Moonlark Turned Evil

26: Happy Birthday, Sophie

I'm back!

(I was barely gone but whatever.)

This is a shorter chapter, mostly meant as a filler, and Sophie's turning thirteen!!

Happy reading.

The moment Sophie opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong.

Well, not wrong. Different might be a better word.

Maybe it was because she could sense a bunch of people in the living room, or maybe it was because Edaline seemed to have baked a lot more than usual this morning.

She sneezed as Iggy--an imp she had rescued a while back--blew a disgusting fart at her from his cage beside her desk. He was cute, but sometimes he got so smelly she needed to wrap an air bubble around her head.

Someone that sounded suspiciously like Glimmer laughed downstairs.

Sophie sat up, clapping her hands twice to make the blinds rise. A glance at the clock told her it was just past eight, a strange time for a large group of people to visit Havenfield.

Pushing back the blankets, she padded over to her wardrobe and picked out a simple outfit of white, green, and black. She threw a warm cloak over her shoulders, pinning it in place with the Ruewen crest.

Before she opened the door to her room, she closed her eyes. Her concentration moved across the entire grounds of Havenfield, giving her an accurate map of the movements of creatures and other things.

She found a group of people on the first floor of the house, and quickly scanned them all.

Fitz, Keefe, Dex, Biana, Linh, Tam, and Marella were all in a circle on the living room floor, playing a game of five-players or more chess. Sophie still wasn't quite sure how the game worked, but she knew that it was kind of like wizarding chess from Harry Potter, where the pieces had their own will and stuff like that.

Edaline was in the kitchen with another female, who gave off the same aura as Squall from the Black Swan's Collective. Sophie had never met Squall when she didn't have her icy disguise on, so it was completely possible that Edaline happened to know her. It still seemed kind of unlikely, though.

Grady was talking to Kesler Dizznee--Dex's father--and Alden Vacker by the window.

Most surprising of all, Della was playing a game of marbles with Alvar Vacker, Ruy Ignis, and Glimmer Evans.

Like, seriously. 

Alvar, she could understand, since his siblings and parents were here, but Glimmer and Ruy as well?!

Sophie opened her eyes, grimacing slightly.

This was Keefe's fault. It had to be.

Had he actually decided to throw her a party, after she had asked him not to?

Really?

Birthdays weren't even a big deal in the Lost Cities, and besides, elves worked with inception dates instead of birth dates.

But it seemed just like the Empath, honestly.

She slowly pushed open the door, dragging her feet.

Fitz noticed her first, grinning at her. "Happy birthday Sophie!"

Yup, they'd thrown her a birthday party.

Sophie hugged him, failing to notice his blush. "Thanks."

Dex pulled her away from the Telepath and hugged her, before presenting her with a bag full of useful potions and elixirs. Fitz gave her human candy, along with some elvin treats he had baked. Biana eagerly pressed a selection of makeup into her hands with an evil grin--no doubt she was planning some kind of Sophie makeover in the near future.