Timeline: TC1853.07.01 (Evening)
Location: Long Family Compound, Imperial Palace
Long Family Compound - Second Ring, The Western Gallery
Kaivon Long couldn't breathe.
He stood in the family viewing gallery with his twin brother Kelen, both of them frozen before the massive projection screen that dominated the north wall. Around them, Long family members whispered and pointed and made calculations about what this meant for their political position.
But the twins weren't thinking about politics.
They were thinking about a small girl with muddy brown eyes and bruises that never quite healed. About the sister they'd tormented for years because Serenya told them she was dangerous. About the pranks that had escalated into cruelty, the mockery that had become systematic abuse.
We held her down, Kaivon thought. We laughed while she cried. We called her worthless and pathetic and told her no one would ever believe her if she complained because we were Long heirs and she was nothing.
