Bought With Silence

In the empire, orphanhood is not a tragedy.It is a legal status. Children without lineage are classified as unanchored assets—lives without witnesses, names without claim. Most are worked to death in mines or factories. The valuable ones are sold quietly, through stamped papers and sealed ledgers, to institutions older than the crown. One such institution is the Black Ledger. The boy is taken at seven. No explanation. No trial. No goodbye. A hand signs his existence away for a pouch of silver that never reaches him. From that moment on, he is not imprisoned. He is removed. The Black Ledger does not raise assassins together.It raises them alone.