Xxxpawn |best| -

And now, every time someone in Veridia City pawned their deepest wound—their first heartbreak, their father’s disappointment, their stillborn dream—it was Kaelen who felt it. A thousand lives of pain, flooding through the empty socket where his heart used to be.

The Pawnbroker picked up the vial with spider-thin fingers. She tilted her headless face. “Joy is common. I offer you fifty creds.” xxxpawn

He woke gasping. He looked in the mirror. His reflection was gone. In its place was the Pawnbroker’s smooth, blank face. And now, every time someone in Veridia City

She named her price: a thousand creds. Enough. More than enough. She tilted her headless face

“You bring pain, Kaelen. Pain has weight. I accept it.”

She touched the locket. It turned to ash. And Kaelen felt something unhook inside his chest—a tiny, screaming absence where his longing for love had lived.