The Dark Faeries' Plot

     Red, white, green and blue. Aquamarine, Crimson, Indigo and Vermilion. Thousands upon thousands of books, stacked on ornate shelves rising proudly to the lavish domed ceiling of the Faerie City Library. Celia the Baby Aisha had never seen anything so breathtaking before.

     "Come to me if you need anything," said her owner, a petite brunette girl named Amy. "Otherwise, you guys have until five-thirty to explore this place, but then we have to go home for dinner."

     Oh boy oh boy! Celia and her siblings went their different ways into the cornucopia of shelves that stood before them. She knew her brother, Tommy the Red Scorchio, would have made a beeline for the bookshelves labelled "Electrical Engineering", a topic that had always interested him. He was so passionate about it now that back at their home in Neopia Central, his bedroom was a real obstacle course, filled with a wide range of gadgets and gizmos. Sophia the Brown Uni, on the other hand, would probably have headed towards esteemed Altadorian works on rhetoric and persuasion. While naturally Faerie City’s collection paled in comparison to that held in the archives of Altador itself, it nonetheless contained copies of some of the land’s most famous works.

     Celia, meanwhile, wasn’t sure what she wanted to read, but she was very sure that she had to dash madly to whatever there was. Labels on shelves seemed to dance before her eyes as she ran. Ooh, a whole shelf of cupcake recipes! Oh, is that a whole shelf about Shenkuuan toys? And oh wow! Could there really be that many picture books of adorable Angelpi in hilarious situations?

     Thus in excitement Celia continued to run, and run, and run.

     Until, finally, she felt a stitch in her chest that forced her stop running and take a minute to catch her breath. She was in one of the farthest wings of the library now, surrounded by shelves on obscure topics such as ‘life cycle of the Batterflies of the Haunted Woods’ and ‘treatments for the wounds caused by Candy Vampires’. How badly can you be wounded by a Candy Vampire, anyway? wondered Celia. It’s literally made of candy. Unless, I guess, they’re made from that really hard boiled sugar candy stuff. Then maybe it could hurt a bit.

     Lost in her own thoughts, Celia wandered on, until she realised she could hear low, female voices coming from just ahead.

     "I don’t think we have another option," said one. "We have tried and tried, but there is just no working around her. She’s defiant. And we have to act now."

     "I understand where you’re coming from," replied the other, "but what you’re asking of me is just so extreme. What if the public were to suspect?"

     "The public are fools. If we tell them the Queen has come down with an unfortunate illness, that would be more than enough explanation for them. What’s more, it is not as if it would be necessary for long."

     Celia held her breath tight. The Queen? As in, Queen Fyora of Faerieland? What was going on?

     "I just don’t see how there can be no other way."

     "Believe me sister, we have spent weeks trying! But the other faeries thwart our every move. Queen Fyora is stalling us, dragging her heels and playing nice, while all the while our window of opportunity is closing. We do it now or we lose our chance."

     There was a long pause. "The Queen trusts me. What you ask would be a huge betrayal."

     "Do you not trust us, your sisters? Is there no loyalty among Dark Faeries anymore?"

     The other faerie hesitated. Celia took a chance and peered around the corner of the bookshelf. Standing against the wall she saw two Dark Faeries, one with short hair biting her lip in indecision, and the other, long-haired faerie standing with her back to Celia.

     "Very well," agreed the short-haired faerie, "I will begin the spell this evening. But I must warn you that it will take some time before the Queen is fully subdued."

     "Understood. At this stage our sources estimate that we have three weeks. Will you have her incapacitated by then?"

     The faerie glanced away at the floor, in shame. "Yes."

     "Excellent." The long-haired faerie whirled around haughtily, then froze mid-step. Her eyes locked on to Celia’s. "We’ve been seen."

     "What?" The short-haired faerie surged forward in a panic.

     Celia tore herself away from the shelf and began to run. Her legs were still worn out from her first run through the library and she could not gain speed as fast as she wanted. Behind her, she heard the long-haired faerie say, "Worry not; it is only a little Neopet, I can take care of it." Celia pushed herself harder, defying the sharp pain in her leg muscles warning her that they could not take the pressure for long.

     Then, a beam of energy hit Celia square in the back. She froze in place like a statue. Her heart began to race as she heard the clip, clop behind her of the Dark Faerie’s boots as she drew closer.

     "So," said the long-haired faerie, as she reached the Baby Aisha and stood in front of her, proudly. "Tell me what you’ve heard."

     Celia found that unlike the rest of her, her mouth remained unfrozen. "Um, well, there’s a spell, against Fyora, and she’s going to get sick, or something, and –"

     The faerie waved a hand and Celia fell silent. Her mouth was frozen shut.

     "You listen here, you meddling Neopet. We have only a short amount of time to accomplish what needs to be done. I am not prepared to have our plans come unstuck because a little Baby Aisha stuck her nose where it didn’t belong. If you think that you are going to do anything to hinder us, think again."

     The Dark Faerie began to move her arms in a haunting, fluid motion, somewhat evocative of a dance that Celia had seen in Shenkuu one time except that this was not a dance in Shenkuu and the faerie was bending the magical fabric that constituted everything in order to shape the world in accordance with her wishes. In a deeper, lower voice than Celia had ever heard before, the faerie began to chant in a dark, ancient language of which Celia could not understand a word. The air itself seemed to shimmer and fog, and then suddenly everything was over and Celia and the Dark Faerie were simply standing and facing each other, a cold, hardened look on the latter’s face.

     "Go," the faerie hissed, and Celia did not need to be told twice. She turned around and she bolted, past dozens and dozens of shelves on a wide range of topics, not even beginning to slow once she hit the populated parts of the library where patrons where looking at her like she was a crazy nuisance.

     Once she’d hit the central reading room, where Amy was curled up on a cozy armchair with a book, Celia collapsed to the floor and broke down in tears. "AMYYYYYY!!"

     Amy leapt out of her chair and dashed to Celia’s side, holding her in a warm embrace. "Celia, what happened? Did you read a scary book?"

     "No, no," Celia said between sniffles. "I was exploring the bookshelves and –" And suddenly she fell silent, jaw immobilized, unable to say any more.

     "And what, honey?"

     Celia tried to answer, but still her jaw wouldn’t move.

     "Did another Neopet bully you? I did see a mean-looking Skeith around before."

     "No, it’s not that," Celia said. But she could not say a word more.

     "Did you fall asleep and have a nightmare?"

     "No."

     "Did… um… did one of the librarians tell you off?"

     "No."

     "Well, honestly Celia, I’m running out of options here. Do you want to tell me what happened?"

     "I can’t," said Celia, with a sob. "I’ve been trying but my mouth won’t say the words."

     Amy looked dubious. "Well… maybe you’re getting tired. Let’s go find Tommy and Sophia, and then we can go home."

     Hand in hand, Amy and Celia walked to the library sections on electrical engineering and Altadorian rhetoric, and explained that it was time to go home.

     "Are you kidding?" cried Tommy. "It’s not five-thirty yet!"

     "Hmpf, I would have said that one should never renege on a promise," huffed Sophia.

     "I know I said you guys could have until five-thirty, but Celia here seems really tired and shaken up. I think we’ve got to go home for her sake."

     "I can’t believe you, Celia," said Tommy as they walked out of the library’s grand doors. "You’re such a baby."

     "I didn’t do it on purpose," Celia moped. "Something really bad happened."

     "What was that, Celia?" Sophia asked gently.

     "Well… I can’t say," admitted Celia. "But, it was really, really bad."

     Her older siblings exchanged a look. She knew this look. It was the "our baby sister is such a dolt" look. But this time, at least, she knew that she wasn’t being a dolt. She knew that something very sinister and very evil was brewing inside Faerie City, and that (as far as she knew) she was the only one who knew about and wanted to stop it. It didn’t matter that the Dark Faerie had cast a spell on her to prevent her from telling anyone what she had seen. It didn’t matter that her entire family thought she was being ridiculous, or possibly just really tired. Somehow – although she didn’t know how yet – she was going to stop the Dark Faeries in their tracks.

     And that was a promise.

      To be continued…