Yay! Guys the third chapter is here! :) This chapter is by Cress070 so make sure you leave a review on her account and tell her how good she did!
Darkness. Darkness and silence, penetrated only by soft whispers which Sophie couldn't make out. She pushed through the velvety walls of black, searching, searching, until a light glinted through the darkness. She followed the light, pushing aside the dark curtains, until she came face-to-face with the source of the illumination… herself?
"Hello?" she whispered, and the Other Sophie did the same thing.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
Other Sophie stepped closer. And closer, and closer, until they were face to face. Strangely enough, Sophie didn't feel afraid.
"What do you need?" Sophie asked her, and Other Sophie smiled, and stepped closer, stepped into her, and they became one- one body, one mind, one soul.
She opened her eyes, feeling stronger, and awoke.
Sophie opened her eyes in the cold darkness of a cell. Its only light source was a chink or two in its seemingly impenetrable walls, and it cast a dull, watery light over the completely bare room. She got to her feet, running her hands over the stone, but it appeared that there was no door the enter or leave from.
Sophie sat down on the floor, closed her eyes, and tried to feel the swell of power that normally swirled around her as soon as she concentrated. She squeezed her eyes shut, imagining planting a seed of power in the stone, but nothing happened.
That was when the first seed of panic set in. She gave up trying to break the stone, and instead stretched out her mind. But she couldn't. She felt trapped in her head, and she desperately pushed at the mental walls setting in, but she was powerless.
There was no way out without teleporting, and the cell's roof was much to low, even if she could levitate, and given how weak she felt, that wasn't an option.
"Hello?" she called, softly, and then louder. "Hello?"
A clattering arose from the wall to her right, where the only flaw in the stone was. Sophie held her breath against the swell of adrenaline telling her to run, flee, and stepped closer to the cold stone. Crouching down a bit, she pressed her eye against the chink in the wall, and gasped. Vertina was lying on the floor, wrapped up in chains, with a gag tied around her mouth.
When she saw Sophie, she made a muffled groaning noise, straining against the chains and making the clattering noise again.
"Vertina! Are you okay?" Sophie asked, and Vertina rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She made another muffled noise.
"If you can come closer, I might be able to reach far enough to get the gag off," Sophie offered, sizing up the small hole to her hand. Fortunately, she had always had very small hands and feet, so there was a good chance she would be able to fit.
Vertina made another noise, and began working her way across the floor to the wall. She looked to ridiculous that in another situation, Sophie might have laughed.
As Vertina made her way across the floor, Sophie began to squeeze her hand through the wall. It hurt, but she was able to get her hand through to her wrist. The problem now was that she couldn't see Vertina.
"Two noises means yes, one means no," Sophie told her, and two grunts came from the other side of the wall.
"Are you at the wall yet?" Sophie asked her.
Mmhg mmhg.
"Can you reach your head up to my hand?"
Mmhg mmhg
"Good, do that now."
Another loud clattering of chains arose from the other cell, and Sophie felt fabric touch her hand. "Am I touching your gag?"
Mmhg mmhg! Mmhg mmhg!
Sophie got the best hold she could, and ripped upwards as hard as she could. She heard the sound of fabric tearing, and another clattering of chains.
"Did it work?" she called.
"Yes!"
Sophie almost cried with relief. "Oh, good. Are you okay?"
"Well, the back of my neck is killing me where you ripped off the gag, and I'm tied up in chains, but other than that, I'm great!" came the sarcastic reply.
"That's not what I meant, but okay," said Sophie, worming her hand out of the crack in the wall. "Do you know how long it's been since we got here? What happened? Where's Fitz? And Biana, and Dex, and Keefe-" Sophie said, suddenly realizing how much she didn't know.
"Um. It's hard to keep track of time in the mirror, but maybe two days? You were out for a long time. I've been in here for maybe three. I don't know how you got here, because after I wrote that message- with a nasty cut on my arm that the mirror healed yesterday, the Neversen dragged me away. They left the message there to lure you in. I'm sorry, I didn't think that would happen. I don't know where your friends are, I'm sorry. But they aren't in here, so the're either safe, still stuck in the mirror, or…" Vartina trailed off, but Sophie knew what she would have said. They were dead. But Sophie tried as hard as she could to push that thought out of the way, and focus on… what mattered? Her friends mattered. They couldn't be dead.
"Oh. Oh. Okay. Well." Sophie stammered, thoughts still flooding her head.
"They're probably fine. I think they're hiding somewhere. It's not hard to hide. I was safe in here for years before I noticed the Neverseen were even inside. They must have a new member, a mirror manipulator. I don't really know what it's called, it's so rare. But it's the ability to travel through mirrors. I never knew of one besides myself before."
Sophie inhaled sharply. "You were… not always in the mirror?"
"No. I had a life. I had a family, friends, I was in Foxfire- and then the Cast came."
Sophie frowned. The Cast? She had never heard of anything to do with them. "What's the Cast?" she asked, puzzled.
"There was a time before the Neverseen, Sophie. All through our history, there have been rebellions. Only one has ever succeeded, and that was the Cast. The Cast created the division between the Talentless and the Talented. They created the Council and our governing system. Some of what they did was good. They built the crystal cities and the Council, like I said. But they also did evil.
"They forced elementalists, Hydrokinetics, Frosters, Pyrokinetics, Reflectors, like me- they forced them to retreat into their elements. I was banished to this mirror. I know that the Hydrokinetics went underwater, the Frosters into the mountains, the Pyrokinetics went into the deserts. There are probably a few Reflectors in the mirror realms, but I don't know of any that could help us. If I could just get out of these chains…" she sent the metal links clanking again, oblivious to Sophie's shock.
"What?" Sophie eventually gasped. "There was- what?"
"Honestly." Vertina was probably rolling her eyes right now, Sophie guessed. "You heard what I said. I also said that if you could get me out of these chains, I could open a portal out of the mirror for you. Or just out of this cell, because you're probably going to be all high and mighty and go save your friends as well."
"What? Oh. Yes. Yes, I have to save my friends." Sophie said. "I bet we could make this hole bigger if we tried, and then I could try to loosen the chains. Are they just long ropes, or are they cuffs?"
"Just ropes, I think. Padlocked," Vertina replied. "You can undo the locks with your telekinesis, right?"
Sophie let a small smile slip onto her lips. "I can try."
