Chapter 27

Runesdale is a quaint town in middle England, located near a large forest. I'm sorry to say that, with the massive influx of visitors and new residents, all the old residents have left the town. As a result, most of the Gentlemen’s Barbers and Ladies Hairdressers have now gone out of business, and five of the hotels are in the process of closing down....  However, on the bright side, the many Coffee Shops continue to do very good business.

Mike is a reasonably good-looking guy, in his 50's, with a shaved head. He's a teacher at the local secondary school, where the kids seem to get on pretty well with him, whilst at the same time respect him. His teeth were very average, which for someone in England means 'need fixing'. Several months ago, Mike's uncle had died, and left him some money, some of which he decided to use to get his teeth fixed. Last month, Mike went to see the local orthodontist, and got himself some clear aligners. Whilst metal brackets would have saved him a bit of money, he didn't fancy the idea of having such obvious braces for his students to see... thus the clear aligners.

Initially, he'd found the aligners felt a 'bit odd' in his mouth, even giving him a slight lisp, but now, a couple of weeks on, he's finding them be quite comfortable. A few students have spotted that he has clear aligners, but no one has responded negatively, with a couple of the students actually expressing their respect that someone in their 50s was willing to have braces to fix their smile.

Mike lives alone: he never married, but has had three long-term affairs, and has recently started to take an interest in a divorced lady a few years younger than himself. Before Mike went to bed last night - alone - he had removed his aligners, brushed his teeth and aligners, then put them back into his mouth. As school started the next day at just after 8:30, Mike needed to wake up a little after 7am, so that meant he had gone to bed at around 10:30.

Thus, at a little before 5am, Mike was fast asleep, and didn't notice the tiny figure, dressed in black, who entered his room (not that he would have actually seen her anyway, as humans are generally unable to see fairies)

The first thing that our Dark Fairy did was to run a sleep spell: she couldn't risk her victim waking up as she used her magic to give him a set of beautiful braces. Somehow, our Dark Fairy knew that Mike was a teacher, so the thought of giving him braces that his students would see was actually VERY appealing!

With Mike most definitely asleep, she opened his mouth to look at his teeth. AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHH! What were those HORRIBLE things on his teeth? Our Dark Fairy had both read about, and seen patients with, clear aligners, and had decided that they were a disgusting way to get teeth straightened. She was therefore even more enraged than normal: this victim was going to get something a bit more extreme than she had originally planned.

She started by removing his aligners, and threw them onto the bedside table in disgust. Then she moved his teeth around - so easy to do for a tooth fairy. Next, she glued full bands on ALL of his teeth: they all had small 'barbs' on, which would be needed in a moment. In fact, it was worse than that: between his two molars, she fitted an expander, as well as a thick plastic bite plate at the front of his palate. As she added the archwires, she threw several small coil springs onto them. As if that wasn't enough, she added Herbst appliances on both sides.

She paused for a moment, to admire her handiwork. No, there was still something missing. She fitted a couple of screws to his plate - bone anchors - and connected wires to the thick wires of his expanders. Yes, that was better! Next, she used the many 'barbs' on the braces to completely wire his jaws together. So far, so good!

So, headgear or a facemask? Of course, she COULD give him both. No, double facebows today! But fitted and glued-in in such a way to be slightly annoying and uncomfortable, holding his lips slightly apart. She added a high-pull headgear for his upper facebow, and a cervical headgear for the lower one. Again, she looked at him. No, he deserved something 'better'. She removed the simple high-pull and cervical headgears, and magicked up something MUCH nicer for this victim.

Our Dark Fairy sat back and admired her handiwork. Yes, having the facebows hold his lips apart was an excellent idea, as it let everyone see the metal bands on his teeth, with the wires between the top and bottom.

The sleep spell was starting to wear off, and Mike was starting to feel what she had put into his mouth - she guessed he would wake up shortly, so decided that it was time to leave.

Now, like me, I bet you're asking 'but why doesn't she stay to see her victim's reactions when they wake up?'. The answer is actually quite simple: for her first three victims she HAD waited around until they woke up, but for some odd reason she just got no real enjoyment out of watching them. Yes, fitting the braces themselves made her feel REALLY good. Looking at them after was also pretty good too. So, she now took great enjoyment fitting the braces to the teeth she had twisted out of position, then would spend a couple of minutes admiring her handiwork. But when the victim started to stir, she would leave.

Two or three minutes later, Mike started to wake up: something just did NOT feel right. Something in his mouth. And there was something holding his lips uncomfortably apart too. He tried to yawn, but discovered that he was unable to open his mouth. So, he put his hand up to his face, so he could feel what was stopping his mouth from opening, but before his hand got to his mouth, it was stopped by something just in front of his lips.

By now, Mike was starting to panic, so he turned on the bedside light, got out of bed, and went over to the mirror to look at himself. He got quite a shock when he saw himself in the mirror, and his panic level started to rapidly escalate. He vaguely recognised that he had headgear: he had seen a couple of the kids from school in something similar (but away from school, of course), but their headgear looked NOTHING like the headgear HE was currently wearing! And he could see metal on his teeth... a LOT of metal!

Finally, the panic took over.

"Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!" he screamed!

Sparky sent me an advance copy for my collection. Just wait till you get closer to the end. It gets better.

Sparky sent me an advance copy for my collection. Just wait till you get closer to the end. It gets better.

Funnily enough, the "ending" was written quite some time ago (but got tweaked a bit), which made the writing of the earlier parts more fun - as well as easier - because I very much knew where the story was going (let's be honest, most stories that we write have a great starting concept, but we usually struggle to work out an ending!).

So, just before I started writing the story, I was going to take a break, then "Core" came up with the idea of a "Rogue Fairy" story, and he helped choose the braces that our many victims were given.... Maybe I'll get a break after this story?

Chapter 29

The three fairies, Magic, Sparkle and Lilly, are standing at the end of a narrow track, in front of a small brick building (next to an old barn). They are all dressed as young fairies, in nice colourful wispy dresses. Lilly also persuaded them all to wear roller boots today too, for some strange reason (ok, yeah, Lilly 'thinks they are trendy', I guess that's as good a reason as any!). A small stream flows out of the small building, and down into a gully.

"Ok, let's see what's inside...." says Lilly. They roll inside, and find that they are inside a building, a well house for a large spring. On a shelf to the side, they see a set of keys and an old lamp, as well as a bottle (with what looked like water inside - goodness knows how long THAT had been there!) and some rather decayed food.

"Better take the keys, never know when you might need them on a Colossal Adventure like this..." suggested Sparkle. She takes the keys, then they exit the building.

"Where now" asks Sparkle

"Looks like there's only one way to go.... follow the stream" replied Magic. They followed the tiny stream down a gentle slope, where they found the stream disappearing into an old metal grating in the ground. The continuation of the streambed is dry. "Hmm" said Magic taking a look through the grating, "not seeing much in there"

"Ok then" said Lilly, "this way", and she started walking southwards. A bit further on the ground rises up in front of them by about 20 feet (think of a small cliff), but there's a small gap, no more than 18 inches across, going into it, and to the side there's a big strong rusting steel grating set into the concrete, in a wall. From above, you'd be very lucky to see it. There seems to be a keyhole in the grating.

"Well, that explains why we never saw it" commented Sparkle

"Ok, ladies, all indications are that this is the entrance we need. I want you two to stay here for the moment, but be ready to join me at a moment's notice. Here, put these on...". Lilly passed Magic and Sparkle what appeared to be glasses.

"What are they?"

"They will let you see everything that I do, we can talk with our existing devices"

"So, where's yours then?"

"Oh, I got myself a cortical implant.... let's test it...". The girls put the glasses on, and as soon as Lilly waved her hand (we assume to cast the relevant spell) they could see what she saw, and hear what she heard. "Can you hear me ok" said Lilly, without actually saying anything.

"That is weird! How do you do that?" asked Magic

"The cortical implant does audio too... I just need to think it. Hearing you guys loud and clear too, by the way. Try and keep needless chatter down, that way I can leave the channel open, just in case. Make sure you watch and remember where I go, so you can get in quickly when I need you. I don't know how long the modern protection spells will last for"

"Ok. You sure you're going to be ok going in there dressed like that? You really DO look like a school-fairy!". Lilly was, if you remember, dressed like many young fairy girls do, in a wispy pink dress, with pink bows and flowers in her hair. And the pink roller-boots, of course!

"That's the idea. I'm an innocent young fairy, out playing with her friends, but gets separated from them - hey, kinda close to the actual truth! I really don't want her thinking I'm any sort of threat to her. Ok, we all ready? "

"Yeah, let’s do it!" said Magic.

"I'm ready too" added Sparkle. She used the keys to open the grate: the second key she tried fitted, turned perfectly, and allowed Sparkle to open the grating on some hidden hinges. With Magic and Sparkle watching, Lilly flew inside, which was quite dark. She waved her hand, to enable a shining orb, so she could see where she was going. Inside, she could see three walls made of stone blocks. The room was long, covered in mess and cobwebs, and at the far end she could see three doors. Two of them seemed to be locked, but the one to the left was unlocked. To the left of the door was a small discarded wicker cage.

"Ok, ladies, it's the door on the left....". The door lead into a low narrow passageway, which she carefully walked down, getting herself covered in dust and old cobwebs. The further she went along the passageway, the more she could feel herself getting angry. Finally, just before she got to the door at the end of the passageway, she saw a discarded three-foot black rod, with a very rusty star on the end of it: Lilly realised that it was just an old child-fairy's toy, but she still picked it up, and waved it: nothing happened. So, she put it down again, and left it. She went to the door, which was luckily also unlocked. The other side of the door, she found herself at the end of a much larger corridor, that went off into the distance. "I'm gonna get this bitch!" she thought.

"Hey Lilly, relax... I think you're getting closer, and it's starting to affect you! Time for some protection..."

"Thanks....". Lilly waved her hand, and cast a very simple protection spell: she'd probably need to cast a stronger one in a moment, but wanted to be able to feel what was around her, plus she was trying to use as little magic as possible, in case Miss Darkness could sense her. Finally, she found herself in a long corridor. Once again, she called up her wand (she now needed to look as 'normal' as possible, so doing stuff without her wand would not be a good idea) and cast another very simple 'light' spell, a bit brighter than the previous one, so she could see better.

Like the passageway, the much bigger corridor was made of large stone blocks, and it had the feeling of a dungeon, or maybe just some very large cellars, like you'd maybe get underneath a castle... or a Palace.

"Ok, let's see how my training in the Theatrical Society at uni goes...." thought Lilly. "Hello.... Hello.... is anyone here?" she said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. She looked into the third door on the right: it was the first one that was unlocked and open, but she saw nothing, but she still went in: it was a strange passageway, that twisted, and then split. She went left. On the wall there was a sign: 'YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT.'

"You HAVE to be kidding me!" said Lilly. She went around another corner, where there was another sign, that looked almost the same, but actually wasn't quite: 'YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT.' Then around another corner, where there was a third sign, again very similar, but slightly different: 'YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTING LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT.'. She went a bit further: 'YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTY PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT.'... then 'YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT."

"This is getting VERY boring..." thinks Lilly, so the others can hear her.

"Why don't you try the 'xyzzy' spell..." suggested Magic.

"'xyzzy' spell? What on earth is that?" asked Lilly.

"Oh, just do it will you? 2 waves of your wand, and then say 'xyzzy'" said Magic

Lilly grabbed her wand from nowhere, waved it twice, then said "xyzzy". >>Poof<< Instantly she was back in the original long entrance room, with the small discarded wicker cage to the left of a slightly open door.

"Oh, ok, where did you learn THAT one then?" she asked Magic.

"Oh, watching far too many human kids playing silly games on computers...." explained Magic.

"Oh... right. I'm back where I started, let's try this again....". Down the small passageway, past the old 3ft long black rod (with the rusty metal star on the end of it), through the door into the large corridor. Once again, she stood in front of the third door on the right, the one that was open.

"Ok, don't go into THAT door, we now know where it leads - or rather DOESN'T lead!". Lilly continued on down the main corridor. "Hello?" she repeated, walking further along the corridor. The corridor bent to the left, and just around the corner, she saw something. She scanned backwards. "Ok, girls, there's some light coming out of a door... it's the 6th door on the left..." she thought, so Magic and Sparkle knew where she was going.

"Thanks Lilly, we can see where you're going really clearly..." said a voice in her head. Lilly could feel the lightweight protection spell that she had cast was struggling to hold off the anger and pain she was starting to feel, now that she was completely in what appeared to be remains of the old fairy castle, so she cast a stronger one. A slightly older one, but hopefully still recent enough that it would be less likely to be detected.

She went through that 6th door, and could see a small light at the far end of the room. Next to the glow there was an old tankard, probably containing something to drink.

"Hello," repeated Lilly, meekly, "is there anyone here?"

Chapter 30


"Hello," repeated Lilly, meekly, "is there anyone here?"

"Who the hell are you?" came a rough voice from the shadows.

"I'm Lilly...." she said, trying to sound young and a little scared. "I.... I.... I think I'm a bit.... lost!"

"Come closer" commanded the voice. Lilly walked towards the shadows, where the voice was coming from. Whilst she was pretending to be a scared young girl, Lilly was getting herself more fully prepared. She was pulling several spells into her mind, and into her fingers, so she could use them, if needed, at a moment's notice.

"You are a pretty young girl... I assume you're a fairy?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am", and she moved her shoulders a little, to release her wings a little, letting the other 'person' - who she assumed was the dark tooth fairy - see. Finally, the Dark Fairy walked out of the shadows, into the less dark part of the room - lit by both the light in the room, and the glow from Lilly's wand. She looked to be a little taller than Lilly (Lilly was a little shorter than average, which helped with her 'disguise'), and looked very beautiful, with long flowing dark hair. Unlike most fairies, her clothes were very revealing, with a short black top accentuating her large breasts, and a short black skirt showing off her rather nice legs. She had knee-length black boots on, and her fingernails were, of course, also painted black. As she walked towards Lilly, she unfurled her lovely dark black wings, clearly trying to intimidate Lilly, and looked at Lilly.

"What on EARTH are those things on your feet? I mean, the pink looks quite cute, but what ARE they?"

"Oh, they're my roller boots! Don't you think they are cool?" replied Lilly with a smile, skating a little across the floor to demonstrate them.

"Hey, nice.... I don't suppose you can magic up a pair for me, can you?... in BLACK, of course!" said the dark tooth fairy with a smile. A smile that, of course, revealed a beautifully perfect set of teeth.

"I guess I could, if I could actually magic them. My mum did these for me...."

"Ah, right, ok. You know, you have a nice smile..."

"Thank you!" replied Lilly, smiling.

"But there's something missing...". Remembering what the dark fairy had been up to recently, Lilly guessed that she was probably going to cast a spell to give her some sort of braces, so temporarily ran her own spell to reduce the protection around her head, and thus allow the spell to work properly. Of course, she was able to do that without moving even a finger. The dark tooth fairy produced her wand, waved it, and Lilly could suddenly feel something in her mouth. Braces. Quite a bit of them... Lilly let her tongue run around her mouth, feeling them. Luckily, they seemed to be nothing more than ordinary metal brackets. Oh, and a Herbst. Oh crap, she suddenly realised she also had two facebows and an Interlandi headgear to go with it! The good news was that there wasn't anything in her mouth, that would affect her speech.

"What just happened Lilly? We kinda felt something" asked Magic

"I just got braces - quite a bit of braces" replied Lilly in thought.

"Don't let her distract you!" said Sparkle, "keep focussed". She was right, she had slightly distracted her. Concentrate!

"You like what you feel?" asked the dark tooth fairy.

"They feel strange, but.... kinda nice!" replied Lilly, being quite truthful. Remembering that she was supposed to be a young girl, she put her hand up to feel the headgear, and as she did so, she got some strangely nice feelings! "So, who are you? I mean, the only person I know that can give us fairies braces is Santa".

"My name is Sebille, Princess Sebille, I'm a tooth fairy" she replied in the sort of voice we might expect of a dark and evil fairy.

"Ok, girls, the target IS confirmed! But don't do anything yet!" thought Lilly. "You're a princess? It's an honour, your majesty... your highness... what should I call you?" said Lilly out loud. Yes, those acting lessons were indeed coming in useful!

"You can call me 'Princess'! That's with a CAPITAL 'P'!" she replied. "So how did you get here?" asked the princess. [Sorry, that should be 'Princess'... with a CAPITAL 'P']. Lilly had been working on an answer to this, she had been waiting for the question to be asked.

"Well, Princess, I was playing hide and seek with a couple of friends, near that big old barn, and I followed the stream from the small brick building behind it. Then I tripped, and found myself in front of a large metal sort-of gate that was slightly open..." lied Lilly as convincingly as she could.

"Damn" replied the dark princess, "I must have forgotten to close it after me!". The Princess started coming closer to Lilly, and as she did, Lilly could feel the darkness, the anger and the pain emanating from her. She needed to activate an even stronger protection spell, to help keep her mind clear. It was a risk, as it was older magic, something she had found in the Dark Archive, but she could feel she needed its extra protection. Her middle finger of her right had twitched as she ran the spell.

The Princess stopped in her tracks. "I just sensed magic.... and it wasn't me!" she said. "What did you just do?" shouted the Princess.

"I didn't do anything" said Lilly, who was lining up a several more very strong spells, which she sensed she would need fairly soon.

"You're lying to me!" screamed the Princess at Lilly. Wow, that girl definitely has an anger management issue! She lifted her black wand, and threw some sort of spell at Lilly, that knocked her backwards. Lilly was, of course, prepared for this, and managed to unleash four of her own spells: two to give herself protection against what she thought the Princess' attack might be, and two other attack spells. Luckily, the princess wasn't expecting such strong spells, and staggered backwards from them, and that gave Lilly time to load up 4 more spells she had lined up.

The Princess came back at Lilly quickly, throwing a couple of lightning bolts, which Lilly managed to dodge, retaliating with a couple of buckets worth of ice-cold water, which hit their target nicely. The princess shook her face, getting rid of the water, and cast a 'get dry quickly' sort of spell on herself, so Lilly followed it with a sneezing spell!

The Princess quickly recovered from that one, and threw an elevation spell at Lilly, which Lilly wasn't really expecting, and followed it with another spell that pushed her backwards: Lilly was now pinned against the wall, a foot or so above the ground. The dark Fairy came over, and put her hand to Lilly's throat, starting to choke her.

"Oh, sh*t!" thought Lilly, "Guys, you need to get down here, fast!"

"Ok, on our way! Tats just got here too!"

"Oh, good, tell her to prepare a spell to seal this room.... and tell her it's a pretty big room....". Magic passed on the message, and Tats started to prepare a suitable spell (so she would be ready to cast it at a moment's notice) as they all started on their way to join Lilly.

Tats, Sparkle and Magic had cast their protection spells on each other, then went through the door on the left, along the small passageway, and out into the corridor, in the castle cellars. As they got to the corridor, they could feel the darkness, anger and pain getting stronger around them.

"Quick, let's get moving..." said Sparkle, sprinting down the corridor. They sensibly ignored the third door on the right and headed towards that 6th door.

Inside the room, Lilly was struggling against the Dark Princess, but the Dark Fairy seemed to have the upper hand right now. Lilly tried to unleash one of the other spells she had loaded, but it missed its target.

The three other fairies entered the room a few moments later: Magic and Sparkle launched two simultaneous attack spells on the Dark Fairy, which were enough that she let go of Lilly, who fell the short distance to the ground. Tats then let off a couple of spells against the Dark Fairy (one of which involved a load of nasty snakes), all of which gave Lilly time to catch her breath, and load up a couple more strong spells she had ready. As she approached the Princess, not only was the Princess starting to get up again, Lilly was starting to feel the anger and darkness coming through strongly, and she launched off the two aggressive bits of magic, then started loading some more. In return the Princess threw a few fireballs at Lilly, which she also managed to duck and avoid. That in turn gave Lilly an idea: she launched a 'wall of fire' above the princess, forcing her back onto the ground. The other 3 fairies held back for the moment - it was clear that Lilly was in control once more, albeit in a slightly 'uncontrolled' way!

"Stay down, will you, you bitch!" said Lilly, loading up and launching one of her two really strong spells: it lifted the princess up off her feet, and flung her against the wall: it was clear that the anger and darkness was getting to Lilly, but it seemed Lilly was actually using that to her advantage.

The princess started to get up again. "Who the hell ARE you? Certainly no innocent young fairy!".

"No, I'm probably your worst nightmare right now" screamed Lilly, releasing her final spell, another one that she had found down in the Dark Archive, amongst the very dark magic books. Chains with manacles on them appeared in the air above the princess: the manacles magically attached to her wrists and ankles, with the chains magically attaching themselves to the wall. Luckily not only did the manacles seem to hold the princess, they also had the very useful side-effect of stopping her magic. Lilly took a couple of deep breaths. The Princess had managed to stand up, and started shouting something pretty nasty (and thus not something I can repeat here) at Lilly. Using her anger, Lilly walked forwards and slapped Princess Sebille hard across her face. "Just shut up will you!!! And SIT DOWN!" she shouted, pushing the princess back onto the floor. By now, I think the princess realised that she no longer had access to her magic powers to be able to retaliate with. And boy, did Lilly know how to slap a girl's face hard! So, she did as she was told, she shut up, and sat down.

"Quick, protection spells on Lilly,” said Magic. With wands in hands, Magic and Sparkle started to aim the strong protection spells - the ones they had learned from the books in the Dark Archive - at Lilly. Lilly quickly calmed down.

"Thanks girls, timed to perfection! And Tats, glad you could make it! Ok, Tats, can you go close the door and cast that encapsulation spell, and make sure to use a well encrypted password!" With the door closed, Tats concentrated hard, and cast a spell, which resulted in all the walls starting to glow.

"That should hold up for a while!" said Tats. Lilly turned so that the Princess (Sebille that is!) could also hear her: "And just so our guest over here understands: that spell is encapsulating this room, no one gets in or out until she drops the spell. And the spell is secured with an encrypted password, which only she knows, so DON'T TRY ANYTHING!!!".

With the room secure, Lilly relaxed a little, walked over to the table, and picked up a piece of paper, and started to read it. Magic, Sparkle and Tats joined her.

"Holy crap, I'm feeling a LOT of anger,” said Magic

"Yeah, me too,” said Sparkle. "I'm not sure how long our protection spells will hold up"

Lilly put the paper down, and turned to them. "Take my hands...." she said, and cast a much stronger protection spell on all four of them, a spell that she knew that neither Magic or Sparkle, and probably not even Tats would have managed to cast. It had also come from the Dark Archive, of course.

Next Lilly wandered over to where the Princess had been when she entered. With there being a bit more light she could see a makeshift bed, along with a bookshelf, which contained several books. Lilly picked up a couple of the books, and took a look: they were a very old spell books. "Hmm, these would explain a lot, and should make interesting reading.". She took the books over to the table, where she put them down, next to the piece of paper she had been reading. She picked up the piece of paper again, which explained what had happened to Princess Sebille.

"Ok, ladies, come and meet our dark tooth fairy.". They all walked over to the princess, who was sat on the floor: she was being quiet, but was clearly still full of anger and hatred.

"Ladies, according to this piece of paper, this is indeed Her Royal Highness, Princess Sebille. It appears that her loyal servants sacrificed themselves to put the Princess into a sort of magical coma or sleep, hoping that she would soon be found. As we now know, she wasn't.... so, she stayed like that for almost a hundred human years, absorbing all the anger and hatred of humans from this devastated Palace. Until she woke up recently, that is...."

Lilly now turned to the Princess. "Princess, my name is Lilly, and these are my two friends Magic and Sparkle. And this, funnily enough, is another princess, Princess Tatiana, or Tats as she prefers to be called. Now look, Princess, this place has built up one hell of a lot of anger and bitterness in you. But underneath all that anger, I think you're most probably a really nice person, so we're going to try and help you. I'll need you to be calm for a few moments, so we can cast a very strong spell on you, which should take away a lot of those dark feelings that you have. But first, I need to do something...."

"Mirror" commanded Lilly. Needless to say, a mirror instantly appeared in her hand. "More light!". A large ball of light appeared in front of, and just above, Lilly. Lilly looked into the mirror and smiled widely. "Tell you what, Princess, I *do* like what you did with these braces!". Lilly's teeth were covered in large shiny metal brackets, top and bottom. Between all the brackets were a pair of thicker-than-normal archwires, all held in place with pretty pink ligatures. At the sides of her mouth were the bars of a herbst appliance, and in front of the brackets were two shiny facebows.

"Yeah, they do look pretty cool" said Magic, who was by now looking at Lilly's mouth, and smiling widely.

"Hey, Lilly, welcome to the 'fairies in braces club'!" added Sparkle.

As she spoke, Lilly undid the Interlandi headgear, and tried to remove the two facebows, but couldn't.

"Oh, you bitch, they're wired in!" exclaimed Lilly. "Ok, we'll try and sort that out in a moment".

"So, what do we need to do with the Princess then?" asked Sparkle

"We need to sort out her anger issues, like we talked about. Sparkle, you take her left hand, Magic, take her right."

"Anything I can help with?" asked Tats

"No, I doubt you know this spell, it's another one I found in the Dark Archive"

"Dark Archive?"

"Tell you later.... Ok, calm down, Princess, this is for your own good!" Lilly held the girls’ other hands. Her wand appeared in front of them all, seemingly not actually needing a hand to hold it.

"I thought you didn't need a wand?" said Magic

"For a lot of my magic I don't, but some spells, especially old ones, still seem to work a lot better with the help of a wand. Ok, here we go, say the words with me...". Clearly it was a very strong spell, as it created lots of sparks, a few bangs, and a load of smoke.

"How you feeling there, your highness?" asked Lilly after the smoke had cleared.

"I feel amazingly calm" she replied. "All that anger I had is... well, it seems to be dissipating. Thank you!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Ok, well, we're not leaving here till I'm at least 100% happy you're not going to be a threat to anyone. That spell I just cast to hold off the darkness and anger should last about half an hour, which should give us all time to have a nice chat. Oh, and get you to remove this stuff!" she said, indicating the headgear. "So, just to remind you, there's no way you can get out of this room unless Tats allows it. Plus, you already know what strong magic I have available to me: I should make it very clear that I won't hesitate to use it again if I need to! It's still loaded up inside me, and ready for me to cast!". She took a deep breath. "So, if I take these chains off you, are you going to be nice, and behave yourself?"

"I'll try to! I really will!".

"Tats, maybe you could keep a couple of spells ready, just in case?" asked Lilly

"No problems with that!" replied Tats, who had tactically positioned herself slightly away from the others.

Lilly concentrated, and cast the spell to release the manacles. "How does that feel?" she asked.

"I feel pretty good"

"That's great. Now, no magic unless I say so... understood?"

"Yes, I understand..."

Chapter 32


"Ok, ladies, I think we're finally ready to leave. Tats, would you care to 'unlock' the room please? - I hope you remember the password you used!" asked Lilly, who finally felt that Sebby was now in a safe state to take her out of the angry ruined castle. They all walked together along the corridor, and to the door where they had come in. They were soon outside, and without all the darkness and anger around them, they all felt a lot better. Lilly looked around, and could see some of her colleagues nearby, and the Royal Carriage behind them.

"Give us a few minutes, we have a couple of bits we still need to do!" she said to them all. She turned to Magic, Sparkle, Tats and Sebby. "Ok, I'm going to remove all the protection spells from us, they'll wear off soon anyway, and I'd rather it happened in a more controlled way". Lilly used her wand, and removed the spells, such that the only bit of magic remaining were the manacles on Sebby's wrists.

"By the way, Tats, really great to see you again, and thanks for coming along today. Ok, Sebby, take a few breaths of the lovely fresh air... how you feeling?"

"I can feel some of those old dark feelings starting to come back a bit"

"Ok, hold on a moment." Lilly turned, and called to the group of people: "Mum, do you have that spell book I asked you to get?". Lilly's mum walked over, holding a large old book. She was trying VERY hard to supress a smile as she looked at Lilly in her double headgear and Interlandi.

"Mum, this is Sebby, or maybe I should call her Princess Sebille. Sebby, this is my mum!"

"Hi, Lilly's mum!"

"Nice to meet you, your highness! I'm guessing Lilly has managed to calm your previous anger?"

"Yes, I feel a lot calmer, thank you. You have an amazing daughter you know - she can control a lot of powerful magic, but I can see that she has a lot of compassion too, to balance it! You have brought her up well!".

Lilly's mum smiled, enjoying the compliment. "Here's that book you asked me to bring from the Dark Archive" she said, passing it to Lilly, still trying very hard to suppress a huge smile.

"Oh, wow, that's one of my old spell books!" said Sebby

"In that case, you'll probably recognise the spell..." said Lilly, casting an old 'dissipation' spell onto Sebby. "That should help those feelings go away for a while. And things should also get better the further away you are from here. Now, are you ready to meet everyone?". Sebby nodded. What about you guys, you ready to meet our queen?" Lilly asked Magic and Sparkle.

"We're coming over...." said Lilly, so that John's team could hear. They walked towards the small crowd, where Lilly had a quick word with John, then led the rest of the fairies over to the Royal Carriage.

"Your Royal Highness, it's a pleasure to meet you once again!" said Lilly - as she was in public, she needed to be formal. "Can I introduce my friends Magic and Sparkle. And this is your great-great- and lots more greats-aunt, Princess Sebille - and don't worry, she's feeling pretty calm now". Clearly Lilly didn't need to introduce Tats!

"Thank you, Lilly!" said the Fairy Queen. She paused, first of all looking at the double headgear Lilly had sticking from her lips, and then looking down at Lilly's feet. "Um, excuse me for asking, Lilly, but what ARE those strange things on your feet?". Lilly realised that whilst she had organised a change of clothes for Sebby, she was still wearing her pink outfit, with the matching pink roller-skates. She was very grateful that the queen hadn't mentioned her headgear, as she was currently feeling rather embarrassed by it.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I guess I should have changed. They are 'Roller-Skates', and they are all the rage at university right now!" 

"Hmmm, you know, they suit you!" said the queen, with a big smile on her face. The queen then turned to Sebby. "And it's such a pleasure to meet you, Aunt Sebille!".

Suddenly Sparkle started laughing, and everyone turned and looked at her. "I'm sorry, your majesty, but Sebby... I mean Princess Sebille... well, she looks like she's young enough to be your granddaughter, but you're calling her 'aunt'! I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, you're quite right, it DOES feel odd." The Queen turned to Princess Sebille. "My darling, what would you like me to call you?"

"Sebby would be just fine, thanks!"

"Ok, in that case, maybe Sebby can come back to the palace with Princess Tatiana and me, in the Royal Carriage"

"Of course she can, your majesty, but she does need to keep the magic restraints on for the time being..." explained Lilly.

"I'm sorry, Grandma, but you're going to have to return without me for the moment: I need to stay here and talk to the old palace. You need to be here too, Lilly...,” said Tats.

"In that case, I'll organise a suitable escort for you, your Majesty....".

"I'll join you real soon, grandma!" said Tats

As they walked away from the queen a few moments later, Lilly turned to Tats. "What do you mean, you need to 'talk to the old Palace'?"

"You probably don't realise, but like my mum, I'm a Castle and Palace fairy. Have you any idea how much magic goes into a Royal Palace? It makes the place alive, and have a personality. I regularly talk to the current Palace - sort of stops things going wrong quite so much - she's really nice. But I hate to think how the old Palace feels: he or she has had no one to talk to for a LONG time. If we leave her - or him - as they are, they're going to stay very dark and angry - so I need to explain the reality of what happened"

"Ok... so how do we do that then?"

"All four of us need to go back in again, and talk to the palace. And probably sooner rather than later"

"Ok, I'll put protection spells on us again..."

"No, no protection spells this time. I think we'll all manage for a short while without one: the Palace needs to see us 'naked', so to speak"

"You sure about this?"

"Absolutely, I had a long chat with the current Palace about it earlier, that's why I was late getting here"

"Ok... let’s get it done then! Magic, Sparkle...."

"Yes, Lilly?"

"We're all going back inside again, Tats needs to talk to the old Palace"

"Uh?"

"I'll explain as we walk. But we won't have protection spells, so try and stay relaxed...,” said Tats. Before they went in, Lilly went and had a word with John (he's the guy she talked to earlier) to bring him up to date about Princess Sebille, and explain what they were doing.

The four ladies went into the old Palace once again. At least this time they knew what to expect, so were able to be a bit more relaxed, and the darkness and anger didn't seem to affect them quite as much. They sat down in the middle of the room where they had been earlier.

"Ok, now just relax. The Palace can't actually do much to us, just affect how we feel, so we're pretty safe.... 'Hello Palace, are you there?'" said Tats

"Hello" said a voice that seemed to be everywhere, yet nowhere. The voice was a male voice.

"Hi, I'm guessing you're the palace?"

"Yes, I am, and who are YOU?"

"My name is Princess Tatiana, I'm a Castle and Palace fairy. I live at the new Royal Palace, and talk to her quite a lot. Our new Palace sends her love by the way! Oh, and these are my friends, Lilly and Magic and Sparkle. We come here without any magic to talk to you"

"So, what brings you here? I know you were here earlier..."

"Yes, we were, to rescue Princess Sebille. You'll be happy to hear that she's feeling a lot better now. But now we'd like to talk to you: it must be a long long time since anyone has spoken with you..."

"It is....

"So, I'd like to explain why you don't need to be angry any more...."

"But I have every right to be angry! The humans destroyed most of me, and almost all of fairy-kind with it! I need to exact revenge on the humans..."

"Yeah, a big misunderstanding there...."

"Misunderstanding?"

"Yeah... let me try and explain.... Short version: it seems it was a big BIG accident. The humans actually had no idea the Palace was here. Two brothers just needed some more space to grow crops and build some buildings, and without realising it, destroyed most of this place. And the elven place next door too. The good news is that most of the fairies managed to escape, including the Queen and King, and two of their daughters. However, one of their daughters, Princess Sebille, was trapped here. That was a long long time ago, and we now have a new Queen and King, and a lovely new Palace too"

"Oh...." replied the palace

"So, you really DON'T need to be angry" explained Tats

"Oh...." replied the palace once more. The four of them sensed a reduction in the darkness and anger that surrounded them

"It must have been VERY lonely for you here, with no one talking to you"

"Yes, it has been. I used to speak regularly with Princess Katie"

"Princess Katie?" asked Tats. She had been genning up on the history of the royal family, but the name wasn't familiar.

"She was the queen's niece..."

"Ah, ok."

"But how do I know I can trust you? I mean, you sort of feel like you're a princess, but how can I be sure you're not lying to me?"

"Yes, good point. Very good point". Tats thought for a moment. "Ok, how about a bit of quid pro quo: if I can get my grandmother, the current Queen, to come and visit you, can you be nicely relaxed when she's here? Please?"

"I would like that.... very much. And yes, I'll try and withhold my anger. So, tell me, I sense that I was very badly damaged... is there any hope of repair?"

"I'm afraid that the destruction of the palace building was almost complete, there's but a tiny part of your cellars remaining. So sorry, but there's no chance of repair. I really am so sorry"

"That's ok, it's not your fault."

"Is there anything else I can do to help you?"

"I would really like to talk to you some more, it's been rather lonely here..."

"Well, I think we need to go for now, but I DO promise I'll come back again tomorrow, and I'll do my absolute best to get our current Queen to come and visit you too, and reassure you that all is ok."

"Thank you... Thank you so much..."

They left the old Palace ruins, locking the gate as they left. Lilly spoke with the commander of the FAS: she needed them to guard the entrance to the Palace cellars: no-one in or out without either her or Tat's specific permission. She also placed a very strong locking spell on the entrance.

After leaving the old Palace ruins, all four of them ended up going to the Palace, where they all met with the Queen, and Sebby (who was out of her restraints, and feeling very much more normal). Tats explained what had happened earlier.

"In that case, it's my duty to go and visit,” said the Queen. "I'll leave you to organise the details"

Chapter 34 - Epilogue

Elida was at her desk, just finishing off a report of a case that she and Flora had done together that morning. Since finishing off their work at Runesdale the other day, she had been paired up with Flora, and they had been doing some tooth fairy stuff together. It was a bit of a strange pairing, one quite old fairy, and another very young fairy, but they got on amazingly well, with both respecting each other’s skills and abilities.

"Hi, Elida!" said a voice to her left. Elida turned to find it was Lilly.

"Hey, Lilly, nice to see you again!"

"Can I have a chat with you"

"Sure, why don't you grab that seat from over there..."

"No, not here, in private"

"Oh, ok... give me a moment so I can save what I'm doing...". Elida finished what she was doing.

"Come on, let's grab a coffee on the way" suggested Lilly. After grabbing a coffee, Lilly led Elida to her mum's office, where Lilly's mum was, along with someone that Elida didn't recognise.

"Say hello to Sebby.... you'll know her better as 'The Dark Fairy'". Elida wasn't too sure how to respond to her: whilst she had heard about how Lilly and the others had brought her out from the old Palace, the last she had been involved with her was when casting a 'find fairies' spell from quite a height, and then removing that last set of quite excessive braces. Very nice braces though!

Lilly could sense Elida's 'unease'. "Don't worry, she doesn't bite. And she's not at all 'dark' any more." Elida relaxed a bit.

"Hello there, Elida,” said Sebby. "Lilly has been telling me about you: it seems you are quite a capable young fairy!". Sebby's voice was quite pleasant, and not at all threatening.

"Hi Sebby... nice to meet you!" said Elida, "All those braces you fitted were quite something, not at all easy to remove!"

"Yes, sorry about that... I was in a bit of a 'dark place' at the time, but I'm feeling so much better now." explained Sebby.

"So, I'm guessing you're maybe wondering why you're here?" said Lilly.

"Ummm, yes...." replied Elida

"So, when I first met you last week, I just assumed you were like many other young and inexperienced fairies, but I very quickly discovered I was completely wrong. Let's start with you combining spells to remove the braces... that's pretty advanced stuff,” said Lilly.

"Is it? It just seemed like an obvious thing to do to me...." replied Elida.

"Oh, ok. So, then you came with me to the Dark Archive: when mum and I went down there, we struggled to find stuff, whereas you just made things happen"

"Well, once you'd shown me the searching spells, the rest just seemed... well, obvious"

"Then you started using the Dark Magic, first of all with Puck, then you and I tried out the 'search for a fairy' spell, and you had absolutely no issues.... and I'm guessing your answer is going to include the word 'obvious' in it..."

Elida smiled. "Obviously!"

"Finally, you worked with Puck after the kit had 'blown up', and suggested what to do to make it work a heck of a lot faster, and we're talking some high-tech stuff that you'd never seen before,” said Lilly.

"Yeah, that was fun to do.... and yes, it all just seemed so obvious" replied Elida.

"I'm intrigued, what is it that makes it all so obvious?"

Elida thought for a moment. "I'm trying to imagine what a painter sees when they look at a new canvas: in their mind, they can see the picture they want to paint. But it's more than that, they can see that the picture will be made up of layers, one colour on top of another. Along the way, it will look strange to anyone else, but the painter knows exactly where the painting is going. Finally, when they add the last bit of paint, the end result becomes obvious. And that's kinda how I see magic."

"So, when I asked a couple of the team last week, they both said exactly the same thing, that you seem to 'understand' magic..."

"Yeah, I think that's probably a good description" said Elida with a smile.

"Lilly" said Sebby, "can I set Elida a simple task to do? I'd like to see her in action."

"Sure, if Elida's up for it"

"Yes... go on then,” said Elida.

"Well, as I understand it, there are magic controls set up in this building that stop people from doing magic"

"Yes" said Lilly, "Except in certain designated places... but here isn't one of them"

"Elida, can you think of a way around that? Can you do some sort of simple and small magic, in here? Somehow work out a way AROUND the restrictions. I'm guessing it's going to need an interesting combination of spells. Take a moment to think about it, I'm just interested to see how your mind works...."

Elida sat there, thinking. Yes, quite a challenge, but over the last week or so, she had discovered that she actually seemed to thrive on a challenge. She remembered a couple of dark spells that she'd read, they were below some of the braces-related spells she had taken pictures of last week, she was sure she had seen something that might let her 'get around' the magic restrictions. She pulled out her phone, and looked at them. This was FUN! She repeated one of the spells, and a small sort-of shimmering area, a little bigger that the size of a grapefruit, but with a few bits of sparking and 'popping', appeared in front of her. Well, that was a pleasant surprise. Next, she used the spell she had used with Puck, to create a part of a jawbone and some teeth, all of which appeared inside the shimmering 'ball'. Then she added some full-bands and some brackets, followed by an archwire, and metal wire ligatures. Keeping the whole lot there took a LOT of effort and concentration, but she had DONE it!

When Elida looked up, she could see that everyone was staring in amazement at what she was doing, which actually distracted her enough that it all disappeared.

"VERY impressive, Elida!" said Lilly, "I'm assuming that it was all real, and not just an illusion, although, to be honest, that doesn't REALLY matter."

"I believe it was real. I was able to create a small 'bubble' that ignored the magic dampening spells in here, then did some magic inside it" explained Elida.

"So, another question for you, Elida... why ARE you a tooth fairy?"

"Well, my mum was a tooth fairy, like her mum was, and it seemed like a good idea to follow her"

"And something tells me that you quite enjoy the braces side of being a tooth fairy, don't you? Don't worry, it's ABSOLUTELY ok to say yes to that!"

"I do actually..."

"I thought so. You still have all the braces from last week, don't you? And again, THAT is ok too!". Once again Elida blushed: yes, she DID have all of the braces, they were so pretty and shiny.... "So, another question: do you think that, especially after all that happened last week, that being a tooth and braces fairy is going to be enough for you?"

"Well.... ummm.... I feel that I could do so much more than just deal with teeth and braces...."

"Would you LIKE to do more?"

"Yes.... definitely"

"I'm glad you said that, because we've been chatting, and we have a few ideas we'd like to suggest to you. Mum, you do the first bit..."

"Lilly and others have commented on your abilities working with the books down in the Dark Archive, saying that you seemed to have a certain 'empathy' for the books....". Elida smiled. The boss was quite right, she did seem to know - without even needing to try - how to work with the books. "... so, I was hoping you might like to be our first librarian for the Dark Archive. As such, you would be helping anyone else who needs to find anything down there. Plus, there's a load of books down there that need to be catalogued, so we can search them."

"But, of course, you won't be able to tell anyone else what you are doing" added Lilly. "Are you going to be able to do that?"

Elida took a big breath: she was being offered something that was a big step for her, with a LOT of trust, but she knew it would be very interesting. "Yes, I can!" she said very positively.

"In that case, I have your first customer.... Sebby...."

"Yes... well, I believe you know a little about my history" started Sebby, "I was trapped in the Royal Palace for many years after it was destroyed, and it has been decided that I should tell everyone the truth of what happened. To be honest, *I* want to understand what happened too. And Lilly tells me there's several books down in the Dark Archive that should help me"

"It would be my pleasure,” said Elida.

"At the same time" continued Sebby, "I would like you to help me find some magic that might allow me, or you for that matter, to remove Lilly's braces. And maybe to let us give other fairies braces, but without needing to get quite so angry!"

"There is, however, one rule for the Archive" said the boss. "You must NEVER be there alone! Mostly, it is for your own safety, some of those books are quite dark...."

"Yes, I fully understand that. It won't be a problem" replied Elida.

"There is another reason," added Lilly, "one that I wouldn't normally tell anyone, but I think you need to know: we can NOT risk any one fairy assimilating all the knowledge that is down in the Dark Archive. We have seen what happens when a relatively normal fairy turns dark - sorry Sebby! - but if someone with your potential abilities were to turn dark... So, no mass-reading for the sake of it."

Elida took another deep breath. "Yes, I see what you mean. I will try very hard to be very careful..."

"Thank you, Elida." said the boss. "So, the next thing: how are you getting on with Flora?"

"It's odd, but we get on really well, she seems very relaxed with me, and I'm absolutely fine with her"

"Good, because, for the moment, I'd like you to continue working with her" said Lilly's mum.

"You may remember last week, before I brought you here to the archive," said Lilly, "that I mentioned that I couldn't bring Flora here. If you are working with her, I need to explain a tiny bit more: last summer, her daughter was involved in something she should not have been, sufficiently so that she is currently 'being detained at her majesty's pleasure'. Whilst we don't THINK Flora was involved, we aren't 100% sure, and so we don't want to take ANY chances. So, please, don't let Flora have any hints about what you are up to, outside of being a young capable tooth fairy".

"Ok... I understand" replied Elida

"I think you'll enjoy working with Sebby down in the Dark Archive, but something tells me that even THAT won't be enough to keep your active brain happy in the longer term. So, I'm not quite sure how we're going to do it as you are so young, and it may take a bit to make it happen, but we'd like you to consider joining us at FI5 on a part-time basis... think of it as being some sort of 'apprenticeship'" explained Lilly, "something to help you develop your abilities more completely. Interested?"

Elida had a huge smile on her face: she had NOT imagined all this happening today. "Yes please!!!" she said.

"And there's one last thing....". Lilly took a piece of paper out of her pocket, and passed it over to Elida. "We persuaded Puck that he needed to write you a note..."

Elida unfolded the paper to read the note:

"Dear Elida,

please can I take you out for a drink tonight, or maybe even dinner?

Puck"


===== THE END =====

(of this story....)

Sparky and I have accounts on DeviantArt where we have posted some of our stories. You can read my story by searching for 'The Cam-Show' and selecting 'most recent'.