Time/Date: TC1853.01.20 – Late Morning
Location: Long Estate – Family Council Chamber, First District
The council chamber smelled of polished teak and old incense—scents that usually brought Darian comfort. Today, they felt suffocating.
He stood at the head of the ancestral table, one hand resting on the age-darkened wood while the other held his communicator. The file on the screen contained seventeen years of systematic abuse documented with clinical precision that made his stomach turn. He'd read it three times now. Each time, hoping the words would change. That somehow the next reading would reveal a different story.
They never did.
The file on the screen was comprehensive. Thorough. The kind of background investigation that left nowhere to hide.
Subject: Mara Brenner (True Name: Unknown)
Age: 17 Current
Status: Ward of Metropolitan Police, Secure Location
Bloodline Markers: Long Dragon (paternal), Lin Healing (maternal), Zhao Wisdom (maternal grandmother)
