Time/Date: TC1853.01.20 – Dawn

Location: Metropolitan Police Station, 4th Ring

The safe house smelled of soap and old wood—clean but impersonal, the kind of space designed for temporary occupation rather than living. Raven sat on the narrow bed, knees drawn up, watching dawn light creep through the gap in the curtains. Gray at first, then touched with gold as the sun breached the horizon somewhere beyond the Fourth Ring’s dense architecture.

She hadn’t slept much.

Her mind kept circling through what Officers Veyne and Holt had told her about the baby swap. About Selene and Edmund’s confession. About Selene’s hidden alchemy talent—systematically stolen and suppressed by her own twin sister for nearly fifty years. About Caelia Lin, the woman who was apparently her biological mother, who had stolen credit for decades of her twin sister’s alchemical work.

And about Darian Long. Her biological father. A military commander, Dragon bloodline, husband to Caelia for nearly thirty years.

They’d be brought in for questioning later today. According to Veyne, there was a strong possibility they’d want to meet her. To see the daughter who’d been stolen from them at birth, replaced with Edmund Brenner’s child by his first wife.

The thought made something twist uncomfortably in Raven’s chest.

In her past life—when she’d been Mara Brenner suffering under the Brenners’ cruelty—she’d had minimal dealings with Darian and Caelia. The Longs had been distant figures, powerful and untouchable, occasionally mentioned in Selene’s bitter commentary about the Longs’ success. Raven had known Serenya, though. Serenya Long, the elegant daughter of the Long family, beautiful and poised, who’d coordinated with Amara to make Raven’s life a living nightmare.

Serenya and her twin brothers, Kaivon and Kelen.

The memories surfaced unbidden. Sharp. Visceral. The way they’d laughed while tormenting her during her pregnancy with Novara. How Kaivon had held her arms while Kelen kicked her swollen belly, both of them grinning as she screamed. How Serenya had stood watching with cold satisfaction, occasionally offering suggestions for where to strike next to cause maximum pain without killing the baby outright.

Not yet, Serenya had said then, her voice sweet as poisoned honey. She wants the brat alive for now. But feel free to make the cow suffer.

Raven’s hands tightened on her knees. The rage was old, carefully banked, transformed over eight lifetimes into something colder and more useful than blind fury. But it still burned when she let herself remember.

That kind of cruelty didn’t emerge from nowhere. That level of systematic, calculated torture suggested a toxic family environment. Children learned brutality from somewhere, absorbed it like poison seeping into groundwater.

And now she knew—Serenya Long wasn’t even a Long. She was Serenya Brenner, Edmund and Eveline’s biological daughter, raised by Caelia and Darian as their own. Which meant everything Raven remembered about Serenya’s behavior, her attitudes, her casual cruelty, had been shaped by the Long household.

And Raven suspected it was by Caelia. The woman who’d stolen her sister’s work. The woman who was, biologically, Raven’s mother.

Raven exhaled slowly, centering herself. She’d learned long ago not to make assumptions based on blood connections. Family meant nothing without genuine care, and biological ties created no obligations where none were earned. But she needed information. Needed to understand who Caelia and Darian truly were before walking into that inevitable confrontation.

Veyne and Holt had provided facts—dates, events, legal testimonies. But facts alone didn’t reveal character. Didn’t explain motivations or predict future behavior.

For that, she needed a different perspective. From someone who’d watched them for decades. Who’d seen them at their worst and best. Who had every reason to be honest now that her own world had collapsed.

Selene.

Raven reached for the communicator and called Veyne.

"Brenner," Veyne’s voice came through crisp despite obvious exhaustion. "Everything alright?"

"I want to speak with Selene," Raven said without preamble. "I heard she had a breakdown yesterday. After the Guild testing."

A pause. "You heard about that?"

"Officer Holt mentioned it during the briefing. Said she discovered she’d been lied to for fifty years. That she actually has extraordinary talent but was conditioned to believe she was worthless." Raven kept her voice neutral. "I want to talk to her. Before I meet Darian and Caelia. I need to understand what kind of people they are, and Selene’s the only one who can tell me."

The silence stretched longer this time. Raven could almost hear the mental calculations happening on Veyne’s end—weighing protocols against unexpected opportunities, considering angles and implications.

Another longer pause. Raven could practically hear Veyne weighing protocols against opportunities.

"She’s... fragile right now," Veyne said finally. "Broken. Commissioner Wu said she screamed for twenty minutes straight after we left the interrogation room. Something about fifty years of lost potential and lives she could have saved. Morrison thinks she’s still in shock."

"Which makes this the perfect time," Raven said quietly. "When her defenses are down. When she’s too shattered to lie effectively. I need information, Officer Veyne. And I need it before my biological parents arrive, expecting some kind of heartfelt reunion."

"This isn’t standard protocol—"

"Nothing about this case is standard," Raven interrupted. "You have a baby swap spanning three families, systematic child abuse, witness tampering, and now forty years of alchemical fraud. One more conversation with proper monitoring isn’t going to break any rules that haven’t already been thoroughly bent."

She could hear Veyne breathing, considering.

"Full recording," Veyne said finally. "Video and audio. I’ll be in the observation room with Commissioner Wu and Detective Morrison. And if this goes sideways—if she becomes violent or you show signs of distress—we end it immediately."

"Agreed."

"Car will be there in fifteen minutes."

***

Interview Room Three looked exactly like every other interrogation space Raven had seen across multiple lifetimes—deliberately uncomfortable, fluorescent lighting harsh enough to strip away pretense, a metal table bolted to the floor. The kind of room designed to extract truth through sheer psychological pressure.

Selene sat in the chair farthest from the door, looking nothing like the poised matriarch who’d presided over the Brenner household for seventeen years. Her jet-black hair hung limp around her face, emerald silk wrinkled and stained. But it was her eyes that showed the real damage—those pale blue eyes that had once held malice and calculation now looked hollow. Empty. Like someone had reached inside and scooped out everything that made her her, leaving only a shell.

She barely looked up when Raven entered.

Veyne stood by the door, steel-gray eyes assessing the scene with professional caution. "You have thirty minutes. Signal if you need us."

She left, the door clicking shut with finality.

Raven took the chair across from Selene, settling in with deliberate calm. Let the silence stretch. Let Selene wonder why she was here, what this was about, whether this was another interrogation or something else entirely.

Finally, after nearly a minute, Selene’s empty gaze lifted. Focused on Raven’s face with the slow recognition of someone surfacing from deep water.

"You," she whispered hoarsely. Her voice was scraped raw—from screaming, probably. From that breakdown, Veyne had mentioned. "They sent you to mock me? To gloat?"

"No," Raven said simply. "I’m here because I need information."

Selene laughed—a bitter, broken sound. "Information. What could I possibly have that you’d want? I’m worthless. Stupid. That’s what everyone’s always said. What I believed for fifty years." Her hands clenched on the table. "What I still believed until yesterday, when some Guild Master told me I was wrong. That everything I’d been told was lies."

"I know," Raven said quietly. "Officer Veyne told me about the testing. About Master Feng’s evaluation. You’re a prodigy, apparently. One in a generation talent that should have been famous."

"Should have been," Selene repeated, her voice cracking. "Should have been a master alchemist. Should have married Darian because he values intelligence. Should have saved lives, trained students, and advanced imperial research. Should have been someone." Tears started sliding down her face, but she didn’t seem to notice. "Instead, I became a monster. A bitter, cruel woman who abused children and swapped babies because I thought I had nothing else. Because everyone told me I was worthless except for my face."

Raven watched her carefully. This was genuine—the kind of breakdown that couldn’t be faked. Selene had built her identity on being the beautiful but stupid twin, and that foundation had just been revealed as constructed entirely from lies.

"I’m not here to discuss your guilt," Raven said. "That’s for courts and cosmic law to handle. I’m here because in a few hours, Darian Long and Caelia Lin will arrive at this station. They’ll want to meet me. To see the daughter stolen from them at birth."

Selene’s pale blue eyes widened slightly. Some spark of awareness returning through the shock.

"And before I walk into that room," Raven continued, "before I face people who are biologically my parents but complete strangers to me—I need to know who they are. What kind of people raised Serenya. What kind of environment created someone capable of the cruelty I experienced."

She leaned forward slightly. "You lived with them for years. Watched them together. Saw sides of Caelia that no one else had access to. So tell me, Aunty—should I trust my biological mother? Or is she as dangerous as you’re beginning to suspect?"

Selene stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, something shifted in her expression. Not quite hope—that was too strong. But maybe... possibility. The chance to finally tell someone the truth about her perfect sister. To make someone understand what had been done to her.

"You want to know about Caelia?" Selene’s voice was barely above a whisper. "About how the brilliant healer, the devoted wife, the perfect sister destroyed everything I could have been?"

"Yes."

"Then let me tell you a story." Selene’s hands flattened on the table, as if bracing herself. "Let me tell you about two girls born to a branch family. How one was sickly and weak, while the other was strong and beautiful. How the strong one was told her entire life that it was her duty to protect the weak one. To care for her. To give her everything she wanted."

Her pale blue eyes—once violet, before whatever happened at her bloodrite ceremony—fixed on Raven with terrible intensity.

"Let me tell you how I was five years old when I first realized Caelia could manipulate tears to make adults come running..."

***

In the Observation Room

Commissioner Wu stood at the window, his dark eyes tracking every word, every revelation. Behind him, Detective Morrison was already taking notes while Officer Veyne monitored the recording equipment.

"This is going to be significant," Morrison murmured. "Look at her posture. She’s preparing to unload decades of suppressed truth."

Wu nodded slowly. "And Mara orchestrated this perfectly. Selene’s defenses are completely down after the Guild revelation. She’s vulnerable. Desperate to make someone understand."

"The timing couldn’t be better," Veyne added. "Right before Darian and Caelia arrive. Whatever Mara learns here will inform how she handles that meeting."

They turned back to the window as Selene began her story.