Everything Has Changed

A Shroud of Shadow

Hi guys! It's mossring here, with a new story. It's an AU (Alternate Universe) where Tam and Linh are actually around seventeen in the Keeper books-but the timeline in this fanfiction is not going to be set in the time when Sophie arrives in the Lost Cities. It's set many years back, a few years after Tam and Linh are born. And in this AU, Tam and Linh are actually separated from birth and only get together a few years later-which is when the first chapter of this fanfiction is set.

Okay, without further ado, I present you the very first chapter of Everything Has Changed. I hope you enjoy reading, and don't forget to leave a review to let me know what you think! :)

Word Count: 3,053 words.

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CHAPTER ONE: A SHROUD OF SHADOW

"Mummy!" the little girl cried out, one hand reaching out for the shadowy silhouette of the lady, one hand clutching the little jade bracelet-the only gift she had left behind for her. "Don't go..."

The lady stilled, her jet-black hair that cascaded down her shoulders swaying from side to side as she stood there, stiff and motionless. A million emotions coursed through the veins of her body, and she relented and turned around to face her daughter.

The girl was so like her, both in terms of appearance and mind-set. Their raven-black hair that hung down to their waists, their sharp chins and high cheekbones, their pale silvery-blue eyes—whether they were glimmering because of the moon's reflection or because of the tears welling up in both of their eyes, it wasn't clear.

The daughter tugged at her mother's arm as she stared up at the lady she knew so well, yet cast in a hood of shadow. She didn't know if it had something to do with her special ability, or simply because of the dark of the night. Anyway, the girl couldn't see her mother's expression at all, but she knew she could see hers, and that made her feel especially strange and vulnerable.

"Stay. Please."

"Linh..." The girl felt like her mother had just pursed her lips in disapproval, like she had always did when she was disappointed in something that she had done. The sound of her sigh wafted through the air, like a restless breeze. "You know the Council wants me to go. It's a very important mission—one—one that involves finding back of a...lost elf."

That was the first piece of information that actually made some kind of sense. But at the same time, it didn't really make any sense at all. Why would an elf be lost somewhere in the Lost Cities? The Lost Cities...they had goblin guards patrolling along every street.

And every elf had a registry pendant with them, she reminded herself, reaching up to clutch at her own, feeling the cold crystal against her fingers. Wherever someone was, the Council just needed to check their registry pendants to locate them. So why in the world would they need her mother to go and find them?

She couldn't lose her mother. She was the only family she had. Her father was one mystery her mother wouldn't explain to her.

"Why would they be lost?" she asked...then a cold feeling hit her in the chest. She clutched the doll in her hand tighter. "By lost, do you mean in terms of their sanity?"

Her mother flinched, then shook her head. The cloak of shadows surrounded her like a real fabric, drifting along with the wind's patterns. "No...they...are really lost somewhere...And the Council can't track them down—because their registry pendants were torn off from their bodies. Thus, I need to go and find them—now. You'll just need to stay put here and let Aunt Cadence take good care of you. She'll be coming over in a moment. Then I'll be back, probably by tomorrow morning. It depends on how fast I can find them."