Project Starfae

~ Chapter 3 ~

Elora's POV

"He's a Mesmer." Marella informed Sophie at lunch. "Why?"

"I don't know. It's weird that he won't tell me, isn't it?" Sophie asked.

"It's Grady and Edaline—everything about them is weird. I still can't

believe you're living with them. Are they adopting you?" Pushed Marella.

"Gosh, Marella." I said with a roll of my eyes. "Don't be so rude. At least learn to sugar coat some things."

"It's fine, Shaylie...What exactly is a Mesmer?" Sophie questioned, changing the

subject.

"Wow, you really don't know anything, do you?"

"Marella." I said with extra emphasis as I looked at her pointedly.

"I'm just teasing—sheesh. A Mesmer can put you in a trance and make you do anything they want while you're in it. It's rare. Not as rare as inflicting, but close."

"And inflicting is . . . ?" Sophie investigated, curiosity hitting me like a fallen tree.

"When someone makes you feel things. Makes you laugh, makes you cry, causes you incredible pain—whatever they want. It's extremely rare. I only know of one, and he's on the Council. But there might be another. Your history Mentor would know." Marella answered.

Sophie cringed at the word 'history', uneasiness coming off of her in one big wave.

"Hey, did you hear?" Marella interrupted. "Sir Tiergan's back."

"Who's he?" Sophie asked, relief coming off of her like a tackle bramble ball.

"Only like the most famous Telepathy Mentor ever. He retired when his friend Prentice ended up in exile—it was like a protest or something."

"Prentice?" I blurted out, I was dying to know who this was. Seemingly, curiosity was once again coming from Sophie, so she also wanted to know this mysterious 'Prentice'.

"Yeah. He was this super talented Telepath, but he got exiled like twelve years ago." Marella answered

"How do you get exiled?" Asked Sophie.

"You have to break a fundamental law. The Council holds a tribunal, and if you're found guilty, they lock you away deep underground for the rest of eternity." Marella shrugged. "I don't know what he did, but I think it had to do with him being a Keeper. It had to be pretty bad for the Council to ruin his life. Especially since it ruined his family's life too. His wife died in a fluke leaping accident not long after, and his son, Wylie, was adopted by Tiergan. Shaylie was also adopted by Tiergan a few years later."

I had known that Prentice was Wylie's biological father, but I hadn't known that he was exiled. Before I could really process anything, I felt a million emotions hit me like the pyramid that was Foxfire had been thrown at me. Sadly, I actually ended up falling off my seat and landed on the floor with my butt. So I cursed loudly in Trollish and got back in my seat.

"Sophie you good?" I asked. "You just hit me with a million different emotions, I thought a verminion tackled me."

"Shaylie, you evidently know Wylie." Sophie insisted rather than answering my question.

"Not much about his background." I replied with a shrug. "I didn't even know that Prentice was exiled."

Disappointment hit me with one steady swing.

"You okay?" Marella asked Sophie.

"Yeah. Sorry." She answered, then she tried to sound casual as she asked: "Have you ever heard of something called Project Moonlark?"