Huh… I don’t really know much else about him, other than all the stuff about Prentice and Wylie—but none of that really matters for this.

 

Things I know about Squall

 

She’s a Froster and covers herself in a thick layer of ice to hide her identity.

She’s actually Dex’s mom (Juline)—and technically my aunt.

She joined the Black Swan after she had the triplets and saw how much scorn they were going to grow up with (unless something changed).

She lied to her family to hide what she was doing—especially Dex and Kesler. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes with the Black Swan.

And… that’s pretty much it.

 

Things I know about Blur

 

He’s a Phaser and only lets himself partially re-form, so all I can see are blurry splotches of color sort of shaped like an elf.

One time, I did get a slightly better glimpse of him, and I could tell he was skinny with full lips and round cheeks. But I still didn’t recognize him.

Wow. That’s all I know about him—though I have a few theories for who he might be…

 

Things I know about Wraith

 

He’s a Vanisher, so all I ever see is his floating silver cloak.

According to Della, making the body disappear while leaving the clothes visible is called a “layered vanish,” and it’s super hard to do.

Huh. That’s all I know. I don’t even have any theories about his identity!

 

Things I know about Project Moonlark

I’m the moonlark—which means I get to have lots of people trying to kill me.

Calla came up with the name for the project because of the way moonlarks treat their eggs.

She also helped the Black Swan figure out my genetics, which are mostly based off alicorn DNA. That’s why I have brown eyes and can teleport. (And yeah, it’s hard not to feel like “the horse girl.”)

They chose a lot of the abilities they gave me because they were hoping I’d be able to use them to heal broken minds (since the Black Swan knew some of their members might endure memory breaks—like poor Prentice).

I grew up with humans, partly to make sure no one found me. But mostly so I’d understand humans differently from how other elves understand them. And I guess I do, but… I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.

It’s possible I may end up manifesting another special ability (or more than one—anything’s possible at this point). But I hope not. Five is seriously enough!

My biological mother is Councillor Oralie, which means she lied to me every time she saw me for years (and signed me up for a genetic experiment and then totally abandoned me). I also can’t tell anyone who she is, because then she’d have to resign from the Council, and that would create so much chaos that it could give the Neverseen the opportunity to take control. So, lucky me—I get to be unmatchable!

The Black Swan loves to tell me I have a choice in all of this, and I guess I do for certain things. But it’s not like I can change my genetics. Or everything I’ve gone through. Or the fact that everyone’s expecting me to be this big important THING, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do or how I’m supposed to do it.

Sometimes I wonder if the real reason the Black Swan won’t tell me what they’re planning is because they don’t actually have a PLAN. They just made their little moonlark and are expecting me to figure out the rest. Which, you know, would be pretty terrifying if I’m right. But at the same time… I kinda think it might be better—because if they do have a PLAN, then wouldn’t that mean they also knew exactly what the Neverseen were going to do and could’ve prevented it all from happening in the first place?

 

 

THE NEVERSEEN

 

The Neverseen LOVE using symbols. They might even love them more than the Black Swan loves making swan references. And this is their main one—the creepy white eye that stares at me from the sleeves of their black hooded cloaks. I swear this symbol will haunt my nightmares forever.

 

This is the “Lodestar symbol.” Took us forever to figure out what it was supposed to be and how it worked—and Dex was the one who finally solved it. Each one of those little “rays” is actually a special code that can be used to leap to one of the Neverseen’s hideouts. Unfortunately, by the time we figured that out, they’d abandoned all the hideouts and taken everything important away.

 

I sometimes call this the “Nightfall symbol,” even though it’s really Vespera’s signature. Each one of those swirling lines is actually an elvin rune, spelling out her name. But the symbol was used to mark the entrance to her original Nightfall facility in Atlantis, so calling it the Nightfall symbol is still accurate.

 

Sadly, I have no idea what this symbol is supposed to be—but it was on the letter that Lady Gisela made Keefe deliver to the humans she later murdered, so I’m sure it’s super important. I just hope we figure this one out before it’s too late.

Things I know about the Neverseen

They’re evil.

They hide behind long black cloaks with hoods.

They have some dwarves and ogres on their side—and I wouldn’t be surprised if they also have trolls.

The gnomes hate them, though, and won’t grow them any food. I don’t think they have any goblins helping them either. Let’s hope that doesn’t change.

They want to overthrow the Council and take over as rulers because they think they’re smarter than everybody. And they don’t care if people get hurt or killed in the process.

Mr. Forkle thinks they’re trying to weaken all of the intelligent species to make sure none of them could be victorious in the coming power struggle.

They have a Technopath working with them (but I have no idea who it is).

They have way too many leaders (and we have way too many enemies). I’m hoping that’s going to turn out to be their undoing.

 

Things I know about Lady Gisela

 

She’s Keefe’s mom.

She’s also one of the main leaders of the Neverseen—for the moment, at least.

She’s a murderer. The facts are blurry, but it seems like she killed two humans not long after she had Keefe deliver a letter to them in London. And it’s possible she killed Cyrah Endal—though she claims that was Gethen’s doing (and that Fintan gave the order).

Even if Gethen was the one to murder Cyrah, Gisela was the one who forced Cyrah to make a bunch of special starstones for her, which is why Fintan wanted to get rid of her.

One of those starstones seems to be missing.

Fintan and Brant had Gisela locked away in an ogre prison, which left a bunch of scars on her face (though she’s gotten rid of those somehow—and it makes her skin really tight and strange).

After she fought her way back to the top, she basically forced Vespera to work with her. So it’s probably only a matter of time before there’s another huge power struggle. I’m kind of hoping for that, actually.

She’s a Polyglot—and excellent at mimicking.

It doesn’t seem like she has a second ability (like most Polyglots do), but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hiding something.