Sophie POV

Sophie hugged her sweatshirt tighter to her body, wishing she had grabbed a coat during her haste to leave. She had been laying on her bed in her small dorm, reading a book, when Sophie's roommate and best friend, Maylee, had called her and yelled at her to get to the small coffee shop around the block quickly or else she would hide Sophie's Harry Potter book collection if she didn't go meet her. 

It was mid December and holidays were just around the corner, so everyone was out with their kids and friends, shopping to prepare and share gifts with their loved ones. Unfortunately, that was one of the downfalls, going to college in New York City, the holidays were a nightmare. After a long talk with her parents, Sophie was still not allowed to attend Yale, but her parents finally allowed Sophie to attend Columbia University in New York City. Up until last summer, Sophie attended a local high school just around the block from her house. Sophie lived in San Diego until she was twelve, until her dad got a job offer in New York to work as a salesman for Apple. After living in New York for about five years, Sophie applied for Columbia University and was quickly accepted. As soon as the school year started, Sophie moved into a dorm on the university campus and met her roommate, Maylee. She had one older brother who lived on his own and was married, so Maylee felt bad leaving her parents alone at her house, but they had insisted she try a new experience. Maylee was very outgoing and definitely wasn't afraid to share her opinion. Sophie rushed down the crowded New York streets and turned the corner, only half a street away from the cafe now, only to slam into someone.

Biana POV

"Ms. Vacker? Are you alright?" Mr. Forkle asked. "Y-yeah," Biana stammered. "I understand you are nervous Ms. Vacker, as are all of us," he gestured to the rest of her friends and The Collective, "but we cannot mess this up. This has been the only lead we have had as to where Ms. Foster might be in three years." Biana nodded. 

Ever since the Black Swan was attacked at Rimeshire, they had not seen Sophie again. Everyone suspected the Neverseen had placed Sophie somewhere in the Forbidden Cities, but no one knew where to start. After that attack, the Neverseen kind of backed down for a while, other than occasionally stealing something from Atlantis or leaving their creepy eye symbol on houses and buildings. Some people thought the Neverseen killed Sophie, and were now content with their victory, but Biana knew what they were trying to do. They wouldn't kill Sophie, she was too valuable to them, and they weren't backing down, they wanted to see what the Elves and Black Swan would do next, waiting to pounce from deep in the shadows.

"Biana, we have to go," Linh's gentle voice said, "Okay," Biana replied, her voice still shaky. Biana and Linh had grown closer when Sophie was taken. Instead of Linh's old look, she now rocked shoulder length hair, with the ends still dyed silver. "Remember, Ms. Vacker and Ms. Song will be disguised as humans," Wraith recapped to nobody in particular, "they will use this leaping crystal to leap to the human city we were lead to. The next step will be the hardest," he paused, "they will then search the University Sophie is believed to attend, Columbia University,-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, they find Foster, bring her back, then we save the world and all live happily ever after." Keefe interrupted.

"Not exactly, Keefe," Granite warned, "Biana and Linh will simply start a conversation with Sophie, should they find her, then make up an excuse to leave and report back to us. Linh silently nodded next to Biana, probably not trusting her voice like Biana.

"I still don't like this idea," Woltzer grumbled, "what if the Neverseen are there, waiting for us to make the next move?"

"For once I'm with the goblin," Ro agreed. "Guys, we'll be fine, if the Neverseen are waiting, they wouldn't make a move in front of a bunch of humans," Biana objected, "and we have panic rings for a reason." Biana held up her right hand and tapped the ring to demonstrate. "Alright, you two should hurry up," Mr. Forkle rushed, "we only have a certain amount of time."

"We'll be right back," Linh promised, "You'd better be," Sandor threatened. And with that note, the two girls linked arms and held the crystal up to the light, stepping into the beam, hoping that their friend and leader was on the other side.

Sophie POV

As soon as Sophie bumped into the two girls, she was ready to apologize. "I'm so sorry," Sophie gushed, heat rising to her face despite the cold weather.

"It's okay, really," one of the girls assured Sophie in a crisp accent she just couldn't place. She had long, wavy dark brown hair, smooth pale skin and startling teal eyes. The other girl had straight shoulder length hair tipped with silver and light blue eyes with a silver undertone. Startled by their beauty, Sophie didn't reply. As she stood up, Sophie noticed the teal eyed girl's ring had fallen off her finger and cracked straight down the middle. Sophie gasped and picked it up, placing it in the girl's hand, the teal eyed girl grimaced and Sophie felt horrible. "Oh, no, I'm so sorry, I can have it repaired for you, if you'd like?" Sophie panicked.

"Don't worry about it," the girl with the silver hair covered, "I'm Linh." The girl extended her hand and Sophie shook it, "I'm Sophie," she replied. The teal eyed girl looked up from placing the pieces of her ring in a small silk bag and introduced herself. "Biana, Biana Vacker," Sophie knew Biana was just as normal as she was, but couldn't help but feel like Sophie should kneel in front of her and call Biana "You're majesty". "Linh's right, don't stress about the ring, a friend of mine can repair it." Biana explained. "Oh, that's cool, are they a jeweler?" Sophie wondered aloud, "Something like that," Biana and Linh exchanged glances. 

"Okay, well I'm going to meet a friend at a coffee shop down the street, you're welcome to join us." offered Sophie. "I wish we could," Linh jumped in before Biana could reply, "but we actually have to go home or else our parents will ground us." "Oh, okay, well, nice meeting you, Biana, Linh, maybe we'll see each other around sometime." "I bet we will, Sophie," Biana agreed, the way she said it made it seem like if it didn't happen on it's own, Biana would make sure it happened. Biana and Linh waved as they crossed the busy crosswalk, and Sophie waved back in a daze. She tried to clear her mind of the odd conversation and wondered what Maylee wanted to talk about now. 

Sophie entered the small cafe, chimes ringing out when she opened the door. Sophie scanned the packed room for a familiar pair of chocolate brown eyes. In the corner of the room, there she was, Maylee was frantically waving her over, looking like a lunatic. Sophie sat down, and Maylee started to rant.

"Where WERE you?!" Maylee questioned, "I have been waiting here, and those old people over there have been staring at me like I'm a lonely, angst teen!" she continued, pointing at an elderly couple who were, indeed staring at them like weirdos. "I didn't take that long," Sophie argued, "and I took that long because some people bumped into me." Maylee snorted, "Sweetie, did they bump into you, or did you bump into them?" Sophie just rolled her eyes. "Well everyone knows how clumsy you are, so let's move on. I have tea to spill!" Sophie tried to listen to Maylee, but she couldn't seem to shake the fact that Biana and Linh didn't seem normal, they seemed like they were hiding something, something important. And not only that, but there was something that freaked Sophie out much more than it should. Sophie felt like she had seen them before.

Dex POV

The rest of the group had been waiting back at Havenfield for what felt like hours, although Dex knew it had really only been about fifteen minutes, and everyone was starting to get restless. Suddenly, a loud beep noise could be heard coming from Dex's computer. (Do they have computers in the Lost Cities? We're gonna say they do here 'cause I don't know where else Dex would keep his techy information. If you guys know what they call that Elven tech please let me know!)

Dex nervously grabbed the computer as everyone crowded around him and watched as he struggled to find what was wrong. Finally he saw why the computer had notified him and gasped.

"What?" Grady pressured, "This could be wrong, but I think Biana's panic ring was just broken or disabled." Dex cringed as he waited for everyone's reactions, and Sandor spoke up first.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" he claimed in his squeaky voice, "you can't just send a couple of teenagers to a forbidden city without protection and think nothing will happen!"

"You're right," a voice said behind them all. Everyone whipped around so fast Dex thought they would get whiplash and turned to face Biana and Linh with pale faces.

"Something did, happen. Something big." Linh admitted. "And?" Keefe pressured, "We found her." A cheer erupted in the room, everyone knew who they were talking about. Sophie Foster was alive. Maybe this time the Black Swan really was a couple steps before the Neverseen. And they would take advantage of it.

There it is everyone! The first official chapter of Hidden Memories! I really hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that I can make chapters longer in the future. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to update a new chapter yet, so hopefully I'll figure that out soon, but for now, I hope you like this story so far!

~bubblekissed