"So, what exact ability has she manifested?" Councilor Emery opened the meeting. "It certainly had to be important enough to call us here instead of sending a report." 

"She's manifested as a pyrokinetic," Master Leto informed, sending me a gentle smile as if sensing my nerves. 

"That's fantastic, you could be an extreme use to us," Councilor Emery stated, looking at me with wide eyes. 

I felt self conscious as he studied me. "I just want to train to keep my abilities under control and not have anyone know about them."

"I'm afraid that might as well be impossible," Councilor Terik spoke up, a frown on his face. "With such a rare ability, it's sure to get out."

"That's why I brought up what happened with my mom," Eamon interrupted. 

"What about me?" Sophie Foster looked to her son and I studied their similar features. While Eamon might have become the epitome of his father personality wise, the physical resemblance definitely catered his mother. Especially with the abnormal brown eyes. 

"He's referencing the first few months you were here when no one knew of your abilities," Master Leto clarified. 

Keefe Foster, who had silently trailed in behind his wife, looked to the councilors beside him. "Is that possible?"

"I mean, it might be a little more difficult than it was for mom," Leulla informed, pointing to Sophie. "But it's not impossible. Especially with Novena's parents being talentless, everyone would believe she was as well." 

"Maybe one of her parents isn't actually talentless, and was supposed to be a pyrokinetic but never had the chance to discover the ability," Eamon thought out loud and my eyes snapped to him. 

"It doesn't matter, I don't want to tell them about this," I stated. 

"Am I hearing you correctly?" Councilor Emery looked to me with surprise. 

"When I said I wanted to keep this ability a secret, I meant it. If my parents found out I manifested as a pyrokinetic, they would go insane. It's obvious what everyone thinks about pyrokinetics." 

I regretted my words when I noticed Marella flinch in the corner. 

"If you plan to go into the elite levels, you have to manifest," Councilor Oralie brought up, a small frown on her face. "That's in another year for you, correct?" 

"Yes," I told her. "But honestly I don't mind not going into the elite levels, being a part of the nobility will never matter to me." 

The look Eamon's mom gave to me had me feeling slightly self-conscious, because it was as if she was looking into my soul. "Can I speak to her alone for a moment?" Sophie asked everyone and I was taken back as everyone slowly left the office, Keefe and Eamon playfully slapping at each other as they left. Sophie looked at her husband and son and sighed, starting to rub her temples as if gaining a headache. I'd feel the same if I lived with Keefe and Eamon Foster willingly. 

I started to study her. This woman in front of me literally made history, and I once had to read an entire textbook dedicated to her legacy. She also gave birth the the worst person I probably knew, although I was slowly hating Eamon less as the meeting continued. It meant a lot that he was helping me out and offering solutions. 

"What triggered your ability?" Sophie asked, and I frowned at the question. 

"What?" I asked, confused. I thought she was going to persuade me to share my ability with the world. 

"I just find it a bit disheartening that everyone is focusing so much on forcing you to bring out your ability without even knowing what triggered it in the first place," she replied. "I'm also curious on what my son has to do with it."

I cringed slightly. "Your son is actually what triggered it." 

"Oh?" The look in her eyes made me want to scream. 

"He tried to recreate the Great Gulon Incident back in level one," I started to explain, cringing as it sounded odd speaking about a topic from years ago, "but all that happened is a bunch of Gulon poop ended up on my head." 

"Oh no, that was you?" She gasped in horror. "I remember the amount of trouble I put him in after that, and when I heard that a young girl got covered in poop I immediately reached out to her parents to apologize but never got a reply." 

My parents weren't big fans of her legacy. They didn't appreciate the fact she had so many abilities but they couldn't trigger any. What Eamon did probably only fueled their anger, and no amount of apologizing would work. "Well, afterwards because he also knew my middle name is Poppy, he would call me Poopy." I frowned. "So earlier we ran into each other in the hallway when he was on the way to lunch detention and-"

"Lunch detention?" Her eyes widened. "I was never informed of this."

"I wouldn't know about it," I replied. "Anyways, he kept calling me Poopy and it just made me so angry. And then the next thing I knew there was fire." 

"That's strange," she replied. "I've never heard of anger being the trigger for a new ability. Of course I shouldn't be too surprised by that. I'm the queen of inheriting abilities in odd ways." I didn't mean to flinch, but I did. She didn't notice, instead she narrowed her eyes and said, "I heard my daughter mention your parents are talentless?" I nodded. "Is that why you don't want to go to the elite levels?" 

I looked to the ground. "The nobility has never reached out to the talentless and tried to include them, why would I want to be part of an organization that has suppressed people like my parents for eons?"

"I've wondered myself about that," Sophie said. "About why the talentless are looked so down upon? I even asked someone about it when I first came here and they immediately said that they weren't looked down upon, that they had the same types of houses and amount of money as everyone else." She frowned. "It's not the same, though, no matter how you try to spin it. The talentless aren't allowed to do things they are fully capable of just because they never got some sort of boost in their life. It's something I talked to Leu about when she first became a councilor, and it's why she's been pushing to include people like your parents into society." 

I remember my parents talking positively about the work Leulla Foster was doing. Work like hers is why more children of talentless parents not the nobility were allowed to go to Foxfire. "Mrs. Foster?" I tried her name and it felt wrong not using the snotty Sophie Foster voice from my head. 

"Yes?" she echoed. 

"What did you want to speak to me alone about?" I asked. "Is there something you wanted to convince me?" 

She shook her head and gave me a motherly smile, and I was wondering how someone so kind could raise Eamon. Because despite how nice to me he had been that day, he had spent his entire school career making as much chaos as possible. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay. You only found about your ability and everyone is already making plans about it. While you would be a great asset most likely, no matter what the council says we won't go lost without you fully embracing your ability. We have Marella, who has put her heart and soul into using her ability to help instead of destroy, and we're okay if you never feel the do that as well. Although, I do hope you don't try to destroy. That's a traumatizing story I don't want to go through again." 

I chuckled a little at her small joke. "I just want to be trained enough that I won't accidentally burn my house down, and then I want to be left alone. I'm okay working in a restaurant with my parents for the rest of my life and being matched with someone that's talentless too." 

"Can I tell you something?" I nodded, I didn't really think there was room for me to tell her no anyways. "Did you know I manifested in telepathy when I was just five years old?" 

I nodded. "I've read your biography." 

She awkwardly scrunched her nose up. "I still can't believe someone wrote that," she muttered. "Anyways, I never told anyone when I was living with the humans. Not even my parents and definitely not my sister." 

"Oh." I think I knew where this was going. 

"The difference is, I didn't know there was anyone like me. I had no choice, I was already this weird student prodigy who was super advanced. When I came here and still was asked to keep it secret, it tore me apart. Because I suddenly knew what it was like having people know. The only people who knew that weren't my parents or the council, was the Vackers. All of my best friends didn't know, including Dex Dizznee who was my closest friend at the time. Marella didn't know, and she was the first friend I made at school." 

"I don't know what you're getting at here," I voiced, confused. 

She chuckled. "I just believe you should really think about what you're attempting here. When you're keeping it a secret, you're not telling anyone. Do you know how many times I just wanted to scream at the top of my lungs to my friends? The only people who will know are the ones who were just in the room with you, and I know that there was no one in the room who you truly care about." 

I frowned. "Did you feel safer before everyone knew about your abilities?" 

She thought over it. "Well, no one found out about my abilities until after I was kidnapped, and at that point I never felt safe." She let out a sigh when I didn't reply. "Okay, here's the deal," she finally said. "We're going to go through with it, since it's what you want, but if you're ever having a moment where you want to shout to the roof tops about your ability, I'm giving you full access to call me at any point through your imparter and I'll take you to a spot special to me and we can talk. Also, while he can be a bit on the wild side, my son could be a really good confidant to you. While he may seem loud and mean on the outside, on the inside he's just as confused and young as you are trying to find his way through life. I believe if you tried, the two of you could be really great friends. I'm going to ask him to check up on you, even if it seems like it'll get annoying I promise you that having someone to talk to about it that is your age will be really helpful." 

"Thank you Mrs. Foster," I finally said after a moment, a smile on my face. I wasn't looking forward to heart to hearts with Eamon Foster, but she was right. I was already wanting to just talk about the ability with someone, but I knew that if I told someone close in my life then they would never look at me the same way. I didn't want to be seen as a freak to my parents, they trusted pyrokinetics less than anyone. Everyone trusted pyrokinetics less than anyone else. Pyrokinetics were leaders of the rebels back when Sophie Foster was growing up. 

Pyrokinetics go out of control and kill people. 

Sophie let everyone back in and we went over the final details before everyone started to leave. "Lady Marella," I called as everyone exited through the doors, Eamon happily taking a pass from Master Leto for being late for his next session. 

"Yes?" She stopped walking and turned back to me. 

"Did anyone turn on you when you first became a pyrokinetic?" I asked. 

She shook her head and smiled gently. "No, and that's because I have the right people in my life. You'll learn soon in my lessons that being a pyrokinetic really isn't all that different from being something like a hydrokinetic."

"That's what Linh Vacker is, right?" I thought of Blythe's aunt. 

"Yes, her ability is almost the same. Except instead of fire calling out to her, it's water that whispers to her. It's scary controlling an element. Did you know she's almost flooded Atlantis?" 

"I've heard about it," I replied. 

"Does that make her evil?" I shook my head. I had met Linh Vacker, and she had been incredibly kind to me. "That's because an ability doesn't define a person." 

I frowned, I never really thought about it like that. Everyone just assumed all pyrokinetics were evil, it was the only ability to result in deaths. 

"I hope one day, even if you say you learned nothing from my mentoring you, that you remember at least that." 

---

ugh sorry this is late :( my family evacuated and we've been in a hotel. we're going back home tomorrow tho and then i have heaps of schoolwork to catch up on before school on monday lmao. it'll only be like the second/third week of school and senior year is already kicking my butt. don't grow up, friends. 

also sorry this chapter is like... all over the place?? idk it's not my best haha i rewrote it like five times and it's like there was no right way to write it. also i want sophie to be ig nova's alden ?? like that's the best way to phrase it. i want sophie to have a part in this book definiTELY. also haha y'all have no idea how hard it is to write a character who doesn't like keefe. like the part where she was like "i think sophie is over hyped and married a narcissist" got me rolling i was ready to defend my boi against my own character

also hi i still have like no q&a questions and i'm sad pls send me some