Chapter Seventeen

                                    

                                          
"Name's Veta. Don't ask any unnecessary questions." The dark-haired woman said as soon as they got somewhere that would be best described as a... Cave. 
It was surrounded by ocean (which seemed to hold lots of sharks) and waves after waves were crashing into the rocky wall. The rocks seemed to crumble in the slightest touch. Rain was jarring down on it. Veta muttered something, and a small section of the rocks crumbled, light shooting out from it. 
"What are you waiting for? Come in." Veta marched into the lit place without a glance back. Sophie followed her closely. It wasn't a place to get lost. 
The place inside was magical. It was a city. It wasn't underwater like Atlantis. But it wasn't dark. There were buildings everywhere. Lights everywhere. People and animals everywhere. 
Someone wearing a white gown floated down towards the two people and smiled. "Hello, Veta and... You must be Sophie. Welcome. Heading to Kasia?" Veta nodded. "Great! So am I. Follow me."
Veta and the woman levitated upwards, and Sophie did the same. They passed many buildings, made of every possible material: glass, oak, metal, etc. 
It was different from the Lost Cities, yet beautiful in its own way. 
Animals were walking casually down the city, talking to people. 
Children laughed and screamed as they played tag. 
They all seemed happy. 
If it hadn't been Veta (with her tough glare and hard personality) who rescued Sophie, she would've come in a heartbeat. 
"Ahem." Veta cleared her throat. "I am the most skillful therefore most fit for your problematic self."
Sophie blushed. "I am not problematic... chaos usually finds me. And did you read my mind?"
"I must admit, I did. I'm a telepath, but there are no rules of the violation of privacy. So, if this is uncomfortable for you, I will stop." Veta confessed. "We are nothing different from elves you are familiar with, just a bit different."
The woman in the white gown let out a huff. "A little different? We're completely different! I am offended by you, Veta."
"There, now, Salma." Veta soothed. "And Sophie, we are in the Hidden Cities. No one knows of our existence. Not even goblins or ogres. And certainly not the people in the Lost Cities."
"But you guys are elves?" Sophie asked. Veta nodded. "Then how come you guys aren't living in the same place?"
"We have a rather complicated history." Veta admitted. "This split was for the best."
Before Sophie could ask anymore, Veta and Salma lowered themselves onto a pavement and started walking into an ice-made building. Literally. The walls were made of ice. 
"Wow." Sophie breathed. The place was beautiful. It caught light in ways other materials simply could not. 
"Well, Sophie, Veta, it was nice seeing you. Now I must get back to work." Salma - right in front of Sophie's eyes- transformed into a dove and flew away. 
Sophie could only gape at her. What was this new ability? 
"Shapeshifters." Veta said, answering Sophie's thoughts. "They are one of the three abilities in the Hidden Cities, and as far as I know, there are none in the Lost Cities. It is called the Forgotten Abilities. People who are Shapeshifters can change into anything alive - even other people."
Sophie's mind struggled to let in the new piece of valuable information. New abilities - new tactics. The question was why the Elves weren't united as one. 
"What are the other abilities?" Sophie asked.
"Foretellers and Compellers." Veta answered simply. "Foretellers predict the future. Compellers can make anyone do anything, quite literally. If they asked someone for a cup of coffee, then they would have the coffee. And, Sophie, I don't like it when people attack me with questions. So, I will try my best to explain everything."
Veta took a deep breath. 
"It started a few hundred years ago... When the elves were all united."
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Sophie walked back to her dorm-like room, her mind still processing what Veta had told her. The elves here had provided her a nice cottage-like apartment. Apparently, everyone here lived in an apartment or a regular sized house. All houses were bigger than the houses humans lived in, but it wasn't as oversized as the mansions elves in the Lost Cities called home. The place Sophie was to live in was a medium-sized place with a huge bed, a nice bathroom, and a grand window overlooking the beautiful city.
The Hidden City was made a few hundred years ago, when the people who had the abilities of Foretellers, Compellers, and Shapeshifters got kicked out of the Lost Cities. According to Veta, Councilor Emery once had a wife, and she possessed both the abilities of the Lost Cities and the Forgotten ones. Emery felt threatened by her power, and he called for a divorce. At the time, divorce was unnatural, for matches chosen by the matchmakers were the correct decision. People began doubting Emery as if he had more secrets and dangers, and he was starting to lose the support of his fellow Elves. He thought it was because of his powerful wife. 
The only solution, he thought, was to get rid of his wife and the people who didn't have the Natural or the Control abilities. There were three groups in the ability's elves had: the Naturals, which consisted of Shades, Hydrokinetics, Prokinetics, Gusters, Chargers, Flashers, Frosters, Phasers, and Psionipaths; the Controls, which has Beguilers, Conjurers, Descryers, Empaths, Enhancers, Inflictors, Mesmers, Polyglots, Technopaths, Telepaths, Vanishers, and Vociferators; and the Forgotten Abilities, which only had three: Shapeshifters, Foreseers, and Compellers.
"Get out of my city, my sight, and never come back." Emery had told his wife. "But first, you need to erase memory of all you lot. Don't leave out the part that we were married, because now we're not. Nothing but strangers."
And so, the wife did. She erased memories of her and all the people with the Forgotten Abilities. The mix of being a Compeller and Telepath allowed her to do so. This put an end to Councilors having a family, and the three abilities. But the wife had made this truth part of the Forgotten Secrets, so if they ever came across it, they would know. Secrets never died- not really. 
The two hundred people didn't have anywhere to go; they were homeless. They camped out in the forests of the Forbidden Cities, and the Compellers got food as the Shapeshifters searched for the new home. But no luck. There were no way elves can live in peace without being in constant fear of the humans finding them. 
Couldn't they live under the view, under the world? Veta had thought. They landed on the cave in the middle of the ocean. Make us a nice place to live, the Compellers had demanded to the rocks, thinking maybe their powers would work on things that weren't alive. But the rocks didn't move. Of course, it wouldn't work. They were rocks, after all. 
Veta, frustrated and tired, leaned on the rock for support. But the rock opened a hole - an entrance. The crowd rushed in to find a beautiful city, a home. 
From that day on, they had lived there; gotten themselves a new life; and Veta was the new leader. 
Sophie sighed. This was a lot to take in. While she was living happily in the Lost Cities, there was another place just like it, yet holding so many secrets. 
The wife was such a poor person, thought Sophie. She was just living her life with the abilities she hadn't asked for. But then Emery kicked her out? Sophie knew he wasn't the best person, but she thought he knew better than that. Apparently not. All he valued was his power.
And the wife must've been really strong to wash all memories the elves had of her and her group.
Wait... She erased their memories? 
Maybe there would be an answer to the complicated human problem after all. 

Hi!
Bye!
Love you!
SilverFox out <33