Lucas Riel's family is a nest of venomous snakes - or maybe a flock of dangerous hawks. His brother is the example, while he's the cautionary tale. In the struggle for power within the Empire, he's tried to fit in all his life. But all that changes when he meets a mysterious, blue-haired woman at a party, and starts to question everything he thought he knew. This is a short novella I wrote for fun during the quarantine! It's about 15,000 words long. Beware, the ending's very sad :(