Keefe Sencen

"'Right. Because our family doesn't decide who we are. We decide who we are. Believe me, it drives my parents crazy. And sometimes that's the only thought that gets me through the day.' -Keefe Sencen, pg. 444 Everblaze" Keefe Sencen is a member of the Black Swan and an ex-member of the Neverseen, which he entered as an attempt to infiltrate their organization and tear down from the inside. He attended Foxfire before he was banished to Exillium, after which his banishment was lifted and he began to attend Foxfire again. Keefe skipped Level One in Foxfire as he has a photographic memory. This makes him the youngest prodigy in his level. He is the son of Lord Cassius and Lady Gisela, and grew up at Candleshade, though in the later books often resides elsewhere. Fitz Vacker is his best friend, and he's always wished he was a Vacker. Keefe has a very fragile past, as his father was not encouraging as a child, and his mother, a memeber of the Neverseen since before his birth, only has use for him as a pawn. He admits to Sophie that he often hides behind his jokes and teasing. He and Sophie grow very close, according to Mr. Forkle, in the last few books, though as friends or more remains to be seen. He does not deny Ro's words of "your little girlfriend," and admits to Ro that he really likes Sophie in the Barnes & Noble special edition book of Nightfall.

The name "Keefe" means "handsome", "noble" and/or "gentle".

Physical Appearance
Keefe is tall with messy, artfully and carefully disheveled blonde hair and startling ice blue eyes. Sophie has described him as very handsome and has remarked that many other girls probably find him attractive. He is described to have broad shoulders and that he cleans up well.

Abilities

 * 1) Empath - Keefe is an Empath, which means that he can feel other people's emotions. He can also feel Silveny's emotions and he talks to her, but in a different way than Sophie, who can understand what Silveny is transmitting to her. Keefe can feel Sophie's emotions without physical contact. He received this talent from his father, although Sophie's emotions are stronger than most elves for unknown reasons. In Nightfall, he learns that he can tap into Sophie's emotional center and thus control her emotions, sending an ice blue wind through her mind to calm her.
 * 2) Photographic memory - Like Sophie, Keefe has a photographic memory. This explains why he has skipped a level (Level One) and can get away with ditching Foxfire sessions. In Nightfall, Lady Gisela says that Keefe inherited it from her.
 * 3) Mimicry - Keefe can mimic and he shows that he can do a perfect impression of Sophie Foster, Lady Gisela, Dame Alina (now Councillor Alina), and Magnate Leto. He is not actually a Polyglot, and he learned to mimic by learning to imitate his mother, Lady Gisela, who is a Polyglot.
 * 4) Artist - Keefe is an amazing artist. However, his parents (mainly his father) don't appreciate his talents and even tell him art is a waste of time. Sophie mentions multiple times she thinks his drawings are incredibly realistic, so much that they look like photographs. In book six, Nightfall, Keefe gives Sophie a painting of her with Grady and Edaline; and one of her, him, Fitz, Dex, Biana, Tam, Linh, and Wylie, and Sophie is blown away by how beautiful they are. Keefe paints himself next to Sophie.

Background
Keefe is an only child and his best friend is Fitz. He usually hangs out with the Vackers and treats them like family. When he’s not helping to save the elvin world or teasing Sophie, Keefe plays Base Quest with Fitz, Biana, and Sophie. He also likes to play Bramble with Fitz and sometimes Biana. At home, his mother ignores him and his father always scolds him. Keefe always tries to impress his father, Lord Cassius, and he successfully did in the second book, Exile, by telling him that he was helping Sophie with Silveny the Alicorn. This impresses Keefe's father because Silveny is the key to the people's faith in the Council and his father works for the Council. In Neverseen, Sophie mentions that Keefe's father is verbally abusing him. Despite his father's seriousness, Keefe is fun loving, even giving the nickname Glitter Butt to Silveny despite her importance. He has fun teasing people - especially Sophie. He is also kind to Sophie when she is at her weakest. He suggested to Elwin to rename the Healing Center the Foster Center because of how many times Sophie had to go there. In the first book, Keefe is known to have a goofy personality, and has a reputation as a trouble maker. In Exile, however, Keefe has a more important role, and you get a glimpse at the more compassionate part of him when Sophie is upset about Alden's broken mind. In Everblaze, he does a great deal of aiding Sophie with whatever mysteries she has to solve involving the Black Swan. At the end of the book, Keefe fights his mother and begins to harbor a deep grudge against her. In Neverseen, Keefe takes on a darker, more angry edge in some areas of the book, especially when it has to do with his mother. This book is when you really get a glimpse into what it's like to be in Keefe's world. You see his sensitivity and struggle to hold himself together. After learning that she had someone Wash away many of his memories of her when he was a child, he joins the Neverseen in order to save his mother and find answers. In Lodestar it is revealed it was also to infiltrate their organization.

In book four, Neverseen, Keefe feels betrayed by his mother and fights with emotions of regret, grief, and guilt. He still loves his mother deep down, but refuses to admit it. Keefe is desperate to gain the memories stolen by his mother, and when he does, he believes that he was never meant to be a hero, but a villain. He had later found out that it wasn't only his mother who was part of Neverseen, it was also Alvar Vacker who Keefe worships. Keefe decides to join the Neverseen so he can work as a double agent, but he did not tell anyone that until the next book Lodestar. When Keefe joins the Neverseen, Sophie sneaks along with him, he tries to protect her. Keefe ends up sacrificing Sophie's cache, given to her by Kenric, and steals it by mimicking her voice because he overheard her and Fitz talking about the cache password earlier; which is "221 B Baker Street". He tells Sophie he can't be who she wants him to be. He begs Sophie not to hate him, and his last words before Sophie leaves are "I have to do this. Please don't hate me." He gives her a necklace with one temporary leaping crystal, so that she can escape. In book 5, Lodestar, Keefe impersonated Magnate Leto at Foxfire and led Sophie inside "his" office. After that, every night and morning in his Neverseen hideout, he has a telepathic conversation with Sophie. Later Sophie, Tam, and Fitz find one of the hideouts and find Keefe and three others (Brant, Ruy, and Alvar), ready to capture them. When Tam and Fitz get trapped behind a force field, Sophie decides she has no choice but to inflict on them. Then she wakes Keefe up and Keefe begs to take Alvar with him back to Fintan so he can gain his trust and steal his cache (along with Kenric's) and Sophie finally agrees. Towards the end of the book, Keefe finally flees the Neverseen while Sophie is at the Peace Summit and he finds her at Lumenaria, and is there when Mr. Forkle dies. It is also revealed that Keefe's blood is the key to open a mysterious door, possibly part of the Lodestar Initiative. At the very end Sophie learns from Keefe that her parents may be in danger. She light leaps to their new home and discovers that it has been ransacked. Her parents aren't there but her little sister Amy is. Amy sees Sophie and all she says is "Sophie?"

In book 6, Nightfall, Keefe is no longer associated with the Neverseen''. W''hen he makes contact with Lady Gisela through his blood-sealed imparter, she answers. When he does this, he is with Sophie. Lady Gisela says she needs him to go to Ravagog and deliver a message to King Dimitar. When they get there, Keefe declares himself to be a Mercadir. King Dimitar challenges Keefe to a sparring match where the first person to draw blood from the opponent three times wins. If Keefe wins, they get they the starstone hairpin that they want. Keefe wins by a hair, and he learns that his mother, in the message, told Dimitar to challenge Keefe to a fight to "prove that he's not worthless like the others". In addition, his mother told Dimitar to assign Keefe a bodyguard (if he won). He ends up being assigned Ro, King Dimitar's daughter.

Relationships
Sophie and Keefe met mid-way through Book 1 and since that time the two have become good friends. Keefe always wants to join Sophie on her adventures, and is there for her various times throughout the series. In book two, Exile, Keefe and Sophie get to know each other better. Lodestar (page 58) may have also hinted to Keefe liking her as he says, "You can ignore it all you want, Foster, but sooner or later you're going to have to solve the triangle. Or should we get real and call it a square?"
 * SOPHIE (close friend/possible love interest/crush)

Neverseen hinted a couple times that Keefe could possibly like Sophie, due to his constant teasing and subtle compliments. In the fourth book it becomes quite obvious that Keefe likes Sophie, becoming jealous of Tam, who he believes is trying to steal his spot in his "Sophie Foster Fan Club". They share many close moments, and he even goes as far to give her a necklace that he had originally made for his mother, in order to protect her from himself. Also in Neverseen, when Keefe says "Hold hands and look into each other's eyes" that he is quite jealous of Fitz and knows Sophie has feelings for Fitz.

He also seems to confide in Sophie more than the others, as well as stalling his own reckless plans for "only her". They also shared two "window slumber parties", where they both sleep at their respective windowsills, covered in blankets, just to enjoy each other's company.

Sophie is heartbroken when Keefe joins the Neverseen, and, trying to honor his last wish, tries as best as she can, not to hate him. In Lodestar, they often communicate telepathically while Keefe is with the Neverseen. When Mr. Forkle passes away in Lumenaria, Keefe was there to hold Sophie in his arms, keeping her together.

When Sophie finds Amy after her parents are taken, Keefe asks if she is okay and asks if Sophie still hates him. Sophie replies as usual with the reply "I'm never going to hate you, Keefe." In Nightfall he continually hints that he likes Sophie. Keefe often visits Havenfield, and the share some sweet moments which hint at more than what is said.

In the Barnes and Noble exclusive version of Nightfall, Keefe admits that he likes Sophie. Ro remarks that "he's got it bad" for Sophie. He also was "dreaming about a pair of golden flecked brown eyes" and told Ro that he would be whatever Sophie needed until "she was ready for more". Fitz is Keefe's friend. The two are very close knowing each other all throughout their school lives. Their friendship began in Level Two, when Keefe was the weird guy who skipped a level, and Fitz was the guy who kept disappearing all the time. No one wanted to hang out with either of them, so they became best friends. Keefe is often at the Vacker house, Everglen, playing base quest, playing Bramble, or just hanging out. Fitz says that he and Keefe became friends because they were both eccentric and they did not fit in.
 * FITZ (best friend)

In Lodestar, Fitz is obviously angry at Keefe for joining the enemy. He was described as "afraid" rather than angry, which is Fitz's normal reaction. They grow further apart, with Fitz feeling unable to trust Keefe and Keefe in turn mostly communicating with Sophie. At the end of the book, they reconcile, but there is still tension between them.

In Nightfall, Fitz and Keefe have a lot of tension between each other, fighting a silent war to attain Sophie. Keefe meets Dex through Sophie, but their bond is later implied to extend farther than that. In Book 3, when it is revealed Dex is a Technopath, Keefe begins planning various schemes with him. Keefe and Dex both like to tease Sophie and Fitz about being Cognates. Keefe often jokes with Dex about pranking Councillor Alina (when she had been the principal of Foxfire Academy) with elixirs and using his Technopathic skills to make elaborate schemes, which Dex always declines. Dex and Keefe seem to become really good friends during Neverseen. The two both use the nickname "Wonderboy" for Fitz. This is most likely due to many girls liking Fitz, including Sophie. Biana is the sister of Keefe's best friend, Fitz. They are childhood friends, and they have hung out with each other for many years. She saved his life in Everblaze, tackling Lady Gisela, who tried to shoot him with a melder.
 * DEX (friend)
 * BIANA (friend/unlikely love interest) 

She is shown to have romantic interest in Keefe, even though it is not implied that Keefe had returned any feelings for her.

In the fourth book, Keefe admits that he has kissed Biana before in a dare, describing it as "mostly on the cheek." Keefe cares a lot about Biana and it is clear that he does not wish for her to get hurt.

In the sixth book, Keefe denies having a liking for Biana and admits that he flirts with everybody else to try to send the message when speaking with Sophie. Lord Cassius is shown as a very controlling father. He often states how disappointed in Keefe, but his negative intentions have never extended farther than that. Later, after Keefe knows about his mom being in the Neverseen, he says he is surprised his dad "turned out to be the good parent". Lord Cassius wrote a book about Empaths called The Heart of the Matter. Keefe describes his dad as not so much an author but "torturer of innocent readers."
 * LORD CASSIUS (father)

In Lodestar, Lord Cassius seems to be softer on Keefe as he asks Sophie to tell Keefe that "If he ever comes back he'll always have a home." Sophie, though, does state that Lord Cassius might have been verbally abusing Keefe, along with Lady Gisela. Lady Gisela often states her disappointment in her son, but it extends farther than that. At the end of Book 3, it is revealed that she is part of the Neverseen. In Book 4, Keefe learns that his mother has had someone Wash his memories so that he wouldn't remember her affiliations with the Neverseen. Broken, hurt, remorseful, and feeling a tad bit guilty, he joins the ranks of the evil group in order to retrieve his memories.
 * LADY GISELA (mother)

In Nightfall, she's shown to be extremely manipulative. Alden is like a father to Keefe, always allowing him to stay over and making sure everything is working out for Keefe. When Alden's mind is broken the grief is agonizing for Keefe. Keefe is constantly teasing Sandor and trying to make trouble for him. He always calls Sandor 'Gigantor.' Sandor acts annoyed but is actually very fond of Keefe and sometimes trusts him. He also shows signs of wanting to protect Keefe as well as Sophie, at least before the end of Book 4. Keefe is jealous when Tam and Sophie interact, even though the two of them do not have any romantic interest in each other. Keefe also doesn't want Tam to take a reading of him, which makes it hard for them to trust each other. Keefe often calls him "Bangs Boy," and says "his (Keefe's) hair is cooler (than Tam's)." Tam refuses to talk to Keefe until Keefe submits to a shadow reading, which he has yet to do. In Nightfall when Keefe is apologizing for betraying everyone Tam tells Keefe he his not worthless but parents like their's can make him feel that way. He says that he forgives him but that doesn't stop him from teasing Keefe throughout the remainder of Nightfall. In Lodestar, it is shown that Keefe was impressed by how Linh controlled the river so well. He was also worried that the Neverseen might have hurt Linh, showing he somewhat cares for her. Sophie, Keefe and Lady Cadence deliver a scroll to King Dimitar from Lady Gisela(Keefe's mom) that requested that Keefe proves he is worthy and that he gets a bodyguard for extra protection. Keefe and Ro have many similarities such as liking to cause trouble. Ro thinks that Sophie and Keefe are adorable together "especially when she gets the look in her eye that she wants to rip his head off". In the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition Ro refers to Sophie as Keefe's "little girlfriend" and teases him about his crush on Sophie.
 * ALDEN (guardian)
 * SANDOR (friend)
 * TAM (frenemies)
 * LINH (friend)
 * RO (Personal bodyguard/friend)