“Worked out?” Brystal was appalled by Lucy’s choice of words. “You can’t be serious!”
“Of course I am! The crowd loved it!” Lucy said. “We gave them a spectacle they’ll never forget and a reason to love magic forever!”
“You almost killed us and destroyed an entire city!”
“Yes, but then I saved you!”
“From a situation you caused! That doesn’t make you a hero!”
“I told you, I never meant to destroy the dam. Honestly, I didn’t know what my magic was going to do; I just wanted to give the Western Kingdom a show. If you had just listened to me, none of it would have happened!”
The notion infuriated Brystal. She paused halfway up the floating steps and turned to Lucy with a nasty scowl.
“Don’t you dare blame this on me!” Brystal said. “You put thousands of people in danger! You nearly destroyed one of the biggest cities in the world! You almost ruined the magical community’s relationship with mankind! And until that sinks in, I’m sorry, Lucy, but you’re out of the Fairy Council!”
Lucy was so stunned her jaw nearly hit the floor.
“What?! You can’t kick me out of the Fairy Council!”
Brystal wasn’t certain she could either. Until now, the council had never needed a protocol for bad behavior.
“Well… I just did,” Brystal said with a confident nod. “You are hereby stripped of all council privileges until you’re mature enough to take responsibility for your actions. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have business to attend to.”
Brystal left Lucy in a frozen state of shock on the floating steps and headed to her office on the second floor. She pushed through the heavy double doors and sighed with relief at the sight of an empty room.
The office was a circular and spacious chamber with bookshelves, potion cabinets, and glass furniture. It had floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a breathtaking view of the academy grounds and the sparkling ocean beyond it. Fluffy white clouds drifted through the high ceiling, and bubbles emitted from the fireplace and floated through the air.
The chamber was filled with unique objects that Brystal and her predecessor, Madame Weatherberry, had collected over the years. On the wall above the fireplace was an enlarged Map of Magic. The map was covered in thousands of twinkling lights, one for every living witch and fairy on earth. The lights showed where they were located throughout the four kingdoms and six territories.
In the back of the office, beside Brystal’s glass desk, was a very special globe that showed her what the world looked like from space. It allowed Brystal to monitor hurricanes as they blew across the seas and thunderstorms as they swept across the land, but most important of all, Brystal used the globe to keep an eye on the northern lights twinkling above the Northern Mountains.
“Thank goodness,” she whispered to herself. “You’re still there.”
Brystal was relieved to see the northern lights hadn’t moved while she was away. She never told anyone why the lights were so important, but then again, no one ever noticed how frequently she checked on them throughout the day. It was the first thing she did in the morning and the last thing she did at night, and on the days the Fairy Council traveled, Brystal always inspected the globe before and after their trips.
The lights meant Brystal could put her mind at ease, at least, about one thing. The day had provided her with plenty of other concerns—and the day wasn’t over yet.
“You’re making a huge mistake!” Lucy declared as she burst into the office.
For a split second, Brystal was tempted to remove Lucy with magic, but she figured it wouldn’t help matters.
“And why is that?”
“Because losing a member of the band always ends in disaster!” Lucy explained. “The same thing happened with the Goblin Tenors! A few years ago, one of the goblins was kicked out of the group for eating their fans. But the decision backfired! Without a fourth member, people felt like something was missing from their show, and everyone stopped going to their performances!”
“Or maybe they stopped showing up because people were getting eaten!”
Lucy paused for a moment—she had never thought of that before—but she quickly waved it off and went back to her point.
“Look, I understand I messed up and deserve a punishment, but you shouldn’t put the Fairy Council at risk just to teach me a lesson,” she said. “Everyone knows there are six of us—and that’s what people expect to see! If only five of us show up to our events, people will be disappointed. And just like I said at the Western Dam, if we disappoint people, they’ll start to resent us, and soon, they’ll start hating everyone in the magical community!”
“Lucy, I sincerely doubt the fate of the magical community depends on your attendance.”
“Not at first, but it will!” Lucy insisted. “Right now, the Fairy Council is the hottest ticket in town—but the hotter the ticket, the quicker it can fizzle out. I’ve seen it happen so many times I’ve lost count. When performers get too big too fast, they start making mistakes. They get comfortable and stop putting in the work to please people. Corners get cut, promises get broken, and audiences get taken for granted. And just when performers think they’re unstoppable—wham!—the audience ditches them for an act that does meet their expectations!”
“Lucy, this isn’t show business!”
“Everything is show business! Why don’t you see that?”
Brystal took a deep breath and slid into the chair behind her glass desk.
“I’m not trying to upset you, I’m just looking out for us,” Lucy said. “The magical community is safe because people love the Fairy Council, and if we want to keep the public on our side, we can’t risk upsetting them. Giving people what they want, when they want it, is the best way to ensure our survival.”
She’s right you know.…
Once again, the thought came out of nowhere, startling Brystal.
You’ll never own mankind’s approval.…
You’ll have to earn it over and over again, until the end of time.…
Brystal heard the thoughts so clearly she had to remind herself they were only in her mind.
They may treat you like a savior, but in truth, you’re nothing but a slave…
A jester in mankind’s court…
A clown in their circus.
Brystal was disturbed by what the thoughts implied. She tried to concentrate on where the thoughts were coming from, but each one entered and left her mind so quickly, she couldn’t trace them to a logical train of thought. It was like someone else was dropping the ideas into her head and then running away.
“I can tell I’m making you think,” Lucy said. “I don’t consider myself an expert in many fields, but for once, I definitely know what I’m talking about. It doesn’t matter how much compassion and charity we give people, they won’t be satisfied unless we entertain them in the process. And luckily, I’m the perfect person to help us do that.”
She doesn’t want to help you.…
She only wants to help herself.…
She’d betray you for an ounce of attention.…