The Foxfire Formal Ball

Chapter 1: The Announcement

"Good morning, prodigies!" Magnate Leto's voice filled the room. The sound of his voice felt foreign, taking Dame Alina's place in Foxfire's morning routine. Just as Sophie has grown used to her new Elvin life, things managed to change drastically once again.

Change.

Sophie's fingers traced along the circlet clamped to her forehead - a device that limited the used of her abilities. It made her tremble to even think about the night the Council had issued it to her as punishment. And Dex... Well, she decided to not think about him.

Luckily she didn't have to, since Magnate Leto pulled her out of her thoughts .

"You kids may have heard that the Council wished to celebrate the shift in position here at Foxfire," Magnate Leto's voice boomed, as prodigies hushed.

"I confirm that these rumors are true," He continued. He cleared his throat before announcing, "Foxfire Academy will be holding a Formal Elvin Ball, in which all students are cordially invited."

Excitement sparked in the room as prodigies spoke among themselves.

"Wow," Biana said to Sophie. "It's been a while since Foxfire's had one of those."

"Really?"

Biana shrugged. "They hold dances occasionally, but there's no set time and date. I remember Alvar going to one, but that was several years ago."

"It would've been longer than that," Sandor said, joining the conversation from the shadows. "Alvar would've had to be in the lower levels to attend."

"Why?" Sophie asked.

"Prodigies in the elite level aren't invited," Sandor explained. "It would distract from their studies in the Silver Tower."

Sophie detected an edge in his voice. She smiled. Sandor still didn't agree with the "no distraction" policy of the Silver Tower, since it required him to remain outside during Sophie's sessions. Not that she could do much now with the circlet...

Though Bronte seemed to think otherwise. Sophie thought back to the message he had sent to her through Magnate Leto. "Inflicting comes from the heart, not the head." Bells chimed, signaling students to go to their lockers. Sophie wordlessly followed Biana, completely lost in thought. He also said "It takes a special person to see darkness inside of someone and not condemn them." But how did he know that she didn't condemn him? She did suspect him of hiding something, after all.

"Uh... Sophie?" Biana slightly nudged Sophie out of her trance. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She replied, shaking her head. "Sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

She smiled, as she shut her locker and walked off for class. "Just don't let them get to you."

Sophie stood in front of her locker confused.She quickly grabbed her materials for her Inflicting Session and began walking to the Silver Tower. Then she heard the whispers.

"Talentless"

"Freak"

"A bodyguard and now a circlet. What next?"

Despite the venomous words, none of the prodigies could meet Sophie's eyes. The ones who did stare gave her looks of sympathy. It was enough to make Sophie manifest as a Vanisher and disappear.

"Hey Sophie!" Keefe called after her. "Wait up!"

"Don't you have to be going somewhere?" Sophie asked, annoyed at all the attention he was drawing to her.

"Don't get too enthusiastic there, Foster. I just wanted to kill time, so I thought I'd escort you to your next session."

"That's what I'm doing, Mr. Sencen," Sandor said, wedging himself between Keefe and Sophie.

"Calm down, Gigantor," Keefe said, pushing toward Sophie again. "I'm just wasting time so I don't have to go to Elementalism."

"So you'd rather walk with the Talentless girl?" Sophie asked, shaking her head.

"Hey! You're not Talentless! I am walking you to Inflicting after all."

Sophie said nothing, but pointed to her circlet in response.

Keefe laughed. "Is everyone still talking about this thing? I mean, I know it's the new trend and all, but that's old news."

"Old news? The Council gave me this a week ago."

"And the ball was announced this morning."

"What's that got to do with me?"

"They'll forget about your circlet, don't worry. Soon they'll be talking about how envious they are that you'll have the best date at the ball."

Sophie stopped in her tracks, just as they reached the front doors of the Silver Tower.

"No one said she was going," Sandor said in Sophie's silence.

Keefe grinned. "You never know, Gigantor. A special guy just might persuade her."

Even though he was speaking to Sandor, Sophie had no doubt that he was really talking to her. A special guy, huh?

***Author's Note***

So what do you think?

This is my first fanfiction, so I'd appreciate any feedback, good or bad!

Please vote and comment. :)

Thanks for reading!

~InkheadWriter