Book 6: Nightfall

This article is about Book 6: Nightfall, the sixth book. You may be looking for Vespera's Nightfall or Lady Gisela's Nightfall. The corresponding disambiguation page is Nightfall.

Book 6: Nightfall
Author	Shannon Messenger
Illustrator	Jason Chan
Publication Date	November 7, 2017
Publisher	ALADDIN
Previous Book	Book 5: Lodestar
Next Book	Book 7: Flashback

Keeper of the Lost Cities: Nightfall is the sixth book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series written by Shannon Messenger. It came out on the 7th of November, 2017.

Nightfall is the first book in the series to have a Barnes and Noble-exclusive edition. The limited collector's edition of Nightfall contains beautifully illustrated endpapers drawn personally by the author, as well as an exclusive story from Keefe's point of view that will reveal some of Keefe's deepest thoughts—including thoughts about Sophie!—to readers.

To read a short excerpt of the book, click here.

To read the Keefe Short Story, click here and scroll down.

Synopsis

Sophie Foster is struggling. Grieving. Scrambling. But she knows one thing: she will not be defeated.

The Neverseen have had their victories—but the battle is far from over. It's time to change tactics. Make sacrifices. Re-examine everything. Maybe even time for Sophie to trust her enemies.

All paths lead to Nightfall—an ominous door to an even more ominous place—and Sophie and her friends strike a dangerous bargain to get there. But nothing can prepare them for what they discover. The problems they’re facing stretch deep into their history. And with time running out, and mistakes catching up with them, Sophie and her allies must join forces in ways they never have before.

In this spectacular sixth book in the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must uncover the truth about the Lost Cities’ insidious past, before it repeats itself and changes reality.

Cover

The cover of Nightfall illustrates (from left to right) Keefe Sencen, Linh Song, and Sophie Foster holding hands to form a circle. They are floating above Atlantis. This is from the scene where the dome above Atlantis has a hole in it, and they're holding back the water to keep the people safe while Psionipaths are on the way. There is a giant ball of water above them.

The three of them are dressed up formally (since they are elves) and wearing capes: Sophie is wearing a white, frilly dress with bell sleeves and grey leggings; Linh is wearing a jade green silk coat dress with Chinese button knots sewn on her left side, with long black stockings; Keefe is wearing a dark red coat, lined with golden buttons and with pockets on the sides, over a long-sleeved white blouse, and a pair of ankle-length tapered black pants. Sophie and Keefe are both wearing ankle boots.

Sophie is seen to have a slight flush, and she is staring at how she is holding Keefe's hand (or how high up they are; maybe she is enhancing him) Keefe is staring at Sophie's face and he has a bright smile. Linh is staring into empty space. Her eyebrows are furrowed in concentration.

It can be noted that Sophie does not have her Enhancer gloves on, because she is enhancing Linh so that she has the strength to control such a large amount of water.

 Plot

Preface

Sophie stared at the gleaming trail that wound down. And down. And down. Disappearing into the misty shadows far below.

The path of ancient silver and gold stones shouldn’t exist—and yet it had been there all along.

Hidden in plain sight.

Buried under lies.

Wiped from memory.

But never truly gone.

She glanced at her friends as they braced themselves for the dangerous journey ahead, and found their expressions mirroring her own.

Reluctant. Rattled. But also: Ready.

Whatever waited in those murky depths was far more than a secret.

It was an answer.

A truth.

And it was time to uncover it.

Time to stop believing the pretty stories they’d been fed all their lives.

Time to see their world for what it really was.

Time to take something back.

So together—as one—they locked hands and started the long, slippery descent.

Into the past.

Into darkness.

Summary

Warning: Spoilers below

Sophie Foster, Fitz Vacker, and Keefe Sencen talk to Sophie's human sister Amy Foster, who remembers Sophie when she sees her, triggering her memories. As they make plans to bring Amy to the Lost Cities, Alden, Sandor, and Grizel take charge of matters. Alden sedates Sophie and Amy when they light leap home. Sophie is originally mad at Alden Vacker after waking, but after him explaining her his reasons she accepts what he did was okay. She then has to explain to Amy the entire elvin world, including her friends, Fitzroy Avery Vacker, Keefe Sencen, Dexter Alvin Dizznee, Linh Song, Tam Song and Biana Vacker.

Mr. Forkle reveals to Sophie and her friends that he had an identical twin brother; there were really two Forkles all along. While one of them died in Lumenaria, the other is still alive.

Following that, she contacts Lady Gisela a lot, sometimes with or without Keefe. She instructs them to do many challenging tasks, including finding and retrieving her Archetype, which Sophie finds irritating due to her lack of explanations, particularly about Cyrah Endal's death. She eventually tells them, but Sophie is annoyed that Lady Gisela took so long. Her first task is to deliver a note from Lady Gisela to King Dimitar, and get the starstone hair clip that belonged to her. The note explained that she wanted King Dimitar to fight Keefe to see if he was worthy of his daughter being his bodyguard. This causes a lot of conflict between Sandor and Princess Ro (Romhilda is her grandmother's name after whom she is named, but she took up Ro).

King Dimitar fights Keefe, and Keefe wins but suffers serious injuries, which Elwin manages to heal, although Keefe is on bed rest for a week. One might notice that Sophie is feeling very disoriented during this journey, and that can be blamed on a kiss that she shared with Dex. This possibly could have ruined their friendship, and Sophie doesn't know what to do. The kiss made Dex realize that Sophie and Dex would not be able to be in a relationship.

Sophie and her friends set out to rescue her parents from Nightfall. They discover that there were multiple Nightfalls, and visit both attempting to rescue them. In the first, they find Alvar unconscious and bring him to Choralmere. At the second, they fight Vespera, Biana taking her on and getting nasty gashes and glass in her skin in a pool of blood, and find out the original purpose of Nightfall: human experimentation. This means that the humans may have had good reason to start a war with the elves, and cutting them out of the treaties was wrong.

After this, Lady Gisela and Ruy Ignis trap Vespera in a Psionipath shield. Lady Gisela then forces Vespera join her, and Ruy rips open a part in the Psionipath shield (force field) around Atlantis, causing it to flood. Sophie then enhances Linh's abilities so that she can suck all the water out of Atlantis and keep it out until the Psionipaths arrive so that they can patch the hole with their abilities. (On the cover of the book)

Sophie's family receives the cure after striking a deal with Fintan, and Amy chooses to keep her memories in the end, partly thanks to Sophie's Enhancer abilities. Bronte is a big help, and Sophie shares a touching moment with her surrogate mother.

At the end of the book, Alvar wakes up, but upon questioning he asks "Who's Alvar?" which ends the book, signifying that the Neverseen have wiped his mind.

Fun Facts

• The hardcover edition of the book has 91 chapters and 800 pages (including the title pages, copyright pages, and the acknowledgment pages).
• Nightfall is the first book in Keeper of the Lost Cities series to have a Barnes and Nobles special edition

Video

Shannon Messenger talks NIGHTFALL!