Lost Cities Keeper Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Lost Cities Keeper Wiki
This article is about the ninth KOTLC book. You may be looking for the idea of Stellarlune.

Stellarlune is the ninth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. It was announced on May 22, 2020, and was released on November 8, 2022.[1] The previous book, 8.5: Unlocked, was released on November 17th, 2020.[2] A picture with details of the first three chapters of Stellarlune was released in dubs at a KOTLC panel.

On January 26th, 2022, the title of the book was released. On February 16th, 2022 at 5:15 UTC, the book cover was released by Nerdist.

Synopsis[]

In this stunning ninth book in the New York Times and USA TODAY, bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie and her friends discover the true meaning of power—and evil.

Sophie Foster changed the game.

Now she’s facing impossible choices:
When to act.
When to trust.
When to let go.

Her friends are divided and scattered, and the Black Swan wants Sophie to focus on their projects. But her instincts are leading her somewhere else.

Stellarlune—and the mysterious Elysian—might be the key to everything. But finding truth in the Lost Cities always requires sacrifice. And as the Neverseen’s plans sharpen into terrifying focus, it appears that everyone has miscalculated. The Lost Cities’ greatest lie could destroy everything. And in the battle that follows, only one thing is certain: nothing will ever be the same.[3]

Plot[]

In the first chapter of the book, Sophie's reaction to Keefe's note left at the end of Unlocked is shown. Sophie is distraught over Keefe's note and the fact that he is suddenly leaving, thus, starts to ask many questions to Grady, who witnessed the event. She immediately tries to go looking for Keefe, much to Sandor's distaste.

At her first stop, Sophie visits Elwin's estate to try to check in with Ro, who doesn't know where Keefe went after he commanded her to fall asleep at the end of the previous book. After gaining no information and being teased by Ro about the heartfelt line in Keefe's goodbye note: "You mean a lot to me, Foster. More than you'll ever know," Sophie then hails Dex, due to the fact that Ro told Sophie that the last thing Keefe did before running away was hailing him. Dex then reveals to Sophie that Keefe somehow sensed the Dizznee triplets' abilities and that Rex is believed to be Talentless. Both Sophie and Dex think this is one of the main reasons why Keefe wanted to run away.

Sophie then visits Lord Cassius, Keefe's father, to try to find a list of all the Forbidden Cities that his pathfinder has granted access to— and what possible countries/cities that Keefe might be in. Lord Cassius talks Sophie out of it, reasoning that there are too many possible cities, and that Keefe has the ability to take care of himself. Sophie disagrees initially, but after seeing memories from Keefe’s childhood, eventually agrees. They then talk telepathically, and Lord Cassius shows Sophie a hidden memory that reveals Lady Gisela’s secret ability as a Conjurer, and reveals that there is a third step to Stellarlune and that Lady Gisela was investigating Elysian.

Sophie goes back to Havenfield and tells Silveny to transmit to Keefe. She hails Amy to ask her if she has seen Keefe. Amy does not know where Keefe is, but she tells Sophie something about 'missing islands' on the news. Amy thinks it is related to the Lost Cities.

The next morning, Ro dyes her hair and Iggy's color to twilight ombre. Edaline introduces Ro and Sophie to a new dessert called sweetberry swirls. Because Edaline is a Conjurer, Ro asks Edaline to practice acting like Lady Gisela, to try to figure out if being a Conjurer gave Lady Gisela any unseen advantages. Sophie goes outside to find all of her friends waiting for her. Sophie informs them about Keefe running away, and they seem confident that Keefe will do well in the Forbidden Cities. They are upset that Sophie has burned down the Neverseen Storehouse, full of valuable information, and also that Sophie is starting to be a leader. They blame Glimmer for Sophie's actions and get into an argument about whether Glimmer is trustworthy.

Linh tells them that Glimmer freed Lady Gisela in Loamnore. The group goes and visits her to verify that it happened and demands to know why she did it. Glimmer confirms it, saying that she owed Gisela. Tam demands the rest of her story and Glimmer reveals her identity: Rayni Aria, the daughter of a top matchmaker that altered one question in his results to get paired with Rayni's mother. Marella figures out Rayni's name and who she is. Their tribunal was when Sophie first came to the Lost Cities. Rayni then offers to set up a meeting with Trix, saying that he might agree to help them. Sophie gives Marella Fintan’s Cache, to see if she is able to convince him to open it. Stina gets angry with Sophie for telling everyone what to do, and leaves with Linh, Maruca, and Marella, to brainstorm ideas on how to get Fintan to open his cache. Linh makes the decision to go back to Choralmere instead of staying with Tam. Biana leaves with Fitz to go look through the storehouse stuff, though Fitz seems upset about Sophie not needing him to help with Kenric’s Cache.

Sophie and Dex go to Eternalia with Ro and Sandor to open Kenric's Cache with Councillor Oralie. Oralie brings them to her private office, which is completely empty, aside from a large diagram in the center of the room, which Oralie calls her “brain map”. The brain map is a large projection of images and words, all connected with solid and dashed lines, as well as circles. Different words such as “Lodestar Initiative”, “Criterion”, “Archetype”, “Legacy”, “Stellarlune”, and “Elysian” are present, as well as the names of all of Sophie’s friends and family, her friends’ families, all known members of the Black Swan and the Neverseen, the other Councilors, and even Ethan and Eleanor Wright. Oralie tells them it helps her focus and keep all of the information organized. The two are surprised at the lack of pink and sparkles in her office, especially at the fact that Oralie changed into a simple tunic and pair of pants. When they question her outfit choice and the lack of decoration, Oralie tells them that there is a lot they don’t know about her. They open the green crystal first, believing it to be the most important because green is the color of death for the Elves. The memory showed Councillor Bronte and Councillor Kenric conversing next to a tree with a dead Gnome Healing the tree. Sophie thought the Gnome passed because of Drakostomes from the tree who was infected, Bronte tells Kenric that a memorial will not be taken place due to the risk of others being infected. Bronte demands to take over the investigation Kenric was working on, claiming that he has more experience with Ogres. Bronte then washes Kenric’s memory, because he needs to go ask questions that “only he can ask” to King Dimitar. The memory ends here. They then choose the pink memory, which they notice takes place in the Matchmaking Building. In the memory, Kenric is shown to be asking Behnam Aria to make a hypothetical match-list for Oralie and a hypothetical match-list for himself. Behnam raises his concerns, and in return, Kenric promises that he will do everything in his power to help him if the need arises. Behnam creates the lists and shows him. Kenric's number one match is Councillor Oralie, and Councillor Oralie’s number one match is Kenric. The memory ends here. They pick the red crystal next, and the memory shows Councillor Oralie and Councillor Kenric arguing. Oralie accuses Kenric of trying to get her off of the Council after finding out he was the lone holdout vote before her election. Kenric argues that he didn’t think they should elect someone who rushed through assignments. Both Oralie and projection Oralie are offended. Projection Oralie justifies her reasonings for closing her assignments. She accuses Kenric of keeping her from receiving serious assignments, and Kenric claims that such assignments would be too traumatic for an Empath. Oralie disagrees, and Kenric tries to prove it by telling her about how he found a plot to break a prisoner who has been imprisoned for thousands of years free, which Sophie concludes is Vespera. He tells Oralie that he wasn’t able to gather any more information, and the only thing he could do was amp up security. He says that if he failed, the guilt and horror would still be there after his memory is washed because Emotions can’t be erased, only buried and misdirected. He claims that it is much more difficult to misdirect emotions for an Empath, which is why she should stay away from serious assignments. The memory ends here, and Sophie wonders how different things would be if Kenric succeeded in his job, then starts stressing about what would happen if she failed. They pick the orange crystal next. There Councillor Kenric and Councillor Oralie were at Fintan's garden to see if he knew anything about Stellarlune. They arrived while he was watching his Noxflares while mumbling "Something's missing." They clicked the blue memory next. In the memory Councillor Kenric and Prentice Endal sat in an old library that Kenric called "Hushwood". There he asked Prentice to be a keeper for him which Prentice declined. The yellow memory showed Kenric and Oralie in a field that Oralie described as "too quiet" and "Having a mood". They pressed the final crystal, which was the purple one, and in it was a still image of five squiggly lines coming from five different directions all weaving around a star or a flower with a rune underneath. This triggered a memory of the same image for Sophie. After they left Sophie tried to reach Mr. Forkle about the trigged memory but he doesn't respond, so she leaves a letter for him.

Sophie then tries to figure out the symbol she saw in the memory, coming to the conclusion that it is a map to find Elysian. She then tried to teleport there but failed. Later, Mr. Forkle returns from the Trolls. Ro decides to go and find the traitor ogres including Cadfael after Mr. Forkle tells her about a death threat of her father. She gives Sophie a dagger- originally named Lutgaurdia but then Sophie names it Hope. Ro tells Sophie to practice using it and stabbing over and over. She also gives Sophie a quote: ' it's them or me'. Ro also gives Sophie a microorganism called Linquillosa to put on when Keefe is back. Ro finally spills the beans to Sophie about how Keefe feels about her. After Ro is gone, Sophie stares at the wall for a long time figuring out her feelings for Keefe. Sophie then talked to Mr. Forkle and he tells her someone destroyed Brumevale and they found crystal shards in the wreck, he also tells Sophie to go back to Foxfire and she reluctantly agrees.

At Foxfire, Sophie begins to think about what it would be like to be with Keefe. At lunch, Fitz is angry at Sophie for burning down the Neverseen's storehouse, and Marella Redek then says "Major Fitzphie drama" making Fitz yell "Fitzphie's not a thing!" making Sophie go sit with Jensi. Jensi tells Sophie that he has not manifested, and he wants someone to trigger his ability like Marella Redek did. During Telepathy Training, Tiergan tells Sophie and Fitz that they need a full Cognate Inquisition. Mr. Forkle tells Sophie that the Trolls is canceling all treaty negotiations and they may have allied with the Neverseen. The Council approves their request to meet with Trix and they then go with Rayni to meet with him. At the meeting, Vespera unexpectedly shows up with Trix. Vespera then tells Sophie about how the rocks in a quarry in Elysian (Island) when the five unmapped stars align, revealing a sixth unmapped star in something the ancient Councillors called "Nightfall". Sophie makes a deal with Vespera and finds out about shadowflux put in Keefe's heart and that it means that Lady Gisela can track Keefe at any moment by using the shadow web on a modified spy ball. It was put on by Umber when Keefe was living with them by Fintan's orders. Sophie then uses that to track Keefe down. When they do find Keefe in London, Sophie tackle-hugs him and thinks that she may have underestimated him living with the humans. Then Tam drags the shadow ripple tracker out of Keefe's heart and they return to the Lost Cities.

Once they make it back to the Lost Cities, Sophie gets him settled and gives him some time to rest. Sophie then talks to Keefe about her feelings and he takes her to his favorite spot that he found while training with Grady. There, Keefe admits he likes Sophie. After she tells him she likes him, they kiss before being interrupted by Flori who says they have a visitor, who turns out to be Fitz. They have to do the last step of the Cognate Inquisition and at the end, Fitz asks Sophie about Keefe. She admits she kissed him, at which point Fitz becomes very shocked and hurt. They then check their trust levels which have rocketed to above a thousand. They then go to Wylie Endal to see if they can find the location of the missing starstone. They find a memory of Cyrah who tells them where the starstone is, which is in Biana's jewelry box.

They then leap to Elysian and figure out the place where Councillor Kenric and Councillor Oralie were in the memory was in fact, Elysian. They don't find anything there and leap home. While Sophie was sleeping, an illusion of Vespera showed up in her room and asked her if it was a deal. Sophie agrees and Vespera takes Sophie, Keefe, Fitz, Marella, Maruca, and Sandor to Elysian. There, Vespera finds a tree with an illusion covering something and she reveals it. The tree turns into a quarry with brown rocks covered in Noxflares. Marella burns the Noxflares like Fintan did in the memory and nothing happens until she adds the final flame, which reveals an illusion. That causes a stained-glass dome to form around them. Lady Gisela then shows up and conjures one of the crystal shards that they found in the wreckage of Brumevale and fires it at Vespera, killing her. She then stomps her feet revealing a few Trolls and she tells them she gave the trolls the islands Amy told Sophie about, the trolls then drag Sandor under the ground. Keefe then steals Hope and stands behind Lady Gisela. About to stab her, Sophie instructs Maruca to lower the force field, and they all attack Lady Gisela right before a person in a grey cloak reveals themself. She then says "My name is Elysian, and I am the power source you are all here looking for." The book then ends on this cliffhanger.

Cover[]

The cover displays Sophie (left), Maruca (right), and Marella (top).[4] Sophie and Marella both seem to be using their abilities, with Sophie enhancing Maruca while she creates force fields. Marella seems to be holding a torch with some form of rainbow fire that she may or may not have created. Rainbow fire has only been mentioned as the description for an aurenflare; it could be related to the experiments Marella and Linh were performing in Legacy involving combining their water and fire powers. The flowers are the noxflares that Marella has set on fire to create a portal to the real Elysian. They are emerging in a stained glass-covered dome.

Sophie is holding Dex’s Illusion Breaker. It is a small gadget he made to destroy the illusions Vespera had created (by order of The Original Council) in order to hide the real Elysian.

They are all wearing tunics and their Black Swan cloaks. Maruca seems to be the only one wearing a registry pendant (in the form of a choker necklace), though Sophie is wearing her Team Valiant crest on her cloak.

The walls around them are made of stained glass, and they are in Elysian.

Shannon Messenger told Nerdist that the cover depicts a moment that she has been building towards since the beginning of the series. She also says it may be her all-time favorite cover[5] and that she's been dying to have a "Girl Power" cover since the series began.[4]

It was illustrated by Jason Chan and designed by Karin Paprocki.[6]==References==

Advertisement