Keefe was at Havenfield.

With Tam.

When they arrived at Sophie's house, having just leaped there, they were holding hands, but let go as soon as they materialized on the purple grass outside of the Havenfield mansion.

And Sophie was pretty sure she screamed.

She was just in her bedroom, marveling at the fact that Keefe had actually agreed to talk to her in person. She spent a day reading his letter, wondering if he was the same person who wrote it, occasionally speaking with her friends, and then when the next day came, he was in her house.

With Tam!

"What are you two doing here? Together? And I thought we agreed to meet in another," Sophie counted back the hours mentally, "day."

Keefe's lips twitched like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with them. "This is an emergency."

Tam opened his mouth to speak but Keefe held up his hand to stop him. "We have a lot to explain. But first, tell your parents or the gnomes or something to make sure that the alicorns, all of them, are in some sort of safety enclosure thing."

"Huh?"

Tam gestured for them to move into the lounge room.

Sophie glared at them both expectantly when she sat down.

"Long story short, Alvar was at the hotel we were at and he told us that he heard from an old Neverseen member that my mom is going to kidnap the alicorn twins to use as leverage against you."

Sophie held up her hand and let her eyelids flicker shut. "Can you just go back right to the beginning? Why were you two both staying at the same hotel?"

Tam's cheeks went a little red, and Sophie's eyes narrowed as she read his embarrassed emotions. "Could we please not dwell on that? Lady Gisela could be coming any minute now."

Sophie stood up. "Fine. But don't expect me to leave this alone."

She fast-walked out of the door but before she could completely disappear around the corner she winked at Tam.

He was embarrassed for a reason.

"Mom! Dad!" she called into the pastures, hoping for a loud echo, but the acoustics of the fields weren't super good.

She continued calling, knowing that in the early hours of the day they would either be eating breakfast or trying to wrestle a dinosaur – she'd walked past the kitchen with Keefe and Tam and hadn't seen her parents.

"I'm...just...HERE...Sophie!" Edaline yelled through her teeth, and Sophie turned to see a faraway Edaline pulling on a rope attached to the gorgodon's neck, which was thrashing around in its cage.

Sophie rushed over and grasped the rope to help. "What's going on with this creature? It's never been this fierce. Well, actually, it has, but still!"

"I don't know," Edaline said, gritting her teeth, "but I wonder if you could use your new powers to help with this particularly tricky animal?"

Sophie dropped the rope and sighed. She'd only don't that once and she never wanted to do it again – but wasn't the point of having powers so that you could control them? Maybe hers were different to Keefe's.

"I'll try," she sighed, and summoned as much power as she could in her body.

She focused on the gorgodon's emotions, amazed to find that it felt...threatened.

Scared.

Lonely.

Anxious.

Vulnerable.

What had happened to it? How could it be feeling all these things?

"Edaline...I think something happened to it," she whispered.

Her mom turned to her, letting go of the rope gently. The gorgodon stopped thrashing. "Like what?"

"I don't know," Sophie answered, but then it hit her. "Hang on...when Lady Gisela came to here just a few days ago...what if she hurt the gorgodon then?"

Edaline froze for a second, but then quickly dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand. "I'm sure it's fine. We'll figure it out."

They both looked at the snarling gorgodon which was still but didn't look particularly friendly.

"If you say so," Sophie murmured, "but I need to talk to you."

"Ahh..." Edaline grinned at her. "And what is the subject of this talk?"

"Not that!" Sophie said hurriedly. "It's...um...we need to make sure that the alicorns are all put in some sort of safety bubble thing."

Edaline stared at her.

"Well, Keefe came..." Sophie started. "And he was staying at a hotel in the Forbidden Cities...with Tam...and they saw Alvar and talked to him and he said that Lady Gisela was going to kidnap the alicorn twins to use as leverage against me."

Edaline blinked. "Um...I'll figure something out with the alicorns – how about you go and catch up with your friends?"

Sophie looked over at the gorgodon, then the alicorns further off, and then to her mom. "I...fine."

"Sophie, before you leave..." Edaline called as she turned away to the mansion. "Just...know that we all have your back, okay? For whatever you need. Even if it means defying the Council's orders. And also – I thought Keefe had ran away in this super dramatic way and he was trying to get you to forget about him – and now he's back?"

Sophie winced. "For an important reason, though."

She honestly didn't like to be reminded of the horrible feelings she'd felt when she read that letter – the bone- crushing, heart-aching mess that unfolded inside her, and even though it was mostly her manifestation's fault, she couldn't help but hold something against herself. She was too weak – she had to get stronger soon, or the Neverseen would win!

"Keefe! You have to calm down!"

Tam's voice reverberated through the room as Sophie entered it.

Keefe had his eyes squeezed shut tightly and his hands were curled into fists. He looked like he was in pain, but as Sophie rushed closer to him and Tam, she realized that his lips were twisted into a slightly evil-looking smirk.

"What happened to him?" Sophie said, trying not to show the fear in her voice.

"I don't know!" Tam hissed, dragging Keefe over to a chair instead of the floor. "One second he was fine – and then he just started to mutter really weird incoherent things and then he started chanting Alvar's name under his breath – and his mom's, too – and now I don't know what is going on with him!"

Keefe was now whispering strange words, and Sophie didn't understand any of them, and then he stood up, his eyes snapping open, with a murderous glint in one of them.

"Keefe! Are you – " Sophie's words were cut off.

"We're going back to find Alvar," Keefe said darkly, "He's a traitor and I'm going to punish him before he goes and makes things worse."

Tam looked at Sophie with a terrified expression and grabbed Keefe's wrists. "Keefe, Alvar's a good guy! He never really meant to betray us, now he just wants to leave the world in peace, don't make it worse – "

"YOU'RE MAKING THINGS WORSE!" Keefe screamed. "YOU AND YOUR STUPID BANGS AND YOUR STUPID KNACK FOR MEDDLING IN OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS!"

Tam jolted back.

Sophie attempted to reason with him. "Alvar is not a bad guy and we're not going to punish him."

Keefe pushed past Tam to look at Sophie, the mad glint still in his eyes, and grabbed her wrist. "Take us to the hotel I'm picturing in my mind or I'll hurt you."

As he took Tam's hand as well, Sophie obeyed him – she'd never been more terrified in her life.

And then the three elves, two horror-struck and one weirdly possessed, teleported off the Havenfield cliffs.

***

Alvar inched away from Keefe as carefully as he could. They had retreated to the snow outside – Keefe had forced them away from the humans – and Alvar knew right away that something was wrong even without Tam and Sophie having to say anything.

"Tell me why you didn't leave! Tell me who you learnt about the alicorns from!" Keefe spat, so close to Alvar's face now that another inch would have their noses touching. "Admit that you're a traitor."

"Keefe, you have to see – I just want to be left alone, I don't mean any harm, I don't want any trouble, I've learnt my lesson –"

"You're lying."

"No, I'm not!"

"Check, Sophie."

Keefe moved back from Alvar, who was cowering against the outer wall of the Alp House, and forcefully grabbed Sophie's hand to press it against Alvar's.

The only emotions Sophie could decipher were pure fear, anger, confusion. He wasn't lying.

"I swear Keefe, he's telling the truth," she whispered. "Don't hurt him."

"You must be lying, too."

"What?" Sophie gasped, inching away from them both, stepping back to a frozen Tam. "You're an Empath, you should know!"

Keefe's eyes flickered. For a second, his angry façade was replaced by the emotions he'd revealed a few years back in the Exillium tent – a scared, broken boy. But just as quickly as it came, the façade fell back into place and he slammed Alvar against the wall again, placing his forearm over Alvar's neck.

"Don't hurt him."

This time the words came from Tam – Sophie was too terrified to speak as she backed away even further from the other three.

Keefe's eyes darted to Tam but he swiftly held up his hand, and before Sophie or Tam could rush forward and stop him, Alvar was choking on nothing and his face was turning purple.

"Stop!" Sophie screamed.

Tam looked at Sophie, panicking, and said, "Sophie, you have to do something. Some Empath thing. Keefe would never normally do this, he must be like, actually possessed."

Eyes wide as dinner plates, Sophie advanced on Keefe and grabbed his other hand which wasn't controlling Alvar's breaths and poured as many good emotions as she could come up with into him.

Keefe didn't stop. Now Alvar's limbs were thrashing and blood escaped his lips as he struggled to breathe; blood was blossoming across his chest, snow was melting into his clothes and he was staining it red.

"This should be working!" Sophie yelled, trying to think of more positive things as Alvar steadily got worse and worse.

With a final burst of determination, Keefe's hand dropped, he collapsed onto the ground, and his eyes flickered shut.

"We have to get out of here," Tam said in a small voice as Alvar finally passed out right after Keefe, every part of exposed skin they could see on his body now a deep violet: combination of blood and hypothermia.

Sophie felt like she was going to puke. The amount of energy and power she'd transferred to Keefe, plus the amount of red soaking into the snow beneath Alvar, and what had just happened to Keefe – it was enough to last a lifetime of nightmares. She just nodded faintly, taking Keefe's hand and Alvar's hand as Tam took Keefe's, and they hastily leaped away.

They ended up in the purple pastures outside of Havenfield. The two that were conscious could have been mistaken as dead; they just lay still for the immense time it took to calm down.

By the time Tam and Sophie stood up to get Edaline, Keefe and Alvar were both still unconscious, but Alvar wasn't bleeding as much because Keefe had stopped torturing him.

When Edaline arrived she looked like Sophie had when she saw what had happened to Alvar. "How could Keefe do this...?"

Alvar and Keefe were both taken to the Healing Centre at Foxfire, since the school term was still on hiatus. Surprisingly, Alvar woke up before Keefe; but when he saw the deep wounds all over his body he passed out again and Sophie told her friends about what happened.

After her friends all visited the two trauma victims, Sophie came, and it was very late at night.

Alvar had been changed out of his bloody tunic and cape, and Elwin had carefully removed all the blood covering his body. He mostly looked better, but his face was still blue, his lips were swollen, and he was shivering and sweating at the same time, muttering curses that were most likely directed towards Keefe.

Keefe was lifeless for a while, but Elwin assured Sophie that he was perfectly fine, but he had just been sleeping. Sophie was still trying to work out what had possessed him to do that to Alvar.

It could have been his mom, couldn't it?

But how could she even do that? She wasn't a Mesmer...well, they didn't actually have any proof that she wasn't, but it seemed unlikely. Or she could be a Beguiler...but that didn't seem right either.

Or it could be someone else. But who?

Who hated Alvar and maybe even Keefe with a cruel passion?

The only person Sophie could come up with for that...was Fitz.

But Fitz would never do that. And Telepaths couldn't do that anyway.

So who had possessed Keefe?

Unless it was himself...maybe it was a bad reaction to whatever stellarlune thing Lady Gisela had forced upon him. That really did seem like the most possible option.

WC: 2197 words

Quick A/N:  Hey guys, I'd never actually intended to have Keefe try and kill Alvar in this chapter or in any part of this whole story really, but it happened...and yeah, I don't even know why I'm adding this note. But anyway, sorry for hurting Hunkyhair and Alvar, as much as we don't like him a whole lot (Alvar, not Keefe.) Remember to vote, comment, and follow me (but you don't have to of course) and I kinda sound like a YouTuber now so I'm going to stop. Next chapter coming soon! Adios!