Chapter One

Sophie sighed. Another wasted day of ability detecting, and nothing to show for it. Being locked in an oven was terrible, and why would she want to manifest as a Froster? If she could choose a special ability, she would choose Telepathy. It would be useful in communicating with Dex and Marella.

Sophie glanced at where Fitz Vacker was sitting. He was at a table where some of the popular kids were: his haughty sister, Keefe Sencen, and of course, himself. There was even Stina sitting there. Dex slid up from behind Sophie and said, "Still looking at Wonderboy?"

"No," said Sophie, her cheeks flushing red. "I was thinking about the most creative way to torture Stina."

"Ah." Dex nodded knowingly. "I have the perfect solution. I recently designed a tonic to change your appearance drastically. She will be unrecognizable for the next three days. And the potion is currently in the bottle of lushberry juice that Stina is now slurping right now."

Sophie glanced at Stina. "How long until it takes effect?"

Dex smiled. "Exactly 59 minutes and 42 seconds."

"What will it make her look like?" Sophie asked.

Dex shrugged. "I have no idea. It could make her look like anything. But I made it so that she will look ridiculous."

"Did you manifest an ability today?" Sophie asked him.

Dex frowned. "No. They think I might be a Technopath, but it's a useless ability."

"I think it's cool," Sophie said. "At least it is better than being Talentless like me."

"You're not going to be Talentless," Dex said. "You are Sophie Reuwen. Your parents have abilities, your sister had abilities. But my dad was Talentless, I have six uncles, and my mom is a Froster. If anyone was Talentless, it would be me."

Sophie just kept staring in the direction of Fitz. He had never even looked at her, much less spoken to her. It was stupid to behave like every other girl at Foxfire, but she couldn't help it.

"I've got news," said a voice from behind Sophie. Sophie turned and saw Marella walking up from behind them. Marella wasn't a social girl by any means, but she did like keeping up with the latest drama. "You know about Timkin Heks, Stina's father?"

Sophie nodded.

"There are rumors floating around that he is part of an underground group. People think that he is part of the Black Swan."

The name made Sophie shudder. All she knew about them was that they were a resistance group, in a place where it should not be. The elven world was perfect. Why would there be opposition? The only place where she thought it might exist would be with humans, and who would care about such a worthless species?

Marella continued on. "People say he disappears frequently, he misses meetings and," Marella leaned in conspiratorially. "It is well known that he never manifested. Now imagine a noble without an ability. It is unheard of. And it is suspicious that his wife's family captured the last surviving alicorn."

Usually Marella's conspiracy theories were far-fetched, but this one actually seemed plausible.

"What do you think the Black Swan wants?" said Sophie. No one knew what they were doing. The Black Swan had not even done anything against anyone, leaving many to speculate at their plans.

Before Marella could answer, the doors on the end of the cafeteria opened, and Dame Alina stepped out, followed by a man with tan skin and blond hair. "Prodigies of Foxfire, I'm here to make an announcement. Please welcome Sir Tiergan, a new Telepathy Mentor!" Everyone in the room applauded politely. "He has come back from retirement to teach a prodigy with notable power, and…"

Sophie stopped listening to Dame Alina, and turned back to the others. "This is all sorts of suspicious," Marella said.

When school finally ended, Sophie quickly light-leaped to Havenfield. For some reason, it was a lot harder for her to leap, and her nexus showed that she wasn't even close to full concentration levels. Another omen that she was doomed to be Talentless.

Her father, Grady was out wrestling a T-Rex, while her mother Edaline was stooping a manticore from doing harm to the other creatures. They were still subdued after her sister's death, but they smiled every time they saw Sophie. Sophie wished she could have known Jolie, but she wasn't even born when Jolie died in the only thing she had of Jolie's was a notebook called "Reflections." She had no idea what it said, because it was written in some kind of code, and she had no idea how to decipher it.

Sophie thought back to Sir Tiergan's reappearance. He was a renowned Telepath, but he had been friends with a member of the Black Swan named Prentice. And now he was back with some kind of mystery student? This, along with Marella's idea about Timkin Heks, and the smoke she had been seeing for days was worth investigating.

The problem was, no one would tell her anything. Her father wasn't an Emissary anymore, Edaline rarely left Havenfield, and her friends also had trouble finding information.

Sophie decided to walk to the caves where she normally practiced alchemy with Dex. She needed a quiet place to think about the Black Swan, and make sense of what they were doing. Why would they set fires? Why would they make a Telepathy mentor return for an unknown prodigy? Why would her hair never stay out of her face? Important questions.

The caves were an ideal location for dangerous potions, because there was nothing flammable there, the ocean was nearby, and it was secluded.

"Sophie Reuwen, we need you." The voice came from a shadow in the back of the cave, and Sophie shrieked when she heard it. A man detached himself from the wall. Sophie could tell at a glance that he was human. He was wearing human clothes, he had a human gadget on his wrist, but more than that, was his face. Sophie had never seen an elven face so serious.

Sophie bolted for the exit of the cave, but the man was quicker. He quickly snatched Sophie and put her back in the cave. Then he stood in the front of the exit. Sophie started running toward the opening again, but stopped when she heard his next words.

"Do you want to know why you are talentless?" he asked. He smiled when he saw that she paused. "There is a secret about you, Sophie Reuwen. You are human."

"That's not true!" said Sophie. "Now let me out of here!"

The man just leaned casually on the wall of the cave. He looked young, only about twenty years old. "Think about it, Sophie. You have no powers. Not even telekinesis. You can't channel, you can't leap without a nexus, you look nothing like your parents. You are human, Sophie."

Sophie thought about that. It couldn't be true. It made no sense. And yet… for some reason it fit. She was different from everyone else. She didn't go with the other elves, and she had always felt divergent.

"We can give you answers. People are being hurt right now, Miss Reuwen. Times are changing. New enemies are rising, and it will take both the humans and the elves to stop it."

"I don't trust you," she spat.

"We can offer you justice for your sister."

That made Sophie reconsider her thoughts. Jolie's death had always seemed like there were secrets behind it. Jolie had deserved better than what had happened to her.

Sophie studied the man. He was certainly intimidating, and Sophie knew that if he wanted, he could take her anyway. She had to find answers, and going along peacefully would be better for her search.

"All right," she said, taking his outstretched hand. "I'm in."

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