Alitia: Hellfire and Blizzard

XIII: Shaded Eyes

Sophia let out a slow, careful breath as she pressed all of the energy she could muster out through her fingertips and into the plant sitting on the table before her. In the midst of the chaos following the battle with the armies of Pyre, Sophia had been left stressed in a way she hadn't been in months. With that in mind, she decided to turn to the main thing she knew would calm her down no matter how worked up she was: gardening. If she sat down and just focused on her breathing and her magic, she would feel better in no time. She just had to give herself the chance. 

But it wasn't working as well as she would have liked it to. Sophia had been trying to soothe herself for the last two hours, but it hadn't helped her at all. She had started off by walking around the school and volunteering to help all of the students who were now living in Alitia until they were able to return to their own home schools. When that hadn't done anything to assuage her anxieties, Sophia gave up on trying to be productive and went back to her room before deciding to nurse a few of her plants. The pots rested on the windowsill so they had the most light possible, but Sophia always needed to give them a little extra push to make sure they stayed in peak condition. It was good for her; if she was focused on taking care of her plants, then she would remember to take care of herself too. 

Sophia needed that reminder now more than ever. As much as she would have liked to say that looking after herself came effortlessly, she knew the truth was far darker than that. She was exhausted after everything that had happened in the last few days, though if she was being honest, it ran far deeper than that. She was exhausted because of everything that had happened within the last six months, and Sophia doubted that would ever change. She was exhausted and stretched thinner than ever before, and there was next to nothing she could ever hope to do about it. 

A knock at her door snapped Sophia out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see S.M. leaning against the doorframe with a heavy frown. "There you are," she greeted, not bothering to wait for Sophia to speak up first. "We're all supposed to gather out in the common area. Apparently, a few of the other head teachers have decided they need to talk to us." 

Sophia hesitated for a long moment, and she glanced down at her plants before nodding and pushing herself to her feet. "Of course." Once she returned the pot to its place on the windowsill, Sophia looked up at S.M. with anxiety living proudly in her gaze. "Who is here for us? Is it Headmistress Claudere?"

"If only," S.M. snorted dismissively, and Sophia's heart sank. The search for Minerva had been going on for hours up to this point, but it hadn't yet been enough to find her. Sophia was confident the headmistress of Sacred Heart was still alive, but she was starting to give up on believing that her blind hope would lead her somewhere useful. "No, it's Headmaster Carpathia and Headmistress Latheia. They wanted to talk to us about everything there is to know about the situation on Pyre."

Sophia's eyes went wide. "I see." She had heard quite a bit about Brynn over the last few weeks, but it felt like there was still so much out of her reach. Surely there was something she hadn't yet understood, something that would fall into place when she spoke with Fromir and Altina. The two of them had a lot more experience with Brynn than Sophia ever would, and she could only hope that their knowledge would take her somewhere productive. 

S.M. led Sophia out into the courtyard, not bothering to wait up for the shorter girl to trail after her. Sophia was fine with jogging to keep up with S.M.; after all, it got her out of her own head for a few minutes, and right now, that was what she needed above all else. Sophia did her best to shove every dark idea out of her mind as she focused only on traversing the same path S.M. had left behind for her. There weren't many breaks in the crowds that lined Alitia's campus these days because of the massive influx of new bodies around there with the fall of Sierra and Acadia. S.M. and Sophia had to take what they could get, especially since most of the other people in Alitia weren't willing to listen to what was happening around them. Sophia couldn't blame them; if she had lost her school, she would be too stressed to really tune into the world around her too.