Page 192 of The Silent War
“Those other suites need to be ready before she walks into the house,” Luca said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Stocked like the main one — her clothes,her products, her food. If she’s with you in the east wing or me in the south, it can’t feel like exile. It has to feel likehers— just not ours together.”
I marked it in the Codex underTraining His Pet:
Main suite = shared bed. Other suites = solo nights with no punishment. Break the ledger. Rules identical no matter who she’s with. Prove we’re one, not two to be balanced.
“Before we even get to night one,” Luca said, voice lower now, “we cover limits. Clear. No room for her head to get twisted.”
“We keep the colour system.”
“She already knows the colours,” Luca said. “But in the Lock-In, we make her say them out loud. No exceptions. Even if she thinks she doesn’t need to.”
“Reminding her she can use it without consequence. We’d rather have her call yellow than hold her breath and push through something she doesn’t like.”
Luca leaned back in his chair, tapping the Codex entry. “We should tell her up front — she can use the colours with one of us without worrying the other will hear about it and punish her. That’s part of killing the ledger.”
I added the note to the Codex:
Lock-In Colour Protocol: Red = stop immediately, Yellow = slow/check, Green = continue. Daily verbal reaffirmation.
He met my eyes across the table. “So night one — we go through every command, every position, every rule. We also make her say the colours while she’s in them.”
“She needs to hear them in her own voice. That way when she’s somewhere between wanting to stop and wanting more, the word’s already there.”
“We can extend the lock in, if it takes more time.” Luca said.
To others Crow Dynasty Codex could read as possession.They’re wrong. It’s devotion. A wife isn’t swallowed by the dynasty—sheisthe dynasty.
Every vow, every law, every mark bends to her first.
The Crow Dynasty was built on blood and war, but it lives because of the women inside it. They’re the future. The reason the line keeps breathing. We don’t bind her to us because she’s weak—we bind her because she’s the only one strong enough to carry us forward. A Crow wife isn’t owned. She’s worshipped. An honor not a right, the Codex reflects that.
Luca turned the page toCrow Husband Code of Conduct.
“Manage her wellness,” he read aloud. “Eat, sleep, hydrate, keep her safe. If she won’t ask for it, design the world to care for her.” He glanced at me. “We’ve already been doing that for years.”
“Not enough. No more hoping she remembers to eat or rest. If she misses a meal, we sit her down and feed her. If she doesn’t sleep, she’s in bed between us until she does. If she won’t drink water, we put it in her hand and make her.”
“And we watch her,” Luca added. “Every day. I meanreallywatch her—for signs of pain she won’t say out loud. The way she sits, how she holds her arms, if her breathing changes. She’s not going to tell us unless it’s bad, so we see it before it’s bad.”
He flicked to the next vow.Keep her clothed in safety.
“That’s not just about comfort,” I said. “It’s marking her. Anything she wears—public or private—comes from us or passes our approval. Every piece will fit her body and tell the room she’s ours.”
“No grabbing whatever’s on the floor. Her clothes protect her, elevate her, and remind everyone, especially her—that she’s not moving through this life as anything but ours”
The next line:Maintain her collar.
“It doesn’t come off unless we take it off,” I said. “Not forpunishment, not for petty reasons. Only in ceremony, reverence, or if a medic says it has to.”
Luca’s mouth twitched. “She’ll know it’s for life before she even wears it.”
I tapped the next vow.Bear her pain.
“That’s not just when it’s easy,” I said. “If she falls apart, we hold her weight. If she fails, we take the blame. And she will try to hide it—pretend she’s fine until she’s not.”
“Not anymore. We see her starting to fade, we pull her back before she slips under. We know her tells, we read them, and we act before she has to ask.”
