Keefe Sencen

"I can't pretend I'm who you want me to be anymore."
"You were made to be a hero. I was made to be something... else."

-Keefe, to Sophie in Neverseen, page 662 (hardcover) Keefe Sencen is one of Sophie Foster's best friends. He attends Foxfire and is an elf belonging to the Sencen family. He is fourteen years old as of the first book, and revealed to be fifteen in the fifth book. It is also mentioned in Keeper of The Lost Cities that Keefe also skipped Level One in Foxfire, because he has a photographic memory. This makes him the youngest prodigy in his level.

The name "Keefe" means "Handsome", "Noble" & "Gentle".

Physical Appearance
Keefe is tall with messy, artfully disheveled blonde hair and piercing, ice blue eyes. Sophie Foster says that Keefe is devilishly handsome and says that many other girls probably find him attractive too. Tam Song mentions that Keefe "Uses more hair products than I do!" Essentially, Keefe cares a lot about his hair. He's good looking even by Elvin standards!

Abilities
Empath - Keefe is an Empath, which means that he can feel other people's emotions. He can also feel Silveny's (or Glitterbutt'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.

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 class.

Mimicry - Keefe can mimic and he shows that he can do a perfect impression of 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.

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 so realistic and that they look like photographs.

Biography
Keefe is an only child and his best friend is Fitz. He usually hangs out with the Vackers and treats them like family. Most of the time, 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 Lodestar, Sophie mentions that Keefe's father is verbally abusing him. Despite his father's seriousness, Keefe is fun loving, even giving the nickname Glitterbutt 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, and after learning that she has has someone Wash away many of his memories of her, he joins the Neverseen in order to save his mother and find answers.

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 joins the Neverseen, and when 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. 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 minuscule 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.

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 become very close. Lodestar 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 and almost kissing. 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 shown to have been mildly, unknowingly jealous of the fact that Keefe kissed Biana (on a dare, nonetheless), as when Keefe told her the story, she was clenching her fists, and even she didn't know why. Sophie is also 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. Sophie remembers Keefe as the "Beautiful Blonde Boy" when he finds her in a cave. When Mr. Forkle slowly passes away, Keefe was there to hold Sophie in his arms, keeping her together. 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 weird.
 * SOPHIE (very close friends/possible love interest)
 * FITZ (best friend)

In Lodestar, Fitz was obviously angry at Keefe, especially when they met with Sophie, where he teased them. They grow farther apart, with Fitz feeling unable to trust Keefe and Keefe in turn mostly communicating with Sophie. At the end of the book, they both end up going to the Forbidden Cities, but they both did it only for Sophie. Fitz starts to dislike Keefe a bit more after he interrupts an almost kiss between him and Sophie.

Keefe is in a competition with Fitz, and possibly Dex, to wins Sophie's heart. 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 by fake-vomiting. Keefe often jokes with Dex about pranking Councillor Alina (when she was a principal) 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. Biana is the sister of Keefe's best friend, Fitz. They are good friends. She saved his life in Everblaze, tackling Lady Gisela, who tried to shoot him with a melder. Even though Keefe doesn't directly return any feelings for her. On the Neverseen cover, she is shown holding onto his arm. Also, in the fourth book, Keefe admits that he has kissed Biana before in a dare, describing it as "mostly on the cheek." Biana is grumpy when Keefe shows any feelings for Sophie. Lord Cassius first appears in Book 1 and 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, that Keefe had to suffer through, and describes his dad as not so much an author but "torturer of innocent readers." In Lodestar Lord Cassius seems to have some affections to Keefe as he asks Sophie to tell Keefe that "If he ever comes back he'll always have a home." Sophie though does state the Lord Cassius might have been verbally abusing Keefe. Lady Gisela appears in Book 3. She also often states her disappointment in Keefe, but it extends farther than that. At the end of Book 3, it is revealed that she is part of a secret organization called the Neverseen, designed against the Black Swan with uncertain negative intentions. 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. 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. He also believes that Sophie and Keefe's strong connection is a little more than just friendship. Keefe often seems jealous when Tam and Sophie interact. 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. Yet, Tam and Keefe will keep the arguing to a minimum because of how much they care for Sophie. In the book Lodestar, it is shown that Keefe was impressed by how Linh controlled the river so well. Other than the fact that he is impressed by her amazing abilities to control water, nothing else was mentioned.
 * DEX (friend)
 * BIANA (friend/younger sister type figure/possible love interest) 
 * LORD CASSIUS (father)
 * LADY GISELA (mother)
 * ALDEN (guardian)
 * SANDOR (friend, sort-of)
 * TAM (frenemies)
 * LINH (friend/possible love interest)