Lost And Alone - A KOTLC Fanfiction

Fitz POV

As Fitz gradually stirred from his slumber, he found himself trapped like a fly in a web of disorientation and pain. Blinking his blurry eyes, he stretched his arms, only to flinch as a wave of discomfort washed over him. "Welcome back, Fitz!" Elwin's cheerful voice declared, cutting through the haze as the physician approached Fitz's cot.

Fitz's mind felt like a whirlpool of confusion, his mind had only ever felt like this when his Dad's mind broke. Dark times he thought to himself. Each thought was a painful one. Then, a name surfaced through his foggy mind, the one that mattered most to him at that moment. "Sophie? Where's Sophie?" he asked sleepily, his senses must still be clouded by the effects of the sedative Elwin must have given him. "Don't worry Fitz, The Black Swan is sending out search parties as we speak, I'm sure they will find her in no time."

Elwin's response was barely a thread of hope, but more a shimmer, but Fitz couldn't help but yawn in response. Phew, that sedative must have been potent, leaving him drowsy and weak. What should have been a whirlwind of emotions fear, worry, and anger seemed strangely distant, as if taken away by the medication. Fitz wondered if Elwin had something to do with this peculiar numbness, but the thought slipped through his weak grasp as his focus weakened.

In Fitz's hazy thoughts, he barely registered Keefe waking up, or the worried flurry of activity surrounding Sophie's sudden disappearance. Keefe's frantic questions about Sophie, his concerned glances, or his pleas for Elwin to let him help find her all seemed to pass by as background noise. Fitz was caught in a web, an insect being devoured by an angry spider, he was thinking about the revelations he had learned from Sophie about Keefe, during their cognate inquisition, their little secret.

He couldn't decide who he should be angrier at, Sophie, who had willingly betrayed him, or Keefe, who had knownly stolen Sophie from him. As his internal grumblings grew, they were abruptly interrupted by a feeble voice, cutting through the silence. "Could I help look for her?"

Fitz was surprised for the second time today, or whatever day it was, to realise that he had spoken. And before he knew it, Elwin was offering explanations for why he couldn't join the search for Sophie. The excuses seemed flimsy, at best, and Fitz's frustration only grew.