Chapter Text
It had been a few hours after the planting of Mr. Forkle’s Wanderling tree. Sophie sat on the living room couch back at Havenfield with her head on Keefe’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Keefe asked, breaking the silence and her thoughts.
“No… I don’t think so,” Sophie replied, her thoughts going back to the planting.
It was a grand ceremony, attended by the Collective, The Council, the other members of the Black Swan and their families, and more who wanted to pay their respects to him. It wasn’t just limited to elves, however. Some of the other intelligent species had attended as well.
Sophie stood on top of the stage looking down at the crowd. Her white cape was blowing in the wind and her emissary circlet was pressing against her forehead. She was glad she remembered to wear it and remind her friends about it.
Behind them were the Collective, each in their matching dark green cape and hood. Most of them maintained their disguises except for Tiergan and Juline who didn’t. As much as this was a tough time for them, their children were their main priority, they needed them more.
The council stood behind the collective on pedestals that raised them higher above them and the crowd. Beside her were her friends wearing different jerkins and gown in different shades of green. The Team Valiant members were wearing their corresponding cape and circlet just like Sophie. Keefe stood right next to her, something Sophie was glad for. She didn’t know how to cope with the speed of things that were happening right now.
Feeling her stress, Keefe tucked his hand under Sophie’s cape and wrapped an arm around her waist. Sophie seemed to calm down at his touch. She resisted the urge to lean into him, knowing full well that she had to be the leader, the Moonlark, that she was designed to be.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Keefe whispered in her ear. The sound of the wind muffling their conversation.
“I’m fine,” she replied as she tried not to break down right then and there. People are watching you she said to herself.
Keefe sighed, knowing full well that she wasn’t fine. Her friends seemed to notice too, shooting worried glances at each other and at Keefe. He just shook his head, creating a mental note to tell them about Sophie’s emotional condition. There was a look in Fitz’ eye, as if the two of them shared the same thought.
Sophie had managed to maintain her composure for most of the ceremony. It wasn’t until the modified planting did tears start to well in Sophie’s eyes.
The first Mr. Forkle was buried in Trolltunga, Norway. The memory played vividly in Sophie’s head. She quietly cursed her photographic mind for capturing such a tragic memory. Now that the second Mr. Forkle had finally passed, The Black Swan and the Council came up with an agreement to give him a modified planting.
To celebrate the unification of the brothers, Tiergan saved a lock of the old Mr. Forkle and intertwined it with his brothers’. Those were what was used during the planting ceremony, a combination of the brothers who lived lives that were the same. Similar, yet different.
Sophie couldn’t hold in the tears much longer. Once the water works started to flow, a lot of things became a blur for her. She didn’t sob, or cry, or scream. Tears just flowed steadily from her eyes, the occasional sniffle coming from her. Through the blur of her tears, she watched as Tiergan wrapped the lock of hair around the sapling.
Sophie started to feel numb. Anger, sadness, grief, loss, guilt, all of them started to form into a black hole. A hole that started to suck away at her desire to keep going. Suddenly, Sophie felt a cold hand grip her hand. The sudden gesture caused her to jump and pull her hand away and blink, sending her back to reality. Multiple pairs of eyes stared at her and she could hear a faint voice calling back to her.
“Sophie? Sophie, can you hear me?” a voice called out to her.
She couldn’t recognize the voice nor the people in front of her. Her eyes darted around the sea of worried blue eyes, her brain having trouble identifying them. She eventually landed on a pair of ice blue eyes, full of worry and concern. Something in her brain clicked as she started to recognize who was calling out to her.
“K-Keefe?” she called out as she started to come to her senses. Immediately, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her.
“Oh my god, Sophie, are you okay?” he asked her worriedly.
“Why- why are you hugging me?”
“Because I’m your boyfriend,”
“Boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend,”
Sophie heard gasps as she pulled away and stared at the people in front of her. She couldn’t understand why they looked so shocked, or why Keefe looked so hurt. She couldn’t feel anything, she felt absolutely nothing. All she could really feel was the ever-growing hole draining away her energy. She watched as Keefe took a shaky breath, as if trying not to cry, and grabbed her hands tightly again.
“Sophie, what do you feel?” he asked her shakily.
Keefe couldn’t feel anything in her hands.
“Nothing,”
“What do you mean?”
He tried harder, trying to find just a hint of emotion in her. Nothing.
“I feel absolutely nothing. I-I don’t know who you all are but a part of me is telling me you all are important,” Sophie admitted. Keefe cursed under his breath, tears starting to fall from his eyes.
Hushed whispers suddenly filled the space. She saw another group of people enter the space with the same expression as the rest of the crowd. Sophie started to feel uncomfortable, shifting in her seat as if trying to get away from them. A lady with blonde ringlets approached Keefe, wrapping her arms around him. She watched as the two of them talked as if they were forming a plan together. Soon, the two of them faced Sophie again, and bent down to hold one of her hands.
“Oh my… Sophie…” the blonde lady muttered. Keefe looked to her desperately as more tears fell from his eyes.
“She’s going to be alright, Keefe. Trust me,” the lady said to him. “Sophie, I need you to close your eyes for a moment.”
Sophie did as she was instructed, shutting her eyes and focusing on the darkness that surrounded her. She heard another pair of footsteps approach her, and then two fingers touch her temple. She sat in silence before a voice spoke to her through her consciousness.
“Sophie, can you hear me?” a male voice asked. Sophie nodded, signaling to the man that she could.
“Okay. That’s good,” the voice said.
“What are you going to do?”
The reply she got was a cold breeze, the darkness in front of her getting brighter and brighter. She watched moving pictures flew by in a rush. It was like watching a flashback. It took her a second to recognize that it was her.
“What are these? Why am I in them?” she asked out loud. Sophie didn’t get a response, only more and more pictures flying by. A lot of them looked sad, like her standing in front of a tree with her name on it, or her sitting at the edge of a cliff near a cave overlooking the ocean. As the sad images turned to something more hopeful and positive, so did the feeling of the breeze.
Soon, she started to recognize them, they were her memories. She recognized the faces as they flew by. Sophie saw her and Fitz, Dex, Biana, Linh, Tam, everyone. She saw her and Keefe. Slowly, she started to feel something with every memory that passed by. Both good and bad. Just then, as a memory of her and Keefe played in her head, something clicked in her.
“Keefe! Keefe, where are you?” she blurted as she opened her eyes. Sophie saw Oralie, Tiergan, and Keefe standing in front of her, the look of relief and gladness on their faces. She quickly stood up from her chair and wrapped her arms around Keefe, which he took eagerly.
“Sophie! Thank heavens you’re back,” he muttered into her ear, not caring that his tears were falling onto her cape. “I thought we were going to lose you.”
“What happened? I-I don’t remember anything,” she muttered back, truly unaware about everything around her.
“Sophie,” she heard her name being called. She spun around to see Oralie, Livvy, and Tiergan standing together.
“Yeah?”
“You might want to sit down for this, the both of you,” Tiergan instructed. Sophie and Keefe sat down next to each other, not letting go of each other’s hands.
Tiergan took a deep breath before saying, “Have any of you heard of Traumatic Amnesia?”