My debt has been halved.
My fingers graze the unmarked skin from wrist to elbow. There is the occasional freckle, a little birthmark there, a small nick of a scar. Now each upper arm only bears five rings, ten total. A month ago, I had twenty.
This,I realize,is true power.
One stroke of the quill to dissolve another’s debt or damn them with more.
“Congratulations,” Silas says. “Before we move on, do you have any questions?”
My attention flicks between the first tattoo—cut across my elbows—then to his on each wrist.
“Why are our tattoo placements different?” I ask. “My debt disappeared from the bottom up, but it looks as though yours was erased from the top down.”
“Ah, great question.” He leans back. “Each ring represents more than just a certain amount; it also embodies the debt owed to that specific House. Any money paid to you from a House will first counteract the balance owed to that House. So while the rings look all the same to us, the magic is specific.”
“So the debt that I just paid off could’ve been the ring from House of Reign I received at birth, and the years since for maintaining the kingdom?”
“Absolutely.”
I think of what Kassandra revealed in the state garden during the game.It’s about who owns whom, and for how long.In all the commotion later that evening, this crucial epiphany slipped by me. If members of the Upper Court can buy and sell one hundred thousand debt rings for an afternoon game, what do the Houses do? Could they trade millions in just one afternoon?
The thought feels sickening, gluttonous.
I clear my throat. “Or could it be debt from Illusion that Reign later acquired?”
Silas adjusts his glasses. “Oh, um—I am unsure of that.”
I’m not ready to drop the subject. His silver eyes spark as I twist the gold ring on my finger.
“I didn’t realize all tellers, even those in Illusion, have a gold ring.”
“They don’t.” He clears his throat. “Though highly unusual, you’re not the first attendant to serve more than one House.”
He tilts the engraved signet toward me. Feathery, spotted wings.
“An owl,” he says.
“A moth, for me.”
“Perhaps you were always meant to be a night faerie.”
I take a breath, hoping that because I have now inquired more about his background, he may give me something else. “I just want to better understand what I’ve overheard. The king sometimes asks the opinions of his faeries, and I don’t want to appear ignorant.”
“A progressive habit of the late queen.” Silas pours us more tea. Wrapping my fingers around the cup, I feel the heat transfer to the liquid inside, steam curling up. The water starts to boil, the glass burning. I let go, stunned. Same effort, greater result.
My magic is done maturing,I told the king only a few nights ago.
But it isn’t.
With every debt ring off, my body fills with renewed vigor, with energy.
“Hope.” Silas smiles. “Quite a powerful thing. It can impact not just our minds but our bodies, too.”
“First, I want to better understand why the Houses buy and sell debt. They already collect interest from their own faeries.”
“Think of purchasing swaths of faerie debt like buying a piece of a greater trade. A sliver of a business. Say you purchase the debt of ten faeries who work in the mines. You do not just gain their payments and interest—you are profiting off their labor. You don’t need to own the mine to make money off it. You just need to own the workers.”
I sit back in my chair, hands falling to my lap. Glancing down at the new uniform paid from my own pocket, I wonder who owns this portion of my debt, who owns me.
