𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #31 - Sophie

Chapter #31 - Sophie

After Sophie's talk of taking advantage of things they know, everyone became curious about what she and Glimmer had heard from the Forgotten Memory. She gave an explanation of what they'd seen, and couldn't help but wonder what Councillor Oralie was thinking, hearing about another memory of hers wiped completely from her mind. But Sophie didn't glimpse at her genetic mother.

She was more concerned about Grady. He had just gotten extremely pale.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

After a seemingly endless discussion on what Lady Gisela exactly wanted to do with her army, it all made Sophie wish she could wake up and find out it was a dream. But clearly, her life was a bit more complicated than The Wizard Of Oz.

"Not to interrupt your chats..." Ro piped in with her standard snarky manner, "but after Blondie's little speech, I would think you all would know what Legacy Mommy wants to do. Doesn't she want to take over the elf-y world or something? So she would try to attack the Sparklefied Twelve— ooh, and the moonlark too, considering how important our Blondie is." She gave Sophie a crooked smirk, but it seemed sort of forced.

Sophie locked eyes with Mr. Forkle, knowing they were thinking the same thing.

"The map," he muttered. Several months ago, when she had first been to Watchward Heath, Mr. Forkle had shown a huge 3D map of the Lost Cities. He'd mentioned his theory that the Neverseen were trying to weaken each of the intelligent species before coming at the Council. Weeks later, they discovered— the hard way— that King Enki of the dwarves was working with the Neverseen, planning to betray Sophie and her friends. So Forkle's idea was definitely onto something.

As he and Sophie explained this to the group, she heard a faint noise coming from where Grady stood. She eyed him suspiciously and whispered, "Is someone hailing you?"

He paled again, reaching for his imparter unnecessarily quickly. "It's, uh," Grady stammered, "Emissary duties." Then he dashed inside the sparkly doors of Havenfield to answer it.

Emissary duties? Sophie thought, unconvinced. He quitted being an Emissary when she was forced to wear that awful ability restrictor, and even if he was still one, the entire Council was already at Havenfield.

There was definitely something he wasn't telling her.

It's a lot to take in, isn't it? Though it's probably worse for you.

Fitz's mental voice suddenly filled Sophie's head; an accented whisper she missed.

It is, she transmitted back, but I guess that's what it takes.

Where are you, anyway?

The other side of the pasture from you— I think. Ugh, there's so many people here.

I know. And when everyone was talking... I swear a banshee could be screeching within the crowd and no one would notice. She laughed, glad to have a normal mental conversation with Fitz. It was like taking a breath of fresh air.

She just wished Keefe was there to make his smug comments about Telepaths.

Is it true you went to the Shores Of Solace after looking at the memory?

Sophie nodded— then remembered Fitz couldn't see her. Yeah.

Did you get anything that might have clues on where he went this time?

Well, I found one notebook. No drawings, just writing. I only read a bit of the beginning... Sophie paused, remembering what she had read. It... it didn't seem important.

Fitz didn't reply for a long moment.

Can you, um, meet me at Everglen tomorrow?

What for?

You'll see.

Their minds disconnected, and from the corner of her eye, Sophie saw her dad frantically rush back, imparter in clutch. What had to be at least thirty pairs of blue eyes— and one pair of brown ones— turned towards him.

His face was unreadable as he said, "Gisela found him."

He didn't even have to say who.

And that's when everything clicked into place.

"You gave him an imparter, didn't you?" Sophie asked, though it was more like she was stating it as a fact.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but... "

She put her hand out, and raised her voice. "Don't apologize. Nobody apologize— please. This isn't... this isn't anyone's fault except the Neverseen's, and even they had their convoluted reasons. But starting now, we finally have an edge."

"How?" wondered Tam, "I mean, I have no doubt she'll find enough humans with abilities to outnumber us. Plus, even if we think we have an edge now, the Neverseen is always three steps ahead of us." The way he said it really made Sophie wonder what he'd seen when he was with the Neverseen.

"True..." she admitted, "But we have something that, no matter what Gisela does, she will never be able to instill in her army. Motivation. I doubt any of the humans would ever actually want to help her. So to stop them, we just have to figure out how to end her control and give them a choice.

"There's always a choice."