"Where are we?" Elias looked around with shock evident in his eyes when she finally let him go.
When she leaned on his forehead and took a deep breath, he was still intoxicated with their earlier kiss. He did not know why this woman kissed him, but he was not a fool to believe that it was love. He pushed her away and stood up to gain his sanity back.
Her presence muddled his thought process. But just as he turned around to leave for his room, he was stunned speechless.
Seraphina did not mind that was pushed away ruthlessly. She got up and played with her hair while looking at him with glittering eyes full of amusement.
"Did you forget about my ability, Elias?" The voice was full of teasing and it took him a second to remember that the woman could teleport. He did not show his shock but just looked around as if studying this place.
"Where are we?" she laughed when she did not notice any emotion in his voice. She knew the earlier kiss had rattled him. But he had masked his emotions easily and now he was again thinking rationally. She touched her swollen lips. The man had shown no mercy while biting her earlier. Alas! It ended so soon.
The moment she let her lips go, the swelling vanished as if it was never there at the first place.
"This is your new house." she explained sweetly as she wrapped her arms around his. "Do you need a tour?" he turned to look at her grinning face.
She looked like a cat after stealing the milk. He could not help but smirk at that thought and nodded.
Seraphina chuckled and showed him the small manor. Though it was nothing in her eyes, he looked at everything with wide eyes. His hands touch the gold plated paintings on the wall with a strange desire for possession.
His eyes raked over the decorative antiques and vases in the hall. And the large piano at the corner. He was seen in the Gratham state too.
"Do you want to try it?" she asked as she looked at his gaze lingering on the piano.
"I do not know how to play it." he confessed in a low voice. As a slave it was already enough that he had food on his table. Learning a musical instrument never crossed his mind. Even if it had, he had no means to learn it in the past. But now, he was a noble too.
He had the power and resources to learn it. Did he not? Seraphina noticed his desire and grinned.
"How would you know if you did not try. Come on." She pushed him on the chair and encouraged him to play.
Elias sat on the piano bench, staring down at the polished ivory keys. The sunlight streaming through the tall windows hit the gold trim of the piano lid, casting a glow across the instrument like it was waiting to be touched.
There was no harm in trying, right? He placed his fingers gently on the keys. His eyes gleamed as he touched them.
His brows furrowed as his fingers moved, hesitant at first, but then gliding with a grace he didn't understand. Each note flowed into the next as if he had always known it. a soft but growing melody blooming into the still air. His breath caught when his hands moved faster, confidently striking chords, building a beautiful melody.
He stopped. His chest rose and fell with surprise.
"That… that wasn't possible," he muttered looking at his own hands with shock rising on his face.
Seraphina clapped softly from behind him. a smug little smile curled on her lips. "Was that your first time?"
He turned to look at her as if he was still in a trance but confessed easily, "Yes, how could I get the chance to learn it before?"
"Then I must say," she teased, "Baron Crestford plays beautifully."
He stood abruptly and stared down at his hands. They were calloused, hardened by years of chains and labor and yet, they danced on the keys like they belonged to a perfect nobleman.
"How?" he asked her with a voice full of shock, "How is that possible?
She shrugged with maddening nonchalance and walked toward one of the shelves lining the manor walls. "Because you are that man now, Elias. Nobles are trained from birth to play instruments, read books, debate politics and philosophy. You may not have learned those lessons as Elias, but now that you are a noble, you remember the lessons. Your mind knows it now."
He frowned. "That's not how it works."
It is," she said, pulling out a thick, dusty book covered with a thick leather and handing it to him. "I do not play lost battles. Now that I have given you a new identity, I will make sure that you know how to play the character. If you are so doubtful, why don't you try it again?"
Elias opened the book. The cover read "On the Structure of the Sovereign Mind" in golden ink. Something a scholar or a bored lord might keep on their shelf for prestige.
But as his eyes scanned the page, something strange happened again.
The words didn't confuse him, they invited him. The phrases flowed in his mind like streams joining a river. He turned the pages faster but he read every single word written there. his eyes moving faster as if they knew the contents by heart. Concepts of statecraft, working of law, the power of nobles and the condition of people, he understood all of them. Not just in the way one memorizes facts, but in the way someone knows something deep in their marrow.
He looked up slowly.
"I understand all of it," he whispered. "As if I have read it a hundred times before."
Seraphina was watching him with a smile on her face. her arms crossed and a pleased smile tugging at her lips. "Of course you do."
"But how?"
"You've entered the world of nobles, Elias. Not as a slave but as one of them. Your mind is already adapting. This house, this name, it's more than fabric and luxury. It's your new power. You wear their face, walk in their halls… and now, you are learning to think like them."
He sank into the nearest chair, the book still in his hand, his head spinning.
He wasn't just wearing a mask anymore. He was becoming the man behind it.
"Did you give his soul to me or something?" he asked with a petrified gaze that made her laugh.
"Not really, you are still a human and could not absorb souls like that. But I lend you the art of a noble. Whenever we chose one to do our bidding, we could give them a gift. But now that you have shared your blood, I could give you more than just a simple gift."
She sat beside him and placed a hand on his knee, her voice low and seductive, but with something reverent beneath it. "I told you I would give you the stage. And now, you're stepping into the spotlight. You will not just match them, Elias. You will outshine them with this new power."
He met her gaze. For the first time, he wasn't just a slave dreaming of vengeance. He was a noble having power in his hands to burn their own world.
"Then let's start the show."