A World Of Guilt - A Sophfitz Fanfiction {Complete}

~ p r e p a r a t i o n ~

Sophie woke up from a rare dreamless sleep. 

She stretched, and wiped the blurriness from her eyes. Blinking a few times and yawning, her vision finally clearing, she almost jumped at the sudden crowd of people at the foot of her bed.

Grady had a protective arm wrapped around a bleary-eyed Edaline, and looked equally as tired. Sandor and Mr. Forkle were there as well. 

Dread was coursing through Sophie's veins. "W-What happened?" She asked, clutching Ella, the stuffed elephant she couldn't sleep without close. 

Edaline pulled closer to Grady, while an uneasy look passed between Sandor and Mr. Forkle. 

Mr. Forkle finally broke the silence. 

"Mr. Vacker's mind has broken, Sophie." 

"What?!" Sophie breathed. Her breathing and heartbeat sped up. "Fi-Fitz, his mind is-" She started. "No. No no no no no." Fitz isn't,- he can't." Memories of Alden's time broken filled her head, his dishivled, sickly, and nothing like himself. Panic surged through Sophie's body in waves. Shaking, she turned to everyone. "When did this happen?" She asked, tears leaking from her eyes. 

"Around three am this morning. Della heard screaming, and when she found him, he was on the ground. Elwin was hailed almost instantly, Physic soon after, and sedated Mr. Vacker, He and Alden and Della haven't left his side since."

Sophie cringed on the word sedated. She had lost days of her life in the druggish haze the Neverseen had forced her and Dex into almost a year ago. She rubbed her wrists, which phantom stung from burns and rope the Neverseen had used.

"What happened to Biana?" Sophie asked, realizing Mr. Forkle had said nothing about her. 

"I'm afraid she had to be sedated as well, they didn't want to risk her breaking as well." Mr. Forkle answered. 

Sophie's heart sank, and Grady offered another question.  

"Has the Council been notified yet?" Grady asked. 

Sophie's head shot up. She had the ability to heal minds, but she wasn't allowed to perform one without the Council sanctioning one with a unanimous vote. 

"They have been notified, and will vote on it in two hours." Mr. Forkle replied. 

"I don't care if the Council sanctions a healing or not. I can teleport to Everglen. I will heal Fitz." Sophie exclaimed, determined. 

"There's no need to worry about that Sophie. As soon as you freshen up we'll head to Everglen." Grady said. 

"Now let's head downstairs and get some breakfast started. Fitz is in good hands, and there's no use trying to speed along what can't be rushed." Edaline said, giving Sophie a knowing look.

"Besides, can't heal someone on an empty stomach!" Grady added, ruffling Sophie's hair before he turned to leave the room. 

Sophie dried her eyes and swung out of bed as soon as everyone left the room . 

After taking a quick shower and brushing her teeth, Sophie pulled on a dark teal tunic some boots and black pants, double checking that her home crystal, registry pendant, Black Swan monocole and her allergy medicine cord were all fastened behind her neck. Her fingers, which had the Cognate rings Fitz had given her, clinked against and lingered on the moonlark pin Calla had given her. Sophie ran back to her closet, grabbing a light, grey, waist length cloak and fastening it together with her Ruewen family crest pin, affixing the moonlark pin right next to it. She looked at the floor length mirror, and Vertina popped up.

"Someone looks like they just rolled out of bed." Vertina scoffed, looking at Sophie's probably dishivled face and hair.

Sophie internally groaned. Vertina was a digital hologram in the mirror that gave fashion advice who had once belonged to Jolie, Grady and Edaline's deceased daughter. Sophie tried to be nice to her, but the glassy brunette made it difficult. 

Sophie rolled her eyes and groaned, out loud this time, wondering why she hadn't yet asked Dex to put an off switch on this thing.

"Well you certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Vertina quipped. 

Sophie whirled around in a flash of rage and looked Vertina in the eyes. "I don't have time for your antics today, my best friend could be dying and I might not be able to stop it." Sophie replied, voice cracking on the last syllable, and began to turn from the mirror. Cause there was no way she was going to cry in front of the stupid mirror and give it more material to tease her with.

"Wait," Vertina said, voice audibly softer, "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Sophie sighed. Vertina had no clue that any of the things that were transpiring had happened. She knew that the mirror was fragile, and any mention of death reminded the program in the glass of its lost friend. It was sad that a program, lines of code, could understand grief better than most elves could. Sophie gathered her emotionsand looked back.

"No. I'm sorry, Vertina. I had no right to snap at you like that. It's been an... eventful morning."

"So I see. Now go grab a hairbrush, some pins, and those green ribbons over there," Vertina commanded, pointing in the direction of Sophie's dresser. "We need to get you out of this house and fast." 

As Sophie walked to grab the items, she she sworn she could have heard Vertina mutter and giggle something about her "talking to a mirror like it's a person" and a more wistful "just like Jolie." 

When she returned, Vertina began to walk her through a simple yet elegant hairstyle, which involved making two fluffy braids that wrapped around her hair like a crown, green ribbons woven in and tied off in the back with a bow. 

"Why green?" Sophie asked while tying the ribbon off for the final step. 

Vertina took a watery breath and replied, "It celebrates life, and all the emotions that come with it, good or bad." Sophie had finished off the bow and spun around for a final look. 

"You look beautiful." 

Sophie spun around to find Edaline standing in the doorframe. 

"Thank you," Sophie replied, giving a grateful look to the mirror. "I couldn't have done it without Vertina." 

"Now, time to eat before we leap to Everglen, anything else you need to do?" Edaline asked

An idea popped into Sophie's head. "Yeah, just one more thing, you can head down to breakfast without me, this will just take a minute." Sophie answered. 

After Edaline had left the room, she dove for a box underneath her bed. She opened the lid, and safely tucked inside was an intricate glass bottle of perfume, a gift from one of her closest friends and cousin by adoption, Dex, who was every bit as amazing an alchemist ans he was a Technopath. And he managed to make perfume from Calla's Panakes tree, which grew on the outskirts of Sophie's home. Besides the amazing healing properties the beautiful blossoms had, their scent was also extremely calming. Sophie sprayed a bit on, the bluish, purplish, pinkish, glittering swirling inside as she did so. Sophie took a deep breath, the calming aroma swirling around her felt like a hug from the gnome that sacrificed herself, and that empowered her. 

Halfway down the stairs Sophie could begin to smell the wonderful scent wafting from the kitchen. Sophie inhaled deeply, realizing that Edaline had made her favorite dessert.

Mallowmelt. 

Sophie raced to the kitchen only to find that Mr. Forkle had already left. 

"He said he needed to slip into a different life." Sandor said to answer Sophie's unasked question. 

After snarfing down the scrumptious dessert, Sandor pulled a Wayfinder from his pocket, casting a beam of light for them to walk through. 

She held her parent's hands tightly. 

"Are you ready Sophie?" Edaline asked. 

Sophie breathed and replied "Ready as I'll ever be." 

And stepped in the light.