I slept outside, under the Panakes tree. But even with that, and Silveny trying to send me good dreams, and the fact that I didn’t push back a single flashback, nightmares still haunted me. I nearly gave Sophie, who was sleeping outside with me, a heart attack when I woke up at three in the morning screaming. I felt terrible when it was time to get up, but I did anyway. I leap to school and go to Elwin’s office.
“It’s a good thing I made you come back here.” He says when I stumble in the door.
“Do I really look that bad?”
“No offense, but yes. Yes you do. What happened? Did you sleep at all?”
“Kind of? No matter what I tried, I kept getting awful nightmares, and I kept waking up.”
“You should’ve taken a-”
“NO SEDATIVES.”
“Ok, ok. But you do need rest, so you might have to if these nightmares become a regular occurrence.”
“But-”
“No buts. I know that you and Sophie don’t have a great history with sedatives, but if nightmares are keeping you awake, you’ll have to take one. Even if it doesn’t make you sleep, and just gives you weird dreams.”
“Fine.”
“Good. Now drink these, and go to Elementalism. Also, here’s a note for Lady Vida to let her know not to push you too hard.” He says, sending me away. “Acd come back before lunch.”
“Fine.” Elementalism was boring without being able to actually do anything. Apparently, Elwin had forbidden bottling anything even remotely dangerous. Which ruled out 90% of the subject. So Lady Vida and I went over how to do it, but we couldn’t actually bottle anything.
“I guess I’ll just give you a test over this if you still can’t do it by next week.”
“Ok.. If I get Elwin’s approval, do you think I could come in here to practice?”
“Sure. But that’ll probably be a bit difficult.”
“Don’t underestimate me.”
“I won’t. But you shouldn’t underestimate Elwin.” The chimes ring, and I head to the healing center instead of lunch.
“When will I be approved for Elementalism again?” I ask.
“At least, five days.”
“But I have midterms starting soon!”
“Well, you’ll have to discuss alternate options for what you’ll do. By the way, Inflicting and P.E. are also off the table. And considering how your one lesson went, I don’t want you doing Alchemy either.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. We need you to get better. Now drink these, and head to lunch.” I sigh and take the elixirs. I chug them and leave the office. At lunch, everyone starts freaking out over me, and asking how I’m doing.
“Guys, I’m fine.” I say. Everyone sends me looks that clearly say ‘we don’t believe you’.
“Just tell Elwin to let us talk to you next time you land yourself in the healing center.” Biana says.
“Ok, I’ll pass the message along.” Then the conversation turns to Keefe. I zone out for most of it, because if I pay too close attention, I’ll just get really sad. When the chimes sound again, I head to inflicting, even though I’m not allowed to do anything.
“Ms. Ruewen.” Bronte says.
“Hello, Councillor Bronte.”
“I suppose you realize that this is your last session with me before you have to take the midterms?”
“I do. And I was wondering what I’ll be doing for them.”
“What type of question is that? You’ll be inflicting.”
“But I’m not allowed to.”
“Who said that?” He scoffs.
“Elwin.”
“I’m not going to make you and Sophie inflict on each other again.”
“No, I’m not even allowed to do anything in Elementalism or any other remotely dangerous subject. And this was included.”
“But why?”
“Sophie didn’t tell you?”
“Sophie didn’t tell me what?” As if on cue, Sophie walks through the door. “Ms. Foster. Ms. Ruewen here seems to think that there’s something you forgot to inform me of?”
“OH. Yeah. It was my job to tell the council. But things got so crazy…” Sophie says.
“Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” Bronte asks
“My mind broke.” I say.
“WHAT? Ms. Foster, you don’t just forget to tell the council about something like that.”
“Sorry!”
“Well, it looks like we’re not even talking about inflicting today. I’m calling the rest of the council here.”
“WHAT?!”
“And you’ll get to explain why this is the first they’ve heard of it.” He pulls out his imparter. Soon, all twelve councilors are standing in the room.
“Bronte, why did you call us here?” Emery asks.
“Ask one of these two.” Bronte says pointing to where me and Sophie are sitting.
“Care to explain?” Emery asks.
“Well, yesterday, I realized that it was my fault my universe is probably in flames, since that hasn’t happened here yet, and I’m one of the only differences. And… I just started to let myself spiral out of control and…” I trail off before I start crying. Luckily, Sophie takes over.
“Then Dex found her just before it was too late. He came and got me and I used my abilities to heal her. We think that it wasn’t as severe as when Alden was broken because she was only there for at most ten minutes, and he was there for days.”
“That all makes sense. But I want to know why we just heard about this.” Emery says.
“Well, Elwin told me to reach out to you guys and let you know what happened, since I’ve done things like that in the past. But I was so worried, it just… slipped my mind.”
“That’s understandable. But if something like this happens again, try taking more steps to make sure we know about it.”
“I will.”
“Now, Ms. Ruewen, would you answer a few questions for us?”
“Uh, ok. But Magnate Leto already interviewed everyone involved, so if you have any questions that aren’t about what I felt, you should go to him.” I say.
“And I felt  what you did while I was saving you, so I could just show you all instead of making her relive it again.” Sophie says. I smile my thanks at her.
“Transmit the memory to me.” Terik instructs. Sophie does, and just watching it makes him go pale.
“Transmit it to the rest of us.” Bronte says.
“No. Nobody should have to watch that.” He says, looking sympathetically at me. “It was that, and even worse for you?”
“Probably.” I say, feeling suddenly sick. “C- can I step out for a minute?”
“Of course.” Emery says. I quickly leave the room and find a bench to sit on. Deep breaths Lori. It’s over. I tell myself. I reach up and wipe the sweat off my forehead. I wasn’t aware that I was sweating. My head hurts, and I feel nauseous.
“What’s goin on?” Sophie asks, coming out of the room.
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
“I’m just… thinking about what it was like. I was trapped in my own head, and the one place that I thought nothing could reach me wasn’t safe anymore.” She sits next to me and wraps an arm round my shoulders.
“You’re ok now. But I’m going to get Elwin.” She says, standing up to go get him.
“Sophie?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for saving me.”
“Anytime.” She hurries down the hall. A few minutes later, I am facing the wrath of Elwin, armed with a thousand foul tasting elixirs.
“What did you even do?” He asks.
“I watched Emery watch Sophie show him what it was like inside my head.”
“Wait, Emery?!”
“Sophie didn’t tell you? She forgot to tell the council what happened, so when we got to the room, Bronte called the whole council.”
“Ok, does Magnate Leto know about this?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Sophie, why don’t you go tell him. The entire council being here seems like something he should know.”
“Ok.” She says, going down the hall that leads to Magnate Leto’s office.
“Are you trying to break Sophie’s record?”
“No, stuff just happens.”
“Well you should be more careful about this ‘stuff’. Or eventually, you’ll find an injury I can’t treat.”
“I’ll try to be more careful. But I can’t make any promises.” The chimes sound, and since I’m not in much of a state to go to study hall, Elwin helps me back into the room. A few minutes later, Sophie and Magnate Leto come in.
“Magnate Leto, I was just about to send for you. I’ve heard that you’ve talked to everyone involved in Ms. Ruewen’s er… accident?”
“Yes, Emery, I have. How may I be of assistance?”
“I just have a few questions, maybe we could have a discussion somewhere a little more private?”
“Of course. Perhaps in my office after school?”
“That will work.” Discussions break out among the councilors, and some of them begin to leave. After drinking a lot of elixirs, I start to feel better.
“What’s that on your face?” Sophie asks.
“What?” I say reaching up to touch my face. My stomach drops when I realize that my scar patch is falling off. I forgot I was wearing it, and didn’t put a fresh one on this morning, so it had started to peel away from my skin when I started sweating. “It’s nothing.”
“Come on. You can trust me.” I look at everyone around, then her. Magnate Leto, Emery, Elwin, Oralie, Terik, Noland, and Ziora are the only ones left in the room.
“It’s… a scar.” I say, pulling the patch back to reveal the scar in the shape of a swan. “When Keefe ran away to join the Neverseen, they…”
“They asked him to burn you?” Sophie guesses.
“Yeah. He refused, but they wanted to teach him a lesson. So they grabbed me and… they branded me with his pendant and made him watch. Then they knocked me out and took him away. By the time someone found me, the damage was permanent.” I’m holding back tears. “I didn’t plan to keep this on forever, just until I got used to life here.” Nobody says anything for a while, they’re all just staring at me.
“You don’t have to be ashamed of it. It makes you unique.” Sophie says.
‘I know. I just didn’t want to explain it to a hundred people while I was still adjusting to things here.”
“Ok That makes sense. But you could’ve told me.”
“I know. The time just didn’t seem right.”
“Well, I’m glad you finally told me.”
“It feels good to share it. And I think I’m ready to keep them off.” Thanks to all of Elwin’s elixirs, I’m feeling a lot better, so when the chimes ring again to signal the end of the school day, I’m able to go home with Sophie. Edaline is surprisingly calm when I tell her what happened during Inflicting.
“Elwin helped you?” She asks.
“Yeah.”
“Then you should be fine. But just to be safe, I’m sending you to bed for the rest of the day.”
“Fine. But I’m sleeping out here.”
“Deal.” She conjures down a mountain of pillows, and helps me get comfortable. I spent the afternoon playing with Wynn and Luna. Then evening comes, and I don’t want to go through the nightmares again. But I also won’t take a sedative unless there’s absolutely no other options. I've already lost too much time to them. And these aren’t like any other nightmares I’ve had. Only one other person might be able to help me, so I hail Alden.
“Lori? Is something wrong?” He asks.
“Kind of. When Sophie brought you back from having a broken mind, did you have nightmares?”
“I did.” He says after a pause.
“Do you think there’s a way to get rid of them?”
“I took a sedative every night, but you probably won’t want to do that.”
“I would prefer not to, but if I don’t figure out something else that’ll work, Elwin will make me take one.”
“Hm. Do you have any ideas at all about what could help them?”
“Not really. I’ve never had to go through something like this before. Have they gone away for you?”
“They have, but it took around a year for them to stop, and even now, I still take a sedative after a particularly stressful day, since that’s when I’m most prone to nightmares. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you the answers you’re looking for. But if anyone can find a way to stop them, it’s you.” He hangs up his imparter, and I’m left wondering how I’m going to figure this out. It seems so hopeless, a tear slides down my cheek.
“Lori? You alright?” Sophie asks, sitting next to me.
“No. I don’t think anyone can help me get rid of these stupid nightmares.”
“We’ll figure something out. This has never happened before, and-”
“Of course it hasn’t! I’m sick and tired of always being ‘the new case’ or ‘the exception’! I just want to be normal for once in my life!” I yell. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have lashed out like that.”
“It’s fine. You’re totally justified in thinking that. You were me in your old universe, right? The first elf raised by humans, the first with an impenetrable mind, the first to manifest as early as five. Then, you were, as far as we know, the first elf to travel the multiverse. The first here to be a seeker, and now you’re the first to have their mind broken and healed so quickly. Not that we need any more examples for the last one. And when you’re the first, there aren’t any rules laid out for you to follow. And it’s terrifying.”
“Why can’t I just be normal?”
“Not being normal isn’t always a bad thing.”
“Yeah, but normal is a whole lot easier.”
“Maybe in another life.” We sit in silence for a minute, then she breaks it. “What are you going to do about these nightmares?”
“I don’t know what I can do except take sedatives until they go away.”
“That’s your answer? I’ll go get some slumberberry tea.”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“Maybe. It’s just an idea though.”
“What is it? I’ll try anything.”
“The thing is… I’ll need an empath. And I’m not on the best terms with like 90% of the empaths I know.”
“Really?”
“Well, Keefe is… not here. Stina’s always rubbed me the wrong way, and I can’t exactly call Lord Cassius down here.”
“There is one more empath you know.”
“Who- NO. I AM NOT CALLING HER HERE.”
“Sophie-”
“SHE’S A COUNSELOR.”
“You know very well that’s not the reason you don’t want her here.”
“I’m sorry Lori, but I don’t know if I can-”
“So don’t. I’ll talk to her. Just tell me what your idea was, then I can make it seem like I thought of it.”
“Well, um… when I enhance empaths they can calm me down, so I thought that if I could enhance an empath and have them send good feelings to you, it might help.”
“Oh. If you’re that against it, you don’t have to.”
“I’ll think about it. But what I don’t get is your willingness to call her over. You’re actually really calm around her.”
“Well, in my old universe, we sat down and talked for a while. And I actually listened to her instead of trying to be right, and I think you also realize that in her position, you would have done the same thing. So we made our peace. It’s not like we started doing mother-daughter activities, I only did those with Edaline. We just decided to ignore it, like she had been doing for years.”
“That takes a kind of courage I don’t think I have.”
“It’s hard. But you’ll get there one day.”
“I’ll try to.” She takes a deep breath. “I’ll go hail her.”

Muahahaha
I'm making Sophie talk to Oralie. Also, I just checked, and I'm almost out of chapters. But I might post a Dex POV today.