Blood and desire

lde'

e had not

y before me, lined with towering columns, their marble veined with cracks older than the kingdom itself. Tapestries hung between them, depicting victories won in blood, great battles waged by

he surface. The castle was not as I remembered it. The torches flickered too weakly. The banners hung lower, their edges frayed.

s kingdom

ion that had driven him to summon me back after so many years. And yet, standing here now, walking these endless

. A throne on th

to be it

run through as a child, my laughter echoing against the stone. That girl was gone now, buried beneath years of careful restraint, of lessons learned in the cold halls

ly, their eyes downcast. The empty spaces where once there had been no

gdom wa

n brought her

forgotten artisans having shaped the stories of gods and kings into the wood. My breath was steady as the

to darkness. Torches lined the walls, their light flickering against the polished marbl

ing. The man whose bloo

row. He was not old, but there was something weathered about him, something brittle beneath the iron exterior. A man who ha

t me, and I

at f

ith expectation. Then, slowly, deliberately, I lowered myself into a curtsy,

his gaze ha

e words smooth, absent of

nt, not a

forced a smile, c

ur Grace," I replied

val, perhaps, or amusement. But it vanished as qui

, his voice carrying across the chambe

not

e that,"

mply watched me. Me

his fingers drumming once ag

Lord Varian wi

lade between my ribs, tho

. The warlord. The king's most ruthless general. The man who had razed entire villa

an whose first two wive

court would come with a price. But knowing and

ot let my expr

our Grace," I said

ched me for

he sm

satisfie

other's daughte

e, a flicker of uneas

y mother

r had been execu

not yet