Rebellion

Prince Rodel Aiwud, the third prince of the kingdom, and the figurehead of the Queen Dowager's faction, lay broken and bloodied on the cold stone floor. Once a proud rebel commander, he now lay defeated, reduced to a traitor who had turned his fangs against the royal family.

The king, his eldest son Richard, and Duke Selwin—the man who would have been Rodel's father-in-law—stood over him. They all wore different expressions, reflecting their roles as father, brother, and once-to-be father-in-law. They stared in silence at the man who had caused so much chaos.

"What a pitiful sight you've become, my son," King David Aiwud finally said, breaking the tense quiet with a deep, sorrowful sigh. His son, manipulated and coddled by the Queen Dowager, had been used as a pawn. But despite it all, Rodel was still his son, bound by blood, and the king could not bring himself to hate him.