Chapter 61: The Real Her

  [Vestige of Time #1]

  “Now, three, two, one…smile!”

  A blinding flash.

  The commemorative photo was taken.

  Cecilia stood at the center of a special stage just outside Blackthorn, flanked by two other young inventors. While she wore the brass medal – first place – the others wore iron and wood – second and third place, respectively.

  She was dressed in a long black skirt and a white button-up shirt. The front of her jacket was open, revealing a heavily pregnant belly.

  As soon as the photo was taken, her smile vanished. She had already turned away, heading back inside the guild.

  “Wait up, Cecilia!” an older man called after her.

  She stopped, rolling her eyes. Her face twisted in annoyance before she turned to him, quickly smoothing her expression back into a smile.

  “Yes, Mr. Dover?”

  The gentleman wore a black frock coat with golden buttons and a pressed waistcoat underneath. A gold watch chain looped neatly through the vest’s buttonhole, leading to a pocket. His tall top hat gave him even more height than he already had. Everything about him screamed that he was someone important.

  He smiled warmly. “Where are you running off to? You just won the competition – celebrate a little.” He gestured toward the nearby tables, which were modestly adorned with food and drinks. The larger guilds in Orlinth always had the power to get a little more than the standard assigned rations. They weren’t Skyhaven level – never would be – but some benefits were always present.

  Cecilia shook her head lightly. “There’s hardly anything to celebrate, if I’m honest, Mr. Dover. For me, the real work begins now.”

  He nodded, clearly impressed by her answer. “Then how about you join mine and Tanya’s celebration?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What are you celebrating?”

  “Signing you up, of course.” Mr. Dover lifted his champagne flute. “Just six months fresh out of high school and already our most promising engineer in decades.”

  “You flatter me, Mr. Dover,” Cecilia said politely, thought it was obvious she was itching to leave.

  Fortunately, someone else finally snagged Dover’s attention. Cecilia took the chance to turn and walk quickly back toward the building.

  She entered the lobby, climbed the staircase, and made her way into one of the upper workshops.

  Inside was a young red-haired woman – the same one from that photo – standing near a workbench and working on something. Though to call it “working” was a stretch. She seemed to be just hammering the table out of boredom.

  She looked up as soon as Cecilia entered and froze.

  Cecilia’s eyes widened for half a second before she masked her expression with composed ease.

  “Thought you’d be drowning in booze outside,” she said, lowering herself onto one of the chairs with a long exhale, resting a hand atop her pregnant belly.

  The red-haired woman eyed her carefully for a long moment before she spoke.

  “You’re…not going to give birth now, are you?”

  Cecilia snorted. “Of course not. I’m only seven months in, Sam.”

  Sam’s eyes widened, her face turning dead serious. “I literally have no clue what that means. Is that…like, not that much?”

  Cecilia grabbed a crumbled piece of paper from the table beside her and tossed it at her.

  They both laughed.

  Sam rushed over, crouched beside her, and placed her hands on the pregnant belly, rubbing it gently.

  “Where’s your husband, by the way?” she asked.

  “Won’t be coming,” Cecilia replied. “Didn’t tell him about the award.”

  “My, my. Newlyweds with a baby on the way, and already keeping secrets?” Sam said, placing a hand over her heart in mock horror.

  “That won’t be the first – or biggest – secret between us,” Cecilia muttered, exhaling heavily.

  A short silence settled between them, until Sam broke it, eyes drifting down to the belly. “Say, Cee…why’d you decide to go through with it?”

  Cecilia rolled her eyes. “We’ve been over this.”

  “We have. And still. You’re so young. Too young.”

  “It’s because I’m young,” Cecilia said sharply. “I never had parents, so I want my own children. As soon as I can. It’s the most logical thing in the world to me.”

  “It’ll slow us down,” Sam said gently, patting the bump.

  “First of all, it’s not an it, Sam. It’s a he.”

  “You already know?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “I can feel it.”

  “How?”

  “I just can,” Cecilia said, flicking her friend’s forehead. “It’s a superpower. Get pregnant and you’ll unlock it too.”

  Sam laughed. “Yeah, right.”

  “And second,” Cecilia continued, “don’t worry. He won’t slow us down. With me here now, we’re finally going to live the good life. I always told you inventors guilds were the way.”

  Sam's smile widened. “I’m so glad you’re finally here. Keeping up the inventor act without you was…so hard. Owen and Chloe will say the same.”

  “Oh, please,” Cecilia said. “What kind of con artists are you?”

  “That’s the thing, isn’t it?” Sam grinned. “We’re just con artists. But you? You’re also a fucking genius on top of that!” She laughed. “Anyway, no more sneaking into our crappy orphanage at night to beg you to build stuff for me before Dover fires me. Now we can just work on things together!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “You mean I will work on things and you’ll – “ Cecilia pointed at the hammer on the table – “pretend you’re helping by hammering the table, right?”

  “Hey, I was already sold, Cee. You don’t need to keep selling it to me,” Sam said, raising her hands in mock surrender.

  Cecilia chuckled and shifted the subject. “Where are Owen and Chloe, anyway?”

  “Foundry,” Sam replied, disinterested.

  “Why?”

  “Wanted to steal some crystals.”

  Cecilia shook her head. “I don’t get their obsession with stealing when we already have this.” She gestured around them.

  “You know how Owen is…” Sam said tiredly, then stood up and plucked the brass medal from Cecilia’s neck, twirling it around her finger.

  “Watch it,” Cecilia warned, placing both hands protectively over her belly.

  “Oh, relax,” Sam said, waving her off.

  At that exact moment, the workshop door swung open.

  Startled, Sam dropped the medal – it clattered to the floor beside Cecilia, nearly hitting her.

  But there wasn’t time to scold her.

  The person at the door was the man from that photo – Owen.

  He slammed the door shut behind him and immediately bent over, panting, drenched in sweat.

  “Owen, what happened?” Sam rushed toward him. “Where’s Chloe?”

  Owen lifted his face.

  He was tearing up.

  “She’s still in the Foundry,” he said, voice trembling. “Ironwatch got her.”

  [Vestige of Time #1 – END]

  ***

  [Item Acquired: Vestige of Time #1 – Added to Inventory]

  When the memory ended and I was back in the workshop again, I didn’t move at first.

  This was a different type of Memory Fragment...Would the crow come for me now?

  Realizing that if he did, I had nothing to do against him - not without a plan - I tried to focus on what I had just seen.

  My mother…the great inventor…the Savior of Solvane…was a con artist?

  And an orphan too?

  I mean, I never met my grandparents, but Dad always made it sound like her parents died after they got married – not that she’d been orphaned young and lived in some orphanage.

  Was he in the dark about this as well?

  Well…I guess it didn’t change much. Not really.

  The bigger takeaway was that she had a crew – other orphans she knew from the orphanage. Sam and Owen looked slightly older than her. Meaning they were kicked earlier…and Mom was helping them long before she joined Blackthorn too. Supplying them with her inventions so they could get in, get a contract, and lay down the groundwork for her arrival.

  Was that why she left us? Because they were her real family?

  I summoned their photograph from the Inventory and stared at it again. Stared at her smile. At how close they all stood.

  Suddenly, my mind started building baseless theories.

  What if she’d been pressured into leaving by them – especially since she was the youngest of the group?

  I immediately thought about the way she spoke about wanting to be a mother. The way she touched her belly. So careful. So proud.

  No…no, after seeing this, there’s no way I’d believe she left me willingly.

  This Owen…he had to be Valdemar.

  Maybe he wasn’t yet, back then. But once he realized Mom was brilliant enough to get a ticket into Skyhaven, he made sure she did. He was planning ahead – years ahead.

  And then I remembered how coldly Valdemar broke the news to Thea in that Memory Fragment. He couldn’t give two shits about Mom dying. Because he never really loved her. He’d only ever used her. And Mom knew it – that’s why she left me and Dad behind where we were safe.

  I had to find him.

  Now that I knew who he was – or at least believed I did – I could find ways to pressure him into backing down.

  Fuck it, I could even pass his and Libra’s whereabouts to the authorities after I found them and be done with it.

  Before my thought could spiral further, I heard the front door open.

  Dad was home.

  His arrival grounded me.

  I realized I was getting ahead of myself. Jumping into conclusions. Emotional despite saying I’m not the type to get emotional.

  Calm down, Viktor. Take it slowly. Rely on facts – not on what you want the truth to be.

  I walked back to the living room, the brass medal still in my hand.

  Dad looked exhausted. His brown hair was messy, eyes shadowed from lack of sleep. He probably hadn’t slept all night.

  The moment he saw me, he crossed the room in three quick strides and pulled me into a tight hug. “Oh, Viktor, thank goodness you’re alright!”

  “Dad,” I said, hugging him back. “I need to talk to you about Mom.”

  ***

  Still expecting the Crow to show up at any second, we sat at the kitchen table in silence. Between us lay the photograph of Mom, Sam, and Owen.

  Dad studied it carefully before sliding it back toward me.

  “So that’s what they look like?” he said. “Well…I knew they existed. I just never actually saw those two with your mother.”

  “Then how did you know about them?”

  “Your Mom told me,” he replied. “On the day she left – the last day I saw her.”

  “Did you know she was an orphan?”

  He shook his head. “Yes and no. I knew she was an orphan. I didn't know for how long. I only learned the details on the day she left. When she wanted to come clean.”

  “Come clean?”

  Dad sighed, his voice heavy. “Listen…I never wanted you to learn the truth. I always thought it would be better if you remembered her as a generational genius who left us only because she had to save the world – “

  “But I want to know the truth,” I said, cutting him off.

  He glanced down at the photograph, then back at me. Finally, he spoke.

  “We had each other. We had you. You used to get sick a lot, but other than that, everything was going great. Then one day, out of nowhere, she filed for divorce. No warning. No explanation. She didn’t say she’d fallen out of love. She didn’t say there was someone else. She didn’t say I’d done anything wrong. Just that she had to leave. And that she wanted you to stay with me.

  “That was two months before the Ascension Board gave her the permit to enter Skyhaven. I knew she was working on the engines, that it was going to be something world-changing, but I didn’t know she was already being reviewed by the CMA. She never told me anything about it.”

  “So…she left us even before she got the ticket to Skyhaven?” I frowned. “But I don’t get it. I always thought she chose progress over us because the Board refused to let her take us with her.”

  “I never got it either,” he said. “Like I said, it was out of nowhere.”

  I shook my head slowly. “And then what?”

  “Two months later, the divorce was finalized. She came to say her final goodbye – to me, to you. And to tell me the truth – or at least part of it.”

  He gestured at the photograph. “About her. About them. They were really close – like siblings. Not by blood. By hardship. There was another girl too. I think her name was…Chloe. She was the guy’s twin.”

  He rubbed his jaw, voice growing quiet. “They all lived together in an orphanage in southern Orlinth – the one near the Census Archives, and the school where we studied and met."

  "Wait," I stopped him. "And you're telling me you didn't know she lived in an orphanage? Didn't you visit her home at least once before you got married?"

  Dad chuckled and looked nostalgic. "That's the thing, though. I had visited her. More than once even. She had an apartment - which had probably belonged to her friends - and she just made sure they were never there when I arrived. She told me her parents had died recently and that she was living alone. Back then, as a stupid kid, it all made sense to me. I didn't even ask any questions."

  Well...I could see how he could've been fooled there.

  He continued. "Anyway, she said they used to sneak out all the time. Pickpocketing, rigged street games, running cons. She wasn’t proud of it, so she looked for another way for them to survive. A safer way. And she found one.

  "She knew that the only ones making money in Orlinth were the inventors guilds, so she decided they would join one. But she was the only one actually smart enough to invent anything. So the others…they just rode her brilliance. Fed off her designs and creations while tricking everyone into believing they were smart. Before, and after, she joined Blackthorn too.”

  He paused. “She was the youngest. That’s why she was the last one to get kicked out of the orphanage.”

  These had been my conclusions as well. And still…thinking of Mom as a con artist was…wild. It was hard to imagine her that way.

  Then I recalled the Vestige’s memory – specifically its ending. The photo on the table was taken after I was born, and Chloe wasn’t in it. So did she…?

  “Do you know what happened to the twin sister?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Dad rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort. “Your Mom said she was executed by the Ironwatch. In the Foundry.”

  I swallowed hard, heart twisting. “Executed?”

  Dad nodded solemnly. “Yes. Death by exile into the Wildlands.”

  Now I had even more reasons to believe Owen was Valdemar. If his sister had been killed by the state, it would make sense for him to seek revenge. Especially considering the life he’d already endured as an orphan. Add to that his practice as a con artist, and you’ll get someone who could sway people in his favor.

  “She also told me why she left,” Dad said suddenly. “And…in hindsight, I wish she hadn’t. It only made her sound like…well, a lunatic.”

  I raised an eyebrow, heart pounding. “Why? What did she say?”

  Dad exhaled slowly, his voice heavy.

  “She said that in the future, Solvane would be struck by an indescribable calamity. And that she was the only one who could stop it.”

  07/09/25 Update: