On the One hundred and twenty-sixth floor of Candleshade, Sophie, Keefe, and Ro are in search of any information on Lady Gisela's location.
They have already searched One Hundred and twenty-five floors and have found nothing.
"I just don't get it," Sophie mumbled, "There has to have been something by now!".
"Well what did you expect?" Ro said. "If she wanted us to find something, we would have already. Plus, less information we find, the more stuff I can break!" She added as she knocked over a vase with her muscular ogre arms. The vase shattered into a million pieces.
"Is Ro breaking stuff without me?" Keefe shouted from the other end of the room. Sophie glared at both of them.
"C'mon Foster, Have a little fun!" Keefe said, walking over to her with a handful of scrolls, almost slipping on the broken glass if Ro hadn't caught him.
"Be careful scrawny boy," Ro teased as Keefe fumbles to get up, while Ro messes up his styled blonde hair with a famous ogre headlock. Sophie meanwhile searches through the scrolls Keefe spilled all over the floor.
All of the scrolls were pretty much the same thing: orders for new capes, and lists of stuff lord Cassius made other people do.
Sophie had almost given up hope, when something shiny was tucked away in the last scroll. She reached for the scroll, but Keefe snatched it up first.
"Gotcha", he said. Sophie didn't see why it was a big deal to Keefe, but it made her oddly curious. But Keefe could tell she was curious because of her feelings, so he explained.
"I hid the last crystal from my moms leaping crystal kit," he said.
"Why?" Sophie pressed after many moments of silence.
"So she couldn't go anywhere after she escaped us", Keefe said as if it was obvious. Then he sat down next to Sophie, brushing pieces of glass off her shoulder, and putting his arm around her as he opened the scroll. But as soon as he did, his brows shot up.
"What's wrong, Keefe?" Sophie asked as he slowly stood up and backed away from her, his breathing slowed.
"This crystal leads somewhere. My mom must have found it."
"Well what are we waiting for?!" Ro said from behind them, making them both jump. "This might be the place we're looking for, so we should probably go!" Sophie noticed that Ro seemed a little too excited for yet another possibly dangerous encounter, as if their lives weren't interesting enough.
"I'm game of you are Foster," Keefe said. "Although I'm still kinda nervous about how my mom fount this." Sophie was definitely nervous about this, but they've been looking for a clue or breakthrough for weeks, so this was to important to pass up.
"Fine," Sophie grumbled, even though she was far more curious then she sounded.
"Alright", Keefe and Ro said in unison. The three friends joined hands, and lept away to the mystery place.
"This place is creepy", Keefe obviously noted as Ro unsheathed her sword. They were in a small dark room, lit by only one balefire lantern, but they slowly turned around and found a door that was creaked slightly open.
"Stay behind me", Ro ordered. They slowly crept over to the door, which had markings above it.
"Are those runes?" Sophie asked.
"Yeah," Keefe said, then paled when he read them. "And they say 'Project Lodestar'".
Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat. They were about to find out what Lady Gisela's famous Lodestar Initiative really was.
Ro reluctantly opened the door, and gasped at what was behind it. Out of all the things Sophie expected to see, never in a million years would she have expected to see a young girl about her age, gagged and bound right in front of her.
The girl was conscious, and her icy gray blue eyes looked more terrified than anything Sophie had ever seen before.
"Woah", Keefe breathed. "Should we help her?"
"Not yet, she might be dangerous," Ro pointed out. The girl shook her head, as if she was trying to say she was harmless, but Ro stalked toward her, with her sword pointed at her face. Ro was about to rest her knife in between the girls eyes, when her hand jerked and sent the sword clattering against the floor. Sophie tried to piece everything together, but Keefe beat her to the answer.
"She's a Mesmer," he said.
"Untie her gag," Sophie ordered Ro.
"You dont tell me what to do!" Ro spat, clearly still shaken up by the mesmerizing. Sophie reached for the gag around the girls mouth, making her tremble.
"Relax," Sophie said. "I'm not gonna hurt you." The girls features softened, and once Sophie got the gag untied, the girl started rasping and choking.
Sophie held her steady, and pulled some panakes petals from her cape pocket, urging the girl to swallow them. But when she opened her mouth to take the petals, Sophie noticed something odd for the lost cities.
"You have braces?" Sophie asked.
"Yeah", she said, while swallowing the petals. "I used to spend a lot of time in the forbidden cities, so I had to look as human as I could." She added, her voice clearly recovering quickly. "How's about you free me of my bonds?" She asked.
"Not a chance", Ro interrupted. "We don't know anything about her".
"Juna", the girl added. "Now you know something about me. My names Juna."
"I think we should free her make this go quicker," Sophie said.
"Fine", Ro grumbled. "But if she kills you, don't blame me."
"Thank you," Juna said as Sophie untied her bonds, letting Juna stand for the first time. As she stretched out her limbs, Sophie noticed a lot about Juna.
She was definitely an elf, despite her braces and human clothes. But Juna was different. She was very well built, obviously a terrific athlete. She had arrow straight chocolate colored hair that went down to her elbows, and she had a very defined jawline, which reminded her of Keefe. But her eyes are what took Sophie's notice. They were ice blue like Keefes, but they had hints of grey in them too.
"This ones been awfully quiet," Juna said as she pointed at Keefe.
"I'm just trying to figure out how you mesmerized Ro just by sitting there," Keefe said.
"I don't know, it must have been adrenaline," Juna said, though she clearly didn't seem convinced.
"Adrenaline from what?" Ro snorted
"Um, maybe you almost killing me?" Juna pointed out.
"That's fair", Ro agreed.
"Uh, Juna," Keefe said as everyone turned to him. He was shaking furiously at this point. Sophie offered her hand, he took it immediately and nearly collapsed into her. "How come your name says Juna Sencen on this file?"
