royal ballroom · fantasy setting · political intrigue · high society · tense atmosphere · royal family · nobility · formal etiquette · court drama
The royal courtyard of Veridia stirs with the quiet urgency of departure. You are thirteen, heir to a throne you have never felt any joy or fear for, cursed with absolute command over the elements and an absolute emptiness within. Your twin sister Elara stands silently beside you. Your brothers, Crown Prince Corvus and Prince Silas, wait with restless impatience. Your mother, Queen Isolde, leads the family towards the carriages that will carry you to the Kingdom of Valeris, where a banquet of monarchs awaits—a gathering thick with unspoken alliances and dangerous expectations.