The glow of the theme park lasted all the way back to the penthouse, a warm, buzzing energy that even the sleek, silent elevator couldn't diminish. Iris was practically sleepwalking, her head lolling against Sera's side, a contented smile on her sauce-smudged face.
That contentment vanished the moment they stepped into the quiet, minimalist living room. Iris's eyes shot open, wide with a horror known only to children and the perpetually procrastinating.
"My math assignment!" she wailed, the sound echoing in the spacious room. "It's due tomorrow! I forgot!"
The peaceful evening vibe shattered. Sera sighed, a familiar maternal exhaustion settling on her features. "Iris, I told you to do it on Friday…"
"I know, I'm sorry! It's just… fractions!" Iris whimpered, as if naming a dreaded monster.
She looked between her mother and Kaelen, her expression one of pure desperation. Her eyes landed on Kaelen, the tall, imposing Alpha who had faced down a rollercoaster for her.
"Auntie Kae?" she asked, her voice small and hopeful. "Are you good at math?"
Kaelen, who had been about to retreat to the sanctum of her room, froze. A memory, sharp and clear from her old life, flashed in her mind: a first-place trophy from a regional math Olympiad, her mother's proud face. A skill that had been utterly useless in her dead-end job but was apparently a latent superpower in this new world.
A slightly smug, entirely unfamiliar feeling bloomed in her chest. "Yes," she said, her voice regaining a sliver of its usual Alpha composure. "I am."
She strode over to the dining table, her theme park awkwardness falling away. "Bring it here. Let's see the enemy."
Iris scrambled to her room and returned with a data-slate displaying a worksheet filled with problems that made Sera's eyes glaze over just looking at them.
Kaelen pulled out a chair, sitting down with the air of a general surveying a battlefield. She scanned the first problem. "Ah. Common denominators. The ancient weakness of many a student. Look, you can't add ¼ and ⅓ because they're speaking different fraction languages. One is talking 'quarters' and the other is talking 'thirds.' It's a diplomatic nightmare. We need a common tongue the Least Common Multiple! We find the smallest number both 4 and 3 go into. Which is 12! So we give ¼ a makeover: to get 4 to become 12, we multiply by 3, so we do 1 times 3 and 4 times 3. Presto, ³⁄₁₂. And ⅓, to get 3 to 12, we multiply by 4, so 1 times 4 and 3 times 4. Voilà, ⁴⁄₁₂. Now they can talk! ³⁄₁₂ + ⁴⁄₁₂ = ⁷⁄₁₂. See? Peace talks successful."
Iris stared at her, utterly lost for a moment, then her eyes widened with dawning comprehension. "Whoa. How did you do that so fast?"
A dry, almost forgotten chuckle escaped Kaelen. "Well, I did win math competitions when I was young," she said, the pride feeling strangely good. Then, without thinking, she fell into an old habit from her previous life, mumbling under her breath in a mix of English and Mandarin, "...and maybe in my past life I was American and Chinese 50/50, ya know? They say Chinese people are good at math, it's a stereotype but hey, I'll take it…" I'm still Ashe Li after all she mumbles to herself
Sera, who had been leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed, slowly straightened up. She blinked. Did… did Kaelen Blackwood just mumble about being American and half-Chinese in a past life?
She stared at the bizarrely domestic scene: her arch-nemesis, the woman who had terrorized her, now patiently performing fraction diplomacy for her niece while muttering absolute nonsense about past lives and ethnic stereotypes. It was so absurd, so utterly surreal, that a laugh bubbled up in Sera's throat. She choked it back, pressing her lips together.
Kaelen, oblivious to her near-miss, was in her element. "Now, this one is trying to trick you. Look at the sign. Is it addition or subtraction? Don't let it fool you!"
Iris, now completely enthralled by her suddenly genius auntie, nodded seriously. "The sign is a traitor!"
"Exactly! A numerical traitor. Now, we defeat it like this… Remember, subtracting a fraction is like adding a negative. So we find our common ground 12 again! convert them, and then it's just ⁷⁄₁₂ minus ⁴⁄₁₂. The denominator is the same, so it's like having seven apples and taking away four apples. You're left with…?"
"Three apples!" Iris exclaimed. "So… ³⁄₁₂!"
"Right! And can we simplify that? What's the biggest number that divides into both 3 and 12?"
Iris concentrated. "Three!"
"Perfect! So we divide both by three. 3 ÷ 3 is 1, 12 ÷ 3 is 4. So your final, simplified answer is…?"
"¼!" Iris nearly shouted.
"You've defeated the traitor!" Kaelen announced with a flourish of the stylus.
For the next twenty minutes, Kaelen patiently guided Iris through the worksheet, her explanations a mix of clear strategy and goofy metaphors. She turned multiplying fractions into a party where numerators and denominators mingled separately (¹⁄₂ × ³⁄₄ = ¹ˣ³⁄₂ₓ₄ = ³⁄₈). She described dividing fractions as the "keep, change, flip" dance. Sera watched, her initial amusement softening into something else entirely. She saw the focus in Kaelen's grey eyes, the way her sharp features softened when Iris finally grasped a concept. She saw a mind that was razor-sharp, a side of Kaelen that was always hidden behind cruelty and Dominion-induced aggression.
Iris solved the last problem with a triumphant flourish. "I did it! Auntie Kae, you're the best! You're a math wizard!"
Kaelen actually smiled, a real, genuine smile that reached her eyes and made her look years younger. "It was a team effort. You did the hard part."
Iris threw her arms around Kaelen's neck in a spontaneous hug. Kaelen froze for a second, then awkwardly patted her back, her expression one of stunned wonder.
As Iris gathered her things and scampered off to get ready for bed, chattering about math traitors and fraction parties, Sera remained in the doorway.
Kaelen looked up, the rare smile fading as she remembered who she was and who she was with. She seemed to brace herself for a sarcastic comment or a cold dismissal.
Instead, Sera just looked at her, her head tilted. The -17% approval in Kaelen's mind didn't just change; it underwent a final, breathtaking transformation.
Seraphina Vesper. Approximate Approval: -5%
The number was almost neutral. The hatred was a ghost. All that was left was a vast, bewildering landscape of confusion, curiosity, and the undeniable evidence of the kind, patient woman who had just helped her daughter with her homework.
"A math wizard, huh?" Sera said, her voice dry but not unkind.
Kaelen shrugged, a faint blush on her cheeks. "It's just fractions."
"And past lives?" Sera added, a tiny, almost imperceptible smirk playing on her lips.
Kaelen's eyes went wide with panic for a split second before she schooled her features into a mask of indifference. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Sera's smirk grew a fraction wider. She didn't push it. She just shook her head slowly, a world of unspoken thoughts in her eyes.
"Goodnight, Kaelen," she said, and for the first time, her name wasn't a curse or a title. It was just her name.
"Goodnight, Sera," Kaelen replied, the name feeling just as strange and new on her tongue.
Sera turned and left, leaving Kaelen alone at the table with a completed math worksheet and a heart that was beating far too fast. The -5% glowed in the quiet room, a monument to a day that had included rollercoasters, funnel cakes, defeated fraction traitors, and a moment so goofy and wholesome that the System, for once, had simply had no appropriate response. The villainess was, against all odds, being redeemed by the power of 6th grade math.