The Matchmakers

SEVEN

"Blood?"

"Yes," Alden answered. "Blood." The way he kept running his hand through his hair betrayed how shaken he really was. He didn't even offer his signature 'No reason to worry.' He just kept pacing and running his hands through his hair. "I'm going to need to go discuss this with the Council. Faro, they'll need your memories as well. Sophie, why don't you go down to the common room and prepare for your next class?"

They light leapt away, and then she was alone on the 200th floor of the silver tower. She looked out the still open window. Unconsciously she began moving forward. What would it be like to travel in time? Would it be just like normal Teleporting? Obviously she was going to find out soon, because the other Sophie hadn't seemed that much older than she was, if she was older at all. She reached out her hand and closed the window, making sure to lock it before she turned away.

It would be an understatement to say that Sophie was distracted the rest of the day. In fact, Keefe would have gotten away with stealing her entire lunch if Fitz hadn't stopped him.

"Seriously though, it's like you're off in some other world," Keefe complained. "You're not paying nearly enough attention to the fact that I got a haircut."

"You got a haircut?" Sophie asked, letting her friends pull her out of her thoughts. Honestly, his hair was just as messy as usual.

"Duh. Can't you tell it's not as spastic as usual?"

"Can hair even be spastic?" she asked skeptically, robotically popping a piece of blitzenberry muffin into her mouth.

"Mine can," Keefe said, running a hand through it. "Its magical properties allow it temporary animation."

"This is getting way too weird for me," Sophie said, getting up to throw her mostly untouched lunch away. When she plopped back down between them she wiggled and said, "Skooch. You're crowding me."

"Someone's demanding today," Fitz said, with a pointed look at Keefe.

"Lord Faro must be rubbing off on you," Keefe laughed, but he immediately sobered when he saw her facial expression. "That bad today, huh?"

Sophie nodded exhaustedly, holding her plate close to her. "Alden and Lord Faro tried to have me time travel for the first time."

"How'd it go?" Keefe asked excitedly. He'd been working on the Time Travel Trick, or Triple T for short, ever since she'd told him the Council thought it was a possibility. He claimed it was going to be the biggest news to hit Foxfire since the Great Gulon incident, which, by the way, he'd had nothing to do with. Contrary to his mischievous smirk and wink.

"Terribly. But apparently I can time travel in the future, because future me showed up all covered in blood—and I'm pretty sure in a wedding dress—and jumped out the window."

"What?" Keefe and Fitz asked, identical awed expressions on their faces.

"Don't ask," Sophie groaned. "Let's just say I'm worse at this than I am at alchemy."

"No way," Keefe said, shaking his head knowingly. "That's not even possible."

"Okay, maybe not," Sophie relented. "But it's a very close second."

"What did my dad say?" Fitz asked, interrupting Keefe's response.

"He seemed really shaken. I mean, so weirded out that he let me out an hour early so that he and Lord Faro could go to the Council."

"The Council?" Fitz looked confused. "Why wouldn't they take you? And I'm pretty sure that they're not supposed to leave prodigies unattended in the middle of the session. They should have at least contacted Master Cadence."