Beautiful Toy

You have not been bound or to come here, although if you had protested you are sure that would have been arranged.

It's not that your family does not love you. On the contrary you have been their prize, sheltered against the hardships of the world. At least as much as they have been able. But your family is poor, and their debt grew too unwieldy to bare. Your mother cried and your father fretted when the offer was first made. In the end they had but to consent. Your brother's children risked starvation and the price of your servitude would feed them for a year, and even more if they invest wisely, and encounter a little luck.

You know very little of the man who arranged the purchase. Only that he saw you as you followed your brother through the market one day, and became enamored enough to seek out your family, and offer a fine price so that he might own you completely.

Now you stand outside of the house that is to become your home, and your prison. The house is almost a palace in comparison to the small hovel where you dwelt with your family until now. The door is heavy and gilded with ornate scrollwork, gold ivy and flowers climbing across dark wood.