Orphaned Seed
Copyright© 2026 by Fantasylover11
Chapter 16: Debt Ledger
By noon, the story had already been polished.
Sienna watched it happen from the edge of the dorm quad, where the benches were full of freshman bodies pretending they were relaxed. The air had turned crisp enough to make every breath feel like a decision. Leaves skated across the brick walkways in little bursts of wind.
Noah Mercer crossed the grass with a backpack slung over one shoulder like any other student.
The lie held.
If you didn’t know how to look.
Sienna had been raised adjacent to people who treated the truth like something you owned. They’d taught her to hear what’s missing.
This morning’s version of events was clean.
Cassian Wren lost, because Cassian got sloppy. Mercer won, because he was stubborn and lucky. Dahlia Crowne was irritated, because Dahlia Crowne was always irritated. End of story.
The trouble was how quickly everyone agreed.
Agreement meant coordination.
Sienna’s phone buzzed.
One new message in a thread that didn’t have a name.
She didn’t open it.
Not yet.
She kept her gaze on Noah as he passed through the quad. He didn’t scan the crowd. He didn’t look for her.
He moved like someone who had learned not to reach for comfort.
When Noah vanished into the library path, Sienna exhaled, slow.
There were a dozen ways Dahlia could turn last night’s match into leverage. A formal complaint. A whispered rumor. A casual remark to the right faculty member.
Sienna had seen that machine work her whole life.
She’d also seen what happened to people who tried to fight it alone.
The part of her that hated being used flared hot and sharp.
The part of her that hated watching people get crushed flared hotter.
She turned and headed toward the Annex entrance route, letting the surface campus noise fall behind her.
Halfway across the quad, someone fell into step beside her.
Imani Blake moved like she had a soundtrack.
“Park,” Imani said, bright enough to be harmless.
“Blake,” Sienna replied.
Imani’s smile stayed in place while her eyes did the real work. “You make friends fast.”
“I don’t,” Sienna said.
Imani laughed like Sienna had told a joke. “Sure. Anyway. Tunnel access is tighter this week.”
Sienna kept walking. “Why are you telling me?”
“Because you look like someone who hates surprises.” Imani’s voice dropped, just a shade. “And because I saw something.”
Sienna’s fingers tightened around her strap. “What?”
Imani’s gaze slid over the quad like she was watching for someone to notice them watching.
“Staff badge,” she murmured. “In a corridor that shouldn’t have staff badges. Warm voice. RU lanyard. He walked like he knew the cameras would forgive him.”
Sienna felt a cold line settle along her spine.
“Name?” she asked.
Imani shrugged. “Didn’t catch it. But he wasn’t Meridian.”
Sienna didn’t react.
She filed the detail anyway.
“You said that like you know the difference,” Sienna said.
Imani’s smile sharpened. “Everybody knows the difference when it matters.”
Then Imani drifted away, already turning her attention into something else.
Sienna kept walking.
The stories were clean.
The corridors weren’t.
The Veiled Annex commons smelled like old paper, hot tea, and the expensive kind of soap that tried not to smell like anything.
Sienna took a seat near the far wall and opened her folder.
It wasn’t coursework.
It was a ledger.
Names. Points. Match outcomes. Access slots.
Most of it looked like mundane bureaucracy.
If you read it like a bureaucrat.
If you read it like someone who’d watched families trade favors the way other people traded memes, it read like a threat.
Sienna had points.
Not enough to be safe.
Enough to be useful.
She traced the columns with her finger, not writing anything down. She didn’t need to. She’d already memorized which names clustered together, which ones never appeared without each other.
Mirror stayed small.
Mirror stayed sharp.
That was supposed to protect them.
It also made them easier to isolate.
“Park.”
Sienna looked up.
Dahlia Crowne stood across the table from her with a cup of tea in one hand as if she’d been invited.
She wasn’t wearing her ring-side expression.
This one was softer.
That was how Dahlia did threats.
“Crowne,” Sienna said, neutral.
Dahlia sat without asking.
Her eyes flicked to the ledger in front of Sienna. “You keep receipts.”
“I keep track,” Sienna replied.
Dahlia’s mouth curved. “Adorable.”
Sienna waited.
Dahlia took a sip of tea, unhurried. “Mercer is interesting,” she said.
Sienna held her gaze. “He’s a freshman.”
“So are you,” Dahlia said. “And yet here we are.”
Sienna didn’t flinch.
“You put yourself beside him last night,” Dahlia continued, voice conversational. “Publicly. That was a choice.”
“Yes,” Sienna said.
Dahlia’s eyes sharpened. “I am curious why.”
Sienna could have lied.
She didn’t.
“Because your story was lazy,” she said. “And because Cassian doesn’t deserve to be your disposable tool.”
The second part landed harder than the first.
Dahlia’s expression didn’t change, but her attention narrowed.
“You have always had a talent for saying the quiet part,” Dahlia said.
“You have always had a talent for pretending you didn’t,” Sienna replied.
Dahlia set her cup down gently.
“I’m going to offer you something,” Dahlia said.
Sienna’s stomach tightened.
Offers were how the trap got dressed up as a favor.
“If Mercer becomes a problem,” Dahlia said, “I can make sure it stays his problem.”
Sienna kept her face blank.
“In exchange,” Dahlia went on, “you stop inserting yourself.”
“That’s it?” Sienna asked.
Dahlia smiled thinly. “For now.”
Sienna glanced down at the ledger.
There it was.
The real offer.
Protection from collateral.
At the price of surrendering the right to choose your own risks.
Sienna’s patron had taught her that protection was never free.
Sienna’s father had taught her that paying for it didn’t make it clean.
She looked back up.
“No,” Sienna said.
Dahlia blinked once. “Think.”
“I did,” Sienna replied. “You want me to be predictable.”
Dahlia’s eyes cooled. “I want you to be safe.”
Sienna almost laughed.
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