Agent Moonlark

Chapter Twelve

Keefe

"So what's your code name going to be?" Keefe was startled at the question Biana asked. Didn't he already have one? Oh wait - this was the Black Swan. The only one who knew his real code name was Sophie.

"Oh, uh," he stalled. Thankfully, Biana didn't look too surprised that he didn't have one at the ready.

"Well, what are you good at?," she asked. "What is a secret talent you have?"

"Being the Keefester," he joked.

Biana merely rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Be serious. What else?"

"Annoying people." He felt a twinge of satisfaction when Sophie snorted.

"mmm hmm. Anything else?"

"Pranking people."

"How am I supposed to help you if you're gonna be like this?"

Keefe shook his head sadly. "I guess I should look deeeeep inside myself for the answer," he said dramatically. "Oh, the woes of being Keefe Sencen-"

"Sophie?," Biana interrupted.

Sophie looked up from the rice she was eating. "Yeah?"

"Can we just name him after your pet hamster?"

"Excuse me?!," Keefe exclaimed, acting appalled. "I - I have no words for the disaster that would be!"

"You should be an actor," Sophie noted.

Keefe tossed his head. "Obviously," he mock-bragged. He knew Sophie was kidding, but it had been hard to fake that he didn't know anything about the Neverseen or the Black Swan to Dex and Linh. And now to all of the Black Swan, except Sophie.

Fitz had been talking to Dex, but now he joined in. "I won't tell you my code name, but the Collectives' are Forkle, Granite, Wraith, Blur, and Squall." Keefe felt annoyance flare in himself. He already knew all this. Just hours ago, the five had introduced themselves to him.

"I know," he answered. "Why won't you tell me your code name yet, though?"

Fitz glared at him and ignored the question.

"Ooook," Keefe said after a beat of silence. He leaned towards Sophie. She smelled like flowers, muffins, and, faintly, gunpowder (I'm making this up). He wanted to stay like that forever, but he knew that would be weird. Instead, he cupped his hand to the side of his mouth (sorry, don't really know how to say it), and said in a loud whisper, "I can see why Bam thinks he's Grumpy Cat reincarnated." Sophie giggled, and once again, Keefe felt happy that he had made her laugh.

"Bam?," Biana asked, her eyes narrowing at him. "What is that?"

"My ship for you and Bangs Boy," Keefe told her, blinking innocently. Biana and Tam immediately blushed furiously.

"Wait," Dex said. "A ship? What do you mean? Are you making them a ship? Can I help you make it?" Fitz looked equally confused.

Sophie sighed. "A ship is a romantic pairing between two people," she explained. Keefe smirked as Biana and Tam looked anywhere but at each other.

Fitz stared at Tam. Tam gulped audibly.

"Is something wrong?," Keefe asked Fitz. "Would you rather I named the ship Tiana?"

"Like the Disney princess?," Sophie asked.

"Yeah, but as the name of a ship."

Fitz opened his mouth to say something, but Keefe quickly cut him off, knowing that whatever the overprotective brother had to say, it wasn't good.

"I think I'll be Agent Empath," Keefe declared, tapping his chin for good measure.

"No offense, but why would you choose that?," Dex asked curiously. "You don't strike me as that type of guy."

"It just adds to my awesomeness," Keefe bantered. He glanced at Fitz and noticed that he had successfully distracted him from the subject of Bam - or was it Tiana now?

Sophie

For the next two days, all Sophie did in her free time was study Calla's journal. But she couldn't. Each time, she seemed to get farther and farther from the answer. Finally, after three days total of agonizing over the small book, she flopped on her bed, already planning her revenge on the diary if it ever came to life.

"Hi." Sophie shot out of her bed, and had the intruder pinned against her wall, her elbow on his throat, before she realized who it was.

"Oh," she said, letting go of him. "It's just you."

"Just me?," Keefe gasped, closing the door of her room behind him. "I'll let you know, you should be ecstatic that I graced you with my company."

A smile curled her lips. "And you should be ecstatic that I totally just kicked your butt."

"I let you practically choke me," Keefe defended.

"Uh huh," Sophie said knowingly.

"Yeah, well, you didn't hear me sneak up on you, so it's even." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Real mature, Keefe."

"It's what I'm known for."

"Why are you here, anyways?"

Keefe shrugged. "I was bored. My trainer, Ro, got into a fight with this guy named Bo. Apparently, the two used to be married or something. They looked ready to kill each other. Then, I might have mentioned something about BoRo babies and recited the Ballad of Bo and Ro, which I came up with on the spot, I'm proud to say, so then they both wanted to kill me. So I ran away. To here. To get choked by you."

"Bo was married?!," was all Sophie could think to say. She was shocked. Bo never said much about his personal life. He was so cold that Sophie half-expected him to have never even had friends because he found them 'distracting.'

"Yeah, but you're missing the point here! They tried to kill me!"

"Don't you always have people trying to kill you since you're Agent Lodestar?"

"Touché."

"So, what do you want to do?"

"Well, what were you doing?"

Sophie didn't know if she should tell him. She hadn't told anyone yet. Why should the first one she told be an enemy spy? Turns out, she didn't have to.

Keefe dove onto her bed, grabbing the diary. "Hmmm," he mused. "Wonder if this is yours."

"No," Sophie replied stiffly. "It belonged to someone who I was...close to."

Keefe's eyes softened. He got up and wrapped her into a hug. At first, Sophie tensed, but eventually, she relaxed into it. She buried her head in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he murmured.

"I called her my aunt," Sophie sniffed. "Aunt Calla."

"Calla..."

Sophie broke away from the hug. "Did you know her?," she asked sharply.

"No. I just feel like I heard of her once." He held up the diary. "Does reading it make you feel closer to her?"

"That's the thing," Sophie said hesitantly. "I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I can't figure out what it says."

Keefe looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, he opened the diary. His eyes widened in recognition.

"What?," Sophie asked frantically. "You can read it?"

"Yes," he breathed. He looked up, and his eyes met hers.

"This is the Enlightened Language."