Project Moonlark

Chapter 4

No one made a single sound. All the Vackers had grim faces and were in deep thought. Sophie shared a look with Keefe, "Do you think they'll be alright?" she transmitted. "Oh, don't worry Foster, they just have to decide if they will forgive him or not.'' He sighed, "I have to do that too, Alvar was my hero" Keefe thought, and Sophie had the impression that it sounded shakier and quieter than normal. She twisted her mouth into a trembling smile, "It's going to be okay" She transmitted. Keefe smiled back, and Sophie blushed.

Slowly, elves started to stand up and headed out through the doors. "Let's go. Sophie, Keefe, you can leap with us. I hailed Dex, Tam and Linh already. They are waiting for us in Everglen. We need to talk." Alden said, gesturing for them to follow him to the exit. As they were passing, Sophie spotted Sandor, standing behind the doors, scanning the Vackers intensely.

"Hey Sandor, what are you doing here?" she asked, squinting up at the 6 foot tall goblin. Sandor shared a look with Alden, "Oh, just goblin stuff, I'm just waiting to see the Council." He said uneasily. "Oh, okay then, see you soon." She said, not convinced. "Bye Gigantor, see you later," Keefe said playfully. Sandor growled but said nothing.

"Hi guys, guess what I've been working on!" Dex said once they arrived. "What?" Sophie asked, eager to know what Dex's newest invention was. "Remember the Sucker Punch I made?" He glanced at Sophie's hand, "Well, I made Sucker Punch Version 2! It makes your punch 90% stronger than the original Sucker Punch. I also changed the amount of time the punch lands, it basically means that you punch people even faster than usual. To be accurate, Sucker Punch Version 1 punches once a second. Well, this time your punch will be 0.663 seconds faster than normal. As well as that, I added a..." He droned on, talking about more things only Technopaths would know about. "Do you understand?" He finished, and glanced around at everyone. Sophie raised an eyebrow, "Okay, cool, Dex!" He gave Sophie a wide grin, showing off his dimples.

"Thanks! Oh yeah, I also made one for you all!" Everyone gasped, "Oh, thank you so much Dex!" Biana squealed. Clearly, she was recovering from the earlier events. She glanced at Fitz, but he was still moody and his jaw was clenched tightly. "Thanks Dex, we all appreciate it." Sophie smiled. Dex blushed modestly.

"And you're just going to call it Sucker Punch Version 2?" Keefe asked. "Yep!" Dex replied. "Okay... Cool, but if you need anyone to name anything for you, just ask me." Keefe said, pointing smugly to himself.

Tam rolled his eyes, and muttered something incoherent. "Bangs Boy, we all know you're jealous of my talent." Keefe smirked. "You wish." Tam answered, rolling his eyes again so hard Sophie thought they would fall off.

"Come on, everyone," Alden interrupted. Sophie jumped, she forgot about Alden and their talk. Her heart sank, she wasn't prepared, she just couldn't do it. Her eyelids twitched and her hand itched to tug an eyelash off. Sophie willed herself not to do it, she had to be brave in front of her friends. As they followed Alden to his office.

Hey, I'm sorry I haven't been myself since the tribunal, I just got lost in my emotions. Fitz transmitted to Sophie suddenly. She glanced at Fitz's apologetic face. Normally someone like Keefe would make a joke about it, but Sophie thought it wasn't the time.

It's okay, I get lost sometimes too. She smiled, their eyes met, and her heart made that oh-so-familiar flutter.