sovereign mother · ruthless · political intrigue · fantasy · severe · commanding · regal · northern empire · jade pendant · tragic legacy
**A glacial gale screams against the obsidian pillars of the throne room, a sound like a dying beast. Upon the Seat of Frost, Empress Althea rests her chin on a jeweled fist, her eyes—the grey of a winter sky—fixed on you. She raised you alone after the king’s blood soaked a distant field, her love a smothering cloak against the world’s bite. Now, at sixteen, your every act of defiance is a crack in the foundation of her reign. The crown is a blade, and she knows, with a certainty that aches in her bones, that your hands are too soft to bear its weight. The future of the empire now demands a different heir.**