I fully realize how long it's been since I've last updated, but one thing came up, and then another, and sooner than later it was already November. But you guys already know that my upload schedule sucks, so, going forward I'm just going to say that I'll be updating as much as possible. I'm a very busy student, and I'm truly trying my best. I finish school in a few weeks, so you'll be getting some more chapters then.

I hope you enjoy this, and I'll see you as soon as possible!

As soon as the doors of the library opened, Kendra found herself once more gaping in awe at the room. The library was wonderful. Its ceiling extended up several floors, lined with shelves and shelves of more books than she had ever seen in her life. She could see chairs and paintings and statues lining the walls, delicate gold vines accenting the decorations. In front of her, a few steps led down to a glass floor that revealed a garden. Kendra walked down the stairs staring at the garden. Kendra spotted tiny fairies flitting from flower to flower, and incredibly enough, tiny, tiny people walking along the branches of the main tree in the far corner of the garden. They wore tiny clothes and squinting her eyes, Kendra could spot the tiny houses they walked in and out of.

Looking up, there was still more to see. On the far side of the room were huge glass doors that were open, leading out to a huge balcony. Entranced, Kendra walked onto the balcony that overlooked the town. She could see the gardens surrounding the castle, all the people on the street, now small that she was up so high. She saw the field of lavender that they had landed in from Fablehaven, a huge river winding around the back of the castle, and the forests that dominated the skyline, and in the far, far distance, she could spot mountains and cliffs, and even more distantly so, the ocean.

"What do you think of it all Kendra?" A quiet, warm voice startled Kendra so much she whipped around, heart hammering. Amidst the wonder of the library, Kendra had momentarily forgotten why she was really here, to talk to the Queen.

The Fairy Queen stood in front of her, in the doorway, smiling softly. The Queen was beautiful as always, her shining white hair loose across her shoulders wearing an intricate gown, light green with pastel pink flowers, flowing down to the floor, and atop her head sat a circlet of silver, inlaid with multi-colored jewels, a crown truly fit for a queen.

"Your Majesty!" Kendra had trouble thinking of anything to say, but she swallowed, desperately trying to collect her thoughts. "Thank you so much for inviting me here."

The Queen smiled, moving in front of her. "It is my pleasure, Kendra." She reached forward and hugged Kendra, warm, kind feelings flowing into her. It was like a hug from her own mother. The Queen pulled back after a moment.

"What do you think?" She repeated her question, gesturing around her.

"It`s…" Kendra couldn't find the words to describe how she really felt. "It's more wonderful than I could ever imagine." She admitted.

The Queen smiled. "Thank you, but we do have quite a long way to go."

"Bracken keeps saying that, but I don't really see what he means to be honest," Kendra replied before she could think too much about her response. It was so strange to be actually speaking to the Queen in person. The last time she had was at Zzyxx and too much had been going on for her to actually process it.

"Compared to our former realm`s glory, this is nothing." The Queen came to stand beside her at the railing, looking out over her kingdom. "In a few years, this will be nothing."

Kendra wasn't sure how to respond to that. "It's already the most amazing thing I've ever seen." She admitted softly. That seemed to bring the Queen out of her reverie and she turned to Kendra with a brighter smile on her face.

"I am glad you are here Kendra, we have much to discuss. Come." The Queen led her from the balcony back into the library. She noticed Kendra looking down at the garden and stopped for a moment.

"This is the home of the pixies, their own sacred garden. Perhaps Bracken will take you to visit it soon." The Queen continued, leading her to a winding staircase on the right side of the room and began her way up it. Kendra followed, trying to look graceful, especially while she was with the Queen.

"I believe you have met my daughters?" The staircase opened up into another room with more and more books and another balcony. This one was smaller and a table laden with teacups and small cakes sat in the center of it, two chairs across from each other. Kendra tried to focus on a response while also processing the beauty of the new room.

"Yes, your majesty. I met Rayne, Brea, and Ophelia outside." Kendra sat in the chair the Queen gestured to, looking out at the landscape the balcony overlooked. A lake with rolling fields of sunflowers shone in the afternoon light and brought a smile to her lips. She loved sunflowers.

"And I trust they were charming as always." Kendra looked back at the Queen who had a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.

"Yes, your majesty. It was a pleasure to meet them. I`ve heard much about them." She tried for the most careful response possible, not wanting to admit much about her true interaction with Rayne and Brea.

The Queen laughed, a musical, beautiful sound. "You are a very accomplished diplomat Kendra. However, I am aware my daughters can be a bit… aloof. They aren't used to interacting with those whom they don't understand."

Kendra nodded, smiling a little. "It was an unforgettable experience."

The Queen smiled, "Yes, indeed so. Tea?" She picked up the delicate pot and began to pour perfumed tea into a golden tea cup paired with a perfectly matching saucer.

"Thank you, I`d love some." The Fairy Queen poured the tea into her cup and she thanked her, fingers wrapping around the handle of the cup, if not for anything else other than comfort. After setting down the pot, she offered Kendra the plate of tea cakes on the table. Kendra picked up one and set it on the edge of her saucer, praying that she was doing everything right.

For a few moments, the two sat in relative silence, sipping the tea which turned out to be green tea, Kendra`s favorite.

The Queen set her cup down, and Kendra did the same, feeling that the Queen was now ready to speak about the events that had called her here in the first place.

"So, Kendra, it is my understanding that you have been made aware of some recent unfortunate events that have taken place."

Kendra nodded. "If you`re talking about the disappearances, then yes I have." Kendra picked up the tea cake she had yet to eat and took a bite. It was delicious, but the pit in Kendra's stomach swallowed it whole. "A centaur and a hamadryad disappeared from Fablehaven yesterday."

"Yes, yes. Bracken had informed me of that. He also informed me of some events at your and Seth`s school."

Kendra nodded. "There was a man there."

The Queen nodded, picking up a cake, turning it between her fingers, but not eating it, instead intently examining it. "I have heard."

"Do you know who he is?" Kendra noticed that the woman's shoulders tightened just a little.

"We believe that his name could possibly be Ronodin."

That name was so familiar, she was sure she had heard it before. "Ronodin? The dark unicorn?"

"You know of him?"

"Uh yeah, I guess. Bracken mentioned that he and Ronodin were the only unicorns to give up their horns."

"Indeed." The Queen didn't seem inclined to continue. Kendra shifted, wondering what was making the queen so uncomfortable.

"How do you know it was Ronodin?" Kendra prodded.

The Queen looked out to the balcony, and then up at the blue sky. "Some of my scouts saw him leaving the building and were able to confirm it was him."

"Scouts?" Kendra asked, trying to think of if she had seen any fairy creatures at her school.

The Queen simply nodded, seeming unconcerned. "Some dryads keep an eye on you and your brother as a favor for Bracken."

Kendra nodded, her head spinning with about a million questions she wanted to ask. "What does Ronodin have to do with all of this?"

"The man in your school, Ronodin, we believe him to be behind the recent disappearances and some other… unfortunate events that have also taken place." The Queen took a decisive bite of her tea cake, not spilling even a crumb. Kendra wondered if it was magic that made her so graceful, or if it was just years and years of practice.

"How could one person be behind all of this?" Kendra asked.

"Ronodin has an incredible amount of power." The Queen sipped her tea. "He is not someone to be underestimated."

"Who is he? Like, really, who is he?" Kendra cringed at her informality, but the Queen didn't seem to mind.

The Queen sipped at her tea and took a small, delicate bite of the tea cake before returning her gaze to Kendra`s. "Perhaps I should start at the beginning, of how all of this started."

"Yes please."

"Ronodin is my nephew." She looked out at the expansive fields, and Kendra had a feeling this was her way of resisting emotion. "Or at least, by blood he is. My sister died very young, just a year after her son was born. My husband and I took him in. He became part of our family, like a son to us, and a brother to my children." The Queen smiled wistfully. "He and Bracken especially were best of friends, nearly inseparable. I always loved seeing them together. But," The Queen's smile fell. "Ronodin had always been different, plagued by the tragedy that he had experienced so young. There was always a certain darkness in him. But we loved him, so much that even when something might happen, we would overlook it."

"What would happen?" The Queen tilted her head, setting her teacup on her saucer.

"When learning to fight, he was always… intense. A bit too excited about it all."

Kendra nodded and the Queen continued, sitting back in her chair, sighing a little.

"When my husband was captured by Gorgrog, we believed him to be dead. It was… hard on all of us. That was when Ronodin began to change. He became darker, more serious, less the boy we had all known, more animalistic. I`m sure Bracken could give a nearly exhaustive account of all the fights he had to stop concerning Ronodin. He was angry, I think, that the King of the Fairies could be captured, that we were not impervious to damage."

The Queen's eyes became misty. Kendra picked up her teacup, looking out the window, overly attentive on the passing clouds, to give the Queen a chance to regain control.

"When Bracken decided to give up his horn to be made into the Font of Immortality, we were all… hesitant. Bracken had always been happiest in his true form. I couldn't imagine that he truly understood what giving it up meant. But he was determined, so we all supported him. Ronodin, however, was angry. He accused Bracken of being a coward, unwilling to fight, giving up his most powerful form. The two didn't speak for a very long time."

"How long ago was this?"

The Queen made eye contact with her directly, "Over a millennia ago."

"A thousand years." Kendra whispered. The Queen nodded, a slight smile touching her lips.

"One thousand, five hundred years to be more exact." Kendra tried to control her response to this news. She knew Bracken was old, but not that old.

"During those years, Ronodin was distant from us. This was when I believe that Ronodin began to interact with some more... distasteful creatures."

"Distasteful? In what way?" Kendra asked.

The Queen gave a brief, wry grin. "They introduced him to dark power, a power that we could never imagine. But none of it corrupted him until… well until Rosaline."

"Rosaline?"

"Do you remember why your status as fairykind is so rare?" The Queen asked. Kendra shifted, not sure how she was relevant.

"Because I'm mortal?"

"Exactly." The Queen sipped her tea. "The last mortal fairykind was a young woman named Rosaline. Ronodin was very connected to her. They had a very special bond, but she did not love him as he loved her, and that caused him to do some very awful things." The Queen picked up a tea cake, examining it. "Rosaline found out what Ronodin had been doing, and when she confronted him about it, he attacked. They fought and Rosaline was killed. After that, I banished him." The Queen seemed to be waiting for Kendra's response. Trying to keep her expression neutral, Kendra

"Where did he go after that?" She questioned.

"He traveled the world to learn more about his dark powers. He finally deduced the only way to truly achieve the power and glory he wanted was to corrupt his horns. He gave them up and effectively desecrated his heritage, all for power." The Queen`s voice remained constant and soft, but Kendra felt the anger radiating off her, the hatred that simmered.

Kendra took a deep breath, trying to separate herself from the Queen`s anger. "Was he ever defeated?"

"Defeated, no." The Queen scoffed. "He went into hiding after some of his unpaid debts caught up with him. The last we heard from him was around 200 years ago, just after Bracken was lost to us at Living Mirage."

Kendra`s brain spun, trying to process all the new information. 200 years? Bracken was trapped in those cells for two hundred years?

"And now, for some unseen reason, Ronodin has resurfaced, and has shown himself to you and your brother." The Queen leaned forward, her gaze intent in Kendra. It was like she was staring into her soul. "Could you think of any reason why that would be?"

"No." Kendra replied slowly. "Everything's been normal, mundane. Until that day. There's these two Knights, Cassidy and Eli. They came to our school to try and convince us to help them investigate the disappearances. No one was listening, so they came straight to us."

"And these boys, you believe them to be trustworthy?"

Kendra shrugged. "Bracken said they were genuine. Grandpa assigned them to work with us at Fablehaven. We`ve just had our first incidents. A hamadryad, Silene, and a centaur, Quickstride."

"We`ve also had some of our own disappearances. Several fairies have not been heard from in quite a while, as well as some of our most trusted unicorns." The Queen added.

"Why do you think this has something with Ronodin?"

The Queen bit her lip, playing with the handle of her tea cup. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened."

Kendra felt dread begin to pool in her stomach. "It happened all those years ago. It was what Ronodin was doing that was so awful." She assumed.

The woman opposite her nodded. "And now, it is happening again."

"Why? What could Ronodin be doing with the creatures he takes?" Kendra asked, having a hard time seeing the connection between Ronodin and the creatures.

The Queen tilted her head. "All of those years ago, the creatures he took were drained of their life forces and all of the magical energy inside them."

"Their energy?" Kendra repeated slowly. "What does he need the energy for?"

The Queen shook her head. "We never knew. Nothing ever seemed to happen after Rosaline's death, and I'm afraid we didn't look into it back then." Her facade faltered for a moment. "I suppose because the problem did not present itself then, we believed it to be gone. That was an… oversight."

Kendra swallowed back her emotions. Now was no time for them. "So what do we do? How do we combat him?"

The Queen`s countenance changed, as something in her eyes shifted. Despite her eternally young face, she looked old. Older than Kendra had ever seen her. "I don't know Kendra."

Thank you again to IceSnowCream, Yakall, Jesussavedevenme, JaylaLovesReading, NaoSa and more. I truly can't tell you how much your support and the support of everyone who reads this means to me.

See you guys as soon as possible!