The Directorate had designated a small, windowless briefing room as the "Interview Suite." They had brought their own equipment: a singular, floating obsidian pillar that emitted a soft, pulsing white light.
I knew what that pillar was. It was a Truth-Sieve. It didn't read minds—that would be a violation of High-Tribunal law—but it read biological tells. It monitored micro-expressions, heart rate, galvanic skin response, and the subtle fluctuations of a person's energy core. If you lied, the pillar would glow red.
It was a machine designed to strip a person of their privacy and leave them naked before the empire.
"Who is first?" Valerius asked, his voice as cold as a winter morning in the Mist.
I looked at my team. Alex's jaw was set, his eyes focused on the floor. The guards were visibly shaking. And then there was Lily. She was standing perfectly still, her hands folded in front of her. She looked small in the oversized chair, but her gaze was steady.
"Lily will go first," I said.
Alex shot me a look of pure horror. "Evelyn, she's fourteen. You can't put her in there."
"She's the most stable of us," I replied, my voice devoid of emotion. It was a lie. Lily was the most vulnerable, but she was also the most honest. If I sent Alex or myself first, our complex layers of deception and trauma would trigger the Sieve immediately. Lily's truth was simple: she loved her family and feared the world. If she could pass, it would set a precedent of "simplicity" for the rest of us.
I led Lily into the room. The door hissed shut, leaving us alone with Valerius and the pulsing obsidian pillar.
"Sit, child," Valerius commanded.
Lily sat. The pillar drifted closer, its white light washing over her face.
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: TRUTH-SIEVE ACTIVE]
Detection Range: Biological / Energetic
Current Status: Monitoring
"Tell me about your mother," Valerius began, his silver eyes scanning a tablet. "Founder Shen is a woman of... singular ambition. Does she treat you as a daughter, or as an apprentice to her empire?"
Lily didn't flinch. "She treats me as her daughter. She protects me."
The pillar remained white. Truth.
"And the Directorate?" Valerius continued, his voice smoothing into a predatory silk. "Do you feel protected by our presence, or do you feel the weight of the tribute? Do you think your mother is a leader, or is she merely a gambler playing with your life to keep a seat at a table she doesn't belong at?"
I felt a surge of protective rage. I wanted to storm the room and tear the pillar apart. But I stayed frozen behind the glass observation window, my breath fogging the surface.
Lily paused. I saw her fingers twitch. For a second, the pillar flickered—a pale, warning yellow.
Careful, Lily, I thought. Don't think about the fear. Think about the shield.
Lily looked up at Valerius. A strange, cold expression crossed her face—an expression that looked exactly like my own.
"My mother does what is necessary," Lily said, her voice devoid of tremor. "The Directorate is a storm. You don't love the storm, and you don't trust it. You just build a house strong enough to survive it. My mother is the one building the house."
The pillar flashed a brilliant, steady white.
Valerius leaned back, a look of genuine surprise crossing his marble features. He hadn't expected a child to have the mental discipline to frame a fear as a tactical reality.
"A fascinating answer," Valerius murmured. "You have your mother's tongue. And perhaps, her delusions of grandeur."
He waved a hand, and the pillar retreated. "You may leave, child. You are... satisfactory."
As Lily walked out of the room, she didn't look at me with relief. She looked at me with a haunting sort of understanding. She had seen the machinery of the empire, and she had realized that the only way to survive it was to become as cold as the people running it.
"She passed," Alex whispered, his hand resting on my shoulder.
"She did," I replied, but I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.
As we walked away, I noticed Zeta leaning against the wall, watching the interview room. She wasn't popping gum. She was staring at Lily with a look of intense curiosity, as if she had just discovered a new, interesting toy.
"Well, well," Zeta whispered as we passed. "The little bird has claws. This just got a lot more interesting."
[SOCIOMETRIC UPDATE]
Lily Shen: Evolution in progress (Psychological Hardening)
Audit Progress: 15%
Next Target: Alex Shen
I knew what was coming. Valerius had seen the "simplicity" of the daughter. Now, he would go after the "loyalty" of the husband. He would look for the fracture in our relationship, and he would press until it broke.