“Can I be of any assistance?” asked the receptionist at the Fairy College.
“I’ve come to see Thistle,” said Violet
“Do you have an appointment?” asked the receptionist.
“I am the Head of the Fairy Godmothers,” Violet replied standing up as tall as her 5 foot 3 inches would allow. “I do not need an appointment.”
“I’m sorry, but no one gets to see Thistle without an appointment,” the receptionist replied. “I think I can fit you in in two months time, but only for five minutes,” she added looking up in time to see Violet vanish.
“Violet!” said Thistle, looking rather surprised. “The receptionist didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“She said you were busy, that I couldn’t see you without an appointment and that couldn’t be arranged for at least two months,” Violet replied, looking round the room. Thistle was alone, with a partially consumed cup of tea and sticky bun sitting on the table in front of her, not a single piece of paperwork in sight, nor a laptop or any other sign of work. “You don’t look very busy to me.”
“I don’t answer to you,” snapped Thistle.
“You answer to the same people as me and my department,” replied Violet. “The Fairy Council, in case you have forgotten and they are the one’s I shall go to next unless you have a very good explanation for your behaviour.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” snapped Thistle.
“Then you wont mind talking to the Council,” Violet replied, raising her wand.
“Perhaps we could talk about this,” said Thistle quickly. “We don’t want to waste the council’s time, we all know how busy they are.”
“I’m beginning to think that the council would be the best people to talk to,” said Violet.
“They might be,” said Thistle. “But you aren’t going there. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Why not?” asked Violet.
“I’ve just turned this room into a wand free zone, you can’t whisk yourself out of here and I am not letting you go,” replied Thistle.
“So what do we do now?” Enid asked Myrtle. “I don’t have much baby knowledge to hand on and you don’t want to go shopping.”
“We could go talk to the mirror,” said Myrtle.
“Why?” asked Enid.
“She might have some ideas. At the very least, she might be able to tell us how Violet is getting on with Thistle,” Myrtle replied.
“Thistle, when I first heard the name I thought she’d got the short straw, but then I met her and it sums her up beautifully,” said Enid.
“You don’t like her,” asked Myrtle.
“Instant dislike, the feelings mutual,” smiled Enid.
“Lets go then,” said Myrtle. “I’m having a few misgivings about Violet going there by herself.”
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” said Enid when they stood in front of the mirror.
“Please, don’t say “who is the fairest of them all” I’ve had a spate of that this morning. There was a school tour going round and they all found it ever so funny,” sighed the mirror.
“It’s OK,” Enid replied. “That’s one thing I’m never going to ask you.”
“Why not?” asked the mirror.
“Beauty is over rated,” said Enid. “And the only beauty competition I was ever entered in, I came last.”
“What was it?” asked Myrtle.
“Bouncing baby,” Enid sighed. “And Mother has never let me forget it.”
“What did you come here for?” asked the Mirror, deciding not to pursue the “Bouncing Baby” issue. “I’m assuming you did have a reason for this visit.”
“We were at a bit of a loose end,” said Enid.
“Violet has gone to see the Head of the Fairy College and we were wondering how she was getting on,” said Myrtle.
“Not very well,” said the Mirror, clearing to show them the interior of Thistle’s office.
“What do you think you are doing?” asked Violet, trying to wave her wand, a blue light traced its way round the wand and it turned to dust.
“That isn’t good,” said Enid.
Violet walked to the office door and tried the handle. The same blue light traced its way round the door handle and threw her across the room.
“The same will happen if you try any of the other doors or windows,” said Thistle.
“We’ve got to get her out of there,” said Myrtle, trying her wand. It didn’t work.
“We need to send this image to the Fairy Council,” said Enid.
“No sooner the word than the dead,” said the Mirror.
“Can they do something?” asked Myrtle.
“They can over-ride whatever it is she is using and bring them both to the Council Hall,” Enid replied. “Can I borrow your phone?”
“Of course,” said Myrtle, handing over her phone. “Who do you want to ring?”
“Head of the Council,” said Enid. “I want to tell them what’s happening and what they need to do.”
“You wont get away with this,” said Violet, walking round the room like some caged animal.
“I don’t see why not, I can’t imagine you told anyone where you were going and it will take a few days before anyone notices that you are missing, they’ll probably think that you aren’t in the office because of the update on your computer software,” smiled Thistle. “Then all we have to do is say that we haven’t seen you this year.”
“That would be a lie,” said Violet. “I’ve seen you at least three times in the last week.”
“But our records wont say that,” said Thistle. “And your records will say what we tell them to.”
“What do you mean?” asked Violet.
“Ethel, she’s always been such a computer nut,” said Thistle.
“What did they do to her?” shouted Enid.
“I’m surprise she got out of here knowing the difference between a laptop and a sandwich toaster, let alone all the things she does know,” said Violet.
“We thought it would help with the little job that we had in mind for her,” laughed Thistle.
“Which is?” asked Violet.
“Please sit down,” said Thistle pointing to a chair that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the furnishings.
“Don’t sit down,” shouted Myrtle as she noticed the electric cable leading to the chair leg.
“What was the job?” asked Violet walking over to the window and away from the chair.
“We programmed our little Ethel to put a spying device onto the Fairy Godmothers server. “We know everything that you know,” Thistle laughed.
“Ethel wouldn’t do that,” snapped Violet.
“No knowingly,” said Thistle. “But she doesn’t know what she did and we programmed her not to see any signs of it.”
“All very interesting, but I find it very hard to believe that you have the knowledge to do this,” said Violet, moving away from the window, there was no one in sight.
“I don’t, I think the devices are a waste of time and space, but they have their uses,” Thistle smiled. “And Liam, you know him, King Rufus’s advisor. Liam told us all about it.”
“You wont get away with this,” said Violet, as the walls went out of focus and were replaced by the walls of the Hall of the Fairy Council.
“No, you wont,” said the Head of the Fairy Council.
“This wasn’t supposed to be possible,” shouted Thistle looking around her as the security guards approached.
“I think our tech is better than yours,” smiled the Head of the Fairy Council.
“This is not what it looks like,” said Thistle. “She was threatening me.”
“Sorry, but we all saw what happened and you were threatening Violet and you were spying on the Office of the Fairy Council,” said the Head of the Fairy Council. “There is no excuse for your actions.”
“I think I had better go and talk to Liam,” said Violet.
“I think it would be better if he were to be brought here,” said the Head of the Fairy Council. “I don’t want you to be put in any danger.”
“Danger?” Violet asked.
“We don’t know what this Liam is capable of,” said the Head of the Fairy Council. “And I, for one, don’t want to take any chances,” she added waving her wand. Liam appeared and was instantly apprehended by the security guards.
“So this is the Hall of the Fairy Council,” said Liam, turning to face the Council. “I wondered how long it would take to get your attention.”
“What the hell is he up to?” Myrtle asked the Mirror.
“I don’t know,” said the Mirror. “But nothing good.”
By Janice Nye © 2021
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