The tour ended at two massive doors. The Head Servant pushed them open, revealing the Grand Dining Hall.
The room was larger than any village square Gin had ever seen. Long tables groaned under the weight of roasted ats, exotic fruits, and jugs of honeyed milk. There were no hunters here. There was no mud. Everything was clean, perfect, and silent.
The servant gestured with a rigid hand toward the food.
"Take what you need. Find a seat anywhere you like. Eat until you are full. A thin womb is a useless womb."
With that, she turned and departed, leaving them alone among the overflowing tables and the quiet, immaculate grandeur of the hall.
Shuna’s eyes widened, the pink strands of her hair practically vibrating with excitent.
"Gin, look! We don’t have to track the dao deer or a bomb boar. We don’t have to skin their hide or fight the rain to start a fire. It’s all... just here."
She grabbed a silver tray and began piling it high with thick cuts of at and golden bread.
"We eat, we wait for the King, and we live like queens! This is a dream! In one or two months, we could be mothers of Dragonborn, and if we succeed, the King grants us finer estates. Which ans... no more worrying about a cold winter ever again!"
She bit into a thick slice of bread, still muttering with her mouth full,
"ISN’T IT GREAT!?"
Gin stayed silent. She picked up a tray, but her movents were chanical. She stacked her plate with mountain sized portions, protein for a warrior’s body, ignoring the gasps of the noble born won behind them.
"Look at those two, they eat like cave bears.. Do they think the food will run away? How can the King stomach such gluttony?"
Gin shot them a sharp, playful glance, grabbed a massive boar thigh, and stuffed it into her mouth. She widened her eyes theatrically, making the noble won flinch.
"Oh, Dragon God!" one whispered.
"What a barbarian woman!" another gasped.
Shuna, seeing Gin’s antics, grabbed her and led her to a far table in the corner, away from the judgntal stares. As Shuna happily tore into a turkey leg, Gin’s obsidian skin seed to drink in the shadows of the room. She leaned close, voice low and smooth.
"Shuna, stop chewing and look."
Shuna blinked, mouth full.
"Mmph? What?"
"Look at their eyes..."
Gin gestured vaguely toward the ’established’ mothers scattered across the hall.
The won were dressed in the finest silks. Their skin was oiled and perfud. But as they ate, they didn’t speak. They didn’t laugh. They stared at their plates with hollow, haunted expressions. One woman’s hand trembled so hard her wine spilled, yet she didn’t even notice.
"They have the best food. They have the best clothes."
Gin said, her sharp eyes scanning the rafters.
"But they look like... prisoners."
Shuna followed her gaze. In every corner, hidden in the shadows of the pillars, stood guards in white armor. They didn’t look like protectors; they looked like jailers. Their hands never left the hilts of their swords. Even the servants cleaning the tables moved with a terrified, hushed speed.
Gin leaning in close to shuna, whispering.
"This is not a ho, Shuna... This is a cage made of gold. They feed us well because you don’t starve the livestock before the slaughter. There are too many eyes here. Too many locks on the doors."
Shuna slowed her chewing, the sweetness of the honeyed bread suddenly turning to ash in her mouth. She looked at the guards, then back at the silent, weeping mothers.
A sharp, tallic CLANG shattered their conversation.
A tray hit the marble table with enough force to rattle the silver. Gin and Shuna looked up to see a woman with a mountain sized belly, her face caked in heavy white powder and dark orange lip paint. She wore silk so thin it looked like mist, but her expression was thick with hate. She hissed,
"Low born filth... Who gave you permission to sit at the High Table? Look at your skin. Look at your hair. You sll like the dirt you crawled out of."
Shuna froze, a piece of turkey halfway to her mouth. She looked around and realized Gin had picked the most secluded, beautiful corner but it was surrounded by won with tiaras and family crests.
"I-I am sorry, My Lady!"
Shuna stamred, trying to swallow.
"We did not know. We are new and—"
"Silence, peasant!"
The noblewoman pointed a finger tipped with long brownish orange painted nails toward the far side of the hall. It was a dark, cramped area near the kitchens where won in bare face sat huddled together.
"That is your side. Go eat with the other animals."
Gin didn’t move. She slowly tore a piece of boar at with her teeth, her obsidian skin gleaming under the chandelier light. She chewed slowly and swallowed, then looked up with eyes like polished flint.
"I see tables. I see food. I do not see your na carved into this wood. In my tribe, the one who sits first, stays. If you want this spot, you are welco to try and take it."
The noblewoman’s face turned from white to a furious purple.
"You... you dare?! You speak to a daughter of House Citrineclaw like this? Guards!"
Two knights in white armor shifted in the shadows, their hands gripping the hilts of their heavy swords. The air in the hall turned freezing. The clinking of silverware stopped. Every hollow eyed mother turned to watch the execution.
A muscled woman from the commoners’ side, arms crossed over her chest, muttered under her breath.
"Another execution, huh? These noblewon... what are they becoming?"
Her words were quiet, almost lost in the sudden tension, but her eyes burned with a mix of fear and disbelief as she watched the daughters of the high houses posture for dominance.
"If you do not move your disgusting bodies right now,"
The noblewoman whispered, leaning in so close they could sll her bitter perfu,
"I will tell the knights you tried to poison my child. They will drag you to the dungeons before the sun sets. Do you want to see how the ’king’ treat a rebel?"
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