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