“Well, how about you try giving me all of the information and let me decide what I do and don’t need to know?” Alina countered.

Sophie crossed her arms. “Fine. Want me to describe how he accidentally glued his jaw shut with squelchberries, too?”

“I love when our sweet little Blondie shows her claws,” Ro said—which earned a soft snort of laughter from Keefe and an epic eye roll from Councillor Alina.

A staring contest followed—until Oralie murmured, “I wonder if this new ability isn’t an ability at all.”

“What do you mean?” Noland asked her.

Oralie’s cheeks flushed. “I’m not certain. It just seems significant that Keefe is now a Polyglot and an Empath, and used his voice to control emotion. That almost sounds like the two abilities merged somehow—or synchronized. Which would make sense, given that Keefe was exposed to shadowflux and quintessence. Elements trigger change. They rarely create something entirely new. But I’d need to do more research to know for sure.”

“We all need more research,” Noland said, smoothing the sides of his ponytail. “Particularly when it comes to the larger question. New ability—merged abilities—whatever this is, what we need to be focusing on is the why. Why would Lady Gisela go to so much trouble to give her son these powers?”

“Technically, we don’t know that she did,” Sophie reminded him. “Just because this is what happened, doesn’t mean it’s what she wanted. There are a bunch of things about me that the Black Swan never planned.”

“I suppose,” Noland said slowly. “But I think it’s safe to assume that the majority of these changes are a part of her scheme—just as the majority of your genetics are in line with Project Moonlark’s goals, which are still unclear, by the way. But that is a conversation for another time. For now, I think it’s best if we treat each of these developments as though they’re clues to what the Neverseen is planning, and see how much we can learn.”

“Who wants to bet we’ll learn a whole lot of nothing?” Ro asked, raising her hand.

The question was probably meant to be rhetorical. But Sophie raised her hand too.

So did Keefe.

And Sandor.

And Fitz.

Alina clicked her tongue. “So little faith in your powers of deduction.”

“More like we’ve played Guess Their Evil Plan enough times to know it doesn’t work,” Ro snapped back. “And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m done caring what they want. I say we focus on what we want and figure out how to use our Legacy Boy’s new elf-y powers to take Mommy Dearest and her band of black-cloaked losers down!”

“She has a point,” Oralie admitted. “But with either approach, the first step remains the same. We need to learn as much about Keefe’s new abilities and sensitivities as we can.”

“And he needs to be trained,” Noland added. “To gain proper control.”

“He also needs to be moved,” Alina said, turning to check her reflection in one of the shinier bottles of medicine. “We’re about to reopen Foxfire and—”

“You are?” Fitz interrupted.

Alina nodded. “It hasn’t been announced yet—but it will be soon. Normalcy needs to return to the Lost Cities, and our children need to focus on their education. And we cannot have prodigies returning to a place where someone with an unknown, uncontrolled new ability—or merged abilities, whatever you want to call it—triggered by two of the most unstable elements is hiding in the Healing Center.”

“But he still needs more treatment,” Elwin argued, flashing a blue orb around Keefe’s head.

“He’s well enough to light leap, isn’t he?” Alina demanded.

Elwin squinted through his glasses. “Yeah, I guess.”

Alina smiled triumphantly. “Good. Then there’s no reason he can’t be relocated. You can continue any additional medical care at the new location.”

“Which is where?” Elwin asked, and Sophie shifted her weight to the balls of her feet.

If anyone said “Exile,” she would grab Keefe and run so fast, her newly improved teleporting would get them far away from there.

“We haven’t worked out the details,” Alina said, glancing at the other Councillors. “We needed to assess the specifics of Mr. Sencen’s condition before we instructed the gnomes what to build.”

“Build,” Sophie repeated. “You mean like the prisons you created for Fintan and Alvar?”

Alina smoothed her gown. “No need to be so dramatic, Miss Foster. It wouldn’t be a prison. It would be a facility.”

“And I maintain that it’s unnecessary,” Oralie informed everyone. “Keefe’s father’s home is sufficiently isolated. And Lord Cassius is an Empath, so he can help with his training. And—”

“Uh, much as I’m not on board with the whole Special Sparkletown Facility idea, since I’ll be stuck there too,” Ro interrupted, “I gotta say, I’m pretty sure if you put our boy in a house with Lord Bossypants right now and make them train in emotional stuff, it’s not going to go well.”

“I have to agree,” Elwin said, shifting the light around Keefe to green. “Keefe needs to be somewhere calming—and that’s not anywhere near his dad, or any isolated, confining place you guys build for him.”

“So what would you suggest?” Noland asked.

Elwin scratched his chin. “Well… what if I take Keefe home with me? My house is about as isolated as it gets. And I’ll be able to monitor his recovery there, nice and easy. And I have lots of different elixirs I can give him if he starts to lose control.”

“Oh! Oh! I vote for that!” Ro said. “Bonus points if there aren’t any sparkles!”

“Sadly for you, I’m a sparkle fan. But you’ll get used to it.” Elwin turned to Keefe. “What do you think of that plan?”

Keefe shrugged—but it didn’t quite hide his relief.

Sophie felt the same way.

“Fine,” Alina huffed, glancing at the other Councillors for confirmation. “We can try that for now. And reassess if needed.”

Noland cleared his throat. “So now we just need to figure out who should mentor the boy. I would offer, but I fear my training won’t be much help, since nothing I do affects emotion.”

“I could—” Oralie started to offer, but Alina cut her off.

“He needs more than just an Empath.”

Oralie rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m aware. Which is why I was going to say that I could talk to Lady Cadence—or Councillor Clarette—and see if either of them would mentor Keefe with me, so he’d have a Polyglot and an Empath.”

Alina tilted her chin up. “I suppose that’s not a terrible idea. But I think he should receive some lessons from me, as well. My ability has some overlaps that should be considered.”

Ro snickered. “Yeah, you two training together sounds like the perfect way to keep Hunkyhair calm.”

Alina smiled, and her voice took on a soft, sugary tone when she told Ro, “Oh, I can be very soothing when I want to be.”

Ro blinked. “Whoa. That’s freaky.”