I really have no excuses to post a chappy like, nearly 3/4 of a year later, except for procrastinating. Really, I just wanted to post this thing that's been sitting on my docs for so long now...Read the Author's note at the end. It's important.

Without further ado, here's the next chapter!

TW: Blood. Choking. Mentions of death.

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"Keilar Olivia, Born on 23rd October. Currently 13. An Orphan by birth, abandoned at footsteps of St. Mary's Orphanage in England, Britain. So far, your story checks out." Droned on Councillor Emery. Keilar was still in front of the council, facing trial for the commotion she'd caused and for making sure she can attend Foxfire or not.

"Unfortunately, things take a dark turn from here," he spoke.

'Shit, they did find those files.' Thought Keilar.

At the age of eight, you were kicked out of your own orphanage and school on the charges of vandalizing, theft and physical abuse both in the school grounds and the orphanage. Then you took a job in photography at the age of 11. You roamed around the world recruiting people in a gang you were in. You used the excuse of photography as a way to earn money and gain more people in your favour.

This keeps on going until ten months ago. Why?" He added the question at the end and his gaze moved from the papers in his hand to the blonde.

"Well...can I lie?" The girl asked innocently, and the dark-skinned councillor shook his head. "You may not. Councillor Oralie here and Councillor Terek can feel your emotions and read your mind." He motioned to a pretty blonde lady with curls, and a brunette man.

Keilar immediately felt pity for the man reading her mind.

"The lady can sense my emotions?" Keilar asked. "From this distance?"

"No. But she's going to levitate to your pedestal and touch you when you reply. If you lie, she'll detect it."

'What is she, a human-lie detector? How ironic.' Keilar thought. 'Shit, I shouldn't think anything, the brunette dude may hear. Gah! Don't think, brain! Wait, what?'

"I'm curious; was the man reading my mind since the start? Isn't that...a breach of privacy?" Keilar asked curiously.

"No. Terek will start reading your mind only when you give him permission. This is how it is for all telepaths."

'There's more of them??'

"So, will you give us permission?" Asked the brown-haired man. He had cobalt, calm blue eyes. The blonde noticed no hints of malicious intent in them. Then again, never judge a book by its cover.

Keilar stared at the man, before looking back at Councillor Emery and sighing, "Yeah sure, whatever."

The lady then did a bizarre thing. She started to float.

She floated towards the pedestal slowly. Upon her feet touching the stone platform, she linked her arm with Keilar's bonds, touching a small portion of her skin. All Keilar did to react to it was tilt her head a bit in her direction to get a better look at her.

The lady up close had beautiful blonde tresses and rosy cheeks. She wore a ruffled pink gown, with roses stitched at the edges of the skirt. It had this mesmerizing blend from light to dark, which gave the skirt a soft pink and red as its background. Her azure eyes and rosy cheeks paired with the crown made her look like she was straight up Aurora herself.

She placed her porcelian hands on Keilar's own gloved one and nodded in affirmation.

She sighed. 'Eh. I'll go along with this act. I don't have to get on a plane anymore anyways.' she thought.

So Keilar started talking. "Yes, all the facts you said are completely correct, except the photography one. That was just to earn some money, not recruition. 3 years ago, I was so broke that I was living on the streets. Then I got some hospitality from a suprisingly nice gang, and so I wanted to return their kindness. All I've said is pretty much correct."

Emery, Terik and Oralie shared a look, before Emery asked, "And, are you aware that you possess some very....peculiar abilities?" He phrased it such so that (in case) Keilar was actually a human (which she was not), she wouldn't reveal any secrets about the Elves to the Lost cities.

" Uh...well..no?" Keilar tried, but Oralie detected the lie immediately and retorted with a "she's lying."

"Uhmm....Okay... I do have a few weird quirks of my own..." Keilar gritted her teeth, "Like how I can speak a lot of languages. Funny, since I have no memory of actually learning them."

Murmurs resounded from all around Keilar, not helping her throbbing headache that had come from the overwhelming emotions. This was the reason she didn't stay in crowded places too long.

"Okay. So, Keilar, you should know," Emery said and stared into her eyes with a solemn look, "You are a polyglot."

An awkward silence.

"And...am I supposed to know what that means?" Keilar asked doubtfully.

"A polyglot is an elf who can speak several languages. Not only of the lost cities, but also of dwarves, gnomes, goblins-"

"Whoa! There's more of you weird people??" The blonde exclaimed in disbelief. "And please don't tell me giants and huge cats exist too, I'm deathly afraid of felines."

"Not to our notice, no," Emery sighed. "However, polyglots can speak their languages even without any knowledge of it. It's very useful in communication and other things."

"Ahhh..." She hummed in understanding. "So...am I speaking some cuckoo elfy-language now too??"

"Yes. You are speaking the Enlightened language, language spoken by the elves. Other intelligent species can also speak this language. Now continuing with our questioning," Emery said, not even bothering to stir away the subject, "Are you hiding any other ability? It is very common for polyglots to possess another ability."

"No." Keilar replied, but even she couldn't believe such an obvious lie.

"She's lying again." Oralie retorted. This lady was really not getting on her good side.

I winced in annoyance. "Lady, you aren't gaining any favors from me by telling this stuff. And yep, I am having another ability. Though I don't have any wish to tell you one of my most personal secrets, buuuuuuttttt......" and Keilar paused to take a breath. Was she really going to tell one of her most personal secrets to everyone there?

Besides, no one, not even her closest friend kno-

Oh.

Not even he knew.

She wouldn't tell her secret to a bunch of weirdos, why would she?

They're not friends, neither close; she can't trust these people who look richer than rich.

They look like they haven't seen someone being killed or hurt in front of them, ever.

They aren't allies. These 'elves' aren't people she could trust.

They aren't people she can joke around with, have fun with.

They're not the people she's been with nearly her whole life.

They're not- not him- not who she'd left to die that night-

t̸͚̬̠̤̔̄̎̃̌͝o̴̩͙̫̱̫̜͆͐͌̈̓̂̂ ̸̬̖̟̿͒̀̿̅̅̋̊̚d̷̢̗̦̠̱̮̻̯̳̯͒̇̋i̵̧̧͕̼͎̰̒̎̑ͅe̷͖͎̻̪͙͎͉͕̿̀̓͜.̸̧̣̺͚̪̤͐̌̇̊̀̈́͌͒.̵͙̹̘̦̠̖̮̎̽̽͗̅͋̕̕͠͝.̶̨̢̡̥̫̟͉͎͉͍̿̈̈̓̏̑̅̾͘t̴̨̡̳́̈́̄̀͑ŏ̶̜̼̹̰̹̤̻̣̱ ̶̺͈̫̹̥̠̔̍̋͋́̉̏́̕͜͝d̸̤͔̭̓i̶̙̗͎̩͉̓̈͐̅͠ẻ̸̞̻̩̳͍̍͛̔̔-̵̰̜̲̄̑̔̈́̄͑͌-̸̖̯̳̳̻͔̣̿̏̉-̴̨̨̧̯̝͎̣̤͐́͜ͅẗ̴̜̭́̃̾̀́̄͆̌ͅō̶̢̲̭̙̪̙̮̩̯͜ ̴̨͚̻̔̒̈́͒͊̐̈̓̕͠d̸̯̤̞͙̖̺̼̱̒͂̉͛̓̍ͅį̷̛̛̳̭̳̈́̎̀̐̈́̑̕̕ͅe̴̛̤̲̩̦̹̙̘̠̣̒̇͋́̂!̴̛͎̉̈́́̓̉̏͘

Keilar could her the voices fading, glass exploding, the taste of copper strong in her mouth, and screams from all around. Her vision was darkening at a steady but quickening rate, only vaguely able to make out Oralie trying to shake her out of her stupor. Her throat was on fire, why was it on fire? She was only aware of the burning feeling in her throat, his screams echoing in her mind as her head throbbed much more than before. The pain she felt was blinding her senses.

His words. And they resonated in her mind as the world faded to black.

☆

In the tribunal hall, several people had got up from their seats and were in the midst of confusion. The Councillors, along with Sophie and the others, could only gawk at what had just unfolded, speechless and powerless.

Right when the British girl was to reveal her ability, she'd stared out in space, most likely deciding to speak something or not. She was doing that more than often.

However, Oralie tried shaking her, yet she still stared out in the distance. Suddenly, the girl starting coughing blood. She doubled over as if she was punched, and choked out blood splatters all over Oralie's gown. Startled by the sudden turn of events, the blonde Councillor backed away, nearly tripping and falling off the pedestal.

All around, the large windows of the Tribunal Hall exploded, shards of glass falling over the audience. The elves panicked, running away or tripping over others. Oralie eventually regained balance and the Councilors had prevented the debris from hurting any other elf. Sophie and her friends had also played a small role in ceasing the panic. Well, it was mostly the Vackers ensuring they were safe.

By the time Oralie tried confronting the girl, the blonde had fainted. Blood dribbled down her chin, eyes closed and breathing shallow.  She was alive, but in critical condition.

While the Councillors quickly placated the audience, Sophie, Keefe, and Dex went with Elwin to take the girl to Elwin's clinic in Foxfire. They'd volunteered to carry her body and calm her down if she were to wake up from the midst of her consciousness. Biana and Fitz were needed to assure everyone that they were safe, due to their high status. Fitz had said a quick good-bye to Sophie, telling her to 'be safe'.

Yet Sophie knew very well...they were far from safe now.

☆

If you guys could tell, the extra part I recently continued starts from where Keilar starts spiralling. This is short, but it took a while to actually envision what goes down 'here' so that the entire plot starts to unfold without moving away from my original plan. I also had to make it as believable as possible so that I don't cringe at myself for making this like the last book :P.

Anyway, I'm going to start updating this a little more often now. I'll start getting more free days after march :) But I'm still writing my other book, SEISHIN, so updates will be slow. I've finally got past the 'cringing' hurdle I've had with this story since these (nearly) two years. This means the story can now diverge as how I'd originally intended. I took the filler 'HB' chapter I'd earlier posted, since it was meant to be posted later. Whoever read it may now have slight spoilers on how this 'him' boy may look and how the story may progress. Noting major, but still worrying :( It's why I'd unpublished the book before posting this chapter so that I'd edit the order of chapters and decide the chapters I'd publish.

Soooo.....That's all I've gotta say now...See you next update!