Adventures in Magic
Disclaimer: I do not own Sofia the First or any of the characters/locations affiliated with it. The original characters introduced in various chapters belong to me.
A/N: Time for the moment of truth. 😉 Kitanya has done some awful things, but you all know that awful things have happened to her as well. Sofia's empathetic nature has finally come shining through, and she realizes what she has to do, no matter what happens to herself. 😊
Note: As the show has finished, I'm taking a huge liberty with Sofia's powers and abilities in this chapter. Maybe she wouldn't be able to do what she does here; maybe she would. However, in my future stories, what happens in this chapter is going to have a profound effect on her and will change some things down the line. :D Also...heavy stuff ahead.
Chapter 24
Redeeming Qualities
Summary: When all hope seems lost, Sofia does what she does best: she sacrifices her safety to help someone in need.
Previously…
Sofia grasped her amulet with her right hand, noting as both the necklace and the Enchantlet activated at the same time. She then lifted her left hand, which began glowing with a softer light, the magical energy beneath a familiar shade of purple.
"You think you'll destroy me?" the woman sneered.
"No," Sofia corrected as her amulet and Enchantlet also began glowing. "I think I can help you."
"You can't help me," Kitanya declared with a bite, glaring at the girl before her. "Look around you, Princess. Look what I'm capable of. Does it look like I need help?"
Sofia frowned. "You've been hurt."
"Wow, it's true what they say about you!" she laughed. "Hopelessly naïve. Do-gooder. Meddlesome."
"You don't have to let all of this define who you are."
"Newsflash, Princess!" Kitanya reached forward and wrapped her hands around Sofia's neck, glaring at her with those awful red eyes as Sofia attempted to stop her, her hands clasping around the woman's wrists. "This is who I am…"
"Sofia!" Cedric yelled, frantically trying to break from the evil beings' hold, but to no avail. He felt utterly helpless without his wand… His wand. "Dexter!"
Dexter turned slightly, barely able to see Cedric over his shoulder.
"Kick my wand to me!"
"Um, I don't know if that's such a good idea…" He began looking around. "We're kind of in the air, and there's a strong wind blowing… If I kick it now, it's just going to fall off and probably get lost…" He instead managed to pull the wand between his feet, preventing it from going anywhere. "I'll keep it secure instead."
"How is that going to help me save Sofia?!"
"It's not," Dexter told him apologetically, sighing. "I hate to say it, Cedric, but… I think it's up to her to save herself."
Cedric had no doubt that his apprentice could save herself, but…this situation was so dangerous and unpredictable, and with the powers of a dark magic cult involved, he was afraid of the outcome.
"Still think you can save me?" Kitanya growled, her grip on the girl's neck tightening, Sofia's breathing slowing.
"Y-Yes…" Between her lessening oxygen and her bleary vision, she was able to see the pendant that dangled from the woman's neck. She released one of Kitanya's wrists and reached forward, and with all the energy she had remaining, she yanked it from her neck, breaking the chain.
"What are you doing?!" the sorceress screamed, her hold on Sofia loosening.
"Saving your life." Clutching the pendant in the same hand as her amulet and reaching out her other hand to Kitanya's heart, she declared, "I wish Kitanya would be healed of all her pain, all her anger, and the dark magic that's in her heart…" She felt the amulet beginning to warm beneath her fingers, but the dark pendant also began heating up, sparking even in her grasp. At some point, she could have sworn she felt the sharp piercing of glass in her palm, but she ignored the pain and focused instead on her task. "Break the bond with this evil that's entrapping her soul…"
The light that began to pour from Sofia's hands, the Amulet of Avalor, her Enchantlet, and the dark pendant engulfed the entire area. Cedric and Dexter had to turn and close their eyes at the brightness, and even Master Elgraste moaned silently at the effect. And while Kitanya screamed in what was possibly pain, Sofia never uttered a word.
Cedric fell forward and crashed against the stone flooring, and when he glanced behind him, he saw the evil shrouded beings dissipating into thin air. Without a second thought, he scrambled forward and grabbed his wand, quickly breaking the chains that held Dexter and Master Elgraste captive. Concerned, he pressed two fingers to the side of the older man's neck, relieved to find a pulse but also disheartened at how weak it was.
Kitanya collapsed to the stone floor, her eyes closed.
Sofia followed soon after, but she panted heavily, trying to get much-needed oxygen to her brain again after the previous events. She looked at her amulet and noticed it was still shimmering, and the dark pendant in her hand was too. She frowned. That was strange… Shouldn't everything have settled down by now?
"Sofia!" Cedric hurried over to his friend, dropping beside her and enveloping her in his arms, burying his face into her hair and nearly sobbing. "I was so worried…" His voice was shaking, and unsurprisingly, so was he.
"I… I'm sorry, Mr. Cedric," she whispered, reaching out and returning his hug. "I'm…so sorry…" Even as she hugged him, her eyes remained trained on that pendant, and she began to feel very, very strange.
Dexter helped Master Elgraste to his feet, only to have him lie down flat on the stony surface. "Stay here, Master Elgraste," he murmured gently. "I'm going to check on Kitanya, and I'll come back to get you." Seeing the man nod slightly, he hurried over to the collapsed sorceress, gathering her into his arms. "Kitanya, wake up…"
The dark-haired woman blinked her eyes open, her usual honey color restored. She frowned in confusion. "Dexter?"
"Are you all right?" he asked, concerned. Despite how she'd treated him, Master Elgraste, and especially Brexley and the Enchancian visitors, he couldn't help but still have that soft spot for his former friend. She'd saved his life, after all, even if it did happen so long ago, before she'd become…so heartless.
As if waking up from a bad dream, Kitanya gasped, startled, as she pushed her sleeves back, inspecting her arms. "It… It's gone…" She blinked up at him. "The mark is gone. The one that linked me to… Notis Ordinis."
"Sofia did that," the young wizard informed her. "She…did some weird magic that I didn't even think possible, where she used hand magic, her Enchantlet, and the Amulet of Avalor to save you."
"But the pendant… Where is it?" She sat up and looked around frantically. "It has a brew in the glass part, and if it breaks, whoever it touches will…" She turned and looked toward Sofia, who was still locked in an embrace with Cedric, but she appeared to be rather still. "Oh, no…"
"What do you say we go back to the apartment and get some rest, hmm?" Cedric asked quietly as he settled down and gently brushed Sofia's hair with his fingers. He frowned when he didn't hear a response. "Sofia?" Gently easing her back he noticed that the princess's eyes were closed…and she didn't appear to be breathing either. He looked at the pendant clutched in her hand, and upon inspection, it appeared that the glass had broken in her grasp, and her own blood was stained on it. One more glance back at her pale face, and he made a horrifying realization. "No…" He threw the pendant aside and sobbed, holding her closely. "Sofia, no!"
Kitanya crawled over to the discarded pendant and picked it up, glaring at it. "This is all my fault…"
"Kitanya—" Dexter was silenced as she stood, holding her wand out at him.
"If I hadn't been so jealous, so selfish, then the princess would still be alive…" She looked down at the lifeless girl. "There's only one way to save her." She turned to Dexter, who seemed shocked. "I was the one who made the brew. I was the one who poured my life source into it. I was the one who secured the pendant." She frowned. "So I have to be the one to die. Only then can Sofia be saved… But we're running out of time." She handed him her wand. "So go ahead, Dexter. Destroy me and save an innocent princess who only meant to bring some light into my dark heart."
"I…" The boy clutched the wand, a chill running down his spine. "I can't, Kitanya! I…"
Master Elgraste suddenly groaned in pain and slowly sat up, turning toward them and holding out his hand to Dexter, who hesitantly passed him the wand. His head was still wounded, but the blood flow had ceased. And of course, he still looked rather worse for wear, but he was strong enough at the moment to do what needed to be done.
"Master Elgraste?" Dexter asked, uncertain about what was going to happen.
"Kitanya is right, Dexter," he said softly. "This whole matter is her fault. However, she doesn't need to die in order for the princess to live. Sofia sacrificed herself to save Kitanya. A pure heart like that has the ability to change the world…" He smiled at them serenely as he pointed the wand at Sofia. "Take care of one another. And always remember how much I care about you…both of you."
"Wait," Kitanya pleaded, understanding what he was going to do. "Master Elgraste, no!"
"Muto vitae."
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The light from the wand… The dead silence that flooded the area, save for the high-pitched ringing in their ears… The collapse… And then, it was over.
Hours later, hazy blue eyes blinked open in a familiar room. Sofia inhaled slowly as she attempted to move in her bed at the apartment, but she found that she was too weak. Looking down, she saw that her left hand was bandaged. Her Enchantlet and amulet had been removed, though she wasn't sure where they were. Normally she would have panicked, but right now she was more concerned with… "What happened…?"
Cedric, who had fallen asleep in his chair and was leaning over her bed, sat up after hearing her soft voice. He sighed in relief and reached out, gently running a hand through her hair. "Sofia… How are you feeling?"
"Sore," she told him honestly, figuring it would do no good to mask it now. "What happened to my hand?" She then gasped, trying to sit up, but Cedric's hand in her hair and his other one against her shoulder kept her down. "What happened with Kitanya?"
He sighed heavily and retracted his hands, clasping them both together on the bed. "You… You saved her."
She smiled happily. "I'm glad." And then she frowned, noting his serious features. "But…?"
"…Sofia, you nearly died." He stared at her, trying not to allow his emotions to overtake him again. "Kitanya said that the pendant you'd ripped from around her neck had broken, the glass shattering and cutting your palm, and the contents inside of it had spilled into your bloodstream. It was made to kill any who came in contact with it."
She blinked at this information. "But…I'm alive?"
"Yes… Kitanya informed Dexter that the only way to save you would be for the one who made it—her—to be killed. So she handed Dexter her wand and told him to destroy her."
Sofia gasped in horror. "He didn't! Please tell me he didn't, Mr. Cedric…" She could hardly contain her anxiety at the thought of the sorceress falling anyway even after she'd saved her.
"He didn't…" He frowned at her sigh of relief. "He couldn't. But Master Elgraste…" He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think of how to word this. "He was rather weakened by then. Still he took the wand from Dexter and told him that Kitanya didn't have to die in order for you to live. In essence, I think he was wrong, but…" He gazed at his friend, a very somber look on his features. "He used Kitanya's wand and told them both to take care of each other, and he…" He swallowed nervously. "He used the Sacrifice Spell."
The princess blinked, not comprehending. "What do you mean?"
Cedric clasped his hands over her injured one, making sure not to cause her anymore pain. "He traded his life for yours, Sofia, so that you could live…" He sighed and closed his eyes as she gasped, breathing raggedly. "He's gone…"
"No, no, no, no…" Sofia felt sick all of a sudden, but she forced it back as, instead, a steady stream of tears began falling from her eyes. "No, Master Elgraste…" She lifted her right hand to her face, a shuddering breath falling from her lips as she sobbed. "No…" She didn't make much effort to move when she felt the side of her bed shift, indicating that Cedric had sat down next to her. She felt herself gathered into his arms, and she cried into his robe, releasing all her anguish, disbelief, and overwhelming sadness. "No!" she wept again, her body wracked with sobs.
"Shh," Cedric whispered, rocking her back and forth and caressing her hair and back to soothe her. He wouldn't promise her that it was going to be all right, because that's probably the last thing she wanted to hear at that point. Instead, he just held her and let her cry herself to sleep once more.
To be continued…
