UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 9

By the time Sophie recovered from her shock, she realized that the Neverseen had already left.  Although you could definitely see that there had been some sort of scuffle in the room, the damage was minimal- overturned chairs, knocked over podiums, dents in the ground.  Linh and Biana were leaning over Tam, while Dex and Fitz were busy trying to wake up their bodyguards.

Meanwhile Keefe looked just as astonished as Sophie.

"You're a Shade," Sophie breathed, as Keefe said "I'm a Shade" at the same exact time.  This was followed by a chorus of "You're a Shade?" from everyone else in the room.

Sophie explained what had happened.

"That's not how it went for us," Fitz spoke up. "We saw Gethen do some sort of weird snap thing and then you just collapsed. We all were too focused on you to realize that Keefe was doing some weird thing with the shadows. And then when you woke up, we turned around and saw they had left."

Yeah, their stories were very different.

"Guys," Linh called from over by the corner. Sophie wanted to smack herself.  She'd been so busy being surprised about Keefe's new manifesting, she'd barely even thought about Tam, who she recalled had been knocked out by Vespera.

"How's he doing?" Sophie asked as she made her way over to the back wall.

Linh grimaced. "Still knocked out cold.  He'll come around. He has a big head." She glared at her twin brother like she was mad at him.

"You and Biana get him to Elwin," Sophie suggested.  "Dex and Fitz can take the bodyguards to the Healing Center."

"Where are you and Keefe going," Dex said, sounding a little suspicious.

She looked from Keefe, to Dex, back to Keefe, and then looked at Dex again.

"We're going to go see Lady Zilliah."

_______

"This might just be the weirdest classroom I've ever been in- and that's saying a lot. Empath mentors are cuckoo," Keefe said, and Sophie had to agree.

If she didn't know any better, she would've thought that maybe Lady Zilliah was a vampire.  The windows were closed, the lights were off, and the only thing inside the room besides an abundance of black decorations was a long teachers desk and two desks across from it. Not to mention it was so dark, Sophie guessed that 75% of the shadows in all of Foxfire were probably in there.

"Come to bug me already?" Lady Zilliah's soft voice echoed through the room.

"Pardon?" Sophie asked. As far as she was concerned, she hadn't spoken to Lady ZIlliah anytime that day- or in the past few weeks, for that matter.

"Not you, Sophie.  Him."  Lady ZIlliah emerged from behind her desk, and pointed a pale finger in Keefe's direction.  Sophie whirled around, startled.

"You talked to her before?"  Sophie asked in bewilderment.

"I- I felt like I was manifesting a little before Finals," Keefe admitted. "I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought I was going crazy.  Lady Zilliah- we met just a bit after I finished my Elvin History test."

"But we met at the same time," Sophie argued.

"Photographic memory. And before you tell me you have one too, wasn't Lady Cadence giving you a hard time?"  That was true. Sophie somewhat suspected Lady Cadence was just trying to keep her there to make Sophie miserable.

"So you manifested as a Shade," Lady Zilliah interrupted, as if she was tired of their bickering- which Sophie suspected she was.

"Um, yes," Keefe replied, looking mildly uncomfortable.

"And you want me to train you," Lady ZIlliah added.

"Yes," Keefe repeated.

"And I already have a prodigy, Tam," Lady ZIlliah pointed out.

"You might not have him for a while," Sophie jumped it. "He got knocked out during the battle. During the weeks when he's recovering, you can take over Keefe, and when Tam comes back we can find and alternative solution."

"That might work," Lady ZIlliah admitted. "I'll hail Magnate Leto about it. For now I must insist you check on your friends."