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Sophie crumbled on her bed. Woah. The day had been long. To be fully honest, she didn’t remember a not-long day that didn’t go back a few weeks. So much had happened since… Wow. So long. Events were just rushing through, Keefe’s departure, the rampage with Ro, then calling Dex, learning about the detection Ability, Cassius’s memories… And that had just been the first day.
Stop. She needed to breathe. Stop listing everything. Halt the thoughts, even if her photographic memory was bringing back Cassius’s memories revealing Gisela, jumping to the Inquisition, inserting the secrets of Kenric’s cache, the meeting with all her friends, discovering Glimmer’s identity, the meeting with Trix, the wacky alliance with Vespera when the Ancient revealed secrets, the tracker, finding Keefe and bringing him back, confessing…
Sophie. Stop thinking.
But that could not be a decision, and the flow of memories and thoughts continued, finding the missing star stone, leaping to Elysian, coming back, Vespera illusioning herself in the bedroom, going back with Fitz, Marella, Maruca, Sandor and the Ancient, discovering the source, that woman…
Well, the following moments had just been even worse. Even more chaotic.
And now all that mess could be put down for at least a little moment, and the Telepath couldn’t even stand up anymore. Shaky legs, shaky hands, her eyes fluttering between open and closed… she breathed in deep, focused on keeping her eyes closed. It’ll be fine. She could deal with the consequences later, she…
Sophie woke up at the contact of a fresh hand on her forehead.
“Edaline…?”
“Yes, love. It’s been a while since you fell asleep that easily. Restful night?”
“Mm. Could use another like that.”
“Fair,” commented her mother with a smile, “do you think you could have a little downtime in saving the world?”
“Potentially,” mumbled Sophie, “we averted one possible big crisis yesterday so I guess I can rest and get explanations… before the next crisis comes into view. It’s always like that.”
“Yeah… I’m so sorry you got dragged into that mess so young…
“It would still have happened. I just wouldn’t have been there to stop it.”
“Maybe. Tell me, Sophie, would you like to do something with your friends? Like normal teenagers?”
“You mean not kids who get around with a literal army of bodyguards?”
“Exactly.”
“That’d be nice… getting an actual Christmas maybe, we must be around the time… Ugh. Time goes sooo fast.”
“It’ll slow down, Sophie, I promise. Everything calms down someday, even if it takes years.”
“Thanks…”
“Come on, let’s have breakfast.”
Sophie nodded as her mother walked out the room. She felt like having a lazy day, actually. Maybe the world could allow her one. She just grabbed a brush, untangling her hair, before going to the kitchen in her frowned tunic from the day before, the one she fell asleep in. There she was welcomed by the delicious scent of freshly baked mallowmelt, and Edaline held out a plate for her. The teenager thanked her, sat at the table, and bit in the delicacy.
“Hello girls,” smiled Grady, entering the room, “hi Sophie. Did you sleep well?”
“Better than for a long time,” she approved, “and I’m hoping we might get a few days of… less tension.”
“That would be nice,” nodded the Mesmer, “if you can stop running around having to save the world because no adult is responsible enough to change it…”
“Most adults don’t have all the infos and the Councillors are clearly not going to risk themselves,” mumbled Sophie.
“Yeah that’s for sure,” sighed Edaline while putting strawberry swirls on the table, “say, Sophie, since you think you can get calm… Would you do anything?”
“Like, with my friends?”
“Yeah. As normal teenagers, cause you should be able to have that peace.”
“I… I don’t know. I just wish I could maybe… share the peace I feel here, with you… it’s always easier with you two, and Havenfield is genuinely the best house, but…”
“Sleepover?”, suggested Grady.
“With everyone?!?!? That’d be…”
“Sophie, we tame dinosaurs to become vegetarians as a day job,” said Edaline, “we can handle a dozen teenagers having a party and sleepover in our living-room.”
“Thank you!!!”
The adults smiled as Sophie got her Imparter, calling all her friends to come to Havenfield for the evening, just so they could all get a relaxed time. Wylie couldn’t come, being in the Towers, but everyone else said yes. Well Tam said yes if Rayni wasn’t invited. Sophie had honestly never thought of asking her, she felt too weird towards that girl.
When she put the Imparter down, Grady indicated there were blankets and pillows in number in one of the room upstairs, and she ran to preparation. Finally one cozy evening! That would be amazing, she knew it! And she knew her friends would make it an absolute chaos. Goal was to keep anyone from killing each other, but that shouldn’t be too hard. Just keep Stina on track. And hope Keefe and Fitz could keep the conflict down… Dam, these two really needed to talk.
***********
Dex opened Havenfield’s door and was immediately greeted by a noise so loud he almost regretted the triplets. Almost.
“The others are in the living room,” said Eda, “yeah, they’re loud. You’ll survive.”
“I’ve been trained,” mumbled the Technopath, “how has Sophie not run out of the room yet?”
“I guess she’s participating…”
“Can I get a quick rundown of the situation?”
“Weeell. They were playing Uno and…”
“Ok no. I run away. Don’t know why mum thinks that’s such a great game, maybe because it’s human, but it ends in absolute chaos every time… It’s Sophie’s idea?”
“Of course.”
The teenager sighed, took in a deep breath, grabbed a plate of strawberry swirls waiting on the counter and pushed the door to the living-room.
Ok. Chaos didn’t cover half of it. Stina and Sophie were in a furious pillow battle. Keefe and Tam were tugging at each other’s hair, insulting the other copiously. Linh and Maruca were sending bolts of power across the room. Marella was biting the end of one of her braids. Fitz and Jensi were locked in an arm wrestle at the table, cards spilled around them. Biana was flashing in-between the groups, a devious smile on her lips, cheering for the chaos.
“Um… Hello everyone? Can anyone explain to me how we got here? Edaline said you were playing Uno, but… even the triplets never derailed a game that bad.”
“Yeah,” sighed Marella, “so. Keefe put a +4 on a +4. Stina, who had to draw, called him a coward. Sophie glared at her like she was about to Inflict…”
“I felt threatened! So I just grabbed the nearest thing that could come to my defense, and that was a pillow!”
“Yeah, that,” said Biana, “so of course Sophie grabbed her own. And they started to fight. Then uh. Maruca tried to isolate them away from each other in force fields. Linh thought it was funnier to let them fight, so she splashed Maruca. Hence the situation, and I sincerely hope Edaline and Grady don’t mind their living-room being damped.”
“I see… And Fitz and Jensi ?”
“I tried to put the cards back in organized piles as they were when chaos struck,” said Fitz.
“And I disagreed. So I challenged him to a duel to see if it’d be everyone getting cards back by determination, or if we tried to arrange it.”
“Sophie? You knew it’d end like this, right? You had to know. The only worse possibility was trying to recreate a Monopoly.”
“Oooohh that would be SO fun!!!”
“Sophie, no.”
“What’s Monopoly?” asked Tam.
“A bad idea,” answered Dex, “and if Sophie decides it’s somehow appropriate, I leave. The consequences of the Uno chaos are enough.”
“Ok, ok, calm down,” smiled the Telepath, “Monopoly wasn’t really in the plans!”
“Good news.”
“I’m curious about that, though,” said Fitz.
“What if we do a small excursion to Humanityland to find out?”, suggested Keefe.
“No! Everyone stays here. It’s a miracle I don’t have our army of goblins surrounding the living-room, I don’t exactly wish for my death if anyone leaves and ends up hurt,” sighed Sophie.
“Valid concern,” approved Marella, “I don’t have an army corps following me though, so I’m ready to go get the gossip.”
“Oh oh oh, I wanna come too!”, exclaimed Jensi.
“I said no. Please.”
The Pyrokinetic rolled her eyes, Jensi sighed, but they both surrendered. Sophie grabbed a strawberry swirl and sat back in a pillow-chair. Everything started to calm down, Linh was putting the cards back in an organized deck, Marella was drying everything the Hydrokinetic had wetted in her fighting with Maruca, who was rearranging pillows, covers and borrowed mattresses in makeshift beds.
Stina sat on the sofa, a cup of tea in her hands, and looked up with a glint of malice in her purple eyes.
“Guys. I have an idea of what we could do. I don’t guarantee no chaos, but it should stay safe.”
“Oh, with you at the lead, it will two hundred percent devolves into absolute chaos, and I am completely here for it,” exclaimed Maruca.
“Truth or dare,” said Stina.
Sophie immediately looked to Fitz, her eyes forming a question, to which he nodded. She then turned to Keefe, who hesitated a second before nodding too.
“I’m on board. But if it derails, no Ability-fighting.”
“Thanks,” said Jensi.
“No problem. Stina, you got the idea, so I’m saying, it’s only fair you start asking.”
A mischievous grin painted itself on the Empath girl’s lips.
“Thank you. Also, people. No cheating. We’ll know it.”
“Oh I am absolutely checking that everyone is telling the truth with you Stina,” approved Keefe.
“Thanks.”
“Well you know what, I’m picking dares,” mumbled Fitz.
“Oh come on!!!”, exclaimed his sister.
“Knowing y’all, you will end up spilling government secrets… is that alright?”, asked Jensi.
“Oh yeah it is,” said Linh, “I mean, we always discuss everything anyway.”
“Indeed,” approved Marella. “Stina, the stage is yours!”
“Dex, truth or dare?”
“The list of stuffs I did to you is long enough I’m not risking that. Truth.”
“Coward. Any crush? And your opinion on how much you could be a good match?”
“Yes, and zero. Not that I care about good match anyway.”
“Zero, really?”, said Tam with a hint of pity in his eyes.
“Don’t worry for our gadget-maker, Shadow-boy, he’ll get honor anyway,” smirked Keefe.
“Yeah that… maybe. I don’t really care, anyway, but I fear the person might care a lot. And… I doubt the feelings might be reciprocated anyway.”
“Person?”, remarked Linh.
“Please.”
Everyone looked at each other, surprised by the pleading in Dex’s voice, but they all agreed to move on. He then asked Fitz what his biggest regret was.
The Telepath sighed. There was so many things he had done wrong. Getting angry at Sophie and everyone, pushing people away, letting Keefe close on himself, still trying to keep the perfect image up while he had fully crossed the one line, those buttons…
“It’s hard to pick one,” he mumbled, “but I guess never apologizing sums up all the regrets. I never found the strength to say I’m sorry, but I am, for everything… I let everyone down, I pushed everyone away, I obscured everything behind anger, and like… I never acknowledged it truly. This is the biggest regret. I blame everyone else for my problems, but I have part in those, I lash out, I… yeah. I should’ve apologized every time. And Keefe… I probably should’ve trust that you had a plan…”
“You had seen your brother, whom you trusted, was part of the organization that had been working on your nerves for like almost two years already. And then, I joined them, without a word. It’s normal you were mad, and of course the trust was hard to bring back… Especially when I still run from problems.”
“Yeah. Still. I’ve known you for like ten years. And you were my best friend for most of those. I… should’ve guessed you weren’t just joining your psycho mother to be the good kid. You never reacted to their lack of affection by bowing and complying, quite the opposite.”
“It’s ok. Maybe we can try again?”
“Maybe we can,” answered Fitz, with a timid smile.
Sophie let out a real smile. That was good, to see her two friends reconcile, to see the mistrust and fear fade away. Even Stina seemed relieved. Good. One fear solved, and without it being hurtful. Communication was so important.
Sophie grabbed a piece of mallowmelt on a plate, cut it in half and gave one part to each of the boys, who smiled and hit their pieces together as if they were drinks, and bit into the cake at the same time. That felt good.
“Kay, my turn now, I guess,” started Fitz, Um… Marella, truth or dare?”
“Dare!”
“Oh, oh, give her something with her Ability!”, Jensi chimed in.
“Sounds like a fun idea, but I don’t want to burn down Havenfield.”
“Oh come on! I’ve got it,” said Marella, “shoot a dare!”
“Kay. Could you make like a sculpture in flames?”
“I can do shape yeah. Any particular thing to represent?”
“Do us!!!”, exclaimed Jensi.
“All eleven of us is going to be a bit hard,” answered Marella, “but I can try like five?”
“Then do Jensi, Dex, Stina, Maruca and you,” decided Fitz.
“Most random pick ever, but thanks,” commented Stina.
Marella closed her eyes, focused, and let flames out of her hands, sculpting in the air. First, a base, a sort of plank from which she took sparkles to model her friends. First Jensi, sitting figure looking up with an awkward smile made from a darker fire. Then Stina, tight lips, hands on the hips, almost judgmental even as a mini figure. Then Dex, with a box and wires in hand, and Maruca, with a ball above her hands representing a force field.
“Hey, nice. Love how you made my braids!”, exclaimed the Psionipath.
“Yeah well that is hard to maintain, it’ll probably blur while I do my figure…”
The Pyrokinetic took one last spark out of the plank, crafting very carefully a smaller figure, one braid, a smaller flame in her hand.
“Dare done, thanks Fitz that was fun. Linh, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Weirdest thing you had to eat?”
“Pff, girl, you’re reaching for questions you never asked, uh? I don’t know, I was exiled for five years. That’s long and you don’t always get to choose… At this point, even meat doesn’t qualify as weird by itself…”
“Yeah good thing we learnt to do fire quick cause sometimes the only thing you find is carcasses you have to slow-cook till the dead of night,” sighed Tam, “but there are things we did…”
“Are you thinking about the root and spider puree we did one time?”
“With a side of mushrooms that had a fifty-percent chance of being toxic, yeah.”
“Spiders?!?!?!!!!!?! Oh wow, you really had to go to the weirdest…”
“We were in a sort of bush in the middle of a desert, we didn’t have a permanent place yet,” answered the Hydrokinetic, “so everyday we were foraging around Exilium… Well yeah, that wasn’t the easiest. But we did pretty well, didn’t we?”
“We held on,” smiled her twin, “whose turn?”
“Um… Jensi, truth or dare?”
“Truth, though I know you wouldn’t give something hard.”
“Kay… Weirdest thing that ever happened to you?”
“Being there with you guys. No hesitation.”
He frowned seeing their surprised face, but his smile came back quick as he started explaining.
“No, seriously, it feels super weird sometimes. Like, I’m just some probably-Talentless-guy, looser in command at Foxfire, with no way to compare to any of you and all your insane world-saving activities and talents.”
“But that weird?”, asked Sophie.
“Well most teenagers don’t save the world so hanging out with the one who actively do so as a weekly activity… that does feel surreal,” answered the boy.
“Yeah. That’s kinda understandable actually,” mumbled Biana, pressing on a scar around her biceps, “we are the weird group, and we’re thrown into missions all the time… yeah. I get it I think.”
“Thanks. Also still stunned that Marella vetted my presence,” he teased.
“Oh come on. You’re not a drooling boy, you just had no luck and ended up hanging out with them before we rescued you!”
“Well thanks I guess?”
“No problem!”
“Ok um. Who do I put on the burning chair… Keefe, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“What’s up with your powers and everything? I mean, I understood it’s been tweaked but… is it really different?”
“Oh man, that’s gonna be long… And, Fitz, I messed up again while in Humanityland, I’m sorry, please don’t kill me.”
“Dude. I just said I was sorry for snapping previous times. I won’t kill you, whatever happened.”
“So? Keefe?”, said Jensi.
“So. First, the parts I discovered before leaving. There’s a command aspect, sometimes I get the urge to order something, and it happens. I… don’t know how to control it yet, but it’s not permanent, so that helps. Then… There’s a detection part, and probably it activates the Ability. I… felt the triplets’ Abilities before… and they were activated the next day. So. Then I ran away. I… my father helped me, he gave me human money, and a card with my face, and he let me go. And when I was in Humanityland, I… ran into Alvar, and he was doing good, there, adapting, but… he… ok I kinda thought it’d be a good idea to keep him as a sort of hostage, but then he was helping me talk my feelings out, and uh. When he had arrived there, he was completely wrecked, but… humans saved him and healed him, but then the human medicine deactivated his Ability and capacities, but it… I wanted to test something, and then when I touched him with the new Ability… it repaired it? Like he could flash again after? I… probably shouldn’t have done that but…”
“You’re not the type to function alone,” commented Marella, “not surprising you somehow found a way to flock with another elf.”
“She’s right,” mumbled Fitz, fists tightly closed against his thighs, “and… it went out of hand as everything does since I brought Sophie here. I… yes, I’m angry. But I can’t… I can’t reasonably say it’s against you… I… it’s Alvar and the Neverseen I’m angry at.”
“Thank you, Fitz,” whispered Keefe, awkwardly touching his friend’s shoulder, “thanks…”
“So, let me get this right,” said Jensi, “you’re a mix of a Mesmer, a Descryer and… a Fixer? Plus your usual Ability of being an Empath?! That’s a lot, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s a lot. Still less than Foster, though, I guess my dear mommy didn’t find a way to put as much in her potions.”
“Well… Good luck dealing with that,” commented Jensi, “and uh. Your turn to ask.”
“Yep. Biana, truth or dare?”
“Mm truth.”
“Is there… Do you regret the life from before? Cause… I think you’re among the most affected…”
“Maybe I am,” she said, caressing the scar on her left forearm, “but… I don’t think I regret. Right after the Nightfall incident, I did, so much. And when we were in exile, too. I… truly hated everything then. But then… I started accepting my scars. And at the Celestial Festival… It felt important. And I felt proud. What we do is important. For our world, for my friends, for the truth. Now… yeah. The perfect facade of the Vacker family fell. Alvar’s a traitor. Fitz gets angry. I showed up as a fighter. It feels weird to hear us doubted and criticized in Foxfire’s corridors. But it feels good, too. I’m more myself. We’re true. I prefer it like this.”
Everyone exchanged looks, kinda surprised by Biana’s speech, and realizing how much she’d grown. The scars on her face and arms, the shattering of the princess image had been deeper than any had realized. The Vanisher smiled seeing them stunned, and her smile deepened when Stina was the first to speak.
“I think I underestimated the bravery you hide behind the sparkles, girl.”
“Thank you Stina.”
Jensi nodded.
“That must feel weird for you… The whole perfect and pacific appearance of our society got shattered, and the shattering cut you… and we don’t really realize…”
“Nobody sees Vanishers,” she answered with the shadow of a smile, “that’s the thing. But it’s alright. As I told you… I grew with it. I’m glad it happened to me, because… I wouldn’t have seen my bravery without it. So. Next turn! Tam. Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Mm…”
Biana thought about a dare for a while, and then smiled.
“Could you show us like… do a tracker like Umber had done to Keefe?”
“Are you presenting yourself as test subject? I can not do like she did, as she did small bites, in Keefe’s food. It would sting to try to put a piece of shadowflux big enough in one go. Not the way it hurt when she attacked Fitz and Sophie with it, but… it wouldn’t be nice on you.”
“Ok no. But…”
“I can show you how it’d work,” he said, grabbing at the shadows of his friends, reuniting them in a small ball with spikes, “Dex, do you have the tracker we built on you?”
“Yeah,” answered the Technopath, getting the machine out of his pocket, “here it is.”
“I’m guessing Umber had either something like that, or a way to detect the shadowflux itself in her powers. So. I have the “tracker” here, and the detector. I connect them like this,” the Shade explained, as pointy bits appeared on the shadowflux sphere, one reaching for Dex’s machine, “and then I can separate it. As long as I stay focused, the shadowflux ball can get reconstituted.”
He demonstrated, scattering the ball, and reconstituting it multiple times. Every time the sphere was reformed, the detector emitted a “bip” that sounded almost threatening. Tam ended up by separating the shadowflux from the detector, and dissolving the shadows back.
“Well. My turn to ask. Sophie, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“What is the hardest thing since you’ve come to the Lost Cities?”
“Trying to juggle discovering a new world, being a teenager trying to be herself and also having all those responsibilities. I think one by itself wouldn’t be that bad, but the combination is exhausting…”
“Fair,” whispered Fitz, “and you’re doing so much…”
“Plus we’re not always very understanding,” mumbled Stina, “sorry.”
“That’s alright. I… kinda shake your world upside down, and rarely listen to advice. We’re all just trying, it’s fair you get annoyed when I go all by myself…”
Everyone nodded. They were trying indeed. And improvising because none of them had a rule book about how to save the world and live normally at the same time.
“Sooo… Maruca, truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Kay. Um. Try to do the biggest forcefield you can!”
Maruca smiled, opened her hands wide as sparks started to flow above her fingers. She closed her eyes to focus, and a forcefield appeared around her. She extended it progressively, till it recovered the whole group, and about half of the large living-room.
“I don’t think I can do more,” said the Psionipath, “if I extend it further it’ll start to crack.”
“It’s ok. That’s impressive already,” said Sophie, “your turn.”
“Of course,” said Maruca, snapping her fingers to dissolve the forcefield, “Stina, you’re last. Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“You were great at gymnastics. Do a cartwheel and a backward roll, and then, you do a somersault.”
“You’re not getting easy on me, uh, Maruca? But ok.”
The Empath shrugged her capa away, made some exercises to heat up, then went to do the sequence asked by Maruca, almost fell at the somersault, but got her balance back and landed perfectly. The others clapped, then they all walked to the table, where Grady had put a dinner unremarked a few minutes before.
They all ate, joking around. They felt good, relaxed, happy, peaceful for the first time in ages.
At least for tonight, everything was fine. Their friendships were strong enough to hold anything, they had talked their minds out, and, in the cold night, they felt warm being together, simply teenagers.