KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Next Step

"So what you're saying is, Kenric didn't die in the fire, but might be dead, but might be alive. But if he's alive he might be literally anywhere in the Forbidden Cities, probably thinks he's a human, and if we manage to find him and restore his memories he'll also remember all the torture he endured at the hands of the Neverseen?" Dex looked like someone had clubbed him over the head.

"Um...yes, that about sums it up," Sophie said, slightly queasy.

Dex locked eyes with Sophie. She knew he, too, was remembering their days drugged and tortured by the Neverseen.

"We still have to try," Wylie said quietly. "The good will outweigh the bad. At least eventually."

Linh reached out and placed a hand on Wylie's shoulder, squeezing it sympathetically.

Fitz stared at Linh's hand on Wylie, looking conflicted.

Keefe stepped over to pat Wylie on the other shoulder encouragingly—softly bumping into Linh as he did so—before also clapping Dex on the back. "I know it's a lot, and it may be hard at first for him to have those memories restored, but if—and I know it's a big if—he's really still alive out there, we owe it to him to bring him back to who he really is. The good and the bad."

He returned to Sophie's side and caught her eye, a ghost of a wink crossing his features. That confirmed her suspicion that he had chosen brief physical contact, not only to be comforting, but also to try to gain a reading of Linh and Wylie's emotions.

Leave it to Keefe to still be trying to help his best friend even in the midst of chaos and potential crisis.

"Unfortunately, Dex is right," Mr. Forkle stated calmly. "We have quite the task ahead of us. Searching the world trying to find someone who may or may not even exist anymore. However, Alden Vacker allowed me to access his memory of Gethen's memory break."

"Did you find anything helpful?" Sophie asked, heart pounding.

"We aren't sure. He did find memories of going to America, but he did an excellent job of blocking Alden from delving very deep into most of his memories, so it's hard to say why Gethen was there, or where specifically he went. Alden never saw him visit a Neverseen hideout there, so it's possible he was there for Kenric, but we don't know."

"Here's what we think we need to do," Granite said. "We will begin our search in America. Dex, a lot of this hinges on you, I'm afraid. Searching all security camera footage, all of what they call "social media" pictures and videos, everything throughout the country over the last few years to see if we can find him."

"That's...a big task." Dex paused. "But it's doable. But America doesn't just have cameras everywhere, there may be a lot of gaps in our information."

"They have more cameras than you'd think," Mr. Forkle assured him.

"Well it gives us a place to start," Dex consented. "It shouldn't be too hard to get a setup that will scan all camera footage and images throughout the country, but that's a LOT of footage to go through. Especially if I'm monitoring current and past images. But I can set it up to where it does it automatically and locks in on an image that might be him. I won't have to be there monitoring it all, I'll just be checking all the captured images. But still...who knows how long that will take."

"Like you said, it's a start," Squall told him.

"And if we've exhausted all those images and haven't found him?"

"Then we broaden our search." Blur said. "We should be able to find him eventually, since we know he was out there somewhere, even if he isn't anymore. Once we find him we can narrow down the search and hopefully find out what happened to him."

"Kenric was not a polyglot, but he did speak some English, so it's reasonable to assume he was in an English-speaking part of the world," Wraith reasoned. "If not America, we'll move on to other English-speaking countries."

"And then what, if we don't find him?" Tam asked. "We search every single Forbidden City one by one?"

"That's when we'll have a decision to make," Mr. Forkle said thoughtfully. "We could try that, but it might make more sense to alert the Council and ask for permission to have Mr. Vacker and Miss Foster—ah, Mrs. Sencen—heal Gethen's mind so they can search his memories more extensively. But we'd like to avoid alerting the Council unless we find him alive."

"So even if we find out he was kept alive and then killed later, we'll keep it a secret?" Biana asked, looking disturbed by the thought.

"That would probably be best," Mr. Forkle said. "Telling our world that information wouldn't really serve any purpose."

Biana looked ready to argue, but Keefe cut in. "I agree with Forkle on that one. Everyone has already grieved his death. We—just those of us here—could grieve what truly happened to him, but telling everyone would not be helpful. And it would probably break Oralie. They're all better off not knowing."

Biana nodded. "That makes sense. It's just a lot to wrap our heads around."

"Yes, it is. Dex, if you would like to accompany me to Watchward Heath, that's the best place to set up the image search." Mr. Forkle stood up to leave.

Biana put her hand in Dex's. "I'm coming with him."

Mr. Forkle sighed and muttered something that definitely started with "you kids", but didn't try to stop her.

"Everyone else, all we can do is keep quiet about this, and wait for news. We wanted you to be informed, since we may need each of you to help at some point, but for now all there is to do is wait."

As everyone began pulling out their crystals to leave, Keefe managed to make eye contact with Fitz, and raised his eyebrows meaningfully. So Fitz, curious, hung back while the others were leaving.

"What now?" Fitz asked. "You going to push me in the pond again?" He rolled his eyes.

Keefe just smirked. "No, I just wanted to give you some interesting information."

"Would this have something to do with you randomly patting Wylie on the shoulder earlier?"

"Maybe," Keefe said playfully.

Fitz rolled his eyes again but said nothing.

"Okay, all joking aside, I'll tell you this: I definitely felt a strong bond between them. But it felt similar to the way Linh feels for Tammy Boy. I don't think either of them is harboring romantic feelings for the other."

Fitz tried and failed to hide his relieved grin.

Sophie tried—and thankfully succeeded—to refrain from saying "awww!" at Fitz's reaction.

"Now you guys have me all confused," Fitz admitted. "I was content to just admire her from afar and wait to see what the future holds. Now...I don't know what I want to do."

"That's the fun part," Sophie said. "You get to figure that out."

"Okay but not tonight. Tonight I just want to crash. I'm exhausted." He smiled at them both before pulling out his crystal and leaping back to the Silver Tower.

Keefe wrapped his arms around Sophie and kissed her softly. "You were amazing today, Foster. No matter what comes of all of this...you learned something no one else could have done."

Sophie tried to smile, but yawned instead.

Keefe chuckled. "Let's get to bed, love. I'll show you my full appreciation for your general awesomeness when you wake up."

This time Sophie managed a smile. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Keefe kissed her again before taking her hand and heading upstairs. "Good."