In the next room, I found an old lady, lying on a bed, with two people watching over her. Even though I was looking for Saya, seeing them almost made me forget what I was doing. The two looked like grown-ups, but they weren't any taller than me. I dare even say they were half my size. Their skin colors weren't of any variety I ever saw, their ears were larger (and pointier), and their clothes, while they looked like the type you'd use to fight, they didn't look like any suit I ever saw soldiers or policemen wear. Were they even human?
"Hey, aren't you supposed to sleep?" one of them asked, and I recognized her voice, as she was one of squeaky ones I heard before.
"Never mind that." the other one said, whose voice I also recognized, "Maybe he can help us. Do you know what's wrong with your friend?"
My friend? What was he talking about? But as I looked closer at the old woman, I noticed the clothes she was wearing. They looked like that sailor-outfit that Saya always wore. Didn't Fowl say she was aging rapidly? I ran to her as fast as I could, but once I arrived, I had no idea about what I should be doing. I couldn't talk to her, since I had forgotten how to do that. Her shoulder, I remembered. She was shot by one of those guards in the last world we were in. Is that somehow causing this? I looked at her shoulder, but found nothing wrong.
"We healed her shoulder hours ago." the man said, "But we can't stop her from getting older."
"Why are you speaking elfish to him?" I recognized Fowl's voice.
"We would speak his language." the woman answered, "But he hasn't replied to anything we've said, so we don't know what language we should be speaking to him."
They were speaking a different language to me the whole time? Why didn't I realize? And why should I care about that?
"Is that Saya?" Merlin asked, at almost the same time as when I realized I had more important things to think about.
"So our female visitor has a name at last." Fowl said.
"Did you forget what that young man just did to you, Master Fowl?" Butler asked him.
"He was concerned for his friend." Fowl replied, "I can't fault him for that."
"Fowl?" Merlin questioned, "Are you related to that Artemis fellow you mentioned before?"
I turned away from Saya to look at them. Since Fowl was still wearing his sunglasses, I could see his full face, but I imagined he didn't really like what Merlin just asked, judging from his reply: "I AM Artemis."
"Oh, nice to meet you." Merlin said, "I'm Merlin."
From Fowl's raised brows, I could tell he didn't believe him: "That wasn't a jest. I really am Artemis Fowl II."
"Yes, I believe you." Merlin told him.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe you are thé Merlin?"
"Well, I don't know about "thé", but Merlin is my name."
Thé Merlin? Did he know anyone else by that name? Or was Merlin more well-known than even he thought? Whatever, they were taking up too much time, so I knocked on the wall nearest to me, drawing their attention.
"But more to the point." Merlin said, almost as a reaction to my knocking, "What have you done to Saya?"
"What have I done?" Fowl replied, "We found her with a wounded shoulder, and half of her hairs already gray. We rushed her, and the two of you here, where I had some of my guests heal you. But nothing we do to your friend seems to help."
"She couldn't be under one of my spells?" Merlin asked, more to himself than anyone.
Fowl clicked with his tongue before he spoke: "One of your spells."
"I have had to use an aging spell several times before, to make myself look older than I am." Merlin explained, "But of course, only when a wizard like me uses it can it be controlled. I don't know what it does to non-magical people."
"And why would she use this spell?" Fowl asked.
Before Merlin could give any sort of answer, I heard Saya mumble something. I turned to her.
"Is she saying something?" Merlin asked.
I heard two sets of footsteps run toward us, but one of them stopped, which was followed by a heavier voice, that of Butler's: "It may be best to keep a distance."
When Merlin arrived, he too tried listening to what Saya was saying.
"B... bl... od..." she whispered.
"Did she say blood?"
"We tried that already." one of the squeaky ones said, "It just evaporated when it entered her bleadstream, and if anything only made it worse."
"Maybe there's a specific way in which she has to take it in." Merlin suggested, "Or maybe it's part of a ritual."
"Ritual?" Fowl asked, though it didn't sound like he believed it.
"Maybe something like this has happened to her before." Merlin suggested, "So of course she'd know better than us how to help herself."
"Very well. Butler, we better see if we can find any blood." Fowl said to his giant.
This was followed by Butler whispering something to Fowl, but I couldn't hear what it was.
"Merlin, if that is indeed your name." he continued, "You better come along."
"Of course." Merlin said, "I'd love to see the rest of this castle."
And so he walked out of the room, along with Fowl and Butler, leaving me alone with two other beings, and a still aging Saya.
"What do you suppose it is?" one of them asked.
"If it's something that even we with all our magic can't cure, I'm not sure I even want to know."
Magic? Like Merlin? He might be interested in hearing about this. But almost as soon as I thought this, there came a crackling sound. I looked at the two, who were suddenly pressing their hands (one each) to their ears.
"What is it, Major Short?" the woman replied, waited for an answer, "I don't know, I haven't made any contact with them. Why?"
Whatever the answer was, it caused the man to say: "That is weird indeed."
Whatever was said on the other side, it made the two of them look at Saya and me.
"I don't know." the man said, "The woman hasn't been doing anything. She could barely say a word before."
"And the other one looks far too busy thinking about his friend, I don't think he has had the time to set anything like that up."
They waited for another reply from... Short? If he was one of these people, than the name fits.
"Acknowledged." they both said, and walked out of the room.
And so, I was alone in the room with Saya, who had somehow grown to be much older within the last few minutes. It surprised me she hadn't already become dust. But as soon as that surprise came, I noticed something else. Her lips were moving. They weren't saying anything, or at least they didn't form any words I knew, so I leaned in closer, hoping that I might hear her better. As I leaned closer, her breathing became clearer. So she was trying to say something. As I got closer, I could make her words out better.
"...ser."
"...oser."
"...closer."
She was telling me to come closer? Why would she do that? Wanting to know the answer, I leaned in as close as I could. When I could feel her breath on my neck, I thought this had to be close enough. As I listened for what she wanted to tell me, I soon found out she had nothing to say at all. What felt like a dozen needles just sank themselves into my neck. It came as such a surprise, I didn't even scream just from the pain. But soon enough, whatever she was doing, it caused the blood in my body to light up like fire. My instinct to scream was coming back to me. As I was about to open my throat up, I saw Saya raising her hand. Within a split second, I saw her long nails growing shorter, and her wrinkles lessening before my eyes. This suddenly younger hand grabbed hold of my lips, keeping me from making any sort of sound. My hands were looking for something to hold on to, while the pain of what she was doing to me was still going through my entire body. Eventually, I couldn't take any more of it. The wall before me disappeared, the hand that held my lips together faded away, and I...