Among them was a girl of twelve named Elara. She was small for her age, with a shock of white hair (a benign remnant of the Rot) and a talent for vanishing into shadows. She survived by picking pockets, but her true gift was listening. And what she heard, one frozen evening, was a whisper that would change her world.

"Little mouse," came a voice from everywhere and nowhere. Elara looked up. A projection of Lady Vane's face filled the shaft, her jade eyes burning. "Did you think the greenhouse was unguarded by accident? I let you find the ledger. I let you bring the Inquisitor. Because a failed rebellion draws more eyes than a quiet operation. Thank you for the free publicity."

She slipped inside as the Sisters unloaded their cargo—a dozen children, all glassy-eyed and docile. Elara crept through service corridors, her bare feet silent on cold stone, until she found a grate overlooking a vast hall.

Elara pressed herself into a drainpipe, heart hammering. The Lily Service. She had heard the name before, spoken in hushed tones by older orphans who had since disappeared. A charity, they said. A noblewoman named Lyselle Vane who collected the forgotten children of the Rot and gave them a new life.