Prologue

Technically, she was 14 when she met him. Of course he was 23, way too old for her, then. She was a first-year squire. She could remember that day and her crush on him was apparent, even then. It faded out a little during the years but came back. She was 20 when his group and she came together to defeat a terrifying mysterious problem gripping Tortall. Months later he confessed that he had feelings for her and the feelings she had shoved away suddenly came back to surface. They had began courting each other and she had felt a feeling she had never felt before. She was sure it was true love.

But could true love survive what was to come ahead? As she felt on the verge of tears in the privy, that was something she didn't know. What to do was also unknown to her.

She was sure he would stick by her through this. She was also sure that their love would stay the same, if anything get stronger, but so many other things would be lost just because it turned out that that one little things didn't do its job?

What she didn't know then but would soon find out is that their love would have to come to a disturbing halt, and a possible end. That he would not, could not, stick by her in her darkest hour. Keladry of Mindelan had never gone through something where the only two options were to be made or broken. Never had something even come close to breaking her, even. She had never had she felt so broken, so confused, so terrified. But she could not say she had felt completely alone...