So the day came. Aster had barely slept the night before, and his stomach remained tied in one tight, messy, quivering knot. He sat beside the windows in his bedroom, his nightclothes hanging carelessly off his body and his knees hugged tightly to his chest. A tray of uneaten breakfast food lay forgotten on the floor a few feet away, and blue eyes squinted blankly out the window through unkempt black waves.

He could just barely see the crowds gathered just outside the castle ...