Over the past three years, she had accumulated well over a thousand subscribers. Quite a few of her videos had surpassed ten thousand views, and every bit of that support had come from people who genuinely enjoyed her work. Their encouragement, both emotional and financial, had completely transformed her life during those three years. To disappear without a word after everything they had given her, she simply couldn't bring herself to do something so heartless.
Sophie decided it would be best to come up with a believable excuse and announce a temporary hiatus. She could tell everyone she had accepted a job in Italy with excellent benefits, including room and board, but that it required living in a fully enclosed environment without internet access. Most of her followers would probably understand. Even if she never had the chance to return, time would eventually soften their memories, and they would discover new creators to follow. After all, in the age of the internet, people and trends were replaced at astonishing speed.
"Mm, I'll go ask Gianna for you." Felix was more than willing to help, and Sophie couldn't have asked for anything better. Still, he hadn't personally handled the storage of her belongings, so he couldn't promise he'd be able to find the tablet immediately.
Felix stood up and brushed the blades of grass from his black cloak before calling out a name toward an empty stretch of the training grounds. A guard appeared almost instantly, as though he had been waiting nearby. Felix exchanged a few brief words with him in Italian, speaking too quickly for Sophie to follow. She couldn't understand what was being said, though she thought she caught something that sounded remarkably similar to Jane's name. Maybe there's an Italian word that's pronounced the same way, she wondered.
"Wait here for a little while," Felix instructed after finishing the conversation. Then he left together with the guard, disappearing down one of the mountain paths.
It seemed a little excessive for two guards to retrieve a single tablet. Sophie had originally hoped to recover it quietly without attracting anyone's attention. Still, she knew she wasn't in a position to make demands, so she obediently remained within the streamside training grounds and waited. With Felix gone, the entire area belonged to Sophie alone.
At last, she had gathered enough information. Some of it concerned the Volturi, while the rest concerned herself. Although she privately complained that Aro collected gifted guards the same way wealthy people collected priceless works of art, she also had to admit she had benefited enormously from his obsession. Otherwise, there was no way she could have encountered so many different dark gifts in such a short period of time.
Jane had once told her that supernatural gifts were extraordinarily rare. They weren't something every vampire possessed. To awaken a dark gift, that was truly a one-in-ten-thousand miracle.
During the past few days of being ignored, Sophie hadn't spent all her time working on Jane's gift. She had also carefully organized everything she knew about herself, tracing every strange incident back to its beginning.
On the first day she arrived at Palazzo dei Priori, she met Heidi, whose gift was irresistible allure. Heidi never needed to know a person's name to influence them and gently guide them into following her words. After being affected by Heidi's ability, Sophie had unconsciously imitated it herself, "persuading" Jane to escort her outside the palace.
Soon afterward came the attempt on her life. Fabio's memory-altering gift had somehow remained within her after her transformation, allowing her to repeatedly use an ability that should never have belonged to her in the first place.
The next important memory took place in the Judgment Hall. Aro had touched her hand and read her memories. Later, she touched Jane and somehow read Jane's memories in return. Because both abilities involved memories, everyone, herself included, had mistaken them for the same gift.
After that came Dimitri's tracking ability. At its core, it functioned by capturing an invisible imprint. Dimitri had once used that gift to hunt Sophie, even explaining how it worked. Later, while training, she unconsciously duplicated the same process and successfully locked onto the lingering imprints left by Caius and many members of the Guard. Once she had identified someone's imprint, she never lost it again. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet managed to create any new ones beyond those initial targets.
Finally, there was Charles. His gift of Lies. Just moments ago, Sophie had confirmed her suspicion. By satisfying every required condition, she had successfully deceived Felix, convincing him to believe something that simply wasn't true.
Putting every piece together, Sophie finally understood the true nature of her own gift. Replication. The realization almost made her laugh. It was astonishingly fitting. As a content creator who specialized in educational videos, her work had always revolved around carefully observing, understanding, and explaining unfamiliar things to other people. Her gift seemed perfectly aligned with the person she had always been.
Perhaps her relentless curiosity, her reckless need to uncover every mystery had not only brought danger into her life, but it had also ruined her relationships. Perhaps it had also gifted her with the ability to understand the world itself. Like the two sides of a single coin, a person's nature could never simply be divided into good or bad, strength or weakness. Her soul was vibrant, alive, painted with countless colors, and she had never once regretted embracing every shade that made her who she was.
Sophie truly loved the vampires' mysterious dark gifts. They were beautiful. Dangerously beautiful. Every one of them carried the potential to kill. Yet she found herself irresistibly drawn toward them, studying them, analyzing them, and, in return, earning a precious opportunity to experience each one herself. It was a far greater reward than she could ever have hoped for.
Sophie also discovered another important limitation. Whenever she replicated a dark gift that someone had actively used on her, both the effect and the activation conditions remained exactly the same as the original. The difference lay with herself. She could only use each replicated gift a limited number of times, and every copied ability was noticeably weaker than the original. She wasn't sure whether that weakness represented the natural ceiling of her gift or simply reflected how underdeveloped it still was. Either way, it was an incredible ability.
Sophie suddenly found herself desperately wanting to see Jane. She wanted to tell her everything. Jane had been the person who first guided her into the hidden world of vampires, so it felt only natural that she should also become the first person with whom Sophie wanted to share this extraordinary discovery. Sophie was convinced that once Jane understood the limitless potential hidden within Replication, she would genuinely be happy for her.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this discovery could become the opportunity they needed to grow close once again.
Her wish was fulfilled sooner than she expected. Though only halfway.
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