𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #23 - Sophie

Chapter #23 - Sophie

Even though she had seen the Shores Of Solace several times, the sight of the beautiful seaside manor still made Sophie want to clench her fists and tear the place down piece by piece. Still, she withdrew. Now wasn't the time.

Now was the time to look for the journals where Keefe had put those drawings. What exactly she was looking for— she wasn't sure. She just hoped there would be some clue, some sort of hint, as to where he had taken Amy this time. But so far, all she knew was that Keefe only had a blue leaping crystal, meaning wherever he went had to still be in the Forbidden Cities.

"I knew you'd be coming here."

Sophie spun around and saw— to her dread— a far-too-familiar man with overgelled blonde hair. Though she couldn't help noticing that there were a few loose strands and... were there wrinkles on his cape?

"You did?"

"Of course," Cassius replied, "you're just like my son. You cling onto every tiny chance of hope and then, when you realize it was just an illusion, you go off and do something stupid." Sophie gritted her teeth.

"Well, at least we care about other people."

"Who's to say that I don't?"

Sophie had to scoff at that. Cassius had barely seemed flustered after his son's disappearance. If he actually did care about other people, certainly he would be feeling a lot worse. Maybe even rethinking the awful things he'd said and done.

She was over talking to Lord Cassius. She didn't come here to talk to him. She didn't care what he thought.

So she shoved past him and stepped into the Shores Of Solace, not even bothering to ask for permission to go inside. Even after being there in the past, the size was shocking to say the least— and this was just Lord Cassius's vacationhouse.

She knew to go to the room where Keefe had lived back when he was staying at the Shores Of Solace, since Keefe had put the journals in a trapdoor drawer in his bedroom. Sophie walked down the pearl-lined halls until she reached the room, which she hadn't been in since having to deliver Tam's warning. She shuddered at the memory.

Why did all Sophie's memories have to be associated with things like that?

Couldn't she just have one place— one thing— that reminded her of something positive?

Her knees shook. Glimmer was probably right. She really wasn't up for anything. But she swallowed her pride and kept walking.

As she stepped inside, a breath was sucked in.

Every nook of the room was exactly how Keefe had left it. Clothes were strewn across the floor, a few petri dishes of not-so-friendly-looking bacteria were shoved in a corner (Ro's handiwork), and a shockingly large amount of Prattles Pins were organized on a corkboard near the bed. It even somehow still reeked of sweaty boy.

This was not what Sophie had been expecting. She had always assumed that Cassius immediately cleared out the room as soon as he got the opportunity. He had always been so annoyed with Keefe staying there in the first place, why keep the memory that he was ever there alive? This was the same Lord Cassius who had a shelf full of identical turquoise books, all there purely for the aesthetic.

This room looked more like a shrine to All Things Keefe.

"I can feel your emotions shifting," Lord Cassius said from behind her. Sophie sighed. She should've figured he'd follow. "And I'm pretty sure I know why. Yes, I did keep this room the way it is." She waited for him to elaborate on why, but he said nothing.

Sophie took a deep breath, and reached into the false bottom of Keefe's drawer, carefully avoiding the tripwire. She looked inside and...

There was nothing in there.

She turned to Lord Cassius accusingly, "Did you take them?"

"Of course not. I wasn't even aware they were there. I can't be sure, but I actually think Keefe may have moved them."

Moved them?

He was probably right. It wouldn't have been too hard to stop by here before the running away. But, if he did, where did he move them?

Sophie crossed her arms. It was time to think like Keefe Sencen.

***

She scoured the room, examining each and every book on the shelf and checking the closet twice. Lord Cassius stood at the doorframe, eyebrows raised.

That's when she realized. "You know where they are, don't you?"

"I have my theories. I know my son better than you think."

She snorted, "Oh yeah? Then you must've known him really well when you punished him for having 'only' the second highest grades in his level."

"I'm not having this conversation again. Do you want to know where the journal is or not?" His gaze shifted to the corkboard covered in quite the collection of Prattles pins. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't remembered that being there from last being in this room.

"You think the notebooks are somehow connected to that corkboard?"

"Yes. For his pranks, my son has made some quite clever— yet incredibly foolish— systems over time. Try pulling one of the pins out of the corkboard and seeing what happens."

"But— which one?" It would take forever to try them all.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Um... a gulon?" She reached out towards the gulon pin, realizing that she still didn't know what the Great Gulon Incident was.

Lord Cassius shook his head slowly. "Now I know what Ro always means when she talks about this 'Foster Oblivion' of yours. You really can't figure it out?"

Another animal popped into her mind.

She searched for the moonlark pin on the corkboard.

Sophie took it out, only for it to pull back the entire corkboard and reveal another small shelf where one book was perched.

A black notebook. Not like any of the gold, brown, green, and silver ones she had seen Keefe with in the past. She briefly flipped through the pages, and found it was only words. The ones with the drawings must've been hidden somewhere else.

But it was her only lead.

So Sophie turned back to the first page and began reading.

So... Foster thinks I might be able to learn more from my memories if I try writing stuff about them after I finish my drawings. Not totally sure why.

Sophie smiled. Keefe wrote this, for sure.