An empire prepares for war, conspirators roam somewhere free, outcasts are locked inside the walls of an academy, and me… I’m clearing out my ancestral home, every second terrified that I’ll step onto a rotten floor and fall through—or choke on dust—while knocking out old curtains. I didn’t want to be here. I was brought… well, not forcibly, of course—but try refusing an heir who shows you mercy! So I sit in my manor, trying to figure out how to live on from now. And in the next room sits the Emperor’s Wrath. Waiting for us for the forced cohabitation that comes with the training of a careless adept—meaning me!—and the trial with an oath to the ruler of the empire at the end of the week… In short, grim prospects. Exactly what I love.