"So, Lysis," mused Roxy, sarcasm creeping into her high voice as they left the house of Marcella, the fairy of dolls, "What exactly is the definition of a girl, anyway, and does a woman who looks just about as old as she actually is still qualify?"

"You know fairies look exactly the age they want to look," answered an annoyed Lysis. "I mean, your mother looks fifty and your aunt looks younger than me at times, and we all know they're both almost a whole millennium old. Faragonda looks, what, seventy? And she's only one hundred and twenty-five. Marcella's actually one of the younger ones, so keep your comments to yourself. A so called 'girl' could be anyone."

"How come I can't just make myself look like an adult, then?" Roxy asked, smirking as she pointed out a loophole in her Aunt Nebula's reasoning.

It wasn't that she didn't like Lysis. It was just that Lysis was six years older, had a deadpan sense of humor that was almost indistinguishable from her normal serious demeanor, and had been the youngest fairy trapped in Tir Nan Og... since she was eleven. The thought of living that long without hard rock, pop culture, and similarly aged friends made Roxy shiver in disgust every time.

Lysis sighed, sounding slightly discouraged. "You could, if you used a glamour, but that would mean you'd have less power to do other things with, so in situations where you need magic at all times... such as, oh, the emergence of evil wizards bent on imprisoning us... you can't trust them."

"So you're saying my mom and aunt don't just walk around with glamours?"

"No! It's a secondary ability that allows a fairy's body to revert to any age they've already been, and..."

Lysis was cut off by her phone ringing. With a glare at Roxy, one that said you really should know all of this, she answered with the tap of the screen. "Hello?"

There was a long silence, then, "Oh, yes, your majesty. You do, however, realize that this will get us off our course? Oh, I see. Well, I'm not sure we're the most qualified to remedy the situation, but we'll do our very best. Yes, my queen. Of course. Goodbye." Another tap, and she had hung up.

"Who was that?" asked Roxy.

Lysis raised her eyebrows. "It was Queen Nebula," she said, again using the was that not obvious enough for you expression. "She has a side mission for us, and I hope you don't mind, milady, but I accepted."

"Will you please just call me Roxy?"

"She wants us to shut down some meddling humans," continued the fairy of biology as though her younger charge hadn't said a word. "People messing in magic they don't understand."

"Whoa," Roxy protested, holding up her hands. "We're really not, like, police or anything! Can we really do this?"

"I wondered the same thing, but the Queen said that you should just order them to cease and desist under your royal title as the Princess of Tir Nan Og. If that doesn't work, we can call in a greater force. She doesn't want us to feel like we have to take these people down alone, but if we can, we're supposed to. And by 'if we can,' she means without violence. We may have to act as ambassadors from Tir Nan Og at some point on this trip, let's not give the humans a bad impression if we can help it."

"So why can't she send someone else out to begin with?" Roxy said. She crossed her arms over her chest and slouched down in her seat. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Everyone else is busy with various tasks, queendom essential or special duties given due to the barrier. We're the only ones who are available to take care of this. Besides, the perpetrator is in Heatherdale, and we're only half an hour or so off."

"And we can't say no?"

"Not to Queen Nebula. I can't believe you're even considering it, Prin... Roxy."

Roxy bit her lip and rolled her eyes. At least Lysis was trying. "Fine. But I hope it doesn't take too long, and if someone tries to hurt me, I won't just wait around for anyone... I'll fight back."

They had started checking each fairy based on proximity to Gardenia, so the small college town of Heatherdale was only a few hours drive from Roxy's home town. Despite that, she had never been and had never had any reason to. The town, and its big name university, went to the larger cities for shopping and entertainment, not the other way around, after all. And with less than a half day's drive to the magical city of Gardenia, and only an hour to Los Angeles, it was a perfect place for affluent scholars and their families to settle.

That was something sixteen year old tenth grader Safeyah Hafeij knew all too well. She may have only lived in Heatherdale... or California... or the entire United States of America... for less than a full year, but she had the stereotypes down. Private school teens who grew into Ivy League twenties, parents who breathed in books like air, and nice, identical houses lining suburban streets. It was the kind of community that gave birth to a strange form of irony: Saf's nearly flawless estuary accent made her seem more of a part of this community than all the American scholars. "It just makes you sound so smart," one of her classmates had explained with a jealous sigh a week after Saf started at St. Kinnia's Academy.

Sometimes, though, she didn't feel so smart. "I don't know what Dad's doing lately," she confessed to her American best friend Avi Masterson. "I understand that studying... well, evolves, I suppose, and that new methods are found, but he's pouring hours and hours into prodding artifacts, moving them around, organizing them. Sometimes he gets frustrated and goes back to his books, and whenever I try to ask if he wants help, he mutters things in Arabic and shoos me away."

Avi pulled her mounds of wild brown curls into a ponytail and shooed stray bangs from her forehead as she spoke. "So? I mean, I know you're weird about this cause you were tricked into believing that school's actually fun and stuff, but just let him be for a bit. I mean, so what if he doesn't want your help? He's a grownup. Practically a grandpa, what is he, fifty? Sometimes parents are just effing weird about what they want you to know."

Saf made a face, and Avi smirked, as much as someone could smirk in a loving way. "You're taking my advice quite reasonably," she said slyly, cracking her knuckles, then shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie.

"Quite?" Saf asked, with a roll of her eyes. There had been an incident months earlier involving the differing usages of the word "quite" in British and American English. Avi had latched onto it, and since then it was always a challenge trying to figure out which definition she meant.

Avi gave no hint, merely sticking out her tongue for a second, then continuing. "So, are you going to forget about that and come hang out at the garage with me, or are you going to try to break your old dad again?"

"You won't visit us then?" Saf asked. "We got in some of those biscuits from home that you like."

Indecision played in the girl's dark eyes for a moment, then she shook her head. "I promised my uncle I'd help him out in the shop today. Sorry."

"Ugh! I'll probably do my homework, then bother him a bit."

"Speaking of, here's where we part ways, then," Avi noted as they came to a crossroads. She turned to cross to the other side of the street, while Saf set off straight forward. "I'll see you tomorrow at school!"

"Later!" Saf called back, as cheerily as she could muster.

The rest of her walk home was near-silent and uneventful, the peace broken only by the occasional sound of birds chirping or a dog barking.

Lysis pulled into an Arby's parking lot right after the first Heatherdale exit. "Hungry?" she asked Roxy, her face unreadable. "It's on me."

"It's the royal family's money!" Roxy said indignantly. "And I'm part of the royal family... if anything, it's on me!"

"Relax, I was making a joke," Lysis said, her face as straight as ever.

"Omigosh! That's no way to joke!" said a high, muffled voice.

"Yeah!" Roxy agreed, then blinked. She looked at Lysis, whose hands were on her forehead in an expression of pure exasperation. "Who was that?" asked the princess of Tir Nan Og.

Lysis sighed. "Epunine, didn't I explicitly tell you to stay at home?"

From the backseat of their car, something flew out. It looked like a fairy, though proportioned like an anime character, and quite a bit smaller. The being's skin and hair were dark, and its clothes had a look of pure casualness... not the feigned fashionable casualness, either, but a red tank top and purple sweatpants that made even the being's messy ponytail look too thought out. "There weren't enough curse words for it to be explicit, Lysis!" it said.

Lysis rolled her eyes. "This," she said to Roxy, "is my pixie, Epunine. Very fitting, as she's the pixie of wordplay. We bonded back when I was about your age, when we were trapped in Tir Nan Og, so we've never had to go anywhere without one another... but this mission was too dangerous for a pixie, so I asked her to stay home."

Epunine pouted. "But no way was I going to! You need me, Lysis! Who else will balance you out? Who else will help you when spaces get tight? Who else will help make sure you have an actual sense of humor?"

Lysis glared at the pixie, and the pixie gave a little guilty grin.

"I remember about pixies!" Roxy exclaimed. "The Winx Club told me about them. Pixies and fairies bond when they're meant to be like sisters, right?"

Epunine nodded her tiny head enthusiastically, but Lysis frowned and put a finger on her chin. "That's extremely simplified. Pixies are more than that. There's two main legends that, while of course fictionalizing a lot, do explain it pretty well. The early fairies believed that pixies were born every time a fairy expressed the desire to improve herself, and that the two would bond when the fairy was ready to improve herself."

"That's really uplifting!" Roxy said, leaning towards her chaperone enthusiastically.

"And the other legend, most likely spread after Christianity threatened fairies and many actually converted, is that fairies are soulless creatures, and God created pixies to be our souls so we wouldn't go to hell," Lysis finished with a smile.

Roxy felt her face drop. "Oh."

Epunine giggled. "Pixies and fairies bond when they both have something the other needs. I needed a little bit of intelligence in my jokes. Lysis needed a sense of humor. It's a perfect match!"

"That's actually really cool!" Roxy said.

"There's a lot of lore on pixies. I have a book on it if you're interested. Did you know that the idea of having a small angel and devil on your shoulder started with two of these remarkab-"

Epunine yawned. "Come on, Lysis, your history lectures make me sleepy. Aren't you supposed to be a science fairy anyway?"

"The best scientific discoveries can start with legends!" the blonde fairy argued.

With a grin, Epunine flew around the car. "Let's drop the boring stuff and get to work."

"Work isn't boring to you?" Roxy asked. A pixie of humor and fun didn't seem like the kind of person who would enjoy serious missions. Roxy sure wasn't, after all, and she felt a lot more qualified than the tiny being flittering around.

"No way! Not when you get to adventure and learn! The more you know, the better jokes you can make, right!"

"But you just cut off Lysis..."

"Lysis likes lectures. I'm much more hands-on. So, who's gonna brief me?"

Epunine perched on her bonded fairy's shoulder, but Lysis shooed her away. "You aren't being briefed at all!" she said, her voice annoyed. "This mission is too dangerous! You're too young and small, Punny."

"I'm also young and small," said Roxy.

She meant it in hopes that she could get out of the upcoming mission, but Lysis paused. When she spoke again, it seemed as though she had taken Roxy's words to heart, in the exact wrong way. "Fine. You can stay." Lysis held her phone out so both pixie and fairy could see, and Epunine and Roxy leaned over to see.

Roxy frowned. She didn't know what language the document on the screen was written in, but "Treoracha le haghaidh mhisean" certainly wasn't English. "What's it say?"

"Oh? You don't read Irish?" Lysis said it in an almost demeaning tone, then shook her head as though remembering something. "Right. You didn't grow up in Tir Nan Og. Um." She muttered a quick spell under her breath, and the letters on the cell phone changed: "misio instrukcioj."

"I can't read that either," said the pink-haired girl dryly.

"Please don't tell me you're monolingual." Lysis pursed her lips and closed her eyes in obvious exasperation.

"What if I am?"

"Then I need to insist that your aunt find you a better governess, one fitting of a princess. Your former one apparently isn't up to snuff"

Roxy couldn't help but stifle a laugh. "Lysis. You weren't locked in Tir Nan Og until you were eleven... you should figure I went to public school."

"You're a princess!"

"I just learned that two months ago!"

Lysis sighed. "Fair enough. Alright, so the mission instructions are to locate a relic known very simply as the Gem of Arcelia. Though to the fairy public, the relic is simply a portable monument to fairies killed and not simply captured by the Wizards, we've been given clearance to know the truth. The Gem is an experimental and nonfunctional device that is said to lock and later release the essence of a fairy."

Epunine and Roxy exchanged glances. "What?" the asked in unison.

"Apparently, if the device worked... which it doesn't... it would have been the perfect hiding place. Fairies could have enclosed themselves in these gems and been virtually undetectable, saving themselves from the Wizards. However, the first experiments, ran by a fairy named Arcelia, failed. A fairy could enter the gem... but they never managed to pop out again. Only four of these experiments were done before then-Queen Morgana shut them down, and all but one have been destroyed."

"But if they didn't work," Roxy asked, "then why is this still a secret?"

"Because while we know that the Gem does not work as we intended, we don't quite know if it's harmless. That this artifact is in the hands of a human might mean the release of an incredible power... or perhaps, that with only a human to guard it, the Apprentices can acquire it that much easier. Obtaining it is vital. No matter what."

Roxy frowned. Before, it had sounded like this was a simple, compassionate mission... stop a human from endangering themselves. Now, it seemed to be a simple fetch quest that may or may not involve robbery. "But we can call in backup."

"If we need it. But why would we?" Lysis shut her phone's screen off and slipped the device into her pocket. "After all, it's only humans. There's a reason they tell non-magical beings that fairies are dangerous."

Saf had barely finished her homework when the doorbell rang. She set her books down and scurried down the soft wooden stairs to the front door, opening it without a second thought. "Hafeij residence?" she stated as she took in the two young women who stood on her doorstep.

One was smiling coldly... a blonde in a nice black blouse and white pants. Slightly behind her was a younger girl with pink hair and a Hot Topic wardrobe, looking slightly uncomfortable. The blonde woman was the one who spoke. "Hello. We're here to appraise a situation that's come up?"

Saf blinked. Appraisal? Was her father selling his artifacts? Maybe that was why he had been so irritable. "Of course," she murmured. "Um, my father is downstairs. Please follow me."

She let them in, and then began to lead them As she walked to the basement door, she heard the pink one mutter "I didn't think there'd be someone my age here! Lysis..."

"Oh, hush," said the blonde, quietly.

As they trampled down the stairs to the basement, Saf saw her father look up. "Safeyah!" he exclaimed, his accent thick and nothing at all like his daughter's obvious British, "you have more friends!"

Saf smiled. "Dad, these are the appraisers you've called for. I decided to bring them down for you."

Mr. Hafeij frowned. "What?" he questioned.

The blonde woman stepped forward, all while taking slow looks around the large basement. Saf didn't question why; the walls were covered in things that had "magical" and mythological heritage, things that her father had picked up for his research as an independent anthropologist. It was an impressive display, particularly to one who might want to purchase any of the many items. "This is the residence of Yusuf Hafeij?"

Mr. Hafeij nodded confirmation.

"Sir," said the blonde woman, "I insist you show me to the Gem of Arcelia. I don't see it here among your..." Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "...parlor tricks."

"The Gem of what?"

"Lysis, I think we might have gotten the wrong house," said the pink-haired girl.

Lysis shook her head. "No, this completely fits the description. He doesn't even realize what he has. Sir," she said, turning back to Saf's dad, "I need you to show me any gemstones you have."

"What?" said Mr. Hafeij. Saf could hear the panic in his voice, and the teenager herself balled her hands into fists. Sorry, Dad. I didn't know... I didn't know that these people...

"Sir! Under the authority of the queen of Tir Nan Og, and my own power as the escort of its princess, I demand you hand over the Gem!"

"I don't have a Gem!" he said again.

Lysis turned to her partner. "Princess Roxy, I need you to give the order. Failing that, we'll contact the royal guard."

"The Royal Guard?" Saf squealed, unable to help herself. Neither guest responded. Princesses, royalty... a Gem. What are these people? Obviously not normal thieves. What do they want? Gemstones? My mother left me plenty, but I don't want to part with them.

But what will happen to my father and me if I can't give them what they want?

The blonde stared at Saf coldly, as though she were not pleased at the interruption. She opened her mouth to say something, but Saf beat her to it. "I have tons of gems! Please, let me show you. Maybe one will... maybe one of mine will be okay."

"We'll see," said Lysis, but she relaxed slightly.

Again, Saf led the visitors through the house. She noticed that the pink haired one... a princess?... had grown oddly silent and almost morose, as though she did not agree with what was happening. As she opened the door to her bedroom on the second floor, she hoped her father had the composure and the thought to contact the police.

She retrieved her jewelry box off its shelf and thrust it into Lysis's hands. "Here. Take what you want and leave," she said. "I can't promise they're what you want, but they are what we have."

Easily, Lysis plucked a necklace from the bunch. "Nice try at playing innocent, little human," she said. "You had it all along. This could have been much easier if you'd cooperated from the beginning."

I did! As much as I could, at least. What, did they expect we'd be knowing, willing, and ready to hand it over?

Probably, come to think of it.

"The Gem of Arcelia." Lysis frowned. "But... it has no power. No life force at all."

"Maybe the fairy in it died?" the princess suggested. "You said yourself that nobody knows what could happen to it."

"Fairies can live centuries. It's not... I bet that man did something. I bet he knows."

"Lysis... maybe we should call for..."

"No, we've completed our mission, Pr- Roxy. This is my personal curiosity. Something happened to the Gem and I will do anything to that man to get him to tell me what it is!"

Anything. The word hit Saf like a sack of bricks. The two thieves seemed to have forgotten... or stopped caring... that she was there. Now, they spoke of doing anything to her father. Interrogation. Torture. Maybe murder.

Her hands balled tight into fists again, and her breath grew heavy. As her nails bit into her palms, she looked down.

Saf hadn't previously been aware that anger glowed blue and yellow as it hovered around her hands.

Then, the glow exploded. All at once, she was surrounded by light. Her back ached momentarily, then the pain ceased and the glow faded.

She found herself hovering six inches above the ground in an outfit that befit an Egyptian goddess.

Or a fairy, she thought as she looked behind her to see a pair of scarab-like wings fluttering.

Safeyah looked back to the intruders and smiled, and it was a grim, powerful sight. "No. You're not doing anything to my father... not unless you can get through me!"

AN: Alright! First OC references. Old readers know who's who, but to the uninformed, Avi belongs to Ella Anders and Saf to Akela Victoire. Also of note: OC submissions are CLOSED and have been for a long while. Thanks for your interest though!

I'll be on hiatus over the summer, but I hope you'll eagerly await the next FoF installment! Love you all, and please review!