Valerie gasped as Biana almost shoved her off the cot with a hug. The Vanisher squeezed her so tight that she struggled to breath.

"Uh... Biana." She managed. "I can't breathe."

Biana quickly pulled away. "Sorry."

Valerie cleared her throat. "It's okay. There are worse ways to suffocate."

Keefe pushed past Biana to stand next to Valerie's cot. "Next time you use a mystery crystal wait for back up."

She smirked. "No promises."

Keefe rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "And you love it."

Keefe sighed. "You got me there."

They both laughed.

Dex elbowed his way between Biana and Keefe and threw his arms around Valerie. "Don't ever do that again."

"Do what?" Valerie asked. "Save your life."

Dex gave her a reprimanding look. "You know what I mean."

Valerie met his gaze. "You know I can't keep that promise."

His shoulders slumped as he nodded.

She sighed. "But you won't have to worry about that for a while. I'm pretty sure I'm under cot arrest."

Elwin shook his head and muttered some sort of complaint under his breath.

Sophie snuck around to the other side of the cot. "Are you okay?"

Valerie turned to face her. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

Sophie stood awkwardly for a moment before hugging Valerie. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for your rescue."

Valerie looked at her sternly. "No, you had to look for your family. I get it."

Sophie hung her head. "But... after that."

"After?" Valerie found Mr. Forkle's face among the small crowd.

He cleared his throat and maneuvered between people until he stood next to Valerie's cot. "Yes. We found Sophie's human parents and have taken care of them."

"And then?" Valerie urged.

"We captured Alvar Vacker, only to find that his mind had been completely wiped." He took a deep breath. "There was a trial and right after that... Miss Foster and Mr. Vacker were attacked."

"What?!" Valerie stood up, but Elwin cleared his throat loudly and she forced herself to sit back down. "What do you mean they were attacked?"

Forkle took another deep breath. "The Neverseen's Shade used Shadowflux to temporarily... disable them."

"Shadowflux?" Valerie watched as Forkle nodded. "You said no Shade was powerful enough."

"It seems I was wrong." He met her cold gaze.
"It wouldn't be the first time." He shot a quick glance at Sophie.

Valerie nodded slowly. "Then what happened."

Forkle straightened. "Mr. Tam managed to remove the Shadowflux. After that, it was a long recovery. Miss Foster only left the healing center two days ago."

Elwin piped up from the corner. "The Black Swan never fails to keep me busy."

Valerie scanned the crowd to find Tam standing in the back. He didn't look overly excited about the mention of Shadowflux.
He met her gaze and gave her a weak smile.
His shadow stretched across the floor and crossed hers. "We'll talk later."

She nodded ever so slightly.

With that, he walked out of the room.

Lihn appeared next to Sophie. "Can we stop talking about this? We can catch her up later."

Forkle slipped to the back of the room.

Lihn wrapped Valerie in a hug. "It's good to have you back."

Valerie returned Lihn's embrace. "It's good to be back."

A/N
I know, it's another fluff chapter. I got a little carried away, but I hope it's still fun to read.
Anyway, I'm going camping tomorrow so I probably won't do much updating. I'll try to get a few chapters done, but we'll see what happens.
Have a great day/night.
-Cheshire