“Welcome, stranger.”

Kirin has been with her for almost three years in Tyvia and doesn’t remember any of it.

She lies to him and says he’s only been there a month or so (refusing to let him read the paper, limiting his time out of the house, hand-waving his subtle aging.)

Truth is, the neural inhibitor she made is still in early stages of development. The only reason she went and snatched him from Karnaca (his HOME!!) was to use him to further the inhibitor project— which has been a failure previously.

Kirin keeps recovering… then relapsing. When he wakes, he’s back at square one and doesn’t recall anything from before. She catalogs his progress and treats him like an experiment more than a person. Keeping him in the laboratory, hardly speaking to him, subjecting him to cruel conditions. Only gradually, over the course of several weeks, does she start to grow fond of him.

But he doesn’t remember her at all— doesn’t remember any of her cold treatment or the pain she subjected him to for the sake of the inhibitor project. After several relapses, things become better for him. She lets him stay in his own room— which is already to his liking, stocked with books he’d chosen weeks ago and clothing that fits him and suits his style. She knows how to cook his favorite meals because he’d mentioned them in a past relapse. She knows how he likes his bath drawn and how strong his coffee needs to be.

And Kirin… Kirin thinks she’s just that intuitive! That she’s this perfect soul-mate or partner, someone of a like-mind, when she’s really just… imitating and immolating, as she always has.

So they inevitably get really close and start a romantic relationship. Then he relapses. And she tries to replicate those events over and over again with less success each time because she’s obviously getting desperate. And he’s keen and suspicious. And the inhibitor still isn’t working as intended, but what time does she have to work on it when she’s so obsessed with getting Kirin to fall for her bullshit again? And the high judges keep calling on her to report her findings and she’s ignoring their summons because she knows it’ll reveal to Jindosh how long she’s been toying with him. And when it all comes to the surface, he’s *pissed* bc of course he is! She’s a fraud in his eyes. A genius would have perfected the design by now. She’s no prodigy like he is, she’s just savvy and selfish and insane. Worse than he is, really.

And so he fleas to Dunwall in the middle of the night and spills all Amelia’s secrets to the crown and in exchange for a pardon for his crimes, the empress demands he build her an army. So Tyvia goes to war with Dunwall and there they are, the two of them, at the center of it.