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."
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