Chapter 8

As we go through the tour of Havenfield, everything is about the same as it was in my universe. Verdi is still the permanent resident, the gorogdon still has an enclosure, there’s still a verminion (unfortunately), and Calla’s Panakes tree is still in the same spot. I go over and stand in its shade, breathing in the sweet scent of the blossoms. Sophie comes over to me.
“Is this Calla?” I ask.
“Yeah. I assume you were her friend too?”
“I was.” I close my eyes and hum the melody it sometimes sounds like she’s still singing, even as a tree. After a minute, Sophie joins in, our voices harmonizing with each other and creating something even more beautiful.
“You’re the first person I’ve met who can hear it too.” she remarks. I pull out my necklace and show her the dove pin.
“I guess Calla taught me how to listen. She gave this to me before she… you know.”
“I know,” Sophie replied, pulling out her own necklace that has similar items to mine. Hers has a moonlark Prattles Pin instead of a dove. “Come on. Let’s get inside.”
Inside the house is just like how I remember it, except it’s clear that Sophie lived there. Sitting on the couch was a familiar ogre.
“Ro, remember how I said Lori might be coming to live here?” Sophie says.
“Yeah I do. Why do you think she’s still alive? I could smell you as soon as you leaped here. Although there’s something different about your smell that I couldn’t quite place…” the ogre princess trailed off.
“It probably has something to do with how I’m from another universe.” I told her. “If you’re here, where’s Keefe?” I ask.
“WOAH back up a second honey, ANOTHER UNIVERSE?!” She seemed surprised. I noticed how she  had not so smoothly changed the subject.
“Yeah, I already explained this to you.” Sophie says, sounding annoyed. “In the same conversation where I mentioned that Grady and Edaline wanted to adopt her since she goes by Ruewen. You seem to remember that part pretty well.”
“Oh, yeah. I zoned out after I promised not to use any of my amoeba friends on her.” Sophie rolled her eyes.
“And you’d better stick to that promise.” Grady says. “Come on, let's finish the tour.” As we go through all the rooms of the house, everything else is pretty much the same. Until we get to Jolie’s old room.
“After Sophie came along and showed us how to let Jolie go, we converted this room into a guest room, and we would turn it into a room for you, but it's… occupied at the moment.” Edaline says. Judging from the suddenly sad look on everyone’s faces, I took a guess at who was in there.
“Is it Keefe?” I ask. Edaline nods slowly and opens the door. I think a tear escapes my eye at the sight of the handsome boy asleep on the bed. His usually perfectly styled hair is messy and knotted. It might just be me, but he looks thinner. I hate that he is stuck here, passed out. He should be up cracking jokes and pulling pranks. "How long has he been like this?" I ask.
"6 days and 17 hours." Sophie answers. She tries to hide it, but I can see a tear run down her cheek. I turn around and leave the room, promising him that his mom would be punished for what she did to him.
"So, if Keefe is in there, where will I stay?"
"You're going to share a room with me, at least for now." Sophie responds. "It's certainly big enough." 
"That sounds great. Can I start moving my stuff up there now?" I ask.
"Sure." As we go up to her room, or I guess, our room, I wonder if it will be weird being in my old room again. I walk through the door and marvel at just how similar it looks to my old room. Same flower carpet, same shade of paint on the walls. The only difference is that there are two of almost all the furniture pieces, instead of one. It looks like half the room is just a mirror image of the other, except one side has a large window.
"Which side is yours?" I ask Sophie.
"The one closer to the window." I go to the bed on the other side of the room. Sophie crawls onto her bed and grabs a bright blue elephant stuffed animal.
"Who is that?" I ask.
"Oh, this is Ella. It might sound childish but… I can't sleep without her."
"No judgment here," I say, pulling Kitty out of my bag. She laughs. I set Kitty at the head of my bed, on top of all the pillows.
"So I guess you're your universe's version of me?" She says, trying to make conversation.
"Most likey. I was created by The Black Swan, raised by humans, brought to the Elvin world by the overrated Fitz Vacker,"
"Who are you calling overrated? Fitz is… perfect."
"Wait, Biana told me that you broke up with him."
"I did. I didn't want to though. He was asking me questions…"
"When was it?"
"After Loanmore."
"You had just found your mom, hadn't you?"
She waited a second before answering, "yeah." I walk over and hug her. She hugged me back and whispered, "Oralie is your mom too?"
"Yeah." We stay like that for a little while longer, then I go back to unpacking my things. It gets really quiet, and I decide that it's my turn to start a conversation. "So what are the plans for taking down the Neverseen?"
"Ugh, everyone just wants to solve one problem at a time, even though we've seen just how poorly that method works."
"I know, right? They always seem to be like 100 steps ahead of us. And when we try changing that, we end up with…" I trail off, not wanting to bring up a sore subject.
"With what?" She asks.
"With Keefe passed out in the spare bedroom." She winces. Why did I mention Keefe? She must have noticed that I regret bringing it up, so she keeps the conversation going.
"I'm going to make Gisela regret ever messing with him." She says.
"I'm sure everyone else will help you." She must not know how to respond to that, because it gets quiet again. Thankfully, we are saved from another desperate attempt at conversation by Edaline calling us down for dinner.
"I made carnissia root and umber leaves!" Edaline announces as Sophie and I sit at the diner table. I eagerly take a big spoonful of the carnissia root.
"My favorite!" Sophie and I exclaim at almost the same moment. The cheeseburger tasting vegetable could never get old. Gnomes grow the best vegetables.
"Leave some room for dessert, girls!" Edaline says as we dig in. "I made mallowmelt!" After dessert, which was just as good as dinner, everyone goes to get ready for bed. I take a nice, long, hot shower in my new home and go back to the room. I'm careful not to let Sophie see my exposed scar, so I won't have to recount the painful tale. I assumed she doesn't have one, since she washed her face without peeling off a patch or anything. I call goodnight and she claps to turn off the light. I fell asleep, which turned out to be a bad decision.

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