The KOTLC ANALYSIS Project

EVERBLAZE - ANALYSIS PROJECT (KOTLC III)

54. The next day everyone goes to the inauguration for Magnate Leto as the new Foxfire principal. After Magnate Leto's been made the principal officially, the Council starts making a speech about Sophie's punishment. They ask for her to come up to the stage, then announce (quite stupidly) that they are making capturing and stopping the Black Swan their main goal. Then the Council placed a ability restrictor on Sophie's head, and our girl passes out in pain.
55. When Sophie wakes up she's in Magnate Leto's office. Grady and Edaline are there, as well as Elwin, Tiergan, Alden, and a ghostly pale Magnate Leto. Then there were all the Councillors, and behind them was Dex, who was crying his eyes out.
56. Everyone starts defending Sophie, but Councilor Emery makes it very clear anyone who resists will be sent to Exile. When Alden and Elwin start saying that its clearly dangerous since it made her basically catatonic, and damaged her cells, but Emery just calls Dex over and threatens to send him to Exile if he doesn't adjust the restrictor. Emery says that Sophie's out of control, and this is their only solution, everyone on the Council agrees, except Terik, Oralie, and surprisingly Bronte. Magnate Leto tries to suggest alternatives, but the Council won't even hear him out.
57. Emery makes Dex adjust the ability restrictor, but Dex refuses. Sophie not wanting Dex to be exiled, tells him to just do it. He still refuses to do it, so Sophie tells him that no one would make it as painless as possible for her, as him. Dex finally relents. Grady mesermers the Council but Sophie cuts him off. Dex is trying to explain to Sophie that he never knew it was for her when he made it, and Dex just starts crying even harder, so Sophie hugs him to show him she doesn't hate him.
58. After Dex's adjustments they get ready to test it again. Elwin, Oralie, Terik, and Bronte all turn away-not being able to make themselves watch. It makes Sophie's thoughts muddled and fuzzy, but it's not painful. No one can get through her mental blocking still, so they make Sophie test it. They try to get Oralie to judge her emotions to keep her from lying, but Oralie refuses to have any part in this, as does Tiergan and Alden. Magnate Leto jumps in though, and says one of his strengths as a telepath is knowing if someone is reading his mind. They take Magnate Leto up on his offer, and Sophie tries to read his mind. Sophie feels so slowed, and the pain is almost unbearable, but then she hears Magnate Leto's thoughts saying "If you can hear me, Sophie, do not let them know."
59. Sophie then pretended to faint. When she "recovered" she snuck a quick glance at Magnate Leto, who gave her the smallest of nods. Elwin tries to take it off, but Dex stops him, saying it could cause brain damage if taken off while it's still on. Dex volunteers to take it off right then, but Emery threatens to charge Dex's whole family with treason if he changes anything with the restrictor, (★I feel the need to emphasize how illegal this is in any developed society, let alone one like the elves'), then he shoves Dex out of the office.
60. Sophie gets up, and refuses to be carried. She refuses to let the Council think they've broken her. Right before she leaps away, she sees Magnate Leto wink at her.
61. Sophie basically makes it to her room before she breaks down completely, tears, spiraling, and completely tuning out the outside world. Edaline gives her slumber berry tea, and Sophie gladly takes it. Elwin was worried about her brain, Dex was apologizing over and over, Keefe insisted that circlets were the hot new trend, Biana and Fitz saying they were here for her, and Grady and Edaline begged for Sophie to wake up.
62. Edaline refused to give Sophie anymore sedatives, so Sophie had to confront reality. Apparently Grady had resigned his position as Emissary, and Alden had wanted to, but everyone thought it was best to keep someone on the inside. Grady also seems very serious when he said he wanted to make the Councillors jump off a cliff.
63. When Sophie finally gets out of bed, she goes downstairs to find Biana, Fitz, and Keefe all with scrolls from the Black Swan. The Black Swan had given Keefe a note within hours of Sophie getting the restrictor, and now they had told Keefe to bring the others and come to the moonlark for guidance.
64. The message basically says they need to protect Sophie, so they made this plan, and Keefe, Fitz, and Biana will go to the North side of Mt. Everest, to "Greenboots' Cave," then the Black Swan will give them more information on the plan. It ends with telling them to go see Sophie, so she can decode the message, and then to follow the instructions in three days at sunrise.
65. Grady insists that Keefe has a few goblins at Candelshade incase his dad finds out about the plan, then he makes Fitz and Biana promise that they'll tell Alden about the plan. Finally, Grady makes Sandor agree to go with them to Everest.
66. Dex comes over to see Sophie, and to apologize. He promises he won't create anything for the Council ever again. Then he convinces Sophie to start wearing her panic switch again.
67. Magnate Leto then comes to visit Sophie. He tells Sophie that when she's ready all of her Foxfire session will be there, even her ability sessions, he said Councillor Bronte came to him personally and asked that Sophie's inflicting session not be cancelled, he told him that inflicting doesn't come from the head, but the heart. He asked Magnate Leto to tell Sophie that "It takes a special person to see the darkness inside of someone and not condemn them." Magnate Leto then gives her a really wise peptalk. (Like someone else we know . . .)
68. Sophie finally figures out how to decode Jolie's notebook, using the compact mirror she can read the reversed Black Swan Cipher. Sophie discovers that Prentice—Beacon of the Gold Tower at the time—had been the one to recruit Jolie into the Black Swan, though before Prentice had been successful the Neverseen had started trying to recruit Jolie too. Jolie confronted Prentice about the notes the Neverseen had sent