Chapter Text
Esteemed executives of Titan Publishing,
When the Neverseen were first defeated, I was only seven years old. I remember the scroll arriving at my house, remember my father opening it and the hologram being projected into the air: Gisela Sencen in handcuffs, restrained by two massive goblins as her face contorted in rage. REBELS DEFEATED, blared the headline. And I thought nothing of it in my young age, except of relief. Finally, the threat that had been looming above my head for my entire life had been locked away. The Lost Cities could breathe.
It was only when I had graduated from Foxfire and began my first internship at Titan Publishing did I think twice about those villains, long since locked behind bars. Only…they weren’t all behind bars.
I stayed after hours for months, scouring every file and article I could find about the elusive Neverseen members. There wasn’t much from before their defeat - they had clearly scrubbed almost every mention of their past selves from the world. But now the questions were consuming me: Who were the Neverseen? Why did they join? Are they sorry?
In my research, I uncovered the following:
Three members of the Neverseen were imprisoned.
Two were pardoned but closely monitored.
Three were dead.
One was released.
And one had disappeared.
It was easy enough to find Gisela Sencen, the kingpin of the organization. A cautionary tale for the past quarter decade, you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who didn’t know where she was: a pitch-black cell in the deepest pits of Exile. The Council hadn’t even sentenced her to be put to sleep in the Somnatorium. She was awake, alive, eternal - just her and the darkness.
Ruy Ignis and Gethen Ondsinn are exiled as well. Both were restricted with ability blockers, something the Council obviously regretted overlooking when they brought down Lumenaria through outward channeling. They had been the most targeted by reporters immediately following their surrender, although whether that was due to their overwhelming presence in the major Neverseen attacks or because people found them less frightening than they did Gisela is anyone’s guess.
Fintan Pyren had been imprisoned in an ice cavern until about ten years after the collapse of the Neverseen, when Councillor Bronte petitioned to have him released on the condition that he be closely monitored and restricted from his pyrokinesis. Shockingly, the motion passed and Fintan agreed on the condition that he be allowed to tend to his garden of Noxflares unbothered. Now, he lives in Eternalia, rarely leaving his house - a great feat for him, seeing as he had always been a fan of theatrics.
Rayni Aria had undergone a series of trials and court cases, in which the Council eventually pardoned her. This caused quite a flutter at the time, but Ms. Aria proved that she had no nefarious intentions, simply settling down at her old house in Mysterium and minding her own business. She was sporadically checked on to make sure she wasn’t up to anything off-putting, but nothing ever came up. She was, for all intents and purposes, the model citizen.
Trix, the Neverseen’s Guster, had a shorter, less contested Tribunal. He was charged with kidnapping and sentenced to seven years in prison, from which he emerged and moved into a remote house deep in the forest. The only time he emerged back into relevance was when he published a series of journals concerning the specifics of shadowflux, allegedly written by his dead lover. The journals turned out to contain some of the greatest scientific advancements in the ability to date, but were hardly recognized as such due to the controversy surrounding their deceased author. Trix, like Rayni Aria, was halfheartedly monitored, but the only thing to report was that he had never left his house in eighteen years.
Alvar Vacker, once the poster boy for the Lost Cities’ most influential families turned anarchist rebel, seemed to have disappeared off the map about a year and a half before the Neverseen’s fall. I spent three weeks scouring every mention of him in the registry to no avail. He wasn’t alive, or dead, or imprisoned. Fittingly enough, Alvar Vacker had vanished.
I made up my mind to track down the remaining Neverseen members and learn their side of the story. It became my mission; my driving force. Thus, I gathered this information - that, of course, you must already be aware of - in hopes of composing an exposé featuring these rebels.
This is my plea to Titan Publishing: read my articles. Get in their shoes, even if it makes you uncomfortable. As a rule, I don’t tend to pursue projects unless I’m absolutely, without-a-doubt, 100 percent positive that they will be meaningful enough to make an impact. This is and will be the most important thing I will ever put onto paper. While this is, at the moment, my raw and unpolished experiences, it is my sincerest hope that you will review my writing and consider it promising enough for publication.
Sincerely,
Natalia Valentine