Flashback ( PDFDrive )

The gashes had been made with a shamkniv, a special kind of ogre
blade meant to mark someone who failed at their assignment—which
did support the theory that the Neverseen were done with him.
“They left me to die,” Alvar said. “And they’re going to wish I had,
because my new goal is to make them pay for everything they’ve done.
I know you don’t trust me enough to let me join the resistance—and
given what I’ve heard about my past, I can’t blame you for that. But I
will find a way to help take them down.”
“But if they’re intending for you to be an unwitting accomplice,”
Fallon warned, “you’d be assisting them without any knowledge of
what you’re doing. And I know you’re going to claim that’s far too
challenging of a feat for the Neverseen to achieve,” he told Alina. “But
who among us ever thought they could bring down Lumenaria? Or
flood Atlantis? Or burn the glittering city we’re standing in?
Underestimating our opponents has not fared us well.”
“Neither has giving the rebels more credit than they deserve,” Alina
argued. “When we think of them as these ridiculous supervillains, we
end up second-guessing ourselves and hesitating—which has also cost
us greatly.”
“But if we . . .” Fallon’s voice trailed off, and he tilted his head,
studying her. “I had a counterpoint to your argument, but I keep
hearing music when I look at you, and it’s breaking my concentration.
Do you know why that is?”
Alina rolled her eyes. “Absolutely no idea.”
Fallon hummed a few bars of a soft melody, and Sophie wondered if
he realized he was losing credibility with every note. “That doesn’t
sound familiar?”
“Can’t say that it does,” Alina told him.