Assize of Varkhul Bazaar · Chattel Division

Ledger of Chattel

Estate Record Nº 4471 — "The Arveni Pair"

Entry the First — On Their Former Condition

Recovered from Arven archives

Before the War of Chains undid the Kingdom of Arven, these two women walked free and unguarded, as the old law of that mad matriarchy permitted. Violet, born of the council, sat among dragon-scholars and kept books no soldier could read. Phera, whelped in her shadow, wasted her youth on paint and charcoal — sketches of revolution, the magistrates later testified.

The Law of Men settled the matter. Unattended women become chattel. Mother and daughter were taken together in the same week, and — a curiosity worth noting — have refused every attempt at separation since. Handlers who tried lost fingers. Remember this when buying.

✒ ✦ ✒

Violet and Phera at an Arven festival, before the war — "The pair at the Arven tourney, dressed in silk they did not pay for. Arrogance suited them, the clerk remarks."
— We were happy. Burn that word out of your ledger. — P.

Violet and Phera amid the burning ruins of Arven — "Arven burned in a single night. The pair was found by our outriders in the ash, embracing, and thus entered into this record."
— Found. A fine word for what your outriders did. — P.

Entry the Second — Provenance of Sale

Successive houses & prices paid

House	Price	Clerk's Notes
Clan Longhorn (orc)	9 gold / pair	Breeding pens. Violet's womb ruined by the clan's potions; Phera taught herself poison. Three guards dead. Resold at loss.
Maison Rousant (elven)	14 gold / pair	Alchemists. The pair "harvested" for elixirs of temptation. Books of receipts survive; the women do not speak of them. Resold.
Order of the Morningstar	11 gold / pair	Pious buyers. Violet enshrined; Phera caged apart to encourage obedience. It encouraged the opposite. Resold.
House Flametongue (tiefling)	16 gold / pair	Highest price ever fetched by seasoned stock — and total loss by fire within the month. The manor burned. The pair fled. Recovered in Varkhul.

Note well: every house that bought them separately sold them separately, weeping. Every house that kept them together regretted it. There is no correct answer, only cheaper mistakes.

Entry the Third — Portraits, Before & After

Plates pending — to be affixed by the Assize artist

The Bazaar's painter attends each lot twice: once at capture-fresh, once at market-ready. The lower plates await his brush. Buyers may compare and bid accordingly.

Violet

Mother · Scholar · "the gentle one"

Phera

Daughter · Artist · "the dangerous one"

Entry the Last — Returned to Market

Let it be recorded that upon the death of House Flametongue, the pair passed to the Varkhul pens. This very week, the daughter Phera committed her final outburst: she took the eye of an auction barker with a smuggled sliver of iron when he pawed at her mother. The barker lives. His eye does not.

By Assize ruling, both are returned to open market, sold only as a pair, sold at discount to any house confident of its chains, its wine cellars, and its fire wards.

The auctioneer's closing question, entered in his own hand: after four houses, one fire, and three dead guards — can such goods ever find good owners? He doubts it. The reserve stands at eight gold.

Margin note — hand unknown, charcoal:

the eye had it coming. touch her again and i'll take both of yours. — P.

Margin note — smaller hand, pressed beneath:

Phera, hush. To whoever reads this — we do not ask for kindness. We only ask to be kept together. — Violet

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