Her Imperfections

Chapter Twenty-Four

"What?" Sophie tried to say but her voice was caught in her confusion. How could he not know? He created her, she thought bitterly.
"I-" Mr. Forkle's words were strangled and she could see he regretted telling her. Yet Sophie wasn't letting him get away with this.
"What do you mean?" Sophie asked, much stronger.
Mr. Forkle eyed her, then glanced back to Sandor glaring from a distance. "It was before you were born. Back in the labs."
Sophie flinched at the mention of her unnatural origins, but let him continue.
"Not everything that happens to you was as planned. As you know with your Teleporting. It was late into the process. We found an DNA anomaly, similar to the ones we created manually for your abilities. But we didn't make this one. We couldn't tell what it meant so we had the anomaly scanned. Just as we did this, the Neverseen attacked."
Sophie could almost see the end of the story, like how someone swims to the surface of an ocean. Blurry, but she could make out how it would happen.
"I'm sure you can imagine what happened. The Neverseen stole the data before we had the chance to look at it." His voice was soft.
Sophie didn't even know how to react. It wasn't good news and she would have preferred to know what ability it was. But Fintan was afraid of it.
"T-Then I need to manifest. Manifest me." Sophie said finally.
He was immediate to shake his head. "Never. It's too unreliable. You said Fintan was scared of it. Do you want that? You will do fine with the abilities we gave you. Please, drop this Miss Foster."
But it could help them. Tip the scales. Save her friends. Sophie would never drop it. If Mr. Forkle wouldn't manifest her she would find someone else to do it.
Her plans were cut off by the crushing footsteps of Sir Tiergan, disguised as usual in his rocky exterior. "Mr. Forkle?"
He extended a scroll to Mr. Forkle and Sophie's stomach dropped at the sight of the Council's seal. She barely resisted ripping it from Mr. Forkle out of the sheer weight of her impatience as he scanned the scroll.
Finally his mouth pinched downward and he whispered something to Granite.
"What is it?" Sophie said, exasperated.
Mr. Forkle turned to Sophie as Granite dashed off, "The Council wants us to meet them at the prisons. It appears a Neverseen member survived the fall of Atlantis. They left him behind but he's captured now. The Council wants us to interrogate them."
Sophie couldn't believe it. The Council had a Neverseen member in their hands."Who? Do we know them? Am I to interrogate them?"
Mr. Forkle looked at the scroll again and shook his head, "It's Ruy. But you won't be coming."
Sophie tucked her arms across her chest with the slight flare of anger. "What do you mean? You made me the strongest Telepath, let me use my gifts."
"Not with Fintan in your mind." Mr. Forkle said.
"He's not-" Sophie grunted, tired of explaining, "We are not fighting about this. I am going. Fitz will come to help me if you want."
"Miss Foster-"
Sophie tugged at her eyelashes without thought, "Don't Miss Foster me. Please, let me go."
Mr. Forkle grumbled something before shoving the scroll into his pocket. "We leave in ten minutes. Ruy has just woken and the Council will not wait. And Fitz will be coming."
"Thank you." Sophie said, but Mr. Forkle was already gone.
Ruy. Captured. And not a word from Fintan. Strange.... Sophie had a bad feeling in her gut, just beside the knot of energy she kept for her inflicting. It didn't mean anything good but that wouldn't stop her.
Sophie breathed out and made her way back towards the treehouse. First she would get Fitz.
Then?
Answers.