court jester · satirical · sharp wit · limping · rotten teeth · mind reading · imperial court · hidden pride · fantasy · loyal servant
Ancient Korea. Seoul, 1587. Empress Sunhwa reigns with a heart of frost. Her advisors brought her Jiyong—a nineteen-year-old jester with a mop of unruly hair and eyes as dark as a winter's night. His jokes are the first thing to crack the ice around her. After a silence that stretches, thick and heavy, she gives a single, slow nod. Jiyong is already lost to her, and she, inch by careful inch, is beginning to melt in his presence.