UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 28

"You're a Vacker," Sophie said, dumbfounded and feeling really stupid.

"Unfortunately," Glimmer said, kicking her Neverseen cloak across the Healing Center.

"What do you mean unfortunately?" Sophie asked, thinking of Fitz....

"I'm not like the Vackers," Glimmer snapped.  "They're just these perfect, non-mistake making royals and I'm- I'm just...."

"You sound like Alvar," Mr. Forkle observed, and maybe that should've made Sophie nervous, but she was focused on something else.

"What's your real name?"  Sophie demanded, looking Glimmer straight into her teal tinted sky blue eyes.  "There's no way your real name is Glimmer.  That's just a cover up, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Glimmer looked around nervously.

"Wow, after that much revealing you're still hesitant about your name?"  Sophie asked exasperated.  She kinda understood why Linh was so annoyed with this girl- too mysterious, and almost a little dark despite her ability.  

"I don't know what it's going to take for you guys to trust me again," Glimmer admitted.

Sophie took a swig from her Bottle of Youth to hide her irritated expression.  What was wrong with this girl?  She was an enemy to both the Black Swan and the Neverseen, and she still-

"If you give us your name we'll trust you," Mr. Forkle said, putting up a silencing hand in Sophie's direction.

"Fine," Glimmer spat, but the anger in her tone seemed forced.  "It's Ayla."

"Ayla?"  Sophie asked.  "That doesn't seem very evil to me."

"Neither does Adela," Mr. Forkle pointed out.

"Oh trust me," Ayla said, her face flushed.  "Mom vouched pretty hard for Rumplesnicker or something like that..."

Sophie laughed, probably against her will.  "So what do you want us to call you?  After calling you Glimmer for so long, Ayla seems.... well, right and wrong at the same time."

"Glimmer please," she said quietly.  Her face hardened.  "Ayla is the name I left behind when I decided to join the Neverseen.  It has no right in my presence anymore.  After what happened...."

"You're real name's Ayla?!" A voice from the doorway said, and Sophie groaned as she realized all her friends had been eavesdropping from outside the Healing Center.

Keefe marched in first, fanning his face.  "Jeez Foster.  I mean, I know I'm really attractive but you don't have to give me that many emotions.... flowers worked anyday."

"Shut up," Sophie mumbled, turning the same shade of red as her elixir.  Elwin picked that moment to burst through the doorway, pretending as if he hadn't been listening in either.

"First things first," Elwin said.  "We have Glimmer, and we can trust her.  Can you give us the stellarlune to hopefully reverse the effects of the shadowflux that Sophie voluntarily injected into herself?"

He said it so fast that Glimmer looked overwhelmed for a second like she was trying to decode a secret message.  "I'll try.  Truthfully, I've never done this before."

"YOU'VE WHAT?!" Every single person in the room screamed at once.  This could either make or break the moonlark and they were trusting an inexperienced teenager to save Sophie's sanity?

"Oh my gosh," Fitz said.  "That's not good."

"By the way- we're related!" Biana piped up, giving Glimmer's hand a squeeze.  

Apparently Glimmer had never had that happen before because she yelped and jumped back into the wall.  Biana looked a little offended as she slunk back, flickering in and out of sight.

"It's okay," Sophie said, surprised that she meant it.  "I trust you."

And the last thing she saw before Elwin poured a sedative down her throat was Glimmer.