Taken away. The words settled heavily in the air between them, euphemism barely masking imprisonment.
Yuyan frowned slightly, confusion mixing with dawning understanding. "Taken away when?"
Shuyin crouched down, her fingers digging slightly into the soil, feeling its texture. It felt unfamiliar beneath her touch, packed differently than she remembered, treated with chemicals and fertilizers, and maintained with carefulness but somehow lifeless despite all the care. "When I was imprisoned," she said with calm that belied the emotions churning beneath. "When they locked me away and everyone pretended I'd simply disappeared." But she was here as Shuyin even though they had truly gotten rid of the original Shuyin.
Chen Xiao's small hand tightened around his stuffed rabbit, his body tensing at words like imprisoned and locked away, concepts that resonated with his own traumatic past.
