Wyssa snatched the ring from the contraption she'd built.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'll deal with Morb."
She stomped off, but Zann and the others caught up with her.
"We're coming too," Zann said.
"No." Wyssa shoved him aside.
"It's my responsibility. Now get out of my way."
"But we want to help!" Saffa said.
"Yeah," Perda said. "Besides, you can't just leave us here.
We might not be able to find our way back to Magica without you.
Morb took our guidelink, remember?"
Darb nodded. "And even if we do find our way back, First City isn't safe for us right now."
"That's fine," Wyssa said. "Atmo is pleasant and safe.
You can relax here, and I'll return for you once I'm done with Morb."
Saffa nodded. "Perhaps that's for the best."
"No!" Zann cried. "You can't leave us here!"
"Yeah, what if you need our help?" Perda exclaimed.
Wyssa's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"What?" she cried.
"I don't require help from anyone, especially a bunch of chattering children."
"You might." Zann didn't back down.
"We were the ones who stopped Morb before, remember?"
"That's right!" Perda chimed in.
"We couldn't have done it without your help.
But you couldn't have done it without our help either."
"The kids have a point," Saffa said.
"They've done more to stop Morb's terrible plans than anyone."
Wyssa glowered at them all. Finally she shrugged. "Fine," she snapped.
"But I'm not babysitting any of you, all right?
Now let's go. I need to gather more ingredients on our way back."
She grabbed more twigs and plants on the way to the Atmo wormhole.
But she didn't stop there. Once they were in the vortex, she led the way into world after world.
Zann and his friends had visited a few of the worlds before, but there were several that they'd never seen.
They stayed in each one just long enough for Wyssa to gather a few ingredients.
Zann and his friends barely had time to rest and recover their magic energy before they were zooming through the vortex again.
After landing in one world, Zann felt weak and out of breath.
He breathed deeply, and right away he regretted it.
"Ugh," Perda exclaimed. "We're back in Niffia!"
"Oh my!" Saffa looked startled.
"I've read about this place, but the stench is worse than I ever could have imagined!"
"Definitely," Gliss agreed.
"Hush," Wyssa scolded.
"Here come our hosts. Don't embarrass me by insulting their lovely world."
Zann rolled his eyes. Niffia might look lovely, but it sure didn't smell lovely!
As usual, a greeting committee was hurrying toward them with big smiles on their faces, which lacked noses.
"Greetings, dear friend!" one of the Niffians cried, beaming at Wyssa.
"It's an honor as always to have you here!"
"Thank you, my friends." Wyssa smiled.
"With your permission I'm here to gather some ingredients for a spell."
"Of course—everything we have is yours."
A Niffian waved toward the fields and forests surrounding them. "Please help yourself."
"Thank you." Wyssa bowed.
"While I'm gathering what I need, perhaps you would be so kind as to look after my friends?"
"It would be our honor," another Niffian assured her, bowing to the kids and Saffa.
"Come with us for some rest and refreshment."
Zann and the others did their best to ignore the smell as the Niffians took them back to their town and gave them food and drink.
"This world would be perfect if it didn't stink!"
Zann whispered to Darb when the Niffians weren't listening.
"And Morb might be perfect if he wasn't evil," Darb replied.
"I wonder what he's doing in the Far Frontier."
Zann shrugged. "Look, here comes Wyssa."
Wyssa hurried over. The Niffians rushed to greet her.
"I trust you found what you needed, my friend?" one of them asked.
"I did indeed." She smiled and bowed.
Then she turned to survey Zann and the others.
"You look comfortable," she said.
"Perhaps you should stay here while I, er, take care of things back in Magica."
"No!" Zann blurted out, horrified at the thought of being stuck in stinky Niffia for a long time.
"You promised we could come with you."
"I promised no such thing," Wyssa retorted.
Meanwhile the Niffians looked even happier than usual.
"It would be our honor if you stayed!" one of them exclaimed.
"Yes," another added.
"That would give you a chance to see even more of our beautiful world!"
"We can't stay," Zann said, trying desperately to think of a way to convince Wyssa not to leave them behind.
"Wyssa needs our help."
"Yeah, we haven't even had a chance to tell you about everything else that's happening in Magica," Perda told Wyssa.
"Like what?" Wyssa sounded skeptical.
"Like you shouldn't just go barging back into Magica without knowing that the king and queen quit and disappeared," Gliss said.
Wyssa raised one eyebrow. "Interesting. But not relevant."
"And how about Zann's parents being accused of stealing those missing relics?" Perda added.
"Missing relics?" This time Wyssa's voice was sharper. "What missing relics?"
Zann shrugged.
"A few of the things in the lab disappeared, and nobody knows where they went or who took them," he said.
"Like the Mask of Zanta, and—"
"All right, that's enough chatter,” Wyssa interrupted.
“I've changed my mind. You're coming with me."
She bowed quickly to the Niffians.
"Thanks again, my friends. We must depart."
Moments later the whole group was back in the vortex.
Zann was relieved. But why had Wyssa changed her mind so abruptly after hearing about the relics?
Before he could ask, he saw a wormhole spinning toward them up ahead.
"Hang on," Wyssa called, yanking them toward it. "We're here."