After Stellarlune

Chapter Eleven

"WHAT'S WRONG FOSTER?" Keefe asked, as Sophie stared at the glowing symbol, shining right at them. "And what did Bangs Boy just do to that rock?"

He levitated up to join them, and looked at the symbol. Sophie thought he was going to gasp, or tremble, but his jaw was set, and perfectly steady when he said, "Do you realize what this means?"

"Yes," Sophie whispered. And as much as she wanted to deny it, she couldn't. The elves had buried lots of dangerous secrets, but there were too many to hide it all. 

They needed to come clean.

To the other intelligent species, but most of all, to their own people. 

Because elves weren't as perfect as they had painted themselves to be. They could be cruel, and ruthless. They experimented on humans for research, and when it backfired, they blamed the humans. They locked up a sixteen year old, just because they were scared of her powers. And now, they had taken away part of the trolls mountain, imprisoning anyone who went up there, just because they wanted the powerful rock. 

No, Sophie told herself. It was the Neverseen who did that. Not the elves. It was a delusional, power hungry, small group of elves.

But the council had imprisoned Elysian for all those years, just because she was powerful.

And then they had erased her from their memories. 

And they might have known about the Nightfall facility, but they'd forgotten that too. 

And maybe they had known about the mountain she was standing on. 

But they erased it all.

Ever since Sophie had come into the Lost Cities, everyone painted the elves to be some amazingly powerful, perfect species.

But really they were fooling themselves.

For years, the council had blamed all their problems on someone else, or erased them from their minds, and let the problems grow. 

But the council was wrong.

And the Neverseen saw that.

And as much as it scared Sophie to say it, or even think it, the Neverseen were right. 

The Lost Cities needed change.

The ways the Neverseen wanted it to change were wrong, but what they were fighting for was right. 

The council was wrong to hide the secrets they had kept for so long. Were they willing to make a change? Or did the Lost Cities need new leaders?

Sophie's mind flashed to all the horrible things they had done to her, even the councilors that supported her. How Bronte had tried to get her thrown out of foxfire. How Oralie had lied to her over and over again. How they had forced the ability restrictor onto her, and threatened her friends and family.

But as much as Sophie wanted to hate them, she knew that the council wasn't the main problem right now.

It was the Neverseen. 

They wreaked havoc and confused everyone into blaming the wrong people, and making the wrong choices. And the Neverseen had even sunk as low as killing people, just because they wanted power. 

So Sophie was going to do whatever she could to stop them. 

She would worry about her worlds secret's and flaws later.

But for now, she needed to go against the real enemy. 

And when Edaline screamed, and Sophie spun around to see a clocked figure with a familiar white patch standing there, she didn't hesitate to grab Hope out of her holster, and put her hand back, aiming for a deadly blow.