Love, couples, marriage.
Beautiful notions. Yet they did not exist within the kingdom of the Vermin.
To spread the royal bloodline, the King had the duty to mate with the daughters of the most powerful and influential noble families.
There was no greater honor than raising the future sovereign.
But that honor could also become a curse.
Zara had been born from the union between a minor Calamity and the King.
A union that, despite lasting only a single night, had drawn the contempt of the entire high nobility.
Those great ladies were incapable of accepting that a reckless woman had charmed the King and carried a seed she should never have been worthy of bearing.
Zara's mother died shortly after giving birth, thus escaping the wrath of the nobility.
Nevertheless, the same could not be said for the young princess, condemned to live beneath the banner of bastardy.
