- 6 hours ago
The Scarred Orc Who Bit Me First Episode ENGSUB Monster Romance, Fantasy Love, Beauty and the Beast ARS
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Short filmTranscript
00:002 a.m. I'm crouched outside a bar, chain-smoking. Makeup wrecked. Heels kicked off. Whiskey down the front of
00:08my dress. I look like a woman whose life just blew up in her face. That's because it did.
00:15A man drops onto the curb beside me. Cheap suit. Breath that could peel paint off a wall.
00:21You look stressed, sweetheart.
00:23Move.
00:24I've got something cheap. Won't bleed much on your carpet.
00:27I almost stand up to knock his teeth in.
00:29Tonight's auction left over. Nobody bid on him. We torch him at sunrise.
00:33Here's how it works in this country. Orc auctions are the biggest industry on the East Coast.
00:37The pretty ones go for millions. The ugly ones go to labor camps. The leftovers get burned.
00:42And tonight, I happen to need something to burn.
00:45What's wrong with him?
00:46Faster if I tell you what's right. Mongrel, half-breed, one-eyed dead, tusk-snap, big bastard, tank of a
00:53body, takes a hit, keeps coming.
00:55Show me.
01:01I forget how to breathe.
01:02Seven-foot-two. Ash-gray skin. Scar tissue running from his hairline down to his collar.
01:08The left side of his face is wrecked. A white scar cuts him from temple to jaw.
01:12That eye is dead. Cloudy. Half-blind. Left tusk snapped in half.
01:17The right one files sharp. His horn broken clean at the tip.
01:21Shoulders so wide they nearly scrape both walls of the alley.
01:24The traitor kicks the back of his knee.
01:27Look at that face, sweetheart. Do whatever you want to him. You can't ruin what's already ruined.
01:36The orc lifts his head.
01:39His one good eye finds mine.
01:41Amber.
01:42Way too calm for someone scheduled to be ashes by sunrise.
01:45Then I think about Sullivan.
01:47My husband. Silk shirts ironed by staff.
01:51Six-foot-ten of factory-perfect pure-blood orc.
01:54He sleeps in my stepsister's wing.
01:56The official reason is my perfume gives him headaches.
01:59He brushes her hair every morning.
02:01I eat breakfast alone.
02:03Eighteen months of that.
02:04You getting this?
02:05Me, Sienna Quinn.
02:07Heiress to the biggest fortune in New York.
02:10Twenty-three years old.
02:13Two million dollars I paid for a husband who thinks I smell bad.
02:17How much to keep him?
02:21You don't keep a mongrel.
02:24You rent him for an hour till you...
02:27Numba.
02:28Sixty grand.
02:30Five.
02:30Lady, are you out of your...
02:32Five. Cash. Right now.
02:34Or I call my father. He sits on the welfare bureau board.
02:37He'd love to hear what your operation moves through this alley.
02:42Deal.
02:43I peel off the bills.
02:46The chain drops into Pai Palm.
02:49Cold.
02:51Heavier than I expected.
02:53The orc tilts his head.
02:55When he speaks, his voice comes out low and rough.
02:59If you wanted to hurt something pretty, you should have walked past me.
03:04I don't want to hurt anything.
03:06Then why?
03:08I look up at his face.
03:10Because tonight, the world's most beautiful orc is at home.
03:15He won't look me in the eye.
03:16And this half-blind mongrel just did.
03:19I tug the chain.
03:21Gentle.
03:22Just once.
03:24Because nobody else would.
03:26He follows me out of the alley.
03:34The Uber driver locks every door the second Lysander folds in.
03:39He has to fold himself sideways to fit.
03:42I haven't been this close to another body in a long time.
03:45What's your name?
03:47Lysander.
03:48My mother named me Lysander.
03:51The auction tag calls me Mongrel 72.
03:5471 before him.
03:56All burned.
03:58I'm at Siena.
03:59I'm not calling you a number.
04:01He doesn't say thank you.
04:03He doesn't believe me yet.
04:05That's fine.
04:06He will.
04:07The plaza.
04:09Penthouse.
04:10I slipped the bellman 300 bucks to wipe the security footage.
04:14He doesn't ask why.
04:16That's the thing about money.
04:17The right amount makes problems vanish.
04:20In the suite, Lysander has to duck to clear the doorway.
04:23His broken horn scrapes plaster off the ceiling.
04:27Sit.
04:27The couch will hold you.
04:30I don't sit on furniture.
04:32You do now.
04:34The frame groans under him.
04:35He puts his hands flat on his knees.
04:38Palms down.
04:39Fingers spread.
04:40The pose you train an animal to hold.
04:42Somebody taught him that.
04:44I'll deal with that later.
04:48Don't.
04:49It's just water.
04:51That side of my face is dead, Siena.
04:53My body remembers the hand.
04:56Not what's in it.
04:59Eighteen months in a marriage with no contact.
05:02Two hours in a hotel room with a stranger who flinches when I try.
05:06God, we're a pair.
05:08Tell me who took the eye.
05:11He's the owner's son.
05:12He got his first hunting knife for his twelfth birthday.
05:16His father told him to practice on something that didn't matter.
05:20I pick up his hand.
05:21I turn it over.
05:23The inside of his wrist is covered in burn scars.
05:25Old slave casels over older slave casels.
05:28Layers of them.
05:29I press my mouth to the inside of his wrist.
05:32He stops breathing.
05:37Don't be soft with me, Aunt Siena.
05:40I'll break.
05:42Then break.
05:45He drops his forehead into my shoulder.
05:48He shakes against me.
05:50I put my hand on the back of his head.
05:52His hair is rough.
05:54Not like Sutherland's silk and conditioner mane.
05:57But somehow it makes me feel safer than Sutherland ever did.
06:02My phone buzzes on the nightstand.
06:05Sully is losing it.
06:06He smells another orc on you.
06:08He's pacing the foyer.
06:09Tusks won't retract.
06:11Where are you?
06:12I read it twice.
06:14Then I smile.
06:15First real smile in 18 months.
06:18You have to understand my life.
06:20I was five years old when somebody snatched me off a sidewalk in Queens.
06:25My parents looked for me for one year.
06:28Then they gave up.
06:29And adopted a baby girl from the system.
06:32They named her Cora.
06:33She got 18 years of birthday parties, ballet lessons, piano recitals, family vacations.
06:39I got 18 years of foster homes, a juvie cell at 11, a girl gang in Bushwick at 14, and
06:46a DNA test at 23 that matched me to the Queens.
06:48When I walked through their door at 23, my little sister was 17.
06:53She'd been the only daughter her entire life.
06:56She screamed.
06:57She broke a vase.
06:58She threw a butter knife at my head and missed by an inch.
07:01Get out of my house, you trash!
07:04My mother held her and stroked her hair.
07:07Your sister's been spoiled.
07:08Try to be patient, sweetheart.
07:10That was the day I learned the rules of this family.
07:12I keep my mouth shut about Bushwick.
07:14I keep my mouth shut about the pickpocketing.
07:16I smile pretty at brunch.
07:18I cry on cue when the inheritance lawyer drops by.
07:21The allowance keeps showing up.
07:23Every birthday, my parents buy me something extravagance,
07:26paying down the guilt of 18 years they spent not looking hard enough.
07:29On my 22nd, they bought me Sullivan.
07:31Sullivan, $2 million pureblood orc, show-quality bloodline, brushed coat, polished tusks.
07:37Your sister's so quiet, sweetheart.
07:39A companion orc would help her come out of her shell.
07:44Cora screamed for three days.
07:46Then she ran away with him for ten.
07:49She brought him back skin and bones.
07:51My mother slapped her across the face for the first time in her life.
07:54And from that day forward, Sullivan only responded to one set of foot spets in the hallway.
08:00Hers.
08:01He'd lived ten days as her stray.
08:03He decided she was his real owner.
08:05I was just the woman whose name was on the paperwork.
08:08Eighteen months of eating breakfast alone in a house with five other people in it.
08:14I look down at the phone.
08:16Tell him to get used to it.
08:18I press end.
08:20I put both my hands on it, Lyseth's face.
08:23I make him look at me.
08:25You're staying with me.
08:27You don't know what you just bought.
08:30Then tell me in the morning.
08:31He pulls me against his chest.
08:34His arm is bigger around than my waist.
08:37His heartbeat is slow and heavy under my ear.
08:40He's asleep in three minutes.
08:42I lie in the dark, listening to him breathe.
08:45In eighteen months, my pure-blood husband has never once fallen asleep in the same room as me.
08:50The mongrel I bought for five grand has been mine for two hours and he's already unconscious on my chest.
08:56Best money I've ever spent.
08:59I wake up because there's a hand around my throat.
09:02His whole palm covers my neck.
09:04His thumb sits on my pulse.
09:06He isn't squeezing.
09:07He's staring at the door.
09:09This isn't a threat.
09:10He's checking the room.
09:12I keep my voice low.
09:13Talk to me.
09:14What's at the door?
09:15Somebody's in the hallway.
09:17Get behind me.
09:17He's off the bed in one movement.
09:19Three hundred pounds of orc and not a sound on the carpet.
09:23He puts his eye to the peephole.
09:25His shoulders drop.
09:27Room service.
09:28He opens the door.
09:30The bellboy on the other side sees seven feet of scarred mongrel filling the frame and drops the tray.
09:35Lysander catches it before it hits the carpet.
09:38He closes the door.
09:40He stands with his back to me.
09:43Send me back to the traitor at sunrise.
09:46What?
09:46I sit up in bed.
09:47He keeps the five thousand.
09:48He puts me down anyway.
09:50You walk away clean.
09:52Lysathern.
09:53Your pure-blood forgives you.
09:55Your family forgives you.
09:57The story is, you got drunk.
09:58You did something stupid.
10:00You came home.
10:01End of story.
10:01I get out of bed.
10:03I cross the carpet barefoot.
10:06I stand on my toes to put my palm flat against his sternum.
10:10His heart is jackrabbiting under my hand.
10:14He's terrified.
10:16Afraid last night was a lie.
10:17Did you sleep tonight?
10:21Yes.
10:23Three hours.
10:24How long since you slept three hours in a row before that?
10:28His mouth opens.
10:30He doesn't have an answer.
10:34I take a breath.
10:35I've been married for 18 months to the most beautiful orc in this city.
10:38He looks at me.
10:39He won't enter my bedroom.
10:41He won't touch my hand at dinner.
10:43He sleeps in a different wing because my perfume gives him a headache.
10:46He brushes my stepsister's hair every morning and pretends I'm not at the table.
10:51I curl my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
10:54I've been invisible in my own house for 18 months.
10:57It's Sienna.
10:59He looks at me.
11:01Tonight, you saw me first.
11:03I look up.
11:04You fell asleep on my chest in three minutes.
11:07Do you understand what that did to me?
11:09I'm not sending you back.
11:11He stares down at me.
11:13His eyes are wet.
11:15You shouldn't love a thing like me.
11:17Then we have a problem.
11:18Because I think I already do.
11:20I take his hand.
11:21I lead him back to the bed.
11:23Lay down.
11:24You haven't slept in three days.
11:26He lays down.
11:27I curl on his chest.
11:29My ear is right over his heart.
11:31Why did you really put your hand on my throat earlier?
11:38Habit.
11:39Mongrels reach for the threat first, always.
11:42You weren't threatening me.
11:44You were guarding me.
11:46Kilmos laughs.
11:47He tips my chin up with one knuckle.
11:50His eye catches the light.
11:51Sullivan never touched you, did he?
11:56He never sat on the same couch as me.
11:59Then I'm going to be the first thing on your skin.
12:03He leans down.
12:05He kisses me.
12:07Hard.
12:08The broken tusk drags my lower lip open.
12:12He licks the cut.
12:14I moan into his mouth.
12:16He grabs both my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.
12:20Other hand grips my jaw.
12:23Open.
12:24I open.
12:25His tongue is in my mouth.
12:27His knee shoves my thighs apart.
12:29He drops his weight on me.
12:31The bed dips.
12:32The frame groans.
12:33He's hard.
12:34I feel him against my hip, through the fabric.
12:37Heavy.
12:38Thick.
12:39Look at you.
12:41Tiny thing.
12:42Already shaking for me.
12:45He shoves my nightgown up to my waist.
12:48One hand, the other still pinning my wrists.
12:52His palm slides down between my things.
12:56Already wet.
12:59Lysianer.
13:00Say please.
13:02I gasp.
13:03Say it, Sienna.
13:07Please.
13:10His fingers work into me.
13:12Two at once.
13:14Thick.
13:14Rough.
13:15He's watching my face.
13:17That's it.
13:18There she is.
13:20He keeps going till I'm shaking under him.
13:23No.
13:23Don't.
13:24Don't.
13:25Then he stops.
13:26Hush.
13:28I want you on my tongue first.
13:34He drops down the bed.
13:36Shoulders shove my thighs wider.
13:38He hooks both my knees over his shoulders.
13:41His mouth goes to me.
13:43The intact tusk drags along my inner thigh.
13:46The sharp one.
13:48Just enough pressure to mark.
13:50I cry out.
13:51He eats me till my hands tear the sheets.
13:54Till my hips lift off the bed for him.
13:56He holds me down with one forearm across my stomach.
14:00When I come, he is watching me the whole time.
14:02He climbs back up me.
14:04His mouth is wet.
14:06He kisses me with it.
14:07Lets me taste myself.
14:09Now look at me when I take you.
14:12He pushes in.
14:13Slow.
14:14So slow.
14:16I feel every inch.
14:17I'm small under him.
14:19He's huge.
14:20He stretches me till my eyes go wet.
14:23He stops halfway.
14:25Breathe.
14:28He pushes the rest of the way in.
14:30I gasp his name.
14:32He swallows it.
14:33He starts to move.
14:35Deep.
14:36Hard.
14:36Steady.
14:37Each thrust pushes me up the mattress.
14:39His free hand pulls me back down onto him.
14:42He says it on every stroke.
14:44I sob it back.
14:46Mine.
14:49Fuck me harder, Lysanar.
14:51His good eye goes black.
14:53He bites the bond spot.
14:55Right where my neck meets my shoulder.
14:57My whole spine snaps tight.
14:59My hands fist in the sheets.
15:01I cry out into his hair.
15:03He holds me through it.
15:04He licks the blood off his lip.
15:06Then he licks the bite.
15:09Mine.
15:10Say it back.
15:11Yours.
15:12Again.
15:13Yours, Lysanar.
15:15He kisses me hard.
15:17I taste my own blood in his mouth, and I don't care.
15:20It's done.
15:21You can't undo it.
15:23You're mine forever.
15:24Nobody is taking you from me.
15:27Good.
15:30I wake up to sunlight on his chest.
15:33He has been awake for a while.
15:35He is staring at the ceiling.
15:37His hand sits on my hip.
15:39He is afraid to move it.
15:43How long have you been up?
15:45Two hours.
15:46Why didn't you wake me?
15:47You were sleeping on me.
15:49I wasn't going to end that.
15:51The bite on my neck pulses with every heartbeat.
15:55Let me see.
15:56He sees me wince and sits up.
15:58He turns my head gently.
16:00His thumb traces around the mark.
16:02Never on it.
16:03It's scarred clean.
16:06It will show for the rest of your life.
16:08That's what I wanted.
16:11He studies me for a moment.
16:13You keep saying things like that.
16:15The words don't seem to cost you anything.
16:18They don't.
16:19They will.
16:21Your father will see the mark.
16:23Everyone you grew up around will see what bit you.
16:26I climb into his lap.
16:28I put his hand flat on my throat, over the bite.
16:32Then they see it.
16:34He shakes his head once.
16:36Sienna, take it off.
16:38I'll buy you a scarf downstairs.
16:39Wear it until the bruise fades.
16:41Walk back into that house clean.
16:43Tell them I was a bad dream.
16:45I pull back to look at him.
16:47You want me to hide you?
16:48I want you to survive me.
16:52Press.
16:52What?
16:53Press, Lysander.
16:55Hard enough to leave your prints next to your teeth.
16:58He doesn't press.
16:59I can't.
17:00Then stop telling me to take you off.
17:03His hands shake.
17:06He closes his eyes.
17:07He drops his forehead onto my collarbone.
17:10I feel him breathe out for the first time since he woke up.
17:14I order room service.
17:16Two of everything.
17:18Eat.
17:19Start with the eggs.
17:22He picks up a fork.
17:24He puts it back down.
17:25He picks up a piece of bacon with his fingers.
17:28He looks up.
17:29Waiting for me to correct him.
17:31I pick up my own piece with my fingers too.
17:34He almost smiles.
17:36My phone lights up on the carpet.
17:38The cell he shifted.
17:40Tusts won't retract.
17:41Dad locked him in the wine cellar.
17:43Mom is crying.
17:44Where are you?
17:46Lysander reads it over my shoulder.
17:48His hand doesn't leave my throat.
17:52Get dressed.
17:53We're going home.
17:57The estate gates are open.
17:59The guard is at his post.
18:01He doesn't look at us.
18:02Stay outside, Marco.
18:04Whatever you hear, stay outside.
18:06He looks relieved and nods.
18:08I walk up the gravel drive with At Lysander a step behind me.
18:12He doesn't speak.
18:14He is scanning every window.
18:16He is already counting exits.
18:18The foyer is wrecked.
18:20There's glass on the marble and a console table on its side.
18:23My mother is on the stairs with mascara down her face.
18:27Sullivan has my father against the wall.
18:29Six foot ten of him with tusks fully out.
18:31My father's feet are six inches off the marble.
18:34Cora is at the top of the stairs.
18:36She has her phone up.
18:37She is filming the whole thing.
18:39I walk into the middle of the foyer.
18:42Sully, put him down.
18:44Sullivan turns slowly.
18:45He doesn't recognize me for a beat.
18:48Then he does.
18:49And his nostrils flare.
18:52You smell like him, Sienna.
18:55Let my father down.
18:57I can fix this.
18:58I can wash it off.
19:00I can mark over it.
19:01Sullivan.
19:02Put.
19:03Him.
19:04Down.
19:05He drops my father.
19:06My father slides down the wall to the marble.
19:10Coughing, but alive.
19:12Sullivan crosses the foyer towards me.
19:14He stops three feet away.
19:16He cannot take the next step.
19:18Pure Blood Instinct won't let him cross the air between us.
19:21He has smelled the bond.
19:22He knows what it is.
19:24Lysander walks through the doorway behind him.
19:26Sullivan's whole body locks up.
19:28Lysander doesn't lift a hand.
19:30He walks to the middle of the foyer.
19:32He says four words in a language I don't know.
19:34Oh, no.
19:35Then, Sullivan drops to both knees.
19:41His tusks retract.
19:43The black in his eyes pulls back to gold.
19:46The foyer goes dead silent.
19:48My mother gasps from the stairs.
19:51Sully.
19:53What did he just say?
19:54Lysander answers in flat English.
19:57I told him my mother's name.
19:59My father lifts his head from the marble.
20:02Who is your mother, son?
20:03Lysander looks at me first.
20:05Then at my father.
20:07Her name was Merivin of the North Forest.
20:11My father stops breathing for a beat.
20:13My father pours brandy in his studi.
20:16His hands shake.
20:17He doesn't drink any of it.
20:18Lysander stands by the door.
20:20He won't sit in this house yet.
20:21Merivin of the North Forest married a human.
20:24That makes you highborn.
20:25And that makes Vark of House Drenhan your uncle.
20:29Yes.
20:31My father sets the brandy down very carefully.
20:34Sienna.
20:35Do you understand what you walked into an alley and bought?
20:38A husband.
20:40A highborn heir.
20:41There are seven of them on this coast.
20:43That sounds like my problem to handle.
20:46That is everyone's problem now.
20:48Including mine.
20:49He looks at Lysander.
20:50Why were you in that alley?
20:55My uncle put me there 15 years ago.
20:57He paid Ortloff and sons 12,000 pieces.
20:59They took my eye and snapped my tusk.
21:02They broke my horn.
21:03He didn't want anyone to buy me.
21:05No one was supposed to see whose blood I had.
21:07If I died young, my mother's lands passed to him.
21:10And you didn't die.
21:12He didn't die.
21:13He went through 12 cages.
21:15He walked out of an alley last night.
21:17He had my chain in his hand.
21:20My father is silent at his desk.
21:22And he bit you?
21:24After one night?
21:25Yes.
21:26Your grandmother died last month, son.
21:28Mero's mother.
21:29The estate is in probate.
21:31I don't care about the estate.
21:32You should care.
21:33The day Vec learns that Lysander is alive, he is coming through that gate.
21:38Lysander speaks from the doorway.
21:40Quiet.
21:40He already knows.
21:42He felt the bond pulse at 2am.
21:46Then he is already on a plane.
21:49How long do we have?
21:50Six hours.
21:51Maybe less.
21:53I leave my father in the study.
21:54I find Cora in my bedroom.
21:56She is on my bed.
21:58She holds a phone in one hand.
22:00She holds a paring knife in the other.
22:02The blade is pointed at her own throat.
22:05Hi sis.
22:06We need to talk.
22:09I sit down across from her.
22:12Put it down, Cora.
22:14You took Sully.
22:16He was never yours.
22:18Mom and dad bought him for you and he chose me anyway.
22:21You imprinted a 12 year old animal who was scared and confused.
22:26That's grooming.
22:28That's not love.
22:29Send your monster husband away.
22:32Send him back tonight.
22:35Or I'll do it on your bed.
22:36I lean closer.
22:38You won't.
22:41Watch me.
22:42A girl who actually wanted to die wouldn't come here.
22:45Not to her sister's bedroom.
22:46She would do it in her own room.
22:49You came here because you need an audience.
22:51She blinks at me.
22:53I'm the audience.
22:54Drop the knife.
22:55Her hand shakes.
22:57I've watched you cry on cue for 18 months.
23:01I've watched you switch the tears off the second the camera leaves.
23:05Sis.
23:06This morning you filmed dad choking against a wall.
23:10You didn't drop the phone to help him.
23:12You narrated it.
23:14Her face cracks open.
23:15A girl who films her dad choking.
23:18She doesn't slit her throat over a husband.
23:21Drop it.
23:23She drops the knife.
23:25Then she starts crying.
23:28Real crying.
23:29Not the kind I'm used to from her.
23:31I hate that you came back.
23:33I had everything.
23:34I had dad.
23:35And mom.
23:37And Sully.
23:37And this house.
23:39Then they found you.
23:41And I became the second one.
23:43You had a stolen life.
23:45It was always going to end the day they found me.
23:47Sis, please.
23:49Switzerland.
23:50Friday.
23:52Lindenburg Academy.
23:53You don't come back until you're 21.
23:56She nods at me.
23:58She doesn't bargain.
24:00I pick the knife up off the bedside.
24:03I walk out into the hall.
24:08Lysenar is in the hallway.
24:09He has heard every word through the door.
24:12You didn't have to be that hard with her.
24:13I was 17 once.
24:15Nobody was soft with me back then.
24:17She isn't broken.
24:17She is spoiled.
24:19There's a difference.
24:20You smell different right now.
24:22Just for one minute let me hold you.
24:23He opens his arms.
24:24I walk into him.
24:26I don't cry.
24:27He holds me in the hallway.
24:29Behind him down the corridor.
24:30My mother is standing in a doorway.
24:32She is watching us closely.
24:34She doesn't speak.
24:35She watches him put his hand on the back of my head.
24:38Then she goes back into her room and closes the door.
24:41The doorbell rings at 3 p.m.
24:43Al the Leister straightens up.
24:45The softness leaves his body fast.
24:47Who is at the door?
24:48Sienna?
24:48I'm not expecting anyone.
24:50He checks the camera in the front hall.
24:52There are three orcs on the step.
24:53They wear iron coats with full tusks and unbroken horns.
24:57My uncle's men.
24:59Six hours, you said.
25:01He was closer than I thought.
25:03He moves me behind him.
25:04He opens the door himself.
25:06The oldest of the three steps in.
25:08Six foot eleven.
25:09In a silk-lined coat.
25:10He sees at Lysander.
25:12His eyes go to the broken horn and the dead eye.
25:14They go to the snapped tusk.
25:16They go to the brand under the shirt.
25:17He smiles at him.
25:19Forgive the intrusion.
25:21I'm Lord Vec of House Drenum.
25:24I've come to collect my nephew.
25:32He's married, I tell him.
25:34To you.
25:35A human.
25:36I admire your nerve.
25:38His smile widens.
25:39But my nephew is not property you can keep.
25:42He belongs to the house until he is twenty-five.
25:45Get out of my father's house.
25:47Vark turns to At Lithlan.
25:49He says something quiet in the old language.
25:51Listener's scar twitches.
25:53What did he say?
25:54He asked if I had taught the human pet to sit yet.
25:58My father grips the hall doorway hard.
26:00Lysanar steps fully into the foyer.
26:02Uncle, you paid Orphal and Ozzyns twelve thousand pieces.
26:06They put a knife in my eye when I was eight.
26:09Lysanar!
26:09You paid them to snap my tusk.
26:11To break my horn.
26:13To brawn me mongrel seventy-two.
26:15That is enough.
26:16You sold me to twelve cages over fifteen years.
26:19You're here today because grandmother is dead.
26:21Her will makes me richer than you.
26:23Varek's smile sharpens.
26:25Your mother married beneath her.
26:27Your father was a stain on our bloodline.
26:30We did what was necessary.
26:32The three of them step toward me.
26:34Varek's hand comes up to strike.
26:36Lysander moves on him.
26:38The first hit cracks bone.
26:40The second is wetter.
26:41The third rattles the chandelier above us.
26:43My father grabs me and pulls me into the hallway.
26:46He clamps his hand over my mouth.
26:49The foyer doors swing back open.
26:51Lysanar stands in the frame.
26:52There's blood on his knuckles and a cut on his cheekbone.
26:56Three highborn oryx lie on the marble.
26:58None of them are getting up soon.
26:59None of them are dead.
27:00My father starts to laugh.
27:01Quiet at first.
27:02Then louder.
27:03Lysamore turns to me.
27:05He looks wild.
27:06His hand is shaking hard.
27:07Take me somewhere I can put my back to a wall.
27:11I take him to my bathroom.
27:13I lock the door behind us.
27:15I sit him on the closed lid of the toilet.
27:17I turn on the hot water in the sink.
27:19He doesn't speak.
27:20He stares at the tile between his feet.
27:23His hands won't stop shaking.
27:24I run a washcloth under the tap.
27:26I wring it out.
27:28I kneel in front of him on the bath mat.
27:30Give me your hands.
27:31He gives them to me.
27:33I wash them.
27:34Knuckle by knuckle.
27:35The blood isn't his.
27:37It comes off easy.
27:38Look at me.
27:39He doesn't look up.
27:42Lysanar.
27:42Look at me.
27:44He looks at me.
27:45And then he breaks.
27:47His shoulders drop.
27:48He starts to cry.
27:50He puts his forehead against my colivone and his whole body shakes.
27:54I hold the back of his head.
27:56I let him fall apart.
27:57I was eight.
27:59I was eight years old, Aunt Sienna.
28:03I tighten my hand in his hair.
28:06They told me my mother was on her way.
28:08They told me she was coming to take me home.
28:11I sat in that room for two hours waiting for her.
28:15Then the door opened.
28:17And it wasn't her.
28:19I'm here.
28:20My uncle paid them to do it.
28:22I was eight years old, in a chair.
28:24He watched the whole thing.
28:26He is making a sound now that isn't quite crying.
28:30Tonight I broke his tusk on his own floor.
28:32It didn't fix anything.
28:33I thought it would fix something.
28:37It doesn't work like that.
28:41No, it doesn't.
28:44Hey, look at me.
28:47He looks at me again.
28:49It doesn't fix what he did to you.
28:51Nothing does.
28:52But it tells him you grew up.
28:55He sold an eight-year-old.
28:57The eight-year-old came back with a wife.
29:01I don't deserve this.
29:03You keep saying that.
29:05Because it's true.
29:06Then we have a problem.
29:08I'm not leaving you.
29:09I take his face in both my hands.
29:11I kiss the dead side first.
29:13The scarred one.
29:13Where the knife went in.
29:15He flinches the way he did with the towel last night.
29:18I do it again.
29:19Slower this time.
29:20The third time, he doesn't flinch at all.
29:23He looks at me steady.
29:24I'm going to need you for the rest of my life.
29:26I'm telling you now.
29:28You can decide before this gets worse.
29:30Already decided.
29:312 a.m. last night.
29:33Get in the bath.
29:33He gets in the bath.
29:34He doesn't fit at all.
29:36His knees come up over the rim.
29:37His broken horn taps the tile above him.
29:40He laughs at himself.
29:42The sound is short and surprised.
29:44I haven't been in a bathtub since I was a child.
29:47You're in one now.
29:48I sit on the edge in my clothes.
29:50I dip the washcloth in the water.
29:52I start at his shoulder.
29:54I work down his arm and across his chest.
29:56The brand on his ribs is the last thing I get to.
29:59The number 12 is burned into him in black ink.
30:01The brand is older than the knife scar.
30:03The skin around it is still raised after 15 years.
30:07I put my home flat on it.
30:09Tell me what this one is.
30:13Cage number.
30:15Twelfth owner.
30:16They burn the new number over the old one each time.
30:19The first six are under it.
30:20You can feel the ridges if you press.
30:23I can feel them.
30:24I do press.
30:26And the others?
30:27He starts to tell me about them.
30:29He doesn't stop for an hour.
30:32There was the owner who fed him once a week.
30:34There was the one who used him in the pit.
30:37There was the one in Maryland with the daughter.
30:40She slipped him bread under the door at night.
30:42Her father caught her doing it.
30:43He never knew what happened to the daughter after that.
30:46I listen to him.
30:47I keep the water warm.
30:49I don't cry.
30:50He doesn't need that from me.
30:51When he is done, he sits very still.
30:53Sienna.
30:55Yes.
30:57Nobody has ever asked me what they were.
31:00Nobody is ever going to skip that question again.
31:03He looks at me.
31:05He is steady for the first time all day.
31:10I want you to see the rest of them too.
31:12I help him stand.
31:13He drips water on the bath mat.
31:16I dry him with a towel I fetch twice from the closet.
31:19I find every scar he tells me to find.
31:22Six are on his back.
31:23One sits under his jaw.
31:25One is on the inside of his thigh.
31:27He won't explain that one.
31:29I put my mouth on each of them.
31:31When I get to the brand, I stay there longer.
31:35This one, we are going to put my name over.
31:38Sienna.
31:40Not removing it.
31:41Tattooing over it.
31:43I want my name on you.
31:45Not his number.
31:46He doesn't say anything for a long time.
31:52Alright.
31:55Tomorrow.
31:56After we deal with the estate.
31:59After my father makes a call.
32:01Tomorrow night, we are going to a tattoo shop.
32:03We are covering that brand with my name.
32:08Tomorrow.
32:09I get up on my toes to reach his ear.
32:12And tonight, you are going to sleep in a real bed.
32:16In this house.
32:17In my bed.
32:19Sullivan can hear it through the wall and I don't care.
32:22His eyes fill again.
32:24Different this time.
32:25We don't make it to my bed.
32:27We get as far as the bedroom door.
32:29He stops me in the doorway.
32:30He puts both hands flat on the frame.
32:32One hand on either side of my head.
32:35He looks down at me.
32:36I haven't had anyone since I was eight years old.
32:39I haven't been allowed to.
32:41I know that.
32:42I don't know how to do this slow.
32:45You did it last night.
32:47Last night, I was an animal you brought home from an alley.
32:50Tonight, I'm in your house.
32:51I'm in your father's house.
32:53I keep waiting for someone to come tell me to leave.
32:57I take his hand off the door frame.
32:58I put it on my throat.
33:00Over the bite mark.
33:01Nobody is coming to tell you to leave.
33:03He lifts me.
33:04Both hands under my thighs.
33:06He walks me to the bed.
33:07He lays me down gently.
33:09Slow tonight.
33:12He undresses me without taking his eye off my face.
33:16Each button and each strap.
33:18He folds the dress over the chair and sets it down carefully.
33:22Open for me.
33:23I open my knees for him.
33:25He kisses the inside of one, then the inside of the other.
33:28He works his way up slowly.
33:29He keeps his eye on my face the whole time.
33:31When his mouth gets where it is going,
33:33I make a sound.
33:35A sound I have never made in this house.
33:37I make sure it carries through the wall.
33:39He laughs against me.
33:41He doesn't stop what he's doing.
33:43When I come,
33:44he climbs back up me.
33:46He pushes in slowly,
33:48inch by inch.
33:49He watches my face the whole time.
33:52You're mine.
33:53Yours.
33:54He moves in long, slow strokes.
33:56The bed barely makes a sound.
33:58His weight rests on his forearms.
34:00His forehead presses it against mine.
34:02I have you.
34:05Nobody's taking you from me.
34:06He stops moving.
34:07He looks at me.
34:08Say that again, Sienna.
34:10Nobody's taking you.
34:11Not your uncle.
34:12And not the auctioneer.
34:14He is with me now.
34:15He closes his eyes.
34:17He starts to move again.
34:18Slower and deeper than before.
34:20He puts his mouth back on the bite on my throat.
34:23He doesn't bite this time.
34:24He just rests his mouth on the mark and holds.
34:27When I come the second time,
34:28it is quiet between us.
34:29My whole body shakes under him and I don't make a sound.
34:32I just hold his face and watch him watch me.
34:35He follows me a minute later.
34:37He whispers something in the old language against my colopone.
34:41What did you say?
34:44My mother's full name.
34:46I haven't said it to another person 15 years.
34:50I wanted her to hear yours.
34:57I wake up to my mother in the doorway.
34:59She is in her dressing gown with no makeup on.
35:02She has been up all night.
35:04Isander is asleep on his front beside me.
35:07One arm is thrown across my waist.
35:09The brand on his ribs is showing in the morning light.
35:12She sees the brand.
35:13She covers her mouth with both hands.
35:16I sit up slowly.
35:17I don't move his arm.
35:18Mom.
35:19Sienna.
35:20Come in or don't.
35:21Don't stand in the doorway.
35:23She comes in.
35:24She sits on the edge of the bed.
35:26She looks at his face.
35:28She looks at the bite on my neck.
35:31She looks back at his face again.
35:33Your father told me everything.
35:35The grandmother.
35:36The estate.
35:38The uncle who paid people to do this to him.
35:40And you brought him home this morning.
35:42Yes.
35:43After one night.
35:44She puts her hand on my knee through the blanket.
35:46I'm going to say something.
35:48You are going to let me say it.
35:50Go ahead.
35:51For eighteen months I have watched the pure blood we bought you.
35:55I have watched him ignore you in this house.
35:57I told myself it was an adjustment.
36:00I told myself it was Cora's fault.
36:02I told myself it was the perfume.
36:05Mom.
36:06Let me finish.
36:07I am sixty years old.
36:11I don't know what to do with my face.
36:14I take her hand in mine.
36:16Tell me you're sorry.
36:17That's what you do with your face.
36:19She doesn't move for a while.
36:21I'm sorry.
36:22For Sullivan and for Cora.
36:25For all of it.
36:26For eighteen years of looking for you and giving up.
36:30I am sorry, Sienna.
36:33I don't say anything back.
36:35She doesn't expect me to.
36:38She stands up from the bed.
36:40Your father is in the study.
36:41The lawyer is on his way.
36:42The estate must be moved out of probate today.
36:45Otherwise your uncle's brother will file a case by noon.
36:48Tell him I'm coming down.
36:50She stops at the door.
36:52She looks back at me.
36:54Sienna.
36:55What is it?
36:56Whatever this one is.
36:57Whatever they call him in their old language.
37:00He is the one I would have picked for you.
37:03If I had been the kind of mother who got to pick.
37:05She closes the door behind her.
37:08Lysaner's arm tightens on my waist.
37:10He has been awake for the last minute.
37:12Your mother just apologized to you.
37:14She did.
37:16In English.
37:17I noticed.
37:19My mother would have liked her.
37:20I kiss his shoulder.
37:22The scarred one.
37:25Get up.
37:26The lawyer arrives in twenty minutes.
37:30The lawyer arrives at nine.
37:32He sets his briefcase on my father's desk.
37:35He is sixty-something in a gray suit.
37:37He has been delivering complicated news for thirty years.
37:40Mr. Quinn.
37:41Miss Quinn.
37:42Lord Drenman.
37:43Lysadar doesn't react to the title.
37:45He sits in the chair next to mine.
37:47His hand stays on the back of my chair.
37:49The estate of Lady Aelis Drennan was propated in chambers last week.
37:53Her amended will was executed three days before her death.
37:56Three witnesses signed it.
37:58Read it to us.
37:59He reads it out loud.
38:01The estate of Lady Aelis Drennan passes in full.
38:04It goes to the human woman bonded to her grandson.
38:07To Lysaldro of the North Forest.
38:09By name.
38:10Sienna Quinn.
38:11I sit there for a moment.
38:13The lawyer waits patiently.
38:16How much exactly?
38:17Eight hundred and forty million dollars in assets.
38:20Lands in three districts.
38:22A coastal harbor.
38:23Two textile mills.
38:24A working mine.
38:25A house you will never need to set feet in.
38:28Not if you don't wish to.
38:30Why me?
38:31She didn't trust her own house to protect her grandson.
38:34She made you the shield instead.
38:36She never met me.
38:38She had three people watching you for nine months.
38:41She knew exactly who she was leaving it to.
38:44Lysima hasn't moved during any of this.
38:46I turned to him.
38:48Did you know about this?
38:49No, I didn't.
38:50Did you suspect?
38:51I suspected she had someone watching me.
38:53I didn't know it was you.
38:55I didn't know it was already done.
38:56I look at the lawyer.
38:59Can I refuse it?
39:00You can.
39:01The estate then passes to the next eligible heir.
39:04Your husband's uncle.
39:05Lord Virk.
39:06I look at Lysadar.
39:08I'm not refusing it.
39:13No.
39:15It's not for me.
39:17It's for the boy in the chair.
39:19Yes.
39:20I sign the papers.
39:22There are 43 pages of them.
39:24The lawyer's pen runs out halfway through.
39:27My father gives him a new one.
39:29When it is done, the lawyer stands up.
39:30He bows slightly to be polite.
39:32Lady Drenum.
39:34Don't call me that yet.
39:36It is the name on the deed now, ma'am.
39:39He leaves the study.
39:40My father pours himself the brandy he didn't drink yesterday.
39:44He drinks it down now.
39:46Sienna.
39:47Dad.
39:48I gave you a pureblood for your birthday.
39:50He was the most expensive thing in this house.
39:53I remember.
39:55He is now the fourth most expensive thing in this house.
39:58And that is only counting your husband.
40:01The estate is the first.
40:03He looks at Aunt Leisler.
40:04Sotheby's takes Sullivan tomorrow.
40:06Open auction.
40:07No reserve.
40:09Dad.
40:10Not the auction.
40:11There's a retired doctor in Maine.
40:13He works with show orcs who couldn't adjust.
40:16Sullivan is going to relearn how to be a person.
40:19Without a master.
40:21My father studies my face.
40:23You are kinder than I would be in your place.
40:26I'm not kind.
40:28I'm just done with all of it.
40:29He nods.
40:31He picks up the phone to make the call.
40:35Six months later, the doctor in Maine writes back.
40:38Sullivan is feeding himself.
40:40He answers to his own name now.
40:42Leisler squeezes my hand under the desk.
40:46I squeeze back.
40:48Outside the study window.
40:50Cora is on the lawn with her suitcase.
40:55Cora is in the garden when I find her.
40:58Her suitcase is open on the lawn.
41:00The house caper is folding sweats into it carefully.
41:03Cora is sitting on the stone bench.
41:05Her arms are wrapped around her knees.
41:07She is 17 years old.
41:09She looks 12.
41:11I leave on Friday.
41:12I know.
41:13I packed half of this myself.
41:15I saw you did.
41:16I sit down next to her on the bench.
41:19Sis.
41:23What is it?
41:26I saw you and him in the hallway last night.
41:29And?
41:30He put his hand on the back of your head.
41:33The way Sully puts his hand on mine when I'm crying.
41:37Cora.
41:38That isn't what I want to say.
41:40What I want to say is this.
41:41That was the first time in 18 months.
41:44The first time I have seen someone touch you like a person.
41:47Mom and Dad don't ever touch you.
41:50Sully doesn't touch you.
41:51I throw things at you.
41:54You don't have anybody, sis.
41:56I have him now.
41:58That's exactly what I'm saying.
42:00She turns on the bench to face me.
42:02I have been telling myself this story for two years.
42:06The story is that you stole my life from me.
42:09You came in.
42:10You pushed me out of every spot I had.
42:13Maybe that's true a little.
42:15But I watched you walk into the foite yesterday.
42:18Your hair was unwashed.
42:20There was a bite mark on your throat.
42:22A seven-foot orc walked in behind you.
42:25And I realized something.
42:27What?
42:29You weren't pushing me out.
42:30You were finally walking in.
42:32You have been outside this family the entire time.
42:35I just couldn't see it before.
42:37I am quiet for a long moment.
42:39I'm not asking you to forgive me.
42:41I'm asking you to let me write to you.
42:44Every Sunday.
42:45Handwritten letters.
42:46Mailed at the end of every month.
42:49Yes.
42:50I'll write back to one in three.
42:52Not when you're performing.
42:53When you stop performing.
42:55Deal.
42:58She wipes her face with the back of her hand.
43:00He is going to be your husband for real, isn't he?
43:05He already is.
43:07We're doing the rest of the paperwork next week.
43:11Can I come to the wedding?
43:14Yes.
43:15Even from Switzerland?
43:17We'll fly you back for the day.
43:19You can come back at Christmas every year, too.
43:23Lindenburg until 21.
43:25Then we see who you've become.
43:27She nods at that.
43:29She puts her head on my shoulder.
43:32She hasn't done that since she was 11.
43:35I remember the exact date.
43:37Sis.
43:40He loves you.
43:42I know that.
43:44He loves you in a way Sully never loved me.
43:47I figured it out this morning.
43:50How did you figure it out?
43:52Sully loved being mine.
43:55Lysither loves you.
43:56She gets up from the bench.
43:58She goes back to her suitcase.
44:00I sit there a moment longer.
44:03The housekeeper folds another sweater.
44:05The sun moves on the lawn.
44:07Tonight, Lester and I have a tattoo to get.
44:12That night, Lessender and I drive into the city.
44:15We go to a tattoo shop on the Lower East Side.
44:19The artist is a woman in her 50s.
44:21Half her face is tattooed already.
44:24She doesn't blink at his size.
44:26Or at his face.
44:27She says only one thing.
44:29Show me what we're covering.
44:31He lifts his shirt.
44:34The brand is right there.
44:36The number 12.
44:37The raised ridges of the six older numbers are visible underneath.
44:41What do you want to put over it?
44:43Her name.
44:45She looks over at me.
44:47She doesn't ask if I am sure about this.
44:51What font.
44:52Whatever he wants.
44:55I want to be able to read it from across a room.
44:58She draws something on tracing paper.
45:00She holds the paper up to his ribs.
45:03The word reads Sienna in tall block letters.
45:06Tall enough to swallow the brand whole.
45:09Tall enough to swallow the six numbers underneath it.
45:12That one.
45:14She does the work.
45:15It takes four hours.
45:18He doesn't make a single sound the whole time.
45:21He keeps his eyes on me.
45:23I sit on a stool beside the table.
45:26I hold his hand.
45:27I don't let go once.
45:29When she is finished, she wipes him down.
45:32She wraps the ribs in plastic.
45:35She steps back to look.
45:38Lord Drennaman.
45:39I don't work on Highborn.
45:41I have never been asked to.
45:43Why me tonight?
45:44Because you don't work on Highborn.
45:46Because you wouldn't have done this for my uncle.
45:49Because this is not a Drenium tattoo.
45:51She nods slowly.
45:53She understands what he means.
45:56He sits up on the table.
45:58He looks down at his own side.
46:00The word Sienna sits under the plastic.
46:03The skin is red around the edges and starting to scab over.
46:06The brand is gone.
46:07The six numbers under it are gone.
46:09Everything is gone except my name on him.
46:12He puts his hand flat over it.
46:14His eyes fill with tears.
46:17You did it.
46:18I told you I would.
46:21Your name is on me now.
46:24The number is gone.
46:28They do.
46:29He pays the artist three times what she charged him.
46:33She doesn't argue with that.
46:35In the car, he keeps his hand over the tattoo.
46:39The whole way home.
46:42Sienna.
46:43What is it?
46:44My grandmother left you 840 million dollars.
46:48I'm aware of that.
46:50And you took me to a tattoo shop in a strip mall.
46:56I had to keep my promise to you.
46:59He laughs quietly at that.
47:01Will you marry me, Sienna?
47:03The legal kind.
47:04With the paper and the witnesses.
47:07So when somebody asks me what I am,
47:09my answer doesn't start with the word mongrel.
47:12Yes.
47:14When?
47:15Next Saturday.
47:16The garden.
47:18Cora flies back for the day.
47:20My father walks me out.
47:21And your mother?
47:23My mother is doing my hair.
47:25She told me this morning.
47:27I didn't even ask her.
47:29He kisses my hand.
47:31The one I am still holding his with.
47:35Saturday is six days away.
47:38Six days to plan a wedding.
47:41It is Saturday in the garden behind the house.
47:44There are 40 chairs set out.
47:46And white ribbon on every one.
47:49The housekeeper has been crying since dawn for reasons he won't explain.
47:54My mother does my hair on the back porch.
47:57She works in silence for a long time.
48:00Your grandmother had this hair.
48:02I never told you.
48:04I never met her.
48:06No, you didn't.
48:08She would have liked you.
48:10She would have hated him.
48:13Mom.
48:14That is a compliment.
48:16The women in my family always hated the right men.
48:20She secures the last pin.
48:22She steps back from the mirror.
48:25You look like her, Sienna.
48:27You haven't said that before.
48:30I haven't been able to say it.
48:33She sets the brush down.
48:35I'm going to sit in the front row.
48:37I am going to cry.
48:39Don't look at me.
48:41Look at him.
48:43I was already going to.
48:45She kisses the top of my head.
48:48She walks down to the garden.
48:52Cora comes in wearing a white dress.
48:54She is the maid of honor.
48:56We didn't announce this.
48:57She just showed up in it.
49:00He's already there, sis.
49:01I can see him through the window.
49:04He is in a black coat with a dark red lining.
49:07Those are the North Forest colors.
49:10His mother's scene is on the collar.
49:12The lawyer in Geneva sent it over.
49:15He is standing at the end of the garden in the sun.
49:18His eyes are closed.
49:21Cora hands me the bouquet.
49:23Don't trip, sis.
49:26I won't trip.
49:29My father is in the doorway behind us.
49:32He has stopped shaking these last few days.
49:34Sweetheart.
49:36Daddy.
49:38I gave you a pure blood for your 22nd birthday.
49:43I remember.
49:46I want to give you something today.
49:48Something I should have given you back then.
49:52Permission to walk out of any room.
49:54Any room you don't want to be in.
49:56You're a little late on that, Dad.
49:58I know.
49:59Take it anyway.
50:00He puts my hand on his arm.
50:02He walks me down the aisle.
50:05Lysander opens his eyes.
50:07He has been waiting since 10 in the morning.
50:09He isn't going to miss a single step now.
50:13My father puts my hand in his hand.
50:16Take care of her, son.
50:17The first 18 years I didn't.
50:21Yes, sir.
50:24The priest is the chaplain from our parish church.
50:27He reads in English.
50:29Lysander asked him for this.
50:31He says the vows.
50:32I say the vows back.
50:34The priest closes the book.
50:35There is one tradition I have been asked to honor.
50:38Lord Drenamon, speak the name your mother gave you.
50:42Loud enough for the garden to hear.
50:44Lysander doesn't turn to face the chairs.
50:47He turns to face me, instead.
50:50He says it.
50:52Three syllables in the old language.
50:54The chairs are quiet for a beat.
50:57Then 40 people say it back in two languages at once.
51:00My parents.
51:02Cora.
51:03The housekeeper and the lawyer.
51:05The tattoo artist in the back row.
51:07The priest turns to me.
51:08Lady Drenard, there is no human tradition for this part.
51:13Say what you wish to say.
51:15I look out at the chairs and speak up.
51:17My name is Sienna Drevorn.
51:19I bought him in an alley with cash.
51:21He's mine now.
51:23The garden laughs at that.
51:25Lysadar does not.
51:26His eyes are wet.
51:29He leans down to me.
51:31He kisses my face first.
51:34Then my mouth.
51:36The priest closes the book.
51:38It was an intimate reception.
51:4040 chairs were placed around round tables.
51:43At 8 o'clock, the garden was lit up with lanterns.
51:47My father stands first.
51:49He taps his glass with a fork.
51:51I had a speech written.
51:53I'm not going to give it tonight.
51:54I'm going to say one thing instead.
51:57He looks at Lysadar.
52:01My daughter ate breakfast alone in this house for 18 months.
52:06She doesn't anymore.
52:08That's because of you.
52:10Sit down.
52:12Eat the cake.
52:13Lysadar sits back down.
52:17Cora stands up next.
52:19She is shaking.
52:20She has never given a speech.
52:23My sister came home at 23.
52:25The day she walked through the door, I threw a butter knife at her head.
52:29I missed by an inch.
52:30I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
52:35I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
52:35The garden goes very still.
52:37I'm leaving for Switzerland on Tuesday.
52:40I am going to be a different person when I come back.
52:44Not because she sent me away.
52:47Because she came and found me crying last week.
52:51And she didn't have to.
52:52I look up at her.
52:56My father has been talking to her about more than I knew.
53:00I want her husband to know something too.
53:03You take care of her.
53:05That's all I'm asking.
53:07For as long as you walk.
53:09Lysadar stands.
53:10He bows slightly to her.
53:12Yes.
53:15She sits down crying.
53:17My mother takes her hand under the table.
53:20Later, there is dancing.
53:23Lysadar has never been allowed to dance.
53:25The first thing he does is step on my foot.
53:29I'm sorry, Sienna.
53:31That was your foot.
53:32Try again.
53:34He tries again.
53:36He steps on foot again.
53:38I am terrible at this.
53:41You are terrible.
53:42Keep going anyway.
53:45By the fifth song, he isn't terrible anymore.
53:48He has stopped looking down at his feet.
53:51My mother dances with my father.
53:53They haven't danced together in a decade.
53:56He cries on her shoulder, quietly.
53:58She pretends not to notice.
54:00At eleven, I find At Lysadar at the edge of the garden.
54:03He has two glasses of champagne.
54:07For me?
54:08For you.
54:10I take one.
54:11We sit on the stone bench.
54:14Where Cora and I sat last week.
54:17Lady Drenman.
54:18Don't start with that.
54:21You'll have to get used to it eventually.
54:24Just not tonight.
54:25We are quiet together for a moment.
54:28I have a question, At Sienna.
54:30I've been holding it since the bath.
54:32Ask me anything.
54:34The first night in the alley, the trader said I was already ruined.
54:38Why did you say yes?
54:40I told you.
54:42Because nobody else would.
54:44Is that the whole answer?
54:45No, it isn't.
54:48Tell me the rest.
54:50I thought you were like me.
54:52That we could be together.
54:54He puts down his glass.
54:56Sienna.
54:58Since the first time I held you, I have been afraid you would not stay.
55:02I am staying.
55:05He picks me up off the bench.
55:06He carries me through the garden to the back door.
55:09The garden is empty by now.
55:12The lanterns are still on.
55:14Take me upstairs, husband.
55:17Yes.
55:18We are in our bedroom.
55:21The fire is in the hearth.
55:23The door is closed behind us.
55:25He sets me down on the rug.
55:27He kneels down in front of me.
55:29He undoes the dress slowly.
55:31The same way he did it the first night in this house.
55:36He stops when the bodious falls.
55:38I need to tell you something before tonight starts.
55:43I sit down on the rug with him.
55:46Tell me what it is.
55:47I'm going to wake up tomorrow and you'll still be here.
55:50And the day after.
55:52I didn't believe that until today.
55:55What changed today?
55:57Forty men in your garden called out my mother's name.
56:00You stood before them all.
56:02You said you bought me from an alley.
56:05You said it loudly.
56:07He puts his hand over the tattoo on his ribs.
56:10Your name is on me.
56:12Everyone in that garden knows it.
56:14They do.
56:16He leans his forehead against mine.
56:18I'm yours.
56:19You're mine.
56:20I press my forehead back against his.
56:23I pull him down to the rug with me.
56:26I put my mouth on the tattoo.
56:31Lay back for me.
56:33He lays back on the rug.
56:35I want to look at you tonight.
56:38Look at me then.
56:40I sit on his hips.
56:41I put his hands on my waist.
56:43I move slow.
56:45He watches me the whole time.
56:47Neither of us is in a hurry.
56:48We have time now.
56:50When I come.
56:51He holds me through it.
56:53He doesn't look away once.
56:56He follows me a minute later.
57:01He sits up afterwards.
57:02He pulls me against his chest.
57:05He puts his mouth on the bite on my throat.
57:07The scar is healed now.
57:09He kisses it instead of biting it.
57:12I love you, Sienna Drennan.
57:15I love you too, Lissithar.
57:17He pulls the blanket down over us.
57:19The fire is still going in the hearth.
57:22He falls asleep on his back with his hand over the tattoo.
57:25His other hand stays on my hip.
57:27I lie awake for a few minutes, listening to him breathe steady.
57:33Eighteen months ago, I ate breakfast alone.
57:36Three weeks ago, I bought a man in an alley.
57:39Tonight, my husband is asleep on the rug.
57:42My name is on his ribs.
57:45Best money I ever spent.
57:47I close my eyes and sleep.
57:49I close my eyes and sleep.
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