A/N: Hi guys! Long time no see, but now that finals are over and winter break has started, I should be able to update much more regularly from now on. I hope you enjoy this next chapter! It's mostly characters being mad at other characters plus a brief interlude with some weird sexual tension between Alina and Alvar. It… makes sense in context.


CHAPTER FIVE

"BEFORE I TELL YOU WHAT happened with Alvar, you have to promise not to yell at me."

Sophie stared at Fitz. "A million scenarios are running through my head right now, and none of them are good."

"I promise it's not as bad as it sounds."

"I'll decide that for myself, Mr. Vacker," Mr. Forkle frowned.

"I may have probed Alvar's mind—"

Sophie caught herself right before shouting, "WHAT?" She tugged out an eyelash instead.

"—but he's still okay. I checked his mind again after I did the probe. He doesn't have his memory back. But he's not—you know."

Broken.

"Well thank goodness for that," said Mr. Forkle. "Mr. Vacker, that was a very risky move. Had you ever probed a mind before today?"

"No…"

"It's an incredibly complex and advanced skill taught only in Level Eight."

"I know."

"You are a few months away from beginning Level Six."

Fitz looked down at his lap. "Sorry. But I was able to do it. That must count for something."

"You were lucky. Don't do it again until you're in the Silver Tower."

"If our world even survives that long," Physic muttered from the corner of the room. Mr. Forkle shot her a look, which she returned without flinching.

"What did you find in Alvar's mind?" Sophie asked Fitz.

"Everything," he said. "His old memories aren't just being buried underneath new memories—they're being held down by a layer of shadowvapor. I found all his memories beneath that layer, but I couldn't pull them back to the surface. They were right there, and I couldn't bring them back." He buried his face in his hands.

"Alvar's memories showed that Alina came around his house a lot," said Keefe. "The mirrors were for her to practice on."

"When he found out Alina was working with Vespera, she turned on him," Biana continued. "She used her shadowvapor trick, except she forced those shadows into his mind instead of her mirrors. Then she took him to Vespera, who marked him with soporidine."

"So she's not working for the Neverseen," said Sophie. "She's with Vespera."

"I think she's with both," said Tam. "Acting as a sort of intermediary between Vespera, the Neverseen, and the Council. Without any of them knowing she's involved with the other two. Except the Neverseen knows she's part of the Council. But Vespera definitely doesn't, based on Alvar's memory. Wow, that's confusing."

"What my twin is trying to say," said Linh, "is that Alina is operating on her own terms, and we're not sure whose side she's on."

"Except our side," Keefe interjected. "She's definitely not on our side."

"Has she ever been?" Sophie mumbled.

"Can you show us the memory?" Dex asked Fitz.

Fitz spun the orb around his fingers, and it leaped from his hands into the air. It suspended there for a second, then projected an image onto the opposite wall.

A blurry scene blinked into view. Alden was peering over a very tiny Alvar swaddled in a blanket, a huge smile on his face.

"Wait a second." Fitz spun the orb again, and Alvar's memories sped up like he had pressed the fast-forward button. "I recorded all of my brother's memories on here, just in case something small turned out to be important. That was his very first memory. What we need is around twenty years later in the timeline."

"You've gotten good at telepathy," Sophie said as she watched Fitz expertly sift through a lifetime's worth of memories.

"Nah," Fitz said. "You'll always be better than me."

"I'm not so sure about that. I have to divide my time between all of my talents, so I don't practice telepathy much anymore."

"Foster, do you even hear yourself?" said Keefe. "It doesn't matter if you practice or not. You pick up every new skill you learn like that." He snapped his fingers. "It's almost like you were born to make sure the Fitzster doesn't get too full of himself."

Fitz rolled his eyes. But he was smiling as he scrolled through the memories.

"Everyone needs practice in order to improve," Mr. Forkle said gently. "No matter what Mr. Sencen says, Miss Foster, do not neglect your telepathy. The last thing our world needs is for your most important ability to become rusty."

"Maybe that's the problem," Tam said to Linh. "Maybe you just need to practice more."

"I have been practicing," she said. "But my control is just getting worse and worse."

Mr. Forkle's eyes widened. "How long have you been having issues with your hydrokinesis?"

"Since Atlantis. I don't know what's happening to me."

"You shouldn't worry about it," Mr. Forkle said, reminding Sophie of Alden's favorite sentence. "But it's probably time you got some real lessons. I'll ask our Hydrokinetic if she's willing to help you out."

Linh smiled slightly. "Thank you."

"Got it!" Fitz said triumphantly. He tapped the cache, and the memory began.

Alvar was staring at himself. He could see Alina behind him in the mirror's reflection, and he knew she wished he was someone else—someone who had teal eyes and was about a hundred years older.

"What's the meaning of this, Alina?"

She pouted her perfect lips slightly. "The meaning of what?"

"This." Alvar reached into a mirror-shaped hole in the wall and pulled out a tiny bottle. "There are hundreds of them."

"They're nothing." But the look in Alina's eyes said the opposite.

"That's a lie. This is poison, another one of the ogres' messed-up chemistry experiments. I bet you have another case of them hidden away in the walls of Foxfire. Do you know how irresponsible it is to have this much of it just lying around?"

"That's—I was—I was told to keep it there. By—by Fintan."

"Fintan knows the dangers of soporidine. He would never order this much to be cultivated."

Alina's eyes hardened. "You're right. Fintan—"

"Was this Umber's idea? Or Ruy's?"

"—doesn't have the spine," she finished.

Indignation flared in Alvar when he heard that. "Fintan's a hero."

"Fintan is a coward," she spat back. "And he's irrelevant now, anyway. It's time for a change in leadership."

Realization spread across Alvar's reflection. "It was her idea."

The memory switched to the scene at the crumbling Lumenaria castle. Fintan had thrown his cloak over the woman they had broken out of prison, and he refused to tell Alvar who she was.

The mirrors returned as Alvar pushed away the memory.

"She's crazy."

"She's exactly the opposite, in fact. Logical to a fault. That will be her downfall."

"Whose side are you even on?" he said. "Wait, don't answer that. I'll knock you out before you can betray anyone else."

"You don't want to do that," said Alina. "Break that bottle, and you risk inhaling the soporidine yourself. And if you ingest even an ounce of that stuff… well, it may kill you."

"I know how soporidine works!" He tightened his grip on the bottle.

Alina shook her head sadly. "You really don't want to do that," she repeated.

Alvar frowned. Alina was right. He didn't want to use the soporidine on her. She was doing the right thing, getting rid of Fintan. And… he might have been a little in love with her.

He felt his grip on the bottle relaxing.

Then shadowvapor punctured his consciousness, and he felt his memories slipping away.

The projection went dark.

"And that's all there is," Fitz said. He handed the orb to Mr. Forkle.

There was a long silence as everyone tried to process what they had just seen.

Linh was the first person to speak up. She twisted her silver strands of hair around her fingers as she asked one very important question.

"Sophie," she said, "what do we do?"

Sophie suddenly became very aware of everyone looking at her, waiting for her to tell them what to do. She felt the panic rise up in her again, threatening to tear her knot of emotions apart. If she faced her fear, she knew it would win.

"This isn't our problem," she said. "We have Vespera to deal with, and Fintan's cache still isn't opened, and Prentice is awake, and school is starting again soon, and there are a million things we have to do already. Let's leave this for now. Alina won't kill anyone."

"Um, she's already put two people into comas," said Tam.

"And both of them are awake now," Sophie said. "We need to focus on one problem at a time. Now isn't the time to worry about Alina."

Mr. Forkle got up from his chair, signaling that everyone was dismissed. Everyone started walking toward the door except for Sophie, who was still thinking. Fitz stared hard at her as he passed by.

"Do you have something to say to me?"

Fitz shook his head. "I just hope you made the right choice."

He closed the door behind him.


A/N: I'm aware that I'm hurling a ton of information at all of you. Sorry! I promise it'll all become relevant later. I should also probably mention that Shayda's character in this fanfic was originally an OC named Nayla, and I still kind of think of her as Nayla, so I might accidentally call her Nayla. If that happens, please please please tell me so I can fix it. Thanks! Please review!