...I don't really have much to say for the intro.
Crowd: IS THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE HORRIBLY UNCREATIVE AND BORING AND UNINTELLIGENT?
Me: Um, no.
Crowd: It's all true, though, isn't it?
Me: I shall neither confirm nor deny that.
Oh! 2.5 K reads! Thank you all! :)
That's it, enjoy!
Not again, was the only thing Sophie could think.
Her second thought was that this shouldn't have happened until the next day, according to Blur and Axel- who were telling the truth, as determined by Stina. What would have made the Neverseen change their minds?
Probably the fact that she'd be here.
But they'd been preparing for six days, almost as good as a week. That last day didn't really make much of a difference. They were as prepared as they would ever be.
She just hoped that their best was good enough.
Sophie's eyes flitted back to the army of humans. Already, the goblins had started counterattacking. She was sure that the goblins were more powerful than the humans- the only problem was that they were outnumbered. She knew that she should help, after all, she was the moonlark... but it really didn't feel right.
The humans didn't do anything wrong. They were under the control of the Neverseen, it wasn't their fault. To the goblins and to the other elves, humans weren't really important- there were so many of them, and they did more harm than good anyway- but she had lived with humans for twelve years. She had grown up around humans- grown up believing that she was a human. There was no way she could kill one of them.
Except they were all trying to kill her.
This was a pretty serious ethical dilemma.
Sophie decided to focus on the other elves instead. There were less of them, which made her job easier, and they actually deserved whatever she did to them. Sophie scanned the area until she found the nearest person with a Neverseen cloak. Not really caring who they were, she mustered up all of her emotion from the past day- there was a lot- and inflicted it.
This time, she was brought out of her concentration by the sound of a gunshot, scarily close to her.
Sophie shrieked, diving out of the way just in time.
That was a bullet.
A bullet.
She had almost been shot.
Tears filled her eyes, tears of panic and stress and relief and fear and all of the emotion of the last few hours catching up with her yet again and overwhelming her. She blinked them away. Now was not the time to start crying.
But- the tears rose to the surface again when she caught sight of a familiar head of Hair.
"Keefe." Sophie meant to yell it, but it couldn't come out as more than a whisper. She ran toward him. "Keefe!" It was louder that time.
He turned around to face her, and seeing his face again nearly made her heart explode. She saw him mouth her name before running towards her.
There was a battle raging around them, but they didn't care as they closed the last few inches between them. She nearly jumped into his arms, and he picked her up and spun her around, and even before Sophie could actually register it, they were kissing.
"You- you came back," Sophie gasped.
Keefe smiled. "When will you learn that Team Foster Keefe will always prevail? I keep trying to prove it to you..."
Instead of answering, Sophie kissed him again. At some point, they both seemed to remember that there were probably more important things to do. Reluctantly, they pulled apart.
"Don't die," Sophie ordered. "If you die, I'll kill you."
"Noted," Keefe said. "Try not to make your near death experience too close."
"Hey, there's a chance that I won't-"
"No, there isn't," Keefe interrupted. "Now, go do your awesome moonlark thing and make the rest of us look like slackers!"
Sophie smiled. She was probably about to say something sweet, before an explosion distracted her.
"Don't die," she repeated as Keefe ran off towards the source of the explosion. She watched him poke someone in the Neverseen cloak, thank them loudly, and snap his fingers to make weapons appear. They must have been a Conjurer. Sophie tore her eyes away from him. Keefe would be fine, she told herself.
She had to focus on not dying herself.
Though Keefe was right, this would almost certainly end in an Elwin visit.
Sophie looked around the room, trying to decide who was the most pressing threat. She felt like an idiot when she realized- the humans were only a threat because the Mesmer was controlling them. So she didn't need to kill the humans. Just the Mesmer. Sophie continued searching until she found the familiar girl, only fourteen or fifteen years old. Instead of a scowl like the last time they saw each other, the Mesmer was grinning. Beads of sweat were trickling down her face, and her brow was furrowed in concentration, but she was smiling evilly the entire time.
Sophie ran towards her, occasionally running into other people. At one point, she felt a sharp pain in her arm. Maybe there was blood, she couldn't be bothered to check. Once she reached the Mesmer, the Mesmer's half closed eyes opened and looked at Sophie, seeming to recognize her as the Moonlark. Her eyes were dark, dark blue.
Sophie prepared to inflict again. The inflicting from the first time had drained her, but she was pretty sure she could muster up enough anger to attack the Mesmer as well.
It's her fault Sandor died, Sophie repeated to herself as she inflicted. Distantly, she hoped that she wasn't attacking Keefe as well, but she was probably too furious to stop even if she wanted to. It was impossible not to feel the smallest bit pleased- and therefore also psychotic- at the Mesmer's tortured screams. Yeah, Sophie definitely seemed a little pyschotic, but that person deserved all the pain. She killed Sandor. She deserved to die. It wasn't so wrong to take pleasure in the Mesmer's pain!
"Foster, you can stop now," Keefe said softly. He nudged her. "Sophie. Sophie, you can stop."
Sophie took a deep breath and stopped inflicting. She looked around. About half of the humans had stopped fighting, and were simply standing with a dazed look on their face, wondering where they were, what was going on, and how they got there. Keefe was staring, eyes narrowed, at a few figures in Neverseen cloaks, who seemed to be attacking themselves."You stole her Mesmerizing?" Sophie asked, fairly certain that that was the only explanation.
Keefe nodded.
"You're amazing," Sophie said, though she was too drained to put more enthusiasm into her statement. "What do we do with her now?"
Without warning, the Mesmer, who was just getting up and recovering from Sophie's inflicting, fell unconscious again. Keefe and Sophie shared a look of What the mallowmelt?
Biana blinked into sight, and their question was answered. "Wow," Biana said, eyes wide. "I was not expecting that to work. DEX, THANK YOU FOR THE SUCKER PUNCH!"
"No problem!" called Dex, who was throwing gadget thingies at people.
Sophie blinked, staring at Biana incredulously. "That. Was. Amazing."
Biana grinned. "I know, right?"
"Remind me never to get on your bad side, Lady Sparklepants," Keefe said.
Sophie laughed, opening her mouth to reply. Her sentence died in her mouth when a painful, excruciatingly painful shock jolted through her.
"Foster!" was the last thing she heard before her mind shut off.
What's this? Another cliffhanger. Oops.
Okay, but Keefe is back! Huzzah! Their reunion was really really cringy- the first draft was even worse. *Dies in cringe* But tHEY HAD THEIR FIRST KISS! EEEEEEEEEEEE! Does that make up for the cliffhanger?
Also, Biana is a queen. That is by far the best part of the chapter- she just sucker punched the Mesmer in the head! I loved it. Say it with me: "ALL HAIL QUEEN BIANA!"
Okay, I don't have an exact date for the next chapter- but soon, I think. No more fight scenes! At least not until the climax. Which is soon! Ahh!
Please comment! --->