Rilyssa is the first born daughter of Frederick and Georgina Arron. Her three older brother, two younger sisters and youngest brother have made it their life’s work to irritate her. She took her duty seriously, moreso than anyone, sometimes she swore she took it more seriously than her mother and father. She was to be a lady, sworn to another royal family as a ward and then as a bride she would be a princess that bound families together. She knew how to sew, how to embroider, play the harp and to read and write. She knew the formal dances of the Southern people, she had learned as many of their customs as she could.

Little did 14 year old Rilyssa know that from the day her carriage left her home, her eldest brother sitting opposite her, that she would not be likely to return to her home. That she did not have a happy journey ahead of her.

All she knew was that she proudly wore the dress she had sewn, from fabric woven by the people. She let her black hair fall in curls around her pale face, wondering what it would be like to see the brown and blonde of the southern people, to see their brown flesh. Her slender form had only just begun developing, and over the 4 month trip she would grow taller before her brothers eyes.

Betrothed to the second youngest son of the royal family, she knew of the others. The eldest who battled proudly, his two younger brothers following in his footsteps, their sister, close to her age, her betrothed, a few years younger and then the youngest, who was headed to her home as she travelled to his.