Author's Note: This chapter is short on purpose, it's only job to show us the things Cedric has noticed as 'off' about Sofia since the events of Day of the Sorcerers. Subsequent chapters will be longer. Decided to make this chapter the first one after all.
After his stint in the dungeon, and subsequent reinstatement as Royal Sorcerer, thanks in no small part to Sofia, Cedric very nearly went straight. In fact, he likely would have, convinced that any further attempts would only destroy his friendship with the princess completely, and maybe even harm her directly.
The nightmares haunted him, dark dreams where he didn't escape his imprisonment, and Grimtrix froze Sofia along with her family. He began teaching her the defensive arts, determined to prepare her should Grimtrix return or any other threat come her way. He should have noticed the changes in his apprentice right away.
King Roland may have returned Cedric's title, but he demanded that Sofia cease spending time alone with the sorcerer. No longer bound by the amulet's moral code now that Elena was free, Sofia defied her father outright.
When Cedric refused to teach her his transportation spell at such a young age, she learned it in secret, using it to sneak into his tower at every opportunity. He knew it was wrong to indulge her deviance, but he didn't have the heart to put up a barrier spell around the tower, so the visits continued.
There were other signs, small ones. One day she came to him fuming because she just found out what happened to princesses when they reached adulthood. He tried to calm her, to explain to her that this was just the way the world worked, and her father would be very selective about her future husband.
Instead of accepting her fate, she shocked Cedric by stating that she should have let him be king, because she believed he would never send her away in such a barbaric fashion. Not knowing how to reply, he simply dismissed the statement. This conversation would haunt him later.
Over the next few years, she grew increasingly protective of the sorcerer, and he was forced on several opportunities to return someone to human form and remove their memories of exactly who it was that changed them into a rock or animal in the first place. When questioned, her response was always the same. A callous shrug followed by 'They spoke ill of my Master.'
She was twelve when he caught her in the garden, practicing spells from the forbidden texts he kept hidden in his tower. He stayed out of sight and watched her cast spell after spell, pride and fear battling within him. He hid the books in new places, but somehow she always found them.
At thirteen, her powers exploded. Cedric couldn't explain it, though the king demanded he try. No longer able to deny her gifts, her parents secreted her off to Hexley Hall to learn to control herself. Merlin, still 'temporarily' filling in for Grimtrix after five years, did his best to guide Sofia towards a righteous path as her powers continued to grow.
She split her free time between lessons in Cedric's tower and adventures with her new friends, Indigo and Wendell. More often than he liked to admit, Sofia transported herself into Cedric's tower, begging him to clean up some mess the three teenagers had created using magic they had no business toying with.
In her fourteenth year, her older siblings were officially presented to the court, alerting Sofia to just how soon her childhood would be ending. She again demanded that Cedric somehow save her from this fate, and again he admitted to being woefully unable to interfere. It broke his heart when she transported away after declaring that she would never speak to him again.
A few days later, she was back, begging forgiveness for her harsh words and promising that he was still her best friend. Though she hinted at having her own plans to maintain her freedom, she refused to let him in on the details. Cedric tried to write the incident off as simple teen angst, but something in the back of his mind kept chipping away at the long pattern of questionable behavior.