Keeper of the Lost Cities Forgotten Secret #7 Map of Elysian

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.

I have included all of my past comments on this Forgotten Secret.  I will indicate any additional thoughts by adding comments in brackets.

Page 267   And the more she studied the symbol, the more her brain seemed to prickle with a strange sort of familiarity.  Somehow she knew she'd seen it before—even though she was also positive that she hadn't.  Which could only mean one thing.  A long time ago—before she knew about elves or caches or the giant conspiracies she was caught up in—the Black Swan planted that same image into her brain, along with all their other secrets.

Page 270   It'd been years since she'd triggered any of the secrets that Mr. Forkle had planted inside her brain.  In fact, she often forgot that there was still information tucked away.  And sometimes she worried the reason the memories never popped up was because the Black Swan hadn't properly prepared her for the problems they were facing.

Page 271   If the Black Swan knew the symbol was important, why hide it in her mind and never bother telling her anything about it?  What good did that do for anyone?

Here we find out that Kenric had a map of Elysian, which he placed in his cache.  But of course Forkle had the map as well (which is just more evidence that Kenric is Forkle), and he implanted the map in Sophie's mind.

[Elysian scares Kenric, which is evident from the conversation with Oralie in Forgotten Secret #4.  He cached the memory because of its importance, but possibly also because it scared him.]

Page 293   "Then why would Kenric save the map in his cache?" Sophie argued.  "Probably the same reason I gave the memory to you."  Mr. Forkle turned away, staring out the window, where Edaline was now riding the Spinosaurus around one of the pastures.

Mr. Forkle knows why, and he speaks the truth when he says it was for the same reason.  I also find it noteworthy that after making this statement Forkle turns and stares out the window in kind of an evasive action.

On page 253 in Forgotten Secret #5, Kenric says, "My training as a Washer has taught me how to hide memories in a very specific way, where the person holding them remains completely unaware—but the memories can easily be triggered if the need arises."

The key word from the above statement is triggered.

On page 270, Sophie thinks, "It'd been years since she'd triggered any of the secrets that Mr. Forkle had planted inside her brain."  There's that key word again: triggered.  Sophie has all the clues she needs, but she's got to put them together to form the answers.

All of this taken together, I believe that Kenric is alive, that he's Forkle, and that he's Sophie's biological father.

From Keeper of the Lost Cities #9 More on the Forgotten Secrets:

Kenric placed a map of Elysian in his cache.  Forkle placed a map of Elysian in Sophie's brain.  When Sophie sees Forgotten Secret #7, it triggers the memory of the map placed in her brain by Forkle.  This is such an interesting coincidence.

I want to go back to Forgotten Secret #4.  Both Oralie and Kenric are present for all of Forgotten Secret #4, but one part went in Kenric's cache and the other part in Oralie's cache. 

One part of Forgotten Secret #4 reveals Oralie's role in Project Moonlark, as in it reveals that Oralie is Sophie's mother.  Most of the secrets in Kenric and Oralie's caches pertain to the Black Swan and Project Moonlark in some fashion.  Kenric placed the part pertaining specifically to Oralie in Oralie's cache.  Everything else went in Kenric's cache.

If Oralie's cache provides evidence that Oralie is Sophie's mother, then we can conclude that Kenric's cache provides evidence that Kenric is Sophie's father/Forkle.  In short:

FS #1 Kenric counts the seconds, an odd habit that he shares with Sophie.
FS #2 Kenric verifies that he and Oralie are number one matches for Project Moonlark.
FS #3 Kenric is a good liar like Forkle and disappeared during a dinner, probably to change places with his secret twin.
FS #5 Kenric recruits Prentice to be Keeper of the Black Swan.
FS #7 Kenric had the same map that Forkle implanted in Sophie's brain.

These coincidences plus everything else in these memories all add up to the same conclusion.

All of my past Keeper posts are linked from this page:

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories