Forbidden ~ after unlocked

Chapter 7 - Sophie

Sophie realized three important facts a lot slower than she should have.

The first was that right under the word "Stellarlune," was a horrifyingly familiar symbol—two crescents forming a loose circle around a star. She had only seen that twice before; on the letter Lady Gisela made Keefe deliver to the human in London, and on the note tied to the baby alicorns—also from Lady Gisela—telling them to meet her in Loamnore. At first Sophie had thought it was just another one of the Neverseen's signs like the Lodestar symbol, but apparently it had a deeper meaning behind it.

Sophie rubbed her temples, trying to calm down the mental hurricane mixing up thoughts in her brain.

The second thing she remembered was that Kenric didn't know what stellarlune was, at least according to the memory in Oralie's cache. He had been questioning Fintan about it, and her biological mother had been there to make sure he wasn't lying. But Fintan told them he didn't know what it was. So how did Kenric find out about it? And why was it so important?

That triggered the third thing Sophie realized. Where were the memories Kenric had taken away from Oralie? She thought Fintan's interrogation would have been a part of one of the Forgotten Secrets, considering there was a gap in Oralie's memory regarding what happened. Instead, they got some old scroll that said...

Sophie was about to read further when Oralie grabbed the cache and held it behind her back, out of reach.

"Hey!" Sophie protested, standing up. "What are you doing?"

"I need to make sure you're prepared before we read any further. This is a Forgotten Secret. It was erased from our minds for a reason. We don't know what Stellarlune is, what it does, or how dangerous it is. Or how it's connected to Elysian."

Elysian.

Another confusing word with no meaning behind it.

Sophie groaned. "I know the risks. We almost got blown up about two minutes ago! So can I read what it says?"

Oralie was silent for a moment before answering. "No, I'll read it first. When I'm finished I'll summarize the information for you."

"But—"

"Sophie."

She wasn't sure how Oralie just saying her name could have so much authority over her, but somehow it made her back down.

"Fine." Sophie sank into a chair, watching as the Councillor brought the cache to up her face. Sophie squinted to try to read backwards, but it wasn't much use. The only words she could make out were Candesia, shadow, and Elementine.

Several agonizing minutes went by and still Oralie wasn't finished reading. For every moment that passed, the Councillor's face either grew paler or her eyebrows scrunched closer together in confusion.

Sophie counted five-hundred eighty-two seconds in her head and there was still no response from her biological mother. She settled for fiddling with a fraying edge on her tunic, pulling and picking at it until an entire layer of stitching came undone. A long string now hung from her clothing, so Sophie started playing with that. Knotting it, wrapping it around her finger, tugging some more, trying to keep herself occupied. But even that eventually became no use, and she gave in to the temptation of pulling on her eyelashes. There was surely a bald spot on one of her lids by now.

Sophie stared at one of the lashes on her finger, deciding whether or not it was worth it to make a wish. Whenever she was nervous she would pull out an eyelash, so maybe it was okay to hope for something good to happen. With every bad thing, wishing for a good thing. That seemed alright.