Balthasar Beckers

The crystal vaults of Castle Blackheart's throne room held many secrets, but the strangest was a huge gilded cage containing a girl of unearthly beauty. Her master was the young Emperor Balthasar Bekkers, who had come to power through patricide. Seeing her at the slave market, he obliterated her past to make her his sole relic.

On a crimson evening, he entered the cage. His steely eyes met her sad brown ones. "How is my bird?" he asked, touching her face.

She was silent, but a storm raged in her silence. "Why is this? I don't sing for grain," she whispered.

"You are perfection that needs to be protected from the dirt of the world," he replied.

"Safety?" she questioned bitterly. "You killed my father, burned the village. The cage is built on bones."

"I grant you what security I can," he approached. "The world is cruel. Outside these bars, you will be torn to pieces by wolves. You are a miracle, and I am the only one who can possess it."

There was no love in his words, only the obsession of a collector ready to destroy everything that does not fit into his collection.