Chapter Text
Keefe - POV
“Biana was right, these masks smell funky” Keefe commented as he looked around at the rocky mountain side. The winds whipped harshly ruffling Keefe’s hair as he gazed up towards the sky. A flock of birds struggling to stabilize flew up above the relatively unplagued looking trees.
“No sign of the plague here,” His head turns to Sophie as she speaks, nodding slightly in agreement. A slight furrow crosses his face in disappointment, * how were they supposed to find clues now .*
“So, um… where’s the school, are you sure we are in the right place?” an obviously annoyed aura surrounded Biana as she continuously brushed the hair out of her face, accidentally brushing against Keefe.
Dex countered “We used their beads though?”
“True” Sophie added, everyone was growing more agitated as the summit continued to show signs of any elves. There was silence for a moment till Fitz spoke up with a suggestion of teleporting to Alluveterre.
*I wish we could be back at Foxfire at least then there would be people to bother and we’re clearly not going to get anything done if this tension keeps building,* “Or she could take us to Foxfire and we could run around the halls screaming “YOU CAN’T GET RID OF US THAT EASILY” He cracks a grin at the group when they visible start to relax a little, smiling at his joke. There’s a chorus of agreement.
“I like that plan”
“Me too”
“Of course you do. It’s brilliant” giving his signature cocky grin at them as they head further up the rocky path. The fog was so thick he could barely see the ground he was standing on, looking over the landscape he couldn’t help but let his mind wander a bit.
*I wonder what the black swan is doing right now. What do they have planned? It’s good that we’re investigating the plague but what are they doing to find the cure? They can’t actually believe that the council is doing anything productive to help can they? They're probably relieved about not having to deal with Gisela anymore at least. Haha… what’s it like to be dead mommy dearest? Not that you’d tell me anyway, you’d probably be too busy being dead, or doing dead things, or just not want to bother with your useless waste of a son again… Foster’s back to being the hero at least! always saving the day not caring about herself.*
A sudden scream to his left pulls him out of his spiraling thoughts as a sudden jerk from beneath his feet sends him flying upwards along with the rest of his friends. The rush of blood to his head as he hangs upside down momentarily shocks him before he’s thrashing around to get loose. A shout from in front of him immediately stills his actions as he recuperates. *Gotta save face.*
“Welcome to your Dividing!” Three cloaked figures emerge from the mist, the red cloak leading the purple and blue one behind them.
“You must find your way to freedom,” spoke the purple
“There’s no right answer to the problem” , voiced the blue.
*What is this? Divergent? Is that the right reference? I’m pretty sure this is similar to what Sophie described to me from the books. Whatever I need to get out of here now.*
The loud buzzing in his head didn’t help as he slowly lifted himself up to his feet swiftly working at his boots to get them off.
*If I can just get my boots off I could easily slip out of the knot. Ow . I didn’t count for rug burns. Ow . Whatever, I can deal with this much pain. Ow . I wonder how the others are doing? Ow. Almost there. Ow. Finally! Jeez that’s definitely gonna leave a mark.*
“YOU THINK YOU CAN HOLD M—!” He dropped to the ground.
*Uh oh.*
–-L o ng string of elvish swear words that leave Fitz’s ears bleeding—
Keefe lays on the ground a bit winded as the pain sets in from the fall.
He hears Sophie call him.
“Are you ok?”
Quickly hiding the growing pain in his body he calls back “I’ve been better,” Not wanting her to worry he adds a quick “Guess I forgot to brace for the fall” before trying his first attempt to stand.
“He also forgot his pants” A figure behind him noted.
He quickly looks down at himself as he stands slowly to the rippling giggles in the background to admire his favorite pair of banshee underwear. The sudden increase in voices makes him aware the three cloaked figures aren’t his only audience. Quickly brushing himself off he glances upwards towards his now forgotten, torn pants and abandoned boots. *Man I like those pants, but at least I’m no longer hanging there defenseless. I wish Sophie would get down from there already. It can't be safe for any of them to be up there too long.*
He turns towards the figures and looks through the fog now suddenly seeing a large gathering of what he assumes to be waywards. Acknowledging the three coaches he starts to look over the crowd and take in the different people. A silver glint reflected off one of the hoods in the crowd. * Wonder what everyone did, do they deserve or does the council just hate them like they do for us.*
The rest of the gang started dropping down one by one, Dex did something to make a knife, Biana frayed the knot, and Fitz did some fancy levitating trick. * Show off, Sophie’s the last one left, wonder what she’s gonna do to make a statement. That’s the Foster way after all.*
What he wasn’t prepared for was the sudden ball of flame that erupted from Foster’s feet as she continued to dangle from the fastly burning rope as the flames licked up her legs. * FIRE ! SHE’S GONNA FALL, and she won’t be able to catch herself, FOSTER WHY DO YOU NEVER THINK AHEAD! I’ve got to act quickly!*
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Keefe stares at Sophie's resting body as she breathes fretfully in her sleep. * I should have been the one to help her, why am I always too slow? Instead I just stood back uselessly as some Hydrokinetic wayward stepped in? What if they weren’t there? What if they had been an enemy? Why can I never help anyone?*
Relief floods Keefe as Sophie's eyes begin to flutter open.
“Leave it to you to try to burn down Exilium on the first day,” He says with a light smile while Sophie looks around the tent. The faded tent's lights glittered around Keefe as he noticed Sophie loopy scramble to cover herself with the blanket. A goofy fart sound emitted from the bed as she moved. Sophie looked up at Keefe in embarrassment as the glittering lights around her sparkled brighter. Keefe giggled at the sound.
“That was the mattress” Sophie said distressingly.
The giggles continued to bubble out of keefe as he responded “Everyone farts foster, It’s cool. I still think you’re cute” He stared at Sophie adoringly as her eyes suddenly wandered anywhere but him. She started to turn back to him as his vision blurred again. He stretched out from a sudden cramp and was greeted with a piercing ache coming from his ankle.
“How’s your ankle” she indicated towards his feet as he continued to smile loopily at her recovering from his slight display of pain.
He hiccuped as he replied “The booberie dude said it’s not broken. And he gave me this to help with the pain” Lifting up the empty vial in his hand while hiccuping again. Swirling around its imaginary contents as he watched the lights refract off the slightly cloudy glass.
“Booberie dude?” Sophie questioned.
“He wouldn't tell me his name. And he has this crazy bird mask.” He giggled as the image of the colorful mask flashed across his mind. Such pretty feathers haha.
“Where did he go?”
“Hopefully to get me more of this” He responded wiggling the vial once more. Lifting it up toi his lips to try and get anymore of its nonexistent contents, eventually just licking the rim.
“Do you know what's in it?”
“Not a clue, all I know is that it tastes like kissing a muskog” He remembers the unpleasantly funny experience from his younger Foxfire years with a short delirious smirk on his face.
“And you have a lot of experience with that?” questioned Sophie.
“Hey! I never say no to a dare!” he defended with a mischievous grin.
Sophie pauses as she looks back at the boy next to her “Wait- you seriously kissed a muskog?” an incredulous look on her face as she waited for his response.
Hiccuping Keefe replied “ I’ve kissed lots of things! Just ask Biana!” A list of people and things crossed his mind as he remembered every creature and classmate to fall victim to one of his notorious dared kisses.
“You kissed Biana?”
*One of the more memorable kisses for sure thanks to Fitz’s banshee level tantrum from me actually doing it and Bianas shell shocked expression, though I will admit it wasn’t one of my most enjoyable kisses.* A light grimace crosses his face as he tries not to think too hard on it, she just wasn’t his type.
“A couple years ago, yeah, mostly on the cheek” watching as Foster wrinkled her nose in confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘mostly’?”
“You want a demonstration?” He cheekily asks back, smirking. He leans in teasingly as Foster leans back blushing profusely.
“It wasn’t a big deal, just a dare.” He added lightly, noticing her discomfort.
“Ok”
*She’s upset. Why’s she upset? I don’t want her to be uncomfortable, what changed?*
“You’re a hard one to read Miss F, You know that? Sometimes I think you-” His eyes drift to the floor. “Ohhhh, the booberie dude gave you some of the awesomesauce!” Quickly pointing at the vial on the floor reaching for it as he spoke “You should take it. Or if you don’t want it, you should give it to me!” Sophie swiftly grabbed the vial before Keefe could reach it.
“I think you’ve had enough” She replied while eyeing Keefes pleading face as he longingly eyed the vial.
“Boo- You’re worse than my mom! Actually, no you’re not. No one is. Was. What’s the right verb? It needs to be past tense, Right?” The sudden thoughts snaps him out of his delirium as he adjusts from his languid position to a more rigid curled ball. A tapping noise fills the empty silence as Keefe momentarily slips into thought.
*I miss her. I know I shouldn’t, I mean why would I, mommy dearest wasn’t exactly a model parent in any department. Yeah, It’s a good thing she's dead, yeah. This makes things easier for the black swan and the council. That's one less bad guy to deal with, it's a win for the good guys! It’s a win, this is good. It’s a win. It’s not like I was ever with her much anyway. She was always busy, or not busy. Couldn’t be bothered with her no good son. Useless gifts, why’d I even bother? What use am I even? I can’t do anything right. At least she knew that from the get go. Probably why she never encouraged any of my childish attempts at attention. Well look at me now mom! As immature as ever! Are you proud? Haha, probably not, you’re dead, and apparently is… was, with the Neverseen. How did I not know? It was so obvious if I just looked a bit more, did more, if I was just smarter, better. God I’m useless.
Nevermind.
It’s ok. This is good. Things are better now that she's gone.*
“Right now it’s in the ‘we don’t know’ tense, Keefe,” Sophie breaks the stream of tapping silence gently.
*She is dead right? She has to be.* “Yeah” “I made her a necklace once, have I ever told you? I painted a different flower on each bead to match her favorite bracelet, guess how often she wore it?” He paused at Sophie as if expecting a response, he didn’t wait for one “not even once” he emphasized by lifting two fists.
“I really thought she would, she even defended it from my dad when he said it was a waste of time, I should have been studying for my Foxfire entrance exams instead. But she told him it was pretty, I had already studied for my agriculture exam, not that it mattered” He looked down and fiddled with the robe he had on.
“So I thought she’d wear it” He adds quietly “But nope. She always wore that ugly ruby necklace he brought her instead” His expression soured as his tapping got more aggressive eventually slipping from his grasp, making a lonely clinking sound as it bounced on the ground. Keefe only stared at it as it fell.
Sophie gets up in an attempt to reach for the vial but quickly sits back down as she gasps harshly from the pain caused by her leg.
“That’s what you get for climbing out of bed before I tell you,” a sharp voice cut through the tense silence.
Keefe’s face lights up as he sees the odd figure enter the tent “Hey- It's the booberie dude! Got anymore of the good stuff?” He adds cheekily eyeing the man as if he would be hiding a vial somewhere beneath the folds of his cloak.
*That stuff really did make him feel funny, he hadn’t felt like this since his mom died, hmm maybe it would be better not to have any more as his mind kept drifting to places he did not want it to go.* Keefe returns to gazing at his surroundings as the lights seem to slowly lose their sparkle. * Damn it, the vial’s wearing off.* His gaze returns to Sophie as she continues to talk with the boobrie dude.
“Well, I’m assuming comments like that are what got you here. Probably those eyes, too” commented the boobrie dude.
Keefe’s head snapped over to him “Hey I like Foster’s eyes. Brown is so much warmer than blue” He gazed adoringly at her as she turned her attention back to the other man, a slight blush tinting her cheeks. * They sparkle like gold in the sun, they shine with so much warmth and fit her so well, always the light in the dark, hope. Different from silver with its cold refined touch, alone yet still brilliant, yet always only thanks to the shine of the sun. Overshadowed, underappreciated, like me. Always second best, never enough by itself. But beautiful nonetheless. And silver jewelry always looked the best on me.*
“You two should be careful names aren't welcome here”
Keefe jumped in excitedly “does that mean I can keep calling you booberie dude?”
“If you must. But I’m serious about my warning. Keep to yourself, Focus and the skills. And wipe your leg” Booberie dude adds as he hands sSophie a not entirely clean towel. The conversation shifts towards the hydrokinetic that saved Sophie earlier.
*At least Sophie’s injuries aren’t bad, I wish I didn’t have to rely on a stranger to help her though. I wasn’t expecting that from the wayward though, thanking her is the least we could do.*
His thoughts are ended as he hears boobrie dude warning Sophie not to thank the Hydrokinetic, something about how it might get them both in trouble. Ominously adding in a warning against The Shade .
“The worst wayward here. Incredibly powerful and incredibly protective of the Hydrokinetic, It's better to avoid them if you want to survive here” boobrie dude elaborates.
He suddenly turns his attention to unwrapping Keefe’s ankle and rubbing a green gel on his ankle. Sophie goes into work mode as she starts to investigate about the psioniopath that could help give them answers about the plague.
“If this is a crush thing, you can do better” Keefe snickers at this, *she definitely could if not Fitz at least himself.*
“It's not a crush thing” the booberie dude’s mood shifts as she continues talking and he warns them off the topic again this time more agitated if not worried.
*Uh oh this is getting tense, we shouldn’t arouse any suspicion, at least not yet. We haven’t been able to see enough* “she’s just trying to settle a bet, I bet her that the guy was lying about being from Exillium to sound tough, so she’s trying to prove me wrong. AND my leg feels all better now, thanks” Keefe quickly jumps to his feet to prove his point, quickly hiding the shadow of a grimace that crossed his face.
Although skeptical the man points towards fresh clothes at the foot of their beds “Both of you need to get dressed. “The coaches are ready to mark you.”
“Mark us?” The unease is evident in Sophie’s voice.
“Yes. It’s time for you to learn your place in Exilium”
*Welp, This can’t be anything good.*