Overview of plot (beware, spoilers):
Biana becomes a Vanisher.
Sophie tries to heal Brant, who resists and says that he doesn't want to be healed.
Sophie inflicts on Bronte at his request during their Inflicting session. The session ends badly.
Sophie is ordered to heal Fintan. Somehow all of the citizens know, so the Council must have a leak. Sophie heals Fintan, and he sets the tower on fire with Everblaze. Both Fintan and Kenric are killed in the fire.
At Kenric's planting, Sophie attempts to enter the ogre king Dimitar's mind. He senses it and declares that the ogre treaty with the elves has been violated. Sophie now must face the consequences of her rash decision.
The Black Swan also has a leak. Somehow, the rebels were able to follow Sophie and Keefe to the Black Swan's hideout when Mr. Forkle fixed Sophie's abilities. The Black Swan attempts to find the leak by having Sophie and Keefe leap to multiple locations via the light of the unmapped stars. The rebels are able to follow them.
Dame Alina is appointed as Councillor, and Master Leto replaces her as principal of Foxfire Academy.
Sophie and Keefe request a meeting with Mr. Forkle. The request is denied.
Sophie goes through Jolie's things, finding love letters from Brant.
Sophie learns that some dwarfs have disappeared mysteriously.
Mr. Forkle finally meets with Sophie and Keefe. He informs them that Keefe is the Black Swan's leak. Keefe and Sophie realize that the Sencen family crest, given to him by his dad, must be contaminated with aromark. They believe that Lord Cassius is part of the Neverseen.
Sophie learns that Jolie was working for the Black Swan.
The Council vows to track down every member of the Black Swan and punish them. They place an ability restrictor on Sophie's head. The restrictor causes intense pain, torturing Sophie. Dex is horrified that his invention was used against Sophie.
Only three Councillors appear to support Sophie: Terik, Oralie, and Bronte.
All of Sophie's friends, family, and allies turn against the Council. Grady resigns as emissary. Alden considers resigning but decides to stay so that they will have someone on the inside.
Sophie realizes that Brant is the pyrokinetic who killed Jolie. Grady is devastated. She and Grady confront Brant, who informs them that Sophie's friends have walked into a trap at Mount Everest.
Sophie goes to Mount Everest to warn the Black Swan. Keefe is surprised to see his mother, Lady Gisela, working with the rebels. His father is not involved.
Sophie and her friends decide to join the Black Swan. They have the full support of Alden, Della, Grady, and Edaline.
Please visit the following page for a link to my previous post about this book.
Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories
On page 13, we learn that no match for Gethen can be found in the Council's database of elves. Is Gethen someone in disguise? Have his registry records been deleted? Something is odd here.
From page 66: She'd felt [Fintan's] fury toward the Council and knew he would stop at nothing to take them down..."
The Council made a big mistake by ordering the memory break on Fintan.
Page 185: Fitz always seemed intimidated around Tiergan—probably because Tiergan used to hate the Vackers... But a lot had changed once Tiergan saw how deeply the guilt had affected Alden.
Tiergan was hostile towards Alden in the first book, but now he gets along with Alden.
Stop reading NOW if you have only read the series up through to this book. The rest of this post contains some major plot spoilers from later books in the set.
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On page 133, Sophie notices that Leto has "ancient eyes." On page 447, Forkle's eyes are described as "somehow impossibly ancient." No other characters have eyes described as ancient in this particular book. This is a clue pointing to Leto and Forkle being the same elf, which we learn to be true in the next book.
I am certain that Kenric is not dead and that he is Forkle/Leto, as detailed in my past posts. Leto is very emotional when he says that he doesn't have a wife, as if he yearns for someone. That someone is Oralie. This is a clue pointing to Leto being Kenric.
On page 218, Kenric says, "You can do this." This really stands out, since in Book 2 on page 141, Dex tells Sophie that Mr. Forkle had said in Paris, "You can do this, Sophie." I mentioned how Leto and Forkle are described as having "ancient eyes" as a means of drawing a connection between them. We learn in book 4 that they are one and the same. We don't know yet about Kenric and Forkle/Leto, but similar phrases have been uttered by the characters, no doubt as clues.
If Kenric is Forkle/Leto, then there are two Kenrics. I believe that the Kenric who was in the Inflicting session with Bronte is the surviving Forkle. When Kenric is upstairs with Bronte waiting for Sophie, Leto is downstairs. On page 210, Leto takes a good look at Dex's ring and the scar on Sophie's hand. I suspect that he hadn't seen the scar before, so he is the late Forkle. We know that the scar was caused by the surviving Forkle, who is Kenric upstairs with Bronte.
The Kenric in the Inflicting session seems to cover for himself when he mentions how Inflicting works.
Page 215: "I believe the first step is to identify the emotion you want
to unleash," Kenric offered quietly. "At least, that's what I remember
studying."
He added that last part to cover. The surviving Forkle is the one who tested the Inflicting genes to make sure that they were safe for Sophie. This is another clue that the Kenric in the Inflicting session is the surviving Forkle.
On page 328, Alden says, "I hope they'll elect a Councillor as compassionate and considerate as Kenric."
Someone compassionate and considerate would be likely to want to help his world by becoming a rebel leader.
On page 332, Sophie recalls seeing Fintan wearing a robe in one of his memories. From it, she learns that the rebels are the Neverseen. I now realize that Fintan must have been with the Neverseen for a long time. He might have founded the Neverseen.
On page 443, Keefe mentions that his mom mimics his dad all the time. This is a clue about Lady Gisela pretending to be Lord Cassius that I missed even on my second reading of the books.
Keefe tries to get Sophie to see that what her genetic parents are potentially like doesn't define her.
Page 444: "But if they tell you that your mom is the most open, go-with-the-flow person they've ever known, is that suddenly going to make you stop being so stubborn or keeping so many secrets?" "I doubt it," Sophie admitted. "And what if they told you your dad was an even bigger rule breaker than me—not that that's possible. Are you suddenly going to start ditching class and pranking Dame Alina—or, Magnate Leto, or whoever our principal is?" "No." "Right. Because our family doesn't decide who we are. We decide who we are."
Huh. I think this is both an inside joke and a clue. Oralie is a "go-with-the-flow person," and it is revealed in a later book that Oralie is Sophie's genetic mother. We still don't know for sure about Sophie's genetic father, but I believe that he's Kenric/Forkle/Leto. He would indeed be "an even bigger rule breaker" than Keefe.
Page 455: "Could you betray your own father?" "I've done far worse," Mr. Forkle whispered.
This, I believe, is Forkle referring to what he just did to Oralie when he and his twin faked Kenric's death.
I've been wondering what Forkle thinks about Sophie breaking the treaty by attempting to probe Dimitar's mind.
Page 458: "But after your incident with King Dimitar"—he muttered something under his breath that started with "you kids"—"we've put that plan on hold."
That's the closest we get to knowing what he thinks.
On page 494, Magnate Leto says, "I might not be a Councillor, but I am a Telepath..." It's interesting how the Council isn't snootily telling anyone else that they aren't a Councillor. Just Leto, who very recently was Councillor Kenric.
On page 529, we learn that Prentice had recruited Jolie for the Black Swan.
On page 530, Jolie's journal stated that strangers told her things like "The fall is never seen before the rising" and "The bold and brave are never seen." This was the first time I noticed the words "never seen" in those statements, which obviously refer to the Neverseen.
Page 544: Why had Brant been knocked back to safety, while Jolie had been surrounded? It only made sense if he sparked the fire.
This was about Brant, but I'm thinking of the Everblaze sparked by Fintan. We learn in a later book that Fintan didn't die in the Everblaze. The above statement lets us know why.
Page 608: "The safest place for you right now is with a group who knows how to hide. Dex's parents agree as well."
Of course they do. Or at least, of course Dex's mom, Juline, does since she's with the Black Swan.
Here are some random thoughts.
Alina was very supportive of Sophie at first when Alina was principal. When she becomes a Councillor, she changes completely. I wonder if her initial support was just for show in order to gain favor.
I have mulled over why Kenric faked his death. I first thought he did it so that he would have more time to be with the Black Swan. But there were two twins, so I don't think that was it. Oralie could be the reason why; he might have felt that he needed to let go of her. Also, it might just be that a dead Kenric would never come under suspicion. The Council was trying to figure out Forkle's identity. Kenric's registry feed had to have anomalies. A dead Kenric's registry feed would never be checked by the Council.
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