"Please...?" Sophie begged to Mr Forkle. "I need to make sure that my human family is okay...and plus...what if Keefe is injured by a fire? Seriously, aren't you concerned?"

She was probably the only one who was concerned.

Edaline was set more on getting the spyball back from Oralie, Grady was still helping extinguish more Everblaze, her friends were helping to open the caches, and the Black Swan...well, no-one knew what they were doing - but Sophie was the only one desperate enough to ensure her family's safety. She'd only remembered that Keefe had fled to the Forbidden Cities a few minutes ago, because she had so many other thoughts.

She'd been so busy with schoolwork and Neverseen stuff and random events that just kept getting weirder that she had absolutely no time to even think about her personal life.

She had barely even thought about Keefe, or Aurora, the Level Eight girl who she felt was a little familiar. So, since everyone else was taking charge over something, she decided the best thing for her to do was watch the millions of feeds in Mr Forkle's office, trying to sight any sign of San Diego being burnt.

A heavy sigh came from Mr Forkle. "Yes, you can, but only if you stay in here alone so I don't have to chaperone you."

Sophie tried to hide her glee behind what she hoped was a confused frown. "Um...sure?"

Mybe lying wasn't one of her strong suits.

Especially now that she was an Empath.

"Good..." Mr Forkle said, and his uncertainty made Sophie wonder if he could see behind her façade. "I have other things to attend to...so I suppose all I really have to say is, please don't break my office, burn it down, steal things, or attempt to penetrate the Black Swan's security."

He said it all like Sophie was a small child in a glass house full of stones.

"Sounds good," Sophie agreed, "I'll come here every day once the Foxfire term is over."

Mr Forkle squinted at her. "Are you absolutely sure you want to spend all your time doing this?"

"Not all my time," Sophie said, disgruntled. "There are other things I need to do as well."

"Okay," Mr Forkle agreed, rubbing his eyes. There were dark rings under them, so Sophie guessed he hadn't slept very well the night before. "Well, I'd better head off then."

Sophie turned to look at the wall, which had an image of Los Angeles projected across it. She's been taught how to work the feeds a few minutes ago - all she had to do was type in the place or press on a spot on the map on the table to get the live footage. She scrolled up a little on the tiny map, tracing her finger over the surface, and clicked on San Diego. Soon the whole city was showing, but instead of just a street view, she had a bird's eye view over it.

The sound of the door closing announced Mr Forkle's departure.

About an hour ago, Sophie was at school, finishing her final project for Multispecial Studies. As soon as the bell rang for the end of the day, she'd rushed to Mr Forkle's office, and he didn't arrive for a whole hour after that so Sophie just sat on the top of the grassy hill and looked over at the fields below.

Sandor groaned from his post at the door, knowing that it was going to be a long few hours. Flori glared at him.

"This is important to her," she hissed to him.

"It's fine," Sophie said, turning to them. There was absolutely no sign of smoke in the city of San Diego, so she didn't mind leaving the footage. "I understand."

"Well then...I have an idea!" Sandor grumbled. "Flori and Sophie can stay here and I can go back to Havenfield and sleep for the first time in two hundred hours!"

Sophie blinked. "You were sleeping last night, when I found you." She knew she was being unfair, but she honestly didn't want her burly goblin bodyguard to leave her. And she knew that Flori was a perfectly able substitute, but ever since her kidnapping, she'd been pale and shaken for weeks.

Sophie was worried about her.

"Napping is not the same as sleeping," Sandor argued.

"Ugh, fine," Sophie said. "But...if you see Edaline, tell her to please stop trying to get my spyball back from Oralie."

Sandor nodded sharply. "To be honest, her searching is getting a little out of..."

When he realized who he was talking to, he side-stepped his way out of the room, closing the golden door behind him.

Flori looked at Sophie but didn't say anything.

Sophie glued her eyes to the image on the wall. Nothing had changed in so long. Or maybe that was just her imagination...

She carefully scrolled through the image, starting on one side and making it to the other. No sign of smoke, or property damage, or the faintest hint of white-hot flames licking the side of a building in its lust to destroy anything and everything.

A hand on her forearm reminded Sophie that she wasn't the only one there. "If I can give you some advice, Sophie?" Flori asked gently. "I think the key to being calm and content is by sleeping, or meditation. And in your case, I think you're stressing too much – you need to stop worrying about your human family for a few hours. Relaxation is the core value of zen."

"But I can't relax!" Sophie said, tearing her free hand through her hair. "There are so many things to do, and they might be in danger..."

"Sophie," Flori said, looking her firmly in the eye. "Paranoia doesn't do anyone good. You need to calm down."

Sophie groaned and slumped her head on the middle of the table. She really was too tired to continue...it had been such a long day at school...Flori and Sandor were right...

***

"Maybe we should let her stay here? She's asleep...I don't see any harm in letting her stay."

"But...it's my private office, Sandor!"

"If we have to leave here, then, I don't want to be the one to wake her up..."

"Stop glaring at each other!"

Sophie let her eyes open one at a time. The image she thought she'd been staring at had been replaced by a plain white wall, and she was sitting on the cold, hard floor, leaning against a table.

Her bodyguards and Mr Forkle were standing by the door. Mr Forkle and Sandor's stares were icy daggers at each others' faces, and Flori had a tight frown stretched across her lips as she watched them figure out what to do.

It must have been late at night...but how had Sophie come to be on the floor? The last thing she remembered was watching the image of San Diego on the wall...

"Oh no! My family! They could be dead...why did you let me fall asleep! And I have homework! And they might -"

"Slow down." Mr Forkle averted his eyes to the panicked Sophie. "Your family is fine, San Diego is fine, your homework is fine, and your friends are fine, too."

Sophie tipped her head back so she face the ceiling. She had completely forgotten about her friends.

Even Keefe...

"I should go see Linh again," Sophie said, carefully positioning herself so that she had the chance to click on the button to turn the map on again.

Flori slapped her hand away, dragging her over near the door. 

"Yes, please," Sandor sighed, edging toward the handle.

"Um, before I leave..." Sophie started, figuring out the best way to say this.

"Edaline found out that Councillor Oralie is my biological mother, Oralie came to Havenfield to take the spyball you gave me to supposedly protect me, but Edaline kept it from her, but then they got into this argument that turned into a fight and then somehow Oralie got the spyball and then Edaline was about to punch her so I burst in and told them to stop and then Oralie leaped away and now she has it."

Mr Forkle stayed silent. 

"Are you mad at me?" Sophie asked, trying to stop herself from leaping away herself.

"No," Mr Forkle said quietly. "Actually, I don't blame you at all. But about Oralie...well, Sophie, she might have made a lot of mistakes in her past that she still regrets, but she did what she knew was right...it would have happened anyway."

"What?" Sophie demanded. "Are you saying that -"

"I'm saying that you can trust her," Mr Forkle said, holding up a hand to silence her. "I know you don't want to. But she is on your side, on the Black Swan's side. In fact, it's probably only a matter of time before she steps down as a Councillor...or, in the most likely case, her secret is revealed to the public."

"How can you be so calm about that?" Sophie said, her voice getting shriller as she spoke. "If another Councillor is lost, the world will go into pandemonium! That's what the Neverseen wants!"

"I know," Mr Forkle said, his face perfectly blank. "But I've already found her a replacement, should the time come."

"Who?" Sophie asked curiously. 

"When the information is no longer classified, I can tell you. For now, do not worry about Councillor Oralie or your spyball."

Sophie felt her eyes turn to slits. She was used to being kept in the dark, but it still hurt.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you in a few hours," Mr Forkle said as a farewell, and stepped out of the door. The sound of it closing echoed through the cavernous egg-shaped office. 

"So I have school...and Neverseen problems...Black Swan stuff...trying to focus on my friends, too...and finding Keefe..."

"Well, look on the bright side," Sandor said, "You only have four of Foxfire left until the winter break. After that, you might even be able to put in extra security measures for your family, ask Oralie about what she thinks the password could be for Kenric's and Fintan's caches, and spend more time with your friends while doing all that. We can even fit in some training, too."

"He's right," Flori said to Sophie. "If you just think about the things you have to do, you can figure out ways to focus on them all at once at the right time."

"I guess," Sophie said. "Anyway, let's leave. I need to get my homework from Havenfield and then we'll come back here."

Ten minutes later, after changing out of the uniform from the day before and into a different set, Sophie and her bodyguards were back on the hill outside of Watchward Heath. Sophie opened the office using the special methos Mr Forkle ahd taught her to use, and then brought up the bird's eye view of San Diego on the wall again. She sat and worked on her Multispecial Studies homework, looking up now and then to check if she could see any billowing smoke or white flames.

And that was when she realized something.

Marella was a Pyrokinetic. The only living Pyrokinetic apart from Fintan who know how to call Everblaze. 

Fintan was locked in a prison.

But Marella was free.

What if Marella knew a way of finding out who'd cast the Everblaze on the Forbidden Cities?

Or...what if she was the one to start it?

Sophie quickly shut that thought away. That was impossible - Marella would never do something like that...

But she still needed to talk to her. 

Sophie pulled her Imparter out of her pocket. The screen, which she'd thought was completely durable, was slightly cracked. "Show me Linh Song."

She knew that Marella and Linh were together a lot, but she wasn't sure if Marella had an Imparter...which probably proved just how awful of a friend she was.

"Hey, Sophie!" Linh said, waving. "Wait - are you in Watchward Heath? Forkle's office?"

Sophie nodded. "Um...is Marella with you?"

"Yeah, she's just - hang on - Marella! Sophie needs to talk to you!"

Marella begrudgingly strolled into the Imparter's view. She snapped her fingers and a ball of golden flames appeared in her hand. She threw the ball backwards and it separated into ten different ones, each finding a bracket on the long wall behind the two girls.

"Just furnishing Tam's bedroom. It's kinda sad how sad he is, to be honest. He needs some livening up," Marella said when she saw Sophie's face. "What's up?"

"I just...look, can I come to Solreef and then teleport us to here? I need to show you something," Sophie said, trying not to show the image behind her.

"Of course!" Linh said. 

A voice from beside her side of the screen, out of view, startled Sophie. "Linh, can you please get out of my room? Oh...hello, Sophie."

Tam suddenly looked very awkward, as if he'd been caught pashing a mirror. 

"Hi, Tam," Sophie said, and then remembered what Linh had said about her brother the night Oralie came for Sophie's spyball. "How are you feeling?"

"Um...everything's good," Tam said, cringing afterward. He hid behind his sister. 

"Sure," Sophie said, raising an eyebrow. "Anyway guys, I'll see you in a minute."

She shut off her Imparter, turning to her bodyguards. They were so used to her doing crazy, sometimes ridiculous things, that they barely registered her entire conversation with Linh, Tam and Marella.

"Do you want me to teleport us or leap?" Sophie asked them.

"Leap," Sandor groaned. 

***

"Let me get this straight...there've been fires all around the Forbidden Cities, your human family and Keefe might be in danger, and you think I might know some way of stopping whoever is causing this Everblaze?"

Marella's eyebrows were practically levitating off her forehead.

Sophie nodded hastily. "Is there some Pyrokinetic trick you know that can help you to track the source of the Everblaze?"

The pixie-like girl in front of her tapped her chin with her finger in thought. "Possibly...but I'm not sure Fintan would want to teach me - some part of him is still on the Neverseen's side."

"Maybe you could ask Mr Forkle," Sophie suggested. "I know he's not a Pyrokinetic, but he's a talented Telepath and tracking is one of our core functions. He might be able to help you."

"I could try," Marella said, unconvinced. She looked to her friends.

Linh's sweet face was very concerned-looking, whereas Tam looked like he was on the verge of tears again.

"I think you should talk to Mr Forkle at Foxfire," Linh agreed.

"Tam?" Marella asked gently, nudging his shoulder. "What about you?"

"Anything to stop that Everblaze and protect...oh."

Tam rubbed his collarbone, wincing with pain.

"Are you okay?" Linh asked him. Marella and Sophie crowded around the stricken elf.

"Yeah...I'll be fine..." Tam grimaced. "I don't know what that was."

"Well," Sophie said, leaning back, "I think that applies to everything in my life, too, so we're on the same page."

WC: 2437 words