But Lady Lyselle Vane was no fool.
Elara looked at the dagger. She looked at the woman who had murdered dozens of children. And she threw the dagger into the dead mercury pool.
"Drink that," Elara said, "and you'll live forever. Or help me stop them. Your choice." Lily Service -Full Version- -Tyviania-
She threw it into the mercury pool.
"I'm not you," she said.
Over the next three months, Elara became the ghost of the Conservatory. She learned its rhythms: when the Sisters slept (never all at once), when the mercury pool was guarded (always), and when Lady Vane visited her private study (midnight, always alone). She also discovered a hidden ledger in the greenhouse—the —listing every child taken, every Harvester, every transaction. It was evidence enough to bring down the entire operation.
Elara screamed his name. He did not turn back. The carriage door closed like a mouth. The next morning, Elara did the only thing her fear would allow: she followed. She stowed away beneath the carriage, clinging to the axle as it climbed the spiraling roads to the upper tier. The air grew sweeter, the shadows thinner. At last, the carriage passed through gates of wrought silver and into the grounds of the Vane Conservatory , a sprawling estate of white marble and gardens where lilies grew in unnatural, perpetual bloom. But Lady Lyselle Vane was no fool
And at their head was Lady Lyselle Vane.