Keeper of the Lost Secrets

CHAPTER TEN: Quinlin as Per Usual

"Who is Quinlin?" Sophie asked. My father smiled.

"The best probe I know, and close friend. If anyone can see what's in your mind, it's him."

I found the scenery more impressive than the chatter. I had met Quinlin a few times, and he was a nice person. But I wondered if he could slip into Sophie's mind. She was different. She was more human than elf, in all ways but biological.

"Why does he work down here?" She mused. She stared out to Atlantis, the buildings many colours and of varying heights. Like an underwater rainbow. "I can imagine the commute getting annoying."

"Atlantis is our most secure city." My father paused, carefully thinking about his words. "Anyone who needs protection and privacy comes down here. Including your file."

"I have a file?" She seemed so stunned. It made sense. Getting anything done in the Forbidden Cities was a hassle. It was always 'wait for us to call you back' or 'you'll receive a text message in two weeks.'

"A highly classified one, yes."

"What's in it?" Sophie asked, starry-eyed.

"You'll see."

Sophie opened her mouth to ask another question, but my father motioned a zipper to his lips and tilted his head to the driver. I tensed. I hadn't even thought about that.

We entered a business district, which was the one Fitz was most familiar with. Elves in long black capes glared as they butted against each other in the crowded streets. Signs in fancy runes read: REGISTRY. TREASURY. INTERSPECIESAL SERVICES. Other signs in the ancient runes glowed as well, but Sophie squinted at them.

"What's with the signs with the random letters?" She pointed at a sign at the top of a tall building written in the ancient runes.

My father tried to follow her gaze. "The ancient runes?"

"Is that what they are?" She pointed to the writing on her nexus. It seemed pretty clear to me, but once again, it was a mystery for Sophie.

"You can't read it?" My voice came out more surprised than I'd hoped. I put my hands in my pockets.

"Should I be worried?" Sophie said, looking between my father and I. "With school and all?"

"Don't be." I said, assuredly. "They only use it to sound fancy; school uses the type you can read."

"But you can see the letters?" my father stroked his chin. He came in a beat after I finished.

"Yeah, but it's all a jumbled mess of nonsense." Give Sophie's description gold medal. "Should I be able to read them?"

"Reading is instinctive," my father admitted. "But it might have something to do with your upbringing."

Sophie tensed at the word. She was just as tired of hearing it as my father was of saying it. I got a strange feeling in my stomach. I knew it was going to be my job to help her fit in at school, but her upbringing was going to make it hard. I was going to have to be her friend. And I didn't know how to do that.

"How–" she started to speak, but my father raised his hand in the air to silence her.

"No reason to worry," he said. I tried not to roll my eyes, but I was sure that he had said that more times than hours he had slept in his life. "We'll figure it out with further testing." I could sense his silent 'maybe'.

Sophie didn't seem so reassured with the idea of testing, which I assumed was a human thing, to fear tests. Humans had a lot of things to fear, to be frank. Car accidents, heart attacks, strokes. I was glad to not be one of them.