"By hand?" Yan Huan raised a brow as he looked at the old wooden washboard in the basin, its edges slightly worn.
"Yes." Cyrene nodded. Looking at the clothes and washboard in the basin, she skillfully picked up a garment and began scrubbing it against the board, producing a rhythmic swish-swish sound.
"In Cyrene's memories, this was how laundry was always done. Aedes Elysiae didn't have washing machines." Her tone was natural, as though she were discussing the most ordinary thing in the world.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you about this." Yan Huan stared at Cyrene's fingers, faintly whitened by the suds, when something suddenly occurred to him. He reminded her:
"Neither Herta's side nor I found the soul of a 'second Cyrene' inside the Scepter."
"Then perhaps..."
Cyrene had just started to reply when Yan Huan cut her off.
"Impossible. It wouldn't have been destroyed." Yan Huan sounded utterly certain. He took a bite of his chicken drumstick and spoke as he chewed.
"Even Phainon could be claimed by a Soul Bead. How could someone just die halfway through telling a story?"
"Do you think there's a possibility that, from beginning to end, there was only one Cyrene?" He looked at her searchingly.
"?"
Cyrene blinked, and the motions of her hands stopped. Foam dripped through her fingers.
She seemed not to understand, or perhaps that possibility was simply difficult for her to comprehend.
"But I clearly remember discussing stories with 'Cyrene'..." she said softly, a trace of confusion surfacing in her eyes.
"No idea. Anyway, that's what the Scepter's data says." Yan Huan spread the hand not holding the chicken drumstick.
"Stop washing your clothes. Yan Qing just called and said Phainon and the others got arrested." He abruptly changed the subject.
"I don't want to go