"Sophie!" Sophie Foster heard her foster mother's call from the lower level of Havenfield.
"Coming, Mom!" She rushed down. Jumping the railing, she levitated down to the floor- thankfully without tripping. The Black Swan had gifted her many things, but grace was not one of them.
"What's the problem?" Edaline looked tired, like she had woken up with a migraine, but she still mustered a smile for her foster daughter.
"The new gremlins got out- Grady wants you to fix the cage while he tracks them down. Just take the wire from the porch and you should be good to go- the silver colored one this time." She gave her daughter a hug. "Have fun out there, and I'll keep the first aid kit ready."
Sophie nodded. She decided to ignore the joke about her natural tendency to almost die- 'Fostering it', as her boyfriend Keefe Sencen would say. Giving Edaile one last hug, she headed out the door.
*****
"That's... strange."
Sophie was jogging towards the enclosure, the wire bouncing rhythmically on her shoulder.
The enclosure had signs of tampering- a neat hole cut into the wire weave- but that wasn't what the gremlins normally attempted. They usually tried to undo all of the wire, probably overnight to avoid detection. But this...
Sophie got closer, and noticed the sharp, fragmented wire ends. She brushed her hand lightly over the tips, getting several fine bleeding scratches on her palm for her efforts.
Gremlin claws couldn't do this. They were dull and flat, not sharp or curved enough to slice cords this thick. The only way to do it was if someone- certainly not her family- left a wire cutter or some other tool inside...
Or cut it themselves.
She heard the thuds on the packed dirt directly behind her, and tried to whip around. The tall, cloaked elf grabbed her wrists and shook her before she could inflict. Sophie found herself looking into the same eyes that Sandor had painted on that training dummy so long ago. Gethen, with his cruel slash of a smile, telling her, once and for all, that she had lost. The game was played... And she was the loser.
"Very clever, Moonlark."
The white eye stared at her as her captor pressed a sweet-smelling cloth to her mouth and she
Sank
Into
A drugged
Haze.
*****
SwanSong
SwanSong
SwanSong
The words pounded themselves into her head, and she felt the overwhelming urge to transmit them to someone. Anyone. Her consciousness reached out...
Keefe. He would be heartbroken- he was her boyfriend, after all. But how would he feel if she didn't say it to him?
She felt herself being locked onto a table, the jolt and the cold metal dispelling the power that she had gathered, and realized she wouldn't find out. Not now, at least. She had to keep hoping.
She imagined herself at her home, and her parents would hug her, and Edaline would get her some medicine for the scrapes and bruises she had gotten, and everything would be all-
She felt an electric shock course through her body.
At first she thrashed with all her might, thinking of all the awful things that it could be, but then a comforting warmth descended over her, like a blanket. She felt herself relax, try to get back to the memory of her family, but...
Who was her family?
She knew she should be panicking, trying to pull all the names into her mind, but as she thought of them they just... Disappeared. She tried to picture her friends, but in order to have friends you have to be someone and...
Who was she?
As she spiraled deeper and deeper into her own mind, as the memories slipped away, she said good-bye to that blond, handsome, smirking elf. To her best friend, the famous girl with teal eyes. To that strawberry blond boy who helped her belong. The green-eyed sister she couldn't have kept.
As the last of her memories faded, as she was left in the darkness, she found shelter. Safety, warmth, and a promise that the memories would find her.
And the Moonlark was no more.
*****
A.N. I promise I didn't kill Sophie off! I apologize for the short chapter, but.... Well, that was the only way I could think to end it. I promise it will all make sense eventually.
YOU ARE READING
The Second Moonlark: A KotLC Fanfic
FanfictionThe Neverseen have a new weapon. It's confidential... But it's created a shattering divide. The three factions are fighting the war to end all wars, and Sophie is caught in the middle of it. She may not be the best at it, but she knows where her lo...
