Okay, so, um... eight days? Not that bad, right?
Eva L: Don't we all? Especially Linh ;). WHOO, KEEPHIE FOREVER! Sophitz fights are great, and so fun to write because a) they're Sophitz fights! b) it's nice to see Sophie FINALLY standing up to him and c) it's the easiest way to keep Fitz in character! Yes Angry Overprotective Father Look ™ shall be copyrighted! Purple? Okay cool. I'll put it on the poll.
A River Of Ink: Cool, silver! It shall go on the poll! They're way easier to write than the actual chapter XD. Marella is the entire fandom. So is Ro. Glimmer makes me think of THG too! That theory kinda makes sense, but a) there have been too many fake deaths in the series, b) yeah, the age thing, and c) I lowkey ship Glam. BUT MY PATHETIC GLIMMER THEORIES SHALL BE REVEALED! Lol. Thanks!
Mallowmelt: Okay! Thanks! It'll go on the poll!
Cary Swirls: Yes very funny ™. XD. You're welcome! I was writing/planning a lot for Swan Song that week and it benefited all of you! Hmm... silver has already been requested, and black shall go on the poll as well! Lol. Yes, EBWSATBJFWBMSLSNS! I think you did spell that right! Idk, I copy-and-paste it most of the time. But yeah it's my new favorite nickname for Fitz! Well... along with Chandelier Head, Uncle Wonderboy, and Ritzroy Savory Cracker, lol. Thank you so much!
PersonWhoReads: Relatable name, XD. Maybe there was. Idk. I'm hardcore Sokeefe but I also LOVE Kam (Multishipping! Aaahhhh!) so I might have subconsciously added it, XD. But no, it won't happen in Swan Song.
MeeIsFarrow101: Lol, you probably should! It probably wouldn't work again though. I was just feeling very inspired that week. Thanks! YES, BEGONE, WRITER'S BLOCK! I actually am in America, yes, but please don't kill me. I STILL HAVE A SHADY BLACK BELT PROTECTION SQUAD ™!
IStillHopeForSophex: Your username is an oof. I'm glad it inspired you! But please don't, like, plagiarize Swan Song, or blatantly steal all of my ideas. Ew, writer's block! Thank you so much! Have I converted you to the sophex-turned-SOKEEFE-but-still-hopes-for-sophex side? Muahahahaha. Yes, I would like the cookie, thanks. Periwinkle? Hmm... I sense you may have a ship-related motive for that..
MidnightBunnyy: Great minds think alike! (Or extremely weird ones XD.)
FlowerGirl15: Hehe... don't get used to it. Lol, the only time I feel like I can actually keep Fitz in character is when he's being a jealous Iggy Fart. Definitely, Keephie forever! Ahh, Grady/Edaline and Sophie scenes are so awesome BUT SO HARD TO WRIIIIIIITE! Thanks!
Woah, nine reviews! Thank you guys all so muchhhhh. Anyway, this chapter is basically going to be entirely theories- even more so than the other chapters- and mostly about Glimmer and the Neverseen. These were pretty hard to come up with (and a lot were stolen from other people on the KOTLC wiki lol) so please don't judge TOO much.
Crowd: Um, may I remind you that any intelligent person should judge every word you type?
Me: Dear Lord, not you again.
Crowd: Believe me, that's what we thought when we saw you too.
Me: *Sigh*
Crowd: If we both hate each other, why don't we just leave?
Me: bEcAuSe ThE fAnS LiKe iT!
Crowd: What fans?
Me: Shut up. Enjoy the chapter!
Crowd: Pfft yeah like that's gonna happen.
Two hours and 948534 pieces of mallowmelt later, members of the Black Swan were sitting in Sophie's living room. Some were glaring at her, understandably, because she didn't save any mallowmelt for them.
"You kids! Quite bickering and pay attention!" Mr. Forkle snapped.
Glimmer leaned over to whisper in Tam's ear "Does every sentence he says begin with 'you kids?'"
Tam shrugged. "Honestly, most of them."
Linh, who was on the other side of Tam, splashed them both with water and ordered them to pay attention. Marella laughed at that, and Mr. Forkle glared in the direction of the four of them.
"Now that you kids have settled down, I have a few questions for Miss Glimmer."
"Just Glimmer is fine." Glimmer said.
"Okay then, Just Glimm-" Dex started.
Marella shoved him. "DAD JOKES ARE NOT ALLOWED!"
Mr. Forkle sighed, because those kids would NOT settle down. "I prefer to keep things formal, Miss Glimmer. You should at least consider yourself lucky that I'm not calling you by your real name- which I could easily figure out."
"As far as you know, Glimmer is my real name."
Mr. Forkle sighed again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "All right, Miss Glimmer. Would you be willing to answer a few questions?"
"I'm not going to tell you who I actually am, if that's what you're wondering." Glimmer said defiantly. Linh sighed and gave her a disapproving look.
"If you don't feel comfortable sharing your identity yet, that's perfectly fine. I myself have had many secret identities. Anyway, I was actually planning to ask some questions about the Neverseen. Mr. Tam tells me that you seemed to be a fairly trusted member, and if that is the case we would like some information about our enemies."
Glimmer shrugged casually, but still looked a little suspicious. "Okay. What do you want to know first?"
"How about you start with who we're fighting against and what their abilities are?" Sophie suggested.
"Um... okay. So, you know Gisela and Vespera, obviously. Um, Alvar used to be with us until that time we attacked Everglen- I wasn't there, by the way. Gethen. And there are some, like, ogres and dwarves and goblins, but I don't know any of them by name. Um... Ruy's still there and helping with the plans, but his psionopathy isn't working anymore... that's good, right? You know all these people so far?" Everyone nodded. "Okay, so, um, all the other people I only know by their code names, but I know their abilities so that's really what's important to fight them, right? So, there's Trix... he's a Guster. There's a guy called Axel... he's our technopath, and he's actually really good. Um, Silver. Her real names Shrivani- I actually know that one. She's a beguiler. And, um, the only other one I know is Mist, he's a phaser."
Sophie was scribbling all this down and nodding. "That's it?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
"You don't know who any of those people are in, like, who they are in the Lost Cities?"
"Um, Silver was banished, so we're not going to identify her as a traitor. I'm not sure about Mist since I barely ever saw him. Like, if I saw him now I'd recognize him, probably, but I don't have any good information. Axel... he's got some sort of important job here, but I don't know what and I don't know any names."
"I could try to find all the technopaths in the Lost Cities and then you can tell me if you recognize him?" Dex suggested.
"Okay, that's actually, like, a good idea."
Mr. Forkle cleared his throat. "Thank you, Miss Glimmer. Do you know anything about the Neverseen's plans, either long-term of short-term?"
"I know their long-term plans, but not really the details. A lot of this is actually from eavesdropping..."
"That's fine, anything helps." Mr. Forkle assured her.
"Okay. Um. I know they were planning an attack on the goblins. I don't really know when, but I know they are. I think it's sometimes soon-ish... like within the next few months soon-ish."
"Um, how are they planning to attack the goblins?" Sophie said. "They're like, really, really strong and well defended. It would be incredibly easy for them to defend themselves against..." she counted on her fingers. "Nine elves, plus whatever other species are there- the goblins would still outnumber them in size and in strength. We've been fighting the Neverseen for years- they may be overconfident, but they're not that stupid."
"I know. That's what I couldn't figure out too. Here's the part I only know through eavesdropping..." Glimmer paused. "I'm pretty sure I heard Vespera say something about 'an army of humans.'"
Sophie blinked. "Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. I don't know how they're planning to do that, but that's bad."
"Yeah. Very bad. But I'm sure we have a few months- I think Gisela said they need Keefe to pull it off."
Sophie breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Things still sucked, but if the Neverseen's plans relied on Keefe cooperating, things suddenly looked a lot better for them.
"That's better. Keefe won't help them. Ever."
Fitz raised an eyebrow and stared at her. "Would he? We know he's already-"
Sophie glared back at him. "Um, we know he's learned from his mistakes. He would never do that again."
"Um, Keefe is pretty unpredictable." Fitz fired back. "He might think he's 'helping' again."
"Um, he's your best friend. Shouldn't you trust him?"
"Um, I can also learn from my mistakes."
Sophie had no response to this- only intense, intense glaring and a mild struggle not to inflict on him. Yeah, it's pretty obvious he was jealous of Keefe- but that didn't mean start assuming he's going to join the Neverseen for real. Like, seriously! And she and Keefe weren't even... okay. She was getting off topic.
Linh's head whipped between the two of them like she was watching a tennis match. "Okay, can you guys, like... calm down? Now is really not the time."
Sophie and Fitz both muttered apologies- to the group, not to each other- and shut up but continued glaring.
"Um... Glimmer, do you have any other information?" said Dex awkwardly.
"Yeah, actually- and don't worry, it gets worse. Vespera wants to continue her Nightfall experiments to make guilt not a problem for elves anymore- and once they figure it out, they're going to commit a mass human genocide."
Sophie groaned. Why. The. Mallowmelt. Did. Things. Just. Keep. Getting. Worse!? Things looked even more hopeless now than when she found out Fintan escaped- and that was pretty bad. She was just about to open her mouth and say something very optimistic like "We're all doomed," when Linh talked instead.
"How can we be sure we trust you?" Linh said. "I don't mean to pressure you- well, actually, I kind of do- I don't mean to be obnoxious about it, and I'm really sorry, but I need to know who you are before I can actually trust you."
Glimmer bit her lip as she looked like she was actually considering it. "Promise you won't tell the council?" she said finally.
Tam snorted. "Please. We hate the council at least as much as you do- probably more. If you're worried about the council finding out who you are, I promise they never will. Not unless you want them to."
Glimmer continued chewing on her lip. "Promise you won't tell them?"
"Promise," everyone else said in unison.
"Okay... so, um... Glimmer actually is my real name. I just made it seem like it was a nickname so no one would figure it out. Um... I'm seventeen. A few years ago, I was... uh... sent to Exillium."
"Oh, you were worried the council would send you back?" Linh said sympathetically. "It's okay, they won't. And we went to Exillium too, by the way. Tam and I."
"Really?" Tam nodded. "Oh. Okay. So, um, yeah. I was in Exillium. Left hemisphere. My coach, she doesn't work there anymore, was Coach Shrivani. Silver. She apparently noticed my rebelliousness and vengefulness and hatred towards the council and decided to recruit me for the Neverseen. At the time I was fourteen. She was a beguiler, so obviously she was very... convincing. When I first started working with the Neverseen, they hid all the bad stuff... you know, the kidnapping, arson, et cetera... from me. I thought they were doing good things. And everything I heard about the Neverseen, Black Swan, and Council was all very biased, and, more often than not, beguilered. That's totally a word, by the way." Glimmer's entire explanation was rushed, as though she was trying to force the words out of her. "And um... yeah. That's it."
"Thank you very much, Miss Glimmer." Mr. Forkle said. "You kids are dismissed."
Longest chapter! Though probably just because of the nine reviews I had to respond to/ the monster A/N at the beginning. While the chapter itself is "only" 1,457 words, the document itself is over 2,000! (2222 words!) Wow! Anyway, the Iggy poll is up! Thanks to everyone who suggested a color! Please go vote! Let me know what you think of my Glimmer theories. Please review!