluff, it's safer there."

"But I'm in the middle of breaking some sort of code... this writing is very ancient... the old faeries' language consisted of fifteen simple symbols that were mixed together to form thousands of other symbols... it seems to me, though, that this specific part isn’t like the others. Although I can already tell it's incomplete, I think it may be... mirrored."

"Can you mirror it back to its usual form?" Jhudora asked. She seemed interested.

"I most certainly can," he replied while grabbing an old-fashioned mirror from the drawer under his desk. "It says: What shimmers within the darkest shadow... bring back... through the very heart... shall be linked... broken apart."

"This doesn't make any sense. Are you reading it correctly?"

"There are words missing. I can't link the sentences together without them. The back of the page presents some awkward drawings... I think this might be a mirror, dividing the inner realm. There's a title that says 'The Shattering.'"

"That’s it! What about the spell? Is it there? What does it say?"...

"Norbert," Jhudora groaned impatiently. "Now is not the time to play one of your old folk tricks. Read!"

Norbert gulped and looked up.

"What?" Jhudora said with a growl. "Can't read it?"

Norbert looked around the room nervously. "I-its not t-th-there," he stammered.

"WHAT?!?" Jhudora cried. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT THERE?!?" She grabbed the book to see for herself. "LIAR!" she screamed, shoving him to the rough hardwood floor.

Norbert tried to scramble away, but the faerie came over toward him. Her wand was emitting a deadly-looking haze. Pointing the wand at his chest, she hissed, "You will do as I command, either by free will or with magic..."

"ILLUSEN!!" a green Eyrie squalled before tumbling directly in front of the earth faerie herself from exhaustion. "Sorry," he mumbled, and sort of struggled to a sitting position. "It's a long flight between Faerieland and Meridell."

Illusen was sitting in her usual place, of course, but fell backward when Tatsu came tumbling in.

"Nice of you to... drop in," she said with a risen eyebrow and then grinned. "Is everything okay?"

"No! Far from it. There's this old Ixi that's my neighbour who I enjoy annoying but probably really shouldn't because he's so mean and helping with crazy plans that may or may not..." The green Eyrie paused his rambling to heave in a very large breath, then continued, "...involve the destruction of all Neopia or breaking the links between faeries and something about a Bridge of Tears and this was all from the book Norbert was apparently deciphering from a book because Jhudora is making him and apparently he owes her something and I only know about the book because I heard them talking about it and your name came up and I thought--"

"Jhudora?" Illusen interrupted, eyes immediately having narrowed when the name rolled off the Eyrie's tongue. Tatsu, still catching his breath from his consternation-induced chatter, simply nodded.

"So, she's... coming up with plans to break the links, and she's using that old Ixi to do it," she said, mostly to herself. She seemed to go into deep thought about this. "I know what we must do."

Jhudora, growing ever impatient with the Ixi, growled, "You have three seconds. One... two..." she began drawing back her wand, the deadly haze beginning to glow ever more brilliantly.

"O-OKAY," Norbert whimpered. "Okay," he repeated a bit more calmly. He slowly got up, holding his arms up in submission to the dark faerie. Jhudora's lips curled into a malicious smirk.

"Good choice," she said, then placed the book on the table and seated herself once again. Norbert took the seat across from her once more, then paused.

"You seem to have lost the page," he stated nervously, causing Jhudora's facial expression to darken.

"Well, find it again," she said sharply, glaring at the elderly Ixi.

Norbert immediately scrambled through the pages, but couldn't seem to find the right one. "Just hold on a moment," he said. He could almost feel Jhudora growing more impatient.

"Here it is," he said nervously. With closer inspection, certain parts of this were much more faded, and it was definitely mirrored. Shakily, he reached over for the old fashioned mirror he had left on the table, then considered where to place it. While doing so he thought to himself, I wonder... if I gave her the incorrect translation, maybe that would work? What if she finds out, though...

"What are we doing in Faerieland?" Tatsu asked the earth faerie.

"If I'm to stop Jhudora from breaking the links," the kindly earth faerie said, "then I need to get access to the Bridge of Tears. To do so, we'll need to get the blessing of a powerful water faerie."

The Eyrie saw a sickly-looking Kyrii walk past with a snowball in his hand, and she realized now where they were at in Faerieland. "The Healing Springs faerie is strong enough?" Tatsu asked of Illusen.

Illusen nodded. "Not only can Marina get us access to the Bridge of Tears, part of the water from her spring comes from the river."

A loud splash was heard as Marina the Healing Springs faerie emerged from her pool. "Illusen!" she said. "What brings you here, my old friend?"

"Marina," the earth faerie replied. "I need to ask a favor of you. Can you take us to the source of your spring in Moltara?"

Norbert couldn't risk it. Jhudora already seemed to be at the end of her patience, and if he dared to try and defy her whims, he had a feeling that he would be living out the ending of The Nox Memoirs himself.

With his hand shaking, he placed the mirror in the crease between the pages and began reading the text.

"Hmm..." he muttered to himself. "A tear of Tyrannia teeth... no, wait, there's another symbol."

The old Ixi squinted a bit as he did his best to make out the faded text. "That extra line means river, ancient river... but if it's mirrored..."

He looked at the text in the mirror, seeing its reflection change what the symbols meant.

"Well?" Jhudora asked, her foot ominously tapping as her sharp nails rapped against the wooden box in a slow, deliberate rhythm.

"The blessing of water shall strengthen..." he muttered, "while a fire's curse shall destroy. Where they meet is under a healthy pool and a fiery mountain."

"So we'll need a fire's curse?" Jhudroa said, a wicked grin forming.

"By fiery mountain, I can only assume they mean the volcano on Mystery Island," Norbert said, stuttering a bit.

"Perfect," Jhudora said wickedly. "I happen to know of a fire faerie in the volcano who will gladly provide a curse..."

Indeed, Moltara's heat seemed too much for Illusen to bear. The earth faerie staggered as she tried to take a step forward, and Marina had to step forward to take her arm and make sure that the faerie didn't fall over. Illusen shook her head and straightened up, wiping away a sheen of sweat from her forehead. "I'm all right," she said meekly, "I can do this."

Marina did not look convinced, but she nodded and led the way...

..."Who?" Norbert inquired sheepishly.

"Who?" the dark faerie shot back mockingly. "It doesn't matter who, so long as she can provide the spell."

Jhudora retrieved Sea Spells from the table. Mirroring her, Norbert found his copy of The Nox Memoirs and tucked it under his arm.

He smiled tentatively and nodded, indicating his readiness.

In a flash of purple and green smoke, the pair abruptly disappeared from the humble confines of the Ixi's kitchen...

Tatsu grew impatient as Marina led them through Moltara's internal cave system. "We've passed this stalagmite... or tite, whatever it is, like ten times now!" he stressed quickly.

"Hush, Tatsu," Illusen responded reassuringly. "The path to the Bridge of Tears is long and monotonous -- and, it's not the same stalactite," the earth faerie continued, stressing the exact name of the cave dripstone, "but merely a chain of identical ones to deter trespassers." She smiled.

Marina smiled as well. "Don't worry, we're almost there."

Norbert and Jhudora stood outside the Mystery Island volcano.

"Shall we enter?" Jhudora asked with an oddly alluring smile.

"I can't enter the volcano -- I'll be killed," the Ixi complained.

The faerie sighed. "You weaklings," she grumbled under her breath. "Fine. You wait here, I'll talk to her myself.

Jhudora flew toward the volcano. Norbert gulped as he saw the mountain swallow her up, secretly hoping it would not ever spit her out...

The trio made their way further into the rocky dense.

"It's getting increasingly warmer in here," Tatsu observed, her tone indicating weakness to the heat.

Marina created a ball of cool water, which promptly surrounded the Eyrie. "It's like a Water Mote," the faerie commented, "but much better." She smiled.

"Yes," Illusen started, "the closer we get to the bridge, the hotter it gets. Think of it as an asymptote -- the hottest, steamiest point in all of Neopia lies just beyond the bridge itself. No one not possessed with faerie magic could live to get there..." the earth faerie trailed for suspense.

Tatsu gulped nervously as the three continued on...

"Eithne," Jhudora called as she floated above the lava.

The fire faerie rose from her ordinarily unsurvivable depths. "Ah," she said with a smile. "The mighty Jhudora. To what do I owe the honor?"

Jhudora smirked. "Are you familiar with Sea Spells?"

Eithne gaped. "You rediscovered that ancient grimoire?"

The dark faerie nodded. "Yep! You know it pops up every thousand years, meaning access to the bridge is available."

"Did you read it?"

"I've gotten this old Ixi to decipher the text for me."

"So, what are you planning to do with that Bridge of Tears?" A maniacal look possessed the fire faerie's face. "Are you going to destroy it?"

Jhudora frowned. "Not really..." she trailed. "That Bridge of Tears, as per my understanding from my own research and the encyclopedic Sea Spells, once linked the realms of every power together: light and air; water and fire; earth and dark; good and evil. All this magic was intertwined, one and the same, but with almighty power on the side who sought to abuse it, the magic of the bridge was shifted to instead prevent the 'evil' from accessing all but a tiny amount. This involved breaking certain links, and creating others -- for example, the link between earth and dark was strengthened heavily, the earth supposedly helping to keep darkness under control."

Eithne frowned. "So... are you going to destroy the bridge?"

"No!" the dark faerie insisted. "To destroy the bridge would be to destroy Neopia's global fountain of magic! No," she continued with a mischievous smile, "no, I'm merely going to break the ties." She clenched her right hand into a fist. "With every direct link broken, all symbols will once again link with each other and become one. Then," she said, power surging through her body, "then, absolute power will once again belong to everyone, but -- as I will be closest to the bridge and know, first, about the re-intertwining of the symbols -- I can use that power to destroy every tie but darkness, meaning darkness will possess all magic... darkness will no longer be hampered by earth... darkness will rule Neopia."

Eithne was at a total loss for words. "Intense," was what she eventually came up with.

Jhudora smiled. "However, the destruction of the links is where you come in..."

Marina, Illusen, and Tatsu continued their journey through Moltara.

Norbert saw Jhudora emerge from the volcano with a fire faerie behind her. He sighed.

The two neared him and landed.

"You," Jhudora commanded Norbert, "hand over your copy of The Nox Memoirs."

The Ixi did as instructed. Jhudora promptly gave it to Eithne, who opened it to a particular page. "'Through power absolute,'" the fire faerie read, "'one can achieve goals far beyond even their own expectations.'"

"So?" Norbert asked.

"The first line of a fire faerie curse begins with the quote of a famous Neopian villain," she said, then smiled. "I'll say the entire thing once we're down near the bridge. Rumor has it that there's an entrance underneath the volcano, much like there's an entrance underneath the Healing Springs. If so, we should be able to get to it through the basement of the Secret Ninja Training School."

"Everyone should be training for a great battle upcoming," Jhudora commented, "so we should get through unnoticed."

The three made their way toward the school.

The other set of three hit a wall.

"Dead end?" Tatsu inquired nervously.

"No," Marina replied in awe. "See these symbols? This is ancient faerie text -- fifteen symbols used to create thousands more." She brushed her hands across them as she read; "'The blessing of water shall strengthen, while a fire's curse shall destroy.'"

"Well, you are a water faerie," Illusen said with a smile, patting her companion on the back.

Smiling and closing her eyes, Marina rose her hand in the air and chanted something. After she was finished, she lowered her arm.

Marina and Illusen then locked fingers, and a wind started to whirl around them...

The path through the Secret Ninja Training School was far shorter than the Moltaran path. Eithne, knowing the ways of fire, also managed to provide Norbert with a heat shield.

"A dead end!" Norbert uttered emphatically.

"No," Eithne replied. "See these symbols? This is ancient faerie text."

Norbert adjusted his glasses. "Ah," he said, more carefully making them out. "The fifteen symbols used to make thousands more." He squinted and proceeded to read them; "'The blessing of water shall strengthen, while a fire's curse shall destroy.' It's taken from Sea Spells -- or, vice versa."

"Sure," Jhudora agreed. "And Eithne is a fire faerie."

Smiling and closing her eyes, Eithne rose her hand in the air and chanted something. After she was finished, she lowered her arm.

Eithne and Jhudora then locked fingers, and a wind started to whirl around them...

The rock parted ways, revealing a thin river...

The rock parted ways, revealing a thin river...

"Illusen?" Jhudora asked the green figure about five feet away on the other side of the stream. The dark faerie's eyes widened and she was clearly dumbfounded. "When did you get here?"

Illusen grinned. "At the same time you did, which means that the Bridge of Tears was blessed and cursed at the same time -- in short, no change to any links."

Eithne gaped. "But Jhudora, the bridge can only be accessed and altered every thousand years--"

"You think I don't know that? I told you that!" Jhudora stormed. "This was my chance to free myself from Illusen -- all in vain."

She turned toward Norbert, clearly enraged...

Illusen saw this and quickly fired a blast of green his way. She did likewise for Tatsu...

Norbert and Tatsu found themselves in the elderly Ixi's front yard.

"Do you know what happened?" Tatsu inquired.

"No -- except for the fact that I've lost my copy of The Nox Memoirs. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!" he shouted.

The Eyrie scrambled to his feet and ran toward his house.

Norbert smiled. After that whole ordeal, he didn't think Jhudora would ever come back to his place again.

Content (for the most part) after the journey, he wandered back into his house, made himself a cup of tea, and picked up his old notes on deciphering the ancient faerie texts.

Until he went out and bought another copy of The Nox Memoirs, he figured he might as well increase his understanding of nuances...

The End