The great hall of Lothian Manor had been transformed into a temple of light and ambition, and Charlotte Otker thought it was the saddest thing she had ever seen.
Gilded chandeliers hung from the high timber-framed ceiling, each one bristling with dozens of expensive beeswax candles whose flames cast a warm, golden glow across the vast chamber. The light caught the threads of the tapestries that lined the walls, depicting generations of Lothian lords in battle and in triumph.
There were even tattered, worn banners captured from the Demon Lord who ruled the eastern hills and his minions more than a hundred years ago when Caun Lothian led the forces of the Second Crusade to seize the verdant hills beyond the borders of Keating Duchy.
