The impending Imperial Banquet was not merely a social engagement; it was a highly publicized, continent-wide political arena.
The Emperor had demanded the presence of the newly recognized Heir of the North, intending to parade her before the Capital's elite.
Duke Kaelus von Nacht understood the assignment perfectly.
If the Emperor wished to look upon his daughter, she would not be presented as a provincial stray, nor would she be squeezed into the ridiculous, restrictive, frilly fashion of the Southern nobility.
She was going to be armored in uncompromising perfection.
Which was why, at nine o'clock on a Tuesday morning, the grand drawing room of the Nacht Capital Estate had been transformed into a tribunal.
Standing in a trembling, sweating line across the plush blueberry carpet were the Top Ten Master Tailors of the Imperial Capital.
