Chapter 10

Lilly knocked at her boss' (that's Donald's!) open door. "Yes, Lilly, come in. How was your meeting with the Queen?"

"Very interesting! And possibly *very* relevant"

"What do you mean"

"I need you to tell me more about the Dark Archive"

"The Dark Archive? What's that?"

"Oh, come on, I KNOW you know about it. The Queen just told me about it: apparently, it's under mum's office, and she's it's Keeper. And her majesty thinks I need to visit it."

"Ah, sounds like it's time that you 'need-to-know' about it then! Well, the Dark Archive contains a large library of very old books. Some contain old magic. Some of the books contain some very nasty magic that was banned, but we still keep the details, you never know when you might need it. There's also books that detail fairy history, some that we maybe wouldn't want to be public knowledge".

"Maybe something like this then?" said Lilly, putting the Queen's book on the desk. Donald picked it up and took a look.

"Where did you find this?"

"The Queen lent it to me: it's why she wanted to see me. She has a VERY interesting theory, and suggested I might be able to confirm it - or otherwise - by seeing what's in the Dark Archive". She explained more about what the Queen had told her.

"I have a feeling you will find what you're looking for in the Dark Archive"

"You know more than you're letting on, aren't you?"

"I'm very aware that historical details are sometime changed, often for good political reasons. You're probably going to need some help, so take along whoever you need."

"Actually, I'm not sure anyone from here can help, but I can think of a couple of fairies who can"

"You're thinking about your friends, Magic and Sparkle, aren't you?"

"Yes"

"Can you trust them?"

"Yes, I'd trust them both with my own life!"

"In that case, do what you need to, to let them see what they need from the Dark Archive. And whatever backup you need, just ask. If what you say is true, the implications are far-reaching"

Chapter 12

Meanwhile, back at Runesdale.....

"Phew, me wings ain't what they used to be" says Flora, sitting on the edge of the bed to catch her breath. So, who is everyone?"

"Well, I'm Sparkle, and this is Magic, we're sort-of in charge of things. This is Faylinn, who called you, and this is Elida"

"Nice to meet you all" said Flora, "I think we HAVE met before, haven't we?" she asked Faylinn, who nodded. She turned to Elida: "So, I'm betting this is probably your first Priority One, isn't it, Elida"

"Yes, it is, and I'm learning so much"

"Good. Tell you what, I'm guessing I'll be hanging around for a bit, so when we get a quiet bit, maybe I can show you a few things that might come in handy"

"Oh, yes, please, I'd like that!"

"So, I'm guessing this is our poor customer?"

"Yes, this is Violet. She's 19, and if you look at THIS picture, taken last week, you can see she had nice teeth"

"Oh, yes, they really are nice..... and now?"

"And now..." replied Sparkle, swiping the screen of her phone, "They look like that!"

"Well, I've watched humans putting braces on other humans like that, but there's no way they can twist teeth like that so quickly! Let's go take a proper look at her"

Violet was still dozing on the settee, so Flora was able to have a good look at her. "I guess we need to get the braces off first: so, what sort of things have you tried so far, Elida?" she asked. Elida explained what they had done so far.

"Sounds like the two of you are pretty clued up! Ok, I know a few older magic spells that might help.... let me try another 'diagnostic' one first.....". She waved her wand. "Hmm, yes, old, but not TOO old....". She waved her wand again, and a big old spell book appeared.

Flora opened the book about a quarter the way through, then turned a few pages. "You both might be interested in what’s in here" she said. They all spent several minutes reading through a few spells.

"Ok, Elida, why don't you help me with these two then?" suggested Flora.

"Really?"

"Of course. How else you going to keep learning?". With a big smile, Elida summoned her wand, and tried the first spell, then she checked if there was any change - there wasn't. Then they tried the second spell, which made the brackets glow slightly for a few seconds.

"Oooh, that's interesting" said Elida.

As Flora and Elida started to work on Violet, Sparkle turned to Magic: "I'm thinking that we should continue our flyovers, just in case there's a second surprise waiting for us somewhere"

"That sounds like a good idea. Hey, Faylinn, it looks like those two have things under control for the moment, would you like to join us to check if there's any more 'surprises' waiting for us?"

"Yeah, sure: Flora, you going to be ok without me?"

"Yes, go on... if we need you, Elida can always call you...."

The three fairies spent some time flying around, but found nothing else, so returned back to Violet, Elida and Flora.

"Any luck yet?" asked Magic

"Well, yes and no" said Elida. "I think we're a bit closer to understanding what they used to attach the metal brackets, we're just having problems actually detaching them"

"Ok, well we couldn't find any other 'disturbances', so we can concentrate on Violet".

Just then, Magic's phone beeped - she had a text. "It's the boss. You and I need to go back to the office, asap. All related to what we're doing, plus Lilly is there" said Magic to Sparkle.

"Oh, ok! To be honest, there's not a lot more we two can do here for the moment. Faylinn, can we leave you in charge of things here, I think you know what's going on the best."

"That's fine with me - I can always call if there's any problems" replied Faylinn

"Flora - great to meet you! Keep on doing what you can, and get Faylinn to update us on how things go. I'd like all three of you to stay overnight - get operations to put you in the same place as us: it's really nice, and I know she has plenty of space for you." said Sparkle

"I'll never complain about a break from being home, especially if the firm is paying!" said Flora with a smile.

"And Elida, don't worry if you think you're not contributing all that much: that doesn't really matter, having another person around is always very useful, plus I suspect you're learning a lot from Faylinn and Flora!"

"Thank you" said Elida, "and yes, I am!"

"I'm assuming we'll be back later on, no doubt with a few others too, now it's a Priority One!"

"Ok, see you both later on" said Faylinn

Magic & Sparkle left the three tooth fairies to get on with things.

"So, yes, that glowing, it was interesting....." said Flora, "I wonder.....". Flora flipped forward a few more pages in the book. Flora, Faylinn and Elida had a bit of a chat about what they thought they needed to do.

"Whoever did this is a pretty capable fairy" commented Elida.

"I'd say definitely competent, I think the big problem is that she's using some old spells that have gone out of use.... you know how things change: when I was a kid, we had record players and big black round records. Then it was CDs, now I believe you just have it all inside your phones.... so people tend to forget about the old records, ignore them. And I think it's the same with the magic she's using, it's old, it's stuff we don't use these days because there are better, and often simpler, spells we can use."

"Ok, yeah, I understand" said Elida. "But WHY is she using old magic?"

"THAT is actually a very good question. But we can worry more about that later, let's see what we can do to get these braces off poor Violet."

"Maybe we need to actually use more than one spell at a time?" suggested Elida

"Nice idea.... any suggestions WHICH spells?" said Flora, smiling.

They spent quite a bit of time looking through Flora's spell books, plus looked online at some of the more modern spells, and tried a few combinations, but still had no luck, although the last pair they tried simply 'felt' good,

"Hey, I have an idea" said Elida. "let's try combining those last 2 spells with that one that made the braces glow?"

"Yes, why not, there's nothing to lose. Ok, Elida, you do the earlier spell, Faylinn and I can do these two...." Flora waved her wand, casting her spell, then Faylinn cast hers. Finally, Elida cast the earlier spell... the braces glowed brightly for a second, sort of like they had before, but differently. Elida touched the braces, which were now no longer glued to Violet's teeth, so she took the braces from Violet's mouth.

"Oh, nicely done, everyone!" said Faylinn, "Now we just need to straighten her teeth. Shall we let Elida do that?"

"Absolutely!" replied Flora. Elida didn't need to refer to any of her notes, as this was basic tooth-fairy magic. She waved her magic wand, and one by one Violet's teeth straightened up again.

"Lovely work there, Elida" said Flora. "I guess we're done here for the moment then"

"Well, we'd better wake Violet up, and one of us needs to get her to forget what happened" said Faylinn

"Can I do that, please? I could do with the experience" asked Elida

"Sure, why not" replied Faylinn. Faylinn and Flora watched as Elida magicked Violet back to her bed, then ran a couple of spells on her, to wipe her memories.

"Good magicking there, Elida! Ok, I think we're all done" said Faylinn.

"Oh, the headgear, mustn't leave that...." said Elida, "Sparkle brought it through from the bathroom, now where DID she put it?". Elida looked around, and quickly found it.

"Ok, I'll call control to update them, and get them to book us into the same place as Magic and Sparkle" suggested Faylinn. "How about after that, we go drop our stuff off, then take a look around the town: Magic said there was a dentist's and an orthodontist's. You want to join us, Flora?"

"Yes, that could be fun. Then maybe later on we can go somewhere nice & quiet, and I can show you both some of the old magic I sometimes still use".

Chapter 14

Later on, Lilly, Magic and Sparkle met up with Elida, Faylinn and Flora at the guest house. It was only afternoon, so they had plenty of time to chat and plan things.

"Flora, it's so nice to meet you again!" said Lilly. Flora looked puzzled. "Oh, you came and talked to us at university last year!"

"Ah, yes, I remember now, that was a fun day!" replied Flora

"And hello again Faylinn... so I'm guessing you must be Elida, nice to meet you too!"

"Nice to meet you too, Lilly. I'm guessing you're taking over from Magic & Sparkle now, are you?" said Elida in her soft Irish accent.

"Yes and no. I'd like Magic & Sparkle to keep running the day-to-day side of things, they know what they are doing. I'll be working more on the 'tactical' side of things, but I'm gonna be available to help out more generally too, if you guys need me. Ok, so let me explain what's going on from my side of things, then I'd like to talk to you three ladies about teeth and braces."

"So, I've got a small team of tech people joining us a bit later. One of the guys, Puck, has been working on some tech that I'm hoping may help us locate the victims, or more specifically, the use of magic. The bad news is that I'm told that it's very much a 'work in progress' and anything we DO get from his kit is likely to be not all that accurate, and may take some time to get the results... which I don't mind too much, because anything it can give us might be helpful. And it's going to help Puck's team to improve the kit, which has got to be good in the longer term. So, I'm looking at the tech kit as being our backup at the moment, I'm guessing we'll probably need to do it manually again tomorrow: what exactly have you been doing?"

"Well, so far we've been doing a simple combined 'detect angst and magic' spell: the big problem with that has been that it's a pretty short-range spell, meaning we had to pretty much be just inches above the roof, and fly around any big houses" explained Magic, "However, with the 'resources' we were able to look at earlier on, we think we might have a couple of alternative spells that might work a little better. Also, it was a bit slow with just two of us, but if ALL of us could do it tomorrow, it would be a lot easier!"

"That sounds like a good plan. So how did you keep in touch with each other?" asked Lilly

"We just used our phones... yeah, we could do with something better if there's more than just two of us, don't suppose you guys have something we can use, Lilly?"

"Yeah, leave that with me. So, when you finally found your 'victim', what did you do?"

"So, the first one, which I guess was really victim number 2, we caught up with when she was at home, having visited the orthodontist - who of course failed to remove her braces. So when Elida and Faylinn arrived, we just put her into a short sleep - making sure her room was secure, of course."

"And that was good enough for you guys?" asked Lilly of the two tooth fairies.

"Yes, it worked out nicely" replied Faylinn.

"So what about this morning?"

"Well, I think we got very lucky this morning: it was actually getting late, just after 9 o'clock. We were actually checking in on the phone when Sparkle found Violet - victim number 3 - just moments after she had discovered her braces" explained Magic.

"Yeah, so I quickly called Faylinn, and threw a 'calming' spell at Violet." explained Sparkle. "Magic got there a few minutes later, and we ran a 'FairyTime', giving us time to hack her phone, and find out more about her. I think I might have overdone the 'calming' spell though, she was pretty much out of it sitting on the settee.... so when Elida and Faylinn got to us soon after, we just put her to sleep on the settee."

"So you're happy working on the victims when they're under a sleep spell?"

"Yes, it's been just fine so far...." said Flora

"But the braces were a LOT harder to remove this morning: there was definite signs of some quite old magic, and whilst Faylinn and I tried quite a few things, we had no luck, which is why we asked Flora to join us" explained Elida

"Yes, and even the older magic I knew wasn't enough to remove them... It was Elida who suggested combining three spells that finally let us remove the braces" explained Flora.

"I get the feeling that we might struggle tomorrow: whoever is doing this is clearly getting better at doing it. And it's not just how he or she is gluing the brackets onto the victim's teeth, the quality of the braces themselves looked 'better' too" said Faylinn.

"Well, that brings me on to my next question: we believe that this is all being done by a tooth fairy who has, for some reason, gone a bit rogue. Now, to be honest, I'm not over familiar with what you guys do, so Flora, can you take me back a few years, and explain what you used to do, then tell me how things have changed...". Lilly was clearly not wanting to let on to the tooth fairies the extra details, and history that she - and Magic and Sparkle - knew about this rogue fairy... it was a 'need to know' basis, and for the moment they didn't really need to know.

"Well, going back several generations, it was all a lot simpler. They didn't have braces back then, it was just teeth. Of course, the 'bread and butter' was giving out a silver threepence when a child lost a baby tooth. Plus, there was doing things to help when someone got toothache and all that sort of thing: apparently some people just couldn't afford to go to the dentist. It's a lot different now.... yeah, we still give out the money for baby teeth - a POUND now, would you believe it!! But there's a lot more about calming both kids and adults before they go to see the dentist. And now with braces - I suspect you two can fill in Lilly about that better than I can!"

"Yes, we see a lot of kids scared to go to the dentist, but also a lot of kids scared to visit the orthodontist, scared of getting braces - so a lot of 'calming' spells there. Then getting a bit sore for the first week or two after getting braces, and then after adjustments, so there we're either doing some 'painkilling' spells, or 'remember to take some painkillers' spells. What did I miss, Elida?"

"Well, I guess the problems when some kids get awkward appliances, like those big bulky twin blocks. And don't forget the absolute panic some kids have when they get given headgear or a facemask" added Elida.

"Yeah, I must admit, I actually feel sorry for kids that get headgear, and their parents are very insistent on them wearing them enough: working with them can take quite a bit of time. But I guess with general dental hygiene being better, we get less of the toothaches that I suspect Flora used to see"

"Absolutely" replied Flora

"Ok, so go back even further, maybe as far as fifty or a hundred years ago.... what would tooth fairies be doing then?" asked Lilly. All three of the tooth fairies were silent.

"You think our 'Dark Tooth Fairy' could be THAT old?" asked Elida. Lilly realised that only Magic had, as yet, put those three words together, and she knew the real details: it was clear that Elida was a lot brighter than she let on.

"There is 'certain evidence' that we have seen" said Lilly very carefully, "that indicates it could be a distinct possibility, and it would certainly explain the use of the rather old magic".

"But how could a fairy even LIVE that long?" asked Faylinn.

"Good question, and we have no ideas on that one yet. So, what skills will she have? All indications are that this MUST be a tooth fairy, so I'm happy to call her a 'she'"

"Going back THAT far, I’m guessing it's going to be a lot of pain-killing, and a lot of relaxation, say when they had a tooth pulled. No nice anaesthetics back then...." said Flora.

"So did our Dark Lady start doing this BEFORE we saw the braces? Maybe doing some simple tooth stuff?"

"You know, when we were in the dentist yesterday, I think I saw some notes there about a couple of urgent cases. But I didn't think it was really relevant at the time, as it was about things before the braces stuff started" said Sparkle. “I guess it could be just normal stuff, but maybe it was her?"

"Ok, so why the move to braces?"

"Oh, come ON, Lilly" said Sparkle smiling widely, "you know we fairies all love sparkly stuff!"

"Yeah" added Elida, I remember the first time I saw a human in braces close up: wow, they were so beautiful! Now imagine a tooth fairy that's never even HEARD of braces, never even seen them from a distance. There's no WAY she's not going to be instantly interested in them. And if she really IS 'dark', and she sees how many kids actually HATE braces, I mean, she's just found the perfect weapon!"

"Ok, but what about the glue?" asked Lilly

"Oh, historically I guess we tooth fairies would have needed various sorts of magic glue to hold rotting teeth together and that sort of stuff, which of course we hardly need now.... so yes, I guess that's a skill we no longer have or need." said Flora.

"Well, thank you ladies, that has all been VERY helpful! I'm going to go and check in with my tech guys, see how they are getting on....." said Lilly. Before Lilly left, she spoke to one of the operations team in her office. "Oh, hiya, it's Lilly here. Look, can you do me a favour, and run an in-depth security check on both Elida and Faylinn, I may need to bump their security levels up quite severely.".

Next, she made another call: "Hi Ella, where are you guys?" asked Lilly on the phone.

"We're in a nice fairy-tent on the top of the town hall: it's a nice big flat roof here, and good views across the town"

"Ok, I'll be with you in a few minutes...."

Sparky, thank you for this story. It has been really good so far and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Always good to hear that I have at least ONE reader 

And there's PLENTY more (victims) to come..... and something tells me that our Dark Fairy will not be too easy to find....

also for me.. You're definitely a very talented and creative writer..
You can't say that this story is a pure fetish story anymore.. its a bit like a fantasy novel  and i really enjoy it, just because its fun to read and as a reader you want to know - How does it go on in the next chapter? 

Chapter 16


As we now know, Runesdale is a quaint town in middle England, located near a large forest. As well as the ridiculous number of Coffee Shops, it also has a US themed 50's cafe:

"Stepping through the doors of JB’s diner is like going back in time. They have spared no expense in decorating the interior with countless items of 1950’s memorabilia and paraphernalia. Almost every space on the wall, ceiling and everywhere possible has been covered with images suitable to the area. The staff are also in keeping with the theme with plenty of pin up looks and even the odd roller-skating waitress."

Caroline Whitepetal was a single mum in her 40s, she shared a 2 bedroom house - located in the south of Runesdale - with her daughter Belle. Belle is 22 years old, and currently works as a roller-waitress at JB's Diner. Luckily for both of them, they actually get on pretty well together, so don't have any problem having dinner together at home - they take turns in cooking - or even spending the evening together. Tonight, after dinner, they played cards for a while, then watched TV.

Finally, about 11pm, they both went off to bed. Tomorrow, Caroline and Belle would both be getting up relatively early, to go to work. By midnight they were both asleep.

A few hours later, a small dark figure, invisible to humans, entered the house, and looked around. The house was suitably dark and quiet, so she went and looked in the bedrooms, where she found Caroline and Belle both fast asleep. After waving her wand a few times, she sat back and admired her handiwork: happy with what she had done, she then left the house, and flew back to.... well, I'm not really sure.

Caroline's alarm beeped gently, waking her up. She went into her ensuite bathroom - still half asleep - to get herself ready for work. In there, she looked in the mirror... and SCREAMED! Her scream was so loud that people who lived half a mile away could probably hear it.

SHE HAD CROOKED TEETH, BRACES, AND HEADGEAR!

In the other bedroom, Belle had been woken by her alarm, and had gone in the dim light into her en-suite bathroom, where she turned on the light. She caught sight of herself in the mirror, and something looked... odd. She went to the mirror to look closer.... and SCREAMED! Her scream was also so loud that people who lived most of a kilometer away could probably hear it.

SHE HAD CROOKED TEETH, BRACES, AND HEADGEAR!

The strange thing is that, when Caroline and Belle both went to bed last night, their teeth were quite straight, and neither of them actually had any braces!

They had both screamed at pretty much the same time, but still heard each other. They both ran out of their bathrooms, through their bedrooms, and met on the upstairs landing. And just stared at each other!

But it was odd, they both suddenly became quite amazingly calm about the whole thing, and they both went into Caroline's room, and sat and chatted for a few minutes. They looked at each other's braces: whilst they both seemed to have bands around their molars, and typical metal brackets on their other teeth, with an archwire held in place with quite plain ligatures, Caroline had a metal facebow attached to an elastic strap that went around her neck, whereas Belle's facebow was connected with elastics to a set of straps that went over and around her head. Caroline's teeth were a bit crooked, whilst Belle seemed to have some nicely protruding top teeth.

Caroline leaned over, and undid the elastic bands that were holding Belle's facebow in place. Belle remembered one of her friends at school having a headgear, and knew that the ends of the facebow went into tubes on the braces, so she tried gently pulling on the facebow, but nothing happened. So Belle then leaned over to her mum, unclipped her neck strap, then got her to open her mouth, so she could check her facebow. As expected, the ends of the facebow went into some tubes on her molar bands. But, like Belle's, her facebow seemed to be somehow fixed firmly into place too.

And that's when things started to get a bit strange. For a start, they were both back in their own beds, feeling rather rough - clearly something they ate last night just wasn't agreeing with them. Plus, the facebows they had been wearing seemed to have magically gone. And their braces, and their twisted / buck teeth, well... who really cared about them any more? What was more important was to call work, and let them know that they wouldn't be going in, at least not this morning - maybe in the afternoon if their 'problem had passed', so to speak. After calling work, Belle went into see her mum again: they were both feeling rough, and whilst Belle knew that her mum also had braces... well, that was normal, wasn't it? After a quick chat with her mum, Belle went back to bed again, and both Belle and her mum slept for a while.

Some time later in the morning, Caroline woke up again, and went to the toilet, after which she felt a LOT better. As she looked in the mirror, she had a strange feeling for a moment. A feeling that she had braces on her teeth. Or was it a dream that she had just had? Not that it mattered, there were definitely no braces on her teeth. Although one of her teeth... didn't it used to stick out a tiny bit? It certainly didn't any more.

She went to check on Belle, who it turned out was in the loo. When she came out, she was feeling a lot better too.

"You know" said Belle, "I just had the STRANGEST of dreams....."

Chapter 18


"Elida, can you come with me a moment, please?" asked Lilly. She took her down into the lounge, where they could talk without being disturbed.

"Am I in trouble or something?" asked Elida.

"Why do people think always they are in trouble, just because I need a word. No, you're not, in fact completely the opposite."

"What do you mean"

"Let me start by asking you a question or two: First - and this isn't a job interview, I want to know your true feelings - do you actually ENJOY learning and doing magic?"

"Yes, absolutely. Especially the last couple of days, I've learnt SO MUCH!" replied Elida with a sparkle in her eyes.

"And do you sometimes feel.... hmm, how do I put this... that people underestimate you, that you could probably do a better job than them, if only you knew a little bit more? Try and be as honest as you can, and don't worry of it makes you feel a bit big-headed!...." said Lilly in a gentle and pleasant way.

Elida thought for a moment. "Yes, I do.... In fact, it's been so nice that both Faylinn and Flora have been letting me try so much."

"It was your idea yesterday to mix up the multiple spells wasn't it?"

"Yes, it just seemed like such an obvious thing to try, I don't know why Faylinn or Flora didn't suggest it! Oh, that sounds so bad...."

"Don't worry about it. Let me tell you something: I used to have the same sort of problem. Maybe it's something I can help you with? Anyway, thanks for being so honest with me." Lilly paused. "How would you like to learn something VERY different today, something that will probably stretch you a bit?".

A big smile came to Elida's face. "Yes please, Lilly!"

"So, I need to explain a few things, but before I can do that, I need you to sign this. It's similar to the security document you signed when you joined up, but goes a lot further. Don't rush it, you need to understand what it is you're signing...." Lilly gave her a copy of the same document that Magic, Sparkle and her mum had also recently signed.

"Dark Archive?" asked Elida.

"Don't worry, I'll explain all that in a moment ...". Elida took a few minutes to carefully read the document, then signed it. "So, what's this all about?"

"Well, first of all, you should find your security level has gone up .... quite substantially. That may be just temporary, but it might be more permanent, depending on how things go".

Elida looked at her 'pass' and was VERY surprised.

"You're joking?"

"No, not at all. I'm about to tell you some stuff, which you can't talk to anyone else about, unless you KNOW they have the correct clearance. At the moment, assume that that includes just me, Magic and Sparkle. Noone else. Understood?"

"Yes."

Lilly explained to Elida a simplified version of what they knew about the history of the destruction of the old palace. And about the existence of the Dark Archive. "That's where those new spells we were using this morning came from."

"Suddenly some of the stuff you've been saying makes so much more sense. But why are you telling me all this?" asked Elida

"Because I'm about to take you down into the Dark Archive. I need you to search for some old magic spells that can help you guys with removing those braces"

"Surely, if it's older magic, it would be better to take Flora?"

"Yes, I know, I agree, but unfortunately she can't know what's down there. Or even know that it exists. We can let her see certain specific things that we bring out, and have checked, but no more. And please don't ask me to explain"

"Oh.... right...."

"And from what I've seen of you working earlier on, I think you're going to find what we need very quickly... So, I'll have a quick word with Flora, and explain you and I are going to be visiting 'an important resource', then can you have a word with her, and get some ideas of the sort of things we will need?"


"Ok, ladies" said Lilly, talking to Magic, Sparkle, Faylinn and Flora. "I'm going to take Elida to a rather restricted 'resource' that we have access to, to see if we can find you some more relevant magic for you to use. In the meantime, I think maybe you guys need to wake these ladies up, and get them to call in sick to work. I have no doubt that between you, you can come up with something that won't sound too strange for our mum and daughter here to tell their respective bosses"

"Good idea" said Magic, "and maybe we can all have a cup of coffee while we're at it...."


As they both flew back to the office, Lilly explained a few more things to Elida, like how the Dark Archive was under her mum's office.

"Your mum's office?"

"Yeah, she's your boss!"

"Oh, sorry, I never realised!"

"That's ok. Actually, I'd better call her....".

Ten minutes later, Lilly's mum had let them into the Dark Archive: being the keeper, she was one of the few fairies allowed to let people into the Archive: even Lilly couldn't get in to the Dark Archive without her mum... it was all done to stop... well to stop a Dark Fairy from running amok.

"So, this is the first room we're interested in" said Lilly, showing her the 'Older Magic' room. "Although we'll probably also need to take a look in the 'Dangerous and Dark Magic' room afterwards. The room was large, with many old wooden shelves holding up hundreds of old books. As the place was hardly ever visited, it was dusty, and had an 'old' smell to it.

"Wow! There's a lot of books in here!" said Elida, clearly very impressed. The main library (the general one used by all the fairies) was a lot bigger, but all the books in there were very modern, the books in here oozed out a feeling 'we are VERY old'. "How are we going to find what we need?"

"Well, it's going to be more of 'how do YOU find what we need'?" replied Lilly, and she showed Elida how to use the search spells, which of course Elida picked up straight away.

"Ok, so I'm going to stand over here, out of your way, and let you just get on with it. Just ask if you need me!". Lilly stood there and watched as Elida waved her wand, running some quite complicated combinational search spells, as if it was something she did every day. Things to do with teeth, and glues, and other similar things. Quite a lot of books slid out from the shelf by an inch, marking their locations.

"No, far too many... " said Elida, who continued to narrow down the search. A lot of the books slid back into position on the shelves. "still too many... ok, let's try something a bit different.....". Bit by bit more of the books slid back into their normal places on the shelves, leaving just a few still proturuding. "Ok, let’s try that lot…" she said, waving her wand. Several books came off the shelves, and stacked up in front of Elida.

"I think what we're going to need is going to be in here somewhere" she said, quickly looking at the books. "This first one is a more general book, the others appear to be quite specialised, but I'm SURE that if we ask them nicely, they'll help us find what we want." explained Elida. When asked, the books were very polite, and opened up at the correct pages. They both looked at the books together, and found what they appeared to need.

"Ok, so far so good. Next, I think we need to search for something to help us detect our Dark Fairy..." said Elida, "let me try this...". Elida said a few words, searching for 'detecting tooth fairies who are doing magic', and waved her wand. Nothing happened, then suddenly a small book on the shelf right next to her popped out.

"Yes, come on then" she said, encouraging the book, which gently flew over to the desk, and opened up, at page 404. Elida smiled when she read what the page said: 'The requested resource could not be found but may be available in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible'. Next to the text there was a rather nice drawing. "Oh, what a nice way to say 'no'" commented Elida.

"Thank you book... you might as well wait here for the moment, I get a feeling that you're going to be needed again". Elida tried another, rather more general, search 'detecting other fairies who are using magic'. The book fluttered, and opened up on page 401, which said 'Authentication is required and has failed or has not yet been provided'. Then it helped a bit more by turning to page 305, which stated 'The requested resource is available only through a proxy'

"Oh... ok... Lilly, maybe you can help on this, I'm assuming that your security level is rather higher than mine" and explained what the book had just shown her. Lilly came over, and basically repeated the same search request.

Once again, the little book fluttered it pages, this time opening at page 308, which said 'This and all future requests for this resource should be directed to the Dangerous and Dark Magic Library'

"Well, little book: you may be small, but you are both very pretty and very helpful. You may now go back to your shelf!" said Elida. The book ruffled its pages, briefly turned to page 200, and when Elida had read the one word on the page, the book closed itself, and went gently back to its shelf.

"I guess we now need to go into the other room" said Elida.

"Actually, we could do with one more detection spell: for old silver coins" said Lilly. "You never know, if we're having trouble detecting her magic, we might catch her by her coins!"

"Nice idea, Lilly, ok..... let's try this: search for silver..." Once again, a lot of books offered themselves. "Ok, how about 'silver coins' then?". Most went back into place, leaving about 6 or 8 books sticking out. "Ok, books, let's forget the magic search for the moment: I'm looking for something to help us detect a tooth fairy who has a few old silver threepenny coins on them. Any takers?"

One book gracefully slipped off the shelf, and came down in front of her. The book was clearly well used, the back binding was damaged, and there was noticeable wear on the covers. Elida opened it up, to find a name on the inside front cover: 'Princess Buttercup'. "Well, Princess, clearly you liked this book, so book, can you show me what you know?". The book gently flicked through its pages, and stopped at a page that had clearly been read many times, and there were even a few notes in the margins.

"Did you just say 'princess'?" asked Lilly.

"Yes, this is Princess Buttercup's book, whoever she was."

"If I remember correctly, she was one of the two princesses that were never found, the one that wasn't the tooth fairy"

"I wonder if she used to do something like play hide-and-seek with her tooth fairy sister, and used this to help find her?"

"Yes, I guess that's quite possible."

"So, I would say that we have all we need from in here: do we just take these books with us?"

"We can take that general one with us, but not these others – there’s too much dangerous stuff in them for them to be out in public." Of course, what Lilly REALLY meant was 'for Flora to see'. "Plus, I think Princess Buttercup's book should stay here too. Use your phone to take pics of the pages we need, and we can print them out upstairs. Then, as you said, we need to go and have a look in the other room....".

Lilly led them both into the 'Dangerous and Dark Magic' room: as they entered, they could feel a sort of 'clamminess' from the dark magic. "So, it should be the same principles to search in here, just be VERY careful how you search, there's some nasty stuff in here: I saw some of it when I was down here the other day with mum!"

Elida carefully ran a search spell, this time searching for 'detecting other fairies, without them knowing', and suddenly one dusty book flew off the shelf, and headed straight towards Elida. Elida put her hand out: "Don't you DARE!" she said very firmly to the book. "Down on the table! And NO messing about, otherwise you're going STRAIGHT back onto your shelf!" she added, pointing at the table. The book gingerly and gently landed on the table.

Lilly was pleasantly surprised: Elida seemed to know exactly how to control these darker books, without needing anything explained to her. And she seemed to be in complete control.

Elida stared at the book, then waved her wand. The book opened itself, and started flicking its pages menacingly. "Behave!" she commanded, "otherwise you know what will happen" she said in a stern voice. "Now, which page do I need to look at?" she said more pleasantly. The book realised that Elida wasn't going to stand for any messing about, and did what it was told, opening at page 53. "Oh, yes, very nice.... come and have a look at this, Lilly!"

Lilly took a look at what was on page 53: yes, it looked like it could be a VERY helpful spell, despite the side-effects it would have on the caster. But the good thing about the spell is that no other fairies could detect it was being cast, which is probably why it had those side-effects.

"I think we need to memorise this one" suggested Elida, "I don't think I'd be comfortable with anyone else knowing it, not even Magic or Sparkle"

"Yes, very fair comment...." replied Lilly. They both spent a few minutes learning the spell, as well as reading some notes on other useful spells that could help, which some helpful historical fairy had written in the margins.

"Thank you very much, book.... now close yourself up, and go back to your shelf... quietly!" said Elida with a lot of authority. The book did exactly as it had been told, without any fuss.

"While we're here, one more please Elida: we could do with something to help Puck... you know, help him calibrate his equipment. I'm guessing if it's old-ish and dark-ish, then pretty much anything will do. Even better if it includes teeth or glue. But something pretty stand-alone".

"Yes, that makes sense. Ok, books, you just heard Lilly, any suggestions?" and she waved her wand. Two books started jiggling on the shelf, then settled back down after a few seconds.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say those books are actually excited!" commented Lilly.

"I think they probably ARE. I mean, how often does anyone come down here, and even just talk to them, let alone search them? Ok, you two, come on down, and let me see what you have for us." They clearly knew that Elida wouldn't accept any nonsense from them, and both came over to the desk, landing beside each other. One was a very plain brown book, the other was a more colourful blue.

"Let's start with you, brown book... what's your suggestion?". The book opened to a page with a spell that allowed you to magic up new teeth, typically to replace old decayed teeth. "Hmm, interesting, not sure how that one works for us....". With that, the blue book started jiggling gently. "Yes, blue book, settle down. Now what do you have for me then?". The blue book opened its pages, and weirdly offered a spell for creating a jawbone. "Ah, right, yes!" exclaimed Elida. "Hey, were you two talking to each other up there on the shelf?" The blue book jiggled excitedly.

"Well, thank you both.... let me just take a picture of you... smile!". Elida used her camera to get pictures of the spells, then told the two books to return to their shelves.

"Thank you all for your help today! Would you like me to come back again?" asked Elida. Lots of the books jiggled on their shelves.

"I must say I'm very impressed, Elida," commented Lilly as they walked out, "you were in complete control there..."

"Yeah, I'm not sure how, but I just seemed to instinctively know what I needed to do" replied Elida with a big smile on her face. "And you know, those books ARE rather cute!" Lilly closed the door to the Dangerous and Dark Magic Library, and they walked back upstairs.

"Find what you were looking for?" asked Lilly's mum as they walked out of the cupboard.

"Yes, I think we did, plus I think Elida had a good feeling for what else is available, should we need it. Umm, Elida, I need a quick word with mum, why don't you.... err, yeah, make us all a coffee".

"Sure thing..." said Elida, understanding that they needed privacy for a few minutes.

"So" said Lilly, "not only is Elida a promising tooth fairy, she was able to search the Dark Archive like she's been doing it all her life. And she didn't allow the books in the 'Dangerous' room to mis-behave either... she kinda reminded me of my old school teacher, Miss Jones! But it's like she actually understands those books: I'm thinking you might like want to use her skills in the future"

"Thanks for the heads up, Lilly. So, how's it going in Runesdale? I'm guessing you are having some braces issues again...."

"Yes, this Dark Fairy is learning quickly. Today we got a 'two for the price of one': a mother and daughter pair, with some not very nice braces on their teeth. Ok, yeah, they are really nice and shiny, with lots of metal, so from a fairy perspective they are ACTUALLY very nice... but you know what I mean! And they are stuck on very well, which is why we came here to see if we can find some new - well, actually very OLD - magic to try out."

"So why did you bring Elida? and not Flora? I mean, Flora knows old magic pretty well"

"Yeah, unfortunately there's a bit of a security issue with Flora, so out of Elida and Faylinn, I've been watching Elida, and I had a feeling she would be a lot better at this - and it turns out she is. I'm not saying Faylinn isn't a capable tooth fairy, far from it, but she's just your normal 'get on and do the job' sort of fairy. Elida is so different - to be honest, I see a lot of me in her, if you know what I mean"

"Yes, I do. I have a feeling I'll want to have a chat with her when this is all over, and I'll probably need your help to do it"

"No problems with that, mum....."

There was a knock on the door: Elida had returned with their coffees. While they sat and drank them, Elida connected her phone to the printer, and printed out the spells they needed, then put them inside the one book they had brought out with them.

"Ok, thanks mum! We need to get back to Runesdale, and remove some braces....."