The room was silent as Lyn stared at Brendan for what seemed like forever.

Then, she exploded.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Brendan?" she barked, standing up so fast her chair fell over in a loud crash. "What evidence do you even have, accusing her like that?"

Brendan lifted his eyebrows and glanced at the other team members. "Oh wow, you guys were right about her reaction."

Lyn turned to them as well, glaring in fury. "And what are you guys doing, just sitting there? Say something to him!"

"Lyn..." Millie started, but her trembling voice trailed off. Her long, curly hair hid her lowered head, but it was still obvious that she had been crying.

"You guys are fucking useless," Lyn snapped before turning her attention back to the QA employee. "This is utter bullshit, Brendan. You're not capturing my fighter over a stupid tip-off by a random person. That's never happening."

Brendan's expression was unwavering and calm. "It's okay if you don't want to take up this commission, Lyn, I'll just give it to another team. I just thought that it might be easier for your team to try and handle this first."

"Another team?" Lyn slammed her hand down on the table. "Are you crazy? You're not capturing her ever, no matter who you give this commission to!"

"So, you're going against the QA, then?" Brendan said, his tone low and threatening. "That's a dangerous stance to take, Lyn."

That rendered Lyn speechless for a moment.

"I'm- I'm not..." she stammered.

Brendan let out a small sigh, before taking out a folder and throwing it across the table. "These are memory images from our anonymous tip-off. Take a look at them."

Lyn whipped out the pictures, and her mouth dropped wide open. The first image was that of a grand hall; gold-lined stone pillars erected the tall ceilings, while glistening moonlight pierced through the stained glass windows. It would have been a picturesque sight if not for the fact that everything was covered in blood—the floors, the pillars, the walls, everything.

And in the middle of this gruesome scene, was a petite East Asian girl crawling on all fours. Her sequin dress was tattered and drenched in blood, while her long, silky hair was ruffled and messy.

Lyn's heart leaped to her throat. Was that... No, no, it couldn't be...

With trembling hands, she flipped through the rest of the memory images. Each picture was of the same scene, but with closer and closer views of the girl. And in the last image, the girl finally looked up and stared right into the person's eyes.

And she was, clearly and undeniably, Cydney.

The folder fell out of Lyn's hands.

"What the hell... This is fake, this has to be fake..."

"Fake?" Brendan said. "Don't insult the QA like this. We know how to do our jobs. I've run the images through counterspells and have our in-house specialty mages look through them. This is a true memory from someone. Who it is from, though, we can't figure out yet."

His expression softened when Lyn slumped back down on the table. "Sorry, Lyn, but bear in mind that these images in no way tell us that your fighter has done Blood Magic at all. It's just a lead."

Tapping on the small tinted bottle once more, he added, "We just want to get to the bottom of this memory. At least have her explain what this memory is about. Is she a Blood Magic user, and if not, is she involved in some way, or knows someone who is? Or maybe, for all we know, this might just be one elaborate Halloween party decoration and we are all mistaken. Whatever it is, it is not normal to be getting tip-offs about Blood Magic along with getting memory images like these, and we just want to know more, that's all."

As Brendan droned on, Lyn's eyes fixated on the truth serum. Right now, the tiny vial was as intimidating as fifty krakens. She gulped.

"Can we... Can we ask her... without using this..."

Brendan shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. We would not believe a single word she says if she doesn't take this. But I completely understand if you're uncomfortable with it, Lyn. As I said, I'll just give this commission to another team."

That did not reassure Lyn at all. Getting a group of strangers to feed Cydney truth serum instead... The idea filled her with rage.

She clenched her fists. "I don't know."

Brendan massaged his nose ridge and sighed again. "Well, I hope you'll take this commission. If I give this commission to another team, I can't guarantee that this information will be confidential. What if your fighter really is a Blood Magic user, what do you think is going to happen to your team if the word gets out? If you take this commission, I can at least try to keep all this low profile, and make sure word doesn't get out."

He looked at Lyn earnestly. "I admire you, Lyn, I really do. I think you and your team have a lot of potential. I don't want to have to put this commission out there and ruin your career."

Stolen novel; please report.

That was the last thing Lyn cared about right now. "You don't have to worry about that, Brendan. She's not a Blood Magic user."

"Even if she's not, she'll still have to stand trial for her assault charges."

An exasperated grunt escaped Lyn's throat. "Is there any way she can avoid jail time and stay in the team?"

"I don't know, Lyn. I'm not a criminal justice lawyer, but I can try to ask around the QA to see if I can recommend you one, or if I can pull some strings for you..."

"Please? Can you do that?"

"Well, would you take on this commission, then?"

Grudgingly, Lyn nodded.

"Finally." Brendan heaved himself up, letting out a long breath of relief. He placed a piece of paper on the table. "Here's a list of questions I would like you to ask her when she's under the truth serum. I want you to record her answers down and send them to me. In turn, I'll ask around to see what I can do to help acquit her of her charges. That's if she's not a Blood Magic user, of course."

"She's not," Lyn said flatly.

Brendan cast her a somber glance. "I hope she's not either, for your sake," he said as he smoothed his jacket. "Well, I'll be leaving now then. Shoot me a message if anything goes awry."

With that, the QA employee left the silent apartment.

Lyn placed her fallen chair back upright and collapsed onto it. The four members of the team sat at the dining table, unmoving and unspeaking, for half an hour.

Finally, Lyn broke the silence with a soft croak, "It's late. I'm going to get takeout. What do you all want?"

Nobody replied for a long time. Millie was still sobbing while Raph was staring blankly into space.

Irene closed her bloodshot eyes and muttered, "Whatever, dude."

"I'll get ramen," Lyn said as she stood up. "Stop crying, Millie."

It took every bit of energy and willpower for Lyn to drag herself to Cydney's favorite Japanese restaurant. She ordered the petite woman's favorite ramen and four other random orders. Then, she trudged back home, dropped the food on the table, and slumped back down on her chair.

The apartment returned to silence.

"She's coming over soon, right?" Irene asked softly. "Who's gonna tell her?"

"No one," Lyn said. "She doesn't need to know."

All three heads jerked upwards at that. As Millie and Raph exchanged an incredulous look, Irene's voice raised in fear.

"Lyn, you can't just feed someone truth serum without telling them."

"She's not a Blood Magic user. She's not the one they're looking for. She doesn't need to know." Lyn waved a hand towards the bags of food. "Let's just... feed her quietly and get this over with, okay?"

There was a short pause before Irene relented, "Whatever you say."

"Thank you." Burying her head into her arms, Lyn added with a muffled voice, "I don't want to do it. Somebody else do it, please."

Another pause. "Fine," Irene muttered. "Which one is her order?"

"The Shoyu ramen."

There were shuffling noises before there was complete silence again. Nobody was crying anymore, but the mood in the apartment was still as heavy as before.

A small knock came from the door.

Cydney was here.

Lyn quickly rubbed her face. Putting on the most cheerful smile she could manage, she opened the door and greeted, "Cinna!"

"Lyn." Cydney stared up at her. "What's wrong?"

"N- Nothing." Shaking her head, Lyn forced out an even wider smile. "Come on in, the whole team is here."

"Oh, hello!" Cydney smiled as she looked around at the team. "I thought you said you canceled team meeting, Lyn?"

"I- I changed my mind..."

Cydney chuckled. "You're such a workaholic," she chided before her eyes landed on the takeout. "Oh, you got ramen, Lyn?"

"Yeah, sorry, Cinna... I didn't have time to cook for you."

"Oh, no, this is good too!" Cydney skipped towards the table. "I love the ramen from this restaurant."

"I know. I got you your favorite Shoyu ramen too."

"Thank you!" Cydney beamed as she started digging into her food. After a while, she realized that nobody else was eating along with her.

"Is everything okay?" She glanced around uneasily. Her gaze landed on Raph's untouched food and she frowned. "Lyn, did you forget to order vegetarian for Raph again?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry..."

"It's okay," Raph mumbled, "I'm not hungry."

Cydney did not seem satisfied with the answer, but she dropped the subject and went back to eating. The four of them all stared at Cydney and then at one another; nobody wanted to be the first one to speak or to ask the dreaded questions.

Finally, Irene let out a disapproving snort. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Hm?" Cydney looked up from her bowl of noodles.

"Cydney," Irene began—every word that she uttered seemed to take a laborious amount of effort, "have you ever... done Blood Magic?"

Cydney spat out her food and coughed vigorously for a few minutes.

"W- What?" she managed to stammer.

"Have you ever done Blood Magic?" Irene repeated with a trembling voice.

Cydney stared at Irene, and then at everyone else at the table, her large, round eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.

"I- I don't know w- what you're talking about—"

Her sentence was cut short with a loud scream. Her body contorted in a manner as if someone had punched her in the gut, while she rolled off the chair.

"Cinna!" Lyn exclaimed.

She rushed over to the petite woman and held her lurching shoulders. Cydney whimpered in agony as she hugged her stomach; her face was covered in cold sweat while her eyes were filled with tears.

"Oh my God, Cinna..." Lyn felt like her heart had been punched too. She had heard about the horrible effects of the truth serum, but she had never known that it would be this bad.

Gripping Cydney's face firmly with her hands, she urged, "Cinna, look at me, okay? Tell me, where are you right now?"

Cydney was having trouble breathing, but she managed to whisper, "Y- Your apartment..."

"Good, what color is my jacket?"

"B- Black..."

"Okay, what color are my eyes?"

"Green..."

"What color is my hair?"

"Red... Reddish-brown?"

"How old are you this year?"

"Twenty-six..."

As Cydney answered more and more of Lyn's questions, her pain resided—her breathing became more stable while the tension in her body gradually disappeared.

"Oh, Cinna..." Lyn pulled Cydney into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry..."

Cydney burst into tears, still shaking from the trauma. "Lyn... what is this all about?"

"Nothing, it's nothing," Lyn soothed while caressing her hair. "It's just... It's just a faulty truth serum."

"Truth... serum...?"

"Yes, but it's not working. It hurt you for no reason. Don't worry, we're not going to use it anymore." Lyn got up and fetched Cydney a glass of water. "Drink up, Cinna, get it off your system."

"Lyn, you know we can't do that," Irene berated. Her face was stoic and fierce but was thoroughly wet with tears.

"I don't care, okay? I know the truth, and I don't need a fucking truth serum," Lyn spat. "Drink up, okay, Cinna?"

"Lyn, please don't do this..." Raph mumbled—even he was crying too.

The entire apartment seemed to have become a cry fest; Lyn was hugging a tearful Cydney, while Irene, Millie, and Raph were standing in front of them, also tear-stricken. And seeing this scene infuriated Lyn.

"I know what I'm doing, okay? Stop pestering me," Lyn snapped. She turned to Cydney and grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here, Cinna, let's go to my room."

"Lyn, please," Millie sobbed, "I know you love her, but you can't do this..."

"Shut the fuck up, Millie. Shut the fuck up, all of you!" Lyn bellowed. "I don't want to hear a single word from any of you fucking crybabies, okay? Leave us alone or I'll fucking kill you!"

Tenderly, she led Cydney to her room, before viciously slamming the door shut.