The Burning Light with Shadows (A SOTAM Fan Fiction)

Comfort (Tam's PoV)

I stepped into the healing center just as Sophie toppled near a wall, almost falling over. I immediately sprinted over to her and caught her just as she was about to land flat on her back. She blushed, and I felt my cheeks grow hot.

"Sorry," she mumbled, straightening her back. I smiled. "I get why Keefe and Fitz call you a clutz now," I teased. Her cheeks went even redder. "Normally I'm not that clumsy," she explained. "It's just because of this giant sling or cast, whatever it is." I studied her appearance. We were, surprisingly, both wearing the pink Happy Shadow Thoughts tunic with sparkles and smiley faces all over. Earlier in the day, Linh had begged me to wear it to our walk around Foxfire, and I grudgingly agreed.

Sophie seemed to follow my gaze to her clothing, then stared at mine. "Linh convinced me to wear it too, if that's what you're wondering." She gave me a nervous grin, but I could see a mischievous glint in her eyes. I gaped. "Did you have Linh make me wear this?" I asked. She looked up with a guilty look. "Maybeee?" she said. I shook my head disbelievingly, but my face betrayed my emotions, stretching out into a huge grin.

I gave her my arm and she took it, and we walked out of the healing center. As we walked throughout the halls, I realized how pretty Foxfire looked at night. I admired the twinkling stars that you could see through the skylights, and the darkness felt soothing. But when I looked back to Sophie, she seemed tense and anxious. "Are you okay?" I asked. She jumped, nearly tripping over her own foot. "Yeah... it's just- well, it feels like someone's watching us." She looked over her shoulder. "And there's a weird chill, too. It's colder here than the healing center." She shivered. Now that she mentioned it, it did feel somewhat colder. I glanced at some of the nearby shadows, and flicked my wrist. They moved away, revealing nothing. Nonetheless, it started to feel unnerving walking through Foxfire at night.

All of a sudden, we heard a loud slam echo throughout the halls. We both shrunk slightly closer to each other. We both stared at each other, fearful looks on our faces. "That- that's probably just one of the guards or something," I suggested, trying to calm both our nerves. Sophie nodded. "Yeah..." she trailed off, looking down the hall.

Then we heard voices softly speaking in a whispery tone. We glanced at each other, petrified. As we turned the corner, we saw two people in a cloak discussing something. I tried catching on to what they were saying, but we were too far away, and all I heard was muffled chatter. Suddenly, one of them whipped around, looking straight at us. I frantically tried to call the shadows to hide us, but it was too late. With a small gesture of their finger, the shadows spread out away from us.

"Umber," Sophie breathed. My heart dropped down to my stomach. The other person turned toward us, and I recognized him as Gethen. "I told you we could find you anytime," Gethen said smugly, his tone filled with contempt and pleasure. Umber seemed to study me, glancing up and down. I glared at her. "What do you want with us?" I demanded, subtly gathering a couple shadows into my left hand. Luckily, neither Umber or Gethen seemed to notice.

Gethen laughed, a hoarse, dragging sound that sent chills down my spine. Sophie nearly collapsed, her left arm clutching her mind. I caught her right as she was about to fall. Her expression was locked in a painful grimace. "Ech- echoes," she managed to cough out. I helped her down to her knees. "It looks like we left a deeper impact on the Moonlark than I thought," Gethen taunted, a crooked smile painted on his face. I tightened my hand into a fist, subconsciously walking a few steps forward, away from Sophie.

"What. Do. You. Want?" I asked again, spacing out the words. Gethen's grin grew even larger. "What makes you think we want anything?" he asked. I rolled my eyes in disgust. "Why else would you sneak around Foxfire?" I remarked, preparing to send the shadows straight at them to obscure their vision. Somehow, I felt the shadows seep out of my hand. Umber made a tut-tut sound. "You're not getting away that easily," she said, calling the shadows toward herself. I gritted my teeth. "And because you tried that," she continued, forming an arrow made up of shadows. Shadowflux, I thought, feeling uneasy. She threw out her arm towards Sophie's head, and the arrow went zipping towards her.

"NO!" I shouted. She looked so defenseless, still holding her head, massaging her temples. I held out my arm toward it, a feeble attempt to block it. But suddenly, the arrow stopped midair. My hand was in a semi-closed fist, just a couple feet away from it. I opened my hand and it dissipated, leaving a couple streaks of darkness that disappeared after a few seconds. "Now that one has potential," Umber said approvingly. I could just see the tips of a smile from under the shadow of her cowl. I growled frustratingly.

We heard heavy footsteps thud throughout the hallway. "Looks like our time is up," Gethen said, offering Umber his hand and holding a leaping crystal up. I tried to stop them, shooting shadows out in their direction, but they leaped away right as I got within a couple meters.

I heard a groan behind me, and I saw Sophie struggling to get up. I headed back to her and helped her stand up. There were several tears streaming down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her sleeve. "I- I-" she stammered, eyes glistening with held back tears. She hugged me, and I reluctantly held her close. Her head was buried into my shoulder and I felt her shudder with sobs. I patted her back awkwardly, trying to comfort her. I'd never seen Sophie so... vulnerable and open with me. She released me, looking up to me with pink cheeks. I gave her a reassuring smile.

About ten goblins turned the corner and saw us, one of them demanding with a stern, gruff voice, "What happened?" Sophie looked unable to explain, so I replied, "The Neverseen attacked us." All of the goblins looked shocked, and started muttering about increasing the security. The same one told us, "You should go back to the healing center. Elwin was asking about you, and that's why we went searching through the halls to find you." I nodded, holding Sophie's hand and leading her back to the healing center, where Elwin went berserk over Sophie and immediately made her lie back down on a cot, when he made me explain what had just happened.

"The echoes seemed to have stirred," Elwin said, spinning a couple different colored orbs around Sophie's mind. "Her arm and head look murkier than before." Sophie agreed. "They definitely stirred," she confirmed. "I had flashbacks when I saw Umber."

Elwin looked on his shelves for a couple elixirs and gave a couple to Sophie, which she downed with a look of repulsion on her face. Elwin looked at me. "Tam, you guys had a stressful night. I'll hail the others tomorrow morning, so you can probably go home now. I'll tend to Sophie for the rest of the night." I nodded, turning to leave and holding up my leaping crystal. She smiled, lighting up her whole face. "Good night!" She said cheerfully, despite the craziness.

"Good night, Sophie," I said, waving goodbye before stepping into the beam of light.

A/N AHHH I can't believe I have 55 reads!!! Thank you guys sooo much! If you haven't, please leave a comment if you have any suggestions and leave a vote! It'd be great if you could follow me too! Also, if any of you were wondering, I have a daily upload schedule, though sometimes I might miss one by accident if I get super busy somehow.