Unlocked (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8.5) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,82

Calla trained Flori personally in many valuable ways.

KNOWN FOR: Her eager spirit, loyal heart, fierce fighting, and healing songs.

NOTES: Flori believes that everyone has a song within them—even if they don’t think of it as music—and that each life has a rhythm of breaths and a heartbeat, creating a melody that can be drawn on for strength, healing, and comfort. She created the song that finally calmed Sophie’s echoes from the Neverseen’s shadowflux attack by carefully drawing inspiration from vesperlace, dimmetines, respitillis, and hushspurs. The Panakes tree is also believed to sprout twice as many blossoms whenever Flori sings to it.

TROLLS

CAPITAL CITY:

Weeriiduulooaa

(translates to Marintrylla in the Enlightened Language)

RULED BY:

Empress Pernille

CULTURE:

Trolls age in reverse, meaning their bodies shrink with time instead of growing—which is only possible because they develop more like marsupials. Babies are born before they’ve fully developed and are then implanted into a hive to gestate further, finally hatching when there’s an eclipse. The trollish birthing process isn’t a secret, but the location of their hives is, since other species (the ogres in particular) have proven to be deadly to the unborn babies. Trolls have seven distinct stages throughout the course of their lives, all of which have different physical and mental attributes. Newborns are the strongest physically, the weakest mentally, and the most ferocious and deadly. And as the trolls pass from stage to stage, their strength fades and their mental capacity enhances. As a result, Stage Four is considered the Prime Stage—the stage when a troll’s mental and physical strength are nearly even (which makes them less useful as warriors and ideally fit for diplomatic assignments). By their final stages, trolls are small, strange creatures with slower minds—though their years of experience often make them the most qualified to lead. (Empress Pernille is a Stage Six.) The trolls are a battle-focused species (like goblins and ogres) and have an incredibly strong army (most of which are Stage Two trolls). Part of their training involves naming their weapons, to give them meaning and significance.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ELVES:

Until recently, the trolls had a neutral relationship with the elves, neither particularly friendly nor notably hostile. Empress Pernille made herself available whenever the Council called upon her (and even sent Tarina to be one of Sophie’s interspeciesial bodyguards) but rarely—if ever—invited any elves to Marintrylla. The Council used to assume this was because the trolls simply preferred to keep to themselves. But it turned out that the trolls had been relying on secret alliances. Through Tarina, Empress Pernille formed such an alliance with Sophie Foster (which allowed Sophie to save the prematurely born alicorns by incubating them in a specially built troll hive). And a previous empress formed a similar alliance with Luzia Vacker, after seeing how little the elvin Council had done for the Ancient gnomes. Luzia had created many of the illusions that keep the Lost Cities hidden, and the trolls needed Luzia to help them hide their hives after a brutal ogre attack. Luzia hid one hive at Everglen (her first property) and another at Dawnheath after she moved—and Luzia claims she thought the hive at Everglen had been sealed and abandoned. But it was later discovered that the trolls continued to use the hive for genetic experiments, trying to design an even deadlier newborn army. This shocking truth was exposed by the Neverseen while everyone in the Lost Cities watched—right before the mutant newborns broke free, causing a bloody battle. Sophie and her friends fought bravely along with their bodyguards (including Tarina) and managed to stop the newborns from escaping. But the Council has been left in a tricky situation. The trolls’ experiments violated their treaty. But the trolls also played a vital role in resetting the Timeline to Extinction by helping the baby alicorns. Plus, no one wants another Peace Summit to renegotiate the trolls’ treaty while the Neverseen are free (after what happened in Lumenaria). So for the moment, no punishments have been enacted—though Tarina has returned to Marintrylla indefinitely.

TROLLISH BODYGUARD

Tarina

ASSIGNMENT: Bodyguard to Sophie Foster

QUALIFICATIONS: As a Stage Four troll, Tarina has had an abundance of battle and weapons training, but she also has the mental capacity to work with the other bodyguards without any problems (particularly since one of them is an ogre).

KNOWN FOR: Creating an alliance with Sophie (and helping save the baby alicorns).

NOTES: Tarina has amazing reflexes, often moving as if her bones are made of rubber, and she’s an equally impressive fighter. Her weapon of choice (a cross between a scythe