Operation: Antiblanc

2.

Sophie, Keefe, and Biana simply stared at the wreckage. Glowing stones in pieces, somehow in a different state of destruction than when the Neverseen had ruined it. 

"Oh my, who would destroy such a lovely place yet again!" Alina asked, she and the rest of the Councillors rushing to the site. 

Oralie looked faint. 

"We must alert the gnomes and the dwarves," Bronte announced. "They need to secure the island. Miss Vacker, what do you remember from the incident?"

"There were these two people escaping the wreckage," Biana explained. "A girl and a boy. The boy was in all white, with these... haunting blue eyes. The girl was in a black suit from neck to foot, with red spots."

Sophie furrowed her brow. 

"Why are these people suddenly showing up and wreaking havoc on our world?" Noland asked. 

"We need to find these two and figure out who they are and what they want," Emery declared. "We don't know them, but they are now threats to the Lost Cities."

Sophie, Keefe, and Biana all exchanged worried looks. 

Was this the work of the Neverseen or something much more deadly?

"That's... just creepy," Dex said. 

All seven teens were huddled around Sophie's memory log. She'd seen Biana's memories of the strange duo (with Biana's permission, of course) and projected it so they could all analyze what these people were.

"I've never seen them before," Tam said. "Linh and I would have known about them if they were Waywards."

"But not really," Linh pointed out. "We were kept anonymous, remember?"

"If they could destroy something like this?" Tam gestured to the projected memories. "I'm pretty sure we'd know. I'm pretty sure the Coaches would know. They definitely would've blown something up during the Dividing."

"Or they were Waywards before you arrived at Exillium," Fitz pointed out. "We don't know anything about these two except for what they look like."

Sophie did have to agree, though. The boy's blue eyes were terrifying. Like pure ice, cold down to a dead soul. 

The girl's eyes were blue too, but they burned like a blue fire. Rage spilling outwards, having clearly been channeled to Lumenaria. 

"Then again, this could be the Neverseen," she mumbled. 

Six pairs of eyes turned to her. 

"I'm just saying, we tried figuring out what their secret project was but didn't find anything," she told the group. "What if these two were it? What if the Neverseen were pulling a Black Swan and genetically altering two elves like the Black Swan did to me?"

"But you were an embryo when the Black Swan messed with your genes," Dex shook his head. "These two are already our age. Maybe the Neverseen have been raising them for fourteen-fifteen years?"

"That wouldn't make sense," Keefe shook his head. "I would've been able to feel if Mommy Dearest was secretly raising two elves. Even if I didn't even realize she was a leader of the Neverseen."

Sophie caught the bitter edge in his voice when her Imparter buzzed. 

Mr. Forkle's face could not have been more terrified. 

"What happened?" she asked, growing scared herself. 

"You kids need to get to Eternalia. Now," he ordered.