Mirrored Conflicts (a Sokeefe story)

Chapter 23: The Antidote

"Fintan has a stockpile of the antidote," Keefe told everyone in the room, trying not to be jittery. He knew he needed to suck it up and play the role of "Neverseen defect" in order to help them out, but the way everyone kept looking back and forth between him and Sophie, despite the fact that some of them he'd never seen before in his life, was making his palms sweat. "If I was still with the Neverseen, I might have been able to find a way to get my hands on it, and that's both with my relatively trusted position and my creative sneaking experience. But I don't think I'd be able to do it now."

"I'm a Vanisher," Biana pointed out. "If you were able to tell me where to find it—"

"It's not that simple," Keefe interrupted. "I don't know... exactly where it is. But it wouldn't be hard to find if you know Fintan. That's the thing. You guys don't know Fintan. Even I barely know enough. I don't think getting our hands on the antidote is going to be possible."

"Then how do we wake up my parents?" Amy asked, and her usual teenage girl snark was noticeably missing.

Her small voice made her wince as he admitted, "I'm not sure."

"It can't be impossible," said the wrinkly guy the other's had referred to as Mr. Forkle. It was weird, having representatives from the Black Swan Collective in the room with him. And he was helping them.

He was seriously giving information to the top people of the Black Swan.

How had he even gotten here?

Looking over to the blonde girl at his right, he realized he knew exactly how he'd gotten here.

"It's not impossible if we get the antidote," Dex pointed out. "I'm good at alchemy."

"But you have no idea how to make it," Keefe pointed out. "And alchemy wasn't really my thing around there. I was more like, 'manifestation of Lady Gisela's grand plan,' which became quite interesting as the power struggle got worse, but trust me, this wasn't my area of expertise. I'm not saying there's no way to do this, but it's not going to be simple."

"Do you have any friends in the Neverseen who would be willing to help you?" the other present member of the Black Swan Collective, who was covered in what appeared to be rocks, asked him. (Black Swan disguises were considerably more creative than the same black cloak over and over again, Keefe had to admit.) "Perhaps someone who doesn't know you defected yet—"

"Oh trust me, everyone knows," Keefe assured them. "This is a pretty big deal. My mom is probably losing her mind." He smirked at the thought.

"Then someone who won't mind," Fitz suggested. "Or someone who you were really close with, who might be open to hearing out your side."

Keefe looked at Fitz while he was talking, and maybe it was his familiar hair and eyes and the words someone who you were really close with, but Keefe's mind flashed to Alvar. He tried immediately shoving the thought away—after all, Alvar had done a complete 180 in their friendship when he'd seen him with Sophie. With little to no hesitation, he'd started pretending they weren't ever friends. Not only did it kinda string, but it also made thinking about him in this particular moment absolutely useless.

But something must have shown on his face, because Edaline, Sophie and Mr. Forkle asked in unison, "What?"

Keefe shook his head. "Nothing."

"We'll decide if it's nothing," the rocks guy—Keefe was pretty sure his name was Cobalt or something—told him firmly.

Keefe glanced over at Fitz. "I just... remembered someone I was pretty close with. But he's dedicated to the cause, okay? It's not worth asking."