en'
fruit toward the front hall. Th
st parts of the mansion. Today the servant women sent me to
us people from across the northern territories, and I was to carry a tray past all of them, let the
th, I no l
those stares, would have wanted t
azes fell on me, I only felt something distant, muffled as
ire mansion knew, and precisely because of this, they despised me but dared not touch m
heir eyes and push
ea
g open, and a gust of
r the ceremony, letting outside air pour in,
feeling that breeze sweep thro
h
stood why my wo
IN
from me, and the basket sli
ries of crisp sounds. Every gaze in the front hall swept toward me in th
hem no a
y saw
hall, right in the middle o
e from two years ago, in that open area by the border, the shad
had describe
o urgently, so desperately-MINE, MINE, MINE, one cry af
the doorway
again, to be subdued and reject
n't w
, several familiar-clad warriors closing in from all sides, iron hooks
ose things embedding in my shoulder blad
me from my left-unfamiliar warmth,
deep roar explod
rom his seat, overturn the two people blocking h
h
er me, forcing back the warriors advancing with iron hooks. His movements wer
wered his head, burying his
y spreading from my neck, traveling along every nerve lin
e had ma
taneously into my flesh and s
e. Over his shoulder, I witnessed
lling out. Only Caius remained-he stood on the far side of the hall, surr
his mouth moving, lips constantly colliding as he shouted something.
d more blurred, like a receding tide, like a falling curtain, li
were gray, heavy, carrying
rible words, those two years of contempt and roars and commands p
na
ould no long
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