"So... Dark Hearts is a Mesmer?" Sophie asked cautiously. She was really glad he wasn't Grady, though, because when he was hinting towards being a Mesmer, she'd started to become afraid. But one, Grady wasn't like that and two, Dark Hearts spoke of Grady like he was some nobody.

"I figured that's pretty obvious," Fitz said, frowning.

Biana pouted. "Can you guys please tell me what's going on? In case you don't know, I wasn't in Blur's head with you guys!"

"Did you... find anything?" Mr Forkle asked. He hadn't gone into Blur's head with them, insisting they should do it alone as Cognates, but Sophie would much rather have had the calm mind of Mr Forkle in there with them. It meant she was alone with Fitz, and things were incredibly awkward between them at the moment.

"Yes," Sophie said with a sigh, and she transmitted Blur's memory to both Biana and Mr Forkle, then felt dizzy, probably from overuse of her Telepathy or straining her mental stuff or something of the sort. She sat down, seeing yellow, before she blacked out completely.

***

"You think she's alright?"

"Yeah, why did Blondie, the Fitzster, Fitzster's sister and the Forklenator pass out?"

"It can't be good. Sophie's eyelids are fluttering... Sophie, Sophie can you hear me?"

"BLONDIE!"

"Shut up, Ro!"

"Boy am I glad you don't have to call me Romhilda anymore."

"I still can if I need to!"

"Keefe, Ro, quiet! I need to check on Sophie!"

"Awwwww, is Mr Heslege scared?"

"Ro."

"What, Keefy?"

"Now is so not the time."

"I think she needs sleep, Keefe. I think she should take another sedative."

The moment that word came up, Sophie's mind fully awakened and processed the situation, and she slowly blinked open her eyes until they stayed open and surveyed her surroundings. Elwin was trying to press a bottle of clear liquid to her mouth, but she shook her head and he moved it away, although his expression said he wanted to do nothing of the sort.

"Sophie, I really think you should take the sedative," Elwin insisted, pointing to the bottle again and then to her mouth, as if he thought she couldn't hear him.

"No sedatives," Sophie rasped, her old instincts kicking up again. Nothing to do with sedatives. "What happened?"

Keefe looked at Elwin, his expression questioning, as if asking if it was okay to tell Sophie anything. It irritated her, but Sophie put up with it until Elwin shook his head.

"She's not ready to know. Sophie. Sophie, please take the sedative."

"No," Sophie insisted. "What happened? Tell me and then I'll take the sedative."

Elwin gave her a death stare. "You promise. No questions. I'll tell you what happened and then you immediately take the sedative."

"No questions?" Sophie found herself asking.

"You have twenty seconds to pick, or I'll have Grady Mesmerize you into taking the sedative."

Sophie angled her head a little and saw Grady sitting on a bench nearby with his arm around Edaline, who looked like she'd fallen asleep in his arms. Her heart seriously melted, but a headache was threatening to drag her under.

"Okay, tell me," Sophie decided.

Elwin glanced at Keefe before saying, "Alright, basically Blur's mind seemed to have a defense mechanism. When someone poked around his head, Dark Hearts was notified - yes I know about Dark Hearts do not ask and just listen - and he attacked your brains. He could track whoever saw Blur's memory. Do you by any chance remember what the memory was?"

"Yeah," said Sophie. "Dark Hearts is a" But her tongue froze on the word, she couldn't say it. "A Grady."

"What do you mean? He looks like me?" Grady asked.

"No," said Sophie. But she couldn't say ability, either. "Dark Hearts is like Grady. And I can't say anything more, the words won't come out."

"Well then, we'll just have he Forklenator poke around your head," Keefe said decisively. "Or Fitzy."

Sophie shook her head. "They can't. They both saw the memory, they're bound the same way I am."

"Fine, Alden or Quinlin."

"But they can't either."

"Sophie, I promise you they didn't see the memory," Keefe said.

"No, as in they can't get past my blocking. My mind definitely doesn't trust Quinlin - I don't know about Alden."

"The Forklenator has similar blocking to hers," Ro added.

"Well then we'll have Alden poke around Fitz's head when he wakes up. No problem!"

"But he'll see the memory, and his tongue will be tied the same way mine is," Sophie reminded him.

"Okay, then what do you mean by he's like Grady?" Keefe asked.

"He... talks and people do stuff." That was all her mouth and brain would let her say.

"He's a Mesmer!" Grady said, snapping his fingers.

Sophie nodded.

"Okay, good, he's a" The word froze on Grady's tongue. "What, seriously?"

"So anyone who knows for sure can't talk about it?" Sophie asked.

"Come ON!" Grady yelled. Edaline was so startled she woke up. 

"Wha....?" she stuttered, taking in the sight of Sophie awake.

"Hang on! We said we'd tell you what's going on and then you'd take a sedative!" Elwin yelped, reaching for the vial of clear liquid again.

"But we're getting somewhere!" Sophie whined.

"And you promised me. So drink up."

Sophie stared at him with sad puppy eyes, but he didn't flinch. Giving up, she bent down and drank up the sedative. It was surprisingly tasteless and just filled her with a feeling of tranquility, and she drifted off, dreaming about calm lakes and gushing waterfalls.