Shades of Starlight (Hiatus)

Book Two: Chapter Eighteen

We reappeared on a dark, narrow street lined with small, plain, identical buildings on each side. Mysterium was a working-class city, where none of the elves here were members of the nobility.

As we made our way down the street, whispers followed us. People were staring, their panicked expressions confusing me.

'Why is a Councillor here?'

'Is there something they haven't told us?'

'Is it safe?

'Those are the girls that were taken...'

I shuddered, trying to shake off their reactions to seeing us. Councillor Terik frowned as most of the elves watching us quickly got out of our way and rushed back inside the nearest buildings. Only a few stragglers remained. I lifted my chin, tossed my hair over my shoulder, and looked straight ahead, ignoring them and hoping I didn't look too stuck-up.

"I hadn't realized the fear had spread this far," Councillor Terik mumbled. "I rarely walk among the masses by Bronte and Kenric do. This must be why they're pushing so hard for the alicorn's relocation." Sophie watched as a mother dragged her two children inside.

"Do you really think a sparkly flying horse is going to help?" She asked.

"Sparkles make everything better," I reminded her. "Besides, it'll give people hope. Hope is powerful."

"Very true," Councillor Terik agreed as we turned down an empty narrow alley. We stopped at a building the same size, shape, and color as all the others, with a plain gray door. Mysterium was so boring-looking. The only pretty building here was Slurps and Burps, which was painted rainbow. Now that was my style.

"Please let it be here," Sophie whispered, almost inaudibly. Both of us still managed to hear her, and Sandor too. I put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. It would be there. Everything would work out just fine.

"I haven't inspected any of this myself. But I've been assured that everything brought out of the Forbidden Cities was moved here," Councillor Terik told her as he placed his palm against a black panel on the door and it clicked open. She nodded as we stepped into the dimly lit room.

"Woah," I breathed. It was so... foreign. So... odd and unfamiliar. It was like walking into a different world. In a way, it was. Like most elves, I'd never been inside a human house. I hadn't seen any actual houses in Paris, anyway, at least none that looked the way they do in books.

Dust covered everything, the tables, the chairs, the couch, and a strange, flat black object that Sophie explained to me, calling it a television. Clearly, nobody had been here in a long time. Even though I desperately wanted to examine the kitchen, which was supposed to have dozens of odd human tools, I followed Sophie up the stairs to her old room.

She paused with her hand on the doorknob, staring ahead.

"Everything okay?" Councillor Terik asked.

"Yeah... it's just... Can Cass and I have a few minutes alone?" She asked. I stifled a laugh. She'd basically just told a Councillor to go away and roped me into it, too. Sophie seemed to realize it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay. Take all the time you need," Councillor Terik told her with a smile.

"Do you want me to go, too?" I asked softly. Sophie shook her head. Sandor looked like he wanted to stay, too, but Councillor Terik convinced him to go downstairs with him.

Sophie took a deep breath before turning the handle and opening the door into a room that felt so much more hers than her room at Havenfield.

"Oh, wow, Soph," I said, walking around, examining all of her old belongings. There were school things, textbooks and notebooks, trophies and ribbons on every surface. There were toys, figurines of people I didn't recognize, souvenirs from places I didn't know, crafts of things I'd never seen. There were dozens of books, their covers cracked and the bindings creased and frayed, falling apart.

Everything was dull and dark. Muted hues, the only pops of colors the strange images of "demigods" and "wizards" on the book covers. Except-

"Oh my gosh, Sophie, is this you?" I exclaimed, snatching up a picture of a little blonde girl of about six or seven, at the beach, face half-hidden in a thick astronomy textbook. Sophie glanced at it quickly before turning back to her desk.

"Yeah. I was really into stars and planets and things at that age." I smiled. She was so cute in the picture. I loved little kids.

"This is it," she announced, holding up a small, hot pink book with strange, sparkly, horse-like animals on the cover. They had purple eyes, rainbow manes and tails, and long horns on their foreheads. They were standing on rainbows and surrounded by floating hearts.

"What in the world are those?" I asked, bewildered. Sophie grinned.

"Unicorns."

"What?!"

"Not now. Let's find what we came here for. But... how long can we keep Councillor Terik waiting?" Sophie wondered. I headed for the door.

"Leave that to me. I know well the art of conversation," I said mysteriously. Sophie giggled and started flipping through the pages as I left the room and made my way down the stairs.

Councillor Terik stood up when I entered the room.

"Is Sophie behind you?"

"No, she wanted to really be alone in her room for a minute. It must be so weird, being in your old house when you've lived in a much... fancier one for over a year."

"Yes, I suppose so. Do you know what she's looking for in there?" I smiled.

"Perhaps." I said, tossing my head to the side and twirling a piece of hair around my finger. Councillor Terik barked out a laugh.

"You act like adults instead of the children you are," He observed. "When I was a kid, I left the adulting to the adults."

"The world has changed since then," I pointed out. "Fourteen is old enough, anyway."

"Maybe. Most likely not. You should still have time to experience being a teenager. It's only seven years compared to the rest of your life, after all," he reminded me. I sighed. Of course, I knew that, but... 

"It feels like forever," I told him. Councillor Terik smiled and nodded.

"It does seem that way. But that time will pass in the blink of an eye."

"I've heard that before, but I'm never sure if I should believe it. It's true, then?" I asked. Every adult told me that, it seemed. Don't let the time pass you by. It was the downside of elvin immortality-or, at least, the long lifespan that elves had.

"Trust me. I wouldn't lie to you, would I?" He joked.

"How would I tell? It's not like I know you-or the other Councillors, for that matter," I said truthfully. Councillor Terik paused, and I wondered if I'd gone too far.

"Perhaps you're right. Perhaps the Council is too far removed from the citizens it governs. For you to not know whether to trust that I tell the truth or not... that is a problem indeed."

"That's-that's not really what I-" I stammered, cut off by Sophie entering the room silently, journal in hand. Unshed tears shone in her eyes, and she looked... angry.

"Soph? What's-what's wrong?" I walked over to the foot of the stairs where she was standing.

"It's not here," she whispered in a hollow voice. "They took it."

"They... took it?" I asked in a wobbly voice. Sophie held up the glittery journal, flipping to the back of the journal for me to see what she was talking about. The last few pages of the book had been ripped out.

The Black Swan had stolen them.