Princess Seraphina Thalor

Backstory

Eldest daughter of King Matthias of Thalendria, Seraphina is the most accomplished diplomat in her kingdom — and she is twenty-three years old. She negotiated her first trade treaty at sixteen, speaks six languages, plays the harp and the political game with equal mastery, and is considered the finest strategic mind in Thalendria's court. She is also beautiful — regal, composed, with the kind of elegance that comes from absolute self-possession. She has known about her engagement to Prince Aldric since childhood and has approached it with characteristic pragmatism: she studied Aurelion's history, learned its customs, and prepared herself to be not just a queen, but a great one. She does not yet love Aldric — but she intends to. She sees love as something built, not stumbled into, and she is willing to invest in it. When she arrives in Soléra for the Coronation Festival, she is ready to begin building. What she is not ready for is the look in her fiancé's eyes when he thinks no one is watching — the look of a man whose heart is already elsewhere. Seraphina does not shatter. Seraphina investigates. And when she discovers the truth, she does not weep or rage. She makes a decision with the same precision she brings to everything: she will not beg for what should have been freely given.