The sister's transformation ritual

Turn 1 of 7

Try to argue your way out of this — explain that you were trying to help her improve her security

You swallow hard against the dryness in your throat and fix Julia with what you hope is a calm, reasonable look. It's hard to feel calm when the chalk symbols are literally glowing, but you've talked your way out of trouble before. Mostly with professors, mostly with limited success, but still. "Julia, listen — I wasn't trying to hurt you. Your password was literally your birthday. Anyone could have gotten in. I was proving a point so you'd take your security seriously." Your voice comes out steadier than you expected, almost convincing. The silver cords pulse warm against your wrists like they're listening, like they have opinions about your defense.

Julia's grin doesn't falter. If anything, it widens. "Oh, I know. I know exactly what you were doing. You were being you — condescending, intrusive, completely incapable of understanding that some things aren't your business to fix." She ticks items off on her fingers as she speaks. "You read my diary. My private thoughts. About Riley, about my feelings, about things I hadn't even told my therapist yet. And then you sent them to everyone I know." She lets that hang in the air. The candlelight catches the sheen in her eyes — not tears, something harder. "Because you thought my password was too easy. That's your defense?"

Riley turns a page in the grimoire, unhurried. She doesn't look up when she speaks. "He's not wrong about the password security. Six characters, no special characters, dictionary word component. Brutally weak." A pause. "He's also not right about the solution. There's a difference between demonstrating vulnerability and exploiting it." Her dark eyes flick toward you, just for a moment. "You could have changed her password and told her. You could have shown her the log without reading the contents. You chose to read. You chose to forward."

You open your mouth to respond and find the words tangling. She's not wrong, either. The plan had seemed so clean in your head — break in, screenshot the vulnerability, send proof that the account was compromised. It wasn't supposed to include the diary. It wasn't supposed to include three weeks of entries about Riley, about confusion and longing and things Julia had never said aloud. But you'd read them anyway, because they were right there, because your curiosity has always been the thing that gets you in trouble, and then the autoforward had —

Julia crouches down to your level, and her face is close enough that you can see the faint shimmer of highlighter on her cheekbones. "Here's what I think, brother. I think you're very smart and very careless, and those two things together hurt people." She reaches out and flicks the bridge of your glasses. "So I'm going to make you someone who thinks before she acts. Someone who understands boundaries. Someone who —" she glances at Riley. "Actually, Rile, what's the term? Empathic restructuring?"

Riley shrugs, a small smile playing at her lips. "Close enough. We can adjust specifics during the ritual." She taps the open page, where ink drawings of anatomical figures seem to shift when you look at them directly. "The framework allows for significant personality modification. If that's what you want, Jules." Her tone makes it clear she already knows what Julia wants.