This chapter took longer to write than I thought. So if you were hoping for first-date fluff, that'll have to wait until next chapter. Enjoy!


Sophie knew elves loved fancy stuff. She knew that they had a love of jewelry. But she wasn't prepared for a large chest in Jolie's room to unfold into a jewelry box larger than she was.

"Okay. That's a lot of jewelry."

Edaline smiled. "She got a lot as gifts that she never wore. The things she actually wore often are in the small box on her desk. She was just too nice to throw any of it away. She actually got a lot of pretty things, she just never wore them."

"So where do we start?"

"What do you want?" Her mother pulled out a few boxes of necklaces, apparently sorted by jewel. "I was thinking something small for a necklace, so it doesn't take away from the dress, and a pair of earrings."

Sophie opened a box marked Sapphire. It was full to bursting of all different styles of necklaces, all of them set with sapphires. "How about pearls? I don't really want a necklace, but earrings are okay. Do elves have clip-on earrings? I had pierced ears a while ago, but I don't know if they're healed over or not."

"Anything you like I can have modified. There are a few family heirlooms I won't change, but other than that, anything."

Sophie put the sapphire box back on the shelf. She wasn't sure what to do with the sheer volume of stuff in front of her. Her human mother hadn't owned very much jewelry. She'd allowed Sophie and Amy to get their ears pierced for their first day of kindergarten, so they'd had a small array of stud earrings with various fake crystals on them. She wasn't sure she'd seen this great of a range even in a jewelry store.

"Garnets maybe?"

Both of them jumped when Grady suddenly spoke behind them.

"The clash of colours might work on you." He reached over Sophie's shoulders and pulled out a different, smaller box from another section of the massive jewelry box. "I think Jolie had a pair of gold chandelier earrings in here."

Grady opened the box and lifted a delicate pair of earrings out. "What do you think?"

Sophie took them from him. "They might be a little heavy for my ears, but I love them. I'll have to see if my ears are still pierced."

There was a loud banging on the door and Grady almost dropped the box of earrings. Edaline walked over and opened the door. Sophie heard the panicked voice of one of the gnomes that worked on the new animals.

"I can take care of this, Grady." Edaline left, closing the door behind them.

"So, Sophie-"

"Dad, I'm sorry it interrupt, but please don't start the boys conversation."

He laughed. "I wasn't going to. I just want to make sure you're in good hands. Can you really blame me?"

"No." Sophie pulled a box off the shelf marked Pearls. "It's just not really something I want to talk to you about."

"I understand. I apologize if I've been poking my nose where it doesn't belong. I'm a little antsy after what happened to Jolie. I want to make sure you're safe."

"I get it." She decided she didn't like any of the pearl necklaces and slid the box back onto the shelf. "You know Fitz. He'll be sure to take care of me and I've only committed to one date. If I decide not to go on a second one, he'll understand."

Grady sighed. "I know that. But I'm still worried. Do you know where he's taking you?"

"No, actually. He said a nice restaurant in Eternalia, but that's not super specific."

"Ah. There are a lot of good places there. Wonder where he's taking you."

"Well I'll find out next Saturday. He's picking me up at four."

"Okay. What colour is your dress? Pink sapphire tends to go with everything."

Sophie set the garnet earrings aside. "It's mint green, so maybe. But unless it's a single pendant necklace, it might get lost in the ruffle."

"Okay." Grady sighed. "Do you want any of the rest of Jolie's jewelry? I know you're not big on fancy things, but if you want them you can have them."

Rapid footsteps ran to the door and Edaline slammed it open. "So it's a lot worse than I thought. Grady, I really need your help and Sophie, dear, if you could keep the alicorns out of the way, that would be great."

"Sure, Mom!" Sophie set the earrings on Jolie's old desk where she could find them again. Grady pressed a hidden button on the jewelry box and it folded back down into a chest. They followed Edaline downstairs.

Outside, the gnomes were attempting to restrain a large argentavis from flying away. A few of them were dangling from ropes. Wynn was flapping around and generally making himself a nuisance.

"Sophie, get Wynn out of the way." Grady instructed, moving to help one of the gnomes dangling off the ground.

Sophie reached out telepathically to Wynn. Get out of the way!

Fun! Over the last year, the alicorn twins had started learning basic words. So far, their favorite words were 'no' and 'fly away'.

Danger!

No! Fun!

Sophie groaned. "He won't leave!"

"Is there a friend you could call over that he might like?" Edaline yelled over the noise.

"I'll try that!" She refocused on the yearling alicorn. Would you like a friend to visit?

Friend?

One friend, yeah!

Choose?

Sure! Sophie sighed in relief as Wynn drifted away from the thrashing argentavis. Which friend do you want?

Bright-silver-hair-nice-girl!

That wasn't a name, but she guessed he meant Linh. She can come over, but you have to go find your sister and wait away from the argentavis.

Big-nice-bird! Sad!

Sophie held up her Imparter. I won't hail Linh unless you leave the big-nice-bird alone.

He pouted. But Wynn glided away from them and landed near the Panakes.

Keeping her word, Sophie said, "Show me Linh Song." Her Imparter took a few seconds to respond, but flickered to show Linh's face.

"Hey Sophie! Is something wrong? You looked stressed." Linh assumed the worst and panicked. "Did something happen to Keefe?"

"No, no, Keefe's fine. I was visiting him earlier today and he was complaining and griping, so he's fine. It's about the alicorns. They keep getting in the way and I made a deal with Wynn that if he left the gnomes alone, you would come over. He's getting antsy and I don't want him bothering them while they're transporting the new argentavis. Are you able to come over?"

Linh grinned. "Yeah! My parents wanted to take Tam and I out to lunch to work on fixing our relationships and I've been scrambling for an excuse. Thanks!"

Sophie hung up and Linh glittered into Havenfield a few seconds later.

"That was fast."

"I told my parents I had to go and just left. Tiergan can deal with them."

They walked over to Calla's Panakes tree. The alicorns were prancing around it. They whinnied loudly when they saw Linh.

To Sophie's surprise, the twins weren't as interested in playing with Linh as they were showing her all the things they could do now. So they sat under the tree and talked.

"So, I heard from Biana that you're going out with Fitz."

Sophie sighed. Of course Fitz would mention it to his sister and Biana was terrible about keeping these kinds of secrets. "Yes. It's just one date. We don't know if things will work out. But yes, we are going out tomorrow."

Linh squealed quietly. "Oh my gosh! That's so awesome. I just kind of wish you'd pushed it back like two more days."

"Why?"

"Dex and I made a bet when you guys would finally go on a date-date. Two more days and I would have won. So now I owe him a thing of ripplefluffs."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Do you have an eye for colour?"

"Yes? I would say I do, but according to Tam I've put together some horrendous combinations, so I don't know."

"I'm having trouble finding the right jewel colour to go with my dress. I already ruled out most of them and decided on no necklace, but Jolie had so many earrings that they're sorted by type and stone."

"What's it look like? I'm pretty good at matching dresses and jewelry, but Biana is way better than me. She always looks amazing."

"Actually, she's terrible at colour theory. Her mom does a lot of it for her and apparently Alvar taught her what goes together. Biana told me she actually misses Alvar's eye for colour. She said he was really good at it." Sophie sent Linh a mental picture of the dress.

Linh squealed again. "Oh my gosh, it's so pretty! Do you have any ideas?"

"Dad said maybe garnets; the clash might work on me. Mom said pearls."

"I think garnets would look amazing on you, regardless. If you're gonna do something more elaborate with your hair and makeup, you might want a simple earring, single dangling stone or if you're doing a simple updo, I'd go with chandelier earrings. But for that shade of green, I'm not sure about a specific stone. That's a hard colour to match. I might go with the garnets, honestly. I don't pull off light greens well. Certain blues I can do, but green's just not a great colour for me."

Sophie was surprised how much their conversation meandered, considering she and Linh had never been the closest of friends. Somehow, they got onto the topic of human science.

"So why did you add the baking soda then?"

"Well, when you add a base and an acid together, it turns all fizzy and foamy. Really good for volcano experiments."

"But why?"

Sophie grinned. "Because making things explode, even on such a small and harmless scale, is fun. You can also put old CDs in the microwave and it flashes all different colours. It ruins the CD though, and sometimes the microwave, so you have to make sure it's one you don't want. Diet Coke and Mentos is also fun, but Amy and I were never allowed to do it because it made too much of a mess, even outside."

Linh stared off into the distance. "Elves don't really do stuff like that. Or at least Tam and I were never allowed to."

"Amy would probably be happy to show you. It's an outside project though."

"I guessed that. Hey, where'd you get that necklace? It's really pretty."

"Thanks." Sophie reached up and ran her thumb over the pendant of the teal heart necklace Fitz had given her. "Fitz gave it to me."

Linh smiled. "He has good taste. It looks good on you. Hey, did you notice there's gold sparkles in it?"

"No I didn't." Sophie lifted the pendant up to the light and tilted it back and forth, watching the light play off the tiny specks of glitter embedded in it. "Wow. By the way are you free today?"

"Yeah, unless Tam convinces me to give our parents a chance, which I don't think will happen. Did something happen?"

"Nothing big. I have to help Mom and Dad with the new argentavis and then finish what we were doing before it got out of hand. I was supposed to head back over to Keefe's after we were done, but I don't know if I'll be able to go. Do you mind going for me, if he's up for it?"

Linh grinned "Not at all! Amy said she was coming and maybe I can ask her to bring some stuff so we can try some of those experiments. They sound fun."

"Maybe. You'd have to contact her soon though. It's past noon by now. Dex said he's only free until about one-thirty." Sophie checked the watch Amy had given her. "It's earlier than I thought actually. It's only 12:45. But you'd have to hail her within the next half an hour in case she doesn't have everything on hand."

"Okay. Can I borrow your Imparter? I dropped mine behind my bed and I can't get it out."

"Yeah, sure." Sophie reached into her pocket and pulled out the small silver square. "I always keep one on me as a precaution. Elwin had a brief scare with Keefe's health and I'd left my Imparter at home. It was really scary hearing it from Fitz and not knowing what was going on. He was fine, just having a bad day, but it still scared me enough to always have on within arm's reach."

Linh shivered. "I try not to think about the fact that Keefe has a good chance of dying from this and there's nothing we can do about it. I might start carrying an Imparter too, even if I end of stealing Tam's." She took the Imparter from Sophie and stood. "I'll go hail Amy and head over to Candleshade. Do you know who took the morning shift?"

"Dex and I think Juline. We try to have two people besides Ro there at all times. There's a gnome who's moved into a small alcove built into the wall if something goes wrong while Keefe's asleep, Ro can send someone for a physician without having to leave Keefe alone."

"Okay. Thanks!" Linh went to find a quiet spot and Sophie stood, walking toward the house. The argentavis had been calmed down and restored to its pen about an hour ago, but they'd kept talking.

Sophie wasn't sure where Grady and Edaline were, but when she noticed their door was closed when it normally wasn't, she decided they probably wanted to be left alone.

She went back upstairs to Jolie's room. A few of the gnomes were sorting through some of the stuff Sophie had yet to look through. She waved to them and reopened the jewelry box.

It took a while for her to make up her mind, but she eventually settled on the garnet earrings Grady had picked out. Linh came upstairs to return her Imparter briefly before leaving.

"Amy's gonna bring the stuff. Will you be coming?"

"Later. I need to work on cleaning up. I want to clear this room out, maybe make it a guest room. We haven't decided what we want to do with it yet."

"Okay. See you later, Sophie."

"See you later Linh." Sophie closed up the jewelry box and asked the gnomes to take it up to her room to be sorted through at a later date. Biana and Edaline had demolished the stockpile of dresses, so Sophie and a gnome named Briar started on the shoes. Most of them were in good condition, but Jolie's feet were absolutely tiny and so none of her shoes fit Sophie.

About an hour later, Sophie checked the time and decided to head over to Candleshade. Ro was standing outside the front door for a change.

"Had enough of his moping?"

"Actually, he's in a pretty good mood and has been for the past few days. He's just got cabin fever is all. He's in plenty of pain and he hates that he can't do anything to distract himself. I think he wants to draw. That's what he used to do when he got antsy. And now he can't even hold a pencil." Ro sighed, looking upset.

Sophie punched her shoulder lightly. "Keefe's going to be fine. I'm sure Amy will figure out a way to make it work. She's good at the whole look-for-another-angle stuff."

"It's not that."

Sophie cocked her head. She'd never seen fear in any measure on an ogre's face before. "Are you scared?"

"No! Just unsettled. Ogres aren't babies when it comes to pain, but the way he described it, if I were in his place, I would be shamelessly bawling and have to be permanently sedated. He told me that if I broke every bone in his body in the most painful way possible, it would be an improvement over his current state. Most ogres, even my dad, can't handle more than ten broken bones at the same time without wanting sedatives; and other than the initial screaming while he was getting used to it, I have not heard a peep out of him. Not once. I respect him and elves a whole a lot more than I did before. If there's one things you guys do well, it's adapt. Most of you anyway."

Sophie smiled. "Did Amy teach you sign language? Is that how you were able to communicate?"

"Yeah. She did a little translating and we needed the Fitzter's help sometimes, but we've got basic words down, which is nice. Keefe's able to tell me how he's feeling and pick out movies or audiobooks or whatever he wants, which is a huge improvement."

"We should probably head upstairs. Linh had Amy bring some stuff over for human science experiments and they can be a bit messy. Not like blow-someone's-arm-off messy, but get-soda-everywhere messy."

"Sounds like fun."

Sophie knew what to expect whenever she walked into Keefe's bedroom and this wasn't it. Amy was wearing safety goggles and rubber gloves, as were Linh and Marella. There was a table in front of them with scorch marks from an explosion, Linh was holding a wall of water around her and Keefe, a section of Marella's hair was on fire, and Amy looked extremely excited over the obviously recent explosion.

"Would anyone mind telling me what's going on here?"

Marella was quick to point fingers. "It was Amy's idea!"

"Nuh uh! Linh started it!"

"Who, me? I'm the one who told you it was a bad idea! Lighting anything on fire indoors is a bad idea, let alone Everblaze, which-"

Sophie held up a finger to silence the bickering. "What's this about Everblaze?"

Keefe made the signs for 'fun' and 'explode'.

"Did you guys blow something up?"

Amy stuck her hands on her hips. "We didn't know it would do that. Lighting CDs on fire with just plain old fire isn't much fun. They just melt. Everblaze on the other hand…"

"Makes them blow up?"

Keefe gave her a thumbs up.

"Amy…"

"Don't go blaming me! Linh is the one who brought it up and she said you told her about it."

"I meant Coke and Mentos or baking soda and vinegar, not actual explosions!"

"Oh. I brought those too! But they're outdoor things. Lord Cassius would probably have a conniption fit if I got soda everywhere."

Keefe signed 'fun' again and spelled out 'do it' with shaky fingers.

Sophie transmitted, You're getting good at that.

Thanks! I'm having trouble with anything beyond three words at a time and sometimes my hands hurt too much, but I can communicate again! Tam said he's working on a way to extract the shadowflux from my hands so I can move them without hurting. No one wants to touch the quintessence until they know more about how it and the shadowflux have affected things. But I might be able to communicate entirely through sign language soon!

That is awesome, Keefe. I'm working with Amy over the Imparter so I can understand you. Sophie glanced around the room as Amy, Linh and Marella went back to arguing whose fault the explosion was. The walls and ceiling weren't damaged, except for bits of the CD stuck in them in a few places. All of them looked unharmed, except for the black, short patch in Marella's hair. Keefe was having fun and being entertained, which was nice. She would have liked a less destructive manner of doing so, however.

"Hey, since you guys are so into science right now, how about we watch Big Hero 6?" Ro suggested, cutting through the argument.

Keefe signed, 'yes', 'wait' and 'friend'. He expanded in his thoughts. I've been wanting to watch that movie, but I was waiting for you guys.

Ro made sure the three girls cleaned up their mess before Sophie popped the disc into the player.

The movie started with a faulty bulb in a street light. The camera cut to two robots, one black and one pink, beating the snot out of each other. The pink one was knocked flat and skidded to a stop in front of a teenage girl with bright pink pigtails sitting cross-legged on a mat, holding a remote controller. She made the robot get up and they two bots continued fighting, shot from a variety of angles, until the black robot sliced the pink one in half.

Several people exchanged money and a woman with her hair in a large bun and an eyepatch announced, "The winner! Five total annihilations, Yama!"

A large man in a sweatshirt and pants who had been in control of the black robot laughed and grabbed all the money from the plate the one-eyed woman was holding. "Who's next? Who has the guts to step into the ring, with little Yama?" He held up his robot.

The camera cut to two young men who promptly hid their robots.

The camera went back to Yama and a young voice said, "Can…I try?"


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Shine brightly!

Ruby