In the opulent halls of House Freeman, a name once synonymous with influence and nobility, whispers grew into murderous roars. Eloise Freeman, the beloved matriarch and a woman of unshakable grace, uncovered a secret buried beneath velvet smiles and crystal goblets—her husband's siblings, along with the Council of Elders, had conspired to eliminate her and her newborn son, Tyler.
Their reason was simple, vile: greed. Tyler was the sole heir to the Freeman fortune after his father's mysterious death—a "carriage accident" no one truly believed. With Eloise as the key to the estate and Tyler as the successor, they stood in the way of the family's power shift. The others wanted nobility, land, and the political title that came with it. For that, the boy and his mother had to die.
Eloise ran.
She fled in the dead of night, clutching her infant, leaving behind wealth, title, and safety. The carriages, guards, and gilded chandeliers were all replaced by a single dusty suitcase, rain-slick streets, and her last ounce of will. She didn't cry, not even once. She couldn't afford to.
Her destination was Crimora, a festering city-state on the outskirts of the Dominion—infamous for its lawlessness, corruption, and crime-ridden back alleys. But that was the point. No noble would dare step foot in a place so far beneath them. It was the perfect place to disappear.
Eloise found a contact, a broken old man from a second-rate family who owed her a favor from the past—Gregov of House Halden, a family stripped of their knighthood after betraying their oath centuries ago. A bitter relic of honor lost.
"I'm entrusting my son to you," she said, holding Tyler to her chest for the last time. Her once-pristine gown was soaked and torn. "Hide him, raise him. Let him live. If the blood of House Freeman is to survive, it must survive without the Freemans."
Gregov looked down at the infant, then back up at the woman who had once spared his life.
"You'll never see him again," he warned.
Eloise kissed Tyler's forehead, whispering, "Forgive me, my son. One day… the truth will find you." Then, she vanished into the rain, pursued by death.