UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 26

The first thing that Sophie noticed was the darkness.

It was the opposite of what Gethen did with the light.  It was like what happened outside the fountain in Atlantis, when Keefe had pushed too many shadows into her mind, except a thousand times worse.

Her eyesight fizzled away, and the shouts of her friends subsided into a low din.  She'd probably fell onto the floor, but she couldn't tell.  All she could feel was the darkness, like cold slimy liquid, coursing down her veins, starting with her arms and spreading itself into her body...

In the midst of her subconsciousness, she wondered if she had done the right thing.  But she trusted her friends a lot more than she trusted Adela and Lady Gisela to fill in their part of the deal.

As the shadowflux coursed her way up to her head, she panicked.  The sensation was all too familiar.  Pain spiked in her hand, but she tried to push it away.  She couldn't bring back the echoes.

Her mental energy clawed at the edges of the blackness.  Now more than anything, she wanted the light.  She longed for it.

It was almost like how in the Winter, you would do anything for it to be Summer and have the sunlight shine against your face, but then when Summer came, you longed for the cold winds instead.  

As the shadowflux finally completed it's little race track around her body, she felt a tingling sensation like something vibrating inside of her.  A peek of light hit her mind, and the pitch black faded to gray.

She felt cool breezes enter her mind, pushing away her worries.

The cold darkness turned soothing as she felt herself slowly slipping away.

___________

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you have a death wish," someone said from above Sophie.

She found herself in that position way too often.

The person pressed a cold elixir against her tongue and she drank it.  As soon as it hit her throat, she gasped as her eyes flew open.

It took a few minutes for her to regain her bearings.  Unsurprisingly, she was lying in a cot in the Healing Center, Elwin brewing up elixirs in the other room.

"How are you feeling?" Elwin asked.  "Your friends told me what happened.  Willingly injecting shadowflux?  Like who does that?"

"I did it to get Grady and Edaline and Maruca back," Sophie insisted... "Wait, did the Neverseen fill in their part? Are they okay?  Where are they?"

"They're fine," Elwin assured her.  "Adela and Lady Gisela gave them up without a fight, which is good.  And... well, they didn't exactly give us the stellarlune, but they gave us Glimmer."

"Where is she?"

"I'm not sure you're up for that conversation right now.  You've been here for nearly a week yourself.  And before you do your normal 'Oh Elwin, what?!  Nearly a week?!' let me just ask you how are you feeling, again?"

Sophie did a mental check.  "My head kinda hurts and so does my hand.  I think it's just triggering my echoes- or the memory of my echoes as Mr. Forkle pointed out.  Wait- we also need to discuss stuff with Mr. Forkle too.  He's got a lot of explaining to do."

Elwin nodded absentmindedly, tipping a sloshy yellow elixir into her mouth.  She managed to choke it down and the pain subsided.

Elwin studied her through his funny spectacles, shining light all across her body.  

"I wonder why they made you inject shadowflux if it apparently didn't do anything," Elwin mused.

Sophie didn't tell anyone, but inside she could still feel the shadowflux.  And it wasn't a memory.  Instead it was like... a heart, beating inside of her.  She kept her mouth clamped shut.  Sophie didn't want to worry anyone.

"Up for some visitors?" Elwin asked her, proppint her up with a few pillows, and making her guzzle down another elixir.

Sophie wiped her mouth and nodded, expecting her friends to come through the door.

Instead, the two people that she was dreading having to talk with came in.

Glimmer and Mr. Forkle.