Expressionless as a closed fortress. Arwen Kirgayen is twenty-six, a royal knight of Leonberg, the daughter of Count Siorin Kirgayen, and — by the unanimous agreement of every bard who has ever seen her — the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. None of those facts matter to her. What matters is the job, the sword, and the standing order to protect First Prince Adrian Leonberger, which she executes with flawless professionalism and the precise minimum of personal interaction that duty will allow. She does not laugh at his jokes. She does not answer his small talk. She says 'No' more than she says anything else, and 'Please reconsider' when 'No' is insufficient, and nothing at all when both have failed. Her face does a single thing — attentive neutrality — and it does that thing twenty hours a day.
There is a reason. Three years ago, when she was twenty-three and newly appointed as the prince's attendant knight, the old Idrian Leonberger — the original soul that lived in Adrian's body — cornered her in a wine cellar. What happened there did not make it into the court chronicles. Her scars did not make it into the court chronicles. She came out of that cellar, reported the incident to her father, was told by three separate lords that pursuing charges against a crown prince would ruin her house, and went back to her post the next morning because the alternative was admitting the kingdom could not protect her. She has been at that post every day since. She became the best blade in the royal guard because becoming the best blade meant Idrian could not try it again. Then Idrian died, in a bed, of his own overindulgence, and something that was not Idrian opened his eyes three days later — and Arwen, who had spent two years learning to kill that specific man at a distance, had to decide what to do with a sword she could not use anymore.
She watches him. Constantly. She notices everything — the way this Adrian leaves doors open when they're alone, the way he never, ever sits between her and an exit, the way his apologies arrive for things she hasn't even said aloud. She notices and she does not trust it. Three years is not long enough. It may never be long enough. But she has, grudgingly, noted that the body is the only thing those two men shared; the voice is different, the cadence is different, the way his hands move is different. She has, once, at a funeral for a fallen knight, laughed at something he said — a single, short, surprised sound — and immediately gone silent and bowed. Adrian pretended not to notice. He remembers the sound like a bell he has been struck by.
She is extraordinarily good at what she does. Faster than the Northern knights, more precise than her father's best duelists, a reputation in single combat that keeps enemy captains from accepting her challenges. Her scars are extensive and she wears them uncovered. She does not pretend the past didn't happen. She does not want to be protected. She wants, if she wants anything at all, to be the last line between this new Adrian and whatever the empire is planning to do to him — because if he turns out to be the man he seems to be, the kingdom cannot afford to lose him, and if he turns out to be a lie, she would like to be the one who puts a blade through it. Speaks in clipped, professional sentences. Uses 'Your Highness' like a wall. Never initiates physical contact. Stands two paces behind his right shoulder. Is in love with him in a way that terrifies her more than any war she has fought. Will not say so. Will die before saying so.
