Who Let The Void Become Sentient? (KOTLC)

In Which They Meet The Book

The Void. She never thought it would become as comforting a presence as it is now, but here she is. Sophie had been practicing her teleportation landings for the past hour, zipping in and out of the void countless times. She had realized that this was the ability she was lacking in, having not practiced it much before now, and decided to rectify that.

Currently, Sophie was taking a break, having found that the void had no time limit on how long she could stay. She thought it to be very similar to being underwater, where there's no need to stand on anything solid, and it took little to no effort to exist.

Among the darkness, she found her thoughts wandering to her past. To her life before she knew she was an elf. When things were simpler, if only marginally. She thought about that day at the museum, when Fitz found her and brought her to her impending destiny. If you told past her that she would become the most powerful elf to ever exist, she would have laughed right in their face. Actually, she kind of did laugh right in Fitz's face when he told her she was an elf, ducked behind that green minivan in the zoo parking lot.

Becoming so lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that the void had started to react to her, sort of pulsing with energy. Once she pulled herself out of her thoughts enough to be aware of her surroundings, the void had... ripped itself open? What? Before she could react, the void spit out something, and it nailed her in the chest, knocking her back a few feet and flipping her.

"Oof-" She remarked. "What the hell?" She latched her arms around the object as she flipped backwards once, then twice before stopping her momentum. Once she was still again, she held up the item to observe it. In front of her the void closed itself, returning to its regularly scheduled programming.

"A book? Where did it come from?" Now, Sophie knows, logically, that there's no one else in the void with her to hear her; However, Sophie also doesn't care, she's got bigger issues at the moment. Like why there's an object with her in the void, when there has only ever been ever stretching darkness. This should, probably, be investigated. But who should she talk to? Forkle would dismiss her, she and Fitz weren't on the best of terms currently, Keefe was working through his new powers and probably doesn't need to be bothered with these kinds of things. That left... Team Valiant? Now that's a worthwhile idea-

Her thoughts were cut off as she flipped the previously thought to be blank book over, showing the front cover. The front cover that held a picture of...her? Not only her, but her and Dex. On Pont de Alexandre III. An event that, by all accounts, should have had zero physical documentation.

Oh. Oh No.

Had the Neverseen somehow conjured this to her? Was she less safe in the void than she thought she was? Was she going schizophrenic or something? Is this a manifestation of her trauma, having sat here with her thoughts for probably way too long? She had to tell her team. No question about it. But, how would Dex react? Would it be worth it to bring up this past trauma to solve the, admittedly disturbing, mystery. Screw it. She's bringing it to them, this is too big to withhold from her best friend.

She concentrated on Havenfield, just next to the Panakes tree, and threw herself out of the void. But on a positive note, she stuck the landing almost perfectly this time, rather than crashing to the ground with all the grace of an elephant. She had figured out that it was all in the picturing of the location. Previously she had thought of the places from a top-down perspective, causing her to come falling out of the sky. But, if she imagined herself on the ground when visualizing, she ended up only about a foot off the ground when she appeared. Once she gathered her bearings, which now didn't take very long, she ran towards Sandor first, who was standing by her front door to monitor the Havenfield guard rotations.

"Um. Sandor?" Sophie asked as she slowed to a stop in front of him, clutching the book tightly to her chest. "Something appeared in the void near me and, um, well, I think you should take a look at it." She explained, feeling only mildly out of breath from the amount of adrenaline coursing through her veins. She handed the book over, front cover down, and stepped back a little to see his reaction.