“Of course,” Mr. Forkle told her, lowering his shirt back into place. “Definitely one of the top ten most painful things I’ve ever experienced. But that was a price I was willing to pay in order to guarantee that everything we were planning for your sister would be both safe and effective.” His eyes shifted to Sophie. “I know you’re frustrated by the guesswork that sometimes comes into play with your abilities, and I wish I knew a way to eliminate that completely. Someday we’ll hopefully get there. In the meantime, I hope this at least proves how far we’re willing to go to ensure your safety.”

It did and it didn’t.

Whatever he’d done to himself—whatever risks he’d taken—still hadn’t spared her from staring down another ‘this could kill you’ decision.

“I don’t understand,” she said, sticking with a safer answer for the moment. “How can your DNA be different right there?”

“The same way that someone’s DNA can be different in a place where they’ve been exposed to intense radiation,” Mr. Forkle explained.

Amy sucked in a breath. “But radiation like that would kill you.”

“It would,” Mr. Forkle agreed. “Or, at the very least, it would certainly make me very, very sick. Which is why our team had to devise a much safer method for our tests. Calla was the one to realize that light was the answer, but we needed something stronger than any of the Sources on their own—or even any of the Sources combined. Something elemental.”

“You used quintessence,” Sophie realized, shivering as her palms remembered the burns she’d suffered after she’d accidentally bottled some of the fifth element during a school assignment. “Wait—does that mean the DNA in my hands—”

“No,” Mr. Forkle cut in. “Those burns were from exposure to the extreme cold of Elementine—not exposure to the quintessence itself. I also had to prepare a sample of my altered DNA and apply it to my skin before we added the quintessence, in order for the exposure to have any lasting effect on my genetics. Plus, Elementine is far too aggressive to be used for that kind of a delicate task. The fusion only succeeded when we used the quintessence from Phosforien.”

“Uh, there are different kinds of quintessence?” Sophie asked, trying to linger on the part of his explanation that didn’t sound like something straight out of a sci-fi/horror movie.

“Of course. Each of the unmapped stars generates a different variation. I thought you knew that.” Mr. Forkle frowned when she shook her head. “Why else would the locations of those five stars be kept secret? The quintessence from Elementine is the least stable, but also the most powerful, which makes it extremely valuable for creating substances that need to be somewhat explosive or all-consuming—like frissyn. The quintessence from Marquiseire is incredibly abrasive, which makes it the best choice when something needs to be broken down on a cellular level—and yet its abundance of shimmer also makes it reflective, which allows it to be the most versatile of all the iterations of the fifth element. I guarantee we’ve only scratched the surface of Marquiseire’s many uses. The quintessence from Lucilliant is the coldest and the darkest, but also the most balanced, which makes it particularly valuable when something needs to be preserved. The quintessence from Candesia is the weakest—almost smoky and sluggish in nature—but it’s also the safest form to turn to, and best for subtle shifts and changes. And Phosforien is the most colorful and vibrant—full of life and energy—which is what made it optimal for our DNA tests.”

He lifted his tunic again, and the flash of colors did remind Sophie of the neon glow she remembered Phosforien having.

“Didn’t you notice how varied each of the leaps were when we sent you and Mr. Sencen on that rather convoluted journey?” Mr. Forkle asked. “When we were trying to isolate how the Neverseen kept tracking you?”

“I did. But I thought those jars were just light,” Sophie admitted. “Well, four of them, at least. I thought quintessence only came from Elementine.”

His frown deepened. “Strange. I planted details about all of this into your mind years ago—the same time I gave you the location of the unmapped stars and the formula for frissyn. Odd that it didn’t trigger with everything else—and it’s even weirder that it’s not triggering right now, given that we’re actively discussing it.”

“Great,” Sophie mumbled, slumping down on the bed. “Another way I’m malfunctioning.”

“Any error for this would be on my part, not yours,” Mr. Forkle assured her. “There’s no perfect method for implanting memories into someone else’s mind—and I was very concerned about the information triggering too early, especially since I knew you’d be exposed to so many human teachings during your schooling and I wasn’t familiar enough with their curriculum to know what words to avoid. I must’ve hidden certain things too well.”

Amy scooted closer and gave Sophie’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You okay?”

“Oh sure.” Sophie couldn’t tell if the tightness in her chest was from tears she was holding back—or laughter. “Just another typical day in my life as the moonlark. It’s always an adventure—and apparently I’m not the only one here who knows what it’s like to be an experiment.”

“You’re not,” Mr. Forkle agreed, absently rubbing his hip.

And Sophie wanted to keep sulking—but there were still too many important things to discuss. So she forced herself to straighten up and ask, “Does that mean if I enhanced you right now, you’d be able to inflict again?”

“I highly doubt it. As you probably noticed in your memory, the ability only activated for me when I kept failing to get through to you. So I’m assuming adrenaline and desperation were factors. Plus…”

“Plus…?” Sophie prompted when he didn’t finish the sentence.

“Well,” he said, turning back to the window. “This is my own personal theory, so take it with a grain of salt—as humans love to say. But I’ve long been curious about whether your enhancing was also affected by everything that happened to your abilities that day. It’s hard to know, since we didn’t make any of our own tweaks to the power—and it works perfectly well as it is. It’s just that… it must’ve taken a tremendous amount of strength to temporarily trigger an ability hidden in such an insanely small percentage of my DNA. And I can’t help wondering if that means you actually have more to give, and that this new reset—if you choose to do it—will boost your enhancing back up to that level.”

“New reset,” Amy repeated, tugging on Sophie’s arm to make Sophie look at her. “I think I missed that part when I was still recovering from the memory. Is that as dangerous as it sounds?”

“It’s worse,” Sandor told her, with a glare at Mr. Forkle to make it clear he was still bitter about the way his objections had been silenced earlier.

“Then you’re not going to do it, are you?” Amy asked.

“I don’t really have a choice,” Sophie admitted. “If I don’t let them reset me, I’m stuck with a broken ability—or two broken abilities, apparently.”