Her Auction

"Sorry, Kore, but we can't rent you the place anymore," Noel Snow told me as I got to the downtown café he asked me to meet him at, this morning at 7:21 in the morning, because he had always had a thing with number 1, so every time we meet the hour ends with it. "You have been the kindest, but I need the money, dear. I already lowered the rent from 781 mahjs to 431 mahjs per month for you, because of how you were an amazing babysitter to my four kids when they were little, but you haven't been able to pay it."

I pressed my lips together, ashamed of myself, ashamed of how much I've been working and how it haven't been paying out. "I understand, Mr. Snow, and I am sorry for letting you down," I swallowed. "I owe you 260 mahjs and 75 bells," I took my small wallet out of my waist belt bag, "I don't have all that yet, but I do have 66 mahjs and 60 bells with me," it's all the money I made in the last nine days, I was going to use it to pay for the ingredients I need to buy to make the cupcakes for the next week, but I hate being in debt. "I… I will owe you 194.15 then, and,"

"You owe me nothing, Kore, don't worry about that," he made me pause and I felt even worse because I know he's being charitable on me, and I hate it, I hate that he thinks I need charity, fuck, I hate this, I hate it. "Years ago, 20 years ago when you were the kids babysitter for 6 years, you lowered the price of your salary from the standard 860 mahjs to 500 mahjs because we couldn't pay much back then, as we had just arrived in the Crims'On Realm from Zekarr. Back then it was bewildering enough that a Mortimer was lowering herself to being our,"

"Don't say that, please, Mr. Snow," I told him, feeling even worse.

"I know, that you insist that in Crims'On your bloodline doesn't have the same power since the Nightcrawler Bloodbath Genocide of your clan 120 years took place, but where I'm from, and in all the other seven realms aside from mine and Crims'on, the Mortimer still carry an ancient infamous unbeatable weight, my dear," I couldn't help clenching my jaw at the memory of the disgrace that befell my entire clan when I was 5 years old. "And to me, being your acquaintance is the same as being the acquaintance of the Imperial family, because your bloodline is the only one that is nearly as powerful as them, and you know that."

Fuck the Imperial family.

Fuck the Emperor.

Fuck them.

If there's someone I hate more than the clans that stole all my inheritance from me when I was grieving the loss of my 66 fallen family members, struggling to understand they were gone and I was the sole survivor for whatever reason, and those thieves caused me this struggle that has been going on for the last 115 years, for fucking money, or that I hate more than all the faes born in Crims'On aside for the little kids, that someone is the Emperor. The ruthless fucking bastard who came for my family just because they disagreed with him ruling the nine realms, and then he murdered all of them in front of me, and refused to kill me.

I loathe the Emperor.

He's probably the only one who can actually kill me, and I've been beyond miserable from the moment the genocide took place until now. I hate demonic fae of Hellheim, I hate how they rule over us all, just as much as I hate Crims'On, but this is the rightful place of a Mortimer, my family would never have left the realm, hence why I haven't either. Even after I've been ripped of my birthright inheritance, wronged and bullied and humiliated by all the Crims'On born bastards, and had to put up with their shit during school, during my three times in college, and during the times I worked in places in here.

The respect I gain from the foreigners who come to live in Crims'On for the roots of magic that exist deep within our realm, or for the high quality of life, is nothing, it changes nothing, their respect doesn't change shit in my life, even if it's a nice change, they are still only 16% of the faes that live here. Our realm may be the strongest after Hellheim and where the magic was probably born in the nine realms, but it's the smallest in comparison to Hellheim, which is the biggest. They have about 666 million people living there, while only half a million live here, that alone is absolutely ridiculous, were probably a neighborhood to them.

I hate it.

"It doesn't mean anything, Mr. Snow, because my bloodline is dead, I'm nothing compared to what it once was, I'm nothing compared to what my parents were, and my bloodline will never be spread out again, because I have no sort of motivation to try being with anybody. I don't want to curse a child to have the same fate I had, that would be too cruel, I love kids too much to do that. And besides, I didn't lower my salary because of pity or anything, Mr. Snow, I did it because you offered me to live with you and your mate, so I would take care of the kids better, and my rent was 360 mahjs then, it was fair."

He smiled but it didn't reach his dark brown eyes, that were glowing with sadness and pity for me, two things I should you be used to seeing in the foreigners by now, but I'll never get used to it, neither will I ever feel less worse about it. His skin is as dark as dark chocolate, that gives away where he is from, Zekarr, it's the realm of the sun-kissed faes, the only sun-kissed faes in the Starlight Conjunction that connects the three realms of Crims'On, Zekarr, and Arient. They all have black to dark brown skin, different shapes of curly hair, bigger noses and bigger eyes, so it's easy to spot who's from there.