Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-43347423-20200111144721/@comment-43347423-20200120224349

Chapter Seven

“Okay, we wanted to start small,” Oralie said. They were in the Silver Tower, and Keefe had been excited to go in it. But all his excitement had drained away when they’d entered the small, bleak room where they’d be experimenting with his ability. “Magnate Leto said that he’s sure you want to start training your ability, Keefe, but that it’s a bit dangerous. We were thinking about testing Sophie’s Enhancing first.”

Keefe didn’t look the least bit surprised, but Sophie just felt angry.

“Why aren’t we practicing Keefe’s ability?” she asked. “He needs to learn how to use it or his mom will use it against him!”

“Relax, Foster,” Keefe assured her. “One day’s not going to matter.”

“But it might! What if the Neverseen attack tonight? And you know what we should be doing?” She turned to Oralie. “Opening your cache!”

“That is certainly an interesting point,” Oralie relented.

Keefe ran his hands through his hair. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but… what did you say about Oralie’s cache?”

Oh, great. She forgot to tell Keefe about stellarlune.

Oralie told him for her, and Sophie grudgingly admitted to herself that it was a nice thing for the Empath to do. Sophie might not like her biological mother, but at least she wasn’t a jerk.

“Wait, so stellarlune might have something to do with my ability?” Keefe asked.

“It’s possible,” Oralie agreed.

“But there’s no way to know without opening the cache, is there?” Sophie asked, and sarcasm dripped from her words.

Oralie pretended not to notice. “No,” she confirmed quietly.

“Well then,” Keefe said, “sounds like we’re all in agreement!”

“Not quite,” Sophie said, and turned to her friend. “Are you sure you can handle this?”

“Yep. I’ll be fine,” Keefe said. And when Sophie didn’t say anything, trying to gauge if he was lying, he added, “I mean it, Foster.”

“Okay, then what are we waiting for?” Sophie asked. “Oralie, do you have your cache?”

Oralie shook her head. “No, but I can get it.”

And then she glittered away, leaving Sophie and Keefe alone.

“How long did you know Glimmer was Jolie?” Keefe immediately asked.

Sophie shrugged. “I didn’t. At least, not until right then. I was putting the pieces together as she was talking. But one thing doesn’t make sense: I saw Jolie die in Brant’s memory.”

“Memories can be faked,” Keefe immediately said. “You know what? That also explains why Brant’s mind wasn’t completely shattered. He didn’t actually kill his girlfriend. But he faked it, and it affected her parents. Speaking of her parents… what are you going to tell Grady and Edaline?”

Sophie sighed. “I don’t know. I know Glimmer-slash-Jolie asked me not to say anything, but I’m not sure I can keep this from them. Also… that means she’s technically my sister. Ugh, this is really weird.”

“It is. And for the record, I bet that if you ask Glimmer, she’d let you tell your parents. Also, maybe she can clear up what we’re supposed to call her now,” Keefe joked. “She might have to be the Mysterious Miss G! Or would it be J? I don’t know. Or are you going to keep that kind of title for yourself?”

Sophie laughed. “No, she can have it.”

“Nah, it’s more fun saving it for you.”

Sophie started to blush, but then Oralie came back. In her hand was a tiny pebble with one jewel set into the side.

“Here we are,” Oralie said. “My one and only Forgotten Secret.”

“Wait,” Keefe interrupted, “you only have one? Kenric had, like, seven.”

Oralie flinched at the mention of Kenric.

“Sorry,” Keefe apologized.

“No, it’s fine,” Oralie said, and held out the cache. “I’m going to try to figure out the password again.”

Sophie started to count the seconds, just like she had last time. Keefe reached for her hand, and Sophie let him take it. She lost count of the seconds, and instead began counting Keefe’s heartbeats.

She got to 134 before Oralie said, “Holly.”

Sophie didn’t know what that had to do with the rosy-cheeked councillor, but she soon stopped trying to guess when she saw what the cache was doing.

Wisps of light were flowing from where the jewel had been imbedded seconds before. Blue light swirled around the three of them, and slowly more colors were added until a scene unfolded.

''“How did this happen?” a wispy version of Oralie was asking.

A Bronte without his pointy ears replied, “I do not know. But no one can ever know about stellarlune and the heartache it has caused.”

“What heartache has it caused?”

“Much. When Ladies Luzia and Vespera tried to use it to help hide Atlantis, they killed four humans. Stellarlune is too dangerous a force to be used anymore, and that’s why we’ll be giving you your first Forgotten Secret.”

“But… what does stellarlune even do?”

“It’s a mixture of moonlight and starlight, hence the name. Do you remember what the different Sources do?”

Oralie nodded.

“So this material is a mix of moonlight and starlight. Moonlight is hard to find, but when you can harness a lot of it, it’s extremely powerful. It works a lot like a battery, perfect for adding energy to things. And starlight can do pretty much anything, depending on the star. And the stars used in stellarlune are the unmapped stars.”

“For quintessence?”

“Yes,” Bronte agreed. “Meaning the different kinds do different things. But what Luzia and Vespera were using was the Elementine variety. It’s highly explosive, and, frankly, I’m not sure why they wanted to use it anyway.”

“It’s so horrible that they killed those humans.”

“I know. That’s why we’re locking this secret away in your new cache.” '' And then the light dropped to the ground and disappeared.