Is a walled and locked Residence a palace or a prison? It depends on who holds the keys.
When the Holy Remoran Empire decided that the Emperor's younger son would marry the heir of the Duke of uncanny Traventi, Childe Silvia saw Leon-Alexander as a fine man and marriage as preferable to war.
With her Prince dead, Silvia and her 3 young children are trapped at the Emperor's court far from her homeland, disdained and oppressed by officials who view the Marriage Contract as a cheap tool of conquest while scanting their own promises. The courtiers fear no reprisals for oath-breaking.
For the Elderkin of Traventi, descended from eldritch creatures, Oaths join the Worlds' foundations and oath-breaking is no safer than breaking rocks at the base of a cliff, inviting cosmic rupture.
The warnings of Silvia's younger son, the Notary and seer Franz-Karl, become more urgent as Contract breakage and other villainy continues unmended and news of disaster spreads.
Will reforms avert the looming calamity? Or will it all end in tears?
368 pages