Lol, I got ya'll with that last chapter, huh? Nah, the finale is going to be multiple chapters long.
And MUCH worse.
BTW I made a TikTok. It's on my Linktree and my user is _sibyllinewriter_
Unedited
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The first thing Mentore Amalia Hera Morretti woke to was light. It felt like rays of dark and bright light were sweeping and dancing behind her eyelids. They blinded her and inspired her. But they never made her want to open her eyes.
Her senses slowly came to as well. She felt the swaying boat she was on, the smell of salt and blood. Then she felt someone rubbing their thumb over her knuckles, her hand intertwined with someone else's.
The light behind her eyelids began to trickle away, and she forced her eye open. The other one wouldn't open no matter how much she tried.
Ruy was the closest to her, holding Lilac in his lap as he quietly read a story, resting on the corner of her bed. Ruy's cheeks shone with tears that he tried to wipe away, trying to hold himself together. Lilac... Why was Lilac here? She must have snuck on one of the ships. The damn kid. She tried to stay focused on the story, but she would give her elder sister a quick glance before returning to Ruy.
Behind him was a woman who wore dark blue and white robes. Her hands fluttered about a bright green potion filled with foul-smelling herbs. She had to be from the Dunmer. But where were her wings? Is she one of the healers Ruy mentioned belonged to the Dunmer people? Sophie couldn't get a good look at her face.
Alexios held his sister's hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as if it would wash away Elrond's blood that was caked on her fists. Alexios faced the floor, his lips moving soundlessly.
He was muttering prayers to the gods.
The Dunmer healer strode over with her potion. "Don't spit these out like last time." Last time? The last time Sophie was awake was on the battlefield with Elrond and Eira.
The thick sludge dribbled down the back of her throat, but the healer forced her mouth closed and tilted her head back, forcing it down her gullet.
Sleep swept over the mentore once more.
"Come get lunch!" Allesandro called out the kitchen window. Sophie sprung up from her place in the tall grass, calling back to her father in response.
"What is for lunch?!"
"Doesn't matter, you are eating it! I won't have any of your picky eater nonsense here!" Allesandro replied. Sophie grumbled, hiking up her skirts and sliding her book into her red apron.
Sophie whistled, and Ricin came galloping after her, racing her to the villa. Sophie giggled and picked up the pace racing the dragon. The sped made her hair blow around her in a mess, her skirts flapping behind her. The tall grass swayed with the wind as if playing with the distant sound of the practicing orchestra.
"Are we going to the festival tonight, pater?" Sophie asked, sliding into her home after Ricin, who cooed in victory.
Allesandro glanced over his shoulder, "I don't know, did you practice your blocking like I asked you to?"
Red dusted over Sophie's cheeks, "I did..."
Allesandro raised a brow as he dried off his hands with a towel, "For how long?"
"Long enough- Pater, please! All my friends are going to be there!" Sophie complained.
Allesandro sighed, "Fine."
The dish was seasoned beef and vegetables, seasoned with Inalian grown honey and peppers. Allesandro held the dish out of his already tall daughter's reach, smiling as she reached for it.
"Aunt Filomena sent us some bread. A new recipe apparently." Allesandro grabbed the two dishes and the bag of bread. Sophie pouted, but her father just rolled his eyes with a smile, "It's a pretty day out, let's eat out the back."
"You just want to eat outside because you don't want Ricin in the house while we eat."
"Am I that obvious?" he chuckled.
The two of them sat at the back patio of their little villa, their legs dangling off the edge.
"You know, Lady Nyoka asked me on a date yesterday." Allesandro started. Sophie choked on a piece of carrot, hacking and coughing to get it out. Allesandro gave her one well-placed smack of the back, which was dislodged. Sophie took a big swig of her spiced wine and wiped it off her lips with the back of her arm.
"She did what?!"
"Yup." Allesandro nodded, poking his food.
"And?"
"I said I'll think about it."
"What? Why?"
"Well, that would be a big deal for me. I haven't had anyone else in my life since your mother, Lia. And it would be a change for you, too."
"Are you... asking me if it's okay that you go on a date?" Sophie smiled.
Allesandro narrowed his eyes at her, "I'm your father, I can do whatever I want. I'm just saying, if I say yes, would you... be okay with it?"
"Pater, I love you so much, but Maria, Filomena, and I cannot be the only women in your life. You're turning into an old curmudgeon. If you like her, I'd say do it!"
"But, your mother-"
"Is never coming back, pater. Never. This may be the next step for moving on!"
Allesandro shook his head, "I know... too bad it won't happen."
Sophie shoved more food in her mouth, her eyes watching the sunset with content, "Whatchu mean?" She asked, mouth full.
Allesandro smiled, "Lia, stop this."
Sophie's legs stopped swaying. She turned to her father, confused, "What are you talking about?"
Allesandro sighed and shook his head, taking a few bites of his meal, "I've been dead for, how long now? Eight years? Nine? You need to let me go."
Sophie scoffed, going back to her meal while pointing at him with her wooden fork, "See this is why you need to go one this date. You are spending so much time working you are delusional-"
"Amalia."
Sophie froze at the harshness in her father's voice. She didn't look at him. She prodded the food on her plate and blinked back tears.
"Pater, don't talk like that. You are fine! We are going to go to the festival tonight, we can dance together, drink Martin's fancy honey suckle wine! I'll even buy it for both of us! Then you will go on your date with the High Lady. Everything is fine."
Allesandro shook his head, placing his plate aside and staring at the setting sun. Ricin trotted up to his companion's father, cooing and placing his head in his lap. Allesandro smiled as he scratched Ricin's forehead, "I wonder. Why did your brain add Ricin into this little delusion?"
"I told you to stop talking like that." Sophie snapped.
Allesandro just smiled at her dragon, "I think I know. You see him as your protector. He reminds you of me. That is why he is here."
Sophie's face dropped, looking at the black dragon in a new light.
"After years of being alone, you just wanted to rely on someone. Grady and Edaline were your guardians, sure, but you needed me, even if you didn't remember me. I was your father, your comfort. But during that time you were tortured at the Neverseen base, you found him in your darkest time. Miscolored eyes, just like you and me. A fierceness that you two shared. A fierceness that I instilled in you."
Allesandro laughed a little bit, holding his face up to the dragon, "Plus we look alike, don't you think!" He snickered, fighting back his belly laugh.
Sophie chuckled. She missed her father's dry and corny humor. Ricin cooed, shuffling between the two of them, and curled his wings around the family.
"You know, you aren't the only one who dreads moving on and being alone. I was worried about seeing you follow your own path. That I would have to see you married off one day and maybe forget me. I was worried about not being able to protect you. Seems like I didn't even get the chance to do any of that." Allesandro sighed, taking the two empty dishes and placing them on the open windowsill. Ricin tried to lick the plates, but Allesandro kept them strictly out of the dragon's reach, zapping him with a quick bolt of lightning that made the dragon yelp and scurry back to his companion. Allesandro belly laughed, Ricin sticking his forked tongue out at Allesandro.
Sophie made casual passes of Ricin's scales with the pads of her fingers, smiling up at her father.
"I just... people tell me that moving on is healthy. But if I move on, I'm worried. It'll seem like I don't need you anymore. But I do. I need you more than ever. I just want to be a kid again."
Allesandro nodded in understanding. He opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it and stared at the village in the distance.
"You know you are going to wake up soon. This festival? Let's go to it." Allesandro held out a hand, "We will dance. For all the times we were unable to."
It was a completely fake festival, fake village, fake him. But she didn't care.
Tears rolled down Sophie's cheeks as she took his hand, "That would be nice."
(Sibylline original! Don't use without credit! You can find the time lapse on my insta and my TikTok)
Her head spun almost like she was still dancing with her father in the rowdy festival, drunk off native Inalian wine with not a care in the world. But she sat in a soft bed, one that was very familiar. It was the same quarters that she was in when Maha healed her from the Nilfa attack. No one was in her room, which almost made her think she imagined the scene from earlier. But Lilac's storybook was on the cabinet next to her, and her brother's chair was askew as if he stood up and left in a rush.
"You are awake." The calm voice of the healer noticed. The woman quietly closed the door behind her and pulled her hood down. Sophie instantly reached for the dagger she smuggled in her mattress when she acquired her ships.
Lysandra froze, raising her hands in defense, "Woah, settle down! You are still healing!"
Sophie wielded the dagger her way, "Settle down! Your brother damn near killed me TWICE and I haven't forgotten you weren't exactly helping me out in the fight! Oh, don't forget to mention lying to my face that you were Eira all along!" Sophie snarled.
Lysandra sighed, "Put the blade down."
"Where is my brother and sister? Where is Ruy?" Sophie darkly questioned, not dropping her blade.
"The Prince is helping the injured soldiers and tallying the dead. Your brother is aiding him."
Sophie's blade faltered. The dead, the injured. She led them to that. It just computed that she was on a boat. She closed her eyes, readying herself for the next words, "Please don't tell me we retreated."
Eira was quiet for a moment before softly affirming, "Yes. Prince Ruy called a retreat just an hour after bringing you back to the ships. Me and three other healers had to treat you. Elrond punctured your lung, you know? If the Dunmer healers weren't here, you would be dead. Your lung and..." Lysandra's voice tapered off.
The flash of Elrond's blade making contact with her eye made Sophie shiver. Sophie sobbed, throwing off her blankets and scrambling to the mirror.
A massive gash ran through her eye, just barely missing the eyeball itself. It was sure to scar, no matter what healer she could find.
"No..." Sophie whimpered, grazing her fingers over the wound. Lysandra spoke quietly, "I did everything I could. I was able to save your eye, but the skin surrounding it... scarring is inevitable."
Sophie's lip quivered. She didn't look like Allesandro's little passerota anymore, with bright eyes and color in her cheeks. Sophie's cheeks were sunken, her face devoid of color. Her eye bags were dark despite sleeping for...
"How long have I been out?"
"A week."
"A week?!"
Lysandra nodded, taking a rag and squeezing out water over the basin. She handed Sophie the damp rag with a small smile,
"Place this over the wound when you feel the pain flaring up."
Sophie took the rag and touched it to her eye, grimacing slightly before placing it over the entire wound. She glanced out her porthole window, "Where are we? If I've been out for a week we should be back in Inalia by now. Shouldn't we be in the Guildhall right now?"
Lysandra pursed her lips before offering her arm, "You should come to the deck." Sophie glared at her before apprehension taking Lysandra's arm. She was unable to fully stand on her own two feet without swaying. She held onto Lysandra for dear life, each breath she took with each step feeling like knives.
The sun was much more unfriendly than the sunset she watched with her father.
The deck was quiet, everyone doing their tasks as they swayed in a small port. The island was quiet yet also bustling. Almost in healing.
"Kephalonia. Why are we ported at Kephalonia? I need to get to the Guildhall!" Lysandra's put a soft hand on Sophie's back,
"Just... take it easy."
"You're awake!" Lilac giggled from behind her. The youngest Morretti skidded up and slammed her with a hug. Alexios followed the noise, his chest caving as he sighed in relief. he followed suit and hugged his sister as well.
"Yes, I am." Sophie pulled back to look at Lilac, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be at the Guildhall?"
Lilac's face dropped, and she turned to Alexios.
Alexios' face was dark, "The Neverseen... they knew we weren't in Inalia. The plan that Ruy overheard them talking about? Apparently, they were closer to completeing it than we thought."
Sophie went pale, "They... they're trying to take back Inalia."
"No." Alexios breathed.
"No?"
"No, they are going for just the Guildhall. They had ships that entered through the bay that were just in close enough range to hit the Guildhall. And they are just stalling there. No foreseeable ground attack yet."
"There is no damn ground attack. I left Leto in charge of the remaining Assassins, there is no ground attack."
"Amalia, Lilac had the visions! She saw it all!"
The two turned to Lilac, who fidgeted with the hem of her dress. But she swallowed down her fright, "I woke up the night you left. I had visions in my sleep. I saw the Guildhall on fire, Assassins running through the halls to try and escape. I saw someone leading a group to the Guildhall. They were looking for something. I told Maria when I woke up, who then issued an evacuation for those who wanted to leave. I didn't know when the Guildhall was going to set fire or when it was going to happen, but I knew soon. Leto said he will remain at the Guildhall and alarm us if anything happens."
Sophie was silent for a moment before cursing and beginning to pace.
"I'm sorry, Lia, if I knew more, I would be able to help, but-"
"It isn't your fault, little one. The gift of the seer is hard to control." A deep voice soothed. Zuberi walked up with Doreah and
Lysandra, his eyes focused on Lilac.
"I have spent thousands of years trying to master the ability, and it is still quite trouublesome." He smiled. Sophie looked over them, just fully clicking that the Dunmer were here.
For the Prince. That is what they cried when they entered the battlefield.
"Thank you. If not for your arrival, I would probably be dead. As would my men." Sophie shook the hand of Doreah, who nodded.
"Anything for our Prince. He has been helping the Dunmer kingdom for a while. Has been helping us make our move above ground, helping spread around knolwedge of what is happening and educating our people. He has also been writing better training regiments for our soldiers, helping rewrite the budget, has been in correspondence with nobles and personnel alike, and the people absolutely adore him. If we didn't come help, it would be like shooting ourselves in the foot."
Ruy had been doing all that? Sophie had no idea. He kept the Dunmer side of him under very tight wraps, but Sophie thought she was the exception of that. Apparently not.
"And you." Sophie turned to Lysandra, who didn't shy away from Sophie's icy glare.
"Kassandra is downstairs in her own room. I believe it is about time we all convene." Lysandra answered, not even needing to hear her question.
"Quickly. I want to figure out the status of the mainland directly afterward." Sophie strided back for below deck, waiting for Lysandra to follow.
They strode side by side, the silence incredibly awkward. Sophie was stewing on anger and questions, and Lysandra was so quiet Sophie could not understand her thoughts. Her mind had protections and walls that even her telepathy couldn't breakthrough.
"Lysandra-"
"Eira, please. I kept up the Lysandra ruse for too long."
Sophie gritted her teeth but continued, "Eira, you knew they were looking for you. We were looking for you. That night I found you sneaking out of the kingdom, you attacked me. There are so many damn times you should've spoken up, do something! And you didn't. For fucks sake, I even thought we were friends! We danced at the Conference and spoke for hours."
Eira clenched her jaw, trying to find the right words to say, "Then I guess that was your mistake then."
"My mistake? Fine, not friends then, but not enemies to the point that you would nearly kill me!"
"I was holding back that entire fight. I just wanted to try to help my brother see reason and you went and ruined that."
Sophie stopped, grabbing Eira's forearm and forcing her to meet her gaze, "Elrond has killed thousands of my people. Killed my father right in front of my eyes and has caused the Mirthless to run rampant on innocent people. And you were trying to, what? Make him decide to stop and braid daisy chains with you?"
Eira got into Sophie's face, "His name is Halvar. And I thought after seeing me after all these years, he would remember me! Our childhood, the kind of person our father was! Our father wouldn't ahve wanted to see him like that. On this blood crazed revenge quest."
"Revenge? That is all that is driving him?"
Eira took a deep breath, "Revenge on you. Your family name. You want to know who was hunting down all the Morrettis before the Senate decided to do it? Who influenced the Senate to execute your grandparents and great uncle? My brother. He blamed Kassandra, and thus her entire family, for killing our father and he blamed all of the Vatarians for bringing the war to such a point that our father took on Mephala."
"And you jsut stood by and let him do all that? The Vatarians had nothing to do with Mephala! It was the old Dunmer King that wanted to use him as a weapon to create the Mirthless!"
"And why do you think he did that? The Dunmer were losing, Mentore, and they were losing bad. He needed to save our people. The old king may be a gods awful prick, but he was working with Mephala in hopes of saving our people!"
They were practically screaming at that point, right outside Kassandra's door.
The queen opened her door to the two snarling women and just stood aside in the doorway.
"We have a lot we need to discuss." The queen sighed. Sophie shouldered past Lysandra into the room, crossing her arms and leaning against the furthest wall. She gestured for Eira and Kassandra to begin.
"Eira, I know it may take a while for you to see eye to eye with us. But after witnessing the battle at the Throat, surely you enderstand your brother must be stopped." Kassandra started.
Eira lip quivered, but she nodded, albeit begrudgingly. Kassandra turned to Sophie, "To defeat Mephala, we need all the artifacts. How many have you collected?"
"I have found your crown, a pair of glasses, and the key. Apprently, the Neverseen are looking for the apple and, from what we learned from Fitz about Blur's death, a goblet. They think they have the crown, but they actually have a fake."
"And the rope?" Eira asked.
"Destroyed."
She took a sharp breath, "Not ideal. But you having three artifacts is ideal."
"The problem is that they are hidden at the Guildhall right now, which has been evacuated and on lockdown after my sister's vision. Apprently, the Neverseen are getting ready to launch siege against it."
Kassandra clenched her fists, "Then that means the Guildhall is."
"No, from what my aunt told me, one of our veteran Assasinns Leto is protecting the Guild along with the few Assassins that wished to remain to protect the Guild. The children and the workers evacutated with Maria and Lilac."
"We should still take the artifacts. How well do you know these men? Have you done background checks, spy work on their pasts-"
"Eira, they can be trusted. Leto is my damn Rastus father and has been in the Guild longer than I have been alive. And the other assassins are well looked into and have been loyaly swoirn into the Guild."
"And the Neverseen ships in the bay, what are they doing?" Eira argued.
"Apparently, just waiting there, in battle formation. Lined up to attack the Guildhall. But they are, more worrisome, blocking off anyone else entering the bay. Which means if we do need to interfere, we can't get our ships to the harbor."
"I'm telling you, there is something going on. Your sister has a vision that things go to shit, we are all distracted at the battle and protecting Kassandra, only a few Assassins protecting the artifacts? It is a recipe for disaster."
Sophie clenched her jaw, sliding down the wall a bit.
"This does reek though, you are right."
"The spy that you have amongst your ranks, have they been caught?" Eira asked.
"How do you-"
"Everyone knows something is wrong with the Assassins at this point. It isn't well hidden."
Sophie sighed, "That's just the thing. We have been busy as hell, and the spy? They are practically a ghost. We can't find traces anywhere."
Eira shook her head, "I don't care what your sister saw in her visions. I am going to retrieve the artifacts."
"You won't be able to get them." Sophie bit out.
"Why? No little safe you may have built for them can hide from me."
"It can only open with my retina. Maria designed the safe herself. And this is my Guild. If you are going, I'm going as well."
"Under one condition."
"Which is?"
"You do not tell your assassins we are coming."
"For the last time, my assassins are loyal-"
"Except for one! And you don't even know who this spy is! We get in there, and get out. They don't even need to know you opened the safe."
Sophie glanced at Kassandra, who gave her a slight nod.
"Fine." Sophie grits out.
"Let's get a small boat rolling out. You are still healing, so if we do encounter any trouble, I deal with it. No one knows about this mission until we are done." Eira argued.
"Then quit your yapping and let's get moving."
Even after they left Kephalonia at the cover of night with not a sound made, they didn't notice the Siren's trailing them. The sirens refused to leave their savior to fend for herself.
And the rest of the Inner Circle didn't realize their Mentore was gone until the morning.
The finale is going to be about 5 chapters long? Maybe 4? And then the second book is done!
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_Sibylline_