Chapter Text
"Y—you're Elysian?" Fitz stammered out, reflecting the disbelief Sophie was feeling.
Elysian was supposed to be a place.
Not a person.
"I am not surprised that you do not know of my existence," Elysian said in her strangely melodic voice. "It has been many years since I was bound to my fields, and few have found their way here since."
"You're bound here?" Sophie asked her, finding her voice at last.
"That is correct," Elysian answered, and though her face was hidden behind her hood, Sophie got the sense that she was looking directly at her. "When the world was young and our kind—in fact, all kinds—were few in number, I was hidden here and bound, unable to cross any of the rivers that intersect here in my fields."
"Your fields?" Marella asked her, shaking her gilded hair out of her eyes and looking around, taking in their surroundings once more.
"They are named after me." Her head inclined toward Sophie. "This young one knew that already."
All eyes turned to Sophie. "Humans have myths about the Elysian FIelds," she told them. "But...most human myths are only barely connected to reality. So I don't actually know anything about you or why you're here."
"What I want to know," Keefe asked, "is how you knew anything about what Foster does and does not know, and how you have managed to shut off all of our abilities, and what we're going to have to do to get them back."
Sophie looked at Keefe more closely. He looked pale and shaky, and his eyes kept darting between her and Elysian—and then to Lady Gisela, who was standing and staring with unaffected shock written across her stretched features.
"I can see your thoughts," Elysian answered him. "That is how I know you are searching for a power source, and that you were all mistaken in the nature of my power." She turned toward Gisela. "These stones in this quarry are not the source of power that you seek. They are merely conduits. You have already seen what they can do. They are incapable of completing what you started in that young one." She gestured toward Keefe.
Sophie didn't know if that was good news or bad news. If Elysian was the power source, could she help Keefe? Would she?
"My research—" Gisela began, straightening herself up to her full height and glancing at her mutant trolls, which were currently frozen in place, unable to move.
"Was flawed," Elysian finished for her. "I am certain that all trace of my existence is buried quite deeply in your histories."
Sophie's heart was racing. How long could this stalemate go on? Was Elysian toying with them? Was she preparing to attack? And did they stand a chance, since she had completely blocked all of their abilities—and even their ability to hold weapons?
"What do you want with us?" Maruca asked before Gisela could speak again.
"What I want with you?" Elysian asked. "You entered my fields. I did not seek you out."
"So...will you let us go?" Keefe asked.
Elysian tilted her head toward him. "But why should I? You came here for a reason. It would seem you have toiled much to arrive at this point. Yet you are already finished asking questions?"
Sophie closed her eyes for a brief moment, steeling herself, hoping she wasn't making a mistake. "Okay, then," she replied. "Who are you, and why are you here? And how is a person a power source? How do you know anything about us? Have you been watching us?"
"I cannot so easily reveal who I am and how I came to be here. I have only been watching you since you entered my fields, so I do not know if I should reveal the truth to you. All I can tell you is that I am bound to this place, and can only leave if every last illusion has been broken. I do not even know the nature of each illusion. None have come as far as you have, not in all the time I have been here."
Sophie desperately wished she could transmit to her friends, but no matter how hard she tried, she was incapable. This amount of power, it was...unprecedented. And terrifying. This couldn't go on much longer—they had to get out of there. Sophie had never felt so exposed, so helpless, in all her life. Not even when the Neverseen had kidnapped her.
"If you are the power source," Gisela called out, "then you can help me complete the third step to Stellarlune. My son's transformation will not be complete without it."
Elysian shook her head. "I do not know enough about any of you to rightly judge what should be done. I can read your thoughts, and I can feel the fear coming from each of you. You are right to fear me. But that is all I will say. If you want to know more, you must seek the truth elsewhere. However, you should know that your world now stands at a precipice, and you have set things in motion that must be seen through to the end. For now...I will allow you to continue your battle. I will see everything that happens while you are in my fields. I will know when you leave them and when you enter them, even if you do not break enough illusions to reach me."
"Does that mean you want us to come back?" Marella asked.
"What I want is irrelevant. You have proved that the world has not fully forgotten me, and such a large truth cannot possibly be contained. There is little else I am able to tell you unless you find more information on your own—you, or whoever else begins to seek."
Sophie didn't understand. This felt like a game Elysian was playing. If she was so dangerous, why wouldn't she just kill them? And if not, why wouldn't she just tell them what they wanted to know—or help them? And why wouldn't she tell them how to free her? She had to want her freedom, whether good or evil.
Absolutely none of this made sense.
"Wait—" Sophie started, hoping to at least get some more clarification. But Elysian was gone.
And Sophie's power was restored.
For a brief second, everyone stared at one another, wide eyed, too shocked to take action.
But then...
A low growl.
The mutant trolls were springing back into action. Fitz bent on shaky legs to pick up Sandor's sword, and Keefe collected Hope from the ground, his eyes on his mother. Sophie tried to let her inflictor rage take over once again, but shock seemed to have stilled her anger even though her abilities were restored.
And unfortunately, the trolls she'd taken down with her inflicting were also beginning to wake.
Thankfully, Maruca was quick, trapping at least a few of them under a large force field. Sophie didn't know how long it would last, and didn't think Maruca could create and reinforce enough force fields to contain them all—there had to be nearly a dozen of them, and that wasn't counting the two who had captured Sandor.
With the thought of Sandor, her rage began to build. Take down the trolls, then force Gisela to have the others release Sandor, then capture her.
Or end her.
The thought made her shiver, but she saw nothing but determination in Keefe's eyes as he stalked toward his mother.
It's up to us, she transmitted to Fitz and Marella, to take down these trolls. It was all Maruca could do to keep the force fields up. Sophie could already see beads of sweat on Maruca's temples.
But as Keefe lunged for his mother again, she again sidestepped him, pulling out a crystal. From the strain she could see in Keefe's features, Sophie assumed Gisela had stayed his hand with telekinesis. Before Sophie could launch forward to help—or gather enough fury to inflict on her—Gisela cleared her throat. "I think that is my cue to leave," she called out, looking at Keefe. "But this is not over. You need me, Keefe, and eventually you'll come to see that. We have much to do, and today's revelations change nothing." And with that, she held her crystal up to the light and leaped away, saving her own skin and leaving them to deal with the trolls she'd left behind.
Keefe roared in frustration, but turned toward the nearest troll, which was a few yards away and was clearly preparing to spring.
Flames erupted, knocking the troll back as Fitz rushed another troll, raising Sandor's sword. Sophie let her anger and frustration and terror for her friends boil over until it burned so hot she had to let it out.
Again and again and again.
She didn't know how Keefe was fighting with nothing but a dagger, but she hoped he was holding his own. The constant flames told her that Marella was fighting, and slowly, they began to take down the trolls not held captive in force fields. Marella was standing beside Maruca, ready to protect her while she concentrated on keeping the force fields up. No troll could come near them thanks to Marella's flames, but that left only Sophie, Fitz and Keefe to fight. Thankfully, her inflicting dropped them quickly, giving the other two time to attack with their weapons. Sophie tried not to think too hard about the lives that were ending today, even if they were savage, wild beasts.
She was just beginning to feel like maybe they'd all make it out of this alive and unscathed when a searing pain burned across her back, causing her to cry out. She stumbled, falling over, and saw a troll towering over her, its lethal claws bared. The pain had shaken her out of her rage, but before she could panic, she heard Keefe's roar of outrage and saw as Hope lodged itself directly in one of its cruel eyes. Ro had clearly trained Keefe very well, his aim was flawless. The troll let out a snarl of pain and turned toward Keefe, who was now weaponless, but Maruca's force field sprung up in an instant, trapping it inside.
Sophie glanced around, trying to take stock, and saw that Marella and Fitz were fighting one troll that was still standing alive and untrapped, while Maruca fought to keep control of all of her force fields, keeping them strong in spite of the bloodthirsty trolls repeatedly trying to shove their way through them. She barely had time to register that the electric shock from the force fields did not seem to bother the trolls in the slightest when Keefe's anguished face appeared before her.
"Sophie!" He knelt down next to her, eyes searching hers. "Are you okay? How bad is it?"
"I don't know," she admitted, trying to sit up. The pain intensified with each movement she made, and she could feel the sticky, warm heat as blood poured from her wounds. Keefe helped her sit up and looked at her back.
"It raked its claws across your back," he told her. "And I think they must be deep, but there's—" his voice faltered. "There's too much blood for me to see clearly, I need to get you to Elwin—"
"No," Sophie told him, grabbing his hand. "Sandor!"
"Fitz and the others—"
"I'm not leaving without Sandor!" She insisted, moving to stand. The blood loss was making her woozy, but she managed to remain upright, clinging to Keefe's hand to hold herself steady. Keefe sighed and shook his head, but before he could respond, the ground rumbled, and Sandor appeared...
With Ro.
Ro was back?
Sandor's eyes quickly took in the surroundings, and he locked eyes with Sophie for a fraction of a second before charging toward the bleeding troll that had attacked her, shouting for Maruca to dissolve her force field. Sophie tried to bend over to reach for one of her throwing stars, which she had hastily stuck into some of her hidden pockets, but the world started to spin and she would have hit the ground if Keefe hadn't caught her. "We're getting you to Elwin," Keefe told her.
"We'll all leave together," Sophie insisted. She could hang on a few more minutes, and wanted to make sure her friends all made it out.
But the battle seemed to be over. There were only a few of trolls still standing, and they were behind Maruca's force fields. Ro and Sandor were tackling them one by one, and between the two of them, they were making quick work of it.
"Get out of here," Ro called. "We've totally got this."
"Give me your home crystal," Fitz told Sophie, limping toward them. Why was he limping? What had happened to him? And why was he moving so gingerly? "That way I can hold it up to the light so Keefe can get you home, and the rest of us can leap to Havenfield as soon as we're done."
Sophie opened her mouth to argue, but Keefe merely took her home crystal from around her neck and handed it over to Fitz, giving Sophie a look that brooked no argument. Fitz nodded his approval as Keefe wrapped his arm carefully around her waist, keeping it below her injuries, and tried to help her drape her arm across his shoulders to help steady her. But Sophie let out a gasp of pain when it pulled at her skin.
"I'm sorry," Keefe whispered, his eyes almost manic with worry. He tightened his grip on her, his hand on her hip, and slowly pulled her into the light path Fitz was creating for them.