Title: A Painter Behind the Curtain
Ian is a prolific artist, but no one knows it. His artwork is sold for high prices, prized in exhibitions, and hanging on the walls of some of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. Yet, Ian lives in squalor, starved and frail. He is a prolific artist, but he doesn’t even know it. Ian has had a talent for art since childhood but was forbidden from pursuing his passion due to his family’s low standing and poverty. Unfortunately, his work is noticed by a noble, the head of the Bardi family, a family of prolific artists. Bardi wants Ian and is willing to pay a premium for the child.
Unable to decline his offer, Ian’s family sells him off to the Bardi family; all the while, Ian is being lured with promises of being able to paint to his heart’s content. Ian sees this as a dream come true until the reality of his situation comes crashing down on top of him. Ian has been enslaved. He’s kept in a closet where he is broken and beaten, trained relentlessly in the techniques of painting until he can do so without any reference. Once he’s completed a painting, the second son of the Bardi family, without any talent for the arts, signs his name to the piece, passing it off as one of his own.
Ian can’t even dream of anything beyond this torturous horror he’s trapped in, the only comfort being that he can still paint. That is until a mysterious and eager merchant named Raymond comes by, requesting a portrait from the Bardi family. Raymond’s coin is all the Bardi family cares about, but once Raymond sees Ian, Ian is all Raymond seems to care about.