Overview of plot (beware, spoilers):
Sophie begins school. She struggles with alchemy and attempts to cheat on her midterm exam by reading Lady Galvin's mind. Sophie confesses and is assigned detention. Sophie meets Keefe.
In The Universe, Sophie is given an assignment to map six stars and bottle the light from a seventh star. The assignment gets Sophie into trouble, since her bottled light is from an unmapped star. A Tribunal is ordered, and Sophie is fortunately allowed to continue to attend school.
Dex gives Sophie an elixir to help her with exams. It contains limbium and nearly kills Sophie.
Sophie uses fire to warm the flareadon, Gildie, which upsets Grady and Edaline, since Jolie was killed by fire. Grady and Edaline decide to cancel their adoption of Sophie.
The Black Swan sends Sophie everything she needs in order to bottle the Everblaze that is burning around the world. Sophie flies with Gildie and captures some Everblaze. Another Tribunal is ordered.
Sophie learns that Alden ordered Fitz and Biana to be friends with her. She's devastated. She hides in a nearby cave. She and Dex are abducted by the Neverseen.
Someone rescues Sophie and Dex from the Neverseen but leaves them in Paris. The Neverseen catch up to them again. Sophie inflicts on the Neverseen and leaps the two of them away.
Sophie calls out to Fitz telepathically. She and Dex are rescued. It takes two weeks for Sophie to recover. Sandor is assigned as her bodyguard.
Sophie learns that Fintan didn't kidnap her. She was instead kidnapped by an unregistered pyrokinetic.
Fintan claims he didn't start the Everblaze.
Sophie realizes that Mr. Forkle, her old neighbor, was the elf who rescued her. He probably triggered her new abilities. In addition to her new abilities of Inflictor and Polyglot, Sophie now also has enhanced concentration.
We learn that the Council decided to create a human Sanctuary 60 years ago [from 2011] because of weapons humans had developed. This would have been in the early 1950s and a reaction to the atomic bombs of World War II. Human contact was forbidden.
The Tribunal is held for Sophie. Sophie is allowed to continue at Foxfire despite her failing grades. Sophie decides to continue living with Grady and Edaline.
As I read through this book for the third time, I highlighted additional passages that I found were of interest. This post includes my new highlights as well as some of my previous ones. All of my previous highlights can be found in my original post about this book, which is linked on the following page.
Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories
Page 41: Mr. Forkle loved to start sentences with the words "you kids." He was old and smelled like feet and was always complaining about something.
Page 262: Ruckleberries were nasty, stinky little berries that brought impurities to the surface of a metal. They also made your skin wrinkle like an elderly human's if any of the juice got on you—and you'd smell like feet all day—so most alchemists used other methods to purify metal.
This is what I love about these books. Shannon Messenger has placed so many clues through the books. She describes Mr. Forkle early in the book, and then she places the clue as to why he is wrinkled and smells like feet later in the book. This is before we have any idea that Mr. Forkle is an elf in disguise. Later, the characters figure it out.
Page 467: "That's exactly what someone looks like when they've eaten ruckleberries. See the way the skin looks stretched? The body swells and wrinkles as the berries digest." "He did smell like feet," Sophie remembered.
Stop reading NOW if you have only read this first book. The rest of this post contains some plot spoilers from later books in the set.
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Tiergan intrigues me. We learn in Book 4 that he is part of the Black Swan's Collective. At this point, we have no idea. His reaction to meeting Sophie is interesting.
Page 91: Tiergan spun toward her and his eyes did a quick inventory, widening when they locked with hers.
Page 91: The way Tiergan was staring at her—like he'd just watched someone kill his favorite puppy—was officially weirding her out.
Page 92: "Being a Telepath around humans is quite a burden. I'll bet you've had terrible headaches and heard all kinds of things you didn't want to hear."
Page 92: He frowned and looked away, mumbling something she mostly didn't understand. But she thought she caught the word "irresponsible."
I first thought that Tiergan doesn't approve of Forkle's methods, since he calls placing Sophie with humans "irresponsible." More likely, he's hiding his involvement in the Black Swan by deriding their actions.
Page 183: She waited for Tiergan to tell her what to do, but he just stood there, studying her superintently, like he was searching for something.
Page 189: "Only like the most famous telepathy Mentor ever. He retired when his friend Prentice ended up in exile—it was like a protest or something."
Page 204: "Stina still hadn't manifested a special ability, so it would kill her to know Sophie was a Telepath—being trained by the greatest telepathy Mentor ever.
I had forgotten that Tiergan is regarded so very highly as a Telepath.
Page 249: "I will not have this argument again, Tiergan. It was the Council's ruling. I had no choice but to obey." "There's always a choice," Tiergan insisted quietly. Sophie knew they were talking about Prentice, and she knew she should be curious.
The Black Swan's Collective are always mentioning that Sophie has a choice.
Page 260: Tiergan was so amazed that the thinking cap had no effect on her, he gave her an automatic 100 percent.
Page 325: "Prentice was a Keeper for a group called the Black Swan, and the information he was hiding was you. Where to find you. I'd warned Prentice there would be consequences for helping the Black Swan, but he didn't listen."
This is interesting. If we take this statement at face value and assume that Tiergan is being completely honest, then Tiergan was not a member of the Black Swan at the time that he warned Prentice. This means that Tiergan joined the Black Swan as a result of what happened to Prentice.
It's also possible that Tiergan was hiding his involvement by warning Prentice. But then Tiergan could also be lying to Sophie; he might never have said anything to Prentice.
Page 326: "A small group of insurgents in our society adopted the name. A brewing rebellion—a black swan—in a society where rebellion isn't supposed to exist." "How do you know so much about them?" she had to ask. "You're not the only one with secrets you'd rather not share."
Tiergan is coming very close to admitting his association with the Black Swan. When I first read this book, I didn't think anything of it. Now, it's obvious.
Page 227: "That sounds like what happens when someone does a brain push—using mental energy for telekinesis instead of core energy. But a brain push is a highly specialized skill only the Ancients can pull off."
Forkle certainly gave Sophie some incredible skills.
Page 293: Something felt familiar, a shadow of an idea, not formed enough to make sense. She poured through her memories, scrounging for the clue she was missing. The pieces clicked. "Elementine."
A memory no doubt planted in Sophie's brain by Forkle.
Page 312: "I was thinking how strange it is that you don't know the name of one of our most common trees—and yet you knew the name and location of a star only a handful of us have ever heard of, and only the Councillors know how to find."
Mr. Forkle just about has to be a Councillor. He knows their secrets.
Fintan is a mystery to me. During this third reading of the books, I paid very close attention to every mention of Fintan.
Page 387: Alden nodded. "Because of Everblaze. I've never really understood the concept, but apparently there's a way to sense cosmic energy in the atmosphere, and if you pull enough of the force together, it will spark Everblaze. Fintan called it the 'fire of the sun on the Earth.' He was the only Pyrokinetic who managed to ignite it and live."
Page 469: "Maybe that's what the Black Swan wanted all along. If you're right—and they're working against these other rebels, who seem to want to destroy the human race—then perhaps they thought it would be wise to have someone who cared about humans on their side."
Gethen is a Washer and tried to erase Sophie's memory during the time that she was kidnapped. He couldn't get past her blocking.
The new names of Sophie's human family are Connor, Kate, and Natalie Freeman. "Connor Kate Natalie Freeman" is an anagram for "one Forkle at a main entrance" which I believe refers to Leto in the Silver Tower.
Fintan was falsely accused and imprisoned for the fires. I can see why he's resentful and spirals out of control.
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