“Alright. It’ll be done as soon as possible,” said Angelo to his boss over the phone.

  “Wonderful!” said Mr. Ovid. “I’ll be waiting. And remember! Think of your family.”

  With those words Mr. Ovid ended the call. Angelo put his phone back in his pocket and violently ripped a piece of diavo from the rest of the pizza. He wanted to eat in peace and calm, but after the call his anger made it too difficult for him.

  “I hate this bastard!” he shouted in between bites. “He won’t let me rest for a single day.”

  Giovanna felt a bit uneasy. It did seem unfair that Angelo had no rest between his gigs. Then she remembered her morning tarot reading. The middle card was the reversed Wheel of Fortune. Maybe it meant the new gig. It was great bad luck. The st card left undeciphered was the Justice. Maybe it was something about the details of his mission.

  “What is he telling you to do this time?” asked Giovanna.

  “Nothing big luckily,” Angelo said. “Some fairy got kidnapped by some scientist and I have to find them and set them free. You know, the usual.”

  Ursu seemed fairly excited.

  “That should not be too hard for you,” she said.

  Giovanna was carefully analysing the events of that day. Suddenly everything tarot has told her has clicked. The Lovers foretold Angelo’s return to Oftenhides. The reverse Wheel of Fortune was about a new mission immediately after his return. And Justice could mean solving a kidnapping situation.

  “I should have seen all of this!” she reacted to her conclusion.

  Sarah was confused about all of this and simply continued eating pizza in silence.

  “Well, I’ll just do what I have to,” said Angelo. “I’ve heard it’s all going on in Oftenhides. Ursy, Giovy, you can go with me if you’d like to.”

  “Yeah, why not?” said Giovanna. “I’ve waited for your return so I guess that could be one way to spend time together.”

  “I would like to go too,” said Ursu. “I do not want anybody hurting innocent fairies.”

  “Wonderful!” said Angelo. “Mr. Ovid said the customer will meet us in the Archangel Forest tomorrow. For now let’s rex and finish eating.”

  Sarah tried to comprehend what was going on. From what she understood the three were going on a rescue mission. Once again she felt this strange calling. She wanted to go with them. But would she even be useful? She knew a single mantra with no use on such a journey. She wasn’t even able to project her energy. However Sarah decided to at least try asking.

  “Can I join you?” she said to Angelo.

  He had to admit Sarah had surprised him. He would never expect someone he freshly met to want to join him on a mission.

  “Why would you like to?” Angelo asked.

  “My parents never taught me about magic,” Sarah answered. “I want to learn about this whole new world I never knew about. Maybe that’s because I want to remember my parents this way. Or maybe to get over my mourning.”

  Sarah knew it was only half-truth. She did feel exactly how she told Angelo. But she also wanted to simply spend time with Angelo, Giovanna and Ursu. She wanted to bond with them and she wanted them to become her friends. She really wanted to have true friends. But she felt that she shouldn’t admit to that. Maybe because of shame. Maybe because she was afraid that Angelo wouldn’t let her join them on their quest.

  “I see…” said Angelo. “If that’s the case you can join us.”

  “Really?” Sarah said.

  “Yes. I respect how you may feel about your family. I know the death of my family would break me.”

  “Thank you! I’ll do my best,” said Sarah in gratitude.

  Ursu seemed to be thinking about something intensively.

  “If you are joining us…,” she said. “Do you have a Discuss account?”

  “Huh? No,” said Sarah. “I’ve never felt like I need it.”

  “You should create it,” said Ursu. “It would make talking with you so much easier for us.”

  “OK. Can you help me with that?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  Sarah quickly downloaded the app. Ursu helped her fill in all the information. Soon they have reached the nickname request.

  “OK. How would you like to be called on the app?” Ursu asked. “You can use all the characters on your keyboard.

  Sarah thought of the nickname for quite a while.

  “How about… Diamond Shard…”

  Sarah put the nickname in the system, but an error appeared.

  “Taken?” Sarah said.

  “It does happen sometimes,” said Ursu.

  “Nevermind,” said Sarah. “I’ll just add a number or something.”

  Sarah thought about an aesthetically looking number to add and settled on 13. Adding it caused the error again. Sarah changed it to Roman numerals. This time the system let Sarah in.

  “Diamond Shard XIII, huh?” she thought. “I guess it’s a better nickname than none.”

  “Great,” said Ursu. “I will add you to contacts and send you an invite to our group’s server. I am Pearl Clover 4 by the way.”

  “I’ll text you all in the evening,” said Angelo. “Then we’ll discuss what we’ll do. In the meantime let’s finish our pizzas when they’re still warm.”

  “Good idea,” said Giovanna.

  The rest of the meeting was filled with happy conversations. Nobody was thinking about the mission. Everybody simply wanted to enjoy the moment.

  The next afternoon was very windy. Angelo was dressed in a brown cloak, but the girls simply wore warmer clothes with hoods. The Archangel Forest gave some protection against the weather, but it still felt fairly cold. The client was already waiting in the arranged pce although nobody could see them. On one of the tree roots there was a book. A hardcover copy of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Angelo has recognised the book as a fairy camoufge.

  “Wonderful day to pick up some shroomies,” Angelo said the passcode to notify the client of his presence.

  To the surprise of Sarah and Sarah alone the book has moved. The front cover was rising seemingly on its own.Then something came out of the book. It slowly crawled out and jumped on the ground. It was a very small creature. Not rger than a pigeon. On closer look it kind of resembled a human woman. She was wearing a green dress that was a strange choice for the weather. Her small size caused her great difficulties with walking in the wind. Angelo slowly walked towards her. He kneeled and pced his palm on the ground. The creature slowly walked towards it and hopped on.

  “Are you Angelo?” it asked.

  “Yes, that’s me,” Angelo said. “I’ve come to hear more details about your case. And I brought some friends as you can see.”

  Sarah stepped forward to take a better look at Angelo’s client.

  “Is that a fairy? A real fairy?” she said in awe.

  Angelo looked at Sarah. Then at the fairy.

  “Please, excuse her,” he said. “She’s never seen a fairy so she’s excited.”

  “It’s OK,” said the fairy. “We do have a masquerade after all.”

  “Why?” asked Sarah.

  “So your science guys don’t run tests on us.”

  Sarah was a bit shocked hearing such a thing. But after thinking for just a bit she thought it was a valid reason for hiding. But she thought that if their minds are simir to those of a human then they should be fine to disclose themselves. But what could she know? It was the first time she had even seen a fairy.

  Angelo returned to the topic.

  “Let’s get to the point,” he said. “We came here to talk about the kidnapping.”

  “Right! My daughter!” said the fairy.

  “Your daughter?” Angelo couldn’t hide his shock.

  “Yes. She’s the one who was kidnapped.”

  Angelo took a deep breath. How could a fairy’s daughter go missing in the human realm? Let alone get kidnapped?

  “Tell me how this happened from the beginning,” he said. “For starters, how did you end up in the human realm?”

  “Well… I wanted to educate my daughter on resources we can gather from here,” said the fairy. “You have very quality rocks for example.”

  “And I suppose you did not take the necessary precautions.”

  “Unfortunately you are correct.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Someone captured us under a jar and asked for fruits from our realm.”

  Something in that answer did not tingle right for Angelo. He felt that the kidnapper was not just a scientist. Ursu has deduced why that was.

  “Are you saying it was not a scientist but a wizard?” she asked.

  “I think so,” said the fairy.

  “Holy… That’s bad,” said Angelo. “If a wizard kidnapped her there is no way to know what they’ll try to use the fruits for. Not to mention the kidnapped fairy.”

  “We have to find them,” said Giovanna. “There’s no other way to solve this problem.”

  “Did they mention how you are supposed to bring him the ransom?” asked Angelo.

  “He told me to bring them in a book just like the one I hid in,” said the fairy.

  “Where to?”

  The fairy was thinking for a long time trying to remember the location the kidnapper specified.

  “The summit of… a hill,” she said after some time. “I think it’s named Mt. Corvus.”

  Angelo suspected why the kidnapper chose Mt. Corvus. It was the best observation spot in all of Archangel Forest. And it was notoriously difficult to observe.

  “No choice. We have to somehow find a way to spy on Mt. Corvus.” Angelo said to his friends, pcing his client back on the ground.

  “The only way would be to climb on a tree,” said Giovanna.

  “I pass,” said Sarah. “I can only climb stairs.”

  “It’s OK,” said Angelo. “You can go home and I’ll go with the rest on overwatch.”

  Angelo kneeled to his client.

  “Take the book and fill it with blueberries.” he said. “From the human realm. Leave them on Mt. Corvus.”

  “And you’ll take care of the rest?” asked the fairy.

  “Yes. Just one more thing. When did he say he’ll collect the ransom?”

  “He’ll come to the hill every night at five. And I have just a week. So counting from now it will be five days.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll do it just in time.”

  Saying that Angelo turned to his friends.

  “Who wants to help me on overwatch?” he asked.

  “I do,” said Ursu.

  “Count me in too.” said Giovanna.

  “As I said, I have to pass,” said Sarah.

  “Do you still want to help us, Sarah?” asked Angelo.

  “Yes.”

  “Alright. Then all of us shall go home right now. And go to sleep. Giovy, Ursy, let’s meet under Mt. Corvus at four.”

  “Okay!” said the two volunteers.

  “And Sarah! I’ll call you when we know anything.”