The mystery of the last island

Ch9 - Unity And Hope

Keefe Pov: 

Devastated. That's what Keefe felt.

He was presently sitting with Biana, Dex, Fitz, Linh, Marella, Maruca, Wylie, Grady, Edaline and Della in a room in Havenfield.

They had been called early in the  morning to Havenfield by a very panicked Flori. Turned out, Sophie had been kidnapped without a trace or trail. 

Neither Sandor or Grizel nor Ro or Bo, or even Nubiti could sense any sort of smell or trail in Sophie's room. It was like Sophie had been snapped right out of the room. 

Edaline confirmed that conjuring a living creature was not possible. Whatever the Neverseen had done this time, it was smooth. There was no scent of ashes or something like that either.

And all they left was a freaking note. 

'Leave the quest of last island.' 

Somehow Keefe believed that Neverseen was not involved in this. Why would they care so much for a human island?  

But he could never be too sure. The Neverseen always seemed to be ten steps ahead of them.

Yesterday, when he heard the prophecy, he wasn't worried about it much. Prophecies take years to come true. But now, they have got Foster, he was ready to wring the living daylight out of them.

Edaline was sitting beside him, with not a single tear in her eyes. 

Numb, like how Foster had been when she came to knew about her human parents. That scared Keefe. Della was sitting beside her, trying to console her. Grady was upstairs, with Samdor, trying to access the trackers.

Alden had gone to inform the councillors and Dex's mom was there when he was informed of it, so Juline went to inform the collective as Squall. Keefe didn't knew how long he sat there, but after a while the collective came, in their disguises in case the councillors were there. And then, Grady came to call Dex up.

"The trackers are not all smashed. Some of them are still active, maybe the well hidden ones." Keefe looked up hopefully, "But they have put a scattering device nearby. See if you can do anything." Grady said, his eyes pleading that maybe they could find something. 

Dex immediately jumped up and went with Grady. Keefe also accompanied them. Grady glanced in his direction but didn't object.

They climbed up to Sophie's room. Sandor sat on the leaf covered floor, a device with imparter-like screen with tint golden circles on the border was put on the floor. Various golden discs with black swan cipher runes were scattered across the floor. He watched as Sandor put a disc in a slot in the computer thingy and a black buzzing image appeared. 

Sandor growled, "This one's blocked too." 

Despite the circumstances, Keefe noticed how funny Sandor's growl sounded, in his squeaky voice. 

"Sandor, if they have put a scattering device, none of the trackers would work." Dex explained.

"Then what do I do?" Sandor asked, dejected, all the anger draining from his face. "Miss Foster was my responsibility. I was appointed so that such a thing does not happen again. But she got kidnapped. Again. I should have resigned, after the shadowflux incident, but...its my fault, all my fault. I should have watched her better. I should have..." 

His voice dissolved as he put his head in his palm and cried. It was the first time Keefe had seen Sandor cry. Grizel came and sat beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

"Sandor, it would do no one any good if you beat yourself up. Sophie wouldn't want that."

They stood there in silence for a while with only the clinking sound of Dex working breaking the silence. By now, everyone had come to the room.