what happened after unlocked

chapter forty ~ backup

"I...I have an idea," Sophie said hesitantly, speaking for the first time to her parents since the day before, when they'd gotten back from the Seat of Eminence.

She stared at the snow heaped on the grass outside, eyes burning, but kept her focus on it. Her parents cautiously approached her.

Neither of them spoke. She could feel their worry.

"There's this girl who went to Foxfire before all this happened," Sophie said awkwardly, wringing her hands. "She's almost graduated, but I think she wanted to help make the world better or something, and that's why she was studying so hard. Her name is Aurora." Sophie wasn't sure if she was hiding what Aurora could do on purpose or not.

Her parents nodded slowly.

"Well," Sophie said, "I think we could ask her if she wants to apply for the Councilor position, since Oralie's..."

Her voice trailed off as tears threatened to unleash themselves. She couldn't stop feeling guilty about what she had done...the life she'd ruined...

"Okay," Edaline said with the hint of a smile, "Do you know where she lives?"

Sophie almost face-palmed herself. She'd spent an entire lunchtime with Aurora; she should have asked where she lived. Now she might have to track her thoughts, and her mind still wasn't up to anything yet, except thinking and occasionally checking in with her friends.

"Find out where she lives," Grady insisted, "It might help you get into a better state of mind. Is she nice?"

Sophie nodded, recalling the lovely girl with reddish-blonde hair and elegant features. Her voice was the strongest memory. Sweet and melodious, like a song being carried on the wind. "She seemed like a good person. But the weird thing was..."

She dug her fingernails into her palms to punish herself.

"The weird thing was what?" Edaline pressed.

"Never mind," Sophie said quickly. Her heart pulsed. "Anyway...I guess I'll track her thoughts and then notify the Council that I'm going to find her."

It all sounded far too much like an invasion of Aurora's privacy, but Sophie couldn't let that get in the way.

She couldn't let the Neverseen win.

But if she'd just keep the secret of her true mother locked up, she wouldn't have suffered this hard, and neither would Oralie...

"Well, um..." Grady said awkwardly, "Come and tell us when you find this girl, and we'll accompany you to the Council. They'll need to know."

Sophie smiled at her parents and then quickly sprinted to her bedroom, followed by a grumbling Sandor. She sat on her bed, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes, taking some deep breaths. She'd never forced herself to calm down like this before, but maybe the circumstances were different this time.

Her consciousness spread over others' minds like a suffocating blanket as she flew across the wide chasm of thoughts. She listened and waited for the familiar sound of Aurora's voice. She dove farther and farther, wondering if she'd gone too far, but then a faint whisper, almost like a song, reached her mind. Joined by it were three others, two sounding concerned, one overcome with exhaustion and sadness.

Sophie knew for sure that the whisper was Aurora's, but who did the other voices belong to? She found their location to be somewhere deep in a forest, it seemed, a sort of tropical one, hundreds of miles south of the equator, in a Brazilian region. The four of them were elves, as far as Sophie knew, but what were they doing so far from everyone else, deep in a forest no-one else seemed to be inhabiting?