A dying dark-elf warlord collars Esme to quiet his court, displaying the human as a gilded favorite instead of the heir her presence could imply.
He never sought her; he entered the slums for his brother's blood, concealed by a woman who called the boy her son, and seized them both.
She will not address him by rank, only by the name no one else uses, and her fearless manner has every lord watching what he paid.
He paid nothing, because she remains by choice, and that frightens him more than a death that cannot be bought.
Forced proximity keeps her in his cage, yet he already wants the bars traded for a bond that says she belongs to him.
