Sparkle (KOTLC) {Completed}

26

Sophie left early the next day, and when Janessa finally built up the courage to go to Havenfield, she found most of the Black Swan members who were coming to the meeting had already arrived, although that was less than usual. Most notably, Janessa noticed that Dex was missing, likely working with Bronte on opening the caches, though afterwards that Mr Forkle was the only one out of the Collective present.

Janessa immediately sat between Sophie and Biana, grabbing her best friend's hand, as the conversation continued around her, with only a few nods in greeting.

"And we don't know where this other Nightfall is," Tiergan noted.

"Only that it's somewhere in Atlantis." Sophie agreed.

"Lady Gisela said the entrance will be marked with the Nightfall symbol," Fitz added.

Mr Forkle grabbed one of the journals that was on the table, analyzing the writing on it, "In all my visits to the city, I've never seen anything like this."

The other adults agreed, perplexed.

Fitz, for some reason deciding to be ridiculously optimistic, which Janessa considered naive, said, "Well . . . now that we know what to look for, I'm sure we'll be able to find it."

"Is that seriously our plan?" Tam asked. "We're just going to wander around Atlantis and hope we spot it?"

Janessa nodded. "That seems like a bad idea. It would be better to thoroughly analyze those notebooks, whatever they are, and any other clues we might have."

Mor Forkle nodded in agreement, looking at the notebooks more before realizing, "These runes look ancient."

As each of the adults took a turn trying, and failing to read the runes, the others speculated on how they would decipher the runes, even throwing out the idea of having Bronte read them, which was immediately shot down.

Mr Forkle decided to be the one to read them, with some help from Amy to give her something meaningful to do, which Sophie debated, wanting to get Amy out of the city.

"Having a hideout there and targeting the city are two very different things," Mr. Forkle reminded her. "If anything, they're more likely to protect the city to prevent any harm from coming to their facility. It's also important to keep in mind that this Nightfall has apparently existed for thousands of years without causing any harm."

"But the person who built it was in prison," Sophie countered. "She's free now. And we all saw what the Neverseen did to Eternalia and Lumenaria."

Janessa froze, her face blanching as she clenched her hands together. "She?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at her with wide eyes. "You know her, Q-Tip?" Mr Forkle demanded.

Janessa nodded hesitantly. "She's... why I was so motivated to escape. She even had Fintan scared of her."

The room fell silent.

"Anything else?" Tiergan prompted.

Janessa nodded again. "She has no emotions. And she's an empath. I don't know anything else."

Mr Forkle nodded thoughtfully. "We'll have to be more careful of her than we'd planned."

"Do you still think we should keep Amy where she is?" Sophie asked. Janessa looked at Mr Forkle expectantly, leaning into Sophie slightly.

Mr Forkle nodded. "Best not to risk them finding her, she's safest where she is."

"We'll monitor the city," Tiergan added. "I'll even alert the Council to see if they want to make adjustments to the security."