Three days later, she felt as if she were watching the last few moments of her life slip by. The lamp on her table flickered in the slight draft of the bank, her stack of papers already read at least five times each. She had found no answers in them, no hope to be found and no salvation for her. 

She had packed up all her jewelry and anything that might be of any value and headed for Trinia. The Island nation was an independent citystate of it's own and outside of all the politics and wars that raged between the three nations known as the Trinity, and so held all of the banks for the countries of Mercedon, Celeron, and Lyneron. Chorong had traveled all the way from her home in North-west Mercedon to see if she couldn't find something to help her. Maybe some savings that her brother hadn't squandered, some investments that her parents had left in her name, even someone who would buy her drawings or better yet, a wealthy man who would marry her and pay off her debt... anything! 

And yet all she found was that life in the city was far more expensive than she had expected, and she had even less money now than when she had left home. She heaved a sigh and tossed a paper down onto the stack, doing nothing to stop it as it tipped the rest of the papers over to fall scattered on the floor. Apparently strong liquour and fast horses hadn't been Yongguk's only vises: he had gambled at cards as well and though Chorong never would have guessed it, it made sense now that she knew about it. Their money shouldn't have been gone so quickly, and if she hadn't been so afraid of what he would do, she might have noticed.

But the contract was the real problem, and she didn't know how to get out of it. It looked legal enough, and though slaves were not permitted within many countries of Calceryn, women of the Trinity countries were considered to be the property of their guardians. And unfortunately for her, the fact that he was older than her made him her guardian. Despite that he was now dead, he had signed the contract and it stood as law now, even though slavery was frowned upon in Mercedon. That was the key word, she knew. Frowned upon, not illegal.

The wild thought to run had come over her many times in the last several days, but she didn't even know how to try or where to go. The countries in the far East were against slavery, she knew, with the King of Remasan championing freedom, but that was a long journey by ship and there was no way she could pay for that. And there was little chance she would succeed, anyway: the same people who had killed Yongguk would come for her and drag her to her proper owner.

Her head dropped onto the desk and she fought back tears, her brown hair falling around her face like curtains to shield her from the outside world. If only she knew what to do!

The soft sound of footsteps sounded in the hallway and she sat up straight, smoothing her face and drawing her fingers through her hair as she tried to retain a semblance of control. The fallen papers caught her eye then and she stood, intending to gather them, but then a scribe entered the room.

Dressed in white robes, her shaved head said that she served the Banks of Trinia; the thin lipped frown that stretched over her face said that she was displeased with the mess. "Your time is at an end, Miss Park," she said stiffly. And though Chorong knew she was talking about the fact that the bank was closing, it felt as if she were talking about her life as she kn