after unlocked: a sokeefe fanfic

Chapter 63-Keefe

"This feels illegal," Keefe said, surveying the laid out materials they were using to make the rings.

Dex didn't bother looking up. "That's because it is."

Sophie held up the jar they'd been dropping completed rings into. She jingled it. "Seven more rings means seven more people safe. And besides, when have we ever cared about legalities?"

Keefe shrugged. He kicked a piece of old wire out of the way and plopped down next to Sophie. "Are you sure I can't help?" He asked, a bit of a whine in his voice.

Sophie pretended to think for a moment. "Are you going to be able to actually make them or are you going to pretend to make them and actually start making mini helicopter shapes?"

"I don't know what a helicopter is," he protested.

"We saw one yesterday, Keefe."

He shrugged again and grabbed one of his helicopters. "For you," he said wheedlingly.

Sophie rolled her eyes. She adjusted herself, brushing her hair back from her face. "Go get more of the jewels from Cadence and Forkle."

"And a bottle of Youth," Dex called.

"Bossy," Keefe muttered.

Striding back into the room, he plopped next to Sophie, laying on his stomach, chin propped up on his fists. Sophie nudged him over slightly and leaned over him to grab one of the pens. "What families are we sending these first ones to?"

Dex scratched his hair. "Yours, obviously. So two rings to Grady and Edaline." Sophie marked that down, her left hand's fingers tapping absentmindedly on the ground.

"Your family," Keefe reminded them. "That's five rings. Then the Vackers, which would be four rings. Three for us three." Sophie nodded.

Keefe sighed. "Then we have Elwin, Tiergan, Wylie, Marella, Lihn, Tam, Maruca..." he continued naming off their friends and people they were close to on his fingers. The list was never-ending. People they cared about, people they had vowed to protect. Even people they didn't like.

The gloomy silence told Keefe that Dex and Sophie had come to the same conclusion.

"Well," Sophie said abruptly. "We make enough for our families and closer friends. They can help us out once we get them out of the trances. Then we go for people who need to get out of there. After that," she shrugged, "we do the best we can."

***

They worked in silence for the most part.

Sophie worked on the list, while Cadence and Forkle worked in the large tent with the few gnomes who had begun to show up in their little campout in the Neutral Territories. Keefe and Dex twisted more rings together. When it got too dark to work, the three gathered in front of the fire. Dex sat on the log across from them, glaring into the coals, while Sophie and Keefe sat shoulder to shoulder with their backs pressed against the log. Keefe sighed, scooping dirt up with his hand and watching it trickle out of his fist. Sophie stared into the night behind Dex, the flames casting a warm glow on her face.

We do the best we can.

What was that, really? The work of three teenagers, one who had been brainwashed and could barely eat without vomiting, another who had been about .001 millimeters from death, and the last who couldn't talk without worrying that his friends would keel over and die.

Keefe sighed again and brushed his hands off on his pants.

"We're a gloomy bunch," Dex commented, eyes still reflecting the flames he wasn't taking his eyes off.