I'm so sorry Keefsters I'm-I'm just sorry.

Oh! And I wanted to say the other day I read Keefster by AmaterasuOfTheSun and it was sooo good. It needs more love. Ya'll should go read it after you finish this one.

Forkle POV

He had been working tirelessly since relocation Sophie to find the leaks in the Black Swan to no avail. He had no idea who was a traitor and who was loyal. He had no idea how deep the Neverseen's influence was. He silently scolded himself for letting it get this far.

There was only one other option and it was drastic even for him. But he had no other choice. He needed to be able to trust his own men. But to do that he had to face his biggest failure. His greatest regret. He never meant for it to happen and he kept his own sanity by believing they could someday fix it. Fix him.

It had taken an excruciatingly long amount of time to sneak his dwarfs in, even longer to get the necessary items. But he had. He was there. He had weathered a hard journey to get there but it had worked. He had broken into Exile. And now he stood in front of him. His ally. His friend. The man who had sacrificed himself for their cause. Prentice. "Hello old friend."

He sat down next to the mad man. "I am truly sorry for this. I will make it better. But for now I must ask more of you. The night you were arrested you hailed me. You said you had discovered something world changing. Well I'm afraid so have I. Prentice, we have traitors in our midst and I think you know who. Quinlin is a traitor and he preformed your break, I fear this is no coincidence for there is no such thing. I must search your mind for answers. I'm sorry." He paused "For everything."

Then he entered his broken mind.

…..

Prentice's mind was harder to navigate than he had ever imagined. And he had, many times. It had taken him far too long to get to the man's center but he finally arrived. But once he was there he could make the memories a bit clearer but not much. He did not have Sophie's gift.

All the memories he could find were strange and distorted but they were intact. He walked up to a warped version of Eternalia, as saw himself. Prentice was speaking to him, or rather the memory of him. "This is not what I had in mind when I said I would help you."

"You think I like this? Creating a life with a purpose? But that purpose is to save lives! No living elf is strong enough to do what is necessary!"

Prentice shook his head. "Is that how you will explain it to the child when it is born? I have a son; I cannot father another child and just-just abandon it! And to live with the humans? It has a small chance of surviving your altering but to grow up in fear and isolation? That is cruel, even for you."

"What do you want me to do Prentice? Leave the world to die?"

"Of course not! But find another way to save it! Or at least pick a different man to help you! One who is willing to abandon their child!"

"We have discussed this you and Gisela are the best match for this. The possibility for survival would be much better than anyone else. Originally we intended for Jolie to be the mother, but that is no longer possible."

Prentice sighed. A long, drawn out and weary sigh. "She has a son as well, correct?"

"Yes, with Cassius. Keefe, I believe is his name. Only a few months old."

"And yet she is willing to do this?"

"She understands what's at stake. She volunteered."

"On one condition." He nodded, "If this child is born, it will not be told of its roll until it is necessary. Let it live a normal life with a good family. And…let me help protect it."

"It would be unwise to attach yourself to this child, Prentice. It is on a course to a hard and dangerous life."

"I will not let my paternal emotions get in the way but if this is my child, even if I don't raise it, I will protect it."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

He walked away from that memory and after wadding through many useless memories he finally found the one he was looking for.

"Hello, Prentice." Lady Gisela greeted Prentice coldly.

"Drop the act Gisela. I have been investigating some, abnormalities in our records. All of them pointing to you."

"Ah. I see. What is it that you know?"

"It's not what I know. It's what you've told them. How could you? You've betrayed the cause! You've betrayed all of us!" She walked up to him and brushed her hand across his cheek. Then she whipped her hand hitting him across the face with her ring, causing a bloody dent in his cheek. He stumbled and hit his head, and lay on the floor dazed and unmoving.

"True." She sighed, "I have betrayed you. But to be fair, I was never on your side in the first place." She laughed then, one short and ugly laugh, "In fact, you don't know how few of you there are who are actually loyal. You see, we are like a parasite, infiltrating your ranks, gaining your trust, only to become stronger than our host."

"How many?" He coughed out, trying to sit up, "How many of you are there?"

She sneered," About half. Even Quinlin is with us. Oh, does that surprise you? Just wait until you find out whom else."

"But, Sophie. What about her? Would you kill your own child?"

"If I have to. But don't worry; I have bigger plans for her. And she would never betray her own mother now would she?"

He laughed, "But you know nothing of her. The only person other than Forkle who knows where she is would be me and I will never tell you."

"We'll see about that. Right now a couple goblin guards are on there way to your house. It seems some one told them you were a keeper for the Black Swan. You might want to hurry home, I wouldn't want them to get mad at your pretty little wife or son."

"No." He stumbled up and looked like he wanted to finish their fight but was too worried for his family. "This is far from over."

"Oh don't worry, we'll be seeing each other soon. Oh, and prentice? I would be forthcoming with the information if I were you. I would hate for your wife to have an accident and not have her husband there to save her"

He stumbled away from the memory. This was far worse than he could have ever imagined. Half of his own people, one being Sophie's genetic mother. He had no choice; he was going to have to break into his people's minds until he weeded out the traitors. One by one he would destroy the Neverseen spies.

So I kind of just sat there and laughed/cried for five minutes while I wrote this. I mean, I just sank my own ship. Not just sank but like, titaniced it. Sorry not sorry. Every one loves a good plot twist. Just a friendly reminder, they don't know this yet. Mwhahahahahaha. Oh and on top of that did I just say his wife was murdered? I did. Have fun with that. I just have to say I have been waiting since I read the first book to write this and I feel this weird mix of feeling bad for the poor characters and really happy seeing it written. SO…please don't hate me.