"In the winter of that year," says a younger Cytheria, "my son Tian was having an affair with a young lady, a Gloriam. Sophia would have been your aunt, though I doubt the Gloriams ever mentioned her to you, or spoke of her within the past one hundred years." She calmly instructs him the best way to kidnap her son. "Tian's wife was caught by immortality just at the end of her youth, after the first of her wrinkles and the loss of her figure, and she said she would never give my son a child. You might not fault her, but the important thing to note is that their marriage was long doomed, and that is why I allowed him to meet with his Gloriam girlfriend under my roof."

The Liao residence was where Cristo had linked to. It was unfair how easy it would be.

"He will visit her at close to noon on that day." The early sunrise had upset some plans, but the tryst was according to schedule. Down the hall, Cristo heard a girl's laugh and a gentleman's voice.

"I went out to give them some privacy," Cytheria says. She's younger now than she had been then, her body is younger and she is younger than the son she talks about, a grown man into the middle of his life and then stuck there.

Cristo was alone in the hallway, with no one to stop him. "The staff had orders to clean upstairs in the morning and downstairs after. By that time they were probably done for the day and gone anyways. I didn't want them to know about the affair. I still loved my daughter-in-law. It's all right, you don't have to believe me, but there it is. There was no one else in the house."

He came to the end of the hallway. "Most importantly," says Cytheria, "those meetings with Sophia Gloriam were the only time Tian was ever without his bodyguards. He gave all I think it was twelve of them at the time the slip through a link to my house. I still kept his room for him in the family home. He was alone except for the girl and completely defenseless. Please do not harm Sophia. She carried the only grandchild I will ever have."

Cristo hadn't asked why Sophia Gloriam did that. It wasn't relevant to how he would enter unannounced, carefully snuff out the girl's consciousness before Tian's so that she wouldn't get hurt, even as she crumpled to the ground with a hard thump, then knock Tian out in much the same way, only holding up the limp-as-a-puppet elder Liao son and carrying him. It went exactly as planned.

"The head maid was on holiday that week. She boarded in the house but that week it sat empty while she was gone. Funny how I could remember a thing like that after a hundred years, but I suppose she was such a pretty young girl and she would be like that forever — I suppose she is still pretty and young, even if I haven't seen her in decades. The way men looked at her even though she was just a cleaning girl, or maybe because of it — because they could marry her and take her away from it all. Maybe that's what happened to her, I don't remember.

"Funny how a dame like me could be jealous of the young woman who magic-cleaned my laundry ... but I remember the look on her face when she came back from her vacation one week later and saw my beauty restored. She was a nice girl. The expression was kind. She was surprised and then she was happy for me. I think she may have really meant it.

"From the room where Tian entertained his mistress, there is a servant's entrance." The door blended right into the wall — a handle stuck out. When Cristo pulled the door open, it came out of a seamless frame and beyond was a dark landing overlooking the kitchen, a light staircase leading down to the left and a dark staircase leading up on the right.

"Go up to the servants quarters in the attic. Maria's room will be closest the stairwell, and it will be empty for days." Cristo dragged Tian through Maria's door. "I would prefer my son to be treated well, and my daughter too ... but the room will be available for you as long as you need it." He had needed it all day to store Laio Terra, all tied up. A glance at his watch said he had only a minute to spare. To reconsider. Cytheria had planned the kidnapping of her own children, but she had done it with the blinding desperate hope that one of them would be saved. That Tian would be saved. Her son. Now Exequi Portia Nero demanded the pair, and Cristo didn't even blink at the request. It was best not to have time to blink.

He opened the link big enough for the three of them and pushed the Liao siblings through one at a time, using the conscious one to support the unconscious one, and the pistol he wouldn't ever fire to threaten the conscious one. Without knocking he opened the door to Franco Justinian's office and came in, delivering the siblings to Nero.

"Would you like to stay and see your accomplishment through to conclusion?" she asked. "See how it goes?"

"No thank you," said Cristo. "I know how it goes." And just so Cytheria wouldn't possibly falter, he added, "Kill Tian first. She loves her daughter more."

He was lying. But this way, she wouldn't possibly falter.

Well, this got darker. Thank you for reading, please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts behind for me, and maybe a star too! Stay healthy and be well <3