Exile

Sophie, Dex, and Grady track a sasquatch, accompanied by Sophie’s goblin bodyguard, Sandor. A rustling sound provokes him to lift her off the ground, annoying Sophie, but it’s only Grady, her father. Sandor wants to take Sophie home, but Grady needs her. As she possesses exceptional telepathy skills, her ability to “track thoughts to their exact location” (7) is essential.

Sophie picks up the creature’s thoughts, impressing Dex, who envies her talent. He’s a Technopath but has not revealed his talent, hoping a “better” one will manifest. Having more than one talent is unusual, but Sophie is also an Inflictor, a talent she wishes she could give up. Sophie leaves Grady and Dex behind to follow the creature into a clearing.

She finds not a sasquatch but an alicorn, a silver-haired, winged horse with a horn of white and silver. The alicorn is skittish, and Sophie calms her by repeatedly transmitting the words “friend” and “safe” along with images of herself caring for other animals. The complexity of the alicorn’s mind and the intensity of her emotions surprise Sophie. Reading her mind is like reading that of an elf.

Elves have one male alicorn and have been searching for millennia for another. According to Grady, a female alicorn is “the find of a lifetime” (14). They can’t let her get away. Sophie feels the alicorn’s loneliness and is surprised when she transmits the word “friend” back to Sophie. She allows Sophie to approach her but refuses Grady’s attempt. Ignoring Dex and Grady’s objections, Sophie leaps her back to Havenfield.

When they arrive, the alicorn screams and takes to the skies. Dex, Grady, and Sandor arrive after her, the latter two angry with Sophie. She puts off a confrontation by noting that she must calm the alicorn before she flies away. The plantlike gnomes who work the grounds fly into action, already working to build an enclosure for her.

Later, when the alicorn panics at the prospect of being moved, Sophie assures her that she’ll be safe, and she consents. When Sophie wonders what the alicorn’s name is, she transmits it to Sophie in her own language. Using her new linguistic ability, triggered during her kidnapping, Sophie translates it as “Silveny.” That evening, as Sophie gets into bed with Iggy, her pet imp, and Ella, her blue elephant plushy, she worries that she’ll never escape the Black Swan.

Sophie wakes from a nightmare worrying about the Black Swan. She looks at her human family in her spy ball, finding both comfort in their happiness and grief that their memories of Sophie’s existence were erased. She tries to see Mr. Forkle, but he’s unknown. Sophie retrieves her memory log, hoping to find clues to the secret information Forkle planted in her mind.

When examining her later, Elwin notices the dark circles under her eyes but says everything is normal. Suddenly, she feels that Sylveny is in danger and rushes to her enclosure to find three hooded figures in black attempting to drag her away.

The hooded figures are the Heks family: Vika, Timkin, and their daughter, Stina, a classmate who dislikes Sophie. They intend to take over Silveny’s rehabilitation, claiming to have the Council’s support. Grady objects, and they trade veiled insults about social status. Sophie tells them she can feel Sylveny’s emotions, and she’s in pain. Alden arrives with Biana, Fitz, and Keefe. The Hekses defer to him but reject Sophie’s claims to be communicating with the alicorn, claiming animals are “not intelligent” (36, italics in original). Alden objects; everyone must respect Silveny’s wishes. The alicorn will stay at Havenfield with Sophie, who is uniquely equipped to rehabilitate her.

Calling Sophie a “freak,” the Heks leave. Her friends comfort and banter with her, and she and Fitz speak telepathically, a unique connection between them that Sophie appreciates but that makes Keefe jealous. Silveny sends her warm, calming waves. When Keefe asks to fly her, Silveny is eager.

Alden wants Grady to be an Emissary but understands when Grady refuses, saying the alicorn “could solve everything” (37, italics in original). Later, Sophie plans to join him and Edaline to visit their daughter Jolie’s grave.

Before setting off, Grady gives her a brooch with the Ruewen family crest. She’s part of his family now. Only elves are permitted in the Wanderling Woods, where they’re memorialized, so Sandor must stay behind, but Grady brings a weapon.

When Sophie looks for Edaline to tell her they’re ready, she finds her in Jolie’s room. Edaline is pleased to see Sophie wearing the family crest, noting that it makes her look more like Jolie, which leaves Sophie conflicted. She discovers Jolie’s spectral mirror, inhabited by Vertina, a novelty piece of programming intended to provide dressing and grooming advice. Edaline notes that Jolie befriended her, visiting her even after she had moved away.

The entrance to the Wanderling Woods bears the legend, “Those who wander are not lost” (48). Sophie recalls The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Grady reveals that it must have been a gift given during the Human Assistance Program before it was banned because so many gifts backfired.

Each tree in the forest is unique because each grows from a seed with the hair of the deceased, absorbing that person’s DNA and enabling the lost to live on. They pass the tree of Cyrah, Prentice’s wife who died after his mind was shattered. Sophie thinks of their son Wylie, an older student at Foxfire, and wonders what he thinks of her. Sophie decides to give Grady and Edaline some time alone but gets lost in the process. Suddenly, she notices two saplings and is shocked to see her and Dex’s names on the white stone grave markers.

Sophie is horrified by the trees and by how plain and nondescript hers is compared to Dex’s. She notices a charm bracelet on hers and takes it. Grady and Edaline find her and explain that when she was kidnapped and presumed dead, they held a funeral and planted the seed of the tree mixed with a hair from her hairbrush. After she was found alive, they didn’t want to kill the tree simply because it had been planted by mistake. Sophie asks if she can keep the charm bracelet, and they agree. However, when they inspect it, they notice a charm that Grady and Edaline hadn’t added, a compass inscribed, “Let the past be your guide” (55), and bearing the mark of the Black Swan.

Sophie has been waiting for the Black Swan to contact her since they rescued her from her kidnappers. The message is written “in their special cipher runes,” which only Sophie can read since they “trained her brain” (56). Grady is angry that they’re manipulating her and wants her to leave the charm behind. Edaline convinces him to allow her to keep it since it holds no inherent danger, but he urges Sophie not to allow them to lead her around with clues as if she’s “their puppet.” They agree to take the charm to Alden, but first they must visit Brandt, Jolie’s fiancé, who was broken by her death. Sophie insists on joining them.

Brandt lives in a windowless stone house that is well-suited to a “poor, reclusive human” (59) than to the ostentatious elves, but its design helps him feel safe from fire. His parents stay away because the guilt they feel could break their minds as Brandt’s guilt has broken his. Grady warns Sophie not to open her mind to his because it could expose her to the same danger.

Brandt is covered with burn scars. Edaline gives him custard bursts she made for him, his favorite treat. He lunges at Sophie and grabs her family crest, saying it belongs to him. He insists that he has seen Sophie before but doesn’t say where. Grady fills him in on the alicorn news. Brandt calls it “a turning point” (64) that will reset the timeline. He tells them he’s tired and lies down to sleep, which is their cue to depart.

Back at Havenfield, Sandor tells Sophie that Dex left a surprise for her. In her room, she finds that Dex fed Iggy a hair-growing tonic, which has left him with bright pink curls, and left her a video message on her iPod, further proof to Sophie of how “cool” his technopathy ability is. She falls asleep wondering where Brandt might have seen her.

Sophie wakes up from a nightmare about Brandt to the sound of Silveny in her mind urgently calling her. She’s shocked that Silveny can transmit directly into her mind, because it’s supposedly impenetrable, and rushes out to check on the alicorn, Sandor at her heels.

Silveny is lonely. When Sophie asks Grady if Silveny can be moved into the Sanctuary with the other alicorn, he replies that they have to first be certain that she won’t try to escape, carries no diseases, isn’t aggressive, and can trust other elves besides Sophie.

Noting that his attempt to mesmerize Silveny failed, Grady turns to Sophie, wondering what “they did to your mind to make it work that way” (71), which causes Sophie to cringe. Relating to her feelings, Grady apologizes. Being a Mesmer makes him powerful and scary to others. It’s both a burden and a gift that can benefit their world. Grady suggests Sophie fly with Silveny, who is thrilled to take her for a ride. However, her abrupt landing sends Sophie into a pile of alicorn manure.

The Councillors arrive just as Sophie lands in Silveny’s “shimmering poop,” and Bronte immediately questions the decision to entrust Silveny’s care to her. Alden declares her worthy, noting her ability to fly with Silveny. Kenric, Sophie’s favorite Councillor, is astonished by her ability to communicate with Silveny, and all are shocked that Silveny can communicate back, even when Sophie is trying to block her. When asked how she found Silveny, Sophie admits it was an accident, prompting everyone to wonder whether their meeting was engineered. Oralie claims that is impossible. The coincidence is nevertheless surprising.

The discovery of Silveny has reset the timeline to extinction, as previously only one alicorn was known to exist. Emery hopes that it “will restore calm and order” as a “symbol of hope and stability” (79). Bronte again objects to entrusting such an important animal to an unknown child whose parents have withdrawn from society, generating rumors of madness. They ask Grady to consider resuming his role of Emissary, and Sophie hopes that he’ll accept in order to help find her kidnappers, but he refuses.

Alden and Bronte argue over who should rehabilitate Silveny. Bronte favors Timkin Heks, whom Alden dismisses as merely being on a “quest for prominence” (82). When Bronte calls Grady selfish for refusing to use his talents to benefit the elvin world, he harshly responds that Bronte knows why he resigned and that he will not allow himself to be bullied, and then he stalks off.

Most of the Councillors agree to leave Silveny with Sophie, but Bronte warns that they’ll closely monitor her progress. Before Alden leaves, Sophie transmits a message to him asking for a private meeting to discuss the Black Swan, intending to show him the charm. Back at the house, she confronts Grady about rejecting his Emissary role and his belief that the Black Swan is an evil organization. He initially attributes it to their secrecy but finally, over Edaline’s objections, admits that the Black Swan killed Jolie.

Sophie recalls Alden telling her Jolie’s death was an accident and struggles to reconcile the Black Swan helping her and Dex when they were kidnapped with Grady’s claim that they’re murderers. He reveals that they tried to recruit him for his skill as a Mesmer, even slipping a note into his cape pocket threatening him. Jolie died three days later.

Grady went to the Council, but the Black Swan was too good at covering their tracks, and Grady was dismissed as crazed by grief. He resigned because he wanted nothing to do with “such a blind, incompetent organization” and still refuses to have anything “to do with anyone connected to the Black Swan” (90). Sophie runs from the room, distraught: She’s their creation and will always be connected to them.

Edaline follows her and assures her that Grady’s outburst has nothing to do with Sophie or his love for her. Grady needs his anger against the Council to ward off grief that would drive him mad. She urges Sophie to spend the day with Dex to get her mind off things.