-It took them a total of four hours to finish the entire thing. They did take breaks to talk about questions or eat a snack, but that wasn't the majority of how they spent their time. Sophie was glad they had a tea party to do this, because it was way more fun to be able to laugh and talk with friends while you suffered through the packet, especially when you had desserts to enjoy. In the light of the setting sun, they laughed and talked about how weird some of the questions were while Grady went to turn in their packets. There was questions anywhere from "what's your favorite color?" to "Team Jacob or Team Edward?" Apparently Twilight was one of the only human books you could get in the lost cities, so everyone knew about it. Sophie had never read it since werewolf-vampire drama wasn't really her thing, but Biana insisted she put down Edward because he was " totally cooler than Jacob, the kicked, lovesick puppy."

Marella was the first to go home, since she had to get back home before her aunt left so her mother wouldn't be alone at home, and Linh left soon after to go help her brother, Tam, with preparing their dinner. After the two girls left, Sophie, Biana, Edaline, and Della all helped the gnomes clean the table. By the time they finished, Grady came back, exhausted. He was covered in sweat, dirt, fabric wrinkles and his shirt had a little tear in the sleeve. "That... was a complete nightmare."

Edaline immediately rushed over with Sophie, Biana and Della in tow, "Grady, what happened?!" She worriedly hugged her husband and checked the state of his clothes.

"Gossip reporters caught wind of Sophie and Biana applying for their matchmakers scrolls. I got pounded with questions about what they put or if they're hoping to get a 'certain someone' on their list."

"Grady, I'm so sorry! I should've gone with you and answered the questions. They would have left you alone." Sophie hugged him gently.

"No, we wouldn't have ever gotten out. I only got away because I mesmerized people into thinking I was someone else and through the crowd.  I don't think even Edaline could have gotten through without a wrinkle." Grady pulled Edaline into the hug with a laugh. "Anyways, I need to go shower and change, then we can go over to Everglen."

"Awesome! We'll wait down here for you with the leftover mallowmelt until you're done." Sophie smiled as she pulled out four forks.

"Let's just try not to spoil our dinner!" Della laughed and the girls sat down at the table.

About fifteen minutes later, they were walking off the leapmaster platform to Alden welcoming them home. "I was wondering when you'd get here! How was the tea party? The scrolls really are long, aren't they?"

"Not really," Biana hugged him with a smile. "I found that it went pretty quickly."

"Don't listen to her, she finished way before the rest of us. It took us hours and multiple cups of woken berry tea." Sophie rubbed her eyes tiredly with a small groan.

"I fell asleep multiple times when I was doing my packet. I should've drank that tea too, maybe I wouldn't've gotten scolded so badly." Alden laughed and gestured for them to follow him, "come on. Fitz is already in the dining room, and he's dying to hear how the party went."

Alden wasn't wrong. As soon as Biana and Sophie stepped foot into the dining room, Fitz got up from his seat. "Hey guys, how was filling out your scrolls?"

"Awesome! My answers were almost as cute as yours were!" Biana giggled and winked playfully.

Fitz laughed it off, though his face was slightly colored, "and you, Sophie?"

Sophie smiled, "totally boring, but at least it's done."

Fitz laughed again and pulled out a chair for her, "that's how I felt when I filled it out. Care to sit down?"

"Thank you," Sophie carefully sat down, avoiding bumping into anything, her caution easily being mistaken as grace.

"Aren't you going to pull out my chair Fitz?" Biana fake pouted.

"Do you need your chair pulled out for you?" Fitz had been about to sit down. Oops.

"Well of course! It's the polite thing to do." Biana crossed her arms, but uncrossed them when Sophie stood and pulled out the chair next to her for her friend. With a triumphant smile to Fitz, Biana replied, "thank you Sophie. How nice of you!"

Sophie giggled and sat down again, not noticing as Biana stuck her tongue out at her brother as the adults sat down. "So what have you guys been up to?"

"Nothing much, just some paperwork, what about you, Fitz?" Alden turned his attention to his favorite son.

As the gnomes brought out dinner, he replied, "I talked with Keefe. He's still grounded for a few days for his latest prank, but asked me to invite you guys to Tuesday's detention. Apparently it's Lady Belva? I don't know why..." Fitz looked to Sophie for an explanation.

She laughed for about thirty seconds before replying, "Lady Belva is an astronomy teacher who's favorite way to spend detention is ballroom dancing. I had her once with Keefe a year or two ago, and he was going to ask me to dance, but Lady Belva herself took him for her partner! It was hilarious! She partnered me with Valin, and he didn't stop drooling the entire time. It was terrible!" She said this with a smile, because honestly, it was pretty funny.

"I have a bad feeling about that Sencen kid," Grady grumbled to his plate as he cut up the roaster root in front of him.

"His father and I use to be friends, back when Valin was still a baby, and it seems that the poor young man still hasn't learned how to use a handkerchief." Alden chuckled.

"Ball room dancing doesn't seem that difficult, I mean, Sir Astin's siren songs are worse. I've heard them when walking by before, and they're simply awful!" Biana shuddered as if she was remembering the noise.

"Ballroom dancing is definitely one of the lesser ones, after an entire lunch period of it, you can't feel your feet except if you walk like you're dancing a waltz," Sophie laughed as she remembered her detention days. Everyone laughed, but fell silent as they began to dig into their delicious meal that tasted like chicken pot pie.

Finally, after she finished her dinner, Sophie decided that it was the perfect time to transmit Fitz about the note from the Black Swan. "Hey Fitz?"

"Yes?" Her cognate responded telepathically, "is everything okay?"

"I'd like to keep this as discrete and secret as possible. Not even our friends can know yet." Sophie didn't look at him, pretending like they weren't having a telepathic conversation so they wouldn't be questioned.

"Okay, are we pretending to not be talking right now?"

"Yes. I got a note from the Black Swan during the tea party. It fell into my teacup in a little bottle. No one thought much of it and figured it was a helicopter leaf or something like that."

"A note from the Black Swan? They haven't contacted any of us for months! What did it say?" Sophie could almost feel his concern through the telepathic link.

She recited the words of the ominous poem to him, and he reacts as quiet for a bit. "Wow... one of our friends is a spy? That makes sense how the Neverseen knew about your human parents. Do you remember who else you told about them?"

"I don't remember telling anyone their names but you... that's weird... I had a photographic memory." Sophie's heart skipped a beat, suddenly nervous. What if something was wrong with her mind like a few years ago?

She shoved the thought and fear aside when Fitz replied, "hey, it's okay. You may have three awesome abilities, a photographic memory, and an impenetrable mind,  but you're still allowed to not be perfect like the rest of us."

Sophie smiled a little, "thanks, but I'm anything but perfect."

"I know a whole fan club that begs to differ, in which by the way, I'm sadly only secretary. Keefe claimed presidency before I could, and elected Valin as his Vice President."

Sophie quietly laughed, her smile now huge. She blushed and glanced at him for a second before looking away. They were silent for a few minutes, and her smile slowly fell from her face as she began to worry.

Suddenly, under the table, she placed her hand on Fitz's, which was resting on his armrest, the table cloth hiding the gesture. "Fitz, I'm scared. What if it's someone we're close to? Who can we even trust?"

Fitz took his hand out from under hers, and slid it back under so that he could hold it instead. "Don't worry, whoever it is, it's probably not someone we're really close to. You know, just someone that we talk to a school, but not so infrequently that they're a stranger.  I'd personally keep an eye on the Songs, Jensi and Marella. Though they're nice, they do fit the bill for potential spies. They're our most likely candidates, but that doesn't mean that I'm not wrong." He gently began to stroke her fingers with his thumb, "as for who you can trust... at least we have each other, right? Look, everything will be okay. We'll keep an eye on our friends, just to be safe, and we'll find whoever is a member of the Neverseen. I'll keep a close eye on Biana and the Songs, you watch Dex, Marella and Jensi. We'll all be safe and we'll all get over this rough patch soon. All we need to do is be careful, okay?"

Sophie nodded, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she gently squeezed his hand. "Okay."

"Try not to worry, okay?"

Sophie opened her eyes and turned to see Fitz already looking at her with a small, worried smile on his face. "You too, promise?"

"Promise."

Sophie smile, looking away and pulled her hand away from his. She slipped the little folded paper from the Black Swan into her hand before taking his discretely again, letting the paper fall into his care. "I brought the note for you so if you wanted to decipher it more, you could have it."

"Thanks, I'll look into it later. I'll hide it in your drawer if you ever want to find it."

"Sounds good," Sophie smiled.  They didn't let go of one another's hands until Edaline started falling asleep and Grady announced that they should probably go home. It was a school night after all.

Grady carried the now sleeping Edaline to the leapmaster with Sophie behind him, saying goodbye to their friends on behalf of her parents. "See you tomorrow," she whispered with a smile. 

"Bye!" Biana whisper-shouted  hugged her goodbye.

"See you tomorrow," Fitz said aloud as he waved a little, but then transmitted, "try to get some sleep, we have a long day tomorrow."

Sophie locked eyes with him and gave a small nod, "you too." With that, she climbed into the leapmaster next to Grady and Edaline, and whispered, "havenfield," before they glittered away in a flash of light.