CHAPTER 78: CHAPTER 78: THE PROACTIVE PAMPERING PLAN.

The entire room fell silent. Pip’s innocent, logical question—"But... what if our turn comes first?"—hung in the air, like a wrecking ball aimed directly at FaeLina’s perfectly constructed battle plan.

Her triumphant, confident expression froze on her face. Her wings, which had been buzzing with authority, slowly drooped. The tiny piece of chalk she was holding slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the stone floor with a sound that seemed impossibly loud in the sudden quiet.

She stared at Pip, her mind clearly racing, trying to find an answer. But there wasn’t one.

Her entire strategy was based on healing the poison damage the Challengers would have already received from the Gloomfang Caverns. If we went first, there would be no damage to heal. Her plan will become completely useless.

"Uh oh," Pip whispered, realizing he had just broken their new boss.

FaeLina let out a small, strangled squeak. "I... uh..." she stammered, her eyes darting around the room. "That is... a valid logistical question that... I was just about to address in the next phase of my presentation!"

It was a terrible lie, and the sudden, awkward silence in the room confirmed that everyone knew it.

FaeLina let out a tiny squeak of pure stress. She zipped over to the chalkboard and, in a furious blur, erased all her beautiful, organized notes and In their place, she just scribbled one, giant, angry-looking sad face.

"It’s all wrong!" she muttered, her voice a high-pitched buzz. "My whole plan is a disaster! It will only work if they’re already hurt! But, If they’re not, we’re just... pampering them for fun! They’ll think we’re a terrible spa! We’re doomed!"

The team watched their new manager have a complete, high-speed meltdown. Pip, seeing the giant sad face on the board, slowly began to sink down behind Clank’s sturdy metal leg, trying to become one with the shadows. Gilda just grunted, her hand instinctively going to the pommel of her axe, as if wishing she could solve this problem by hitting with it. Zazu, looking as if FaeLina’s frantic energy was physically draining him, just sighed and quietly sat down on a nearby cushion. Kaelen, as always, said nothing, but she did stop polishing her teacup, which for her, was the equivalent of a loud gasp.

I, on the other hand, was finding the whole thing rather amusing. ’She’s making this so complicated,’ I thought.

FaeLina was trying to solve the problem like a traditional dungeon, thinking in terms of debuffs and counter-effects. But, she was forgetting our core philosophy.

I remembered my old life, the endless cycle of fixing code bugs only to find new ones, the constant feeling of being one step behind a problem. It was a very frustrating life, and it had literally killed me.

So, I decided to give her a gentle, psychic nudge.

’FaeLina,’ I projected, my thought was like a quiet, calm space in the middle of her mental chaos. ’You’re overthinking it.’

She stopped scribbling, her psychic presence turning to face me.

’Why bother curing a poison,’ I asked gently, ’when you can just make them too happy to even notice it?’

Hearing this, she stopped her frantic scribbling and just hovered in the air, completely still. A tiny, thoughtful frown appeared on her face. Then, her wings gave a sudden, excited flutter, and her entire aura seemed to brighten as the brilliant, devious idea hit her. A slow grin spread across her face.

"Of course," she whispered. Her panic was gone, replaced by a new and much more dangerous-looking confidence. She turned back to the team.

"Forget everything I just said!" she declared, wiping the chalkboard clean with a furious swipe that left a puff of chalk dust in the air. "That was the wrong way to think! We’re not only healers who patch up wounds after a fight! We’re also armorers who provide the best shield before the fight even begins! We’re not going to heal the poison; we’re going to make them too tough to be poisoned in the first place!"

The team looked just as confused as before.

"We’re not just giving them a spa day," she explained, her voice now buzzing with a renewed, almost manic energy. "We’re going to supercharge them with so much magical rest that they’ll be practically glowing with good vibes! Think of it as a magical shield made of pure happiness!"

She began to scribble on the board again, her hand steady and confident.

"If our turn comes second," she said, drawing a little diagram of a sad-looking adventurer turning into a happy, glowing one, "our ’happiness shield’ will burn away their poison and leave them feeling even better than they did when they started!"

"And," she continued, her grin widening, "if our turn comes first, they’ll walk into that poison dungeon so full of our good vibes that the poison will barely even scratch them! Their morale will stay high, and they’ll be in much better shape than any team that didn’t get our ’luxury upgrade’ first!"

It was a flawless plan. It was no longer a simple "customer support" mission. It was a proactive, tactical pampering.

Zazu was the first to understand, a slow, appreciative smile spreading across his face. "So," he said, "we are not just a hospital. We are a... performance enhancement spa."

"Precisely!" FaeLina cheered, her voice a triumphant squeak. The chalkboard was forgotten. She zipped around the room, like a tiny, sparkling general rallying her troops.

"The assignments are the same," she declared, her voice now full of energy, "but the goal is different! We are not healing; we are empowering them! We have a buff to create!"

She flew right up to Zazu’s face, her eyes gleaming with a manic, strategic light. "Zazu! Your ’Nightcap’ tea needs to be a masterpiece! I want it to be so calming it could soothe a raging dragon!"

The elf gave a slow, thoughtful nod.

"Kaelen," FaeLina continued, her voice a bit softer. "Those towels need to be so perfectly warm they feel like a hug from the sun itself. I trust your precision."

Kaelen gave a single, sharp nod.

"Pip, Clank," she said, turning to the nervous rogue and his robot friend, her voice becoming sharp and strategic again. "You two are now on ’Atmosphere Control.’ Pip, I need you to use your unique understanding of fear to make sure there are absolutely no scary shadows or unsettling quiet spots anywhere in the room. I want it to be aggressively non-threatening! And Clank, your job is to provide a sense of perfect, rhythmic order. Your ticking needs to be so steady and so calming that it hypnotizes them into a state of pure relaxation!"

Pip’s eyes went wide with a mixture of terror and excitement. "I get to... make sure things aren’t scary? I’m an expert at that!"

Finally, FaeLina declared, turning to her heavy hitters, Gilda and Sir Crumplebuns. "You two are now the ’Front Line of Fluff.’ Your mission is the most critical!"

She zipped right up to Gilda’s face, her eyes gleaming with strategic light. "Gilda! You are a warrior! You understand the importance of a strong defense! Your new mission is to defend these Challengers from the insidious threat of... poor posture! I want you to fluff their pillows with the same force you would use to swing your axe!"

Gilda just grunted, but it was a grunt of amused agreement.

"And Sir Crumplebuns!" FaeLina continued, turning to the plush knight. "You are our ’Chief Morale and Blanket Officer’! If a single adventurer looks even slightly chilly, you will deploy a blanket with the speed and precision of a knight charging into battle!"

Sir Crumplebuns saluted with his Spoonblade. "THEY SHALL BE THE MOST COMFORTABLE CHAMPIONS IN THE HISTORY OF BATTLE!"

"Then, team to your stations!" FaeLina declared, her voice full of energy.

The team, now filled with a renewed sense of purpose, turned to begin their strange preparations. Pip was already whispering to Clank about lullaby melodies, and Gilda was eyeing a pillow with a critical, professional gaze.

But just as they were about to scatter, the Guild Bulletin Board chimed with a golden, official light.

The tournament schedule had arrived.

The focused energy in the room vanished, replaced by a sudden, tense silence. Everyone stopped what they were doing. All eyes turned to FaeLina.

She took a deep, steadying breath, trying to project an air of calm leadership she clearly did not feel. She zipped over to the bulletin board to read the official notice.

The triumphant, confident look on her face vanished.

Her wings, which had been buzzing with excitement, stopped dead. Her bright pink aura flickered and dimmed. Her face went completely pale.

’Mochi,’ she whispered in my mind, her voice now a tiny, trembling thread of pure dread.

’What is it, FaeLina?’ I projected back, a cold feeling starting to grow in my own core. ’What does it say?’

______

Author’s Note:

FaeLina proves she’s the best manager in the world! I love her new "proactive pampering" strategy. It’s not about healing; it’s about buffing! A brilliant, in-character solution after a truly epic meltdown.

And shoutout to Pip for being the quiet hero of this Chapter and finding the one flaw in the master plan. He saved them all from a very embarrassing defeat!

But in the ending... FaeLina saw the official tournament schedule, and her confident expression just vanished. What could she have possibly seen that was so terrifying? We’ll find out next time! Thanks for reading!