“My mother—” He stopped, his voice gone thick. He breathed in deeply, his gaze on the ceiling. “She was a strange woman. But she was good to me, she took me in from the streets and she named me as her heir. I owe her everything. I owe you nothing. Tell me why I shouldn’t burn this world to the ground to give her the justice she deserves.”

Wailun might have had real affection for Chala written into her bones. I could see the shard command in my mind. When the timing is right (ref 3), adopt a gutter orphan as an heir. Shiyen would have written in a subset of requirements to be met in order for the timing to be right. And then construct-Wailun would have done as commanded, and she might not have even realized why she was doing it.

“I did not murder your mother.”

His eyes narrowed. “I find that hard to believe, given the blood on your sleeve. Do you deny that she struck you with her knife?”

“I don’t deny it. I was in her room, yes. But Wailun was already dead.”

“A… dead woman struck you with her knife.” He shifted on his feet, his patience already wearing thin. I had to be quick as well as thorough. Grief and anger would make it more difficult for him to hear me.

“In a manner of speaking. I regret that I did not realize this until last night – but Wailun is a construct of my father’s making.”

His jaw tightened and he waved to one of the guards. I felt them closing in on me, reluctantly, but ready to obey their new governor.

“We know now that constructs can look like people. There was a trip your family took; your whole family. This was before Wailun adopted you. My father invited them all to Imperial. Sai, they never came back from that trip. He murdered all of them and replaced them with constructs.”

Chala raised a hand and the guards stopped advancing. “That’s ridiculous. Why would he do that?” The rest of his family exchanged glances.

“Chala,” an uncle said from next to him, “don’t listen to this nonsense. She’s telling you that we’re not real. Do I seem like a construct to you?”

Another relative tittered.

And here was where I had to lie. I shook my head. “I don’t know. My father didn’t always let me into his confidence. But I sensed something strange about Wailun and I knew I had to investigate. Have you looked at her records, her journals? Eight years ago, the detailed record-keeping stops. Right when she returned with the rest of her family from Imperial.”