The Destiny Detour

Crystal Palace

Jadelynn

Wrapped around a tiny bottle, Cliff's fingers hovered over Sorceress Athena's head. "So, this should just work?"

"Wait," cautioned Jadelynn, running her fingers down Rosaliy's notes. She had to scoot the lantern closer to the notebook to see. So much time had passed searching through Rosaliy's notebooks and finding the right keys. It was the dead of night by the time they were ready to use the potion, and the words were swimming in front of Jadelynn's tired eyes. "One...drop. Or two." Jadelynn was always forgetting measures of weight. At least Rosaliy had all her supplies meticulously labeled. This was definitely the right potion, not one that would be turning the Sorceress into a raccoon or a pile of diamonds. Jadelynn scanned further. "Never mind. You're supposed to place a drop on each of her wrists."

Cliff drew back. "Are you sure this time?"

No. "Yes, wrists. I'm sure that's what Sorceress Rosaliy did when Iris started growing mushrooms all over her body." Sort of sure.

"What if someone was outside when this spell hit?" claimed Matias. "I should go look around. Outside." This was a good point, but really Matias was just trying to get himself out of any possible danger.

"Fine, go." Jadelynn shooed him off.

"Mushrooms?" asked Cliff.

"I don't know. It was some kind of fungus." She waved her hands, annoyed at being distracted. "It's not important."

She grabbed the bottle from his hand and tipped it, holding her finger tight on the end of the small bottle. Cliff turned over the limp woman's wrists where she lay slumped over her desk. Jadelynn smeared her wet finger on Athena's wrist like perfume, except this concoction was the opposite of pungent. What faint smell of aging books had permeated the room was now gone and replaced by nothing—the complete absence of smell. Jadelynn would have known more about this potion if she paid more attention in her classes. There was no immediate effect on Athena, so Jadelynn moved to her other wrist.

The ground shook under their feet.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Cliff asked nervously.

Jadelynn shrugged.

Athena blinked and stirred.

"It's working," said Cliff, who either enjoyed making obvious statements or hearing himself talk.

"Do you remember what happened?" Jadelynn asked a groggy Sorceress Athena.

But her glorious moment of impressing Sorceress Athena with her magical prowess was interrupted by Matias skidding into the room like he had run in at full speed.

"You need to come outside," he spluttered.

"Not now, Mat," Jadelynn answered with literally gritted teeth. He could be so cluelessly irritating.

"Now," he insisted. "There's an— Well, see for yourselves. Look out the window."

Normally Jadelynn would have refused to look out of spite, but there was something compelling in his tone. They all twisted to see out the window wall. They saw...something. Off in the distance, there were dozens of glowing lights illuminating curious silhouettes.

"Were those trees there before?" Cliff asked first.

"No," Jadelynn and Athena replied in unison.

Jadelynn was unsure what she was seeing. Athena was more sure.

"Flifary Island," she murmured.

The mass of sand and palm trees and green vines did look like it might be Flifary Island, except it was sitting in the middle of the Glade. Why was it sitting in the middle of the Glade?