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“Have you been in the palace?”

“Mhm.”

“Oh, I could only imagine.” Gwyneth swooned. “My aunt used to tell me the floors are printed with shells from Maya’s Cove.”

“Color coordinated too,” Lily said with a reminiscent smile.

Lily kept quiet as Gwyneth spun back around, and Estelle lifted her posture a little higher. Lily memorized the way to and from the bath, noting every turn.

“Why are you… here?” Estelle asked, breaking the extended silence. “No one leaves Zaitrerin.”

“You did,” Lily said.

Their shared silence said plenty.

Lily weaved a little truth in her lie. “I had a falling out with my family. I needed to get as far away as possible. I’m relatively new to the area, and this is my first job, but I heard Caiven is decent to his workers and hires frequently.”

At that, Estelle’s jaw tightened. “To those he pays, he’s decent.”

That knot in her gut twisted so much she feared it wouldn’t ever loosen. She asked even though she knew the answer. “You aren’t paid?”

Estelle withdrew again.

Slavery had vanished from Eizreth centuries ago. No respectable realm kept people as property. Hell, even Reatia with its cruel and grueling working conditions paid its people in Licane or rations.

Gwyneth stammered. “But he takes care of us! He provides for us, feeds us, keeps us protected. We’re his favorites, and we don’t even have to try! Without him—”

“We’d manage just fine,” Estelle grumbled.

They approached the bath at the end of another widening hall, and an arched doorway appeared. A musky aura drifted into the hall amid the splash of running water. Gwyneth stepped inside hastily. Estelle lingered, watching the entrance with her hands folded at her waist before following. They were gone for what Lily guessed was an hour or so, and she spent the entire time digging a hole into the brick floor with the tap of her heel.

They returned polished and smelling of spring. Gwyneth’s mood brightened, her hair atop her head in a nest of curls, and Estelle’s was straightened, as was her posture. She fell back slightly, keeping close to Lily on the short walk back.

“I’m from the outskirts of the city, like Gwyneth, but on the northeast side, near the cove.”

Lily treaded carefully. “How did you end up here?”

“I didn’t live in the most cared for area,” she said. “Lots of refugees. Some came to the city with good intentions, more with bad ones. We were sold out by a man I’d seen around but didn’t know. He was Ashin too. I never thought he could be one of them. We were to be taken to Reatia, but Caiven caught wind of it and paid off the keeper to stay quiet.”

He keeps them because they’re Ashin. Abuses them. Assaults them… Lily’s skin burned so hot with anger she could only see red. A fate like this never crossed her mind. To be kept like a prize—an object, simply because she was uncommon.

“How long ago?” Lily asked after she realized Estelle had stopped speaking.

“Three years.”

“That’s… quite a while,” Lily managed. She couldn’t be older than eighteen now. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t refer to his lordship by title,” Estelle said so urgently it made Lily’s heart spike. “All the guards do. The maids. The cooks. He insists upon it.”

The walk was going too quickly.

“After what you just told me, I don’t think he deserves it,” Lily said.

“But, earlier you said—”

“Would you leave, if you could?”

Estelle faltered. “He would never let us.”