"I don't care!"The wind intensified.Stall awnings flapped violently.People backed away.
Wren stepped forward."Lyra, whatever's wrong, this won't help—"
"What would you know about it?"Lyra's eyes fixed on her with pure hatred."You show up from nowhere with your impossible magic and your convenient cursed farm and suddenly you're everyone's favorite.Viktor wants you.Jin wants you.The whole town adores you."
"That's not true."
"You took everything from me!"Lyra's voice cracked."Everything I worked for, everything I deserved.Viktor was supposed to be mine.That life was supposed to be mine!"
"Viktor was never yours," a calm voice said.
Everyone turned.
Zhao Lin stood there, perfectly composed, holding a small leather folder.
"He was courting you for practical reasons," Lin continued, walking forward."Just like you were using him for financial security.Neither of you loved the other.You were both using each other."
"That's not true!"
"It is true, and you know it."Lin's voice was firm but not unkind."Just like you know the makeup you're wearing is laced with basilisk venom.Highly addictive.Increasingly expensive...and illegal in three territories."
Lyra went still."How—"
"I asked the right people."Lin opened the folder."The merchant in the lower market.The shipping records.The unpaid bills in your apartment.The witnesses who've seen you looking...unwell when the makeup wears off."
The crowd was dead silent.
"You sabotaged Wren's farm during the migration," Lin continued."Tampered with the shield pillars.There's evidence of tool marks that don't match standard maintenance, timing that coincides with your presence near the property.Kenji found it during a routine patrol."
Jin's expression was stone."Is that true?"
Lyra looked around wildly at the crowd, at Jin, at Wren.Trapped.
"She doesn't deserve it," Lyra whispered."Any of it.She just shows up and gets everything handed to her while I—" Her voice broke."While I lose everything.My future.Viktor.My family's money.All of it is gone."
"Because you made poor choices," Lin said firmly."Repeatedly.You chose expensive makeup over financial stability.You chose revenge over moving forward.You chose Viktor over someone who might have genuinely loved you."She paused."You had opportunities, Lyra.You squandered them."
The wind died.Lyra's shoulders slumped."What happens now?"she asked dully.
Jin stepped forward, professional now."You'll be questioned formally.If the evidence supports the charges of sabotage, illegal substance use and reckless endangerment, you'll face the council."
"And then?"
"Exile or imprisonment, depending on severity.You know the laws."
Lyra's expression shifted.The dullness vanished, replaced by desperate fury."No!Banishment is death."Wind whipped up around her suddenly."You can’t make me!"
"Lyra!"Jin shouted.
But she was already moving, weather magic surging.Wind slammed into the crowd, sending people stumbling, and Lin fell hard.Thunder cracked overhead with unnatural violence."You want to exile me?"Her voice rose over the chaos."Fine!But I'm taking her with me!"
Lightning forked down toward Wren.
Jin moved faster, pulling Wren aside.The bolt struck where she'd been standing, scorching the cobblestones.
Lyra raised her hands for another strike and screamed as bolas suddenly tangled her legs, sending her crashing to the ground.She hadn’t even seen Jin throw the weighted rope and she went down hard, magic dissipating as she hit the ground.
Kenji was there in seconds, along with two other guards, pinning her arms and cuffing her with magic restraints, nullifying her magic.They didn’t mess around with magic users.
