Where Foundlings Hide

by KL Mitchelson

Chapter Sixteen

  Nervous laughter catches in the back of my throat, and when it escapes, it makes a choking sound. “But Lana and I are twins. We have the same parents.”

  Ivy looks at me despairingly. “No, I’m sorry. It was all a lie. Lana is from Displacia, she’s not your twin.”

  The room begins to dip and sway around me. “What? No, what are you saying, that’s-”

  “You were each born to a different set of parents.”

  I push away from the table and climb to my feet, a wave of nausea rolling over me. “It’s not true, it can’t be.” My legs are like jelly and I find myself sinking back down into my chair.

  “It is. Lana was a Foundling child, I took her to Earth when she was a baby,” Ivy says. “I was instructed to hide her. She and I took on new identities, we moved to Evergreen.” Ivy places a hand on my shoulder, but I shake it off before I can feel any of her emotion. “This means…you’re not my Aunt, are you?”

  Even though I know the answer, I need to hear her say it. “Maybe not biologically, but I am still your Aunt, Casey. I raised you, I-”

  “So who am I?” I raise my voice much louder than I intended and those around the table with notebooks start scribbling fervently.

  Ivy opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out. She glances at her sister.

  “Who am I? You said Lana and I had different parents, who are my parents? Where did I come from?”

  Ivy and Roma exchange a silent word and then Ivy nods, as though Roma has granted her permission to speak. “After we took the Foundling children to Earth, they were safe for a while, but then -”

  “No!” I slam my hand down on the table. “No more Foundlings, no more Displacia, my whole life is a lie. I want to know who I am, where I came from.”

  “Please, Casey,” Ivy pleads. “Please listen to me, I’m trying to explain.”

  I lean back heavily in my chair, my heart thumping so furiously against my ribs that I think it must be black and blue.

  “Lana was just a baby when we left Displacia,” Ivy continues. “But some of the other Foundling children were much older, they’ll be adults now. Shortly after we hid them, we received an encrypted message through our communication systems from the Shadows, threatening the future of Earth and Displacia, unless we handed the Foundlings over, so we changed all of their identities again, instructed their guardians to relocate and to cut off all communication. Then we added an extra layer to their cover.”

  Ivy pauses and glances around the room. I follow her gaze, but everyone avoids my eye, even Caleb.

  “We obtained decoys,” Ivy says. “The Foundlings’ guardians adopted human children of similar ages, with similar looks. I was Lana’s guardian, I acquired a child that looked just like Lana, so much like her that she could’ve been her biological sibling.” Ivy’s navy blue eyes are brimming with tears.

  “You acquired me. I’m a decoy.” I say the words firmly, afraid that I might cry at any moment.

  “Yes.”

  I sit on my hands to stop them from shaking. I have no sister, no family. I was a decoy obtained for the sole purpose of protecting Lana, a girl who I believed was my twin sister, a girl who I shared a room with growing up. The connection that I felt with her, the sisterly bond, it was manufactured. I am nothing more than a human shield.

  Something starts to bubble inside of me. When I speak again, my voice is thick with angry tears. “You hid them behind children. You hid Lana behind me. You didn’t give a damn about what happened to me as long as Lana was safe.”

  “That’s not true. You are loved, Casey,” Ivy says. “I love you like my own child and Lana loved you like her own sister.” Ivy looks down at her hands. “I know what you must think of us, but we would protect the decoys - the human children - with our lives. It was simply a way of confusing anyone who was looking for the Foundlings. They were looking for single children, not twins. Multiple births do not exist in Displacia.”

  Lana is not my twin, not even my sister. I wonder how many times I’ll have to say it to myself before I believe it. “What happened to her? What happened to Lana?”

  “She died. She fell from the cliff and she died.” Tears roll over Ivy’s cheeks.

  “Was it an accident, or did it have something to do with all of this?”

  “We don’t know,” Ivy shakes her head. “The Shadows didn’t claim responsibility for Lana’s death, but Foundling’s don’t die easily.”

  In my mind I see the dream version of Lana falling from the cliff and I shudder involuntarily. “How can you not know?” I look to Roma. “You said you have powers, you said you protect people. Why couldn’t you save her?”

  “We thought she was safe,” Ivy says. “Lana wouldn’t have taken any unnecessary risks; she knew what was at stake.”

  I look up sharply. “Did Lana know about Displacia? About all of this?”

  “Yes,” Ivy nods. “But I made her promise not to say anything.”

  I take the blow like a fist to the stomach. It leaves me winded. Lana knew, all of this time, she knew and she never said anything. She was still that little girl hiding under the bed, concealing herself from me the whole time, hiding in plain sight.

  “Lana only learnt the truth last year, shortly before she died,” Ivy says. “We tried to suppress the Foundling’s powers using mind control, to help them blend in with humans, but Lana’s gifts started to resurface and I needed to give her an explanation so that she wouldn’t blow her cover. She hated the idea of using you as a decoy and she was devastated to learn that you weren’t biologically related, she-”

  I can’t bear to hear the details of the secret conversations between Lana and Ivy. I jump up from my seat causing the others around the table to look up in alarm. “I’ve heard enough. I want to go home.”

  “We can’t allow that.” This time it’s Roma who speaks, her gravelly tone is firm.

  “I didn’t ask your permission.” I say.

  Pink spots appear on the apples of Roma’s cheeks and I can tell that she isn’t used to people disobeying her. “Those Khuulsu specifically targeted you. You’re in danger.”

  “Why? Lana’s gone now, I’m not her decoy anymore. What would they want with me?”

  “It’s not just the Khuulsu who want you,” Ivy says. “You’re demonstrating abilities beyond those of a human and we don’t know why.”

  “What abilities? The only thing I can do is…” I swallow the words, unsure if I should share my secret.

  “It’s OK, Casey,” Parker says. “Everyone here knows that you can feel other people’s emotions.” I look between Ivy and Roma who both nod in unison.

  “But that’s nothing,” I say. “It’s just… an instinct. It doesn’t make me special or powerful. If anything it’s exhausting.”

  “It’s not your only ability,” Roma says, much to my surprise. “Caleb reported something very interesting to us.”

  “You can self-heal,” he says. “That night in the bathroom when Molly attacked you, you lost so much blood, you should’ve died, but you didn’t. You just got up and walked away.”

  My hand shoots instinctively to the back of my head. When Molly cracked my head against the tiled bathroom floor, my skull had split open, but I was left with barely a scratch.

  “Do you see? You are special,” Roma says. “Self-healing is a Haler power, but we’ve never encountered a human with any of our abilities.”

  “Your ability to feel others emotions is unique, though,” Parker says. “Which makes you even more intriguing.”

  “So what am I?” I ask.

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” Parker says. “On the surface you are human and you only acquired your powers after Lana’s death. During our sessions I looked into your mind, aside from your gift, there was nothing that suggested that you weren’t anything but human.”

  “This is crazy, all of this.” I say, shaking my head.

  “I know,” Roma says. “And
I’m sorry that we’re throwing this information at you all at once, but I need you to be strong, Casey, because we need your help.”

  “What can I do that would be of any help here?” I ask.

  Roma looks around the room, exchanging a silent communication with the group. “We need you to become Lana.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Roma looks out on the artificial sky of Displacia. “We are on the brink of an uprising. Some Displacian’s no longer wish to protect Earth. They want to bring the Foundlings home and end our intervention, focus our energies on rebuilding Displacia and finding a new light source. But without our help, humans could be extinct within a decade and we don’t know what impact that will have on Displacia. We would be tethered to a dead world, a place left to wither and rot.”

  I hazard a glance at Ivy and she nods, confirming Roma’s words.

  “Closing the doors doesn’t mean that the passage will disappear,” Roma continues. “If we could bring even one of the Foundlings back home, it might placate those within our government that wish to end our link with Earth. We need the Foundlings to fight for our cause, the people of Displacia will listen to them.”

  “Then just bring them back.”

  Those around the table shift uncomfortably in their seats.

  “It’s not as simple as that,” Roma says. “We don’t know where they are.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know where they are?” I say. “You said Lana was one of them.”

  “Lana was one of them,” Roma says. “She was also the Gatekeeper of the Foundlings, even if she didn’t know it.”

  “Gatekeeper? What does that mean?”

  “The Foundlings share a special connection,” Roma says. “A psychic connection. They were all well-hidden, but we kept Lana close because she is royalty. In the event that we needed to find the Foundlings, Lana would be able to locate them for us.”

  “So now she’s gone-”

  “We can’t find the Foundlings,” Roma finishes. “No one outside of this room knows about the decoys. When the Shadows returned, someone tipped them off about the Foundlings being sent to Earth and we didn’t know who to trust.”

  “We’re trying desperately to find them,” Ivy says. “Roma has people looking for them.”

  “The people of Displacia know something is wrong,” Roma says. “We have to convince them that the Foundlings are safe and the best way we can do that is by giving them Lana, or as she is known in Displacia, Acacia Vedmak.”

  “Acacia Vedmak?” I frown at the unfamiliar name.

  “Lana George was a cover story,” Ivy says gently, “Acacia Vedmak is a descendant of the throne of Displacia, she’s a princess.”

  “And she will be the perfect spokesperson for our cause,” Roma adds. “She will reassure the people of Displacia that the Foundlings are safe, but well hidden. It’ll buy us more time.”

  “Are you saying that you want me to pretend to be this Acacia Vedmak, the girl who I thought was my sister?”

  “She’s still your sister.” Ivy says gently.

  “She’s dead,” I say, my voice echoing around the cavernous room. “Lana, Acacia, whatever you want to call her, she’s dead. Don’t people here know what happened to her?”

  “Her death was never reported in Displacia,” Ivy says quietly. “Only the people in this room know what happened.”

  “Then why not just tell people the truth?”

  Roma gives a sigh of indignation. “Before Ezra raised his army, the Foundlings were deeply respected and loved by all. They were like celebrities. As tell the people of Displacia that the last of the Foundlings are lost, I may as well close the portals myself.”

  “Then do that.” I step back from the table.

  “You need to stay, Casey,” Caleb says. “Look at what happened to Molly. She was being controlled, probably by the Shadows. They could do that to anyone around you, anyone you care about. We have to keep you out of their hands.”

  I imagine Bria with black eyes, her face contorted with rage. I imagine her in Molly’s place, attacking me, trying to kill me. My resolve begins to wane. “Molly was being controlled?”

  Caleb nods. “Yes, that’s why she acted like she did. I mean, some of it was her, she did blame you for Lana’s death, but that just made her easy to influence. The black eyes are a sign of mind control, dark mind control.” Caleb’s expression is earnest, just like it was before he pulled me into the fountain…right before he carried me into this nightmare. “Vedmak’s can control the minds of others, but we don’t make people do bad things. The Shadows force dark thoughts into people’s minds to make them do their bidding. It’s a trick Ezra invented.”

  “Please,” Roma says. “Help us.”

  “No. I won’t do it.” I storm towards the doors, desperate to get away from this place.

  Roma strides towards me and her bodyguards draw in. “Do this for us and we’ll help you too.”

  I freeze with my hand on the doorknob. “I don’t need anything from you,” My eyes fall on Ivy. “Any of you.”

  Roma’s face is intent. “We’ll help you find your parents.”