The MirrorMasters

Chapter 11

"You didn't. Tell me you didn't!" David exclaimed, his jaw set and fists clenched in anger. "Already?"

It was later in the evening, and we were hanging out in my room. I sat cross-legged on my bed, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun. Mom and Dad were downstairs, but they had already said that dinner would be in twenty minutes. One of them could come up and knock on the door at any moment.

I glanced down, unable to bring myself to say anything. Earlier today, he had tried to be supportive of my plans for looking into my past, but this went so much further. I'd known he would hate this scenario.

"Leah!"

"David, I had to!" I said, finally managing to find the courage to lift my chin and look him in the eye. "There's a planet somewhere out there in peril. My home planet. Millions, maybe even billions, of lives are at stake, and, according to the prophecy, I'm the one who needs to find out how to save them."

"You don't know that," David protested, but his real meaning was clear. He didn't want to believe it.

"If it's true, I owe it to them and to myself to find out."

"How are you going to do that? By putting yourself at risk, investigating things you should leave alone?"

"No! Look, I needed to know about my past. About how I got here and anything else they knew."

"And?"

I filled him in on the discoveries we'd made at the social services agency, followed by what we'd gleaned from experimenting with mirror-gazing at Jenny's.

David listened, curious despite himself. His expressions ranged from gratitude as I told him of the family that had rescued me, to thoughtful as I recounted the evidence: the unusual language, the supposedly drunk guy who swore he saw me appear out of nowhere, my newly discovered abilities.

"It's an interesting story, but it doesn't tell us much. You can actually do that with mirrors? I never imagined abilities like that were real."

I nodded, my expression solemn. "I'll show you."

Closing my eyes, I concentrated for a moment, and then opened them to focus on the mirror. Deciding to show David that crystal castle by the sparkling purple ocean, I focused on the scene as I remembered it from my first effort. Soon, the image in the mirror shimmered and rippled, finally settling to display the castle and ocean beyond. When I heard David's startled gasp, I knew I'd succeeded.

"Wow, that's so beautiful. Is that where you think you're from? Look, it has two moons! And....is that two suns, one reddish-yellow one setting, and a blue one higher in the sky?"

"It is!" I exclaimed, eyes wide as I took in the scene. "I think there's a third moon, over there. Yes, there it is, just like in my dream last night. And there should be a beautiful ringed gas giant planet dominating the sky. Maybe it hasn't risen yet. It...it all looks so familiar. I'm sure that's where I'm from. David, I'm sorry. I didn't ask for any of this, and it's all happening so quickly."

David put a hand on my shoulder. "There's nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who's sorry for giving you such a hard time. Finding out about your past is important to you. I just want you to be safe."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I know this is hard for you, too."

We shared a brief sibling hug, and to my astonishment, the scene was still there in the mirror when I looked up again. It hadn't disappeared for lack of focus. "It's still there! Usually the image is gone if I lose focus. Maybe I'm getting better at this."

A chair creaked down in the living room. I jumped as I heard heavy, slow footsteps on the stairs a moment later. The image in the mirror faded as my heart beat fast and my concentration scattered. Dad was coming upstairs! When the mirror returned to normal, a knock sounded on the door.