Stellarlune - KOTLC Book 8.5 Fanfic

Chapter 10

Sophie opened her eyes to see Elwin and Mr. Forkle staring down at her. She was lying on a white bed - the Healing Center!

"What's happ -" she coughed.

All she remembered was a searing pain striking where a bulge of misery and guilt had been. Then darkness.

And nothingness.

"Here," Elwin said, handing her a bottle of Youth. "Your throat's probably sore."

Sophie gulped it down thankfully, but when the fresh liquid hit her burning throat, she winced. It stung. A lot.

"Drink it all down," Elwin instructed when Sophie set the bottle down. "It'll work as a medicine. You've drunk worse anyways."

Sadly, that was very true. Sophie reluctantly picked up the clear bottle and sipped at it. Soon, the bottle was empty, and the burning in her throat had faded away.

"It's good to see you well and awake, Miss Foster," Mr. Forkle said, placing a wrinkled hand onto Sophie's shoulder. "But are you truly okay?"

She nodded, not wanting to make the uncomfortable feeling real by admitting that it was there. The bulge seemed a bit duller this time though. Maybe it was proof that the pain was slowly getting better!

Mr. Forkle looked unsatisfied with her answer, but let it go.

"Why did you faint in the first place?" Mr. Forkle wondered.

"It looked like her body was stressed out, so I'm guessing that's why she fainted," Elwin responded. He turned to Sophie. "Do you feel pretty exhausted?"

Sophie nodded as the aches in her muscles sprang alive.

"Well in that case." Elwin ran over to his office and came back holding a small tray of elixirs. "I think you need these."

Sophie gaped at all the finger-sized bottles on the tray. There were at least twenty!

"Why are there so many?" Sophie asked, struggling to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

Elwin smiled. "Well, fainting because of stress has multiple reasons for it. So..." he gestured towards the tray. "There's an elixir for each one."

Sophie couldn't resist a groan.

Elwin laughed. "Don't worry, they don't taste as bad as when..."

Nobody filled in Elwin's lost sentence. They all knew what he was talking about. When Umber almost destroyed Fitz and crushed Sophie's hand.

"Well..." Elwin started, breaking the silence. "It's because your pain can be fixed pretty easily. When it's harder to fix, the ingredients are harder to find, and usually end up pretty... exotic."

Sadly, Sophie knew that firsthand.

"Better get drinking then!" Elwin exclaimed. "Your friends will break the roof if you're not perfectly healthy in five minutes. Maybe less!"

Sophie groaned again. Her friends. They weren't going to let her off this easily. They would want to know the reason why Sophie had fainted! And Keefe probably already blabbed what they were talking about before she fainted, to them.

Mr. Forkle helped her up into a sitting position, but transmitted,

After you are okay, physically, I want you to tell me the real reason why you fainted.

Sophie couldn't look at him as she took the nearest bottle. It looked like the depths of the murky mud. Despite Elwin's assurance, she still felt herself hoping that the elixir wouldn't taste like it too. She took a tiny sip, which actually led to her guzzling the whole bottle. The liquid inside was less than she expected, and it tasted like chocolate butterblasts! Her shoulders unclenched as the ache in it disappeared.

"That's a good one." Elwin approved. "The worst it gets is that sparkly blue one. It tastes like mashed squirmigs. Oh and kernalfruit. A good remedy for -" Elwin ranted something that Sophie could not understand. But she did remember Grady eating squirmigs.

"I might as well get the bad one over with." Sophie decided, reaching for the bottle. Her arm stopped as she observed the colour of it. It looked like a mix of ice blue and teal... Sophie shook her thoughts away from it.

She uncorked the bottle and took a sip. The taste of rotting oranges and something putrid she couldn't even describe hit her tongue. Sophie tried to spit it out, but the liquid had already been swallowed. But the taste was still in her tongue, as strong as ever.

"It tastes disgusting." Sophie tried to say while keeping her mouth open.

"Try this one." Elwin handed her an elixir with baby pink coloured liquid inside.

"Or," Mr. Forkle tried. "this one." He picked up a light brown elixir.

"Oh!" Elwin said. "That's a good one too. Tastes exactly like a ripplenut."

Sophie had only experienced the gooey nut once, but it would be amazing to have it again.

She accepted the brown elixir and drank it. The taste of cinnamon, caramel, honey, vanilla and butter overpowered the rotting oranges.

Sophie smiled. "Anything more like that?" she asked.

"Yeah, most of them are like that," Elwin replied. "You should get the bad over with first though. There's only four left."

So Sophie spent the rest of her time in the Healing Center, sipping and sometimes gagging over her medicines.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Sophie. I know that the reason you fainted was mostly mentally related." Mr. Forkle stated.

Sophie was back in Havenfield, with strict instructions for bed rest. She was in her bed with Mr. Forkle rambling beside her. Her friends weren't allowed to come in case Sophie would become overwhelmed.

"You fainted," Mr. Forkle continued, "because your guilt was causing you significant trauma and stress. You have a strong mind, so you weren't lost. But if we don't take care of this, then the guilt will catch up to you. Tell me, would it be better if we just... told the Council about Oralie?"

Sophie started to shiver uncontrollably.

"It wasn't your fault. You tried the best you could to save Oralie, and we would have opened the cache sooner or later."

Sophie felt tears slipping down her cheeks. "But I was the one who didn't act fast enough! And didn't realize that her mind would be broken because of the stupid Forgotten Secret!"

"No, Miss Foster. Mr. Sencen was monitoring your emotions while you were in Oralie's mind. He sensed nothing but urgency and love. You need to realize that. And it was up to all of us, to realize that the Forgotten Secret had more of a risk than we thought."

As Sophie cried harder, she could feel the truth in Mr. Forkle's words. It wasn't her fault. It was the Neverseen's. She needed to focus on taking them down. For all who were lost. For all who had been sacrificed.

Then with shaky confidence, but true determination, and no guilt, Sophie nodded.