Exile

“Her concentration spread like an invisible veil across the scenery, and the chirping and creaking sounds of the forest faded to a low hum as the ‘voices’ filled her mind.”

Sophie’s superior telepathic ability enables her to track emotions and hear the voices of creatures of all kinds. This ability plays a key role in the novel since it means that Sophie can do things that even other more experienced Telepaths cannot. It’s thus critical for the author to weave descriptions of how it works into the story. Sophie hears the sounds of everything in the forest and ultimately uses this ability to track the animal that she and Grady are seeking.

“The complexity of its mind was shocking. She could feel rapid observations and quick calculations, just like when she was reading an elvin mind.”

Throughout the series, Sophie’s relationship with Silveny, the alicorn whose mind she connects to here, is integral. They develop a strong bond based on mutual respect and affection, which is possible because of Sophie’s enhanced telepathy: She can understand Silveny in ways that other elves, who lack her ability, can’t, and thus she advocates for Silveny in ways that other elves don’t. This is also an early clue of a later revelation that the Black Swan’s DNA tweaks on Sophie were partly inspired by alicorn abilities.

“Her and Dex’s dramatic escape had been the rude awakening no one wanted, and as the weeks passed with no sign of the culprits, more and more people had begun questioning the Council as leaders.”

When Sophie first came to the elvin world, it seemed like a utopian place free of the familiar problems of the Ancient world. However, her and Dex’s kidnapping laid bare the lie of that illusion, not only for her but also for the elves, who may have grown used to thinking of themselves as a “superior” species. The pressure on the Council is thus high, and one question is whether their eagerness to address the people’s lack of trust will lead them to make judgment errors.

“Death was such a rare occurrence for elves that most of them didn’t understand it, or feel the right amount of sympathy.”

Sophie reflects on the elves’ perception of death as she watches her friends console Grady. The death of his and Edaline’s daughter, Jolie, is one of the reasons that Sophie was paired with them as an adoptee: She needed an elvin family, and they had never recovered from the loss of their daughter. Her observation about the absence of death in the elvin world highlights both the value of her experiences in the human world and how dangerous the times are, because deaths become more common as the series unfolds.

“Sophie’d hated the capes form the moment she’d seen her ridiculous school uniform with its stupid elbow-length monstrosity. But capes were the mark of the nobility, and even though Grady and Edaline had tried to separate themselves from that life, the Council would never let Grady fully resign. His ability as a Mesmer was too rare and important.”

This passage illustrates the narrative voice the author uses throughout the series: the third-person limited omniscient perspective through Sophie’s eyes. This allows the author to mirror a teen’s voice and views, as in the first sentence here, while also incorporating insights that might be beyond Sophie’s perception in this moment, as in the observation about the Council’s refusal to let Grady stray too far from them.

“Couldn’t they just say, Meet us here and we’ll explain everything? Was that really so much to ask?”

The Danger of and Necessity for Secrets is an important theme in the novel and throughout the series. The promise of revelations to come drives much of the suspense and keeps readers engaged. On a thematic level, a question the Black Swan’s secretive tactics invites is the extent to which they’re necessary. The organization deems them essential to their mission, but they also fuel confusion and mistrust that likewise lead to danger.

“Being powerful worries people, Sophie. It’s unfair and it hurts, but can’t you understand why it happens?”

Grady tries to comfort Sophie when she expresses feeling like a “freak” because of her enhanced abilities. Sophie focuses on what is unnatural about them and what the Black Swan has done to her, but Grady brings her back to the essential point: What makes Sophie frightening or threatening to others is simply the fact of her power, however she came to have it. Grady knows this because he too has experienced it. His ability is to mesmerize, which gives him tremendous power over others.

“Our long-lost elf, and the most searched-for creature on the planet, stumbling across each other in the middle of a forest in the Forbidden Cities. It’s almost impossible to believe there were no other forces at play. Especially when you consider the unique connection the two appear to have. It seems unlikely that it happened purely by chance.”

Councillor Terik utters this speech when he hears how Sophie and Grady found Silveny. It provides a crucial early clue that Sophie and Silveny’s connection is deeper than just a chance encounter. In addition, it illustrates the author’s subtle use of foreshadowing in the novel and from book to book in the series. The clues are broad enough to allow for multiple interpretations, preparing readers for what can still be surprising revelations.

“The elves believed that every creature on earth existed for a reason, and to let one die off would cause irreversible damage to the planet’s delicate balance. That was why they’d built the Sanctuary and worked so hard to protect and conserve the creatures humans thought were either myths or lost.”

This passage illustrates an important motif in the story, the preservation and care of all creatures. Humans may believe that some animals are extinct, but the elves take great pains to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Their Sanctuary in the Himalayas preserves every animal that has ever existed (including those that humans believe are mythical) because they believe in each creature’s unique purpose. This is why the discovery of Silveny is so critical: to save a powerful and important species, which is tied to the survival of all species.

“But if she was going to take away Silveny’s freedom, then she was going to make sure the alicorn truly was better off.”

Because she identifies so deeply with Silveny, the alicorn’s aversion to being held captive upsets Sophie, and she asks Grady why captivity is necessary. He eventually convinces her of its necessity, given the threats not only from humans but also from ogres and trolls, who don’t, according to Grady, “value animal life the way we do” (130). This explains Sophie’s sense of responsibility to Silveny and develops the theme related to community, illustrating the individual’s responsibilities to social unity, which in the elvin world includes all creatures.

“Our world is broken, Alden—and all the Council does about it is condemn anyone brave enough to acknowledge that we have a problem. Break our minds, lock us deep in the earth, convince themselves that we are the criminals. But who are the ones ruining lives? Destroying families? Forbidding people from using their abilities, relegating them to working class?”

These are Fintan’s words just before Alden breaks into and shatters his mind. Sophie is sympathetic to Fintan’s view because he has identified a significant issue, which later books in the series explore: that the Council’s response to problems is to ban abilities and cover up the problems. In a society that esteems special abilities as much as they do, banning abilities creates resentment and discourages obedience to the law.

“Trees rained from gray-green clouds, their dark branches reaching for her like clawed hands as they fell. Beasts sprang from a ground lit with stars, bared their fangs, and chased her across the sky-covered hills.”

This excerpt is from a description of what Sophie sees when she enters Prentice’s broken mind, and it exemplifies how the author uses imagery to convey meaning, in this case the fractured nature of his mind. The fantastical nature of what Sophie sees—e.g. trees raining from clouds and “a ground lit with stars”—illustrates that Prentice’s thoughts are no longer rational and coherent.

“‘No, I like Fitz—I mean, I don’t like him—we’re friends, not anything…It’s fine,’ she finished, feeling her face burn.”

Fitz’s nobility status and good looks make him stand out as the object of many elvin girls’ crushes. Sophie isn’t immune to his charms either. Her response here exemplifies how the novel treats romantic attraction, conveying it not through what characters expressly say but how they react. Here, Sophie is reacting to Tiergan asking if she minds having Fitz in her telepathy training sessions. Although the text never says she has a crush on him, reactions like this one convey it.

“Guilt is a treacherous thing. It creeps in slowly, breaking you down bit by bit.”

At this point in the story, Sophie begins to blame herself for what happened to Alden, and Tiergan’s words remind her how destructive—and how ineffectual—guilt can be. It focuses too much on past events that can’t be changed, which become a maze of dark alleys in which the sufferer becomes trapped.

“‘[The Council] need everyone to feel calm and happy, assured that our world is safe and stable—’

‘But it isn’t,’ Sophie interrupted.”

This exchange between Grady and Sophie speaks to the theme of the danger and necessity of secrets. The Council is desperate to create the illusion of safety to calm the populace. They do this not because they’re ignoring the problem but because they don’t want the instability to escalate while they seek a solution.

“‘What is that?’ she asked, pointing at the picture of her hanging above the bed she was currently sitting on. Or, more accurately, the picture of her humiliating mastodon costume in the middle of an awkward dance step at the Opening Ceremonies.”

On a visit to the Healing Center, Sophie discovers that Elwin has put a funny photo of her above the bed. Meant as a lighthearted reference to her many visits there, it exemplifies the humor that the author weaves into the story, providing relief from the many serious and dangerous situations in which Sophie finds herself.

“You have no knowledge or appreciation for your talent, because it doesn’t occur naturally. They just twisted your genes, giving you any powers they wanted with no rhyme or reason. And now the Council wants you to harness a power that your mind doesn’t understand.”

The speaker here is Councillor Bronte, Sophie’s inflicting Mentor. Throughout the first two books, he objects to Sophie’s existence because he views her as an experiment by a rebellious organization. He’s correct that Sophie doesn’t understand her ability, but he’s wrong that her powers were given to her randomly. By the end of the novel, Sophie learns that her inflicting power is an essential skill to heal broken minds, and Bronte learns that it is possible to inflict positive emotions.

“You’d be surprised how powerful hope can be, Sophie.”

Councillor Terik speaks these words to Sophie as they walk through the working-class city of Mysterium together to track down her human things. Witnessing the crowd’s trepidation at his presence, Terik realizes how severe the public lack of confidence is and why the rest of the Council is so eager for Silveny to be rehabilitated and moved to the Sanctuary: She represents hope.

“She turned back to their trees, their small, weak little trees that were growing stronger by the day.”

When Sophie and Dex have their heart-to-heart in the Wanderling Woods, he comforts her after she expresses feelings of guilt about what happened to Alden. As they prepare to leave, she takes one last look at the trees growing from the seed planted with their DNA. The above description of them represents her and Dex, as well as their friends: They’re young, inexperienced, still learning, but they have grown stronger over the course of the novel and continue to do so in the ensuing books in the series.

“Dex’s face was tomato red by that point—but he was also grinning from ear to ear. It made Sophie want to hug them both.”

This passage exemplifies how the relationships among the young elves evolve over the course of the first two books in the series, setting the stage for more teamwork in future books and speaking to the theme of friendship. Dex is the son of a “bad match” (an unsanctioned match that caused his mother to lose her social status), while Keefe is a member of the nobility. Dex resents the nobility for how they have treated his father, but in this scene, his enthusiasm for Dex’s technopathy makes Dex feel better about the ability and more comfortable with Keefe.

“That’s why we designed you the way we did. We needed a powerful Telepath with an impenetrable mind to prove past the madness without getting lost. Then once you’re there, all you have to do is inflict powerful, positive emotions to build their strength back.”

Although many secrets and mysteries remain by the end of the novel, one important revelation Sophie makes is the reason the Black Swan created her the way they did. Contrary to Bronte’s accusation that her talents were randomly selected, her telepathy and inflicting have an essential and interwoven purpose: to enable her to heal broken minds. Her impenetrable mind enables her to enter a broken one without losing herself, and her inflicting power enables her to strengthen and heal using positive emotion. Anticipating that the Council would attempt memory breaks on elves suspected of suspicious activities, the Black Swan ensured that the minds of those elves could be healed.

“But she needed something else to push him that last little bit, something to convince him he had to come back. And that’s when she realized what was missing.

I can fix Prentice.”

Alden’s mind breaks because of the guilt he feels over Prentice’s memory break, an example of the devastating and destructive impact of guilt. In order to heal his mind, Sophie uses her two powers, her impenetrable mind and inflicting, to bring him back, but these alone aren’t quite enough. She also must give him hope that the damage Alden did to Prentice can be reversed. Thus, at the novel’s end, Sophie learns the importance of hope.

“Maybe. But mine will deliver on the promise you made and save you from looking bad—which I thought was the whole point.”

Sophie is responding to Bronte, who is pushing for Grady’s exile over Silveny’s injury. Bronte’s anger is a result of his fear that the Council has lost its means of restoring confidence in its leadership. Sophie understands and appeals to this fear by promising them a spectacle as inspiring as seeing Silveny fly. She now understands that she can make a moral and expedient choice at the same time.