Keeper of the Lost Cities #8 Summary and Observations

Overview of plot (beware, spoilers):

Sophie meets with Mr. Forkle.  He guides her into realizing that the Neverseen are seeking power, and their goal is to topple the Council.  In order to weaken the Council, the Neverseen will first weaken all of the other intelligent species.  They have already made moves against some of them.

Sophie also asks Mr. Forkle for her parents' names, since she is unmatchable.  Mr. Forkle refuses to tell her, since her parents would suffer if the information were released.

Sophie reaches out to Tam telepathically.  Tam informs her that his memories were searched by the Neverseen, so all of their secrets are now known.  Tam also reveals that Gisela wants Tam to kill Keefe.

Sophie confides in Keefe and Ro about her unmatchable status.  Keefe decides to help Sophie find out who her parents are.

The Council appoints Sophie as a Regent in the nobility.  Sophie and the other members of Team Valiant are taken to the Point of Purity for the Prime Sources.

Keefe decides that Sophie's biological father must be Bronte.  Stina suggests that Lady Cadence is Sophie's biological mother.  Team Valiant agrees to look into it for Sophie.

Fitz learns that Sophie is unmatchable.

Nubiti tells Team Valiant that some of the magsidian in Loamnore has been altered by the Neverseen.

Mr. Forkle takes Sophie to see Amy.  Sophie and Amy are given back the memory of when Sophie inflicted on her sister when she was nine.  Mr. Forkle tells Sophie that he needs to reset her Inflicting ability.  Sophie refuses to cooperate, since Mr. Forkle won't tell her who her parents are.

Maruca reveals that she is a psionipath.

Bronte and Oralie visit Sophie.  Bronte informs Sophie that he is not her father.  Oralie acts really weird during the conversation.

Team Valiant meets with King Enki.  The meeting doesn't go well, since the Black Swan had met with King Enki the previous day.  In the aftermath, Sophie agrees to have Mr. Forkle reset her Inflicting.

Biana and Stina learn that Lady Cadence is not Sophie's mother.  Sophie decides that she needs to focus on other things.

Sophie's enhancing is much stronger now that her abilities have been reset.

Mr. Forkle learns that Lady Gisela's human contact in London, Ethan Benedict Wright II, is dead.  Lady Gisela was spotted by a security camera near the time that a bus hit Ethan and his daughter.

Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe sneak away to London after dark to see if they can find a hidden Neverseen path near where Lady Gisela was spotted.  Unexpectedly, Lady Gisela confronts them, and Tam is with her.  Sophie inflicts on Lady Gisela and incapacitates her.  Tam escapes with her.

Sophie and Keefe find Alvar hiding in Candleshade on the 137th floor.  Alvar claims that he is no longer with the Neverseen.  He was blamed for what happened to Umber and Ruy.  Umber is dead, and Ruy's ability was damaged.  Alvar is in bad shape and is very bitter towards Fitz.

Sophie and Keefe agree to let Alvar go if he tells them what he knows.  Alvar suggests that Keefe will manifest another ability, and that Lady Gisela will try to trigger it.

Oralie helps Sophie learn how to turn off her enhancing automatically so that no one can use it against her.  During the session, Sophie realizes that Oralie is her biological mother.

Fitz is furious that Sophie let Alvar go.  Next, Fitz learns that Sophie knows who one of her biological parents is.  He's relieved until Sophie gets him to understand that she can never reveal the secret.  Sophie will remain unmatchable, and the match is very important to Fitz.  He breaks up with Sophie.

Sophie informs Mr. Forkle that she won't continue searching for her parents and that she won't reveal what she knows.

Lady Gisela leaves Sophie a note, telling her to come to Loamnore for a meeting.  At Loamnore, Lady Gisela sparks the change that will result in Keefe manifesting another ability.

Oralie and Sophie plan to look at Oralie's cache.

Please visit the following page for a link to my previous post about this book.

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories

Page 3:   "You look confused," Mr. Forkle said, and the lilt of his tone made Sophie wonder if his lips were twitching with a smile..."

Page 4:   "One of them," Mr. Forkle confirmed, winking as he shuffled his ruckleberry-bloated body closer to the door.

Page 591:  Mr. Forkle grinned.

Mr. Forkle is starting to come alive.  He's becoming more personable, a little more like... Kenric.  These are clues for the reader.

Page 5:   "Watchward Heath is protected by five different kinds of security.  And only six people in the world know how to find it.  Well, seven now, given Miss Foster's knack for teleporting."

Who are the six?  Obviously, Forkle, and I assume also the other four members of the Collective.  That's five.  Is one of the six Oralie?  She definitely knows how to contact Forkle, and she may know about the Watchward Heath office.

Page 27:   "I'm sorry, Miss Foster."  His eyes stayed focused on his pathfinder as he locked the crystal into place.  "I can't tell you what you want to know."

Mr. Forkle stays as detached as he can, but in scenes like this one, it's apparent that he's struggling.  He's keeping his eyes focused away from Sophie as he denies her request.  This is hard for him.

On page 151, Emery tells Team Valiant that the Council has set up a meeting with King Enki and that this is "a meeting the Black Swan would never be able to properly arrange, regardless of what they might claim."  This is hilarious, since at the meeting, King Enki is annoyed because he had just met with the Black Swan.  It looks like Emery was wrong.

Page 540:   Dex snorted.  "You want Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe to do trust exercises together."  "I think it would be very enlightening," Mr. Forkle agreed.  "Oh, it'll definitely be that," Dex said with a particularly huge grin.  "Can I, uh, be there when you do? he asked Sophie.

Ha.  Forkle knows exactly how enlightening these trust exercises will be.

Page 678:   Against her will, her mind flashed to the look on Oralie's face the moment they'd both realized it had been a success.  She'd looked so genuinely happy and proud and—  "Hey, are you okay?" Fitz asked, stepping closer and pivoting with Sophie as she tried to turn away.  "I'm fine!" she said with a notable squeak to her voice, blinking hard—but not hard enough to catch all of her tears.

My take on the Oralie situation is that Sophie is angry at Oralie because of how very much she likes Oralie.  If only!  If only Sophie had known Oralie was her mother and could have been close to her years before.  Sophie is angry and resentful because of how much she's missed out on.  She can never get that back.  I believe that eventually Sophie and Oralie will be close.  It's going to take time.