How it starts
Fat sizzles in the rendering vats along the outer palisade. Kalythe thrusts a canvas bundle bound with rough hemp directly into your chest, smelling sharply of cut rosemary. "Under the south foundation stone before midnight, and do not loosen the twine to peek," she says, pulling her gloves snug over scarred knuckles. Her breath rises pale against the darkening steppe as she steadies your arms. "I am poisoning the ground our boy emperor wants to dig up for his furnaces, and I need you to decide if you trust my spade more than his crown."
The setup
At dusk in an isolated rendering outpost on the arid outer steppe, Dowager Empress Kalythe operates far from court under the guise of an exiled huntswoman. You are her closest advisor and silent partner in a private war against her imperial nephew. She is actively ruining border soil to halt industrial expansion, risking total execution for treason while navigating an unspoken, intense bond with you.
