"I am Lin Moer of magistrate Lin—release me!"
Hands closed on my elbows like iron. A half dozen eunuch guards shoved me through the gate and into the House of Instruction courtyard before I could finish the sentence.
"Keep still, girl," one said. "Your father's debts don't help you now."
"Let go," I snapped. "You will answer to the magistrate—"
"Your magistrate answered to the Regent three days ago," the taller eunuch said. "Your name is property. Speak when spoken to."
They stripped the clasp from my robe while I fought. They tore my insignia, the only piece that still read Lin. A petty attendant laughed.
"She kept her hair long thinking it would fix anything," the attendant said. "So soft, too proud to braid."
"Shut your mouth," I spit, but the guard only shoved me, harder.
A small hand caught mine. "Don't, miss," whispered a girl no older than twelve—the new attendants here always smelled of starch and fear.
"Hands off the little one." A voice cut through the courtyard like cold. Eunuch Shen stepped from the doorway in robes that swallowed the light. Even the sun bowed away from the shadow of him.
"Master Shen," the tall guard said too quickly. "We found her at the magistrate's estate. She resisted."
"Resistance," Shen said. He walked toward me. He did not speak so much as designate things with his presence. "Let them finish."
They frisked me, laughed at buttons, fingers poked into sleeves
