Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Chapter Eight

"What are you doing in my room? Why didn't you answer your Imparter? Why are you dressed like that?" I blurted out all of the questions I had immediately thought of. Mom looked unconcerned.

"Why aren't you in school?" She countered. I showed her the elixirs in my bag.

"Something happened to me-I had a migraine, and I passed out. Also... Elwin flashed a white light and my eyes went totally black. We tried it again just now, but only my irises got darker and he thinks it needs a verbal trigger to happen again." Mom paled and strode across the room to me, putting her hands on my shoulders.

"Cassia. This is very serious. Do not, under any circumstances, tell anyone about this. Not even your brother." Confused, I stepped back.

"Keefe already knows. He was there," I told her. If it was possible, she looked even whiter.

"Did anyone else see?" I shook my head. Elwin hadn't said anything about anyone else being there to witness what had happened to me. Mom exhaled a breath, sitting down on my couch.

"But Mom, why are you here? What are you wearing?" She hadn't answered any of my questions yet. She took the medicine bag from me and rummaged through it, examining the bottles. I saw a flash of pink under her cloak.

"What are you-" I was cut off by Mom pushing a dull pink flask into my hands.

"Drink this," she commanded. I was confused.

"I already had one of-" She cut me off again.

"Just do it, it'll make you feel better." I felt fine... but it was my mom. If I didn't do what she said, it would make her mad. I uncorked the bottle and choked down the overpoweringly sweet elixir. Feeling sleepy all of a sudden, I tripped and fell on the soft carpet. The world was hazy and blurry. That hadn't happened when I had taken the medicine before...

"Sleep well," I heard Mom say, and the world vanished in a dazzling swirl of silence.

Days, then weeks, passed, and though Elwin monitored me closely, nothing seemed to be wrong. I didn't remember much about the day that I had been sick, but all of my medicine bottles had been empty when I woke up the next morning. I must have drunk them all, and the elixirs probably just messed a bit with my short-term memory. Sophie was fine too, and Elwin had given her a cure in case she ever accidentally drank limbium again.

Well, Sophie was fine physically. But she'd been very sad and quiet lately. Keefe kept calling what she was doing her 'mystery illness'. My parents still had no idea that she and I were still friends, so that was good... but if she kept slipping away from me, we wouldn't be friends much longer. I tried to hail her as much as possible, and I always met up with her before school started. And when school ended. I came over to her house a lot, and Grady and Edaline had been teaching me how to take care of the animals. When Sophie had extra chores, I always helped.

Edaline had been looking as sad as Sophie was, and their dark circles matched. I had never asked either of them about it, though. That was their business, not mine. I wanted to be a good friend. Keefe used to tell me I might manifest as an Empath one day since I understood people's emotions so well. But I thought it was just because I had grown up with two Empaths around. My father was a Empath like Keefe, and my mother was a Polyglot. She'd taught me a lot of simple phrases in other languages. I also knew how to mimic, like Keefe, though I'd always been a little better at it than he was.

Today, a crazy thing happend while we were in between sessions. Dex, Sophie, and I had lockers right next to each other. As Sophie came to unlock hers, she noticed the extremely cold shoulder Dex was giving her. Sophie cleared her throat.

"Hi, Cass... Hey, Dex," she said quietly. I waved, smiling. Dex was clearly very upset at her. I thought I knew why. He and I had seen Sophie hugging Biana and Fitz. I hadn't thought anything of it, but Dex hated the Vackers for some reason.

"I'm sorry," Sophie started. "I don't blame you for being mad, Dex. I know I've been a little distant lately." That was kind of an understatement. Dex whirled around, looking furious. I dropped my books.

"You weren't distant with Fitz and Biana on Friday! I saw you hugging them in the hall." So that was what he was mad about. I was right.

"And I know that Cassia goes over to your house pretty much every day," Dex went on. "Is it just me? I thought we were best friends. Why would you tell them before me?" Tell us what? Sophie hadn't told me anything.

"Dex, stop. You're not being fair," I told him. He turned to face me. "Sophie hasn't told me anything. Yeah, I've been going over to her house, but all I do is help Sophie take care of the animals. She's clearly going through something right now, so lay off." I slammed my locker door, glaring at him. I heard Sophie take a deep breath. A few seconds later, she spoke.

"Grady and Edaline canceled my adoption," Sophie said in a small voice. I gasped and rushed over to her, dropping my books again.

"I'm so sorry, Sophie! I had no idea..." She choked back a sob, and I hugged her while Dex stood silently, staring at the floor.

"Oh," he said. "Are... you okay?" I glared at him again. Clearly, she was not.

"N-not really," Sophie admitted. "But that's why Fitz and Biana knew before you two. Alden told them when he asked how I would feel about me living with them."

"Woah, you're going to be a Vacker?" I asked, in awe. That was the coolest thing ever. Dex looked like he was going to explode.

"What? You're going to live with them?" The other prodigies turned to stare.

"The Council still has to approve it, but I hope so," Sophie told us, leaning closer so the others wouldn't hear. My 'That's amazing!' was drowned out by Dex's locker slamming even harder than mine.

"You hope so? Well, that's just great. You'll be a Vacker." He said Fitz and Biana's last name like it was a curse.

"Hey, the Vackers are great," I argued. "You could be friends with them if you tried, and I think it would be awesome if Sophie was one of them. More importantly, they're her friends, and she would be happy if she lived with them. Doesn't that matter more than what's on her family crest?" I snapped. Dex looked furious.

"Vackers and Dizznees aren't friends. I don't trust any of them."

"Well, Sophie does. You should value her opinion, and you should support her decisions because she's your friend." Dex scoffed.

"She only trusts them because she has a megacrush on Fitz." I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously? That's your argument? Leave her alone, Dex. And get over that stupid prejudice you have about the Vackers. You're being a jerk. She told you that her guardians canceled her adoption, and you respond by shouting at her in front of everyone?" I was so done with him.

"The second she becomes one of them, she's going to ditch me!" He yelled.

"Right now I kind of want to! You're being so mean!" Sophie burst out.

"Fine! I don't care if you do!" Dex growled.

"Good!" Sophie shouted. Dex kicked the wall and stomped away. Sophie leaned against her locker. I took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry for jumping in like that. It was your fight," I said, looking at her on purpose so that I wouldn't focus on anything else.

"It's okay. You said some things that needed to be said, and it's nice to have someone defend me." I smiled at her. She smiled back.

"You should come over tomorrow, and we should actually hang out instead of just doing chores."

"As long as we can still say hi to Verdi," I pouted, and she laughed. Sophie knew that Verdi was my favorite. She also knew about the neon-green T-Rex stuffed animal I had... and she knew that Elwin had named her Miss Stompyroar.

"We can totally say hi to Verdi," she promised, and started heading off to her next session.

"Hey, just for the record, I think it's great that you might live with the Vackers. We can play bramble and base quest every day!" Sophie grinned and the two of us walked away in separate directions, both of us feeling much better about ourselves than we had before.