Thisbe’s earnest look didn’t waver. “So you’ll do it?”

Fifer nodded slowly. “We’ve already got enough of a mess in Artimé without Quill barging in and being obnoxious.” Tamping down the voice in her head, she slipped her arms into the robe and fastened it around her neck. She looked up, her face aglow. “Okay, team. Let’s make this happen.”

Restoring

With her mind made up, Fifer walked over to the back step of the gray shack. She still had so many questions about how she would handle the clash between the dissenters and the other Unwanteds. She still had doubts and the constant reminder that she’d killed a human being. But she knew that things would only get worse the longer they had to live without the comforts and necessities of Artimé. Being reminded that Quill was also wiped out made Fifer want to get things up and running. Pronto.

She stood squarely in the correct spot. After a quick tutorial from Aaron, and with the friends she’d rescued standing all around her, she concentrated and carefully recited the spell that would bring Artimé back. She could feel each word deeply in her core: Imagine. Believe. Whisper. Breathe. Commence. Then she repeated them two more times. At the end, after a whispery moment in the eerie gray world, everything began to change. Colors reentered, and the mansion spun back into existence, with the roof in the correct place. The lawn reappeared and spread under everyone’s feet, and fountains sprang up in the usual places. The jungle sprouted and grew to maturity, and the world was repopulated with beavops and owlbats and rabbitkeys and platyprots and squirrelicorns once more. The lifeless statues stirred.

“You did it,” Aaron whispered in Fifer’s ear. “I’m really proud of you. We’ll talk soon about how Kaylee and I can help you. I won’t leave you stranded.”

“Thanks, Aaron,” said Fifer, hardly able to believe what was happening. She’d really done it. And now she was head mage of Artimé, looking at her magical world. Her eyes traveled to Simber, halfway across the lawn, his face still smashed into the ground but his hindquarters in the air now as he pushed himself to his feet. How would she explain things to her new number one companion? She started toward him.

Simber groaned as the grass grew up around his face and tickled his nose. He snorted and stretched his limbs and neck, then shook the dust and dirt off. He lifted a paw to his chin and rubbed it, feeling the new scrapes there. “What the—” he said, looking around to figure out where he was and how he’d managed to land so ungracefully. He’d experienced this strange feeling of having missed something important a few times now. This time it didn’t take long to understand what had happened. And for once he wasn’t forced to experience the growing feeling of horror and dread coming over him that he’d lost another companion, which was a relief. “Did Fiferrr succeed? I think she actually did it,” he muttered to himself, remembering his final move before everything went blank. “I knew she could.” His heart swelled, and he looked around to see who had brought the world back. He wished he’d said something to the humans before all of this happened about who he’d have chosen if given options.