Sparkle (KOTLC) {Completed}

28

"So... this must be the key." Sophie guessed, holding the puzzle carefully to make sure it wouldn't fall apart. "Lady Gisela said the Archetype is locked—and I guess it makes sense that she'd keep the key and the book separate."

"But how is a metal square a key?" Tam asked.

Janessa narrowed her eyes at the puzzle. "I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with magnetism. That's my best guess at least."

"I'm assuming it'll make more sense once we have the Archetype." Sophie said.

"Perhaps I should hang on to that in the meantime," Mr. Forkle suggested, "and have our Technopath check it for trackers or listening devices."

"Have her also check to see if any of the properties change as you change the positions of the pieces." Janessa added, still staring at the puzzle as if she would understand it if only she looked hard enough.

Sophie helped Mr Forkle wrap the square in a handkerchief carefully.

"Wait," Fitz said, "Lady Gisela knows we have this, right? Keefe told her he found it?"

"So?" Keefe wondered.

Janessa's eyes widened as she realized Fitz's implication. 

"So... then she has to know we're going to use it as soon as we get our hands on the Archetype, doesn't she? Which doesn't make sense. I'd figured the reason she didn't give us some big threat about what would happen if we refused to turn the book over was because she knew we couldn't open it." Fitz explained.

"So did I." Sophie admitted.

"Well, but this is my mom we're talking about," Keefe reminded them. "She probably thinks I'm too dumb to put the key together the right way."

"That doesn't seem right. She's too... technical to leave that in the hands of chance." Janessa disagreed. "If she's anything like Fintan, she might think we'll agree with her after reading it."

Sophie nodded. "She did say something like that."

Janessa shook her head tiredly. "The thing is, there's a reason why so many people have joined them. They have real reasons to want to take action and deep down they do seem to have good intentions. The problem with that is they've based an entire ideology around that that to them justifies any means to their end, which is the part that's so wrong."

An awkward silence filled the air as they all looked at Janessa uncomfortably. The white-haired girl squirmed under their gaze, but kept her chin held high. "You guys don't seriously think it's so black and white that an organization with so many people as the Neverseen has not a single good intention in them? I'm sorry, but... that type of mindset is what leads to this type of corruption. All of these people believe they're the good guys, even if the initial ideas behind the Neverseen became completely perverted."

The silence then became more morose than awkward as they all considered her words. Mr Forkle clapped his hands together, disrupting everyone's contemplation. "I'll start translating these, while the rest of you head to Eternalia, and then we'll exchange notes tonight."

Keefe groaned. "Come on, Forkle—you have to know I'm not going to waste time reading boring books."

"It's not a waste." Mr Forkle argued. "We need—"

"I'm not saying you're wrong. But do you really think it's smart to have six of us"—he pointed to himself, Janessa, Fitz, Tam, Biana, and Sophie—"cooped up in a library looking for the same thing—especially since there's a good chance it's not even there?

"Don't forget about me." Linh piped in. "I can start helping tomorrow."

"Ok, so now we're up to seven. Seven of us sitting in a stuffy archive flipping through ancient scrolls. You really think that's the best way to go about this?"

Janessa looked at Keefe appraisingly. He wasn't wrong.

"I'm assuming you have another suggestion." Tiergan said.

"Yeah. We split up—some of us stuck in Boringville, and some of us in Atlantis searching street by street. I know it's a lot of ground to cover, but at least we know it's there, instead of just hoping we'll find something in a dusty old book. And I know you're worried about the Neverseen seeing us, but if we keep the group small, and make sure we do something normal while we're there—like buying stuff for Foxfire—it should throw them off." Keefe replied.

Janessa nodded. "That's actually a good idea. If they've been keeping an eye on me, they'll know I've been visiting Keefe almost every day, and that I live in Atlantis right now. It wouldn't be surprising if I was walking around the city I live in with my friends, especially buying supplies for my first year at Foxfire."

"And I'm assuming you expect Sophie to come with you?" Grady asked Keefe, frowning.

"I don't expect Sophie to do anything," Keefe said, turning back to her. "I'm not trying to take control again, Foster—I promise. If you want to hit the books, go ahead. But I'm heading to Atlantis, okay? I'll go stir-crazy in the library. I won't be able to concentrate."

Sophie, followed by Fitz and Biana, immediately decided that she would prefer searching around Atlantis. Mr Forkle then told them to make a schedule and bring at least one goblin whenever they go to the underwater city.

"I'd point out that you'd be way better off making sure they had an ogre with them," Ro jumped in, "but your paranoid Councillors told me I'm not allowed to be seen in your cities. Which means"—she turned to Keefe—"you're stuck in library land—assuming I can sneak into the building unnoticed. If not, you'll just have to catch up with everyone later. Believe me, I'm not happy about it either, but I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight, so..."

As Keefe and Ro started arguing, which had Janessa laughing behind her hand and struggling to keep herself silent, Mr Forkle stepped in again.

"In the interest of avoiding an interspeciesial incident, how about we provide extra security for Mr. Sencen, and you can blame us if anything happens, Ro?"

Grady immediately volunteered, explaining that he wanted to keep an eye on Sophie and Keefe, which had both of them scowling. Ro agreed, smirking at Keefe's expression at his new chaperone.

As Ro, Alden, Tiergan, Linh, and Mr Forkle left, the other kids began to argue the schedule for Atlantis, under Grady's supervision.

"I'm more than happy to read books and all that, I might actually prefer it, but realistically, it would make the most sense for me to be in Atlantis." Janessa pointed out.

The others glared at her jealously, but Janessa ended up being put on the schedule the most, and always accompanying at least Biana, Keefe, or Sophie, seeing as she wasn't as close to the others. Linh ended up with the most research shifts, seeing as Tam didn't want her to be underwater too often.

Afterwards, they mapped out the city, making each shift cover mostly new ground while also overlapping enough to be less suspicious. As the schedule was finalized, Janessa found herself suddenly tense, as she felt the pressure of waiting start to settle in. Glancing around the table, everyone else had the same expression.

Thus, the endless week began.