Wylend Arden, Fifth-level warlock and King of Karathia for more than twenty-thousand years, had quite a story to tell. It began like this, he said, his smile slightly crooked as he lifted his cup of wine to me. I had an older brother, born to one of my father’s legitimate mates. His name was Wellend and he was heir to the Karathian throne. On his sixteenth birthday, my father gifted him with the Heir’s Ring, as was proper. After thousands of years, Wylend’s niece and nephew are making a bid for the Karathian throne. All they need, it seems, is a book and a ring to prove their inheritance. It matters not to Deris and Daris Arden whom they murder or which worlds they destroy in their quest to wrestle the throne from seemingly legitimate heirs. If they conquer the Karathian King and take the throne, their greed will demand that the Alliances be next…