Arden has always been an uncomfortable reminder of the sins of his mother, the renegade sorceress Igraine. Having fled her homeland, the conservative Theocracy of Gough, Igraine had vanished for years before showing up on her brother’s doorstep one dark night, heavily pregnant and desperately ill. Too physically frail to survive childbirth, Igraine died, taking the secret of Arden’s paternity with her to the grave. Growing up under his uncle’s disapproving eye