A/N TYSM for 1.5K reads!! Never thought I'd get there!

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Sophie didn't get to see where the Pathfinder went, but Dark Hearts led her not to one of his hideouts, but to the prison where Blur was kept. He smiled, raising his hand and sent shadows through the bars, unlocking the keyhole without a key. Blur looked up, eyes unfocused and dreamy, and Sophie could feel the strong wave of Telepathic power that Dark Hearts slammed into Blur.

Blur awoke as he remembered his true self and smiled at Dark Hearts. "Master," he whispered, before his smile turned maniacal and he Phased himself through the wall.

Sophie wanted to ask whether Dark Hearts was a Shade, but she felt shadows creeping over her lips, silencing her. Knowing that Dark Hearts was going out of his way to silence her, she decided it just wasn't worth asking.

After that, Dark Hearts covered her eyes in shadows before light leaping to their destination. It was a dark cave with bats hanging from the ceiling, and they shrieked when Dark Hearts entered, flying around him and turning him into a dark mass. But he waved his arms and they parted, covering Sophie instead, and she found the bat wings flapping around her somewhat ticklish.

"Welcome, Sophie, to my humble home," Dark Hearts said quietly, then laughed. "No, of course it's not my home. I know you can Teleport back here with that amazing photographic memory of yours. No point showing you my home. But this, Sophie, is where my DNA laboratory used to be - the place I harnessed Pyrokinetic DNA from Caprise Redek and gave it to you."

Sophie didn't like the way he said he harnessed the DNA from Caprise, as though saying that it was power and he had harnessed power. But she kept her jaw glued shut, letting him do all the talking, and he didn't seem to mind. He explained the wonders of DNA to her even though she couldn't understand half of it, and even Blur seemed kind of blurry-eyed when it was over. 

"Your room is that one," Dark Hearts said, pointing down the corridor. "Your toilet is a bucket, you can tip the contents through the hatch, or you can call in a gnome to do it for you. You are my prisoner, Sophie, but I treat my prisoners reasonably well. Keep your Imparter with you and answer if your friends hail. I will have Blur watch over you. Do not try to kill him."

"She couldn't," Blur snorted, but Dark Hearts sighed.

"Do not be overconfident, Phaser. She could Inflict on you or break your mind and shatter your sanity. She is not a force to be reckoned with, and I don't want you to try. And Sophie? Do cooperate. Good living conditions come under the condition that you must be cooperative and well-behaved. I won't tolerate any rule breaking or attempts on escape."

"And what will you tolerate?" Sophie asked, sneering.

"I will tolerate you. You do know you're quite the handful, don't you, Sophie? Yes, I'll tolerate you and whatever insults you throw at my face. I won't even do anything to you that could result in pain. Like I said, under the conditions that you cooperate. Now go to your room."

She opened her mouth to argue, but he started to remind her about cooperating again and she gave up. She entered the bedroom he had assigned to her. It was relatively plain, and the wallpaper was pale blue, rather boring but still a pleasant color. The room itself had very little furniture, just a gnomish-made bed and a chair, but Sophie was surprised that the bed was gnomish-made at all. Clearly Dark Hearts enjoyed his comforts more than the Neverseen.

She looked around for Blur and could see him slightly lurking behind her chair and sighed. The bucket for doing her business was sitting in the corner, and she was still disgusted by it.

"Any chance I could get a real toilet?" she asked hopefully.

Blur smirked. "Be cooperative."

She could only respond with a sigh.

But Dark Hearts' house, or rather, cave, still had gnomes, so the food was good and lodgings relatively neat and clean. Dark Hearts treated the gnomes quite well, too, and she was starting to wonder if she was really making the right enemy.

"No one has come yet," Dark Hearts said, checking the clock.

"Can I ask you a question?" Sophie asked.

"Yes?" Dark Hearts responded.

"Oh - um, more than one, actually."

"I will respond if I see fit," he answered.

"Is Councilor Derand your real identity?"

Dark Hearts seemed lost in thought for a moment before responding, "Yes, I grew up as Councilor Derand, serving on the Council for a few hundred years. It was I who retired before Councilor Oralie could join the Council."

"It wasn't Fintan?"

"Two positions opened. Fintan's was earlier, and he was replaced by Councilor Kenric, and a few hundred years after that, I was replaced by Councilor Oralie."

"Oh, I see," Sophie said quietly. "Did Councilor Kenric survive the fire like Fintan did?"

Dark Hearts looked truly regretful as he responded, "Yes, he did. Unfortunately, the Neverseen tortured him to insanity and then killed him."

Oh. That was even worse than if he had died in the fire. These gruesome details were something Sophie definitely wasn't going to share with Oralie.

Dark Hearts smiled ruefully. "Kenric was a good man."

Then Sophie blurted, "Why are you working against the Black Swan and why were you with the Neverseen in the first place? Pardon me, but you don't seem... Evil."

Dark Hearts laughed softly. "We never do seem like it, but I can be brutal when I want to be. It so happens that I was with the Black Swan for a time before I joined the Neverseen. But back then... You wouldn't understand, but back then, the Black Swan were the bad guys while the Neverseen tried to keep peace. But then the Black Swan changed for the better and the leader of the Neverseen became someone more brutal, followed by even more brutal people like Lady Gisela. The Neverseen's motives changed, and I agreed to stay with them on one condition: that they helped me change you into a Pyrokinetic. But they refused, and I left."

"Why did you want to make me a Pyrokinetic?" Sophie demanded.

Dark Hearts smiled again. "Because I agree with Fintan. Pyrokinesis needs to be taught and controlled so Pyrokinetics do not lose themselves in the flame. I argued against the banning of Pyrokinesis for the longest time. In fact, Fintan didn't even know I was ever with the Neverseen since he joined later. He doesn't know I'm Councilor Derand - that was something Gisela told you, is it not?"

Sophie nodded.

"Well, if I ever called Fintan to my side, he would join me because I vouched for him. He doesn't take that lightly. I tried to let him still use his flame. We were good friends, and I never betrayed his friendship. He knew I was forced into it and I had spoken out against it as much as I could."

"But then, what is your motive?"

"Times changed, Sophie Foster. I have a lot of motives. One was to prove my point on Pyrokinesis, and another was to stop the Black Swan, originally.but now they have changed, and now I want to stop the Neverseen."

"Then why did you have Blur infiltrate the Black Swan?"

"To implant your Pyrokinetic DNA. And also because I needed to make sure I could trust the Black Swan to be good and just. They proved right, and the way they imprisoned Blur instead of brutally murdering or injuring him - the Neverseen's style - gave me a better view of them. And it's getting late, Sophie Foster. I think you ought to sleep."

It was strange how caring he could seem, and the last thing she said to him before she left was, "You can just call me Sophie. No need the Foster. Just Sophie."

He smirked as he said, "Well, goodnight, Just Sophie."

But the way he said just wasn't the usual meaning of just, but the other one. Righteous. With justice. And Sophie didn't mind it all that much as she bid him goodnight and shut the door behind her.