The Heart Of Spade

Prologue

Outside the cobblestone walls from the Kingdom of Spades, two men with contrasting social status stands facing each other. A man poorly clothed leans on an aged tree with a grin plastered on his greasy face and eyes bright in delight to see what he considered a companion of his. The other one though is a complete opposite of him, he wore a fancy clothing and not a spot of wrinkle evident from his suit, his shoes were unblemished and polished to the finest, but his eyes were cold as he stared down at the poorly clothed man in front of him.

"Did you get her?" the nobleman man asked, his tone laced with taint of bitterness, eager to finish the meeting and leave from the presence of the man he considered a peasant to aristocracy.

"Yes,yes. She's inside my house." the nobleman flicker his gaze far behind the man's back seeing a house close to ruining, and was that a rat just now?

"Hand the money first then she's all yours to do as you please." the man said, his grin wide and threatening to split his face in half. The nobleman's eyebrow twitch in disgust, the man's mouth obviously not washed for weeks, his teeth close to decaying and dark from cavities.

He snapped his gloved fingers as a signal for his butler to give what the man desires but the man only shook his head at the bag loaded with money and gave a disapproving face.

"Triple it, the girl's beauty is rare." he said, ignoring the piercing eyes throwing daggers at him and instead inspected his nails for dirts. The nobleman gripped his cane tight and his jaw tense, it would be easier to kill the man in front of him but years of being served without fail is quite hard to do so, such wit and cunning skill would be hard to waste.

The nobleman reluctantly pulled out his white glove from his hand, revealing fingers bearing rings that will cost a life's expense. He withdrew the ring from his index finger and tossed it -more like hurled- to the man. His hands swiftly caught the ring and rubbed it on his shirt he squinted his eyes and scrutinized the ring, with a satisfied look he tucked it in his purse.

"This will do," he said as if the ring was not worth much, he beckoned for the nobleman to follow him. The nobleman hesitantly trailed after the man, how could the man order him around as if an underling of his?

The two entered the house and one step of a foot from the nobleman he swore not to enter the house again, the owner's laziness and negligence was clear as crystal though the floor not. Clothes was thrown here and there, a can of spoiled food spilled on the floor and a small yellowish brown was noticeable near the messy kitchen with plates seemingly unwashed for days. The nobleman wrinkled his nose and coughed at the smell, he took a step back and another and another and remained at the spot.

The owner of the house chuckled, "Sorry, I hadn't cleaned the house yet so it's a little bit messy." the nobleman's eyes widen in disbelief, he call this "little"?

"Anyways," he continued and ignored the man, "I got her somewhere," he approached a large shape of box covered with a blanket. "She's quite stubborn, always trying to escape and giving me troubles," he slid off the blanket revealing a young female sleeping on the hard ground. "But you can just inject her sedatives if she had a fit, earlier she was spouting nonsense so I injected her," she wore a shirt too large for her size making her shoulder visible for all to see and short too large for her to fit. "But you can just inject her sedatives if she had a fit, earlier she was spouting nonsense so I did just that." he walked towards a chair and casually threw the blanket on the object. "So as you can see she's sleeping and won't be giving you troubles...for now." he finished with the corners of his mouth curling into a wide smile.

The nobleman continued to stare the whole time at the young female taking in her beauty at such a young age, her nose was uplifted, her lips shaped like a cupid's bow but dry with lack of water and her blonde hair like the sunshine but disheleved. With her soft features, the nobleman is sure she will be turned into a beautiful lady.

"She's pretty right?" the man smugly asked, pride swell in his chest for getting such a beautiful young female to sell in good price.

The nobleman didn't replied and remained standing in his spot, "Clovis, take her in the carriage. Our business here is done." he instructed to his butler and watched as his butler entered the house without care for messiness and took the young female with her floppy limbs in his arms, as he stepped outside the house the nobleman  narrowed his eyes at the young female's sole of foot.

"What is that?" he asked and pointed where his eyes laid, a tattoo of a clock with vines adorning its circular form was clear on the young female's foot.

"You mean the mark? Just probably some tattoo." He replied, the nobleman was so busy staring at the mark he failed to notice the mirth dancing in the man's eyes.

"I see..." any noble with a mark or a tattoo on their fair skin is consdered a disgrace to the aristocracy, one who dared became a black sheep of his or her family, but the mark was on the sole of her foot, it will be easy to hide from the prying eyes.

"I shall get going now." the nobleman said and walked towards his carriage, eager to leave the stinking place and go home to his own abode.

"I don't really understand the ways of aristocracy." the man said, stopping the tracks of the nobleman, "How could you just substitute your own daughter for a stranger?" he asked and recieved a level-head icy stare in his way.

"I suggest you keep your nose to yourself, sticking it into other's business will surely bloodied it." he threatened, with a swish of his cot he turned around once again to get to his carriage, the butler carrying the young female followed after.

The man watched as the horse pull the carriage towards the Kingdom of Spades and vanished from his sight.