Lily Wong Ch. 33

 

Chapter 33

A Horrible Place

Julius Bluestone flew out of his chair and yelled out in horror. "NO!"

He had been watching Lily through a big crystal ball in his office right up until she disappeared in a flash of blue light.

The parrot who had been watching everything unfold from the school director's shoulder squawked, "What happened? Why did she vanish? Where did she go?"

"I don't know!" cried Bluestone.

"Well, find her!"

Bluestone snapped, "I'm trying! But I can't find her anywhere. She must have been taken somewhere I can't see."

"That's impossible!" said the parrot. "There should be nowhere in this school you cannot see. Unless . . ."

"No, I'm certain she is still somewhere in the school at least," said Bluestone. "Blast it all! There must still be areas of the property I haven't gotten under my control!"

"An area not under your control!?" The parrot squawked in dismay. "Anywhere of the Bluestone family not under your control is about as safe as a cave full of starving bears! Such a place is sure to have lots of curses and other magical defenses against intruders. And if there is one thing the Bluestone family was not known for, it is being merciful to intruders. She's lost in a literal death trap!"

*********

Lily stared ahead and blinked. Around her were walls of rough, dark stone illuminated by torch fire. But even with the crackling flames, the air chilled Lily to the bone and made her shiver. And whether she looked left and right, there was just endless darkness ahead.

"Where is this?" she wondered aloud. "How'd I get here?"

She remembered running away from her uncle and then everything got covered in bright, blue light. Next thing she knew, she was in a hallway straight out of a movie about Medieval Europe.

After taking in her surroundings, she pressed her back against the wall, sank down to the floor and let out a long sigh.

"Worst. Halloween. Ever!" she grumbled to herself while looking aimlessly up at the ceiling. First, she gets turned into a baby. And then she finds out her uncle had been working for the enemy, helping the Schemer with his cruel, evil escapades. Now, she's lost in some random hallway with major creep vibes worse than an empty school hallway covered in fake spiderwebs. She didn't even have any idea how she got here in the first place. "Well, at least I got away from Uncle Viceroy."

After a brief rest, she stood back up and stretched a little. She was reluctant to go back, but she didn't want to worry the others more than they probably already were.

Lily rolled back her sleeve. Even if she didn't know where she was, she could just use the magic of the bracelet to get out of here. 

"Alright, bracelet. Take me home."

Light flashed from the bracelet's jewels and then a piece of paper popped out. Lily snatched it out of the air to read, "Impossible. Magical defenses detected. Cannot break through."

"So I'm trapped here!?" Lily cried in dismay. She took a few deep breaths. "Don't panic, Lily. So what if you can't beam yourself home? That just means you have to find the way out the old-fashioned way. But . . ."

She looked left and right again.

"Which way do I go? I don't suppose you can tell me, bracelet?"

Light flashed from the bracelet again, and another piece of paper popped out, which read, "Locator spells cannot be used."

Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. "Of course. I guess I got no choice except to just pick a side and hope for the best."

But just as she was about to start walking - 

"AH HAHAHAHAHA!"

A cackling laugh suddenly filled the hallway and startled Lily out of her skin. 

She whirled around and shouted, "Who's there?" But she did not get an answer back. The hallway was once more dead silent. She really didn't like that one bit. "Hello?"

Still nothing.

"Ugh!" she groaned. "As if things weren't bad enough! This can't possibly get any worse."

And then all the lights went out and Lily was plunged into complete darkness. A word left her lips that ought never be written in a book for children.

Clunk-jingle, clunk-jangle, clunk-jingle, clunk-jangle, clunk-jingle . . .

Noise filled the hallway again, coming from both ends and getting louder and louder. It sounded like lots of boots were marching towards Lily in rhythm, accompanied by the jingle-jangle of something made of metal. The sounds bounced off the walls and made her head throb with each beat. She cupped her hands over her ears to try and block it all out.

While hunched over, she screamed, "Just what is happening?"

Her question got an answer when light flashed from her bracelet and exposed a suit of rusted armor standing right in front of her with a sword raised over its head. The sword came down in the blink of an eye, too fast for Lily to get away in time. But before the straight blade could split her in half -

CHING! 

- a wall of blue glass appeared over the young girl and stopped the sword in its tracks. 

"Eek!"

With a frightened shriek, Lily turned to flee and quickly ducked down when she spotted a glint of metal out of the corner of her eye. A blade from a second moving suit of armor flew over her head, narrowly missing by a hair's breadth. She swerved around and raised her hand as a third armor approached. Light flashed from her bracelet and Armor #3 went flying into Armor #4. Armor #5 tripped over #3 and #4. 

Lily ran past them, chased after by Armor #2. After shattering the glass wall with a second blow, Armor #1 joined Armor #2 along with dozens more.

Up ahead, she spotted a fork and turned right. That turned out to be a mistake, because there, the floor crumbled beneath her feet. She had stepped on a pitfall trap that sent her plunging into a dark abyss. Light from the bracelet showed Lily that down below, there were ten-foot long, thin, pointed spikes waiting to impale anyone unlucky enough to fall in. Unlucky like Lily herself.

But once again, the bracelet came to her rescue. The first time, it had created a blue glass wall to shield her from the armor's sword. This time, it pulled out a flying broomstick that looped into her jacket and stopped her from falling further. Her hands and feet dangled as she floated just an inch over the needle-sharp points.

While staring at one point that aimed dead center between her eyes, she heard marching footsteps and looked up. To her horror, suits of armor came falling down with their swords pointing at her.

"Seriously!? Do you guys really want to kill me that badly!?"

The broomstick quickly swung Lily right and left, and suits of armor dropped past her to be skewered by the spikes below. She tried not to look down at the grisly sight as the broom lifted her out of the pit and right in the path of a huge block of stone that swung down from the ceiling.

A split second before the block hit Lily, blue elastic poured out of the bracelet and wrapped itself around her. It absorbed most of the impact, but it and Lily went flinging down the corridor. After bouncing off the floor once, the bubble popped. Lily hit the floor next and went rolling a couple of feet before stopping, covered from head to toe in agonizing pain.

She laid still for a moment and then let out a sob.

What did I do to deserve this? She wondered. I didn't ask for these magic powers. I didn't ask to be chosen to be a magical superhero. And I definitely didn't ask to be dumped into this place full of deadly traps and living armor.

She was literally sick and tired of it all. But she would be given no more time to rest. She could hear a chorus of footsteps marching getting louder and louder. It wouldn't be long before those homicidal suits of armor showed up again.

"I need to get out of here," she muttered aloud. "I need to . . . GET UP! NOW!"

She gritted her teeth and mustered just enough strength to sluggishly rise. A bit of stumbling later, she was running again. And then -

SPLAT!

"OH, COME ON!"

Her feet sank into a puddle of quicksand. And she knew it was quicksand because what else could it be?

She twisted left and right, trying to tear herself out of the quicksand. But that, of course, didn't help. Instead, she sunk even faster. Her knees and then her waist were submerged in a matter of seconds.

I need something to pull myself up! As soon as that thought left Lily's mind, the broomstick appeared flying to her rescue. She grabbed hold of the blue handle as soon as she saw it and clung tight with a bear hug as it pulled and pulled, and pulled. Both Lily and the broomstick pulled with all their heart and soul, but their efforts bore no fruit and Lily continued to sink further and further, deeper and deeper.

And then she noticed something unusual while trying, and failing, to climb out of the pool of quicksand. The hallway had suddenly gotten quiet.

Slowly, and reluctantly, she turned her head. No surprise, there was a crowd of sword-wielding suits of armor behind her. Mixed in the group were spear-carrying skeletons with glowing red eyes. Their jaw bones rattled as if they were laughing at her.

The armor suits raised their swords, and the skeletons raised their spears. Sharp blades dropped down and then - 

BOOM!

A section of the wall to Lily's right burst and from the hole, piles of rock clumped together into the shape of a man jumped in. It threw a punch that, although didn't reach, unleashed a gust of wind so strong, it reduced all the armor suits and skeletons to scattered pieces.

It was the Stone Man, Lily recognized, the same one no less that saved her twice before. 

The Stone Man gave the floor a strong, thunderous stomp and the quicksand spat Lily out, sending her flying into his arms. He gently let the young girl down and then handed her a sheet of paper along with a firm command spoken in a low, rumbling voice. "Stay here."

Lily gave the sheet of paper a glance, noting the red Chinese writing on it. And then she looked up at the Stone Man, thinking he was a lot smaller than last time.

After the young girl gave him a nod, the Stone Man turned away to face a wall of enemies approaching them. Light flashed from his dark eye sockets and he let out a low, guttural growl. He said to the oncoming crowd of skeletons and suits of armor, "Weapons. Do. Not. Belong. In. A. SCHOOL!"

And then he went charging straight at the crowd. And he mowed them all down with a combination of palm strikes and elbows so lightning fast that none of the skeletons or suits of armor had a chance to even lift up their weapons before they exploded into pieces of bone and metal. Sometimes, he'd add a twirling kick that send enemies flying against the walls.

As Lily watched, she wondered, Is that Kung Fu? The Stone Man knows Kung Fu?

A trio of skeletons suddenly appeared behind her and attacked with their spears. But before the blades reached her, the paper in her hand flashed red and the skeletons, weapons and all, turned to dust. She never noticed.

Before long, the army of metal and bone had been completely wiped out. The Stone Man took one look around at the trail of destruction he had made and then walked back up to Lily, purposely crushing pieces further beneath his feet on the way. 

Behind him, a huge block swung down from the ceiling, but he turned and stopped it with a punch. There was a loud bang and then silence. A few seconds later, both the ceiling block and the Stone Man crackled all over.

Lily was, at first, dismayed, thinking that the Stone Man had gotten hurt or worse. But as pieces of the Stone Man crumbled down with the pieces of the ceiling block, she realized that it was only his armor that got damaged and underneath all that rock was a human like herself. He had black hair like herself and wore a blue coat-like robe. On his head was a cap with a piece of paper stuck to the side, identical to the one that Lily had been given.

Wait a minute, she thought. I know that costume.

Slowly, the man turned around and revealed his face.

Lily's jaw dropped.

"Uncle Viceroy?"

Viceroy Kevin Lin glanced at the bracelet shining blue around Lily's arm alongside the red glow of the paper charm in her hand and then he said to her, "You and I need to have a word."

<== Chapter 32                                                                          Chapter 34 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 32

Chapter 32

Halloween Disaster

"You turned Lily into a baby!" Eddie cried.

Tanja snapped back, "I heard you the first time!"

"Can you turn her back?" Viv asked.

"Of course not!" shouted Tanja. "It was all the bracelet's fault! Not mine!"

"What do we do?" yelled Viv. "We can't leave her like this!"

"No need to panic!" said Hassan. "I'm sure one of the magic books here has the answer to our problems. We just need to look for it."

"Good idea," said Oliver. "Let's all split up and start searching. Viv, you stay here and keep an eye on baby Lily."

"Got it," Viv said with a nod. She turned to pick the baby up, but then froze. "Where's the baby?"

"Huh?" Everyone looked down again.

"She's gone!" Eddie cried out.

"But she was just here!" yelled Oliver. Even he was starting to panic.

Tanja pointed and shouted, "Look! Over there!"

Over by the exit, baby Lily was seen riding on top of a floating green book as they slowly drifted out of the room.

The gang gave each other glances and then ran after the flying baby. They chased her down the hall and were just in time to see her reach the end where she vanished in a flash of light. Then they all screamed their heads off.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"After her! After her! AFTER HER!" screamed Oliver.

They all piled onto the magic circle that zapped them out of the secret hideout and back to the library where they split up to look for the baby. But no matter where they looked, Lily could not be found.

"Now what do we do?" moaned Viv.

After a fruitless search, they all gathered behind the checkout counter. There was no one else around and the librarians were away to help out with the school's Halloween event that was set to begin within the hour.

"She can't have gotten far," said Oliver. "Let's split up and - !"

He was interrupted by an adventurous jingle coming from his pocket. After answering his phone, he put it to his ear and said, "Now's not a good time, Francis. Can I call you back la-?"

"HELP!" screamed Francis Yorkshire, Oliver's roommate. "Some blue parrot made the grim reaper costume I was going to wear to the Halloween party come to life and now it's trying to kill me!"

Oliver blinked. "What?"

Over Francis' screams was a cackle like from an evil phantom straight out of an old-timey cartoon and then a different, familiar voice that sent a chill down the teen detective's spine.

"You heard the young man, detective," said the blue parrot. "Better hurry before his soul is taken."

The line cut off there.

Oliver swore and put his phone away. "Bad news, guys," he said. "The parrot's got my roommate. I need to go save him!"

"But what about Lily?" asked Viv.

"We were going to split up anyway," said Oliver. "While I go help Francis, you guys can - !"

 He was interrupted again, this time by the lights suddenly shutting off.

"Now what?" he groaned.

The darkness was temporary as soon blue light filled the library. But it wasn't from any lamp of the library. This supernatural glow came from a skeleton dressed in a nurse's outfit from the late Eighteen-Hundreds that popped out of the floor and flew over to the gang. It was the ghost of the matron that haunted Tanja before.

The ghost tauntingly sang, "I'm baaaack!" And then she flew away and circled around the library. Each bookshelf she passed over shook and rattled, sending books and decorative knickknacks tumbling to the floor in a messy pile.

"Aah!" screamed Alejandro. "She's messing up the library!"

"I just fixed that shelf!" moaned Melody.

"Quick!" yelled Hassan. "We gotta stop her!"

As the library helpers scrambled to deal with the cackling ghost and stop her from ruining the library further, Tanja spoke up and said, "Say, Oliver. Don't you think it's a weird coincidence that we've got the parrot and the matron showing up right when we've got a runaway baby to deal with?"

"Not at all," said Oliver. "This whole mess has the Schemer's name written all over it. He's definitely behind Lily turning into a baby and then disappearing to who-knows-where."

"What do we do?" asked Eddie.

"No change to the plan," said Oliver. "We split up. Divide and conquer, and all that. I'm going to go save Francis from his Halloween costume. We'll leave the library helpers to deal with the matron and clean up the mess she made. You three look for Lily."

"I'll go back to my room and check the school's cameras," Tanja said before running off. "I'll message you if I find anything!"

"Got it!" Oliver called out to her. "Okay, Sapphire Society. Disperse!"

**********

For some reason, nobody batted an eye when a baby passed by while riding on a flying book. In fact, they didn't seem to even notice. They continued to walk on without giving her a glance, many dressed in costumes for Halloween. There were the usual werewolves, vampires, witches, wizards, zombies, Frankenstein's monsters, and ghosts. Fairy tale princes and princesses also walked among them, as well as police officers, firefighters, and doctors in scrubs.

Just what on earth is going on? Lily wondered.

To be clear, she was still herself on the inside. Her mind, at least, had not been babyfied.

While the others had been distracted, the book that she found herself sitting on had suddenly started floating up like a balloon and took her out of the hideout. At the library, the doors swung open on their own, allowing the book and baby to go outside. Lily knew she should have gotten off the book when it started flying, but she missed her chance and was now stuck.

Where is it taking me? She wondered as they drifted down the road across campus. She wanted to ask, but the only thing that could come out of her infant lips was nonsense babbling. The book likely wouldn't answer her anyway since books can't talk. At least as far as she knew.

Eventually, the book came to a stop at the history building. Right in the middle of the main hall, it lowered the baby down and made her slide off and gently land onto the floor before going away.

Huh? What? Seriously? Lily thought. You kidnap me out of nowhere and now you're just going to leave me here in the middle of some random hallway?

Lily didn't like it here one bit. It was a hallway devoid of life, covered in fake spider webs and other creepy Halloween decorations. And now that she was a baby, everything looked bigger to her now, which just made it even creepier. Her instincts started to kick in and she let out a whimper. The whimper would have turned into a full bawl, but then a door opened, and feet appeared in front of her.

A familiar voice exclaimed, "What in the world?"

Lily looked up to see her uncle gaping back at her in surprise. He wore a blue, coat-like robe and a black hat with a round, red top. Taped to the side of the hat was a piece of yellow paper with Chinese writing on it.

"What is a baby doing here?" he wondered aloud.

Great, just great! Lily thought glumly to herself. Of all the people to find her, it had to be her uncle, the one person she wanted to see least right now.

Uncle Viceroy's costume, by the way, is a type of Chinese zombie called a Jiangshi. Lily recognized it from some old Hong Kong movies her parents liked to watch sometimes.

"Alright, up you go." 

He scooped Lily into his arms. She didn't like it but resisted the urge to make a fuss. When he straightened up, two boys suddenly showed up. One wore a black cape and a pointed hat while the other had butterfly wings taped to his back.

The boy with the butterfly wings gasped and cried out, "Oh no! It's finally happened. Mr. Lin's become a full-blown criminal!"

The caped boy followed up and added, "And not only that, of all things, it's kidnapping!"

"Ha ha, very funny, Mr. Fowl, Mr. Potter," Uncle Viceroy said sarcastically.

"Apologies, sir," said the winged boy named Fowl. "It was just a joke. But in all seriousness, why is there a baby with you?"

Uncle Viceroy replied, "She's not mine, if that's what you're thinking, though she does look really familiar for some reason."

Lily's heart skipped a beat and she broke out in cold sweat as her uncle stared at her face intently.  For a moment, she was afraid he was going to figure everything out. But to her relief, he turned away and continued to speak with the boys.

"I just found her in the middle of the hallway."

Potter raised an eyebrow. "By herself?" he said. "Think she somehow gave her mum or da the slip?"

"That's probably the case," said Uncle Viceroy with a shrug. "Anyway, I need to let security know and have them look for her parents. You guys go on ahead and have fun at the Halloween festival."

Lily watched as the boys leave and was then carried off to a small room at the end of the hall with a big window that allowed a good view of the worktable, steel file cabinets and huge, black computer screens inside. She thought she'd be left there; but after a brief word with the guard there, Uncle Viceroy took her back with him to his office instead.

This room's surprisingly neat and roomy, Lily thought as she looked around. Five steel file cabinets were lined up against the back wall while against perpendicular wall was a simple office desk. On top of the desk were three tidy stacks of papers, two on the right side and one on the left. Between the stacks was a computer with a big ledger book resting on top of the keyboard. There were also, on all sides of the room, posters of characters from Japanese cartoons.

After sitting in his black leather chair with Lily settled on his lap, Uncle Viceroy flipped open the ledger book to a page in the middle where a red silk ribbon laid flat.

He bent his head left and right, making popping noises from his neck and then picked up a pen. "Alrighty then. Sit tight, little lady. Uncle Viceroy's got some work to do."

Lily replied with a, "Guh!" She looked up at her uncle with her mouth hung open like a blank-faced goldfish.

Uncle Viceroy flashed a warm smile and nuzzled her hair with his cheek before grabbing a sheet of paper from the left stack. He gave the piece a quick glance, wrote something in the ledger, and then moved it to the right before moving on to the next. He would repeat this cycle for the next several minutes in complete, peaceful silence.

**********

Meanwhile, at Oliver's dorm room . . .

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AH HAHAHAHAHA!"

Two teenage boys screamed their heads off while playing Tug-of-War with a scythe against a cackling skeleton wearing black robes with a hood.

And over at the library . . .

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AH HAHAHAHAHA!"

The library helpers were running around screaming their heads off while swinging giant butterfly nets at a cackling skeleton nurse lady flying back and forth near the ceiling.

And outside as the sun was setting . . .

"LILY! LILY, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Viv and Eddie pushed through throngs of costumed Halloween revelers trying to call out for their friend over loud, pounding music. 

Over on a bench by a tree, a guy in a Darth Vader mask stood flashed peace signs with both hands and yelled, "Trick or Treat! Smell mah feet!" And then he jumped into the arms of his friends below. After planting his feet back on the ground and straightening up, they all screamed at each other's faces, "YEEEAAAAAAAAH!"

**********

As Viceroy Kevin Lin worked on his ledger book, baby Lily watched. She had never seen this side of her uncle before, looking all hard-working and serious like a proper adult. He was always doing something ridiculous like having full-blown conversations with pigeons under a tree or using a dancing inflatable and voice recording to do his classes for him.

If Grandma and Grandpa saw him now, Lily thought, they'd probably say something like, "If only he was like this all the time."

Done filling in his ledger book, Uncle Viceroy tapped the spacebar of the keyboard, and the computer instantly blinked to life showing a picture of himself with a little girl sitting on his lap. Both of them had big grins on their faces as they stared into the camera. 

Lily instantly recognized the girl as herself when she was younger. Well, technically she's younger right now having been turned into a baby while the girl in the picture was around five years old. 

"Ooh."

Uncle Viceroy looked down and smiled. "Interested in that picture?" he asked in a high voice. "Know who they are?"

"Ooh!"

"That's right," said Viceroy, though he definitely didn't understand what Lily was saying. "That's me. And the big sister there is my niece. Her name's Lily. Can you say 'Lily'?"

"Eeh."

"You know, I used to play with Lily a lot when she was thiiiis small," Viceroy told the baby, pinching air between his thumb and index finger in front of her. "Just like you are now. But then her mommy and daddy got really, really good jobs so they all had to go far, far away. We couldn't play together anymore. I really missed her."

That's right, thought Lily. It's all coming back to me now. Uncle Viceroy used to take care of me all the time whenever I visited Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was really little. He was always so nice. There's just no way he could be the cruel Schemer or one of the villain's just-as-cruel followers."

But just as Lily became convinced of her uncle's innocence, a visitor appeared who flipped that conviction upside down.

A knock at the door made uncle and niece turn their heads.

"It's open," Uncle Viceroy called out.

As soon as she saw who had come in, Lily's heart leaped to her throat. It was the Schemer looking as he always did in his blue robes with his face hidden beneath the shadow of his hood.

Uncle Viceroy, however, was not perturbed in the slightest by the visitor and asked, "Ah . . . fancy meeting you at this hour. Do you need my help for something again?"

The Schemer glided into the room; head bent down to fit beneath the door frame. He turned the void beneath his hood to Lily and a deep, artificial voice said, "Who is this little one?"

"Not sure," said Uncle Viceroy, giving the baby a glance. "I just found her in her lonesome out in the hallway. I already let security know. I'm sure they'll find her parents soon."

"One can only hope," said the Schemer, staring intently at the baby.

Lily shrank away and whimpered.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Uncle Viceroy asked her. He lifted her up to his shoulder and gently pat her back. "Hungry?"

"Never mind her for now," said the Schemer. "As you've correctly guessed, I need you to do something for me."

"Is it school related, or magic related?" asked Uncle Viceroy.

Lily's blood ran cold as she heard the word "magic" come out of her uncle's mouth. And it went even colder when the Schemer replied back, "Magic related. Can I count on you?"

Without a hint of hesitation or reluctance, Uncle Viceroy said, "Sure. Just say the word . . . and I'll get it done."

"Gah!" Lily yelled in dismay.

"Good," said the Schemer. "The pests are at it again and causing me headache. I want them dealt with."

Pests? Could he be talking about me and the others? Lily wondered. She felt tight squeeze on her heart.

Uncle Viceroy frowned. "Seriously? You'd think they'd learn after last time."

Last time? As in that time the others got turned to stone? Lily thought. The squeeze on her heart got tighter and blood rushed to her head.

"Don't worry . . .," said Uncle Viceroy. "I'll make sure this time that they're stopped for good. They won't bother you, me or anyone else ever again!"

Unable to take it any longer, Lily wailed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, startling Uncle Viceroy who cried out, "What's wrong? Is it hunger? Need a diaper change? What?"

The baby, of course, didn't answer, and instead tried pushing her uncle away with all her might.  There was no doubt in her mind at this point that her uncle, Viceroy Kevin Lin, was a villain. She had had enough and wanted to get away.

Suddenly, light flashed from her bracelet's jewels and an explosion of energy finally split the two apart.

Viceroy skidded to a stop with his chair in the middle of the room. When he looked up, his eyes popped out in shock as he watched the baby disappear into the light only to be replaced by his red-faced niece.

"Wha-? Lily!?"

A burst of magic had turned her back to normal. 

She glared at her uncle without saying a word, tears streaming down the sides of her face. And then she turned and ran out of the room.

"Lily! Wait!"

Viceroy chased after her, leaving behind Julius Bluestone who stood alone, wearing not his Schemer costume, but his normal every-day suit. The director and owner of Bluestone Academy listened to the sound of doors banging against a wall and feet thundering against the floor quickly fade. When he left the office, he found a blue parrot waiting for him in the adjoining classroom.

Perched on top of the teacher's lecture table, the parrot asked, "Was this the push you were talking about? Really? This?"

Director Bluestone looked away and did not answer.

**********

Lily ran out of the history building as fast as she could, covered in a veil of blue light that helped her exceed the top speed of a race car. She cut across the grassy courtyard and turned left along the road, streaking past her peers who thought the light they saw out of the corner of their eyes belonged to someone's costume. Close at her heels was her Uncle Viceroy keeping up with her magical speed.

"Lily! Stop!"

She refused and kept running. 

Among the people they passed by was Viv and Eddie.

Viv looked at her brother and said, "Was that light just now . . . ?"

Eddie nodded. "That was Lily! And I think she was being chased!"

"Come on! We need to go after her!"

A distance away, after finally subduing his roommate's killer (literally) costume, Oliver came to meet the twins, spotted them rushing off somewhere and followed.

Lily went all the way from one side of the school to the other and then circled back around to the middle where the Castle sat. She zoomed up the stairs and dove in through the main entrance, went down a corridor and descended a flight of stairs to the underground level. That turned out to be a mistake because her uncle soon caught up and trapped her at a dead end of the right hallway.

Lily and Viceroy faced each other, both out of breath and drenched in sweat from their impromptu exercise.

Viceroy spoke up first. "Lily - "

"No!" she shouted. "Just stay away!"

But her uncle would not budge.

"Lily," he said again. "Just tell me what's going on. Why are you freaking out like this?"

"I! SAID! STAY! A! WAY!"

She stomped hard on the ground and, again, her bracelet unleashed a wave of light. Suddenly, words appeared beneath her feet in the shape of a circle, adding their own supernatural glow to the bracelet's. 

Viceroy had a bad feeling about that light and reached out to pull Lily away from it. But he was too late.

Oliver, Viv and Eddie arrived just in time to join the history teacher and together watched as Lily disappeared before their very eyes.

<== Chapter 31                                                                          Chapter 33 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 31

Chapter 31

Secrets of the Bracelet

BANG! So went the door as Lily came bursting into the secret room of the Sapphire Society, shouting, "Oliver, are you okay?"

Everyone looked up, gathered around the main table of the classroom area with books and papers spread out in front of them.

"Lily!" Oliver cried out. "You should be at your room, resting!"

"There's no way I could do that after I got that text message," Lily said. "Is it true you got jumped by the Schemer?"

"Yes," Oliver admitted. "But as you can see, I'm perfectly fine."

To prove his point, he stepped away from the others, spread his arms out like wings, and did a full turn-around. Lily was relieved to see her friend was okay, but couldn't completely relax just yet.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Well," went the teen detective, "I was on my way to see Director Bluestone when I happened to run into the Schemer and the parrot in the hallway. They spotted me and attacked, but I managed to shake them off and ran straight here."

"It's good to know that you made it out without a scratch," said Lily, "but what were the Schemer and parrot even doing at that hallway?"

"Talking," said Oliver. "It sounded like they were making up some kind of plan."

"Did you catch what they were saying?"

"Well . . . " Oliver looked away.

Lily frowned at the way her friend hesitated. "What? What is it? Go on. Spill."

Reluctantly, Oliver said, "I couldn't make out what their exact plans were, but I did manage to hear a name."

Lily suddenly knew where this was going to go, but she asked anyway, "And?"

"It was Viceroy Kevin Lin. They were talking about your uncle. Judging by how excited and happy they were while talking about him, my guess is that he's going to do something they'll like. And I'm sure you know that anything those villains will like will be bad for everyone else."

"So you still think that Uncle Viceroy's a bad guy?" Lily didn't mean to, but she spoke with a sharp edge to her voice.

"Lily," said Viv, "I know that Mr. Lin's family to you, but you have to admit that there's something fishy about him. We have videos of him wandering places where the Schemer and his parrot struck, and now we got those two talking about him. And that's not all."

She gave Alejandro and the rest of the original library helpers a glance.

With all eyes on them now, Alejandro stepped forward, cleared his throat and explained, "Ahem! Me and the others went around asking the librarians about the game of mahjong Mr. Lin mentioned he lost that got him patrolling the library for them. But it turns out that was a lie. None of the librarians even knew how to play mahjong. The head librarian said that Mr. Lin asked to take over himself."

"I don't have to tell you that makes him more suspicious, do I?" said Viv.

Lily threw her roommate an angry glare.

Sensing danger was brewing, Oliver quickly cut in, "There's only one way to know for sure whether Mr. Lin is guilty or innocent, and that's a good, old-fashioned investigation."

"Is that what all those books and papers are for?" Lily asked, nodding to the clutter on the table.

"No, that's actually something else."

Lily jumped in surprise. "Gah! Where'd you come from?"

Appearing out of nowhere behind her was Tanja, hugging a cluster of old books and rolled up pieces of paper.

"Just from the bookshelves over at the back," she replied, nodding her head over yonder. "Anyway, this stuff is really heavy, so would you mind?"

"Oh, sorry." Lily quickly stepped out of the way, allowing Tanja to rush over to the table everyone was gathered around and dumped everything over an already chaotic mess. Curious, Lily joined them and asked, "What is all this?"

"These," Tanja said, waving her hand over the table, "are all books and worksheets about magic formulas."

Lily blinked. "Magic formulas?"

Tanja nodded. "Magic formulas, basically math in magic. Turns out there's a LOT of math behind magic spells. While you don't really need to understand the math to cast a magic spell, according to some of the books I read, understanding magic formulas can help you to figure out how to break curses or enemy enchantments, or to invent new magic spells just for yourself. Well, first you need to understand the language of magic, which is what is used in incantations and spells, before you can get to magic formulas."

Lily's head spun from the barrage of information rapidly spewing from Tanja's mouth. She quickly raised her hand and cried, "Hold up! Hold up!"

After a short pause to sort through everything, Lily said, "So basically magic formulas are how magic spells work?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Tanja said with a nod. "Anyway, I got to thinking that maybe if I learn more about magic formulas, I could learn more about that bracelet of yours. Because according to my research, magic formulas are a must when making magic items. Take a look at this."

Tanja brushed aside some papers to expose a cream-colored manilla folder. And from the folder, she pulled out a large picture of something blue covered in strange markings.

"What's this?" Lily asked.

Tanja answered, "A blown-up picture of your bracelet."

"A picture of my bracelet? When did you take this? How?"

Tanja answered, "A couple of days after you became Lady Sapphire, using the school's security cameras. They're surprisingly clear. But then again, this is a school for rich kids, so it makes sense their cameras would be topnotch. Anyway, you see those markings all over? Those are magic runes used to write magic formulas on magic items."

"Really?" said Lily, looking down at her bracelet.

George took a look at the markings. "Looks like gibberish. How do you know what this all means?"

"With this handy magic runes to English dictionary," said Tanja, holding up a really worn-out paperback book with yellowed pages. 

"That book looks like its got more than a thousand pages," said Lily. "You read all of that?"

Tanja nodded and proudly replied, "Yep. Only took me a day or so."

"Geez!" went Eddie. "Did you even get any sleep?"

"Not at all," said Tanja. And then she burst out a goofy laugh.

"You should probably take a nap now," Lily suggested. "I think you need one more than I do."

"In a minute," said Tanja. "I still need to tell you what I found out about the bracelet."

"What did you find out about the bracelet?" asked Oliver.

"Well, for one thing," said Tanja, "it is NOT what gave Lily magic powers."

Lily blinked. "It's not?"

Tanja nodded and said, "Actually, it's the other way around. If my math's correct, and it always is, the bracelet actually takes power from you when you need it to do something and then gives that power back from the air or whatever when it's done, like recharging a battery."

"So basically, I'm a battery for the bracelet," Lily said.

"That's right," said Tanja. "But not only that, the way it's designed, the bracelet drains more power than what's normally needed to cast any magic spell, as if it was made to use up as much of your energy as possible."

"What's the point of that?" asked Eddie.

Viv spoke up and said, "Maybe it's like a training machine. I remember reading in Mom's journal that magic power's like muscles. It gets stronger with exercise."

"So instead of just giving Lily powers, the bracelet helped her grow her own." Oliver rubbed his chin thoughtfully and frowned. "Hmmm."

"Something wrong, Oliver?" asked Melody.

"Oh! Sorry, it's nothing," said Oliver. 

That was a lie. Something about Lily's powers growing made Oliver's brain itch, but he couldn't figure out why.

No need to tell the others this, he thought. It would just confuse them.

"Anyway," he said, "was there anything else you discovered?"

"Well," said Tanja, "I saw runes for fire, water, earth, air and some other elements. And I also saw some runes that mean creation, which I guess is how Lily could make stuff out of nothing. I haven't finished reading the whole formula yet. I just got around to this part here. It kind of looks important so let's take a look right now!"

She placed at the forefront a picture of a part of the bracelet covered in pretty much the same kind of symbols as the rest. Lily couldn't make heads or tails of the markings and simply took Tanja at her word. Tanja pulled out a magnifying glass and put it over the picture.

"Now let's see what we got here," she said. Her fingers brushed over the symbols, which suddenly lit up in an unusual bright shine.

Panicked, Lily cried out, "Look out!" And then she pulled Tanja away, turning as she did so before the shine exploded into a flash that filled the room for an instant.

"Yikes!"

"Eek!"

"Whoa!"

The light startled everyone and made them turn away.

"What was that?" Oliver shouted. "What happened?"

Tanja yelled back, "I don't know! I think I might have tripped a defense mechanism or something!"

"Hey!" Viv called out. "Where's Lily?" 

As soon as she could see again, she turned right and left but could find neither hide nor hair of her roommate.

"She was the closest to the picture when that light show happened," said Oliver. "You don't think . . . ?"

He dared not finish that sentence, but he spoke enough to make everyone's hearts sink into a pit of dread.

"It can't be!" Viv cried. "Lily! Where are you? Answer me! Please!"

There was no answer, which made Viv fear the worst. But then - 

"Gah! Gah! Goo!"

"Uh . . . " went Hassan. "Am I the only one who's hearing baby babble?"

Everyone exchanged looks. And then slowly, they turned their gazes down to the floor where, looking back up at them was a baby.

While staring at the adorable, pudgy infant, Tanja spoke up. "You don't think . . ."

"Guh!" went the baby. She raised her stubby hand and around her arm was a blue bracelet with matching jewels on it.

"Oh my goodness!" cried Eddie. "You turned Lily into a baby!" 

<== Chapter 30                                                                         Chapter 32 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 30

Chapter 30

Sick Day

Monday had come and classes were in session again. But instead of hitting the books and listening to the teachers lecture about math formulas or poetry forms in a classroom with the others, Lily was lying in bed in her room, staring at the ceiling. She hadn't been feeling well since her latest adventure which had her chasing around a whole bunch of tigers. Her hands and feet felt heavy like sacks of rocks, and her legs felt like jelly at her knees. She could not for one second stand still. 

Worried about the way Lily kept swaying from side to side, Viv insisted she take the day off and would not take "no" for an answer. She practically pushed Lily back onto bed before unilaterally promising to let the dorm nurse know she was taking a sick day.

Each dormitory building was looked after by a crew of school factory, the caretaker, the caretaker's assistants and the dorm nurse. The caretakers and their assistants took care of the dorms' day-to-day operations and make sure the rules were being followed while the dorm nurses looked after students when they're, of course, sick.

But that wasn't the only reason Lily was taking the day off. Another was she wanted to be alone and avoid everyone for a bit, especially Uncle Viceroy.

Flashback to the day before when everyone had gathered the Sapphire Society's hideout . . .

"Ahem! Ahem!" went Oliver. "Let's get this latest meeting of the Sapphire Society started, shall we? We're all gathered here today to welcome a new addition to our merry band, Tanja!"

Tanja stood next to Oliver by the chalkboard, flashing a sheepish smile at the scattered applause.

Oliver continued and said, "Well, I call her a new addition, but really she's been with us all along as the mysterious hacker who's been spying on us this whole time."

"Hey, I was not spying on you!" Tanja protested. "I was just listening and watching you through security and drone cameras to get to know you better."

"That's the very definition of spying," Hassan pointed out.

"Anyway," Oliver cut in, "I suspected Tanja might be the mysterious hacker after hearing from Lily and Viv about the computers in her room and all those newspaper clippings about her winning robotics contests. The article about her drone was especially striking to me and I realized something: that she was the culprit behind the drones being seen flying after curfew. And finally, all the pieces fell into place.

"While flying an illegal, homemade drone from the comfort of her dorm room one night, Tanja spotted us through the camera on one of our adventures. That's when she discovered that magic was real and there was a villain going around plaguing the school with magical trouble, like something out of a serial cartoon. Since then, she's taken part on our adventures as a figure in the shadows, with eyes all over school, always watching and letting us know when she sees magical trouble is afoot. Lily all but confirmed my suspicions when she told me how Tanja hacked the school camera system to help her find all the tigers."

"Is that all true?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Tanja confessed.

"That is just . . . crazy!" Lily exclaimed.

"Crazier than a magic bracelet that spits out flying carpets or plush toys that turn into full-grown tigers?"

"Why didn't you just come out and tell us instead of doing all that cloak and dagger stuff?" asked Viv.

With a shrug, Tanja replied, "I didn't know how'd you take me suddenly butting in. I figured it'd be better to show I was an ally first before actually showing my face."

"I think that's what you'd call putting the cart before the horse," said Hassan.

"Anyway," Oliver said, "now that the mystery of the hacker's been solved, let's move onto the next mystery: mainly why were you at the former matron's office-turned private storage room for the Bluestone family in the first place? You must have gone there on purpose. What was it?"

Tanja hesitated and for some reason, gave Lily a funny look.

"Is something wrong?" Lily asked.

Instead of answering her question, Tanja asked, "You're related to the history teacher, Mr. Lin, right?"

Lily nodded and replied, "Yeah."

"There's something you ought to know. You might want to sit down for this."

Lily looked down and then said, "Already sitting."

"Okay." Tanja took a deep breath and then, with a grim look on her face, "I think Mr. Lin's the Schemer."

End flashback.

As she laid in bed, Lily thought back to the videos that Tanja showed everyone on her tablet, from cameras that captured Uncle Viceroy clearly at all the places the Schemer had hit with his not-so-pleasant mischief and always on the night before something happened. The last video showed him going into the old matron's office, shortly followed after by Tanja herself. She appeared the open the door just a crack before the skeletal ghost popped out and chased her off.

With all that evidence, there was no way to refute Tanja's claim that Viceroy Kevin Lin, Lily's own uncle, was the Schemer or at least working for the villain.

But despite that, Lily could not accept that her uncle could be behind all the horrible things she and her friends had gone through. He may be a shameless weirdo, but he wasn't a bad guy. And speaking of her uncle . . . 

Ping! Went the phone on Lily's bedside table.

Lily gave the device a glance and then slowly sat up. She took the phone into her hands saw that it had received a message from Uncle Viceroy. After a bit of hesitating, she opened the message and read, "Heard you're out sick for today from your roommate. I let your mom know and she wants you to see a doctor. I'll have a nurse give you a house call. Or if you're up for it, you can head over to the dorm nurse's office yourself. Let me know before Three."

Lily hesitated. Honestly, she didn't feel like even replying to Uncle Viceroy by text. But if she just stayed silent, he'll likely have the nurse barge into her room. Lily wouldn't put it past her uncle to do that, especially with her mom involved.

After a bit of thought, she texted, "I'll head over to the nurse's office myself."

It wasn't long before she got another message. This one said, "Got it. I put you down for a One-Thirty appointment. Make sure you have lunch before you go."

"Will do," Lily replied back. And then she dumped the phone beside her on the bed and laid back down.

Slowly, she drifted off to sleep. But before she completely fell to slumber, she heard an indistinct whispering and sprang back up.

"Who's there?" she called out. She looked left and right, but there was no one in the room besides her. "Hello?"

She looked out the window and then peeked out of the dorm room. But as far as she could see, she was completely and utterly alone.

"Was it just my imagination?" she wondered aloud.

Lily closed the door and returned to bed. And as she climbed back on, she heard the whisper again. This time louder.

"Please, stop him!"

Lily felt a chill run down her spine and she whirled around, shouting, "Who's there?" 

The whisper was so close to her ear, but again, she saw no one. It sounded like a girl around her age.

"Hello? Stop who? The Schemer?"

There was no response. Whoever that voice was, was gone.

**********

"And that's all I have to report," said the red-haired woman in a white lab coat. She stood in the dimly lit office of Julius Bluestone and just finished telling him what she had found after giving Lily Wong a check-up.

"Thank you," the old man with the white beard said. He sat slouched in his office chair. "That will be all. You may go . . . unless you have something else you want to say?"

The nurse nodded and said, "Yes, I do. I think you've gone too far this time, Director Bluestone. I've been watching over the child for a while now. On your orders, I might add. And while I can dismiss a little bit of tension piling up because of school, I cannot stay silent when she's come down with what was clearly a stress-induced illness!"

"It was necessary to bring out more power out of her," Julius argued. He straightened up and raised his voice a little.

"Necessary my foot!" snapped the nurse. "She's already brought out plenty of power. What need have you to continue this farce? Just train her like you've done me and all the others, and she'll be as powerful as you need her to be by the time she graduates.

"Let me make one thing clear, Julius Bluestone. Or should I say, the Schemer? We members of the Sapphire Society owe you for everything we've done for us. That's why we chose to help you with this ridiculous plan of yours. But we are also part of a school sworn to protect the children under our care. If anything should happen to them, a single hair out of place . . ."

Julius Bluestone cut her off. "You need not worry. If your report is accurate, it won't be much longer before she is finally ready. She just needs one more push."

"That push is exactly what I'm worried about," said the nurse.

"No harm will come to her or anyone else," Bluestone promised. "You have my word." 

The nurse seemed satisfied, because not long after, she was out the door and headed back to her office at the girls' dorms.

As she disappeared down the hall, a door cracked open and out slipped Oliver with a stethoscope in his hands. He had heard the whole thing.

Oliver had come to speak with Director Bluestone as well to talk more about the Bluestone family and their magical history. It was only a coincidence that he spotted the nurse go into the director's office. Curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help but eavesdrop, using the stethoscope to listen through the door.

Why was he carrying around a stethoscope, you might ask? Because he saw a detective on a TV show use one before and bought his own in case he ever needed it, like now. And boy did it yield results. Too much results.

The things Oliver heard made his head spin like a battle top and made his knees buckle. He leaned against the wall and muttered to himself, "Okay, Oliver. Deep breaths. Deep breaths."

I need to calm myself down, he thought. Need to sort through everything. Put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Paint the picture.

First and foremost, Julius Bluestone's the Schemer! Unbelievably, the generous and kind owner of the school that Oliver had come to know and love was actually the big baddie this whole time. Honestly, it made sense. His family built this school, so he would know everything about it best, including its deep, dark magical secrets which he could use however he liked. That should have made him Suspect Numero Uno.

Secondly, based on what the nurse had said, this whole Schemer thing was a ploy, like a badly-written script for a children's hero show. Director Bluestone made up the whole thing because he wanted something. Something out of Lily. But what could that something be?

"Whatever that is," Oliver muttered to himself, "this can't continue."

He didn't forget what the nurse had said. Lily had gotten sick because of stress. And that stress, of course, must have come from their magical adventures. Oliver never forgot the look on her face as he turned to stone. The pain in her eyes was a punch to the gut for him and constantly haunted his dreams.

"This can't go on," he mumbled. "I have to go tell her. I have to tell everyone about this. They need to know Director Bluestone's the Schemer, that the old Sapphire Society's still here in this school, and that they've been on the Schemer's side this whole time! This whole school could be our enemy!"

Oliver turned to leave, but then stopped. Standing in his way was a blue parrot. THE Blue Parrot.

Any normal person seeing this would probably think Oliver was silly for looking so afraid of a parrot, of all things. But Oliver had known the bird long enough to know that despite its harmless appearance, it was a creature as dangerous as a war tank.

He tried to run away. But when he turned around again, he found his way blocked once more, this time by a robed person whose face hid beneath the shadow of his hood.

Oliver's heart sank. But he put up a brave face and said, "Really, Director Bluestone? I think we both know that you don't need that costume right now."

"On the contrary, Oliver," said Bluestone, "I think I do need this costume. A weird getup will help make it easy to tamper with your memories."

"Tamper with my memories!? Wait-!"

Oliver's cry was cut off by the snap of Director Bluestone's fingers. Blue flashed over Oliver's eyes and disappeared when he blinked.

"Now, young man," said the Schemer, "run. And let Lady Sapphire know, she stands no chance of thwarting my plans. Not when I have a powerful ally on my side."

He spread his arms put and cackled. Streaks of blue lightning flew out of his fingers and made sparks dance across the walls and ceiling.

"Yikes!"

With a frightened yelp, Oliver stumbled back, turned and fled as fast as he could. The Schemer waited until he was gone before ceasing the light show.

"What was that?" asked the parrot. "And what ally were you talking about?"

Without taking his eyes off the end of the hall the teen detective fled down, the Schemer answered simply, "One more push."

<== Chapter 29                                                                                 Chapter 31 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 29

Chapter 29

Tiger Hunt

"There's a tiger by the Science Building, but it looks like it's just there for a quick stroll. Head over there quick before it goes away."

From the safety of her dorm room, Tanja had her eyes glued to her computers that showed her every inch of the school grounds. Beside her on the bed laid her smartphone on speaker so she may speak with her hands free as they danced across the keyboard at almost impossible speeds.

"Got it," said Lily. She was riding on a flying carpet high over the school, phone in hand to her ear. 

By her command the carpet made a turn and she soared down to the Science Building. It didn't take her long before she spotted the beast slowly making a turn at a corner. But before completely disappearing to the side, it stopped and turned, and then bolted.

Lily swore. The beast had noticed her and was making a break for it. 

She urged the magic carpet to fly faster and zoom after the tiger, catching up just in time to see it disappear at another turn.

"Oh no you don't!" Lily shouted.

She quickly reached the corner the tiger had disappeared around. But as soon as she made the turn herself, the tiger pounced on her.

Startled, she shrieked. "Eek!" She raised her arms over her head as the tiger lashed out. A wall of light appeared out of Lily's bracelet and wrapped itself around her, taking the attack in her place. But when the tiger's paw struck the wall, Lily was sent flying back and hit the ground.

"Lily!" Tanja cried through the phone. "Are you okay? Answer me!"

Lily remained silent, her heart pounding fast and hard. She was not only overcome by a sense of dizziness, but also a wave of fear that made her nauseous. Honestly, she felt like throwing up.

She hated the idea of actually fighting a full-grown tiger. She wanted to run away from it, badly. But then images flashed in her mind, memories of her friends now as cold stone statues and the fact the only way to save them was those charms the tigers all wore.

Fear of losing her friends forever pushed aside her fear of tigers and gave her renewed energy to go after the tiger again. 

After getting back up, she took a look around and swore. The tiger was no longer anywhere to be found. Looking around some more, she found her phone lying on the grass, no worse for wear except a little wet from dew. Tanja's voice could be heard squeaking from it. The phone's speaker mode had probably been turned off when it fell.

Lily scooped the phone up, put it to her ear and told Tanja on the other end, "I'm okay. But the tiger's gone. Did you see where it went?"

"It went bounding over to the next building to your left," Tanja told her. "You can still catch up to it."

Lily was already flying on her carpet again. She swooped over to the shorter box-shaped building next door, circled around it once and spotted the tiger running around the left side and disappear around the corner.

Once again, she chased after the beast. And when she turned the corner, it was there waiting. But this time, she was ready for it.

The moment the tiger pounced and swiped its paw at her, Lily swerved away out of the beast's reach. And then, she stood up and jumped off the carpet. She landed right on top of the tiger and clung onto tufts of its fur as it lurched and bucked around to try and shake her off. Her legs flailed about, but she hung on tight until the tiger tired out.

Once the beast paused to catch its breath, she seized her chance to grab hold of the glass ball charm on its collar and yanked it off. Smoke exploded out of the tiger's fur and Lily fell to the ground. Pain shot up her elbow.

"Ow!"

She gingerly sat up. Looking around, she noticed the tiger gone. Lying on the ground in its place was a plush toy.

"That's one down," Lily muttered to herself.

The next tiger, according to Tanja was lingering behind the Castle.

Learning from her earlier battle, Lily landed a few feet away where she wouldn't be noticed. Inspired by a comic book, she asked the bracelet to erase all sound around her and make herself invisible. The bracelet complied and Lily's hand disappeared right before her very eyes. She tried testing the spell out some more by shouting, clapping her hands and stomping her feet, but nothing could be heard.

Satisfied, she finally went over to the back of the old building that served as the heart of the school where she found the tiger laying down, apparently napping.

This is my chance! Lily thought to herself.

Slowly, she approached the beast, tiptoeing despite knowing she would make no sound anyway. She was just a foot away when the tiger suddenly lifted its head and opened its mouth wide.

Startled, Lily froze and was about to retreat when she realized that the tiger was only yawning. When it was down, it lowered its head back down and resumed snoring with its collar's charm tucked beneath it.

Now what do I do? Lily wondered. She racked her brain for a few minutes, but then came up with an idea.

She had the bracelet shine a ray of blue light around the tiger which slowly lifted the beast up into the air. But almost instantly, the tiger's eyes flew open and it jumped to its feet with a roar.

Her spell broken, Lily sprang forward and reached out. The tiger reared its head back, but with magic boosting her speed, Lily was in time to snatch the charm off its collar. Like the first one, the tiger disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a plush toy.

"That makes two," Lily said. "Alright Tanja, where's the next one?"

The next tiger was in the green house where plants of all shapes and sizes lived normally under the students' care. There were the usual colorful flowers and ferns, but also vegetables like carrots and potatoes, trees with fruits like apples and oranges, and a field of herbs for tea. 

Lily found the tiger lying in the middle of a paved circle surrounded by white steel benches that the plant life's caretakers used during breaks. Tanja had explained that the tiger had crashed through the front doors of the building, but Lily could see as much when she walked through the gaping opening over broken glass and bent steel. Unlike Tiger #2, Tiger #3 was wide awake and staring off into space.

Perhaps it was enjoying the scenery, Lily thought. She, herself, found the surrounding plants to be very pretty, their leaves practically shining under the light of the blue moon.

As she wondered what to do next, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.

"Hello? What is it, Tanja?" she whispered.

Tanja's voice came through and said, "I just got an idea. Think you can do this?"

Lily nodded as she listened to Tanja's suggestion and went, "Uh-huh, uh-huh. That's . . . actually a good idea. Let's try it!"

And then she leaped out from the bushes she had been hiding behind. The tiger jumped up, startled. But before it could flee, Lily slapped her hand on the ground and shouted, "Vines!"

Light flashed from her bracelet and suddenly, dozens of large, thick green rope-like plants burst out of an explosion of concrete bits and dust. They swung over the tiger and in the blink of an eye trapped it in a tight, tangled mess.

The tiger bit and pulled at the vines with all its might. But no matter what it did, it could not break free. The vines had been reinforced by a force field of magic energy that glowed blue around the writhing beast. 

Still, the vines' protection would not last long. That's why, as soon as the tiger was ensnared, Lily leaped and then dropped down, sliding across the floor. She passed beneath the tiger, through a tunnel the beast made with its legs, and reached up, snatching the charm off its collar.

"And that makes three. Two more to go."

Lily pulled out her phone again. "Alright, Tanja. Next."

**********

Perched on the edge of a nearby building's rooftop, the blue parrot watched as Lily scurried out of the green house. It heard the sound of rustling cloth, giving away that someone was walking up to the bird from behind. But knowing who it was, the bird did not bother to turn or look. Its eyes remained glued to the girl down below as she flew off on a magic carpet.

"How goes the child?" spoke the Schemer.

The parrot replied, "Doing a lot better than I thought. I expected her to turn into a blubbering mess when her friends turned into stone before her very eyes, but she was quick to start doing what needs to be done. Not only that, she's already gotten three out of the five charms. She'll be done long before the sun starts to rise. I must say, she's a lot more powerful now than before."

"But not enough," said the Schemer. "She needs to struggle some more."

With another flutter of his robes, he walked away and disappeared.

**********

Lily was on her way to the school gym while riding her flying magic carpet when suddenly a bundle of cloth appeared in front of her. It was a person dressed in robes whose face hid beneath the shadow of their hood, floating down like a marionette on strings dropped down onto the stage by giant hands above. No introductions were needed. There was only one person Lily knew dressed like that. She had only met him once before, but it was an unforgettable meeting.

"Schemer!"

"It has been a while, Lady Sapphire," said the antagonist.

Lily glared at him and snarled, "Unless you're here to say you'll undo the curse on Oliver and the others, get out of my way."

"Don't worry, child," said the Schemer. "I will be out of your hair shortly. I just came because I was worried this challenge was too easy for you."

Lily's face flushed red with anger. "Easy? You think chasing after five runaway tigers is easy!?"

The Schemer nodded and then pointed a black gloved finger at her. "Take a look at your phone."

"My phone?" Puzzled, Lily glanced down at her smartphone and her eyes flew wide in surprise. Rapidly, the time shown on the phone's lock screen changed. After a few seconds, the big, bold white numbers showed one . . . two . . . three hours had passed. And then it stopped.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on!?" Lily shouted, phone pressed to her face and right over her eyes. "What did you do?"

Coolly, the Schemer said, "I suggest you take that phone off your face. That's really bad for your eyes."

But Lily didn't care and asked again, "What did you do?"

The villain explained, "I slowed everything in the Blue World, including us. It is basically no different from fast-forwarding time, but much easier to do.”

"He's not kidding," Tanja said to Lily's phone's speaker. "I still have access to the Internet and all signs point that it's almost morning! Time really did speed up!"

“Why would you do that?” Lily shouted indignantly.

“Why, to make it harder for you to rescue your friends of course! I am the bad guy, remember? Now, you only have a few minutes before sunrise. If you do not gather all the charms in time, your friends will forever remain stone statues!”

The Schemer then cackled wickedly as he slowly rose up to the sky which had noticeably gotten brighter, a clear sign that night was soon changing to day.

"Good luck!"

The Schemer gave Lily a cheery, mocking wave and then disappeared in a flash of blue light. Lily had to turn away from the brightness. When she looked back, the Schemer was gone.

"That . . . that . . . !"

Lily had a few choice words she wanted to call the Schemer. But she swallowed them all back down, telling herself that now was not the time for futile insults. She still had two more tigers to find and not a lot of time left to find them.

"Tanja, is the tiger at the gym still there?" she asked on the phone.

Tanja replied, "It is. But hurry! It's already leaving!"

Lily was already flying on her magic carpet again and headed straight for the gym building as fast as she could. She reached it just in time to see the tiger running across the field towards the forest beyond the wall.

Like before at the green house, Lily used her magic powers to make vines burst out and wrap themselves around the tiger, tethering it to the ground.

"Yes!" Lily cheered. "Now I just have one more to go!"

Or so she thought.

One second the tiger laid pinned down on the grass. The next, there was a flash of light and it disappeared, only to reappear a few feet away as free as a wild bird.

A stunned Lily cried out, "What in the world?"

Tanja's baffled voice came out from the phone's speaker. "Did that tiger just teleport? Since when do tigers teleport?"

The Schemer's voice came from the sky and said, "Oh, I forgot to mention that I gave the remaining tigers superpowers. They can teleport and do a whole lot of other stuff."

"Ugh! WHY? JUST WHY?"

The Schemer didn't answer Lily's scream at him in the sky. Instead, he mockingly sang, "Tick-tock, tick-tock. The sun's almost up!"

His cackling faded, leaving Lily's face as red as a tomato as she bit on her lower lip. The corners of her eyes were moist.

She quickly rubbed her eyes dry with her sleeve and turned to see the tiger bounding for the wall again. Lily chased after it while commanding the bracelet to bring out more vines again and again. The tiger hopped left and right, jumping out of the vines' reach. One vine managed to snag the tiger's leg, but it just teleported out of the snaring plant's grasp. Not even a net made out of metal mesh could hold it down long.

Desperate, Lily jumped off the carpet and dove down to the tiger below. But just as she was about to land on top of it, the tiger disappeared in another flash of light and she hit the ground instead.

"No!"

Lily looked up and spotted the tiger getting close to the wall. In moments, it was going to jump over and disappear into the forest, beyond the school cameras' range. And with the dense foliage of that particular neck of wilderness, even with Tanja's drones, it would be hard to find the beast again.

But before the tiger could leap out of school grounds, nearby lights suddenly turned on, shining a ray of white light directly into its eyes. That was Tanja's doing, she came up with the idea while racking her brains for a way to help out beyond just navigation.

The tiger reared back with a pained howl. 

"Lily, now!" Tanja screamed.

Lily scrambled back up and ran. Through her mind, she spoke to the bracelet.

I don't care how, just get me to that tiger!

The bracelet answered with light flashing from its jewels. In the blink of an eye, Lily found herself right next to the tiger. Only later after her adrenaline rush died down, Lily realized that she had teleported.

All her thoughts were on the charm dangling off the tiger's collar. As soon as she saw it, she reached out and grabbed it. The charm snapped off and the tiger transformed into a plush toy.

"That's it!" Lily shouted. "Just one more! Where is it, Tanja?"

"It's at the main road, headed for the main gates. No, wait! Now it's by the boy's dorms!"

Lily stopped the flying carpet and made a turn.

"Now it's in a first floor lecture hall at the history building!"

Lily turned again.

"Now on the roof of the music building! It just keeps jumping from place to place with that teleportation power!"

Shoulders slumped, head tilted back so her face pointed to the sky, Lily moaned, "Now what do we do?"

She felt frustrated enough to throw her phone down.

"Hold on," said Tanja. "It looks like it's teleporting around in a pattern. If I can just figure the pattern now, I can figure out where it'll be next. I just need a little bit of time."

"We don't have time!" Lily snapped. "We need that last charm now!"

"I know!" Tanja snapped back. She turned right and left, up and down, down and up, and left and right, looking from one computer monitor to the other. "So, it started there, went there, popped up here, and . . . Got it! I know where it'll be! Head to the history building, Mr. Lin's room. Hurry!"

"Uncle Viceroy's classroom. Are you sure?"

"Positive!" said Tanja. "The tiger'll be there in a minute, so you gotta get there fast!"

"I'm already here," said Lily, sitting on the table beneath the movie screen her uncle always used for his lectures.

Tanja blinked. "Wow, that was fast. So you can teleport now?"

"Looks that way," said Lily. She glanced out the window and then gave her phone a look. Time was running out for her and her friends. "Hey, Tanja, are you sure the tiger will - ?"

Up the back the room elevated from the teacher's podium, there was a flash of light and the tiger showed up. Lily acted as soon as she saw the light and appeared next to the tiger in a flash of her own. She reached out to grab the charm, but it jumped away before she could touch it.

The tiger crouched low with a noticeable halo of light around its fur. 

Realizing it was going to teleport away again, Lily cried out, "No!"

But before it could disappear to who-knows-where, a classic shrill school bell rang and startled the tiger. Its concentration lost, the teleportation spell broke before it could be triggered.

The bell also gave Lily a jolt to the heart, but she was quickly snapped out of her stupor by Tanja who screamed from the phone, "Go, Lily! Go!"

Lily dropped the phone and leaped. At the same time the phone hit the floorboard, Lily's outstretched fingers wrapped around the charm hanging from the tiger's collar and yanked it off. In an instant, the tiger disappeared again, but this time it left behind a plush toy in its place.

"I got it! I got the last one!"

"Great!" cheered Tanja. "Now hurry back to the others!"

"On my way!" 

Lily turned to put the charm in the pouch with all the others when suddenly, the whole world started spinning like it was in one big, supercharged washing machine. She tumbled over and hit the wall with her shoulder before slowly sliding down to her knees.

"Lily? Lily! Are you okay?" Tanja's voice came through the phone's speaker full of worry.

Lily shook her head furiously, but could not get rid of the vertigo hanging over her head. Her fingers also felt weak and numb, making it hard for her to pick the phone back up and faintly replied, "Yeah. I'm fine."

An unconvinced Tanja argued, "You don't look fine."

"I'm fine!" Lily aggressively repeated herself. Her legs felt like jelly, but she managed to stand back up and happened to glance up at the window. "Sun's almost up. Need to get back to that jungle. Break the others' curse."

**********

The Schemer had a clear view of the room from a nearby rooftop. He watched as Lily disappeared in a flash of light like the tigers did earlier, and then turned around only to run into a wall of blue feathers.

He slowly turned to see the parrot in its giant form looking back at him with a stern gaze.

Coldly, the parrot said, "I think she's had enough for one night, don't you think?"

The Schemer replied back with a, "Hmm." And then he turned and walked away.

**********

With the power of the sapphire bracelet, Lily went from her uncle's classroom at the history building to the platform between floors at the Castle in the blink of an eye. She slapped her hand on the painting of the tiger and was once more whisked into a jungle where her friends still stood frozen in stone.

After taking out all the charms she had collected, she placed them bunched up together on the floor. And then she shouted to the sky, "Okay! I got all the charms! Now what do I do?"

She didn't get an answer back, but she didn't need one. Almost as soon as she asked, light shined from all five charms. It got so bright that Lily had to look away for a bit.

"Huh? What happened?"

Hearing voices, Lily peaked over her shoulder, and then did a full one-eighty turn.

"Guys! You're okay!"

Beside herself with joy, Lily jumped and caught Oliver, Viv and Eddie in a hug. They and the other Sapphire Society members were completely back to normal. No longer covered in cold stone, but actual warm flesh and blood.

Oliver, Viv and Eddie gaped, bewildered. But then they returned Lily's hug with an embrace of their own. The other members watched.

"So . . ." Hassan spoke up, breaking the heartfelt moment. "What did we miss?"

Everyone gave him a glance. Some rolled their eyes, while others giggled.

But when Viv turned back around, that was when she noticed something was wrong.

"Lily? . . . Lily!"

Lily had fainted.

<== Chapter 28

Lily Wong Ch. 28

Chapter 28

Cameras and Drones

"No, no, no, no, no." Lily looked at the face of her roommate, permanently frozen in stone. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Oh, wait! The bracelet!"

That's right, she thought. The magic bracelet will sort everything out, just like it has done before.

With renewed hope, Lily pulled her sleeve back to expose the bracelet, held her hand out and gave the order. "Bracelet, turn everyone back to normal!"

A curtain of light flashed from the bracelet and draped over the statues. But nothing about the statues changed after the light faded away.

"Bracelet, turn everyone back to normal!"

Again, there was a ray of light. But again, nothing changed.

"Bracelet, make them not statues anymore!"

It was just a repeat of history.

Again and again, Lily commanded the bracelet to cure her friends of their petrification. She tried wording her orders differently, but it always resulted in the same way: complete failure. And with each failed attempt, her frustration mounted until they reached a breaking point, and she just started screaming at the piece of jewelry around her wrist.

"Turn them back to normal! Turn them back to normal! TURN THEM BACK TO NORMAL!"

She dropped to her knees on the grass, hands grasping Viv's cold stone shoulders.

"Turn them back to normal!" She let out one final whimper as her head hung down.

Tanja stood back a few feet away and watched, mind racing but unable to muster up a word to say. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud flutter of wings, and she turned to see a great, big blue parrot behind her. An eye-popping big blue parrot taller than her dad who was often mistaken for a pro-basketball league player.

"The bracelet will not work," it said. Its voice sounded like a chorus of men and women speaking at the same time. You are still too weak to break curses of this level." 

Without turning, Lily softly spoke. "What do you want?"

The parrot sniffed and said, "Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to speak without looking at who you're talking to?"

Lily whirled around and snapped, "Happy now?"

As soon as it saw Lily's face, the parrot's eyes flew wide for a moment as if surprised. But then it cleared its throat and looked away. "Ahem! There is a way for you to break the curse and turn everyone petrified in stone back to normal."

Lily leaped to her feet in a fit of feverish excitement. "Really? How?"

The parrot nodded its head and replied, "Look behind you."

Lily turned. Floating around her friends like stringless balloons were the tiger dolls. Bright blue light flashed from the bubble ball charms on their collars and in the blink of an eye, the tigers went from cute plush toys to huge, living beasts that let out a chorus of fierce roars.

"Eek!"

Startled, Lily shrieked and fell backward.

The parrot sniffed and mocked Lily. "Hmph! You're not going to save anyone like that, Lady Sapphire."

Lily turned and glared at the parrot. "What is that supposed to mean?"

The parrot nodded to the tigers again and said, "The charms on those tigers are the keys to turn your friends back to normal. You need to collect them all in order to break the curse. But I wonder if you can. Word on the grapevine is you have a problem with tigers."

Lily threw another hateful gaze at the bird. "You ARE doing this tiger stuff on purpose after all!"

"Of course," said the parrot. "We're the bad guys of this story, remember? What bad guy would not take advantage of their enemy's fears or weaknesses?"

"Have you been spying on me?"

The parrot snorted. "You really like asking questions with super obvious answers, don't you? Anyway, that's not important right now. What is, is that you don't have a lot of time. If you are unable to collect all the charms before sunrise, then your friends will be stuck in stone forever."

"What? No!" Lily cried in dismay. "You can't let that happen!" 

Coldly, the parrot looked at her and fired back, "No, Lady Sapphire. YOU cannot let that happen. Whether or not your friends will be saved hinges entirely on you. Their fate is in your hands. Now, the only question is will you meet their expectations as a hero and save them or fail and doom them to spend eternity as lifeless pieces of rock?"

Lily rubbed her eyes dry with the sleeve of her blazer. And then with another angry glare at the bird, she said, "That's not going to happen."

The parrot sarcastically stated, "That's some confidence you have there, child. But even with the power of that magic bracelet, don't think it will be easy. In order to get those charms, you have to fight a whole bunch of full-grown tigers."

"It doesn't matter," said Lily. "I'll do whatever it takes to save everyone!"

"Then show me you can!" shouted the parrot. "Tigers! Prepare for battle!"

The tigers answered with another round of fierce roars. They all faced the lone girl with glowing, blue bracelet and crouched down low, ready to pounce on her. Lily glared back just as fiercely. 

She was, of course, still afraid of the tigers. But that fear was pushed aside by an even stronger feeling: the determination to save her friends. And with that determination, she took a brave step forward towards the tigers. More growls rumbled out of the tigers and then they . . . 

. . . turned and ran away as fast as they could until they disappeared into the bushes.

"Huh?"

Lily blinked and stared baffled at their receding tails.

The parrot was equally surprised and yelled, "What the hay-hay?"

Clearly, he expected the tigers to do something else.

But there should really be no surprise the tigers would cowardly flee. After all, just a few minutes ago, while the tigers were just plush toys, this happened:

Erin had said, "Do we need to gut these tigers open?"

Melody had said, "Want me to go get my sewing shears to disembowel them?"

And finally, Lily had said, "I think a nail filer would be enough to tear open their stomachs."

Not exactly the sort of thing you'd forget when someone's talking about their plans for you.

"Hey! Come back here!"

Lily took off running after the tigers, diving into the bushes. She was followed closely behind by Tanja, leaving the parrot alone in the jungle.

The big, blue bird blinked and then quipped, "Not part of the plan, but I guess it'll do."

After diving into the bushes, the girls found themselves flung out of the painting and back onto the platform between staircases in the Blue World version of the Castle in a tangled heap.

After pulling herself free from Tanja's limbs, Lily stood up and turned her head right and left, up and down. But she couldn't see the tigers anywhere and swore. "Where'd they go?"

"Look!" cried Tanja, pointing at the floor. "Those scratch marks look like they came from claws. And they're leading downstairs!"

"Nice catch!" said Lily. "You go find someplace safe to hide!"

And then she rushed down the stairs with her feet pounding loud banging noises. She jumped over the last five steps down onto the lobby floor and followed the trail of scratch marks outside where they split into different directions and faded into the night. 

Frustrated, Lily groaned and stomped her right foot down hard.

"Great! Just great!"

She glanced at her smartphone to check the time. Seeing that there was not much before dawn, she conjured a broomstick from her bracelet and was about to set off flying to search the whole school for the scattered tigers. But she stopped when she heard a set of rapid footsteps thundering towards her and someone call out to her to wait.

Lily turned to see an out-of-breath Tanja.

Annoyed, Lily asked, "Didn't I just tell you to find someplace safe to hide?"

Tanja didn't reply right away. She took in a few deep breaths and then wheezed out a reply. "I . . . can . . . help!"

Lily gave a sharp, "No thanks. I'll take care of this on my own."

Tanja took in a few more deep breaths and argued, "You won't find them all in time."

"I can track them with the magic bracelet," said Lily.

Tanja pointed out, "It'll take too long to do that and go after them by yourself."

"I don't see what difference one more person, especially someone with no magic whatsoever, will make."

"I don't need magic," Tanja said smugly. "Don't worry. I'll keep out of trouble. If this Blue World really is an exact copy of the real one, then I just need you to get me back to my room and I can handle the rest from there."

"And just how will you do that?" asked Lily.

"No time to explain," Tanja said. "You'll just have to trust me I'll get the job done."

Her own dorm room would be a good place to stay safe in, Lily supposed. "Okay, fine!"

She turned the broomstick to a floating magic carpet.

"Hop on!"

Tanja obliged and climbed onto the magic carpet. Lily had the carpet fly straight to the dorms. After climbing into her room through the window, Tanja quickly booted up all of her computers and a couple of drones she pulled out from beneath her bed. Her fingers danced over the keyboard as she leaned over it, putting her face close to the computer screens on her desk.

(Note from the author: That's bad for your eyes, so don't do it.)

"Found them!" she excitedly announced as Lily hopped into the room.

Lily blinked. "Really? That fast?"

"Take a look, if you don't believe me," said Tanja. She scooted aside to give Lily some room.

Lily came closer and was instantly blown away by what she saw. She could see every inch of the school at every conceivable angle.

"Is this the school's camera system? You have access to that?"

"Yep," Tanja said proudly. "And that's not all."

She hit a button on the keyboard and the drones she set aside took flight.

"Whatever the cameras can't see, the drones will."

"How-?"

Tanja cut Lily off and pointed out, "I'll explain everything later. We got more important things to worry about, don't we?"

Lily checked the time again and then nodded. "You're right. It looks like there's a tiger close to the dorms, so I'll start with that one."

She climbed back onto the magic carpet that was left floating out the window. But before taking off, she froze for a second and then stuck her head back into the room and said, "Hey, Tanja?"

"Yeah, Lily?" 

"Thanks. For the other times too."

Tanja's fingers stopped for a second. And then she turned. But Lily was already gone.

<== Chapter 27