Agent Moonlark

Chapter Fourteen

Sophie

Her heart was in her throat as she waited for Keefe to say more. Was this it? Would she be able to save Alessandro?

Keefe read the entry in the Enlightened language, and Sophie could feel herself growing more impatient by the second. Finally, he started saying it in English, though the translation took a while.

"Dear readers....I was devastated when....when I discovered that the Drakostomes came from the Panakes trees. The trees were so independent - wait, no, I meant the trees were so important to me. So I was...elite, no, sorry, elated, when I found out about the petals. The petals of a Panakes shower - oops, I meant flower - can heal almost anything - including the Gnomish Plague." Keefe stopped there.

"There's a cure," Sophie mumbled. Relief flooded through her. She knew what the cure was, now. "Well, we shouldn't waste any more time!" She grabbed Keefe's arm and started pulling him out of the room. He, however, resisted.

"What now?," she asked, pouring all her irritation and impatience into her voice. Why wasn't he budging?

"There's something else," he said tentatively. He opened the book to the last page.

He was treating her like a bomb ready to explode. Sophie had a feeling that this wouldn't be good. "G-go on."

This time he did not read aloud in the Enlightened Language. Instead, he took a yellow post-it note and a pen from her nightstand. He wrote furiously, glancing at the diary every now and then. His loopy writing was mesmerizing. Sophie found herself observing the way he looped his pen around in circles, his letters elegant.

Keefe took another post-it when he ran out of space on the first one.

It took him five post-it notes to write down everything. When he was done, he stacked them on top of each other in order, and gave them to Sophie. Her hands shaking, she snatched them and read.

Dear my little Moonlark,

I can only hope this will get back to you one way or another. Whether you are reading this, or you are hearing this.

It hurt to leave you, not knowing if I would be able to come back. It hurts even more, now, knowing that I never will. I am not afraid to die. But I am afraid to leave you alone.

When I first saw you, you looked so lonely and sad. I saw the way you looked at the families in the Black Swan. With longing and jealousy. But the jealousy wasn't bitter. It didn't make you hate them. It just made you sad. And that's what drew me in. I could tell that you had one of the kindest hearts out there. I wanted to help you. And in a way, you helped me.

There are things I never told you. Like about my ancestry. I never told you about the Panakes people. Or Flori. I never told you that she was my niece. She had gone away to another country, and it hurt to talk about her. So that's why I never did. I hoped that she would come back. Her parents died when she was little, leaving only me to tell her about the Panakes. And yet I still failed at that. I ask of you to please tell her.

I remember when I would sing you to sleep. How you would smile. How you loved my Starkflower stew. You are the closest thing I had to a daughter. We have a bond that even Flori didn't share with me.

The Neverseen will find me any second now. I am already hurt from when they found my previous hideout. They shot me in the leg. I can barely move. Even now, I can hear their footsteps growing louder. I have almost no more time. The only reason you have a chance of finding this before the Neverseen is the gadget Tinker gave me - the Conjurer gadget.

When you called me your aunt, it meant so much to me. I wish I could have seen you one last time.

Good-bye, my little moon lark. I love you.

-Aunt Calla

A tear dropped onto the last post-it note. Sophie wished she could have said a proper good-bye to Calla. She hadn't considered that Calla could die. But Calla had. She had known the chances. And she had still braved it.

More tears joined the first one, and Sophie had to give back the post-it notes so that she didn't ruin the last words Calla had to say to her.

She was crying in front of someone who was practically a stranger. Again. But she couldn't stop. The tears blurred her vision and wouldn't stop coming. Her body racked in quiet sobs.

She must have cried for at least ten minutes. Somewhere in the middle of that, Keefe had wrapped her in yet another hug. She felt at home in his arms. They comforted her in ways that words could not.

She slowly calmed down, but she stayed in his arms. She didn't have the heart to break away.

Keefe said nothing this whole time. Not because he was a jerk, or anything, but because he knew that words wouldn't do anything. So, finally, she gave in. She decided to trust him with all of her heart.

Keefe

He was in pain. His heart was aching. Seeing her cry was one of the most torturous things he had ever experienced. Scratch that, the most. He wanted to say something. But what could he say? I'm sorry? His words would only sound empty. So he went with a hug. Simple, but it seemed to help.

He could have stayed like that forever. But he knew that they should focus on the cure.

"Hey," he said softly when she stopped sniffling, "look at me." He cradled her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. "This is going to sound cliche. But she'll always be in your heart." She nodded half-heartedly.

Keefe looked at the time. Five pm. He had been here an hour.

Suddenly, Sophie turned away and walked to her desk. She opened up her laptop and typed in her (incredibly long, Keefe couldn't help but notice) password. She typed something into her search engine.

"Whatcha searching up?," he asked. He crossed over to her desk, and looked at the computer over her shoulder.

"Panakes. We need to find a Panakes tree."

Keefe grimaced. It couldn't be that easy. Besides, the Panakes were barely known.

"Arghhhhhh," Sophie growled in frustration. She looked ready to punch something. "All that comes up is pancakes!" She threw her hands up, then banged her head on her keyboard.

Knock. Knock.

Sophie and Keefe exchanged glances. Who could it be?

Sophie bolted to her door, Keefe close behind, and opened it. There, in his cloaked glory, was Agent Forkle.

"Ms. Foster," he said. "Mr. Sencen. I see you two are getting along fine." He craned his neck to look inside the room. "And share a mutual love of pancakes." Keefe felt his cheeks heat up.

"I was just getting to know him," Sophie said sharply.

"Yes. Well, I have some bad news."

Keefe noticed how Sophie's breathing became labored at that. He slung an arm around her shoulders.

"I came as fast as I could," Agent Forkle continued. "Aside from the Collective, you two are the first ones being notified of this...recent development. You see, the rest of the Basile family collapsed with the sickness. And that's not all. Lur and Mitya have succumbed to it, too."

A/N: Hi, sorry I didn't update daily over the last few days, I kind of forgot. 😅