Moonlark Turned Evil

9: A New Threat

Another short chapter, sorry. This one's kinda like a filler chapter that's sort of important for stuff in the future.

"They're called what?" Sophie asked.

"Elys," Alvar repeated.

She covered up her laugh with a cough. "That sounds like a rip-off version of elves!"

"Apparently they use magic," Glimmer added.

Sophie stopped laughing, clearing her throat. "Glim, magic is an urban legend. It's a fairy tale humans made up to make sense of things they couldn't explain."

"No, I'm serious," the Flasher insisted. She pulled several photos from an envelope and dropped them onto the table.

Ruy (and Glimmer, since the two of them lived together) had received a message from Lady Gisela about a mysterious race called the Elys. They had immediately called Alvar and Sophie over for a meeting, saying it was important. But magic? Seriously?

Sophie walked over to the table and picked up one of the photos. It was a clear image of a woman with prominently pointed ears, long silver hair, and glowing gold eyes.

"She looks like an elf from Lord of the Rings," Sophie said, glancing up. "I don't really see where the magic is, though. Unless you're counting the eyes. The eyes are definitely creepy."

"The wall, Soph," Ruy said patiently.

Sophie looked back at the photo. Beside the woman, scribbled in white chalk across the wall beside her, was a complex circle with lines crisscrossing each other. It looked kind of like those circles for summoning demons that humans used to do who knows what. Except that the lines were glowing. And so were the latin words hidden inside the circle.

A closer look at the woman revealed that she was holding a piece of chalk.

"We can't just decide that she can do magic by saying, 'oh she has a piece of chalk and can draw demon summoning circles'," Sophie said, tossing the photo back onto the table. "Besides, who named them Elys? It's ridiculous."

"They did," Glimmer said. "Lady Gisela received a message from their leader, Queen Ilith. Apparently she's declaring war on the elves."

"Oh joy," Sophie said sarcastically. "Is this the moment where all the elves go mega power and team up and defeat the invaders with the power of friendship? Because there is no way I am ever working for the Council, let alone the Black Swan." She paused. "Oh wait, Queen Whatever-her-name-is is probably targeting us because we're so divided. I see, I see. She's pretty smart. I think we'd get along well."

"That's not the point, Sophie," Alvar said. "We. Are. At. War."

"I'm just messing with you." Sophie leaned against the wall again. "I bought the magic from the very start because I've met an Elys before."

Glimmer almost fell over. "You what?!"

"When I was younger," Sophie reflected, "I think I was 8? Just after you came to the Guild, Glim. Anyway, Gisela sent me on this mission to get information on a certain thing I can't tell you about. The informant was Elys—one of the Queen's favored people, actually. He was pretty nice. Looked just about the same as this woman, actually." Sophie gestured to the photo. "Long white hair, pointy ears, glowing eyes."

"How dangerous do you think they could be?" Glimmer asked.

Sophie shrugged. "No idea. Tell me if anything major happens, because I'm at school and out of the loop." She rolled her eyes. "You all have your radio thingys, right?"

The three of them nodded.

Sophie sighed. "Well, I'll leave the rest to you. I have to get back before someone finds out I'm not in my room."

Several days later, the Elys still hadn't made any moves, and everyone was beginning to get nervous.

The silence meant that Queen Ilith was waiting for the right moment to storm Eternalia, the elvin capital, and do whatever it was that she wanted to do.

Probably.

"Hey Foster," Keefe greeted, falling into step beside her as she turned the corridor.

"Hi Keefe."

"Do you have any plans for this evening?" he asked in an undertone.

Sophie shook her head, glad Gisela had left her with a free day. The last week had been a nightmare with missions at night, and then having to act as the Moonlark in the day. Luckily for her, after the Queen-Ilith-is-waging-war announcement, Gisela had postponed all missions.

Well, it was more like 'all excluding Sophie's main mission'.

"Great." Keefe winked. "See you at Havenfield then."

She nodded. "See you."

She missed the look of jealousy Fitz Vacker shot at both of them as he walked by.

Keefe sped up, turning right at the end of the corridor—most likely heading to a ditching spot. 

Sophie was tempted to follow him.

Her next class was something she was both dreading and looking forward to.

Her Telepathy session with Sir Tiergan—also known as Granite, of the Black Swan's Collective.