Princess Shan slipped into the capital under cover of twilight the previous night, her arrival utterly unannounced. Though her status granted her every right to fly past the sprawling city walls, she chose secrecy instead—her pale figure drifting through a maze of barricades and wards without so much as a ripple in the protective Formation's surface. Not even the city's night patrol caught so much as a glimpse of her passing.
The real commotion began when she reached the palace gates.
A pair of imperial guards, dressed in navy-blue armor with ceremonial halberds crossed before the entrance, stiffened at her approach. Her robes were of an unassuming color—blue, as worn by women of the royal bloodline—but the most striking thing was her unveiled face. In all the empire, only a handful had ever seen Princess Shan without the delicate cloth hiding her features.
