Rishima stood up and faced forward. This was not what she had thought her life would be. This was not how she wanted to die. She tightened the grip on the sword in her hand and straightened her shoulders. Brasus walked without seeing. Yesterday he had been a husband and an expectant father. This morning he had become a widower, and his living child had been wrapped in the death linens of his dead wife because there was no wet nurse. Their lives are about to collide, and their future - the future of the world - depends on it. As long as they survive the house of Avilius. Content Warning - violent sword fighting, mention of the mothers dying due to childbirth, and one violent infant death