"Why are we here, Artemis?" Holly asked.
"To solve one of our friendship problems. Watch."
Artemis had reached a pale hand into the oak tree and brought it down with an acorn. Walking back to the dark Bentley, he knelt to the ground next to it and stirred a hole in the damp Irish soil. He placed the acorn in it, and still holding onto it patted the soil over with the other hand. "I return you to the earth," he whispered. "And claim the gift that is my right."
For a second nothing happened, but then blue sparks erupted from the soft clay and travelled up his arm, sinking into the base of his skull. Artemis smiled and turned to Holly. "I have magic again."
"Obviously."
"Now I'll live just as long as you. Longevity is part of fairy magic, you know."
Holly's eyes widened as the true meaning of the words struck her. She stood there, stuttering, half with joy, half with shock, and Artemis had laughed and hugged her.
Holly Short had gotten a surface visa. She considered it her small victory of the day. Finally, after a long week beating up goblins, fighting trolls and warding off Chix Verbil, she could spend the weekend with Juliet at the Dublin spas, having activated her human disguise symbol, of course. There was one she particularly liked near the Spire. Stepping out of the shuttle, she activated the symbol tattooed on her collarbone and felt herself grow a little under half a meter, finally fitting properly into the human-sized clothes she'd put on that morning just for this purpose. Holly hailed a taxi and told the driver, "Fowl Manor."
Juliet was ready to receive her at the front door of the manor. "Hey," said the twenty-year-old with a tired smile. "I just got the nanny to start making the twins cookies. Myles started lecturing her about the chemical reactions involved."
Holly laughed.
"That's Myles. You ready?"
"Yep. Let's go," said Juliet, swinging a handbag in the direction of the gardens. They always did this. The two women walked towards the two dark headstones in the middle of the gardens. Juliet would lovingly pat one and place a flower on the ground in front, and Holly would brush her fingertips over the name carved into the other and allow a tear to trace from her eye to the letter A.
Domovoi Butler and Artemis Fowl II.
They would both silently relive the day that Artemis had been killed by Opal Koboi and Jon Spiro, both broken out of prison, both with revenge as their only coherent thought, and both, now Opal had betrayed her species to Spiro, aided with magic. Teamed up, they were unstoppable, even to Artemis Fowl. Opal had sapped Artemis's magic with a long and painful procedure she had devised just for Artemis, and Spiro had pulled the trigger of the Softnose held to Artemis's head. Butler had died trying to save him.
As one, both girls stood and turned to the wrought-iron gates of the estate. And as they always visited the graves, Holly would inevitably think,
"I should have told you what you meant to me, Artemis."
This is about as corny as I get. Review and tell me if I should delete it. I thought about making it a songfic but I wasn't sure how to really work it into this situation. I'm not a songfic kind of person.