KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Mr. Forkle

"It's been a while since we've met like this," Mr. Forkle told the three of them as he welcomed them into his office.

Sophie had transmitted an urgent request to Magnate Leto, who assured them that they could meet at Watchward Heath once school was done for the day.

Sophie sometimes wondered why he kept up with the identity pretenses when he was only around people who knew his identities, but figured it was probably easier for him to continue to compartmentalize his life.

"You know we did Gisela's memory break today?" Fitz asked him.

"Yes, and I'm glad to see you seem to have made it through unscathed—and hopefully still speaking to me and the other members of the Collective."

"Yes, well...it still feels like an awful thing for the Council to ask, but I know you tried to persuade them otherwise," Sophie conceded.

"And it might actually turn out to be a really good thing they did," Keefe added—flicking Sophie's hair over her shoulder affectionately while he spoke. "No matter how we felt about it."

"Do I have your permission to extract that whole encounter from your mind? That's the fastest way to fill me in on why you're here."Mr. Forkle asked Sophie. She nodded, and waited for him to review what they'd learned.

She didn't quite expect the gasp that escaped from his lips or the way he stumbled backwards once he saw Kenric lying on the floor of the hideout.

"It can't be," he whispered.

"We didn't know what to do," Sophie said. The shock was wearing off, and the combined grief and hope added an edge of hysteria to her voice. "We couldn't tell Oralie and get her hopes up, so we lied to her and the whole Council, and—"

"And you did the right thing," Mr. Forkle said. "It's very possible that they eventually killed him. This would break Oralie. The best course of action is for the Black Swan to investigate on our own."

"That's what we were thinking too," Fitz told him.

Mr. Forkle nodded. "I need to call an emergency meeting with the rest of the Collective. We may need to try to find a way for you to heal and interrogate Gethen."

"You might could ask my dad, or even get permission to search his memory of Gethen's memory break. Maybe he found some information that could be useful, but didn't seem important when we didn't know about Kenric?"

"That's actually a good idea, Mr. Vacker. And Alden can be trusted to use discretion. I'll take that before the Collective. I'm going to contact them immediately. I imagine we'll be involving the rest of your friends in this again, but for now, let's keep this between us. Let me speak with the Collective first. I'll contact you as soon as possible--later today--so we can tell you how we want to proceed."

Sophie, Keefe and Fitz made to leave, but not before Mr. Forkle said, "By the way, you kids should be proud of what you accomplished today. Not many telepaths--not even many Cognates--could have pieced together a broken, washed memory like that."

"Now see, it's comments like that that make it hard to hate him when he's being difficult," Sophie muttered under her breath as they walked away.

Keefe and Fitz both chuckled in agreement.

The three of them didn't want to separate just yet, especially when they didn't know how long or short the wait on the Collective might be. Not to mention how heavy and chaotic the day had been.

So they returned to Aeternum, where they prepared a quick meal and sat down at the dining room table to eat.

After a moment, Keefe broke the silence. "We have to try to find him. Don't we have to try to find him?"