The bedazzled blubber of a nobleman had barely made it over the threshold of the double doors before Madam R?fna dipped into a deep bow.

  "We welcome the Master."

  The rest of the line followed, their heads bent low, this welcome echoed that which Katharina had performed before Master Ravnsund himself and the 'Prince', who had been there two weeks back.

  But this man, this fat noble wrapped in silks, jewels, and gold chains that glinted in the morning light, did not command the room in the same way.

  Sure, he had aura, Katharina could tell it was there.

  However, compared to the pressure she had felt from the 'Prince', especially the red jewel he wore, this man's aura felt more like a soft blow, nothing but a slight disturbance in the air.

  And the more tightly she suppressed her own aura, the less she could tell he was even there, if not his physical presence.

  The only thing commanding attention from him was the enormity of his corpus filling the doorway.

  "Well, thank you! Let us get this ???? ????." His voice was deep as he chuckled, though no one else thought him funny. From behind him, a timid attendant darted past his Master and handed Madam R?fna a roll of parchment, bowing low enough to scrape the floor.

  The noble began his approach toward the line of girls; his footsteps made the boards creak. With each step nearer, the brand tugged insistently, urging Katharina's lips to form that gentle smile. Katharina was determined not to please this man; she focused instead on keeping her aura buried and forced the corners of her mouth downward, leaving her face as a blank, defiant mask.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw 'Runner' trembling, her hands shaking beneath the draped Slokel. Part of Katharina wanted desperately for the noble to choose 'Runner', surely that would be her salvation compared to the alternative. Yet another part of her was repulsed by the thought, for what kind of salvation bound forever in servitude to this man would be. Discarded like trash or sold like livestock, nothing but the illusion of choice.

  As if predicted by Madam R?fna, the nobleman moved to the first girl he saw, 'Runner' at the front of the line.

  'Runner' straightened her back, held her arm in front, brandishing the Slokel, and smiled. He stopped a good meter from her and snapped his fingers twice. The little attendant darted over and started prodding at 'Runner'; at every important observation he made, he would relay it to his lord.

  "??木? hands and hair, my lord."

  "Yes.. Turn, girl." His inspection was thorough, even at a distance. 'Runner' did her best to exude grace and proper etiquette, but it was obvious to anyone how nervous she was. Katharina couldn't help but be sympathetic; it had been her just a few weeks ago before Master Ravnsund, but she had had Lian by her side; 'Runner' was all on her own in this room of nine people.

  He looked her over for a while; he seemed neither impressed nor disappointed. She was simply an option, a trinket he could choose.

  Once the attendant was done picking at 'Runner's palms, tugging at her hair, they moved on to the next girl. And 'Runner' was left in limbo, not knowing if she had passed or failed.

  Then the noble moved on, his eyes dragging lazily across the line. One by one, the girls were prodded by the attendant's thin fingers, each observation relayed upward. "??木? skin, my lord." "No ?ナ???, my lord." "ψ?????χ? posture, my lord." It was like cattle being weighed and measured, not people standing there in silence.

  When the noble reached Lian, the attendant lingered longer than usual, combing his hands through her long, shiny hair while the noble's gaze rested on her bright eyes and faultless smile. It was that perfect smile that only Lian could produce, the one that made everyone around her want to join in.

  “??????木?χ smile, this one,” the nobleman said, almost reverently.

  He was clearly impressed by Lian, which annoyed Katharina. Why couldn't she hide that smile and let 'Runner' have the opportunity? Did she really want to be sold that badly?

  But the nobleman didn't linger; he moved to Katharina.

  For the first time, his chubby hand rose to reach for Katharina. Thick fingers, each adorned with a golden ring, brushed against her cheek, then slid down to twirl a strand of her freshly shorn hair.

  His touch was that of a man admiring a treasure he could take for himself, intrusive as if he had already placed his purchase. But as his gaze wandered to her blank expression, a disgusted curl formed on his upper lip.

  "This one is ???-looking." A sputter came with his appall, landing little droplets on Katharina's face. "Does she not know how to smile?"

  Madam R?fna's eyes were sending daggers after Katharina, but she stood her ground, unflinching, and kept her blank expression. Neither this spitting noble, the brand, nor Madam R?fna could make her smile at this charade.

  "Her ???Ω?∞? are not that of the ??ψ???, so her ??°? ??° ??木木?? from what the Master ??° ?? used to."

  Madam R?fna's statement was not a lie, but certainly not the whole truth. It was nowhere near the explanation for why Katharina wasn't smiling, even though she had gotten quite good at it.

  "Well, I can't have a 木?χ??° foreigner ????∞? my daughters." The noble's words were scathing, but Katharina felt relieved that she had managed to disqualify herself; even if it wasn't much, it surely helped 'Runner's chances. "And that hair, it would ???? too much ????∞???∞."

  The Noble slowly turned to look back on Lian once more, who still stood with her perfect smile and an air of pride, clearly more poised than the noble himself.

  "And this one too, far too pretty and proud of herself." Somehow, Lian's infatuating smile had gotten her disqualified as well. "My daughters cannot have attendants that would draw attention away from them."

  The nobleman stepped back, his pig-like eyes narrowing as he looked over the line once more. His finger rose and in a lazy arc pointed toward 'Princess Nose'.

  "Not her either. Her features are far too strong for any good servant."

  That dismissal left only three in play: 'Runner', 'Tall girl', and 'Braid girl'.

  Katharina's heart pounded as the odds were looking up; if she could wish it into being, 'Runner' would have already been chosen.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He just had to pick 'Runner' as one of the two out of three, then everything would be for the best.

  'Runner' seemed to think the same. She perfected her posture and smiled. And for the first time ever, it was not the trembling, broken smile she usually wore in their lessons, but one polished to perfection, exactly as Madam R?fna demanded: polite, inviting, warm, the sort of smile that almost begged the beholder to return it.

  Yet the fat noble's gaze slid over her as though she were a shadow.

  Huffing under his own vastness, he shuffled closer again, inspecting the last three one final time.

  "Let me hear your voices." The noble's jeweled hand waved lazily in the air, settling first on 'Runner'.

  For a moment, she stammered, but she was quick to recover; this was no time for mistakes. And with a clear and elegant voice, she answered.

  “Runa, my Master.”

  Katharina's heart skipped a beat. She had been working and learning beside her for months, calling her 'Runner' in her mind, never knowing how close she had been to her true name.

  The nobleman continued his demands to hear their names, but Katharina was completely preoccupied with reliving every little moment she had shared with Runa. The coincidence of her true name was too surreal to allow Katharina to hear the names of the others.

  Two moist claps from the nobleman's sweaty hands pulled Katharina back to reality.

  "I have decided." A wide grin formed on his face, pushing his chubby cheeks so high you could barely see his eyes.

  With a revolting amount of self-importance, he placed a fat, slippery hand on the heads of 'Tall girl' and 'Braid girl' as a priest baptizing his newest followers.

  "What a fine choice, Master." Madam R?fna bowed in approval of the decision. "I shall make the girls ready for the journey; in the meantime, I hope the Master will enjoy a refreshment served in the room just across the hall."

  The doors were shut behind the enormous man, and for the longest moment, the room filled with an eerie silence. It was broken by a sniffle. Tears were streaming down Runa's rosy cheeks as her knees gave out and she fell. She lay on the floor wailing in her defeat, a harrowing display of her reality setting in.

  Katharina couldn't stand the injustice of it all, and against the brand's burning will, she ran to Runa's side, scooping her off the floor and into her arms, hugging her tightly.

  Around them, everyone else had taken a step back; even Lian had turned her face away. Madam R?fna shot them a pitying look before she strode over to 'Tall girl' and 'Braid girl', who stood awkwardly in their undeserving immunity, chosen because they stood out the least, neither too pretty nor too faulty, simply middle of the bunch.

  When she reached the girls, she uncurled the document the attendant had given her at the start and studied it for a deliberate moment. Then, with a smile, she proudly declared to the room:

  "Fifteen Kruna and four Mark."

  The faces of the other girls turned bright in awe, but Katharina had no idea of the value of currency. She distinctly remembered the two times she had seen money in this world, first the coin pouch tossed to the couple that tricked her, and then the six coins that had clattered on the table the second time she had been sold.

  With that, everyone except for the lucky two was shooed to the adjoining room to change out of the complicated Slokel.

  Once the door was closed behind them and Madam R?fna was busy on the other side, Katharina whispered to Lian.

  "Fifteen Kruna and four Mark, is that a lot?"

  Lian nodded in response. "It takes twelve Mark for one Kruna." Then she started slowly counting on her fingers, but before she could finish, Katharina had already calculated the sum.

  "That's one hundred eighty-four mark total." Lian looked surprised at Katharina's speed but simply nodded again. One hundred eighty-four, it was hard to tell just how much that was supposed to be, but from the reactions of the girls, it had to be a fortune. Even though Katharina didn't know what coin she had been bought with, there was one thing she was sure of.

  And it was probably the latter.

  When they were done changing, the day was still early. However, Madam R?fna was occupied with attending to the Master, and instead of making them do lessons or manual labor, they were sent to their rooms to rest.

  Even so, the empty day left an uneasy void, creating room for thoughts about what was going to happen to Runa. Katharina felt herself growing increasingly restless throughout the day, worrying about a future she couldn't change.

  As evening grew to night, Katharina found herself tossing and turning. She was unable to get a wink of sleep from the guilt eating her up.

  The thought that tomorrow, Runa wouldn't be there anymore, and they would never see each other again. It terrified her, reminding her eerily of the loss of a loved one.

  She faded into oblivion a few times, but there she was met with the usual nightmares of her mother calling, but now Runa was in the mix, beckoning her to stay and save her. In the end, she lay awake, wanting to get out of bed and run to Runa to tell her to escape, but she was glued to the bed, unable to move.

  Her mind kept wandering back and forth; she had no way of knowing what was actually going to happen to Runa.

  The howling sound of Runa weeping echoed in her mind.

  She spent hours fighting the urge to stay in bed, envisioning her aura as a pulley hoisting her up, forcing her aura between her and the mattress, but nothing worked. She was pinned by her own fear and by the brand's quiet insistence.

  When the first line of light touched the little table, something finally gave. She sat up. A moment later, she was on her feet, darting through the long hallways.

  Not toward the room Runa had once shared with 'Braid girl', it was probably empty now. Katharina ran for the courtyard in front of the main entrance.

  She had barely stepped through the door before a pair of large hands seized her. One covered her mouth to silence any attempt at calling out to Runa, the other tightly clawed around her shoulder.

  There was no doubt in Katharina's mind who these hands belonged to; she recognized Madam R?fna's iron-clad grip, which she had come to know all too well.

  She realized the question was silly. Madam R?fna was probably always there when someone got sent off. She had been bound to be found out from the beginning.

  Still, she had grabbed her like a predator lying in wait.

  But of course, Madam R?fna would have known the brand would have told her.

  Katharina was held firmly in place as a horrible scene played out before her.

  “No-please!” Runa pleaded. “I can do better, I'll fetch a high price, I swear, please just let me stay-”

  There was Runa, chained by the wrists, slowly being pulled toward a wagon just like the one Katharina had arrived in.

  One of the guards and the woman built like a fridge were struggling with Runa's writhing body as she pleaded her case, until one of them had had enough.

  The sour-looking Madam pulled a flat, colorful stone from her apron pocket. And Katharina recognized it immediately.

  The woman tapped the stone against Runa's forehead. And as if a switch had been flipped, Runa stopped. Beneath her dress on her lower back, a shimmering light spilled through the fabric.

  Slowly but surely, Runa made her way to the wagon. She looked dazed, completely compliant, like a good little obedient servant. She got on the wagon.

  Katharina wrenched against R?fna's iron hold and, for a split second, loosened the fingers at her mouth. "Runa-" She cried out before being silenced again.

  Runa did not look up. She reached for the wooden door, drew it inward, and pulled it shut.

  "There was nothing you could do, girl." Madam R?fna's voice was raspy like a crow's call, as if tears were pressing up. "This is just how things are."

  They stood in place while the sun rose high enough to bathe the scene in gold, as the guard readied the horses. Any moment now, they would leave. Runa would leave, probably never to be seen again.

  "You can go back now, girl." Madam R?fna spoke with anguish in her voice beside Katharina's ear. "You have seen what you came for."

  Heat surged from the brand, searing down Katharina's spine, forcing her legs to step back, though she fought against it; she was completely under its control. R?fna's hands eased, steering her rather than holding.

  As she stepped back into the manor, the rattling noise of the wagon taking off behind her, Katharina understood. The only reason she had made it this far, the only reason she had been allowed to watch Runa be taken away, was because Madam R?fna wanted her to see.