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Author Topic: Elida  (Read 8767 times)

Offline Sparky

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Elida
« on: 06. May 2022, 21:30:18 PM »
Overall, there won't be large amounts of braces in this story... so think of it more as a "story that has braces" rather than a "braces story".

Oh, yes, it's a Fairy Story!

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Chapter 1

They were all at "The Golden Cup" public house. Well, ok, when I say "all", Flora had, not too surprisingly, passed on the invitation... 'not really her sort of thing'.

Lilly had decided that everyone involved with rescuing Sebby in one way or another should get together for a drink, and she had bought the first couple of rounds. As well as Lilly, there was Tats (her work partner), Magic and Sparkle of course, plus Elida, Faylinn, Emma and Puck. In addition, Wendy and Emily were there: those two worked in the same office as Magic and Sparkle, and in fact all 4 of them had worked together trying (and succeeding) to get Dave and Andrea together. Sebby was specifically NOT invited, for fairly obvious reasons!

The Golden Cup (the human part) is where they actually got Dave and Andrea finally together. So, what is special about The Golden Cup? Well, it's actually 2 pubs in one: at ground level it's a human pub. But about 20 ft up in the air (and held there by magic) is the fairy pub.

Most of our group of fairies have been drinking gently, but Lilly, being Lilly, has been celebrating hard. Like the others, she had started with the 'Elven Fizz' (a quite strong beer) but she had moved onto some stronger drinks, and was currently trying some rather stronger 'Leprechaun Lager' (I think that's just the name of it, I mean, come on, there's no such thing as Leprechauns!). So far, the evening has been fun, recounting previous adventures and that sort of stuff, but the drink was starting to get to Lilly, and she was starting to get quite loud.

"So, there I was, dressed in a cute pink outfit, with matching pink roller skates.... and I go into the cellars of the Old Palace.... 'Hello' I called out...., 'Hello'.... Tell you what, my Theatrical Society training came in helpful! 'Hello' I called out, and suddenly, there she was, in front of me, The Dark Princess!". It goes without saying that Lilly was being sufficiently loud as she recounted the story, that everyone in the pub could probably hear her. "There she was, all in black... I will admit, the outfit did look good on her, showing off curves that most fairies don't dare show off! All in black, and she unfurled her wings, trying to intimidate me, a lost school-fairy! 'Who are you?' she asks. 'I'm Lilly, I'm a little school-fairy, and I think I'm lost...'". Lilly laughed as she said that. Magic and Sparkle giggled too: they had watched it happen live over their high-tech video link, and knew what was coming.

"The next thing was she spotted my roller boots: 'What are they?' she asks. Oh, come one, what fairy has never seen roller boots! Clearly our Dark Princess hadn't!" continued Lilly. "She asked if I could magic some up for her - in black of course!'. It was tempting, they would have suited her, but I told her that ‘mum had magicked them up for me' - now that's a laugh in itself, could you ever imagine my mum ever giving me pink roller boots?"

Of course, everyone there knew who Lilly's mum was, and found it pretty amusing.

"The next thing I knew was 'blam'". As she said that, she actually cast a spell down onto the humans. "She gave me braces... and some headgear too!".

Elida had just looked where Lilly has cast her spell, and spotted there were two people down there with headgear - which probably meant they also had a mouthful of braces!

"Lilly, what are you doing?" shouted Elida.

"Just doing what our Dark Fairy did to me... 'blam'". And she cast another braces spell - another girl apparently got braces and headgear!

"Lilly, stop it!! Sparkle, can you do a 'FairyTime' spell?".

"Why should I stop, it's FUN!" said a very loud Lilly, as she cast ANOTHER braces spell! Luckily, by then, Sparkle had managed to cast the FairyTime spell, and human time had pretty much stopped.

The others realised that Lilly was now 'drunk in charge of a wand' - albeit that she hadn't actually used a wand, and were unsure quite what to do next. As no one seemed to be doing anything to actually stop her, Elida (probably the most junior fairy there - so with probably the least to lose) went up to her.

"Lilly, you just crossed the line!"

"Who cares?" replied a very drunk Lilly. 'Blam', she threw another braces spell!

"Ok, enough is enough!" shouted Elida, who was rapidly thinking what to do. One spell came to mind: it was one which she had found for Lilly to use against the Dark Fairy. Ok, in the current situation, it might be a lot of overkill, but if she could pull it off, it would stop Lilly in her tracks. She stood back, and called up her wand, and said the words of the very old spell.

Chains appeared in the air, with manacles on the end, which clamped themselves on Lilly's wrists and ankles, the other ends attaching themselves solidly to the bar. Elida then launched a second, rather simpler, spell: a bucket of very cold water appeared, and threw itself over Lilly. As a now rather cold and wet Lilly and the chains fell to the floor, the room was completely silent. Of course, the other effect of the spell was that it deprived Lilly of her magic, so she couldn't give anyone else any braces.

"I'm sorry Lilly," said Elida, "but you're very drunk, and you went too far, and something had to be done!". There was a load of clapping from the other fairies in the room, who had just realised that Lilly, a pretty experienced fairy, had just been stopped by a much more junior fairy!

"Come on guys," said Faylinn, "let's sort all these braces out before the FairyTime runs out. I just hope she didn't use the same glue that Sebby did!"



Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #1 on: 07. May 2022, 16:21:05 PM »
Chapter 2

Two days later, and a very sombre Lilly walks up to Elida's desk.

"Excuse me, Elida," she said very politely, "can you spare me a couple of minutes?". Elida wasn't quite sure how to respond, after what had happened the night before last. Lilly had gotten herself rather drunk, and had DEFINITELY 'crossed that line'.

"Yeah, ok...." replied Elida. From the way Lilly was standing, she had a feeling that she was maybe there to apologise. "Let's use a meeting room" she suggested. Even if it wasn't about the other night, anything else that Lilly might want to talk to her about was probably still something that neither of them would want the other fairies hearing.

Lilly closed the door behind her, and turned to Elida.

"Elida, I need to apologise for my behaviour the other night. Yes, I was drunk, but that's no excuse. I did something - several somethings in fact - that I should never have done. I crossed that line, and, to be honest, if it hadn't been for your quick thinking, it could have turned out a lot worse, not just for the humans, but for me too! I've watched the video, and I wasn't a very good example, was I?"

Elida smiled: she realised that what Lilly had just said was probably NOT easy for her, and the fact that she had come and said it meant a lot to Elida.

"Thank you, Lilly.... yes, you DID go a bit far, but your apology is accepted"

"It was interesting watching that video... you were the ONLY one who reacted, everyone else was just watching, even Sparkle and Magic. Ok, so that manacle spell was rather melodramatic - and yes, I did recognise it - but actually a good call! And I guess I deserved the bucket of water too!"

"Yes, it DID get quite a round of applause! I would have done something a bit more discrete, but in the few seconds I had, it was the only spell that came to mind! Do I gather that you might have got into a bit of trouble with your bosses?"

"Yes, Sir Donald called me into his office yesterday - needless to say, I was a bit late! - then made me sit and watch the video - it was rather embarrassing. But I think he was rather impressed with what you did! I'm assuming that the others managed to sort out the braces I magicked up?"

"Yes, Sparkle got the FairyTime running very quickly, and within a minute or two, the others - mainly Faylinn - had removed the braces and headgear."

"Well, that's all I came over for... once again my apologies, and well done for what you did!". They left the meeting room, Elida went back to her desk feeling pretty good, and Lilly went off to see her mum.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #2 on: 08. May 2022, 18:40:57 PM »
Chapter 3

It's a few days later. Another day, another case. Today, Elida is by herself, and Flora is having a few days off. Elida has got to really like Flora: she is a wise old Fairy, but understands that things change. And she has learnt a lot of stuff from her, not just teeth related stuff, but other stuff too. I mean, just because a girl is a Tooth Fairy, doesn't mean she doesn't do other stuff too.

Today Elida is at an orthodontist's, where a young teen is to get braces. When she arrives, she recognises the kid: not only did she help his older brother with his braces, but she has had to fulfil a few of his (non-teeth related) wishes too.

The problem is he's a bit of a brat. All of his wishes were 110% selfish wishes. Things he wanted for his birthday. Some chocolate. Expensive trainers. Never ANYTHING for someone else. Now whilst the fairies are honour-bound to fulfil the wishes, HOW they fulfil the wishes is very much up to them. If the person wishing is nice, then they will sometimes get a pleasant surprise. But if they are a royal PITA, then sometimes the wishes can be fulfilled in a not-so-nice way. Take chocolate, for example: "I wish I had a big block of chocolate" does NOT have to be fulfilled with lovely expensive Swiss milk chocolate. Bitter dark chocolate fulfils the wish just as well!

Today little Tommy is getting braces. Fairies don't ACTUALLY need a wish (although 'the system' greatly prefers it if there IS one). So today Elida was going to try and influence the orthodontist, to get him to give Tommy a nastier (but still valid) treatment... I'm thinking about giving a patient headgear rather than a twin-block or a Herbst, that sort of thing.

Elida tried several spells that she KNEW should work, but she was just unable to cast the spells. Ok, maybe she'd just made a mistake. Right then, 'plan B': rather than reducing little's Tommy's stress and pain, she would try and make it worse. I mean, there was no doubt that Tommy ACTUALLY deserved it! Again, Elida tried, but was unable to cast the spell.

Tommy was far from being a model patient, and Elida could see that the ortho and his assistant were both getting a bit stressed out. The strange thing is that when she ran a spell to reduce their stress levels, it worked the first time.

Even though Elida's magic to make Tommy's life a little less pleasant had failed, the universe itself seemed to agree with her feelings: Tommy was not only given a set of 'larger than typical' brackets (that's what you get when you get them free on the NHS!), he also got upper and lower expanders, and a lovely shiny metal tongue crib to finish things off! Not to mention the rather embarrassing lisp that goes with that lot! I don't think Tommy was too happy! Elida was though!

---

Back in the office, Elida was thinking about what had happened. She was a bit worried, but wasn't really sure who to talk to. I mean, if you hurt yourself, you go see the Fairy Doctor or Fairy Nurse. If you need help buying something, you speak to the Fairy Shopkeeper.

But who should she talk to about magic problems? In the end, she decided that it came under the banner of 'work things', so decided that she should ask the boss. Whilst she was a bit apprehensive, because the magic she had tried was 'not 100% good', she knew that, at times, pretty much ALL fairies did it. In a way, it WAS still good, as it was to try and change a little brat into a better human...

"Hey, boss, I don't suppose you can spare me ten minutes, can you?" Elida asked the boss when she called her.

"Sure, Elida, come and see me when you're ready!".

With everything that Elida had done to help with the Dark Fairy case, and the subsequent work she had been doing down in the Dark Archive, Elida had a pretty good relationship with her boss, so wasn't really too worried about telling her. She grabbed a coffee, and walked to the boss' office.

"Hi Elida, what's on your mind?" asked the boss after Elida had sat down next to her.

"Well, something odd happened this morning" explained Elida

"Odd? In what way."

"Well, I'm not sure I should really be complaining, as what I was trying to do was a little 'naughty'....", and she explained what had happened earlier.

The boss was smiling at her. "I think we've all been there at SOME point... I can remember a few things I did when I was younger"

"Yeah, but why was I actually UNABLE to cast the spells? I mean, I've seen plenty of other fairies do it. And it sounds like you've done it too."

"That's a good question, a very good question, and I'm not really sure. But I do know someone who might have an idea... would you mind if I shared with her?"

"Sure, I'd love to understand what's going on with me!"

"So, apart from that, how's things? Still enjoying working with Flora?"

"Oh, absolutely. When I first met her, I didn't think I would, but we seem to enjoy each other's company. Which means she's been telling me loads of stuff."

"Oh, that's really good news - I know that some fairies find her hard to get on with! And I'm sure you're trying hard to bring her more up to date as well! So, how's the hunting going with Sebby, down in the Dark Archive?"

"Well, we've found a couple of bits of interesting stuff - I'm thinking about the braces spells - but nothing that does quite what we want yet."

"And on the historical side?"

"There's a lot of books down in that 'history' section, none of which are indexed, so there's a lot of reading to do... but I am indexing it as I read it, Sebby too. It's strange, we were hunting her down a few weeks ago, but she's actually the same sort of age as me, and we now get on pretty well"

"All good news... so apart from what happened this morning, you're ok?"

"Yes, I think so." Even out of work, her life was good: she and Puck had started dating. Puck was very shy as far as girls go, and they were taking things very slowly, but Elida absolutely loved it when they went out together.

"Ok, well leave it with me, I'll have a word with this fairy I know, and I'll let you know if I find something".


Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #3 on: 09. May 2022, 18:54:26 PM »
Chapter 4

Elida's phone rang: it was two days later, and it was the boss calling her.

"Elida, are you free?"

"Yes, I am..."

"In that case, go grab a coffee, and come to my office, will you? I think I might have some interesting news for you about what we talked about the other day"

"Oh, great, give me a couple of minutes...". Elida finished what she was doing, and got herself a coffee (if she had been outside, she would probably just have magicked one up, but she was inside, where there were magic dampening spells.... not that THAT would actually stop her, she had already shown that there were (magic) ways around it).

As Elida entered her boss' office, she saw an older lady also sitting there. "Come on in, take a seat. This is Lady Zia; she is a lecturer at Fairy University".

"Hello Elida, it's nice to meet you, I've heard many good things about you. Oh, and just call me Zia" she said in a very gentle voice.

"Hello... Zia... it's nice to meet you!". Elida looked at Zia. An old lady, probably as old as Flora, but didn't quite look as 'rough'... no doubt the difference between working as a fairy out in the field, as opposed to being someone who worked at the university.

"So, Posy here told me that you had some problems casting some 'naughty magic' the other day: I think I might be able to explain things a bit, so how about we go and have a chat...."

Elida, first of all, smiled to discover that her boss was called 'Posy'. A very pretty name, but it felt odd, as it was the first time anyone had ever called her that. She was also very pleased to hear that someone might be able to help with her 'problem'.

"Ok, I'm sure one of the meeting rooms is free...."

"I think it needs to be a rather more confidential chat, just you and me, so why don't we go down into the Dark Archive?".

"You know about.... the Dark Archive?".

"Oh, yes, indeed. I've spent many hours down there, reading those lovely books, although most of it WAS a few years ago. Posy tells me that you have become its librarian, and to be honest, that doesn't surprise me. Come on....".

Zia led Elida down to the Archive. "Would you mind if I went in first?" Zia asked as they stood in front of the door to the 'Dark Magic' books. She opened the door, walked in, and looked around. "Hello books, it's been a while!". As soon as Zia said that, the books started jiggling around excitedly. "Come on in, Elida, sit down".

"So, you guys know Zia?" Elida asked the books. The fact that these many books, full of dark magic seemed to have a respect for Zia actually relaxed Elida. She sat down, putting her cup of coffee down on the table.

"Now, Posy said you were having problems doing some magic the other day - tell me about it"

Elida explained what had happened.

"So, when you say you 'couldn't cast the spell', what exactly do you mean?"

"Well....it's like if you have a pen, but it's run out of ink: you try to write something, you move the pen as you would normally over the paper, but... well nothing happens. So, I prepared the spells like I would do any other spell, but when I tried to actually cast the spell, it just didn't happen. Does that make sense?"

"Oh, yes, perfect sense. Ok, let's find out a bit more about you... let me see... I hear that you seem to 'understand' magic, able to combine multiple magic spells with little thought?"

"Yes, I can, it's not hard to do...."

"Not hard for you maybe, but most fairies don't find it quite so easy. And I hear you can work with Dark Magic with little problem. These books of Dark Magic not only don't worry you, but it's also very clear that they respect you, as they respect me."

"Yes, I had to use some dark magic spells to help remove the braces that The Dark Fairy put on some people. Plus, I used another dark spell to help find her." She omitted to mention the use of the chains on Lilly a few days before. "As for the books - I find it odd that other fairies have such a problem with them, they've always behaved perfectly when I'm looking for something, even sometimes helping me."

"Also, Posy tells me that you can get around magic dampening spells".

"Yes, although it wasn't that big a space I created...."

"Don't worry, you'll get better with practice. And from what I hear, you get on well with other fairies. But now it seems that you can't do any sort of 'negative magic'. Does all that sound like a reasonable summary?"

"Yes. I guess it is. Is there something wrong with me?".

Zia smiled at Elida. "Definitely not, in fact, it's the opposite. Everything I just said about you applies to me too, and I can promise you that there's nothing wrong with me!". Zia paused a few seconds. "You and I are both 'once in a generation' fairies"

"'Once in a generation' fairies? Is that... good?"

"Oh yes, absolutely! I... well, I guess it's 'we' now.... we are essential to the peace of fairy-kind. In fact, you and I are probably the two most powerful fairies in England, even though you don't realise it yet!"

Elida just sat there, not believing what she had just heard. 'Most powerful fairies?' she thought. She, who was unable to cast a spell on a brat of a kid the other day? How is THAT powerful? Elida felt Zia put her hand on hers, and felt some magic come from Zia. Calming magic. Trusting magic. (And all in a place where you shouldn't be able to do any magic!)

"I think I need to explain to you who I really am: there aren't many fairies who know who I really am, even Posy thinks I just work at the university. I believe that you have met Lilly's boss, Sir Donald?"

"Yes, I have, I met him when Lilly and Tats showed me around FI5... he's a nice man..."

"Well, Sir Donald is one of three fairies who run FI5, and thus are pretty much in charge of what happens to all fairies here in England."

"Three? Lilly said there were two"

"And as far as Lilly is concerned, that's what she needed to know. On a day-to-day basis, Sir Donald and Lady Charlotte run FI5. But with such power becomes a problem: what if they were to 'overstep the mark' and do something that was bad for fairykind? I am the third fairy of the team, and I make sure that Donald and Charlotte never go rogue - and from what happened recently with Princess Sebille, I think you understand what I mean".

"Yes, but what happens if YOU went rogue? Of if they did, and you couldn't stop them?"

"That's the point: I can't go rogue, I'm like you, I can't do any magic that the universe deems to be 'bad'. As for stopping Donald and Charlotte, I am far more powerful than both of them put together, and they KNOW it! Whilst I can't actually ATTACK them, I can easily DEFEND us all against them, or any other similar dark threats. For example, the other week, when Lilly went in to meet The Dark Fairy, with Sparkle and Magic, I was also there - I was part of the FAS backup team: if anything had gone wrong, I would have been the first one in to help them. That's what I do. And so will you, once you understand how... But before we get there, I need to be absolutely certain that you are the one that I seek..."

It was a LOT for Elida to take in. Sat next to her was a most gentle old lady, who claimed to be the most powerful fairy in the country. And who claimed that she, Elida, was just the same.

"And how do we do that?" asked Elida.

"Well, that's partly the reason for coming down here, into the Dark Archive. There's a book in the library here, and I need you to find it. It is a very old book, one that belongs to me... well, I guess it does still belong to me, but soon, if you are the right person, it will belong to you."

"And we'll know that.... how?"

"Oh, don't worry, the book will know, and will let you know too. So, you ready to find it?"

"Yeah, so what do I need to search for?"

"That's part of the test... you need to work it out for yourself". Elida stopped, and thought for a moment.

"Ok, books, you heard the lady... which of you am I looking for?". The books remained silent and unmoving. "Ok, fair enough, I guess I didn't *really* expect that to work! So, I'm looking for a book.... an old book I'm guessing... a very important book by the sound of it. I guess you have belonged to many fairies over the years, so maybe you don't actually belong down here?". Still nothing. Zia also remained silent.

"Ok.... so, Zia thinks I'm to become a powerful fairy, so maybe you contain magic that is relevant to me, and only me, to help me become a protector.... a powerful protector". One of the books moved out a little bit.

"Hello there!" said Elida more softly, "if you're the book I'm looking for, please come out and say hello...". The book came out of the shelf, and flew gently over towards Elida. It was a large book, a quite impressive book, with a very ornate leather binding and covers. It was also VERY well worn. As the book hovered in front of her, she reached out, and touched it: she got very good feelings from the book.

"Yes, that's the one, said Zia.

"Ok, beautiful... do come onto the table," said Elida to the book.

"Hello again," said Zia to the book, "It's been a while. You have helped me a lot over the years, but now it seems you need to belong to Elida. I think maybe you'd better open yourself up, and show her your front page." The book opened, showing a very simple, yet also very ornate, front page to the right, but to the left was a long list of names. At the top, it simply said 'This book belongs to...'. At the bottom of the long list of names, it had Zia's name.

Zia put her hand onto the book. "Put your hand onto the book too....". As Elida also touched the book, she saw her own name, 'Elida', being added magically to the bottom of the long list of names.

"Well, the book seems to agree with me: it belongs to you now. And it also means that you are definitely the fairy that I hoped you were. This lovely book contains a lot of magic that will be essential for you." Elida gently turned the pages, to see a beautifully written book of spells, with all sorts of illustrations. She spent several minutes looking through it, reading some of the spells, and admiring its sheer beauty.

"This book has been added to by its owners over the years. Look, there's one I did": Zia pointed to a drawing of a pretty flower. "It's yours, until you too pass it on. Add your own experiences and knowledge to it." Elida noticed there were still several empty pages at the back, and before that were several hand-written pages. Ok, so the whole book had been hand-written, but these were notes added by later fairies.

"What if someone else finds the book, and reads it? I saw some pretty powerful spells there, and I'm sure some could be turned to be dark spells quite easily."

"Don't worry, it's a very safe book. It now knows you, so will only ever open for you. So, take it with you, you will both be quite safe!"

"But I'm guessing this isn't everything I need to know?"

"Oh, no, you'll also need to read a lot of these other books too!" said Zia, pointing around the bookshelves. Don't worry, they will help you find what you need. They have already accepted you as their Librarian, they now also accept you as their Protector, as they did me."

"But Lilly and her mum, the boss, said I can't just read the books as I want..."

"... in case you go rogue? But the last thing that can happen is you going rogue - the universe simply won't let it happen! You and I are the two fairies who not only CAN, but NEED to, understand all this dark magic, so we can protect AGAINST this magic. You can safely read any and all of these books"

"They also said I might not be safe down here alone, with all these dark magic books."

"Don't worry, you are their Protector, they would never hurt you... or me, for that matter.". Zia stood up, and ran her hand across the spines of the books, then motioned to Elida to do the same. As Elida touched the books, she got a variety of sensations. Some were pleasant, but some indicated darkness, but none of them felt at all threatening.

"As you touch them, they try and talk to you... it can be a great way to find something... ask for what you want, and you can feel if the books can help you... And it's not just the books in here, the more normal books next door are the same"

"Yeah, why ARE there two rooms? It seems to me that they should all be together. It would make it a lot easier to find things."

"Yes, I've wondered the same in the past. I suspect that they simply ran out of room, so arbitrarily split the books into two. Of course, now that you are their librarian, maybe you can do something about it"

"Can I?"

"Why not? You're the Librarian now"

"But how?"

"Well, you've already shown you can do magic in places where it's not allowed"

"Yeah, but that was tiny..."

"So... practise!". Zia created a small sparkling 'bubble', just like Elida had done.

"Yeah, mine was that small too..."

"So, you make it bigger..."  Zia motioned with her hands, and the 'bubble' grew larger... and larger... so that it included both of them inside it. Then she expanded it even further, to pretty much fill the room. "So, what magic do you need to do?" asked Zia with a big smile. "Hey, magic me a coffee, will you?".

Elida ran a couple of simple spells, one for a cup of coffee, another for some biscuits! It was about now that Elida realised how powerful Zia must actually be.

"Thank you! So, just take what you already know, read your new book, and combine spells..." said Zia, letting go of the 'bubble'.

"Ok, so how many spells did you actually use there then?"

"In total, by the end, I guess 5 or 6...". Elida was suitably impressed. "You just need to keep practising, till it all becomes second nature. It's actually an important thing to be able to do: you need to be able to protect others even in magical places, where magic is normally not possible, so places like the office, or even at the Palace. By the way, I'd suggest you learn a couple of the 'door locking' spells sooner rather than later, so you can have a bit of privacy in the practice rooms, you don't really want other fairies wondering what you're doing!". Elida nodded in understanding.

"So, back to the library - I guess I'll need a big enough 'bubble' so I can use magic to adjust the walls and add doors and stuff. Sounds like I need to practice a bit!"

"Yes, and don't be scared to try things. Yes, you'll make mistakes, but that's how we learn. But when you are ready to make changes to the library, let me know, I'd love to help!"

-------

Zia and Elida stayed for a while in the Dark Archive, talking. Elida had many more questions, which Zia answered, keeping no secrets from Elida. Zia also had a few questions for Elida, which she answered.

"It's a lot to take in, I know! I felt exactly the same when I found out, although it was a few years ago."

"Hey, you said we're 'once in a generation' fairies, but there's actually another generation between us..."

"Yes, there is, but we never found anyone in that generation. Maybe one wasn't born, or maybe they simply have no idea of their potential. But it doesn't matter, you're here now."

"So, from a practical perspective, what now?" Elida asked Zia.

"Well, in the short term, don't let anything change: I understand that you do Tooth Fairy duties with Flora - lovely lady, isn't she? So, continue with doing that. You can still come down here and learn when you want - don't worry, I'll let Posy know that it's all ok. Oh, we'd better swap phone numbers: I'm sure you'll have more questions, plus it will make it easier if I need to get in touch.

Elida was actually feeling very good about what she had been told - there wasn't actually anything wrong with her at all, as she had originally feared. Although all that stuff about being a very powerful fairy was, in itself, a little scary. She also realised that her life was about to change, in a very big way.

"So, is all this something that I should keep quiet about for the moment?"

"That would probably be a good idea. You don't really want to attract attention to yourself..."


Offline giacc

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Re: Elida
« Reply #4 on: 09. May 2022, 19:35:16 PM »
not more braces... but interesting... good

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #5 on: 10. May 2022, 18:13:14 PM »
Chapter 5

The rest of the week was reasonably busy: as well as spending time with Flora, on one of Flora's days off, she teamed up with Faylinn for an afternoon. Apart from the drinking session, this was the first time she had worked with Faylinn since they worked together on removing braces that The Dark Fairy had put onto people.

It was strange, whilst Elida KNEW that Sebby was indeed The Dark Fairy, in her mind they were two very different fairies: anything that happened up to a few weeks ago, well that was The Dark Fairy's fault. Anything since would have been done by Sebby, a very pleasant young fairy.

Today's job didn't REALLY need the two of them, but things had been quiet for a few days, so the boss suggested that Elida could work with Faylinn for the day, if only to get her out of the Dark Archive for a bit.

As they flew off to see their 'customer' they chatted, and Faylinn could feel changes in Elida - good positive changes. She seemed very much more self-assured (well, she'd rather demonstrated THAT at The Golden Cup!), and less nervous/apprehensive. It also became clear that she had been doing quite a bit of 'studying': whilst she didn't know the details of the 'Dark Archive', Faylinn was aware that Elida had been given access to 'certain restricted libraries', where she was being trusted to research certain aspects of 'darker magic'.... something Elida had proven she was well able to handle.

Their customer today was Harry, a gentleman in his early 20s, who knew very little about braces, but knew enough to know that he really needed to have some. He had an appointment with an orthodontist (it turned out to be his first-ever ortho consult), and was 'rather apprehensive', so much of their job today would be to help keep him calm.

They found him in the waiting room, where he was sitting upright in a less-comfy chair. "I wish I didn't feel quite so nervous," he said.

"Elida, would you like to?" asked Faylinn

"I would be honoured!" replied Elida, who waved her wand, and ran a gentle calming spell. Harry relaxed a little.

They both flew down and took a look at Harry's mouth, and more specifically the teeth in that mouth.

"Oooh, not good...." commented Faylinn.

"Hmm, I wonder....." said Elida. She took out her wand, and cast some spells. In front of her, an image of Harry's teeth and jaws started to appear. A final spell, and both fairies could now see a clear image of Harry's teeth. Faylinn had a big smile on her face.

"Why you smiling then?" asked Elida.

"Because of you.... how many spells did that take to do?" she asked

"Erm... five...."

"I'd have big problems doing 3 or 4 spells at the same time, but you just did 5, without even thinking about it, but more importantly, without making a big deal about it. Not only are you very talented, Elida, you are also very modest about it too! I have a lot of respect for that! Anyway, what can we see on this lovely image you just created?"

"Well, it's a shame he didn't get braces as a kid, that lower jaw is a little too short, and some twin blocks or a herbst would probably have fixed it. As an adult, he's either going to need surgery..."

"Yes, unless the ortho can be a bit creative, and sort of cover up the problem"

"Mmm, yes, I guess so, but I CAN see another way...."

"Go on..."

"Well, what if his jaw were to grow a tiny bit? Look...". Elida ran another spell, which changed the model, growing the lower jaw a bit. Then she moved the teeth around, also removing two upper premolars... the result looked very acceptable. "I mean, it really is just a tiny bit of 'growth'...."

"I'm not sure we should...."

"Why not? It will make his life a LOT better. I mean, can you imagine him going for surgery? He'd be a nervous wreck!" said Elida. In the background, Elida was also thinking that, if she was actually ABLE to do it, then clearly the universe would define it as being 'ok'. "Look, Faylinn, he wished to not be so nervous: if that ortho tells him he's gonna need surgery, his nervousness will shoot through the roof... we're just helping to fulfil his wish. Tell you what, I'll do the actual jaw, if you can just tweak his memories a bit."

Faylinn looked at Elida. Strangely, she had a lot of trust in Elida, in the way she interpreted things. She was quite right, doing this would make Harry's life a lot nicer. "Go on then..."

Elida waved her wand again - yes, she could have done the spells without the wand, but she DID like being able to wave it, it was fun, plus it showed that she was a properly qualified FAIRY! Very gently, Harry's lower jaw grew by a few millimetres - so clearly the universe WAS ok with Elida doing it! As Harry's lower jaw slowly grew, Faylinn was tweaking Harry's memories of his lower jaw, so that his newly extended jaw felt quite normal.

Once again, Elida modelled his teeth and jaws: whilst his teeth were still crooked and crowded, with many months of shiny metal braces, he would look rather good, even if not perfect.

They stayed with Harry as the orthodontist got him to sit back in the treatment chair, and looked at his teeth.

"Well, yes, you have quite a problem there, your teeth are badly misaligned. Luckily, I believe that I will be able to give you an acceptable result without needing surgery: if your lower jaw had been any shorter, I would probably have advised having surgery, to extend it a bit.". The ortho went on to explain his suggested treatment: remove the upper premolars, upper expander to push the upper molars out a bit, brackets on all the teeth, and various elastics and powerchains during treatment.

"What about invisible aligners? Could you not treat me with those?"

"I'm afraid that, because of what needs to be done, plastic aligners simply won't be able to do what is needed. I can, however, offer white - so less visible - ceramic brackets for your front teeth..."

Elida quickly cast a simple spell onto Harry... it was a 'no, you don't really want those, besides, they'll cost more' sort of spell. "I hope you don't mind?" Elida asked Faylinn.

"Absolutely not, good call!" she replied.


"Well," said Faylinn, after they finished at the orthodontist's, "it was really nice to work with you again, Elida. I mean, yes, I'm sure I could have managed alone, but it IS nice to have some company. And besides, you have a bit of a different way of looking at things, which is refreshing.... maybe we can work together again sometime?"

"I'd like that. Flora is going part-time, just a couple of days a week, so no reason we can't"

"How is Flora? I hear you two have been getting on really well!"

"She's actually very well, but just wants to spend a bit more time with her family, and the grand-fairies while she's well enough to enjoy it. And yes, I'm not sure why, but we get on really well together, she's been giving me all sorts of helpful hints and tips."

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #6 on: 11. May 2022, 20:12:35 PM »
Chapter 6


"Good morning, Elida!" said a voice that Elida recognised. She looked up to confirm that Zia had just walked up to her desk.

"Oh, hello again, Zia, nice to see you again. What brings you here? I was just about to go and 'do some research'"

"Well. Posy tells me that there's nothing in your diary for today, so I have something I'd like to suggest that you might like to do, specifically this afternoon, but you'll need to do a bit of research first, this morning...."

"That sounds interesting, do tell me more..."

"How about we go grab a drink, then go into that certain 'research location' and have a chat?"

A few minutes later they were down in the Archive. "Good morning books!" said Zia as they went into the "Old Magic" room. The books seemed to be extra happy when they were visited by more than just one fairy.

"Ok, let me explain..." started Zia. "Whilst I'm not directly involved with their teaching, we have a small group of students who are training to join the FAS, and they need to practice their magic. To do that, they need 'targets', someone who is well able to defend themselves from their attacks. Often, that means me! I find it useful, if only because it lets me practice my defence spells, plus it's always nice to be able to let off a bit of steam! I was wondering if maybe you'd like to be their 'target' this afternoon?"

"Wow... yeah, that could be fun, but I really don't think I can defend myself well enough yet!"

"Ah, don't worry about that: they will be practising their use of four specific spells, so you just need to understand those spells, and learn how to defend against just those spells"

"Ok, that doesn't sound so bad. But what if they use another spell on me?"

"Don't worry about that, they won't. They are a pretty good team, and good at restricting which magic they use - they have already learnt - the hard way - what happens if they don't stick to what they are supposed to do!" explained Zia with a bit of a smile. "I'll be there too, ready to intervene if anything happens. It will actually be good for them to work with someone different, and I have a feeling you might enjoy it too!"

"Yeah, ok, why not. I mean, it's all well and good me reading all this magic, and practising it in the practice rooms, but it will be good to try some out on real fairies"

"Oh, absolutely. I often do training sessions with the actual FAS security team, keeps them on their toes... and me too!"

"Have you ever been hurt?"

"Not really, and definitely not as much as I've hurt them! Not on purpose, of course, but I do have to be a bit rough at times. Ok, I guess you need to know what magic we're practising this afternoon....". Zia requested a handful of books, which came over to the table they were sitting at, and Zia showed Elida the relevant spells, and then helped her search for suitable protective spells.

"Now, I KNOW you know that 'prevent magic with manacles' spell - the one you used on Lilly recently - but I think you could do with knowing a couple of more discrete versions of that spell!", and Zia requested a couple more books. "Of course, there ARE counters to most of these spells, but I'm not actually aware of one for the manacles though!"

"Hey, Zia, any chance we could go to a practice room, and try these out?"

"Sure, why not, although I'll probably need some help." As they left the Archive, Zia asked Posy (= Elida's boss) if she'd like to join them for a bit of magic practice. "It will do you good to get out of this office for a change!".

On the way, they all refilled their coffee cups, and once in the room, Elida cast a 'secure door locking' spell.

"Good spell, I should show you a couple of better ones sometime!". Zia then spent a couple of minutes explaining to Posy what they were doing.

"Don't worry boss, just go for it!". Elida had already loaded up 5 of the defensive spells she had been reading down in the archive. Moments later, she could sense that Posy was about to launch a spell at her, which she successfully repelled.

"Nicely done Elida! Ok, Posy, try another!". Over the next 30 to 45 minutes, Posy launched the 4 different spells - in different ways - repeatedly at Elida, who responded with the different spells she had learnt. Elida was starting to understand how the different protection spells worked, and how effective they were against the different attacks. Only once did Zia need to get involved.

"Well done, Elida!" said Posy with a big smile. "You're getting good, and I'll be honest, I wasn't holding back towards the end there! Feel free to ask me next time you want to practice, Elida, I actually enjoyed that a lot!"

After some lunch, and on the way to the university, where the training session would be, Elida asked Zia "Hey, can I dress up?"

"What do you mean, dress up?"

"Well, I was thinking... if I'm like this, they will look at me like a normal fairy. I was thinking about dressing up as a sweet little fairy. Work on their psychology as well as their magical technique!"

"I like the idea!" replied Zia, "Yes, go for it. Maybe after that, you could change into something 'darker, and more 'offensive'. Don't want to make things easy for them...".

The training session was held outdoors (so away from any magic-dampening fields in and around many of the buildings), in a fairly isolated field. There were four student fairies: three 'boy fairies' and one 'girl fairy', plus Zia, one of Zia's colleagues from the university and Elida.

"Hello again, everyone, nice to see you all again," said Zia. "So, this afternoon, rather than fighting me, you're going to be going up against Elida here. I'm not going to say anything about her skill levels, that's for you to discover." Elida stood there, dressed in a very 'cute' pink outfit, with a short wispy skirt, and her hair up in a nice bun, with various clips, and a nice rose in it. In her hand, she held what would best be described as a 'kiddies wand': pink with fluffy bits on it. To a casual observer, she could easily pass as Zia's very cute grandfairy.

"Please remember, like always, stick to the chosen spells: you're here to practise those spells, not to defeat Elida. Don't hold back, I'll be ready to take action if needed. Start whenever you're ready..."

"Hi guys," said Elida. "Zia tells me you like cute fairies, all dressed in pink....". She blew a kiss at them, which, along with the magic spell she cast at the same time, knocked them back by a couple of meters. Elida already had at least six protection spells ready to launch back at whatever they threw at her. The big burly guy went first, and Elida easily repelled his magic. "Call that offensive?" she said. "I'm offended by its weakness!". Zia had agreed that she could do whatever she wanted - within reason - to goad the four students into a good practice session.

Initially, the four students were relatively gentle against Elida, but they soon realised that, despite her appearance, Elida was actually a strong opponent, and able to block their magic almost as well as Zia could.

"Ok, timeout!" called Zia. Even though it had only been about 20 to 30 minutes, they all needed a bit of a break, and a drink of water.

"So, Elida, let me introduce you to the guys you've just been practising with. Guys, as you now realise, Elida is no cute fairy, she's in principle as able as I am, just needs to learn a bit more magic, and practice it, which is why I invited her along today. How did it feel to be working with someone different?"

"It was actually VERY helpful, and if nothing else, it reminded me that appearances can be so deceptive." said one of the guys. "Yeah, your defence was pretty good, you must have spent a lot of time practising..." said the girl.

"About half an hour this morning," said Elida. "And yes, I suggested to Zia about dressing up as a sweet little fairy, to try and spook you a bit, and it definitely worked at first!"

"Yeah, it just felt wrong to attack someone who seemed to be so innocent"

"Ok, well, would you like me to be someone less sweet and innocent?" suggested Elida. "Sebby told me what she looked like when she was The Dark Fairy.....". Elida, without using her wand, gestured, changing her clothes into a tightly-fitting black leather catsuit. Ok, maybe Elida didn't quite have the same large boobs that Sebby had, but she still looked pretty good. High-heeled black shoes too.

She gestured again, and her hair changed to long and black, cascading over her shoulders. She shrugged her shoulders, letting her wings come out... "I need to sort those out too...." another wave of her hands, and she had lovely dark black wings.

"I'm not 100% sure I quite pull off the look, but it was worth trying"

"Well, you definitely look more like someone who's wanting to cause us trouble," said another of the students.

"In that case, come and get me then!" she taunted. Their first session had been relatively static, staying pretty much on the ground, but this time Elida flew up high, and then swooped down, casting some relatively lightweight magic against the students (which the universe was ok with her doing - the fact that it was a training session probably meant that the universe was being a bit more lax with her!) ... so fireballs and that sort of stuff.

This time, the four students started working more as a team, making it harder (but more fun) for Elida. For the next fifteen or twenty minutes, they practised their magic against Elida, trying out different ways of casting the four spells they were using.

Suddenly, she was hit by four simultaneous spells, and she started to fall from the sky, landing gently on the grass. The four students went over to her, to check if she was ok. They were about 6 feet from her when they saw her hand twitch, and she launched a set of spells against all 4 of them, lifting them several feet off the ground, and incapacitating them at the same time. Elida stood up, then, just for fun, she released the girl, and let her start to cast another spell... that's when she hit her with the magic-stopping manacles spell!

That last bit of theatre made everyone smile. Elida gently dropped the other 3 students back down onto the grass, then went over and shook their hands. "Shall I leave her like that?" asked Elida, pointing at the girl who was in the manacles. She waved her hands, and released her, then went over, and helped her up.

"Guys, that was so much fun!" said Elida, who by now was fairly exhausted: it had been a while since she had done quite as much physical magic. "I hope it helped you practice that magic, it certainly helped me understand those spells so much better, and how to defend against them!"

"Yes, it was certainly good for me: I think we all had to think a bit differently there, I reckon we've got to know Zia too well. Maybe you can come along again, sometime?" said one of the students.

"Yeah, thanks for that, Elida, it was really good! And I do like the black look, it's reasonably intimidating!"

By now, Zia and her colleague had joined them. "Good session there, everyone, and that includes you too, Elida!"

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #7 on: 12. May 2022, 17:41:47 PM »
Chapter 7

<ping>

A message from the boss popped up on Elida's phone. "Sebby's here...." was all it said. Whilst it was a fairly innocuous message if anyone else saw it, the implications were more serious. Sebby had arrived to go into the Dark Archive again with Elida, to look through a few more books.

Elida and Sebby were getting on surprisingly well together: they were both the same sort of age, and they were both tooth fairies. The big difference was, of course, the fact that Sebby was from 100 years ago, and was still learning about the modern world. So far, she had been living at the palace, under the watchful eyes of the Queen, goodness knows how many palace staff, and, of course, Tats.... which rather shielded her from the 'real world'. And one of the side-effects of being at the palace was that she wasn't able to do magic - a fact that pleased a lot of people!

"Hi Boss... Hi Sebby! You ready to go down into the archive?" asked Elida.

"Just before you do: Sebby here has been tested by goodness-knows how many psycho-fairies, and they all believe she is clear of her previous darkness from the old Palace, and is, therefore, ready to take her place in the world. However, it's felt that, for the foreseeable future, her use of magic needs to be supervised, 'just in case'."

"Ok, and you're mentioning this because?"

"Because I was hoping you'd be willing to supervise her some of the time, said the boss.

"I do promise to behave myself!" Sebby said to Elida

"You two seem to get on pretty well, and I thought you might be a good role model for her". Yeah, as in not being able to do any 'bad' magic!

"Please?" asked Sebby. Elida smiled. Whilst she hadn't spent a lot of time with Sebby, she got good feelings when they were together, which made her believe that Sebby would behave herself. And if the boss was willing to trust her with the task, then why not.

"Yes, ok, I'll do my best to look after her"

"Can't ask for more than that. If there's anything you're not sure about, just ask. Either of you. So that's all I wanted to say. You know where the door is....". If she had said that last bit to any other fairy, they would assume the boss was kicking them out of the office. But for Elida and Sebby, she meant the cupboard door... the secret entrance that led down into the Dark Archive.


"Thank you, Elida"

"That's ok. So, now we're down here, what do you fancy doing? History, or braces-related magic?".

Sebby had two things she wanted to learn from the Archive: first, she wanted to search the many un-indexed history books, to see if they could find out more about what had happened a hundred years ago, when the Old Palace had been destroyed. Not that she really expected to find much, she still hoped she might find a little more detail. The second thing she wanted was to find a spell to remove the braces that she had put on Lilly, and maybe even another similar one to allow her, or maybe Elida, to give other fairies some braces. Whilst she had managed to give Lilly the rather nice sparkling braces that she currently had, she had been very much under a 'dark influence' when she had done so. In fact, she had only been able to remove the double headgear that she had also given Lilly by getting angry whilst in the old palace again.

And she had decided that she didn't really want to get THAT angry ever again. Looking back, she fully realised that she had been in a pretty bad place back then, and she felt so much better, so much more 'normal' now.

Since then, whilst not allowed (or able) to do any magic, she had spoken to several people, Lilly, Tats and Elida included, and had learnt that while magic had greatly changed and even perhaps improved in the last 100 years, modern magic seemed to be a lot more 'gentle', and if you needed something 'stronger', then you often needed to use older magic. Of course, a lot of older magic was so strong it was actually quite dangerous for most fairies to use... which is why it wasn't publicly available, but was locked away in The Dark Archive, and available only on a 'need to know' basis.

Officially, the only reason Sebby was allowed into the Dark Archive at all was to do her history research: her access to search for the braces magic was much less official, and was on the condition that Elida, or someone similar, was with her at all times.

"Can we start by searching for braces magic? Then do some history searching later on?"

"Ok, let's start by doing some more searching in the 'Old Magic' room, then move into the "Dangerous and Dark Magic" room if we get nowhere....." Elida led Sebby into the 'Old Magic' room.

"Good morning, books, and how are you all today?" asked Elida as she and Sebby sat down at the small reading table. Elida looked around her, at the old bookshelves, the dark and dirty décor, the tatty old chairs and table. Ok, she could appreciate 'oldness', but this place looked like it had been completely uncared for, for far too many years. Which is exactly what had happened. "You know, these books deserve better...." said Elida to no one in particular, but mainly to Sebby, because she was there.

"What do you mean?" asked Sebby.

"Well, you've been in our main library, haven't you? It's clean, it's bright, the chairs are comfortable to sit on too. The shelving is more modern - I mean, I bet the books find these shelves are quite uncomfortable." Many of the books vibrated in agreement. "I'm the Librarian... I need to do something!"

Offline acornjohn2001

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Re: Elida
« Reply #8 on: 13. May 2022, 07:54:30 AM »
Hi, Sparky! You are awesome and I admire your great fantasy!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #9 on: 13. May 2022, 16:39:14 PM »
Hi, Sparky! You are awesome and I admire your great fantasy!
Thank You! Your comment is, as always, much appreciated.

Hopefully you'll enjoy what's about to happen in the story....

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #10 on: 13. May 2022, 16:45:48 PM »
Day 1:

It's a Tuesday morning. Elida was woken by her alarm clock: the time was 7:15, and while it might seem to be a bit early for some of us, it did mean that she didn't need to rush to get to work for 8:30. She got up out of bed, grabbed her dressing gown that was hanging on the back of her door, then went into her kitchen, where she put the kettle on, ready to make that all-essential first-cup-of-the-day of coffee. She would normally have had a dish of her favourite cereals, honey & nut cornflakes, but she had finished those off last night ('must get some later today' she thought). So, she opened the new loaf of bread she had bought yesterday after work, and took out two slices, which she put into her toaster. Whilst the toast would be 'ok', Elida much preferred to have cereals for breakfast.

The kettle clicked off, and she poured some water into the cup, where she had just added a spoonful of that nice instant coffee she liked. While she waited for the bread to toast, she got the butter and marmalade out of her fridge.

With her toast all done, she took it, and her coffee, and sat on the comfy chair in the lounge part of her small flat. As she ate her toast she looked out of the window: the good news was that today it not only wasn't raining, it looked like it might be an even nicer day later on, which was nice - flying to the office when it was raining was never all that nice. As she continued eating her toast, and drinking her coffee, she thought about Puck, her boyfriend. Puck was a technical person, and, to be honest, a bit of a geek. He'd never had a girlfriend before, and felt a bit difficult when socially around girls. Ok, so Elida wasn't THAT experienced either, but she had had three of four boyfriends before.

Ella, Lilly and Tats were all fairies at work, so not fairies Puck interacted with socially, so he was fine with all of them. He'd originally met Elida through work, and had actually really enjoyed working with her on the magic detector, so whilst he'd needed a bit of a push to take the first steps, he actually felt pretty relaxed with her too.

Elida realised that Puck was a bit inexperienced as far as relationships go, but she didn't mind. He was actually very sweet, and they both seemed to just enjoy being together. Elida had finally managed to get her first kiss from Puck a few days ago: not such a big deal for her, but a huge step for Puck.

With her breakfast finished, she stopped daydreaming about Puck, and after putting the dirties into the kitchen, she went and took a shower. Her hair felt a bit greasy, so she also washed her hair, something she usually did maybe once a week.

With her hair nicely dried, she clipped it into place (it was no fun flying when your hair kept flicking into your face), dressed, then put on her 'flying coat'. With her flat door locked, she went outside, and launched herself into the air, and flew to the office. At her desk, she took off her coat, put her small bag of bits into her drawer, and went off to get her all-essential SECOND cup of coffee for the day. She was a few minutes early, so she wasn't needing to rush, and had a chat with a couple of other fairies whilst getting her coffee.

Back at her desk, she took out her tablet, and logged into their computer system, to check her diary: no calls had come in that needed her attention, which meant that she would be able to spend some time this morning down in the Dark Archive. Because all the fairies were coming and going so much (going out to fulfil wishes and that sort of stuff), the fact that she wasn't at her desk for hours at a time didn't seem at all strange to anyone else, so she walked off to the boss' office, and knocked on the door.

"Come on in....,” said the boss. "Oh, good morning, Elida, wanting to go into the Archive?"

"Yes please!". The boss waved her hand, casting the spell needed to open the 'portal' to the dark library (otherwise, if you went through the door, it was just a store-cupboard!). Of course, thought Elida as she walked down the stairs, does that mean that the Dark Archive is ACTUALLY under the boss' office, or did the portal actually take you somewhere else? Not that it really mattered - well not for the moment it didn't.

"Good morning, books" said Elida, as she went into the 'Older Magic' room. Today Elida was going to continue reading her own 'Protector's' book, and read up on some related magic, and as most of that was just old, and not especially dark, this seemed to be the place to be. Very quickly she got quite engrossed in what she was doing, and suddenly realised it was already 1:15.

"Hi boss, I'm just going to go get some lunch. Has anything come up that I need to do, do you know?"

"Not that I'm aware of....". Elida went to the fairy canteen, and got a nice salad, then went and spent the afternoon once more down in the Archive. She set the alarm on her phone to play a noisy tune just before 'going home time'. She started the afternoon continuing reading 'her' book, then later on decided to see what she could find down there about teeth. Yes, she had searched stuff before in the Dark Magic room, specifically to sort out the Dark Fairy's work, but this time she was in the Old Magic room (so the spells were still old, just not as 'dark' or 'nasty'), and she just wanted to see what sort of stuff was in there. Obviously, she wasn't going to find out anything with braces in there, thus she was looking at teeth stuff.

"Ok, books, time for a bit of searching....". Elida could sense the books turning their attention to her: they seemed to enjoy having Elida search them, she tried to make it fun for them. "So, I'm a tooth fairy, and I understand the modern magic relating to teeth, so I'm looking for older magic, maybe stuff that hasn't been used for a while. Let's start with basic stuff, we can quickly move on from there if it's not so interesting. So, anyone got some interesting basic teeth stuff? You know what to do!"

About 7 or 8 books moved out from the shelves by an inch or two. Elida took a quick walk around, and noticed that there were only a few books. "Ok, there's not too many of you, so why don't you come on over to the table, and put yourselves in a neat pile, and I'll take a look at you all.". The books were very used to how to do things, so without rushing, all came gently over to the table, and put themselves in a pile. "Hey, can you top two lift up, and let that third book out....". As requested, the books lifted up, and the third book came out, and sat in front of Elida, then the other two dropped themselves gently back on the pile.

The book in front of her was actually a fairly plain looking book, but it was nicely made, and looked like it was probably the oldest of these books. It turned out to be an interesting book, with a lot of medical sort of information - and lovely pictures - of teeth, along with related magic spells. She actually recognised some of the spells: some were exactly the same as ones she still used, others had certain similarities to spells she knew. A lot of the spells were no longer relevant, as human dentistry had massively improved, plus most people did seem to look after their teeth better. She also managed to take a look at 3 of the other books too.

It's just as well that she had set her alarm, because she got quite engrossed in reading these books. Deciding it was time to go home, she decided that she might as well leave these books out, piled up neatly on the table. If it had been the main fairy reference library, then she'd have had to put the books away, but she was pretty much the only one coming down here, so it didn't matter.

"Learn anything interesting today?" asked the boss as she left.

"Yeah, I was reading some old books on tooth spells, it was interesting to see how fairies used to do things to human's teeth. Well, if nothing comes up for me tomorrow, I'm sure you'll see me again!"

On the way home, she picked up a box of those lovely 'honey nut cornflakes', it would be good to have those for breakfast tomorrow.

Elida had a quiet night by herself: watched some fairy-tube videos, also looked over on Daisy's streaming channel, to see how she was enjoying her latest braces (she was!!). Had a bedtime drink, then went off to bed.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #11 on: 14. May 2022, 22:56:32 PM »
Day 2:

Elida was woken by her alarm clock: as expected, the time was 7:15. She got up out of bed, grabbed her dressing gown that was hanging on the back of her door, then went into her kitchen, where she put the kettle on, ready to make that all-essential first-cup-of-the-day of coffee. She opened the cupboard door, to take out the new packet of her favourite cereals, honey & nut cornflakes, but they weren't there.... which was odd, because she was SURE that's where she had put them. She looked around, but still couldn't find them, so instead she opened the new loaf of bread she had bought the other day after work, and took out two slices, which she put into her toaster. Something didn't feel quite right.

The kettle clicked off, and she poured some water into the cup, where she had just added a spoonful of that nice coffee she liked. While she waited for the bread to toast, she got the butter and marmalade out of her fridge.

With her toast and coffee done, she went and sat in the lounge area and relaxed as she at the toast and drank her coffee. Just like yesterday, the weather was looking promising, so again she'd have a pleasant fly into the office.

Next it was time for her shower. Her hair felt a bit greasy, so she also washed her hair, something she usually did maybe once a week.... but hang on, hadn't she washed it yesterday?

With her hair nicely dried, she clipped it into place, dressed, then put on her 'flying coat'. With her flat door locked, she went outside, and launched herself into the air, and flew to the office. At her desk, she took off her coat, put her small bag of bits into her drawer, and went off to get her all-essential SECOND cup of coffee for the day. Like yesterday, she was a few minutes early, so she wasn't needing to rush, and had a chat with a couple of other fairies whilst getting her coffee.

Back at her desk, she took out her tablet, and logged into their computer system, to check her diary: clearly no calls had come in that needed her attention, which meant that she would be able to spend time again today down in the Dark Archive. She walked off to the boss' office, and knocked on the door.

"Come on in....,” said the boss. "Oh, good morning, Elida, wanting to go into the Archive?"

"Yes please!". The boss waved her hand, casting the spell needed to open the 'portal' to the dark library.

"Good morning, books" said Elida, as she went into the 'Older Magic' room. She sat at the desk where she had left the pile of books last night - but they had gone.

"Hey, guys, have you been tiding yourselves up while I've not been here? No big deal, but could those books I was looking at yesterday come out again, and come on over here?"

Not only did the books do nothing, she was getting a feeling of 'what IS she on about' from the books.

Something was just not feeling right about today. She had her phone in her hand, and turned it on. Something caught her eye... under the time, it said that today was Tuesday. But YESTERDAY was Tuesday, so today is Wednesday. She took out her tablet again, and logged into the diary system again. Odd, it was ALSO saying it was Tuesday.... Then she remembered about breakfast: she couldn't find the new box of cereals, and hey, the loaf of bread was unopened (she had opened it yesterday!). It was a crazy idea, but could she just have DREAMT about yesterday?

"Ok, books" she said a little hesitantly. "... time for a bit of searching.... so, I'm looking for older tooth magic, maybe stuff that hasn't been used for a while? Let's start with some basic stuff...". Like yesterday, she walked around the room, noticing again that just a few books had popped out from the shelves. "Ok, would you all please go and pile yourselves up on the table...."

Back at the table, she looked at the pile of books: they all looked very familiar, especially the third one down. "Third book down: would you like to come out and over here. She opened the book: she recognised it instantly. But if yesterday had been just a dream, why would she recognise the book so well, if she'd never seen it before yesterday?

'Ok, so maybe I'm in a dream right now?' she thought. She pinched herself: yes, she could feel that. Next, she created a 'non-magic-bubble' where she magicked up a pin, and pricked herself. OUCH! No, she was definitely awake....
 
Elida had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something very odd was happening, but it was sufficiently odd that she had no idea who to talk to about it... they would think she had gone a bit crazy.

Elida tried to call Zia's mobile, but got no reply. So, she rang the university, and whilst they confirmed she was 'not in the office today', they were unwilling to tell her where she actually was. She left a message, asking if they would pass it on to Zia.

She spent the day working down in the Dark Archive, and again, on the way home, bought herself a new packet of honey & nut cornflakes.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #12 on: 15. May 2022, 17:46:31 PM »
Day 3:

Elida was woken by her alarm clock: as expected, the time was 7:15. She got up out of bed, grabbed her dressing gown that was hanging on the back of her door, then went into her kitchen, where she put the kettle on, ready to make that all-essential first-cup-of-the-day of coffee. She opened the cupboard door, to take out the new packet of her favourite cereals, honey & nut cornflakes, but once again, they weren't there.... and this time she KNEW that's where she had put them when she got home after work yesterday. So, she took out the loaf of bread: it was still sealed..... and she KNEW she had opened the bag yesterday... and the day before. Sod it, toast again!

She went back to her bedroom, and picked up her phone, and turned it on.

Tuesday.

It said TUESDAY!

AGAIN!

Like yesterday!

She made the coffee, and put butter on her toast - she couldn't face marmalade again today! Sitting in her lounge, she felt her hair: it felt greasy again. Despite washing it yesterday. And the day before.

Elida started to worry. Once again, she had that very bad feeling in her stomach, you know, the way you feel when you know you're about to get some very bad news. Suddenly she thought about a human film she had watched, one with Bill Murray in it. Where he was a weatherman, and kept re-living the same day over and over.... Groundhog Day, wasn't it?

It would certainly explain what was going on to her. But how? And why? And why HER? And was anyone else suffering the same thing? How would she even KNOW if there was anyone else was suffering the same thing?

She thought very carefully about yesterday: when she went into the Archive, the books she had left on the table had apparently gone... but maybe things had just 'reset' to how they had been at the start of the 'first' Tuesday, that would make sense. And why there were no cereals in her cupboard, both yesterday and today. And why the bread was unopened.

Elida realised that she was shaking... she was scared, mainly because she just didn't understand what was going on to her.

Once again, she started thinking about who she could speak to. The only one person she could think of was Zia. She tried calling Zia, but like before, got no reply. She sent a text: "Zia, please can you call me, I need to talk to you, it's important..."

For the first time in a very long time, Elida felt very alone.....

In the office, Elida KNEW she had nothing in the diary for today, so after getting her all-important 'second cup of the day', she went down into the Archive. She felt both safe and secure down there.

"Hi Sebby! ..... So, what you doing today? ........ Fancy coming and joining me in the Archive? ...... Yeah, when you're ready, just tell the boss that I'm expecting you".

Yes, it would do her good to have some company for the day.....

----------------------

Day 4:

Elida was woken by her alarm clock: she was not at all surprised to find that the time was 7:15, and that it was Tuesday. Shower / wash hair. Get dressed. Coffee.

NO, not TOAST again!! Elida could cope with having toast for breakfast occasionally, but not 4 days in a row! So, she went out to the local shop and got some cereals and milk, and a bottle of Prosecco for later. Oh, yes! Cereals for breakfast! The effort had been so worthwhile! Go to work. Second coffee. Dark Archive. Call Sebby again (she had had a nice day with her yesterday). Text Zia, maybe TODAY she'd call back....

In the afternoon, she called Puck, and invited him over for the evening: it would do her good to have some company. Besides, she'd not seen him for several days. Well, from HER perspective it was several days, from his, it was (counts on fingers) just a couple.

"Puck" she said as they sat down after having dinner (and the Prosecco!). "Do you know anything about time loops?". She had been thinking quite a bit whether to even say anything to Puck, and had decided that it wouldn't hurt: he wouldn't remember anything about it tomorrow. She had also been thinking about WHAT to say, and again, decided it didn't really matter.

"Time loops? You mean like in Groundhog Day?"

"Yeah, exactly like that. What causes them?"

"You're rather assuming that they CAN actually exist... I mean, Groundhog Day was just a story!"

"Oh, time loops exist, I can promise you!"

"You sound very positive about that - how do you know?"

"Because I'm stuck in one. So, today is Tuesday. For me, yesterday was also Tuesday. And the day before, and the one before. I'm in the fourth day of a time loop...."

Puck said nothing for several seconds, he was clearly thinking. Trying to decide if Elida was messing with him - he had no real reason to believe she WAS messing with him, but stuck in a time loop? "Are you for real, Elida?"

"I'm absolutely for real. I don't know WHY, and I have no idea how to get out of it." Well, ok, she had one idea, and that was Zia, but Zia didn't return her calls. Puck was still not convinced.

"Ok, so let's say that you ARE in a time loop... when does it start, when does it end?"

"It starts every morning at 7:15, when my alarm goes off, and it ends when I finally fall asleep, so some time between 11 and midnight..."

"Hey, what's your alarm music? It's not 'I've got you, babe' by any chance?". Elida remembered the reference.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Well, it is a bit far-fetched...."

Elida thought a moment. What she needed was some sort of proof - if not for tonight, then maybe for next time. "Ok, so I get the feeling I'm not going to persuade you tonight, but maybe next time: tell me something that you KNOW that I don't know about you..."

"Ummm... how about the fact that I hate both peas and sprouts?"

"Yeah, I'll agree with you on those! Ok, that will do for starters - or maybe the main course! Something else?"

Puck thought, then smiled. "Ok, when I was really young, like before I started school, I had to go to hospital because I got a bead stuck up my nose. That do you?"

Elida started giggling, as she tried to imagine a young Puck sticking things up his nose. "Yeah, I could actually see you doing that!". Elida didn't say any more about the time loop for the rest of the evening, she knew that she wouldn't be able to persuade Puck this time around.


Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #13 on: 17. May 2022, 03:55:45 AM »
Day 5,6:

Wake up. Shower. Wash Hair. Make coffee. Eat toast. Go to work. Say 'hi' to the boss. Maybe invite Sebby along. Research in Archive, talk to the books. Feel more and more frustrated. Even with Puck. Go to sleep

Repeat.

----------------------

Day 7:

Elida was woken at 7:15 by her alarm clock: god, she was starting to HATE that alarm sound. She grabbed the clock, threw it up in the air, then threw a magic fireball at it. That definitely silenced it.... well, for today it did: Elida had no doubt it would be back beside her bed tomorrow, beeping at 7:15.

Wake up - no, already done that!. Shower. Wash Hair. Make coffee. She couldn't face the toast, so went out and bought some cereals again. Plus a few bottles of beer. And some rather extravagant food for dinner (heck, she was in a time loop, she'd have all the money back again tomorrow morning!) Go to work. Say 'hi' to the boss. Invite Sebby along. Be a bit rude to Sebby. Try to research in Archive, talk to the books. Be rude to the books too!

Just as she came out of the Archive, in fact, just after she had come out of the boss' office, she overheard someone say "oh, here's come's the boss' favourite little pet...". Elida walked over to her, punched her in the face, no doubt breaking her nose, and walked off.

Yes, clearly Elida was in a bit of a mood today! Probably something to do with having to keep repeating the same day, over and over.

Back home, she had the nice food, and drank some of the beer. That didn't stop her getting frustrated about being stuck in a time loop. It was a week already, with still no end in sight. She went to the fridge, opened the bag with the bread with it, and flung it all over the floor. Did the same with pretty much everything else in the fridge. And the cupboard too. It made quite a mess in the kitchen: there were two possible outcomes, and both seemed vaguely OK to Elida. If she remained in the time-loop, the kitchen would be tidy tomorrow. If she escaped the time-loop, then tidying up the mess would be a small price to pay!

Elida fell asleep amongst the mess in the kitchen: she was crying.

----------------------

Day 8:

Elida was back in bed again, and was woken by her alarm clock: as expected, the time was 7:15. Moments later, the alarm clock magically exploded!

This time, she grabbed her phone, and just looked at the date, or should I say the DAY. Guess what: it was Tuesday.

'Oh, NOT again'... thought Elida. Shower / wash hair. Get dressed. The mess she'd made in the kitchen had, of course, all gone.

Today, rather than having toast and coffee, or going and getting some cereals, she decided to go off to a place that did Full English Breakfasts, near work. It was, of course, far too much food for her, but it sure beat toast and marmalade! Even more amazingly, she actually got to work pretty much on time, where she grabbed her second coffee, and went off to the Boss' office.

"Oh, good morning, Elida, wanting to go into the Archive?"

"Yes please!" said Elida rather sedately.

"You ok?"

"I will be later - I stupidly treated myself to a Full English this morning, I think I maybe had a bit too much!".

"Oh, you young fairies! Take it gently, and you'll be ok....". Down in the Archive, she decided to not call Sebby today, but just spent time reading her book, and researching into some defensive magic that her book referenced. For the moment she had given up trying to get in touch with Zia, it didn't seem to matter WHAT she put in her messages, she never called back.

In the afternoon, she felt a little better, so she called Puck, and invited him over for the evening again. Maybe THIS time she'd persuade him that she really WAS in a time loop.


"Puck" she said as they sat down after having dinner. "What do you know about time loops?".

"Time loops? You mean like in Groundhog Day?"

"Yeah, exactly like that. What causes them?"

"You're rather assuming that they CAN actually exist... I mean, Groundhog Day was just a film!"

"Oh, time loops exist, I can promise you!"

"You sound very positive about that - how do you know?"

"Because I'm stuck in one. So, today is Tuesday. For me, yesterday was also Tuesday. And the day before, and the one before that too. I'm in the seventh - or maybe it's eighth - day of a time loop...."

Puck said nothing for several seconds, he was clearly thinking. Trying to decide if Elida was messing with him - he had no real reason to believe she WAS messing with him, but stuck in a time loop? "Are you for real, Elida?"

"Yes. I said all this to you a few days ago, and not too surprisingly, you reacted just the same, so I asked you to tell me a couple of things about yourself that you've not told me. So, food-wise, you told me that you hate both peas and sprouts"

"Erm... ok, yes, that's true, and I don't remember telling you, but...."

"...but someone else could have told me. Ok, how about this one then... I don't think THIS is one you would have told too many people about: when you were really young, before you started school, you had to go to hospital because you got a bead stuck up your nose. That do you?"

"How did you find THAT out?"

"You told me the other night! Puck, please believe me, I'm stuck in a time loop! Tell me ten other things, and I'll repeat them to you tomorrow... my tomorrow, your repeated today! What else do I need to tell you so you'll believe me?". Tears welled into Elida's eyes. This was why she'd not tried to tell anyone else, this was the sort of reaction she knew she'd get. But she thought that Puck might be different. "I'm sorry, Puck, it's just that I don't know what's going on. Why it's happening. When it will stop. I'm so sodding scared!". Elida knew that Puck wasn't good with emotional girls, so she got closer to Puck, and put her arm around him. "Just pretend for a moment I'm not your girlfriend, but I'm someone at work, who has come up to you and said 'I think we're all in a time loop...'. They are someone you trust 100%. Talk to me please, Puck!"

"Well, Bill Murray was in a time loop coz he needed to do things right with Andie MacDowell. Technically, I guess 'the universe' decided he needed to 'fix something'. Dr Strange used a time loop to stop someone doing something catastrophic. I know there's loads of films, and they are pretty much all about needing to fix something.... something that's usually time-critical". Puck was responding better now: it probably didn't matter if he fully believed Elida or not, he was thinking practically.

"Ok, so how do I find out what I'm supposed to fix? I've been thinking on and off about it the last week, and there's nothing obvious."

"Ok, so assuming you ARE in a time loop... when does it start, when does it end?"

"It starts every morning at 7:15, when my alarm goes off, and it ends when I finally fall asleep, so sometime between 11 and midnight..."

"Hey, what's your alarm music? It's not 'I've got you, babe' by any chance?".

"No, it's more like 'Beep, beep, bloomin' BEEP!'" said Elida, finally smiling again.

"And does ANYTHING change from one day to the next?"

"No, when I wake up, I'm back to where things were before. Everyone else does the same thing, unless I do something that causes them to do things a bit different"

"You can't store stuff on your tablet, or write it down?"

"No, tried both those..."

"Did you try writing it on your own body?"

"No, not tried that... worth a try though!"

"Tried killing yourself yet? Bill Murray did that quite a few times!"

"I'm not feeling THAT bad quite yet....."

"Have much have you tried doing different things?"

"A little bit..."

"I'm thinking that if there's something you need to do, something you need to achieve, something you need to fix, then maybe you need to do stuff VERY differently, to find out what it is..."

They talked a bit more, but Puck didn't really have much more he could suggest, other than asking others for advice. Elida pointed out how hard it was to get people to actually believe she was in a time loop. "I mean, you're still not 100% convinced, are you?".

After Puck had gone, Elida lay down quietly, and started to think of things she could do, to try and find out what it was that she needed to do.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #14 on: 17. May 2022, 17:45:40 PM »
Day 9:

Elida was woken by her alarm clock: the time was 7:15, no real surprise there! She didn't even bother to grab her phone, to check, by now she KNEW it would be Tuesday again! She felt her hair: yes, greasy again, definitely still Tuesday!

Get out of bed. Drink coffee. Sod, it, just eat the toast with marmalade!

Elida was tired. Not from lack of sleep, but mentally: she just needed a break. "I need a day off!" she said out loud to herself. Elida sent a message to her boss, saying she wasn't feeling well, which was sort-of true.

She spent the rest of the day doing nothing, apart from watching the fairy equivalent of Netflix. A few messages came through - she already knew they would be (she's had them 8 times before!).

Later on, as she was getting ready for bed, she opened the drawer in the bedside cabinet: the light reflected on something, and it caught her eyes. She moved the tissue that was covering it, to find several sets of human braces: these were the braces that she, Faylinn and Flora had removed from several of Sebby's 'victims' when she was 'The Dark Fairy', and that she'd been allowed to keep. She took them out of the drawer, held them in her hand, and looked at them: they really were VERY beautiful. So shiny, made of lovely smooth metal. You had to hand it to her, Sebby had worked out how to magic up some VERY nice braces!

As she ran her fingers over the lovely braces, a sort of 'tingle' went up her arm, and down her spine, making her shiver with pleasure. She suddenly felt very jealous of both Lilly and Sparkle, both of whom now had their own braces. Yes, maybe she needed to work a bit more with Sebby, to find spells to not just remove Lilly's braces, but to be able to give other fairies, herself included, braces.

In the meantime, Elida went to bed, holding the braces in one hand, then used her other hand to do something that I dare not describe here....

----------------------

Day 10:

Elida was woken by her alarm clock: the time was 7:15. She knew she was still in the time loop simply by how her hair felt. Having the previous day off helped her feel a bit better this morning. After a shower / hairwash, she went to the shops, to get some cereals: for a change she got some chocolate flavoured ones she'd never tried, but had never wanted to potentially waste her money on - of course, 'in the loop' that wasn't really an issue. Back home, she decided that they would be added to the 'don't bother buying again' list. Maybe she'd try something else tomorrow.

At work, down in the archive, she called the university, this time being rather more forceful, and even possibly rude to them, but they still only told her Zia wasn't available. Out of boredom, she texted Zia, not expecting any sort of response... it's just that she felt she SHOULD, just in case.

For the evening, she persuaded Puck to go out for an indian meal with her at a local restaurant. She decided NOT to say anything about being in a time loop, instead she just enjoyed the evening with her boyfriend.

----------------------

Day 11:

Wash. Rinse. Repeat

----------------------

Day 12:

Having had a very 'normal' morning (I'll leave out the bit about the shower and hairwash, and the toast and marmalade), Elida went to the pub by herself, and had a few drinks. Probably one or two more than she should have had, especially at lunchtime.

Back at work, she walked loudly into the office, attracting the attention of several of the girls who were there. Then into the boss' office.

"Hello Posy, you lovely fairy!" she said, going over and sitting on Posy's lap, putting her arms around her, and giving her a big hug. "I wish you were my mum too!"

"Elida, get off of me! Have you been drinking?"

"Yeah, and what you gonna do about it?". Elida didn't care: she knew that tomorrow would be today again, and everything she did today would be forgotten. "Let me down into the Archive....."

"No, Elida, not in the state you're in right now"

"God, you can be a right bitch at times, Posy! I want to go into the archive! Come on, let me in!"

Posy... sorry... the boss stood up: "I said NO, Elida. Now go home! Sober yourself up!"

"No, you can't make me!". The boss went outside, and got one of the other fairies to 'escort' Elida back home. Once at home, she just started giggling. Yes, she wouldn't have DARED to do that if she had been sober, and not in the time loop, but it had been so much fun!

----------------------

Day 13:

Destroy alarm clock / coffee / hairwash / buy cereals / shower / whatever (but maybe not in that specific order)

At work, Elida was getting a bit bored with just reading every day, so today, she spent a short time seeing if she could find any spells related to 'doing magic inside a magic dampening field'. She had started with 'her book' but not finding anything, tried a more general search, where she found a couple of vaguely useful references.

Now, normally, if she were wanting to try out some magic, she would have used one of the practice rooms, where the magic dampening fields were much less restricted... but that would defeat the whole purpose of what she was actually trying to achieve. So, instead she cleared a bit of space in the archive, and worked on it there.

With very little effort, she created a small shimmering ball, about the size of an orange, just like she had done before. Next she tried a whole load of 'expand' spells, to see what effect they would have. It was so frustrating, because she KNEW that Zia had all the knowledge she needed, but she just couldn't get hold of her.

After a couple of hours of trying different things, she could get the 'allow-magic' bubble as big as about a metre across, but any bigger than that and it got unstable, and promptly disappeared with a sort of 'plop'. Although a bit frustrating, she actually felt good with herself: whilst part of the reason for trying out the magic was to be able to create a bigger 'allow magic' bubble, it was also an opportunity for her to try out a set of new spells, and understand, just by playing with them, how they worked and interacted.

On her way back from lunch, she passed a few fairies that she vaguely knew - she had been passing them for most of a fortnight now. One of them was actually quite cute, so today Elida decided to have a bit of fun. She went up to her: "Hi I'm Elida, and I must say, you look absolutely gorgeous today!" and then kissed her on the lips. She (the other fairy that is) went instantly bright red, and Elida walked away with a big smile, going straight back to the archive again.

"Hey, Sebby, what you doing this evening?" asked Elida over the phone later in the afternoon. "Would you like to come over to my place for dinner tonight?"

------------

Day 14:

Coffee / exploding alarm clock / hairwash / eat toast / shower / get dressed / go to work.

The loneliness was getting to Elida. She needed some company, but someone different from Sebby. She knew that Flora had the day off, but she wondered what Faylinn was doing, so looked at her diary - ah, good, she's was due to be with a customer!

"Hi there, Faylinn!"

"Oh, Elida, always nice to hear from you."

"Look" said Elida, "I've got nothing in my diary for today, but I see you've got a customer... would you mind if I tagged along with you?"

"Of course you can! I'll actually be in the office in a couple of minutes, see you there..."

Elida had a really nice morning with Faylinn: a teenager was getting braces. But THIS teenager was a NICE teenager. So they did everything they could to make the whole thing go ok. So, things like helping the metal bands nicely fit her molars the first time. Adjust the expander a bit, so it was closer to her palate. For 'some reason', they were out of normal brackets, so they had to use the next size down... - I mean, how terrible is THAT! - that sort of thing.

It felt so good to be out doing some actual tooth-fairy work for a change.

But it DID give Elida an idea.

"Hey, Faylinn, do we have maybe half an hour free?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, you see, I have a problem... well, two problems combined actually. My first problem is that, for a reason I can't really go into, it seems I can't do any sort of 'negative magic'. My second problem is a young teenager called Tommy Jones, a lad with a bad attitude. He got braces recently, but I would like to 'make his life a bit more difficult'".

"Tommy Jones? *THE* Tommy Jones? OMG, yeah, I've had to deal with him too.... a right brat. What can I do to help?" said Faylin, with a slightly wicked look on her face.

"Erm, I'm not really sure..."

"Ok, so what braces did he get?"

"NHS provided a pair if expanders that don't fit anywhere near as well as our last patient. Lovely large shiny metal brackets. Plus a nice tongue crib."

"Oooh, yes, I'm sure we can do something with that lot.... let's go and find him!". Faylinn explained that she had first met young Tommy when his first baby tooth fell out. She left him a nice new shiny one pound coin, but it seems he felt that 'the tooth fairy was being a bit cheap'. Kids should NOT say such things if, in later life, they might need the tooth fairy's help! And his attitude only got worse as he got older.

They found him at school, eating his lunchtime sandwiches: that must have been difficult enough to do with the expander and tongue crib, but little did he realised how much worse things were about to become. They took a good look at his braces.

"Sure you don't want to do this yourself, Elida?"

"Whilst I would dearly LOVE to do so, the universe has decided that I'm just not allowed to do it! I hope you don't mind doing this, we - or more like you - could get into trouble"

"If you say nothing, and I say nothing, who will ever know?" said Faylinn

"Tell you what, can you do a 'block wishes' spell on him too?"

"Very good idea! Ok, so what we gonna do first?"

"Expand his expanders, and lock them in place for 24 hours?"

"Like it.... ". Suddenly Tommy screamed in pain as each expansion screw turned itself by four notches (so one whole turn!). "... and locked in place till tomorrow!" said Faylinn. "Now, those prongs of his tongue crib look FAR to blunt...."

"You hate him as much as I do!"

"Absolutely, but I should highlight that I'm doing this on behalf of a long queue of fairies, who have to put up with kids like him!" replied Faylinn. Tommy suddenly tasted blood, as one of the - now rather more pointy - prongs of his tongue crib went into his tongue.

"You know, I feel there's something else we should do," said Faylinn.

"How about time-bombing the glue on a couple of his brackets.... so they fall off just when he gets home tonight, needing an urgent visit to the ortho?"

"Sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do....". Once more, Faylinn waved her wand. Elida closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the moment.

"Faylinn, thank you SO much for that, I feel a LOT better!"

"Oh, Elida, it was completely my pleasure" replied Faylinn with a slightly evil smile.

And that, dear humans, is why you should ALWAYS, but ALWAYS, be nice to fairies: they have sneaky ways of getting their own back!