must have been the wind [old version]

・eight・

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you straight up." Then, she collapsed.

・・・

Ruy Ignis and his friend, Alvar, were busy traveling for days, but the news of the disappearance of Sophie Foster was all they were hearing. Some said it was the Neverseen, some said she was a coward and finally gave up. Some said she was just calling attention to herself, but all this talk was making Ruy mad. Partially because these people didn't know her, they were judging and because it was partially his fault.

"Do you think I spooked her that much?" Alvar snorts, "Nothing about you is relatively scary, if she was spooked then it was something else. Also if anything she'd be hiding out at Everglen, let's check it out and if she's not there then we start panicking." Ruy nods, grabbing onto Alvar as he grabs the pathfinder. Despite being thrown out, Alvar is basically still welcomed at Everglen—no not welcomed but not removed, his blood still grants him access.

Upon their arrival all of Sophie's friends were circled in the living room surrounded by parents talking about her. "So I'm guessing that she's not here, Alvar." Then he grumbled something along the lines of, well that's not a good thing so don't sound like you won. He is correct though, Ruy was about to say something, but Sophie's friends started talking again and that shut him up.

"Ugh, what happened this time! She was getting better, then she went and disappeared, all of that hard work in trying to help her, gone!" Alvar's irritable little brother was trying to make this about himself again, Ruy understood why his best friend hated his little brother now. "Like you did anything to help with that though." said Glimmer, OH that's where she went off to.

"Again, why is she here?" He and Alvar share a confused look, Biana was supposed to be the good sibling. "I am here because I am Sophie's friend and because Tam invited me." Biana was about to say something again but the Forkle guy cut her off, "You kids fighting all day will solve nothing. This is why we need Sophie, she always keeps you guys together, and quite frankly—," he was cut off by a glowing sphere that appeared in the room.

Soon enough two figures came toppling out, one a mess of blonde hair with black leathers and the other a small child looking tree. Sophie and her gnome, "Ms. Foster—," she cut him off, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you straight up." Then she passed out dropping the book that was clenched tightly to her chest. Tam Song caught her and all eyes went to the little gnome.

"What are you all looking at? I have no clue what happened, and you!" She says pointing to Forkle, "You need to tell her everything! She grew claws, Forkle, claws. She's starting to show the signs, she needs to know the truth, no matter how confusing it's going to be." Ruy had no idea what was going on, it looked like no one else did either.

"Ruy not everyone is here, we need to—," just as he said that, the door they were hiding behind opened. "Sorry I'm late guys—oh...we have intruders." Wylie looked down at them in horror. Ruy looked back at Alvar in horror, but they couldn't do anything as the rest of Sophie's friends made their way to the door. "We are so screwed." Alvar mumbles and runs a hand down his face.

"No shit sherlock." It took a moment for Sophie's friends to recover, but as soon as they did chaos reigned down on the two former Neverseen members. Her friends were going to do something, but Glimmer held out her hand to stop them. Glimmer took a long look at us, "Where are your rings?" She looked to Ruy's neck to find it vacant and Alvar's hand to see the pale skin.

"Gone, trashed and disposed of." At this Glimmer smiles and reveals her own vacant finger. "That's how they were controlling us, right?" Alvar nods, "And the screaming voice as I took it off? What was that?" This time no one knew. "I don't know but it happened to me too, so I'm assuming it happened to Alvar as well."

He nods, "It was cursing me, it was as if I was in a trance with it on. I wasn't in control of my body--," his brother snorts. "Do you actually believe this crap! It's Alvar! He's a skilled liar, you can't jus--," this time a new voice pops up. "Actually, this explains a lot." It was Sophie's adoptive mother. "And Sophie went through all that trouble with the book and is still clutching it. This explains everything so well."

"Eda what do you mean?" She smiles, "I read the books she was pouring over," she grabs the book in Sophie's arms and flips to a page with a map and a title called Erilea, she turns to the little gnome, "You guys traveled to this place, am I correct?" When she nods, Edaline goes into full explanation mode. "You were possessed."

When some start laughing, she looks over to the three of us, "Do you still have the rings?" Ruy and Alvar say no, while Glimmer pulls a black ring with engraving on it. Edaline takes the ring and makes a move to slip it on, "What are you doing?" She turns to them, "If you're right, then this shouldn't harm me." And then she slips it on.

・・・

Edaline Ruewen made the worst calculating error ever. The ring was just like how it was described in the book, but what she didn't expect was the immediate result of the valg demon. Lovely lady, it crooned, you shouldn't play with things that you know nothing about. My master would be pleased though, to have the mother of our target. She felt the power drain from her body, "Edaline, you need to fight this, the only way you can take the ring off is if you can fight it."

Don't listen to him, he knows nothing of true power. With you in my power we could easily bring the people to their knees. Edaline tries to smile, You see, that's the thing. I don't want power, I want my daughter to be safe. Then she ripped off the ring. "Okay, new rule, never put shiny black rings on, especially if you know what it does." This made the people laugh.

・・・

Sophie Foster didn't know why, but everyone around her was laughing. "Hey, what's going on?" Soon everyone was crowding her and asking questions that she didn't have time to understand. "Um, please slow down and ask questions one at a time." She grabbed the closest thing and helped herself up, then cracked her neck and scratched her head. Facing everyone she saw two familiar faces that shouldn't be there.

"What are you doing here?" She asked quietly, she then looked at their hands--her teleportation had to have taken her to those places for some reason. It hit her when she remembered seeing the ring on the chain--Ruy's--they were possessed, hopefully. "Judging by why you looked at my hand, I assume you already know. As do the rest of your friends." Sophie nods her head and looks to the rest of her friends for confirmation, as they nod back she relaxes a little.

"If the Valg are here, we are going to need help and by help I mean that we are going to go to Erilea." She starts moving then pauses again, "Who gave you the rings? And if so, were they wearing a ring themselves?" Detective Sophie is in the house, depending on Ruy's answer this could change everything. "I don't think it changes anything, but Vespera gave it to all of us when we first joined--not that I had a choice. Vespera is my mother and Umber was my sister. Neither of them wore rings."

Sophie went utterly still, "Is Umber your full or half sister? And this changes everything." SHe can see him struggling for an answer, but she needs the truth and fast. "Ruy this is very important. I need an honest answer and fast."

"I don't know, she was a lot older than me." Sophie tried so hard not to run a hand down her face, "Okay, then tell me what she looked like. Pitch black hair? Violet or onyx eyes? Pale skin? Tall? Looks a lot like Vespera? Pure evil?" He says yes to everything, "My eyes are silver while hers were black."

"She is your half sister then. What is the real color of your mother's eyes?" He looked at her in shock for a while and Sophie got more and more impatient. "Violet." Sophie's world stopped and her eyes grew as wide as watermelons. Of course, she had dreamed of meeting her book characters and now she actually will.

"Pack your things, all of you, now. We are going on a little adventure, but first we need to find Keefe."

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