Tanna was alone and in the dark.

“Kettle pots indeed…” she sobbed to herself. An hour ago she had stopped trying to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Prior attempts had simply left her face soiled and salty. The tears that fell now left tracks in the dirt.

Every city has its underground activities. Drasnia was no exception of this. Unlike some, though, it embodied the term more blatantly than others. The wealth of the city lived up on the hills, high above the filth that festered near the wharfs. The nobility did not openly speak of the activities that scurried about their feet. Below it all, though, was a labyrinth of tunnels and caves that had long ago been dug into the earth. What happened in those dark recesses was not spoken of openly even in the wharfs. The tunnels were painted with blood, the dead rested uneasily in their corridors, screams that peeled from those unfortunate enough to end up in them never reached the surface, the sun could not wash over the spaces even for a few hours, and Tanna suspected that even if it could reach it still could not shine in a place like this.

The dark did not bother Tanna so much as the being alone did. All her life she had never truly been alone. Marianna and her and worked hard so as never to be separated. Many families were torn apart on the auction blocks, but she and Marianna had not. Of course she had known that the moment she stepped into the barn that she was unlikely to see Marianna again. But she had hoped that she would have Aelion instead. Now she had neither.

“She told me not to go. Mari said I would be caught, that they would string me up next to Aelion… but… Mari… I’m so sorry, so very sorry. I just couldn’t leave him there. I couldn’t! He was hurt and… and… I love him!” her prostrations fell on the shadows.

Desperately she again searched her memories to figure out just where things had gone wrong. It had all started with the unexpected visitor. Although she and Mari, being relegated to the kitchen most of their lives, had no idea at the time that a visitor was in the house, let alone if he was expected or not. That information had come to her later, through the network of eyes, ears and tongues that made up any household. At the time Tanna had been kneading bread and discussing with Mari what they should embroider on their dresses with the spool of thread she had pilfered from Kiki’s sewing kit earlier in the week.

The first clue that something was amiss was when Lord Bolstoii’s voice rang through the halls calling for his daughter. On its heels was Corrisan, dashing through the house and informing everyone to mind their own business, keep their eyes down and their bodies away from the front of the house. After that the house had been pulled as tightly as leather on a drum, and was just as noisy.

Even from the kitchen Tanna and Mari, no longer concerned with embroidery, could hear the argument boiling over in the front of the house. The argument came to a stunning conclusion of doors slamming and people moving out to the barn.

Corrisan had come around again, looking more pale and flustered than Tanna could ever recall, and again reminded everyone to keep their noses where they belonged. He had left out the back door after reminding her and she had exchanged looks with her sister. Going out the back door could only mean that he was leaving the estate, likely to warn the neighbors not to worry about whatever noises they might hear from the Bolstoii yard.

Holding their breath she had listened to the screams that Corrisan had obviously been anticipating. Tanna could recall throwing her sister a murderous gaze when she had hissed quietly in her ear: “It seems that Lord Bolstoii has discovered what you have been denying all along, Aelion’s carnal knowledge of the Bolstoii princess.”

Later, when she had snuck out to the barn, she found out what all the screaming had been over. For the rest of her life, which she was beginning to doubt would be much longer really, she would remember what she found in the barn. Aelion, or what was left of him, had been hog tied and left on a soiled heap of hay. He was covered in blood and manure.

She pulled him into her arms, but he had barely noticed.

“Aelion… Aelion please… please… you have to get up. I’ll get you out of here but you have to help, your heavy. Aelion…” she had pleaded.

Eventually his eyes opened as far as the swelling would let them. “Leave…” came through the blood stained spit crusting his lips.

“I can’t Aelion… I can’t leave you like this. She can, Kiki can, but I cannot. Don’t you see? We have to leave…” tears fell onto his face while she spoke.

“kill me…”

“No!” Tanna had been surprised and scared to find him thus.

“Kill Me!” He said louder and coughed from the effort.

Tanna closed her eyes to the memory of him begging her to kill him, and then showing her why he felt that way. She saw that Bolstoii had left him battered and broken, and no longer a man.

It had taken all her strength, and all the promises that she still cared for and loved him, to get him to crawl out of the barn. They got no further. As he took a breath of the damp morning air a club descended over her head and from there she knew only darkness.

Where Aelion was now was a mystery to her, even where she was exactly remained a mystery. There was only the darkness and her own thoughts to keep her company now.