Revenge of the Bottled

     "I'm here to visit Balthazar. I've got his meal here."

     The Kougra bowed slightly and led the Faerie Queen to a secure door. She undid the security locks with several keys and motioned for the queen to follow. They went down a narrow corridor before stopping in front of a large pink cell door with a window that the guards could open along with a slot to slide her tray through. The guard slid open the window and the meal slot.

     Fyora shook her head. "Let me have a chat with him in there instead."

     The Faerie Kougra raised her eyebrows. "Your majesty, are you certain? This is Balthazar we're talking about.

     Fyora nodded and the skeptical guard began releasing the locks.

     "Stand back, please, Mr. Balthazar!" the Kougra guard said through the door.

     The door swung open and Fyora strolled inside.

     "We're right here if you need help or if things get out of hand, your majesty."

     The guard shut the door behind her and stood guard as Fyora made her way into the cell and set the tray down at the dinner table. She found Balthazar curled up on the couch. Upon seeing her though, Balthazar immediately jumped up and growled at her.

     "Mr. Balthazar, I brought you your meal, but I also want to talk about some of your associates."

     The Lupe took a swipe at the queen who quickly disappeared in a puff of pink dust and reappeared out of the way. She quickly caught Balthazar's tail and kept him from tumbling to the ground.

     "Now now, there's no need to be upset. I am only needing some simple answers from you," she added.

     Balthazar took another swipe, and the same thing happened. In anger, he lunged at Fyora who was standing near the wall. Fyora disappeared again, leaving behind a large faerie bubble that prevented Balthazar from smashing into the wall. The force of it caused him to stumble backwards and nearly fall. Fyora stepped forward and caught Balthazar.

     "Hey, how about we settle down and-"

     "No! Don't touch me!"

     Balthazar thrashed around, causing Fyora to step backwards and then he fell backwards into a pile of soft pillows. Finally exhausted from all the action, he got up and fell back on the couch. Fyora pulled up a seat and sat down in front of him.

     "Can we please talk now?"

     Balthazar grumbled at Fyora. "I'm not saying anything without legal counsel present."

     "Sir, you told me on day one you wanted to defend yourself and didn't request counsel. Are you changing your mind? Since you don't have one, I could assign someone…"

     "No! Why would I want some rando representing me? You know what, fine. Ask away."

     Fyora gestured towards the food tray.

     "You should eat first."

     Balthazar sniffed at the tray and turned his snout up into the air.

     "No… tainted by the faeries…"

     "Well, I'm not going to proceed until you eat. I will stand right here and watch you."

     The Lupe glared at the Faerie Queen and bared his teeth as he growled at her. Eventually the food became too tempting, and he suddenly wolfed it down.

     "Well, I guess you didn't want to savor it… whatever, let's proceed. I need some names on who is still supporting the bottled faerie trade today. I'm hoping you could provide those."

     "Hmph, no, I'm not giving those up. Besides, you know one of them. Your very own battle faerie!"

     The Faerie Queen rolled her eyes. "Try again, Balthazar. I have already spoken to Aethia about this. Now, can you give me other names?"

     "Nope, I am not giving you any names. Why don't you send your little Brightvale Orange Kougra guard to go investigate with her Ixi buddy?"

     Fyora took a seat next to Balthzar and glared at him.

     "It'd be better if you just cooperated. You've been in here for a while, and I'm not someone who wants to keep prisoners for long."

     "Oh ok, more of those meaningless words. Get that self-righteousness out of my sight!" Baltazar shouted, causing Fyora to back away and hold her ears.

     "Alright, I don't really take yelling well, Balthazar."

     "Well go away, so I won't yell!"

     Fyora shook her head.

     "I'm not going away until you at least tell me where your business has operations. You don't want me to question Nigel at the Neodaq for answers, do you? I may find out way more than you'd want me to find out. All business records of BOTT, at my fingertips."

     "Then go do it! Leave me alone!"

     "Alright then, I guess we're done here since you're determined to remain uncooperative."

     Queen Fyora took Balthazar's empty tray and left the cell. Outside the guard approached her.

     "Should we move him to a slightly smaller cell with less comfortable pillows since he didn't cooperate?"

     Fyora turned to her guard and sighed.

     "We don't punish our prisoners in that way. Please don't make such a suggestion again."

     She then left the dungeons and then teleported herself to the Neodaq headquarters. Nigel the Chia was sitting in front of a large screen, watching the ticker go by when Fyora tapped him on the shoulder.

     Immediately the Chia swiveled around in his chair.

     "Who is there?! Wait Fyora? Why are you here? You didn't make an appointment! I don't offer spontaneous investment advice, you know!"

     Fyora rolled her eyes as she invited herself to take a seat in one of Nigel's luxurious armchairs.

     "I need files on BOTT," she said curtly.

     Nigel pretended not to hear.

     "Ok, well if you're going to invite yourself in, allow me to get you some refreshments."

     "Nigel, I'm not here to make a business deal. Please get me some files on BOTT. They are public files; I have the right to see them."

     "Ah, let me make sure you are an actual shareholder first before… Wait, why are you investing in bottling faeries? Aren't you a faerie?" The sharply dressed Chia raised his eyebrows as he rummaged through a filing cabinet.

     Fyora narrowed her eyes. "Please don't ask questions and just get me the information."

     "Alright, alright, your secret is safe with me. Just give me a moment."

     Eventually he produced a large, manila folder. He handed it over to Fyora.

     "Here is a copy for you on all of the financial statements and board meeting minutes for your perusal. Now that will be 2 Million Neopoints!"

     Queen Fyora flared her nostrils. "Excuse me, 2 Million Neopoints to retrieve information?"

     "It's not cheap to store all of this information you know!" Nigel shot back.

     She sighed. Not wanting to cause a scene, she relented.

     "Your Neopoints will be on the way to your bank account by the next business day."

     "A pleasure transacting with you today then."

          The Faerie Queen left the shiny building and teleported back to her castle. Sitting back at her desk, she opened the manila folders and started with the first page.

     Year 25 Annual Report

     Fyora thumbed through the stack until something caught her eye.

     Lupert Murdoch purchases a 40 percent stake in Balthazar's Faerie Bottling Inc.

     "Wait a 40 percent stake? He almost owns half the company? What's in it for him?" Fyora muttered to herself. The next page featured a photo of Balthazar shaking the hand of a tall Lupe in a suit jacket at a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of a fancy-looking crescent shaped building on Roo Island.

     As she began to scrutinize further, searching for the purpose of the building, a sudden knock came at the door. At about the same time, there was a fuchsia glow at her desk and then Aethia's note appeared.

     "Strange, who could that be?" Fyora questioned as she stared at the paper.

     "Ah, well I now have just the right assignment for her."

     She opened the door and found Gilly standing before her.

     "Uhh, Queen Fyora. Aethia sent me to you and…"

     Fyora held up her hand.

     "Yes, I know based on her note. I have just the assignment for you."

     Queen Fyora showed Gilly the page with Lupert and Balthazar standing in front of the crescent shaped building.

     "You know where this building is?" she asked.

     Gilly nodded.

     "I've been to Roo Island once. It opened recently in at the edge of Blumaria Wharf."

     "I need you to find out what goes on there. I've heard great things about your sleuthing skills. I trust that this will be no issue for you at all?"

     Gilly raised her eyebrows in a bit of confusion.

     "What exactly do you want to know about it?"

     "I suspect Lupert Murdoch is behind the bottled faerie trade and Balthazar is no longer the only one involved. That's why the trade continues. We need to put a stop to it. A faerie is using this as a reason to nab and bottle pets, as I'm sure you are aware. We must tackle the root of the problem as well as the perpetrator of such crimes."

     "Lupert Murdoch is a powerful tycoon. I don’t think I can easily waltz into the building and snoop around."

     "Well, I'm sure you can figure something out given your adventures in Neovia and the Haunted Woods, now off you go."

     "Um… ok…"

     The Usul still appeared skeptical as she left Fyora's office but seemed determined to uncover something.

     ***

     Aethia and Geo arrived on the outskirts of Meridell right next to Illusen's Glade. However, as they entered the Glade, Illusen did not seem to be there. Several residents of the Glade looked panicked as they moved about the Glade in a frantic pace.

     This puzzled Aethia. There hadn't been an incident at the Glade that seemed quite chaotic since The Darkest Faerie cursed the land. She finally caught up to a Woodland Draik who appeared quite wide eyed.

     "What happened here? Where is Illusen?"

     "Killian is missing, so she went looking further," he stammered.

     "And your name is…?"

     "Galvin. I'm the farmer around here."

     Geo sniffed the air and looked around him and found a set of footprints.

     "Look, these footprints are faerie-shaped!" he exclaimed. Aethia then examined them closely.

     "Wait there's two sets of faerie footprints. What other faerie was here?" Galvin asked.

     "I wonder if it's… her…" Aethia mused.

     "Who?"

     "A faerie we've been looking for," Aethia explained.

     "Then let me tag along. She might know what happened to Killian!"

     The three of them followed the footprints out of the Glade into the surrounding, thick forest. Even with the sunlight, the dense forest made things a bit harder to see in the darkness. Galvin lit a small lantern he carried around as they continued. The thick brush also took a toll on Geo's wingchair, which was not designed for the terrain of a thick forest. Soon the chair stalled as the vines and branches tore the wings apart.

     "Ah, darn it, it seems like the chair took too much damage. I haven't really taken this thing outside of Faerieland so I had no idea how it would handle."

     "Oh no, can we fix it?" Aethia asked.

     "Probably can't out here, you're gonna have to give me a push."

     Aethia nodded and grasped the handles on the back of the chair. "I can do that."

     The Battle Faerie began to push. Galvin went ahead of them with his lantern to light the way. Eventually, the trees began to thin, and they came upon a clearing.

     The middle of the clearing had the remnants of a campfire. Galvin took one look at it and his eyes grew wider.

     "Someone was here. I can still see a bit of smoke rising from the campfire and it's still hot," he commented.

     With Aethia pushing Geo around, he sniffed around the campfire for clues. Eventually he encountered the sweet scent of a faerie's perfume coming from an eastern direction.

     "Definitely, and it appears whoever it was, they went that way."

     Geo pointed towards the right. Aethia pushed him over in that direction while Galvin went to look for other clues. Eventually, he overheard the faint sound of weeping.

     "Aethia? Do you hear that?" Geo asked.

     "Yeah, I hear it, let's go that way."

     "Who would be crying here?" Soon, they noticed that there was an Earth Faerie, apparently unable to move as she was restrained against a tree.

     "Illusen!" Aethia yelled, rushing up to the Earth Faerie, leaving Geo behind for a bit. Suddenly, Geo heard a loud noise behind him and was instantly plunged into darkness as he felt a firm hand place a burlap bag over his head. And then moments later, he felt someone lift him out of the wingchair and place him on the ground.

     "No, stop!" he could hear the Aethia off to the distance yell. But there was no stopping from the individual covering his face.

     "The Faerie Justice Department offers its greetings. I've heard of you. You are that Neopian Times reporter who helps Fyora's propaganda machine. Well, I hope the Times doesn't miss you too badly," taunted the voice.

     "Help! Lemme-" Geo began before he felt a hand press over his mouth, preventing him from further screaming.

     "Oh, it seems like you've got a curious contraption to help you move around. Well, you won't be needing this anymore. Cassie, take care of his wingchair. I'll take good care of him now."

     Slowly, Geo could feel a weird sensation where he was moving without intending too. The bag over his head got looser until he felt two firm objects holding his limbs up and then he ended up inside what appeared to be a glass prison. He looked up and watched as a hand placed a lid over him.

     "I-I'm… in a bottle?" Geo wondered.

     He tried to turn to see who had captured him. All he could make out was the outline of an individual dressed in yellow and wings, likely a faerie. And then his world went dark again as the individual slipped him into her bag.

     And then the individual began running. Geo could hear the loud booming voice, likely Aethia's. However, it grew more distant, fading away.

     "Come back here! What did you do with Geo?!" yelled Aethia. Azarah paid no attention to Aethia's yell as she took off in flight and then her two accomplices fired spells that fogged up the area, allowing them to escape as Aethia couldn't see where she was going.

     Aethia stormed back to where she had released Illusen from her restraints. Galvin was next to her.

     "I'm so glad you are safe, Lady Illusen!"

     "Thanks for saving me. As for that light faerie, her name is Azarah. She's heading towards Neopia Central," Illusen said. "I overheard them talking. You should go there and try to find him. I'll make sure Galvin gets back home safely with me."

     "I'll need to head back to Faerieland first to report this information to Fyora."

     "Alright, do that, but remember that we are dealing with an unknown threat of a faerie who bottles Neopets. Who knows what spells she's using them for, so make it quick."

     "Wait a second, I'm the one who gives orders… fine, I'll make sure I go straight to Fyora."

     To be continued…