what happened after unlocked

chapter seven ~ truth or fate

Sophie sat as far from Oralie as she possibly could without them being too far away from each other.

Oralie was holding her cache, and Sophie was holding her old human notebook and the two caches she'd stolen from the Neverseen's hideout about a week ago.

"Should we...try and open one?" Sophie asked, gesturing to the caches.

"I suppose," Oralie mused, "Let's try Kenric's first."

She shuffled across the grass a little so that she was closer to Sophie, and breathed in the sweet scent of Panakes in the cool night breeze. "It's very nice out here."

Sophie ignored her and instead held up the cache which was Kenric's, watching the seven glittering secrets trapped inside.

"Try...Elysian," Oralie suggested.

"Elysian," Sophie repeated, but the cache didn't make any movement or flash like it had last time. "Elysian!"

She groaned and was about to throw it onto the ground when Oralie grabbed her wrist and looked her in the eyes firmly. "You're never going to unlock it if you're not patient enough."

Sophie scowled at the cache and lifted her arm again. Oralie had a point, but she hated it. "Well, what's something else we could try?"

An hour later they still hadn't opened it and Sophie, whilst rubbing her eyes and yawning with exhaustion, was determined to prove to Oralie that she could be patient.

"Fintan!" Oralie hissed, shaking her ringlets out of her face. "This is hopeless. Maybe I should go back to Eternalia and you should get some sleep and we'll try again in the morning."

Sophie glared at her. "We have to keep trying."

"I've got no more suggestions!" Oralie groaned, sounding younger than she had before. "Anyway, you look exhausted."

"Did Mr Forkle tell you about my new manifestation?" Sophie wondered.

Oralie nodded after a few seconds of hesitation and said, "Although, it did make me think – you're going through process of manifesting an ability, right after your friend Keefe did. And, this may seem very strange and unlikely, but I wonder if the fact that your minds were connected while Lady Gisela was forcing stellarlune upon him was one of the contributing factors to you getting a new ability, right after Keefe did."

Sophie fiddled with Fintan's cache as she thought. That theory might actually make sense – if only they had proof. So she shook her head. "Mr Forkle says it's natural. So it must be."

Oralie handed back Kenric's cache, wavering for a second, and then stood up, brushing grass and petals off her dress. "Keep those safe. And get some sleep."

Sophie sighed and slid the caches into her pocket. She stood up and left Oralie sitting under the Panakes alone, and made her way back to her room.

The next day was very, very gloomy, and the skies seemed greyer than usual.

Sophie was almost one-hundred percent sure that Dementors existed as she joined the alicorns out in the pastures – even the fluorescent purple pastures seemed less colorful and spritely as usual.

A bright flash lingered in the corner of her vision and she spun on her heel to see Biana Vacker standing by the Panakes tree in the distance, rushing towards her and brandishing a clear leaping crystal.

"Sophie! How are you?" She panted, vanishing in and out of slight as she gradually came to a halt in front of her.

Sophie thought about it for a second, but couldn't make a coherent explanation, so she just shrugged.