Azalea took a long, shaky breath, her hand—which had been hovering in the air—falling limp at her side. Her sharp gaze softened as she looked at the tears streaming down my cheeks. Or rather, our cheeks.

I could feel it. In the deepest recesses of my consciousness, Cienna was cowering. She wasn’t acting. She was genuinely terrified by the sight of the helpless Selene and the explosion of Azalea’s rage. Her sobs traveled through my vocal cords, leaving my voice hoarse and small.

"I’m sorry, Azalea," I whispered, and this time, there was a jagged edge of painful honesty in my tone.

"I... I couldn’t stop her."

Azalea rubbed her face harshly, trying to process the drastic shift in my demeanor.

"Fine, Kairi. Or whoever is crying right now. We have to get Selene to the infirmary."

Helena moved to help Azalea support Selene’s limp body. But just as they prepared to step out, a shadow materialized in the doorway.

Milena.

She stood there in an elegant black dress, a stark contrast to the maid uniform she usually wore for her masquerade. She wore a thin smile—the kind that makes the hair on your neck stand up because you can never tell if it signals kindness or a threat.

"Ah, you’ve found her,"

Milena’s voice drifted calmly into the room.

"I was worried you’d get lost in those looping corridors."

I glared at her, trying to suppress Cienna’s sobs before they broke out again.

"You... why are you only telling them now, Milena? You’ve known exactly what was happening here the whole time, haven’t you?"

Milena stepped inside, approaching Selene. She ignored me as if I were nothing more than room decor. Her fingers brushed against Selene’s cold, clammy forehead.

"Selene has always been a bit too spirited. She thought she could settle this ’family business’ on her own, without involving the academy’s protocols."

"Family business?" Azalea’s eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean, Milena? Weren’t you the one supposed to be guarding the perimeter?"

Milena let out a short, dry laugh.

"Security? Miss Lovecraft, in this place, security is merely an illusion designed to help you sleep at night. Selene didn’t collapse just from magical exhaustion. She’s struggling with something I gave her before you arrived."

I recoiled. So Selene’s reckless behavior... that too had been triggered by Milena?

"Milena, you—!" I tried to lunge forward, but the dizziness from the Adultery Elixir’s side effects slammed into me again.

My vision swayed.

"Easy now, Miss Veylith," Milena finally turned to me, her eyes glinting with a cold light.

"Or should I call you Cienna, sis?"

Something—more like someone—inside me was moving, begging for her beloved sisterly attention.

"Yes, sis! Hehehe."

I swear to God, that’s not me!

"But my business with Selene isn’t finished. She owes me answers regarding my beloved sister’s vessel that she’s been hiding."

Milena looked out the observatory window toward the darkening sky.

"Valeria may be gone, but the verse she left behind is still running. And Selene is the final key to unlocking it. She isn’t allowed to wake up until I get what I want."

Azalea tightened her grip on Selene, shielding her from Milena’s gaze.

"She’s mine. I won’t let you touch her again."

"Yours?" Milena arched an eyebrow.

"How amusing to hear that word from someone who doesn’t even know what Selene truly represents to us, monsters."

The room grew suffocating once more.

The silence that had felt "tidy" moments ago was now fracturing under the weight of Milena’s creeping ambition.

I stood there, caught between Cienna’s soul-crushing guilt and the bitter reality that this game was far vaster than a mere test from Valeria.

I looked at Selene’s limp hand. She had done all of this for me, and now, Milena was ready to pounce while she was at her weakest.

"If she doesn’t wake up," my voice dropped, turning heavy as Kairi took full control,

"then I will be the one to give you those answers, Milena. But let her rest."

Milena fell silent for a moment, and then her smile widened.

"An intriguing offer, Miss Veylith."

"Let’s see just how much you actually know without a script written for you."

Milena’s eyes locked onto mine, searching for a flicker of hesitation. The air in the observatory felt heavy, like the pressure before a localized thunderstorm.

Azalea and Helena were already moving, carrying Selene’s unconscious form past Milena with a cautious, distrustful gait.

Milena didn’t stop them.

Her focus was entirely on me.

"A bold claim for a girl who was just weeping like a broken doll," Milena said, her voice smooth as polished obsidian.

"Tell me, Kairi—how can you offer answers to questions you aren’t even supposed to understand?"

I waited until the sound of Azalea’s footsteps faded down the hall. I leaned back against the telescope pedestal, crossing my arms. The nausea from the elixir was still there, a dull throb in my temples, but my mental clarity was sharper than ever.

"Because the ’script’ you’re so fond of? It has gaps,"

I said, my voice devoid of Cienna’s tremolo.

"Valeria didn’t just leave a system behind. She left a vacuum. And you’re trying to fill it with Aethelgarten’s outdated protocols."

Milena’s smile didn’t falter, but her pupils constricted.

"Outdated? The Archon is the foundation of this world’s order. Even Valeria had to respect our influence."

"Influence is just a story people agree to believe in,"

I countered.

"But I know the truth about the ’Succession.’ You don’t want a leader. You want a vessel. You gave Selene that catalyst because you wanted to see if her soul was strong enough to host Cienna’s core. But she’s failing, isn’t she? Her body is rejecting the data."

The silence that followed was different from the silence Valeria had left.

This was a silence of shock.

"Wait, how...?" Milena whispered, her composure finally showing a hairline fracture.

Never underestimate me, you peasant.

"That information is restricted to the High Council. Not even Selene knows the true nature of the catalyst... yet."

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us. I was still in my small, thirteen-year-old frame, but the aura I projected was the one I had seen in the mirror—the "Legendary" woman I could become.

"I told you. I’m the anomaly," I said.

"If you keep pushing Selene, she’ll break. And if she breaks, the key is destroyed forever. But me? I’m a constant variable you haven’t accounted for. Do you understand?"

I let a small, controlled spark of the Adultery Elixir’s energy leak into my eyes. For a split second, they flashed with that piercing, sapphire-blue light of my mature form.

Milena recoiled a single step, her hand instinctively going to the dagger hidden in the folds of her dress.

"Don’t," I warned.

"I’m not your enemy, Milena. Not yet."

"But if you want your answers, you’re going to stop treating Selene like a lab rat. You provide the resources—the real healing draughts, the protection, the castle’s hidden archives—and I will help you stabilize the succession."

Milena studied me for a long beat.

Finally, she straightened her dress.

"Very well. I will see to it that Selene is... prioritized."

She turned to leave, but paused at the threshold.

"But remember, Kairi: in a world without a script, the first person to stop acting is usually the first one to die."

"I’m not acting anymore," I said to her back.

"How typical,"

she muttered, sliding down to the floor.

"The protagonist rejects the plot, only to walk straight into a political thriller."

As she disappeared into the shadows, I slumped against the wall.

The bravado vanished, replaced by the crushing weight of the side effects.

And my goodness, just how devastating it was, holding my nausea while talking to her...

For fu*k’s sake!