Chapter 2: Request secretly meant for Mae
1637 Words
Lord Kazen’s butler rushed into the hall moments later, struggling to keep up.
He was fast by ordinary standards—but Kazen moved like a force of nature that could not be matched, nor delayed.
The slave merchant, still visibly shaken, snapped into action.
“Bring her forward. Now.”
Chains clinked sharply as Sienna was dragged into the center of the hall.
Step by step.
Iron biting into skin.
Metal scraping against fragile movement.
And for the first time, she was fully exposed beneath the weight of their attention.
Her dull gaze lifted slightly.
And everything stopped.
A ripple of silence swept through the crowd as eyes finally settled on her face without obstruction.
The reaction was immediate, sharp inhalations, stunned pauses, disbelief written across every expression.
She was…
Stunning.
Unnaturally so.
Silver hair, threaded faintly with gold at the edges, cascaded over her thin frame like something unreal—too delicate, too perfect to belong in a place like this.
But it was her eyes that stole the air from the room.
Golden.
Large Puppies eyes.
Once alive… now drained completely of light.
No spark. No resistance. No trace of the girl she used to be.
Only exhaustion carved too deep to disguise.
“She’s… beautiful,” someone whispered.
Another voice followed.
Then another.
Until the entire hall seemed to echo it in fragments—quiet, stunned, almost unwilling to believe what they were seeing.
But admiration in a place like this never stayed pure.
It always soured.
Reality returned with force.
Rough hands shoved her forward again.
Sienna gasped sharply as the chains tightened violently against her wrists and ankles, biting into her skin.
Pain flared through her arms and legs, forcing her forward step by step, dragging iron behind her like a curse she could not escape.
Murmurs followed her movement.
“She's beautiful…”
“What a pity…”
“She could have fit perfectly for my s*x slave.”
But beneath those words, something darker stirred.
Not sympathy.
Not kindness.
Frustration.
Envy.
The bitter awareness that she stood beyond their reach now.
Because everyone in the hall understood one truth without needing it spoken aloud—
she no longer belonged to any of them.
Not since the name Crowe Orion had been spoken.
And that realization alone was enough to silence even greed itself. Silent an entire Kingdom.
The slave merchant quickly placed a heavy bundle of keys into Kazen’s butler’s hands.
Treave accepted them with a quiet hum, as though receiving something far beneath his notice.
The merchant did not dare ask for payment—not even a glance in that direction.
Not when Lord Crowe Orion had already given him more wealth than he had earned in his entire lifetime of dealing in slaves.
Too much.
Too easily.
Just for one fragile girl.
And far too frightening to question.
“Let’s go.”
Treave’s voice was firm as he seized Sienna’s arm and pulled her forward.
The chains dragged behind her, heavy and unrelenting, forcing her steps to slow. But his grip did not loosen. Instead, it tightened just enough to remind her she had no choice but to keep pace.
Behind them, Kazen idly tossed his dagger into the air.
The blade spun once… twice…
A sharp glint of steel slicing through the light.
It dropped—
The merchant flinched violently, stumbling backward as if struck, clutching his companion in panic.
Fear broke through his carefully maintained composure in an instant.
A soft chuckle escaped Kazen as he caught the dagger effortlessly mid-fall, like it had never been anything more than a toy in his hand.
Outside, a large carriage waited.
It was nothing like the others.
Dark as obsidian, its surface absorbed light rather than reflected it, as though the night itself had been forged into shape.
The Crowe crest was carved into its side—a winged serpent coiled around a fractured crown, its eyes inlaid with deep crimson stone that seemed to watch everything at once.
Crowe Family Crest
The emblem alone was enough to silence conversation around it.
Power made visible.
Treave pushed Sienna inside.
She hit the carriage floor hard, the impact stealing her breath. For a moment, she did not move.
Slowly, she pushed herself upright, retreating instinctively to the far edge. She did not sit. She did not speak.
She simply folded inward, pulling herself as small as she could manage, burying her face against her knees as though trying to disappear into herself.
Kazen entered next.
The carriage seemed smaller the moment he stepped in.
He seated himself like a man born to be obeyed—calm, composed, untouched by urgency or concern.
His gaze swept over her once, slow and unbothered, as though assessing something far beneath his interest.
A faint expression of disgust flickered across his lips before vanishing just as quickly.
Treave climbed into the front, taking his place beside the driver.
With a flick of the reins, the carriage began to move.
The journey to Acheron—the strongest and most feared kingdom among all kingdoms realms—was not far from the slave market.
Three hours.
Three hours was all it would take before the world Sienna knew disappeared completely behind her.
And something far more dangerous began.
............................
Night had already fallen by the time they reached Acheron.
The sky was heavy with darkness, as though even the stars refused to shine upon the kingdom below.
Treave dragged Sienna down from the carriage first. Her feet barely found balance before chains forced her forward again.
Before them rose the capital’s inner district vast, structured, and unnervingly divided. Massive estates stood apart like isolated monarchs, each claiming their own territory of silence. The design made one truth painfully clear:
No one crossed into another’s domain without permission.
Not even breath felt free here.
Not even thought.
Kazen stepped down next.
Without warning, he took Sienna from Treave’s grip.
Treave hesitated.
“Excuse me, my lord?” he asked carefully, voice respectful but uncertain.
Kazen did not look back.
A faint smirk touched his lips.
“Nothing to fear, my dear loyal Treave,” he said lightly. “I did not steal what belongs to my brother out of ignorance.”
His tone sharpened ever so slightly.
“I simply decided it was being delayed unnecessarily.”
Treave’s thoughts darkened as he stood a step behind Kazen, watching the scene unfold like a mistake already in motion.
His decision today will cause war when Orion returns.
The truth was simple—Orion had never asked Kazen to intervene.
He had sent a letter through his trusted aide, a direct order meant to be delivered quietly, cleanly, without interference. The message was meant for Mae, and Mae alone.
But Kazen had found out first.
And instead of allowing it to reach its destination, he had stopped the messenger.
Now everything had shifted.
Treave’s jaw tightened as he replayed it in his mind. The halted letter. The disrupted chain of command.
The way Kazen had brushed it off like it meant nothing, as if he were rearranging furniture instead of tampering with Orion’s will.
And now he was here acting on some impulse he refused to explain, dragging things into motion that could no longer be undone.
Treave exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing.
“This isn’t going to end quietly,” he muttered under his breath.
Because men like Orion didn’t forgive interference.
And Kazen had just made himself part of the story that would burn everything down when he returned.
Of course.
This had never been about help.
It had been interference.
A controlled violation of order.
A message.
Treave swallowed hard. For a brief moment, he had been foolish enough to think Kazen was acting out of consideration for Mae the loyal servant assigned to collect the girl on Orion’s behalf.
He had been wrong.
Dead wrong.
“…understood, my lord,” Treave finally said, lowering his head.
Without another word, he turned and left.
At least he was not the one caught in the middle of this.
Kazen tightened his grip on Sienna.
Stronger than before.
His fingers dug into her skin as he pulled her forward, dragging her through the estate gates and into the heart of his mansion.
The moment they entered, the atmosphere changed.
Cold. Controlled. Absolute.
Every surface, every hall, every shadow belonged to authority. Nothing here existed without intent.
Then—
BANG.
Kazen threw Sienna onto the bed.
Her body hit the surface harshly, chains clashing violently as pain shot through her frame. One of the sharp edges tore against her collarbone.
Red bloomed instantly.
A stain spread across the fabric beneath her.
Kazen exhaled a quiet laugh.
“For a moment,” he said, watching her with detached amusement, “I thought you were immune to pain.”
He stepped closer. Climbing onto her.
Sienna lay frozen for a second, then something in her broke.
Not fear.
Not silence.
Awareness.
She was no longer in the carriage.
No longer on the road.
This was real.
This was happening.
“Get the hell off me!” she screamed, voice raw as she struggled, pushing against him with everything she had left.
No effect.
Panic surged through her as instinct took over.
She turned her head, and bit down hard on his wrist.
Kazen’s breath caught.
For the first time—
something flickered in his expression.
Pain.
Then irritation.
SLAP.
His hand struck her cheek with brutal force.
Her head snapped to the side. A burning mark bloomed instantly across her skin.
The room went still.
Sienna froze.
Then—
her voice shattered the silence.
“I’m just thirteen years old!”
The words tore out of her like a crack in glass, desperate and broken, echoing through the cold mansion walls.
- Writer
