A/N: Yes this is meant to be confusing and yes this is meant to keep the reader in the dark.
The scars of the battle are still evident in the ground here. Sofia feels out of place here, amongst the flowers and vines as they tried to reclaim what was once theirs. The ground crunches under her feet and she wonders if the wines are trying to reclaim her as well. She can see more marks of battle the further into the place that she travels, the pillars are cut almost half way through, decaying, only being held up by the vines that crawled the walls. The roof was made entirely of vines and trees and nature, reclaiming what was once theirs in the only way they knew how. She wonders if that is the destiny of all people, really, to return to nature. Miss Nettle had always seemed to think so.
The path is long and tiring to walk, being careful not to trample the red flowering vines that cover the ground, trying to heal the cracked and dry land. She passes bodies of unfortunate travelers or thrill seekers, with flowers and vines spilling forth from their insides. Their decayed bodies acting as fertilizer for the beautiful vines, reminding Sofia that life's comes from death, so it's only fair that it should return there as well. Curiously enough she is allowed to pass through the place with no attacks from the vines and she wonders why.
Then she sees her.
In exactly the same spot she'd been almost twenty years ago, Miss Nettle was kneeling silently. She looks like she's fully encased in the vines, but the closer she gets, Sofia realizes this is not the case. Her head hangs low. Her hat is significantly decayed, this is the first thing she notices, the yellow interspliced with green moss, the fabric has faded and is in some parts more moss then hat. The moss has grown down, hanging past the brim, giving a veil like effect to her face, preventing Sofia from seeing what twenty years of inactivity could have done to her face, and her wounds from the battle had ever heals. She thinks she can see vines even on Miss Nettle's face but she has no idea.
Though her hair may have been neat once, it now hung from her back, in long red ringlets, some had been stolen by the vines and were hung around the room, while the others lay around her. The look long and they look heavy. She looks tired, Sofia thinks. The long red ringlets look dirty towards the bottom, but clean towards the top. She wonders if they were arranged this way delicately of if nature intended for them to look so morbidly beautiful.
Her dress has almost entirely decayed, exposing expanses of her skin, while the vines cover parts of it. It looks like a dress more than it look like vines, and Sofia wonders if that was the intention. She also sees what she was looking for. The almost fully decayed body lying in her lap, that was as wrapped in vines as she had been.
Cedric.
The purple robes are hardly visible, but the skeletal hand clasping the wand is. She needs that, but as soon as she makes a move near the body, the vines ensnare her arms.
"Why have you violated my sanctuary?" Sofia had thought that Miss Nettle was dead. She had never expected to hear that voice again. "Twenty years, I have had silence and now you dare to ruin what I have created?"
"I-" Sofia stuttered, not sure how to reply to what Miss Nettle had said. Miss Nettle does not move, and neither do the vines. It's like she's a ghost projecting only her voice, and Sofia cannot help but wonder if her muscles have atrophied and she cannot move away.
"I need that wand." Sofia finally manages to croak out.
"Why?" Miss Nettle asks, and Sofia can see behind her now to several strung up bodies, obviously other intruders into Miss Nettle's domain. She wonders if that's how she will end up if she doesn't get Miss Nettle to put her down.
"I..I need a wand." She doesn't release her. "Miss Nettle, please, I need a wand." Still no response from the still fairy. "There is danger coming, and I need to be able to protect myself. If they come, they will not think twice before they take this…This place down. And take Cedric away from you." Even before the last battle they had with the invaders, Miss Nettle had been set on remaining with Cedric for his short mortal life, and Sofia would have no problem in believing Cedric felt the same way.
She wishes that Cedric's choked final gasps for breath, and Amber's screams would stop haunting her dreams.
Miss Nettle considers this, before flinging Sofia across the room. She lands with a thud. Sofia feels a pain her ribs, but crawls up closer to her, and gently touches the wand. Miss Nettle doesn't stop her. It's only when her attempt to remove the wand from the hand, and she unsettles the bones that Miss Nettle reacts.
She lets out an ungodly howl of sorrow at the movement of the bones. Sofia takes the wand silently. She screams and cries now that the bones have shifted. Sofia thinks that she sounds more animal then woman.
She can't leave her here like this, no matter what her crimes. "Miss Nettle. " She says softly.
The screams stop, finally.
"Go!" She yells, "Leave my sanctuary!" She screams at Sofia. And Sofia doesn't have to be told twice. She gets to her feet and she scrambles for the door, leaving the grief stricken fairy behind, and leaving Cedric in her capable arms.
She runs the path she just walked, the vines seem angry at her, almost grabbing onto her skirt. She passes the exit back onto the field and she has never been more scared in her whole life.