KotLC Fanfiction

Hi! This fanfiction is supposed to take place when Sophie is older. Just so you know, chapter one is more like a prologue, since a lot happens between chapter one and chapter two. I'll update at least once every week. Hope you like!
-Eudora Perine
All original characters belong to Shannon Messenger (Sophie, Keefe, etc).
Specific stories by Eudora Perine
Chapter one: Sokeefe
Beautiful soft white butterflies danced in the wind, eating from flowers' nectar, fluttering joyously around Calla's panakes as if they knew that today was a day for laughter.
Sophie sat beneath panakes, the butterflies flowing around her. She looked out across the fields of luscious-looking grass. Her heart panged with nerves as her stomach mirrored the butterflies' movements.
Today was the day.
Sophie knew this was the right decision. Keefe cared for her almost as much as Sophie for him. They had been through so much together. It had been years since the Neverseen had been defeated, years since the council's flaws had been fixed.
But Sophie had been avoiding this. She wasn't sure why.
Maybe it was the way Grady had been glaring at them.
Or the sappy smiles from Edaline.
Or the way the world hated bad matches.
But now, at this moment, she was happy and content. Nothing could ruin this day.
Sophie stood and breathed in the sweet, soft smell of the panakes petals. She could have sworn that she heard a soft song of encouragement, bravery, and happiness flowing from Calla's roots, energizing her before the big event.
Then Sophie pulled the long, flowing, white dress up so she wouldn't trip, and began her walk toward the future.
. . .
"Hey," Keefe smiled softly at Sophie, taking her hand. "We got this. Teem Foster-Keefe for the win."
They waited together in silence until it was time for Keefe to walk up.
Sophie told herself Keefe's words over and over again.
Then it was time.'''
Sophie stood and started the slow, torturous walk to the podium, where Keefe was standing.
She heard her heeled shoes clacking on the floor.
Clack
Clack
Clack
She heard every rustle of her dress.
Rustle
Rustle
Rustle
Then time seem to go back to normal as she zeroed in on Keefe.
And she was there.
All she had to do was sign the paper.
Sophie reached out and grabbed the pen. Her hand was sweaty. The butterflies in her stomach were fluttering stronger. She lowered the pen to the line and...
...signed her name.
Sophie smiled, relieved, and looked at Keefe right when he pulled her in.
As they kissed and the crowd cheered, tiny robotic spiders crawled out from under the spectator seats; crawling around on people and annoying every one of them. Tiny robotic spiders... Just like Keefe had said he would use for his lucky bride.
The feeling of warmth and love wrapped her and she fell into giddy laughter as she celebrated; She was lucky. And she had been Keefe's bride.
But she was married to him now, and as she looked over at him as he was laughing with Fitz, she saw a whole future of joy and contentment.
And finally belonging.
Chapter two: Lost
Sophie was lost. 
Keefe was lost. 
The ground rumbled and Sophie stumbled through the dense fog. Hopelessness engulfed her as she walked endlessly through the field of wilted flowers, past Calla's dead panake. Sophie felt numb and empty. She had everything, then lost it; all because of her foolishness. Sophie tripped and her ankle seared with pain. What was the point of going on? She was trapped; trapped in a miserable figment of reality, a place she would wander forever... A crack opened in the ground and Sophie fell through. What was death to her? She hit the bottom of the hole and pain burst through her body. Her head felt like lead, but she was able to recall what Gisela had said to her... 
"You caused us so many problems. I think you should have a worse punishment than death. Maybe a nice dose of misery? You could go through that, but what after?" Gisela had paused and looked Sophie in the eye, coldness and cruel happiness in them. "I know. What better than a place where you endure misery but don't die?" Then Gisela had smiled an awful smile. "Good luck!" and Sophie had been whisked away...
Now she was stuck. Sophie sobbed horrible, fat tears and felt defeat. It swallowed her up and Sophie heard echoes of Gisela's laughter.
"I knew the moonlark was too weak." 
Surprisingly, it was Gisela that made her get up after her fit subsided. She heard the echoes of her voice and decided she wouldn't let Gisela defeat her. She was shocked by how much courage anger gave her- or maybe it was just recklessness. Whichever one she had, it made her slowly sit up, making her back feel like it was on fire. She had to suck in deep breaths of the thick, stale air to keep from crying out in pain. Sophie slowly stood up, whimpering as pain shot up through her body. It was so tempting to just give up. It was as if the air sensed her rebellious nature and wanted to drown it. Sophie heard whispers saying "You're so tired. Sleep for a while." The ground did look so soft...
She shook her head and stumbled to the nearest wall of dirt. How would she get up? "It's impossible," soothed the whisper "Just give up. It will be so much easier"
She clawed at the dirt, trying pitifully to climb, but the little bits just crumbled. Her head spun and she rested her head against the dirt until it calmed. The whisper kept on going, telling her to give up, but she wouldn't listen. 
She kept on clawing at the dirt until she was too tired to keep going. Then, using the last of her energy, she kicked the dirt wall out of desperation.
That was a mistake.
The dirt rained down on Sophie, both small and big chunks until it covered her completely.
Chapter 3: Forgotten 
Sophie.
Sophie Sophie Sophie.
Where was Sophie?
The thoughts pulled and pushed Him until his consciousness took a form of being. 
Sophie Sophie Sophie
He was... somewhere? Nowhere? Where was he? He shifted. Was that his body?
Sophie. Who was Sophie? She was someone important. But who was she?
Who was he? He was…
He didn’t know. 
Familiar, dark laughter echoed in his mind, and he was lost and forgotten once more.
Sorry all, this chapter was more of a filler. Kinda short too. I just wanted to set the scene. It's also pretty cringy, but I decided to update it anyway.
Chapter three: 
Oh, how Vern just loved the sound of screams in the morning! No. That was a joke. She hated them. Especially since the screams were caused by her grandmother. Vern hated her grandmother too. Vern’s grandmother was too calculating, busing trying to give Vern enough love to make her love her back. It wasn’t going to work. Vern’s father had warned her about it and then her grandmother came back and…
Nope. She was not going there.
Long story short, grandma Gisela had become a dictator. Vern had heard of humans who thought all grandmas were wrinkly and weak. Not Vern’s grandmother. 
Instead, Vern was stuck playing mental chess with her grandmother all day. From sun up to sundown. Sometimes the times were in the middle of the night; When her grandmother would come in and wake her and try to make her do something. She remained as stubborn as ever. Like her dad and mom would have wanted her to.
Then there was the mystery of Vern’s parents. When they had been dragged away, Gisela had told her that they had broken the law and were under arrest. Vern knew that wasn’t true. But where were they now? Sometimes Vern would miss them so much her heart felt numb, but other times she was able to focus on something else.
Like her book. Her illegal book. She was writing a book that she would someday publish, about her experiences with “The Queen”. The experiences obviously weren’t so great. 
As for the screams, those were from the people who dared stand up against Vern’s grandmother. They were in the cells below the "castle". Vern had never been there, and she never would go there willingly unless to rescue people. A few of the screams came from the compound a few streets over. The compound was for humans. Vern had read a book about the Holocaust from human history. The book was devastating. Vern was sobbing by the end of it, sobbing for all the dead and tortured souls that one power-hungry man had caused. Vern had never understood how anyone could be that ruthless- until the trip to the human compound. The compound was like the ghettos from the Holocaust and her grandmother had made her watch as she tortured a human, saying, “Honestly Vern, have you grown soft? You need to embrace the ruthlessness. Prove to yourself that you aren’t weak. Help me,” But Vern had stayed rooted to the same spot as she watched the human slowly die at the hands of her grandmother. It was a woman who had a baby. The baby was asleep, laying on the ground, wrapped in dirty cloth. Vern wanted to help the mother and baby, but her grandmother had brought guards with her. Vern wasn’t able to help. She could only stand there, or help her grandmother torture the mother. It nearly ripped her heart in half.
Please don’t wake up and make noise, She had thought. My Grandmother might kill you.
Chapter four:
Sophie was jerked back into her body. It felt strange- stiff and cold. 
What happened? The words took a while to form, like fighting to drag a boat against the current. 
Voices. Sophie could hear them, but was not able to distinguish the words. It was like her ears had to learn how to hear all over again.
She lay there, regaining her senses. The voices had gone, but she could hear herself breathing. Feel the cold stone underneath her. Taste and smell the putrid air. 
Her muscles began to relax, and while she was still cold and a little bit stiff, she felt a lot better. 
Then she formed a better question. 
Where was she?
Sophie had to tell her eyelids to lift, each muscle movement sending a wave of mild pain to her nerves. Light flooded Sophie’s vision and then she realized…
Lumenaria. She was in a cell in Lumenaria. Her brain took a while to catch up. But…
This wasn’t possible. 
Lumenaria had fallen. The sword Sophie saw in the corner of her eye was destroyed. 
Someone behind her clicked their tongue, but Sophie didn’t have enough energy to twist her head to see who it was. 
“Oh, Sophie. If I had known you were going to overcomplicate this, I would have used this method ages ago. “ Sophie could recognize the voice, but her head was too busy pounding and spinning to help. Heels clacked on the floor, coming closer. “You love to overcomplicate things. That’s why you get along with my son so well. If only you could realize that you're doing this to yourself.”
Herself
Herself
Herself
She couldn’t really focus on the words, so she left them crashing around in her head until she could comprehend them.
Right now, she wanted to sleep. Her eyes fought to close and she fell… fell… fell…
Never wanting to reach the end of the darkness.
Hi, sorry it took so long for this chapter. I've been really busy and had a bit of writer's block. 
Chapter Five: 
Vern jerked awake. She took a few deep breaths, then sat up. Blood rushed to her head and she almost fell over again. 
It was the middle of the night, the moonlight shining through her window. She walked over to it and opened it. A welcome breeze fluttered the curtains and blew Vern's hair. The view was dizzying, over a hundred stories up. Below was the New City, where all the Elite lived. Beside the homes was one of the fenced Ghettos. It was silent. Vern sighed. She walked over to the corner, where she took off her slippers and threw them over the tiny security camera. She wasn't supposed to know it was there, so she tried to look as casual as possible, as if it was an accident she threw them there. Then she shoved her hand through the bottom of the floor and retrieved her notebook. Vern had altered the floor with a gadget she had gotten from a friend. Gisela had taken it away soon after, but she'd had no idea that Vern had used it. 
Vern took a pencil from her pocket and started to write in the little light she had, moving the curtains over the window. She had to be a secretive as she could. If her grandmother found out about her notebook, Vern didn't know what would happen. But she was determined to rebel as much as she could. She supposed she got a lot of that from her father.
Vern's pencil scratched words over the paper. She peeked out the window again. Then the world tilted.
" ...it may be possible."
"That... Might work."
"If I really wanted to, I could probably make the whole ceiling disappear."
"I should go. My servant will deliver meals to each of your rooms at seven."
Vern jerked upright. She had been getting audio like this for a while, but only a few sentences at a time. She figured she was going crazy. It would make sense; anyone could go crazy under Gisela's rule. 
She went back to writing, but her mind was still wandering. Why was this happening? Surely if she was going insane, she would be acting crazy, too. 
Then Vern's sharp ears caught the sound of footsteps a couple floors down. Her hearing had always be impeccable. So Vern quickly pushed her notebook back into the floor, put her pencil in her pocket, opened the curtains and sat in front of the window, checking to make sure she didn't have any lead on her hand. She didn't. Good. 
Just in time, too, because a second later, Gisela opened the door.
"Grandmother." Vern acknowledged her. 
"Vern," Gisela looked down at her. She had so much fake sweetness in her voice that it almost hurt to listen to her. "What are you doing up this late?"
"I woke up because of a nightmare," Vern said. A nightmare that you caused. "I couldn't get back to sleep."
"Would you like a sedative? You know we have a lot." She held out a vial, her nails clinking on the glass.
"I would not."
"Hmm," Gisela smiled tucked the vial back into her pocket. "You're nearly ready."
"I'm not ruling. Not like you."
"You wouldn't rule, my dear. You would be my right hand. It's your legacy." Gisela said it with such pride, but Vern's stomach just soured. 
"I already told you. No."
"Well, not yet," Gisella got a faraway look in her eyes. Vern had a feeling she was deep in thought. In Vern's right pocket, she had hidden a knife. She took a lot of risks getting it. Vern could probably end her grandmother here and now. But she couldn't. There was no explanation for why not, but Vern just couldn't. She supposed part of it was because Gisela was family, and part of it was if Vern killed her she would be just as bad as Gisela.
Instead, Vern would wait and free her parents, free everyone who could help, and fight with all of them. But for now, she had to collect information. She had to make sure that Gisela hadn't killed them.
"You aren't ready just yet," Gisela said. "But don't worry, Vern. You'll get your chance."
"Tell me where my parents are and maybe I'll do it."
"Oh, my dear," Gisela clasped her hands together. "They're nowhere you could find them."
I did it! I got this story off of hiatus and I'm back at it! I also figured out a pen name!
Chapter Six: Manifestation
Vern had been expecting to manifest her ability for a while now. She was thrilled by the thought that she might me able to turn invisible or walk through walls. It was another one of the ways she kept herself sane (if she even was anymore). She was thirteen now, prime age. She had always kept a close eye on her birthday because her mom did. Mom had always celebrated Vern's birthday, trying to keep a tradition that she grew up with. So Vern knew she was thirteen years and 23 days old. 
Vern had started to feel an itching in her fingers. So Vern had convinced her mentor to escort her to the Healing Center, where Elwin examined her. Then he announced that he didn't know what was wrong with her.
"Your parents would be proud." He whispered to her, out of hearing range of the watching mentor. He was being forced to work for Gisela, but that hadn't stopped him from helping Vern do some illegal things. 
"Unfortunately," Elwin said, louder. He sighed and shook his head dramatically. " I don't know what's wrong. I do wish I knew. But the answer seems to be hidden in the shadows." 
"That's too bad." Vern said. Then she smiled. Elwin had been abundantly clear. 
She was a shade.
Now all she had to do was keep it a secret. It would be no use to Vern if everyone knew. So she went back to class, endured her mentor's lecture on how the current government was incredibly better than the council, and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 
Sorry, this chapter's short. I'm on a time-crunch for something else, but I had to get this chapter written first. I may add to it later.
It is so hard to leave-- until you leave...
~Eudora Perine
Chapter Seven: Uncovered
Vern had absolutely no idea how to control her shade ability. At first, it was easy. Controlling shadows? Pfff, no problemo. But when it came to shadowflux, Vern had no idea. Whenever she tried to summon it she got this feeling in her gut. Like it was inaccessible. Forbidden. 
Then again, Vern had nobody to teach her. There was no way she’d willingly tell Lady Gisela about her ability, although Vern had noticed Gisela watching her carefully- even more than normal. After all, Vern was of manifesting age. Vern had no idea what Gisela might have done if Vern turned out talentless. Or do- if Vern managed to keep her ability secret until she aged out of the age range for manifestation. 
But here was the catch: Vern needed that Shadowflux to get to Elysian. 
When Vern’s grandmother had made her surprise attack and takeover on the Lost Cities, Elysian had been off in Antarctica, honing her abilities. Since Gisela was so comfortable with her throne, Vern assumed Elysian had been taken care of. And she was right, because after a lot of snooping, she found where Elysian was. She was pretty excited because it was the first thing she discovered under Gisela’s watchful eye, but then Vern realised that it was impossible to get to. Until manifesting as a shade, she had absolutely no hope of getting to Elysian, let alone breaking her out. But Shadowflux was a part of what Elysian was imprisoned with. So that meant that if Vern could master Shadowflux, she had a chance. 
But Vern’s efforts weren't going anywhere, so her new ability was basically worthless. Great. 
It was night when that all changed. 
Vern was sleeping, or, trying to sleep, when Gisela came for one of their nightly “sessions”. Where Gisela would just play around with Vern until she got bored- or frustrated, whichever came first, and leave. 
“Hello, granddaughter,” Gisela said. 
“Mm.” Vern replied, deciding she felt like going for the acting bored approach. That normally got her grandmother angry. There was nothing Gisela hated more than being shoved off because she was thought of as too boring. So Vern reached for a book and started reading. She immediately regretted it, though. It was her history book, the one issued by Gisela’s new curriculum. 
“I know you’re hiding something.” 
“Aren’t I always hiding something?” Vern replied. “Honestly, I swear I hear those words from you every other week.” 
“This is bigger. Teenagers are always hiding something, true, but you're hiding something bigger than you should.”
“Uh-huh. What’s that?” Vern said sarcastically, not looking up from her book that she was scanning but not taking in a word of it.
“I think you know,” Gisela said. She snapped her fingers, bringing an orb of Shadowflux out of the void. “You’ve been trying to summon Shadowflux. You’re a shade.”
Vern decided to look up at Gisela, to see if she wasn’t quite sure and was trying to gauge Vern’s reaction to get an answer. But, unfortunately, it didn’t look that way. Vern’s secret wasn’t a secret anymore. 
“You know,” Gisela said once Vern didn’t answer. “Once I took over the Lost Cities, I’m sure you know that I’ve been collecting all the power I can. All the Shadowflux is in my grasp, therefore out of yours- like this little piece.” She motioned with the orb in her hands. 
“But?” Vern prompted. “There’s always a “but” with you.”
“Yes,” Gisela agreed. “I would be willing to let you train with it. If you agree to work with me.”
“You know, I think you’re upset that you weren’t able to succeed after making my dad more powerful, that you still couldn’t control him. And now you’re trying to make up for that by trying to control me, and you know what? I’m not going to take your deal because if I train with you or do things for you in order to train, I’m not training at all.” 
Gisela breathed out heavily, a hint of anger twisting her stretched features of her face. “We’ll see if you change your mind.” Then she turned and walked out. 
After the door had shut, Vern pulled the covers over herself so Gisela couldn’t spy on how she reacted. Then she breathed out and tried to calm her knotted stomach.
I think this chapter is the one that took so long. I've been so busy writing other things and (sorry) but I sorta forgot about this one. I'm so glad I got to working on it again, though. I had fun writing this. 
Until next time!