THE CRY OF SWAN SONG - sokeefe

Epilouge

Sophie Foster sat on the ground studying the pictures of which she had taken throughout her life. Her with her foster parents, with Edaline and Grady.

With her friends, Fitz, Biana, Tam and Marella. She got to a photo of her and Dex. Dex had recently been released from exile, and she'd forgiven him, after all, she always knew he would never hurt her. 

And then she got to a photo of her and Keefe and her heart stung a bit. 

Her daughter sat next to her and took the photo off her. 

"Whose this?" Sapphire asked. 

"Just one of my old friends." Sophie replied and felt a panic attack rise. But she calmly stowed it away, just how Keefe had taught her to all those years ago.

"Looks like a little more than friends to me." Sapphire said.

Sophie scoffed. "I think you and Biana should stop hanging out." 

"Whats his name?" She ignored her mom.

"Keefe. Keefe Sencen." She swallowed the lump in her throat whenever she said his name. 

"Were you dating?" Her daughter asked. 

She stayed silent for a minute. 

"For a time...yes. We did."

Sapphire studied him. "I think we learnt about him in Elvin History, along with you of course. What happened to him?" Sophie stayed quiet. Sapphire realised

"Oh." She whispered.

Her daughter picked up the picture of all her friends. 

"Hey! There's Councillor Fitz and Biana, and Tam! Whose this?" She pointed to Linh, to which Sophie stayed quiet.

They heard a knock at the door. 

"Whatever you do Saph, don't mention this girl to Biana okay?" Sapphire nodded. 

They let Biana and Tam in and Biana squealed. 

"You found our old photos!" 

"Oh no. Biana, hon please calm down-" 

"Look at this one Tammy! You look so young!" She held up a photo of Tam and Biana at Foxfire. 

"Gah! Please don't show me that love." 

"But your so cute!" She awwed and oohed as she looked through the photos and got to the one Sapphire was previously holding to which Sophie hissed, thinking it would upset Biana. 

But her heart shaped lips turned neutral and her voice had a sad tone when she said. "We made a great team didn't we?" She looked at Keefe in the photo her eyes lining with tears. "I miss him everyday." 

Sophie nodded and Sapphire could see her mom squirm. 

"Hey." Tam whispered. "Did you realise it's his 20 year anniversary, maybe...we could all go down to his wanderling? I asked Fitz, he said he would go, so did Ashleigh. But..." He looked sheepishly at Sophie. "I didn't know if you'd be up to it." 

Sophie shook her head. "I know, I was going to visit him, but yeah lets got together."

"Can I come?" Her daughter unexpectedly said. Biana and Tam looked at Sophie. To which their suprise she said. "Okay." 

Sophie went to change and Sapphire whispered to Biana. "Is that why mom's been mopey all day?" 

Biana solemnly nodded. 

~~~~~

They soon left to the wanderling woods. They passed many but as soon as they reached his all of them held their breath.  Fitz and Ashleigh were already there and as soon as they saw Sophie their eyes softened. 

Sophie's breath sounded shaky when she knelt to the ground to be at the same level as the wanderling base. She touched her hand to the base and whispered something no one except her daughter heard. 

"I'll come visit you alone later." 

The rest of them bent down to whisper things to Keefe's wanderling.

And after an hour of all the friends sharing stories about Keefe they all left. 

"Mom." Sapphire had the courage to ask. "Are you going back later?" 

The question took her aback. "Yes." She thought for a moment. "Come with me." 

~~~

They soon returned to Keefe's wanderling and Sophie sat at the base of the same tree she sat at that night he had his wanderling planted. Her daughter sat beside her. 

"Were you and Keefe close?" Sapphire asked. 

"As close as two people could be. He was forever my soulmate." Sophie commented sadly. 

"Really?" Sapphire asked. To which Sophie nodded. 

Then Sophie started talking to Keefe's wanderling, updating him on life and what had been happening and Sophie was practically glowing. 

"Did you know Dex was released a few days ago?" Sophie said which caught Sapphire's attention. "He wanted to come see you but he's on survelliance and they said he can't come. And- Linh, she's still in exile. I can tell Tam is hurting." 

Sapphire stood. She could tell this was personal for her mother. 

"I'll see you at home yeah?" Her daughter said, her mother absentmindedly nodded. 

Sophie kept talking til it was sunset. "Remember the time we blew up that chemical at Foxfire! And we both got detention for weeks on end." She reminisced. Keefe's hallucination laughed beside her. 

"Yeah, I do." He paused. "Hey Foster." 

"Yeah?" She turned to him.

"Remember that night? My wanderling ceremony. It looked exactly like this." 

"Yeah it did." She teared up. She wanted to interlock their fingers.

"Team Foster Keefe forever yeah?" 

"Team Foster Keefe forever." Sophie repeated her eyes trained on the horizon. 

~~~

At home, Sapphire had ignored the calls of her father, asking if she was home, all she cared about was the story that she had imprinted in her mind. She opened a blank word document, on her mother's old human laptop and wrote the words. 

"The Cry of Swan Song." Sapphire breathed. 

~~~~~