A Guild of Moonlit Shadows (A KOTLC FanFic)

~23~ Let the Courtial Battle Begin

Biana stomped through Everglen, trying to find Keefe, with Dex, Linh, and Tam close behind her.

"Why isn't he with you?!" Biana yelled at her brother, kicking his door open. Fitz was peacefully sitting on his bed reading through the paperwork Elwin gave him.

"Uhh, who?" Fitz asked.

"Keefe! You two are always together figuring out something stupid to do, where is he?!" Biana snapped.

"Okay, wow, wasn't exactly expecting to be called out like that. But Keefe actually snagged an internship in the Elvin Headquarters. The Council just left for some diplomatic mission, and he was asked to attend as an assistant."

"What?!" Biana gaped.

"Yeah, I believe he is Oralie's assistant. I think she feels bad about Sophie and gave him the job just to ease her nerves. Why, what did he do now?" Fitz asked. Dex fished a pamphlet out of his bag and threw it onto Fitz's bed. Fitz's face slowly dropped as he looked through it.

"This is Keefe's art style," Fitz muttered, looking it over.

"Every single elf in the Lost Cities got one of these things, the Council apparently confiscated as many as they could before they went on this mystery mission of theirs," Tam explained, leaning on the threshold of Fitz's door. Fitz stared at the back of the pamphlet, rereading over the snippet.

"What is it?" Linh asked.

"I recognize this," Fitz muttered, tapping his pencil against the paragraph on the back.

"What? It looks like-"

"It's human poetry." Fitz started, getting up from his bed and moving to one of his drawers. It was one he always kept locked, and as he opened it, Biana realized why.

It was full of a bunch of Sophie's belongings and trinkets they shared between them. Notes and telepathy inside jokes between them, random elven mind games and even-

"Is that Ella?" Biana asked, pointing to the blue stuffed elephant. Fitz glanced at it, chuckling slightly.

"Yeah, Sophie gave it to me a while ago when I was having a hard time, and Mr. Snuggles was out of commission." Fitz looked away, "The Neverseen took her before I could return it." He muttered. A little more digging, and he pulled out a small book.

"Sophie really liked this American poet named Maya Angelou when she was in the Forbidden cities, and she got both Keefe and me this collection of some of her poems. I found them fascinating and read the book three times over again, but Keefe only liked a few. One in particular..." Fitz flipped through the book, scanning the pages.

"Ah! Here." Fitz grabbed the pamphlet and placed it side by side to the book.

Fitz read the paragraph from the poem, the exact same section from the pamphlet.

"Why would Keefe choose a human poem?"

"I think it is less who wrote the poem and more what it is about," Fitz explained. Biana leaned over her brother's shoulder to look at the name.

A Brave and Startling Truth- Maya Angelou

"A Brave and Startling Truth... Keefe is trying to tell the truth? Of what? Is he telling the truth of the Assassins, is he breaking their trust?" Dex asked.

"No, no..." Linh tugged on her silver-tipped bob, "He is trying to tell the truth about the Vatarians. How they aren't a species of monsters." Linh looked at all of them, "He is trying to tell the truth about what we know, and to humanize the Vatarians, show they aren't beasts."