"Okaaaaaaaayyyyyyy," said Savi. "Noted. Cerulean has a creepy older brother who- oh, but that means Timothy and Carla are your parents."
"Just realized?" Cerulean asked, his smile twisted.
"So... you're kind of an orphan?"
"I wish," Cerulean snorted. "Orphans get adopted. Orphans aren't blamed for what their parents did. I was raised by my grandmother."
"But... hang on. You told me your mother was a Vacker."
"I say a lot of things," Cerulean mumbled, looking cross with himself. "Look, this is why you hate me, right? I lied to you."
"I don't hate you, Cerulean. You're my only friend. I couldn't hate you even if I wanted to," Savi admitted, even though she was kind of mad at him.
Cerulean looked away. "Well... good for you, I guess."
Savi grabbed his arm. "Seriously! I'm not mad at you."
"Yeah, well... Okay."
Savi watched him go and wondered if she shouldn't have told him anything in the first place.
Maybe having friends was more trouble than it was worth.
She couldn't believe she'd actually been excited for school that day when it turned out to be utter garbage. Well, apart from Lady Gavin's praise, but that wasn't exactly something she could tell her parents about. Keefe would say it was to be expected while Sophie would just stare and be unsure of what to say. Her grandparents wouldn't have anything good to say, either, since Savi was pretty sure they'd been way better than her. Then again, they'd ended up caring for animals, so maybe alchemy hadn't been their forte.
Savi wondered if she should go make some friends that were girls for a change, but she just didn't feel like it. What girls were there that would actually want to befriend her, anyway? Via was busy hanging out with Harmony – not that Savi could blame her. Harmony was a child of the esteemed Vacker family. But she'd thought that Harmony would like her since their parents were friends. Ha. Fat chance. Why'd she ever gotten her hopes up?
She listened through Elvin History because she had nothing better to do and got an A star on her assignment. Not that she cared. What use what Elvin History anyway? But her mentor seemed genuinely impressed by her work ethic, so she decided to go along with it. She could be the queen of Elvin History if that was what it took to make some friends. Or be left alone.
When she got home, she ignored the batch of freshly baked mallowmelt sitting on the table which was definitely a red flag for Edaline because she came banging on the door a short while later.
"Look, I don't want to talk about it," Savi said forcefully and tried to close the door on her grandmother.
Edaline smiled in a grandmotherly way. "I don't want to know anything you aren't ready to share. But I do want you to eat some mallowmelt."
Savi grinned. "Okay, you win." She took the tray of mallowmelt from Edaline and closed the door gently.
Her parents and grandparents and even Seri always exploited Savi's weakness on her. But she didn't mind. It meant that whenever they wanted something, she got extra mallowmelt. Which wasn't a bad thing.
She considered hailing Cerulean before wondering if he was even ready to talk to her again. Oh well. Who cared if he was ready or not? "Cerulean," she whispered into the Imparter.
His face flickered onto the screen but he wasn't looking. "Look, Harmony, stop it, you've already hailed me three t..." He looked at the screen and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Savannah?"
"Savi," Savi corrected. "And yeah, it's me. You're talking to Harm, are you?"
He cracked a smile. "Okay, I know why she hates you now."
"I thought she hated you, too," Savi pointed out mildly.
"Oh yeah, she does. She just hailed me three times to ask me to stay away from you," Cerulean answered breezily.
"And you said no, didn't you?"
"Uh... I said I'd think about it," Cerulean replied.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" Savi asked.
"Um, I thought you were mad at me," Cerulean said, scratching his chin. "Isn't that why you didn't speak to me all day?"
Savi facepalmed. "No, I thought you were mad so I didn't want to bother you!"
"Well, we're both pretty oblivious, aren't we. So... all's well?" Cerulean extended a hand.
"You realize I can't shake that through the Imparter, right?"
"Oh, right. Should I head over to Willowtree, then?"
"No!"
Cerulean cocked his eyebrows. "I thought you weren't mad."
"I'm not!" Savi protested. "I... just.... Okay, my family doesn't know I'm friends with you."
"Ashamed?" He looked genuinely hurt and started moving away from the Imparter.
"Not ashamed. But... I don't know, okay? I always thought my first friend in school would be a girl!" Savi explained.
This time his eyes had laughter in them. "Well, I can be a girl if you want me to," he said in a very high-pitched, very girly voice.
Savi burst out laughing.
"Savi? Are you okay in there?" Sophie's voice asked.
Savi panicked and turned to the screen, whispering, "Okay, Cerulean, my mom's calling me – I'll call you again later. Or I'll see you tomorrow."
"'Kay, bye," Cerulean responded and hung up.
Savi shoved her Imparter under all her blankets and opened the door, "Hi, Mom."
"Savi, why were you laughing?"
"I... uh... read something funny. Yeah."
"Totally," said Sophie, unconvinced.
"Yeeeeeeeeppppp!" Savi said, very convincingly.
Sophie raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, I was... talking to somebody," Savi admitted. She had to tell them about Cerulean sometime. She couldn't force him to stay away from Willowtree forever.
"Okay, who was it?" Sophie asked.
Ugh, why did parents have to be so annoyingly curious? "My friend. From school," Savi said and edged away from Sophie.
Sophie grabbed her arm. "What friend?"
"My friend," Savi repeated. "From school."
"Yeah, what's her name?"
Savi winced. Her mother was already saying 'her'. Which meant that the moment she mentioned Cerulean was a boy, Sophie was going to get a heart attack.
"Um... it's not a girl."
"A boy," Sophie said, raising her eyebrows.
"Not a boy!" Savi said quickly before instantly regretting it. "A... an animal." She hoped she sounded convincing. Elves were animals, weren't they?
"An animal," Sophie repeated. She didn't look even slightly convinced, and a moment later, she tilted her head and said, "Elves are animals. Come on, spit it out, Savi." When Savi continued to remain silent, she said in a more menacing tone, "Savannah..."
"Okay! It's a boy! And his name's Cerulean. And don't tease!" Savi yelped as she moved away.
Sophie smiled. "I'm not going to tease. You're like me. My first friend in the Lost Cities was a boy, too."
"Dad?" Savi asked.
Sophie's eyes clouded. "No, it wasn't your father. It was my Cognate. Fitz."
"Oh." Savi had been told stories about Fitz, who had died in an explosion that he had helped to set off. He had sacrificed his life to save everybody.
"I dated him for a while. Did I ever tell you that?" Sophie asked.
"No, you didn't," said Savi, although she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear all of this.
"Well... I did. To be honest, I thought I was going to marry Fitz and not your father. He... he gave me this." Her fingers traced the diamond necklace on her neck.
"You still wear it?" Savi asked, surprised. "Even when you're married to Dad?"
Sophie nodded. "Your father knows how much Fitz meant to me."
"So... you broke up because he died?"
"No, we broke up before that. He was a little oblivious to my feelings. And... well, he died thinking I'd never forgive him." A tear slid down Sophie's cheek. "So, I continued to wear this. Every day. Even when I was dating your father. Even when we got married. He respected that. Everyone did." She fingered the necklace again. "This is the last thing he ever gave me."
Savi wanted to say something along the lines of so romantic, but then again, her mother had then proceeded to go marry Keefe Sencen the prankster, which couldn't have been honoring Fitz's memory.
Sophie sighed and looked away. "Why are we talking about this again? Savi, don't you have homework?"
"Nope. Mom, it's my second day," Savi whined.
"Well, go talk to that... Cerulean of yours. Wait. Cerulean...?"
"Yeah, why?" Savi asked. Was Cerulean someone she knew?
"Oh, nothing," Sophie answered, but then she told Savi anyway. "It's just that one of my enemies has cerulean eyes."
"Has?" Savi demanded. "Wait, Cerulean's eyes are... well, cerulean too."
"What's his full name, Savi?" Sophie asked.
"Cerulean Asher Tsynis."
"Well, she can't be his mother then, Cerulean's mother is in Exile."
"Yeah," Savi mumbled. "Oh. Is it the Shade? Cerulean's a Hydrokinetic."
"Everything about him is blue, isn't it?" Sophie asked jokingly.
Savi immediately became a big brain and went into her usual pep talk about how water wasn't actually blue and neither was the sea, it just reflected the sky, which was blue. That was why water in a glass indoors or a water bottle was clear while seawater appeared to be blue when they were at the beach. Before Savi could even finish, Sophie patted her head and whispered that she'd heard it all before.
Of course. Savi told her every single time Sophie made a remark that even implied that water was blue.
"Go hail him. And Savi? I'm fine with your friendship with him. That was your secret yesterday, wasn't it? You don't need to hide your friends from me," Sophie said.
"Yeah, I just... wasn't sure how you'd take it."
"Well, it's not a bad thing. You don't need to hide it. I'm going out with Seri and your father, and Edaline's going home – do you want to come with us?"
"Not if Seri's going," Savi replied with a small shudder.
Sophie laughed. Both of them knew how much Savi hated Seri. "Oh, and, Savi? Your little brother has finally been discharged from Elwin's care."