Mirrored Conflicts (a Sokeefe story)

Chapter 22: The Confrontation

"That is the freakiest thing I have ever done in my life," Samantha declared, brushing off her clothing.

"It's considerably less freaky than the way elves usually travel," Sophie told her. "We usually dissolve our bodies, separating all our cells and attaching to a beam of light to carry us somewhere else, and then reconstruct our bodies."

Amy scrunched her nose. "That sounds awful."

"It sounds awesome!" Samantha corrected. "I mean, freaky, yes, but awesome. Why couldn't we do that?"

"Lightleaping is too dangerous for humans," Sophie explained. "You'd dissolve just fine, but there's a chance you wouldn't come back together."

Samantha blanched. "Yeah, okay, the falling-from-the-sky-and-teleporting thing sounds good to me."

"Who exactly is she?" Tam asked, emerging from the shadows with Dex. "I know that one is your human sister," he said, gesturing towards Amy, "but I still don't understand why another human teenager is coming with us. No offense," he added quickly in Samantha's direction.

"Your bangs are lit," Samantha replied unhelpfully.

Tam turned to Sophie. "What did she say?"

"She said she likes your bangs. And she's here because she's more stubborn than an alicorn," Sophie said, shooting a look in Samantha's direction.

Samantha shrugged, unbothered. "I don't know what you're saying when you speak baby-talk."

"Do you know any English?" Dex asked Tam.

"No. A little Italian, yes, but no English."

"Okay, so I guess we'll need Sophie and Keefe to do a lot of translating," Dex said uncertainly.

"What does she mean, baby-talk?" Amy said, confused. "Are we not all speaking English?"

"You just spoke baby-talk," Samantha realized. "Why does she know how to speak baby-talk?!"

Dex pinched his nose bridge. "Will you please stop calling the Enlightened Language baby-talk?"

"You call it the Enlightened Language?" Samantha snorted. "Wow. The elvin superiority complex is strong, especially considering it sounds like baby-talk."

"Okay, but Samantha raises a good point," Keefe said, uncharacteristically steering them back on track. "Why does Amy know how to speak the Enlightened Language?"

"It's probably a safety measure that was taken when your family was relocated," Tam suggested to Sophie. "Since they would be tied somewhat to our world forever, they gave them some understanding of the language."

"That makes sense," Sophie supposed, though she'd have to check with Alden later. "Either way, it's convenient that you do, because it means you'll understand Tam and be able to translate for Samantha. And you guys have to listen to Tam."

"Is Tam the one with the cool bangs?" Samantha checked.

"Yes," Sophie confirmed. "And this is the plan. After we debrief, we're teleporting to Atlantis. Dex has the location history of our parents' phones and knows a few places the Neverseen stopped while they were taking them to Atlantis, so we're going to check those places to see if that's where my human family is. Dex and I are leading. Keefe will be slightly behind. If we need a shock factor at any point to give ourselves the upper hand, having him on our side will do that. Tam is going to hide Amy and Samantha in the shadows, and you two are only to reveal yourselves if called for. Deal?"

Everyone agreed, and Dex began to hand gadgets to Amy and Samantha, explaining how each of them worked. The somber attitude with which they nodded indicated that they were beginning to understand just how serious what they were doing was. Or maybe they'd understood all along, and Sophie hadn't given them enough credit.