Fitz and Sophie walked through the pastures and out to the panakes tree. So many memories came back as they made their way hand in hand. Fitz couldn't help but lean down and whisper

“Think they’d let us just skip the talking” giving her a quick wink. It was little inside jokes like this that reminded Sophie of Fitz’s nervous sense of humor. He rarely shared it with others but Sophie knew it came out when he was masking his fear.

Her thoughts were only on the magical day where she and Fitz got married. They had a small ceremony, just their parents, Biana, and Oralie who married them. Every detail had been planned to perfection and it all took place right where they were walking again. She was a little sad her friends had missed it but at the time it didn't feel right inviting them, the feelings were a little too close to the surface still.

They were the first ones to arrive at the panakes and as they waited for the others they decided that they would find a place to start to build their dream home.

That was as far as they had gotten when they saw someone coming across the field. It only took a second to recognize the strawberry blonde and periwinkle eyes. It was Dex.

“Oh my goodness Dex!” Sophie exclaimed “how have you been?”

“Great, I'm married now and run Slurps and Burps.” Dex paused before the getting quiet. “I get it now and I am sorry for how I acted all those years ago. I have wanted to reach out but Edaline told me that you had extremely limited contact in the Forbidden Cities. I’ve missed you guys and can't wait for you to meet Emlinel and the kids.” The friends continued to catch up as Sophie and Fitz told Dex all about the Forbidden Cities and their life there. They were showing him the latest technology they were using, Dex was both impressed and confused and was quickly making some tweaks to improve them. They missed the group of Tam, Linh and Wylie making their way towards them.

“Sorry we are late, someone had to fix his hair” Linh said giving Tam a sideways glance.

“Hey, it takes a lot of work to look this good,” Tam said back in defense.

“Only when you are making sure you look good for someone,” Linh teased back.

Sophie and Fitz snuck a look knowing that Tam and Biana had been meeting up not realizing Biana’s affections were being returned by Tam.

When Biana showed up seconds later and complemented Tam's hair, the everyone started laughing causing red to creep up Tam and Biana's face.

When the laughter turned to silence, Dex finally asked “do you think Keefe is really coming?”

“He said he would be here but you never know what might come up when Keefe is involved,” Linh said quietly. “Let's give him a few more minutes.”

With that the group grew quiet not really sure what to say to one another, it was just getting to awkward point where someone needed to say something. When they heard a familiar voice,

“Seriously Foster, did you have to show up so freaking early I could feel those emotions clear in Eternalia.”

“It's Vacker now,” Fitz muttered barely audible.

Fitz grew defensive and instinctively pulled Sophie in, protecting her from what he feared would come out next.

“Seriously you could feel my emotions last night?” Sophie asked, wondering if he was teasing or if he had really felt her.

“I heard you made Sophitz official years ago, I was upset I didn't get to bring my electronic spiders but I get it you will always be Foster to me and don't worries about the emotions I'm just teasing. I woke up to a notification from your registry pendants geo-marking you back at Havenfield. The council is keeping a tight eye on leaping from the Forbidden Cities right now. But. . .  it's been a long time.”

Even now it was all jokes for Keefe, Sophie wondered quickly if this was who he was or if he was still using humor as his defense mechanism.

Either way it didn't matter because Biana sweetly said “Linh wasn't there something you wanted to show us?”

Linh looked around the group, Tam and Wylie gave her an encouraging nod and she reached into her satchel and pulled out the purple crystal.