what happened after unlocked

chapter five ~ the power of marellinh

A blinding orb of violet light was hovering over Sophie's head as she woke up.

It was hard to make sense of the world around her at first, but she soon managed to make out four figures, one with greying hair, one with swirling amber, one with blond, and one with dark brown.

"This makes no sense," the one with the dark hair muttered in a familiar masculine voice, and then turned to the other three people, his voice gaining volume, and said, "her systems are all working fine. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong, apart from the fact that she's asleep. But I honestly have no idea of what could have caused this."

The light above Sophie's head turned to green at a snap of the dark-haired elf's fingers.

"How did I fade?" Sophie whispered as loudly as she could. Her throat felt dry and sore, like it would if you screamed nonstop for hours on end.

"You're awake!" the elf with blonde hair, her father, said, rushing over and taking her hands in his. "And we don't know."

The elf with amber hair, Sophie's mother, joined her at her side.

"Something's wrong with me," Sophie sighed groggily.

"Nothing is wrong with you, Miss Foster," the elf with grey hair, Mr Forkle, said. "I suspect this is a natural manifestation."

Everyone turned their attention to him, including Elwin, the elf with dark brown hair, and the green orb above Sophie disappeared.

"Natural manifestation?" Elwin repeated. "Normal manifestations aren't anything like this."

"Surely you must all know by now that any events relating to Miss Foster are not normal?"

Sophie grunted, as if to tell him she was right there.

"Can you deny it?" Mr Forkle countered.

Sophie sat up and changed the subject. "Well, if this is a natural manifestation, are you sure you didn't know about it? And also, do you know what it is?"

Mr Forkle moved closer and his expression turned sad. "Miss Foster, if I say that it's natural then I will, more often than not, be correct. But you might be pleased to know that I haven't programmed any more abilities for you. So after you manifest this new ability, you won't be troubled any further. Unless there are more natural abilities in your blood," he added.

Sophie squinted at him. "You're sure?"

"Yes!" Mr Forkle said, sounding agitated.

Sophie dropped asked the next question on her mind. "Have I already manifested, or shown any signs or done anything to any of you?"

All four other elves shook their heads.

She turned to Mr Forkle. "Well then...are you completely and absolutely certain that you don't know what my next ability will be?"

Mr Forkle dragged a hand through his hair. "I already told you."

Elwin put his focus back on Sophie. "Well, I suppose we'd better wait and see. But until then, you'd be better off avoiding leaping anywhere, using any of your abilities including telepathy, or training at all with your friends."

"What!?" Sophie said, and the word came out of her mouth louder than she'd intended. "But that rules out basically...everything! And plus, I might not manifest for weeks!"

Elwin handed her a vial of baby-blue liquid. "Better safe than sorry. Drink this."

Sophie took it, but didn't consume it. "You don't understand, though! I need to search for Keefe...we need him and he needs us...and I need to work on all of my other side projects, too! And Keefe won't listen to me in a month, guaranteed! He'll think I'll have actually forgotten about him!"