Thessia

Sen looked at the two matron asari, attempting to interpret the expressions they wore on their faces, the emotions burning in eyes, amethyst and ocean. She wondered if this was when it happened. If, somehow, during this time, Shepard became her father and Zhira her mother. Even though the timelines did not quite mesh, Sen could no longer be certain of anything. With all the truths that Zhira and Liara revealed to her, there were surely some lies. Could not one of those lies be of the year she was born? How would she know if that were the case…Liara had the power to change almost any record she so desired; she had done so with her own medical records. A forged certificate of birth would certainly be child's play.

She did not want to ask what happened. She did not want to know that she lived as evidence of a broken love. In her mind, Sen clung to the myth, to the stories, to the belief that Liara's love kept Shepard alive and defeated the Reapers. One could only become so jaded before they broke…but Sen also knew the heart. It could only hide so much before it, too, withered and decayed beneath the burden of the secrets it held. Zhira warned her that this would be painful. But pain could be a good thing. It allowed one sense of self. It imparted the knowledge of life and living, even as it made it difficult. Pain could be surmounted.

Sen's lips trembled, a question hovering at the edge of them that she feared to ask. However, she would. She had no choice.

"What happened next?" Her words were soft, hesitant, and Liara's eyes lit on her, the expression in them one of complete commiseration and empathy with her trepidation. For a moment, Sen saw herself reflected in the matron's eyes…a blink, and the moment was gone.

When Liara did not answer, Zhira took up the tale. "Li hacked into the asari councilor's system. She got me the proper documentation, backstory, and," Zhira glared at Liara, a smirk on her lips, "the proper attire for the position I pretended to occupy."

"You were too patient and kind." Liara's voice held the weight of the past, the weight of grief and worry remembered but not re-experienced. The galactic hero turned her eyes to Sen once more. "She waited in Vancouver for a week, putting off her own business so that she could help me. It took me seven Earth days to send an official message to the Alliance. They refused each day for three days, before finally allowing an envoy from the asari councilor."

Zhira laughed, drawing Sen's attention. The doctor looked at her mother in an entirely different light. Was her suspicion true? Had the asari who raised her corrupted one of the galaxy's greatest love stories? Surely, that could not be. Not with the way Liara spoke of loving Shepard. Not with the way Zhira and Liara both were comfortable in the other's presence, sharing past and present with her and one another, comfortable enough to indulge in laughter.

"I was more terrified than I had ever been in my life." Zhira shook her head, remembering and acknowledging her fear in that time. "I'd run drug deals and taken lives and stood up to some of the most unsavory elements of the galaxy, coming out on the winning side. But never, never had I impersonated a government official. I felt naked and transparent walking up to that building; I knew they were going to see right through me, and at least turn me away. At most, arrest me and report my fraud to the Council."

Zhira fell silent, and Sen watched as her mother's gaze lifted to Liara. In that moment, Sen saw something in her mother's eyes she had never before witnessed. An ache dwelt in the amethyst eyes, an ache without borders that lived in the heart and spread across the body, out from the soul and the fingertips, invading the universe with a quiet, pleading, unvoiced whisper.

"But I remembered who was counting on me." Zhira's voice rang soft in the sterile room, so gentle a falling leaf could shatter it. "I remembered who I was doing this for and I knew I had to go through with it. That memory gave me the strength to speak, the power to move forward and wear a mask more difficult to wear than any I had previously donned. They didn't notice. According to the agreement, I was allowed to speak with Shepard and…"

Liara stood up, abrupt, silencing Zhira and drawing all eyes in the room to her. Sen knew pain when she saw it. She could feel the waves of it emanating from Liara's body, almost as clear as biotic energy. The elder asari shook her head, and Sen saw the light of tears in her eyes…tears she was refusing to shed.

"I cannot…not at this moment." Liara whispered. "Please, excuse me."

She turned and left the room, closing the door on Zhira and Sen and their stunned silence. Daughter looked to mother, asking for an explanation. Zhira sighed, staring at the closed door for a long moment before returning her gaze to her daughter, seeing the question in those beautiful, strange eyes, and answering it.

"Some pain runs so deep, Sen, that we can never truly face it." Zhira spoke, breaking the silence, answering without revealing any truth. "Some are blessed, no matter their lifespan, to have but one or two of those moments of agony so exquisite that part of their soul remains captured within it. Liara has more of those moments than any matriarch, and this was one of them."

Zhira scrutinized her daughter, seeing the lines of weariness and physical pain in Sen's eyes. She was not recovered, and would not be for some time.

"You need to rest, Heartlight." Zhira whispered, cupping her daughter's cheek and pressing a kiss to her precious brow. "I will speak to Liara."

"Mother, wait." Sen caught Zhira's hand as her mother rose to leave. Sen's hands shook with fear, her eyes burned with tears. "Mother, was this…was this when I was conceived? Is this how…is this how I happened?"

Zhira smiled, gentle. She could not blame her daughter for these questions, but Sen was not ready to know the truth of it all, just yet. Not until the story had been told in its entirety. However, she could allay the fear in her daughter's voice and gaze with the most absolute of truths.

"No, Sen."