Hi! So this took longer than normal, I couldn't figure out where to cut it off (There's like ten more pages worth of writing.) and I was talking to a friend who has a chronic pain disorder to make sure I wrote it accurately. I hope you find it worth the wait! Don't worry the next chapter of When Even Two Sparrows Fall is coming.
Sophie sat slumped in her chair, listening to the adults talk. It was getting late and she didn't like it. Not that she'd ever admit to the adults, her parents included, that she had a previous arrangement she couldn't miss.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably less than thirty seconds, Councillor Emery got tired of the sound of his own voice and dismissed them.
Sophie tried not to seem in a rush, but bolted for the vortinator and yelled, "Rooftop!"
It spun her to the roof and she hoped none of the adults noticed her mad dash.
"I was starting to wonder if you weren't coming." Fitz was sitting on one of the marble benches.
Sophie sighed and sat down next to him. "I couldn't get out of the meeting. Sorry."
"Don't worry." Fitz fidgeted with his hands. "So, where do we start?"
"I don't know." She bit her lip. They had to get everything out in the open now, before it became a bigger problem.
"I can go first if you want."
"Okay."
Fitz took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I realize now that I was acting a bit snotty. I'm a Vacker and the golden child. Things usually work out for me the way I want them to. So when things don't work out and I can't make them work, I'm not sure how to handle that, and I didn't do it well.
"Alvar" -he bristled a little mentioning his brother- "gave me one piece of advice. He told me to be careful that I don't let my station in life get to my head. For once, he was right."
"I forgive you." She set a hand on his arm. "And I understand. It still hurt though."
"I realized that as soon as I left and realized what I'd said. I felt so stupid. My mom figured it out pretty quickly and since Biana was in the room and heard everything, she gave me a couple barbed sentences and didn't talk to me for the rest of the day. At first I tried to convince myself it wasn't that bad, but I went over it again and realized I screwed up big time."
Sophie winced. "Did your entire family chew you out?"
"Only Biana. But my dad was disappointed and my mom was just quiet."
"That's almost as bad."
Fitz started a few times before he replied. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did."
The look of utter shock on his face made it worth it. "You have no idea how long I have waited to use that!"
"Oh, no, it's funny, I get it. But seriously, I need to ask you something. I was thinking-"
"Always a good sign."
"Where are these comebacks coming from? You are never this witty!"
Sophie laughed. "Honestly, they're not mine. I'd started a book series called Ranger's Apprentice the year you found me. I never got through the first book. Amy remembered my human birthday and sent me the entire series. All twelve books, plus the three companion series. Which is like, another twelve. Al those books through some Black Swan secret channel. I've been reading them and Halt has been rubbing off on me."
"Halt?"
"He's very sarcastic and sharp-tongued. I'm borrowing his lines."
"I see." Fitz chuckled. "Do my mind loaning one to me?"
"Sure. But on to your very serious question."
"Yeah, about that." He suddenly looked more unsure than she had ever seen him. "Would it…would it be okay if we…if we tried again?"
"Hmm?"
Now that it was out there, his words came in a rush. "Our relationship. Could we try again? I know I messed up and I messed up bad, but I want to try again, if that's okay with you. Even if it doesn't work out, I want to be able to be there for you more than I can as a friend." He paused, gauging her reaction before continuing. "I know I asked before and you said just friends. I understand if that's all you want. It just hurts seeing you sitting there for hours and feeling like I shouldn't be there. Like I can't help you."
Sophie gently took his hand. "I'll have to think about it. That's not a no!" She forestalled his crushed expression. "It's a 'I have a lot on my plate right now and I need a bit to sort it out before adding something new.' But if you want to be there, even if you don't feel like it's appropriate with us just being friends, don't worry. I'm okay with that. I just don't want to deal with the potential drama of a full relationship right this moment. Let's get Keefe as settled as he can be and then maybe, take me out to dinner or something? It that okay?"
He face lit up and he smiled. "Yeah. That's okay. I have zero experience with actual dates though, so…"
"Don't worry about it for now. Besides, I miss the gifts."
"Oh! Do you want me to start doing that again?"
Sophie smiled. "That'd be great."
Fitz grinned, eyes sparkling. "On a different note, I was thinking of asking the Council if they could fudge my match results a bit. Just so you wouldn't have to worry."
"And if they don't?"
He sighed. "People will get over themselves. I have to decide which is more important to me, my position as the golden child in a golden family, or you." He hesitantly took her hands, gently squeezing. "Right now, it's you. If my standing in society becomes more important, you should find someone else, because I won't deserve you then."
Sophie felt blood rising in her cheeks and tears gather in her eyes. "That is the sweetest, most romantic thing I've ever heard or read. Are you trying to make me cry?" She dabbed at her eyes with the now ever-present handkerchief.
"Oh, no, of course not, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. These are the first happy tears I've cried in, six months or something."
"I have something else to talk about, but we should do that later. Is Dex coming over?"
"Later, yeah, He was going to teach me the elvin version of poker. We were going to play him against Keefe and I."
"Do you mind asking him what he thinks about my sister?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Sure?"
"Thanks. Does next week work for you? I've got a bunch of stuff I have to do. Something about graduating to the elite levels. My dad wouldn't tell me."
Sophie squeezed his hands back. "Don't worry. Next week, same spot?"
"Yeah. I'll show up when I can."
"Okay." She smiled and decided to take a risk. She stood on her tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek.
Fitz made the most adorable little squeak and a blush rose high on his cheeks. His breathing quickened and for a moment she was afraid he was going to pass out.
"You okay there?"
"Yeah." His voice was quiet and breathy. He dropped her hands and left, walking as if he were floating on air.
Sophie waited until she thought he was down and stepped onto the vortinator. "Floor 155!"
She stepped off into a corridor. The floor below the one Keefe was staying on had been designated as crash rooms for anyone who was too tired to leap home or didn't want to leave and just needed a quick power nap.
The one she'd picked was small, for Candleshade. It was still nicely sized and had a bed with her stack of books on it. The first three books in the Ranger's Apprentice series and the Brotherband series sat in a 'read' pile on the bedside table. The fourth, The Battle for Skandia, had a bookmark about halfway through and sat on her pillow. She picked it up and flipped it open.
She was Svengal's niece, fifteen, blonde and pretty. "May I carry your arrows for you, Ranger?"
As depressing as the present was, Sophie was beginning to wonder how she had survived without books like this as she devoured the world of Rangers, so similar and yet unlike her own.
A sharp knock on her door broke her trance.
"Are you kidding me? I'm in the middle of a really tense scene! Can this wait like five minutes?"
Dex laughed. "You say something like that every time I interrupt you."
"Yeah, cause it's true." Sophie sighed and replaced her bookmark, leaving the book for another time.
Dex was holding a small wooden box with a bronze clasp. "This is my dad's game set. He said to be super careful with it. Apparently it's really old."
"Do you not have your own?"
"No. I used Linh's last time. So, do you want to go up to Keefe's room or here?"
Sophie stepped outside, closing the door behind her. "If he's awake, he'll be glad for the entertainment. If he's asleep, we'll leave him alone."
"Okay." Dex tucked the box under his arm. "How much do you know about the game?"
"Not much. I've seen it played. Linh offered to teach me, but I didn't feel up to it. And Tam warned me she cheats."
"Where is Tam anyway? I haven't seen him around." Dex offered her a hand up onto the vortinator and yelled. "Floor 156!"
The spin was short and they stepped off. Sophie shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't been outside for a long time. I think he's been working with Glimmer, trying to find her somewhere to stay. People are wary of her and Tiergan doesn't have space."
"The Black Swan keep sending people to Tiergan whenever they don't have space. You'd think he'd get tired of it after a while."
"Maybe she can stay at Everglen. They have guest rooms. Although they may not like that." Sophie opened the door to Keefe's room and poked her head in. Even though his eyes were closed, his breathing was faster than if he were asleep. "Hey, Keefe, can we come in?"
He gave her a shaky thumbs up. Sophie formed a telepathic connection.
Yeah. That's fine. I'm still a little woozy, but the sleep was nice.
Sophie opened the door all the way and sat on the floor. "I know the game's called Conqistor, but that is as far as my knowledge goes."
Dex sat across from her and set the game box next to him. "The game has two sets of pieces, the cards and the tokens." He set two decks of gold-backed cards down, one next to him and the other next to her, and dumped the tokens in the middle. "We'll play rounds and after each round, one of us will get tokens. We keep going until one of us runs out of cards to play. The person with the most points wins."
"And the tokens are the points?"
Not quite. Keefe said. Each round, you draw ten cards and select five to play. Dex will do the same. You're only allowed to play one of each card per round. You have five types of cards: gatherers, guards, thieves, mages, and soldiers. Each deck also has one conqistor.
"Okay. So what do the cards do?"
Dex arranged all the tokens so their plain side was facing up. "Did Keefe tell you about the tokens or just basic gameplay?"
"Uh, a bit of basic gameplay and what the cards are called. What do they do?"
Dex picked up some of his cards and set down five of them. "This one is a gatherer. They allow you to pick up tokens. There's different values for the cards; the number tells you how many tokens you can pick up with that card. Gatherers are defeated by a soldier with a higher attack number than the gatherer's defense number." He pointed to where each number was located.
"This doesn't seem like an elvin game."
Dex pushed the gatherer card back into his deck. "It's an ogre game, meant to teach strategy. But it's fun and apparently a relative of mine somewhere set up an ille gal betting ring with this game. That's why my dad has such a nice set. I believe it's actually ogre-made." He started shuffling her deck. "This card, the guard," -he pointed- " protects your tokens from the thieves. He doesn't have an attack number, just a defense. If it's higher than the thief's attack number, the guard wins and the thief is discarded. Vice versa is also true. If the numbers are equal, both cards go back in the deck and nothing happens. That applies to any number contest.
"These ones are thieves. They steal your opponent's tokens. The amount is this number here. Mages look like this one here. They negate all the other cards in play, both yours and all your opponents'. When there's more than one mage card in play, then there's a lot of complicated rules, but we can leave that out." Dex set hers down and shuffled his deck thoroughly. "The last cards are soldiers. They prevent gatherers from getting tokens."
"Okay." Sophie picked up her deck. It was heavier than she expected and the inlaid gold on the backs of the cards was chipped in some places. "Do gatherers get discarded after a round?"
"Yes. All cards get discarded after each round except for when there's an equal number thing."
"Okay. Is one token equal to one point?"
Dex drew ten cards from his deck ands set them facedown in front of him. "That's a bit complicated. Some of the tokens, they're marked, are worth a point. Some aren't marked and they aren't worth anything, but you can't tell them apart from the ones that are. Then there are negative tokens, there are some that are worth a certain amount to the defense of your pile, and some that give certain cards boosts. All the special ones are worth one point unless they're negative."
Dexy forgot the conqistor. There's only one per deck and you can play it to get all the tokens in the middle.
"What happens if two are played at the same time?"
Everbody loses.
"Cool."
"Keefe explained the conquister?"
"Yep. I'm ready to start playing. Draw ten cards and pick five to play?"
"Uh huh." Dex picked up his and set half faceup in a discard pile. "You can't play duplicate cards, like two gatherers of the same value or two thieves with the same value."
Sophie drew the first ten cards in her deck. Three gatherers, a mage and six thieves.
Yeesh. That's a good mid- to late-game hand, but terrible for the first round. Keefe said.
"How do you know what cards I have?"
I can hear you thinking about them. And see over your shoulder.
Dex looked up. "I assume you're talking to Keefe?"
Sophie nodded. "He's helping me."
Play the gatherers and two thieves. The cards go in stages.
She nodded again and went to set the cards down. She paused. "Do I put them faceup or down?"
"In a game with more players, everyone would wait before setting their cards down. I'm not worried about all those kinds of rules."
It took Sophie several practice rounds to understand the game. Keefe made a point of either helping her or repeating slightly modified rules. More often than not, he'd give her a nonexistent rule and then Dex would have to spend five minutes explaining to her why it wasn't a thing while glaring at Keefe for messing her up.
Dex still beat her by a mile, and he'd told her afterward he'd removed the conqistor from his deck to give her a chance.
Sophie jumped, almost dropping her deck as she put it away when her Imparter chimed from her pocket. It was a message from Fitz saying, 'Did you ask him yet?'
"So Dex?"
"Yeah?" He wasn't paying too much attention, focusing on putting the game away.
"What do you think about Biana?"
He stopped, slowly putting the tokens in his hand in the round slot. "Well, she's a good friend. Why do you ask?"
Sophie decided to be honest. "Fitz is curious. I don't know why."
"Well…" He sighed. "I mean, objectively, she's stunning. She's a Vacker, a member of the Black Swan, and she's a really good friend. That's probably not what Fitz is looking for, but…"
"You don't want me to share it with him?"
"Yeah, I'd rather not." He closed the box carefully and picked it up. "See you later Keefe."
He managed a weak wave.
"Walk with me?" Dex murmured.
"Okay." I'll be right back, Keefe.
As soon as she'd closed the door behind them, Dex sighed. "There's no one else around, right?"
"There shouldn't be."
"Okay." He took a deep breath. "Please don't tell Fitz. I actually do like Biana. She's sweet, she's witty, and she's absolutely gorgeous. But there's no way we'll be matched and for two siblings to both be in bad matches? That would destroy the entire Vacker family. I don't want to bring that on her."
"But you do like her?"
"Yeah. Yeah I do." A soft smile played on his lips. "But please don't say anything. I'm just nervous after what happened last time."
Sophie smiled and rubbed his arm. "Don't worry. One, Biana's way better at that stuff than I am. Two, there is totally a chance you'll be matched. You're Dex Dizznee. You've made tons of super cool gadgets, you've saved all of our lives. After everything that's happened, there is totally a chance. You're not Talentless. It's fifty-fifty, just like everyone else."
He grinned. "Thanks. So if Fitz asked you to ask me, does that mean you guys are…?"
She sighed. "Friendship repaired, yes. Dating, no. we're still waiting. I need to deal with some stuff first before I feel comfortable adding something new. But we're friends again. And I think I broke him by accident."
"What'd you do?"
"All I did was kiss his cheek."
Dex laughed. "You do not know the power you possess. He's probably going to be floating on air for like a week."
"I hope not. Don't we have to go back to school?"
"Oh yeah." He sighed. "The semester starts again soon."
Sophie sighed. "I don't want to go back to school. That means Keefe will be alone for most of the day and if he's not asleep it'll be tough for him. He's a people person."
"Yeah. And this would have been Level Seven for him. First year in the elite levels. Keefe told me it made his dad a little too happy, he was secretly proud of it. Until this happened."
"I'm more worried about me though. Because of my track record, I'm getting an intensive schedule with more classes and no study hall. I'm also not allowed to get detention, instead I'm supposed to take that time to do homework and stuff."
Dex looked confused. "But why?"
"I have no idea. But it won't be fun, especially if I'm trying to visit Keefe as much as possible."
They walked in silence until Dex realized they had just kept walking and were making a loop around the floor.
"I should probably go home. You're gonna update Amy?"
"Yeah. See you later Dex."
That's what I got for you! Hope you enjoyed it and drop a review before you go! I love reading them and anyone who reviews gets a teaser from the next chapter. (If you don't want one, just let me know.)
Shine brightly!
Ruby
