[Mad Hat Island, Year 1509]
A year had passed.
Time moved on, yet for Elyndra, the days were like drifting dust—weightless, fleeting, and forgotten. She was still trapped in the same place: the Auction House, a den of shadows where her body was seen as nothing more than merchandise. Though her price had started to drop, her status remained exclusive. No one dared touch her—at least, not beyond the surface. And that, so far, was the only thing she had managed to protect.
She sat in a cold, cramped corner, lit only by the faint traces of sunlight filtering through a small barred window. Her long black hair, once immaculate, now hung in tangled strands over her shoulders. Her face had grown hollow, consumed by a darkness that never left. But her eyes… her eyes burned with a fire far more enduring than hatred. There was something sharper behind them—a hunger to endure, to destroy everything that had reduced her to this.
Even in isolation, Elyndra refused to be defeated. Long nights had only made her stronger. Every bitter memory became a weapon forged in silence. Her honor remained intact, though her pride had begun to crack. The filthy hands that desired her body never crossed the lines she drew—and that, she counted as a victory. A victory she fought for with every shred of will she had left.
Her pride may have been taunted, her worth degraded, but one thing remained untouched: her vengeance. A vengeance aimed at those who stole her joy. At the merchants who called her property. At the eyes that ogled her with lust but never saw the person beneath. She would never forget. She would never forgive.
Amid the never-ending parade of buyers and lechers, Elyndra observed. She noted every movement of the guards. She memorized the clinking of keys, the time it took for each door to lock, the distances between footsteps in the hall. She listened, she watched, and most of all—she waited.
She no longer spoke. There was no room for conversation. Silence was her ally, her armor. Regret no longer had a place in her heart. Every scar had taught her something. Every ache had become a stepping stone toward her greater purpose—the end of this. A day when the world that crushed her would finally burn.
She knew people came and went through this house of chains—merchants who bought bodies and broke souls. But Elyndra didn't care who claimed ownership over her now. They were just pieces of a rotten system she could never change. But that system… that system could be used. She would become part of it—but on her own terms. She would rise through it, twist it, and tear it apart from the inside.
The only thing that kept her breathing was a single flame—revenge. No one knew it. No one saw it. Those who passed her daily only saw the surface. But inside her, beneath the quiet exterior and chained limbs, an ember still glowed—hotter and brighter than anything that had ever lived in her before.
"I will remember all of this," she whispered to herself, voice like stone. A promise, carved into a heart that refused to die. "One day, they'll all know who I am. And they'll regret everything."
This place—with all its cruelty—would never smother that flame. They might break her body. They might strip away her dignity. But that fire… that ember… they could not kill.
As long as it burned, Elyndra was still alive.
And she would not stop—
Not until every last one of them saw the girl they tried to break rise from the ashes, unbroken.