Ah, yes, it was all going so well! Lady Cordial closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as she savored the sour taste of a rotten cocomoon—but her enjoyment of the moment was soon interrupted by the happy chatter of two students behind her. Still, she masked her irritation with a tight smile when she turned and saw them setting down their own picnic blanket. She knew that the two young Starlings were best friends—just as Cora and Stella had once been—so although she knew she was moving a bit ahead of schedule, she couldn’t resist releasing a bit more negative energy. She promised herself that she would hold back for the remainder of the day, and softly laughed to herself as the girls’ conversation deteriorated into a shouting match and the tall one with the pale pink hair finally stormed off.
It had been a most triumphant lunch indeed, but it was time to get back to work. Lady Cordial had a huge pile of new student applications to read through. So after polishing off the rest of her rancid cocomoon, she packed up her lunch sack and blanket and headed back to Halo Hall. As she made her way past Lady Stella’s office—the same office where Lady Astrid had so brutally and unfairly expelled her all those years ago—she did her best to avert her eyes. But in doing so, she bumped into a student named Tessa. The emerald-haired girl was one of the more accomplished applicants Lady Cordial had admitted in the past few years, so as to balance out the underachievers she’d recruited in an attempt to slowly bring down the school’s standing.
“Oh, m-m-m-my,” Lady Cordial stammered—a speech impediment she consistently used, along with her clumsiness, to maintain her benign cover. “Excuse m-m-m-me.”
“That’s okay, Lady Cordial,” Tessa replied with a courteous smile.
The head of admissions clasped her hands together and gave the girl a grateful nod before heading into her office to begin reviewing applications. But before she’d even had a chance to reach the bottom of the first holo-page, she heard a knock at her door.
“Y-y-y-yes?” she called out, using wish energy manipulation to slide the silver door open.
“Oh! I’m so glad you’re here!” Lady Stella immediately charged into the office and settled down in a comfy purple chair. “I came by thirty minutes ago but you must have been at lunch.”
Lady Cordial nodded as she examined her former friend’s face. She hated to admit it, but Stella was lovelier than ever, with smooth, glowing skin and platinum streaks in her golden-pink hair. “I’m s-s-s-sorry—I w-w-w-was indeed.”
“Well, you’re here now—that’s all that matters!” Lady Stella leaned across the desk, her eyes shifting around nervously before locking with Lady Cordial’s. “I have something terribly important to discuss with you. But before I do, you must give me your word that this will remain between us.”
An eager smile spread across Lady Cordial’s face. There was nothing she liked quite so much as being privy to confidential information. It was further proof that she had completely mastered her disguise and was performing her role like the true star she had always known she was destined to be. “Of c-c-c-course,” she said, reaching across the desk to give Lady Stella’s hand an encouraging pat. “You know you can t-t-t-trust me.”
“I most certainly do.” Lady Stella sucked in her breath and shook her head, fear flashing in her sparkling eyes. “But this is quite awful.”
“Oh, d-d-d-dear.” Lady Cordial frowned sympathetically and widened her eyes at Lady Stella in the hopes that she would get to the point.
“Yes, well…there’s no easy way to say it, so I’ll just come right out with it,” Lady Stella finally said. “There is a negative energy crisis threatening Starland!”
Drawing upon every bit of dramatic training she had received as a tiny Starling, Lady Cordial feigned complete shock. “A c-c-c-crisis? H-h-how can that be?”
“I don’t know.” Lady Stella pressed her lips together and sighed. “It was discovered several months ago but the authorities are still working to determine the extent of the damage and the origins of the problem.”
This time, Lady Cordial didn’t have to pretend to be surprised. She hadn’t realized that the authorities had commenced any sort of investigation. It was slightly worrying but deeply satisfying at the same time. Her plan was working: Starland was in danger and she was 100 percent responsible for it!
“Oh, m-m-my,” Lady Cordial finally replied, shuffling the applications around on her desk. “I h-h-h-hope they can stop it s-s-s-soon.”
“Yes, but that’s just it,” Lady Stella said gravely. “I’m not sure they’re going to be able to stop it—so I’ve taken it upon myself to come up with a solution.”
Lady Cordial tightened her fists beneath her desk and choked back a disgusted laugh. It was exactly what she had counted on: the same old Stella, always deciding it was up to her to solve the world’s problems. That was what she had thought she was doing when she stole Cora’s ideas for ending Starland’s drought. It was what she had thought she was doing when she decided to tell Lady Astrid about their sneaking down to Wishworld and about Cora’s breaking the Bad Wish Orb in the Negative Energy Facility. So of course she would think she could interfere with Lady Cordial’s newest plans to take control of Starland—but as long as Lady Cordial was at Starling Academy, she’d make sure Stella couldn’t get in the way. Still, it would be highly amusing to find out what she thought she might be able to do.
“Do t-t-t-tell,” Lady Cordial stammered. “What is your s-s-s-solution?”
Lady Stella stood up and began pacing around the office, stopping every now and then to sweep a bit of nonexistent dust off a holo-book with her long, annoyingly elegant fingers or to examine one of the star-shaped sculptures on the shelves. “This is the part that you must absolutely swear to keep between us—at least until I decide who else can be trusted,” she finally said as she returned to her chair.
“C-c-c-certainly,” Lady Cordial agreed.
After sitting there for what seemed like hours, Lady Stella divulged the information she believed to be so classified, her voice barely above a whisper. “I discovered an ancient text containing an oracle. It talked about twelve star-charmed girls who will save Starland from just such a crisis.”
“What? How?” Lady Cordial blurted out, forgetting her stutter as a chill ran down her spine. “I-I-I-I mean…an ancient t-t-t-text? R-r-r-really?” It seemed highly unlikely that anyone—even an entire army of young Starlings—could do anything to hinder her plans for seizing control of Starland, especially now that she had already released most of the negative energy. Still, she was ever so slightly troubled by this unanticipated and mysterious revelation.
“Yes,” Lady Stella said. “According to the prophecy, these star-charmed girls will go on Wish Missions before they graduate—meaning they’ll be able to help grant the wishes of young Wishlings, who make some of the most powerful wishes—and, assuming we’ve selected the correct girls for these missions, an astronomical amount of wish energy will be gathered.”
Had Lady Cordial heard that right? What on Starland would possess Lady Stella to propose such a thing? How could she possibly consider sneaking students down to Wishworld before they graduated, given all that had gone wrong when she and Cora had done the very same thing? There was no way Lady Stella would go through with it—and obviously there was no way it would work.
“But S-s-s-starlings can’t go on Wish M-m-missions before they g-g-g-graduate,” Lady Cordial pointed out. “C-c-c-can they?”
“According to the prophecy, yes.” Lady Stella’s words were firm, but there was uncertainty—even a hint of terror—in her eyes, and Lady Cordial knew why. It was because of everything Lady Stella already knew about such Wish Missions, from personal experience. “But that’s why this must be kept completely confidential!”
“Ah, y-y-y-yes,” Lady Cordial said with a coy smile. “It will be a s-s-s-secret!”
“Correct.” Lady Stella narrowed her eyes at Lady Cordial, as if she suddenly recognized her old friend—the one who had proposed the same sort of secret missio
n years ago. “In fact…this is the first time I’ve ever felt comfortable enough to share this with anyone else, but, well, when I was a student here, many years ago, my own headmistress told me about the first part of this oracle and swore me to secrecy, just as I’m now doing with you.”
“What?” Lady Cordial instinctively shouted, completely caught off guard, but quickly realized that she needed to get back into character. “I mean, wh-wh-what did that p-p-part s-s-say?”
“It, too, foretold of a trip to Wishworld—an unlawful trip that would lead to the first negative energy ever to be released in Starland’s history,” Lady Stella revealed. “That trip was to be taken by just two Starlings. One would be responsible for the negative energy escaping, and the other would be responsible for helping to stop it…thus saving Starland.”
Lady Cordial’s pulse began to race; her face flushed as her rage reached a feverish intensity she was struggling to contain. How could Stella have kept such an important piece of information from her back then? How could she have let Lady Astrid hide the text when it affected Cora’s fate as much as anyone else’s? Of course she already knew that her old friend had betrayed her, but this treachery was far worse than she had realized. Lady Astrid had forced her to pay a cruel and unwarranted price, and Stella went right along with it!
“Where is the t-t-text now?” Lady Cordial asked, swallowing her fury as she quietly schemed to somehow get her hands on the oracle.
“Oh, it’s hidden safely away in a secret room down in the caves beneath my office,” Lady Stella foolishly told her. “The former headmistress left me a map with the details of its location, right here in my desk drawer, and I’ve made sure that the room is password protected. After all, we don’t want anyone to see that text or to realize my role in all of this.”
“Your r-r-r-role?”
“Well, yes.” Lady Stella’s eyes slowly filled with tears. “You see, I was the one who took that forbidden trip to Wishworld. I went with my best friend at the time. She was the one who released the negative energy, and I was the one who saved Starland!”
“Oh, m-m-my.” Lady Cordial seethed at the conceited claim but kept her face blank with surprise. “Sh-sh-sh-shocking.”
“Yes, I know—and my friend was expelled as a result,” she added. “Oh, Lady Cordial! You have no idea how difficult things have been for me since that awful day.”
Oh, really? Difficult for you? That was it. Lady Cordial hadn’t realized she could hate her old friend any more than she already did—but now she was more determined than ever to seize control of Starland and especially to make Lady Stella pay. First, however, she needed to learn more about how Lady Stella thought she might be able to stop her.
“So h-h-h-how will you f-f-f-find these twelve g-g-g-girls?” Lady Cordial wondered.
“I have identified most of the ones who I believe are destined to fulfill the prophecy—eight of them are already students here at Starling Academy,” Lady Stella noted, blinking away her tears and getting back to business. “But we’re going to have to search through the applications you’ve received for the next academic year and decide who the other four will be.”
“But h-h-how will we know?” Lady Cordial wondered, even though she had already decided that the entire plan was riddled with potential problems and destined to fail. She had no choice but to continue playing along.
“They’ll be the girls with the most wish-granting potential,” Lady Stella explained. “In fact, I already know of one extremely promising applicant.”
“Oh?” Lady Cordial fought the urge to roll her eyes.
“She’s the daughter of a woman named Indirra, a prominent wish scientist who just so happened to have been a classmate of mine when I was a student here,” Lady Stella said, elaborating. “Her name is Sage.”
“Hmmm.” Lady Cordial tilted her head and scratched her double chin. Of course, she had already seen Sage’s application and remembered what a strong student Indirra had been—which was precisely why she had been planning to reject Sage without Lady Stella’s ever realizing it.
Alas, Lady Stella had already snapped up the pile of applications from the desk and, within moments, found the one she was seeking. “Here it is!” she declared as she began to read it. “Oh, yes—oh, my—oh, goodness! Yes, yes, yes! Lady Cordial, you must take a look at this! Sage appears to have everything we could possibly be looking for—and then some.”
“How w-w-w-wonderful,” Lady Cordial muttered, pretending to review the application after taking it from Lady Stella.
“Please, schedule an interview with her at once!”
“Of c-c-c-course,” Lady Cordial replied softly, still staring down at the application.
Carefully placing the other applications back on the desk, Lady Stella added, “I need to run to another meeting now, but let’s plan on looking through the rest of these before the end of the day—agreed?”
Lady Cordial nodded as the meddlesome headmistress moved toward the door. “Agreed,” she said. “I shall look f-f-f-forward to it.”
But the only thing Lady Cordial was really looking forward to at that moment was a quick search through Lady Stella’s desk, a trip down to the secret room to examine the oracle, and then a journey back to the Isle of Misera. There was no way she was going to let Lady Stella, nor twelve supposedly star-charmed girls, do anything to ruin all her years of plotting and scheming—and as preposterous as the prophecy sounded, Lady Cordial couldn’t leave anything to chance. She had to make certain that if there was even the slightest possibility that any of it was true, she would be ready. Fortunately, she had plenty of resources, including her negatite garden, on her side.
As soon as Lady Cordial returned to her cottage on the Isle of Misera, she transformed back into Rancora and sighed with relief. Although she had once dreamed of becoming Starland’s greatest actress—and in some ways, that was precisely what she had done—it was exhausting spending so much time at Starling Academy disguised as the weak and pathetic head of admissions. Alas, even after putting up her feet in front of a blazing fire and pouring herself a cup of hot rancid Zing, she was feeling more unsettled than she had in ages.
It was that absurd prophecy! Why did Stella insist on sticking her sparkly little nose into everything? Why couldn’t she accept that it wasn’t up to her to solve every problem or crisis that threatened Starland—especially this one?
The fact was Rancora knew that she had more than enough negative energy to take Stella down—and although she hadn’t managed to steer her away from granting admission to the four most promising new Starling Academy applicants, including Indirra’s daughter, Sage, she had successfully cajoled Stella into also admitting another student by the name of Vivica. Rancora wasn’t exactly sure how she might use the young Starling with the pale blue hair who quite resembled young Cora herself, but it was clear from her application that she had an impressive thirst for power. Ah, yes! Rancora got the distinct impression that this Vivica would be just the student to assist her in hindering Lady Stella’s dubious dozen.
“Star-charmed girls!” Rancora sneered furiously as she narrowed her eyes at the fire, manipulating it into a more furious blaze. “Who ever heard of such a thing?”
Prophecy or no prophecy, she had come too far and wouldn’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way. But she needed an insurance plan above and beyond Vivica—something that would make it absolutely impossible for the girls to succeed. She closed her eyes and began rocking back and forth in her uncomfortable chair, reflecting on everything that had gone wrong between her and Stella years ago…and everything that had gone right during her many bad Wish Missions. It all came down to the power of negative energy, of course. So she needed to find a way to infect the star-charmed girls with the same devastating force. But how could she do that from a distance, without raising suspicion—particularly while they were on their Wish Missions?
One possibility after another crossed Rancora’s mind—going down to Wishworld in
disguise at the same time as each girl; finding a way to disable their Wish Pendants or Star-Zaps—but nothing seemed quite right. She wrapped her hands around the black crystal teardrop hanging from her neck and called on its powers for a sign. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, she waited for inspiration. Finally, she rose from her chair and walked to a pile of old holo-books that had been sitting, unread, in a corner of the cottage. She had found so many in the silver cabinet in the Negative Energy Facility, and although she had no idea where they came from or what purpose they might serve, something deep inside told her to grab these in particular and bring them with her. Still clutching the pendant, she stared down until one of them, and then another, began to glow. She picked them up and read the titles.
“What?” Rancora scoffed. “Negatite Arts and Crafts? The Negatite Florist? Negatite Nail Care? Preposterous!”
She was about to cast the holo-books aside, but her pendant’s negative energy continued to pull at her, coaxing her to dig deeper. So Rancora reluctantly began scrolling through the pages of Negatite Arts and Crafts until a specific entry caught her attention.
“Ha!” she cackled to herself as she read through the instructions for fashioning Wishling key chains and purse charms filled with negatite. It sounded absurd, but the more she studied the directions, the more promising the idea became. Could such a thing really work? Encouraged, though still not entirely convinced, she turned her attention to The Negatite Florist.
“Hmmm,” she mused, nodding as she read a point-by-point tutorial on cultivating bickering flowers—bouquets that would cause tension between any Starlings who happened to be in their presence.
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