Keeper of the Lost Cities #6 Nightfall - 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.

Lady Gisela explains that the Everblaze fires that Fintan sparked in Book 1 were used to hatch her gorgodons.  After Sophie was abducted near the end of Book 1, Lady Gisela drugged Keefe and took his blood.  She used Keefe's blood to get into Nightfall to put her gorgodons in place.

Page 443  "They cut Alvar with a shamkniv," [Sophie] said, explaining what she knew about the weapon.  "So they must've kicked him out of their order," Tam noted.  "Or that's what they want us to think," Biana warned.  "They had to know we'd come here—so maybe they left him like this to trick us into taking him.  They could be setting the same trap they used with Gethen."

Biana has nailed it.  Alvar is at Nightfall to be found, so that he can later help the Neverseen breach the Vackers' property.

Bronte believes that dwarves loyal to the Neverseen dosed Prentice with Soporodine.  Are we sure it wasn't Alvar?  He's a Vanisher.  Could he have found a way to get to Prentice?

Page 491  "Apparently the Neverseen stole something rather important of hers when they cleaned out her facility—something she called the Archetype."

So that's how the Archetype ends up in the Neverseen's storehouse.

Page 507  Sophie had no idea how he'd pieced so many details together, but clearly she'd been underestimating the strict Councillor.

Bronte is depicted as shrewdly observant.  I believe he's going to figure out that Oralie is Sophie's mother based on how she reacts to Sophie thinking that Bronte is her father.

On page 623, we learn about the missing humans from Vespera's experiments.  It's suggested that Vespera either killed them or kept them captive until they died.  We don't know, and this intrigues me.

I had forgotten that Gisela was helping Sophie so that she could get to Vespera.

Page 764  "All Gethen did was ask Wylie a few questions about Prentice."  Sophie frowned.  "Not about Cyrah?"  "No.  Somehow he knew that Prentice had been healed, and wanted to know how much Prentice remembered."  

How did Gethen know that Prentice had been healed?  The only people present were the kids, the Collective, Alden, Della, Quinlan, and Livvy.  Could one of them be a spy?  Did one of them unwittingly tell someone that they thought was trusted who is instead with the Neverseen?  In later books, Mr. Forkle says that there's a leak in the Black Swan.  Is it one of these elves?

But wait... I remember how the Neverseen knew that Sophie was in San Diego.  It is assumed that Alvar was the leak, and that's probably it.  But what if someone like Quinlan were working for the Neverseen?

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