Lily Wong Ch. 40

Chapter 40

The Whole, Real, Honest-to-Goodness Truth

Director Bluestone stared at the black cloud hanging over his daughter's head in utter disbelief.

"Fafnir!?" he squealed, repeating the name the cloud had just uttered. "You say you're Fafnir the Dragon?"

"Indeed," said the cloud of smoke. "I am free at last."

Lily could feel its gaze on her next. What looked like eyes on the cloud were fixed to hers.

"And it is thanks to you, child. The one called Lady Sapphire!"

"Me?" Lily faltered. "Because of me . . ."

Before another word could be spoken, Viceroy Kevin Lin scooped the young Sapphire Princess off her feet and then tossed her high into the air. Both the Princess and Director Bluestone yelled out in horror. 

As the director frantically moved to catch her, Lily's Uncle Viceroy's right foot spontaneously combusted, and he flung the flames at the door with a jump-spin kick. BOOM!

"EVERYONE OUT!" the history teacher screamed. "OUT! OUT! OUT!"

Nobody needed telling twice and they all ran out of the room through the smoldering hole Uncle Viceroy had made. The parrot flew overhead with Director Bluestone and the Sapphire Princess.

"Hurry up!" Uncle Viceroy yelled at Lily and the twins.

Viv and Eddie pulled Lily up to her feet and half-dragged her as they all ran away from the black cloud. Uncle Viceroy was the last to leave the room. He lingered by the exit and threw one last look at the cloud. 

The cloud made no move to stop the humans and did nothing but bob around the middle of the room. But Uncle Viceroy did not like the way it chuckled as if watching a comedy show. So, just in case, he stomped his foot on the floor and made a wall of stone pop up to cover the whole and seal the cloud inside.

In its lonesome, it continued to chuckle.

"Flee, insects! Flee! Your futile struggles to survive will be amusing. It's been hundreds of years since I've had any fun!"

**********

Everyone ran and ran, and ran. They went from chamber to chamber, passing through the same traps and obstacles the gang had dealt with before. But this time, all the traps and obstacles stopped and cleared away on their own, allowing everyone to pass unimpeded. This, Lily guessed, was probably thanks to Director Bluestone who always had control of the place from the beginning.

Towards the end, there was a glowing magic circle waiting that took them straight to the Sapphire Society hideout. It was only then that they all stopped running and collapsed from exhaustion. Even Uncle Viceroy was out of breath, but he remained standing.

"Everyone okay?" he asked. "All here? No one missing?"

Oliver was the first to recover. He took a quick look around and then answered, "All present and accounted for, sir."

Satisfied, Uncle Viceroy said, "Good." 

And then he made a loud finger snap. 

In the blink of an eye, thick iron chains appeared around Director Bluestone and pinned his arms to his sides. And then he went flying into an armchair before being surrounded by the metal bars of a cage that fell down from the ceiling.

"Father!" The Sapphire Princess tried to run to Director Bluestone's side, but Uncle Viceroy blocked her way.

"You stay over here," the history teacher ordered her.

He snapped his fingers again and then two exact copies of himself appeared at his sides.

"The dude can multiply!?" George hissed to the others.

Hassan shrugged. "Hey, magic remember? Nothing should surprise us at this point."

Uncle Viceroy dished out orders to his clones. "You, go sound the alarm to get everyone out of the school. And you, go make sure that evil cloud thing stays where it is. Do something about it if you can."

"Roger!" The Uncle Viceroy copies gave the original salutes and then hurried out of the room.

"That should buy us some time," the original muttered to himself.

And then he turned to face his boss with an angry glare. "You got some explaining to do, Bluestone. Was this what you wanted? To unleash some talking cloud calling itself, Fafnir? The famously EVIL dragon, Fafnir? So greedy that he killed someone for gold, Fafnir?"

Bluestone shouted back, "No! I had no idea this was going to happen. I always thought the spell my family cast to bring back Fafnir was a failure!"

"Then why is it here?" Uncle Viceroy yelled.

"AHEM!" Both men turned their gazes to Oliver. "If I may, sir, I think I can explain what's been going on this whole time."

He gave a short pause before continuing.

"When this all started, we thought there was a magical supervillain named the Schemer running around causing trouble for fun. But that's actually not true. It was all pretend by Director Bluestone as a way to make Lily stronger and grow her magic power by making her overcome challenges. He practically said as much while having a secret meeting with the school nurse that I happened to overhear. But if that's not enough, there is proof, or should I say a really big clue that should've tipped us off: the Sapphire Bracelet itself."

"Really?" All eyes turned to the bracelet around Lily's wrist.

Oliver nodded. "Remember what Tanja discovered? That bracelet was like a training weight to help magic power grow by forcing its user to use more magic than they normally would have. The magic spells written on the bracelet were also like the spells in the books that belonged to members of the Sapphire Society who, we can safely guess, were apprentices of Bluestone family wizards. That meant that a Bluestone must have made the bracelet. Am I right, Director?"

Director Bluestone nodded. "Indeed," he said. "I was the one who made that bracelet."

"Now, you might be wondering why Director Bluestone needed Lily's magic power to grow. What did he need Lily for? Well, the answer to that should be obvious now: it was to break free his daughter, A.K.A. the Sapphire Princess."

"But that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered," said Lily. "For one thing, why me of all people? What's so special about me?"

It was Director Bluestone's turn to finally speak. 

"The answer to that is very simple," he said. "It's because your magic energy is an exact match to Safira's. 

"I tried many times and many ways to break Safira free, but failed each and every time. While doing that, I learned that the sapphire keeping her trapped was made from her own magic power, so only she could dispel it. But, of course, she can't do that. I admit, I despaired, thinking I would never get to speak with my daughter again. But then I ran across research that showed that just like how there could be three people in the world with the exact same face, there could also be people with the exact same magic energy. I thought that if there's someone else with the exact same magic energy as Safira's, they could break her free."

"And that someone ended up being me," said Lily.

Director Bluestone nodded.

"But then, why pretend to be a bad guy?" asked Lily. "Why do such horrible things to everyone? Stealing people's important things, stopping them from doing the things they loved, taking away Melody's face? You didn't need to do all that. If you just told me what you really wanted, I'd be happy to help."

"You might," said Director Bluestone. He turned his gaze to Lily's Uncle Viceroy. "But your parents and your uncle were not. They flat-out refused to allow you to get mixed up in anything magical."

Uncle Viceroy looked confused. "I don't remember you asking - Oh! No, wait. Now I remember. That did happen."

Director Bluestone rolled his eyes. "Figures that was all it took for you to break the memory erasing spell I cast on you."

Lily threw her uncle an angry glare. "Uncle Viceroy, why would you refuse to help?"

Feeling no guilt whatsoever, the history teacher crossed his arms and spoke back, "I never said anything about not helping. I just didn't want you to get mixed up in magic stuff."

"Why not?" Lily asked. "YOU'RE mixed up in magic stuff. Why can't I be too?"

"For one thing, it's because your parents didn't want that," Uncle Viceroy said. "Something about catching my 'weirdness'. For another, it's because magic stuff is dangerous. I think you already understood that from some of your last adventures."

"I never planned to hurt anyone," Director Bluestone argued. "All the challenges I designed were perfectly safe!"

"Perfectly safe? PERFECTLY SAFE!?" Uncle Viceroy's voice raised as his temper flared. "Lily nearly died twice because of you!"

Director Bluestone fell silent, unable to argue back. And Uncle Viceroy was not done talking.

"And that's not all!" the history teacher shouted. "Emeron's one thing, but the magic side of this world is almost all evil! Being on the Council, you should know better than anyone how bad it can get. Heck, even the Magic Council's not above doing bad things to get what they want! Not to mention your own family brought back an evil dragon! Or at least a cloud ghost thing of an evil dragon."

Safira could stay silent no longer and yelled, "It's not Father's fault! It's mine! It's because of me, he did those bad things to so many people. And it's because of me that Fafnir was revived!"

"What do you mean?" asked Tanja.

Safira answered with a story.

"First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Safira Bluestone, who you've all been calling the Sapphire Princess. That last part was, of course, made up by Father. 

"Anyway, It all started many, many, many years ago. I was just a normal small town girl who didn't know anything about magic, nor that it even existed. Not until one day, while playing in the forest, I met an old man who said he was Father's father. 

"For all my life, it was just me, my brother and Father in our family. Mother sadly died when I was still a baby. So I was excited to learn that there was more of us.

"Grandfather explained that before I was born, he and Father had a really bad argument that made Father leave home and cut ties with the rest of the family. It made Grandfather very sad and he asked for my help to make up with Father. I gladly agreed to lend a hand. At the time, I had no idea that the real reason Father left the Bluestone family was because they were all evil until it was too late.

"Since that day, I became Grandfather's apprentice in the magic arts. I was amazed, astonished and flabbergasted to find out that the Bluestone family, that my own father, had fantastical magic powers just like the wizard Merlin from the tales of King Arthur. And I got to learn how to wield those same fantastical magic powers. By a couple of months, I could fly in the air like a bird, grow as big as a house and shrink as small as a mouse. I could make fire with a snap of my fingers and cool an entire room with an icy winter breath.

"During that time, I also got to know my grandmother, Father's younger sister and all their aunts and uncles. They were all really nice and friendly. I didn't understand how things could have gotten so bad between them and Father.

"Father and Brother never knew what I was really up to. They just thought I was playing in the forest like always. I kept all of it a secret from them because Grandfather asked me to. He said he wanted to make it a surprise as part of his plan to bring the family back together.

"And then the day came when Grandfather announced the whole family was going to perform a ceremony with me at the center. I was really excited because I thought it was going to be the day Father and Grandfather were finally going to get along again. I was even given a fancy dress just for the occasion.

"But almost as soon as the ceremony started, I noticed something was wrong. The room was all dark and gloomy, lit by just a couple of candles. Except for me, everyone was wearing black robes with hoods covering their heads and faces. I was beginning to have doubts that this ceremony was a good thing because of how scary everything already looked. But with a little prodding, they got me to join them in reciting a strange poem. I don't remember the exact words and I don't care to. And then, HE showed up.

"A most sinister looking black cloud rose up from the ground, from which came a malevolent voice that said he was the dragon, Fafnir. I remembered reading storybooks about Fafnir that described him as a wicked monster and turned to warn them, only to find them cheering in triumph that the spell had worked. That was when I finally realized that I had been tricked. Grandfather and the rest of the Bluestone family never cared about mending things with Father. They just needed someone to help them complete the magic spell to bring back the evil dragon. 

"They didn't even care when the wicked wyrm's spirit started voicing his plans to eat people and take their treasure. All they cared about was asking it questions and getting answers as payment for reviving it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lily cut in. "They were planning to ask Fafnir questions? THAT'S what they brought back an evil dragon's spirit for?"

"That is no surprise, if you remember the Bluestone family motto," said Director Bluestone. 

"Glory through wisdom."

Director Bluestone gave Oliver a nod. "That's right. The Bluestone family believed the way to glory was through wisdom. And what is wisdom but knowing everything?"

Uncle Viceroy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Fafnir's a really famous dragon. Even I've heard of him. I think one legend said he knew a lot of stuff, so I guess it tracks that a family that wants to know everything would want to pick his brain." 

"I couldn't believe it," Safira continued. "The Bluestone family, my family, was going to sacrifice people just to satisfy their curiosity. And I was horrified at the part I played in their plans.

"I remember thinking if only I realized sooner what these people were really like, that they were lying through their teeth, maybe this wouldn't have happened. But I never realized, and it did happen. I helped make it happen. Thanks to me, an evil monster was back and going to eat people. I wasn't sure how since he was a cloud of smoke. But he was a magical cloud of smoke, so he probably had some way to do it. Father, Brother, my friends and neighbors. They were all in danger. But not unless I do something about it.

"How, though? I wondered. How was I going to stop this evil monster from hurting the people I loved?

"I thought and I thought, and I thought. And then I got an idea to trap the monster forever in stone, using myself as bait. So I called out to him and offered to let him possess me. Just as I hoped, the smoke fell for my trick and flew up my nose. And then, once I sniffed him all up, I started to cast the magic spell.

"It was hard. Like, really hard. Almost as hard as pushing a wagon by myself. That hard. Fafnir figured out what I was going to do and tried to take control and stop me. He commanded my jaws to snap shut, made my own hand clap itself over my mouth, and twisted my lips to muddle my words. I think there was even a lot of thrashing around too. But I resisted the dastardly dragon just long enough to finish the incantation.

"In the blink of an eye, we were covered head to toe in a giant blue jewel. I could hear the dragon screaming in fury and cursing at me. He voiced all sorts of plans for revenge most foul. But it didn't matter. It was my victory. 

"Relieved to know Fafnir was never going to hurt anyone ever again, I quickly began to fall asleep. But before darkness overtook me, I was able to catch one last glimpse of Father and Brother as they stormed the ceremony chamber. They looked really angry. And then everything went black.

"The next thing I knew after that, I heard voices and I saw your face, Lily, blue through the jewel's surface. I was pretty shocked to see a girl around my age try and break me free. It got me panicking because freeing me meant freeing Fafnir too. Luckily though, you failed."

That must have been from the first time the Schemer showed himself, Lily thought.

Oliver chimed in. "I'm guessing that although Lily's power wasn't enough to break you free back then, it was enough to wake you up. You were probably confused at first, but then found out what Director Bluestone was up to."

Safira nodded. 

"I could hear everything going on outside of the jewel as well as see," she explained. "And I got a front row seat to Father and Brother as they did their plotting, so I knew exactly what was going on."

"And you tried to warn me," Lily said. "You were that voice I was hearing, weren't you?"

Again, Safira nodded. 

"One thing I don't get, though," Hassan cut in. "You said you and Director Bluestone were there when the Bluestone family did that whole summon a dead dragon thing. But Oliver said, Director Bluestone said that happened before the school was founded, which was a long, long, long time ago. Before even my great-great-grandpa was born really. You're one thing, Safira, being frozen in sapphire. But how could Director Bluestone be there? And be your dad, no less?"

"Oh, you kids don't know?" All eyes turned to Uncle Viceroy.

"Know what?" Lily asked him.

He answered nonchalantly, "Bluestone's more than two hundred years old. He's changed his name to Julius the Second, the Third and so on, so normal folks don't catch on, but he's really Julius Bluestone the First the whole time. And he's also apparently too lazy to make up a brand new name."

Director Bluestone frowned at the history teacher in dismay. "Was that last part really necessary?"

The students stared at him in amazement.

"Seriously?" went George. "You lived that long, Director?"

"That's nothing to be surprised over," Uncle Viceroy said. "I have a friend from another world who learned magic from a witch who lived to be a thousand.

"Anyway, to sum up: The Bluestone family tricked Safira into bringing back a famously evil dragon named Fafnir. To stop the dragon from hurting anyone, Safira sacrificed herself and froze herself and the dragon in a giant piece of sapphire. Director Bluestone found out about what happened, overthrew the Bluestone family and then spent the next two hundred years or so trying to break her free while not knowing Fafnir was trapped with her. Lily ended up being the key to freeing both of them thanks to her magic powers matching Safira's. But because I wasn't going to let Lily get mixed up in anything magical, Director Bluestone went behind my back and tricked Lily into thinking she was some kind of chosen one hero while he pretended to be the bad guy of a completely made-up script. His plan worked, but now we got the spirit of an evil dragon to deal with. Is that everything?"

Erin raised her hand. "I got something. Who's this Brother you kept mentioning, Safira?"

"She was talking about me." Everyone turned to see the blue parrot standing on a table looking haughty as always. Its weird combo of several voices speaking at the same time was gone and replaced with a regular man's voice with a British accent. "Warren Bluestone, at your service."

"Okay, is that everything now?" asked Uncle Viceroy. "The whole truth? The whole real, honest-to-goodness truth?"

"One more thing," said Warren Bluestone, the parrot. He turned his haughty gaze to Lily and the others. "You're probably wondering who the Lady of Sapphire is, now that it's come out that your adventures were all fabricated and scripted play-pretend. Well, she's actually a school nurse using the magic version of a video game avatar. Oliver probably already knows this, but half of the people working at the school were in on Bluestone's plan."

"Okay," said Uncle Viceroy. "So NOW do we got the whole, real, honest-to-goodness truth?"

All three Bluestones nodded. "The whole, real, honest-to-goodness truth."

Suddenly, Tanja raised her hand. "Ooh! One more thing! You still haven't told us why you wear glasses when you don't need them, Mr. Lin."

<== Chapter 39                                                                                 Chapter 41 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 39

Chapter 39

Rescue (Part 2)

"Okay," Oliver started with a clap of his hands. "Let's go over everything one more time so we're all on the same page."

Everyone huddled together with him and nodded.

"Our goal is to rescue Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess who're both frozen in a giant pillar made of sapphire stone. From what we already know, only Lily can break them out with help from the magic bracelet so that'll be her job. And that means the rest of us has the job of making sure nothing gets in her way. That includes dealing with the Schemer ourselves. Based on what Lily's told us, his power's no joke. If we have to face him, we got to go full throttle, no mercy. Even if that's not enough to do anything to him, at least it'll distract him long enough for Lily to do what she has to do."

"Let's hope the Schemer doesn't show up then," said Eddie.

"Speaking of the Schemer, there's actually something I should tell you guys," Lily said. After hesitating a bit, she spoke up. "It's something I left out earlier, but - !"

Oliver cut in and said, "The Schemer is actually Director Bluestone. Is that it?"

Lily looked at him in surprise, and then nodded.

"Wait," George cut in. "I thought the Schemer was supposed to be a relative of the director."

"That's just what he told us," Oliver said. "Well, to be exact, he said the Schemer was a member of the Bluestone family, which was true because the director, himself, is a Bluestone."

"But how'd you figure it out yourself?" asked Lily. "Since when?"

"When we waited for the Schemer to go away so we could nab the bracelet back," replied Oliver. "The way he sat in that chair of his was exactly how the director always sat whenever I met with him before. And I've seen him enough times to know his sitting habits by heart, down to the littlest detail. But what about you, Lily? How did you find out the Schemer's secret identity?"

"He told me," said Lily. "He didn't even bother to put on his costume when I came to save Uncle Viceroy."

"I can't believe it," went Hassan. "As far as teachers went, Director Bluestone was the coolest. To think he was a bad guy this whole time."

"But wait," Erin cut in. "That means we'll be fighting a teacher! Isn't that a bad thing?"

"It is," said Oliver. He looked like he had a heavy heart. "But Director Bluestone is also doing bad things. And he has to be stopped from doing any more, even if that means fighting him."

A stifling mood hung over the gang, but it was quickly dispelled by an optimistic Eddie who said, "It'll be fine. Mr. Lin can help us sort this out once we break him out."

His sister pointed out, "Mr. Lin lost to Director Bluestone, remember?"

"Yeah, but like Oliver said before, everything'll work out if we all work together."

"Right you are, Eddie," said Oliver. "Then let's not waste anymore time."

Taking the leader place, he opened the door and stormed out. 

After taking a look around, Oliver whispered, "Okay. So far, so good. No Schemer in sight."

No sooner he said that, a multitude of voices speaking at once cut in from overhead and said, "No, but I'm here."

Everyone turned their heads. 

No surprise, there was a blue-feathered parrot perched on top of the pillar made of sapphire with Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess trapped inside. THE blue parrot.

"I've been waiting for you," it said.

Oliver took a look around. "Just you? What happened to Director Bluestone?"

"Hmph!" The parrot sniffed with contempt. "So you finally realized that Julius was the Schemer all along. But I suppose that's no surprise, since he got tired of waiting for you all to figure it out yourselves and revealed himself.

"Julius doesn't need to waste his time on you," the parrot replied back. "Now that he knows how weak the chosen hero of the Sapphire Bracelet really is, he can ignore you all and turn his attention to better things."

"Well that's good," said Eddie. "This'll be a piece of cake if it's just the bad guy's sidekick."

The parrot didn't like that. "Excuse me? Just a sidekick?"

"Eek!"

"Yikes!"

"Whoa!"

Suddenly, the parrot grew from a speck on top of the room's single decoration to about as big as a grownup elephant. One flap of its wings nearly blew everyone off their feet.

"IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU JUST CALLED ME?"

The parrot's voices had also grown with its size and echoed several times over in the room.

Viv threw her brother a reproachful look. "You just had to tick off the parrot, didn't you?"

Lily rolled back her sleeve with the bracelet now back on her arm. "Hold on, guys. Let me - !"

Before she could act, Oliver stopped her. "No. You need all the magic power you can muster to break Mr. Lin and the Princess out. We'll handle the parrot. Come on, guys! Let's go!"

He led the charge and ran up close to the monument with a baseball-sized fireball in his hand, which he lobbed at the great, big bird. The parrot hopped off to dodge the attack and then swooped around Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess, headed up to the ceiling and then dove down, aiming its beak to skewer the teen detective's heart.

Hassan stepped between the parrot and Oliver and, mimicking the parrot, magically grew three times his original size while holding up an iron, round shield he had pulled out of thin air. The parrot crashed into the shield and exploded into a cloud of blue smoke, only to reappear from behind the monument in its normal size.

The giant version had been a clone the whole time.

Oliver quickly retreated behind his giant friend as the parrot flew over, spitting out a jet of fire. Hassan blocked the flames with his shield.

Erin and Melody both took something out from their pockets that instantly grew into large butterfly nets with flicks of their wrists. They swung the nets at the parrot, but it quickly flew back up the ceiling before the nets reached.

While the parrot was kept busy, Lily seized the chance to run over to the pillar and placed her hand on the warm sapphire stone. After giving her uncle and the Sapphire Princess a quick look, she focused all her energy into the bracelet and gave it a command.

"Alright, bracelet! Time for a revenge match! Let's break them free!"

The bracelet answered with a flash of light shining from its jewels. In reaction, the huge sapphire stone also shined.

Startled by the blinding light, the parrot squawked and shrank away, before growing ten feet tall. It turned while using one wing to shield its face and roared out, "LILY WONG!"

It hunched down, looking like it was going to jump on Lily. But it got jumped on instead by Oliver, Alejandro and George. The parrot tried to shake the boys off, but then Tanja dove onto the pile too, and the parrot's legs finally buckled under their combined weight and it collapsed onto the floor. "Oof!"

"Hurry, Lily!" Oliver cried.

Lily yelled back, "I'm trying!"

She pushed everything she had into breaking the giant sapphire open, but it showed no signs of cracking. Lily, on the other hand, could feel her head throbbing while the world went swirly. And then the light on the jewels became noticeably dimmer.

Oh no! She thought. It can't be that after all this time, my power's still not enough. For what did I go through all that trouble for then?

Just as she started to despair at failing a second time here, she felt a pair of hands on one shoulder.

"Here, Lily," she heard Viv's voice say. "Let me give you a boost!"

And then Lily felt another pair of hands on her other shoulder.

"Don't forget about me," said Eddie.

The throbbing left Lily's head and the light on the huge gemstone grew brighter again. Not only that, a jagged line appeared across the Sapphire Princess' face. And then another.

Elated, Lily thought, It's working! It's working this time.

All over the huge gemstone, more cracks appeared. She could feel it vibrating against her palm, followed by a growl coming from her uncle. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Almost there," she mumbled. "Just a little bit more!"

"NO! STOP!"

Suddenly, a girl's voice cried out. It was so loud that it drowned out any other kind of noise and created waves that sent shivers down everyone's spine. Including Oliver's, who, while laying on the parrot's feathery back, felt something shatter in his head as the waves passed through him. 

He was suddenly hit with a flashback to a forgotten past and then remembered that today was not the first time he found out Director Bluestone was the Schemer. He actually found out a lot earlier. 

But that was not the only thing he realized.

"Director Bluestone wanted Lily to get stronger. Everything has been going exactly as he planned. Even now!"

The parrot overheard the teen detective's mumbling and glanced back, thinking, Oh, this is not good.

But it was too late for the parrot to stop what happened next.

At the top of his lungs, Oliver panickily shouted, "Lily, stop! It's all a trick! We're doing exactly what Director Bluestone wants!"

"Huh?" Lily turned with a start and let go of the sapphire stone for just a little moment. But then, there was an explosion of blue smoke next to her. And out of it, appeared Director Bluestone who grabbed Lily by the bracelet on her wrist and forced her hand back on the sapphire.

Lily felt the rest of her power drain out in an instant and her knees buckled. At the same time, a pulse burst from the palm of her hand and spread all over the huge sapphire, causing it to explode into a cloud of fine, powdery dust.

It knocked Lily to the floor alongside her friends and Director Bluestone. Director Bluestone was the first to recover. He was already on his feet, crying, "Safira!"

As Lily gingerly sat up, the dust cloud settled and disappeared, and she could see two figures standing in the middle of the chamber: Uncle Viceroy and the Sapphire Princess.

"Safira!"

With a big smile plastered on his face, Director Bluestone ran to the Princess. But the Sapphire Princess did not smile in return. Instead, she screamed, "No! Stay away!"

Director Bluestone froze. His smile dropped to a distraught frown. "Safira, it's me! It's Julius Bluestone, your father!"

"Father!?" Everyone cried out in surprise.

The Sapphire Princess was Director Bluestone's daughter this whole time? But then why would he have her trapped in that huge gemstone? Wait, but Oliver said this was what he wanted.

"Grrrr!" Lily furiously scratched both sides of her head. Her confusion put her over the tipping point. "Just what is going on here!?"

Nobody answered her. All eyes were on the father and daughter pair having a less-than-happy reunion.

"Safira, please! I've waited so long to speak with you again!"

But the Sapphire Princess, Safira, refused to let her father come closer. "No! Please, just stay away! It's too dangerous!"

Director Bluestone caught on quick that something was wrong and frowned. "Dangerous? What is dangerous?"

The Sapphire Princess didn't answer. Instead, someone else spoke. Something else.

"She speaks of me, Son of Thaddeus Bluestone."

It was a voice that was deep, dark and full of malevolence unlike anything Lily had heard before. The source of the voice was a cloud of thick, black smoke swirling around over the Sapphire Princess' head.

With a wicked, evil cackle, the black smoke made a loud and triumphant announcement.

 "AT LAST! I, THE EVIL DRAGON FAFNIR, AM FREE!"

<== Chapter 38                                                                             Chapter 40 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 38

 

Chapter 38

Rescue

The Lady of Sapphire led the Sapphire Society to the gym. By now, with the sun close to setting, the building should be completely empty.

As soon as they saw where they were headed, Viv, Eddie, and Oliver had a sinking suspicion they knew where Lily would be. And they were right.

Sure enough, the ghostly lady took them to the side of the building, to a familiar door that led to the gym's underground level and was marked forbidden to all but the school's staff members. Once gathered in front of the door, everyone was bathed bright light that shined from a magic circle beneath their feet. The next thing they knew, they were all in a hallway of dark stone with the only sources of light coming from flickering flames held in stone bowls attached to the walls.

"Well, this place sure brings back memories," Eddie quipped as he looked around. "Not good ones though."

"So now what?" asked George. "Do we just go straight down?"

Viv nodded. "Yeah. Down there, there'll be one of those crystal balls , like at the . . . hideout . . . Oh, shoot!"

"What is it?" asked Oliver, concerned about the outburst Viv made after she trailed off.

"I totally forgot about this puzzle," Viv groaned. "Solving it is the only thing that can open the secret passageway into the maze, but only Lily can make them work!"

Horrified, Hassan cried out, "So we're trapped here!?"

"Worry not, children," said the Lady of Sapphire. "There is not much I can do in my current state, but I can alter the workings of some of the maze's functions so that you may pass through its chambers."

Many of the Sapphire Society members looked at her blankly. Eddie went, "Huh?"

"She means she can hack this underground lair and unlock all the doors for us," Tanja said.

"Oh. Why didn't she just say so?"

After the spirit floated over to the big, blue crystal ball and got it glowing, a section of the wall next to her sank down to reveal a passageway to the next hallway exactly like the last time the Waller twins had been here. The Lady of Sapphire went on ahead with the Sapphire Society gang following closely behind. She led them to a three-way fork and then down the left pathway, which led to another fork with two choices.

With so many twists and turns to follow, the gang was grateful to have the Lady of Sapphire leading the way. Especially Eddie and Viv who could no longer remember what route they took the last time they were here. They did, however, remember what lied ahead and warned the others.

First up was the lava pit. 

Just as the pit below started to fill with superhot magma, Melody conjured up a huge bubble that carried the whole gang over to the other side. They were out before the lava even reached up to a quarter of the  pool.

Next was the bottomless pit room. It had not been restored, unlike the lava pit room, but the pieces of the single bridge to the other side had been broken apart again. Oliver took on the task of connecting them back together, taking turns with Alejandro to move them at the correct angle.

After making it over to the next room, Hassan used a magic spell to cover everyone from head to toe in shiny, silvery metal. The arrows flying left and right bounced harmlessly off their steel skin. They didn't even feel a thing.

When it came time to deal with the strangling plants, George took a deep breath and blew out of his mouth a spinning tornado of fire that filled up the entire room and both shredded the murderous plants to pieces as well as burnt them to ashes. Viv handled the lightning room, cloaking everyone in a shroud of electricity that repelled the bolts that came flying down from the ceiling to try strike them down.

Once they approached the big hole on the floor, Eddie snapped his fingers and everyone got big, white-feathered wings sprouting out of their backs. The wings carried them down the hole and towards the next room, disappearing after their owners touched down on the floor.

"Well, this has been surprisingly easy," said Eddie. "I remember us freaking out a bunch the last time we were here."

"I guess that just goes to show how much we've leveled up since last time," Viv said smugly.

Oliver added, "It also helps that we know what to expect beforehand."

"I guess it was a good thing I came here on my own last time, after all," said Eddie. 

He had a proud look on his face, but his sister shook her head and said, "No, I'm still mad about that."

Using a magic spell, Tanja moved the many layers of the dial puzzle with her mind until they formed a picture of a parrot which undid the lock on the doorway to another room with lots of large, stone blocks. Erin and Naomi took turns using their minds to stack the stone blocks to make a staircase up to the exit. After that was just one more puzzle before they could at last reach Lily. But there was a problem.

The Lady of Sapphire floated in front of a row of large crystal balls, arms crossed and frowning. She stared at them for about five minutes before someone finally spoke up.

"Uh . . ." went Erin. "What's the hold-up?"

"Have patience, child," said the Lady of Sapphire. "I just need to think for a bit."

"Think about what?" asked Tanja. "Can't you just bypass the security like you did with that first crystal ball way back when we started?"

"I can but . . ."

"Don't tell me," said Oliver. "You still need to solve the puzzle, but you can't remember the right combo?"

"Well . . . " The ghostly lady gave him an awkward smile and shrugged.

Oliver turned to the twins. "You've been here before. Do you remember what order Lily fed magic power to those crystal balls to get the doors opened?"

He nodded back to the huge blue doors decorated with the school symbol in gold.

"Sorry," said Viv, "but I don't."

"Same," said Eddie. "It was a while ago, after all."

"Well, I guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way," said Oliver. 

He took out a pen and a notebook which he used to jot down the combos used as the Lady of Sapphire tried again and again to get the door open. Tanja chimed in whenever she could, and within minutes, the doors swung open. Bright blue light shined out of the cracks, making the members of the Sapphire Society turn away. When they looked back again, they found themselves face to face with a giant cluster of blue gemstone that had two people entombed within, a young girl around eleven or twelve years old and -

"Mr. Lin!" Viv cried out. "What's he doing here?"

"Viceroy Kevin Lin found and confronted the the Schemer," explained the Lady of Sapphire. "But alas, his power was no match for the Schemer who easily bested him in battle."

"Well, now we know why he was absent from classes," Eddie said, looking up at the trapped and frozen teacher. "Why does he look like he's leaping and shrieking like a monkey?"

Viv shrugged. "It's Mr. Lin. He's always doing stuff that don't make a lick of sense."

Tanjya looked up at the girl trapped with the history teacher. "So this is the Sapphire Princess. She really looks a lot like you, Ms. Lady of Sapphire."

"That, she does," said the Lady of Sapphire. She stared longingly at the girl who, unlike Mr. Lin, looked like she was peacefully sleeping while floating in a pool of blue.

"I'm starting to get a clearer picture about what must've happened," said Oliver. "To sum it all up: Somehow, Mr. Lin found out who the Schemer was and went to confront him, only to lose and end up captured. And then Lily came to rescue Mr. Lin, only to end up captured herself. My guess is she was lured into a trap by the Schemer who used Mr. Lin as a hostage."

"You are correct, Oliver," said the Lady of Sapphire.

"But speaking of Lily, where is she?" Viv asked as she looked around. "I don't see her. Do you know, Lady of Sapphire?"

There was no answer.

"Lady of Sapphire?"

"Huh?" The ghostly lady was still staring at the Sapphire Princess with her hand pressed on the blue gemstone when Viv's voice snapped her out of her stupor. "Yes? Oh, right! Lily!"

She pointed to a door at the right side of the chamber. "She's in that room over there. But before we go in, we must retrieve the Sapphire Bracelet. Only with the bracelet can we free her from the Schemer's terrible curse."

"Okay," said Viv. "Then where's the bracelet?"

The Lady of Sapphire pointed to another door opposite of the one that she claimed Lily was behind.

"There," she said. "I can sense the bracelet's power beyond that door."

"Behind there, huh?" Viv said.

She walked over to the door and reached for the door handle before being stopped by Oliver.

"Wait, Viv! We don't know what else could be in that room. There could be traps, so we need to be careful about this. Let me go first."

Taking Viv's place at the door, Oliver wrapped his fingers around the door handle and slowly pulled it down. He tried pushing the door and then pulling it. Pulling it worked and he opened the door a crack, just wide enough to peek in with one eye.

"Well?" hissed Viv. "What do you see, Oliver?"

"Shh!" Oliver shushed. 

The room beyond the door was round, just like the first. But it was much smaller. There was a midnight blue armchair sitting in the middle of the room with a table next to it. On the table was a white teapot, a dainty white tea cup with steam wafting out of it, and the Sapphire Bracelet.

"Bingo," Oliver muttered under his breath. 

He turned his gaze to the armchair itself which had someone sitting in it. The person was covered from head to toe in blue robes with their face concealed beneath a hood that cast a completely black shadow.

Oliver swore, and then he slowly closed the door shut.

"I saw the bracelet," he told the others. "But the Schemer's there right next to it."

Exasperated, Viv groaned. "Great! Now what do we do? We need that bracelet to help Lily!"

Oliver shook his head and whispered, "I don't know."

He took another peek inside and frowned. There was something familiar about the way the Schemer leaned over the chair's left arm with one leg folded over the other while holding his hands together on his lap.

"No way. Could that be . . . ? Ow!"

Oliver's thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain to his cranium.

Panicked, Hassan hissed, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Oliver shook his head and whispered back, "It's nothing. Just got a headache. It's gone now."

He peeked back into the room again and saw the Schemer standing up.

What's he up to now? Oliver wondered.

He watched the Schemer walk over to the side of the room and push open a door there before walking through it. Once he was through, the door closed shut, leaving the room with no one inside.

"I can't believe it. He just up and left!"

"What? Really?" went Alejandro. "Where could he have one?"

"Who cares?" Hassan cut in. "Now's our chance! Let's get in and grab the bracelet!"

"Wait, there could still be traps," said Oliver. "We should - !"

But Viv could not wait anymore. She pushed past Oliver and rushed into the room before anyone could stop her. After grabbing the bracelet off the table, she turned and walked back out.

Oliver gave her a stern glare and said, "That was dangerous."

Viv fired back, "Hey, nothing happened, did it? Anyway, we're wasting time!"

And then she went running over to the other room. The others followed.

**********

Lily stood in a small round room, depressed and unable to move because of a growing pile of sapphire. At first, the gemstone covered just her feet, gluing them to the floor. But it has grown since then and was now up to her neck. And it was still growing.

She tried to her hardest to break free, but her efforts were futile. Her measly strength was no match against the solid rock. It would be no problem if she still had her magic bracelet, but without it, she was helpless.

I can't believe this is how it ends, she thought bitterly as the sapphire crept up to her jaw. I don't want it to end this way. Someone, anyone, please help!

She could not voice her wish out loud. For one thing, there was no one to hear it. For another, the stone covered her mouth. And then her nose. At that point, she lost hope and thought that it was really over for her. All she could do now was close her eyes and wait.

And then - 

BAM! 

"LILY!"

Hearing a familiar voice cry out her name, Lily's eyes flew open and she saw her roommate running over to her with the magic bracelet held tight in her hands. The whole gang came pouring into the room after her.

What are they doing here? Lily wondered. She was both relieved and horrified to see them. Relieved because it looked like her friends had come to rescue her. Horrified because it looked like her friends had come to rescue her in what could be the most dangerous place on the planet.

"Hold on, Lily," Viv said. "We'll get you out of there soon."

"No, you need to get out of here before the Schemer comes back," Lily wanted to tell her. But with her mouth sealed, what came out was: "Mh! Mmh mmmh mh mh mh mh mh mmmh!" Or something like that.

"Now, how do we use this thing?" Viv asked aloud, holding up the bracelet. Lily wondered how she got that when it should've been with the Schemer. "Do you know, Lady of Sapphire? Huh? Where'd she go?"

Everyone looked around, but the ghostly lady was nowhere to be found.

"Great! Now what do we do?" Viv whined.

"Oh! I know!" exclaimed Eddie. "Why don't we try making the bracelet touch all this stone?"

Viv turned to Oliver, who shrugged and said, "Let's go for it. I got nothing better."

So, Viv lightly tapped the bracelet against the stone that got Lily trapped inside. Almost at once, both the bracelet's jewels and the huge sapphire stone shined with blinding light making everyone look away. When they turned back around, both the light and all that sapphire around Lily were gone.

Free from the sapphire's hold, Lily's knees buckled and she dropped down to the ground where she sat. The others rushed to her side.

"Lily!" cried Viv. "Are you okay?"

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?" asked Oliver.

"I'm fine," Lily said. With Viv's help, she stood back up. "But you guys shouldn't have come. If the Schemer catches you-!"

"Who cares about that?" Viv snapped. "What were you thinking, going after him alone like that?"

"You really should have let us know, Lily," said Oliver.

"Yeah," said Eddie. "We could have helped."

"You could end up cursed like last time," Lily said. "I don't want that to happen again."

"How do you think we'd feel if that happened to you?" Viv argued. "Oh, wait. I can answer that because it already happened to you. For me at least, it felt downright lousy. Horrible. You scared years off my life!"

"Listen Lily," said Oliver, "I know that you don't want us to get hurt. But it's the same for us. We don't want anything bad happening to you either. We care about you. You're our friend. That's exactly why we need to work together so that we all make it through this in one piece."

"But, the bracelet - !"

Oliver cut Lily off before she could finish. "The bracelet chose you, yes. You're the only person who can handle the Schemer, yes. But you can't do everything alone. Sometimes you need help just like everyone else. And we, your friends can give you that help. You can see for yourself that we've been doing a good job of it this time. And we'll always be willing to lend a hand whenever you need it. Promise. So, what do you say? Will you let us join you?"

Lily looked at the hand Oliver held up to her. She could see in his eyes that he meant every word he said, and that the others felt the same way. 

After a little hesitating, she took Oliver's hand into a handshake and said, "Please, help me save Uncle Viceroy and the Sapphire Princess."

Grinning from ear to ear, everyone said, "Sure!" With Eddie adding, "Did you really need to ask?"

<== Chapter 37                                                                                Chapter 39 ==>

Poem: How the Weak and Ordinary Punish the Strong and Powerful

To the Strong and Powerful

You are on notice.

Insignificant though I may be,

My voice barely a squeak from Down Yonder

As you gaze from Thrones so high.

You see yourselves untouchable

No sin committed can be punished

Such is your Priviledge of Wealth

Such is the benefit of your Political Seat

But know, with each Crime you perform

Each Step you make to the Devil's tune

Each Sin you put on full display

Your punishment is set.

I have the means.

I have the tools.

To etch your Crimes in Stone.

To make your every words and actions immortalized.

Your Worshippers may be blind

But the Wise will see you as you really are

They will remember

And They too will etch in Stone

The Truth You cannot see Yourselves

And when your Descendants See what You have done

To learn your True Nature

They will turn away from you in Shame.

To toss away your name

Deny you claim of Their Ancestry

The Price you pay for your goals is clear

No matter that you do not care

Your legacy is set

One of absolute ridicule and contempt.

You may have Glory now.

Worshippers may flock to praise you.

But you will be remembered for the Clowns that you are

The Demons and Monsters wearing Masks of False Justice

No matter how much Books you and yours seek to Burn

No matter the Lies you and yours will spew forth

The Truth will be plain to see

Made Immortal by Us, the Weak and the Ordinary

For that is my Punishment

To see Your Legacy set

So muddied are Your Names

By the Truth of My Records

Lily Wong Ch. 37

Chapter 37

Captured

"Okay, guys!" went Oliver. "Are you ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," said George. He and the other library helpers stood at the side of the room with their hands raised. "Let 'em rip!"

Oliver stood at another side of the room and nodded to the Waller twins and Tanika who stood beside him. They pointed fingers at a trio of scarecrows lined up at a third side of the room and unleashed bolts of lightning from their outstretched fingertips. Huge shields shields appeared in front of the scarecrows and protected the scarecrows from the unprovoked attacks. 

What the whole Sapphire Society was doing was taking turns practicing magic spells for fighting and protecting. They've been working harder than ever to get better at it for a while now, but Viv was especially putting her all in the training this time after finding out from Oliver why Lily may've been acting strange.

A little bit of time ago . . .

Hassan raised an eyebrow. "Lily was acting strange?"

Viv nodded. She and Eddie told the others about what happened as soon as they met up with everyone in the Sapphire Society's hideout.

"I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong, but she ran away before I could get any answers," she said. "And she's skipped all our other classes."

"I was afraid of this," Oliver said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You know what's up with her, Oliver?" asked Viv.

Oliver hesitated, but with all eyes on the teen detective now, he couldn't stay silent any longer. "It's just an educated guess on my part, but I think that what happened to us in that painting really shook Lily to her core. You know, when we were all turned into statues. I can tell you before I blacked out, I saw she looked really devastated. She may be afraid of something like that happening again and decided to handle everything on her own."

"You mean Lily wants to fight against the Schemer alone from now on?" asked Eddie.

Oliver nodded.

"That's crazy!" Viv cried out. "She's nearly died two times already!"

"I know," said Oliver. "And things are only going to get more dangerous from now on. The Schemer just keeps upping his game."

"What do we do?" asked Eddie.

"The only thing we can do," said Oliver. "And what we've already been doing: upping our own game and doubling down on our training . . ."

. . . which was what the gang ended up doing for the whole afternoon.

"Okay," said Oliver. "I think that's good for now."

He spoke over shrill and annoying beeping from his watch.

"Already?" Viv was reluctant to end training yet.

But showing his watch to the others, Oliver said, "Can't be out too late. We're already in enough trouble with Mr. Lin as it is. I doubt he'd be happy to find out we're still sticking our nose in magic business."

"About that . . ." George spoke up. "I just realized something. Is there any point to this training? Can't we just leave everything to Mr. Lin now? He's supposed to be this super strong Stone Man, right? Doesn't sound like he'd need help from a bunch of amateur wizards like us."

Oliver shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to be ready, just in case."

"I'm with Oliver," said Melody. "You know the saying, better safe than sorry."

"I do get where George is coming from though," said Alejandro. "It feels like a waste to learn magic and not get to use it."

"Ditto," said Tanika.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eddie spotted a glow of blue light and he turned to see what it was. "Uh . . . guys? I don't think you'll have to worry about that magic training going to waste."

Everyone looked at him and then followed his gaze to the back of the room where the ghostly apparition of a woman in long flowing dress floated in the air. She was see-through, as if made of glass, and her hair was spread out and waving behind her as if she was under water.

"I know you!" Viv cried out. "You're that ghost lady from Lily's bracelet! The one that parrot called the Lady of Sapphire!"

Oliver looked up and down. "This is the Lady of Sapphire I've heard so much about?" 

"Indeed, I am," said the Lady of Sapphire with an eerily echoey voice. "Brave members of the Sapphire Society, I bring you grim tidings. The Chosen One has been captured."

"The Chosen One? Captured?" Viv was puzzled at first, but then she realized something. "Wait, Lily was captured!?"

The Lady of Sapphire nodded. "She had been challenged to a battle by the Schemer himself and lost."

"Blast!" Oliver cursed. "It's happened sooner than I thought."

"I knew I shouldn't have left her alone!" Viv moaned. "I should've gone after her, even if it meant getting into more trouble for skipping classes!"

"Now is not the time for self-blame," the Lady of Sapphire cut in. "You all must go save her before it is too late."

"Before it's too late? What do you mean?" asked Eddie.

The Lady of Sapphire answered, "The Schemer has put the Chosen One under a terrible curse, one that  would trap her in sapphire stone forever, just like he did with the Sapphire Princess."

A large bubble appeared over her hands. In the bubble, everyone could see Lily standing in the middle of the room while a slab of see-through blue stone covered her feet and slowly grew upward.

"That's terrible!" Tanika cried in dismay.

Viv tore her eyes away from the bubble and turned at her heels and started speed-walking to the exit. But Oliver stopped her.

"Wait, Viv," he said.

"Don't stop me, Oliver! You heard what the ghost lady said. Lily needs help now!"

"I know," Oliver said. "But recklessly flying out in a panic isn't going to do anything. At the very least, we need to find out where she's being held. I take it you know, my lady?"

The Lady of Sapphire nodded her head. "Follow me."

She drifted ahead of the others and flew over to the exit. Shortly after she went out the room, Viv and the others followed after her. Oliver was the last.

But just as he was about to join the others, a thought flashed and he stopped at the door.

"Wait a minute," he said aloud. "Wasn't the Lady of Sapphire that the girls met earlier just a recording? No one's ever spoken to the person herself before. How very fishy . . ."

As he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, Alejandro's head popped in from the doorway and he asked, "You coming, Oliver?"

Broken from his thoughts, Oliver looked up and replied, "Yeah. Coming!"

Oh well, he thought. I'll think about it later. Rescuing Lily is more important.

Pushing his suspicions aside, Oliver left the room and ran to catch up with the others.

<== Chapter 36                                                                                 Chapter 38 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 36

Chapter 36

The Schemer

Lily approached the gym building a half-hour before Four. As she circled around to the entrance to the large building's basement floor, she could hear the sounds of squeaking of sport shoes and voices calling out to one another. She took a brief look around to make sure no one was looking and then rolled back the sleeve of her jacket. The sapphires on her blue bracelet sparkled and shined.

"No need to go through the same thing twice," she said. "Take me straight to the end."

The bracelet responded with a brighter shine from its jewels and then the next thing Lily knew, she found herself once more in the large room where she had met the Schemer for the first time. 

Nothing had really changed about the room since her last visit. Same walls made of rough, dark stone, same circular shape and same ginormous slab of glowing sapphire sitting in the middle with a young girl around Lily's age trapped and sleeping inside, the Sapphire Princess.

Only one thing differed from last time. This time, there was another, slightly smaller slab of sapphire sitting next to the Sapphire Princess that housed an adult man who looked wide awake while miming a howling monkey in mid-leap attack. It was Uncle Viceroy.

Lily walked up to him, took a closer look and then smacked herself in the forehead with a groan.

"Seriously, Uncle Viceroy? Even at a time like this . . . Even at a time like this!"

"I know, right? No matter what, he will never miss a chance to act like a clown."

Slowly, Lily turned her head and watched as someone stepped into view.

She scathingly glared at the person and growled, "You."

School Director Julius Bluestone looked coolly back and replied, "Me. You don't seem surprised."

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, well, we all kind of thought you were the the one behind everything along since the beginning. Your family did own this land for over two hundred years after all. It just became more clear after Uncle Viceroy told us his side of the story. You'd have told him about the Schemer already, otherwise, seeing as you did hire him to take care of all the school's magical problems in the first place. But Oliver really wanted to believe in you until the end."

Bluestone rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "I see. To be blinded by personal feelings, Oliver has a long way to go before he can become the detective of his dreams."

Lily's fingers curled tight at her sides, nails digging into her palms as she inwardly seethed.

"Why are you doing this?" she quietly asked.

Feigning innocence, Bluestone asked back, "Why am I doing what?"

"Don't play dumb!" Lily exploded. "You know exactly what! Why play the Schemer? Why steal people's treasured stuff? Why make Melody faceless? Why capture Eddie? Why take away all those people's most important talents? Why kidnap Tanja? Why . . . Why turn my friends into stone statues? Why frame Uncle Viceroy as the bad guy? Why trap him and the Sapphire Princess in gem stone? Why all of that? Why do you keep hurting us?"

Bluestone looked Lily straight in the eye and said, "I thought that question was answered already. Because it's fun."

Lily shook her head and argued, "That's a lie. I know there's another reason behind all this. More than just because you felt like turning evil."

"Believe what you want, Lily Wong. But we did not come here to chat about my motives, did we?"

"No, we didn't," said Lily.

That's right. Saving Uncle Viceroy and the Sapphire Princess was more important. Who cares about Bluestone's motives right now? There'll be plenty of time to find that out later.

"But can you at least tell me this much?" One question remained burning in Lily's mind and she needed an answer right this instant. "You've been disguising yourself and hiding your identity this whole time. Why ditch the costume and show me your real face now?" 

"You wanted to end this rivalry between us once and for all, right? That's what my friend, the parrot, told me. That's great timing, actually. I was getting tired of it too. So I figured, why not just make this our final battle? And since this is going to be the last, there's no point hiding my identity any longer."

Bluestone strolled over to Lily and stopped right in front of her. He leaned down, putting his face close to hers.

"But I'm curious," he said. "Just how are you planning to put a permanent stop to my schemes?"

Lily glared back, refusing to look away. "Same way I got that parrot to give back all the stuff it stole," she said, "by making a bet and winning."

Light flashed from her bracelet and drew a circle filled with lots of fancy shapes on the floor around her and Bluestone.

Bluestone gave the circle of light a glance and chuckled. "Ah, I see. So you plan to use a magic contract. Certainly, there's no going against a magic contract. But you know, Miss Wong, a magic contract will only work as long as both sides agree to it. I could easily just say no and the spell will be useless."

"Wow, Director," said Lily. "I didn't think you'd be so afraid. What's the matter? Think you'll lose to a little girl?"

Bluestone just chuckled at Lily's taunt. "I was just joking, Miss Wong. I'll happily sign a magic contract or two for you. But are you sure you want to do this? There's no getting out of a magic contract, you know. That's what makes them both useful and dangerous. Especially when gambling. If you lose, you'll be the one paying whether you like it or not."

"Then I'll just have to not lose then," said Lily.

Bluestone shrugged. "Very well, then. Name your demands."

"I win, you quit this villain business for good."

"Then if I win, you give me that." Bluestone pointed to Lily's bracelet.

Lily glanced down at her bracelet and then returned her gaze to Bluestone's eyes. 

"Deal," she said. "So, what's the name of the game?"

"Let's go with something simple," Bluestone said. "Something fitting for our final battle. Oh, I know. Let's have a game of two-way tag, the same sort of tag you played with the parrot."

"Sounds good to me," said Lily. "But are you sure about that? Aren't you worried you might throw your back, old man?"

Bluestone chuckled. "Oh, there's no need to worry about that."

He spread his arms apart like a showman and slowly floated up to the ceiling.

"I think I'll be just fine."

Lily swallowed and then held her hand out. Bright light flew out of the jewels of her bracelet and transformed into a broomstick painted blue. She snatched hold of the broom, got ready to fly and looked up.

"Let's do this!"

After giving a shout, Lily took flight. She zipped straight towards Bluestone with her hand outstretched to tag him. But before she could get close enough to touch him, he vanished into a swirling vortex of smoke behind him only to reappear down below. He gave Lily a small, cheery wave before sliding across the room like a figure skater on ice.

Lily grit her teeth and stretched her hand out again. She gave her bracelet a silent command to make stone walls spring up from the floor in order to trap the old man. But in a display of skill at skating, Bluestone swerved right and left around the walls and slipped through narrow gaps before they closed.

He did a short, graceful spin and then stopped as a fishing net dropped down. The net narrowly missed Bluestone and landed on the floor in a heap. Lily pulled more nets out of her bracelet and flung them all at Bluestone, but he dodged them all while making ballerina poses.

Frustrated, Lily yelled before flinging more nets, "Hold still!"

But, of course, Bluestone didn't listen and continued his figure skating across the rough stone floor, gathering up discarded nets which he draped over his right arm.

Lily focused all her frustration to her hands raised high over her head. From the bright light of her bracelet, a net bigger than all the rest appeared. It was wide enough to cover half of the chamber. When Lily's hands dropped down, so did the net.

There's no way he can escape this, Lily thought. Just to make extra sure, she coated the net with magic power to stop him from disappearing in one of those vortexes.

Bluestone gazed coolly at the net dropping down over his head and then sighed. With a flick of his wrist, the bundle of nets he had collected became a sharp blue sword that, with one swing, split the falling net in two. He remained untouched as the two separated halves of the giant net hit the floor.

"Really, Miss Wong?" he said, flicking his wrist again. The sword turned into an elegant cane that he planted onto the floor in front of himself to lean on. "That bracelet gives you the power to do almost anything, and a net is all you can think of?"

Lily glowered at him. But then her face lit up with an idea and she said, "You're right, Director. Then let's try this!"

She swung herself off of the broomstick while keeping hold of it. As she fell down, the brush part of the broom turned into a hammer big enough to smash an elephant. 

With magical super-strength and a mighty yell, Lily swung the giant hammer down against the floor. The impact made the entire room shake. Pieces of the floor cracked and sprung up, turning it into uneven terrain. Including the floor beneath Bluestone's feet. Although not completely thrown off-balance, it was enough to make the old man stumble a little, which was what Lily had been aiming for.

She seized her chance and leaped. But before she could tag Bluestone, his arms suddenly transformed into blue-feathered wings and he shot towards the ceiling, out of Lily's reach. Lily fell and was jabbed all over by the jagged points on the floor she had created herself. Bluntly, it hurt a lot and left bloody cuts on her hands and left cheek.

While hovering in the air, Bluestone looked down and said, "Better. But still not good enough."

Lily tried to stand back up. But the moment she got on her feet, sharp pain in her knee made her cry out and fall back down.

Nearby, the see-through gemstone that entombed Viceroy suddenly got a long crack that made a jagged, diagonal line across of him. The whole thing just ever so slightly trembled.

Lily didn't notice, but Bluestone did.

"Truly an absurd man," he grumbled to himself. He returned his gaze to Lily who continued to try, but fail to stand back up. Her hands left red prints on the broken-up floor. "I've fooled around too much. Time to end this now."

He gently returned to solid ground, his wings turning back into arms. The cane he discarded flew back into his hands and he leaned on it as Lily looked up at him. After crouching down, he gave Lily's forehead a light tap of his finger.

"I win."

When he straightened back up, he had Lily's sapphire bracelet around his wrist.

<== Chapter 35                                                                        Chapter 37 ==>

Narrow Alleys Ch. 4

Chapter 4

The Giant and the Girl

"Be warned," the Tree warned the Giant. "there are only humans on Earth. And unlike our realm where humans and other races live in harmony, the humans of Earth are intolerable of difference. I cannot speak for all of Earth's people, but many will be blind to the goodness in you and may see you as a monster. Many humans on Earth cannot even stand the difference between themselves."

"That is . . . a rather sad thing," the Giant said, eyes cast down in sorrow.

"Indeed," said the Tree. "And dangerous. In their ignorance, the people of Earth may seek to destroy you. As such, you must avoid contact with them as much as possible. Not only for your safety, but theirs as well. As I said earlier, there will be other forces chasing after the power of the Pearl of Fate. Anyone you meet on Earth could get mixed up in the conflict and be put in grave danger.

"So I also have this order: DO NOT LET ANY PEOPLE OF EARTH SEE YOU!"

End flashback . . .

The Giant and the Girl stared at each other.

The Tree's words flashed in his mind. "DO NOT LET ANY PEOPLE OF EARTH SEE YOU! See you . . . see you . . ."

So much for that, the Giant thought bitterly. Not one minute had passed since he first set foot in this world, and he's already been seen by a local. He was never very good at being sneaky. So now what do I do?

By the looks of it, the human before him appeared to be a child. She looked too clean to be a homeless orphan or runaway living in this obviously long-abandoned area.

She's probably just here to explore, the Giant presumed. So there are children that like to do that here too. This might be a whole other world, but some things still stay the same no matter the place or time.

This reminded the Giant of his own childhood when he used to sneak into abandoned houses to look for ghosts.

That's it!

Inspired by his memories, the Giant formed a plan and put it into action.

"Ahem!" The Giant held his hands up beside his face and wriggled his fingers. "Oooh! I am a ghooost! Begone, trespasser! Or suffer my cuuurse!"

The Girl said nothing, but she raised an eyebrow and looked at the Giant funny.

The Giant stopped wriggling his fingers, frowned, and then told the Girl, "Get out before I get the grownups here and get you in trouble."

The Girl turned and ran.

"Well, that takes care of that," the Giant mumbled to himself. "Now onto more important business."

He reached into a pouch hanging off the side of his belt and pulled out a metal, square plate with a glass ball in the center. Light shined from the ball as if it contained its own sun or star and shined over the words etched on the four sides and four corners around it. 

"If working right, this compass should show me the way to the Pearl." The Giant continued to mutter to himself as he stared intently at the glass ball. 

He expected a beam of gold light to shoot out of the glass ball which he could then follow, but nothing happened. The glass ball in the center of the compass just passively shimmered and pointed nowhere.

"Tch!" Annoyed, the Giant clicked his tongue and put the compass away before sitting down with a sigh.

With the compass no good, his only choice was to go out and look for the Pearl on foot. But going out when it was still daylight probably wasn't a good idea. Even if the whole neighborhood was abandoned, there was still a chance he'd run into more humans. And it might not be a quiet child next time but a ruckus-making adult.

Speaking of quiet children . . .

"I hope that child makes it home okay." As he mumbled to himself, the Giant glanced at the opened gate. It and the surrounding walls had turned gold beneath the afternoon light and cast a cool shadow outside. "Well, regardless, I won't be seeing her again."

Or so he thought.

But the very next day, he found himself once more staring at the little Girl at the exact same spot in the courtyard outside of the house. His eye twitched.

"What do you think you are doing here, child?" he gruffly asked.

The Girl just stared and said nothing.

He sighed and wondered, Are all children in this world like this? Or is just her?

Mostly to himself, he grumbled, "I really don't have the energy for this."

He had spent all night exploring his new surroundings for signs of the Pearl and hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Needless to say, all he got for his efforts was a big fat nothing. The Giant was just about to take a quick nap to recharge when he sensed a presence and spotted the little Girl loitering at the gate.

Suddenly, the Girl asked, "How'd you get so big?"

The Giant sniffed and put his hands to his hips. "So you CAN talk! And to answer your question, I eat plenty of vegetables."

"Is that also why your skin's green like a broccoli and your hair's all red like a tomato?"

"No, I was born like that. Wait, no! Enough!" The Giant knelt down so his face was closer to the Girl's. "Child, didn't your parents tell you to be wary of strangers? Or to stay away from abandoned places?"

The Girl replied, "My mom says to stay away from vagrants, but you don't look like a vagrant. You do smell kind of stinky though."

The Giant made a growl and then barked, "Just go home. This area is still too dangerous for a child to be roaming around like its their own playground."

But the Girl argued, "It's not dangerous. As long as you don't go inside the houses."

"And what you're doing now doesn't count?"

The Girl looked around and then shook her head.

The Giant shook his own head but for a different reason, and then sighed again.

"What about you?" asked the Girl. "If this place is so dangerous, why are you here?"

The Giant straightened up, puffed out his chest and answered, "Because I am a grownup with a job to do here."

Curious, the Girl asked, "What kind of job?"

"I'm on a mission to look for something," said the Giant. "Wait, why am I telling you this? Just go home already! And don't come back! I'm serious now: Do. Not. Come. Back. Here!"

The next day . . .

The Giant stood in the courtyard with a hand pressed over his downcast face. And right in front of him was the Girl, looking up at him.

"Seriously, what part of 'Do not come back here,' do you not understand?"

"I heard shouting," the Girl said. "And you smell even more stinky now."

"I was just doing my morning exercises," the Giant said.

Every morning, he practiced his punches, kicks and various other combat techniques. He's never skipped a day of training since his rookie days, and it was more important now to keep up so that he was always in prime condition for the battles ahead.

"Oh," went the Girl. "So that's why you're so sweaty. And stinky."

The Giant scowled. "I get it already!"

"Does this mean you know Kung Fu?" asked the Girl.

"I guess some would call my fighting style that," the Giant said. "Why? Are you interested?"

The Girl shrugged. "I just see a lot of it on TV. Does this also mean you can shoot lasers out of your hands and fly?"

"I have no idea what a TV is, nor lasers," said the Giant. "Flying is more a mystic art than a fighting one, but I suppose the two are practically one and the same since martial arts have long been used to control mystic energy."

"Can I fly if I learn Kung Fu?" asked the Girl.

"Doubt it," the Giant replied bluntly. "That'd require tapping into mystic energies that you don't have."

"How come I don't have that mystic whatever?" asked the Girl.

The Giant snapped, "Because you just don't!"

That's actually a lie. Mystic energies could be found within all living things, regardless of time and place. The existence of sorcerers in this world proves that. But there's no telling what sort of trouble the child would find herself in if she ever learned to unlock those mystic energies. And she's already in enough trouble just talking with the Giant.

Besides, the Giant silently thought, I'm in no position to take an apprentice. Nor am I interested in being anyone's mentor.

Despite that, over the next couple of days, mentoring the child was exactly what he ended up doing. Every morning from then on, the Girl joined the Giant in morning exercises, mimicking all the moves he made. The Giant couldn't help himself and corrected the child every time she made an error. Before long, he was teaching the girl martial arts in the same way he had been taught when he was her age.

And as a side note, the Giant also began bathing more every day. With his mystic powers, it was easy for him to make a bathtub in the house's second sitting room by digging a hole in the floor and filling it with supernaturally heated water.

<== Chapter 3

Lily Wong Ch. 35

Chapter 35

Ghostly Voices

"It's . . . trick . . . not . . . it . . ."

Lily's eyes flew open and she sat up. She had been awoken by a buzzing in her ear that sounded suspiciously like someone was whispering in it. But with a simple glance to the side, she confirmed that Viv was still asleep and tightly bundled up beneath her blanket, so it could not have been from her. A glance out the window told Lily that it was still nighttime.

She scratched her head. "A dream?" she wondered aloud.

"Beware . . . !"

Lily abruptly turned and cried out, "Who's there?"

It was faint, but there was no mistake that what Lily heard was someone talking. But the only answer she got was a soft groan from Viv. She shifted the pillow a little, but otherwise remained slumbering.

Carefully, Lily scanned the dark room with the only light shining in through the window from the full moon. But as far as she could see, there was no one else here.  She strained her ears but heard the voice no more.

"Well, it's finally happened, Lily," she muttered to herself. "You've gone crazy."

Chalking the voice up to being just her imagination, Lily tried to go back to sleep. But it took longer than she'd like to actually conk out. That's why, when morning came, she showed up to class groggy and bearing circles around her eyes darker than a panda bear's.

"Uh . . . you okay, Lily?" asked Eddie. "You kind of look like my dad when he forgets his daily coffee."

Lily gave him a grumpy frown. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Lay off, Eddie," Viv told her brother off. "You'd be in a bad mood to if all you got to look forward to is a call from Dad for the scolding a lifetime."

"Gee Viv," said Lily, "I actually forgot about that. But thanks. Thanks for reminding me."

Viv flashed an sheepish smile. "Sorry."

The door flew open and in walked a black-haired man in a brown suit.

"Good morning, class," he said.

Everyone replied back, "Good morning, Headmaster."

The Headmaster of Bluestone Academy strolled over to the teacher's table and faced the crowd with a warm smile. He could easily tell what most of them were probably thinking. Many of the looks thrown back at him were of confusion and surprise.

"Many of you are probably wondering why I'm here instead of your usual history teacher, Mr. Lin," he said. "Rest assured, Mr. Lin is doing fine. He's just a bit under the weather. Just in case, he'll be taking the day off. Since no one else was free, I decided to take over his classes for today myself."

Lily exchanged looks with Viv and Eddie. 

Uncle Viceroy's sick? That's really hard to believe, thought Lily.

Eddie raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Wallace?"

Eddie asked the headmaster, "Mr. Lin didn't say anything about giving anyone detention or banning them from things, did he?"

The Headmaster shook his head and replied, "No. Why do you ask? You didn't do anything to warrant such things from him, did you?"

"Nope," Eddie said quickly. "Not at all. Forget I asked."

Viv sighed and rolled her eyes.

The Headmaster, meanwhile, frowned at Eddie suspiciously, but said nothing further and moved on with the lesson, which was, for once, a normal one for this classroom. No weird cartoon drawings, no random instruments being played, and no dancing balloon men taking over the lecture. Instead, the teacher read from a slideshow being played on the big, white screen behind him.

"Today, we will be learning about Leonardo Da Vinci . . ."

As Lily was took notes, hissy whispering reached her right ear and turned. But there was no one sitting next to her there. She heard the whispering again, this time at her left and turned, asking Viv, "What is it?"

Viv looked up and went, "Huh? What?" Her fingers clutched her smartphone beneath the table.

"You didn't just say something?" Lily asked.

Viv shook her head and whispered back, "No."

"Then who - ?"

"You two in the back!" 

The girls turned their heads to see the Headmaster frowning at them.

"Is now really a good time for some chitchat?" he asked them.

The girls meekly replied back, "No sir, sorry sir."

*********

"What was up with you back there?" Viv asked as they headed to the next classroom. They cut across the courtyard surrounded by a shower of red leaves. "You were acting a bit strange back there. Well, actually, you've been acting strange all morning, Lily."

So she noticed, Lily thought. I thought I had acted normal enough, but I guess I was wrong.

"Yeah," said Eddie. "It didn't look like you got much sleep last night. I mean, you looked terrible."

Lily threw him a dirty look and pulled back her sleeve. "Wanna find out what it's like to live as a chinchilla?"

The sapphire gems around her bracelet flashed a threatening shine.

"Did I say you looked terrible? I meant to say you looked great! So pretty! Like a princess!" 

Eddie breathed a sigh of relief when Lily lowered her bracelet arm.

"Seriously though," Viv said while ignoring her brother, "what's the matter with you?"

Lily thought about telling her friends about the voices, but then hesitated. And then, looking away, she said, "It's nothing."

Viv was unconvinced. "Oh, come on Lily! It can't be nothing. You can tell us. We're friends, aren't we?"

It's because we're friends that I can't tell you, Lily thought. Even now, she could still vividly remember watching Viv and the others turn into stone statues and being too helpless to stop it. She did not want something like that to happen again.

"It's really nothing," she stubbornly insisted.

"Lily, if something's bothering you  - "

"Look!" Lily snapped sharply. "Just drop it!"

The twins were stunned and taken aback by her outburst. 

Lily quickly left them behind before they could recover. But instead of heading to the next classroom, she circled around to the back of a random building where she sat down on the ground and hugged her knees close to her chin. 

There, she sat, just wanting to be alone with her thoughts. Sadly, she was not going to get her wish.

"Playing hooky now, are we?"

Lily looked up to see the blue parrot perched on a tree branch above her.

"It looked like something was bothering you," it said. "Are you sure you didn't want to talk about it with your friends?"

With a scowl, Lily fired back, "And get them hurt or worse like last time? No. I'm done getting my friends dragged into these messes where something bad could happen to them. I don't know why you've been making me hear weird, ghostly voices, but whatever it is you're planning now, I can handle it alone."

As if confused, the bird bent its head sideways and said questioningly, "Ghostly voices?"

"Don't play dumb!" Lily snapped. "Now that I've had time to calm down and think, I should've figured out right away you and the Schemer had something to do with that weird, soft whispering I've been hearing out of nowhere."

"Voices from out of nowhere, huh? Well, whatever," the parrot said. "I did not come here for idle chatter."

It dug its beak beneath its right wing and pulled out a small black square which it tossed down to Lily's feet.

After giving the square a suspicious look, Lily asked the parrot, "What's this? You back to stealing people's stuff? Is that what you wanted to tell me?"

But the parrot just cryptically replied, "Just take a look and you'll understand."

Wary of heinous traps, Lily rolled back her sleeve and silently gave her bracelet a command to protect her before gingerly reaching down for the square, which turned out to be a leather card wallet. Nothing happened when she touched it and the bracelet didn't flash lights or anything. But Lily remained cautious and slowly flipped the wallet open while holding it as far from her face as possible. When she peeked inside, she gasped.

In the wallet with details exposed by a sheet of see-through plastic was a picture name tag. Uncle Viceroy's picture name tag.

Lily tore her eyes away from the wallet and shouted, "Why do you have this?"

The parrot had its beak pointed up as it said, "Do I really need to spell it out to you, child?"

Color drained from Lily's face as her mind raced. No way. It can't be. There's no way the parrot and the Schemer could have gotten Uncle Viceroy. I saw for myself how strong he is.

As if it could read her mind, the parrot smirked. "No matter how powerful a being can be, there is always a way to beat them. Your uncle is no different."

"If you hurt him, so help me, I'll - !"

The parrot cut Lily off. "You need not worry. Viceroy Lin is unharmed, for now. But that can change, depending on you."

Lily fell quiet for a few seconds. And then . . .

"What do you want?"

She glared scathingly at the parrot, her hands clenched tight and trembling at her sides. 

But the parrot simply gave Lily an apathetic stare and replied, "A challenge. Tomorrow at Four. Win, and you get your uncle back, safe and sound."

The ghostly voice returned, and it was screaming. Lily could tell it was screaming by the tone, but it was still too faint for her to make out what it could be trying to say to her. Something that rhymed with "Oh!" The rest was just buzzing like from a mosquito.

Lily was already on her last nerves and the ghostly buzzing just put her over the boiling point.

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Stop it already!"

Blue light suddenly shined from Lily's hair and an explosion of wind blew the parrot off the tree branch.

The parrot squawked, startled. But it quickly regained its bearings and landed on another branch in a huff.

"Blasted child!" it spat. "Just what is wrong with you today?"

"Look in a mirror!" Lily snapped back.

"Why, I never!"

The parrot shook its head furiously and then mumbled to itself, "Calm down, me. Let's just get this over and done with so we can all go home."

It took deep breaths and then ruffled its feathers from top to bottom.

"Ahem! Ahem! Anyway, you will find the Schemer at the place he first appeared. He will tell you what your challenge is once you meet him there. I trust you can find your way?"

"Don't worry," Lily said. "I know the place. And when I get there, I'm ending this for good!"

"I look forward to that," said the parrot. "Truly."

And then it turned tail and flew away, disappearing into the sky.

**********

Julius Bluestone was in his ever dark office with only sunlight from a single room for lighting, scrolling through a digital document on his computer when the window suddenly opened up on its own and in flew the blue parrot, sourly grumbling to itself as it landed on the school director's table.

"How did it go?" asked the old man.

The parrot curtly replied, "The challenge was delivered. She'll show as scheduled, that rude little brat."

"Well, you've certainly got your feathers ruffled. Did something happen?"

The parrot gave said its feathers a shake before answering. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with." 

A short pause later -

"No, wait. Actually, there is something."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," said Julius. "What is it?"

"The child claimed to hear ghost voices," said the parrot. 

Julius raised his eyebrows. "Voices, you say?"

The parrot nodded. "She believed we were behind it and could not be convinced otherwise . . . Are we behind those ghost voices?"

"We are not," said Julius. He sank in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. But then his face lit up and pulled a crystal ball out from one of the side drawers. Light shined from the glass ball as he stared intently into it. A few seconds later, he started chuckling. The chuckle became a wheezing laugh. And then the wheezing laugh became a cackle. Finally, the cackle turned into a loud guffaw and the parrot watched with its beak hung open.

"Oh, heavens above," it said. "After two-hundred years, he's finally gone mad."

Julius stopped laughing and frowned at the bird in dismay. "I heard that."

"You were meant to," said the parrot. "Now, do you mind explaining to me what's so funny? What did the crystal ball tell you? What are those voices?"

"They're a sign," said Julius, eyes gleaming with giddiness. "The voices are a sign that the end we've sought is finally near."

The parrot's eyes grew wide. "You don't mean . . ."

Grinning from ear to ear, Julius nodded. "I do. Honestly, I've had doubts. But this confirms it. Oh, why did I have to choose tomorrow? I should've had her take the challenge today!"

He kicked the floor in frustration and made his chair do a full three-sixty degrees spin. And then he pressed the bridge of his nose against the crystal ball. Its blue light enhanced the mad excitement on his face. From the ball, he could hear the same whispering that Lily heard. He could clearly hear the words that Lily had missed and understood them all perfectly.

"Tomorrow can't come soon enough!"

<== Chapter 34                                                                               Chapter 36 ==>