Moonlark Turned Evil

10: Weapon

I was going to update yesterday, but I was kind of busy trying not to die of heat. Anyway, NEW UPDATE!!! Yay!

The door was at the end of the hallway.

It seemed to Sophie that all time had stopped, and was simply waiting for her to open that door before it would begin moving again.

Granite may have stood up for her before, but that was five years ago. He could have had a change of heart.

Focus, Sophie, she ordered. You've done things that are scarier than this.

What if he's disappointed? a voice whispered in her head.

Like I would care! she snarled at it.

Steeling her nerves, she pushed open the door.

"Hello, Sir Tiergan."

The man behind the desk looked up. "Don't call me 'sir'," he said, by way of greeting. "I may have returned to Foxfire, but I am most certainly not a member of the nobility."

She almost said, Yes, sir! just to ruffle his feathers, but decided against it.

He studied her. "Are you in the Neverseen, Sophie?"

"What?"

Tiergan sighed. He seemed tired and worn out. "Sophie. Please listen to me—"

She slammed the door shut behind her and sat down across from him. "I don't know what you're talking about, Tiergan."

"You know who I am," Tiergan said.

"I do?"

"I know you're in the Neverseen."

"Am I?"

"And that you are no longer loyal to the Black Swan."

"Was I ever?"

"You make a good point," he admitted. "Mr. Forkle was far too possessive of you."

"Oh, finally." Sophie rolled her eyes. "Finally, someone understands that Mr. Fat-kle treats me like an object instead of an elf."

She was being unfair. Squall and Tiergan had reasoned with that very same Forkle. She wasn't even sure why she was angry. It had bubbled up from nowhere—the first time she had gotten angry in a while.

"Are the Neverseen any better?"

Sophie met Tiergan's gaze. His blue eyes weren't sympathetic. They weren't pitying. He was simply asking her.

Did the Neverseen treat her like a tool?

Vespera did. Gisela did as well, although Sophie had memories of a time when she had first joined the Neverseen, from before Gisela had become obsessed with power and cleansing the human race. 

When Gisela had been almost motherly to her.

Those days were when the Neverseen was still smaller, and they fought for the injustices in elvin society, like matchmaking and the working class rights and things like that.

Gethen was her mentor. They had fought in life or death situations shoulder-to-shoulder. He didn't treat her like a weapon.

Neither did Fintan. He treated her like a Neverseen member—a member of his family that he genuinely cared about.

And her Guild cared about her too.

But if she thought properly about it . . .

"I don't know," she muttered.

Her anger faded.

"Just tell me what you feel," Tiergan urged.

"I'll think on it," she said curtly, standing up.

She stepped into the corridor as he said, "I'm always here if you need to talk, Sophie."

She didn't reply.

Sophie glared at her reflection in the mirror.

Her arms were covered in bruises—well, the parts that could be seen from below the sleeve of her tunic. They were from her last mission, when a bunch of trolls had kicked her around before she could react. Her legs were bruised as well, and she thanked the gods that school hadn't been on today.

It had been three weeks since the incident with Tiergan—and just when she thought she had been given a break, the missions had started again. Every night there was one or two, nothing really big or difficult, but it was enough that she was starting to get tired.

Luckily, Dex had made her some new elixir that she could take with her other one, one that made bruises disappear. She had dropped by Slurps n' Burps just a few minutes ago to pick it up, making sure to wear long pants and a long sleeved tunic so he wouldn't ask questions.

She placed the vial of blue liquid beside the purple one for scars and opened the cabinet drawer where she kept her medical supplies.

Sitting down in a chair, Sophie propped her leg up on the sink. She winced as she saw her cut.

"I'm getting careless," she muttered to herself as she soaked a cloth in water.

The trolls been carrying weapons. One of them had gotten a lucky shot at her leg, and she had been cut several times on her back by another.

She bit down on her tongue as she splashed Youth over the wound on her leg, cleaning it out. Grabbing a roll of bandages, she bound the cut and silently thanked Fintan for giving her that box full of bandage pins before she left. Had the Pyrokinetic known she would need them?

Sophie looked up at herself in the mirror as she gingerly lowered her leg.

For once, she was looking at Ales.

A scar curled over her right ear—courtesy of the goblins last summer—and trailed around and down her neck. There were scars she had gotten when she had been held captive by the trolls an entire winter, the marks on her wrists from the metal handcuffs they had put her in.

Two strikes from a dagger were carved on her right cheek.

She had two gunshot wounds—one on her torso, and one on her thigh.

Standing up, Sophie pushed the chair back into the corner, grimacing as the fabric of her shirt scraped against her cuts. She picked up the bottle of Youth and the bandages and teleported into the safe house in Mysterium, where Glimmer and Ruy lived.

"So, what happened?" Glimmer asked as she gently peeled the bloodstained fabric off Sophie's back.

"Trolls," Sophie said simply.

"Same thing with your leg?"

She nodded.

"I'm guessing it was Gisela," Glimmer said as she began cleaning the cuts.

"It was. What about you? Is she giving you any missions?" Sophie winced. "More importantly, have you found anything?"

"No missions for me," Glimmer answered, wrapping the bandages around Sophie's chest. "I know Ruy has been called out a few times, though. As for the Elys . . ." The sniper shrugged. "We still haven't got a clue. I'm guessing your missions will continue for some time, though."

Sophie groaned.

Glimmer smiled as she clipped the bandages in place with one of Fintan's bandage pins. "You'll be fine, Soph. You're not one of the Neverseen's top agents for no reason."

The two girls smiled at each other for a moment before Glimmer's expression turned serious. She pulled Sophie into a tight hug.

"Promise me you'll stay safe," she whispered, so softly that Sophie could barely hear her.

"I promise."

They both knew she couldn't keep it.