The Color Yellow: Part Five

      Rofay was an anagram for Fyora.

      The Critical Thinking teacher, a Grey Faerie, had taught the preview weekend students about anagrams. And now it turned out that her name was an anagram for Fyora.

      But she couldn't be... Yellow didn't want to think it. It didn't make sense... did it?

      It was true that he hadn't seen the Faerie Queen in the past year... but, then again, she was busy. Very busy. It wasn't unheard of for her to not appear publicly for a year or two if she was hard at work. And so much had happened recently for a queen to sort out. And wouldn't somebody notice if the queen wasn't around?

      And yet... Now that he thought about it, Ms. Rofay looked like Fyora. She was skinnier, and more haggard looking, and, of course, she was Grey, but she had the same bone structure, the same face. He had even thought that she looked familiar when he first saw her.

      He had to ask her about it. He had to talk to her. He raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom, but he had no intention of coming back. He slid out of his desk, hastily grabbing the worksheet, and dashed towards the Critical Thinking classroom. He was thankful that he remembered where it was. He knocked on the door, and the headmistress opened it.

      "Oh, hello, Yellow," the Dark Faerie said. "Here to see Ms. Rofay?"

      "Um... yeah. I forgot... something in her classroom," Yellow lied.

      "Well, go on in. I'll be in the cafeteria for dinner; I'll see you then."

      "Okay. Bye." Yellow watched the Headmistress walk away, before hurrying in. Ms. Rofay was still at her desk, but her quill was unmoving in her hand, and she didn't look up at him.

      "Ms. Rofay?" Yellow asked. Finally, she looked up.

      "I'm sorry, I dozed off. Is there something I can help you with?"

      "Yes, actually. I...," Yellow paused, suddenly embarrassed by his assumption. But he was already here; he had to say something. "Rofay...," he finally started. "Rofay is an anagram for Fyora."

      The Grey Faerie stared at him blankly, and Yellow's embarrassment grew.

      "I'm sorry," he said. "I guess it was kind of stupid, I-"

      "You did very well on your worksheet," Ms. Rofay said suddenly, standing. "You deserve a prize for doing so well."

      "What? No," Yellow said. "No, it's okay, you don't need to give me anything."

      "No, you deserve a prize. You answered the questions on the worksheet very well. Anything on my desk. You may have anything on my desk. Anything you like at all." Ms. Rofay gestured to her desk, and Yellow hesitantly stepped forward. Her desk had her nameplate and some small paperweights, and, of course, the dusty wand. "Anything," the teacher reinforced.

      Did she want him to take the wand? "Wand" was one of the words on the worksheet that had been bolded... Her gaze was unnerving.

      Yellow reached for it hesitantly; he had never held a Faerie wand before. He paused before his fingers touched it, but Ms. Rofay still didn't say anything. Yellow grabbed the wand.

      "Thank you for coming to see me, Yellow," Ms. Rofay said. "I'm sure you'll keep on doing well."

      "What do I do now?" Yellow asked, holding the wand gingerly. It was strangely warm and light, and it vibrated slightly.

      "I imagine you have a preview class to go to, correct?" Ms. Rofay said.

      Yellow stared. "Um... yeah, I guess." He paused. "You can't tell me, can you? Someone isn't letting you."

      Ms. Rofay smiled a thin smile. "You may come back if you need any help."

      "Yes... thank you." Yellow walked out of the room, still holding the wand. He suddenly stuffed it into his folder; it made the folder bulge, but at least no one would realize he was holding a Faerie wand.

      What should he do now? Ms. Rofay – no, Queen Fyora – obviously thought he would be able to help her in some way. Should he go to the Chia Police? Talk to the Headmistress? What should he do?

      What were the other bolded words on the worksheet? He suddenly couldn't remember; he took out the worksheet and scanned them again. Faerieland, Wand, Hourglass, Evil, School, Brake.

      He had the wand. Was the wand evil? Or the school? Or all of Faerieland? Or maybe the hourglass was evil? He didn't know of any hourglass.

      And what about brake? Brake... brake... Unless, it wasn't brake. One word could have multiple anagrams. Was it supposed to be break? Did he need to break the wand? Or break the hourglass?

      "Yellow!" someone called; Yellow looked up and saw Forest.

      "Yellow, there you are. I went to get you from English class and you weren't there. The teacher said you went to the bathroom."

      "Forest, is there an hourglass anywhere?"

      "An hourglass?" Forest rubbed his chin. "Um... I saw one in the Headmistress's room. Remember?"

      As soon as he said it, Yellow did remember: the golden hourglass with the purple liquid. There wasn't much left in the top. What would happen when the time ran out?

      "Why? What's wrong?" Forest asked. "Do you need to know what time it is?"

      What should Yellow tell him? Was he supposed to tell him anything?

      "Come on," Forest said finally, clearly unnerved. "Let's go. You said your next class was Moltaran History, right? That's with Mr. Edelstein, remember? The same class that Zani had."

      Ms. Rofay had told him to go to his preview class. "Yeah, that's right."

      They walked to the upper wing where the Moltaran History classroom was, but Yellow's thoughts were flying between the Grey Faerie, the wand, and the hourglass.

      "See you later, Yellow," Forest said.

      "Bye," Yellow said, slipping into a desk.

      He already had the wand, so what was the point of the hourglass? It must be the hourglass that he had to break. And then what? What did he know?

      Grey Faeries are faeries that had their magic stolen. It must mean that Fyora had her magic stolen. Yellow gasped. Was her magic trapped in the hourglass? And if he broke it... it would return to her?

      But how was he going to get into the Headmistress's office to get to the hourglass?!

      Headmistress Safelila had told him that she would be at dinner. It would be the perfect time to break in; she wouldn't be there.

      But her office would probably be locked, right? Unless... unless Forest could pick the lock, like he picked the lock of the door to the abandoned pool.

      He tapped his fingers against the wood of his desk, impatient for the class to finish. Why was he supposed to care about magma-cooling techniques that were invented eons ago?! He watched the Elephante at the head of the classroom, Mr. Edelstein. Please, he thought, please finish soon.

      Yellow jumped out of the desk as soon as Mr. Edelstein ended class. Forest was there at the door; Yellow was glad he wasn't late again.

      "Forest," he whispered, "I need to talk to you. In private. It's urgent."

      "Sure," Forest said. He looked around, then pulled him into an empty classroom.

      "What's up?" Forest asked. "Why are you acting weird?"

      "I need to ask you to do something," Yellow said. "But... it could get us into a lot of trouble."

      "Awesome!" Forest said, his eyes flashing. "Let me go get Willy and Zani."

      Yellow started. "Wait... what?"

      "We can't do anything dangerous without them!" Forest said. "We're a team, after all. Hang on, I'll be right back." Forest stopped for a minute. "Augh, wait... we have to go to the student panel in a bit..."

      "This is more important," Yellow said.

      After a moment, Forest nodded. "Right. Wait right here."

      Forest ran out of the classroom, leaving Yellow alone. Yellow bit his lip; did he really want to include them in all this? Forest and Willy could get expelled.... And Zani wouldn't even have a chance of going to Faerieland Central... Plus, they were sneaking around the office of a Dark Faerie. That had to be dangerous! Possibly even deadly!

      So Headmistress Safelila was evil after all... And Yellow had honestly liked her...

      The door opened again, revealing Forest, Willy, and Zani. "Here we are," Willy said. "What's happening?"

      Yellow took a deep breath. How to begin?

      He picked up his folder and, after a moment, pulled out the wand.

      "Hey," Zani said. "Isn't that a Faerie wand? How did you get that?"

      "I went to Ms. Rofay's class room earlier," Yellow started. "I had realized that Rofay was an anagram for Fyora. And I asked her about it, and she got kind of excited and said I could take anything from her desk, and she seemed to want me to take the wand. And 'wand' is one of the bolded words on the worksheet. And... and I think that Ms. Rofay is actually Fyora, and that her magic was stolen and is trapped in the hourglass on Headmistress Safelila's desk."

      Yellow held his breath and watched his friends; would they believe him?

      "Wow," Willy said after a moment. "That... that actually makes a lot of sense."

      "Yeah," Forest said. "And Ms. Rofay even kind of looks like Fyora too. Man, you're so much better at puzzles than I am."

      "But I need you to unlock the door to her office," Yellow said. "She'll probably lock it, right?"

      "Probably," Forest agreed, "But I'm not sure if I'll be able to pick that lock. She's probably locked it with magic."

      "Should we get one of the teachers to help us?" Zani said. "Shouldn't we get help?"

      "I... I'm not sure if we should. The Headmistress might have spells on them too, after all," Yellow said. "I just... Ms. Rofay seemed to be trying to get the students to figure it out. If there was a way to tell the teachers, I'm sure she's already tried it."

      "No, I agree," Willy said. "So... what now?"

      "The Headmistress said that she was going to be at dinner," Yellow said. "I was thinking we could try then."

      "Yes," Forest agreed. "Yellow and I will go to her office; I'll pick the lock and Yellow will break the hour glass. I can also keep lookout at the office door. Zani and Willy, you stay in the cafeteria and keep an eye on her. If she looks like she's about to leave, Zani, you start talking to her and asking her questions about the school trying to distract her, and Willy, you leave and come here to warn us. Good plan?"

      "Sounds good to me," Willy said.

      "Me too," Zani replied.

      Yellow paused. "Are... are you sure about this? We could all get into a lot of trouble. And... and I could even be wrong about everything."

      "We're friends, Yellow," Zani said. "We're here for you."

      "Yes," Forest replied. "Now, let's go save Faerieland!"

To be continued...