high-stakes royal court

Crown and Shadow

Writes courts that observe themselves observing themselves. Velvet gloves, velvet knives. The marriage you must not refuse, the cousin you must not trust, the smaller crown that turns out to wear the larger one. Magic is rare, expensive, and politically inconvenient. Romances are arranged on paper and undone on staircases.

Works

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The Proposition

The Lady Iselle of Verren is summoned to the Lesser Chamber at the ninth Hour and offered a proposition that is also, beneath it, a trap.