what happened after unlocked

chapter twenty-six ~ the spyball's custody

"You shouldn't have come."

Grady's voice was stiff, and coarse, and Sophie could tell that he would possibly explode if it hadn't been his daughter he was speaking to.

"But I need to know, Dad," Sophie said, pursing her lips.

Her senses were slowly adjusting to the dry, deserted, heat-filled, smoky haven that was even darker at night. The town must have been in Central USA somewhere.

There didn't seem to be anyone there, either, but the one thing that Sophie could see was a small fire nearby, still burning to a tiny spark.

She rushed over to it, knowing what happened if you left even a speak untamed, and tried to stamp it out. But either the dry sand under her foot wouldn't let it go out or it was a very strong fire, because it wouldn't snuff out.

"You'll need this," Grady said, his voice sounding tired, and gestured to the bag in his hand. He passed it over carefully, and Sophie wasn't sure why until she saw the contents of the bag.

Frissyn.

The powder used to extinguish Everblaze.

Which meant...

"You've been extinguishing Everblaze. All those times you came back...covered in ash..." Sophie's voice faltered. There hadn't been any reports of Everblaze attacks in the Lost Cities, which meant they must have been in the Forbidden Cities, as this town proved...

"I had to," Grady croaked, dragging his free hand through his tangled hair. He tucked the Obscurer in one of his pockets, and added, "Forkle gave me the mission. The Council doesn't even know. They're so oblivious to the worlds' problems...and their own."

Some part of what he said registered a familiar thought in Sophie's mind – but it flickered away just as soon as it came. She opened the bag filled with the white powder of frissyn, and tipped some onto the tiny flame under her foot. The fire was gone, but the sickly sweet smell of Eveblaze still got stuck in her nose.

"How was this fire already extinguished when we go here?" Sophie asked her father, gesturing at the ruined town. "Was anyone harmed? And why didn't you tell me? I remember Amy said something about a few fires in California...but I didn't realize they'd spread! To be honest...I barely even thought about it."

"I guess there's no harm in telling you now," Grady sighed reluctantly, "But there are others helping me. Obviously, we don't want the world to fall into any more chaos than it's in right now. But that sort of meant...well, since Forkle commanded some of us, even those who aren't part of the Black Swan, like me...well, we couldn't tell the Councillors. Because then, they might even let the humans die. I mean, there are a lot of humans...but even they don't deserve what's happening to them."

He paused to catch his breath; the conversation looked like it was exhausting him.

"So far, only a few cities and towns in the Forbidden Cities have been wrecked -"

"Only a few?" Sophie said. "Dad, they're actual places! How would you feel if, say, Havenfield was destroyed?"

Grady mumbled an apology, his eyes clouding over. "Anyway...we're fairly sure that quite a few humans have left this world."

"As in..." Sophie stumbled to the ash-covered ground, not caring whether the smoke around her stung her eyes or not. They already stung. "How many humans have been killed?"

Grady cringed. "I'm not sure -"

"How many humans have been killed?"

Grady looked like he was going to burst into tears. "A...a couple thousand."