Chapter 20: A Face to the Flame
Aria Vantier's name was everywhere.
The headlines flooded in before dawn.
"Heiress Unseals Biohazard Level Wing in Vantier Tower"
"Unauthorized Genetic Entity Found: Is Vantier Playing God Again?"
"Public Safety Breached — Board Demands Aria's Detainment Pending Review"
Inside her penthouse, Aria threw the datapad onto the glass table and paced.
"They're painting her like she's a contagion," she snapped.
"She's not," Damien said quietly from the sofa. "But they don't care."
Kestrel, seated nearby, tossed another article onto the screen. "They're leaking everything — her birth logs, footage of her containment, the glyphs burned into her skin. The board wants a full inquiry. Immediate suspension of your authority."
Aria scoffed. "Of course they do. They couldn't stop me in the boardroom, so now they're dragging me through fire in public."
Her fingers curled into fists.
"They'd rather erase Echo again than admit what they did to her."
In the room down the hall, Echo sat on a small couch wrapped in a soft gray blanket, her eyes wide as she watched the snow fall outside the window.
It was her first time seeing the sky.
Aria entered gently.
Echo looked up with a small smile. "It's cold out there."
"It's always cold at the top," Aria murmured, crouching beside her. "But you're safe here."
Echo tilted her head. "Why do they hate me?"
Aria's throat tightened. "They don't understand you. People are afraid of things they can't control."
Echo looked down at her glowing hands. "I didn't ask for this."
"I know," Aria said softly. "And I won't let them use you again."
Later that day, the Vantier Crisis Assembly convened — a rare move triggered only when the company's public image or market stability was at risk.
Aria walked into the conference hall alone.
Cameras tracked her every step.
Reporters barked questions behind the security line.
"Miss Vantier, did you knowingly release a weaponized subject?"
"What do you say to claims that Echo is a threat to global security?"
"Did you fabricate your mother's files to justify this extraction?"
She paused.
Faced them all.
And spoke:
"I released a girl who has been illegally imprisoned and silenced by the same people now demanding my head. If that's a crime… then maybe we need to redefine justice."
Then she entered the chamber.
The room was packed — board members, military consultants, legal observers, press liaisons.
At the head sat Chancellor Brynn, colder than ever. "Miss Vantier, we'll make this brief. You've unsealed a quarantined subject. Breached corporate biogenetic policy. And you've failed to consult—"
"I consulted the truth," Aria interrupted. "And I followed my father's last directive — to finish what he started. To clean the rot out of this place."
There were murmurs, shifting seats.
Tilda Ren leaned forward. "Let's not confuse vengeance with leadership, dear. You're throwing us into a global panic."
"She's a girl," Aria said sharply. "Not a virus. Not a weapon. And you made her this way."
Damien stepped in from the side of the room, holding a digital file.
He projected it across the room:
Echo Subject File: Original Authorization – Evelyn Vantier.
Gasps.
Aria's mother had signed the first approval forms — under duress.
The signature was shaky. Runes of coercion visible in the ink.
Kestrel's voice echoed from a side monitor: "This file was sealed under Level Omega security. Only a member of the Vantier bloodline could unseal it."
Aria stood taller.
"You accused me of acting without authority. But every decision I've made — from dismantling the board corruption, to rescuing Echo — was authorized by the very legacy you tried to bury."
A heavy silence fell.
Then Brynn asked, voice tight:
"What do you propose?"
Aria didn't hesitate.
"Echo stays under my guardianship. She'll receive proper care, education, and magical calibration. All records of her existence will be reviewed — transparently — by a neutral committee, not your secret council."
"And if we deny that?" Tilda asked.
Aria's eyes turned cold.
"Then I walk. And I take Vantier's Flameborn initiative with me — including the soul crystal of my father."
Everyone knew what that meant.
Vantier's future tech pipeline.
Gone.
Stocks would plummet. Projects would collapse.
Tilda paled.
Brynn leaned back.
Finally, he sighed. "Motion carried. Provisional guardianship and oversight granted. But any incident — any display of instability — and it all ends."
Aria's voice was calm, but resolute.
"Then let's make sure the only unstable ones are removed first."
Later that evening, back in the penthouse, Echo sat curled up with a book in her lap — a children's story about fire spirits and phoenixes.
"You stood up for me," she said quietly.
"I always will," Aria replied.
Echo looked up.
"But who'll stand up for you?"
The question hung in the air.
Aria looked out at the city skyline.
At the press drones still hovering, the shadows tightening around her name.
And for the first time in years…
She didn't know the answer.