The slavemaster had guessed that the royal family might react to that particular slave in such a fashion, he had put her at the front of the line for a reason. Teryn would be glad to hear that his gift had gone over well. For Chioni, it wasn't the first time someone had reacted to her like that, though it<i>was</i>the first time she had ever been paraded before royalty. Beyond the way her jaw briefly worked as she swallowed her nerves, they would see no unease from her.<br/><br/>She looked up as the younger man of the seated trio, probably the crown prince, whispered to his mother, his eyes fixated on her. She couldn't hear him well, but she could guess at what he was saying, and her glare become even more scathing. She had no interest in being some prince's pet, and he'd quickly find out just why Teryn had been willing to part with her in the first place.<br/><br/>But fate was a fickle thing, always twisting and changing course. Without warning, the man at the bottom of the dais rose, plucking her ownership out from under his brother with an ease that even gave her pause for a moment. The crown prince seemed indignant, the queen irate, but when she looked up the king, he hardly looked concerned at this sudden familial dispute, and she got the impression this wasn't uncommon. She didn't exactly appreciate being squabbled over like a scrap of meat by carrion-birds, though.<br/><br/>Chioni shrunk back with a scowl as the royal brat stepped forward, his hand reaching up to her head. The look in her eyes was vaguely reminiscent of a cornered dog--<i>don't touch, unless you wish to be bitten.</i>Before she could move out of his range, however, she was stopped by the firm hand of the slavemaster pressing into her back, and when she cut her eyes at the man, he responded with a thin-lipped and venomous don't-you-dare sort of smile before stepping back to allow Raffe to inspect his new plaything. She looked back to the prince with narrowed eyes, her lip curling in disdain for a moment before she finally deigned to answer his question. "Chioni." Her voice was cold and flat, masking the way her skin crawled at his touch. To her mother, and the few friends she had had in her home village before the raid, she had just been Kiyah.<br/><br/>It had been a long time since anyone had used that affectionate nickname for her, and she wasn't inclined to share it with the princeling.