I am — was — Sanessalmo's adjutant. May my loyalty be rewarded in another life. I worked for decades with the master. When he was—I thought—unjustly removed from the Queen's Court, I stood with him. No one could judge him for what happened to his wife, I thought. The public eye can be cruel. But the man I work for now bears little resemblance to that man. He has broken. The monster he has become. Is unrecognizable. I write these words staring at a wall of ice. Certain to be the last thing I see.