Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Despite being the daughter of the current Queen and the deceased King of Lasania, Sera has only been recognized as a Royal and a Princess three times in her life. Still, being the Maiden made her a target. There were at least two kidnapping attempts.
At age seventeen, Sera was made to feel naked, exposed, and helpless as she was trussed up and readied to be presented to the Primal of Death. Unfortunately, he rejected her in a very public manner, making her life even harder for the years to come—something he would come to regret deeply later.
Despite the increased hardships and her miserable living situation, Sera found ways to fill her time and feel useful. Ezra started helping the less fortunate in Lasania, and Sera helped her stepsister, stealing excess food from the kitchens and getting her hands on anything else that could potentially help. She also helped the less fortunate in other ways and protected the lost.
At the age of nineteen, Sera started having severe, troublesome, and worrisome headaches. At about that same time, she became sexually active and used it as a way to feel less hollow inside.
Gods, I feel for the poor girl so much. What a dear. Sex should be a celebration of life, not a substitute for the things one needs to survive and thrive. But Sera makes the most of everything that has gone wrong, taking comfort in the ironic twist that failing to become the Primal’s Consort means she’s no longer hidden away and doesn’t have to remain pure.
As you can see, she did not have an easy upbringing, and her teenage years were even more fraught with unease as Queen Calliphe sent Sera out to commit unspeakable acts of violence for even the most minor perceived slights.
But let’s get back to when things all changed. Leading up to her seventeenth birthday, she was already undergoing training with the Mistresses of the Jade, was better in combat than a lot of the guards, and kept at arm’s length because of her Chosen Maiden status. All of this contributed to her growing anxiety, which she desperately tried to control with breathing exercises.
As I mentioned before, on her seventeenth birthday, she was readied for presentation to be offered to the Primal of Death as his Consort as a way to honor the deal struck between the Primal and King Roderick Mierel some two hundred years before Sera’s birth.
Lady Kala leads Sera to three Shadow Priests, who take her to a circular chamber to be presented to the Primal. They summon him, and Sera feels real terror when he arrives. However, as she’s been trained to do, she smiles shyly and goes to kneel in supplication, only he suddenly comes before her. He feels cold to her, and that coldness only grows as he leans in and tells her that he has no need of a Consort. Just as quickly as he arrived, he’s gone. At first, she feels relief at being left behind, but then panic flares—and rightfully so. The next three years would be ever so dreadful for dear Sera.
Despite it not being her fault at all, she’s blamed by all—her mother one of the worst—and it shatters and shrivels something inside her, changing her irrevocably.
The Priests present her on each of her next three birthdays, but the Primal of Death never shows himself again. I later discovered they never actually summoned Nyktos.
In her twentieth year, Sera’s mother orders her to show some Lords of the Vodina Isles what a hot piece she is—something crude they said to her—and kill them all.
Every year the Primal of Death didn’t claim her made things harder for Sera, but the six months following her twentieth birthday were some of the worst. Food was no longer sent to her chambers, making it necessary for her to raid the kitchens. She no longer received clothing. And she was always left alone. The only time she even saw her mother was when she was ordered to send a message.
Now, I know that Calliphe had trouble looking at Sera, even from a very young age because she looks so much like her father and the Queen missed him like a limb, but to neglect and abuse your child like that? It makes me furious.
But back to her ordered assassination. Going after the Lords of the Vodina Isles, Sera heads to the docks and kills all four of them, setting their ship free to be found later by whomever. She then heads to the Luxe, hears a shrill cry, and follows the sound, only to see a woman killing a man with eather. She feels warmth in her chest and sees a man tossing a dead child aside. She realizes that both the man and the woman are gods and vows to kill at least one of them—the male for sure. She knows she’ll likely die in the process and makes peace with that knowledge.