Betrayed

A Dangerous Path

She's alive. How would Wylie, Prentice and Tiergan responded when they were told? Sophie pushed the thought to the back of her mind. She didn't have time for that kind of thinking. "Moonlark!" Jay waved Sophie over. Jay had the strangest disguise. She was a Shade-Empath-Inflictor mix, so she cloaked herself with shadows, so the only part of her you could see were two ice blue eyes and maybe a glimpse of the sapphire studs in her ears. It made a weirdly creepy effect, with shadows trailing behind her and dissolving like mist. "You stayed in the room for ten seconds last time. That's a record!" Jay said cheerfully. "But everyone else--" Jay held up a shadowy finger streaming silver and gray. "Nope. You're not going there. None of the others are completely used to total darkness either." She sighed. "I miss Umber sometimes, even if she was way creepier than me." Sophie remembered Jay had spent an hour lecturing Sophie on the values of darkness once. And complaining about how strong her emotions were. And complaining about every single thing that could be complained about. "You know, Jay, you're a lot like-- "Nope. Not distracting me. Come on, maybe you can beat ten seconds today."

More dreams haunt Sophie. A forest of secrets, divided into halves. Halves can become a whole. A blazing star to lead a trail of light through the raging storm. This is no normal path of stars. Lost stars are thunder and shadow. This is a dangerous path.

"Did you ever think about how much more we could get done if the Neverseen and the Black Swan worked together?" Sophie mused one afternoon. Ruy snorted. "I doubt they have anything we consider valuable." "Actually, I think that's a good point. Like, we wouldn't have to use up all our resources fighting each other." Black Star argued. "Yeah. And it would be fun to watch Fintan try to ride an alicorn. Do you think he would agree to that? Wait, maybe that can be his punishment for locking me in a room full of fire. I hope he lands in a pile of glittery poop like you did." Jay poked Sophie in the arm. Sophie scowled. "That's not the point. We're trying to think how it would benefit us." "First of all, the Council should take off the ban on pyrokinesis," Trix suggested. "Wow, it's you suggesting that?" Arctic squinted at him. "What can I say? My daughter's a pyrokinetic." "True, true." Amber sat down next to Ruy. "Back to what I was saying. Both of us want to make the world a better place, right?" Sophie paused as everyone nodded except Jay. "No, we want to dominate the world so that everything will go the way we want it to." Sophie groaned. "We're being serious, Jay." "Okay, okay. Carry on with your inspiring speech." "Don't you think we would accomplish much more if we teamed up?" "Just to be clear, you're implying that we should form an alliance with the Black Swan?" Storm asked. "Yes." Sophie agreed. "They don't have anything we need," Ruy scoffed. "Actually, they do," Jay cut in. "The Black Swan may not know it, but when they escaped Vespera's Nightfall, the Vanisher girl stole the Lodestar Cache."