Hey, guys! For five straight days it's been nothing but exams, and I had to give up my time to study. But now I'm back!

Sophie hesitated for a fraction of a second, then trotted behind Estelle, walking into a big, empty open space with only folded tables and chairs piled up at the sides of the room. When Sophie looked up, the ceiling was high and round like a dome.

Estelle turned her head round and looked at her. Sophie tried not to wince - the look Estelle gave her was a penetrating stare - the kind that adults give to children when they've done something wrong. Just like her human mother, Emma. Sophie felt a pang of loneliness that she tried very hard to ignore.

"I decided that besides the obvious fact that you are only trouble," Estelle began, her stare turning into a small smile, "you have something useful inside you. I just found out, by the way." She stooped down to grab a few chairs and tables out of the huge stack of them. Sophie ran over to help her.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Estelle's face looked troubled, scrunched up, like she was trying to figure her question out, "oh. I see. Take for example, what you did just now. You read Sora's mind. And I have to inform you of this - even if she's not a Telepaths - no offense, of course, to Mr Forkle and you and all the other Telepaths, Telepaths are seriously overrated - ahem, where was I? Yes. Even if Sora Heks is not a Telepath, her mind is quite...unique. So unique that Telepaths will mistake her mind as broken or lost."

Sophie perked up, her curiosity piqued. "What - even me? How? Why?" Her voice was so loud that it echoed across the room, bouncing off the rounded walls.

Estelle smiled, as she and Sophie arranged a table and two chairs in the very center of the vast room. "Someone trained her, of course. Someone wise and old, but dead now. Her grandmother. Silla Heks, I recall, was our best animal trainer - not that we train animals, no, not forcing them to give up their freedom. This - you have to realise - Sophie - this is a very big base of ours. So big that it even goes underground and downtown. So we practically can have anything we want to be here - even our own personal Sanctuary like the one in Himalayas. Our Sanctuary is the same as the Coucil's one - only that we nurture and train animals throughout their life, preparing them for any emergencies. We have a lot of allies that way. Of course, not only animals, but there are some people in the Lost Cities that sort of work 'undercover' for us-"

"Um, how is Sora's mind unique?"

Estelle blinked. "Oh. Right. Back to Silla. She was the best animal trainer. And when Soreas and Sorajin were born, Silla of course wanted to take them in to the Black Swan. But Krebbe - their father - wouldn't let Silla. He demanded that his children should not be put in danger. Their mother - Calsa - of course stood on Krebbe's side. But Silla wasn't giving up - she was a very determined person, you see. She sensed potential in those two children. She had no choice but to kidnap the two children - to this place in Firenze.

"Calsa was devastated - but those two couldn't do anything about it. Silla trained them well, yes she did, Sora and Soreas, I mean - side by side with the mystical creatures in the Sanctuary - since Silla was the Black Swan's animal trainer. But Sora - for some reason - reacted differently to the animals in the Sanctuary - unlike Soreas - who was scared out of his wits. She was the only one in the Black Swan besides Silla who dared to touch them. And mind you, the animals that we keep here are not the sparkly haughty alicorns you see in the other Sanctuary-"

"Hey!" Sophie said indignantly, plopping down on the hard plastic chair. Estelle sat down too, quietly.

"But the sad thing is, one of those aggressive things went too far, and bit her head hard when she was petting it, unaware of the danger it posed. And that time, she was only five." Estelle's voice dropped to a whisper. "Her head suffered only some minor injuries - thank goodness for that - but she had brain damage. She could still think properly, function properly, but she had no idea what Kerlof had seen inside her mind when he had probed it out of curiosity."

Sophie looked away, her mind racing with a million thoughts and possibilities.

Everblaze in Sora's mind. A exact copy of her own memories - which should had been in Sophie's mind.

"She was spying on me during the mind healing on Fintan." Sophie whispered, replaying what she had saw in Sora's mind.

Estelle ignored her question. "And he found out that somehow, Sora could function more...smoothly. Yet weirdly. She could thwart her mind like a Telepath - but she couldn't read anyone's mind. And so, we based that theory on our project, twisting, turning and tweaking on Alicorn DNA - don't ask me why alicorn - and we finally created you." Her eyes landed on a shaking Sophie. "Stop trembling, my dear. It's unnerving."

So basically, her own existence had been inspired by that mysterious girl? The one that creeped her out? Okay, she was nice when Sophie first met her. She was probably still the same. Sophie had just been producing wild theories and ideas about Sora. Though she couldn't deny the fact that something was still wrong about her that Sophie didn't know about.

However, Sophie knew she was asking too much prying questions at a time. She could collect the rest of the jigsaw puzzles and fit them together later.

"I'm ready." she told Estelle. Estelle leaned back and tapped her fingers on the table in a fast rhythm.

"Okay," she sighed, "now I'm supposed to teach you self-defense. How can I teach suldreen about self-defense? Makes. No. Sense. But whatever!" she exhaled a deep breath, and opened her mouth to speak again.

"To teach self-defense, you don't need a table and chair. These are for later use. Okay, maybe we need it." She stood up, and beckoned Sophie to stand up too, which Sophie obeyed.

They stood about three-quarters a metre away, facing each other. Estelle's expression turned serious, her eyes narrowing. Sophie was suddenly fearful of what she could do.

"First-" she began, "you must know how to pack a punch." She looked at Sophie. "Do you know how to punch?"

The way she said it made Sophie want to laugh, but she restrained from doing so as she recalled the powerful punch to Gethen's face in Mount Everest. "Yeah, but I had a cuff around my wrist to help me - one of Dex's inventions. Wait - I put it on my wrist- Where is it? I remembered clearly I wore it!" She panicked.

Estelle put a calming yet strong hand on her shoulder. "Fitz took it. When you were unconscious, they had to fight the Neverseen. And they needed a weapon - besides a melder. Those things are overrated."

This woman really seemed to hate "overrated" stuff.

"Get ready," Estelle warned. Sophie looked up.

Suddenly, Estelle disappeared. Sophie looked around frantically. Where was she? She didn't see her until she reappeared behind her and pummelled her to the ground. Sophie fell, her breath knocked out. But she managed to support her from the ground with her two hands, and sprang back up and moved her fist towards Estelle, building up her strength.

Estelle smirked, and she vanished again, leaving Sophie's fist to connect with empty air. She whirled around, opening her ears wider.

A slight whooshing sound in the air behind her, so soft that she barely heard it. But she did. Just as Estelle appeared, her hands raised, Sophie tackled her to the cemented ground and they went rolling. But Estelle was not fazed. She made a cartwheel, shooting up, landing on the ground as that one movement sent Sophie sliding over across the ground. The friction made her skin hot and prickly, but she ignored it and picked herself up.

Estelle raised her eyebrows. "Not bad for a first-timer. You certainly did better that Soreas when he had his first time."

Sophie allowed the praise to spread over her body, warming up and melting away her fear.

Estelle smiled. "Let's have another round."

By the end of the second round of self-defense, Sophie was tired and beat - yet satisfied, despite the fact that Estelle had triumphed. She had made progress and her body felt more healthier and livelier. She wanted to see what her second session of training had in store for her - but Estelle said that her training session wasn't over yet - she still had something she wanted to show Sophie.

"Come with me." she said as she headed over to the other end of the room. Sophie didn't notice that there was another door, a smaller one when she had entered the room for the first time. She followed the Black Swan member into the door and headed into a small, narrow downwards corridor with flickering blue fire in the torches aligning the rocky walls. Below them were endless steps going downwards. A spiral staircase. Although it wasn't exactly the same, the stairs reminded Sophie of the endless stairs going down to the center of the earth in Exile. Sophie shuddered, but took the first step down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

It felt like an eternity until they stepped down and Estelle announced that they had arrived at their destination. Sophie's legs felt like jelly, her muscles aching badly. The air had become more damp and cold, and Sophie could hear the sound of roaring water.

Estelle tugged on a mould-infested wooden door and pulled it open with much force. The first crack between the outside and the door, Sophie could feel water splashing on her face. Wild water.

It was not comforting at all. Fear began to creep into Sophie's mind again, her heart palpitating furiously as she followed Estelle out of the door into the outside world.

Instantly, Sophie could hear roaring water and see it too. It was like a sea, when storms occurred. Estelle turned and looked at her, then held out a hand.

Sophie took hers with a shaky one of hers. She was absolutely terrified with this place.

"Welcome," said Estelle, "to Root Abyss."