Chapter 23
After enjoying a healthy breakfast with her mother in the morning, Sophia flew back to the Sanctuary, all the way trying to get her mind back in the game. The peaceful time with her mother had been wonderful but it also felt so removed from it all that she feared she had been disconnected from Sanctuary. It was a very uncomfortable thought that fueled anxiety in her chest.
So lost in thought she was that without thinking she found herself past Sanctuary and on the way to Alexandria again when she still had to deliver the Kingdom stash she carried in her pointy hat.
Plus I told Eugene I would help him with whatever project he had. She thought as she turned herself around and raced back home.
I should just set him up with the ammo production.
Sophia had to tsk in annoyance when she thought of that, it was a clear sign of just how far they were spread out that Eugene had been mainly stuck there instead of filling their ammo supply. The fact that she had to handle Alexandria Alone and the Sanctuary was operating with minimum enforcers, all had to do with their lack of able hands. They were easily the biggest community on the east coast, but they still lacked people to manage their territory.
At times like that, she couldn't stop thinking how big their territory was and how they would be able to manage without her, was this even the best use of her time? Could she be doing something else to help them?
From up in the air, the landscape they aimed to control was immense, a scenery of green life and dead cement fusing together with wide roads still visible, the sheer size of all sometimes filled her with doubts and made her question everything.
"Stop." She had to say to herself. "Bottomline, I'm doing what I think it's best and if that changes, I'll just adapt." She assured herself while flying.
"Besides I've just basically disarmed the Kingdom and if my plan works they won't look at us to blame."
She arrived at the Sanctuary before midday and went straight for Laura, who was talking over the radio with some of her men as she sat in an office that overlooked the main area where the workers hanged.
Sophia walked up to her while she spoke with someone on the other side and started searching the inside of her hat for the haul she had taken from the Kingdom.
"Here, I brought this from Alexandria but they are still scavenging for shit so more will come in soon." She explained as she dropped on the table a few boxes of medicine she took from their infirmary, gauze, and other medicinal supplies it wasn't that much. The woman finished dishing orders through the radio and looked at her in amusement.
"What are you doing pickups now?" Laura asked, she reached to one of the desk's drawers and took from it a very worn notebook then opened it. Inside it was a list of items, numbers, and names, where she started writing in all that she had dropped. What it was, how many, by who, from where, and when all of it was very orderly registered for their logs.
"I don't remember the last time I wrote you in my logs" Laura continued.
"Well since I'm handling Alexandria now, I guess you'll be writing it a lot more." She answered. "I have more too, but it's from the Kingdom and it wasn't a drop." She informed her.
Laura paused in interest at what she had told her and looked at her with questioning eyes. "Oh yeah? Why would that be? Does Gavin know?"
The look that Laura was giving her made her wonder if she should have delivered the ammo to Gavin instead. "I mean it's ammo, which is not something he collects." Sophia tried to argue.
The woman looked a lot more concerned about it now. "What do you mean? I thought part of the deal was that they could stay armed."
"Ok, here's the deal. We decided with Negan that if I could make it so they had less ammo stored for the future it would be better for us. But then I thought, why not take everything from them and blame it on someone from the Kingdom?" She explained, smiling and feeling proud of her idea although it didn't seem to convince Laura, who looked at her skeptically.
"But what if they blame it on Gavin? Wouldn't that cause trouble?" She asked her a little worried but Sophia dismissed her question with a wave of her hand.
"Don't worry, I made it look like he was defecting. Running away or something." She told her, then instead of sticking her hand inside her hat, Sophia took out her wand.
"It'll be easier this way." She said and then with a simple wand motion she intoned. "Accio Kingdom stash." clearly and boxes filled with ammunition she took from their stock started flying out of the hat and placing themselves on the floor near the desk. It was a lot, enough to reach from the floor and past the desk.
Laura looked impressed at the amount. "This is a lot...How much can you fit in there?" She asked, amazed at the sight.
"A crazy stupid amount." She told her offhandedly as she focused on stacking the loot neatly. "And no, I can't live in there." She quickly added. There seemed to be different kinds of space extension charms that allowed one to create all kinds of living spaces within a wide range of objects, she couldn't wait to get her hands on that piece of magic, but it was sadly beyond her reach at the time.
"Whatever." Said Laura as she started to write down everything in her notebook. "Eugene was looking for you last night." She informed her.
"Well, I'm actually looking for him now." Sophia said and she cast a glance around the area to see if she found him. "Where is he now?"
"Playing with the comm system, he says he can improve our range and shit." Laura told her and pointed with the pen she was using vaguely somewhere behind her.
Sophia had an idea of where he could be so it didn't take much time to find him, he was bent over a table with a lot of what seemed to be radio parts and cables, as he mumbled to himself.
"Eugene!" She said loudly to scare him, the man did a short little jump which almost flipped over the table he was using and Sophia tried to hold her laugh at the perpetually tense man. Then the man turned towards her and regarded her with his usual serious expression.
Sophia sauntered over to the man's worktable and casually picked a piece of what looked to be a computer board. She really had no idea about that stuff.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Assessing the possibility of a total revamp of our comm system. Can you activate your magical girl powers and fix some of these?" He asked her.
"I better not, I'll probably make it worse." She quickly answered. "You were looking for me last night?"
Eugene took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her, it was a map with some drawn direction in them. "In there you'll find the know-how to locate the slats we talked about for the fence."
Sophia looked at it thoughtfully, she really didn't think it was something that necessary when she could build a concrete wall or something with a little more effort.
"Fine, I'll get them. But the first order of today is setting you up with the bullet making operation." She took out her hay and safeguarded the map inside, hoping she didn't forget about it, then placed it back on her head.
"Do you have it right here!?" Asked Eugene, giving her a look.
"No, I don't know where it is. I was thinking we could take a pickup or a truck and head over there to get them." She offered "What do you think? Road trip?" She asked.
The man looked at her with a bit of reluctance. "I believe giving you the directions would be a far superior cost-efficient solution that would ensure my safety as well."
"Ha!" Sophia didn't bother to hide her laughter when she heard the man's excuse.
"Oh, come on Eugene! I need you to tell me what to bring." She argued, it really was better if she just went herself and brought back everything, but the truth was that she wanted to spend more time with the newly recruited ex-Alexandrian. It was a little too easy the way he had turned on his friends.
"I can concisely detail everything that we need for the operation." He argued trying to avoid her gaze.
"Don't you feel all cooped up in here? Are you going to send poor old Harpy out there alone?" Sophia insisted, a little amused, that she had to cajole the man to actually go out of the Sanctuary when once he was taken there by force.
"You practically live out there…" Eugene said and then sighed. "But I guess it would be better with a critical eye on the field." He finally admitted.
"Great!" She exclaimed with a loud clap of her hands. "You drive. Meet you outside." She finished and walked out.
"Wait, now!?" Asked Eugene as she walked away and she had to smile as she walked away quickly.
Rick stopped the car near what he thought was the meeting point, he was accompanied by a silent but guarded Daryl and Michonne on the passenger side, as well as a trunk loaded with weapons and ammo. It was around midday and he could clearly see his surroundings from the driver's seat, of course, he couldn't be too much on the defense, the whole goal of the meeting was to establish their willingness to be friends. So he took out the key from the ignition and waited patiently, making sure to keep his hands still and as he scanned the surroundings with his eyes.
Behind him, Daryl was getting restless and he couldn't blame him, they were stopping at what surely was a setup but when reaching a community there had to be some trust if they wanted to be heard.
He pulled the key from the ignition sighed, resting his head back on the seat and it wasn't even a minute pass until a figure suddenly appeared in the rearview mirror, a female pointing a rifle at them. Daryl turned and reached for his gun, but Michonne stopped him.
"It's them." She managed to say before a couple of women rushed towards the car from the sides.
Their doors flew open and the women pulled them out of the car with guns on their heads.
"My name is Rick Grimes." He started saying as they had them go prone on the ground. "I'm looking for Natania, She was supposed to know of our arrival." He tried to talk without getting dirt on his mouth, but the hand pushing him against it didn't help.
"We are friends of Ezekiel!" Tried to explain Michonne, but it didn't seem to have much effect on their captors. Then, after being thoroughly patted and bereft of their weapons, they heard the voice of a woman from behind their backs.
"I'm Natania, leader of Oceanside. Rick, Michonne," She said, giving them a look, then turned to Daryl who was standing up again. "And you must be the one who's looking for a place to hide." She said, her voice considerably more tense before looking back at Rick. "Your friend Aaron speaks well of all three of you."
And before they could reply, she nodded to the women who had held them at gunpoint.
"The keys." A young one asked him, holding her hand out. Rick knew she was asking for the keys to the car, so he handed it to her and she drove it ahead of them. The others pushed them to walk after Natania.
"Is the Kingdom's envoy here already?" Rick asked once he caught up to Natania.
"Not yet." She answered curtly.
They walked for a little while more until they came upon a wide double gate made of wood that led up to a campground where many other women were watching them with curiosity. The car with their stuff had been parked on the side.
Then, from between the women, Rick saw a very gladdened Aaron come up and greeted them with Tara following behind.
"Miss Natania." Michonne said cutting them off. "What do you know?" She asked.
Natania huffed in annoyance and walked to the side. "First we get inside." She said and walked up to a little wooden cabin.
They all got inside and even some of the women followed them, bunching up to the side and curiously listening.
Natania sat down on a bench near a table in front of them. Rick and his companions remained standing.
"A few days ago I received a message from Ezekiel, a name I never wanted to hear again. He and his people turned their backs on us when we tried to fight against Negan, so his words of rebellion were a surprise to me. Has the king found his spine?" She asked with contempt
"I know a little of the history between all of you." Rick started. "Although we feel like he was wrong in abandoning you all, I believe the situation has changed since that time, and there could be a real chance to stop the Saviors. If we join togethe-"
Natania tsked with a sour face and held a hand to stop him. "My people will never fight them again, I can lend some support but I'll never make them fight again."
Rick had to hold back a bitter retort about the woman's stubbornness and luckily Michonne interceded.
"There are more of us now, we are three communities and their leaders are ready to come together at the right time. We are not going to ask you to fight for us, but the Saviors have us disarmed and heavily controlled. If we could count on your help, we promise to take any precaution to protect Oceanside." She argued expertly. The woman, Natania, regarded her for a moment and then nodded.
"Let's talk about all this I've been hearing of change and new options." She asked and took out a letter from her shirt. Rick assumed it was the letter that Ezekiel had sent her after the meeting. "The Saviors are rightfully the strongest in the block, and that is not even counting the Harpy watching their backs from the sky. What is it you intend to do?" She asked them.
Rick sighed and tried to put his thoughts in order. "The Harpy is not the cold monster that you and Ezekiel had thought of."
"Of course she's not a monster, she is human, which is worse. A young one to boot." Natania interrupted him.
"We know...we also knew her from the beginning when everything fell, she and her mother were part of our group of survivors." He told her and this caught the woman's attention. "Currently the Harpy has been reunited with her mother and that alone is a good sign." He said.
"You expect a mother to go against her daughter?" A woman from the crowd asked in disbelief.
Rick looked back at the people and saw doubt in their faces.
"No we do not, and we are not in any hurry to take down the Harpy as she is the daughter of our dear friend too." He assured them.
"But as long as the Harpy is with them they are unstoppable." Natania exclaimed darkly and the women in the small crowd nodded and whispered among each other.
"The leaders of the three communities, Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom have all recently gathered in secret." Michonne started, she looked at the women witnessing the meeting as well as Natania. "We agree that there is no solution in sight, but we also believe that after recent events in the Harpy's life we could find someday soon a small chance to defeat them. We are talking of intelligence about the Harpy herself that we could gather from her mother and use to our advantage, we are talking about a possible change in allegiances or even a peaceful resolution with the Harpy vouching for the communities. All of it is on the table the closer she gets to her mother, who is decidedly against the Saviors and their goals."
"You shouldn't trust her." Natania interrupted suddenly. Her comment left the room in silence, only for Daryl to break it.
"You don't know shit about Carol, old hag." He grunted.
"Do you have children?" Natania asked, looking squarely at Daryl and ignoring the insult. Daryl didn't respond but the old woman took it as a negative.
"Then it is you the one who doesn't know her." Then she turned to Michonne.
"And you?" She asked again.
Michonne kept her eyes on the old woman, Rick knew this was a subject that Michonne didn't like to discuss. "I was." She just said.
"You are." Answered back Natania.
"I am too, I lived to see children and grandchildren. I lived to see most of them die." Continued Natania looking between Rick and Michonne.
"I've seen the Harpy torture innocent people, old and young, I've seen her kill without an ounce of regret. As much as I would like to say otherwise, that wrongness is awfully normal for children who had to grow up in this world without a proper guide. But the Harpy is far from normal, isn't she? She's powerful, she has the power to kill everyone here in a matter of minutes." Said the old woman, then turned back to Michonne.
"What would you do, if your children came back to you like that? Corrupted, permanently wronged by this world, and so volatile? If her friends, the people that follow her, are the same people that executed all of our husbands and children." The woman's words left the room in somber silence again. Rick looked at Michonne and saw her hands pressed tightly in a mist and her face straining to keep straight.
"Even if your kids don't come back like that. You feel it, right?" Natania asked Michonne. "Now imagine what your friend Carol must feel about her daughter, there is a terrible turmoil inside her heart… You can't trust your friend because she can't trust herself."
He heard, rather than saw the way his brother left the small tightly packed room after the woman's words. A loud swear and a slam of the door, he had to let the man be.
Rick took the cue there to change the subject and give Michonne a break. "We are not in a hurry, and we will make sure to keep an eye on Carol." He promised. "We only seek a place to store our weapons and ammo while we prepare for that chance. They have no knowledge about Oceanside and their sights are set on us. If we could keep our weapons safe from them here until we find the answer, we could be ready to act within the day. Of course, when the time comes, we will welcome anyone who wants to join the coalition to liberate the communities."
The muttering among the women grew in intensity at their request until Natania held a hand to stop them. "The more time passes, the more you will put us in danger. I can only promise you help for a year, no more. If need be I will give you my own guns and ammo too." She said then looking sadly she stopped and looked at her people. "If any of you wishes to fight the Saviors, who massacred our husbands and children, do so. But if you want my advice, don't seek out revenge. Do it, if it is your conviction that it's the right thing to do." She advised the women who she led.
Suddenly they heard someone call from outside. "It's from the Kingdom!"
"Let them in." Commanded Natania and the rickety door of the cabin opened, letting in a woman who Rick recognized as Nabila, a farmer from the Kingdom and close friend of the King and another man who looked to be in the kingdom's fighter attire.
"Natania." Nabila said smiling then walked over to the woman and hugged her with a warm smile. "It's been a long time, we thought you all were dead." She said with tears in her eyes.
"I'm glad you are alive too." Natania curtly said.
The man she came with, walked up to Rick and they shook hands. "We just got news from the Kingdom." He started, his tone somber and sad. "Someone robbed all our ammo stock. It looks like one of us wanted to make a run for it."
Rick and Michonne shared a shocked look between each other, the Kingdom had just been disarmed by...treason? Desertion?
"Did they catch them? Were they working for the Saviors?" Michonne asked.
"Unclear, that is all they told us over the radio." William explained then turned towards Natania. "We are going to need to store whatever we get from now on in here if it's not too much of a problem."
Natania sighed and turned to Rick with a look that hid a hint of disappointment. "Your dream is slipping further away Rick." She declared. "Who's to say that you will even be prepared to fight them when the opportunity comes."
Everyone turned silent at the grim news, the little flame that Rick was desperately fanning had become considerably weaker and all he could do was try to deal with it.
I know this is them, maybe even the Harpy did it...Worse is, that it means they either know something is happening or they are preparing just in case. He thought with a bitter taste in his mouth, then he felt the warm and strong hand of Michonne take his own and when he looked at her she gave him a reassuring nod.
Yes, we can only keep going. Whatever it takes. He told himself.
"It won't be that far off if we can count on your weapons and fighters...I know what they did to all of you is hard to conceive for me, but we would be fighting so that it doesn't happen again." He told everyone, not only Natania.
"We all lived through the harshest trials and many were lost on the way…" He continued and then turned towards Natania. "I understand not wanting your people to suffer them again, or our young ones to experience them as well, but that is why we fight. That is why we keep going and facing our fears so that our loved ones don't have to experience them too." He finished and stood there quietly.
Michonne continued on her own. "We could all have a home where each of the communities is free to rule and manage themselves, where the cooperation between everyone ensures the survival of all the communities and keeps the progress going. Or we could allow this fucked up feudal system that Negan is setting for himself and the Harpy, what happens next will probably set the stage for the future of this area. You all had to run once, you had to fight them alone. Now we are all together, it's up to you." She finished expertly and immediately she got the people of Oceanside talking again until Natania raised her hand and silenced them again.
"We will see how it all develops, if the Kingdom needs a safe place to store their weapons, that we can give, as well as for the other communities. For now, stay and you can leave tomorrow. Your friend Daryl can hide here for the time too." Natania ordered and with that, the meeting was finished.
Rick, Aaron, Tara, and Michonne followed Natania outside.
"We brought the weapons and ammo that we have on the car, you can take them now. But I need to keep a few so that we can offer them to the Saviors. I don't like it but they need to think we are giving them what we have." He explained and the woman just nodded, then ordered a few others to go get the car.
Afterward, the four of them walked over to the beach near Oceanside where they found Daryl as he stood there observing the shore in silence. Rick had forgotten what a relaxing effect the sound of the water crashing on the sand had on him, the fresh air smell.
"They said you can stay here for a while." Rick told his brooding friend.
"Yeah, Carol said she didn't know what Sophia could do if she found me." He said bitterly.
"We are not afraid of having you in Alexandria." Michonne stated, in Rick, there was a fear about it, yet he couldn't live knowing he had given the back to his closest friend.
"She's right, but do what you want." He told Daryl. "I…" Rick started, unsure of what to say, he could tell that the man was struggling with the situation.
Daryl spat on the beach sand in front of him and sat down. "I'll stay. You four go back."
Rick didn't like it one bit but the truth was that like it or not, they had to suck up to them until they got at least ready to do something. At that time, all the communities were more or less disarmed. There was nothing they could do.
Sophia and Eugene had taken a good part of the day setting up the workshop for their bullet factory, they installed everything within one of the compounds that surrounded the Sanctuary and when she left Eugene, he was already running numbers on materials and production rate.
Negan had congratulated her about the Kingdom heist and they both shared a laugh as she told him about taking the form of the King's right-hand man and had him be witnessed going to the armory. She truly believed that with the Kingdom's hit and the bullet factory, they had all but solved their issue with the communities and Sophia gradually felt the weight leave her shoulders.
During their trip, Eugene had filled her ears with ideas for the future and how valuable things like monopolizing the production of ammunition would be for the Saviors rule. The man was certainly going to create jobs for the workers, he wanted to build mills, water distribution systems, installation of solar panels and all kinds of other key requirements for what he equated to advancing to the next age.
Her own favorite of those projects was the mass production of building materials to enclose the Sanctuary with giant walls that she could build with magic, much like preparing a meal with each ingredient and the right spell. Immediately she had jumped and started talking about enclosing the biggest amount of land possible, but Eugene had shown her that even if they started small, they could easily expand later. Thus saving extra work. They even had a quarry not far off which they could use for materials.
She understood the man a little better then, he had discovered purpose in lending his effort and knowhow for progress, as well as finding his own perceived value increase in his eyes.
Sophia thought about these things as she leisurely flew towards her mother's home for a late afternoon visit, she had chosen to do so instead of visiting Alexandria first, hoping to catch Rick at night if he came back by the time she arrived there.
She found her mother in the front garden of her house, within the safety of the fences that surrounded the perimeter. The woman was on her knees working on the earth, surely for a future vegetable garden or something like that. Sophia landed outside the fence and smiled when her mother turned back and saw her, signaling her to go in.
"Hey, mom!" She greeted her and crossed the fence through the old iron gate. Her mother stood up and shook the dirt from her clothes, a warm smile on her face that easily reached her eyes.
Maybe her time here is doing some good after all. She thought happily.
"Hello, darling." Her mother said to her and moved to plant a kiss on her cheeks, then realized that she was wearing her mask, so she conformed with a hug. Sophia ignored the awkwardness, she would take it off soon enough if they got inside later.
"Having a nice day outside I see. It's a nice day to work in a garden." Sophia said gazing at the sky.
"Do you like gardening too?" Asked her mother pleasantly surprised.
"Of course, I even have a little landscaping project going on. But it's been going really slow." She informed her, the woman looked at her interested in it.
"Yeah? What is it?" Her mother asked as she went back to work on the ground.
Sophia knelt beside her and watched her work, taking out shrubs and loosening the dirt. "There's this tree that is great for protecting against evil, so I've been planting saplings here and there. I wanted to encircle the surrounding land near the Sanctuary to keep the dark stuff away." She told her mother, the woman was focused on her work, but nodded and looked at her while she spoke.
"What evil does it-" Started asking her mother, but they were both suddenly alerted by the screeching of tires coming closer to the house.
Sophia stood up and prepared for anything, but her mother walked towards the fence, her face filled with worry.
Then it came into view, it was an old pickup truck that she recognized as the one that the Kingdom used for their drops with Gavin, the truck raced towards the hose and carelessly slammed the brakes, stopping just outside the gate. Her mother opened it quickly and Sophia could already see the King and some others from the kingdom move quickly, carrying the pale body of a young man, she recognized it as Benjamin the young fighter that the King liked to keep close. His body was limp while he was being carried to the house.
"I'm sorry, but this place was the closest." The king started, he talked to her mother but spared a glare at her. His mood was very tense and it didn't help that everyone else was panicking too.
"It's alright!" Her mother said, dismissing the apology, and moved to open the door of the house. "Quickly, put him on the table." She said and the men followed.
Everyone rushed inside, Sophia behind, trying to keep calm despite the tension and sudden chaos around her.
"What happened?" She asked the King, but he ignored her. They were now taking the pants off Benjamin, and they all saw the very damning gunshot wound right over where the femoral artery was roughly located. If only for a second, because blood poured out of the wound copiously.
Her mother tried to stem the bleeding with her hands, but the blood just kept flowing through her fingers with the strength of each of the boy's heartbeats. "He is bleeding too much, I don't think I can stop it fast enough." She told Ezekiel, who looked more and more distressed.
Sophia never saw that kind of desperation in the face of the man, he was suddenly just a pitiful man in her eyes, it would be a lie to say she didn't enjoy the fear in his eyes.
Her mother was right, there was no way they could save him fast enough, not without magic. It seemed the King thought the same because he turned towards her and rushed over to her grabbing her hard by the shoulders. She wasn't afraid, her wand was in her hand from the moment they arrived.
"This is on your people!" He shouted angrily, blaming her with desperation. "Do something!" he pleaded.
"Gavin never kills anyone without a reason...what happened?" She asked calmly, but the question only seemed to drive the King more agitated. He screamed and went back stumbling to the table where the young Kingdom defender was placed.
She rolled her eyes and looked to the side of the man, on the table the boy was starting to lose consciousness, his face was deathly pale.
"Sophia! This is not the time! If you can save him, you have to!" Her mother pleaded and hearing her name from her mother gritted heavily against her patience.
"It's Harpy. Don't call me-" She said calmly.
"Please! He did nothing wrong! You have to do something or he is going to die!" The king pleaded again, interrupting her retort, this time his desperation giving way to utter sadness as his eyes flooded with tears.
Sophia huffed, annoyed that they wouldn't let her get to the bottom of it until Benjamin was saved. "Fine!" She said angrily.
"But I want you all to throw your weapons to the other side of the room right fucking now! Or I won't save him." She ordered, giving no mind to the time running out on the boy. The group quickly threw everything they had on them towards the couch where she and her mother had talked the night before.
"Fucking hell." She said under her breath and moved towards the now passed out boy who kept bleeding out, the blood flowing slower and slower. He was in Kingdom fighter attire but they had removed his pants, leaving his legs bare.
Taking her smaller and sharper wand from her back holster, Sophia started chanting the incantation to the very advanced charm she had used on Glenn.
"Preateralte Sopor, Preateralte Sopor, Preateralte Sopor." She chanted the incantation seven times each time the movements of her wand becoming more and more complex, it was a charm she had trained for very much because of its resourcefulness. It was called Bewitched sleep charm and it left the subject in suspended animation, everything about them stuck in time.
The stillness and whiteness of the boy's condition made it so there was barely any change before and after the incantation took effect, but Sophia knew it had worked because the blood stopped flowing from the wound.
Everyone stood there quietly watching her work, but she did her best to ignore it. First, she fished for any possible rest of the bullet still inside, since there was no exit orifice behind the boy's leg, and sure enough, the entirety of the bullet had been lodged near the bone and came out slowly as she summoned it. It looked to be a gun round, maybe 9mm, she discarded it on the table next to the boy's unconscious face and started cleaning and closing the wound carefully.
It took another chanted incantation to heal him too since a normal healing charm wouldn't work as well with arteries, but it was nothing she was unfamiliar with. Soon enough the flesh wound was healed, save for what looked to be tender new skin over it, and she was calmly cleaning everything from the immense loss of blood that the boy had suffered.
Finally had to fish a potion from her hat, a blood replenishing potion that would give him the strength to recover instead of dying from lack of blood. Handling her wand again she intoned strongly and clearly.
"Finite incantatem." And she could see how the chest of the boy started moving, ever so slightly, he was super weak for lack of blood. But not for long because Sophia emptied the small vial, filled with the blood-red potion, inside the boy's mouth and everyone inside her mother's house breathed a sigh of relief, as the boy's face became flush with fresh new blood and his breathing recovered strength.
She had done an expert job, she had to admit. She had never saved someone so close to death. Sophia thought of this as she finally took a good look at the group that had rushed into her mother's house.
There was the King, Richard, Jerry, a woman she only recognized by face and a black man she thought she could make a good guess as to who he was.
"He might have a fracture somewhere in there, but he will live." She declared, giving a very pissed off glare at the King.
Then, before anyone could react, she unsheathed her saber sword and without hesitation placed its edge against the throat of Benjamin, then aimed her wand towards the group as well.
"Now all of you will keep your fucking mouths shut unless I talk to you. Or all this work will go to waste." She threatened, giving the unconscious boy a glance.
Everyone grimaced but kept quiet, except her mother.
"Sophia! Stop th-" Carol said, but Sophia had had enough with the woman using her real name in front of the others.
"I said! The fucking name is Harpy!" She declared, her anger flaring up and beginning to get the better of her. "It goes for you too! shut up let me do my work." She threatened, then turned towards the bald, black man, and made a point of reinforcing her grip on the saber menacingly.
"Now...You, I don't recognize you. But I bet I can fucking guess who you are. Right, Sensei?" She said, her eyes wide and feeling vindicated.
The man looked around and then back at her straight in the eyes when he answered, not a drop of fear in his eyes, but calmness.
"That's right." He just said, keeping his chin up and holding her eyes. Sophia was done with him from then on, it was the King who she really needed to talk to.
"Ever hear of that saying about lies, your grace?" She asked, saying the last part clearly in a mocking manner. The king remained silent but watched her with a stoic face.
"They say lies have short legs…" She said. "Why don't you start telling me what the fuck happened? Because I know Gavin, and he never has someone killed without a reason, and if you made me save this guy for no good reason I'll have to kill him again. I trust Gavin to know what he is doing and I'm not inclined to undo his commands for no reason."
"So tell me, Ezekiel, what the fuck did you do!?"