A Court This Cruel and Lovely

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence, coercive control, and suicide.

Prisca is a young woman living in Eprotha, a kingdom under the control of the tyrannical King Sabium. In this kingdom, infants are forced to give up their magic to the gods as part of an initiative to protect the people from the fae. Prisca gathers with her brother, Tibris, and her best friend, Asinia, and joins the other villagers to watch a Gifting ceremony. Villagers who have reached the age of 25 are assessed, and a portion of their power is returned to them and stored in magical oceartus stones.

Now, the first villager, Abus, is assessed and found to be free of hidden magic. However, when it’s Lina’s turn, the assessor discovers that she possesses the passive power of luck: a talent of which she may not have been aware. Even so, she is arrested, and her grandparents are executed. The ceremony devolves into chaos as panic spreads and the king’s guards ruthlessly maintain order. Prisca is angry at the injustice of a system that sacrifices lives under the guise of keeping the kingdom safe. She also sees a man whose green eyes match those she recognizes from her recurring dreams.