Chapter Four Party in the Palace

As the technical fairy approached the bottom of the hill leading up to the castle, flanked by Wynchell and Duncan, she remembered it might be a good idea to contact the other girls. She had no idea how much time had passed in the real world.

"Excuse me a moment, I need to make a call," she told them. She pulled her cell and speed-dialed Stella's number.

"Hi, Tecna!" the Solarian princess answered after two rings, "We were just starting to wonder where you are. Did the Wizards get you?"

"Oh, no, not at all. But I am in an unusual place. If everyone is there, put me on speaker, please."

"Sure, hang on. Girls! Tec's on the line, and wants to talk to all of us!" Stella called loudly.

"Go ahead," the blond said a few seconds later.

In a few sentences. Tecna explained where she was and what had happened, leaving her friends stunned.

"You're inside a game?" asked Flora. "That's so strange!"

"I've seen Digit play games in Tec's laptop," said Musa.

"I'm not sure I would want to experience that," the Nature Fairy said with a quaver in her voice.

"Flora, I can't see you ever being in one, but it sounds like fun to me," Aisha said.

"Me too," added Musa.

Stella snorted. "I've got better things to do."

"So... can we help?" asked Bloom.

"I don't think so. The arcade is probably closed so you'd have to break in, and you don't want to do that," she answered.

"No, you're right about that," said Bloom, "It wouldn't make a very good impression of fairies for the people here."

"Everything seems fine here so far, except for the feeling of wrongness," Tecna continued, "And besides, none of you have my expertise with technology and programming."

"Gee, thanks..." muttered Stella.

"I am not being insulting; I'm being logical," protested Tecna.

"We know, Tec, don't worry about it," said Aisha.

"The game may not have enough memory for additional outsiders to operate," she added, "Best not to push it."

"Didn't think of that, did you, Stella?" Tecna could hear the smirk in Musa's voice.

"No, of course not!" retorted the blond, "I'm a princess, not a..."

Everyone was quiet, waiting to hear how she would finish the sentence.

"Gamer," she closed, lamely. There were a number of snickers.

"I'll continue this mission alone, but will call again if I need help," said Tecna, who was not insulted, and getting back to the subject.

"Yes, let us know, and we'll be there as soon as we can," said Musa.

"Thank you, friends. I'll be back as soon as I can be; I don't want to miss the grand opening of Love and Pet," she replied.

"Be careful, sweetie!" called Flora.

Tecna looked up briefly. "Oh, one thing, is the sun still up there?"

"Yeah," said Aisha, "About an hour from setting."

"Hmm... so the days are synchronized. That will help. Thank you. Good bye!" she hung up to her friends returning the farewell.

"So, can I ask who you were talking to?" asked Wynchell as they resumed the hike.

"My friends," she answered. "I didn't want them to be worried."

"They gamers?" asked Duncan.

"Not really, we are usually too busy for games, and our business opens Monday," she said.

"Hmm... well, good luck with it," the pastry replied. Personally he wasn't so sure this person was actually from outside the game worlds, but he would obey the president's orders.

WIR/WC WIR/WC WIR/WC

In the palace, they were met by Vanellope. As the two exchanged greetings, the Sugar Rush security force made a discreet exit. Sour Bill stood by the throne, apparently wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"Hmmm... lots of pink," commented the fairy, looking around.

"Salmon," retorted Vanellope, unknowingly echoing King Candy, "It's salmon color."

"Very well; salmon," nodded Tecna.

A table had been set up filled with cakes, pies, ice cream, and candy. There were various soft drinks from a dispenser at one end.

"Lemme show you around," said the girl, and headed for a door.

The Candy Castle was large, but rather cozy inside. It was made of various sweets, and Tecna was silently glad she had cast that filter spell on herself. As close and enclosed a place as she was in, the smell would have made her sick very quickly.

On the tour she glanced down a side corridor, and saw it was different from the rest of the castle.

"What's this?" she asked, stopping and peering curiously toward the door and device with buttons at the far end.

"That's where you get to the game code," answered Vanellope, a bit reluctantly.

Tecna raised an eyebrow. "You can access your own code?"

"Yeah, that's how King Candy took over. I don't have the code for the door, though, and wouldn't know what I was doing anyway," said Vanellope.

"Best not to meddle, then," the fairy answered.

"If we made too many changes the gamers would notice, tell Litwak, and he might decide to pull the plug," added the girl. "That would end everything."

"I see. Shall we continue?" Tecna could tell the young president was uncomfortable being here, and she wanted to have her trust.

They came to the bedroom Sour Bill had picked out for their guest. It was large and airy, with tall windows and the pink ...salmon... walls. The bed was large and comfortable, even though it did seem to be made of candy. A bathroom was through a door to one side, with all the standard fixtures.

As the fairy finished her look around, Sour Bill came in.

"Miss President," he intoned, "The guests are here."

"Great!" said Vanellope, "C'mon, Tec!" She grabbed the fairy's hand and dragged her out.

The party in the throne room was in full swing when they got there.

Sour Bill used his standard announcement for them.

"All hail our rightful ruler... President Vanellope. And guest." he sighed and headed for another door.

At one point Tecna noticed three of the racers looked alike, and also two sets of twins with only differences in coloring.

"Why do so many of you look alike? she asked Snowanna. "something wrong in the code?"

"Oh, no, the racer replied, "Some of us are recolors. They were made to add more racers, but they don't have back stories or official kart names."

"Seems like a lack of creativity on the part of the programmers," she said in a low voice.

"We've always thought so too," said Snowanna, "But nothing we can do about it."

An hour later Candlehead went over to Tecna, who was holding a cup of soda and staring at the table full of treats.

"Something wrong?" she asked, looking up.

The technical fairy glanced at the racer. "I'm trying to decide if I'm hungry or not. This is all just desert and snacks for me, and I'm not used to such a diet."

Felix had wandered up on her other side, and spoke. "You probably aren't really hungry," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Tecna.

"You just think you're hungry," he answered, "When you came into the game, you were converted to code. We're code, and we rarely eat, and I'd bet you're the same way. But your body still thinks of you as normal."

The fairy nodded. "That is logical. I'll just nibble something. Maybe that will help."

"You know, I've always wondered about that," said Rancis, coming up to them, "Why we would eat at all since we don't need it. So it's because we were written to resemble the gamers?"

"Apparently," nodded Tecna.

"Hey, everybody!" called Vanellope, "Let's get Tecna to tell us about the outside!"

They sat down in a cluster of chairs, and Tecna told them about the outside world. They asked a lot of questions, some of which she couldn't answer because she was new to Earth. She demonstrated her magic for them,

Then they told her about Sugar Rush, and King Candy's takeover, and his destruction when the cybugs got loose. Vanellope demonstrated her glitching teleport ability for her.

"I imagine that comes in handy at times," Tecna said.

The evening wore on, and the guests got tired, so they finally called it a night.

The racers told Tecna they looked forward to seeing her tomorrow, and that she could count on them to help with the problem.

Ralph, Felix, and Tamara headed for Game Central, saying they had things to do to prepare for the arcade opening Monday, but would help if they were needed.

Using her palmtop's maps, Tecna made her way back to her room. The bed was surprisingly warm and comfortable, even if it was made of candy. She fell asleep quickly.