Chapter 6
Sophie Ruewen's POV
"Foxfire looks terrible," Sophie remarked. It looked like it had been through a war. Parts of walls were missing, it was singed, and some of the towers had collapsed.
"Vonswama had it destroyed six months ago," said Foster. "He wanted to take out the only noble school and 'extinguish the light of the elves.'"
Sophie noticed that Fitz was walking with a limp. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
"One of the humans shot me. Trisha and your sister saved my life, along with some of Elwin's potions. It still hurts, but it was a lot worse before."
"Who is Trisha?" Sophie asked.
"She's a human who left the humans to join us," answered Foster. "She's Vonswama's niece, and she helped us escape from Fort Domvagadon when we were captured."
"This is a bit weird," said Glimmer, completely changing the subject. "I am Grady and Edaline's daughter and Sophie Foster is their adopted daughter. But you are her sister, which means you are almost my stepsister."
"Yeah, that is weird," said Keefe, thinking about it. "But what's even weirder is that now there is Team Foster-Keefe and Team Reuwen-Keefe, since clearly both of them like me the best."
Sophie rolled her eyes. "Keefe, can you actually see us together? We are completely different. I've never even spoken to you before today."
Keefe shrugged. "That doesn't stop everyone else from liking me. I just have a charming personality."
Sophie leaned in close and whispered something into his ear. His face showed confusion, alarm, and then fear. "You can't tell anyone," he whispered and then hurried to the front of the group.
"What did you tell him?" Foster asked, nearing Sophie. Sophie just smiled and said, "I just told him something very interesting about the Great Gulon Incident."
"What was it?" Foster said. "I've been hearing about it for years and no one has ever told me what it was."
Sophie looked into her twin's eyes. "I have been trained to pick up information, and I found out that…" She let her voice trail off.
"What?" said Foster impatiently. "What is it?"
"Keefe Sencen is actually not responsible for the Great Gulon Incident. It was actually Wylie Endal. Wylie was still mad at the Council for ordering a mind break on his father, so he unleashed the gulon in the bathroom. But that incident is why Keefe is so popular-everyone thought he did it."
"So that's why he would never tell me how he did it," said Foster. "That explains so much. And if anyone ever found out, Keefe's reputation would be ruined forever."
Sophie nodded. "It would be very easy to blackmail him with that. We could force him to eat Ro's flesh eating bacteria."
"That may be just a little too mean," said Foster. Sophie laughed and was about to tell Foster about the Great Alicorn Incident when she heard a whirring noise behind her. She whirled around and came face to face with a black metal object hovering in the air. A red light beamed from the front of it.
Sophie grabbed for it but it zipped away from her, and then circled around the twins. It was a spy drone.
Sophie's Foster's POV
Sophie spotted a red light on the drone. It must have a camera, and that meant that the humans knew where they were. Sophie had to act. She reached for the device with her telekinesis and slammed it to the ground.
It quickly shot back up in the air. Sophie used her telekinesis again, and missed. The drone shot away from them and darted into the sky, becoming a distant black speck.
Sophie stared at where it had gone. This was terrible. What would happen now? She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she managed to trip backwards. She crashed into the ground.
Ruewen held out her hand to lift her up. "This isn't fair," said Sophie. "Why do you have perfect coordination, but I have trouble walking up stairs?"
"Maybe we should talk about more pressing matters," Ruewen said. "The humans know we are here. We have to leave right now."
"Maybe Dex can build something to disable the drone," Sophie said, but she knew it wouldn't work. That drone had already seen them. The damage had been done.
We still have places to hide, Mr. Forkle said in their minds. The Black Swan, although inactive for months, is not weak. We have a base called the Passageway of the Fallen. We can regroup there and plan out our next move.
How do we get there? We don't have any leaping crystals.
Sophie Ruewen knows where it is. You can search her mind and find it, then teleport us there.
Sophie found the place he was talking about in her sister's mind: a cold, dusty tunnel. It didn't look cozy, but it seemed secure. "I don't know how much time we have, so we have to leave quickly," she said. "If there was a drone here, that means that humans are at least relatively close."
Ruewen nodded and ran into the Foxfire doors to get the others. When they came out, Sophie quickly relayed what had happened. "Everyone, stay close to me. We're going to have to teleport."
"What is that?" Linh asked, pointing to a thick mist seeping toward them. It was coming from the woods near Foxfire.
"I don't know, but I don't like the look of it," Ruewen said. "We shouldn't stay here."
Mr. Forkle suddenly looked up in alarm. "The humans are in that fog!" he shouted. Soldiers burst out of it, covered head to toe in black armor. The Folders were attacking them.
Their group quickly split apart, fleeing from the Folders. Sophie and Ruewen headed for the forest at full speed. It was hard to see anything in this gray, foreboding mist. But they heard many pairs of footsteps going after them.
"What do we do?" Sophie asked her sister frantically. "I can't see where we're going."
"We have to evade them until we find the others," Ruwen said. She was about to turn right when a dark figure appeared next to her.
The figure smashed her in the head with something hard. Ruewen crumpled. Sophie felt red go across her vision as she directed all of her Inflicting power at the attacker.
The figure fell to the ground, completely unconscious. Sophie ran to check on her sister. Her sister was bleeding from the side of her head, but it didn't look that bad. Ruewen leaned back against a tree trunk. "I"m fine," she said to Sophie. "I just have to rest for a minute. This fog will hide us."
The fog was significantly thicker than it was when they ran into the forest. Sophie couldn't even see two feet in front of her. "How are they controlling it?" she asked her sister, not expecting an answer.
She was surprised when Ruewen started talking. "They probably have human Hydrokinetics controlling it. Keefe told me about the humans with powers on the trip here," she added, noticing Sophie's confusion. "The Neverknown never had anyone like that. A Froster would have helped them a lot on the mountain."
After a few moments, Ruewen stood up. "We have to find our friends. You can find them with your Telepathy."
"Just give me a moment ," Sophie said. She removed the soldier's helmet. She was amazed to see that this Folder was only a few years older than Sophie. He looked to be about eighteen- younger than Wylie and even Alvar. Why had he joined the Folders? Why did he follow Vonswama?
"Come on," Ruewen hissed. With a jolt, Sophie realized that her sister wasn't standing next to her anymore. She was moving through the trees. Sophie hurried to catch up.
"Turn your telepathy on and find Linh," Ruewen said. "She will help us get through this irritating cloud." Sophie searched for Linh's thoughts. She eventually found them with Tam's thoughts. They were close by.
"Get down!" Ruewen said as quietly as she could. Sophie dropped like a stone as she saw shapes in the fog. A woman's harsh voice spoke out. "We need to capture them quickly, so if you value your sense of sight, find them."
They moved on past the girls. "Linh and Tam are ten feet to your right," Sophie said to Ruewen. They moved slowly through murk until they saw an outline of a boy and a girl walking together. "We shouldn't sneak up on them," the author said.
Ignoring the author, the girls silently approached the Song twins. When Tam realized there was they next to him, he pulled a wall of shadowvapor, concealing his sister and himself.
"Relax, it's just us," Sophie said. Tam pulled down his shadows. "You're alright!" he said to Sophie.
"Yeah, we're fine," Sophie said. "Linh, I can't see anything here. Can you move some of this mist away?"
Linh obliged her humble request. The haze cleared away from around them. "Where are the others?" Tam asked.
"We're looking for them right now," Sophie said. "We need Linh to clear us a path. It's really hard to see-I had to walk through a tree." Sophie's phasing abilities were still the hardest to control, and she didn't use them often.
"Sure," she said. The ghostly fog drifted eerily to create a vague path.
"I'll search for Keefe now," said Sophie. A few moments passed. Then: "He's surrounded by the Folders, but he's not in danger yet. He told us to find the others first."
"Sophie, you know how Keefe is," said Linh urgently. "He thinks he can beat anything, but the truth is he can't. Shouldn't we help him?"
"Keefe is right," said Reuwen. "He knows how to take care of himself. But the Collective has been imprisoned for months. They are exhausted and weak. And Fitz is still wounded. We need to help them first."
Sophie weighed the choices in her mind. Keefe was in trouble now, but the Collective would be in even more danger if they were caught. Being a leader was frighteneing. If she made the wrong decision, someone could be harmed. What was the right choice?
"The Collective," she said finally. "We need to go after the Collective."
"Sophie!" a voice whispered from her left. Sophie turned and saw Trisha rushing toward her. "Run!" Trisha yelled. "The Folders are coming!"
Everyone broke into a run as the misty forest broke into noise. Three soldiers emerged from the trees, firing wildly. Tam shot a wall of shadowflux directly at the soldiers. They tumbled to the ground, and while they were distracted, Tam covered his sister, Trisha Sophie, and Reuwen with shadows.
It was pitch black, but they could hear the soldiers getting to their feet. "You don't have to hide," said one of them. It was the same female voice from before, cold and emotionless. "If you come out now, we will not torture you before we kill you. But if you resist… Let's just say that your deaths will be painful." The voice paused for a moment, then continued on. "Come out, Trisha. Don't be shy. Of course, you were never a sociable person."
"How does she know your name?" Sophie asked Trisha.
"She's my [REDACTED] sister," Trisha said with a scowl on her face. "Her name's Glinda. She is two years older than me, and while I took an interest in science, she took an interest in military tactics and warfare. Our uncle always favored her."
"She seems nice," Tam grumbled.
"If you won't come out, then I suppose I will have to drive you out," Glinda said. "How do you like fire?"
The temperature suddenly rose, and Sophie could hear branches crackling and burning. "They're burning the forest! We'll die if we stay here! We need to go!"
They rushed out from the shadows, and entered a world of flame. Every tree in sight was on fire. Glinda was nowhere to be seen. Even Linh's powers couldn't put this massive blaze out. Reuwen led the way, guiding them through the inferno.
The smoke surrounded Sophie, blinding her, choking her. Ruewen took her hand and pulled her. Sophie found the strength to give one last burst of energy, and she emerged from the flaming forest.
"We did it!" said Ruewen. Then she turned around. "Where are Tam, Linh, and Trisha?"
Sophie looked, and found that they were all alone. "I'll search for them," she said. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
Her eyes shot open immediately from the shock of what she saw.
"What is it?" Ruewen asked nervously.
"They're… They've been captured," said Sophie. "But not just them. The Collective, Alden, Keefe, and all the rest have been captured. We're all alone."
Thanks, KOTLCfan49! Please review, and tell me how you like it!
And this story will finally finish on Keeper of the Lost Cities: Discovery. Sorry about all the crossovers, but I couldn't help myself.
Semper Vigilo, and I hope-"
[Brodcast Interrupted.]
[Signal Lost]