by Bo Savino
Chapter 26: Farewell To Faery
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The Team Phoenix common room was a beehive of excitement.
“We really ruled out there.” Loo was bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Now I’m sort of wishing we were being judged by Faery instead of the Lia Fial.”
“No, you don’t,” Pyro said harshly.
“Why not?”
“Do you think Lord Aurelius is standing outside the entrance to our quarters just so he can chitchat with the elders about what a wonderful job we did?”
Loo didn’t say anything. Reggie could tell from the look of hurt in his eyes that it was exactly what he’d been thinking.
“Well, he’s not.” Pyro shook his head. “I’ll tell you what he’s doing. He’s standing guard so they don’t swarm in here like a bunch of locusts to pick us dry for info on how we did what we did.”
“Speaking of that.” Storm sat up. “What exactly did we do?”
The Team members glanced at each other, but no one had any answers. Reggie had watched his twin getting quieter by the moment from the time they’d left the competition field. She seemed to be slipping into a serious depression, and he didn’t know what to say to pull her back out.
Hammie shrugged. “We won.”
“There was no win or lose up there,” Gervais growled.
“Wasn’t there?” Jet raised his eyebrows. “Answer me this, beast-boy. The Lia Fial is the Stone of Destiny. It is fed information about every move we make, each and every day, courtesy of the elders in the Hall of Futures. Then it is fed information about the possible outcomes for the future based on the moves we’ve made. Do you honestly believe these series of competitions were designed so the Lia Fial would know which Team to pick over the other?”
Gervais didn’t respond.
“They were created to give Faery warm fuzzies about the choices the Lia Fial does make. No one even has a clue as to how it does what it does.”
“So on a scale from one to ten on the warm fuzzy meter,” Moira smiled. “How do you think the Fey would rate us?”
“With ten being the warmest and fuzziest,” Ryssa stared at the ceiling. “I’d bet about negative fifteen—very cold and prickly.”
Everyone turned their eyes to her. Those were the first words she had spoken since the competition. Reggie was relieved. At least she was climbing out of her shock.
“How can you say that?” A frown wrinkled Whisper’s face. “We cured the Wilt. Or at least the part that was on that tree.”
Yeah, sure,” Reggie heard the agitation in his twin’s voice, “but at the cost of showing a bunch of arrogant, stuck-in-their-ways adults who’ve been around for—well, almost forever, that they screwed up big time.”
“She’s right.” Jet whistled. “If the Lia Fial doesn’t eliminate us, it’s going to be a huge shake up for Faery.”
“What if it does eliminate us?” Hammie looked worried.
“Maybe it would be for the best.” Reggie shrugged. “At least we wouldn’t have to deal with this whole thing of jumping through their stupid hoops anymore. Or try and live up to some impossible expectations we know nothing about.”
“They’ll turn me over to the Slaugh,” Ryssa said quietly. The room fell silent.
“W-what do you mean, Ryss?” Reggie wanted to laugh at the idea, but he could see the seriousness in his twin’s face. She wasn’t kidding.
Ryssa explained what she hadn’t had the courage to mention before—the possible consequence for her using dark magic.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Reggie stood up angrily. “We could’ve come up with something—”
“Why did you choose to move the Team around the tree, Regg?” She jumped to her feet, facing him with just as much anger. “You knew it was the last place we should have been if we wanted to stay away from what we saw in the Hall of Futures—so why did you do it?”
“Oh, so now this is my fault?”
“That’s not what I said. Just answer the question. Why?”
Reggie’s eyebrows drew together. He’d had his reasons—hadn’t he? The anger evaporated, leaving him in a state of doubt. Why had he done it?
“I don’t know.” He blew out the last of his resentment. “It seemed right at the time. It was a better defensive position—we could see anything coming at us.”
“You couldn’t have stopped yourself even if you had tried. Don’t beat yourself up for it. I wasn’t blaming you. I needed to make you understand.”
“That’s what you meant.” Reggie stared at her. “When you said we can’t stop the future—we have to change it?”
Ryssa nodded.
“When you made the decision to put us around the tree, I knew. Just as I knew we had to bring the fireball on top of us. We didn’t stop what was supposed to happen, we just changed the ending a bit.”
Reggie saw a frown form on her face. “What is it, Ryss?”
“The night before the competition—” Ryssa bit her lip. “After I left Kyellin and was headed back here, I made a wish.”
Moira looked at her with curiosity. “What did you wish for?”
“I wished we would all make it out of the competition alive.”
“I knew it!” Jet crowed. “You guys are ringers. You must’ve remembered and knew we were going to come out of it okay.”
“No.” Ryssa shook her head. “The wish wasn’t accepted—there was nothing.”
“Don’t you see, Ryss?” Reggie put a hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t accepted because it was already going to happen. The wish didn’t matter.”
But Team Phoenix was quiet, and Reggie knew what they were thinking. It could just as easily have meant that one—or all—of them was supposed to have died.
