This chapter isn't as exciting but still crucial to the plot!
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Chapter 2: Startling Revelations

St Bartleby's School For Young Gentlemen,
Country Wicklow, Ireland

Artemis was, for probably the first time in his life, confused.

Holly. Who was Holly?

He mentally slapped himself in the face. Well obviously, she was some girl with nut-brown skin and hazel eyes. Obviously.

But who was she? He was almost ninety-nine percent sure she was a friend, and not an enemy. But why was she in his dreams? And why did she tell Artemis to "remember"?

Perhaps it was just a troubled dream from extracted from his own perplexed thoughts. Artemis himself had already considered that he and his comrades Butler and Juliet had been mind-wiped, their memories removed. But why were they removed, and more importantly, by who?

Artemis sighed. He was sure it had something to do with the strange contact lenses they had found in their eyes a month ago. But Butler's contact in Limerick could only give a few clues, and these indeed made matters even more confusing.

'As soon as Butler walked into Jeremy Vivaldi's door, he was greeted with a face of utmost surprise.

"Butler, my man! It's great to see you again so soon, and in better conditions. You look yourself again!" Vivaldi said clapping his hands onto Butler's shoulders.

Butler frowned. "What do you mean, 'again so soon'?"

"When we last met, a month or so ago, you were different, remember?" the man said confused, "You looked like you had aged a decade, at least!"

Butler's face was of the utmost bewilderment, "You must be mistaken. I haven't come here for years."

Vivaldi frowned. "No, Butler. I always remember a job. Especially one as sophisticated as the one you gave me. Three sets of mirrored lenses. No mistakes. You ordered them."'

This startling revelation had sent Butler home to Artemis in less than three minutes. Not before Jeremy had given him evidence to back it up. Confirmation papers and cheques, signed in Butler's name. Butler's signature was one of the most intricate and complex that Artemis had ever seen, excluding his own. It would take a genius to forge it. No, Artemis was sure that the 'real' Butler had signed the papers. Which brought him back to his first problem.

How was Artemis Fowl hoodwinked? Artemis didn't believe it was possible for him to be cheated, but somehow it had happened.
However, what was even more disturbing was the more likely explanation, that Artemis had done it himself, not wishing to remember something. So, why did Artemis have the need to lose his memory? These questions made his head spin, but he was determined to seek out the answers.

Artemis glanced at the occupants of the other bunks in his room. Actually, he glared at the occupants of the other bunks. Angeline Fowl, his mother, had specifically requested a private room. However, the Headmaster, apparently would not allow single students to have their own room. They said that sharing a room 'built friendships'. Friends, for heaven's sake! Artemis had no friends. The closest he had were probably Butler and Juliet. No person, male or female, could match Artemis' intelligence. Until he found someone who could, he would not befriend anyone.

The dormitory wing was quite large, as there were approximately fifty smaller rooms within it that held four boys. There were no girls in this school, for obvious reasons. The girl's school was directly next door to the boys, and a large courtyard separated the two schools. In the middle of the courtyard was a tall brick wall with only one gate that was kept locked, preventing interaction between the two halves; a half for the boys and a half for the girls.

The windows that looked onto the courtyard were all classrooms. Before the teachers arrived there was a lot of waving, winking and all-round flirting between the two schools.

Every Friday at three o'clock the gate between the courtyards was opened and the students were allowed to mingle. Mingle…Artemis sighed again. During these mingling times, Artemis would sit on a bench to read, and scare off any girl who got close with his best vampire smile.

On one particular afternoon Artemis' reading had been rudely interrupted.

Felicity Melrose was by far the most popular girl, by both schools. Her blonde wavy hair and sparkling green eyes had caused many a heartbreak in the boy's school.

Today Felicity stood on a bench in the centre of the boy's courtyard (which was now mixed with people from both schools) and called for attention. People from the other side of the wall were called over, so they too could hear her announcement. Artemis tried to ignore her and go back to his book. It was rather interesting, a three thousand and fifty-two page book explaining the difference between homogenised and pasteurised milk.

Felicity treated everyone with her flirtiest smile and winked to several of the boys.

"Good Afternoon!" she imitated dignifiedly. The girls all giggled. "Today I'm here to tell you all about the coolest thing to happen here, for like," Felicity paused and frowned, thinking hard, "For like, forever!" She said chirpily.

The crowed cheered. Artemis scowled. More mingling, no doubt.

Felicity put her hands in the air to quiet them. "The girls already know about it, 'cause we've been doing all this organising. Get your dancing shoes polished and find yourself a date, 'cause in two months from now, we'll have the St Bartleby's Schools Annual Dance!"

The crowd cheered, whooped, and clapped loudly. A lot of them were already dancing. All around Artemis people were celebrating. Artemis stared blankly at his book. A dance? It was his worst nightmare. Somewhere in his mind Artemis could remember Butler telling him sarcastically that Artemis would be 'a big hit' at school dances. Artemis reluctantly had to agree with Butler.
Angeline Fowl had forced Artemis to go to dance classes, ignoring his protests. He had learned a small number of dances, the waltz, the tango, and a couple of other basic dance moves. But Artemis, nevertheless, had two left feet and spent more of his time fallen on the dance floor as apposed to dancing upon it.
Soon, Artemis learned to bring his wallet with him and bribed the dance teachers to pretend he was learning. He then would leave, perhaps visit a café and get a tea, then return to the Dance School when his mother came to pick him up. Now he felt a slight pang of remorse that he had not learned to dance properly.
Sighing, Artemis had gone back to his book.

Artemis shook his head and brushed the hair out of his eyes. Now was no time to be thinking about dancing. With hope, Artemis wouldn't even be at school in two months time. That all depended on where his parents were. Recently Artemis Senior and Angeline Fowl had been off on the Fowl Jet, gallivanting around the globe while reclaiming their youth. They'd asked Artemis to join them, but Artemis would rather attend this monotonous school, rather than spend time with his nauseatingly cheerful parents.

Artemis searched in the darkness for the ladder that led down from his top bunk to the floor. He had missed it once and fell with a thump to the floor much the other boy's amusement. Artemis was not amused.

He found the ladder and began his decent downwards. Once on the floor he crept over to his wooden chest that held his things and retrieved his laptop and mobile phone.

The laptop and phone both were silver, shiny and brand new.

Artemis suspected that someone was keeping an eye on his research so he had bought the equipment under a false name and made sure they were on a secure line. No one could hack into either unless they were actually on-site.

He turned in his phone and checked the time. Five o'clock exactly. The bell for breakfast wouldn't go until six-thirty. He had plenty of time. Artemis returned to his bed.

Pulling open the laptop he immediately checked his email. Three hundred and thirty-three messages, and all of them alerts to websites that contained useful information.

Artemis had been searching the web for the past few months, in particular searching for memory removal and the existence of 'the Fairy People'. A month or so ago when Artemis had been searching for something to exploit he had found some interesting Internet sites. They all seemed to talk about 'the Fairy People' and many entries discussed the large amount of gold that these peoples possessed. If they had gold, then Artemis wanted it. 'Aurum Potestas Est.'

However, while searching numerous pages about Fairy Gold, Artemis had found another item that interested him. Fairy Powers.

Fairies had a great many powers bestowed upon them. Supposedly they could wipe your memory, heal, fly and use a strange mind controlling power called the Mesmer. As long as these beings completed a regular magic ritual, they had outstanding magic powers.

The fairies could do a great manner of other things, but Artemis was in particular interested in the combination of Mesmer and mind-wipe. It was stated, in many of the websites, that a person could avoid being mesmerised if he or she was wearing sunglasses, or other mirrored lenses. This all fit in with the mirrored lenses he and the others had found in their eyes.

Artemis was not entirely sure, but this idea… of fairies…it did not trouble him as much as he thought it might… It was just…usually the talk of magic and mystical powers made Artemis chuckle and roll his eyes. But somehow, this idea seemed to click, to fit in place with the rest of his mind. The more he researched it, the more it seemed to make sense.

Artemis was determined to discover the solution to his predicament. The Fairy Theory fit perfectly into the puzzle of the mirrored lenses. But even if there were such a thing as the Fairy People, why did they have a reason to mind-wipe him?

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