Artemis stared at his mother. She was frail and pale, with hardly any of the zest she had displayed three days prior. Each of her breaths came in ragged gasps, as if it was painful to breathe. Artemis took a deep breath, steeled himself, then strode confidently over to his mother's bedside. He felt the magic grow restless inside him as he neared her; it felt that someone was sick, and they needed to be healed. He paused before he healed her. Wasn't there another way?
None so efficient, he reminded himself.
Artemis placed a hand on the slick arm of his mother and whispered,
"Heal."
The sparks raced down his arm and into the gel lining his mother's skin, where they fizzled and died. Artemis was puzzled, but pushed the power out of him. She needed to be healed. Artemis pushed harder. The sparks poured down his arm, only to die in the gel. Artemis nearly broke then, but was held together by his memory of Angeline Fowl a few days ago; happy, proud, and well. Healthy.
With a lurch, Artemis forfeited the last of his magic and watched unhappily as it vanished. He would need Holly's help for this.
A few hours and a kraken later, Holly arrived. Artemis curtly nodded to her and gestured toward his dying mother.
Holly examined her, gaze scanning every inch of sickly skin. She spoke notes into a mic in her helmet and relayed details to Foaly via video and audio. Once she was done, she turned to Artemis and Foaly, who was on the screen behind him.
"It looks like an impossibility," she said grimly. This scared Artemis nearly out of his wits, but he had enough composure to ask calmly,
"Why? What is it?"
Holly and the onscreen Foaly exchanged tense looks, and then the centaur explained.
"A few decades ago, a plague hit the fairy People that was transmitted through magic. It was invariably fatal, and the infected persons were usually dead in less than a week. There wasn't any other cure than..."
Artemis paled.
"I believe it was the brain fluid of a type of lemur, the - "
"Silky sifaka," Artemis whispered, an expression of unadulterated guilt and fear on his face.
Foaly looked surprised for a second, then continued.
"The last one was sold to a nasty group called the - "
"Extinctionists."
"...er, yes. There are none left, Artemis. I'm sorry. Your mother has days, if not hours, left to her."
"What if... what if we got a silky sifaka?"
"Impossible. They're extinct."
"What if we got one from when they weren't extinct?"
Silence.
"You can't be serious."
"I'm deadly serious."
More silence.
"You're kidding me. Ripping open a time tunnel isn't just illegal now, but No1 discovered that it slightly rips the space-time continuum, causing past and future events and places to suddenly vanish."
"I don't care."
Foaly smacked his forehead with his palm, then leaned in close to his screen.
'Listen here, Mud Idiot. Just because you want to save your mother does not mean that the LEP and the powers of the strongest warlock in recent history are at your disposal. We don't simply hand out favors - "
Holly stepped between the screen and Artemis. She directed a pointed glare at Foaly, then turned to face Artemis.
"If you need me, I'm there," she said gently.
Artemis thanked her, then turned to Foaly once more.
"Foaly," he said seriously, "I need No1. It is his choice to come or not. So please contact him."
Foaly, after trading rude looks with Holly, withdrew to send for No1. Holly drew close to Artemis, looking off at an angle. She appeared to want to tell Artemis something, but eventually settled for,
"She'll be okay, Artemis."
Artemis nodded wordlessly, and before anyone could see him tearing up, he embraced Holly.
Holly's face grew red and flushed as she embraced him back.
When No1 arrived, he was all business. Or mostly business. He explained what was going to happen, then shocked Artemis and Holly with a simple request;
"Remove your clothes."
Artemis' and Holly's jaws dropped simultaneously.
"Well, go on," No1 chuckled. "Unless you'd rather wear those clothes for the remainder of your lives."
Blushing madly, the genius and the elf undressed, leaving their clothes over in a pile by the door. They avoided each other's eyes, preferring to stare at the ceiling or off to one side.
No1 prepared to fling the nude pair into the time tunnel, but he couldn't resist one last jibe.
"I now pronouce you... man and elf!"
Their looks were sarcastic, but right before they dematerialized, you could almost make out the image of them kissing.