After the initial shock wore off, Liara called the house medic and had her run a DNA test on both herself and the supposed Syrila T'Soni.
The results were very conclusive. Syrila's genes were showing much similarity to Liara's and even more to Benezia's. There were also large genetic similarities to Liara's grandmother, essentially confirming Syrila's story.
Nevertheless, Liara was not completely convinced.
She had Syrila brought into the lounge where she joined her shortly after together with Shepard.
"I hope you'll forgive my reluctance to accept your words, Matriarch," Liara began to say politely as she sat down, having learned the asari's age from her genetic sample.
"It is quite alright," Syrila nodded. "And please... it is just Syrila for you" she smiled.
"Thank you. And you may call me Liara," she smiled in return.
"Now..." Liara began. "As far I know now, and as history recorded, Benezia T'Soni had only one sister – Atala T'Soni" she said and Syrila nodded with sad smile.
"It was also recorded that Atala T'Soni died in a shuttle accident two centuries ago – long before I was born. I have never met her. Are you saying that she somehow survived... are you saying that you are Atala T'Soni?" Liara asked her, desperately trying to find a logical explanation to this situation.
Shepard smiled sadly and nodded her head. Liara once told her about her aunt Atala who tragically died before Liara was born.
Atala was younger sister of Benezia. She was a politician. Her career highpoint was being an overseer of Serrice city for over a century. She had even fathered two children in her life. Young Liara had met her cousins a few times over the years, but they were never really close. Additionally, they had a surname after their birth mother, as was asari's tradition, and therefore did not share Liara's family name.
"No, Atala was also my sister" Syrila said.
"Then you have to forgive my skepticism, Syrila, but as far as I am aware, Atala was Benezia's only sister and I have no other aunt" Liara said, crossing her hands defensively over her chest.
"You are absolutely right, Liara" Syrila said sadly. "And if history played differently, you would continue to be right."
"But times changed – Atala died, Benezia died, our entire species was almost exterminated..." Syrila's voice hitched as she said the next part.
"And you… you were left alone... so young" she said wistfully.
"I felt it was simply selfish and dangerous of me to hide myself any longer..."
"Hide yourself?" Liara asked. "What do you mean? Who are you?"
"To answer any of that, I'll have to start from the beginning" Syrila said and glanced at Shepard, seemingly inviting her into the conversation.
"I suppose that after what happened in the war, you both now what an Ardat-Yakshi is?" she asked them.
Their mouths fell open as they both slowly nodded, both dreading what Syrila was going to say next.
"When I was 50 years old, I was diagnosed with a certain obscure medical condition..."
"Are you saying that you are...?" Shepard began to ask, frozen in fear.
"Yes, I am an Ardat-Yakshi..." Syrila admitted, clearly straining herself to form the words.
She saw them both tense in their chairs. "Before you begin to panic and summon your commandos to pacify me, know that I have never done an intimate melding in my life… I am not an addict."
"The only irresistible urge I am feeling is to drain this glass of juice, since I am thirsty and it looks delicious" she said and picked up her glass with fruit juice from the table. She took few gulps from it before she put it down.
"I assure you that I mean you no harm" she said in calmest voice possible. "Quite the opposite in fact"
"How is that possible?" Liara eventually gasped.
Syrila chuckled.
"You pose the exact same question that my mother asked the doctor over a thousand years ago" Syrila answered, losing herself in her memories.
"The doctor did not have a good answer back then and neither do I have it now... some things are just destined to be and there is nothing we can do about them... My condition is something I came to peace with a long time ago" Syrila said.
"Alright," Shepard finally said, breaking the ominous silence. "So you are an Ardat-Yakshi... no problem, I have met few of them" she said and Syrila furrowed her face for a moment.
"But how exactly do you go from being an Ardat-Yakshi to being Liara's secret long lost aunt?" Shepard asked incredulously.
"And although I personally never really condone the practice... aren't you supposed to live in a monastery?" Shepard asked, more and more confused by the minute.
She did not see the look of understanding slowly blossoming on Liara's face, before it was replaced by disgusted expression.
She squeezed the armrests of her chair tightly before she spoke again.
"They were ashamed of you, weren't they?" Liara asked, anger boiling inside her.
Syrila looked at Liara and slowly nodded.
"Not exactly... but close," she admitted.
"What I am going to tell you now will sound like I am complaining, but truly... I am not" she assured them.
"In fact, with centuries of experience, I feel that my family did the best choice they could... for all our sakes" she said.
"Ehh, the human is lost here... what are you two talking about?" Shepard asked in frustration.
Syrila turned to Shepard.
"I am sure you know that the Ardat-Yakshi condition is a great embarrassment to my people..." Syrila said, looking at her.
"Yes... I met a justicar while she was hunting one. She made it abundantly clear what they represented," Shepard said.
"Yes..." Syrila said as she listened to her words.
"Well, what do you think would be people's reaction if an Ardat-Yakshi was born into one of the oldest and most powerful families on Thessia, mm?"
Shepard considered that and dawn of realization was slowly creeping over her.
"Not good, I think... horrible" Shepard said.
"Unspeakable..." Liara supplied, sounding guilty as she said the word.
Syrila smiled at her. "Exactly the right word... unspeakable."
"Something like this could never, EVER, be made public" she said.
"For the sake of the T'Soni family, I could not be revealed as an Ardat-Yakshi... which meant that I could not be sent to the monastery either" Syrila said and Liara continued to nod in ashamed understanding.
"Now if I were born to an ordinary family, I would not have a choice and a justicar would sooner or later show up to take me away or kill me if I refused..." Syrila said bitterly.
"But fortunately for me, our family had an influence and absurd amount of money" Syrila chuckled.
"Eventually mother offered me a choice... I would either give up my birthright and go into a willing exile... or I would be turned over to the asari authorities, our family would be shamed and I would be confined into a monastery anyway" she said.
"Naturally, I chose the first option. Mother sent me to a planet called Hyetiana – maybe you have heard of it. Most call it an ice hell," Syrila said before smiling.
"I think that mother believed the ice planet would cool down my natural urges... so to speak" she laughed.
"Anyway, I was given a good place to live, large amount of money and Laya – my most trusted governess – stayed with me for a century before I fully grew up... my mother and my sisters communicated with me often over the extranet..."
"I guess what I meant to say is that I was never really lonely as you might expect" she assured them.
"Then why there is no trace of your existence?" Liara asked her.
"That was mother's condition... my name would be forever erased from records," Syrila sighed sadly.
"Benezia and Atala – my two older sisters – were forbidden to ever mention my name.
"I was never officially introduced into the society, so my disappearance was relatively easy to cover up"
"Over the next decades, my mother – your grandmother – used her influence to systematically eliminate traces of my existence from any public and private records.
"In the end, Syrila T'Soni was no more and eventually, nobody remembered that there once was a third T'Soni sister at all" Syrila finished her story and fell silent.
By this point, Liara was softly crying.
"I imagine that you must hate our family... that you must hate me" Liara wept. "What we did to you..."
"...was necessary" Syrila said with conviction.
She stood up and went to her niece, pulling Liara out of her chair and into a hug.
"I love our family, I loved my sisters, and I love you, Liara" she said gently, comforting the crying asari.
"I was so happy when Benezia had you... I was here when you were born, you know..." she said to her with honest smile.
Liara stopped crying and looked at her confused.
"How? They sent you away to Hyetiana!" she asked as she slowly wiped her tears away.
"After a century on that ice planet, mother eventually allowed me to travel the galaxy under carefully manufactured faked identity"
"I wasn't Syrila, I wasn't T'Soni, but I was allowed to serve my family in various small ways despite always having to stay in shadows..." she said to her niece.
"Over the years, I was forced to mask myself more and more as I started to resemble Benezia greatly, but I was free… I travelled all over the galaxy, saw almost all inhabited worlds… it was a good and interesting life, Liara… more than someone like me could ever hope for" she assured her.
"As years went by, I became a master of disguise… so good that even my own family had trouble recognizing me when I didn't want them to"
Syrila then went quiet for a moment and examined Liara closely.
"When Benezia went into labour, I secretly posed as one of the nurses..." she eventually said and Liara intently listened to her.
"I was the first one to hold you in my hands..." Syrila said and stroked Liara's cheek.
"I can't have my own children, you know... but I thought that you were the most beautiful baby I've ever seen" she said and Shepard, who was watching the exchange in respectful silence, began to tear up too.
"When I turned to give you over to Benezia, I almost didn't want to let you go..." she said sadly.
"My sister didn't know it was me, I was wearing a make up and a surgical mask. We did not see each other in person for nearly a century... not since Atala's death."
"But our eyes met for a moment and I could have sworn that she just knew it was me even as she took you from my hands"
"Your mother loved you very much... and so do I"
Tears were now streaming down Syrila's face as she hugged her niece again.
"Don't you dare think for even a single second that I would hate you, Liara T'Soni" she said and pressed her tightly.