Layla returns from the Federation deep-space trial to find her mother Seraphina imprisoned by Vivian and her three brothers turned against them. Stabbed to death, she is reborn on the day of her return. She saves her mother, activates the Stellar Ring summons, recovers the Founding Gene Key, and proves Seraphina is the true dean and the three brothers’ birth mother—Vivian swapped them with her own triplets. Vivian, Edmund, and the foster brothers are detained; Seraphina is restored, and Layla becomes acting dean.
