Sophie's perspective:
Sophie's eyes widened. "Are you part of the Black Swan?"

"No," Aramis leaned back against her chair. "Although the organization and I may share a common goal."

"Why do you fight the Neverseen?" Biana had finally stopped staring at the sprawling ceilings of the room.

Aramis sighed. "They wronged me a long time ago." She stood and faced the fireplace. "And if you knew half as much about them as I do, you would be terrified."

"We've seen what they can do." Fitz growled.
Aramis met each of their gazes. "You've seen only what they wanted you to see."

Fitz scoffed. "Right. They used Shadowflux to break Sophie and I's bones and give us echoes that it took months to get rid of."

Aramis stared into the middle distance. "There are far worse things they could do to you." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Like what?" Sophie hadn't realized she had asked the question until everyone was looking at her.

Aramis stared at her with a grave gaze. "Have you ever experienced abilities that have been manipulated and specified for torture?" Her voice cracked on the last word. "Have you ever had someone else's hand inside your chest, threatening to take your life with the slightest shift in density? Have you felt the fear and pain of a thousand lives flood over you until you were sure your sanity would shatter?" She took a deep breath. "Have you ever been burned, beaten, and tortured for no apparent reason, then thrown back onto the streets to be called a mad woman?"

Sophie blinked back the tears that had welled up in her eyes. "Is that what they did to you?"
Aramis turned away, as if to hide the shame and fear that were creeping into her expression. "Yes." At first it seemed like that was all she was going to say, but she continued. "Almost twenty years ago," she paused. "Has it really been long?" She asked herself.

She cleared her throat. "Almost twenty years ago, I walked into a store. The lights were all off. A cloaked figure jumped out of the shadows and held a cloth to my mouth. The fabric was soaked in a sedative. I was out in moments. I woke up tied to a chair in a tiny room. I was there for almost two weeks. They beat me and burned me. They taunted me and claimed I was weak." She took a shaky breath. "I saved myself a lot of the pain by freezing over my skin to create a barrier between me and the Pyrokinetic.

"Finally, a man came into my room. He wasn't wearing a cloak. Instead he had the Neverseen's emblem branded onto his shoulder, as if he were proud of what they had done."

Sophie's heart broke for the woman who had suffered so much and done nothing wrong.

Aramis composed herself. "This man was a Phaser, but he did not use his ability in an ordinary way. He phased his finger into my shoulder and... let it solidify." Tears rolled down Aramis' cheek, the shadows of what happened flickering in her eyes. "It shattered my shoulder blade and ripped a hole in my flesh." She rubbed her shoulder as if she could still feel it. "After that, another cloaked man came in with a pair pliers." She paused, breathing deeply. "He reached into the hole in my shoulder and ripped out a shard of my bone."

Sophie tried not to imagine the scene as Aramis described it and from the looks of disgust and horror on the others' faces, they were doing the same.

"Then they threw me onto the streets. No one believed my story. They all thought I'd gone insane. So, I moved out here." Aramis sighed. "I never learned what the Neverseen had actually wanted with me, but I've never stopped hunting them."

Sophie's brain was in overload mode, trying to process all that information.

Lihn gasped softly beside her. "Sophie?"

Sophie turned to her gentle friend. "What?"

Lihn spoke softly. "Twenty years and they wanted her DNA."

Sophie's eyes widened as the pieces connected. "Aramis," she waited for the woman to turn. "I think I know why the Neverseen took you."
Aramis just stared at her.

Sophie took a deep breath. "I'm not a normal elf. The Black Swan created me, enhanced my genes, and gave me more abilities so that I could fight the Neverseen. Or at least that's part of the reason they made me." She noticed Aramis giving her a confused look. "Anyway, the Neverseen were somehow informed about this project, Project Moonlark. So, they started an experiment of their own, a weapon to rival me. They called it Project Balefire." Sophie tried to remember everything Valerie had told her about it. "They stole DNA from elves and used it to create embryos that they tried to enhance. The first few hundred times it didn't work, but eventually, they succeeded in creating the most powerful Mesmer in the world... and she's also a Froster." Sophie stared meaningfully at Aramis.

Aramis' eyes widened. "You think..."

Sophie nodded. "Project Balefire, our friend, the one you just saved us from, is your daughter."