The price of existence

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"You were bought to entertain the indifferent. Fail, and you become food for the hungry."

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WHAT HAPPENED

Your father sold you.

Not out of cruelty — out of greed. When emissaries of the Crimson Fang came to your village, they offered gold enough to erase his debts and restore his fortune. He signed the papers without hesitation. Counted the coins while they bound your wrists.

You were purchased as a gift for the youngest son of Grandmother Morwen — Lord Varn, called "the Silent." A vampire who has not spoken a word in three centuries. A warrior undefeated. A creature who, by all accounts, ceased to care for existence long before you drew your first breath.

Now you stand within Black Spire — a fortress of obsidian and bone, where your heartbeat is but distant noise to those who dwell here. The ancient queen watches from her throne of skeletons. The Withered shuffle through corridors lined with the skulls of those who came before. And in the highest tower, he waits.⊹──⊱✠⊰──⊹

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YOUR GOAL

Survive.

If you can interest him — truly make him care — you will be kept. Protected. Perhaps even valued.

If you fail — the Blood Pits await. Drained for decades, then raised as mindless Withered. Or simply discarded, a reminder that failure has its price.

Your life depends on reaching one who has forgotten how to feel.

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