Ishara doesn't recognize the carriage that pulls up outside the mansion.
A courier's coach. Not her parents'.
She knows what the message will say even before she opens it. She isn't going to see her family again. The courier calls her 'young miss' and offers her his condolences.
The list of names is longer than she expected. She is Rusadhan Sorvol Ishara now. A twelve-year old Rusadhan. Probably the youngest ever to hold the Sorvol title. Congratulations to her.
More letters will arrive soon. Every vulture of a noble who wants to pick her family's corpses.
She climbs the stairs to the second-floor study. Takes the letter with her. Locks the world out.
