The KOTLC ANALYSIS Project

EXILE - ANALYSIS PROJECT (KOTLC II)

Originally Written: March 2020

Introduction:
Well, hi, it's been a bit longer than I promised, but here is the next part of my secret project series! I've just finished Legacy (book 8) and I'm on spring break, so expect more chapters soon! I hate to makes excuses, but I was simply busy with the holidays, then school, and activities. Sorry! This took forever to write, it's about 8,500 words! But let's get to the point, this analysis is split into a number of headings, some permanent, and maybe a few new ones. If you have any questions—or if you would like to discuss something—feel free to comment. I'll respond as soon as I can!

And now that I've written one of these analyses before, I'm making a few changes.

Anytime you see a ✘that's something important. That should make it easier for someone who doesn't want to read the whole thing—because these just keep getting longer—and skim instead. And yes, I picked a ✘for Exile.

I'll do my best not to talk about things that happen in future books, but in order to make a few points I will have to reference future events. I know some people who read this won't be finished with Legacy, or even some of the other books so any big spoilers  will be marked by this ✺.

Any notes or comments I make will look like this: ★Comment/note about etc. . .

And a final change is that anything that looks like these ◉or ❏are just bullet points.

Detailed Summary:
★ Fair Warning: this may be a little boring, but good if you want to remember all the important stuff.
1. The book starts with Sophie, Grady, Dex and Sandor looking for a bigfoot, in the middle of Foxfire's midterm break.
2. Sophie starts searching with her telepathy and she thinks she's found it and starts running towards it, but when she gets there she finds a alicorn.
3. It seems to understand Sophie's transmissions and sends scenes of its own. Sophie leaps the alicorn to Havenfield.
4. Sophie gets really dizzy from the leap, after calming the alicorn, it tells her its name. Silveny.
5. During one of the first nights Silveny's at Havenfield, she sends Sophie the terrifying image three black-cloaked figures trying to drag Silveny away. They look like Sophie's kidnappers.
6. Sophie runs to stop them, and finds out it's just the Hekses. Alden shows up and explains they were supposed to take Silveny to rehabilitate her. Alden determines that because of Sophie's connection, Silveny would do better with her.
7. Sophie comes with Grady and Edaline to see Jolie's wanderling. And she accidentally stumbles upon her and Dex's trees. There's a charm bracket from Grady and Edaline, there's also a compass charm that says "let the past be your guide" from the Black Swan.
8. Grady goes into overprotective dad mode and tries to get her to leave the charm, but he relents, and they go visit Brant.
9. Brant mysteriously says "I've seen you before." Then he spots Sophie's new Ruewen crest pin. He recognized that it was Jolie's old pin. He also starts ranting once he hears that they found a alicorn.
10. Dex visited while she was gone, and Iggy now has pink fur with ringlets. That night Silveny wakes Sophie up, and Sophie realizes she can't block Silveny's transmissions. She starts to worry that's somethings wrong with her since Fitz can now also transmit to her.
11. Sophie tries to fly with Silveny, and ends up in sparkly manure just as the Councillors and Alden all show up. The Councillors (Bronte) try to talk Grady into becoming an Emissary again so that they feel more comfortable with Sophie training Silveny. Grady refuses.
12. The Council agrees to let Sophie try to train Silveny. Grady tells Sophie he won't work with the Council because they won't believe Jolie is murdered. Grady tells Sophie that he thinks the Black Swan murdered Jolie. He says that Black Swan tried to recruit him right before Jolie's death. He thinks they killed Jolie when he wouldn't join.
13. Sophie and Dex hangout, and Sophie asks him what he remembers from their kidnapping. He doesn't remember much, but he does remember hearing the guy that rescued them (Mr. Forkle) saying "You can do this, Sophie," over and over.
14. Mr. Forkle cares, and with that new knowledge and Sophie knows that Grady must be wrong, because murderers don't care.
15. Sophie goes to the opening ceremonies choreography practice. When she gets her schedule, she sees that Fitz is going to be in her telepathy session, and that she has two sessions in the Silver Tower, one with Councillor Bronte and another with Lady Cadence.
16. Sophie goes to see Alden at Everglen but gets roped into playing base quest with Biana, Fitz, and Keefe. Sophie accidentally pulls a "Amazing Flying Foster Routine" and jumps/falls a impossible distance and "blinks" while she does it.
17. After Della cleans up Sophie's scratches from her latest incident, Sophie goes and talks with Alden about the charm from the Black Swan. Alden gets all weird when Sophie tells him what the charm says, and clarifies that it says 'guide.'
18. Silveny sends Sophie another message in her sleep, very terrified, and this time of figures in black cloaks trying to get into her enclosure. They search, and find footprints. But the bad guys have used ash to evade goblin senses, so Sandor freaks out and suddenly Silveny gets 4 bodyguards.
19. Alden takes Sophie to Exile to be his guide for the memory break on Fintan. He thinks the Black Swan wanted him to take Sophie because the charm said "guide."
20. They don't find anything except a blurry memory of Fintan teaching a young pyrokinetic how to summon everblaze. And then Fintan's mind broke, and Alden gets lost with him. Fintan had used their body heat to burn them, and Alden fell to the floor and now has a giant gash on his head.
21. Sophie brings Alden back. She found a nook in his mind, and filled it with memories of his family and told him to come back for them.
22. On their way out of Exile they pass Prentice's room, and both Sophie and Alden stop to look, and Sophie decides to read his mind.
23. It was all madness and broken memories till Sophie finds a girl and follows her, then loses her. Sophie forgets who she is, but then she remembers, she accidentally transmits it and suddenly a black swan appears and she follows it. She finds herself in a nook, with a girl who's looks exactly like Jolie. Jolie tells Sophie she has to go, points to the black swan, and tells her to "Follow the pretty bird across the sky."
24. Sophie exits Prentice's mind. Alden freaks out because he thought he had lost her. Sophie tells Alden what she saw, and his head starts to hurt. He asks her to continue though, and she tells him she saw a face that looked like his say, "no reason to worry," and with that Alden's mind breaks (though Sophie doesn't know that).
25. Sophie freaks out. She transmits to Fitz, but he of course can't help since they're in Exile, so Sophie goes into Alden's mind. And she heals his mind (it wasn't a full healing, because his mind had just broken).
26. They make it to Everglen, and Fitz has Elwin already there. Elwin passes Alden to Fitz, and let's Fitz help him walk, and he picks up Sophie because she's faded again, even with a nexus. And now Sophie gets two nexuses!
27. Sophie goes to the Opening Ceremonies, and she doesn't trip during the dance, so it's an all-around success, right? Nope, not really, because during the Elite Levels Opening Ceremony, Sophie and Alden spot Wylie. And that's makes Alden's mind break from guilt. Again.
28. Edaline and Grady leave to help the Vackers. And Sophie is left standing there with Sandor, until Keefe comes over and asks what happened. Then he assures her that Elwin can fix anything, and Sandor takes Sophie home.
29. Sophie comes over to Everglen the next morning. Biana is being silent, and Fitz is being angry. Della takes her to see Alden, whose being effected less and less by sedatives. Fitz tried to go into Alden's mind, gets lost, and Sophie has to bring him back. Sophie realizes Alden's mind is probably broken.
30. Sophie calls Tiergan to check, and he confirms Alden's mind is broken. Sophie has a mental breakdown, because she thinks that since she pointed out Wylie it made Alden's mind break. Elwin and Tiergan tell her it's not her fault. Sophie decides to check herself. and his mind is definitely broken.
31. Sophie starts to find hope. She thinks she can make Alden not feel guilty by learning more about the Black Swan. If Grady is right about the Black Swan being murderers, then Alden doesn't have a reason to feel guilty, right?
32. Tiergan starts taking charge and making a plan on how to help the Vackers cope. He out bosses Alvar and gets to work on helping Elwin set up a room for Alden to live in.
33. Tiergan takes Sophie home, he kind of steps into Alden's role without even realizing it. Sophie tells Grady and Edaline, Tiergan convinces them to take a sedative, and reluctantly leaves Sophie. Sophie's so drained that Sandor has to carry her to her room. Silveny shares memories and lulls her to sleep.
34. Grady agrees to become an Emissary to take over Alden's duties. Sophie starts looking around Jolie's room for any connections to the Black Swan.
35. Sophie has a memory resurface while looking at a picture of Brant and Jolie, she remembers a diary she wrote in when she was younger and the words in Elvin runes.
36. Sophie starts going to Foxfire again now that the term has started. Fitz and Biana aren't at school, and Sophie meets the Silver Tower's Beacon Magnate/Master Leto. Sophie gets affected by a mirror that reflects light in the Hall of Illumination, and it sort of burns into her head.
37. While Elwin is checking on Sophie, he flashes a yellow ball of light, and it causes Sophie to go into intense survival mode to cope with the pain. Elwin even calls Tiergan, when Sophie won't wake up for over a hour.
40. Sophie visits Fitz and Biana, but the moment they see her Biana freezes and Fitz yells and aggressively smashes his drink onto a table . . . so that didn't go well. Alvar is actually really kind, and assures Sophie that everyone will get through all of this.
41. Sophie gets tipped off by Grady that Bronte is planning to make her session very difficult, and Dex and Kesler made Sophie a serum to help her with any pain Bronte would cause her. . .
42. Sophie was completely messed up after her inflicting session—where he inflicted on her to prove a point—and ended up in the healing center, where she found Keefe.  After some begging on Keefe's part, Elwin and Sophie tell him what happened to Alden. It really destroys Keefe.
43. Keefe approaches Sophie in the halls and begs to know what's giving her hope. He said he could feel she was still holding onto something, and that he wanted in on any plans to fix Alden. (Team Foster-Keefe Begins!)
44. Sophie and Keefe start brainstorming ways to find stuff about the Black Swan. Then the whole Council shows up, wanting a show of what Sophie's trained Silveny to do. Grady also tells Sophie about Bronte's theory that she's malfunctioning.
45. When flying outside the pastures for the demonstration, Silveny gets a bit overly excited and teleports her and Sophie to some meadow. Sophie lightleaps them back, and fades again.
46. The Council asks a lot of questions about the whole teleporting alicorn situation. And Sophie learns that Silveny likes Keefe, and she now trusts two people! Councillor Terik stays behind when the whole council leaves, he grants access to Sophie's imparter to call him, and says he's always here for her, and to just ask if she needs any help.
47. Sophie calls Councillor Terik and asks if he can help her find something she left (the diary) with all her old human belongings. He located where they moved her whole human house. She finds her diary, but the page has been ripped out.
48. Keefe gives Silveny the nickname Glitter Butt and explains that Silveny's emotions feel like Sophie's. Keefe shows her how to shade to see if she left indentions from writing on the page behind the missing one in the diary. They uncover that Sophie wrote "A boy who disappeared." And the memory resurfaces, of a teenage elf in a bramble jersey.
49. They announce the "death" of Alden Vacker to all elves, and a planting is held. Sophie runs into Keefe in line to see the Vackers, and Fitz makes a scene, and Keefe tries to intervene. Keefe follows Sophie when she runs away, and assures her that Fitz isn't actually that mad at her, but more so at the entire world.
50. Sophie finds Dex at their wanderlings, crying like she did. Dex says he doesn't feel safe, except for when he's around Sophie and Sandor now. And he starts to realize Sophie's been distant because of everything with Alden. Sophie runs into Wylie by his mother's tree. He knows it's her when he sees Sophie, and he asks why she hasn't made things right and saved his dad yet. Wylie says she was supposed to be able save him. This is when Sophie starts to realize she is malfunctioning.
51. Sophie's new deadline is to get Silveny trained is the Celestial Festival. The Black Swan send her a note, saying to be patient and trust, and to stop looking into things. Sophie then starts testing how she's affected by light, and she decides she needs to visit the Hall of Illumination again. The mirror that reflects back light causes Sophie to have a even crazier reaction. She collapses on the spot.
52. Sophie won't let Elwin use light to look at her, and starts asking her questions, so does Master/Magnate Leto who stayed with Sophie after carrying her from the Silver Tower.  Master/Magnate Leto starts asking her all of these questions (we now know why) trying to understand why she reacted. Elwin isn't sure he can fix Sophie this time.
53. Keefe gets his Sencen crest . . . The Black Swan leave Sophie a alicorn pin and a note telling her to face her fears. Dex helps them go to the caves at Havenfield to get the next clue. The Black Swan then leave a letter and a magsidian swan charm, "We can fix you. Follow the pretty bird across the sky."
54. Sandor is not on board with the let Sophie-fly-by-herself-to-a-group-of-rebels-plan, and Grady and Edaline overhear and Sophie has to explain. Edaline thinks Sophie should go. And soon enough Grady agrees to  let her go too. But he says Keefe has to go with her.
55. Keefe and Sophie leave on Silveny following where the compass charm tells them to go. Sophie and Keefe have real heart to heart, and Keefe drops the nonchalant act, he says he cares, and the jokes are just how he copes, but it doesn't mean he cares any less.
56. They arrive at a cave that's appears to be the Black Swan hideout. A dwarf meets them and gives Sophie a sedative cookie, and only for Sophie. After she eats it she ends up in a different part of the hideout, with Mr. Forkle.
57. Sophie asks for a answers and Mr. Forkle says he'll give her one. She asks if the Black Swan murdered Jolie. Forkle is shocked that Grady thought that, and says they defiantly did not kill Jolie, and that the note meant something else.
58. Forkle says Sophie's mind is damaged, that a gap had opened in her mental blocking from when she had faded. He tells her that you heal minds by finding the nook and inflicting positive emotions, and that her DNA is alicorn inspired.
59. Forkle says that drinking limbium should fix her, the only thing that can fix her happens to also be the thing she's deathly allergic to. Forkle also shows her the antidote, that will probably save her.
60. Sophie takes the vial, and downs some liquid death allergy. The pain is awful and there's a point where Sophie feels like it's done, but then it worsens and Mr. Forkle injects Sophie with the cure. And she can breathe again.
61. Sophie wakes up back in the cave with Keefe. He seems very concerned that she almost died—and is slightly green—and deathly sick looking, you know that "trendy" look, as Keefe calls it. When Sophie sits up, Keefe almost throws up from what little he can feel of Sophie's pain. He helps Sophie get up and onto Silveny, they're about to leave when a net comes flying over and onto Silveny.
62. Five black-clocked figures show up. Keefe goes into protect Sophie mode, and knocks an attacker out with a melder. One of the figures hits Keefe in the head with a rock, and Keefe hits them in the shoulder with a goblin throwing star. Silveny breaks free of the net, only to have a lasso thrown around her neck causing her wing to break in the process.
63. Mr. Forkle and a group of dwarves show up. Sophie gets Silveny to stand, and they get on her to leave but the second she tries to fly, they start falling. And then Sophie teleports, and they drop onto Havenfield's grass.
64. Elwin is mad that he can't treat Sophie for the next twenty-four hours, and Keefe sets the record for the most ribs ever broken in the Lost Cities. Sophie tells Grady that the Black Swan didn't kill Jolie. Sandor congratulates Keefe for scaring the bad guy, and noticing the patch they all had on their arms. Elwin tests Sophie with light, and it does nothing to her.
65. The Council shows up and want to punish Sophie, but then decide it's too early to since Silveny might recover. Sophie negotiates to be able to go heal Alden before they decide her punishment, and the next day she does it.
66. She heals Alden's mind! Fitz apologizes for being a jerk, and he can no longer transmit to Sophie, and Team Foster-Keefe wins! Bronte still wants to punish someone for what happened to Silveny, but Sophie says she can still make Silveny have just as amazing of a spectacle at the Celestial Festival as the one that was planned. The Council agrees.
67. Sophie teleports Silveny to the Celestial Festival, and delivers her spectacle.
68. Sophie watches the light show, and Keefe joins her. Biana, Fitz, and Dex join her and Keefe. And Sophie starts to feel like she'll be okay, and that she's not tooweird.