Aftermath: A KOTLC Future-Fic

Chapter 4: Atlantis

Yo.

Sorry about the unplanned hiatus.

Book releases this year, so I figured I'd pick this back up to tide over the die-hard fans until November.

It's absolutely crazy to me that I started the KOTLC series when I was still in K-12 and here I am, eight years later and so much waiting later, still holding my breath for the conclusion to an amazing story.

Shannon Messenger probably doesn't read fanfiction, but if she did, I would want her to know that I appreciate every word she puts onto a page. KOTLC became a safe space for me without realizing it, and it reminds me of happier times every time I think about it.

There's some slight editing issues in earlier chapters that I really should fix, but I don't want updates to be shown when nothing was really updated.

Thanks for reading and letting me live out a little dream of mine.

I hope I stick with it.

- Em

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When she and Fitz finally arrived in Atlantis, Sophie realized how much she had missed the strange sensation of being thousands of feet below sea level, but somehow dry. It was something she had begun to take for granted before she left, and she was happy to admit that the same wonderment she felt when she first entered the strange dome so many years ago had returned when she reemerged into the city.

As she and Fitz strolled down the paved stone streets of Atlantis, she found herself appreciating the updates they had done in her absence. One major change was that Pyrokinetics weren't forbidden from practicing their talents, and it was with a smile that Sophie recognized some of Marella's handiwork in the lamps lighting the pathways they currently walked. When Sophie looked over at Fitz to point this out, however, she found him staring at one of the flames, his eyebrows furrowed and with a strange look on his face.

Just as she was about to ask him about his odd expression, his eyes focused on something in the distance and like a lightswitch, his smile and happy demeanor returned.

"There it is! Lady Francis's store!" He looked down at Sophie, and noticing her worried expression, quirked his head at her. "What's up?"

Sophie decided now wasn't the time to ask him why a simple fire created by one of their friends caused such a pained look on his face and shook her head.

"It's nothing. You said that's the store Biana told you about?" Sophie looked forward, and just as Fitz had pointed out, there in front of them stood a simple shop, tucked in between a cafe and what seemed to be a bookstore, with elaborate dresses, tunics, and capes displayed in its windows. It was smaller than Sophie had imagined, but Biana hadn't led her astray yet when it came to fashion, and Sophie didn't doubt the skills of the tailor inside.

"Yup!" Fitz nodded as they continued onward. "Biana said that she would hail ahead and let the shopkeeper know that we were on a time crunch just to try and speed things up a little."

Sophie thanked Biana silently, it seemed like her friend had thought much farther ahead than she had originally thought, and she was grateful beyond words. The sooner Sophie got an outfit for tonight, the sooner she could start worrying about more pressing matters- like how she was going to handle being reintroduced to the entire elven world at once.

When they entered the store, Sophie was surprised to find it very neat and organized. When she imagined a stylist's workspace and shop, all she could picture were rolls of fabric covering every surface and papers with halfway-finished drawings cluttering the walls and tables. Clearly, as she saw various mannequins sporting different styles of tunics, each one sorted into clusters by style and color, her original thoughts were very incorrect.