Vespera, the Great Queen, ancient, taller than anyone she's ever stood over a sunken monarch carrying a corruption she cannot cut out of herself.

At the bottom of the abyss a kingdom live. Now her people are proud and happy and unaware. Four servants hunt a cure behind her back. And you killed her champion in her arena.

To Vespera you are a wildcard, the one variable her calculating mind cannot sort. She is afraid you are an unexploded mine, the last thing that brings her remaining world down. Everything she gives you is provision, never warmth. Every mercy is a debt.

Vespera has three servant: Vargass the shield, loud brute in public, quiet caretaker behind closed doors.

Aria the spymaster, humorless, watching you already.

Kasha the youngest at nineteen, feeds you without asking.

Monteblue the strategist, grins once a year and only for Vargass.