u/JennifersSeriesBooks

In Flashback, Gethen tells Wylie that he believes something was hidden in Wylie’s mind.

Page 104:  "Cyrah was no fool.  She knew anything she told you would put you in danger.  But she also knew that something might happen to her if she chose to cross us, and then the information would be lost.  If she'd written it down, I would've found it by now.  So she must've had one of her Telepath friends hide her secrets deep in your head."

I’ve never understood who it could have been.  Until now.

I just read a theory on Tumblr that absolutely blew my mind, and it sounds quite plausible. 

You must be a registered user on Tumblr to view the content.  Here is the link.

https://www.tumblr.com/laughter-loving-thalia/796124626386370560/on-how-kenric-coud-have-survived

If you're not on Tumblr, I think it's worth registering to read it.

Near the end of Stellarlune, Sophie and Fitz find a memory that Cyrah had a Telepath friend of hers hide in Wylie’s mind.  In that memory, Cyrah tells Wylie that she didn’t destroy the Neverseen’s starstone.  She hid it in one of her designs and sent it somewhere where it would be safe.

Biana finds the starstone in a hairpin at her home, and then the friend group goes to Elysian.

The Tumblr user, laughter-loving-thalia, points out that Kenric’s blue crystal to Elysian has disappeared.  This blogger suggests that Kenric gave the crystal to Cyrah, who hid it in one of her designs.  The pin with the starstone was sold to the Vackers on purpose, and Kenric hid the clue to the starstone inside Cyrah’s mind.

The Tumblr theory also suggests that Kenric might have had a second starstone made, which means he had two of them.  He might have kept one and had the other hidden in Cyrah’s design.

If Kenric kept one starstone, then he successfully faked his death by using the starstone.  And then I remembered something….  I’ll get to that in a moment, but I felt like I was learning the secrets of the universe as I read this theory.  I was dumbfounded, because all of these ideas were completely new to me.  My mind has been racing ever since I read through the post.

Before I get to what I remembered, let’s go back to the Tumblr theory.  Laughter-loving-thalia says that Kenric might have kept the starstone hidden in his circlet, which is how he survived the fire.  They do point out that if starstones must be blue (which I think they do) then that can’t be it. 

But that wouldn’t mean that Kenric didn’t have the starstone on him during Fintan’s healing, right?  It didn’t have to be in his circlet.  Maybe he was wearing a brooch—a brooch that Shannon carefully never mentioned.  She omits details all the time just to keep things secret.

Now, let’s get to something I’ve wondered about.  Everblaze is the book in which Kenric dies.  In that same book, Lord Cassius complains that his blue pathfinder is missing.  The blue pathfinder goes to the Forbidden Cities. Later, Forkle has a pathfinder that is described as “noticeably blue.”  The obvious conclusion is that Forkle stole Lord Cassius’ pathfinder.

But why would he do that? 

More likely, Lady Gisela took the blue pathfinder from Cassius, which would implicate her husband and shield her from suspicion.

Shannon might have given us our first clue about the blue starstone in Everblaze, but simultaneously misled us into thinking of Lord Cassius’ blue pathfinder. 

If Kenric had just faked his death with an extra starstone, then he likely would have still had it on him. Ooh... Did he escape the fire and go to Sophie's old house? Or rather, her neighbor Mr. Forkle's house? Did he then use it to go to... wherever... and then later use it again to go to Sophie's house to meet with Sophie? Starstones remember their last location. That could be it.

Quite awhile back, I went back and forth on whether Kenric and Fintan worked together to help Kenric fake his death.  I've thought for some time that it was not plausible. Unless you believe the theory that Kenric is evil. I don't, so I don't think they were working together.

I couldn’t figure out how Kenric could have “charged Fintan” and then somehow survived.  A starstone on him would certainly explain it.

This is giving me a lot to think about. 

I have written up a summary post of what I believe are the key takeaways from the Forgotten Secrets. Follow this link to read it:

https://series-books.blogspot.com/2026/05/keeper-of-lost-cities-significance-of.html

As most of you are probably aware, I believe that >!Forkle is Kenric.!< I want to lay out my reasoning about the Forgotten Secrets and how I believe they support my belief.

I cited page numbers for passages to which I have not previously linked or that I feel are particularly important. I kept my statements about each Forgotten Secret to a bare minimum to get at the most important content of each secret. Each Forgotten Secret section of the post also has a link that is labeled "see post" to where you can read my more detailed previous thoughts about each Forgotten Secret.

Most fans don't believe that >!Forkle is Kenric,!< because they don't believe that >!Kenric would have hurt Oralie by faking his death.!< I will address that in a follow-up post. I have a theory about how it is plausible, and I have it written up in great detail for you. I will post it in the next day or so. I want to give this first post a chance to be read before I make the second one available.

I hope even if you don't agree with my reasoning that you'll find my ideas interesting.

I have an idea, and I'm trying to work out if it is feasible. I believe that Jolie's death set off a chain reaction of events in the several years immediately before Sophie's birth.

The exact sequence of events is important, and I need to make sure that I have it straight.

In the first book, Sophie is 12 in human years, so near 13 in elvin years.

Fitz says that they have been searching for Sophie for 12 years (Book 1, page 10). The search for Sophie began after Prentice's mind was broken. Prentice must have been exiled 12 years before the timeline of the first book. He must have been exiled when Sophie was a baby, since she's more than 12 in elvin years.

Jolie died 15 years before (Book 1, page 128).

This means that Jolie died 3 years before Prentice was exiled and approximately 3 years before Sophie's birth (or maybe slightly more than 2 years before Sophie's birth in elvin years).

This is where it gets harder. I'm not clear on Wylie's age, and I need to pin it down for the timeline. Kenric asked Prentice to be his Keeper when Wylie was a toddler. Sophie is around 15 (or so) in Stellarlune. I'm going to go with 15, even though she's likely close to 16.

Dex says that Wylie is a few years older than him (Book 1, page 159). That would put Wylie at around 18 in Stellarlune. If Sophie's 15 and Wylie's 18 in Stellarlune, then Prentice was exiled 15 years before. Ooh, it tallies. Wylie must be about 18.

No, wait. We don't know what Wylie's age was when Prentice was asked to be Kenric's Keeper, but let's say he was 1 to 2 years old. Wylie could still be 18 in Stellarlune. But the timing is likely too close.

Wylie probably is at least 19 in Stellarlune, and I'm aware of online posts where people say that he's 20 to 21. If anyone can pin it down with a quote from the books, I'd appreciate it.

Let's say that Wylie is 19 in Stellarlune. That means Prentice was exiled when Wylie was around 4. Prentice could have been recruited by Kenric a couple years before that, which would have been 17 years before Stellarlune or 1-2 years before Sophie's birth.

Now, Jolie. Jolie died three years before Prentice's exile and likely before Kenric recruited Prentice.

Jolie also died three years before Sophie's birth and probably before Oralie was recruited for Project Moonlark.

Timeline:

3 years before Sophie: Jolie dies

1-2 years before Sophie: Oralie is recruited

1-2 years before Sophie: Prentice is recruited

Here's what I'm thinking. I have gone from thinking there's no way Oralie could be part of the Ruewen family to being rather convinced that she must be a Ruewen. I've always considered it strange that Oralie readily agreed to donate to Project Moonlark. If Oralie and Jolie were sisters, then Jolie's death would have been a catalyst for Oralie's decision. Also, Prentice and Jolie knew each other. Jolie's death might have been Prentice's motivation for joining the Black Swan (if I have the timeline right).

Also yesterday, I was thinking of the Forgotten Secrets again. Oralie says, "I've always hated fire. Even before..." (Book 9, page 236). Sophie assumes that the last part was something like "Kenric's death." What if instead it was "Jolie's death"?

Finally, I do believe Sophie's parents are Kenric and Oralie. Forkle was most likely lying in Neverseen, so his denial means nothing. I've been bothered about what it would mean for Grady and Edaline if Sophie's parents turn out to be Kenric and Oralie. Grady and Edaline would feel like they lost Sophie... unless Sophie is in fact their biological granddaughter. It would solve that problem.

Let me know if you can help tighten the timeline based on quotes from the books.

I have several Keeper blog posts written that I have not yet published. The last nine months have been incredibly busy, which has kept me from finalizing them.

One post has to do with the oddities in Forgotten Secret #5. The secret has a lengthy stretch in the middle where Kenric and Oralie appear to be standing still and staring at each other. To analyze it, I exported the entire secret to a Word document. I removed all of the conversation between Oralie and Sophie. It's clear that a tone shift occurs.

So that I could time it, I recited the conversation between Oralie and Sophie that occurs during the staring match. Their conversation is around three minutes. What happened while Kenric and Oralie were staring at each other?

I have several ideas.

1. Kenric and Oralie were speaking telepathically, but the mental conversation was not saved in the cache.
2. Something was taken out of the secret or Kenric did a "do over" after washing part of it, causing the abnormality.
3. The second half of the Kenric and Oralie conversation doesn't happen the same night as the first half. Meaning, Kenric might have spliced two completely different conversations together. They would have to be dressed the same for that to work, so it might not be plausible. Shannon says nothing about how they are dressed after the staring match, so we assume they are dressed the same but have no idea. Even though it seems implausible, I notice that Fintan, stellarlune, and Elysian are not mentioned after the staring match. The conversation switches to the reveal about Oralie being Sophie's mother.

I am now leaning towards the third option as the most likely explanation, although it seems less plausible than the other options.

What do you think? I encourage you to read through the entire secret. I have included just the part that includes the staring match. Here it is, but with Sophie and Oralie's commentary removed:

“Tell me about Elysian, Kenric! And stellarlune! And anything else you’re investigating! You came to me for help, so let me help!”

“You already have, far more than you know,” he assured her. “Fintan was calmer with you there, and that allowed me to finally slip past his guard.”

“You breached his mind? Why?”

Kenric backed away, resuming his pacing. “The same reason I always breach someone’s mind—but I didn’t find the information I was looking for, in case you’re wondering. That’s probably good news, though. At least this mess is a little more contained than I’d feared. I just wish I could find the source of the leak.”

“I’m getting tired of your vagueness and riddles,” the projection of Oralie warned.

[Around 45 seconds of conversation between Oralie and Sophie.]

Oralie studied the tiny versions of herself and Kenric, who seemed to have entered into some sort of epic staring contest.

[Nearly 2 minutes of conversation between Oralie and Sophie.]

The two projections were standing so still that the image almost looked frozen.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Ora.” He dropped his gaze toward the ground. “I tried to avoid it. But I didn’t know who else to trust.”

Oralie’s projection reached for his hands. “If you really trust me, tell me what’s going on.”

For a second he looked tempted. But he shook his head. “I can’t. And I swear, I’m doing you a favor by keeping you in the dark. I’m counting down the days until I can have the Washers clean this mess out of my brain.”

“I can tell.” Oralie closed her eyes in the memory. “I feel so much fear and frustration. And… is that disgust?”

Kenric pulled his hands away from her. “Let’s just say that sometimes I’m not particularly proud to call myself a Councillor.”

Shannon's mysterious writing style is what keeps many of us captivated. Shannon purposefully leaves Sophie in the dark about key information so that we also don't know.

There's been a stir about the possibility of Oralie being a Conjurer. Some people are saying that she is, and others are saying that she isn't. I'm also following the discussion on another site. A few people there are getting a bit hostile, saying that it was settled years ago. If so, then they should give us the specific information.

People like me have only been following online discussions for a few years. We don't know anything about what was "settled" years ago. You've got to help us out.

I finally figured out that Oralie's bio page in Unlocked does not state that she is a Conjurer. Now I understand why fans say that Oralie definitely isn't a Conjurer. This is assuming that Shannon isn't misleading us by omission with that bio page.

I don't have a stake in the Conjurer discussion, but it is possible that Shannon is up to something, so that's why we should at least keep an open mind even though it seems clear that Oralie isn't a Conjurer.

I'm pretty sure I understand what is being suggested about Oralie, and when Oralie's possible familial connection was mentioned a couple weeks ago, I initially thought, there's no way. I now realize that we can't ignore it. With Shannon's writing style, I think it is a distinct possibility.

As you know, I believe Kenric is Forkle, which is a very unpopular theory. I'm fine going it alone. :)

One reason people say that Kenric isn't Forkle is because Kenric and Forkle's trees are different.

Kenric's tree:

Book 3, Page 340  The sniffles turned to quiet sobs as a tiny sapling sprang from the earth and sprouted vivid red leaves.

Forkle's tree:

Book 6, Page 213  The trunk was narrow, but the bark was thicker than other trees, and coarser too, with a swirled pattern of brown and gold and red and black and even a few threads of green.  The leaves were equally varied—some wide and flat, some thin and curled, some shiny, and others covered in a cottony fuzz.  Berries sprouted among them, the exact blue as Mr. Forkle's eyes... The rest was such a hodgepodge of colors and textures, it almost felt like the Wanderling was trying to reflect all of Mr. Forkle's identities at once."

Sneaky Shannon describes the specific colors of the bark of Forkle's tree.  She then switches to the texture and shape of the leaves of Forkle's tree.  She never tells us the color of the Forkle tree's leaves, so we don't know if it has different-colored leaves than Kenric's tree.

Shannon misleads us by omitting key details. The trees can't be used to prove or disprove whether Kenric could be Forkle.

While I'm at it, everyone says Kenric can't be Forkle because the deceased Forkle's seed had a black hair wrapped around it. We don't know if the surviving Forkle could have used permanent black dye on the hair to hide the twins' true identity. Maybe the hair proves that Kenric can't be Forkle, or maybe Shannon is misleading us. Who knows?

All I'm getting at is that we need to keep an open mind about new theories even if we feel certain that they have no merit.

Shannon said this (exact quote) in a December 1, 2025 virtual appearance:

"Those [readers], who have read it 50 times and know it better than you do, have caught all your clues and know exactly what you're gaming."

She's admitting that she's placed enough information in the books to where we can guess her future shocking reveals.

Last summer, two of us were bullied in the main subreddit for this series. Both of us believe that >!Forkle is Kenric and that Kenric is Sophie's father!<. Those two beliefs are not popular in the main subreddit.

We were called "dumb" and "stupid." We were accused of being the same person, even though we don't live in the same country and have different writing styles.

One member said that they were going to report all future posts and comments about >!Kenric being Forkle!< as spam. That is bullying.

Most of the bad conduct occurred on this post:

Some thoughts on how Kenric might have survived Everblaze

The moderators deleted the comments about reporting stuff as spam, since I reported those comments. Other comments remained, but apparently have now been deleted by whoever made them. You can see some trace of what happened if you click on the deleted comment at the bottom, and it will open up the comments that remain. All the bad stuff is gone.

I also want to point out that I have seen at least three different threads in the last year about Kenric being Sophie's father get deleted out of the main subreddit after members relentlessly told each person that they were wrong and not in a very nice way. Far more people think Kenric is Sophie's father than they realize.

I created this subreddit so that those of us who have unpopular opinions have a place to discuss them in peace.

I have zero tolerance for bullying, attacks, insults, and rudeness. The membership of this subreddit is now steadily climbing. As any subreddit grows larger, the problems will increase. Today I removed a comment because someone else was called "dumb." That conduct is inappropriate.

Keeper fans are used to being rude to each other and often resort to name-calling. That behavior will not be tolerated here. If you see a rude comment, report it so that it gets flagged.

Please understand that reporting something because you don't like it is inappropriate. It's fine for people to have different theories. What's not okay is calling someone "stupid" for having a different theory.

I hope this makes sense.