Chapter 9
The next day started as most of her days did, she woke up early in the morning with the first light and had a small breakfast at her desk while reading, she had been starting an introduction into mind arts but had still to make any advance on it save for acquiring the basic knowledge. It was past time for her to fix that lack of skill, it would prove crucial for her in the future if she aimed to keep her control over the area and it's communities after all Negan wouldn't live forever.
In the grand scheme of things, what the two of them had set to build in those lands was just in the newly born phase. But eventually, once stability was achieved in the area, they dreamed of setting the groundwork for a kingdom. A proper kingdom to last the remainder of her over century-long lifespan, and for that, she had decided long ago that she would use her powers to build and secure that groundwork.
She already had some practical experience in building strong fortifications with magic, be it stone, wood or metal, she could handle it with enough control to build walls, roofs, and other basic shapes. In essence, it was just basic transfiguration, which was the hardest for her but possible, and charms work.
At her retreat for the nights in which she had to deal with her curse, she had built a small tower with stone and setting apart her lack of knowledge regarding foundations and the technicalities of architecture, she had done a pretty good job. It allowed her to spend those nights safe when in the past she would spend them running and fighting for survival.
Then there was the government-controlled knowledge of incredibly useful magic that her society used regularly, like portkeys, public transportation through fire and magically expanded space. Just those could open a lot of doors for their future, expand their reach and operational capabilities, but also there was what surely was a treasure trove of knowledge and artifacts deemed not wise to be unregulated or even to be of public domain.
All of it was waiting for her in New York within what was the remains of the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Conquering that skyscraper would bring so much opportunity, but as it was, for now, they could not spare the large number of people that it would take to go to New York and take control of it.
So it remained there sitting as an abandoned graveyard of deep magical roots and the largest population of witches and wizards in the US, within a sea of undead moving through the massive maze that was the ruins of New York. Not an easy job, not something she could do alone, too much that could go very wrong with such concentration of magic and death. Sophia suspected it would attract all kinds of dark creatures.
For now, the bulk of the work towards those goals was on Negan, but one day he would be gone and it would be up to her alone to step up. Her current job was to prepare for that future and help however she could to set the Sanctuary and the Saviors as unquestioned rulers of their lands, something she did willingly since they both shared that dream.
After finishing her studies she decided to spend some time walking the Sanctuary, greeting the people and the Saviors, during these opportunities she often offered medicinal help to whoever she found she could help with potions or her wand. It motivated her to keep a well-stocked collection of potions for different uses.
Something of note that she had found out that morning was that the man she had assaulted the previous day was alive and recovering. The cuts on his face had proven very hard to get under control enough to safely stitch, they kept opening up and bleeding, refusing to initiate the healing process. They looked like it had just happened, and the skin near them was showing furious reactions to something not wanted in his system.
It was Dr. Carson who called her attention over the wounded man and took her to see him at the infirmary.
Apparently the man only went by the name David and no one really knew about him from before the advent of the dead. He had survived her onslaught but he had not recovered consciousness since, remaining in a feverish daze the whole time.
"I've never seen a wound seemingly resist treatment. You did it to him, so I thought maybe you could tell me what to expect." He asked her in an objective manner, Dr. Carson always understood how things worked at the Sanctuary.
Sophia stood there staring at the results of her episode. "To be honest Doc, I kinda lost it on him. I just wanted to carve the word on him...the only time I saw a wound refuse to properly heal when it should, was my own face scar."
"I don't want to intrude, it's merely a professional curiosity, did your own wound happen in a similar way?" He asked her, she knew he was honest. Just a doctor interested in learning.
"No, it was a potion I created." She offered.
"Was the potion's purpose to create a mark like that?" He asked her pointing at the man's face.
"No, it was meant to blow up and kill someone."
The man sighed with a bit of disappointment. "That doesn't help much. Can you do something about it?... Do you want to do something about it?"
Gods am I the best one to make that choice?. She thought to herself, just by looking at his face left her a bad taste in her mouth.
"Fine, I'll heal him." She finally decided and set out to take two vials she would need, a purple wound cleaning potion and a strong healing potion, dittany wouldn't do with a wound that was apparently tainted with magic.
Is it dark magic even if I didn't use any spell? She thought as she worked on it. The reality was that she never thought much about it at the moment, she just took the wand and magically carved the man. It brought a lot of questions about what she called her intent-based magic.
It wasn't long before the man's wound started to slowly close, almost as if reluctantly, leaving an angry red scar that formed the word Rapey.
"Oh just a couple more questions, please Ms. Harpy?" Asked the doc in a very polite manner. She was ready to leave before he woke up but decided to indulge the doctor.
"Did you administer the torture curse?" He asked holding a pen and what appeared to be the patient's chart. It was all a bit funny to her.
The question caught her slightly by surprise, she wasn't aware the doctor knew about the spell. "Yes, one or two times I think." She said cautiously.
"Could you possibly clarify the number of times? It would be very helpful for future reference." He insisted with a polite smile.
"Erm… I...I started with one from the get-go."
"How long was that one maintained."
Oh my god, we are doing this I guess… "Well...It was just for a second or two… maybe three?" She finished.
"...Three seconds, ok, and then?" Dr. Carson said as he wrote on the file.
"I casted another one while I walked over to him...four or five seconds."
"Five seconds." He said under his breath and wrote it down in his file. "That's two times, any more?" Carson asked as casually as talking about some magazine quiz.
Sigh, I definitely did another one I think. She thought in a worrying realization.
"I think I did another one"
"Okay, can you recount how long it lasted." He asked her a bit more seriously now.
"I don't know...I was really...It was the worst one for sure." She admitted.
"Your memory is unclear at this point? Is it because of the spell or maybe you were blind with anger?"
"I was angry...but it made me feel good." She said, a bit shocked at her admission.
Sophia sat down at the chair near the Doctor's desk.
"The anger made you feel good?" He asked her.
"No… more like...his pain made my anger feel good...Some spells, it's like they resonate in me and I feel them differently." She tried to put into words for the Doc as well as for herself.
The doctor did spent a few seconds writing in the paper while ignoring her.
"Alright. If I go by my previous observation of this curse's effects, I would make the assumption that this man won't be able to hold to his sanity."
"Oh, It really depends on the person I think." She offered, after all, she had survived more than a few crucio curses at a younger age.
"And having met this man before as a patient, I would say he was not the most stable patient, to begin with." Said the man in a bit of contempt for the man that had been her victim.
They sat there in silence for a few seconds while she thought of what he had just said, not sure what to feel about it. "Hey, doctor Carson?" She asked, suddenly a bit more interested in the man.
"Ask away Ms. Harpy."
"It's been a year, maybe, since we took you from the Hilltop. How are you finding living here?" She asked the man. Doctor Carson was the older of two doctor brothers that lived in the Hilltop, they had recruited him as soon as they found out the Hilltop had two doctors.
"Oh...It took a bit to get used to, but I find that I get it these days. The rules, the code of conduct, it works. What we have here is good, not everyone gets it though nor is everyone strong enough to withstand it. But it makes for a strong community, and that's important these days." He finished calmly, clasping his fingers over his stomach as he reclined on his chair.
"Have you made any friends or something like that? Any lucky lady?" She asked him, just to make conversation.
"Oh no, I'm past fifty now. I lived through a lot and not just in the last few years, lost my partner, had to kill, lived on the road... I just want to live the rest of my days in comfort and safety, I'm done. All I have is my practice and I am fine with that."
"Do you miss your brother? Are you worried about him?"
The doctor sighed tiredly. "I do a bit, but he is a doctor which makes him valuable and smart enough not to get himself killed… Harlan and I had not been close for years before the end. He never liked my choice in regards to love and partnership." He finished, giving her a look.
"You mean like you fought over your wife or something?" She asked a bit confused, she knew the doctor always wore a ring on his left hand.
"No, more like he is a bit of a homophobe when it comes to his dear older brother."
"Oh, I didn't know… I'm sorry your brother is an ass." She tried to say, getting a new understanding of the man.
"I wouldn't say he is an ass, just human...I get it really...he grew up looking up to his older brother with a lot of respect, we were really close as kids and I know he thought the world of me. So when he found out, he never truly took it well. Not in a bad way, but it changed everything between us." Said the doctor with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
"Oh…" She just managed.
These kinds of conversations helped Sophia to better understand the length of a lifespan, even a no-maj one, Dr. Carson had lived a bit over fifty years and had a rich well of memories and experiences of all kinds. She thought about this as she got up and walked to the door.
Then a thought came to her mind, she doubted at first if shes should say it, but…
Wouldn't it be perfect for practice?... She argued in her mind.
"Thanks for the talk Doc. If he wakes up and he did lose his mind, would you keep him alive for me?" Having a living subject to practice her legilimency was just what she needed after all.
"No problem from me, I assume you would like me to keep that information to myself?" He asked her. That was Doctor Carson, a cold and pragmatic man who didn't think twice about handling a patient to her. He had to know that she wasn't going to heal him… was it his medicine background?
Then she thought about his question, it wasn't like Negan or some other lieutenants didn't know about how she sometimes… used subjects for her studies and practice...but it was generally dead ones.
Would it look too bad if this came out?...
"Sure, but if Negan or one of the lieutenants ask, you tell them the truth. Don't go risking your goals for anything, even for a pretty lady like myself. Just, ask them to keep it secret too." She reminded him as she walked out of the infirmary.
Yes, Sophia had used dead subjects for her magical development, the world was not short on them. It wasn't like they cared about some curses or charms thrown at them, but living subjects were something new for her.
She had joked about it with Negan once or twice, but she never meant it…
Was playing with living people going pass the limits? What were those limits? Were they of her making?... Sophia often tried not to think about what others might think about some of the things she did.
Not long after leaving the doc's office, Sophia was comfortably gliding over the lands in which their territory stretched. Her broom soaring high and fast.
The Saviors covered a mix of what used to be Maryland and Virginia, in which the three communities under their rule where located and their objective was to keep a good grasp of everything that went on there, although in truth it was too big even for their numbers so what they did was to patrol certain routes and advantage points.
She used to add to that effort herself by making sure to take a few laps around the area with her broom while taking note of anything of importance, as well as dropping in on the outpost from time to time.
So she was pleasantly surprised when she caught sight of a very rare scene in those days, while she often found nothing but wild nature over urban ruins and death, it seemed today she had found a young couple roller skating on the road.
When she lowered her broom to follow them from close behind, to her surprise, she saw that it was in fact Carl and the girl that she guessed was called Enid. They were skating along, holding hands and laughing in such an innocent and careless manner that she couldn't help but feel a bit jealousy over them. It was such a childhood thing to do, something that all three of them had lost the chance to live when the world ended, but these two lucky bastards were actually living it.
So...Innocent. She thought to herself as she studied their interactions. She had never experienced something like that, not even before the world fell apart.
To think about it now, she realized what a different childhood Carl and she had had before their world changed, died, reset so that they all found themselves in an equal situation. Carl had a cop for a dad and a great mom who doted on him, he probably went to a good school and lived in a nice house. Even back then when they were so young, Carl had his hero as his dad and tried to be like him, brave and confident.
Eliza and Sophia had bonded quickly as two girls of the same age do, but she had been different than her too, at least different than the old Sophia. Eliza was strong-willed and didn't scare easy, often wanting to go further away from the camp to explore with Carl and her. Both of the kids tried to push her to get over her fear and doubt at the time and promised to protect her. She used to looked up to them and wished she could be strong like them because back then she didn't believe in her own strength.
There was suddenly a shocked scream that caught her by surprise and took her out of her musings about childhood. "What do you want?" Asked Carl with contempt as he positioned in front of the girl as a shield.
The two love birds had noticed her hovering over their backs lost in thought, she must have looked a sight, lazily resting over her broom, her mask giving little away of her expression, her old and shabby pointy hat firmly on her head, and staring at them without saying a word.
"Ups...Sorry, you caught me peeping. It was just a nice scene." She said trying to sound cheerful as she dropped on the ground near them and pushed her broom up above, where it would hold or followed without getting in the way, and then waved her metallic right arm at the girl. "Hello!, you must be Enid. Sorry for what happened yesterday with that guy, and… for me kinda losing it I guess."
"Hi" Just managed shyly the girl, staring at her from behind Carl. Fear and a hint of confusion within her expressive eyes.
"Alright, if there is nothing else you should just leave us alone." He ordered, pointing at her in an annoying manner that was already getting under her nerves.
"Hold on a moment. No need to rush, it's early enough in the day still." She said trying to keep her annoyance down. "It doesn't look to me like you are scavenging, and the direction you are heading...Are you two going to the Hilltop?" She asked them with curiosity.
"What do you care? No one said we couldn't." challenged Carl.
"I guess, but still...Don't think that my people won't care if you people begin to move too much between the communities. And they will see you on the way there you know?"
The two kids looked at each other not knowing what to say exactly.
"Also, why go there? I can't see how Rick would let you travel to the Hilltop on foot." She continued placing a finger on the mask's chin as if wondering.
"What do you know about my dad!" Said Carl in an increasingly hostile mood, Enid seemed to be the more logical of the two because she was quick to place a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. After all, she had not shown any sign of hostility towards the kids
"You know what? I'll get to that in a minute. But first I would love to know how this scene came to be." She offered, walking a couple of steps closer to the two, she was now at arm's length and thankfully they didn't move back as she expected.
"It was me ok? I just wanted to go live at the Hilltop, I can't take it anymore back there." Admitted Enid coming forward and out of Carl's back. "He just wanted to make sure I got there safe."
Well, as long as they don't think they can move as they please. She thought to herself.
"Ok, I can believe that...Good old Carl being all brave and shit. Such a gentleman." She joked and playfully bumped his shoulder with her metallic fist.
"What do you know about me?" He asked with indignation.
"Well..funny thing is Carl, that I do know you a bit…" She said, knowing full well the bomb that she was dropping and enjoying his confusion. Sophia couldn't hold her heart from slightly racing.
"What?!" He exclaimed and tensed up, while Enid looked between them with worry.
"I know you think I died on that farm. I saw it, actually, when Rick shot me. Or more accurately, the poor dead girl that was magically disguised as me." She said cryptically, trying to contain her fun at messing with them.
Carl's face was bent with confusion and then his eyes went a bit wider in shock and fear. "What!? What do you mean? Did you do something to Sophia!?" He asked getting more agitated and stepping closer to her, his face close to her mask in menace.
"Sophia?" Enid asked shyly but was ignored by them.
"Carl, you dumb boy. I'm saying that I'm Sophia!" She said and held her eyes on him to see if he recognized them.
Carl went quiet for a few seconds while he stared at her eyes, searching for something. She couldn't make her mind if he recognized her eyes from years ago, but in the end, he took some steps back looking at her with disbelief. The face of the boy erasing the smile that she just noticed she had.
"I saw Sophia's dead corpse, you are just playing with me. Why would you say that?" He asked deeply perturbed, Enid seemed to catch what was going on and seemed a bit uncomfortable between the two.
"That wasn't me, someone took a dead girl's body and made it look like me with magic. The whole point was to get you all to move on, so I would give up on trying to escape." She told them with a hint of sadness at remembering those days. Carl was too confused to catch what she was saying, but she was glad to notice that at least Enid had understood the implications.
"Bullshit, prove it to me. Show me your face." He demanded.
"Oh come on, do I have to? You know, I do wear it to hide some shit, I'll do it but we have to go somewhere more private. Besides, technically I could make myself look like her with magic. And who's to say you will even recognize me. Look at you, you've grown a bunch, man!" She complained.
She didn't really look forward to showing her face outside just like that. Especially with a hostile Carl and Enid, who she barely knew. She often considered a bunch of stuff before taking her mask outside of the Sanctuary. Biggest of all was the disposition of who she was with.
"Can't you tell by her eyes if at least she has similar eyes to what you remember?" Tried to offer Enid as help.
"Dude, It's me. Remember how it used to be us two and Eliza? The three of us at the Atlanta camping, remember the cute rag-doll that Eliza gave me as a goodbye gift?. Remember the CDC? And the Herd that split me from the group?"
The mention of their memories shocked Carl, he went pale at her words and couldn't get his eyes off of her, his face full of disbelief and… was that betrayal?.
Then he slowly shook his head from side to side, trying to deny the facts.
"No, you are just messing with me, you are just a cruel bitch who likes to play with people's memories." He spat at her with disgust.
"Carl!" It was Enid who chastised the young man, placing a tender hand on his chest to hold him back.
"I don't care who you are, the Sophia I knew was a kind girl who wouldn't hurt a soul. You are something else. And even if you are my old friend Sophia, you are so corrupted now that I would never call you by that name. You are a Harpy. A witch." He said with no intention of stopping, marking every statement with a hard finger jab on her shoulder. His words hit harder than she had ever expected, she was already feeling the tightness in her throat and the fire within her chest.
"Fuck you Carl! What? Was meek fucking little victim Sophia much more convenient for you!? You don't know shit about the life I had before or even what I lived after we split!" She spat, shoving back the boy with her hand. "Do you want me to go back to being that drone? Too scared to do anything? Would that be better for your ego, sir!?"
"Nah, I would have loved it if Sophia could find herself and became stronger as her mom did. But what I saw you do yesterday was super dark, I could tell, you really enjoyed making that man suffer. You killed that old man and took his head to Negan, you took Glenn away and talked about him as if he was a toy or something. You are just like him, killing innocent people to make a point." He pushed into her hand in defiance and held his eyes on her, they were so close to starting dealing blows now.
"Who the fuck is really innocent these days? Grow up, Carl. How are you all different from us when you killed all those men and women?. Sorry but you all got what you deserved and I hope you learned the lesson. What Negan and I are building is bigger than all of this shit, we are past that already, we are better than that, do we hold a grudge about it? No, we get you in line and put you to work." She said backing away from her old friend, lest she slapped him with her right hand and took half his teeth off, she turned her back to them, several steps behind them a group of six or seven undead corpses were shambling towards them.
"I would shoot you or Negan down the first chance I got. We'll never forget what you two did to Abraham, to Glenn." Stated Carl, with strong resolution. Sophia turned back to him and just stared at him with complete incredulity.
"I can't believe you just said that… When the fuck are you going to learn? When are you going to see that what happened that night didn't come out of nowhere? Do you actually think that killing over thirty Saviors in a night is nothing compared to the two poor fucks who paid for it? Because it sounds to me like you all got a great fucking deal." Sophia yelled with exasperation.
"What do you think will happen if you try to kill me or Negan? Don't you care about the poor fuck who will pay for your revenge? Because I assure you, the punishment won't be what you expect it to be. And you will have to live with that, you know Daryl has been having a hard time living with the knowledge that he is responsible for what happened to Glenn." She finished.
Then she was caught by surprise when Enid came up to her and slapped her face, mask and all with wet eyes and pain on her face. "Daryl did nothing to Glenn and you know it, I don't know what you did to him but it is all on you and Negan. Not on Daryl."
Sophia reeled back from the force of the slap, she felt nothing but the push, but it still shocked her that the girl had done that.
"Gods, calm the fuck down about Glenn already. He is not dead you know? I could fucking save his life, but since we need to babysit all of you bunch of assholes, I can't set out to get what I need to save him." Her statement left them unable to answer. She couldn't blame them, after all, it was hard to believe that someone, as wounded as Glenn, could be saved.
Sophia turned around, annoyed at how the situation had developed, to check on the walkers behind them and decided that they were close enough now that she had to deal with them.
"Stay back, I got them." She warned them and taking out her wand she swung her arm in a circular pattern around her head while silently conjuring a fire whip that grew in length and brilliance as she kept circling her wand, then with a sharp movement, the fire moved like a lasso and encircled the small group of undead. Finally, she pulled hard with her wand and the fire lasso closed on the bodies, severing them neatly in half, leaving on the floor a mess of bodies and limbs.
It made her feel better, that the two teens were left with their jaws open at the display of her power.
"Anyway." She said as she walked back to the other two. "I already made a deal with Rick about fixing up Glenn if everything goes smooth" She said and gave both of them a pointed look. "So no doing any stupid shit, you hear?"
"See!? You are extorting us, you are threatening us with the life of Glenn." Accused Carl.
"So what? Glenn was no saint either, I'm just saying that we can be reasoned with." She said making sure to look straight at Enid.
"Your mom-" Started Carl.
"Stop fucking bringing up my mom, Daryl already told me she died in Georgia, so leave her out of this. Let's go, I'll walk you two to the Hilltop in case you come across some of my people." She said annoyed and started walking ahead of them.
"You know I have to say, this is not how I thought it would go." She said dejectedly.
There was no answer from the couple.
She ended up escorting them from close above, making sure to give them some space after the heated discussion. She too had remained annoyed afterward and sulked most of the time while making sure they stayed in view, it was definitely not how she ever expected that conversation to go. Carl didn't give a shit if she was Sophia, all he cared about what had happened that night, what a hypocritical little shit he was being. His friends killed tens of hers and when they kill two of them, now they are monsters.
Even if he killed me and Negan or either one of us, it would surely end in massacre all around. What a waste. She mused, resting over her broom. Sophia couldn't help to start feeling a bit hopeless regarding the whole balance with the communities that they aimed to forge, Negan would say that Alexandria was just introduced and that the Hilltop was fairly new still, but there was a spot of pessimism that she couldn't get rid of and it made her stomach burn just thinking about how far they might have to go to get them to yield.
Lost in thought, Sophia lazily climbed higher up in the air once she knew they would be arriving at the Hilltop, and observed with interest the trucks that were parked outside, while the gates of the community remained open with people coming in and out.
She could divine that it was Simon, giving them the first introduction to their new handler, nothing unexpected. But she lowered herself toward the two teens and called their attention
"Heads up, the Saviors are visiting the Hilltop. You should hide for now." She told them and when she saw their worried faces, added. "Nothing to worry about, it's just business." She offered to try to calm them down.
"I'll go ahead to keep an eye on things there, you guys wait till they are gone and then get in. Don't do anything stupid, please." She said pointedly, giving Carl a meaningful look through her mask and then climbed high up on her broom to place a disillusionment charm on herself without being seen.
After all, the last time they saw me was that night, and now they must be stressed enough. She though.
Sophia jumped from the broom and plummeted to the ground in her usual fashion, this time levitating herself at the last moment in order to land in the most stealthy way possible, and aimlessly wandered the place looking at her people on the job. They were all behaving, but most of them seemed to be crammed inside the mansion, presumably with Jesus and Simon.
She sneaked up to the office window and sure enough inside what used to be Gregory's office, now Jesus and Simon were having a tense conversation. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could tell that Simon was being deceptively polite and friendly in his very much passive-aggressive style.
Jesus, on the other hand, wasn't looking as in order as he used to, his eyes were tired and baggy, his beard was unkempt and his generally kind attitude was not present. He actually reminded her of how Daryl or Rick would deal with them, reluctantly complying but with no pretense of friendship.
Sophia stood there hiding under camouflage for the remainder of the Savior's visit and was glad to find that there was no issue with anything and that they even collected the expected tribute early.
After they concluded the conversation, Jesus walked Simon out of the gate and they all left with smiles on their faces, then he headed back to the mansion in a pissed off manner. She decided to stay and wait for Enid to get inside so she could say farewell for now, and talking with Jesus about how the meeting had gone wouldn't hurt. So Sophia followed the man inside in order to talk in privacy without scaring the other residents so soon after the last time.
Jesus walked inside the Mansion but avoided the office, instead, heading straight to the stairs towards the rooms. Sophia followed as quietly as she could and keeping an eye around, the disillusionment charm was not exactly invisibility and an especially perceptive eye could catch her as she moved. He headed straight to one of the dormitories and to her surprise, he closed the door quickly behind him, something that she couldn't get around without alerting him on her presence. And something told her that she should lay low and see.
Notes:
I know, abrupt ending, that's why this week will be another double drop. I shouldn't because I'm really stuck right now with writing and I'm burning through my backlog of chapters, but I can't help myself.
