"It looks like Faragonda was right - that dark magic HAS corrupted him." said Tecna.
"But how?" asked Bloom. "How could he be corrupted by his own magic?"
"That's just it - it's not HIS magic he was using, it was Darcy's"
"If only there was some way to persuade Tegryn that Musa was telling the truth." said Anyuna.
"I don't think talking will help us much here," Tecna replied.
"I know," said Bloom "He was so unreasonable back there. It's totally out of character."
"Exactly. It was obvious to all of us that he was under some sort of outside influence."
"So we have to find a way to counter that?" Anyuna asked. "But what can we do - hypnotise him?"
"There must be some other way. His mind's been messed up enough as it is without us adding to the problem." said Tecna. "Besides, it'll be impossible to hypnotise him if the Mind Firewall spell I cast on him is still in effect. No, there must be some other sort of magic we can use."
All of a sudden, Charlotte clicked her fingers. "I've got it! How about that purification spell Griselda had him working on?"
"Purification spell? Of course, I'd forgotten all about that! If it's done right, it should neutralise all the dark energy within him!"
"Yes!" cried Musa happily. "That's just what we need... oh, wait a minute. He didn't finish it, did he?"
"No", replied Charlotte, "But he told me it was NEARLY finished. He found an incantation, and he said he only needed to find a few more ingredients for the potion."
"Good, with any luck all the info we need will be in his notes. I guess they're still up in his room - let's just hope he hasn't taken them."
After informing Ms. Faragonda of their plan, she was quickly persuaded into letting them into Tegryn's room. They soon found what they were looking for - his notebook, which was still where it had been left, carelessly thrown onto his bedside table next to his precious photo of Musa which he had turned face down in his despair. Musa picked up the photo and sighed "It won't be long now babe."
Stella opened the notebook, and strained her eyes as she tried to make out Tegryn's untidy scrawl. "You call THIS handwriting? I mean, what is this - hieroglyphics!"
"It's okay," said Charlotte as she took the book from her. "He took me through his notes - I'm sure I can read it," and as she did so, she re-wrote the information in her own much-neater writing. As soon as she was finished, she handed it to Faragonda.
"Ah, good... we have most of these ingredients right here in our stores, but I don't think we stock these earth herbs... golden sage, melissa, lavender, rosemary... I'm sure we have them in jars but according to these notes, we need freshly-picked whole leaves."
"Ooh, what's that?" asked Bloom, pointing at one of the ingredients on the list. "Black Seed Oil? Never heard of it."
"Allow me," said Tecna. "I'll just look it up on the Realm Wide Web... ah, here we are, Black Seed Oil. An extract from the seed of iNigella Sativa/i, Black Seed Oil has been used for thousands of years as part of traditional medicines in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia."
"Ah, so that's from Earth too," said Bloom. "Look's like we'll have to go on a little shopping trip. Who's with me?"
"Hey, shopping is what I do best!" said Stella.
"I think it will be best if me and Charlotte stay here to work on the potion." said Flora. "Musa too - we still have to find these two missing ingredients, and she knows Teggy better than anyone else here."
"And I'll head up to Cloud Tower," said Mirta. "Maybe Discorda can help us."
"Good idea," said Faragonda. "The rest of you can go down to Earth if you want, but you'll have to quick."
"In fact, you'll have to be VERY quick." Charlotte added. "According to this, the spell is best performed during a full moon when dark magic is at its strongest - and that just happens to be tonight!"
"Tonight? But that only gives us..."
"Six hours."