I'm Seric Duskbane. Commander, deceiver, cripple by design. I traded blood for silence, honor for subterfuge, all to root out the rot festering within Veldermark’s court. They think I’m broken. Let them. Even she—Elara—believed the illusion, tossing me aside the moment the legend limped. Now I wear a colder crown beside a woman they offered in her place—a quiet shadow I never asked for. Yet, in her silence, I find no pretense. And that unsettles me more than any enemy’s blade.