Exile

During the long journey, Keefe makes jokes but becomes serious when he tells Sophie that he won’t let anything happen to her. They eventually arrive at a cave Sophie recognizes from an imported memory. A dwarf greets them and gives Sophie a sedative cookie. Only she can go with him. Silveny and Keefe must stay behind and wait for her return. She bites into the cookie and loses consciousness.

Sophie wakes up on a cot in a dark space where she faces Mr. Forkle. She demands her memories and journal pages back, and he insists that it’s better for her not to know at this point. He agrees to answer one question, and Sophie asks if the Black Swan murdered Jolie. Forkle emphatically replies no.

He explains that they gave Sophie an impenetrable mind and inflicting abilities so that she could enter broken minds and heal them by inflicting positive emotions. Whereas Bronte taught Sophie that inflicting can produce only negative emotions, Forkle explains that some of her DNA tweaks were inspired by the positive emotions alicorns can impart through inflicting. That might also be why she has brown eyes.