Hola!
Crowd- You can speak Spanish now?
Me- Uh... si?
Anyway, this chapter has cHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FOR STINA! AHHHH! I have no idea how to develop characters, so that's bad, but Stina has potential for AMAZING character development, so that's good. It's also got some stuff about Gemma (the Mesmer) because why not. Oh! And a cliffhanger!
starryglass: Um... okay? We do, honestly. AND NOTHING IS BETTER THAN MALLOWMELT I WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH FOR MY BELIEFS!
Lady Kiddo: I don't know. Maybe because it's making Keefe sad?
KotlcForeverandever: Yay! Lol, I do that sometimes. "HEY! LAMP! WHY DON'T YOU SHIP SOKEEFE!? YOU ARE DEAD TO ME NOW!" XD. Thank you!
Swiftheart1267: Uncanonical gay fanfiction is the best. Thanks! I mostly made the list for my own reference, but then I realized that it was totally the kind of thing Sophie would do, so I included it! Probably good for the readers to also see how the Black Swan is doing so they can have a better idea of what's going on. I'll try to be fast! ~A. Fan.
Elizabethornton: Thanks! Hahaha, I will probably crush those hopes very soon.
SokeefeWillAlwaysBeBetter: Thanks!
MarellaIsTheBest: Hmmmmmmm... nothing at all. Definitely.
Siren: Ooh! What series? And yes, they are adorable. I actually made the list for my own reference and then realized that it was the kind of thing Sophie would do, lol. We might be able to work something out over PM? Oh no, the parents! Ahhhh! Good luck. My advice if they say no: Come up with a pen name, publish under the pen name, and hope that your parents don't find it in a library/bookstore. I haven't, thanks for the recommendations!
Princess Book: Nice... scream? Aw, I'm sorry. Yay! BYE BYE GISELA! But yeah, I do kind of feel bad for Keefe. And yay the kiss! Oh. Wow. Um. Shady Black Belt Protection Squad, assemble! Thanks!
Sky: Sorry... hmm. Lol. I'm glad you think so! Good job, Keefe. Please don't leave for the Neverseen. And yep, Requiem is perfect! Mr. Forkle is totally a mood. Yeah, Sophie, don't jinx it! Seriously. I'll try. Happy Pride month!
FlowerGirl15: I'm glad you liked it! Don't worry, I will definitely crush all the hopes later. As for Keefe, you'll find out! ;) But thanks!
"Ready for a looooong day of interrogations?" Stina asked, rolling her eyes.
Sophie looked down at the piece of paper she had, containing the list of all of the Neverseen members. She had give everyone two days to recover from the battle at Gildingham before gathering Team Valiant and giving everyone their tasks.
Biana, Dex, and Wylie were going over the tactics and weapons that the Neverseen used and how to counter them more effectively. At the time she had left them, Biana was explaining the value of sucker punches and how the Black Swan would benefit from giving one to everyone.
Stina and Sophie, on the other hand, were going to interrogate everyone on her list who had been categorized as arrested. All of them were in Carcerem for the time being, but Sophie thought that at least a few of them would be moved to Exile after their Tribunals. The Tribunals would be taking place in a few weeks.
"Yeah," Sophie agreed in a monotone. "Interrogations. Fun."
"Who are we very funly interrogating first?" Stina asked.
The corners of Sophie's mouth twitched up. "First of all, 'funly' isn't a word-"
"Whatever, Lady Fos-Boss," Stina muttered. Sophie laughed, which made Stina laugh.
And then Sophie realized something.
She was laughing and joking around with Stina Heks.
Stina Heks, who she first met because Sophie's best friend removed her hair. Stina Heks, who made fun of her best friend for being a bad match. Stina Heks, who told her that she was going to be sent to Exillium. Stina Heks, who Sophie had really hated, and then disliked, and then tolerated, and then...
Were they almost friends now?
Sophie decided to ask. Well, indirectly. But sort of allude to that 'We don't quite hate each other, what has happened to the universe?' thing. "I'm sorry I laughed at you," Sophie apologized. "When we met in Slurps and Burps. I'm sorry I laughed at your hair- or, lack of it, I guess."
Stina's eyes widened. Sophie didn't have to be a telepath to know that that was the last thing Stina expected her to say. "Oh. Um. No problem. I guess it was, kind of, funny, in retrospect. I mean, I would totally laugh at you if you went bald- no offense."
"None taken," Sophie smiled. "And I'm sorry I formed an opinion on you based on what I heard from Dex and Biana and Marella, and proceeded to hate you for years."
"To be fair, Dex had every right to convince you to hate me. I was pretty awful to him." Stina frowned. "I should probably apologize to him too."
"Yeah, probably," Sophie agreed. "But I'm sure he'd be okay with it. He's a pretty nice person."
"Good," Stina said quietly. "I'm, um, I'm sorry I was rude to you."
"That's okay," Sophie replied. "Once people started trying to kill me, some teasing at school didn't really seem important anymore."
Stina laughed. "Okay."
"So, ready to do this?"
"Not really, no," Stina answered.
Sophie made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "Yeah, neither am I." She pulled out an eyelash before taking a deep breath and pushing open the door. "Ugh!" she exclaimed upon realizing that it was actually a pull door.
Another deep breath. Another eyelash out. Sophie pulled open the door.
To further destroy her image of a competent, confident person who actually knew what the mallowmelt they were doing, Sophie managed to trip over her own feet. Stina didn't help her, but at least she didn't laugh.
Sophie kept her eyes on the ground so that she wouldn't have to look at all of the people who were probably wishing she was dead, but stopped when she walked into a wall. Nice job, Sophie. Once her eyes were actually looking at her surroundings, she noticed the goblin.
That was Sandor's job, Sophie thought, feeling years prick her eyes. Sandor was supposed to protect them while they were interrogating the Neverseen. Not... whoever the council assigned.
Sophie knew she had made the right decision in refusing a new bodyguard. No matter how unsafe it was, there was no way she would ever be able to look at her new bodyguard and not think of Sandor, and not get mad that they were replacing him.
And then she reminded herself that she was in a Neverseen prison, and she had to look at least mildly threatening, so now was really not the time to start crying.
Stina gave her a concerned look, and that almost made Sophie snort. Stina Heks, concerned about her. What a bizarre day.
"Who's first on our list?" Stina asked.
Sophie looked down at the list. With her photographic memory, she didn't need to, but she wanted to stall. "Um... Gemma. She's their Mesmer." And it's her fault Sandor died, Sophie finished in her head, feeling her eyes well again.
"She's over there," said Not Sandor the goblin, pointing over to a cell that, sure enough, had a girl easily recognized as Gemma. Not Sandor had a squeaky voice too.
Shut up, sad part of brain! Sophie told herself. You have a job to do! "Great. Um. Thank you," she stammered, unable to look Not Sandor in the eye, before walking over to Gemma's cell. Ever the confident fearsome interrogator, Sophie said "Um, hi, um, I'm Sophie and this is Stina, and we're going to be asking you about the Neverseen, and we'll know if you're lying so you shouldn't lie, and also I'm an inflictor. So. Um. Yeah. Hi."
"Eloquent," Stina muttered.
"Shut up!"
Gemma did not look impressed. "Sure. Whatever."
Sophie's eyelashes were practically begging her to tug one. She tightly clasped her hands together to stop herself. "Okay, great. When did you manifest as a Mesmer?" she asked, glad to finally be forming coherent sentences.
"About a month before Foxfire opened up again."
"Stina?" Sophie asked for confirmation that Gemma was telling the truth. Stina nodded.
"Okay. Were you part of the Neverseen prior to that?" Sophie asked.
"No," Gemma answered. Stina gave Sophie a thumbs up.
"When did you join the Neverseen, then?"
"About a week after I manifested."
"Why?"
Gemma stayed silent.
"She's an inflictor," Stina reminder her.
"Yeah," Sophie added unhelpfully.
"Fine. No one trusted me once I was a Mesmer. A man named Fintan told me that he was going to get justice for people with abilities that elves scorned. That sounded like a great idea to me. So I joined."
Sophie had heard about some of the struggles that Mesmers faced from Grady. She felt kind of bad for Gemma, but then remembered that the Mesmer was the reason Sandor died. "Did you know anything about the Black Swan before joining the Neverseen?"
"No."
"Stina?"
"She's telling the truth."
"Once you joined the Neverseen, what did the other members tell you about the Black Swan?" Sophie asked.
"That they were a threat. That they were the main thing standing between us and our goal."
"When you attacked Candleshade, what was your reason for Mesmerizing me to make me stay still? Did you mean to get the throwing star thrown at me? Did you want me to die, or were you trying to kill Sa-" Sophie swallowed. "-Someone else?"
"I Mesmerized you to stop you from fighting us," Gemma answered. "And when I saw the throwing star I didn't stop because I didn't see a reason to let you live. You were the enemy. And you were trying to kill us."
"Yeah, because you-" Sophie started, before sighing. "Never mind. Okay, so, when you first joined, did you know about the terrible things that the Neverseen did?"
"Terrible things?"
Sophie rolled her eyes. "Arson. Gnome genocide. Attempted murder. Actual murder. Destroying Lumenaria. Trying to destroy the homes of each of the species. Et cetera. When did you learn about this stuff?"
"Not when I first joined," Gemma answered. "And once I did, I was aware that it was the only way."
"It's not- whatever. Okay. Last question. If you could go back to when you manifested, with full knowledge of everything that happened after, would you make a different choice?"
"Yes," Gemma answered.
Sophie opened her mouth to say something, but Stina interrupted. "She's lying."
Stina and Sophie looked at each other for a while, silently. "Okay. We'll come back to you later," Sophie said finally.
"Who's next on our list?" Stina asked.
Sophie looked down at her paper. "Some Guster. His name is something like... Donald." (A/N: Definitely not based on some sort of dictator or anything, haha, what are you talking about?)
"Okay. Do we have any idea who he is?"
Sophie looked around. The only people in Carcerem were Blur, Axel, Gemma, and two other people, one of which had to be Donald. The other unnamed person was female, so she probably was not the Guster. That left... "That one, I think."
"Great, let's go," Stina said.
The two walked over and Sophie gave a (hopefully more eloquent) introduction. After talking to the Guster, they went over to the Beguiler- Shrivani. Or Silver. She was the one that recruited Glimmer to the Neverseen. Both had reasons for joining the Neverseen- Donald had a personal hatred for a few of the Councillors, and Shrivani wanted to take revenge after being banished. Neither had any especially helpful information, to Sophie's disappointment. For the last part of the interrogation, she needed all five Neverseen members together.
"Okay, so, Stina and I are going to ask you about the Neverseen's plans for-" Sophie stopped short when a strawberry blond blur ran into the room.
"Sophie! Sophie, we figured out the password for Fintan's cache, come on!"
Oh. Um. Yes. I ended it there.
What?
Okay, sorry. (But not really!)
The climax is clearly coming soon. AND THEN IT'LL BE OVER SOON AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Okay, had to get that out of my system.
As for the climax... MUAHAHAHAHAHA! That's all I'm going to say about it.
Oh, guess what?
Crowd- No one cares.
I put all of the chapters, A/N's excluded, into wordcounter-dot-net, and the number really surprised me.
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47,199.
THAT'S A LOT OF WORDS! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That's nearly novel length! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Ahem. Okay. Please review!