Black Fang's gaze finally left the stones. Her eyes shifted toward Quinlan, steady and without a hint of tremor.
"I feel nothing. By the time I crawled out of the serpent's belly, I was already dead, and I'm not saying this to be poetic. I tried to remember my mother's face, her voice, even her scent. Nothing came. I never cried for her again. Never felt the need to sense her warmth."
Her tone didn't waver; it carried the quiet certainty of someone who was incapable of mourning.
"She was a victim, no doubt. But I can't care to avenge a woman whose face I can't even recall."
"As for my father and the Fujimori as a whole... They are the most annoying, most infuriatingly pretentious group of people I know, but revenge? For what? For not wanting me? Children being abandoned is part of life. Some animals even cannibalize their own. My family didn't want me, so I made a life for myself elsewhere. That's all."
The room held still.
Quinlan and Vex shared a glance.
