The Mysterious Benedict Society Meets the Mysterious Miss F

Chapter 20

Constance heard someone gasp. Maybe that someone was herself. "J-Jolie as in Edaline's daughter that died in a fire sixteen years ago?!"

Joseph looked hesitant but nodded. "Who are you?" He asked her, his eyes scanning her once again. "I-I should know you. I do know you... you look so much like her..."

"Impossible." Edaline scoffed at him. "Constance is only four years old... Jolie... 16 years ago..." Her voice broke.

"Jolie..." Constance's face portrayed her line of thinking. "She was my mother? You and her..."

"That's not possible." He said, his gaze very strong. Constance couldn't detect any lies in his expression and tone. "She would never betray me. And I am most certainly not related to you, whoever you are."

"Wait- what do you mean?" Bex spoke up, alert and her eyes widening at Joseph. "How could Jolie betray you when she's gone?"

"You're delusional." Edaline said, horror written all over her face. "You never accepted that she was gone, did you? You wouldn't have even known, would you? You ran away the day before her murder. She's dead, Joseph." Tears were spilling down Edaline's cheeks. "She's not coming back." She said, her voice thick and croaky.

Before Joseph could answer, Constance asked in a rush, "Why did you leave the Lost Cities? If you were to get caught, it surely would've been a long time ago."

Joseph barked a laugh, sad and cold. "Blackmail." He said. "Death threats. Someone knew who I was. I don't know how, don't know when. But I did know who." He began to pace back and forth over the wooden floors. "You know by now I was a founder of the Black Swan, yes?" When they nodded, he continued, "After the fiasco over Atlantis, we went into hiding. I visited the Forbidden Cities often, working in secret with willing humans. However, soon all ties had to be cut because the council was able to track us. Remember, technology wasn't like how it is today. Technopaths were... downplayed from their abilities, something we were able to fix years later. Anyway, soon enough the Council figured out who was behind the Black Swan. Therefore, Forkle and I had to go through many disguises."

Constance already found the story aggravatingly vague. "Who were you? What were your identities? Have you really been hiding since then?"

Joseph sighed, "I'd been disguised as many elves, none you would recognize..." Then he looked at Edaline and ran his hand over his face. "That's besides the point though. Anyway, even with a new life, I couldn't hide my abilities. I went undercover as a Foxfire prodigy after my other identities withered away... about twenty years ago. But even then I was sent to Exilium. I took potions daily to make myself look the way I did: my disguise. I went under a new name, new origins. My intended purpose was to find the anti-group, the Black Swan's nemesis. Finding the Neverseen was easy, but gaining their trust was the challenge. I had to use my abilities in awful ways and had to be trained by psychotic teachers. I would tell myself... change requires sacrifice." Joseph wasn't looking at them anymore, but looking past them. His eyes were dull and he seemed to be reliving hard, painful moments.

"Joseph...?" Bex said, waving her hands in front of his eyes and snapping him out of the trance.

"Sorry." He said, taking a deep breath. "Where was I?"

"Change requires sacrifice." Constance quoted, trying not to get too impatient with the elf.

"Agreed." He said with a slight chuckle. "Anyway, I must've been a good actor and done enough for them, because eventually they let me in their ranks. They trusted me, I was loyal to them... or so they thought. I was actually trying to get intel to the Black Swan. And I did get a lot to Forkle. With my ability, I was the best candidate, the most likely to be let in to the Neverseen. It wasn't easy, and I was always faced with the danger of getting caught. But I had to do it."

"But... why?" Constance asked.

"I had to do what's right. At the end of the day, that's all that mattered. Besides, I was doing it alone, so I didn't have to worry about anyone else getting hurt. I was only responsible for myself."

"Until you dragged my daughter into it." Edaline said softly, bitterly.

"Look, Edaline, whatever you saw, whatever they told you-"

"They told me the truth! I saw them bury her! I've watched her tree grow over the last sixteen years! So don't you dare tell me that it didn't happen." Edaline's voice was scarily angry, cloaked with emotion.

"Edaline, please listen to me!" Joseph pleaded.

"No." Edaline snapped her fingers and a knife appeared in her hands, seemingly from thin air.

"Wow." Bex whispered. Then she said to Constance, "That's the void. She's a Conjurer."

"You keep knives up there?!" Constance asked Edaline.

"You never know when you need them." Edaline answered seriously.

"She uses it to cut animal fur at Havenfield." Joseph explained, not looking at all alarmed at Edaline and her knife.

"What do you mean about Jolie?" Constance asked. "Wasn't Jolie part of the Black Swan, too?"

"She was." Joseph agreed. "We were... friends."

"You were more than that." Edaline argued.

"No, we were nothing more than friends. Good friends at that." Joseph cleared his throat, "We seemed to just... connect. She told me about the Black Swan, a rebel group she was joining. I was surprised but pleased. Of course, I couldn't tell her about my own involvement. I also did not tell her about the Neverseen, and I had no idea she was trying to play both fields. When she did tell me, a day before her supposed death-" Edaline growled at that. "-I warned her to stay away. I begged her, telling her they were dangerous. She asked how I knew... and I couldn't stick with my cover story. I had to protect her. So I told her what they did and that I was a member, but before I could tell her I was a double agent, she-"

"She light leaped away." Edaline finished. "She came straight home, like I said earlier. She wouldn't tell me or Grady what happened. She talked vaguely, saying that someone she thought she knew was... not who they seemed. She seemed heartbroken. We thought... Well, her heart was for Brant. They were engaged. We saw the way she spoke about him, how her eyes lit up whenever she saw him... she was hopelessly in love. But you... you betrayed her. We hadn't even met you, but you were somehow always there. Someone she didn't care to mention. But she seemed heartbroken. It didn't make sense."

"Wait- you two had never actually met?" Constance asked, confused. "But then why did Joseph recognize you when you came in? How did Edaline address you, with absolutely no doubt that you were who she thought you were?"

"I knew it was him. Grady has seen him before, described him to me. I wasn't certain at first at the door, but I recognized the house. We've come here before, looking for Joseph. Jolie... left an odd note at home on the kitchen table, as if she knew something was going to happen that night. Which, now I know she was warned." Edaline said, side-eying Joseph. "We didn't see the note until the morning, when it was too late."

"What did it say?" Bex asked.

"It said..." She fished out a piece of paper from her pocket.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I don't know what will happen tonight. I don't know if I'm coming home tomorrow. I don't know when I'll see you again. But I do know this: Things might seem confusing and awful but our eyes only see what we want to see. Our hearts are what believes. Find my Forever Home with Joseph Contraire here: 78 Stellar Street, Colmar France.

This is my Swan Song.