Summary
After being unjustly exiled for supposedly corrupting the Crown Prince, Euceniel Hardrant returns to the capital after fourteen years. She is stunned to find Tesvalun Neusville completely transformed. He confesses that he reshaped himself—both as a ruler and a man—to become the person he thought she wanted. But beneath this calculated exterior lies a far more profound and unsettling evolution, one that goes beyond mere ambition or desire for power.