Some Sokeefe for the Shipping Soul

Monster

⚠️gore warning ⚠️

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Keefe walked toward the council office, his friends (Fitz, Biana, Linh, Tam, Dex, Wylie, Marella, and Jensi) not far behind him. He had just received a message from Mr. Forkle, telling them to come meet him and the council in Eternalia for an "important meeting", giving no more information than that. Typical. He figured that it was just another meeting cautioning them to "be careful" when looking for Sophie online, and to always "inform him and the council" when they were traveling to the Forbidden Cities to follow a lead on her whereabouts.

Keefe honestly couldn't care less about what Mr. Forkle had to say in this meeting, but Linh, ever the optimist, urged them to hurry, saying she had a feeling this one was "important." When he reached the dark oak doors of the meeting room however, his heart dropped to his stomach. Standing there before him were none other than Ruy, Gethen, and his mother, each clothed in their trademark Neverseen robes, with Mr. Forkle and the council standing around them. He heard a gasp behind him, but before he could get scared, he unsheathed his dagger that he always carried around with him, his friends following suit.

"Wait!" Mr. Forkle exclaimed suddenly, "They are already in our custody, and all of their weapons have been taken away."

"That doesn't mean they aren't still a threat," Dex said accusingly, "Remember what happened the last time we tried to negotiate with them on our home turf."

Oralie's eyes became shiny with tears as everyone remembered the tragedy of Kenric's death years prior.

"It's different this time," Mr. Forkle assured them, "They came to us, and they already surrendered everything they had, they have no reason to fight anymore."

"Why would they ever surrender?" Marella exclaimed. "They're terrorists, they don't stop until they get what they want, or they die. They know they would immediately be in prison for life if they came back here, so why bother?"

Mr. Forkle looked at Gethen, motioning for him to speak. Gethen lifted his handcuffed hands and started to fidget nervously.

"You are correct, we thought in the past that we would never surrender, all of us were willing to die for the cause, but we never expected that would be the case, that is, until last night."
After he finished speaking, he looked crestfallen, as if he was remembering a terrifying experience, and it was then Keefe noticed that his mother's shoulders were trembling. Even Ruy looked shaken up at the reminder of what happened.

"This doesn't make any sense." Fitz said thoughtfully, "You guys don't even have all your members here with you right now, why should we believe a word you are saying?"

"This is all that's left of us." Ruy said quietly, his face falling.

"What do you mean?" Biana asked, "I thought you guys had seven members, where's Vespera and your creepy flasher, and the rest of your members we don't know about?"

"Dead." He said simply, Gisela letting out a sob as soon as he uttered the sound. Keefe was shocked, he had never heard his mom cry before, and certainly not because she cared for other people.

"How?" Wylie asked finally, "Who could have killed all of your members all at once?.

Gethen let out a humorless laugh, his face contorting into an extremely angry expression.

"My daughter."

The entire room went silent, all of the council members stared at him in shock, but none looked more shocked than Mr. Forkle, whose face was quickly turning white as a sheet.

Keefe was rapidly getting more and more annoyed. The only information he had gathered from this meeting was that the Neverseen had been defeated and the rest of the members were being put into custody. Surely Mr. Forkle could have sent this over text and he didn't need to be dragged out of bed at 7:00 in the morning on a weekend.