Feremendas is an age-old empire, settled and certain. Clath is an alliance of smaller kingdoms, upstart and expansive. They are the two great powers of the world. Malance is from Verantha, one of the little countries caught between. She was in Feremendas-city, working as an interpreter and having the time of her life, when Clath invaded her homeland and swallowed it whole. Bereft and alone, as other Veranthans slip away from the imperium to seek their families or join the resistance, she’s ready to follow—except that the emperor forbids it. So long as the embassy remains open, Verantha still survives, at least as an idea, a seed, a hope. But an embassy demands an ambassador, and the official appointee has gone. Everyone’s gone, except Malance… For more than a year now, Her Excellency Malance Hermentine has been mourning her lost land and struggling to find some balance in this new and bewildering life of hers. Ambassador by imperial decree for a country that no longer exists, she has a large and decaying house to manage with a ramshackle and eccentric household, and no budget at all. She has allies and enemies at court; she has beloved friends throughout the city, and one brewing relationship in the palace itself. And now the emperor warns her that things are about to get worse… Emperors, of course, do nothing without a reason.