Chapter 19; Fabled

The Fowl Estate, Ireland

"Holly!" exclaimed Foaly as an LEP technician connected the elf to his ops booth. "Thank Frond you're alive. We assumed the worst after Fowl Manor dropped out of the normal time stream."

Holly allowed herself a smile. "It's good to hear your voice, Foaly," she replied, flashing Natalya a look. "You have no idea how much my patience has been tested today."

"So what happened? Fowl playing around with time-stops?"

Holly's expression darkened. "I wish. The time-stop was Opal's work; she trapped us and sent a horde of those creatures to kill us."

Deep underground, Foaly smiled proudly. "But you fought 'em off, eh?"

Holly hesitated. She hadn't exactly been the one to fight off the former humans, but that wasn't important right now.

"Something like that," she murmured.

"That's my girl," chuckled Foaly. "But we need you back in Haven as soon as possible. Things are falling apart down here. I'd have a shuttle sent, but we honestly can't spare a pilot right now. You're going to have to pick up a shuttle from Tara and fly here yourself."

Holly took a breath. "Listen, Foaly. Juliet's dead. Butler's unconscious. I'm out of magic. We're not in good shape right now, but I can't afford to come home at the moment. The formers are infectious, and Artemis doesn't think Opal can control them indefinitely. Whatever's happening below ground, Opal is still our number one priority."

Foaly ground his teeth audibly. "What do you want me to do? Like I said, we don't even a pilot spare to come and collect you, and you want me to send you an army so you can wage war on Opal Koboi? Forget it."

Even though Foaly couldn't see her, Holly shook her head. "I'm not asking for reinforcements. Artemis thinks there's a way for us to stop her, but he says he needs to talk to you."

Foaly was silent for a long moment. "Alright, I'll give Fowl the benefit of the doubt for Russia. Put him on."

Holly flashed Artemis a smile and handed him the communicator. "He's all yours, Mud Boy."

Artemis nodded his thanks and hooked the earpiece over his ear. "Foaly?"

Foaly didn't even offer a sarcastic response. Highly out of character. "What do you need, Mud Boy? I'm on a tight schedule here. I shouldn't even be talking to you."

"Very well, I won't bore you with the details. My questions may seem odd, but try to answer them to the best of your ability."

Foaly sat back in his chair. "Alright," he said. "Fire away."

"Does the LEP have any idea at all where Opal was before she emerged with the formers at her shoulder? No matter how vague it is, I need to know."

Foaly hesitated. Of course he did. That information was classified, after all. But Holly was right; whatever the situation was in Haven, Opal was still a bigger threat. If Artemis needed information, the least he could do was give it to him.

"Not really," he admitted. "There was a possible sighting in Vietnam, but nothing remotely concrete. One of the fairies in the task force hunting for her had a theory that she was looking for something in Southeast Asia, but I don't think she had much in the way of facts to support it."

"What was she supposed to have been looking for?" asked Artemis, his curiosity piqued.

"No idea, I'm afraid," replied Foaly.

"Oh well," said Artemis. "Before Opal attacked Fowl Manor, she spoke to me. She mentioned something about a dead city, and a secret. It's something to do with the formers, I'm sure it is. Do you have any idea what she could have been referring to?"

Foaly frowned. "Nothing springs to mind. The People don't exactly have dead cities – settlements are always demolished if they are no longer inhabited – and there are any number of abandoned human cities. What were her exact words?"

"She said that she thought she alone had discovered the secret of the dead city."

Foaly was quiet for a while. "The dead city," he mused. "Not a dead city."

Artemis leaned forward, excited. "Is that significant?"

"Probably not," said Foaly. "I still can't think of anything useful. But the People sometimes refer to Shangri-La as the Dead City."

Artemis furrowed his brow. "Shangri-La? Isn't that a myth?"

Foaly chuckled. "So narrow minded," he said. "When will you learn? A hefty chunk of human myth and legend is actually based on the People's history."

Artemis sighed, frustrated. "I am aware of that, I just wasn't aware that Shangri-La was one of those things."

"What is Shangri-La?" interrupted Natalya.

"Who's that?" asked Foaly, silently cursing the lack of video.

"Long story," replied Artemis. "And you're short on time, remember?" Foaly groaned, but Artemis ignored him, turning to Natalya. "Shangri-La – or Shambhala, to give it its proper name – is a secret kingdom in Buddhist mythology, hidden somewhere in the Himalayas. It was supposed to be an earthly paradise, sealed off from the rest of the world, the inhabitants of which were said to be immortal, living for thousands of years."

Foaly took over the story. "I'm not sure about earthly paradise," he said. "But since it was a fairy city, the inhabitants did live thousands of years. It was built under the Himalayas after the Battle of Taillte – actually, it was one of the first big underground cities. But I don't see how any of this helps us find Opal."

Artemis kept his face smooth, but he couldn't quite keep the excitement out of his voice. "It helps," he said. "I'm sure it does. I just need to piece everything together." He closed his eyes in concentration. "Why do the People call it the Dead City?"

It was obvious that Foaly was deeply sceptical, but he answered anyway.

"Because that's what it is," the centaur explained. "A dead city. A lost city. There are legends, but no one really knows what happened. Plenty of fairies have gone looking for it over the years, but none ever managed to find it."

"Promising," Artemis muttered. He sat down, taking the communicator with him. He composed himself. "Foaly. I need to know the legends. Tell me everything there is to know about Shangri-La."

He could tell that Foaly was just itching to ask why, but in the interest of time, the centaur managed to contain his curiosity.

"Alright," he began. "Our records aren't great when it comes to that period, but I'll do my best. Like I said, it was built almost ten thousand years ago after the Battle of Taillte. No one knows exactly where, but we're pretty sure it was under the Tibetan region of the Himalayas. It was a fairly normal fairy settlement for a few thousand years; as far as we can tell, nothing interesting happened until around seven and a half thousand years ago."

"Then what?" Artemis prompted.

Foaly sighed. "That's where things get murky. It seems as though the residents began to discover large deposits of natural resources deep beneath their city, and it started transitioning into a mining settlement; although, the extent of that disputed."

"How so?"

"The region isn't exactly known for a wealth of natural resources. Most historians are sceptical that anything particularly valuable was discovered. But according to legend, they discovered vast seams of gold and other minerals, and great caves of jewels."

Artemis was visibly unimpressed. "That seems unlikely."

"Well, obviously that bit isn't true," said Foaly. "But you asked to hear the legend, so there you go."

Artemis inclined his head a little, despite the fact that Foaly couldn't see him. "Very well," he said. "Continue."

"Supposedly, the city grew wealthy and began rapidly expanding as fairies arrived from all over the world to try and share in the riches. Again, this is probably an exaggeration, but there's credible evidence of a sudden spike in emigration from other settlements to Shangri-La. The problem was, no one came back."

"Why?"

"Put simply," said Foaly. "We don't know. This is where we cross entirely into the realm of guesswork. We know that their society began to collapse and the fairies started fighting amongst themselves, but we don't know why. There are plenty of theories, but no evidence to support any of them."

"What are the theories?" asked Artemis eagerly.

"There are loads. Some people say that it was greed; they were so captivated by the jewels they were finding that they started to kill each other to get their hands on more of them. Others say that they dug too deep and uncovered some ancient evil that destroyed them all. Some people reckon they somehow got cut off from supplies and they started fighting over what food they had stored."

Artemis frowned. "The People are peaceful by nature. That doesn't sound like them."

Foaly shrugged. "They're just theories. There probably isn't any merit to them. There's a record of the King at the time sending a team of warlocks to seal off Shangri-La, but the record isn't complete, so we don't know why. Probably the most credible suggestion is that there was there was a plague of some kind, and the King wanted to quarantine it."

Artemis paused, then started nodding absently. "Yes," he breathed. "It fits. That's how she did it."

Both Holly and Natalya gave him odd looks. Neither had any idea how any of this was supposed fitted together, but Holly at least had learned to trust Artemis when it came to things like this.

Foaly was less generous, and spat a curse in Centaurian. "What in Frond's name are you talking about, Mud Boy? These are legends. Myths. They aren't real. They have nothing to do Opal."

Artemis shook his head. "They have everything to do with Opal."

Foaly sounded like he was running out of patience. "How?

"I examined one of the creatures Opal is using. It was a normal elf but with a parasite living inside it. The parasite had completely taken it over and was controlling the body, and all the parasite wanted to do was infect more victims. It wasn't capable of rational thought, so neither was the elf. It just wanted to kill."

"I still don't get it. What's the connection?"

"The plague," said Artemis. "That's the key. They didn't start fighting amongst themselves because other people were getting ill, they fought because they were ill. The infection changed their nature, it made them violent. Savage. It robbed them of their reason."

It finally clicked for Foaly. "The formers," he breathed. "You think they're from Shangri-La?"

Artemis nodded. "The Fallen. That's what Opal called them. And while she seems to be controlling them, I have learned that did not create them." He glanced briefly at Natalya. "So it was just a question of working out where they really came from. The answer, I believe, is Shangri-La."

It seemed like a breakthrough, but when Foaly spoke again, he didn't sound impressed. "You're making some pretty big leaps, there. And how is any of this even possible? A parasite that could do that, that's… that's absurd, honestly. There's nothing even beginning to approach that level of sophistication on the planet."

"I know that. But I examined the creature, and I know what I saw. Believe me, it's real." Artemis paused, thinking. "Perhaps it isn't from this planet."

Foaly snorted. "An alien parasite? Come on Mud Boy, even by your standards that's mental."

Artemis shrugged. "It's a possibility. The Earth's been here for billions of years, it's not inconceivable that at some point, a meteorite carrying bacteria from another planet crashed into it."

Foaly sounded far from convinced. "What, and these bacteria just sit there for millennia, biding its time? What sustains it?"

Artemis thought for a moment, but then the answer came to him. "Hard radiation. You said Shangri-La was rich in resources; why not something like uranium? The lifeforms feed off the radiation for millions of years, mutating. Changing. The fairies in Shangri-La uncover them and are infected."

Foaly started to laugh derisively, but then it petered out. "That's… that's actually not impossible. It's unlikely, but…"

"I know," said Artemis. "I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm just speculating; there are all sorts of other possibilities. Ones I haven't even thought of. But the point is, if I'm right, if Opal found Shangri-La and modified the parasite she found there, then that's where the hive mind will be."

"It's settled, then," said Natalya, as though none of this was a surprise to her. "We go to Shangri-La, and we kill the hive mind. Simple."

"Who is that?" asked Foaly, clearly annoyed at being left out of the loop.

Everyone ignored him. Holly turned to Natalya. "I hate to break this to you," she said. "Even if this whole thing wasn't a massive longshot – which isn't obvious – people have been searching for Shangri-La for millennia. It's a lost city for a reason; no one managed to find it."

Natalya looked unfazed. "Opal found it," she corrected. "And if she can do it, Artemis can." She turned to the youth. "You can do it, right?"

Artemis smiled his vampire smile. "Oh yes," he said. "I'll find it."

Holly had been and gone to Tara, as requested, but instead of taking one of their shuttles down to Haven to assist what was left of the LEP take back control of the city, she had commandeered said shuttle, bringing it back to Artemis to use as a base of operations. The sprite on duty hadn't been keen on the idea, but he had come around. Holly could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. As could her buzz baton.

Now, though, she was bored. She had used the shuttle to relocate the entire party – it was now nestled, shield active, in a forest clearing in northern England – so that they could plan in peace. Artemis sat inside the shuttle and pored over maps and ancient texts, and though she had tried keeping him company, she'd quickly realised that he was better off left alone to focus. She hadn't been keen on trying to engage Artemis's family in conversation, and Butler was still unconscious. She'd even grown tired of her new favourite pastime, glaring at Natalya for long periods of time. The Russian girl didn't rise to it. She didn't give any indication she was even aware of it. She just sat in silence outside the shuttle, ever alert, ever vigilant, waiting for something to happen.

More likely waiting for a target to present itself, thought Holly darkly. Knowing her she just wants something to kill.

She went back into the shuttle. "Your new friend looks like she's waiting for something," she told Artemis. "She's been like that for hours. What's she up to?"

Artemis sighed. "Please, Holly. She is by no means my friend. As for what she is doing, I would hazard a guess at waiting for Opal."

A chill passed through Holly. "You think she'll find us?"

Artemis shrugged. "It's possible, I suppose. Though not particularly likely."

"What happens if she does?" Holly asked, a note of tension creeping into her voice. She had assumed they were safe here – another encounter with the Fallen wasn't exactly high on her list of priorities. She'd been lucky enough to survive her previous one. Without Artemis's genius and – she hated to admit it – Natalya's magic, she would already be dead.

Artemis, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned. He gestured around them. "This is a shuttle, is it not? It can fly. I don't believe the Fallen are capable of that feat."

"And if Opal tries to shoot us down?"

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't worry about that. I happen to know an excellent pilot. I believe she specialises in ridiculous evasive manoeuvres likely to get everyone on board killed. It sounds dangerous, I grant you, but she hasn't let me down, not once."

Holly couldn't help smiling inwardly at the compliment, but her outward expression didn't compromise. "Sounds like a risk me."

"Correct. It is a risk we run. Opal is unlikely to find us here, and we don't have time to find somewhere more secluded. Not to mention there is no LEP help available. I'm afraid, Holly, we are going to have to hope for the best."

"That doesn't sound much like Artemis Fowl."

A hint of amusement announced itself in Artemis's expression. "Perhaps. But then I am a changed man, am I not?"

Holly grumbled something that Artemis couldn't quite discern, and left him again. Artemis allowed himself to smile more fully and went back to his work. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he was enjoying himself. Solving complex problems was what he lived for, and the mystery of Shangri-La was definitely complex. Extremely so.

Foaly had sent him a digital copy of anything that he thought might be useful, but centaur had been right about one thing: there wasn't a lot to go on. Artemis had been steadily building a solid understanding of the historical context and the records that did exist, and had felt like he was close to a breakthrough, but then the information had started to thin out. Now his enjoyment was on the verge of being replaced by frustration. It was like staring at a partially completed jigsaw and being certain that you would be able to discern the image if there were just a few more pieces in place.

He leaned back, allowing his thoughts to wonder for a moment. "Oh, Opal," he mused aloud. "How did you do it?"

His focus sharpened again. How had she done it? It seemed unlikely that she would have had access to all of the information that he was looking at now. She had had more time, true, but Artemis didn't think that time was what was keeping him back. No, he was making a mistake. He was thinking about it the wrong way. Fairy scholars had spent thousands of hours studying the information before him, and none of them had made any headway. But Opal had. He didn't need to follow their example, he needed to follow Opal's.

Artemis closed every file he had open and turned away from the screen. He closed his eyes. A little inspiration. That was all he needed.

What did Opal have that no one else did?

It couldn't be magic. If a couple of the blue sparks were the key to finding the lost city then any one of the fairy researchers could have done it.

Information? It was possible that Opal he encountered some piece of lost information during her misguided youth that had led her to Shangri-La. It didn't seem likely though; from what he knew, Opal had never showed any interest in history or archaeology. She was too clever and too rich to have been drawn to Shangri-La by the tales of material wealth. The only reason he could think of for her to seek the Dead City was the discovery of the Fallen. And if she already knew about them, why go to all the trouble trying to create her own slaves?

And according to Natalya, once she had failed in that endeavour, she had abandoned the project and pursued her magic boosting formula instead. She had only returned to it after being dragged into the future.

So, what was different about her this time? Why this time, had she been able to discover the Fallen and locate the entrance to Shangri-La?

The only thing he could think of was her power level. Opal had come dangerously close to completing her magic boosting formula, and alongside that had come ferocious magic.

Artemis paused. Magic. What if it was magic after all? Not the capacity for it, but the intensity of it? Or perhaps the type…

He recalled his analysis of the parasite inside the former elf. Its existence shouldn't have been possible. Neither should the existence of the hivemind they were now hunting. At the time, he had hypothesized that magic must have been involved. It was the only explanation.

Everything fell into place. Opal Koboi had allowed dark magic to fester deep in what was left of her soul. The hivemind must be, at least in part, a magical entity. The parasites that gave life to the Fallen were a physical manifestation of that dark magic. Impossible beings that corrupted life itself. Koboi had been drawn to that darkness, her black magic the link between them. That was the key.

Artemis stood up and went to the window of the shuttle. His gaze found Natalya. It just so happened that Opal wasn't the only one with a supply of black magic.

A/N: Thanks for anyone still here, still putting up with my apparent inability to organise my time sufficiently to actually put out content. I've just finished my exams and with them my first year of university (yay for me), so now I'm free for summer. I plan to actually, you know, update this. Like I was supposed to about two months ago.

Anyways, you know the drill, this is the bit where I shamelessly beg for some form of validation in the form of a review. Even if it's a critical one. It still shows that you cared enough to criticise. So… yeah. Review. Thanks :)

-Kio