"So tell me again, everything that you think I need to know," said Bloom. Her red hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and her old, ratty red tee shirt read "You can't hold a candle to me." For all the world, she looked like a college student, not a college headmistress.

Lysis steepled her fingers. "Killian, formerly Bertram, was once the fiancé of the major fairy Sibylla. His motive seems to be vengeance on her and on all other fairies rather than continuing the exact work of the Black Circle. They found their interest in power, while from what I've gathered, he'd be just as happy to see us all dead."

"I object to that," Saf said, frowning. "He has the power to kill us all, and the only thing that has seemingly stopped him and the others so far is the appearance of Bloom… who, I might add, he does not seem concerned about. He wants us alive. They all do, from what I can tell."

Roxy nodded. "I agree. Still, we've gotten lucky. We've gotten really close to finding out what they want from us the hard way."

Silence fell upon the table where Bloom and the Core Four sat, analyzing the results of the latest mission. "So, what do we do?" asked Avi after a moment. "As much as I hate to say it, beating them up directly doesn't seem to be working too hot."

"Why don't we go visit Sibylla and ask her to talk to him?" suggested Roxy. "He said he didn't see her after she took the Vow of Justice, so maybe she could talk some sense into him."

"No," said Lysis and Bloom at the same time, then Bloom took over, gently. "As you heard, she has no reason to care for him anymore, and besides, getting involved in a war like this goes against what she has promised to do."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Roxy sighed. "I wish you weren't, though. I want to talk to her… I had no clue she was my aunt."

"She isn't, anymore," said Lysis. "Her vow severed family love as well as romantic. Only blood links you anymore, and as I think we've all learned at some point or another, blood is not nearly the most important part of a family."

Despite Bloom's attempted brevity, by the time the girls were released from the meeting, classes were over and the weekend had begun. Roxy, Saf, and Avi walked into the downstairs common room to find all the other students of the Royal Fairy Academy huddled around the television. "Jeez, what's so special on TV?" asked Avi. "Some awards show?"

Amanda shook her head. "No. The news."

"You're watching the news?" Roxy asked, surprised. It wasn't uncommon for it to be turned on, but for every student to be huddled around it… "What's happening?"

"You're going to want to see this," Leilani said, her voice low and the kind of calm that hides surprise or even fear.

Avi, Saf, and Roxy looked at each other, and then to the television.

Onscreen, four girls in matching outfits were shown in a sort of montage. They helped kittens out of trees, pushed beached whales back into the ocean, received awards for turning in a major criminal. On each of their faces were sparkly masquerade-style masks; on each of their backs were wings.

The announcer commented in a droning, professional tone. "These four girls, collectively calling themselves the Heart Holders, have taken Australia… and the rest of the world… by storm. In the style of most superheroes, they choose to remain anonymous as they do their work for good. However, can that last for long in today's curious and technologically driven world?"

It cut to a video of one of the girls. Red hair fell in soft waves over her pale skin and down to her waist, and under her intricate silver mask, dark blue eyes shimmered. The bottom of the screen identified her as Ocean Heart. "I believe we'll be forced to reveal ourselves someday, but for now it isn't practical! I hope that changes! I really want to share my hopes and dreams with all of you someday!"

"Whoa," said Roxy. "She's like a JPop idol! I didn't realize people like that even existed."

The video shifted to another girl, identified as Void Heart. She had black hair and seemed to be Asian, though her Phantom of the Opera-esque mask hid a good portion of her face. She scoffed, her arms crossed. "I like my privacy, and I'm entitled to it. I'm just a kid. Are you even supposed to be talking to me? Is this legal? I'm going to call my lawy-" She was abruptly cut off.

Next up was a tan girl with strawberry-blonde hair, cut into a cute short style and gelled all over so it spiked up in an unpredictable way. She was named as Fire Heart. "Look, here's the thing. You've got me in a position where I have to talk to the world about my privacy? Isn't that a little… weird?"

Finally, the last girl was shown, a tall young woman with medium brown skin and dark hair, who the bottom of the screen called Mindful Heart. She was laughing, softly. "We're all different people, people who happen to be teammates. You aren't going to get one answer, you know."

Next to Avi and Roxy, Saf froze up. The two girls looked to her. "Are you okay?" asked Avi. "Do we need to get Lysis?"

"I'm fine," Saf whispered. "It's just… it's just…"

"Just what?"

"I know her," said Saf as she stared at the girl on television with a look that could only be described as shock.

As soon as the girls had found a relatively private place and chased off the last of the paparazzi, they detransformed, letting the sparkles of their superhero identities fade into normal schoolgirl clothing. "Way to ham it up, Adaline," commented the one formerly known as Fire Heart to her redheaded best friend. "You sounded like an advertisement for pep pills."

Adaline didn't seem perturbed in the least. "Oh, you know I like the limelight, Ildri," she responded cheerfully. "You could do to be a little more enthusiastic, anyway."

Ildri snorted and pulled a brush from a large pocket, then proceeded to brush out some of her hair gel… she'd be damned if she would let her distinct hair give her away. "I was fine. Evanne on the other hand…"

"Hey!" protested Evanne Li with narrowed eyes, flipping her dark hair back. "I refuse to let the media chase me around, so I become the buzzkill?"

"You said the word buzzkill, not me." Ildri's eyes sparkled as she tried to stifle a laugh.

"Girls!"

Ildri, Evanne, and Adaline looked to the speaker, their leader. Known to the media only as Mindful Heart, the girl had a mature yet youthful air to her. Despite that, her friends knew that she could be… and usually was… like any other teenage girl, complete with overly controlling parents, and the occasional attitude problem. Despite that, they looked up to the founder of the Heart Holders. Sassy like Ildri, intelligent like Evanne, and a quintessential fashionista like Adaline, she was the only one that could hold the Heart Holders together. Her name was Zoe Barton.

"Look, I don't like my privacy being violated any more than the next girl. In fact, I barely even like people at all." Ildri snickered at Zoe's words. "The fact is, however, that as long as we use these powers, we're going to be in the public eye, and we are each allowed to deal with that the way we want to. Evanne can scare the media off, Adaline can bask in it, Ildri can do… whatever it was she was doing…"

"Hey!" protested the girl as she combed the last of the gel out.

"The only thing we must remember is that nobody should know who we are yet," Zoe continued, not acknowledging her friend's outburst. "I feel like that's very, very important. I feel like our worst dangers are yet to come."

"So wait, Mindful Heart is your cousin?" Amanda said in shock.

Saf nodded. "My mother was her sister. We haven't seen each other in over ten years, but that must be her. I can't imagine there are many multiethnic girls who look a lot like my family in Australia."

Cell phone out and displaying a picture of Mindful Heart, Avi held it up to Saf's face. "You two do have the same eyes, and the same hair color. Her skin's a lot lighter, though, and her nose is shaped differently. Definitely could be related, but at the same time, if she isn't I wouldn't be surprised either."

"That's the thing about cousins, it's always so hard to tell," Leilani agreed. "Is it worth doing anything? Is there anything we can do? We should probably tell Lysis and Bloom, at least. If the Heart Holders are on television, it's only a matter of when the Apprentices decide to go after them."

Avi frowned. "Except one thing… so far, the Apprentices have targeted fairies who haven't discovered their powers or aren't very good with them. Me, and Marea, and Katt!"

"Marea was a special case, though!" Light protested.

"True, but the point stands. So far, all the relatively trained fairies haven't been targeted unless they attacked or confronted the Apprentices first!"

Silence fell over the group. "I never would have expected that revelation from Avi of all people, but she's right," Leilani agreed. "In addition, there was some targeting of me, and I don't have powers. Could it be that they're scared?"

"But they could defeat us easily," Roxy noted bitterly. "Why be scared?"

"They could be scared of assumptions. Scared of what you could say to turn fairies to your side." Everyone looked at Katt, the speaker. "They're recruiting. You're recruiting. It's not worth it to them to try and change someone's mind. They just want to find people who haven't yet had the choice of fairies, who have only been exposed to the wizards. One problem with their plan, though. The travel team's too quick and always manages to foil their recruitment, so far at least."

"That'd be another reason the Heart Holders are safe. They've already made a decision as to their alignment. It just isn't a reason we thought would exist. They made their own faction." Leilani shook her head disbelievingly. "Of course it would happen! We should have prepared for it."

"So, what are you guys gonna do?" asked Macy. She stood next to Leilani and grasped the older girl's arm for comfort.

Leilani was firm. "Tell the adults."

Everyone looked to Saf, who seemed hesitant. Eventually, however, she spoke, her estuary accent ringing out in the silence. "I'm going to visit her and make sure that it's Zoe and not someone random. We'll go from there."

Saf Hafeij thought that getting to Australia would be the difficult part. She was hoping it would be, hoping it would put her off of this mission. She didn't want to go. She didn't want to face her past, this long lost family she hadn't spoken to or visited since the death of her mother back when she was nine. She didn't want to explain that she couldn't talk to them, that it was too much of a reminder, that every time she looked at her aunt Khadijah she couldn't help but cry.

If she had to do it… and it seemed more and more likely that she had to… it was going to be on her terms. She didn't want Lysis to see her this upset. She didn't want anyone to see her this upset, but neither did she intend to go alone and end up dead. Besides, it turned out there was no way to go alone. It would be a 30 hour wing flight nonstop, something no fairy could handle.

"I have a solution!" Light said with a grin when Saf brought up her concern. The Solarian fairy was always up for mischief, and a forbidden mission was exactly her thing. "My Solarian charm!"

"I thought you couldn't use that to teleport other people?" asked Roxy.

Light shook her head. "I can't teleport more than like, three others besides myself, and someone has to know where we're going. Obviously with a group of five and no clue as to where we were headed, the Marea Rescue Mission was impossible. This, however, isn't. Saf, just pick who you want to go with you, and we're all set."

"Of course it'll be the travel team!" Avi said, fistpumping as she did.

Saf, however, shook her head. "That will look suspicious. Really suspicious. We aren't doing anything really wrong, but I don't want anyone to go after us all the same. I'm going to vary it a little."

Avi looked disappointed, but shrugged. "Your choice."

Roxy put an arm around her friend. "Cheer up! This likely isn't a beat 'em up mission anyway."

"Cheer up because I'm taking you," Saf corrected. "You're my best friend, it won't look too suspicious. Roxy's the one I'm leaving."

Avi brightened. Roxy's face fell. "Oh," said the fairy of animals sourly.

"Me because she's my cousin. Avi because she's my best friend, and because someone has to defend us if things go wrong. Light because she's transportation, and… and Leilani, will you come?"

"What?" Leilani looked shocked. She had one hand over her heart, eyes wide. "Me? But I… I don't have magic!"

"You have a voice of reason, and if Light's transporting us, there's no need for magic. Besides, nobody would dare suspect us of trouble while you're around," Saf reasoned.

Leilani nodded mutely, clearly pleased.

"Ready to go then?" asked Light. She was almost jumping up and down excitedly.

Saf shook her head. "No, if we're to do this, we're to do this the honest way."

Light looked considerably less excited, but listened to Saf's explanation.

"Headmistress Bloom?"

Bloom looked up from the papers she was reading to see Safeyah Hafeij, Light de Luz, Leilani Castro, and Avalon Masterson standing at the door to her office. She blinked. It was an odd combination of girls. Seeing Saf and Avi together wasn't uncommon, nor was seeing Saf and Leilani. Light generally only hung out with Marea and Amanda, however, and if Saf was anywhere near her fellow "good girl" Leilani, Avi was off with Roxy. "Yes?" she asked curiously.

"I hate to bother you, but I was wondering if I could go visit my aunt and uncle over the weekend. I'll be back by Monday," Saf asked, looking anxious.

"Are the rest of you going with her?" asked Bloom.

"I need Light to transport us, Leilani's the adult chaperone, and Avi is my best friend," Saf explained.

It seemed reasonable enough. Still, Bloom had enough intuition to be worried. "Where will you be off to?"

"Sydney, Australia. I know it's a ways away, but we'll be careful, I promise!"

Bloom bit her lip. "You may go, on one condition."

"What's that?"

"A tracking spell. If you go anywhere outside of Sydney, I'll know. Don't step foot outside the city until you're back here. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," said all four girls in perfect unison.

Bloom waved her hand. "Alright, the spell is done. Have a good weekend, and I'll see you on Monday!"

"See you!" the girls agreed, then Light took her necklace off and handed it to Saf. "Focus on the location… do you have it… okay! Here we go!"

Then, they were gone, leaving Bloom to wonder whether or not she had made a good decision.

"Here's the Hotel Barton, ladies. That'll be seventy-six sixty-three."

Saf handed the driver her credit card and he slipped the chip into the chip reader before handing it back. "Have a nice stay in Sydney, ladies," he added as the four girls got out of the vehicle.

"I'm lucky I had my card in my pocket," Saf said. "I forgot all other means of packing."

Light shrugged. "No worries. We can just summon anything we need to us."

"Or," suggested Avi, "we could have you do it for us, considering Leilani can't do it at all and Saf and I don't know how."

Not packing did seem to have disadvantages. The doorman at the super-fancy hotel looked at the girls with suspicion, but allowed them to pass anyway. "So tell me, Saf," Leilani asked. "Why are we at a five star hotel when we could just crowd into a thirty dollar a night motel and be fine? I know you and Avi are from decently well-off families, but still…"

"You're right, my family is decently well off. My aunt and uncle own this hotel," Saf admitted. "I don't know if we're staying here, but I do hope we can locate them."

The girls stared at Saf, then back to the large foyer they found themselves in. A modern crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and its reflection danced on the reflective floor. Black-colored baggage carts shifted across the large room, moved by pristine uniformed bellboys. A large and intricate oaken front desk greeted them and partially obscured views of a large fountain, while archways led into different rooms that seemed to include small stores, an indoor water park, and a restaurant and bar. "Whoa," breathed Leilani. "I feel very out of my element."

"You aren't the only one," Avi agreed. Her family wasn't poor by any means, but neither were they the type to stay in top of the line hotels.

Light shrugged. "Very fancy by Earth standards. Impressive, even. Solaria does it better, though."

Saf seemed mostly at ease, a contrast to her three friends. She walked up to the front desk. "Pardon me, are Julian and Khadijah Barton in?"

The woman who manned the hotel check-ins looked at her suspiciously. "Excuse me, do you have an appointment?" she asked in a tone that said she doubted it.

Smiling winningly, Saf responded, "I'm afraid I don't, but I'm the daughter of Khadijah's late sister Kalila. My name is Safeyah Hafeij. I decided to drop in to surprise them, but I didn't seem to remember that this might not be the best idea. I'm happy to verify my identity in any way possible."

The woman narrowed her eyes, but picked up a phone and began to dial. After a few beats, someone picked up on the other line. "Yes, Madam Barton, this is Avery Alexander at the front desk. You have a visitor who claims to be your niece… Safeyah Hafeij, about fourteen or fifteen years old? Oh!" Avery from the front desk looked surprised. "Yes, of course. I'll get her settled immediately. Yes. Thank you."

Avery hung up the phone, eyes wide. "Madam Barton will be down momentarily. May I get you young ladies anything?"

"No thank you. You've been an enormous help." Saf gave another grin. The rest of the girls tried to follow suit.

They sat down on a comfy modern sofa next to a transparent elevator, though may as well have not have at all. Within only a couple of minutes, a woman who must have been middle-aged but seemed infinitely more youthful was running over to meet them. "Safeyah, dear!" she cried in heavily-accented English. "How long has it been?"

"Ten years, Khala," Saf responded with a smile, though it seemed forced.

"Not since before your mother… my dear Kalila…"

Saf looked away. "I'm sorry I've not called or written."

Khadijah gave her niece a tight squeeze. "It's understandable. It must be hard for you to even see me." She looked to the three other girls. "We were twins," she explained. "Dear Safeyah's mother and I. Now, tell me, are you her friends?"

"Khala, these are my schoolmates Avi Masterson, Leilani Castro, and Light de Luz. We attend the Royal Academy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania together." Avi, Leilani, and Light noted Saf's deliberate nonusage of the word "fairy."

"A boarding school?" guessed Khadijah. Saf nodded. "Oh, how refined! We considered sending Zoe off to one, but she was so strong-willed and insistent that she would hate it, and now she's eighteen. Whatever are you learning there?"

Saf's three classmates looked at each other, wondering how their friend would respond, but Saf didn't seem to hiccup. "All of our normal academic subjects, self-defense, and various other specialized classes. I believe Leilani's even taking an etiquette class, correct?" Leilani nodded… she really was. "It's a very prestigious school, hard to get into. I'm quite surprised I did."

"Is there royalty?" Khadijah seemed entranced by the idea.

"There are a couple princesses of… well, more obscure places. Light here is nobility." Light beamed, glad to have her status recognized. "It's not all like that, however. Avi's mother is a doctor and her father is a businessman." Saf skirted around the fact that Mr. Masterson's small business was a car repair shop. "Leilani is one of the brightest minds I know. Neither are exactly royalty, but both bring much to the school."

"Oh, if Zoe weren't nearly grown… maybe when Sandra's a little older!" Khadijah seemed to enjoy the idea. "Do give me the information of the school before you leave, won't you, dear?" Saf smiled, but did not answer. Her aunt seemed not to notice, rushing into a new conversation. "Do you ladies have a place to stay yet?"

"No, we don't. We're planning to get a place in one of those older chain hotels we saw near the airport…"

Avi and Light's jaws dropped. They hadn't been to the airport, and they certainly weren't planning to stay there when Saf's family…

Waving her arms, Khadijah cut her niece off. "No, you'll stay here. Are two rooms enough, or would you each need your own?"

"One room would be fine, Khala!"

"I insist." The older woman was firm, and she hugged Saf again, then drew back and seemed to grow stern. "I have but three conditions."

"Yes?"

"You are staying over the weekend? I assume it's a long weekend, then, and you are returning Sunday night?"

"Yes."

"Alright. You and your friends must all come to dinner tonight. Tomorrow, just you, just our family. And finally… you must spend time with your cousin Zoe. What a treat for her, to have a cousin close to her age, and perhaps you can convince her to listen to her parents and go to a good school with princesses and intellectuals, instead of those concerts she keeps wishing to attend with… oh, what are their names… Ricki? Brianna? Justine Baby? Whomever youths like now. Do you promise?"

The four girls grinned. It was everything they could want. "Yes," Saf said with a smile. "I promise."

"Oh my gosh! This is wonderful!" Light flopped onto one of the queen-sized beds. It immediately molded to suit her body. "Gosh, is this memory foam? I saw that on television… mmmm, we have to get this in the Solarian palaces…"

"So much for 'Earth's just okay,' Light, huh?" joked Leilani. She was sitting almost uncomfortably on the other bed in the room. "It's so big. No wonder Saf wanted us to stay in one room."

"According to her, the Hotel Barton also have suites that are like small apartments, but they were all booked. Can you imagine what they must be like compared to this?"

"That television must be as big as the ones in theaters."

"Point out the one thing that Solaria can do better, huh? That's such primitive technology."

Leilani almost laughed, then her mood abruptly shifted. "This is so amazing. I could never afford to go anyplace at all when I was a kid, let alone a place like this. If we had to travel, we always stayed in a Motel Six or something similar. Once, we managed to get a bargain at a historic hotel in Chicago, but only because there had recently been rats found. They cleared them out, but the reputation took a hit…" She paused. "Look at me now. I'm a poor college student, and I'm hanging out with princesses and nobility! I'm staying in a five star hotel right now! I've got a full ride at a residential school! When did my life become a fairy tale?"

"The moment you began to believe in fairies," Light said with a smile.

Leilani laughed sharply. "That's so cliché."

A knock on their door caused both girls to look up. After a second, Light looked out the peephole, then smiled and opened the door. Saf and Avi stood there, and Avi did not look pleased. "May we come in?" asked Saf politely.

Light moved away to allow them to come through. Even with four girls, the room still seemed huge. "What's up, Saf?"

"My aunt sent a request for us to meet them at the Restaurant Barton… it's attached to the hotel, I don't know if you saw it when we came in or not. However, it's a more formal restaurant… well, technically, it's considered casual elegant. Aunt Khadijah assured me that no one would bother us if we came in with our usual clothing, but that's only due to their ownership of the premises. I'd prefer that we not stand out too much if I can help it."

Light's eyes lit up. "Oh, I think I see what you're getting at. Everyone, back up."

Everyone looked worried, Saf included… she definitely didn't seem like this is what she had in mind. Light waved her hands around daintily. "Lightspeed Redress!" she exclaimed, and just as Avi took one last giant step back, a wardrobe appeared in the middle of the room. As the three other girls stared in awe and a small amount of abject horror, Light opened the wardrobe cheerily. "Just as I hoped, all my best clothes are still in here! Alright everyone, tell me your sizes."

"First," Saf said shakily, "tell me that you can get that thing out of here when we're finished."

They arrived at dinner right on time, each looking like royalty. The wardrobe that Light had summoned was special, existing in an alternate dimension, so though it was normally in her room in Solaria, it possessed the ability to come to Earth and back despite the barrier. "Could a fairy hop inside it as it teleports?" asked Leilani, hoping to find a way to overcome the problem.

Light shook her head. "Nope. There's some complicated physics to it, but basically the very existence of this wardrobe or any outfits inside are just illusions made out of magic and sunlight!"

For a while after that, the three Earthlings were understandably reluctant to wear the clothing to dinner. Eventually, however, they agreed to it.

Saf fingered the lace that capped off the sleeves of her white turtleneck. "Light, how is it that you and Princess Stella of Solaria are only casual acquaintances and not best friends?"

"Well, when the princess was in the market for best friends, I was only ten years old." Light grinned. "She and I've got a lot in common, but she's seven years older than me." The lady spun around as she finished her explanation, showing off a short, asymmetrical yellow dress.

Next to her, Avi fidgeted in her suit, distinguished from one a man would wear only by the princess cut of the shirt, and Leilani blushed in her simple floor length seafoam green dress. "I feel like royalty," she whispered to the fairy of mechanics.

"Good for you," Avi said sourly. "I feel like a very reluctant mannequin."

A maître d walked up to them. "Mistresses Hafeij, Masterson, de Luz, and Castro?"

Saf nodded, and he led them to a large table where Khadijah already waited along with a pale and middle-aged man and three others, who were obviously their children. One looked to be older than Light, Avi, and Saf, though perhaps a little bit younger than Leilani. The other two were twins, a boy and a girl, who looked to be preteens. As the four girls sat down, the male twin's eyes widened. "Which one of you is our cousin?"

"I am," said Saf. "And you're Michael! I haven't seen you since you were two."

"Have I grown?"

The girl twin stuck her tongue out at him. "What a dumb question. Of course you've grown."

"Sandra, Michael, behave," said their father absentmindedly. "We have guests."

"Lots of 'em, we own a hotel after all!" Michael said cheerily. His father sighed, a weary expression on his face.

Saf smiled. "It's good to see you, Uncle Julian. You haven't aged a day."

Julian cracked his own smile in return. "That's a lie. The twins have taken at least twenty years out of me… each. Still, the time has flown, so I suppose I can accept what you say. Now you, on the other hand, look much more grown up. You're… sixteen now?"

"Almost seventeen."

"A year and a half younger than Zoe, that's right. What are you doing?"

"I'm at a special academy for high school and college students. These friends are my classmates there." Saf introduced them another time for the benefit of her uncle and cousins.

Khadijah glowed with excitement. "You didn't mention it was a college as well! Oh, Zoe, you have to hear about this school! The students include princesses and nobility, not to mention all manner of other students. It's everything a young woman could dream of."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. She was pretty in a simple short black dress, but her face didn't seem to have much emotion. Saf could only barely remember playing with her when they were kids. She thought to the laughing and smiling Zoe, then to the determined and brave expression of Mindful Heart, and wasn't sure that she could imagine this Zoe making the same expressions. Was I wrong? she wondered. "Where is this school?" Zoe asked. "Morocco? Italy?"

"The USA. Pennsylvania."

Zoe looked back to her mother. "Pennsylvania. Yes, that sure does sound fancy."

Julian frowned. "Zoe," he warned.

"It's fine," said Saf, smiling as she tried to shift the conversation away from dangerous waters. "Why don't we talk about something else?"

"Yes, why don't we?" Julian agreed. "Saf, how is Rashid?"

"Rashid?" Avi asked.

The Bartons looked amused. "My older brother," Saf explained. "You never met him because he's away at school himself. He's doing fine. I hear he's considering getting engaged, but I haven't met the lucky bride yet. Do you talk to him often?"

The conversation went on throughout the soup course of the meal. Saf was pleasantly surprised at two things. First, that her relatives were relatively understanding that she hadn't spoken to them since her mother's death. Second, that even Avi and Leilani, who had not been raised in an environment that taught fine dining etiquette, seemed to be doing fine.

In fact, when a major breach of manners occurred, it was not the fault of any of the Royal Fairy Academy students.

A small beeping alerted the table that someone was getting a text message, and when Zoe pulled out her phone, she was not at all sheepish. She checked it, then began to rise from the table. A waiter quickly rushed over and pulled her chair out for her. "I have to go," she said Zoe.

"You'll do no such thing. We're catching up as a family. You haven't seen Safeyah in years, you can surely afford her a little bit of time," said Khadijah sternly.

"I'm sick," Zoe said. Her voice was flat, and she was clearly lying. "Thank you for the concern, mother. I'll see you at home."

Before anyone could stop her, she was halfway across the restaurant. Julian sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see that. As you may have picked up, our Zoe is having a bit of a rebellious streak. Sneaking out to concerts, leaving dinner unfinished, not taking the slightest bit of care where she goes. She doesn't seem to understand that she isn't just Zoe, she's Zoe Barton. This hotel is successful, and we're not poor. I keep fearing someone will take advantage of her."

The four teens glanced at each other. "How long has this been going on?" Saf asked.

"A few weeks now."

That put the events in a proper timeframe for Zoe to have discovered she had magic. Again, the girls looked at each other, this time seeming to communicate mentally. By some silent agreement, Avi took that moment to look down at her nearly-empty bowl of very delicious cream of mushroom soup. "Ughhh," she groaned dramatically. "Did this have mushrooms in it?"

Julian and Khadijah looked at each other. "Well, yes," Julian said, sounding confused.

"I just realized… I'm allergic to mushrooms…"

Saf had to force herself not to laugh. Julian, on the other hand, looked concerned. "Do we need to call a paramedic?"

"No, no," Avi assured. "I just… um, I just sneeze a lot. Big, gross, snotty sneezes. Sanitation issue. I'm going to go up to my room before that starts. Thanks for dinner, sorry for the mental imagery."

Light gracefully rose from the table, allowing the waiter to move her chair out of the way. "I'll go look after her. The rest of you, please enjoy your meal, and give my apologies to the chef. I'm so sorry to miss it."

They were in Light's hotel room before they burst out laughing. "Snotty sneezes?" wheezed Light. "I should be mortified, but the fact that you actually used that as an excuse…"

"The look on the waiter's face! You could tell he overheard!"

After a moment, the two of them grew a little more solemn. "We need to find Zoe. If we can confirm she's a fairy, then all we have to do later is confront her, and we can do that basically any time we're here." Light put a hand on one hip. "Easy as finding sunlight in a clear sky."

Avi nodded. "Let's get going, then?"

Light grinned.

Two twin flashes of light were all it took for two girls to become two fairies. They opened the window into the dark Sydney night. Then, they were off.

AN: This is officially the longest FoF chapter I have ever put out, and y'all better feel grateful for it! Hahaha, just kidding, I really enjoyed working on this one. It's just the kind of thing you would never see in the original story, so writing it was a ton of fun.

Speaking of the original story, did you know Fly or Fall has two birthdays, and they're both coming up? February 6 will be the concept's fourth birthday, and February 17 is the rewrite's one year. So this chapter's cool review question is what cool idea would you like to see for the Fly or Fall anniversary dates? No promise anything is doable, but I'd love to find a way to celebrate (also, getting to 100 reviews would be a great present, so tell your friends!).

Now, credit time for the four new lovely fairies who showed up! Ildri belongs to rogue-scholar07, Adaline to Roxy Fan 4 Ever, Evanne to baby5oh, and Zoe to Akela Victoire. I hope you love them all and can't wait to see more of them! I have special plans for the Heart Holders in store!

Thanks again for reading!