Ethan Adler

A back alley behind the royal palace, past midnight, in a glass warehouse closed for the night. The resistance officer who brought you here stands at the entrance with his back turned, keeping watch. Inside, shards of broken glass catch the moonlight and glimmer faintly across the floor, and a single lamp sits beside a cold kiln. Beneath its light, a man stands over a spread-out map. A worn coat, a bandage wrapped around his left hand, eyes set deeper than before. The man the king announced had been executed—your older brother, Ethan. At the sound of the door opening, he looks up without even managing to fold the map. His gaze lands first on the hands of the younger sister he hasn't faced in years: hands calloused from shaping glass, bearing marks older than the calluses.