After spending the day at Eamon's house, I returned home to find my mother sitting on the couch waiting. "Hey," she greeted when I walked over to her, and she gestured for me to take a seat beside her. 

"Hi mom," I responded as I sat down, leaving a little bit of room between the two of us. I studied the look on her face, not quite grasping the exact emotion she was projecting. While it was usually easy to read my mom, it was always easy because she was either happy, angry, or genuinely sad. Seeing her now, I almost wanted to say that she looked guilty, but I couldn't be sure until she started talking. 

She didn't say anything, and after a moment of pause she surprised me by attempting to wrap her arms around my body into a tight hug. It took me a few seconds to realize what she was doing, and I didn't return the hug until a second before she decided to pull away. I studied her face and finally realized the emotion. Worry, pain, guilt. It wasn't exactly the same face she made when she was sad, when her eyes would be brimmed with tears and you'd usually see her eyebrows strung together in concentration as she would hold herself back from crying. 

With this, I just had to look into her eyes to know. "Can I ask you an honest question?" she finally spoke up. 

"I guess," I told her, trying to act nonchalant. 

"Who else knows?" she asked. "I know it's not just your friends. Someone is training you." When she saw the look on my face she decided to add on, "You won't be in trouble, and neither will they." 

"Well..." I sighed. "Obviously you saw that Blythe, Lyra, and Gen know. The council knows," she flinched, "and they promised to let me keep it a secret so long as I receive training and everything. I think they were hoping that I would change my mind about keeping it all a secret after going through training." 

She stared at me. "Who's training you?" 

"Well, first off, I will admit that Eamon Foster knows, and he's the one who contacted the council for me and everything. Elwin, our school's physician, and Master Leto know as well. Eamon's parents know, I'm not sure if his brother does although for all I know he might. Marella Redek has been training me, I think as a favor to Sophie or something like that. All I know is that she's been great. Along with this, I've been able to meet a lot of other people who have manifested as a pyrokinetic. There's a lot more than you think, mom. It used to be such an obscure ability, but there were at least twenty people that I met and that doesn't include all the people like dad who are still under wraps." 

She sat there for a moment. "Sophie and Keefe Foster know of your ability?" I nodded, and sucked in my breath as I anticipated what she might say. Now that I knew of my father's background, I was worried that maybe my parent's hatred against the Fosters was more than just about their "legendary" status. 

"When Sophie first moved to the Lost Cities she pretended not to have an ability, just like I'm doing now. She warned me about the consequences," I further explained when my mother didn't say anything else. 

"I don't have a personal problem with the Fosters, Nova," my mother finally stated. "Sure, I'm not a big fan of how Sophie Foster's abilities were a result of a group of people making sure she'd have these abilities. It makes me wonder if I, and everyone like me, could have the chance to unlock abilities through a genetic science, such as Sophie Foster, but all that knowledge instead went towards putting specific abilities into one person." 

I already knew this, but I wasn't going to respond to that. "Sophie and Keefe Foster are actually really nice. They've been nothing but welcoming to me ever since I ran headfirst into their son and my life became a mess." I let out a sigh. 

"Speaking of this son," my mother sat up and gave me a look I really wish she hadn't. 

"Mom, I really-"

"I would really like the chance to speak to his family," she finished her statement, cutting me off. I completely lost track of what I originally thought she was going to say, as I looked at her in surprise. 

"What?" I asked, confused. 

"I would like the chance to talk to them. At least his parents, if anything. I don't know if you contact his parents directly or through him, but I would love the chance to sit down and have a chat with them. I'd like to thank them for helping you out. I wish, as a fellow parent, they would've contacted us and told us everything, as I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate it if complete strangers kept secrets about their kids from them-"

"Mom-"

"I know," she once again cut me off, narrowing her eyes at me. "I understand why you kept the information from us. I just wish you hadn't, and I wish that they would've told us anyways." She looks off to the side, over where the door to my bedroom is, and I see my dad standing there, smiling at us. 

"I think this is the most we've ever talked as a family," he stated, going to sit beside my mother. 

"We should make it a habit," my mother added as he took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. I couldn't help but smile at the sign of affection between them, one of my biggest hopes was eventually finding someone who I would love as much as my parents love each other. 

When they both faced me it suddenly felt like an interrogation once again. "Marella Redek has been training you?" my father questioned, his head tilted slightly in interest. "I heard she didn't want to become a mentor." 

"As I said, I think it was a favor to Eamon's mom," I responded. "I genuinely don't know. All I know, is that for some reason I have a bigger struggle with controlling my powers than others. But at the same time, I don't have a bigger struggle. It's weird."

"What do you mean?" This time he sat up, and dropped my mother's hand as if losing interest in anything that wasn't me.

"I just... lose control. When I'm really worried about it, I can control it. But if I let down my guard for even a second and something happens where I'm emotional, it just kind of happens. I've been so worried I'd accidentally burn down the house. I almost have." 

My mother's gaze moved towards my desk and narrowed her eyes before turning them to me, filled with accusations. "Our family portrait?" 

She was referencing the picture they had taken soon after I was born, standing in front of their restaurant. They had me, as a baby, dressed in a small uniform they had made custom and all of the staff from the time crowded behind them, everyone smiling brightly at the camera. I had kept it on my bedside ever since I could remember. 

"I moved it away from me," I informed her sheepishly. "It's one of my most prized possessions, I really didn't want to lose it." After a few moments of silence I turned back to my father. "Is it okay for you to tell me whatever you didn't before, now?" 

He let out a huff, not quite excited to start talking. Finally, after a moment of pause, he questioned, "Do you know the origin story of the rebel groups?" 

"What do you mean?" I asked. "The Neverseen?" I didn't know the origin story to any groups, so I just shook my head anyways. "No." 

"Many decades ago, the humans started to develop very dangerous weapons. Nuclear weapons, that could be harmful to not only themselves, but to other intelligent species as well. It was proposed to the council that the humans be moved to a sanctuary, but they refused. Two groups formed, the Neverseen and the Black Swan. The Black Swan thought it would be better to learn to work with humans, the Neverseen were the ones supportive of the initiative to move the humans," my father explained to me. I briefly recalled learning about something with this during school, but unlike Eamon, I don't have a photographic memory. 

"Oh," I simply said. "Were you..." I couldn't finish my sentence. 

"I was a member of the Neverseen," he finally told me, my mother rubbing her hand up and down his arm in an act of concern. 

"What?" My eyes widened. "How?" 

"One of my many great grandparents was one of the pyrokinetics who lost their life in the fire that led to the banning of the ability," he confessed. He looked off to the side, staring at the wall as if it would conjure a script for him to read out to me. "My family had stayed pretty close to Fintan Pyren, for a few generations, before somewhat slacking off. Eventually when it came around to this issue coming up, I was approached by Fintan. He wanted to know about my take on the issue and I revealed that I agreed the humans were getting very dangerous and it could eventually turn into a problem. He questioned about my lineage, he knew at a point that some people in my family would secretly train their children to become a pyrokinetic, and he was lucky I was one of them.

"The rebellion began with promise, it was underground and it was quiet and it wasn't aggressive at first. There was also talk of making sure that the treatment of 'unstable' abilities, like pyrokinetics, would be changed. It was something I genuinely believed in. But then, as time moved on, it became aggressive. Then Gisela went along with the plan that led to her having Keefe, and soon after word got out about Sophie Foster's existence. Then it was as if the original point of our group stopped being to make sure humans were moved to a sanctuary where they couldn't hurt us was gone, and instead it's as if the group was set on exterminating the humans." 

He shook his head, and yet I still couldn't believe what he was telling me. The Neverseen? I never would have imagined my soft-spoken father would be a part of a rebellion group. Now my mother, on the other hand, I would believe. 

"I didn't agree with it anymore, I couldn't agree with it anymore, and I wasn't sure what to do. After almost a year of gaining the courage, and lots of talks with Fintan, I was released and able to move on. It's not something that would've been allowed later on in the movement, but there was still lack of action at that point and he knew that I wouldn't tell anyone. Still, up until the end of the Neverseen I still would notice that certain members would come by just to check on me, but I knew they just wanted to make sure I didn't rat them out. I still believe in what I was originally fighting for, which was better treatment for people with my abilities as well as getting away from dangerous humans." 

"I can't believe..." I trailed off, not knowing what to respond. "I can't imagine." 

My dad gave me a weak smile. "A big reason I am not a fan of the Fosters, is because they're part of the reason the group's focus shifted. I knew that their plan had faults, and it was so long-drawn that they lost the original purpose. It got to the point where instead of wanting to work with the council to make a change, they wanted to become the change themselves and overrule the council. I'm very lucky that the council has since changed their stance on the treatment of unstable abilities, and once again allowed pyrokinetics to manifest and practice their abilities in public, but I still can't help but be angry that the group I was once a part of got so off-track they became the bad guys. Because, at least originally, I don't believe they were." 

With that, my father gently squeezed my shoulder, gave me a soft smile, and took his leave. My mother giving me a hug before following suit, most likely to comfort and calm him down. 

Oddly enough, for once in my life I enjoyed listening to my parents talk. 

---

this chapter took so much research bc honestly i love shannon, but she's really only stated the purpose of the neverseen like once and that was in book 1. so essentially neverseen really is confusing, and their purpose is kinda bonkers and all over the place. i tried my hardest to take all the information from the book and make it so her dad's story would be compatible with what shannon has told us, not quite sure if i hit the nail spot on but hopefully it's believable enough. there was a very VERY tiny reference to legacy with the keefe thing but i didn't elaborate for sake of spoilers, since i'm keeping this a legacy-free book xx. 

chapter question: who does nova confide this information with first?