Second Chance

The Hard Truth

It was a few days before the Celestial Festival. It seemed to all of the elves that it was peaceful. The dust had settled and the Neverseen had gone into hiding.

"No one can mess this up, is everyone clear?" Gisela snapped, her sharp blue eyes flashing with threat.

"Of course, we won't," Honoria said. "This is just as important to us as it is to you."

"By the end of this, we'll have almost everything we need to prove to the Lost Cities that the Council and the Black Swan are really as idiotic as they look."

Then they leaped over to Everglen.

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Meanwhile, at Havenfield, they were all panicking about finding the message in the bottle.

Voices were overlapping and it was extremely loud.

A loud sound that sounded like a whistle, tire screech, and an angry cat rang into the air.

"ENOUGH!" Emery shouted, "That's enough. We are not going to let a stupid Neverseen threat throw us all into chaos. The Council will solve this problem. The rest of you stay out of it. It's none of your business."

"Someone is going to get killed," Sophie argued. "The more minds the better. Besides, aren't you all supposed to be focused on the Celestial Festival? Remember what happened last time? It was chaos at Everglen and mutated trolls overwhelmed the whole place.

"The Neverseen are probably choosing this time to scare us so we'll be distracted from the planning and security for the Celestial Festival. They want you stretched thin. And you're letting them. There's security, there's location. There is so much that you have to account for to plan this big of an event and control it while dealing with a death threat. Let us help you. We can. We have the experience."

"You may have the experience but you don't have the resources or the trust. The people are not going to believe a group of rebels that say a death threat is contained and that everything is fine. We can handle more than you think we can. Do not underestimate us. Too many minds can also cause too much confusion. It's better if we keep this small."

"But we're Team Valiant," Biana said, "and this is also our duty to help the Lost Cities."

"Well, we're not asking any other Regents to help, am I? Or would you rather we call Vika Heks to help?"

Sophie scowled.

"Don't scowl at us, Miss Foster. We have let you and your friends help on more than an average Regent should be helping with, we--"

"That's because we aren't just normal Regents. None of us are normal. You said it yourselves. You said that we are more than just Regents. We're not normal teenage elves."

A slow clap sounded from behind the group and all of them whipped around.

"Wow. How touching," Honoria said with a small smirk. "But I really have to ask you a question. You say that you are more special than the average elf. Are you implying that you're more important than any of your friends?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Well, that's what you said, isn't it?"

"I said that all of us were different from the other elves in the Lost Cities."

"And why's that?"

"We've gone through things that people haven't experienced. We've sacrificed so much to help make the world a better place."

"Ah. I think I get it now. You think that because you've seen people die, you're more special than others. So I am also better than the other elves because I've seen people die."

"You're part of the Neverseen. The Neverseen is evil--"

"Now define evil. Would you say killing people makes you evil?"

"Yes."

"So you're are also evil."

"What are you talking about?"

"Did you not kill Councillor Kenric?"

Even though he was now alive, Sophie's face still blanched and reddened at the same time. "Don't talk about him."

"Weren't you the one who convinced the whole Council that you could heal minds? That's why they all gathered there in the first place. He would never have been there if you hadn't interfered."

"Sophie's unique ability saved many. Including Prentice and I," Alden stepped in. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well if you don't count accessory to murder, we really haven't killed anyone either."

"Gethen has."

"Other than him. He's a bit off his rocker if I do say so myself. Anyone who would volunteer to donate DNA to a lost cause is insane."

"You guys killed the gnomes with the drakostomes."

"That was King Dimitar, he's a bit rough."

Ro's teeth bared and her knives flashed in the moonlight.

"Have you guys ever stopped to think that maybe you're the bad ones? We're fighting for what we believe in. Ruy was banished to Exillium because of his ability. You know how they treat the kids there. No good food, no good clothing or medicine. At least you had a good meal to go back to when you left that place. Imagine being sent there because a dozen fully grown men and women feared a little kid."

Tam and Linh looked away slightly.

Alvar joined our cause because he felt left out from the Vacker legacy so he set out to make his own. Fintan and Brant joined because their pyrokinesis was banned. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it was your fault? You say we're evil. Look in the mirror. You say the Neverseen traumatized you because of your kidnapping. Didn't you do the same with Gethen and you froze off his fingernails too?"

"You kidnapped my human family," Sophie argued.

"And you stopped Ruy from using his abilities. You slipped shadows into his hands. When will you understand?! The Black Swan was created because they disagreed with the Council. So it's okay for them to do it but not for us? We see the world as flawed. Don't you also?"

"You abuse your power!"

"Do we? The Black Swan just relies on an unstable little girl who doesn't even know what she's doing. She's too worried about being unmatchable. Her friends barely do anything because they're afraid of getting on her bad side. Maybe the Black Swan was amazing before, but we'll never know now."

Then a soft beeping erupted from a device by her waist.

"Well, seems like I did my job."

Then she leaped away.

Everyone was frozen in place.

Fitz's imparter started to buzz.

It was Alden.

Sophie couldn't hear past the buzzing in her own head.

When it finally cleared she heard four terrifying words.

"Everglen is on fire."