Kill The Old Ones!

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[Step 2]: Subdue.

: You have the shadow elites guarding you, great. For the next 12 months, you and your father are practically unkillable. Do not waste this freedom. It isn’t the time for you to relax just yet. In fact, you’re going to have to do so much work from here on out.

: You want to feel safe in your own home permanently, not temporarily. Just because you can extend your contract with the mercenaries by paying credits, this is not permanent, not by a long shot. So while you have this certain security and your enemies are still relaxed, imagining the day their victory arrives, you work hard and suffer in silence. You do not give them anything they can use against you.

: Use the Shadow Elites to investigate. Know and learn everything about your enemies. The more detailed, the better. The Shadow Elites will not experience any difficulty procuring what you need. Intelligence gathering is part of their skillset. Depending on how murky the waters are in your family, it may take days, or weeks at most, for them to bring you the results you need and more.

: When you get your hands on the intel, keep a clear and rational mind. No matter how ugly or disgusting the intel was, do not be reckless. Do not blow your cover. Take the information as is, information. Nothing more. Be calculating. Be cold. Be indifferent about it. Do not let your emotions control your actions. Close your ears to your heart’s wail of injustice.

: All the information you get, no matter how large or mundane, will play a role eventually. Learn and memorize everything. Once you do, the pattern emerges. Patterns are predictable, which means they become predictable.

If you can predict them, you’re a step ahead. They won’t catch you by surprise. You can manipulate them. You can be in control. That’s what you want. That’s where you need to be.

: Stop being just a mere face or a doll for them to fight over. Start creating some noose and slowly lure them in. Once they bite, tighten it around their necks. That way, you control even the way they breathe.

: You may not agree with this method, but this is exactly what they’re trying to do to them. They’re expecting you to be their plaything, not a player. Go on, beat them in their own game. Show them that you’re better because you are.

**

One week.

That’s how long it took for the Shadow Elites to gather the intelligence that Lily asked from them. Five of the elites worked on this, and it took them a whole week before they began feeding her the information she needs.

Whether that’s a sign that the waters of this family were murkier than she thought or not, she found out when she started reading the folders.

Well, it’s definitely the former.

The things Lily saw in those folders made her sick to her core. She almost puked her own guts with how vile and disgusting the truth was.

She couldn’t believe it at first. She knew that her Martial Uncles were bad, but she didn’t expect them to be much worse than she initially thought.

If even a percentage of what’s in these folders were to be made public, the whole city would demand the execution of the Heartveil family. An immediate execution.

But when she analyzed the web of connections of the whole board, she realized that this was much deeper and more complicated than she initially thought.

This web wasn’t spun overnight. It’s a slow but enduring trap that’s been weaved through careful nudges and manipulations, all without alarming the general populace.

The most painful part for Lily is that this family worked with the Cult of the Lost Lambs. It wasn’t some forced collaboration, coming from the cult, either. It’s her martial uncles who sought them out and laid out the discussion opportunity.

For what purpose? To gain more control over the city and expand their tendrils across other cities as well.

Her martial uncles participated in child abductions, kidnapping, coercion, and threats to provide people for the cult. These people later then turn to sleeper agents of the cult.

In exchange, the cult gave them opportunities to plant seeds in other cities, therefore expanding their control beyond the borders of Desolate City.

This didn’t just allow them to exploit additional labor for free and fatten their own pockets; it also provided them with a safe way out of the city should their heinous crimes become exposed.

They created layers after layers of contingencies to save their hides in case they failed their takeover of the family.

These folders also directly stated their lack of actual firepower, the very reason why they were still playing nice with her father. They fear him finding out their little moves and him pointing his swords at them.

Lily knew that her father wouldn’t hesitate to cut them down if he knew what she now knew. Her martial uncles were like paper tigers before him.

They wouldn’t dare face him head-on; they’re not winning that fight. So instead, they schemed in the dark. They played nice and polite on the surface while slowly poisoning and overwhelming her father.

Lily felt sick to be a Heartveil.

This was the legacy they’re yammering on and on about. This is pride and joy? This is what she’s protecting all this time? This is what enabled them to alienate and objectify her?

If it weren’t for Marek’s words, telling her to not let her emotions get the better of her, Lily would’ve ordered her shadow elites to massacre all of her Martial Uncles.

It wouldn’t be a challenge for them, especially now that their guards were down and they’re especially looking down on her.

But this information did sober her up. The truth tastes bitter. It’s painful and disgusting, but it’s damn useful.

Cold clarity settled on Lily’s mind, and all shred of mercy and hope she still harbored for them were gone. They have gone too far. Assassination is a mercy to them; it’s an easy way out for them.

They need to suffer just as much as their victims suffered. They wouldn’t even spare children to fuel their desires, so why should she show mercy to them?

Their crimes were clinically listed in here with perfect clarity, context, and severity.

It is clear how manipulative they were. They don’t give preferential treatment either; boys, girls, men, women, properties, wealth, and even their own spawn were just pieces to their game.

And she—Lily Anne Heartveil—was one of the most precious prizes they’re competing over.

One wants to marry her for the sake of producing talented offspring. Another one wants to put a leash on her. One wants to rip off her dress and violate her sanctity in front of several witnesses. The other wants to completely break her, enslave her, and make sure that she can’t survive on her own.

Every single one of their deepest, darkest, and wildest fantasies about her was exposed in these folders. Lily had no reason to doubt the shadow elites at this point. They’ve proven their skill.

Which means that all of this was real, and it’s sickening. This was just the fantasies of some of the older men in this family; she hasn’t gone to the fantasies of those of her age—the ones that are shamelessly ogling at her inside these walls.

As she continued, Lily got to the part where more things started making sense.

The most important part, for her, at least, was the sudden cold shoulder that Sieg was showing her.

She discovered the treatment Sieg received from her cousins, one they did behind her back and warned Sieg never to talk about.

It wasn’t just limited to her cousins, either. Even some of her martial uncles participated. They literally showed up to Sieg’s house unannounced, went violently to beat the lesson into him, and warned him to never reveal a breath of this to anyone.

Of course, this caused Sieg’s opinion of her and her family to drop to a freezing point.

The Shadow Elites noted that Sieg was still reserving his personal judgment of her because she hadn’t done anything to him. He still harbored hope that she was different somehow, but her silence was definitely not improving his opinion of her.

Lily felt weak after learning this.

’Of course, they won’t spare him either. Why will they when they already staked their claim on me since I was born? ’

’They didn’t even spare the dignity of my mother’s corpse. How can they tolerate the idea of me being with him when they saw me first? ’

Lily’s face was drained of blood. She looked weak and exhausted. She looked exactly like her father did when he passed out in the middle of the family meeting.

She laughed and sobbed, hollowly and completely dispirited.

Any hope she harbored for her family was completely gone at this point. What remains is a cold, merciless truth and will not leave even if one wanted it to.

What she doesn’t know is that, if it weren’t for Ren’s intervention with the canon events, her situation would’ve been worse, so much worse, than this.

So much so that all of this pales in comparison.