From the Ashes - A KotLC book 9 Fanfic

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==Authour's Note==
*This story was originally written by @WanderlingAlone (Eia) but they stopped writing it and gave me (@Forest200) permission to continue.
==Back Cover==
~Back Cover~
Fires are a complicated sort of thing. Some marvel at the sheer beauty of an ever changing image emitting the light and heat we treasure closely. Others cower at what it could be, rather than what it is. And very few have the ability to control it, to unlock fire’s deepest secrets and exploit them to that person’s own burning desires. But one didn’t even need to understand in order to use it. Comprehension would come in time, though. After all, the fire was still burning.
From The Ashes is a twisted story of what happens when hatred and fear cover reason in the darkest of gas, leaving only the strongest to survive: Those capable of inhaling the smoke… And turning it into something… Better. But who really is the strongest when everyone is burning?
WanderlingAlone returns with a story that will *hopefully* do the long time away justice, bringing tears, anger, and betrayal to a whole new level as the fire clears away the old, making way for the new. The question is, what, exactly, is the new? And what good could possibly come from the ashes?
==Prologue==
~Prologue - Buried Kindling~ (This will make sense later, idrk what I was doing here lol)
* Assume everyone is out to get you.
* Never underestimate your enemies.
* ‘Friend’ is a term assigned to people who have yet to betray you.
* Words will only ever save you from a fight against yourself.
* Your enemies sometimes know what’s best for you. Listen to them, but never give them the satisfaction of a reaction.
* Lies are your only ally.
* Trust no one.
==Chapter 1==
~Chapter 1 - A Sunset Of Sorts~ (Potentially triggering figurative language, fire, weapons, implied violence and d//th, hopelessness)
“How far can we go before we become the very thing we’ve sought so long to destroy?”
Sophie Foster was no pyrokinetic. Yes, she had ties to pyrokinetics, she understood the basic principles of fire and didn’t hesitate to use it, but never could she have ever predicted the chain reaction from burning one measly storehouse. ‘War,’ they called it. It was a term Sophie had long since forgotten, especially after she severed her ties with humans. Well, most humans. After all, war was supposedly unheard of amongst the elven population. And yet, in her mind, it had been a war for quite some time. As one-sided as it may have been, it was still war. People died, friends were stabbed in the back, and various different people were turned into the enemy’s puppets. Unknowingly, of course, but the fuse was lit ages ago. Now it was only a matter of time. It’s funny, how much damage one person could do. Comical, even. It’s so much easier to spread evil than good, sometimes, and that fact alone was terrifying.
After Sophie left Mr. Forkle, their less than pleasant conversation still on her mind, she returned to Havenfield. The already setting sun reflected gorgeously off the spotless crystal exterior, the fading orange rays practically tangible compared to the otherwise empty sky. Sophie held the two caches out in front of her, admiring the surfaces even as the delicate light threatened to blind her. Sandor lingered a few paces back, one hand raised to shield his eyes and the other latched around his frighteningly long ‘dagger’.
“With so much to worry about, it’s difficult to see the beauty in things, sometimes,” Sophie whispered, turning the caches over in her palm. She leaned against Calla’s panakes, gathering petals and pooling them in her hands with the caches. “When the world burns, I hope there’s some beauty left untouched,” she added. Sandor collected a handful of the flowers, sighing.
“The world won’t burn so long as I am alive,” he grunted, tucking the petals into his pockets for later.
“I’ve already burnt part of it, though. Is it weird that even after being scolded, I still don’t really feel regretful?” Sophie traced her fingers along the braided bark of the tree as she waited for Sandor’s squeaky reply.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” he finally said, his words slow and calculating, almost cautious. “It’s different for me, since it is practically a hobby at this point. Does a soldier regret having to kill to survive? Sure, sometimes. But, in the same scenario, they’d probably do it again. More often than not, I only regret letting the opponent live, not that I always am given the choice.”
“I’m an elf, though. All this stuff is supposedly sanity-shattering, yet I’m feeling stronger than ever.” She kicked at a rock, channeling energy into her foot to send it further.
“Confidence can do that to a person,” Sandor replied, briefly pausing to listen for intruders. For a moment, it seemed like they would leave the conversation where it was, but then he added, “You gave yourself a purpose by drawing that moonlark.” Sophie was silent, the memory replaying endlessly in her head. The long pause was excruciating, but Sandor was patient. Even Sophie didn’t quite know how to respond, and was thankful for the silence as she resorted to picking on blades of grass to distract herself.
“I didn’t want to make it about me and my alleged purpose,” she finally said.
“I know.”
“I didn’t want to escalate anything.”
“I know.”
“And I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“Believe me, Miss Foster, I know. But I also know that being impulsive isn’t going to win you this… war,” Sandor said, the use of the term oddly bitter to him.
“That’s what Mr. Forkle said. He told me that the larger and more ambitious the fire, the harder it is to control. So while starting the fire may seem purely beneficial at the moment, until the flames are brought back under control, things can still go wrong.” By then, Wynn and Luna had spotted Sophie, and gladly made their way over, immune to the growing tensions and worries that seemed to stem from even the most harmless of conversations. Any compliment or kind word could be turned into kindling for fear or anger, given enough time.
“Mr. Forkle is a wise man,” Sandor agreed. “But I think that what he was saying wasn’t meant to enact any restrictions on your future battles, only to remind you of the possible danger. A warning, of sorts.” He chuckled softly, adding, “But when have you ever listened to what others tell you?”
“Clearly not frequently enough.” Sophie sighed, rubbing the alicorn twins’ ears and detangling their manes with her fingers, tiny bits and pieces of dirt getting wedged under her nails. “What would you have done?” She asked quietly.
“Pardon?”
“Would you have burned it down, seeing the opportunity?” Sophie went back to plucking grass, trying her best to refrain from doing the same thing to her eyelashes. Wynn and Luna seemed content with running to catch the grass before it fell, at least for the time being, however she doubted that would last long. Sandor thought for a moment, rotating his long sword so as to catch the light.
“It depends,” he finally said. “I think, at the time, it was a smart idea. However, in hindsight, I believe we could have done better, if we chose to go down that path at all. We could have brought more people with us and just robbed them of everything instead of burning what we couldn’t carry. We could have also staged a sabotage on whoever showed up next. We even could have made the fire look like an accident, so as to not provoke any further attacks. Regardless, my priority is your safety, and that was already difficult enough.” Sophie rested her hand over one of her many pockets, tracing the outline of one of the daggers slowly.
“I can protect myself,” she whispered, closing her eyes until she pulled her hand away.
“I know you can,” Sandor agreed, although his tone suggested otherwise. “But, can you protect both yourself and those who you associate with?”
“I- I don’t know…” She mumbled. “I feel like I should be able to. I mean, look at me! I’m a genetic experiment with all of these crazy changes that make me different and more powerful. I have five special abilities, seem to be a natural at some skills, and my sanity is perfectly intact after everything I’ve been through so far.”
“But you are no killer.” Sandor had summed up her thoughts exactly. Sophie nodded slowly, pulling out one of her daggers to examine it.
“If I kill, doesn’t that make me one of… one of them?” She asked, her voice so hushed that even with his heightened senses, Sandor still had to strain to hear her.
“No,” he said forcefully, resting one of his large hands on Sophie’s shoulder, forcing her to look at him. “They kill for power. They want what they can’t have. The Neverseen… They’re broken in all of the wrong ways. By killing to protect... you aren’t becoming one of them, Miss Foster.”
“But how far can we go before we become the very thing we’ve sought so long to destroy? What if, after killing, we realize that it is so much easier than hiding and defending? What if we become desensitized to the violence and guilt after this, and so we become a more broken species? What if, after training and fighting like the Neverseen do, after realizing their means of rebellion aren’t as bad as we made them out to be, that we start to see them as a force of good compared to a force of evil? Sandor, what if we’ve had it all wrong?” Sophie swallowed hard, finally relenting and tugging on her eyelashes, her other hand clenched into a tight fist.
“The Neverseen are our enemy. If you are starting to doubt that one fact, then we’ve already lost.” Sandor stood up again, reaching to shake one of the branches so that the panake blossoms would rain down around Sophie. “I’ll be back in five minutes. I’m going to check on the perimeter guards and shuffle them.”
“Wait.” Sophie didn’t look up from her hunched position, didn’t even bother to brush away the flowers or her curtain of tangled blonde hair. Sandor turned around slowly, his concerned gaze fixed on his charge. “Do we even know what we are fighting for anymore?” Sandor opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, questioning his response.
“That depends on what you think the problem is.” He then left again, leaving Sophie to her jumbled thoughts.
“Forkle’s rubbing off on him,” she muttered half-heartedly, fingering a petal. She leaned her head back against the trunk, closing her eyes tightly. The ocean breeze rushed past her ears, sending a shiver down her spine as it slipped beneath her cape. Or maybe it wasn’t the breeze, but she would never admit that to herself. It would destroy her if she did. Sophie stood up after a minute, making a pitiful attempt at picking the fallen petals and twigs out of her hair before heading off towards the house, making no effort to lose Sandor or any of the other guards in the process. While the spreading darkness was ever so slightly unnerving, Sophie trusted that she would be safe until she reached the glittering mansion, not that she couldn’t protect herself anyway. Again, she pinched her eyes shut, forcing the memories of all who she had lost to retreat back into the darkness it came from, veiled by the fires of determination, love, and hope. However, that fire had started to waver and thin, the once unbearable heat dwindling to nothing more but that of a dying candle or a fading match. Not even she would be afraid to walk through that curtain.
“Sophie?” Grady rounded a hill, a balefire lantern in one hand and an armful of swizzlespice in the other. “I didn’t think you would be back this early after today.” Sophie shrugged, smiling slightly when the alicorn twins flew as fast as their little wings could carry them to get the treats. TREATS! TREATS! TREATS! They chanted, but Sophie was too numb to feel the strength in their words. Grady offered some of the stalks to her, but she shook her head and just watched as the eager alicorns flapped around, begging for the apparent delicacy they found in just a handful of odd plants.
“Did anything happen while I was gone?” Sophie asked, hand poised over one of her pockets, as if she expected something to jump out of the shadows. Grady bit his lip, silent for a moment.
“There were no attacks, if that was what you were wondering,” he said slowly, tossing the rest of the stalks to the over excited twins. “Not really any disturbances either. Although I haven’t been here long. Edaline is inside preparing something for dinner. We weren’t sure if you would be coming home tonight or staying with the others at Solreef.”
“I wasn’t sure either, but gradually the conversations just became repetitions of things we’d already said, and the adults still present either got bored of scolding me or stopped being pessimistic. Mr. Forkle had me recount every detail of the raid and spent a great deal of time discussing future strategies.”
“Sounds like you had a lot of fun,” Grady said, chuckling, although something was a little off about his expression. Too lopsided of a grin, perhaps. Too strong of a laugh, as if it were forced. An unsteady stance. Not that Sophie wasn’t just as awkward and uneasy, but she had good reason to be. Maybe he was still startled after the events that had occurred earlier that day, or maybe Grady was carrying a secret. Or maybe he was fine and Sophie was just being paranoid, her senses heightened after all of the talk of attacks and defences. Always watching, always listening, always ready. Well, Sandor more than her, but she was getting there.
“Do you know when dinner will be ready?” Sophie asked, distracting her scattered thoughts with the promise of food.
“You should probably wash up. Maybe another 15 minutes or so until the final stages of preparation begin.”
“That soon? Alright.” Sophie pet Wynn and Luna one last time before allowing Grady to escort her back to the house, oddly stiff against her adoptive father’s guidance. She made sure Sandor saw her as they walked, the sun almost entirely finished setting. Double checking the caches were in her possession before stepping inside her home, Sophie began to smell the food that Edaline was cooking.
“Sophie! Glad you could join us!” Edaline called from the kitchen, stifling a choked cough. “Dinner will be ready soon, although I’ll need to scrap the desert. It burned, unfortunately. You should go shower though since I’m sure you’re covered in ash and dirt.”
“Yeah, I am,” Sophie said, smiling. “And it’s no big deal, about the desert. I’m sure everything else will be perfectly adequate.” After a quick wave, she ran up the stairs to her bedroom, startled to see that Iggy had changed colors once again.
“What did Dex do to you this time?” She whispered, pulling the imp out of his cage. Iggy burped, shaking out his wings and making his fur swish, showing off the numerous colors and stripes. Sophie rolled her eyes, setting Iggy down so she could fan away the stench. It was then that she noticed a letter, the corner barely visible out of her peripheral vision. “What the-” She picked it up, turning the envelope around in her palm and noticing the script. “Keefe?” Iggy flew over to her shoulder, plopping down to see what she was doing. She opened up the letter, reading it slowly, and then faster and faster, each word nothing but a jumble until… It made sense. Sophie sank to her knees, the note falling from her hands as tears started to slip down her cheeks. She didn’t hear her parents as they called her down to dinner. She didn’t smell Iggy’s obnoxious farts as he tried to get her attention. She couldn’t even see anymore, the words blurring from her tears. Snatching Ella into her arms, Sophie sobbed at the loss of yet another friend. Maybe he wasn’t gone forever physically, but she now realized that the old Keefe had died beneath the magsidian and ethertine that had surrounded him. And he wasn’t coming back.
Sophie didn’t know how long she sat there with her face buried in Ella’s long floppy ears and with Iggy perched on her shoulder. It could have been hours, days, weeks, or, more realistically, just a few minutes. While Keefe running away contributed quite a bit to her sadness, the majority came from the knowledge that she failed. Sophie had promised Keefe she would be there for him and would help him through whatever it was Gisela threw at him. She had failed. The Moonlark, the Dire Wolf of Team Valiant, had failed at something that before had seemed so simple and had now proven to be practically impossible.
Iggy pawed at Sophie’s shoulder impatiently, trying to snap her out of the hopeless trance she had been in since the moment she read the letter. Growing more and more rowdy, the imp began to nip at Ella’s ears. Sophie swatted him away, but that only provoked Iggy more, and soon, true to his nature, he latched on tightly to the blue elephant stuffed animal.
“Iggy, let go!” Sophie yelled, trying and failing to tug Ella free. On and on their tug of war went, until a single RIPPPP echoed throughout the room. Ella’s ear had torn, and stuffing was beginning to slowly pour out the gaping hole. Among that stuffing was a crumpled piece of familiar paper that caused Sophie to freeze in place, her heartbeat drowning out her thoughts. The singular page was hot pink, with the image of a unicorn printed in the corner. Hands shaking uncontrollably, Sophie reached for the paper and unfolded it, her eyes scanning the words that she had written long, long ago. Finishing on the words “trust no one,” a sudden buzz started to build in her head. The buzz turned to pain, and that pain swelled like a wildfire, until Sophie let out a cry and passed out, victim to whatever memory was linked to that innocent pink page.
==Chapter 2==
~Chapter 2 - A Charred Memory~ (TW - Fire analogies, hopelessness, mention of kn/v/s, mentions of natural disasters, possibly more)
“The fire may have burned away the solid parts of my life, but I still have the ashes.”
The sensation of thick air in her lungs was the first thing Sophie noticed. The second was that the people surrounding her were middle-aged children, and human, too. Innocent bright eyes, loud voices--both in her head and out, fingers reaching for anything to hold, and a girl. The girl had long, shiny black hair, tanned skin, and large blue-grey eyes.
“Hey Sophie!” The girl said, running up to meet her. Sophie looked up, mirroring the girl’s grin with one of her own.
“Hi!” Sophie said, waving shyly. “You’re Aurora, right? The new girl who could do the cool light trick?”
“Yeah, but you can just call me Aura. And my trick wasn’t that cool. It was just simple science.”
“Simple or not, the rainbow was beautiful,” Sophie insisted, tucking her earbuds away. While the overlapping voices were like knives in her head, she was willing to give up her comfort from time to time. Aura smiled, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
“I could show you how I do it after school, if you want,” Aura offered, fiddling with some sort of pin on her shirt. Sophie nodded vigorously, readjusting her grip on her books.
“I’d love for you to show me! You probably already know this about me, but I love science.” Aura laughed, releasing her pin.
“I love science too! What I like most about it is proving it wrong, though. Well, trying to. It’s so weird what humans believe.”
“Uh… Yeah,” Sophie said slowly, scratching her head. “Do you want to come to my house or…?”
“No, you should come to mine! I have a small lab and everything, it’ll be so much fun!” Aura started to guide Sophie by the arm down the hallway, but the latter dug her heels into the ground to slow them down.
“Aura, school isn’t finished yet. I’ve already gotten into enough trouble recently with my parents. I can’t just leave!”
“Oh, relax! Nobody will even notice we’re gone! My house is just across the street anyway.” Aura started to pull again, and this time Sophie followed. Her movements stiff and unsure, the young telepath allowed the rainbow maker to guide her across streets, the two ducking into shadows whenever adults grew near. Finally, Aura opened the door to a fairly large house, and gently pushed Sophie inside. There didn’t appear to be anyone else in the house, but Aura insisted that her parents were cool and just had work to do.
“First door on the right,” Aura said after they reached the top of the stairs. A gentle rain could be heard outside, the persistent pitter patter of water droplets on the roof driving both girls crazy. Again, Sophie blindly followed Aura in. “So really, my trick is simple. I take a glass of water, like this,” Aura said, turning the glass around in her hand. “And I hold it up to a light source. Then, I stick my hand through the rainbow beam that appears out the bottom of the glass, and the colors filter in between my fingers. Contrary to popular belief, certain light is tangible, as demonstrated here.”
“I don’t think that’s how light works…” Sophie said slowly. “You can’t just… bend light. Not like that.”
“Oh but Sophie, you can.” Aura began to do more with the rainbow colors, gathering them into floating orbs and snapping her fingers to make them disappear. “Does this seem wrong to you? Impossible?”
“Yes, actually,” Sophie snapped, backing away. “What are you? Who are you?”
“I’m like you, except I can control light. What can you do?” Aura toyed with more light orbs, juggling them and changing their colors.
“I can’t do that! I’m just a normal girl! I don’t- I’m not-” Sophie pinched her eyes tightly together, debating whether or not to tell this girl her deepest secret. While almost every bit of her didn’t, when she locked eyes with Aura, all she saw was someone like her, lost and out of place in an ocean of normal. “I can read minds,” she whispered, hugging herself. Aura’s eyes widened and she backed away, her reaction practically the same as Sophie’s.
“You aren’t reading mine, are you?” She asked quickly, panic rising in her tone. Sophie furrowed her brows, trying to focus on the chorus of conversations in her mind. Confused, she shook her head.
“Up until now, I hadn’t realized I couldn’t hear your thoughts.” Aura released a relieved breath, and took a few steps closer to return to a casual distance.
“Huh,” she replied. “That’s good for me, at least. My thoughts are private.”
“As they should be,” Sophie said, rubbing her head. For a moment, the two girls were quiet, content with listening to the rain and counting the time between the boom of thunder and flashes of lightning. Neither acknowledged the weird shadow imprinted in the carpet, nor the rather odd choice of chandelier in the room. Neither seemed to care.
“Who knows about your ability?” Aura asked after a few minutes passed.
“No one. Not my parents, nor my sister, nor any of my neighbors or classmates or friends. No one, except you.” Sophie picked at the carpet anxiously, then tugged at her eyelashes.
“Good, it’ll be easier that way,” Aura muttered to herself, looking out the window and then at the ceiling.
“Excuse me?” Sophie stared at her, confusion obvious in her expression.
“You aren’t going back,” Aura said simply. “I’m telling my friends about you, and then we’ll get you away from here.”
“What? No, you can’t tell anyone!” Sophie backed away, shaking her head in fear. “I trusted you!”
“That was your first mistake. The second is letting me get away.” Aura lifted a pendant from her backpack, and raised it to the light, a weird path forming on the ground. Instinctively, Sophie reached out and latched her fingers around Aura’s wrist before she could step into the light.
“Please forget!” She yelled through sobs, her eyes pinched tight as sheer desperation held her together. Aura stared at her blankly, her eyes glazed over and frozen in shock as her body turned limp and crumpled into the path, disappearing in a shimmer of sparkles. As soon as she came to her senses again, Sophie ran out of the house and then to her own, tears staining her cheeks even as she sank into her own bed. Her parents weren’t home, thankfully, but she could hear the phone ringing downstairs. Probably her school.
As the memory started to fade, the last things Sophie remembered doing were jotting down words in her sparkly pink journal, tearing out the new page and stuffing it in her blue elephant toy, and grasping her left wrist with her right hand just as tightly as before, begging to forget.
Marella felt cold. Terribly cold. Like ice was seeping through her veins, threatening to tear her apart from the inside out.
“Marella?” Linh stared at her, her thin brows pressed into a line.
“Hm? Oh.” Marella looked down sheepishly. “Could you repeat that?” Linh sighed, fiddling with her silver-tipped hair.
“I asked if you were sure you didn’t want me to come with you today. You seem… Tense. I don’t really know how else to describe it.”
“I’m fine,” Marella said instinctively, but she scratched at her hands as bad memories poured in like a wildfire. Or a tsunami, as a bone-numbing chill had followed. Linh tentatively reached for Marella’s hand, her fragile fingers settling on top of the latter’s scarred hands. Marella flinched, her eyes squeezing shut, although she did not pull away.
"Let me come with,” Linh breathed, tightening her grip ever so slightly. “Let me help you fight him. Fight it.”
“I’m not afraid of Fintan,” Marella replied, her voice hushed. She was concentrating on the friction between their hands, trying to amplify the warmth of Linh’s touch throughout her whole body. It helped to dull the cold, if only a little.
“No,” Linh agreed, shaking her head. “But you are afraid of his powers.”
“My powers, you mean.” Neither knew how to respond to that. Marella was starting to regret saying it when Linh pulled her into a hug. She let out a startled squeak as fire spread through her veins, the heat reaching every corner of her body. Linh pulled away quickly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! Were you already amplifying it?” Linh asked. Marella nodded slowly, although a small smile crept onto her face. The fact that Linh knew those small, barely noticeable cues was proof of just how much she cared. “What?” She added, noticing Marella’s expression.
“I didn’t think you would recognize that,” she replied with a shrug.
“Of course I remember! Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because it’s not your area of expertise. You don’t know what it’s like, Linh. I know you described your powers as waves that never ceased to crash, destroying every calm beach and beautiful sandcastle until all there was left was chaos, but mine is a wildfire. I can’t salvage anything.” Marella wrapped her arms around herself, focusing on her own body heat.
“Then why do you like the heat and not the cold?” Linh asked quietly, touching her friend’s arm fondly.
“Because I know that the fire will die without heat. I will die without heat. The fire may have burned away the solid parts of my life, but I still have the ashes. I want to be reminded of what happens when I lose control, so I submerge myself in what destroys me, so that I am prepared. I know you said you dyed your hair for the same reason.”
“I did.” Linh let go of a strand of hair she had been braiding. “But what is more torturous for you? Becoming what you despise and have worked hard to avoid? Or becoming a shell of what you could become?”
“Do I really have to answer that? Linh, do you know how hard it is sometimes? I dream about fire, waking up feeling like I slept on a bed of coals. I stare at the sun feeling every individual ray of heat on my body, wishing I knew how to control it’s source. I crave the Everblaze, but I know I can’t have it. I constantly feel cold and empty, because normal fire no longer satisfies me. Fintan has plagued me. He has taught me what I could become if I simply let loose. I know I said I didn’t fear him, but that was a lie. His manipulative ways are terrifying. I can feel the ashes of my sanity scattering in the wind whenever I am close to him, and the small forest of stability I have left is getting increasingly closer and closer to the wildfire.” Marella sucked in a sharp breath, trying to regain her control. “That’s why I’m doing this. Fintan may be fueling my ever-growing craving, but he’s also teaching me how to safely satisfy it. He’s helping me unlock the deepest secrets of my power. Whether his intentions are noble or not, he’s the only choice I have left.” Marella’s tone was so sad, so defeated, that Linh was practically scared. Marella never was this vulnerable. She always acted tough, trying to pretend that she could take on the world entirely on her own, but in truth, she was scared of even the tiniest little flame.
“What can I do to help?” Linh asked after a long hesitation.
“You can stay behind. Then you won’t have to see the monster I’m becoming.” Marella shivered, from fear this time.
“You aren’t becoming a monster.”
“That may be so, but I am becoming a pyromaniac. I crave the heat, crave the destruction, crave the smell of the ashes. The scars on my hands… Those were from curiosity. The shorter clump of hair was from carelessness. And the clothes that I wear are from fear. Do you know what is the most dangerous?” Linh said nothing, too intent on being a good listener, a good friend. “Pride,” she said. “Pride is the most dangerous. I wear this with pride.” Marella held up her registry pendant. “They know who I am and yet accept me. They let me train because they believe in me. They see how I present myself and trust me. It is all just a facade. An illusion to hide the scars.”
“You’re forgetting some things,” Linh said. Marella raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? How so?” Linh slowly reached for the pin that held Marella’s cape together, undoing it. She pointed at the second necklace, the one with the swan pendant.
“You got that from nobility and heroism,” she began. Then she pointed to the family crest clasp in her hands, “And you got this from love.” Then she gestured to Marella’s empty wrists. “And you are without a nexus because of dedication. And you got that--” She pointed at Marella’s heart. “From your own choices and decisions. That’s what people care about. Not what’s going on in there, but in here.” Linh’s hands settled on her own heart after sliding from her forehead, her movements calculated but effortless, like a calm, slow river. “And maybe you only see what you wish you didn’t, but the fire that you have kept alive in your heart is the only one people care about. You have compassion, bravery, and loyalty. Not everyone can say the same.”
“You can,” Marella said. Linh laughed.
“Then I guess that’ll make me a good teacher.”
“And an even better friend.” The two girls locked eyes for a brief moment, before Marella looked away. “I should get going. Fintan doesn’t like it when I’m late.”
“But what about--”
“No, Linh. This is something I have to do alone.” Marella took the clasp from Linh’s hands and repinned her cape, reaching into one of her pockets for the crystal to Fintan’s prison.
“I’ll be right here when you get back,” Linh whispered sadly. “Nothing will change.” Marella didn’t turn to face her, only raised the crystal to the light. She couldn’t bear to let Linh see her expression again, so raw and true. She had hoped opening up in such a vulnerable way to Linh would convince herself to let Linh come, but she knew now nothing could. Linh had failed. She had failed. Everyone had failed. The only choice now really was to walk through the heat of the flames and hope one of them was an illusion.
Never before had Marella been so afraid.
==Chapter 3==
~Chapter 3 - The Forgotten Fuse~ (TW - Fire mentions)
“That was the beauty of nature, after all. Always so peaceful, so calm, so beautiful. Except where it no longer wasn’t.”
It took Sophie approximately five minutes to take in her surroundings when she returned to normal consciousness. She was shocked to realize the sun was rising, meaning she hadn’t woken up after the memory ended, but rather, her body just decided to knock itself out involuntarily instead of going through the effort of waking up and then going back to sleep.
The second thing Sophie noticed was a pair of gorgeous teal eyes, worry and relief laced behind them.
“Elwin, Sophie’s awake!” Fitz called, turning to a spot in Sophie’s room that was beyond her peripheral vision.
“What’s going on?” Sophie asked, groaning as she moved to sit up. She didn’t remember getting in her bed. Didn’t remember anything from the previous night, actually. “Why are you guys all in my room? And why am I in my bed?”
“We don’t know,” Elwin said, flashing orbs of light around her body. “Edaline and Grady hailed me saying you were unconscious on the floor in your room, completely unresponsive. I hailed Fitz to check your mind, and when he couldn’t find anything wrong, we just decided to get you in bed and wait until morning. Don’t worry, you were only out one night. Do you have any idea what happened?” Sophie furrowed her brows, biting her lower lip anxiously. She slowly shook her head, pulling her knees to her chest and running her fingers through Iggy’s fur with her free hand. Grady lingered in the doorway, his gaze fixed on the troublesome imp, and the chewed pieces of pink paper next to him.
“I remember reading a note…” Sophie started, but Elwin cut her off solemnly.
“We saw it on the floor next to you. We tried to track him, but…” He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Keefe’s gone, Sophie. I’m so sorry. We tried everything…”
“No- it’s fine. I’m fine. Just like I’m sure-” Sophie pinched her eyes shut, fighting tears. “I’m sure Keefe will be fine. We just have to… to give him space. Dragging him back will only make it worse.” Fitz stood a few feet away, fidgeting with the corner of his cape. Sophie wasn’t sure what he had seen in her mind, if anything, and that was slightly unnerving. Not that she didn’t trust Fitz--she did trust him, more than anyone--but she didn’t want anyone to know about that Aura person or her journal entry. Not yet, at least. She still wasn’t entirely sure what that was about, but she had some suspicions.
“So, what you’re saying is we should just forget about Keefe?” Fitz asked, his tone a mix of attempted patience and frustration. Sophie met his gaze, making sure that she wouldn’t be the one to break it.
“I think we should find him, but leave him be. Keefe needs to figure his abilities out himself. He is the only one who can fix this now.” Sophie tried to will herself to believe her words, but even she was a little skeptical. Fitz nodded painfully, although he looked like he wanted to argue.
“What else do you remember?” Elwin asked after an awkward silence. Sophie tugged on an eyelash, trying to indiscreetly look for the other note she had read prior to falling asleep. She saw it, or, well, what was left of it. She would have to thank Iggy later.
“I remember crying, and then darkness. I think I might have just cried myself to sleep or something,” Sophie fibbed, rubbing the back of her neck. Elwin turned that idea over in his head, nodding slightly.
“That’s a possibility, since everything else seemed normal. Take it easy today, though. I won’t prescribe rest, since as far as we are aware you actually slept last night, but I don’t want you doing anything dangerous.”
“Fair enough,” Sophie agreed.
“And I want you and Fitz to do some cognate exercises today. Maybe you can find something.” Sophie had to bite her tongue to keep from groaning. She was just starting to taste blood when Elwin nodded to Grady, raising his crystal into the light to go back home. She sighed quietly, pushing her hair out of her face.
“When do you want to start training?” Fitz asked her, fiddling with the cognate rings on his thumbs.
“Well, I’d like to eat something first,” Sophie replied lightly, smiling. “I didn’t have dinner last night.”
“Right…” he said tightly. His eyes flicked to Grady, who was still hovering in the doorway. Grady redirected his stare to the nearest window, cracking his neck casually. The sun was positioned so perfectly that beams of soft light filtered into the otherwise dimly lit room. While there wasn’t much furniture for it to cascade off of, the flowers in the floor seemed to sparkle in the light. It looked even prettier outside because of a gentle fog that had settled near the ground from the ocean, the dew on the grass capturing the dancing rays in an almost tantalizing way. That was the beauty of nature, after all. Always so peaceful, so calm, so beautiful.
Except where it no longer wasn’t.
Sophie winced, internally cringing when she realized how that must have looked to the others in the room.
“Edaline wasn’t sure when you would wake up, so breakfast is a little simple this morning,” Grady said after clearing his throat. “It should be sitting at your spot on the table, whenever you’re ready. There should be something for you, too, Fitz, should you want it. I know you’ve been here for a few hours.” Fitz’s gaze flicked to Sophie briefly, gauging her reaction to the term “hours,” before turning back to Grady and nodding his thanks.
“I’ll wait for you downstairs,” Fitz told Sophie, squeezing past Grady to get to the stairs. “See you in a bit.” As he disappeared around the corner, Fitz’s voice whispered in her mind. I saw your dreams. Sophie tried her best to keep her expression steady even as she replied.
I figured. We’ll talk about it later. While Grady seemed suspicious of her, he didn’t press as he left, leaving Sophie to her privacy. She released a sigh as she slipped into her bathroom, taking a quick shower and tying her hair back into a simple knot before slipping into a casual outfit. Before leaving, she rubbed Iggy’s fuzzy head, whispering, “Thank you,” softly. Iggy burped in acknowledgement, shaking out his mass of colorful fluff. Sophie gathered up the pieces of soggy, pink paper into her palm, shoving the remains into one of her pockets. “Trust no one,” was the last piece she found, and she stared at it for a little longer than the rest. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed like light was bouncing off of every surface except for the one measly word. Trust. The word seemed to weigh quite a lot in her mind lately. Who did she trust, after all? Who did anyone trust, really?
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Sophie shoved the scrap in with the rest, then left her bedroom to go meet Fitz for breakfast, followed by training.
Breakfast was delicious. It was a mixture of roots that tasted like bacon, a pastry oddly similar to pancakes, and then a berry smoothie that had Sophie grabbing seconds, just so she could freeze it to make popsicles since, for whatever reason, she was craving something sweet and cold. It wasn’t even that warm out; The fog and ocean breeze had cooled the coastside down. Even still, Sophie had poured herself another glass, shoved a spoon in the middle, and tossed it in the freezer, despite the fact that Fitz’s face was turning red as he tried to cover his laugh. She had only rolled her eyes, insisting that she had done it a thousand times, and proceeded to fill more glasses with the smoothie and spoons.
It hadn’t even taken long for the smoothies to finish chilling, and so, when Sophie started gnawing on her popsicle, Fitz couldn’t help but ask for one as well.
“Don’t think it’s weird anymore, do you?” Sophie asked between bites.
“Oh, I still think it’s weird. Not necessarily the idea, but the way you are eating it.” Fitz wrinkled his nose. “Now give me one! Stop shoving it in my face!” Sophie laughed as she reached for another cup popsicle, tossing it back behind her. Before it could reach him, however, the cup stopped falling and simply hovered in the air. Fitz furrowed his brow, then reached for the cup. Sophie snorted when the cup moved away, freezing in the air again. The two telepaths locked stares, each one daring the other to make a move. Sophie made the popsicle dance, teasing him.
“Come and get it!” She taunted, raising and lowering it. Fitz rolled his eyes, laughing.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he warned, getting into a mock battle stance.
“Which way means you have to fight for the popsicle?” Sophie asked challengingly. She twirled the cup around just out of Fitz’s reach as she took another bite out of her own dessert.
“Neither,” Fitz said, smirking. “It just means you have to fight to keep it.” He then launched himself into the air, but Sophie was faster, pulling energy from her gut to send the popsicle away. Fitz was ready, though, and so he used telekinesis as well to yank Sophie’s cape over her head.
“Hey!” She squealed, as she tried and failed to return the cape to its proper position. By then, Fitz had gotten control over the cup, and as he peered inside to look at his treasure, he realized he had been tricked. The popsicle was no longer in there. “Looking for something?” Sophie asked, twirling both popsicles around her head, her vision finally unobscured. Fitz squinted his eyes, pursing his lips.
By then, Edaline had poked her head through the doorway to see what was going on, and, seeing the standoff, promptly left. Of course, not before stealing a popsicle of her own first.
“Listen, Sophie,” Fitz said slowly. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Just… hand me the popsicle and no one has to get hurt.” Sophie cracked her knuckles as she prepared for a second attack. Fitz laughed, cracking his neck.
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Sophie mocked. In response, Fitz latched onto Sophie’s popsicle with his mind, since it wasn’t as closely guarded.
“Give me the popsicle or your popsicle gets it,” Fitz said, moving the half-eaten popsicle towards an open window.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Sophie tried to regain control of her own, but failed. When Fitz moved the popsicle even closer, Sophie raised her arms in defeat. “Alright! Alright! That popsicle has a family, you know.” She held out her hand for Fitz to drop the popsicle into, and floated the uneaten one towards him. Fitz smirked, making the exchange.
“Thank you kindly, m’lady,” he said tauntingly.
“Glad to be of service,” Sophie grumbled, snatching her popsicle and chomping down. She pinched the bridge of her nose when the wave of cold hit her insides. “My brain!” She cried.
“That’s your penance for eating it in such a disgraceful way,” Fitz said, laughing. Not a second later, Fitz cursed under his breath as he, too, started rubbing his forehead. “Why are these so dang cold?” He asked.
“Karma,” she snickered. “They’re popsicles, what did you expect?”
“I think it’s funny how we were supposed to be doing cognate training this whole time, but instead we had a popsicle war,” Fitz said, chuckling.
“Yeah, well, this was more important.”
“Indeed.” The two of them were silent as they enjoyed their popsicle, with Sophie chomping down and Fitz licking away. The latter suggested that they finish up and start training, to which Sophie insisted that the popsicles were the priority.
“You said you would tell me about your dreams,” Fitz said in between licks. Sophie bit her lip, her gaze falling to the floor.
“How much did you see?” She asked quietly. Fitz frowned, hesitating.
I saw your old journal. The words were mostly blurred, but pages were floating around in an almost taunting way. I swear I didn’t see any words… Fitz said quickly. Sophie nodded slowly.
I can’t remember my dreams, I didn’t even realize I fell asleep, she transmitted. Then she added, Thank you, for checking, I mean. And, I guess, for telling me. I was really stressed out last night about Keefe and I- Sophie swallowed back tears. I wanted to be left alone. I didn’t think Elwin would be desperate enough to send you in, so I panicked because even I don’t entirely know what happened. I didn’t know what thoughts were floating around, or what dreams. I didn’t want you to see some of the things I dream about…
I understand, Fitz’s mental voice whispered. I often feel the same way. But I must ask… Why were the pages burning?
To be continued...
Category:Fanfiction