"Ella!"
A familiar voice reached Ella's ears.
"Ella, is that you?"
She turned in the voice's direction and gasped.
It was Areida, and she wasn't alone.
Slumped over her was none other than a very hung over Lucinda!
Areida trudged over and carefully set Lucinda down on the ground.
This was the very first time Ella had seen her Fairy Godmother since she was a baby.
Her eyes rapidly scanned Lucinda's slender, curvaceous form when she saw how statuesque the Fairy was, easily tall enough to look Nish the Ogre in the eye.
"I was taking a walk through Lamia when I stumbled upon her," Areida explained. "I would've simply walked by if she hadn't kept mumbling your name!"
The Ayorthian then proceeded to imitate Lucinda's incoherent murmuring of, "Ella... Ella... Fr... Frell... "
Olga swapped looks with Hattie and Olga, then stepped forward.
After a brief introduction, she filled Areida in as to why Ella told her all those nasty things (and that it was her idea, to keep her safe), about Lucinda, Ella's Gift, Sir Edgar's plot, and that everyone in perhaps the entire world was in grave danger.
They were interrupted by the sound of Lucinda stirring.
The Fairy grimaced, nursing her pounding skull as she slowly stood up.
Ella was jubilant!
This was the very moment she'd been waiting for her whole life!
"Lucinda, quick!" she beamed whilst bound to the tree. "Take back the Gift!"
But Lucinda still wore that face like a wet weekend, and Ella had a sinking feeling that more bad news was to come.
"I... " Lucinda mumbled in shame. "I got fired."
A chorus of disbelief rang out amongst all present.
"All because of my stupid FWI," Lucinda continued. "They took away my Fairy license. I hate my job."
"But they didn't take away your powers!" Mandy protested. "You can still make things right! Ella doesn't need your Gift! In fact, it's not really much of a Gift at all!"
"You don't understand!" bawled Lucinda, who then completely broke down in tears. "All my life, my folks wanted me to be a Fairy Godmother! To bless a different baby each day! I want to be an entertainer! I never signed up for any of this!"
Slannen looked on, noticing the irony here.
Hattie and Olive were about to speak, but Olga held up her hand for silence as she calmly approached the Fairy Godmother.
"Lucinda," she said to her, softly but sternly. "I understand that your life didn't work out the way you wanted it, and I'm deeply sorry for what you went through. But that's no excuse for being irresponsible! Because of you, my poor Ella had been forced to obey others her whole life! Don't you see that you've basically spread your unhappiness unto an innocent young girl?"
Lucinda locked eyes with Olga for a few moments, as though the older woman's words were reaching her... then pulled out an unfinished bottle and chugged down all its contents before collapsing.
Mandy walked over and checked Lucinda, who lay in a crumpled heap.
After some close observation and prodding with a finger, she gave her diagnosis, "Lights out. I've got no idea when she'll wake up again."
Olga was outraged. "Why that troublesome, incorrigible... !"
Noticing that her temper was already flaring, she quickly stopped and deeply inhaled in order to regain her composure.
She spent the next few moments pondering seriously in silence.
"I'm so sorry, Ella," Olga finally spoke. "We came all this way and with nothing to show for it."
A pause.
"I'm afraid that it's up to us to fix Lucinda's mistakes for her. It's quite a gamble, but I might have an idea on how to do this."
Hattie rubbed her chin in thought. "Wait, Ella's Gift basically forces her to do whatever she's being told, right?"
"You're quite right," Olga replied. "So I'm thinking maybe Ella should be the one to give the command to herself."
"Give... orders... " Ella repeated, a little thrown off by her stepmother's rather unorthodox idea. "To myself?"
"That's the theory," agreed Olga. "Technically, the Gift never specified that it cannot be you yourself who'd tell you what to do."
"But what if... " Slannen cut in apprehensively. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then it's a risk we'll have to take," Benny answered.
"The book's right!" added Mandy. "What've we got to lose?"
"Okay," Ella piped up. "But what do I say?"
"That, my child," Olga gently pointed at Ella's heart. "Lies inside you."
Ella took a short while to fully understand what her stepmother had said.
But when she did, she closed her eyes and concentrated.
"You will no longer be obedient," Ella finally said.
"You will no longer be obedient!" she repeated, this time much louder and with iron resolve.
But did it work?
Only one way to find out.
"Ella," Olive said, feeling tense and unsure. "Divide by zero."
"Huh? No way!"
It was as if time stood still.
First, a few seconds.
Then, a few minutes.
Not a word was spoken, but all of them knew what it meant.
"It... it worked," Ella realised, excitement growing within her. "It worked! I'm free!"
Everyone cheered, jumping for joy.
A jubilant Slannen undid Ella's ropes so she could in the group hug.
Although they still had an evil scheme left to foil, Ella felt as if half their battle had already been won.
Nobody was going to stop her.
A/N
Areida of Ayorthia has returned!
But the real highlight of this chapter is Lucinda Perriweather.
It never sat well with me that the film portrayed her as a thoughtless and irresponsible character, so I decided to give her some depth as well as a genuinely sad backstory that explains her present behaviour.