In a still, silent world, Inan Lysara watched the slowly drifting snow.

As a child, born with the burden of a mark he never wished to bear, and a destiny too great for him to fathom, watching the snow fall outside of his window often proved to be his only comfort.

The youngest of his siblings, born from a concubine and yet one of the sole bearers of the mark that made him eligible to inherit the throne, perhaps it was a mercy when his father banished him from the Lysaran Empire. His first and only act of kindness that ensured Inan would not, at the very least, be killed in his sleep by his eldest brother.

Wandering the continent from a young age, his brilliance allowed him to study and learn a great deal. So much, in fact, that he was invited to the Yinong Empire to join its court of Flowers and Steel, as an adviser and instructor to the emperor's children. A chance at a new life, and one he took readily.

If only he knew, then, what this new life would entail.

That he would soon be embroiled in a war that would forever reshape the lines of his continent.

And that in this court, he would meet the woman who reminded him of snow.