Chapter 29: Lyrabelle
Sitting within the confinement of the glass chamber that had been constructed by Ronodin, Seth found himself with little choice other than to study his surroundings. The basement that he was being housed in was, for the most part, essentially barren and empty.
If only he could find a way out of the chamber. In the brief amount of time that had passed since Ronodin left him alone in the basement, Seth examined every square inch of the glass that surrounded him rigorously. He had been hoping to find some sort of door or opening within the glass that he could potentially get out through. However, the glass appeared to be completely seamless. Unsure as to how he even got inside of the orb in the first place, Seth concluded that it had to have involved magic to some extent.
Seth reached into his pockets, expecting to discover his own belongings, namely his phone. But they were completely empty. Looking down at his pants, Seth saw that while they did fit him, they were not a pair that he even owned. He was wearing clothes that were intended for Victor, while the superbulb was likely wearing his own threads. And it was in the pocket of his proper pants where Seth had kept his phone.
Not that having his phone at this point wouldn't have mattered. He was currently in the basement of an underground preserve somewhere in Antarctica. Phone or no phone, Seth wouldn't be able to contact anyone regardless.
Seth had already tried to unleash his angelic powers, hoping that they would enable him to escape from the chamber. But despite his best efforts, Seth didn't even feel as though he was anywhere near to being close enough to activate them. He was currently alone. And in the past, he always had support whenever he had become an angel.
But this time, Seth was all alone. And the worst part of it was that the rest of his friends and family probably didn't even have a clue as to what was going on. Instead, they were probably under the impression that Victor was supposed to be him.
Thinking back to the time when Kendra's stingbulb had impersonated her, she had fooled nearly everyone. It was only the stingbulb's odd behavior that had tipped off Seth and Warren into realizing something was amiss. Was Victor having the same level of success? Part of Seth wanted to know. The other didn't even want to begin thinking about it.
After a fair amount of time had passed, Seth could feel his solitude come to a grinding halt as he heard the door to the basement being opened. Seth assumed that it was Ronodin, and that he probably wanted something.
To Seth's surprise, it was not Ronodin, but another figure who was walking down the basement stairs. A female, the figure was slender, possessing purple hair and wings shaped like treble clefs. It was the lyrabelle!
Seth watched as the lyrabelle walked towards the chamber that he was trapped inside of, then stopped in front of it, gazing in at Seth. As though it had been his own instinct, Seth stared back at her. Now that Seth could see her up close for the first time, he could see just how gorgeous she actually was. But Seth tried to disregard her beauty; she was on Ronodin's side!
"What do you want?" quipped Seth, staring back at the lyrabelle.
"I think we need to talk," sang the lyrabelle. Her voice had a calming, almost soothing tone to it.
Seth paused for a moment. Her voice. The lyrabelle just spoke to him. But she didn't just speak; she sang. It was only one sentence, but she sang it. For seemingly no reason.
"About what?"
"The situation at hand," hummed the lyrabelle.
"May I ask why you're singing?"
"I am a lyrabelle. Singing is how we talk."
"You sing to talk?"
"I do,"
"What kind of song is this? It doesn't make any sense. Heck, it doesn't even rhyme."
"It's not a proper song. It's just the way I talk."
"Weird," said Seth, who came to the conclusion that the lyrabelle wasn't going to change her behavior anytime soon. "So... you said that you came here to talk. And as you can tell from my surroundings, I can't exactly go anywhere. So I'll start. What's your name?"
"My name is Melody," sang the lyrabelle.
"That's pretty," said Seth. "Pretty obvious, anyway. So tell me. Are you the one who used her voice to lure all of the fairies out of Fablehaven?"
"I am. And I'm sorry."
"You're... sorry? Yeah, you'd better be sorry! You and Ronodin! You're going to be very sorry when my friends get their hands on you two. You're gonna wish..."
"Please try to understand!" sang Melody. "I do not agree with Ronodin. I feel that he is wrong!"
"So, you're not on Ronodin's side?"
"I was. But not anymore."
Seth rolled his eyes. "Prove it."
Melody snapped her fingers. Suddenly a large, glowing, rectangular-shaped outline appeared on the side of the chamber. A moment later, the outline faded away, as did the glass that had been within it.
"You're freeing me?" asked Seth, as he stuck his hand through the newly-formed opening.
"Indeed," replied Melody.
As the opening was large enough for Seth to pass through, Seth stepped through it, and was now standing outside the chamber, alongside Melody.
"Whoa," said Seth. "It isn't often someone gets rescued by their enemy."
"I am not your enemy. Not anymore."
"I feel like I can trust you. But... how can I sure sure? How do I know that this isn't a trick?"
"Why would this be a trick? Would you rather stay here and wait for Ronodin?"
"I'm sorry," said Seth, "it's just that... well... I don't know you. Except that you're the one responsible for the missing fairies."
"I regret what I have done. It's just that I was being loyal to Ronodin. But I feel he has gone too far."
"At least there's some hope for you. Come on, as long as you're here to rescue me, let's get out of this place."
Seth and Melody walked over towards the stairs at the end of the basement, then proceeded to walk up them.
"Say Ronodin catches us?" asked Seth. "What then?"
"He won't catch us," replied Melody. "He put me in charge of the place in his absence."
"Why can't you just talk normally?" asked Seth, as he placed his hand on the knob of the door that stood at the top of the stairs.
"This is normal for me. Please try to understand. Why are you so upset? My voice is so lovely."
"Look, I don't have a problem with your voice," replied Seth, as he turned around to face Melody. "But singing like that... people will think you're weird."
"Why would they think it's weird?"
"Because people are like that. If there's something unusual about you, people are going to make a fuss about it."
"What people are you referring to?" asked Melody.
"I don't know. Look, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it."
Seth then twisted the knob and pushed the door open. He found that he and Melody were now at the end of a small hallway on the ground floor of the house.
"Follow me," hummed Melody.
"Wait," said Seth. "Is there a phone in this place?"
"A phone?"
"Yeah. Does Ronodin have a telephone? Like a landline or a satellite phone or something?"
"What is a phone?"
Seth suddenly experienced a sinking feeling in his stomach. It then occurred to him that Melody might not actually know what a phone was.
"It's something that'll help us. Let's just check his study for a moment to see if one's even there."
"Okay. It's this way."
Melody led Seth down the hall and opened a door. It was Ronodin's study for sure. Seth recognized it from his previous visit, but could not recall whether or not if it had contained a phone.
Seth studied the room from the doorway. There did not appear to be a phone on the desk, or anywhere else that was in plain sight. As he advanced into the study, Seth examined the perimeter of the room, just to see if he could spot a phone cord running along the wall.
Unable to find anything of interest, Seth began to skim through each drawer that was in Ronodin's desk, just in case a portable phone could be hiding in one of them. There wasn't.
"I give up," said Seth. "You don't know what a phone is, Melody? It's a device that people use to talk to other people."
"I don't," replied Melody, shaking her head. "Sorry."
"Forget it," said Seth. "I just want to get as far away from here as possible as fast as possible."
Melody led Seth out of the office and continued down the hallway, which brought them into the front hall.
"Out this door," sang Melody.
"It's kind of a relief that at least you don't speak in rhyme," said Seth. "Then you'd be like Hespera."
"Hesper-who?"
"I'll tell you later. Let's just get out of here."
"Hold on," chimed Melody, just as Seth placed his hand upon the doorknob.
"What?"
"Ronodin may be gone. But he has demons out there patrolling the grounds now."
"Demons?!" exclaimed Seth, removing his hand from the door. "Why didn't you say something earlier? I'm not equipped to handle any demons! Why would you try to rescue me if it's not safe to even leave the house?"
"I never said that I wasn't prepared for the demons."
"So what are you going to do? Blast them all with your fairy magic? You'll exhaust yourself!"
"I have a way of dealing with them. Keep on your guard."
Melody then opened the door. Seth glanced out into the yard that lay beyond. The coast seemed to be clear. There wasn't a demon in sight. Melody walked out through the door, while Seth followed.
After walking only a few feet away from the front porch, Seth could hear footsteps approaching from off to the side. Turning his head, Seth saw a creature charging towards him and Melody in the distance. Sporting a build similar to a centaur, the dark grey hyena-like creature was running on four legs and possessed four arms.
As the creature approached Seth and Melody, Seth noticed more monsters approaching from other directions, including a few airborne ones. Seth couldn't possibly fight all of the monsters like this; even with all the training and experience he had under his belt.
"Melody!" cried Seth, as he turned back towards the house. "What are you doing?"
Choosing not to respond to Seth, Melody stood and directly faced the closest of the incoming monsters. Without any warning, an eerily soothing soprano voice began to echo from Melody's mouth. There were no lyrics, just a beautiful, harmonic voice.
Suddenly, all of the monsters stopped still in their tracks, as Melody continued her humming. The lyrabelle seemed to be completely unfazed by the halted movement of the monsters.
As the humming continued, the monsters all turned around and began to run, sprint, gallop or fly off in an opposing direction. Melody allowed her singing to continue until all of the monsters were out of sight.
Melody then closed her mouth, bringing her soothing song to a close, then turned to face Seth.
"Melody," said Seth. "That was... incredible! What'd you do?"
"Regrettably, what I have done is the same technique I used to draw all of the fairies away from Fablehaven," replied the lyrabelle. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Melody then began to scurry down the path at the edge of the yard that led through the forest, prompting Seth to chase after her.
"Whoa," said Seth, as he entered the forest and caught up with Melody. "You mean, you can make your voice hypnotic?"
"In a way, yes. After enhancing my power, Ronodin trained me to use my voice to entrance fairies."
"I get it. But why does it work on demons, too?"
"Because I taught myself how. But not with Ronodin's approval. I feared the demons that he keeps here. So I honed my skills and found a way to seduce them."
"So you can order around fairies and demons," said Seth. "Anything else?"
"I'm afraid not. I'm not very proud of power that I shouldn't otherwise have. I'm only grateful for the prominence it gives me over demons."
Seth and Melody continued down the path through the trees for several more minutes. However, the long run, in addition to fatigue, began to catch up with Seth, making him feel exhausted.
"Melody," said Seth, "there wouldn't be a faster way of getting out of this place, would there?"
"Not without riding on Maelstrom," replied Melody.
Seth pondered to himself for a moment, then turned to face Melody.
"Look, you're stronger than a normal fairy. That I get. So, is there any way that you could use your magic to get us out of here faster?"
"I'm afraid to try," replied Melody. "Although I can sing, my other magic is rather amatuerish. Also, it's a long way between here and the rest of the world. I wouldn't want to exhaust my power. I'd rather save it for later."
"I got it. We'll play it by ear. See what happens."
Seth and Melody made their way down the remainder of the path that led through the forest, before finally stopping in the clearing that stood at the entrance to the preserve. Before them stood the vast tunnel that connected World's End to the land above the surface of the Earth.
Seth stared down the massive tunnel. From his current position, it appeared to go on for so long that he was unable to see the other end.
"This is gonna take forever on foot," said Seth. "Are you sure there isn't a better way? You can't use your power to help us?"
"My speciality is singing. And singing will not help."
"If only I could become an angel, I could get out of this mess!" stated Seth. "And if Ronodin couldn't make me an angel, I doubt you could either."
"I'd rather not try."
"Angel or not, I'd just settle for being able to fly right now. Wait... you can fly! Why don't you just fly us out of here?"
"You mean, carry you and fly?"
"Yeah! It'd beat walking any day!"
"I'd rather not. I'm not that strong. It'd be hard to carry you."
"Use your magic. Make me smaller."
"I don't know how."
"Turn me into something that can fly. Or just make me levitate!"
"I cannot alter your form. And my levitation power wouldn't last very long. I'll just try carrying you. Seems better than nothing."
"All right," said Seth. "Let's give it a try."
"I've never done this before," said Melody, as she stepped behind Seth.
Seth raised his arms. Melody then wrapped her own arms around Seth's body and hugged him from the rear. Seth then lowered his arms over Melody's just as the lyrabelle began flapping her wings, causing the two of them to rise into the air together.
"Okay," hummed Melody, as she took a deep breath. "Let's go!"
Melody then flew into the tunnel, bringing Seth along with her. Although it seemed that they were moving at a speed that was faster than walking, Seth felt as though he was capable of flying faster when he was an angel. While he couldn't compare himself to someone like like Raxtus, or especially Skyfrost, Seth felt that Melody wasn't flying all that fast; that she probably could fly faster if she didn't have to carry him. He couldn't help but feel guilty for undoubtedly slowing her down.
After a few minutes of flying, Seth could eventually see the exit of the tunnel as it drew nearer. Before long, Melody soared out of the tunnel, bringing both Seth and herself back into the Antarctic tundra. They were back. Back outside. Back among the light of day.
"All right!" said Seth. "We made it!"
"Now... what?" asked Melody, panting heavily.
"Whoa, you sound tired! You should take a rest."
"Thank... you," sung Melody in weary voice as she flew down into the snow. The moment that the soles of his boots hit the ground, Seth felt as Melody released her grasp on him.
"Are you okay?" asked Seth, as her turned to face Melody, who appeared to be out of breath.
"I think... I'll be... okay."
"Man, I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to get out of that preserve!"
"I understand. But now where do we go?"
"I don't know," said Seth, as he stared off into the distance. "There's nothing but snow for miles and miles. I dare say we may have been better off staying at World's End. I think we just went from the frying pan and into the fire. Or freezer, rather. It's freezing out here! And neither of us are dressed for the weather!"
"Now that, I can help with," said Melody. Seth watched as she waved her hands around, creating two purple auras around them. She then shot a beam of energy at herself with one hand, then at Seth with the other.
In a flash of purple light, a thick, purple, winter coat and matching gloves materialized upon Seth's body, while a matching set appeared on Melody.
"Wow," said Seth. "Not bad! Thanks!"
"You're welcome."
"I'm grateful that you're helping me like this. Can I ask why? Why you're defecting against Ronodin all of a sudden? After all that you've done."
"Well... I take it you know about Victor."
"What about Victor?" asked Seth, wondering what Melody was getting at.
"He's a superbulb. As such, he is loyal to Ronodin. And Ronodin sees him as nothing more than a pawn."
"What's your point?"
"A superbulb is a living, thinking creature. But Victor was not the first. There was another before him. A previous experiment."
"What do you mean?" asked Seth. "Who was this other superbulb?"
Melody then made a face that looked as though she was on the verge of breaking out in tears.
"That other superbulb... was me."
