Keeper of the Lost Cities #3 Everblaze - Thoughts from 4th Reading

This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS from late in the set.  Do not read this post unless you've read ALL of the books that have been published.  You've been warned.

Clues about Brant and fire are in several places in this book.  I noticed most of them on previous readings, including the reference to fire in Brant's love letter on page 89:  "You're the spark, the kindling, the flame that never dies.  The beauty and the wonder of the ever-burning skies." 

This time, I noticed something else.  On page 98, Sophie notices "Brant's strange yellow-orange, bathrobe like shirt."  The color is similar to Fintan's fireproof cape, so this is another clue about Brant.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before:  

Page 132  "Meanwhile you'll heal Fintan?" Wylie spat the name like it was a bad word.  Master Leto stepped closer.  "That information is supposed to be classified."

It's interesting that Leto knows that the information is classified, which means he's connected to the Council.  That's how he knows. 

On page 146, Elwin notices that the scar on Sophie's hand has not faded.  The scar is from when Mr. Forkle injected her with the limbium  

Page 146  "It must sink too deep," she said as Elwin snapped his fingers to form an orange sphere of light around the scar.  He squinted through his iridescent spectacles, turning her hand from side to side.  "But that doesn't make sense."

This reading was the first time I stopped to think about what Elwin says.  He thinks the scar is strange.  I wonder if it has something to do with Sophie's allergy to limbium.  Mr. Forkle doesn't understand why Sophie is allergic to limbium.  Is this a hint to something that will be revealed later?

[This post was written in October.  Now in December, I wonder if Sophie being born to a human surrogate had an impact on her physically.  After all, she received nutrients from her human surrogate via the placenta.  Is this why she has the scar?  Is this why her eyes are brown?]

Page 455  "Could you do what you're asking of him?" she asked Mr. Forkle as she squatted beside Keefe, holding him steady.  "Could you betray your own father?"  "I've done far worse," Mr. Forkle whispered.  "The right road is rarely the easy road.  And no war was ever fought without casualties."  "Is that what this is?" Sophie asked.  "A war?"  "Unfortunately, yes.  A quiet war, to stop a louder one from raging."

Two things:

I've already mentioned that the statement about having "done far worse" refers to Kenric/Forkle hurting Oralie when he faked his death.  

This time, I focused on the word "war."  I thought of the aftermath of Sophie burning the Neverseen's storehouse in #8.5.  

Book 8.5, page 726  "Yes, but those were their attacks," Tiergan reminded her.  "This was ours.  Well… yours.  And it was unprovoked."  "Unprovoked?" Sophie repeated.  "You're kidding, right?"  "No, Sophie—none of us think this is a joke," Grady said quietly.  "And I'm really hoping you don't either.  Because you just turned this into a war."

Sophie is surprised by Tiergan's reaction.  As Sophie explains, her attack was not unprovoked.

Book 8.5, page 726  "This was already a war," she said, turning back to Grady.  "It has been since the moment I was kidnapped.  Actually, no, it started much earlier.  Lady Gisela was already working on her stellarlune thing before Keefe was born.  And they killed Jolie way before that."

Mr. Forkle isn't upset when Sophie burns the storehouse because he also already considered them to be at war.

On page 520, Sophie wonders why the Council held Fintan's healing in a room with a glass ceiling.  She wonders if they chose the tower so that they would be high up, away from the dwarves.  She then wonders if there was "a darker, more sinister reason."

As before, I once again considered whether a Councillor is working for the Neverseen.  But no, it could just be Alvar.  He might have suggested the location, and the Council fell for it.  Speaking of Alvar, he is later told by the Neverseen that he's useless.  Alvar is useless in that I keep forgetting that Alvar is the Council leak.  Alvar doesn't get credit for anything.

Page 569  Sophie forced herself to relax as Mr. Forkle pressed two fingers on each side of her head and closed his eyes.  Two hundred and twenty-nine seconds passed before he released her, his swollen face paler than she'd ever seen.

Mr. Forkle reads Sophie's mind to see what happened with Brant.  He certainly views the memory up until when Brant tells Sophie what he knows.  However, I think it very likely that Forkle views all of the memory up until when Sophie teleports away from Dex.  Even if he didn't, Forkle sees Sophie in the cave without her ability restrictor circlet.  He would have to know that Dex had removed the circlet for Sophie. 

Page 594  "My guess is he force-shifted," Mr. Forkle said, limping toward them from a snowdrift Sophie was sure had been empty a second earlier. 

This passage has always stood out to me.  I even noticed it the first time I read through the set.  I didn't know what it meant, but I was certain that the statement about Forkle not being there a moment before was important.

During my subsequent readings, I wondered if Forkle had just leaped there.  I then considered whether this was the other Forkle.

Page 597  Sophie pointed to the cuff on her wrist.  "I had a little help from Dex."  "In more ways than one, I suspect," Mr. Forkle said, pointing to where her circlet used to be.  "About that—"  "Later," Mr. Forkle told her.

Hmm.  This is Snowdrift Forkle.  It sounds like he didn't know that Sophie had ditched her circlet.  Cave Forkle read Sophie's mind and saw Sophie without the circlet.  It sounds like Snowdrift Forkle and Cave Forkle are the two different Forkles.  This explains why Shannon mentions that Snowdrift Forkle appeared suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.

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Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories