Elysian (After Stellarlune)

10. Sophie's POV

Watching Liora glitter away didn't help Sophie's already strong feelings of complete and utter hopelessness. Elysian wanted them to join her, Gisela got away, and a Councillor had betrayed them? The day was just getting worse and worse.

The only truly good thing that had seemed to come from this day was that Keefe apparently had learned to control his ability.

He'd made Gisela "stop" without affecting anyone else. Sophie approached Keefe to talk to him about it. He was sulking next to one of the velvet trees, as Sophie called them.

"Hey Keefe."

"Hey Foster."

"So..." Sophie didn't know if Keefe thought his newfound ability control was a good thing, so she wasn't sure what to say.

"So." Keefe didn't seem very talkative right now, but Sophie pressed on.

"How do you feel about your abilities?" She asked as she sat down beside him.

"I'm happy I can control them." He didn't sound like he was lying, so Sophie went a different route.

"Are you mad because Liora turned on us?"

"No," Keefe replied. "I didn't know her that well, and she's never really advocated for you and us and the Black Swan and all of that. I didn't expect her to betray us though. Of course, I never expected anything that happened today to ever actually happen, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"So why are you so down?" Sophie hoped he would answer her question truthfully instead of deflecting with humor like he always did.

"I just can't believe I let my mom get away. Again."

"It wasn't just you, Keefe. We had the whole Council here! What did they do? All they did is let one of their own steal away our most important lead about any of this." She waved her arms around, pointing at both everything, and nothing. "It doesn't matter. I actually came over here to talk to you about your ability. How did you do it? Can you do it again? Can you repeat it with other commands?"

"I'm not sure, Sophie, because no one is exactly volunteering to risk themselves being turned numb or whatever else I might try."

Sophie couldn't help but feel hurt at his tone.

Keefe must have felt her emotions, and his face softened.

" Sorry. If you can't tell, I'm a little agitated right now." Keefe said.

That helped Sophie feel better about Keefe, but the fact that he hadn't cracked a single joke since the beginning of their exchange was troubling.

Again, Keefe must have sensed Sophie's worry, because he smirked his trademark smirk and said, "As Alden would say, 'No reason to worry, Sophie.' But seriously, I'm fine. I mean, I'm in the company of the Lovely Lady Fos Boss! How could I be anything other than happy?"

Sophie highly doubted that Keefe felt happy, considering the events of that day, but she let it go.

"You never answered my question. How are things with your ability?"

Keefe smiled, really smiled, and said, "Would you like me to show you?"

Just a lil' bit of SoKeefe in this one, but don't worry, there's more to come! I'm excited. Yet again, not really a huge part going on right now. I think I might start counting. This is #3.