“Only briefly. I need to run to the apothecary to pick up one more supply to make sure none of this leaves a scar.”
“Are you going to Slurps and Burps?” Dex asked. “My dad will get us anything you need. I could even go with you to make sure.”
“You’re sweet to offer,” Physic told him, “but that would ruin my incognito thing.” She adjusted the tilt of her mask and glanced at Mr. Forkle. “You know it’s only a matter of time before I slip and use my real name, right? But today I’ll play along. And I actually need to go to a gnomish apothecary,” she told Dex. “They have a much better selection of feces.”
“Is that in the top ten?” Keefe asked.
“Not even close. And speaking of gross things, someone needs to stay here with Fitz and make sure he doesn’t choke on his vomit.”
“Fun as that sounds,” Keefe jumped in, “I have a project to work on.”
“And what project would that be?” Mr. Forkle asked.
Keefe’s eyes darted to Sophie before he said, “I . . . might have remembered something.”
He slipped out the door before Mr. Forkle could ask more questions.
Physic left too, but not before she warned them that Fitz looked ready for “Retching round number one.”
“So we’ll take turns?” Sophie asked, feeling less than excited.
“Actually, why don’t you let Della go first,” Mr. Forkle said. “You and I need to talk. Now.”
The sound of Fitz’s violent vomiting felt oddly appropriate as Sophie and Mr. Forkle paced in front of the common room campfire.
“You’ve been lying to me,” he said. “You should’ve told me about Kenric’s cache. And you definitely should’ve consulted with me before you volunteered for Exillium.”
“I didn’t lie, I withheld,” Sophie said, using his earlier excuse against him. “And it’s not like you tell me anything—or involve any of us in your decisions.”
Mr. Forkle rubbed his temples. “I gave one of your memories back.”
“And I swore fealty. But that doesn’t make us equals, does it? All you guys do is boss us around.”
“And all you kids do is push.”
“Because we have to!”
Mr. Forkle’s sigh ran so long, Sophie was sure he’d pass out from lack of breath. “What would earn me more trust?” he eventually asked.
“A name would be nice. Physic is willing to give us hers and she just met us.”
“Have you considered that it’s easier for her because she’s just met you?” Mr. Forkle asked. “She’s never had to lie straight to your face.”
“And continuing to lie makes it better?” Sophie countered.
The most endless silence in the history of endless silences followed.
“Fine,” he whispered. “Have it your way. You want my name?”
It took Sophie several seconds to remember to nod.
“Very well, then.” Mr. Forkle paced the room twice more.
When he finally spoke, his voice had turned soft and whispery, a ghost in the shadows. “You also know me as Sir Astin.”
THIRTY-TWO
SIR ASTIN,” SOPHIE repeated. “As in . . . my Level Two Universe Mentor.”
“That would be me, yes.”
She tried to picture Mr. Forkle looking young and pale with long blond hair, but her brain refused to cooperate.
His new whispery voice did sound awfully familiar, though . . .
“How else do you think you got assigned the list of stars to find Elementine?” he asked.
The room tilted sideways—or maybe that was Sophie.
She needed to sit.
That Universe assignment had changed everything. She went from being the slightly weird “human girl” to Project Moonlark. She’d also had to face a Tribunal, and the Council had ordered her to keep a memory log, and she’d had to be descryed by Councillor Terik and . . .
“Wait—Sir Astin testified at the Tribunal that the lists for that assignment were given at random,” she argued.
“Of course I did! I couldn’t exactly say, ‘I’m with the Black Swan and this was part of our plan!’ This is what I mean, Miss Foster. Disguises require lies. I had to be so careful of every word I spoke to you, every gesture I made, to be sure I didn’t remind you of this.” He waved his arms around his Mr. Forkle-shaped self. “You’d just spent so many years seeing me every day, I knew the slightest cue might trigger a connection. And up until that Universe assignment your mind had been so sweetly unsuspicious. I was there simply to build your confidence as you struggled to adjust to life at Foxfire. Wasn’t my session one of the few you didn’t worry over?”
It definitely had been.