A familiar figure approaching the new waywards...
"Granite?!" she shouted as they appeared in Alluveterre.
"Sophi-"
"That was Granite!"
"Sophi-"
"What was he doing with the new waywards?!"
"Sophi-"
"I have to talk to Mr. Forkle about this! He has some explaining to do! I mean seriously, what the-"
"SOPHIE!" Tam yelled.
"What?!" she snapped back.
"You've faded."
Surprised, she looked at her hands. The color was almost completely gone, leaving her skin a faint ash grey. She must have lost concentration when she saw Granite. Sophie scowled.
"Of course I am." she sighed.
"I'll take you to see Physic." Linh said, gently taking Sophie's hand and leading her to the infirmary.
Luckily, Physic was there, organizing her office and getting ready to go home. She looked up when the girls came in, adjusting her mask. When she saw Sophie, she sighed wearily.
"You faded? What happened?"
"I lost concentration right before we leapt." Sophie mumbled.
"Okay. I can fix this with the right formula. What made you lose your concentration?"
"I saw Granite with the new waywards. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Sophie asked, slouching over to sit in one of the beds.
"No. They don't really tell me anything." she responded, frowning. "Well, you're going to have to miss dinner, I'm sorry. I don't have limbium free fade fuel on me right now, so you'll have to wait while I go get some." she said, turning around and picking up her medical bag.
"That exists?" Sophie asked.
"Yes. I'll have to ask Squall... Her husband... " Physic mumbled, trailing off into her thoughts. "Well, you wait here. I'll be back soon enough."
She pulled out a leaping crystal and vanished.
Sophie turned to Linh.
"You can go ahead to dinner. You don't have to stay here."
"Really? Are you sure?" Linh asked.
Sophie nodded.
"Okay. I'll see you later." Linh said, leaving with one last sympathetic look.
Sophie sighed. She settled in the bed to wait, and ended up drifting off to sleep.
.•°'°•..•°'°•..•°'°•..•°'°•.
When she woke up a few hours later, Physic said she could go.
"Don't I need the fade fuel?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"I gave it to you while you slept." said Physic, leading Sophie to the door. "Calla saved you some dinner. Now shoo please, so I can go home."
Sophie thanked her, then started towards her room so she could change out of her Exilium robes. Her thoughts drifted to Granite.
What if this connects to the conversation I heard last night?
Are they bringing the new waywards here?
What if-
Lost in her thoughts, she slammed into something- someone? She groaned, standing up and rubbing her back.
"I am so sorry! I wasn't paying attention, I didn't mean to knock you down! "
"It's fine I wasn't watching where I was going either."
"Foster?"
Sophie glanced up and found herself lost in a pair of ice blue eyes.
Keefe's eyes.
For a moment they just stared at each other in shock.
"Keefe..."
"Foster! You're alive? I missed you… so, so much. " he cried pulling her into a bone crushing hug.
"I... missed you too, Keefe." She said, hesitantly hugging him back.
"It's been such a long time! You're so much taller." he pulled back to look at her, "And cuter."
Sophie blushed. If she was honest with herself (and she wasn't about to be), Keefe was a lot cuter now, too.
"Honestly, I can't believe -" Keefe was cut off by Tam's door slamming open from down the hall.
"Could you two please be quiet?! I'm trying to sleep! I understand that you're having a touching reunion with your boyfriend or whatever, but I need you to take your loud squealing somewhere else." Tam snapped, before shutting the door with a loud crash.
"Tam!" Sophie yelled, flushing red as a flaredon.
"Boyfriend?" Keefe asked, turning to her with a smirk.
"Really? That's what you got from that?" Sophie was blushing harder now.
Keefe laughed.
"Come on. Dex is going to have a heart attack when he sees you." Keefe said, walking towards his room, and beckoning for her to follow.
Running to catch up, Sophie felt her stomach drop. "Dex is here?"
"Yeah. You go to Exilium, right?" he asked.
She nodded, gesturing to her clothes.
"Wait. You're the one who led me to the infirmary? Oh, that makes so much sense... You really have a crazy number of powers, you know that, right-"
"Keefe. You're getting off topic."
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Anyways, Dex, Biana, Fitz, and I all enrolled in Exilium. You were there for the arch thing, right?"
"So then... Dex and Biana are the Technopath and Vanisher?"
"Yep." Keefe said, stopping at a door. "Dex and Fitz are staying in here with me. Biana is either with you or that cool water girl."
The door was flung open by a tall strawberry blonde boy with an annoyed expression on his face. When he saw Keefe, he rolled his periwinkle eyes.
"Keefe, what were you even- Sophie?"
"Dex?