The Neverseen's Last Resort

65

Her fingers rapped on her knees, doing anything she could to keep her hands away from her lashes. 

"Is there anything you remember?" Edaline finally asked, her eyes pleading and desperate. Guilt shot through Sophie's heart, though there was no reason. It wasn't her fault she had amnesia. Or was it? She forgot. 

Tap, tap, tap. Sophie's fingers tapped at her knees, faster, as she wondered whether Edaline deserved her trust or not. 

"Sophie," Edaline whispered, voice cracking, and Sophie knew she was holding back a storm of tears. "I'm happy. So, so happy."

They locked eyes, and Sophie's heart broke a little to see her mother, though the title still felt foreign, breaking down like that. For her. She wished to comfort her mother, but when she opened her mouth to speak, no words came. Edaline continued. 

"I know you don't remember, and I wish I could tell you more, but when you first disappeared, Grady and I didn't stop searching. You don't have to ask Mr. Forkle; he wouldn't know, but Grady and I searched every Forbidden City we knew of, and more. We searched for days, but eventually had to give up the searches because the council was getting suspicious. I don't know what you suffered through in that time, and I know you don't either, but I truly am sorry I wasn't the one to find you. I'm sorry we failed. I'm sorry our searches weren't enough." 

Sophie was shocked. And ashamed. This woman, Edaline, had piled on so much grief, sorrow, and guilt---all for some girl who couldn't even remember her. This woman, her mother, had suffered who knows how long for Sophie, meanwhile Sophie hadn't even been able to miss her back. It took minutes to finally find her voice.

"Your searches were enough," she promised. "I know I don't remember, but I know you helped bring me home one way or another. I can feel it. And you didn't fail; I'm here. It doesn't matter who found me, because you welcomed me back, so kindly when I probably don't even deserve it." 

Once she'd said the first sentence, the rest had spilled from her mouth like a broken dam, unleashing a tsunami of words and promises. And she'd been about to say more, when Edaline stopped her. 

"'Don't even deserve it'?" Edaline echoed with a confused expression crossing her face. Sophie shrugged, hanging her head. 

"I keep hearing something about the destruction in Atlantis," she mumbled, another pound of guilt weighing down her chest. "I haven't seen it, but it sounds serious. And the council says I was the cause." Her voice cracked on that last bit, her tears ready and waiting to spill over into an uncontrollable waterfall. 

"That was the Neverseen. I don't doubt your capabilities to do so, Sophie, but I highly doubt you alone could cause such damage that it takes what they estimate to be at least a year to repair." 

Shaking her head, Sophie choked out, "I don't think they got it wrong. He wouldn't say it, but I know Keefe thinks so, too. And Mr. Forkle. And that doctor-person. I know they think that. So how can all of them be wrong?" 

When Sophie looked up to meet Edaline's turquoise eyes, she saw pain. And cluelessness. Sophie's hands twitched, begging to be let free from their place in her lap. This time, she didn't resist. Seeing Sophie twist and tug at her lashes, Edaline moved before Sophie, pulling her into the tightest hug, squeezing Sophie so tight it would better be described as a choke hold. 

"I don't know," Edaline said, answering Sophie's question. She buried her face in the crooked of Sophie's neck, sobbing into her hair. "I don't know anything about Atlantis, or why they think you caused it. I don't know what the Neverseen did, or how you could be so powerful as to destroy an entire city. But I do know one thing."