ugly thing," said Daphne with a hint of disgust. "Who cares if some tacky amulet is in the hands of the Hidden Tower?" Rosia gave her a glare. "It was NOT in the Hidden Tower! It was NOT in the Faerie Woods! And it was NOT in any puny shop in Faerie City!!"
"Then where is it, Miss Smarty-pants?" asked Daphne.
Violet looked up from her picture book. "Isn't the necklace with the Faerie Queen?" she asked her three older sisters.
Velma shrugged her shoulders. "I tried to use my crystal ball to locate the amulet in Fyora's palace, but I got no results." She turned to glare at Rosia. "Unfortunately, we weren't even able to explore the royal palace because somebody here decided to bombard the palace roof with orbs."
Rosia glared back. "It would have worked if those stupid faeries hadn't distracted us," she insisted. "Besides, my newest plan is much more ingenious as long as you three twits do your jobs properly!"
"But I've been working my wings off draining the powers of our petty hostages," Velma insisted. "I've so far been able to turn each of them into faded faeries thanks to my–"
"And what have YOU two been doing?" Rosia demanded Daphne and Violet.
Violet twirled a pigtail with her finger. "Well, I haven't done anything because I was never told to do... um, anything."
"It's true," said Daphne, nodding in agreement. "Violet hasn't been told to do much–though she was able to capture some Earth faeries while I've collected–"
"Well, I need more!" Rosia insisted. "My plan needs more faeries, especially Fire and Light faeries!'
"Of course we'll need them. They'll provide balance," Velma pointed out. Before Rosia could interrupt her, Velma continued with her point. "With each faerie type having its own specific charm, we must remember to balance out the magical energy each charm fulfills... otherwise they will explode and this crummy tower Balthazar has will explode."
"Speaking of Balthazar, where is he?" asked Violet.
"He left to gather more magical herbs," Velma explained. "Anyways in order to restore balance within the charms we need to store more magical energy in the empty ones and fill the other ones with the energy of those Top faeries. Only then would we able to balance out the charms."
Daphne yawned. "So all we need to do is find the Top Fire and Light faeries and capture them?"
Velma shook her head. "We also need to find some regular faeries, too, in order to restore the balance. So Daphne, if you and Violet could–"
"Oh forget them! I'll do it myself!" Rosia said loudly. "And I'll be certain to get our objectives!"
"Are you sure, Rosia?" asked Daphne. "Because Balthazar would need you here to, you know, boss him around and such."
Without saying anything, Rosia poofed herself out of the tower. Velma looked at Daphne and shrugged her shoulders. "She still has no idea," she said with a sly smile.
***
Here I go! Kira thought as she sat cross-legged on her bedroom rug, clutching the Circlet of the Air Faerie in her hands. Even since it had been turned to stone by Rosia, the circlet wasn't able to work the same way it had when Kira first discovered it. The precious treasure was rumoured to have been very powerful, but now it was weak and only giving off a light blue glow as it lay in Kira's hands. She also knew that even if the circlet might never be able to work again in the future, she still had the Air Faerie Token, which could be used to increase Kira's magical energy levels.
After taking a deep breath in, Kira placed the circlet on top of her head, expecting it tit to be a perfect fit. Unfortunately the circlet was a size too small, and the Air faerie wasn't able to place it on her head without having it tumble down to the floor. "How can I control the Circlet of the Air Faerie if I can't place it on my head?" Kira asked aloud.
"Help me! Somebody, please!" a voice cried from outside.
Kira walked over to her bedroom window and felt an icy shiver slither down her spine. What she saw was something out of a nightmare: a group of Fire faeries and Light faeries were trying to defend themselves with red and yellow shields as a Dark faerie loomed over them. As each faerie's shields dissolved underneath the weight of purple orbs the size of toy balls, the unprotected faeries would immediately panic and attempt to flee as the Dark faerie threw a familiar green glitter on top of them. Just as the Dark faerie turned to face her, Kira ducked and gasped at the face that scowled at her briefly.
"It's Rosia!" Kira exclaimed quietly. "How can this be? How could she escape from the Magical Seal?" She peeped out of the window again and asked herself, Where are the Battle faeries Fyora promised would be defending Faerie City?
Just then, Illere and Brillare flew to the scene and attempted to stop Rosia by blinding her eyes and trapping her with green vines that sprung from the concrete below her. Rosia smiled as she protected herself with a purple shield and waved a hand away from her, with created a thick black fog that completely covered the outdoors.
"I can't let them suffer alone!" Kira insisted. Without thinking twice, she opened her bedroom window and flew up to join her friends in the sudden battle. "Vanish now, Dark Fog!" she cried as she raised her arm, which magically cleaned the air from the black fog.
"Kira!" said Illere. "Thank goodness you're here!"
"We could really use your help right now," said Brillare.
"Do you girls know how Rosia could have possibly escaped from the Magical Seal?" asked Kira.
Brillare shook her head. "It's impossible for one to escape... at least from the inside."
"Maybe she had help?" Illere suggested.
Rosia laughed loudly. "You twits are so stupid to ask such questions! Why not ask yourselves how you three can stop me rather than how I escaped from Fyora's stupid mirror."
Before Kira could say anything else, a cloud of thick smoke struck from behind her, blinding her and her friends. "Brillare? Illere?" Kira cried as she covered her that were being stung by the smoke. As she looked around now, there were two questions that were swirling in Kira's mind: Where did this weird smoke coming from? And where was Ardore? As the smoke grew thicker, the whereabouts of the Top Fire Faerie, Ardore, made Kira's stomach quench as she considered the help her comrade could be with the current situation.
Why would Ardore not show up and fight with us? Kira asked herself. Where is she while we're trying to defeat Rosia and save these faeries? Is her boutique really that more important than us? She tried again to raise her hand and use the same spell to clear the air around her. Unfortunately the some was much thicker than the fog, and every time Kira would open her mouth, she found herself chocking and coughing loudly.
Nearby were the cried of Brillare and Illere, who tried various spells to see through the smoke and fight Rosia. There were also the loud laughs of Rosia, who seemed highly confident that she would defeat her rivals in the end of the battle. Suddenly, Kira could hear the terrified screams of the faeries below her, as well as from her comrades, as Rosia continued to crackle loudly. "Good luck now, you wimps!" Rosia said victoriously, poofing herself out of the scene in moments.
What's going on now? Why would Rosia sound so happy? Kira wondered as she tried to navigate herself through the smoke. As she flew, she found herself hitting the surface of a glass bottle that seemed to have been floating in the air. Surprised by her discovery, Kira placed a hand on the cold glass, only to feel it suddenly shrink and disappear. The muffled scream from the glass bottle shocked her as she immediately began to understand why Rosia was so happy.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Rosia hissed to somebody Kira never knew was nearby. As the Dark faerie left the scene, the smoke had mysteriously lifted away from the scene, though it still stung Kira's eyes.
"That's better," Kira muttered. As the smoke cleared, she could see the street right below her and the blue sky above her. She could see her neohome and its lush green landscape, the sight of clouds drifting slowly though the afternoon sky, and the sun that shone brightly high above.
And it was quiet... too quiet, as Kira realized she was the only faerie still around.
To be continued...
