Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

Calvin doesn’t understand why Nic had a vision when Ms. Lena touched her, and he’s visibly frightened as he drives them home. He decides not to let her attend the book signing because he doesn’t want her to be around Unremarkables. In tears, Nic rushes to her room with her puppy, whom she names Cocoa. Calvin tries to cheer his daughter up by bringing her two caramel cakes and singing to her. When she blows out the candles, she secretly makes the same wish she makes every year: “I wish we had other family, too” (25). She barely remembers her mother, and she longs for a brother.

After Calvin leaves to get dinner, Nic gathers her TJ Retro books and goes to the signing with JP and his mother. When the author arrives, he and Nic see each other’s golden Glows and realize they’re both Manifestors. Calvin hurries into the bookstore to find his daughter, and the ecstatic author hugs him. Retro explains to the astonished Nic that he is her godfather. Calvin gives Retro their address, and the writer gives Nic a new Stevie James book with a revised title page: “The Adventures of Tyran J. Porter [...] And his best friend, Calvin Blake” (36).

Nic bombards her father with questions about his connection to the author and their adventures together. Calvin is scandalized to learn that Ty wrote him as Kevin, who fits the cowardly best friend archetype. He dodges questions about Nic’s favorite character, a Black girl named Zoe who was a friend of his and Ty’s. Calvin grounds his daughter for two weeks and confiscates her tablet, laptop, and Stevie James books. Later that night, Ty comes to the Blakes’ home. Calvin uses the Gift to soundproof his daughter’s room, so all she hears of the adults’ conversation is that Ty wasn’t followed.

The next morning, the author flies to the Blakes’ home. He asks Nic to call him Uncle Ty and explains that he attended Douglass, a Manifestor academy in the city of Uhuru, with her father. Ty spent the first 10 years of his life as a foster child in the Unremarkable world. He didn’t know he had the Gift until a Prophet said, “You are chosen to defeat an evil force that will cause destruction” (44). LORE whisked Ty away to Douglass so he could learn how to use his Gift. After the evil wizard Roho was defeated, Ty decided to return to the Unremarkable world.

He gives Nic a pen made with the Gift that will allow her to send messages to any Remarkable. Ty offers to teach Nic how to fly with an ancient spell, but he falls unconscious when he touches her hands. When he awakens, he assures Nic that he doesn’t blame her. Nic anxiously wonders, “What’s wrong with me?” (49). JP comes over because Calvin promised to take him to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, and he’s thrilled to see his favorite author.

At the museum, Nic sees exhibits about people who were arrested for participating in protests and those who gave their lives in the fight for civil rights. She uses the G-pen from Ty to send a message to her mother: “Hi, it’s Nichole, your daughter” (52). However, she doubts that the message can reach a complete stranger. An exhibit about Emmett Till prompts Nic to ask her father why Manifestors don’t use their Gift to help Unremarkables in need. He explains that LORE’s top priority is keeping the existence of Manifestors a secret from those who might harm them. Ty tells Nic that Remarkables have a literal Underground Railroad that, like the figurative Underground Railroad, helped people escape to freedom. He also teaches her about the Manifestor Prophecy, which says that a Manifestor called the Manowari will one day destroy the Remarkable world unless the Mshindi, or Chosen One, stops them.

In the museum’s dining hall, Nic and JP encounter a Boo Hag, a creature that steals people’s breath and skin. Nic tries to fight the Boo Hag with salt. Suddenly, the museum shakes, and a geyser of salt water erupts and dissolves the hag. Calvin and Ty rush to check on the children. A hooded Manifestor appears and knocks JP and the adults unconscious with bolts of red lightning. The woman calls Calvin “a baby-stealing demon” (64) and reveals that she is Nic’s mother.

The mysterious woman is Zoe. She uses the Gift to bring Nic and the others to a flying vehicle that “looks like an alien spaceship combined with an armored truck” (67). She drives to the Blakes’ home, erases JP’s memories of the abnormal events, and sends him home. Zoe is furious when she discovers that Nic thinks she abandoned her, and she explains that her ex-husband took her when she was two years old. Nichole’s first name is actually Alexis. Her father calls her by her middle name to try to keep LORE from learning of their whereabouts. Nic realizes that she and her father have been on the run her whole life. Calvin pleads, “Baby girl, you gotta trust me. I always tell you protecting you is my priority, and I mean every word of that” (71). When Nic tries to leave the room, she runs into a boy named Alex, who tagged along with Zoe by using an invisibility tonic he made himself.

The revelation that Alex is her twin brother overwhelms Nic, and she retreats to her room. Ty tries to comfort the girl. He explains that LORE is after her father because they believe he stole the Msaidizi, a weapon that changes its form according to its wielder’s needs. Its previous holders include John Henry and Roho. The Msaidizi disappeared from LORE’s vaults the same night that Calvin ran away with Nic. Ty suspects that he knows who the real thief is, and he promises Nic that he will prove her father’s innocence.

Nic dreams that she is the rope in a tug-of-war between her parents. The next morning, Zoe tells Nic that she plans to bring her back to Uhuru, where she promises her daughter will be safe, free, and surrounded by “an entire family there that loves [her] and misses [her]” (83). Nic wants to stay in Jackson, and she excuses herself from the conversation to take Cocoa for a walk. Alex tags along with his sister. He informs Nic that their maternal grandmother, Natalie DuForte, is the president of LORE. LORE is offering millions for Nic’s safe return and her father’s capture. Alex says that Zoe often cried about her daughter’s absence, which makes Nic feel guilty. The twins spot one of LORE’s Guardian Force aircraft bearing “a red, black, and green flag with a golden lion” (93). Alex says that the police have come to arrest their father.