The silence in the St. Augustine's basement was now truly baffling. The Unified Locket, inert and dull, lay in Booma's palm. Chinnappa stared at Rishi, who was currently inspecting his hands with mild confusion.
"My notes... my perfect, five-star recipe for Bujji's artisanal cat food... it's completely gone from my tablet," Rishi muttered, sounding genuinely distraught. "It was three months of scientific research on feline nutrient optimization! Why would I delete that?"
"Rishi, forget the cat food!" Chinnappa exclaimed, grabbing his friend's arm. "You were just brought back by a magical wish that was meant for Maya!"
Rishi blinked, utterly unphased by the mention of magic or the now-inert locket. "Maya? Oh, she transferred schools, right? And a magical wish? Are you still reading too much fiction, Chinnappa? I just came down here because my diagnostics picked up the power surge from the junction box."
The truth was a sudden, horrifying clarity: Rishi had no memory of the magic. The Ultimate Wish had selectively erased his knowledge of the magical world, replacing it with mundane, non-threatening confusion.
"Booma! The wish did not fail! It was redirected by the Locket's Heart!" Bujji shrieked telepathically, franticly circling the dull locket. "Maya used the final power to protect Rishi! She knew the knowledge was too dangerous, and if he had returned with the memories, the Shadow King's influence might have lingered in his mind!"
Booma understood. Maya, even from within the Unified Locket, had made the selfless choice. She couldn't save herself, but she could protect the remaining Guardian Trio by removing the critical, vulnerable element—Rishi's conscious knowledge of Aethel.
"Maya saved him," Booma whispered, gripping the locket tightly. "She protected the brains of our operation."
But the cost was high. They were now left with an inert locket, a friend who remembered nothing, and the crushing knowledge that the solution to saving Maya was locked within the artifact itself, which was now silent.
"We have to get the locket working again," Chinnappa declared, running a hand through his hair. "Rishi is our expert, but he can't help us if he doesn't know the truth!"
"We can't tell him!" Booma insisted. "If we force the knowledge back, we endanger him again. We need to find the trigger for the Locket's Heart without activating the full power."
The Cryptic Code
They brought the problem back to Rishi's basement, framing the Unified Locket as an "ancient communication device" they needed to study for a school project on rare metals.
Rishi, intrigued by the scientific challenge, immediately began running the inert locket through advanced scanners.
"The core is completely depleted, almost vacuum-like," Rishi stated, examining the data. "But there's a highly encrypted, repeating signature here... it's not a spell; it's a very simple, repetitive code. It seems to be trying to communicate a single command."
"What does the code say?" Booma asked, leaning forward, her heart pounding.
Rishi typed, translating the repetitive pattern. The command was strangely personal, linked only to her past conversations with Maya.
Rishi's screen displayed the message:
> 'R.E.N.O.V.A.T.I.O.N.'
>
"That's just a word," Chinnappa said, confused. "Does it mean the school needs renovation?"
"No," Booma said, her mind racing, recalling their mundane conversations before the final fight. "It's Maya's code. Before she disappeared, we were talking about my Fashion Show designs. She said the best wish she could have was to renovate her bedroom. She called it her 'R.E.N.O.V.A.T.I.O.N. wish.'"
Bujji, who had been listening intently, confirmed the theory. "The Locket's Heart is communicating through shared, non-magical friendship history! The command is not a spell; it's a memory! It's the key to re-entering the locket!"
"So, if we fulfill the R.E.N.O.V.A.T.I.O.N. wish, Maya might guide us to her soul?" Chinnappa asked, hope flickering in his eyes.
Booma realized what she had to do. The Unified Locket was fueled not by magic, but by sincere, selfless humanity. They had to use their remaining strength—their bond—to complete the final wish Maya had ever expressed.
"We need to renovate Maya's room, exactly as she wanted it," Booma declared, gripping the inert locket. "We're going to use the power of friendship and humanity to bring the magic back."
The problem was, Maya's room was locked, and her family still believed she was away at another school. Getting access without alerting anyone would be nearly impossible. But they had no choice. They had to complete the final, mundane task to unlock the ultimate magical solution.
The ultimate magic was locked behind the ultimate act of friendship. But how could they sneak into a friend's empty house and complete an entire renovation without drawing suspicion in the middle of their quiet, safe city?