Survivor

Chapter 7

TWO WEEKS LATER

Sophie sat on her cot trying to use a fork to pry the ability restrictor off her wrist, giving it one last shove she heard a little snapping sound and began to smile, progress she thought happily. And then the fork snapped in two, one end hitting her in the forehead.
"Ugh!" She groaned and threw the two ends of the fork into a steadily growing pile of broken objects. She had been upgraded from a cell to a small room with a cot, a desk and a dresser. Her clothes had been swapped from the cheery red tunic and brown leggings to just plain black everything. Her tunic, her leggings, her cape, her shoes. All of it was black, when she was living in the forbidden cities she would have loved to wear such dark colors but now the outfit reminded her of the Neverseen. She looked like she belonged to the Neverseen and she hated it. She hadn't seen Keefe since their meeting in his cell, since their kiss. She had been out of her room a few times like when Gethen tried to get past her shielding, which never worked, When they needed information or when there was "training". Lady Gisela had taken to calling her Moonlark all of the time, The Neverseen's Moonlark. She trained in kills like body temperature regulation, holding her breath underwater and more of the others she had begun learning in Exilium. She couldn't help but think they were preparing her for something big, recently they had started staining her in combat with various different weapons as well as hand to hand, that was a skill she picked up gladly, memorizing the moves and different blows she could use to incapacitate someone. She only hoped she would have the chance to use them on the Neverseen soon. Whenever she was let out of her room she was always accompanied by some looming cloaked figure, usually a shade though not the one who had interrogated her, this one called himself Echo, Sophie was about to grab the soon resting on her untouched tray of food to resume prying the restrictor off when her door opened slowly. Echo stood outlined by the light.
"Training time Moonlark." He said simply, he turned on his heel and walked out, he was always so sure she would follow, in fact he was always making assumptions that always turned out to be true. It was actually pretty creepy.

Following quickly she walked at most two feet to his left, despite his icy demeanor and that one particular instance he always made sure she was safe. Once in the training room she had found herself the subject of a lot of taunting that had eventually turned violent, leaving her with a nasty cut on her arm. The girl, a beguiler, had not known what hit her. Inky shadows had wrapped around her covering her in what looked like black tar so that none of her features were able to be seen, Echo had calmly walked Sophie back to her room, though the door did nothing to block the chilling screams. He had not seen the girl since then.

The training hall was a larger area though Sophie was confined to one specific corner, throwing simulation daggers and goblin throwing stars at targets. As usual she hit the bullseye over and over and over, she was actually getting bored until a shrill alarm sounded throughout the entire area. She turned to Echo, eyebrow raised in question, but he simply grabbed her wrist and began running back to her room.
"What's going on!" she yelled trying to free her wrist from his grasp,
"I don't know." He said simply, Echo was the only Neverseen member who ever dignified her questions with a response. Soon they reached her door and he practically threw her inside closing the door behind him. Thankfully Sophie had landed on the cot, running to the door she repeatedly hit it with her fist.
"Echo let me out!" She yelled angrily.
"Sophie?" A crisp accent filled her head and nervously she replied.
"Fitz?" The connection was weak, with only Fitz bridging their minds.
"We're here! Sophie, tell us how to get to you." He practically yelled into her mind.
"First of all ow, second of all if I don't know where you are I don't know how to get to my room!" She yelled back, angrily pacing the room.
"I've got to go but I'll tell you when we get to an identifiable place." He responded as Sophie could practically see his determined expression already.
"Roger that!" She replied excitedly, pacing back and forth even faster and tugging out a few eyelashes.
"Sophie?" A new voice filled her head.
"Mr. Forkle, Fitz already beat you to it I know you're here!" She said jumping up and down with a smile.
"I need to tell you something." He did not sound as happy as Fitz had. "Soon even more Neverseen members will be here, we're already having trouble. I'm- I'm afraid we can only get one of you out. We are near a training room of sorts. I need you to tell me where you are." Sophie stopped her jumping and sat down on the bed shocked.
"Sophie?" Mr. Forkle asked again. Her throat was suddenly very dry and she felt cold but she knew what to do. She gave him directions.

Fitz (Neverseen Base)

He practically ran down the hallways after Mr.Forkle gave them the directions to Sophie's room. He wasn't happy about leaving Keefe but he had a chance his mother needed him alive. It would be much better to get Sophie out first. He did his best to track the location of any neverseen members and avoid them but when there was no clear way through they had to fight. Biana scared the bejesus out of him multiple times after reappearing after a fight, they were all equipped with little devices Dex had made, that stuck to anything they hit and delivered an immobilizing shock. Finally they stopped in front of a door. The door Sophie had given directions to. He swiped a card Biana had stolen in front of a little sensor where a door knob would be, and the door began to retract into the wall in thirds.
"Soph!" He started but his voice cut off when the door opened fully.

Sophie had led them right to Keefe's room.