KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Remember

"Kenric?" Sophie asked quietly. "Do you remember me? Do you remember..." she took a shaky breath. "Do you remember who you are?"

"I...but I..." he buried his head in his hands.

"It's overwhelming," Keefe said quietly, reaching out and gingerly placing a couple of fingers on Kenric's arm. "His emotions are going haywire."

"Kenric?" Elwin asked gently, pulling out a vial. "I thought that might be the case. I have a mild, very mild mood enhancer. Will you take it? It should help your mind clear enough to process what's happening right now."

Kenric looked up at Elwin. He reached out a shaky hand and took the vial but was trembling too much to undo the stopper. Sophie reached out and removed it for him.

"Thank you," he said quietly after taking the elixir. It seemed to help immediately. "And yes, Sophie, I remember you. But you look wrong."

"I look wrong?"

"You look old, too old." He shivered. "It's all coming flooding back. That day, with Fintan's healing. I tackled him to stop him..." his eyes darted from Sophie to Fitz and looked around the room again. Then he gasped. "Oralie? She's not here. Oh, no, please tell me she survived?"

"Yes, she's alive! We'll bring her here whenever you're ready. We haven't told her yet that you're alive."

Kenric calmed down slightly. "Thank goodness for that. But...how long has it been?"

Sophie looked at Tiergan and at Mr. Forkle before answering. "It's been almost four years."

He nodded slowly. "That makes sense. I...I don't know how long they held me." He shuddered. "I thought I was going to die at the hands of those rebels. At the hands of Fintan, who I used to call a friend."

Sophie reached out and tentatively placed her hand over his. He stared at her hand for several seconds before looking up.

"And that's why you look wrong. Years have gone by. And...is that a wedding ring on your finger?"

Sophie smiled. "Yes. Keefe and I got married about three months ago. I wish you could've been here."

Kenric shook his head, shocked. "You're old, but not that old. You've married young. What else has happened?"

"Um...so much. I don't even know where to start."

"And we should probably be careful how much we share right away," Elwin said. "How about you tell us more about what you remember, while I begin examining you?" Without another word, Elwin pulled out his iridescent spectacles, snapped his fingers to create the different colored lights and began examining Kenric.

"Well, I remember Fintan grabbing me, but I honestly have no idea how he escaped and how we survived. But I was drugged once we got away, I do remember that. Things are pretty blurry after that. He burned me, many times. Time had little meaning. I remember them entering my mind, trying to extract information. But thankfully, my mind stayed strong and they weren't able to get very much information out of me." He looked at Sophie. "I thought so much of you and Dex Dizznee," he said softly. "How you endured the same torture from the same people. I even tried transmitting to Oralie, to Emery, to Alden. But I guess that's only a feat our little Sophie Foster could pull off."

Sophie teared up. "I'm so sorry," she said. "We thought you were dead."

Elwin placed one hand on Sophie's shoulder. "We all did." Then he began handing Kenric elixirs. "Take these," he said. "You look healthy, but you definitely need to detox after years of human food and polluted air."

"How did you find me?" Kenric asked after swallowing the last one and taking the bottle of Youth Elwin handed him next.

"Well, the Council ordered a memory break on Gisela Sencen--"

"Wait, what? On a member of the nobility?"

"She turned out to be one of the leaders of the Neverseen--that's what the rebel group called themselves."

Kenric looked at Keefe.

"I know," Keefe said. "Mother of the year, right?" But Keefe still paled slightly at the thought of his mother's memory break.

"Anyway," Fitz cut in. "Yes, the Council ordered Sophie and I to do her memory break. And we found a broken memory--broken by Gethen to protect their awful secret--that showed you. So we went to the Black Swan and conducted a search. It took several weeks, but we found you."

"They had...Sophie do this? On her new mother in law? That sounds...cruel. I can't believe they asked that of you. It was Bronte, wasn't it?"

"Actually, Bronte voted against it. So did Terik and Oralie. But the others were for it. And it's a good thing, because I don't think anyone else would've found out you were still alive." Tiergan told him.

"I'm sure that's true," he said. "But still..." he looked troubled. "I never would have thought that of them."

Fitz laughed darkly. "That's not even the worst thing they've done."

At this point, Mr. Forkle offered to give Kenric a quick overview of what had happened after his supposed death. Kenric was deeply appalled to hear about the ability restrictor Sophie was briefly forced to wear.

"I think that's all we should subject you to tonight," he told him. "There's plenty of time to continue to fill you in, but tonight I think you need rest."

Elwin reached into his bag to pull out a sedative, but Kenric stared at it without reaching out for it, his face draining of color.

Compassion and understanding consumed Sophie. "What if I just make you some slumberberry tea?" she suggested.

Kenric nodded. "That sounds better."

All but Keefe stood to go out the door with Sophie.

Elwin clapped Kenric on the shoulder. "So glad to have you home," he told him. "I'll be back to check on you tomorrow."

As they followed Sophie back down the stairs, Mr. Forkle told Sophie they'd leave Kenric in her care and asked her to check in the following morning. Fitz gave her a quick hug and promised to check in the next day. Then they said their goodbyes and Sophie went into the kitchen to make the tea.

As she walked back into the guest bedroom, she heard Keefe's voice saying exuberantly, "...and she got so irritated that she tried to throw her pillow at me left-handed and it hit Magnate Leto in the face instead!" Sophie was very pleased to see Kenric smiling at Keefe's story—the first smile she'd seen on his face since they'd restored his memories.

"I always said this girl would change our world," Kenric said, looking at her.

There was still a touch of tension and trauma in his handsome features, but that smile made Sophie feel like maybe he would be okay.

She handed him the tea. "You get some rest and we'll see you in the morning."

"Sophie?" Kenric asked as she took Keefe's hand and turned to leave the room. She turned back to look at him expectantly. "Thank you. I'm...reeling and confused right now, but...you just gave me my life back."

Sophie smiled. "I owed it to you."

"You know what?" Keefe told Sophie as they walked up the second flight of stairs to their bedroom.

"What?"

"You are really, truly incredible."

"I'm glad you think so."

"No, Foster. I know it. And not just because the Black Swan tweaked your genes to give you all these abilities. It's also how you've chosen to use them and how hard you've worked to train. You. Are. Incredible." He pulled her in and kissed her sweetly. "I'm so lucky that I get to be the one to hold you each night."

Sophie smiled up at him. "Funny, I feel like I'm the lucky one."