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Part 1 of The Best Of Us
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2022-10-19
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2025-04-26
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24,928
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In Another Life

Summary:

When Sophie Foster was five there was an accident. She woke up unable to hear, and now she was being told she was a “weapon” to be used against her creators.

Keefe Sencen never knew a normal childhood. From the second he was born he was forced into this life. With his sister to protect and being afraid to speak, he has no idea how to get out of this life, or if he should.

Fitz Vacker lives the perfect life. But after finding out his brother was apart of a rebellion, his world starts to rip apart at the seams making his life get weirder and weirder.

same fic by the same person, i simply changed my username from TheSirenMoon to moonqqake :D

Notes:

okay! so i wrote this once, but it somehow got orphaned? idk how that happened, but i’ll edit this one later, add more tags and all. so if you’re seeing this one first, uh it may not have all the tags as the other one. but thats okay for now :)

enjoy the first chapter!

hello! this is my first work, so don’t bash on me too hard for it. This is an idea that just kinda popped into my mind one day, and now I'm letting it out.

 

Rewritten October 25 2023 AD | updated October 25 2023 AD | words: 3,432 (over three times longer than the original...)

Chapter 1: I Fitz

Summary:

[Fitz’s POV] (1st day)
They find Keefe and Sophie in the neverseen base. They try to get them to agree to come with them.

Chapter Text

Fitz eyed the long empty hallways they walked past. All him, his father, Lady Cadence and Lady Edaline had been pared together to search a maybe abandoned Neverseen base. One that, according to Mr. Forkle, hadn’t had any traffic in months, maybe even years. The only reason Fitz was allowed to join this time is because of that fact. That they’re likely to see no one else in what could be an empty mansion. Which isn’t fair because Dex Dizznee, for whatever reason, has been allowed to join the adults for years now! What did he have that Fitz didn’t? Dex is only a Technopath; Fitz is a Telepath and Biana is a Vanisher! Surly they would be more useful, but Mr. Forkle rambled on about experience and practice with more than just their abilities, but if you didn’t use your abilities, then what use were you against a group like the Neverseen?

It wasn’t fair. At least Fitz wasn’t paired with Dex. The Dizznee boy was with those twins and Lord Grady.

So this is a Neverseen base, he thinks as they pass another empty room. Not what I was expecting. Not that he really had expectations, but it was the Neverseen. From what he’s heard of them, they probably would have had a base with something…more. Maybe it’s because this one’s empty, maybe it was before it was cleared, but it certainly wasn’t anything now.

The place looked like it was an old warehouse before it was cleared out. Tall ceilings, the same gray stone that went floor to ceiling, same larger than needed black doors to every room with empty shelves that probably used to house different materials’ before they were cleared.  

It felt like they had been walking for a good hour before they reached a dead end. The place was full of them, but they had yet to actually reach one down the main hallway they were scouting. Fitz sighed through his nose when Lady Edaline made them wait, going back to look at the blank wall. It didn’t look any different than the others that filled this place. The lights cast a shadow on it making the center of it look slightly darker than the rest of it, but that was just the lighting.

His father asked Lady Edaline something Fitz didn’t care to listen to, probably asking why she had stopped them when she lays her palm flat on the wall. Only it doesn’t touch it. Her hand and arm go through it. Now this, this was something he thought would be in a Neverseen base.

Fitz was the second through, Lady Edaline being the first, his father and Lady Cadence quickly following behind them.

Except the false wall didn’t lead into some cooler room, it led to…another gray hall with even darker lighting. Only instead of a new door every ten or so feet there was one bright red door at the very end of the hall. The door itself was smaller with some kind of keypad beside it and writing in…English (Was that English?) all over the door. Things he couldn’t read. It looked like numbers and letters in long or short sentences with different symbols in between some of it, but then others were drawings and notes or something in the like pointing to the artwork. Artwork that was pretty well done, too, for the most part. There were a few drawings that looked like they were maybe done by a different person, or the same person when they were younger. And it was just a bunch of random things; animals, a strange amount of dinosaurs, human things; really just a lot of doodles. They were mainly written in black but the occasional blue, orange or green was there too.

As they made their way to the door his father was told by Lady Edaline to contact Mr. Forkle and tell them what they found before Lady Cadence allowed them to get any closer to the door. It only took about thirty seconds of back and forth between his father and Mr. Forkle but every second felt like minutes that turned into hours for it to be over.

Fitz gives Lady Edaline a confused look when she slips an Ogre throwing star into his hand as they get within six feet of the door. What did she want him to do with this? Elves couldn’t fight. That’s been proven, and a weapon that could hurt, maybe kill someone? Did she want him to have a broken mind by the end of this mission? But he held it in his non-dominant hand none the less. Maybe he can give it back to her if something were to actually happen.

It was Lady Edaline and his father who walked up to the door first, Lady Edaline putting something on the keypad which unlocks it, a copper handle coming out of a hidden panel. On the handle there was a colorful flower pattern drawn on in pastel colors, a stark contrast to the dark almost rusted copper.

Lady Edaline twists it after taking a breath, a dagger having fallen into her right hand in the few seconds Fitz wasn’t watching her. But unlike all the other doors they’ve found in this place that opened outward into the hall, this one opened inward into the room.

Fitz was at the back, being held behind Lady Cadence, like they were scared that he couldn’t handle himself if a fight broke out. So he couldn’t see what made Lady Edaline gasp, or what made his father stop mid-step, or what made Lady Cadence rush forward until everyone had made their way in the room or in the doorway.

Inside was a small room. Much, much smaller than any of the others they had seen. Instead of tall ceilings that matched the halls it had a shorter ceiling, a small hanging light in the middle of the room, and dark blue walls, also filled with different English and artwork. A toilet, tub and sink sat in one corner with a curtain that could be pulled around it, along one wall closest to the door had three small bookshelves filled with books, sketch books, note books, art supplies and…bandanas? Yep, those were baskets of bandanas. But in the corner that was farthest from the door held a bed with a few different blankets of all sizes and…two kids.

Both of them were blond and looked around the same age. A boy and a girl. But the age and hair were the only things that they shared. The boy had exhausted looking pale blue eyes with deep bags underneath while the girl had brown eyes that looked only slightly less tired. She was human, then. The girl’s hair was wavy and reached her waist easily, while the boy had messy hair that sat on his shoulders. Both were pale as a bed sheet, the girl somehow even more so, like they had never sat out in the sun before. She wore a large red human’s dress shirt with what looked like shorts. He wore a large white tee shirt with shorts that reached just above his knee.

They looked as if they were woken up—and maybe they were. But he was sat in front of her, an arm reached over her protectively as she sat with wide eyes and his narrowed, watching Fitz and his crew’s every move. As if one wrong move from  them and the boy would attack.

Lady Cadence pushed her way past Fitz’s father and Lady Edaline, her hands up at her sides, moving slowly and predictably as she started to speak.

“Hi,” she says quietly.

 It was very rare that Fitz hadn’t heard her sound irritated, like everyone else was always on her last nerve. But right now it was like she was a different person. Maybe she was mimicking someone else’s voice.

“We’re here to help you.” she continues, taking a small step closer to the two. “You don’t have to be afraid.”

The boy pushed the girl even further behind him, not saying anything as she tapped his shoulder a couple times. Didn’t humans have ways to communicate through just tapping? She was human after all, maybe he was too.

Lady Edaline seemed to take that as her cue to stand only a step behind Lady Cadence, holding a hand behind her to tell Fitz and his father to not follow any closer.

“Can you understand us?” Lady Edaline asked the two, waiting a few seconds for any kind of a response before nodding slightly to herself and repeating the phrase in English, which did make the boy twitch a bit, maybe as much of a jump they’d get out of them.

Lady Cadence copies what she said before but in English, following Lady Edaline’s lead—this was a pattern in the BlackSwan, Fitz has found. Everyone bounced off of each other, following each other in a way Fitz has never seen before. It was still pretty weird, he thought. For everyone to just to blindly trust another in a situation like this. Alvar had been lying Fitz’s whole life, yet none of these elves even let the thought of a traitor pass through their mind.

The boy looks them all up in down before nearly baring his teeth like an animal, his face growing angry as he goes on alert. The girl, maybe sensing the shift in the air grows alert too, sitting up straighter, one hand holding onto the boys shoulder, and one sat on the forearm that was outstretched in front of her. 

“Hey,” Lady Cadence says in English. “It’s okay—”

“BlackSwan.” The boy says quietly through his teeth in the Enlightened Language. His voice was rough like he hasn’t spoken in a while. The girl’s hand tightens, gripping onto the fabric that fell over the boys small shoulders.

The three adults shared a look and Fitz took it as his chance to move into the room too, pushing aside Lady Edaline to stand a few steps in front of Lady Cadence. “Yeah, we’re the BlackSwan. And you’re the Neverseen’s prisoners. So tell us, why would the Neverseen have humans trapped in the Lost Cities?”

The boy goes to reply before looking back at the girl, watching her for a second and shaking his head, keeping an eye on all of them as he does so. He moves his hand and flips it around on his chest for a second before his focus is fully back on all of them. He lifts his hand again, to do what Fitz couldn’t guess before he’s pulled back by the girl.

“Sign language.” Lady Cadence says making the boy startle again. She does the same thing the boy had just done, only she does it much slower. Pointing to herself then holding her hand straight up, her thumb touching her chest. “’I’m fine’. That’s what you signed, isn’t it?”

The boy eyed her as the girl lifts her hands, moving them around her body and mouthing words in something that isn’t the Enlightened Language.

“I’m a Polyglot.” Lady Cadence responds out loud and with her hands to whatever the girl just…signed, did they say? “Can you two hear us?”

The boy answered this time, pointing to himself and pulling is hand palm facing the ground down to hover above his chest before pointing at the girl behind him and touching his mouth to ear.

Lady Cadence frowned and Fitz hated that he couldn’t understand what was being said. But the women continued to sign and back forth to them, asking them question after question, not filling anyone else in on what was being said until the two seemed to clam up and not answer anymore.

Lady Cadence turned to the rest of the group and quietly said: “She’s deaf, he’s mute. He says they’re both elves, but I don’t see how that could be true. They won’t say their age. He says they aren’t prisoners’, and that unless we’d like to get caught we should probably leave right about now. ”

“How would they contact the Neverseen?” Fitz’s father asked angrily. “Have they done it already?”

Lady Edaline shook her head, looking over her shoulder at the two. “They’re scared, Alden. We don’t know how long they’ve been with the Neverseen, or what they’ve done to them. She’s human. We know that much, but if she has abilities, or something like it—we know the Neverseen would try something like that if they could. We know they’ve been studying humans for hundreds of years, maybe these kids are the outcome of that.” She looked down at Fitz with a soft look in her eyes that he’s only ever seen her give to Dex or the twins. “They can’t be any older than you, in fact they’re probably younger by a few years. We can’t leave them here.”

“I never said we were going to,” Fitz’s father hisses quietly. It’s been a while since Fitz has seen his dad this mad. “But if they ratted us out—”

“They didn’t.” Lady Cadence’s tone was cold as she cut him off. “He said they would, not that they already have. Like Edaline said, they’re scared. They recognized us as being a part of the BlackSwan, who knows what the Neverseen has told them about us, what we do, how we do it. For all we know they believe the Neverseen to be right and we’re the villain group trying to hurt them. They’re children, Alden. Whether or not they’re elf or human. We need to help them.”

“I thought you said the boy was mute.” Fitz spoke up, almost breaking the tension in the air.

Lady Cadence glanced at him. “He said he was.”

“But he spoke.”

“I know that. But humans can be mute sometimes and be able to speak others. It’s called selective muteness. It’s not a choice.”

Fitz looked past the adults at the two kids. The boy caught his eye and pulled the girl impossibly closer behind him. They did look scared, and all Fitz could think about was if it were him and Biana, how he would feel if she couldn’t hear and he could hardly speak, being held by the Neverseen and being subjected to who knows what for who knows how long. Maybe they were both humans, maybe they were both somehow elves, maybe they were somehow a mix of both. But maybe, Fitz thought, calling the Neverseen would mean they would get hurt somehow. For bothering them, or for not fighting every member of the BlackSwan that was in the building. They would only call them as a last resort, and that was if Lady Edaline couldn’t convince them to come back with them. And Lady Edaline could be very persuasive.

“We should talk this over.” Fitz father was arguing. “Call a meeting and come back.”

“We can’t leave them.” Lady Edaline persisted.

Fitz almost wanted to take a few steps back so he wouldn’t be pulled into the fight. She was never one you wanted to fight with.

She turned to Lady Cadence. “Translate for me. Or ask them if they can come with us. If we can get them out of here.”

“No, Forkle would—”

“Forkle will want us to take them the first opportunity we get.” Lady Cadence hissed before turning to the two and walking up to their bed. “Can I sit down?” she asked, both speaking and signing.

The girl was the one to nod, giving the boy a look and waving at them when he looked back in question at her.

“Thank you.” Lady Cadence said, her hands hovering in the air as she tried to figure out which signs to use. “I don’t know what the Neverseen told you about the BlackSwan, but we aren’t going to hurt you. And we can get you away from the Neverseen, make sure they can’t hurt you too.”

The boy gave her a dirty look and responded. Whatever he said made Lady Cadence frown.

“Who is this?” she copied a sign the boy had made. Two fingers on her lips before they land on her other fist flat.

The boy didn’t answer, just continued to glare.

“What are your names?” Lady Edaline asked as she walked up, standing next to Lady Cadence.

 Lady Cadence signed it to the two, but again, neither answered.

“We’re here to help you.” Lady Edaline continued. “I guess it’s not fair to ask you for your names if we don’t give you ours, huh? I’m Edaline, that’s Cadence, he’s Alden, and that’s Fitz. You don’t have to be afraid of us. Are you two brother and sister?”

The girl nodded this time, resting her head on the boys shoulder as she eyed them.

“Alright, then how old are you two? Do you know your age?”

The boy lifted his hands and quickly signed something before shaking his head and signing something more.

 “Because you’re still children.” Lady Cadence was the one to answer. “And elves do keep track of their age, for the most part. Especially children’s ages.”

The girl shook her head and frowned but didn’t add anything. She reached around and grabbed the boys hand in hers, him giving it a squeeze, Fitz noticed. They were still scared. Even if they were both ready to fight and call the Neverseen, they were still terrified. No matter how nice the women were to them, no matter how much space Fitz and his father have given them, they still watch the group like one wrong answer and they’ll get hurt.

“The BlackSwan has helped other kids.” Fitz spoke up, Lady Cadence quickly signing it to them, although the boy just watched him with a wary expression. “They’re here now, in this place. If you come with us you can meet them. Because that’s what we do. We help others. And we’ll help you, if you let us.”

The girl signed this time, her eyebrows scrunched together in thought as she answered them.

“They weren’t with the…is this Neverseen?” Lady Cadence held up a fist to her left eye.

The girl shook her head and corrected her. Her fist had her pointer and middle finger over the thumb instead of a regular closed fist. How did a human language have a sign or Neverseen, or did they just make it up?

“Ah, that makes since. Did you two come up with that?”

This time, the boy nodded.

“It’s cleaver. But like I was saying, they weren’t with the Neverseen, but they did need help. And we’ve helped them. Like Fitz said, we can help you too, if you let us.”

“You have no reason to trust us,” Lady Edaline said. “I know that. But if you even give us an ounce of trust, we will help you. No matter what it takes.”

The boy signed something that made even Fitz’s father pause. Lady Cadence said that he asked “What’s in it for you?” and so many things came into Fitz’s mind. Taking something away from the Neverseen, having a win under their belt (for once!), being able to say that he, Fitz Vacker, saved them from an enemy base at sixteen, but it was Lady Edaline who answered.

“Besides letting me sleep at night, knowing you two are safe? Nothing. We want to help you to help you. To save you.”

The boy looked back at the girl, seemingly having a conversation with their eyes before he lifts his hand to sign.

Lady Cadence was holding her breath until the boy finished, and let out a relieved sigh when he was done. “He says they’ll come with us, but if they find out we’re lying or if we hurt them they’ll call the Neverseen.”

“Then come with us.” Lady Edaline told them, reaching a hand out that, surprisingly, the boy took as the two kids slid of the bed. “Is there anything you want to bring with you? I’m sure we could come back in a few days to bring anything we can’t carry right now.”

The girl reached behind her and pulled an elephant stuffed animal from under a pillow. It was old and worn, kinda dirty, and wore a Hawaiian shirt that had been seemingly patched up a few times. The boy looked back at her and gave her an amused look, but she just beamed at him and wrapped the stuffed animal under her arm as they were led out.

 

Chapter 2: II Keefe

Summary:

[Keefe’s POV] (1st day)
They get them to agree and lead them out to meet the rest of the team that was brought to the base.

Notes:

Last chapter was in Fitz’s POV while this one is Keefe’s, and the next one will be in Sophie's. Anything bold is ASL, anything italic is speaking telepathically.

Originally Posted: October 20th, 2022 AD |
Rewritten: October 29th, 2023 AD |
Updated: October 31th, 2023 AD (Happy Halloween!) |
Words: 1,854 (over 2x longer than the original)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The girl reached behind her and pulled an elephant stuffed animal from under a pillow. It was old and worn, kinda dirty, and wore a Hawaiian shirt that had been seemingly patched up a few times. The boy looked back at her and gave her an amused look, but she just beamed at him and wrapped the stuffed animal under her arm as they were led out.

 


 

Keefe didn’t know why they were doing this. Why they didn’t just call their mom and get these elves out of their room. Because, a voice says somewhere in his brain, If you call them they’ll separate you and Sophie again.

Still, it was a stupid idea to trust them. But Sophie had been so excited, even if she just got out for a little bit, that he really didn’t want to say no. So he kept a tight grip on her hand as the man, Alden, walked behind them and they followed the two ladies, Edaline and Cadence, as well as the boy, Fitz.

Fitz walked just a step ahead of them the whole time they were led through the maze of halls, talking about this or that, about the BlackSwan or the other kids, a pair of twins, who were saved. About how he’s only been a part of the BlackSwan for a few months, but that everyone’s impressed at what he can do at his age. Fitz said he was sixteen, and that they know someone who could find out his and Sophie’s age when they get back to “HQ”, wherever that was. But why were they all so obsessed with knowing how old they were? Mom had told them that age didn’t matter, how strong their abilities and minds are were the only thing they should care about. And that if they thought about how old they were then they’d limit themselves, even without meaning to. Keefe knew that he was eight when he first met Sophie, and that she was seven. He knows that they were nine and ten when their mom told them this, but he doesn’t know how long ago that was. It felt like years. Lady Edaline said that they were probably no older than Fitz, but they had to be older than sixteen, didn’t they? It wasn’t only six years since…okay, nope. Not thinking about that.

He’s kept his mind open to Sophie’s since they were woken up by the group of four what could only be an hour or so ago, maybe even less. Unless he was on a mission time usually meant nothing. Hours could last seconds or days long, he didn’t even know the date right now or if it was day or night, he didn’t normally think about the date, even when on a mission.

He had told them that he was mute, and that Sophie was deaf. It wasn’t information they could hurt them with. Sophie’s been deaf for as long as they both can remember, and she’s better at understanding most situations better than he is. Her being deaf wasn’t what humans made it out to be. She was deaf, yes, yet more capable than most other elves Keefe had met. It didn’t affect her like deaf human’s he’s met,  nor did him being mute feel like how humans made it to be. In most situations it was good and kept him quiet, because when he can speak he usually snarks back with or without meaning to. But Cadence has made sure to sign, even walking backward for a bit to translate what Fitz or Edaline were saying. It was nice. Only Soul had ever really done that before.

The place was empty, but it wasn’t when they were brought in it, was it? Keefe couldn’t remember. But he was pretty sure that it had some stuff. It wasn’t a used warehouse, that’s why their mom had it built onto it with a room for them, so that they wouldn’t be found what had to be a few years ago when the BlackSwan was getting closer and closer. Obviously, the plan backfired so horribly it was almost funny. They were moved their so they wouldn’t be found, yet it’s because the place was empty that they were. How incredibly ironic.

Wait,” Sophie signed, waving her hands in front of her to get Fitz’s attention. “Alvar is your brother?” she asked.

Fitz stopped mid-step, his eyes wide as he looks between her and Cadence after she interpreted.

“How do you know that?” Fitz asked harshly. “How do you know my brother?”

Sophie frowned, looking at Cadence as she signed and listening to Keefe translating telepathically before answering. “Your eyes are the same, and so is your hair. Your being smaller than him is really the biggest difference. As for how I know him, that’s for me to know besides the obvious.” 

“The obvious.” The man, Alden, cuts in. “And what’s the obvious?”

Keefe narrowed his eyes at the man as he spoke. The women were nice, and Fitz was trying to follow them, but the man didn’t try to hide the fact that he didn’t like them. Sophie was right, though. Fitz looked nearly exactly like his older brother. But Keefe didn’t know Alvar as well as Sophie did. During the times they weren’t together unless training he knew Alvar was the one to take care of her, him or Soul. Sometimes, Sophie had told him, Fintan would sneak her sweets to try after he came back from a mission. And he knew that Alvar and Fintan had fights about stuff like that. Stuff like how much to give the two younger elves, what to give them, how giving them human things or Elvin sweets could mess with the outcome. Keefe had heard these fights before, had seen their mother get involved, had seen Soul and Vespera work together, for once, just to get him or both of them out and away from it.  

Neither of the blonds answered the man. Keefe squeezed Sophie’s hand just a bit tighter in his. He didn’t trust these elves. He hardly trusted the elves in the Neverseen most of the time.

“Did you know Alvar?” Fitz continued to ask. “Personally? Were you made to work together?”

Sophie lifted her hands to respond before pausing, chewing her lip in between her teeth.

You don’t have to tell him. Keefe tells her, wanting so desperately to pull her closer to him, keep her away from elves that could hurt her. But she would be mad, thinking he thought that she couldn’t handle herself. So he settled for giving her hand another squeeze in his. A reassurance. They could always call mom if things started to go south. 

It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s that I don’t know what to say. What would I even tell him? “Oh yeah, I do know your brother, in fact he hates me! Because of your group!”  She huffed audibly before shaking her head at Fitz and continued down the hall.

I also don’t remember these halls being so long. She says.

Keefe almost laughs. Almost. You weren’t even awake when we were brought here.

She shrugged her shoulders, watching ahead at Cadence’s hands as Edaline started to explain things like: What would happen when they met up with the bigger group? Easy, they’d explain everything they knew to a man named Forkle (Keefe swears he’s heard their mother say that name) and get a safe place ready for them, or at least start before they got back to HQ. Who was in that group? Edaline’s husband, her nephew, the twins Keefe has heard so much about, and of course this Forkle. When they got back to HQ (Edaline’s house), what would happen? They’d bring in another member, Physic, to look them over and make sure they’re in good health, along with contacting and bringing in the rest of the BlackSwan plus some extras, as Edaline put it, that would help them decide what would be best. No matter what the outcome for them will be, they’ll need to meet up with the Council sooner or later as well. They’d also have to tell the group their names at some point before they were moved to a more permanent place.

Keefe didn’t like it. He didn’t like any of this, but their mother would come to get them before anything like that happened. So he didn’t have to worry, right? They were only with the enemy group that may or may not try to destroy them. What’s there to worry about?

Keefe and Sophie knew little of the BlackSwan. They knew that they were Sophie’s “Creators’”, according to Alvar, but Soul always told them not to worry. That by the time they were ready (ready for what, they didn’t exactly know) it wouldn’t be a problem. That the group would already be destroyed. Keefe knew a bit more about them then Sophie, but it still wasn’t much. He knew they were trying to destroy the Neverseen, and that they fought against everything the Neverseen fought for. He knew that they were also, in most ways, against the Council, and that they also studied humans. It was why Sophie’s eyes were brown. According to Static they based Sophie’s DNA after more than just elves, and humans were one of the only parts that he could isolate and identify.  It’s also, as Static says, the reason that when Sophie manifested her telepathy that she went deaf. If it weren’t for the human, even if there was no actual human DNA, the electricity and shock from manifesting and manifesting so young wouldn’t have even made her blink.

He wondered if the BlackSwan knew that would happen, if they had planned for it, or if they had made themselves more in the dark around their own creation as the Neverseen was while trying to piece his sister together like a puzzle. It wasn’t often that Sophie was stumped on something, but for their mother and Static and Blitz, after he and Sophie had been placed back together, there hasn’t been a time where one of them wasn’t stumped because of her.

It wasn’t like he was really any better. Their mom was the one to conduct experiments and create him, but they didn’t have the same reach or resources as the BlackSwan did. The BlackSwan could have a chance of above 80% for something to work, would know with certainty that other things would succeed. His mother and the Neverseen just had to hope and trust it, most of the time they didn’t even get a percentage to work off of. It was all trial and error. It was why he was tested so much more than Sophie ever was.

It was something that these elves didn’t need to know and could never find out. He was willing to pull out of this plan the second they might even get a thought about something even remotely close to what actually happened to them taking place. Sophie getting upset by it or not. She’d understand if that were to happen.

It took about twenty more minutes of walking into dead-ends and tracing back their steps to see the other group.

 Sophie squeezed his hand when they turned the last corner. None of these elves looked like they could fight, or would expect it if they were to attack or run. So Keefe took a deep breath, squeezed Sophie’s hand back, and continued forward.

 

 

 

Notes:

Okay! so, as you could probably see from their signing, I will not be using the same grammar you would when actually signing in real life (with regular ASL grammer). It just makes it easier to read for those not used to the structure. An example would be: in regular English grammar “I'm happy” is signed “me happy me” in ASL, not because they need to say "Me" twice to understand who they're talking about, but to show that you're done speaking. Similar to how when using a walkie talkie you'd say "Over", you'd point back to yourself and the other person would know it was the end of your sentience and it was now their turn to speak. Sophie and Keefe do mainly use Pidgin and/or SEE, but still. Much easier to write and understand using English grammar instead.

Soul, Blitz and Static are ocs because the canon characters in the Neverseen don't work for what I need them to. Along with one other oc, they make up the entirety of the ocs in this story. None of them will have big rolls besides things that happened in the past, I doubt they'll make it to any big fight, but we'll see.

Thank you for reading! :D

Chapter 3: III Sophie

Summary:

[Sophie’s POV] (1st day)
They meet the other group and leave the base and meet up at Havenfield where the rest of the black swan is waiting. (the bad summary is brought to you by my 4am notes)

Notes:

Chapter three, finally. In the original only Biana and Dex were at the Neverseen hideout with the group, though in this one (because of an updated/more thought out plot) the twins (Tam and Linh) and Dex are the only other children there. Biana is in this, don't you worry, she's just not here /right/ now. She will be in the next chapter though, more so then i think she was before.

Also, i rewrote the original four times before finally posting it. And now i've rewritten it again, so i guess that means it's been rewritten five times. Wow. That's one tricky chapter i guess. However i really like how this one came out. it might be my favorite so far. which is funny because it used to me my least fav. crazy, huh?

as always, anything in bold is sign (not in the grammar structure of ASL) and italics is something said telepathically.

Warnings: none i think.

Originally Posted: November 1st, 2022 AD |
Rewritten: April 7th, 2024 AD |
Updated: April 8th, 2024 AD |
Words: 2,509 (over 2x longer than the og)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

 Sophie squeezed his hand when they turned the last corner. None of these elves looked like they could fight, or would expect it if they were to attack or run. So Keefe took a deep breath, squeezed Sophie’s hand back, and continued forward.

 


 

Sophie eyed the elves as they approached Keefe and her. The two were made to tell the larger group their names once they joined them, though no one seemed to recognize them. So Sophie guessed they’d be safe there. 

One that looked like a middle aged human approached them first, though said nothing before backing down and speaking to Edaline and Alden and pulling the only other adult, another male who stayed by Edaline’s side, with him. Lady Cadence joined them as well, though she did so like it was an afterthought. Like she didn’t know if Keefe and Sophie could be left unwatched, unattended for the few minutes it would take to speak.

 But then, there were the kids.

 Three of them; the twins they’ve heard so much about and a redheaded boy who immediately took to Edaline’s side. Fitz took to introducing them, pointing at one and waiting for Keefe to sign the name to Sophie before moving on. The redhead was Dex, the male twin was Tam and the female was Linh. The twins had black hair that faded into a silver/gray color that had to be some kind of tonic. Natural hair didn’t do that, right? But no one brought it up or acted as if it was a new thing, so Keefe and she probably shouldn’t either.

Thankfully, the other two adults were given names by Fitz who called Mr. Forkle and Grady, though he didn’t say which was which. Keefe said that Alden called the older looking man Mr. Forkle, but then Sophie swore that Edaline called him Grady (or was she talking to the man who was standing behind the old looking one?). All she really knew was that she was bound to get a headache from it all if they couldn’t figure it out soon.

Alden introduced them after he spoke to Mr. Forkle and Grady (whichever ones’ they were), again, as Neverseen prisoners’. So did these elves know anything about the Neverseen? They didn’t keep prisoners’! They never have, either. If they took someone they never kept them long. Used them for information then erased the memories and set them back to their life, blissfully unaware of what had just happened. So Sophie doesn’t know where they keep getting the idea. Maybe the BlackSwan kept them. Does that mean that they’ll be prisoners’, too? She remembers her mother complaining about how the BlackSwan never erases memories and tells just about anyone anything they wanted to know. It must be a miracle that they’re still going as strong as they are, Sophie thinks, if that’s actually how they operate.

 The human looking one looked them both over and spoke to Alden telepathically. Meaning that one (if not both) of them was a telepath. Meaning that he was also an elf, and not human. Sophie racked her brain, trying to remember what she overheard Alvar say about some kind of berries that can do that. However neither man seemed to catch that Sophie and Keefe were able to tell one of them was a telepath and kept on with their conversation.

Think you can get in there? Sophie heard Keefe ask.

She shrugged a single shoulder, watching Alden and the human looking elf. She was a good telepath, the best their mother said that has ever walked the earth. Alvar says she’s just better than average, though she can usually get into someone’s head without them realizing easily. So slowly she stretches out her consciousness toward the two men.

 Alden’s head is easy to get into. He has an accent, one Sophie can’t place. The man doesn’t even flinch when she gets in. Doesn’t even blink, just continues on with his conversation.

—figure out why the Neverseen had humans. It was the other man who was speaking, the human looking one. His voice was deeper than she was expecting, and she wondered that if he altered his appearance then did he alter his voice, too. Did the other elves know, or were they all unaware of just how much this man changed himself for, seemingly, no reason. There’s no way she’d be able to ask later, because then it’d make her suspicious, because how did the random elf who isn’t supposed to know that information suddenly have so much of it? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

Alden sighed, and physically he rubbed his temple, pulling Sophie away from her thoughts and back to the present. So he was the telepath. Good to know.

I don’t think these kids know to the existent of what’s truly happening. He was saying. Would Gisela even tell them what she was doing, or would she just torture innocent kids and hope they cooperate? She isn’t that much of a monster; is she?

It was the other man’s turn to outwardly sigh before Sophie pulled her consciousness back between herself and Keefe as the redhead boy—Dex, she reminds herself—bounds over to them, a wide smile on his face, displaying dimples and highlighting the small cluster of freckles over his nose and cheeks.

Keefe glares in return, and Sophie is quick to put her hand over her brother’s, telepathically shushing him as she smiles back at the boy. These were kids; kids who probably had no idea what the BlackSwan even did. They didn’t deserve their mistrust or hostility; they could save that for the adults.

“Hi,” the boy said, adding a small wave before looking them over. “You’re in human clothes, are you both human? I mean you’d have to be, right?” The question was directed at her. “Your eyes are so cool by the way. I’m Dex, just in case—” His speech got progressively faster until Sophie couldn’t make out the right words his lips were forming and she mentally turned to rely on Keefe.

“Wonderboy didn’t tell you. That’d be typical of him. You’re coming back with us, right? Well I mean I know you are, but you’ll be staying with the BlackSwan for sometime after, you won’t just go back to the Forbidden Cities just yet, unless you will? I’ll have to ask Forkle. Anyways, why’d the Neverseen have humans? How many times have you been asked that so far? Probably a lot. But it’s a good question. My aunt, that’s Edaline in case you didn’t know, says I ask a lotta questions but Forkle said that it’s part of my ability, always trying to figure out the mechanics of everything, even if it isn’t some kind of tech. I’m a technopath, by the way. Did you know elves had abilities? Probably.” The boy’s voice was higher like it didn’t get a chance to lower when he hit puberty, if the kid had even hit it yet. He looked young, Sophie thought. Maybe around thirteen or fourteen. He stopped speaking abruptly and looked over at the twins who were beaconing him over with a wave of their hand, and they probably yelled something too with how Keefe responded. But the boy only smiled back at them and stood before running over to his friends.

Mother would kill us if we ever yelled like that. Keefe told her making her hide a smile behind her hand. The BlackSwan were loud, apparently. Something the Neverseen was never allowed to be. No matter the situation or person. You weren’t loud. It was a simple rule, though one that Sophie knew had saved Keefe hundreds of times. Being loud gave away your position, and if that happened then you could have to fight something you didn’t want to, or you couldn’t get the information you needed. It just didn’t make since for someone to be loud; simple as that.

What’d they say? She asked, as her eyes started flickering to where Fitz sat with the twins and Dex, though it didn’t seem like he was engaging. Not like they were. How long did Fitz say he’d been with the BlackSwan; it was only a few months, wasn’t it? These kids could have been with them their whole lives, someone new to their group probably wouldn’t be welcomed so quickly.

The boy just yelled out a “hey”. Keefe explained with his head tilted to the side to keep an eye on the adults. Shaking his head in both amusement and disdain, he pulled Sophie further back against the wall they were by and had them both sit down.

They waited against the wall, Sophie’s head on Keefe’s shoulder while she fiddled with Ella, her elephant stuffed animal. Something from her life before their mother found and rescued her, she was always told. She and Keefe didn’t have much that moved around with them, but when Keefe first started doing solo missions he would always come back with a new bandana, stolen from a shop or market in the area. The only other keepsake their mother would allow. Now, whenever they moved around their new room he carries a bag full of them. It was all they ever needed to move. The rooms would usually be equipped with pens and pencils, ink and quills, loose paper and note books. The bed always was covered with pillows and blankets; they had new changes of clothing and usually a small cubby shelf to keep their things tidy in. The set up was usually the same as well, when they were together. A large, soft bed in the corner diagonal the door; a curtain opposite it with a sink, toilet and bath, and then the shelf always sat by the door.

A part of her was sad that their bandanas were left now, but they’ll be back soon enough, she thinks. And no one would dare touch or get rid of them. But it was only a matter of time until someone came and checked in, and once that happened their mother was sure to contact them. She would be livid, both Sophie and Keefe knew, but Sophie hoped that once she knew who they were with, what they were doing, she would condone it and let them continue spying. It would work, it’d have to.

She’s unsure of when her eyes shut, but she opens them again when someone gently shakes her shoulder. She squints’ at the bright light and sees Keefe giving her a tight smile. One of the women, Edaline, she remembers her name, is crouched in front of her, giving her a soft smile before looking behind her at the human looking Elf before looking back at her and Keefe and starting to speak.

Sophie cuts off communication with Keefe immediately and turns almost fully toward him to watch his hands, having to sit up and off him at the movement. Her head was pounding and she was in no mood to read lips. The human looking man was trying to get into her head. Why?

She relied on Keefe to watch the two as she started to think while following along with their commands.

We’ll be leaving in a few minutes. Just as a reminder; you two will be coming back to my home, we’re using it like an HQ, remember? And we’ll go on from there. The Neverseen won’t look for you there, you’ll be safe. More BlackSwan will be there, but they won’t hurt you. Sophie, this is Mr. Forkle.

Forkle, she thinks, so he’s a telepath as well. Three telepaths (that she knows of), just on this one team? Just to raid an allegedly abandoned storage facility? It couldn’t be happen chance, that they were just the ones who volunteered. They expected to find something. Was it Keefe and her? It couldn’t be, right?

 I don’t know if you’ve been formally introduced yet. He’ll be light leaping with you; he’s—

She looks up at the adults when Keefe stops signing, unconsciously reading Edaline’s lips but not fully understanding them. Something about fading and Forkle being their strongest (strongest what?) before Keefe is lifting his hands and pausing, scowling and opens his mouth before closing it.

Keefe was the empath, but when Sophie lays a hand on his shoulder he visibly relaxes and pushes her further behind him. The two adults must be speaking telepathically (was Edaline yet another telepath?) because while they were looking at each other, they weren’t speaking. But when Sophie tries to break into their conversation, there’s not one happening.

This time, when Edaline speaks again, Sophie pays attention.

“You won’t be kept separate.” She tells Keefe. “It will be one second, just to get you two to Havenfield, and then you won’t have to leave each other’s side again. I promise.”

Keefe shakes his head, pushing against Sophie further making her back sit completely up against the wall and her front completely touching Keefe’s back. Her hand is open on her lap and she tries not to move her fingers, ready to enhance Keefe if a fight broke out.  She can feel the ability coursing through her veins and slows it when the two adults back up a few steps and Cadence walks back up.

Keefe takes her hand anyways and only Sophie notices how his eyes seem to be brighter, more vibrant from the enhancement. He taps the back of her hand twice and she lets him into her head.

We’ll be okay. He says and she nods, looking forward again to watch the adults stand with their backs to Keefe and her, watch the kids watch them.

Fitz runs into the adult’s group, and the male twin is quick to follow to try and pull him back. But Fitz shakes him off and grabs onto his father’s sleeve, getting his attention and joining into their whispered conversation. After a moment Alden is nodding alongside Edaline while Forkle is shaking his head and rubbing his eyes.

This time when Edaline walks over, Forkle stays behind and Cadence takes a place beside the other woman, taking the role of translator back from Keefe. At the pounding behind her eyes Sophie physically flinches, and she’s quick to severs the connection between Keefe and herself again and again watches Forkle stare directly at her. The man wasn’t even trying to be subtle at this point.  

Fitz has offered to leap with you, Sophie. Keefe will be going with me. Unless you’d like to trade. Edaline said it before, but it won’t be long. A few seconds until you’re together again. Right now we can’t trust or even try to gauge how much focus you two have, so we’ll have to continue like this until we can. But we’re on your side, remember? It’s up to you what it is that you want to have happen.

Keefe looks back to her and waves a hand, asking which she wants to go with. She just gives him a look. He was so quick to say no to Forkle, yet he trusted these two? They were on the same team! So she huffs and lifts both her shoulders in a shrug that makes Keefe roll his eyes before responding to the women.

Sophie can go with you. I’ll go with Fitz.  

 

 

 

Notes:

Originally Sophie and Keefe’s sign names were in this, but they didn’t come up in this one. Oh well, other chapters will have them. Originally they weren’t explained well, either. So that’s something to look forward to, yeah?

Ignore any typos, i’ll come back and fix ‘em soon enough.

Chapter 4: IV Fitz

Summary:

!!!!READ!!!!
This story is actively being rewritten, and so this chapter does not line up with the previous one. You can still read it and understand what’s going on, though some scenes are missing from where the last chapter ended and where this one begins. However past this chapter it does match up, don’t worry. The misalignment and missing scenes will be added soon.

Thank you and enjoy the chapter!

Notes:

i know last chapter i said i was gonna try and get an update schedule, but life is hard and my computer sucks. so i’m just now getting to finishing and posting this chapter.

and let me tell you, this chapter fought me. hard. it feels kinda like a filler to me? Maybe it’s because it’s Fitz’s POV?
i dont know.
i’m not happy with it. But it’s still getting posted because i need to update this fic, as well as work on another one that i write.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Keefe flinched back when the blond man Alden was talking to started screaming while everyone else just paused, either looking at Keefe and her or looking at the two adults. 

Keefe took a second, but finally told her what he had said: "That witch had my flipping kids!?"

 

Fitz looked over to where the two kids in question were standing. Keefe had flinched when Lord Cassius yelled, but Sophie didn't react. Maybe she really couldn't hear them, even if she acted like she could.

Could elves even be deaf? Fitz didn't know. Nothing like that ever happened in the lost cities that he's heard of. Then again, he hadn't heard of a lot of things that happen until he joined the Black Swan.

His attention was brought back when Lord Cassius stormed out of the room. Fitz knew that Lord Cassius and Gisela had been married once upon a time, but then she up and disappeared one day. Everyone thought she had died. His mom and dad had told him about going to her planting. About how she had been pregnant.

But then they found out that she just ran off and joined the Neverseen, or rather moved to one of their hide outs since she was already a part of it.

When Fitz looked back over at Keefe and Sophie, they did, admittedly, look like Lord Cassius. Same blond hair, Keefe had the same ice blue eyes, and while Sophie didn't have the same eye color, she did at least have almost the same nose and eye shape. All signs pointed to them being siblings, to them being Lord Cassius's kids that he thought he lost when he thought he also lost his wife. But did that mean they were twins? Pairs weren't common, and when they happened usually people tried to pretend that they weren't. Especially when it was a bigger family, like the Songs for instance. Tam and Linh had to act like he was older for years, when in reality they were twins  

Sophie and Keefe probably had never acted like they weren't twins, if they were twins, since the Neverseen probably didn't care.

 

Fitz watched as Edaline led them to the sofa to sit down and his mom, Della, left to grab some new clothing for them. His and Biana's clothing might be too big, but Dex's would have been too small for Keefe and they were boys clothing, so Sophie couldn't wear them.

Right now Keefe was in some blue shorts that landed just under the knee and a white t-shirt which sleeves went half-way down his upper arm. Both pieces were too big and both were human clothing. While Sophie was wearing a red oversized human dress shirt like a dress and boxer shorts underneath. The sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and it fell just about on her mid-thigh.

Liviy asked them questions, some simple leading into more complicated ones:

How old are they? They didn't know.

Did they know why Sophie was deaf? An accident when she was younger, they didn't elaborate when asked to.

Did they know why Keefe was mute? Yes. He didn't like talking.

Did they have any abilities? Yes. Both, apparently, had more than one. Sophie had five, Keefe had four. Neither answered when asked what they were.

What were some of the test the Neverseen did on them? No answer.

How long have they been with the Neverseen? No answer.

By now Fitz's mom had returned with new clothing, and had the two change. Keefe had a simple blue tunic and black pants which hung off his smaller frame but fit much better than his old clothing, while Sophie had black leggings and a purple embroidered tunic which seemed to fit almost perfectly, only a few spots being loose.

Fitz was sitting on the ground against the chair his sister was in when Lord Cassius walked back in. He Keefe. His dad, Alden, came up and started speaking quietly with him at some point, and he saw Sophie watching them intently from her spot on the sofa before Keefe brought her back into the conversation he was having with Della.

"She kinda looks like Jolie." Biana said absently making Fitz look up at his sister.

"What?" he asked.

Biana looked down at him before waving vaguely over at Sophie. "She looks like Jolie, if not for the brown eyes. Do you think that Lady Edaline noticed?"

Fitz looked over at her before looking over at Lord Grady who was watching his wife with the two blonds. Now that Biana said it, he could see it, and Lady Edaline had to have noticed it. 

Della walked over to Fitz and Biana with a quiet sigh as she watched the two blonds. "Sophie's your age." She tells Biana. "And Keefe is a year younger than you, Fitz.”

Biana frowned her brow as she looked them over. "They look younger."

Della nods and crosses her arms over her chest. "They do." Before mumbling a quiet: "What did they do to them?"

Notes:

end of chapter! yay!
okay, so this one is kinda boring and short, but the next one, for sure, will be longer and have more plot to it then this.

i’m sure you can see with the chapter title with this one, but i changed them all because i didn’t want to continue the random BeetleJuice Musical lines, so i changed em all to roman numerals bc i can.

also, i finally found out an easy way to plot! :D
Abbie Emmoms video on Youtube helped A LOT. if you need help with figuring it out, or want tips, her video
Plotting a story (for writers who HATE plotting)
is very helpful.

anyways, until text time!

Chapter 5: V Keefe

Notes:

as always italics are talking telepathically and/or flashbacks
bold is signing
and underlined is something written

This is Keefe’s POV

Warnings: flashback (nothing graphic, just a bad memory is all)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Biana frowned her brow as she looked them over. "They look younger."

Della nods and crosses her arms over her chest. "They do." Before mumbling a quiet: "What did they do to them?"

 


Keefe wanted his old shirt back.

The new clothing Della had brought him and Sophie was weird. It was nice, but really, really stiff. It fit better than their old clothing, but he felt so stuck in it. He wanted his shirt, the one that’s soft from use, the one that doesn’t rub in weird ways like this one does. Glancing at his sister she didn’t look too comfortable in her clothing either.

Adults came and went, talking in privet about things he didn’t know, but Edaline stayed with them the whole time. The man, Grady, watched from afar, usually against the wall next to Alden, but no one was telling them what they were planning.

Edaline kept a conversation going with them, grabbing a note pad so they could respond and ask questions without Cadence needing to be there to interpret. She always had a sad look in her eyes, too. Sophie pointed it out to him at first, and ever since Keefe hadn’t been able to let it go. She was kind with them in the way Della and Alden are to Fitz and his sister, Biana.

The blond man that had screamed about someone having kids before had come back in shortly after Liviy had finished asking them questions. He just watched them or spoke with Alden, never saying anything to anyone else.

“Can I show you to your room?” Edaline asked them, pulling him from his thoughts.

Sophie nodded first, pulling him up with her as she started to follow the redhead into a different room. The blond man came up, stopping Edaline before they could leave.

“Why shouldn’t they live with me?” He asked her.

“Candleshade isn’t as safe as Havenfield.” She tells him, pushing him aside gently. “Right now they’re at risk. Gisela can easily get in and out of there without anyone noticing until they’re gone. We can’t let that happen.”

He huffed, glancing at the two of them. Keefe pulled Sophie behind him, her gripping his arm a tighter than before.

”Taking them in like this, taking control, won’t bring her back.” He says before walking away.

Keefe frowned, watching him walk away before looking up at Edaline, looking at the unshed tears he brought to her eyes.

She shook her head lightly and put on a smile. “Come on,” she says. “You can get settled in and then we can explain some things.”

Keefe was the one to pull Sophie along this time.

 

The room was huge. There were two large, beautiful beds and a desk in-between. A rug with flowers covered the floor, lights like stars on the ceiling and huge windows along the wall. It was colorful and warm unlike any room they’ve had before.

Sophie released his hand and wandered around in awe of the space. She turned, lifting her hands to sigh. ‘Is this all ours?’ she asked.

Keefe wrote it down on the notepad he stuck in his pocket so Edaline could understand.

She smiled at them and nodded. “This room is all yours. You can do whatever you’d like to it, move it around if you want. I can get the gnomes to later if you don’t like it.”

It’s…amazing.’ Sophie sighs, waiting for Keefe to tell Edaline before continuing. ‘Are the lights real stars?’

Edaline laughed and walked over to a bed, taking a seat on its edge. “It looks like it, doesn’t it?”

Sophie nodded and ran to the windows, looking out at the pastures full of every kind of creature imaginable.

“Well, Keefe?” Edaline started. “What do you think? Do you like it?”

He nodded, spinning in a circle, taking it all in. ‘I can’t believe it’s all ours.’ He writes, his mind betraying him and thinking to the last time they had been given a new room.

Sophie was limp, being carried by Fintan through the cold halls, his mother dragging him by his upper arm as she ranted about the Black Swan and Elvin Council. He blocked it out, knowing that she wasn’t talking to him anyways.

This was a base they hadn’t been to before, the one before being too close to being found out for comfort, that’s the only reason they had to leave.

Walking through a false wall there was a huge door at the end of the hall and Keefe already knew he wouldn’t like this one any more then he liked the last one.

The room was dark, pitch black, yet no one turned on a light as they were brought in (it took another two weeks before they figured out how to turn on the flickering light hung on the ceiling).

The older elf set Sophie down on the small cot in the corner, Keefe crawling up into it beside her, wrapping the thin blanket around them both as he watched his mother leave once more.


“—efe? Keefe?” Edaline’s voice broke through the memory. The blond shook his head and gave her a small smile, moving to sit on the bed Sophie had taken a liking to.

Edaline was standing now, had she been when she was calling his name? “I’m going to go check up on everyone else but I’ll be back, alright?”

They both nodded and watched her go.

What do you think will happen? Sophie asked him telepathically.

I don’t know. He tells her honestly.

Well they can’t be any worse than Gisela, right? And they’ve been nice so far. Have you looked outside? It’s so cool! Ruy was right, the ocean is to pretty! I wonder if they swim in it like humans do. And all the stables and animals! There’s a T-Rex, Keefe. A T-Rex!

Keefe smiled at her as she rambled on about different things she’s seen here. Keefe had seen a lot of it before, having been used for Gisela a bit differently than Sophie was. He’s been outside before and has seen the ocean. He’s talked to nicer people before, ones outside of the Neverseen. But this was all new to his sister. She’s never seen any of it. It’ll be her first time experiencing it all.

 

The door opens again and Edaline, Alden, Grady and Mr. Forkle come in.

“So,” The older looking elf starts as he looks them over, “As I’m sure you’ve figured out you’ll be staying here with lady Edaline and Lord Grady. The Neverseen doesn’t know you’ve left, let alone where you are. Once they do things will be different, but for right now you’re safe.” He explains before looking over at Grady.

For the first time they’ve heard it, Grady speaks to them. “Mr. Forkle and Alden will be coming to check up on you every few days, and we’ll decide what to do from there after we see how the Neverseen reacts to all of this, alright? This is your house too, now. You can go anywhere besides the second floor, everywhere else is free rein, okay?”

Both of them nodded, Alden saying something telepathically to the other three before nodding at them and leaving, Mr. Forkle following him out while the couple stayed.

“I’m going to make diner if you’d like to join us?” Edaline asks softly. Grady stood stiffly next to her, looking very uncomfortable.

Sure’ Sophie sighs while she and Keefe nod.

“Alright, I’ll come fetch you in say thirty minutes?”

After another round of nodding they were left alone.

And the room all of the sudden felt way too big with just the two of them.

Notes:

Hello and welcome to the end of chapter five, the chapter i never thought i was going to finish.

Now, i do have good reason for not posting in almost two months, and that reason is writers block, moving, and a twenty year old computer that does whatever the heck it wants. Yeah, this whole story was deleted like five times, luckily i had the four chapters saved in email....

This is also the first chapter posted using my computer instead of my phone and it is soooooooo much easier. very glad i can do it like this now.

I also listened to Lover by Madylin Gilbert on loop the whole time i wrote this and i feel like it affected it but idk.

Happy (very, very late) 2023 and thank you for reading.

-Moon

Chapter 6: VI Sophie

Summary:

Sophie and Keefe start to have doubts about leaving the Neverseen Base and Sophie meets a dinosaur.

Notes:

Okay, so i didn't realize it had been a month since i last updated until i posted a oneshot for DOTPK and saw the date on this, i apologize. hopefully this chapter will be a good enough "sorry"?

As always this isn’t beta read so sorry for any typos.
Italics are thoughts or speaking telepathically and bold us sign language.

no warnings i don't believe, do correct me if i'm wrong.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Alright, I’ll come fetch you in say thirty minutes?”

After another round of nodding they were left alone.

And the room all of the sudden felt way too big with just the two of them.

 


Sophie sat by the windows as Keefe checked over the whole room. What he was looking for, she had no idea. It’s been a few hours since they first met these people. They were nice. Much nicer than Gisela was. But Keefe said not to trust them, not yet. Maybe not even ever. She didn’t know why.

There were times, much like these, where she hated that he had been given different assignments from her. She knew that there were things he couldn’t tell her. But right now she thought it was stupid.

Keefe? She called telepathically making her brother turn to look at her.

Yeah?

What are you looking for?

Anything. He paused, thinking for a second before continuing. We’re against these people, remember? Man, why did we even come with them again? Mom’s gonna be so mad. Running his fingers through his hair he let out a sigh. Maybe we can leave tonight when they least expect it. They’ve gotta have leaping crystals somewhere around here.

But we just got here! Sophie whined. Mom doesn’t even know where we are, and if she finds out we’ll change our memories! Remember our plan?

Sophie, he ran a hand down his face. There’s gotta be a reason we’re against them. And they made you, remember? If they find out you’re the one they lost…we can’t risk it.

Then why did we even come?

I don’t know. He tells her honestly making her pause.

Why did they come? They could have fought them, stayed in their room, called Gisela and told her, but no. They followed them. Now they’re who knows where with who knows who going to do who knows what. Sophie fought off a groan. Maybe Gisela was right when she said they were terrible at thinking on the fly. She had to be right because look at the situation they’re in! And when she finds out…Sophie didn’t want to think about that right now. Every other time she’s messed up the consequences’ have been bad, but she’s never messed up as bad as this.

What do you think— she’s cut off with the door opening and Edaline sticking her head in.

“Hey,” she says and Sophie’s able to read her lips. “You two ready for dinner?”

Keefe nods first so Sophie follows his lead and walks out.

They’re lead into a room with one wall filled with windows. A small round table sat beside them and the room was led into a smaller kitchen on the right. They were told to take a seat, Grady was making something on the counter and Edaline left to help him after giving them another note pad and pin.

 

 Grady came back in first closely followed by his wife. He sets a bowl of some kind of leaves down in the center of the table, Edaline following and setting down two plates of different kinds of…pastries’?

 “We didn’t really know what you guys liked, so we stuck with some basic things.” He explained and took a seat across from them.

Think they’re safe to eat? Sophie asks Keefe.

He glanced at her and smiled a little bit like it was a joke before taking some of the purple leaves off the plate Edaline held out to them and placed one on his plate and two on hers.

Edaline smiled at them when she took some for herself and Grady, smiling even bigger when Keefe started eating.

Sophie took a breath and took a bite. She had never had these before since she mainly eats the little gray bars that they’re fed at every meal, but Fintan likes to sneak her different things to try, mainly sweets. One time he snuck her in something called a Prattles which has been her favorite thing to date.

“Well?” Edaline’s voice came asking through Keefe’s mind.

Sophie nodded and smiled, taking another bite. She decided she liked whatever these things were. They weren’t sweet but they didn’t taste bland and powdery like the gray bars. They were salty and had some kind of spice combination she couldn’t describe.

Grady started pouring them all some kind of pink drink with purple berries floating on top.

 Keefe, again, had no hesitance to drink it, even nudging her a little bit and having her try it this time. She took a sip after swallowing the leaf and immediately found her new favorite thing. Somehow this drink was better than Prattles. It was sweet but tart and had little bubbles which made her mouth feel weird when they popped.

“I take it you like it?” Grady asked with a small smile. She looked over at him, realizing it was the first time she’s seen him with something more than a frown.

She smiled back and nodded, taking her own cup and drinking some more. Edaline’s shoulders started shaking a little bit and she covered her mouth with her hand, a smile peaking through at the corner.

She’s laughing. Keefe explained to her when she looked at him in confusion.

Oh, she thought. Why?

Keefe shrugged but his smile told her he did know.

She scowled at him and kicked his leg under the table. He didn’t react, simply turning back to face the adults and continued eating.  

Stupid older brothers. She thought where he couldn’t hear but by the way he glanced at her again, his smile even wider she had a feeling he felt it.  

They ate in silence, Grady and Edaline having a conversation with seemingly their eyes, were one of them a telepath too? But since Keefe didn’t have anything to say, too busy monitoring and predicting their movements it was the most silence she’s had in a long time when surrounded by so many people.

 

She was finishing her second leaf when Edaline’s voice startles her a little bit but she tries not to let it show as the women speaks. “So, we were thinking that, when it’s all safe, you two could try school?” well, that’s a hard no.

Why?

Keefe shrugged a bit and shook his head at the adults as he answered her. School would be bad. Firstly, it means that we’ve been with these elves long enough for mom not to be considered a threat. Second, we’ll have to meet the council. Mom should realize we’re gone soon enough so we don’t have to worry about it.

Sophie frowned but didn’t argue. The adults didn’t either, acting like they had expected that answer and easily moved on to questions, most Sophie didn’t have an answer to so Keefe answered.

 

They were brought out to the pastures after dinner. The sun was setting over the water casting warm light over the hills. The sky was a mix of purple and pink and blue, some starts already showing through the light.

Sophie ran ahead of them, running and looking at all the different animals. Keefe was always close behind her with a smile.

Grady called her over at one point to a dinosaurs pasture. A T-rex named Verdi. She had neon green feathers and bent her head at Grady’s wave of a hand, letting her pet the top of her head.

Sophie let out a breath, vaguely aware of the vibration at the back of her throat when she did so but ignored it when her hand was getting lost in the green feathers. She turned her head to look at Grady, pausing when she saw he had some kind of face on when he watched her. Not sad, no, he looked more confused. She looked past him to an even more confused Edaline who was reading something Keefe had written. Had she done something?

 ‘You spoke’ Keefe signed to her after he caught her watching them.

Sophie’s smile dropped as she lifted her hands up to respond. ‘How bad was it?

He shook his head and started walking closer. ’Not bad. You said ‘wow’. They didn’t expect either of us to speak.

She nodded a bit, looking back to the adults who were, again, having a silent conversation. When they did look back Edaline walked up and held out a hand. Sophie took it and they started walking to another area.

A cliff that looked over the water. There was a cave underneath and a path leading down to the sand. Sophie gripped Edaline’s hand tighter in hers as he watched birds fly across the sky, an amazed look taking over her face before the sun went fully down.

What happened to not trusting them? Keefe asked with an amused smile as they walk back up to their room.

Sophie rolled her eyes at him and ran to get ahead.

Edaline explained how to turn off the lights by clapping, where the bathroom was again and where their clothing was to change for bed.

They go to the same bed and Edaline says nothing, simply wishing them a good night and letting them go to sleep.

When do you think mom will come? Sophie asks Keefe after the doors shut.

I don’t know. He answers.

I hope it’s not too soon. I like Edaline and Grady.

Me too. He said quietly, almost like a whisper as he fell asleep.

Sophie stayed awake longer than him, watching the lights at the top of the ceiling, wondering just how different everything would have been for both her and Keefe if she had stayed with the Black Swan. Would her life had been like this every day? Or would they have been even worse? Not that Gisela had been bad, just strict. Sophie had rules to follow and if one was broken she would be treated accordingly. Was the Black Swan really as bad as Gisela said it was? Maybe they were only nice since they didn’t know who she was. She stopped the train of thought before she went into too many “what ifs” and just watched the star like lights until she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Notes:

end of chapter 6 yay!!!!!
yeah, so i was in a reading AND writing slump all of March and didn't realize how long it had been. Oh well.
ngl i really love Fintan's character (ignoring every really bad thing he's done), he's a pretty good villain in my book as far as actually evil villains that aren't the love interest go. So of course i have to make him nice to Sophie and Keefe.

the leaf things they were eating were *checks notes* umber leaves, but it's never really said. They're supposed to taste like chicken but i have no idea how to describe what that tastes like and google is unsurprisingly unhelpful. The drink is, of course, Lushberry juice. In canon that's Sophie's favorite so i had to add that in here.

also yes, like many deaf people Sophie can speak! she doesn't do it much since she's never had speech therapy and the neverseen didn't give a crap if she could speak or not, and generally they didn't want her to speak because they're the neverseen and they suck. It's a problem in her inner her ear and a misfire in her brain that make her unable to hear, her vocal cords are perfectly fine!

Sophie does call Gisela “mom” when talking to her/about her telepathically but her inner dialogue she does call her “Gisela”, both she and Keefe so just in case anyone was confused by that.

i feed off of validation so i would really enjoy if you give kudos and comment your thoughts! i don't normally ask but i thought "why not?"

Chapter 7: VII Fitz (part I)

Summary:

Fitz has to accompany his father and Lady Cadence to Havenfield to support Sophie and Keefe during their meeting with some of the council.

Notes:

Ey, i didn't miss a month (technically it's been over 30/31 days since i last posted but shhhhhhhh), so very proud about that. And for that, have a longer chapter!
if you had told me that i would ever enjoy writing Fitz's POV i probably would have punched you and called you a liar. But here we are at a word count of (just slightly) over 2k, simply because i really liked writing it, specifically his thoughts about everything. He's gonna get some character growth in this fic that he didn't get in canon. Sorry Ritz Savory Cracker, i ain't gonna baby you.

no beta, so ignore any typos.
Also in my doc i changes it to a different formatting that doesn’t work here. It looks annoying but i’ll come back and edit it later okay? Okay.

As always: Underlined - writing, italics - talking telepathically
warnings: slight ableism

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Fitz straightened his jerkin in the mirror. It was his favorite in a dark navy blue with gold embroidery, layered over a black tunic. Today the council was going to see if Keefe and Sophie would be able to join Elvin Society or if they’d have to wait. Since Fitz and his father were both there when the two were found they were asked to sit in. As well as Lady Cadence since she was also present at the time they were found.


The young elf reached over and grabbed his lighter navy suit jacket and slipped it on, making sure both his Family Crest and Black Swan pendant sat straight. As he finishes movement catches his attention in the corner of his eye. Biana flashed in and out behind him. If he weren’t in front of the mirror he would have never caught it.


“You still can’t come.” He tells her. He doesn’t see her until she reappears on his bed.


“It’s not fair.” She complains. “I was there too! So was Dex!”


Fitz resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her and gave himself one last look over. “Yes, but father and I were the ones that found them. We weren’t just there.” He turns and goes to take a seat next to her. “That’s the only reason Lady Cadence is allowed to join. Besides, if they’re cleared then Lady Edaline already said you and mother could join them on the trip to Atlantis.”


“And if they aren’t cleared?”


Fitz paused, thinking. He just assumed they would be. There wasn’t really anything that would make them have to wait. The Neverseen hasn’t done anything, and Mr. Forkle had someone everywhere to watch. Not even so much as a letter. According to Squall Lady Gisela herself has been to the base the two elves were taken from meaning that they should know. Yet they’ve done nothing to show it. So why wouldn’t they be? Lady Edaline and Sir Grady said they were settling in just fine. It shouldn’t be a problem.


“They will be.” He tells his sister with certainty before standing back up. “I’m going to find father. I’ll tell you everything that happened once we get back.”
Biana sighed and stood as well, walking out with him before splitting once they passed her room.

Fitz found his father in his study reading over some scrolls the Council sent him concerning something he had “no reason to worry over”.


Rapping his knuckles on the door to gain his father’s attention he took a quick glance around the office. Since Keefe and Sophie were found four days ago his father had hardly left this place. There was an empty plate left on the desk in front of him, papers on the floor and a few books fallen on the shelf.


When the older Elf looked up he gave his son a smile and rolled up the scroll he was reading through. “Ready to go?” he asks and starts to round the corner of his desk.
Fitz nods and moves to the side, letting his father lead the way. With one last look at the room he shut the door behind him and left to the leapmaster.

They were early. Fitz’s father had insisted on everyone arriving early to make sure that Lady Edaline and Lord Grady had everything ready.


Lord Grady met them and walked them in, up toward the room the two younger elves shared. Lady Cadence was already there when they joined everyone else.
Sophie was sitting in a chair in front of a makeup vanity, Lady Edaline braiding her hair in an intricate weaving design. Her hair was shorter then when she was first brought back. Before it reached her mid-back, now it fell just below her shoulders. She was looking down at something in her lap that Fitz couldn’t see, ignoring everything else in the room. She wore leggings and a simple too-big light blue tunic. She wasn’t dressed yet, then.


Keefe sat on one of the two beds, playing with the red vest he was wearing. Underneath was a white tunic with dark red embroidery on the sleeves. Pared with black pants he actually looked like a normal elf. Like how he would if he had been raised by his father, Lord Cassius. His hair had been cut as well. It was cut evenly along the back, but the top was left longer although cleaned up.


As Fitz went to stand against a wall his father left to talk to Lady Cadence and Lord Grady left to stop Keefe from tugging on his sleeves.


“Sophie,” Edaline mumbled and tapped the girls shoulder making her look up at her in the mirror. “Chin up.” The redhead instructed, lifting her own head for the girl to see and copy.


Sophie did as told and caught Fitz’s eye in the mirror, giving him a small smile, hands still occupied with whatever she was holding. He smiled back but it didn’t reach his eyes.


He looked over at his father who was speaking quietly with Lord Grady now while Lady Cadence picked up a red dress with lots of intricate details. Keefe still sat on the edge, hands folded in his lap like he wasn’t allowed to move. Sighing quietly he made his way over, grabbing a note pad off of one of the two nightstands’ along with a pin and handing it out to the blond.


Keefe looked up at him, at the notepad, then back at him before reaching out and taking it, twisting the pin to open it and having it rest against the paper, ready to write as Fitz took a spot next to him.


“Are you nervous?” Fitz asked him, watching the boy shrug as he wrote.


Edaline and Grady keep saying not to be.


“But you still are.”


The blond nodded and look over at where his sister sat. Following his gaze Fitz saw Sophie’s hair was done and Edaline was doing a bit of makeup before looking down and writing more.


Not for me really, but for Sophie. She’s really scared but doesn’t want Edaline and Grady to know. They do, though.


Before Fitz can say anything else Lady Edaline is tapping Sophie’s shoulder, having her stand and calling Keefe over.


“Let’s try to tame that hair, yeah?” she says as he takes the empty chair.


Sophie stands, watching as Edaline takes different products in her hand and starts massaging them into her brother’s hair, squeezing what she had been playing with in her hand.


At this angle Fitz is able to see it’s some kind of handkerchief she has balled up and wrapped around her hand. It was blue and white with purple flowers on all the corners, some other smaller flowers sat in a design in the middle in varying shades of purples and pinks. Fitz has seen it before, he thinks. Once, when they found out Lady Edaline and Lord Grady’s late daughter, Jolie, had been part of the Black Swan he had seen her open a box in the girl’s old room while they looked for any kind of clue to help them against the Neverseen. She had picked it up and held it to her heart before sticking it in her pocket. Why would they give it to some random kid from the Neverseen? Because she looked like Jolie? He didn’t think they would do anything for that reason, but maybe that’s the whole reason they were so open to taking the two in back at the base. Lady Edaline was nice to both of the kids, but both her and Lord Grady watched Sophie for a second longer than they did Keefe no matter what was going on.


Fitz is pulled out of his thoughts by Lady Edaline speaking and moving her hands around her body slowly—sign language, he realized. Had Lady Cadence taught her that, or one of the two blonds?


“Sophie,” she held a fist to her head before pulling it away. “Can Grady or Cadence help you put on your dress?” she paused by the end, looking over at Keefe who completed signing the request on his own, signing much faster and much, what he had to guess, was clearer with how sure he seemed when moving his hands.
The girl in question nodded and looked over to Lady Cadence who picked up the dress and led her to the bathroom before Lord Grady led Keefe somewhere out of the room.


“Did you really learn some of that?” Fitz father asked Lady Edaline once Lord Grady shut the door.


“We need to be able to speak with them, Alden.” Lady Edaline answered as she started to clean up the things they got out.


“No, they need to learn how to communicate with us, not the other way around.” His father argued. “Is that what you meant when you said they were settling in well? The Council won’t take this as a step forward, Edaline. If this call was for nothing—”


“Sophie can’t hear.” Lady Edaline cut him off, scowling as she turned to face him. “She can read lips, apparently, but only if you face her directly and you can’t speak too fast otherwise she gets lost. You heard Liviy, it can’t be fixed.”


His father returned the annoyed look. “I’ve done research on the subject, Edaline.” He tells her, taking a few steps forward. “If humans can learn then so can an elf. You just have to tell her that and she can figure it out.”


“And what about Keefe?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leans against the vanity.


“He chooses not to speak.” His father answers easily.


Before Lady Edaline could answer lady Cadence walked out with Sophie now dressed and ready to meet the Council.


Fitz couldn’t stop staring at the blond girl. She looked…normal. Like a daughter of one of the nobility. Like she belonged—if not for the strange brown eyes. You would have never known that she had lived with a villain group her whole life.


“Everything alright?” Lady Cadence asks while Sophie signs something to Edaline Fitz didn’t catch.


“Down stairs.” Lady Edaline spoke as she sighed to her and nodded at the door before looking at Fitz. “Why don’t you two go wait with them?”


Sophie eyed him, but nodded and walked with him out. She still held the handkerchief in her closed fist which she held to her chest with her other hand. Definitely way more scared then Fitz originally thought. But something that Lady Edaline said was stuck in his head. The fact that Sophie could read lips. Like, full conversations? Fitz could hardly understand what his sister mouths to him during study hall; how could someone be able to understand something for so long, be able to get it all and respond correctly?

He didn’t realize that they had made it to the formal living room until he bumped into Sophie who stopped in front of the closed door. She looked back at him, giving him a look before taking a breath and opening the door.


Keefe was sat on one of the large sofas, a notepad and pin in his hand but he wasn’t writing. No, he was drawing. Drawing the T-Rex—what was her name? Vendy or something?—and Sophie with it. Grady wasn’t in the room, probably checking in with the gnomes to make sure everything was ready for the meeting.


Keefe looked up when they walked in, his eyes catching on Sophie first before Fitz. He smiled and signed something to his sister making her roll her eyes and sign back. She sat next to her brother while Fitz took a chair by their sofa. Keefe showed his sister his drawing, letting her take it and examine it before she held her hand out for the pin. He handed it to her and smiled at whatever she added. From where Fitz sat he couldn’t see, but he had never seen the two this relaxed before. And to think they were most relaxed right before they were getting their future determined for the rest of their life.

Notes:

end of chapter seven, wooo!
Okay, so a two part chapter bc i didn’t want to post a like 4k chapter rather then two 2k chapters, idk it makes since in my head. Part two WILL still be in Fitz’s POV and will be posted tomorrow or the day after my dudes.
i listened to Seventeen by Marina and the Diamonds on loop for the first half of writing this then the ten minute version of All To Well by Taylor Swift on loop for the rest and it definitely made an impact.
Also my “Z” key has having some trouble working so if there’s a missing “Z” anywhere i missed just go ahead and ignore it, it’ll be fixed eventually.

I feed of validation so comments and Kudos are always appreciated!

until next time! 10-4 everyone.

Chapter 8: VIII Fitz (Part II)

Summary:

As things start to turn South with the Councilors Fitz realizes that maybe, just maybe, *they* are the ones in the wrong.

Notes:

Eyyyyyyyy, sorry for ghosting y’all. Kinda. A little bit. But here’s chapter 8 soooooo, yay?

A quick announcement before the chapter: all the other chapters before this are being rewritten (chapters 1 & 2 are up now, Chapter 3 is almost done)! Mainly because i didn't like the pacing (although while rereading the actual books I've found that things do go pretty fast), but rereading them to finish this was, wow. They're, in my opinion, better. Same things happen, for the most part. A few bits are changed but nothing big. Characters have been added or taken out of scenes, depending on my new (much cleaner) notes. None of the big characters, but a few who were or would be in the background are edited. The chapters themselves are longer, maybe have more detail, but Chapter two is much different than the original, but you can read this chapter and understand what's happening or led up to it without having to go back and reread all the other chapters. The plot of this story's the same, just way more thought out and written out better so i don't get lost again.

Also the amount of times i have to go to unlocked to find out information and the amount of times i sigh at Keefe's file. It was funny when i was reading it for fun and don't need the information BUT KEEFE I NEED TO KNOW THIS WHY IS IT ALL REDACTED SERIOUSLY DUDE.

anyways here's the new chapter y'all enjoy now.

Underlined - writing | italics - speaking telepathically | bold - sign language (ASL)

Posted March 1st 2024 | Words: 4,503

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Keefe looked up when they walked in, his eyes catching on Sophie first before Fitz. He smiled and signed something to his sister making her roll her eyes and sign back. She sat next to her brother while Fitz took a chair by their sofa. Keefe showed his sister his drawing, letting her take it and examine it before she held her hand out for the pin. He handed it to her and smiled at whatever she added. From where Fitz sat he couldn’t see, but he had never seen the two this relaxed before. And to think they were most relaxed right before they were getting their future determined for the rest of their life.


Fitz tapped his finger against his upper arm, sitting across from Sophie and Keefe, watching them communicate silently. The Council will be here soon, he keeps thinking, and maybe it was just him, maybe the minutes just felt like they stretched on for hours, or actual hours were passing, but he didn’t know. He didn’t know why he felt nervous, since he wasn’t the one going on trial here. No one was. It was an evaluation. It was good. But his father’s words kept ringing in the back of his head, about how the two elves weren’t ready. But as he watched them, he didn’t understand why they wouldn’t be. Sure, the language barrier was something, but it hasn’t been holding them back so far. And Keefe could hear, and he didn’t actually need to speak to go to school. If worst came to worst, Fitz or another telepath could probably go with Sophie and transmit what was being said to her. If she was an elf and not human, that is.

He sighed through his nose, looking out the window. He didn’t really want to think about what would happen if Sophie was human. She couldn’t live in the Lost Cities, but if she was moved to the Forbidden Cities, the Neverseen could find her again. So she’d have to stay, right? Maybe wipe her mind so she doesn’t remember the elvin world. But if she was an elf, how did she have brown eyes? Elves have blue eyes. No matter what, there’s never been an elf with any other eye color that wasn’t a shade of blue. But brown is so far from blue, so how did it happen? Could she be part elf part human? Could it be a tonic that’s lasted this long? Why would they have her drink a tonic to change her eye color? It didn’t make since.

Keefe snapping at Fitz pulled him from his thoughts. He looked over at the two blonds, Keefe holding up a note pad that read:

‘When will the ones in charge be here?’

The ones in charge. Huh. Probably what they had to call leaders in the Neverseen. 

“Councilors’.” He corrects slowly, watching Sophie watch his lips. So she really could read lips. Cool. “They should be here soon. Why?”

Keefe shrugged, turning the note pad over in his hand like he wasn’t sure if he should say anything else, or if he was allowed to continue drawing until they got here.

Fitz didn’t say anything else either, and the room fell into an awkward silence. Could silence be awkward for two people who couldn’t hear it or make it stop? Fitz didn’t know. How would one even go about without being able to hear or speak? Wouldn’t it drive them crazy? He thought back to Lady Edaline, signing to Sophie. To Keefe and Sophie signing to one another, Keefe translating what was being said to Sophie when Lady Cadence wasn’t around. Lady Cadence translating for them when they were speaking. Maybe, Fitz realized, it wouldn’t be bad so long as you had someone. And the two had each other, and now the BlackSwan who were probably all willing to learn some sign language too. And maybe, once Keefe was able to speak again (however that worked, Lady Cadence refused to tell him and he couldn’t find anything on it in the library at Everglen) it would be better for them.

Maybe twenty minutes later (although it felt like it took all day), Lady Edaline, Lady Cadence, Lord Grady and his father walked in with four Councilors’ in toe. The Councilors’ Emery, Bronte, Oralie, and Kenric.

They sat on the sofa across from Sophie, Keefe, Lady Edaline and Lord Grady, while Lady Cadence took the chair to Lady Edaline’s left, and his father took the chair on the other side of the Councilor’s sofa, right next to Bronte. Fitz was sat on the other one, right next to Oralie.

“Well,” Emery started his voice deeper than Fitz remembered. When was the last time he heard the Councilors’ speak? When was the last time he actually saw them, sat down with them? It had to have been a year or so, before he joined the BlackSwan. “I say we get started, shall we?” he continued.

Lady Cadence signed it to the two blonds, Keefe looking at Emery as he spoke, but Sophie’s eyes were glued on Lady Cadence’s hands as they moved. Fitz was for a second, too. It was amazing how with simple hand movements you could have a whole conversation without needing to make a single sound. And not like a telepath, not a conversation no one else can hear. It had no sound, would never need it. Sign Language was a human thing, were there more human things like this that his being an elf would never let him learn about or even just know existed?

“Do you really think they’re ready?” Councilor Kenric asked Lady Edaline.

“I believe that, at this point, it’s better to let them be at least introduced to it all. Dragging it out might make it harder to do later when the Neverseen is either defeated or we know will show no signs.” Lady Edaline answered.

Fitz watched as Keefe made a slight face at what she said. It was surprise, he thinks, mixed with something else. But why? Did they not want to go out and live like normal elves? They were adjusting here just fine, why wouldn’t they want to go to school, make friends, and be able to go out and shop or play things like Base Quest?

“You ‘believe’.” Councilor Bronte scoffed. “They’ve been with the Neverseen for their whole lives, how do we know this wasn’t planed, that they aren’t spies?”

“We found them.” his father cuts in calmly. “Not the other way around. They were in an abandoned base, and maybe that was the Neverseen’s way of getting rid of them. Maybe they were being kept there because it had no traffic. Maybe there hasn’t been any reach or sign that they know the kids are gone because they haven’t been back yet to check. We don’t know. But if the kids were to do something, wouldn’t you think that we’d see? As of right now neither shows signs of abilities, and Sophie’s human. She wouldn’t have anything no matter what.”

“Are we sure they’re not both human?” Councilor Oralie asked this time with a tilt of her head. “We knew that Gisela was pregnant when she…left. We don’t know that these two are the outcome of that. These could be two kids off the streets of the Forbidden Cities.”

Sophie looked over at Keefe, her hand moving a bit on her lap but not moved into any real sign, Fitz doesn’t think. Keefe watched her back, as if they were having a conversation with their eyes. But it was familiar. Why was it familiar? Fitz narrowed his eyes and watched them as the adults spoke, blocking them out near completely. He sighed through his nose and turned back to the Councilors’ when he couldn’t figure it out.

Bronte was rolling his eyes when he caught Oralie watching the two. Kenric smiled at them as he began to speak again.

“You two have had three trusted elves speak on your behalf.” Fitz noticed he faltered when he caught Sophie looking at Lady Cadence again, though kept going like it never happened. “I don’t expect you two to know just how much that means, but to put it simply: You have been deemed safe and not with the Neverseen. Because of this we will be having this evaluation. It’ll be easy, if all goes will like I suspect it will.” He smiled at them though Keefe only glared back.

“We’ll just talk a bit.” Oralie took up saying the next bit. “See how well you’ve adjusted over these short days, try and predict how you’ll continue to, test for abilities, try and understand what life was like for you while with the Neverseen, things like that. Does it sound okay?”

Sophie lifted a hand from her lap and signed something with one hand that had Lady Cadence sighing. At her sigh Sophie rolled her eyes and repeated a sign Fitz had seen before. Folding her fingers in a way Fitz was able to tell was most likely a word that needed spelled out, from when she’s signed it before and how everyone responded.

“They say ‘okay’.” She interpreted, though she still glared at the younger blond who seemed much too smug about what she said before.

“Alright.” Kenric took over. “We’ll start with an easy one: how have you two felt about this whole…arrangement?”

Keefe picked up his notepad and Sophie leaned to look over his shoulder, though the pen didn’t move. Keefe lifted it up and set it back down. A small black dot sat on the page.

“There’s no wrong answer.” Emery spoke up after a minute of stiff silence. “Just your honest one will work.”

Sophie smiled like it was a joke after looking over her shoulder at Lady Cadence when Lady Edaline tapped her shoulder.

Eventually, Sophie took the pen and wrote an answer. Turning the page toward the adults a messy scrawl Fitz remembered seeing on the walls of their room sat facing him. it read:

Best accommodations’ we’ve ever had.

Everyone paused when reading it, though Keefe nor Sophie seemed surprised by it. Like they were expecting for the adults to either not like the answer or not know how to respond. And the reason for the confusion? It was written in English, not the Enlightened language. Did they not know it? They could speak it (at least Keefe could, right?), and they could understand it when it was spoken to them, but could they read it, write it?

“Well,” Bronte cleared his throat. “That’s a question we can check off the list.”

Oralie gave him a look and her hand lifted for a split second like she was going to tap him. Out of all the Councilors’ Bronte was Fitz’s least favorite. He hated the BlackSwan and everything they fought for. Though whenever something about them came up, he always came. No. Matter. What. Sometimes he came alone, sometimes he came with one other, and sometimes it was like how it is now. But if it was a BlackSwan related something, he was going to be the one you were dealing with. Maybe he hated them that much that he wanted to be the first to make fun of them and tell them something wouldn’t work, or maybe he was the one voted by everyone else because they themselves didn’t want to do it. Whatever the reason, it made Fitz dread anything regarding dealing with them. Fitz almost smiled. If he ever said described a meeting with the Councilors’ as “Dealing with” out loud in front of his father he’d probably be grounded until he was three-hundred.

“Let’s continue, shall we?” Emery took charge again. “Well, I guess that can be our next question. Can either of you read, write, or speak anything in the Enlightened language? At all, to any extent?”

Keefe took the notepad and pen quickly and wrote on it, flipping it around after a second of hesitation.

Both of us can,’ it read in the Enlightened language. ‘Speak, read and write. English was Transference’s Sophie’s first language and with ASL…well, it’s easy to slip into it when you’re more used to it.

Keefe’s handwriting was much neater then Sophie’s, so much so that it almost looked printed.  Fitz frowned when he saw the word crossed out and with how everyone else seemed to be reacting, figured they’d come to the same conclusion as him. Sophie had a code name with the Neverseen, meaning Keefe most likely did too. Did that mean they went out, did the Neverseen’s biding? Was it by choice, or were they made to? Did they have a big role in all the fights? Were they there every time?

“Okay.” Oralie’s voice echoed around the room like a bell, seemingly pulling everyone from their thoughts. “Transference, is that the name they gave you?”

Sophie nodded slowly, her eyebrows frowned.

Oralie nodded and turn to Keefe. “And what’s yours?”

Siren.’ His paper read.

Transference and Siren. Neverseen members who have been their long enough and have done enough to get names. Real code names that everyone probably knows them by. Fitz racked his brain, trying to remember any time he heard a Neverseen member say those names. He can’t think of any, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, right?

Bronte asked the question this time with a tone that said he was running out of patience. “Are either of you willing to go back and work for and the Neverseen and/or sell us: the Elvin Council or the BlackSwan, out to them?”

Keefe’s answer was immediate with a harsh shake of his head. His hand gripped the pen and wrote something as Sophie frowned.

We don’t do that kind of work.

“And what work do you do?” His father. That was Alden speaking this time, yet no one seemed to care. Everyone on the edge of their seat to see what these two had to say.

Keefe shrugged as Sophie took the pad and pen, writing something before crossing it all out and writing again.

We’re trainees. Don’t do any real work. Haven’t done any real work and probably never will.

Oralie frowned slightly at their answer, and Keefe looked almost relieved. 

“How long have you been with the Neverseen?” Fitz didn’t pay attention to who asked the questioned, too focused on the answer the blonds gave.

A: Our whole lives. (Keefe)

Q: Do you think that they know you’re gone?

A: If or when they do, you’ll know. (Sophie)

Q: Is that a threat?

A: When Gisela finds out we left we’ll know. They’ll do something to try and find us. When they’re unsuccessful they’ll give up and make more kids. (Sophie)

Fitz thought back to when the two first arrived at Lady Edaline’s and Lord Grady’s. About how Lord Cassius reacted, said that Gisela had his kids. So it was true then, right? They were twins, or siblings in the very least. Does that mean Sophie is an elf? Or is her father human, could that happen? An elf and a human having a kid. Sounded like something from fiction, a story younger kids tell each other to freak each other out. They had to be related in some way with that answer, though. No matter who their other parent may or may not be. Looking around the room Fitz seemed to be the only one who came up with that conclusion, so he bit his tongue and kept listening.

Q: Do you think that they might try something when/if you two our brought fully into our society?

A: Something like take us back? Doubt it. If we left we betrayed them. (Sophie)

Q: Did either of you ever get any kind of schooling?

A: Yes. We were taught by another member. (Keefe)

Q: Gisela?

A: Soul. (Keefe)

Q: Do you know Soul’s identity? (again, his father Alden asked this one. Weird.)

A: I don’t even think Soul remembers her real name. (Sophie)

Q: Are you both positive that you’re elves? Elves don’t have anything other than blue eyes, so I’m sure you can understand our confusion.

A: We’re both elves. Gisela was confused about Sophie’s eyes as well, though she is fully an elf. And so am I. (Keefe)

As more questions get answered every adult in the rooms seems to relax. Fitz was still on the edge of his seat (both figuratively and literally) when one of the two answered, though nothing bad ever seem to come from them. They’ve been with the Neverseen since they were babies, they’ve never been on any mission, and it’s almost as if Gisela was keeping them around because that’s where she was. Fitz remembers stories about the women, about how his father said that she would be an amazing mother. About how she was so excited to be pregnant, to have a child. He remembers his mother telling him a story about her when he was younger, after going back to her tree with Lord Cassius one year. About how his mother scoffed with both disgust and humor when she told him that Gisela had said that if she had twins or triplets’, even if it ruined the family name, that she’d keep them both without shame. His mother said she made a joke once about how she’d rather leave Cassius then pretend they weren’t twins or have them be ridiculed and outcast. Is that why she left when she did, because she found out she was pregnant with twins? She was already with the Neverseen, but was that her last straw with the Elvin society? The only way she saw to keep them safe?

Fitz had only been with the BlackSwan for five months and already he’s learned so much about everything he didn’t realize was happening. He did still believe in some things the elves did, like the match system and such, but he never realized just how stupid it was for pairs to be outcast just for being born together, or how badly bad matches were treated just because the name of the one person they loved wasn’t on their lists’. So he could understand if that’s the reason she left. He would never want his future wife or kids to go through something like that, no matter how strong the Vacker family name is.

With a roll of her shoulders Lady Edaline stood, taking Sophie’s hand in hers with a soft smile when the younger elf excepted the offer. The council stood too, along with the rest of the adults. Fitz stood last, having been stuck in his head when whatever decision was made.

Keefe reached a folded piece of paper behind him for Fitz to take. Opening it he read the one word on it.

Dinner.’ It said.

Ah, so with all the main questions done they decided to take a break.

The hall was long to the formal dining room, though every time Fitz walks these halls he’s amazed at how lived in Havenfield seems to be. Everglen holds more people than this place has ever seen, yet their halls always feel cold when he walks down them. Even the dining room that’s been used maybe twice in the last decade is more lived in then 30% of his house.

The council takes the seats across from Sophie and Keefe, again with Lady Edaline and Lord Grady on either side. Lady Cadence sat next to Oralie and his father directs him toward the other side of Edaline while he takes the seat next to Grady.

Gnomes come in and serve them food and Sophie and Keefe look both amazed and suspicious of it. Keefe is the first to eat though, Sophie coping him. Neither Edaline or Grady seem surprised, though Fitz can tell it’s something Bronte and Emery are filing away for later.

They eat in silence, not entirely uncomfortable silence but not a relaxing, everything’s okay there’s no tension in the air silence. Every time someone spoke, whether it be a complement on the food or a continuation of what they were speaking about in the living room, Keefe drops his fork and lifts his hands to sign making everyone pause. They can’t eat and speak, can they? How miserable would that be, to always have a silent meal!

Instead it seemed like an unspoken agreement to talk once everyone’s finished their plate. Sophie and Keefe finished theirs first, along with their drinks. Even still, it wasn’t until Lord Grady took his last bite that everyone started speaking again.

“I think that when I say this, everyone else will agree it to be best. All the four council members present today have agreed, and so it’s only a matter if getting it done.” Emery spoke, his elbows resting up on the table, his chin resting on his folded hands. “I believe that, after all of what we heard today, these two will be safer with someone not associated with the BlackSwan.”

Fitz frowned. Not associated? But wouldn’t that make them unsafe?

“It’s been decided that the guardianship of these two, Sophie and Keefe, will be transferred to Della and Alden Vacker effective immediately. It’s also been decided that Keefe will be ready to join Foxfire next week. He’ll be taking a test to gauge his level within the next few days once at the Vacker’s. Sophie will be taking one as well so that once we figure out her…situation, she might be able to join as well.”

Bronte cleared his throat as he continued where Emery left off. “Sophie will be tested to see if she really is an elf. Despite the claims we see it impossible. So long as there’s no communication from the Neverseen for the rest of this week I’ll say it’s safe to move forward with introducing them into society as we plan. Sophie,” Bronte frowned and knocked on the table roughly to get the young girls attention. “Depending on whether or not you’re human we can’t make big decisions like we can Keefe as of right now. Do you understand this?”

Fitz watched Sophie watch Bronte’s lips before nodding slowly. She lifted her hands and signed something making everyone turn to Lady Cadence.

“She asked if she and Keefe will still be able to stay together while these tests are being done.” The women translated.

Oralie’s eyes softened as she answered. “Of course. The only time you two might be separated is during the education level testing and/or when Keefe goes to school. Otherwise, so long as Lady Della or Lord Alden see it fit, you’ll be kept together.”  

Keefe frowned but nodded and Fitz saw them take each other’s hand.

“Now,” Emery sighed. “This part we’ve been told you’ve been asked before, though your answers were never clear. Do either of you have any abilities?”

Neither of the two answered for about a minute, and Fitz thought they would never answer. But then Keefe lifted his hands and began to sign.

“He’s an empath,” Lady Cadence spoke. “And she’s a polyglot.”  

Fitz heard his father whisper something under his breath that he couldn’t catch, though Grady, who he was sat beside, apparently did and made a face at him.

“Polyglot.” Bronte scoffed. “If there were any ability that a human could fake, it’d be a polyglot. I’ve met humans who’ve known fifteen languages before they were, how do they say, middle age. If Gisela had a polyglot as the girl's teacher it’d be easy. Does the women believe it?” he let out a laugh. “My goodness, this women might truly be insane!”

Keefe frowned, and Fitz noticed that Lady Cadence had stopped interpreting. Sophie looked at the older council member’s mouth and frowned, tugging slightly on Keefe’s sleeve and signing something small and one handed making him nod. Sophie’s frown deepened at the answer she was given and she bit her lip.

“Bronte.” Oralie scolded and shook her head before looking at the two blonds. “I’m sorry. That was…uncalled for.”

Sophie took a breath and lifted her hands.

It was Lady Cadence’s turn to frown as she looked at the girl with a sadness Fitz had never seen (ha) before.

“She...asked if Gisela really hasn’t made contact.” Lady Cadence said before going to answer the girl herself. “Gisela really, truly hasn’t. If she had, like you said before, you would know. I assume you…believed that by now there would be something?”

Keefe nodded and looked confused as he asked a question of his own.

“He asked what that means.” Lady Cadence says to Fitz’s father; though it was Kenric who answered them with a kind smile.

“That means you’re safe. It means that either they don’t know you’re missing yet, or, as you’ve also said before, they see it as a betrayal and have…decided to cut their losses. No matter what it might be, you’ll be safe under our protection, and they’ll never be able to hurt you again. Do you understand?”

Keefe stood, his chair making an awful screech noise as it slid across the floor, Sophie following as he took her hand and ran out of the room.

“I will…talk to them.” Lady Edaline said as she stood too, calmly following the two out.

Fitz’s father sighed, his head falling into his hands.  

“They’re scared.” Grady said, and Fitz realized it was the first time he said anything all evening. “These past few days…they’ve been adjusting well, but they’ve been with the Neverseen for their whole lives, whether they’re human or not.”

“Gisela probably made promises to them.” Oralie said, signing into her palm. “You remember how she was. The kids knew it was the BlackSwan, they recognized you, right?” At Fitz’s father’s nod, she continued. “Then she’s taught them some about what Forkle does. Perhaps they expected us to find them eventually. Maybe this was, how did you put it earlier, Alden? Their way of getting rid of them? If they really do have the abilities they say they do, if Sophie really does, then maybe they aren’t what Gisela wanted. And if it wasn’t perfect, for all the talk that she did, we all know Gisela would try and ‘fix’ them. And if she couldn’t….” she shook her head. “If she told them that they were found, or they left, and she would find them again, and she hasn’t? Imagine the emotional turmoil they must be going through. That’d be as if you abandoned Fitz and Biana, Alden. You must understand that.”

Fitz’s father shook his head. “As a parent, the way I see it, is that if Gisela was so willing to get rid of them, if she did, and she did it like this? Then she was never truly a parent to them anyways.”

“The children seem to think otherwise.” This time it was Emery.

Fitz stood, then, and walked out of the room. No one called his name as he left, and he assumed that now, once he was gone, they could have a real “adult conversation” about the Neverseen that they didn’t want him listening in on. Like he wasn’t one of the ones’ who found Sophie and Keefe in the first place!

Following the hall down and up the stairs, he guessed right in where the two had run when he reached their room and saw the door slightly ajar. Both of them on the bed with Lady Edaline sitting on the edge. And Fitz was reminded again that she was a mother once, and had lost her own daughter to the Neverseen. The very place these kids had come from.

 

 

 



 

 

 

Notes:

Part two, what do y’all think?

It’s really Alden that led the horse here, the others were just along for the ride.

Kenric lives! So because Sophie wasn't there all that time ago, the healing in Everblaze never happened so he never had the chance to die. Will that change in this fic? Maybe. I don't know yet.
That is one of the many things that have changed because of the lack of Sophie and/or Keefe, which you'll be able to see in later chapters once they're actually brought into the world.
I'm still not sure how to feel about Oralie after everything, she was never a favorite before so i guess nothing has really changed all that much.
But Bronte, i love him. He's amazing. Nothing he will ever do will stop me from liking him. Even when he's a jerk in this. But he has his reason's not to trust Sophie and Keefe, and then the more we find out.... Is he, like, her unofficial uncle though? with her mom being Oralie and everything.

Also, i know this chapter ends clifhanger-y but it's because i felt i couldn't get the right emotion that Sophie and Keefe were feeling because it was Fitz's POV and he didn't actually know why they were freaking out like they were. So.

I am also aware that, as this chapter is getting posted, some things don't line up with the earlier chapters but i assure you that those will be done soon-ish and everything will line up and make since again. I just wanted to get this chapter up and done before finishing those because like those chapters are hard for some reason idk.
I do wanna try to get back into writing this more, though other personal projects and the shows MAID and The Last of Us have taken over my brain so, we'll see how that goes.
Comments always make my day, i love seeing how everyone feels about my writing so feel free to comment away! Kudos are also always appreciated!

Chapter 9: IX Keefe

Summary:

[Keefe’s POV] (5th/6th day) They’re made to move to Everglen, and Keefe tries to understand why Gisela hasn’t picked them up. He and Sophie make a plan that if she doesn’t contact them by the next week that they’ll try to see what’s going on.

Notes:

Hey Y'all. Chapter nine. Wooo!
Y'ALL, THIS ONE TOOK SOME TIME AND I'M ACTUALLY REALLY HAPPY WITH IT HSDKJSJGDHDIHSKJWNE
This was supposed to be out May 15th, 2024, but as it goes life is weird and things happened that just made me lose motivation for writing--however, I'm back baby. Though through the spring/summer (and through the fall) I am in college and have a job, so I don't know how much will actually be done. I have pre-written chapters that will be updated on a schedule, plus all the past chapters that will be getting re-written at some point. So, I have no idea when this thing will be finished (and to think that when I thought of this I was in middle school, started writing it at sixteen, and am almost nineteen years old while continuing it, eugh).

Anywho, please enjoy chapter nine (finally) and happy (very late) new year! 2025 wooo!

As always: anything in bold is sign language (not in the same grammar structure as ASL), anything italicized is speaking telepathically and/or is a flashback scene, and anything underlined is something written.

Posted: April 3rd, 2025 |
Words: 2,788 (give or take)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Following the hall down and up the stairs, he guessed right in where the two had run when he reached their room and saw the door slightly ajar. Both of them on the bed with Lady Edaline sitting on the edge. And Fitz was reminded again that she was a mother once; and had lost her own daughter to the Neverseen. The very place these kids had come from.

 


 

Their mother hasn’t made contact. That…wasn’t right, was it? Keefe thought back, going over everything that they had just been told, looking for the punchline. But there wasn’t one. They’ve been left. And it isn’t a surprise, not really. So why did his stomach sink, why do his eyes burn, and his hands shake? He shouldn’t be surprised. He’s been trained, he’s stronger than all the elves in this room combined, yet he’s shaking and crying for his mommy like a baby. How pathetic.

Sophie looks at him, then, and pulls on his sleeve. He can feel her fear, how it flows as waves off her even though her hands stay still. They can’t speak right now, he knows. It’s too dangerous to talk telepathically with these elves here, the ones that think Sophie is only a polyglot, think him to only be an empath. They’re already in such a bad situation, these elves finding out that they lied would only make it worse.

And it’s not only fear that he’s feeling, he realizes. It’s mixed with anger that’s bubbling hot and boiling over. He hates this. All of this. They never should have come.  They should have called their mother while still at their base, finished the BlackSwan once and for all. But what if she hadn’t answered? He had never thought of that, yet these elves kept saying it. That this was her way of getting rid of them. But Sophie and he had answered all their questions like that, put those ideas in their heads. They were lies, all of them. Their mother wouldn’t get rid of them like this, wouldn’t get rid of them at all, right?

But no matter the reason, she still hasn’t contacted anyone. She should have by now, should have the second they left the base. She’s always made contact before, about smaller, more trivial matters. Contact to both Sophie and the BlackSwan. Yet here they are, surrounded and trapped by the BlackSwan themselves and this Council, and she hasn’t said a word. Hasn’t uttered a single threat or command. Are they still better off than if they had fought? If they had, and their mother hadn’t answered, would they be locked up right now, separated, starved and questioned? Would they be beat until they gave the answers that were more desirable, even if they weren’t true?

Edaline and Grady had been nice so far, had given them a room and food and let them outside and spoke to them not like a test, not like the children of a leader, but like something that Keefe couldn’t name. Would that all still have happened had they not been complaint? Probably not.

Regardless of how good they apparently have it, his stomach is still in knots, and he almost feels crazed as he stands and grabs his sister’s hand, turning them both and running out of the room. He’s almost unaware of everyone and everything else. And maybe, just maybe, he isn’t as well trained as he thought he was. Not if none of this has gone to plan. Not if he never even thought of making a plan, let alone tell anyone on his side what it was and what to do.

It hits him as they’re running up the stairs toward the room they were given. What the Council had said, what it meant. They were to be moved. Again. To Alden and a Della’s house. Alden, the father of Alvar. Alden, the same man that didn’t seem to like them. Alden, who split the house with someone unknown named Della. Alden, who may or may not be as nice as Grady and Edline, who may separate them and figure them out.

Sophie pulls him down onto the bed to sit, and he hadn’t even realized they were in the room. When had that happened, he thinks as he sees the shut door, as he falls against the soft mattress and tries to settle his shaking limbs. Through it all Sophie taps the back of his hand twice before he almost subconsciously allows her to open her mind to his. She doesn’t need permission, she could do it any time, yet she always asks or warns him first. At least that’s something he knows he can expect, right?

What’re we supposed to do? She asks him, her voice soft and mild in his head, flakes of fear still falling off of her.

And he didn’t know. He was supposed to protect her, and at the time that seemed like pretending to go with the BlackSwan. But how could that be protecting her, when he basically just handed her over to her makers? How could he be so stupid? The BlackSwan may not know who they are right now, but it’ll only be a matter of time. And when that happens, then what? Sophie gets taken from him, turned back into a lab rat and gets placed somewhere he’ll never be able to find her? What would happen with him if they found out just who he is, what he can do, what he was made to do?

He can’t let that happen. It won’t happen. It can’t.

As if reading his thoughts—which she probably is, she does it often enough—Sophie leans her head on his shoulder and links their fingers together, the handkerchief Edaline gave her tied around her wrist and sits in between their palms.

We’ll be fine, she tells him. We’ll stay together.

He leans his head down to rest on hers as someone knocks on the door. He tenses, and she tenses under him. The elf outside waits a second before slowly pushing the door open, a head of auburn hair peeking through. Edaline, then. Someone safe, or as safe as they can get here.

She smiles at them, and something tugs at the edges of her lips. Sadness, Keefe can feel. And regret. What that is about, he can’t figure out. She walks over to the second bed—the one closest to the door, and otherwise unoccupied—and takes a seat. She fixes her skirt and almost looks amused at the state of Sophie’s, how it’s bunched up in odd places and draping in others. It reminds Keefe of what they’re wearing. He had hated these outfits for so long earlier today. Hated how stiff they were and warm and uncomfortable, yet now he forgot he was even out of his old clothing.

Edaline lifts her hands in front of her, letting them hover in the air as she tries to remember the signs she’s learned over the last few days. As she thinks a small bit of hair escapes her intricate bun and falls across her forehead and down beside her ear. Keefe’s lips tug up in a small smile by how normal it seems. Dressed to the nines but acting as if they’re in pajamas; like there aren’t world leader's downstairs waiting on them.

Lifting a hand, Keefe waves a bit, gaining Edaline’s attention and telling her that he’ll be able to translate for her. She gives him a soft smile, and he can feel the gratitude behind it, the warmth. She’s grateful that he’s lying to her, that she doesn’t even know it.

Taking a deep breath, she nods at Keefe, telling him she’s starting.

“I understand that all of this is overwhelming for the two of you. And that you thought…your mom…would contact us. I know it’s scary. But trust me, no contact is a good thing. It means they don’t know you’re gone yet, and that means you’re safe for a little while longer. Does that make sense?”

When she didn’t continue, the two realized she was actually asking and wanting an answer. Did it make sense? Sure. Did they want it? Heck no. Sophie lightly tugs on his sleeve, and a second later he hears her voice in his head.

So, mom isn’t coming?

He can not only hear the heartbreak in her voice, but he can feel it too. And oh, what has he done?

“Hey,” Edaline cuts in, leaning forward and putting one hand on his arm, one on his sister’s. “I’m sorry.” She says, and it’s enough to have a tear slide down his cheek, quickly followed by another, and another.

She leans forward and envelops him in a hug. She means her apology, truly means it. She’s really sorry. He feels as Sophie gets drug into the hug beside him. For the first time in their stay with these elves, he lets himself show some weakness. He grabs onto the front of Edaline’s dress, crinkling it in his tight grip as his other goes to reach over her shoulder. She only holds him tighter. And it doesn’t feel like it does when his mom held him before, when he was younger. It doesn’t feel like Soul, when she’d half-carry him back to his room after a test. It felt like what things have always felt like with Edaline and Grady. Warm, soft, something else that he can’t name. Something he so desperately wants a name for but wasn’t given.

After some small amount of time, Edaline pulls away, wiping both their faces with her sleeve before sliding over, taking a seat on the edge of their bed.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, and luckily, he doesn’t shed anymore tears. “Are you scared about moving, too?” she asks, and before either he or Sophie could answer, Fitz speaks up.

Keefe hadn’t seen him come in.

“You don’t have to be. Scared, I mean.” He walks up to the unoccupied bed but doesn’t take a seat. Just rests against the end posts. “I’ll be there,” he says, “and dad. Edaline and Grady can still visit, and if you come to Foxfire, you might be in class with me, and Sophie can go in with my little sister. You won’t be alone, and you won’t be separated.”

Shocked by the young elf’s sudden appearance, Keefe forgets to translate for his sister, though Sophie seems to have caught on enough. Fitz had been told earlier that she could read lips, right? Maybe he remembered, maybe that’s why he didn’t ramble like he normally does, why he kept his head straight and didn’t look around the room.

Leaning over so far that she almost falls over, Sophie reaches for their nightstand, specifically the notepad and pen that rest on its top. She’s quick to push herself back up, though he knows she sees the amused glint in his eye. When he glances over at the others in the room, he sees Edaline with the same look.

Are they wanting us back? She asks Fitz who is quick to shake his head.

This time when he speaks, Keefe remembers to physically translate. “No, no, I think—I don’t know. They’re like actually talking now, not like they did before. Now that they can talk like adults or whatever.

Edaline laughs at that, covering her mouth with a curled finger before letting the hand rest of her upper chest, fingers brushing against her clavicles. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal,” she tells him—signing along with her speech, a smile still resting on her face.

Fitz crosses his arms over his chest, mumbling something Keefe can’t make out under his breath.

He’s mad, his sister tells him, and his eyes shoot toward her. She nods her head a bit, and he mentally reaches out to feel the anger his sister must have been listening in on.

He thinks that no one takes him seriously. Sophie continues. That the BlackSwan and his father only keep him here because he knows too much about it all.

And they wouldn’t just get rid of someone like mom would.

To everyone else in the room, it looks like the two of them were just thinking, and they made sure to wave a hand in their laps like they were signing instead of speaking telepathically. So, when Sophie leans over, resting her head onto her older brother’s lap, no one else sees the nod she gives him, nor the way he nods back as he goes to hold her.

She shuts her eyes, and Keefe, through all that she was upset, never realized just how much she trusted these elves. Maybe she just trusted him enough, maybe because she knew these elves wouldn’t actually do anything they couldn’t fight off and win against, but still.

“Is she going to sleep?” Fitz asks, eyebrows frowning in confusion.

Keefe lifts a hand, waving it in a so-so motion. She probably wasn’t going to fall asleep, not really, but she would be keeping up with their conversation via telepathy. Though this way it’s a lot less noticeable for any of those who know what to look for and recognize.

The four somehow end up lapsing into a silence, as has happened plenty of times over the past few days, but it isn’t normal. At least, it isn’t how it happens in the Neverseen. Before, if things went quiet, it’s because someone messed up or you were on a mission in a position that you needed to me silent in. That’s another thing; these elves were quite; not silent. Keefe has never heard someone make so much noise while not making noise before. It was strange and slightly unnerved him.

And it isn’t until Grady shows up in the doorway that things start going again. He beckons for them to come back downstairs, and he waits until he’s toward the end of the group with his wife, the three kids in front of him, before he follows instead of leads. When Keefe passes him, Grady gives him a smile and a nod along with a pat on the shoulder, but there was something set in his eyes, something off in his smile. He was sad, just like Edaline was before. Even without doing anything, Keefe still manages to upset everyone. He must be cursed or something.

They’re led back into the sitting room with the sofas where everyone else was waiting on them. The second they step into the room Cadence stands, lifting her hands to start signing, start explaining something before Edaline raises a hand and goes over, whispering something to her that Keefe can’t listen in on.

He and Sophie had severed their mental connection on the way here, so when she looks at him, he can only shrug his shoulders in an answer. She hadn’t been able to get anything either.

Grady guides the two siblings to their previous seats and the Council starts talking, Cadence starts signing, and Keefe is hardly paying attention. What use would it be, anyways? None of the information will be of any use to them, none of the saving or keeping safe and away from the Neverseen talk will do anything—they’re literally trying to do the exact opposite and get back to the Neverseen. But still, the Council and adults talk about Foxfire and how the two will need to be watched for a week and how the Council will have check-ins. But should all go right, Keefe thinks, Sophie and he shouldn’t be here another week, let alone a few days in-between the check-ins.

He tunes back in fully when the councilors stand, bidding their dues to Edaline and Grady. The blond one, he forgot her name, comes over to them before she leaves, though. And her eyes stay on Sophie. And okay, yeah, she’s got brown eyes, woopty doo, but if another elf makes a big deal out of that he was going to have a fit. Seriously. They were making it into much too big of a deal.

But instead, she simply smiled at them and said; “I’m sorry for the destress we caused you earlier. I hope our later meetings will be able to make up for it.”

Sophie watched over the woman’s shoulder, watching Cadence as she signed, though the woman didn’t seem offended by it, only smiled at Sophie again before nodding and standing back up to her normal height, following the rest of the elves out.

The adults see the Councilor’s out, leaving just Keefe, Sophie, and Fitz in the room. The oldest of the three smiles and, making his way over to Sophie and Keefe, holds out a hand to shake.

“We’ve never actually been introduced—formally. So, since we're going to be living together; I’m Fitz. It’s nice to meet you.”

Sophie, carefully watching his lips, responds by pulling out her notebook and writing a quick something on the paper before placing it into Fitz’s open hand.

Written again in English, the paper reads a simple: “I’m Sophie, this is Keefe. It’s nice to meet you too.

 

 

Notes:

And that's the end of this chapter for today, folks.

The song on loop for this chapter was Sailor Song by Gigi Perez and Evergreen by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners :D

Originally in my head S & K freaking out was like at the end of TANGLED when she figures out she's the lost princess. Everything S & K were ever told by the only people they've ever known (or ever remember knowing) said that if something like this happened they'd get them out. Save them. And now they've been abandoned. Does that make sense? And so while yes, S & K didn't /have/ to go w/ the BS, they did have their reasons which made this decision make more sense, at least to them.
The reason being and having been said before: they didn't want to be split up, and they believed that if they called the Neverseen that would happen. But if they made it look like they were never given a chance to call for help, they might be able to stay together.
I'm not sure that shows through (I don't really think it does), but that was the original intention :/
Also I daydreamed about this chapter like a two years ago and am just now writing it. Strange how it took me so long.

I will be working on college, work, and personal projects, though there will be pre-written chapters that will be up every Third Thursday of each month until those have run out or this gets finished. Thank y'all for sticking with this, truly it does make me so happy to see people enjoy this random thing my thirteen/fourteen-year-old brain cooked up and even though it doesn't seem like it, I do enjoy writing this (even if I drop it for a year, oops).

Also, if you've read any kind of Damian whump (DC) then you can probably tell that I read a lot of them while writing that beginning part. And this next chapter, well, I'm currently reading all the NARNIA books, so they may have a bit more of a classical feel to them. Or maybe I'm making connections where there aren't any, idk. But that happened/is happening, so.
fun.

The next chapter will be out Thursday, May 15th (should all go well).

Thank you all so much for reading, Moon <3

Chapter 10: X Sophie

Summary:

[Sophie’s POV] (8th day)
Sophie and Keefe make a plan, school is in session, and Fitz finds something out about one of the two siblings.

Notes:

Chap 10 huzzah y'all (I was late, so have nine pages)

As always: anything in bold is sign language (not in the same grammar structure as ASL), anything italicized is speaking telepathically and/or is a flashback scene, and anything underlined is something written.

This chapter was brought to you by The Spin Doctors, some Sea Shantys, an original character's playlist (not a character in this), and Narnia. A fun fact to fill your daily fun fact obligation: I wrote most of this chapter at work :D

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Written again in English, the paper reads a simple: “I’m Sophie, this is Keefe. It’s nice to meet you too.

 


 

This time, when they light leaped, Sophie went with Fitz and Keefe went with Alden. Because apparently Grady and Edaline couldn’t come with them, and silently, Sophie wondered if she’d ever see them again. Within the Neverseen very few elves were actually allowed to know about the two siblings, even fewer were allowed to meet them, and those that did would fully lose contact if they were compromised. But within the BlackSwan, where everything so far has been so different, she doesn’t know if this means she’ll see Edaline and Grady again, and if so, if they’ll be given new rules because of them.

The second round of light leaping was similar to the first, only though when they appeared outside of the house, this one felt cold. Not literally, no, but compared to Havenfield this place felt distant almost, no matter how much Fitz smiled at her after they showed up where they were supposed to.

He says something to her, but she just manages to miss it before his smile drops some and he repeats. But maybe it’s from the dizzy feeling from the jump, maybe he’s talking too fast or maybe there’s just something wrong with her right now, but she can’t make out what he’s saying. But she smiles regardless, and by how he lights up it seems like the right thing to do.

Keefe runs over to her the second Alden lets go of him, and just as soon as he makes it to her side the doors open with a flourish, two women standing in the doorway, beckoning everyone in.

Fitz is still at their side, and a smaller, female version of him comes running out to meet him. Was this the sister he was talking about, then?

Alden comes up behind the young girl who’s tugging on Fitz’s arm, waving and mouth moving too fast for Sophie to keep up with, and by her brother’s reaction much too loud for any reasonable person to be speaking—or might it be yelling?

But none the less, Alden comes up from behind and hugs the girl, telling her something that makes her mouth stop moving and stare at the two blonds minutely before going back to a polite smile and acting as if nothing happened.

Sophie knows that at least two of the four elves before her are telepaths, which means it wouldn’t be save to open a connection to Keefe right now, no matter how much he taps her hand. Instead, she lifts a hand to sign before Fitz takes hold of it, dragging them both inside behind the women and Alden.

Keefe gives her a look, like do-you-really-think-THESE-elves-will-realize-we’re-speaking-teleapthically, and all she does is return one that means Yes!

He shakes his head at her, a smile playing at the edges of his lips like he thinks it’s funny she would think that. And yes, okay, he is the one with much more experience with others outside of the Neverseen, heck, he’s an empath, but that doesn’t mean she wants to stupidly think wrong of them. Isn’t that the very thing these elves are doing right now with her brother and her? So yeah, she’ll stick with sign language for a few more minutes instead of being found out, thank you very much.

The inside of the home is extravagant is ways Havenfield is not. Don’t get her wrong, Havenfield is gorgeous, but this place is different, and not just the obvious architecture. There’s something about it that sets it apart from Havenfield. Something she can’t exactly put her finger on.

The room the siblings are given is smaller than the one they had at Havenfield, though it had the two beds and would be considered titanic in size, and right next door to Fitz. Though even with it’s smaller size it felt emptier, colder even, than the one at Havenfield.

The first night they’re left alone, and Keefe only shrugged his shoulders at her when she brought it up, saying it was probably for the best they were left alone and not studied immediately.

. . .

The next few days had felt somewhat of the same, which is to say: the two didn’t leave their room often. But this was a good thing, as it gave them proper time to scheme.

It took sleepless nights and being extra cautious while speaking telepathically, sometimes even signing while hovering over a candle light to speak when they felt the presence of another getting too close for their liking.

Their mother hadn’t made contact. This is old news. Now, they had to figure out how to fix this, which was right up Sophie’s alley. This was all she had been training for, and when it worked, surly she’ll be praised and allowed to go on assignments with Keefe now that their mother sees just how competent she is, right? This was just another test, she was telling herself. And maybe it just was, it wouldn’t be unlike their mother for something like this to happen and for her to use it as a learning opportunity. It’s happened how many times with Keefe when he went on missions, so she could know where they are and what their doing and just…not rescuing them so they’ll be made to rescue themselves. Which is fine. Totally fine. Because they’ll succeed and get back home and all will be well. They have no choice in the matter.

But no matter that, they had a plan to make. Which, Sophie would admit, strayed from their standard training because in training, they both made the plan (mainly her) and Keefe would be the one to physically execute it (every single time). Now, regardless of her brother’s involvement in the planning, she would have to be the one to execute it, too. Which was a first, but not a challenge she’ll be turning down any time soon.

Eventually, they come up with something that sounds like this: They wait for a few more days and see if their mother will make contact without their intervention. If she does, great. They’ll listen and follow any instructions given, whether to stay or to cooperate in a rescue, they’ll do it. If she doesn’t make contact within their (three day) allotted time period, they’ll reach out and wait for further instruction.

Which all sounds easy, but when you try to telepathically find someone without trying to get on the radar of at least two other telepaths, it’ll be trickier than trying to sneak conversations with Keefe while he was on missions. But that just makes it a larger challenge that, once bested, will show the Neverseen just how good they actually are, allowing them to stay together and maybe even work together in the future.

They had nodded to each other when coming up with the plan, but now that they had to put it in practice, Sophie didn’t know if it was the best they could come up with. Especially the more she gets to know these elves.

. . .

It’s on the morning of their third day at the Vacker house, last day before reaching out to their mother on their own, when everything hits the fan. Fitz had bound into their room, jumping and smiling at them, laughing about something while they rub the sleep from their eyes. The Vacker boy is dressed in some kind of uniform, complete with a cape, and is holding an identical one in his arms. Keefe isn’t even out of the bed before Fitz shoves the wad of fabric into his arms, telling him to hurry and get dressed.

Sophie doesn’t even realize she and Keefe have a telepathic connection through the conversation until Fitz is giving her an odd look, his head tilted in the way he does when he’s trying to figure them out. But when he notices her looking at him, he smiles and moves his arms around, nearly shocking her when he successfully signs “good morning” to her. His hand coming down from his chin before resting in the crook of his elbow as the arm moves up. He’s slow, a bit stiff, but says it correctly none the less.

She wonders where he learned it, and she’s able to read his lips when he speaks, and she can just imagine the excitement in his voice as he says; “So I did it right?”

She gives a small smile and nods at him, eyes drifting to the connected bathroom where Keefe is changing before watching as Fitz moves to sit on the edge of her bed, a notepad in hand. Okay, so maybe he was going to explain what’s going on.

But when he turns the notepad around for her to see, all it says is; Depending on how it goes today and the following week, you could maybe join in the next two or three weeks too.

Join what, she has to wonder. Before she’s able to take the notepad to try and ask, Keefe is walking out in clothing that falls a bit too loose around his shoulders, too long on his legs, and a cape without a crest to hold it closed. He stands just outside the bathroom door, arms away from his body, almost unsure of what to do with himself.

How bad is it? She hears him ask, and she forgets that while she remembered they had a connection, she never severed it. Well?

It’s not…horrible.

He smiled and did a small spin, cape flying up and around dramatically as he continued to make his way into the bedroom, stepping up to Fitz, reading what he wrote, and grabbing the notepad for himself to respond with.

What are you talking about?

Fitz’s smile falls some, and he reaches a hand to take the notebook back. His eyebrows frown as he writes, and he seems almost hesitant to turn the page around for them to see.

Has my father not spoken with you two?

They both shake their head, and his smile falls fully as he writes again. It takes him a minute to get all the words down, and as he reads it over he crosses some out and rewrites it. Anytime Sophie tried to lean over and see what it was before he showed them, the older boy scowled and moved his mouth, saying something she couldn’t catch. When she turned to Keefe he just shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, lips tilting crooked as if to say what-do-you-want-me-to-do-about-it?

Silently—or at least what she hopes is silent—she gives a small huff at him and tugs on his cape, making it fall and the shirt come with it, exposing his shoulder before he pulls it back up and takes the notepad from Fitz.

If you remember when we were talking to the Council, depending on the news we hear from the Black Swan, you two could be regular elves—which means going to school, finding your real biological families and possibly going to live with them, that sort of stuff. Because you two settled in so well this weekend, Counciler Bronte has decided to let Keefe join Foxfire starting today. And depending on how he acts adapts, you, Sophie, may be able to join really soon too—once we figure out how to work around your hearing your not hearing your disadvantage. Dad was supposed to talk to you about it, so I don’t know why he didn’t.

Slowly, after reading and rereading the paragraph, Sophie takes the pen and paper and writes.

We’re going to be separated?

“No!” She can basically hear Fitz yell. He shakes his head as he takes the notepad back, head still moving side to side as he taps the pen against his lips, trying to find the words.

As far as we know, you two are biologically related. Meaning that if you DID go to a different family, you would still be together. As for today, Keefe will be with me, and you Sophie should be spending time with my mom to try and find work arounds for your—disadvantage. But we’ll be back this afternoon, and Keefe can tell you all about school and classes and everything, and then soon enough you’ll be going together. You probably won’t be in the same grade, meaning you won’t share classes, but you’ll still see each other at lunch, gym, and in the halls. We’re not going to just…separate you two. You’re going to stay together for the most part, but stuff like this, you can’t really stay together for. Does that make sense?

Keefe beats her to the notepad this time, quickly writing something down before basically throwing the paper back in Fitz’s face. Their door opens again, and Sophie thinks she’s the only one who notices it as Alden walks across the floor, standing right behind them. Sophie is quick to cut any connection she had to Keefe. The boy doesn’t seem to notice.

We go together or not at all. Is what Keefe wrote.

That’s not what we agreed on with the Council. Fitz writes in return before his father takes the notepad from them, reading what’s on the page, and sticking it, pen and all, into his pocket.

He says something aloud, something Sophie isn’t able to make out from her angle. Keefe puffs up, and by the way his eyes shoot over to her, she thinks that he must just have realized they can’t speak telepathically. His eyes hold a question, one she’s not able to understand.

It’s Fitz’s turn to speak, and his dad is the one to answer him, pushing him gently out of the way to get to Keefe. Whatever he’s saying, Keefe nods along to it, casting one last look at her before smiling and nodding at Alden and Fitz. Whatever he agreed to, it makes the father-son duo leave their room. It isn’t until the door is shut and closed that Keefe turns to her and lifts his hands;

I’m going to go to this school. I’ll be back this afternoon. Instead of waiting for tomorrow, you’re going to start contacting mom today after I leave. The woman aren’t telepaths, you can do it without them noticing. I don’t care how many times you have to repeat yourself, keep doing it until she answers. Understand?

Are you really just going? She has to ask.

He nods and waits a second while he thinks, his hand fluttering in the air while he figured out what he was trying to say.

We have to play along. This is us playing along. If all goes well, I won’t go again tomorrow.

And if it doesn’t?

He gives her one his crooked smiles before tilting his head toward the door, listening to something before waving a quick goodbye and running out of the room, leaving her wholly alone for the first time in a very long while.

The woman, Della, is quick to show herself after Keefe leaves, talking too fast for Sophie to keep up with, and even turning her back on her at points while getting her clothing meaning the young elf didn’t even have a chance to try and understand what the older is wanting from her.

Della, though, doesn’t seem to realize this until she’s paused frozen in front of Sophie, a simple dress dangling in her grip, her mouth in a straight line. She lays the dress on the edge of the bed and points to it—dumbly, in Sophie’s opinion—and mimics putting it on. Sophie nods and reaches to grab it before Della stops her, mimicking dressing once again.

And again, Sophie nods and tries to take the dress from her before being stopped. Okay, what was this lady’s problem?

Della eventually says out loud “Get dressed,” probably to herself, but slow enough that Sophie was finally able to read it. And okay, so Sophie is correctly doing what this woman wants her to do, yet Della’s acting like she’s not. What the heck.

Sophie, trying to show the older elf that she understands, starts to slip off her sleep clothing—a very fancy nightgown—but Della instead just looks panicked and stops her, yet again, when Sophie tries to get her arm through the sleeve.

“Dress,” Sophie mouths before cringing at the feeling of a vibration in her throat. Della looks shocked, and Sophie quickly moves past it by pointing at the cloth dress and back at herself, making sure she only mouths it when she repeats it at the lady.

Della manages a nod and Sophie takes her stunned state to grab the dress and runs to the bathroom, locking herself in before Della has the chance to stop her again.

She sighs in relief at being left alone, and opens a channel telepathically, looking for their mother. Normally, because their mother isn’t a telepath, Gethen is the one to take message’s to and from, but this wasn’t a situation that Sophie could trust him with this. She doesn’t even know if he knows about her and her brother. But right now, it has to be directly to Gisela for it to work.

But after three minutes, there was nothing on her mental radar for her mother. No where in the lost or forbidden cities that indicated she could make direct contact, so she did the next best thing she could and just sent it out into her mental void, hoping that it will reach her mother eventually.

Mom, this is Sophie. Keefe and I were ambushed by BlackSwan and this is the first time I’ve been able to reach out. Please, get back to me as soon as you can.

. . .

The rest of the day played out much of the same. At some point, Della was flat out not letting Sophie do anything until she said, out loud, what it was Della was wanting her to do. Like some kind of a psychopath, or Vespera. Which again, psychopath. Flat out ignoring the woman seemed to be a good idea for some things, like spinning around to let the woman get measurements for a seamstress; but for others, like getting any time alone on false bathroom breaks to give her a safe place to try and contact their mom for the sixteenth time, it was very annoying. At least she seems to be decent at saying “Bathroom” now.

. . .

It’s hours into the afternoon when she’s finally left alone in their bedroom, able to send out message after message after message to their mother when her door opens. With her eyes closed, she feels someone with the same build and walk as Keefe, so she opens a connection to them and asks,

How was the school?

And is shocked when she gets a reply from someone who is decidedly not Keefe,

You’re a telepath?!

Her eyes shoot open and she comes face to face with Fitz, who is standing across from her, jaw dropped. She’s quick to sever the connection and push herself on hands and knees away from him until her back hits the wall.

He’s eyes widen more when he realizes the connection is gone, and his lips are moving too fast for her to make out when he tries to say something to her.

It takes her a minute to realize what happened, and when she does she jumps up and slams the bedroom door shut before grabbing Fitz and holding her hand over his mouth, opening another connection.

You can’t tell anyone.

And what not? He challenges, opening his mouth under her hand and licking like a gross kid would.

He gives her an odd look when she rips her hand away, face scrunching up in disgust.

You sound different out loud then you do here. He says smartly.

You shouldn’t know how I sound either way. And you know what— before she can finish, he cuts her off.

You talk more than I thought you would.

What is that supposed to mean? She asks offended.

It means that for a deaf girl, you have a big mouth. Wait—so you’re really an elf?

Great, he was going on about that again.

Why don’t you believe us about that? She asks.

You have brown eyes!

What is wrong with brown eyes?! All of you keep saying that, yet no one has said why it means I’m not an elf.

He pauses, giving her a look she can’t decipher before she continues,

You know what? I don’t want to know. But you cannot tell anyone about this. Not the BlackSwan or The Ones in Charge or anyone else. I’ll make you regret if you do.

His lips tilt up like it was a challenge. Oh yeah? He asks, What will you do? Telepathically tell on me?

Her lips curl before she actually feels Keefe come up to the room, and with one last I’m being dead serious, tell no one. She severs the connection as her brother walks in.

Fitz is giving her an odd look before turning his back to look at the door as it opens. Keefe acts like it’s normal for Fitz to be there, and lifts his hands saying:

Oh Keefe how was school? Not fun. At all. Please tell me I don’t have to go tomorrow.

Sophie, watching as Keefe face dives into the mattress, gives Fitz one more glare before walking over and tapping her brother’s shoulder and sitting beside him, lifting her hands to respond;

I can’t find her. I’ve sent out like fifty message’s though, and I’ll keep trying.

He nods at her, and she catches Fitz watching her like she’s alien. She can only hope that means he’ll actually keep this a secret for their remaining time here.

 

 

Notes:

It's always fun writing Sophie in this, but she's never been shown alone before, which brings on the new challenge of actually being alone and having to rely on things like lip reading, testing people's patience (because not everyone will be willing to even do the simplest accommodations), and writing (which wasn't actually shown very much here but still). I understand that in Fitz's POV he says some questionable things about deafness (just because he is uneducated, and didn't actually know it was a thing), but I really hope I portray Sophie alright. I do have an idea of how it all feels and goes, though it's definitely NOT at all the same someone who is deaf. But I hope I did alright with blending it with what I know.

The Fitz part at the end was fun to write. Sophie is feisty, but Fitz is the second born child of three. Don't test him with something like this, he will be a brat about it.

Fun fact (to fill tomorrows daily fun fact obligation): Those three dots that separate paragraphs is called a "dinkus" (Thank you B for teaching me this even though you will never see this please never see this ahhh) not to be confused with a "dingus" which is a word to use when you don't want to/can't remember/can't say the name of something, or a foolish/reckless person in the slang world.

Also, I do the roman numeral things in the chapter title, right? But after two semesters of college (in my third) and a job as a science tutor/teacher I ONLY SEE THE CRANIAL NERVES (those who get it, get it, and those that don't, don't). I guess that means I actually learned something though, right? Eugh.

I have realized that trying to get this finished/posted on a Thursday while I'm at work/in class is not great, actually. So, these will now be posted the third Saturday of each month, meaning that the next chapter will be out Saturday, June 21th.

Y'all, I don't care how old you are or how young you are, but this summer promise me you will read all of the Narnia books. They're short, fun, easy, comfortable reads. If you've read them before, read them again. Make a playlist of the song The Call by Regina Spektor on loop, go somewhere good to read, and read them. I am nineteen years old and am rereading them and I am having just as good of a time as I did when I was nine. Scratch that, I'm having a better time because I have better reading comprehension now than I did then. So go off and read them and then come back and read the next chapter of this thing.

Until next time, Moon

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