Swan Song

Chapter Twenty

Hello, hello! Chapter twenty already? Wow! You'd think actual action stuff would have happened by now... but no, this is almost as boring as Flashback!

(I'm kidding. Nothing is as boring as the Fitzphie sleepover. Except Geography class.)

But yeah. For the next few chapters, you will be seeing a lot of triangle-y stuff- but I'll try to include some action to balance it out. And only after the triangle is resolved can the real plot stuff begin. Trust me, I've got it all planned out.

Speaking of planning, and triangles, I have planned out four conversations between Sophie and her suitors (two each). As of right now, they are mostly unedited dialogue. But here is a sneak peak for each one!

Keefe #1: "Keefe! Come back! I-"

Fitz #1: Fitz paused, hesitant to continue his thought. "...Unless you're choosing me."

Keefe #2: "No matter how fabulous I look, Foster, you can't deny that I'm bad for you."

Fitz #2: "Here." Fitz very delicately touched his finger to the corner of Sophie's mouth and wiped [the frosting] away. His fingers lingered on her cheek.

Like them? 'Course you do. I bet you can't wait to see them in context!

Crowd: To be honest, I don't give a sparkly alicorn feces.

Me: OH SHUT UP. Anyway...

Wow, this A/N is loooooong. Time for the chapter! Enjoy!

Dex, Sophie, and their respective bodyguards stood at the entrance to Ravirral. Through an excessive amount of stalking, Dex had found the place where Axel (Hopefully also known as Jayden Hammers) lived and its leaping coordinates. "Wow," Dex breathed when they saw it. Sophie could understand why- it was a technopath's heaven, basically. The house had everything from a crazily well-designed security system (dang it!) to some mechanical arm holding a watering can and watering the flowers. (Side note: Why did an evil genius have a garden outside his house?) Sophie and Dex could only imagine the kind of crazy/awesome (depending on who you asked) gadgets inside. "Once the council kicks him out and puts him in jail, I want to move here." Dex declared.

"Sure. I assume your first invention will be some sort of sibling repellent?" Sophie joked.

"Definitely. Man, I really need to get started on that one." The two elves eyed the house.

"Who wants to knock?" Sophie asked finally.

"You're the moonlark," Dex answered.

"Yeah, but you found him."

Sandor resolved the argument for them by rolling his eyes and pressing on the doorbell. Sophie and Dex held their breath as they waited for Axel to come answer it.

A minute passed, and then another, but Axel still didn't come. Sandor rang the doorbell again. After a few more minutes, they were forced to give up.

"I don't think he's home," Sophie sighed.

"It's the middle of the night. Where else would he be?" Dex asked. Then he slapped his forehead. "Right. At a Neverseen meeting. I'm dumb. Just ignore me."

"You're not dumb," Sophie chided, even though she knew he was kidding. "You're way smarter than everyone else in our group."

"Yeah, but that's hardly a high standard, is it?" Dex joked. Sophie shoved him in response. The two lapsed into silence as they starred at Ravirral again. "Think we could break in and steal the caches?" Dex asked finally.