Time/Date: Early Morning, TC1853.01.02
Location: Emberhall → District 6 (Ring 6)
Sunlight crept through the grimy window, and Raven tensed before remembering where she was. Old habits from countless merit worlds—always check for threats at dawn, catalog escape routes, figure out who might try to kill you today.
Still here. Still seventeen. Still wearing this body that felt like borrowed clothes.
The silence where Seven-Tee-Nine should have been hit her again. Like prodding a broken tooth—it hurt every time, but she couldn't stop. Grief wasn't going to help her now, though. Purpose? That she could use.
Just over a day since she'd woken up with memories of ninety-nine lives crammed into a seventeen-year-old skull. Used to be all she dreamed of was revenge—would've paid any price to come back and make them suffer. But somewhere along the way, through all those deaths and rebirths, it changed. Revenge was too small. Justice? Now that was worth fighting, or even dying for.
Could've walked away from all this. Started over somewhere new, left the old wounds to fester in peace. But that thing she'd sensed yesterday—wrong in ways that made her skin crawl—meant this was bigger than just her problems. Amara and Selene had debts to pay. To Mara, to little Novara, to everyone they'd hurt along the way.
No time for philosophy, Raven told herself, rising from the thin mattress with fluid grace that belonged to her accumulated lifetimes, not her malnourished frame. There was work to be done, and the window for action was narrowing with each passing hour.
The urgency made her skin crawl. In previous lives, patience had been both weapon and shield—time to study opponents, craft contingencies within contingencies, and ensure every move served multiple purposes. Now she felt like she was improvising, dancing on the edge of a blade with no safety net. The sensation was profoundly unsettling.
She got up, pulled on the least raggedy outfit from her pitiful wardrobe. The servant bathroom had freezing water, but hell, she'd bathed in ice storms on merit worlds. The cracked mirror showed what they'd done to her—scars everywhere, cheeks hollow from being half-starved, eyes that should've blazed with celestial fire now muddy brown from poison.
Bitches tried so hard to break her. Joke was on them—she'd been broken before. Knew how to put the pieces back together.
Thank the cosmic forces that had granted her the blood essence beads. Without them, repairing the systematic damage done to this body would have been impossible.
***
Gray servant's dress back on, time to face another day of pretending to be grateful for scraps. But going back to face Selene and Amara right now? Playing their games while real work waited?
Better to stay out of their way until she was ready.
She slipped out through her usual escape route—the gap in the estate wall where morning shadows still hung thick. A tiny pulse of soul power confirmed nobody was watching. Then she was gone, melting into the crowd, heading into the city.
District 6 was already buzzing with morning energy. Coal smoke and factory steam hung in the air, workers streaming toward their shifts. The smell of hot metal and honest sweat—reminded her why she'd always preferred this part of town over the fancy rings where people like Selene preened and schemed.
Grandma Wang's place sat like a stubborn holdout among all the new apartments and factories. Traditional curved roof, little herb garden out front that somehow survived despite the smog. A real home, not just a building.
There she was on the porch, attacking the morning dust with her broom like it had personally offended her. Seeing her hit Raven harder than expected—this tiny woman who'd shown kindness when nobody else would. Even after finding out about Selene, she'd kept offering food and work. Never asked for anything back.
"Grandma Wang," Raven called out, her voice coming out rougher than she'd intended.
The old woman looked up, took one look at her, and frowned. "Child, you look like death warmed over." She grabbed Raven's hands before she could pull away. "Those monsters still not feeding you properly?"
Raven tensed—touch usually meant danger, someone getting close enough to hurt her. But Grandma Wang's hands were just warm. Callused from decades of work, but gentle.
"Come inside before you fall over," the old woman said, already heading for the door.
***
Inside felt like stepping into another world. Simple furniture, but cared for. The scent of herbs and actual cooking—not whatever passed for food back at the estate. Dried plants hanging from the ceiling, worn carpets that had seen better days but were clean.
This was what home looked like. Raven had almost forgotten.
Tea appeared in front of her, steam rising. Porridge that actually smelled edible. Grandma Wang bustled around, keeping up a running commentary about neighborhood drama while she worked. Who got married, who died, whose business was thriving or failing.
The woman knew everyone's secrets. Made Raven almost smile.
When her stomach stopped trying to eat itself and the tea had warmed her up, she looked across the table. "I need to talk to you about something serious."
That got attention fast. Grandma Wang settled into her chair, hands folded, eyes sharp.
Raven laid it out piece by piece. Her suspicions about who she really was. Evidence she was gathering. Things she'd overheard. Plans to invoke the International Child Protection Act. Need for witnesses who could testify about what they'd done to her.
When she finished, silence stretched between them.
"Child," Grandma Wang said finally. "You know what you're taking on here? Selene Lin isn't just some mean woman. She's dangerous. Beautiful as a snake and twice as deadly."
Something shifted in the old woman's face. Memories she didn't like thinking about.
"Let me tell you about my daughter Trina."
"She served as handmaiden to Lady Eveline Marcellus—Edmund's first wife. A political marriage, as they all are among the nobility. Lady Eveline married beneath her station, but the Brenners had gold, which the Marcellus family needed desperately."
The story came out in pieces. Trina working as a handmaid to Lady Eveline—Edmund's first wife. Political marriage, like they all were. Eveline married down for Brenner gold, but things were okay for a while. Then came that last pregnancy, and everything changed. Trina started bringing home stories about weird tensions, her mistress getting scared.
"After the baby came, Eveline got sick," Grandma Wang said, voice barely above a whisper. "They wouldn't let Trina see her, but she couldn't stand it. Snuck into the estate one night."
Her hands shook as she reached for her tea.
"Came home hysterical. Sobbing like the world was ending. Said she'd seen Edmund with another woman—kissing, touching—while his wife was dying in the same damn room. The next day, word came that Eveline died from birthing complications."
"My Trina didn't buy it. Went back to confront Edmund." The old woman's voice cracked.
"Hours went by. When I couldn't wait anymore, I took my neighbors with me. They said Trina killed herself beside her mistress's body. Grief, they called it."
Heavy silence. Old pain filling the space between them.
"Woke up later with a woman standing by my bed. Beautiful, concerned, calling herself Selene. Friend of Eveline's, she said. Offering condolences." Grandma Wang met Raven's eyes. "But the way she looked at me... I knew. Knew she'd killed them both."
"Seventeen years," the old woman continued, her voice hardening. "Seventeen years I've tried to find proof, tried to bring them to justice. All for nothing."
She leaned forward, studying Raven's face with renewed intensity.
"So tell me, child—knowing what kind of monster you're up against—do you really want this fight? Four years and you'll be free of them. Why risk everything now?"
Instead of answering with words, Raven rolled up her sleeves. The network of scars covering her arms told their own story—some old and faded to silver lines, others fresh and angry red.
"These are nothing compared to what they've done to the rest of me," she said quietly. "Four years? I won't last four months at this rate. They're escalating." Her voice carried absolute certainty. "Besides, do you really think they stopped with Trina and Eveline? How many others have just... disappeared when they became inconvenient?"
She leaned closer, dropping her voice to barely above a whisper.
"And there's something else. Why would Selene poison my eyes?"
***
Grandma Wang jerked backward as if she'd been struck, her teacup rattling against its saucer.
"No," she breathed. "She wouldn't dare..."
But even as she spoke, Raven could see terrible understanding dawning in the old woman's eyes. There was only one reason to hide a child's true eye color—only a celestial bloodline would show such unmistakable proof of heritage. The great eight families had guarded that distinctive marking for centuries.
"To steal and corrupt a celestial bloodline..." Grandma Wang's hands shook as the full implications hit her. "That's not just murder, child. That's soul damnation. A crime so profound that death would be mercy compared to the punishment."
The kitchen fell silent except for the ticking of an old clock and distant factory sounds.
Grandma Wang sat motionless for long minutes, processing revelations that rewrote everything she thought she knew. When she finally straightened, her voice had gained a strength that hadn't been there before.
"If you're certain about this path, child, then these old bones can handle one more fight." She'd survived seventy years by being tougher than anyone expected. "What do you need from me?"
Raven kept the details of the banquet scheme to herself—some secrets were still too dangerous to share. Instead, she outlined her plan for DNA evidence from the Western Federation Medical Facility, witness testimonies, and documented proof of abuse. With an outside authority beyond the Eastern Empire's control analyzing the evidence, there would be no way to suppress the truth.
"Poison can hide eye color," Raven concluded, "but blood tells the truth no matter how they try to hide it."
The alliance was sealed not with words but with the understanding that passed between two women who had both suffered under Selene's malice. Grandma Wang had waited seventeen years for justice for her daughter. Raven would ensure she finally received it.
As morning light strengthened outside the windows, casting long shadows across the simple kitchen, the first pieces of Raven's larger strategy clicked into place. The hunt for truth was beginning.
But more than that, she had found something she hadn't expected to find again—someone who saw her not as a burden or a tool, but as a person worth protecting. The warmth of that realization settled in her chest like a small flame against the cold.
Four days remained until the banquet. Four days until Selene and Amara discovered that their prey had found allies, had gathered strength, had become something far more dangerous than they could imagine.
The serpents had been content to hunt alone. But now they faced a pack.