Enslaved by the Crown: The Weakest Slave Has the Strongest Ability

Ennessa searched his face for signs of a trained spy. All she found was a bruised, exhausted boy staring back at her in terror.

Her grip on the letter opener tightened, her brow furrowing. ”You’re lying. A servant doesn’t break into a Duke’s private archive just to look at trade ledgers.”

She eased her knee off his back, withdrawing the blade just an inch, but kept her posture commanding as she stared down at him. ”Do you have any idea what room you just walked out of?”

Eldrin pushed himself up slowly, sitting back against the cold wall with his head lowered. ”No.”

”Those journals were written by the heads of House Korrandis,” she said, her voice chillingly steady. ”Politics. Private correspondence. Negotiations. If even a single page finds its way outside these walls... people die. You don’t understand the weight of what you’ve done.”

Eldrin swallowed hard. ”I wasn’t trying to....”

”Intent changes nothing,” she cut him off. Her gaze dropped to his pocket. ”The access card. It was Rowan’s, wasn’t it?”

Eldrin stiffened, but he couldn’t deny it.

Ennessa closed her eyes, letting out a quiet sigh. ”He trusted you. And this is how you repay him?”

Those words struck harder than any physical blow. Eldrin lowered his head, his hands trembling in his lap.

”...I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Ennessa extended her hand. ”The card.”

Eldrin reached into his tunic and placed the silver card in her palm. She slipped it into her sleeve and turned toward the stairs.

”You’ll have to explain yourself to Father,” she said flatly. ”And Master Rowan.”

Eldrin’s face paled.

She took two steps down the staircase, then stopped. Without looking back, her voice dropped into a calmer, colder tone.

”...Before you decide to enter that room again... ask Master Rowan why he’s blind.”

Silence stretched across the stairwell.

”If you still think it’s worth the risk after hearing the answer...” She resumed walking. ”...then nothing I say will stop you.”

Eldrin forced himself to his feet. ”Lady Ennessa... please.”

She halted halfway down the stairs, but didn’t turn around. ”What?”

Eldrin reached inward again, grasping for the warmth beneath his chest. ’She’ll understand. She’ll let me explain.’

The certainty formed and slipped away before it ever reached his lips. His throat felt dry. His fingers unclenched.

It hadn’t worked.

Ennessa finally looked back over her shoulder. ”Well?”

Eldrin lowered his eyes, the last of his composure breaking. ”I... I shouldn’t have gone in there. I won’t do it again.” He swallowed hard, his voice catching in his throat.

Silence filled the stairwell.

The word hung between them ’home’.

Ennessa studied him for several long moments. Some of the sharp anger in her expression faded..... not into sympathy, but into uncertainty. She had expected excuses, denials, or another clever lie. Instead, she saw a fourteen year old boy a year younger than her. standing alone in a foreign kingdom, stripped of everything.

”I’ll never tell anyone what I read,” Eldrin whispered, looking away. ”I swear it. I just... wanted to know what happened.”

Ennessa drew a slow, measured breath. She pulled the access card deeper into her sleeve.

”...You don’t get to decide whether I believe you,” she said softly. ”I’ll decide.”

She turned and continued down the stairs. This time, she didn’t look back.

The library felt strangely quiet as Eldrin descended the stairs.

He couldn’t remember walking back to his desk.

One moment he had been standing outside the archive.

The next...

He was staring at an open Marian dictionary without reading a single word.

His thoughts refused to settle.

Why...?

He closed the book and leaned back in his chair.

Why won’t the Silver Tongue work when I need it most?

It had worked on the slave trader.

It had nearly worked on the prison guard.

Then...

Nothing.

The restaurant.

Ennessa.

Twice it had abandoned him.

Or perhaps...

He had never understood it to begin with.

A quiet sigh escaped him.

”If she tells the Duke...”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

Everything he had managed to build over the past week would disappear before sunset.

The library.

Master Rowan’s trust.

The only roof over his head.

Gone.

He lowered his head into his hands.

”...I tried.”

He really had.

He had apologized.

He had swallowed his pride.

Back in Novaryn, tutors had spent years teaching the children of noble houses how to remain calm when others tried to sway them.

Emotion clouded judgement.

Sympathy invited manipulation.

A ruler who decided with his heart instead of his mind rarely remained a ruler for long.

Eldrin had been taught those lessons countless times.

So had Ennessa.

Maybe...

That was why his words had reached nowhere.

His thoughts wandered again.

To the questions that seemed to multiply every day.

Why had Father sent them to Maria...?

Why had the Kingdom of Eldia remained silent after House Novaryn fell?

And what was it...

What could House Korrandis possibly want badly....?

Every answer he found only seemed to create two more questions.

He felt...

Lost.