Together?- A SOPHITZ fanfiction (UPDATES ON HOLD)

Finals, then home

The rest of the year passed in a blur. Sophie was so busy, she didn't have time to think of Fitz, her family, Biana's resentful silence, nothing. It was just studying and work. Every hour of every day was spent reviewing and preparing for the finals. Classes were now 7 days a week, 6 hours a day, but studying continued deep into the night. Dinners were skipped, breakfasts were spent half awake, and lunch was usually eaten while poring over a book or scroll with writing so cramped it was barely legible.

Biana continued to ignore Sophie, refusing to talk to her, acknowledge her, or even be seen near her. Sophie felt as if a part of her was missing now that her best friend despised her. Dex couldn't understand what was wrong between them, nor did he want to know, but he stood by Sophie in silent support. Nobody updated Sophie on Fitz's condition unless she asked, which was always tense and slightly awkward. The little she knew had come from her parents or brief messages from Lihn, who had been asked to help with his recovery as she had done with Wylie.

The only thing that kept Sophie afloat was the knowledge that Fitz was better. He had been taken off of his sedatives and released from his room, allowed a few hours outside, which was part of his rehabilitation. People had to be careful to avoid certain words, phrases, or items that would trigger him. He was as fragile as a bomb, ready to set off at the slightest disturbance. He had changed, Lihn said in her letters. He was quiet, resigned. His smiles were rare.

He had developed a strange obsession with checking the date, every hour asking, "what's the date again?" despite having been told moments before. He also checked council announcements every morning, scrutinizing and questioning what they said. Elwin accepted these strange changes as coping mechanisms, just glad his patient was not hurling vases at the ground or trying to drown himself in the lake.

Days flew by. Sophie felt as if she was in a time warp, unable to tell the passing of days, secluded in the twisting gold and silver towers. When dates for the exams appeared on the large, rotating announcement board in the atrium, all the prodigies felt faint. Their final exams had come. Things had suddenly gotten real. Sleep was forgotten as cramming sessions began. Everyone looked around, desperate to find any elixir or fruit that could keep them awake for just another hour, sometimes ingesting strange things like ground larvagorn bones or a blend of lushberry juice and gorgonop bile.

And then, late one night as Sophie studied by balefire light, she heard Biana mumble in her sleep. "M'sorry. N...yourfault." Sophie ignored it and continued to work, her mental energy in goblins versus dwarves essay almost complete. "'S my prolem. I over-ereacted. Sophie? Mmm..." She could hear Biana toss in her bed and shrugged. Biana maybe felt remorse for her reaction. She may even missed her friend. But at the moment, Sophie would've chosen a face to face apology rather than one she overheard while Biana was asleep.

The day of the finals had arrived. Every student was sprung tight as a wire, literally in Dex's case as he practiced for the last time a complicated wire tweak with a tool that looked capable to snap a finger (or two) off. Sophie fidgeted with her silver cape, thinking about how she would miss the cool texture, and jumped when the gong sounded to announce the start of exams. She rushed up to inflicting first, mentally calculating the scores she would need to pass. Prodigies had to score above an 87.93 precisely (because everything was calculated to the decimal digit) to pass her exams. Easier said than done.

Inflicting, Metaphysics, Telepathy, Linguistics (for her polyglot ability), Enhancing, Elvin History, and Multispeciesial studies exams later, Sophie felt ready to keel over with exhaustion. Mentally and physically she was done. This was it. Finals were done. Besides a mistranslation in linguistics and a date she missed in multispeciesial studies, Sophie felt mildly confident she would at least get an 89.465, which was still a passing grade. In the grand scheme of things, none of her grades mattered, because, in 3 weeks, she would be a Councilor.

The end of finals and the school year made everything seem so real. 3 weeks. The thought fried the last remaining functioning brain cells in Sophie's head. Sure, a high cumulative grade on her finals would be nice, but you know what would be nicer? A long, long slumber. A stampede of prodigies made their way up the steps and to their dormitories, everybody giving weary congratulations. They had made it, some better than others. Tomorrow, they would receive their results. Then, they would be going home.