"So... Basically, what you're telling me is, you guys are the elves us humans are afraid of, and you came here to stop the war?" Fin asked, looking very confused. Sophie couldn't blame him. After all, it wasn't everyday magical species showed up out of nowhere.
"Please tell me I should have told you any of this." Sophie begged, tugging on her eyelashes.
"Oh! No, Hart -- wait, Sophie. Argh, I'm going to have the hardest time keeping this straight. Emma Hart. Sophie Foster. Anyways, you've hung out with me and humans for a while -- and didn't do anything to hurt us. That proves that you aren't my enemy, doesn't it?" Fin grinned.
Sophie smiled at him. "Really? Thank you, Fin."
"Anytime. But did you ask me how I saw the vision? Well, I was hanging out with you and the boy -- remember? -- and suddenly, I just sorta... felt like I was going to sleep. And I heard a voice. It was deep, but a female-voice sorta deep. Anyways, it talked about how there were hidden memories taken away from us, and how there was another species inhabiting the world -- elves. They also said that the elves were planning to attack our world, and that we had to fight back." Fin informed them.
"Woah, that must've been crazy creepy." Keefe muttered.
"Consanguineous." Fitz said solemnly.
"Fin, I hope I'm not asking too much, but is it possible for me to meet, you know, the boy who had the vision first?" Sophie asked.
"Oh. Um... Let me see." Fin quickly ran to the counter and got a file out. He flipped the page until his face brightened. "Aha! Yes, I have his contact information all here. Kevin Henderson, age 9."
Sophie grinned at him. "Thank you so much, Fin."
"Mhm! Lemme call him... Shouldn't be longer than a minute..." He mumbled to himself and walked away to the phone.
"So, Foster, are you gonna tell us what we're doing?" Keefe whispered in the Enlightened Language so that Fitz could join too.
"Every problem can be solved if we trace it back to the beginning. So that's what I'm trying to do."
"Yeah, because that makes so much sense." Fitz snorted. "Sophie, I know you mean well, but I don't get what you're trying to do."
"Great news, Sophie!" Fin said from above, beaming. "Kevin will be here in just a minute!"
"Awesome!" Sophie said. And sure enough, Kevin was stumbling into the hospital with his mother a little while later.
"Oh, it's you again." Kevin said in a bored voice, looking at Fin.
"What can I say? I missed you, man!" Fin exclaimed, extending his fist for a fist-bump. Kevin, being the mature nine-year-old he was, ignored it.
"Oh, hi, doc Hart." He said, finally noticing Sophie. "Why aren't you wearing those white clothes?"
"It's because... Well, I only have a few questions. It'll be real quick. Got it, buddy?" Sophie asked the boy. He nodded. "He'll be back soon." She informed his mother, and led him to a private room -- where they had talked first.
"So, what did you want to ask me?" Kevin asked.
"I wanted to know a little bit more about your vision. Do you still remember that?" Sophie asked.
Kevin looked confused. "Um... Sorta? Only bits and pieces."
Sophie felt her mood plummet to the ground. Maybe this was hopeless after all. "Oh." Was all she managed to say, although it was stupid.
Kevin smirked. "Maybe a bit of candy will help..."
Sophie ruffled Kevin. "You sneaky kid!" She laughed, handing him a vast assortment of candy.
"Basically, I was playing outside, you know? Then I found myself looking at a big, scary wolf. Boy, I literally peed my pants! It was big, with stormy gray eyes, and it seemed as if it was smiling, actually. Then it made a squeaky sound -- like it was talking, I guess? -- and I saw the wolf and something else at the same time. Like I was still standing and awake, but I wasn't at the same time. There were voices in my head saying things about an elf, and in a second, it was over."
..................................................................................
The blazing sunlight blinded Sophie when she woke up.
"Oh, Sophie, good morning!" Edaline said, sitting on her bed. "I was just going to wake you up."
"What time is it?" Sophie asked.
"11:00 in the morning. But honey, don't be mad. You came home at 2 am last night! You looked exhausted. I don't care how good of a cause it was for, but you needed some rest."
Sophie groaned.
"Don't worry though, your friends are all waiting downstairs for you, so you can tell them whatever you discovered last night." Edaline told Sophie.
"And you tell me not to worry?" Sophie sighed. "They were up before me too? I'm a failure."
"Uh-uh! Mommy ishn't a failure!" Charlotte spoke from next to Sophie. She was lying in bed next to her. "Come on, change and go down!"
"Okay, boss-girl." Sophie laughed, tickling Charlotte's stomach. She giggled.
After Sophie changed into a simple red tunic, black skirt, and light makeup, she made her way downstairs and was greeted by 'good morning's of her friends.
"Guess what, Foster?" Keefe asked as soon as she got down. "You slept for a total of 8 hours last night! That's, like, two times as much as your regular sleep!"
Sophie groaned. "I shouldn't have done that."
"You totally should have." Keefe stated.
"So... Back to the reason why we're all here." Mr. Forkle said, clearing his throat. "Miss. Foster, Mr. Vacker, Mr. Sencen, did you discover anything important last night?"
"Yeah, I guess." Fitz shrugged. "I couldn't really tell because I'm still not fluent at English."
Keefe snorted. "Tell me about it."
Fitz glared at Keefe, but then sighed. "Whatever."
"So? What did you want to tell us? You're boring me to sleep." Marella piped up, and Dex was forced to nod along with her.
"Yeah. So, the person who started it has two abilities that we know of: Shapeshifter and Compeller." Sophie said. "They transformed into a wolf, then forced Kevin to think a certain way. The question is how it spread to other people. And how to redo it."
Eve and Veta both sighed at this. "Only a talented Compeller can make other people -- especially the talentless, which in this case is Kevin -- subconsciously another Compeller." Eve mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Sophie asked. "Kevin's a human boy."
"Yeah, I know. That's why that wolf demon is talented." Eve said. "When she made the boy, Kevin, see that vision, she also made him repeat this process. So, basically, without realizing it, Kevin was sending this vision to people, and telling them to repeat. So, everyone near Kevin saw it. Then everywhere around those people saw it. Eventually, the whole world saw the vision."
"How do you know all of this?" Tam asked.
"Because I've seen one other person do this too." Eve sighed. "And she's standing in this room."
Veta rolled her eyes. "Nice job being subtle about this, Evexanda."
Eve shrugged. "They needed to know."
"It's you?!" Wylie, Linh, Biana, Marella, Dex, and Charlotte all shouted.
"Geez, no need to shout. But yeah." Veta said. "And I don't even know how I did it. Well, I do, but it's because Emery forced me to, you know?"
Everyone nodded in silence.
"Then maybe you can make them forget." Sophie said hopefully. "Like what you did last time."
Veta sighed. "Sorry, I forgot to mention this last part. The spell can be broken by only two ways: one, by the person who cast it. Second, with two sacrifices: one elf with the Forgotten Abilities and one human."
Oooh, it's been a while.
How are y'all?