Awake: A KOTLC Story

Chapter One

A/N: Hey! Thanks so much for clicking on this and deciding to read it. This is going to pick up about a week after Legacy. So there will be PLENTY of spoilers from all the books. And no, this isn't what I think is going to happen in book nine. It's simply starting off where Legacy finished, throwing in a twist, and seeing what happens. Hope you like it! Suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Remember, none of the pictures belong to me unless I say so. So if it belongs to you, either drop a comment or message me, and I'll either credit you or take it down, depending on what you want :)

Sophie blew a strand of hair out of her face, planting her feet shoulder width apart on the tiled ground below her feet. She lined up her aim in line with the target, and tightened her grip on the hilt of the knife. With all her strength, she let it fly out of her hand.

It didn't even hit the target, instead making a cringeworthy sound against the wall. Sophie balled her hands into fists with frustration. She heard Sandor's squeaky sigh behind her.

"Are you sure this is the best use of your time, Miss Foster? Target practice is about skill, and I'm afraid you cannot work on your technique while you are distressed." 

Sophie resisted the urge to grab his shoulders and shake him as hard as she could. 

"I'm not distressed." She said through gritted teeth. 

Sandor let out another sigh. 

"Just please answer this one question honestly." He pleaded.

She made no promises but didn't argue either. 

"Is this because of Neverseen's announcement? Or something else?" 

The Neverseen had announced a few days ago that if the Council didn't hand over power withen a week, they would engange in a full war. And no one was foolish enough to believe that they even stood a chance against the Neverseen. The Black Swan and the Council were constantly meeting, to try and figure out what to do. But it seemed that surrender would be the only option. Many of the elvin people were even taking to the streets in protest, demanding the Council give up power. They were scared of what the first ever war in their history would bring. And Sophie was right there with them. But she also knew better than anyone what horrors the Neverseen being in charge might bring. 

"I - don't know. I just hate not knowing what to do. Not having a plan. Not having any hope. Not having anyone to talk to." The last one slipped out before she could stop it. 

Sandor's eyebrows raised.

"You have lots of friends and family to talk to, Miss Foster." He hesitated for a second, before adding, 

"What about Mr. Sencen? I remember you two being able to always come up with a plan despite circumstances." 

She wanted to agree with him. There was no one in the world she wanted to talk to more than Keefe in that moment. She wanted to go say everything on her mind, to laugh at his jokes, to make up some stupid plan that probably wouldn't work. But she was too scared of hurting him. 

Right before the Neverseen had made their announcement, Keefe had woken up. Oralie's cache's secret had been that stellarlune had a sedative quality to it, and it would keep anyone exposed to it asleep. It needed a special combination of shadows to balance out the reaction. 

So as much as Sophie hated it, she had sent Tam to send even more shadows into Keefe's head. When he woke up, Keefe had seemed more or less the same. But said that he had a blinding headache, and it seemed to get worse whenever Sophie got near him for some reason. And as much as he insisted that he was fine and could deal with it, Sophie tried to avoid going close to him. None of Elwin's medications made even the slightest difference, and she was getting scared that he would have to live with it forever. 

And as far as they could tell, Keefe didn't have any new abilities. Not yet, anyway. 

But she wasn't sure she could stay away any longer.

"Yeah, I might go over to visit him in a couple of hours."

Sandor opened his mouth, but Sophie never got to hear what she was going to say.

Because the doors to the training room barged open, revealing a familiar boy with silver bangs. 

Sophie hadn't seen much of Tam since he escaped the Neverseen, but she could tell that he had changed. He had never been a go-lucky trigger-happy person, but now she could barley get even a half smile out of him. 

"Hey. Sophie." 

She gave Tam the best smile she could manage, which wasn't much at the moment. 

"Hey Tam. Nice to see you."

He tried to smile, but it look more like a grimace. 

"Yeah. Listen, Sophie, I..." His voice broke off.

"I was looking a bit more into stuff about shadows and magsidian, and the stuff we found out from Oralie's cache. Figured I owed it to Keefe." 

Sophie gave him a raised eyebrow at that last part. Tam and Keefe weren't exactly known for being the best of friends. 

Tam let out a sad, sad laugh. 

"Spending time around the Neverseen, Alvar, Gisela ... I learned a lot. Like how hard it is to wake up each day and still stay on the right side of things when everyone else expects you to do the wrong thing. And ... I don't know. I just wish me and Keefe had gotten off to a better start." 

He paused for a second. 

"My hair will always be better though, don't get me wrong." 

Sophie felt herself smile.

"So? Did you find anything?" 

"Well, not really but kind of. It's like ... the shadows are speaking to me. They say that they can't fix this mess. But they want to show me the truth. And the way they kept slinking towards Keefe made me think the two are connected. All I know is that there's ... something I can do with shadowflux and magsidian, and I don't know what it will do, but I know it's something that's never been done before. And I trust the shadows." 

Sophie didn't know what to say.

"That sounds ... risky."

"I know. But I can't stand not being able to do anything about this. And I know you can't stand it either. I can't tell you what exactly what I'm doing. Just meet me at Candleshade in a couple of hours. Bring all of our friends too. I don't know what will happen but ... if we've learned anything, it's that we need to work together. And bring a leaping crystal to the forbidden cities." 

He leaped away before Sophie could ask any of the questions that she needed to ask. 

But she trusted Tam. And she knew that this sounded like a much more feasible plan than anything the Council or Black Swan were offering. 

So before she could leap back to Havenfield with Sandor, she sent off a quick prayer to some higher power. She wasn't religous, but Sophie needed all the luck she could get. 

Please let this actually get us somewhere.