BroughtLow

The new NPC

Rhiannon

Nobody ever bothered to give her a name. The other children called her Dull.

She was small enough to need her toes to see into a water barrel when a merchant lord found her in the alleys of Gelspar. He asked if she was hungry. In the Droops, kindness from a stranger is how you end up with a knife in your gut, so she checked his hands for a weapon first.

August Montgomery bought her from the orphanage for a loaf of milk bread from the Red Market. The matron did not haggle. The House of Courtesans took what was left of the girl and returned a woman fit to charm a king — history, arithmetic, literature, art, and a voice they likened to an angel's.

Then he was outbid. Sixteen years of silk later, Rhiannon sings only what she is given, in venues chosen to send messages she is not permitted to read — and she still wakes with her fingers at her wrists, checking for strings.

From the nightmare “Sing.” A voice commanded. “Sing, or you'll find yourself back where you belong.” The miasma crept through the back of the theatre, inching through the audience seating — she caught the glint of a dagger when one of the lights shifted on the stage.

Born

Gelspar, the Droops

Bought for

One loaf of milk bread

Sings in

Wingspan opera house

Just what was the price of bread?