After Max successfully escaped the guards, he quickly improvised a plan to destroy the original orb he had stolen before he had encountered Elina.

Currently, he had hidden himself behind some crystal trees in the royal garden and used two sticks like a hammer to finally break the orb.

He did it exactly the way his mistress had told him to do. After one final blow, the little orb cracked open and disappeared.

Happy that he had finally completed the mission Laverna gave him, he decided to return to the secret cave where Rexy waited for him. But before he could do so...

There were voices coming closer to him. Quickly, he hid behind some bushes as he watched two fairies enter the garden.

A few minutes earlier...

Elina had been deep in thought about what Max had told her. She hated to admit it—but what he said was true. She could feel it in the depths of her heart. And there was something else that had captured her thoughts again. She had noticed a few blue drops on her left arm. But it felt like something warm was emerging from the drops and healing her body from the inside.

She felt that this power had originally belonged to someone else—but to whom? And why had this person decided to strengthen her... and not the queen?

But the light blonde fairy was too tired to think about that now. To go to sleep in her room was the best thing she could do—for now. Just as she was about to reach for the door handle, a large heavy hand gripped her from behind.

The young fairy panicked but couldn't move for a few seconds.

Something was trying to pull her away, digging its claws into her flesh. "Follow me..." she could hear a strange voice in her head.

"Never," replied the tired fairy in her thoughts, and she used all the strength left in her body to free herself.

Immediately, the thing let her go, and it felt like a weight had left her shoulders...

"Elina, are you all right?" asked Bibble, confused, not understanding what had just happened, since he and Elina were alone in the corridor.

The frightened and extremely tired fairy calmed down after realizing that they were alone in the corridor. She hugged Bibble tightly and decided to proceed to open the door. Normally, she would take heed of a warning like this, but since she couldn't hold her eyes open any longer, all her body could do was find a place to rest for a bit. She surely wouldn't sleep after this... but she could sit down and rest a bit.

Suddenly, there was another grip on her shoulder, but this time Elina jumped in shock.

The grip on her shoulder disappeared as quickly as it came. This shock made her tiredness disappear for a moment.

Now, Elina was too frightened to turn around, fearing what had grabbed her this time.

If she had turned around, she would have seen that the person behind her moved back in shock, almost as if someone else was expected.

But Elina couldn't know this. She didn't want to face the person behind her. The young fairy had to admit that it had surprised her that the person didn't turn her around by force like the first hand had tried.

Suddenly, the hand grabbed her again, this time pulling her quickly away.

"Be careful..." sounded a soft voice behind her.

Elina looked down to notice that some kind of liquid was floating out from her room.

If the person hadn't pulled her away in time, she surely would have stepped into the strange-looking violet substance. Elina was shocked. How was it possible for this strange liquid to flow out under her door?

Quickly, she turned around to face the one who had saved her, only to look into the beautiful, shiny eyes of the enchantress.

"Why are you shaking, child?"

Oddly enough, it sounded more like a description than a question—and was there a hint of malice in her eyes? This was odd... It sounded almost like the enchantress was disappointed about something.

No, the enchantress was good—she had to be good. Elina tried to shake this weird and uncomfortable feeling out of her head.

You can't trust her...

Suddenly, a strange but familiar feeling—almost like a voice—echoed in her head, but Elina knew somehow it was true. And it felt so familiar, almost like... Could it be? No... She hoped she was wrong.

"I..."

What should she reply to this? She didn't want to talk about the claws that had pulled her the first time. Or had it been a nightmare? For Elina, the silence between the two may have felt like hours, but only seconds had passed.

The enchantress eyed her and motioned for her to follow.

"I'm sorry that I scared you. This was not my intention. I have to admit that I was surprised myself at first. However, there's no need to worry. The cleaning lady must have dropped something... Come, walk with me a bit."

Unknown to Elina, the enchantress motioned for the guards behind her back to come closer.

The guards waited until the two fairies had disappeared around the corner to investigate the strange substance on the ground. They were shocked to find out that this substance was poison. How did it get here... Or who would place it here and what was the use of poisoning a useless wingless fairy?

Out of reflex, Elina had followed the older woman, even though her legs hurt. She was still too weak to do much. But her brain still had enough energy to think normally:

It was strange how the enchantress had mentioned the liquid—the light blonde fairy was no fool... Normal liquid wasn't bubbling that strongly...

"I see you're calmer now," continued the enchantress, to interrupt the young fairy's thoughts.

Elina didn't reply.

"I'm sorry if I startled you at first. I just wanted to talk with you..." the enchantress tried to start a conversation again.

"Unfortunately, we have received news from Flutterfield. The Skeezzes have returned, but they have changed. All the attacks the butterfly fairies have used in the past to defend themselves are now useless. Since I'm still too weak to help..." The enchantress paused, tired. Elina noticed the dark circles under the queen's eyes.

But the enchantress didn't need to finish her request since Elina already knew it. "You want me to save Flutterfield, don't you?"

"Yes," the enchantress now took Elina's hands in hers.

"You are very special, Elina. You are the only one who was capable of defeating Laverna three times. The Skeezzes have changed through a formula that is based on Laverna's—maybe you can find a cure for it."

Elina nodded. "I will try my best."

"Thank you, Elina," smiled the enchantress softly.

Behind the bushes...

"THANK YOU, ELINA," Max imitated the queen's voice with disgust.

Really, how could anyone think this weakling was fit to be Queen?

Then he noticed something and smiled... Suddenly, something sharp hit his head.

In Flutterfield...*

Max and the guards of Flutterfield were scattered around some sleeping Skeezzes.

Lord Gastrus, who still didn't like Max, had only agreed to work with the fungo since his beloved Queen had asked him to.

Silently, Max used hand signs to notify the guards to slowly approach the chained creatures to inject them with the improvised antidote he had created in the palace.

Max ignored Gastrus's evil glares at him and continued with the plan until he noticed his mirror beginning to shine in a dim red light...

Back at Fairytopia...*

The guardians had carefully hidden the black orb behind a secret door under the throne until the enchantress would have enough strength to either destroy or seal it.

Through the throne's ancient protection, this had been the safest option to store the orb.

The guardians didn't know that Max had already switched the orbs just seconds after they had locked it in her "safe" hiding spot.

It was a good thing that Laverna had kept all her keys from the Crystal Castle and had trusted Max enough to hand them over to him.

Now, all the guardians were scattered around the castle to keep an eye on their former pupils, keeping them busy and separating them from one another. Each guardian was preparing something for the upcoming royal ball.

Every year, Fairytopia celebrated their rulers at the beginning of summer. After the Flight of Spring, this had been the second-most important fairy festival.

Because the Enchantress had been ill, the guardians had feared that this festival couldn't be celebrated. But now, since their Queen was recovering, they were happy to continue the preparations.

The pupils of the guardians, however, didn't believe the preparations were the reason they had to help them.

They had realized that the guardians didn't trust them and had now found a successful way to separate all apprentices from each other.

Linden and Sunburst were the only former pupils who had realized that the guardians might know they were searching for the orb.

The two had secretly managed to meet each other in the dining room during their break.

"Have you heard the news?" Sunburst whispered to Linden.

"Azura has left the royal castle…"

"What? What happened?"

"I don't know much, but I overheard a conversation that the enchantress and Azura must have had a terrible fight, which apparently caused her to leave…"

"With the only guardian who cared about Elina gone, now we have no way to visit her… Azura was the only one who allowed us to visit her. I can't understand why they are keeping us away in the first place. Elina has no powers, no wings—someone like that can't be a threat to anyone..." expressed Linden, his frustration clear.

"Calm down, Linden, or the guards may get suspicious. I have a plan for how one of us can visit Elina. This morning, I had a chance to speak with Glee. She told me that…"

"Alert! Fungus is in the castle!" suddenly a soldier's voice rang through the room.

The two didn't have time to finish their conversation but decided to help the guards catch the intruder. After saving Fairytopia from the intruder, they would focus on their plan to save Elina.

Back in the royal garden...*

Just as the enchantress let go of Elina's hands, a handsome male fairy flew toward them. Like the Enchantress, his hair was blonde, but his eyes were a darker blue than the Enchantress's.

The fairy immediately approached them and embraced the queen with the words: "I was so worried about you two."

The Queen gently kissed and soothed him: "We're all right. There is no need to worry." Elina watched the scene in silence, feeling uncomfortable doing so. Who was this?

Then the man in the royal gown let go of his queen and turned to Elina.

"You must be the wingless fairy who saved Fairytopia three times," he spoke in a nice but somehow cold tone.

"She agreed to help. I already asked her," spoke the Enchantress, squeezing his hand.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you?" asked Elina, confused by the scene.

She immediately regretted her question as his cold glare pierced through her.

"I'M FARIOUS, king consort of Fairytopia..."

"He's my husband," interrupted the enchantress, again taking his hand to calm him down.

"I'm sorry... I didn't know..." Elina blushed in embarrassment.

"You don't need to apologize, child... most of Fairytopia doesn't know him... yet."

"You're right, my love," his eyes filled with love and then turned colder as he glared at Elina.

"I apologize for my rude introduction! I was just worried because…"

Suddenly, Tourmaline approached them.

"Your majesties, you need to come quickly… Fungus has been spotted in the castle."

"I know... My guards have spotted them here too," replied the king consort.

The queen looked surprised at him.

"I've had this strange feeling all day... I'm still too weak. Maybe the spell that captured Laverna and her minions has been broken. I need to check it in my crystal..." The three fairies immediately flew into the throne room, leaving Elina behind.

At first, she wanted to follow them, but since there was little strength left in her body, she sat down, looking down at Bibble in her hands.

"What a confusing day, Bibble," Elina sighed. Bibble agreed with a nod. To Bibble, it looked like she was taking a nap, so he decided to wait and let her rest for a bit. Maybe he could bring her some delicious berries or cake!

Suddenly, Elina pressed her eyes together like she was in great pain, mumbling, "No, Mariposa, don't..." This continued for a few seconds until Elina opened her eyes again, looking extremely tired, as though she had just had a fight.

"Elina, are you all right?" asked Bibble, worriedly checking her face with his little hands, trying to wake her up.

"Everything is all right now... I made sure nothing happened to them..." Elina mumbled, using the strength she had left to keep her eyes open.

Now Bibble was really confused and worried about her. Maybe a side effect of saving the Enchantress were hallucinations or fever dreams... but he had to admit things like this had always happened to Elina in her sleep since the first day Bibble had known her. However, this was the first time it had happened during the daytime. This worried the little one but then again he thought:

Maybe the stress of the past few days caused this. So Bibble decided to ignore this for now—the question he had now was more important to him.

"Why didn't you tell the enchantress about your conversation with Max?" asked Bibble curiously.

"I have to admit that I too am curious to know the answer," sounded a male voice.

To Bibble and Elina's shock, Max approached them. The light blonde fairy was too tired to scream or run, but something in the look of Max's eyes told her she didn't need to run from him.

"You could have cried for help, but you didn't do that. Why?"

"I had no reason... It felt like Max tried to warn me," replied Elina tiredly.

Max eyed her suspiciously, not even questioning the fact that she had spoken about him like he wasn't here.

"You know things, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" This question confused Elina.

Max approached her even further. "You can see what can't be seen... Do you have any idea how rare this ability is?"

Elina slightly shook her head.

"Listen..." Max looked around to make sure no one was watching them. "You need to leave this place at once..."

Max's eyes glowed as he extended his hand toward Elina. His tone was gentle, unlike her first conversation with Max that morning.

"I'm loyal to the Enchantress," Elina replied weakly, "and I don't trust minions from the evil Laverna."

"All right, Laverna tends to be... evil. However, unlike her sister, she never lied to you.

She would never have called her minions to manipulate you into using a spell that transfers your life force into her body. Or do you think all the guardians are fully aware of what this spell actually was about? No, most of these fools don't think—they just act on whatever their precious queen tells them to do without questioning."

As Max approached Elina, Bibble got furious and wanted to protect the fairy. However, one sharp glare from Max was enough for the little one to lose all his courage and hide behind Elina.

There was something about this Max—it felt like he somehow had more authority, Bibble figured.

Ignoring what happened, Max continued to walk toward the fairy. Then he gently took Elina's hand and pulled her arm a bit, pointing at the blue drops on her arm.

"So that you know... I'll give you some useful information. What you do with it is your decision: Do you see the dots on your skin? This is fairy essence, which is tied to a high guardian fairy's magic and life force. When a fairy uses it to share this essence with someone else, it is a powerful antidote that can save a fairy's life from the edge of death. It also means that you are connected to the fairy until you are completely healed.

It seems like one of the guardians must have been aware of the true meaning of the spell and felt sorry for you... Hide it and don't let the queen see it unless you wish to see your savior dead."

Elina removed her arm from Max's gentle grip.

She didn't want to admit it, but there was something about this Max, something so familiar that she wanted to believe him.

"Why should I believe anything you've told me?"

"Don't. Find and question your savior."

Before either of them could say another word, guards flew toward them.

"Oh, these stupid guards..." Max whispered and ran away. This time, the guards managed to closely follow him.

They didn't notice Elina at all. Well, sadly, the Max from this morning had been right about something: A wingless fairy really didn't count as much.

Elina sighed as she continued to sit. Bibble flew up from behind her shoulder and hugged her face, as if to tell her that everything would be all right.

Elina gently petted him, not knowing what to believe anymore.

She was taking a break now, too tired to think.

"Elina, you're still out here?" She heard Tourmaline's voice behind her. "It's not safe here. Fungus are here."

"Come..." Tourmaline helped Elina up and led her through a path of the garden. Before they could leave, Elina heard another female voice and turned around.

She saw the enchantress, Farius, and some guards return a few meters behind her. The guards had captured Max and were holding him before the enchantress.

"Now speak, why are you here, fungo?" spoke the king consort. "Did Laverna send you?"

At that, Max could only roll his eyes.

"No," he replied sharply as his eyes locked with those of the Enchantress.

Farius had had enough and wanted to approach Max, but his wife held him back.

"You're not Max... You're Laverna," she stated.

Max turned back into Laverna, while all the other fairies took a step away from her in shock.

Laverna smiled smugly as she replied, "Well, it took you long enough to see through my little illusion."

Elina and Bibble were confused- had they earlier talked with Max or Lavera?

"Stop it," interrupted the queen. "Dear sister, we haven't seen each other for a long time; I've missed you."

"Stop mocking me—the last time you said something like that, you poisoned my drink," stated the Enchantress.

"True… Now that you have captured me, what do you plan to do with me? Banish me? Even though, in your condition, this will be hard..." Laverna eyed her twin.

"How dare you insult the Enchantress?" spoke the king consort angrily.

"That you are keeping up with this idiot for all these years." The dark fairy rolled her eyes in boredom.

This was the last straw for the queen!

"I've had enough of you and your crimes... Not only have you tried to destroy Fairytopia three times, but now you've gone too far by creating a formula that changed Skezzies into monsters..."

A few minutes earlier behind the bushes and trees in the royal garden…*

Max, who had now awoken behind the tree, turned angrily around.

"Rexy, stop hitting my head with your beak! If you're hungry, that's your problem. I fed you two hours ago," he grumbled.

Max silenced himself as he heard voices approaching and decided to watch what was happening. Confused by seeing himself being brought before the Enchantress, he decided to observe the scene together with Rexy (who held his feeding plate in his beak).

"That you even brought this thing here," Max mumbled while Rexy constantly tried to give Max his plate. However, Max always pushed the plate away from him. He hoped that the guards wouldn't spot him here—the only good thing was that Rexy's appearance matched perfectly with their surroundings… if this stupid bird would just stop moving!

"Fine, I'll feed you in 5 minutes if you behave now," Max finally agreed.

Rexy happily nodded in agreement and silently watched together with Max the fairies a few meters away from them. Max really felt uncomfortable watching his lookalike..

However, just to be on the safe side, Max used his mirror to contact a very famous fungo.

"Dr. Fungo Fungarious, I would like to have an appointment soon... I'm seeing myself again."

The famous fungo psychologist sighed on the other side of the mirror before answering: "Is this about your one-sided, very toxic relationship with Laverna?"

„No."

"About Rexy's last play incident?"

Rexy glared at him angrily.

"No, of course not... Rexy is the best firebird a fungo can wish for," replied Max very convincingly.

"Ah, I see Rexy has accompanied you. So you say this is just about lookalikes?"

"Yes."

"Fine... You can come to me in the evening," the psychologist replied.

"Thank you."

Max hung up and continued to watch the scene in front of him while Rexy rolled his eyes. Max could quickly book an appointment, but it was too much for him to feed Rexy right away.

As the second fungo turned into Laverna, Max and Rexy looked at each other confused: Was this still part of Laverna's plan?

The enchantress held an unusually cold gaze as she spoke now:

"In regard to all your crimes, you will be executed after the festival."

Everyone gasped in shock. Tourmaline had flown over to the queen but didn't dare to question the order. The only one who dared to speak up was Elina.

Once she heard the terrible order of Fairytopia's ruler, something inside her heart hurt.

"Please don't do this," she pleaded.

Everyone glared at her as if she had just betrayed Fairytopia.

"You can't use evil to punish evil. Please have mercy, she is your sister," begged Elina.

Laverna watched her and said nothing. Not a single readable expresion was on her face.

"My decision is final. Guards, put her in the dungen... Right after the festival, she will be executed."

The enchantress turned around and left, hiding her tears so no one could see them. Her husband followed her, supporting her since she was too weak to walk alone.

"Trust me, Elina, this is for the best of Fairytopia," tried Tourmaline to soothe Elina. Although she secretly agreed with Elina. With Azura currently gone, she didn't dare argue with the enchantress...

At this moment the last of Elina's strength left her, and she fell unconscious. Then there was just silence…

To be continued…