VERY IMPORTANT:

PLEASE READ ALL THREE PARAGRAPHS:

Huge round of applause to Fitzphie4life9, nikirocks31, moonulunala, and (once again!😊) SOPHITZ1305 for all being amazing supporters of my story! I would also like to recognize any of you who commented or voted for my story! Also: I would like to personally thank kotlcJill for being so nice and supportive. All of you are awesome!! Thank you guys a ton!

Also, for those amazing people who are still reading: if you make a comment or vote, I am not going to be able to keep adding your names in the beginnings of the chapters 😢. I can't because I am getting so many votes and comments I can't keep up! I don't want anyone to feel not included because I forgot about you. So if you comment or vote (or both!) I am giving you my thanks now!! 

One last thing, I know it took awhile to update, but I had this chapter ready!! I just didn't have 615 reads!! So please vote — it will help promote my story so others will reading it leading to me updating! So please vote, comment, re read, and enjoy yourself! Thank you guys so much. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment we've all been waiting for: the next chapter:

The Council? 

All of the Councilors  were lined up sitting in their elaborate thrones in all of their elaborate glory. 

Everybody curtsied and then Emery spoke.

"We are gathered today to discuss Matchmakers scrolls," he said.

"That's a given," Keefe snorted.

"Do not interrupt me Mr. Sencen. We have decided that — given all of your unique and developed talents and abilities — it would be best to have you have kids with each other. You are to match up with each other so your kids will have a unique set of enhanced abilities or ability."

"So," Tam said, "you want us to marry each other and then have kids because you want us to?"

When Emery nodded Tam said, "not happening. Sorry. You are not going to force us to get married and have kids  because it benefits you."

"Actually we are," Alina retorted.

"But we have one extra boy," Dex pointed out.

"Yes, and we are willing to let ONE of you marry outside of your little group," Emery responded.

"We are 16!" Sophie said, "we are not even that old! And you can't interfere with Matchmaking. It's in the Elvin laws. I read them."

"That is where I come in," Vidia said. "As head Matchmaker I will be in charge of taking to observations of the Council and placing my own thoughts to generate your Matchmaking scroll."

"Wait," Linh said, "don't you mean scrolls? With an "s"?"

Vidia glanced at the Coucil and Emery cleared his throat.

"You see," he said, "because there are only a few of you in your little group, we are providing you with one Match and one Match only. If you chose to take the Match, you are expected to get married within 2 years of choosing your Match. You are able to choose your Match until one week from today. Once you are married, you are expected to have children within 5 years of your marriage. We have put time limits on this because we all would like to see how our expirement turned out."

"Wait," Sophie said, "how many Matches will we have on our scroll?"

"You will have one Match only. That is it," Emery clarified. 

"And if we don't choose that Match," Sophie said, "then whoever we pick is a bad Match?"

Emery nodded.

"That isn't right. You don't even know us! How are you supposed to pick a Match for us?" Sophie argued.

"I assure you, we will take great care and consideration when picking the Matches."

"Why? So your "experiment"  works out?" Sophie retorted.

"That isn't a way to talk to the Council!" Alina snapped.

"I don't care! I can talk to the Council any way I want if they won't answer my questions!"

"And what question did we not answer?" Emery asked.

"I said that the Council cannot interfer with Matchmaking. It is an Elvin law."

"Sophie, darling," Alina said sweetly, "have you read the Amendments? A new Elvin Amendment was passed about three years ago saying that the Council has a right to interfere with anything they want so long as it is approved by every Councilor. Have you read the Amendments? Probably not. If you read anything from Lord and Lady Ruewen's library, it was probably very old."

Sophie hated Alina for being right. But she still wanted to argue. "First, don't call me darling. Second, if you are you going to choose our Match, give us two weeks to decide."

"We will give you one," Emery said. "That is the agreed upon time limit."

Sophie could feel her anger boiling. "So what? Are you just going to take over our lives?? Regulate everything we do? What is next? Are you going to hand pick our meals?"

Sophie's anger finally boiled over. Her vision dimmed and rage exploded. When her mind finally cleared, the only person writhing in pain on the ground was Alina. But... how was that possible? She couldn't target people with inflicting...could she?

A guard Sophie never noticed carried Alina into a separate room to get help.

Sophie studied the Coucillors until her eyes lay upon Bronte's face. He was smiling...kindly, at her.

"I am so sorry. I didn't even know that was possible!" Sophie said quickly.

"That behavior is the kind that will get you Exiled!" Emery snapped. "This time, this time only, we will excuse this... this assault."

Sophie curtsied and kept her head down feeling ashamed.

It is okay, Fitz transmitted.

And once again Sophie found herself leaning up against Fitz to support her uncooperative and wobbly legs.

Thank you, Fitz, Sophie transmitted. Thank you for always being there for me.

Sophie hoped that Fitz didn't look too much into the words. She hadn't meant them to be like that, but she was afraid it sounded like that.

Of course, Sophie. I am here for anything you need. You just have to talk to me.

After Sophie transmitted "I know" to Fitz, she turned her attention to the Council.

"The rules that you must follow are as follows:" Emery announced, "you must marry within your group but one of the boys may marry outside of the group. That is an official order of the Coucncil. You must get married within a  two years of choosing your Match and you must choose your Match within a week from today. After marriage, you must have already given birth to your first born child five years after your marriage."

"And...if we don't?" Dex asked.

"Then you will be monitored 24/7 as well as be forced to marry someone of our choosing for you. If you refuse, you will be sent to Exile."

"That's a bit harsh for children," Keefe pointed out.

"What we don't know won't hurt us," Emery said.

Sophie gasped when she solved the riddle, "you would erase that from your minds?!?"

"Of course. That is the only way to prevent our sanity from breaking. And I fear we have strayed from our topic of discussion." After a pause Emery continued where he'd left off, "it IS up to you  whether or not you choose the one person on your Matchmaking scroll. If you do not choose that person you MUST marry within your group or choose not to marry at all. If you marry anyone other than the one person on your scroll, you will be branded as a Bad Match. Oh, and you will receive your scrolls tomorrow. After that, you have one week to choose your Match. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded. They had no other options.

"Very well. Good day."

Vidia led them out of the room. Once the door was closed she said, "I am so sorry about this. If I had it my way, you would be able to have five scrolls and go through the whole process as normal. I argued with the Council for years about this decision."

"Wait," Linh said, "the Council has made this decision for years?"

"Oh yes. They were going to tell you when Sophie was 16 years of age. They figured you all would be old enough to handle the responsibility of having children within seven years of today." Vidia said.

"Seven years?" Tam asked. "I thought it was five."

"Five years after you get married. You still have two years to get married."

"Oh."

Once they had reached the front door Vidia said, "I apologize again. Good luck and may we meet  again."

They all said goodbye to Vidia and leaped back to Everglen.

They managed to tiptoe to Fitz's room without being noticed by Della.

They were all still in their fancy dresses and clothes so they couldn't sit on the ground.

There was about two minutes of silence before Biana said, "sooo, what do we do?"

"The only thing we can do," Keefe said. "We have to Match up. Not now, but tomorrow when we get our scrolls."

"It's just, it's so unfair. It's not right. We aren't nearly old enough to decide our future," Dex said.

Everyone nodded. There wasn't much they could say. There wasn't much they could do. 

"It's not fair to keep Mom waiting," Fitz said. "Come on. We have to tell her."

"Sophie and Dex, you should probably call your parents so they can hear," Biana said. There was a moment of silence until Biana says, "I didn't mean...Tam, Linh, Keefe I didn't think your parents would....but if you want..."

"No," Tam says, "You're right. We don't want our parents here. At all."

"I never want my parents around me. Anyway, my Mom is dead. As she should be," Keefe says. Everyone stared him for the open statement, "what? I hate my parents. I hate them, I hate them, I HATE them."

"I am sorry Keefe," Sophie says putting a hand on Sophie's shoulder.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault," Keefe says, "Anyway, you should go hail Grady and Edaline."

Keefe walks out the door and everyone soon follows after Dex and Sophie hail their parents.

Soon, everyone is gathered at Everglen. 

"So, what did you need to tell me?" Julienne asks.

Julienne came and Kesler watched over the triplets.

All of the kids looked at each other and finally Keefe related the whole story. By the end, Alden was mad. Della looked worried and stressed. Julienne moved closer to Dex, and Edaline hugged Sophie. Fitz was right next to Sophie talking to Grady. Linh and Tam were clinging to each other and Keefe... well, Keefe was alone. He didn't have anyone to comfort him. He was talking to Alden, but that wasn't his real father. But...his real father was so much worse than Alden.

"I am so sorry children," Alden said. "There isn't anything we can do about this. I am so sorry."

Everyone nodded and put on brave faces. "It could be worse," Sophie said. "We could be marrying random strangers. I mean, at least we are all friends, right?"

Grady smiled at Sophie and leaned down to whisper, "you always know how to look on the bright side."

"At this point, that's all we can do," Sophie whispered back.

Everyone thought of ideas and looked for ways they could comeback at the Council, but even after discussing it for an hour, nobody could think of anything.

It was dark outside and many hours past sunset, so Edaline and Grady promised that they would help her figure this all out and with some hugs, left Everglen.

Julienne did the same with her son and left as well.

"Well," Alden said, "it's late and I am sure you guys have had an exhausting day. You should get to bed."

"Wait," Fitz said. "Sophie has been having nightmares a lot lately and the other night when we slept together, it helped her when I was there. We were going to talk to you guys and Grady and Edaline to see if it was okay for us to sleep together every night."

Sophie was glad Fitz said it, but wished he'd done it privately and not in front of her friends. Sophie blushed and looked down. 

"Hmm," Alden said as he shared a glance with his wife, "Well, we certainly don't mind you sleeping together as long as you are responsible. I mean, a lot of things could wrong with two teenagers sleeping in the same bed."

Alden said this very seriously, but he had a playful smile on his face.

"Dad!" Fitz's said, embarrassed.

Alden and Della laughed.

"As long as it is okay with Sophie, we approve it," Della said.

Sophie nodded and Keefe said, "woah, way to kill me Foster. I thought I was your favorite." He said it teasingly, but there was a layer of hurt behind his eyes that Sophie didn't understand.

"Well," Alden said, "off to bed, all of you." 

Sophie headed to Biana's room to grab her bag. Then she walked off to Fitz's room.

"Hi," he said when she entered. "I already got changed. The bathroom is open for you."

"Thanks," Sophie said lugging her 300 million pound bag into the bathroom. She closed the door  and took off her heels gratefully. She washed off the makeup and took out her intricate bun. She changed into a nightgown that was buried at the very bottom of her bag.

Sophie walked out of the bathroom to see Fitz waiting for her. They climbed into bed together, but before they lay down, Fitz said, "Sophie I need to tell you............um, that you looked really pretty in that gold dress today."

Sophie had a feeling that that wasn't what he was going to say, but she took the compliment and said, "thank you. Good night Fitz."

"Good night Sophie."

Sophie slept for a few hours but the peace didn't last. Cloaked figures, hurt alicorns, smoke and fire, and burns and pain weaves through her dreams, or rather nightmares, until Sophie finally sat up covered in sweat. She started crying silently so she wouldn't wake Fitz up. He woke up anyway a few minutes later.

"Sophie? What's wrong? Are you okay? Why didn't you wake me up?"

Sophie just hugged him too relieved to have an elf to be with at the moment.

Fitz started braiding Sophie's hair into a beautiful braid that reminded Sophie of the braids Calla used to weave into Sophie's hair when they stayed at Alluventere. 

"Shh," Fitz said finishing the braid in Sophie's hair and tying it with a hair band. "I am here for you, Sophie."

"Thank you."

"I...I know this isn't he best time to tell you, but I wanted you to know before we got our Matchmakers Scrolls. And since we are getting them tomorrow...l well,, I think I should to tell you  my secret."

Sophie nodded, urging Fitz to go on.

"Well, my big secret is about who I have a crush on."

Sophie swallowed her spit. Oh boy, this would be the moment he told her that he liked Linh and she would just have to keep it together somehow.

"Sophie, I have liked this girl since pretty much the moment I saw her and that girl is..."

Sorry for the cliffhanger!! If you think you know who Fitz likes, you might want to think again!! I know, I am an evil writer, but you know, that is how this stuff works. Anyway, if your still reading, the thing I said earlier about who Fitz likes and how you might want to think again, that was a lie, sorry. I just wanted to see how many of you fell for it so comment if you fell for it!! (It's okay if you did — I know I would!😊). 

Please comment "Mallowmelt" if you like the story. Comment "Elvin History" if you think the story is a little boring and needs to move faster with less details. 

It is totally okay if you comment "Elvin History". That doesn't count as hate. It is just me trying to get a good idea on how I can improve the story!! Thank you!

I will not update until I get 800 reads!!!